The Meaning of Life (A Disclaimer)

Maybe I am just in a serious mood or something. I just wanted to try and spread a little encouragement to anyone who might happen to read this. As I went through the day today, and after I got the kids off to bed I realized something: There is meaning to life. Now most of you are probably thinking that I should have known this already. Well, I'm not saying I didn't know it, I just don't always think about it. The thing is that I so often get caught up in so many things, good and bad, that I tend to loose sight of what my goal should be. Now I've talked to most of you about stuff like this before, and I think we all struggle in the same way. God made us, He takes care of us, He loves us, all good things come from Him. So why is it that I can hardly wait for Halo 3 to come out?

The encouragement I'm tring to offer, and the reassurance I have found is that my relationship with God isn't one sided. It just seems to me that I am the one getting the most out of this relationship, which once again proves to me how much mercy and grace God must have to be so good to me.

How Much Can We Get?

I have always enjoyed having lots of brothers (sometimes not specifically, but at least the general concept). Now, having seen this site, I wish you had all been girls; we could have gotten rich!

You must read the testimonials... priceless.

Well, to be honest I wouldn't think this was so funny except that it is suposedly fake. If it is real, then it's the worst thing I have ever seen.



One last thing. I love how the sun's rays look like laser-beams splitting this couples' heads in two! Real nuevo-punk.

[thanks for the link Kim]

Daniel's Back

You can see some more pictures of Daniel on my blog


"What you lookin' at... foo?"
Note: That is not "Red Eye", it is his laser cells warming-up for an attack.


Grandma Taylor and Babies... looks like Daniel is... leaning

QBs from PA

This article from ESPN:

Coast-to-Coast: Pennsylvania offense

Offensive football begins and ends with how good your quarterback is, and this state has produced some real dandies.

Let's see, where should we start? How about Joe Montana from Monongahela, about 25 miles south of Pittsburgh, or Jim Kelly out of East Brady, another small suburb of Pittsburgh. There are eight Super Bowls appearances between the two and four victories for Montana.

Or should we go with Dan Marino our of Pittsburgh Central Catholic, the same school that has also produced St. Louis Rams QB Marc Bulger and current Louisville commit QB Tino Sunseri. Last week on ESPNU, Sunseri's squad downed the Northmont, Ohio Thunderbolts in the Kirk Herbstreit Ohio vs. USA challenge.

Wait, how can we mention these guys without throwing in names like Johnny Unitas (Pittsburgh, St. Justins) or Joe Namath from Beaver Falls. These legends raised the bar for quality quarterback play in the state at the high school level and with shoes like those to fill, more recent high profile Pennsylvania signal callers like Pat Devlin (Exton/Downington East), Zach Frazer (Mechanicsburg) and Pat Bostick (Lancaster/Manheim Township) have a lot to live up to... [read more]

New Family Feeder

Sorry Mom, this is not a new solution for feeding all those mouths, rather it's a new way of quickly reading all the Crum blogs. Videos and images don't work very well, but it's still a nice way of quickly seeing who is updating their blogs (without all the trouble of actually clicking on the links and waiting for the blog to load). Simply click the arrows on the top of the new FamilyFeeder widget on the side of this page.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Mrs. O'Leary

On Thursday morning I was singing the song about Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over the lantern in the shed and starting the Chicago fire. My singing was inspired by a fire in our neighborhood on Monday night. Just two houses down, a paper shredder malfunctioned (the fire captain believes), caught fire, and totalled the dining room. The house is uninhabitable due to serious smoke and water damage.



On Thursday evening Pop, Jesse and I went to BWI to pick up Aunt Beth who has come for the weekend to teach a teachers' training seminar at church. Thomas and Amy had gone out to run an errand. We left Stephen home, along with Elisabeth, her friend, Jordan, and William. Elisabeth was upstairs doing homework. Stephen was on the computer in the study. Jordan was on her way upstairs to study with Elisabeth and William was at the foot of the steps. Will looked up, saw flames through the ceiling vent into the attic, and said "Fire". Jordan looked up and saw the flames, too. "Fire," she yelled. Stephen ran out of the study. "I'll call 911," said Jordan, as she ran up the steps to get Elisabeth. Elisabeth reacted hysterically as she and Jordan saw smoke pouring out of the ceiling vents in the master bedroom.

