Thursday, July 14th, 2005, 2305
New HardwareAngela's PC is flaking out. Hangs randomly, in all stages of boot and operation. SMART reports no HD errors, no kernel panics are logged, and I've run extensive tests with memtest86+. RAM appears to be fine. I even swapped out the GeForce2 for a GeForce4 MX4000. Still, it hangs. The PSU voltage even checks out. I believe the motherboard is failing.
So, I bought one of these little Foxconn machines today. $216 shipped, with 512MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM, and a Sempron 2400+ w/heat sink. Built-in sound, video, LAN, USB, and an included memory/flash card reader. The only common component from Angela's old machine will be the DVD-ROM and the hard drive. Should be a sweet little machine. According to one online rumor, the SiS chipset is even Linux friendly.
Wish me luck.
Thursday, 2005, July 7th, 0733
London is burningYep, someone set off some bombs in London today, killing plenty of people. Rumored death count is 50, with 800+ injured. For comparison, according to WHO, Diabetes kills 6 people every minute of every day, somewhere in the world. So, while you were driving in to work today, probably about 90 people died. While I slept last night, a solid 500 people passed on to what I can only hope is a better place. In the time since the September 11 attacks, more than 12 million people have died of diabetes.
I'm heartbroken that our leaders can't devote some resources to trying to cure this. Hundreds of billions of dollars for a war that only a few wanted, while millions die of untreated illness.
If diabetes doesn't float your boat, try heart disease on for size. In 2001, 502189 Americans died of heart disease. (476000 died of cancer). So when you wave your little flag around and say "Remember the twin towers" and "support the troops", give this a little thought: Around 3500 people died on the attack on the world trade centers. 1375 people died of heart disease EVERY DAY IN 2001. 1304 people died of cancer EVERY DAY IN 2002.
The real crime is our leader's lack of vision, lack of fortitude, and lack of willingness to confront these REAL killers.
As I always liked to tell my students: Do the math.
Tuesday, June 28th, 2005, 0742
Kelo vs. New LondonI've been reading the transcript of the Kelo vs. New London case, the one in which the homes were condemned for economic development by a private party. While I don't agree with many applications of eminent domain, it's pretty obvious to me that the lawyer in this case bungled the arguments. Basically, what he appeared to be trying to argue was that it was okay for cities to condemn less beautiful homes and businesses in "bad" areas of town, but it wasn't okay to do that to his clients. He drew a stupid line in the sand where there wasn't enough room for one. The Supreme Court justices skewered him pretty well on it, too. The transcript is at http://www.ij.org/pdf_folder/private_property/kelo/kelo_ussc_transcript.pdf. Here's the deal: I oppose the confiscation of private property for the benefit of another private individual. Things like roads and powerlines are a gray area in my mind, but generally do more good than harm.
It has been established in the courts that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Have a big chunk of property, and you don't want a powerline to go across it, even if that powerline will benefit thousands of people? Tough. You can be over-ruled. In this case, a handful of wealthy individuals were refusing to sell their homes and allow for the construction of a business which could employ hundreds.
The city of Richfield, MN, had this same choice to make a few years ago, when Best Buy wanted to move corporate headquarters to 494/Penn. They got rid of the long-standing car dealerships that had been there, as well as (I believe) some private homes, so they could build the Best Buy mothership. I hope it pays off for them. As always, I sympathize with those being forced to move, and believe that they should always receive maximum market value for their land.
Anyway, after reading the arguments, I have to say that the Supreme Court did the right thing in this case. The lawyer simply argued it wrong.
Sunday, June 26th, 2005, 0857
Go Cheese Ninja!What a great way to prank foxnews. Enjoy! It made me laugh.
Thursday, June 23rd, 2005, 1022
Your house can now be condemned for any reasonUnfortunately, Susette Keto has lost her appeal to the United States Supreme Court. I want you to listen carefully here, because this is probably the only time you'll see me state this: Clarence Thomas was RIGHT. Read about this heinous crime, and the idiotic court decision. This means that if a city wants to put up a new porta-potty, technically, they can take your home, level it, and put in the portajohn. What's their justification? "A toilet in that location may increase overall tax revenues."
