Year / 2010

by Greg

Twenty Ten

We’re showing our age tonight.

We went to a New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house, but with babies, decided to leave by 9pm or so. Came home and after laying the babies down for the night, broke out the party food at home only to find that most of us weren’t really hungry…We had been snacking on party food since 7pm!

Now it’s quarter till midnight—the Big Moment—and I’m doing the dishes and cleaning up from our “party”, our nearly-teenaged and nearly-double-digit-aged are playing a video game, and the other five Campbells are sleeping!

What a way to celebrate the calendar flip! 🙂

But, I thought I’d take these last ten minutes of the last page of Twenty-Ten’s calendar and remember a few things from this year.

There were no babies born to our family in 2010, but there were some other inspirational moments. I was motivated to read again this year (may have started in 2009) and from that reading I was inspired by the lives of William Wilberforce, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Bruce Feiler, and of course, Jesus. (And his Narnian counterpart, Aslan.) The writing of C.S. Lewis and was also challenging and inspirational to me, and we also enjoyed Charles Dickens’ classic, Oliver Twist. I can’t wait to be inspired by more great lives lived in the year to come.

We have repeatedly come to the end of days exhausted by caring for two babies, resolving conflicts, training all six kids in righteousness, and dealing with the ever-present financial pressures of life. But when it’s time to reflect, all that really matters is that Cameron James and Emma Caroline are two of the most amazing people in the world, and they are in our family; there are no seven other people that I’d rather share my every day with than the six kids and perfect wife God has given me; and we just looked at the numbers again today and saw that God gave us exactly what we needed to pay all our bills and have food in our bellies every day.

All in all, Twenty Ten was another great year.

And whatever comes in 2011, we know that God will go there with us. That’s really all that matters.

It’s 11:59… bring it on.

by Greg

Christmas Shoppers Surprise With “Hallelujah Chorus”

The video, and the explanation from the Opera Company of Philadelphia are sufficient to describe this post. I will add, however, that it would have been fun to join in had I been one of the Christmas shoppers taken by surprise. 🙂 (I’m sure many did!)

From the creator of this video, and this event:

On Saturday, October 30, 2010, the Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together over 650 choristers from 28 participating organizations to perform one of the Knight Foundation’s “Random Acts of Culture” at Macy’s in Center City Philadelphia. Accompanied by the Wanamaker Organ – the world’s largest pipe organ – the OCP Chorus and throngs of singers from the community infiltrated the store as shoppers, and burst into a pop-up rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah” at 12 noon, to the delight of surprised shoppers.

This event is one of 1,000 “Random Acts of Culture” to be funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation over the next three years. The initiative transports the classical arts out of the concert halls and opera houses and into our communities to enrich our everyday lives.

To learn more about this program and view more events, visit www.randomactsofculture.org.

The Opera Company thanks Macy’s and the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ (www.wanamakerorgan.com) for their partnership, as well as Organ Music Director Peter Conte and Fred Haas, accompanists; OCP Chorus Master Elizabeth Braden, conductor; and Sound Engineer James R. Stemke.

For a complete list of participating choirs and more information, visit www.operaphila.org/RAC.

This event was planned to coincide with the first day of National Opera Week.

by Greg

November 2nd, 2010 Elections: VoteSmart.org

2010 Elections - Vote!It’s election time (or nearly so) and that means we American citizens of voting age get to head out and browse a sheet full of names and parties—many of which we’ve never heard of until stepping into the voting booth—and then flip some switches and pull a big lever in order to fulfill our duties as the electorate. Problem is, what good does it do to vote for people whom you do not know? How can they represent you? And even worse (in my opinion) what good does it do to vote for a particular candidate just because they slapped a party name on their name tag?

That’s not how it should be. It’s our responsibility to know whom we are voting for, and why we are voting for them, and how they will represent us on local, state, and national levels.

It really is up to us.

