Miracle

Isn't new life amazing? A new human being is created. A unique personality. He inherits half of his genes from his mother and half from his father. Two small gametes combine to form a zygote, a single cell too small to see with the naked eye, that divides over and over again through mitosis. The first few times the cells divide, each copy is exactly the same (and, in fact, if you were to go in and separate the first four cells from each other, they would each become an individual and you'd have identical quadruplets). Eventually, as the embryo grows, cells are given separate jobs. Some become bone cells, some skin cells, some nervous tissue cells. Science understands this process fairly well.
Eventually a baby is born. He knows, instinctively, how to cry, how to breathe, how to eat.
It's night. The newborn baby cries very little, but he's crying now. I pick him up from his crib and he immediately calms. He looks around, curious about his new world. I stare at him in wonder.
Science can explain it. But that doesn't make it any less of a miracle.

Baby boy

April went into labor sometime around 1:00 a.m. Monday morning and gave birth around 6:00 p.m. She took an epidural around 3:00 p.m. The long labor might have been due to the baby's position--he was turned the wrong direction until about 20 minutes before delivery, when the doctor turned him around and told April to start pushing.
Peter is 8 lbs. 5 oz., and just over 22 inches. He's good-natured, often awake, constantly hungry, and healthy. He nursed for a full 90 minutes just minutes after birth, and he would've nursed more if he could have.
He made my parents grandparents for the first time, and he made my four siblings uncles and aunts.

Why don't people get parody and satire?

Parody mocks an original piece of work by using humorous, satiric or ironic imitation. Satire itself is much broader.
Some examples: Swift's A Modest Proposal, some of Mark Twain's stuff, etc.
The Daily Show with John Stewart, The Colbert Report, The Simpsons, and the Onion can also sometimes be examples (although sometimes those productions are just plain silly).
Sometimes, satire or parody will show up on newspapers or blog. Every time that happens, readers, not understanding that what they're reading is satire, will post angry (or sometimes, sadly, complimentary) comments. It's clear from their comments that they just didn't get that it was satire.
Why is satire so often misunderstood? Has it always been misunderstood? Did the people in Swift's time really think he advocated eating children?
In any case, it's a powerful way of showing the ridiculousness of certain positions in a powerful way...but only if the reader/viewer understands that it's satire.

Baby Update

Still no baby. April was due on Valentine's Day...fortunately, our little boy won't have to celebrate his birthday on the love holiday. Unfortunately, he's taking his sweet time coming. He also missed his mother's birthday, his grandmother's birthday, and the 200th birthday of the two greats--Lincoln and Darwin.
April's going in for a doctor's visit Monday, and I'm thinking the baby will be here by Wednesday, at the latest.

Massive amounts of Jelly Flops

Jelly Bellys (one of the greatest candies in the world) has a mutant brother called Belly Flops. Belly Flops are the ones that just didn't make the cut--weird shapes, stuck together, etc. At Jelly Belly's website you can buy 24 lbs. of Belly Flops for a mere $50, and get free shipping. That's just over $2/pound, which is a fantastic price. Of course, then you have to figure out what to do with all that candy...
Here's the link.

Abortion rates

According to this article, abortion rates in Western Europe are significantly lower than in USA/Canada. The rates in the US/Canada are 57% higher. Any theories as to why?

Two 200 birthdays

Happy 200th birthday today to two incredibly important men:
Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin.
They were both born on February 12, 1809. They both overcame enormous resistance from others; both were extremely unpopular in certain circles. Lincoln was responsible for keeping the states together and, ultimately, for freeing the slaves, although it took much much longer for African Americans to even come close to being treated fairly.
Darwin saw patterns in nature and made sense of them--had he not done it, someone else probably would have (in fact, before he published "The Origin of Species, he was contacted by another scientist who had also done extensive work and come to the same conclusion Darwin had). But Darwin was first, and he had impressive evidence to back up his claims. Like Lincoln, however, much has happened since. Genetics, molecular biology, geology, etc. add dimensions to evolution that Darwin never dreamed of.
Lincoln's acts eventually led to a more fair society; Darwin's ideas led to a better understanding of medicine and agriculture. BYU (along with numerous other universities) is hosting a Darwin week this week--I haven't heard anything about a Lincoln week, but he deserves to have a celebration to. So put on your top hats and your long white beards, and go celebrate.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my wife, who, for just a few weeks each year, gets to be the same age as myself (although she looks much younger).
Our baby is due in five short days (although we have no idea when his birthday will be, except to say that it will be sometime in February). April is a strong woman and is dealing well with the pregnancy. She certainly doesn't look or act 9 months pregnant.
So happy birthday!

Girls and jerks

Warning: Movie spoilers for "Becoming Jane" in this first paragraph:

A few months ago April and I watched "Becoming Jane." It's pretty good, for a chick flick, and, best of all, it has a happy ending. Like most modern chick flicks, the main man is a jerk. Girls who watch the movie may be too preoccupied with his looks to notice that fact, but it is still a fact. He is a total jerk. Anyway, the spoiler: he doesn't get the girl. Awesome! Finally, a chick flick with a happy ending!

Is this just a chick flick thing? Or is this a reality thing too? And why do so many girls (in movies and in life) fall for jerks?
Finally, a short comedy routine about this subject: Dwayne Perkins. (Play the movie.)

"I screwed up"

It's always nice when the president realizes he's made a mistake and admits it. Here, President Obama admits it, and without undue delay. Here's hoping that he continue to be honest about mistakes he makes. And here's too a president that's aware that he makes mistakes.

Song of the month

One of my favorite bands...unique, complex, intelligent music, lyrics, concepts; and they've finally relented and have agreed to come to the US, so I may even get the chance to see them live. Pain of Salvation, Iter Impius, from the album Be:

I woke up today
Expecting to find all that I sought
And climb the mountains of the life I bought
Finally I'm at the top of every hierarchy
Unfortunately there is no one left
But me

I woke up today
To a world that's ground to dust, dirt and stone
I'm the king upon this withering throne
I ruled every forest, every mountain, every sea
Now there are but ruins left to rule for me
And... you see, it beckons me;
Life turned its back on us
How could you just agree?
...how? I just don't see...

I woke up today
To a world devoid of forests and trees
Drained of every ocean, every sea
Just like a useless brick upon the shore
The morning after the storm
That swept the bridge away
Relentless tide
No anger
Just this relentless time
That calls us all on
But...

I'm never crossing that line
Leaving this world behind
I will stay on my own
On this bloodstained throne
I rule the ruins and wrecks
And the dust, dirt and stone
I rule rage rod and rattling of bones

I am on my own
I am all alone
Everything is gone
Stuck forever here
Already cold

I'm never crossing that line
Leaving this world behind
I will stay on my own
On this bloodstained throne...

I'm never crossing that line
Leaving this world behind
I will stay on my own
On this bloodstained throne
I rule the ruins and wrecks
And the dirt and the dust and the stone
I'm the ruler of rage rod and rust
And the rattling of bones
Ruler of ruin...

US/Mexico smuggling

First, don't you love snow days? Yesterday ended up being one (the classes were called off piece by piece--at first, classes were just canceled until 10, and then until 1, and then until 4...) Today they decided to give us the whole day in one shot, which means I won't be showing up like I did yesterday. Also--when the roads are slick, the best way to travel is definitely a public bus.
Anyway, if you think drugs smuggled in from Mexico are a problem (and they are), there's a different problem that Mexico faces. Guns smuggled in from the US. That's right.
What's ironic here is that these guns, bought from US dealers, are used quite effectively by Mexican drug cartels against Mexican police. These weapons are enabling the Mexican drug trade, and are to blame for much of the drug problem the US has.
Mexico has stricter gun laws than the US. It's too bad that the US doesn't tighten down on its own gun laws so tragedies like those described in this article don't occur.
It's easy to blame Mexico for our problems. Too many times, though, Mexico's just a scapegoat for problems we've largely created ourselves.

Idaho Springs, Colorado, is not in Idaho

Yahoo.com has a headline that reads, "Idaho mother wins million-dollar home with $50 raffle ticket."
Unfortunately, she's from Idaho Springs, Colorado.
No wonder Google's done so well lately. The competition's not too bright.

When is someone qualified to call themselves a scientist?

I have my own definition for what a scientist is, but I want to get a feel for other opinions. What credentials and what areas of study qualify one to tell others, when asked about professions, "I'm a scientist"?
For the record, I don't believe an undergraduate degree is enough (and so I won't call myself a scientist). Do you agree? What else is required?

Other blogs

I have three other blogs that I rarely update, but might be interesting for a quick look if the subject-matter interests you.

The first isn't really mine--it's technically both of ours. My wife doesn't really blog, though, so usually I'm the one downloading pictures and stuff, and I don't update it very often. It's www.aprilandtim.blogspot.com.

The second one is one I wrote a while ago, and haven't updated lately; it's about how to best explore Europe. http://www.exploreeurope.blogspot.com.

The last one is one I put up today. I wish someone else had a central place for this so that I wouldn't feel the need to do it myself. It's meant to be an alternative to LDS pseudo-science blogs--the links on that blog are written by actual LDS PhD scientists. www.mormonscientists.blogspot.com.

Feel free to stop by and check them out.