This is sick and wrong. I've always opposed government confiscation of property, except when it can be shown that the property in question was gained through illegal means. This throws out any sort of standard on that. Why are they taking these people's homes? Because Pfizer wants a hotel. They're going to take this land, and raze the homes, and lease it to a private corporation for $1 year for 99 years. Does that sound fair to you?
This is legitimized thievery, and it is no different than the local warlord taking your cattle. The only thing that ever stopped warlords was the organization of the populace. When the brits armed themselves, and fought back, the Vikings stopped stealing, and started trading. Wouldn't it be a terrible pity of something bad happened to that Pfizer research facility? It's things like this that make me want to believe in an afterlife, so that I could know that the people who run Pfizer would burn in hell for all eternity.
Thursday, June 23rd, 2005, 0726
Abject sillinessYou know, it's impossible to tell whether someone is dangerous or not, just from a mugshot. So, in light of that Can you tell the serial killer from the inventor of the programming language?. Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005, 0733
My Alma Mater...I graduated from Luther College in 1994. I have seen a disturbing move to the political right among some students, and am disappointed by this. I recently read a whole passel of "Letters to the Editor" in the alumni mag which made mention to such things as "homosexual agenda", and "just because it's a liberal arts college doesn't mean you have to be a liberal." This inspired me to write the following to them:
Dear Editor,
I will admit, I am often remiss in keeping up on the Luther Alumni articles. But I have been reading the Letters to the Editor section of late. I am deeply disturbed by the NeoConservative tone of some recent letters. I recently discovered that MN State Senator Dean Johnson is a Luther Alum, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Senator Johnson has been a voice of reason and moderation in the MN legislature. He has advocated not only better funding for education, but legal protection of the rights of GLBT individuals. When I see phrases such as "homosexual agenda" published in the Luther Alumni magazine, I wonder what has happened to the inviting atmosphere of Luther. I knew gay and lesbian students when I was at Luther, and counted them among my friends. I have to wonder, would the Alumni magazine publish a letter containing the phrase "Zionist Conspiracy" or "Lazy Black"?
Many of my fellow grads no longer stay in touch with the school, perceiving a political shifting to the right. Publishing inflammatory letters is a good way to reinforce their suspicions, and keep them away.
For what it's worth, I seem to remember a certain long-haired hippie who insisted on hanging out with tax-collectors and prostitutes. Of course, that isn't really relative to the concept of accepting gays and lesbians as equals, is it?
Jeremy Anderson '94
I've got a nickle that says they never publish it.
Sunday, June 19th, 2005, 2130
Happy Father's Day!
This weekend was overall good. The alternator failed in my car, on Friday night, and when my dad was helping me put the new one in, I torqued on the wrong bolt and managed to knock out my A/C. Just in time for summer. I'll have to pull the compressor out of the car, get the remains of the bolt out with an EZ-out, and then have my dad tap the compressor for the next size up. Urgh.
On the upside, I used Guardz (made by Zinsser) to seal up the shredded drywall in Thorwald's room. It went on _fast_--we got the whole room done in just a couple of hours, and that left time for me to learn how to reglaze a window, and to swap out the alternator. I like A/C just fine, but can live without it. An alternator, on the other hand, is a completely critical component. So, at least I'm charging my battery now. I got a faceful of R-134A when I blew the line off the compressor (by twisting the head off a bolt), and I can tell you this: It doesn't taste good.
So Thor's room is ready for taping and mudding, then floor sanding. For Father's Day, Angela & Thor got me a CD/MP3/USB Flash drive deck for the Geo, which is great--except for the fact that Geo used a screwy wiring harness for their proprietary-format AM/FM/Sucktastic radio. But I can get a wiring harness online for about $8, and solder it on to the new radio. I will hand it to the Toyota engineers, the dash is very easy to disassemble. And the Haynes book is actually quite good, explaining what does and doesn't need to be removed to make everything work. I may even replace the busted-up vent louvres on the driver's side of the car.
I upgraded my home network to 802.11g, via an access point I picked up from a friend, so I sent my dad packing with my old 802.11b WAP/Ethernet switch, and an 802.11b card for his laptop. He's finally got DSL now, so such things are useful to him.
