Blog Archives - The Land of the Weird

The Land of the Weird

Gravity

4/16/2018

We need to figure out how to manipulate gravity. All of our dreams of deep space exploration and colonization hinge on us figuring out how to create artificial gravity and anti-gravity shielding. This is even more important than figuring out faster-than-light travel.

We have learned that humans who live for a while without the continual pull of gravity start to lose muscle and bone density. Even people colonizing Mars or the moon would need some sort of gravity control or risk seriously weakening their bodies. No amount of daily exercise can make up for the lack of our Earth's pull.

Meanwhile, creating anti-gravity fields is the key to lifting off from and landing on planets, including our Mother Earth. Our current means of achieving orbit and beyond requires a massive expenditure of fuel (not to mention pollution). Anti-gravity fields would minimize--or eliminate altogether--that issue.

My only concern is that there is some evidence that gravity can affect time as well as energy and matter. Playing around with it might have some unintended consequences. Still, those might be fun too.

The Third Sunday of Easter

4/15/2018

Jesus appears to His disciples once again, blessing them with peace. Today's guest priest pointed out that Jesus did not recriminate them for running away from Him in His time of need, nor did He chastise them for huddling in hiding rather than spreading His Word. Instead He calms their fears and offers them peace.

Our world is full of conflict, yet we can still live in peace. The calm that we bring to ourselves and that we spread to others is not a lack of conflict, but a peace in spite of that conflict. The peace Jesus grants to us is not simply a lack of violence; rather, it is a clarity of wisdom and understanding that allows us to bring peace to ourselves and others.

This peace is much easier to achieve with the help of God's grace. Certainly, some of it is in our hands: we need to actively seek peace, and sometimes this means being courageous in the face of adversity. However, this courage is most easily found when we listen for our Father's voice. He will guide us to peace in the most difficult of circumstances if we let Him.

Melting

4/14/2018

Much of the snow in town as disappeared, but there is a still a great deal around our house. In particular, mountains of snow that slid off of our roofs a month ago still look rather formidable. That said, much of our driveway is clear, and we are starting to see spots of our lawn again.

We are still having the issue with our drain field. I think that the ground is just too saturated to absorb too much from us as well. Thankfully, any flooding in our laundry room (the first place to show trouble) has been relatively minor and has gone down fairly quickly. At present, most of the lawn directly over the drain field is snow free (I did not shovel snow on it this year and even shoveled some off). Hopefully, that means our troubles in that area are soon over.

As much as I love the snow, I'm looking forward to seeing green again.

And Then There Were None

4/13/2018

Tonight's SoHi play was very well done. The actors all did a splendid job, at points succeeding at making me forget that I was watching a play at all. Rather, I found myself invested in the characters and the story. The set and lighting created the perfect mood for the tale.

The absolute high point for me was at the end. When I looked down the row a my sons (who were sitting with friends), Rowen looked back and loudly said, "That was awesome!" I can think of no higher praise.

In close second was [spoiler alert] when it was revealed that Trevor's character had been killed off stage. I felt Janelle tense next to me and start to move forward in her seat. For a moment, I thought she was going to take off to make certain that her baby boy was actually okay.

I also have to say that Trevor cut quite a dashing figure. He reminded me of pictures that I have seen of myself on stage at about the same age. We're a handsome couple of fellas.

There's only one night left to see this, and I highly recommend that you do.

Small Pieces of Joy

4/12/2018

I've had a few small rays of sunshine today that have made me a little bit happier. They have been largely incidental, but tiny bits of joy are what make a day into a good day. I will understand if you do not share my enthusiasm.

I figured out one of my upcoming assignments. It's not quite the pain that I thought it was going to be.

I realized that I only have one more day of doing the extra taxiing with Trevor as his play starts its performances tonight. I also want to say that the play's hair stylist does a good job with Trevor's hair. It's a good look for him ... even with the bloody makeup.

I discovered that the hard drive I picked up to use on the Wii U didn't work. That would seem like a low point, but in searching for the issue, I discovered that I could use it on the PS4 (which earlier did not allow external storage devices). Now I can have more than five games on the PS4 without running out of space.

I had a winning play of the game with Reinhart. Basically, I charged into a group of the other team and knocked three (I originally thought just two, but the POTG clip showed otherwise) of the opposing team out of the game allowing my team to get the tick we needed on the control point.

It's the little things ...

How Are Classes?

4/11/2018

We passed the halfway point for my two Walden classes last week. Although my left eye is still occasionally twitching, I think that things are getting better. Sure, some of the assignments have taken considerably more time than some of previous classes, but ... and this is hard to admit ... I might actually be learning a great deal.

