Twits and Tweets

I'm slammed at work, but I need a quickie minute to vent.

Argh! I hate being slammed at work! Man, these students get on my nerves sometimes.

OK, rant over.

Speaking of expressing myself, you can now follow me on the twitter. Just search for markjohnson1138 so you can follow all of my mundane goings on.

Oh, one last thing. I was digging through old newspapers looking for obituaries of dead relatives when I discovered that this twitter business isn't all that new.
























The more things change...

Well, back to work. Lunch is over and this mountain of paperwork isn't going to do itself.

I am having a bit of a struggle on what to write about my recent divorce. Do I even say anything at all? Of course I do. I just don't know what yet.

Soon..

Sometimes I feel like a huge hypocrite. And that mostly comes out of me getting all preachy. Because invariably, I end up being guilty of the sins I'm preaching against. This is why I prefer to shut up about such moral items, but sometimes I can't help myself.

I used to carry a small sign in my scripture case that read "hypocrite". Back in the day when I taught a lot of lessons in the Sunday School, I'd be talking up the importance of keeping the Sabbath holy or always giving thanks for your meals, I'd pull out the sign and wear it around my neck before continuing. Granted, it was mostly a joke, but it also felt good to realize I was a mortal and as human as everyone else. After a while, others would borrow the sign if they were making comments on things they were struggling to improve themselves.

This brings us to this year. One of my favorite moral vices to rail against has been TV addiction. And I suddenly get hooked on the show 'Heroes'. I've also taken a stand against video games as addictive and time consuming, and here I am totally addicted to 'Guitar Hero'.

So I'm wondering what the lesson that needs to be learned here. The easy lesson is to keep my mouth shut; but I don't believe that is the right answer. Moderation, I think, is the right one. My big reason for video game avoidance is I've known folks who spend all their time in the basement playing Halo 2 or World of Warcraft. It becomes a false god to them. I've even seen a few couples break up over it because the guy got stupid and didn't realize what he had until she left. Since I can't figure out the whole girlfriend thing yet, this might not be a problem. Still it is about priorities.

TV is a little different. While there is certainly the addiction possibilities, I think the biggest reason I avoid it is the exposure to all the murder, violence and sex. There are some things I just don't want to put in my head. They stay there for a long time when I ought to be thinking of better things. Besides, like most of us, I've already got more than I need on my memory. If I want to dig up some trash, I know I already have plenty archived. Who needs to feeding the garbage bin when you don't have to even be around it in the first place? So maybe I'll stick with the current season of Heroes and see how it goes.

"Television has brought murder into the home. Where it belongs."
-Alfred Hitchcock

I've been mulling over a blog entry on TV and hypocrisy, and with today's 9 Chickweed Lane, it seems like the perfect place to start.



I'm in the middle of making a graphic for this, so I'll post the rest later...

Bah, Humbug!

This Christmas, I'm trying something different. I'm actually trying not to be such a Scrooge about the whole holiday business. I used to look at the holiday with a lot of cynicism and general disgust, usually fed up with the whole lot of commercialism and other heresies that went under the guise of "the holiday spirit". And of course, I had one of those ''holier-than-thou" attitudes to back it up. So I ended up no better off than those I was complaining about. Who wants that.

This time around, I'm hanging up the "Bah! Humbug" t-shirt, hanging a stocking by the fireplace (with care, mind you) and listening to a nice selection of Christmas music on my computer. If you have any tips to make this a bit easier, drop me a line.

SPACE CASE


So Pluto is no longer a planet. Almost two months ago, the International Astronomical Union voted to define what constitutes a planet, booting Pluto in the process. At first I was a little incensed, as are many of my friends. After thinking about it, I think I have changed my mind. Not that I am necessarily in favor of the change, but it doesn't really bother me anymore.

My usual thought process invariably is steeped in relativity. And this case for or against Pluto is no exception. To hear most people talk, they would almost seem to imply the small orb as having actually changed because it is no longer a planet. Of course, Pluto sails on its merry way, oblivious to the "re-districting" that we are imagining down here. It seems interesting to me that all the hub-bub about the change seems to deal with very little with the actual planet itself.

