Waiting for laundry

I'm currently waiting for my laundry to finish. Hopefully it will be done rather soon. Today was a busy day. It started out early in the morning going to an apartment complex owned by TMC. Since they're not using it for students they rent out the apartments and one has been arranged for missionaries who are going to be in the States for a year (coming back from India). My sister has been helping to spearhead the project to furnish the apartment through their church. I was recruited to be a BOB (beast of burden--somehow that happens frequently when I visit people like my siblings and parents...) and help move some of the large furniture.

Then this evening my sister and brother-in-law went out to dinner, so I stayed home and watched their kids. It was fun. I used to do this fairly frequently (once a week) when I was in college. Tonight I made dinner and we baked and decorated Christmas cookies (Pictures on Facebook). Soon I'll head to bed and will then wake up for my final day in California. As I've noted a couple other places and times I'm not completely ready to head back home. That is the problem with taking vacation, I get used to wherever I'm at. I love my job and do want to get back to it and life in Kentucky, but it was great to be here as well. Of course it was just a visit and I couldn't stay much longer anyway, but it still feels like I'm leaving too soon. I wonder if I'll be able to come out next year for the next Truth and Life Conference. Unless I can find really good deals on airline tickets I don't think I can justify coming out each year, but on the other hand I really do enjoy things like this, and it is good to visit California. We'll see...I am considering Colorado right now. I need to do some quick research and see what tickets cost, what I can afford, and when (and if) counselors are needed at Twin Peaks... Much thinking lies ahead, and I know it will be a busy week at work. I have a program to help out with on Friday and then an overnight Friday night...

~Matt

PS Time edited to reflect Pacific time...it was still Saturday for me when I posted this entry.

California, Here I Come

I'll be heading back to California for a short visit in a week's time. I'm reminded of the song, California, Here I Come: "California, here I come right back where I started from..." I heard that quite often as the theme of the PBS show "California's Gold."

I'm going back to visit the Master's College and the Truth and Life Conference. I'll be staying with my sister Erin and I'm really looking forward to seeing her kids. I spent quite a bit of time with them when I was going to college and haven't seen them much in the five years since I moved to Kentucky.

However, there are many things that I need to wrap up at work before I can go. I'm working late tonight to get some stuff done, and the rest has to be done by the end of the week (along with packing) as I'll be working Thursday through Sunday and then leaving on Monday. The nice thing is that it will be easy to pack. I've barely worn a coat out here--usually only when the temperature (or wind chill) is below 10º and I know it won't be anywhere close to that in California.

There are quite a few friends that aren't in California any more, but a few that are still there (yes Mark, I want to hang out with you) that I'm looking forward to seeing. I'd also like to talk to some of my professors that I haven't seen in years. I got to know some of them rather well in the years that I was a TA for the History Department and yet I haven't really kept in touch.

Well, back to work for a while...

The New Year

I'm not going to post a year in review, or talk about my blog for the past year (though I am excited I've kept up the pace over the past few months, even if many posts have been light on text, coming from my iPhone). I'm somewhat sad, yet also excited, that the Creation Museum's Christmas Program is almost over. This will mean that I won't have to work late nights for a while, but they've also been a fun time. Additionally I know the clean-up and after-action meetings will take some time.

Right now I just want to relax for a while, but that won't happen. I have to get things ready so that I can take off in a week. I'm leaving on the 11th for California. I'm going to the Truth and Life Conference at my alma mater, The Master's College. It should be a good time to meet up with some friends (including professors) that I haven't seen in far too long. But there is much to prepare before I can take off...

I do have a post I want to put up rather soon. Dan Mangus, the senior director of operations at the Creation Museum turned 50 on the 31st so I and some other conspirators determined to make it a day that he would never forget. I think we succeeded...I'll have pictures and more of an explanation soon.

~Matt

PS I haven't written 2009 yet this year...I wonder how I'll mess it up first...

Johnny Mac

Someone from work told me that John MacArthur was preaching at her church.  As I haven't heard him preach in a couple years I decided to attend that service.  It was a powerful message from Second Corinthians about God being a reconciler.  2 Cor 5:21 is the heart and meat of the gospel: "He made Him who knew no sin sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

I didn't usually attend MacArthur's church when I was at Master's, but I heard him speak often.  Perhaps we heard other preaching so much I didn't appreciate it as much then.  The church I attend is great, but I miss the type of expository preaching that MacArthur does.  It was a very good sermon.  I even thought about talking to him afterwards.  He is apparently in the area for some sort of conference.  I thought about telling him that I graduated from Masters a couple years back and was now working at the Creation Museum.  Oh well, perhaps another time (whenever that might be ;-)).

It is interesting to see the church situation in the area.  Just as around Master's you could find faculty, staff, and students at many area churches of varying denominations so you can find Creation Museum and Answers in Genesis staff attending a variety of local churches.

