"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

Year: 2011 Page 3 of 11

More fun with the commie professor

Day 99 of 1000

Commie profThe following is the transcript of Kelly’s texting from today’s class. It speaks for itself.

Kelly
in communism, ALL ppl who work a socially useful job get whatever they need whenever they need it
mantra switches from “me, me, me, s***w you” to “US”
we TRANSCEND
we are above the fray
8:58 AM

it’s a beautiful thought but should’nt we be free to choose whether we want to be selfish or sharing?
from the Marxist perspective there is no human nature

me
Exactly.  You are forced into stuff.  I work with my Russian buddies and they HATE communism.
9:02 AM

Kelly
how are you going to change human nature? it’s very unlikely that you’re going to change  you’re forcing everyone to subscribe to the same view… under capitalism you have the freedom to choose to be selfish or sharing
in capitalism you’re rewarded for being greedy. socialism is different
9:04 AM

Kelly
this guy thinks he’s so smartttt

me
They kill people off.

Kelly
how are you going to remove human nature from this equation?
9:07 AM

Kelly
the only ppl who are going to go to med school are the ones who want to help other people, not the ones who make money. socialism rewards people for making the right decisions
9:09 AM

Kelly
two things: who decides what’s right and what gets rewarded under socialism and how can you depend on the good of people if you know that people are so greedy? human nature is impossible to remove

Kelly
these kids are getting brainwashed

One more turkey cooking method

Day 98 of 1000

We were wildly successful using the combined Igor/Eric methods to cook our turkey at Thanksgiving last Thursday.  Tom, the CFO at our company said he uses an even better method to cook his turkey.  It sounds very good.  He says he got his recipe from Southern Living magazine.  He applies Crisco to the turkey, then heats the oven to 450 degrees.  As soon as the oven is at 450 degrees he puts the turkey in and immediately turns the oven down to 350 degrees.  After that, you watch the turkey until it is brown on the breast, then cover it with aluminum foil so it does not burn, then take it out when the meat thermometer in the thigh reaches 80 degrees.

Right when he explained this part of the process, Terrie, the Adminstrative Assistant walks in and says, “Did you know they now make butter flavored Crisco?”

We all agreed that would be a fine adjustment to his recipe.  I have decided that is exactly how I am going to do it when Lorena’s brother Jorge and his family visit in late December.  I need to have the Igor theory cooked turkey still in my mind when I cook this next turkey so I can have something for comparison.

Gladys goes home

Day 97 of 1000

Thanksgiving family photograph

Gladys will go stay with her dear friends in Hillsborough after meeting this afternoon and we will not see her until the next time she visits.  We had an incredibly good time.

The North Carolina Art Museum Rembrandt Exhibit

Day 96 of 1000

Gladys, Lorena, and I went to the Rembrandt exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art (Hat tip:  Andrew).  I do not have time to go into any detail.  Just suffice it to say it was AWESOME and we highly recommend the audio tour.  Rembrandt was an absolute genius and we are thankful for having had the chance to see this once in a lifetime exhibit.

Rembrandt exhibit at NC Art Museum

Results from Igor’s turkey cooking theory

Day 95 of 1000

Results from Igor's turkey cooking theoryWe used Igor’s temperature differential minimization technique to cook our turkey this Thanksgiving and came out perfect.  I would like to say that the results were conclusive, but I do not think I can.  It is going to take a whole lot more experimentation.  Here are the reasons:

  1. Our previous method was good enough to get our turkey right about 75% of the time anyway.  This might have just been one of those times.
  2. Eric’s pressure differential method was so appealing that we could not resist adding it to the mix.  Given that the control for this experiment was a method that managed neither temperature nor pressure differential, we are going to have to get help from Eric next year to design an experiment that helps us determines what percentage of the contribution to perfectly cooked, moist result was contributed by minimized temperature differential and what percentage was contributed by was contributed by minimized pressure differential.
  3. Now that we know that gravy comes from gravitational differential equalization, we tried to apply that theory, too, but were not sure we got it right.  Bryan’s level of technical sophistication on this topic far surpasses anything the rest of understand.  We will probably need several years of lessons from Bryan before we can get enough of a grasp of the concept to even be able to think about how to design an experiment to optimize it.

Stay tuned. I am going to try to develop a collaboration on this for next year.

A few Thanksgiving photos

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner.  Here are a few photos:

First the guests of honor.  We were profoundly humbled that Gladys was able to spend Thanksgiving with us.

Gladys Christie

Also my old boss Andrew and his (soon to be) veterinarian Sara.  We were especially thankful these people were so gracious to listen to Grandpa Milo’s and Dad’s stories. We are hoping they make this a tradition with us!

