Here's an informative and entertaining video on the topic of Global Warming. Happy new year!

The following excerpt is taken from today's SWIFT -- the newsletter for the The Amazing Randi's Web site. It is from someone describing the Hebrew translation of the ten commandments and some of the implications.

The original Hebrew says, "Lo ihyu lachem elohim acherim al panay" – you shall have no other Gods al panay. Literally, "al panay" means "on my face." It is an Hebrew idiom, meaning "in preference to me." It is often used elsewhere in the Bible in matrimonial matters, i.e., when someone divorces one wife and marries another al paneyha – "over her face" – that is, in preference to her.

The ten commandments, like many other interactions between Jehovah and the Israelites (or their patriarchs) in the Bible, are written in the language of a marriage contract. The Israelites promise to "worship no other God in preference" to Jehovah, while He, in return, agrees to "only recognize you from all the families [i.e., tribes, nations] of the Earth." The treaty concludes, "You shall be my Nation and I shall be your God." There is no implication in those parts of the Bible that other gods do not exist, or that Jehovah is necessarily the most powerful God of some pantheon (let alone all-powerful), any more than there is a claim that the Israelites are the only nation on earth or the most powerful one.

This type of belief, which assumes other gods exist but demands a special relationship between a specific god and a specific tribe – in particular, that preference (or exclusivity) in “worship” be given to that god – is known as henotheism. It can be seen as a stage between full polytheism (when other gods may be worshipped freely) and monotheism (when it is denied that other gods exist at all, and not merely forbidden to worship them). Some of the most important parts of the Bible – Jehovah's appearance in Mt. Sinai to give the Israelites the ten commandments, the pact between Abraham and Jehovah that makes Palestine the "promised land," etc. – are henotheistic. The Jews only became monotheistic, for complicated reasons, long after these parts of the Bible were written.

I'm not going to comment on it other than to say that illustrates that the Bible-- taken in proper cultural and historical context -- is far more complex than your average right-wing protestant sister-fucking hillbilly can possibly be trusted to understand or interpret on any level other than a purely (translated English) literal level.

While the Acer AL2216W 22" wide LCD is hardly 'high-end' -- it's plenty good enough for me, and a step up from my 19" LCD (which was in turn a step-up for my wife's desktop machine, which had been running an old 17" 16:9 flat TV/LCD combo made by Sceptre).

It's especially good enough when my net cost was around $100. Why?

• Original price: $219 at Staples
• -$75 for gift cards that I've been hoarding (graciously supplied over a period of months by my wife and her Mypoints rewards).
• -$20 for an on-line coupon, courtesy of Staples
• -$40 "birthday cash" from my older brother and his family for my birthday

Kudos to Staples

I had to do a little work to get this monitor. It appeared on their Web site and I added it to my cart to view later. When I went to buy the monitor, I couldn't find it on their Web site, but I could still log in and see it in my cart -- but it did appear in their inventory system -- but the manager couldn't order it to the local store (which he didn't understand).

Bottom line: I ordered the LCD via phone (from my local store) and paid full price. I received it 2 working days later (with free shipping). it arrived on Christmas eve, and I returned it to my local store on the 26th and immediately re-purchased it with the coupon and gift cards.

Better yet: it was the store manager that recommended this convoluted route to make it all work out for me. It took a little work, but a $100 22" wide LCD -- even a bit of a 'budget' model -- seems worth it.

Operation: Christmas went very well this year. The kids were showered with gifts, good food was had, and all in all everything went smoothly.

Priceless Moments

Both boys were excited beyond words, but perhaps the most priceless moment was Katsuya (22 months) opening his first gift -- a 12" tall fully featured Buzz Lightyear doll --  of Christmas morning.

"Buzz!" he squealed in an excited, high-pitched little shriek.

Words can't do justice to just how cute it was (and I wish we'd had a video camera on at the time, but we were still both barely awake.).

Both boys loved the personal sized trampoline we got for them. Kazu bounced in front of the mirror in the living room and sang a song he called Trampoline Dance.

Kazu also took about thirty pictures of the ceiling, walls, and everything else with his new kids camera.

