November 2007

Monthly Archive

Conference Recap

Posted by on 30 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: my life., Town Council

Yesterday (Thursday, November 29), I attended a conference in Fort Wayne for newly elected municipal officers, hosted by the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns. There were all kinds of people there–professional politicians from second class cities (population 35K-600K) as well as Joe-Shmoe from a little 150-person town. (I almost got that many votes!)
A few thought and observations:

  • The conference was at the Fort Wayne Hilton, just two blocks from my wife’s work at Lincoln Financial Group, so we got to carpool together. That was wonderful!
  • The guy sitting directly in front of me was wearing a pager. Yes, an old-fashioned pager. I hadn’t seen a pager since I threw away my old pager three years ago. I didn’t know you could still get service on a pager. Interestingly, he got paged and left the room for about 10 minutes at one point. Gotta love pay phones, right?
  • At one point of the conference, there were two lawyers talking. One of the two was an intellectual, and had issues speaking like a normal person. It was somewhat difficult for me to follow his thought pattern, as his every sentence was complex and difficult to follow. Well, one guy–the only guy in sweat pants and a t-shirt–Joe Shmoe from a very small town–said in a normal-volume voice, as he leaned toward his neighbor, ‘You can tell he’s a lawyer.’ This was quite amusing to everyone around us, including the IACT corporate attorney sitting next to me, who had a great sense of humor all day, anyway. It was a funny moment for those in the back of the room.
  • I sat two seats down from the Leo-Cedarville Councilman-elect Gordon Liechty, Jr. I remember Gordon Liechty from Oakhill and Calvary Temple. Perhaps I remember Gordon Sr., I don’t remember. Perhaps I’ll ask my dad later today, as I’m sure he can satisfy the curiosity of my childhood memories.
  • The proper term is councilmember, not councilman. I think this is Politically Correct. You can call me Councilman Diehl though. (Actually, until January 1, call me Councilman-Elect Diehl.)

It was a good conference. It was a wealth of knowledge and helped me to feel better about the undertaking ahead of me. Probably the most beneficial part of the conference for me was the legal stuff about what conducting Open Door Law-compliant meetings and what constituted a meeting, an Administrative Meeting or an Executive Session. It’s confusing stuff. Bob Knight was fired (legally) by Miles Brand holding individual meetings with a non-quorum group of members, while another non-quorum group was going on in the next room, and while a third non-quorum group was in the next room. He went from room to room (legally) and had closed meetings with each of the non-quorum groups. Once they all knew where the other trustees stood and after discussion, they held an open meeting and fired Knight, knowing the trustees would be in support.
This is confusing stuff, and was the start of popularizing and enforcing Indiana’s Open Door Laws.

But for the next month, I’m not a councilman, so I can meet with anyone I want. After January 1, that’s a different story!

Poll of the Week: How Many Christmases?

Posted by on 27 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: polls

This week’s Poll of the Week is How many different Christmases will you attend, where you will exchange gifts?

Is Christmases a word? It goes through my spell checker okay, so it must, right?
Anybody know? I know Kerry and Todd know, anyone else?

How much water should you drink every day?

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Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?

Posted by on 26 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: random.

Smithsonian Magazine reports the Ark of the Covenant may be in Ethiopia.

Legend has it that the Queen of Sheeba bore a son, Menelik, to King Solomon, and the boy’s servants, during a trip to see King Solomon, stole the ark and took it back to Ethiopia.

The Ethiopians do not allow public viewing of the Ark. In fact, only one man may view the Ark, and he can never leave the chapel groups. He must pray next to the ark until he dies.

This is an interesting story, and an interesting read. Read the Smithsonian Magazine Article.

Thoughts on Turning Thirty

Posted by on 26 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: my life.

Today is my birthday. I turn 30. Here are some thoughts on the closure of my third decade, and the beginning of my fourth decade of life…

  • I don’t feel old, but perhaps that’s because I’m not very old. I’m still young, right?
  • Now that I’m 30, I’m supposed to be a real adult. No more college activities. Now I’m an adult. Does that mean I have to act like it?
  • As of today, I finally quality to play in 30-and-over leagues. Finally–competition I can keep up with!
  • Last night my wife surprised me with a party of my closest friends. It was quite enjoyable. I was looking at my two birthday cakes wondering, ‘How are 10 people going to eat all this cake?’ Only to turn around to see my friends standing there and hearing a group, ‘Surprise!’ To which I answered, ‘That was weird.’
  • Normally my wife can’t keep a very good secret, but she did this time. To give you an example of how good she isn’t at keeping secrets, a few weeks ago, Emily came in the study and measured my neck. ‘No questions,’ she said. Moments later, she came back and measure the length from my shoulder to sleeve. ‘No, that’s not right.’ So she measured from my neck to my sleeve. ‘No, that’s not right either,’ she said. So I told her how to properly measure (from the back of the neck to the shoulder and down to the sleeve). So I am getting a dress shirt tonight from my wife, which I am planning on wearing to work tomorrow, if I get the okay from Emily, that is.
  • When I came in to work today, I found I had forgotten to eat my lunch last Wednesday. Is that a sign of old age?
  • I am married to a much younger woman now. I’m in my 30s, while my hot wife is in her 20s.
  • In an ironic twist, I played “flag” football Saturday afternoon, and today, I am very sore. I am walking more like I’m 80 than 20. What a way to welcome the milestone 30–by walking like I’m 80.

