L'Shanah Tovah

At last night's Kol Nidre service I was struck by a paragraph of commentary in the prayerbook written by Richard Hirsh. He commented on the liturgical sentence

וכתב לחיים טובים כל־בני בריתך
And write for good life all the children of your covenant

Hirsh asked, "What is 'good life'? Is it doing good? Feeling good? Being good?"

The day does ask that question, and also answer it.

Half of the answer is found in the mood of the service itself. A good life focuses on worship and community instead of the self. A good life includes music, family, and an identity with a sense of timelesness.

The other half is found in other parts of the liturgy. Later, while thinking about turning from evil thoughts and ways back to God, we read part of Lamentations 2:19:

Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord.

A good life includes emptying the heart of evil so that we may receive God's spirit.

In other words, a good life begins by receiving good from God. Through repentance we receive purity. Once we have purity we do good, feel good, and are good.

But if You Try Sometimes

(This essay is from my notes during a sermon at Calvary Fellowship when I visited back on August 16th. I've been saving my thoughts about that sermon for the Days of Awe because they fit the theme of these days.)

Proverbs 21:15 says Doing justice [or laws] is joy to the righteous. What does this mean?

One answer is provided in Matthew 7:24-25. When we follow God's commandments our foundation is secure. We will have troubles: Yeshua warns his followers in John 15:18-16:33 that following him will increase troubles, not reduce them. But with the right foundation and assistance we can withstand life's troubles.

But that first answer is weak. Security amidst troubles is comforting but not really joyous.

James 3:13 - 4:17 adds more. Warnings against "selfish ambition" and having "desires" for "pleasures" build up to important advice: do not have emotional investment in your plans for your future. James even says that acting as if your future plans are firm is a form of boasting!

Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.

The overall lesson is that following God's commandments will bring us joy but we cannot be picky about which joys are forthcoming or when they arrive.

This explains how the James's final sentence builds on what he wrote before it.

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

Refraining from a good deed is sinful because holding back is being picky. We should not be picky about what will happen to us or how we get to follow God.

There is more to say, but too much more. I cannot provide a few verses and quick comments.

I can only admit that the answer seems glum so far: is God tossing us a few treats as we serve him while enduring a life of trouble? If so, it might be better to live as far from God as possible! And I can attest that Yeshua's people know better from many other passages of scripture and from many years of experience: God knows our needs and future better than we do and when follow him we are led through the best plan for our life with the most meaning and greatest joys.

Estimating Badly

I have a new favorite xkcd comic.

2009 Chi Rho Lectures: Amy-Jill Levine

Each year U. of O. and some local congregations sponsor the Chi Rho lecture series. This has happened for at least 40 years!

This year's speaker is Amy-Jill Levine. The talks happen the weekend of October 23rd. Details are at the first link above.

Holz Hausen

Earlier this month we brought firewood. We had some left over from last spring, so with another 1.5 cords our wood shed is now full.

We took some of the new wood with us last week to our camping trip to Silver Falls. The campfire was initially smoky, causing us to worry the wood from Gilbert was not seasoned as well as in past years.

We might stack a Holz Hausen beside the wood shed, to further dry a cord of wood to burn first. Or we might just put a fan in the wood shed for a few weeks.

UPDATE: False worry! The new wood from Gilbert is well-seasoned and smokes very little in our fireplace insert. It must have been the bark we used to help light the fire that was smoky.

The Great Congregational Purpose

What is the Good News? A friend recently wrote on Facebook:

This past week I've asked probably a hundred people, "Do you know what 'The Gospel' is?" Not a single person felt they could give me a positive answer. Most of them didn't even care.

My answer is described on some old P'nei Adonai web pages that never got taken down from being online.

What is your answer, if you care?

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The instruction to share the Good News is nicknamed the Great Commission. Notice the command is given to Yeshua's followers as individuals. It is not inherently a congregational purpose.

So what is the scriptural reason for a congregation to gather? What did Yeshua or the Apostles tell congregations to do?

That is a question with almost as many answers as congregations!

