“Mom, are House-Elves real?”

I was sitting in the kitchen when I heard one of our sons ask this question:

“Mom, are house-elves real?”

For those who do not know, house-elves are fictional creatures from the Harry Potter series. They are essentially slaves or indentured servants who can only be set free if they are given clothes. If that does not happen, they could end up serving the same family for eternity. They are tasked with everything from washing dishes, to cleaning rooms and shining shoes, to preparing dinner for the entire family.

Walking Home in a Suit

I will never forget the time I walked home from work in a suit. It was early in our marriage and we had just purchased our first home, and so did not have money to buy a second car. Fortunately our house was exactly one mile from where I worked, so I was able walk to work for the better part of a year.

During that time I received offers on occasion from coworkers for a ride either to or from work, but these were few and far between. The day I wore my suit, however, was a different story.

The Wise Man and the Baby Jesus

With the lack of snow this year I have really been struggling to get into the Christmas Spirit. We have our tree set up and we have been practising Christmas hymns with our church choir since Thanksgiving, but it just hasn't felt like Christmas. On top of this we have been trying to sell our house so the majority of our decorations are all boxed up and inaccessible.

As a family we finally decided to go ahead and set up some of our decorations, so I took the kids with me and we dug out a box of nativity sets that my mother-in-law had given us last year.

We brought them home and began unwrapping the tissue paper that each piece had been carefully stored in and started to assemble the different nativities. It took us a minute to separate each set from the others, and when we were finished I realized that there were a couple of odd pieces that didn't match any of the others. It was then I remembered that I had given her an incomplete set I found on my mission.

Incomplete is probably too generous a word, the set was all but gone! It consisted of two pieces, namely the Baby Jesus and a Wise Man. As we set up the nativities on top of the piano, the thought struck me at the significance of this odd set. Of all the pieces to survive it was a wise man and the Savior.

Lessons learned from a point-and-shoot camera

Ever since I knew they existed, I have wanted a Digital SLR camera. I just have. Nothing against compact point-and-shoot cameras, but they just don't give me the control that I want when taking pictures or shooting video.

I am a third generation amateur photographer. My grandfather shot black and white film and developed it himself late at night for the want of a dark room. My father bridged the gap to color film, and finally to digital. My interests (which are primarily in video) rely heavily on that foundation of photography for training in light, exposure, and composition.

About a year ago my wife and I went shopping to get a camera for me to shoot videos with, knowing our budget wouldn't permit a DSLR I found what I thought was a suitable replacement. While I was able to shoot video and make a few short films, it didn't give me nearly the control I was looking for. I wanted to stylize my video, but the camera wouldn't allow me to do so. It was then that I came to a startling realization.

Leaving the Welfare State

In every person's life there are defining moments. In these moments we can change our lives forever for good or ill. In my life, my family and I have encountered two such moments that were both painful, and liberating.

When I graduated from college in 2008, I secured my first job at a local television station. I wasn't making a whole lot doing the audio for the early morning newscast, so my wife got a job as a substitute teacher for one of the local school districts. I would get up at 2 AM and drive to the news station, then when my shift ended at 7 AM, my wife and I would trade cars so she could go to work, and I could watch our two young sons. We were living in a house that my parents owned, and we made just enough to cover our heating and travel expenses. We were on Food Stamps and WIC, and between everything were able to stay fed and warm. The economy took a major downturn in the fall of 2008, so further employment options did not look good.

I Subtract When I Add

Insights into the world of “broken math”

My wife is a certified math teacher, and I am a web developer by trade. Initially this statement seems rather bland and not out of the ordinary. But when I say the result of this combination is: “I subtract when I add,” people tend to look at me funny, first and foremost my wife!

1 + 1 = 2, that part doesn't change, what does change is when you cross a power of 10. For example, most people would look at the problem: 6 + 7 and count up on their fingers (or in their head) from seven, (8, 9, 10, etc…) ending up with 13. I don’t.

When I see this problem, I think 7 is 3 less than 10 so 6 – 3 = 13.

Welcome to the world of “broken math.” Broken math is math that works, but they don’t teach it to you in school. These are the shortcuts that we create in our minds using mathematic principles in a non-standard way to get the correct answer. Here is another example:

Of Cowbirds and Starlings

This morning as I was getting ready for work, I noticed several birds on my front lawn. Three in particular drew my attention. Two were brown and rather large, and the third was sleek black and about two-thirds as big. The smaller bird I identified almost immediately as a Starling, as it had the tale-tell yellow beak and yellow streaked feathers. The other two puzzled me for some time.

              
As I watched the trio wander around my front yard, it was obvious the Starling was hunting for food. The two brown birds were tagging along and, appeared to be bullying the Starling. It wasn’t until the Starling found a big juicy bug and rammed it down one of the other two’s throats, that I realized what was going on. The Starling was trying to teach these two juveniles to hunt, the problem? They were juvenile Cowbirds.