super-structure

Maggie Packing – It’s a long hike to TN, Maggie, but well worth the trip!

We (Angela, Maggie, Harry, and myself) had a great trip to Tennessee over the weekend. We drove down to Cookeville and Jamestown to visit with family and friends. I suppose that when you have so little time and a lot to accomplish, you make the most out of only four days. Of course, we were absolutely exhausted today, and I had to go back to work. There are a number of photos on Flickr of the trip, and many more on my hard drive now. Thanks to Angela’s and my family and all our friends for all putting up with our crazy schedule and making time for us. It means so much to get to see everyone, even if we only got to spend a few hours.

If you’ve never listened to a Podcast, well let me make a recommendation. Talk of the Nation’s Science Friday, on NPR, began releasing their shows in Podcast (mp3’s) a few weeks ago. I grew up watching Ira Flatow on Newton’s Apple, and I love getting to listen to the grown up version today. Well, last week’s show, was two hours devoted to discussing Science and Religion. I had a couple of posts last week on Religion (one of which was worth reading), so this seemed somewhat timely for me.

The first hour was with three physicists (a Presbyterian, a (hardcore) atheist, and a Hindu) and a Roman Catholic theologian. This was the most responsible conversation on the topic of the duality of science and religion that I have ever heard. After speaking to their individual backgrounds in personal religion, they dealt with the obvious question: is the question actually science versus religion, or do they co-exist? They all go on to discuss the roles of religion and science in personal choices as well as society. One of the most enlightening discussion is on the answer to questions on "why?" I even found the individuals who called into the show as contributing a great deal to the discussion (which is so rare, even on a show I respect as much as Science Friday).

The second half of the show is dedicated to how religion effects the ethics of science and to what extent it should play a role in the process. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are all represented. Further (and at least one of the guests speaks to this), the discussion is put forth in the framework of wanting to discover and understand. The arguments that science is somehow inherently evil are all kept very much to a minimum here, which is refreshing. It’s a shame to see that somehow coverage of that attitude is representative of being fair and balanced.

My favorite part, I think, came from not one of the scientists, but from the theology professor, who described "layered explanations", in getting to the why. His simple analogy is this: a pot of water boiling on the stove. Science explains the boiling as excited molecules. However, stepping back, the water is boiling because one turned on the stove. From an even wider perspective, this is because the individual wanted a cup of tea. This explanation reminds me of the (very wonderful) Powers of Ten book, which also is all about perspective. The guest concludes that religion and science are not at odds, as they do not work at the same level. The why to which they speak are not the same, even for the same phenomenon. This wonderfully encapsulates a portion of my own world view. I would personally describe the two at perfect right angles: overlapping, but not opposing.

This isn’t to say that I agree with all of the guests or callers, as I most certainly don’t. However, their discussion is enlightened and refreshing in the age of cable TV shouting heads. If you want to see just how cool podcasting can be, and listen to some great conversation on some profound topics, take a couple of hours in your car or at work and listen.

Until iTunes 4.9 is available, you should use iPodder to grab your podcast feeds. Get iPodder 4 here and find the Science Friday Podcast here. I also subscribe to SciFi Wire, Engadget, and Make Magazine podcasts, if you’re interested.

Yesterday evening, I’m very happy to say, sanity took back one of America’s hallowed institutions: the Senate. A group of 14 Senators, half of which came from either party, came together and actually governed. Rather than pander to their "base" constituents, these men and women worked to preserve the functionality of the Senate. (Story at NPR)

I’m not going to give any back-story on this. You can use Google News for that, if you wish. However, I will just say this. No matter how far to the left I may be (either from the center, or just where you may think the center is), I am happy to see the Centrists prevail. I know I get worked up from time-to-time about the Right, and come on like I want nothing but progressive politics from now until the second coming of Noam Chomsky. However, I truly believe that it is through the center that our country is the most stable. I believe that was the intention of the founders of this country in writing a flexible document that gives weight to deliberation and discussion. Nowhere in the world of politics is that ideal more evident than in the U.S. Senate (minus the past couple of months).

