Jason Carr » Family

When Reese Met Zoe (with Grandma and Grandpa Hoyer)

Jason Carr — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 03:33:51 +0000

None of us knew what to expect when Reese first met Zoe, so we thought we’d record it and see what happens. Reese is actually really cute, and seems to understand that Zoe is a new member to our family (that’s a surprise, because he never really let on that he knew what was going on in Mommy’s tummy). So far, so good…let’s hope he keeps being delicate. ;)

There’s plenty more pictures and videos to come…

Reese at the Park

Jason Carr — Tue, 11 May 2010 01:55:59 +0000

Amber took some pictures of Reese at the park today; he’s learned to go all around the playground equipment now (he has for several weeks). He’s only fallen off once. ;)

Enjoy the pictures. :)

[Download this collection as a zip file]

[View with PicLens]

Grand Canyon Photos

Jason Carr — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:26:10 +0000

I hope everyone enjoyed our trip as much as I did; it was truly an incredible experience. I keep going through various forms of withdrawal; I miss the tight community we had and the lack of distractions from the outside world. Once more, thanks to everyone who went on the trip for such an amazing experience.

As I receive them, I’ll be posting everyone’s pictures (and maybe videos?) here (with their permission), to make them easy to share. Below you’ll find all of the pictures for easy viewing online, as well a zip file download for each collection.

Photos are after the jump. Feel free to comment on this post, too, if you’re craving some discussion from the trip. :)

Larry Lufkin's Photos

[Download this collection as a zip file]

336 Photos

Tom & Laura Hickey's Photos

[Download this collection as a zip file]

47 Photos

Jason Weaver's Photos

This album contains sub-albums.

Larry Carr's Photos

[Download this collection as a zip file]

143 Photos

Josh Carr's Photos

[Download this collection as a zip file]

56 Photos

Jay Carr's Photos

[Download this collection as a zip file]

34 Photos

Premarital Advice

Jason Carr — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:59:39 +0000

A friend of mine recently just asked me if I had any advice for her about getting married (she’s engaged to be married very shortly). I’m not sure she was looking for such an earful, but I couldn’t help but go there. I’d really love to hear what everyone’s thoughts are on it.

“Amber and I have been married since December 31st, 2005. It’s great right now (and will probably forever be), but it wasn’t always great. It can be tough. Real tough. It’s tough while your selfish love turns into selfless love. Eventually, you learn to love your spouse’s soul, instead of just loving your spouse’s looks or personality. Eventually, those will change and fail you.

It’s also important to note that you will become much more like your spouse and your spouse will become much more like you. It’s even possible that you may sort of swap roles with each other (my wife and I did so in many ways).

Keep in mind that the minor things that irritate you about your spouse’s personality will become full-blown issues in marriage. When money and children are involved, every little minor issue becomes a major issue. Just prepare yourself to learn to accept these things about your spouse, because otherwise you’ll be in quite a bind. You need to love everything about your spouse, even the little tiny things that drive you crazy. You’ll be experiencing those little tiny things for the rest of your life, so you better at least not be irritated by them.

Marriage is wonderful; it’s every bit as awesome as anyone has ever thought it could be. But, take a step back and realize what you’re giving up, and have your spouse do the same. Make sure you’ve had discussions on practical topics like money management, raising children, and so on. If there are any conflicts take them very seriously. Leave nothing off-limits, and come up with a plan to resolve any possible issues.

Finally, ask yourself if you would still love your spouse if they got into a car accident and were suddenly made to be hideous and could not move or speak.

Then, I think you’re good and ready for your first year of marriage.”

New Recording – Tribute

Jason Carr — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:30:11 +0000

I finally finished the new recording of Tribute tonight. This is the third recording ready to go for the upcoming album “Love the People, Hate the Culture”. It’s still much the same song as in the previous recording from 2005, but it’s been much improved with a full band and a counter-melody between verses.

I’ve kept the old recording up as well so you can compare them if you wish. The old recording and the lyrics are available in the previous post here.

Download “Tribute” or stream it live:

Mandatory Sex Education for Your Children

Jason Carr — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:31:59 +0000

This is very bad news:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6905543.ece

The laws are changing to remove parental ability to opt their children out of sex education in public schools. This means that every kid in public schools, regardless of religious background or the parents’ wishes, will be taught the school’s version of sex education at 15 years old. This goes into effect in September of 2011. Thankfully, this is in Britain, not here in the US. Still, it’s a big deal.

What’s so wrong with that? Perhaps little, assuming that children will be taught responsibly. My childhood sex education experience, however, was anything but responsible. I was lucky enough to have to go through sex education at three different public schools across junior high and high school. Looking back, all three of these experiences were damaging to my health.

My first experience in junior high was perhaps the most damaging. I was taught how to masturbate from a cartoon video. I won’t get into the moral or spiritual issues or non-issues with masturbation, but personally, I very much wish I had not been taught this at that point in my life.

Obviously, sex education is important, and I do believe it is necessary from a very young age. But the way I will choose to educate my children will be vastly different from the haphazard approaches used in public schools. Public school teachers cannot be trusted with such a delicate and dangerous subject; the potential for damage is tremendous, and assuming parents are doing their job, the potential for any kind of a benefit is extremely minimal.

What are your thoughts on mandatory sex education in public schools? Have you chosen to opt-out your children in the past? Why or why not? Are you concerned with this new decision?

Reese’s First Birthday

Jason Carr — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:32:26 +0000

Reese officially turned one year old today; it was certainly an eventful day. We’re at home now and so far he’s taken something like a three hour nap due to his refusal to sleep at Grandma and Grandpa’s. ;)

These pictures were all taken by Grandpa at their house. It was Reese’s first experience eating cake and opening presents (though I’m sure he enjoyed eating cake a lot more than the presents…). Enjoy! :)

[View with PicLens]

Reese at the Rockford AirFest 2009

Jason Carr — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:46:13 +0000

My Dad took some cool pictures of Reese on Saturday at the Rockford AirFest. You don’t get to see much of the AirFest, but Reese is much more interesting. ;)

I got burned to a crisp, and I’m paying for it now. But it was worth it for these pictures…

[View with PicLens]

From My BlackBerry

Jason Carr — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:44:10 +0000

My wife, baby boy, regretfully the dog, and I are on our way to Michigan for a wedding as I’m typing this post. I managed to download the latest beta version of WordPress for BlackBerry, and like I’ve been with everything else WordPress-related, I’m extremely pleased with the ease of use and functionality (and that it’s even possible to update the blog from my handheld without having to deal with trying to do it in a crappy browser).

WordPress for BlackBerry is currently at version 0.9.0.134 in beta, but it sure does seem to be working well enough for me. Of course, it only has a subset of the full WordPress admin features, but it has pretty much everything you need for what you’d want to do on the road (full page, post, and comment viewing, adding, editing, and deleting).

It seems there’s no end to what I can do on my BlackBerry these days. It sure beats my days with Windows Mobile…