Ladies and gents: Blackle is possibly the coolest thing since... well... since solar panels. Check this out:
"If Google had a black screen, taking into account the huge number of times this search engine is used, 750 mega watt hours of energy per year would be saved. In recognition of this fact, Google has created a black version of its search engine, called Blackle, with exactly the same functions as the white version, but with lower energy consumption. Bookmark it today and pass it along:
http://www.blackle.com/
If you are suspicious, read this first http://www.blackle.com/about/"
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Math skills
All right, I'm no mathematician, but if I rummage through the remains of my 1st grade brain, I seem to recall that 16 is less than 20, which is less than 24. Have I been severely misinformed or have I been living in a self-created delusional world where 24 is greater than 16? I don't know which it is, but it simply has to be one of the two. Otherwise, I would not find myself continually disappointed when I reach into the variety pack box of Quaker granola bars only to pull out yet another oatmeal raisin bar. I mean, the box plainly states: 16 oatmeal raisin bars; 20 peanut butter chocolate chip bars; and 24 chocolate chip bars. Why is it that if there are truly 24 chocolate chip granola bars, I can never sink my teeth into one? Perhaps my roommates have been sabotaging me because they know that chocolate chip is my favorite. Come on, everybody knows that.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Not much has changed
On Monday, in true spirit of the holiday, I listened to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech "Beyond Vietnam." Although - as you might infer from the title - Dr. King was speaking of Vietnam and the ill-begotten notions of war justifications, the speech uncannily portrays what is going on in our days. Simply replace "Vietnam" with a litany of words - terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and on... and on... As many of you may know, I am borderline obsessed with promoting peace. Dr. King's speech is so moving and rings so true, reminding me that there is something to fight for.
In his speech, Dr. King talks of the war in Vietnam (which we can replace with more relevant issues) as being "but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit." If we ignore {Vietnam}, we will only find ourselves dealing with the next Vietnam. If we are listless, refusing to act, the US will grow concerned with one country after the next. He warns that "we will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy." John F. Kennedy said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." This is the role our nation has assumed time after time.
King states: "I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
He goes on to emphasize that this positive revolution of values will be the proverbial sword hanging over communism. We will never defeat the forces of communism, terrorism - whatever we believe America is fighting for today - by weilding physical power via guns, bombs, and torture. "These are days," Dr. King says, "which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness." Instead, lack of education and ignorance breed hatred toward people we have never met, causing us to act in irrational ways. Our best weapons for peace, so to speak, are actions to ameliorate those very conditions in which negative forces thrive: poverty, illteracy, injustice, and insecurity. "Communism [terrorism] is a judgement against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated."
"Therefore, Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history."
In his speech, Dr. King talks of the war in Vietnam (which we can replace with more relevant issues) as being "but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit." If we ignore {Vietnam}, we will only find ourselves dealing with the next Vietnam. If we are listless, refusing to act, the US will grow concerned with one country after the next. He warns that "we will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy." John F. Kennedy said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." This is the role our nation has assumed time after time.
King states: "I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
He goes on to emphasize that this positive revolution of values will be the proverbial sword hanging over communism. We will never defeat the forces of communism, terrorism - whatever we believe America is fighting for today - by weilding physical power via guns, bombs, and torture. "These are days," Dr. King says, "which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness." Instead, lack of education and ignorance breed hatred toward people we have never met, causing us to act in irrational ways. Our best weapons for peace, so to speak, are actions to ameliorate those very conditions in which negative forces thrive: poverty, illteracy, injustice, and insecurity. "Communism [terrorism] is a judgement against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions we initiated."
"Therefore, Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter -- but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history."
Sunday, January 20, 2008
If I were president...
"instead of spending billions on the war,we can use some of that money, in the ghetto."
-Wyclef JeanSaturday, January 12, 2008
Pandemic tag
It appears that there is a highly virulent strain of blog tag going around. Alas, I have come down with this dreaded disease and must succumb to its demands. I must admit that this disease almost killed me because I am absolutely horrible at delimiting my life and making lists.
