In Memoriam

On Thursday, the world lost a film legend. Paul Newman succomb to cancer at home, a peaceful end to a long and decorated film career.

When I think of Newman, I immediately remember his sly and clever character in the film Cool Hand Luke, but Paul Newman was much more than the character Luke Jackson that he portrayed in that film.

He gave us some of cinema's most enduring characters and worked with some of the most talented actors and directors in show business. His portrayal of Butch Cassidy alongside Robert Redford's Sundance Kid birthed one of the most talented partnerships ever seen on the silver screen. Their lesser-known but just as fantastic pairing in The Sting further cemented their on-screen chemistry.

Newman also starred as Professor Michael Armstrong alongside Julie Andrews in the provocative Alfred Hitchcock cold war thriller Torn Curtain. Throughout the 70s and into the 80s, Newman continued to star in a variety of films and won Emmy, Academy and Golden Globe awards.

He was an avid auto racer from the time began training for the racing movie Winning, and continued to race in SCCA while owning part of both an Indy Racing car team and a NASCAR team. He continued to compete sporadically in racing well into his 70s, driving in the 24 hours of Le Mans in 2005.

Though his talent will alway be with us in his films, his presence, both in Hollywood and among the many charities he served and funded, will be greatly missed. Paul Newman, January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008.

The Great Storm & Puppy Pictures

I don't know if I can adequately recount how ridiculous this week has been. As many of you may know, the remnants of hurricane Ike swept through this area a week ago today, bringing down around 5,300 power lines and leaving more than 300,000 people without power. Kristen and I were fortunate: we never lost our power and suffered no property damage (the picture above is from the group home where I work). However, the widespread blackout was the impetus for a number of stunning events. Here are just a few:

- Traffic lights stopped working. Now, I've lived through a number of power outages in my life, and when the power goes out, every traffic light I have ever seen reverts to a backup source that at least causes the lights to flash yellow, encouraging caution. For whatever reason, this very simple feature wasn't built in to any of the lights here in Louisville, so they all just went black. Since Louisville drivers are some of the worst ever, it made driving a lot more interesting.

- People made a run on gas. Seriously, everyone just relax. We're not going to run out of gas, at least, not unless you buy up way more than you need as a knee-jerk reaction. Are you unhappy with the +25 cent jump in gas prices? Maybe you should just wait 3 or 4 days instead of insisting that you fill up all your vehicles RIGHT NOW.

- Walmart ran out of candles and batteries. There were still no candles as of 3 nights ago...I had to tear into a box that had not yet been stocked on the shelf to find some. The picture to the left was taken 6 hours after the storm. When I asked where the batteries were, a sales associate pointed me to a shopping cart with 30 or so bent packages of AAs. That's all they had.

- Railroad signals stopped functioning. I know this kind of falls under the traffic signals, but I was so incredulous when I discovered this that I have to recount it seperately. Apparently, when the power goes out, there's no backup power for railroad signals either! I drove past the signals near our house for days, unknowingly taking my life into my hands at each crossing, until a generator appeared, chained to the signal box. Who came up with this system?

- Classes were cancelled. Jefferson County cancelled all public school class for the week, as did the seminary. While I was happy not to have to be in class, I have a bad feeling we're going to be paying for it for the rest of the semester, especially in Greek. I had to study by candle light at work; my atheist co-worker pointed out that I was studying like the monks of old.

On the upside, I got to spend several full days with Kristen, which was a welcome change from the fast pace of the semester. We were able to go to Homemade Pie and Ice Cream, which I heartily recommend if you are ever within 150 miles of Louisville. It's worth it, but you must go to the Upper Highlands location...all the others are just copies of the original. We also got to spend some good time with Paisley, which was both fun and entertaining. On Wednesday of last week we took now 13-week old Paisley to the park. For fun, you should compare these to the pictures of Paisley from my August 3rd post "Changing Times" to see how much she has grown. Here are pictures of what followed at the park:






Hopefully this week will be less eventful that last, but I will miss the slow pace of a few days off.

At least I didn't go a whole month!

So, it's been a little while since I have updated the blog...so much for posting every week! Since I last posted I've started classes and we finally brought home our new puppy, Paisley. It's been a crazy couple of weeks.

This semester I'm taking 12 hours. Most of my classes are moderately difficult but require a lot of reading and small assignments (what I might call busy work). The exception is Greek, which I am learning by making every day Greek day (on the orders of my professor). I have never been good at languages; I took a year of Latin and two years of Spanish in High School, only to take a placement exam in college and be placed in Spanish 101. Four semesters later, I've got "donde esta el bano" and "el hefe de transito" to show for it. The second one I learned from my father in any case.

Last year I took two semesters of Hebrew, and that was both extremely difficult and extremely disappointing. But Greek has been different. Part of it is my professor, part of it is my Greek partner George and I think I am just more motivated in general. Nevertheless, I have really been enjoying Greek, though it is at times more than I can handle and I am still struggling to keep up with the vocabulary. I bought a Greek New Testament, and I'm hoping to be able to read a little of it by the end of the semester.

Paisley is great. She was 31lbs at 10 weeks, and I am guessing she's up to at least 36lbs now. She gets bigger by the day, but she's so much fun. We've been training her to respond to basic commands and she seems to be understanding more and more what is expected of her. She was definitely the right pick for us, and she makes the apartment a lot more fun. I'll post some pictures sometime soon.

Both Kristen and I have been thinking a lot about where God is calling us post-seminary. For the first time, I'm beginning to think about what kind of ministry God has for us, and it's an exciting time! Kristen has started working through where God is calling her. She has a phenomenal passion for working with young women, and I am excited to see where he will guide and direct her. Both of us would appreciate prayer in this area as we seek God's will.

Finally, the Large Haldron Collider was turned on yesterday, and we're all still here...what a relief! The race for the White House is getting closer and more interesting by the day- I'm keeping up with that and you can expect to see more posts on that as election time draws near. Keep checking the blog- now that I am in the rhythm of classes, they'll be new posts much more often. Thanks for reading!