Generation Gap

I had an awkward interchange last night after dinner. While browsing my parents' digital cable lineup, I saw a Christmas concert that I wanted to watch. Unfortunately, it was on one of the "premium" channels that they do not receive.

It went something like this:

Me: "Barenaked Ladies on TV! Rats... it's pay-per view."

Mom: "What?!"


(For the record, it really was the band.)

A Friendly Holiday Competition

It almost sounds like the beginning of a bad joke or an even worse reality television series: "What happens when five teams of engineers are asked to come up with their own table centerpieces for the annual Christmas luncheon?"

The tool team responded to the challenge with the beautiful tree pictured above. We started with old copies of specifications and glued them to a 4-foot cardboard trunk. Next, we fed fiber optic cables through the base to add lights and color. For decoration, we added icicles (drill bits), ornaments (miniature tape measures), and topped it off with a stuffed Tigger in a handmade angel costume, complete with a copper halo. (Tigger is the unofficial mascot of our group, since we were founded in the Chinese year of the Tiger.) We finished it off by garnishing the base with greenery and a few personalized stockings filled with million dollar bills and candy canes to bribe the judges.

We finished in second behind the team that built a working fountain with red and green water.

Maybe next year.

An Open Letter

Dear United States Postal Service,

I am writing to you as a wholly dissatisfied customer. On two occasions since Thanksgiving this year, you have lost packages that were intended to be Christmas gifts. One contained tickets to a concert last weekend (it's now too late), and the other contained a DVD for my wife. Neither have been delivered, despite being mailed two to three weeks prior to my writing this. Both were sent with delivery confirmation numbers which I have provided to you. You have told me that delivery confirmation numbers don't allow you to track the packages until they are delivered. Alas, since they haven't been delivered, it appears we are chasing our tails.

As far as I have been able to tell, both items should have passed through your central Chicago sorting facility on their journeys. This is the only place where they both may have been, so for the sake of my conscience, I am assuming that they are there, comfortably sitting next to each other in their own little bin marked "Christmas Presents We Are Not Delivering This Year". My boss, who lives near that office, told me that they were hosting a public open house this afternoon to show off their systems and efficiency at the peak of the holiday season. Regretfully, I was unable to attend. I'm sure it would have been informative. Perhaps I would have even seen my own mail in its own little bin.

While your correspondence has been friendly over the past few days, I must inform you that I will no longer be requiring your "services". I have found that processing my bills electronically has been much more timely and efficient than receiving them through your offices, and several other parcel services go so far as to guarantee that my packages will be delivered to their recipients. I find both of these options quite helpful. If you intend to add those services at any time in the future, please let me know.

Sincerely,
Adam

P.S. Thank you for delivering the gifts from my sister and her husband and my grandparents. Those were quite unexpected surprises.

P.P.S. Please feel free to lose the junk mail you so faithfully deliver any time you'd like.

Ye Olde Englishe Christmasse Feaste

Last night, some friends from church invited Allie and I along with another family to attend "Ye Olde Englishe Christmasse Feaste" at a high school in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I can honestly say that it was one of the most fun and enjoyable Christmas events that I have been to in years.

As the name would imply, the entire evening is set to transport the guests back in time several centuries to a grand banquet hall just in time for the Christmas feast. Ye Lordes and Ladyes are served a full seven course dinner while being entertained by ye singers, ye jesters, ye tumblers, ye pipers, ye dancers, ye thespians, ye swordsmen, and ye jugglers. It's an incredible production carried out almost entirely by a high school cast.

The choir performed nearly two dozen carols throughout the evening.

The jesters kept spirits light in the hall. Here, we see several forming a human pyramid, which toppled over moments later.

The food was probably as good as the entertainment.

Throughout the evening, the jesters tried to steal food from the Lords and Ladies. A few succeeded.

The choir continued singing after the feast as well.

The jesters assisted in the singing of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by acting out each of the gifts. This is one of the seven swans.

At the end of the evening, the dessert of "Ye Flamyng Puddyng with Custard Vanylla" was served.

We had a very fun time and best of all, the carols and narrative of the Christmas story stayed focused on Christ in addition to being entertaining. It was a great reminder of all we have to celebrate at Christmas.

Infamy

Emmanuel: God With Us

Since the beginning of December, I have been searching for Jesus.

One of our neighbors has a Christmas display in their front yard complete with Santa Claus, his reindeer, snowmen, candy canes and brightly colored lights. I can assure you that it's quite festive. Jesus even makes an appearance in the yard, but after our recent winter storm, all you can see are Mary and Joseph staring down at the drifted snow.


