JFM Journey Posts

I own a home ... And It's So Cool!

emperor@antarestrader.com — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:22:10 +0000

Yes, we are moved in but not unpacked yet. The walls need a layer of paint, and we need to add some furniture before everything can be put away, but there are lots of things that we are enjoying. This weekend we did yard work, And it's so Cool! I don't promise to always enjoy this, but putting together a yard that has not been maintained in a year is very satisfying especially when it is your own.

I, in particular enjoy being able to make changes without having to worry about "the next renter." I am removing or abandoning in place lots of extra coax cable. The last owners had a TV in every room and instead of doing the usual thing and just putting a plug in the wall, they ran coax all over the place. A lot of the ugly wires are now gone, and more will go once I get a ladder.

There is just something so nice about knowing you can make the decisions, even if you have to live with the consequences.

We own a house!

emperor@antarestrader.com — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:05:14 +0000

Our Real Estate agent just called. After 4 month of paperwork and heartburn, we now own our own house. It will still take us some time to move in, but it's ours now. Look for more posts on this topic soon.

Back form the Dead

emperor@antarestrader.com — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:33:38 +0000

This happens every so often. I get busy with other things and blogging takes a back seat for a while. This time it was the combination of a new job, Christmas (see new job and Buying a house.

Beth and I are buying our first house, and the sale will close by the end of the week. It is a cute 2 bed/2 bath halfplex in South Natomas. It has a small yard where Beth can play with her plants, a garage which we have promised to keep at least on car in, and a nice kitchen with more counter space.

Unfortunately, buying a house, especially buying one with help from the federal government, takes a lot of time and effort. We have had great helop from our real estate agent, Jennifer Hayes at Lyon Real Estate and Nancy Rich with Comstock Mortgage. This is a very difficult market to buy a house in, but if you can put in the effort, there are some really great deals. I enjoyed telling our landlady that we would be paying less per month for our mortgage then rent!

I have a lot of ideas in the post queue, and now that life has settled down I hope I can push a few more public. We will see.

Book Review: The Gathering Storm

emperor@antarestrader.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:40:39 +0000

The Gathering Storm is the 12th book in the Wheel of Time series begun by Robert Jordan with The Eye of the World nearly 20 years ago. Mr. Jordan passed away in 2007 without having completed his epic work. His widow and editor chose Brandon Sanderson to finish the story using detailed notes and partial manuscripts left by the late author. I have been reading this series sense 1998, and it has been an anxious four years waiting for the next installment.

This Review is Spoiler Free. At least as far as plot is concerned, I do intend to mention which characters are in the book however.

Couch to 5k Uppdate

emperor@antarestrader.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:33:49 +0000

Day 3 of my third week of couch-to-5k workouts is now in the bag. So far I am enjoying getting back in shape. It has also been fun to follow other c25k runners on twitter and the forums. I got started with this whole thing when a number of Ruby programmer started talking about getting in shape with a program that assumed a couch-potato starting point. I have had a few insights sense I started and, I've modified the rules to fit with my style and needs.

Thoughts on Obama's Nobel

emperor@antarestrader.com — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Headlines this morning all were about Pres. Obama being announces as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. I actually heard about this on twitter where I was going to post my successful completion of week two of the Couch-to-5k program. Twitter is one of those great instant response tools for news like this. Most of those who felt the strongly enough to write 140 characters on the subject were not pleased nor for that matter was the Washington Post which was the top result on Google news when I looked.

I must admit I was surprised by the announcement as well. I voted for Mr. Obama because I agreed with him on a philosophical level more then a political one. I voted for a president who successfully had empowered the powerless. I voted for a leader who was committed to honest and effective diplomacy before the use of economic or military cohesion. I also voted for a leader who was ready to face the world as it is now not as it was at the end of WWII. I believe that the Nobel Committee voted for the same things.

