Randy Hemingway's Blog

Wow, it’s been a long time since I posted anything here. Well, I’m back. I’ve been pretty busy at work. Ok, I’ve been really busy at work. So, then, when I come home, I don’t really feel like doing anything. Therefore, my blogs have suffered. Sorry about that.

Anyway, a little update: the “Grand Experiment” is still going all right. I ordered a ukulele the other day. My cheapo one from HI just wasn’t cutting it, but it gave me a taste for the uke’s potential. My goal with the ukulele is to be able to use at our church’s Bible club. I think the kids would really enjoy it. So, I ordered a uke, a book (so I can actually learn how to play it), a tuner, and a case. I found some “starter packs” that were pretty good, but none of them had everything I wanted. I ended up kind of making my own and saved some money in the process. Right now, I’m just waiting for my stuff to come. I’ve got the case, but  I haven’t seen any of the other stuff yet. It’s coming but it’s just not coming quickly enough.

That’s what’s going on here. What’s going on in your neck of the woods?

I’ve finished “The Real Benjamin Franklin,” by Andrew Allison. It was excellent. It’s a biography of Franklin’s life, as told through his correspondence. The author had to fill in certain facts here and there to segue from one part of Franklin’s life to another, but the author pretty much kept his opinion to himself and let Franklin tell his own story.

I’d learned about Franklin in school and all that, but it was really interesting to go back and kind of review his life and see just what a remarkable life he lived. I would recommend this book to anyone. The content is completely historical, but the style in which it’s written can be understood by pretty much everyone. This isn’t a “dry” read at all. The author really did an excellent job of keeping the story moving. It probably helps that Franklin was such a vibrant character, too. Anyway, if you get a chance, pick this book up and give it a read. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Here’s a link to it on Amazon if you’re that eager to get your hands on it: Link to Amazon.

Last week, I started what I’ve called “The Grand Experiment.” The point of conducting this experiment was mainly to try to apply myself to some sort of discipline that seemed partly feasible but which I also fully expected to give up on after a little while. The discipline I chose was to get up when my alarm goes off at 5:30 in the morning (and not hitting snooze, preferably), go to the gym, exercise for about half an hour, go back home, and get ready for the day.

Now, this seemed like a reasonable thing to do, since my alarm has been set for 5:30 for a while now (I was trying to get up earlier so I could get in to work earlier. It kind of worked, but not as well as I’d hoped.) So, I was used to getting up that early. And, all I would have to do is make sure I got up when my alarm went off. Getting out of bed was my main concern, because I’ve kind of trained myself to ignore my alarm the first couple of times.

So, here’s what I expected to happen. Last Monday, the 14th, I started this little experiment, and I thought I would have to skip going to the gym at least one day last week because I’d slept through my alarm. Then, as usual, I expected myself to become discouraged, fail to see the point in continuing with the experiment, and quit. However, to my great surprise, I only missed Thursday, but only because I’d planned it that way. And, so far this week, I’ve awakened with my alarm and gone to the gym, as planned. (Note: I realized last week that doing this every day is very tiring so taking Wednesday off is a good idea. So, I actually went to the gym every day this week, except Wednesday, which was my planned day off.)

Anyway, since I was feeling so good about the success of this experiment, I decided to try another: scheduled breaks throughout the work day. This has been really good for my productivity. Up until now, if I’ve become bored with work or got distracted for a minute, I would “just real quick” go online and check twitter or Google Reader. I don’t think I realized just how much time this was taking from my day. So, in order to avoid the awkwardness of having someone walk into my cube while I was catching up on twitter, I decided I’d schedule a couple 10-minute breaks and a couple 5-minute breaks throughout the day. It’s been great, because if I get bored with work and I’m tempted to go online, I’ll just remind myself, “You can wait. It’s only another 20 (or however many) minutes to your next break.” That way, I feel like I’ve “earned” the break, the day seems to go more quickly because it’s broken up more evenly, and the regular spacing of the breaks help me stay focused.

So, I would recommend either one of these little exercises in discipline to anyone looking to make some time for exercise or get more out of their work day. If you do, let me know how it goes!

We went to the Balloon Glow in Forest Park this past Friday night. Getting there was a nightmare. Really. A nightmare. But, once we got there, it was pretty cool. There were thousands of people there. It was pretty hectic but the balloons were awesome. This was the pre-game show to Saturday's Balloon Race, which happens every year. Anyway, there's not much else to tell, but if you plan on going, a word of advice: Get there wicked stinkin' early or you won't find a parking spot within five miles of the place. That's almost an exaggeration. Here's some pics to dazzle your retinas.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Randy’s posterous See my blog for more great posts like this.

