The Best Gifts

Without a doubt, the best gift I ever received was given to me on February 18th, 1990. That's when Jesus called me by name and saved me. He took me out of a life of darkness and put me on a path of life, redemption, and of a saving grace. I am forever thankful for that gift. Especially since it came at so great a cost. This Christmas, I am thankful for the gift that Jesus died to give me.

The other best gift I ever received came to me on July 31, 1999. That's when Joi Stoffels became Joi Copeland and changed my life forever. She is am amazing woman. I am constantly amazed at how wonderful she is. She is an excellent Mom to our boys. She home-schools them and attends to their every need. She stays up with them when they have the flu and then super-cleans and sanitizes the house so that no one else gets sick. When I left this morning, she was doing exactly that with wipes and Lysol in hand. She is an excellent wife. She is indeed my best friend, my support, my helpmate, my biggest fan, and the most amazing woman I have ever met. Besides everything she does around the house, she is now a published author. Her first book is available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com and just recently a Kindle version has been released. Her second book is already picked up and is at the publisher. How does she do it? I am amazed. Plus, she's good looking to boot. How did I get so lucky? This is another of the best gifts I have ever received.

Three other of the best gifts I ever received came to me on 02/02/02, 09/24/03, and 10/15/04. Thanks to the gift of my wife, I was blessed with three sons from her womb. Every day they amaze me with their intelligence, creativity, athletic ability, thoughtfulness, and love for others. I am awestruck when I see little nuances of their appearance or behavior that are similar to mine or my wife's. I love them dearly and I couldn't imagine loving anyone more. I am blessed. I love being a Dad. I think being a Dad has solidified my faith in God because I can understand more about how God interacts with us and how he watches us make mistakes and rejoices with our triumphs. I can understand a little fraction of the love God must have for us. My boys are among my best gifts.

This year, as you unwrap your presents, remember the gifts that already sit around you. The gifts that we have already been given. You may not get the new car, new house, the iPad 2, or the new laptop that you wanted, but you are surrounded by gifts. The gift of love. The gift of having loved ones around you. The gift of salvation. The gift of a warm home. The gift of food in the fridge. The gift of a job. The gift of money to pay your bills. These gifts are something to be truly thankful for. Remember these gifts this Christmas and then thank the giver of every good and perfect gift....God.

These Are A Few of My Favorite (Christmas) Things

To revel in the Christmas Spirit, here are a few of my favorite things about Christmas (past and present).

The Magic of Christmas as a Child. I liked the magic of getting up the morning of Christmas when I was a child and seeing the tons of presents that had suddenly and magically appeared around the tree. Santa had come. Even the cookies had bites out of them. I was usually up early and had a while to ogle the presents and try to figure out what they were before my parents woke up.

Midnight Mass. Not my favorite (cause I hated staying up late the night before Christmas), but I am definitely nostalgic about it now. Falling asleep in the choir loft at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Montclair at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve....listening to my Parents and Grandmother (among other choir members) singing "Carol of the Bells".

Christmas Movies. Among my favorites are White Christmas, Elf, The Santa Clause movies with Tim Allen, Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon version), Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas, Mickey's Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story, Scrooged, and all those old clay-mation Christmas movies with Rudolph, Frosty, etc. I love watching them each year.

Christmas Music. I love listening to Christmas music each year. I love it more when I can listen to it while watching it snow outside. It's the best. I love radio stations that dedicate their line-up to entirely Christmas music. And now, I'm loving Pandora and Spotify Christmas stations. Plus, I have my own extensive Christmas music MP3 collection on my iPod. I love Christmas music.

A real tree decorated in my living room. I love the smell of pine needles. I love to watch the blinking lights in the dark. I love to see all of the memorable and homemade Christmas decorations on our tree and reliving those memories.

Gifts. I know, Jesus is the reason for the season. But, I can't help it. I love gifts. I love getting and giving them. My "love language" is gifts, so this is probably why I am the way I am. Almost as much as opening them, I love playing with them afterwards. I am a child at heart.

