Old Places, New Changes

Well,  here I am at the Lake of the Ozarks.  This is where I will be spending the majority of my summer, just off the lake.  I have been helping to train our summer camp staff and helping out with other jobs around the camp these past two weeks.  Tomorrow we are heading to the great outdoors to learn how to teach children about God's creation.  I am looking forward to this, outdoor education has always been an interest of mine.

I have found GPS units at one of the local Wal-Marts, will be looking up the differences in the ones that I have seen and looking at prices so that I can have this new tool to play with this summer and hopefully have something new to teach campers this summer.  Sorry for the run-on...   Anyways, blessings on your day, and more to come later this summer once campers finally get here after Sunday.

-Cotter

Where my feet will take me...

Ok, yes, these are my feet.  You might be asking "why?"  Well, the reason that I chose a picture of my feet is because this summer I plan to walk a lot and travel a lot.  As of right now, I will be going five different states this summer and I plan to visit a few more than just that depending on money.  I will be driving back home home to Texas going through Kansas and Oklahoma.  I will be working at a summer camp in Missouri and going to a wedding in Iowa.  If I have the chance and the money, I would love to take a short road trip out to Tennessee to see some family.

I will be spending a majority of my summer in Missouri working at Heit's Point Lutheran Ministries off of Lake of the Ozarks.  There I will be Program Staff and in charge of helping to train the summer staff, setting up games and anything else that is thrown my way.  I will also have the chance to watch the sun set over the lake, go fishing and boating, and if I am lucky, the chance to explore a cave or two (best thing ever!).

This will be my 5th and possibly my last summer to ever do camp ministry and I am looking forward to it.  I have the chance to spend time playing games with campers and telling them about the love that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has for them.  I could not ask for anything better to do.  There will be follow up blogs this summer about the adventures that will be going on, and the times spent watching a campfire die out on a dark calm night.  More to come this summer.  Till then, "Peace Out," (that is this summers theme).

What is in a name?

When using the "World Names Profiler," I found that me last name of Cotter is most prevalent in Ireland.  I also found that my mothers maiden name, and my grandmothers are both prevalent in Germany.  I enjoyed seeing this because I had always been told of my German background yet, my father never really could tell me where our last name was from.  Being a German-Irish makes me happy for the fact that it tells me a little bit about where I come from.  The down side of this is that people of Germans and Irish are background are more likely to become alcoholics, and with having both... Not good.

Roads that sing in South Korea?

The Singing road in South Korea was implemented to help drives stay alert as they enter dangerous sections of highway.  This link shows you a news story shown here in America about this subject.  The reason that I chose this video is because of the Honda commercials that have been on television about their singing highway.  This video shows that South Korea is using new methods when it comes to personal transportation to help you stay alert at the wheel.

I believe that America can still learn from our neighbors about new ways to keep us safe on the road.  Using this new technology not just on the side of the roads where we currently have it, but also in the road could help to keep sleepy drivers awake and people talking on their phones to stay alert.

I could also see this being a problem.  If something like this were to be implemented here in the States, people would find some way to abuse it.  You would have people who want to find out what this sounds like at faster speeds and do what they can to accomplish that.  I know that idea would cross my mind... Either way, I think that this would be something interesting to see, wither over here, or take a trip to South Korea to see it myself.

Food that makes you go "bwugh."

Some of the strangest food that I have ever seen eaten has been at the share holders meetings that my dad's bank has had.  All the "Big Cheeses" at the bank are from China, and every time that they have their meetings, it is always Chinese food.  Now, don't get me wrong here, I love American Chinese food...mmm, Orange Chicken... But, some of the stuff is just a little too odd for me.

Two of the strangest dishes that were served at one of these dinners was Jellyfish, and Shrimp on Sugarcane.  I personally loved the shrimp on the sugarcane, very sweet, and good.  My mother informed me that I should try the Jellyfish so that I would not disrespect my fathers bosses.  So, after being pushed by my mother and my father just looking at his, I popped a pice of this slimy stuff in, chewed, and swallowed.  Right then I saw one of the men on the board of directors for the bank (one of the Chinese men) start to laugh at me.  I looked at him with a puzzled look, that is when he told me, "I'm from China and I have not even tried that and never plan to."  Then he continued to laugh...

I believe that as our cultures here continue to merge and we become closer and closer that some of these "odd" dishes that are served in our places of origins will continue to become obsolete or kept as "specialty" dishes.  I also for seeing that food will continue to become "Americanized," by this I mean that they will be toned down so that other can enjoy some of these "odd" dishes.  And, as always, McDonalds will continue to take over the foreign market and other cultures will learn to love the heart-attack-in-a-sack Big Mac.

The G-20, and no, it's not a rap group...

Who makes up the G-20?  Well, in alphabetical order, here we go... Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.  Now you might be saying to yourself, "But, Geocotter!  That is only 19, who is the 20th?"  Well my avid reader, I shall tell you.  "The European Union, who is represented by the rotating Council presidency and the European Central Bank, is the 20th member of the G-20" (www.g20.org).

The picture that I have chosen to post on here is one of controversy, this picture shows President Obama bowing to the leader of Saudi Arabia at the G-20.   The Presidents staff has said that he (Mr. President) had to bend over to shake his hand since he (Leader of S.A.) is shorter.  I believe that this picture says something else.  I personally thought that we did not bow to royalty due to the fact that we got rid of that around the time of our independence from Britain... I guess I was wrong.

Planet Earth...

Usually when we see pictures of our home planet Earth, we see North and South America, or Europe, Asia and Africa.  It is a rare chance that you see pictures of of the Pacific Ocean, and that is what we see here.  The pictures of the vast amounts of land provides comfort in knowing that there is some hard land that you can walk or sleep on.  In my opinion, seeing vast amounts of open water with no place to land on causes discomfort, stress and loneliness.  Seeing this makes me wish that there was more out there, somewhere to sit, run, or just to lay down and look at the open sky.  

I'm sure that a lot of this comes from my fear of drowning since I am not a swimmer, but either way, I like land.  I like to be able to walk in God's creation and look at everything that this world has to offer.  A view of the ocean is always nice, but I prefer to have that view while sitting on a sandy beach with an adult beverage in my hand and the sun setting.  I will leave this empty view of the Earth to the heaven and those in space.