Monthly Archives: August 2008

Book Review “The Faith of Barack Obama” by Stephen Mansfield

Michael S. Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, a publisher of Christian books, offered a free copy of the subject book to the first 100 bloggers who promised to write a 200 word review of the book. I jumped at it since I don’t know anything about Barack Obama. I emailed Mr. Hyatt’s assistant the book arrived promptly. I wasn’t so prompt in reading the book and writing the review. But I’m finally done and below is my review.

The Faith of Barack Obama, by Stephen Mansfield

The Faith of Barack Obama is an interesting, sympathetic but neutral examination of Barack Obama’s life and faith. It includes a brief biography including his contact with Islam as a child that I found very fascinating. The book discusses his conversion and membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ. Also included is fascinating information on the church, the theology it backed, and its pastor, Jeremiah Wright, whose beliefs and sermons caused so much damage to Obama’s candidacy.

I found the book very helpful in learning about Obama’s beliefs, his faith and how his faith fit into his life. The book had much discussion but no conclusions about why Obama stayed at Trinity so long given Reverend Wright’s inflammatory belief’s and rhetoric. The discussion about the black church and civil religion is very instructive. I think that the idea that Obama learned how to “swallow the chicken but spit out the bone” probably described the situation accurately. I don’t think that anybody, but Obama, knows for sure about the matter.

The book is an important addition to my understanding of Mr. Obama. It was great to read something about a candidate that did not have a hidden agenda.

Tagged!

I’ve been “tagged” by Baloney. Two different things. Six random things about myself and and then one word answers to a list of 33 questions. I admit it. I love talking about myself.

If you are a blogger, you are tagged also. Please link in the comments section. If you aren’t – feel free to leave your own random things about yourself.

Six random things about myself.

1. I’ve kept a diary for 37 years. Until earlier this year it was paper and pen. Then I started experimenting with th online google docs. Then my wife turned me on to Baloney’s blog. So this blog is a substitute for my old diary. I’m still experimenting with it.

2. I’m one of the few people who love my job. I have a commercial type job with a natural gas company. I like who I work with. I like the company. I like my customers and I love the industry. I am very lucky.

3.The older I get the calmer I am getting except for a few things. Hurting people or animals makes me angry. Vandalism makes me angry. Injustice infuriates me. My wife and I have a son with special needs and we have come to know many other parents who have children with special needs. The callousness and cynicism of our public schools toward children of special needs makes my angry and frustrated beyond words. I cannot hardly deal with it.

An oil and gas producer yelling and screaming. I let them scream. I feel like a big old rock with waves breaking over me. I don’t fight back, I just let the waves crash until they cannot go anymore. Then we can talk. Putting up with public schools when we did that with our child or hearing about the ordeals that other parents go through makes me unglued.

4. I need to be outside at least a little bit every day, no matter how hot or cold, rainy, snowy, or what. If I don’t go outside at least for a few minutes every day I get this weird since of despair.

5. I love running. I cannot run fast. I don’t run that much, two or three times a week for maybe 12 to 15 miles. I love to run outside, in the morning before work. It makes me feel strong and sets me up for the day. I run early Sunday mornings with a group of guys before church. I love it.

6. I love geocaching. Check out geocaching.com if you don’t know what that is. It involves finding caches hidden by others and setting caches yourself. I love finding them and setting them out. My son, SuperPizzaBoy and have found over 700 and have hidden 22 of them. I almost live for it.

One Word Answers to Questions

1. Where is your cell phone? bathroom vanity

2. Where is your significant other? Here in the house.

3. Your hair? sparse

4. Your mother? gone

5. Your father? content

6. Your favorite thing? GPS

7. Your dream last night? none

8. Your dream/goal? contentment

9. The room you’re in? Living

10. Your hobby? geocaching

11. Your fear? abandonment

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here

13. Where were you last night? Home

14. What you’re not? dancer

16. One of your wish list items? peace

17. Where you grew up? Mountains

18. The last thing you did? Laundry

19. What are you wearing? comfort

20. Your TV? football

21. Your pet? dogsncats

22. Your computer? Toshiba

24. Your mood? Nervous

25. Missing someone? yes

26. Your car? like

27. Something you’re not wearing? socks

28. Favorite store? Belks

29. Your summer? quick

30. Love someone? Ohyes

31. Your favorite color? blue

32. When is the last time you laughed? today

33. Last time you cried? Funeral

The Day Before the First Day


Tomorrow is the first day of School for SuperPizzaBoy. He was feeling a little nervous about it so Sweetie called me and said we needed to do something special for the Boy this evening. I’m always up for something special so instead of running after work on the river trail I came home.