Lastly, and I wasn’t expecting to be saying (Editor’s Note: You typing this, Jason) this, but I am very proud of Virginia Senator John Warner (R) for being one of the 14 level headed individuals behind this compromise.

This sort of ties in with yesterday evening’s post. I’ve decided to knock off a few things on my life-to-do-list. So, I’ve signed up to run the Richmond Marathon this November. Angela is going to do it as well, so we can encourage one another. I believe this has almost nothing to do about whether my body can handle the running of 26.2 miles (although my left knee scares the shit out of me). It is going to be about committing to doing something that I’ve wanted to do all my life. When I was a kid, I thought I would someday want to run the Boston Marathon. Well, come to find out, they don’t let just any joker like me sign up for that (something about qualifying). So, I’ll be okay just running a marathon, rather than what many consider to be the marathon. None-the-less, if I were to just wait to do this until I was absolutely sure that I was capable of taking the time and effort to finish, then I’d likely never do it. I’m taking a chance on myself, and this is something I have really wanted to do for a long time, now.

I suppose Angela’s reasons are similar, although it’s not really been something she’s talked about doing so much. I think she wants the challenge as well. To do something that most family and friends would think she’s not capable of doing. Again, this isn’t about competing with anyone, but ourselves. And that means one thing: running (or walking, for that matter) across the finish line.

Another thing is, Angela and I are both the kind of people who know people who have run marathons. However, we both don’t want that to be our experience: to be the friend of the people who do things. That’s no real way to know life. We’re going to have to do things like this for ourselves. Have an experience, not just some stories we’re heard.

For the record, I estimated my finishing time at 4 hours and 15 minutes. Is that being optimistic? Probably, but so isn’t the very idea of me finishing a marathon?

I’ve been inspired. It often comes from the small things in life as much as the large, ground shaking events. This comes from my friend, Stacie. I have many friends who have web-blogs, and most of us approach it from a geek standpoint. Stacie writes hers like a person, and I really found myself enjoying her posts more than most about web and tech stuff.

I’ve had a web site now for the past 5 years, and I’ve been running a blog for the past 5+ months. I keep telling myself that I’ll get around to posting some more meaningful things here, but I never do. I tell myself that I’ll eventually post the sorts of things that friends, family, and perfect strangers alike can read and actually get to know me. Maybe I’ll learn a little about myself in the process. Well, it’s become a perfect metaphor for my life. I keep saying to myself that I’ll be that person as soon as I get through all the rest of this crap, never realizing that real time is passing right now. People know me now, and just like a blog not worth reading, they’ll not have much reason to come back if I’m nothing more that a shallow existence. I don’t really want this to be record of nothingness. I want it to be a means of communication. That was my original goal for maintaining a web site, and I should concentrate on that more.

I don’t really believe I’m that shallow, I just let life go by. I’ve knowingly done this for as long as I can remember. I make great plans about the individual I want to be and how great it will feel, but never actually make effort to do those things. I say to myself, "when this really counts, I’ll do it better and take it more seriously." As if this is all just some practice run for when life really gets going. I have this feeling that I shouldn’t commit until I’m 100% ready. However, being an engineer has ingrained in me that there is nothing that is 100%, especially not me.

Here’s where the blog (and hopefully my friends, family and perfect strangers) come in. I need these thoughts out in the open, and then others can call me a flake when I don’t act on them. That’s fair, right? That way my little metaphor here, and my life, will hopefully stay on track. Will anyone be impressed? I doubt it, but I’ll be happy and fulfilled; after all, this is about me here, right? Back to my friend’s blog (all of my friends’ blogs for that matter), it really is wonderful to read what a day-in-the-life-of is like. How else can we know those things? Anyway, thanks Stacie and everyone else who reads here, posts here, writes their own blogs, etc. Keeping up with you all inspires me and is time well spent.