And, I've been playing with PHPGedView -- a PHP-based genealogy system. Rather nice for collaborative work. You see, I've managed to get a bit more done on Bjuges than I've posted, and the password-protection of PHPGedView allows me to restrict who can see the more sensitive data. I don't want to make it too easy for people to steal my identity, after all. Matt Fierick, one of my old students, put me on to PHPGedView, and I have to say I'm very impressed with it.
Oh, and we found out that A) Pearson's Restaurant in Edina is NOT a familydiner, as a neighbor told me. It is, instead, an Old Person Restaurant. No thanks. We were seated, looked over the menu, and left. Then, we tried Fuddruckers in Saint Louis Park. They were closed for a private party. They didn't tell us we weren't welcome, however, until they'd convinced my boy to take a bag full of game tokens. Mind you, he was reluctant at first--they worked at getting him to take the bag. Then, when they found out we weren't on the list, they snatched the bag back. Brilliant customer service! "Here, toddler, take this shiny thing. No, really take it. Oh, wait, you aren't who we thought you were, GIMME THAT BACK!" I really wish Thor had thrown a grandmal tantrum there, but instead he took it in good stride. Better than I did, at least. Bennigans, next door, got our business that night. And every night thereafter. Fuddruckers couldn't even be bother to put up a sign saying "Fuddrucker's is closed for a private party."
Seriously, who expects to be turned away from a Fuddruckers? I'm not on the list? The LIST? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (or WTF, if you prefer)? I'm not a big "the List" kind of guy. I don't like places like that. I like places where green cash is green cash--either my money is good enough for you, or it isn't. It shouldn't matter if I'm a Jew, an Irishman, a Swede, or a Somali. Oh, they gave each of us a $1 coupon for our trouble. Big deal. What I wanted was a burger, and a low key place to eat. Bennigans gave me all of that, along with a sweet waitress who brought us our food, kept me in beer, and generally turned my night around. Also, even though it was Saturday night, Bennigans was empty. It was fabulous. Then we drove around Lake of the Isles, and ogled the big houses, and wondered how the hell you keep such huge houses clean. A very nice weekend spent with my parents, and then today spent with Angela's parents.
Thursday, June 16th, 2005, 0848
Holy crap!
I would normally not post something from work, but I don't want to forget this link. http://stream.eizodana.com/olympus/m01_hi.wmv -- that's a colony of black European honey bees being annihilated by a squadron of wasps. Amazing. The bees just didn't get together and swarm like they could have, but it's still fascinating to watch. Narrated, too, so turn up your sound.
Sunday, June 12th, 2005, 0016
Genealogy data
Well, I find that unless I put things online, I lose them. So, in an attempt to not lose the research I've put together on the Bjuge family, I have posted it, at the previous link. I am looking for any and all information related to this family. Please let me know if you have any! I will continue to update that page as I uncover new data. Just this week, for instance, I found the 1865 census of Norway which lists off my infant great-grandfather. I hope that as more records come online, I'll be able to more flesh out that side of my family. The sad thing is that the Bjuge page represents something like 5 years of research online. Pretty weak, eh?
Friday, June 3rd, 2005, 0722
No Word attachments, please
I'm tired of people sending small snippets of information around as a word attachment. Sending Email attachments is often a bad idea. Enjoy.
Thursday, June 2nd, 2005, 0928
Last night I needed stitches.
This is so cool I put it on it's own page. Pictures of my stitched up hand if you follow the link. I can't imagine anyone is so squeamish as to be bothered by that, but if you are, consider yourself warned.
Tuesday, May 23rd, 2005, 2249
Curse you, Applebees!
Sirloin Toppers? If your steak need shrimp, mushrooms or cheese on it...you aren't buying good enough steak.
That is all.
Monday, May 22nd, 2005, 2330
Look for the union label
Looks like the Wobblies are doing their best to Unionize Starbucks. The official effort's website is at www.starbucksunion.org. Be they a Wobbly local or a Teamster local, or an AFL-CIO affiliate, labor unions generally mean better benefits and higher wages for all affected. Corporations will tell of how unions cut into profits, but collective bargaining is the only chance the non-prima-donna has. Think about it--if you're a good Unix Admin, you're valuable to the company. It's hard to replace you, so you have some bargaining power. But if all you do is serve coffee...guess what? You can be replaced. The company has little incentive to remain loyal to you. Our assembly-line jobs have been replaced by service jobs. And the wildly profitable model of Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, and Wal-mart won't be destroyed by their having to pass some of the wealth on to the workers. Which is better? Letting Wal-mart pay sub-living wages and taxing everyone more so that Wal-mart workers can afford food, or making Wal-mart pay a living wage, so that the taxpayer doesn't need to pay as much?
