the incredible heaviness of being

OK, I've been a member of a health club for a week and a half. With membership comes two personal trainer sessions.

The first one, last week, basically went down like this: the trainer did a fitness assessment involving a scale (ugh), a tape measure (double ugh) and a long questionnaire about what, when and how I eat. I am one messed up puppy. The good news, though, is it doesn't matter where you start, but where you end up. The first session ended with 10 minutes of core muscle exercises. I didn't know I had ab muscles. Maybe I don't. It was almost enough to make me decide not to return.

I did go back. The second session also ended with 10 minutes of ab training. But instead of sitting at a desk for 40 minutes, I lifted weights. My muscles did not appreciate this at all. They haven't voluntarily lifted anything in a while. It felt good. I think I'm on the road to making it for the first couple of months.

During the first week, my eating was quite good and I exercised moderately. As I add in core and resistance training (oooh, sound like I know what I'm talking about), I hope you'll see more improvement and less kcrazorback, weigh less. The PT will bring me in for a followup assessment in one month--the whole scale & tape routine. I'll let you know how it goes.

hpanda

Saw the Kung Fu Panda movie with the fam last night. It's not the greatest movie, but it is entertaining and worth the $8.25 to plunk down imho. If they had just made the entire movie as humorous as the big battle at the end was it would have been really good.

Also stayed through the credits hoping for really cool animated outtakes, etc. Didn't really get that but did get to see the hp logo quite prominently after the credits. So, later I checked out the movie's official site and clicked on the list of partners. Unfortunately the hp logo is not a link on the official site, but almost all of the other partner links do work.

Note, however, that the hp site does have some pretty cool kfp related content. Check it out here.

Peace to the valley.

rooting irrationally

If you aren't yet subscribed to the hp calculator newsletter HP Solve, check out the newest one here. Then sign up here if you want.

For the real math geeks, this month's issue takes you through the calculations your calculator does when calculating the square root of 2. Cool.

On my first day of graduate school, my instructor proved that the square root of 2 is irrational. On his first exam, he asked us to prove that the square root of 12 was irrational. Out of some 40 math students in the room, I was one of only two or three (I think) that got it right. Can you prove that the square root of 12 is irrational?

fit all day long

OK, I admit it, I'm out of shape. In fact, last fall when I left AAFP in order to take a job at Barkley one thing I left behind was an exercise facility right there in the office that I had used for ten years. My fitness level during the last 9 months has taken a serious nosedive.

Barkley doesn't have an exercise facility in the office. But it does offer a great benefit--monthly health club dues reimbursement.

So, I did it. Last night I joined a health club. I'll keep you posted on how the whole thing works out. I expect to stick with it. If I can do that through the first couple of months, I should be alright.

I wonder if the club will mind if I run on a treadmill while eating Doritos.

today's mercy seat

My employer, Barkley, is located in the Crossroads Arts District of downtown Kansas City. It's a really cool neighborhood to walk around in at lunchtime. Among many local interesting, even odd, businesses, there is a tattoo and piercing parlor by the name of Mercy Seat Tattoo.

Mercy Seat's logo is a drawing that appears to be an electric chair. I have no idea how they came up with that logo or what it means or anything.

But, it started me thinking about THE mercy seat and the fundamental misunderstanding that so many have of their relationship with God. Too many see God as a merciless judge who is just waiting for a slip up so he can show them straight to the electric chair. But the God I know is a God of mercy. He sits and waits, not for the slip up, but, anxiously, for the opportunity to show mercy. The very name of the place where he sits is the mercy seat.

The mercy seat of the Old Testament was in the most holy place in the tabernacle. It was gold-plated opulence. Only the High Priest could approach the mercy seat once a year with a blood offering for the atonement of sins.

Today's mercy seat is different. You see, something, amazing happened at the crucifixion. As His (Jesus, the Son of God) blood poured out as an atonement for sin for all of time, the temple curtain separating man from God was torn apart (from top to bottom). Any of us, no matter how lowly or sinful can approach the mercy seat and not die, but receive mercy and live eternally. Jesus, through his own blood, made atonement as a High Priest, before the true mercy seat of God which is in Heaven (Heb. 9:11,12).

He chose to do this. The Lamb has been slaughtered. The sacrifice has been made. The sins are forgiven. Salvation is provided. FOR those who come to the Father through the Son, Jesus. Coming to Jesus is easy. Jesus (Emanuel--God Incarnate--God with Meat) came to us. All we have to do is believe his message and accept his free gift.

There is a judgment seat in the New Testament. It's found in Matt. 25:31 and following. Jesus sits on the judgment seat. That's right--the great High Priest who made atonement for my sins. Vs. 46 says that the righteous will enter into eternal life and in Heb. 10:10 "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. (Heb. 10:19-23, NLT)

we remember

Today is Memorial Day. Our flag is out.

I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud to be the son of a U.S. Marine, the son-in-law of a U.S. Army officer (Vietman veteran), the grandson of a WW II P.O.W. (6 months in a German prison), the nephew of service men (by now we're up to all branches of the armed forces). I come from a long line of men and women who have served our country in peace and war times.

I'm proud of my great-grandparents and their generation who raised the "Greatest Generation." Their are many parallels between their generation and the young adults who are now referred to as Generation-X. Similarly, their children (the Millenials) are being called by some the "2nd Greatest Generation."

I never served in the United States military, but I have the greatest respect for those men and women who place it on the line every day. Regardless of politics, you Americans serving all over the world--especially in Iraq--right now are to be respected, commended and supported.

More than 4,000 of your colleagues have died in Iraq. The price of your sacrifice is hard for us to understand. Thank you for protecting freedom. Thank you for serving. May God bless you all and bring you home soon.

captivated on captiva

Mrs. kcrazorback and I just returned from a long weekend in Florida--a long kid-free weekend in Florida, that is. Kid-free weekends are the best kind. Don't get me wrong: I love my kid.

But I love my wife, too. In fact, I don't get enough time with her. In those rare moments that we have that aren't dominated by the concerns of this world--work, kid, home, cars, paying for gasoline, whatever--those old college days come flying back.

We were college sweethearts, you see. We've now been married for 19 years. But, every time I look at that girl I see my college sweetheart--just as she looked in 1986. One of my strongest memories is what her perfume smelled like in college. I hear her voice and summer of 1988 late night phone calls come to mind. Her every touch reminds me of two decades ago.

I still love: walking with her, talking with her, eating out together, traveling with her, making plans with her, laughing together. I can't get enough of her. I never will.

I'm so thankful for last weekend on Captiva Island. Florida is wonderful.

Thanks to my inlaws for watching our daughter for the weekend. I enjoyed watching theirs.