Katsuya played with an arsenal of action figures, including some other favorites he opened, such as a 12" tall Mr. Incredible, an 8" tall Frozone, and some others.

Christmas x3... and 1 to go

Both boys were so showered with presents at the end of three separate Christmas Day celebrations (home, at my wife's parents, and at my parents) that they had become nearly numb to it all. ("Oh, another box with shiny paper? Um, you go ahead and open that for me...")

I scored some nice clothes and a few other sundry items. Actually, I'm wearing new shoes (Nike Free, which I've wanted for a while), new pants (some very nice Nike sports pants), and a new, soft long-sleeved pullover. It's actually kind of nice wearing a whole new set of clothes the day after Christmas.

I got Amy a Chia pet Herb Garden (because she wanted one) and an electric seat-warmer for her car (which I got to try driving around on Christmas day -- I think I want one now too.)

Her "real" gift -- which I actually had to give to her about 2 weeks ago --  was a fancy new stereo for her car, which I had installed along with her old subwoofer (she's complained about the sound system in the Santa Fe for a long time).

And we still have to go see my father today. Scheduling made it easier/better for everyone to arrange to go see him today instead of on Christmas proper, so technically, we still have another one to go.

A white  (trash) Christmas warm up

This little event actually happened on 12/23. Although it's not 'happy', my younger brother and I couldn't help but make light of it afterwards -- probably out of relief that it wasn't a lot worse.

After my older brother loaded up the Kia minivan full of his kids and his wife, he pulled out of the driveway to head home. The road in front of my mom's house has a short sight distance, and folks tend to speed along it quite often.

Another car slammed into the van. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Insurance info was exchanged. Later the mother of the 18-year old that hit the van showed up, and she got all nasty when my stepdad asked her to move the car so my older brother could leave. (The mother was universally described as a nasty old White Trash Queen (WTQ) by those that witnessed everything.)

I won't go into too much detail because I've only heard the story second-hand, and from multiple sources.

Essentially, a Jerry Springer-worthy melee of sorts ensued:

• WTQ spit in my older brother's face.
• My older brother pushed WTQ away.
• Someone (I believe the son of WTQ) took a swing at my older brother and half-connected (he has a bit of a black eye).
• At some point my older brother kick-pushed WTQ to the ground.
• People were restraining other people. Nasty words were exchanged.

I'm just glad there were no guns or other violence involved.

I'm also almost disappointed I couldn't be there to choke someone out or watch my brothers' backs.

If nothing else, we'll have family "White Trash Christmas" jokes to tell for years to come.

Enjoy the video and happy Friday. :)

• I should be able to take out my stitches today, as long as my wife remembers to bring home some kind of stitch-removal kit from work. Yay!
• Christmas is shaping up to be fun but hectic. We have a Christmas tree and a huge pile of presents. Kazu has been very excited this year. Every time he sees Christmas lights on a house, he says "they have Christmas just like we do!" The tricky part is keeping Katsuya (22 months old) from stepping, crushing, and otherwise screwing around with the big shiny tree and all the shiny presents.
• I never really enjoyed putting up Christmas lights until the kids were old enough to go nuts for them. I was able to put up a decent little display right outside the living room window where they can see it (complete with animated polar bear), but  I don't really have enough lights for our current house/yard, which is pretty giganimous. I plan to stock up on more lights after Christmas (when they go on sale) -- and maybe even this weekend for a little last-minute addition, but we'll see about that.
• New job is going ok. I'm starting to feel reasonably comfortable, but nothing will really kick into gear until the new year. Looks like my early bird tendencies will be ok here, so the longer commute won't be quite so bad. I hate not being able to be there in the morning for the kids when they wake up, but I'll sacrifice that for being able to be home 2:30-3:00 and 1/2 commutes instead of hour-long commutes (both ways).

Yesterday was my father's birthday. We met at a local restaurant with his wife and some of their family.

Kaz and Katsuya were wound up because it was relatively late for them to be out, but everything went smoothly.

My father has been diagnosed with an unclassified form of Leukemia. His treatment options are few.

His best bet is a form of stem cell transplant -- which is itself a life-threatening procedure (particularly for someone in his 60s).

