Barron Family Adventures

So we were out of town for Father’s Day, and Kristen is really in-to eating fancy meals for holidays.  Yep, I WIN!  Okay, so anyone who knows me well can tell you that I love to eat, and the spicier the better. So she convinces me to let her take me out to dinner tonight after work.

Great!

Well sure, I enjoyed my meal very much but, truth be told, we all ate a few too many chips with that excellent queso.  Mmmm.  Yep. So, of course, you know what happened when our meals arrived … we were really pretty full, and getting the kids to eat was obviously going to be a fight.  Honestly though, we both said later that we thought they did pretty well eating up all the food they had ordered, for the most part.  About the time when the gentle reminders about eating all of our food started wearing thin, Hallie (who is now potty training, by the way), says adamantly, “Mommy, I gotta go potty now!” 

Okay, okay, so mommy takes her to the bathroom, but before they leave the table, both Emmy and Caed have decided to join the excursion.

As soon as they’re out of sight the waitress comes over and offers to clear some of our dishes (pre-bussing, for you restauranteurs out there).  Suddenly I have a GREAT thought … and ask her to clear the kids plates away and to go ahead and bring them the ice cream sundaes that come with the Kids Meals.  So she does … one little scoop of vanilla ice cream and a big helping of chocolate syrup on top.

Emmy is the first to make it back from the pit stop, and this is what happened …

“Daddy, someone took my food!”

“Yep, sure did … I told her that you guys were done.”

“But I wanted to eat more so I could have ice cream!!!”

“Sure you did.  But I decided to let you have ice cream even though you hadn’t eaten all of your food.”

[Long pause with a faraway glance.]

“DADDY!!!! That’s GRACE!!!!  We didn’t deserve it, because we should have eaten all of our food, but you still love us and made sure we had ice cream, too!  THANK YOU!!!”

It was all I could do to keep my emotions together … just sitting there, next to this beautiful six year old, hearing her share the good news of grace to me using the simple metaphor of an undeserved dessert. 

So we’ve talked about how mercy is not getting the punishment that you deserve, and that grace is getting the restored relationship with God that you don’t deserve, in addition to all the beautiful benefits you experience just by being in relationship with HIM.  I never deliberately thought about finding ways to teach this important truth to my children, and thankfully, God was gracious to provide me with an easy way to begin doing it, even when it isn’t comfortable.

So … here’s to the ice cream you and I don’t deserve, but that our Father loves us enough to provide.

-j.

In this post you’ll see pictures of the Texas Tech University Advising Center front office, where I work.  In my class, #mobilerice, I was asked to take some photos of the digital signage used to provide coverage of our continually updated RSS feeds (sources include @g00dAdvice, www.actt.ttu.edu/blog, CNN, ESPN, the Daily Toreador, TTU Emergency Updates, www.prelaw.ttu.edu/go, www.fgc.ttu.edu/go, www.discovery.ttu.edu/go, www.calendar.ttu.edu and the TTU Communications and Marketing Division.

Especially you’ll notice the date on some of the crowd pics was January 20, 2009, when Barak Obama was inaugurated as president.  We used the live Facebook/CNN feed from their web site, and had a lot of passersby stop between classes (and skip class, admittedly) to experience an historic moment with us.  It was really quite exciting to see their interest and to provide them (and all of our staff, too) with a window out of work/school into the rest of our world, all from the TTU Advising Center’s front office.  Yep, very cool.

Psalm 84

I want to be in your presence, God, not just a traveling guest or passerby, but I want to dwell in your house … close to you. Now, I’ve said that I want it, but what I mean is that I’m hungry for it, wasted without it.  My heart and affections, desires and inner yearnings, all is drawn to you.

So I consider the birds … so simple, so beautiful in their flight and their song.  They seem to inherently know and trust in your provision, and they seem to innately understand how their own work fits into the larger picture … it is amazing and refreshing … challening!

To be near you causes shouts of joy, stories lauding your greatness, your deeds, your very character … who could help but talk about you once they’ve seen you?

[Whew ... I need a break.]

During my rest I thought more about it … I know I’m on  the right path when I run to you to fill up, all who are deliberately picking out their footsteps en route to your house … each step makes them stronger!

