Living Texas

Test Post 2-15-10

kevinpresley — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:13:04 +0000

This is a test post. I’m using the new Windows Live Writer (free from MSFT) to write this. i’m running to software on Mac OS 10.6.2 with VBox 3.1.4 running Windows XP SP3.

WordPress 2.0

kevinpresley — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:13:38 +0000

I’m writing this post from version 2.0 of the iPhone wordpress app. I like it better than version 1.

If anyone knows about using GRASS GIS software, please comment on this post.

Thanks

Thomas Farr’s Chapel Talk

kevinpresley — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:03:43 +0000

Given on 3 November 2009 in All Saint’s Chapel at TMI.

Prayers (in order) Javi Santiago, Austin Carr, Kevin Presley

Chapel Talk

kevinpresley — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:43:31 +0000

Chapel Talk
Good morning, for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kevin and I’ve been a proud member of the TMI community for the past 7 years. I remember a story from not too long ago when my formal education was just beginning—the year was 1997 and I was 5 years old. The day before kindergarten began at Fair Oaks Ranch Elementary School my mother sat me down for a motivational speech that stays with me to this day.
She had an old fashioned writing slate, something like a small chalkboard, in her hand. She said to me, “Kevin, see this slate, see how clean it is. This slate is like your life. You haven’t done anything bad or good in your life outside our house, so your life is clean, like this slate, and it will never be clean like this again. Tomorrow, you start your life away from home; you’ll meet new people, and see new things. Remember that whatever you say and do gets put on the slate. So you have a choice, you can draw a beautiful picture with your life, or you can draw an ugly one. And, as time goes on, things on your slate will fade. So, to draw a pretty picture, to live an honest productive life, you’ll have to keep doing good things. Good for you though, if you make a mistake, it will fade into the background like everything else. That gives you a chance to fix your life.
While you might not be able to erase a bad deed, you can still atone for your wrongs by replacing them with a right as they fade away. And, with that, she left me certain that I would somehow ruin my whole life on the first day of kindergarten.
But the truth of the matter is that every year we can draw a new picture on our slate. The old pictures will remain fading in the background, but this year and every year can be the year that you make your life, your slate, what you want it to be. What an opportunity.
So how will you decide what to do with your year? Your life? The answer to those questions is different for everyone, and rightfully so, everyone has a different way of deciding their goals for life. So I can only share with you my way, and hope that you can change it to fit your needs and lifestyle. When faced with all the realities of life, stress, confusion, sadness, I have found that reflection truly helps me to better myself and decide on goals. Reflection, like most things we do, is an acquired skill. Something to practice everyday. The hardest thing about reflection for me is finding the impetus for reflective thoughts to occur. For me this impetus came from my surroundings—specifically the peaceful surroundings provided by nature.
Ever since my Grandma took me on walks through the woods on her east Texas farm, I’ve loved the outdoors. Weekends spent stepping over briars, “ouchy plants” as I called them, climbing hollowed-out trees, finding maple leaves, and evading large cottonmouths were weekends spent in a heaven-on-earth for me. I can remember ever inch of my grandma’s 500 acres. Whenever I think of the house perched on a grassy hill, the fertile garden on its north slope, a pasture full of cattle to the east, woods that rolled off to the west and south, and the small branch of the Mill creek that furnished cool water for hot summer days, I think of the tranquility which I now crave. She taught me that the woods were more than a place to play or hunt, but that by going out into nature, you could look into yourself. The outer peace of leaves falling in autumn translated into an inner peace that, impossible to explain as it might be, lifted all the fogginess of life