In the past week in particular, I have noticed an entire shift in the way that I think about research, interviews, doctorates, dissertations, and other related issues. It's like a gear that had been stuck suddenly fit into place and started an entire inactive series of gears turning. I cannot fully explain this epiphany; it's on a larger scale than I want to write out at the moment (and I certain that its longer than anyone else wants to read).

I tried writing a short version, but it just wasn't coming out the right way. Basically, I feel like I understand a bit better my role (or part of a role) in a much larger community of scholars. I also feel more confident in knowing how to fill that role and to use it to make the world a better place. By itself, that has been worth the rather high cost of these classes.

Poker Face

4/10/2018

I was again reminded of one of the reasons why I should never run for political office: my face gives me away. Today, the Rowen and Connor's school called while I was in class. I was certain that something bad had happened. Janelle was at work, so I picked up the call. My mind went into overdrive as I did so. I assumed that this was a call that would require me to pick up one of my sons. I remembered that Rowen had been complaining about his stomach and head hurting earlier.

Meanwhile, I started mentally preparing plans. I would have to notify the office, leave instructions for a sub (even though this was the last period of the day), and have to come in early tomorrow to get things set up. Besides that my brain was running through the possible scenarios where the school would need to call me: injured child, sick child, child in fight, etc. I was not expecting it to be Rowen's teacher letting me know that Rowen earned a golden pom pom today for his hard work in his reading class. My heart eased considerably when she then put Rowen on the phone to tell me the good news himself.

Now, I'm used to my neck turning a splotchy red that works its way up to my face when I'm stressed. I wasn't expecting one of my students to comment something along the lines of, "Look at that vein on his forehead! It looks like an 'M'!" Talk about letting my emotions show ...

Second Impressions

4/9/2018

In the past month, we purchased and watched three of the big blockbusters from the past year: Ragnarok, Justice League, and The Last Jedi. The boys and I saw all of them in the theater; Janelle didn't want to waste her time or her theater fatigue on Justice League. In general, I enjoyed all of them when I saw them the first time. What surprised me is how much my opinions of them changed on the second viewing.

After seeing them in the theater, I felt that Thor: Ragnarok was the clear leader. However, watching it this time, the parts that bothered me bothered me more, and many of the parts I liked also started to bother me. It is certainly one of the more comedic of the MCU movies, but that felt more like a shortcoming on the second viewing. Especially considering the seriousness of the content (e.g. nearly all of Thor's friends from the first two movies die), the continually playful banter started to rub me the wrong way. There was a scene missing where Thor shows the weight of his loss and clumsily tries to joke it aside.

I was then surprised that I liked the Justice League even more on the second viewing. Parts that I thought were plot holes actually made more sense this time around. Meanwhile, Superman's digital upper lip is not nearly as distracting on a smaller screen. Sure, I still do not think this DC series holds up as well as the MCU, but this was a stronger showing than I thought the first time through. In fact, this is the first Superman movie since Superman II that I really liked Superman again.

I had mixed feelings about The Last Jedi after seeing it the first time. I'm sorry to say that I liked it considerably less on the second viewing. The problem is that I really want to like it. I like that it plays on people's expectations. I like that the heroes have to face the consequences of reckless behavior. I LOVE that the force is no longer analogous to medieval nobility. Yet it also seemed to be spitting on everything set up in The Force Awakens without putting anything in its place. While often compared to Empire, The Last Jedi does not set up any plot lines or even much of a sense of hope like Empire did. Instead, it's like the director intentionally wrote the series into a corner while thinking "at least I don't have to figure a way out from here." In the end, the next movie in the series will truly determine how much I'm willing to watch this one.

It's interesting how much my opinion can sway from one viewing to the next. I'll have to see what I think the next time I watch them.

Second Sunday in Easter

4/8/2018

Today is a good example of a day when I should have posted earlier in the day. There was a particular line from today's sermon that really struck me today, but I have since forgotten what it was. This is not the first time that this has happened, but I seem to have not learned my lesson.

In today's Gospel, Jesus appears to his Apostles while they are hiding behind locked doors. He then does so again a week later--a week later and they are still hiding. I can't blame them. As a master procrastinator, I often postpone those things that I know I should do. Meanwhile, they had every reason to fear for their lives. For that reason, I find myself more impressed that they actually went out to spread the Word than I am concerned that they would wait and hide.

I have plenty of things that I need to stop putting off. I shouldn't need to wait until Jesus Himself comes down to tell me to get to work.

The Arrival

4/7/2018

We finally got around to watching the movie The Arrival after purchasing the movie back during the Black Friday special (shhh ... I still have some movies from Black Friday specials from almost a decade ago that I haven't seen--such as The Aviator). I don't know what I expected the movie to be about--which might be why I waited to see it--but it wasn't quite what I thought. That said, I really enjoyed watching it.