While we walk toward you, the road is often a challenge, dry and empty.  Like others before us we will cry out to you in that place, and though it was desolate, you bring refreshment with your very presence out of the seeming emptiness.

The heat is slaked also with a gentle rain that you send to prepare me for a new crop … I know that you would not prepare a field without having plans in advance for what you’re going to do there.  This knowledge carries me through my weaknesses and struggles, bears me between my moments of strength, and leads me to approach you with great anticipation, awe, and humility.

Am I getting all of this, God?  I’m just checking in here to be certain.  You ARE the God of the covenant.  I will trust you to answer.

[Whew ... I need another break.]

You have provided the way, a strong and chosen one to protect and preserve us through these attacks and challenges.  All of this further convinces me that, though I might live life in any number of places, casting my affections and energies at a thousand things, places, and people, there’s just nothing better than being close to you … even if I was only your doorstop … it would be far more than I deserve.

The crop of my heart will grow because of your tending, but you will not let me be overwhelmed and burned by the heat.  You see my coming and going, and you (only You) encourage and direct me to rely on you.

Daddy: Cædmon, wow … you’re really being kinda bossy.
Cæd: Me?
Daddy: Yes sir, just a little. I wonder who taught you to do that, anyhow.
Emmy: I think that might have been me. [Grin.]
[All laugh at the truth, self-awareness, and vulnerability of a 6-year old.
Actually, its a challenge for the rest of us, isn't it?]

Psalm 63

I’m so hungry I can’t stand it.  I’m sleepy with no rest.  I’m thirsty and tired of the desert sand.  There is only one satisfaction that I’m pursuing: to see you face to face … to behold and experience your glory face to face.  There is nothing like knowing and walking with you, even when everything else pretends to be as deep and fulfilling; only you satisfy.

I can’t sleep I’m so excited … which is saying something for someone like me, just ask anyone who’s laughed at my sleepyheaded-ness in the middle of the afternoon.  But when I’m focused on you (your character, your faithfulness, your grace, your sacrifice, your glory) I just want to dance.  Actually, sometimes I don’t stop at wanting to dance, I actually do.  Yep, even this whiteboy gets a little bounce, some toe tappin’, spinning, and rhythm when I look at your face.  There is a deep longing in my heart to know you more, to have every fiber in my being, emotion in my heart, and minute of my time filled up with your presence, your wisdom, and your peace.

Psalm 27

“Bring it.”

Bring it, world … I will walk through today in the confidence of one who saves.  I can take heart that I will see the creator and king bring his good to reality in this place, this time, redeeming it for me, and moreover, for his own glory. 

Bring it, work … I will be oppressed, heck … I am oppressed, but my confidence is not in my own ability to manage it all.  I am confident that the Lord receives me.

Bring it, economy … the Lord keeps me safe in his house … I trust in the provision and protection of the Father.

Bring it, today … because I dwell in/dwell on the beautiful face of the one who has called me his own, drawn me to himself, and who woos my deceitful heart to cry out in all sincerity, “Your face, God … let me see your face turned toward me.  Your righteousness, your judgement, your grace, mercy, and love.”

Bring it.

What do you want to build?
I want to build the world’s simplest iPhone application … wait … that has already been done … click the image here for more on that from my favorite twitter-er, Pete Cashmore (or more accurately, by Mashable.com).

Okay, so then, what should I build? Hmm… this article makes a good case for data visualization applications, and this article gives an introduction to some of the new features that will be available to us to exploit on the iPhone 3Gs (and the upgraded iPhone 3G) as of 17 July.

Certainly stuff to think about. If you can stand the 13:45 video, there’s a lot more hype and yes, admittedly, geekedly neat things that we could use in some cool new app … if we (me) were super developers.By the way, I’m thinking that those readers of this blog who can handle a quarter hour of Apple might also get something out of an hour and a half of Google. You’ve really got to watch the 1:20:00 video of the new Google Wave. It’s going to change it all. Seriously.