I was prompted to think about it again when recently at a meeting held at Norkenzie Church. On the wall of the meeting room was painted that church's answer: We exist to reach and prepare people for Eternity with Christ.

The word "prepare" makes that statement include a lot more than the Great Commission, but in my mind that statement is still confusing our individual responsibility with a community's purpose.

My favorite answer, based upon Ephesians 3:10-11, is "to demonstrate God's ways". Since God's ways are about how to relate to him and each other, only in a community can we show heaven and earth that God's ways are best even in this broken and sinful world.

The Eyes of Shabbat Shuvah

Today is Shabbat Shuvah, the weekly Shabbat during the ten Days of Awe.

Here is my favorite liturgy from a High Holy Day prayerbook, which beautifully captures the theme of today (and all the Days of Awe).

On this day we try to see ourselves as we will appear on the actual Day of Judgment.

On this day it matters not who has money, but who will enjoy a royal inheritance from God and who will be sent lacking into darkness.

On this day it matters not who is orphaned or widowed, but who calls God "loving Father" and who is called by God "faithful child".

On this day it matters not who is married or single, but who God calls "my Beloved" and also "Bride of Messiah".

On this day it matters not who has hurt us. We see how we have hurt others.

On this day it matters not who has disappointed us. We see how we have disappointed God.

On this day it matters not who struggles with sin most visibly. We acknowledge that we all struggle, and seek repentance, and ask God to soon and speedily send the day that will change us and the world to be free from all temptation and suffering and evil.

On this day we try to see ourselves as we will appear on the actual Day of Judgment. And during the Days of Awe we learn to always see ourselves that way.

May we open our eyes as we open a new calendar.

May we walk through our days with feet firmly planted in God's future.

May we fulfill our roles and duties in This World with love and strength provided by the World to Come.

Math Prep, Flu Virulence and Vectors

Classes will soon start for the Fall 2009 term. Last week was full of meetings for LCC staff. A common topic was how to deal with the surge in enrollment as gracefully as possible.

• The Math Division has added more than 30 sections of classes beyond what it offered last fall, with three of those sections at the Downtown Center.

• Overall, LCC is offering 25% more classes than the same time last fall. (Net registrations for Fall 2009 are over 35,900 compared to 28,636 for Fall 2008.)

• Overall, the number of students is 18% above the same time last fall. (For Fall 2009 the college has over 11,530 students, compared to 9,757 for Fall 2008.)

The Math department has three complications.

First, our classes are in demand. (Engineering, Economics, Physics, and Computer Science are currently the top undergraduate degrees for expected income. Our classes are also required for certificates such as Medical Transcription that are attractive to people looking for a new career.) This leads to issues such as the Math Resource Center recently receiving more funding but the money arriving too late to hire new tutors before classes begin.

Second, the Math/Science building is having improvements made. Finding your class is even more fun if the hallway furniture moves around!

Third, LCC is worried about H1N1 flu (what was recently called "swine flu"). LCC has its own web page about the virus. Oregon DHS has also published a two-page flyer about H1N1 that was forwarded to LCC staff.

Why is the H1N1 flu worrisome?

Partly because it transmits well through the air. The common cold spreads quickly even though it does not transmit well by sneezes (doorknobs and such are usually to blame). Even though H1N1 is a mild flu, where it travels it spreads widely.

The bigger worry is that there is also a very dangerous avian flu going around (mostly still in Asia). Fortunately, this other flu does not transmit well through the air or by touch. But if an animal or person catches both the avian flu and H1N1 then the two flu viruses could mutate and combine. A new flu that spread as well as H1N1 and was as deadly as the avian flu would be Really Bad News.

So keep your sneezes to yourself and stay home if you have a fever over 100!

Politics and Horror

I have not purchased a RPG book in ages. But a couple weeks ago I heard very positive things about about a guide to creating horror settings, and I bought an inexpensive copy.

Since I have no interest in running a horror campaign, why would I want the book? Because of something perhaps insightful I read online a few days prior. A veteran GM said the types of planning that created a well-made horror setting were precisely those that made good political intrigue.

