Finally...

From the minds at Computerworld, I submit the following link as an excellent coda to the year.

Giant 50-foot bird terrorizes Hungarian street

See you in 2008!

Which Candidates?

Two questions for anybody willing to answer them:

1) Who should I vote for in the Republican caucus (and why)?
2) Who would be your second choice (and why)?

For example, I know that cousin Ken will say Gov. Romney, because that's his favorite candidate. But I'm also curious who, other than Romney, he would support.

A Cosmic Show

It's rare that people get really excited about something with a 4% probability. But when that's a 3-fold jump from a 1.33% probability, it gets a little more ecxiting.

That's the odds that a 165-foot asteroid will smash into Mars at 8.5 miles per second on January 30, at a hair before 3am Pacific Time. The asteroid was first spotted in November, as a part of an ongoing effort to keep an eye out for things that could hit Earth. When the odds of hitting Mars were set at only 1-in-75 just before Christmas, scientists started getting excited. They've now refined their estimate on the same observation, and the odds improved to 1-in-25. Usually, the odds of such things are in the 1-in-500,000 range. But the asteroid is behind our moon, and so the game now is wait-and-see. Shortly, there will hopefully be good news about an interesting show.

For comparison, a 165-foot asteroid would be similar to the one that put Meteor Crater in Arizona.

From Greenspan's Book

"The existence of a democratic society governed by the rule of law implies a lack of unanimity on almost every aspect of the public agenda. Compromise on public issues is the price of civilization, not an abrogation of principle."

The Age of Turbulence, page 52

Bloated

I asked for two t hings for Christmas. A food dehydrator, and a coat rack. I received both, and nicer ones than I expected. The coat rack had been used to rack coats, and the food dehydrator has been used to, well, dehydrate food.

The problem is this... the dehydrated fruit is GOOD! I go through it as fast as I can make it. That means that I've eaten a lot of fruit the last couple days. This morning's "breakfast" was: 1 large can of peach slices, 1 can of pineapple slices, and 2 small cans of fruit coctail (rinsed of the syrup they come in). It was eaten as I grazed on it... and then, it was gone.

That was a lot of fruit. And now, I feel rather full. I reckon it's all absorbing some mosture in my stomach, and taking up considerably more space. But oh, was it ever tasty. I have some meat sitting in my fridge, waiting for me to get the chance to try my hand at jerky over the weekend.

Romney on McCain

I admit - the only two Republicans I'm looking closely at are Governors Romney and Huckabee. Both have prior experience as a governor, and in senior leadership positions outside of politics (Huckabee as a pastor, Romney as a leader (I forget the official term - I think it was "stake leader") in his church and as a private sector executive). Senator McCain is probably my third choice, in large part because of Lieberman's endorsement. I think a McCain/Lieberman (or vice versa) ticket would be interesting. But I think legislating and executing are two different animals, and as chief executive, I'd like someone with more applicable experience.

All that said, I'm disappointed that Romney is doing the thing I like least in politics - lying about opponents with the thinnest veneer of truth to cover it. I really want to know why I should vote for him, not why I shouldn't vote for the other guy.

It's doubly worse because I think the "base position" of Republicans on immigration (amnesty is bad! walls are good! keep them OUT!) is a downright poor idea (I'm a huge fan of very open immigration, with only security considerations preventing anyone and anyone that wants to immigrate from coming in - especially in light of the growing Medicare / Social Security crunch), and I wish someone had the guts to say it and the chops to prove it. I admit, however reluctantly, that saying dumb things to get elected is probably part of the beast.

Misleading Headlines

The headline: Climate Change's $75 Billion Bill

The relevant part of the story: "Total economic losses from natural catastrophes in 2007 rose to $75 billion from $50 billion the year before as extreme weather conditions driven by climate change wreaked havoc across the world..."

The problem: The headline leads you to believe that $75 billion was lost because of climate change. The problem is that, as likely as not, some - maybe little, maybe much - of this would have happened anyway. To accurately measure the "bill" for climate change would require an estimate of the "unchanged" losses, so that the additional impact of climate change could be assessed. My guess? Most, if not all, of this weather and these disasters would have happened anyway. If that's true, then the headline goes from misleading to utterly false.

"It really means..."

