Updated! Which religion (or lack of) is the right one for me (or you)?

Today there was a confluence of events that had to do with spirituality and religion. The first was one of those stupid on-line polls and the other was the release (Washington Times story) of a report on Generation Y and faith sponsored by Reboot, a non-profit to encourage the traditions of Judaism for a modern age.

As is often the case when I read these types of reports, I find myself going, "Oh, I knew that," and "How interesting."

"This study is informed by three goals:

1. To ascertain how young people are coming to understand
   their religious identity;
2. To describe what their religious practices look like in
   this era of customization and change; and
3. To explore the ways religious identity informs the civic
   participation of today's youth. Throughout, we were careful to note that
   religious life does not operate in a vacuum and we embed the role religion in
   the context of their other concerns, such as finding a job or getting good
   grades in school."

The breakdown is that in Gen Y (18-25 year olds) 27% are Godly, 27% God-less, and 46% are undecided.

The Godly are becoming less focused on denomination though. They are more interested in expressing faith in more personal ways. They are diverse, only 7% reported friends being the same faith.

Gen Y members are more liberal that previous generational groups. They are not as engaged in politics though. But the Godly are more involved than the God-less or undecided.

It's an interesting report.

The results of my on-line survey are no surprise. I define myself as a searcher. I'm not happy as an agnostic, or atheist, or one of the saved. I'm like the teaser for the X-Files; I want to believe.

I am not sure what "Gen" I am. Depending on time and place I'm a Boomer, an X-er and a touch of Y. Religiously, I am a agnostic theist. I look at the world and say to myself, "Self, something wonderful had to have put all this in motion." Followed by, "Self, this place is a mess. Who would do a thing like this?"

---

You scored as agnosticism. You are an agnostic. Though it is generally taken that agnostics neither believe nor disbelieve in God, it is possible to be a theist or atheist in addition to an agnostic. Agnostics don't believe it is possible to prove the existence of God (nor lack thereof). Agnosticism is a philosophy that God's existence cannot be proven. Some say it is possible to be agnostic and follow a religion; however, one cannot be a devout believer if he or she does not truly believe. Which religion is the right one for you? (new version)

Update: UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute released another survey Wednesday. Their report expresses a view that young people are looking for spirituality but not religion. [Executive Summary]

Thank Goodness my kids are good looking

Researchers show parents give unattractive children less attention

A researcher at the University of Alberta has shown that parents are more likely to give better care and pay closer attention to good-looking children compared to unattractive ones. Dr. Andrew Harrell presented his findings recently at the Warren E. Kalbach Population Conference in Edmonton, Alberta.

Harrell's findings are based on an observational study of children and shopping cart safety. With the approval of management at 14 different supermarkets, Harrell's team of researchers observed parents and their two to five-year-old children for 10 minutes each, noting if the child was buckled into the grocery-cart seat, and how often the child wandered more than 10 feet away. The researchers independently graded each child on a scale of one to 10 on attractiveness.

Findings showed that 1.2 per cent of the least attractive children were buckled in, compared with 13.3 per cent of the most attractive youngsters. The observers also noticed the less attractive children were allowed to wander further away and more often from their parents. In total, there were 426 observations at the 14 supermarkets.

Harrell, who has been researching shopping cart safety since 1990 and has published a total of 13 articles on the topic, figures his latest results are based on a parent's instinctive Darwinian response: we're unconsciously more likely to lavish attention on attractive children simply because they're our best genetic material.

"Attractiveness as a predictor of behaviour, especially parenting behaviour, has been around a long time," said Harrell, a father of five and a grandfather of three. "Most parents will react to these results with shock and dismay. They'll say, 'I love all my kids, and I don't discriminate on the basis of attractiveness.' The whole point of our research is that people do."

###

Dr. Harrell is the executive director of the Population Research Lab at the University of Alberta. He can be reached at 780-492-4659 or aharrell@ualberta.ca.

---

See?

Social Security and you

I don't expect social security to be there for me in any significant way. And I believe that it's a bad thing as a whole. It's not the role of the government to make people save.

The thought process is that since Americans don't save voluntarily, if the feds don't make us save now, they'll have to pay for our upkeep after we have stopped earning an income.

My uncle John sent me the text of the following link. It contains an editorial originally in the Wall Street Journal. I have read it a few times now and, in all honesty, I need to read it a few more times. He thinks I'm much smarter than I am.

I'll let him introduce it:

"Below is an article in last weeks Wall Street Journal. I thought it was an idea that was likely to start getting some air time in Washington and appears to be a reasonable compromise on solving social security issues.

