In response to Kara"s question about whether or not it would be akward to facebook friend my girlfriend

Anyone who wants to friend my girlfriend on facebook (Rachel Ogle-Mc Millan) is welcome to.

i'm at the airport waiting on my flight home for thanksgiving, and i found this video as part of a YouTube quagmire i started after will sent me a link.



and one more for good measure...



in summary: muppets + science = fairly accurate representation of a day in the lab

w00t.

Life in the Magic City

Mayor Larry Langford, VisionLand's visionary, at his sackcloth & ashes extravanganza in April.

Langford said that Birmingham’s crime problem “pails” (sic) in comparison to the biblical City of Nineveh. In his proclamation of the day, he tells the Bible story of Jonah and the city of Nineveh: “Whereas Chapter 3, verse 5 & 6, of the Book of Jonah, Old Testament states, that the people of Nineveh believe God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them." He bought 2,000 sackcloth robes for the event.

For those of you out-of-towners or those some still unaware of how terrifically awful (and tragically funny) our mayor is... this one's for you. The Birmingham Weekly recently released "Leapin' Larry's Year in Review." Some of it is almost too ludicrous to be true...

A handful of highlights:

*Oct 2007- Mayor-elect Langford announces his choice for Public Works director, Rickey Kennedy, a city landscape supervisor. Langford met Kennedy when Kennedy was cutting the grass in Linn Park. The new job came with a $100,000 pay increase and put Kennedy in charge of the $54.7 million Public Works budget. The Public Works department is the second largest department in the city. Later the Jefferson County Personnel Board declared Kennedy unqualified for the job and ordered the mayor to make a new appointment. To date Langford has defied that order.

*Nov 2007- Langford is sworn in as Birmingham mayor. In his inauguration speech, he promises to build a domed stadium, lambasts parents for buying children designer clothes and once again declares that what children need most is corporal punishment.

• Langford says he is in talks with Mall of America to build a new shopping center in Birmingham. The mall would be adjacent to a new aquarium. “If Atlanta can have Beluga whales, we can too,” Langford says.

*Dec 2007- Langford also claims that Legion Field, which he also wants to demolish, was named after a demon in the Bible. In fact, it was named in honor of the American Legion.

• With its attention span exhausted by the Boutwell debate, the council approves nearly $30,000 for renovations to City Hall. Councilor Roderick Royal questions the expenditure, but his colleagues gripe about his curiosity. Later it turns out that at least $12,000 of that money paid for a new deck outside the mayor’s office where Langford could smoke without having to walk a short distance to the existing deck down the hall.

- In his second interview with Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers in Miami, Langford refuses to answer most questions on the basis of unspecified constitutional rights. In a back-and-forth with investigators, Langford refuses to actually plead the Fifth Amendment. Later, Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount invokes the same unspecified constitutional rights (Matt's side note: He's being nailed by the SEC for accepting $156,000 in illegal cash & benefits. The same day he was indicted, our beloved Jefferson Co. Senators approved a $40,000 raise for him. Huzzah).

• In one of his few major staffing changes, Langford replaces finance director Michael Johnson with former Jefferson County finance director Steve Sayler. At the county, Sayler helped direct billions in disastrous interest rate swaps and left the county’s financial records in such shambles that to date the county has not been able to produce an audited financial statement.

All this before 2008 even hit... I didn't have time to dig into the $70,000 he spent (of loaned money) on clothes, the "top secret" plans he brought in with two officers armed with semi-automatics, his plan to bring the Olympics to the Magic City, the Kids Getting Laptops disaster (his partnership with a man who just received a 98-count indictment) the disappearance of legally-required monthly financial updates... Long-lost friends, if you make any plans to visit us in Birmingham, I suggest you do it soon... before our beloved city is a crater.

word of the day

word of the day: monorchic
as in Hitler was monorchic
that is all because I am at work

Snapshots of the Weekend at Cheaha

The teaching style is very interesting even.

New Post from Kristen!

So as you may know, I've recently taken to teaching English. There are approx 60 students on any given day, most of them male, and it's terrifying. One of my goals is to get the students to interact and actually speak English because I feel like that might be the end goal. Just a guess. My most recent activity was to bring in photographs that I had laying around and ask them to describe what they see. Then they read them aloud to the class. I thought I'd share some of my favorites.

