Tag: shenanigans

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“Education” vs “Training”…

So, I finally watched “Jesus Camp” this weekend with Mom and Brooke, the latter of which had already seen it and subsequently shown it to the high school Sunday school class at church (heh…). The movie, for those that don’t know, is a documentary beginning in the spring in the general area of Lee’s Summit, MO (near Kansas City, of course) as kids there (ranging from ages 6-12) prepare to go off to summer camp in North Dakota; the kids then go to the camp, and then return. The camp is run by a Pentecostal minister that is preaching to them for the week. It’s close to 1.5 hrs long. Essentially, the movie is about how the evangelical movement in America is affecting the young children involved.

The neat thing about the movie is that it’s told solely from the perspective of the kids and the camp director, along with a sort of “counterpoint” presented through an evangelical radio host (that later interviews the camp director). The film makers say nothing in the movie, but allow the kids, parents and other figures to do all the talking. The people in the film speak for themselves, leaving little room for interpretation by the viewer.

Well, the thing is…because of this fact, you know that these people really believe what they’re saying, and it provides some cause for concern. The camp director is interviewed frequently throughout the film talking about “training” these kids. She constantly refers to it as “training,” and mentions multiple times how “people in other religions” start “training” their kids from the age of 3 to do everything and anything for their beliefs, including strapping a bomb to themselves. She literally talks about how “we Christians” need to start “training” our kids in a similar way.

Now, as my Mom so perceptively noticed, many of the kids depicted in this movie seemed to be brainwashed. Not playing with toys at the age of 9. Not playing video games. Not watching MTV. They were instead going up to a few old African American guys in the park asking if they knew “where they were going after they die.” They said heaven. The 9 year old girl said “are you sure?” They said “yes.” As she walked away with her mullet-donned accomplice (seriously…watch that video…), she says “I think they’re Muslim.”

I guess it’s concerning because, as the camp director says, these are the next generation of voters in our country. I know (or hope?) that this is an isolated group of evangelicals and that this is not how most of them go about things, but I have to wonder if their childhood isn’t being corrupted for something Jesus didn’t intend?

Perhaps I’d feel differently if they were talking about “education” rather than “training.” That word really has the connotation of preparing for a battle or war.

I don’t think I like where this is going.

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Uhhhh, yeah…this guy is good…

So, if you’ve played “Super Mario Bros. 2,” you’ll recognize the music…if you haven’t played the game, you may not appreciate this much… And if you haven’t played the game, at least watch for the drumming…especially after the 2 minute mark.

Yeah, he’s pretty good. Pretty sure I was never, ever that good… 😛

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A brief tutorial in temporal mechanics…

So, as an avid “Star Trek” watcher, I’ve been introduced to the idea of going backward and forward in time, and the effects of each on the present (in the case of “forward,” not very much…). For example, at a relatively early age, I realized that in “Back to the Future Part II,” Marty goes to the future and sees himself (and meets his son), but this is impossible because he wasn’t there to live out his life (because he left the “present” to go to the “future”…), thus producing a paradox, of sorts.

Now comes along “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” The premiere episode was on Sunday night on FOX, and the second one was on last night (I haven’t watched it yet…). The first episode takes place in 1999, in between the movies “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” which take place in 1991 and 2004, respectively. For “Terminator 2,” Judgement Day (i.e. the destruction of the human race by the SkyNet computer) was to take place on August 29, 1997 – in “Terminator 3,” that date is moved back to July 24, 2004.

Well, at the end of the first episode, they jump forward through time from 1999 to 2007, thus negating all of “Terminator 3.” Never happened. The timeline adjusted itself such that Sarah and John Connor were non-existent between the years of 1999 and 2007. So, if John and Sarah were successful at stopping Judgement Day in 1997, but weren’t there in 2004 to stop it, wouldn’t Judgement Day have already happened (if they jumped to 2007)?

Alright, so this brings up another point: if the machines (in the future) are sending back a Terminator to take out John and/or Sarah Connor, the second that Terminator is sent back in time, the machines should know if they were successful. That is, if nothing changes where they are, then the timeline was not averted and they need to send another one. If things did change, they wouldn’t know about it because they would never know they ever had the problem: things would just be as they always had been.

So, if you really wanted to take out John or Sarah, and you know your Terminator wasn’t successful, why not send another one to the same time point to get two Terminators after them? Or, for that matter, why take out John Connor when Sarah’s around to protect him, when instead you could go after Sarah’s parents and prevent Sarah from ever having a child (or existing, for that matter).

I think, in the end, machines are just stupid. And they need to stop meddling with the space-time continuum, as they obviously don’t know what they’re doing.

