The Role of the Family

I watched an interesting interview between Charlie Rose and George Osborne. Osborne is part of the new, conservative government in Great Britain. His position is roughly that of Secretary of the Treasury in the United States.

At one point Osborne was talking about the need to cut government social welfare spending. As they talked about filling the gap, Osborne suggested the importance of the family in dealing with society's problems.

You could tell from his tone that Rose was skeptical; that his liberal heart had written off the family years ago. The humanist/secularist agenda has made the family irrelevant.

It brought to mind the words of Neil A Maxwell:
"You will also see that the living of one protective principle of the gospel is better than a thousand compensatory governmental programs—which programs are, so often, like 'straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.'” From "Why Not Now" 1974

Here's the section of the interview between Osborne and Rose:
GEORGE OSBORNE: Yes. Absolutely. And let’s think of problems which are commonplace in advanced economies and societies like the United States or
Britain. There are public health issues, drug dependency issues. We know
that big government solutions don’t always succeed. That they are not the
only answer. That it’s all very well having a big public health campaign
and setting up out of our hospitals big public health programs. That’s
fine and they can be successful and play an important part, but they can’t
be the whole thing. And you need to engage community groups, charities,
volunteer organizations, as well as families, in these problems. Perhaps a
statement of the obvious, but it often gets forgotten by government -- the
family is such an important institution in all of this. And we have long
debates--

CHARLIE ROSE: So what are you going to do for the family?

GEORGE OSBORNE: Well, to support parental responsibility, encourage people
to take responsibility, for example, for the behavior of their own
children...

CHARLIE ROSE: So this is a public education campaign?

GEORGE OSBORNE: It is about engaging with parents and communities and the
society in a common problem. And not thinking that you can sit at the desk
behind me, write some order that says in every school in the country this
is going to happen at 10:00 in the morning and this is going to improve
discipline overnight in our classrooms and indeed discipline in our
communities. We know now that those sort of top-down answers don’t always
work.

CHARLIE ROSE: I understand, and I think it was Hillary Clinton that once
said, you know, it takes a village.

GEORGE OSBORNE: Lots of people from different parts of the political
spectrum have grasped towards this idea. But I think actually as speaking
in a British context, I think the conservative movement has some insights
here, brings some insights to the table that, as I say, there are-- we
shouldn’t be-- we shouldn’t see the government as all the answers that...

CHARLIE ROSE: Explain to me how it’s not just words, it’s not just
encouragement, it’s not just public -- a call to public citizen
participation.

GEORGE OSBORNE: Well, first of all, it is partly that. And there’s
nothing wrong with...

CHARLIE ROSE: No, I agree.

GEORGE OSBORNE: ... a call to citizenship -- citizen participation. And
there’s nothing wrong with using some of the - some nudge theory.

CHARLIE ROSE: But it hardly represents -- it hardly represents a new...

GEORGE OSBORNE: But let me give another example, which is real,
substantive and so on. Educational reform, one of the biggest programs
we’ve undertaken here, which is to move away from an environment where it
is simply the schools choosing pupils, we start to get pupils and parents
choosing schools, and there is real parental choice and involvement, and
indeed where parents want to come together in this country and create a
school, they’re able to do so. And indeed, that is happening already in
many communities around the country. We’ve already passed through the
parliament here legislation that has given groups in our society, community
groups, the power to create schools within the education system. So funded
by the taxpayer, but a break away from what has gone before, which was the
assumption that not only would government pay for education, but also would
provide all the education. And we’re saying, look, if other people want to
come in and provide state-funded education, let’s see that happen. Now
that is one of the most exciting reform programs that we’ve got. Part of
it is inspired by actually...

CHARLIE ROSE: And doesn’t cost a lot.

GEORGE OSBORNE: Well, it’s-- it’s about the allocation of resources, it’s
not necessarily more or less resources. But we’ve been inspired partly by
what we’ve seen work in parts of the United States. For example, New York
schools reform has been very influential in the education debate here in
Britain.

