Like Jennifer's, our ac is not working. This is bad when the highs for the next week are supposed to be 90ish. So far the only repair guy who called us back can't come until monday afternoon. So when their ad says they work weekends, that doesn't mean they can fit you in. Can we come stay with you? (You need only consider this request if you have good ac.)

Bush Seeks 'New Strategy' for American Forces

A new strategy is certainly needed.

We should be prepared to defend our national security within reason. Not all eventualities are cost effective to prepare against. And we have to decide how much international peace keeping, 'nation-building', and justice work we're going to do. Probably it needs to be scaled down and done more cooperatively with other nations, or at least with them paying their fair share of the bills.

We certainly owe military personnel good salaries, benefits, and housing. However, we should probably also reduce military personnel.

This reminds me of the article in the recent Wired about the Joint Forces Strike Fighter. It'd be nice to have, it's cool, but we probably shouldn't spend any more money on it. Let's skip ahead to the next generation, unmanned fighters. Our existing fighters can do the job until then.

We need to reduce weapons systems. We don't need the state of the art. It isn't cost effective. We're already a far superior military force to any in the world.

We certainly don't need a missle defense system that may not work. Again, it isn't cost effective. We could pay a lot of 1 billion $ ransoms and still have money left over.

Morale is a big concern and it should be improved. This could especially be done with clarified goals (along with the already mentioned financial improvements).

There you have it.

I think the thing Eric and I most have in common (at least that I know about so far) is hating Wal-Mart. How could I not know before that this site exists?

Eric's got some commentary about the stadium in Memphis. I've been thinking:

We in the US should do what Canadians usually do: no more public money for highest-level professional sports venues. If the owners are losing money, they need to pay their players less. That's the bottom line. As long as the market includes public money for stadia, the market will bear these salaries. Take out the public money and the market will readjust. That's what should happen.

Another point (and I'm shaky on the tax code here, so help me out if i need it): why do companies get to write off advertising? That why they can afford these luxury boxes that no one else can. And also the naming rights. The whole thing is getting obscene. I should just stop watching and following. We'll see...

Found the web 100 on rfinney's page. Look's interesting. However, it's got those annoying pop-under ads, so be warned.

Found my page on rfinney's page via my referrer logs. His page is sort of Robot Wisdom style (at least in my mind). Glad I made the cut.

How popular is your name? Mine is 1647th in the US. Pretty popular (via James via Tim).

Now I see why I like to read James. He and I grew up exactly alike:

How did I make it through adolescence and young manhood with my sensitivity intact? I wrote lots of poetry, most bad, some good. I saw a lot of serious films and read a lot of serious books, and talked seriously with my closest friends about them. I made a lot of girl friends (usually with the objective of removing that space between the words) who were able to help me hone my listening skills. And I kept a journal. Essential survival tactics. One has to train oneself to articulate feelings or else those feelings stop coming.

Okay, I'm back. Did you miss me? I know it's been a while. I just, frankly, ran out of gas. I was in Chicago, taking this class, running back to Iowa on the weekends, didn't have my own computer, etc. etc. etc. It was a good break from routine life, but now I'm ready for a little routine again.

Article on solar surfing technology.

Wholey Mackerel! i forgot to mention the warm goat cheese appetizer. That was, like, the whole reason we went there. Tasty.

Since I'm comitted to logging every bad thing about WalMart I come across, I give you Eric.

Well, Christine and I met John 13 for dinner and a good time was had by us (me and Christine. I will not presume to speak for John. He said he had a good time, but, hey, you've almost got to say that, right?). We went to Cafe28 and it was very yummy. I had the Cuban Pork with carmelied onions and rice and beans. It had that tangy sweet and vinegary marinade I'm coming to associate with Caribbean food.

Anyway, good conversation with John. He might say I dogged him on Libertarianism too early in the conversation, but I was really only trying to be funny.

John brought his camera and some of the pictures of me and Christine weren't goofy. I'll let you know when they pop up.

Sadly, Jennifer was unable to make it.

