Category: Life. Don’t talk to me about life.

… if there’s soemthing wrong with me. I think Robot Chicken is a total hoot.

Each Friday, James Randi posts a weekly ‘commentary’ on the rampant influence of mysticism and religion in daily thought. He has has made a lifetime career of exposing charlatans, fakers, and frauds along the lines of Sylvia Browne and John Edward (of ‘Crossing Over’ fame).

In this weeks commentary he steps on his soapbox and delivers masterful commentary on the rise of religious mysticism as a credible alternative to scientific theory. For anyone bothered by events such as the Kansas Board of Education deleting the theory of evolution from the science texts or the fact that our nations leader invokes an all powerful deity, from which he takes guidance daily, this treatise is an outstanding commentary on the state of affairs.

Randi also mentions an organization called The Brights, a group whose baseline philosophy I basically agree with, but I am uncomfortable with a “Join us! Do not be afraid!” attitude prevalent through the site.

For example, the site states, as a definition of it’s core philosophy:

What is a bright?

• A bright is a person who has a naturalistic worldview
• A bright’s worldview is free of supernatural and mystical elements
• The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic worldview

That’s all well and good, and gybes pretty well with my own philosophies, though a bit self-referential with the ‘naturalistic worldview’ schtick. But the site continues…

Currently the naturalistic worldview is insufficiently expressed within most cultures, even politically/socially repressed. To be a Bright (someone who fits the definition and registers on this Web site) is to participate in a movement to address the situation.

Okay, hang on a moment. Apparently this group is not comfortable with a simple definition or an ideal. You must participate in the movement to be a ‘Bright’. This really gets into “If you want in the club, ya gotta do the dance, man!”.

I’m going to remain skeptical of these folks for a while. The site is rampant with a ‘join up on this website, and be a Bright!’ sort of content, which unfortunately just makes me want to avoid it all the more. Their forums seem active and interesting, but I think I’ll stick with my own self-definition. Agnostic Secular Humanist, and call it art.

You could, ya know, buy this for me.
Contribute to Planet-Geek! Yeah!

Since we’ve moved to the new house, our roomate, Beth, has forced upon us her menagerie of pets, consisting of One (1) long haired grey cat named Cali, One (1) shorthaired tortoiseshell named Devita, and… one 10yr old Rotweiller mix, named Jasmine.
Now, it’s no secret that I’ve been lusting after having a dog for… well, forever. I work alone at home full time, and having someone near by I can chat with who seems to enjoy my company I always thought would be a big win. Now i’m settling into a work at home pattern that does, in fact, involve a dog. A very friendly dog who is just looking for company during the day, and is quite content to hang out under my desk while I work.
I know Jasmine is not my dog, and I’m still not sure I’m up for the long term responsibility of owning a dog, but gosh, she’s nice to have around.

The move is basically complete. 99% of the activity happened yesterday, in one of the longest and most exhausting moves I’ve done (granted, I haven’t moved in 8 years, so maybe I forgot what it was like).
Cat was up around 5:30, and I was up by 8… we worked all day long, with the big moving truck leaving the Natick house at 9:15pm at night. We did one full 25′ truck load, and then had to make a second run for some of the large furniture left over.
All in all, it was exhausting, wearing, and a little sad, but I’m glad it’s primarily done. We have 3 weeks of cleaning, tidying, and other mishmash stuff still to do in the Bolton house, not to mention a complete unpack and re-construct in Natick.
Services in the new house aren’t totally up to snuff yet – we have cable modem service, but not all the computers are up on it yet. Folks waiting to hear from any of us, be patient, we’re very tired 🙂
Thanks to everyone who showed up to help – I’ll itemize thanks shortly, for fear that I’ll leave someone out if I try to remember everyone now.

… when on the last day of a week of intensive packing, cleaning and throwing out of stuff, we get the remnants of a tropical storm coming through, dumping a ton of rain on us. This causes one of our gutters / deflectors on the roof to overflow, and dump water into the house. The water wicks through the walls, down 2 stories, and drips on the servers in the office.
Quick thinking by Cat saved things from a big mess, but I really didn’t need to be bailing out buckets of water in the house we’re moving out of, the night before we move.
Really.