So I’ve been thinking, I really need to set up a website where I can post information on all our local candidates, so that we all can read up on every candidate and, after knowing the facts, we can make a fair and impartial assessment and choose the candidate that best represents what we would want our government to look like and to do. That’s how it should work, anyway. But I’m just one guy… how could I have the time to look up all the candidates even just in the elections I can vote for, let alone the rest of the country?

So maybe a wiki of some sort? But… that’s still a bunch of work. (I am having this idea way too late, I suppose…)

Enter Google. After a quick search for “learn about candidates” I discovered VoteSmart.org. I don’t know much about them yet, but they do go out of their way on the About Us page to say they are independent, impartial, non-partisan, and they have good and equal representation from conservative and liberal viewpoints.

Cool. That’s just what I was looking for!

So I’ll see what else I can find, but for now, have a look at VoteSmart. (And maybe see if you can help them out. They are all volunteer and at a quick glance it looked like they are always grateful for help)

They also have a fun tool called “Vote Easy“. An interactive, Flash site that makes the learning more fun. You put in what you think about a dozen or so key issues (and how important they are to you) and then it helps match you with candidates, based on what is publicly know about them.

Please educate yourself. And, do so directly from the sources, not from political ads, talk shows, magazines, cable news channels, or other such secondary sources. I can’t emphasize that enough. We have, in general, gotten very lazy about this. Take the time to be a responsible, voting citizen. The resources are available to us, and you can vote with a bit more of an easy conscience when you know you’ve had your say—and you actually know what you said.

Voting day is just two weeks away. So get to work! 🙂

by Greg

American Values

At the ReValue America lecture we hosted last weekend, one of the themes was of course, “Values”.

During the presentation, the speaker—Dr. Shanon Brooks—took a moment to ask everyone there what some “American values” were. Various words were quickly offered: Honor. Courage. Bravery. Love. Friendship. Hard work/work ethic. Faith. Charity/Generosity. Probably about 20 or 30 were mentioned within a 30 second span. It was a fairly easy exercise for the 130 or so in attendance.

After a good number had been spoken, Dr. Brooks said, “Those are all great, and I think we’re all in agreement that those are all values that we hold as Americans. But—and this never fails, anywhere I ask this—there were a few that we did not mention. Why didn’t anyone mention mathematics, or grammar, or physics, or anything like that? We focus so much of our attention in our education systems to such things, but they aren’t mentioned as our core values?”

It was a fantastic illustration (in my opinion) of our educational focus being quite askew. We have an enormous system in place to train up generations of Americans in the “fundamentals”, but we are not passing along our values. Values are, well, what we value. So according to our education system, we value skills rather than the things we say are our “values” (as above).

Don’t get me wrong… I don’t think the public education system really can pass along values very well, so I don’t think we should all of a sudden change to a more character-based education system in the government schools. It won’t work. (Simply because of the setting, the environment.) Character and values should be passed along to children by their parents. Clearly there are problems with that in our society as there are so many homes without parents in the plural … it gets very confused and confusing.

I guess that’s why Dr. Brooks feels we really need to “ReValue” America.

At the very least, we need to figure out what it means to get an education, and what sort of education we want. Do we just want to learn skills (that we don’t even consider American values) or do we want a more well-rounded, full education, including the “why” of what we learn. And what to do with what we’ve learned. Based on our values.

Which is it?

That was one of the questions/challenges presented in the ReValue America lecture … if you can get out to any of the remaining ones here in NY State this week, please do. It will be well worth your time. If not, visit their website for information on other opportunities across the US.

by Greg

Amazon.com: Subscribe & Save

Amazon.com's Subscribe & Save

My wife recently discovered a great program that Amazon.com offers it’s users called Subscribe & Save. It not only offers a decent discount on the regular Amazon.com price (which is already usually discounted from retail price), it also allows you to have items you regularly purchase automatically delivered to you at that reduced price. (And somehow Jen arranged for a 3-month trial of their shipping upgrade service, Amazon Prime, so everything is shipped for free!)

Not every item at Amazon is eligible for this Subscribe & Save service, but I happened to noticed on Monday that it does apply to Big Train Chai, of which I happen to be a very big fan.

I did the math on what I usually order, and what was offered for the Subscribe & Save service, and it was rather shocking: for $16.47 (the current Subscribe & Save price), I got about twice the amount of chai that I would usually get from Amazon for $18! Crazy!

Big Train Vanilla Chai - 1.9lb containerThen I did a bit more of the math…

  • (2) 1.9 lb cans of Big Train Vanilla Chai = (25) 16oz drinks = $16.47
  • (3) 12 oz bags of Big Train Vanilla Chai = (15) 16oz drinks = $18
  • (1) 12 oz bag of Big Train Vanilla Chai (from any retail store) = (5) 16oz drinks = $10
  • (1) 16 oz cup of Big Train Vanilla Chai (prepared, at a coffee shop) = $4.25

So, with Subscribe & Save I end up saving 86% on what it would cost me to buy 25 cups of chai at my favorite coffee shop.

I guess their service is quite appropriately named!

We Campbells highly recommend checking into it for the stuff you buy regularly. We are now “Subscribe(d) and Sav(ing)” on chai, and diapers! Have a look and see if you can find a great deal for yourself!

Subscribe & Save

by Greg

Currently: ReValue America Lecture Tour

ReValue America - NY - Self, Marriage, Family, Community.This past weekend, Jen & I were hosts to one stop on the ReValue America lecture series tour. Dr. Shanon Brooks is giving a series of free, two-hour lectures across NY State (as well as California, Colorado, and his home state of Utah, I believe) intended to inspire a new generation of American Founders.

And inspire he does.

There were about 130 people at our event on Saturday night. And nearly everyone that I spoke to there left feeling inspired to educate themselves both in regards to the foundations of our country—its forms of government, the documents that were created by its founders, and the people who were its founders—and the people, books and other classic works and thinking that formed the foundation of these “founders” lives, and their values. In essence, to get for ourselves, the same education that these people—ordinary people, just like us—had and drew from to establish the most free nation in the history of mankind.

(That’s a pretty lofty goal, don’t you say?)

Even more lofty, perhaps, is Brooks’ goal to get a library of books (I think it’s 5 or 6 books) into one million American homes. The books are about American government and foundational principals and education. (We’ve read a couple of them, and they are good reads presenting some challenging and worthy ideas.)

There are a few remaining dates on this part of the tour, which will end this Sunday night in Rochester, NY. If you visit the ReValue NY website (revalueny.com) you can see a schedule of the remaining lectures. If you live in NY State and can attend one, we do feel it is very much worth the time and effort.

You may just be inspired.

The follow up to this event is more intensive. Dr. Brooks will be leading interested participants in much more in-depth constitutional studies, American history, and then other great classic works which were the foundations of our own founding documents (Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Federalist Papers, etc.) You’ll read/study on your own and then attend a monthly lecture day with other fellow students. He calls this series the Foundations of Liberty course. (There is no official “credit” given for this course, only the education you receive from reading and studying these things together.)

Over the next couple days I will be posting a few thoughts inspired by the event we attended. Till then, I wanted to be sure to let you know this is happening, in case you might be able to attend and be inspired to educate yourself and to preserve freedom and virtues for yourself, your family, your community, and even our country. Are there other ways to do that? Of course! But this is one way to spend two hours that I am nearly certain will accomplish that end.

So click the link and head out to a lecture near you!

For further information:

by Greg

Facebook Is Trying To Help

Facebook EventsThis morning when I brought up Facebook to check on a couple things (no, I do not have a Farmville farm or anything else like that…) I saw the list to the left at the top right of the page.

I had to smile as I thought of the stereotypical guy who can’t remember his own anniversary … and I think that might be what my own anniversary is doing in the list of upcoming events. (Believe it or not, I actually already knew that my anniversary is this Monday…) 😉 I wonder if this event (your own anniversary) is also shown for a woman’s Facebook account? I’ll have to check out Jen’s account…

Facebook is pretty handy for “remembering” friends’ birthdays, but then, if you just see it on Facebook, is it really remembering? (No… it’s not.)