It was a very well-written book. Reading it helped me brainstorm a long list of how the two settings of political intrigue and horror relate.

Anonymity through Silliness

Instructors at LCC are, of course, discouraged from posting grade lists that provide any chance of one student figuring out a classmate's grades.

We are also asked to avoid posting grades by student ID numbers. These are supposedly private but are often known by family members, which can be problematic if a family is divided.

My solution is to assign students random fake Harry Potter names, taken from this list, which I found from Chris Pound's page of many name generators.

Prompted How to Love Thy Neighbor

This morning's One Year Bible reading included Galatians 5:13-26.

I was praying about how this passage could apply to the Days of Awe--how it could serve introspection, repentance, and better dedicating ourselves to God.

The answer I heard was focused on the parts of that passage about serving each other.

Pastors, be wary with those who claim to hear from God about how to serve God but never hear about how to serve people; who are willing to suffer for God but not for people. They have an undeveloped sense of hearing God, or are not actually hearing God. And you: consider how much this problem applies to you.

Hoist the Shofar

Today two holidays collided.

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Sing with me, my laddies!
(the song repeats to the obvious melody until 100 shofar blasts are heard)

תקיעה שברים תרועי תקיעה
Yo, ho ho, ho! Tekee-ah! Shevareem!
Yo, ho ho, ho! Teroo-ah! Tekee-ah!

(shofar blasts: simple note, triple paired notes, nine higher notes, simple note)

תקיעה שברים תקיעה
Tekee-ah! Shevareem! Tekee-ah! Ahoy!

(shofar blasts: simple note, triple paired notes, simple note)

תקיעה תרועי תקיעה גדולה
Tekee-ah! Teroo-ah! Tekee-ah gadolah!

(shofar blasts: simple note, nine higher notes, simple note)

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Story time!

Consider the parable of a pirate who was far away from his captain: a hundred leagues away.
His mates said to him, "Return to your captain."
He replied, "I cannot: I have not the strength."
Thereupon his captain sent word, saying to him, "Come as far as you can according to your strength, and I will go the rest of the way to meet you."
So the Holy One, blessed be He, says to his people, "Return to Me, and I will return to you." (Malachi 3:7)

– Pirate Rabbati 44:9

Not to Serve God

Last week I came across an essay from 1995 written by John Piper entitled Brothers, Tell them Not to Serve God!

Whether or not you agree with the author it can serve as thought-provoking reading to start the Days of Awe.

L'Shanah Tovah! May your names be inscribed for a good year!

Dogpile

A week ago I decided to try Dogpile as my default internet search.

So far I'm quite happy with it. The main disadvantage is that it does not display image search results as nicely, for those few occasions when I want a funny picture to go with, for example, internet searching.

Google was not broken, but the flavor of Dogpile seems nicer.

UPDATE: Nah. After a few days Dogpile appearance and lack of links to chached versions grow bothersome.

Slander

There's an old saying about speaking ill of others:

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.

Back on June 17th I was accused of libel, although I did not learn about this until much later. A woman sent an e-mail two two other women that included the following paragraph:

[name1], Thaught you and [name2] might find this interesting. David VS is either accusing you or [name2] of sheep stealing this is from his public blog. DVS is also in the dark and as always get things wrong. This is slander at best.

The blog post in question contained these perhaps guilty two sentences.

Third, one member was secretly and actively planting division. She followed Ephraimite theology and convinced three other families to join her "camp" within the congregation.

I wondered if my accuser had a valid point. So I read about the legalities of libel and slander, since I knew little about them.

According to that information, my blog post had no libel, because of three valid defenses.

First, my statements were true and made in good faith. The woman I wrote about did act as I described.

Second, I can claim qualified privilege with no malicious intent. I was publishing news about an event that affected the community. There was public interest from many confused people (most notably the many folk who were used to joining the local Messianic Jewish congregation annually for a Pesach seder, and the many pastors with whom I work and pray).