ORU President Richard Roberts Resigns

Posted by on 26 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: random.

Amid allegations of wrongful spending habits, Richard Roberts announced his resignation from Oral Roberts University effective Friday, November 23.

I have several friends who graduated from ORU, Layna, Natalie, Justin and Bobbie (sorry if I missed someone else!), and ORU has long had a close affiliation with New Hope’s fellowship, CMI.

In his letter of resignation, Richard Roberts said, “I love ORU with all my heart. I love the students, faculty, staff and administration and I want to see God’s best for all of them.”

Sad day, but I think it’s probably for the best, to move onward and not have doubt in the faculty and alumni’s minds. Our prayers are with the school and Board of Regents during this transition period.
Read a statement from George Pearsons, Chairman of the Board of Regents: ORU Statement.

My Blogging Dad

Posted by on 21 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: random.

My dad is blogging. Stop by and check out his blog. And please, leave a comment or two to let him know you were there.

Gravatar Enabled

Posted by on 20 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: random., Tech Stuff.

I have enabled Gravatars on my blog.
Gravatars are Globally Recognized Avatars, which can be displayed on blogs all around the Web.

It is completely free to sign up for, and you can use any image–you can even use their crop tool!

Gravatar has a gravatar rating system (G, PG, R), and each site can individually control what rating appears on that site. For instance, here on my blog, I am only showing G rated gravatars.

Check it out, sign up for gravatar. Gravatar was recently acquired by Automattic, the company which brings you WordPress, the blogging system powering this and thousands of other blogs (by one recent count, more than 0.8% of the entire web!).

Check it out, sign up and start commenting with Gravatars!

Open this post to see an example of a gravatar in the comments.

Christmas Lights on Our Tree

Posted by on 20 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: my life.

Last night, I finished up my conquest to put lights on our Christmas Tree.

I was aiming for 1,000 lights on the tree this year.

Our tree is 7 1/2′, and as a general rule, 150 lights per vertical foot provides good twinkle coverage. At 150 per vertical foot, I would be at 1,125 lights.

I carefully placed each light in and out of branches, in a modified “Kerry Hubartt Technique”–I am not quite as precise as Kerry, but I have definitely learned a lot about lighting a tree from him.
Well…after a late-night Wal-Mart run, I ended up with 1,700 lights on the tree, which is 226 lights per vertical foot. Yeah…it’s full of lights. I think it looks really good!

This morning, when I woke up, I walked into the living room, looked at the tree, and hit the remote which turns the lights on/off. The bright light from the 1,700 lights made my eyes twinge as it was so bright.

I like my lights! Tonight I need to adjust a few places where the lights look bare, and there is one place where the strand fell off the branch last night, so I will need to adjust that as well. Tonight Emily and I will decorate the tree with our bulbs, bows and other decorations. I’ll be sure to post a photo!

Best Political Ad of All Time: Mike Huckabee

Posted by on 19 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: random.

This political ad for Mike Huckabee is hands-down the best ad I’ve ever seen.
My brother Adam, in particular, will find great enjoyment from watching this political ad.
Don’t cross Chuck.

Christmas Time Means Christmas Tree

Posted by on 19 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: my life.

Last night Emily and I got our Christmas Tree.

That made my night! Every year, I like getting the tree up as early as we can. Last night we got the tree inside and in its stand, and that’s it. We haven’t decorated it at all. This is the first year I’ve ever done that (buy it one day, decorate it another). Tonight we are going to string the lights (I’m aiming for 900-1000 lights on the tree this year!), decorate the tree and Christmas-ize the house.

I am quickly getting myself into the Christmas Spirit.

Merry Christmas!

Conference for Newly Elected Officials and Other Waterloo Thoughts

Posted by on 16 Nov 2007 | Tagged as: my life., Town Council

The end of this month, I will be attending a conference for newly elected officials, since I’m a newly elected official. I take office on January 1, 2008 on the Waterloo Town Council.

There is a lot I need to learn, and I’m looking forward to learning more about what is ahead of me. In particular, I need to learn about Open Door laws, what I can and what I cannot do behind a closed door. You know me–I always want to do the correct, ethical thing, so it will drive me crazy until I figure out what I can and can’t do.

Another thing I’m looking forward to is reading through the ordinance book. It’s in a 2 1/2 or 3″ binder. Lots of reading, but I look forward to reading through that intently, and getting up to speed with what Waterloo’s ordinances look like.

The great thing about this conference is it’s in downtown Fort Wayne, so I’ll get to drive my beautiful wife Emily to work, park in her lot, and then get to drive home with her right next to me. It will be great to get to spend extra time with her!

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