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Journal Nov 2006

30 Nov 2006

The new Beatles album "Love" is an interesting concept. It's heavily produced from existing material, like going from the "naked" version of Let It Be to the original release. Or something.

Of course, when put into context as the soundtrack for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name in LV, its existence is more justified. I haven't seen the show, but I can imagine a spectular one baed on the music and on what I've seen of previous Cirque shows.

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Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

29 Nov 2006

Tonight I pull a back muscle again. This time it's next to my left shoulder blade. I've really got to be careful not to strain myself now. Last time I pulled one on the right side of my back with no apparent cause. I thought I woke up with a regular achy back that would subside, but I got a sharp pain in that same place when I put Evelyn in her car seat to go to daycare. At least I was able to use my Kaiser health care to get a diagnosis and medicine (10 bucks for each), and I ran into a fellow APSA member, Ailoan, who's finishing up pharmacy school as a resident in the Kaiser Pharmacy.

This time I was washing Evelyn up at the sink, but I know for sure this is where the pain started. Holding her up to the bathroom faucet for two minutes straight is what strained my back muscle this time. Maybe it's just Evelyn who's a pain in the back. I don't know. =) I guess I have to start taking that medication again.

At least she seems to be delevoping fine, eating as much as Timmy does now, so hopefully she won't be underweight for long. She's still very testy though. And we have to curb her hitting tendencies. She knows what she's doing because she looks at us after doing it.

Timmy is doing really well in Kindergarten. According to his teacher, he's learning at a level higher than average (and the school average if already high among San Diego schools), and he soaks up information like a sponge. His reading level is impressive, especially considering he was really resistant to reading himself at night.

I think Evelyn can do just as well as Timmy. She's already very expressive and smart, but we have to train her to be less aggressive.

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

28 Nov 2006

Yesterday I finally got Firefox 2.0 on my work computer, but I had some glitches. First, I tried installing it without uninstalling 1.5 (just for fun), and I had some weird tabbed browsing irregularities (Ctrl-T didn't work exactly), and my bookmarks weren't appearing on the menu (even though the bookmarks file was intact). Everything else was configured as it was before, though.

So, I backed up my profile (%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[random].default) and started fresh, then copied my old profile over the new one (which had a new name, of course), and absolutely everything worked. I had no such problem with my lab computer or my laptop. Well, if you have this problem, this was my solution.

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

27 Nov 2006

One of my favorite extensions, MakeLink, got updated for Firefox 2.0, but the menu shortcut key hasn't been implemented yet, so I made my own fix to include a menu shortcut key (N).

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

22 Nov 2006

Happy Thanksgiving! For tomorrow, that is. I'll be in the L.A. area for the weekend for some much needed relaxation.

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

21 Nov 2006

Firefox 2.0 was released sometime recently, but I just discovered that yesterday. So far, so good, including my usual extensions still working. I'll give a more comprehensive report on it later. For now, I'd still recommend backing up your profile and uninstalling Firefox before installing the new one.

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

20 Nov 2006

What is the meaning of conservative in the issue of the death penalty? Many politically conservative pundits identify themselves as Christian but support the death penalty. But I doubt Christ would support it. He only went through it in order to save. Death penalty supporters are being conservative about potential victims, but opponents are being conservative about protecting the wrongfully convicted and actual criminals in groups where the death penalty is disproportionately sentenced; besides, opposing the death penalty is consistent with a pro-life agenda.

Al Franken takes an interesting viewpoint: he believes that there may be some people who deserve to die, but as soon as you execute an innocent person, the system fails. Randi Rhodes argues that life in prison is a more suitable punishment because keeping the convicts alive allows people to talk to them in order to understand why they kill. A side effect, of course, is that if there is conclusive evidence proving a convict's innocence, justice can still be done (in part).