It happened again. I was reading a blog post, where some commentary was given that says, in essence "this word really means..." and then proceeded to build on that statement to the conclusion. I offer to you the blog post, and a lexical reference for the word in question. As I don't know Hebrew, I am ill-equipped to weigh the technical arguments for or against this reading. My general test, when a word is in common usage, is to try substituting the proposed reading into other instances where the word is used to see if it makes sense. Fortunately, the lexical tool allows us to do that here.

The question I'm looking to answer in such an exercise is "Is there a reason for me to prefer the suggested reading of the word to the translated reading?" For me, the burden of proof is on the alternate reading, because it claims to be a better or more proper understanding of the word.

Will Smith, Smarter than the Jewish Defense League

From a blurb in a Dallas paper:

"The Jewish Defense League pounced on Will Smith on Monday after he was quoted in the Scottish newspaper the Daily Record as opining that the Nazi dictator wasn't all bad. "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'Let me do the most evil thing I can do today,' " Mr. Smith said. "I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good.' " The JDL condemned the remarks as "ignorant, detestable and offensive" and urged theaters to pull Mr. Smith's new movie, I Am Legend."

So.... it's "ignorant" to say that Hitler wasn't trying to be evil, per se? I think that's entirely rational. I'd be surprised if even Hitler was deliberately trying to be evil - but he was so utterly wrong about what was good and what was evil, that in his pursuit of what he considered "right," he did what was clearly evil.

I find it offensive that the Jewish Defense League would find this position offensive. And I think the ignorant position is likely the one that says "Hitler wanted to be as evil as he could be," not the one that suggests that even he was human. Wrong, twisted, and blind... but in his wretchedness trying to do what he saw as "right." That's an important distinction, because it admits that any of us, despite trying to do what we see as "right," may in fact be guilty of terrible evil.

The Great Condescension

To the extent that we really celebrate Christmas as being about the birth of Jesus (as opposed to a generally cheerful holiday time for friends and family -- not that there's anything wrong with those things), then we are celebrating the Great Condescension. The stepping down from heaven by God Himself to become man, beginning in most ignoble fashion the march to death in Jerusalem.

Generally, if you are condescending, it carries an air of talking or acting down to someone in a negative way. You, the high and lofty are stepping down from on high to speak to the lowly scum you'd otherwise ignore. The very word speaks of descending to be "with" (con - think "chili con queso" - chili with cheese). Among people who consider themselves peers, this then says that you consider yourself too highly.

I have before heard that condescending is, in its way, a beautiful model for Christians. Just as God condescended to serve us, so we should condescend to serve others. But that, in a way, misses the point. God may justly condescend because He is, well, God. But I cannot condescend to serve another in need. Not because I can't serve, but because doing so requires no step down.

Too often, we serve from a position of "out of my great and glorious bounty, I give to you - the weak and lowly." Too often, I serve from that position. But in reality, we ought to "in humility, consider others better than ourselves." We serve, not as the benificent distributors of grace, but as wretched sinnes, bought with a price, and serving our Master.

I cannot condescend to help the starving, the homeless, the lonely, or the hurting. To serve them requires a conascension - in giving but a drink of water, a bite of food to "the least of these," I am stepping up to serve no less than Christ Himself!

So, as we celebrate the Great Condescension, honor the stepping down of God by stepping up in grateful service.

Nice Things You Can Do

Here's a simple idea to participate in an act of random kindness:

Pay for the coffee for the person behind you at Starbucks (or your provider of choice for such beverages). It's happened at various places throughout the country, it makes people's day, and it often ispires them to do the same.

The Story

A regular customer with a well-established penchant for "paying ahead" for the vehicle behind her in the drive-through line had set off a chain reaction, fueled first by a cheerfully zealous barista and then reinforced by ever-expanding media coverage. By Thursday afternoon, more than 800 customers had joined the store's "chain of cheer..."

Lessons I've Learned

Once upon a time, a Bible Study leader gave me some great advice. "No, English translations aren't the original Greek and Hebrew. But the people that translated them probably know a lot more about those languages than you do." It's a rough paraphrase, but it's the lesson that matters.

Sometimes, we get bogged down in looking at the little details in Scripture, and miss the forest for the trees. Often times, we'll take our own biases and try to read them into the Bible, using the dreaded phrase "well, that word really means..."

Usually, the word means what it says in English. Sometimes, you can add to the flavor of it. But one element of humility is knowing when to accept the word of people who are wiser and more educated than you.

As a dictonary-carrying, concordance wielding, Greek-studying (well, a year of it anyways), trivia loving nerd, this was a lesson that was shocking at first. But I think it's served me well in the years since.