When I got home I found that he had been working on a Godzilla movie. He is doing the screen play. I loved it. His best friend Q is a Godzilla fan. He is coming over for a sleepover on Friday night. I can tell they are going to work on the movie in amongst the Pokemon discussions, video games, and pizza chomping.

The Boy wanted to go play miniature golf. So off we went. He did very well. You should have seen him a few years ago. He had no idea what to do. Now he plays pretty well plus he has learned how to cheat almost as much as I do.

Then we went to eat mexican food. He loves mexican food. Actually he loves the chips and salsa. The food is just a bonus. He got a sopapilla afterward. With honey. He polished that off also.

Bad news when we got home though. Time to go to bed, the dread words “school tomorrow” and “you have to get up early and get going.” Groannnnnnn.

Poor PizzaBoy. I used to try and tell him that he only had about 12 more years or so of school, then work for about 45 years, and then he can start sleeping in. In only about 57 years. That didn’t cheer him up for some reason so I quit mentioning it. I mean it is only 2065. It will be here before he knows it!

Meet the Teacher Night!


Tonight was Meet the Teacher Night at SuperPizzaBoy’s school. The school is a private school K-12 that works with kids with learning disabilities and Asperger’s Syndrome. There are only about 145 kids enrolled in all 12 grades so it is a very small family type situation. Mrs. Yogi is co-President of the PTO and I am her first assistant. So I was asked to cook the hot dogs for the picnic they have after the introduction.

So I cooked 500 hot dogs. They didn’t know how many they needed so they bought a bunch and I cooked all of them. I didn’t mind. Hot dogs cook fast and need constant attention so you don’t get asked to do anything else. The weather was nice and so were the people. All I needed was a beer and life would have been good.

Of course I missed the orientation and didn’t meet the teacher but she is the same teacher as lasat year. So I don’t think I missed much.

The Olympics are Here!

I love the Olympics. Summer, Winter. I love them both.

So far I’ve seen lots of beach volleyball, synchronized diving, fencing, swimming, gymnastics, and rowing.

I can’t stand to see most of the sports any other time. Thats pretty shallow don’t you think?

What fascinates me is that for many of the events the athletes train intensively for years and then they have only a minute or so to perform. They either nail it or they lose. If they slip up, they are gone. Its brutal. I feel that I have to watch them. I owe them that much. Regardless of what country they are from.

I like watching the Americans of course. I like watching athletes from all the countries. I especially like watching the Chinese during this Olympics. They actually seem to have personalities. They always seemed to be part of a borg before with no individual characteristics. I like looking at the city of Beijing. It is quite the city. I love the architecture. The Bird’s Nest stadium is magnificent. There is also a hotel that is seen on television. It is pretty cool.

It seems that the 21st Century is the era of the Chinese. Their economy is growing quickly. I don’t really know where our economy is going. “W” doesn’t seem to worry about it too much. I don’t know where this prosperity is going for the Chinese. I wonder how much more freedom they will be given as time goes on. Perhaps we will meet them in the middle somewhere. It seems that since 9-11 we have voluntarily given up our freedom Some people seem proud of not having as much freedom as they used to have. What’s the deal.

Cub Scouts Start Again

Patrol Leader Rick called for a parent meeting today. We met at his house and we went over the program for the coming year. The boys, including SuperPizzaBoy, are second year webelos and they should all graduate at the Arrow of Light Ceremony this coming January. We all started together as Tiger Cubs 4 years ago. They boys have grown up and so have the parents. I don’t know what the statistics are but I get the feeling that not very many cub scouts become boy scouts.