Like you, I'd like to have them pay what was promised. We all know that is mathematically impossible. This seems to be a workable solution. You should know about it.

Here's the deal, you are getting this email because you are likely to be asked one more time to solve a problem. Why? Because you are or will be successful. Hence, you are most likely to receive less from social security while others receive their promised benefits. The article below uses the term "progressive indexing". A fancy term for means testing. However, it takes from you in a way that is likely more palatable than raising taxes, currently or in the future, doesn't require the income limit to be raised beyond how Congress already changes the base, provides a workable solution to solvency, allows individual specific accounts and has much less effect on current deficits.
Enjoy.

Hope all of you are well. "

"When the late Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was asked why he favored personal Social Security accounts, he liked to answer in two words: "wealth inequality." That insight is also driving a useful idea now being tossed into the reform debate -- "progressive indexing." More

The other link concerns "designer social security." The gist of it comes down to options.

• Pick when you want to retire.
• Pick how much you want as a benefit when you retire.
• Pick how much you want to invest now.
• Pick where you want to invest your money.

New York Post article.

I like the idea of choices. It makes the concept of paying for people that didn't think of the future more palatable.

"Today is a good day"

How many times have you heard this conversation?

"How's it going?"
"It's Monday."
Or "Thank God it's Friday."
Or "At least it's payday"

For years I heard people answer that question with those answers or not even pay attention to the question and respond with an "OK" in passing. I actually found myself doing the same thing more often than not.

One day I realized that I was tired of the life I was leading myself into. Part of it was probably related to hearing the Dave Ramsey radio program. When asked by a caller how he was doing he answered "Better than I deserve." He thought about his response.

So I decided to start doing the same thing and answering questions with real thought.

I decided to be positive. I started out by thinking about the things that were making my life less than it should have been. I found that my life was pretty good. I have an awesome family. A job I love. Friends. Leisure time. Hobbies. I have a good life. The things in my days that were negative were fleeting.

After some introspection, I found that amongst time with family, time working, time sleeping, and general crappy-ness, most of my day was good. Very little was THAT bad. Most days are good days.

Then I made an internal scale of days. A great day is a day that has a child's birth. Another great day was my wife accepting my marriage proposal. The terrible day on my scale is the death of my little sister. She was born on my birthday and was the best gift I ever got or will ever get.

I know it's possible to have worse days. I'm sure mine can't compare with some. But that's my current scale.

So now, when people ask me how I am doing or a related question, I stop and think about the day so far. I think about my expectations for the rest of the day. I think about my scale. And I answer, "Today is a good day."

It's amazing how many people stop after hearing that response. Then they ask me why. It's easy to find something that made today good. Some days it may be that I woke up alive again. I have days like that too.

I've been doing this for a few months now. And I am hearing other people say it now. And I am seeing people smile when they say it; when they hear it.

The real point is that I am reminded by my own response every time I say it.

I believe that today is a good day.

Deep Fried Live!

This is the only on-line cooking show hosted by a cephelapod that I am aware of.

It's not veggie freindly, but some of the nicest people I know eat the dead flesh of animals.
Freaks.

New feature at Google

I love maps in general. I like looking at them and reading the names of places. Maybe following up with a little history about a joint.

So I saw thins and decided to share.

"Look ma! I can see my house from here!"


Map feature in Google


With satellite imagry!!

365 and a Wakeup

I don't recall where I ran across this blog article by a soldier deployed in Iraq. (I really should take better notes.) His post on why HE was in Iraq touched me. He's there because it's the right thing to do. And he tells it much better than I could.

"What SPC Frances said as he sheepishly stood before my desk staring at the floor was “Sir, you’re like, ummmm, you know, really smart. And you’re doing this when you could ummmm, you know, so many other things. Don’t you wish you were, ummm doing something better?”.

The question is one I’ve heard from several well meaning individuals, but never, ever from a soldier. If it were possible I would have torn the implicit assumption that question housed and crushed it beneath my muddy heels. Because wrapped in that question like two fat maggots in an otherwise perfect roast sits two false postulates that have poisoned many clear thinking individuals. The first deadly lie is that soldiers are stupid. The second is that the Army is a dumping ground for people with no other options.

I paused for a long moment after SPC Frances asked his question, unsure of how to answer the question and simultaneously leach its poisonous implications. . . [More]

He's why I support the troops; why I vote for the people I vote for; why I talk to people about why they should do the same.

There is evil in the world. People like him are the reason people like you and I don't have to deal with it. People like him are heroes.

