So I've been reading a book called Metamagical Themas by Douglas Hofstadter and it is something that I am proud to be reading and a task that I would like to replicate at some point in my lifetime.
Not that the book, in an of itself, is a work that I could replicate, but the idea of combining the things that I enjoy and the thoughts that I have into a volume intrigues me. I am not a writer, although I do write. I will leave the "writing" to those in the family with a knack for seeing the beauty in the written word. What I do enjoy, however, is the process of thinking and of organizing those thoughts into coherent phrases. Most of my thoughts seem random and the themas that I would write would attempt to tie together my seemingly odd interests.
All of my interests revolve around the central theme of God's influence and creativity in the areas of our world that we take for granted. In the wikipedia article of Hofstadter it says "Both inside and outside his professional work, Hofstadter is driven by a pursuit of beauty. He seeks beautiful mathematical patterns, beautiful explanations, beautiful typefaces, beautiful sonic patterns in poetry, and so forth. Hofstadter has said of himself, "I'm someone who has one foot in the world of humanities and arts, and the other foot in the world of science.""
My feet are both firmly planted in Christianity, but my eyes survey the world around me, taking it all in. I don't venture forth, but I am constantly increasing the sphere of influence to see God in various places manifested in seemingly disparate ways. That would be the subject matter of my book and we shall see if it ever comes to fruition or merely exists as yet another extension of my sphere.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Goodbye Sunshine
The Indians have officially "given up" on the season. A bit over a week ago they called the current road trip make or break. Three at Chi Sox, 3 at Twinkies, 3 at Tigers. On June 30th, they were 9.5 games back. A 9 game road trip would, if they swept all 3, put them a minimum of 6.5 games back (most likey 4.5 or less) and right back into the thick of things. Instead they were swept by the White Sox and lost 2 of 3 at the Twins. A make or break trip was turned into a fiasco and CC Sabathia was traded to the Brewers.
Say what you will about the trade (CC for 2 top shelf prospects and 2 mid tier guys) but even if the Tribe was only a game or two back, this is a trade I would have thought about making. CC is a great pitcher, I'm not arguing that, but if you look at the status of the Indians at this moment, they are moving into another rebuilding. Whether or not that rebuilding is more of a reloading remains to be seen but let's look at the facts:
1) The closer situation is just not good. Even before Borowski was DFA, 45 saves last year was the definition of anomaly. One time in my lifetime I want to see an Indians CLOSER. Mesa, Wickman, Borowski. Granted Mesa was good, but he died when the team needed him the most. The problem with closers is that they walk a delicate line. On one hand they want to go out and just blow people away with their stuff (see K-Rod, K-Wood, Rivera, Hoffman, Gagne) on the other hand, you can only blow people away with wicked stuff so long before your arm falls off (K-Wood, Gagne). The Tribe, in building for the future, does not want or need a pitcher who just plain dominates for an inning or two, yet. What they need is what they have had in the past, a regular old guy who goes out and guts it out every night. When winning is on the line, they need a psychopathic guy who is about one hic-up from Tommy John surgery. Hopefully they find him.
2) The "core" of the roster is actually VERY small (even smaller now). Grady, Victor...Grady... are the only ones who have been good consistently for a long time and are continuing to get better. The rest of the guys, as much as I love them, are average to slightly above average guys who have the ability to perform at a high level. The issue this year is that the guys around them have returned to their average ways (see 2001-06) and there is no one in AAA who is any better to call up (Asdrubal, Garko, Fausto last year) When you have a low payroll you have to fight it with depth. You can't afford to pay a full team of All-Stars but what you can do is have a few and then have depth at the other positions in AAA so that when one of them sucks, you just send him down and get his replacement. The Tribe needs to extend that core by finding the guys before they are All-Stars and then having more positions solidified so that they can have more than two guys at the same spot in the order and consistently producing.
The best case scenario for the Indians next year and beyond is to continue to build the core and surround it with flashes in the pan and a few journeymen. A core for me is this:
Catcher, 2IF, 2OF, one ace starter, one setup man, and a closer. That's 9 out of 25. The rest of the pieces are effectively inconsequential.
The rest of the starting pitchers will fall into line with a good pitching coach. Look at the Cardinals every single year: even if they were bad on other teams the Cards bring out the best in their pitchers. All you need is one ace. The Tribe has Fausto (and Clifford Lee) so CC was expendable. Good job guys. Hopefully they got another of the 9 needed parts.
