Obsessed with Technology

This morning there is an op-ed article by Maureen Dowd in NYT that I really appreciate because it deals with a subject that drives me insane. Here is what she says:

"As John Ratey, the Harvard professor of psychiatry who specializes in the
science of attention, told The Times’s Matt Richtel for his chilling series,
“Driven to Distraction,” using digital devices gives you “a dopamine squirt.”

That explains the Pavlovian impulse of people who are out with friends
or dates to ignore them and check their BlackBerrys and cellphones, even if 99
out of 100 messages are uninteresting. They’re truffle-hunting for that
scintillating one.

Americans woke up one day to find that they were
don’t-miss-a-moment addicts who feel compelled to respond to all messages
immediately.

It also explains why Christopher Hill, a 21-year-old from
Oklahoma who killed a woman last September when he ran a red light while on his
cellphone and rammed into her S.U.V., tried to keep dialing and driving with a
headset his mother gave him two months after the accident."

I hate, absolutely hate being around people that cannot seem to put down their smart phones long enough to have a conversation with you. They are so busy "keeping up with the news" that they do not truly live in the present. Their friends, families, colleagues are right there ready to share life with them, but they are too busy reading their Twitter feeds on the situation in Honduras.

One of my biggest fears in life is that I, or someone I love will be killed by a drunk driver, but it seems like I should be more worried about being killed by that person that thinks they are so important that they cannot put down their phone, iPod or other devices long to focus on driving.

Overeating

I was browsing the New York Times this morning trying to get up to date with the news. Quite accidentally I ran into this semi book review of the book "The end of overeating: taking control of the insatiable American appetite", by Dr. David A. Kessler.

Basically, Dr. Kessler finds that, much like cigarette makers manipulate nicotine levels to make them more additive, food manufacturers might also manipulate fats, sugar and salts to keep us wanting more food than we actually need. How fascinating! I think I will read the book.

One of his main messages is that overeating is not due to an absence of willpower, but a biological challenge made more difficult by the overstimulating food environment that surrounds us. “Conditioned hypereating” is a chronic problem that is made worse by dieting and needs to be managed rather than cured, he said. And while lapses are inevitable, Dr. Kessler outlines several strategies that address the behavioral, cognitive and nutritional factors that fuel overeating

Eroding Trust

I just finished reading this great op-ed by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. He is writing about Al Qaeda and their strategy to create a closed American society by causing an erosion in trust.

"By turning human beings into walking missiles and instruments from our daily lives — cars, airplanes, shoes, cellphones, backpacks — into bombs, Al Qaeda attacks the very feature that keeps our open society open: trust. If you have to fear that the person next to you on a plane or in a theater might blow up, there can be no open society."

It is a scary thought that it is up to all of us to keep an open mind and an open heart regardless of how chaotic things become. Once we, as a society, allow fear and prejudice to separate and isolate us from each other, they win.

Snow Days

It snowed about 8 inches on Sunday night. When I woke up on Monday morning there were fallen branches, my car and driveway were totally buried, and there was no way for me to go to work. Yes!
I love snow days. Unfortunately, Trevan is in California for a conference, which means that I have been stuck in my house for two days now totally alone. Since Richmond does not see this amount of snow very often, the road crews tend to ignore entire neighborhoods when plowing. Mine happens to be one of the abandoned streets. Not to worry though, I have filled in my home alone time by working on various house projects.
Tomorrow the temperature is suppose to get up into the 50s, so I will be able to get out of the house.

Valentine's Day

This year for Valentine's day we had a blast! We started out with pancakes on Wednesday. Then I helped Trevan preach on Sabbath (mostly I just helped demonstrate proper communication techniques).

Then Trevan gave me chocolate and a wonderful card! The chocolate is so decadent . . .
Tomorrow, we are going to Ipanema Grill for lunch, my favorite restaurant in Richmond! This has been a wonderful week for Trevan and I.

To 2009!

This year has started off with a bang!

On New Year's day I threw-up on my way to the airport and have been sick for about a week now.

Yesterday I went to the doctor and found out I have an upper-respiratory infection...