Left untreated, it's unknown how long he'll live. He's doing fine right now, and I'm hoping for the best, but this brush with mortality has weighed heavily upon me.

Still, it was a good birthday celebration. I'm hoping we'll have more.

One thing that I thought about going through the whole process of getting injured and stitched up is how ultra-franchised and watered down martial arts schools have skewed mainstream perceptions about martial arts training.

Even the growing popularity of the UFC and similar fighting promotions hasn't completely countered all the strip-mall martial arts, 'tae-bo' knock-offs, and/or ultra-traditional martial arts, all of which peddle 'injury free' (and sometimes sweat-free) watered down martial arts training to soccer moms, 5-year old children, and nerds who want to emulate kung-fu movies.

Martial arts training requires dedication, copious amounts of sweat, science, and occasionally some blood. Safety should always be important, of course -- but any training that misses one or more of these elements is little more than dancing.

(Note: This is a repost of the 12/15 entry -- now with a picture!)

After all the stress of starting a new job, I was really looking forward to a good workout last night in my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class.

Unfortunately, class (for me) came to an abrupt end last night when my head and someone's knee (my teacher's actually) had a sudden, accidental collision -- which ultimately had me leaving the Group Health Urgent Care center last night at around 11pm with 5 stitches around the outside of left eye.

It was a gruesome sight (much more so than the post-stitched picture).

I didn't even realize I was cut until I tapped out and we 'reset' to roll some more. I wiped my brow, saw a little blood, and then my teacher escorted me to the bathroom. I looked like someone shot me in the face! The blood and sweat basically covered the entire right side of my face and part of my left face (wish I'd nabbed a picture!).

Once I cleaned up, I saw that I had a very prominent Y-shaped gash.

I went home and had my wife take a look, and then went off to the urgent care clinic. About 2-3 hours later, I was home -- stitched, and bummed I wouldn't be able to train today.

The real bummer is that last night was one of the rare occasions that mostly folks of my own skill level (experienced white belts) -- other than my teacher and one purple belt -- had showed up to class. More fridays are dominated by more advanced students, which is a great learning opportunity, but generally means a solid hour of me getting my ass whupped.

Oh well. Good time of the year to take a week or two off, I guess.

Well, I'm on day 2 of my new job.

Day 1 mostly made me want to cry, and I missed my wife and kids terribly because I felt so much farther away from them.

I was so rushed about meeting people that I had no time (nor computer/Internet access, or even cell phone reception) to do hardly anything--- including eat. Then it was home, off to swimming lessons with the kids, then over to mom's for a simple birthday party... and eventually, sleep.

I enjoyed cuddling and rocking my sons to sleep last night more than ever.

Today I'm still a bit jittery and not much liking anything. I suspect this will subside, but I still feel like a fish out of water, and part of me is regretting the switch. At my old job, I was closer to home, and always had plenty of time -- I basically had completely autonomy and a generally easy workflow.

Sure, this job pays a lot more and is probably a good career move in the grand scheme of things, but now I'm wondering if I should have just bided my time longer at my old job -- at least until both the kids were school age or something.

Or maybe it's all just 'new job jitters' and once I start kicking ass and taking names I'll get over it. I sure miss my wife and family, though.

Out with the old stereo, in with the new stereo!

I stole my wife's car last night to have her Christmas present installed: a new stereo, along with her old subwoofer and a 250w amplifier from her previous vehicle. I put a small bow on her new stereo, and I attached a USB drive to it so it would play the Bob and Doug McKenzie's "12 Days of Christmas"  when she turned on her car. It went over fairly well, I think.

Out with the old job, in with the new job...

Today is my last day at IBM. I'm not really sad to leave, but it has been a good place to work. I'd stay if they could just pay more. I'm not really looking forward to all the 'life upheaval' of getting used to a new commute, new job, new coworkers, etc.

I still think it's probably a good move. And I am looking forward to the new money -- which is about 32% more than the old money. :)

Hopefully, they'll allow me to stick mainly to early-bird hours so I can avoid traffic. I also hope I can still sneak away to my Wednesday BJJ classes. I don't want to lose that class, and replacing it with an evening class would be extremely difficult (and likely inconsistent) at best.

