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I Added Andy Allen's blog to my list of blogs to check out. So, check it out.

He is an interesting and insightful guy, he blogs enough to keep your interest and he has a link to my blog listed on his.

You can find him on the roll call list on the side column, or at Called To Worship.

The world is not my home.

We just buried two more guinea pigs today. One of them died a while back and was autopsied and frozen for a while. Since the other one died today, we decided to bury them at the same time.

The other one was Abby's favorite guinea pig, Silvester. She named it that because it was black and white, like Silvester the cat. She was very sad, and made most of us cry while we said some words over it's grave. I suppose it didn't help when Emily went and played Auld Lang Syne on the piano afterward.

On a little brighter note, the girls are playing in a piano recital tomorrow evening. They have been taking lessons for about two months now and I am pleasantly pleased at their progress.

We are all refugees, running from our own tragedies, in a world that doesn't want to be a friend.

Check out this article and consider helping them out.

Refugees struggle after crash

Pain of losing loved ones in wreck only adds to difficulties of adapting to a new culture

The how to help info is on the right hand side of the article.

The Serpent and the Rainbow and the Skunk

In 1988, the movie The Serpent and the Rainbow was released on an unsuspecting public. Through it's wierd twists and turns, it told the tale of a BotanistAnthropologist that is hired by a large pharmaceutical company to investigate some herbal remedies in Haiti. Not mood enhancers, like St. John's Wort, but herbs that turn you into a zombie.

During some of his supernatural and strange encounters, the protagonist is told that he is protected from many of the goings on because of his skepticism. In other words, the superstition of the locals enhances the effects of whatever is happening in this strange little movie.

The other night, I was tasked as a part of a two man team working a thermal imager on a hill overlooking a suspected problem area. After being dropped off in the boonies, we hiked ourselves up the hill to view the area. My counterpart set up the camera and I made myself comfortable on the ground as he took his turn scanning with the imager.

It was a nice night and I was perfectly relaxed when I felt something clawing it's way up my leg. I immediately jumped up and brushed it off, thinking a lizard or something was climbing on me. Ewwww. As I brushed it off, away ran a small skunk. I was ready to go home, but we still had several hours to go. Most of which I spent standing and hyper-vigilant.

So, if the guy in the movie was protected by his skepticism, am I protected by my belief that God looks out for me? Or, does it make it worse when a skunk runs across me? I suppose if it sprayed us, it would have been different. If nothing else, I probably would have had to walk home.

Live a little

Technical difficulties. Stand by.

Take your seats

When we lived in West Sacramento (be sure to click on the link and see the street view) , we had some of the nicest neighbors.

One day, as Diane and I went for a walk, our neighbors had the ugliest leather swiveling recliner thing, with matching ottoman, in front of their house. It was and orangeish sort of brown, smelled like cigarette smoke and had obviously come to the end of the line, if it ever it was on the line.

This was truly one of the saddest chairs ever.

As we were leaving, I asked the neighbors what they planned on doing with that thing. they told me they were going to give it away and they were just sure someone would take it. Good luck with that!

On our way back, they were smiling and looked very pleased as they let me know that some guy really liked it and snapped it up on the spot. And, it didn't take long at all to find a home for it. Wow! Who would have wanted that thing?

Our oldest son, TJ, who is now in the army, was living with us at this time. I think you can probably see the downhill slide this story is starting to take. He thought the orange-brown chair was the best thing ever. With its soft seat, easy swivel and even a place to put your feet, it was custom made for video games, playing guitar or just hanging out. I suppose the bad smell only added to it's luster for a teenage guy.

That nasty thing sat in his room until he joined the army and it was disposed of only after it was completely broken and worn through. Well, we put it in the alley first, where people usually pick up stuff if you leave it sit. No-one picked it up, but someone did stop there long enough to take in a beer and leave the bottle there. So, we had to pick it back up and take it to the dump.

I guess everyone has a little different idea of what is nice and what is not.

Hungry?

Trying to keep my head considering different ideas, fields and stuff and my recently renewed interest in studying the events of the Second World War, I found this interesting book, "The Great Starvation Experiment" by Todd Tucker. I have been working some all-nighters all week and it has made me feel extra hungry all the time. I think it has been compounded by having just finished the book.

The book is an overview of the notable experiment carried out during WWII by Dr. Ancel Keys. During the war, numerous conscientious objectors were given opportunities to serve in non-combatant roles. Some were made medics and that sort of thing. Others, that were opposed to any sort of martial support at all, were given the opportunity to work in work camps.

Of these, some thirty-six men volunteered and were selected to participate in a starvation experiment. The idea was that they would live on a severely restricted diet so Dr. Keys and his crew could study the effects of starvation and hopefully assist in combating starvation in the post-war world.

It sounds like they had a miserable time of it. Some of the guys started to question their sanity, have dreams of cannibalism and one even chopped his fingers off with an axe as a means of escaping. A few of them cheated and were shamefully released from the program. Most, however, hung on and made it through the experiment to the rehabilitation phase.

By the way, the good Dr. discovered that, while nutrients, etc. are important in a diet, the only way to rehabilitate someone who is starving is to provide them with enough food so that they are no longer starving.

And, in an interesting side note, the majority of these men lived their lives at approximately the same non-overweight weight or a slightly lower weight than before they entered the program.

Whether or not the program helped in the fight against starvation was, to me, unclear. However, this study is still the definitive go-to study for anyone that is studying starvation.

Now I am going to get something to eat.