Addicted

For some it's caffeine.
Others find themselves controlled by sex, gambling, or drink.
Some truly rebellious might choose their vice from hash, chasing the dragon, or even some black tar heroin.

My poison? Linville Gorge.

I know my last post was about that small slice of heaven, but we went back again with the OA crew from the Valley...last weekend (November 17th).

My time in between our adventures in Linville has been spent hanging out with my smokin' hot wife, getting behind on grades in the classroom, taking kids to Camp Greenville, going to weddings, playing music, and so on. It's been great, don't get me wrong...but there's something about Linville that keeps calling me.

This time Lonnie Hoke and his son Tom came with us to take some pictures and share the trail.



The adventurous highlight of the trip was a slackline that we set up over the Devil's Cellar.

Inside The Devil's Cellar

Last January I had the notion of going on a hardcore backpacking/rock climbing/survival trip to the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area in North Carolina. I wanted to pick a time in the semester when the escape and visceral experiences of the wild would make the most impact on my conscious and subconscious alike...so over spring break of 2007, I packed up some climbing gear, warm clothes, and brought 2 adventurous high school guys along for what turned into a trip of perseverance.

Our original goal was to find a place called "The Devil's Cellar" to go climbing in at Linville. Due to the fact that Devil's cellar is not as popular of a place to go to, the topographical maps as well as internet resources don't have that much info about it...and we never found it. The trip was great in its own way that spring though and it inspired us enough to want to go back....and so we did.

This past weekend, 7 high schoolers who had a profound impact on the formation of the Spring Valley Outdoor Adventure Club (as well as myself, Kelley, our dogs, and one of the guy's mother) packed into a bus and headed up into the Gorge. We arrived around 10pm at the Table Rock Parking Lot and piled out of the bus, eager for what the weekend had in store.

We quickly met "Bob", one of the contributers to the www.linvillegorge.net website that catalogues much of the park's trails and geographical features. Our meeting must have been providence, becuase he gave us the exact trail head that we needed to take in order to find the Devil's Cellar.

We ended up camping at a spot near the parking lot the first night and waking up early saturday to set up some top rope climbs at a place to the south called "The Chimney's". It's a fairly popular spot and we ran into several other climbers and hikers. We enjoyed some fairly casual climbs and then packed up for our quest for the "Devil's Cellar"

Some obsure photos and blogs online describe Devil's Cellar as a being a cravass between the north face of Table Rock Mountain in Linville and a pretty impressive butress that must have fallen from the main mountain ages ago. The result is a 30-40 foot wide miniature slot canyon that plays host to some great rappelling, top-roping, and trad-climbing. From the top of the butress that is accessible from the trail, there is 180 degree exposure to the north of linville gorge which allows you to see Mt. Mitchell and beyond to the west, Granfather Mt. to the east, and the entire north end of Linville gorge. It was sure to be magical to say the least...if we could only find it.

We hiked the summit trail to Table Rock and took the 2nd fork to the left like "Bob" advised. Everyone stayed back here except for Kai aka "Sky Ember" and myself. We were determined, since he went on the spring trip with me...he felt the anticipation just as I did.

A hard hike through thick rododendrons and thorns put us at the base of an enormous cravass...gray rock towering on each side of us like guardians to some promised land. We had found The Devil's Cellar...

What ensued was a full 24 hours of camping, rappelling, top-roping, and even a trad climb by our own Scott aka "Walkabout" Bolte. I can truly say that an effort to put our enamored state of emotion into words is futile. Suffice it to say that it was the best outdoor experience I've had...ever.

I get by with a little help from my friends

A couple of days ago I had a sleepless night. I evidently caught some funny little viral parasite that kicked me into a post-nasal-drip frenzy. The next day at school was tough because I ached from fever that was fighting the little cellular vermin crawling through my tissues. I dedided to take today off as a recovery day so that I can be effective in class tomorrow instead of being like a zombie, which is how I felt in class yesterday.

When I got home from school yesterday, my amazing wife had bought the entire cold and flu section of CVS for me to experiment with...I'm serious....she bought me those effervescent shower tablets that release this amazing smelling "get better" vapor, she bought cough syrup (the gold standard of "get well"), and she got me some daytime sinus relief for when I get back in the classroom tomorrow. I was overwhelmed with gratitude, so I tried to clean dishes today in my sickness and hang a window curtain she was wanting hung. I hope she understands how good it made me feel to have her care for me.

In addition to my super wife, I had some kids from school call me to see if they could bring me ice cream since I was sick. What is that?! Who does that for a teacher?! It made me feel so good, I'm about to explode! the picture at the top of the page is a couple of these kids on a tubing trip with our Outdoor Adventure Club at spring valley.

So...I used to think that I was an island. I sunk deep into chair cushions under direct lighting and read the tales of Louis L'Amour about adventurous loners who made a way for themselves in the woods. The romance that poured from the pages attracted me and made me feel comfortable in my awkward social status during high school and even college. I tried to appear fiercely independent as a way of errecting some sort of defense to hide my insecurity. But now, older, fatter, possibly wiser (I'm still not sure about that one), I realize that it's by the grace of God that I can live from one day to the next...through the love of my wife and family, and...with a little help from my friends.

"hook it to hell and gone"

This was the quote from "The Legend of Bagger Vance" when Will smith's character was telling Matt Damon's character to go ahead and hit the ball into the water so that he could forget about the score and enjoy the rest of the golf game without any pressure.

This week marked that magical time for me when all the highschool kids come pouring back into H-2 at Spring Valley. This is, in fact, the last crop of kids that will finish a course in H-2...since the 70's...as Spring Valley is in the middle of the construction of a new building...but I digress...

