My lovely loyal laptop (PowerBook G4) has developed some strange behaviors over the last few months. Things degraded to the point where it would “randomly” enter sleep mode in the middle of regular tasks. I think I fixed the problem tonight: it was not the track pad thermal sensor, or any of those other problems. The failure seems to be in the ambient light sensor.

If this sounds interesting to you, then read on for the full story! (more…)

Wow, what an amazing 24 hours. perhaps the most intense joys and pains of my life.

Sarah is doing well, with minimal tearing. she made it through the entire process with no pain killers. Labor was mercifully short — she impressed 4 nurses and 2 doctors with her strength. she is my hero.

Group Health thinks we are such a great family, they want to keep us until saturday.  for now, we are both exhausted. so do we get to sleep now?

It’s early (or late). 5:20am. we have been able to sleep on and off, disrupted by nurse visits, restlessness, contractions, and uncomfortable beds (even with all those shaping/tilting/lifting options).

Sarah’s contractions are still a little irregular, ranging from 3 to 6 minutes apart, lasting from 30 to 90 seconds. they aren’t too strong yet, but definitely strong enough to prevent deep sleep.

we only attended one week of birthing classes. luckily we learned the signs of labor, and got some critical questions answered… but we currently know very little about breathing patterns, pain management, and what to actually DO during contractions. so between naps and contractions, i’m flipping through a few books trying not to read about everything that can go wrong to find some helpful instruction.

slow breathing. massage. mental focal points. signaling breathes. repetitious prayers. these things really seem to be helping. ok, now i just gotta find the strategy for the next phase… Sarah, what page are you on?

The hospital staff here at Group Health Central has done a great job of helping us to get comfortable. It’s now just past midnight, and Sarah has been sleeping in her robotic bed that moves in 12 different directions to create whatever shape she desires. She has an IV drip for fluids and antibiotics, and has two monitors on her belly — one for tracking contractions (which she can barely feel most of the time), and the other for monitoring Micah’s heartbeat.

The heartbeat ranges from 130 bpm to 160 bpm, more than double Sarah’s. The staff really like his heartbeat. the variance shows he is healthy, apparently! That’s really encouraging to hear for a pre-termer (he missed “full-term” by 3 days, not bad!).

Here’s his heartbeat, as recorded by the crummy mic on my Treo:

thub thub thub thub

Hopefully some pictures will be coming soon…

An early morning flight took me to Arizona today for Pakistan earthquake relief orientation. There were about 50 other men going in this first wave. We got to hear a lot more details about what the situation is in-country. We will be setting up a base camp in a town that was not completely demolished by the quake. From there we will drive/fly/carry shelter building supplies into small villages that need them higher up the mountains. The shelters are made from 4 bent steel pipes (we will carry the pipe bending machines with us), covered with a half-cylinder of corrugated steel. A layer of foam provides much needed insulation. They can be set up in as fast as half an hour.

I leave in 2 hours for yet another early morning flight… PHX -> LAX -> Hong Kong -> Bangkok -> Islamabad. It’s really happening. I’m very sad to leave my beautiful bride behind — she is always such an awesome travel companion, with excellent cultural and spiritual insights. I love her so much. I’m so grateful for all her support of me in this endeavor.

I will be working primarily with a team of 3 other guys, Jonny included (Greg is with a longer-term group). I was honored to be chosen as team leader. I think that will be a good experience for me.

Please pray that we are able to get all of the necessary supplies to the base camp, and then get them to where they are most needed. With so much happening in the country right now (including 5.5 - level aftershocks), logistics can be horrendous.

Thank you again to all who so generously contributed to this effort. I really couldn’t do it without you!

I don’t know how much internet access i will have… but rest assured that i will post as often as i can!

peace.

+brooke

Today, I had the opportunity to let my church know about my trip to Pakistan (one week away!). St. Joseph Parish is known for being concerned for the poor and the hurting, and the parishners proved this true once again! People were very enthusiastic in their support for my trip.