This is pretty interesting. A 400lb man was tired of the way he felt, looked, and was living, so he decided to walk from California to the East Coast. His site has a daily blog of everything going on in this walk. It’s pretty fascinating reading.

“Believe me, my young friend (said the water rat, solemnly), there is nothing -absolutely nothing-half as much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing about. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away or whether you don’t, whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular.” (The Wind in the Willows)

Boy ain’t that the truth.

One of the advantages of working in New Jersey is being able to visit places I used to call home. On the last visit, I went back to the farm I lived on between 1969 and 1981, or the place I refer to as “where I grew up”.
The farm is located in Ringoes, NJ, about 20 miles west of Princeton. It’s still extremely rural, and many of the farms I remember are still there, including ‘ours’. The current owners were nice enough to let me look around the property and take lots of pictures. I’ve assembled them into a photo album with comments.
This was a hard visit for me in many ways. Many old memories, some things changed that were hard to see, but also many things the same. I kept noticing small bits everywhere. The lamp fixture on the porch – my mom selected that. The combination lock on the kitchen is still there (I wondered if it still had the same combination). The thermometer outside the dining room window (plastic) . All still there from almost 25 years ago.

I’ve been following, with some level of nausea, the unfolding saga that is going on in the Texas VHF-FM Ham Society. This is a reasonably long-lived non-profit organization of ham enthusiasts that has, unfortunately, degenerated into a pissing match between members that has gone as far as bringing in lawyers and restraining orders.
In my book, if a volunteer organization goes this far down the road of distrust, antipathy, and downright hostility, it’s time to either split or disband and start over.
The ‘legitimate’ board has one website: TexasVotebyMail.info.
The ‘dissenters’ (primarily led by Jay Maynard) have another: GangofThree.info.
The accusations, pedantics, and general doo-doo-flinging going on on both sides is both entertaining and saddening.

I recently came across a good article about using BioDiesel fuel in a Golf TDI (coincidentally the car I have :). Apparently the only issue on the block going from full petroleum to B20 (20% biodiesel) is that the biodiesel will act as a cleanser, cleaning out some of the gunk in your engine. The article includes a simple link on how to change out the filter in your fuel line (which apparently should be done after a tank or two, lest it clog up).
I admit I’m intrigued to try it, hearing now it’s not a ‘conversion’ – folks seem to be switching back and forth with no need to do mechanical changes to the car. Many people say “I use BioDiesel whenever I can, but if there’s no station nearby, i can use normal petroleum diesel.”
100% Vegetable oil conversions are possible, though there are questioins about glycerin buildup. Some folks at Greasecar.com have a system where you have a second ‘vegetable oil’ tank in the car with a pre-heat system, and you can switch from the normal petroleum tank to the veggie oil tank on the fly. Neat.
Really, the next step is to find a BioDiesel station in Boston. I’m not ready to knock on the door of McDonalds and ask for a fillup.
(Special nod to the BioDiesel Blog for the original link)

We’ve started a blog telling the story about the building of our Cohousing Community. Our goal is to let folks follow along as we plan, organize, and finally build our new home. Today was particularly exciting as we’ve just hit a major milestone.
Check out blog.mosaic-commons.org for more details.
Oh, and for the Livejournal folks, there is a syndicated feed available.

I must be the last person in the world to find PostSecret.
Just. Wow.

I think there should be a new set of ‘deadly sins‘ in the modern world. No religion or government or social structure would ever own up to these, since all are equally guilty of violating them.
My short proposed list (coupled with their appropriate Virtues)

Ignorance	Knowledge
Anger	Acceptance or Thoughtfulness
Hypocrisy	Sincerity
Arrogance	Humility

If more of the world (from politicians through the guy next door) would take their lead from the right column more often than the left, wouldn’t things be better all around?