Today, whenever life seems to get in the way, or I need to chart the course for my future, I go to nature. I could find myself talking a walk or hunting whitetail on the farm in Mt. Pleasant, going to sit by the Guadalupe River, hiking at Government Canyon west of town, or hunting dove at Thomas’ home south of Uvalde. Wherever I am, whatever challenge or joy I face, I always return with an assurance that the path I’m talking is the right one, a knowledge that what I’m doing with my life, my slate, is what I want for myself, my friends, and my family. Let me provide an example:
Last year, around April, I was plagued with worry over what to do with my summer, senior year, and life after TMI. The decision to get outside being made, I began scanning the National Park Service website in Colonel Kramer’s office, feverishly trying to decide where to go. I knew I needed solitude, so I chose Big Bend National Park as the destination and began deciding exactly how to spend the precious time I had in the park. I noticed an area in the corner of the map, marked as the Mesa De Anguila. The website described the mesa as an area with stunning views of the Santa Elena Canyon, and of mountains towering south of the boarder in Mexico. I did not know then how true the website’s promise of solitude would prove to be.
Around the end of May, my father and I headed out to hike across the Mesa. The mammoth landmark was heaved three thousand feet skyward by a fault in the earth, leaving a mesa beginning around Terelingua and stretching deep into the interior of Mexico. Starting at Lajitas, west of the park, we climbed the fifteen hundred vertical feet to the mesa top, the mercury soared to 105 degrees, and the lack of any tree for literally hundreds of miles meant that from sunrise to sunset, we were baking in heat that can all too literally be described as an oven. But we were the only two people in a four hundred square mile piece of America, and that made it worth it. During the trip, I was able to look out over miles of desert, with virtually unlimited visibility. The desert was not bleak and lifeless as its often made out to be, but covered in life to a degree that I, even with the desert experience that I’d had before, could not comprehend. Lizards were everywhere, centipedes abounded, and cactus bloomed.
The area can only be correctly described with the words Buzz Aldrin used to describe the Sea of Tranquility on the lunar surface, “magnificent desolation.”
Sitting out there in a place so remote as to evade proper description, I was able to see the underlying peace in life. Life’s bank of fog lifted that day, just as it did long ago on the farm. I set for myself a goal that day. My senior year, I would try to be the best friend, best student, and best battalion commander that I could be. That was and still is my honest goal. And you too should set one for yourself. It can be anything you honestly want to achieve, it can be related to sports, school, your personal life, anything at all. The important thing is to try your hardest at all times to achieve your goal. The constant desire to achieve my goal gives my life a purpose. People all over this earth question their purpose; I believe that people can answer that question with the goals they set, thus giving them infinite satisfaction.
That trip I decided what I would do with the blank slate that is my senior year. I would not only be the best that I could be for my sake, but also the sake of this community. I’ve been at this school for 7 years and so I’ve heard my share of complaining. Be it about the administration, the faculty, or the lunches, I’ve heard it all. And lately I’ve heard that the school is losing its sense of community. But most of the students and even the parents fail to realize that the community is a group made up of members. And while it’s exaggerating my point to say we’re only as strong as our weakest link, we mustn’t forget that individuals make up the TMI community, and every community on the planet. And the only way to better the community is to better the individuals in it. And the only person who can better you is you. So set ambitious goals for yourself; you’ll not only improve yourself, but also your TMI community.
Having goals gives my life a purpose that it once lacked, and I want you all to have the same feeling of purpose in your life. It’s a whole new year, a clean slate. What will you write on your slate of life? Answer that question soon, decide on a goal and press towards it. You’ll have a feeling of purpose that is priceless. Achieve your goal, and be proud of yourself; you have every right to be proud of your accomplishments. You’re here at TMI, one of the best schools in the south, and your life has boundless opportunity. Take advantage of it.

