I avoid most political stuff on here, but this was Star Trek/geeky too so it's ok. I did just mail in our census the other day and am glad we'll at least get to be counted as "unmarried partner" now (I guess 10 years ago that wasn't even an option to check - oddly I don't even remember the 2000 census, even though I must have gotten one).
(referring article: http://www.shewired.com/Article.cfm?Section=1&ID=24683)
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Administrate
Some odds and ends for the past few days...
I'm in an ongoing discussion with some "language" friends about words like "administrate" (vs. "administer") and others ("orientate" vs. "orient", "commentate" vs. "comment"). To me, the "ate" words like this are used because it makes the word longer and somehow sound more important. Most dictionaries say they're "allowed" though and interchangeable with the shorter words. I still don't like them.
Thursday the NCAA tournament starts and I'm in 3 pools. I've watched virtually NO regular season basketball besides a few Iowa State games. Kansas and Duke appear to be good - so I'll probably stick with them. I'll be happily watching my 4 TVs with all 4 games on Thursday and Friday.
Monday I got to spend the day in Blair WI, giving presentations on Engineering for National Engineer's Week to 5th and 6th graders. They sure come up with some good questions and some creative ideas for the project we let them do for 40 minutes. I'm so glad IBM (and my friend Leah's company, Rockwell Collins) let us take a day of our work time and go do this. Kids that age need to know what kind of careers are out there - not just engineering, all of them! I'm lucky I sorta happened into that field - but I would have appreciated someone coming to my 6th grade class and talking about it and doing a neat project.
Wrist prognosis - well fortunately it doesn't hurt. Thursday I find out how much longer I get to have a cast. Besides showers, hasn't been too much of an issue, and I got 2 new keyboards out of the deal. Plus a really neat red cast.
Saw Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland" Saturday with friends. Weird, but not as weird as I was expecting for Tim Burton. Maybe I've set the "weird" bar too high with him...
Erin gets home tomorrow after being gone 5 days. I can't wait :)
I'm in an ongoing discussion with some "language" friends about words like "administrate" (vs. "administer") and others ("orientate" vs. "orient", "commentate" vs. "comment"). To me, the "ate" words like this are used because it makes the word longer and somehow sound more important. Most dictionaries say they're "allowed" though and interchangeable with the shorter words. I still don't like them.
Thursday the NCAA tournament starts and I'm in 3 pools. I've watched virtually NO regular season basketball besides a few Iowa State games. Kansas and Duke appear to be good - so I'll probably stick with them. I'll be happily watching my 4 TVs with all 4 games on Thursday and Friday.
Monday I got to spend the day in Blair WI, giving presentations on Engineering for National Engineer's Week to 5th and 6th graders. They sure come up with some good questions and some creative ideas for the project we let them do for 40 minutes. I'm so glad IBM (and my friend Leah's company, Rockwell Collins) let us take a day of our work time and go do this. Kids that age need to know what kind of careers are out there - not just engineering, all of them! I'm lucky I sorta happened into that field - but I would have appreciated someone coming to my 6th grade class and talking about it and doing a neat project.
Wrist prognosis - well fortunately it doesn't hurt. Thursday I find out how much longer I get to have a cast. Besides showers, hasn't been too much of an issue, and I got 2 new keyboards out of the deal. Plus a really neat red cast.
Saw Tim Burton's "Alice In Wonderland" Saturday with friends. Weird, but not as weird as I was expecting for Tim Burton. Maybe I've set the "weird" bar too high with him...
Erin gets home tomorrow after being gone 5 days. I can't wait :)
Friday, March 12, 2010
Random lyrics question
So, this morning, Faith Hill's "The Way You Love Me" came up on the playlist. (You can all refrain from the criticism of me listening to country music, I like it, get over it :)
In the chorus she says "Ooo I love the way you...love the way you love me" which, I'm fairly sure she was repeating the "love the way you" part for emphasis as in the meaning is really just "Ooo I love the way you love me". However, it could be interpreted as "she loves the way that you love the way you love her" which is TOTALLY different (but not necessarily worse).
These are the things that I think about when my mind is not occupied....
In the chorus she says "Ooo I love the way you...love the way you love me" which, I'm fairly sure she was repeating the "love the way you" part for emphasis as in the meaning is really just "Ooo I love the way you love me". However, it could be interpreted as "she loves the way that you love the way you love her" which is TOTALLY different (but not necessarily worse).
These are the things that I think about when my mind is not occupied....
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
First Amendment
By far the amendment that has been the center of some of the most controversial legal battles in our country, and one that, in it's very simplistic wording, covers SO much.
It's a very interesting law, because of where it pops up when you aren't expecting it. It truly does cover everyone equally, and, though still open to interpretation by a court, somehow consistently gets defended.