Being a Daddy. It's awesome to relive the Christmas magic in the eyes of my boys each year. I love watching them open presents. I love watching Christmas movies with them. I love watching them in their annual Christmas program at church each year. It's just so much fun to be a Daddy this time of year.

Being a Husband. More than anything, I enjoy spending Christmas with my wife. Joi and I have had 14 Christmas' together and I cherish each one. The holidays are just better with people you love and even better with the one you love most.

Being in Colorado. It just never felt right growing up in Southern California when it was 80 degrees and sunny on Christmas. Now that I am living in Colorado, I get to experience the joy of living in a place that is actually cold and snowy on Christmas. I never want to go back. I LOVE actually having a White Christmas. LOVE IT!!!!

Food. I like food. Holiday food is usually even better because it highlights so many of my favorites. Turkey, Ham, brown and serve rolls, yams, pie, stuffing, candy, and cookies. Yum! Plus, for leftovers I get to use the ham to make my Split Pea Soup. Mmmmm....good.

Family. I enjoy seeing family and friends around Christmas. Now that I live in Colorado, that list is a little smaller. I do miss being able to see my family and friends from California on Christmas. It seemed like Christmas was the only time of year we could get everyone together. I miss hanging out with everyone and having conversations with people I don't get to see very often. But, when we buy a house, you are welcome to come visit us in Colorado. Free White Christmas thrown in.

Jesus. Last on my list, but certainly first in my heart. We celebrate Christmas because of the ultimate gift that Jesus gave us when He came to earth to eventually die on a cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Christmas without Jesus is empty and pointless. As I said, I am a gift person. With that being said, there is no greater gift than for a person to lay down his life for a friend. That's what Jesus did. As God, He loved us so much that he gave up his life for us. So, that we can come before God sinless, spotless, and holy. Thank you, Jesus!

Brain Potpourri

I got a lot of thoughts going through my head. I'm not sure I could iterate any of them into an entertaining blog post, so I thought I would post a Potpourri. No, this is not a blog about brain scented potpourri for zombies. It's a conglomeration of all of the little pieces in my head at this moment.

David Stern, the NBA commissioner, made me (and lots of other people) angry when he ceased a trade that the Lakers were working on to make them a better team than last year. But, since the NBA owns the Hornets (which is a total conflict of interest) and David Stern is essentially their owner (another HUGE conflict of interest), he stopped the trade "for basketball reasons". As a result, the Lakers lost the chance to acquire Chris Paul, a quick point guard that they desperately need. Also, we lost momentum on possibly acquiring Dwight Howard, which would have been awesome. Then the Lakers, for some reason that is beyond me, traded Lamar Odom for draft picks. To make matter worse, they traded him to the Mavericks. Yes, the ones that won the Championship last year. What? Has Kupjack lost his mind? Odom was the 6th man of the year, last year. Get rid of Bynum who is injury ridden, a poor sport (remember when he clothes-lined that little dude from the Mavs last year when it was apparent they were going to get swept), and who is more bark than bite. Keep Gasol. Yes, he had a bad run last year, but he had a couple great runs before that and a man gets tired playing that deep into the season. He'll be a great player again. So, the Lakers look pretty bad this year. They were destroyed by the new, improved Clippers last night. Ron "Metta World Peace" Artest couldn't make a shot. Matt Barnes went scoreless. The rest were mediocre. So, why are the Clippers better? Oh yeah, they got Chris Paul in the next deal. Thanks a lot, David Stern. You get coal in your stocking from me this year.


Do you ever wonder if you are creating the Christmas magic for your kids that you remember when you were a child?

It's quiet at work this week. The students are on Christmas break. Sometimes it's like a ghost town and it doesn't feel right. Other times I love it.

It snowed again yesterday and there seems to be another storm for Wednesday/Thursday. Plus, the snow never completely melted away from the big storms we had a couple of weeks ago. So, while it won't be snowing on Christmas day, it will definitely be a White Christmas.


The Mayan region of Mexico stands to make a lot of money this year as we head into the 2012 "end of the world". Tourism is expected to explode in those regions. I wonder if those people will get a refund when we are all here on December 22nd, 2012?