I thought it was an interesting metaphor: Jesus came at Christmas but ended up being buried by the season.

I have seen other displays where Jesus is attended by reindeer rather than cattle, or where snowmen, Santa Claus, and the Nutcracker guard the baby instead of the wise men. Jesus has begun to keep some strange company at this time of year, not at all like the porcelain manger scene above my parent's fireplace.

With the voice of past generations I want to lament that Christmas has become too commercial. Then again, maybe this isn't that far from how Jesus lived when He came to earth. After all, He did associate with the kinds of people we didn't expect Him to, and He went to great lengths to keep people from promoting Him for the wrong reasons. On more than one occasion, He warned people not to tell about His miracles, lest the masses try to use His power for their personal gain. Is it worth putting Christ back in Christmas if all it means is a boost to the economy? Is this the only battle that Christians have worth fighting?

In his book, The Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne talks about a homeless group he lived with in Philadelphia. For Christmas, a church sent them a carton of microwave popcorn, not thinking about the fact that homeless people typically do not have electricity, let alone a microwave. The local mafia who were more familiar with their situation sent bicycles and coats for the children. Who do you think showed them greater love? Without associating with someone and understanding their needs, it's difficult to love them.

When Jesus came to earth, He demonstrated love by associating with us and getting to know us. Understanding our greatest need, He gave us Himself. Maybe we should welcome Santa, Frosty, and Rudolph to the manger to remind us to love the real people around us.

Gabriel's Message

Those of you who know me pretty well (and judging by the fact that you're reading this, you do) know that I begin listening to Christmas music very early in the season. As in Autumn.

Or Summer.

About a month and a half ago I bought my first Christmas album of the year. Jars of Clay has long been a favorite band of mine, and while they have released a few individual Christmas songs before, they finally put out a full Christmas album this year, appropriately titled Christmas Songs. I can honestly say that it is not like any other album I own, Christmas music or otherwise. I highly recommend it. One song from it called "Gabriel's Message" keeps coming to mind as I write tonight, a lilting and ethereal conversation between Gabriel and Mary. I like the last verse:

Of her Emmanuel, the Christ was born
In Bethelem all on a Christmas morn
And lowly men throughout the world
Forever saved
Most highly favoured maid,
GLORIA!

Thanksgiving by the Numbers

Growing up in my family, all three of the kids would try to predict the date of the first snowfall of the season. Mom would write it down on the calendar and when the snow finally came down, we would see who was closest without going over, The-Price-is-Right-style.

A few weeks ago, the older and more cynical child in me predicted that the first snowfall this year would be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, just in time to enhance the frustration of holiday traveling. For the first time ever, I predicted this event correctly, and awoke to find about half an inch of snow by Thursday morning.


As you can see, we were hardly snowed-in, so three of us (Allison, her friend Glenda, and myself) proceeded to travel to Allison's parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. Like always, I had my fill of side dishes. They were delicious. I even tried a piece of the turkey with my stuffing, and it wasn't bad. That brings my list of "acceptable turkey products" up to five: Grandma H's turkey, mother-in-law's turkey, deep-fried turkey, turkey ham, and turkey bacon.

I also consumed a quarter of two different pumpkin pies (one 10" and one 12"). That's the equivalent of half of one 11.05" pie or a whole 7.81" pie. As an engineer, I almost feel obligated to make some sort of "pie"/"pi" joke here, especially given the title of this post. I'll spare you this time. (Now YOU have something to be thankful for.)

After dinner, Allison's dad (not pictured), brother, sister, and brother-in-law invited me to play a game called "Axis and Allies." It's a lot like the game "Risk", but recreates the major campaigns of World War II. I respectfully declined, knowing that this exercise would fill the better part of 4-6 hours. Approximately 4-6 hours after it began, I was saddened to learn that Japan and Germany had, in fact, succeeded in taking over the world.


I also carried out my own tradition of taking a picture of Bill, the cat, to capture the mood of the weekend. I think we were all thankful for the chance to relax and enjoy each other's company for the day.

Moment of Clarity

I've been looking for an "all-purpose" zoom lens for my camera, but finding the right lens is more difficult than it sounds. Pentax has manufactured hundreds of lenses in 14 different styles, all of which are compatible with my camera. Many third-party manufacturers have done the same. In some cases, the "same" lens will even be manufactured at several factories, each producing different results. How am I supposed to choose with such variety in style and quality?

