20041129
Long Time No Update
Hmmm. Been a whole week since I've updated. What have I been up to?
After I got off of work on Tuesday, I went back to Bloomington and Erika made a delicious dinner for us both. Then we went over to Matt Hottell's and played Pirates of the Spanish Main with Matt, Julie, and Chris. A great game. Unfortunately, I had 4 too many beers and got mad at Erika because she started attacking me. Actually, everybody at the table came after me with their ships. All because I was the only one that picked three ships instead of two + crew. I won anyway, but it seemed like a hollow victory. I still feel really bad about yelling at Erika.
We went to Dallas for Thanksgiving on Wednesday morning. We shopped some and ate A LOT. So much for the exercise I was getting before I left! Erika and I both picked up a couple of video games to while away the time between meals. We got to go to Fry's, which was cool, but not as cool as I had remembered it. May have been because my previous visit there was cut short, or it might have been because it was the Friday after Thanksgiving, and everyone and their monkey's uncle were out shopping.
My mom was thinking about opening a new restaurant in Plano, but my dad talked her out of it. Not sure if that's good or bad. There was certainly quite a bit of risk involved, but my mom seemed to really want to do it.
Speaking of family, we need to get my brother Dave out of Texas. I think it's making him crazy. Help would be much appreciated.
We left the State of Oversized Churches early Saturday morning, and got back in time to lounge about all afternoon and digest the copious quantities of food we consumed. We also did a little Christmas shopping and put up the fake Christmas tree I've had for something like 7 or 8 years. Man, that thing's starting to look a little sparse.
On Sunday, Erika and I slept in, had a late breakfast, moped around some, had some leftovers for a small lunch, raided the Super Target, got some groceries, and then met up with Robin and Austin for dinner at the Great Wall. Where we again gorged ourselves on Chinese food.
Austin and I went over to Cliff's to play Halo 2 a bit after dinner. I have to admit, the game's pretty fun. I wish I could dual-wield in Half-Life 2. Cliff is trying to talk me into getting an Xbox, and it's almost working... Damn his persuasive arguments!
Alright. That's it for tonight. Hopefully a bit less empty fluff in the next update.
After I got off of work on Tuesday, I went back to Bloomington and Erika made a delicious dinner for us both. Then we went over to Matt Hottell's and played Pirates of the Spanish Main with Matt, Julie, and Chris. A great game. Unfortunately, I had 4 too many beers and got mad at Erika because she started attacking me. Actually, everybody at the table came after me with their ships. All because I was the only one that picked three ships instead of two + crew. I won anyway, but it seemed like a hollow victory. I still feel really bad about yelling at Erika.
We went to Dallas for Thanksgiving on Wednesday morning. We shopped some and ate A LOT. So much for the exercise I was getting before I left! Erika and I both picked up a couple of video games to while away the time between meals. We got to go to Fry's, which was cool, but not as cool as I had remembered it. May have been because my previous visit there was cut short, or it might have been because it was the Friday after Thanksgiving, and everyone and their monkey's uncle were out shopping.
My mom was thinking about opening a new restaurant in Plano, but my dad talked her out of it. Not sure if that's good or bad. There was certainly quite a bit of risk involved, but my mom seemed to really want to do it.
Speaking of family, we need to get my brother Dave out of Texas. I think it's making him crazy. Help would be much appreciated.
We left the State of Oversized Churches early Saturday morning, and got back in time to lounge about all afternoon and digest the copious quantities of food we consumed. We also did a little Christmas shopping and put up the fake Christmas tree I've had for something like 7 or 8 years. Man, that thing's starting to look a little sparse.
On Sunday, Erika and I slept in, had a late breakfast, moped around some, had some leftovers for a small lunch, raided the Super Target, got some groceries, and then met up with Robin and Austin for dinner at the Great Wall. Where we again gorged ourselves on Chinese food.
Austin and I went over to Cliff's to play Halo 2 a bit after dinner. I have to admit, the game's pretty fun. I wish I could dual-wield in Half-Life 2. Cliff is trying to talk me into getting an Xbox, and it's almost working... Damn his persuasive arguments!
Alright. That's it for tonight. Hopefully a bit less empty fluff in the next update.
20041122
In Other News...
I quit my job today.
I've been with ACNielsen BASES for the past six years, since I graduated from college. My last day is December 10th. After that, I'll be starting up with IU's School of Continuing Studies doing web development with my buddy Cliff.
There are several factors involved in my leaving BASES, but the two biggest reasons are because Erika had no job opportunities in Cincinnati, and we didn't think we really wanted to live in there long term.
It's a little... weird, quitting the first job I've ever had. I'll definitely miss some of the people I've worked with at BASES. Hopefully we'll be able to stay in touch somewhat. They should all get blogs too, so we can find out what's going on with them at our convenience.
Blogging is such a great technology for "pull" social interaction, as opposed to the "push" methodology. People can come here whenever they want to find out about my life. They don't have to wait for me to send them an e-mail or call them or something. And if they comment on a post, I can comment back or get in touch with them directly. (Am I pimping the comments a little too hard here? Be honest.)
