Buyer Beware

Does anyone out there know anything about this device?

On the one hand it sounds like a really good idea. On the other hand it seems like it could just be an ethernet pass through device and who would be the wiser.

Perhaps I am too cynical for such purchases.

Take a Hint?

Do you think it means anything that our American institutions are really, actually, quite literally crumbling down around us?

Well, at least it might be some deterrence against frivolous law suits.

I wonder if the same people that built the court building were in on the construction of The White House. (No, he couldn't be thinking that, that would be unpatriotic.)

We're not that lucky.

The Reality Tour

Remember Kramer's "J. Peterman Reality Tour" where he loaded people on a bus and drove them around Manhattan (and eventually much further to try to dump a couple bags of muffin "stumps")? I was recently back in Chicago for a brief visit and went to two places I think would wind up on the "David Reality Tour."

Maybe sometime soon I will try to come up with an exhaustive list and include a map, so that if anyone is so entirely devoid of things to do they could run around the North side of Chicago and breathe the air that I used to breathe. Places like Apple Tree, HPHS, Wilmette Beach... Might not be the most boring day of anyone's life.

The two places that occurred to me to add this time are Berland's House of Tools and Orphans of the Storm.

Berlands is like a museum experience combined with a shopping experience. Imagine the two aisles at Home Depot devoted to tools. Now imagine an entire store, about 8 times that volume, but devoted to the same range of applications. You can go and kill an hour or two just browsing and have a perfectly wonderful experience. Or, on the off chance you actually need something they are pretty nearly guaranteed to have it. Five stars, two thumbs up, highest recommendation.

Orphans of the Storm is an animal shelter. When I lived in Chicago my girlfriend and I adopted Kaylar there. It is the coolest shelter I have ever been to. Very nice people and lots and lots of cats. When you go in, you go through the dog section, and have to work your way back to the cats. In the front of the cat section there are a few cages, mostly for new arrivals, kittens, or ornery individuals. They let you open any of the cages to interact with the cats. The cool part though is the rook in the back. There's this room you can look into through a big picture window, and inside there could be between 20 and 200 cats at any given time. They have this big structure to climb on, and a separate room to go into with a pad on the floor for sleeping, and then a screened in patio where they can get some air. You can have the big fun going into the cat room and just sitting down on the floor. Within 5 minutes you are pretty much sure to be the heating pad for 4 or 5 cats. They are very friendly, somehow I think they know you might bust them out.

Kaylar

Anyway. Two very cool places in metro Chicago you might want to check out - even without the institution of the David Reality Tour.

Thanksgiving Tradition

I am spending Thanksgiving with the inlaws this year. Me and the missus had had thoughts of having the holiday at our home this year - we even tricked out our dining room partially for that reason, but for a myriad of reasons it was not to be. So like last year we're at my wife's folks this year (although it is the first time that they are actually my inlaws.

This morning, just before lunch, we made a valiant effort at starting a venerable new Thanksgiving tradition. My sister-in-law thought that we should play Risk. I'm not sure it worked out that well. Also I am not sure I played like a good son-in-law. The game ended prematurely with my having eliminated my father-in-law and having taken control of Australia, Asia, North America, and South America. My wife and her sister were huddled in Europe and Africa when the game ceased to be fun.

Note to self: think about losing to the in-laws. Although I am uncertain I'll get another chance. Not sure this will become an annual event.

Well, Bloomington was fun. Next my wife's in-laws. I wonder if she'll think to lose?

So this is too cool

really, actually cold.

Last night I saw this on TV...

Extreme Engineering
Dubai's Ski Resort

I guess if you are into custom construction, Dubai is the place to be. Last week I saw a show about custom islands they are building, and then this week one of the world's largest malls - with an indoor ski resort.

Lots of nice custom fabrication issues too. Very cool.

Here's the site for the finished project: SkiDubai

Build that Flat

Thinking about the buyer's remorse many officials are showing about the war in Iraq has got me thinking about some of the things I teach. Often while grading an assignment where someone has estimated the labor or materials for a particular project, shall we say, optimistically I sometimes hear myself uttering a challenge... "Build that flat!"

