Fortune Cookie

I'm cleaning out my man-cave office today and came across the following from a fortune cookie:

"You will live a long time,
long enough to open many, many fortune cookies."

It's the class sizes...

There was recently a MinnPost Article about Minneapolis Public Schools looking for more money just to keep the status quo of class sizes (and other things). My first reaction to hearing about all this was exactly what is brought up in the article--why can't the class sizes being reduced? Of course I know the answer: money.

Boy with autism barred from mass

This is just sad. So much for the concept of "The Good Shepherd". I'm going to post the article from the Star Tribune as well. It goes a bit more into the behaviors at issue and how they can be misinterpreted by people who do not understand autism. Please read the Star Tribune article, because the WCCO-TV pieces leave out any discussion of what the mother's response to the church's concerns.

WCCO-TV:
Article, Video

Star Tribune:
Article

My favorite quote from the mother is "I can't discipline him out of his autism, and I think that's what our priest is expecting." The church points out offensive behaviors--but the parents also point out how such behaviors can be misinterpreted. Speaking from experience, behaviors can be blown out of proportion by people who know very little about autism.

I'm really curious to see how this turns out. My own experience has been that a church does not like for it to be told that it is wrong. From what I've read so far, I think this case clearly violates the hospitality that Jesus Christ calls all of us to practice.

Busy, busy, busy...

Tommy is on my case because I haven't posted a blog entry for a long time. Life has been busy!

However, I did find this slide show on the NY Times website, which is very interesting.

Recently I've changed jobs. Wow--that takes a lot of time and effort to go through the whole process. The first two weeks have been busy, intense, and ultimately fun at the new place. I'm using technology that I haven't really had reason to do much work on since college.

One fringe benefit of the new place is a mile long walking trail through the woods around the building and parking lot. It is a bit bitter sweet, since we're moving to a new building in August. However, I hear that the new building will have walking trails as well--plus it is next to a public lake. Although there were many things about my old job I loved, the only walking you could do close to the building was through the business park in which it was located. Just blah buildings surrounded by blah parking lots.

I'll have to take pictures of the trails at my present building and post them.