Link to entire interview:
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11200#frame_top

Problem solved

I went with T-mobile pay-as-you-go.
I looked at monthly stuff. I looked at the new concept where they charge you $1 a day for the days you use it PLUS the minutes used.
I went to Target. They had the Samsung Impact on sale for 1/2 price. I paid $30 for the phone and $94 for a $100 reload card.
I got an 847 area code with no hassle at all.
I have 1,000 minutes and one year of service. So that's about $11 a month. I'm OK with that.
It's tough to tell how many minutes you have left and they always round up to the next minute which is different than Tracfone/Net10. But I can live with that.
I hope T-mobile doesn't disappoint. So far, so good.

No more Net10

Well, you won, Net10. After three hours on the phone with you over three days I was never able to receive a call on my brand new Net10 phone. I could make calls, but not receive them.

ELEVEN TIMES I explained my plight, each time repeating the same info over again. I punched in numbers and read back codes to them. I turned it off. I turned it on. I took out the battery.

On at least four occasions they assured me that the problem had been fixed if I would just wait an hour (or 24 hours) while they corrected it. I wasn't even picky about the number they gave me, as long as it was in the 847 or 224 area code.

But that was too much for them.

I was worried that Walmart would hassle me about the return because the phone had been "activated" but they didn't.

I got a full refund. No problem.

In hindsight I should have taken it back the moment the Net1o agent chastised me for raising my voice and warned me that she would hang up if I didn't behave myself.

Is there another pre-paid phone company out there that isn't Tracfone or Net10? I'm ready to try again, but not with that company.

Can you hear me now?

The headaches of prepaid cell phones.
Why even bother, you ask? Well, I hate monthly payments, and now is not the time to add more to the list.
Besides, when you pay as you go you are less likely to use the cell phone for chit-chat. "I'm just leaving the grocery store. I'll be home in two minutes." "What RU doing SAT?" "My dad is so lame." Well, you get the idea.

So, after months of using a TracFone that was owned by a deadbeat before I got it, I was ready to make a change. ALL the inbound calls were from collection agencies. And who could blame them? The caller ID still read "Mal Darvin." And TracFone somehow couldn't remove the caller ID tag. All I really wanted was for it to read "Cell Phone" like most prepaid phones. I was done with TracFone...or so I thought.

Did you know that Net10 and TracFone are the SAME COMPANY? Well, they are. And they must hire the same clowns for their call centers.

On Wednesday I bought a Net10 phone off the shelf. I activated it on-line. So far, so good.

But the number they assigned was area code 630, south and east of here. I wasn't going to settle for abad area code. That's not fair to land line callers. So, I called and explained that the zip code I entered corresponds to 847 or the overlay 224.

The CSR explained that 630 is a correct area code for my town. When I raised my voice to explain to her that after 22 years at this address I know the area code.

She stopped right there and said I had one strike against me for raising my voice. I had two more strikes and then the call would be terminated. NICE! But I played along.

I have since then had eight more phone calls with Net10, eating up 117 minutes on my land line, and I have not had another strike against me.

In the total of nine phone calls over two days I have entered codes and checked parameters. I have been instructed (twice) to take the battery out of the phone while it was still turned on.

I have been able to MAKE two test calls but have not been able to receive any of them.

So, I called today and asked right away to speak to a supervisor. I gave her my name, my home phone and my case file number. I told her I would wait for them to fix the problem and CALL ME for a change.

I sent a follow-up e-mail but I worry because the form required me to enter the phone number assigned to the phone. That's hard to do when you don't know what it is.

We'll see what happens.

Birthday pens

Here is the Personalize It Yourself (PIY) pen from my dear relatives in Seattle.


And this is the Pierre Cardin magnolia scented pen in orange. One must wonder why such an item would be in the close-out bin.

The collection now totals 1,655 pens. Most are repeats of Holiday Inn stick pens and other corporate litter, but that's the total.

That was fast

I ordered something from Overstock.com on Monday. The order confirmation came back at 8:53 am.

On Tuesday the package was delivered at 11:14 am.

It was a standard UPS Ground shipment for their $2.95 fee.

Now that was fast.

Survivor: Young Women Camp

Just had a great week with 76 super young women at camp! Here I am at left in my cozy little first aid corner helping out a girl in distress. Doug made the privacy screen a couple of years ago.

On the other side of of this area I put together a happy little waiting area complete with church magazines and other books and activities. Doug thought all of the magazines should be dogeared and outdated so it would be more authentic. Has a little sign that says, "How's your spiritual health today?" and a Personal Progress book, FSOY, scriptures, etc., in case they need a little nourishment.

