June 30, 2008
So, my brief flirtation with paganism — looking for a Weather God to pray to — did not result in a hot sunny day for our Kick Off Summer BBQ yesterday. Guess I learned my lesson about false gods! Can’t rely on those idol promises.
But … it didn’t rain, the clouds were sort of bright, and it was warm enough for the kids to play outside while the adults all sat around inside. We had loads of food, a nice mix of people from all the various walks of our lives, and a good time.
The only good pics are of the kids, since adults sitting around eating and talking doesn’t make for great still photography:

And with that, it is now officially summer at the Cole House. Jason has the day off today and we’re off to swim at the Aquarena, then go see Wall-E.
June 11, 2008
OK, so I don’t expect everyone who reads my blog (or really anyone, hardly) to know that June 11 is the feast day of St. Barnabas. Most Christian readers of my blog are fellow Adventists or evangelicals who are not so much into the saint thing, and presumably my non-Christian friends aren’t so much into saints either. Even if you’re Catholic or Anglican and actually follow the calendar of feast days and saints’ days and such, you’d have to be pretty hardcore, I think, to celebrate a Biblical footnote like St. Barnabas.
But Barnabas’s day is the one I really do care about, because I’ve sort of adopted him as a personal patron saint. He’s not actually listed as the patron saint of anything except Cyprus, although apparently he can be invoked for protection against hailstorms. However, in my unilateral protestant way, I’ve decided Barnabas should be the patron saint of teachers, youth leaders, and anyone who works with at-risk youth, and it is as such that I have adopted him as my personal patron.
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June 10, 2008

I’ve been involved with Pathfinders on and off all my life. That’s Pathfinders, the international youth organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for boys and girls aged 10-15, not be confused with Pathfinders, the level of Girl Guides for ages 12-14. For those not in the know, Pathfinders (and its more recent junior organization, Adventurers, for ages 6-9) is sort of Scout-like or Guide-like in nature, with the same kind of emphasis on Fun Group Activities, outdoorsy stuff, earning honours and badges, and a vaguely paramilitary preoccupation with marching and uniforms. The big differences are that boys and girls co-mingle in Pathfinders (to an appropriate degree, of course!) and that most Pathfinder clubs are made up mainly of Adventist kids. While it may be one more way to segregate our kids from the dangerous “real world” around them rather than just putting them in the local Scouts or Guides, it is an organization that has brought a lot of people a lot of fun and joy over the years.
Sometimes, I have been one of those who has experienced fun and joy in Pathfinders. Not always, but sometimes.
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June 5, 2008
A colleague of mine, for reasons that are not completely clear to me, recently showed his students the movie Zeitgeist. Now I’m not one to critique a movie I haven’t watched (or a book I haven’t read), but as near as I can figure out from the enthused ravings of a student who said I really needed to see it, it’s a bunch of conspiracy theories ranging from Jesus-never-existed-and-Christianity-is-based-entirely-on-Egyptian-mythology, through The-US-staged-the-911-attacks-to-engender-fear-in-the-masses-and-justify-war-with-Iraq, to OMG-The-US-Federal-Reserve-Bank-controls-EVERYTHING!!!!!
If there was a unifying thread tying these three premises together, it escaped my student — except perhaps the unifying thread of Open Your Eyes! Don’t Be Deceived! Sinister Forces Are Out To Get You. All of which just reminds me of this ”protest song” featuring a very young Hugh Laurie and Tony Slattery.
But I’m not interested in a critique of Zeitgeist here; what interested me was how uncritically my student absorbed and believed everything he saw on it. Largely, I believe, because it fit with the way he already thought. He likes conspiracy theories; he wants to believe there’s a big evil mastermind pulling the strings. (He also wants to believe zombies are real, but that’s another story). It made me think about how easily we’re convinced by things that fit with what we already believe, or want to believe.
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June 4, 2008
This is a placeholder blog. It’s not about any one of the many interesting subjects (mostly parenting-related) that have floated through my mind the last few days as possible interesting blog-topics. Nor is it about:
-the gorgeous, though erratic, spring weather we’re finally getting,
-how slack things are at school because all my students apparently think public exams are No Big Deal and not worth reviewing for, except for the handful of keeners who come regular for whom, because they are keeners and because they come regularly, exams actually are no big deal and they actually don’t need the review,
-how busy things are at home, with end-of-year activities for the kids, Jason down with a cold, much spring cleaning and throwing-out-of-stuff to be done,
-how I’m nearly through another revision of What You Want and still feeling generally happy about it.
Nope, not going to blog about any of that because there just isn’t time and I want to get that last scene of WYW nailed tonight, then get to sleep earlier than I have been. This is just a blog to say I’m still here; I haven’t forgotten you; I will live to blog again!!
Amongst all the rest (which will hopefully provide some promising blog-fodder for the future) I have been reading some good, thought-provoking books though … new reviews up at Compulsive Overreader with more to come in the next day or so.
Back to writing….