05/11/2008

I likes them fresh and wriggling, you nasty little Hobbitses



(Taken by my pastor, Jeff Meyers, at the Men and Boys campout...)

05/08/2008

Glen and Marketa

05/03/2008

Random Stuff

1. On Wednesday morning, Ann and I visited a "special school" to see what it was all about for our autistic son. It was a very hard thing to see. I was very impressed with our society in one respect though - that all children are entitled to an education and that this was being taken seriously even for kids who literally had IV bags hanging behind them. The school allowed kids to attend up to the age of 21, and allowed them to learn life skills and job skills. The wing with kids our son's age was more like a normal elementary school, but there were only about six or seven kids in each room with two teachers. It was a very depressing visit too. I was especially affected by the photos from their prom. Certainly the kids were enjoying themselves, but it is hard to explain what it is like to imagine one's own son in those photos. In one room were kids with autism, and they were all walking around the room, talking to themselves, shaking their hands, etc. They were being treated, of course - this was the milling around period before lunchtime, I would guess. Wow. Anyway, on the way out of the school after visiting, I turned to Ann and said two things: 1. "He's not going here," and 2. "Is there any beer in the fridge?" He's just kind of between being in a special classroom and being in a regular classroom. But after the IEP meeting on Thursday, I think we both feel better about how the public sixth grade will be for him next year. The school is set up in a very providential way for an autistic kid, and there are plenty of times during the day when they can pull him out for special help in various subjects, speech therapy, etc. So Ann feels much less anxiety about next school year.

2. You've probably read about my proudest moment over at Ann's blog. That was a real achievement. I told Ann that I was prouder at that moment than when I completed my M.Div. or my college degree. Probably because MacGyvering a dishwasher is much more of an immediate accomplishment while getting a degree is much more like a waiting game.

3. My Latin is rusty. Very rusty.

4. I haven't watched Battlestar Galactica from last night, so don't tell me anything that happened.

5. I loved the movie "North and South" - it is based on a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. I could watch it over and over I think. Like all BBC movies, the acting was tremendous from both the men and the women, but they managed to find dudes that are very handsome while using ladies that are rather plain. This is not the Civil war miniseries from the eighties - this is a movie about a Parson who is non-conforming and when asked to publicly own the Book of Common Prayer leaves the ministry and moves his family to the North of England to an industrial town. Anyway, you'll love it.

05/01/2008

I've Gotta Remember That Gracious Comeback

04/29/2008

Vampire Weekend M79



(you can hear Conan bark somewhere in the middle)

She Disagrees with Donne

Weird Unexplained Boom

This story is so fascinating. Gotta wonder what this thing is... Maybe there is a stargate in Maryland?

The Intelligent Design Movement



Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to a rudimentary computer program with pre-programmed answers. She's good at evading the question; I will definitely choose her for my press secretary someday in the White House. But I'll make her wear something besides that Ikea polo.

04/28/2008

Random Things

1. WTS fallout - documents released, Joel Garver gives his thoughts.

2. Jeremiah Wright speaks to the National Press Club this morning. He basically offered an apologia for his life and ministry. He is very epistemologically self-conscious... His section at about 28 minutes where he talks about the relationship between theology and anthropology contains good insights, but also some errors that tend towards a real subjectivism. Sometimes two people cry out to the same God, ignorant of their respective sins towards each other. But, there is a good kind of divisiveness that Wright brings to the table; Jesus came to bring a sword. Don't miss the Q&A - it is easy to see why this guy, whatever you think of him, is a leader of men.

3. This no-till farming stuff seems very interesting to me - in the photo that Wikipedia uses, I wonder how they prepared that ground where they are planting the corn. It doesn't look tilled, but it looks pressed down and chopped up... Maybe they just mowed it? Any farmers able to comment?

4. Daniel Deronda is a fascinating story. It is all at once very "multicultural" while also being, for lack of a better word "kinist". The thing I like about it, though, is that love conquers the ethnic differences between some of the main characters, but in other characters, gaining an ethnic identity kindles a sense of purpose and obligation to "one's people" in another character. It shows at least a few ways how one can be open towards other cultures while also having a particular cultural identity. It is that latter thing that is so hard, especially given the insights of "whiteness philosophy" that demonstrates how the dominant members of a society will see their own culture as normative rather than realize they have a culture too. Anyway, fascinating story - I had no idea that it was such a stimulating story, really only expecting to see a good period romance. Note, I didn't read the book, just saw the BBC version.

