I can't choose between these three topics, so here are some brief thoughts on each.

Our cameras are up and seem to be working well. I have solar chargers for everything but the doorbell, and even with the clouds the past couple of days, they seem to be keeping the cameras charged. The one thing that is taking some getting used to is the number of alerts that they send to my phone. We use our front door a lot, and it is covered by more than just the doorbell camera, so I get many alerts as we leave, arrive, get something from the garage, or let the dogs in or out.

I thought I knew what I was going to do for the upcoming months with my DDF (Drama, Debate, and Forensics) team, but when I sent my tentative plans to the experienced coaches who have been guiding me, they suggested that I go with a more competitive approach. As I've been reading up on and watching videos about DDF, I'm getting a stronger understanding of what to do, but I'm clearly still out of my depth. Interestingly, this has been bringing up memories I had forgotten about my own Debate and Forensics experiences. I am definitely not nostalgic for those days, but there were some great moments.

Similarly, I've found that having Connor on the football field has rekindled some of my old daydreams of making the amazing play and being a school hero. There's some (clearly deluded) part of me that is still ready to just be given the chance to shine. I laughed out loud as one of those images crossed my mind today as I realized the ridiculousness of it. Still, I am reminded of the appeal that football has and the way it can transform us in our minds back to the "glory days" of our youth.

As part of the preparation for my upcoming Spring Break trip to Rome and Athens (which now has 46 travelers besides myself going), EF Tours is sending me on a training trip to Madrid over a weekend in the middle of November. Because we are getting closer to the departure date, I am receiving more and more emails regarding different things that I need to consider before the trip takes place. If these communications were designed to put me at ease, they have failed horribly. For example, today's email contained a link to a half hour video (which I just finished) that included information about what to expect, what items to bring (or avoid bringing), and some possible issues that might arise.

I hadn't been considering those issues. What will really happen if I somehow get COVID while on the trip and thus won't be allowed to fly home? What about any other serious medical issue? I'm not just concerned about what happens to me, but what about that time that I'm away from my family? What about work? Lesson plans?

I have not crossed the Atlantic or been in another country other than Canada. What's this about electrical systems being different? How many adaptors (and which ones) will I need? How different are the bathrooms? Will I have to know how to use a bidet? What's the deal about a passport/money belt? Should I really carry cash? I don't even do that here. I guarantee that I will be a clear target as a out-of-place tourist. 

I'm sure that everything will be fine (no, I'm not). This will be a wonderful (terrifying) learning experience. I won't want it to end (I already want to be back home and I haven't left).

Non-Christian friends of mine have asked me how I can believe that the Bible has been authored by God (through the divine inspiration to its writers) yet can still hold so many apparent inconsistencies not to mention tonal shifts. Let's not forget that the Bible as we know it today does not come from just one source in one language (which would alone lead to multiple translations), but from different languages (some telling the same story) and many different sources. Yet, somehow, it all works.

Enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Over the past fifteen years, Marvel has released 29 films in its Cinematic Universe (this does not count the apocryphal Sony or Fox movies). Not even examining the eight Phase 4 shows or the 14 announced movies and 13 shows still on the horizon, the MCU is quite an impressive feat. Somehow, they have managed to weave together 29 different story lines, most with different writers and directors, not to mention many with huge tonal shifts between them, into a single interconnected overarching tale. Not only do many of the inconsistencies get explained away, some of them even get incorporated into the larger narrative in ingenious ways. Above them all is Kevin Feige, who alone knows the entire plan and how the various pieces come together. While he allows writers and directors to make their own mark on the MCU, it is clear that his guiding hand has made certain that essential details have remained throughout.

Now Feige likely already has enough of a God-complex without this sort of comparison, so I want to point out that the MCU is a work purely of human origin, while the Bible's designer has a level of understanding infinitely beyond our own. There are also many more players involved in the Bible's story, especially when one considers that the Bible is not a stand-alone work; it is meant to be connected with its companion, the Church, and interwoven with the billions of lives that have existed before and since its creation. Much like I can find new details and even revelations that I missed when I rewatch movies in the MCU, I fully expect that the Bible still has more to reveal to us.

Our security cameras arrived today. We decided to go with the Eufy system because it was the highest ranked system that stores the video locally (both in the cameras and in its base device) and only uploads to the Internet during an alert (that is based on a sensitivity that we set) or on request. Considering our limited Internet capabilities, I wanted something that wouldn't logjam our connection. 

