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GRAFFITI -- April 18, 2005 thru April 24, 2005>> Link to the Current Week <<Last Week << Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun >> Next Week Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable. About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message. |
 
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April 18, 2005
1347 - Good morning. Well, good afternoon, actually ... and not really "good" in any sense. I've been plagued by a nasty headache for the last 16 hours, and not much is touching it. I didn't sleep much, but made it in to work before 0900. So anyway, Happy Monday and hope that the rest of both our weeks is better. Oh, here's the results of a test I took over the weekend:
| Advanced Global Personality Test Results
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April 19, 2005
0656 - Good morning. I'm at work already, having dragged out of bed at about 0415 and gotten Marcia to the airport by 0500. The commute is certainly lighter at this unholy hour. There's little else to report at this time. I did nap a bit yesterday afternoon, and did nothing but veg in front of the TV in the evening, so I'm feeling generally better than yesterday, although I'm bloody tired from the early start. Today I'm going to spec out a new firewall and get the bits ordered. So let me get to that ... have a great day!
1151 - Later that same morning... Heh. Jenny's 2000 Youth Squirrel Hunt. Imagine the joy of Soccer Moms on *both* coasts. I can!
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April 20, 2005
1850 - Good evening. Where did the day get to? I've commuted, worked, commuted, fed the dogs and watered the new plantings (important since it hit 86° F today), and that's all that's happened ... it just filled my day, is all. I'll try again tomorrow. Have a good 'un!
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April 21, 2005
0648 - Good morning. Happenings in the front yard from yesterday evening...
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Okay, not terribly exciting. The Tiger Lilies are coming up nicely, the tree in the front lawn is a late bloomer, Spikes are the latest attempt in the side bed, and a little Verbena yields a shot of color in the early spring garden. But the Spikes deserve a little more explanation. The area pictured in the third snap above is a little scrap of soil hanging off the end of the left planting bed, trapped between the porch and the driveway slab. It bakes in there in the summer. Everything I put in died, or worse: lingered pathetically long beyond any rhyme or reason. The spikes, though, are fairly heat and dry tolerant. I like them a lot for border and background plantings - we'll see how they hold up here.
Today I'm buying parts to build a new host, crafting some procmail rules to handle a spot of spam classification, and whatever else I can get into trouble with ... probably something to do with PF or with a new mail host. But that's probably pretty ambitious for a day's work. I'll probably head off into unplanned territory and be lucky to get ONE of those done. Such is life and work.
Have a great day!
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April 22, 2005
0851 - Good morning. Yay, it's Friday. Between Wednesday and yesterday, there was a 30 degree swing in high temperatures, with the mercury only hitting 56° F yesterday afternoon. I also made progress on several of my projects yesterday, so that's a good thing, too. More to be done today, following a horrid commute, so I'd best be about my business.
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April 23, 2005
1024 - Good morning. The world is full of shoddy thinking and sloppy communications. I suffer from this as well, but sometimes something leaps at me from the headlines that rocks me back. Consider this:
Emails 'pose threat to IQ'
The distractions of constant emails, text and phone messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled volunteers.
Snipped... read more in the article on the Guardian site.
To me, the implication is one of damage and permanent loss. A claim further into the article is that "The average IQ loss was measured at 10 points, more than double the four point mean fall found in studies of cannabis users." Loss. A pretty clear statement. Oh, but wait, do you mean that you gave people IQ tests while they also tried to cope with their normal work-a-day email? You silly people! Did you take breaks in data analysis to take your own IQ tests and determine as a result that you were too stupid to not publish this study?
Yes, there's some valuable nuggets hidden in the article. For instance, continuous attention to the email tool is likely to inhibit successful concentration on other tasks. I actually close Thunderbird several times a day, work on other projects, and check back every hour or two - that works for me.
Also, I've been thinking about prayer. No, this probably isn't going to go in a direction that Pope Hitler Youth I would like much ... However, I'll soldier on anyway. I see three main possibilities in the prayer department. First up, prayer as a process is learning and creating a community through shared knowledge. Verbal repetition of verses from prayer books, bibles and the like is rote learning of the lessons from each specific religion's othodox teachings, and creating unity of thought within the sect. It's nice to make lots of drone that think happy thoughts and tithe on request...
Within the free-form prayer type, I have two competing theories. The first is that people pray because it makes them feel better, and maybe helps them work through whatever it is that's troubling them. That makes a fair bit of sense, in a self-help sort of way. Of course, if that were generally true, then people wouldn't ask anyone else to pray about X, Y or Z, since me trying to work though your particular issues doesn't seem particularly efficacious.
