Tuesday, August 2, 2005

8:08 PM Noted in passing. The Balloon Bazooka, the ultimate water balloon launcher. 5:46 PM Anthony Bollback has just posted the August edition of China Clippings. 1:34 PM Fascinating piece of info from today’s Chicago Tribune, p. 5 of the Tempo section. Eric Gwinn reports that 9 out of 10 teens use the Internet, and almost 1/3 of all teenagers use instant messaging every day. The teens say they use e-mail to communicate with “old people”—anyone over thirty. Roughly speaking, Baby Boomers use e-mail; Gen Xers and the Millennials use IM. 11:51 AM The Allied Force Costa Rica team returned to Oak Park last night. They had an incredible time and God answered our prayers for blessing and safety and lots of good ministry. Fourteen Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves) trusted Christ at the youth retreat last week. Eric Rubio has a detailed report on his weblog. 11:44 AM Check out Virtual Earth, brand-new mapping and satellite image website from Microsoft. Similar to Google Earth, which I mentioned several weeks ago. Big difference: Google Earth requires special software; Virtual Earth doesn’t. Both programs allow you to zoom in on a particular address using either a map format or viewing satellite photos. 7:41 AM I woke up happy this morning because all our boys are home at last. For the first time in over a year, our whole family is together at home. Nick arrived from China about 10 PM, and Mark came in from a a quick trip to Mississippi an hour later. I am savoring these few days because a week from Thursday, Mark leaves for China for a year. Increasingly it becomes a rare event for our family to be together in one place. As the song says, the boys are back in town. Let the party begin. 7:40 AM Today’s entry in the Crosswalk weblog is called Ten Accountability Questions. 12:37 AM After church on Sunday, Cisco Cotto asked me about the bike trails near Oak Park. I told him to check out the Prairie Path. These days I don’t ride it as often as I would like, but it’s still the # 1 trail in our area, and if you follow it to Wheaton, you can branch off to many other trails north and south. I hear it said that you can ride on various trails all the way into Wisconsin although I’ve never done it. 12:14 AM Has anyone out there been to see March of the Penguins? I would like to know what you think. 12:10 AM Why a butterfly flutters by.