Third, I was writing a reasonable, fair comment on a matter of public interest. I was among the leadership of an organization answering, as best and tactfully as I could, the questions that many people were already asking. It would be unfair to the community if none of Sar Shalom's leaders related what happened.

I did learn something from the exchange. In this case I did not write about the motives of the woman who planted division. But were I to ever write about someone's motives on a future occasion then I should definitely qualify such conjecture with "I think..." to make crystal clear what is my conjecture and opinion as opposed to factual assertion.

Note that my accuser has none of these valid defenses. I'm certainly not a lawyer, but it appears to me that she was engaging in libel when she sent that e-mail.

I'm writing this essay now for a few reasons.

First, I expect it is actually quite common for people unaware their own guilt and legal liability for defamation to criticize religious leaders who are actually innocent. It may be something my pastor friends who read this blog have hurt feelings about. The upcoming Days of Awe are an appropriate time to speak with people and clear the air.

Second, I think the sender of that e-mail still reads this blog and I want to urge her to refrain from such risky behavior. I want good for her family, and I would be saddened if I heard in the future that she faced trouble because she made a different false accusation of criminal activity to someone less forgiving.

Third, I should affirm that I have no hurt feelings and am quick to forgive. During these Days of Awe the sender of that e-mail is saved a phone call. :-) (However, my trust in the sender of that e-mail is now zero.)

Finally, I have no idea what "This is slander at best" might refer to and so the phrase seems funny to me. Let's brainstorm! What other crime could I have possibly been committing? Proclaiming a fatwā death sentence? Calling for a mob with pitchforks? Releasing the assassin hamsters of doom?

Numerical Perspective

Back in early September the following meme washed through Twitter/Facebook.

No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick or get in an accident. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.

A friend from Rochester, David Fischer, replied with a bit of statistical perspective. In America, about 20,000 people die each year because they lack health insurance; about 40,000 die each year from auto accidents; about 66,000 die each year because of hospital staff not washing hands. He concludes, "If you want to reduce needless deaths each year, lack of health insurance is not the the low-hanging fruit."

---

The key question for the summer's big political topic is how many Americans want health insurance but cannot afford it. I've been searching for a reliable answer, and it seems to be between 3.5% and 2%.

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My family enjoys participating in a (Community Supported Agriculture) CSA "farm box" from a local farm. We pay for a season's produce from a local farm early in the calendar year. The farm benefits from an influx of money during the months they most need it. The consumer receives a bargain price on produce.

Eating locally grown food supports the local economy, and the produce often tastes better. But it is not very significant for environmental reasons, as people are realizing. Avoiding red meat has a much more significant environmental benefit. Of course, the people politicizing being a locavore ignore this.

Personality Puzzles

Shamus has reviewed a computer game named The Path. I have been enjoying his reviews immensely, even though I have never played the game and have no plans to do so.

Part of my training for ministry work involved how to do pastoral counseling. A valuable skill is being able to discern people's unspoken needs, perspectives, and emotional baggage. As Shamus presented the six characters in the game I treated their stories as puzzles, but without the satisfaction of knowing if my interpretations were "correct". You can jump to my comments in Shamus's posts about Rose, Ruby, Ginger, or Carmen,

My only regret is that Shamus did not further develop the theme he introduced of "how scary and mysterious this adult world looked to my seven year old mind". Although I was not eager for the bountiful unstructured time of childhood to be replaced with the responsibilities of adulthood, I had no fears of adulthood and was intrigued.

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Somewhat related, but involving real people, was a group discussion on Shamus's blog about celebrity appeal. I wrote some things about faith-based contentment being an antidote for paying attention to celebrities.

Debt-Deflation (Still About Friedman)

Time for another economic update, categorized as Politics since I did not expect to need an economics category.

It is bad when the items that are loan collateral lose value. This is called debt-deflation. For example, if a the value of a house decreases to less than the remaining mortgage debt the homeowner has incentive to walk away.