I hit up my bio kids pretty hard this week on one of the more boring, arduous units in biology on Photosynthesis and Respiration...it's mostly memorizing molecular pathways without gaining much holisting understanding of what goes on....I try and maximize their holistic understanding while minimizing the mundane memorization, but it's still a tough unit. This year is the first time I've done it on the front end of the semester.

Hopefully the result will be similar to "The legend of bagger vance" in that the kids will enjoy the rest of the term once this bear of a first unit is under their belts.

I will diminish and go into the west and remain Galadriel

Ok....time for some painful honesty.

I, more than anyone I know, long for external approval.

Nicole Nordeman said "I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me...I enjoy an accolade like the rest..."

For some reason my whole life has been spent chasing favor like she described. When I was a high schooler, I longed to be myself yet be accepted. In college I was lucky to find a few guys who were either quirky like me, or mature enough to appreciate my quirky nature from their normal perspective. In the "professional" world, it's been a bit tough. I don't feel like I fit the mold of what a high school teacher should look like or act like. Administrators have mistaken me for students countless times....and some have definitely talked down to me like I indeed was a student. I feel a bit like Pete Mitchell from Top Gun with the way I teach...like I've always got something to prove in the classroom. My methods are a bit unorthodox, my dress a bit hippie, my grip on the whip of discipline a bit different from most...

In fact this desire to please has led me to basically stretch myself thin like Bilbo Baggins because of all the extra tasks I take on. I feel like saying "no" will mean that people won't like me...won't think I'm "cool"...won't remember me.

So...in effect...I have distributed my attention to so many places at once that I can no longer keep a grip on all of them...and I truly begin to suck at everything. Now that's what you call ironic.

I've got to stop this clinging to affection and attention with white knuckles. I have to quit trying to please my "superiors" so much by all the extras I try to take on...and simply focus on doing a good job at what is expected of me in the first place.
So, if you need me to help out with your cause, I'm busy. If there's something that you'd like me to do this Saturday night, sorry. I've got a hot date with my wife.

Therefore, I hereby title this year "the year of no"...in an effort to make my life...and more importantly, my family's life, "a year of yes".

cabin fever

This week I've been a shut-in. I left this last week before work starts back completely open on the calendar in hopes that I'd have a "last hoorah" of the summer in the great outdoors.
Instead, the early August heat wave has blown its hot humid breath in my face and caused me to backstep into my living room, shutting a seemingly permanent door on the rest of the world. Literally, I left the house for about 3 hours today....and other than my tai chi class last night...that's all I've been out all week. I don't think I can remember the last time in my life when I was a shut-in this bad.

Another crack at it...

So my real job is soon to begin again.

I'll inevitably have the first-day-jitters like most other teachers have when the kids come back each year. I've been told that if you don't get that nervous feeling at the beginning of each school year, you may as well go ahead and hang it up and go for a "normal" job.

Hopefully, though, this year will be much more effective than last year. I'm older now, wiser now, fatter now...and that's got to count for something right? I feel like I've prepared more along the lines of "long term planning" this year than I have in the past in an effort to provide the kids with a complete package of self-acquired knowledge from now until December. For example in my Forensics class, I've prepared a fictional case with real evidence to be processed that begins on day one and will be solved in December. Every unit we cover in the class will be tied back to the case we're trying to solve. When the kids leave, they'll take with them a disc that houses all the evidence items, witness statements, pictures, labs, etc. that they needed to solve the case.

In Biology, I'm going to start at a completely different spot in the content in an effort to give the kids a better understanding of our modern view of life on the planet.

The first year of the Spring Valley Outdoor Adventure Club is about to start as well...which gives me a "tingle in my innards" for sure.

So with all these plans, goals, aspirations, and interest outlets, I guess you can say that I'm more excited about this year than any of the previous years. Teachers are definitely underpaid for what they do on a daily basis...BUT...that doesn't make me any less thankful that I can continue to hone my craft at influencing and being influenced by all the great people at Spring Valley High School.

eggshells

Whenever you're near I get the feeling of crunching underfoot

Eyes fixed on you, and the surroundings, I trip and crack something with my shoe that sounds expensive...possibly even valuable

"What was that?" I wonder as I see your cheeks turn bright red and beads of sweat raise up on your forehead.

"What?" I ask "Did you hear that?"

And then it hits.

I look down to see shattered remnants of fragile feelings that were laid bare for me...for us...for love...

...and I wonder why I always seem to first discover these feelings by breaking them like eggshells.

the life of a procrastinator

I've always heard that ignorance is bliss....I would have to say from experience that so is the procrastinator mentality.

It's the same mindset that fuels the disorganized soul's constant state of mess as well.

Just recently during my summer sabatical from the life of teaching high school students, I have made a very strong effort to organize my life, my teaching, everything really. It all started in the garage and radiated like a cancer through my house and my life. I discovered new worlds as I cleaned out old cabinets and closets. I found trinkets from my childhood that reminded me of a past life. I cleaned and cleaned, making order out of chaos and forming new places to keep the things I use on a daily basis instead of things that I will never use again.

In this process I probably "stored" some very important USB and Firewire cables that help me run recording hardware on my computer so that they can never be found again. It's funny. When my life was in disorder, I knew where everything important was. All I had to do was reconstruct the last event in my mind that I used said object, and, oala! I knew where I could find it. Now that things are "in their place", I'm at a complete loss.

So here's to progress, organization, doing things on time, and everything else "Type-A" that fights the natural order of entropy.

The smell of a wet dog...part 2

It seems every time you hear about a match-making service or watch one of those old "Love Connection" game shows on the Game Show Network, that people always claim "long walks on the beach" as one of their main interests. Seriously though....who doesn't like walking on the beach at sunset?

For the last night of our vacation at Fripp island, we took the dogs and headed down to the sandy strip for some fun in that perfect time between sunlight and moonlight. There were more people there that night than on the previous nights and we had to leave the dogs on the leash for a while. Other people were walking as their kids rode ahead on rusty beach house bikes, then stopping, looking back, and waiting for mom and dad to catch up.

