Onward and Upward

Much to be thankful for

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:51:00 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well.

What's next?

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:43:00 +0000

Two amusing news items today from the ISS:
Spider Missing Aboard International Space Station and Astronaut Loses Tool Bag in Space. Sounds like a bit of a rough trip to me. Actually the spider story is far less dramatic than the headline makes it sound, interesting weightless results from the orb spiders on board.

DEKA Revolt

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:36:00 +0000

There's a new concept car I'm drooling over... but this time appearance has nothing to do with it.

Dean Kamen's much-hyped Segway turned out to be little more than a curiosity. But his long-held interest in the Stirling Engine has the potential to be a world-changer.

Check out the story on my new favorite hybrid here.

Gears

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:52:00 +0000

This impresses me. A lot.

If you like that one, check out this one too.

Just waiting for the keys

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 07:16:00 +0000

Politics

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:34:00 +0000

Several people have asked me over the last few months about my comment some time ago on this blog that I believed Obama was probably the best choice to be our next president. With the elections just around the corner it seemed like a good idea to give an update on why I thought that then as well as what I think now and who I'm going to cast my ballot for next week. Most of this was cut-and-pasted directly from a couple of previous emails, it may look pretty familiar to a couple of you.

For me personally, the 'backstory' behind my approach to this year's election begins with a journey I have been on over the past three years or so through which I have become a pacifist. I have always in the past held something of a 'just war' approach, that killing in war is ok if the war is justified, etc etc. But a few years ago in talking with someone who is a pacifist, I was faced with a simple question: how can I kill the ones I'm supposed to love? Initially I passed it off and found ways to continue to justify my position. But over the months that followed, that question really dug its way into my heart. Pacifism still definitely *isn't* the most logical approach to me, or the one that comes first to my mind as I think through various situations. But, then, that's the case with a lot of what Jesus said... His Kingdom really is an upside-down kingdom, one where the logical thing to do is sometimes dead wrong. And although I can find lots of my own reasons for why war/killing may be justifiable, none of them negate the basic fact that Jesus told me that I need to love my enemies. And I think that starts by not killing them.

Fast forward to this election. I feel like I may never again get to vote on issues of the economy, educational policy, etc -- there are way bigger issues out there, issues of life and death. And there are two primary life and death issues: war and abortion. Unfortunately, it seems that almost no one holds what I would consider to be a 'pro-life' position on both of those issues; the republicans are solidly anti-abortion but support ongoing bloodshed around the world in the name of 'spreading democracy'... the democrats would mostly like to see us scale back our foreign military involvements but support this awful notion of 'choice' meaning a mother's right to end her child's life.

So, on which side to stand? There are lesser things about both candidates (and their parties) that I like, and lesser things that I dislike. But at the forefront for me is this issue of the preservation of life. And clearly, neither candidate holds a position that is completely acceptable to me.

And here's the thing: we've had 8 years of a republican president. What strides have been made in that time to curb the holocaust of abortion? Bush may be pro-life, but what difference has it made? The overall abortion rate has declined slightly, but it's been declining steadily since '81 -- so I don't really credit that to him. McCain also claims to be pro-life, but has made it clear that ending abortion is not a policy priority for him. So I see McCain's projected presidential report card as: Abortion: No Improvement. War: No Improvement.

On the other side we have Obama. He did not support the war in Iraq and was early to propose timelines for the exit of our troops. He has pushed change as a theme of his campaign, and in the early days of the campaign it seemed as though Obama's projected presidential report card could read: Abortion: No Improvement. War: Greatly Improved.

So although I abhor his position on abortion, the vote for him made sense -- it was the only vote I saw that stood a chance of making a difference on one of the two issues of life and death. Sidenote: in addition, yeah, I just plain *like* the guy. I like that he's not a bazillionaire, I like that he's young, I like that he's a great speaker, I like that he hasn't been in politics forever, I like that he's a black man with a legitimate chance of being our president.

As the campaign has progressed, however, Obama's war stance has moved further and further to the point where it's now not all that different from McCain's. I really like that he's willing to talk with Iran's Ahmedinejad, but overall he is presenting much more of a hawkish face these days. He has backed off many of his former statements about pulling us out of Iraq, and he supports increased miiltary activity in Afganistan. Plus there are his incendiary statements about bombing within Pakistan without their permission.