Some clarifications: in some cases they made up names for people. Also, "fat" is generally translated into english as "healthy". As in "you don't look like you're about to waste away". Don't be offended- it's usually a compliment. This week's photos feature, in no particular order: Cheese, Wardo, Matt, Jen, and Will. You may be next.

"From this picture he seems like singing and his hair is very interesting. It seems curl like black but is white. He is ready to say something but there is no sound, means that I can't hear at the moment. His physical appearance isn't show clearly but now I am seeing his face and it is interesting."

"He seems sad. He live a strengthful. He travels on a buggy. He is a very handsome man. He is a very fat man."

"They drink coca and other. Much amount of food in front of them. The are very drunker. Abebe gives his hand and Almaz for feeding. Almaz would like to drink coca cola. Almaz has so nice hair."

"The man is running and climbing the tree and the man is very scared. The man nearly the tree and is having animal on head. The man is focus for a thing."

"He seems like shout and feels frightened. He also swim in the river and some action and feels serious problem. He looks like red and some extent black face. He speaks some words angrily."

17 points if you guess them all right.

there's nothing un-awesome about dna replication

i gotta be real honest for just a second-- molecular biology is severely underappreciated. to substantiate my claim, i'm about to introduce you to what is quite possibly the coolest science animation i've ever seen, courtesy of our good friends at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (not familiar with them? weird.) watch it. if you think it's cool, you may say so in whatever fashion you wish. if you think it's uncool...well, i think you're unright, and you should leave your "i hate nerds" rhetoric unsaid. censorship- w00t. no, but really, feel free to comment. but be gentle. nerds err on the frail side-- words might actually break our bones.

here's the protocol (which is jargon for "directions") for the brave, the curious, and the brave/curious:

(1) go to http://www.dnai.org/a/index.html
(2) click on "Copying the Code" at the bottom
(3) click on "putting it together" at the top
(4) watch the video, situated conveniently on the left, entitled "Replication"
(5) either marvel in awe, or struggle to stay awake for the minute or so it takes to watch the video (i recommend the first. marveling is the way to go.)

as always, glad to nerd the place up a little.
w00t.

book recommendations.

y'all got any recommendations for me? I've been reading biographies for quite some time. what are some must-reads nowadays?

and, i really want yall to be able to see my turtle song. but whenever i go to download it onto the blog, it takes for-e-va. so, don't hold your breath but i'll get it to you eventually.

in other news, i just returned from a trip to singapore. things are looking good down on the southern most tip of the asia continent.

Was the tip in Key West just the southernmost tip of the United States? I'm assuming yes... (Singapore below)
And, this is my attempt to take an artsy shot like Elaine:) But the yellow/green monkey grass really was intriguing. The yellow will probably be the closest I see to fall leaves...

Redneck Thanksgiving

Redneck Thanksgiving at my house on November 24th for any of you who will be around. Come dressed in your best (or worst) redneck attire and bring your favorite Thanksgiving dish with you. For those of you who are not a fan of the kitchen, drinks and ice are always needed :) Please invite anyone that may not see this. I am sure we will have plenty of good eats. Hope all is well with everyone!

George Bush doesn't care about black people...

Did you guys know what the leading cause of death among African-Americans is? 

That's right, abortion.  A newly conceived black baby has about the same chances of living as Robert De Niro playing Russian roulette in Deer Hunter, with a 50% chance of making it out of the womb.

Something to think about.

Please forgive me Jamie!

Dang it, Andy beat me to it...I have to admit I forgot my password as well. I promise, I read the blog, I just don't like to post....I'm just not a blogger. I will try to be better. Ok, I have tried my hardest to keep in touch with as many of you as I can but I have failed obviously. I apologize. So, in order to make up for it I am about to post a complete update on my life. I will warn you- I could be boring, so if you don't care about all of the details of my life right now you should stop reading :)

1. I live in Charlotte, NC. (I think you all know this, but I'm just covering the bases). I live with two of my best friends that I have met here in Charlotte- Laura and Jana. We live in a really cute townhome right outside of uptown.