Many people have rightly pointed out that Pres. Obama has not actually accomplished very much in the way of bringing world peace. The Nobel Peace Prize is however not given solely as a reward for peace making. Many of the recipients were given the award the contributions they made towards the cause of peace. A fine distinction I know but ask the 1994 Nobel Laureates about how the Israel/Palatine conflict is going. Or look at Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho who won the prize in 1973 for ending the Vietnam war.

Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, created the prize in his will in 1895. The explosive he created revolutionized mining, but also brought a whole new kind of terror to warfare. He wrote in his will that he wished to give a yearly award to:

The person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

His hope was that he would be remembered for something other then the destruction his invention caused. Today the name Nobel is synonymous with the greatest achievements in Science and Literature. It is also firmly attached to the aspiration for peace. If the Nobel Committee can by its presentation of this prize focus the attention of the world on a person with both the authority and the desire to end conflict, and in doing so aid that cause, then it has indeed lived up to the high ideals of its founder.

Getting Back in Shape

emperor@antarestrader.com — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:01:19 +0000

Desk jobs are great. There is no heavy lifting, you get to work indoors with air conditioning, and you spend all day sitting and not moving. This of course leads to rapidly expanding waist lines and a loss of energy.

This week I am starting on a challenge called couch to 5k. It is a nine week program designed to get couch potatoes, such as I have become to the point where we can run 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) in 30 minutes. It takes a commitment to 30 minutes of exercise 3 days a week.

New Job, New Authority, More Work

emperor@antarestrader.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:16:53 +0000

Two very exciting things happened at the vestry meeting last night. I am going to be getting a stipend (that means money coming in!) and I have been appointed to the vestry.

The vestry approved a $600 per month stipend for me as an intern. I have been covering the church front desk sense the vestry was forced to drop our Parish Administrator back from 40 hours a week to eight. She now only does the church books. The vestry had planned to hire an Office Administrator for 12 hours a week. I had agreed to fill in for a month while someone was found, and when it turned out that I could get the job done effectively, I agreed to stay on through the summer to help balance the church budget. My agreement ran through the end of September.

Interest, Background Trump Technique in Learning

emperor@antarestrader.com — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:03:40 +0000

Perhaps it is a misplaced goal, however in the modern era we have been obsessed with the most efficient way to teach. With the least amount of time and effort, how can a teacher achieve the greatest proficiency? The currently accepted answer is to vary instruction based on learning modalities. Students are visual, auditory or tactile learners, so the conventional wisdom goes, ans a lesson that involves a certian mode of learning will be most effective in teaching a person of a similar mode.

According to Daniel T. Willingham the evidence just doesn't support this idea. In a piece in the Washington Post, Willingham suggests that what really determines how easily someone learns something is a combination of interest and how much related knowledge they already have.

Some lessons click with one child and not with another, but not because of an enduring bias or predisposition in the way the child learns. The lesson clicks or doesn’t because of the knowledge the child brought to the lesson, his interests, or other factors.

Comentary on the First Chapter of The Gathering Storm

emperor@antarestrader.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:12:15 +0000

The first chapter of next installment of Robert Jordan's Epic fanticy series The Wheel of Time has been published on Tor's website. This is the first chance we have had as fans to read hybrid text written by Brandon Sanderson using notes and a partial manuscript left by the author before his death. The Gathering Storm is the first of three planned novels that will complete this nearly 20 year old series.

In this post I'm going to write about what I think of the sample text released. There will be spoilers below the fold so if you are waiting to read the whole book, don't click "Read More."

Before I head into spoiler country however, I will make a few general comments. First this is clearly The Wheel of Time. My concern that the series would drift away from its original plot to become fit the new authors vision of how the story ought to have been written are gone. Brandon Sanderson was a wonderful choice. He is not an author that is set in his story-line so strongly that he cannot adapt to someone eses. Having read every thing he has published to date, He shows remarkable flexibility in his work and unlike some fantasy authors is not stuck writing the same book over and over again with different casts and setting. He also ahs a strong sense of systematic magic. The use of the One Power in the Wheel of Time books was a marvle of consistency and rules. Sanderson excels at using such systems and in this regard even outstrips Jordan.

