Going to Hell

I haven't always been an atheist. There was a time when I was young when I cried myself to sleep because I was so scared about going to Hell. Belief in Hell is, by definition, theist. Not certain where I got such an impression of Hell, but I have a hunch. My family joined the Velvet Hills Baptist Church. In fact, my dad helped build the... umm, building. The preachers visited the Sunday-school classes and told us their stories. Great story-tellers; they were extremely impassioned.

On Sunday mornings, my dad used to have the TV or radio tuned into religious shows while he was milling around, working on the house; so one would think my dad a religious man.

I don't think I ever bought into that view of my dad. One day my mom told me that my dad didn't believe in God. I think I found that difficult to comprehend, but I'm glad that seed was planted. That singular event might have opened my mind just a crack to the possibility.

You see, somewhere along the line I switched. I stopped believing in God.

The rock-opera Jesus Christ Superstar has always been a fixture in my family. My parents used to play the soundtrack on our stereo. Later, we owned the video and watched it many times. That movie left me with the impression that Jesus was probably just a cool guy. Except for the end of the movie, where the song "Jesus Christ Superstar" goes rather Broadway, there is nothing in the movie that suggest Jesus was the son of God. No miracles, divine intervention... nothing. In my view, it told the story of a sociological phenomenon.

At some point, I learned about the theory of evolution. I guess it was grade 10 when I first heard about it. It was a feeble introduction in science class; we watched a video that I don't think I really understood. No class discussion. I'm not sure if our teacher didn't believe in it, or if was too much of a hot-button topic to be worth dwelling on. Regardless, over the next 10 years or so, I would come to respect that theory a great deal. To me, it's one of the most profound ideas ever conceived.

I also recall thinking that if there really was a god, he'd be OK with the way I live my life. I am nice to people, and give a lot of thought to the way the world works.

Today, I'm pretty public about the fact that I am atheist. The only caveat is that I am technically agnostic. I am a scientist in the sense that I believe we should look to explain our world through natural causes, not super-natural causes. The God hypothesis is unfalsifiable in that there is no natural observation that can disprove the existence of God. So, that's why I hope that if there is a God, he's understanding about people like me.

Recursion tutorial

To learn about recursion, click here.

Recycling tautology

In the washrooms on the campus of the University of Waterloo, all the paper-towel dispensers have been replaced with ones that look like this...



The front face of each unit displays the following environmental feel-good message:



Hmm... isn't EVERYTHING made of "up to 100% post-consumer material"? I've never heard of something being made out of more than 100% of anything. Rather than an upper-bound on the amount of recycling, wouldn't a lower-bound be more informative? For example, they could use zero recycled material, and still claim that they use "up to 100% post-consumer material".

On the more positive side, perhaps the paper-towels are entirely made of recycled material, but they wish to point out that a large portion of it comes from post-consumer material (that would have been garbage), as opposed to materials recycled from factories, etc.

This blog post is from

intelligent-falling.blogspot.com

Alone with the kids: Day 2 and 3

Lauchy woke up around 5:00am, but I shoved the soother into his mouth and laid him back down. He slept until 6:00am. That's late enough. Heather also got up at that time. Addie was about 20 minutes later.

8:30 : Off to my dad's house. Lauchy looked like he might fall asleep on the way there. So when we were almost there and he wasn't asleep yet, I added a 15-minute loop to the drive; it worked. He slept for about 45 minutes in total. Diane (my step-mother) did a great job of looking after him while I helped my dad with his computer. The girls were extremely well-behaved. After helping my dad, I came into the kitchen and found them glued to a Spiderman cartoon.

11:15 : Left papa-John's place and headed home. While driving on Alexandra street (almost home), Addie said "Hey dad, there's a sweater that looks like Lauchy's on that tree." I gave one of those "That's nice" responses. But a few seconds later it dawned on me that it just might be Lauchy's sweater. I hadn't noticed it missing, but couldn't recall seeing it in the last day or so. We HAD walked by there with it the day before. In fact, as I turned the van around I remembered that I had perched it on the stroller behind Lauchy, and that he had reached behind and pulled it onto his lap. Objects in that category invariably end up on the ground. Blankets (and apparently sweaters/fleece jackets) are silent when they fall, and it's remarkably easy to walk over them without noticing. That must have been what happened, because - sure enough - it was Lauchy's fleece jacket. Thanks Addie!

Yadda-yadda... luckily for you, I've grown weary of the hour-by-hour log. Instead, I'll just give the highlights.

Heather and Addie are in a phase where they like to put water under the swings to make mud in the patches of dirt where the grass is warn off. I got a cute video of Lauchlan walking in the mud, so I edited it, added music, and uploaded it to YouTube. Here it is.

We had a bonfire tonight, after Lauchy went to bed. The girls seemed more interested in the marshmallows than the fire itself. After 15 minutes, I was sitting by the fire alone, and the girls were throwing stuff over the fence at the neighbours kids. Ahhh, on second thought, I'm pretty proud of them.

This blog post is from

intelligent-falling.blogspot.com

FutureShop extended warranty pulls through

FutureShop has recently received some bad press on my blog. Well, I have some good news. Recall that I took a camera back because the lens wouldn't deploy anymore. That camera was purchased with an extended warranty. FutureShop fixed the camera at no cost. It seems that they replaced the entire lens housing. We are now a two-Canon family. Thank you FutureShop. I'll never doubt you again. Well, I probably will... but still, thanks.