A group of people down towards the inlet was trying to fly a very large power kite...you know...the kind that you use for kite surfing or for use with a mountain board or 3 wheeled kite luge. They kept having problems with it and it would go down hard into the sand. Jack and Camden watched it for a while trying to figure out what it was, but then they finally turned their attention to the bare strip of beach in front of them with no walkers, bikers, or wave watchers. They turned back to look at me as if to question whether the leashes would be coming off soon.

As soon as I unhooked their tethers, the dogs took off like it was one of those posh greyhound races where people bet while sipping mint julips. Jack really does run like the wind.

Jack ended up finding this shecrab on the beach trying to bury herself and lay a load of eggs. He would get close and sniff her out, then she would snap her claws as quick as a ninja at his nose and he would jump back before trying to sniff her again. He began to enjoy the game and soon started to fake a paw fight with her. She really didn't enjoy the idea of a 60 lb dog crushing her and her future progeny, so she dug deep and disappeared.










Between watching the dogs, walking with my wife, and enjoying the picturesque scene at the eastern edge of America, it was one of the more memorable nights I've had in a long time.

bumped, bruised, and happy

When I was a kid I always used to come home with some fresh scrape or cut after riding my bike or playing in the woods until sundown. A nice shower, a good home-cooked meal, and one good night's sleep later and the injury became a battle wound that I was proud of and that I could tell the story of how it happened for ages to come.

Then I calmed down in life and became more careful...I guess it's a sign of maturing, but I almost forgot what it felt like to get scraped up when I was out exploring and adventuring. It probably also meant that I began to stop pushing my limits...I began to take the safest way out of every situation and found a comfort zone that I was eager to stay within.

This past week in the surf at Fripp island has produced many a scrape, bruise, muscle pull, and general body thrashing of the funnest kind. I walk out of the water each day watching myself bleed from a new spot because the rough edges of the rental board catches my foot as I pop up on a wave. I even got snagged by a jellyfish today on my left forearm. I have to say that the pain feels good. I feel like I earned each ride today and that, at the end of the day, each bump and bruise was a medal of happiness that will remind me tonight of how I caught myself living again today.

Why the buzz?...

You've seen the movies, you've heard the beach boys, you may have even been to a surf shop or two and seen those expensive pieces of fiberglassed foam painted in a rainbow of colors.

As a kid those surfboards always sucked me in like a tractor beam. I was drawn to them almost the same way I was drawn to guitars in a guitar shop...but I didn't live at the beach, so..."out of sight, out of mind" right?

Just recently my adventurous spirit has gotten the best of me and I've been trying to experience those things I've always wanted to, but never had the chance.

I have to say, with experience now, that surfing is possibly the most fun thing I've ever done.

When you see that wall of water rising up before you, capable of smashing you into the sand below, it normally brings a feeling over you that can best be expressed by "oh crap" or "yeeehhhhh.....doh!" But with this 9' board, I can blend with that wall of water...matching my intent with that of the wave, so that what results is a beautiful display of power and grace....supple strength...yielding intensity.

If you can't know what I'm talking about because you've never tried...please make some time to try this addictive hobby.

For those of you who have already experienced this, please...for the love of God, keep surfing.

"hang loose"
jeff

drop in...ride it out...feeling the flow

So today I lived out a dream that I've had since childhood. It actually kind of happened randomly too, which made it even sweeter. I ended up leaving my bathing suit at home accidently yesterday as kelley and I drove down to Fripp island.

This morning while everone else went out to the beach, Mrs. Bateman and I ran a couple of errands....including getting me a new bathing suit. At the surf shop that is close to Fripp, they ended up renting surf boards for pretty cheap and I rented one for the next week.

As Mrs. B and I walked out onto the beach...her carrying the surfboard over her head...Patrick, Kelley, and Erin just cracked up...well actually Patrick threw up a "rock on" hand and an afternoon of longboard surfing ensued.

Most of our time was spent wiping out, but each of us caught a handfull of waves that we rode in all the way. It's such an amazing feeling dropping in even on a small wave, standing up on the board, and feeling the surge of the ocean as it meets the shore push you along for a 10 second ride.

It's almost like the brief meeting of wave and land issues forth a surge of energy that we can tap into for a short time and witness a pure moment in time that will never happen again.

It's raining babies...

This is my friend Jacob Moody (married to the amazing Kelly Moody) and their son Micah Lee Moody.

So life cycles in such an amazing fashion.

when you're young, you watch as all your friends have teeth coming in...then a short while later, you compare each other's battle wounds as teeth begin to wiggle and fall out.

During the teenage years, you hear horror stories about how your friends are getting hair in really weird places...and then it happens to you.

After high school you begin to think of your own choices in the context of your friends' choices in college or job after graduation.

Once college is done, you start to hear of people getting married all around you.

Mid 40's hit and we get phone calls from buddies that just bought Corvettes or Harleys or that have just taken up surfing.

70's and 80's come around and we start to get those dreaded phone calls that our roommate from college just passed away or that Sue Johnson down the hall in the elderly care facility just got taken to the hospital complaining of sharp chest pains.


Right now I'm finding myself in the life stage where all my close friends are at the fruitful point..ushering in the next generation. It's a beautiful picture of life and the constant drive to move forward into the future.

Still though, you have to cringe a little when you think of the world we're bringing them into. My prayer for my friends (and soon myself hopefully) is that we'll be patient and kind but steadfast in our approachability, principle, and faith. That we can be examples that God would have us to be and point our children towards His truth.

The calm before the......

Storm is marching on the horizon

Droves of adolescents in eager and bittersweet paradox

A dread of assignment but even thicker boredom with that loneliness that is summer

So I'll vacate to the shore for a week of calm before the...