We dropped him off at his house afterwards, so we got to see the home of 13 Labs. John said some of his neighbors call it 'the hippy house', though I don't see why. Looked nice.

My wife, however, will not let us move to Chicago. I suppose she is right.

More on Chicago later, including our visit to the Art Institute.

Gratuitous link: we're staying and studying at North Park University, associated with our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church..

Today's Word Spy word of the day is PowerPointlessness: "In a PowerPoint presentation, the fancy transitions, sounds, and other effects that have no discernible purpose, use, or benefit."

Funny (via Jason).

I suppose that another continuing series here is going to be what I would call "vitamins in the shampoo"; the nonsensical combination of unrelated features in a single product for no reason other than that it sounds good in advertising. Vitamin-fortified shampoo is certainly not harmful but it does no good, either. The ostensible purpose of it is to "nourish the cells which make up hair", but in fact those cells are dead. There's nothing to nourish.

Funny (from Steven).

Here's something interesting: I'm sitting in class and playing the Red Storm Rising scenario for Civilization. I've started twice as NATO. It would be interesting to start as the Warsaw Pact. But I can't bring myself to do it. Wonder if I'll feel the same way in the morning.

Oh yeah, I'm coming at you live from Chicago, IL. It's warmer here than I wanted it to be, but, hey, I'm not complaining, because I'm out of Sauna, I mean Tulsa. No great shakes today, but tomorrow night we're taking the El down to the Loop to go the Art Institute. Right on! Should I wear my Art Institue tshirt? We'll see.

This is kind of fun: the D&D Online Alignment Test (via Skot on MetaFilter (with funny comments). I came out Neutral Good. I'd be lawful good if the law were lawful, but it ain't.

Off to Chicago today. I should be able to log from there. Talk to you soon.

Remember when I was talking about 'magnanimous' and 'equanimous'? I hope so, because I can't find the entry. Anyway, the other end of the scale is pusillanimous. It just came to me the other day. It means 'small souled' or 'cowardly'.

The Boston Marriage. An article in Ms. Magazine describes the author's choice to live with a beloved friend rather than a sexual partner. The arrangement differs from a typical roommate situation in that the two people involved take care of each other and socialize together like a couple traditionally would, and are even considering raising a child together - yet they are heterosexual and have lovers that don't interfere with their partnership. For straight people that don't want to live alone forever but are disillusioned with marriage... could this be the social institution of the future? (via hazyjane on MetaFilter (including comments))

Interesting. Some of the comments point toward the kind of family a church is supposed to provide.

The AFI Top 100 Heart Pounding Movies (via caraig on MetaFilter). Not surprisingly, the public thought differently: their top 10. Raiders is probably my top pick.

Ugh. Got offered tickets today but had to turn them down to work. Rats.

"In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

I've been doing some research on HP Lovecraft and his Cthulu mythos. It's interesting. Some of his stories are out on the web, but there's some concern about copyright. I'll quote only a small section without the link, and you can look them up if you want to.

They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. This was that cult, and the prisoners said it had always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him.

I really like the idea that truth and reality are so terrible that they cause insanity, that sanity is a crutch, our anthropic making-sense-of-the-world.

I started at Chaosium. They make 'The Call of Cthulu' role playing game.

I asked Nathan how seat belt laws, insurance, and the cost to society play out in his political and economic philosophy, and he graciously replied.

Back at the Open today. I wasn't planning on it, but my boss called and asked if we could have our weekly face2face meeting out there, since he had two tickets. What was I supposed to say?

We saw Ernie Ells and Tom Lehman tee off on hole 1 and saw Notah Begay and the Swedish guy with the funked out look practicing putting.

Well, I went to the Open yesterday. It was very hot! Still, it was cool to see what goes on. I'm don't play golf at all. I watch it a little and mostly follow Tiger's exploits from a distance.

We didn't seem him, by the way. Let's just get that out in the open.

We did follow Sergio Garcia on holes 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. It was okay. Also passed Nick Faldo.

The tickets I was given included admission to a corporate hospitality tent. It was air conditioned and featured all the food you can eat and all the drink you can, well, you know. They also had brownies and three different kinds of Haagen-Dasz bars. We availed ourselves coming and going.