Intimacy within a group of friends

I was talking last week with some friends about intimacy; how we as a group get together weekly and have been for years and there is still a hesitation to open up and be intimate with the group.

I think that the biggest deterrent that came up was a fear of being judged.

As usual, I have mixed feelings about this.

I think that as responsible people we have an obligation to judge. I think that a fear of being judged poorly is a control in our society. I further think that judging within a group will improve (more on this in a second) one's powers of judgment.

The hard part about judging is finding balance. I tell my kids that they should assume people are good. But I also tell them that if there a person who looks wrong walking toward you, move away from them. There's a thin line between reasonable pre-judging based on experience and wisdom and prejudice based on fear and stereotype.

I think there are things that we all want to do or have wanted to do in the past that society as a whole may not have approved of. Maybe things that aren't illegal but just not right. What defines "not just right"? Other people. Other people judging you. It's a good thing.

The function of group judgment should be wicked strong (as they might say in the Boston of my imagination). The trick there is the group that's doing the judgment. If the judging group is not a sampling of the greater whole; instead, is a group that might reinforce the behavior being judged; all benefits of judgment is lost. If the fear of being judged harshly is stopping a person from revealing a behavior, perhaps they need to evaluate stopping that behavior.

Group judgment does not have to be negative though. Positive reinforcement is likely and should be encouraged. The above points are just as valid (with the alteration of the anticipation of being judged positively in place of fear of poor judgment).

In regards to intimacy, the evening made me recall a . . . . Poem (?) from my youth that has stuck with me over the years.

It was written by Piers Anthony to a teenager who was in desperate need of love. He wrote about her in the author's note of Wielding Red Sword (Full Note). I extracted the poem here:

• Chapter One: Once upon a time, there was a little unicorn. She lived in a shell.
• Chapter Two: There was a funny thing about this shell. No one else could see it.
• Chapter Three: But to her, it was very heavy, as if an elephant were on it.
• Chapter Four: Sometimes that shell just seemed to crush all the happiness right out of her.
• Chapter Five: Of course, she wasn't really a unicorn, because little unicorns don't' live in shells.
• Chapter Six: She was really an alicorn, which is a flying unicorn. Her mane was brown.
• Chapter Seven: Alicorns live in shells, because they like privacy. When anyone comes near, they close.
• Chapter Eight: Of course that means that hardly anyone ever sees an alicorn, which is unfortunate.
• Chapter Nine: Because alicorns are really very special creatures, when they come out of their shells.
• Chapter Ten: But the little unicorn didn't know she was an alicorn. She wanted to die. 
• Chapter Eleven: This is because a magical creature who stifles her magic is in deep trouble.
• Chapter Twelve: No one else understood about this, because no one else could see the shell.
• Chapter Thirteen: Except for maybe on old centaur; but he was too far away to help.
• Chapter Fourteen: He hoped the little unicorn would learned to fly, before she learned to die.

For me, intimacy with people outside of family never seemed to be necessary. It never paid to get too close to anyone because either they would move or you would move. I was never that close to my extended family; didn't have any close cousins to confide in. Even within my own family I don't recall being very intimate. It's just the way I'm wired I guess.

I try though. I see the value in it. And I'm getting better all the time. Practice, practice, practice.

Reflections on the Pope's passing

Yesterday I got a call from a non-Catholic friend offering condolences on the passing of Pope John Paul II. Susan said that she got a similar email. It's good to see that people of differing faiths can come together in so many things but especially at a time of sadness.

I saw the Pope say mass once. Granted, I was like a mile away but I felt it was something special, almost magical. He was God's spokesman and he spoke to us. It rocked.

Everyone and their mother on the internet is saying something about him and his passing. And I think that more will be said as time passed and history has time to judge.

But for me, I think that he died peacefully, perhaps joyfully.

When I was a student at St. Mary's College (now University of St. Mary) I worked food-service at the Sister's of Charity Motherhouse. It was a nursing home for nuns. And when these women became sick and got ready to die, they were seemed very happy. Happy to leave the weight of weak bodies and slipping minds. They expressed that they were ready be with God after years of service.

How great is that? Not just that you have been saved, but you gave your life to Him and now you get your reward.

And those were just your average (!) everyday nun. I'm going to assume that even a man as humble as John Paul II is looking forward to a reward for a job done well.

Rest in peace and Joy Karol Józef Wojtyła. You deserve it.

--Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, secundum verbum tuum in pace
----Luke 2:29
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word

My wedding ring

Every day I drive to work and I notice my wedding ring.