I’m going to keep this short and sweet, but I did want to mention something about this very important day on which we remember what happened on 9/11/01. I simply wanted to say that my prayers are with those families that lost loved ones on that day. Also, may the rest of us never forget the sacrifices that were made that day and every day thereafter to preserve the freedoms that we enjoy in this great country.

I was driving home today when I noticed a house with its trash put out by the curb for pick-up. This was normal. Pretty much every other house on the street had the same green or blue bin with a couple items sitting next to it. This one house, however, caught my eye. Why? Because one of the items was a huge cardboard box with HOME THEATER TV written upside-down across the side of it. Now, this is beside the point, but I'm pretty there was probably a "This side up" symbol on that box with an arrow that was also upside-down, if you know what I mean. I shudder to think what would happen if you opened a tv box upside-down.

Anyway, so this box was clearly sending a message. The message it sent to me went something like this: "Hi! We just bought a new, really big, flat-screen tv. It's AWESOME!! As a matter of fact, if you stopped by while everyone was at work, it probably wouldn't be too hard to get inside and steal it! Oh, and please, have some cookies while you're at it. We're on a diet, you know."

Seriously, putting a box like that out by the street is not the brightest idea. But, even if we're just throwing out other stuff that doesn't give away that we have shiny new electronics in our house, our trash can be sending a message. We've got a flower-box out by the street right now. It's painted with this cheesy flowery weirdness. The message we're probably sending is: "Hi! We're young and we just bought this house. We don't really appreciate overly flowery, ugly paint jobs from the early nineties. These flower boxes are stinkin' ugly so we decided to rip them off the front of our house and send them to the pit of refuse where they belong."

Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? What kind of message do you think your trash is sending? (Assuming you have a regular trash pick-up like we do)

Posted via email from Randy’s posterous See my blog for more great posts like this.

I didn’t catch all of the President’s speech last night, because (1) it was boring, (2) the Congress-peoples kept clapping and carrying on, (3) Mythbusters was on, and (4) I could’ve told you what he was going to say. I have caught bits and pieces of it since then and the biggest impression I’ve come away with is: does he really think he can bully us around like that?

Seriously, saying he’s going to call down people who “lie” (more like disagree) about stuff that’s in the bill is bullying. Threatening people that they’re going to face consequences for disagreeing with him is just ridiculous and very revealing of his character. Be a man. Can’t take it that people don’t like your ideas? Then get out of the White House.

Besides, with it being so close to 9/11 and all, he should remember what happens when people try to threaten Americans. We push back (Note: it’s stupid that I even have to clarify this, but I’m not advocating violence to get your point across). You say you’re going to pass a bill that we don’t agree with whether we like it or not? Well, guess what, we’re not just going to sit down and pout while you do it; we’re going to get upset and tell you what we think and, yes, maybe even yell. *gasp* Yes. It’s true. When people feel as though they’re being coerced into doing something against their will, they usually get mad. And, according to recent psych studies, when people get mad, they sometimes raise their voices.

President Obama and members of Congress, rather than trying to push us out of the way (which will just make us want to stand in the way even more) or quiet us down, how about you listen to us, the people (yeah, the ones you promised to serve). I know, I know, it’s a novel idea, but it’s worth a moment’s consideration.

How about you? What did you think of the President’s speech last night? Does it make your skin crawl when he puts on his “Mr. Tough Guy” voice?

Well, we're back from Hawaii! We had an awesome time, but we're glad to be back. We were there for a week and did a ton of stuff. My overall impression of Hawaii is this: it has the feel of an exotic, foreign country with all the amenities of home. Therefore, I totally think I could move there…tomorrow.

Anyway, I won't bore you with all of the details, but this is a quick run-down of some of the stuff we did. And I would definitely recommend, if you ever get to Oahu, that you look into doing most of the same stuff.

We hiked up a huge hill to see a small lighthouse. It was pretty at the top, but a pretty tough little walk after just getting off the plane. We went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, which was awesome! My mother-in-law went with us, and we saw a few fishes. If we had gone out further, we probably could have seen more, but the waves and reef and stuff were scaring me. The first time we went in, we didn't wear flippers or anything on our feet. I do not recommend this, because I speak from experience. After that, we went down to Waikiki to look around and see what the beach was like and all that.

