Marriage Announcement

WE'RE GETTIN' MARRIED! Cam Tran & Jamie Grant On June 21st 2008, we will be committing our lives to one another. Thanks to our family and friends for their love and support. Thank you God, may you always be with us in our journey. PUBLISHED: London Free Press, Saturday February 23, 2008.

Links & Blinks

Announcing an Announcement: Cam is putting our marriage announcement, including a picture of us, into the London Free Press this coming Saturday February 23rd. Please pick up a copy!

Have y'all seen the latest trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Then check out this link. Apparently, the American version of this trailer differs from the international trailer in one key scene. The MPAA, which controls ratings and content for both movies and trailers, has a rule against pointing guns towards characters within a trailer. "Won't somebody please think of the children" and all that. So they CGI-ed that shot to make the obvious guns disappear. Weird, eh?

There will be a total lunar eclipse tonight, starting at around 10:00 PM. You can read about the details here, and apparently the planet Saturn will be visible during this time as well. Cool!

For a while now, there has been a heated competition for the next generation hi-definition DVD technology. Similar to the Beta and VHS wars of a bygone era, this was a commercial war between Blu-Ray and HD DVD formats. As this article details, Toshiba has conceded the HD format and Blu-Ray now stands victorious. All of the momentum shifted this past year as movie studios started to choose sides, and only one survivor was left standing.

As a fan of the NBA, it's been fascinating to see all of the major trades that were recently completed. Pau Gasol to the Lakers, Shaq to Phoenix, Mike Bibby to Atlanta and Kidd to Dallas. Gasol and Bibby were taken almost for free, and Shaq was an expensive rebuilding trade in exchange for Shawn Marion. Kidd was the most complicated, protracted and costly trade of the bunch. Of that bunch, Gasol was the best steal and he certainly makes Kobe a happy guy. The jury is still out regarding Shaq's againg skills on a run-and-gun team and Kidd's clear slacking this year, but it will be fun to see how well they do with a change in scenery and a renewed playoff run.

Links & Blinks

My latest video game fix is the Sam & Max episode, "Abe Lincoln Must Die!" You can download this here absolutely free. I love some of those old-school Sam & Max games and now they have new "seasons" of games, like tv seasons, which is a great concept. You can also check out the Best Freeware Games of 2007 for another giant list of 'em.

Speaking of U.S. presidents, the Dilbert Blog makes an amusing argument that Barack Obama is a mish-mash of a skinny Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior and Bobby Kennedy. Heh.

An old co-worker of mine, Trevor, posted this blog explaining that he and his wife won a draw and they will get to sit on the bleachers for the red carpet at the Oscars this year. How utterly cool is that?! Wish I could be there...

Mike's blog has an ongoing discussion about the phrase, "Hate the sin, love the sinner." Specifically, as it relates to homosexuality. It includes a pretty widely varied set of viewpoints, but there's a story that relates one person's real experience with how painful this idea can be.

I really like what my dad has been posting on his blog lately. His most recent blog looks at how we think about friendship these days. He has a great challenge for us: "How do you know if you have a friend? Try leaving whatever it is that you’ve been doing together and see if they still call you. You may be surprised that it wasn’t friendship that held you together but the activity which you had been involved in." Sadly, that's more true than we would like to admit.

My Big Brothers Story

Yesterday, I volunteered to speak at orientation for Big Brothers. Every few months, they have an information session to talk to prospective Bigs about the requirements and expectations and how it all works.

I wrote out some notes beforehand, which is a tad geeky and unnecessary but I do like to give presentations. My talk took between fifteen and twenty minutes and I think that I gave a pretty clear picture about what it's like to be a Big. We had a total of six guys there, I think, ranging from late teens to mid-twenties to a guy in his forties. And since Big Brothers works with high school co-op students, one of them was video taping our session for a school project as well. I cracked a joke about posting it on YouTube but apparently my fifteen seconds of fame will have to wait.

I was surprised when I realized that I started the application process with them back in January 2005, and I'm coming up on my third anniversary with my Little in April. Cool! So here are some of my notes, for anyone that may care or may come across this on google...

HOW I JOINED
In September 2004, I noticed the sign on Oxford Street asking for new Bigs so I started asking around. My old co-worker Lindsay, in particular, was a Big Sister before and she told me her story. In January 2005, I called Big Brothers and attended their orientation meeting. On February 7, 2005 I had my initial interview
with the case workers during which I asked my own questions and they asked about my family life growing up and that kind of thing. The background and police check was done, and all that jazz.