I've had discussions about a person's first amendment right with many people over the years, usually when a court rules in some way which a person hasn't considered or thinks that we've gone "too far" with the first amendment. Many examples over the years that I've personally seen are things like someone wearing a t-shirt expressing their beliefs or views, which was deemed "inappropriate" by a school teacher or principal, and in many cases, a court ruled otherwise.
It's a law that we all have our own vision of I think - when we think of it in terms of comparing with history and other countries, we see how obvious its importance is. Yet, when it defends someone or something expressing something that we don't like, we bristle. That may be someone who opposes your religious or political beliefs, it may be nude art or pornography, or it may be someone protesting the funeral of one of our fallen military veterans, as was the case in the article I read this morning. For those of you not familiar with the Fred Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas (and I use the word "church" loosely because he's not recognized by any denomination), this is a group of people who have, for years, spread a message of hate across our country, in the name of God - so much so that even the most conservative religious groups don't want to have anything to do with this church. More recently, they have taken to protesting the funerals of soldiers who have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan - their reasoning being that God is punishing us and these soliders for how far we as a country have fallen away from God (that is putting it nicely, their words are much harsher - I won't repeat them here).
Now, protesting at a funeral of a fallen soldier, someone who gave his or her life defending our country, in the name of God no less, to me is one of the most horrible things a person could do. It disgusts me to think about what kind of a person would do such a thing, and do it many times. I'd even hate to admit it but I wish these people didn't exist - their message of hate is lots of what I believe is wrong with the world.
BUT...even as I read this article, and how the lawsuit brought against them by one of the fathers of the soldiers whose funeral was protested is making its way to the Supreme Court, I have to step back and look at the big picture. In my mind, the family of the soldier is right, and I hope that on some other grounds they get come sort of retribution for what the Phelps family did to them. But I also believe the court has to uphold the Phelps' first amendment right. It's horrible, awful, and I wouldn't even classify them as human beings for what they say and do, but if the court rules that they have "gone too far" and there really is a limit on the first amendment, then that's the beginning of the end. They rule against one person's right to free speech, they can rule against anyone. This quote by Captain Picard from "Star Trek: First Contact" sums it up nicely:
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied -- chains us all irrevocably."
and another movie that I have always loved, "The American President" (why can't we have a president like Michael Douglas was in this movie) says it equally well:
"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. "
It's a very interesting law, because of where it pops up when you aren't expecting it. It truly does cover everyone equally, and, though still open to interpretation by a court, somehow consistently gets defended.
I've had discussions about a person's first amendment right with many people over the years, usually when a court rules in some way which a person hasn't considered or thinks that we've gone "too far" with the first amendment. Many examples over the years that I've personally seen are things like someone wearing a t-shirt expressing their beliefs or views, which was deemed "inappropriate" by a school teacher or principal, and in many cases, a court ruled otherwise.
It's a law that we all have our own vision of I think - when we think of it in terms of comparing with history and other countries, we see how obvious its importance is. Yet, when it defends someone or something expressing something that we don't like, we bristle. That may be someone who opposes your religious or political beliefs, it may be nude art or pornography, or it may be someone protesting the funeral of one of our fallen military veterans, as was the case in the article I read this morning. For those of you not familiar with the Fred Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas (and I use the word "church" loosely because he's not recognized by any denomination), this is a group of people who have, for years, spread a message of hate across our country, in the name of God - so much so that even the most conservative religious groups don't want to have anything to do with this church. More recently, they have taken to protesting the funerals of soldiers who have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan - their reasoning being that God is punishing us and these soliders for how far we as a country have fallen away from God (that is putting it nicely, their words are much harsher - I won't repeat them here).
Now, protesting at a funeral of a fallen soldier, someone who gave his or her life defending our country, in the name of God no less, to me is one of the most horrible things a person could do. It disgusts me to think about what kind of a person would do such a thing, and do it many times. I'd even hate to admit it but I wish these people didn't exist - their message of hate is lots of what I believe is wrong with the world.
BUT...even as I read this article, and how the lawsuit brought against them by one of the fathers of the soldiers whose funeral was protested is making its way to the Supreme Court, I have to step back and look at the big picture. In my mind, the family of the soldier is right, and I hope that on some other grounds they get come sort of retribution for what the Phelps family did to them. But I also believe the court has to uphold the Phelps' first amendment right. It's horrible, awful, and I wouldn't even classify them as human beings for what they say and do, but if the court rules that they have "gone too far" and there really is a limit on the first amendment, then that's the beginning of the end. They rule against one person's right to free speech, they can rule against anyone. This quote by Captain Picard from "Star Trek: First Contact" sums it up nicely:
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied -- chains us all irrevocably."
and another movie that I have always loved, "The American President" (why can't we have a president like Michael Douglas was in this movie) says it equally well:
"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. "
Monday, March 8, 2010
Stargate
I've mentioned in earlier posts that I'm now going through all 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1 after Erin started watching it. Great show. So good in fact that I decided I really ought to watch the original 1994 "Stargate" movie (with Kurt Russell and James Spader). 1993-1996 was a period I didn't see many new movies, being in college, there was just too much else to do, so I missed it the first time around.
