April 2002 Archives
I think
Mark and I are having a conversation here. Though I am not sure if he knows it. In his
post on April 23rd, Mark gave a quote by Richard Dawkins that I mentioned far less eloquently in
my post on the 20th. Here is the quote:
"Out of all of the [religious] sects in the world, we notice an uncanny coincidence: the overwhelming majority just happen to choose the one that their parents belong to. Not the sect that has the best evidence in its favour, the best miracles, the best moral code, the best cathedral, the best stained glass, the best music: when it comes to choosing from the smorgasbord of available religions, their potential virtues seem to count for nothing, compared to the matter of heredity. This is an unmistakable fact; nobody could seriously deny it. Yet people with full knowledge of the arbitrary nature of this heredity, somehow manage to go on believing in their religion, often with such fanaticism that they are prepared to murder people who follow a different one." - Richard Dawkins
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Fun Friday time killer:
If you haven't heard these
Budweiser Real American Heroes Radio Spots you should go there now. Favorites? Mr. Really Bad Toupee Wearer, Mr. Pickled Pig's Feet Eater, Mr. Driving Range Ball Picker Upper, and of course Mr. Garden Gnome Maker.
I meant to post some thoughts about the environment and the presidency of George W. Bush on Earth Day, but I was too angry to formulate coherent thought. Luckily Al Gore can restrain himself a bit more in this NY Time letter he wrote on the 21st:
The Selling of an Energy Policy.
My anger began to rise when, in his first weeks in Washington, Bush rescinded many of the Environmental Protection Pact laws to help his buddies (and family members) in the Oil, Energy, [insert big business sector here] industries.
On Earth Day 2002 "Bush mentioned various environmental policies his administration has pursued, emphasizing the "Clear Skies" legislation to set air pollution limits from power plants. 'With Clear Skies legislation, America will do more to reduce power plant emissions than ever before in our nation's history,' he vowed."
At which point "Gore scoffed at that remark. "The Bush administration's so-called 'Clean Skies' initiative actually allows more toxic mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur pollution than if we enforced the laws on the books today,' he said. 'It ought to be called the 'dirty skies' initiative.'"
"Bush favors mandatory limits on nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides and mercury, but soon after taking office backed away from a pledge to put limits on carbon dioxide as well. Yesterday Gore criticized the president for that reversal. 'The day after he took his oath of 'honor and integrity' he made that his very first broken promise,' Gore said." [Excerpt from
The Washington Post]
I have some more thoughts on the environment and specifically Bush's lack of foresight on this issue but I will reserve them for another day.
[
Additional Commentary on the NY Times Article]
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On a related note, I think that
the All Species Project is cool but I question the importance of such an undertaking when there are so many more impending causes. I would prefer an organization that vows to maintain our global ecological diversity to what that simply catalogs it.
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Last night was a big night for our dog Sadie as well as us, as pet owners. She actually slept the whole night outside of her kennel in our bedroom on the floor. Our lil' girl is growing up.
Krispy Kreme just opened its first store in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area this morning at 5:30 a.m. and there were people in line yesterday. Lucky for me one of my coworkers got in line at 5 and I am reaping the benefits of his will and determination.
Others might have
their own ways of celebrating Krispy Kreme. Me? I just let out a very Homer Simpson-like "MMMMmmmmmm*" [drool].
I only wrote MMMMmmmmmm because I can't spell the sound Homer makes when he is drooling over something.
Things I value from my employment have been listed below in no particular order:
- Respect
- Dependence (see number 2 below)
- Opportunity to Grow/Change
- Open lines of Communication
When related to the list of things that make me like a job (in order of importance to me)...
- Smart, Interesting Coworkers that I enjoy working with
- Feelings of being needed
- Interesting work/projects
- Dynamic Environment
... we can start to see how hard it might be to find (regain? ) that perfect job experience.
My mood, I am finding is very much tied to the weather. At the moment you might expect me to be a little somber. You would be right. It reached 91 degrees here in Minnesota on Monday and now the scenes above are what I get to live in.
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Apparently not all is bleak, however. The
planets are aligning in a way where all five of the visible planets (w/the naked eye) will be in one part of the western sky. This even is said to happen only every 20 years or so.
I have been thinking lately about going to church. Not that I am going to do it mind you, but I have been thinking about it. When I think about it though I get angry. I really do not like religions and their presumptions that they alone have it right. I would really enjoy to go somewhere once a week and talk about issues, philosophy, the world, whatever, with people of different faiths that also recognize that no one set of beliefs is infallible. We could look to the Quran, the Bible, and the Vedas among many other texts for insight and information. It could be something along the lines of
Bahaiism (which I just discovered while researching this idea) but different in key ways also. I think it would truly be enlightening and would think that it would have broad appeal. But that is my optimistic self talking. I fear there are far too many people who just go to the church that their parents went to without questioning why or caring what it means.