I don’t think that SPB wants especially to become a boy scout. I think that we are going to try to get him in a troop where he might have a friend. He doesn’t really have any friends at the patrol.

The parents have bent over backwards to help SPB out. I will always be grateful to Rick, Joe, Tami, Mark, Carol, Julie and the other parents that helped him out.

We’ll see how it goes.

The parents all liked my new shoes at least.

Open House

Our across the street neighbors, Mark and Julie, are scraping us off the bottom of their shoes and moving to a bigger house in a fancier neighborhood. They are actually good neighbors but they are leaving and of course we are glad that they are moving up in the world a little a little bit, will miss them, and wish them well.

First however, the neighbors get even by engaging in one of life’s guilty pleasures. We have been looking forward to it all week. Ever since their realtor put a sign out front announcing an open house this weekend. Oh boy, we get to see what they have done to the house, and what kind of furniture they have and how they have decorated. We get to go through the whole house! We even get to peek in their closets.

So we went. The house looks great. Julie has decorated well. The landscaping in the back is great, their granite counter tops in the bathroom look really good.

This is fun, who else in the neighborhood is leaving?

New Shoes

Things are pretty quiet at the Yogi Den. You can tell because I am all excited because my new shoes came in. They are pretty unique. They are finger shoes. I had to order them special off the internet. Is not the internet wonderful?

A coworker of mine got some last year and I have been jealous ever since. So I finally splurged. They don’t have sales on these and the local outlet is constantly sold out

Sweetie is not too happy with them. She is not going to be seen in public with me if I wear them. Nana, my mother-in-law is not too proud of them either.

Hey, I like them. Pat, my coworker, has 5 pair. Maybe that is why he is still single.

They sure feel good. SuperPizzaBoy is spending the night with a friend of his. I cannot wait for him to see them. He will like them, I’m sure.

We are going to see the Drillers tonight. We are going to Johnny’ beforehand. Tonight might be the night that I show off my new shoes. I’m not wanting to aggravate Sweetie though. I’ll just play it by ear.

Legal Affairs

Sweetie and Nana (Sweetie’s Mom and SuperPizzaBoy’s only living Grandmother) met me downtown today. We walked over to a law office. Nana met with her new money manager there and Sweetie and I talked to an attorney about getting our financial affairs in order to make sure that SPB is taken care of when Sweetie and I are gone.

The man we talked to has a son with special needs who is now grown and living away from his parents but has full time caretakers. It is too early to tell just how independent SPB is going to be but I am an older parent and we need to make sure that he is taken car of properly. The attorney comes well recommended. It was obvious that he knew what we are talking about. He is living it.

He made a lot of complicated concepts sound simple. They are simple in concept but complicated in execution. This is not going to be cheap but I cannot think of anything more important.

We talked to him for a while. We have some forms to fill out and to send back to him and they he will send us a letter with some options. In the natural gas business we make people pay dearly for options. That is what is going to happen here.

SuperPizzaBoy goes for a Ride

Sweetie had a meeting to go to tonight so it was just me and SuperPizzaBoy. The weather has cooled off quite a bit so its time for the boy to go on a ride. We loaded up his Triton which is a super duper tricycle and we went to a nearby paved trail. I hate and fear traffic especially for the boy because he doesn’t always pay attention to what is going on. The paved trail is just the thing.

He has not learned how to ride a bicycle yet. We tried and tried but it just wasn’t a happening thing. We saw the Triton in the newspaper so we got him one. It is very cool. It is steered with the rear wheels by the use of levers. He really likes it.

Anyway, we had a good time. We left the dogs at home. They wanted to go but they are such a pain in the butt.

He made two or three laps of the place and then we went home.


Sweetie and I like to go bike riding. We would like SPB to be able to go with us. His next bike may be a three wheeled bicycle. That could happen next year. That would be lots of fun. My next bike may be a recumbent bike.

I think the Triton is fun also. I had this theory at one time that it would be impossible to turn it over on a corner. I was wrong. But at least I didn’t fall very far.