~Matt

--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Noodle exercise

I was out running around with my nephew Chase tonight when we stopped by Wal-Mart for a couple things.  I'm always looking for good games.  After I called Chris to confirm that he would play a game tonight I purchased Cranium.  We managed to get in two games before midnight, with the teams tied.  Hopefully we'll play a tie-breaker tomorrow or the night after.  I've played the game before, but it has been a few years.  I think the last time I played might have been at a history major get together at Dr. Frazer's house.  That was a fun evening as I remember Dr. Stead playing.  He had to act like some famous woman and we were all cracking up watching him.

On the job front things are going very well.  Yesterday the Creation Museum opened with much fanfare.  We had over 4,000 guests (with many long lines) and a paltry 30-50 protesters across the road.  Yeah, they didn't really manage to do anything.  To be fair I don't think they even tried to disrupt anything inside the building, just waved their signs across the road.  It is a free country, they have their right to free speech and I do not begrudge them that.

I am a show host, which means that I am responsible for introducing shows in our theaters and getting the programs started.  I have become somewhat of the staff expert on the Planetarium (#7 when you click the link) as I was in there the first day when Dr. Lisle explained its workings.  Today I was stationed in the Last Adam (about Christ) Theater at the end of the museum tour, but before I headed down there I helped to train the Planetarium staff, only one of which had worked there previously.

If you do go through the walk through, please keep in mind that it was apparently completed sometime before the Museum was, as several concepts have changed.  Numbers 32 and 33 are now combined as a theater presentation in the Last Adam theater.  Starting today the Special Effects Theater has been renamed the Men in White theater after the show that it houses.  I'm sure that may change eventually (it certainly isn't tied to the exact current show), but that would be quite a while down the road.  I have heard that there are two completed Planetarium shows, but currently we only show one.  I don't have any inside information on when we might switch or start offering both.

Well I should get to bed now.  I went to bed early (by 23:00) last night, and yet I woke up early and had to toss and turn and doze fore more than an hour until it was actually time to get up.

~Matt


--
"A room without books is as a body without a soul." -Cicero

Memory Lane

For some reason I just did a Google search on my name. The first results are my Amazon.com and .co.uk accounts. No surprises there. But a bit further down the page I came across some interesting stuff. Here is a post written by John after our trip to campaign in Las Vegas back in 2002.

I hadn't thought about this trip in a while. It was a good trip down memory lane. I'll quote a couple excerpts here, but you really should read the whole thing to get the full experience. John spins a good tale!

Well, it started a few weeks ago when I found out that the Republican Party was hosting a new campaigning "Program" in Nevada- I'm in Southern California, BTW. Basically, two new districts have been apportioned in the Las Vegas area, and they're asking people as far out as LA to come help in the last few moments of the campaign. It promised an all-expenses-paid trip, and hey- VEGAS!

It was a great trip. I also went on another trip two years later, but that time the only one I knew was Mark.

Houses built by M. C. Escher: 20

Near Death experiences: 21

Yard Sales: 5

Annoyed People: 3

Note the first part. It seemed that nearly every house that I was assigned to was built by ESCHER. Just to get tot he door involved trekking across three staircases, two ramps, and a walkway. Some of them included random foliage (not native to Arizona), bear traps, gates, fences, cages, cliffs, ledges, etc. Near the end of the first block of them, I slipped and nearly fell to my DOOM on concrete roughly 15 feet below, but I caught myself with my hand. One of the houses actually had the cliff face sticking through in a pseudo-garage courtyard that was right before the stairway to the front door (but after two other staircases, a ramp, and a steep hill for a driveway). Matt, on the other side of the street, got nothing but perfectly normal houses.

Me: *slip* "Woah! AGH!" *thunk* *skid* *grab* *fliers going everywhere*

Matt: "John! You, we can replace- but those fliers...!!"

Me: "...ow..."

Matt: "I don't fall down at MY houses!"

Me: "Quiet, or I'll hurl rocks upon your skull."

The MC Escher houses were great (says the one who didn't hang stuff on their front doors :-)). There might be just a bit of hyperbole in the above text, but not much.

Now, a note: Matt is a full-out trekkie. I like the show a little. I've been to this ride/gallery be fore, and Matt had not. He was in HEAVEN. The ride was basically Star Tours, just a lot better, and then we were immediately shuffled into the gift shop.

I bought for myself the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition book: "Greed is eternal" is one of my favourite rules from there (One will appear on my door per day- Peace is good for business. War is good for business. Never trust a man wearing a better suit than yours. Never have sex with the bos' sister. etc...)

Both times I went to Vegas to campaign I went to the Hilton and Star Trek: The Experience and didn't get to see anything else of the strip. It was good, but I'd like to see more someday.

Now go read the rest on your own! I was outright laughing at the memories at a couple points.


~Matt