Monk of Mequon

Pinned Articles:

07/01 - Christ Academy by Jon Kohlmeier, 2 comments.

June 20th, 2008

Seriously?

Posted At: 11:33am by Jon Kohlmeier

Dr. Veith over at Cranach pointed me to this news story

Wed Jun 18, 2:08 PM ET

OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl's grounding, overturning her father's punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the Internet, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.

The father's lawyer Kim Beaudoin said the disciplinary measures were for the girl's "own protection" and is appealing the ruling.

"She's a child," Beaudoin told AFP. "At her age, children test their limits and it's up to their parents to set boundaries."

"I started an appeal of the decision today to reestablish parental authority, and to ensure that this case doesn't set a precedent," she said. Otherwise, said Beaudoin, "parents are going to be walking on egg shells from now on."

"I think most children respect their parents and would never go so far as to take them to court, but it's clear that some would and we have to ask ourselves how far this will go."

According to court documents, the girl's Internet transgression was just the latest in a string of broken house rules. Even so, Justice Suzanne Tessier found her punishment too severe.

Beaudoin noted the girl used a court-appointed lawyer in her parents' 10-year custody dispute to launch her landmark case against dear old dad.

Seriously?

Post a Comment | View Comments (1)
Posted in Random

June 11th, 2008

Sleep? What's That?

Posted At: 12:59pm by Jon Kohlmeier

My Brother-in-Law (happy belated anniversary you two!) posted and interesting article over at his blog. Apparently, before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1880, people slept an average of 10 hours a night. These days, Americans average 6.9 hours of sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours a night on weekends.

Some of our conference staff especially should probably read this and then get some sleep!

Go check it out at Jeff's Hubris.

Post a Comment | View Comments (3)
Posted in Random

June 10th, 2008

Wear Sunscreen!

Posted At: 2:17pm by Jon Kohlmeier

Last week I worked at A Taste of Summer, a music festival here in the Milwaukee area. I was out in the parking lot wearing my cool orange reflector vest and waving an orange flag, directing cars where to park. Wednesday-Friday went fine just out there from 3:30pm until 10:30pm. Then Saturday hit I was out in the parking lot by 10:15am and was basically out there until 4pm when severe thunderstorms came into the area. Around 1 I realized that I must have been pretty badly sunburnt because some of the people who I was parking started making comments about it. I put sunscreen on then, but it was too late.. that damage was done.

Anyway, this fun experience reminded me of a song from 1999 which I found out was actually an article printed in the Chicago Tribune two years earlier. The article is entitled "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young."

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

What other advice could be added to this article? Maybe things like 'Have one sports team that you cheer for whether they win or lose. Or maybe something more 'religious' in nature?

Pax.

Post a Comment | View Comments (1)
Posted in Random

June 03rd, 2008

Excommunication?

Posted At: 1:07pm by Jon Kohlmeier

Today, Dr. Veith's blog pointed me to a very interesting article. The article states that a strong, pro-life, Republican was denied communion by a Roman Catholic priest.

Why, you ask? Because earlier this year he said that he was endorsing Barack Obama as president. Supporting a political candidate who is pro-choice seemed to be enough to have Douglas Kmiec excommunicated.

You can read the article HERE.

Thoughts?

Edited on: June 03rd, 2008 2:42 pm

May 16th, 2008

Prince Caspian!

Posted At: 1:24pm by Jon Kohlmeier

I spent my first night of summer seeing the midnight showing and writing a review of Prince Caspian.

It was awesome and it is definitely worth the insane amount of money it is to see it. It is a must see movie of the summer!

For my review head over to the main Higher Things site and its the most recent article in the pop culture and the arts section.

Or I could make things easy and just give you the link:
http://higherthings.org/myht/articles/pop_culture_arts/princecaspian.html

Blogs I Read:

A myHT Fortress
Anlic_Sceadu
Bloghardt's Reflector
Cranach: The Blog of Veith
CyberStones
Daylight
Dock Family
Jeff's Hubris
Madre's Missives
Mini Mumbles
Prophet2b
Staff of Aaron
Weedon's Blog

Cool Websites:

Higher Things
Higher Things Radio
Lutheran Lectionary Project
Mount Zion Lutheran Church

[ more feeds ]

This blog sponsored by:

The views represented on this blog are not necessarily those of Higher Things, nor does Higher Things necessarily endorse them.