Looking Forward

"I'm looking forward to looking back on all this." - Sandra Knell

Learning, Doing, Teaching

"Learning is finding out what you already know.
Doing is demonstrating that you know it.
Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you.
You are all learners, doers, teachers." - Richard Bach, Illusions

Forty Shades Of Blue

I watched the DVD "Forty Shades Of Blue"

Synopsis

Wealthy music producer Alan James (Rip Torn) lives with his beautiful Russian girlfriend Laura (Dina Korzun), thirty years younger than him, whom he met while he was in Russia on business. They have a three-year-old son. Alan is a music legend, having produced black music during the 60's and 70's, the golden era of Memphis Soul. They live an affluent life in a sprawling mansion on the banks of the Mississippi in Memphis, Tennessee. But, although she is comfortable, Laura feels lonely and isolated. Alan has an estranged adult son from a previous marriage, Michael (Darren E. Burrows), a literature professor, who is married and lives with his wife in Los Angeles. Michael and his father have a complicated relationship that is marred by disappointment, hampered by jealousy, and fueled by anger. When Michael returns home to Memphis for the first time in many years, although he had at first disapproved of his father's young girlfriend, a painful and dangerous love affair develops between him and Laura, his contemporary. As this forbidden passion deepens in the bedrooms and bars of modern Memphis, Laura comes to an illuminating self-confrontation that will change her soul and her life forever.

Grateful Journal

"Keep a grateful journal. Every night, list five things that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change our perspective of your day and your life." - Oprah Winfrey

Watch

"Watch your thoughts; they become your words.
Watch your words; they become your actions.
Watch your actions; they become your habits.
Watch your habits; they become your character.
Watch your character for it will become your destiny." - Unknown

Speak Now

"Do not save your loving speeches
For your friends till they are dead;
Do not write them on their tombstones,
Speak them rather now instead."
- Anna Cummins

You Are A Leader

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams

Giving

"It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving." — Mother Theresa

Christmas Dinner

After Christmas Mass at Christ The Servant we went to Christmas Dinner at Grandma's house. We ate scalloped chicken and everyone was there. After everyone opened their presents we went over to Uncle Steve and Aunt LeAnn's house for dessert. They gave each of the nieces and nephews an ipod. It was a great Christmas.