I am looking forward to great things this year!

Tripping

On my way out of the office yesterday my heal got caught on the cuff of my pants and I fell down a flight of twenty steps. My shoes went flying and ripped up the skin on my left shin.

As I was going down (I swear it felt like I fell in slow motion) I was praying that I would not break anything because I am suppose to be leaving for Switzerland in a month.

Overall it was not pretty or funny at the time, but I have really laughed at the whole situation today. Envisioning myself tumbling down the steps, then trying to look dignified as I picked all the stuff that fell out my purse and put my shoes on while my shin was throbbing is kinda funny. I really tried to pretend like nothing had happened as I limped to my car.

It is really great that nothing serious happened and I will be just fine in a couple days.

Valentine's in April

This year Trevan promised me an orchid for Valentine's day. It took us two months to find one that we were both happy with. On April 14, exactly two months after V-day, we finally bought our little orchid.Let's hope that it survives me, since I have a long history of sending perfectly innocent plants to their graves way before their time...

Busy Song

Have you see the episode of Veggie Tales where Larry gets mugged by bandits and they leave him stuck upside-down in a whole? It is the good Samaritan story with a twist.

While Larry's head is in the whole, the major of his city, and a doctor come along, but instead of pulling old Larry out the whole they sing a song about how busy they are.

Lately I feel like that is exactly what I've been doing. Dismissing the important to take care of the urgent. Much like singing a song.

"I'm busy, busy, dreadfully busy.

You've no idea what I have to do.

Busy, busy, shockingly busy.

Much, much too busy for you."

Gotta get back to work!

A great start to the New Year!

This weekend I received a wonderful gift. My friend Rosie came to visit me for the weekend. We had a wonderful time watching movies and eating great food... We also got to talk a lot about life and the crazy things that happen to us as the years go by.

It was a great start to my new year because I was desperately needing to have a friend for a couple days!

Next weekend I will be able to see some other friends of mine, Darlene and Peggy.

I definitely thank God for the wonderful people He puts in my life that make the daily living so much more bearable.

What Direction? - Part I

In the movie The Devil's Advocate, Kevin Lomax, a hotshot attorney, finds that one bad decision spirals his life so completely out of control that he ends up employed by Lucifer himself. While Nike says "Just do it", and encourages us to make bold decisions like Lomax did, our better judgment tells us that caution is a more trustworthy guide.

We live in constant fear of making the wrong choice; taking the wrong job, marrying the wrong person, choosing the unfulfilling career. So as the major intersections in our lives arrive and we find ourselves needing to take action, we are paralyzed with this fear. We agonize, pray, stress, but mostly make no decision at all hoping that some magical sign in the sky will tell us what to do.

When I was single I lived in constant fear of marrying a guy one day, and then meeting the "perfect guy" the next day. This fear kept me from dating through most of my high-school and college years. Trevan was my first real relationship.

As I look back on those years I now wonder if God put that fear in my heart to stop me from dating the wrong guys. What if fear is not keeping us from true happiness, but preventing us from making that wrong decision that will spiral our lives out of control.

Happy Birthday to ME!

As I look back on my 25th year of life, I realize that I had no expectations for that year at all. Yet, that year brought me to a new city, a new job, and a fabulous house.

Looking to my 26th year I can foresee no major changes. No big moves, no new jobs, no big purchases. Yet my anticipation for the adventures ahead are not dampened.

To be honest, this birthday totally snuck up on me. With all the trips and work, I did not realize it was almost my birthday till Friday. Usually I look forward to this day from the beginning of October! Yeah, birthdays are big in my book.

Still, my joy was not lessened by the belated realization that October 15 was closer than I imagined. I guess the great thing about birthdays - my birthdays anyways - is that there is always hope that this year will bring me closer to my goals. The anticipation that maybe this year I will accomplish something that was not accomplished last year.

Or maybe it is just a positive way of saying that I am getting old!

Snapshot

Ok, so my life has been one big trip after another for the past couple weeks. I just wanted to give you a snapshot of what happened since September 26, then I will try to write a bit more about each trip, journey, whatever.