I don't mean that I see my wedding ring. I mean that I notice it. I think about how lucky I am and how I am happy about the life I traded for the life I got.

There's a lot of pressure being a dad

Susan calls me and relates that Gwen was upset because the new water park wasn't going to be available at the ribbon cutting because the floor didn't cure right or some such thing.

Gwendolyn responds that they should call me, because I can fix anything.

Being a father changes how I look at myself. And all for the good, ya know?

I am fundamentally lazy. And I procrastinate. And I don't smile enough (especially when trying to be funny).

With children in the picture, I have to be a better person because I want them to be better people. I want them kinder, and smarter, and wiser than their old man. How else will they be able to take care of me in my dotage?

Chocolate Mpire

I know I'm a Star Wars geek. I'm better than most but I know I have a problem. But how can you resist when M&Ms are having promotions like the following link? I want DARK chocolate. I want to believe that Episode III will rock. Link

Penguin

If you have ever been in my house you know you can't ever have enough penguins. If you haven't been in my house, we have penguins. Everywhere.

From Jake Ludington's MediaBlab:

We may never learn if androids truly dream of electric sheep, but this cartoon short advocates the possibility of penguins dreaming of flight. Billed as, "A story of a penguin hoping for intergalactic voyages," this animated short demonstrates a boy's willingness to sacrifice to help his aquatic avian friend achieve his dream. Originally appearing on the CBC's Zed Open Source Television, which I assume is Canada's answer to public
access the imagery and backing soundtrack are both quite talented from the second offering by director Wojtek Wawszczyk. His other work, Mouse, also available through Zed is worth checking out too. Link

They Might Be Giants - Bloodmobile

From boingboing.net:

"Infringing teenager's awesome They Might Be Giants video"

"Dave Logan is a high school senior who just finished his latest animation, which is a music video for They Might Be Giants' excellent song ' Bloodmobile.' This is a really excellent video, and I hope we can all appreciate a good science song. I think this is pretty in-fringe-ified, but I imagine it's just a matter of time before it's available on the Giants' site. What's the status of student work and fair use anyway?"

Easter

The girls posing and hunting for eggs on Resurrection Day.

Pictures from Susan's trip to NY

Susan and the two little girls went to her home town of Lindenhurst NY to visit family. Here are their pictures . . .


PopPop, Miriam, and my nephew Logan in NY

Gwendolyn in NY with her cousin, Logan

Miriam in NY

G in NY

More snow in NY

Relaxing in NY

Poor Miriam, she thinks she's so cool

Gwen at the beach in NY

Multiplicity

Multiplicity is the newest software purchase I have made and it has made me so much more productive.

It's a hard application to describe. Mostly because people think they know what it is and go from there. But they usually miss it.

Multiplicity connect two seperate computers to one mouse and keyboard over a network.

Thnk of it as like a switch that gives focus to whatever PC you are using via the mouse.

What multiplicity is not:

• Remote desktop/remote control. Those systems allow you to bring a remote computer into the PC you are using. Usually in another window. Think pcAnywhere or VNC or Windows Remote Desktop. I use tightVNC to connect to the G4 Man at the house and Remote Desktop at work. Both rock.
• VirtualPC. VirtualPC is great for testing. I have every flavor of Windows since Win3.1 running in VPC. I run BeOS and some Linux distros too. Everything is networked together (except the Win3.1, I had to drop that but my WFWG is running)
• Dual monitors. We have these at work and they work well. You get twice the desktop. I work with developers that have code on one monitor and app on the other. It's pretty efficient.

Multiplicity is for people who have two or more PCs next to each other and want to use both. But they don't wnat to have to switch back and forth between mice and keyboards. Seemlessly.

I have a TabletPC that travels with me too and from the office. It's a good PC but it's a tablet, there are limitations. It feels slower. The keyboard is cramped. The touchpad is not a mouse.
So I do my heavy lifting with the desktop. But I want my portable (travel) work to be on the Tablet.

In steps MP. I can be working on the desktop and as I slide my cursor over to the side of the monitor closest to the tablet . . . the cursor jumps to the tablet and there I am.

I type on the keyboard plugged into the desktop and the keystrokes appear on the tablet.

I can copy and paste clipboard content; images, text. I use it to copy URLs a lot. and if I run a quesry on the desktop but want to send the email from the client on the tablet; copy and paste.

The Pro version (the one I use) also allows me to copy files among the PCs I have connected. I save something on PC1, drag my cursor across PC2 and continue an to PC3 where I right click and paste. There's my file. Nice.