Corporate Welfare is far more anti-American than is Union Organizing.
Sunday, May 21st, 2005, 2302
Home "improvement"?
Some people's ideas of home improvement will never cease to amaze me. Primarily, the ideas that belonged to the people who owned my house before me. We're in the process of making a room for the boy. However, this is the room that I have always hated, because the walls (like almost every other wall in this house) are covered with an unholy 7-layer salad of paint, wallpaper and whatnot. Like the texture? I don't. It makes it impossible to wallpaper over. grrrrrrr.
On a whim, I decided to chip through the paint on one of the walls. I found this tantalizing sample. This was at about 9 PM tonight. Two hours later, I had revealed this funereal selection of 1947 wallpaper.. This is old painted wallpaper, but man is it ugly. These pictures do not do justice to the drab, gloomy coloring of this wall. Somehow, my digital camera has made this into a light, airy, nigh cheerful stretch of wall. Were you to stand before it and gaze upon those flowers with your own eyes, you would be filled with a sense of dread, a sense of quiet reverie, and a genuine funk.
Note the fine vintage repair job. Basically, in 1947 they were building with drywall. But nobody was sealing the drywall before they hung wallpaper. That means this wallpaper (which is fit only for a funeral home, in my opinion), is permanently bonded to the wallboard. We're going to seal over it, and then hang new wallpaper. I think the repair is from when they tried to remove this wallpaper at some point. Perhaps in the 60s? There is actually a second layer of this painted wallpaper over the one you see, but it came off in so many places that I couldn't get a good picture of it's pattern. It's a more cheerful, bluer pattern.
Unfortunately, the other three walls do not appear to have this wallpaper on them. Chipping through the paint immediately breaches the surface of the drywall. I'm going to have to settle for getting the belt-sander on them, and smoothing them down. Dang, I hate texture on walls. Textured walls are only appropriate when the technology does not exist to make them smooth. Also, I'm sure the paint is lead-based, so I'm looking forward to sanding it down. Maybe I can glue a thin layer of asbestos over the top, to maximize carcinogenic value.
I'd originally planned to rip out all the wall board, and replace it, but I think with the sanding, I can get away without doing that. Wish me luck.
Sunday, May 21st, 2005, 0050
Now this is more like it.
Glad to see that sites like Western Democrat are starting to see the light that the Democratic Party is not the enemy of the NRA. The whole bugaboo over gun control has driven many outdoorsmen to the GOP -- the political party that wants more drilling in refuges, and does less to protect wildlife areas. Useless legislation, like the so-called "Assault Weapon Ban" aggravates pro-gun individuals, and drives them away from the Democrats. Did it reduce the number of weapons on the street? Of course not--because criminals don't buy firearms at gun stores. Only law-abiding citizens do. Criminals steal firearms, buy them from illegal sources, and smuggle them into the country. Now, the exception to that is the guy who obeys laws up until he decides to kill his wife, or boss, or neighbor--but if that guy can't get a gun, he'll use a knife, a baseball bat, or a bucket of gasoline.
The Democrats have worked hard to defend the First and Fourth amendments. Why not the Second? Fact of the matter is, the leave-me-alone-to-have-my-guns types get along better with pro-choicers than you'd think. Both groups wanted to be trusted to make their own decisions. I'd love to throw in the quote from Adolf Hitler about gun control in Germany, but it's a bogus quote.
Friday, May 20th, 2005, 0733
Heck yeah!
Looks like people are getting tired of Fox News. According to a blurb on newshounds.us, ratings of Fox News are in a freefall. They've dropped 60% among 25-54 year olds, during primetime, in the last 6 months. That's...pretty major. And I think it's a good sign that people are wising up.
