On a day

I'm sorry if I sounded bitter. I just hate having time stolen from me. It is a valuable commodity, and though I often waste it, I do value it and resent its theft.

Diversity training is, apparently, a rite of passage at the modern university. A lot of the people at the school went to Michigan so they're used to it. From what I hear, at the U of M you have to sit through entire classes devoted to this subject.

Michigan's state Universities are doing their best to skirt, bend and break the law that was recently passed by an overwhelming number of Michigan voters. In fact the executive vice dean (an old white male) said as much, and then gave us the little wink wink and said, "but none of is in jail yet, so that's good."

I'm sick of the meaningless platitudes. It devalues language. The diversity indusrty has taken a whole group of words and rendered them meaningless. When you sit in one of these seminars, none of it makes any sense unless you let your eyes glaze over a little and try to ignore the actual words. That's how you can tell all this goobledegook was invented by stoned teenagers in the 60's who couldn't be bothered to go to class and actually learn English. Now they impose their lack of sense on us.

Don't worry though, I don't have anything against any gender(though if I were female I think it might be ok to hate males), ethnicity, nationality (except Carthaginians, and sometimes Americans--thats ok isn't it), political party(except communists--oops, they're back in style now), religion (except sun worshipers and goat blood drinkers--are they a protected minority group?) (remember, its sheik to flout Islam{ha ha sometimes I crack myself up}), sexual orientation(just make something new up, it happens all the time), age (unless of course their under 9 months, then we can advocate death), or race (except the race for the cure--with one of the highest success rates I think its time to focus on curing a disease that can potentially affect more than fifty percent of the population)

curiously one of the things you aren't supposed to discriminate against was labeled "Other"

Everybody talked about how prejudice and discrimination shape our society and shared stories about how they've been discriminated against....well all the minorities got to talk about that--they didn't really ask me to speak.

Luckily there was a small coterie of relatively intelligent individuals who recognized this series of activities for what it was. We had a good laugh about it. This upset the facillitator but she wasn't from the University so its ok, she also wasn't quite with it enough to recognize sarcasm(Why is it that people who make their livings talking about diversity never seem to get sarcasm).

On Diversity

How has prejudice affected your life?
>insert sob story here<

Would you rather be a single black female with three children or a sixty year old white aerospace engineer?
(oh yeah the she's a nulear physisist whose husband died in Iraq and he's a child molester)

>really deep and significant conversation about how people aren't what they seem here<

Diversity is good in and of itself.

>light applause and vigorous nodding<

As a arab muslim woman I am persecuted

>more head nodding, sympathetic looks, and grunts of agreement<

Blah Blah Blah

On the beginning

I'm here, waiting for orientation to begin on the second day. Orientation is a slow tortuous process, that seems to be full of waiting for things to start, and waiting for things to end. Today is the feelings day. You know the one that is now mandatory in any university orientation. We get to talk about how everyone is different ad how everyone is the same, and how everybody matters, except of course for anyone who actually thinks something.

more later, We're about to start.

On being out of shape

I pulled my quadricep...I think. I kicked the soccer ball and my leg complained loudly. Then I could hardly run for the rest of the game. Today it's killing me.

It was fun though. Playing with a nonfunctioning leg really forces you to use your head more and get into position. I did however miss a few plays because I couldn't get the force I needed to into the ball.

Moral of the story: Stretch before you play sports.

On whirly ball

I played whirlyball last night. "What is whirlyball?" you ask. Good question. Basically it's a game where ou ride around on bumper cars and run into each other and try to get a little whiffle ball through a net. It's pretty fun, though it is hard on your body. It's basically one long nonstop whiplash session, with your body being thrown back and forth as yourun into people and they run into you. The worst is where the seatbelt runs across you hips. I've got these big red marks on my hips from the seatbelt.

That is of course preferable to not wearing the satbelt. During the first game I forgot to put my seatbelt on and almost went flying out of the car.

on 100

This is a completely useless post, but it is number one hundred...so there.

On atheism

About 3 years ago my grandfather joined with three other well-educated elderly men to discuss theology and religion in a weekly group. The stated goal was to examine theology and the central ideas of Christianity (and eventually other religions) and to attempt to find some rational basis for them.

As you all probably know, I myself am a little wary of rational proofs of the existence of God. Their pursuit has led many down the wide road that leads away from faith. In fact, the pursuit of rational foundations led me away from Christianity for a number of years.

