1. Intelligent Design is just Creation Science in a new suit (name-calling).

2. Don’t listen to these guys, they’re not real scientists (credentialism).

3. If you actually understood science as we do, you’d realize that these guys are wrong and we’re right; but you don’t, so you have to trust us (expertism).

4. They got some details of those complex systems wrong, so they must be wrong about everything (sniping).

5. The first amendment requires the separation of church and state (politics).

6. We can’t possibly find a fossil record of every step along the way in evolution, but evolution has already been so well-demonstrated it is absurd to challenge it in the details (prestidigitation).

7. Even if there are problems with the Darwinian model, there’s no justification for postulating an “intelligent designer” (true).

Newest research obsession: community supported agriculture and the perks of eating only locally grown produce and growing your own food.

I have been reading the book Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and fantasizing about having the means to buy a CSA share for one of the local family farms in Utah and beginning to do stuff like grind my own wheat, raise chickens, and make my own cheese or pickles.

It may just be a passing obsession, but there are a lot of good reasons to re-evaluate the way we eat in contemporary America. We have become so completely removed from the process behind one of our most basic needs: to eat.

One day I have dreams of having a nice little vegetable patch and buying most of my food from local farmer’s markets

Since this is mainly a show-and-tell I pledge to post some sort of writing on Wednesday when I’d usually post show-and-tell. Goodnight! I’m off to read another chapter in that book…

Listen to This…

http://odeo.com/audio/16844993/view

I’ve spent the better part of the morning pondering the subject and I can only think of seven reasons to kill you.  I promised myself I wouldn’t do it unless I could get at least ten.  No one is flawless, I know that.  I’m certainly not flawless.  You’re certainly not flawless.  I can think of seven reason that justify ending your existence.  Seven isn’t enough though.  There’s certainly a lot more than seven or even ten reasons to let you live but in this case that doesn’t matter.  You don’t let someone out of jail just because there’s a lot f laws they haven’t broken.  They don’t even wait until you’ve broken ten laws to put you away.  Frankly, I think I’m being generous.  People have been killed for a lot less.  Who know how many billions of people over the years have been killed for simply being from the wrong country, or the wrong race, or supported the wrong dictator.  One reason each.  Billions of them.  Now I’m sure a lot of those people deserved to die just as much as you do but it doesn’t count because they weren’t killed for all those reasons.  They were killed for just being Jews, Germans, Indians, or nationalist.  It would certainly be unjust to kill you for only a single reason.  I have seven.  Seven really good reasons.  But I still need ten.  That was the rule I made and I’m going to keep it.

            I could get more specific but it would feel like I was cheating.  You lied to your parents about us for a full year.  You also lied to a lot of your friends.  Then you told me that they all knew and were okay with it which was a lie.  You told me your brothers were protective so I shouldn’t be too affectionate around your family.  You wouldn’t let me put my arms around you at concerts because you said you liked to dance.  You told me you didn’t talk to a lot of your friends from high school to avoid them ever meeting me.  You lied almost daily for fourteen months about our relationship.  You probably told every single person you know at least one lie about us.  The official story you’re telling your family now is that we’re casually seeing each other but you’re still dating other people.  You’ve also told me several times that you want to spend the rest of your life with me.  I’m still sketchy on whether or not this is a lie or it just makes everything you tell everyone else more of a lie.  There’s at least ten very blatant and brutal lies tangled up I this mess but I still only count the situation as one reason to kill you.  It wouldn’t be fair to kill you over one relationship.  Who knows, maybe you’re an excellent girlfriend and a fantastic potential wife but you just really screwed it up with me.  One botched romance is hardly justification for mortal termination, no matter how many lies it spawned.

            No, if I’m going to kill you it’s going to be honestly.  No stretching the terms to match the definitions.  I’m also not going to use any reasons that are universally applicable.  None of this, “I’m going to kill you because you’re going to die someday anyway.”  That’s stupid.  Everyone is going to die.  That’s not a decent reason to kill anyone.