The alternative is that some people believe in a god with an interest in our welfare and well-being, the power to effect change here, and weak-willed enough to be swayed by our personal requests, especially when those prayers are multiplied by asking others to repeat and reinforce our own prayers. Yeah, I just said that. I mean, think about it. Most religions that encourage prayer are also monotheistic and profess faith in a strong god with a Plan for humanity, at least that bit of humanity that believes in the precise god that others of the church do. Okay, you believe in a strong god. A god with a Plan! A god whose plan can be derailed by your own personal intercession on behalf of either your needs or your desires for others. Often prayer is called for to provide assistance and relief for the sick and dying, that they become well and don't die. If indeed the interceded-for recovers, then prayer has worked, praise be! If not, well, then, the deceased is in a better place now, the god called them home or some such. <blink> Um, what? Either prayer works, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, then why be content with the result? If it does, what does that say about the Plan that the god has? You just blew out aeons of planning for your own personal benefit. Sure, Grand Nephew Nigel (you remember, the pale little weak-chinned boy) didn't die because of the intercession of prayer. So he goes on to become a marine, climb a tall building with a rifle, and cap people, including one who would have brought peace to all the world. But that's all right, as long as your needs are met! Or, Grand Nephew Nigel doesn't die, but that was in the plan all along. However all the crying, wailing, and prayers for the Chinless One had some small amusement value...
Sorry, I just don't buy it. If prayer "works", that tells me we live in a capricious place inhabited by us, some other species, and some being(s) of greater power and too much damn time on their hands. It also means that you could pray for me to die, and it might work. That sucks, too. And they probably do play dice with the universe, Albert. If prayer doesn't work (and you can't actually show that it does - if what happens, happens, and you've got comforting things to say when it doesn't), then many people are deeply, deeply irrational. That doesn't make people who believe in prayer stupid or bad. And it's likely that my second interpretation, that of self-help and internal discourse, has actual and real value for those that pray, whatever they believe. And group prayer is probably comforting to those who need to feel surrounded by like-thinking people.
Now, when I have sick and or dying relatives, friends and the like, they are often in my thoughts, and I do hope that they pull through, as I generally like and love the people that I like and love, and would rather not be deprived of their company in the short and middle term. Longer term, of course, with my genes, I'm as likely to outlive friends and family as enemies. Back on track, I sure don't equate my mental preoccupation with friends and family with prayer. For things that are out of my control, I don't believe that asking an invisible superbeing to change reality has much value to me. But it does comfort some friends, and some family, if I say that they are "in my prayers", when what I mean is that they're in my thoughts. It is a harmless, if sloppy, transliteration.
The sun has made an appearance, so after lazing about with the dogs for the last couple of hours, I'd best get out and mow. Have a great day!
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April 24, 2005
0913 - Good morning. Yeah, it's that time of year again. I'm another year past the perfection of 42, the only good news is that the downslope for me nearly equates to many people's complete life expectancy. It was just after 0800 when Marcia called and woke me up to sing to me from Paducah. By then the dogs were fully engaged and ready to head outside. Sleeping in past 8 is a real luxury...
Also, as it was supposed to be a blustery rainy weekend, I was going to slack off and just enjoy the weekend. Well, that didn't work. Yesterday stayed nice long enough for me to mow both the front and back lawns, and get most of the work done in getting water to each of the planter beds. I've still got to do something about the strawberries, and sometime soon actually put some in-ground piping out to the beds. But I can certainly trail a hose over the lawn in the short term. Just about the time I was finishing up yesterday, the skies broke open with lightning, thunder and torrential rain. That lasted for about an hour. Today is just supposed to be windy and cool, with highs only in the mid-50's.
While I've just been lazing around getting older, young men and women are dying in the service of our country...
I'll stop for a while now to think for a moment about the sacrifice these soldiers made on my behalf. . . . Thank you!