I tested out one of the cameras, and I was impressed by its quality and range. However, I noticed that I am quite limited on where I can place them. With their standard equipment, they can only me attached to vertical surfaces. Additionally, they aren't supposed to be placed higher than ten feet from the ground to optimize their motion detection. I also want them to cover several areas with each one being in range of at least one of the other cameras. As I only have three plus a doorbell camera, that really limits my options unless I order another couple of cameras--and while this brand was quite affordable, the cameras aren't exactly cheap.

I'm going to spend a little while tomorrow figuring out this puzzle. 

Near the end of our freshman year of college, UAF was shocked by the brutal rape and murder of a young student, Sophie Sergie, whom I did not know, but who lived in the same dorm as Janelle. Sophie's body was found in a bathtub of the women's restroom either on the floor above (according to my memory) or the same floor as Janelle's dorm room. I remember both Janelle and Tracy (Janelle's roommate) being particularly shaken by the news, especially since the authorities had no idea who Sophie's murderer might have been, and thus the murderer was still on the loose. As the months and then years went on, I became certain that Sophie's murder was going to be unsolved.

Family ancestry programs using DNA changed that. One of the DNA registries noted that a sample sent to it matched DNA that had been left behind on Sophie's body (I do not know if this was part of a routine procedure by the company or a more targeted search). It turns out that a close relative to the murderer had submitted the DNA sample. Sophie's murderer tried have the case thrown out under the idea that his DNA was taken without his permission, but as the DNA was actually a relative's and was given voluntarily, he was ultimately found guilty.

Today, 29 and a half years later, Sophie's murderer was officially sentenced to 75 years in prison. While this does not bring Sophie back, I hope that it gives her family a sense of peace and closure. It also fully lifts the veil of suspicion that other men, one of whom I knew personally, had to deal with all of this time due to their connections to Sophie. Oddly, news of the sentencing also lifted an anger and frustration that I did not realize that I had been carrying all this time. 

Rest in peace, Sophie.

Today's Gospel has Jesus tell the parable of the unnamed rich man and the poor man named Lazarus who use to lie at the rich man's door, denied even the scraps from the rich man's table as dogs came to lick his sores. Both men die, and the rich man, while suffering torment, sees Lazarus far away speaking with Abraham. The rich man says, "Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames."

"Send Lazarus ..."

The rich man, whose name we did not know, knew Lazarus' name. Lazarus was not some random beggar; he was known by the rich man. I wonder if the Pharisees, to whom Jesus is telling this parable, had just brushed away a beggar whose name they knew.

I find it interesting that we do not hear from Lazarus in this parable. In my mind's eye (as this is not in the Bible), I see Lazarus readying himself to meet the rich man's request as Abraham stops him by lays his hand on Lazarus' shoulder. For it is Abraham who answers the rich man, noting the change in his and Lazarus' fortunes and then explaining why Lazarus cannot help him. My mental image assumes that Lazarus moved to help because it explains to me why he would be in heaven. Otherwise, the only reason given is that he was poor, and (although the parable is more about the fate of the rich man) I believe that part of Jesus' message is that there are those whom we reflexively despise who are actually true and good. 

I broke that rule a little bit ago, and I regret it--not for what I wrote, but that I lost the time it took to write it. Worse, I have spent that time burning in anger. Worse still, I snapped at my wonderful wife who innocently interrupted the fiery chain of thought in which I was wound--scorching her in the process. 

I would say that I don't like it when I get this way, but that would be a lie. The sad truth is that I find that burning gall "sweeter than dripping streams of honey." It is only after the anger cools, like now, that I am filled with remorse--a feeling common to any glutenous indulgence of sweetness. 

​If you will excuse me, I need to apologize to the love of my life. 

There is no question that America's healthcare system is terribly broken. It is literally destroying lives and bankrupting hard-working Americans while burning out dedicated but massively over-worked medical professionals. Sadly, instead of doing anything about this, we are struggling to just keep our democracy together. The last major "healthcare" legislation did little to actually provide healthcare and instead focused on bolstering our despicably unethical health insurance system. Tiny stop-gaps since then (like laws that allow us to purchase American-made drugs through Canada) have done almost nothing to deal with the skyrocketing problem. Healthcare should not be just for the wealthy.
 
