I sleep for an eon, one eye open. The cold is absolute. The dark is not, and I go towards the light. For half an eon I roll downhill, for the second half I roll up, to slow myself. All the while, my hunger grows. I reach the place where my prey waits for me, watching for me, signaling me to come, although it knows it not. I poise myself over its burrow, a spider who needs no web, lowering my delicate and deadly thread. Then I wait. Time passes. What is an eon? I have waited one, I can wait another.
My prey comes. Creeping up my thread, slowly, cautiously. Fearing what it will find, but drawn irresistibly regardless. I open my mouth. My mouth is filled with the bones of prey past. I have learned: prey is drawn to prey. The prey enters, I can feel it move through the bones. I wait. More will come. Patience is always rewarded. The prey leaves, taking the bones. I wait. More will come. Patience is always rewarded.
The prey returns, more in number. They fill my mouth with their bones, and I am satisfied. I retrieve my thread, my deadly, delicate thread, and my mouth closes. I am filled. I look to the next light, for the dark is not absolute. The cold is, however, and I sleep for an eon, one eye open.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Cardboard of Steel
Our cardboard boxes are getting a real workout. It's been raining on and off for the past couple days, and we have a pretty serious rainfall going on right now here in Draper. For the first few weeks, I was careful to cover the boxes with a tarp each time it rained, but I finally gave that up. I couldn't protect them forever; at some point, they would have to strike out on their own. We'll see how they look in the morning. Or whenever it stops raining.
Pages
Guys and girls are never on the same page. The girl will be on a page, while the guy is shuffling through the pages, glancing at the girl out of the corner of his eye, trying to figure out what page she's on so he can get somewhere in the vicinity.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Insurance Pics I
A week or so ago, Child and I finally got renter's insurance. Along with that, we decided to take pictures of all our belongings. I found a webpage that talked about taking pictures for insurance purposes to see if there were any tricks I should know about, but there was nothing particularly difficult about it. The webpage did have a few suggestions, however, one of which was, "Set aside several days for the process."
Child and I laughed at that. What sort of mansion did they think we were living in? I decided to start with pictures of my office, and Child went downstairs to make dinner. "Come down when you're done!" she said.
An hour later, my camera battery died, I was only halfway through my office, and I was no longer laughing. I was starting to realize that this was going to be a long process. I couldn't just snap a few pictures of the room and call it good, I had to pull out each individual item or set of items and arrange them on the floor, then take the picture. I also realized that there was a definite downside to storing my life in banana boxes instead of on easily-accessible shelves.
126 pictures and a day later, I was finally done with my office. Only seven rooms and our backyard to go! Fortunately, I think the office was the hardest room; it definitely has the largest collection of (expensive) objects since it holds my electronics, camping gear, and tools.
I really saw the need for the pictures, however. Pulling stuff out of the boxes, I was finding stuff I didn't even remember I had, and things I would have never remembered owning after the trauma of a fire or theft or something. That expensive graphing calculator I havn't used since graduating from college? That propane lantern I haven't used since getting a battery-powered one? The raincoat?
Child and I laughed at that. What sort of mansion did they think we were living in? I decided to start with pictures of my office, and Child went downstairs to make dinner. "Come down when you're done!" she said.
An hour later, my camera battery died, I was only halfway through my office, and I was no longer laughing. I was starting to realize that this was going to be a long process. I couldn't just snap a few pictures of the room and call it good, I had to pull out each individual item or set of items and arrange them on the floor, then take the picture. I also realized that there was a definite downside to storing my life in banana boxes instead of on easily-accessible shelves.
126 pictures and a day later, I was finally done with my office. Only seven rooms and our backyard to go! Fortunately, I think the office was the hardest room; it definitely has the largest collection of (expensive) objects since it holds my electronics, camping gear, and tools.
I really saw the need for the pictures, however. Pulling stuff out of the boxes, I was finding stuff I didn't even remember I had, and things I would have never remembered owning after the trauma of a fire or theft or something. That expensive graphing calculator I havn't used since graduating from college? That propane lantern I haven't used since getting a battery-powered one? The raincoat?
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Edible Return On Investment
Yesterday I was shocked to discover a giant pea on one of our pea plants! The plants are only a foot or so tall, so I wasn't expecting peas for another month or so. Looking over the pea plants, I found several more as well. Our first return-on-investment! Gardening is fun!
Here's our pepper plants. There were originally three, but you can tell that the third one (center, back) had...difficulties. It went to "Happy Acres" yesterday evening and was replaced with a row of carrots.
Here's Child's herb starts. She planted a little mint, catnip, and basil, I believe.
Yesterday evening we planted our seeds: squash, zucchini, green beans, and carrots. Rather than use cardboard boxes, we used these large pots left over from trees we helped my sister and brother-in-law landscape at their home in Idaho. (The green stuff is grass clippings Child mixed in with the soil.) The small tin can on top is Child's basil plant, which had outgrown its small container and needed transplanted.
Here's our pepper plants. There were originally three, but you can tell that the third one (center, back) had...difficulties. It went to "Happy Acres" yesterday evening and was replaced with a row of carrots.
Here's Child's herb starts. She planted a little mint, catnip, and basil, I believe.
Yesterday evening we planted our seeds: squash, zucchini, green beans, and carrots. Rather than use cardboard boxes, we used these large pots left over from trees we helped my sister and brother-in-law landscape at their home in Idaho. (The green stuff is grass clippings Child mixed in with the soil.) The small tin can on top is Child's basil plant, which had outgrown its small container and needed transplanted.