8 things I'm passionate about:
1. Peace 2. Poverty 3. Culture 4. Gospel 5. Languages 6. Nature 7. Learning 8. Family
8 things I want to do before I die:
1. Get a PhD 2. Start a non-profit when I see a need that is not being met 3. Travel to Thailand, China, Afghanistan, and New Zealand 4. Have a family 5. Create a real community/sense of social capital 6. Go to culinary school 7. See Angkor Watt 8. Do something significant to increase peace in this world
8 books I have read recently:
1. Three cups of tea 2. East of Eden 3. The color of water 4. Eat, pray, love 5. Stargirl 6. Big box swindle 7. War and peace 8. A separate peace
8 things I often say:
1. Crimeny 2. Oh, dear 3. Seriously 4. Also... 5. Blast 6. What in the world? 7. Indeed 8. Eh
8 things that attract me to friends:
1. Quick to laugh 2. Intelligence 3. Good conversationalist 4. Sincerity 5. Desire to make things happen/change systems 6. Common interests 7. Selflessness 8. Openness to try new things and help me to try to new things/think about things in a different way
8 songs and albums I could listen to over and over (Ok, this one sucks):
1. Guster - Lost and gone forever 2. Jarabe de Palo 3. Feist - I feel it all (yeah, Zina) 4. Pretty much any Mana 5. Martin Sexton - Angeline 6. Mason Jennings - Killer's Creek 7. Michael Jackson - Billie Jean 8. Erin McKeown - Hum
8 Random things about me:
1. Folding clothes is NOT my hidden talent 2. It bothers me if the shower curtain is even slightly ajar when I am showering 3. I sleep with one eye open... yeah, you heard me 4. I hate pie 5. When I was 11, I was hit by a car while walking to my friend's birthday party, but I really wanted to go to the party, so I didn't tell my parents or go to the hospital 6. I alter my routine every morning to prevent Alzheimer's 7. I went through a phase where I only spoke in an Irish accent and almost convinced myself I was Irish 8. I don't like talking on the phone if anybody can hear me, which is difficult since I talk loudly on the phone
8 things I'm passionate about:
1. Peace 2. Poverty 3. Culture 4. Gospel 5. Languages 6. Nature 7. Learning 8. Family
8 things I want to do before I die:
1. Get a PhD 2. Start a non-profit when I see a need that is not being met 3. Travel to Thailand, China, Afghanistan, and New Zealand 4. Have a family 5. Create a real community/sense of social capital 6. Go to culinary school 7. See Angkor Watt 8. Do something significant to increase peace in this world
8 books I have read recently:
1. Three cups of tea 2. East of Eden 3. The color of water 4. Eat, pray, love 5. Stargirl 6. Big box swindle 7. War and peace 8. A separate peace
8 things I often say:
1. Crimeny 2. Oh, dear 3. Seriously 4. Also... 5. Blast 6. What in the world? 7. Indeed 8. Eh
8 things that attract me to friends:
1. Quick to laugh 2. Intelligence 3. Good conversationalist 4. Sincerity 5. Desire to make things happen/change systems 6. Common interests 7. Selflessness 8. Openness to try new things and help me to try to new things/think about things in a different way
8 songs and albums I could listen to over and over (Ok, this one sucks):
1. Guster - Lost and gone forever 2. Jarabe de Palo 3. Feist - I feel it all (yeah, Zina) 4. Pretty much any Mana 5. Martin Sexton - Angeline 6. Mason Jennings - Killer's Creek 7. Michael Jackson - Billie Jean 8. Erin McKeown - Hum
8 Random things about me:
1. Folding clothes is NOT my hidden talent 2. It bothers me if the shower curtain is even slightly ajar when I am showering 3. I sleep with one eye open... yeah, you heard me 4. I hate pie 5. When I was 11, I was hit by a car while walking to my friend's birthday party, but I really wanted to go to the party, so I didn't tell my parents or go to the hospital 6. I alter my routine every morning to prevent Alzheimer's 7. I went through a phase where I only spoke in an Irish accent and almost convinced myself I was Irish 8. I don't like talking on the phone if anybody can hear me, which is difficult since I talk loudly on the phone
8 people I tag:
Heidi, Jess, Mel, Laura, Katie, Nic, Ash (because the more you're tagged, the more likely you are to finally give in), Free people
Friday, January 11, 2008
Cheese!