Christmas

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." - Norman Vincent Peale

To You Is Born This Day

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

'We have just heard in the Gospel the message given by the angels to the shepherds during that Holy Night, a message which the Church now proclaims to us: "To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Lk 2:11-12). Nothing miraculous, nothing extraordinary, nothing magnificent is given to the shepherds as a sign. All they will see is a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, one who, like all children, needs a mother’s care; a child born in a stable, who therefore lies not in a cradle but in a manger. God’s sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Only in their hearts will the shepherds be able to see that this baby fulfils the promise of the prophet Isaiah, which we heard in the first reading: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder" (Is 9:5). Exactly the same sign has been given to us. We too are invited by the angel of God, through the message of the Gospel, to set out in our hearts to see the child lying in the manger. 'God’s sign is simplicity. God’s sign is the baby. God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love.'God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him. The Fathers of the Church, in their Greek translation of the Old Testament, found a passage from the prophet Isaiah that Paul also quotes in order to show how God’s new ways had already been foretold in the Old Testament. There we read: "God made his Word short, he abbreviated it" (Is 10:23; Rom 9:28). The Fathers interpreted this in two ways. The Son himself is the Word, the Logos; the eternal Word became small – small enough to fit into a manger. He became a child, so that the Word could be grasped by us. 'In this way God teaches us to love the little ones. In this way he teaches us to love the weak. In this way he teaches us respect for children. The child of Bethlehem directs our gaze towards all children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn. Towards children who are placed as soldiers in a violent world; towards children who have to beg; towards children who suffer deprivation and hunger; towards children who are unloved. In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem who is crying out to us; it is the God who has become small who appeals to us. Let us pray this night that the brightness of God’s love may enfold all these children. Let us ask God to help us do our part so that the dignity of children may be respected. May they all experience the light of love, which mankind needs so much more than the material necessities of life. 'And so we come to the second meaning that the Fathers saw in the phrase: "God made his Word short". The Word which God speaks to us in Sacred Scripture had become long in the course of the centuries. It became long and complex, not just for the simple and unlettered, but even more so for those versed in Sacred Scripture, for the experts who evidently became entangled in details and in particular problems, almost to the extent of losing an overall perspective. Jesus "abbreviated" the Word – he showed us once more its deeper simplicity and unity. Everything taught by the Law and the Prophets is summed up – he says – in the command: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Mt 22:37-40). This is everything – the whole faith is contained in this one act of love which embraces God and humanity. 'Yet now further questions arise: how are we to love God with all our mind, when our intellect can barely reach him? How are we to love him with all our heart and soul, when our heart can only catch a glimpse of him from afar, when there are so many contradictions in the world that would hide his face from us? 'This is where the two ways in which God has "abbreviated" his Word come together. He is no longer distant. He is no longer unknown. He is no longer beyond the reach of our heart. He has become a child for us, and in so doing he has dispelled all doubt. He has become our neighbour, restoring in this way the image of man, whom we often find so hard to love. For us, God has become a gift. He has given himself. He has entered time for us. He who is the Eternal One, above time, he has assumed our time and raised it to himself on high. 'Christmas has become the Feast of gifts in imitation of God who has given himself to us. Let us allow our heart, our soul and our mind to be touched by this fact! Among the many gifts that we buy and receive, let us not forget the true gift: to give each other something of ourselves, to give each other something of our time, to open our time to God. In this way anxiety disappears, joy is born, and the feast is created. 'During the festive meals of these days let us remember the Lord’s words: "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite those who will invite you in return, but invite those whom no one invites and who are not able to invite you" (cf. Lk 14:12-14). This also means: when you give gifts for Christmas, do not give only to those who will give to you in return, but give to those who receive from no one and who cannot give you anything back. This is what God has done: he invites us to his wedding feast, something which we cannot reciprocate, but can only receive with joy. Let us imitate him! Let us love God and, starting from him, let us also love man, so that, starting from man, we can then rediscover God in a new way! 'And so, finally, we find yet a third meaning in the saying that the Word became "brief" and "small". The shepherds were told that they would find the child in a manger for animals, who were the rightful occupants of the stable. Reading Isaiah (1:3), the Fathers concluded that beside the manger of Bethlehem there stood an ox and an ass. At the same time they interpreted the text as symbolizing the Jews and the pagans – and thus all humanity – who each in their own way have need of a Saviour: the God who became a child. 'Man, in order to live, needs bread, the fruit of the earth and of his labour. But he does not live by bread alone. He needs nourishment for his soul: he needs meaning that can fill his life. Thus, for the Fathers, the manger of the animals became the symbol of the altar, on which lies the Bread which is Christ himself: the true food for our hearts. Once again we see how he became small: in the humble appearance of the host, in a small piece of bread, he gives us himself. 'All this is conveyed by the sign that was given to the shepherds and is given also to us: the child born for us, the child in whom God became small for us. 'Let us ask the Lord to grant us the grace of looking upon the crib this night with the simplicity of the shepherds, so as to receive the joy with which they returned home (cf. Lk 2:20). Let us ask him to give us the humility and the faith with which Saint Joseph looked upon the child that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit. Let us ask the Lord to let us look upon him with that same love with which Mary saw him. And let us pray that in this way the light that the shepherds saw will shine upon us too, and that what the angels sang that night will be accomplished throughout the world: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased." Amen!'

Homily by Pope Benedict XVI
Mass at Midnight 2006(translation by the Holy See)

Promote World Peace

"What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." - Mother Teresa

The Second Horseman

I finished reading "The Second Horseman" by Kyle Mills.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Brandon Vale is a career thief - the best there is. Or at least he was before he was thrown in prison for a jewel heist gone bad. And even more embarrassing, it was a sloppy little job that he had nothing to do with. His time is going fairly quietly until the night he's broken out against his will by Richard Scanlon, the now retired FBI agent who framed him in the first place. Scanlon, who still maintains ties to the U.S. intelligence community, has discovered that a Ukrainian crime organization is auctioning twelve nuclearwarheads to the highest bidder, but he can't convince the government that the sale isn't a hoax. The only way he can get his hands on the $200 million necessary to take the warheads off the market is to do something that goes against everything he stands for: Steal it. The choice Brandon is given is simple: Help Scanlon and hope to live through it, or turn himself in and face the repercussions of his "escape." Suddenly Brandon finds himself with only weeks to plan a Las Vegas heist that he's been dreaming about for years, but has always thought was probably impossible. And to make matters worse, Scanlon insists on choosing his team personally. Led by the relentlessly intelligent and undeniably beautiful Catherine Juarez, not a single one of the former government operatives he picks has so much as shoplifted a pack of gum in their lives. As the day of the heist approaches, Brandon's carefully constructed plans begin to break down and he suspects that the elaborate double-cross he's devised to save himself could cost millions of people their lives. He finally has to ask himself just how far he's willing to be dragged into a game that he can only lose.

http://www.kylemills.com/index.html

Entrapment

I watched the DVD "Entrapment" with Catherine Zeta Jones and Sean Connery.

