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Indy 500

Indy 500

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Caught the last part of the Indy 500 and it was probably one of the best races in years!

The first woman ever to lead the 500 – a rookie no less.  Danica Patrick lead the last dozen or so laps only to get beaten out by mere inches before a  yellow.  She then took the lead again, lost it, and the winner runs out of gas before he can make it back to pit road!  What a great finish!

This is the first 500 in a few years that I didn’t get back home to see.  Usually make it to the time trials or the like; but watched it alone in a very empty seminary.  Yet, it was so exciting and fun.  I felt like I was there myself – whooping and white-knuckling my seat till the end.

The live, in-person version is really entertaining. Mostly because the hoards of drunk people that as much fun to watch as the race itself.  But I also missed the family because the race reminded me of watching the race together as a kid.

If you’ve never experienced an Indy-car race in person – make the 500 your first.  It’s so loud that you’ll be deaf without earplugs.  You can actually hear the race almost 20-30 miles away on good days.  Great, great race.

Gamers manifesto

Gamers manifesto

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This guy has really captured some of the funny, but all too common problems with games.

My personal favorite is #14 about crates.  It was a running joke while I worked at Intel in the graphics and 3D technologies lab.  There was a hidden developer acronym for the phenomenon: TTC (Time To Crate).  It could be used in sentences like ‘What a lame game – the TTC was zero!”  TTC is the measure of time between the first moment of the title screen until you saw a crate on the screen.  Try it – many times the answer is zero.  Why?  Because the very first scene starts you in a room full of crates!

The TTC metric often is used as THE metric of rating the creativeness of the artist that made the game.

Vacationing with friends

Vacationing with friends

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One of my longest and best friends – Karen Vidler – came into town and we got to take two weeks of Pacific Northwest fun!  You can check out the pictures in the Photo Journals section (or here)

You ARE the world now my child

You ARE the world now my child

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One of the interesting reflections that has really been sitting with me is on the kind of world we live in.  I realized that up until this point, I always just looked at the world as a machine or something ‘out there’ which I’ll just have to manage in.  Now, I’m beginning to see how as my generation gets into their prime working days, we actually ARE the world.  We are the ones defining policies and setting moral standards at work, government, etc.  My individual decisions on how to live my life now set the stage for others.  If I choose to promote being a selfish b*stard, then I have just created a part of the world that way.  All those that interact with me will experience that – but if I selflessly give of myself, then a part of the world really becomes that.  You ARE now the world my children, what will you choose to do with it?  It’s a great impetus to action and responsibility.  The world is exactly what we make of it what did I help make it today?

Quandary Phase-Hitchhikers Guide on BBC

Quandary Phase-Hitchhikers Guide on BBC

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I have a final in 45 minutes, so I’m surfing the web (instead of studying). But the long awaited for event has come again!

The BBC resurrected the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series with all the original members of the cast (those still living anyway).   They also pulled out all the notes and pre-production stuff that was written at the end of the first series and death of Douglas Adams. The end of last year saw the Tertiary Phase broadcast (6 new episodes), and now they’re starting the Quandary Phase.  One episode each week here.

I already had the original series recorded but I also recorded the entire tertiary phase sessions with hopes to finish the Quandary Phase as well.  They’ll rebroadcast one episode for the whole week; so listen while you can!

Finals week

Finals week

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Finals week begins tomorrow, I have 3 of them this week, with only one going to be particularly tough. I’ve been averaging a 10 page paper a day most of last week trying to get projects and reports done. Probably the most interesting paper I did was on how science and the Church have worked/and not worked with each other. I didn’t get to go into the detail I wanted to for the simple 10 page paper, but might use it for some kind of masters project (most guys up here get a few degrees at the same time). I’ll probably put more project notes up after the semester is over so that I can explore the idea a bit more; but here are some interesting observations:

  • Science and theology should not be viewed as at odds with each other, or a priori opposed to each other. Epistemologically they are both seeking the same thing – truth.  Alas, people have not always understood that truths found in how the nature works is also a kind of revelation of the way God manifests himself.
  • The difference between science and theology is in their objects. The objects of science is objective, unbiased descriptions of physical processes. The object of theology is the assignment of value and meaning based on understanding the teleology (ends) of objects or actions.
  • Science and theology (philosophy+morality) cannot replace the other – but should produce a partnership that mutually informs each other.  That process must be a dialog which recognizes the different goals, and limitations, of each branch of study.  Science can tell us how to split the atom, but it cannot tell us when it is ok to kill people with it.  Theology can give us meaning; but it cannot dictate physical facts (Galileo).  Both science and theology get in trouble when they try to do the job of the other – which is when we have had the most trouble in the past.
  • Following the progression of epistemology and teleology would be an important thread in this process: Aristotle’s 4 causes (knowledge as including ends) to Enlightenment notion that knowledge does not include ends – bifurcation of theology/science. To post-modern philosophies.
  • With a proper view of the ends of each discipline, it would be possible to outline processes and understanding for science and theology to complement and aid each other in a cooperative model of growth in a properly ordered way.
  • hmmmm, more ideas!