I've liked Kurt Russell in some movies - definitely not this one. I liken him in this movie to Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original Terminator - he's basically a muscle guy that says about 10 lines, and those are pretty bad. Spader did an ok Dr. Daniel Jackson, but I thought he jumped from nerdy scientist college professor to guy kicking ass shooting everyone with alien weapons a little too quickly. Michael Shanks, who plays Dr. Jackson on the TV show, I think has a little better of a balance between the two. And of course Richard Dean Anderson is WAAAAAAY better as Colonel Jack O'Neill than Russell can ever hope to be. So...glad I watched the show first, otherwise I might never have. The movie dialogue in general is pretty awful, and maybe the special effects were cool in 1994, but not now (that alone wouldn't make it a bad movie, but to become a "classic" you have to be good all around). Even the TV-budget effects of 1997's Season 1 of SG-1 were worlds better than the movie.
Week 1 of my cast - so far so good, only taking a shower is annoying really. Another week and they will x-ray again and probably give me another cast.
Basketball tournaments start this week - conference tournaments starting today, and NCAA next week. Now that I'm ruled out from doing just about anything else, I'm looking forward to catching some good games.
I've liked Kurt Russell in some movies - definitely not this one. I liken him in this movie to Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original Terminator - he's basically a muscle guy that says about 10 lines, and those are pretty bad. Spader did an ok Dr. Daniel Jackson, but I thought he jumped from nerdy scientist college professor to guy kicking ass shooting everyone with alien weapons a little too quickly. Michael Shanks, who plays Dr. Jackson on the TV show, I think has a little better of a balance between the two. And of course Richard Dean Anderson is WAAAAAAY better as Colonel Jack O'Neill than Russell can ever hope to be. So...glad I watched the show first, otherwise I might never have. The movie dialogue in general is pretty awful, and maybe the special effects were cool in 1994, but not now (that alone wouldn't make it a bad movie, but to become a "classic" you have to be good all around). Even the TV-budget effects of 1997's Season 1 of SG-1 were worlds better than the movie.
Week 1 of my cast - so far so good, only taking a shower is annoying really. Another week and they will x-ray again and probably give me another cast.
Basketball tournaments start this week - conference tournaments starting today, and NCAA next week. Now that I'm ruled out from doing just about anything else, I'm looking forward to catching some good games.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Keyboarding rant
I got an ergonomic keyboard today, because of my recent wrist injury (more on that later), it's one of those split type keyboards which look weird but I already like it better.
However, some of the keys are in slightly different spots - Home, End, Page up and Page down are organized differently, and the arrow keys are in a plus-sign configuration and not an upside down T like they usually are.
For those of us who develop muscle memory after years of typing, I wish keyboard makers would LEAVE THESE BUTTONS ALONE! I have another keyboard at home which is all bluetooth and fancy, but has reorganized keys, and so it sits next to the computer on the tv, hardly used, and the one I use is the play old non-fancy one.
Also, as a side note, typing with a cast on is doable, but my fat cast thumb keeps bumping the space bar. It's interesting that people think that my job involves a lot of typing - certainly I do type a lot, but it's not like data entry - programming is a lot of thinking, and the amount of typing is actually minimal. There are many people here that still hunt and peck and more/less get by (it does slow down IM chats a bit but sometimes those people just use the old fashioned phone :) So my cast has slowed me down to about 50-60 wpm, but it doesn't hamper my work progress :)
However, some of the keys are in slightly different spots - Home, End, Page up and Page down are organized differently, and the arrow keys are in a plus-sign configuration and not an upside down T like they usually are.
For those of us who develop muscle memory after years of typing, I wish keyboard makers would LEAVE THESE BUTTONS ALONE! I have another keyboard at home which is all bluetooth and fancy, but has reorganized keys, and so it sits next to the computer on the tv, hardly used, and the one I use is the play old non-fancy one.
Also, as a side note, typing with a cast on is doable, but my fat cast thumb keeps bumping the space bar. It's interesting that people think that my job involves a lot of typing - certainly I do type a lot, but it's not like data entry - programming is a lot of thinking, and the amount of typing is actually minimal. There are many people here that still hunt and peck and more/less get by (it does slow down IM chats a bit but sometimes those people just use the old fashioned phone :) So my cast has slowed me down to about 50-60 wpm, but it doesn't hamper my work progress :)
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