Who in the world is going to be the last republican candidate standing? I'm waiting for there to be just one so that I can decide if he/she is worthy of my support or not. There are so many candidates and none of them seem to have a huge lead over the other. I'm waiting for a few more to drop off so that I can start researching them and see if they stand for the things that I stand for.

One other huge thing is going on in our lives right now, but I can't post it here. Just know that we're cautiously excited about it and praying that it all works out. If it does, it will be very cool. If it doesn't work out, no biggie. We're in no hurry.

Does anyone know how to fix an inaccurate posting on your credit report? If so, post in the comments. Thanks!

The Death of Christopher Hitchens

Ironically, I wrote my last post before I knew that Christopher Hitchens died. I read about his death in the news this morning as I was eating my breakfast. I was shocked to learn of the news, not even knowing that he was fighting cancer. Also, I was saddened. I've read some of Hitchens' books. Despite the fact that I disagreed vehemently with almost everything he had to say about Christianity, God, the Bible, and faith, there is no deputing that he was a very intelligent human being. What saddens me the most about him is that he died with his beliefs (or at least as far as I know) and that his version of dying seems very sad to me. There is nothing more. He's gone. Emptiness. What a sad way to spend eternity. If he was right, he's now slipped into nothingness. If Christians are right, he is spending an eternity in hell. Not because we serve an unloving God but because we love a God who lets us choose. Who loves us enough to give us choices and let us decide for ourselves. Are there consequences to our choices? Yes, every single one. If we choose to accept the gift of Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, we get to live with the consequences of eternity in heaven with the Creator of everything. If we choose to deny Him, we choose hell. God doesn't send us there. We decide for ourselves.

Hitchens has said some pretty hurtful things about God and Christians and there were times when I was on the defensive when I read his books. But, all in all, I am thankful for his opposing views. Because of them, I was able to question, research, and solidify my own faith. Questions shouldn't scare Christians. Only people who have something to hide should be afraid of questions. I am hoping that with the rise of outspoken atheists like Hitchens, a new generation of Christian apologists who are ready to defend their faith against all questions and arguments will come forth. If the atheists can be outspoken, why can't the Christians? There is no reason to shy away from arguments and debate. We should welcome these debates like many of the brilliant Christian apologists of today already do. People like Lee Strobel, Greg Koukl, Dr. Hugh Ross, Josh McDowell, Dr. Alex McFarland, and Ravi Zacharias (among many others). I am thankful for thoughtful and meaningful debate. I am thankful for people who think, who question, and who debate. Ultimately, I am thankful for the truth.

In Defense of God

I have always had an inner fire when it came to God. There were times when I would defend Him against people who had mistaken beliefs. Even before I became a born-again Christian, I would defend God. For instance, I got in trouble in grade school (probably 1st grade) because my teacher told the class that "To thine own self be true" was one of the 10 commandments. I didn't know Shakespeare enough at the time to know that this quote actually came from Hamlet. But, I knew enough of the Bible at that young age to argue with my teacher. I argued so vehemently with my teacher that I was sent to the principle's office and my parents were called. When my Mom came to investigate and was told the story, she told the principle that I was right. Can you say...vindication?

Yesterday, I was listening to my iPod and "We are the world" came on. It's a great anthem of the 80's and it did a lot for the hungry in the world. The late Michael Jackson wrote the music and lyrics for it. At one point of the song, Willie Nelson sings "As God has shown us, by turning stone to bread...and so we all must lend a helping hand." As I listened to that line, I thought to myself, I don't remember God changing stone to bread. I remember Jesus feeding 5000 with just a few fish and a loaf of bread. I remember God sending Manna from heaven when the Israelites were wandering in the desert and were hungry. In fact, the only reference to stones and bread I remember is when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness and told him to change the stones to bread to satisfy his hunger (Jesus was fasting at the time). Jesus answers with "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" He walks away without changing any stones to bread. So, where did Michael get this? And how many people listened to this song and believed that this little piece of misinformation was actually in the bible. It staggers the mind.

