Verbisaurus Blogicus

Monday, 18 June 2012

So, I don’t know if anyone out there ever checks out the Books I’ve Read This Year tab on my site here (you can click to it above), but let me share a few things about it with you…

First: Go me! I’ve successfully kept up with it for over five months now.

Second: If you sort by “Grade” (the rightmost column), you will see I have now given at least one book every letter grade available. Way to celebrate diversity!

Third: I added a new “Reason” option. Before, there were only four reasons listed for why I read any book…

1. Class. This means the book was assigned to me in a class at work or at my university, and I had to read it.

2. Kids. This means I read the book to my son (and possibly) my daughter.

3. Review. This means the book’s publisher (or, possibly, author) sent me a free copy of the book with the understanding that I read it and write a review of it to appear in The Minnesota Atheist newsletter and website.

4. FTHOI. This stands for “For the Hell of It,” because, let’s face it, every once in a while I do read a book simply for my own enjoyment or to learn how to improve on something in my own personal life.

But now I added this reason:

Editor. This indicates I was an editor for the book, and thus read it carefully several times.

…and I think that’s a plenty cool reason to add, don’t you?

Fourth: If you sort by author, you’ll notice that Owen and I have read a heap of Ron Roy offerings. If you look carefully, you’ll notice we’ve read the A to Z Mystery books from H through U. Except T. “Hey!” you shout unneccessarily loudly, “Where’s the ‘T’ book?”

Well, the thing is, Owen and I read it last year. In fact, that book – The Talking T-Rex was the first A to Z Mystery book we read. I didn’t even know if was a series of books back then. But, while reading it, I realized the book was part of a series, and so Owen and I commenced reading the books, beginning with the letter A. We read A through G back in 2011, and we’ve been reading from H on this year. After reading the S book (The School Skeleton) I asked him if he wanted to reread the T book, just so that we could read them in order. He didn’t want to, even though I told him he was wrong (just kidding). Even if we hd reread it, though, I wouldn’t list it here, since, as the introduction points out, I am only listing books that I read for the first time this year.

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

 So, today was the big forum thingy that I first talked about HERE.

Since I was scheduled to present at 2:50 this afternoon, I spent the first 8 hours of the day nervous. After a while, I got to feeling that maybe I was just nervous about being nervous, if that makes any sense. So then I calmed down somewhat.

I was pleased to see that my boss’ boss left the auditorium about an hour before my speech. I was hoping he’d be a no-show but – wouldn’t you know it? – he decided to re-attend the forum about ten miunutes before I was set to go on stage. I think he timed his arrival to coincide with the ice cream, which the catering staff brought in a few minutes before my speech. I considered delivering my speech while chomping down on a Choco Taco, but then came to my senses.

For me, the highlight of the day was when one engineer made the case that there is such a thing as a perfect package. He claimed the best packaging for a product is…can you guess it?

PEZ dispensers!

Yep. He noted that they are functional, attractive, and easy to operate. He displayed a photo of a portion of his collection of some 200 disoensers. While he did, I realized that he’s probably right. After all, how often do we care more about the packaging than the product itself? People just eat the forgettable candy right away. But the dispensers? Those are collectors’ items.

Friday, 15 June 2012

 So, a guy who goes by the name “Ministry” emailed me today. He used the email address that I keep solely for correspondance related to MY OTHER WEBSITE. Here’s what he had to say:

First, I am NOT a JW, nor have I ever been, nor has any member of my family or any friends been JWs. I don’t support the  JWs, or maintain they are perfect in their beliefs, and have serious disagreements with them on a number of important matters of biblical interpretation, BUT I have to admit they do have a lot of valid points that it pleases me and God to point toward, and praise them for. Their teaching on Birthdays, is to that point an example. 

On the other hand, I have read your whole site, and I find not one single thing you are right on. You come off as an ignorant bigoted hater that uses illogical arguments to make non-existent points. In short you are a disgusting creep deserving of no respect at all. You make me ashamed to be a human being. Clean up your own stupidity before you attack any others. Someone like you make the JWs look like brilliant angels by comparison. Are you sure you are not a JW plant who is a secret shill for them. The way you talk, it only helps them. Curious. Now, if you have any excuse or defense I would be glad to hear it. 

“Life And Life More Abundantly” 

Google “FounderChurch” for Teachings 

So…here’s a few things that came to my mind when I was reading this:

First, do you know that about 90% of the negative email I receive from that website begins with the writers distancing themselves from the Witnesses? This guy is no exception; his whol first paragraph is letting me know that he’s not a Witness, even though (yawn) he thinks they’re pretty cool cats. Whatever.

