As most of you know, today is Bill Gates last day as a full time Microsoft employee. He is moving on to focus his full time efforts on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This will be an interesting time for Microsoft. One real positive we have going for us though is our senior leadership. I, for one, have full confidence in their ability to direct our efforts to make great software and look for new opportunities to provide our services.

As Bill leaves, like many, I reflect on his contributions to the information technology industry. Most of my career was spent working with Unix systems so for a long time I spent much of my time ripping on Microsoft in general and Gates specifically. As I have progressed in my career though I have come to understand just how visionary he was and is. I also admire the work he has done throughout the world with his money and his desire to help people.

As he leaves today I just want to thank him for his hard work in helping get technology to where it is today and wish him well as he uses his foundation to help people. Thank you Bill!

I'm sure many of you have seen that George Carlin died yesterday. He was one of the funniest comedians I have ever heard, and I find his death to be very sad. Since I like sports so much, I am posting a clip from him discussing the differences between baseball and football.

Good bye George, we will miss you.

I heard an ad on the radio for job openings at the Snohomish County Department of Corrections. What struck me in the add was their motto, "Opening doors to success!" I realize that they are trying to be upbeat and attract applicants, but does that seem like the type of motto you want to use to get people to apply to be a correction officer? Isn't "opening doors" the fast track to failure as a correction officer? i think my ideal candidate for a correction officer would know how to keep doors closed.

I had a really nice Father's Day with my family yesterday. It started out with breakfast in bed and each of the children brought me their gifts. I guess my kids (and wife) know me pretty well as they gave me some new XBOX360 games. Also, my daughter game me a beaded gecko key chain she made at school and some coupons that I can exchange for service from her. They are things like being nice and being home on time, etc. I thought the it was a pretty cute gift idea.

After breakfast we all got ready and went to church. Unfortunately it was one of the worst Sundays we have had with the kids in awhile. Sarah and Ryan were pretty good, but the twins were pretty worked up. Once we got home Becca took the kids outside to play in the water and I cooked up some ribs on our grill and tried out my new games. We had a nice dinner and even had Key Lime pie for dessert so it was a nice day.

I called and talked with my mom while we were getting the kids ready for bed since my dad has been dead for several years now. She will be coming us here next month, and we are looking forward to it. In any case my wife and kids made sure I had a great Father's Day. I hope they know how much I love and appreciate them. I couldn't ask for a better family.

I thought I should post a picture of the whole clan up here on the blog. From left to right we have: Ryan, Joshua, Rebecca, Sarah, Dale, and Jacob.

This picture was taken while we down in California visiting my family for Christmas.

In preschool this year the teachers worked with the kids on poetry and using descriptive words to express your feelings. As a part of this lesson the kids each drew a picture and wrote a poem about something they were interested in. Above is the poem Ryan wrote along with his picture. Since the words are small and hard to read here is Ryan's Poem

Cookies

Round

Chocolate chips

Some have white chocolate

I like them

It feels hard in my mouth

But I can eat it up

Really Yummy!

By Matthew (Ryan) Churchward (Age 5)

OK, so I know that graduating from preschool isn't the same thing as completing high school or college, but when you are five it is still a momentous occasion. My son Ryan finished his third year at Cascade Preschool last night and will be entering kindergarten this fall. I have really noticed this year how much he has progressed socially and also how much he has learned. He seems fully ready to enter a new phase of his education as he follows his sister into Monte Cristo Elementary this fall.

At this time I also want to say a big thank you to his teachers at Cascade Preschool. All of my kids have attended the school for at least part of a year with Sarah and Ryan being the two graduates so far. The teachers (Miss Jody, Miss Deborah, and Miss Jenny) are excellent and I can see the tremendously positive impact they have had on my children.

Here is a picture of my kids with their teachers. I have not suddenly picked up a fifth child by the way, but we did have an uninvited guest sit in on the picture. In any case it was great to see Ryan growing up a bit and getting ready for his next big adventure in kindergarten. I'm sure he will do great and enjoy being in the same school as big big sister Sarah.

I remember when Ken Griffey Jr. was just starting his career. The Seattle Mariners used to have a Single-A affiliate team in San Bernardino California named the San Bernardino Spirit. Griffey played there for 58 games at the beginning of his career. He of course moved up to play several years for the Mariners before leaving to go to Cincinnati to be closer to his family. Griffey never had the same success in Cincinnati that he had with the Mariners, but he still has had a Hall of Fame career and accomplished milestones that few other players have achieved.

When the news of his 600th home run was announced I have noticed how the milestone seems to be earned with a sense of regret for what Griffey might of achieved. If he had stayed healthy it is likely that he would be much closer to the home run totals of Hank Aaron or Barry Bonds, but overall I think Griffey has accomplished a lot in his career. He is one of only 6 players to ever hit 600 home runs. That is an amazing feat, especially since his name has never come up in the steroid or HGH reports.

In any case instead of looking at his career with regret I choose to celebrate this incredible milestone with him. Congratulations!!! You've had an amazing career.

I am not quite sure how I will classify this post. The following is a collection of items I have running around in my head and don't seem log enough for individual posts.

Barak Obama

Congratulations to Barak Obama for winning the Democratic nomination. As a Republican I have to admit he gives me much more concern than Hillary Clinton in the general election. Whatever happens in November I hope that people will vote for him or McCain based on their ideas and what they stand for and not the color of their skin. We are in the 21st century now and really ought to look at what the candidate stands for, not what race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation, etc. they are. We should really look at voting as a serious obligation and study out the issues for ourselves. It really doesn't matter what our favorite news show, right/left wing blog, or talk radio host says about the issue. It matters what we believe and what the candidates believe. All in all I hope we all will take the chance to study out the issues and vote for the candidate we believe most closely matches our beliefs.

Serving As A Volunteer

I have really come to believe the maxim that , "No good deed goes unpunished." In my church I am responsible for the 12-18 year old young men's program. I have been doing this for about 2 years now and am really starting to realize what a thankless position it is. Most of my frustration comes from the other leaders though, not the youth themselves. Actually I enjoy working with the young men and seeing them mature and takes the steps to determine what kind of people they will be in their lives. I could really care less about the politics, and backbiting that the rest of the calling has though.

Gas Prices

As gas prices continue to go up and up and up I keep wondering when we are going to realize that we have oil in our country and need to go get it. I wonder how many other countries in the world would have a resource and decide to to use it? I realize this is a simplistic example, but I compare it to playing a real-time strategy game. In most of that genre one of the keys ways of winning is generating as many resources as you can. I think in some ways that applies to real life as well. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I think with a country as great as ours and with the technology we have we should be able to get the resources we need while still protecting the environment.

Global Warming

I guess I would say my position on global warming is that the Earth is getting warmer, but we don't know why. I realize that makes me a simpleton in the eyes of those who believe the debate is settled. I have tried to study as much as I can about both sides of the issue, but it still seems like there is a lot of confusion out there. Honestly I wonder if we really have the ability to determine the exact cause of changes to the climate. I mean there are a lot of variables that can lead to the Earth getting warmer or colder. Not only do I think we are still missing variables I also think we don't really know what the weight of each variable is. Do humans contribute .01%, .1%, 1%, 10%, etc. to global warming? I am not sure we know what our impact is. I recognize that there are people who say even if we only are causing .01% of global warming we should still take steps to make that .01% 0. I agree to an extent, but wonder if we are behaving as the Sorcerer's Apprentice trying to cast a spell without understanding the rules of magic? If we legislate changes now will we find that we changed the wrong things while ignoring those that were really causing the world to get warmer?