            I know if I think about this too hard I’ll just invent the other three reasons just to get on with it.  And that’s just not right.  If any man thinks hard enough about any subject he can make up an answer and convince himself it’s true.  Ask any man who claims to believe in a god.  They won’t agree with me but they’ll prove my point.  I don’t want to do that.  I mean, the thought has occurred to me that perhaps you don’t actually deserve to die.  Or maybe you do but I shouldn’t be the one who does it.  Perhaps I don’t have ten reasons but someone else does.  If you shouldn’t die or if I shouldn’t kill you I’d feel terrible if I went ahead and did it anyway and then realized afterwards that I shouldn’t have.  No one needs more regrets.

            So I’ll keep my list and if I think of three more reasons I let you know.  However, I did decide that five reasons would be enough to leave you and never speak to you again.  Because you’ll never see my list or even know that it’s been written you won’t know exactly why I won’t be there when you get home from work.  I’m not sure if you’ll initially realize your own guilt in this matter but as you look around for a shoulder to cry on or someone to comfort you after your heartbreak I’m sure it will start to sink in that you have no true friends, an unloving family, no trusting co-workers, and no neighbors that will even tolerate you.  And, hopefully, you’ll realize you have no one to blame but yourself.

            Also, although reason number four alone isn’t enough to condemn you, it is atrocious enough that I’m going to clean out the fridge on my way out.  Probably the ice chest too.  People like you don’t deserve pork chops.

I LOVE listening in on other people’s conversations!  Here’s a real little scene I witnessed just 30 minutes ago at the Heritage Center:

GIRL:  (teary-eyed, taking slow, backward steps away from GUY)  Goodbye!  (She turns and runs away sobbing)

GUY just sits there staring into space in a state of shock as tears start to well up.  Five minutes go by and he doesn’t move an inch.

GIRL returns, and embraces GUY.  They both laugh/cry while gazing in each others’ eyes.

GIRL:  I’m sorry.

They kiss.  GIRL backs up.

GIRL:  Do I really look like I’m fat to you?

GUY:  You are really fat…

GIRL looks confused.

GUY:  You are like the fattest girl I know… (Pause, then dramatically)  With a P H!

GIRL looks overjoyed and embraces GUY again.

I swear this happened exactly how I wrote it.  I love how corny and shallow they both seemed, yet they were so sincere it was really endearing.

So I came across this little nuggest of Animal collective goodness today.

It’s rather long, and some parts rather abrasive. But I really like it (especially the beginning first couple minutes…before the insane screaming. haha). And what interesting people!

Check it out!

Norman McLaren started making films in  Scotland and moved to Canada just before World War II where he would gain recognition for his work in experimental film.  Because he didn’t own a camera, he did all his early work by painting/scratching film stock; a process which took a VERY long time and resulted in such delightful pieces as this http://youtube.com/watch?v=uC0w-yhkR1I. 

Yesterday, I handed out this flier to 10 random strangers. I made sure I got an affirmative response out of each of them before I let them have the flier. Today, I frantically bought things to make a salad, ordered two large pizzas, made name cards, collected a table cloth and candles and set it all up on a picnic table behind one of the buildings in Wyview.

I was convinced at least half of them would forget all about it or blow it off….

But I am happy to report the Strangers Meet Picnic was a SMASHING success. All but one of the invitees showed up, making the total number of picnic-ers an even 10: Jami, Kelsey, Josh, Bryan, Kristine, Tofer, Samantha, Satoshi, Justin, and I!

2 of the attendants, Satoshi and Tofer were not even from Wyview! They lived in apartment complexes nearby, but I just happened to catch them when they were out and about. Also, Satoshi is originally from Japan! He’s in his first semester at BYU, and is studying English at the foreign student center.

A guy named Felipe was also supposed to come. He’s from Santiago, Chile… which made me really excited, because I ran into him randomly while buying milk. Unfortunately he is the only “failure” in the entire operation. Perhaps his absence is due to a faulty sense of time…? Chileans generally think that events start about 1 1/2 – 2 hours after the written “start” time. Well, if he shows up now, he will be sorely disappointed.

Anyway: mission accomplished! I wouldn’t say I now have 10 new close friends. But I definitely now have 10 new awesome people to say hi to around campus. We all had a good time chatting and eating and we all learned that 10 random strangers will always have these crazy connections to talk about and relate to each other with.