In other news, Angela's mother is home and well, her grandmother is under observation and will be for a few days, but no one expects them to find anything. Life is returning to normal, I think.
Thursday, May 19th, 2005, 0722
Olfactory wonders
Did I mention the whole house smelled like cat urine? Not a good thing.
Also, I had no idea that the neighbor lady was so skilled at popping off the F-bomb, at the top of her lungs, sans dentures.
Thursday, May 19th, 2005, 0636
Isn't outing your daughter at the top of your lungs in bad taste?
Well, the daffy neighbor woman has locked herself out of her house AGAIN. This happens every few weeks, it seems. She's an odd duck, of strangely indeterminate competence. She gets all the benefits she can from the society for the blind, but she can spot something shiny in someone's garbage from a mile away. I often see her running down the street towards the bus stop, carrying her white cane under her arm.
There is an interesting stream of relatives living with her at any given time. In a fit of civic duty and kindness, I foolishly agreed to be her LifeLine contact, so when she pushes the button on the little thing around her neck ("We're sending help immediately, Mrs. Fletcher"), _my_ phone rings. Why she can't carry her house keys instead of the fob, I don't know. But, she left the house without keys, and her daughter followed her out and shut the door behind them.
Wait, you say, why don't you have a spare key? Oh, but I do--but only for the deadbolt. They haven't given anyone the key for the automatic lock on that door. Why two locks on one door? You've got me. Frankly, except for her and her kin, this is a good neighborhood. Even my other neighbor, the uber-Christian who doesn't like to mow except when wearing his bicycle helmet, doesn't resort to petty crime.
So, here I wait for the LifeLine call, since I foolishly closed out the ticket when they called me. I thought that the spare key might work, and since I was clad solely in my boxers, I didn't feel like wandering outside and checking it myself. I did, and found out we're all SOL. This brings me to the tag line, above.
Did I wake up to my normal soul-sucking alarm this morning? No. I woke up to Esther, screaming profanities at the top of her lungs at her daughter. "You've got an %$&**@#! WOMAN in there!" she screamed, and it pretty much went down hill from there. I hadn't looked out the window, so I assumed she was yelling at her son Daryl (who seems a decent chap, but isn't always the sharpest knife in the drawer). Anyway, they're still yelling now, but thankfully it hasn't woken the boy or taught him any new words.
What's the end of the story? I got hold of LifeLine again, and they told me to go jump. I called the police non-emergency number, asked them if they could recommend a locksmith, and they said they couldn't. So, I broke out my trust pocketknife, cut a screen, and crawled into the old woman's house to let her in. I also returned her house key, and told her that we really aren't the right people for this, because we just aren't able to help enough--which is true; I'm normally gone at work, Angela has her hands full with Thor, and soon another son.
Wednesday, May 18th, 2005, 2254
Oy. I think my momma said there'd be days like this
Well, Thorwald is doing great, but I'm not so sure about the rest of the family. Angela dropped me an email this afternoon that her mother was in the hospital (and this is most definitely not a normal state of affairs), and she was wondering if I could come home early. Poor Ang was worried that I've been taking too much time away from work lately. Over her protests, I hurried home, which turned out to be a good thing.
You see, no sooner did I get home than her grandmother's assisted living facility called, desperately trying to get hold of Ang's mom. Turns out that Grossmutter was non-responsive, and they just weren't sure what to do. What they ended up doing was incorrectly telling the 911 operator that Grossmutter was in cardiac arrest (which she was definitely not). So with that added bit of stress, we worked to figure out how to schedule things so that one of us could be in each space, and someone could still be with Thor.
Auntie Jen to the rescue! Jen (who is for virtually all intents and purposes Angela's sister) was kind enough to dash over and take charge of Thor. Angela's dad then called and said he was about to deploy for Operation Grossmutter. You see, the two generations of women couldn't be at the same hospital--that'd be too simple. So Angela dashed off the hospital, and I hung out for a while longer to brief Jen on the diabetes and whatnot. (Thor has his own language these days, you see.) Then I was off to the hospital, too.