True Story

Me talking to a little girl. She was talking about the dolls she owns, when the conversation turned another direction.

LG: Where you babies?
Me: I don't have any babies.
LG: No wife?
Me: No wife.
LG: Just you?
Me: Just me.

Welcome Cinematic News

In the wake of the Lord of the Rings movies, there was talk about a Hobbit movie to come later. Contract disputes between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema meant that the mind that made the Lord of the Rings movies so successful wouldn't be on board.

Evidently, their dispute is settled, and plans are moving forward for two movies - one based on the Hobbit, one in the time between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.

This is quite interesting news.

Efficient Solar Power

In the news today:

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Nanosolar, a heavily financed Silicon Valley start-up whose backers include Google’s co-founders, plans to announce Tuesday that it has begun selling its innovative solar panels, which are made using a technique that is being held out as the future of solar power manufacturing.

Why is this big news?

Nanosolar’s founder and chief executive, Martin Roscheisen, claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt. That is the price at which solar energy becomes less expensive than coal.

“With a $1-per-watt panel,” he said, “it is possible to build $2-per-watt systems.”

According to the Energy Department, building a new coal plant costs about $2.1 a watt, plus the cost of fuel and emissions, he said.

In order for most people to independently pursue alternative energy, it needs to be more profitable than the status quo (or they have to think it will be). That's the point at which government intervention no longer tries to micro-manage through mandates, and people simply choose the alternative because it's cheaper.

Senator Barack Obama

(In trying to keep with Kenny's desire to use the proper honorifics for the people running for president, I added it here.)

Ken? Kenny? What do you think of Senator Obama as a presidential candidate?

Want a plane that loops the loop...

I'm not ashamed to say it. I really enjoy Alvin and the Chipmunks. It is a simple pleasure, and I evidently have more tolerance for altered voices than most film reviewers. So when I went to go see the new Chipmunks movie, I didn't know what to expect. Maybe the high pitch would grate on me after a while.

Truth be told, I left wanting more of it. My favorite points of the movie were the the Chipmunks' more classic renditions of "Bad Day," "Only You," and "Funkytown," as well as "Christmas Don't Be Late." Those, and any time the almost unbearably adorable Theodore was onscreen. Just seeing him regularly elicited an audible "Awwwww" from the crowd at the theater.

And what's more, the closest thing to a moral in the movie was "parents sometimes make you follow rules for your own good." In a world where the parent is usually the bumbling fool, in this case there was a fun mix of bumbling and protective caring that made for one of the better family flicks (I would imagine) of the year.

Am I really only 8 months from being 30?

Leaping lima beans! That sounds close. And (with profoundest apologies to my parents, aunts, uncles, and any other older relatives or friends who read this) old.

In 8 months, I'm no longer twenty-something. I'm 30. And I'm 20 months from being 30-something.

How to Run a Country Into the Ground

Follow the lead of Zimbabwe.

100,000% inflation. 100% inflation would be prices doubling in a year. This is prices increasing a thousand times over the year. That $2.89 gallon of milk you get at the store? Next year it costs you $2,890 - the price of a fancy plasma TV today. In the US, we are uncomfortable with 3% inflation. 20% inflation happened in the late 1970's. The last official inflation rate published by Zimbabwe was roughly 7,800%... and that's considered a rather slanted number.

The Energy Policy Act

I won't pretend I've read all 464 pages of the Senate Bill. But I was struck immediately by two things:

First - I wonder when every talking point for a bill will make its way into the title. It's obviously getting close. Check this out:

...the bill from the House of Representatives (H.R. 6) entitled ‘‘An Act to reduce our Nation’s dependency on foreign oil by investing in clean, renewable, and alternative energy resources, promoting new emerging energy technologies, developing greater efficiency, and creating a Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve to invest in alternative energy, and for other purposes.’’

Also, though I'm sure it's part of the legislateive process, I thought that once upon a time and amendment meant an addition, or a change, but not a wholesale revision, as this:

Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representatives (H.R. 6) entitled ‘‘...’’, do pass with the following AMENDMENTS: Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert: (remainder of the bill goes here).

Laffer Curve

Illustration for a debate elsewhere. Note that this graphic is drawn to arbitrary scale, and the only point of this is to demonstrate where I think the concept of productivity loss fits in a discussion of tax rates vs. tax revenue.

