The Blank Page

On most Sundays I have the privilege of conducting the children’s sermon during our church’s worship service. Each week one of the boys or girls takes home a plastic toolbox. The following week they bring back the box with something in it. It could be a toy, a book, a stuffed animal… or anything else. The key, though, is I don’t know what is in the box until it’s opened. Whether there’s a trophy, a bowling pin, edible paper, a truck, a doll, or even a sock, I have to come up with a relatable story. And yes, all of those items have appeared in the box.

This past Sunday, laying in the box was a journal with a hand-drawn cover. The pages inside were blank.

So, too, was my mind. Just how could I connect this item to a Biblical story, to God?

I stalled for time.

Then it was crystal clear. The smiling faces looking up at me, waiting for the story, they were the story. I’ve watched them grow up over the years. Sunday after Sunday, sharing in the adventure of discovering what’s in the box.

They were the blank pages. We all are. God designed us that way.

State of the Blog – Jan. 17, 2011

Everybody from the president on down has a “State of the ____” in January.  (Fill in the blank.)  Might as well add my own to the mix.

I am very encouraged with the state of this blog.  Since posting daily, (a goal for this year), daily views have more than doubled.  I feared that I would struggle with creating posts, or be unable to post daily.  So far, though, so good.  Thanks for reading ‘em!

I have made some recent changes to the blog.  The About page and the Contact page have both seen recent updates.  I also added a Bio page and a Comment Policy page.  I hope that you will check them out at your convenience.

It’s important to note the comment policy.  Initially, I had no intention to create a formal policy.  However, with a campaign in the works, and with other potentially controversial topics, I recognize it is a necessity.  I want to provide my readers with a clear comment policy before any controversy arises.  Here’s the gist of it:

• Comments are moderated.
• Anonymous comments are allowed, but the use of a consistent screen name is encouraged.
• Overly profane or nasty comments will be removed.
• Personal attacks are not allowed.
• No spam.
• Please keep comments relevant to the topic being discussed.

For more information, please refer to the Comment Policy page.

Finally, I thank my readers for their time and comments.  It’s an honor to share my words with you.  Even better, I learn a great deal from all your comments!

I encourage you to provide feedback and join in the conversation by commenting and/or clicking the “like” button on individual posts.  Please feel free to share any posts by using the share buttons at the bottom of each post or page.  I also encourage you to subscribe via e-mail or RSS.

Thank you again!

The Blog is Mightier than the Sword… and other cliches

... or is the sword mightier than the blog?

I read somewhere that writers should avoid cliches.  Avoid ‘em like the plague.

I disagree.  I say we should use more of ‘em. Seriously.  Don’t knock it ’til you try it.  A good cliche, like a picture, is worth, well… maybe not a thousand words, but at least as much as a bird in the hand.

If this blog post is pushing you over the edge, just remember that it’s always darkest before the dawn, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Or a train.  So don’t become a deer in the headlights.  It’s always best to lead, follow or get out the way.

You don’t have to use cliches strictly by the book.  Feel free to throw a wrench into the works.  Change things up. Instead of judging a book by its cover, you can write a book about a judicial cover-up.

So, make a resolution to bury the hatchet.  Don’t forget that a doctor a day is a lot more expensive than a barrel of apples.  (Although you should watch out for the bad apple.)

Just don’t tell me that I couldn’t hit the barn side of a… uhh, never mind.

Resolving to Self-Induce Insanity

Yes, you read that correctly.  Insanity.  I think my latest New Year’s resolution/goal might accomplish just that.

Harry Potter & Sudoku - not quite enough to induce insanity

I’m not talking about my resolution to lose 10% of my current body weight.  I’m not referring to my goal to finish grad school this year with grades of A- or better.  It’s not completing a reorganization of my man-cave.

It’s not even my shorter-term goals of working my way through some Sudoku puzzles and finally finishing the last two books in the Harry Potter series.  Although, I’ll admit to having weird dreams (nightmares?) combining the Harry Potter stories with Sudoku.

Nope, I’ve set an ambitious goal of posting once a day on this blog.  It’s all a part of WordPress’s Post A Day challenge.  And it’s gonna be tough to accomplish.  Right now, I’m averaging around a post every three days or so.

Here’s hoping I can at least get through the first week!

