So what is it like being born in 2010?

Dear Kumkwat,

So what is it like being born in 2010? What memories will you have? I suppose in a sense you only really know what it is like being born in the year you were actually born. So being born in 1978 my first memories are of Pac-man and E.T. and Rubik's cubes. What are the things that influence your early memories? It is funny to think that you will feel the same way about Pac Man and Rubik's cubes as I do about the decade of my dad's first memories; of Howdy Doody and Buddy Holiday and I Love Lucy.

What about your mother and me? How do you think we have done as parents? What have we done right? What have we doen wrong? What do you wish we had done differently? This has been on my mind a lot lately. Here I am coming to the end of 2009 with you kicking inside your Mommy's tummy. And so today, how should I think, how should I act, how should I pray in order to do right by you as a father?

There are many things I would hope that you would say if you were to reflect on our parenting. I hope that we have parented in such a way that you are tender hearted. That you want to be kind. That you would be compassionate. That you would think of others beofre yourself.

Even more so I would hope that you would be wise. Not just knowlegable. Not just understanding. But wise. That your words may benifit those who hear them. And even as I think about it being truly wise would mean you were truly compassionate. That you would be truly tender hearted towards others.

But even if you lived a life that was both wise and compassionate and that was it, I would feel like I failed you as a father. You see my life, you mother's life and or marriage together are rooted in both these things. But they are secondary to us. The primary foundation for us is Christ. I mean if nothing else I fully intend that you will know, "Yeah Dad is a passionate guy. He is passionate about math, about the NFL, about Star Trek. But there is nothing that he is more passionate about then Jesus."

That is acually more important to me. So on the one hand you might end up saying, "Man he was great Dad. He was loving. He was a good listener. He was strong. He alway made time. But this God that he beleives in doesn't really cut it for me." Honestly that would break my heart. But on the other hand if you said, "You know my Dad made lots of mistakes. There were times when he wasn't wise, when he wasn't fair when he wasn't kind. But I trust the God he trusted". I mean I want to be wise, kind and fair. But lets face it I won't be all the time. I just long for you to look away from me and look to him.

But even so I would go even one step further. As bad a flat out rejection would be, it would be far worse if you called yourself a Christian simply out of obligaiton and think that the main reason to follow this God is because that was what Mom and Dad did. And then to come to the end of you life and realise it was just for show. That every one else thought you were a Christian, but deep down you were a fake. Oh that is far far worse.

I truly beleive if the evidence is weighed out Christ will win. Not me and not even an organization. But long after I am gone, Christ will win. So I long for you to say, "I want to be clear thinker. I want be be some one of reason." That will put a smile on my face. You bet it will. So if you were to come to me and say, "You know Dad, I know how much you love God. But I am having a hard time beleiving in him right now." If that day comes I hope to welcome you with open arms. And I want to walk along side you through that. In that day I want my faith to be shaken just as much as yours faith. I want you to live for Christ and I want you to see me doing the same.

I want to do right by you. I can't wait to meet you.

Your dad,

David H Chapman

Julie and Julia: my thoughts on the movie

I wanted to comment on the movie Julie and Julia which I saw this weekend (I really enjoyed it by the way), but I first wanted to reflect on a trip I took three years ago. In the summer of 2006 I spent a couple weeks with my grandparents at a beach house on the ocean in South Carolina. My two great Aunts and my great Uncle came to visit. So I was 28 at the time, spending my summer vacation with 5 people all between the ages of 75 and 85, representing over 400 years of life experience between them. .It was such a sweet time especially because it was the last time I saw my Aunt Pauline alive. Uncle Cliff told me about the battle of the Bulge and I told Uncle Cliff how to solve Sudoku puzzles. But there was one conversation that stands out to me that I had with my Aunt June. We were walking along the beach and I started asking her about what it was like for her while Uncle Cliff fighting in the War. What was significant to me was how brief her answers were, “We dated before the war but he broke up with me before he left”. “When he got back he needed some time to himself, but eventually he decided to ask me to marry him”, while she was quick to talk with me about what was happening in their lives today “There are several shut ins that we got to deliver food to during the week.” “At the hospital where I volunteer at there are people suffering with HIV who I care for.” Here comments did not put value upon herself rather upon something external. She didn’t want to talk about the days of old, she wanted to talk about the AIDS patients and the shut ins.