To be literal about a cliche, life is what you make it, not what you plan to make it when you bother to get up of the couch.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Anxiously waiting in line for the film, wondering what to say to the 100 or so people behind me when Angela finally shows up after work. (Didn’t matter in the end, as she didn’t get there until after I sat down.) I was clutching my tickets with the kind of glee reserved for a 4 year old on his birthday. Hell, it was my birthday: the final Star Wars film was here and I was in the line to see it; the pinnacle of geek highs.

And I wasn’t let down.

The final Star Wars film is a solid piece of work. There aren’t really any surprises here: you know where it begins and you know how it ends. The rest is 2-1/2 hours of intense light saber battles and anguish (on the part of Anakin, not me). This final film has more of an artistic flair than previous films. Sure, the cheesy serial film scene change effects are still there and Lucas isn’t known for his ability to bring out Oscar-worthy performances.

However, there are some scenes that are much more moody or composed than any of the previous installments. Case in point (and I’m not spoiling any plot here): The scene where Anakin finally is put into "the mask." The screen is filled with the profile of Vader’s mask as Anakin lies prone and motionless. Dead silence in which you can hear the collective mouths opening at the drama. Here is a brilliantly lit, motionless scene of one of the greatest icons of the 20th century. And then, in the silence you hear the familiar clicking and breathing of Vader’s respirator. For all the puns, humorous sketches, and parodies made in the past 28 years, you can still feel the immense gravity of this scene. Seeing the mask is the line binding back on itself to form a perfect circle. You know exactly where you are know.

There were a few things I had expected to see that weren’t there. While the Millennium Falcon can be seen briefly near the beginning of the film, it’s not really involved in the story like I would have imagined (let along a mention of what the Kessel run is, for you fan-boys and girls). I expected to see more of the formation of the rebel alliance, as well. Lastly, as cliché as it has become in my lifetime, I really wanted to see more of Darth Vader in the black mask. Not in some sort of fan-boy desire to see more Sith lords, but because I felt almost as if it was my heritage as a geek-child-of-the-seventies to see him. I’d waited all my life to get here and I deserved all the time I wanted to spend with him, story be damned.

Lucas does a fine job at filling in that gap between two known points. He provides us with a sense that this is the way it had to happen; that Darth Vader is less of a über-villain, and more of a story. Rather than using the Disney-esque villains-are-bad and heros-are-good model, Lucas also allows each of the characters to have motivations, doubts, and human involvement. Most impressive is Senator Palpatine. You get a sense that while he is no doubt evil and corrupt, he really forms a bond with Anakin. Sure, he only wants Anakin becuase he realizes that the young Jedi is the strongest of them all and easy to manipulate, but he no less seems to look out for the boy.

There was no applause after the film. I didn’t applaud, not because I didn’t like the film or enjoy myself, but because I was generally depressed. The story ends on a stunningly sober note and as the lights came back up, I realized that this was it. Applauding would just be more nails being driven into the coffin. There’s no point in my recommending this film. If you know me and read this, you’ll go see it. Not because I told you to, but because it’s your heritage as well. You’ve earned the right to see Darth Vader, too.

Last night (Saturday), Angela and I went to see the Richmond Symphony perform the Lord of the Rings Symphony. It’s not that I wasn’t amazed at Howard Shore’s score already, but I was completely floored last night. Angela and I both decided that this score ranks up as one of our favorites (individually, and collectively). Further, with all due respect to John Williams, who is another favorite, this was all completely original scoring. Williams often uses famous pieces for direct inspiration in movie scores, which isn’t all that uncommon in film score composition as I understand it. Case in point: Carmina Burana is an obvious influence on the Darth Maul theme in Star Wars: Episode I. Of course, Williams has plenty of original compositions to his credit (not the least of which, the main theme to Star Wars). However, I think that Shore has raised the bar in how complex, both musically and emotionally, a film score can be. He weaves in traditional music, pop music, and symphony handily. All this, and it was very nice getting to see the home town symphony play it at the Landmark.