I also get defensive when I see people attacking Christian organizations like the Salvation Army because they believe in Biblical guidelines when it comes to homosexuality, the holy design of heterosexual marriage, and celibacy outside of heterosexual marriage (whether gay or straight). There is so much misinformation going around about the Salvation Army, it is sickening. It makes me defensive...and then I go into the offensive. First off, the Salvation Army does not, nor will it ever, deny their services to any openly gay people. Second, by not donating to the Salvation Army, you are not hurting the Salvation Army. You are hurting the millions of people who depend on them for food, shelter, support, and emergency services. The people who get their aid from the Salvation Army are from a wide range of backgrounds and beliefs. The Salvation Army serves gay, straight, poor, Christian, non-Christian, atheist, and any other combination. They do this without regard to these people's personal beliefs. When you stop donating to the Salvation Army, you are actually hurting a hungry, gay homeless person who needs shelter and food. You can disagree with the beliefs, but do not be so ignorant as to believe that withholding your donation will do anything but hurt the very people who you are trying to defend.

When people deny the existence of God and then attack me for being "ignorant, deluded, sick, misguided, stupid, and a bad parent" because I believe what the Bible has to say, you can believe that I get fired up. I once spent a year researching and disputing an atheist friend. I read entire books on the subject and spent countless hours carefully wording my response. In the process, I solidified my own faith even further. When I was finished, my response was 49 pages. I sent it via email and ten minutes after I sent this response to this person, they replied with an email that stated that they "couldn't believe a person with a Master's degree could be so stupid". There is no way that this individual read my entire 49 page response and actually given it careful consideration in that 10 minutes. I learned a valuable lesson, though. No amount of evidence will convert someone who already has their mind made up. Only a person who is truly seeking the truth, rather than holding on to preconceived beliefs, will ever be affected by the insurmountable evidence of the existence of God.

I've always had a fire within me to stand up against misinformation, especially when it comes to God. I don't know why. There is something about this that triggers something deep in my soul. I wasn't always a Christian. I've definitely lived a sinners life. I know more about "the world" than I care to know. But, I know with every fiber of my being that God exists, that Jesus was and is real, and that we will all be standing face to face with Him at the end of days. I've formed this position based on research, studying, life experiences, and countless hours of searching. I know it's true and I will defend it until I draw my last breath.

My Top Nine Geek Songs

I was listening to my iPod this morning on the way to work and heard a string of geek related tunes and it got me thinking about what my top geek songs would be. Here's my list (in no particular order).

They Might Be Giants - Particle Man
You can get any geekier than They Might Be Giants. Their geek anthem is definitely Particle Man. A great song that includes nonsense verse with high intellectual concepts like would a particle man get wet under water? Plus, the accordion brings a special geek element.


Weird Al - White and Nerdy
Weird Al might be the geek poster child. Here, he writes the epitome of geek songs. The video will explain it all. Also, a special shout out to Donnie Osmand for the geek dancing in this video. When I taught "Business Information Systems" in the Graduate Program at Azusa Pacific University, I used to show this video to lighten the mood before the students gave their final presentations.


Devo - Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA
Let's face it. Devo are the founding fathers of geek rock. The concept of De-evolution, that society is actually going backward rather than progressing is some serious geek fodder. Here is their de-evolution anthem.


Alien Ant Farm - Movies
You can geek out over many things. Music, movies, computers, books, food, plus many other things. Here is a great song that totally geeks out on classic movies. The video is great with tributes to Ghost Busters, the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the Karate Kid (complete with special appearance by Pat Morita), and Edward Scissorhands. Plus, they make an analogy between love and a movie. Can't get geekier than that.



Art of Noise - Close (to the Edit)
Art of Noise was one of the pioneers of sampling and synthesizer use. This song made in the early 80's used the sound of a car starting as a back-beat to the song. They were way ahead of their time. This is a great example of geeking out over music and technology.


Barenaked Ladies - If I had $1,000,000,000
These guys are definitely geeks. Here they write a love song about having a million dollars and buying someone's love. Plus, they'd make a tree fort, buy the bones of the Elephant Man, and buy dijon ketchup. Plus, they were on the bacon-geek band wagon years before anyone else was in their call for "pre-wrapped bacon". Also, they'd eat lots of Kraft Dinner. Sounds geeky to me.