In relation to abortion, I don't know what changes he would be able to make in a negative direction -- but the more I have seen of his record it definitely seems clear that if he sees any chances to take us further down the abortion-is-ok road he will do so as energetically as possible.

Overall then, I now project Obama's presidential report card as: War: Little/No Improvement. Abortion: No Improvement / Some Deterioration.

I have come to a point where the election of either Barack Obama or John McCain will bring me some joy and great fear. Their agendas are radically opposite, but there are elements in each of them that give me great hope and elements in each of them that make me wonder if the future will even be recognizable. And on the issues that I see as most important, neither of them will make a substantive difference.

So who am I voting for? I'm approaching it from this standpoint: Will my single vote make a difference as to who gets elected? No. Washington state will be won by a margin of hundreds of thousands of votes. So my vote for either McCain or Obama will be insignificant, one among millions. When it comes time to vote, then, I will cast a ballot for Ralph Nader. Not because I agree with anything he has to say -- but because I think our country would be better off with a legitimate, viable third party, and my drop-in-the-bucket vote for him 'goes farther' in terms of proportionally increasing the total number of third-party votes cast.

OAU April - October Report Card

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Good Intentions: A-
Content Ideas: C+
Follow-through: F

Words to live by...?

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:24:00 +0000

I ran across the LOLcat Bible this morning -- they are 61% done translating New and Old Testaments into LOLcat. I think I'll just let it speak for itself:

25 so i sez, stop havin teh kittehz bout ur lifes, wat cheezburgerz or drinx u is havin, or about ur bodeez n wat u iz wearin. Iz life not moar importint den teh foodz, and teh bodeez moar importint den teh cloathz?26 Lookit teh birdz in teh ceilingz, dey dont be in teh fieldz gatherin teh f00dz or puttin dem away in teh barnz, but teh Ceiling Cat givez dem f00dz anywayz lolz. Wat, u aint more better den dem?27 Who can make teh life longur by havin teh kittehz newayz?
28 And y u be havin teh kittehz about teh raimentz? Lookit teh lileez in teh fieldz. Dey dont work or nuffingz29 but Solom0n cant pwn them even with his pimp outfitz. No rly.30 If teh Ceiling Cat makes teh grass all pritty, and it gets thrwn into teh 0venz 2morr0w, wat about u, peeplz who no beleiv dat much?31 So plz to be stoppin havin teh kittehz n sayin "oh noez, i can has cheezburger?" or "wat 2 be wearin 2dae?"32 Bcuz onlee teh n00bz be havin kittehz about thees thingz, k? Ceiling Cat noez wat u need. srsly.33 Look around first for teh kingd0m and teh r0xorz of teh Ceiling Cat, an u can has all thees thingz.34 So stop havin teh kittehz bout teh fut00r bcuz it have enuff kittehz alreddy. 2dae pwns u enuff. kthxbai.

Parenting makes me glad I went to Bible College.

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:18:00 +0000

Our normal bedtime routine is fairly predictable around here -- we send the kids into the bedroom, I follow a couple of minutes later. I often ask the kids if either of them wants to pray, they usually both say no; I pray, give each of them about 15 seconds worth of goodnightiloveyousleepwells, and walk out. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 minutes total.

Not so tonight.

I was in the process of saying the final goodnight to Ezra when he tells me he has a question. Not too much of a deviation from normal so far, he often comes out with questions like "How do you spell doozleboozlewoozlefoozlegungungungbaguk?" in an attempt to forestall the inevitable. This one was a little different, though: "Daddy, the Bible says that people who love God, obey God. I love God, but sometimes it's really hard to be obedient and I don't always obey Him. How can that be?"

Wow. I shifted gears and answered him as best as I could -- habits, trends, a lifestyle of obedience -- but he wasn't done.

"We're supposed to listen to God, but I never hear Him. I know that the Bible is, like, God's word, but it was written like two thousand years ago. How do we know He still thinks that?"

Wow again -- immutability, omniscience, inspiration, then on to conscience, listening prayer, and the voice of God -- mind racing, trying to answer the questions accurately myself, organize and prioritize my answers, and translate them into the language of a 5 year old.

"We need to read the Bible more. I don't know very many of the stories in it."

Whoaaa. The hand of God, prompting that which I want more than anything else for my kids but have no power whatsoever to force.