Monday, May 18, 2009
New dog, meet old trick.
I had to laugh as I read a CNN article. It's about a church in Texas that decided to (gasp!) give away money from the offering plate instead of just taking it. A couple of choice quotes:
"It was a eureka moment for Slough [ed. note: the pastor]"
"'You don't hear about a church giving money away,' Amy Sullivan [ed. note: a church member] said."
"The church has now formed a group to look into the best ways to give out money. And, Slough said, it plans on doing so as long as there is a need in the community [ed. note: forever?]."
The reason I laughed (especially about Amy Sullivan's quote of never hearing about a church giving money away) is because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been doing this in a formal manner for over 150 years through fast offerings.
These aren't new ideas, folks. This is what Christianity is SUPPOSED to do! As a basic tenet! It shouldn't be newsworthy when a church actually does what Jesus commanded, i.e. "Help the poor and needy."
Religions these days...
"It was a eureka moment for Slough [ed. note: the pastor]"
"'You don't hear about a church giving money away,' Amy Sullivan [ed. note: a church member] said."
"The church has now formed a group to look into the best ways to give out money. And, Slough said, it plans on doing so as long as there is a need in the community [ed. note: forever?]."
The reason I laughed (especially about Amy Sullivan's quote of never hearing about a church giving money away) is because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been doing this in a formal manner for over 150 years through fast offerings.
These aren't new ideas, folks. This is what Christianity is SUPPOSED to do! As a basic tenet! It shouldn't be newsworthy when a church actually does what Jesus commanded, i.e. "Help the poor and needy."
Religions these days...
Blarny/Shenanigans
I have no idea why, but Blogger posts pictures in the opposite order that you upload them. Seems a silly way to do it, and one that's easily correctable, so who knows what their rationale was. Laziness, maybe.
So you're getting this trip description in reverse order!
Most canyons have an "exit hike." This exit hike is usually hot and exhausting. By this point, you're done with the fun part of the canyon and you're tired, and you want nothing more than to get into an air-conditioned car. However, due to a grievous oversight, the BLM didn't see fit to park helicopters at the exit of all back-country canyons, so you have to make your way back to your car on foot.
In many cases, including Shenanigans, this involves hiking straight up the canyon wall. A narrow rockslide gives you enough of an incline to climb up, while cleverly strewing the path with loose rocks and sand that threaten to send you hurtling backwards into space (or into the climbers behind you, if you're lucky) at the slightest misstep. Vertically, it's probably only three or four hundred feet...but that's vertical feet. Time-wise, it took us probably a half-hour of exhausting climbing in the broiling sun to get to the canyon rim.
This is a picture of the canyon we came out of (we're probably halfway up the exit at this point).
I liked how this picture turned out just because of the almost black-and-white feel to it. This was taken deep in a slot.
Halfway through Shenanigans, there's a nice hole you can crawl through. Right before the hole in the wall, there's also a deep pothole in the ground, which Randall is standing upright in.
I always take too many pictures of flowers on our canyoneering trips, but I'm always amazed by how many flowers there are in the desert. I don't think I've seen these yellow ones before...if so, not in the numbers that were in this particular rock bowl. Looking through just my pictures of this hike, I count six different types of flowers! And this is in the desert!
This group was a small one: Randall, Josh and I. The day was beautiful, and the weather was perfect as we started our hike to the canyon. Later, it would get warmer, but not the three-digit temperatures it might be hitting in a few weeks.
This picture is actually the previous day, Friday. Since we got to camp ("Sandthrax" Campground) fairly early in the afternoon, we decided to do a short canyon. We chose the left fork of Blarny, and it was a decently interesting canyon for only being two hours, end to end.
This is one of the more common flowers we see in the desert. From the side, it's a little harder to see the bossom itself, but I like the closer view of the cactus part.
Anyway, it was a fun trip.
So you're getting this trip description in reverse order!
Most canyons have an "exit hike." This exit hike is usually hot and exhausting. By this point, you're done with the fun part of the canyon and you're tired, and you want nothing more than to get into an air-conditioned car. However, due to a grievous oversight, the BLM didn't see fit to park helicopters at the exit of all back-country canyons, so you have to make your way back to your car on foot.
In many cases, including Shenanigans, this involves hiking straight up the canyon wall. A narrow rockslide gives you enough of an incline to climb up, while cleverly strewing the path with loose rocks and sand that threaten to send you hurtling backwards into space (or into the climbers behind you, if you're lucky) at the slightest misstep. Vertically, it's probably only three or four hundred feet...but that's vertical feet. Time-wise, it took us probably a half-hour of exhausting climbing in the broiling sun to get to the canyon rim.
This is a picture of the canyon we came out of (we're probably halfway up the exit at this point).
I liked how this picture turned out just because of the almost black-and-white feel to it. This was taken deep in a slot.
Halfway through Shenanigans, there's a nice hole you can crawl through. Right before the hole in the wall, there's also a deep pothole in the ground, which Randall is standing upright in.
I always take too many pictures of flowers on our canyoneering trips, but I'm always amazed by how many flowers there are in the desert. I don't think I've seen these yellow ones before...if so, not in the numbers that were in this particular rock bowl. Looking through just my pictures of this hike, I count six different types of flowers! And this is in the desert!