From time to time now I get the feeling that the biggest problem the US has in the middle east is a complete and utter failure of production planning. That the rest of the world is sitting there smirking at us saying "Ok W, build that flat."

The national arrogance we displayed coming into the war has really put us in a spot now. We told the rest of the world that they didn't matter and that we could do this thing by ourselves. Now, well now we have to.

What country in their right mind would step in to help us now? Even if the Bush administration could put themselves in a place where they could admit a mistake and could admit we need the help, and could actually go through the process of asking I find it very unlikely we'd get any takers.

Talking head after talking head on TV has been saying "we need to bring in the world community." Unfortunately I think its likely we missed that chance. Now we're really in a crack. We have got to succeed. If we don't then whatever credibility we had before will be gone - oh, and we will be leaving things a bigger mess than we found them. And we're not going to get much help to do it. Its going to be both interesting and terrible to watch what we have to do to get it right. We've already sunk our military, and started to mortgage our federal budget - can a draft be too far behind?

Even if people don't support the reason we went to war, and even if they don't want to put more resources at risk, there is too much at stake - both there and here. If we want for the next 50 years to be the United States we have been for the past 50 years then we cannot allow Iraq to become a failed state. Snow job or no snow job we're committed. Without a change of administration we're going to be committed alone. I am as angry and opposed to our behavior so far as anyone, and I understand the impulse to call for investigations and try to accomplish a little CYA, but what everyone - the people, the media, the pentagon, and the government as a whole - must realize, and the sooner the better is that it is our mess. We broke it, its on us to fix it. Whatever the cost.

Snow Job

An awful lot of people spending an awful lot of time on TV trying to shore up their story from an awful long time ago. Seems some of our representatives are just now getting the idea that some of the reasons we went to war in Iraq are not quite what we were led to believe. Like somehow all that had been missing from their logic circuits all along was 2000 dead American soldiers, and now that we've added that its all "Hey! There really were no weapons of mass destruction."

Welcome to the party pal.

I believe I have said it before although I could not find the entry, and all Dick Cheney spinning it the other way doesn't make it any more false now than it was then: the run up to the war was a snow job.

A snow job, a sales job of epic proportion. A sales job on the electorate, on the Congress, on the UN, on the governments of foreign countries. Truth be told it didn't really even sell most of the customers it was aimed at. The only people that ever bought it were about 50% of Americans and most of the United States Congress. The administration had all this good will and momentum built up following 2001 and through the early phases of Afghanistan and they chose to apply that credit to taking down Iraq.

First they trotted out their story, layer after layer of crap...

"we heard from these other guys that the bad guys were trying to buy this stuff from these other guys" - a high school principal couldn't authorize a locker search with that charge.

"they have TUBES man, you KNOW what tubes are for" - uhhuh, whatever

"this guy, um he met this other guy once" - compelling

"they have these model planes they could fly here and get us!" - what, ever

"check out his RV! Its a mobile meth lab or something, look I have a picture" - you have got to be kidding.

That's what they had. Many of us never bought it, the French never bought it, or the Russians or Chinese, or the Costa Ricans. The UN never really bought it (I won't forget about Poland), many US citizens never bought it.

Really, I think most congressmen never bought it either, but the White House had that 9/11 spirit and they all felt like they couldn't be anti-national security so they talked about it for a couple of days and then they took the good will credit and cashed it, threw in with the President and went to war.

What did Powell say. "you break it, you buy it?" Well its broken. And now that it is there on the floor of the store in shards many of our leaders are scrambling to tell us that actually they had meant to wait in the car while the rest of them ran in for a minute - or that the only reason they came into the china shop anyway was because someone had said that they were in fact going in to get ice cream or something.

These guys are embarrassing. Powell at the UN was spinning so fast and hard that the air around him actually started to hum. I do not believe anyone with the wherewithal to get themselves elected to public office could have failed to see that. You elected to ignore it. You don't get to undo that now. Due deference to the VP, but the revisionist history we should be worried about is not what we were told being led up to the war, or how that information was presented - or even the quality thereof. What we need to remember is what those people who hold the public trust decided to do with it.

Mid term elections are coming.

"Maybe not so much for you with the talking..."

That must be my favorite quote from The West Wing. Maybe my favorite quote from just about any fiction. Amy Gardner could be the female lead in a Cameron Crowe movie. Just, perfect.

