This explains it

The clearest presentation of why the US is in a WTF recession for the next 5+ years:
http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true

Housing prayers needed

Due to our impending baby of doom, we are seeking new and exciting alternative living situations. Some interesting opportunities have come by and we really need prayer that God will work strongly in getting our housing straightened out.
Hopefully God has the best planned for our next move but we are willing to accept whatever fate he has decided for us.

Time for change

A bebe, a new living space, a new job and a new church. Many changes are here and are coming. The biggest one is where I tithe. No longer will 10-20% of my tithe go towards growing the body of Christ, now 80+% will be used for the betterment of mankind.
Amy and I are choosing to support (starting in February) Lifewater International.
For less than $400 an entire village can have access to clean water and sanitation.
I really like what they do and they are based in Morro Bay, CA which is awesome.
They train people to go and train people allowing for exponential growth and efficiency of resources.
Check it out!

Destroy the economy

My current mission is to do my part to destroy the economy. I refuse to participate in consumerism (except videogames!). I plan on saving any stimulus package the government sends out. I save whatever possible. This year I will be super-itemizing for my 2008 taxes (since we are having a bebe) including all Goodwill donations. And my latest way to actively destroy it all:
Every time I receive one of those credit card offers in the mail that happens to include an envelope. I am now mailing them in filled with junk. Yes, junk. Besides the postage is free. I will nickel and dime the credit card companies until they stop sending me unsolicited junk. I am wasting their time and it feels good.

The reason I've been missing

This totally explains where I have been for the last year:

Viva Voce is coming

Viva Voce is coming to The Attic in Santa Cruz on March 10th. They are awesome, let me know if you want to come along with me.

I learned about this from iConcertCal!

Wii!!!!

Wow!
We were going to get a Wii when it came out.
Saturday, Thomas came over and hung out and we all went out to dinner. Seeing how long the line was at Target for the Nintendo Wii we decided to hurry back to our place and camp out for the evening. Oh, lack of sleep. It was fun chatting with line people and lacking sleep and being uncomfortable. At 6:30 my uncle Mike showed up and we injected him into the line with us ahead of the other people. By 7:45 when they handed out tickets the 4 of us secured 4 Wii tix. Thomas didn't actually want one so he said "the last shall be first" and gave his to the last person in line. Amy said "must find the kids who are actually sad because the line is so long that they won't get one" and she gave hers to two kids who have been saving up their allowance for months.

Doors opened and excitement built. I schemed and saved us the most money with discounts and offers and saved $100 off my ~$800 bill for 2 Wii's, 2 Legend of Zelda game, 1 Rampage game and two extra wii-motes.

We were so tired we didn't even play till that night. And man it is fun. All we have played so far is Wii Sports, we haven't even opened anything else up yet it is so fun. Both Amy and I are into it and the best game is bowling. I swear all of the games are the most realistic created so far but bowling takes the cake. It emulates real-life bowling so well that I kept ending up with the same score I get in real-life bowling ~150.

In addition Amy decided to make Mii's (little customized avatars) of every member of my family that will (or might) be there at Thanksgiving. Then she made Mii's of every person who might ever show up at our place including our entire homegroup and Jon and Kay's family.

So if anyone wants to come over and play you are welcome to, we've already got a Mii for you and you are ready to rock.

1 year Anniversary. T minus 5 days

My anniversary is coming up. (see my pretty kitty below a few posts down).
It is a joyous time. I've made it a year.
There is close to a 50% divorce rate here in the US. I'm not likely as a statistic, to ever get divorced, here is why:

Factors

Percent Decrease

in Risk of Divorce
Annual income over $50,000 (vs. under $25,000) -30
Having a baby seven months or more after marriage (vs. before marriage) -24
Marrying over 25 years of age (vs. under 18) -24
Own family of origin intact (vs. divorced parents) -14
Religious affiliation (vs. none) -14
Some college (vs. high-school dropout) -13

So doing the math (given I meet all of those), assuming there is a 100% chance of divorce for the average individual it comes out to 100% * .70 * .76 * .76 * .86 * .86 * .87 = 26.02%. If there starting number is less than 100% I'm even better off.

Not that I'd even ever consider it.
My wife is awesome. She's recently become even awesomer and as our second year together is beginning I am expectant of a very promising future.

We are working toward better communication (just finished a class) and making one another feel loved (we are both reading the five love languages)

I estimate that within five years we will become the zenith of married couples. We will eventually have our 2.5 children and we will love them.

Heres looking towards the future.

Bats! And ME! I would have painted my nails if I didn't have to work.

My a very own a the cheat. He was on the other side of my trogdor pumpkin. Sadly he got a the mold and collapsed.

My trogdor pumpkin! He burninated the pumpkin so its already in the trash.

Halloween festivities have arrived. The makeup makes me break out. My wife is a pretty kitty.

Best way to understnad middle east conflicts

This Slate article does the best I've seen at explaining the love/hate relationships the Middle East constituents share. Pretty much everyone hates Israel but there are some surprising conflicts in there I didn't know about.

Oooh and I also found this graphic!