Jordan quickly got on the phone to the dispatcher and told her there was a fire in the house and five kids with no adults. The dispatcher asked how she knew there was a fire and Jordan suspected the dispatcher didn't believe her word. (Perhaps she knew of the recent fire in our neighborhood and thought the call was a prank.) When Jordan said she could see the flames herself and was willing to give her name the dispatcher quickly assured her the police and fire engines would be here soon and told her to get everyone out of the house. The children grabbed the cat, my computer, a Bible (and the Gilgamesh book that was close by). William grabbed his pillow and a video game. Within 5 minutes a police officer arrived. There was no panic about the discrepency about the number of children; Jordan didn't realize Jesse had gone with us, but the others knew that. Soon after, the fire crew arrived. They dragged a hose into the house and up the stairs, but as they opened the panel into the attic the fire extinquished itself and they didn't need to spray a drop of water. Thomas and Amy arrived about 10 minutes after the police officer and immediately called me.

Aunt Beth's plane had been briefly delayed in South Carolina and again in Baltimore where there wasn't an available ground crew to get the plane to the gate. We sat in the cell phone lot for about 10 minutes until she called to tell us she was in the terminal. We were driving to pick her up when Thomas called and said the fire trucks were in our neighborhood again--this time at our house. We hurriedly got Aunt Beth, and sped home. The fire engines were still out front, waiting until the captain could determine the cause of the fire. His report was that the fire was contained to insulation around our air conditioning ductwork. The insulation is designed to burn very slowly--and it did what it was designed to do. The children had seen flames in the insulation and the flames were easily extinguished. The remnants of the fire were a charred air filter, a large handful of singed insulation, the smell of electrical smoke in the second floor, and no central air conditioning. The cause of the fire is probably a short in an electrical wire--perhaps the one to Elisabeth's overhead light fixture, but it might also be something with the air conditioner. Two electricians have already looked at it, and we need to get an ac guy up there before we decide what needs to be done.

What a Providence that the children saw the flames, had the presence of mind to call and convince the dispatcher of a true emergency, got out of the house safely, and that there was no greater damage or inconvenience. But, I should be prepared to say the same if the fire had occurred during the night, leaving us homeless, with loss of life. God's sovereign hand controls all these events and blesses and instructs us through them. We are truly thankful.

Anniversary

It has been a long time coming, but next year, 10 years to the day you will get to relive the excitement. You've waited this long, just hold on a little longer... (you might want to pause the website's music)

This is Jess' preview:


This is a little something I made for myself:

Bond vs. Bourne

Often I run across articles or discussion boards pitting one fictional character against another. On this very blog, in fact, there has been discussion about which super hero is the greatest (the old Superman vs. Batman debate). Even on Facebook you can pick your side in the ongoing battle to see who is greatest, Pirates or Ninjas (last I saw, Ninjas were winning, as they should).

Today on the BBC web site there was this article [read it here], written as a comparison of James Bond (the double-ought agent) and Jason Bourne (whose sidekick is not Ben Afleck).



Of course it is fun to speculate on such battles of epic proportions, but come on! Everyone knows the outcome of all these battles... the person whose name is in the title of the movie wins!

Sometimes writers and directors are brave or daring or annoying enough to kill off the hero, but usually only after he has already killed the bad guy (think Gladiator). Who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman? Superman should win... not that I would want him to. But on the screen, they would probably both survive, maybe even become friends. The real question is who would win if you pitted a hero against a slightly modified version of himself: Superman vs. Ninja-double-o-Superman (with Iocane Immunity)?

For Peter:

Just thought you might want to buy a couple of these for emergencies.

Here it Goes Again

So I assume that, with over 20 million views, you've all seen this before. But I thought it was pretty cool so maybe you would like it too! Ok, go...

Destruction Of National Pastime Given Two-Minute Standing Ovation

I was gonna post this on the family blog, but I though Matt might get mad, so it's here instead.

Wedding Plans and Such

So planning my wedding has been a relatively well lit road so far. You could say Emily is finally following in her sisters footsteps for a change. Having just gone through the entire wedding process with Bekah (Errek was there too) Emily and I have seen the many steps that must be taken and have already begun to use this knowledge of dos and don'ts to plan our wedding. Location - check. Reception location - check. Honeymoon location - check. I guess this is where the phrase "location, location, location" must have come from. Caterer - check. Wedding dress (I went golfing on these days) - check. We've got the guest list together and have begun the long, and sometimes fun, task of registering for gifts. Of course there are still hundreds of things to do, and more things to check off our lists, but we're off to a good start and we still want to get married.
In other news, I lost my job when Macri's Deli up and closed unannounced on Aug. 2. It's kind of a mystery as to why but with the many rumors that had been in the stale, humid Deli air, I wasn't surprised - upset as to how it was handled, eager to find out if I and when to expect my final paycheck, but not surprised.
On the brighter side, did I mention I am still getting married, my final semester of school begins in a few weeks, and most importantly... I will be playing on TWO softball teams this Fall.
I now have the ability to offer my services to those in need having further enhanced my list of skills and abilities... be it pawning Macri's Deli specials off as my own or venturing into the realm of Wedding Planner, I am at your service.