Recessions can become depressions when debt-deflation undermines banking. If the total of all loans shrinks too fast then the value of credit becomes uncertain. This is currently happening: debts are shrinking faster than the Federal and State governments are spending.

The only way out is medium-term inflation. The government will need to create new money aimed directly at paying off debts (instead of aimed at paychecks, infrastructure, and other "stimulus" efforts that feel better to voters). Then creditors will have feel more confident with fewer unstable debts and a "fresh slate".

Tangentially, this need for more inflation is why gold is still doing well, and why my family is not yet selling off our February investments that expect upcoming inflation.

Now, I wrote back in February that such things needed to happen, and noted in March when the Fed began such a program. However, M2 has been surprisingly flat since March. Why? My hypothesis is because the Federal government is also causing uncertainty about the value of hiring new employees. The companies that are ready to make new loans with sound collateral are wary of doing so. Having cash reserves is valued more.

Just as the recession was caused by an inevitable credit bubble being allowed to grow and fester too long through inept politics and bad math use, politics and bad math use are now extending the recession's duration.

Easy HTML Check

I've been working like crazy on my RPG web pages. They are currently a mess with half-finished bits interrupting the completed text (even some passages from past versions of the game that I pasted in but have not yet updated) and formatting not quite consistent between pages.

Tonight I finally took the time to add an image on the top right of my website's upper menu bar that allows quick checking of any page's HTML compliance. Now I can at least make sure my HTML is not suffering from typos as I finish a day's edits.

(Just don't try to check a Blogspot web page! They are a mess!)

I should also put a BSD link, as there is near the top right of the current P'nei Adonai welcome page. But doing that involves language choices and other complications.

Almost Done Teething?

The last teething news was when, at the end of August, Smiley finally got his his lower right lateral incisor.

On Friday his lower left lateral incisor (#23) and lower left eye tooth (#22) both came through.

Now we are only awaiting his lower right eye tooth. And he is sleeping through the night again!

Census Adjustment

The Census Bureau is no longer working with ACORN.

Why is the Census Bureau working with any private organizations, anyway? I'm confused.

Keeping the Action Going

Once, when I was in elementary school, my teacher said something that terrified me.

Mrs. Rattenbury (later Mrs. Dexter) was talking about writing short stories. To her, the remark was a simple aside as she talked about what makes a plot engaging: "All plot is conflict."

I wanted an interesting life but I did not like conflict.

For the next week I struggled, privately and quietly, to prove her wrong. Of what else could an interesting plot be made? I finally realized that my effort was its own answer: a plot could be searching. This was immensely comforting.

Since then I have done a lot more writing and living, and found many other building blocks for an engaging plot. Perhaps you can think of one I have not?

conflict - Plot often is built upon a tension that arises from opposition. Characters fight, chase, bargain, sneak, etc.

building/nurturing - Often an known obstacle cannot be overcome until the characters make something or wait for something to grow. As a kid, my favorite part of any A-Team episode was when the team was building that episode's contraption.

exploring - Merely seeing new places and enjoying new scenes can be plot. Anyone who has seen the view open up as the hiking trail finally reaches the mountain's summit knows this.

searching/research - Plot can be looking for what is missing, even when the place is not new. In most detective stories this happens through dialogue.

puzzles - Some plot involves making sense from what is present. The gates to Moria need opening. The clues to the mystery are finally all on the table.

warnings/funkiness - Sometimes the narrator changes the mood without significant action. This may be needed if the protagonist mistakes a new ally for an enemy (the Hobbits are quickly put in their place after attacking Aragorn in Bree) or needs a warning (skeletal remains that indicate the room in an ancient temple contains a deadly trap; the heroes find the bandits they were hired to capture, but as headless corpses in a forest clearing).

In a good story, when a main character fails to do something successfully, or pursues a red herring instead of the true path, the plot does not halt. Instead, the action keeps going because the error introduces a new plot complication.

To someone who writes or runs a role-playing game this concept is vital! Keep the story moving!

