Metacentricities

You know I’m a quiz junkie, you know I’m a science fiction fan, so here goes… (thanks Poppy)

Update: I just now realized that Deanna Troi, the empathetic counselor, and Geordi LaForge, the geeky engineer, were tied in this quiz. How appropriate!

Your results:
You are Deanna Troi

Deanna Troi 75% Geordi LaForge 75% Spock 62% Uhura 55% Chekov 55% Jean-Luc Picard 55% Data 47% Mr. Sulu 45% Beverly Crusher 45% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 45% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 40% Will Riker 40% Mr. Scott 35% James T. Kirk (Captain) 35% Worf 30%

You are a caring and loving individual.   You understand people’s emotions and you are able to comfort and counsel them.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz…

Sometimes, I can be a nebbish. I was  complaining (it’s very possible you heard it) about how much of a city Berkeley was, and how hard it was for me, and how I missed being near cows. Well, I’d heard a lot about this place, but hadn’t really been there. Come to find out, that I was 10 minutes (by car) away from one of the most beautiful places around, called Tilden Park. I had a delightful afternoon walking with a couple of friends, and saw some cows, even. I’ve uploaded pics to my flickr account, but here’s a taste. Yes, this is 10 minutes from PSR.

Well, it would hardly be summer without a reading list. I’ve got one. It’s pretty long, and a bit schizophrenic (it’s mostly religion and science fiction.) We’ll see how many of the books on my list I’ll get through. The first few books on my list I have on the sidebar on the right, and then there is a long list after that. I’m already halfway through Brian McLaren’s book Generous Orthodoxy (a full review will be coming the way of this blog very soon - it’s been a very, very interesting book to read,)  Sherri Tepper’s Fresco, and Michael Eric Dyson’s book about Bill Cosby. So, without further ado:

• Brian McLaren, Generous Orthodoxy (religious/political non-fiction)
• Sherri Tepper,  Fresco (science fiction)
• Thomas Keating, Foundations for Centering Prayer (religious non-fiction)
• Michael Eric Dyson, Is Bill Cosby Right, or Has the Black Middle Class Lost its Mind? (political/social non-fiction)
• Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week (religious non-fiction)
• Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (fiction)
• John Dominic Crossan and N.T. Wright in Dialogue, The Resurrection of Jesus (religious non-fiction)
• Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper, Building Harlequin’s Moon (science fiction)
• C.J. Cherryh, The Deep Beyond (science fiction)
• Pablo Neruda, The Essential Neruda (poetry)
• Phillip Zaleski, ed., The Best American Spiritual Writing (religious non-fiction)
• Galway Kinnell, A New Selected Poems (poetry)
• Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, God, Christ, Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology (religious non-fiction)
• Karen Armstrong, The Crusades (historical non-fiction)

Yeah, I said it was a long list. I think I will get through half of them, which would be good. I’ll probably read all the fiction and poetry, though. I have to say, it’s a bit telling about me. I spend an entire school year, reading an incredible amount (and kvetching about it) and what do I do when vacation rolls around? READ MORE, and look forward to it. Sigh.

technorati tags: books, summer, reading

Well, I don’t know whether these fall into the category of tidbits - tidbits have a quality that suggests tasty, or nice, nourishing little bits, or something. These will for sure taste sour in the mouth.

First thing: Dust. I heard a story on NPR yesterday about how dust storms, which result from dust as far as the Sahara or Gobi deserts, get deposited on snow in places like Colorado, which then increases the rate at which the snow melts, creating a water shortage problem - the snow melts too fast, and the folks downstream who depend on the snow pack for irrigation, and general use, don’t have the water at the right time. So - human activity (overfarming) leads to dust storms, which lead to less snow pack, which leads to less water, which leads to lower yeilds of food and water shortages elsewhere. And combine that with the effect of global climate disruption (I’m using this term, from now on, instead of global warming, or global climate change,) and were in a bit of trouble. As if you didn’t know that already.

Speaking of food, if you thought ethanol was a good fuel alternative given the decrease in petroleum supply, think again.  I guess manufacturing more efficient cars, or maybe even driving less, is just too much to ask, so we need to think about using food supplies as alternatives. It turns out, that if we start using corn for ethanol, that means less to eat. And since there are a lot of people in the world, and agriculture (see reasons above, among others) has probably reached it’s peak production capacity worldwide, using corn for ethanol is just not a good idea. Ethanol also takes energy to produce, and is less efficient in cars as gasoline is. So don’t fall for it.

Mike Davis, who wrote the really good book, City of Quartz, about the city of LA (I taught the book once) has a new book out, called Planet of Slums (it’s on my wish list.)  There is a great interview with him on the Peak Energy blog. He is describing that as many as a billion people live in slums in varied parts of the world, and talks about the kind of conditions there are, and the ramifications of this reality.

technorati tags: environment, dust, agriculture, ethanol, slums

… of something that will get someone in trouble with the copyright police, but for no good reason. This is an inventive, and very funny mashup of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, called "Star Lords." (Link for broadband only, sorry.)

technorati tags: starwars, lordoftherings, mashup, film

I had run into Democracy TV, a while back, but I re-discovered it in a much more mature state last week. It’s basically a platform which takes advantage of "Web 2.0" and bittorrent. Particularly, what it does is allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds of videos, download them, and watch them, within an iTunes -like interface (read: easy to use.) All of the videos are free, and almost all are independently produced - free of commercials, etc.