The episode with that line aired tonight. I thought I would share.

Clearance Sale

Flitwick - Charms


Harry Potter: Which Hogwarts professor would you be?
brought to you by Quizilla


You are 100% Cotton Classic.
You are versatile and enjoy practicality. Easy to
get along with and work well with others.
You tend toward the basics in life and enjoy high
quality in all you do.


What kind of yarn are you really??
brought to you by Quizilla


Which OS are You?


You're the Esc Key!
You're a bit of a loner, but that's the way you
like it. A wallflower by choice, you have a few
very close friends. Try opening up a bit and
doing new things!


What computer key are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

How evil are you?

Sofia Coppola Your film will be 63% romantic, 24% comedy, 37% complex plot, and a $ 36 million budget.

Relatively inexperienced (The Virgin Suicides, Lost In Translation) as a director, but already highly respected and connected -- her dad, Francis, directed all The Godfather movies, Apocolypse Now. Also, at last word she's dating Quentin Tarantino, so I'm sure he'll have some input into the substance of your film. Sofia's good at making the romantic drama that is your life. Who didn't have at least a lump in the throat at the end of Lost In Translation? She's already won one Academy Award for her writing, now she'll be the first woman to receive one for directing -- YOUR FILM!

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 84% on action-romance You scored higher than 15% on humor You scored higher than 37% on complexity You scored higher than 43% on budget

Link: The Director Who Films Your Life Test written by bingomosquito on Ok Cupid

Your Blog Should Be Green

Your blog is smart and thoughtful - not a lot of fluff. You enjoy a good discussion, especially if it involves picking apart ideas. However, you tend to get easily annoyed by any thoughtless comments in your blog.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Sergeant Flame Your Superpower is Divine intervention Your Weakness is Women Your Weapon is Your Terra Bombs Your Mode of Transportation is Pegasus

What's your Superhero Name?

Your Career Type: Artistic

You are expressive, original, and independent. Your talents lie in your artistic abilities: creative writing, drama, crafts, music, or art. You would make an excellent: Actor - Art Teacher - Book Editor Clothes Designer - Comedian - Composer Dancer - DJ - Graphic Designer Illustrator - Musician - Sculptor The worst career options for your are conventional careers, like bank teller or secretary.

What's Your Ideal Career?

Brain Lateralization Test Results

Right Brain (40%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (70%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain

Are You Right or Left Brained?(word test)
personality tests by similarminds.com

Draw a pig test.

DavidClick to view my test results

What Your Underwear Says About You

You tend to buy new underwear instead of doing laundry. You're the type of guy who lets his girlfriend pick out his underwear.

The Underwear Oracle

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Your personality type is RLOAI

You are reserved, moderately moody, moderately organized, accommodating, and intellectual, and may prefer a city which matches those traits.

The largest representation of your personality type can be found in the these U.S. cities: Oklahoma City, Albuquerque/Santa Fe, Indianapolis, Reno, Greenville/Spartanburg, Cincinnati, Memphis, Chicago Area, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Louisville, Providence and these international countries/regions Czech Republic, Guam, Austria, Luxembourg, Philippines, Iceland, Indonesia, Portugal, Taiwan, Hungary, Israel, France, New Zealand, Slovenia, Canada

What Places In The World Match Your Personality?
Powered by CityCulture.org

13

You scored as Existentialist. Existentialism emphasizes human capability. There is no greater power interfering with life and thus it is up to us to make things happen. Sometimes considered a negative and depressing world view, your optimism towards human accomplishment is immense. Mankind is condemned to be free and must accept the responsibility. Existentialist 88% Idealist 63% Postmodernist 56% Materialist 50% Romanticist 50% Modernist 44% Cultural Creative 38% Fundamentalist 19% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com

Pure Nerd52 % Nerd, 47% Geek, 26% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd. The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful. Congratulations! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in either of the following: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Professional Wrestling

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 31% on nerdiness You scored higher than 54% on geekosity You scored higher than 25% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid

You scored as Luna Lovegood. You're an extreme introvert and because of this, are also a deep thinker. You ponder things others would never dream of pondering and stand with your beliefs without backing down. You find it more valuable to daydream than to socialize, because there's so much more going on in your head than others'. Most people don't understand it, but you seem to prefer it that way. Luna Lovegood 81% Hermione Granger 75% Harry Potter 75% Sirius Black 72% Ron Weasley 69% Albus Dumbledore 69% Bellatrix Lestrange 63% Oliver Wood 63% Percy Weasley 63% Severus Snape 63% Draco Malfoy 53% Lord Voldemort 53% Remus Lupin 50% Neville Longbottom 44% Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test created with QuizFarm.com

Hot TamaleYou have an intellectual sexiness factor of 67!