But this concept can be helpful to just about anyone. Last week I stopped to chat with three neighbor kids while on a walk with Smiley. They were doing some sort of imaginary game with sticks as props.

"What are those?" I asked.

"Magic wands," one boy answered.

"Oh," I replied. "Are you fighting, building, exploring, or searching?"

The boy answered "searching" but it was his brother whose eyes lit up, who recognized a short list worth remembering.

This morning I read two essays by Philippe-Antoine Ménard (ChattyDM) about his own realization of this concept. (Those two posts of his also lead to some great links about the Two Hit Monster, 5 by 5 adventure design, and the 5 room dungeon.)

UPDATE: The "5 Room Dungeon" concept had a contest. Winning entries are a free download here.

Two Room Cabins in State Parks

Back in 2007 I wrote about cabin camping in Oregon and Washington.

At the end of August we spent three days at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. It was very a nice place, and cabin 56 has a stellar view of Lake Marie.

The only problem was that Smiley, unlike when he went cabin camping at Silver Falls twice last year, no longer sleeps swaddled and is not used to falling asleep in any place other than his crib.

So he did not nap while camping, and despite being so tired did not go to bed easily either.

Later this month we'll return to Silver Falls and expect an improvement. Why? Because those cabins have two rooms! We will be able to keep the back room empty except for his sleeping area, and can safely do our normal bedtime routine of book, bottle with stuffed animal and blue cloth, and then alone bed with the door closed.

For the record, the only cabins in Oregon state parks with two-room cabins are cabins 1 to 6 at Silver Falls State Park and cabins 4 to 6 at L. L. Stub Stuart State Park. So those will be our camping haunts until Smiley develops more skill at falling asleep in places besides his nursery.

Batman: Two Extremes

At the end of August I checked out two Batman books from the local library.

The first was Batman: Nine Lives. This was a delightful read. Primarily an exercise in Noir styling, it also reinterpreted all of the famous characters of Gotham City in interesting ways. The result was charming.

The second was Batman: Detective No. 27. This was a travesty. I cannot imagine a single way to make the story worse, or to additionally butcher the legacy of Batman. To say more would be to spoil an experience that any Batman aficionado should suffer through, just so all other Batman stories shine slightly more brightly.

Religion in RPGs

Earlier this week I came across a nice article with insightful comments about including religion in a fantasy setting. (A family member had also brought up the subject through this blog post.)

This is something I have yet to do with my RPG. I have a lot in my head, but it has not coalesced sufficiently to become prose.

Prodigal Squirter

Smiley has a new toy from grandma: ten squirting, plastic bath friends.

Today one was missing for a time. Since searching would be aided by knowing which one was lost, I was pleased that the Amazon page for the toy had all ten clearly displayed.

Diggers and Board Books

Today was quite a day for Smiley.

Before leaving for this morning's errands he opened his room's casement window by himself for the first time. Previously he had worked the central latches or the lower knobs, but not coordinated them together.

During this morning's errands he fastened the chest piece plastic buckle on his car seat by himself for the first time.

After the errands he got to watch the local construction. Someone was moving large rocks and dirt with a Deere 160D. Apparently this kind of construction vehicle is now called an excavator, at least by John Deere.

When and where I was a kid, all the cool earth movers were either called front loaders or backhoes. Well, there were also bulldozers. But bulldozers were not as fancy or fun to watch. Bulldozers also behaved like the wallflowers at a high school dance: they only appeared to straighten up the place after the cool and exciting partying was done.

Smiley has several "my first words" type picture board books. All of them call construction vehicles "diggers". That really seems sloppy and wrong.

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As long as I'm ranting about those picture books, two more bits...

First, all the "my first words" board books have photographs of furniture taken from adult height. True, little kids are carried around enough to know what a table and chair look like from five or six feet up. But someone should make a book where all the photographs are taken from only two feet up.

Second, for the sake of parental laughter someone should write the gourmet's version of the "kinds of animals" books. Wouldn't this make a great baby shower present for just about any parent-to-be?

This is a duck. "Quack," says the duck. Duck goes well with white wine.