Andrew and Sarah

It does not seem like it is Thanksgiving if Grandpa Milo is not taking charge of the cooking.

Grandpa Milo Cooking

Lorena cooked, too!

Lorena cooks pumpkin pie

Grandma Sarah is her usual joyful self.

Grandma Sarah

Kelly gives instruction to Kiwi about not bothering the guests while they are eating.

Kelly and Kiwi

We all have a great time.  This must have been during one of Grandpa Milo’s “true” stories.

Lorena laughs

We sat at the table from about 2:30 PM to about 8:30 PM.  It was an awesome Thanksgiving!

After the meal

Update:  Warren (who is often with us for Thanksgiving) has a wonderful Thanksgiving post here.

Thanksgiving 2011

Day 94 of 1000

Thanksgiving Eve with Lorena, Kelly, andGrandma SarahThanksgiving Eve with Gladys, Christian, and Grandpa MiloLast night, we had a wonderful dinner of French onion soup, french bread, cheddar cheese, and pizza.  It sounds a little odd writing it, but it tasted great.  We all sat around the table and talked for a couple of hours after dinner, then made our way to the couch and continued talking until about 1:00 AM this morning.  We got the turkey in at around 9:00 AM.  Andrew and Sara will show up just in time for dinner.  I will put some cooking and eating pictures up later.

How gravy got its name

Blind babyIn the Igor’s turkey cooking theory post, Bryan made a comment that was truly educational.  In spite of the fact that he handicaps himself by using a Mac, his technical skills are so finely honed that none of the rest of us can do anything more than compete for second place.  I just had to share this comment about how gravy got its name.  It helps to read the post and all the comments to get some context.  You have to admit we are out of our league, Eric.  Here is the comment in all its glory.

I see you’ve covered the temperature and pressure differential’s, but you’ve left out the most critical: gravitational differential!  Immediately upon removal from the oven, the turkey, while still in it’s pressure differential sack, and before the temperature differential returns, should be inverted 180º (as in orientation, not temperature), for several minutes while cooling, to overcome the gravitational forces on the moisture that existed while cooking.  Any moisture that remains in the pressure differential sack, after the aforementioned gravitational differential reversal, becomes gravy.  (NOW you know why they call it gravy.)

Good intentions

Day 93 of 1000

My plan was to take some pictures of our visitors–Grandpa Milo, Grandma Sarah, and our dear friend Gladys–and post them here on the blog last night.  Grandpa Milo lost his luggage (it came to the house later that evening), we came home through heavy traffic, ate Lorena’s amazing Kung Pao Chicken for dinner, went to Gospel meeting, ate some chocolate chip cookies, and talked until midnight.  None of that should have prevented me from posting a few pictures, but everything was SO interesting and we were enjoying ourselves SO much, it just slipped my mind.  I will try to do better tonight.

It is GREAT to have them here.  I have decided that we really need to buy a mini-van for these kinds of visits.  Our total automobile capacity right now is eight people and that is just not enough.

It is great to have Grandparents at Thanksgiving

Day 92 of 1000

Grandpa Milo, Grandma Sarah, and Gladys (also a Grandma) will arrive at the airport this afternoon to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with us.  I am running hard right now, but life should slow down by later today.  I will have plenty of pictures to take and posts to write over the next few days.  I am really looking forward to it.

Igor’s turkey cooking theory

Day 91 or 1000

My boss is a brilliant physicist from Russia.  We go to lunch together just about every day.  We talk about a lot if different stuff.  A couple of days ago, I told him I was in charge of cooking the turkey at Thanksgiving this year.  I told him about my cousin, Tim Mecum, who was always willing to tell us when the turkey was too dry.  I have struggled with that for years.  Even when I use a meat thermometer or that little button that pops out on the Butterball, it does not always come out right.  Actually, I get it right about 80% of the time, but that other 20% makes for very sad Thanksgivings.  He said he had the perfect way to cook a turkey.

He said, “You need to take the thawed turkey out of the refrigerator and leave it on the counter the night before you cook it.”

I said, “Why?”

He said, “If there is a big temperature differential between the inside of the turkey and the outside of the turkey, it is hard to be sure that when the inside of the turkey is the right temperature, the outside of the turkey is cooked properly, too.  Because the turkey is cooked from the outside in, the outside dries more quickly than the inside.  The colder the turkey, the greater the differential during the cooking process.  If the whole turkey starts at room temperature, there is less differential during the cooking process than if the turkey starts at refrigerator temperature.”