2. I work for one of the largest architecture firms in the U.S- Perkins+Will Architects. They have offices all over the world. I worked at Jenkins Peer Architects for one year, but it was a smaller firm and decided to look for some other options. I had a few job offers and decided to come work at P+W. It was a bit of an adjustment (I LOVED the people that I worked with at JPA) but I'm really enjoying it. I'm working on some amazing projects right now, including a new 43 story tower for the Bank of America corporate heardquarters. I'm also the lead interior designer for North Carolina Biotechnology Center. I work a lot but absolutely love what I do so its worth it. 

3. I am a young life leader at a high school- Charlotte Latin. It's AMAZING! We had a some leaders drop out last year, so Mike (my co-leader) are the only leaders at the school this year. The relationships that I formed with some of these high schoolers has been such a blessing. I am so grateful that I have the opurtunity to have a part in these girls lives. I lead a Bible study with them on Monday nights which has been great. I love the ministry of YL and what it stands for. I was a leader in Birmingham but it was a bit rough (sorry, Matt :) The year and a half that I have been in Charlotte has been so different and so good. mike and I took 30 kids to Windy Gap for a weekend retreat- it was a great time of fellowship, and many of the kids made decsions in the walk with Christ

4. I went to visit Susan in Costa Rica this past summer- it was fabulous!

5. I love Charlotte...but I have lived here for 1 year and 4 months and the following has all happened to me:

-my car was broken into

-my checkbook was stolen and the person wrote over $1,500 worth of bad checks

-a crazy lady ran into me and almost totaled my car and then lied about it. Thankfully I had witnesses and after a long battle with the insurance companies I won...still, it was annoying

- AND...my car was stolen last week. Yes, that's right- thankfully the police found it a day later parked about 5 min away from my where I live at a crack house. My car still smells lovely.

6. God is awesome. One of the most amazing things I have experienced since living here in Charlotte is the community here. The families that I have met through YL and church have all been so wonderful. They continually show me Christ's love and I am so thankful for them. I have a group of ladies (including my mentor here) that get together every Monday morning to pray for me and my ministry with YL. I can't tell you what a blessing that is. I called my mentor the day my car was stolen and I seriously had about 10 emails/phone calls with different families offering to give me one of their cars or drive me anywhere I needed. Living away from all my family it was such a blessing to have people supporting me like that. 

7. I love my friends that I have made here! I miss all of you guys very much, but I have some great friends here. It's seriously like being in college- but I don't have to worry about doing homework at night :) I love it.

8. And...the most exciting thing...it's true, I'm dating someone. He's GREAT! I like him a lot :) We don't really agree on how long we've actually been dating, but I say its been almost two months. (He says one month, but I'm right). He works for Wachovia- he is a CPA (accountant). He is a year older- graduated from UF in 2006. He's actually hoping to go back to school in the fall to get his masters in business- he's only applying to Harvard, Northwestern, and Duke. He's pretty smart. Because of the whole Wachovia being bought by Wells Fargo, he will prob. be without a job in May.  I met him right after I moved to Charlotte and we've been really good friends for over a year now. He's probably the nicest guy I've ever met in my life- he treats me so well and loves the Lord. It's amazing because now we're dating and I like him SO much...I'm very happy. His name is Kevin- feel free to facebook stalk him, its okay. All of my high school YL girls do it and it hasn't scared him off.

Ok, Jamie, Kris, Jen...everyone else, I love you and miss you all! I am hoping to be able to get off work and come to Bham for New Years, so cross your fingers. 

Sorry if this was boring, but I hope it was informative...:) If I left anything off, I apologize.

I just wanted to use the word remiss

So I admit that I have been seriously remiss in my postings on this blog. That is partly because I couldnt remember my f'in password but also because I am extremely lazy. Anyways, life has been good i am currently reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy I have been on a kick about his books for a little bit he is good. The Road is awesome. I am alone in my living room right now, and the last ugly baby I saw was on the television on this crappy show like 7:14 this evening.

Enough with the formalities. So what exactly an I doing with my life. I now live in a different house in the same neighborhood that I lived in last year, but with a new roommate, a guy named kyle who has worked with me for the last two summers, he is from Pittsburg and went to the College of Wooster studied Christian Studies and Philosophy. He is a really great guy it has been a real blessing to live with him. My job now really has two major parts, the first being that I work three days a week for a ministry minded contractor who works in Binghamton named Avery Bridges, His company is called The Fountainhead Company. It has been incredible working for Avery I have learned alot from him, and he also has taken an interest in my life outside of work and we just started reading a book called Towards a Theology of Works. I've also gotten to know his family really well and they've really taken me in, I'm really happy with where I am right now.