I would say that pretty much every instant of my family photo session was hysterical. It would likely suffice to say that we had our family picture taken at Kiddie Kandids, but I will trek on to give you the gory details of good intentions gone awry. My grandma had taken a four generation picture at Kiddie Kandids (which, if you can't tell from the name, specializes in taking pictures of young children... candidly). Apparently, she was so enthused with the whole ensemble that for Christmas she provided each family with an all-expenses-paid trip to the land o' kid photos.
The day of the photo shoot found several members of my family in a not overly happy mood; this mood was unfortunately only exacerbated when we arrived and my siblings glanced nervously at the overstuffed pictures of little boys in cowboy hats and little girls in daisy costumes.
I suppose the kiddie receptionist was at a loss over what to do with a family of 8 that had no young children. She decided to take the information of my youngest brother, since that was the closest she would ever come to a kiddie in my family. My brother must have been flustered by the abundance of naked children on the walls, because he spelled his name T-A-L-M-A-G, and proceeded to tell the lady that he was born in 1962. She said, "Oh, how old does that make you?" to which he replied, "5... I mean 8... I mean, I'm 11." We awaited our turn reticently, managing to peek at the props around the corners, such as mini fire engines, feather boas, and tricycles. Our first assignment was to choose a backdrop. The options were plentiful, ranging from the pretentious "Lord Nelson" (better known as gray with hideous purple splotches), "Winter Wonderland" (in case we wanted to fool people into thinking that our family abides in an interminable winter), and "Walk in Central Park." We chose brown, or what we chose to call brown - because I'm sure that it had some highfalutin name. Our photographer was very nice, although she did seem to think that my brother, Kimball, and I were married and that Talmage was our son. That left us all baffled and confused as we tried to do the math on how old I would have to be in order to have birthed a now 11-year-old boy. The photographer only brought out the multi-colored duster once to make us smile. Guess we were unusually good at sitting still and smiling. As I type, the repercussions of this experience sit primly on my bedside table, ensuring many laughs for years to come.
The day of the photo shoot found several members of my family in a not overly happy mood; this mood was unfortunately only exacerbated when we arrived and my siblings glanced nervously at the overstuffed pictures of little boys in cowboy hats and little girls in daisy costumes.
I suppose the kiddie receptionist was at a loss over what to do with a family of 8 that had no young children. She decided to take the information of my youngest brother, since that was the closest she would ever come to a kiddie in my family. My brother must have been flustered by the abundance of naked children on the walls, because he spelled his name T-A-L-M-A-G, and proceeded to tell the lady that he was born in 1962. She said, "Oh, how old does that make you?" to which he replied, "5... I mean 8... I mean, I'm 11." We awaited our turn reticently, managing to peek at the props around the corners, such as mini fire engines, feather boas, and tricycles. Our first assignment was to choose a backdrop. The options were plentiful, ranging from the pretentious "Lord Nelson" (better known as gray with hideous purple splotches), "Winter Wonderland" (in case we wanted to fool people into thinking that our family abides in an interminable winter), and "Walk in Central Park." We chose brown, or what we chose to call brown - because I'm sure that it had some highfalutin name. Our photographer was very nice, although she did seem to think that my brother, Kimball, and I were married and that Talmage was our son. That left us all baffled and confused as we tried to do the math on how old I would have to be in order to have birthed a now 11-year-old boy. The photographer only brought out the multi-colored duster once to make us smile. Guess we were unusually good at sitting still and smiling. As I type, the repercussions of this experience sit primly on my bedside table, ensuring many laughs for years to come.
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