Music Television

MTV was introduced the year I was born, but not having cable made it a channel we never watched. The first music video I remember seeing was Michael Jackson's Thriller which is also arguably the first modern music video. Music and television seem to go together, though I often wish that I hadn't seen a music video because it sticks in my head and I watched it over and over erery time I hear the song. MTV has changed, from what I can tell they don't actually play music anymore. That's why I think this new show (in the UK?) is such a good idea.

Live From Abbey Road will feature three artists or bands each night and each band will play three songs. No audience, no host introducing them, simply music with interviews between. And it looks like they have a great lineup too.

Josh Groban for mom, Muse for Matt, Ray LaMontagne for me, Iron Maiden for Edwardo, and so much more (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews, Paul Simon). You can check out some videos on the web site (under "Footage").

Ben is correctamundo!

Even at our worst, Crums are well above average in everything that matters. Just look how many there are of us, we already got everyone else beat, hands down. (Thanks Mom and Pop for that one). I've got to agree with Ben though; we've had better days. But, if we can just hunker down and acknowledge our current shortcomings, then perhaps tomorrow we can recapture some of our glory days. With that as my motivation, let's move on to the meat of my posting:

Peter and I were talking recently about how cool Macyver is. This is one of the few things that we agree totally on. I was remembering how Peter got his "Macgyver-watching-privileges" taken away for two weeks, after attempting to make a bomb that Macgyver made in the previous week's episode. Of course Peter is still bitter about missing those two episodes, but who wouldn't be? My point is that Macgyver was an inspirational character in Peter's life, perhaps even a hero. There aren't enough people worthy of being heros nowadays, isn't that a shame? We can always look to the past though to find people of integrity: Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Lou Gehrig, and of course Macgyver.

I somehow feel that I failed in bringing back the magic of the "Crum Family Blog". It's like riding a bike though; you fall off a lot, you fly over the handlebars and break you collarbone from time to time, but eventually you put it back in the front yard and come in for dinner.

Back in the Day

As I was looking back through posts on this blog I realized something: We use to have some really cool posts!

Nostalgia ensued as I read posts about MacGyver posted by the mysterious Edwardo and the subsequent attempts by Jess to ban him from posting on this site. There were posts about Mare Island, the Cheeses Factory and Gary Larson.

So Here's my idea... keep posting. With over a hundred and fifty posts already this is one happ'nin' blog. Nate, you use to write stories about Angelina Jolie; what happened? William, you use to send in pictures that would get scanned and posted; do you still draw? (I know you do!) and Jon, you use to post something serious every once in a while... any new deep thoughts?

I have also only gotten three requests for music, does anyone else have a request?

Hope to hear more from you all soon,

Ben

The Crum Family

Our Blog's Music

Does anyone have a song they would like to hear on this blog (sorry, Crums only!). Send me the title and artist or the MP3 via email.

He Ya

Go to this to see an awesome version of the Outkast hit - it's by Matt Weddle

Double Dog Dare

As some of the more nerdy members of the family may know, the new Harry Potter book comes out this Saturday (for those who didn't know, the movies are actually books too!).

Anyhow, here's the dare (and this is open to family members and non-members alike): stand in line at Border's or any other bookstore hosting a "Potter Party" on Friday night and as soon as you get your hands on the book, flip to the end read the last page and exclaim aloud (very loud) "HOLY CRAP... he _______ (insert "lives" or "dies")" and then begin reading the last line out loud! If you do this (and I do dare you) I will give you $10. That's right, ten bucks from the BC!

Chances are you can find some other people to match my $10, you could even end up getting a "free" copy of the ridiculously long book.

So who's in?



PS. You get another dollar if you post the ending on this blog before the book gets released on the West coast!

Summer Vacation Excitement

Seeing Daniel in person!
Seeing Matt, Ben, Michal, Jon, and Nate again!
Matt's engagement to Emily!
Soccer with the brothers (and Church of the Good Shepherd)!
Wyoming!
Seeing Peter, Jess, Jude, Ashley and Aravis again!
Pike's Peak by van and car!
Swimming at the Dodrills'!
The Good Shepherd reunion!
especially seeing old friends, and
the band concert
Ben's new job!
The Creation Museum!
Getting home again!

David and Stephen are exhausted from climbing Pike's
Peak!

A Date to Save

So I've posted about my engagement on my personal blog but thought that this would be a good location (more readership) to post about the date for the wedding. Emily and I have decided on March 8, 2008. This is the Saturday beginning Spring Break here in Bloomington. It was great to see the family here for a few days and I look forward to seeing them all again soon. Peter and family, I hope you all can make it out here. Nate, it would be great to see you here as well. Thomas, feel free to bring your girlfriend with you. As the plans progress I will be sure to post the latest info on this blog.
- Matt