Hailie Must Be a Muse

Hailie is now three and a half months old and doing very well.  I thought it'd be nice to reinitiate blogging by posting some work done by her granddads shortly after her birth.  For those of you who don't know, Hailie was born on the first day of fall (Sept 22) 2008 at 6lb and 17.5".  I'll be posting a lengthy update into our lives soon, so look for more details there.

Hailie's Song (mp3) (lyrics)

By Grandpa Dixon

TO HAILIE
By Grandpa Williams


As dawn does break with eastern ray,
     Those glorious beams afire,
The promises of each new day
     Fulfill, renew, inspire.
And all around the miracles
     Of God’s amazing world
Caress our senses, great and small—
     The newest one’s unfurled—

Our Hailie.


A charming bundle, made to hold,
     So great to squeeze and love.
A precious gift more rare than gold
     Descended from above.
With darling yawns and twinkling eyes
     She’s stealing every heart.
And Grandpa now, with heavy sighs,
     So hates to be apart

From Hailie.


When knocking on the doors of earth
     She simply couldn’t wait—
The waters broke, and then the birth;
     A very special date.
So welcome to our lives, sweet child,
     You’ve blessed us, Oh so much!
And it’s for you, so soft, so mild,
     We pray our Father’s touch

Dear Hailie.

4D Ultrasound

For my faithful few, here's the video of our 4D Ultrasound. At the office, they had some side-by-side pictures from the ultrasound and after the birth. Some of those looked incredibly similar. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised--they're of the same baby.

Enjoy Hailie's first video!

Ultrasound

So it looks like we'll have a baby girl in a few months.


Back to the lasers.

Growing

Just a quick note and picture.

Jen and the baby are both growing nicely. Unfortunately Jen still feels fairly miserable most days, but she's really strong. I'm so proud and impressed with her!

Here's a picture to show you she's showing!


The ultrasound is next Thursday, so I'll try to post some pictures of the baby next week.

Things I learned this weekend

I learned a few things this weekend at a retreat. There were a half dozen couples who met in upstate New York to talk. And talk. And talk. Two full days of conversation from dawn to dusk and into the night--we'd only relocate for meals (or an occasional walk or bball)--but the conversation never really stopped. It was GREAT!

Things I learned:

• God is alive and active in his world. He never stopped working and he never stopped speaking. Most people never hear him because they don't know how to or even that it's possible.
• Listening isn't enough regardless of who you're talking with. To really begin to understand each other all parties involved should try to hear the others. Listening isn't enough. (Let those who have ears to hear, hear. And be assured that God gives good gifts to his children when they ask him: Ask, seek, knock.)
• There's a wonderful sense of peace that comes when I no longer feel like I must say the things I'm thinking. I can wait and let other people speak first (their comment might be much more important or profound). Once a few seconds of silence have passed, then I can say what I want to--if I still want to. I don't have to share everything I think of.

Charismatic Tithing??

Don't start getting spoiled, but there have been too many "coincidences" in the past 12 hours to not share.

A bit of back story: Over the past several months/years I've had a staggering number of conversations about social justice and the Christian's proper response to helping those in need. I'm still thinking through the issues, but I'm definitely now more on the side of, "Let's do everything we possibly can to help restore as much of everyone's humanity as is possible!!"

So, for those of you not in a simple church you might not realize that we have no real expenses up here. We meet in houses. We feed each other whenever we get together. We share and just basically love being together, but we have no building, no mortgage, no heating (well, we do, but heating houses hardly counts. Although it feels like it should with $400+ heating bills--see my previous post.).

You might say, "So what's the problem? That hardly seems like something to complain about!" I'll tell you. Where does the money go? We need to be generous, but we don't have the "easy" option of just giving money to "the church" and washing our hands of the matter. There are so many good options out there, but I haven't been giving nearly enough of myself or our money.

Isaiah phrases it interestingly (check out the context):

If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness
and your night will become like the noonday.

Spend yourselves? How do I spend myself everyday? In a chasing after the wind? In pursuing religion?

Or in pursuing God and what He cares about?