Fueling the outcry against the change is a lot of strong emotion and sentimentality towards this little rock. Most of the outcry comes from Americans, and this is easy to understand as we will always root for the underdog. Of course, we have had nine planets for years and years (well, not that many years. Pluto was only discovered in 1930) and many prefer the status quo. Nine planets were the what they grew up with. Why toss out a part of their childhood? Emotions are an important part the human experience, but I have a tough time following the argument that is only grounded in emotion. Especially when it tries to work its way into the scientific discussion.

On the other hand, science is not the necessarily better alternative either. Remember that the debate is not actually about the planet, but rather about how we choose to define the planet. Astronomers are looking at size, shape, proximity and orbit when they are trying to build their definitions. While this seems fair and objective, remember too that these men and women are basing their criteria for the definition of what the planet is based on their best judgments. This means of course, that they are choosing the criteria based on what seems and feels right. There are no right and wrong answers about what makes a planet, astronomers are just choosing one criteria over another. Whether you want to accept their definitions are up to you, I suppose.

Personally, I don't mind the change. I look forward to the opportunity to tell my kids that I grew up in a solar system that had nine planets. Like I'm some kind of alien. Pluto can be king of the dwarf planets, the largest of other big rocks like Ceres, Sedna, Eris, Orcus, and Quaoar, to name a few. And who knows what changes will be made. Another big old rock could be found and the astronomers will have to rethink the whole mess again. Maybe that's the lesson we should pick up from this. Things are changing all the time. What is solid fact one day is out-dated knowledge the next. Remember that Moses lived in a solar system with six planets.

For more news on the brouhaha, click here.




Oh, a post-script:
Hey IAU, the next time you folks want to change the nature of the cosmos, maybe you could come up with a better name for Uranus. That's got to go.

Big Lies

The world is one of information and ideas. Information that would have made any person wealthy beyond their wildest dreams 200 years ago is now accessible at the touch of a button. And since the beginning of time, information both true and otherwise has gone in one ear and out the other. The gathering of info is fine. The problem is a lot of people don't go beyond the acquisition stage. It is important to develop a good 'baloney detector', as Phillip E. Johnson has rightly called it. Ask a lot of questions and hold fast to what is true.

To show what I mean, I'm sharing with you, gentle reader, a sampling of the Big Lies that I have heard over the years.

Big lie #1: “Scientists/Scholars/Historians agree…”
The truth: Baloney. Articles that claim this are just a sign of laziness by the author who doesn't want to present the complexities of what they are writing about. It was once said that archeology isn't a science, it is a vendetta. The other sciences are no better. Humans bring preconceptions into what ever they are thinking about. This will always taint research of any kind, be it biblical or biological.

Big lie #2: “Back in my day, kids had respect for their elders”.
The truth: Baloney. Cain listened to Adam just as much as the Bush twins listen to George W.

Big lie #3: “If I won the lottery/had a million dollars, it wouldn’t change me”.
The truth: Baloney. While I am tempted to take the cynical look at this, maybe I'll take the opposite view here. Quoting Willy Wonka:

Willy Wonka: But Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted.
Charlie Bucket: What happened?
Willy Wonka: He lived happily ever after.

Whether you make yourself good or corrupt is up to you. I guess my point is that you will change. We all will.

Big lie #4: “Don’t worry about getting married, it’ll happen when you least expect it.”
The truth: Baloney. I have a goal to get be engaged this year. Whether it happens or not is a tricky thing as it involves the freedom of choice by others as well. But that's neither here nor there. The point is that I have been given this advice since I was 21. And there were numerous times when I wasn't expecting it. And here I am. Meh.

Big lie #5: “The check is in the mail”.
The truth: Baloney. This means that the check is in my wallet and I'll address the envelope once I am done watching What Not To Wearand I have a nap.

Big lie #6: “If I can’t beat that price, I’ll give it to you for free!”
The truth: Baloney. Every so often, a car dealership will come out with some ad campaign where they say they will give you the car for free if they can't beat a competitor’s price. Gee, I wonder which one they will go with? As Uncle Lefty is always saying, If you wish in one hand and spit in the other, which do you think will fill up first?

The Yellowcard Blues

Today I hate the band Yellowcard. Nothing against them personally, it is just that I work on a college campus and the band is performing in the courtyard adjacent to my building. They have been warming up all afternoon and I'm just a little sick of the noise.

The Liquor License

I’ve been thinking a bit about the liquor consumption here in Utah, and I had two thoughts.