I also think the graph would be superior if it were elongated horizontally, as that would make it clearer. But I drew it in Paint as a back-of-the-napkin type sketch. No more.

Mike Huckabee

If they're both up to it, I'd love to hear what my cousin Ken and friend Kenny think of Mike Huckabee. They had an interesting discussion about Mitt Romney earlier, and I'm going to milk these guys for opinions on as many candidates as they'll give me.

Remember, Nevada voters - the presidential caucus process happens in mid-January this year. That's just a month away.

Entropy

Life takes work. If we want to sit back and go with the flow, chaos will follow as night follows day. If we are not striving to go forward, we will go backward. This lesson was driven home to me in the past month as I grew sick of the state of the apartment I share with a friend of mine.

We've lived together amicably for years, in part because we're both generally carefree people. But two carefree bachelors is not a recipe for an apartment you'd care to show your mother... or anyone else, for that matter. It took rather a lot to get us to clean, and even that was usually to address a given problem, like your shoes coming off your feet when they stick to the kitchen floor.

I was talking about the layout of my apartment with a friend about a month ago, who said something to the effect of "I'd like to see it sometime." I demurred, speaking of what happens when two bachelors are living together but the frank truth is that the thought horrified me. I've had people see the apartment in an un-dressed-up state, and it actually shocked them. And I was ashamed of it.

With that thought in my head for some time, I decided I no longer wanted to be ashamed of the place I lived. I started with the living room - using a carpet cleaner we've had lying dormant in our laundry room to suck some of the dirt out of the carpet, picking up the various knick-knacks that had accumulated in the corners, and tidying up. I took out several loads of trash, over a hundred pounds of years-old newspapers, piled my roommate's stuff in the hall, and banished mine to my room. I cleared off a table in our entryway, originally meant as a place for keys and such, but which followed the rule of every flat surface in the house (it accumulates junk). When the guys came over that Friday, that alone made a significant impact.

Following that, I hit my bathroom and the laundry room. Though my bathroom is attached to my room and my roommate's is probably "meant" to serve as the guest bathroom, I had decided to only deal with the things I either exclusively used, or which I shared with him. And I wanted a clean bathroom for any guests to use. This meant cleaning beard trimmings from the counter, banishing unopened mail to my bedroom, emptying still more trash, putting away various chargers scattered on the sink, cleaning the mirrors, and scraping some old candle wax off the counter. The laundry room involved... still more trash, namely old boxes of detergent, lint, bottles, and more. I organized the shelf above the washer and dryer, took everything littering the top of the dryer to a better home, and scrubbed what I think was an old soap spill that had gotten wet and re-dried off the floor.

The next weekend I moved on to my room. I got started on my laundry, which had served as an improvised carpet in my room so long the color of the carpet was noticeably different from other parts of the apartment. I took out several more loads of trash, and picked up everything off the floor. This is still a work in progress, as it's the repository for anything that I have to clean up from the other rooms. But the floor is clean, my laundry is all (1) on my body, (2) in my hamper, (3) folded in my dresser, or (4) hanging in the closet.

The kitchen got done this last weekend. The sink and counters were scrubbed, and I followed up on some work my roommate had done on the microwave and stove. It isn't perfect, but it's vastly improved.

For perhaps the first time in years, I could vacuum the whole living room, my side of the hallway, and my room with less than 5 minutes tidying up (as I did on Sunday). I can walk around without stepping on anything. And I could have people over without apologizing for the state of the apartment (well, except for the pile of my roommate's stuff in the hall... but there are extenuating circumstances in his life right now).

But it takes work. Every day when I come home, instead of collapsing, I have to tidy up. re-folding blankets that have been used. Putting away food that was taken out. Putting the TV remote back on the coffee table. But I know that if I don't spend those 10 minutes tidying up, they will build into a month-long all-encompassing monster that devours a month's worth of days off.

Maintaining the place is a daily task, and one that must be addressed or it will only get worse. When I got home tonight, the dishwasher was still full of clean dishes from the day before. because it was full, the dirty dishes were piling up on the counter and in the sink. If I don't take the trash out when it fills up, trash will just get left on the counters. It's the little things that start to pile up, until you find yourself hurling a discarded pizza box into the "trash pile" in the corner of the kitchen that is composed of half-filled bags of trash, empty soda boxes, and things you were too lazy to dispose of properly the days and weeks before (true story).

But because of that little daily effort, I'm no longer ashamed to have people see the apartment. And that is a good feeling.

