And then a miracle occurs...

Thought this was clever:

"I think you should be more explicit here in step two."

Movie Review

Heather and I got a rare chance to go to a movie this past weekend, and I was pleasantly surprised by Stranger Than Fiction. I expected this Will Ferrell, but got something entirely different. Some movies, especially exceedingly well-written movies, give me an urge to try writing something beautiful, and I was feeling that throughout the movie. I'm recommending it.

A little rant and a picture

First of all, here's a picture of a picture Pete drew for me. He's getting pretty good. Click on the picture to go to Flickr and see the explanation of what he drew.



Second of all, I'm disturbed by how many people think that Jesus is returning in the near future. I read a post that mentioned that 44% of people think that Jesus will return in the next 50 years. I was flabbergasted that it's almost a majority, but doubtful of the source. So I looked it up, and it's a Pew Research Center poll from 2000. 22% of people think that it will definitely happen in the next 50 years! And it's backed up by a more recent poll in 2006 that found that 20% of people think that Jesus will return in their lifetime.

From the 2000 poll, the following things are less likely to "definitely happen in the next 50 years":

There will be a nuclear war
The world will face a major energy crisis
There will be a major terrorist attack in the US involving biological or chemical weapons
We will make progress in improving our environment
Ordinary people will travel in space
A manned spacecraft will land on Mars
The Republican and Democratic parties will continue to be our only two major political parties
There will be a cure for AIDS
The Catholic Church will allow priests to marry
The Catholic Church will ordain women as priests
China will become a rival superpower to the US
We will clone human beings
An African American will be elected US president

There are several things on that list that I find perfectly reasonable to expect in the next 50 years. But not the end times.

That's a lot of people who might honestly think that there is no future. What use is investment in the future, thinking about future generations, etc, if the whole universe is ending soon?

Of course, maybe impending judgement will make these people extra careful and extra ethical. Maybe it'll help motivate them.

I'm a christian, but I'm not so radical. I guess it just worries me that there is such a large radical group out there. They're good people, but if they're that literal about spirituality, what else do they think?

Pete tells a Scooby Doo story

This is about 1 minute out of a ten minute epic scooby doo story that Pete told me tonight.

Rooby Rooby Roo!

Rebellion

I had no idea I was such a rebel.

"Blogging has become a socially accepted practice—just as are dating seriously too young, underage drinking and general misbehaving."

Link

Thanks to Kottke

Photos from Our Family Trip

I finally put some photos up from our family trip to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Go to Flickr to see them all.

Growing Up

Lately, Pete's evening conversation of choice is to talk about how he's a little boy, and I'm a man, and when he grows up, he'll be a dad and have kids.

I asked him what he would do with his kids, and he said he'd take them places in the car. Places like Nana's house... or the State Fair. Whatever his kids want to do.

The other day, he says:
"It takes a really really long time for me to grow up, and I think I'm bored.
I think I want to be a grown up now, because I want to have kids."

Heather's response to me later: "It must look like we're having a lot of fun."

Chart Nerd #1

I know I've had nerdy charts on the site before:

Scrabble
Ascent #1
Ascent #2

But this is a new high. I was browsing the Bureau of Labor and Statistics website the other day,

(note my complete abandonment of pride and coolness)

and I realized that they keep track of all sorts of good stuff. So, I did what every excel geek would do, I made a graph showing the historical price of lettuce compared to the price of regular self-serve gasoline.



I may be imagining it, but there looks to me like there's a negative correlation between lettuce prices and gas prices. When gas goes down in price, lettuce goes up. It doesn't happen every time, but it happens sometimes. Check out 2002 and 2004. Maybe this is an investment strategy. Don't steal my idea.

Nora's tribute

Did anyone see the Crocodile Hunter episode of 20/20 last night? It was okay. Who couldn't like that guy?

Anyway, here's Nora's small tribute: