Author Archives: Ryan Markel

links for 2009-05-12

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

I would of course be remiss if I failed to also mention my own mother today. From my mother, I inherited my ability to teach, the strength of my passion and dedication, and my musicality (among other things).

I’m sure I haven’t been the perfect son. I’m fairly certain my actions and passages through life have come close to driving her over the edge. I sometimes forget to call her and have even forgotten her birthday on a few occasions. Sometimes we fight with each other—but mostly because we’re very much alike.

But I always know my mother supports me. She worked hard to raise my brother and me even while she was teaching. (And I don’t blame her for skipping me past the fourth grade. She says it’s because I was too smart, but I’m pretty sure it’s really because she couldn’t handle having me as a student for a second year in a row.) I think she did a pretty darn good job of it.

And I always know that she is proud of me and everything I am able to accomplish as a son, a husband, a father, and a worker. Now that she has grandchildren, it’s fair enough that they get all the attention, but I know she speaks well of me and I hope I’ve been able to reflect well on her as a mother.

Happy Mother’s Day, mom.

Happy Mother's Day, Amanda

I unfortunately was directly at fault for her not being able to sleep in this morning, and the children appear to all have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but I want to make it perfectly clear to anyone who is reading that I don’t know how any of the other five of us would survive without my wife Amanda. She’s remarkable in her patience, her grace, and her ability to support us day after day. There are times when I don’t know how she manages it. (Usually when I’m left alone with all four of them.)

She’s put up with a lot from us: lean years while I was in school, a rough internship (vicarage) experience, a sudden left turn after graduation and the brick walls that were soundly erected in our way after the fact, a following year of uncertainty and job searching, the discovery that Caleb has special needs, and all the milestones and difficulties between the first day we found out about Joshua to the second birthday of our youngest yesterday. She finds joy in the most unexpected places.

I admit that I’m not always the most supportive or helpful husband. She certainly manages to perform more than I can imagine within the course of a single day. She is cook, maid, negotiator, accountant, equipment manager, agent, enforcer, educator, debater, counselor, defender, and friend.

You can sum up all those into one title: mother. And she’s an amazing one at that. Our children are blessed to call her “mommy,” and I am blessed to call her “wife”.

Happy Mother’s Day, wife of mine. We love you.

links for 2009-05-07

(I have no idea who owns this photo, but it’s awesome and I’m excited. I think its iconic nature transcends such concepts as ownership.)

Let's Watch Where This Goes

Barnes and Noble just opened a digital audiobook store. From Publisher’s Weekly:

Barnes & Noble has taken another step in deepening its role in the digital marketplace, launching its Audiobook MP3 Store on Barnes & Noble.com. The store will feature spokenword audiobook MP3s available for download and transfer to iPods, iPhones, MP3 players and other portable devices. The site is launching with more than 10,000 titles across all genres, priced between $10 and $20 per download.

“As the use of MP3 players, iPods, iPhones and other digital devices continues to increase, it is important for Barnes & Noble to continue to expand our audio selections,” said Tom Burke, executive v-p, E-Commerce Barnes & Noble. Overdrive is managing the distribution of titles through the BN.com site. Later this year, B&N is expected to launch an e-bookstore, following its acquisition earlier this year of Fictionwise.

And it’s all DRM-free.

I wonder what that new e-bookstore is going to look like.