Someday

Someday, we'll have honesty in political speech. Maybe. But it is not this day. In a glourious demonstration of "you can have your cake and eat it, too" speech, check the first two paragraphs in this article:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- House Democrats on Thursday won passage of a wide-ranging energy bill that would require the first increase in automobile fuel-economy standards in decades. But the package faces a likely presidential veto due to provisions that repeal tax breaks for oil companies and require utilities to produce a large chunk of electric power from renewable sources.

"This legislation is not perfect ... However, when we pass this bill, we will be voting to strengthen our national security, lower energy costs, grow our economy and create new jobs, and begin to reduce global warming," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., ahead of the vote.

Consider:
-Changing Fuel Economy standards (by 2020, no less) won't reduce energy prices, or reduce Global Warming in any meaningful way (the UN says we need to make drastic changes by 2015 to prevent serious climate changes, and a standard in place by 2020 won't become mainsteam until 2030 because of the market in used cars... a market likely to grow once more expensive, efficient autos are the only new versions available).
- Raising taxes on oil companies will make gas more expensive, not "reduce energy prices."
- Requiring utilities to produce a large ammount of power (15%, I think) from renewable sources will make energy much more costly. The reason we don't use much renewable energy now is that... it's expensive. It's significantly more expensive than traditional fuels - especially without tax incentives - because it's less efficient.
-Strengthen National Security?! That statement should be laughed out of the room. When we reduce oil consumption, the losses will occur where drilling oil is expensive - like the U.S. - not where it is cheap, like the Middle East. This means lost jobs, and a larger % of our oil being foreign-based.

I don't have anything against renewable energy - I think it's a good idea. But this is a great example of costly bluster from Congress which will have negative, predictable consequences that no one in favor of the bill would dare to mention: in this case, substantively higher energy prices.

The easiest, clearest, most honest way to reduce global warming and oil consumption, while encouraging reasearch into alternative fuels is to make it (oil and/or energy) expensive. If these bills work at all, it's because they will cause that to happen.

Congress likes limits and mandates, because it requires no owning up to the damage they cause. That is cowardly, and shameful behavior.

A Tale of Two Kenneths

One is a cousin, and strongly conservative. One is a friend from school, and probably would call himself moderate or liberal. Both are lawyers. Both are bright guys. Both have now blogged about Mitt Romney. One loves him. One doesn't. Me? I think I'm somewhere in the middle.

A Decade Later

I made a choice at one point to not blog about "Dave, the Heartbroke Guy" some time ago, as I was tired of sounding like a broken record. There comes a time when you have to let go of the past, or you get stuck in it forever... and the more I wrote about such things, the more I thought about them. Rather than serving as a release, it rather focused my thinking on such matters.

That said, it was 10 years ago tomorrow that I first was utterly heartbroken over a girl.

Why mention it? Mostly because, though I can vividly recall the pang of loss I felt on December 6, 1997... it doesn't really hurt anymore. I feel the echo of that hurt when I think about it, but I accepted - with time - that things were not as I had wished them.

Doubtless life would have been different without that heartbreak. For the last 10 years I've been on a path I neither imagined nor desired. It hasn't always (or even often) been easy, but it has given me experiences, opportunities, and even joys I would have missed had I been on the path I lost that day.

I admit, I sometimes wish things had been different. But what happened 10 years ago has, in its way, helped make me who I am today. And I think that on the whole, that change has been for the best. You can't be heartbroken without being broken. But out of being broken, though you can't see it at the time, comes the opportunity to be rebuilt better than before.

Sort of like the Bionic Man.

Communion

At Coram Deo, we do Communion in a free-form way, leaving it available to those who want to participate toward the end of the worship service. I prefer this, because when Communion is handed out and someone is talking right up until you are supposed to eat and drink, it makes it hard to reflect. I prefer to reflect, and I use the time as an occasion to remember. This is how I do it:

1) The Bread. We generally have either broken wafer crackers or pre-bought "communion bread." I prefer the wafers, because they bear more resemblance to the matza bread it represents. Specifically, it is not a uniform color, and it has small holes in it. As the bread is a representation of Jesus' body, this is an occasion to remember who was "pierced for our transgressions." I use this opportunity to confess as needed, break the piece of craker that I hold, as a reminder that Jesus' body was broken for me, and give thanks that my sins are, in fact, forgiven.

