If you haven't already done so*, go vote today.

And if you don't know where to vote, Google can fix that for you.


*Provided you are registered to vote in the US election.

If you live in Indiana and haven't registered to vote, today's the last day to do so. You can register to vote here*.

*Yes, this is through Obama's site. If you're paranoid they will drop you because you're a Republican**, you can go to the Official Indiana Registration page, but it will involve you hoofing it to get it postmarked today.

**No, I don't believe they even ask, but I've known some paranoid people on both sides of the political divide.

But today's Sinfest I find amusing...

See, he has made this thing. Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog.


The first episode is out today. Very much recommended.

This American Life does a good show on how it happened and why it happens. A bit of a long listen, but good.

From Hebrew
( Most were more amusing in class )

And this was supposed to be posted yesterday.. :D

Sometimes, very occasionally, the Academic and the "Real World" align rather well.

As of late, I'm sure most have been introduced to Sen. Obama's former paster, Rev Wright. The media's obession with his 'bombastic' speach is interesting but at the same time it helps illustrate something I've noticed before: Most people have no idea what the Bible says.

Rev Wright recently has done some interviews to explain the exerpted You-Tubed comments of his that were all over the airwaves the last few weeks. Adventus has some longer exerpts from those appearances as well as some commentary on them.

Listening to the questions, and the responses, it struck me how little people know about what the Bible, both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, actually say. To further back this up, my Hebrew course this semester has been focusing on Ezekiel.

Ezekiel and the prophets I think we tend to forget about because they say a lot of things that might make us uncomfortable. And when we do look at them, we insist their message was for a specific group of people in history and can't be applied to us.

Micah calls for us to "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God" after suggesting that all the pomp, ceremony, and ritual is precisely what God is not interested in. (Micah 6:6-8) Hosea tells us God wants mercy more the sacrifice. (Hosea 6:6) Other prophets extort their audiences to protect the poor, the oppressed, the alien, the widow and the orphen.

And for bombastic language, well, here's Ezekiel 22:23-31:

The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, say to it: You are a land that is not cleansed, not rained upon in the day of indignation. Its princes within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it. Its priests have done violence to my teaching and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Its officials within it are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord has not spoken. The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the alien without redress. And I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; I have returned their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord God.

And if you think that calling the leaders "wolves" that "tear prey" is tamer than what is being said now, Ezekiel 16 gets very raw. (And when it translates things all 'nice' as "fornication" and "harlotry", they're the same word and I think "harlotry" and its other forms are being used because they sound more... Academic than dropping F-bombs.)

So I read through Rev Wright's sermons, and I hear some of them via YouTube and I think... What's the big deal? Not only is the same sort of language that is throughout the Bible*, but I would think that it should be used. Part of the "mission" of religion is to challenge us to be better than we are, and we can't do that without someone pointing out uncomfortable things to us.

And how is it that Rev Wright (and Obama) get called to task for "God damn America" while Rev Hagee (and McCain) don't get called to task for blaming Katrina on Americans (gays, specifically)? Or the many that say that 9/11 was God's wrath on the US for it's permissiveness?

---

*Heck, Christ calls the priests a "brood a vipers" or more loosely from the greek "bastards of snakes", as the word "brood" meant illegitimate offspring. Matthew 3:7 and others

From nessers
What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" byLibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you looksmart or well-rounded.

( Books! )

Tristero has a post up on why torture is immoral.

And I'm not sure I have a whole lot to add, except I miss when torture was something third world countries and the medieval world did, not my own country.

Go to YouTube and click any of the "featured videos" today.

I'm amused.

I don't post much. :P

Leaving today for a conference. One for me for once.

Hopefully, it will give ayradyss a much needed break from doctor'ing.

And now to corral the 1-yr-old and keep packing.

I picked up the Wii version of Guitar Hero III (finally). It's a blast. :)

I'm mildly curious what the downloadable content that's "coming" in March will include. (Also, there's an all Aerosmith game coming out in June. We'll see, but that is sorely tempting, just 'cause it's Aerosmith. Though I'm trying to figure out why people were complaining that it would only be people in their 40s buying it...)*

Oh, and the iPods ayradyss and I ordered on Saturday came today. I'm very impressed, since they were in Shanghai on Monday.