Synopsis

An international art thief (Sean Connery) plans a heist at a Hong Kong bank while being pursued by an undercover insurance investigator (Catherine Zeta Jones) posing as a fellow thief.

Night At The Museum

We all went to York Theatre to see "Night At The Museum" with Ben Stiller, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Robin Williams. I thought it was very funny. We caught the matinee and then went out for dinner at Tae Fu in Villa Park.

Synopsis

Good-hearted dreamer Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), despite being perpetually down on his luck, thinks he’s destined for something big. But even he could never have imagined how “big,” when he accepts what appears to be a menial job as a graveyard-shift night watchman at a museum of natural history. But during Larry’s watch, something extraordinary happens: the museum’s exhibits magically come to life. A fearsome T-Rex insists on a game of fetch (with one of his own skeleton bones); Mayans, Roman Gladiators, and cowboys emerge from their diorama to wage epic battles; and a wax figure of Teddy Roosevelt gives Larry important advice while harboring a crush for an Indian princess. As things spiral wildly out of control, Larry must find a way to control the magic to stop a nefarious plot and save the museum.

Based upon the novel by Milan Trenc.

All Seasons Are Beautiful

"All seasons are beautiful for the person who carries happiness within." - Horace Friess

Give

"Give, and it will be given to you." - Jesus

Discovery

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." - Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

The Secret Of Getting Ahead

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." - Sally Berger

It's A Cinch

"Mile by mile it's a trial; yard by yard it's hard; but inch by inch it's a cinch." - Anonymous

Fade

I finished reading "Fade" by Kyle Mills. I really enjoyed this book. It was a fast read.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A secret department of Homeland Security is recruiting agents to work undercover in the Middle East and the director wants his second-in-command, Matt Egan, to bring aboard his old friend Fade. He seems perfect for the job. An ex-Navy SEAL, Fade is the son of Syrian immigrants and speaks perfect Arabic. The trouble is, he retired after being shot in the back during an off the books mission and still holds a grudge against the U.S. government for refusing to pay for an experimental surgery that could have helped him. Now Fade lives the life of a hermit, waiting for the bullet lodged near his spine to paralyze him. The last thing he wants to hear is that his country needs him—least of all from his ex-best friend Matt Egan, whom he holds responsible for his condition. When Homeland Security goes around Egan and tries to "persuade" Fade to join the team, they inadvertently start the bloody war that Fade has been waiting years to fight. A war that the government, with all its resources, may not be able to win.
The chase is on. Will Egan be able to find his friend-turned-fugitive before Fade can take the ultimate revenge?

Birthday Party

We had a birthday get together for my oldest son. Aunt Karen and Uncle Greg, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Dick and Kelly, Uncle Steve and Aunt LeAnn, Uncle Art and his friend Tal, Grandma and Papa and Grandma and Cousin Pearl all came. We had Pizza Hut Pizza and snacks. The boys played guitar for everyone and sang karaoke.

The Best Gift

"The best gift you can give is a hug; one size fits all and no one ever minds if you return it." - anonymous

Fifth Game

We lost our fifth game at home to St. Joan of Arc 27 to 25. It was a nailbiter at the end. We had the lead by one point twice in the last two minutes. The boys played hard and had a fantastic comeback in the fourth quarter. My youngest son had 5 points, two baskets and one free throw. We have a long break now until after the holidays.

Deep Waters

"God brings men into deep waters not to drown them, but to cleanse them." - Aughey

Christmas Concert

My oldest son had his high school Christmas choral concert. We arrived twenty minutes early and the parking lot was already packed. The concert was held in the large gym. We were able to get seats in the middle up a ways in the bleachers. Grandma and Papa sat in the first row on the other side behind the percussion section. The concert started off with a medley by the band, then the orchestra played a few sons and then the combined choir finished. They did a wonderful job and it sounded great. It finished about 9:00 p.m. and then we picked up our poinsettias. We stopped at Mcdonald's on the way home for egg nog milkshakes.

Lunch With The CEO

A select group of six employees, myself included had lunch in the executive conference room with our CEO and discussed business and some ideas and suggestions. It's been a good year for bonuses and business and we've been really busy. At the end of next month it will be 7 years that I've been with this company. I expect 2007 to be a great year.

A Simple Smile

"We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do." - Mother Teresa

Fat Albert

I watched the DVD "Fat Albert."