Alone with the kids: Day 1

Warning: This is an extremely dull blog post, and should only be read if you REALLY DO care about how my 1st day went while Trish is away.

OK, if you've made it this far, then buckle your seatbelts and put on your bib. It's daddy time!

Trish left last night around 8pm. Here is what we did on the first day.

midnight-3am : The 3 kids tag-teamed keeping me awake. I was up 6 or 7 times, and probably didn't sleep for more than a half-hour at any one time.

3:00 - 5:30 : Slept, finally. Lauchy awoke at 5:30, his usual time. I took him to the basement so that Heather and Addie wouldn't wake up.

6:45 : After watching 3 rounds of the early news, Heather awoke, followed shortly by Addie. Gave Lauchy Advil.

7:45 : Put Lauchy down for a nap. He needs it, even if it's only a short one.

8:30 : Sharon, our bi-weekly cleaning lady, arrived.

8:45 : Lauchy is awake.

9:00 : Off to the new Early Years Centre (161 Roger Street). A quick stop a Tim Horton's on the way.

10:15 : Left EYC. Rob called as I was putting the kids in the van. We decided to go the the Allen street park. Right after hanging up the phone, I heard Greg's voice. He was just getting his boys out of the bike trailer. He said that Bill and Connell were on their way to the EYC too. Oh well.

10:30-11:45 : Allen street park. Snacks and play.

12:00 : Home for lunch.

12:30 : Lauchy down for his nap. He sure seemed tired. Gave him more Advil before putting him down.

12:45 - 2:00 : Girls watched TV while I had a nap on the couch.

2:10 - 2:30 : Heather had a freak-out for no apparent reason. It started because I offered her a snack, but she wanted something else. Then, she complained of being too warm... sitting in the sun with a long-sleeved shirt. Unfortunately, she lost her movie-treats privilege; tonight is (moods willing) family movie night.

2:30 - 3:00 : Girls played nicely in the backyard while Lauchy finished his nap.

3:00 - 4:30 : Drove to FutureShop to pick up fixed camera. Also went to Rogers Video to get a movie for later on. It was tricky selecting a movie that Heather, Addie and I all agreed on (yes, I give myself a vote in these things), but we decided on Cars.

4:30 - 6:30 : Dinner at Greg's. Two words: utter chaos. In the middle of it all, Trish called my cell phone. Evidently, their back-woods camping adventure includes cell-phone reception. The conversation was difficult with all the commotion of trying to jam hot-dogs down the throats of our herd of kids. But we agreed that Trish would check her voice-mail every day around 5pm, to see if there were any EMERGENCIES (Tricia's emphasis).

6:30 - 7:00 : Drove home, gave Lauchy a quick bath, and put him to bed. Of course, more Advil.

7:00 - 9:00 : Watched the movie with Heather and Addie. Two hours long, indeed. Poor Addie couldn't wait for the movie to finish.

9:15 - 11:30 : I tidied up, wrote (am writing) blogs, and watched online videos about how to write applications for the iPhone.

One last story. While driving to the Early Years Centre, I heard a screeching of car tires, and saw a cloud of dust. As we drove by, I saw a hedge with a car-sized swath plowed over, and a muscle car on the lawn. I guess the car went out of control and jumped the curb. I don't think anyone was hurt, but an hour or so later (as we returned from the Early Years Centre), we saw 4 or 5 police cars on the scene. Not sure what the deal was.

Thanks FutureShop

Our Canon camera bit the dust during out family camping trip this year; the lens wouldn't come out, probably because of sand in the gears. We bought it from FutureShop, and also got one of those extended warranties. So, FutureShop has it right now, and hopefully they'll fix it.

In the meantime, though, Trish and I decided that it was time for us each to have our own digital cameras. This decision was inspired by our friends Rob and Shannon; they each have their own. Moreover, Rob's camera is waterproof to a depth of 3 metres. Since I tend to keep my camera in my pocket when on trips, it is more susceptible to getting dirt in the gears, so I wanted a waterproof camera too.

Back to FutureShop. My friend's waterproof camera is an Olympus. So, I decided by buy the Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 camera. The only one in stock was an "open box", previously sold and returned. But it was discounted, so I bought it.

Then the trouble began.

The first problem: the box was missing the USB cable, so I couldn't hook it up to my computer. My wife raced back to FutureShop to get the cable. Not great, but we did it.

Next problem: after she got back, I realized that the box was also missing the battery charger and the software. The software I can do without, but I NEED the battery charger. I called them the next day and made it clear that it was there turn to bring it to ME. They couriered a charger to me... it arrived the next day. Great, FutureShop has redeemed itself.

Not quite. It was the wrong charger. I called them again and said to the store manager that we needed to find a resolution soon. She suggested that I return the camera since they don't have those chargers.

At this point, I was torn. I actually ordered a third-party charger online. But after checking out Rob's camera, I was utterly disappointed. One of the things that bugged me most about my Olympus was its start-up time. It took over 3 seconds to be ready to take a picture. I figured that all Olympus cameras must have the same issue. However, I tried Rob's camera, and it started in less than a second!! I decided that the FutureShop manager was right.

So, I returned the camera and the misfit charger.

I then walked across the street to Henry's and dropped a wad of cash on a Canon Powershot D10. It turns on in much less than a second. Also waterproof. I love it!