today, little olive becomes a little bigger as she turns 4 years old. it’s nearly impossible to avoid the clichés, but truly, i can’t believe 4 years have gone by so quickly. i’m not one of those parents who get sad about their kids growing up (i embrace it), but it’s still hard to believe another year has gone by. [...]

this might be a strange statement, but not only do i love my kids, but i like them. there’s a difference. and fortunately, i like them. they’re fun. they have a great sense of humor. they’re creative.

and apparently, they’re proud 99 percenters.

yesterday afternoon, in the relatively quiet capitol view neighborhood, two peoples’ lives came to an end while another was left with life-threatening injuries.

just after mid-day, 19-year old charles murry, jr. entered a home on thayer street and before leaving, shot the 2 inhabitants. after fleeing the home, murry was shot by police and pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

as the events unfolded live on twitter (and in subsequent local news outlets’ accounts), i found myself particularly engaged. first and foremost, this is just a few houses down from where we lived several years ago. this was our neighborhood. this was our street. this was our neighbors. secondly, it’s not so much that i can’t look away from a train wreck, but more that my ears always perk when there’s violence and crime in neighborhoods near where i live. i’ll get to why i’m so particularly interested in these incidents shortly.

a couple days ago, max brantley, on the arkansas blog, posted a list of city employees organized by place of residency (little rock or non-little rock). the most skewed numbers toward non-little rock residents—confirming brantley’s suspicions—were police and fire employees.

non-little rock fire department employees outnumber little rock employees by an almost 3 to 1 margin (295 to 110). despite the margin being more narrow, the far more troubling numbers, to me, are non-little rock police employees who outnumber little rock employees by more than 100 (365 to 252).

i stumbled across an incredible video featuring a response (transcript below) given by astrophysicist dr. neil degrasse tyson to the question, what is the most astounding fact about the universe?. someone took his reponse and added some particularly compelling video. you can watch it here:

two years ago today, my best friend rob breathed his last breath. on february 13, 2010, he finally found rest from his battle with leukemia.

you can read what i wrote just hours after he passed away here. as this anniversary neared, i knew i wanted to express some thoughts here on the blog but i struggled with exactly what to say (which, for me, is rare).

in 31 years of life, i’ve never made a single new year’s resolution. it’s not that i don’t think it’s a good idea to set some goals, but more that i could easily set some goals on the 1st of march or august or whatever month…and i don’t do that either.

a new year, though, does offer a good opportunity to look ahead and embrace a fresh start. certainly, the analogy of new life is one that is particularly salient right now. so how about we begin the year on the blog with a post about death?