Whatever happened, happened...

I ran across a helpful comment about time travel on a LOST blog I read regularly.

(Yes, I read a blog about a TV show.  Regularly.  Actually, I don't know how anyone can watch LOST without some sort of viewer's guide to keep up. It's like playing the original Legend of Zelda without Nintendo Power. No thanks.)

It was a nice summation of why we cannot change the past, even if we could go back in time:

"Say that you went back in time to stop John Wilkes Boothe from killing Lincoln. The whole point of you going back to this time period would be to stop the murder. However, once you stop it you would not have a reason to go back in time. Therefore the murder would still occur since you would not have gone back in time to stop it."

It made my brain hurt, but it actually seemed to make sense. I'm sure a bunch of 12 year-olds are like, "duh, we figured that one out in third grade." Well, I didn't, so back off.

people are just people like you

For me, the first listen of a new CD, is usually an underwhelming experience. It usually takes me at least 3-4 times through to really latch on to it, and to pick out my favorites.

The same thing was happening last week as I started Regina Spektor's "Soviet Kitsch." Until I hit Track 9.

"The Ghost of Corporate Future" has been in my head for three days now. As with much of Spektor's music, she couples an addictingly simple piano hook with lyrics just as captivating but much more complex. I'm reminded of the big picture -- that my latest presentation, e-mail, and budget discussions don't really matter.

I've copied out a few of my favorite lyrics from the song, but do yourself a favor and watch the video below, or better yet, pick up the CD on Amazon here.

Imagine you go away
On a business trip one day
And when you come back home,
Your children have grown
And you never made your wife moan,
Your children have grown
And you never made your wife moan...

And people make you nervous
You'd think the world is ending,
And everybody's features have somehow started blending
And everything is plastic, And everyone's sarcastic,
And all your food is frozen,
It needs to be defrosted...

You'd think the world was ending,
You'd think the world was ending,
You'd think the world was ending right now...

Well maybe you should just drink a lot less coffee,
And never ever watch the ten o'clock news.
Maybe you should kiss someone nice,
Or lick a rock,
Or both...

People are just people,
People are just people,
People are just people like you.

Red Light Cameras: Traffic Safety or Big Brother?

Interesting discussion this week in Shreveport, LA, regarding red light photo enforcement. As this has also been a hot topic in Columbia of late, I thought I'd share some snippets of the article and (of course) my comments. Full news story: http://tr.im/iTgA

The chairman of the Shreveport City Council today promises a vigorous fight against proposed red light cameras in Shreveport, calling them "Orwellian" and a case of government snooping into people's lives.

They are neither. If you obey the law, you will not be photographed, videoed, or otherwise bothered by the Orwellian government.

There is no proof the cameras cut down on accidents at intersections -- and they could do the opposite, Councilman Ron Webb said.

Untrue. Numerous studies have shown significant decreases in red light running and severe crashes at signals (predominantly T-bone / angle / sideswipe collisions).

He noted an incident in Dallas when a driver slammed on her brakes to avoid possibly getting a ticket because of the red light camera. His son was one of three drivers involved in a resulting three-vehicle chain reaction wreck.

"He could have easily been killed. Thanks for nothing, Big Brother!" Webb said.

Um...no. It is extremely rare that rear-end crashes at signals are ever serious. At the very least, red light cameras swap out crash types. Rear-end minor crashes may go up, but angle crashes (which often result in injury) will go down.

Red light cameras, or automated traffic ticketing systems, take a picture of the license plate of a vehicle whose driver commits a traffic violation at an intersection. A ticket is then mailed to the address of the registered owner.

Webb said researchers have studied red light cameras and found they don't work at best, and could actually cause more crashes as drivers abruptly stop when lights turn yellow.

"This is a Pandora’s Box we best never open, lest we lose what few freedoms we still have left," Webb said. "We need to ask ourselves this question: In a free society, when is enough 'government protection' enough?"

This is a case of a public official not wanting something to happen, so he stands behind Freedom to protect law-breakers. The truth is that red light cameras do improve safety, and a little "invasion of privacy" of drivers who choose to blow through red lights is a small price to pay to save lives on our roads.

Bottom Line: Don't run red lights, and you'll have nothing to worry about.

Book Review: Velvet Elvis

With the sheer number of books in the world it's often difficult for me to discern which are worthy of reading. I recently blogged about a strategy I developed for me: Read Chapter 1. Check for Goosebumps. As I run across books that capture me in some way, I'll share a quick review.

I've recently had a revived interest in the questions of faith, church, God and their various intersections.  The squeaky-clean Sunday School solutions of my youth often haven't translated to my real life as an adult, and in the search for better answers I've determined that I've become more drawn to the search itself.

In Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, Rob Bell poses questions I've often had in my head but not verbalized. He doesn't supply many answers, but invites us to join the conversation of faith, life, text, and their multiple intersections.

"Times change. God doesn't, but times do... letting go of whatever has gotten in the way of Jesus, and embracing whatever will help us be more & more the people God wants us to be."

"The Christian faith is mysterious to the core. It is about things and beings that ultimately can't be put into words. Language fails. And if we do definitively put God into words, we have at that very moment made God something God is not."

I've since learned that Bell has his share of disagree-ers, and his postmodern/emerging/Gen-XY attitude is a turn-off to some conservatives. But maybe that's part of the draw for me. It's something a little different that asks me to really think about what I believe, instead of just learning facts (and opinions dressed as fact).

It was simultaneously refreshing and challenging to read and think about the "What ifs" and "Whys" of this writing, and I'm interested to enter the discussions prompted by the author as I continue my journey - asking questions and questioning answers.

Beef & Cheddar Pizza

As a kid I have great memories of pizza. Our family often enjoyed the Pizza Hut buffet after church on Sundays, where my brother and I would hold pizza-eating contests among ourselves and other friends in the restaurant that day (I went to a big church in a small town, so we were rarely without other church-goers at lunch).

My favorite topping was Beef & Cheddar.

Later on Pizza Hut introduced the Bigfoot Pizza -- a 1ft by 2ft rectangle of yumminess. It quickly became a staple at parties and our house. Again, the predominant topping combo was beef + cheddar cheese.

Then it disappeared.

I'm not sure what happened, but I recently realized I haven't had a Beef & Cheddar pizza for years, maybe decades. 

I've discovered a new topping that has become a favorite: Pineapple. On a thin and crispy Dominoes pizza pie, it's very good. I finished a medium nearly single-handedly just last month.

But I still think back to the 1980s days of Beef & Cheddar fondly, and wonder if others shared my love of this long lost topping combination, or some other combo of the past.

Mario & Me

I've been playing Nintendo for over 20 years, starting with the classics (Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Double Dribble).  I saved one of my first month's earnings as a paper boy (35 smackers) and road my bike to Wal-Mart to purchase The Legend of Zelda.  My life would never be the same.

Fast forward two decades, and I'm playing Wii Bowling and Lego Star Wars with my wife and kids.  Good stuff.

Last week I spent a few days in Seattle with Janelle, and had the chance to visit Nintendo of America Headquarters.  The actual experience was underwhelming -- the visitor center is the size of a hotel gift shop with roughly the same selection (there were no games for sale).  We did come out with stuffed Nintendo characters for the kiddos and a Hyrulian shield full of candy.

But that wasn't the point.

I stood at the center of my gaming universe, and couldn't help but feel 12 years old again.