1. Great news for
presidential history fans. Michael Beschloss was on the program INDEPTH on
C-SPAN (www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/3865321) the other day,
and he was asked when Volume 3 of the Lyndon Johnson tapes was going to be
released. If you do not remember, Beschloss edited Volumes 1 and 2, both of
which are now classics. Beschloss said that he is currently editing Volume 3
and it should be finished in a couple of years. I cannot wait.
2. I think if BACKBLAZE truly does what it says it does–store
everything on your computer in an off-site storage unit for retrieval if your
computer crashes–then this is one of the great inventions of the 21st century.
3. Here’s my Super Bowl pick: Houston vs. San Francisco. For the
BCS championship game: USC vs. Alabama.
4. Ever
since I saw the movie MONEYBALL I have wanted to find some sort of statistical
analysis that would help Christians with evangelism. I feel Christians spend
way too much time bothering people who are nowhere near ready to have a
conversation about Jesus. Consequently, it would be nice to have data, which
would indicate those who are more open to hearing the Gospel.
I
read something in WORLD magazine last week that might provide an answer. A
website (http://www.floatingsheep.org/)
founded
by a couple of academics features research gathered from strategically written
programs. It is “dedicated to mapping and analyzing user generated geocoded
data to gather a better read of American society. The study analyzes Google
Maps placemarks for certain keywords.
Here
is one example of their work; analyzing over 10 million tweets, the
statisticians located over 18,000 referencing the word “church”, and 14,500
containing the word “beer.” They then proceeded to map the locations of these
tweets. Not surprisingly, the beer tweets occurred primarily in the Upper
Midwest, while the church tweets were located more in the Southeast.
Another
map I found interesting was the one called “mapping Christianity.” Check it
out.
5. I think dove hunting is fun.
It's
been probably 35 years since I have gone dove hunting, so I am way out of step.
However, Abby, my middle daughter, had a special request this year for her
birthday. She wanted me to take her dove hunting the opening day of dove season.
Furthermore, she asked that we hunt in Winters, Texas, our home for seven
years. Not only did she want to hunt there, she also wanted to stay for church
on Sunday so that she could see some of our old friends.
I
thought this was a great birthday request, and I was happy to comply. This was
the first time Abby had ever hunted for doves. A friend loaned us his 20-gauge,
and I purchased two boxes of shells for Abby.
Saturday
evening, one of our old friends from Winters, Phil Colburn, was nice enough to
take us out to some land where he farmed. My son, Timothy, went along with his
faithful BB gun. He actually played a vital role for us: he walked into groves
of mesquite trees and flushed out flocks of doves, as well as alerted us to
dove flyovers.
I
had two main goals for our hunt:
1.
Not to shoot or kill any of my kids.
2.
Not to allow one my kids to shoot or kill me.
Though
at times I had my doubts, we successfully met my goals.
Saturday
morning, the opening day of dove season, the kids and I slept to give the other
hunters a sporting chance. Saturday evening, we arrived at our spot in a field
at about 6 PM. The sun was still up and it was hot.
I
had purchased six decoys, which we clipped to a barbed wire fence. The decoys
did absolutely no good–not a single dove flew to a spot remotely close to them.
That was fine with me because I saw behind a tree line, near some water, a
mesquite tree containing 10 doves.
I
sent Timothy on a mission with his BB gun: he was to cross a dry gully, circle
around a grove of trees, and sneak up on the doves to flush them out of the
tree. I was anticipating the doves flying over Abby and me, which would give us
a wonderful shot.
While
Timothy was in route, a number of doves, in groups of two or three, flew over
our heads to the tree Timothy was stalking.
Time
for a strategy change! Forget the stalking, we three would stake out spots near
that tree!
We
did so; what we did not count on was the torrent of doves that would fly our
way. They came in droves.
Abby,
Timothy, and I shot and shot and shot.
Abby,
Timothy, and I missed and missed and missed.
Had
this hunt been a war and the doves been kamikaze pilots, our side would have
lost!
Wave
after wave of doves descended upon us. Still, we missed.
In
our defense, doves can fly up to forty miles an hour, and at times they move
like water bugs. Sometimes we missed because our shot hit tree limbs instead of
birds. I must confess that some of God's creation was damaged due to our
shooting.
At
last, we figured out that if we were simply patient and allowed the doves to
slow down in descent, we could hit them. (Don't worry–no doves were harmed
while sitting in trees.)
Ultimately,
we killed a few doves. More than that though, we had a great time. Abby shot two
boxes of shells. At one point, she was reloading and shooting so fast, she
forgot what I taught her. She was practically shooting her shotgun from the side of
her waist–gangster style! This proved disconcerting to me–the precious baby I
held in my arms 17 years ago now looked like a mutant combination of Rambo and Ma
Barker.
(Hey! There’s a future name for Abby’s grandkids—Ma Barker.
You heard it here first.)
Our
visit to Winters was capped by worshiping with members of our old church on
Sunday morning. It was terrific seeing so many of our old friends. Except for
the kids who had grown up so much since last seeing them, we all seemed to pick
where we had left off.
This
was a marvelous weekend–thanks, Abby, for your birthday wish!
*Thanks to Peter King for the inspiration for this blog's title.
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