September 26 - October 1: Trevan and I went to Belize to celebrate my granny's 95th birthday, which turned out to be a huge family reunion.

October 7 - Morning of October 9: Was at a conference in Williamsburg for pastor's and their families.

October 8: my niece, Ainsley Rebecca Ng, was born.

The afternoon of October 9 - October 11: Went out to Sandy Point for a retreat with my job.

Yesterday: Trevan preached an amazing sermon at church.

Tomorrow: My 26th birthday.

Yes, I have been busy. More to come later!

Events leading up to our anniversary!

I have already related the story of our journey to MD to send off our friend Michelle to Korea. Just wanted to share the picture that we took at the restaurant at like midnight!

Have a great trip Michelle!

Happy Anniversary to ME! - Part One

Today we celebrated out three-year anniversary!

There are many events that led up to making this day very special!

On Sabbath we went to Maryland after church to attend the baby shower of Tommy and Andrea Norris. Tommy and Trevan grew up together and share a deep passion for sports, which has made them great friends over the years. It was really special to be able to share this important moment with them, even if we got there an hour before the shower ended (traffic into MD was terrible).

Following the baby shower, we went over to spend a couple hours with Grandma and Grandpa Osborn and were pleasantly surprised to find Trevan's aunt and uncle also there.

Later that night we left to go to a farewell party for our friend Michelle, who is going to Korea as a missionary for the next year. She has been a very good friend although she is a Republican! (inside joke).

We left MD at midnight and drove back home. It was thrilling trying to recapture our youth when we were able to stay up and drive all night! Got home around 3 Sunday morning.

Then on Sunday some of our friends stopped by to drop off an early anniversary gift...A brand new gas grill!!
It was raining that afternoon so we had to assemble the grill in our kitchen. We honestly cannot remember getting a better anniversary gift! Needless to say, I will be planning lots of summer gatherings at our house.

Thank you!

To be continued...

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall?

For that funny story connected to July 4th I promised you...

It was a wonderful surprise to have our friends Dan and Ayo call to tell us that they were in the Richmond area and would like to come by and see us for a couple hours on the 4th. We were thrilled to have them even for a short time.

They arrived while Trevan and I were putting the finishing touches on the bathroom for the guests that we would have a bit later.

One of these finishing touches was a huge mirror that was to go atop the vanity. Because it was just a flat mirror we decided to stick it with mounting tape. Unfortunately for us, the wall in the bathroom is terribly uneven, so we belatedly realized that the mirror was being supported by just a few pieces of tape, while most of the tape was not even hitting the wall...What brought about this realization?

Back up a few minutes...

Ayo: how do you like having your own house?
Shari: It is a lot of work, but very rewarding... blah, blah, blah

CRASH!!!!!

Shari: What was that?

We ran to the bathroom to find that the mirror had fallen and crashed to a million pieces. Frantically I got the broom and started sweeping up the shards of glass on the floor before our guest got there...doorbell rings...too late, they are already here!

Needless to say, we had a very crazy start to our first gathering at the house, but I am happy to announce that it all went well, no one got hurt in the incident, and Ayo got a very vivid answer to her question!

Pictures of the bathroom to follow!

Blog Interrrupted

There has been a million things that have happened to prevent me from blogging as frequently as I would like to. Bellow is a short recap of the past couple months.