Iphone

kevinpresley — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:28:28 +0000

I just bought an iPhone 3gs. So far I’ve enjoyed it nim posting this with the wordpress blog software. It’s working very well. Anyway this is really just a test post.

Guadalupe River–Lower Everyday

kevinpresley — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:57:24 +0000

I sit and watch the Guadalupe River get lower and lower every day. Today the Spring Branch Gauge was at a staggering 3 cfs. River is more than 2.5 feet low, which when considering how shallow most parts of the Hill Country River are, is unspeakably low. The water is unnaturally warm and stagnant. Pads of algae are growing in the main channel of the river! The main channel! Choked with green algae—what a sight. The river seems like a scene from an apocalyptic movie. The rocks stand starkly white against the green banks. Where once crystal clear blue-green water flowed through the channel, now rocks, whiter than ghosts stand naked to the elements.

Sitting on the bank during my lunch break, I can’t help but wonder about the river. I think to myself, “If people weren’t around to notice the river this low, would it affect anything?” The answer is obvious that the river levels affect wildlife in the most important, life-or-death way, but simply cutting the question off with a simple answer robs it of its intellectual capacity. If people didn’t pump water from the aquifer at staggering rates, the drought would not-yet be this severe. Pumping from wells makes springs go dry sooner and, in some cases, makes them dry on an almost perpetual basis. This markedly decreases the base-flow of the river. But the question still remains. The river flows constantly until it goes dry. When the river goes dry first the flow rate goes to 0 cfs and then, the now-stagnant pools evaporate and/or seep into the water table. However, under normal conditions, the river flows constantly down into the Gulf. The natural beauty of the flowing river doesn’t have to be appreciated to happen. And according to Heisenberg, the very act of appreciating the natural beauty of something changes it. But does it change it for the worst of the better.

Anyway, the river flows. It flows regardless of war, peace, life, death. It transcends the ages, yet it is not. The river truly is always and never the same.

Photos of the river to follow.

The Thermostat Hypothesis

kevinpresley — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:22:31 +0000

I just read a very interesting piece of literature, check it out.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/14/the-thermostat-hypothesis/

–Leave Your Comments Please

11 Youths Charged With Poaching with Help From Opperation Game Thief

kevinpresley — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:53:34 +0000

Copied from SA Express News Blog Post

Here’s a look at what tips to Operation Game Thief can lead to.

After more than 30 white-tailed deer were poached in Wood County in November, game wardens were at a dead end until a tip was called into OGT, the crime stoppers of wildlife enforcement.

About the only clues game wardens had were the carcasses that showed up in people’s front yards.

On some, only the back straps and hind quarters cut out.

Others were left to rot.

All had small caliber wounds.

A caller to OGT’s number, (800) 792-4263, provided four names. Two more names surfaced. Then six more.

Eventually, 11 youths, most still in high school, were charged with 151 offenses, ranging from felonies to Class C misdemeanors including hunting at night, hunting from a public road and hunting on private ranches without the landowners’ consent.

“These OGT calls make our cases go a lot quicker,” Wood County game warden Kurt Kelley said in a statement.

The cases are pending, and no information is available about the tipster because the calls are confidential.

These cases were similar to ones in Montgomery County in 2006 when 18 high school students were charged with 247 offenses.

A tipster who saw an OGT billboard sparked that investigation.

Updated Family Website

kevinpresley — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:26:05 +0000

My website, http://presley.com, was just updated, with lots of work from my father, and I think it looks great!

I encourage all to view the website and think of Presley Computing for their personal and business needs.

West Point Story

kevinpresley — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:16:43 +0000

I just read an excellent story about the West Point class of 2009 in Newsweek. I think it’s good reading for everyone in this country. Click here to read the story. It’s a shame that our country seems to have lost touch with the military. After 9/11 our nation seemed to rally around the patriotic mission to fight terrorism and we seemed to adopt a revenge mentality. This was appropriate for that time; however, I am totally opposed to the concept of militarism and the “Military Industrial Complex.” (For anyone unfamiliar with the term, President Eisenhower’s “Fairwell to the Nation Address” contains a phenomenal explanation, click here to read the speech) It’s important that this nation not forget its military. Remember “when Rome forgot her legions, Rome’s legions forgot her.” The military must execute the will of the people. Not the will of the mob, but the decided will of the people. And in this democracy, I feel that that generally happens pretty well. However, the problem lies not with the military but the American people. America is a very moody society, and this is both good and bad. Mostly good. But when it comes to the type of war we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, we must have the discipline to finish the fights we start. I feel that for now at least, this is what President Obama has done. America is a great nation, no one can dispute that. We simply need more discipline and solidarity as a people. The American people wanted to go into Iraq, they wanted to go into Afghanistan. As much as the people and the press deny it, this country in large part executes the will of the people. So, if the will of the people is a quick exit from the wars we’re in. Then so be it. But we must think our actions through, then act swiftly and decisively.

Photo shows the United States Military Academy at West Point. Photo credit to west-point.org.