Tax things that save us $$$--including possible rebate $

A few things to save lots of hard-earned money on taxes this year:
Deduct moving expenses (For us, that's a rental truck, gas at $5/gallon for the truck and $4/gallon for the car for very long distances, and a hotel room).
Tuition--there are a couple of ways to do this on the tax forms. Basically, just plug in the numbers and see which saves you the most money. Let's just say that we spent way too much money on tuition this year...I just have to keep telling myself that it's a terrific investment.
Rebate--remember the rebates that people got last year? $600/person? Well, we hadn't made enough the previous year to get the full amount back, since April was still in school. But, exciting news! If you made more money in 2008 than in 2007, and you didn't get the full rebate last year, you may be able to get the rest of it this year instead! I almost missed that one...that would've cost us $217. So if you didn't get the full amount (and I'm guessing many of you didn't) figure out if you made more this year than last. Unlike last year, this one goes right onto the 1040, and either reduces your taxes or comes with the rest of your refund.
I'm still waiting on a tax form from my credit union, but as soon as I get that, I'll complete taxes. If they owe me money, I'll file taxes immediately. If I owe them money, they can expect a check around April 1.

Funny

From the NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee) website: "Thanks to Republican economic policies, the U.S. economy is robust and job creation is strong."

Maybe someone should tell them...

New President

"I left with a feeling that the people of America are going to unite behind this new president and his administration and that we need to pray for him. We need to exercise our prayers and help him accomplish the great objectives that he has set."

That's from Elder Ballard.
To hear what those "great objectives" are that Elder Ballard wants us to help Obama accomplish, go listen to Obama's Inaugural speech (if you haven't already done so).

The Idiocy of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Rolling Stone Magazine

I've always disliked Rolling Stone Magazine. My personal opinion was that if Rolling Stone magazine liked an artist, I probably wouldn't, and if they hated an artist, I'd probably love them.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame here in Ohio (OK, so it's in Cleveland, which is a long ways away) is affiliated with the magazine, and is just as lame. But instead of going on and on about why I disagree with them, (and not talking at all about the fact that they're heavily biased against progressive rock) I decided to do a scientific analysis. It's not exact, but it's close enough to prove a point.
Here we have a list of the 100 best-selling artists in the US. I'm not sure this is completely accurate, but it's close enough. To get into the Hall of Fame, you have to have been making music for the last 25 years. You also have to (supposedly) play rock, although the Hall of Fame has disgraced itself by accepting artists that are most definitely not rock. Rock is rock and metal. Rock is not pop, country, or rap. Hall of Fame has a lot to learn.
Anyway, back on subject...I took the 100-best selling artists, eliminated any that did not have "rock" or "metal" as their genre, and compared it to the list of artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To make things easier for myself, I eliminated artists on the best-selling list that were not playing before 1980.
Now, I'm not trying to say that just because an artist is best-selling means that it should be in the Hall of Fame (although that is part of the criteria for getting in). Nor am I saying that some of the artists in the Hall don't deserve to be there despite the fact that they are not on the best-selling list (The Who, for example, is on the list, and they deserve it despite not selling tons of albums).
Here are the best-selling artists that are not in the Hall of Fame:
Journey; Alabama; Foreigner; Def Leppard; John Denver; Boston; Ozzy Osbourne; Mannheim Steamroller; Rush; Steve Miller Band; Cars; REO Speedwagon.
12 artists.
But Alabama's not really rock...they're country. And Ozzy Osbourne may not be in, but his band Black Sabbath is. So down to 10.
Really, this list speaks for itself. How can you leave Rush out? They've been around for 35 years, are still touring and putting out albums, and their line-up hasn't changed since the mid 70's. Even Metallica, as they entered the Hall of Fame, mentioned the need to put Rush in. And Boston, REO, Foreigner, and Journey are all the same sub-genre of music. Neglecting the whole sub-genre...
The Hall of Fame is a sell-out. Like much of the music industry, it's not focused on the music--it's focused on getting the celebrities in that will look best on camera. And so talented musicians who don't fit the bill are left out.
Other artists I'd like to see in: King Crimson, Yes, Heart, Genesis, ELP, Queensryche, Marillion, Moody Blues, Neil Diamond, Phil Collins (also on the top 100 list, but his first solo album was 1981, so he didn't fit my before-1980 criteria), Peter Gabriel. But they'll never get in, because their either in the Journey/Foreigner/Boston sub-genre, or they're progressive rock.

Another reason not to carry a concealed weapon

This is hilarious. How embarrassing.

One month to go!

What we know about the baby:
Due date: Feb 14 (although it could be sooner--I was born almost 3 weeks early).
Size: Slightly smaller-than-average head size, slightly longer-than-average limbs. Probably an average weight.
It's a boy.
April does an excellent job of hiding the little guy, probably due to her body type (tall, long torso). Some people at church have just realized within the past month that she's pregnant.
April's mom will fly out after he's born. My parents plan to visit, but probably not until sometime in May or June.
April's planning on quitting work a week before the baby's due. She doesn't get maternity leave (welcome to the US: the only 1st-world country that doesn't offer mandatory maternity leave), so she's relying on vacation days and sick days to keep her insurance through February, and we're relying on savings to get us through her recovery time and beyond. She'll work maybe 10 hours a week once she's feeling up to it (meaning I'll play Mom one day each week). Once summer comes I should be able to find a paying job (low pay, but still some money) that will continue part-time for the next school year. I'll be making less than half as much per hour as she's been making, but it's better than nothing, and a law job will be good experience for me.
We've bought most of the big stuff we need (at a used baby store). We're taking a no-medication birthing class (where we're taught that medication is an option, and not a necessary part of giving birth). Hopefully we'll be able to get a few more weeks of the class in before the baby comes.

Finally found my niche

Grades from last semester (well, except for one) are in.
I did much better than I expected.
I'm surrounded by intelligent law students, many of them English, History, or even pre-Law majors. Many (probably most) just finished their undergraduate degrees, and still remember how to study. Our final grades are determined, for the most part, by just one final exam. Each course is based on a B curve, where anything other than a B+, B, or B- is fairly hard to come by. I'm competing against my fellow students.
I got one poor grade (and I expected that grade).
In the three other classes I have results for, I did significantly better than I expected.
Two of those courses, worth 4 credits each, were graded based solely on a timed final exam composed of what are basically essay questions. The exam I did poorly on was largely based on multiple choice.
I've worked in medicine, science, education. I've spent years searching for something I can enjoy and do well at. Something that challenged me, but didn't overwhelm me.
I've found it.

Elite

Elite: a group or class of persons enjoying superior intellectual or social or economic status. Selected as the best; "an elect circle of artists"; "elite colleges"

George W. Bush, on how the atrocities at Guantanamo Bay have affected our reputation internationally:
"I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged. It may be damaged amongst some of the elite. But people still understand America stands for freedom; that America is a country that provides such great hope."

The more Supreme Court decisions and dissents I read, the more disgusted I become with judges like Scalia and Thomas who throw around the word "elite" like it's a curse. Talk show radio hosts--same thing goes. They may relish in having inferior intellects, inferior social statuses, and being poor; they may enjoy not being one of the best. That is their choice. But if I were them, I wouldn't be bragging about not being elite.

From David Brooks:
Over the past 15 years, the same argument has been heard from a thousand politicians and a hundred television and talk-radio jocks. The nation is divided between the wholesome Joe Sixpacks in the heartland and the oversophisticated, overeducated, oversecularized denizens of the coasts.
What had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a disdain for the educated class as a whole.
Republicans developed their own leadership style. If Democratic leaders prized deliberation and self-examination, then Republicans would govern from the gut.
The political effects of this trend have been obvious. Republicans have alienated the highly educated regions — Silicon Valley, northern Virginia, the suburbs outside of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Raleigh-Durham. The West Coast and the Northeast are mostly gone.
The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now donate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it’s 2-to-1. With tech executives, it’s 5-to-1. With investment bankers, it’s 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.
Conservatives are as rare in elite universities and the mainstream media as they were 30 years ago. The smartest young Americans are now educated in an overwhelmingly liberal environment.
This year could have changed things. The G.O.P. had three urbane presidential candidates. But the class-warfare clichés took control. Rudy Giuliani disdained cosmopolitans at the Republican convention. Mitt Romney gave a speech attacking “eastern elites.” (Mitt Romney!) John McCain picked Sarah Palin.
Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. But no American politician plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin. Nobody so relentlessly divides the world between the “normal Joe Sixpack American” and the coastal elite.
She is another step in the Republican change of personality. Once conservatives admired Churchill and Lincoln above all — men from wildly different backgrounds who prepared for leadership through constant reading, historical understanding and sophisticated thinking. Now those attributes bow down before the common touch.
(End quote: the full article can be found here.)

That is precisely the trait I dislike the most about Palin. Smarter, more educated, more experienced...all that was looked down upon. Elite was used as a curse. And that is why I can't stand the woman, despite the fact that Mormon women like her almost as much as they like vampire romance novels.
To be fair, Bush himself has restrained himself on some fronts, most notably on the issue of immigration, and the financial help he's given to Africa. But he didn't practice much restraint on the war with Iraq, or with Guantanamo Bay, or on other fronts.
We need more than one party that prides itself on being smart. The Republican party of old didn't shy from intelligence. I'm worried that the current one does. I hope those of you who consider yourselves Republican would make a point to support Republicans that are smart, that think things through and don't just act from the gut, and that don't call people they don't like "elite."
The next time you hear the word "elite," remember what it really means. If you don't remember, look it up in a dictionary. And remember, there's nothing wrong with having a superior intellect.