Er. I digress.
Anyway, if you're reading this, don't forget to update your contacts list. My BASES email address will no longer work after the 10th. Well, it might, but I won't be getting any of the messages. You can reach me at my Gmail account from here on out.
p.s.(My wife is hot!)
p.p.s.(I think maybe I have Attention Deficit Disorder.)
I've been with ACNielsen BASES for the past six years, since I graduated from college. My last day is December 10th. After that, I'll be starting up with IU's School of Continuing Studies doing web development with my buddy Cliff.
There are several factors involved in my leaving BASES, but the two biggest reasons are because Erika had no job opportunities in Cincinnati, and we didn't think we really wanted to live in there long term.
It's a little... weird, quitting the first job I've ever had. I'll definitely miss some of the people I've worked with at BASES. Hopefully we'll be able to stay in touch somewhat. They should all get blogs too, so we can find out what's going on with them at our convenience.
Blogging is such a great technology for "pull" social interaction, as opposed to the "push" methodology. People can come here whenever they want to find out about my life. They don't have to wait for me to send them an e-mail or call them or something. And if they comment on a post, I can comment back or get in touch with them directly. (Am I pimping the comments a little too hard here? Be honest.)
Er. I digress.
Anyway, if you're reading this, don't forget to update your contacts list. My BASES email address will no longer work after the 10th. Well, it might, but I won't be getting any of the messages. You can reach me at my Gmail account from here on out.
p.s.(My wife is hot!)
p.p.s.(I think maybe I have Attention Deficit Disorder.)
Knowledge of Good and Evil
The first in our Philosophy series...
What is Good, and what is Evil? Are there absolute definitions for these two terms? Can Good and Evil be generalized, or is it a cultural thing? Obviously morals are subjective, but there is definitely a general consensus. For example, murder is evil. Stealing is evil. Helping other people in need is good.
So I've come up with a General Theory of Morality and I hope to put it to the test here.
Good is defined here as the sacrifice of self for others in a community. Conversely, Evil is defined as the sacrifice of others in that community for one's self.
While most people look at Good and Evil as part of religion, I tried to approach this definition by looking at things that societies consider good and evil. From there, I looked at why a society would come to those conclusions. I think this theory generalizes it pretty well.
Over the course of the development of human society, we can look at morality as another set of laws governing social interaction. These rules were agreed upon by groups of people living together in order to overcome obstacles and grow the community.
As humanity evolved socially from families to tribes to towns to cities to nations, the people in those societies needed rules and re-assurances that people would act in a somewhat predictable manner. In other words, you needed to know that some stranger on the street is not going to want to club you over the head and take your stuff.
So Good came about as a way to encourage people to work together and advance their community. Evil is discouraged in turn because it would disrupt the community.
Let's take a simple case: Theft. People might try to justify it in different ways, but stealing is generally agreed upon as wrong. It's Evil. Why? Well, if stealing is not discouraged in a community, there is no trust within that community, which hampers social interaction within the group. Inevitably, the lack of trust would cause that community to fracture. Thus, in order for a group of people to advance their society, they need to discourage behavior contrary to its growth and encourage behavior that would further the culture.
[Blog getting long, so one last thing for now.]
It's important to note that even though this is a general theory of morality, it is still applied in a subjective, relative sense. For instance, I think it's safe to say that killing someone to take their belongings is Evil. However, killing someone to defend your country is not quite so clear cut. The distinction there really depends on how you define "community". If you define community as humanity in general, then you'd probably think that war is evil. If you define your community as your country, versus some other community, then you probably don't have much of a problem with war.
That's enough for now. I can take this further depending on comments...
What is Good, and what is Evil? Are there absolute definitions for these two terms? Can Good and Evil be generalized, or is it a cultural thing? Obviously morals are subjective, but there is definitely a general consensus. For example, murder is evil. Stealing is evil. Helping other people in need is good.
So I've come up with a General Theory of Morality and I hope to put it to the test here.
Good is defined here as the sacrifice of self for others in a community. Conversely, Evil is defined as the sacrifice of others in that community for one's self.
While most people look at Good and Evil as part of religion, I tried to approach this definition by looking at things that societies consider good and evil. From there, I looked at why a society would come to those conclusions. I think this theory generalizes it pretty well.
Over the course of the development of human society, we can look at morality as another set of laws governing social interaction. These rules were agreed upon by groups of people living together in order to overcome obstacles and grow the community.
As humanity evolved socially from families to tribes to towns to cities to nations, the people in those societies needed rules and re-assurances that people would act in a somewhat predictable manner. In other words, you needed to know that some stranger on the street is not going to want to club you over the head and take your stuff.
So Good came about as a way to encourage people to work together and advance their community. Evil is discouraged in turn because it would disrupt the community.
Let's take a simple case: Theft. People might try to justify it in different ways, but stealing is generally agreed upon as wrong. It's Evil. Why? Well, if stealing is not discouraged in a community, there is no trust within that community, which hampers social interaction within the group. Inevitably, the lack of trust would cause that community to fracture. Thus, in order for a group of people to advance their society, they need to discourage behavior contrary to its growth and encourage behavior that would further the culture.