The fact that my anniversary was on the list of upcoming important dates was both humorous and slightly sad as it’s one more thing that we are not using our own brains to do anymore. The more we “improve” technology it seems the less we actually use our own brains (or bodies). We can’t get anywhere without using a GPS, we can’t know anything without Google, and we also have no idea where our food comes from. (But that’s for another post.)

So thanks, Facebook. I know you’re trying to help, but maybe we need it to say something like, “Do you know what’s coming up in a week or so?” 🙂 (And maybe we just need to “unplug” in general… but again, that’s for another post…)

NHL GameCenter - Free Preview Oct 11
by Greg

NHL GameCenter – Free!

NHL GameCenter - Free Preview Oct 11

The NHL is once again offering a one-day only free preview of their NHL GameCenter package. For $19.95/mo or $159 for the whole season you can watch every NHL game, several at once, and they even have classic games and an archive of past games that you can peruse. It’s a pretty great deal if you’re a huge NHL fan, or if you are not in your favorite team’s market.

And for today… it’s completely free!

So head on over and sign up and watch some hockey today! There are games all day, since it’s Colombus Day. Early games have the Rangers and Islanders playing at 1pm ET, then Ducks/Blues at 2pm ET, Penguins/Devils at 4pm ET. At 7pm ET there are three more games (including my Buffalo Sabres!): Blackhawks/Sabres, Avalanche/Flyers, and Sens/Caps. Then, finish of the hockey day with the Panthers visiting the Canucks at 10pm ET. Nice!

Hoping I get to see some of those games today… And I hope you do too!

by Greg

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

Bonhoeffer by Eric MetaxasI heard of a book the other day simply called, “Bonhoeffer”. It was highly recommended, and my interest was piqued when I heard who wrote the book: Eric Metaxas. “Eric Mah-who-huh?” you say? Indeed. However, you may recall that I highly recommended his previous book, “Amazing Grace” (the story of William Wilberforce) and wrote a couple long posts (here, and here) after following Metaxas through Wilberforce’s life. An inspiring man, with an equally inspiring story, masterfully told by Metaxas.

So you can imagine that I am eager to get a copy of this book and learn of the life of another inspiring man. I really think that walking through life alongside great people as they face choices and make decisions helps motivate, challenge, and inspire us to do the same in our lives. So I look foward to getting to know Dietrich Bonhoeffer, through the eyes and prose of Eric Metaxas.

Amazon has a preview video available. Just a two minute overview of who this man was, and why his story was an interesting one. Watch below. (Then go get the book!)

by Greg

Lessons in Futility (from the Buffalo Bills)

We all know the numbers. 10 years with no playoffs. 4 games with no wins. 1 starting quarterback benched after two weeks, then just dumped on the street after three weeks. And of course, the biggest number of all is, 50 years, 0 Lombardi trophies*.

There are only 8 teams out of 32 in the NFL that have a losing record. Four of those teams are 0-4, including the Buffalo Bills. But when you look at this list of teams that either haven’t won a game, or have only won one, you tell me if you see any team that has looked more hopeless than the Bills through four games:

Cleveland: 1-3
Oakland: 1-3
Dallas: 1-2
Minnesota: 1-2
Carolina: 0-4
Detroit: 0-4
San Francisco: 0-4

You can’t, can you. Only perhaps the Carolina Panthers have managed to be quite as toothless and inept as the Bills. The one game where we had a fairly decent showing, we lost to our nemesis, the New England Patriots… maybe just because we are trying for a perfect season? No wins?!

Certainly Dallas and Minnesota do not belong on this list, and I’m sure they will remedy that. As for the other 0-4 teams, Detroit has literally been in every single game right down to the end, and had at least one (the opening weekend game) practically stolen from them when the refs decided to call a play by the book rather than by their eyes. (That was a TD!) San Francisco has been almost as inept, but yesterday they lost a game they were leading most of the way on a last-second, long FG.