I’ve gotten my summer assignments and info about where I’ll be next year; but I’ll put that in a separate update. Short version: I’ll be living in Portland this summer.

Camera is back in time for tulips

Camera is back in time for tulips

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Got my digital SLR camera back.  Only $185 worth of damage – ouch.  Problem was that the auto-focus points were no longer picking up focus.  No clear indication of what exactly went wrong; I’m going to email them for a part list.

I must hand it to the extremely excellent job Canon’s official repair service did.  I’ve had a lens and 2 cameras fixed by them over the years and each time the item comes back almost better than new – especially in cleaning and tuning up.  They are hands down the most excellent repair service I’ve dealt with.   What’s cool is that it’s back in just enough time for the tulip fields to bloom.  Time to get shooting!

Conservative and Liberal

Conservative and Liberal

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I have increasingly notice how useless and downright harmful the terms conservative and liberal are.  In the political arena, religious matters, or wherever.

I, for one, plan to ban their use from my vocabulary.  What does it mean to be conservative?  To be a liberal?  The best I’ve ever heard of is that it is a title under which we lump our favorite agendas and favorite demons.  If I were to ask 20 people the definition of those terms and what one would classify under each title, each person would likely put their own favorite issue(s) under whichever one they wish to alienate or affirm.  These labels often turn into firebrands upon which we like to point fingers and make tongue-wagging generalities.  When someone starts saying ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ anything, I find that it’s usually an attempt to be divisive, polarizing, and as vague as possible.  Even more harmful is to use these terms to classify people.

When I hear a person using these terms, I have yet to see it convince the person they are talking too if they are of a differing opinion.  I think it’s because we all can see the broad generalities they are appealing to and not actually saying anything about the real truth of the matter.  If someone is wrong about a viewpoint then the argument should be directed to correct the particular viewpoint or argue that one topic.  Making a blanket statements they are liberal or conservative seeks to lump a person with tags they cannot really fall under.

Is a whole person’s viewpoint really conservative or liberal?  At best we could use the term with the one stance or topic.  We are all far too complex of people to be satisfied with such foolishly simple terms and harmful judgments based on one position.  Far more often I find that the real reason people are so polarized or set on a particular topic is because they have personally been hurt or carry a lot of emotional, spiritual, or mental baggage with the topic that was never healed.  Often this pain or anger is carried subconsciously.

One of the best deacons I’ve ever met lives by the creed that it is only through loving relationship that any conversion happens.  I have come to believe more and more this is true.  Love implies relationship.  Unless we are willing to be in a genuine relationship with the other person, to really listen to their concerns and work with the questions *together*, we are not loving anyone.  Without love, there is no change.  God brought salvation to this world through the very real and human person of Jesus.  He didn’t do it from ‘on high’ but from real, human relationship and that is an example we should take to heart.

One does not deny there is wrong or evil in our understandings, but one needs to affirm that there is good in the person first.  It is the the power of real, loving relationship that  correction and change can happen.  One is far more likely to listen to someone that they know cares for them and listens to them than yelling at them with labels.

Habemus Papam! (We have a pope!)

Habemus Papam! (We have a pope!)

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We have a new pope – pope Benedict XVI.  What an amazing selection – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.  The seminarians were going nuts up here at the election.  We just got out of mass and the bells announcing the new pope started – most of us were really surprised at the speed which they elected the new pope.  We ran down to the TV room and started watching the coverage – classes were immediately canceled.  It was amazing timing today, because we had just got out of mass where 20 new deacon candidates had just signed and announced their public candidacy oaths for deaconate ordination.  Anyway, a lot of guys were going crazy (in a good way) cheering and hooting when they announced it was Ratzinger – a German cardinal who had been in the office for Catholic doctrine.  I too was very moved and joyful at this selection.  While a complete analysis is too long – here’s my general take:

He’s an excellent  successor to John Paul II.  Ratzinger was John Paul’s right-hand-man for the last 20 some years and very holy.  Many of our instructors have met, studied, or worked with him.  Expect his papacy to be very similar to John Paul’s – but I don’t know if he’ll be quite the exuberant public face/world traveler as John Paul.  On a theological front, by picking the name Benedict and from having read a number of his articles, expect his papacy to be marked by strong support for the traditional Catholic stances on topics such as the priesthood, marriage, sexuality, the mass, etc; probably more so than John Paul’s papacy. Clarification and affirmation of Catholic doctrine will probably be the place he will be most active in – since this is what his job has been for so long now. Clearly, these are generalities, and the realities will obviously have yet to unfold.   Thanks to God for sending us such a soul to help shepherd His church. He’ll be needing our prayers, and I for one know mine will be with him.