It was cool to see, but I wouldn't have paid the 35$ myself, not to mention the 100$ for real rounds starting tomorrow.

My friend Mike said they had more people for the practice round on Monday than they had at the final the last time there was a major in town. Call it the Tiger Effect.

When I told the receptionist where I was going she said, 'Let me know if you see him.' You don't even have to say his name. The man is _the_ golf superstar.

Man my kids were crabby this morning. They cried for Momma and Daddy around 545. We settled them back down, but I don't think they went to sleep. We got them out of bed after 8. I ran from the house screaming (not really).

I just got tickets for the US Open today. Pretty cool, huh?

It's here in town this week. The rumors and celebrity sightings are flying. My friend's son saw Tiger Woods at Braum's (ice cream) last night. Someone else said Tiger and Michael Jordan rented out a sushi place for a private party last night.

The Sweaties: Cast your vote for sweatshop of the year. Must read (and laugh).

I like Rick Reilly's writing, even though I don't always agree with his views. Christine always reads his column first when we get SI. Here's one I liked on Kerry Collins' struggle with alcoholism. It inspired me to forgive Kerry for quitting the Pathers (much to his relief) (via agunn via, you know, Zach'sMind)

Mark's got a bunch of nice Thoreau quotes. My favorite (at the risk of inciting hatred):

I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

This quote is not true for me, but I'll tell you what, I get a lot more nothing or worthless advice that I get valuable earnest advice. So there.

maura dot com is very well designed, very simple, and features powerful prose - dense in the best sense (via Zach'sMind on MetaFilter).

another small site: tweedlebug (also from Zach'sMind. And there are other small sites on the MetaFilter thread).

Cool. Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece. Most of the pictures are worth clicking to see the full view.

Wow. I haven't done a virtual tour with IPIX before. Pretty neat. make sure you move the picture around.

The Temple takes my breath away.

(I also posted to MetaFilter. If you like this link, check over there for comments.)

What's your favorite deep thought (via BGM on MetaFilter)? Mine:

If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.

One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to DisneyLand, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said, "DisneyLand burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real DisneyLand, but it was getting pretty late.

If you were a cowboy, and you were pulling some guy behind your horse by a rope, and you looked back and he was reading a magazine, I bet you'd be pretty mad.

What famous people (esp. actors/resses) were born on your birthday (via Zach's Mind on MetaFilter)? They only mildly interesting ones I have are Cuba Gooding Jr and Tia Carrere (I said mildly). But get this, I share a birthday and anniversary with Jim Bakker! Yikes!

Christine's got Daisy Fuentes and Sophie Marceau (both born in 1966), RuPaul, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Danny DeVito, Lorne Michaels, Lauren Hutton, Martin Scorsese, and Shelby Foote. Christine has a much more interesting celebrity birthday than me.

But I do also have Isaac Asimov.

Where do you fall on the political compass? Some of the question are really good and interesting. I fall in the Libertarian Left, in good company with Gandhi. Where do you fall (via Nathan via Lia)

I asked Steven "why shouldn't Windows be on a chip? or at least something like PCMCIA? do OSs work best as software? why? wouldn't it work faster if more of the core was hardwired? couldn't add-ons and fixes still be done?" and he graciously answered.

Nathan has interesting commentary today on the Spanish-American War.

I might send a brilliant career card, if it weren’t sponsored by Lexus.

Annie Dillard (interesting, and not particularly flattering).

Brilliant Careers

I spent some time reading the Salon Brilliant Careers article on Ursula K LeGuin.

Now that I've read a fair chunk of her stuff, I feel compelled to read it all, to engage completely with her thought, though I don’t believe a lot of what she believes.

I like her regionalism idea, that you need to be rooted somewhere local. It’s important.

The Book of the Century: interesting, loooong Salon article on Tolkien (via Jennifer 13).