This is a cow. "Moo," says the cow. Cows are nice with steak sauce.

This is a fish. "Splash," goes the fish. Fish is nice with fresh dill and other spices.

Watchful Eyes

Earlier this month I wrote about Orwellian politics.

Of course, it is London that really does Orwellian properly. Today Mr. Rummel blogged that the Watchful Eyes program is miserably ineffective.

Tired Boy

Today had a busy morning.

A little after 10 am Smiley had a fun play date with his friend Liam, and I got to enjoy the company of Liam's father, my friend, Blake. The kids played together some and next to each other a lot, both inside and outside. The adults talked about how our kids and gardens are growing, what we are doing to prepare for our Fall term college teaching, this year's travels, and music.

The play date happened here, so that I could get chores done. My father and stepmother are arriving tomorrow for a visit. My chores include both cleaning and fruit processing. It was nice to have Blake's company as I got things done.

By 12:30 pm I had finished or started three loads of laundry, used the leaf blower on the deck and patio, cleaned Boo's cage, washed and put away dishes, swept the kitchen and dining room floors, cleaned the plastic mat under Smiley's high chair, washed the kitchen windows, put in the garage some random things that belonged there, processed four dehydrator trays of plums, watered the patio plants, and prepared Smiley's lunch.

But he was so tired after the play date! I checked on him before I made his lunch and he was playing in his room by rehearsing bedtime with book, stuffed animal, and binkey. Nothing odd there. But when I went back after making his lunch, he had fallen asleep under his crib, hugging the stuffed animals that live there.

Unfortunately it was a short nap. After 80 minutes, an unusually loud FedEx truck woke him up as it idled out front while delivering a package.

There are more chores to do, but with so much already done I should be able to finish even with Smiley awake.

Spreadsheet Bug

One side project with my RPG development is creating a list of costs for the sample setting.

This project introduced me to a huge bug in all the major spreadsheets (Excel, Open Office, Google Docs).

Normally, any formula I make in a spreadsheet has its input either in the same row or on a different page of the spreadsheet. For example, grade books work that way since each student has his or her own row and each student's grade is calculated using only his or her own scores.

However, the cost list is an exception. Some rows represent materials and thus price a fixed amount of wood, canvas, leather, rope, iron, etc. Then built items have their own rows, in which they take their material cost from one or more of these earlier rows.

The bug involves sorting. If you try to sort rows whose formulas mix rows the result is haywire.

This is easy to test. In your favorite spreadsheet, make a small table such as the following and try sorting it by the first column. It does not matter if you use "fixed" variables, such as $B$2.

 Fred      10     =B2+B3
 Zoey      3      =B2-B3
 Ginger    12     =B3*B4
 Alan      4      =B4*2

I am both amazed the bug exists and that it took me so many years of spreadsheet use to come across it.

Long Hair Update

I have not written about long hair in over a year.

Mostly this is because my hair is boring. I have been doing the "conditioner only" routine since March 2007, using conditioner from Trader Joe's that lacks silicon derivatives ("cones"). My hair likes that, but there is not much to say about it.

Last month I tried using a combined shampoo and conditioner for three weeks. I wondered if using "cones" would be nicer during hot weather. But it made no difference for comfort.

I am glad I now own that combined shampoo and conditioner. Before a camping trip it is useful, so my hair is less prone to tangles and better protected from campfire smoke.

I might as well link to a silly website I saw months ago, where someone has attempted to duplicate complicated hair styles from many science fiction and fantasy movies. Not something I care about, but I expect certain friends would find it entertaining.

Tenth Ammendment Update

Back in March I blogged about political activity regarding the Tenth Amendment.

Oregon politicians continue to push for their state's Tenth Amendment rights, as local newspapers notice.

Earlier this year Senate Bill 536 countered the Real ID program.

Currently House Joint Memorial 17 is the state's most recent Tenth Amendment declaration.

I suppose the next step would be a "Firearms Freedom Act" similar to what has been passed or proposed in Tennesee, Minnesota, Montana, and South Carolina. (Comments for the previous link are here.)