Well heck, while I’m promo-ing Mashable, I should just link you directly to the iPhone category where I’m getting most of the good stuff I’m taking time to write about here. [http://mashable.com/tag/iphone-apps/]

Okay, okay, so I’m thinking that an iPhone application that helps a student calculate their GPA, including some calculations for Grade Replacements, etc., would be useful. Especially if v1.0 was built in such a way as to provide an extensible skeleton that could actually allow students to enter their classes, assignments (with due dates) and their relative weights, and using realistic expectations, to calculate real-time the changes made as they increase or decrease their confidence in their preparedness for an exam, etc.

Maybe even the application could connect with study groups and resources using Facebook or other social media applications.What do you think?

What’s a “blobject” as it relates to your project? (iPod Philosophy, Chapter 2)
Okay – I’m officially and literally laughing out loud. Note the tweets I’ve left on the status of my books. So, obviously I’ve not yet read the iPod book yet, but I do have the pentultimate in online resources … wikipedia.

Why am I laughing … to answer Dr. Rice’s question literally, a blobject is … no … you’re going to have to read it for yourself, if you can stand the possible neologism … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blobject.

So I’ve made an assumption that the intention was “blogject” and I may be (and probably am) entirely wrong, but the rest of this post is on blogjects … Without the text to inform me, I went to the web … http://rooreynolds.com/2008/04/24/blogjects-and-tweetjects/.

The article says that we currently have “gizmos,” that the future is “spime,” and that “blogjects” possess the real estate in between. Reading here, especially some of the comments below the article, makes me think a lot about big brother watching as we work to make so much more information and interaction publicly available.

As it relates to my project, a blogject would be some data summary that receives posts of students’ confidence levels and projected GPAs and tweeted some information when crossing threshold levels to alert university resources into a proactive mode, monitor student perceptions on their own performance as it relates to the season of the semester, assignments graded, exams given, etc. If appropriately allowed, an aggregator could identify the geographical proximity of students who are interested in studying for the same classes and show mashups of campus maps of where on campus you are most likely to find students enrolled in the same coursework as you are taking.

What model mobile manifestifact excites you? Why?
Again, without the text, I’m totally guessing here, but I love those Sprint commercials that say, right now, this is happening, and this many people are doing this. The coolest is their little application that shows a “big bowl of now” [http://now.sprint.com/widget/]

One more that I love, among all the products from Digg Labs, is Swarm [http://labs.digg.com/swarm/]. I just think it is really amazing to watch and see the realtime data be reported about what folks are digging. There’s so much cool stuff out there.

You know, this makes me think, hey – we collect real-time data all the time at work, and report it with real-time reports at www.advising.ttu.edu/stratplan. I could write a script (and run via a cronjob) to tweet the “busy-ness” level of the Advising Center based on the number of students entering and exiting the facility, appointments being seen, etc. Hmmm.. something to think about.

Okay, now back to reading that PDF file for tomorrow night’s discussion.

Regards,
JRB.

Emmy shows off her handiwork at the 2009 Lubbock Arts Festival

Today was my first day at Theater Camp!!!!  It was really fun!!!  We did music, dance, and act!!  I got an award!!!!!  I get to be Katie in  Dear, Edwina!!!!!!

The End

Emmy

After reading this excellent article, I had to write what I was thinking to get it all out.   Read the rest of this entry »

“Good night, buddy … I love you.” Kiss.
“Good night, Daddy … I love you too. I had lots of fun today.” Head butt.
“Wow … ouch.” 
Both of us laugh like you do when you hit your funny bone. It’s real laughter, but … ouch.
“Okay, sleep tight, and I’ll see you in the morning.” No response.
Now at this point I’m wondering what’s going on in there because he’s not looking at me, but I can see his little gears turning. Maybe he’s just looking to stall for another few minutes before lights-out, but then again, maybe not.
“Daddy, why are your ears and cheeks like that?”
“What, Caed?”
“Why are your ears all red?”
“Because we mowed the lawn together today and the sun burned us a little. The blood is busy working to fix our cheeks and ears back to normal … yours look just the same.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, touch ‘em … they feel kinda warm.”
“Oooh.”

More gears ….

“Daddy?”
“Yes, Caed?”
“How does the blood get to your ears?”
“That’s a good question, buddy, maybe we should talk about it tomorrow.”
“Okay.”