The Cubs may just win the World Series this year with these parts:
C- Soto
OF - Soriano
OF - Edmonds
OF - Fukudome
IF - Ramirez
IF - Lee
SP - Zambrano
MR - Marmol
CL - Wood
Say what you will about the trade (CC for 2 top shelf prospects and 2 mid tier guys) but even if the Tribe was only a game or two back, this is a trade I would have thought about making. CC is a great pitcher, I'm not arguing that, but if you look at the status of the Indians at this moment, they are moving into another rebuilding. Whether or not that rebuilding is more of a reloading remains to be seen but let's look at the facts:
1) The closer situation is just not good. Even before Borowski was DFA, 45 saves last year was the definition of anomaly. One time in my lifetime I want to see an Indians CLOSER. Mesa, Wickman, Borowski. Granted Mesa was good, but he died when the team needed him the most. The problem with closers is that they walk a delicate line. On one hand they want to go out and just blow people away with their stuff (see K-Rod, K-Wood, Rivera, Hoffman, Gagne) on the other hand, you can only blow people away with wicked stuff so long before your arm falls off (K-Wood, Gagne). The Tribe, in building for the future, does not want or need a pitcher who just plain dominates for an inning or two, yet. What they need is what they have had in the past, a regular old guy who goes out and guts it out every night. When winning is on the line, they need a psychopathic guy who is about one hic-up from Tommy John surgery. Hopefully they find him.
2) The "core" of the roster is actually VERY small (even smaller now). Grady, Victor...Grady... are the only ones who have been good consistently for a long time and are continuing to get better. The rest of the guys, as much as I love them, are average to slightly above average guys who have the ability to perform at a high level. The issue this year is that the guys around them have returned to their average ways (see 2001-06) and there is no one in AAA who is any better to call up (Asdrubal, Garko, Fausto last year) When you have a low payroll you have to fight it with depth. You can't afford to pay a full team of All-Stars but what you can do is have a few and then have depth at the other positions in AAA so that when one of them sucks, you just send him down and get his replacement. The Tribe needs to extend that core by finding the guys before they are All-Stars and then having more positions solidified so that they can have more than two guys at the same spot in the order and consistently producing.
The best case scenario for the Indians next year and beyond is to continue to build the core and surround it with flashes in the pan and a few journeymen. A core for me is this:
Catcher, 2IF, 2OF, one ace starter, one setup man, and a closer. That's 9 out of 25. The rest of the pieces are effectively inconsequential.
The rest of the starting pitchers will fall into line with a good pitching coach. Look at the Cardinals every single year: even if they were bad on other teams the Cards bring out the best in their pitchers. All you need is one ace. The Tribe has Fausto (and Clifford Lee) so CC was expendable. Good job guys. Hopefully they got another of the 9 needed parts.
The Cubs may just win the World Series this year with these parts:
C- Soto
OF - Soriano
OF - Edmonds
OF - Fukudome
IF - Ramirez
IF - Lee
SP - Zambrano
MR - Marmol
CL - Wood
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Rudimentary Computer Intelligence
I am inherently inquisitive. One of my first nicknames was "Why What Noonen" so this is not a trait that I have worked on and developed. This serves me very well in my current job and I would like to share some of the things that I like to look at in detail in addition to a few things you should probably know.
1) When on the web, always look at the url (that thing that starts with http://) there are always clues as to the location that the writers may or may not want you to know. For instance Penny Arcade uses a URL that looks like this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/20/ now what that tells me is that I'm looking at the comic from 12/20/2006. Try it out for URLs that you visit all the time. What you find may be that the "broken" links can be fixed easily if you know the algorithm for the creation of the URL and other data you may want to access becomes much easier to find. Google.com is one of the more interesting if you know complicated search queries.
2) Learn to count in other number formats. Binary and hexadecimal are the best (binary is 0 and 1, hex is 0...9, A...F meaning that A is actually 10 in decimal) but others are fun as well.
3) Learn what the modifier keys do (Ctrl, Alt, Shift) and key combinations (Ctrl+A) for your favorite OS and applications. These key combinations will not be part of your daily life for awhile, but aim at learning a few per week and using them instead of the mouse. Applications have to be developed so that a user can use the keypad instead of the mouse for people with no dexterity. Take advantage of this.