The first is the vilifying of people who smoke and drink in Utah. I know quite a few Mormons who do this. Not cool. Mormons such as myself of course are instructed by our church leaders to refrain from coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco and harmful drugs. We call it the “Word of Wisdom”. But sometimes we Mormons forget that while we believe it is an inspired teaching, it also is only given to the members of the LDS church. The world at large, while it would certainly greatly benefit from restraining from those things, is under no religious obligation to follow this health code. I feel we Mormons shouldn’t view someone who isn’t of our faith as a ‘vile sinner’ just because they don’t adhere to the same teachings we follow. My Jewish friends don’t get on my case if I have a BLT around them. They know that the kosher standard doesn’t apply to me because I am not Jewish.

My second thought is that I think the whole legal system controlling the sale of alcohol in the US is backwards. If the government wants to keep alcohol as a controlled substance, then it should make extra safeguards on its purchase. Restaurants and stores are required by the government to carry Liquor Licenses to be able to sell the stuff. This is fine, but I feel that those who need to have the liquor license are the consumer. If the consumer wishes to purchase and consume an alcoholic beverage, then they would need a special license to do it. This would be shown at the time of purchase, whether it be at an Appleby’s or a Circle-K. If the consumer hasn’t applied for a license, then no sale. The minimum age for such a license would be 18 years old. If a minor is caught drinking before this, a hold of 6 months could be placed on their acquiring their own license. It should also be part of the program for law enforcement officers to check for the license of those they feel might be in violation of the program, in a similar fashion to a game warden has the right to check fishing and hunting licenses and impose fines if necessary.

The license could also be tied to driving privileges. If the consumer is caught driving while under the influence, their liquor license would be suspended for 6 months or an appropriate time. Further DWI’s could bring more severe penalties. If a serious crime is committed while under the influence of alcohol, then the license could be revoked permanently.

Call your local congressman. If our states and country want to make alcohol a controlled substance, then they need to be serious about and do it right. This is one idea.

Pun of the post: "So we blew all of our money on the limousine rental and now, what do we have to chauffer it?"

Airplane! The Movie

No, this isn't about the disaster-movie spoof. But it is about video releases. Anyone walking the aisles of their local video store will invariably notice that many titles these days are now sold as the regular, "theatrical" release as well as in an expanded, "uncensored and unrated" version with footage that is "too hot to see in theaters". Now I'm not particularly familiar with those movies, nor their content, but I think it brings up an interesting point to the Hollywood film makers. I don't go to see these movies or rent them on video just because they have parts in them (profanity or nudity) that I find offensive. Which is too bad, because many of these films only have profanity or nudity only to garner the PG-13 or R rating. If you want to see them, that's fine, you've got the right. But I don't because I don't want any of that stuff in my head.

Here in Utah, we have a number of video stores offering the rental of PG-13 and R rated movies that have offensive parts edited out. These new ‘clean-flicks’ have garnered a bit of popularity here among those who want family-friendly entertainment. These edits have also gotten the attention of the motion picture studios, who have threatened to litigate against these video stores for editing their movies, claiming copyright infringement. Now while I respect these stores attempt to offer more family-friendly movies, but I don't think that this justifies breaking the law. Two wrongs still don't make a right.

This seems like an ideal place for a compromise. The movie studios ought to investigate releasing alternate edits of their movies with a bit more mild content. Now I'm not referring to movies that I would imagine would cease to exist as edited versions, like American Pie or the 40 Year Old Virgin; but those movies that have brief profanity or brief nudity, which feature them only to get the ratings that the studios believe will attract viewers.

Should the studios make edited, cleaner versions of their films that are suitable for families? Oh, wait. They already do. They edit their movies for showing in long airplane trips. These versions are just what the 'clean-flicks' video stores make, but they are fully sanctioned by the film industry. The industry should make these 'airplane edits' available to the public. If the blockbuster movie store down the street can sell legal studio-produced 'Un-Rated' versions of these films, why do they always have to be the versions that are more extreme? Give us the option of these other edits as well.

A Quick Update: I just saw a commercial for a movie called 'G'. It was rated R. Is this irony?

And I forgot my bad pun of the post: On my last trip to London, I couldn't wait to see the Big Ben clock tower. Why? Because it is the 'tock' of the town.