That, or the writers of the “Terminator” series should get a hold of a brief tutorial in temporal mechanics…

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High-larious…

Mariju-wii-ana

What does Isaac’s Dad do when he finds out his 15-year-old son is smoking marijuana? He unwraps that new copy of Guitar Hero III that was under the tree and puts it up for sale on eBay, along with a lengthy discussion as to why it’s for sale. Needless to say, Isaac probably isn’t all that pleased… Personally, I find this to be a very creative punishment…but Dad probably should have taken the Wii away, too…

Please note that the “lengthy discussion” is quite amusing…and also, as of today (6:45 pm), this $90 game is going for $224… I think Dad should buy himself something nice…

So, now does the title make sense? Hope so…I was proud of that one…

Update: The auction ended this evening…and I checked at 8:50 pm and it sold… After 42 bids, it went for $9,100.01… All I can say is…wow…

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Mmmmm…Missouri Backcountry…

Well, Brooke got to go backpacking for the first time this weekend. We hit the Ozark Trail’s Current River section Friday afternoon, which is located kinda between Bonne Terre, MO and Eminence, MO…but by “between,” I mean “there’s nothing but forest there, so it’s kinda far from both.”

Anyway, we got started Friday night but really only had time to pitch a tent and collect firewood. We even got to chop down a tree with our nifty new hatchet (picture coming…) in the dark, which was rather sweet… The night proved mostly uneventful, but it was still good… The real problem was the heat. I mean, it cooled off a bit, but being in the trees with little or no breeze meant that the humidity just kinda hung around. As a result, Brooke didn’t sleep all that well…

We got up the next morning and hit the trail. The hiking itself was pretty straight-forward, but we weren’t as close to water as I’d hoped. I mean, yes, the trail generally follows the Current River, but as many of you know, there are lots of bluffs along the water, which means that while we were usually “close” to it, we still couldn’t actually get to it except at a few points… We did get to eat lunch by the river, which was lovely, and get our feet wet once or twice.

But, the heat was still pretty annoying and we did 10 miles of hiking (give or take…) in a relatively short span of time… By the time we had done the hiking we had planned to do, and hiked back, we realized we were only an hour from the car… So yeah, dripping with sweat and with blisters on our feet (well, mine at least…), we headed back to the car and just decided to come home rather than stick it out another night… We got back last night and picked up the dog from Jo and Lisa’s (thanks!).

Anyway, it was a good, albeit brief and warm, trip. While the weather wasn’t what we would have preferred, we did get some good scenery and some good exercise…

Back to the “real world” now, I guess……

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My Dream Just Might Come True…

Winter food drop spurs wildlife visits
ASSOCIATED PRESS
10/01/2007

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Homeowners in the Ozarks are being warned against leaving food outdoors because of the danger of luring hungry bears onto their property.

In urban areas like Kansas City where there isn’t a danger of bears, residents could see a sharp increase in the number of mice that invade their homes.

A freeze in April and drought in August have stifled the nut, fruit and seed production on many plants and trees, experts say. That means more wildlife than usual will be forced out of fields and into people’s yards looking for food.

“With mice, people better get ready for them this winter,” said Alan Branhagen, horticulture manager at Powell Gardens east of Kansas City. “They’re going to want inside the house because the food crop is so bad.”

In the Ozarks, black bears that typically gorge on acorns to prepare for hibernation will have to look elsewhere for nourishment because the nuts will be scarce. The white oaks that provide food for the bears and other wildlife such as turkeys, squirrels and songbirds, didn’t produce a crop.

On top of that, papaw trees that usually produce a soft fruit that ripens in early autumn and is eaten by many times of wildlife didn’t do so this year.

“We’re probably seeing more animals such as raccoons and possums out and about scavenging for food in the park,” said Conrad Schmitt, director of the Lakeside Nature Center in Kansas City’s Swope Park.

For bird watchers, however, the lack of food in nature could mean a big increase in the number of birds that flock to feeders.

That doesn’t necessarily mean a surge in the most-typical birds that are seen at feeders, said Larry Rizzo, a natural-history biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. But there should be more birds such as robins, cedar waxwings, bluebirds and mockingbirds that usually rely heavily on fruits in the winter, he said.

“When you have less food available, birds will push into the feeders quicker than usual,” said Mark McKellar, an ornithologist who operates a feeder supply store and tracks bird trends. “We’re already seeing it this fall.”

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Andy's a teacher?!

So, I got my first taste of teaching recently… As I may have explained before, the Pharmacological and Physiological Science Department at SLU (of which I’m a member…) runs a class for undergrad non-science majors every Fall titled “Drugs We Use And Abuse.” It accepts 50 students a semester and tends to be pretty popular, mostly because instead of learning basic biological principles, you learn more about specific drugs and their effects on people and society.

This is my first time teaching the class, and teaching in any form for that matter… I got to teach the Alcohol section, which consisted of two lectures, the first of which was Alcohol and the Body (i.e. mechanisms and physiological effects) and the second was Alcohol and Society (i.e. alcohol on campus, alcoholism, Prohibition, etc.). The first lecture was infinitely more interesting for me, and for the students too, I think. I talked about how alcohol works on the body and had a decent number of questions… The stuff today was pretty straight-forward and largely consisted of things the students already knew (as in, heavy alcohol use tends to lead to drunk driving, violence, skipping school, etc.).

