Larry.org

David's Birthday Lego Build

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:08:00 GMT

Wow, I haven’t posted in a while! David and I built a very cool Star Wars Lego model today, Annakin & Sebulbas’s Podracers (Set 7926). It was a larger model than we’ve built in some time, so I did a time lapse video of the build.

In Memory of Mary Ann

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:32:00 GMT

My Mother-in-law, Mary Ann Utriainen, passed away last Friday night.

My wife and I collected images and created this video, which we played at the memorial service.

I think it turned out pretty well, but we’re still quite sad.

Cannonball!

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:30:00 GMT

Cannonball, originally uploaded by Larry and Laura.

I recently decided to pick up my film Camera and shoot off a couple rolls. While I dearly love the convenience and quality of digital. I have to tell you shots like this remind me why film still matters to me.

Lego Trash Truck from Toy Story 3 is very, very nice

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 05:11:00 GMT

Here’s a quick video of it to show the motion of the new Garbage Truck Getaway 7599 lego model, since you can’t really get that from the box.

David's Last Day of Kindergarten

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Fri, 21 May 2010 07:27:00 GMT

Today is David’s last day of Kindergarten. We walked to school together as we often do, and I grabbed the camera so I could shoot a companion video for the one I shot for David’s first day.

This is that video:

2010 Rose Lane Kinder Musical

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Sun, 16 May 2010 06:21:00 GMT

This week David performed in his first school Musical. Here’s the video!

The Ghosts of Virginia - One Christian's view of Arizona's New Immigration Law

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:20:00 GMT

Every time I think of the new Arizona immigration Law 1070 I’m reminded of the song “This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie.

Woody Guthrie wrote, “This Land is Your Land” in 1940, he wrote it in direct response to the song “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin. Woody thought the song Irving Berlin wrote was “unrealistic and complacent”. He recorded the song in 1944 in New York and all the lyrics you usually hear today from this song were just the verses he put in the original recording. He didn’t include the bolder verses about private property or our responsibility to the poor. You can read these verses, and more about the song here. These additional verses really drive home the point, that “truth, justice and the American way” are comprised of all of our combined personal commitments to these ideals. The way we act, the laws we pass, the markets we create all express our values.

I have child who’s very interested in what’s fair. This is usually about how sharing is not fair. I tell him that “sharing is about giving something up, and sometimes that’s what fair means”.

In the Bible there’s an absolutely wonderful verse in Micah that really hits me as my major complaint with Arizona’s Immigration Law.

MIcah Chapter 6, Verse 8

But he's already made
it plain how to live, 
what to do,
what God is looking for
in men and women.
It's quite simple: 
 Do what is fair and just
       to your neighbor, 
 be compassionate and 
       loyal in your love,
 And don't take yourself too seriously
       take God seriously.

In its brevity, says a lot about Justice. Looking up from the bible to the world I live in, I realize I don’t get much guidance and precious few examples of Justice being done in our modern society.

There’s a scene at the end of the Bonfire of the Vanities that kind of rants on the theme that Micah is teaching us.

I'll tell you what justice is not.
Justice is not the will of the few and
  it's not the will of the many. 
Justice is not politics.
Justice is the law.
And the law is man's feeble attempt
to set down the principles of decency. 
Decency!
And decency is not a deal. 
Or an angle, or a contract, 
or a hustle or a campaign
or a trick or a bid for sympathy.
Decency is not the beast
that bays for money, power,
dominion, position, 
votes and blood! 

Decency is what your mother taught you! 
Decency is in your bones!
Do I make myself clear!

Now go home. Go home now.

Be decent people. Be decent.

Recently the Governor of Virginia, Robert McDonnell, declared April Confederate History Month.Governor McDonnell didn’t include any mention of Slavery in the proclamation. Governor McDonnell said he didn’t think that slavery was:

As significant for Virignia as the other aspects of the war. (I’m paraphrasing his exact quote is in this artlce.)

My family lives in Virginia and I grew up there. This was a little embarrassing for me on a personal level (but it’s nothing compared what Arizona has going on). I’ve grown accustomed to Virginia’s missteps here. In Virginia’s efforts to honor the hundreds of thousands of ghosts, many within her borders, I have learned to forgive her for occasionally listening too closely to the values of the unjust that did not prevail.

To his, and Virginia’s credit, Governer McDonnel later apologized for his statement.

Arizona as I mentioned has gone a bit further. We recently passed a very aggressive law concerning Immigration, and as I’m not a civics expert or someone that diligently studies immigration policy, I’m not going to tell you all right thinking people should agree with President’s Obama’s characterization that it’s a misguided law. That would be inappropriate. Besides I’m not here to talk about my political position or address pundit based talking points or any of that.