Second, I absolutely hate vague criticisms. I mean, off-handedly, I suppose it’s okay. Like, say we go see a movie together and, on the way out, I say, “So what did ya think?” And you say, “It was alright, I guess.” But if you’re going to take the time to write an email, why not address some issue with the site? Instead, he just bemoans my personality which A) he doesn’t know at all and B) is irrelevent. I mean, for the sake of argument, let’s just say I totally agree with his assessment that I am an “ignorant bigoted hate.” Fine. So what? How does that alter the information on the site?

Third, what’s with closing with a call for me to Google his site? Can’t he just embed the link or, at the very least, just type out the URL?

Anyway, here’s what I wrote to him yesterday:

Hello!

Thank you for your email. It is good to know that people are visiting my site!
Your email exemplifies a major reason why I left Christianity. To wit, Christians often claim to excel in love, yet are quick to demonize dissenting opinions and slander arguments that make them uncomfortable, frequently using hyperbole and accusing the person of being amoral or even immoral. I am unsure how people can, on the one hand, claim to belong to a loving religion and follow a loving god, yet construct emails of such a vitriolic nature. It’s strong evidence against Christinity’s central moral claim.
Regarding you final sentence, I do not believe an excuse is warranted. If you require a defense of any of the points I raised, please respond with a specific issue you have with a specific point, fact, or argument on my website. As it is, I am unsure how to respond to overarching, baseless accusations concerning my character, particularly when it is irrelevant with respect the information on the website. In short, respond with specific issues, in coherently constructed sentences, and leave out the hateful, unnecessary ad hominem attacks, or I will not respond at all.

Thank you again.

And today, he wrote this in response:

Problem with you is you are very thin skinned and take offense easily. I am wary of people who are like that. I can say I have lived a long time and I have NEVER in my life ever been insulted by anyone, because I take nothing as an insult. You clearly do, and that is not good at all. I have clearly divided those I have known into those who get insulted and those who never do. 

OK, now for what you wrote. Well at least I guess we now know you are not a JW plant. How does it make you feel to be suspected of such? Don’t answer. 

As for the merit of what you say. I looked very hard and I couldn’t find any merit at all. You seemed to just be gratuitously biting and snapping at the church, and being wrong on top of it. So intellectually your statements are worthy little respect. You may be surprised to know that I have copied your site, NOT for anything you say, which I discard but to hear the very informed justifications of the JW to your ranting. So I have benefited from your site, but totally not in the way you intended. 

I think you need to rethink everything you think and get off of your nasty blame game against God, and the churches and church people, and get into improving yourself. You sound very young and immature. You are smart and fast, but you have little on your hard drive to use to make good judgments. 

 

If you are teachable I am able to teach you, but you seem so full of God hating Democrat Liberalism that likely nothing can save you. In short none of the churches are perfect, far from it, but you are worse than all of them, or any of them at this time. Thanks for putting up your site though. It has served me fine, and I thank you for that. 

My favorite part is where he asked me a question, then immediately followed it up with “Don’t answer.” Way to encourage dialog there, Ministry.

Saturday, 16 June 2012

 This morning, I responded to Ministry thusly:

Hello!

Requesting you refrain from ad hominem attacks is not thin-skinned, it is asking that you discuss the real issues and facts brought up on the website rather than just name-calling and making irrelevent guesses regarding my age and personaility. And I don’t think I’ve been offended by anything. Ever.

I am glad to hear you are sharing my website with Jehovah’s Witnesses! Most of them would immediately shun such information, and some have even been disciiplined for sharing the contents of the site with other members of their congregation. So, if you’ve been able to find a way to share the information with them, that’s excellent. Thank you! I plan to copy these emails and put them on my blog as an example of the responses my site generates from Christians.

In my previous response, I requested you desist from character attacks if you wish any future replies. As evident from your most recent email, you do not wish to comply with this request. This, therefore, is my final response to you, and I will add your email address to my spam filter.

And he then replied this afternoon:

Fine, you can’t take criticism though you can dish it out aplenty. Your reading is as careless as your writing. I NEVER said I ever shared a single world of yours with any JW, ever. I don’t even know any JWs. 

All I know of them is what I read in their literature which is all over place, and on the web. They seem to me to be no worse, or better, than any of the other hundreds of religious denominations of all faiths. 