So yeah, I think I enjoyed the experience overall. I had to write a quiz for my section, then wrote a few exam questions that will be administered in a week or so. Perhaps next year I’ll expand a bit and run more of the class, and more lectures. It’s team-taught, meaning that we each get a section to work on and all contribute to the exam for each section.

Regardless, I’m still planning on the “going into industry” route after graduation (in three years…), but teaching wasn’t bad! Maybe I’ll get more into it later on? Who knows…

More and more craziness, I say…being on the other side of the desk for once… 😛

Posted on

Andy’s a teacher?!

So, I got my first taste of teaching recently… As I may have explained before, the Pharmacological and Physiological Science Department at SLU (of which I’m a member…) runs a class for undergrad non-science majors every Fall titled “Drugs We Use And Abuse.” It accepts 50 students a semester and tends to be pretty popular, mostly because instead of learning basic biological principles, you learn more about specific drugs and their effects on people and society.

This is my first time teaching the class, and teaching in any form for that matter… I got to teach the Alcohol section, which consisted of two lectures, the first of which was Alcohol and the Body (i.e. mechanisms and physiological effects) and the second was Alcohol and Society (i.e. alcohol on campus, alcoholism, Prohibition, etc.). The first lecture was infinitely more interesting for me, and for the students too, I think. I talked about how alcohol works on the body and had a decent number of questions… The stuff today was pretty straight-forward and largely consisted of things the students already knew (as in, heavy alcohol use tends to lead to drunk driving, violence, skipping school, etc.).

So yeah, I think I enjoyed the experience overall. I had to write a quiz for my section, then wrote a few exam questions that will be administered in a week or so. Perhaps next year I’ll expand a bit and run more of the class, and more lectures. It’s team-taught, meaning that we each get a section to work on and all contribute to the exam for each section.

Regardless, I’m still planning on the “going into industry” route after graduation (in three years…), but teaching wasn’t bad! Maybe I’ll get more into it later on? Who knows…

More and more craziness, I say…being on the other side of the desk for once… 😛

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Ranting and raving…

So yeah, Brooke and I have been having some “issues” with our air conditioning unit. Perhaps we weren’t nicer to it earlier in the year…I dunno… Either way, it is being rather uncooperative…

A few weeks ago, we noticed that the air being pushed around wasn’t all that cold… I walked outside and saw that the A/C unit wasn’t even on, but the fan inside still was. We came to find out that it, apparently, had tripped the breaker. The A/C guy (that our landlords promptly called in) said that the A/C unit itself was fine, but it was probably pulling too much current for the 20 A circuit installed in the breaker – we should put in a 30 A circuit instead (like the clothes dryer has).

So, we didn’t have any problems again, really, until this past weekend. On Sunday, we had this happen two times or so, and then another two times overnight (once around 2:00 am and then Brooke had to trip it again when she got up at 7:30 am). We called BSB (our landlords) again and they sent out an A/C person (who said the same thing as the last guy), and an electrician was called out. This person switched out the 20 A circuit for the 30 A and it worked just peachy keen…

…until about 6:00 pm. I was about to go outside and get picked up by Brooke to go to dinner when I noticed it was getting warmer again in the apartment, and again, the fan was still running. This time, however, the breaker wasn’t tripped. I went downstairs to the A/C unit and the thing was running (i.e. you could feel it vibrating as it normally would…), but the fan in the unit itself wasn’t spinning. It was also rather hot to touch (as compared with the A/C unit next to it for the apartment below us). I turned off the system and went to dinner, came back a few hours later, and turned it back on – it worked again!

…but then the same thing happened a little later, so we just left the A/C off all night. We pulled the futon mattress downstairs and turned some fans on us, but the humidity didn’t make sleeping easy. I think I got 4 hours of sleep, but Brooke fared a bit better…

So yeah, now I’m at work (which is air conditioned, thankfully…) awaiting a call from BSB again to tell me what they’re going to do. Edie and Sam are still at home, and I’ve got water and fans turned onto their typical sleeping areas to hopefully keep them as comfortable as possible.

It’s just Murphy’s Law, I guess, that the A/C would go out during the hottest week of the year. I guess it’s better than the power outage last year, when we didn’t even have fans to cool us down or keep the refrigerator/freezer running, but still…it’s damned uncomfortable to sleep in!

Hopefully something gets worked out shortly…otherwise, I think we’ll go nuts…and/or more nuts than we already are…

Update #1: As of 3:00 pm on Wednesday, BSB has decided to spring for a new A/C unit for us. The guy came back today multiple times, and on the third time, found problems with the motor and fan. Hopefully, the new unit will be installed tomorrow or Friday at the absolute latest.

Update #2: Our new A/C unit was installed today (Thursday), and it’s taking forever to cool our place down from 105 F to 80 F…but it’s a start… At least we get TV and internet again!

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Help!!

Yeah, I know probably no one is left who looks at this, but I hate failure and am desperate….anyway, I’m trying to learn to crochet and am miserable at it. Anyone know of a good crochet-er in St. Louis who can teach me what I’m doing wrong?