This morning, I ran the Carytown 10k. My goal: to run the race averaging an 8 minute-mile. For those of you who don’t feel like doing the math, that would have been at sub-50 minute race. I had even been running during lunch breaks the last couple of weeks to make sure the heat wouldn’t bother me too much and that I could keep a good pace going. Unfortunately, I can’t keep a steady pace for long enough. After running a nice 7:50 pace for three miles, I dropped off sharply for most of the next mile-and-a-half. I ended up at 51:26, which is whole minute slower than my last 10k. What was the difference? I’d say it was the fact that last month, the larger race had wave starts, so I started with a whole group of people to pace with. This race was a pack start, so I was just with whatever group happened to fall in about the middle of the crowd. The lesson here is that I’m going to have to use the pace alarm on my Forerunner if I hope to be able to train for a certain pace. Then, I think I can break the 50 minute wall and reach my next running goal. After that, I hope to work more on distance than speed. After all, I’m not likely to ever win any of these (which is a stretch of the term "not likely"). However, I can at least have some bragging rights for running farther some day.

A little something for Trey, because he liked the original commercial so much.

"Save The Green Planet"s principle cast: Shin Ha-Gyun, Baek Yun-Shik, and Hwang Jung-Min (Image courtesy of www.savethegreenplanetmovie.com)

Have I ever mentioned that Koreans are, as a ethnic group, are notoriously goofy? This is an observation of my wife’s (whose half-Korean), that my own empirical observations seems to support. About a month ago, I listed a few Korean films that were coming soon to these shores. I now humbly submit to you "Save The Green Planet" (or, "Jigureul jikyeora!"). Think Fight Club meets Brazil. You really must see the trailer, if for not other reason than the cool Konglish-punk version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."

So I wrote a post while immediately after reading a post on Wonkette all about this dumb magnet. After cooling down and being brought back to my better senses, I decided I’d write something more interesting.

Politics: A Traditional Liberal

I became a liberal the old fashioned way: I was raised attending a Christian church. Yeah, I know, that sounds a little odd by current sensibilities. However, my parents brought me up to make my own decisions in life, and I was taught by who could only be described as one of the most liberal ministers in all of the Southeast. A person I consider to be as close as family and probably the single most influential person on my life: Rev. Donald Padget. So, when I describe myself as a traditional liberal, I really mean that. I believe in the values that are the best of progressives around the world and throughout history: respect for life, tolerance of others’ beliefs, and most importantly the absolute belief that we all do better when we all do better. If there is a meaning to life to be discovered, I think it is that we are here for the sole purpose of helping our fellow mankind to better cope with this thing know as the human condition.

So, with that in mind I happily describe myself in political terms as an independent liberal. I have since learned that that description leads one to vote Democratic, at least in this country (the only one I’ve ever voted in). Further, living in Tennessee and Virginia, I haven’t made a lot of friends shouting that out in the streets. I hear shouting that out in the streets in Portland or Seattle gets you a hug and a free cup of coffee, but these may just be rumors. Further, in my chosen profession that is engineering, I haven’t been voted most popular because of my political views. However, I have had the opportunity to find a great deal of commonality in people that I might, on paper at least, have cause to believe I wouldn’t have much to say to. It comes with the obvious frustrations at times, but it more than not makes for great conversations. You see, when you have a discussion about politics or religion with someone who is already a close friend (or your wife), you tend to shout a great deal less than on those talking head shows and actually discuss the issue at hand.

I was asking my wife earlier if she thought that her 12-year-old self would be proud of her today. She said that she would. I like to think that my younger self would be okay with me. He’d be a little disappointed that I didn’t end up joining Greenpeace, I suppose; or inventing a 99% efficient solar panel array. Other than that, we’d get along fairly well. He’d be glad that I still believe in the same principles I listed earlier, and have at least tried to become the person I wanted (and still want) to be. Okay, he’d be disappointed that I don’t skateboard anymore, I always said I’d never give that up and haven’t done it since high-school.