You're hot! You've read a lot. You've done a lot, and there's a lot you'd like to try in the future. You've got a sharp, sexy mind, and few inhibitions to restrain you from exploring all the pleasure you can get. You have few hang-ups, and there's not much you don't know about sex. You're open-minded and able to enjoy things that would make a lesser person squeamish. You're an exceptional treat as a lover, appreciated greatly by those who know the differnce. You were probably bored with a few of the people you've been with in your past, feeling like you had to drag them along with you in the sexual adventures you want to have, and probably dumping them for the same reason. It takes a lot to stimulate you; you realize it's not just about bumping uglies. In the end there's gotta be a lot more to it. Still, there is always room for improvement. Before you can graduate into a true sexual genius, there are a few things you've got to learn, to explore, to think through, talk through, and fuck through. A good place to start is in taking a look at the few things you're still a little hesitant to try. Break down you're last few barriers and discover the outer sexual frontiers, and you'll become a master.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 20% on sexiness

Link: The Intellectual Sexiness Test written by dr_eros on Ok Cupid

Your Deadly Sins

Sloth: 60%

Gluttony: 20%

Wrath: 20%

Envy: 0%

Greed: 0%

Lust: 0%

Pride: 0%

Chance You'll Go to Hell: 14%

You will die while sleeping - and no one will notice.

How Sinful Are You?

Regina George


Which Mean Girl are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Your Kissing Purity Score: 34% Pure

You're not one to kiss and tell... But word is, you kiss pretty well.

Kissing Purity Test

You're Thailand!

Calmer and more staunchly independent than almost all those around you,
you have a long history of rising above adversity. Recent adversity has led to questions
about your sexual promiscuity and the threat of disease, but you still manage to attract a
number of tourists and admirers. And despite any setbacks, you can really cook a good
meal whenever it's called for. Good enough to make people cry.
Take the Country
Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

You're Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!

by Lewis Carroll

After stumbling down the wrong turn in life, you've had your mind
opened to a number of strange and curious things. As life grows curiouser and curiouser,
you have to ask yourself what's real and what's the picture of illusion. Little is coming
to your aid in discerning fantasy from fact, but the line between them is so blurry that
it's starting not to matter. Be careful around rabbit holes and those who smile to much,
and just avoid hat shops altogether.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

I have issues with...

innocence travel patience work excess

Take Word Association Test

Where has all the Blogging gone?

Recently I commented that my pace had dropped off some on this site. I have to say that it isn't just my site. Ellen, Kathryn, & Shannon have slowed significantly. Beth, Caitlin, Kate, & Pittgirl have dropped off significantly enough to get moved to the "they don't update" folder. I know I have slowed down some, but I guess I am still here reliably.

Although I am uncertain it matters.

Probably the biggest reason for the slowdown is the other page. Although not nearly as old, the PTMNewsBeat already has more posts than this blog. There isn't much writing going on at that site, but what with now scanning more than 50 publications a day as well as including answers to course questions and posts from the department it is taking up a fair amount of time. It was never my idea that I would spend a significant amount of time with the thing, but I am proving to be type A enough that I haven't really been able to hand it off to anyone to manage for me. Someday maybe.

I have stumbled onto some interesting things doing the other page. Amongst the various arts pages I am also reading a couple of other blogs. I am particularly fond of 43 Folders, lifehack.org, and Boing Boing. I had been reading the latter previously but had stooped for reasons I don't remember. It was fun to get back to it. The other two are pretty cool too. I find a lot of technology and time management things there that seem pertinent. I also find things that are just useless - or maybe just borderline useless. Tonight I found a tool to make this thing on lifehack:

Do you think if I put this on my door people will get the point?