Back to all the coincidences. Last night Adam W, a great friend who recently joined our group of Christ-followers, went to talk about a stewardship campaign at a local parish. While taking his wife, Nikky, home I asked what their experience with the Health and Wealth gospel has been. She hadn't ever heard of it.

Their position is that if a body of believers has committed to each other then they must share responsibility in all areas, including the finances.

Including the mortgage and heating.

What a profoundly simple idea. It makes so much sense.

This morning I was eating at my regular breakfast nook, The Broken Yolk, when the cook asked me if I had my Bible with me today. She was interested if I knew the verse where we were told to give 10%. I went off into a long diatribe on how that was never commanded of us--Abraham set a good precedent and Jacob after him, but we don't have to. We have to be generous with out lives.

Fortunately someone came in a placed an order, so she sent me looking in Ecclesiastes (where I found the profound wisdom I linked to above). I had some time to realize I was not having a conversation, I was teaching. When she came back to my table we talked, she read Ecclesiastes 5, she found Malachi 3:10ff, and we had a conversation.

I then realized I had been answering the wrong question. There are several commands to give 10% (literally "a tithe"), they just all happen to be in the Hebrew Bible.

Several months ago she had told me that her community is an Assembly of God in Revere. Before leaving I asked her about it (since yesterday's sermon had been on tithing) and she told me that it's a Spanish congregation and she'd love to have me visit. They even have a wonderful lady who will translate into English whenever someone shows up who would otherwise be lost.* I'm really looking forward to visiting soon.

The final coincidence was that George Barna had sent me his weekly study of American demographics while I was at breakfast. Here it is. Definitely something to think about.




*LOST. Isn't that a great word? I just finished a book AKA Lost that talks about how demeaning it is to even think that way. We strip people of their humanity when we don't think of them as humans, but rather "the lost." However, I most certainly would be lost at a Spanish congregation without a translator. Perhaps the word isn't all bad . . .

More BME Fun

Classes started back up yesterday. I'm taking two this term while continuing to work on my research project. Biophysics and Applied Quantum Electronics. The first excites me and the second scares me quite honestly.

Over Labor Day weekend our department had its annual retreat. This year we went up to our department chair's summerhouse in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. It was a gorgeous weekend and a great chance to get to know people more personally. On top of that Jen was able to join! Good food, good fun, good weather--that's hard to beat. As usual, I think I'll share some pictures:

Trusting God

I love the days when God just really leaves no doubt how much he love us. Yesterday was one of those days.

I suppose I should start at the beginning. A week ago I was sitting at school and had a thought--we should probably move. Now this wasn't a new thought, but it really just struck me. So I called Jen up and asked her if she wanted to give 30 days notice to our landlord (since it was the 31st of July). She said "sure," so I made the call. One of our good friends told me a couple days later, "Taylor, a spontaneous action like that sure seems out of character for you"--I'm glad I can keep him guessing.

Well, of course we started an eager search for a new place in Quincy. Our primary criteria for our new place was either (1) near Germantown (the roughest neighborhood in Quincy--demographically categorized as "struggling urban diversity") or (2) near someone else on our team (walking distance so we can start living out this idea of doing life together in Christian community). (Other criteria included minimum 2 bedrooms--for when you come visit us--and a separate dining room since eating together is central to Christian community). Since we had a bit of a time crunch we decided we should decide on a place by the end of the weekend. Criagslist provided many leads, but most wouldn't quite work for one reason or another.

Coming up to Sunday we had a couple "it'd be alright" places, but nothing we loved, but we had two final apartments to see Sunday afternoon. For some strange reason I was never worried about finding a place--I had no doubt that God wanted us to move according to his above criteria (his vision) and so he'd certainly reserve the place he wanted us at (his provision). As my friend said above, this is not normal behavior for me--I tend to stress and worry about things far less life changing than this. Well, I take that back, this sort of trust is actually becoming increasingly more normal. What a joy to recognize God's hand in continually transforming me into the sort of person he wants me to be.