[Blog getting long, so one last thing for now.]
It's important to note that even though this is a general theory of morality, it is still applied in a subjective, relative sense. For instance, I think it's safe to say that killing someone to take their belongings is Evil. However, killing someone to defend your country is not quite so clear cut. The distinction there really depends on how you define "community". If you define community as humanity in general, then you'd probably think that war is evil. If you define your community as your country, versus some other community, then you probably don't have much of a problem with war.
That's enough for now. I can take this further depending on comments...
20041120
Working the Weekend
Meant to post something more than that test yesterday, but things got a smidgeon out of control at work and I was too tired by the time I finally made it back to Bloomington to do much. Went off to dinner at the Encore right after I got in to town. (Had some crazy tofu and noodle dish. Dug the tofu. Little unsure about the noodles.)
Erika, Ryan, Matt H and I decided that we'd run over to the Movie Gallery and rent a movie. I think we rented Saved and Bubba Ho-Tep, but we didn't watch either of them. Instead, Matt and I ran back to his place and picked up a bunch of his DVDs and brought them back to our place. We ended up watching HellBoy. Ryan hadn't seen it yet, and the rest of us enjoyed it enough to watch it again. I still think they rushed through the ending, making for an anti-climactic experience.
Well, I'm ostensibly testing a release for work over Citrix, but I'm feeling a bit less than motivated. After I finish testing the release, I'm supposed to help Erika clean, in preparation for the arrival of her brother and grandmother later today. They're bringing furniture. A shrunk. Yeah.
I'd better get cracking. Next post: Something Philosophical. Or a review of Half-Life 2.
Erika, Ryan, Matt H and I decided that we'd run over to the Movie Gallery and rent a movie. I think we rented Saved and Bubba Ho-Tep, but we didn't watch either of them. Instead, Matt and I ran back to his place and picked up a bunch of his DVDs and brought them back to our place. We ended up watching HellBoy. Ryan hadn't seen it yet, and the rest of us enjoyed it enough to watch it again. I still think they rushed through the ending, making for an anti-climactic experience.
Well, I'm ostensibly testing a release for work over Citrix, but I'm feeling a bit less than motivated. After I finish testing the release, I'm supposed to help Erika clean, in preparation for the arrival of her brother and grandmother later today. They're bringing furniture. A shrunk. Yeah.
I'd better get cracking. Next post: Something Philosophical. Or a review of Half-Life 2.
20041119
This Is A Test
This is a test of the Mail-to-Blogger Email Posting System. This is only
a test. In the event of an actual post, there would be something worth
reading here. But there's not. Move on.
a test. In the event of an actual post, there would be something worth
reading here. But there's not. Move on.
20041118
Post II
I am so prolific.
Peformed the aforementioned twiddling on my settings. Will probably change them again soon. I'm supposed to be finishing up an access control DLL for work. It'll be used in all of our apps to lock users out if they're running the wrong version. Pretty basic stuff, really. Well, except that I can't remember how to use data readers in VB.Net.
Obviously blogging is time much better spent. Wonder what Erika will think of me having a blog. Maybe she'll get one too.
In the meantime, check out my friend Rachel's blog. She's a far better writer, what with having a Ph. D in English and all.. SMRT.
---
Got a gmail account today. I've been wanting one for months now. A billion thanks to Matt Hottel for sending me the invite. Oh, the things I could do with a gig of mail storage. Actually, what interests me is not so much the high capacity as it is Google's alternative take on e-mail. Ought to be good. Time will tell.
A'ight. Back to the grind.
Peformed the aforementioned twiddling on my settings. Will probably change them again soon. I'm supposed to be finishing up an access control DLL for work. It'll be used in all of our apps to lock users out if they're running the wrong version. Pretty basic stuff, really. Well, except that I can't remember how to use data readers in VB.Net.
Obviously blogging is time much better spent. Wonder what Erika will think of me having a blog. Maybe she'll get one too.
In the meantime, check out my friend Rachel's blog. She's a far better writer, what with having a Ph. D in English and all.. SMRT.
---
Got a gmail account today. I've been wanting one for months now. A billion thanks to Matt Hottel for sending me the invite. Oh, the things I could do with a gig of mail storage. Actually, what interests me is not so much the high capacity as it is Google's alternative take on e-mail. Ought to be good. Time will tell.
A'ight. Back to the grind.
First Post!!
W00t!
It's been a busy week, but I finally broke down and got myself a blog. Of course, this would be rather meaningless if no one ever read the blog. So if you're here, please post a comment on how to best pimp my new blog.
Going to go twiddle with the settings now. First thing any geek does with a new toy...
It's been a busy week, but I finally broke down and got myself a blog. Of course, this would be rather meaningless if no one ever read the blog. So if you're here, please post a comment on how to best pimp my new blog.
Going to go twiddle with the settings now. First thing any geek does with a new toy...