I hung out for a few hours, then came back and relieved Jen, but Angela hung out until after 10. Somewhere around 8, the hospital room roommate got cranky and had everyone kicked out of the room. Mind you, when I'd been there, the Evil Hospital Room Mate (hereafter known as EHRM) had kept increasing the volume on the TV, trying to drown us out. Little did she factor in my near limitless ability to annoy and harass. As my senses were hammered with the inanities of Channel 5 News, I fought back the only way I know how: The Running Commentary. Unable to tune out the now-deafening glibness of the talking idiots with pretty hair and beautiful teeth, I was reduced to listening, thinking, and challenging their statements. I've seen this little routine reduce grown men to gibbering fools in a matter of minutes--particularly when I abandon all restraint and continue commenting even through the commercial breaks. "Oh, come on," I hear myself saying, "Coors Lite doesn't make anything cold. It just tastes bad and gives you gas. Is that what those people at that hot, sweaty night club really need? Beer breath and deadly gas?" And don't even get me started on car commercials. Anyway, EHRM gave up, turned down the TV, and started making phone calls. But I digress. I left, EHRM waited until Ang's Mom (AM) had left for a couple of tests, then executed her bloody coup with merciless efficiency, and had them all run out of the room, because she needed to "sleep"--which in EHRM-speak means "leave all the lights on and watch TV for the next few hours".
So by now, Dave & Tirzah have arrived, so they've been chased out down the hall to the Lounge of Infinite Waiting and Sadness, which is currently occupado by a rather large family, dealing with the impending demise of a beloved family member.
This leaves Dave, Tirzah and Ang sitting on the floor, in the hallway, when Ang's Dad (AD) arrives with some haute cuisine from Mickey Ds. Tirzah, bless her heart, takes a look at my six-month pregnant wife sitting on the floor and munching on her burger, and heads off to find someone with a clue. In a few minutes, Pony-tail Nurse Guy opens up a conference room them. Nice to see that someone there has sympathy for The Pregnant Chix0r (tm).
I have no where left to go with this line of the story.
Jen left her handwritten notes, and they made Angela so happy, I had to share them with the rest of you. Yes, using this document, you're ready to tackly introductory Thorwald-ese. Anyway, it's 11 PM, we're all back home now, though Grossmutter and Angela's mom are spending the night in their respective hospitals, with a bright and shiny day full of further tests tomorrow.
Without violating too many HIPPA rules, I can say this: This whole thing with Grossmutter has happened before, and will probably happened again. Angela's mom doesn't appear to have anything wrong with her, so the tests are merely a matter of crossing t's and dotting i's. Tomorrow should be more normal, and my parents are running up to look after Thor, so Ang can be with her mom. All Angela can really say about today is this: It's a hell of a day at sea, sir.
P.S. The Minnesota Personal Protection Act passed again, so my home state is once again a shall-issue carry permit state, or at least it will be once our Governor (who is otherwise a complete tool) signs it into law.
Tuesday, May 17th, 2005, 0715
I love open source tools
Ever wanted to tunnel your web browsing traffic over SSH? For example, from a site where you don't want your web browsing logged? Coffee Shops are one of my favorite places to sit with a sniffer, and I can't be the only one. So here's a simple way to secure your setup: Use SSH as a proxy server!
From your Windows machine (that's what I'm using here, anyway), make a dynamic port from the local machine to your secure Linux box (in my case, the server in my basement). You can do this with putty, or with cygwin's ssh (using the -D option). (e.g. ssh -D 3128 -X jeremy@somemachine.somewhere.com). Log in. Now, open up your web browser on your local machine. Set up a SOCKS proxy on port 3128, on localhost. In firefox, go to Tools -> Options, and click on the Proxy button. Set it to use localhost as your proxy. Voila. Your traffic can't be sniffed between your workstation and your proxy server. Note, however, that your traffic will still show up as traffic from your workstation to the proxy server, but no one will be able to see what it is.
Monday, May 16th, 2005, 2214
I need theme music
Ever get a burr under your saddle to hear a specific song? Yep, that hit me tonight. After a day in the hospital (okay, only 4.75 hours, all for a 5 minute procedure), with The Boy, I was ready to hear one of my old favorites: Da Funk, by Daft Punk. I have it on the Saint soundtrack.
