The recent news-blast of school closings due to weather-related issues has me thinking . . .

Remember when your parents or grandparents would tell the story of how difficult they had it in their day? The story of walking to school included an impossible route that required them to march up a steep-sloped hill on both their going and coming – often with 3-or-more feet of snow covering the ground and maybe even the threat of real-life trolls hanging out beneath the bridge they had to cross. I heard this and similarly drawn-out, embellished stories and truthfully, I have even adapted my own! To my school-aged daughter I’ve complained about my own ‘trials’ of having to wait for the bus in Middle School at a bus stop within sight of our house’s front door (if you turned your head just right).

This morning I happened upon a collection of pictures of real kids with REAL stories-worth-telling of their difficult walks to school.


You can see all 17 pictures (and accurate descriptions) here.

Kind of puts things into a different perspective, no?

These picture-stories remind me of the now-viral video “First-world Problems Anthem” that made its rounds last year:

What do you think? Are we (as an American culture) too-quick to cancel school (or complain about our first-world problems with getting there) all the while neglecting to even THINK about what others are dealing with to pursue their opportunity for education?

Apparently Canadian Tire (as best as I can tell, a cross between Tractor Supply Co and Advance Auto Parts) decided to prove the quality of their batteries this year by going a bit overboard and building an “Ice Truck”.

No, really . . .

Hockey Practice Commercial:

A short 2-minute behind-the-scenes documentary of the project:

After the project was complete, of COURSE they filmed a time lapse of the melt:

I had the privilege this morning of being interviewed by Heath Mullikin for our church’s involvement in the Wesleyan Church’s emphasis in the Biblica’s Community Bible Experience this Spring.

In this video you can see the glorious ‘unboxing’ of a case of the Bibles that are being ordered and shipped to churches across our denomination and the first-glimpse of the “Wesleyan Bookmark” that comes along with each Bible.

More information on the Community Bible Experience can be found at 40daybible.com

Embedded video can be viewed here.

Follow the Wesleyan Church on Twitter here.

Unique Chess Set

12.30.2013 — 1 Comment

I totally missed out on the opportunity to get my chess-master father the most unique Christmas gift ever this year.

Can you imagine his delight on Christmas morning if he would have opened a wrapped chess set made completely of taxidermied mice?

From the Etsy (where else?) page of this one-of-a-kind item:

This delightfully deceased taxidermy chess set is sure to get peoples attention. Every mouse was a unique creature in life, making each piece of this set a one of kind creation. Hand stuffed by me, but created by the guy upstairs (or whoever you believe created mice).
The set includes 16 light colored mice and 16 dark mice, in various sizes, pawns being the smallest. Set comes complete with wooden hand painted chess board, and storage case (not pictured)
All specimens were acquired from a captive breeding facility that distributes frozen rodents for reptile feeding, so don’t feel sad if these little guys were not battling it out on the chess board they would be deep in the belly of a snake.

I’m not sure it can ever really happen because of the date it falls on and my usual responsibilities on that date, but I have a new-found fascination with “Rouketopolemos” – literally “Rocket-War” in Greek.

This video will show you why I’m fascinated:

From Wikipedia:

Rouketopolemos is the name of a local traditional event held annually at Easter in the town of Vrontados on the Greek island of Chios. As a variation of the Greek habit of throwing fireworks during the celebration of the service at midnight before Easter Sunday, two rival church congregations in the town perform a “Rocket War” by firing tens of thousands of home-made rockets across town, with the objective of hitting the bell tower of the church of the other side. The rockets are wooden sticks loaded with an explosive mixture containing gunpowder and launched from grooved platforms.