The Nameless

 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am heavily involved in the evolution/ID-creationism debates online. Even though I am no scientist, rather instead a budding historian, I am staunchly on the evolution side of the debate. However, this being said, I enjoy the back and forth discussion over evidence and have found it possible to agree to disagree peacefully with people on the other side of the debate. There is, however, one tactic used in the debate primarily by creationists, although I have seen evolution supporters use it as well, that never fails to offend me both as a historian, and as a human being. I honestly hate to single out the creationist side of the debate for the use of quote mining. However, in my participation in the debates on line, 95% of the quote mining is from the creationist side of the debate. This tactic is quote mining. Quote mining simply is taking a snippets of a book or article radically out of context to use to support your position. Take this quote t...

Sine qua non. Translated from Latin it means “without which, not.” In colloquial English it means deal breaker. In my recent job search, my own sine qua non, was that I would be able to go to school while working. I have succeeded in this quest, and am now working and going to school full time again. Granted with the inclusion of my Sine qua non, my job search took longer, but in the end, I got what I was looking for, and am happier for it. The only downside, from working full time and going to school is that I am fucking tired a lot of the time. Granted, this may be because of the fact that I have not gotten used to the new sleep schedule. I get between five and seven hours of sleep in an afternoon/evening. However, I have only had this schedule for a week or so, so in a few more weeks, everything should be golden. Also, I am retaining what I learn in class, so that is good. I should be updating this more often, as I have the feeling that I will have a lot more to write about. In g...

Last weekend was a good time, I took my daughter to the renaissance festival. Normally when I go to faire, I hang out with my friends at the White Heart or the Dragon inn. However since I had my daughter with me, I did not want to do that since she would have been bored out of her skull, and besides it would not have been fair to her. So while I did pop in to the taverns from time to time to visit with friends, most of my time was spent seeing what faire had to offer. We went to shows, I played games with my daughter, we even took in the joust. All in all I have not had this much fun at faire in years. I had a geek proud poppa moment at faire. The thing Morgan was most excited for at faire was the joust. All of the way there and back she could not stop talking about it. Furthermore she has said that she wants to become a knight, not a princess, a knight. She wants to wear plate mail, joust, and fight with a sword and shield. After I explained to her what it was, Morgan said that sh...

I am pleased. I put together my new telescope today, and after some trouble figuring out how to work the equatorial mount, went viewing the stars tonight. My list of objects viewed is as follows: The Moon Jupiter The Pleiades (M 45) Aldebaran Vega Altair The only problem was that the light pollution of the harvest moon, and the lights were I live, made viewing difficult. However viewing should be better as the moon wanes, and I know several places in the area were general light pollution is lessened. I cannot wait for the winter constellations to start rising earlier. The Crab and Orion nebulas will be easily visible, as well as a myriad other objects. I know there are just as many in the summer sky, but I know the winter constellations better, and it will be easier finding guide stars. In his book, The Varieties of Scientific Experience, Carl Sagan quotes the poet Edward Young “The undevout astronomer is mad.” Now I do not wholly agree with that statement, as I am not a religious pe...

Was just told in my Greek art and archeology class that the midterm will be pushed back to Friday. Well, good, except that I already have a midterm on Friday ten minutes after my Greek art and Archeology class is complete. This is just lovely, really I mean it. I swear by the time Friday evening comes round I will be drooling mess, ugh so not looking forward to it. At least Crisy has promised me a nice dinner on Friday night. On the good news I am doing well in both of the classes that I have midterms in, and more importantly,I think, I understand the material, so all in all things should go well. So once the midterms are over, Saturday I will start my big research paper for my Intro to the study of history course. The rough Draft is due 4/2 however they only want about five pages double-space. So all in all I am busy busy.

 

 

Sigh, I really should be taking notes for the class I am sitting in. However we are discussing the trades in the book I just spent the last few days reading, digesting, and re-reading, I think I have a pretty good handle on this particular subject. Was talking with my wife, Crisy, and half seriously suggested that once we finish our degrees that we sell our house and move to the Canadian Maritime s. I thinking that this maybe a fabulous idea. Neither of us really have ties here anymore. Still it is something to consider.