Me either.

I guess the other contributions to the slowdown are going to be the same that any other person would cite: too tired, too busy, nothing to say, burned out... My personal horizon has crept in uncomfortably close. This past week I had a guest come in from out of town and I never managed to get around to entering his appearance on my calendar. I still have October up in my office. I can't bring myself to start the January calendar (I have a three month rotating planner board). I hate it when I don't know what is happening next week - let alone tomorrow, and that's where I am right now.

Its possible that it has to do with the flow of a standard academic year. Just before Thanksgiving is like the calm before the storm and I think we all kind of sag into it. Everyone can see the long weekend and then the longer break coming down the pike behind it and just can't help taking their foot off the gas a little. Always a rude awakening for that behavior I am afraid. Its a known event that everything piles up coming into break. Slowing down just before that final sprint can only be detrimental. But we do it anyway.

Maybe as things start to roll downhill into the end of the semester the posting will pick up again as well. Maybe. Mine at least. Who knows?

Ellipses...

Someone should write something... Tomorrow, The NewsBeat will have more total posts than this page... I missed West Wing and Lost this week - anyone know what happened?.. Just how much extra does Comcast charge for a DVR?.. Seems like everyone decided independently that the more expensive option was in point of fact cheaper... I still don't know what an enemy combatant is - or a detainee for that matter... I am wondering if the top two AFI all time movie quotes say anything about us as a society... At the moment I have no plans to go to the movies Friday, I guess Diane is busy this time around... I was late for class today, I guess I will have to dock my participation grade... We went to the new restaurant at the Waterfront, it was good and not too too expensive (although being on Uncle Andy the scale is a little different... It snowed this morning, I could tell without having seen the snow because people were driving as if they were afraid of hitting some... It is registration week for spring semester, time to assimilate some more drones for the crazy scheme... I guess I ought to be thinking about holiday gifts... Cannot decide if the house feels like it is below its kitten quota... If we are actually disappearing people just about everyone should resign... With one forwarded web page I appear to have cashed a colleague's entire weekend... Today I had two good meetings in one day... If I forget, can someone please remind me to send my thesis to Jim Moody, he's been waiting a while... If someone posts a job search that will be open for almost an entire month, how likely is it that the job is really available at all?.. My "todo" box is up to 54 messages again... I don't think I waste time with email, but opinions vary... And suddenly there was voicemail, who knew?.. I don't want it to be winter... There are a lot of friends I miss a whole lot... Thanks to the people that sent cards after the other day... AIM dropped to automated buddies on my list, its nice to have more friends... I'm digging the PLAXO birthday notification thingy... I think I can see the end of the curricular review tunnel... I need to hook John up with Grisha... My blogging has slowed down some, I wonder if anybody has noticed... My mother does not like to find out news from the blog... Audiences appear to be liking my sister's show... Someday I think I would like to drive the yellow belt... The other day my missus lit the Baby Jesus, that time of year... OK, I give in, you can start your Christmas ads...

Benefits?

I think it might be time to stop calling benefits "benefits." It seems such a positive name for something that has become so contentious and bothersome. I think I am recommending: "that stuff we help you pay for in lieu of more salary." To me that seems a lot more honest although I guess nobody wants:

Joe Exectuive
VP of That Stuff We Help You Pay For in lieu of More Salary

on their door. But really, although the eventual consequences of having benefits are often, well, beneficial, the day to day of electing and managing one's benefits is really becoming a hastle.

My employer recently changed up our benefits choices. Tonight, with my wife, I sat and chose from something like 9 health plans and more than 6 subsidiary plans (vision, dental...). At one point I actually had like five windows open on my machine and had to do a spreadsheet in Excel to calculate the likely costs over a year to discover that the more expensive choice was likely going to be cheaper at the end of the year.

If I was reading the information correctly.

And if they don't just up and change it again.

It always seems to me with any of these things that you can always get quite a bit of information, but you can rarely get the bit of information you really need to make the decision. In the end I guess it is like buying a car, as long as you feel like you got a good deal then you did ok. Except that in this case you won't feel that way when you have to go to the doctor and realize you made a poor choice at the end of a blizzard of brochures some time ago.

