Opposites Interfere

 This is a really cool science experiment.  You won't be able to duplicate it at home, but the results are definitely interesting.  To say that it goes against common sense is quite an understatement. 

The gist is:

"Heiblum and his team showed that, because of such interference, these two particles are entangled – the actions of one are inextricably tied to the actions of the other – even though they come from completely different sources and never interact with each other."

Which is basically to say that two particles coming from opposite ends of the room (and who never touch) still influence the movement of each other.

Good Post: Anti-Proselytizing Policy

Here's an posting to read.  I really like the concluding paragraph:

I'm not issuing a gloom-and-doom warning. Our Lord is still sovereign and on His throne, fulfilling all His promises in Scripture. But I do think that discerning Christians should be paying attention. When we intercede for other nations, we also need to pray for our nation, for the potential of future difficulties here, and for our own faith and witness to survive the test.

Why I Can't Get a Date

 Fine -- so this might not be the only reason.  But I'm sure that one of the reasons is Picky Chicks.  Anyone who is that picky clearly won't choose me.

Review of Harry Potter 5

I've returned from the movie; like I promised here's my opinion:

Harry Potter is not as bad as some have made it out to be.  Yes, it has witches and wizards; yes, it has people casting spells; yes, it has "bad guys" i.e., it is scary.  Now, I am not espousing the idea that we should all be like Harry Potter or that all should see the movies/read the books.  What I am saying is that Harry Potter does not teach anyone how to be demonic -- and that good can come from the rabid interest.  (To be fair, I have note read any of the books; there is a slight chance that the books do advocate occultic practices that the movie does not show.)

I guess that places me in the same category as Chuck Colson.  He, back in 2000, wrote:

What the fascination with Harry Potter really illustrates what C. S. Lewis meant by Sehnsucht -- the longing for the mysterious, the wonderful, the other- worldly that our daily experience does not satisfy.

The great appeal is that Harry Potter is the story about children who, living in the modern age, are forced to deal with a great evil that is threatening their livelyhood and their very lives.  They have a chance to stop it  The movie is very dramatic and epic (which is most likely why I enjoyed the film).  The trouble comes not from advocating the use of magic (the use of witchcraft is a sin) but rather because the Truth is not given.  In the words of Mr. Colson:

The appeal of other-worldly stories like Harry Potter is that they tap into our hunger for God's wonder. The banal world of video games, television, the pursuit of wealth, and other diversions can never satisfy this longing. The Potter craze reflects the longing in our kids' souls for God.

But Harry Potter is not the real thing.

And, because it is not the real thing, it can bring trouble to the confused.  Those who start to view magic as a way to escape from real troubles and have Harry Potter as a leader of sorts will be led down the wrong path.  It is not "just Christians" who are worried about Potter.  Others too, think that the boy wizard has begun to deal with non-kid issues.

One interesting note is that Dr. James Dobson has been totally misquoted as saying that he supports Harry Potter.  I am begining to wonder if it was a carefully constructed plan to generate more money for the studios/publisher.  For

"the movies gained huge victories when conservative ministry heads such as Dr James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, and Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries gave their stamp of approval."

Neither of whom, by the way, did.  Dr. Dobson expressly is opposed to them.  What Mr. Colson said was "if you... put your kids on to stories that recognize the real thing we all yearn for -- the Harry Potter phenomenon may turn out to be a pretty good thing indeed."

Conclusion

So where does that leave me?  Well, movie wise I don't think this one was as good as the first, and none of them have been that great (perhaps because I'm not the target audience?).  What this movie did do is open my eyes as to why Potter is so attractive - people are hungry for God.  They recognize that they need a greater power than themselves to save them and are willing to believe in anything - even a prophecy about a young boy who is able to defeat the great evil with the power he has because of who he is.  Sound familiar?  It is like a very bad copy of the story of Jesus - who is able to defeat the enemy because of who He is. 

Do I aspire to be like Potter? No.  Do I want to copy him? No.  Does this movie lead me to the occult? No.  Will I now want to go out and cast spells? No.  Why?  Because I know the Truth.  But what about you?  Or your neighbor?  Ms. Rowling wrote a book that is now a fad; we have a mission, 2000 years old, to bring light to a dark world.