This group was a small one: Randall, Josh and I. The day was beautiful, and the weather was perfect as we started our hike to the canyon. Later, it would get warmer, but not the three-digit temperatures it might be hitting in a few weeks.
This picture is actually the previous day, Friday. Since we got to camp ("Sandthrax" Campground) fairly early in the afternoon, we decided to do a short canyon. We chose the left fork of Blarny, and it was a decently interesting canyon for only being two hours, end to end.
This is one of the more common flowers we see in the desert. From the side, it's a little harder to see the bossom itself, but I like the closer view of the cactus part.
Anyway, it was a fun trip.
Church Notes
As I may have mentioned, Child and I teach the six-year-olds in Sunday School (Primary). Actually, due to a temporary teacher shortage, we actually teach several five- and maybe even a four-year-old. Anyway, a couple open notes to the Sunday School leadership:
1. Mother's Day should not be celebrated by handing each kid a bag of candy and two long, sharp skewers and telling them to make two "candy flowers" for their mothers. The candy will not survive an hour and a half of Sunday School in the hands of small children, and the skewers will be used to impale everything but the candy. The teachers will curse (religiously, of course) your name as they spend the next hour and a half trying to keep the candy out of their children's' mouths and the skewers out of their own skin. It's just a bad idea all around.
2. Music leader: if you don't know the second and third and fourth verse to a song without reaching for your songbook, it's a good bet none of the teachers do either, much less any of their six-year-old children. Either stick with the first, familiar verse, or hold up a poster with the words (or better yet: pictures) on it.
3. Other teachers: turning around and shushing one of our kids or telling them to get back into their seat is not helping. I've already done that several thousand times in the past hour, and expect to do it another thousand times before Sunday School is over. It's like you're second in line at a red light, and honking your horn the split second the light turns green. Don't worry, give me a moment and I'll get that kid back in their seat and shushed myself. Oh, and P.S., one of your own kids is halfway across the room climbing a stack of chairs.
Despite how this post may sounds, it's actually been somewhat fun serving in Primary. The kids are wild and noisy and impatient and bored and energetic and it's like playing Whack-A-Mole to keep them in their seats, but they can also be funny and cute and it's good experience for our own imminent kid. Who will be perfect. And who will never get out of his seat. And who will not skewer their teacher like a rack of lamb.
1. Mother's Day should not be celebrated by handing each kid a bag of candy and two long, sharp skewers and telling them to make two "candy flowers" for their mothers. The candy will not survive an hour and a half of Sunday School in the hands of small children, and the skewers will be used to impale everything but the candy. The teachers will curse (religiously, of course) your name as they spend the next hour and a half trying to keep the candy out of their children's' mouths and the skewers out of their own skin. It's just a bad idea all around.
2. Music leader: if you don't know the second and third and fourth verse to a song without reaching for your songbook, it's a good bet none of the teachers do either, much less any of their six-year-old children. Either stick with the first, familiar verse, or hold up a poster with the words (or better yet: pictures) on it.
3. Other teachers: turning around and shushing one of our kids or telling them to get back into their seat is not helping. I've already done that several thousand times in the past hour, and expect to do it another thousand times before Sunday School is over. It's like you're second in line at a red light, and honking your horn the split second the light turns green. Don't worry, give me a moment and I'll get that kid back in their seat and shushed myself. Oh, and P.S., one of your own kids is halfway across the room climbing a stack of chairs.
Despite how this post may sounds, it's actually been somewhat fun serving in Primary. The kids are wild and noisy and impatient and bored and energetic and it's like playing Whack-A-Mole to keep them in their seats, but they can also be funny and cute and it's good experience for our own imminent kid. Who will be perfect. And who will never get out of his seat. And who will not skewer their teacher like a rack of lamb.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Luck o' the Irish
Tomorrow, I'll be leaving to do a canyon in the "Irish Canyons" area. Canyons are named after Irishy things, like Leprechaun, Blarny, Shillelagh, and the one we're doing, Shenanigan.
Apparently the luck of the Irish decided to reach out a little early. Instead of the two cavities I thought were going to be filled today in my final dentist appointment, the dentist decided that one spot might not be a cavity after all, and he would just keep an eye on it until my next visit. In addition, the remaining cavity was such a small one that I wouldn't need any sort of numbing shots. Seriously, how often do you get out of a shot? It was great! The whole visit was over in 20 minutes! I love dentists!
Apparently the luck of the Irish decided to reach out a little early. Instead of the two cavities I thought were going to be filled today in my final dentist appointment, the dentist decided that one spot might not be a cavity after all, and he would just keep an eye on it until my next visit. In addition, the remaining cavity was such a small one that I wouldn't need any sort of numbing shots. Seriously, how often do you get out of a shot? It was great! The whole visit was over in 20 minutes! I love dentists!
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Open Question
Would you take your dream job if it was in the last place on Earth you wanted to live?
Would you take your dream job if it was the last place on Earth your significant other wanted to live?
(The above questions are slightly exaggerated: it's more like "a really good job" and a "fairly disliked place to live")
Would you take your dream job if it was the last place on Earth your significant other wanted to live?
(The above questions are slightly exaggerated: it's more like "a really good job" and a "fairly disliked place to live")
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Dentist Visit
I left "...of Doom" from the end of the title because it would be a little redundant.
Actually, my first dentist visit in years went well. (Well, technically, second visit. I had one two weeks ago so the dentist could jot down a list of everything that needed done, chuckling gleefully as he pulled out "the really big calculator" to add up the price tag.)
