Melissa

By Mark | Published: July 14, 2010

While I realize most of the attention lately has been on Ava and all of the interestingly good and interestingly hard stuff we’ve gone through lately, I can’t possibly begin to explain how much I completely adore my wife. I always knew she would be an outstanding mother but the reality of it has been more wonderful than I could have ever dreamed. To watch her care for and interact with Ava makes me want to be a better parent myself. She thinks through every single decision, small and large, and she constantly places Ava’s needs and wants above her own. She is far more giving than I could ever be and she is extremely gracious in the way she lives her day to day life. Ava’s face literally lights up whenever Melissa looks into her eyes. Ava knows she and mommy already have a special relationship and it is a joy to watch it bloom. There have been many MANY nights where she has had 4 hours of sleep while letting me sleep 7 or 8 so I can still have energy for work. She cleans the house, does the grocery shopping, pays some of the bills, and cares for 2 cats—all while taking care of Ava. I don’t understand how she does it sometimes. If it were left to me we would have been eating Lunchables® for the last 4 months and we would have 2 very malnourished (possibly dead) cats on our hands—not to mention we would probably have had our electric shut off on account of my forgetting to pay it. The bottom line is this: Ava and I are lucky to have Melissa!

So, this post if for you, sweetie! I love you more than words can say and you will always be my #1 girl. Don’t worry though, I’ve explained it all to Ava and she knows she will always be right there after you! Daddy duck…Mommy duck…and our little ducky.  :D

I love you, Miss.

-Mark

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Ava

By Mark | Published: June 26, 2010

I’ve tried starting a post about my daughter a bunch of times before but I’ve previously failed at actually writing anything until now for a couple of reasons. Firstly, every moment of my spare time since our daughter’s birth has been purposely and most pleasantly filled with supporting my wife, caring for my daughter, playing with my daughter, and trying to fit sleep somewhere in between. Secondly, and probably more honestly, I’ve never felt and still don’t feel confident enough in my ability to write words that actually explain how much Ava means to me.

The deepest parts of who I am have been changed by her. Holding her changed me. From the very first time I held her in my arms and every time since I have literally felt my life changing. There aren’t words to describe that. There just aren’t. And so I won’t write words—at least no more than I already have. Because the bottom line is I can’t explain it. God created her and there is no way I will ever completely wrap my head around why He would trust me to look after someone so precious, so innocent, so beautiful.

The only thing I would I can give the few of you who might read these words is something I’ve been working on for a couple of months now. I created the following painting using my favorite photo of Ava and I’ll put it up here. I know it still doesn’t do her justice but it’s as good as I can do at least. It’s a work in progress and I’m not quite finished with it, but at least it’s to the point where I feel alright about showing it to people.

PLEASE NOTE: The completely outstanding source photo used for this was taken by my brother-in-law, Jodie Swan, and you can just call or write to us if you want his contact info. His photography is absolutely amazing and without him first capturing this moment I would not have had the chance to recreate it.

Title: Ava | Artwork ©2010 Mark Dillon

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Cat + Treat + Empty Kleenex Box =

By Mark | Published: February 6, 2010

Explanation from the people who recorded the following video:

This is what our cat did when tempted with a treat in an empty kleenex box. He’s dumb, but we love him.

To those concerned for his safety and worried about psychological cat trauma: I promise he’s absolutely no worse for wear. Happy, laid back little guy, this one. This wasn’t even the worst indignity he suffered that day–he also got his nails trimmed, which he hated WAY more than this.

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FDR & The New Deal

By Mark | Published: January 21, 2010

To piggyback on top of my previous post I did a bit more digging around and thought the following was also worth sharing. The following passage concludes with a quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s treasury secretary. Note: feel free to substitute the word Obama in place of the word Roosevelt. [source]

Roosevelt embarked on an antidote to the depression [by] launching a $5 billion spending program in the spring of 1938, an effort to increase mass purchasing power. The New Deal had in fact engaged in deficit spending since 1933…Now they had a theory to justify what they were doing. Roosevelt explained his program in a fireside chat in which he finally acknowledged that it was therefore up to the government to “create an economic upturn” by making “additions to the purchasing power of the nation.”…

When the Gallup poll in 1939 asked, ‘Do you think the attitude of the Roosevelt administration toward business is delaying business recovery?’ the American people responded ‘yes’ by a margin of more than two-to-one. The business community felt even more strongly so. Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau confided to his diary May 1939: “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and now if I am wrong somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosper. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started. And enormous debt to boot.”

Sound familiar at all? Seriously.

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UCLA Study from 2004: Federal Stimulus Packages prolonged Great Depression by 7 years

By Mark | Published: January 18, 2010

And what did Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s policies consist of? Increasing the Federal Government in it’s scope, it’s power, and it’s size by spending amounts of money that were previously unheard of and creating federally subsidized programs to regulate labor contracts, housing, the financial sector, and the agricultural sector.