Suspect blog readability test

Two cousins have posted this on their blogs. I figured I'd try it out too...

TV Reviews

Postgrad. So that's cool, I guess. But then I decided to try out www.seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com, and it gave it a genius level. Admittedly, it is genius, but it parodies dumbness, so any ranking site like this should give it a low rating. That, and I'm sure the fictional TAMN would be horrified that her site warrants a genius ranking. Orson Scott Card's website warranted an "elementary school" reading level. Ouch.
My final analysis: I think this website hands out rankings on a random basis. It remembers what it handed out, so if you type in the same website twice, it will give you the same answer both times, but it's still random. I tried it out on some friends blogs too...and friends that write on a higher level than I do got lower rankings.
Also notice (but don't click on) the tiny writing on the bottom of the rating (where it says "TV Reviews"). This, no doubt, is why the blog readability test exists. It's basically an advertisement.
Feel free to try it out. Just remember, though...it may be fun, but it's most definitely BS.

BHS grad in the news

BHS grads may be interested in this little tidbit I found while trying to find an updated email address on-line.
The marching band from Wasilla, Alaska is going to Obama's inauguration. And guess who the band teacher is...
The link is here.

Teenage Mormons and Civil Disobedience in Nazi Germany

Helmuth Hübener, a teenager in Nazi Germany, and also a member of the LDS church, practiced civil disobedience against the Nazis. Two buddies helped him out. Basically, they listened to BBC radio (illegally), found out what was really going on with the war, typed that up, and posted it in public places.
The work these kids were doing was so good that the Nazis, when they finally caught them, were convinced that some adult was behind it all. None was.
The local branch president belonged to the Nazi political party (as most Germans did, at that point in time), and this fact probably helped Mormons from becoming the next Jehovah Witnesses (Jehovah Witnesses were put into concentration camps much like the Jews and gypsies were).
Helmuth Hübener had his head chopped off by the Nazis at the tender age of 17. His two LDS friends were punished and then enlisted in the German army. They both survived and eventually moved to Utah.
Unfortunately, this great example of civil disobedience goes largely unnoticed in LDS circles. It's more well-known in Germany, where Günter Grass, a famous German author, wrote a book about it.
For more information, look up the wikipedia article or find the documentary "Truth and Conviction."
And, in looking at the wikipedia article, I just discovered something totally awesome.
Rumor is that a movie is in the works, starring Haley Joel Osment (the kid from Sixth Sense). Wow. I'm not sure how much of it will be true-to-life, but "Truth and Treason" is definitely a movie to look forward to.

Civil Disobedience

Yesterday, in Elders Quorum, we discussed Elder Perry's talk in the last General Conference. Elder Perry's talk was based off of thoughts made by Thoreau. Thoreau was a great American...but he was also a criminal.
He wrote an essay on civil disobedience. Peaceful rebellion against false government practices. Thoreau himself spent a night in jail for refusing to pay taxes (he didn't want to support slavery and the Mexican-American war).
Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Dalai Lama, and many others have practiced civil disobedience, following Thoreau's example.
People who practice civil disobedience do so peacefully. They do so understanding that they may be thrown in jail, or even beaten or killed. They do so to set an example, to show that a government practice is wrong, to help bring public awareness to an important issue.
Today, like in the past, many who practice civil disobedience are criticized. People who believe, mistakenly, that the government is always right, call these people sinners. They are not sinners. They are rebels. They follow a higher law than man's. They deserve our respect, not our criticism.
Joseph Smith practiced civil disobedience. He tried to escape from jail. He did other legally dubious things for a higher purpose.
Our founding fathers practiced civil disobedience. The Boston Tea Party is a great example. So is just about everything else they did to separate themselves from Great Britain.
Christ himself practiced civil disobedience. His family illegally fled from the government as the government killed all the other young male children. He went against Jewish law and picked and ate corn on the Sabbath; he also healed on the Sabbath. He cast out the money-changers in the temple.
May we all have the courage and wisdom to engage in civil disobedience when the circumstances warrant it.

Weird weather

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.
We just visited a used baby store for a car seat, stroller, etc. Getting ready for the big change.
We definitely miss being around most of our family and friends for Christmas. Maybe next year we'll be able to make it out to Utah/Idaho.

So, about a week or two ago (I don't remember the exact day) I woke up in the morning, went on-line...and discovered it was 6 degrees. Very cold.
Today, I went outside, and it was unusually warm. Cloudy, but warm. I just took a look on-line...yahoo says it's 70 degrees, google says 68.
That's right.
How is this December 27th?
We're definitely not in Idaho anymore...

Merry Christmas

I'm blogging from a bed and breakfast. April's still sleeping. The building we're in dates back to 1830. Just a one night deal, and we got a last-minute deal on it. A classy living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom with a jacuzzi. And a supposedly wonderful breakfast this morning. Top-quality. A get-away before the baby comes. Bed and breakfasts are so much better than hotels.
We were going to drive to a German restaurant (I have a good coupon) for dinner, but an ice storm led to closed-down freeways, and we ended up going to a good but over-priced restaurant close to the bed and breakfast.
Hopefully the ice will melt and the freeways will open today so we can get back home.
Merry Christmas!
And Happy Holidays!

Stuff

The semester is over. Very nice to get that out of the way. Next semester will be hard too, but at least the language of law won't be brand new to me. I have an idea of what to expect.
We've been trying to get money from an old health insurance company for months. They keep on sending us lame excuses for why they won't pay us. I finally sent them a long angry letter (instead of polite phone calls and letters) and yesterday we got a check! It feels good to stick it to the man and win, that man being health insurance companies, or, in other words, the devil.
And, on an entirely random tangent, the coolest thing about dinosaurs is that they're not actually extinct. I'm not talking about the Loch Ness monster. I'm talking about birds. I grew up hearing that the dinosaurs were extinct, but it's not really true. Of course every species of dinosaur that was around 65 million years ago (and, for that matter, every genus) is gone. But we're continually learning more and more about dinosaurs, and the more we find out about them, the more we are able to establish a direct link between them and birds. An article I found today is a good example of some of the similarities. My reptiles professor at BYU considered birds just another type of reptile. So next time you see a bird, just think of it as being a modified dinosaur. Because it is.
For more info on the ancestors of birds, google "bird dinosaurs," or just click here.

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

With all the hoopla in Utah about this (driven by Buttars, by the way), I thought this article was spot on. Check it out.

What makes a great teacher?

Recently, www.ratemyprofessors.com ranked some top professors, and the one that topped the list was one I'd taken courses from.
He was a good professor, but I think what put him at the top of the list was his absurdly easy classes. And I'd say absurdly easy classes should be a negative factor, not a positive one.
And I started thinking.
What makes a truly great teacher?
An incomplete list:

1. Respect for students. One of my professors right now has some great skills as a teacher, but she's scary and mean, at least to a few of her students. I recently overheard one of the library staff refer to her as...
Oh. Right. G-rated blog. Let's just say I'm not alone in thinking this otherwise good professor has serious people issues.

2. True love of the subject. If the teacher's not excited about it, the students won't be either. Well, at least unless it's like the chastity lesson I gave in Gospel Essentials the other week. Maybe it's best for teachers not to get too excited about specific topics in certain situations...
I'm especially impressed with a teacher who can make an awful subject interesting (Mr. Kinsel (Math), Dr. Wood (chemistry), and Ted (chemistry/physics)--I'm looking at you).

3. Good communication skills. Don't let me get started with one of my current professors...a brilliant guy, but he has a hard time talking.

4. Organized. Again, another current professor (well, current except I took her final on Tuesday) has problems here.

5. Good knowledge of the subject. This one's for all those high school coaches who were there just for the sports, but had to teach anyway...some of you may know your stuff. Most of you don't. To be fair, the above-mentioned Ted is an exception, but he doesn't spend a whole lot of time on the coaching side of things. This also applies to the fifth grade teacher who told us to do a report on an animal and then told me I couldn't do it on snake because a snake's not an animal. Yeah. I realize it's fifth grade, but still...according to my mom, she later called a goose a duck. Not a bad teacher overall, but she needed some very basic-level assistance with animal identification.

6. They're demanding. This BYU professor? My education professors at UVSC? Definitely not demanding. Education requires work. If I'm not trying, I'm not learning. There is no way my kids will get the easiest teacher, even if that teacher does happen to be the most popular one. And kids need to be prepared for the real world. An easy education class is not adequate preparation for a classroom full of 35 hormone- and rage-filled teenagers. An informative yet ridiculously easy Mission Prep. class is not adequate preparation for the craziness of a mission.

7. They make you think. This is where CS Lewis is at his finest. I took institute from Thomas Griffith. He was my stake president at the time, and a good teacher. And one of the most thought-provoking teachers I've ever had. This was not a class that required work, as there was no grading. But it still required thought. He asked deep questions. I'm not entirely surprised that he's now a judge on the DC Court of Appeals--this nation's second highest court. I am surprised that he's scheduled to visit my little law school in a few months to speak--definitely exciting.