The dentist filled three cavities today, and will fill another two next week, while his assistant did a thorough (read: painful) cleaning of some tartar buildup. I can't really complain since it needed done, and it was fortuitous how our appointment was arranged.
A woman in my mom's home-school group sent out an email asking if anyone would like to trade massages for some dental work here in Draper. My mom forward the email to me, and since Child and I needed some dental work down, we responded to the email. Apparently quite a few people were interested, but we were the closest people so we got selected. (Lucky break? Or result of paying tithing? You be the judge... DUN DUN DUN!!!)
Anyway, interestingly, it turns out the dentist (an older, graying gentleman) was also a canyoneer! Two weeks ago he did a canyon that my friends and I are considering doing in a couple weeks. We talked about a few canyons, then he showed me an online video of him going through a canyon. "This is me...this is my son...this is a sort of odd guy we invited along..."
I looked closer at the "odd guy." "Is that John Smith?" I asked, and the dentist laughed.
"So you know him too."
I did. He kind of attached himself to our group, and had gone through a few canyons with us before we (as kindly as possible) extracted ourself from the relationship, mostly because he, well, complained a lot. Maybe that was just his personality, I don't know, but it got old after a while.
Actually, my first dentist visit in years went well. (Well, technically, second visit. I had one two weeks ago so the dentist could jot down a list of everything that needed done, chuckling gleefully as he pulled out "the really big calculator" to add up the price tag.)
The dentist filled three cavities today, and will fill another two next week, while his assistant did a thorough (read: painful) cleaning of some tartar buildup. I can't really complain since it needed done, and it was fortuitous how our appointment was arranged.
A woman in my mom's home-school group sent out an email asking if anyone would like to trade massages for some dental work here in Draper. My mom forward the email to me, and since Child and I needed some dental work down, we responded to the email. Apparently quite a few people were interested, but we were the closest people so we got selected. (Lucky break? Or result of paying tithing? You be the judge... DUN DUN DUN!!!)
Anyway, interestingly, it turns out the dentist (an older, graying gentleman) was also a canyoneer! Two weeks ago he did a canyon that my friends and I are considering doing in a couple weeks. We talked about a few canyons, then he showed me an online video of him going through a canyon. "This is me...this is my son...this is a sort of odd guy we invited along..."
I looked closer at the "odd guy." "Is that John Smith?" I asked, and the dentist laughed.
"So you know him too."
I did. He kind of attached himself to our group, and had gone through a few canyons with us before we (as kindly as possible) extracted ourself from the relationship, mostly because he, well, complained a lot. Maybe that was just his personality, I don't know, but it got old after a while.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Kids These Days
Sometimes I wonder if technology is really all that good. My coworker just called me to see if I was at work. He is sitting in an office three doors away from me.
I would have IM'd.
I would have IM'd.
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Mechanical Mouse Pill Delivery System
In case it's a little tricky to pick up from the audio on the video clip, Acouchi has taken to hiding at the far end of the ledge over the stairs, which we had earlier given her access to. Unfortunately, she was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, which means she needs a treatment of meth every morning and evening (methimazole, a small pill).
Fortunately, my brother Matthew gave her a present last Christmas of a remote-control mouse. As it turns out, that's the perfect delivery mechanism to get the pill to her.
Fortunately, my brother Matthew gave her a present last Christmas of a remote-control mouse. As it turns out, that's the perfect delivery mechanism to get the pill to her.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Open Source Annoyances
Every now and then I'll make a little computer program, usually to experiment with a technology or to make my life a little easier, then release it on the Internet for other people to use.
It obviously comes with no guarantees, promises, or anything else, but apparently some people don't realize that. That, or they're just rude, or at the least, lacking politeness.
Example 1:
Email Subject: Bloomberg Gadget
Email: Why has this gadget died? It is a great gadget. Please fix it.
Commentary: The "Bloomberg Gadget" was a widget I built to go on a Google Homepage (http://www.google.com/ig). It was one of the first widgets I built, and I actually did it to help me learn how to build Google widgets.
At least the emailer (a reverend, actually) had the courtesy to mention briefly that it was a "great gadget," and he even threw in a "please," but it still came out as an order. Not only that, but he's not giving me any sort of clue as to actually went wrong except for the completely vague "it died." How am I supposed to figure out his problem based on that?
Example 2:
Email Subject: Keylogger not working after a few weeks how to fix?
Email: Hey there, How are you doing? I've had your keylogger addon for a few weeks now, and all of a sudden it stopped working. Do you know why? And how can I fix it?
Commentary: This was a Firefox add-on that logged keystrokes so if your browser crashed, you wouldn't lose whatever you were typing. At least this guy was civil in his email; the problem is that like the previous example, this guy gave me nothing to go on. "No, I don't know why it stopped working. Is your computer plugged in?"
Example 3:
Email Subject: keylogger addon
Email: I was looking for a keylogger that I can use to monitor the activities of my teenaged daughters (hereafter referred to as “the monsters”), and stumbled across the experimental version of your application. For this purpose, because the monsters are not stupid, I am looking for something that works pretty much surreptitiously. I noticed that the description indicates it will not be hidden. I am not a programmer or other IT professional, and would never consider changing an application, as some have indicated they have done to accomplish this [ed. note: the whole point of making an application open source is to allow anyone to modify it however they want]. Will there be a “parental supervision” version of this add-on that will allow me to be sneakier than the monsters?