Wish me luck and enjoy the ride.

2010 in review

Got a cool little e-mail from WordPress with information about this blog’s performance in 2010.  It even had a link to click to share the information, and that’s how this post came to fruition.  Now, while This Ordinary Citizen’s performance in 2010 wasn’t earth-shattering, I am quite happy with it so far.

Thank you to everybody who read, commented, and made suggestions for TOC in 2010.  I hope you will continue to participate in the conversations, and please feel free to share the information with others in this wide world of webbiness.

Here’s the info I received from WordPress:

______________________________________________________________

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,200 times in 2010. That’s about 10 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 103 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 115 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 77mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was October 15th with 57 views. The most popular post that day was Wanna keep Albany “dead”? Kill the cupcakes..

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, mail.yahoo.com, digg.com, en.wordpress.com, and talk1300.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for ordinary citizen, thisordinarycitizen.wordpress.com, navy sword arch, this ordinary citizen, and this ordinary citizen wade.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Wanna keep Albany “dead”? Kill the cupcakes. August 2010
2 comments

2

About February 2010
2 comments

3

An Unsafe Vehicle and Unhappy with GM October 2010
2 comments

4

Celebrating the Extraordinary: Veterans Day November 2010

5

Two Weeks Later… March 2010
7 comments

Following through on my Pink-y Swear

Updated 12/5/10. See below.

Just over a month ago, during a discussion about breast cancer awareness month, I made a promise to my readers.  I promised to make a donation to a good “pink” cause.

A few weeks ago, I made good on my promise, at least in a small way. Trust me, it wasn’t much money, but I sent a check to The Foundation for Ellis Medicine for the Neil and Jane Golub Breast Care Center.  Why there? Primarily because it’s local, and I’m a big fan of making a difference locally. The center is located at Bellevue Woman’s Center where our second son was born.  Bellevue also looked after my wife overnight after she was in a nasty car accident during the pregnancy.

One of my grad school classmates works for The Foundation for Ellis Medicine.  A month ago, I spoke with her about the possibility of donating to Ellis.  She was passionate about her work and the positive impact that it has on the community.  I was up front that my donation would be small. Still, she treated me as an important donor, even taking the time to send me an e-mail thanking me for the donation.

On a related not, I’m still pondering a comment from last month’s post made by my mother:

Not all important contributions have to be financial. Find a family that has a lot of energy focused on chemo treatments and mow their lawn or a mom who’s weak after surgery and help her kids make their halloween costumes.

Intriguing.

Any thoughts about how to go about doing something like that in the Capital District?

12/5/10 Update:  I received a wonderful thank-you letter from Ellis Medicine in the mail yesterday.  Looks like it was personally signed, not just a form letter.  I’m a big fan of the thank-you letter or card!

Choosing Remembrance

It’s been nine years since the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC that left our nation, and the world, shocked and horrified. Sometimes, it seems like it happened just yesterday.  In all that time, I can’t recall ever writing about it.  Today, I choose to change that.

Thousands died on that awful day.  I watched much of it live on TV.  I had just moved to Elmira, NY.  I lived far from the impact sites.  Still, electronic media brought it much too close.  I sat next to my wife on our couch in our newly rented apartment.  Our rental agent stood nearby.  A repairman who had been working on the apartment quietly sat on the arm of the couch.  I don’t remember either of their names.  Like many others, we shared a morning that is seared into my brain.

Afterward, I remember walking outside and looking up at a bright blue sky. An empty sky.  All air traffic grounded.  I think even the birds chose not to take flight.  The tranquility of the day was in stark contrast to the smoke and chaos that I knew existed at the Pentagon, at the World Trade Center site, and in a field in Pennsylvania.

More recently, I took in the view of the Pentagon in the photo below.  It happened to be another crisp, clear September day.  And my first reaction to seeing the huge building and phenomenal view was, “I wonder what it was like to see the attack on the Pentagon from here?”

To this day, I can’t look into a clear blue sky without a quick reminder of that day.

When that happens, I find it helpful to take a moment for prayer and remembrance.  I choose not to forget that day, but I will not dwell on the horror.  I choose to remember the positives of that day.  The many heroes. The unity it brought.  I choose to honor our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who have gone into battle as a result of that day.