Here are a couple of great selections from the UCLA study; and remember, this was written in 2004:

“Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10- to 15-year economic slump,” said Ohanian, vice chair of UCLA’s Department of Economics. “We found that a relapse isn’t likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies.”…

“The fact that the Depression dragged on for years convinced generations of economists and policy-makers that capitalism could not be trusted to recover from depressions and that significant government intervention was required to achieve good outcomes,” Cole said. “Ironically, our work shows that the recovery would have been very rapid had the government not intervened.“

Again, this study was done by world-class UCLA economists. These guys are, by any account, some of the brightest and most intelligent economic minds in the entire world. I just wish someone in our current administration was actually studying this stuff too.

Source: FDR’s policies prolonged Depression by 7 years, UCLA economists calculate / UCLA Newsroom

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Merry Christmas!!!

By Mark | Published: December 20, 2009


I love Christmas. It’s literally better than all of the other holidays combined. I’ve always enjoyed Christmas, but in the past few years I’ve really grown to love it. I’m not quite certain what has caused me to really love the holiday, but I think it comes down to the fact that our family has really tried to simplify the whole season. We’re not one of those families that have to give each other $500 gifts to make us feel appreciated—not that there’s anything wrong with this type of thing, it’s just not something we’re big on. I think it’s easy to lose sight of the whole spirit of Christmas whenever people are focused the fact that they got the most expensive, most awesome, most (fill in the blank) gift ever. It’s quite hard to appreciate the simple things in life if you’re conditioned into believing “love equals expensive gifts”. It kind of throws off your whole perception of God too. The first of God’s concerns is not to give me gifts. The first of His concerns is having a true and deep friendship relationship with me. Whatever gifts he happens to give are just an added bonus. It occurs to me celebrating Christmas should be the same way. I should be able to be happy even if I don’t have a single gift to open this Christmas. Christmas should first be about the fact that we have each other. I should be able to happy in the knowledge that I have a wonderful father, mother, brothers, sister-in-law, and wife that loves me beyond what I understand—and unconditionally. And I am happy. I am genuinely ecstatic that I’m able to say, “I’m loved”. I’m loved by God, loved by my family, and loved by our 2 little kitties. That’s enough for me. The fact that my family will be giving me gifts on top of it all is just an added bonus. I don’t deserve any of this. That’s the amazing part. Throughout this past year I’ve been selfish, I’ve lied, I’ve gotten angry, I’ve been jealous, and I’ve really been simply horrible at times. It is such a picture of God’s goodness that He has placed so many wonderful people in my life who, somehow, still love me. I’m so glad I also get the opportunity to give back to them. There is something completely fulfilling about this type of giving—I wish I did it more often but the honest truth is I can’t even remember the last time I gave someone a gift without some sort of obligation compelling me to do so, be it a birthday, wedding shower, ect. My goal is to get to the place where I’m simply a giving and more generous person throughout the entire year [and not just on special occasions].

There’s also just something about Christmas that brings out the best in people. It has the potential to bring out some of the worst too—I just think of people trampling others to get the one toy everybody has to have. But more importantly than that, it has the ability to bring out the absolute best. Just think of the Salvation Army volunteers, the kids that drop their extra change into the little red buckets, the shelters that give the homeless warm meals to eat, the baked cookies that find their way from your oven to your neighbor’s front door. There are no other holidays that inspire this type of behavior. It’s directly from the example Christ taught us: love the Lord with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And it’s wonderful to see. Christmas is the one time of the year I know I’ll be proud to show our world to the little baby girl we’ll be having. And this is what I’ll tell her: this, my dear, is what the world should be like all year around. This, my little baby, is Christmas.

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YouTube Muppets Queen Cover (Video Clip)

By Mark | Published: November 25, 2009

Never thought I would be using that as a post title, but here’s a YouTube clip of the Muppets covering the song Bohemian Rhapsody by the band Queen. It’s quite well done.

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v3.0

By Mark | Published: November 19, 2009

Hello all! As you may or may not have noticed, version 3.0 of the blog design is up and running. It’s extremely minimal as this is kind of my theme lately. It will have very odd (and ugly) bugs here and there until I get everything updated and back to normal. Thanks for your patience!!! ;)

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Keep it Simple

By Mark | Published: November 17, 2009

I love this quote:

The letter I have written today is longer than usual because I lacked the time to make it shorter. -Blaise Pascal

Another random thought:

It is my contention that one of the best feelings in the world is the feeling of throwing away something that would otherwise only serve to collect dust and force the sorting of the thing later on. -Mark Dillon

One more quote (this time from someone who probably actually deserves to be quoted):

The finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you can’t understand them. The best sentence? The shortest. -Anatole France

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Request

By Mark | Published: October 27, 2009

If you happen to have a spare minute I would ask that you say a prayer for my Aunt Janell. She was very recently diagnosed with cancer—a cancer they have classified as very aggressive. She is quite young (45ish) and she and my uncle have 3 children, with their youngest daughter being about 18 years old. They live in Philadelphia, PA but she has been staying down in Houston, TX with their middle son (Philip) in order to have access to the best treatment available. Understandably it’s been a very difficult time for the entire family and I know they would appreciate any prayers you would have time to speak. We’re believing for the best possible outcome for the entire situation. Thank you!

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