The last time I came to Michigan was about two years ago. It was around this time that my grandfather was most involved and invested in the work of this group. I remember at that time that they had reached the conclusion that they needed to scrap everything and begin to build up sa new theology from the ground up by drawing in lots of different religions. They were very much into the Jesus Seminar and took every chance to question, and deny theological truths. I remember that on that particular visit my father was quite upset.

The group continued in this manner, and it eventually became clear that the other three members of the group were drifting (or conciously moving) towards atheism. They continued to ridicule and tear down religious ideas. About a year ago my grandfather began to separate himself from the ideas of he group and to attempt to build rather than destroy.

Due to his close friendship with the gentlemen in question he continued to attend the meetings, but became more and more forceful in his arguments for God. Today he went to his last meeting and told the other members that he would not be returning. Good for him. Now he is faced with the job of rebuilding a faith he has spent years tearing apart.

I know this place well. I have spent the last two years attempting to piece together a faith that I argued against for a long time. I ridiculed, derided, and generally laughed at Christian faith. That makes it more difficult now than it was before to maintain that faith.

There is a promise though, "those who seek will find, those who ask will receive and to those who knock the door will be opened." This has meant a lot to me over the last few years.

I'm bored

We moved in, now I sit around all day twiddling my thumbs. I'm ready and anxious for school to start. Really I'm waiting for the weekend, because then all sorts of stuff will start to happen. I'll play soccer again, we'll go to church again etc. Then on Monday I start. but until then.....

The past couple of days have been difficult though. Floating. We don't have any routines or places yet. So I end up sitting around the house reading or watching TV. Drifting, without purpose, without meaning. I also tend to eat too much when I'm bored. It didn't help that it rained all day yesterday. I couldn't even go out for a bike ride or anything.

I did finish Harry Potter though. I thought it was an excellent finish. A good resolution to a great story.

Anyway, hopefully today I'll be able to find some purpose in life. And it's not raining...yet

1 Thessalonians 4:11

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you may not be dependant on anybody.

On tires

I got out my bike the othern day

I used it to sort of explore the neighborhood. I rode it down all the paths around our house through the parks and everything to figure out the lay of the land in our general vicinity. It was a sort of a scouting mission for future bike rides and walks. I'm pretty confident now that I won't get lost on a walk in the future. And I pretty much always know the fastest way to get home.

Anyway...about halfway through my bike ride I noticed that my front brake wasn't working. I hadn't hooked it up on arrival...I took the front tires off our bikes to make the move and save space in the truck. But I didn't worry too much about it. It was a pretty leisurely ride. I didn't have any reason to need a front brake.

So yesterday I was going to take another ride. This time I rode down to a park that is a couple miles from the house where there is a little trail that kind of winds around the park for mountain biukes. I thought it would be fun.

So I decided to hook up the front brake before I left, but I couldn't get it to work. The two parts just didn't seem to want to meet up across the top of the tire...which is weird because it was hooked up and working fine up until I loaded it into the truck. So after fighting it for a good 15 minutes down on my knees in front of the bike, nose to the tire, I had had enough and I just went. I figured I could deal with it later.

So I got down to the park and had a good time. I have decided however that when talking about bicycle tires, hybrid really means neither. I got these tires a couple years ago that were supposed to be a cross between raod and mountain tires. I have found over the last couple years that they really don't work that well as road tires...and I found yesterday that they really don't work very well as mountain bike tires...my rear wheel kept slipping (which wasn't good since I didn't have any front brakes.)

As I was on my way back I noticed that the front wheel was making a sound I had never heard before. Thgen I noticed that it still had those little rubber things that new tires have but that generally wear off pretty quickly...then I noticed that it was an actual mountain bike tirem not one of the hybrid tires...then I realized that the reason my brakes weren't working was that I had put AAdrienne's front tire on my bike and hers on mine.

On Evolution

The $27,000,000.00 Creation Museum was recently opened in Kentucky. I find this a bit depressing for a number of reasons.

1. Its foundation is ignorance. "Creation Science" is the easy way. It is the tempting way. It says here, you don't really need to pay attention in biology class. Just read this one chapter in the Bible and you will know all you need to know. A deeper study, however, of both the Biblical account of our origens and of the explanations offered by science leads to a much better understanding of the issue.

2. It is based on a lie. The fundemental reason for building a museum dedicated to Creation is a false dichotomy set up by certain members of the Christian community between creation and evolution. The idea that they are fundamentally incompatable was first posited by athiests in the late 19th century. It is a lie designed to do damage to the church. Creation and evolution are not incompatible. They can, in fact, work quite nicely together.

