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Showing posts from October, 2005

Pumpkin Family

Yesterday I carved my first pumpkin. You might have thought that I would have vast pumpkin experience by now, but alas, I was all too inexperienced. Like many things in life, I went a bit overboard; instead of making my first pumpkin a simple face, I decided to carve a detailed representation of my life. And thus, into the pumpkin I carved (slowly and patiently) a Lipka family portrait. Lindy, Molly, and I holding hands, with all smiles. Furthermore, the combined family also resembles a larger pumpkin face (Lindy and my head as eyes, Molly as the nose, and our hands and the mouth). It took a long time, but I feel that “if you are going to do something, so it right”. Speaking of Molly (how come “writing of Molly” just doesn’t sound right, or is that look right), she is growing bigger every day. This morning I noticed three more molecules on her shoulder. She can almost stay sitting up on her own and loves to stand (when someone will help her balance). She has slowly passed the

The Stroller Mafia

When Lindy and I moved to Sleepy Hollow (a suburb of Tarrytown, which is a suburb of White Plains, which is a suburb of NYC) we didn’t know anyone. However, my darling wife deciding to change that by creating a yahoo group for local mothers-to-be. After Molly was born, these mommies would get together, go for walks, to the movies, and so on and so forth. New mothers have lots of stress and lots of questions and I think groups like this are a great benefits to both the parents and the children. Recently, Lindy decided she wanted to somewhat formalize her mommy group into a sophisticated and powerful organization; and the Stroller Mafia was born. Like our babies, the organization is in its infancy. No formal structure exists, but I have subconsciously declared Lindy to be the Don. Although I may one day become Consigliere, I am currently content to be a Capodecina. To officially let the world know that the Stroller Mafia is out there, I created www.StrollerMafia.com . They have pow

Republicans

Maybe the democrats don't have any leaders, but that doesn't mean they can't do anything to try and save this country. The following should be a minute long commercial, to be played across the entire country. It is just amazing how the democrats don't associate the entire republican party with its leaders. The Republican took the House of Representatives by acting as a single unit and the democrats should now use that idea to bring them down. Here is it... "Republican leader Tom Delay has been charged in Texas with money laundering and conspiracy to violate Texas election laws. Republican leader Trent Lott was forced to step down at majority leader after making racist remarks. Republican leader Bill Frist is under investigation for insider trading for dumping his stock in Hospital Corporation of America Republican Vice Presidential Chief of Staff, I. Lewis Libby has been indicted for making false statements to the grand jury in the C.I.A. leak case Republican

More Life Changes

More Life Changes 1/5 score and seven days ago, I embarked on a most fulfilling journey, that now is coming to an end. It was at the time that I joined the International Rescue Committee (IRC), filling the newly created position of Grants Officer. For 80 years, the IRC has been dedicated to helping refugees throughout the world. Four years ago, I scarcely knew what a refugee was, but the IRC needed a writer and I needed to get out of the private sector. Today, I have gained some perspective into the lives and struggles of over 20,000,000 refugees worldwide. These are people who were forced to leave their own country out of a well-founded fear of perspective. A huge majority of refugees are innocent women and children who were a horrible victim of circumstance. The stories I have heard serve both to terrify and well as to inspire. Up to 70,000 refugees get to come to the US each year to be resettled by agencies like the IRC and I am proud to have been part of their work. I use

Book Review - The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Last week I finished reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X . There is so much to say about the man and the book, but I will try to focus my comments. Reading this autobiography, it is easy to understand many of the extreme choices that Malcolm X made, including his life of poverty, drugs, prison, the nation of Islam, and militarism. One particular telling story (and I’m paraphrasing) was when young Malcolm, a star student and class president of an almost entirely white school, asked his teacher if he could be a lawyer one day and the teacher said that because he was a negro that was unrealistic and perhaps he should consider being a carpenter. This attitude the Malcolm received all the white people in his young life was more then enough to break his spirit and make it seem like the underworld was his only possible escape. Of course, Malcolm X was a brilliant man (even after he kicked his addictions to marijuana, cocaine, and opium) who might have become an excellent lawyer if he

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." - John 7:24

They say that Harriet E. Miers (Bush’s most recent appointment for the Supreme Court) is an unknown; that since she has never been a judge, her views on almost every judicial topic could go either way. However, I don’t believe this is the case. Just like President Bush, Ms. Miers has proclaimed a set values to be more important then the law, personal instincts, modern thought, or science. She is an evangelical Christian. She is pro-life, she is anti-gay rights, she is anti-government regulations. Her faith (if she is like the majority of evangelicals) dominates her thought and she is proud of this. Like President Bush, she has no interest in progress, actually they would both like to see a moral and social regression to a time when religion was the direct authority in society. That is why they believe in a strict interpretation of the Constitution, because they would prefer that the country was like what it was in 1789. So until Ms. Miers declares that her guiding principal is

Vacation

Sweet, sweet, vacation. A week ago Saturday Lindy, Molly, and I headed off to the west coast. It was our first family vacation and I knew it was going to be different based on the shear size and number of bags we had. Usually, Lindy and I can pack everything we need, for any amount of time into one medium size roller bag (for her) and a gray backpack (for me); however, we had a lot more. Amazing the things that little Molly must need. We left at 4:00am Saturday morning and all was well. We got on the plane to Los Angeles (via a plane switch in Philadelphia) (note: we fly standby, so just getting on a flight is always a worry), and Molly slept or ate the whole time. Lindy hasn’t been back to LA in months and was over-happy to be there, and had tried to design a schedule that would be relatively relaxing, but filled with activities. The highlight of our trip in LA was our visit to Legoland . I have to admit that I was hesitant about going there, but it was really interesting and