8. They do their best to make the material applicable to their students.

To be honest, I sometimes fell short in all of these areas as a teacher. I despised a couple of my students, I wasn't a big fan of some of the things I taught (cells, for example), I sometimes found it hard to say what I wanted to say, I sometimes wasn't as prepared as I should have been, and as a result was disorganized, and I didn't always know the subject as well as I should have (cells, again). And my class was probably a bit too easy.
I got better as time passed, and then life pulled me in a different direction.

Any other important attributes to consider?

Why US car companies are dying and why we should let them die

Three reasons US car companies are failing:
First:
A few years ago I bought a used car. I did a lot of research. I was only willing to spend $3500 or less, so my options were limited. Another limitation--I'm tall enough that I don't fit in a two-door car such as a Geo Metro.
I went to Consumer Reports.
Best compact cars in my price range? The ones that don't break down?
Honda Accord, Toyota Corolla, Geo Prizm. The last year for the Prizm was 1997; I had several people tell me it was basically a Corolla, just with a different name. I found one from that year and have been happy with it.
So where are Chrysler, Ford, and GM? The American car companies?
Well, they don't exactly have a history of making quality products. Go to Consumer Reports. It's pretty obvious that their cars are less reliable.
Sure, they have style. They look good. I worked for a rental car company and would sometimes drive a Dodge Intrepid. The 2001 model looked very cool, it drove smoothly, and it felt very comfortable. The 2001 Dodge Neon also looked and drove nice (although, being a compact car, it was less comfortable). But the reliability stinks. Some people go for style, for looks, or for brand name.
More people prefer reliability. So Americans buy Toyota and Honda.
Second:
Handling their money poorly. Plenty has already been said elsewhere about how they compensate their employees. The top executives showing up in private jets to beg Congress for relief money was more of a stupid image decision than a bad financial decision, but it seems to illustrate their wasteful ways.
Third:
Size and gas mileage.
American car companies have been big into size. Get a monster truck! One that can tow a house! Look! Our SUV is bigger!
What you end up with is a bunch of little ladies and guys with Napoleon complexes driving huge vehicles around. Most of these vehicles don't get used much for towing, hauling, or off-roading. They're mainly a status symbol.
Gas prices went way up, the economy went way down, and all of a sudden these big vehicles aren't selling. They never sold much internationally (people in other countries are either too poor to afford them, or laws are to stringent to allow gas guzzlers). Now they're not selling anywhere. The companies were struggling anyway, but gas prices and the economy were the last straw.

Now, what do we do? Do we go in and save these guys? Or are they too big to fail? If we let them fail, the economy goes down more. But if we use huge amounts of money to help them out, their problems, which I mentioned above, will probably continue. Poor reliability, poor money management, big size and poor gas mileage.
I think at least one of them needs to fail. Companies, especially big companies, need to realize that they are not too big to die. I hope Congress will hold off on any help until one of these guys goes under, and then step in with loans to help the others. Let them know that they're not too big to fail. Let them know that, like all other things in a changing environment, if they don't change and adapt, they will go extinct.

Cincinnati sights

April and I went to the zoo a few weeks ago; normally, it's prohibitively expensive, but the law school offered $3 tickets for an evening visit, so I snatched them up. It's actually a pretty impressive zoo. I was a little bothered, however, by how much they sensationalized things. Most of their snakes were the poisonous types (whereas most snakes in the world are not dangerous). Same with their spiders. They had displays full of live cockroaches--solely for the gross-out effect.
I understand that the zoo needs to attract people, and this is one way of doing it. And the rest of the zoo was impressive enough that I didn't mind too much (although a few more amphibian displays would've been nice).
Yesterday, however, I discovered that the zoo had passed the line. They offered a combo-promotion ticket with a creation museum in Kentucky (only 15 miles from the zoo). This creation museum is top-notch. It's the biggest and best creation museum in the world. Admission is well over $20. It's big news.
What does a creation museum include? Well, it looks a bit like the Flintstones. People riding dinosaurs. Stuff like that. And it claims that it's science. In fact, as almost anyone with a degree in biology, geology, or anthropology will tell you, it's anti-science.
I'm a religious person. I have a degree in biology. I believe in being honest. And so I cannot support a museum that makes claims like the creation museum does.
As a former biology teacher, I can just imagine teaching here in Cincinnati. I'd teach the students something (the age of the earth, for example), and they'd reply, "But the museum says that's not true! The earth is only 6000 years old! And it's a museum, so it must be right!"
The zoo, on the other hand, is publicly funded. It exists to educate about science. Real science. Its goals are the exact opposite of the goals of the creation museum.
Imagine if the Catholic church teamed up with a bunch of devil-worshippers.
Yeah. It's kind of like that.
I emailed the zoo, complaining. Enough other people complained that they withdrew the offer. I have a feeling the PR side of the zoo had not been speaking with the educational side of the zoo--if they had, this problem never would have emerged. Anyone working for the zoo with a biology degree would've shot it down immediately.
It's nice to know that reason can trump ignorance.
There's a stellar aquarium nearby. An art museum, a natural history museum. Maybe next time the zoo can team up with one of these.

Bringing the best of the world to the US

The US has made great strides in the last decade or two. Great international foods such as Lindt and Toblerone chocolate, Nutella, etc. have become easy to find in any major grocery store. You can find cheese fondue and pickled herring, if you're lucky. Mexican food has been easy to find for an even longer time.
It's even possible to find high quality bread like they make in France and Germany. Hearty, filling, good-tasting even without adding anything to it. It's sometimes difficult to find, and it's certainly pricey, but it does exist (and it's so much better than American bread). I've even had the pleasure of tasting some high-quality pastries here (even harder to find than good bread, and even more expensive). In Germany and France, most people buy their bread and pastries at bakeries, and almost all of it is high quality. Even the grocery store bread is good. I wish more people in the US would refuse to eat low-quality bread and cheap glazed donuts, and demand the better stuff; demand would go up, supply would go up, and ultimately, because it would no longer be a specialty item, prices would come down.
What are some other foreign things the US should adopt?

Song of the week

I'm making side dishes for tomorrow (April's working late tonight, and so I'm taking over her share of the cooking). Listening to Rush. Canadian, so not American, except that America has a tradition of taking the best of everything and making it American. Happy Thanksgiving, and here's some lyrics from an English band that America has yet to accept (but really should--the rest of the world has, I first heard about these guys from a Polish family in Germany...)
Marillion (lyrics by Fish)--definitely some of the best lyrics in music. Period.
This is a triad--three songs that have to be heard together; the first three songs from Misplaced Childhood.

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono
Wearing bracelets of smoke, naked of understanding
Nicotine smears, long, long dried tears, invisible tears
Safe in my own words, learning from my own words
Cruel joke, cruel joke

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono
A morning mare rides, in the starless shutters of my eyes
The spirit of a misplaced childhood is rising to speak his mind
To this orphan of heartbreak, disillusioned and scarred
A refugee, refugee.

Do you remember chalk hearts melting on a playground wall
Do you remember dawn escapes from moon washed college hall
s Do you remember the cherry blossom in the market square
Do you remember I thought it was confetti in our hair
By the way didn't I break your heart?
Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart
So sorry, I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine

Kayleigh is it too late to say I'm sorry?
And Kayleigh could we get it together again?
I just can't go on pretending that it came to a natural end
Kayleigh, oh I never thought I'd miss you
And Kayleigh I thought that we'd always be friends
We said our love would last forever
So how did it come to this bitter end?

Do you remember barefoot on the lawn with shooting stars
Do you remember loving on the floor in Belsize Park
Do you remember dancing in stilettos in the snow
Do you remember you never understood I had to go
By the way, didn't I break your heart
Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart
So sorry, I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine

Kayleigh I just wanna say I'm sorry
But Kayleigh I'm too scared to pick up the phone
To hear you've found another lover to patch up our broken home
Kayleigh I'm still trying to write that love song
Kayleigh it's more important to me now you're gone
Maybe it will prove that we were right
Or ever prove that I was wrong

I was walking in the park dreaming of a spark
When I heard the sprinklers whisper
Shimmer in the haze of summer lawns
Then I heard the children singing
They were running through the rainbows
They were singing a song for you
Well it seemed to be a song for you
The one I wanted to write for you, for you

Lavenders blue, dilly dilly, lavenders green
When I am King, dilly dilly, you will be Queen
A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear
I.O.U. for your love, IOU for your love

Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue
When you love me, dilly dilly, I will love you
A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear
IOU for your love, IOU for your love

For your love


If you're interested in some fantastic music, check these guys out. This album is their best.

Voting patterns

A number of counties voted more Republican in the presidential election of 2008 than they did in 2004.
Of course, many counties in Arizona and Alaska did. Duh.
But take a look at this map:
A huge section of the South. And practically nowhere else.
Why just in the South?
I can only think of one decent answer: racism.
If anyone has better explanations, please let me know.
Meanwhile, the most racist place I've ever lived, Eastern Idaho, also has issues: school children--2nd and 3rd-graders--chanting "Assassinate Obama" on a school bus in Rexburg. Where do you think they picked that up? The Rexburg mayor believes the obvious--from parents.
I've heard people say Bush should be tried for crimes. I've never heard anyone say he should die. But Obama is getting more death threats and his Secret Service is working more overtime investigating these threats than any past president.
On the other hand, Utah voted more for Obama than they did for Kerry, and Obama even won in Salt Lake County (yes, county...that includes my hometown).