Synopsis

A generation grew up watching Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, the Saturday morning cartoon series that enjoyed one of the longest runs in cartoon history, airing from 1972-79. It was later reprised as The New Fat Albert Show that ran from 1979-84. Now, Fat Albert makes the jump to the big screen. As the story begins, Fat Albert (Kenan Thompson) and friends are playing their favorite game, buck-buck, on their home turf: a North Philly junkyard. At the same time, in the real world, a teenager named Doris is watching Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids reruns on television. The unhappy, lonely teen begins to cry, and as her tears fall onto the remote control, Fat Albert hears Doris. The big guy with the big heart stops what he is doing and dives headlong through the television screen – and into the real world – to help her. His friends, Rudy, Mushmouth, Bill, Bucky, Old Weird Harold and Dumb Donald, follow shortly thereafter.
Fat Albert, the ultimate problem solver, is determined to help Doris, even though she insists she doesn’t need his assistance. But as Fat Albert slowly brings Doris out of her shell, he begins to undergo some big changes of his own. For one thing he and his friends are fading. Even more significantly, Fat Albert has discovered love, courtesy of Doris’ foster sister, a lovely high school student named Lauri. Even more surprises await Fat Albert and his friends in their new world, including Fat Albert meeting his “creator,” Bill Cosby. But as Fat Albert deals with his new feelings and challenges – and races to complete his mission and return to his world before he fades from existence – one thing is certain: While they do their thing, they’re all gonna have a good time!

Smoke Screen

I finished reading "Smoke Screen" by Kyle Mills. It had a great premise. What if the tobacco industry just stopped making cigarettes. What would happen?

ABOUT THE BOOK

Through an inexplicable series of unwanted promotions, Trevor Barnett has become the lead spokesman for the tobacco industry just as it's on the verge of extinction. Plaintiff's attorneys have finally found the weakness they'd been searching for and filed a $200 billion lawsuit that the industry will be unable to appeal. America's tobacco companies react by doing the unthinkable they close their plants and recall their product from retailer's shelves. Trevor is charged with going on national television and making the announcement: Not another cigarette will be manufactured or sold until the industry is given ironclad protection from the courts.As the economy falters and chaos takes hold, Trevor becomes the target of enraged smokers, gun-toting cigarette smugglers, and a government that has been cut off from one of its largest sources of revenue. Soon it becomes clear that this had always been his function—to take the brunt of the backlash and shield the men in power from the maelstrom they'd created. Abandoned by his friends, his family, and the industry his own ancestors helped build, Trevor finds an unlikely ally in a beautiful anti-tobacco lobbyist who he's secretly loved for years. Together they hatch a plan to fight back...

We Read

“We read to know we are not alone.” – C.S. Lewis

Newspapers

Newspapers in a time of change

By Newton N. Minow - Chicago Tribune Commentary Published December 10, 2006

Nearly 220 years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "... were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." Jefferson would be dismayed if he learned about what happened in a class taught last year by my daughter, Martha, at Harvard Law School. Martha had invited a former student, Cliff Sloan, to lecture to her class. Sloan, who is publisher of Slate, an online journal, asked the students to raise their hands if they read a print newspaper every day. Not one hand went up. When he asked how they kept informed, they all had the same answer: We get our news online. Are they reading Yahoo News? Google News? Blogs? If you ask online readers what sources they use, they often just say "The Internet." Are they getting only headlines without in-depth reporting? This is disappointing to me because I believe newspapers are essential to democracy. My family has a history with Chicago newspapers going back 60 years. Chicago, the city of "The Front Page" had seven newspapers before World War II. In 1947, my father-in-law, Salem Baskin, persuaded Marshall Field of the Chicago Sun and Richard Finnegan of the Chicago Times to combine their separate papers into the Chicago Sun-Times. Some 30 years later I was privileged to serve on the board of Field Enterprises, which owned the Sun-Times; later I was privileged to serve on the board of Tribune Co. I treasure newspapers as one of life's true necessities. But these days, many readers ask: Are newspapers an endangered species?I think the answer is no. Newspapers for the last 500 years have survived many technological revolutions. Radio, television, cable and satellites have not displaced newspapers. I do not think the Internet will make newspapers fade away because newspapers are in the process of adapting and changing in the new digital world. There will always be a need--and a market--for credible, trustworthy information and opinions. Lively writing and fair reporting will always be valued. But newspaper boards are in a panic today because print newspaper classified advertising is declining faster than you can say "Craigslist." What is missing thus far is a successful economic model for newspapers to offer their unique products through the Internet. That model will evolve because newspapers create and offer essential service to their communities and to the nation.One of the best mission statements for newspapers was written long ago by Finley Peter Dunne (under the name of Mr. Dooley): "The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." We count on newspapers to keep a skeptical, not a cynical, eye on our public officials and institutions. We always need to know more about politicians, our business leaders, our religious leaders, our artists, our entertainers, our movie stars, our athletes, our writers, our teachers--everyone. Bloggers offer to play a role in this arena, but work without the professional standards of a skilled newspaper staff . This year, the Pew Research Center found that 50 million Americans go to the Internet for news every day, almost twice the number that did so four years ago. Four years from now, I would not be surprised if instead of 50 million Americans on the Internet, the number has doubled again. What will they be reading? If newspapers adapt creatively, they will be reading the newspaper.Newspapers mean home to the reader. My wife and I saw this when we visited Rachel, our 20-year-old granddaughter, who is a student at Reed College in Portland, Ore. At Reed, she showed us how she had set her computer home page to her hometown newspaper, The Washington Post, which she reads every day. She keeps in better touch with her hometown community 2,800 miles away than any previous generation of college kids ever could. That is why the long-term future of newspapers is bright, even though my generation still prefers newsprint.Holding a newspaper, my wife of 57 years looked at our granddaughter's computer and said, "There will never be an adequate replacement for holding what I read in my hands. Never." That's why newspapers and their readers of different generations are not an endangered species. Newspapers are undergoing needed change but remain the glue that keeps our communities and our nation together. They need to stick around. Forever.