Commentary: At first, I wanted to respond, "Seriously? You're an adult? And a mother?"
In the end, I wrote the following:
I'm sorry, there are no plans to create a "Parental Control" version.
You may use it to monitor your children, but far more often,
technologically-savvy children would use it to steal their parents'
usernames, passwords, and bank account numbers.
Honestly, your best bet would be to have your computer in a public
place (such as the kitchen or living room), and educate your daughters
on the various online dangers. It's a losing battle getting in a
technological war with today's generation. It's just a thought, but I
suspect that the first time you show them evidence from your
monitoring, they will realize what you are doing and either retaliate
(perhaps by installing a keylogger of their own) or simply move their
computer use to a friend's house where you have no control instead of
the small control you have now.
Good luck with your situation! I don't envy you the difficult job of
dealing with teenagers, and wish you the best in your parenting.
It obviously comes with no guarantees, promises, or anything else, but apparently some people don't realize that. That, or they're just rude, or at the least, lacking politeness.
Example 1:
Email Subject: Bloomberg Gadget
Email: Why has this gadget died? It is a great gadget. Please fix it.
Commentary: The "Bloomberg Gadget" was a widget I built to go on a Google Homepage (http://www.google.com/ig). It was one of the first widgets I built, and I actually did it to help me learn how to build Google widgets.
At least the emailer (a reverend, actually) had the courtesy to mention briefly that it was a "great gadget," and he even threw in a "please," but it still came out as an order. Not only that, but he's not giving me any sort of clue as to actually went wrong except for the completely vague "it died." How am I supposed to figure out his problem based on that?
Example 2:
Email Subject: Keylogger not working after a few weeks how to fix?
Email: Hey there, How are you doing? I've had your keylogger addon for a few weeks now, and all of a sudden it stopped working. Do you know why? And how can I fix it?
Commentary: This was a Firefox add-on that logged keystrokes so if your browser crashed, you wouldn't lose whatever you were typing. At least this guy was civil in his email; the problem is that like the previous example, this guy gave me nothing to go on. "No, I don't know why it stopped working. Is your computer plugged in?"
Example 3:
Email Subject: keylogger addon
Email: I was looking for a keylogger that I can use to monitor the activities of my teenaged daughters (hereafter referred to as “the monsters”), and stumbled across the experimental version of your application. For this purpose, because the monsters are not stupid, I am looking for something that works pretty much surreptitiously. I noticed that the description indicates it will not be hidden. I am not a programmer or other IT professional, and would never consider changing an application, as some have indicated they have done to accomplish this [ed. note: the whole point of making an application open source is to allow anyone to modify it however they want]. Will there be a “parental supervision” version of this add-on that will allow me to be sneakier than the monsters?
Commentary: At first, I wanted to respond, "Seriously? You're an adult? And a mother?"
In the end, I wrote the following:
I'm sorry, there are no plans to create a "Parental Control" version.
You may use it to monitor your children, but far more often,
technologically-savvy children would use it to steal their parents'
usernames, passwords, and bank account numbers.
Honestly, your best bet would be to have your computer in a public
place (such as the kitchen or living room), and educate your daughters
on the various online dangers. It's a losing battle getting in a
technological war with today's generation. It's just a thought, but I
suspect that the first time you show them evidence from your
monitoring, they will realize what you are doing and either retaliate
(perhaps by installing a keylogger of their own) or simply move their
computer use to a friend's house where you have no control instead of
the small control you have now.
Good luck with your situation! I don't envy you the difficult job of
dealing with teenagers, and wish you the best in your parenting.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Mormons and Education
A non-LDS friend recently asked on his blog if anyone knew of someone his age (25 or so?) and educational level (M.S. degree in computer science) who had converted to the LDS church.
I couldn't think of anyone off the top of my head, but it made me curious and I did a little research. Apparently, Latter-day Saints are somewhat unique among religions in that education makes us stronger in our religion instead of weaker.
"A study by Stan Albrecht and Tim Heaton published in the Review of Religious Research in 1984 reported that opposite to the experience of most churches in the United States, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints become more religiously active as they become more educated."
- http://www.adherents.com/largecom/lds_dem.html
Not being on campus, I don't have easy access to the study in question, but it's titled, "Secularization, higher education, and religiosity," Review of Religious Research, 1984.
I also found something more recent:
"Consistent with previous research, we did not find education to have a secularizing influence on Mormons, but rather to have a positive association with religiosity for both Mormon men and women."
- "Lack of a Secularizing Influence of Education on Religious Activity and Parity Among Mormons", Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol 42, Iss. 1, pp 113-124, 2003
Unfortunately, there's no real data I could find on educational levels, majors, or similar things.
I couldn't think of anyone off the top of my head, but it made me curious and I did a little research. Apparently, Latter-day Saints are somewhat unique among religions in that education makes us stronger in our religion instead of weaker.
"A study by Stan Albrecht and Tim Heaton published in the Review of Religious Research in 1984 reported that opposite to the experience of most churches in the United States, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints become more religiously active as they become more educated."
- http://www.adherents.com/largecom/lds_dem.html
Not being on campus, I don't have easy access to the study in question, but it's titled, "Secularization, higher education, and religiosity," Review of Religious Research, 1984.