We are going to test out that turkey on Thursday.  We will keep you posted.

Awesome new music find

Day 90 of 1000

Andrew posted this on his Google+ account. I like it a LOT.

I listened to some of his other stuff on YouTube. If you like this genre Justin Townes Earle is definitely worth a listen.

Update:  Should have known this was Steve Earle’s kid.  He sounds like he has had a rough life.  He surely is talented, just like his Dad.  I hope Justin’s politics are not as misinformed (I am trying to be gracious here) as that of his father, even though I love his music when I do not listen too closely to the words.

NCSU tuition increase causes serious hardship

NCSU caused hardshipNow that we found out NCSU is going to make dramatic tuition increases, Christian has decided he is going to make do with the equipment he had.  RWDub’s Reviews will be quite happy to know he uses Linux Mint on a USB stick to run the computer and persist his data between boots.  There is no money even for a hard drive.  It is good thing we had that old cardboard box from when we could afford to buy stuff from Amazon.  We are going to have dig up a mouse somewhere, too.

Cardboard box computer

Christian’s Multivariable Calculus Notes

Christian takes very cool note in his Physics and Calculus classes. He invented his own font (with serif) and is good at illustrating complex things. Here is an example:
Christian's Multivariable Calculus Notes

Computer travails: Why we are not rich

Day 89 of 1000

When it rains it pours.  Between Kelly and Christian, there are five research papers that need to be written between now and November 30.  That means most of Thanksgiving break will be spent at the computer typing.  In addition to that, there is math and physics quiz, test, and lab preparation.  Now, when I was in college (I cannot believe I said that), we did all of our studying out of books.  The kids still have their books, but they rarely even use their math or physics books as reference.  They do their homework at online services like WebAssign.  If they get stuck, they visit places like PatrickJMT and Khan Academy for tutoring and examples (they like PatrickJMT best).

So, earlier this week, Christian tells me his computer power cable is broken.  Again.  He plans to order a very nice computer between now and the end of the year and asks if he should just wait until then.  I say NO, NO, NO!!!  We are in the middle of the hardest part of a very hard semester and we cannot survive without one computer per person–Christian, Kelly, and Lorena for school and me for work.  In the meantime, Kelly’s cheapo Dell computer starts manifesting a line through the middle of her screen.  The computer is an absolute work of art but wildly not robust.  Christian takes it apart to fix it and now we need to buy another computer for Kelly now instead of in time for next semester.

Kelly's new ThinkPad E520Christian and I put our heads together and decided to buy something a little more robust than the cheapo (but very colorful) Dell girly computers.  We got here a factory refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad E520 for $384.01 — a smokin’ hot deal.  It will be here before Thanksgiving.  Kelly will HATE the color (black), but it is a WAY sturdier computer and has that cool ThinkPad logo embedded in the rubberized top of the computer that gives immediate seriousness cred–much better the foo-fooness cred that derived from her previous pink computer.  Christian’s cable should be here any day now.  In the meantime, we have to survive the weekend with a need for four computers and only two on hand.

Life is good during this cultural decline even if we do not understand it properly

Day 88 of 1000

I subscribe to Hillsdale College‘s free monthly speech digest, Imprimis.  It is a pamphlet size publication that advocates for conservative principles.  I think I must have signed up for a periodic email titled “In the News” from them because one of them shows up in my email box every now and then.  The last one featured an article titled Occupy Wallstreet Crowd Blind to Benefits of Capitalism by Gary Wolfram that was reprinted from the Media Research Center‘s Business and Media Institute blog.  It made reference to a funny Monty Python bit about how the Romans had not given the people they conquered anything but sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, and peace.

Wolfram goes on to explain the reason that capitalism works so much better than socialism and why so many people are confused about capitalism in similar way to the Monty Python skit:

The Occupy Wall Street movement has shown a lack of understanding of how the market capitalist system works. They appear to think that the cell phones they use, food they eat, hotels they stay in, cars they drive, gasoline that powers the cars they drive and all the myriad goods and services they consume every day would be there under a different system, perhaps in more abundance.

But there is no evidence this could be or ever has been the case. The reason is that only market capitalism solves the two major problems that face any economy-how to provide an incentive to innovate and how to solve the problem of decentralized information. The reason there is so much innovation in a market system compared to socialism or other forms of central planning is that profit provides the incentive for innovators to take the risk needed to come up with new products.
 
My mother never once complained that we did not have access to the latest Soviet washing machine. We never desired a new Soviet car. The socialist system relies on what Adam Smith referred to as the benevolent butcher and while there will undoubtedly be benevolent butchers out there, clearly a system that provides monetary rewards for innovators is much more dynamic and successful. The profit that the Occupy Wall Street protesters decry is the reason the world has access to clean water and anti-viral drugs.