++Thank You. ++

OAU April Report Card

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:23:00 +0000

Good Intentions: A
Content Ideas: B+
Follow-through: D-

The Story of Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:06:00 +0000

Just finished watching The Story of Stuff on Wess's recommendation. Definitely a lot of info there, and hard to process through it all critically in such a short space -- I don't buy some of the stats she throws out. I do agree wholeheartedly with Leonard's major point though, that the system we currently have in place is utterly broken and we need to do everything we can to fix it. Set aside 20 minutes, sit back, and let me know what you think when it's done.

Random Aviation Post

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:11:00 +0000

Here's one I hadn't seen before: the "Tip Tow" project.

The problem: how to provide fighter coverage for long-range bombers when your fighters have nothing near the range of the bombers.
The solution: hook your fighters onto the wingtips of the bombers, shut down their engines, and let them have a free ride until they're needed.

The bomber, a B-29 Superfortress variant, was fitted with wingtip receptacles that allowed for the fighters, two modified F-84s, to hook up their own wingtip brackets in flight. Once connected and latched into place the fighters were locked in step with the bomber about their pitch and yaw axes, but free on their roll axis.

The fighters' elevators were used to assist as extended control surfaces for the bomber. In testing they accomplished this manually via control inputs from the fighter pilots, but the goal was to incorporate control of the fighters' control surfaces with the bomber's control surfaces automatically from the cockpit of the bomber. Upon first activation of the automatic system, however, the fighter immediately rolled over into the bomber, taking both to the ground and killing all on board.

The final solution: in-flight refueling.

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:28:00 +0000

Two gerbils:	$17.98
An aquarium:	$11.99
A running wheel:	$6.99
Assorted food, bedding, and other crap:	$45.00
Having your 3-year-old daughter name them 'Blackie' and 'Cheesie':	Priceless

To turn, or not to turn?

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:44:00 +0000

Scientific American answers a question I have often wondered: should you turn off a fluorescent light if you're going to turn it right back on again? I have always been told that there is a big energy draw in turning them on, therefore you should leave them on if you're just leaving the room for a little while... but how long is a little while?

Turns out the energy draw is minimal and equivalent to just a few seconds' worth of bulb-burning electricity. The real issue is that you're shortening the life of the bulb by cycling it -- so the more cycles you give it, the shorter your bulb will last. They suggest a rule of thumb of: < 5 minutes, leave it on. > 5 minutes, turn it off. Works for me.

Side note: Apparently I have always misspelled 'fluorescent' -- I had no idea the 'u' comes before the 'o'.

Saturday as it ought to be

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:41:00 +0000

Had a fun day out with the family today. We headed down to the Trillium Festival at Tryon Creek State Park to see what there was to see.

The kids got their faces painted and enjoyed the nature walk we took, guided by two naturopaths who pointed out the various edible and medicinally potent plants alongside the trail as we walked. (Did you know that stinging nettles are good in soup?) They also enjoyed the locally grown honey we bought -- gotta love the good dark stuff.

Once we left there we headed back north and decided to finally try out the Portland Aerial Tram, which we've been wanting to do ever since it opened.

Definitely a fun little trip -- very cool cars with great visibility even on a rainy day like today. It's no trip to the Alps but it's definitely got that great Euro feel with awesome geek appeal to boot.

This crane is down at the bottom of the tram in the South Waterfront area -- it kinda made me think of Mike Mulligan's steam shovel.

The Diaper Divide

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:40:00 +0000

Every single one of the dads my age that I know are involved at least occasionally in changing their kids' diapers. Some of the families have very predictable divisions of labor as far as diaper duty goes, others (like ours) base it more on who's less occupied at the present moment -- with a bent towards my changing them when I can since I'm gone for much of the day and Mel is stuck with the job.

But a few months ago we started realizing that most dads of our parents' generation were never involved in diaper changes -- and as I've started asking the question to more and more people, the tide change has become clear:

Baby boomer dads -- even the very best of them -- did not. do. diapers.

Gen X / Y / Millenial dads -- all but the very worst of them -- assume diaper duty to be a normal part of fathering.

There are exceptions to these rules, but from what I've seen so far they are few and very far between. There has been a monumental shift in the way men look at the job of diapering (read: their job versus their wife's job) that seems to span economic backgrounds, national regions, parenting styles, everything but age.

I'm quite curious how this shift took place with very little modeling and very little controversy -- it seems to have just happened. Any thoughts? If nothing else, give me the poll feedback below so I can see if it's as widespread as I think.