Living apart

I'm writing a paper for one of my classes. One of the subjects of the paper involves a married couple that is living apart. It's a temporary thing, they live together on the weekends, and it's just for their schooling purposes, but it got me thinking...that's got to be hard. Not too many couples do that, do they?
The last BYU magazine included a paragraph about a guy on the Ballroom Dance team who's on tour in China when his wife has their first child--in Provo. That disturbs me, especially if the baby was born around its due date. Priorities!
Law students often get summer jobs away from the area of the law school, especially if they want to live in another part of the country after graduation. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to leave my family for a few months to do that. I know some people do. I'm sure some circumstances make it necessary, but it seems to me that something like that should be a last resort.
Do we want to normalize being married but living separately? Is that what we want to turn marriage into? How much of a strain is it on a marriage?
Any other examples of married couples living apart for valid (or invalid) reasons?
Will this ever become something the church will address directly?

What Obama as President means

In a little over two months, Obama will become president.
A historic moment, to be sure. The first black president. The first minority president period. That Americans voted for a black president is a good sign indeed. There may be some racist hold-outs (only three areas voted more for Kerry in 2004 than for Obama in 2008--Arizona, because of McCain, Alaska, because of Palin, and then this huge monster area in the deep South...) (Utah, by the way, gave Obama more votes than any other Democratic presidential candidate in a long time).
But racism, at least towards blacks, is not as big of an issue as it was even thirty or forty years ago.
Obama's presidency isn't just a sign of America overcoming racism.
Consider this--a guy with a Muslim father and the middle name of Hussein (repeated endlessly by schlobs on talk radio, like it was his first name or something...)
Seven years ago, 9/11. But Americans (well, most of them) are smart enough to realize that Obama, despite his Muslim middle name and his Muslim father, is in no way connected to that horrible incident. When we think of 9/11 we don't think "Muslim." We think "terrorist." That shows some maturity.
Obama's presidency is also proof that you don't have to come from a rich or powerful or political family to become president. You don't have to marry into money. You don't have to have fame and fortune from an acting career. You can be president even if you're not McCain or Romney, Bush or Clinton, Clinton or Bush, Gore or...well, you get the idea.
A kid who's parents never envisioned him as president--if they had, do you really think they would have named him Barack Hussein?--if a kid like that can grow up and become president, what else is possible? And that--that's what America's all about.

Socialists

I wonder what the National Socialist Movement thinks when people call Obama a socialist.
I'm not going to link to them here, but I'll give you a hint--
They're Nazis.
I get the feeling that someone hasn't quite defined "socialist" properly.

Law School and Torture

Last week, three lawyers came to the school to speak about their experiences with Guantanamo Bay. One, a partner in a large private law firm, had done pro bono work for a group of Guantanamo Bay detainees. Another is president of a nonprofit legal organization that represented some of these detainees. Both of these men were involved in recent Supreme Court decisions--decisions by a conservative Supreme Court that sided against the Bush administration.
The third lawyer on the panel is an Air Force reservist. She was appointed as military defense counsel for a British resident in Guantanamo.
As you can imagine, it was quite fascinating.
Does the Constitution apply to Guantanamo Bay? It's technically owned by Cuba (wait a second...isn't Cuba, like, our enemy?) The US controls it. The Bush administration hoped to have a place controlled by the US where the Constitution didn't apply.
Are "enemy combatants" prisoners of war? The Bush administration prefers "enemy combatants" because there are rules for treating prisoners of war (in other words, you have to treat them decently--no torture allowed).
Is waterboarding torture? We sure thought so during WWII...
Is information gained by torture something that can be used in court--even when it's probably fake information?
Does a court need to be unbiased?
A number of military lawyers in charge of defending these prisoners have resigned in disgust--including the man put in charge of the defense. They felt the trials were a sham. The military lawyer on the panel agreed--but she still wanted to help her client, and she's stayed on.
It's clear that the Bush administration abused (and is still abusing) their power there. There are bad guys there, but there are also innocent people, who, if now released into the US, may prove a threat to the US because we've held and tortured them for the last seven years--and so they don't have the kindest feelings towards us.
The two-and-a-half-hour presentation was extremely interesting. You can find it here.
In any case, even if you're not an Obama fan, you can be grateful the Bush legacy of torture and false imprisonment will soon end.

Election

Classy speech by McCain last night. And I really do mean that. Go find it in your preferred on-line news source.
Also check out Robert Kirby (once quoted in General Conference) and his advice for the soon-to-be-president:
Open letter to our new president-elect.

Thankful

I want to list some things I'm grateful for.
First, though, for those of you who read the "Why it's OK to vote for McCain link," please understand the author is being funny. It's not a serious post. Its main point is not to attack McCain, but to make fun of LDS Republicans who can see nothing bad in their candidate and nothing good in the other candidate. It shows how ridiculous that stance is by attacking the candidate LDS Republicans prefer. If you didn't get the humor, and were offended by it, you're not alone. But realize that when Mormons attack Obama in a similar manner, it looks just as ridiculous. Again, though, it was meant as a joke. So please don't take it too seriously. Unless, of course, you believe McCain is an incredibly good man and Obama's the anti-Christ.
On a more important note:
I'm grateful for a supportive wive. She works long hours, she's pregnant, and yet she's still a happy person. I'm glad that I can talk to her about my political views, but I'm also glad that she decides on her own who she wants to vote for (whoever that might be). I'm pretty sure she'll join me in the vote against loan sharks and the vote against a casino. I don't think she's made a decision on the other stuff. It may very well be that she cancels out my votes. And that's fine. She's a fantastic woman and the best thing that ever happened to me.
I'm glad for a mother and a mother-in-law that still accept me even though I--gasp--voted for Obama (voting-by-mail is awesome). My mom doesn't read my blog, and I can just imagine the long grapevine that information took before it got to here. But, even though my mom gets her news from talk radio, and even though she's seriously worried that my dad will lose his job if Obama wins, she still accepts me.
I'm grateful for signs of Democrats at church--an Obama hat and a Clinton bumper-sticker. Evidence that the church can be politically diverse.
More importantly, I'm grateful for a ward that has rich and poor, black and white, young and old, educated and not-educated, single and married. It got split about a year ago, to the dismay of the long-term members, but it's been good for the ward. It's forced people out of their comfort zones, and yesterday the small chapel was pretty much filled.
I'm grateful for supportive friends, even if the vast majority are over 1500 miles away.

Life in a swing state

Obama is coming to my university two days before the election!
Unfortunately, like the other first-class act of Heart/Journey, he's coming on a Sunday. So I won't be going.
Yes, he campaigns on Sunday. I know some people may be offended by that.
Just keep in mind that the other political rock star, the one that belongs to the religious right, will also be campaigning in the Cincinnati area on Sunday.
I guess they both really want my vote.
For those of you living in South and West Jordan, please consider voting against Buttars. He sponsored an unconstitutional bill that would have made my life as a Utah science teacher miserable, and it would have cost Utah taxpayers a lot of money to defend in the courts. Fortunately, Huntsman threatened to veto it, and the bill died. Please don't vote for him. You deserve someone better.
And if you live in Utah, consider voting 3rd party. We all know McCain will take Utah. Even his home state of Arizona isn't guaranteed for him...but Utah is. So consider the many other possibilities, from Nader to Barr to Keynes.

Also of interest, an interview with Democrat Elder Jensen (Presidency of the 70), from 10 years ago. Church officials sent him to do the interview. Jensen says:

-- The LDS Church's reputation as a one-party monolith is damaging in the long run because of the seesaw fortunes of the national political parties.

-- The overwhelming Republican bent of LDS members in Utah and the Intermountain West undermines the checks-and-balances principle of democratic government.

-- Any notion that it is impossible to be a Democrat and a good Mormon is wrongheaded and should be "obliterated."

-- Faithful LDS members have a moral obligation to actively participate in politics and civic affairs, a duty many have neglected.

Read about it here.

Is it OK to vote for McCain?

The professor that taught me ecology at BYU has a very funny post about why it's okay for Mormons to vote for McCain.
In other news, the science journal Nature, for the very first time, has endorsed a political candidate. As have a huge number of Nobel Laureates.
Click on this link to find out if it's OK to vote for McCain...

Science

Sarah Palin needs to talk to people who understand science before she rushes off to condemn studies done on fruit flies.
An article here:
Anyone who knows much about biology knows that there are three types of animals that are great for research. Chimpanzees, because they're more like humans than any other animal, and thus help us understand ourselves better. Mice, because, like us, they're mammals, but they're also cheap and they reproduce quickly. And fruit flies, because they're extremely cheap, and they reproduce extremely quick.
Studying these animals leads us to a better understanding of biology and medicine. This type of research is extremely important, and the fact that she makes fun of it is troubling.
I would say she just alienated a whole lot of scientists, but in all reality, I think most scientists have already been alienated.