On the other hand Sanderson has a less refined quality to his word choice and style. A friend commented that some of his action scenes feel like they were made for Nintendo. The old southern aristocracy and slightly affected formalism of Jordan are replaced by the easy notes of a Gen-X'er from Utah. Sanderson is also not as confident in his readers ability to "get it" as Jordan. Robert Jordan was subtle to the point that many things slipped by most or all readers and that was ok. It added to the mystique. Sanderson on the other hand wants his readers to be in on the joke. Perhaps the hardest part of emulating Jordan for him has been the demands of utter secrecy and obscurity about the writing process and outcomes. As he says they are not his secrets, but he is anxious to share them in the one medium open to him -- the final books.

Furlough Fridays Lead to New Class of Food Bank Recipients

emperor@antarestrader.com — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Some State Employees found that they just could not make it through the month with 24 hours of pay hacked out of the checks. To balance the California State Budget, the governor, as chief executive, furloughed most state employees for 3 Fridays each month. Today while volunteering for my church, I got an e-mail the food bank we support talking about a new trend of state employees asking for food aid. There is also an article in the Sacramento Bee about the situation.

I frankly think the state should be embarrassed that it is balancing the budget by sending its employees to food banks. This does not mean I thing cuts in staffing don't need to be made. The fact that the government has not fallen apart is proof that like most governmental agencies there is not a lot of slack in the system. On the other hand, this is effectively an unnegotiated pay cut of 14 percent. From personal experience, I know how hard it is to change lifestyles that dramatically and that quickly. We were lucky in that we had a financial cushion, and that a car was paid off a month ofter our 10% cut. Not everyone will be that lucky.

A Quick Trip to Portola

emperor@antarestrader.com — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:04:01 +0000

Sacramento is the western end of the transcontinental rails road. The Union Pacific blasted and climbed its way up almost 6000ft to cross the Sierras at Donner Pass. This is the same pass through which Interstate 80 winds on its way to Reno. There is a less well known way over the Sierras. Less well known unless you are a Railroad buff that is.

The Feather River Route was built by the Western Pacific Railroad to compete with the UP over Donner Pass. It follows a beautiful canyon up from Oroville to Portola climbing at a constant 1.5% grade and never exceeding 5000 feet. It is the iconic view out the window for the Historic California Zephyr.

This Labor Day, my wife and I took advantage of our third day off to visit the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola. It is one of the best train museums I have been to. While it lacks the polish of the California Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento, it has something that most other lack -- tangibility. Their collection, mostly from the early diesel era, is displayed in part of the old WP yard. You can touch and even step on to most of the collection, looking in windows and seeing how the equipment moves and functions.

Thoughts on Homelessness In Sacramento

emperor@antarestrader.com — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Homeless campers in a vacant lot owned by lawyer Mark Merin, a homeless advocate, were cited and removed by Sacramento police on Thursday. (Sacramento Bee Story) This action was in accord with the city's 24-hour limit on camping, and in response to repeated complaints by neighbors. This is not the first time that homeless campers have been removed from an impromptu camp ground. The story started in April when more then 100 were removed from land by the American river that is owned by the local power cooperative, SMUD. Since then, homeless advocates have been lobbying the city for "Safe Ground" where homeless could set up tents and camp long term.

Among those advocating for Safe Ground is Brian Baker, dean of Sacramento's Trinity Cathedral. There has been talk that Trinity has recruited a classmate of mine to advocate for the homeless on their behalf. (As nothing is official, I'm not publishing names at the moment)

In response to all this I did something slightly foolish and read first the numerous comments on my classmate's Facebook page, then a large sample of the 137 and rising comments that accompanied the Sac Bee story. The contrast is striking, and shows why homeless advocacy is so difficult here at the top of the central valley. What follows are some of my thoughts on the matter:

Remembering old times

emperor@antarestrader.com — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:45:00 +0000

Some of you who know me in real life may remember the times in 2001-2 that I worked for the county. I have started a series of posts at my technical blog with things I learned while working there. If you would like to read it here is the first part

Writing for the Real World

emperor@antarestrader.com — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:53:22 +0000

Dr. Stanley Fish has found his way into my feed reader, and has also found a place a a foil for my thoughts on writing. This week he rebuts a number of attacks on his last column. The ad hominem attacks are nicely rebuffed, it is his views on writing verses writing in the real world that I would like to discuss.