Click Here for Poll Online Surveys
| Web Poll
| Email Marketing
View MicroPoll

Update: I found a better poll supplier (micropoll.com) whose polls display better(edit: ok, they were displaying better the first couple of times I loaded the page. Don't know why they have those gaps in them now). The votes that had already been received have been entered in already -- no need to vote again.

Bulletage

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:33:00 +0000

It's been a busy four months since I last hung out here, and I got to thinking this morning about how much has changed. Here's a quick rundown:

* I'm not in school anymore.
* Ezra can ride his bike without training wheels.
* I'm comfortable with the 'pacifist' label.
* The Vanagon is running again, the Subaru isn't, and I have a Honda Elite scooter to ride to work.
* My kids have experienced a plane trip.
* I am increasingly coming to believe that Barack Obama is the best choice out there.
* I no longer expect to get my pilot's license anytime soon -- or ever.
* I know the basics of how to set up a website using Drupal.

That looks like a smaller list than it did in my mind... and of course there's lots more. Some of the above, however, are much bigger in real life than on paper -- the school item in particular. Amazing how different your life feels when you remove 35 hours a week plus homework.

Moller M400

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:30:00 +0000

As much as I would love to think otherwise, the flying car is a bad idea. General aviation has an overall excellent safety record, and that would be sure to change if the flying car were to become a commonplace reality.

Set all that aside, however, and I sure do like to drool over ideas like the Moller M400. On a sunny day like today a commute doesn't sound like such a bad idea after all...

I'd like to be a blogger again

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:19:00 +0000

It's been four months, and I think I've forgotten how to do this. I didn't plan on quitting blogging, it just... happened.

Actually, what happened was that I stopped reading other people's blogs. I got a little behind on my Reader list, saw 300-odd bog posts which all demanded my time, and summarily quit.

But I'd like to be a blogger again. I think I'll give it a shot.

Give it away!

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 20:08:00 +0000

Don't forget -- today is GSA day!

Evel Knievel, RIP

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 19:27:00 +0000

Evel Knievel died last night. Check out the Wikipedia article about his life, it's quite interesting.

He accepted Christ last year, an event he announced at the Crystal Cathedral (9 minute video here). Highlight of that announcement: "Devil, devil, you bastard you, get away from me. I cast you out of my life.'

Two links

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:21:00 +0000

- Baseball Pitches Illustrated -- wonderfully clear illustrations and explanations of a variety of common baseball pitches. (h/t to geekdad.)

- Ok, I don't even know what to call this one... let's go with some guy's collection of clothespins from around the world. Very, very strange fetish. (h/t to my wife, I'm not about to ask how she found it.)

Wise words on pastors and missiology

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:25:00 +0000

Wess strikes again:

"We need to think of pastors more as missionary organizers. We support missionaries who go to other cultures, sometimes just other neighborhoods, and train the people of those cultures how to lead small communities of faith and transform their communities through justice and peace - why then do we have pastors who don’t take this type of training more seriously? We can free people up to be missionaries in a community without needing to accept the super-sized model of church leadership. Theologically and practically, you can have one without the other."

Go read the whole post here, there's lots of good stuff in there.

Geeks only need apply

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:02:00 +0000

Ok, last one for the night -- I promise. Wings of War looks like an incredible way to spend some geektime. It's a warbird dogfight card game that involves very careful physical placement of airplane and maneuver cards which are then checked with a ruler to see who is in a position to shoot who out of the sky.

Check out the rulebook to get a feel for it. Only problem is there's no stinking way I'm getting my wife into this and Ezra's still too young. Hutch, where are you when I need you??

GSA Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jed) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:41:00 +0000

So my friend Clint (who has one of the coolest domain names ever) suggested in a recent comment that "Give Something Away Day" would be a nice compliment to Buy-Nothing Day. With no further ado, then (and very short notice), let me invite you to mark your calendars for Dec 1, the first annual Give Something Away Day.

Clint rightly points out that December is the most commercialized month of the year, what better way to kick it off than to subvert it? Here's the rules, arbitrarily chosen by me:

1. The item you give must change hands on December 1.
2. The item given away must not be purchased specifically to give -- make it something already in your possession.
3. Presents given to your wife / child / significant other / boss / etc who may happen to have a birthday on Dec 1 don't count -- make it a gift that is un-anticipated by its recipient.

I'm going to go ahead and say that Goodwill counts as an acceptable gift recipient unless Clint tells me he objects to that idea.

I want to hear about it -- what did you give, and to whom? Comment away.