Jiujitsu champ

This is my son (he's had a haircut now) with his two senseis after winning first place at a jiujitsu tournament. He's gotten pretty darn good. We needed to have a little chat about what the difference was between "self-defense" and "showing off". David

Kelsea asleep

This is Kelsea asleep. She goes to bed before anyone tells her to. She wakes up when I finally drag her off her bed. She was very appreciative of the sleeping mask that I gave her so she could sleep anytime she wanted despite whether it was day or night. David

Torie on the rock wall

Torie has now made it to the top of all the self-belay routes at the rock wall at my gym. She was very proud. I made it explicitly clear that this doesn't mean she's grown up yet. She may be 8, but to me she's still the baby. David

Torie blowing bubbles

My youngest daughter can now blow bubbles. That leaves me as the only one in the family who can't. Life isn't fair. David

The next movie you WILL see...

I tend to get into trouble when I write about religion or politics, yet here I go again writing about both...

You will end up seeing this movie EXPELLED! No Intelligence Allowed, a creationist film featuring Ben Stein. Why? For the same reason I am.

I clicked on one of those "Web clips" that appear at the top of my Gmail today that took me to the "supertrailer" of the movie. My brother-in-law Jon sent me the same link a little later on too. I did find the irony hilarious when I heard that an atheist was expelled from the movie. That got me. I sent Jon the link.

The great controversy

I was drawn into the great controversy about creationists versus Darwinists. I read a bunch of blogs all about how Darwinists were going to end any chance of our finding a true creator. I also read a bunch about how the ultra-religious were going to destroy the world.

Well now I just found out that the EXPELLED! controversy was the most read, most blogged-about story on the Internet today. So I had to write a blog too.

The great conspiracy

Here's my conspiracy theory: They're all in on it. We're all going to end up paying money to see this movie. Maybe we'll even buy books about it. Even the people who decide to attempt to boycott it will end up marketing it. Why? Because there's a guy who's a genius who found a way to shroud it in controversy. Follow the money. We're all going to end up having an opinion, and it's going to end up being the trendy thing to talk about.

Maybe someday I'll be genius enough to come up with some good controversy and make money on it.

Religion in schools = disaster

Let's all believe whatever we want, but let's never fall into the trap of putting religion back into schools. C'mon! How would you handle that without turning a classroom into a war zone? Stick to sound science that can be tested. Do we really want kids discussing how this God or that God or no God or those Gods or those aliens made the world? I mean it's a fun discussion, but nothing good will come out of it being in a school.

Central safe on top

Hooray! Kily finally led Canallas out of relegation zone! Am I the only Central fan? Don't be tempted to join the Boca league.

David

Premiership this Easter

I'm proud to say I'm an American who will be watching key match Arsenal versus Chelsea this morning. I would normally like Chelsea to win, but Mourhino's out, so may Arsene Wenger's boys trash Chelsea. I'll be wearing my Chelsea shirt. On the other hand, may John Terry's boys win.

This is where the great bard lived

Shakespeare grew up in this shack. His dad was a glover. He made gloves and stuff out of sheep. How does this kid grow up to be a genius? Why am I not a genius? Maybe I should be a glover and my kids will grow up to be geniuses. I walked around in Shakespeare's garden and thought. Nothing came of it. Shakespeare walked up and down a path. Maybe I should do that. What's his secret?

Jet Lag or Insomnia

Definitely insomnia. I can sleep on a plane, on a bus, but not in my own darn bed. I've decided to count Cotswold sheep in my head. Did you know that shepherds in the UK never used to eat their sheep? No. The meat was not yummy. They only used them for wool. Now they have new, tastier sheep. But their wool is not good. Most sheep are raised just for meat these days. At least they eat grass all day instead of corn. Did you know that to save money different shepherds in a Cotswold community will each buy a single ram for their ewes? Then they trade the rams. The rams each have a color. When a ewe is seen with that color on its back, then the shepherd knows she's had a wild night. She's separated from the others. All the ewes end up with at least four colors on their backs. Great to know as you count sheep...

England

Just got back from London. I’m happy to report that the Tower of London is still standing, Buckingham Palace still houses the queen, the Rosetta Stone is still in the British Museum, and the fish and chips are still fried and therefore taste excellent. I also visited Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare’s birthplace) and the Stonehenge.

It was cold and wet. I'm glad to be back in sunny Arizona.

See all London and Windsor Castle pics, Oxford, Cotswolds and Stratford-upon-Avon pics and Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath pics.

Aster vid

Nono says

Estoy podrido de este lugar. Vamos! (I'm rotting in this place. Let's go somewhere!)

Pretty girls

Roaming the mall on heelies

New Year's Resolutions

Yes, it's time to make New Year's resolutions. I've been thinking all day about 'em.

1. Exercise for at least 20 minutes at least three times a week.
   
2. Go back to school this year.
   
3. Play at least 60 minutes weekly.
   
4. Meditate 20 minutes daily. Write at least 60 minutes for myself weekly.
   

Six things you may not know about me

My sister Cherie, a self-confessed stone smeller, tagged me. I am to write six things you may not know about me. I thought of coupling this blog with my New Year's resolutions blog (soon to come), but then thought the better of it. You may know about some of these, but maybe not details.

