Crazy and more

So we're walking in downtown Chicago with an hour before our next appointment. The girls are shopping. We're not really interested in that. All of a sudden we hear ourselves saying, "Boy, what are all the firetrucks for?"


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Yes, if you counted that was all four streets from that one corner. I kid you not, there were at least 14 firetrucks visible from where I stood plus at least as many fire SUVs, police cars, and ambulances. AND since the Hilton (the hotel where the problem seemed to be) was down one of those four streets, the corner on the other side of the Hilton probably had more emergency vehicles. I can't confirm that though.

Lessons we learned:
(1) Freeon is dangerous and it can leak and hurt you. (I had no idea my fridge was unsafe).
(2) Apparently, in Chicago, there are plenty of people who can free up their afternoon to stand around with mouths gaping wondering what's going on.
(3) Human nature, one might think, would lead people to run away from a corner with so many emergency vehicles. You know, maybe something's going to explode, let me save myself. Nope. Let me get as close to what seems to be the source of the emergency as I can. I MUST know what's going on even if I get hurt.

Anyway, it was incredibly mysterious and also we thought if we waited long enough we'd get on the news. Nope.

Chicago

Jesse and I hung out together most of the time. We had fun. This is me trying to take a picture of us. That's my intense look of concentration.

This is most of the students in the group outside the Chicago theatre.

This is a stunning view of downtown Chicago. Unfortunately, when you use a flash, it highlights the screen on the windows of the Hancock Observatory.

Have you ever seen a dolphin swim upside down? No, this picture is not upside down. They just swim on their backs. That is a good life.

Speaking of dolphins. Recognize this place?

This is Sue. She's pretty darn amazing. You can't tell, but that's just a model of her skull attached to her real skeleton. Her head weighs too much for her body to support. Wow.

Sentinel! For all you who appreciate The Matrix with me. From the Museum of Science and Industry's Robot exhibit.

Perhaps one of my favorite things in Chicago's downtown. A mirror kidney bean. This wonder of modern engineering is found in Millenium Park outside of the Art Institute. You might scoff, but it does incredible things.

See? Bet you can't tell that I'm taking this picture. Even if you click on it.

Okay, well the fun and games are over for now. I need to get sleep before work tomorrow! I'll post another very exciting event that occurred during our trip tomorrow.

Shaky Faith

I just got back from my trip to Chicago with a bunch of Business Students. Not only was it a fun time, it quite possibly was a life changing experience. You should ask me about it sometime.

In any case, we saw all kinds of stuff. One stop we made on Sabbath was the aquarium. If I figure out how to post a video, you might see one that I took.

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Another stop that day was the planetarium. Ironically, we thought that would be the least interesting of our stops that day (out of the aquarium, planetarium, and field museum). It turned out to be a real hit with us. It was educational, fun, and included nap-time.

It made me stop and question things for a second though. We were planning on having a "church service" at the end of Sabbath where we shared how we saw God that day. So that was my mindset. In the planetarium it was easy to see God's work--the wonder, the majesty, the huge, the design. And, it made me stop and doubt. In the explanation of space and the exploration of space, my mind could imagine a day when people leave Earth for the moon or the stars. But I couldn't imagine (realistically) a day when we all leave Earth and go to Heaven.

Don't get me wrong--to some extent I can imagine Heaven and the new Earth. But what about that part where we all fly up to Heaven. It seems incredibly far out to me. And it shook me a little. But maybe I'm not supposed to be able to imagine it. It should be, at least in some sense, unimaginable. I dunno. I'm not sure if I have a question, but I know I don't have an answer. I hope that God takes my shaky faith, says, "This will do for starters," and then grows it.

It helped that on Angela Barber's blog today she shared a great quote about what we are all looking for: "that there is a God right here in the midst of our day-to-day lives...who is trying to get messages through our blindness" (Buechner).

I'm glad that God can take my little faith and still send me reminders that He is love and that He loves me.

Job 42:2

Job, to God:
"I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted."

Introducing Justin Fitzgerald Okimi

My brother Kevin called me today. He wanted to know if he could use my address to file his U.S. taxes since he has moved back to Canada. Somehow this led us to a brilliant idea. As most of you know, my brothers and I all share the name Fitzgerald, but often it is not on our ID. For instance, some of my cards say Justin Gilbert or Justin Michael, rarely do they list all three.

BUT, if we made sure to list in our passports the name Fitzgerald (i.e. Matthew Fitzgerald Okimi, Kevin Fitzgerald Okimi, Greg Fitzgerald Okimi, Justin Fitzgerald Okimi) THEN we could purchase an airplane ticket for Fitzgerald Okimi (plenty of people go by their middle names) and any one of us could use it.

Now, you're probably thinking Why would you ever need to do that? And that's a good question. No instance comes to mind. BUT, it doesn't hurt anything, and then in the off chance something did come up that I couldn't use my ticket and my brother could, why, we've just prevented the loss of a plane ticket.

Cartoonists

I love it when cartoonists mix the real world with the cartoon world. Of note, both Foxtrot and Pearls before Swine are excellent comics and you should check them out here and here.

No time for heroics

So I was watching Star Wars. I've done that before. It was my favorite one, Return of the Jedi. But something caught my attention this time. In the middle of the battle between the Ewoks and the Stormtroopers on the moon of Endor, C3-PO says to R2-D2, who is about to rush into the middle of things, "This is no time for heroics!"
Which is ironic. Because it's exactly the right time for heroics. There's not better time for heroics than when they are desperately needed. (Which they were, Han and Leia didn't know what to do.)
It just makes me stop and think. I'm not exactly sure about what. Except that I think sometimes we (or I) get too concerned about staying safe. About staying out of the way of the blaster fire so I don't get hurt. So concerned that we forget to do the heroic things that we should be doing.
I'm not really sure what type of heroics I'm talking about. Maybe just heroic love. What's that? I dunno. Being loving when there's no earthly reason to be. Or when there are plenty of earthly reasons to be but I just don't feel like it.
Of course, heroic R2-D2 ends up getting shot and short circuits. But it's just a movie anyway. And he survives.

Inspiron

My first post from my new computer... It's beautiful. It was like Christmas in February when it arrived at 10:30 this morning. Ask Kristina. She was there. It's good to be technologically up to date again.

It's a trend

1. I almost couldn't find my blog, it's been so long.
2. I hate making decisions that affect me for more than the next year (a computer)
3. The sun is shining on Lincoln, Nebraska.
4. It seems that soup is an ideal thing to eat on Friday night. (I am also having soup for supper, and did last week as well).
5. I am going to miss camp this summer.
6. When my phone sits in the cold during frisbee it slows the screen down.
7. I forgot my lunch at school because I ate out.
8. Frisbee was crazy fun--we had at least 25 people.
9. After losing my wallet a couple weeks ago, my life is again in order. (although I'm still missing a few documents, which some might deem necessary. I, however, do not.)
10. God is good. (That one isn't so random, it just is.)

Re-remastered and rereleased

Do you know what I learned today? Digital music never loses quality. If you copy a CD 17 times, it never gets worse quality. Guess who I learned it from? My good friend, Ben. Ironic.

So, I'm offering you Ben Yancer's The Leap for the incredible steal-of-a-price of $8 including shipping and handling. That's FIVE dollars off. Nearly a 40% discount. Folks, I'm not even making a profit on this. I do it all for my love of music and art and the betterment of ourselves and our society.

Email me today. Don't wait a second longer.