New post in the House blog, chronicling washer/dryer upgrades and lighting improvements.

Labels: house

This commercial (for the Toyota Scion) caught my attention last night. Although the quality of the online video isn't high enough to see it, a small note flashes in the corner of the video. A video where the Scion morphs from one form to another, changes colors and is chased by electrical dragons and sharks. The note? "Computer-generated animation. Not a real car."

Labels: amusement

Very cool. Although the higher gravity and lack of rotation might affect the selling price.

Labels: science, wonder

Although I spent the majority of the Earth Day event at work, I did catch the last couple of hours. It seemed not as energetic as last year, perhaps due to the wind that attempted to collapse the booths every 20 minutes or so, or perhaps I just went later in the day and missed the "main attractions." I sat under a tree and listened to one of the speakers for about half an hour; it reminded me of a lamentation I had years ago that the persuasiveness of an idea is usually related more to the charisma of its presenter and less to its validity, as this poor gentleman read from a prepared speech with very little crowd interaction or tonal inflection. I agreed with him for the most part (although some of his solutions were clearly infeasible), and I still wouldn't want to sit through that speech again without a book to read.

The live music after that was good, and I ran into Tiffany quite by accident. I'm also submitting my second nomination for parent of the year (and I'm being puzzled by the fact that in the 24 hours since I posted the set, the other photos have garnered between 8 and 10 views and that one has 130).

Sunday was rainy. Cris and I discussed a hodgepodge of topics over dinner and then Jamiela and I saw "The Reaping," which I found rather unconvincing (the only saving grace was the presence of Idris Elba, one of my favorite British actors).

Labels: miscellany, social commentary

Everyone go plant a tree (or head to the Omaha event).

And if you die before then, plant yourself under the tree first.

Labels: environment, social commentary

Nebraska mother of the year nominations are beginning early.

Labels: social commentary

The NPR program I listened to today was sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which were tagged by the speaker as "Helping people help themselves by investing in children." I had a momentary flash of a "child stock market" with stock options and a trading floor stock ticker flashing 6-year-olds' names in Crayon. It was disturbing.

Labels: amusement

I saw a vehicle emblazoned with the logo of my local public power district today. Like most such vehicles I see, it was the standard white color with distinctive orange markings. Unlike most OPPD vehicles, it was a brand new PT Cruiser. Not a hybrid, as would be appropriate for a power district, or even a hybrid SUV, but a PT Cruiser in all its garish glory. I wouldn't care, except I receive a monthly bill with the same orange-and-white color scheme once a month and I'd like to see my money spent wisely.

Labels: amusement, annoyance

To contrast with the monstrosity of the post antecedent to this one, I present a tidy collection of random events, each as special as a tinfoil-wrapped chocolate egg, minus the whole tooth-decay thing . . .

- I received my baby sister's graduation announcement. Family jokes aside, there was of course never any question about whether she would graduate, but I do find it amusing that their "class song" is Bon Jovi's "It's My Life," a song that was initially released when she was 11. I will refrain from further examination, however, as (a) it's not a country song and (b) if I remember correctly, I suggested Queen's "Princes of the Universe" when I was a senior and was shot down in flames (my proposal to use the "Imperial March" in lieu of "Pomp and Circumstance" was likewise dismissed with rolling eyes).

- Apple has officially postponed Leopard, and hence my iMac purchase, to October. Stupid iPhone.

- It's hard to be a crimefighter in the days of caller ID.

- I read a couple of science articles over the last couple of days that are, to me, at least, very interesting. The first is about a quark-gluon plasma generated at Brookhaven National Laboratory that has the same mathematical signature as five-dimension microscopic black holes. The other involves the hendecatope, which I don't fully understand so I'm not even going to try to explain it. Let's just say it's really interesting.

- The latest abstinence education study, commissioned this time by Congress, has found that they're completely ineffectual. To be fair, they also don't increase the rate of unprotected sex, as some critics have maintained. But that's really not a good reason to keep funding them.

- I snapped a photo of the billboard I mentioned in the previous post. In the process (which involved some swearing as I'm not familiar with that part of town, especially after dark), I noticed that the backside of that billboard has the other billboard that has made my blog lately; I thought they'd taken it down, but it turns out they just moved it (both billboards are together in this composite picture). I'm curious if there was coordination of if they ended up together by chance.

- Being third in the nation on the list of music piracy means you should just expect the lawsuits.