Recent Movies

Last Sunday night I saw Ratatouille with a few friends.  Yes, you might find it strange for four straight adult men to watch an cartoon animated feature film.  But it's a great film.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and once February 2008 comes around I plan to buy it.  If you haven't seen it, you should - it's done by Pixar (of the Toy Story and Cars fame).

I will be leaving in the next few minutes to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  It remains to be seen how this movie will be.  I have heard both good and bad about it.  I'll update after the show.

Trying Something Different

I'm trying something different right now.  If you look to the left sidebar, you'll notice that I've greatly expanded my "To Read" list.  I'm attempting to get through all those listed by February 2008.  In order to do so, I've committed myself to not buying any DVDs or Video Games -- at least until I finish the Archaeology Study Bible.

I'm not sure how this personal challenge will end, all I know is that I'm going to try it.  I may have selected too many books to read, but we'll see.

First Tic-Tac-Toe... and now Checkers

 Just like I've always believed - Checkers is a worthless game.  Ok, so it's not worthless: I've had many a fun (and at other times very frustrating) game.  But ever since I learned Chess, I've dislike Checkers, primarily because I thought the game was without real strategy; it's not she who plays perfectly wins but rather he who makes a mistake loses.

Come to find out, the computers have solved the game and it really is a game that if each plays perfectly, no one wins.  So just like Tic-Tac-Toe has been solved (see War Games for a cool demonstration) so has Checkers.  But don't attempt to copy down the right moves - "the entire solution includes 500,995,484,682,338,672,639 possible board configurations."

Chess on the other hand is still a long ways from being solved - even if the computers are better than we humans.

Happy Birthday, Blog!

From Boundless I learned that the Wall Street Journal is running a celebration for the blog;  a birthday celebration, that is:

Happy Blogiversary

It's been 10 years since the blog was born. Love them or hate them, they've roiled presidential campaigns and given everyman a global soapbox. Twelve commentators -- including Tom Wolfe, Newt Gingrich, the SEC's Christopher Cox and actress-turned-blogger Mia Farrow -- on what blogs mean to them.

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So, in celebration, I thought I would show you all my first blog.  (Yeah, I know - kinda nerdy and self promoting -- it's for the blog birthday party, though)  Debuted on my first website roughly 9 years ago (November 1998), it was part of a series that ran for 13 posts lasting through October 30 1999.  Now that I look back at them, I find them very trite, naive, and innocent.

 So here is the unedited raw content, save a few opsec edits, of the first blog I wrote. 

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Vol. 1.1

November 1998

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New way to get news.

Hello everyone! I am trying out this format to see if this will be a good way to get the news out. I would appreciate feedback on this. I plan to make this available online also. Email me @ old email address to start receiving it via email.

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The Past 5 Months

Because this is the first time that I have communicated with some of you for a long time I am going to give a quick summary of the past 5 months.

The trip out to California was a fun, yet long one. We started out on a rainy day and had rain every day until we got to Wyoming. But most of the rain was at night. We were able to see anything we wanted to see when we wanted because during that time it was not raining. We still have dents in our car from the hail that fell in Missouri.

Our entire trip from Ohio to California took us through the states of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and then to California. I was able to drive in all of the states and I drove from just outside of Las Vegas all the way into a rest stop in California.

We were able to see sights in Illinois where Abraham Lincoln lived and in Kansas where Eisenhower lived. In Colorado we saw family and friends and also went to Focus on the Family the day that Dr. Dobson had a stroke. (There is no connection between the two incidents.)

In Wyoming we saw lots of animals along the road and also saw a nice sunset. In Utah we went to Bryce Canyon and saw the sun rise over the canyon. It was cool. From there we drove to the city where my mom and dad had part of their honeymoon. We also ate at Carl's Jr. (A West Coast fast food joint - my favorite).

When we first arrived in LA we stayed in the old LIFE (Bible College) men's dorm (now the Angelus Bible Institute dorm). LIFE was where mom and dad met.

We were immediately accepted into the church, but I had several of the experiences with people recognizing me, but I had a blank mind on who they were. Oh well!

We are now in a church-owned house in Glendale, which is about 8 miles from the church and 10 miles from the school.