Orson Scott Card admits to forwarding false emails

Given the prestige which a couple of my friends have given Orson Scott Card lately, I thought this admission, found here, pretty funny.
Here are the pertinent parts:

I have received many forwards tied to this election season, as I bet you have, too. Some of them are downright fraudulent. Some of them began as truth but have since been corrected or are now outdated.
For instance, there was a link I got to an article about lawsuits pending against Obama, demanding that he produce his birth certificate to show he was a natural-born American citizen. I dismissed this immediately as nonsense, because his mother was an American citizen, and I thought that no matter where he was born, he was eligible for the presidency.
But then the friend who sent me the first link sent me a newer one that explained why he might not have been. Apparently there was a law that applied during the era when Obama was born that said that if you were born outside the U.S., and your father was foreign, then your American-citizen mother had to have lived in the U.S. for at least ten years, five of which had to be after the age of 16.
I thought, "What a stupid law. That means that a child born to a foreign father and an American mother who had lived all her life in the U.S. except the day the child was born could not be a citizen unless Mom was 21 or over." And, with a comment to that effect, I passed the link along to a few people as an example of a really stupid law.
Only when my son emailed me the link to Snopes.com did I realize that the article was fundamentally flatulent. The Obama campaign had already provided the Honolulu birth certificate, so the whole question was moot; the lawsuit is a frivolous one that claims the certificate was a forgery.
I have learned the hard and embarrassing way to check everything that purports to be factual at Snopes.com.

I appreciate his honesty of his past gullibility. Snopes.com is a great resource. And "fundamentally flatulent" is a great phrase.

Why do we fight?

I've been studying about war in my Constitution class. Some really interesting stuff there--like why we call captured enemy "enemy combatants" instead of "prisoners of war" and why we hold them at Guantanamo Bay instead of in the US.
All that's good and interesting, and I hope everyone who wants to have an educated opinion about war would look into those matters.
But I want to discuss something else: what's our motivation for going to war?
With the war in Afghanistan, it's pretty obvious. They were harboring the people who caused 9/11.
With Iraq, it's more complicated.
Democrats say it's because they have oil, or it's because powerful Republicans have connections with the companies that are doing major work there (see Dick Cheney, previous Vice President of Halliburton).
Republicans say it's because of nuclear weapons (now known to be non-existent) or to free people from a dictatorship, or because of links to 9/11 (also known to be non-existent).
Both views are way too simple.
Individuals may have simple reasons for going to war. But the war in Iraq is being fought for many reasons.
It's obviously not just fought because of dangerous nuclear weapons, or to free an oppressed a free people. If that were the case, we'd be in North Korea right now. Unlike Iraq, we know that North Korea has nuclear weapons. They tested one! And conditions in North Korea are horrible. They do a much better job of keeping reporters out, and they do a much better job of keeping their people oppressed, than Hussein ever did in Iraq.
So obviously, something more is going on. There are other reasons for why we're in Iraq (although the fear of nuclear weapons and freeing an oppressed people may have been part of the equation). We ignore these other reasons at our own peril.
So what are the other reasons? I mentioned a few other possibilities (and indeed, Alan Greenspan agrees with the "we're there for the oil" bit).
Why are we in Iraq, and not in North Korea?

Negative coverage of the candidates

There's been a lot of talk about media coverage of the presidential candidates lately. Obama gets more coverage than McCain, Palin gets considerably more than Biden, Obama's tends to be more positive (if you stick to newspapers and don't consider talk radio).
I'd like to discuss character attacks. I've talked about Dirty Politics before, but I'd like to do it again, focusing on what dirt is true about the candidates, and what's actually said.
We'll start with Obama:
A relative told me he's Arab and Muslim. Fact: his father was Muslim. He's Christian (but not the "I'm saved" type Christian). His father didn't do much to raise him--in fact, Obama was primarily raised by his grandmother. Obama was born and, for the most part, raised in the US. He's 100% American and 100% Christian.
Another relative told me he refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance and he's unpatriotic. Also not true.
Certain people (cough cough Sarah Palin cough cough) have said that he's been "pallin' around with terrorists." This comment is an obvious attempt to tie him to 9/11 (since many people believe he's Arab, Muslim, and unpatriotic), and judging from what some of my relatives believe, the attempt will be successful with some people. An acquaintance of his was at one time involved with domestic terrorism, but has now become a prominent, well-respected member of his community. Once a terrorist, always a terrorist? Or can people change? And does acquaintance equal "pallin' around"?
From what I've seen, people don't discuss Obama's former drug use much. Sounds like he wasn't the best-behaved teenager.
Obama's campaign shows a bit more respect towards McCain--they don't imply he's a terrorist--but they also try to put him in a negative light, and they try to show him as out-of-touch with the middle-class. However, for some reason, they've restrained from attacks on his personal life--they don't bring up his first marriage or his affairs very often. They also don't talk about where Cindy McCain gets her money--from alcohol. The alcohol lobby happens to be very powerful.
The media is very quiet about Biden. Seriously, he gets very little attention.
Palin, like Obama, gets a ton of attention. Why? Like Obama, she's a polarizing figure. Early on, there were some distasteful rumors about her baby actually being her grandchild (obviously false). There were also rumors about her belonging to an organization whose main goal was to have an Alaska vote for secession (sounds pretty un-American to me...) The last time that happened, we had a civil war. In any case, she was not a member of the group, but her husband was, and she had spoken at some of their meetings. Question--how much have you heard about her association with this group? Now think back to when Obama's pastor was in the news. How much coverage did his anti-American sentiment get? I really don't think the media's favoring Obama here.
My take is this. The media's goal is to make money. They get more money talking about Obama's pastor than Mr. Palin's organization, because, frankly, it's more interesting.
My other take--for some reason, when it comes to believing lies about a candidate, the lies about Obama are much worse than the lies about McCain. Obama may have more positive coverage, but very little of the coverage on McCain is as filthy as the talk radio coverage or the mass email coverage that's about Obama.
Do you agree or disagree with my take on it?
Why does Obama get more positive media coverage?
And why do the lies about Obama tend to be so much worse?

Colin Powell

Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, is endorsing Obama.
I don't think there's a more influential endorsement out there.
I'd heard rumors that he might be supporting Obama, but I didn't believe them. Go look up his reasons for doing so.
Wow.

Church debt and Saracuda

Two brief topics here.
First, a cool article from the Salt Lake Tribune. "Every church in America is up to its eyeballs in debt...Only Mormons, Muslims, Amish and a few other groups are not financed this way...In fact, Mormons can't build anything without having the money in hand."
Very cool. And maybe a good example for its members.

The other totally unrelated topic which I found hilarious (and I apologize if I offend any Palin supporters, but here goes...)
Palin has a nickname--Sarah Barracuda. I'm not sure if her fans still call her that, but they did for a while.
When I first heard it, I immediately thought of the Heart song. So I wasn't surprised when the McCain campaign started playing that song (I also wasn't surprised when the Wilson sisters, who front Heart, told them to stop playing it.)
Like many rock songs, the lyrics are difficult to understand, so I'll post them here:

So this ain't the end -
I saw you again today
I had to turn my heart away
Smiled like the sun -
Kisses for real
And tales - it never fails!

You lying so low in the weeds
I bet you gonna ambush me
You'd have me down down down down on my knees
Now wouldn't you, barracuda?

Back over time we were all
Trying for free
You met the porpoise and me
No right no wrong, selling a song-
A name, whisper game.

If the real thing don't do the trick
You better make up something quick
You gonna burn burn burn burn it to the wick
Ooooooh, barracuda?

Sell me sell you the porpoise said
Dive down deep down to save my head
You...I think you got the blues too.

All that night and all the next
Swam without looking back
Made for the western pools - silly fools!

If the real thing don't do the trick
No, you better make up something quick
You gonna burn burn burn burn it to the wick
Ooooooohhhh, barra barracuda.

What does it mean? I don't know. But here's a picture:


So, why this nickname? And why this as an (unauthorized) theme song? Any ideas?

Pictures on another site

Click here for some pictures of us in Cincinnati.
It's mostly April's blog.

Song of the week

I've decided to sometimes (and not necessarily on a weekly basis) do a song of the week. This one is my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands. In a world where modern poetry is usually nothing more than stream-of-thought garbage, a few brave souls, who still know how to rhyme, fight back. This is from Neil Peart, world-class drummer and lyricist of Rush:

Subdivisions

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone

Nowhere is the dreamer
Or the misfit so alone

Subdivisions ---
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions ---
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out

Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth

Drawn like moths we drift into the city
The timeless old attraction
Cruising for the action
Lit up like a firefly
Just to feel the living night

Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight

Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights...


Don't get me wrong. I grew up in a suburb (although not a generic cookie-cutter one, and my backyard was a wetland). But these lyrics bring up some good points. The video for this, if you can find it, is also quite good. Envision a helicopter shot of a regular suburban city--each house exactly the same, and spread out for miles. No individuality. 100% conformity. Minimal creativity. Lacking the excitement of the city and lacking the peace of the country.
For a classic picture very close to where I grew up, click here.
Why do people seek this?
Thoughts?

