Well, the nice thing about global warming is that they found a wooly mammoth pretty much intact in Russia somewhere.  Some scientists say they’ll have a cloned version in 5-10 years…scary, huh?

http://news.discovery.com/animals/woolly-mammoth-cloned-111205.html

I’ve been away from the game long enough that some of you may not know my involvement in the free online role playing game, Legend of the Green Dragon.  This weekend, June 4th  (6/4), a bunch of players are getting back on as a sort of reunion, and I thought it might be a good time to share the link with you in preparation.

It’s a fun text based game, that is energized a lot by players interacting with one another and taking on the role of the character they set up.  As the creator of the site, I took on the role of the king.  You should join us this weekend if you’ve never played! Here’s the announcement from the site:

Hear ye, Hear ye
In the Sixth month and on the fourth day of this very year…

There shall be a gathering.. a reunion.. of those that once shared a fate,
A fate so epic that it has bound them,
One to the other, throughout all eternity.

They come one by one, from the depths of the sea,
From the heights of the mountains and treetop dwellings.
From castles and keeps, temples and catacombs
From the peaks of mount Olympus
And the hidden shadows of the underdark.

They gather from shore to shore..
To be united once again in the Land of Six.

Yes.. The KING Sixf00t4 has vowed he, himself, would be honored
To make an appearance at such a gathering
Of some of the finest warriors the gods have ever known…
Join us on June 4th!
For this too shall be an Epic Adventure!

When you sign up, enter one of the following codes to receive bonus gold or gems!

‘reuniongold‘ will net you 10k gold
‘reuniongems‘ will net you 10 gems.

http://www.hgtv.com/green-home/index.html

Vote often!  Invite me when you win!  It’s outside Denver, Colorado this year.  You can also enter twice a day this year if you use the frontdoor.com site as well.

Kallie’s Aunt Dorothy published a book!  Check out the trailer and let her know what you think!

There are some crazy things going on in Montana politics right now.  Something about tea party, republicans, blah blah blah.

here are just a few:

1.  Legalize hunting with hand-thrown spear (Senate Bill 112)

2.  Create fully-armed militia in every town (House Bill 278)

3.  Allow legislators to carry weapons in the Capitol (Senate Bill 279)

4.  Create an 11 person panel with authority to nullify all federal laws (House Bill 382)

5   Allow guns in schools (House Bill 558)

6.  Eliminate educational requirements for persons seeking job of State Superintendent of Schools (HB 154)

7.  Lift nuclear ban for purpose of building a nuclear reactor in the Flathead Valley (House Bill 326)

8.  Withdraw the United States of America from the United Nations (Senate Joint Resolution 2)

9.  Eliminate all state incentives for developing wind power (House Bill 244)

10. Omit Barak Obama’s name from the 2012, ballot because his father was born outside of America (House Bill 205)(this guy was on CNN this week)

11. Compulsory marriage counseling for people seeking a divorce (House Bill 438)

12. Give sheriffs authority over the federal government in terror investigations (Senate Bill 114)

13. Legalize hunting with silencers (House Bill 174)

14. Lift the prohibition on carrying concealed weapons in bars, churches and banks (House Bill 384)

15. Eliminate law that requires landlords to install carbon monoxide detectors (House Bill 354)

16. Require the federal government to prove in court that the National Parks were lawfully aquired. (House Bill 506)

17. Officially designate the “Code of the West” as the “Code of Montana” (Senate Bill 216)

18.  Declare that global warming is good. (House Bill 549)

read more :  http://mtcowgirl.com/2011/02/17/nutjob-bills-in-the-montana-legislature/

Thank you so much for your gifts and your words of encouragement, Everyone!  We’re about a month away from the race, and I’m getting stoked.  It’s not here yet though, and that’s good because I haven’t met my goal yet!

I’ve had a few people tell me that my goal was too low, and to get people involved, they needed more of a challenge.  I did say more than $1000…but since we’re half way to the race, it seems fitting that the goal is to reach $1500 total, so we’re already more than half-way there!

I forgot to share a video from last year that my friend made of my friend Tim and I doing the race:

Men’s Health: 2009 Chicago Urbanathlon from Adam Mudrick on Vimeo.

if the embedded video doesn’t work, you can watch it here: http://www.vimeo.com/7305447

I also wanted to let you know that the ministry is holding car washes this Saturday, Sept 11th at the Busy Beaver in Century III and in Crafton.  Feel free to stop by, get your car washed, and see all the people that come out to support the ministry.