The movie Julie and Julia contrasts two individual of two distinct eras. One is Julia Child who was a diplomat’s wife during the McCarthy Era of the 1950’s, just a little older than my Aunt June was at the time. The other is Julie Powell a young professional in New York City writing a blog in 2002, who was just a little bit older than I was at the time. Now before I had seen the movie I heard a radio piece saying that the story line of Julia Child was compelling and engaging while the story line of Julie’s blog seem shallow and dry. I would agree with that statement. The radio critic said that it was because Meryl Streep’s performance as Julia was so much better than that of Amy Adams who played Julie. Although I agree that Meryl Streep gave an incredible performance, I think the reason Julie came across as shallow had less to do with the performers more to do with the script. And I believe the underlying reason has to do with the different societies each woman lived in.



The story follows each woman setting out to achieve a specific goal. Julia's goal is to write a cook book that will bring French recipes to American homes. Julie’s goal is to cook all 574 in Julia Child’s cook book over 365 days and blog about it. But the deeper question is not what the goal is that each of these women has, rather it is WHY they want to achieve this goal in the first place. When we are first introduced to Julia Child she has just moved to Paris and is looking direction in her life. When we are introduced to Julie Powell she has just moved to Queens and is also looking for direction in her life. To sum up the first 20 minutes of the film Julia says, “I love to eat. French food is spectacular. I want to teach Americans how to cook French food.” while Julie say “I have not had success as a writer, my day job is horrible. The place where I find PERSONAL fulfillment is cooking each night. Perhaps blogging through Julia’s book will make my job seem less miserable and maybe it could even spring board my writing career.” Notice the emphasis each woman has. Julia’s focus is external. The focus is on French food. Julie’s focus is internal. Although french food is PART of what she is doing, her main attention is on her career goals and her personal fulfillment.



Today culture is plagued by self esteem. It says that success starts with feeling good about yourself. I think this mentality has brought about a society that is shallow and superficial. Who are the true heroes? Are they the people who say, “I want to be a hero today. It would make me feel better about myself if I did”? Or are they the type of people who say, “Look there is a heroic task. No one seems willing to do it. Somebody should. Maybe I can.” if you look at these two types of people to quickly they might seem to be doing the same thing. But one is a hero of substance the other is not. And I don't want to say that the older generation is perfect. No generation is perfect. What I am saying is that in today's culture self esteem is not a strength, it is a weakness.



Now compared to say war heroes like my Uncle Cliff neither woman in this movie is that heroic. On the other extreme I’d say both women are much more heroic then I am. I could neither come up with those 574 recipes nor dream of cooking them in 365 days. But let’s be honest, what legacy has been left by each of these women? Julie Powell fed her husband and her friends over the course of a year, while entertaining people on a blog, later through a book and eventually through the movie that came out this weekend. In comparison, if the movie was accurate, Julia Child walked into Paris in 1949 knowing next to nothing about cooking and said “This food is amazing Americans need to be able to make it." And now I could go out and buy Julia Child from Barnes and Noble and omelet and crepe to my heart’s content. Which has the bigger impact? And buy the way while you are in Barnes and Noble I suggest you keep away from the self help section.



There has been a commercial on TV lately commemorating the 40th anniversary of the moon Landing. In it John F Kennedy says “We choose to go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” You don’t get to the moon by focusing on yourself. You get to the moon by focusing on the moon.

Beating Rachel to the punch =)

Rachel wanted pictures on her blog of our living room before we moved to the new apartment. But this week end our place has been covered with boxes. So I made the living room look pretty and posted these pictures. If you notice around the edges of the pictures there are what appear to be Tupperware containers and boxes and things. But that's just your imagination. Our place always looks pretty. hehehe

Summer Employment

This evening was Rachel and my eleven month anniversary. We celebrated by going out for ice cream and then walking along the levy. I can't believe it has almost been a year. It's gone by quick and at the same time not so quick. =) I mean it was not too long ago that Rachel and I met for the first time, and yet I can't hardly remember what life was like with out her.

