Now *THAT's* Intelligent Ad-ware

Best in Show

Barrett has been taking voice lessons for the last few months, and I have given him no end of grief over it. :)

The truth is I admire him being willing to step out of his comfort zone and perform in front of others. He's gotten pretty used to someone asking him to sing songs when we have friends over, but getting up in front of strangers is a whole new level of bravery. In my opinion, his was the best performance of the afternoon.

Fortunately we remembered to take a camera for those of you who weren't able to make it...



Great Job, Barrett!

Book Review: "The Year of Living Biblically"

A friend recommended I read A.J. Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically, and I have to say I enjoyed it more than I expected I would. As the author himself acknowledges, the book idea began as his effort as a secular person of Jewish heritage to expose what he considers the ridiculously-slippery slope of literal Biblical interpretation. As someone who takes the Scripture personally and literally, I was prepared to be insulted throughout most of the 341 pages.

On the contrary, I felt the author truly attempted to connect with the God of Scripture, or at least to understand the perspective of those who do. I think Jacobs does a good job of trying to understand the various and sometime radical sects of Judaism and Christianity, find meaning--and humor--in their views of life and scripture, and expose the really tough questions that any Biblical scholar has to face. What do we do with the passages of scripture that make us uncomfortable? How do we handle the seemingly contradictory images of a vengeful God in the Hebrew Bible with the grace-giving and life-affirming message of Jesus in the New Testament? To what degree to we allow culture--both of the times the Scripture was written and our current culture--affect how we hear the message of Scripture?

Along the way, Jacobs shares sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking stories from his personal life and how his newly-created Biblical persona "Jacob" handles them. I related to his tendency toward obsessive-compulsive behavior and his struggles to follow through on his intentions to do good to his neighbors. I was humbled by his commitment to the project--how whole-heartedly he pursued consistency and integrity in following all manner of Levitical laws and tradition, even when he didn't understand the 'why' behind them. And it was encouraging to hear him come away with an appreciation and understanding of religious groups and people that he had judged in the past.

In the end, however, I think Jacobs exposes the problem with focusing on the Scripture outside of a personal relationship with God; the Bible itself becomes an idol and stumbling block on our spiritual journey rather than a love-letter urging us into a committed relationship with the Author.

Advertising

It just occurred to me how strange it is to advertise a new television on....television.



I'm watching the new Samsung TV Commercial with the little light-speckled hummingbird and flowers, and I guess the point is to show off how great of a picture they can produce. But there are only two possible outcomes:

1. The picture looks like garbage on my 13" TV/VCR combo, so I'm not impressed with any of their fancy images, and I don't want their TV.
2. The picture looks great...in which case I don't need a new TV at all.

Either way it's a waste of money.

A New Personal Record!

This weekend I ran the University of Illiniois mini-Marathon, finishing with a personal-best time of 1:45:04, just over an 8:02 pace.  I was originally shooting for a pace of 8:15, but since I was feeling so good at the last I decided to step it up a bit.  I was actually a bit disappointed that I couldn't shave another 30 seconds or so off my time to break the 8 minute barrier...

Here's me and Bryan at the starting line.


As you can tell, Bryan was anxious to get started!


The finish line/post-race food situation was pretty cool--they had the finish at the Memorial Stadium 50-yard line, so you actually got to receive your finisher medal and have post-race pictures made on the field.


And finally, the obligatory "happy finishers" picture...

In all, I think UIUC did a great job with their first event. Thanks to Bryan and Johnny for hosting me, and a special thanks to Bryan for giving up his morning to spend it waiting for me to finish.

Cute Viral Ad Campaign

I heard an ad on the radio where the supposed owner of a web site was complaining that his site was being confused with the site 'comparethemarket.com'. Wondering if the ad agency was smart enough to carry this all the way out I decided to check...

At The Corner of Memory and Forgotten Lanes...

A few months ago I mentioned a roll of film that I'd found while moving into the new house. I had it developed at Wal-Mart a few months ago, but since my scanner has been busted, I was just today able to scan a few.

First of all, I guess real film development is something Wal-Mart isn't used to dealing with anymore; they wanted to charge me 50% more than the posted price for my roll of 24 exposures. I had to walk a manager over to the sign to show the discrepancy before he discounted my tab to the appropriate rate.

As best as I can tell, the first pictures are from a ski trip to Colorado I took in December 1998.

Here's a picture of Brian that--honestly--is one of the few things that confirm to me that I did, in fact, make this trip. I don't remember much else of what took place.


I have no idea who these people are, nor why I could take their photos:


The final pics are from an IEEE International Test Conference in Spring of 1999. I'm traveling with two other graduate students and my two faculty advisers--Dr. Marty Emmert and Dr. Charles Stroud--who did all the work.
Part of the trip was a meeting with our research counterparts from Bell Labs. The second gentleman on the back row is Dr. Miron Abramovici, author if what is lovingly referred to as the Testing Bible. I have an autographed copy (no joke).
The conference was in Atlantic City, and if you've never been to Atlantic City...don't bother; it's a pretty depressing place with opulent casinos surrounded by "gentleman's clubs", pawn shops, and lots of homelessness...
I do remember that I learned how to play Paigow poker especially for the trip...

It's somewhat depressing that I don't remember the context of all the photos so few short years after they were taken, but it was fun to relive the parts I do remember. I really did enjoy college and my graduate years, and I don't often take the time to be thankful and appreciate what a really great time it was.