You are just self-puffed-up, and on a bigoted hate trip due to your break-up with your first love, The Jehovah’s Witnesses. She did you wrong, now you hate her. You look ridiculous. 

All religious bodies of every sort have censorship and rules and persecutions laid out for those who disagree with them both inside and outside their organizations. What is new in that? So-called secular organizations have the same set of punitive punishments for their “heretics,” Secular organizations are all quasi religious churches who just construct, and conduct themselves differently, so as to hide that fact for their own benefit. 

 

Secularism is a religious movement with all the characteristics and attributes that openly religious organizations have. Wake up and smell the coffee before you think you are standing for anything new. And stop hating. It make you look shrill, ignorant and bigoted. 

So, I guess I misunderstood him because I thought he’d shown my site to some Witnesses. I guess I was wrong, but his writing doesn’t exactly merit an A for style. Regardless, I’m done with him. He had three chances to point out a specific issue with the site and, instead, just wants to attack my personality (and youth! …how flattering). When I tried to steer him away from that, he accused me of being thin-skinned. It’s kind of sad, really, but it makes me glad that I’ve distanced myself from the need to apologize for a fragile faith. It makes a person write weird emails, like Minstry’s.

Sunday, 17 June 2012

And while we’re on the topic of the Witnesses, I want to point out this article:

 California Jury Awards $28M in Jehovah’s Sex Abuse Case

The first thing I want to point out is that this is a hilarious title for an article; notice: it’s Jehovah’s Sex Abuse Scandal. I love it!

The second thing I want to point out is, this is an enormous sum! Of course, Conti’s not getting most of this, because the perpetrator has no cash to cough up, but this must scare the Watchtower Society. I see that they plan to appeal it. Here’s another idea for their legal team: Change the name of your religion! First, it’s a cumbersome, clumsy name – what with that apostropher an all. Second – and more importantly – I was always taught that we don’t want to do anything that brings reproach on Jehovah’s name. The article title, above, seems plenty reproachful to me.

I bet Sparlock is behind this.

Tuesday, 12 June 2012
So, I have kind of this Janus-faced approach to tasks at my job. A few weeks ago, in a moment of forward-looking caffeine-enhanced vigor, I volunteered to give a speech at an upcoming forum.

It’s a week away now, and I’ve spent a good chunk of today preparing for it. A couple co-workers have epxressed that I’m a good fit for giving this presentation, since, you know I am in Toastmasters. “Well, yes,” I respond, “but see, in Toastmasters, I get to speak on topics that I’m an authority on, and the audience is made up of people who know I am there to craft my speaking skills. At the upcoming forum, by contrast, I will be speaking in front of people with greater education, experience, and positions than me – so I’m clearly not the authority. Also – in contrast to Toastmasters – they’re rightly expecting a good presentation.”

I’m actually co-presenting, which offers its own benefits and challenges. On the one hand, it means I only need prepare about 8 minutes of material (instead of 15, which most other speakers will have). It also means that, during the Q and A session, I can just gesture toward my co-worker as if to say, “Ask him. He knows.” But the downside is, it’s tough to finalize what I’m gonna say without my co-worker there with me, so we keep having to get together.

Anyway, my supervisor thinks it’s great that I offered to speak. So, I guess that’s good. I’ll see if he feels the same way next Tuesday. Thankfully, I’m splitting for a class in Chicago right after the forum, so hopefully by the time I see my co-workers again, they’ll have forgotten about whatever may or may not happen.

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Did you know that right now our Congress is so unpopular, they have an approval rating of only 17%. Part of me wonders: who are these 17 people out of every 100? But the other part of me thinks this is what they should expect.

I don’t feel like getting into a political discussion right now, but some sites I visit feel this bodes poorly both for freshmen (who were supposed to get in there and fix things) and for the more senior members (who, come on, still don’t have their crap together).

But instead of talking about all that, just visit the Washington Post. They put together a hilarious slide show presentation of other things in recent history that have been more or less popular than our current congress. Included among this presentation is a comparison between the current congress and Nixon during his final week in office. Which one do you think was more popular? Go here and find out: Washington post article.

Thursday, 14 June 2012

I keep forgetting to talk about this here, but I signed up for a workout class at my job. It’s every Wednesday at 4:00 for eight weeks. It started in early May – actually, the day before my final exam in my last class – and it goes through the month of June.

