Leaplings

Happy Birthday to all you Leaplings!

Leaplings are people born on February 29. Since that date only occurs in a leap year, I can only imagine the confusion as a kid trying to figure out why you are so special to be born on such a day.

Happy Birthday David Moore. I only remember your birthday because you're a leapling. I haven't seen you in probably 20 years, or is that 5 leap years? Have no idea what's up in your life, but I remember that you are a leapling. So happy birthday to an old youth group and high school friend. I think you turn 11 this year?

Thinking about leap years made me wonder how the other few minutes of difference between the actual solar year and our calendar year are gonna work out. You know, those pesky minutes that are leftovers, that don't get compensated for by adding a day to the calendar every four years.

Somebody has done some SERIOUS calculating.

In fact, many different cultures have widely varying ways of dealing with this solar v. calendar phenomenon.

Check out wikipedia's article on leap years. It'll blow your mind.

And have an extra piece of birthday cake in honor of the 200,000 or so leaplings in America today. (Maybe I'll just add an extra quarter-of-a-piece of cake to mine every four years. Wait, that won't work! Man, I'm glad it's not up to me to figure this one out!)

Leaplings are cool.

My Addictions

Here's a list of my current addictions:

1) Rock Climbing
2) Buying books on barnesandnoble.com

Just so you know.

Yes We Can

I'm sure some of you will misunderstand me posting this. There is no political statement here, I promise. I'm sure we're all tirelessly processing information from all the candidates and from all the angles. So this is no endorsement. Honest.

Because voting is the SMALLER part of our privilege and responsibility. Our personal day-to-day toil to bring light into dark places is more important, regardless of who sits in places of power. That's what I see in this video.

Let's redefine "places of power" to mean every single one of us.

What are you going to do with YOUR power? By all means, VOTE with it. But don't stop there. The responsibility for our country and neighborhoods continues with each of us individually. On the stump, Mr. Obama often quotes poet June Jordan, "We are the ones we've been waiting for."

This video got me thinking about that.

(Comments are disabled on this one. The intention is for thinking, not for reacting. There are plenty of political blogs for that. Thanks for understanding.)