"I rarely remember a book about which I have had such violent arguments," WH Auden wrote. "Nobody seems to have a moderate opinion: either, like myself, people find it a masterpiece of its genre or they cannot abide it, and among the hostile there are some, I must confess, for whose literary judgment I have great respect ... I can only suppose that some people object to Heroic Quests and Imaginary Worlds on principle; such, they feel, cannot be anything but light 'escapist' reading."

Tolkien issued his own Great Refusal to the myth of Enlightenment, preferring the enlightenment of myth.

Germaine Greer defines the central characteristic of Tolkienian literature as "flight from reality." This is true enough if you understand the ideological content of her terms, so that "flight" means "thoroughgoing rejection" and "reality" means "the accepted liberal narrative of material and political progress."

I don't believe for a moment that it is the best book of the 20th century, or even that such comparisons are meaningful. But it is a distinctive, even definitive, modern work of rebellion against modernity and, in the words of Tolkien's publisher and friend, Rayner Unwin, "a very great book in its own curious way

And, for all of you libertarian-leaners out there:

"My political beliefs lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs)"

On the smart front: Charlotte voters strike down arena referendum. I used to live there, and I'm glad.

``People are concerned about a living wage and affordable housing in this city and not an arena,'' said Donnie Garris, a Baptist minister and spokesman for the group Helping Empower Local People, which also opposed the referendum.

I was a marginal member of HELP's clergy caucus when I lived there. It's a really good community organizing group. Look at the things they've accomplished - scroll down front page.

Nathan has some really good commentary on strikes and the government:

I believe that government shouldn’t intervene in the market unless there is a case of market failure. As cited before, an example is that of the negative externality impacting the environment, or in English, the hidden costs of pollution. This is a market failure, because the market fails to account for the cost to the environment of the cost of cleanup and general damage to the environment. How do you value a mountain that doesn’t exist anymore because a mining company removed it and dumped the rubble in a valley? Thus, the government should intervene on behalf of the environment.

Labor conflict is not a market failure. Labor conflict is the inevitable result of a heirarchical relationship between the money that runs business and the people that run business.

The government shouldn’t be involved in labor disputes, except to ameliorate dangers to public health that arise.

And, I would add, that if the government does get involved, it also has a responsibilty to those its overriding to get their concerns addressed. That would make the government think twice about intervention.

Interesting reflections on community by Chris:

Etiquette presupposes a few conditions: that there is a community to talk about such issues, that there are people invested enough in the community to take the time to debate, that the community is flexible and open to discussion, and that people see value in such discussion. When a community (and I count any practice where such discussion can take place as a community) ceases to foster debate and instead languishes in ennui or becomes so regimented and rules-oriented that there is no need for discussion, that community is effectively dead, living a zombie-like-existence, displaying the illusion of life.

The health of a community depends on its ability to walk the rail between utter disinterest in norms and blinding loyalty to dead rules.

Chris and Nathan can quote Say Anything at will, as can I.

He's wiggin man, he's wiggin (wiggedy wig)
got dissed in the Malibu, now he don't know what to do.

When it works fast and right, Blogger is delightful.

Steven has an excellent essay on terrorism.

I take a little exception with his definition of terms. To me, the broad term he defines as terrorism, sowing disruption and discord, would be defined as something more like ‘resistance’, broken down into sub-categories like ‘non-violent resistance’ and ‘violent resistance’, the latter including terrorism. But that’s a small distinction. Still, it seems that ‘terrorism’ is best defined as ‘using terror as a weapon’.

Steven’s essay gives me occasion to write something I’ve been thinking about for a long time: Terrorism sometimes gets a bad rap. Or, to put it another way, terrorism isn’t what you think.

Let me explain. Terrorists often act in that way because they feel they have no other recourse. And that is often functionally true. Think about how few nations and people-groups have a voice with the US. Could they affect change by conventional, legal means if they wanted to? No.

What’s more, our inattention, or the inattention of the global community, can amount to violence. We sell arms to Israel unrestrictedly, but ask them not to kill Palestinian civilians. Guess what. They do anyway.

US corporations perpetrate crimes with violent outcomes (say, for example, unsafe working conditions) on all kinds of people.

Who can un-hypocritically blame people who react violently?