I also found something more recent:
"Consistent with previous research, we did not find education to have a secularizing influence on Mormons, but rather to have a positive association with religiosity for both Mormon men and women."
- "Lack of a Secularizing Influence of Education on Religious Activity and Parity Among Mormons", Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol 42, Iss. 1, pp 113-124, 2003
Unfortunately, there's no real data I could find on educational levels, majors, or similar things.
The Great Rattlesnake Escape
Here in Draper, Child and I teach the 6-year-old Sunday School class. At the beginning of Sunday School, all the classes meet together for "Singing Time."
On our row, I had three of our kids on my right, and Child and another kid on the left. The current song required us to stand up and "wiggle like a rattlesnake." I was momentarily distracted by Child's laughing at my shaking my bum like a rattlesnake, then Child pointed to my right. I look over to see the three six-year-olds who used to be standing to my right now halfway across the room doing an impressive army crawl, apparently taking the "wiggle like a rattlesnake" a little too literally. It took three or four teachers to surround them, but we finally got them returned to their seats.
By the way, I have to throw in a Faith Promoting Experience. The other night, my entire nose was stuffed up beyond belief with allergies. I had to breath through my mouth, which made it impossible to sleep (and gave me a sore throat), and it was 2 AM in the morning. "Just give me one nostril," I finally prayed. "Enough so I can breath through my nose long enough to fall asleep."
10 minutes later, I had one nostril open, and was able to fall asleep. Go God!
On our row, I had three of our kids on my right, and Child and another kid on the left. The current song required us to stand up and "wiggle like a rattlesnake." I was momentarily distracted by Child's laughing at my shaking my bum like a rattlesnake, then Child pointed to my right. I look over to see the three six-year-olds who used to be standing to my right now halfway across the room doing an impressive army crawl, apparently taking the "wiggle like a rattlesnake" a little too literally. It took three or four teachers to surround them, but we finally got them returned to their seats.
By the way, I have to throw in a Faith Promoting Experience. The other night, my entire nose was stuffed up beyond belief with allergies. I had to breath through my mouth, which made it impossible to sleep (and gave me a sore throat), and it was 2 AM in the morning. "Just give me one nostril," I finally prayed. "Enough so I can breath through my nose long enough to fall asleep."
10 minutes later, I had one nostril open, and was able to fall asleep. Go God!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Garden 2
In our ongoing battle against the lack of sunlight in our tiny backyard, we've tried two things:
1. Raised the boxes off the ground, so they can get a precious hour of extra sunlight.
2. Cut down the sides of the boxes in the direction of the sun. This won't make a difference when the plants get a little taller, but for now, the plants originally shaded by the side of the box will now get an extra few minutes of sunlight as well.
We're also starting to hit a few days of cooler weather, so our plants get well wrapped up at night. Incidentally, the weather report on weather.com says, "Current Temperature: 60 degrees. High: 59 degrees."
1. Raised the boxes off the ground, so they can get a precious hour of extra sunlight.
2. Cut down the sides of the boxes in the direction of the sun. This won't make a difference when the plants get a little taller, but for now, the plants originally shaded by the side of the box will now get an extra few minutes of sunlight as well.
We're also starting to hit a few days of cooler weather, so our plants get well wrapped up at night. Incidentally, the weather report on weather.com says, "Current Temperature: 60 degrees. High: 59 degrees."
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Garden 1
A few weeks ago, Child and I read a story on KSL about "urban gardening," basically, growing a garden on a porch, balcony, or small backyard. We had already been planning on doing our own as soon as it stopped snowing, so we read the story with interest.
The story was more like a human interest story featuring a guy who started a garden on his apartment balcony. It was an interesting read until the second to last paragraph, where it said, "It cost Joel about $700 for the garden, including pots, plants and instruction on how to care for everything."
$700?! What was this guy growing, gold bars? Reading the story a second time, we caught something we hadn't the first time through: he had hired a guy to do a custom garden for him. Having grown up in a family which constantly had a garden, I would never pay someone to plant a garden for me, much less $700 for a few pots on a balcony, but to be fair, I'm assuming the apartment owner had no experience with gardening.
I still think he could have read a couple books (there are dozens about "square foot gardening"), and there's no way he's going to get enough food out of it to cover the cost, but perhaps he's more concerned about the organic-ness and environmentally-friendly side. Either way, I hope he sees how easy gardening really is and does it himself the next year. He's already got the pots and dirt.
Anyway, on to our own garden. We made our first real strides today, getting our dirt and plants. It's still a little early to plant, although if I remember correctly, our peas don't mind the cold, so maybe we'll plant them at least.
When it comes to containers, we're trying something unique, which could fail horribly, but has an outside chance of working and the benefit of being cheap (free). Dismayed at the price of containers ($5 for a cheap plastic storage tub that we could drill drainage holes in, up to $100 for decorative ceramic planting pots), Child and I looked into building some simple wooden boxes.
Wood is expensive as well, and I started thinking. Since we're only planning on living here one growing season, we don't need something permanent. What about cardboard boxes? They're free, and they decompose. Obviously an ordinary cardboard box wouldn't be strong enough or last long enough, but a banana box (the lid and bottom combined to give it double strength) might just hold out for a few months.
So we decided to give it a try. Worst case scenario, the cardboard starts falling apart and I end up buying the wood after all and building a wooden box around the cardboard boxes.