Our school district employees are just about to get hit by a double-whammy for at least the next four months, with employees with spouses and children getting hit even harder come January. Sadly, most are unaware of the cost that will hit their paycheck at the end of this month. Due to what I feel was mismanagement and misrepresentation, district employees will be hit not only with the annual increase (which already was a rough 7.1% increase) but a redistribution increase due to the upcoming change in January to the discriminatorily unfair tiered payments. To put this in numbers, last year employees paid $487.39 a month for the nine months of the school year. Had the 7.1% increase been evenly distributed throughout this school year, employees would be facing a monthly fee of $524.75 for the nine months. Instead, because of the upcoming reorganization in January, employees will have to instead pay $590.34 for the last four months of this calendar year (an over 17% increase).
 
If the employee is married and has children, they will receive the further indignity of a monthly increase to $633.43 for the remaining five months of the school year (an increase of over 17% from what would have been an equal distribution and a 22% from the previous year). Now supposedly, this "finally" makes our insurance system “fair” for those who are not married or do not have children as a single employee will see their monthly rate decrease to $197.95 for those five months (employee + children and no spouse pays $376.10 [$178.15 more] while employee + spouse and no children pays $435.48 [$237.53 more]—note that these numbers should have made it so employee [$197.95] + spouse [$237.53] + children [$178.15] pays $613.63, but being stiffed the additional $19.80 a month is only the rotted cherry on the top of this turd sundae). What people don’t realize is that this situation gets even worse next school year for married employees who have children as the four month across-the-board payment up through December shielded them from the full cost which would have hit them and will hit them next year unless serious action is taken. Even if there is no increase to the overall price of insurance next year, married employees with children are looking at a monthly payment of $703.82 (an increase of over 38% from the 2021-2022 school year) for the nine months of the 2023-2024 school year [note: I have since realized that the percentage should have stated at least a 44% increase].
 
To be clear, this is after families were already penalized in the high deductible plan that was part of the previous contract negotiations.
 
People have said: “But the union voted for a tiered structure …” Mobs don’t always make the best choices especially when they are not given the full information.
 
People have said: “But many workers are on tiered systems …” Exactly, and look how their healthcare has turned out. Worse, we are on a system with an EXTREMELY limited pool of individuals, further dividing that pool (especially giving people more incentive to leave it) will only raise the overall cost even more (and for everyone) in a few years.
 
People have said: “It isn’t fair that single employees had to pay the same amount …” 1) You clearly do not understand how insurance systems work. They require people who will not be taking funds out of the pool to contribute to it. 2) This same logic would suggest that sick individuals should be paying higher premiums, something that we shield them from. 3) As noted above, the employees with families were already shelling out more for the high deductible plan. 4) People whose jobs are dependent on children being in the community SHOULD NOT being penalizing their employees for having children.
 
People have said: “You’re just mad because you will have to pay more because you have a spouse and children …” The truth is that I am going to save money due to this plan. Its huge cost makes it so it is more than worthwhile to drop my wife and children from my plan and add them to the one she has through her job. I will be paying that nice little $197.95 a month plus the significantly smaller amount for Janelle’s family insurance (I can’t switch to it due to a costly provision in her company’s plan) and then each of us will have our own employer contribution-based HSAs.
 
And here’s the real kicker: I’m the main user of insurance in my family; we hardly ever have to use it for Janelle and the boys, but I frequently go past the deductible. Thus, I will still be drawing money from the pool while contributing less. If I’m not the only one to do this, EVERYONE’s costs are going up due to the shrinking income.
 
To be clear: I will BENEFIT from this change, and I am still speaking out against it. Why? Because it is bad for my friends who do not have the options that I have, and it is bad for any educator who wants to have a family (especially for our paraprofessionals who are struggling enough already). Thus, it is bad for our entire school family.
 
Why didn’t I say something before? I DID. I argued this at multiple levels through the union before the vote. As a union representative, I had to tell people that the union recommended that we vote “yes” on the contract, but I told people that I was personally voting “no” and that I would be glad to tell them why. Sadly, few people even showed up to the informational meetings, let alone wanted to spend more time listening to me.
 
My warning now is: unless something significant changes, it is going to get much, much worse. ​Sadly, I don't think that people will understand what I mean until they see it in their paychecks.