Beck - Loser
Nonsense rap by a white guy. Yeah, I think this classifies as geeky.



OK GO - Here It Goes Again
This is probably the geekiest video I have ever seen. Choreography on treadmills? How tremendously awesome is that!?!?!


Owl City - Fireflies
A great synthesized song with a video full of geeky, fun, and nostalgic toys. This has to be on the list.


Apparently I forgot some good ones in my original list of nine... so, I'm adding these songs post-publish. Here are some additional suggestions from some of my readers.

Joco - Code Monkey This one goes without explanation. A great anthem for all of you coders out there. Barenaked Ladies - Grade 9 A great song about the inherent geekiness of being a 9th grader with great geek references to Star Trek's The Wrath of Kahn and a little hidden tribute to the Charlie Brown theme. A great song for geeks everywhere.

My Experience as a Stay-at-Home-Dad

My wife's step-father passed away early in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving. My wife needed to be with her family and to attend the funeral. We couldn't afford to send the whole family, so we sent Joi alone. My work was gracious enough to let me work from home remotely for a week. My wife left on a Tuesday morning and returned on a Monday night. Six days...as a Stay-at-Home-Dad. Here are my experiences.

Work and School. I'd get up early in the morning and set up my work environment (laptop, wireless connection, etc). I was usually online and working by 7am each day (which is about 1 hour earlier than usual if I take the bus to work). The boys were usually up by 7:30am each morning. My wife and boys made it very easy to complete their home-schooling regimen. My wife taught our boys how to be fairly autonomous while she was gone. They had check lists to complete each day and they knew exactly which lessons to do. I'd help them with questions and check their work periodically when I felt it necessary. Otherwise, they pretty much taught themselves, which was awesome while I was trying to get work done. I'd put on classical music on Pandora and exclaim "They say classical music makes you smarter...so let's get smarter while we do work and school." After breakfast (which the boys prepared themselves) and after a "Felix the Cat" or "Casper the Friendly Ghost" on Netflix, the boys would dive right in to their school work. They were anxious to get things done so that they could have more time for play. Work and home schooling were probably the easiest parts of this week for me.

Activities. We had lots of them this week. Garrison had basketball practice. All three boys had a Christmas production at church. The boys had Modern Day Knights. The boys had Friday school. I needed to go grocery shopping at Super-Walmart and Sam's Club. I needed to go to the bank. Etcetera...and so on. This was harder for me. So much to remember. So much to coordinate. Do you have your lunches and water bottles? Do you have your bibles? Do you have your winter coats? I still failed from time to time. I forgot Garrison's water bottle for basketball practice. I let Gavin escape the house without a jacket. There was so much to remember, I was lucky just to get them to the event on time each day....which I did, by the way. I got pretty good at coordinating for events by the end of the week. Except, I kept leaving the stove on after making dinner. I'd notice it hours later. Oh well. For the Sunday night Christmas production, the boys needed to dress in Sweaters. I anticipated a disaster and made the boys get ready early and sure enough....Gage couldn't find his sweater and Garrison's sweater had some sort of caked on food on it, despite the fact that it was in his clean clothes. So, I scrubbed Garrison's sweater by hand and tossed it in the dryer...and  I helped Gage find his sweater. I got their hair combed and everybody was ready early. I'm glad I started early for this. Also, I had a major win at a thrift store. I bought Garrison new snow boots (he out-grew his), I got him basketball shoes, I bought Gavin a sweater for his Christmas production, I got Gage a new t-shirt, and I got Garrison a plain white T-Shirt for his Computer Science class (he'll be studying graphic design and will make a transfer). All of this for less than $20. Winning! By the end of the week, I had this coordinating stuff down. Through all of this, I learned how much I depend on Joi to coordinate everything and have all of the ducks in a row. I know this is hard work and is probably not fair for me to "assume" Joi will always do it. I found an area that I can improve in, even after Joi returns.