4) Learn what XML is and how it works. Once you understand XML, right click and view source on a web page or two.
5) Play with applications and try to discover hidden things. Most applications have File, Edit... menu items and most of them have predefined items within these menu items. Try to find one or two menu items that you have never used and see what they do. For the applications that you use on a daily basis, you should know every menu item and what they do.
6) Dive into the Control Panel and see what you can do. Have fun, break something, try to fix it. If all else fails, reinstall the Operating System.
The thing that separates Macs from PCs in my mind is that I have infinite control over what happens, how things are displayed, what applications open what files, etc. If you really get gutsy, go to Start -> Run and type regedit and hit enter. Here is where things can REALLY go wrong but look some properties up and see what happens when you change them. Look everything up on your favorite search engine and let the inquisition begin.
1) When on the web, always look at the url (that thing that starts with http://) there are always clues as to the location that the writers may or may not want you to know. For instance Penny Arcade uses a URL that looks like this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/20/ now what that tells me is that I'm looking at the comic from 12/20/2006. Try it out for URLs that you visit all the time. What you find may be that the "broken" links can be fixed easily if you know the algorithm for the creation of the URL and other data you may want to access becomes much easier to find. Google.com is one of the more interesting if you know complicated search queries.
2) Learn to count in other number formats. Binary and hexadecimal are the best (binary is 0 and 1, hex is 0...9, A...F meaning that A is actually 10 in decimal) but others are fun as well.
3) Learn what the modifier keys do (Ctrl, Alt, Shift) and key combinations (Ctrl+A) for your favorite OS and applications. These key combinations will not be part of your daily life for awhile, but aim at learning a few per week and using them instead of the mouse. Applications have to be developed so that a user can use the keypad instead of the mouse for people with no dexterity. Take advantage of this.
4) Learn what XML is and how it works. Once you understand XML, right click and view source on a web page or two.
5) Play with applications and try to discover hidden things. Most applications have File, Edit... menu items and most of them have predefined items within these menu items. Try to find one or two menu items that you have never used and see what they do. For the applications that you use on a daily basis, you should know every menu item and what they do.
6) Dive into the Control Panel and see what you can do. Have fun, break something, try to fix it. If all else fails, reinstall the Operating System.
The thing that separates Macs from PCs in my mind is that I have infinite control over what happens, how things are displayed, what applications open what files, etc. If you really get gutsy, go to Start -> Run and type regedit and hit enter. Here is where things can REALLY go wrong but look some properties up and see what happens when you change them. Look everything up on your favorite search engine and let the inquisition begin.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Social Gospel
Barak Obama is not only the first Black candidate but he is also the first Christian presidential candidate since, I believe, Jimmy Carter. I'm not talking about professed Christians who merely use their stance on Christianity or their history of attending church in an attempt to gain the support of the "moral majority" but an actual Christian. A thinking, breathing, God fearing, Jesus Freak.
Barak's pastor has come under fire because of beliefs that he has and some of that backdraft has spread to Barak. I am a white person, as white as they come but I have very little problem with Rev. Wright or statements he has made. From the perspective of a priviledged member of the middle class, I have no idea what it is like to grow up in a society that not only devalues me as a person but also attempts to keep me in my place. America is not the land of the free, nor is it the home of the brave. America is the land of hipocracy and the home of the hidden marginalized. Giuliani swept the homeless under the rug and I'm fairly certain that what he did is only the loudest example of the lack of care that we as a society provide for those less fortunate.
America is amazing because of its freedoms, but those freedoms have only been available to all of its members for less than 40 years. Even now, McCain and other Republicans are attempting to deny this freedom to the immigrants of the nation. Other than the Native Americans, we are ALL immigrants. And even the Native Americans immigrated from the Middle East and/or Africa. The only people in the history of this planet who were not immigrants were Adam and Eve. They were created from nothing, the rest of us came here the natural way via childbirth and immigrated to our parents home, then to other places in the country. We are all immigrants.
Until I started going to NC3 my favorite line in the Lord's Prayer was "Thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven" That will, which was so incomprehensible, made life bearable since everything ultimately would align to God's will so the difficult questions of why something happened became inconsequential. Who cares why something happens, it must be God's will.
