Norway, in pictures

Over spring break, back in March, I visited my good friend Trygve Watne in Sandnes, Norway. It was an amazing trip full of good conversation, fun times at the middle-high school where Trygve works, and fabulous scenery. We played curling, ate whale, visited a spectacular fjord, goofed around on the Atlantic coast, took in a concert, and scarfed perhaps my favorite food in Europe: a kebap sandwich!

Here are some pictures:

What to do?

Yesterday, the Pew Hispanic Center released a report on Mexican migration (immigration) to/from the United States. The authors found that the annual number of Mexicans coming into the USA had declined from > 1,026,000 in 2006-07 to 636,000 in 2008-09. During the same periods, an average of 420,000 Mexicans returned to Mexico. The two most interesting parts of the study, in my opinion, are (1) that it found 11,500,000 Mexicans lived in the USA in 2009, and (2) the US Border Patrol apprehended 662,000 Mexicans in 2008, which is 30,000 more people than got into the country! (Granted of the 662,000 detentions, some of them are bound to be people trying to enter the country more than once, maybe many more times.) The Pew Hispanic Center's report also estimates that ~85% of Mexican immigrants living in the USA are undocumented/illegal (meaning they did not apply for an expensive and nearly impossible to get visa from a U.S. Consulate office).

So a question I have this morning is: what to do? Maintain the status quo? Offer blanket amnesty to those in the country illegally? Ask them all to leave? Increase measures that close off options for undocumented (i.e., inability to get driver license, apply for bank loans, etc?)

I've posted about this many times before, and I want to again reprint the poem written by Emma Lazarus, which is engraved on a tablet on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Her words are powerful! What are your thoughts?

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Such a tragedy - Int'l exchange program gone awry

The summary: terrible stories from bad exchange experiences of int'l high school students who come to the USA to study for 6 months / 1 yr. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090716/ap_on_re_us/us_foreign_exchange_scandal

What a cool time it's been!

The past 18 days have featured extraordinary weather in Annapolis! Temperatures have been below normal since about June 28th - and several days have featured temps much below normal. The culprit has been an anomalous upper-level low parked over the Great Lakes and southern Ontario, which anchored cool Canadian high pressure and northerly lower-tropospheric winds over the eastern 1/3rd of the U.S. since the end of June. See the two figures below: one, the 30-day temperature plot for Baltimore, and two, the mean 500 hPa geopotential height from June 28-July 11. Let's hope the trend continues for the rest of the summer!

Finally, a reasoned analysis of the hype

In the midst of Michael Jackson "hoopla", something remained unsettled with me, something I struggled to put into words but felt none-the-less. Today's opinion piece in the NY Times captures it very well: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/opinion/04herbert.html?_r=1

"The Michael-mania that has erupted since Jackson’s death — not just an appreciation of his music, but a giddy celebration of his life — is yet another spasm of the culture opting for fantasy over reality. We don’t want to look under the rock that was Jackson’s real life."

And, by analogy, we don't want to critically examine our own lives (or the collective life of the country) because it does seem to have become quite hedonistic (pleasure-seeking; "Am I happy?" is a very popular self-analysis question). Your thoughts?

A sad story that continues . . .

Solitary incarceration is a horrible punishment. And what I don't understand is how the drumbeat of "release the prisoners of war" can be so loud in this country (I guess it was particularly strong during/after Vietnam?) and yet we ourselves hold hundreds of POWs to this day. The whole mess is just sad.

Una noche muy latina

Tonight I'm renaming the night "Latin Night" since I'm watching two futbol (soccer) matches, one on the internet and one on Telemundo. And exchanging text messages in Spanish with my friend Baltazar. Chile and Bolivia are tied in the 42nd minute (in Santiago) and Mexico leads Trinidad & Tobago 1-0 in the 15th minute.

The internet feed of Canal 13 (from Chile) isnt great, but I'm getting it alright.

EDIT 44th minute: GOOOOOOOOOOOL Chile!!

Baptism, Chesapeake style

Yesterday I joined Iglesia Emmanuel for their bi-annual baptisms and drove with Baltazar, Oscar, Isabel, and Iris down to Point Lookout State Park in far southern Maryland. There were 29 people baptized (by my count) and hundreds of people in attendance. We left Annapolis about 6:15 a.m. (15 mins late, as I was the last to arrive!) and I carpooled down with my small group. We had an excellent cookout with lots of tasty meats and played 2 rousing games of futbol (soccer). The baptisms were held around 10:30 a.m. and lasted through about 11:15. I taught some of the guys how to throw the frisbee around - but one of 'em sent an errant disc hurtling into the women (and it banged one of them in the head) so that ended our frisbee-tossing.

Here's a picture of where Point Lookout is in MD; I'll post other pictures soon.

A final goodbye, and a new start

Two weekends ago, the Barrett family gathered at Camp Don Lee to say our final goodbye's to Paw Paw and sprinkle his ashes in the Neuse River just off of Don Lee's pier. We also gathered to dedicate the (still unfinished) "Troy and Robbie Barrett Cabin" to God's glory and service. It was a glorious Saturday (warm and breezy), a perfect day to gather and remember. Mary Beth, Matt, Tim, Mike, and I tossed an ultimate disc around before lunch, and then we all headed out to the pier for the ash spreading. Afterward several of the crew went out on a sailboat, and others hung around and relaxed on the pier. Later in the afternoon, Bill, Tim, and Dad showed off with coordinated back-flip dives off the Don Lee diving platforms. Tim, of course, stole the show with multiple 2.5 (maybe a 3.5?) turn dives. As they were exiting and getting ready for dinner, I said my goodbye's and left for Asheville around 4:30 p.m.

Here are some pictures.

Random photos from the past 2 months

I realize I've gotten behind in posting photos on the trusty blog (Facebook is so much easier to upload photos... Blogger, can you make any changes??!) Here are a few random pictures spanning my Final Four watch party (Saturday 04 April), Easter dinner over at the Sponaugle's with Campus Crusade, a nice shelf cloud that passed over USNA on April 21, and Zach's visit from April 29-May 3.