Customer support from the vendor rocks. They are available via web forum, email, and IRC. ALL THE TIME.

If you have multiple PCs on your desk now I reccommend this product. (They are planning to support Mac an Linux in the near future for those of you who swing that way.)

DNRs, Living Wills, Wills, and Terri Shaivo

The Terri Schaivo case has been on my mind a lot the last few weeks. I am sure it's been on the mind of most Americans at some point or another.

How can it not? It touches on religion, the courts, the Congress, in-laws, children, civil rights. Somewhere in that mess every American must at least one opinion.

I . . . I have feelings and thoughts (note that I acknowledge the difference) about almost all of them. And I've reversed those thoughts and feelings a number of times. It's just a mess. And I feel so sad for the family. What a terrible place to be and to have been there for so long.

For the record,

1. I think that the only place the courts had a place was whether Michael Schaivo was a competent guardian and could speak for Terri. They did that. Move on.
2. Congress should be able to make all the laws they want but this case had all the law that was necessary beforehand. And it'll be interesting to see how fast the discussion gets dropped after Terri dies.
3. If Terri is brain-dead and her parents want to maintain her; let them. Get a proxy divorce Michael or whatever court order you need to get on with your life and move on.
4. Parents, let your daughter go.
5. Supreme Court - great job. Continue to focus on enforcing law and not making it.
6. Religious folks - decide if you believe in God's will or not. Act accordingly. If God wants Terri to stay alive, He'll take care of that. If He wants to take her home, why are you getting in the way?

And the fact is that all this could have been made so much simpler if Terri had made her wishes known before hand. I did a search on the internet and found all the forms required to make this situation clear for my family if not easy for them.

So in case it comes up and the forms can't be found. Please use emergency measures to keep me alive long enough to determine if I am going to have quality life. If I am going to be a vegetable, please pull the plug and move on with your lives.

Better yet, move me to Oregon and make use of the assisted suicide laws to put me down. Consider this my go-ahead. And I don't want my body to starve. That's barbaric. The doctors caring (not caring) for Terri should be disgusted with themselves.

And while we are on the topic of death, I would prefer cremation. I would like some of my ashes entombed with my sister Sarah. She was my birthday present and I'd like to be with her. I know it's goofy. But ask anyone that knows me; I'm goofy. If anyone else wants my ashes, you are welcome to them. [I have some of Sarah's on my dresser and they bring me . . . something. Not joy, or closeness, or anything that I can describe. But I'm glad she's there.]

So go out and do your own search.
Get the forms your state uses and fill them out. Pay the money if you can't find the free ones. Or send a notarized letter to someone.
Your death or incapacitation is going to be hard enough.
Make your family's life AND your death as easy as possible.
Do what you can.
Do something.
And tell the people that you love that you love them.
Because you never know.
DD
Texas forms

Susan is almost home

It has been a week but Susan is on her way home.

House is still standing. Older kids are alive.

What more could she ask for?



http://www.cheaptickets.com/trs/cheaptickets/flighttracker/flight_tracker_graphic.xsl

Browser Central - my second widget

From now on. . . .I save my posts before I submit. Blogger crash. Argh!!

Below is my second widget.

I thought my last (first) widget did what it was supposed to do. I wanted an app that could market the self-service tools that we were deploying yet be unobtrusive.
I think that I accomplished what I set out to do. But I thought it could be better.

Instead of describing what each tool did and launching a separate browser, why not integrate the browser into the app? Or if made full screen, use the browser as a kiosk?

So first a drawing:



I use the same template I used before (thanks Brad Wardell). Resize it a bit here and there.
I use the ActiveX control for IE and throw some script to accept URLs from the buttons.
I set the functionality of the buttons to send the URL.
Pretty much done at that point.

I moved the buttons from the side to the top to allow more screen space. I also grouped the forward and back buttons at the top. Why ,make a user go all over everywhere?

I didn't want to search the web for arrows that we public and matched so I used text to control going forward and back in the browser.

I used the TabletPC to create my own font based on my handwriting. DesktopX lets me embed the font (or whatever else really) into the object. So a user without my font, can still use it.

Things I would like to do (am thinking about doing): {updated}

• Show an alert if there is no internet connection. I added some code that puts up an alert box. Maybe do something about it?
• Show the descriptions of the tool (website in this example)
• I removed the minimize image in the upper right-hand corner and repalced it with a Under score. It looks more like a standard minimize button.
• I changed the setting on the title to allow it to move the whole app.
• I resized the buttons and lined up the text

Download: link
Requires DesktopX.