My thought was that capitalism came out of a Christian worldview as did so many other incredible innovations and inventions.  I want my kids to understand that.

The commie prof promulgates the preeminence of the Gospel of Thomas

Commie professorWell, the commie prof is at it again.  Christian called me after class today to tells us their professor had told them that all the other gospels were based on the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas that is dated from around 150 A.D.  Many years after virtually all the gospels.  Only fringe scholars of the likes of Elaine Pagels and Marcus Borg hold to such a theory and it has been thoroughly debunked since it was popularized by the radical Jesus Seminar in the 1990’s.  Here is a link to an article by Craig Blomberg, a reputable New Testament scholar, that puts it all in context.  Here is a good lay level discussion of the topic by Tim Keller.

After that, our commie went on to say that their was too much time between when the events happened to when it was written down.  Christian told him that people who were alive when the events happened were also alive when the gospels were written down and that, in the case of John, there is an eyewitness account.  The prof’s response was to ask Christian if he could remember what he was doing seven years ago and then change the subject.  This is too pathetic even to take the time to post the links that refute this goofiness.  I wonder what he thinks we know about the life of Julius Caeser.

Update:  In the meantime, Kelly sends the following text message:

Hey Dad, the professor is crazy… he brought up the Gospel of Thomas which is like directly contradicted in my New Testament textbook, said that Cain and Abel were possibly homosexual and when Christian argued that the Gospels came from direct sources to Jesus and not from inaccurate oral traditions, he countered with “Well, do you remember what you were doing seven years ago?”

Update II: The kids walked out of their commie prof class and into their New Testament class.  The N.T. professor showed the Craig-Ehrman debate where Craig (to be very gracious) demonstrates that Bart Ehrman is either dishonest or not a serious scholar or both.  The title of the debate is “Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?”  You can see the debate on YouTube here.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving: Visitors and the Wurlitzer

Day 87 of 1000

Kelly's Wurlitzer Piano

For the first time in five years we will have a fairly big group of people at our house for Thanksgiving.  Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah will get here on Tuesday along with our dear friend Gladys Christie.  That makes seven and we expect to have an additional three to seven people beside that.  It is not as big as we did in Oregon, but it that is OK because we need a medium size one to get back in practice.  Lorena had me do a little work on a clogged shower and she has been preparing like crazy for a week.  Studies should slow down a little after the weekend, so I am sure she will put us all to work.

We purchased a Wurlitzer console piano for the family about eleven years ago for about $2500.  It was a big financial hit at the time, but has been an absolute joy ever since.  Kelly took piano lessons for ten years with that piano and Christian took three years of lessons as a little kid before he switched to guitar.  Kelly still plays the piano frequently, but, since she no longer takes formal lessons, we have let it get out of tune.  We decided that everyone would probably want to sing hymns or play the piano during Glad and Grandpa and Grandma’s visit we would use that as an excuse to get the piano tuned.  That happened on Tuesday so we are all set!

Luke at Sonlight experiences homeschool disconnect in his class

Landmark History of the American PeopleLuke Holzman over at the Sonlight Blog wrote a post about how he learned less about history in his traditional school than he did in homeschool.  That experience resonates with us.  See here, here, and here.  He talked about the Sonlight Core D & E Curricula that includes the Landmark History of the American People books. He is right and this is part of the reason we have been such big fans of Sonlight. They are awesome books and give a feel for history I have not seen anywhere else. Now if they could just kick that horrible Joy Hakim history curriculum to the curb and find a worthy replacement.  It was less than useless for us.

Cool stuff at work: Imaging an elephant with cataracts

Day 86 of 1000

Elephants at the zoo.I got to work sometime after 5:30 AM.  As usual, I was the first one to arrive, but the CEO of the company (Bioptigen) showed up shortly after me.  When I asked him what he was doing there so early, he said that he and two other colleagues were going to run down to the North Carolina Zoo to capture Optical Coherence Tomography images of the eye of one of the African elephants their because the opthalmologist from the NCSU Veterinary school needed them due to the fact that the elephant had cataracts.  How cool is that!?!!

I would like to say one of the elephants to the left is the one that got the eye check, but it was against the rules to use the pictures because when people see them with no context, sometimes they think the elephants are being badly treated.  Still, it was great to hear about it when everyone got back to the office.  The elephant they imaged was a 12,000 pound African Bull Elephant.  I will report back if I hear anything more about what happens

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