The Book That God Wrote, Preface

I know this is a sciency blog and all, but I've decided recently to read the Bible in its entirety. There are a few reasons I've decided to do this. One, I'm sick and tired of hearing people use 'Well the Bible says blah de blah blah' as part of their argument because I can't really say much, for all I know it does. I want to see what the Bible says about certain things for myself. Does the Bible really say it's evil to be gay? What does Jesus actually say about the subject? I'm going to find these things out for myself. It surprises me how many people will make theological arguments based completely on what other people tell them is true, and as a scientist I can't abide by it. But, as you may ask, why do you even care as a scientist? And it's a good question, and my answer may not be very good. But as a sciency type I must admit that there are certain questions science can't answer. The way I like to put it, science can answer the "how" questions, i.e. "how does the human body work? how did we get here?" but it's not very good at answering the "why" questions of life, like "why are we here?" That question is where philosophy and theology must step in. Second, I'm just plain curious, I want to know what's in this fun little book, and I thought it would be neat to approach it with my typical sarcasm. So, if you'd like to hear about a questioning mathematician's experiences reading through the book that God wrote, then stay tuned, I'll be sharing my thoughts as I come across them in as entertaining a style I can muster. If I read a chapter book a week I should finish in a year and 3 months. Should be fun, bring it on Genesis!

If things go as planned I'd like this to be a Sunday feature, hopefully there's some neat things I'd like to talk about in that first chapter book. I already know it has some naked people and sibling murder, sounds awesome!

Thank You Sir

I finally got around to watching the State of the Union address last night. Yes a day late, but I've been pretty busy. Besides, through the magic of the internet I can watch it whenever I want (thank you cspan). Anyway, the last thing in the world I want to do is turn this blog into a political one. That would just devolve into me ranting about even more things, and I know how you internet people are when politics and comment threads join together (that's right, wanna fight about it?). No, I just wanted to give a quick mention to something I certainly love about President Obama, and something that certainly fits in with the theme of this blog. In almost every speech he gives he mentions the importance of Math and Science. Thank you sir, I do love hearing that. You might not even mean it, but I don't care, that you say it is what's important to me. It's such a breath of fresh air from the 8 years of W and his seeming fear of Science. So again, thank you sir. Also, you look pretty awesome in a cowboy hat.

Don't believe Math and Science are important? Well just keep reading little one.

Better To Reign In Hell

Then serve in heaven. As Lucifer put it in Milton's "Paradise Lost." The past few days I've been tinkering around with Vic Davis's wonderful indie game Solium Infernum. Explaining this game can be kind of tough, mainly because it's so complicated. Let's start with the setting: you play as an archdemon in hell who is vying for the throne after Satan's abrupt and unexplained absence. As far as atmosphere goes, this game delivers brilliantly. When the king of hell disappears, then the likes of Baal, Abaddon, and Mammon will battle it out, and Solium Infernum (SI) captures this quite nicely. Now, how the game actually plays out is a bit harder to get a grasp on.

Beating A Dead Horse

When looking over my list of things from 2009 I start to realize that things released in 2009 had little to do with my actual obsessions of the year. Most of the music I listened to in 2009 was not actually released in 2009, same goes for the movies. So I thought I'd make another more random list of things I discovered or rediscovered in 2009. Some of the same rules apply as before, hopefully you haven't heard of them, oh and also, it can't be on the previous list (there were quite a few things on there that really did grab me). Ok, let's begin shall we.

Just Cowboy Up Already

It's the beginning of the semester, still officially the first week since we only had half a week last week and this monday off. It's this first week or so that all my pet peeves of teaching come roaring in. Eventually it tapers off and I get into the swing of things, but the first few days I'm continuously reminded of all the little things I hate about teaching. There's a particular phenominon I hate more than anything. This semester my classes started with 35 seats (all full), which isn't that bad, but the limit has since been raised to 39 to accomodate student demand. Still this is nothing to get all riled up about, and compared to the fall, where classes can start at 45 (fuck my life) seats, this is still managable. That is until I wander online and see:

Physics Is Fun With A ...

An old joke from my undergrad days, hardly a joke really, but we'd say it with big goofy grins "physics is fun with a p-h." Get it? I know, I know, it's not funny, it actually borders on terrible, but it was fun, and it was a cynically optimistic thing to keep us going during long nights of studying. There were others of course: chemistry is cool with a c-h; biology is ... um ... about animals? Anyway, imagine my surprise when I stumbled on this:

2009 on my mind

So to get this party started I'd thought I'd do what everyone else has been doing lately. Top 10 lists, hazaa! Sure everyone's tired of them, but my god they're fun to do. And besides I'm a freakin genius bandit over here so of course my list comes with a twist. I'm choosing my favorite things from 2009, but only things that I think you might not have heard of. Also keep in mind this is a list of "things" which includes, well everything. The only rules are that I have to freaking love it, it had to have been released (or whatever) in 2009, and I have to have the feeling that you haven't heard of it before. So no Avatar's or Lady Gaga's here. Let's begin shall we, in no particular order:

Tonal Shift

The title will be funnier once you read the post.

Today represents a shift in my ideas and thoughts and what I'd like this blog to do. Am I abandoning the math? Not really, it's who I am after all. But trying to keep every entry math related has become far too much of a chore. Imagine if you will, going to work all day and then coming home to blog about it ... yeah even if you love your job you don't want to do that. There's still some interesting math and sciencey things I'd like to talk about, but I've been too strict on myself regarding the posts here. Sure I love math, in as much as its my career path, but there's plenty of other things I love in a 'it's still enjoyable' sense. I'd like to start focusing a bit more on these other things, with the other topics offering a smattering of nerd color here and there.