Is there some reason why if they know what my expenses and my plan were last year - or actually over the last five years - that they can't apply that data to all of the available plans and tell me which of the choices will be most effective if things remain pretty much the same? I would think that a computer could spit out all of that information, and that it would have the right records, prices, and idea about how to apply the charges. But no, for some reason I have to do a spreadsheet myself and hope for the best.

Right now I'm just hoping the choices come out to my benefit.

Birthday Splurge

So this evening, on my Dad's birthday (happy birthday Dad!) Me and the missus decided to splurge some and go to see the Steelers play the Browns. She had an opportunity to get some seats from someone at work and we took it.

We parked downtown and walked to the stadium...

We got to go in at Gate A, against the river...

Here's just inside the stadium...

This is the view we got coming out of the tunnel...

And here is the game from our seats, nice seats as it turns out...

This is a pasteup of the the entire view (with the camera phone, who knew?). You'll need to click on it for the full effect...


All in all very cool, and a home team win to boot.

Go Steelers

Watch for us on ESPN - Woohoo!

Bad Week for Fantasy

My brother in law runs a couple of sports fantasy leagues. Me and the missus are the Pittsburgh Alloy in a Football and a Basketball league. We'd actually done fairly well in the football league, I think we're second. We're not doing as well in the basketball league, but I think that is mostly because we really have absolutely no idea what we are doing.

But regardless of our actions, the last week has been a bad week for fantasy. Clearly it begins with a gut punch to our basketball team. I drafted second in that league, and after my sister-in-law took Kobe, I snatched up Shaq.

Shaq rolled his ankle and will be out 4-6 weeks.

We're off to a tremendous start. As the sports week continues it only gets worse. The night of the football draft, we took a player pretty much because Mrs. B had heard about him that day on NPR. So since that was the name highest up in her head, that's the guy we took. TO did fairly well for us for most of the season, and in a real only in fantasy football kind of way, the Alloy had the unbelievable teamed wide-outs of Keyshawn Johnson and Terryl Owens. Thank goodness you don't have to sit in a fantasy locker room or listen to fantasy press conferences.

This week, TO went and got his self canned.

But this isn't the end of the world. We still have Michael Vick, and he has managed to keep himself remarkable uninjured this season. We also have both the Giants and the Steelers defenses, so there's always a good option there. I picked up Jeremy Shockey at tight end and he has been coming around nicely. And the glue that holds it all together has been our starting running back: (can you guess?) the veteran from Kansas City, Priest Holmes.

This week the Chiefs announced that Priest Holmes will miss the rest of the season with head and neck trauma.

I tell you, the whole thing is giving me some neck trauma. I wonder what's in store next week? Maybe Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace will run into each other in a mutual particle annihilation. After this week I would not be surprised.

Rest in Peace

Trinity passed away early this morning. After a year she finally succumbed to complications from a cancerous tumor. Her family loved her very much. She will be missed.

Trinity the Kitten
1999-2005

Democracy in Action

"Let the market decide..."

"That's a local control issue..."

"Let the legislature do its work..."

"Activist judges are ruining our country..."

You hear that kind of thing all the time these days, primarily from religious conservatives. DO you think anyone will be lauding the action of the electorate in Dover, PA? Seems pretty clear that the market there decided fairly clearly.

New Dover board's task not enviable

In a patriotic display of public opinion, the voters around Dover, PA made a fairly clear statement regarding "Intelligent Design" and school curriculum by voting out their entire school board of Republican Creationists and voting in a entire new board of Democratic Evilutionists.

Thank God.

You know, while I listened to this story on the way home from work tonight I actually became more upset about the meta-issue than the issue. This board decided that a four paragraph statement regarding intelligent design had to be read in all science classes. Where does any board get off exercising that kind of intrusive control into any classroom about any subject? Do they have any sort of curricular training? Even if they were experts in the field they were meddling with, the decisions about what is or is not covered in a classroom to that level of specificity ought to be the unfettered responsibility of the teacher. It's a fairly long way from "you must teach the US Constitution" to "you must read these four paragraphs verbatim."

