Keep Your Coins, I Want Change

I was at the library and saw a picture drawn by a middle school student. (It's not the one on the left, but it looks similar). It's a picture of a homeless man sitting on the street with a cup in front of him. He's holding a sign that says "Keep you coins, I want change." To me, this is a very true statement from many perspectives. For a homeless person, we give them coins, thinking that it might help them out. It does help them out, but only for one meal. What they want is a solution for their situation. It goes back to the expression "Give a man a fish, it will feed him for a meal. Teach a man to fish, and it will feed him for a lifetime." Coins don't go a long way in changing someone's life.

This same concept applies in other parts of our lives. People need help, and we may offer it in one way, but the help they seek is something different. We need to find ways of providing lasting change for the people who seek our help. I don't necessarily know how this is to be done, but it's something to think about.

Another Reason to Avoid Caffeine

An interesting study found that women who drink caffeine during pregnancy have doubled the chance of having a miscarriage. The study found that women who don't drink caffeine have a miscarriage rate of 12.5 percent, whereas women who drink 200 ml of caffeine in a day (equivalent to 2 cups of coffee) have a 25.5 percent chance of miscarriage. The study also noted that the source of the caffeine didn't matter (i.e., it could be from coffee, tea, or soda and would have the same effect).

My Church has counseled since the 1800's to not drink coffee or tea. I've taken that to include caffeine in all forms. To me, this study is just another reason to not drink caffeine. There are probably other health risks to caffeine as well.

Know Before You Go

One thing that amazes me about traveling is how different the weather can be on different parts of the globe at the exact same time of year. I mean, the concept totally makes sense – during the winter, if you want to ski, you go to Utah; but if you want the sun, you go to Hawaii. I’ve really gotten used to California weather where almost everyday I can expect the weather to be nice (even during the winter, for the most part). If I want to go biking or hiking tomorrow, chances are that it is going to be nice enough to go. But if I were living in Utah, biking and hiking are generally closed for the winter season.

Sometimes when I travel, I almost forget to bring a heavy coat or to even look at the weather report since I’m so used to nice weather. But I’m definitely glad that I brought a coat to New Jersey. The weather was blustery and I even got to drive a bit in the snow. I went geocaching this morning. I totally enjoyed the feel of a cool breeze on my face and the crunch of walking over ice-coated leaves. After finding the geocache, I was jogging back to the car and almost ran into three deer that were on the path. Oh the joys of life when I can detach myself from the office…

One mistake I made this trip: I wanted to get everything done in one day, so I set our start time at 8am – that is, 8am EST. I should have done my math before the trip. 8:00 am EST = 5:00 am EST. That’s not too bad, if that is the time I need to wake up. But add in getting ready, eating, and traveling to the onsite and I woke up at 6:30 am, which is 3:30 am PST! I’m still learning how this whole business travel thing works. I’ve already learned some of the secrets, but the concept of time zones is one thing I’m working on. The onsite went well, though, even though I had trouble falling asleep before midnight EST.

Business Trip to Portland

I was in Portland today for a quick business trip. While we were working, the rain poured down like cats and dogs. I didn't think much of it (just another Oregon storm afterall) until I got home and my wife told me that there was a tornado in Vancouver, Washington -- just across the river from where I was working! Celeste's parents live in Vancouver, and they are okay. But there was some serious damage to some of the nearby houses. Check out the pictures and news story on KOMO news. These pictures were taken just a few miles from where they live. I'm glad that they're okay... and glad that I'm okay, too!