Friday, July 30, 2010

The Search for Better Driving Music (or, Google the Lyrics FTW)

For those who don't know, the Internet is a wonderful thing.  With little more than a few words or lyrics, you can find just about anything!

In any case, I was watching America's Got Talent from 7/13 with Mrs. Wyatt tonight, when I heard a really cool song playing in the background for one of the acts (in case you're curious, it was the brother/sister tap group).  With only 5 words from the chorus, I was able to find the song within one search.  I give you Norwegian (?! yep...I'm as shocked as you) duo Madcon's "Beggin'":




Because the Internetz are so boss, I could also go to, say iTunes or Amazon and have my choice of either downloading the song for my iPod or buying the CD--all without ever getting off my chair.  Yay for new driving music!

Monday, July 19, 2010

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men...

It's been said a billion times that a picture is worth a thousand words.  This one sure is haunting enough.  From flickr user Dan Maudsley's collection comes this 2005 photo of the liner SS American Star (formerly SS America, among others), run aground off the Canary Islands:

(click for the larger version, of course)

For more info, check out the ship's Wikipedia article.  

The first thing I thought when I saw the photo (without knowing the ship's history), is how fragile our creations really are.  Yeah, yeah, yeah...a bit overboard (pardon the pun) on the philosophy, but really: stop and think about it for a minute.  This ship took the work of hundreds of people and actually survived in service from 1940 to 1994, when she was wrecked.  Like any ocean liner, she was built to last and survive quite a pounding.  That said, it only took two days of pounding from the sea to break the stranded ship (by then nothing more than a floating hotel, with no power or navigational abilities of its own) in half.  Two days?  A ship that'd survived 54 years' service--several of them during WWII as a troop transport--split in half by the waves of the mid Atlantic.  The bow section soldiered on for 13 more years, finally succumbing to the ocean in 2007.

All of that work, time, and history gone--just like that.  Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

For more pics, check out the page of one of the ship's former patrons: http://www.ss-australis.com

Thursday, July 8, 2010

A Sign of the Times

Those of you who haven't been near or talked to me for more than 5 seconds since last Thursday may not know it, but Christy left for Tanzania a week ago.  She's due to come back on the 26th.  Please keep her and her group in your thoughts and prayers.  If you're curious, check out our blog for her thoughts on going back.  The Cliff's Notes version is that she loves being there--to hear her talk about it, Tanzania is one of the greatest places on Earth.  I love to sit and listen to her tell stories because it's so obvious that to her, it really is!  I will say for sure that after listening to her, I'm sold!  

It means a lot to me to see her being the woman I love--passionate, caring, loving, and diligent!

While this is her sixth trip, it's actually the third she's taken since we met.  She left for the first one back when we were dating.  In fact, she'd just met my parents for the first time that Memorial Day.  Back then, she was participating in We Care Ministries when she was in the 'States, so I knew that the next time I saw her would be more than a month (almost two) later.  I knew when she came back that my wait for a wife was over.  I also knew that if I could be apart from her for as long as that trip was (or seemed to be in my mind), I could do anything!

Soooo...thinking all this one week after my wife of (now) three years left for Africa, I find myself confident, but still...I miss her!

I love you, baby!