- I've been meaning to link to this page for awhile. There's some good stuff there. This is my favorite.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. :)

Labels: amusement, funny, miscellany, quantum mechanics, religion and atheism

Lisa pointed out this article in the Saturday World-Herald, which corresponds with a billboard I saw two weekends ago advertising the same event. There is much to criticize here, and the science on the subject is only the most accessible; the idea that one can change orientation through desire ignores the commonly accepted biological stance that orientation is, at least partially, genetic (evidenced by numerous twin studies and the observation of homosexuality in hundreds of animal species). One might as well desire to be taller. What this program (and others like it) calls a "cure" is in reality nothing more than suppression, as evidenced by the program proponent's own words: "Over time [30+ years], Opp said, his same-sex attractions faded, although they have not gone completely." There is a willful ignorance of biology, genetics and psychology present that colors their program for anyone with any knowledge of the topic.

Once their core beliefs are exposed as little more than wishful thinking, the major topic becomes the method to their madness, the (perhaps even unintentional) insult they level at an entire group of people who take umbrage at being called "inherently flawed." An understanding of how faith works (even if I lack it myself) makes it easy to see how the progenitors of the program believe they are doing the right thing and helping lost souls avoid the pits of hellfire, and thus they are spared the ire reserved for the intentionally antagonistic, but in the end if "doing God's work" requires you to identify a group of people as inferior you should expect to be considered intolerant and summarily dismissed as unreasonable. "Good intentions," the pavement stones of the familiar phrase, are not a sufficient justification for telling a person they are "broken" without solicitation. A similar conference about how Christians are inherently flawed and will burn in hell unless they abandon their faith would be met with equal disdain and perhaps even outrage.

The nitpicks come fast and furious with even a casual reading of the article. "'If you read the Bible literally, it doesn't allow any immorality, homosexual or heterosexual,' he said." True. And if you read the Bible literally, eating shellfish is a sin, handicapped people are not allowed in church and unmarried rape victims must marry their rapists. It's pretty clear that even literal readers are picking and choosing their verses.

"For the next four years, he said, he had a lot of one-night stands. He met men in bars and in parks. He had a lot of short-term relationships . . . He said he came to realize that he was unhappy with the same-sex relationships he had been having because they were inherently flawed." 'Cause, you know, straight people never have one-night stands and short-term relationships and gay people never have steady, monogamous, happy relationships. I think this would qualify as an association fallacy.

"Opp met the woman who would become his wife. He said they became friends, and he was honest with her. 'When I started my journey, I was 100 percent attracted only to men, not to women at all,' he said. The two decided to wed." This isn't really a criticism of his position, but wow what a bad decision. I'm glad it worked out for them, but really, people, don't decide to marry someone who says he/she isn't attracted to your entire gender . . .

And finally, "The typical audience for the conference is families and friends of gay people . . ." I find this horribly sad. Being gay and coming out is extremely difficult and the last thing people in this situation need is family members and friends saying "I went to this seminar; let's go fix you 'cause you're broken." At best you end up with people like the quoted speaker who manage to suppress their orientation, but in most cases you end up with alienation between the family members and a great deal of resentment. At worst, you have homosexuals who really *want* to change due to their faith but are unable to do so and end up miserable with low self-esteem and depression, rather than accepting and embracing their difference.

Although I think the program is wrong on so many levels, one positive influence it has had is to remind me to renew my PFLAG membership. Probably not its intention, but it works for me.

Labels: annoyance, religion and atheism, social commentary

I scared myself again tonight. Not from zombie dogs this time (sorry, Lane), but from my taxes. I missed a box on the W-2 section and when the program compiled my results I ended up owing $800 to the state (it basically assumed I didn't pay any taxes at all in Nebraska for 2006; whoops). Cris can attest to my sudden shift in focus from chatting to panicking. Luckily, the error was easily caught, and a recompile gives me enough of a refund to buy the iMac I want, so I'm happy. (Cris, for his part, was disgusted with the amount of my refund, but nauseous when I told him how much I pay in mortgage payments to get that much of a refund.)

The only other annoyance stemmed from the tax program actually spelling out, for the first time, what sort of furnace qualifies for the Energy Credit (everywhere else it has just said "qualifying furnace"); as I've discovered, the cut-off is 95% efficient, whereas I bought a 93% efficient furnace. Totally my fault, but still frustrating. But now that I know the requirements, I'll be watching when I replace my air conditioner.

Labels: amusement, annoyance

Landscaping plans have been put on hold for the moment, mostly due to the unseasonable (and really bloody cold) weather. My parents have snow, though, so I'll take "cold but dry."