Well, we go to our first Sunday appointment and I knew from the moment I saw the staircase leading up to the apartment that this was our place. Seeing the rest merely confirmed that (as did seeing the radiant smile on Jen's face). We did go to the other appointment since Meghan has told us how horrible it is to have people stand her up, but as soon as we walked out that door we found some shade and filled out the applications for the first place. As it turns out, our new landlords are amazing people (you could call them people of peace) and they live about a block away from our new place. I'm eager to cultivate a friendship with them and the people in the neighborhood they know. Meghan and Taylor are also about a block away (as are the beach and the subway), so we really couldn't ask for anything more perfect. God has truly made good on his promise (and early too).

All praise to our Lord and Father forever, for his goodness is astounding and infinite.

----
An interesting bit of trivia. We'll now be living on Botolph St. St. Botolph is the patron saint of travelers, and a town Lincolnshire is named after him--Boston (a corruption of "Botolph's Town"). I bet you can guess which English city Boston, MA was named after. Details here.

Month in review: part 1

I think I'll just do snippets as I have the time. If you want details . . . ask. If you want pictures then you're in luck.



4/11: I've joined a few meetup groups. One is the Boston Photography Center. So this Wednesday night I traveled to the Fenway for the monthly meeting at the New England School of Photography. Of course I had to take a few pictures before the meetings started. It's a good group with good people; I look forward to spending more time with them.



4/18: Another meetup group night: The JP Settlers of Catan Meetup. Three of us got together to play Settlers at a dessert cafe. You'll be glad to know I came in from behind and barely won. It looks like I'm the new assistant organizer of this group, so I guess I'd better keep attending.


4/20: The Friday before finals started. After listening to 3+ hours of 12 minute student seminars (yes, I did fall asleep), I decided to go visit the Boston Public Library at Copley Square. Jen had to work late, and I wanted to go do something fun. Well, I got there at 4:35. The exhibit was a display and audio tour of John Adam's personal library, but unfortunately they kicked me out at 4:50 (why must libraries close so early on the weekend).

I decided to visit the MFA since I was close and certainly hadn't had my fill of art after 15 minutes in the library. Most of the MFA closes at 5pm, but the hall I wanted to visit was open till 9pm. The best part is, as a Tufts student, I get free admission. I wanted to see the exhibit "Donatello to Giambologna: Italian Renaissance Sculpture." So I did. Some great stuff in there, but soon after I entered the exhibit I was informed that it was a no-photography zone. Sad. Guess you'll just have to go see it yourself.








4/27: I gave my 12 minute seminar on the laser ablation process using long pulsed (picoseconds) or short pulsed (femtoseconds) lasers. This is probably going to be my area of research for my master's thesis. (FYI: short pulses are the way to go! Good overview here.) It went well, but I went over my allotted time and contributed more than my fair share to the 4+ hour session.

Needing to relax, we had the Plotts over for a movie night watching The Nativity Story. It's by far the best telling of the birth of Christ I've ever experienced. Perhaps it's the best Christian movie I've ever seen. Go watch it (we got it from the library--yay free movies!).



more to come

17 of 22

One of my good friends here in Boston posted a while ago letting readers experience a day in her life through a series of images. I feel inspired. I'll let you see my yesterday--17 pictures from May 22nd.


7:43am: After getting up and out the door, Jen and I got on the T (Boston's subway). Jen's spending these next couple weeks at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) as a nursing liaison for Partner's Hospice, so we get to spend a bit more time together in the morning.

8:17am: Jen gets off at Charles/MGH, but I get to spend a bit more time on the train.

8:20am: Almost every day I take a picture of Boston's Back Bay while crossing the Charles River.

8:45am: At Davis station I listened to a trumpet player for a while. To see him in action click here (coming soon).

9:15: On my walk from Davis to Tufts I pass by Power House Square. There's a great historical park (see slideshow) where I spent an hour relaxing and taking pictures.

9:50am: Saint Clement's church is also on my walk. I usually take a few minutes to read and pray before I start my day.

10:22am: Finally made it to school.

10:48am: In my group's Non-Linear Optics Research lab I then spent several hours trying to make my unruly Labview code cooperate (trying to add a 3rd dimension of control to the XYZ stage seen in the center of the photo--sounds exciting, doesn't it?).