As the Northern Hemisphere turns to face away from the sun, I find myself thinking about the cycles of life. With that in mind, I used Facebook's "Memories" feature to look back on my postings from the same date over the years. Unsurprisingly, most of them were posts about the equinox itself. However, variations crept in as well.

Eight years ago, I attended the Michigan Renaissance Fair--not knowing that it would be my last time doing so (at least to this point).

Seven years ago, Connor road his bicycle without using training wheels for the first time. We were living in that tiny two-bedroom rental, and Janelle had finally had enough of the boys' squabbling, so she sent them outside. I should also note that a heavy line of snow had already fallen on the Kenai Range and a rain-snow mix was in that coming week's forecast.

Six years ago, most of the birch trees in our yard had lost their leaves at this point and people were talking about the upcoming snow.

Five years ago, many of my students were convinced that the world was supposed to come to an end as Nibiru (or Planet X) was supposed to collide with the Earth. I told them that they should do their homework just in case that prediction turned out to be wrong. 

Four years ago, I was chaperoning a Homecoming dance and using the occasion to compare the coming of autumn to the students' festive colors. 

Three years ago, I was celebrating my 2019th post (in the year 2019) while noting how much grading I still had to do.

Two years ago, I posted on the dangers of mob mentality and how social media has fed into it.

Last year, I wrote about how life is full of cycles and the equinox is a good time to reflect on that.

Someone walked around the back of my house a little while ago within a few feet of the back wall. Rowen saw them walk past the kitchen window when Connor and I were still driving back from town. He said that he ran upstairs to look out the living room windows to see more than just legs and feet (our kitchen is mostly in-ground with its head-height window just above the ground), but whoever it was had disappeared by then. My house is not on any path that a person should be walking.

The Sterling area a few miles down the highway has had a series of "casings" and thefts in the past couple of months. There has been concern on our neighborhood Facebook group that those individuals might head in our direction. In general, I quite enjoy our relative isolation and privacy, but it can also make us vulnerable. 

I have been debating getting security cameras and placing them in a few innocuous locations that still provide decent coverage. Their price and maintenance, as well as my overall lack of knowledge about them have kept me from doing more than consider the idea. However, that pair of legs walking by may have just tipped the scales away from indecision. 

As some of my classes have been reading a selection from Apology by Plato, I've been thinking about the concept of what it means to be wise lately. In Apology, Socrates tells the men of Athens that he did not think of himself as wise as he knows only that there is much that he does not know. When he was told that the Oracle of Delphi (whose temple I get to see this spring) declared that "there is no man wiser than Socrates," he was floored by the revelation and went out to seek the truth of it. As he went from man to man who were purported to be wise, he discovered that these men were all accomplished in one area, but did not truly understand the reasons behind their success--worse, they felt that because they were good at one thing that they could give advice on a variety of topics. In the end, Socrates decides that the Oracle meant that no man's wisdom can compare to the wisdom of the gods as the wisest of me (himself) doesn't really know anything. 

I don't think that Socrates would like me much. One of my most insufferable traits is that I am a "know-it-all." Truthfully, there is a great deal that I do not know, but I love learning and (this is where I get in trouble) sharing what I have learned. I also cannot stand it when people (including myself) spread misinformation, so I try to be as informed as I can so that I do not make such a mistake myself, but I also have the tendency to correct those who spread blatant falsehoods. As Socrates himself learned (considering he was put to death for this very thing), people don't like that. Perhaps, he would also have been wiser to keep his mouth shut; however, he said that he was compelled by the gods to seek the truth and tell it to those who would hear. I certainly understand that compulsion.

I just need to be more careful about what I drink than he was.

Well, I've been staring too long at the computer again without making any solid decisions about what to write about. As per my own agreement with myself, here are the topics that I was mulling but did not have the inspiration to write about. They are not in any particular order.

I cannot do justice for the reasons why our community should vote for the school bond proposal and the community sports center.

There was an amusing/disturbing conversation on an Calvin and Hobbes site because some members thought that the comic in question was a fake because it dealt with the "woke" concept of "genders" and "sex education" [note: it was a real comic where Calvin is asking his teacher why foreign students learn about the genders of nouns before he then demands "sex education"].

I have been wondering about the time I spend each day on writing these posts.