So, to go back to my intentionally controversial statement: Terrorism sometimes gets a bad rap. Maybe illegal, violent reaction against civilians is sometimes reasonable in response to ‘legal’ violent action against civilians.

I say ‘reasonable’. The Christian ethic which I profess seeks to go beyond what is reasonable. But I’m trying to work here within the boundaries of what might be a typical, common sense ethic.

And the other statement: Terrorism isn’t what you think. Maybe our government and our corporations commit de facto terrorism all the time. Are How can you reasonably argue with violent retaliation?

This argument, of course, extends to other governments in similar situations.

What do you think?

from my journal:


You are a good Father. i know how much i love my children and how much i'm above them in understanding and ability and Our relationship is similar, but infinitely more in both directions: i am more infantile and You are more mature.

i feel like i've built lots of bad stuff, lots of ill-advised stuff, lots of foolish stuff on my faith. i feel i've built with a lot of hay and stubble that's going to burn. i hope i've built with a little silver and gold. and i feel i've lost perspective radically. so i just need to sit back and not do any building for a while. the last time i did this kind of 'retooling' was 10 years ago. i was even more misguided then, so i guess that's encouraging.

in a similar vein, You say 'come to me all you who are heavy laden and labor and i will give you rest. take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for i am gentle and humble of heart and You will find rest for your souls. for my burden is light, and my way is easy.'

it's easy by comparison. i should know. i go not-Your-way a lot. and it's hard. i don't get anything done. it's like oxen without a yoke - a lot of hard work and nothing gets done. you think plowing's hard? try it without a yoke. it's necessary.

Your way is easy by comparison. it's still hard work. but you also get some work done.

part of my problem is 'what do i trust in? how can i trust You when i don't know what to expect?'

well, the simple answer is true: that's right, i don't know what to expect. and Your ways are a lot higher above mine than mine are above my children's. i have to trust You, that You'll do what's best. it's simple to express, but hard to get. 'You're just plain hard to get.'

i'm sick to death of my cerebral 'faith'. 'the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.' 'show me your faith by what you believe and i'll show you my faith by what i do.'

maybe my spiritual disciplines need to be active - love and outreach and giving and stewardship. enough academic studying and intellectual journalling. now i could also use more emotional discipline.

another way to think of devotions/discipline is more of the practice/work out model. i work out to get stronger. it's not easy. but i'm building muscle. and i'm getting stronger. same thing with 'devotions'. i don't need to work my head anymore. it's strong enough. my head is big enough. i need to work my heart and my hands. i need to get more of the stuff in my head down into my heart.

another big deal is going to be - how do i pray? i need to pray, just differently.

And, of course, the radio-pop-song 'Imitation of Life' is good. The lyrics aren't pop.

I agree largely with Steven's assessment of the Israel-Palestine problem. I haven't written about this for a while because I'm so sick of it and, frankly, hopeless.

I don't think the current reprisals are tit-for-tat. My impression is that they're usually more like rocks against American-made strike helicopters.

That's why I give Palestine the edge here. Though they are not guiltless, they are the underdogs, by far.

Steven's military accumen is considerable. His assessment of the situation between China and Taiwan, militarily speaking.

Disappear - also a good song.

Have you seen usability.gov? Just the url dragged me over there. Curious.

All the way to Reno (you're gonna' be a star) - good song.

Well, we had that new worship service on satpm. It's a beginning, a humble one. Ryan reviewed it. At least we've started and we've got something to work with. All the preaching and officiating went well enough. Went home and took a nap.

Had a big day with the kids yesterday: ran in the sprinkler, swam in the neighbor's kiddie pool, friend Josh came over, played in the back yard, ate ice cream, the kids took a bath together, went to bed late.

We had a great time at the zoo friday night. It was a members only thing, which was great because there were so few people there.

The best friend in the world just happens to be my best friend Kurt Graves.

In that vein, he sent me REM's new album, Reveal. I'm enjoying it. I have the rest of the major albums (ie, not limited editions, imports, etc.). I'm a big fan.