I think that my favorite aspect about the movie was how life-affirming that it was. I believe that its overall message more than compensated for the number of plot holes that this tale introduced. One of my favorite aspects of the movie is an idea that I try to explain to my students: language affects how we think.

I deeply believe in the idea that language shapes thought; it's one of the reasons I went into teaching. I don't just mean vocabulary; although it is in teaching vocabulary that this topic comes up. I also believe that people's approach to grammar and other aspects of writing can do this as well. It's one of the reasons I love our quirky English language: it allows for so many different paths.

Anyway, even though I figured out the twist early on (very early), it still got me thinking. That alone is enough of a reason for me to recommend it.

GNOME Idea

4/6/2018

I've been thinking about Dungeons and Dragons a lot lately. Part of the reason is that Trevor almost continually has either the rule books or videos of playing D&D on his monitor (which I can see just past my monitor due to how our computers are set up). Part of the reason is that I've been considering what I would like to do when I'm down in Michigan for Katrina's wedding. For some reason, the two thoughts collided while I was playing taxi driver for my son's today.

It's been about two years since our GNOME (Guys Night of Monster Evisceration) has met. Our last adventure ended in a cliffhanger with a portion of the party nearly captured (at least, I think that's where we left it). My thought was what if we met one of the days that I was down there and picked up the game; however two years have passed for our characters as well. Each player comes up with some explanation of what happened to their character in that time (amnesia, prison time, life on the lamb, etc.), but they have been brought together again to correct some sort of wrong in the universe (they traveled to various worlds in a Stargate-like fashion). Perhaps they failed in the last mission we were playing and now have a chance to redeem themselves.

I don't know if we will get the chance to GNOME, but it was at least a pleasant daydream.

Headlights

4/5/2018

I made the mistake a few months ago of only replacing the passenger-side headlight on Mera when it went out. It was after I purchased the single bulb, and was looking for help in finding how to access the burned out bulb, that I discovered it was recommended to replace both bulbs at once. Since then, I have been waiting for the other bulb to drop.

Thus, when I noticed only one light come on in my garage, I decided that I would replace both bulbs this time and upgrade them while I was at it--my low beams have seemed dim since I made the first replacement. With that in mind, I stopped by Freddy's after picking up Trevor, consulted the electronic guide, and was thrilled to see that the two-pack of the bulbs I wanted were even on sale.

The edge of that thrill came off when I got home, tried replacing the first bulb, and realized that I had bought a set of high beams (which I am keeping since they were on sale, and those bulbs are due to go out any time now). Grumbling, I returned to Freddy's, got the correct bulbs (which were not on sale), and returned home.

The first bulb came out easy (for me, I had Trevor practice with taking it out and he to make multiple attempts--hence the practice) and was easy to replace. The second one was a pain to replace as the cord was too tight to fit the bulb in correctly. Instead, I placed the bulb in its socket and then plugged it in, but only after trying to do it the other way for a while (which was difficult because the socket is in a place that cannot be easily seen and required me to feel my way).

At least my lights are working again, and noticeably brighter ... just in time for summer driving.

Eye Doctor

4/4/2018

My eyes are still a little fuzzy around the edges from the anesthetic and pupil dilation chemicals that were used on them. A check on my Fitbit app shows that my heart rate spiked right during the time that the drps were put in my eyes--there's a reason I don't wear contacts. For a while, it seemed as though I could feel the entire size and contour of each eye as they rested in their sockets.

I'm getting my first set of progressive lenses. It's been several months of having to either look under my glasses or remove them completely while reading something. One of my textbooks this quarter has been a literal pain to read as I have tried to adjust my distance to it to compensate for my ability to see it clearly through its gloss and font.

I also discovered that my left eye has a slight cataract and that both of my eyes have had microaneurysms and microhemorrhages since my appointment last year. None of them occurred in areas that would affect my vision, but that wasn't happy news. They are common occurrences for people with diabetes, so I celebrated by eating some jelly beans when I got home--because, yes, I am that stupid and, no, I do not have good self-control.

The plus side is that I really like the new frames that I ordered.

Contracted

4/3/2018

I received and signed my contract for the 2018-2019 school year today. With flat funding from the state, a less education-friendly borough mayor, and a negotiation year, I was a little concerned about my job status for next year. Hopefully, this will put my worries to rest.

My schedule for next year has also changed. It currently looks like I will be teaching 3 classes of U.S. History and 2 classes of English 12, as well as a study skills class for sophomores (we will receive more information on that one) rather than this year's 2 classes of World History, 2 classes of English 11, 1 class of U.S. History, and 1 class of English 12. All told, this already has me looking forward to next year.

If everything goes as planned, I will receive tenure at the beginning of the school year, giving me a bit more in the way of job security for future years. I wasn't too worried, but I have to say that getting that contract certainly made me breath easier.