And, if you look at the net points for each team (meaning, points against subtracted from points for) the Bills rank dead last at -64. Ouch. (The other 0-4 teams are San Fran -51, Carolina -41, and Detroit -24.)

I think it’s fairly obvious that the Bills are “on the clock”.

(Though perhaps Carolina and San Fran might be able to wrestle that position away from them…)

So what accounts for this meteoric … drop? I mean, for the last four seasons the Bills have at least gotten 6 or 7 wins. We were loving our mediocrity here in Buffalo. But now, we are quite possibly the worst team in the NFL! What has changed?

The only real “excuse” I have for the Bills is the new defensive scheme. It’s well known that the Bills shifted to a 3-4 defense this offseason, and it’s also quite obvious that they have not quite fully “shifted” as yet. Last season the Bills’ defense was one of the top takeaway teams (especially interceptions), and the #2 overall pass defense. This season, they are the #28 defense overall (thanks to still being #12 against the pass) and they have not only 0 INTs, but only 1 takeaway. ONE. In four games!

And the only reason that they are #12 in passing yards allowed per game is that they are dead last in rush defense, allowing teams an average of 174 yards per game on the ground. When you can get 174 yards rushing, you don’t really need to pass! (And, more evidence of their defensive futility, the Bills rank second-to-last in sacks with 4 for the entire season so far. Only the Cincinnati Bengals are worse.)

My family moved to Buffalo in 1986. The same year Marv Levy was hired by the Bills. The year after they drafted Bruce Smith and Andre Reed. The year Jim Kelly decided to join the team. (He was drafted in 1983, but didn’t play for them till 1986.) Then we met some friends who were big fans of the team. None of our family were football fans (or even any sport fans) … but one day in 1988 we were offered the chance to join those friends at a live NFL football game, and that endeared us to the football club from Buffalo from that moment on.

(The game? It was a 9-6 OT win over the New York Jets by which the Bills claimed the division title as a result of their then 11-1 record! It was exciting, electrifying—very wet… rained all day—and as I said, endeared us to this team from then on.)

Then came the Super Bowls, and a few more years of good players and fun wins…

Then came the last decade. Bad GMs, bad coaches, bad players, bad decisions by management, bad teams, bad records… mad fans.

But we had never hit such a bottom as this. This year, it seems to me, we could very possibly not win a single game. 0-16. Only the second team to ever accomplish such a feat. Wow.

So the Bills press on in their quest for ultimate futility. This week, the Jacksonville Jaguars (and former starting QB, Trent Edwards**) come to town. Surprisingly, there is no favorite in this game. The Bills have been very big underdogs in all the games so far, but in this one, the game is a “pick” game. I’m guessing that will change by the time they play the game this Sunday!

For the Bills and Bills fans, we now focus our attention on the 2011 draft. With the #1 pick overall, we can hope to finally have a great player in Buffalo again? Will it be one of the highly-touted QBs? Likely. Or perhaps a hall-of-fame caliber left tackle? Perhaps. The last time the Bills had the #1 overall pick was in 1985, and that was used to select Bruce Smith. One can only hope…

Until then… we still watch. And groan. And hide our eyes at times. But cheer for the few moments of good plays. CJ Spiller is fun to watch. Sometimes Roscoe Parrish. And, we do have a good punter… 🙂

But really, the 2010 season is all about planning for 2011.

“The Buffalo Bills are on the clock.”

* These numbers are slightly unfair as the Lombardi trophy has not been awarded 50 times, and the Bills technically were champions of their league before the Super Bowl years. In 1964 and 1965 they were the AFL champions… and they were one game away from being the AFL’s first Super Bowl representative in 1966, but lost to the KC Chiefs.

** By “former”, we mean of course, only two weeks ago. That’s a very recent “former”.