It’s a great way to end the day! The exercises cover the whole body (or, at least, it feels that way) and almost everything the instructor shows us can be modified. For example, let’s say she’s having us hold our arms out and raise them up and down. Well, she suggests holding weights in our hands, and I usually hold the ten-pounders. But there are weights of varying amounts and, as she points out, you can opt to not use any weights at all or, if you need to, just alternate arms during each rep.

I also like that the class is such a mixed group. There are some co-workers there who are younger, fitter, and trimmer than me. There are also many who are older – including some who I would estimate are in their 60s – and several who need to lose quite a bit of weight. To them, I say: good for you for for joining the class!

Anyway, yesterday, the instrucor focused (moreso than usual) on the muscles around the shoulders. So, today I’m sore there. It’s like I’m even weaker than I was the day before. Even holding Isla makes my upper arms shake. And if anyone asks me lift something heavy, forget it! I won’t be able to assist.

Sunday, 10 June 2012

This afternoon, in a fit of uncharacteristic spontaneity, we went to Jennifer’s parents’ house for the day. Jennifer’s sister was there with her family, too, so Owen and Isla got to play with their two cousins.

It’s hot and humid today, exactly like I don’t like it. So the adults pretty much stayed inside. The kids played intermittently in a kiddie pool, on a slip-and-slide, with the hose, and with a sand table.

After we’d been there for a few horus, Jennifer asked me if I’d like her to go out and buy a treat for my birthday. At first, I said no, since it’s not my birthday. My birthday is tomorrow. But, after thinking about if for five minutes or so, I thought to myself: “Don’t be such a ninny, James.” I realized it might be more fun to share cake and ice cream with the extended family than waiting until tomorrow after work. So I changed my mind.

Here I am with my cake:

 From the way I’m holding the cake, it looks like my shirt + the dessert say: “I’m bringing Happy Birthday,” but that was unintentional. Also – holy cow! – do I ever need a haircut. Oh – and that’s my brother-in-law-to-be in the background, there. I mention this merely because it’s not often I get to use a word with four hyphens in it.

Monday, 11 June 2012

So, unless your reading comprehension is deplorably low, it should come as no surprise when I say today is my birthday. I spent the day by going to work and then fighting traffic.  It was glorious.

Actually, in the evening, the four of us went out to eat at Chevy’s, which is a Mexican restaurant. Or, rather, an American interpretation of Mexican food, which is, in fact, the kind of Mexican-food interpretation I like best.

Tonight, my wife lit a candle atop the remaining one quarter of my cake (see: yesterday) and she and Owen sung me happy birthday. Isla joined in the festivities by wearing a silly grin the whole time. She also helped me blow out my candle.

My sister sent me a card, which thoughtfully arrived today, in which she wrote, “Holy shit you’re old.” She also called me to verbally provide birthday wishes. My Dad called, too, which I thought was kind of him.

Since I’m now another year older, I’ll also have to add another item TO THIS PAGE. But I haven’t yet. I’m still thinking of what to add.

You know, on every one of my birthdays, I think of my grandfather – my maternal grandfather. He used to call me every year on my birthday – not to say happy birthday, but to share a scripture with me. I guess it’s okay for Witnesses to do that, I don’t know. Now, these scriptures didn’t necessarily say anything encouraging, or have any sort of advise in them; no, the only reason why my grandfather selected them was because they mentioned the number of my new year. For example, when I turned twelve, he maybe told me to look up Genesis 35:22, where it says that “Jacob had twelve sons.” And when I turned twenty-four, he told me to look up Revelation 19:4, where it says something about twenty-four elders bowing down and worshipping God.

I used to try to make sure I caught his phone call each year and, on the rare occassion when I didn’t, I listened to his message, and made sure I looked up the scripture that very day. One time, I even pulled a concordance off my book shelf and looked up which numbers were in the bible. See, by my mid-twenties I started getting the feeling that not every number is in the bible, and so maybe my grandfather would eventually get to a year when he wouldn’t have a scripture to share with me. I needn’t have worried, though; I forget how high, but I think every single number up past fifty is mentioned at least once in the bible.

After Owen was born, my grandfather began calling on his birthday, too, and I remember reading Owen a scripture on both his first and second birthday (by which time I wasn’t even a theist anymore, but my grandfather didn’t know that).