1. In April I started a new job and continued renovations on the house.
2. In June I had to go to Dayton for a job-related conference, preparations for which kept me extremely busy.
3. Although I was hired as the development director for Initiatives of Change, I have also taken on the communications position until we hire someone, so, in essence I am doing the job of two people!
4. We finally had a bunch of visitors over to the house. The big project was the bathroom which took forever to finish. We had to remove wallpaper which was really awful. We finally finished it up and had the young adults over for July 4. We bought a grill and had a fun cookout with about 20 people. Funny story to come in regards to this particular event...
5. My parents came down on the 4th and stayed through Sabbath. Dad saved us at least $1500 by removing three huge tree stumps. Leo and Trevan did a bunch of raking and yardwork to get the yard looking decent and my mom and I replanted some basil and a palm tree.
6. That same Sabbath, Trevan's dad, grandma and grandpa, and aunt and uncle came down so we had a great day.
7. Last weekend our friends Andre and Heather stayed with us. Andre preached an excellent sermon on Sabbath, we had a great potluck with the young adults, and got to hang out.
8. Went to Busch Gardens on Sunday with the young adult group from church and had a blast. Trevan forced me to go on this new roller coaster named “Griffon.” There is a 205 foot, 90 degree drop that they stop the cars right over for a few seconds. You basically dangle there starring straight down wondering what brand of stupidity possessed you to get on in the first place! Survived that and plan on going again on August 19th. Want to join us?

This whole list is an excuse for why my blogging has been very sparse, at best. Hope to do better in the coming weeks!

It's been a long time!

Wow, I really have dropped the ball with this whole blogging business. Sorry about that. I am back!

For over two months now I have been working for an international NGO based in Switzerland. The name of the organization is Initiatives of Change, formerly Moral Re-Armament. This organization seeks to engage people of all races, religions, economic backgrounds, and cultural backgrounds, in ways which build trust accross the world.

The US offices are based in Richmond, and they have worked most specifically with race issues in this area. They are very well known in the metro Richmond area for their ability to train leaders to build strong, integrated communities that value and embrace each others differences.

In Washington D.C., there is another office that is working very closely with Muslim/Christian dialogs. Thrying to get these two religions to understand, respect, and trust each other. No easy feat.

Although I have only been here a little while, it has been crazy and I am definitely working hard for my pay check! Next week we have a big forum in Dayton, Ohio, and we have all been working hard to pull all the speakers and activities together. If you are in that area you should check it out.

If you are like me, you have felt alone in your quest to change the world. Through this job I have found that there are thousands of people all over the world that feel the same way. Part of my job is to help those people find us, and others that are trying to make a difference and help them "plug-in" to the movement. Although there is a long way to go before the world is a better place, I have now learned that I am a better person for trying to change it, and that makes the world better!

Fanjaya

After failed attempts at voting for American Idol contestants during the second season, I gave up trying. Really I gave up on the show completely... Still love Kelly and Carrie though!

This season, however, has drawn me back in with the arrival of unlikely Sanjaya Malakar. If you had never heard Sanjaya sing, but saw the little girl that cried during his performance, you would have assumed he was a wonderful singer. For those of you that have heard him sing, you are thinking "What is wrong with her?".

I remember laughing the morning after the show aired when I saw the report on the Today show. God definitely did not imbue Sanjaya with the gift of singing like an angel. He has a wimpy, shaky voice and should have never gotten to where he is.

Why then did I find myself voting for him MULTIPLE times after last week's show? Because God did not imbue me with any singing or musical abilities either. If you think about it you will see how cruel life can be for a pastor's wife that does not play the piano, sing, or, well has no musical ability. I have actually had people ask me, "So what do you do?".

So, for all of us that consider it quite cruel that some have the gift of music while others just pray in vain for divine voices, Sanjaya stands as an example that having a great personality (and girls crying while you perform) is worth much more than actual talent. In honor of his effort I have become a Fanjaya too! Either his effort or the desire to get back at people that consider you worthless if you can't sing.

Wild Life

The previous owners of our house told us that each spring a couple of owls nest in the woods behind our house. I have eagerly been anticipating their arrival.

A couple weeks ago I began to hear them at different intervals during the day. Since then they have been quite noisy during the night, but until today we still had not seen them. This afternoon however, we heard them and decided to go outside and check it out.

At first we noticed about three crows flying around the area. Then we saw one of the owls fighting the crows away from the hole in the trunk of the tree were the other owl was incubating the eggs! Very National Geographic! I tried taking pictures, but we don't have a camera with great zoom, so they are not great pics.We plan on purchasing binoculars and a better camera soon so we can get pictures of the baby owls. In a couple weeks they should be here and supposedly we will see them learning to fly right in our back yard! I'll keep you posted.