Well, I think I am finally getting the hang of this full time classes thing. Before when I was at HCC I was only taking two classes. This made it easy to focus on one class or the other. Now however that I am full time, I have to spread my focus out over four classes. I am getting a handle on it but the transition has been difficult. So, now I sit waiting for my Physical Geography class to start, it's interesting. Fortunately this classes grades are based on three tests, and class participation so no papers! thank god, I have enough writing to do in my other three classes.

So I invested in a Asus Eee PC netbook for taking notes, and writing at school. Because well, sometimes even I cannot read my own hand writing. I have used it for two different class periods so far and it has been a godsend. Although I am still getting used to its smaller keyboard, so I am making more typos than usual, but at least I can read what I am writing! Speaking of writing, I am writing a ton in my Greek art and archeology class. About twice a week my professor assigns study questions, that usually wind up being 2.5 to 3 pages typewritten single space. It is worth it though as I am learning an awful lot about bronze age Greece, the Minoan, and Cycladic civilizations. Especially the art and architecture. It is a fascinating class.

I have been back in school now for almost a month now and am very busy. I am definitely working harder than I ever did at HCC but it is worth it. For the first time in about ten years I feel that I am going somewhere with my life and it is good.

Gah, getting used to a daylight schedule again kind of really sucks. Especially after ten years of working nights. I am not really sleeping well at night as I feel I should be up and about doing things, and I am dragging during the day as I really should be sleeping. Then again however, that’s how I was before I was working nights. I guess I can’t win for losing. Speaking of sleeping at night, I must say that I really love my Doberman mix, Jasmine. She is the best dog I have ever owned. However, she has discovered the best way to wake daddy up , when she has to go potty, is sit over him and stare, and occasionally shuffle her two front paws. Now since Jasmine is a Doberman mix, she has the full Doberman markings. Namely she is all black, with tan around her jaws, paws, some on her chest, and of course the two tan dots on her eyebrows. Now, why this is so effective, is that in the dim light of our bedroom at night. When I finally become conscious of her looming over me, the first thin...

updated links, it has been a while since I have used this space.

I think having this blog will be useful now, giving the direction my life has taken. On 11/25 I was notified that I was being laid off of my job. My official last day at the office was today, Merry Christmas. All things considered though I think that this is a positive thing. I had been basically stagnating at work for about ten years or so. I hadn't been happy in about six years, and had not really cared for about four. To paraphrase the movie "Office Space" I was doing just enough not to get hassled by my bosses, or get fired. A topic for another post is why I never pursued advancement at my job. Trust me I have stories about my former place of employment. Now however the future is wide open. I have chosen to forgo rejoining the job market, and finish up my B.A. degree. If you have been following this blog at all, you would know that I am in school. This semester I applied for and was accepted as a transfer student at UMBC. In fact, I received the acceptance letter a...

 

 

Been slacking on my promise to write something everyday, meh. Anyhow, the semester is over, and my overall GPA is a 3.5. I got an A in the lecture portion of the astronomy class which honestly surprised me, but I’m not complaining. This lowers my overall GPA from a 3.86 to a 3.85 and after discussions with Crisy and Mom I have decided not to retake the lab. Instead I will be focusing on transferring out of HCC to a four year school, which one? I do not know yet. I will have to visit schools and decide, that is one my projects for the summer. On a related note, Crisy asked me if I wanted to join Mensa. I am easily smart enough if all the assessments and IQ tests I have taken over my life are correct, but honestly I have no real desire to join Mensa. The thing is, all of the Mensa groups and members I have come into contact with, do not do much of anything, save sit around and feel smugly superior because of how smart they are. I really do not need to join Mensa to feel smugly superio...

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo .

Well, it's certainly been awhile in updating this blog. I am really going to attempt to update more often, as writing something everyday will probably help me become a better writer. So, what has been going on in my life? Well for starters, I just finished another semester at school, I took Astronomy and it associated lab course. It looks like I will be getting a B in the lecture portion of the course, which is fine, and a C for the lab, which I cannot accept. I will more that likely retake the lab course to improve my grade. I lost focus this semester, although my work was solid, and calculations were spot on according to my teacher, I just did not turn in the assignments. That is personally unacceptable and I can and will do better. For the first time In my life, I have a good GPA (3.86) and I will not allow myself to ruin it. In other news I read something interesting last night. Apparently anthropologists believe that given enough time, humans can out run any other animal on...