May 2005 Archives

On Faith and the Sith

May 30, 2005

Third time's... too depressing to be a charm, but Lucas finally got it right (well, more or less). Revenge of the Sith is a fitting end to a well-crafted storyline. The acting isn't perfect, a few things still seem more forced than they should be, but the story comes through loud and clear. A few hours after seeing the film, I remained haunted by the hunting of the Jedi, by the betrayal of Anikin, and most of all by his near death. And this all led me back to reflection on the nature of faith, my own in particular.

2^14

May 26, 2005

214— that's the maximum number of files in a folder on the Windows operating system. If you fill this up, you don't get any more (unless you move a few files to another directory). In layman's terms, that 16,384 files. Just thought you should know.

Think Global

May 23, 2005

Last Week Minnesota Public Radio, along with many other public radios stations, produced a series called Think Global, featuring a number of insightful pieces. The highlight of the week was Thomas Friedman's talk based on his book The World is Flat (1.5 hours, as I recall). There are several more pieces of audio I highly recommend. They are particularly good for while you're doing boring work that only requires a small amount of brainpower.

Cultural Creative

May 16, 2005

QuizFarm.com says that I'm a Cultural Creative:

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative

88%

Postmodernist

81%

Idealist

81%

Existentialist

75%

Fundamentalist

56%

Modernist

25%

Materialist

19%

Romanticist

19%

What is Your World View?

Salvadoran Coffee Saves Wildlife

May 12, 2005

Speaking of organic and sustainable farming... BBC has a great little article on how shade-grown coffee is helping preserve biodiversity in El Salvador. "The original forests of the tiny Central American republic have virtually disappeared, but its high-altitude coffee plantations provide refuge for a surprising variety of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians," they report. Its a great contextual introduction to some of the issues and benefits of shade grown and organic coffee.

Grocery Store Wars Now Online

May 11, 2005

Free Range Graphics has brought Grocery Store Wars back online!

Two Cokes Please: One Diet and One DP

May 8, 2005

People in the South believe that Minnesotans (and other Northerners, but particularly in the Upper Midwest) call cokes "pop" or "soda." But people here (Minnesota) don't seem to believe that Southerners, such as myself, call all fizzy fake/sugary beverages "coke." As in "We'll have 2 cokes please - one diet, and one Dr. Pepper." And now I have the statistics to prove it.

Grocery Store Wars and The Meatrix

May 3, 2005

In Austin, my little household had gotten to at least 50% organic and/or small manufacturer-produced food and cleaning products. Unfortunately we found prices to be much higher on average in Saint Paul, and being without incomes when we got here, we temporarily went back to regular groceries (but still animal-friendly health and cleaning products). Though it has hurt the wallet somewhat, we've finally gotten back to 50% or so. Thus it was that I felt self-satisfied eating my organic apple while watching Grocery Store Wars today. [Sadly the site is down now]

Happy May Day

May 1, 2005

2370219-1.jpgAnd happy Beltane too. Snow and sleet do not contribute to beginning-of-summer festivities (which these two festival days commemorate - May Day being English or Germanic and Beltane Gaelic in origin). But at least we have a house! Been busy cleaning the last few days. Haven't taken any pictures since we got there — but will soon. In the meantime, I'll celebrate with this really snowy picture. Today's snow didn't stick. This snow is from February.

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