Why vote for Obama

No candidate for political office is perfect. But I want to give a quick list of reasons why I like Obama without attacking McCain or McCain's VP pick.
1. He's intelligent. I realize people like to vote for candidates they can relate to, and sometimes smarter candidates are hard to relate to. But I want a candidate that's smarter than me (and one that could beat me on an IQ test).
2. He's level-headed. He thinks carefully before he acts, he doesn't lose his temper, and I can trust him to not make rash decisions.
3. He understands the world. He's lived in various states and foreign countries. He's worked with poor people and gone to school with rich people.
4. He has a deep knowledge of the Constitution. He taught Constitutional Law and understands how the laws of the country work.
5. He will appoint Supreme Court justices that will balance out the Supreme Court. Right now, 7 of the 9 justices were appointed by Republican presidents. Most of the justices are level-headed and fairly moderate, but they definitely lean towards the right, and a few more left-leaning justices would balance the court more evenly.
6. He is well-spoken. He has a good control of the English language, and can be persuasive. The president represents the US to the rest of the world, and so this is an important skill.
7. He's a good family man.
8. He has hope, and he has the ability to spread that hope to others. Hope alone doesn't get you anywhere, but it's the first step towards making things better.
9. He doesn't pretend that changing things for the better will be easy. In the Saddleback Forum, he tells us that it won't be easy; that the problems we have will take effort to fix. This kind of honesty is refreshing in a politician.
10. He grew up middle class. He doesn't have rich or powerful family, and he's risen due to his own efforts. His wife also comes from a similar background. They were never given a free pass because of family connections. Contrast this with the Clinton and Bush dynasties.

Comments are welcome. Especially welcome are reasons why you like a specific candidate (instead of reasons you dislike the other one). I'll accept negative comments, but positive ones are preferred.

Spotted on Deseret News website

If you're kid komes hear, she'll spel as good as us!

It's a boy!

April had an ultrasound yesterday.
It's a boy! We got a couple of good pictures, leaving no doubt as to the gender.
April's due February 14th, five days after her birthday.

Supreme Court decisions I disagree with

So today my Constitutional Law professor what Supreme Court decision we disagreed with. I thought for a couple of seconds...and came up with two. Roe v. Wade, and Morrison.
Everyone knows about the first. The second is a famous case, but only for those who follow Supreme Court decisions.
So I was surprised when, this afternoon, I listened to both Palin and Biden answer interview questions about Supreme Court decisions they disagree with.
Of course Palin answered with Roe v. Wade, and then went on to call herself a Federalist (and so she disagrees with non-Federalist cases). Biden spoke about the Morrison case.
Biden spent a good deal of time and effort on a violence against women law. He collected a ton of information about how damaging gender-based crime (rape, etc.) harms people and the economy in general. Part of the study done to pass this law included the fact that women were being treated unfairly at the local level, and states, on an individual basis, were not doing enough to protect women against rape. The federal law would improve conditions for victims of rape. Congress passed the law.
The Supreme Court found it unconstitutional. Constitutional scholars were surprised--I'm not going to try to explain Constitutional Law in one blog post, but their decision was unexpected.
The name of the Supreme Court case is United States v. Morrison.
Look it up for the ugly details.
In any case, I was surprised to hear that Biden had been deeply involved in getting this law passed.
By the way, the Republican party controls the Supreme Court right now--7 of the 9 judges were put there by Republican presidents. Just in case you were wondering.
Now the question you should be asking is this--if 7 of the 9 are Republican, why is Roe v. Wade still law?
Something to think about.

What do you read?

Sarah Palin previously explained that she got her knowledge of the world not from traveling, but from reading.
Which makes the following all that more interesting.
Eric Snider (formerly of BYU) says it best:

The Fountain

The movie that's been compared to a double prog-rock albums gets decent reviews from both April and me.
Artsy. Beautiful. Well-done. Emotional. A little confusing. A bit strange.
Will we watch it again? Probably not. Still, if you're into artsy movies, it's not one you want to miss.
Oh, and it's kind of a chick-flick, in a strange, artsy sort of way.

Thanks

I just wanted to send out a quick thanks to those who read and comment on my blog. I know I say things that many of you disagree with (especially as far as politics go). And I'm fine with that. But I appreciate the fact that most of you are open-minded and think things through.
It's been a while since the WALL-E post, but the comments there prove my point: you guys are great friends, and you're incredibly thoughtful.
Keep up the good work.
We're in interesting times here, with the economy and the elections, and the world needs as many open-minded, intelligent people as it can get.

Movie reviews

I checked out three movies from the library today--Solaris, The Fountain, and Disturbia.
And then I looked up reviews on ericdsnider.com and Rotten Tomatoes. I refuse to waste time on movies that get poor ratings.
Ratings for The Fountain were very mixed. One of the negative reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:
"Ambitious? You bet, but also a towering, tumultuous folly. It's the movie equivalent of a prog-rock double album, short on humour, long on pomposity, and as for what it all means - you might well ask."

I'm sold. I'm definitely going to have to watch this.

Some prog-rock double albums I own:
Pink Floyd--The Wall
Genesis--Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Dream Theater--Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Neal Morse--Testimony
Spock's Beard--Snow
Ayreon--Into the Electric Castle
Ayreon--The Human Equation
And possibly more...

Is backpacking around Europe a negative thing?

I quote from a recent interview mentioned in the LA Times:
In her second "CBS Evening News" interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin was asked why she didn't get a passport until 2006. Did it, as some of her viewers wonder, show a lack of curiousity and interest about the world and other cultures?

She told the CBS newsperson that she had to work, sometimes two jobs, and that's why she didn't backpack around Europe like privileged kids do.

"I'm not one of those who maybe come from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduated college and their parents get them a passport and a backpack and say, 'Go off and travel the world.' Noooo. I worked all my life. In fact, I usually had two jobs all my life, until I had kids. ... I was not part of, I guess, that culture."


Now where in the world does owning a passport mean that your parents paid for you to travel around Europe? According to Palin, I'm a priviliged kid.
I'm guessing most people reading this have a passport. I am also guessing that the majority of you have used it more than once (and not just for LDS missions). I am further going to guess that the majority of you paid for your own trips yourself.
I know I have. $6000 for 10 weeks in Europe. My money.
Sorry, Palin. We're not a part of that culture either. We work hard. Most of us even paid our own way through college. But we value travel and experience enough to sacrifice our time and our money for it.
Priviliged? No. Curious about the world? Very much so.

Hurricane Ike in Cincinnati

Sunday afternoon we heard a loud windstorm start up. High winds were interrupted by terrible gusts (think 70-80 mph). The tree in our backyard lost a huge limb. The neighbors across the street lost a huge tree. The electricity went in and out (and quickly back in). Electrical wires fell, some of them onto our driveway. Two blocks down, a large tree fell down and totally blocked off our street.
The whole thing lasted maybe two or three hours.
This evening, the large tree is still in the street. Hundreds of thousands of our neighbors are without electricity. Most of my classmates don't have power (unfortunately, there was power at the law school and at April's work). Numerous traffic lights are out.
The hurricane didn't reach us, but the winds it created did. They say it will take another week until everyone in the Cincinnati area has power again.
We're lucky. Our power is still on. Our house is undamaged (minus some shingles and a little bit of siding).
There's a possibility that we might lose electricity sometime in the next few days. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Dirty Politics

So, pre-election politics are getting pretty dirty. There's a certain class of people that we can always expect crap from. The type of people that say Obama's a Muslim, for example (like Rush Limbaugh). My mother-in-law still believes that (I'm not worried--she's in Idaho, so her vote doesn't really matter). But it's sad when the politicians themselves get into it. And both presidential candidates are.
For example:
Obama claims McCain believes that an income of less than $5 million a year defines middle class. Clearly out of touch, right? McCain did say that...although it's fairly clear that it was said as a joke.
McCain's campaign ad (endorsed by McCain, and later defended by McCain in an interview) claims that Obama wants schools to teach sex ed to kindergartners. Obama's plan, in reality, is a comprehensive sex ed program that would teach age-appropriate information. For kindergartners, it's composed of teaching them how to avoid sexual predators.
It's sad, really, to see these politicians resorting to these tactics. I'm afraid it's getting to the point it did in 2000, when Karl Rove, working for our current president, set up a master plan to defeat McCain in the primaries in South Carolina. Bush's campaign set up a "poll" and asked "Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain...if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?" McCain was then campaigning with his adopted non-white daughter. Guess who won in South Carolina?
So why do these tactics work? Why are we, as Americans, so gullible? Why don't we demand the truth?
How can we change things around? I have three recommendations:
1. Stay educated. If you hear something that sounds a little to extreme--like $5 million or sex education in kindergarten--check it out through an unbiased source.
2. Let others know what you find out.
3. Vote against the sleaziest. If their misleading attack ads and tactics backfire in the polls, they'll stop.

What does it mean for you to be a Christian?

Two politicians were asked this question recently, and it got me thinking...
Even though Mormons have a lot in common with other Christian religions, there are some important differences that should not be overlooked.
Analyze the following two paragraphs and let me know which one is closer to your beliefs:

Politician 1: As a starting point, it means I believe...that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and that I am redeemed through Him. That is a source of strength and sustenance on a daily basis. I know that I don’t walk alone. And I know that if I can get myself out of the way that, you know, I can maybe carry out in some small way what He intends. And it means that those sins that I have, on a fairly regular basis, hopefully will be washed away.

Politician 2: It means I’m saved and forgiven. And we’re talking about the world. Our faith encompasses not just the United States of America, but the world.

So which is it? If this is all you knew about the candidates, which one would you vote for?

Obama (1) went on to discuss his faith. It's obvious that he's done some deep thinking about it. McCain (2) went on to related a prisoner-of-war story.
I posted previously about the Saddleback forum...and their comments on religion are probably what surprised me the most.
I was also surprised at how moderate both politicians are (despite how much McCain is compared to Bush or Obama to a socialist). Their responses tend to be thoughtful, instead of reactionary.
Palin, McCain's new VP, is not moderate (and as a scientist and an environmentalist she scares me). It will be interesting to see how things develop within the next two months.

Saddleback Forum

I knew that McCain and Obama had been involved with this forum, but I hadn't bothered reading it until today. In a world where all the media is biased one way or another, it's nice to have a neutral place where the two candidates get asked the same questions and each has a chance to answer without getting attacked by the other.
There are some definite surprises in here too, along with the predictable. Obama praising Bush is one of the surprises. The expected is McCain talking about being a prisoner of war and Obama talking about being a community organizer. Anyway, highly recommended for anyone tired of hate-based politics and biased media.

What Obama did after law school

For those of you who don't know, Harvard is arguably the best law school out there, and Obama was a top student there (he was the editor of the Law Review--the most prestigious position at a law school). After college (before law school) he was well-suited to take a high-paying job, or go straight to grad school. But instead...
That makes this article all that much sadder.

Where the Genetic Code and the Binary Code Differ

An old friend has an article about how DNA/RNA is like a computer code.
While I agree that there are many important similarities, there is one huge difference that separates basically all DNA/RNA from most computer codes.
The genetic code is programmed to make copies of itself.
I know that's obvious. Everything dies. So obviously, there needs to be a way for new life to come about.
All life that we know about comes from pre-existing life. Everything living today came from something that was alive in the past. Everything's a copy, of sorts, of its ancestor.
Now if you look at DNA and RNA, they're made up of four bases. Three of the bases are exactly the same between DNA and RNA. One is slightly different.
Isn't it interesting that every living thing has either DNA or RNA, or both? Every living thing is written in the exact same language.
As we dig a bit deeper, we also find that genetic codes have a lot of information that does absolutely nothing. Humans, for example, have a ton of genes for smelling that just don't work. How do we know that they're genes for smelling? We find the same genes in other animals--like dogs--and in those animals, these genes are functional. These exact same genes, in humans, are just slightly mutated, and therefore are inoperable. But we still have them.
Why would parts of our genetic code be totally useless?
They're not. They're a sign of our past, and they're potential for our future. When a machine breaks down, it still has parts that can be put to work elsewhere. Those spare parts may hang around, useless, for a while...but they may be put to work later.
On the subject of mutation...
Our genetic code makes copies of itself--and your genetic code is making thousands of copies at this moment. Most of these copies belong to cells in your skin, or your muscles, or your bones. A select few are used for reproduction. The copies are very accurate. Very rarely is a mistake made, and most mistakes are quickly corrected. However, occasionally, a mistake slips through the cracks.
Most mistakes--most mutations--are harmless. The genetic code of DNA is made up of four components, which we call A, T, C, and G. They're the letters of the DNA alphabet. Usually, if an A is replaced by a G, it's no big deal. The organism isn't really affected, and we call it a neutral mutation.
Sometimes the mutation proves to be harmful.
Sometimes, it's helpful.
The point is--the genetic code is flexible. If the environment around the organism changes, the genetic code, as it gets passed down to future generations, has the flexibility to change too.
Let's take HIV as an example. We'll use it because it mutates quickly, it reproduces quickly, and we can observe how it works. Its genetic code is passed down when it directs a cell to make copies of itself. HIV happens to have a very high mutation rate. It doesn't make great copies. So why is it so successful, and so hard to kill?
We hit HIV with a medicine. The medicine kills 99.99% of the HIV. 0.01% of the HIV viruses survive because they're a little bit different--their genes are different, and they can survive this particular medicine. There's a good chance that, in an environment without that medicine, they wouldn't do so well. But the environment has changed, and now they're the ones in charge. They reproduce, and their offspring get the exact same genes that these survivor viruses had. Now they have plenty of room to reproduce--all the other viruses are now gone, so the new, mutated HIV can spread rapidly.
And so HIV is impossible to get rid of.
This is evolution.
It gets more complicated when we discuss sexual reproduction, or long long long periods of time. But mutations happen. Environments change. And life is flexible enough to change with it--or else life goes extinct.
Mutations lead to evolution. HIV, in this example, evolved.
In a changing world, there are two options. Evolve, or die out.
In any case, there's way too much information here, and there's even more I've left out. I hope I've described it in words that make sense. Despite the similarities to computer languages, which have been pointed out elsewhere, there is at least one big difference.
Now I'd be interested in learning about a computer program with a code that exists in a changing environment, reproduces (with mutations), and dies...in other words, one that evolves.
That would be cool.

Coolest Grocery Store ever

On Saturday, April and I had a fun-filled day that included a small hike, lunch at a Mexican restaurant, a $3 movie (Get Smart), a stop by Dragon's Gate, and a trip to Jungle Jim's.
The movie was inside of a mall, and while we were there I decided to look for a games store. A place where we could pick up the European version of Ticket to Ride, or any other game we desired. We looked at a map of the mall, and the only store that looked promising was one called Dragon's Gate. That sounds a lot like Dragon's Keep, the game store in Provo, so we decided to stop by. It didn't have games. Instead it had very cool Asian stuff. A Chinese man and his daughter run the place. It's not getting a lot of business, and it's planning on shutting down operations, but meanwhile it's getting rid of a lot of very cool things--at fairly low prices. I'm not sure how I feel about filling our apartment up with Asian stuff, seeing as neither April nor I have ever been in Asia, but we splurged a little anyway. The best finds were some cool wind chimes and a decorative pillow (both picked out by April). I bought a tiny wooden picture and a fake wooden snake (not Asian, I realize, but still a cool toy).
Jungle Jim's is a full-size grocery store, but it has an amazing selection of international food too. The place is huge. You want salty licorice--a Scandinavian treat? You have several brands to pick from. Pickled ginger? Again, several different brands. Bulk honey? We picked up five pounds of it for $11. They have an amazing cheese selection. An enormous produce section. All that was missing was a quality bakery (and truth is, they might have had one and we just missed it). I finally found a spaetzle maker (spaetzle are German egg noodles). I've been looking for one of those for months. My dad would always say that Home Depot was his toy store. I think I just found mine.

Utah students score way too low on the ACT

There's an interesting article in the Salt Lake Tribune about ACT scores in Utah. Traditionally, Utah has bragged about its ACT scores. They're also used as a handy excuse for why, say, Jordan School District pays beginning teachers a mere $27,000 a year. The reasoning goes like this: Utah does very well academically, even without pouring more money into education...so obviously pouring money into education doesn't help students do better.
Problem is, that information is false. It turns out, if we compare the ACT scores of whites in Utah to whites elsewhere, Utah is below average. Also, a lower percentage of students in Utah take the test, when compared to other states. When we look closely at the data, Utah is actually under-performing.
Utah only does better when we don't take race into account, or the fact that some other states require all graduating seniors (and not just college-bound ones) to take the ACT.

The Ugly American

Robert Kirby (an irreverent LDS humorist who's been quoted in conference) has an article about being an Ugly American in Europe in the Salt Lake Tribune. One of the comments after the article was hilarious. This by a poster named JWeeks:


Here's how to excel as an American Tourist:

1. People who don't speak English are probably just hard of hearing. If you increase the volume of your comments, you can probably make them understand.

2. Compare everything you see with what we do or do not have "back home." People in all foreign lands enjoy being compared with everything Merican.

3. It is useful to try to pass US currency everywhere. Do not exchange your money for Euros or whatever the local currency is. Also use this opportunity to remark on how much (or possibly how little) everything is compared with "back home."

4. When given the opportunity, lecture anyone within earshot on how things should or should not be done.

5. It is required of all Americans traveling within Europe to provide a history lesson at least once a week, particularly emphasizing how their country wouldn't even exist without the old U.S. of A. You can use this in conjunction with your discourses on foreign policy in general.

6. Moan about the fact that you cannot pack heat or about other Merican rights you have had to give up during your stay abroad. If you can chuckle about how these folks don't have their rights protected by a written constitution, it will add to the peoples' desire to learn from you and be drawn to your wisdom.

7. When you get lost and go into a shop to ask directions, do not bother waiting in line to ask for assistance. Most foreigners don't have much to do with their time, are seldom in a hurry, and so if you butt in front of them, it will just make them smile and say "those wacky Americans."

8. Finally, let your foreign friends see your gleaming white legs; legs that haven't seen the light of day for the past six years. They will provide a nice contrast to your black socks and tennis shoes. The Hawaiian shirt provides the color to top off your ensemble.


Classic.

First week

The first week of law school has been busy. Here, first-year students start a week early. We have all sorts of meetings--topics range from technology to an introduction to the local bar associations. And we have a one credit introduction course. So I've been attending six or seven hours of classes each day, and then reading for a couple of hours each night. I've also been busy with little stuff like figuring out why I'd been charged a late fee of $50 for tuition payments (not my fault) and why my laptop won't connect to the wireless service here at the school. Oh, and the five-page paper I just turned in for the one-credit class.
Part of me wishes we lived closer to the law school; it would be a lot easier. But the school's downtown, and not in the nicest area. So I take the bus (35-50 minutes to go 4 miles, and then a half-mile walk) and enjoy living in a pleasant neighborhood. If I were alone and single, I'd live across the street from the law school. But I'm not, so I don't.
I've made some friends. One of the LDS second-year students has been particularly helpful. It's a diverse group (although racially, it's not as diverse as I expected--in fact, the ward is more racially diverse).
It will be fun. But this first year is going to be hard.