out of luck

Cell phones are a continual source of frustration to me. I always forget to plug mine in. I get frustrated when it runs out of batteries. I feel like, I already plugged it in once, why do I have to do it again. I get sick of the cyclical.

record setting

26 people at our house

it was a great time. We celebrated the end of winter two days after 4 inches fell. It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a barbecue and despite the 40 degree weather, flip flops, shorts and hawaiian shirts were in abundance. A good time was had by all.

I know I know, it's ironical

Technology frustrates me. I don't understand it....ok I guess that's technically untrue...I mean toilets and shovels are technology of a certain sort, and I understand them. I had this book when I was younger called The Way Things Work. It was a good book, I learned a lot from it...until my physics teacher stole it (literally) from me.

Anyway, it didn't really have much about computers in it. And the parts it did have didn't make a lot of sense to me. It seems like computers should make sense to me. I mean really all it is is a bunch of ones and zeros floating around in space.

Technology comes with great promise...it saves time, it helps you communicate, it makes life easier....more more more


Somebody once said there's a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon about everything. (at least I assume someone has said that...it seems like it might be true, and it would make you sound smart if you said it...maybe) There's one about this too...you should check it out.


Communication via cyberspace is a cheap substitute for the telephone, which is a cheap substitute for letter writing, which is a cheap substitute for carving inscriptions on clay tablets, which is a cheap substitute of whacking your neighbor on the head with a club and grunting with satisfaction.


As for timesaving, if you add in all the hours I've spent trying to get computers to work, waiting for them to restart, throwing them across the room in frustration, trying to put them together again, and pounding them with clubs while grunting with satisfaction...I haven't saved any time at all. In fact Bill Gates probably owes me several thousand hours of wasted time.

As for making life easier...when a computer can bring me breakfast in bed for a full year in a row without me even having to look at it, then and only then will I concede that point.

I was listening to the classical music station today on my way to school. and Huepongo came on.

That is one of my favorite songs of all time. And not just because It has a trombone solo I played once....ok that's part of it. But really It's a great song. Probably my favorite trombone solo I played.

Anyway...as I was going to say before my train of thought got derailed is...it's fun to sing along to songs on the radio

I suppose I should qualify my statements. I like the church we attend, I love the people there, I have great respect for the pastoral team. I did not mean my comments as a condemnation. I just want to register the feeling I had. They probably didn't intend the purposes I ascribed to them.

But that said, the way it came across to someone who sees modern sound and video equipment as less than desirable, was as crassly materialistic.

Betrayed

Three or four weeks ago, the church we attend started a new series called Consumed. We were presented with a central question...what consumes you? Christ? Money? Something else?

The opening message centered on Galatians 5: Stand free and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery...do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, serve one another in love...the acts of the sinful nature are...the fruit of the spirit is...

For me the central question became how do you position yourself before God. How I position myself before God and other people communicates my feelings towards them. Everyone tries to present themselves in a certain way, both to other people and to God(even when we know we can't). And for very few (or none) of us is that image that we portray, the image that we see when we look in the mirror. All of this is, I think, usually unconscious. So it is good to reevaluate ourselves on a regular basis, in order to understand our relationship with God. Also it is healthy to try to realign our actions with our mental priorities.

I know that the last paragraph doesn't make perfect sense...you try to compress two weeks of thought into a paragraph.

Anyway...I found the first few weeks at least mildly stimulating...then last week the theme of the sermon was Debt is Bondage. Impressive title I know. But I had some issues with it. Don't get me wrong, I thin kdebt is bondage, and I try to avoid it. I would like to not owe any money on our condo. But the sermon focused on on Credit Card Debt, and ignored everything else. This was the safe choice. In a church as rich as the one we go to lots of people have debt, and most f it isn't credit card debt. Also I have a hunch that the decision was made because the church owes a lot of money. I'm not sure of that, but I would be surprised if it wasn't true.

So that was ok...a little disappointing...but not that bad.

This week the sermon was on Stepping into generosity. Which is a worthy goal...I am not nearly as generous as I wish I was.

But the focus was on giving money to the church...which is ok...but the proposed spending really got me
Special Spending Projects: around 30,000 for a variety of missions projects...and 300,000 for a remodeled sanctuary...in addition to normal costs.

When I realized what this is all about I have to admit I felt betrayed. I felt like I had been led into this series under false pretenses. Because it seems that ultimately the idea behind this series is to use people's guilt about their own spending and materialism to fund a spiffy new sanctuary, itself a manifestation of the very materialism that makes it possible.