It’s really great - I’m now subscribed to Democracy Now video feed, Terra TV (nature,) TreeHugger TV (environmental/design,) MacTV (you know what that is,) and some other interesting stuff. Anyway, if you’ve got broadband, it’s absolutely worth checking out.  And the software is cross-platform, and open source.

technorati tags: video, tv, opensource

I drove back from Santa Barbara on Friday, just to turn around and drive up to Redwood Valley, up north of Ukiah, about 2.5 hours north of Berkeley. I was there for a very special occasion. My friend, and Buddhist teacher Arinna Weisman, was being blessed because she is "going forth" to be ordained into the monastic life. We were at Abhayagiri Monastery. It was a wonderful ceremony, and I think that it was really special for Arinna to have so many of her friends and students there. There are photos of some things (I didn’t get any actual pictures of the ceremony itself) on my flickr page.

Then, this morning, I myself was blessed during the Sunday service as officially "in-care" with the New Spirit congregation. It felt really nice, and felt like I took another step along my ministry path.

So, it’s been a full weekend, and it’s nice that I’ve got a week coming up with virtually nothing to do! Yay!

I’ve decided that the Democratic party is stuck in a rut, and can’t get out. I don’t care so much about them, really, except that unlike any other party I might align myself with (like the Green Party or the Democratic Socialists) they have at least a vague chance of winning (compared to a snowball’s chance in hell of winning pretty much anything except very local races.) So I care about what they do, and what they say, and how they position themselves in terms of trying to take back the government from, frankly, the fascists that are in power.

First off, they are stuck in the rut of self-preservation. They care more about their own hides, than about the good of the country. Case in point, the silly, silly rallying around Rep William Jefferson, whose office was raided because he was stupid enough to accept a huge cash bribe from an undercover agent.  I don’t care if he is a congressperson, I don’t care that he’s a Democrat, I don’t care if he is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, I don’t care what good he’s done. Taking bribes is a crime, and from what I could tell about the evidence, they had probable cause. They had a warrant and they did what they were supposed to do. He is still innocent until proven guilty, but searching his congressional office is fair game. This is not to say I would put it past this current administration to make something up against a Democratic congressperson. From what I can tell, this isn’t it.

We found out a couple of weeks ago that the NSA has been collecting, illegally, millions of phone records from everyday Americans, without probable cause or a warrant. A month or so ago, we found out that the Bush administration has been illegally listening in on international phone calls. Did they get all up in arms about that? A little kerfluffle, but not anything like the bipartisan ruckus they’ve been making now. Sounds like a double standard to me. Yes, it’s OK to illegally violate the privacy of millions of people, but search their offices when you have probable cause? How horrific! And, of course, that rut of self-preservation is what got Jefferson in trouble in the first place. And it’s what keeps the Democrats in the pockets of all sorts of interests.

Then, there is the "search for the vote" instead of finding a set of values and articulating a message. Recently, Democrats have been courting the evangelical vote.  Now I don’t think this is, on its face, a bad thing. There are plenty of progressive, or even centrist evangelicals, for whom the wedge issues of gay marriage and abortion are either not issues, or aren’t nearly as important as the moral issues of war, poverty, affordable housing, health care and the environment. But instead of working to get their votes based on the basic ideals of the party, not simply pandering to their perceived perspectives by watering down the party’s well established points of view on abortion and gay rights.

They lack the courage of their supposed convictions, a willingness to take risks, and to clearly articulate their message. Based on the experience of the last 8 years, it is unclear to me why Democrats think that they will get anywhere. There’s that old adage: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. 

technorati tags: democrats, evangelicals, congress, nsa

Yesterday, the movie An Inconvenient Truth was released. Unless you live in LA or NY, it won’t come to a theatre near you until June. I’m definitely going to see it, and I think everyone should, even though many people will think of this as preaching to the converted. You can see the trailer (don’t click on this link unless you have broadband.)

NPR reviewed the film, both in terms of science and art. I have a quibble with the review, but basically it was fair. Rotten Tomatoes is a good place to see a compilation of reviews - most of them are positive.

Al Gore has been an advocate of the environment for a very long time. Although a lot of people are wondering why he didn’t have more influence while he was VP - I think that they are forgetting that, on the whole, the Clinton administration had a very good environmental record, and that Al Gore was not a Dick Cheney (because Bill Clinton was not a George W. Bush.)

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing it, even though, as all of you know, I already know what it will say. 

technorati tags: algore, globalclimate, environment

I’m sitting in the living room of my friend who lives in the Santa Barbara area, resting up, enjoying good company, and just beginning the process of integrating all that has happened to me this year (there’s a lot!!)

I’ve been thinking a lot about writing, and doing more of it, of varied sorts. I like to write, and I’d like to get better at it, and find my voice, whatever it might be like. And thinking about writing includes thinking about not only the content and the genre, but also the medium - that is, including my blogs. So I’m taking an informal poll. Please, please take just a quick moment to write in the comments section your answer to the following questions. I wish I had some cool swag to give you, but you’ll have to just settle for my heartfelt thanks.

A) Why do you read my blog? (Choose as many as you want)

1. You are a friend/family member, and want to keep up with my goings on
2. You get important/useful/interesting information from it.
3. You like to hear my perspective on things
4. You like the writing
5. Something else …

B) You read my other blog

1. yes
2. no

C) You like my entries best that are … (again, choose as many as you want)

1. Personal
2. About religion/spirituality
3. About politics
4. About technology
5. About the environment
6. About …

D) If there is one thing you’d want to tell me about my blog it would be …

E) You would stop reading my blog if …

Thanks!! I hope that my ruminations, and your feedback, will help me figure this writing thing out.

If you want, you can email me, too.