Whatever position you take on it, I think a good objective is to reduce the number or rate of violent crime that currently warrants the death penalty. Just as reducing the number of abortions is an objective both sides can have, reducing executions (or the "need" for them) is a goal both sides can embrace. How we do that is, of course, a topic open to debate. But we can start by being less afraid of our neighbor. Fear is an unfortunate motivator, and we all must stop using it as a means to an end, whether the end is political power, financial power, or just plain ego-boosting.

I believe that government social programs that political conservatives decry as being detrimental to society actually benefit it by keeping citizens able to live their lives without turning to crime. What could be more pro-life than that?

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Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

17 Nov 2006

One of my coworkers is a right-wing Christian who doesn't really know the Bible, yet believes the entire Bible to be the literal truth to the exclusion of evolution and other scientific explanations for the natural world. (She probably doesn't believe that the sun moves around the Earth, though.) But I was able to carry on a decent conversation about the fact that it is open to interpretation, especially given the four different accounts of Jesus' life and ministry. Each Gospels itself, of course, could be from multiple sources.

Being conservative about Jesus' teaching means we should follow the certain (or highly probable) teachings and believe those accounts as much as we can and err on the side of the greatest good as defined by the particular religious denomination. However, I would argue that Jesus Himself is a liberal, both in His time and as seen from our time. He took on religious authorities and cared for the poor and sinners with compassion instead of scolding them (usually). So if we were really to take the safe path, we would be conservative about being liberal.

So I think we should really look at what is really important, getting a useful and inspirational message from the story and not whether loaves and fishes really multiplied out of thin air or not or whether God created the Earth over seven days or eons. The things that are not certain should always be open to debate, and the debate should be honest, but one position or another should not be looked at as necessarily more "moral" because the viewpoint is always important. As long as we try to make what we see as the right decisions and justify them, Biblically or not, I think we're always making progress toward understanding what God wants us to do.

And I was able to convince my coworker to start reading the Bible or at least get familiar with the stories of Jesus' compassion and love, the stuff that Christians and non-Christians alike can apply to their lives.

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(corrected 28 Nov 2006)

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

16 Nov 2006

blink-182's song Dammit has two slightly different versions that I know of: the album version and the radio edit. I like the radio version better because it has a percussive buildup in the intro, where the album version simply starts the drums in full. I don't own any of their albums, but I just got the greatest hits, which has the radio edit I like. Yay! It's a good collection that has one of my other favorites, M+M's.

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

15 Nov 2006

I don't know if it's a quarter-life crisis (or indeed third-life crisis for me), or watching the very fragile thread of life depicted in Grey's Anatomy, but I've been thinking a bit about my own mortality lately. There is, I imagine, a reason everything dies, partly to make room for new life, which you could call a "circle of life." Even a human being's body cells have programmed death, the dysfunction of which leads o cancer. But immortality is an interesting concept with pros and cons, the cons of which are embodied in the Hitchhiker's novel, Life, the Universe, and Everything and the first Highlander film, among other works of fiction.

An interesting version of immortality is quantum immortality, which is plausible but not widely accepted in the scientific community, or at least the principles behind it. Given the infinite possibilities of the universe and the probabilities that govern quantum physics, the various possible timelines may imply that the prevailing timeline for a sentient individual (worldline) is the one the individual observes. The upshot of this would be that an individual would never see his or her own demise, because the worldlines where his or her life would end would also end the observation. The problem I see with this is that with the infinite possibilities of quantum physics, the rest of us should see other immortals, unless it is just highly improbable that two "immortals" would exist in the same worldline. The other problem is that molecular biology shows that aging (and mortality) is inevitable because chromosomes deteriorate from the end (3' end of DNA) toward the start (5' end of DNA) over one's lifetime. (This, of course, doesn't affect humans until middle age because there is a poly-A tail (containing no genetic information) at the 3' end that lasts until older age. Yay, molecular bio class!)

Are you as confused as I am? Maybe I won't bring up anymore high-minded science-y talk. But that wouldn't be as much fun.