Cleaning up. This was one of the harder things for me this week. Not the cleaning so much as the frequent need for it. The boys would get their breakfast together each day, but they'd leave cabinet doors open, dishes all over the house, and butter on the counter and floor. I'd find Cheerios on the floor (usually after I'd stepped on them and flattened them into powder). The boys would do "projects" but would leave cut up paper, scissors, and scotch tape all over the house. I'd find books in every crack, crevice, and cranny. Clothes dropped wherever they decided to strip down. Jackets in chairs, the floor, the bathroom. I feel like I cleaned for six days without stopping and I didn't even "super clean" which is our term for a once a week scrub down of everything. I just straightened the house and picked up after the boys....and it still felt like I was cleaning non-stop. Thank God Almighty for my wife who does a majority of this while I am at work.

Fighting. This was the second hardest part of the week for me. We had lots of snow this week and snow days with cold temps mean a lot of being in-doors. Being in-doors so much meant extra fighting. It seemed like I was always breaking up a fight or mediating a situation. At one point, I threatened to have the boys get their boxing gloves and fight it out to get out their aggression. Interestingly enough, that helped them to stop fighting. I thought for sure they'd want to have a boxing match.

Snow. The snow this week was a blessing and a curse. We had lots of consecutive snow this week and probably got a foot of snow through the course of 3 days. While it was beautiful and I enjoyed listening to Christmas music while it snowed outside, it made for more work for me. First, I'd have to shovel the patio and walk-ways before they turned to ice. The boys would want to  play in the snow which meant snow jackets, gloves, beanies, snow pants, and snow boots. It would take me 20 minutes to get them all situated, zip up their jackets, push their gloves on, pull their sleeves over their gloves, etc. They'd go outside and play for about 10 minutes and then they were back inside. Then I'd coordinate them putting their shoes on the shoe holder we have, putting their clothes in the dryer to get them dry and warm for their next excursion, and I'd make three cups of Hot Chocolate and/or Hot Apple Cider. We'd go through this entire process about 15 times a day. I don't think our dryer ever stopped running. I probably made 30 cups of warm drinks between Thursday through Monday.

Fun. It wasn't all work. We had fun, too. I let each boy sleep with me for one night. We'd snuggle up and watch something special on Netflix and I'd let them stay up for as long as they could stay awake (or until I decided it was time to sleep). That was fun. We had special meals that I let them help plan. Salmon one night. Pigs in a blanket the next. We had a special dinner out. We had special desserts (Cinnamon Nuggets, Little Chocolate Donuts). We watched Star Wars - A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. We watched Mary Poppins and the Muppet Movie. We laughed and played together. I even went outside and helped them make a sledding ramp...and then I tried it out with them. It certainly wasn't all work. There was some play, too. I enjoy my boys and it was fun to have a week of "guy time".

Lesson Learned. I already knew this, but my wife has a lot on her plate and her job is harder than mine. Besides the stuff I did this week, she actually teaches our boys during home-school. Plus, she plans meals, does our finances, super cleans, coordinates all of our events and activities, cleans up after the boys, goes grocery shopping, manages our household, and still manages to look beautiful when I come home from work. Joi does a lot. I realized the little things she does this week. At the beginning of the week, I'd go into the bathroom and go "Hey...why isn't there toothpaste on my toothbrush?" Joi usually brushes her teeth first and gets mine ready for me. So, for a couple of days I was surprised when I had to get my own toothbrush ready. It's the little things that mean so much. I am amazed at how much Joi does and still manages to stay sane. While I loved being with the boys and they were fairly good considering...I wouldn't want Joi's job for a million dollars. She is a rock star. I am utterly amazed. I have always said that her job is harder than mine. I have a new respect for that statement after my six days in her shoes. Mostly, though, I learned what a difference her presence makes in our life. I don't mean to sound cliche, but she literally completes our family. We were missing an important element when she was gone from us. Plus, she is my comfort and peace. Each night we snuggle and talk about our day. I missed that. I missed my best friend. It was hard to be away from her...and not because of what she does, but because of who she is. I love that woman of mine. My respect for her grows more and more each day.