Today's agenda: Lunch with some old friends from Sierra On-Line, possibly some car maintenance at the local Precision Tune, and then home. =)

One of my favorite movies of all time is Pixar's The Incredilbes. I loved it when I first saw it in the theaters, and now both of my sons (4 and 2 years old, respectively) love it (which means I've had to watch the movie about fifty times).

My wife stumbled upon this review (to use the term loosely) written by someone calling herself "Ms. Razorblade."

Ms. Razorblade is a gay feminist, and (judging by the URL for the review) apparently British. Her review demonstrates such a profound lack of understanding for the film and its source material that I felt I'd write a 'counter review' for fun, and because I'm on my last two days at this job -- and therefore, bored.

This is a long post, but I've condensed my primary criticisms of her review to the following list(read her review and you'll understand them more fully):

• She admits her lack of objectivity. To her credit, she does admit her biases against the heterosexual nuclear family. She also admits she is a childless twenty-something and gay. This pretty much invalidates just about every criticism she makes, because virtually all of them are drawn from her niche world-view.
• She clearly has no familiarity with comic books. In particular, she clearly doesn't know about or understand the Golden Age (1940s-1950s) and the Silver Age (1960s-1970s) of American comics (and, of course,  The Fantastic Four), which serve as the primary source of inspiration for the movie. This further weakens her constant and unrelenting bitching about the "nuclear" family (mom as homemaker and dad as breadwinner, along with dad's obvious shortcomings) and the stereotyped roles of the characters. Last I checked, even in 2007 the "nuclear" family is still in the majority. Go back in time 50 years and I suspect it was even more so.
• She criticizes the stereotypes: While some of the characters have certain cliche' characteristics, none of them were so overdone that they didn't feel like real characters. High school girl with a crush on a boy? Dissatisfied, impulsive son? Distracted father with a possible mid-life crisis?  Sure, we've seen those elements before, but I can't recall any handling of that material so artfully blended with comics and superheroes.
• She makes several factual errors and misinterpretations. For example,  she interprets Frozone's inability to find his super suit as his own incompetence. But, as most married folks know, laundry mishaps do happen. She also claims that Mr. Incredible kills a bunch of people, which he never does in any clear fashion.
• She doesn't think Mirage deserves a beatdown. Mirage may not have deserved a beatdown, but Ms. Razorblade somehow thinks that Mr. Incredible isn't justified in grabbing her by the throat and threatening her when she rescues him. "...I do not believe any part of this revolting scene should be spared exposure..." she says. Let's examine that idiocy briefly: The woman siding with the villain that just killed your wife and kids releases you from a restraining device, where you've been stuck grieving for your lost family and raging at the villains responsible for two days. I don't know about you, but I suspect I might be a bit angry, impulsive, and I'd probably be inclined to kill her too. Morally justified? Maybe not. Human? Most certainly. And maybe a childless British feminist dike can't identify with that, but I most certainly can... and I'm sure I'm probably in the film's demographic.
• She hates Violet because she's basically a heterosexual teenager. She also doesn't like the way she's depicted, but she mostly doesn't like her because she acts like a fairly common teenage girl. (Crush on a boy, insecure, heterosexual, etc.)
• She pseudolectualizes everything. The rest of the problems with the "review" largely stem from her constant, one-sided and ill-informed "pseudolectual" interpretation of everything in the film from her severely niche, leftist, gay feminist viewpoint. Whereas she sees the movie as mired in heterosexual stereotypes and right-wing propaganda, I see a movie about common family issues (emphasis here on common/majority/etc.)intertwined with the problems of being a superhero in a world that forces you to be ordinary -- in effect, denying who you really are. I don't think anyone wants to live their life 'in the closet' and I think that is far more central to the theme of the movie than espousing the virtues of the nuclear, heterosexual family.

Ms. Razorblade should probably stick to reviewing gay art/indie films.