There are two major cons of immortality that I see: living on while others die (in the case of one's immortality being special), and eventually getting bored with life as cycles of history become apparent. The message we generally take from stories of immortality is to see our own mortality as a blessing, not a curse, and that our mortality makes the passage of time important and each moment valuable. One of the useful things about religious faith (in a utilitarian view, of course) is that the promotion of the concept of an afterlife encourages the living to live good lives for themselves as well as for the benefit of their fellows and future generations.

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Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

14 Nov 2006

Disney/Pixar's Cars was just released on DVD last week, and Timmy's watched it several times already. Even though the sentient beings of this world are mechanical, they display very human emotions and make for a very touching story. Ultimately it's about the importance of friends, trust in them, and compassion and humility for other people, which makes the film move me in the same way that It's a Wonderful Life does.

I inferred some important sub-themes, though, such as learning to slow down every once in a while, supporting local businesses, and appreciating the charm of "small towns." Garry Marshall said in his commentary to the Runaway Bride DVD that "there are no small towns anymore" because of communications technology and availability, but I think the idea is that people who live in a town or community know each other and do things together. Even in big cities like NYC, the residents (against their stereotype) can be very close-knit, particularly in a given community, and are generally helpful to tourists and other visitors.

Hopefully we can heed the message of this timely story. I know I can use a little humility.

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

13 Nov 2006

Congratulations to the Lees and the Flemings on their new arrivals, Alexandra and Logan, (respectively)! Interestingly enough, the babies were born the days before and after (respectively) the midterm election. We previously hosted our Sunday Dinner Group "red state dinner" featuring Cracker Barrel kind of food, so this time, to celebrate, we wanted to have a "blue state dinner." Unfortunately, it's not clearly defined what "blue state food" would be except maybe New York steak or Maine lobster or some California kinda of thing, so we picked Boston Market, which is pretty much comfort food associated with the South but has "Boston" in the name.

Next time I'll do better research on what practical (i.e. not so expensive) blue state food would be.

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Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

09 Nov 2006

I've read the stories that if the House Dems decide to elect Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as Speaker of the House, she would be the first female Speaker, and the Sgt.-at-Arms would have to change his greeting when the President comes in to "Madame Speaker, the President of the United States!"

What I didn't realize until my drive to work is that beyond that, she would also be second in line for the Presidency. And even further, if the House Dems are able to get real investigations on the administration's handling of 9/11, Iraq, and Katrina that lead to impeachment of both W and Cheney, then a simultaneous (or even consecutive) removal of both W and Cheney would make Pelosi the first female President.

Food for thought.

Also, we got the Senate. Boo ya!

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

08 Nov 2006

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Dems won and won BIG. We have the House, the majority of governorships and state legislatures, and possibly (likely) the Senate.

[cue Queen's "We Are the Champions"]

I can get some sleep now.

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

07 Nov 2006

Have you voted yet? If not, do it now!!! Then you can come back and read this, and an important message from yesterday. Or you can read yesterday's important message, noting that I finally posted the last month's worth of journal entries, then vote, then come back here, both of you readers.

It looks like we may have gotten what we fought for -- electronic machine getting fitted with voter verified paper ballots. I was skeptical with the touch screen and noted how even the layout matched the layout of each page in the guide booklet -- until the propositions. Be sure you read each page carefully to make sure you correctly transfer your votes from the booklet to the touch screen. Also, verify the summary at the end with your booklet and verify the receipt with the booklet. Now if we could just make it so that each election office counts only the paper ballots and receipts instead of using just the electronic votes with paper as backups when the vote is close. We should still fight for full paper counting regardless of the electronic outcome.

No exit pollsters outside, though. I was looking forward to putting my two cents into this very reliable vote sampling system.

I'm just as proud of my vote today as I was in 2004 and in previous elections. Hopefully my vote does indeed count, as well as every registered voter, regardless of party. But your vote won't count if you don't vote!

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Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):