I don't really want a reboot of Babylon 5. As much as I enjoyed the show, I still haven't even been willing to watch it a second time. 

I had a dream where I was Spider-Man and had access to tech that increased my powers significantly. Just as I injected it, I had to confront aliens that were looking to "cleanse" the Earth for its own protection. I was trying to convince them that I had it under control (and strangely, I meant it).

I'm intentionally avoiding posting about the weather.

There's another one that I was just thinking of before my screen timed-out, activating this post, but I cannot recall what it was. Oh well, otherwise, that's pretty much it.

It is said that many people find today's Gospel reading difficult to understand. Jesus, who is the Way, the Life, and the Truth, here tells a story that rewards a dishonest servant. This servant, to save himself when he learns that he will be cast out of his master's employ, has his master's debtors cross out their debts and write in lesser ones, hoping that these people will then help him when his master throws him out. On discovering this, instead of punishing the servant, the master praises this servant for his shrewdness.

Luke makes it clear that Jesus was not suggesting that dishonesty (or, even as much as I would like it to be so, loan forgiveness) is the path to heaven by Jesus immediately telling everyone about the importance of being honest in small as well as large things. Instead, the message here is about being as shrewd in our heavenly affairs as this dishonest servant was in worldly matters. The dishonest servant was looking to save his life, just as we are looking to achieve an eternal life that we know we do not deserve. Instead of embezzling money for himself, the dishonest servant forgives the debts that others have to his master. 

I feel that the message is clear, especially considering the words given to us by Jesus when He taught His disciples how to pray. In some translations, they are "forgive us now our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Jesus is telling us that the way to salvation is not through collecting or hording holiness within ourselves, but in helping others who are in the same sort of sinful debt as ours. Our path to salvation is not in pointing our the sinfulness in others or holding them accountable for it, but in granting forgiveness and creating a greater bond between our fellow human beings.

We need to help lessen the debt that others have with our Master in Heaven. Note that the servant could not wipe out the debt entirely (only God has that power), but instead helped the debtors by easing the weight of that debt's burden. May I work on being more forgiving, just as I hope that others will be more forgiving of me. 

While I did a good job of wishing my students a happy day before Constitution Day yesterday, I completely missed the opportunity to wish it people today. Admittedly, I did not get good sleep last night and had a rather full day today, so the blunder was entirely understandable. Still, I would have liked to have remembered.

We did not get good sleep as Starbuck made a mess all over her crate at about 1 AM. Neither she nor River has done this since they were puppies, and it took about an hour for Janelle and I to clean up. I had recently been toying with the idea (with Connor's agreement as he wants the dogs to keep an eye on the kittens) to not kennel up the dogs at night, but this very clearly demonstrated why we still need to do it. 

We then woke up earlier than even normal weekdays as Janelle and I drove three and a half hours to Palmer to watch Connor's C-Team game--which they charged us $8 per person to watch (C-Team games are usually free, and our Varsity games are only $5 per person with additional discounts depending on the situation). I will say that the Valley is absolutely gorgeous, and that we had amazingly clear and warm weather despite the cold and rainy forecast. Once again, our team emerged victorious, but even more impressively, Connor had his first in-game reception. I immediately demanded, "Someone! Tell me you got that on video!" Thankfully, a young lady, whose older brother was also on the field, did.

I find that Connor's sporting events have really brought back my full bellow. In general, I think that my enthusiasm is appreciated and even entertaining. However, I may have taken it too far at one point where I yelled (after what I thought was a poor call regarding a downed fumble), "The offense can't fumble forward; I learned that when reading Football for Dummies [which is a book that I am legitimately reading at the suggestion of other players' parents]."  Immediately after the word "Dummies," I realized that my comment could be construed as a negative towards the Referee and his staff, for whom I have only respect and would not wish to do their jobs. My fear was confirmed when one of the parents, while laughing, told me that our coach was shushing me--likely to avoid a 5 yard penalty for our team--something that I also learned about from Football for Dummies. 

After the game, we picked up a little bit of food for Connor at one of the saddest Wendy's that I have yet visited, headed to Anchorage, did some shopping, had a late lunch with one of our friends and then harassed her husband at his new job, went to Costco for more shopping, and finally made our way home. We unloaded and put our stuff away. I am now fully exhausted, and I look forward to sleeping (and perhaps recovering my voice before singing tomorrow).