2) The Cup. Grape juice instead of wine. That's us. Jesus said that the cup represents the New Covenant in his blood. The applicable reference here is to Jeremiah 31:31, a promise of a new covenant with Israel, where God "will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it;" along with promises of a new intimacy with God. The cup, for me, is an occasion to remember this, to ask that God would continue to write his law on my heart - namely, to make me like Him from the inside out. The cup represents Jesus' blood - the offering which sealed this contract, and which makes it effective. That is quite an occasion for giving thanks, as well.

Both are an occasion to remember Jesus. I have found this the most effective way for me to do so.

The Golden Compass

Surely you've heard of this upcoming movie. It's a fantasy epic, in the fashion of the Chrinicles of Narnia, but based on books that have a drumbeat of agnosticism and atheism, instead of C.S. Lewis's Christianity. Like with Narnia, the first book was made into a movie, coming out soon.

Here's what I think:

A lot of Christian groups are up in arms about "a deliberate attempt to push atheism and agnosticism on an unsuspecting crowd." The religious beliefs of the author are a primary concern for these groups. But if the "subversive" nature of this is your primary concern, then I can't agree with you.

Not because those motives aren't there on the part of the author (though watered down, he was disgusted by Lewis's overtly Christian Narnia stories). But because the same thing happened in reverse with the Chronicles of Narnia, movie-wise.

I don't believe the studios are pushing a message. I think they're scouring for any epics they can after the success of "The Lord of the Rings" and churning them into movies simply, purely, to make a profit. In recent years, we've had Troy, Narnia, Beowulf, and many others.

If you want to make the argument that there is an agenda, you have to consider the whole body of work. Given Narnia, et al, I don't think you can do that. If your argument is about the means (how dare they try to trick the young), then you can't change your mind just because you agree with the content. You can't call Narnia just a "good story" and then call this movie an insidious plot. Either both were a plot (Disney vs. New Line -- Good vs. Evil... but New Line also made LOTR, so this gets real confusing), or neither was. Personally, I'm inclined to go with #2.

Seriously?

With all due respect to my relatives who support the school, BYU is saying some downright false and hypocritical things about Nevada when it comes to football scheduling. Read how the story is spun from the Cougar Perspective, then consider the following:

1) BYU and Nevada played in 2001 and 2002, as a part of a 3-game series (2-for-1, with 2 games in Provo and 1 in Reno).

2) In 2003 AND 2004, BYU asked Nevada to push back the date for the third game to accomodate their scheduling needs.

3) Beginning in 2005, continuing in 2006, and ending in 2007, Nevada asked to move the 2008 game to accomodate its own schedule. (Nevada was able to secure a 1-for-1 arrangement with Missouri and Texas Tech, but the 2008 Schedule was left with @ UNLV, @ Missouri, and home vs. Texas Tech... so another road game @ BYU was not a good idea in 2008).

4) BYU is now claiming that this was a surprise move, foisted on them at the last minute by the nefarious folks in Reno. That it's a breach of contract, and that they will seek to recover damages. Never mind that earlier postponements by BYU were done with shorter notice with similar effects to Nevada's schedule.

Is this not dishonest and hypocritical behavior?

Admit it

You waste time online, playing games, or doing... well, anything but working.

There's a website that tests your vocabulary. For every 3 words you get right, you move up a level and get harder words. For EVERY word you get right, the site uses the advertising revenue to buy 20 grains of rice.

A nifty concept. Check out FreeRice.com

Oh, and my high vocal score is 44. Evidently, it's very tough, and almost impossible, to move above 48. There's 50 levels total.

If anyone takes from you...

The good news at the final football game of the season was that we won, and became bowl eligible. The bad news was that a Wolf Pack flag my sister had given me as a birthday present last year was stolen by (presumably) the people sitting behind us. It's a bummer because any time people feel compelled to steal from someone else it's disappointing, and because as a gift from my sister (one she was exceptionally proud of, too) it has sentimental value.

But in the end, it's a thing, and the people that took it are beings made in God's image. What's done is done, and getting upset about it won't get it back. But what's more, I don't want to be angry with those who took it, because it only serves to harm me. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?" I can choose to regard those who took my possession in love. It won't get it back. It won't be a witness to them, as they were gone by the time we realized the disappearance. But I choose it, because it's better than the alternative. In this case, the practical application is that I forgive them.

My reward? I don't get all bent out of shape inside. I don't get left with nothing but my own bitterness to chew on. And I feel good about it.