1:13pm: I spent several hours in the computer lab (being very productive . . . . if only it were true . . .)

6:36pm: Chris wanted to hang out and go driving, so he picked me up at Tufts.

7:38pm: We drove down to UMASS Boston where we found Stone Hinge.

7:44pm: We saw Malibu was around (who knew?), so we took a quick detour before Chris dropped me off at Davis station.

8:03pm: At Davis Station--train going the wrong way (which was fortunate since I still needed to get to the platform).

8:04pm: Back on the empty T.

8:16pm: Across the Charles again.

8:53pm: Jen kindly came to pick me at Quincy Adams station.

9:26pm: Two of my favorite things: my pretty wife and taco salad. (Don't worry, the first trumps the second any day.)

9:42pm: Having fun with Dustie. She got a couple new toys yesterday--a laser pointer and a toy mouse.
10:47pm: We tried to make it through Syriana for the second night. We made progress before we fell asleep. Perhaps we can actually finish it tonight.

So what was your day like?

Month in review: preview

So, what is one to do when one has neglected one's blog, but that one's life has been fun and potentially interesting? Well, as I see it this individual could either (1) pretend nothing ever happened and move on, (2) neglect the present by living in the past to recount the missed posts, or (3) stop referring to himself as "one."

I think I'll opt for number two. But before I completely neglect informing you of today's world I think Dustie would appreciate a cameo.

A kitten's first snow

Yes, that's right, a cat! We're the proud cat-sitters of Dustie, a sickenly adorable 1 year old. A good friend, Garrett (who took the above picture--go check out his great photos!), had to leave for Germany yesterday on business. Our landlord has previously given us a firm "no" to having a feline friend, but I decided to throw my dignity to the wind and beg. It worked! How exciting. Perhaps I should do without dignity more often. . . .

On a somewhat related note, you really must visit I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?. If Dustie is sickenly adorable then this site is downright unbearable--you'll love it.

Three weeks?!? I appoligize

Yuck, three weeks without any posts. I suppose you'd never know that I've been fairly busy looking here since it's been deathly calm and quiet. Ironic.

Well, if I have any readers left, I thought I'd let you know about a tool that Google's put out for just such an occasion. Google Reader is a very nice little program that continually checks all your favorite blogs and feeds for updates. That way you only have to visit one site instead of coming to my blog (and everyone else's) everyday in hopes that I've written something inspiring and thought provoking. (Keep hoping--someday it might happen.)

So, go check it out. Now you can know within minutes that I've labored to help you waste a few more minutes of your day. Feel free to go ahead and click the button to connect directly to my site--that way your visit will be logged and my ego assuaged.

[something more substantial soon--I promise]

The last day of winter, the first day of spring

Taylor and I decided to spend the last day of winter sloshing though a bog in the Blue Hills Reservation. You can enjoy the hike vicareously below. All I have to say is, "thank God for waterproof boots." We in very cold water up to our ankles repeatedly.

An ironic twist is that the last day of winter was warmer than the first day of spring, but it appears that mother nature is only one day behind schedule.

Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
35° 31°	55° 42°	60° 32°	51° 31°

I know I'm ready for spring.


---------------
On an unrelated note, I found the end of the Internet. Kinda sad, really.

The Mystery of the Missing Card

Funny story: Friday morning I was in downtown Boston to interview with Color Kinetics for a summer internship. They're a really awesome looking company who have merged the geekiness of technical engineering with the coolness of aesthetic lighting. I think it'd be a great place to spend the summer, even though they aren't related to biomedical engineering at all. But the story happens before the interview.

The weather was a bit rough on Friday. We had Nor'easter blow through, so it was very cold and windy Friday morning. By mid afternoon we had several inches of snow, and it didn't stop snowing all night. Well, I was hurrying to the warmth of my interview when I passed a begger. I was planing on walking past until I remembered the $5 gift cards I keep with me to give out. I went back, pulled a card out of my wallet, handed it to him and told him what it was, then I continued on my way.