And finally, the rumors are true I am currently dating an absolutely amazing girl named Rachel Ogle. We met this summer, she was a team leader at SOS. She is a junior at U of M and is studying art history. We've started dating like a month ago maybe, but only been like a couple for two weeks. Its going well and she is awesome and I'm bringing her to meet all of ya'll hopefully soon if not at new years. But ya that pretty much sums up my life, I am continually amazed at all of my awesome friends that God has blessed me with. Ya'll are great adnd I miss each one of you terribly. Hopefully see yaou guys soon.

All Hail Ryan, Lord of November

I made up game to make election night coverage more interesting. For a dollar you could pick the winners in each state plus D. C. and answer a few bonus questions (which network would call the election first, which third-party candidate would have the most votes), then whoever got the most points would win the giant pool of money (amounting to $9).

Here are the results:

Rank	Name	Points
1	Ryan Warden #1	91
2	John Lambuth	86
3	Elaine Davis	82
4	Eli Johnson	77
5	Ryan Warden #2	73
6	Patrick Sewell #2	73
7	Patrick Barker	70
8	Keith Davis	70
9	Patrick Sewell #1	54

Dear Community

I made a costly phone call last night to Ethiopia. Conversation went well until I began updating Kristen on the relationship statuses or stati, if you'd prefer (and I slightly do). Word on the street is that a certain Abby Thomas AND an Andy Sisk (formerly known as Cheese due to his self-inflicted disassociation) have significant others. Our little Ethiopian was not happy to hear the latter news from community member Candis Garner who found out from facebook, then called Kristen from Malaysia to convery the news. I pray that this serves as a semi-kind reminder to please remeber to use the blog to post any changes in life. It can be as small as a bowel movement. Trust me, we care. Thank you kindly.

I got a question for ya'll

I wanna come to visit in early december, late november. Just wondered when exams were and if there was a better time for everyone.

Is it a willful sin for a Christian to vote for a pro-choice candidate?

This is a question that was brought up and discussed in my Sunday School class today. It sprang from a discussion with Dr. Russell Moore of Southern Seminary (I would link it, but I don't know if it's available online). I'm sure we all agree that abortion is a heinous sin. Since that is the case, (despite all other issues) can a Christian support a candidate who stands in such stark opposition to this with a clear conscience? I'm not posting this to start a debate, but I think it is an important question that we should all ask ourselves and pray about before voting on Tuesday.

A Torysay.

"Geeeeeeeeeeeez! Aw man, no...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!," Gertrude exclaimed from the deerstand. Gertrude immediatly fell to her death. Except she didn't die. As she lay in the monkey grass her thoughts turned toward the pigtailed girl with the strawberry blonde hair. The blonde strawberry was four years old, never left home without pigtails and thrived on ravlioli with franks. Except on this day, she did leave home--and climbed up the deerstand to catch a butterfly. Little did she know what fate would meet her at that rickety wooden peak. (You, reader, should know that four year olds are rather coordinated and do not like to be told what to do.) The butterfly was golden yellow with purple blotches and glistening turquoise spots, the most beautiful butterfly she had ever beheld. As her hand reached out to the diaphonous creature so did her heart. Her throat filled with glee as she grazed the tip of the butterfly's left wing, accidentally sending it plummeting to the ground in pretty little spirals. As the sky above spun in dizzying circles around her desperate wings the butterfly sighed, "Not this again." She swore to herself that as long as butterflies have wings she would never cross with a frank-breath strawberry blonde pigtailed girl again. She much preferred frank-breathing boys. At that moment, the very frank-breathed strawberry blonde pigtailed girl who had knocked her into this predicament landed ontop of her with a thump. Gertrude remembered the last words her mother said to her ("Don't come back to this house without my dear sweet plumpkin girl.") Though she envied the chunky twerp's argyle stockings, she knew what she had to do. Gertrude looked toward the heavens, yodeled her goodbyes and leapt off of the stand. Her fall was broken by a plump crumb-covered child. She licked her lips, wiped her brow, straightened her collar and rose to meet the dawn of a new day. She hoped there would be strawberry cupcakes in Heaven.