...kids.

eyes skyward

I'm hanging out in Barnes and Noble right now on a Wednesday enjoying some $4 internet and I figured.."heck..why not add a post to the blog since I'm spending the cash".

This Friday Kelley and I are heading to Fripp island for a week of escape. Evidently the place we're staying has 3 golf carts for putting around the island and it's really close to the beach.

I love these summer trips with the Batemans. They are so generous with their time and money when it comes to allowing us to share some vacation time with them. It's good for kelley and me as well just in that we get to go and have some married couple time away from Columbia.

I've been looking forward to this trip since winter time.

There's got to be a parallel here. Wait for it.... It'll hit...

Okay maybe not. The other day Bobby Hatfield and I were talking about the anticipation of Christ coming back. We were mentioning how Jews (at least the Jews who practice cultural Judaism,God bless them) often live in a state of complacent unexpectance. I hope that's a word.

Like they're saying the One has yet to come, but I haven't really seen much in practice or public statement about their eager awaiting of the Savior to come. This, admittedly, might be because I don't talk to many devout Jews. I apologize if I've offended anyone....totally not my point.

On the contrary, I think the offense is pointed at myself in my own faith. I do believe the Savior has come....and is to come again. Yet I often live life in a way that represents MY complacent unexpectance of His return.

So as I look forward to a week at Fripp island, I'll teach myself to keep my "eyes skyward".

Brainstorm

this evening

a violent storm ransacked my house

no...my mind...

thoughts like rubble lifted high into my conscious cloud climb

circling/spiraling/as if they were following some Pied Piper of inner monologue into the vast unknown of mental altitude.

then broken; smashed against the reaches of my cranial universe

falling back to where I lay my head like an endless drizzle of muddled nonsense

"what should I wear tomorrow I should go by the office before the seminar is at Richland Northeast in the media center has enough computers so that we can load the recording software is so easy to use for basic educational podcasts can't even be downloaded because the district doesn't have a good enough server that holds enough space when I go to teach the tai chi class tomorrow night should the students learn Xiang Gong or just more basic forms but we're heading to Fripp Island on Friday and I have to get the tires replaced on the Matrix before then so that we can learn to surf in time for Patrick's wedding but school starts back on the 8th or is it the 13th and then... I have those seminars...... to give... at ETV... on the... 31st ...........through ..................................the......................................... 3rd....................."

the rain stopped

I'll chance a zen-like sleepwalk through the humid and thick calm of a clear mind after a brainstorm.

Selling Thunder

That's right! In an effort to explore some new hobbies (i.e. surfing), I'm selling the hog. You can check out all the details at this link
http://www.hdtrader.com/58359

I hope this thing goes to a good home!

Of Rocks and Men

For me lately, the "juice" has been climbing. In gyms, outdoors.....whatever. I just want to feel my fingers grip into something more steady than just me.

Maybe that's the metaphor that subconsciously jumps me about climbing. God....the rock.

So picture it for yourself.....the image above might help....

...you've tied in to the rope and you have a good trusting relationship with your belayer.....there's a metaphor in itself, but I'll restrain myself from digressing...

...you ease yourself onto the rock face and begin ticking away at hand holds and footholds...one after the other in smooth sequential climbing fashion. As you get about 50 feet above the ground and feel the wind rushing by and that light sensation in your stomach that makes your right knee shake at the possibility of falling, you just grip down harder.....maybe adjust your left handhold a bit so you can rechalk your right hand and prepare to keep pushing....it's then that it hits you.

The only possibility for failure in this situation is me. The rock's not going anywhere and this equipment that I've spent so much money on is very unlikely to fail.....but my grip is what's shaky...and my stamina is what's limited. Isn't that why I come out here every weekend, in the first place, and tie in so that I can test myself against this solid rock? So that I can draw near to something so permanently fixed that's been around, for all intents and purposes, since the beginning of time itself?

And so as I test myself against the rock, gaining my steadfastness from its permanence.....hardening my grip to more closely resemble its fixed nature...I improve at my craft.....slowly....surely....humbly.....with no hurry to be "the best" or to break records.....but simply to undersand and know....therefore becoming a part of the very thing that allows me to elevate myself to a place of clearer perspective.

rock on.

Concerning Ants

Tiny, but proportionally bearing superhero powers, the ant is usually the recipient of shoe attacks and chemical warfare not only in our backyards, but around the globe. I too take part in the efforts towards species extinction of many different species of ants and have sworn to take the issue up with God on the day of judgement. "What's up with ants anyway?"

In Africa, ant troops have been known (I'm not making this up) to swarm into houses and carry human babies away, eating as they go.

In Australia, the Juming Jack ant can leap up to 2-3 feet in an effort to bite and KILL an unsuspecting victim....that means you buddy.

So given the alternative, I'll take the good ole South American imported fire ant anyday of the week. Yes that's right....the land of the free would have been free also of fire ants were it not for careless cargo ships bringing goods from South America into the gulf coast. That's how we got both the red and black fireants.

As we speak there are probably hundreds of these little guys hanging out in my house.....in the walls...under my kitchen counter. Lately K-Time and I have had our house become infested with them. When we got back from our Anniversary trip to the beach, there was a strong line of them coming out of the wall where our kitchen counter meets the wall and moving into the sink....where we had left one plate with a tiny crumb on it. I bought that Ortho Home Defense stuff and have been declaring martial law on any ant I come in contact with.

So in an effort to pay homage to the hundreds of ants I've brutally murdered under foot, finger, or death spray, I'll say this for the little guys.
1) They are team players.
2) They can smell better than my dogs.
3) They can carry stuff WAY bigger than they are.
4) It sucks when they bite you.
5) They're like Frodo....small but capable of making a huge difference.