REMHQ

Stayed up late finishing 'The New Jedi Order:Balance Point'. I'm reading them out of sequence. I read the first one, and this is the latest one (I think). It was pretty good, well written. I enjoyed the story.

However, I'm getting a little tired of the New Republic and the Jedi getting their butts kicked from planet to planet by the Yuzhan Vong. I'm glad I haven't read 6 books worth of it. I'll probably only read one or two in the middle.

More Science Friday:

The Official String Theory Web Site (via Rob on 1142.org)

How about something a little more personal for the weblog? I sense you asking this question. Okay, here it is, a little, personal update from Sean.

The big thing on my mind is ‘newcity’. We’re starting a new, satpm night worship service tomorrow night. I’m in charge. This satpm I’m leading worship and preaching. I won’t usually do that much, though. Will people come? Will it minister to people? Stay tuned.

Also, I’m preaching at 3 services sunday morning, and maybe officiating communion. That won’t be so bad.

The kids are loads of fun. Elizabeth has these whole routines about me and Wil being sick, being scared of thunder and Scooter the carrot of VeggieTales. It gets tiresome repeating them all the time with her, but they’re pretty amazing. We’re going to the zoo this afternoon for members only night. We hope to get some good tours in, but we’ll have to see if the kids can hang with it.

I’ve read RA Salvatore’s ‘The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime’ and Ursula K LeGuin’s ‘The Telling’ recently. Pretty good.

re: Fred Rogers quote above:

I met Fred in person once and he was totally awesome and he didn't have to be cuz it wasn't a photo op or anything.

he brought out the Daniel Striped Tiger and King Friday puppets for some of the kids we had with us and he was doing the voices and i went to shake hands with King Friday and i said 'your majesty' and he said (in the voice) 'i see you know how to greet a king.'

he's the king, man.

fil! posted Conan O'Brien's Harvard 2000 graduating class address on MetaFilter. Parts of it are funny.

I wondered back onto MetaFilter today after failures and outages. Funny to be away for so long. I haven't missed it much, I guess. I've gone off that line with some of the community I found over there.

Anil redesigned, and it looks nice. I especially like the buttons at top in his colors that change to proprietary colors when hovered.

Found Cris W in my referrer logs. Thanks man!

Chris is back up with res publica, but there’s not much content, yet. Welcome back to the world of weblogging, Chris.

Woody’s Watch is a good, objective critique of many different, commonly used products including MS Office, Windows, Access, and Project and Palm, among others. Here’s his very helpful assessment of Office XP (via Robot Wisdom).

More for your 'Mr Rogers is the Man' file:

You see, I believe that appreciation is a holy thing, that when we look for what's best in the person we happen to be with at the moment, we're doing what God does. So, in loving and appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something truly sacred.
A few years ago, I was asked to be part of a White House meeting about children and television. Many broadcasters from all over the country were there. Since I was supposed to be one of the speakers, I was seated beside Mrs. Clinton, who afterward said, "Congratulations," and was whisked away to her next meeting. But as I was leaving that enormous room, I heard something from one of the military guards, who was all dressed up in white and gold looking like a statue. I heard him whisper, "Thanks, Mr. Rogers." So I went over to him, noticed that his eyes were moist, and I asked him, "Thanks for what?" "Well, sir," he said, "as I listened to you today, I started to remember my grandfather's brother. I haven't thought about him in years. I was only seven when he died, but just before that, he gave me his favorite fishing rod. I've just been thinking, maybe that's why I like fishing so much and why I like to show the kids in my neighborhood all about it." Well, as far as I'm concerned, the major reason for my going to Washington that day was that military guard and nourishing the memory of his great uncle.

via Higgy

It occurs to me that I had a dream the other night that included Mike Mills (REM). Cool.

Science Friday (I don't try, it just happens!)

Fossilized remains of a plant-eating dinosaur, the second most massive animal ever to walk the Earth, have been unearthed in a desert oasis in Egypt.

InterPlanetary Internet Special Interest Group

Interplanet Janet, she's a galaxy girl
there's never been a planet Janet hasn't seen.