Right now I am reading my Sunday Chicago Tribune. I agree and I treasure newspapers as one of life's true necessities.

High School Basketball

We went to Willowbrook High School to watch both the Downers Grove South freshman basketball teams play. My oldest son knows most of the players from football and school. Both teams won and the freshman "B" game was very close. We stayed and watched the first half of the varsity game and then went and had dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

Fourth Game

We lost our fourth game 29 to 21 to St. Petonille's #2 in Glen Ellyn. We scored 13 of our points in the fourth quarter. The game was an automatic win for us because St. Petronille did not have enough players for a fourth team and a lot of the players were from other teams of theirs. My youngest son had a lot of shot attempts but only made one free throw.

The Only Real Mistake

"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." - John Powell

I've met Father John Powell a couple of times and have a number of his books autographed.

Hope

"Hope is grief's best music." - Anonymous

Keep Looking Upward

"I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward." - Charlotte Bronte

Believe The Best Of Everybody

"I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble." - Rudyard Kipling

Adversity

"Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger." - Lou Holtz

Focus Your Energies On Answers - Not Excuses

"It is wise to direct your anger towards problems - not people; to focus your energies on answers - not excuses." - William Arthur Ward

Company Christmas Party

We had our company Christmas Party at Ashton Place in Darien. Cocktails started at 6:00 p.m. and dinner was at 7:00 p.m. There was a D.J. and we danced a couple of the slow songs. We left at about 10:00 p.m.

The Way To Get To The Top

"The way to get to the top is to get off your bottom." - unknown

Third Game

We lost our third game to St. Michael's in Wheaton 19 to 11. My youngest son had one his best games scoring six of our points. The other team was very aggressive and physical and taller then our guys.

And You Know You Should Be Glad

I finished reading "And You Know You Should Be Glad" by Bob Greene.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A highly personal and moving true story of friend-ship and remembrance. Growing up in Bexley, Ohio, population 13,000, Bob Greene and his four best friends - Allen, Chuck, Dan, and Jack - were inseparable. Of the four, Jack was Bob's very best friend, a bond forged from the moment they met on the first day of kindergarten. They grew up together, got into trouble together, learned about life together and were ultimately separated by time and distance, as all adults are. But through the years Bob and Jack stayed close, holding on to the friendship that had formed years before. Then the fateful call came: Jack was dying. And in this hour of need, as the closest of friends will do, Bob, Allen, Chuck, and Dan put aside the demands of their own lives, came together, and saw Jack through to the end of his journey. Tremendously moving, funny, heart-stirring, and honest, And You Know You Should Be Glad is an uplifting exploration of the power of friendship to uphold us, sustain us, and ultimately set us free.

Kindness

“Kindness is like snow - it beautifies everything it covers.” — Anonymous

Snow Day

The boys both had a snow day today. A big snowstorm was expected but the snow stopped at noon. My oldest son spent the day at his friend's house and my youngest son spent the day playing video games. The roads were pretty clear by lunchtime.