I made it to my interview (three interviews actually) with a bit of time to spare and the interview went well--if only I remembered how C++ allowcates memory inside object constructors I might have done a bit better. Truth be told, I didn't even know I was interview for a software position. I thought I was there for an electrical engineering one. Oh well.

So I leave the building along with another Tufts student who had been interviewing at the same time. She had driven and offered to give me a ride back to campus. On our way to the garage I decided I should get out the other $5 card in case I came across someone else in need. I open up my wallet to find both cards still in there. There really should have only been one left. I had given the guy earlier that day some card from my wallet, but I have no idea which one it was (aside from knowing it's a nonessential card since that's all I keep in that part of my wallet).

So I feel sorry for this guy I gave the random card to. I can just imagine him going to McDonald's and giving them this card to pay. "I'm sorry sir, but this is your AAA card." "But the guy told me it had $5 on it." "If it does it's not for here." It's sad really, but funny.

New England Skiing

This past Saturday Pat's Peak was kind enough to let slide repeatedly down it's back with sticks strapped to our feet. Jen and I joined a group of about 20 from Calvary Chapel in the City to Henniker, NH for an afternoon of cold fun. The mountain (hill) was beautiful and the skiing was surprisingly good. We were fortunate enough to be hit by a Nor'easter all day Friday which dumped over a foot of fresh powder on the slopes, so we didn't have to experience the infamous icy Appalachian slopes.

We were invited to join Calvary by two of our good friends, Joel and Shoba. Joel's in the biomedical engineering program with me, and we were fortunate (blessed) enough to discover we both belong to the same Lord. As far as we know we're the only Christians in the department (I hope I'm wrong), so we're trying to be salt and light as best as we can. Having a friend and ally around is a great blessing. What's even better is that they play (and actually like!) Settlers of Catan, so I might actually eventually get to play with someone. [Actually Adam and Krista like Settler's also, but they don't live here yet. Coincidentally both couples share a last name--perhaps I've stumbled on something. On a side note, Adam and Krista will be up here in less than two weeks looking for apartments! They'll be Quincians in no time.]

So, all told, New England skiing wasn't nearly as disappointing as I had expected it to be; in fact, it was great! Hopefully we'll even do it again soon, but I think Jen wants to take me cross country skiing first. Sounds like fun.

T time for God

Getting from on place to another is an adventure up here. I spend about 2 hours on the subway (called the T) here in Boston everyday. That's a good chunk of time--over 8% of my day--and I've been wanting to use it toward our mission up here somehow. Such a great cross-section of the population is within reach (literally) everyday on the T. I've heard of people testing the culture of a city by asking random people on the subway questions, but I'm not quite to the point where I'd be comfortable doing that. (You'd be amazed how absolutely silent a train car with perhaps 150 people packed into it is during the commute hours. Any conversation above a whisper will be heard by dozens of other people, and I generally don't like my private conversations overheard.) Perhaps someday I'll work up the nerve, but for now I've decided on another option.

I know you'll think I must be slow for taking 7 months to figure this out, but I've decided to read my Bible on the T. It's such a great idea! I've been lagging way behind in my Bible reading, so this gives me some set-aside time to do it each day with the added benefit of being a subtle (but visible and obvious) follower of Christ in the city. Being easily associated with Jesus on the T has the added benefit of making me more aware of my surroundings (it'd be horrible to sit obliviously reading while an elderly or pregnant person stands right in front of me!). In fact, having my Bible out and open has even provided the starting point for a few (short) converstations. For instance, a nicely dressed black gentleman today said on his way off the train "Hey man, that's cool [gesturing at my Bible]. What church do you go to?" Now that's a question I usually take a little bit of time to answer and explain, but since I only had about 5 seconds I replied, "Actually, I moved up here with a few friends to start one." He seemed to approve, but the few people remaining on the train didn't make eye contact with me for the rest of the trip (not that that should be surprising--no one ever makes eye contact with anyone else on the train, that's probably why advertising on the T is such a great idea).

I've even starting noticing other people who do the same thing. Today there was a lady who had a Bible open when I got on, and last Friday there was a man reading out of Romans (in the tiniest Bible I've ever seen). I've not yet approached another like-minded soul, but perhaps someday soon I will.

