Alcatraz Magnets

When our family was in San Francisco a couple weeks ago we went to Alcatraz.  Amazing experience!  Incredibly interesting.  Still thinking through it all and looking forward to writing about it in the near future.  For now though, I thought I'd share our prize from the gift shop. 

We bought these magnets that depict actual regulations that Alcatraz inmates lived by.  We figured they would be good to have on the fridge as our kids get older.  =)

Why it is awesome that Bill Gates is no longer the world's richest man

In 2010 Bill Gates lost his title of being the richest man in the world.

He didn't loose this title on account of Apple being amazing (Yes, I'm an Apple kool-aid drinker now).
He didn't loose it on account of the Windows 7 Phones not really taking off (though I have played around with one and I think they are awesome).

He lost the title because he gave away money.

He used to be worth around 88 billion dollars.
Now he is worth around 49 billion dollars.
The guy has given away 28 billion dollars of his fortune!
(the other 11 billion probably does have something to do with Mac kicking Window's butt).

Around 1/3 of his wealth...given away!

Sure, we're talking billions here, not thousands.  But come on, to give away that amount of money is still truly amazing.

If he's going to lose the title of "Richest Man in the World" for this reason, I don't think he really lost anything.

I got paid today.
The offering plate will be passed on Sunday.
I'll walk by homeless on the city streets between now and then.

Hhhhhmmmm.

As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury.
He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.
“Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.
All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth;
but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
Luke 21:1-4

Charlie Sheen: The Crack Pot

Charlie Sheen...what in the world happened?

Whatever it is, apparently tons of people are interested.  Last week, YouTube's blog offered the following bit of info on Mr Sheen: 

Actor Charlie Sheen has dominated celebrity headlines of late, culminating with producers' decision to halt production on CBS' "Two and a Half Men" and series of rants/interviews drawing public attention. The first part of Sheen's interview with Alex Jones of InfoWars has been viewed over 200,000 times since it was posted on Friday. Today, Sheen's interview on "Good Morning America" is now also drawing attention. A search for "Charlie Sheen" videos on YouTube will deliver over 1,400 results from just the past week.

OK, the masses aren't necessarily interested in what happened, they just want to see the consequential train wreck.  Entertainment on and off the screen is hard to pass up. 

Muscles on a Plane

Just got home a bit ago from Southport, NC.  My Southwest flight was an early one, taking off at 7:10am (6:10am to my internal Chicago clock).  I had a window seat near the front, there was another guy in the aisle, middle seat was empty.  Score.  However, I was toward the front of the B Seating Group when I sat down and it was a full flight. The extra elbow room was only temporary.

Remember snowmageddon?

A little over a month ago the snow storm of the century headed toward Chicago.  Now in saying that, this century is only 11 years old.  Just the same, the winters over the last 11 years have been lame and what we saw crawling across the weather radars toward us did indeed look like a huge blue monster.  The way that people talked about getting extra water, extra food, fuel for generators, blankets and the such, it was like they were getting ready for Y2K all over again.

The hour came.  The monster crawled across Chicago.  It was indeed the storm of this young century.

Snowmageddon. 

These are pictures from our house the morning after: