January is already coming to an end. Again, I find that time is moving faster than I can fully appreciate. Here are some of the events from this month:

• We started the year as we ended the previous one, in the company of close friends. I also started a new resolutions spreadsheet for the new year. If this month is any indication, I have a lot to work on.
• I started to notice my sometime unhealthy addition to Duolingo. I'm hoping that my determination to win 1st in the highest level (Diamond) will pay off this week and allow me to relax a bit from here on out.
• We switched out three of our five thermostats to Nest Thermostats. The process was not easy, and I'm still getting some emails from Google suggesting that one of them is not powered properly, but the device itself is not showing any errors. Currently, my favorite aspect is that they now all run on a program that should reduce our overall heating costs (present cold snap notwithstanding). I also quite like the data that they provide about our overall usage.
• We watched and enjoyed The Queen's Gambit TV series.
• Our accreditation team gave our culminating presentation to our evaluator, and it was well received.
• I hit the one-year anniversary of owning and wearing my "thigh pouch."
• We watched and enjoyed the Echo TV series.
• We took down our Christmas lights; although, we still have up lights in the kitchen and dining room, now with a focus on the red color in honor of St. Valentine's Day.
• Janelle seemed to enjoy her birthday.
• I coached my DDF team at their tournament at South Anchorage High School with one of my seniors earning a first place in her event while my team made the finals in five other events.
• I completed the indie game Hollow Knight, playing through all three endings and earning a 107% completion rate (out of 112%, but I'm not dealing with the pantheons).
• Janelle and I bought our tickets to go to Michigan in March for my mother's diamond birthday. 
• My friend was finally allowed to move forward with his motion to drop the charges against him and demonstrate the absolute lack of evidence against him.
• We watched and kind of enjoyed the movie The Flash.
• We watched and enjoyed the Percy Jackson TV series.

And tonight I voted in support of the memorandum of agreement that our union came to with our district. It gives us a contract next year as well as the largest increase to our salaries in over a decade (although, I still don't approve of the method--expect a later post on that) as well as a more significant boost to our severely underpaid support staff. More importantly, it will put us on schedule with other major Alaskan school districts so that we can collectively put pressure on the state legislature to properly fund our schools and provide for our students.

The eighth and final episode of this first season of Percy Jackson came out today and provided a solid cap to what has been an enjoyable (if not particularly remarkable) show. It's a solid adaptation of the first book in the Percy Jackson series which I enjoyed reading back when Trevor got interested in them. I hope that this show kindles a new wave of young people (such as Rowen) to pick up the books and build a love of reading through them. 

Being faithful to the books also means that the story is more suited to younger people. There are plot holes (faithfully reconstructed from the books) that a chimera could fly through while the story and dialogue are not particularly nuanced. They do, however, manage to fix a couple of geographical errors regarding national landmarks that the books had made. In short, it's a solid coming-of-age story focused at a teenaged audience. My boys seemed to quite like it while Janelle and I enjoyed it too.

I am deeply divided on my overall opinion of this movie. If I took the opening section alone, it would rate as one of the worst comic book movies that I've ever seen that was bad enough that we almost stopped watching right then and there. I'm glad that I continued to watch as I had the opposite reaction through the middle section of the movie. Seeing Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne and Batman again was better than I ever thought that it could be. I also felt that Sasha Calle had one of the best takes on Kara Zor-el (Supergirl) that I have yet seen. However, it was Maribel Verdú as Barry's mother who truly brought in a significant amount of heart into the movie.

Unfortunately, the movie then came to an end in what I felt was the worst possible way. The reveal was predictable and the final theme "there are just some problems that can't be solved" is one of the absolute worst comic book messages that I can remember. They were trying for something like Picard's advice to Data when he says, "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." Unfortunately, it seemed to be more about giving up (and allowing a world to die) than about dealing with sacrifice and failure. It seemed to go in the opposite direction of what the Spider-verse movies have been telling about "canon" events. 

I'm glad that I watched it, but I don't know if I will ever want to see it again. If I do, it will probably be to just fast forward to the parts with Keaton, Calle, and Verdú. I suppose that alone puts it a cut above The Eternals. 

A pastor gave an interesting take on the Second Reading's suggestion that marriage make a person less capable of focusing on the Lord than a person who isn't married. Especially considering that Paul was married, I have always taken issue with this portion of his first letter to the Corinthians. However, I have learned that it's important to not take statements from Paul's (and the other epistles) as truisms for all situations, but to recognize that they were written to advise on particular issues at that time.

Today, our pastor suggested Paul is not saying that all marriages are a distraction from the Lord, but that it is easy for them to become that way. Most of us have been witness to people who have been, or currently are, in bad marriages. Often, they were marriages formed out of passion or convenience rather than devotion and faith. Frequently, they were formed by people who mistook passion for actual love. Those sorts of relationships tend to be "high maintenance" (at the least) and often have significant rifts between the partner's spiritual beliefs (and well being).

I've been blest to have a fantastic partner in my marriage. Our relationship isn't perfect, but I believe that it makes me a better person. As I have said before, rather than distracting from my relationship with God, I feel that Janelle has helped to enhance and focus my spiritual well being. 

It still astounds me that my favorite place to get local Chinese food is our Soldotna Safeway. To be clear, it doesn't come close in comparison to New Star--my favorite place when visiting Chicago. It is, however, quite affordable--especially with how much restaurant prices have increased since COVID--and it tastes good. Lately, they've had their "Shanghai meal" on special--two entrees, two containers of rice, and two egg rolls, so I've been getting two of them and feeding our hungry boys for multiple meals for about $30. When there isn't such a special, I often get the larger dinners which doubles the amount of food again at about double the cost, but it's still a great value. 

The boys' favorite is the sesame chicken; Janelle's is General Tzo's. Mine is only available rarely so I'm not certain of the name, but I think that it's called fiery sweet chicken; otherwise, I content myself with the orange chicken. On occasion, we will get the beef with broccoli, but it's definitely not anyone's favorite. Today, they were out of sesame chicken, so I tried the teriyaki chicken and was quite pleasantly surprised. Apparently, everyone else was too, as it was the first entre to disappear. I also splurge a bit for Janelle and myself, and pick up some of their tempura shrimp--it's so good. I keep thinking about ordering one of their party trays of it for some future event, but I haven't found the right opportunity yet.  

In May of last year, one of my friends--Nathan Erfurth, a phenomenal educator--was arrested after a former student of his accused him of having a sexual relationship with her five years earlier, when she was 17. She further accused him of having child pornography. A grand jury indicted him on 61 counts, and he has pled not guilty to all of them. His case made the news last year. Some of these news stories had a release of the affidavit that included the claim that he had admitted to the relationship on a tapped phone call with her. Although I feel that every allegation of this nature should be investigated, I said back in May that I believe that he is innocent of the charges. 

The news has been quieter about the recent motion to dismiss the case. I didn't even know that this had happened until a friend of mine pointed me in the direction of an article that talked about it. When I tried looking it up, most of the articles were behind a paywall (which was not the case when he was charged--the media wanted to make certain that everyone knew about that). It turns out that the officer who presented the evidence to the grand jury didn't inform the jury that there was no child pornography found on any of his devices and even misled them into believing that some was found, that my friend had denied any sexual relationship with the young lady dozens of times on the phone call that they were using as evidence, and that him "admitting" to the relationship was from cherry-picked parts of the conversation taken out of context to be placed in the worst possible light. In fact, there is not any evidence to corroborate the young woman's claims, and the "evidence" that was used can be demonstrably proven false. An article that wasn't paywalled when I looked for news on this can be found here. Another one is here.

In the Inferno, Dante placed the worst sinners in the bottom level of Hell frozen in a variety of contortions next to Satan in an icy lake for all of eternity. For Dante, those that deserved that fate were the people who betrayed those whom they professed to love and serve. I said that allegations of this sort need investigation, but our school district did not conduct one before firing him. Worse, our local union--of which he was president at the time--whose job is to defend and serve its members not only removed him from his position but refused to offer support--also without conducting an investigation.

Nathan's life and his family's lives have been torn apart because of the betrayal of those who should have helped. There are people whose jobs were to protect, but who instead failed and betrayed my friend, the best interests of our school district, and the principles of our union. There's a quote from the movie Serenity that comes to mind: "... in certain older civilized cultures, when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords." I think that we are beyond such extremes at this time, but there are some people who have failed entirely and should remove themselves from their positions now, honorably. 

It's supposed to get cold this next week. Every time that I've looked at weather forecasts, the predictions have only been even colder than the last time (maybe I should stop looking?). Currently, they are saying that temperatures are going to stay in the negative digits (Fahrenheit) even for the "highs," and that we could see the lows get to negative 30 (that's without a wind chill). If so, this will be one of the coldest weeks that I have seen in this area since we moved up here in 2015.

I'm hoping that our septic system (which we had redone a few years back) was done well enough that we don't have to deal with the ice blockages that affected our cabin during cold spells before it was done. I also asked Rowen (who enthusiastically agreed) to knock down the ice pillars that have been forming up to the exhaust from our heaters. The one for the garage heater was taller than I am. 

I'm also not looking forward to the inevitable ignorant remarks along the lines of "Well, so much for global warming." Sure, I get that some of them come from people who are just remarking on the irony that such cold temperatures can still happen even when the average temperature of the Earth is at record-breaking highs, but some are clearly from people who are still struggling with the concept of the "globe" in "global." I just need to keep my temper and not reply with my own cold snap.

To avoid burying the lede, I should start by saying that Janelle and I will be in Michigan from March 9th through the 14th. My mother is celebrating her 75th birthday (a few days after the fact), and it seemed like a good reason to head down. It happened to work out that her celebration falls at the beginning of my spring break, making it practical for us to fly down and spend some time before heading back up.

While that might seem like a ways away, time already seems to be slipping by. I have another DDF tournament in Anchorage next week. Two weeks later, we have our spring parent-teacher conferences. The week after that, I will be at the State DDF Tournament in Anchorage on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. All-in-all, it's a busy several weeks.

I also recently received and accepted my invitation to attend the AP World History Reading in Kansas City, MO, this year. This time, we're on the later rotation, so I won't be down there until June 10, and I won't return until the 18th. At least, I have more time to prepare myself for that trip.

I'm still trying to figure the logic of the following paradox that people believe:
1. Trump is fighting the "Deep State" to the point that "it" will do anything to keep him from being President.
2. Thus, the last election was rigged (despite Trump being in the highest office at the time).
3. The solution is to vote for him again this election ... whose system hasn't changed since the last election.

... If the election was rigged so that Biden is in office to keep Trump from being in office, why would anyone think that Trump could get voted into office this time around--especially now that Biden is already in office?

Basically, if the election was rigged, there's no reason to vote for Trump as this current election would be just as rigged. However, if the election wasn't rigged, there's reason not to vote for Trump as he's been clearly lying for the past several years. One way or another, it makes no sense to vote for Trump.

One of my all time favorite games is Super Metroid. I had enjoyed the original Metroid game, but the SuperNES sequel surpassed the original (and the Gameboy sequel) in every possible way. Similarly, I think that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is also was of the greatest games on the original PlayStation. These games, with their side-scrolling exploration and increasing ability sets (not to mention tight controls) are the basis for the entire genre of Metroidvania games. 

In truth, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was probably the first game to pull me into this genre (even if it has a top-down world map to explore). Unlike the Super Mario or Ninja Gaiden games on the NES where I first built my video game skills, A Link to the Past allowed for more patient exploration while still including precision platforming and a variety of combat techniques. It also gave a sense of growth in power as Link found new abilities to tackle the many challenges he faced.

Lately, I've found myself immersed in Metroidvania games again. I just recently finished the indie hit Hollow Knight (I put a review in my reviews section), and have now started on the new Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. The story and combat in both are interesting, but it's the exploration and growing abilities that really pull me in. I really appreciate the mapping feature that these games now include. They make the games much easier to pick up again if I leave them for a bit ... not that I want to put the controller down. There's always one more thing that I need to check.

It's not too late to change. A continuing theme in the teachings of Jesus is that we have the choice to do what is right for ourselves and our world. Even though that path might not be easy, we have the chance to work for what's better as long as we have breath within us. Throughout history, people are convinced that they are living in the end times, and in a sense, they are correct "for the world in its present form is passing away" all of the time. The world is always changing, and we need to work to make certain that change is for the better.

I forgot to mention yesterday, that our started a bit strangely when the fire alarm went off at the Dimond Mall while my group was finishing up their lunch. We evacuated the building and headed over to Walmart as we still had over half an hour before we were allowed to be in the South Anchorage High School. It certainly made the trip memorable.

Our chaperones spoiled us with Dominos Pizza last night, and today: homemade breakfast burritos, coffee from Starbucks, Crumble Cookies, and then Cain's Chicken for dinner. We always seem to have extra food by the end of this trips, but this time, it was evident that we had plenty to eat. This seemed to translate into a fairly high energy set of events as well. 

While my debaters were upset to not get into their semi-finals, our team made the final round in six of the ten events in which we were competing. In two of those events, our team came away with impressive second places while one student managed to get first place in her event. She was particularly happy to receive an inflatable lightsaber (appropriately purple as our team code was "WINDU") as a reward for her achievement.

Everyone made it home safely, but I am a step beyond exhausted at the moment, so my plan is to fall into bed.

My team is currently at seven students. Of the seven, only one has been to all of the previous tournaments. For three of them, this is their first tournament. They all seem to be in good spirits after this first day. 

As I didn’t have to judge any of the events today, I felt like I was able to coach the team more which was nice (especially with three new competitors) even if it meant that I didn’t see any events. This is also the first tournament for the three chaperones who came along, so it was nice to have the time to get to know them better.  Additionally, I was grateful to not have to judge as I’ve been visited by an irritating headache with a bit of an earache for the entirety of the day. 

I’m hoping to get some good rest tonight and fully enjoy the tournament tomorrow. Personally, I like that they chose a Star Wars theme for it. For example, the first round of extemporaneous commentary was on famous rebellions (the next round will be on famous daddy/father issues), and our team code is WINDU. 

These are my people. 

The last power converter that I need (at least, for now) arrived in the mail today. Due to my previous experience in connecting one, I was able to install this one rather quickly and correctly in just one attempt. We also just received the backplates that I ordered to help deal with an oversized hole in the plaster in one case and a rectangle of old paint in another. All of this has been quite an improvement over some of the heating issues that we were dealing with before. 

I'm hoping that we will see some savings as I'm now able to (and have) set temperature schedules in all of our heating zones. As four of our five zones are now connected to the Google Home app, I now have access to data about how often each zone is active, and how that activity compares to previous days, weeks, months, and years (after we use them long enough). In general, more data can help me figure out where the trouble areas are--one of which is certainly our master bedroom.

For now, the larger heating problems seem to have been solved even if that corner bedroom is still running too warm. I think that I've done what I can for now. My plan is to wait and watch without making any more large changes unless necessary.