Gratefully most of the health issues I had to deal with were minor scrapes & cuts, mosquito bites, and blisters. And a leader who got heat exhaustion. And a girl who was stung by a wasp during the testimony meeting. I averaged about 15 visits each day, so had plenty to do.

But wait--there's more! The theme was "The Forever Strong Quest" Joshua 1:9 as the camp scripture. Here's the dining hall with our Young Women values banners lookin' great.

We had some neat activities with such as the girls starting their hike and then having to return to the dining hall for their scriptures (Lehi's journey), and programs in which they worked together to build boats, and had an experience with holding/not holding to the iron rod.

For that last one I was asked to be at the end of the trail after the Tree of Life full of sweet fruit (small bags of candies to pick) and lead the group in singing hymns. I accompanied most of the songs with my guitar, so I really enjoyed that opportunity. Now I have my annual finger calluses from pressing on the guitar strings, but they'll be gone again in a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately I didn't always have my camera with me at the right time, so mostly have pictures of "stuff" instead, but the girls were really great and tons of fun. And NO ONE even came to us during the week begging to go home this year--now that's got to be a first! They endured storms, heat, and tremendous humidity, and did a great job.

Tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. I will be at the church seeing the high adventure group off to upper Minnesota and a canoeing trip through the wilderness called the Boundary Waters. And then back to my day job...

A walk in the woods

I took the camera for a hike in the woods yesterday. I was shooting some old 200 film we had in the fridge for a couple of years. (For all of you former film people, Walgreens charges $8 for developing and a CD (no prints) for a roll of 24. Prints and a CD would have been $12.)

The location is a forest preserve about 15 miles west of O'Hare.

Father's Day Pens

Here we have the understated Mickey Mouse pen in the Sock Purse...















Somewhat like the Pen Sock of years gone by...














And here is the Drum Pen...















And the tasteful Douglas model; "A patient and discerning man."















Thanks to one and all.

Dear Dad

“The Spoken Word” from Temple Square, June 20, 1971. © 1971 by Richard L. Evans

Life moves in cycles, from the innocence and honest trusting of a child, a hand held in ours, a boy walking with us. Time shifts the scenes—sometimes to restlessness, perhaps a little aloofness. The seasons pass—sometimes to stubbornness and self-assurance, and sometimes some pulling away from parents. Then back again, as time mellows and matures—hopefully with humility, and a turning once again with gratitude to those who would have spared us much, if only sooner we had learned to let them. Some years ago Frank Crane wrote some lines on this tender searching subject, from which we select some sentences:

Dear Dad—

I am writing this to you though you have been dead thirty years. I feel I must say some things to you … things I didn’t know when I was a boy in your house. It’s only now, after passing through the long hard school years, only now, when my own hair is gray, that I understand how you felt.

I must have been a trial to you. I believed my own petty wisdom. Most of all I want to confess my worst sin against you. It was the feeling I had that you did not understand. When I look back over it now, I know that you did understand. You understood me better than I understood myself. And how patient you were! How pathetic, it now comes to me, were your efforts to get close to me. What was it held me aloof? I don’t know. But it is tragic that a wall rises between a boy and his father.

I wish that you were here now, across the table from me, just for an hour, so I could tell you how there’s no wall any more. I understand you now, Dad, and how I love you and wish I could go back and be your boy again.

Well, it won’t be long, Dad, till I am over there, and I believe you’ll be the first one to take me by the hand and help me. I know that among the richest, most priceless things on earth, and the thing least understood, is that mighty love and tenderness and craving to help which a father feels toward his boy. For I have a boy of my own. Up there somewhere in the Silence, hear me, Dad, and believe me.

One in TWO million

Mom came home from work yesterday having been honored by the library because she was the TWO MILLIONTH CUSTOMER. WOO-HOO!

She got a coffee mug and a couple of gift certificates and a picture frame and a tote bag...

Read all about it here:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/2405506,3_1_EL18_02LIBRARY_S1-100618.article

...and here:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=388630

So, I guess that makes us all famous.

Fancy dancer!

Here are a couple of photos and videos from Clarissa's dance recital. She was simply amazing! She came up with some ideas for her tutu costume and let me have at it. It was fun to figure it out even though we had a couple of false starts before we got to the final product.