Let the conversations begin.

Simplicity

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

--Simple Gifts, an old Shaker hymn by Elder Joseph Brackett

(the melody is hauntingly beautiful, please take a moment to listen)

Last night Jen and I joined several of our friends in downtown Boston for two one acts at Emerson. Both were by Thornton Wilder, and the first one was actually good (we won't speak of the second). The evening opened up with this famous melody and made me remember just how much I love it.

Perhaps of all the spiritual disciplines I'm most reluctant to truly practice simplicity. I want the freedom that naturally follows from living simply, but I'm afraid of the necessary demands and changes to my life. I seem to have bought into this ideal of affluence and "comfort" as an important part (perhaps the most important part?) of what is proper and good in life. Richard Foster points out that as a society we have developed an insane attachment to things because we lack a divine Center. I'm inclined to agree.

The central point for the Discipline of simplicity is to seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness of his kingdom first and then everything necessary will come in its proper order. . . . Simplicity itself becomes idolatry when it takes precedence over seeking the kingdom.

Focus upon the kingdom produces the inward reality, and without the inward reality we will degenerate into legalistic trivia. Nothing else can be central. The desire to get out of the rat race cannot be central, the redistribution of the world's wealth cannot be central, the concern for ecology cannot be central. Seeking first God's kingdom and the righteousness, both personal and social, of that kingdom is the only thing that can be central in the Spiritual Discipline of simplicity.

The person who does not seek the kingdom first does not seek it at all. Worthy as all other concerns may be, the moment they become the focus of our efforts they become idolatry. To center on them will inevitably draw us into declaring that our particular activity is Christian simplicity. And, in fact, when the kingdom of God is genuinely placed first, ecological concerns, the poor, the equitable distribution of wealth, and many other things will be given their proper attention.

--Richard Foster on Simplicity in Celebration of Discipline

A singularity of focus on God will put everything else in perspective. I'm sad to say my focus is far from singular, but hopefully every day is a little better than the last.

The practical implications of simplicity are where I hesitate--buying useful things rather than status building ones, rejection of any thing that I'm addicted to, habitually giving things away, refusing the lure of gadgetry, enjoying things without having to own them, using plain and honest speech, refusing to give support to things that oppress other people, and shunning things that distract me from my singular focus on the kingdom of God.

Father, please teach me how to loosen my grip on my life so you can move me to where you want me to be.

Grad School: Round Two

After my very long break (somewhere around 5 glorious weeks) I'm finally back to the grindstone, well, that is I will be after Jen and I go back to Texas this weekend to visit my parents.

A very exciting development (for me at least) is that I joined a research lab today. Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto kindly agreed to let me help him and his team look into the potential for ultrafast lasers (femtosecond pulses) and the nonlinear optics problems and potential they create. A "femtosecond is one billionth of one millionth of a second. For context, a femtosecond is to a second, what a second is to a hundred million years," from Wikipedia.

The project I'm currently working on is micromachining. Some other really cool research being explored includes optical tweezers (pretty much a Star Trek tractor beam on a really small scale), pulse shaping to control chemical reactions, and optofluidics to name a few. I won't go into details so as not to bore you, but it's really interesting stuff. So check out the links if you're even slightly interested.

The classes this term are looking up as well. I'm only taking two (which will leave me with one to go before finishing my course work--just thesis and seminars after that!):

• BME-101: Medical Optics and Lasers
• BME-131: Principles of Medical Imaging

I'm sure I'll let you know how things progress.

God's Amazing Creatures

This past week Jen and I went to the zoo and the aquarium. The New England Aquarium gets 4 big thumbs up--definitely the best and nicest aquarium either of us have ever visited. The Frankin Zoo gets maybe 1.5 thumbs up. Somewhat disappointing as far as zoos go, and all the animals looked miserable. Getting there only an hour before closing gave us plenty of time. We hear there's a really great zoo down in Rhode Island that we should visit soon.

I thought I'd share some pictures so you can visit them vicariously.