Given this daunting task, I've located half a dozen databases where professionals and consumers alike have reviewed many of these lenses. They are rated on every aspect imaginable, from focal length and aperture settings to the Modular Transfer Function and "Bokeh" characteristics. (Don't ask. It's even more boring than it sounds.) In the end, it almost all comes down to the glass. The best lenses have perfect glass that allows the light to pass through clearly every time. Lower-quality lenses will subtly distort, exaggerate, or color the image. They will produce a picture, but it won't be as sharp or clear as the original object.

I wrote in my profile that "My goal is to be a lens that God focuses on people, places, things... all of creation... in order to see them the way He does." In light of all of this research on lenses, I realized that I need to ask myself the question, "What kind of a lens am I?"

How clearly do I allow the Light to pass through?

What kind of distortions do I add to His image?

Do I perform the same under all conditions?

How is my focus?

Self Portrait

There were so many good titles for this photo that I had trouble choosing:

"Double Take"
"Half and Half"
"Split Personality"
"Twin Peeks"
"Just the Two of Us"
"I Think I'm a Clone Now"

I wonder which side is my good side...

Homage

My new camera owes a debt of gratitude to its forefather, the ME Super, on which I learned to take photographs. This is the last roll of unexposed film that I own, and it will probably stay that way forever.

I couldn't help but note the irony that in order to get these shots "just right", I probably used more than 24 exposures. Even when I got the ones that I wanted, I went back and digitally corrected the images to balance the colors and fix some overly bright areas. I got it all done in less than an hour and didn't even have to leave home.

(In an unintentional but fun twist, the cloth that I used for the table top is only in focus at the bottom of the photo above, resembling the perforations along the edge of a roll of film. I like it when things accidentally turn out better than I planned!)

Veteran's Day

In honor of our nation's veterans, who have fought to preserve our freedom.

Theme and Variation

This tree is on the edge of Round Lake (which is, in fact, quite round). It is across the street from the first house that Allison and I were interested in when we started looking earlier this year. The location was great, but the house wasn't quite what we wanted.

I like the original version of this photo, but it's interesting to see how it sets a completely different mood by rendering it in black and white and changing it to a square crop.

Psalm 103

Psalm 103
Of David.

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.


As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.

Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.

Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the LORD, O my soul.

All the Pretty Colors

I love the fall when all of the colors change. I drove past this grove of trees this afternoon while running some errands. The red of the the trees stood out so brilliantly against the brown, dried brush that I had to return home for my camera. By the time I returned, the afternoon sun was shining down on them perfectly.

I used my camera several other times this weekend, and I hope to post a few more photos soon.

Also, congratulations to my brother, who ran THE marathon this weekend (Marathon to Athens) in a personal best time.

Welcome Home!

Today, Allie and I began our life's work by welcoming one of her friends into our home to stay with us for a few days. We've talked about this since before we were married, and are both thankful to the people who have modeled it well for us. (David and Diane, I'm looking at you!)

Our door will be open until there's no room left inside. If you're ever in the area, consider this an invitation to stop by.

(PS- Please don't mind the mess. We're still working on it!)

Going to the Chapel

As mentioned in the previous post, Allison and I attended a wedding this past weekend. Although I had never met the groom (Allie's cousin) or the bride, I still had fun and came away with numerous pictures. A few even turned out! I'm not used to using flash for most of my pictures, so I enjoyed playing around with the settings trying to get things right.

(Incidentally, I think I managed to sufficiently annoy the official photographers, since I was apparently the only other person that brought a camera to the wedding.)

Enjoy!

It was a lovely ceremony.
There was some kissing.

Grandma seemed a little surprised by all of the kissing.

Come to think of it, there WAS a lot of kissing.
And they lived happily ever after.

Peek-A-Boo!

This weekend, Allison and I attended a wedding, visited her parents in Indiana, went to a surprise birthday party, handed out Halloween candy for the first time, and rearranged the spare bedroom. About the only thing I didn't have time for was a nap.

Fortunately Allie's parents' cat, Bill, did plenty of napping for everyone. She (yes, Bill is a girl cat; she also has no tail, but that's a different story) is a bit shy, but I still managed to capture this image with my telephoto lens. I shot this at ISO-1600 with a shutter speed of just 1/6s.

I'm liking this camera more and more.

My Cup Overflows

This shot involved multiple lighting sources, a bounce flash, a tripod, some of our finest china, and two burnt slices of pizza. (The burnt pizza was the product of spending too much time setting up the shot and not enough time keeping an eye on the oven.) The shot turned out and the pizza was still edible, so I'd call that a good day.

Inaugural Composition

I just got a new camera, and I'm looking forward to using it. Hopefully I'll get a few shots worth sharing with you.

There's nothing really special about this photo, other than it was the first one (out of 15 or 20) that came together the way I wanted it to while I was playing around.

Many more will follow.