So I start to leave, but maybe it’s the inner nerd that has some desperate need to answer technical questions when they are asked, or maybe its a father who absolutely adores his kid … and though I’m certain that Mommy is in the living room by now, counting the number of minutes past bedtime as each one ticks by, I just can’t help myself. I’m certain she’s wondering why my goodnights always take so long. Then, with a giddiness that girls must experience when they’re whispering the latest gossip, I kneel down by his bed, relishing this moment when I get to reveal one more secret mystery of this beautiful universe to an eager little mind, equally as beautiful.

Yep, all of my fatherly resolve to be disciplined and structured is gone … I totally cave.

“Okay buddy, I’ll tell you what I know, but only for a minute, okay?”
Just from the sound of his response you can tell, he knows he’s got me for at least five. “Okay, Daddy.”
“Okay, so you know where your heart is, right?”
“It’s right here, where you can reach it when its time for the pledge.”
“You’ve got it … so your heart is a muscle, a very, very strong and smart muscle. It beats and rests, beats, and rests, beats and rests, all your whole life.”
“Strong like my arm?”
“Stronger.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, isn’t that cool? It squeezes and pushes and then it rests and relaxes, that’s what we call your heartbeat. So the heart squeezes and pushes, and your blood shoots through your body, then it does it again, and again, and again, until it gets all the way to your ears.”
“How does it get there?”
“It goes through little tubes like the water does outside in the hose when you turn on the sprinkler. From your heart to your toes to your fingers to your lungs to your toes to your fingers to your heart and all the way around over and over and over.”
“It makes a circle? Wait, there’s blood IN my ears?”
“Sure, look, squeeze my ear and then tell me what it looks like.”

The tentative hand reaches up to touch my suddenly sketchy ear that, in his mind, has decided to have blood inside it.

“Ooh”

Laughter.

“It turned white, Daddy, and then it got red again.”
“That’s right, you squeezed it and made all the blood run away, then my heart beat was strong and pushed new blood right back in there to keep getting it fixed up.”
“Do it to my ear, Daddy, make mine change like yours.”
“Sure.”

I squeeze his little sunburned ear. He doesn’t even wince.

“I felt it Daddy, the blood went in my body, and then my heart, it is really strong you know, my heart just PUNCHED that blood right back in my ear! It says, ‘go back blood, we have work to do.’”
“That’s right Caed-ro … your heart is SO strong.”
“And smart, too, right?”
“Right.”
“And it goes really fast.”
“Right.”
“In a circle.”
“Right.”

The gears are obviously screamingly fast at this point … and then it happens. You see, we had a tornado alert the other day, and so he’s been asking all KINDS of questions about tornadoes and how will we know, and what if one comes in the night, and what if we can’t find a basement, and why does it go in a circle, and … well, you get the picture, right?

“So my heart makes a big fast circle blood tornado in my ears!!!!”
“Um …. right … you got it!” 

At this point I’m grinning from ear to ear and chuckling to myself about how little minds make such stretches to connect the completely unassociated and to make the ultra-complex into something ultra-simple. My father-husband-consciousness is just now kicking in again, reminding me ever so subtly that my ‘minute’ has past.

“I love you, Caedmon McKee Barron, my wise warrior.”
“I love you, too, Daddy.”

I see the gears resume their normal spinning and my subconciousness begins to process the whole interaction, bringing on the current feeling of awe and humility to have such an important (and powerful) role in someone else’s life.

My hand moves toward the lightswitch and he goes for it one more time.

“Daddy?”
“Yes, Caedmon.”
“If a big tornado goes so fast, like ZOOM. Does a small tornado go slower?”
“That’s a great question, Caed.”

And, amazingly, my resolve is firm (this time).

“That’s a great question, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow, okay big guy?”
“Okay, Daddy.”
“I love you.”
“I’m your son … I’m wise and brave and strong.”

Tears fill my eyes as I flip off the light.

“That’s right … you are wise, and brave, and strong. I’m so glad you are mine.”
“I’m glad you’re mine, too … sleep tight, Dad.”

DAD?!? Woah now … where’d that come from … DAD? But I decide to leave it for another breathtaking conversation. Wow…