I created an info sheet that i was handing out. I had a journal in which people could write prayers for Pakistan that i will take with me to pray while i’m there (feel free to leave similar in the comments!). Many people offered financial contributions. In total, just over $500 was generously given! It came in the form of donations from $1 to $100. I’m so grateful for each one of these gifts. A lot of people had a decent awareness of the situation, and expressed sincere gratitude that they could help send me, and that i was going.

Thank you, my St. Joe’s community, for all the love and support!

(this puts me about almost half way to my goal of $3000… any beyond this will go to supporting my team members).

Earthquakes don’t get names, like hurricanes do. They aren’t as rare or exotic as Tsunamis. Live video footage of the action is never captured. And we just don’t know that much about Pakistan anyway (at least nothing good).

So it was easy for the world-wide media to let it drop from the headlines. It was easy for Americans to say “Oh, i already gave money after the hurricane”. It was easy for me to assume that the relief efforts would be taken care of by the “international community” (i.e. not me).

The earthquake struck on 2005 Oct 8, near the contested Kashmir region of Pakistan and India. The immediate death tolls were 20,000. It soon doubled, then reached 60,000. it now stands at more than 80,000. With over 3 million people made homeless in one day, this count will surely continue to rise as the cold Himilayan winter descends.

With areas no where near as accessible as those affected by the tsunami, rubble blocking roads, aftershocks undoing vital clearing efforts, and freezing temperatures working their way down the mountains this is simply will not be easily dismissed.

But the international community came to the rescue, right? Money from national and individual donors should make clean up a snap, right? Well, it might, but much of promised money is not getting delivered, and individuals are suffering from “compassion fatigue”. Helicopters, supplies, cash, support people, etc. are scarse in Pakistan.

WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, Amir Abdulla said: “We must have much more funding, much sooner, to gain as much speed as humanly possible in the face of gigantic logistics difficulties.”

Pakistan is finally getting help from the UN to publicize the ongoing need. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is personally touring the country today:

Annan will attend a donor’s conference on Saturday aiming to raise the US $5.2 billion Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf says is needed for the Asian nation to recover from the disaster. Musharraf has called funds received so far from international donors “negligible”…

“We received some resources, but need much, much more to be able to help the people,” Annan said on arrival.

How things are still this bad FIVE weeks after the event i do not know. But it is clear that no more time can be wasted. It is clear to me that i need to give, not just my money but my time, my energy, my strength, my self. i can offer some practical love to those who are feeling forgotten by the world. It is an honor to do so.

I feel as though it was not only the mountains that trembled. Among the houses and lives that were shaken apart, my complacency, self-righteousness, and blindness to the needs of my fellow humans has crumbled. i didn’t hear the earth tremble, but i know the sound as that of a wake-up call to the complete interdependance of all humanity. i suppose that if i were to name this disaster, i would call it “WARNING” — a reminder that we cannot live our lives solely for our own nation, our own families, or even ourselves.

In response to my comments on Bush’s speach, Eric asked:

So how do we Christians respond faithfully?

Great question. I started to reply in the comment, but felt it was more worth a full post.

Interestingly, it seems that this is a different question from “How should a Christian respond?” or even, “How should I respond faithfully?”

Because it is “we Christians” who put Bush in power, it is exactly American Christianity as a whole that should be responding. Bush won (twice) largely because of Christians (and especially evangelicals) giving passion and dollars in the hope of retaining some sense of “moral values”. Often people reasoned that it would be worth all that has been lost to get a chance at an anti-abortion SC judge.

So how do WE respond? Christians need to look deeper when picking a candidate. Leave one-issue voting behind. Consider treatment of the poor, environmental regulations, and tax codes to be “moral issues”. Christianity needs to reclaim it’s heritage of non-violent social action. We need to apply “love thy neighbor” on a global scale.

Sure, easy enough to say, but a long way off? Perhaps, but i think Christians are starting to be discontent enough with traditional conservativism that other options are becoming more viable.