I have been enjoying the work I am doing this summer. Instead of having one full time job I have had a couple part time jobs. First off I have an internship through the university. I am working for CAMD which stands for Center for Advanced Micro-structures and Devices. Basically in simple terms CAMD is a great big X-ray. The internship is for “pure” math majors to work in the “applied” sciences. It is really neat because most of the time what I am doing at LSU is sitting in front of a black board filling it up with equations and such. The question “What is this used for?” is the last thing on my mind.

The specific branch of CAMD I am working for is the tomography department. What they do is they take 2 dimensional shots of some object and try to reconstruct what it looks like inside 3 dimensionally. They have showed us 3d models of the way a cat claw grows. The first time I was at CAMD they were checking out the porousness of sandstone for the off shore drilling that Exxon is doing in the gulf.


So what am I working on? Plastics! So you are reading this on my blog. The monitor you are looking at is mostly plastic. But chemically that plastic is very similar to gasoline. That is why the plastics are made with flame retardants. What we are working on is several shot of plastic that is being melted. What were are studying is the movement of the plastic as it melts.

The pictures below are 3d images of an air bubble floating inside the plastic. As the plastic is heated the bubble is moving. The flakes all around the bubble are the flame retardant. We could try to follow the movement of the retardant, but it’s easier to follow the bubbles since they are bigger. There are multiple bubbles in the plastic but the pictures below have just focused on a single bubble over six time frames. So the bubble is expanding and moving upward as the plastic is being heated.

In addition to the work at CAMD I have also been doing work through a temp agency. I have been driving around the surrounding areas working for COX which is a phone and cable company. My work has entailed taking a disposable camera and taking picture of what are known as VRADS. What is a VRAD? It is a video ready access device according to Wikipedia. It is basically a big box connecting to underground cables. Cox has the latitude and longitude of where these VRADs are located. My job was to look up these locations on google maps then drive around to take pictures of them when I find them.

What’s funny about this job is how it makes you look at the world differently. For example did you know that next to every four way traffic light and every railroad track that has lights of some sort there will be a big box nearby. Look for them, they will be there. The reason I noticed this is by looking for VRADs and realizing those were not them. The specific thing that distinguishes VRAD will be the Att&T logo or the old bell logo on older equipment. The older smaller boxes are not actually VRADs, but they often are up graded to become VRADs.

The other part of my work this summer has been studying. (no pictures regarding this, but it would mostly be blackboards filled with equations) I have a Phd adviser and I am scheduled to have my oral exam in the Fall. I don’t know yet how much longer I will be working on the Phd, but things are moving forward.

I know I don’t post very often. I’d like to post more. But I hope that my small fan base enjoys it when I do post.

Pictures from my jobs

ABOVE: These two shots are picture like those I would have taken while working for COX. The first big box with the meter next to it is a VRAD. The second smaller cabinet is not a VRAD. It is an older cable box that could be ugraded to a VRAD.

BELOW: This is the type of 3d modeling I am doing with CAMD. The first shot shows a bubble in red and then the SAME bubble 10 minutes later in purple. So in that time span the heating of the plastic has cause it to expand and move to the right (as we are viewing it). Each of other rainbow colored bubbles is this same bubble at two minute time intervals between the starting point in red and the ending point in purple. The biggest change in both size and movement is from two minutes in orange to four minutes in yellow.

Bea, Pearl, and Barb

I first met Bea Hoekstra in the fall of 1997. It was my first Sunday at Collegiate Presbyterian Church on the west side of the Iowa State campus. When I told Bea I was a freshman she said, “I always love hearing that. It means you will be here for a long time.” Bea and her husband Jim were kind of like spiritual parents to us young college students. Their door was always open. I think about coming to their home during some of my dark lonely times my Sophomore year. After college I came to visit Jim and Bea. It was right after I had left my job teaching in inner city Chicago. It felt ironic to me that although Bea had been battling colon cancer for many months, she was the one strengthening and encouraging me. In January of 2006 I came back to Ames again to see Jim and Bea. I was applying to 6 different PhD programs, and I was picking up my college transcripts from Iowa State. I remember hearing Bea pray for me at lunch, “Lord give Dave 5 closed doors and one open door”. Over the next 3 months I received three rejection letters and one acceptance letter (to LSU) the other two schools never got back to me. The prayers of the righteous are powerful. That lunch was on a Wednesday. The next day, Thursday, Bea went in to the hospital for chemotherapy.