After supposedly having the weekend free, I ended up working almost 8 hours on Saturday; as annoying as that should be, the fact is it's too cold to do anything outside and I have purchases in the near future that could use the paycheck boost, so I'm fairly complacent. I rewarded myself afterward with assorted purchases from Kohl's and Target (nothing exciting, I'm afraid, unless $4 shirts on clearance get your blood pumping), and then spent the rest of the evening at Borders polluting my mind with Maureen Dowd in a corner of the cafe (which apparently is not the book of choice to use as a lure for liberal women, or else there just aren't any in the area). I bought a copy of "Princess Mononoke" on my way out; as a great fan of Hayao Miyazaki's work, it seemed only fitting (although I have to say I was not nearly as impressed as I was with "Spirited Away"). I also discovered the OperaBabes, who would appear to fit a very narrow audience (people who like opera but don't take it seriously enough to be offended by techno percussion). Their rendition of "Carmina Burana" is good, but it's probably no surprise I skipped buying the entire album and instead bought three individual tracks on iTunes.

I celebrated Easter (if you can even call it that, given my non-Easterian tendencies and the fact that I completely forgot it was Easter weekend until I received a gift box from my mother) by sleeping in and spending the rest of the day on my couch in my pajamas killing zombies on the GameCube (I'm waiting for Lane to begin her quest for revenge over my prank by giggling, perhaps even maniacally giggling, at me for practically ripping the controller out of the console when two zombie dogs jumped through a stained glass window and scared the hell out of me).

And the three things I learned this weekend:

(1) There is no character named "Princess Mononoke" in said movie. "Mononoke" is a Japanese word for "angry spirit" and was used as such in the original Japanese version, but for some reason, even though they translated everything else, the team that did the English translation left just that word in the original Japanese. The name of the "princess" in the movie is "San."

(2) The Zio's on Dodge isn't nearly as good as the Zio's in the Old Market.

(3) The design for the internal mechanisms of the toilet in my main floor bathroom isn't used anymore. Mostly because to replace the worn out seals that are making my toilet run every hour or so requires you to remove the tank. Now the question is how long can I stand listening to it run before I go through the headache of ordering the special replacement parts, draining all the water, disassembling it, replacing the parts and reassembling it (and crossing my fingers that it still works)? All the modern ones pop off from the inside of the tank without any tools so I was thinking it would be a trip to Lowe's and 5 minutes of work, but then again I thought my two-day washer/dryer adventure was going to be three hours. I'm not sure if my house doesn't like me or if this is it's way of being affectionate . . .

In any case, I hope everyone had a great weekend. :)

Labels: amusement, holiday

Overheard at a buffet tonight:

Customer: Is the food here any good?
Manager (cheerful): It's very good.
Customer: My friend Ray works here, and he keeps trying to get me to try it. He says it's- . . .
Manager (icy): Ray doesn't work here anymore.
Customer: . . .
Manager: That will be $6.50.
Employee (muttering): I wish I didn't work here anymore.

And, awhile later:

Customer 2: Can I get a to-go box?
Employee: This is a buffet. There will be no food carried out! How do people not get the concept of a buffet?!

Labels: overheard

But now it's cold again. Silly winter.

Before that, however, we had a nice weekend. Except for Saturday, which rained me out of working on my yard, so I spent 5 hours at work preparing a report that's due tomorrow. There's excitement for you.

Sunday I spent babysitting. I took the twins to the local miniature-hedge-maze park (waist-high to me but perfect for them), where they contented themselves for a few hours. Then I pulled a rather sneaky April Fools Day prank on Lane. For those "Princess Bride" fans, Lisa and I have dubbed this "the sound of ultimate suffering." Someday she'll start pranking me back and then I'll probably regret this. (I swear though, Lane, if I ever come home and my iMac is encased in Jell-O, you're going to be in big trouble . . .)

Linde, for those curious, is doing well. She sent me a picture yesterday I affectionately dubbed the "Night of the Living Dead" photo. She sent me one today that's *much* better (just a faint red line on her face). :)

Labels: amusement, holiday, lane, miscellany, twins

Holy crap. This is the last news I expected to come out of Apple and the digital rights management crowd. I railed about the lock down of Apple's ACC format to iTunes as targeting the wrong audience years ago when I first signed up, so this just shocks me. I wonder if they're actually going to sell MP3s or if it will still be ACC without digital rights management.

Hell is freezing over.

Labels: computers, music