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New School

We are now attending school name. It is a small school district made up of three schools (Elementary, Middle, and High) on one campus. The total enrollment is 1950 students. Each grade has about 150 students and the classes are about 20-30 in size.

The school has several bus routes and we take one of them to get to school. The stops are near our house - one is just across the street.

When I first saw the school, I decided that out of all of the schools that we had seen that this was the one that I wanted to go to. The campus was the only one that said "come here." All the other schools that we had visited looked run down and did not look inviting.

This has turned out to be a very good school. I am taking 3 AP classes that allow me to earn college credit for them. None of the other schools that we looked at offered any of these classes. This is allowing me to prepare more for college and get ahead in my studies so that I can get into a good college.

The students and staff at school name have been friendly and helpful. Even in such a large school, we are not lost in the crowd. The staff knows our family and so do many of the students. I am a Teacher's Assistant for the Athletic Department and it is going well. The secretaries and the Athletic Director are nice and they are good friends. I have been able to help them and they have welcomed me warmly to the school.

School is going well, we are just passed the first quarter; wow time flies. It seems like we have just been in school for a short time, but semester exams are coming up quickly. Just about 6 weeks of school and then we are in the 2^nd Semester!

I think that "senioritus" is starting to affect me even though I am a junior. Most of my classmates are seniors and the juniors that are not are also being affected with senioritus. Maybe it should be called "upperclassmenitus".

All in all it has been a good time at school name. Our grades are good and so are the teachers and friends.

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Mission's Trip

Brother's name and I are preparing to go with some of our youth group to Tijuana, Mexico this weekend. We leave the day after Thanksgiving and return on Sunday. (I know that some will receive this after the trip is over. I will describe it in the next issue) The trip has been planned for several months, but we did not know that we would be going until about two months ago.

The youth leadership is wanting this trip to be a giving time. They wanted everyone to supply there own way to go. I at first declined in late August because I did not have the money to go. In October I was again asked if I wanted to go and I said that I did (I did, but did not have the money). They said to not worry about the money. I mentioned to them that I could go if I got enough money from my birthday. This was on a Sunday; by Wednesday all of the money came in and I was able to go.

We have 4 teams that are going down to TJ. We have a worship team, puppet team, drama team and prayer team. Everyone is a member of two teams. I am on the worship team and the puppet team. Brother's name is on the puppet team and the prayer team. We are going to be going to two orphanages and two churches and we are staying at LIFE Tijuana (a Bible college). We will be teaching a youth group there how to do puppets and drama. It is during a pastors' conference and we will be doing part of a service for the pastors. We are told that they are eager to have us come. For them it is strange to have teenagers who would be willing to go on a missions trip.

Thank you to everyone who helped me go.

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My 17^th Birthday

For my birthday we had a small family party, but family names surprised me and my friends at school with a pizza. My spanish teacher gave me some Dr. Pepper and the Athletic Department gave me a cake and a card. It was fun. Some friends at church gave Mark and I a joint party and they gave me a nice shirt and some money. I used the money to get some more CDs. Like I stated earlier most of the money that I got for my birthday I used to pay for the missions trip.

Life Chapter Close

There are some moments in life that you know are intrinsically important.  For many of those we create expensive or fancy looking pieces of paper - graduations, marriages, births.  They certify for everyone else to see that something special occurred.  Other times we document the event in other ways - yearbooks, photographs/portraits, memoirs, speeches.  Every event is both a begining and an ending - the start or close of a chapter.

For me, that is what these last two weeks have been - the close of a chapter.  A very important, big, transformational chapter.  I've had to say goodbye to some of my closest friends, pack-up, and move.   I honestly hope to keep in touch with them; technology is great for that.  But I also know that I may never see some of them again - that's just the way life is.

Some might wish that life didn't have changes: no goodbyes, no sadness, no leaving; I am not one of those.  I find stasis to be more boring than watching paint dry (at least paint changes from a viscous liquid to a flaky solid).  We can't move on to greater adventures and chapters if we don't close the current one.  Neither can we forget the preceding parts of the story.  The best part, though, is that God is the author and finisher of our faith.  And that is what life really is: the story of our faith.

Hebrews 12:1-3

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Well, I have a plane to catch; it's time to turn the page...