Anyway, if I had theme music like this, I bet I'd be as cool as Val Kilmer. Maybe even more--after all, I'm a renaissance man--I can change a baby, ride a motorcycle, fix a car, program a computer, improvise munitions (okay, just potato guns, but still), and spout off more trivia than most Cliff Clavins.
Yeah, a nice Lotus, some cool shades, and groovy techno music playing wherever I go. That'd turn me into...well, if it weren't for the bit about the Lotus, just about any one of the six dozen RapMobiles that stroll down my street coming from the high school.
So much for that thought.
Monday, May 9th, 2005, 0719
Liberals unite!
Two websites I want to point out. OldAmericanCentury.org which says, succinctly (and in tee-shirt form) many things with which I agree..
Also, Mano Singh writes a remarkably thoughtful blog that deals with much of the hypocrisy in modern religion. Indeed, his experience with Methodism appears to be similar to my experience with Lutheranism, in that he grew up in a positive environment, but upon reaching the big city, he became disillusioned with how religion is used to belittle and dominate. A good read.
Sunday, May 8th, 2005, 0052
Reading some new testament
So I'm browsing through the book of Matthew today, and I was looking at the bit where it says "No man may divorce his wife except for adultery." And I thought, hey, that's kind of harsh. But then, an earlier passage came to mind, and I looked back to see that "If you have looked on another's spouse with lust in your heart, you have committed adultery."
Correct me if I'm wrong (actually, that's a rhetorical statement. If you think I'm wrong, I really don't care, so keep it to yourself), but that seems like saying EVERYONE is guilty of adultery. Well, if EVERYONE is guilty of adultery, then anyone is justified in getting a divorce at any time. Ha! Loophole!
Angela made really, really good chocolate cake tonight, because Jeff & Tara visited. I love hanging out with Jeff because he's a public defender. If he were a prosecutor, I'd be more nervous around him. It's not that I do anything illegal, it's more akin to how you'll constantly look at your speedometer when there's a cop behind you, even though you aren't speeding.
We bought a cool curio at Slumberland too, on massive sale. It'll be nice to have a place to put knick-knacks where Thor won't immediately grab them.
Thursday, May 5th, 2005, 2242
This is so wrong.
This is worksafe. Take a look at this excellent wiring job. Man, if this sort of thing doesn't strike you as wrong, don't do your own home wiring. Seriously. Please.
Wednesday, May 4th, 2005, 1944
Papers, Bitte, Papers?
I wish this were a bad joke, but according to the US Supreme Court, any police officer can now order you to produce ID for any reason, at any time, and you are not allowed to refuse that. This should prove very handy for keeping 'undesirables' out of nice neighborhoods. In case you're curious, read about the case here.
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005, 2153
Calling all Bjuges
Okay, I've been searching online for years. Bjuge is a terribly uncommon name. To the best of my knowledge, the only Bjuges still alive are in my direct lineage. If you are related to any Bjuges in the last 150 years, or (and this would really be great), are yourself a Bjuge in Norway or America (or anywhere else), I would really, really like to hear from you. I have had little luck searching online for Bjuge family information, but would love to share with you what I have. As always, I can be reached at jeremy (at) angelar (dot) com.
Monday, May 2nd, 2005, 2101
Level 2 PASSED
We had a level 2 ultrasound for the baby today, and the kid passed with flying colors. There had been minor concern, since an echogenic focus had been detected on the heart, and that is one of 30 ultrasound-detectable signs which can indicate Down's Syndrome. However, there were no other markers, and every other test Angela has taken has been negative. We opted against the amniocentesis, since that carries a definite risk, and we already know the gender.
Number Two Son does not have a cleft lip, and everything else checks out well. Blood flow through the heart is good, and he has five fingers on each hand. Surprisingly, he is not breech, so Angela could conceivably attempt a VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean), but I doubt her doctor would recommend it. Angela's not thrilled with the concept either. Two kidneys, stomach, bladder, and once again, a clear shot of big jim and the twins. It seems this boy is not shy either. We're still searching around for a middle name, and once we've gotten the whole name picked out, I'll register the domain name, and put a link to it here.
Updates have been slow because I'm getting over a bear of a cold. I've been non-functional for four days now, and its no fun. We did go out to my parents this weekend, and Thor loves playing in the rockpile. Pictures will go up soon, I'm sure.