3. It is destructive. Religious debate is a very tempting thing. The idea that I can somehow convince you that this is true is alluring. It even works from time to time and can be a good thing. But it is often addictive and destructive. When our goal becomes to prove ourselves right rather than to discover truth, this type of debate destroys relationship and faith. And it is precisely this that a Creation museum encourages. "Here is how you can prove to others that they are wrong."

4. It is wasteful. When Jesus told the story of the sheep and the goats He didn't say "I thought I was once a monkey and you convinced me otherwise." He said "I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you cared for me, I was in prison, and you came to visit me." Think about how much $27 million could help advance one of these goal. It could be a serious endowment for longterm ministry projects around the country or world. Instead it goes to a fance museum. That doesn't even include the 5 million a year they hope to raise in ticket sales. (or for that matter the millions spent every year on phillip Johnson books)

5. It is exploitive. Taking $20 a person as an entrance fee to a second rate museum is just wrong.

It is really the fourth that gets to me the most. You can feel free to believe what you want to believe and argue about what you want to argue about. I don't think your salvation hinges on what you belive about creation/evolution. But I just don't understand how you could see this as the best use of 27 million dollars when there are so many people in the world, starving, naked, thirsty, without shelter, enslaved, refugeed, etc. I think it is sick that someone could be so blinded to the mission of the church. We are called remember, to make this place better, and to help those in need...not to get into petty arguments.

On horses

So we went out to dinner with Grandma and Poppy and Sarah and Mark and Roger and Caroline. We went out to Dexter and saw the shop and then went to the pub next door. It was a lot of fun.

Anyway, the subject somehow turned to horses, and Grandma and Poppy told us an interesting story. Apparently the desire of their son at one point was to become a doctor in Montana and ride from call to call on horseback. I'd never heard that one before, but from what they said that was the goal of medical school at one point. Then everyone agreed that he has, in fact, always loved horses.

It's always interesting to see a new side of your parents. I can see it though. I wonder if it's true. I wonder if a certain occasional commenter on this blog could shed some light on the veracity of the story.

Incedently...welcome back from your trip

on Wal-Mart

I was having a conversation recently and the person i was talking to said something like...Sam Walton is the Devil. Now there are all sorts of arguments for this position...Wal-Mart doesn't allow unions...they don't provide health care for employees...they drive product quality down...it drives small businesses out of business and destroyes local economies...etc...

Now I personally am not a big fan of Wal-Mart. The products tend to be a little cheap, they don't last as long as i would like them to, the stores are busy and confusing, and its difficult to get anyone to help you. So i don't really shop there much.

But arguing against Wal-Mart on principle, and trying to outlaw "big-box" stores is a pretty arogant thing to do. Wal-Mart is popular...even though the rich, well-educated people I tend to hang with and who tend to read this blog won't admit to liking it, it is popular. You don't get to be the biggest retailer in the world with a company bigger than the entire economy of Germany, without doing something right. WM provides a service that a whole lot of people want.

And the important thing to note is that it is very popular with lower-income people. It is popular with people who don't often have a say in public policy or opinion. But it is popular. So in saying "Sam Walton is the devil" basically what you are saying is that all those people who shop there and who make WM into a successful retaIler are too stupid to make decisions for themselves, sop we should just tell them what to do.

The thing is, WM has never forced anyone to shop there, or forced anyone to work there. They have never held a gun to my head and mugged me the way the government does every day. In fact WM has been harrassed, bullied, pushed around, insulted...by local, state and federal agencies across the country. Sam Walton actually seems like he must have been a very nice man. All he did was recognize a need and fill it. He did far more than anyone I know to feed the hungry,, clothe the naked, give shelter(I'm speaking of providing affordable goods for sale and bringing all sorts of products within the price range of normal or poor people.)...etc...than most people I know. And all he gets for it is people with their noses in the air saying things like "Sam Walton is the Devil"

On Michigan

I played soccer yesterday. I don't re,e,ber the last time I played soccer on grass rather than dirt. It was interesting, something I didn't really have in Arizona. A group of people you get together every week to play a game. It's great excersize... and nobody kept track of the score. We just played until everybody was tired then we took a break and then we played some more. I'm definitely out of shape. It was the hardest i've run in years. I don't really have a second gear when it comes to sports. I pretty much run myself ragged. Even when I'm exhausted and can hardly breathe I find the energy to chase down the ball. I don't really save my energy very well either. So i was worn out well before the end of the game.