1. I have been a reluctant vegetarian for almost a year. On Jan. 1, 2007, I made a resolution to replace all my meat calories with "wisely chosen" plant calories for at least a year. I refer to it as my "well-informed plant-based diet." It hasn't been as difficult as I thought, especially with all the mock meat around now that tastes just like meat (sometimes not as good, sometimes better). I replace milk with soy or hemp milk and butter with coconut or olive oil. It is a tad inconvenient to not eat meat whenever I go out to lunch with friends, participate in potlucks, go to friends' houses for dinner, and so on. Surprisingly I hadn't committed social suicide, especially having an Argentine wife and many Argentine relations and friends. I do try and avoid talking about this diet most of the time; there are a few meat eaters with such strong convictions about eating meat that they truly believe God made it a moral sin to choose not to, which is ridiculous. Anyhow, now that my meatless year is about to expire I have a dilemma of whether or not to go on. Yes, I borrowed the word "dilemma" from Michael Pollan's excellent The Omnivore's Dilemma, which you should all read. No, the book is not designed to turn you into a vegetarian, but it will give you a better sense of where food comes from.
   
   My resolution did have everything to do with health, and, yes, ethics too. There are too many scientific studies that confirm that eating animal foods is cause for diseases, and that plants appear to have all the answers. Why not just replace the meat calories with more calories of these beneficial plants? I'm not talking just more pasta, but lots of nuts, legumes, fruits and vegetables. In addition, I want to be part of the next wave of human ethics. I imagine that years from now our great, great grandchildren will look at us the same way most of us now see slave-drivers and wife-beaters as long as we keep making cows and chickens live lifetimes of suffering just so we can get some tasty protein. Surely our great society can come up with a more moral way to live and still get all of our amino acids. But wait, what about happy, pasture-fed cows and free range chickens? If they lived well, haven't we acted out our moral obligation? What about specific nutrients that only animals can produce for us (such as vitamin B12, DHA and phosphatidyl serine)? Doesn't the nature of our own evolution (or design) suggest the best diet is to allow our animals to forage and consolidate all the nutrients of healthy plants so they can convert them into what will do us good? That's how this discussion always goes. Wrestling with these issues, I've gone from vegan to lacto-vegetarian to lacto-ovo vegetarian to pesco-vegetarian to being an omnivore and back again. Patricia has endured a great deal of culinary indecisiveness.
   
   
2. I confess that I can be incredibly indecisive—a test of patience for all around. Maybe you've figured that out. I blame it on there being too many problems in my world and not enough answers. (That's a joke.) Yes, I know I have a problem and I've been trying to get better. I am trying to make better decisions and make them more quickly with the help of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. But nothing helps me make better decisions faster than first enjoying a competitive chess match.
   
   
3. I happen to believe that chess can cure just about any psychological problem. Call it "zero-sum game therapy". Any sport or game of mental strategy would do as long as you can apply Sun Tzu's Art of War: martial arts, some video games, paintball, soccer, basketball. I have theories on this subject yet to be clinically tested. Someday I'll prove them right and all males will rejoice!
   
   
4. Contrary to my liking of competition, I dislike arguing with people. I hate it so much that I tend to just avoid them or agree with whatever they say. I do like a good debate (in fact, I think it's therapeutic), but if you're going to come away from a debate with someone hating you, then it's an argument and you can't win. I especially dislike it when someone has no intention of understanding any one else's point of view.
   
   For example, the other day I was reading Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence when a friend came up to me with full intention of starting an argument.
   
   He said, "Are you enjoying that book?"
   
   I said, "Yes, it's amazingly informative. I read a biography on Greenspan years ago and loved it too."
   
   He said, "Is that the financial idiot who criticized Bush?"
   
   "Oh what do I do?" I thought. I was already stumbling on my words when I blurted, "Greenspan was the Fed chairman for many years, arguably the most powerful man in the world. He's not just anybody. I haven't finished the book, but I believe he criticizes the way Bush lowered taxes and increased spending. Historically, Republican presidents would lower taxes and decrease spending. He says one without the other is just not good fiscal policy. Anyway, that's only a small part of the book."
   
   My friend was so heated at this point, his face went tomato red. To the distraction of everyone around us, he came back at me with, "You shouldn't believe any of that liberal garbage!"
   
   I wanted to say, "But Greenspan is a Libertarian Republican!" Instead I just closed the book and answered, "Yeah, you're probably right."
   