Here's a follow-up to yesterday's topic:
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Subject: comments on prayer (long) Hi Brian, Your questions about "prayer" puts you in good company (though you may not think so!) as it is a question most all religious (and many secular) philosophers through out history. After the question: "Does God exits?", the second is: "Is God listening - and will he help?". Naturally, opinions vary... By religion, historically, even by social fashion. These days, in the U.S. we see a variation from radical atheists to whom any hint of "praying" labels one a nut to the way right radical Christian groups who pray for God to deliver destruction and death to their "enemies." Looking around we can even see "humanist" secular prayers. A qualifier: I was raised Roman Catholic, then became agnostic (something RC is good at doing to people) I now participate in the Episcopal church more for social, family, and community reasons - as I'm not sure that if there is a God he/she/it would want to bother with humanity's sorry asses. So these are my personal thoughts: I think you need to separate "community or organized prayer" from "personal prayer". Organized prayer (ritual) is a way of reinforcing a sense of community. It is little different from national traditions (i.e. our National Anthem, celebrating July 4th, etc.) or the tradition and ritual of the military. It binds us to common goals - and those goals can be good or evil. This is a double edged sword because, for humans, it can be an excuse not to exercise personal responsibility because ALL organizations wish to impose their values over personal values. Private prayer is really a conversation with ourselves. At it's best, it reinforces our personal beliefs. It can be many things: for Christians they feel they are talking to God; other religions may feel they are talking to god within ourselves, some to nature, some to a collective consciousness; it may be used as a tool to focus one's consciousness. So by this measure "holding someone within our thoughts" is a prayer. The problem is that religion has co-opted the idea and named it prayer. The universe is a wonderfully and scary place. For much of humanity history we had no idea of how it worked and as our knowledge advanced we found it both "elegant simplicity" and "random complexity." And basically, shit happens. Humans seem to need to talk about it; to others and to themselves, to try to find answers. It's an emotional thing and not a logical thing. I think because we are a problem solving species when we run up against something we can't explain or fix we pray; be it "what can't be cured must be endured", "shit happens", "luck be a lady", "why me Oh Lord", etc. By the way, pretty much the best religious philosophers seem to have come up with is that "God listens to us all." The most that organized religions tend to admit to is that "God answers our prayers" and/or "miracles happen." Absent tends to be any sort of promise that he'd make things easy for us. Me, I "talk to God" about my joys, my sorrows, my problems, my successes. I don't know is he is there to listen so I also talk to loved ones, friends, also. Sometimes my friends have suggestions that help, sometimes I find answers within myself and sometimes I have to deal with the fact there isn't an answer. I don't worry about what to call it, after all it's for my benefit not any god's. David Yerka PS. For something different: Now that you live on the east coast you really should consider taking a trip up to New England in the fall. You and Marcia have the unrivaled opportunity of becoming "leaf peakers." If you loved the parks in the pacific northwest you will enjoy Vermont and Maine in the fall. I live in the Connecticut River Valley in western Massachusetts and fall always refreshes my faith in nature in spite of human screwups. That nature puts on such a show - because of biology and chemistry, irrelevant of humanity - is very enjoyable. It's actually worth putting up with those people who "enjoy the drive" vs. enjoying nature. Fall in New England is the best season - spring is justly called "mud season" where I am, summer is hot (and dry or damp or both, for example: they grow tobacco leaf in the Connecticut valley) and winter is ice, snow, ice and snow, melting and freezing. Can you tell I'm a native New Englander - our mantra is "don't like the weather wait a day". We've even been known to have hurricanes come up the valley and tornados in western Mass. |
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Hey, David, If the answer to the first question is yes, the answer to the second question is, IMO, "I don't think so." Take a look around - This is a pretty nice place, this little planet. Over all, it's got pretty nice people on it, too. But there is a significant enough percentage of people who revel in power and might to the detriment of all else that it is quite easy to point out ways in which any god (outside of Baal and the Great Old Ones) clearly is asleep at the wheel. I see ""humanist" secular prayers" as a ploy to co-opt the look and feel of religion to get past some people's knee-jerk reactions. However, it's bloody dangerous to play around with religion - look what's happened with L. Ron Hubbard! I refer to myself as not a former, nor even a lapsed, Catholic. I call myself a prolapsed Catholic. It's good for a chuckle in most environments, and tends to ward off most attempts to drag me back into the fold before they even start. Of course, for those people who need the word "prolapsed" defined ... Yeah. I did [separate "community or organized prayer" from "personal prayer"], in a way, by having the three interpretations. The first was this. The other two were about personal prayer. Every time I hear a church (or street) full of people praying in unison, all I can see in my mind's eye is Graham Chapman buck nekkid in front of the throng (gotta be careful with that word), telling people that they are all unique, that they don't have to repeat what other people say! > Private prayer is really a conversation with ourselves. Yeah, that's one way of viewing it. But I believe that religion in general really is a narcotic, a deeply distorting lense through which to view reality. Taking on the trappings or terminology of religion is a step down a slippery slope. We do justification and "rationalization" (a mis-named word if ever there was one) quite well, too. Philosophers can neither do, nor teach, nor even properly criticise. Mostly I view philosophers as a waste of skin and air. That you are content in yourself, thoughtful in what you do and say speaks well for you, whatever you call it. Thanks for writing, .b |
I'm going to pick up my office today, do the shopping, and make a dent in the stack of magazines that I've fallen behind in reading. Does that sound like a good plan? Yeah, I thought so, too. Have a great day!
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Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.
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