Category: General

So my little sister’s high school economic challenge team came up last Friday to San Francisco for the regionals. They advanced to the Nationals in New York, so I’ll be going there in May to cheer them on. Since I hadn’t seen her in so long, I thought I’d meet in San Fran and show her and her team around. Here are some pictures. Hopefully, my sister can send me the better ones later.

Pier 39 Pictures

From News.com:

With better security and features and the ability to customize the browser in virtually any way possible, there’s no reason not to get Mozilla Firefox.

What: Relay for Life
Who: American Cancer Society
When: Saturday, April 23 from 10 AM to Sunday, April 24 at 10 AM
Why: Because you like helping a good cause
How: Participate or Donate (preferably to me)

So yesterday I had to get up at 8 AM for a poster presentation (not fun). It was for my Crossroads of Earth Resources class. I did my presentation on open source as a resource paradigm (yeah I know that’s just a word to make dumb people sound smart-Simpsons joke), arguing that people volunteering can do more for the underclass than corporations. People seemed to like the project, though they seemed a bit confused by it. That said, not too many people wandered towards my side of the hall way to look my project, but other people did really good work. I was having one talk with every person on everything and some how managed to tie everything into how much we hated George W. Bush (is there any place I can go without complaining about him?) It’s odd, before this project, I hadn’t made an effort to meet anybody in my class, but afterwards, I think I talked to just about everyone.

Professor George Brimhall then invited us to his house for a BBQ. I had never been to professors house before, yet alone been invited to one. That was so awesome of him to do, and the food was good.

Now, I’m actually looking forward to coming to class on Tuesday.

The New York Times ran this op-ed from former U.S. Senator and Episcopal minister, John C. Danforth. You would think he’d the biggest supporter of the new Republican party, but he sees things very differently.

The problem is not with people or churches that are politically active. It is with a party that has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement.

When government becomes the means of carrying out a religious program, it raises obvious questions under the First Amendment. But even in the absence of constitutional issues, a political party should resist identification with a religious movement. While religions are free to advocate for their own sectarian causes, the work of government and those who engage in it is to hold together as one people a very diverse country. At its best, religion can be a uniting influence, but in practice, nothing is more divisive. For politicians to advance the cause of one religious group is often to oppose the cause of another…

During the 18 years I served in the Senate, Republicans often disagreed with each other. But there was much that held us together. We believed in limited government, in keeping light the burden of taxation and regulation. We encouraged the private sector, so that a free economy might thrive. We believed that judges should interpret the law, not legislate. We were internationalists who supported an engaged foreign policy, a strong national defense and free trade. These were principles shared by virtually all Republicans.

But in recent times, we Republicans have allowed this shared agenda to become secondary to the agenda of Christian conservatives. As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around.

The historic principles of the Republican Party offer America its best hope for a prosperous and secure future. Our current fixation on a religious agenda has turned us in the wrong direction. It is time for Republicans to rediscover our roots.

I can only think of one think to say at this point: Thank God!

(via Metafilter)

What’s that you’re saying there
Oh well
Rain rushing window pain
Oh well
Can’t see what space i’m in
Oh well
But i’m safe inside me here
Oh well

Frou Frou – Old Piano

On a side note, this lyrics site offers some kind of trackback, meaning if I link to them, it automatically links back to me. Cool! Wish more sites did that.

One of the members of my group for my Information Systems class programmed this awesome logo in the LOGO programming language.

http://groups.sims.berkeley.edu/is146/logos/logo-7d.html

So rad.

Why is my life so boring that can’t find anything to write about?

Oh yeah, I saw Heidi Fleiss (the Hollywood Madam) at the Burbank airport on the way back to Berkeley from Spring Break (at least I think it was her).

Maybe I just need some inspiration. I don’t know.