I am Burj Khalifa

Today we will explore the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.



First we must get tickets at the Dubai Mall. They are 100 AED if you buy them early.


The entrance to the Dubai Mall


The store on level LG where you buy your tickets and begin your tour

Now that we have tickets, we can begin our tour.


A model of the tower
Stats on the building


Moving walkway to the Burj Khalifa from the mall

The elevator is the fastest in the world at 10m/s, yet you feel almost no movement. It will take us up the 124 stories to the observation deck in about 60 seconds.



The view from the top.









There is also a store here, that sells clocks, polo shirts, and travel locks to remember your trip by.

Time to return to the ground.

Our Kind Shall Not Pass This Way Again

Lawrence Millman wrote a book called Our Like Will Not Be There Again. The book is about rural Ireland, but I have always liked the title and associated myself with it, especially in the outdoor setting, though I usually get the title wrong and call it Our Kind Shall Not Pass This Way Again.

I worked two summers at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I was a Ranger, preparing scouts for their trek, teaching them wilderness survival skills, camping techniques, and going with them on the trail for the first few days. Philmont had been a scout ranch since 1938 and I enjoyed looking at the old photos of scouts, hiking in their uniform, though they were usually posed.

Perhaps easily impressed by their sharp appearance, I acquired a 1960's scout uniform and began wearing it on the trail. I would only hike with an external frame, usually opting to not use the waist strap, trying to mimic the ruck sacks the scouts use to use. I would often read about life at Philmont in the early days and would often times go hiking to explore some of the earlier camps.

Wearing 1960's Scout uniform and an external backpack while working on orienteering with a crew. Note bedroll instead of a sleeping bag and lack of use of chest strap.


Posing with black bear in 1960's Scout uniform

On one of these expeditions, I went to a place called Stony Point. Stony Point had been a day camp, a hiking destination for the scouts, back when Philmont was called Philturn. The only thing remaining of Stony Point is some old firepits and tin cans. While exploring the area, a Rocky Mountain Big Horn walked out. These were known to be in the area as the state of New Mexico had released some in the Wheeler Peak area just west of the ranch,. According to the Camp Director however, this was only the second sighting of one on the ranch he knew of. The big horn ewe came out, saw me, walked a half circle around me, and settled on a spot about 10 yards away, drinking water from the rocks. I sat there with the big horn for 15 to 20 minutes before I spoke to it, half expecting it to speak back to me with some message from these scouts of old. The ewe just looked at me, so I got up, walked a half circle around her, then departed from Stony Point, following the path of an old Jeep trail, back to the modern era.

The area was also home to several towns that were centered on mining or lumber. One of these towns, Ponil Park, exists today only as a ghost town. There are a few foundations left, the bed of the old railroad, and the graveyard. I often times visited the graveyard, studying the stones, taking pictures, and thinking about the people who lived there. Another graveyard existed in a canyon appropriately named Graveyard Canyon. I visited this graveyard, photographing it and mapping it. I once took a group of scouts to another other graveyard in the Valle Vidal near Seally Canyon that existed, though I know not what the place was called. After doing so I felt as if I had disgraced the site and verbally apologized to those who remains laid there, as if they needed it or could hear it.


Railroad bed in the North Ponil Canyon


Gravestones in Ponil Park

The land was also home to the Anasazi. There was a cave that was well rumored to exist in a box canyon that contained several artifacts from the Anasazi. I set out on an expidition to find the cave, taking information with me from those who claimed to have been there before. The expedition failed, I never found the cave, but did feel as if I was closer to these people who once called the land home.


Anasazi Petroglyphs

Wearing these clothes, choosing to not utilize the gear that modern technology offered us, and hiking in their footprints, I felt connected to a group of scouts I had never met or even seen. Perhaps connected to the people who lived on the land before the UU Bar ranch was created. Perhaps to the people who lived here before the Europeans arrived. Knowing few would tred in these footsteps again, I felt like I was the last of a people passing, as if our kind would never pass this way again. I felt I was a member of a group of people, as if only time separated me from them, as if I was born too late.


Grassy Creek in the Valle Vidal


Little Costilla


View from Mountain Lion Canyon Meadow

Our kind will not pass this way again, or perhaps our dreams will not create this reality again.

What is sin?

What is a sin? The question came up with the classic question, if you were harboring Jews and the Nazis came to your door, would you lie? We both agreed that lying in this case would be justified, but for different reasons. His justification was that while the person was sinning as the Ten Commandments say thou shall not lie, they would be able to repent in the future. So by sinning, lives would be saved and the person could repent for their sin. I argued that the person did not sin in lying. My justification for this is that while the Ten Commandments do say to not sin, Jesus reminds us of what the goal of the Law was, to love God and to love your neighbor. Jesus broke several commandments, for which he was called out on. He justified himself, in one instance saying "is it better to do good or evil?" Perhaps by not lying I could feel that I had not sinned, but I did evil by allowing innocent lives to be taken. But if I lied, I would be doing good by protecting the innocent lives.

So what if a person was on trial, and I knew that this person was evil, that if they were not in jail that they would harm people, and that they were on trial for something that they were innocent of. Would I be justified in bearing false witness to make sure this evil person did not do harm? I would be saving innocent lives, but I would not be justified.

Micah 6:8 tells us that we are to love justice, give mercy, and walk humbly with God. To lie in this situation would not be loving justice. This does make an assumption that our justice system is just, we will operate under that assumption. To intentionally lie in this case would be against justice. While this person would get what was coming to them, we would not be justified because we went against justice. We should instead stand up for this person who was falsely accused, for then we would be supporting justice. But in doing so, we would have to find a way to protect the innocent lives we know are at risk.

To lie in the first case is justified because the government was unjust. To lie in the second case is not justified because the government is just. I think. We must ensure that we love justice, give mercy, and walk humbly with God for this is what he desires.

So given this, how was Rebekkah justified in telling Jacob to lie to Isaac that he was Esau?

Who do we follow?

My freshman year of college I had a professor who recommended that we read biographies. I'm sure he even had us read one, though I don't recall what it was. He said we should read biographies because people before made mistakes and we might as well learn from them instead of repeating them.

Based on his recommendation, I read the biography of Ben Franklin and Nelson Mandela. Learning from the mistakes of others made sense, and I saw the principle applied in my work. In teaching, I would seek out the research of others, those who had tried things in the classroom, in order to see what techniques worked and what did not. In the military, I often read the reports of others to gain ideas about what to put in future reports or recommendations to make about operations. Little work is of my own, perhaps the processing part, but the ideas come from others.

In life, when faced with a new problem, it is easy to find someone else who has gone through the same thing and seek their advice. But what happens when you go through something and can't find that person? What if you were doing something you knew many others had done before you, but you didn't know any of them and no one else you knew knew them. What if you had to do something and had no idea what was about to happen?

Perhaps in the future someone else will follow this same path and I can lend them my map, the path that I took to arrive at where I am now. It won't be perfect, I made mistakes. So did those before me. I tried to avoid their same mistakes. If you are coming behind me, heed my stumbles, find another way around. Perhaps we are meant to go alone sometimes.

At least we're all OK

One morning at Sunday school at a United Methodist church, a lady talked about how a local Methodist school was having to reduce its services because their donations had decreased with the recession. The class all agreed that it was a shame this was happening. One member commented that it was a shame that people wanted us to send our money overseas when we had such a great need at home. Most agreed. The church was about to start an $8 million construction project to build a new sanctuary, a local Methodist school reduced its services due to lack of funding.