I then had a second meeting to discuss potential Littles that they had selected for me. Three were within my desired age range, 12 and up, because I thought that I would relate better with an older kid. However, one was only 7 years old
but that was easily my best match. On April 4 2005, I started hanging out with my Little Brother.

Ever since then, we have made a point of spending three to four hours each weekend together. The organization only expects you to do this consistantly for the first year but my Little and I have so much fun that we have kept this up all along. Sometimes we're with a group of people but it's supposed to be one-on-one time so that's what we usually do.

WHY I JOINED
I have a passion for mentoring young people. I have mentored/befriended a few younger guys over the years personally, along with a group of teenage musicians from my old church. I think that everyone needs to have someone from whom they can learn, and someone that they can teach. As those roles in church came to an end, I was looking for another outlet and opportunity to mentor. I saw the sign while I was driving along and the rest is history.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE
I don't want to go into too many details for privacy reasons but I'll list off a few things. I gradually helped my Little learn how to swim, and two winters ago we took snowboarding lessons together, which was a brand new experience for me. I took him on his first camping trip, went fishing with him for his first time, have gone hiking and biking, went river tubing, we've hit a number of heavy metal screamo concerts, etc.

My pattern is that we stick around my house every other week and do the usual things like video games, movies and imaginary games. On the opposite weeks, we usually go out and do something, whether it's waking around the flea market or learning how to fill the windshield washer fluid in my van. Nothing too crazy or expensive, just hanging out with my friend and often doing the things I would do anyway.

OUR RELATIONSHIP
I went into much more detail about this during my talk but suffice it to say, he's one of my best friends. He's the only friend that knew about it when I was going to propose to my fiance, and he helped me buy roses for that occasion. We talk about fun stuff and we talk about serious issues, and I make a point of getting beyond the easy, superficial conversations once in a while. So yeah, I love this kid!

MY ADVICE
It's a wonderful opportunity to get a great friend. You will learn a lot from each other so it's definitely not just a one-way thing.

My warning is: Don't jerk 'em around. These kids don't have a dad in the picture and one of the worst things you can do is join and then quit before your first year is up. I've seen this happen. Despite our best intentions, sometimes intentions are not enough so don't get involved until your life is pretty stable. The trust and friendship that is so easily given in the beginning can become cynical and cold if you burn a kid by ditching 'em, regardless of the reason, so be careful.

Sometimes, we wonder about making an impact in this world. With just one small life, we certainly can have a gigantic impact. And the effect on the rest of the family is noticeable, too, as an added bonus. It's a fantastic experience, full of fun and life-long memories and first-time events. It's be great!

Related Blog Posts
Sept. 8, 2004 Considering Big Brothers
Jan. 26, 2005 Funny Thing happened to me on the way to get my police check...
Feb. 9, 2005 Big Brothers Interview
Apr. 5, 2005 I'm a Big Brother!
Feb. 13, 2006 Our First Mosh Pit & Screamo Concert

Links & Blinks

I've been pondering various issues lately. A small sample...

• Network Marketing vs. Corporate Sales (Buy from a friend or give money to shareholders.)
• Network Marketing vs. Classical Enterpreneurship vs. Workin' For The Man
• Rejection is a bitter pill to continually swallow, and I'm almost full. (Link)
• Why do people think I'm scamming them when I'm paying money out of my own pocket? Doesn't that simply show how much I believe in my idea?
• Top 10 Reasons for Network Marketing (Link)
• Top 10 Problems with Network Marketing (Tracking...)
• Risk vs. Reward. Security is our priority. The present is more important than the future.
• We defend what we know and attack what we don't know. Church, business, whatever.
• I'm a brilliant idiot.

And now for something completely different...

Did you hear about the latest perpetual motion machine? Well, it's not exactly perpetual motion but it apparently defies the laws of physics in a similar way. This guy has invented a type of engine that speeds up when a sold magnet is put near it. Without adding more energy or gas, the engine should not be able to do that. At worst, this might allow us to create more efficient electric motors. At best, it would create an electric car engine that gets charged by simply braking. The trick is, he needs to convince people that this is real because everyone just keeps telling him it's impossible, even after agreeing that his demonstration seems real.

Mark Twain said, “Never let public schooling deny your child of an education.” My dad wrote a blog post recently, Edumacated Versus Desire To Learn. He comments on the irony of well-educated people having a difficult time learning certain new ideas. Their circular reasoning goes this way. "I’m educated and therefore this new idea that I’m being presented with can’t be good because if it was good I would already know about it because I’m educated." I think he has a point there. (BOCTAOE)