So when you go out today and see that mound in the yard or a line of ants moving towards some food item, think about all the cool things about them before you stomp their lights out.....but please....don't refrain from stomping (or spraying) their lights out.

Hang loose

Sunlight fills the space around us like folk music from the radio on a spring night....comforting, warm, blissful lethargy.

A lazy roll of my head to the side to catch the sillouhetted shape of my beautiful wife laying in the sand beside me...

...waves continue their steady, comforting connection with the beach beneath us.

no time but for the two of us. present. happening. now.

no thoughts but for what we've missed out on in the past year....wait....


..."do I look skinnier than her?" she says as some girl walks by ...."Babe..." I say...

..."You're totally skinnier than her"...

...Now no thoughts but for what we're catching up on.

gratitude for time to do nothing....together.

Spent a week there, one day.

There's a John Denver song called "toledo ohio" in which the singer/songwriter completely trashes the evidently boring town of Toledo....home to honest scales, good bakeries, and people who go to bed at 10pm every night. One of the lines says "you ask how I know of Toledo Ohio, well I spent a week there....one day".

I used to get this feeling sitting in class in high school.......like the day would NEVER end. It felt like someone had forgotten to tell the sun to slip over the horizon and we accidentally just stayed in school for 48 hours without knowing it.

It's exactly the opposite sentiment of these lyrics that would describe the last three years of my life. Kelley and I entered into a new chapter of our lives 3 years ago that I like to label "The Good Old Days"......yes I know that I'm currently living IN what I'm calling a bygone era, but I really have a hunch that when I'm old, I'll look back on these years as the best......actually, I'm hoping that the "The Good Old Days" will include the entire remainder of my days on earth, but who knows right?

So the one bad thing about "The Good Old Days" is that you feel time differently when you're in them. I remember working at Lost Valley Ranch in Colorado and thinking that time moved by different, slower, lazier, but in a good way. Here in "The Good Old Days", life seems to race by like it has somewhere extremely important to get to. I'm trying to fill the time with rock climbing trips, backpacking adventures, lazy canoe trips on summer mornings, and other assorted outings with Kelley and friends to try and make Father Time smoke a big fatty full of lethargy, but I've had limited luck so far. So....it's been great....but it's gone by way too fast.

So in another effort to tranquilize that bearded mythical figure who commands my aging and to give Einstein a fighting chance at convincing more of the world of the theory of relativity, Kelley and I are heading on a road trip this weekend with the simple goal of slowing down and enjoying the 3rd anniversary of our marriage.

I feel that fun times are afoot.

Independence at the hand of tyranny

Happy 4th of July everyone.

The day that represents freedom from taxation without representation, religious oppression, and the long arm of England that reached across the big pond to stick its filthy hand into what WE rightfully owned........

So hopefully by now you've picked up on a little sarcasm....and I would hope so because I'm laying it on pretty thick. Don't get me wrong, I love this country and consider myself spoiled and blessed to be a US citizen with a mortgage, a wife and 2 kids (yes I count my dogs as kids)......but I think it just simply wouldn't be American to be an unconditional patriot.

I HATE the seedy side of our freedom. To say that we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave almost gets my blood boiling every time I hear it. We (the mainstream of America.....Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, just to name a few non-pc divisions of our culture) enjoy freedom as we know it at the expense of what once was an amazing culture of indigenous tribes that thrived in the US and Canada without an understanding of land ownership or how one man could tell another what rights or lack of rights he has in life.

I won't go on forever because I can feel even the soap box beneath me groaning at the prospect of hearing yet another angry tirade on behalf of Native Americans. Just consider what July 4th must feel like to a poverty-stricken nation whose "sovereignty" is merely lip service to try and patch up old wounds that have festered and refused to heal.

"For the times they are a changin' "

too much before
caught up in "what if's"
careless of life, careless of gifts
do what we can before what we do dies
a moment in time, a restless night.

magic in air...
summer of life...
A best friend, lover
musician, wife...
do what we can before what we do dies
a moment in time, a peaceful night.

the exponential human population growth

Hey everyone! Help me celebrate the birth of my friends brand new baby boy Emmett Stallings!

check out http://emmettstallings.blogspot.com and look at the picture of the little booger!

New Comic Ideas

The Global Community

The NECC conference reaches much further than I realized. After a workshop this afternoon, I went back to the GWCC to hang out in the hallways and get some free wireless internet. In the process I met a fellow person in need of electricity and so shared an outlet and a spot on the hallway floor.



Cecilia is from the Philippines and is a NECC award winner for the work she is doing in global community wikis with her students. She has recently set up a great site that allows students to log in and upload videos and pictures that spread a message of hope across the planet. It's almost a "here's what I'm doing in service" wiki that connects many students so far from Japan, Australia....and soon the US. I'm looking forward to more service learning in my classes, clubs, and youth group...and I'd love for us to get involved with her site.



So congrats Cecilia, and keep in touch from the South Pacific!

Web 2.0 Workshop....no web...no workshop

One of the fears of teachers everywhere who use technology is that inevitably, the technology WILL fail at some point...and.....then what? The workshop I was in today was on the Web 2.0 trend of open-source softwares and user-ownership over information sites and corporate sites alike. Funny thing was...the web was down during the workshop. The presenter was really flustered and I ended up leaving early because I wanted hang out at the conference center for a bit.

As technology-minded educators in the classroom, we always strive for using technology in such a way that it transforms our education process....meaning that we use the technology to allow us to accomplish things with the students that we would otherwise not be able to do. So what happens when it fails? Honestly....usually a digression to didactic learning where we deliver content without the aid of technology. Teaching at its purest form. This is often a fun challenge. To make teaching interactive and stimulating without the maelstrom of media that the kids usually get caught up in....aye, there's the rub. The trick is for the teacher to not get frustrated with the lack of technology when it breaks down and to simply keep the mind on the goal.....student learning.