   
5. I tend to distrust and to avoid any kind of blind devotion to any institution, company, political party or anything of the like. Politically, I feel inclined to be a centrist. Computer company? I own a Mac and a PC and I use both interchangeably. Religion? I take my family to an LDS (Mormon) ward for church, but then I study and encourage my family to study all kinds of world religions/mythologies. Like the "anti-theist" atheist Christopher Hitchens, I believe unthinking loyalty to a single religion/mythology leads to ignorance and sometimes war. But unlike Hitchens and more like the mythologist maverick Joseph Campbell, I believe our innate nature tells us we need transcendental heroes and, thus, our own mythology. Stories that teach morality help us live better and longer, and are the reasons why we still create them in forms of literature, plays and films. A friend of mine told me once, "But it's sad you don't have any kind of deep personal conviction of faith." I did not feel sad, more like liberated. I'm exercising a deep personal conviction that lies in freedom of personal moral choice.
   
   
6. Lastly and on a lighter note, I'm a Barnes & Noble junkie. Explanation? I just like reading a lot. I have a social life there with the greatest minds of the world. When my wife says (in Spanish), "David, do you want to go to dinner and a movie?" I try very hard to not disappoint her by answering, "How about we eat dinner here, I drink an extra protein shake, and we go to Barnes & Noble instead?" She'd say, "Again!?" I'd answer, "The works of all the greatest minds in the world are there, and besides, there's this new book I want to read!" At this point, she'd shrug and say my name really loud, "David!" And I'd say, "OK a movie, but please not Harry Potter and the Order of how Gryffindor wins and everybody claps at the end." (I happen to think Harry Potter's good fortune in every book/movie is way too contrived to have kids consider him an actual "hero". But my kids love the books anyway. Their own personal choice.)
   
   Whenever I have a choice between doing one thing (like laundry) and going to Barnes & Noble, I usually pick the latter. I get there at least twice a week. I also have an overused Amazon credit card. I have bought so many books from Amazon, that the company has perfected its way of "recommending books" to me that it knows I'll be interested in buying. Mom told me I should switch to a credit card that gave me points or airline miles instead. I told her, "But I get free books!" She told me quite rightly, "There's no more room in your house or garage for more books."
   

Oh... there's so much more. One can never get enough of talk oneself. I didn't even get to my continual absent-mindedness, my granola meditations, my love for the sound of running water, my dislike of anything in my house that looks like it belongs at the office, etc. I'd be happy to bore you to death, if you'd just ask me for more. "Six things" was a wise choice.

Video of Christmas at Despains'

Christmas morning

David

Santa Came

--
David

Christmas Eve at Despains' House

Patricia, Kelsea and Torie were chefs on Christmas Eve. Kelsea was the
main course for Aster. We had Cecilia, JR and baby Micaela over. Nono
was so tired he nearly fell asleep eating.

David

Kelsea's birthday today!

Kelsea's birthday today. She turned 10! She had a slumber party, we had pizza and cake, and crepes for breakfast.

Kelsea Celebrates Her Birthday

Birthday slumber party at Despains' house on Dec. 21-22. Lots of
little girls running around with screeching high voices, cheese pizza,
chocolate birthday cake, Hannah Montana presents, Hairspray movie, and
stress for the parents.

David

Kelsea's Birthday Cake

Torie and Madi baked a cake for Kelsea's Birthday.

David

Isagenix Holiday Party

Here's a picture of Patricia and me at the holiday party; my mentor Dr. Bill Wheeler standing overhead.

David

Aster, Kelsea, Torie and Lucy got elfed!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1539445385

David

Templo de Mesa

Noche bastante fria en Arizona,lo van a comprobar por la nariz roja
como borracha que tenia.Que horrible.Hacia un monton que no me pasaba
eso.
Algunas fotos con las luces.

Polyface farms

This is the farm that was highlighted in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma that ingeniously practices sustainable development  http://www.polyfacefarms.com

Their cows are grass fed and rotated from field to field. The chickens follow the cows (three days later) to eat all the maggots coming out of the cow pies and sanitize the fields naturally (no pesticides needed). And etc, etc. Read the site. I just found out that Pollan is speaking March 15 at the Natural Foods Expo. Darn! I'll be in England at that same time. 

David

Finishing touches

David

Torie puts on the star

David

Lucy joins the fun

David

Don't take my picture

David

Christmas Tree Time

Aster sets up the base of the tree

Torie's Commercial

This was part of her book report on a Junie B Jones book

Aster's first symphony

This was Aster's first time playing his French horn in front of an audience. The audience lived to tell the story. The fourth graders played well and one could almost decipher a march out of one of their tunes.

David

test

test

Holiday Nite at Shamu Stadium

This was the best show at SeaWorld. It was a spectacular dance of
whales with people. It's amazing how these giant whales are trained so
well. Kelsea wants to be a dolphin and whale trainer.

Hawk Highlight

To Aster's delight, we were greeted by a hawk entering SeaWorld

To the Birds

When we tried to have a picnic by the beach, I didn't realize that
we'd be attacked by dozens of seagulls and pigeons. I tried to fight
them off. They stole all of Hunter's chicken strips and fries (the
cannibals). And one took off with Patricia's Subway sandwich and then
dropped it. I picked up it up and put it back in the cooler. Patricia
didn't realize and ended up eating it.

Mission Beach

The kids were playing in the waves when we spotted dolphins actually
swimming close to them at Mission Beach. We also had pizza by the
beach and watched people surfing.