Anyway, he doesn’t call me anymore. Since I’m not a Witness anymore, he believes it’s wrong for him to do something that was probably wrong for him to do back when I was a Witness. Oh well. Just for shits and giggles, then, here’s an encouraging passage from the Holy Bible that includes the number of my age:

“Uriah the Hittite. Thirty-seven in all.”
-2 Samuel 23:39

Thursday, 07 June 2012

I participated in another episode of Atheists Talk this evening. Usually when I do this show, I am the host, but today I was a guest. The topic was a discussion of the forthcoming book, Atheist Voices of Minnesota.

The three guests consisted of me, the head editor (Bill Lehto), and one of the authors. The host, George, asked questions, sometimes toward the group, and sometimes directed at a specific guest.

It was fun to discuss a book with which I’ve been so heavily involved. I’ve been on the show before to discuss books – lots of books. In fact, last year, I interviewed a librarian and she offered ten different books that serve as a great way to introduce young people to religion, and ten other books that are a great way to introduce people to science. I’ve also been on the other side, too: last year, George interviewed me about the book Disproving Christianity, for which I wrote a review.

But I’ve never talked about a book that involved me, before. It was pretty cool, actually, primarily because I knew the book so well. So, when George asked us if there were any essays that stood out as unique, I was able to -without any planning – immediately respond that there were two essays that come to mind, and then I gave the titles of those essays and discussed what I liked about them. (In fact, three essays came to mind, but I didn’t think it would sound fair if I extolled my wife’s essay as superb.)

Owen came with me and sat in the control room playing chess while I was on stage. Afterward, we had to stop to buy gas (because someone often likes to leave the car on empty), and so I bought Owen a treat as a way of saying ‘thanks for coming with me.’ He likes to buy those slushies and mix all the flavors together. I think he does this because it makes an already gross dessert even more nasty and he knows I won’t ask him to share.

Friday, 08 June 2012

Today was Owen’s last day of first grade.

As I’ve done on most Fridays, I picked him up after school. He and I said goodbye to his teacher and thanked her for her work. It might be the last time we see her, as she is switching to a different school this fall.

Usually, Owen and I head over to the corner drug store after school on Fridays, but today we went straight home to pick up Jennifer and Isla. Like last year, Owen got to pick where he wanted to go out for dinner, as kind of a celebration for finishing a year of school. Last year, he picked Chipotle. This year, he picked Buca, which was approximately five times the cost as last year. I hope this doesn’t indicate a trend.

Buca now has these signs that they set at your table. They say something like “Celebrating!” and if you are there to celebrate something, then you get one of these signs. Buca must be the place to celebrate stuff; the host even asks people that as they walk in the door: “And what are we celebrating today?” Owen gleefully announced it was the last day of school, and the host proclaimed this a worthy accomplishment to celebrate.

But they didn’t bring us a sign. So we asked. It was a big hit.

Saturday, 09 June 2012

I keep meaning to take pictures of Owen with the toys he’s made at Lowe’s during their Build and Grow events, and I just never get around to it. So, today, I’m making good on my self-promise.

The thing is, we were planning on going up to the cabin this weekend, but the meteorologist said the air would be hot and humid, and thunderstorms were projected. The cabin has no air conditioning, either, so it might not be comfortable sleeping. So, we stayed home, which is great by me, because we probably saved $50 worth of gas. Oh – and also we did some work on Isla’s room-to-be, our closet, and the downstairs bathroom.

Yeah, in fact, after nine months of relative inaction, Isla’s room has progressed immensely in the past week. Back on Wednesday, we finally sold two-thirds of the closet shelving in her room (hello, twelve hundred bucks, nice to see you!). More importantly, we moved all that shelving out of her room. Today, I took out these metal plates that were installed on the walls (to help stabilize the shelves), and Jennifer progressed on taping our closet. This is important, because our closet has, until this time, been Isla’s room. But now we’ve gotta suck it up and use our room’s original closet, so we need to finish mudding and taping the walls. This will then allow us to install shelving in there (and I plan to use shelving I removed from elsewhere in the house) and then Isla’s room won’t be a closet anymore.

Where was I? I think I got off the subject here. Oh, yes, here’s Owen with his apron on:

Notice the four circular decals he’s sporting from past events. The one in his hand is the latest edition, which hasn’t been ironed-on yet.

And here’s Owen with his five creations. He’s holding a “one” up behind the castle to denote that’s the first toy he constructed, and a “five” to show the latest one. From left to right, there’s a T. rex, an ice cream truck (with the decal in front), a chalkboard, a racecar, and the castle.