The Adventures of Gas Man

Had some down time in a workshop and couldn't resist making this. Enjoy.

Swimming with the fishies

Once we got through with our workshops and the keynote address last night down here at the NECC conference in Atlanta, we were able to go to the Georgia Aquarium as part of the conference package. There were about 3,000 of us trying to get in at once, but it was great all the same.
I saw my first cuttlefish in person! For those of you non-dorky types, I'm shameless in admitting that I'm fascinated with critters of all sorts, but when it comes to salty sea critters, cephalopods are my favorites.....octopus, squid, nautilus, and the masters of disguise...cuttlefish.
Here are a few pics as well as a pic of the most amazing whale I've ever seen in person. The beluga whale. Watching these guys was almost zen-like.












All this said though, I'm really not keen on being away from kelley for this long...especially over a weekend which is my only real time to hang out with her during the summer. I'll be glad to get home on Wednesday.

cheers,
jeff

What the Tech

So it's day 2 at the NECC conference (where Link and I are) in Atlanta, GA. We're currently sitting in a 3-d photo workshop that is teaching us how to do object rotations and 3-D panoramas. This stuff is awesome! We'll be able to take multiple pictures of objects and then import them in a program that will animate them in a 3-D fashion....like when you look at a car manufacturer's website and you can rotate the image of the Toyota Yaris. Pretty sweet. I can see using this in Forensics, Biology, Anatomy, and even my tai chi and outdoor adventure clubs. Now.....all we need to do is get the district to tool up for the cost of the software! :)

Today's probably going to be the best day of the conference between this workshop and the aquarium.....I'll try and get some more pictures up later of the aquarium. Also, check out the new wiki site www.svitec.pbwiki.com for some daily podcasts from Link and myself.

Cheers!

Perseverance

I love it when we can find music that becomes the soundtrack of our lives. It seems that the songs speaks to us both lyrically and musically and plays itself out as we're riding in our cars, or experience nature. Andrew Peterson always seemed to be the soundtrack of my life when I was heading to the mountains in the springtime.
Harrod & Funk always seemed to find their way into my head if I'm visiting Furman. Bob Marley seemed to skank his way into my heartbeat when I smell that first scent of pollen in March.

I love it even more when God can use ideas to become the theme of our lives for a given length of time. 2007 has been a year of perseverance for me and those close to me.

Over spring break Kai, Scott and myself went to Linville Gorge for 3 days of extreme perseverance against the elements and the rock faces.

Kelley and I had a miscarriage this spring after our first attempt at having a child.

Kelley struggles daily with her job as a billing specialist and has a groaning from within to do something more.

Perseverance has mainlined itself into the fibers of our being so much so that I now understand James when he said "count it pure joy when you experience trials of various kinds, because you know that trials produce perseverance".

This week The Village Church youth are at Summersalt and I'm writing this from the internet cafe at White Oak. The theme is James University simply because we're walking through James this week in an effort to speak to these kids who are scattered, poor, oppressed, and weak. Perseverance was our first day's lesson and I can't help but think that God has prepared me for this week with this year's efforts in perseverance.

I thank God for the opportunity to represent my faith through the struggles that He allows me to endure.

lates,
jeff

The flight of the great barred owl

This week was a bit of a freedom fest for me. School is out, my business of the summer hasn't yet really kicked in, and so I had 1 week to basically do what I wanted. On the docket was a rock climbing trip to Crowder's Mountain, and 2 paddling trips on Cedar Creek.

Wednesday I met Kelley for lunch at Colonial Insurance across town. We went to this really hip deli near her work. The place had scripture quotes painted on the walls and the atmosphere was really relaxed. The staff seemed to be some guys of rough backgrounds that were kind of turning things around for themselves and doing a great job. They kept the drinks filled and were very polite. Service was top-notch.
After lunch I met Kelley's co-workers....who were pretty cool. Oh...I also got fussed at by Colonial Public Safety because my canoe was sticking off the back of the truck into the parking lot. She made a huge deal out of it, and it really wasn't a big deal. Anyway. After I said goodbye to Kelley I headed off to Cedar Creek.

It's a small creek that is a distributary of the Congaree River. It branches from the Congaree somewhere in the vicinity of the Congaree Swamp proper and heads south. It's usually a relatively decent sized creek.....about 5-10 feet deep in most places. It's part of the floodplain ecosystem, though, so when it rains, the creek floods very high and leaves the confines of the creek bank to flow into the floodplain forest around it. When this happens, you can literally take your canoe into the trees around the creek and paddle all throughout the floodplain.

This week, though, the creek was very low. 1-3 feet deep at best. It made for a fun journey, though, because I had to scramble over logs to get upcreek.
I saw 1 great barred owl that day and the highlight was when I caught a watermocasin (cottonmouth) snake with my snake caliper. I was stoked! So far my venomous snake roster includes a rattlesnake, a copperhead, and now the cottonmouth. He was surprisingly docile until I got the caliper behind his neck. I have some really great video footage of it.......but I dropped my camera in the water and it's yet to let me get the footage off. I know I know.....dorf goes paddling.




2 days later I returned to Cedar Creek, this time with fellow climbing expert Scott Bolte. We paddled further upcreek than I had been 2 days earlier and mastered the art of getting the canoe over dead falls and brush brambles. In the process of our adventure, we saw 9 Great Barred Owls (including the one in the picture which was actually the smallest we saw all day). Check out the wingspan on that guy.


Sorry if the pic is fuzzy, but it was hard to get close, and I lucked out with the action shot.



also saw 4 snakes, mostly brown water snakes yellow bellied water snakes. The last one we saw is in the picture below and was enormous. As big around as my forearm and about 4-5 feet in length. He (or she) had just eaten a large fish meal and was relaxing and digesting on the log. I could barely lift the snake with my snake sticks. Fun times.