As far as plants, we decided on tomatoes, bell peppers, sugar snap peas, zucchini, yellow summer squash, carrots, and green beans. The tomatoes, bell peppers, and carrots need a little more depth, so they'll end up in a double-tall banana box.
The double-tall boxes were pretty easy to make. First, we popped open the flaps on both the bottom and lid of the first box. Second, we slid the flaps of the bottom between the bottom and lid of the second box (note from the picture how I cut off a wedge from the flaps of the first box so it would slide in easier). Push it all the way down and it'll rest solid. Finally, simply slide the top of the first box over the top of the whole contraption and push it down. Presto: a double-tall box.
Total cost so far: $42.50
Anyway, what it boils down to is that assuming we have no more expenses, we need each of our 7 varieties of plants to produce at least $6 worth of food to break even. I think we're pretty safe. That's a handful of tomatoes or peppers from Harmons.
My biggest worry for our garden, after the cardboard boxes falling apart, is sunlight. Since we have a tiny backyard (12' x 20'), with a two-story townhome on the south and a 5 foot tall privacy fence on the other three sides, not a whole lot of light gets into our back yard. We'll see what happens.
Here's a slightly more complete picture:
To date, getting the dirt was the hardest part. The pioneers would laugh at the fact that we had difficulty finding dirt, but that's modern times for you. Child found a couple people who were giving away "free dirt" on Craigslist, but at the one house we made it to, the dirt was a solid yellow clay/rock mess. Not gardening soil by any stretch.
We finally ended up taking our car to a topsoil company in Lindon (Mountain Topsoil). I felt a little out of place with our little Saturn in a line of pickup trucks and trailers, but we had the guy driving the Bobcat dump a half-cubic yard of dirt into a row of banana boxes. I stuck those into our back seat, then took a shovel to the remaining pile and loaded it into our tarp-lined trunk. We were riding pretty low and slow driving back to Draper, but we made it without any difficulties.
I have to add: this was all done on our way home from two hours of Ultimate Frisbee in Provo, so I was already tired. And from comparing a handful of links (e.g. this one), it's pretty fair that a cubic yard of topsoil weighs one ton. Since we got half a cubic yard, I had to lift and shovel a thousand pounds of dirt into Jasmine. Then, once we got home, I had to unload all of that and carry it to our backyard.
I'm tired. And Child gives amazing massages.
The story was more like a human interest story featuring a guy who started a garden on his apartment balcony. It was an interesting read until the second to last paragraph, where it said, "It cost Joel about $700 for the garden, including pots, plants and instruction on how to care for everything."
$700?! What was this guy growing, gold bars? Reading the story a second time, we caught something we hadn't the first time through: he had hired a guy to do a custom garden for him. Having grown up in a family which constantly had a garden, I would never pay someone to plant a garden for me, much less $700 for a few pots on a balcony, but to be fair, I'm assuming the apartment owner had no experience with gardening.
I still think he could have read a couple books (there are dozens about "square foot gardening"), and there's no way he's going to get enough food out of it to cover the cost, but perhaps he's more concerned about the organic-ness and environmentally-friendly side. Either way, I hope he sees how easy gardening really is and does it himself the next year. He's already got the pots and dirt.
Anyway, on to our own garden. We made our first real strides today, getting our dirt and plants. It's still a little early to plant, although if I remember correctly, our peas don't mind the cold, so maybe we'll plant them at least.
When it comes to containers, we're trying something unique, which could fail horribly, but has an outside chance of working and the benefit of being cheap (free). Dismayed at the price of containers ($5 for a cheap plastic storage tub that we could drill drainage holes in, up to $100 for decorative ceramic planting pots), Child and I looked into building some simple wooden boxes.
Wood is expensive as well, and I started thinking. Since we're only planning on living here one growing season, we don't need something permanent. What about cardboard boxes? They're free, and they decompose. Obviously an ordinary cardboard box wouldn't be strong enough or last long enough, but a banana box (the lid and bottom combined to give it double strength) might just hold out for a few months.
So we decided to give it a try. Worst case scenario, the cardboard starts falling apart and I end up buying the wood after all and building a wooden box around the cardboard boxes.
As far as plants, we decided on tomatoes, bell peppers, sugar snap peas, zucchini, yellow summer squash, carrots, and green beans. The tomatoes, bell peppers, and carrots need a little more depth, so they'll end up in a double-tall banana box.
The double-tall boxes were pretty easy to make. First, we popped open the flaps on both the bottom and lid of the first box. Second, we slid the flaps of the bottom between the bottom and lid of the second box (note from the picture how I cut off a wedge from the flaps of the first box so it would slide in easier). Push it all the way down and it'll rest solid. Finally, simply slide the top of the first box over the top of the whole contraption and push it down. Presto: a double-tall box.
Total cost so far: $42.50
- Dirt: $10 (Mountain topsoil)
- Shovel: $6 (Lowes)
- Trowel: $1 (Lowes)
- MiracleGrow plant food: $8 (Lowes)
- Plants/seeds: $10.50 (Lowes) and $7 (Walmart)
Anyway, what it boils down to is that assuming we have no more expenses, we need each of our 7 varieties of plants to produce at least $6 worth of food to break even. I think we're pretty safe. That's a handful of tomatoes or peppers from Harmons.
My biggest worry for our garden, after the cardboard boxes falling apart, is sunlight. Since we have a tiny backyard (12' x 20'), with a two-story townhome on the south and a 5 foot tall privacy fence on the other three sides, not a whole lot of light gets into our back yard. We'll see what happens.