So instead of helping people overcome their involvement in materialism...we fuel their addiction...nice

boring

I took a test today. The rate-limiter on the test was reading speed. the first person out of the room was done in 17 minutes. That's more than 4 questions a minute. The last couple weeks have been really slow. It's as if, for both of the classes we have right now, they had too much material to fit on the last test, but not really enough to justify another whole test. That's ok though because it has allowed me to really not spend any time on schoolwork.

After I finished the test I had some extra time and didn't feel like studying for next weeks test, so I went to the hardware store. I replaced the thermostat and a broken light fixture. Now I can see the clothes in my closet and we have a functioning thermostat, which I guess is better than being cold all the time.

I've never known anyone this famous

Enter my wife's first and last name on google and check out the first listing

This is a one minute transcript from one of my lectures. I took the time to transcribe it for you. Go ahead and read it...read it out loud for maximum effect. the (hhh) is just a full exhalation, make it sound like you're getting the wind knocked out of you.

Lets uh look at uh uh neonatal jaundice ah uh uh also e ref(hhh)erred to uh as uh kern(hhh)icterus and uh and uh anduh this is ah a ah ah transient jaundiceah in uh neonates and ah and ah and ah d eh d eh dis ah occurs in particular in ah uh premature inf(hhh)ants ah um ah since ah since ah ah de ah de ah immature ah enzy(hhh)mes involved in ah bilirubin conjugation and ah and ah so there is ahthese pigments uh are ah metabolized ah ah by ah ah by ah ah so cytochrome P 45(hhh)0 and ah and ah for example ah cytochrome 3A4 ah that ah ah that ah is absent in the fetus and ah ah uh and uh in the...

Here is the relevant section from the notes we were given by the school

Neonatal Jaundice
In Neonates transient jaundice is common particularly in premature infants, and is due to immaturity of the enzymes involved in bilirubin concentration.

And yes he was actually reading off the power point screen

And this is what most of his lectures are like. The thing is though, I like the guy. He's really smart, and when he talks about his areas of specialty he's actually pretty interesting, if hard to follow. He taught the lecture on the biochemistry of AIDS(which ironically took place on Valentines day)--it was fascinating. He also brought candy bars to class.

Winston Churchill once said Kremlinology was like watching dogs fight under a carpet.

Presidential politics is like those little plastic toy boxing robots.

We have no degrees, that's right...none. I need degrees

in fact if you're talking Celsius we're in degree debt.


Maybe I'll start counting in Kelvin

Robots

Fear not Steven:

For the first law of robotics states that a robot cannot do anything which would injure a human being.

Thus it is a logical impossibility for a robot to participate in the government. Particularly as its head.

So you can see, that despite the fact that they parrot public opinion, and sound as you would expect a robot to sound, they are not in fact robots. In fact what you have to realize that Robots are capable of critical thinking, their circuits are logic based. The presidential candidates haven't yet shown any hint of independant brain function yet.

Also Fear not Jane:

For any of the three can win and you won't be able to tell the difference. In fact they could all three win and you wouldn't be able to tell. They are robots after all.

Of power, race, and beautiful women

The mayor of Detroit is a man named Kwame Kilpatrick. He was first elected in 2002 and reelected in 2006 (there's the power part). For the record (its relevance will emerge) he is a black man and he is married(there's the beautiful woman part).

A bit of history:
1. During his first term in office Mr. Kilpatrick was embroiled in a scandal...it was alledged that he had an affair with his chief of staff (that makes it women). There was also a major issue over the doling out of city contracts ar some such that was the more important issue at the time. The man who blew the proverbial whistle was fired before he could get the whole story out, it was all covered up and lots of paper was shredder.

2. Also during his first term Mr. Kilpatrick was found to be having an affair with another woman(too bad there's no word meaning three women). So during his reelection campaign he went on TV and had an emotional moment with his wife where he apologized and vowed never to do it again and so on and so forth. And she said she was struggling with the pain and so on and so forth. Anyway he was reelected based apparently on the widespread perception that the white establishment of Detroit was out to get him (there's race)

3. Last fall the man who was fired for exposing the mayor's misbehavior fired suit under the federal whistleblower's protection act. As a part of that suit Mr. Kilpatrick testified under oath that he had never had an affair with his chief of staff. And she did the same. It didn't matter however because the jury found for the plaintiff. The city appealed and eventually settled with the lucky man who lost his job to the tune of several million dollars(taxpayer money in a city that can't afford to maintain basic services).

4. In January the Detroit Free Press aquired Mr Kilpatrick's work cell phone records under the freedom of information act and combed through his text messages. It was revealed unambiguously that he did in fact have an affair with his chief of staff and perjured himself during the trial. And he knew the whole time that the affair was a matter of public record easily accertainable by the public.