In the process of all this, my mind wanders to humanity's current state (and my own at that) of fascination with information acquisition and delivery through electronic methods. The internet, movies, TV, iPods, blogging, podcasting, etc. etc. How many of us make the opportunity for ourselves to experience life in its primal beauty. A paddling trip to the swamp might seem to most to be an undesireable activity that they wouldn't take part in unless it was on some reality show where they get 1 million dollars if they do well. By sharp contrast, Scott and I wanted to paddle upcreek, just for the reward of experiencing that which we previously had not. Each bend in the creek brought about new and exciting things.......a school of feeding gar, a flock of mating cardinals, massive cyprus and water tupelo trees, and whatever else we saw that we couldn't burn into our memory.

music to cleanse the soul

I love the thought process that goes into preparing for worship. I'll have a tune in my head....or in my soul depending on what it is that I dig about the tune....the music or the lyric. Then as I start working up the worship set, some metaphor will jump me or some scripture will come to mind. Then the list usually just plays itself out nicely with whatever scriptural theme the speaker is lining up.

Tonight was a little different. I planned worship based on the group bible studies that would be going on AFTER the worship service. It definitely went with the speaker's points, but probably hit home later on.....at least I hope it did.
Tomorrow we're talking about Zaccheus and Paul on the road to Damascus. Our speaker this weekend is a very good friend of mine....Will Snipes. He is often a bit secretive about what he's actually speaking on, so it's great to see how God will line up what we use for worship and what he uses during the message.

This is a perfect change of pace for me during this hectic time of year when school is ending and things are up in the air. Kelley sounded amazing tonight eventhough I messed some stuff up. The practice time after worship was just as worshipful for me and, listening to her voice when she's confident always drives me crazy.

That's all for now. I'll take some pics tonight and get them up tomorrow.

cheers

Hurry up and wait...

I love youth retreats man!
This weekend, Kelley and have the honor of leading worship for the youth retreat at First Baptist Church in Traveler's Rest, SC. Right now, though, I'm still in Columbia because Kelley got caught in traffic on the other side of town. Nobody's fault, of course, but man does it suck knowing that you're going to be late for such a cool gig!
The theme for the weeken is "Strangely Dim"......kind of from the old hymn "Turn your eyes upon Jesus".
I'm excited about our set list for tonight. We'll start it out by singing a call to worship in the form of an updated "Turn your eyes upon Jesus" that uses a pretty powerful line from a U2 song as a bridge. We'll then work our way through praising a bit and then describing (through song) the amazing contrast between things of earth and things of God that knowing God throws into sharp relief. We'll do the old Caedmon's call tune "All I know" that describes the blind man, and then "My eyes have seen Holy" by Bebo Norman.

At the end we'll bring the personal persistent image of God back into the picture by singing "Oh love that wilt not let me go" to finish it out.

I'm pretty stoked.

So pray for a weekend that God will use to change some lives! :)

cheers

Home sweet home

This is where I live, and in the imortal words of Glen Phillips, "the only reason anybody still feels safe is most people still knock on the door"

Pretty exciting things happening around Columbia these days. This morning when my wife left for work, we switched up our routine on accident and found that there was a blue van that has been "casing the joint" over the past couple of days evidently. They figured out our timing and as soon as Kelley pulled away, they pulled up in front of the house. Unlucky for them I was running late and saw them. As soon as they realized that I was home, they hauled tail.

So in light of my new-found appreciation for land and home ownership (on which my hypocrisy knows no bounds....but more on that later), here are some pics of our cool place.


this is the walk to the back yard...


a fuzzy view of the back yard and recently used canoe from the right side of the house


our lavender garden...


our welcome mat....



just in case some shady guys in a blue van misunderstand the purpose of the doorbell...

...The smell of a wet dog...

Today I took the dogs fishing and, of course, Jack and Camden HAD to jump in the water.
Jack chased a couple of geese across the pond which was hillarious and Camden in her reserved state just sat in the water and watched. I usually have problems getting them in the canoe when I fish, but today, both of them jumped right in the boat and were ready to go.
Every time I caught a fish, Jack couldn't stand it....he had to stand up in the boat and come over and try and bite the fish. He always gets rowdy even when I cast. It's so cool watching his face because he knows that when I throw that spinner bait out, there will most likely be a floppy green thing with a big mouth and point fins that comes back attached to it. I don't know how far I would go to say he's "smart", but he definitely understands cause and effect. And with fishing, he LOVES the effect!

The best thing was getting back in the old '78 Ford....that had been warmed by the afternoon sun......the dogs soaked and sitting beside me on the bench...and that smell hit me in the nose like a jab in a prize fight. Sometimes we get the privalege of experiencing life in it's beautiful simplicity. For me today....fishing with the dogs...Seeing their excitement when a fish was brought into the boat...breathing in deep the unique stench that filled up the hot cab of the ugly truck when we were heading back home....and smiling the whole time.


there's nothing like...the smell of a wet dog...

An Ode to Veruca Salt (or "Why couldn't we be like Dogs?")

Teach me to breathe...a breath of fresh air
Take from me that...which without I'd still fare
Play me the game of life if you dare
I'll whine and complain all the same

Dependent on all...which around me exists
Little mishaps...become impassable cliffs
I want it now...give it or split
Don't lecture or call out my name.

It's you I despise...with your upright stance
Watch me fail...show me that disdainful glance
I'll sue your pants off...if just given the chance
I'm Victim. What else can I claim?


I wish that Americans could learn from my dogs. They eat what they're given, they love people...unconditionally, they screw up and simply put their ears back in recognition of their short falling. Most of the time they simply want to love on you. They're annoying as hell, but just because they want your attention. They never blame things on others, or demand for more than they need. They're thankful for what they get and they get tons in return.