I bring up this new law because it’s an excellent example of how the Christian values of justice and charity can get forgotten in our very practical and very emotional day-to-day decisions. This is such a good example because it’s a very complex policy issue, yet it’s based on the fundamentally human activity of how we treat strangers. When I look at the law we, as Arizonans, just passed, I can’t think of a better example of how justice and charity matters to each of us at a very real level. Just to be clear on this, we passed this law.

Unlike Confederate History Month, which was looking backwards, we are looking forward and we’re not listening to our dead, we’re speaking to the living and those that will inherit our values.

When I step outside of myself and ask what we’re about, I often think of what Woody Guthrie was saying when he sang about what “this land is”.

Woody is very specific that this land isn’t just My Land and it’s certainly not Their Land or even Our Land. This land is Your Land and My Land. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from this Land “belongs to you and me”. To Woody, and me, it’s about sharing because that’s what we’re put here to do: “This land was meant for you and me.” Christ certainly tells us the same thing about the whole world.

Whether you agree with Woody’s politics, or more accurately how pundits like to characterize him as political man, I have to agree that this aspect of America being for all of us is a fundamental part of our country’s values. I think Woody captured that pretty well, and certainly the song is well loved enough to infer it speaks to a great deal of Americans. (I think of Woody more as Cause oriented man than a political man, his causes certainly brought him into a political context, but he was more interested in justice than politics.)

As I said earlier, to a six year old, sharing is about giving something up. To adults, to Christians, to me, sharing is about much more than that. It’s about what our values are and how we live our lives as a reflection of those values.

Christ teaches us that living our lives in fear and separation from others is wrong. He shows us that there is enough; if we take care of each other, if we share what God has provided, there is and there will always be enough.

I think about these values all the time especially when I’m asked to give of myself, or give of my family. I don’t always say “yes”. I am human and kind of selfish. One of the things I like about the Church I go to is that, as a group, we can say “yes” where individually I might have to say “no”.

Naturally, and rightly, I see more charity from our church than I do from our government. But I also see more justice done as a result of this institution’s commitment to Christ’s teachings.

Yet I worry about christianity’s commitment to justice. When we fret needlessly about political affiliations, we endanger ourselves in our relationship with God. I for one can’t see why I would bring policy concerns and political necessity to God’s word and say “Yeah I get that thing about taking care of the least among us, but it’s really hard, so it’s okay if we don’t right? I mean, who’s going to pay for it? What if they work harder than we do? Why can’t they just stay away from us?”

God shows us, and as a country our own history shows us, when we carry messages of bounty and sharing, rather than messages of doom and fear, we don’t just individually benefit, we all enjoy a richer, fuller and more rewarding life. What we give up we don’t really need anyway. It’s the same thing the ghosts of Virginia taught us to give up. God only asks us to share what has been given to us.

Though life may not be fair all the time and we must, as Christ taught us, live our lives to create a more fair future.

First Grade Reading Group Play

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Sat, 01 May 2010 00:18:00 GMT

This Week David’s reading group performed a play. This is that play.

Conspicuous Virtue and Self Interest

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:10:00 GMT

I work at Earth911, which I enjoy for many reasons, not the least of which is that I’m helping people all over the country find local resources for recycling.

Today one of our writers, Katherine Chen, posted an article Is Buying ‘Green’ All About Status?. The article is interesting from a consumer’s perspective but it get’s really interesting when you look at it from a business perspective. The academic paper that prompts the question is way more useful in a business context. It concludes with the following statement:

Because earning a good reputation can increase an individual’s status in a group, to be altruistic is to act in one’s own self-interest. That is, given that self-sacrifice can communicate the altruist’s willingness and ability to incur the costs of helping, a good reputation already signals that a person has the resources to afford such a reputation, which is important in attaining things that are difficult to purchase with money directly (e.g., friendship, love). Thus, even if nice guys do not appear to finish first today, nice guys’ genes may finish first generations from now.

This really hits home for me, because I’m always amazed at how casually we look at altruistic actions as an either/or decision. The full paper wasn’t linked from the article, probably because it’s so academic in nature. It’s by Vladas Griskevicius and you can download the paper here.

Alex Chilton

larry@larry.org (Larry) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:11:00 GMT

I have to tell you I was a bit stunned when I heard about Alex Chilton’s passing yesterday.

He’s probably the most important American musician you’ve never heard of.

I can’t do a better job describing him than the words spoken on the floor of the House of Representatives in his honor.

The first time I ever really figured out who he was, was because I’m such a huge replacements fan. When they sang:

Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes ‘round

They sing “I’m in love. What’s that song?

I’m in love with that song.”

It was probably no more than a week later that I was listening to his solo albums, and his Big Star records. No more than a month later I was a huge fan.

I’m certainly going to miss him, and my heart goes out to his family.