Lizard Contest

I’m attending a conference in a couple of weeks where one of the vendors is having a competition. I'm looking for friends to help me win their photo contest? (Here's my entry)

3 simple steps to help me win (I’d do the same for you, you know!):

1. Go to the contest page: http://www.lizardtech.com/esri2009/vote.php
2. Mark my picture (on the bottom row)
3. Enter your name, etc. and vote!

You’re done! I appreciate you (and your help),
Clark

P.S.
Feel free to ask any friends, family, or coworkers to vote for me, too!

If you want more information on the contest or conference, use the following:
LizardTech is the company hosting the contest.
The conference is the ESRI Users Conference.

Correlation ≠ Causation

One of the first things students learn in statistics classes is that correlation does not imply causation. In other words, just because two things are related, it does not mean that one caused the other.

Our little Benjamin has been reminding me of this lately. His loving older siblings love to help him be happy—especially David. David is a boy of many silly faces, and he has the knack at getting Benjamin to laugh.


However, after playing their silly face --> laughter --> silly face --> laughter… game for only a short time, Benjamin apparently concludes that his explosions of laughter cause the silly faces, and not vice versa.

As this process progresses, however, the cause (silly faces) becomes, too, a reaction; likewise, the reaction (exploding laughter) becomes a cause. We, as happy spectators, witness a fantastic positive feedback loop where our two boys go back and forth with laughter and silly faces, with each progressive round being more joyful and happy than the last: a sort of perpetual motion machine (we’ve nearly got it!).

Their fun game continues for some time until both collapse in a heap of wiggling giggles.

It really is fun to watch.

On a not-as-funny note, I’ve been suffering from terrible allergies. This season, I’m hearing many proclaim the virtues of local honey on allergy relief. I’m presently struggling with understanding exactly how the whole process is supposed to help, but I bought some local honey anyway (mostly for my poor wife who can’t take antihistamines).

Because my allergy symptoms vary in intensity (pain) considerably from day to day, it’s difficult for me to ascribe causation to any particular treatment—let alone correlation.

Well, even if the local honey doesn’t “cure” allergies, at least it tastes good.

My thoughts on correlation and causation pop up in other areas of life, too. I’ve noticed that when I’m having a hard time with something, I blame myself. On the other hand, when things are going really well, I express thanks to God. When I do this, I place implied causation for bad things on myself, and implied causation for successes on God. (I guess it’s not nearly as bad as the opposite!)

What I hope to take away from this observation is that I need to trust in the Lord more (see Prov. 3:5-6)—to turn to him in good times and bad, and not simply to recognize His hand in my life in good times; I want to notice His love when times are hard, too.

President Eyring shared his thoughts on this process in his talk, “O Remember, Remember” (link to article), and parts are shown in this short video clip:

Supermom

Our family was recently hit by a fast-moving sickness. One minute you were fine, the next you were ill, and then an hour later, you are fine again.

David was the first victim. He became ill near dinner, got sick (threw up), and went to bed about an hour later right as rain. I, similarly, followed the same cycle a few days later in the afternoon. But poor Maryann got hit in the night.

Nighttime is the worst time to get sick. It’s dark, you’re tired, and the silence of the night makes every disgusting sickness-related noise you make seem ten times as loud as in the day.

Maryann was being a wonderful mother, feeding our little Benjamin in the middle of the night, when the sickness hit her. I awoke to her running through our bedroom towards the bathroom. After a few minutes of being sick, she wiped her mouth and returned to finish feeding Benjamin.

While her return trip wasn’t nearly as fast, nor were her knees as solid, it was at that moment that I was reminded that I live with Supermom! (Supermaryann just doesn’t have the same marketable ring to it.)


Sure, I know she does super things, but there is a distinct difference doing super things and being super (read: being Supermom); this is another practical example of the difference between “do” and “be” (link to previous post here).

I asked myself, “Self, would you have what it takes to do what she did?” I’m not sure if I would, but the question was flawed. I should have asked, “Self, are you the type of person that she is?”

Can you see the difference?

I can, and I’m grateful that I have a superhero in my home. Not only does my sweet wife do great things, but more importantly, she is great.

I'm grateful for the reminders that I come upon each day (like this one) which remind me to not only do more, but be better. I'm grateful for Chirst who makes lasting, meaningful change possible; He did/does great things, but more importantly, He is great.

Learning to Ride

David has taken to riding without his training wheels like a fish to water. Here are two videos that I thought were amazing (please bear in mind that he had only just started to ride without the training wheels the day before these videos were taken):

Here is a clip that shows David's speed. He was slow at first, but the truck passing by in the background must have motivated him because he sped up and shot past it (with the help of perspective).

This is a painful reminder that when learning to ride, you end up going where you're looking. David was so busy smiling at me that he didn't notice that his path was changing ever so slightly.

Here is one more showing how well our little Rebecca is learning. She was doing so well until she saw here super-fast brother zoom by, and then her little legs just gave up.

They say riding a bike is something you never forget how to do. Perhaps this is because learning is so much fun!

David's Mites

As part of our nightly getting-ready-for-bed ritual, we read scripture stories with our children. We have a collection of books of Scripture Stories (click here) that we read a chapter from, and then the children choose a picture and we read the corresponding scriptures. I think it's a nice little system, and the children do really well with understanding the stories we share.

Most of the time.

We recently read of the widow's mites (link to story book, Mark 12:41-44), and David was having some trouble understanding the story: How were the two mites more than the abundance of others?

I tried to explain.

Our children love pennies. They explode with happiness when they come upon a penny on the ground (well, they don't literally explode...), and we are still working with helping learn to not crawl on the ground around stores' checkout stands looking for stray pennies. David is particularly fond of his pennies. He carries them around in one of his many treasure boxes (old small containers that are transformed by his imagination into something else entirely), and reluctantly transfers them to his piggy bank.


In explaining the widow's mites, I used myself and David as substitutes for the characters in the story. I tried to show that if I were to give my tithes and offerings to the church—a small portion of the total—it might be more than the total amount he has in his piggy bank.

I saw his face scrunch up in concentration as he thought of the analogy, but then he said, "But Daddy, I have more money than you!" He continued to explain that he has far more coins in his bank than I have in my "bank"—the tray in the car where I store my coins.

Realizing that my analogy was apparently flawed, I tried to explain the story another way, but he was too focused on the "fact" that he was richer than his Daddy.

I'll need to take another opportunity to enforce the law of the tithe; to teach, as did Elder Hales (link), that:

The primary purpose of this law is to help us develop faith in our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Tithing helps us overcome our desires for the things of this world and willingly make sacrifices for others. Tithing is the great equitable law, for no matter how rich or poor we are, all of us pay the same one-tenth of our increase annually (see D&C 119:4), and all of us receive blessings so great “that there shall not be room enough to receive [them]” (Malachi 3:10).