It was a good time though. I think I'm going to play again next Saturday. I also found a park to ride to and ride around...there's a little trail there.

hmmm

Did you know that Mexico is so mountainous that if you spread it all out flat it would cover Asia.

That sounds incredible, but i'm not sure if it means anything. There are a lot of mountains in the US. If you spread us out like butter would we cover the world?

On the end and a new city

The end is near. I finished painting the last couple rooms today. Our place looks great. We're down to the last few boxes to unpack...mainly decorations and things that really can't be unpacked until everything else is in place. The living room is green. The kitchen is blue (the same shade that we used for the stripe in out bedroom at the old place. Then a very light brown starts in the kitchen and winds its way along the wall that separates the living room and kitchen, and winds up in the office, where one wall is a darker shade of brown. The bathroom and bedroom are both a light beige color. It's really quite nice.

Now all that reamains is to put everything away. Tomorrow we're going down to the MVD to get new driver's licenses and lisence plates and such. It's funny to me that you can't be a legal resident as far as the school is concerned for tuition rates, but if you don't change the plates on your car its big trouble.

So in Ann Arbor, if they fix the sidewalk in front of your house they charge you for it. I've never heard of that before. Do they do that in Arizona? My grandparents actually had to go out and find someone to fix the sidewalk where the city marked it. And in another case the city decided to improve a road. They paved it and put in sidewalks and hooked everyone up to city water and sewer. They didn't ask any of the residents. They just did it. Then they sent the bill to the people that live there. To the tune of 80-100 thousand per house. Some of the people liked the dirt road and the taste of well-water. On top of that city property taxes are astronomical...where's all the money going. It's hard to believe it could be corruption in a place like this...I just don't get it. Maybe city hall has gold-plated toilets or something

Where have all the bloggers gone

So apparently everyone is out of town or just not writing at the moment. Steven is the best with a measely one in the last ten days. Mark hasn't posted since I was in Spain. As it is written "and the pot shall call the kettle black"...you're all bums

So let this be an encouragement to you. Write more.

On consumption

IKEA is the consumer's dream (or nightmare) come true. We are a consumeristic society, at least some people think so. So we usually don't think twice about buying things. But there are those of us who try to limit our consumption to conserve resources (like green paper).

In most stores spending more than you intend takes a fair amount of justification ($200 isn't that much, right, and we really do need a pink laundrybascket that sings christmas carols) . It is usually only when we walk into a store that sells something we are passionate about that we go off the deep end.

But in Ikea it is all so easy. Walk into the store and you will soon need things you didn't know existed. Everything in the store is so...practical...and cheap. It's almost impossible to say no. You suddenly need everything. And it all seems so cool. It's like a little club. Everyone there is in on the secret (we're going to spend a lot and consume a lot because it feels good, makes sense, and...) And so you find yourself wrestling a cart full of heavy boxes and lots of little packages filled with all your new cool stuff. Then you begin to realize...wait theres no way a dresser could fit into a box that small.


2 hours later you're on the carpet in you living room surrounded by piles of little pieces--screws, nails, brackets, gizmos, gadgets, slats, slits, slices, slabs, hunks, doodads, and a hundred other things.

The breakdown begins...yeah it was cheap, but not if I pay myself $20 an hour to put it together...I might as well have gone to a real furniture store. Whats this piece-oh that's nothing...where is that darn piece...oops...it doesn't look like the picture...is that drawer suposed to go there...

Then it ends up in the dumpster...true consumerism. You didn't even have to use it to buy and discard it. The ironic thing is they have this program where they try to get you to buy reusable bags to save the disposable ones...ha, one more thing for the trash.

On Michigan

We're here. We unloaded everything on Wednesday and took off for the cottage. We had a great time up there. I will probably post more on our time there including pictures later.

Now we're back at the house and I am using the laptop to piggyback off someone else's wireless internet. Adrienne is painting with Lori. Eric and I are hanging out unpacking boxes and stuff. they're actually almost done with what they're going to paint today.

Moving is a lot of work. Not only do you have to deal with all the obvious stuff--boxes et cetera. But yo9u also have to deal with all sorts of other stuff. Geting internet and phone service...setting up[ a new bank account...getting a new driver's lisccense...registering a car...learning your way around a new place...meeting new people...

But we are doing well....so far