*Though, as an aside, I do much better on the less-than-modern songs. Anything in this Millineum seems to hose me with some unexpected rhythms.

So, for the curious, the adventure in cooking on Friday was a New York style cheesecake made from scratch. (Yes, I'm masochistic when it comes to cooking things.)

It turned out v. yummy, though next time I might shave a couple minutes off the high-temp parts to try to prevent it from getting quite as dark. (Just for appearances, really.)

And we learned that Miri likes cheesecake. She wanted all I would give her for a while. Bite for me, bite for her, bite for me... etc.

Will have to make another one. (Though I can see why it's expensive to buy one. 2 1/2 pounds of cream cheese isn't exactly cheap, especially if you buy hippie cream cheese [read: organic] and cage-free eggs [the store I stopped at didn't have the local ones I usuall buy].)

Here's hoping that the oven doesn't eat my surprise. If it does, I'll be very put out.


(Oh, and the batter? >>> cookie dough)


(No, I'm not going to tell what I'm baking.)

From "What Privileges Do You Have?", based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Indiana State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

http://wbarratt.indstate.edu/

Bold the true statements.

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
9. Were read children's books by a parent
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp (on scholarship and without)
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18 (Note: as the oldest child I avoided this, my siblings not so much)
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single family house
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child.
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course (Took the SAT in 6th grade but never did a prep course for it)
28. Had your own TV in your room in High School
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
35. You had access to a computer at home while growing up.

I've been very blessed. And it's interesting how many of these are already true for our Akachan...

Edit: Forgot to remove comments from moriarty6...

A wonderful time with New Years, as always. I missed it last year and apparently was missed at the party. And my World of Darkness Heroes game worked well enough (though certain abilities were a bit... strong).

Now, I suppose there are resolutions to be made and try to be kept, cleaning up the Christmas debris from the house, and watch our little akachan grow up even more. She's almost one and it's hard to believe how much she's changed in just a year.

And so I'm writing, which I think I'm going to make a higher priority than it was before. Mostly because I miss the debate about current events and also because I think it will good for me to write more than I do.

Part of that are character journals, which I'll tack on to the end of this entry (the first two anyway) from the newly started D&D game. I'm sharing that on our Ning (which if you're in the area and want an invite to our gaming community, let me know), but I think you have to be a member there to see them.

There's also the typical resolution-esque things of weight loss, exercise, and the like. I think I might also look into guitar lessons. I tried them back in college but didn't practise. I think if I'm paying for them I'll probably put more effort into them. At least, I'd like to. (And I'm not sure I had a good match for my teacher at the time.)

( Eshan's Journal )

Edit: I can has spellings?

No, this isn't something on the current season. Rather, I got into Heroes very late (umm... watching episodes online last summer?). I'm about 4-5 episodes into Season One and for obvious reasons, I don't want to just hop in to Season Two. And NBC took down the web episodes of it when the DVDs came out... :p

I don't suppose there are locals that might have the DVDs or something else...
<.<
>.>

So yeah... I ask because I've been watching Chuck, caught up on the season early online, and now... well, Heroes is immediately after it. And I have to force myself to turn the TV off before the show starts.

Oh, Chuck? It's fun and I actually like it. That might be the large Nerd factor in it, though. ;)

From Fresh Air, an interview with the director and the star of Ratatouille.

And yes, as fortuna_juvat said, just wait until they get to "grok".

Via Atrios, from The Carpetbagger Report

“The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

Yeah. ERs are great, aren't they? I mean, they legally -have- to treat you if you're not stable. We'll ignore that a bill follows. We'll ignore that if you can't pay that bill taxpayers pay that. We'll ignore that if they were to have a physician see them in the office regularly (or as regularly as anyone else goes to the Dr) it would be far cheaper for taxpayers than a hospital visit...

I get the feeling he doesn't know how the system works. But then, talking with ayradyss I get the feeling no one in goverment knows how it works.