Today I'm weary of victims. I'm refreshed by the individuals I've come in contact with who know the beauty of independent living. Taking credit where it's due, giving credit when it's due, being honest, being laid back, not sweating the small stuff, FORGIVING, and not taking life too personally. To those of you who I've met that fit any of these previous statements....the world is better because of you. Here's a big bloggin' SALUTE!
For all those victims out there....you know you are....the people who get in a car accident and think "hey I might be able to make some money off this guy if I act like my neck hurts!".....the ones who take a thunderstorm personally or whine about the weather and gas prices. GROW UP!
There are literally millions of people who consider you to fit into a small sect of the world's population that represent 75% of the world's wealth. Trust me....you have it great!
I'm sure that all of you I'm talking to have had some horrible childhood experience that makes the rest of the world owe you a tax break or welfare, but please understand that it's scientifically proven that the universe does not revolve around your cranium.
Now I'm not talking about the oppressed.....those laden with heavy burden from bureaucrats, dictatorships, or persecution.... I'm talking about those who can't see all the good that they have because they're too busy complaining about some meaningless detail in their day.

I feel like Robert D Rayford from the John boy and Billy Big show......I even feel a bit republican for all this ranting and raving......Mark...I know you're laughing. Forgive the tirade, but boy does it feel good to vent.


I'm going to go get out in the sunshine. Happy Tuesday to all you fiercely independent bloggers.

Rained Out...

I had a Tai Chi workshop, a canoe trip, and an evening playing gig lined up for today.

Tai Chi workshop...check

Canoe trip....bleep deee dee deep de de de de de deep da de deep....Urgent weather report shows scattered thunderstorms for Camden and Columbia all afternoon long. If you were planning on being on on the water......DON"T! heheh...suckers!

Crap! I was really looking forward to that trip. The kids from my Outdoor Adventure class that haven't canoed before were going to come with me for an afternoon out at Goodale State Park. Oh well...there'll be other days.

I think the gig tonight will still be fine. I'll just set up in doors. I haven't played out in a while, so I'm pretty stoked about it. Playing covers is always tough though because I feel like I'm selling out a bit. I need to keep in mind that it's giving me an opportunity to work on my craft with songs that people know. Putting little tweaks on each one so that it sounds original....changing the feel of it altogether so that people listen to the words this time....maybe even slipping in an original if I feel like the room and crowd are in a position to give me sound a fighting chance. I cherish those moments.

I'll shoot some pictures of the gig up later.

A day off......

What therapy there is in knowing that the road lay open ahead of you...that 1450 cc's of American-made engine lies rumbing beneath you, chomping at the throttle cables for a jump at the dotted lines....and that the tight curves of a back road leading to somewhereville are aching with anticipation for the heat that the tread rubber will make when the lean angle increases to 35 degrees. Man I love days off.

The pic is of my Harley on a backroad in SC. Hope you like it.

Something in the water...or the brownies...

I remember movies like Erin Brokovich where small towns often talk about being careful of what's in the water. School teachers and nurses often report strange happenings from their jobs when everyone is acting the same way or having the same ailment....like evidently full moons mean many babies will be delivered.
Whatever the normal things are....today was one of those crazy days. I think most of the kids at school got bit by the stupid fly, and all of the teachers that I talked to got bit by the apathetic fly. I even had a kid in my outdoor adventure class GET LOST WITH A GPS UNIT in his hand behind the school. How does that happen? I can see the headlines now......"School teacher fired due to lost student during a Global Positioning System unit". That would make "dumb crook" news or something.

In other news, Kelley is back from her 1 day adventure into the wide world of house-sitting! She had the apathetic bug bite her as well, so we're now in the process of sinking down into the couch cushions for a long night of mindless photoreceptor stimulation. I mean seriously....who DOESN'T love cinematic adventures in the comfort of your own home!?

I think I'll take off work on Friday. Listen to the Weepies and eat some Pillsbury Grand Flaky Layers biscuits.

All Alone

Righto!
So Kel is out with a friend...house-sitting tonight and I'm all on my lonesome. Today will here-to-fore be known as "random topic" day.
I know.....let's talk about Canadian-Style canoeing.
These guys aren't just known for hockey and bilingual provinces....they can also paddle with the best of us!
I'm in the middle of a canoeing unit in my Outdoor Adventure class at Spring Valley and I caught a video on YouTube today entitled Canadian Canoeing. Basically you sit the canoe completely different. One person in the middle of the canoe, on your knees, distributing your weight only on the left side of the hull. The gunwale will basically sit 2 inches above the water line with this type of paddling and it maximizes the effect of a steep rocker. Your maneuverability is top notch, but you have to learn one-sided paddling....basically only paddling on the left side of the boat.

So since I'm "batching it" tonight, I took the canoe down to the pond and tried it........hard as crap! It definitely makes the canoe more maneuverable, but it's really tough to master. I'll keep at it and hopefully claim a conscientious objective to traditional paddling.

So next time you go canoeing.....remember Canada!

In other news I have officially decided I'm way too busy in an unhealthy sort of way. One of my close friends at the high school I teach at and I have started to fill up our schedules for the summer with technology seminars. We go to other school districts and present on possible technologies that teachers can use to improve the "quality" of learning that goes on in their classrooms. It's cool. It pays, but for some reason I've always loved Kelley time, or outdoors time more than $ time. Call me Thoreau, I know, but there's something blissful about sitting on a mountain top and not having a pressing engagement. What's the hurry anyway? I think a whole freakin' lot of us press on ceaselessly day after day as if present time is just a preamble for the proverbial "what's to come" that never ends up getting here. Like the yoga clothes brand claims...."be present"...and enjoy it at that.

......now off to enjoy the present