Monthly Archives: September 2007

How do you like them apples?

The little beauty inspired a desire to take a bite from the apples of her cheeks. Of her eyes nothing could be known, except that they must be very large, and that they had magnificent lashes. She was asleep.

She slept with that slumber of absolute confidence peculiar to her age. The arms of mothers are made of tenderness; in them children sleep profoundly.

The above words appear in Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. They refer to Cosette.

The most difficult part of this weekend for me, as I celebrated my 20th high school reunion with a lot of former classmates, was seeing the children, whether they were in photos in wallets, ‘in tow’ or ‘due soon’. Several classmates joked I had the best of both worlds. I could play with my niece and nephews, and then leave them with my brother and sister-in-law.

Don’t get me wrong. I love being Uncle Johnny to three wonderful kids. I do notice they aren’t always wonderful, and I’m happy I’m not the one who has to deal with them at those times. But I’m also not the one that gets to hear the word, “Daddy.”

I’m not as young as I was 10 or 15 years ago, but then again, I’m not too old either. It could still happen. But I see Hwy 40 on the horizon.

On the bright side, I did manage to have a lot of fun during the weekend, and possibly reestablish some old friendships. The most interesting part may have been talking with former classmates I probably never talked to once during the four years of high school. I knew their names, they knew mine, but we weren’t in the same circles. But with 20 years gone, the old cliques no longer mattered.

We were also given a tour of the school this morning. There’s been a lot of recent construction, and there are parts of the school that are radically different, while other parts look exactly as they did 20 years ago.

The Photography room was remodeled three years ago as the darkrooms were turned into closets. The class is of course all digital now – and they have about 20 computers in the room. With a beauty that inspires you to take a bite from the Apples. They were all asleep though, and there was no time in the tour to turn them on.

Don’t count your anniversaries until they hatch

Recent news reports have indicated that statistics show the American divorce rate has continued on the rise. But a recent update says the truth is the reverse. Divorce is at an all time low. Why the difference?

The study apparently asked the question – out of all marriages between 1975 and 1979 – how many had made it to the 25th anniversary mark. The study was conducted in the middle of 2004. Can you see the problem? Half of the marriages in 1979 (The latter half) couldn’t chronologically have made it to 25 years at the time the study was conducted. So all those marriages, whether they had lasted 24.5 years or not, were counted as divorces.

This is being referenced as a ‘glitch’ in the study.

I’m sorry. That’s not a glitch. That’s stupidity. I’m not saying I’m a professional when it comes to research studies, but I think it is common sense to wait until the time period that is being studied has come to an end before analyzing the data.

Don’t count your anniversaries until they hatch

Recent news reports have indicated that statistics show the American divorce rate has continued on the rise. But a recent update says the truth is the reverse. Divorce is at an all time low. Why the difference?

The study apparently asked the question – out of all marriages between 1975 and 1979 – how many had made it to the 25th anniversary mark. The study was conducted in the middle of 2004. Can you see the problem? Half of the marriages in 1979 (The latter half) couldn’t chronologically have made it to 25 years at the time the study was conducted. So all those marriages, whether they had lasted 24.5 years or not, were counted as divorces.

This is being referenced as a ‘glitch’ in the study.

I’m sorry. That’s not a glitch. That’s stupidity. I’m not saying I’m a professional when it comes to research studies, but I think it is common sense to wait until the time period that is being studied has come to an end before analyzing the data.

Banned Books Week

September 29 – October 6 is Banned Books Week.

This is the week all censors love, where everyone is encouraged to go to their local school board or library and demand a book be removed from the reading list, or removed from the shelf. Because no one knows better than us on what is suitable to read, and what isn’t. (It’s the idiots who want to ban good books that give censorship a bad name!)

Personally, I think that book of heresies some refer to as the New Testament should be removed from every library in the land. It’s led way too many people astray for the past couple millenniums, and it’s high time we put a stop to it!

Wait. That’s not what Banned Books Week is about? It’s about letting everyone choose to read the books they want to read? Who comes up with this crap? Probably someone like authors or librarians who have a self-interest in people reading.

It’s just like the great American philosopher, Mark Twain once said. Nobody ever does anything if it’s not in their self-interest.

Pujols

I said it was the only thing I was left rooting for this season, and Pujols is inching closer to doing it, even with a strained calf. Last night he added his 100th RBI of the season, and his 96th run. So with 4 more runs, he’ll be 7 for 7 seasons with 100 RBI, 100 Runs, 30 Homeruns, and a 300 batting average. The only person in baseball history to do it. But he was the only player in baseball history to do it for four seasons.

He only has 4 games to do it in. After one game tonight with the Mets, who are doing well this year, but struggling recently, we will finish off the season against the Pirates, who are competing with Florida for this year’s National League Hoover Awards. So there’s a chance, but it’s small.

I agree

Friend Anarkey on her blog suggested all Christians and Atheists Read this.

I thought about it, and read it anyway, and found I agree completely. All Atheists and Christians are equally silly, and equally wrong. 🙂

Somehow, I don’t think that’s the message intended. Though I laughed at all the images in the article, especially the one in the middle of the last page.

And seriously, it’s a good article. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be linking to it. Even my Tribe has its share of idiots.

Short-term memories

There seems to be some concern among the GOP that Dennis Kucinich’s daughter has a reporting job on DC’s newspaper, The Hill.

They seem to forget Bush’s 1st cousin, John Ellis, of Fox News, back in 2000, who had a lot more responsibility for the decisions the newschannel made on election night than Kucinich’s daughter probably has for the newspaper.

Buy a laptop for a child, get one for yourself

Between Nov 12 and 26, US and Canadian consumers will have an opportunity to spend $400 and send a laptop to a child in a developing nation, and get one for themselves “before Xmas.”

What you do with your laptop is then your choice. Give it to a local school, or charity, or use it yourself. The laptop of course will be very basic, and will not be up to the standards many expect from today’s computers. But that’s not the point.

More information..

If you don’t care about getting the laptop for yourself, you can send a laptop to a child for $200, at anytime following the link above.

Normally these laptops aren’t purchasable by US consumers – that’s the deal being offered for the two weeks in November. You can buy one for yourself if you buy one for charity too.