Here's a slightly more complete picture:
To date, getting the dirt was the hardest part. The pioneers would laugh at the fact that we had difficulty finding dirt, but that's modern times for you. Child found a couple people who were giving away "free dirt" on Craigslist, but at the one house we made it to, the dirt was a solid yellow clay/rock mess. Not gardening soil by any stretch. We finally ended up taking our car to a topsoil company in Lindon (Mountain Topsoil). I felt a little out of place with our little Saturn in a line of pickup trucks and trailers, but we had the guy driving the Bobcat dump a half-cubic yard of dirt into a row of banana boxes. I stuck those into our back seat, then took a shovel to the remaining pile and loaded it into our tarp-lined trunk. We were riding pretty low and slow driving back to Draper, but we made it without any difficulties.
I have to add: this was all done on our way home from two hours of Ultimate Frisbee in Provo, so I was already tired. And from comparing a handful of links (e.g. this one), it's pretty fair that a cubic yard of topsoil weighs one ton. Since we got half a cubic yard, I had to lift and shovel a thousand pounds of dirt into Jasmine. Then, once we got home, I had to unload all of that and carry it to our backyard.
I'm tired. And Child gives amazing massages.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Nightstands...de muerte!
Child wanted some nightstands. "Find a garage sale," I said. "Buy some from DI. Heck, buy some from Ikea."
No, she wanted me to build her some. Our bed is on risers, so it's pretty high, and she wanted a nice tall nightstand to put stuff on. After some complaining and grumbling, I finally agreed to do it. Step one was deciding on a design:
Nothing too hard, right? A little woodwork, a little metalwork, some welding, and you have a nightstand.
I learned three things.
1. Woodwork is hard.
2. If you pay for crooked wood, you get crooked wood. If you get crooked wood, you get the Leaning Nightstand of Pisa.
3. While shopping at Lowes, if you can't remember the size of screw you already have at home, you will buy the exact same size.
Although I blame any aberrations from linear cuts on crooked wood, without admitting any personal responsibility, I will say that if I had a table saw instead of just a circular saw, the end result may have looked more like the above design. As it was, this is what Child ended up with:
Not...exactly like the design.
I don't think it was exactly what Child had envisioned either...okay, when she got back from shopping, she walked in the door and shrieked with horror, stumbling backwards and clutching her heart. When she had had a little time to recover, and a class of cold water, she managed to choke out faintly, "That's very...wooden."
Acouchi may take a few more days to recover, cowering under the guest bed with her terrified eyes fixed on the door as if afraid the shelves (they ended up too tall to be called nightstands) would lunge in like stiff (if slowly toppling) zombies.
You win some, you lose some...and some, you bomb so spectacularly that your wife never asks you to do woodworking projects again, which was pretty much what you wanted in the first place, so it actually ends up as a win.
No, she wanted me to build her some. Our bed is on risers, so it's pretty high, and she wanted a nice tall nightstand to put stuff on. After some complaining and grumbling, I finally agreed to do it. Step one was deciding on a design:
Nothing too hard, right? A little woodwork, a little metalwork, some welding, and you have a nightstand.
I learned three things.
1. Woodwork is hard.
2. If you pay for crooked wood, you get crooked wood. If you get crooked wood, you get the Leaning Nightstand of Pisa.
3. While shopping at Lowes, if you can't remember the size of screw you already have at home, you will buy the exact same size.
Although I blame any aberrations from linear cuts on crooked wood, without admitting any personal responsibility, I will say that if I had a table saw instead of just a circular saw, the end result may have looked more like the above design. As it was, this is what Child ended up with:
Not...exactly like the design.
I don't think it was exactly what Child had envisioned either...okay, when she got back from shopping, she walked in the door and shrieked with horror, stumbling backwards and clutching her heart. When she had had a little time to recover, and a class of cold water, she managed to choke out faintly, "That's very...wooden."
Acouchi may take a few more days to recover, cowering under the guest bed with her terrified eyes fixed on the door as if afraid the shelves (they ended up too tall to be called nightstands) would lunge in like stiff (if slowly toppling) zombies.
You win some, you lose some...and some, you bomb so spectacularly that your wife never asks you to do woodworking projects again, which was pretty much what you wanted in the first place, so it actually ends up as a win.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Rookies
This morning, I was trying to figure out why one of our customers couldn't upload a picture to her website. She was using a form I had built, so fixing the bug was assigned to me. After some digging around, I found out that the problem was actually in another programmer's code library that my form used.
"Rookie mistake," I thought to myself. "He forget to lowercase the file extension." What that meany was that someone could upload an image called "test.jpg" just fine, but "test.JPG" would fail.
I fixed the bug, chuckling smugly to myself, then went back to my form to try uploading the picture again. It failed. What?! As it turns out, I had made a mistake even more rookiesh in my own code, trying to display the new picture BEFORE actually uploading it. Oops.
It's incidents like these that keep me from getting too cocky.
"Rookie mistake," I thought to myself. "He forget to lowercase the file extension." What that meany was that someone could upload an image called "test.jpg" just fine, but "test.JPG" would fail.
I fixed the bug, chuckling smugly to myself, then went back to my form to try uploading the picture again. It failed. What?! As it turns out, I had made a mistake even more rookiesh in my own code, trying to display the new picture BEFORE actually uploading it. Oops.
It's incidents like these that keep me from getting too cocky.
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