Money & Moral Balance

I recommend listening to an excellent audio program from Speaking of Faith (a NPR Program). It's about keeping some semblance of financial perspective through the holidays. Very good!

Money and Moral Balance [Speaking of Faith® from American Public Media]

Coming to a mailbox near you...

2007 Christmas Card

Winter in Malibu

2007-Q4-Webster Jog-a-thon

The jog-a-thon this year was winter themed rather than the more traditional Halloween theme. It was a blast (although I missed it this year to grade term papers). They actually had snow at Webster! Someone brought in a snow-blower and they made snow all over the place. They had a little sledding hill and an igloo full of snow for snow-ball fights. The kids had a blast.

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Matthew's Big Day

Matthew was chosen by the Malibu Optimists as a Malibu Young Leader! It was such an honor. He was honored at a breakfast attended by adults from the community, then a Sheriff's Deputy took him and other leaders (2 from each public school in Malibu) for a day with City Officials. He met the Mayor, City Council, and the judge. It was a terrific day for Matt and an honor for all of us. Be sure to congratulate him!

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Long-delayed update...

Sorry it's been so long since the last update. Here are the final photos from our day avoiding the fires.

While this fire was much less damaging to Pepperdine, it was much more damaging to Malibu. Somewhere around 50 homes were completely destroyed. One of Madison's friends lost her home completely. They didn't get a thing from the house, not even a purse. One of Matt's friends also lost his house, but it was not destroyed by fire. The smoke damage exceeded the value of the structure so they also suffered a terrible loss.

Keep these families in your prayers over this holiday season.

Another day in Malibu...

For the second time in a month, we were awakened early to evacuate for nearby fires. This time the fires were on "our side" of the campus. As you can see from this photo, the fires were right behind our house. We later learned that these fires were still a mile away, but they looked very close.

We left the house the first time at 5am and came home about 8:30. Then they relocated us again at about noon. We were at the Campus Center until 5pm or so. What a day. The kids loved it, but Michelle and I were exhausted from the emotional stress. Nothing on campus was lost, but nearly 50 homes in Malibu were destroyed.

The fire dept. used the Pepperdine campus as a base for the fire-fighting operation. So all day there were dozens of choppers landing at Alumni Park to refill with water from the two "duck ponds" there. There were also 15-20+ firetrucks on campus most of the day. The constant roar of fixed-wing aircraft filling their tanks with water from the Santa Monica Bay and dropping it overhead was amazing. I hope I have some video footage of it, but Matt was playing with the camcorder so much I may have run out of batteries. :-)

As far as I know everyone is safe and there was no loss of life. Certainly a memorable Thanksgiving weekend.

We just left the house again. This is right behind our house.

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Another fire in Malibu. We're

Another fire in Malibu. We're fine but in the caf. Will post more later.

Birthday photos...

Here are some birthday photos from yesterday's celebrations...

Happy birthday, Marcus!

Today is Tater Tot's 5th Birthday! It's hard to believe my baby boy is already five years old. Today at 3pm we're having a big Transformer party and our whole block is invited for cupcakes and games. Should be fun!

In view of this big day, here are a few links to Marcus' first days of life...

• Day One


• Day Two


• Day Three


• Day Four


• Day Five


• Day Six


• More...

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Illegal filesharing and Universities

Illegal filesharing is a problem. One of the biggest centers for this type of activity is university campuses. My alma mater, Indiana University, recently sent an email to all students alerting them of a new policy. According to a policy going into effect January 1, 2008, any student who is notified by a copyright owner that they have violated copyright policy by downloading illegal content (from sites such as Limewire and Bit Torrent) will be billed $50 to their Bursar bill. I think this is a very interesting development and likely to be followed by many universities around the country. For more info, check out IU's filesharing resource site.