5. Our yard is full of bunnies. I watched a mother bunny run back and forth today with several bundles of grass, lovingly crafting a nest for her yet to be born babies. I also saw a few bunnies chase each other amorously, I assume. And the cardinals are all paired up and taking turns eating at our suet feeder. Maybe the starlings are not gentlemen and ladies, but the cardinals seem so. And so do the woodpeckers.

04/26/2008

The Sign Said 'No Pets'

04/24/2008

To A Louse
On seeing one on a lady's bonnet at church.
by Robert Burns

Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gauze and lace;
Tho', faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.

Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunn'd by saunt an' sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her-
Sae fine a lady?
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some poor body.

Swith! in some beggar's haffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals and nations;
Whaur horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle
Your thick plantations.

Now haud you there, ye're out o' sight,
Below the fatt'rels, snug and tight;
Na, faith ye yet! ye'll no be right,
Till ye've got on it-
The verra tapmost, tow'rin height
O' Miss' bonnet.

My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out,
As plump an' grey as ony groset:
O for some rank, mercurial rozet,
Or fell, red smeddum,
I'd gie you sic a hearty dose o't,
Wad dress your droddum.

I wad na been surpris'd to spy
You on an auld wife's flainen toy;
Or aiblins some bit dubbie boy,
On's wyliecoat;
But Miss' fine Lunardi! fye!
How daur ye do't?

O Jeany, dinna toss your head,
An' set your beauties a' abread!
Ye little ken what cursed speed
The blastie's makin:
Thae winks an' finger-ends, I dread,
Are notice takin.

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

04/23/2008

The Politics of Bigfoot

04/22/2008

Earthquakes, etc.

1. It's so weird how we keep having earthquakes in the midwest. I almost want to stay up all night just so I can feel one, but that seems kind of tasteless or something (a better adjective exists, I know it). Apparently there was one this morning. I sleep like a log, though, so I will no doubt miss today's as well... I keep wondering how many of the people who claim they felt them are just saying they felt them so they'll have a good story to tell. I was pretty suspicious of the yarn I heard the stock boy telling the butcher at the supermarket the other day.

2. I enjoyed the recent BBC "Bleak House" - very well done. Amazing story, with one of the best bad guys I've seen in forever. The evil lawyer... I suppose I should read the novel someday and picture Agent Scully as I do.

3. In one day, one can see three species of woodpeckers in our backyard - the Hairy Woodpecker, the Downy Woodpecker, and the Northern Flicker. It is really a treat to see them nearly every day. The Flickers have been staying away for the past week and a half - I think they've probably nested somewhere nearby and are not straying too far from the nest. I wish I would have had the time to build a Flicker box here at the house before Spring began; they are Ann's favorite bird.

4. I've been fascinated with the bats that swarm overhead every day at sundown. I think they are living in a nearby culvert - part of a flood control canal near our house that has several large tunnels under roads. I think it would be a good place for a bat to nest, but at the same time, I can't really get a visual angle where I can see the top of the tunnel, and there are chain link fences blocking access to the system...

5. Our turtles, Edgar and George, have not made a reappearance this year. So sad. They both escaped from our outdoor turtle enclosure at different times last year. I assumed they wintered in our backyard, perhaps in the mulch pile, but I have not seen them emerge... They were really great turtles.

6. Conan is a real handful. He is the kind of dog who wants to be the alpha dog around here, and so I've been having to really squelch some of his attempts at dominance. I think he is learning. He definitely knows his name now, and is pretty good at obeying in most situations. I still have to work with him on walking on a leash without pulling me all over the place. And his bladder must be the size of a grape, sheesh.

7. Gas prices are so demoralizing. When you look at the price, and see over six bucks, yet the gallons are not quite even to two yet, it is just a sinking feeling. When Ann and I visited St. Louis in 1996 to decide whether or not to attend Covenant Seminary gas was 69 cents a gallon - I kid you not. I remember joking about how high on the hog we would live in St. Louis if gas stayed that price. Of course, Gas hasn't changed in value that much - the dollar has lost so much. Compared to the Euro since its inception, for instance, I think the dollar has lost half of its value or thereabouts. Pitiful. As long as electronics were getting cheaper, we all went on like nothing was wrong. But now that Milk is 4.50 a gallon (and that's for the hormone kind) and Gas is 3.50 a gallon, it is harder to ignore the tax on the average person that inflation inflicts.