In an unrelated note, the state has also sued Oppenheimer for mismanaging one of its college savings plans during a time of recognized economic risk.

Of what kind of neighbor does your state remind you?

UPDATE: In July TIAA-CREF was selected to replace Oppenheimer.

Pretending

Today Smiley did his clearest pretending yet.

Smiley began "rehearsing" things back in April. He would use a book, stuffed animal, and binky to pretend to be going to bed. He would walk around with an empty plastic mug and pretend to drink from it. It was a kind of pretending, but without imagination: he was only being himself, using objects for their normal purposes.

Recently he began to pretend to be an animal. Normally this is only with noises, but this morning he also got down on hands and feet before making animal noises. Since his animal noises are still pretty pathetic I had no idea what kind of animal he was pretending to be. But in any case it was his clearest demonstration yet of imagination.

Orwellian

Sigh. Another politics post. I've been trying to avoid these.

But I come back from a weekend of camping, and through Instapundit read about the NEA leaning awkwardly on artists, more 9/11 reframing, and the White House taking personal data from social networking sites and asking school kids for help.

I refrained from commenting in July when the paranoia was about President Obama requesting a meeting with CBO director Doug Elmendorf. Letting time pass showed that as very unusual but apparently not sinister.

I refrained from commenting in August when the White House asked for people to report on each other. After all, we voters are always and notoriously ignorant; how is this newsworthy or worth reporting to anyone? (As an example, here is a 2008 link. I can't find a similar 2004 one with a nice list of statistics since one study has flooded relevant Google search results.)

But all this recent stuff? As Stephen Green notes, there is no emergency. Why so much Orwellian activity? Maybe too many people in the capitol get bored when Congress is not in session.

UPDATE: More links added above.

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For the archival record, health care reform is the current political topic. I'm in the "fix Medicare first" camp.

To me, the issue is not whether hypothetical government health care might work, but whether it could be done by leadership that has bankrupt so many other programs. Even the FDA is in financial trouble.

Oregon has its own financial problems, but its small steps towards health care for everyone in the state have so far been successfully implemented.

Taffing Google

Is there more I need to do to not be tracked by Google besides using the Google advertising cookie opt-out plugin, and have NoScript installed?

Oregon's Developmental Questionnaire

In July 2008 I mentioned that the Denver II is no longer the standard child cognitive development tracking tool.

Last week I found out that in Oregon the tool Ages and Stages is popular. But we're not using any of these things with Smiley.

Irena Sendler

Yesterday, through an e-mail from a family member, I first learned about Irena Sendler.

Considering my upbringing, how could I not already know her name? The world can be an unjust place.

Wiggly Map Rooms

A big reason I have not been blogging much is that I have been working a lot on my role-playing game. My wife and I have been enjoying it a lot. But I doubt anyone wants to read short blog posts about which of its web pages have been updated or added.

This blog post is mainly for my own archives. After a tiny bit of experimentation I discovered how to make straight lines wiggly using Inkscape, which is useful for making the player's version of a map appear hand-drawn by an NPC. I want the settings I use recorded somewhere, and a blog post works.

1. In Inkscape, make a new layer for wiggy rooms that are only visible on one version of the map.
2. Select the rooms' paths. Duplicate them, and move the duplicates to the new layer.
3. Use Extensions -> Modify Path -> Add Nodes to put nodes at every grid intersection (20 pixels on my maps).
4. For some reason this deselects what you are working with. Use Select All to reselect the rooms.
5. Use Extensions -> Modify Path ->Fractalize with 3 subdivisions per segment and 7 smoothness

You can see examples of this at the Base and Temple and Unseigable Tunnel maps.

UPDATE: My next map will be a version of a black market in a sewer, inspired by this map.

UPDATE: The menu named Effects has been renamed Extensions in Inkscape 0.47. I've modified the directions appropriately. I also have switched from 6 subdivisions to 3 subdivisions in step five, which makes for a simpler file without much visual difference.