The last time I saw Bea was 3 months later over memorial day weekend. A friend from college, James, went with me to see her. Her body was frail, but her spirit was so strong. We were sitting in the hospital lounge when another women joined us. She was asking about the puzzle on the table. In the discussion I mentioned my family had a Narnia puzzle we would solve during the holidays. “Have you read those books?” Bea asked the woman, “The Lion in the stories represents Jesus." How sweet it was to hear that name on those lips.

That next October Bea passed away. It just happened to be the weekend I was back in Iowa for fall break. Being a northerner living in the south I was missing the changing of the trees. Bea's funeral was on a Sunday afternoon. It was a bright, crisp day and the red orange and yellow leave were falling silently across the cemetery. It was so sad to see her go, but it was abundantly clear the joy that Bea had now come home.
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My Grandmother Esther was one year younger than her sister Pearl. There were six siblings total in their family spanning over 2 decades: Lowell, Pearl, Esther, Rosalie, Joe and Jean. My Great Aunt Pearl never married. She went straight to Hougten College from high school and went straight to Haiti from Hougten where she was a missionary for the remainder of her life. She would spend three and a half years in Haiti and 6 months back in the States. My mom talked about how exciting that forth year would be when Aunt Pearl would come home to see everyone. I saw a picture this summer of my Mom when she was about five with Aunt Pearl, Aunt Rosalie and Grandma.

One of these years that my Aunt Pearl came home was in 1974 when my mom was in college. She brought home this long haired kid named Howard Chapman, my dad. Grandma didn't know what to think of him. But my dad's parents had also been missionaries that came out of Houghten. In fact a neat little story about this was a trip Rachel and I took this summer. I wanted Rachel to meet my Aunt Rosalie who is now in her 90's. Rosalie gave me Aunt Pearl's old college year book to give to my mom. In the year book was a note from Pauline Chapman who was a Freshman when Aunt Pearl was a Senior. That would have been my Dad's aunt, years before my Grandparents had even met. So when my Aunt Pearl met my dad they had lots of stories to swap. Aunt Pearl told my Grandma, “He would would be good for Judy. He comes from a solid missionary heritage”.

In December of 74 Aunt Pearl passed away from cancer. Two years later my parents were married and two years after that in 1978 I was born.
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Five years ago today Rachel's mom, Barb Yutzy, lost her battle with MS. I knew I wanted to write something about her today, but I wasn't sure how to do it. I never met Rachel's Mom. And how do you show honor to someone you have never met?

From what I have gleaned about Barb from Rachel and her family members, it seems to me that these three women were made out of the same stuff. Part of what links them together in my mind is that they all lived roughly the same number of years, Aunt Pearl 55, Rachel's Mom 60 and Bea 62. But deeper then that was that all three loved and served the living God. And the thing that truly humbles me is that there is no doubt in my mind that when they were alive, all three of these women prayed for me, specifically. Bea's prayers are a huge part of my role here at LSU along with countless other ways she prayed for me and the other students from Iowa State. Although Aunt Pearl died four years before I was born she had to have prayed for “Judy kids” some day. And how many thousands of prayers must Barb have prayed for “Rachel's future husband”. And these are the seeds sown into my life.

Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked before us.”

How I long to live a life the reflects the faithfulness of those who have gone before me.

Valentine primes

There are two candles. There are three sections of candies. Each section has five candies. Two candles plus 15 candies is 17. Oh the chimichangas and the desert that Rachel made for Valentine's day were both awesome.

I hope my story was a gift to you. =D

Crawfish with my in-laws

Rachel's brother Mike was in town with his wife Helen, his daugther Sam and his Grandson Xander. We went out with them out for some of the local grub. Good times.