Also, just sort of sport-doing this argument, if they really want to introduce the story of creation into science classes they are shooting at the wrong subject. Even with whatever "holes' there are in the theory of evolution, the theory does stand up pretty well. If they want to get this stuff in, they ought to shoot at cosmology, not biology. The big bang is much more suspect in this arena. "What happened before the Big Bang?" and "Where did the roiling cloud of gases come from?" are natural lead ins to God. I had this very conversation with my uncle years ago. He was a computational physicist and was working on the question of the formation of spiral galaxies at the time. He was also a man of faith as well as a man of science, and at the end of a typical adolescent string of "what came before that?" questions he simply said that science does not have those answers and at some point many scientists turn to faith.

As a person of science myself, I have no problem with people turning to faith in the absence of science. Shouldn't that be enough for the classrooms? Do we need to have the two concepts in conflict when they can so easily co-exist? I am not sure any clear minded teacher would oppose that kind of characterization, even in a science class, as long as we don't try to outshout one idea with another; and as long as the notion of faith being used as an explanation happens in those arenas where science doesn't have an answer; and as long as the discussion of faith isn't discriminatory.

That's a lot of ands. Maybe it is best left discussed in other venues.

Election Day

aerdin: did you vote today?
DBoevers: I didn't
DBoevers: I'm a loser
aerdin: yeah me neither
DBoevers: I am saving up to vote against rick santorum
aerdin: i actually didnt even know it was election day
aerdin: lmao - thats great
aerdin: not for another year tho
DBoevers: true
DBoevers: think they'll let me vote twice cuz I saved up?
aerdin: barack obama was on the daily show last night
aerdin: he is quite cool
aerdin: and i dont think it is going to be too difficult to get rid of rick santorum
aerdin: i have faith in the people of pa
DBoevers: faith
DBoevers: is the problem
aerdin: yeah but i think more and more people are realizing that he is a dick
DBoevers: one would hope so
DBoevers: goes to show you what happens if we don't pay attention

Like Minded People

Can I highlight my own blog in my blog? I really like this post from today:

Five email tics I?d love for you to lose

That's from the PTMNewsbeat - a page in desperate need of a name change. Perhaps that will be a contest for another day.

Looking at the post on 43Folders you wind your way to a comment from a college professor who I think would relate very well to my rant at Rachel over staples. It turns out he has his own analogous post:

How to e-mail a professor

Just great stuff I could find myself screaming at the top of my lungs on any given day. Diatribes against "reply to all," hostility over attachments, I tell you, I felt so loved I almost cried.

Really we're all better off with the medication. I wonder how this guy feels about staples?

Spelling?

Putting your name on your work?

Following instructions?

I could go on for days, but these days I usually stop after a few minutes.

Ellipses...

Sometimes Blogger asks for verification, sometimes it doesn't - I wonder how it knows when it really is me... We took a night off from photo selecting, maybe be finished tomorrow... I am uncertain Trinity is going to make it much longer, she stopped eating today... Yesterday we proved fairly convincingly that a straight line is not the fastest distance between two points, especially when you are talking about metro Pittsburgh... A new mall doesn't automatically mean a good mall... I think Senator Venick won the debate, but I think Santos came off more likeable... I lost my list of blogging topics, not sure if I'd gotten to all of them... I had Shaq on my fantasy basketball team - so much for that... This week a student told me my class was the most important class they were taking, that was fantastic and I am overjoyed to hear it - is it a shame it wasn't a Drama student?.. The adage "if you draw everything it will work" is only true if people actually look at the drawing... I finally toured ETC's space on 2nd Ave - its amazing. I know where I want to go to grad school, oh wait, I went to grad school, oh well... I didn't forget Debi's birthday for the first time in, well, forever - thank you Plaxo... The hitmap has recorded over 22000 hits on this site, who'd-a-thunkit?.. People have been looking for Urinetown pics, I think if I do them they will wind up on the other page... I took out my CV last week, I think it may be easier to resign than to update it... I won't be at LDI for the first time in like 5 years, if you're there I'm sorry I am going to miss you... This week the Rigging Certification goes live with the first exams, nice to see the end of the tunnel on the project that started for me with a grad thesis... There was a storm today, it blew all the leaves off my front lawn - score!!!

It's 3AM. Do You Know Which Pics You Want?

