O'Reilly

Bill O'Reilly interviewed President Obama at the White House prior to the Super Bowl on Sunday.  The interview went as I expected in O'Reilly fashion.  He interrupted the President when the conversation was not going his way and asked hard questions.  Overall the interview went great, but I would have to give the MVP to the President for blocking O'Reilly's assault.

The reason for the O'Reilly loss?  He questioned, disbelievingly, that the President understood how football was played.  The President played Basketball through college and still does to this day.  I know he didn't play football, but the guy is obviously pretty typical when it comes to being a sports enthusiast.  O'Reilly created an awkward moment and thus making President Obama the Super Bowl Interview MVP. 

I wonder who the trophy should be named after...

Watch it for yourself on YouTube.

Play a game

Magic the Gathering is a collectible card game that people who play love and those looking from the outside in scratching their heads.  To a non Magic player, players may sound a bit odd while playing.  It is not uncommon to hear some of the following lines:

"I am going to summon a Goblin Wardriver"
"I am going to attack with my Blightwidow which deals damage to players in poison counters and to creatures in -1/-1 counters."

On Friday night at midnight, my friends and I attended a pre-release tournament for the latest expansion of Magic the Gathering: Mirrodin Besieged.  One would think that only a handful of people would show up to play a card game in the middle of the night; at least that is what I thought.  You would be wrong.  We needed to show up an hour early to secure our spot.  Before midnight, the start of the tournament, the shop stopped accepting players because they reached their goal of around 110 people.  People who didn't get a place in the tournament were offering $100 dollars to anyone who would sell their seat, which cost them only $25, just to play the new expansion set.

I had never played in a Magic tournament and have only been playing for two months.  The style of play was different that I was use to.  However at the end of the tournament, which was around 6 am, I had a record of 2-2-1 (W-L-D).  With this I won a booster pack of cards.

During the night I got to meet all types of people.  I think most of the people there, like me, perfer board and card games over a video game these days.  The introduction of mass multiplayer and online play video games brought a chance to play with people from around the world.  I think this is an incredible technology that nobody could have ever dreamed of when playing games in the early 90's. 

This type of video game style disconnects people more from direct human interaction.  Facebook is cited in sociology studies of possibly handicapping social interaction with others [interaction].  This topic could be beat to death, or I could get to the point.  I will do the latter.  It is good to see people playing card games together instead of at home playing a video game wearing a headset so they can trash talk back and forth with squeaky voiced 'tweens.' 

Magic doesn't have to be the game you choose to play, especially if summoning zombies or dragons to protect you from your opponent is not your thing.  Monopoly, Scrabble, or any card game can be just the ticket to getting together with friends and family all while being entertained.  Best of all, most of the games out there are less than one video game.  So get together, play a game, and get to know each other!

Servant Engineering

Servant Engineering is a class at George Fox University.  The class is setup in teams of about four students who are given projects to work on to better human life.  Our group has been assigned the project of an upright system or machine for the Providence Center for Medically Fragile Children.  The children in this hospital are severely disabled.  Our team will design an apparatus to help the nurses get the children in and out of bed into wheel chairs and back.

A second project has the goal of making it possible for the children to be upright during a part of the day.  Currently they spend most of their days laying down or in wheel chairs.  With use of a hoist system the children will be able to be put into a harness, which we will design, so they can be upright for some part of the day.  The doctors and nurses believe that this will gain brain activity for the children while they act in the environment around them.

This should be an exciting project that aims to help many in the Portland area.

Please visit the George Fox University Engineering Departments website on Servant Engineering:

www.engr.georgefox.edu/ServantEngineering/

Donut Land

An American dream come true.  There are two donut (or doughnut) shops across the street from each other in Tualatin, Oregon.  The two shop names are the Donut King and Donut Land.  Judging by the name it would seem like the Donut King would have pastry making supremcy, however, I decided to meet my brother at Donut Land on Friday morning for some coffee and donuts.  Sitting in the first booth next to the window I could look across the street at Donut King as I ate my Donut Land maple bar. 

 

Seeing two donut shops so close together was funny to me until I began to think about how many Starbucks there are.  In Clackamas, Oregon there is a Safeway with a Starbucks and a Starbucks outside the Safeway in the same connecting strip mall. It seems to me that two coffee shops owned by the same company might have trouble staying in business in such close proximity; but I am very wrong.  They have been open for years and don't seem to be slowing.  In Seattle I think I saw three Starbucks on one corner downtown.

I was glad to spend time with my brother over coffee and dounts.  We joked about how Donut King wasn't getting as much business as Donut Land, but I hope they both shops stay in business.

I would greatly recommend this place.  I am going to have a hard time eating any other donut.  $1.80 for a coffee and a great maple bar isn't too bad either.  

Google Maps to Donut Land

Between Holidays

Now that your Christmas tree is a dried out fire hazard and your garbage can is full of wrapping paper, what do you do after the Christmas season has come to its conclusion.  For most children and college students there is another week to recover from the holiday hangover.  I am in the college category this year and am going to build a shelf with my dad in the garage during this week off.

I asked my wife a question at the beginning of December "what do you think the chances are that I get a shelf built in the garage?"  A simple question to inquire about how much confidence my wife had in me.

To this she replied, "on a scale of one to ten?"

I said,"yes."

"Zero"

"Zero!" I exclaimed!  How could I have zero chance.  That was off the scale. "How do you see it that way?"

"Well here is how I imagine you spending your vacation:  you will wake up around eleven each day.  Then you will do nothing all day until I get home at six when you start to make dinner."

I couldn't do anything but laugh.  She was right.  When days off hit, I am guilty of doing nothing but lounging around all day.  But why not?  This house is really nice.  The lights work, the plumbing works and I have wifi.  Someone has to try to find the end of the internet.

    Photo by: M. Stude                           

The house that makes you feel young

A milestone was reached in my life yesterday marking the end of fall term at George Fox.  The only thing that was on my mind was gingerbread houses.  A party was in order to mark the beginning of the Christmas break and the engineering students and I decided we should build some gingerbread houses.

Shortly into the party we began home construction.  The materials were graham crackers, m&ms, old fashion candies, white frosting, and gummy bears.  Focused minds surrounded a crowded table was a great sight to see.  The gummy bears became the citizens of a small town of gingerbread homes.  The bears were casually hanging out on their balcony, riding on their four cylinder sleigh, relaxing in a hot tub, and even riding a zip line between houses.  It was a nice break for me to spend some time having fun creating something with my imagination.  Quickly I had forgotten that I made mistakes during the school year and realized that a good GPA is not the end of the world. 

If you have spent too much time working the days away, take some time and do something fun with a friend.

Gifts of the Mind

I forgot my childhood.  It is nothing really to worry about.  I wasn't abused or neglected.  In fact, my mother and father were great parents.  I seem to have a bad memory.  My wife helps me remember names of people I knew and things I did before the military.  It seems as though when I spent some time away from home I pushed out my childhood memories.  However, now that I am back home, the more I am around my family the more I remember from my childhood.

My young nephew recently was given a football shaped toy box from myself that was in the possession of the family.  I knew that I put my toys in it and played with it when I was a kid, but until yesterday I didn't realize that my parents gave it to me when I was three for Christmas.  What a treat!  I felt like I was receiving the gift all over again.  Now to know that my nephew is playing with it again it is a gift to myself.

As for my memories, I enjoy recalling them more and more when they sporadically come about in conversation with family.  If your memories were good as a child, on the whole, keep them locked up more tightly than I did.  Unless you want little gifts of reminders.