Warning rant ahead:

Marking a Point in time for Schlock Mercenary

emperor@antarestrader.com — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:48:14 +0000

Why, yes I do have more spare time then a lot of people right now. Every day about 5 minutes of that time is spent reading the on-line comic space opera Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler. Usually this would not be blog worthy, but today is a special day. You see up until last November Schlock Mercenary had a very linear story line. All the main characters stayed together and the comic followed the place with the most plot action. Starting in November the team broke up into four pieces and went in separate directions for 30 days of plot time. There is a big cliff hanger at the end of the 30 days, but every time one group gets close to being told what it is, the clock rewinds back and we start following another group.

Today, September 3rd, 2009, the clock rewound for the third time. This is the strip in question.

I write this because I had to go searching for the last time this happened and it took more then the 5 minutes of free time I allot for such things as fluffy space comics, giant amorphous blobs and such. My hope is that I can turn back to this page in my blog about Christmastime and know what the other half of Thurl's conversation looks like.

Denser Housing Needs Legal Help

emperor@antarestrader.com — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:00:00 +0000

My wife and I are looking at getting out of the Apartment we have lived in for the last four years. For a long time we kept thinking that we might be moving once I got ordained. Now that I am changing processes, we can be fairly certain that we will stay in the area for a while and it looks like it might be cheaper to own then rent, along with all the advantages of owning your furnace, fridge, dishwasher etc...

There are just the two of us so we started looking at Condos. Some of them in nice complexes are going for under $70,000. Then we met with the loan officer to get our Good Faith Estimates. She reminded us about all the difficulties with Condos. Constantly rising association fees, difficulties selling, renters and absentee land lords, all make Condos much less appealing then single family homes.

Just Horsing Around

emperor@antarestrader.com — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Last Thursday, I ended up out at the barn to meet Beth for dinner, and being out there, ended up playing with Zephyr, Beth's horse. I didn't grow up with horses, but I am really starting to enjoy this old guy.

Thursday's activity was to get Zephyr to run in the round pen. Being 26, he doesn't get going as fast as some, and without some real incentive doesn't get much above a slow stiff trot. After several minutes of watching Beth work at moving Zephyr around in slow circles, I took a turn.

As it turns out Zephyr likes to race, especially when he thinks he can win. I obliged by starting out next to him at the edge of the ring and, as he got faster, moving into a smaller circle. Pretty soon the horse is doing a spirited canter, and I'm at a dead run. The end result was that we both had fun, and I nearly lost my dinner, while the silly horse was just getting warm. This is the difference between a poorly build predatory species that had to resort to tools to survive, and a superbly adapted prey species with a stubborn streak.

The morals to the story, I need more exercise, Zephyr is much faster then he pretends to be, and finally:

Those that run after food should not run after food, while those who are run after as food can still run but would rather be after food.

Episcopal: What Kind of Church Is That?

emperor@antarestrader.com — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:31:43 +0000

How do you describe your church to someone? My "job" as the Office Volunteer at All Saints puts me in touch with all varieties of people. This week the start of Sac City with its accompanying parking lot implications, and a dramatic up-tick in the number of people dropping by for an emergency lunch has put me in touch with a lot more people who are not up on church jargon.

One question I've been asked several times this week is "What kind of church is this?" "We're and Episcopal Church," I would reply, confident that everyone would know of my old well established denomination. "Episcopal, what kind of church is that?" came the inevitable reply. Uhm...

Drop Caps Influence Writing Style

emperor@antarestrader.com — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Drop Caps have made me a better blogger. The large initial letter you see at the front of each post in this blog are called Drop Caps. They are one of the many things one can do with just a little work in designing web pages. They serve to quickly directly the eye to the start of the first line of text and have been used in manuscripts since the middle ages.