Me and the Missus just spent the better part of four hours going through wedding photos. We're not really counting, but I think we're just shy of 250 selections and chronologically we've just got to the part where we're both standing in front of the officiant.

Its not that bad though, the photog's page has the images 8 to a screen. We're on screen 217 of something like 281. The air conditioning at the venue failed, so the day came to a much more abreviated end as compared with the protracted beginning - that, and the photos actually start at the rehearsal the night before.

If you're counting, we've been through 1736 exposures - selecting 250 (about 14% yield and yet it still feels like we're taking too many). With 31 pages remaining, that's 248 images, at this pace we'll pick out 35 more for a grand total of 285 pics.

That may be too many, but I don't think we can face the thought of going through again for a cut pass. Might have to think of a different solution.

Did you miss the photos when they were first posted? Wanna see? You have to go here:

Michael Metzger and Staff, Inc.

where you will get to see more photos than you ever thought were possible of the pre-nup and the wedding day. If it asks for an event code you need to enter: MarisaandDavid.

Any suggestions on images to take are appreciated. Start from the end and go backwards to cover what we haven't done yet. Pics are designated by the three letter code (some kind of base 26 catalog system). Have fun.

Time to Kill

I'll say more about this sometime soon, but here is a great way to burn hour after hour...

Tower of Goo - Unlimited

Don't say I didn't warn you. Let's call it a link of the day.

MoveOn.org Would Rather You Didn't

I believe it is time for MoveOn.org to change its name. Recently, with all things being equal, their name would really be more accurate if it were something like DwellAndHarp.org. The tables have been turned, and their name just doesn't fit anymore.

Years ago I was taken with an organization that called itself something that had really been in my head for some time. In the thick of the Lewinsky thing, an advocacy group sprung up that espoused the opinion that we'd all expensed way too much over this thing and it was time to move on.

Ah the good old days.

During the last election cycle I was forced to pull my name from their d-list as what had been a fairly specific group aligned against a fairly specific problem morphed into a full blown lobbying organization. They were still MoveOn, but I have no idea what they were encouraging me to move on from.

Now MoveOn is compiling petition signatures against a supreme court nominee. This may be a good idea. I don't know. I all know is it has nothing to do with moving on from anything.

Its too bad. As a society we often unfortunately dwell on one story or another far beyond its real valuable shelf life. With the Pakistani earthquake, the rebuilding in the gulf states, oh, and the WAR IN IRAQ - with all that, CNN ran a special report today about how girls feel pressure to be thin. Maybe their features editor needs to move on. We heard this morning that a potential crisis is looming! Its possible that Brad Pitt, Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston, and Angelina Jolie might all turn up at the Golden Globes. Time to MoveOn from that issue?

There was a moment where MoveOn could have focused itself on whatever bit of newsCrack we'd found ourselves jonesing for and helped us get passed it to look at issues that really do matter. But it never happened. It never happened because MoveOn.org was never about moving on, it was about protecting their guys. Just like every other interest group.

And with that, I'm going to move on.

Our Majority Leader

Today, Dr. Bill Frist took time to get in front of cameras and refer to the Democratic (and PS democratically elected representatives of United States Citizens) opposition as having "no conviction, no principles, and no ideas."

Pretty rough stuff from someone at that moment demonstrating his conviction by maligning his congressional colleagues, demonstrating his principles by playing loose with financial disclosure rules, and who's biggest idea in the public view to date was to diagnose a permanently, mentally crippled woman as healthy after seeing her on television.

Mr. Frist, Dr. Frist, Senator Frist, please, a little decorum.

You know damn well they have ideas. They are just not your ideas.

You know damn well they have principles. They are just not your principles.

You know damn well they have conviction. If I were you I would be more worried that I might be immanently facing a conviction.

The majority leader of the United States Senate ought not to be a mud slinger. Its undignified. You aren't writing a blog, you are representing each and every one of us. Shape up, or ship out and hit the "get your own blog" button.

Lazy

Darn Steelers had to make it interesting. Well, could have been worse.

You Should Learn Japanese

You're cutting edge, and you are ready to delve into wacky Japanese culture. From Engrish to eating contests, you're born to be a crazy gaijin. Saiko!

What Language Should You Learn?

Well, I know a couple people that will like that.