Just some miscellaneous thoughts, some venting, and some random musing:

• I'm bored stiff at work. Short timers + Friday + no work = leaving at lunch.
• I'm sick of being sick. Time for this cold/sinus infection crap to get the hell out of my system. (I am feeling a bit better today, so hopefully that means it's listening...)
• I think I finally have an idea what to get my wife for Christmas! 
• This Christmas looks to be great fun. Kazu is very excited, and we've got all kinds of wonderful goodies to rain upon him and Katsuya. Katsuya is still a bit young to understand what is going on, but he's sure to have fun as well with the plethora of very large action figures and monsters/dinosaurs he will be getting.
• I'm increasingly worried about my father's health. He has, essentially, an unclassified and rare form of Leukemia (there have only been 76 reported cases in the last 10 years) that is by and large untreatable. And the best treatment -- which is very similar to a stem cell transplant -- is considered life-threatening.
• I'm excited to be starting a new job next week.
• I'm scared to be starting a new job next week.
• I love my wife and family and I'm lucky to have them. They give me strength.
• It takes courage to face every new day.

This morning -- like many mornings when I get up for work -- both of my sons needed some attention.

Kazu had awakened around 6:00am and crawled in bed with us, shoving me to the outermost edges of the bed while he snuggled with me. I eventually just got up and started getting ready for work because I couldn't sleep anyway.

A short while later, my wife called me in and asked me to put Kazu in his own bed (he was still partly awake and thrashing around), so I took him into his bedroom and sat with him in our big, comfy rocking chair.

Unfortunately, Katsuya woke up, and I heard him fussing and calling for daddy. I told Kazu I'd come back in a bit while I tended to his younger brother. Leaving Kazu in the comfy chair, I went to our room and picked up Katsuya, whom I took downstairs to the rocking chair in the living room.

Katsuya almost immediately fell asleep while I rocked him. The living room was warm and cozy, lit only our gas fireplace, Christmas tree, and the Christmas lights I had hung up outside the living room window.

After a while, I returned Katsuya to bed, and returned to Kazu. I rocked with Kazu snuggled in my arms for a while, until light from the rising sun began to illuminate his room. He was asleep, so I left him in the comfy chair and resumed getting ready for work.

I'll really miss these moments when I begin my new job in a week... and when they're too old for it.

So it's completely "official" that I will be changing jobs. In a little more than a week, I'll be starting a new contract job (on my birthday!) at Microsoft.

I am dreading all the change associated with changing jobs, but I'm still a bit excited as well. The first few weeks will likely be a big snoozefest. It usually takes at least one week just to get a badge, computer, accounts, etc. And I doubt there will be much work to do starting a new gig two weeks before Christmas.

This story on CNN is about a mummified Hadrosaur and all the cool, new interesting things they are learning from it, including:

• Strong evidence of stripes
• They were larger than estimated
• They could likely have run up to 28mph

This story, from The Times UK, is also very cool. A 'dinosaur graveyard' has been found in Europe.

Read the comments section of the Times UK article for some levity. Apparently, creationists read the Times UK, and they believe that the dinosaur graveyard confirms their ideas of the biblical world flood.

Fortunately, a few rational folks rise up to tell them (politely) that they're idiots, but I'm sure it all falls on deaf "ears".

This video is part of a continuing story about a five-year old Iraqi boy named Youssif. Ultimately, it aims to be uplifting (and it is) -- but it's still very sad, too.

Youssif, at the age of four, was doused with gasoline and set on fire by Islamic extremists/terrorists. He is now undergoing extensive reconstructive surgery here in the states. I believe (if memory serves) this heinous crime was committed against him for no reason other than being the wrong ethnicity (Sunni I believe), or being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Hopefully, Youssif may someday look (mostly) normal again and be able to reclaim some of the childhood innocence so cruelly burned away by ignorant, hateful religious extremists.

Watching the video is particularly wrenching because my son Kazu is basically the same age, and I can't help but think how I'd feel if Kazu was similarly victimized and had to be going through such scary, severe medical procedures.

The hatred and rage I feel towards the criminals responsible for the crime against Youssif is as deep and profound as the sympathy/empathy I have for him, and children like him.  And if this makes me so mad and upset, I can only guess the magnitudes of rage and grief Youssif's parents must be feeling.

Ultimately, Youssif's face may be restored. But who can speak for his spirit? I hope he gets a new face and overcomes the many difficult obstacles he faces.

I don't think we can ever win the "war on terror" until we can win the larger war on ignorance.