Monday, May 05, 2008
Adios blogger
So I decided to join the cool kids club. I've switched to Wordpress. I thought about it, and well, Wordpress is awesome.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
USA's Ace of Aces
During a break from my reading for class, I decided to get onto wikipedia yesterday. I was browsing through the main page where they had a link to the article featuring the Red Baron. I read bits of it and thought I would look up and read on this country's top pilot during the Great War. The "Ace of Aces" for the USA was Eddie Rickenbacker. I think that this was a guy that men can look up to. He seemed to have really lived and lived bravely.
Some quick facts about "Fast Eddie"
-Took a correspondence course in Engineering
-Enamored with machinery, began racing cars
-Raced in the Indy 500 four times
-"Touted as the first man to drive a mile a minute"
-Suspected of spying for the Germans during WWI (due to his Germanic name)
-Had his first confirmed aerial kill on April 29, 1918
-In the short time the US was in the war, Rickenbacker amassed 26 victories (his last was on Oct. 30, 1918).
-Earned the Medal of Honor
-Traveled to USSR during WWII to learn of the aerial capabilities of the Soviet Union for the post-war era
-His plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean as he was en route to take an urgent letter from Washington to Gen Douglas MacArthur
-He, his friend accompanying him, his business partner and the plane's crew were adrift for 24 days.
-They survived off fish, rain water, and the occasional bird.
-Rickenbacker took charge of the situation by encouraging the men to seek solace in the Lord as seen in Psalm 46.
-Rickenbacker stated that all men converted to Christianity as a result (one crew member died).
-Rickenbacker owned an airline company called Eastern Airlines
-In 1941, Rickenbacker was flying on one of his commercial DC-3 planes near Atlanta.
-The plane crashed and trapped Rickenbacker inside.
-He was immobile, severely injured and soaked in gasoline.
-He calmly instructed the other passengers how to get out and what to do.
-After he was removed from the plane, his injuries were found to be:
--a dented skull
--other head injuries
--shattered left elbow and crushed nerve
--paralyzed left hand
--several broken ribs
--a crushed hip socket
--twice-broken pelvis
--severed nerve in his left hip
--broken left knee
--left eyeball expelled from the socket (may I remind you, he calmly instructed the others)
-These were just two of his numerous near-death experiences; in each Rickenbacker displayed great leadership and a courage peculiar to the gravity of the situations.
I would like to be like that.
Some quick facts about "Fast Eddie"
-Took a correspondence course in Engineering
-Enamored with machinery, began racing cars
-Raced in the Indy 500 four times
-"Touted as the first man to drive a mile a minute"
-Suspected of spying for the Germans during WWI (due to his Germanic name)
-Had his first confirmed aerial kill on April 29, 1918
-In the short time the US was in the war, Rickenbacker amassed 26 victories (his last was on Oct. 30, 1918).
-Earned the Medal of Honor
-Traveled to USSR during WWII to learn of the aerial capabilities of the Soviet Union for the post-war era
-His plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean as he was en route to take an urgent letter from Washington to Gen Douglas MacArthur
-He, his friend accompanying him, his business partner and the plane's crew were adrift for 24 days.
-They survived off fish, rain water, and the occasional bird.
-Rickenbacker took charge of the situation by encouraging the men to seek solace in the Lord as seen in Psalm 46.
-Rickenbacker stated that all men converted to Christianity as a result (one crew member died).
-Rickenbacker owned an airline company called Eastern Airlines
-In 1941, Rickenbacker was flying on one of his commercial DC-3 planes near Atlanta.
-The plane crashed and trapped Rickenbacker inside.
-He was immobile, severely injured and soaked in gasoline.
-He calmly instructed the other passengers how to get out and what to do.
-After he was removed from the plane, his injuries were found to be:
--a dented skull
--other head injuries
--shattered left elbow and crushed nerve
--paralyzed left hand
--several broken ribs
--a crushed hip socket
--twice-broken pelvis
--severed nerve in his left hip
--broken left knee
--left eyeball expelled from the socket (may I remind you, he calmly instructed the others)
-These were just two of his numerous near-death experiences; in each Rickenbacker displayed great leadership and a courage peculiar to the gravity of the situations.
I would like to be like that.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Streams of thought
Some random thoughts...
-I am enjoying this semester far more than last semester.
-I enjoy having my own house.
-I find myself yearning to learn, but unwilling at times to do the work.
-I just asked God to make me a better reader and writer.
-I like to vacuum.
-Perhaps my favorite part of marriage is going to sleep and waking up with my wife. There is much security, consistency, and tenderness in that.
-God has blessed us financially, but not too much to where we do not rely on Him. I am grateful for that.
-I want to study Abraham Kuyper's view of "Sphere Sovereignty" more. I think it may be the view which I have held for some time now.
-Two owls were either fighting or mating (not sure how that works with owls) in my yard yesterday. Watching the birds and squirrels in our yard is very relaxing.
-I need to lose weight.
-I need to do the dishes.
-I did the grocery shopping for this week and all we have eaten is red meat and pizza.
-I will hand the grocery authority back over to Sarah (she buys fruit and veggies).
-I was reading while at work that the LDS church (not the fundamentalist LDS church that is in trouble with the law right now) had baptized John Wesley posthumously. I was aware of many others just not Wesley. Joseph Smith did attend a Methodist church before he had his "visions".
I will end with a Kuyper quote.
"Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"
-I am enjoying this semester far more than last semester.
-I enjoy having my own house.
-I find myself yearning to learn, but unwilling at times to do the work.
-I just asked God to make me a better reader and writer.
-I like to vacuum.
-Perhaps my favorite part of marriage is going to sleep and waking up with my wife. There is much security, consistency, and tenderness in that.
-God has blessed us financially, but not too much to where we do not rely on Him. I am grateful for that.
-I want to study Abraham Kuyper's view of "Sphere Sovereignty" more. I think it may be the view which I have held for some time now.
-Two owls were either fighting or mating (not sure how that works with owls) in my yard yesterday. Watching the birds and squirrels in our yard is very relaxing.
-I need to lose weight.
-I need to do the dishes.
-I did the grocery shopping for this week and all we have eaten is red meat and pizza.
-I will hand the grocery authority back over to Sarah (she buys fruit and veggies).
-I was reading while at work that the LDS church (not the fundamentalist LDS church that is in trouble with the law right now) had baptized John Wesley posthumously. I was aware of many others just not Wesley. Joseph Smith did attend a Methodist church before he had his "visions".
I will end with a Kuyper quote.
"Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"
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