We managed to locate six candles in the drawer to celebrate Andrew’s 6th birthday. He was very excited, and especially liked the brontosaurus from Poppy. Camille made an awesome cake from scratch. We were all very impressed.
The kids got an extra birthday surprise when the
#snowpocalypse began. We got a total of about 22 inches of snow, for which they were very grateful. We stayed inside on Saturday to just enjoy some time playing games and resting.
With everything being closed and canceled, including church, we decided to go outside and have some fun. Sledding was a bit rough to start with in all the powder, but it got better quickly. Then I began the process of digging out the cars, and digging in one snow car. We shall see how long the plows leave it alone.
The kids don’t know it yet, but I started carving out the inside of the snow car to make them a fort. School is canceled tomorrow so I need to do something with them.
Tags: Kids, snow
Posted in Drew, family | Comments Off
I have not yet read the Twilight series yet (not sure if I will either). The Twilight series features vampires, and it seems like there are hordes of zombies who have been seduced by it. Given my research into
cults, I found this
Touchstone article on
Mormon Vampires in the Garden of Eden to be rather informative.
Posted in cults, movies | Comments Off
An interesting
link came across an apologetics list I subscribe to regarding the
theological cult Jehovah’s Witnesses and the
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.. It is a blog that highlights some of the issues that JWs have to deal with being in an
overly controlling environment. I found the article on how they are
told from on high to deceive people to whom they are peddling their heresy to be especially interesting given some of my prior encounters with them. Head on over to the blog and give them your support.
Tags: cults
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This just in from
The Scientist email blast:
Emails from a top climate research institute were made public, and some climate change deniers are crying foul. Would your private emails about research look fishy?
Can we scientists please be more even-handed? “
Climate change deniers” is likening them to
holocaust deniers. Why not call them “
climate change skeptics“. Are scientists oblivious to civilized discourse, or are they purposely choosing inflammatory language for effect?
From now on, I declare that climate change proponents be called “
Global Warming Fanboys“. Or maybe it should be “
Climate Change Zombies” since they all wander around in an aimless search for the secret formulas to climate models and eat people’s brains in the process. To continue being consistent, hard-core atheists should be “
Theism Deniers” instead of their self-proclaimed altruistic “
free-thinking skeptics“. And remember, you need to say “
theism denier” with the most patronizing and derisive vocal tone possible.
I am probably making some sort of logical fallacy in these examples, but who cares!?! This isn’t about truth. It is about convincing people of my position regardless of the evidence, right?
Tags: consistency, fanboys, skeptics, truth
Posted in humility, opinion | Comments Off
At long last I am on another publication for the years of
slave grad work I completed.
TAG
published
A Universal Core Genetic Map for Rice last month in their online edition. Hopefully it will make it into a print copy at some point. I identified the 18k+ SSR loci and built a system for making automated primers for them. The lab who published this used a defined subset of those 18k+ primers for verification and publication. Hopefully this will help the world produce better rice.
Tags: grad school, publication, rice
Posted in Greg, programming, rice | Comments Off
CCEF has many good resources for Christians of all walks of life, even though their focus is on counseling.
CCEF is a Christian counseling and educational ministry located in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
I want to highlight here their
podcast called Help & Hope. [
iTunes] They post about every other week with things that touch upon our daily lives.
Tags: counseling, podcast
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
I am sure that my church youth group will get a kick out of this.
An AI competition using StarCraft. I am still amazed that the game’s appeal has lasted so long. Especially considering that I was saving the galaxy while they were still in diapers. Despite what people say, Protoss FTW!
Posted in programming | Comments Off
Always read emails carefully, especially the stuff you cannot see. Emails are going around trying to get you to update your IRS W2 form. We received one here, but if you look closely it is from irs.com as opposed to irs.gov.
From: Internal Revenue Service < update@irs.com >
Date: November 9, 2009 6:16:29 AM EST
To: removed...
Subject: W-2 Form update
Important changes within the IRS Employers W-2 forms.
Attached is a updated version of the W-2 form that needs to be completed by all US based employers.
Please update your records and make sure the W-2 form will updated before December 1 2009.
Whether you rely on a tax professional or handle your own taxes,
the IRS offers you convenient programs to make filing and payment easier.
Spend less time and worry on taxes and more time running your business.
Use e-file and the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) to your benefit.
. For e-file, visit www.irs.gov for additional information.
. For EFTPS, visit www.eftps.gov or call EFTPS Customer Service at 1-800-555-4477.
Here is another post on this subject.
Posted in computer, fail | Comments Off
We all know how the blogosphere is abuzz with the House of Reps health care bill vote passing
220-215. I just have to question the wisdom of celebrating such a narrow “victory”. Sure the fanboys will applaud it as the best thing since sliced bread (or at least since Social Security and Medicare), but the rest of the country will hail it as a prelude to the downfall of civilization (or at least a much more government dominated socialist state). Now I know that Republicans have narrowly pushed things through the government before. So have the Democrats. Those may not have been wise either. But in such a politically divided country, wouldn’t it have been wiser to keep working on the bill until you had at least a 60% majority?
As quoted in many books and movies: “Just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should.”
Tags: politics
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As the kids go off to acquire candy for me (due to the high candy tax) I decided to post a picture of the carvings for this year.
You can probably guess who made each one.
Tags: halloween
Posted in family | Comments Off
With everything being closed and canceled, including church, we decided to go outside and have some fun. Sledding was a bit rough to start with in all the powder, but it got better quickly. Then I began the process of digging out the cars, and digging in one snow car. We shall see how long the plows leave it alone. 
The kids don’t know it yet, but I started carving out the inside of the snow car to make them a fort. School is canceled tomorrow so I need to do something with them. 