That is my remembrance.  What is yours?

BEST book I’ve read this summer!

Well… maybe the second best.  I’ll admit that I’m a bit biased about the best book.  (Voices of the Tea Party by Steve Ference.)  After all, I was interviewed for that one.

I’m not usually a book reviewer, but I’ve gotta write about this one: Where the Mild Things Are: A Very Meek Parody.  Yesterday we were in the library for the weekly story hour.  It’s also the time where we peruse the library shelves to borrow our weekly quota of six new books and two DVD’s. Typically, I start with the shelf of new kids’ books.  And sitting on top, was this book… clearly a parody of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.

Since the boys and I often read Sendak’s classic story at bedtime, I couldn’t resist grabbing this book by Maurice Send-up.  (I’m liking it already!)  As I casually flipped the pages, I realized that it was the book for me, not so much for the kiddos.

You see, it stars a monster named “Mog” who doesn’t like excitement. Instead, he journeys to “Dullsville.”  It’s a town inhabited by some familiar faces.  Three of the characters, called “mild creatures,” look an awful lot like Martha Stewart, Bill Gates, and Jay Leno.  Then there’s my favorite:  a certain Vice President who is known for his environmental activism, for the invention of the internet, for losing a presidential bid, and for having the personality of a pine tree.  Ya’ know who I’m writing about.

I don’t want to give up too much of the story, but I must share one of my favorite quotes:

The mild creatures made Mog the President of Dullsville.  The very boring man was elected Vice President.  Again.

I read the book before bedtime last night, just not to the kids.  Both my wife and I laughed all the way through.  Heck, the kids might even like it, though they’ll wonder why Dad keeps laughing while reading it.

I’m putting it on my Christmas list.  It’s one for the coffee table.

July 2010 TOC Blog Update

Please allow me to provide you with a quick update on the blog.

In five months, this blog has come along fairly well.  It has grown, not rapidly, but steadily.  Overall, I am meeting my goals for the blog.  It is a learning experience, one that has proven quite rewarding.  I look forward to continuing that educational process.

This week in particular has been quite busy for me.  I have seen a recent upsurge in visits to the blog, and I thank you for that.  I am also very excited about what’s in store.  Over the next couple of weeks I intend to wrap up some loose ends.  I realized that I left the “Defining the Ordinary Citizen” series incomplete.  I also did not complete my look-back upon the 2009 Albany Tax Day Tea Party.  I will be completing both of those series of posts.

More importantly, this coming Wednesday (July 28th) heralds the official start of what is arguably the most important feature within this blog. Perhaps my biggest goal for this blog is to highlight and profile Ordinary Citizens who show us what it means to be Extraordinary.  I am sure that many of you will recognize the person I have chosen to lead off this important blog category.  Tune in on Wednesday to find out!

If you have feedback or suggestions for improving the blog, please provide your comments.  It’s all part of the process.  In particular, I would like to recognize my friend and classmate Alicia for all the specific improvements she has suggested.  I encourage you to visit her blog:  No Adult Left Behind.

Again, I thank you for reading and commenting!  I look forward to learning from all of your comments.

Call Off the Search Parties

What happened?  It feels like it’s been a year since my last post.  No need to call search and rescue.  I’m still here… just a bit busy.

“What in the world,” you ask, “could keep you away from your blog?”  There is so much fodder for discussion:

• Healthcare [ahem] reform.
• Schenectady County’s new requirement of chain restaurants to display calorie counts on their menus.
• More Gov. Paterson scandal.
• Budgetary gridlock in Albany.
• Proposals to regulate salt usage within New York restaurants.
• Scott Murphy’s waffling on the healthcare bill.
• Proposed state park closures in NY.
• and so on…

Poof.  [Imagine a mushroom cloud appearing over my head.]  Indeed, there is so much more to discuss than time to write about it.  Between grad school writing and press releases for Patrick Ziegler’s congressional campaign, I’ve been busy.

But that’s no excuse.  I will endeavor to do better with the blog.  I am setting up interviews with ordinary citizens who show us what it means to be extraordinary.  Those profiles will be an important part of this blog.  In addition, I will be finishing my series on “Defining the Ordinary Citizen,” and I will start a series detailing the history of the Albany Tea Party rallies.

Please stay tuned.