And we get there one step at a time. Which leads us to the other questions, of individual response. As we make progress, we have to share what we know and learn. Talk about these things with everyone. Instigate discussion. Definitely keep praying, for our leaders, and for the state of the Church in this country. Let your spending and giving reflect your values. Keep seeking to let your values reflect the character of God. Live the Gospel in all way possible. We need to apply “love thy neighbor” on a very personal scale.

So, that’s my post-length answer. I’d love to hear thoughts or ideas from others. What do you think?

This past weekend, my beautiful wife and I organized what is becoming an annual fall camping trip near this little-slice-of-Bavaria town called Leavenworth .

We had a great fire going, thanks to my brother chopping up lots of wood with my new Gerber hatchet. Sarah’s parents were even able to join us. We told jokes, had some Russian Quaalude and beers, roasted hot dogs, made s’mores, and generally had a good time.

The next day, after a tasty and assorted breakfast, we broke camp and headed into town for the Oktoberfestivities. This mostly involved taking advantage of the free samples at the cheese and chocolate shops, a lunch of beer and brats, and generally celebrating all things Autumnal.

We rounded out the day with a hike in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. The trail was beautiful, running alongside a great twisty and tumbly creek. We were able to cross the creek dry thanks to an awesome Lincoln-Log-type bridge.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend enjoying Fall colors and traditions. We made it back with a box of apples that Sarah will sauce (her recipe is gonzo-good!) and campfire-smelling clothes to keep us in the Oktoberfest spirit.

This morning, Bush gave a speech on the War on Terror. Sarah pointed out some deep ironies in his words. Now, i am not a political analyst, but i can’t help talk about this.

Here is an excerpt:

And the civilized world knows very well that other fanatics in
history, from Hitler to Stalin to Pol Pot, consumed whole
nations in war and genocide before leaving the stage of history [1].
Evil men obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience
must be taken very seriously, and we must stop them before their
crimes can multiply [2].  Defeating a militant network is difficult
because it thrives like a parasite on the suffering and frustration
of others.

The radicals exploit local conflicts to build a culture of victimization
in which someone else is always to blame and violence is always
the solution [3].   They exploit resentful and disillusioned young
men and women, recruiting them through radical mosques as the
pawns of terror [4].  And they exploit modern technology to multiply
their destructive power [5]...

And this further spreads the threat of violence, even within peaceful
democratic societies [6].

While this may very well have some truth when applied to the radical islamists (oh, i mean the “enemies of humanity”), it is striking to think of how these words apply to the actions America is taking, and even Bush’s own personal role in it all. While some of the irony is painfully obvious, a few of the footnoted comments deserved special attention. Mouse over links for relevant quotes from other sources.

1]- While America certainly hasn’t been “consumed with war” (the media hides it well), Iraq is barely a nation any more, as a result of what Bush has initiated there. Although Bush certainly isn’t on the same level as those Big Bad Three, he is working much more withing their MO than anyone in the middle east.

2]- Ha. I couldn’t agree more. The scary thing is that it seems like Bush tries to keep his conscience unburdened. Didn’t i hear this sentence in a John Kerry ad last year?

3]- Wasn’t the Afghani infighting used against the Taliban as we enlisted their rivals in part one of this war? Doesn’t the continual use of Sept. 11 as justification (at least 6 direct refs in this speech) kinda sound like a victim mentality? Couldn’t short-circuiting the UN and the inspection teams and jumping right to full-scale invasion sound a little like thinking violence is the only solution? Ummm… yeah…

4]- We exploit (!!) and recruit the resentful and disillusioned youth through conveniently-located neighborhood enlistment offices… oh yeah, and through the public schools. But not Mosques, so it’s OK.

5]- I think he just forgot who he was talking about at this point. We can forgive him for that, it’s a long speech.

6]- Bush still refuses to admit that he has any part in recent surge in al Qaeda recruitment.

There were many (many) more sentances like this throughout this speech. Maybe Bush is running out of good ways to talk about the war, and subconsciously reached for the closest descriptions available. Or maybe he has simply been speaking this drivel for so long he really believes it himself. Personally, i think one of his speech-writers has recently turned from the Dark Side, but is still working under cover. To this person, i say: “May the Force be with you!”