Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Synchronous Coloring in Malaysia



Last fall, Luke's preschool went to the KL zoo and the staff had lots of activities planned for them. One of the activities was coloring a drawing of a flamingo. When Luke returned from school that day, the teachers were very concerned about Luke's coloring. They thought that we would a) be upset that he had NOT colored the flamingo pink, but green or some other color and b) we would hold them accountable for this outrage. We could care less. He colored it and enjoyed it. Good enough for us. We chalked up their concern to cultural misinterpretation on their part, with them expecting Americans to get upset over this kind of thing.

Recently, as we've been buying Malaysian coloring books for the kids, we've realized that in Malaysia, there is a right way and a wrong way to color. So that there is no confusion over which crayon a child is to chose, the coloring books contain color and black & white facing pages of the same image. On the front and back page, a smaller color inset instructs younguns the correct color scheme to use. Good grief!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Art of the Pose

It's getting harder and harder to get the kids to pose for photos. The new methodology is that we take one "good" photo and one "silly" photo.

Good Photo



Silly Photo

Monday, April 07, 2008

The End of An Era: The Hubert Davis Tee

First off, apologies for the long delay between posts. It is March Madness and the Heels WERE doing quite well. Not so much now.

For those of you who knew me post-graduation and saw me often in a casual environment, you remember my Hubert Davis Basketball Camp tee-shirts. I had several, some the exact same, as I worked at the camp for 2 years. As a recent grad, you just can't turn down free tees. In addition to being the most comfortable shirts I owned, they were a reminder of a great time. Hubert Davis started a 3-day Christian basketball camp in conjunction with the Chapel Hill YMCA while I happened to be doing a lot of work for their sports programs. It was a great opportunity to work with kids and to mingle with Tar Heel greats like Derrick Phelps, Dante Calabria, Warren Martin (who it turns out shopped at my local comics shop), Scott Cherry and others. Guest speakers included Eric Montross, Shammond Williams and other former Tar Heels. I thought the camp was a great experience both for me and all the kids who went there.

Usually, in a competitive sports setting, there's at least one person who is a bad sport. The guy who yells, can't stand losing, attributes intentionality to every foul. The 2 camps I worked didn't have any of these kids, despite going from 4th or 5th grade up through 16 year olds. All the kids worked well with the different age groups when asked. (Some of the coaches were a little snipey at the refs, but not the former Tar Heel players)

Hubert provided a great atmosphere for amicable competition and prayer without being overly preachy. I have nothing but respect for Hubert after the chance to work with him. One of the greatest experiences of my life was playing a pickup game after camp one day with an against some of the Tar Heel greats.

Until meeting him, I had always had a dislike of Dante Calabria. I think if you were another male attending UNC while he was there, it was inevitable because some coed you liked was bound to bring him up at one point or another. But after the camp, I've changed my mind. He was always willing to talk to me and my friends when we ran into him at He's Not Here. (He and Scott Cherry)

In short, all of these memories are tied into my assorted Hubert Davis tees. I had a couple that were the same, so it always seemed like I was wearing the same shirts. Over the years, I've had to thin them out as they gathered stains or holes and I need to lighten our load. The other day, I was wearing one when I realized that this was the last one. My daughter had wiped some jelly on it and I thought, after it's washed, I'm taking a photo for posterity. It never happened. After it was washed, my wife found a small hole in the back and threw it away. So all I have is this cropped photo.



The moral of the story, men, is that you must value each day with your favorite tee, because you never know when it will be your last.