Even though I’ll be posting this picture on Facebook, I thought I’d post it here, too. The picture is from Google Maps, in street-view mode. On the skateboard is Dalton. Well, we mostly call him Dalton, even though his name is Russell and that’s what a lot of people know him as. We know him as our “son/brother/friend/the-kid-who-comes-over-and-eats-our-food.”

Dalton is graduating from high school this year. Immediately after that, he is scheduled to head off to the Marines. We’ll miss him.

Wonder if he’ll take his skateboard?

Saw this great video on the Ragamuffin Soul blog. Great for a few reasons.

It’s a great follow-up to my previous post about the President. What a wonderful tribute by two who know him best.

It is also thought-provoking for any dad, but especially any dad with a public title. I’m in the ministry, on staff at a church, so I have one of those titles. Pastor. Different than a president, but with some of the same pitfalls. You can forget who you are. You can forget what – and who – are really important. And you can forget that while you try to change the world and try to bring change into your sphere of influence, the greatest purposes are found under your own roof.

That’s as introspective as I intend on being for the next couple of days. happy birthday to me. tomorrow.

Where do I begin?

A great, great, great day to be a Florida Gator. From the moment that Major Wright separated Oklahoma’s Manny Johnson from his senses, it was a wonderful thing to watch the Gators capture their 3rd National Championship. [The picture is from GatorSports.com]

And there’s more to come, we think. It’s good to be on top. It’s good not to be Florida State or Miami or Notre Dame or Tennessee or many other teams that can only look up from their position far down the mountain.

One of the best things about this was being able to share it with my children, having been able to attend games with them this year, so they got to experience what a championship season is like. It’s good.

Among the new things I’m trying this year is Vimeo, a video service that is much like YouTube, but allows free upload of HD content. I shot this HD video at 60 frames per second on the Zi6 at Sammy’s basketball game last night. When I play it back, it doesn’t look very good on Vimeo on my computer…don’t know how it will look on yours. (The video on my computer, straight from the camera, is amazingly good.)

Also, the preview here is only 400X300. When you click the link and go to my Vimeo space, it’s in full resolution.

Sammy playing ball from Tim McDaniel on Vimeo.