This is where I come in. I have taken to going down to the gym a few times a week and walking and running on the treadmill. I like to go at 7:30 and watch Jeopardy. So I went down there and turned on Jeopardy, except it wasn't it was Mr. Kilpatrick doing the whole "sorry I'll never do it again" song and dance routine with his wife. They were on every channal, so I had to listen to him go on and on about how he's not stepping down etc. I was a little upst because to my mind he really shouldn't even be given a stage upon which to act. And they canceled the show I was going to watch. Then, they had a little segment of reactions to the speech...every black respondant said they believed him and felt sorry for him and felt like he should be given another chance. Every white respondant thought he should step down. There were also protesters marching in the street against the white people of Detroit and the media for persecuting the Mayor. It was fascinating to me. It seems like race is a bigger issue here than in Arizona. I could be wrong. Anyway...here...or in Detroit anyway...its a chasm, a huge dividing factor. Not in personal interaction as much...but certainly in cultural outlook and approach major issues. I'm not trying to imply that all blacks or all whites think alike. Just that there is a major cultural divide in this city.

5. Mr Kilpatrick is currently embroiled in a scandal concerning a topless dancer who turned up brutally murdered and is currently believed to have had several affairs in office.

6. The thing is, he seems to have done a pretty good job as mayor of Detroit...not most people's dream job. The city has seen consistent improval by all accounts under his watch.

Happy Birthday

On not writing and difficult tests

I know that perhaps you have checked the sight a couple times since last I wrote. In fact if statistics are anything to go by you've stopped checking it entirely.

Anyway...I had a test today...and I had a test yesterday...and I had a test last week...Now I don't have anything looming for a few weeks.

So in a sign of how priority inverting curved test scores can be, I have decided that I prefer difficult tests. Especially when I don't know they're going to be difficult and they really knock you off your feet.

Here's why:
I pretty much get the same score on every test. I've only been outside the 90-95 area a couple of times when I moved up near a hundred. So when the test is really difficult the average plummets and my standard score shoots through the roof. When tests are really easy the average rises and my standard score falls.

Yesterday's test was tough. I struggled on at least a third of the questions. I couldn't see straight by the time I left. Everybody else complained about how tough it was...I smiled. Today's test left me blurry eyed too...but for a different reason. It was so boring I felt like I was going to fall asleep. There were only a handful of questions I even had doubts about. (probably missed a few because I went too fast though). Everybody else smiled as they left the room...

coffee

When I got home from playing frisbee, I thought, : a cup of coffee would be good. So I started a fresh pot.

Then I changed my clothes...then I wrote the last post...then I checked my email...then I realized I needed to get some laundry done...so I started it, then I needed to take out the trash...and so on and so forth...I had a lot of things that needed doing...and I forgot about the coffee. Eventually I realized that the house smelled like coffee... by the time I drank it it had the stale, been cooking for a while taste...and I thought that is something my mother might have done.

Snow

I like snow. I often wonder what it would be like to live in a place where snow lasts all winter.

Here it doesn't, and melting snow isn't nice.

It gets all brown and takes forever to melt.

I played ultimate frisbee today. The snow on the ground was more slush than snow. Every step sent slush spraying into the air. Parts of the field had 2-3 inches of water. It was about 50 degrees Farenheit...which felt relatively balmy...except in the wet parts. My toes are still recovering.

I used to play frisbee in several inches of water in phoenix, when they irrigated the fields...in retrospect that was gross, since the irrigation water was reclaimed.

Anyway, despite the loss of feeling in several toes, the game was fun. After playing for a while we decided to play to five and then call it quits. As time passed and defense reigned, we decided to play to three. Eventually we were reduced to "next point wins." I scored the winning point...to everyone's relief

to Mark...thank you

Sitting here having

a nice ginger biscotti

a warm cup of joe


The temperature's stuck

at negative four or five

but coffee is good

things you learn when you're not in school

We had a nice evening at the Raymonds tonight. Aunt Ginger made soup. Nan came over with Ursa her Swedish Moose hound

1. Ice skating is fun. especially outside. I suppose over the last fifteen years I've gotten used to ice skating being an indoor activity and forgotten how fun it can be. Needless to say, I'm not a particularly proficient. But we had fun.
The last time I was skating out of doors was March 2004 at the Rockafeller Center in New York, with Mark. That was fun.

2. Hockey is much more difficult than it appears. Getting the puck to move in the direction you wish is a challenge. Skating while attempting to do so is not recommended.

3. Homemade hot fudge is tasty. Particularly when combined with ice cream. Vanilla and chocolate...who'd have guessed.