You can make an online payment with paypal by clicking on the “donate now” button on http://livingministry.org/blog/
or
You can mail your checks to:

Living Ministry
2536 Maple Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15214

Again, thank you to those who have already donated and thank you so much to those who replied back to me with encouraging words and support in the race.

Peace, Love, and Ambition,

Josh

If you’re not familiar with the L.I.V.I.N.G Ministry, it’s an organization dedicated to serving the homeless and needy in the Pittsburgh area.  They have a few outreach programs that range from a large clothing drive event in the fall, job fairs, preparing breakfast for labor hall workers at 5am, Bible studies, and the biggest is Project L.I.F.E.  With Project L.I.F.E., 4 men are able to live in a house, that the ministry bought and renovated, and focus on building life skills such as budgeting and cooking, they rebuild relationships with their families, and they also learn discipleship.  The ministry just bought the house next door and they are working on renovating it with a similar plan in mind for it.

As for the race, on Saturday, October 16th, I’ll be in Chicago for the Men’s Health Urbanathlon.  I ran the 12 mile course last year, but this year they changed it to 9 miles and added more obstacles…like getting up and over a bus.    Throughout the course, I’ll be climbing over marine hurdles, over taxi cabs, and up and down the stairs of Soldier Field (where the Chicago Bears play).

My goal is to raise more than $1000. If you can make a flat donation of any amount, that will help me reach that goal.  If you want to get inside my head for a bit of motivation, you can do something like:

Give me $1 for every second under last year’s time (120 minutes.)
Since I’m also racing in the Great Race again this year, $1 for every second off my total time there (60 minutes)
• Give me a big bonus if I run the Urbanathlon in a mile/minute time that is better than my Great Race average mile/minute this year.
• Get creative!

If you’re not able to support me financially, some words of encouragement go a long way as well.  If you want to learn more about the ministry, or possibly getting your church involved in volunteer workdays, reach out to volunteer@livingministry.org.  I’ll be glad to talk with you as the chair of the board for the ministry too, if you have any questions or want to become a regular supporter.  Please send this to anyone who you think would like to participate!

Thank you all for your support, encouragement, and prayers!

Josh in the Urbanathlon 2009

Well, some of you already knew, but now that it didn’t pan out, we’re allowed to talk about it.  Back in April, Chemistry.com (where Kallie and I met) contacted us and wanted us to be interviewed by a “national magazine” about our story.  Turns out it was People Magazine.  So they called Kallie, asked her a bunch of questions and asked for “our story” and I guess they interviewed a bunch of other people as well.  After a long waiting period, we were told we weren’t selected for the article, but it is cool just to be able to say we were interviewed by People Magazine.

I’ve also been selected by Pittsburgh City Living to be the Ambassador to the Hill District!  Not sure what that means exactly yet, but it’s a city program to showcase all the individual neighborhoods of the city.  Hopefully I’ll be able to contribute to the growth of the Hill!

This summer has been a whirlwind of activity.  We’ve been to California and back twice in July, a couple weddings around the state, heading to Canada/Yankanuck next week, went camping in Ohio and went to Cedar Point, back to Bedford for our 1 year anniversary, and just a bunch of other stuff that filled our calendars and put smiles on our faces.  I think next year we’re going to really protect our weekends and time together.  We had fun this year, but it was way too chaotic, and we even cut out a lot things as it was.

Back to real life, Kallie’s down to part-time work and full time student to get her NP license.  Since she’s doing that, I am also heading back to RMU for my masters in organizational studies.  We’re looking at 2-3 years for us to finish those up.  Work is reimbursing me as long as I get above a C, and I need above a 3.00 GPA to graduate, so I should have some motivation there.

I’m training for the urbanathlon again in October.  Probably doing a 5k in Charleroi and the Great Race 10k before then in preparation.  I’m going to try to fund-raise for the L.i.v.i.n.g. Ministry again this year too.  A lot going on with the ministry, and they could surely use the support!

I think after the race, I’m going to focus on music, playing out, writing songs, etc to carry me through the winter.  Hopefully I’ll be able to follow through on that one…I’ll keep you posted

Obama’s new spending involves light rail or high speed train development in Pittsburgh.  http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09106/963340-100.stm

Hopefully, that will just mean that the maglev project will reach fruition.  http://www.maglevpa.com/

In recent sports news, Grapevine Faith played Gainesville State School in football, but the fans from Faith rooted for the other team.  The formed a line for the other team to run through at the beginning of the game, the made a sign for them to bust through, and cheered for them throughout the game.  Was this some kind of reverse logic to the Yale "We Suck" prank?  Nope.  This was a good deed, since Gainesville is a correctional institution, and even those players deserve to have some cheering.

Why does something so right, seem so upside down?