Now I see the error in my judgement and my dismissal of the previous line "Thy Kingdom come" as the flaw in that judgement. The Lord's Prayer is actually a sequence of statements culminating in the "Kingdom, power, and glory" being given to God "forever and ever." Literally, there are two statements in the entire Lord's Prayer. "Hallowed be thy name" and the rest is a definition of what it means for the Kingdom to come. God's perfect will accomplished everywhere, no more hunger, intense forgiveness, steering us away from temptation, delivery from Evil, all power, glory, and the Kingdom in God's hands forever and ever. It never made sense to me why Jesus would pray that or teach his followers to pray in that way. Why didn't he just say "When you pray, recite this this passage from Psalms." What in this prayer was so different that it had special mention as the only time Jesus's actual prayers are recorded in Scripture even though He prayed constantly?
Jesus taught his disciples to pray a prayer that could only exist after the resurrection when the Kingdom had already come. What we pray today is that the Kingdom will come again and I think that Barak Obama is the next step in the Kingdom coming again. MLK spoke of the view from the mountaintop where he could see the promised land. If MLK was Moses, Barak could be Joshua, leading the people across the river. What we have ahead of us is a battle against the citizens of Jericho and their seemingly insurmountable walls. This world may have to be destroyed in order for the Kingdom to come. But this is not a battle to be fought with guns and planes but with belief that if we persevere and continue encircling the walls, they will come down.
Our job as Christians not only to persevere but also to enter the city that is filled with darkness and to seek out the Rahabs of the world so that when the walls come down, they will be spared and will enter the promised land with us and see the world as God intended it.
Barak's pastor has come under fire because of beliefs that he has and some of that backdraft has spread to Barak. I am a white person, as white as they come but I have very little problem with Rev. Wright or statements he has made. From the perspective of a priviledged member of the middle class, I have no idea what it is like to grow up in a society that not only devalues me as a person but also attempts to keep me in my place. America is not the land of the free, nor is it the home of the brave. America is the land of hipocracy and the home of the hidden marginalized. Giuliani swept the homeless under the rug and I'm fairly certain that what he did is only the loudest example of the lack of care that we as a society provide for those less fortunate.
America is amazing because of its freedoms, but those freedoms have only been available to all of its members for less than 40 years. Even now, McCain and other Republicans are attempting to deny this freedom to the immigrants of the nation. Other than the Native Americans, we are ALL immigrants. And even the Native Americans immigrated from the Middle East and/or Africa. The only people in the history of this planet who were not immigrants were Adam and Eve. They were created from nothing, the rest of us came here the natural way via childbirth and immigrated to our parents home, then to other places in the country. We are all immigrants.
Until I started going to NC3 my favorite line in the Lord's Prayer was "Thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in Heaven" That will, which was so incomprehensible, made life bearable since everything ultimately would align to God's will so the difficult questions of why something happened became inconsequential. Who cares why something happens, it must be God's will.
Now I see the error in my judgement and my dismissal of the previous line "Thy Kingdom come" as the flaw in that judgement. The Lord's Prayer is actually a sequence of statements culminating in the "Kingdom, power, and glory" being given to God "forever and ever." Literally, there are two statements in the entire Lord's Prayer. "Hallowed be thy name" and the rest is a definition of what it means for the Kingdom to come. God's perfect will accomplished everywhere, no more hunger, intense forgiveness, steering us away from temptation, delivery from Evil, all power, glory, and the Kingdom in God's hands forever and ever. It never made sense to me why Jesus would pray that or teach his followers to pray in that way. Why didn't he just say "When you pray, recite this this passage from Psalms." What in this prayer was so different that it had special mention as the only time Jesus's actual prayers are recorded in Scripture even though He prayed constantly?
Jesus taught his disciples to pray a prayer that could only exist after the resurrection when the Kingdom had already come. What we pray today is that the Kingdom will come again and I think that Barak Obama is the next step in the Kingdom coming again. MLK spoke of the view from the mountaintop where he could see the promised land. If MLK was Moses, Barak could be Joshua, leading the people across the river. What we have ahead of us is a battle against the citizens of Jericho and their seemingly insurmountable walls. This world may have to be destroyed in order for the Kingdom to come. But this is not a battle to be fought with guns and planes but with belief that if we persevere and continue encircling the walls, they will come down.
Our job as Christians not only to persevere but also to enter the city that is filled with darkness and to seek out the Rahabs of the world so that when the walls come down, they will be spared and will enter the promised land with us and see the world as God intended it.
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