We went to the Dole Plantation, where they grow their pineapples and mangos and such. It was pretty interesting. I would recommend you take the train tour. Otherwise, you'll only see a garden, not the actual plantation. Then, we went to Macky's Shrimp Truck. Well, it was more like a broken-down delivery van with a serving window cut in the side. It was touted as the best shrimp on the island. At first, I was skeptical, but then we ate and I could see why it was rated the best. It was the best shrimp I've ever eaten. So, next to the van, there are a bunch of picnic tables set up with umbrellas. Then, a little bit off from the eating area is a porta-potty. About ten feet from that, next to the trash can, is a utility sink. It didn't even dawn on me to think that a sink in the middle of a dirt lot would actually work. But it did. And that's how everyone washed their hands after (and, hopefully, before) eating that awesome shrimp. Kinda weird, but it got the job done. Then, we got some shaved ice at Matsumoto's General Store and went to Turtle Bay to see if we could spot any green sea turtles (or, honu (hoe-new), as the natives say). We only ever saw them in the surf just off shore.

The next day, we went to the "Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium," which is where the locals set up booths with all sorts of touristy-type stuff for sale. There wasn't too much of any worth being sold, but there was all sorts of souvenir vendors there. I bought a cheapo ukulele with a cool little design on the front. It doesn't really play, but that's all right. We also bought some other stuff, too. Then, Faith and I took off on our own and went back to Waikiki to do some snorkeling, since the surf there didn't seem to be as rough as it was at Hanauma. It was more enjoyable there, but the surf picked up and ruined our vision and started throwing us around so we called it quits.

The next day, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the afternoon. This is a must for anyone visiting Oahu. It sounds dry and boring but it's pretty cool. And, if you want to go to a luau, go to the one here: it's really good. Put up the extra $20 or $30 bucks for the next-to-cheapest package: totally worth it.

The next day, we pretty much took the scenic tour of the island and re-visited some sites we'd already seen. Then, we ended up at Waimea Falls. It was pretty. Not much to talk about, though.

Then, we rounded out the week with Pearl Harbor. We started out with the Arizona Memorial. It was very somber. We dropped the flowers (from the leis we'd received earlier in the week) into the water over the Arizona and provided a lot of people with a photo-op. Everyone was very respectful and quiet while we were in the memorial, which was nice. We toured the USS Bowfin, a submarine, and the USS Missouri, the battleship where Japan surrendered. Both of the ships were really cool to walk around. The Missouri was also in Desert Storm and was the last battleship to be used by the Navy.

Then, we were done with our whirlwind tour of Oahu and had to head back home on the red-eye flight. We had a really good time and made some awesome memories. Hopefully, we'll get to visit another island some day.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Randy’s posterous See my blog for more great posts like this.

Last night, I bought a couple books that I’ve been hearing about for a while now, and I figured it was high time I read them…or at least had them in the house to be available when I felt like reading them.

The first is “The Case for Christ,” by Lee Strobel. I’ve heard it’s really a fascinating book about an atheist’s (Lee Strobel, himself) investigation into who Christ was and whether or not Christianity actually had its facts straight about Him. I flipped through it and read a couple paragraphs. It seemed like he went to several religious scholars and teachers and interviewed them about who Jesus was and challenged them with some of the questions that come up about Jesus. It seems like it will be an interesting read that moves along fairly quickly.

The second book I bought is “The Real Benjamin Franklin,” by Andrew Allison. This book — and the others in the American Classic Series: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. — come highly recommended by Glenn Beck. I’ve recently been kind of awakened to the political state of our country in recent days, what with my brother running for Congress and all the turmoil in Washington right now and all that. It’s really made me realized that I don’t have a very good handle on how the country was started and who our Founding Fathers really were. So, I picked up this book about Benjamin Franklin, because I’ve heard it’s one of the more accurate portrayals of who he really was.

I was going to pick up the one about George Washington, but it’s massive and a bit intimidating. That one will be next. Anyway, this book about Ben Franklin is pretty much a compilation of his own writings and well-known facts about his life. The author really doesn’t add anything to the story, except to create smooth transitions from one part of Franklin’s life to the next. I’m only about 30 pages into the book (which, having only bought it last night, is an accomplishment for me, a slow reader) and already enjoying it immensely.

Already, I’m learning that his success didn’t begin when he was an adult. He was building his success long before that when he was a child. And, really, his father’s character, which was developed long before Ben was even around, had a huge influence on who Ben became. The book recounts Franklin’s memories of how his father would invite men of stature and wisdom into their home for dinner so that his children would be exposed to their conversations. It’s really an interesting concept. I would expound on my opinion of how people underestimate the mental capacity of children today, but that’s another post for another day. Anyway, This book is really very well done, and I am really looking forward to reading the rest of it.

Well, I just wanted to give you a little heads-up that I’ll be posting my opinion of these books when I’m done with them, but I’m expecting both of these books to be excellent. So, don’t wait for me to tell you about them, you can go ahead and buy them. Oh, and if you’ve already read them, let me know what you thought in the comments.

What if water had no surface tension? Hmmm….

Posted via email from Randy’s posterous See my blog for more great posts like this.