With her teacher and classmate. She's the only one who didn't have the benefit of a rail to hold onto, so she's actually being held up by magic.

Here's a little taste of their dance during the dress rehearsal.

And tap-tap-tapping along.

Now live and in color. Enjoy!

Compare these two

and....

I love them both.

The Results Are IN

Our resident scholar got her grades.
Humanities A
Government B
Concert Choir A

That's THREE cheeseburgers.

Congrats, my dear.

Love,
#5 on the weird list

Here's a weird deal for you

Ok, so Miss Clariss is suddenly the expert on "weird" and has declared The Mom to be #1 on the list. For no reason. Obviously. When asked what number The Dad would be, she announced that he is #5. Hmm. Not fair to the Mom, I say.

Of course all of this begged the question: Then who are numbers 2, 3, and 4 on her coveted Weird Scale?

The response? Well, with no scientific back-up whatsoever, she claims that (Sweet Little) Jessica is Number 4, (Poor Innocent) Priya, Number 3, and (Nate's Wife--that speaks for itself) Emily backs up to The Mom with 2nd Place.

So I say unto you, THIS IS NOT WORKING FOR ME!!! (The Mom, that is.) If anyone out there has a conscience, PLEASE do something about these rankings. Or AT LEAST bring The Dad up a few rungs.

Have a weird day.
SH

Hi Robert!

Birthday alert!

Someone turns 21 today.
Give her a shout.

More ballet moves

The recital is just a few weeks away.

Amazing Ballerina

3 Diplomas + 2 Diapers

Last week was a great one--look at these 3 cute BYU grads!

And 2 adorable grandchildren! Who can top that? SH

Stuff @ Grandma's House #2

Stuff @ Grandma's House #3

Stuff @ Grandma's House #1

Delayed gratification

Forty years ago I was taking classes in the new industrial arts wing of my high school. In particular, I took classes in the electronics lab and the graphic arts lab.


They had a great darkroom set up with some nice enlargers.


The rich kids had SLR cameras. The very rich kids had Nikons.

I had an old Kodak 35mm that folded flat, the Retina IIc, circa 1949.

Here's a blog with some photos of a camera very similar to mine: http://aikoman.tistory.com/64

It had some very nice German optics, but the focus was pure guesswork. I got pretty good at using an external light meter.


But focus was always a problem and you could never do any of the depth-of-field tricks without an SLR. I coveted them.


Fast forward to 2010. When going through Ella's house I came across Garth's SLR camera, a Pentax MG. The MG picks the shutter speed for you and will only go manual at 1/100th or bulb. He had a couple of extra lenses.



28 to 80 mm lens.





80-200 mm lens.



This would have been a sweet set-up in 1970. Better late than never.


So I shot a roll and had it developed. It was great!

These weren't as close-up as I had hoped for a 200mm lens, but it was still great. And the resolution is excellent.

But I sure appreciate the advantages of digital photography. With film, the roll of film alone comes out to about 11 cents a picture. Then you've got the developing. Having the processor burn a CD is another $3.

It all adds up. And you can't print your own right out of the camera. And you can't touch up your shots before printing.

I looked into a digital body that uses the K mount lenses and it turns out they can't be used. Digital bodies link up to the lenses in a more sophisticated way.

But I've got the dream set-up I wanted in high school and it is fully operational. Maybe I'll use it for some portrait work.

Larry, Curly and Me

Unique

For a whole new General Conference experience....

Pith

More sage words...
...from the wall at Jimmy John's:
"The gap between more and enough never closes."

...from Rachel's gift of The Best of the Frontier Guardian:
"I verily believe that all those bills they talk about in Congress are counterfeit they are so hard to pass." June 12, 1850 (Some things never change!)

"Critic- A large dog that goes unchained and barks at every thing that he does not comprehend." February 21, 1849

"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." May 29, 1850

"Some persons are capable of making sacrifices, but few are capable of concealing how much the effort has cost them; and it is the concealment that constitutes their value." June 12, 1850

"A lazy boy out in Indiana spells Andrew Jackson thus: &ru Jaxn." July 24, 1850 (There's a boy ahead of his time.)

More still photos, still

Matt feels the music

More candids

Fashion Statement

Snapshots from the trip