This has definitely been the most trying week of my home building experience. I have the seller's real estate agent breathing down my neck to schedule a closing date on the lot (it needs to be completed by April 30th) and we are in negotiations with the builder to try to get our house into the affordable range. I think we are very close. If all goes well we will have closed on the lot (or I should say our builder will have) and we will have building permit by the first week in May. Hopefully breaking ground the second week. I plan on taking at least 1 photo per day to mark the progress but I will likely take more.
Our servers will be down again tomorrow due to construction behind the house where this server is sitting. Hope to be back up by lunch.
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The home building process is going excruciatingly slow. Getting all the bids back from the subcontractors is taking forever. More updates as they happen.
I vacillate when it comes to loving and loathing cars. In many respects I ridicule our system of transit and find little point in owning expensive automobiles that perform like racecars,
however there is still something about certain cars that stir something in me. It happened the first time I saw the new
VW Passat (which they have since "updated" to be less cool looking), the
Audi TT and now has been repeated with this car, the
Bugatti EB 16-4 Veyron [source:
VW Vortex].
At 16 cylinders and over 1000 horsepower, I don't expect this car to ever be available in the U.S. but man is it gorgeous. Those German's sure know their cars (and beer and sausage, don't forget the sausage).
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The sun even shines on a dog's ass some of the time.
I happened upon a show a couple months ago called
Trading Spaces on
TLC and have been watching it with TiVO's help, in part because I am building a home (a much slower process than I would like) and so, am interested in interior decoration currently.
Little did I know that I was riding the crest of popularity for this obscure little show, where neighbors switch houses for 2 days and makeover one room of their friends' homes. So far most people are very happy (mostly due to hideous rooms to begin with) and I have only seen two people cry (out of anguish) at the results. I am not sure what makes for better TV, between the two outcomes.
I wonder if my current employer would pay my tuition to the
Adult Webmaster School. Yes this is a real thing. You can learn from the best because this guy has "sat down with the best webmasters in the world". Who are they? But the AWS seems very trustworthy. After all, "AWS is a legitimate learning institution with textbooks, other students, and a faculty consisting of highly-skilled Adult Webmasters". Look ma textbooks!
From the site:
"Becoming an Adult Webmaster is a great career, especially once you realize you're literally getting paid to look at porn! Plus, no bosses breathing down your neck, no commuting to work, no more wasting the rest of your life. Imagine making a salary equivalent to a doctor or lawyer, without the stuffy office and the daily 9 - 5 grind."
First thing I would ask is if I could get back pay for the "work" I have already done.
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Also I apologize for the server outage this morning, construction workers or someone had to shut off power to our servers for some reason.
We have always been told that piles of papers on desks and floors and anywhere we could place them was a very inefficient way to organize our work. We were told that files in file cabinets were a way to keep us organized.
This post/article makes a case that this is BS but there still might be a better way.
Of course they are producing just the product to be that better way (surprised?) and so I am eagerly awaiting,
Six Degrees, to see if it really can provide a better means of organization via the creation linkages between files, people, and messages used in managing projects, etc.
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I have added some links,
Boxes and Arrows and
Black Belt Jones, to the resources page (a page that really needs some more love and attention).
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Is certain food gay? An
article at Slate makes some compelling arguments.
I am amazed sometimes at how people act. It seems that often times people today are just waiting for an excuse to cause mayhem. This weekend hundreds of college students
started a riot after the University won the national title for hockey. These actions are not unprecedented. In LA, there are always riots, after court cases, basketball games, afternoon tea - anything is an excuse to riot. I don't get it. Is our peaceful society such a precarious thing that it can be toppled, be it temporarily, at the smallest occurrence? Is the population so frustrated that, whenever possible, we create a temporary anarchy to release our pent up angers?
What beautiful photography I stumbled across on such a great site:
Marc Escobosa. I hope to someday, take one photo that is as good as these (and to travel to these places).
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Barry Bonds is
on a pace to hit 324 homeruns this season. This would be quite a feat considering the previous high (set by him last year) was 73 home runs in a season.
I have been doing quite well on my quest to eat better. I have eaten meat, but I have greatly reduced the amount of meat I eat (especially low quality meat like that found at fast food restaurants) and have eliminated soda altogether. I feel good and even find my body rejecting things that are bad for me by having no appetite for those things. I am not sure how good this will be, but I have been wondering when things like the
BK Veggie would become more mainsteam. Then I figure California has probably had stuff like this for years and it's just the meat-loving Midwest that is slow. [
Blue Robot]
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I have been planning on constructing something I have been calling the Family tree of world religions but I keep getting pulled away to do other things and my definition of religions keeps getting stretched here and there.
Jason's post about this
biblical family tree got me thinking about it more and maybe I will even complete it soon.
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The Internet seems to be letting me down in my quest to see the trailer for the next Lord of the Rings movie online. I saw it in the theater and in true
trailer-style, it was at the end of the movie. It wasn't quite as good as a well-edited cinematic trailer ought to be, but it still looked damn good.