Having drop caps on the sight has encouraged me to think about what the first word of the first paragraph will be. A capital "I" is not a very pretty letter (in my opinion anyway), and I did not like how the page looked when it was filled with lots of large I's all over the place. I had to think about a different way to start a sentence then with "I am" or "I was."

Remarkably, this has improved my writing. The maxim "In late, out early." applies strongly to blogs where a one page post is getting on the long side. Newspapers have known this for a while and work hard to put as much of the story as possible in the first paragraph, first sentence, and even the first word. Thinking about how to start has helped me get to the point and stay there.

Now I bet you wish my sermons had drop caps don't you? Too bad theology textbooks don't either.

Why Do Schools Teach What They Do?

emperor@antarestrader.com — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:43:30 +0000

Everyone needs a good education. At least that is what we are told by everyone from political pendants to parents. But what makes a good education and why are they important? The answers to these questions depend on who you ask. One person you might ask is Dr. Stanley Fish whose column, "What Should College Teach?" caught my attention this week. In this column he argues for a more focused emphasis on composition -- that it should be taught separately from other subjects not as a part of, for example, a course in multiculturalism or social justice. In making this case he also talks about his lukewarm relationship with a group called the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

The question that is danced around for the whole article is about what should be taught in schools, why and who should decide. More succinctly, What is the purpose of education? Academics what to advance learning, student increasingly need diplomas to compete in the labor market, society wants to preserve culture and have wise voters, while employers are looking for practical skills and proof on character. More importantly each thinks the other is getting in the way of what truly matters in education, and as it turns out no one is getting what they really want.

As the academic year start again the age old debate goes on.

How to Save a Bad Analogy

emperor@antarestrader.com — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

When I was in Seminary, one of my classmates, the son of a college professor, told us about how his father would start each school year with an object lesson. He would walk into class late and complain that he had been detained and questioned by the police about his refusal to save a child from drowning in lake Michigan because it would have ruined his new suit. He would then proceed to allow the class to argue that what he had done was immoral, then end by telling them that they were doing the same thing to people in underdeveloped countries by living "extravagant" life styles while people in the poorest parts of the world starved.

Apparently, this mime is still going around as I was sent a link to this version of that thought experiment presented by Aaron Swartz

My intention in this post is to save people from slogging through the vast jungles of Moral Philosophy and radical socialism by pointing out what is wrong with this story. Before I do, I would like to note that I do not disagree with the point being made, only with the guilt and political agenda being push. Mr. Swarts' goal as to inspire though and discussion, and in writing this I am obliging that desire.

On Being a Worship Centered Community

emperor@antarestrader.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

All Saints Episcopal Church, where I am the Stewardship chair and Office Volunteer, has been searching for its identity. We are trying to answer the question:

Of all the churches that people could go to why come to ours?

Our answer for this season is that we are a place of high-quality, meaningful, moving worship. Further that we provide a consistent worship experience that you can trust not to be banal or trite. We are a community the is brought together with a focus on the worship of God as understood through His son Jesus, the Christ.

Resume Availible Now

emperor@antarestrader.com — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:12:11 +0000

One of the highest priorities was getting my resume back on-line. It is now up and working again. It has a much better picture and an e-mail address of whose function I am more certain.

The document started out as an experiment in using some web authoring tools, but it looked so good I decided to use it as a replacement for an aging one designed when I was in college. I am still hoping to find some type of web development work, but in this economy, Sacramento's Craig's List's Job posting live in my feed reader, and having a good general purpose resume to refer prospective employers to at the click of a button certainly helps.

An Alternitave to Government Run Healthcare

emperor@antarestrader.com — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:40:16 +0000

Yesterday, I wrote defending a government run option in health care. Today I want to propose an alternative that would have the same effect without the the Bureaucracy. I suggest that instead of mandating gold-plated coverage, the government set policy to encourage high deductible catastrophic coverage, coupled with a modified form of health savings plans.