8. I saw the movie "Expelled" last weekend. It was very interesting and Ben Stein was a good guy to make it. I thought showing the make-up artist getting Dawkins ready for the interview was really the only unfair part. I know that many sites are alleging that the interviews were conducted in such a way as the purpose for the interviews was slightly concealed. That doesn't bother me entirely; I think the Darwinists who were interviewed should have to own their words, whatever the pretense of the interview. My favorite part is when Dawkins floats the possibility of detecting design in biological life - design by an extra-terrestrial intelligence. I have not seen a really good, rock-solid definition of "intelligent design" but like the court said about pornography, we know it when we see it. Mount Rushmore is obviously designed by intelligence, and it stands out from other mountains. Whether that insight can be applied scientifically or even philosophically, it seems to be a faculty of humans - design detection. Anyway, the best part about Stein's approach is that he focuses more on the transition from non-life to life rather than on the development of biological forms. Also, he is not afraid to look at the Darwinism / Atheism relationship, the Darwinism / eugenics relationship, and the materialism / ethics relationship. Dawkins is the most consistent in rejecting ethics altogether, but some of the other hard-core neo-Darwinists were of the same admission. Obviously the movie is not designed to present and sustain a hardcore rational argument from beginning to end. It will be seen as unfair possibly, or oversimplified. But at the same time, some parts of the issue are fairly simple. Are humans simply the most successful animals on the planet? If so, then to what ethical obligations do we really hold animals? Human intuition about development, about ethics, and about design all seem to conflict in many ways...

04/21/2008

She's Hiding Her Loyalties

04/18/2008

Friday.... Symbol of the Fleetingness of Life

1. Got a lot done this week, but not enough. Perhaps that's the way everyone feels.

2. I bought some "praline pecans" in a small package at a gas station today on the way to teach because I forgot to eat breakfast. Big mistake. Man, these things are soulless... No spice to interact with the sweet. I think they were "Lance's" brand.

3. Annie returns today! Her father is doing great, and I can't wait to see her. A week is too long to be without my Annie. I bought a watermelon to celebrate her return. It is so sweet. And so cold.

4. I have the A/C on in the house now.

5. I did not feel the earthquake this morning, but I wanted to note it here so that I can remember what day it happened. St. Louis suffered only one bit of damage that I've heard about - a little concrete fell from an already rickety overpass. Hello political candidates - how about a Teddy Roosevelt style "let's fix America's crumbling infrastructure" plank rather than all the other stuff.

6. Been using speech recognition software for a few days and it has increased my productivity (in writing my dissertation) by quite a bit because I can hold a book and "talk about it" into the computer, then later go back and clean up what I said into better prose. The hardest part for me is the whole "crappy first draft" stage of writing. I want to write finished prose, so it is nice to have what amounts to an amaneusis sitting here with me. I have no idea how to properly spell "amaneusis" by the way.

7. Conan's hair is growing out. I'm glad about that because I was wondering where the "soft-coated" part would come into play in the "Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier" breed name. I think the pound must have done a quickee grooming job on him to make him presentable. He might also have had matted hair that they needed to cut out...

8. I love the very practical clothes in the Jane Austen movies for the men. The men are always wearing these high boots that look like they would repel any snakebite you could throw at them.

9. I really want to see Ben Stein's new movie. I hope to get a chance this weekend. Obviously it is propaganda, but it is *my* kind of propaganda :) And anyway, aren't all of us postmoderns supposed to believe that almost every statement is propaganda?

10. The police in America are resorting to tazers way too frequently, to judge by all the stories in the press about unjust tazing incidents. People should not be scared of the police - every citizen is higher in rank than any police officer - they are servants of order, not our bosses. Further, I object strongly to the recent police tendency to refer to non-police as "civilians" as though the police have been militarized. I am not a civilian in relation to a police officer. He is a citizen, I am a citizen, and if anything, I am higher in rank than he is. Intimidation, fear, force - these are the tools available to policemen in order to keep order, not to establish some kind of pecking order.

11. I heard a funny new moon landing conspiracy theory the other day. The guy who offered the theory was a former NASA guy who specialized in developing space photographs. He talked about how difficult it was to shield cameras from radiation in space - that the advent of digital cameras has been a blessing because they no longer have to worry about the radiation exposing the film. Apparently, a lot of his work involved the huge disappointment of getting back film that was either exposed or damaged by space radiation. And that's from cameras that didn't even go through the Van Allen belt as the one on the moon landing did... Here's his theory - we actually *did* land on the moon, but our purposes on the moon were military and strategic and were secret. Then, the *photos* of the moon landing were faked on earth. Pretty funny.

12. Alright, gotta run. For those of you who love fruit, the seedless watermelons (size of a basketball) at Schnuck's market in St. Louis right now are very very tasty. I was blown away.