The Thurvey question is:
If you could teach the world to sing, which song would you choose?
(I think this is a repeat, but I like it, and the world changes quickly)
Or if you are in a more serious mood:
Unions. Love 'em or hate them? Why?
Please comment by clicking on comment below and following the instructions.
Or
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Rock and roll . . .
Saturday. Sofa. Coffee
Why are things the way they are?
I don't mean like why the world seems to be in such a mess.
For instance, why do cars look like cars?
We are at the beginning of what many think is a radical revolution in personal transportation, the emergence of the electric automobile. Admittedly a radical change if it continues, the shift of power source from internal combustion of petroleum to electricity. But it still looks like a car. Four tires pushing us along a smooth hard surface while a driver controls the direction with a steering wheel as he or she faces forward, just as the passengers that travel along.
I like my car, even if the right rear window won't stay up sometimes. But is this the only design available for personal transportation?
A caveperson with an aching back dropped a chunk of tree trunk on the way to the fire and kicked it out of frustration. It rolled. "Hmmmm . . .," he thought. Another kick. It rolled a bit farther. He didn't have to bend over and pick it up. This was much easier. It was even easier if the logs were straight and uniform. But not everything could be made straight and uniform. "Hmmm . . ." He lifted a heavy, chunky rock and put it on top of the straight uniform logs. The rock didn't roll, but the logs did, moving the rock right along with them. And we were off to the races. I think the neanderthal went straight to the infield at Talladega. Nobody noticed.
Sure, there were a lot of innovations along the way, like cup holders and eight track players, but the conception of the wheel, the simple machine of elementary school science class, was the genesis of the cars we drive.
Maybe that's the only way it could have happened. But maybe not. We just got on a roll.
Every creation of man has a genesis, whether the creation be mechanical, institutional, philosophical, intellectual, or some other -al that I haven't thought of.
And once we have a genesis, a starting point, we as humans have a tendency to never look back. We look forward, which is not a bad thing. But even our cars have rear view mirrors.
There may be other ways to do things that we left behind, other points of genesis that are excluded by the chosen path. Exits on the developmental interstate that we should have explored.
And that is the general reason that things are the way they are.
And that includes the mess the world seems to be in.
Remember some of those irritating words of Jesus?
It was said . . .but now I tell you.
Love. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love yourself. Serve. Turn the other cheek. Give what is needed. Don't store up treasures. Put away the sword. Pick up your cross.
He told us we had to change, to turn around, to find the better way.
Wait till we find a safe exit with clean bathrooms. Meanwhile, set the cruise control and crank up the praise music.
.
Why are things the way they are?
I don't mean like why the world seems to be in such a mess.
For instance, why do cars look like cars?
We are at the beginning of what many think is a radical revolution in personal transportation, the emergence of the electric automobile. Admittedly a radical change if it continues, the shift of power source from internal combustion of petroleum to electricity. But it still looks like a car. Four tires pushing us along a smooth hard surface while a driver controls the direction with a steering wheel as he or she faces forward, just as the passengers that travel along.
I like my car, even if the right rear window won't stay up sometimes. But is this the only design available for personal transportation?
A caveperson with an aching back dropped a chunk of tree trunk on the way to the fire and kicked it out of frustration. It rolled. "Hmmmm . . .," he thought. Another kick. It rolled a bit farther. He didn't have to bend over and pick it up. This was much easier. It was even easier if the logs were straight and uniform. But not everything could be made straight and uniform. "Hmmm . . ." He lifted a heavy, chunky rock and put it on top of the straight uniform logs. The rock didn't roll, but the logs did, moving the rock right along with them. And we were off to the races. I think the neanderthal went straight to the infield at Talladega. Nobody noticed.
Sure, there were a lot of innovations along the way, like cup holders and eight track players, but the conception of the wheel, the simple machine of elementary school science class, was the genesis of the cars we drive.
Maybe that's the only way it could have happened. But maybe not. We just got on a roll.
Every creation of man has a genesis, whether the creation be mechanical, institutional, philosophical, intellectual, or some other -al that I haven't thought of.
And once we have a genesis, a starting point, we as humans have a tendency to never look back. We look forward, which is not a bad thing. But even our cars have rear view mirrors.
There may be other ways to do things that we left behind, other points of genesis that are excluded by the chosen path. Exits on the developmental interstate that we should have explored.
And that is the general reason that things are the way they are.
And that includes the mess the world seems to be in.
Remember some of those irritating words of Jesus?
It was said . . .but now I tell you.
Love. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love yourself. Serve. Turn the other cheek. Give what is needed. Don't store up treasures. Put away the sword. Pick up your cross.
He told us we had to change, to turn around, to find the better way.
Wait till we find a safe exit with clean bathrooms. Meanwhile, set the cruise control and crank up the praise music.
.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Why I auto . . .
It was a beautiful day Saturday. It was such a great day I grabbed my coffee and got moving. So no sofa. I caught up with that Sunday afternoon.
I decided to get my car washed. Not a very original thought as it turned out. The line into the fancy-shmancy car wash was bumper to bumper. I sat in line for about twenty minutes before I got to the machine that takes your money. Finally the yellow gate went up and I proceeded to the short line waiting to move into the tunnel of sudsy automotive shiny-ness. As I usually do, I checked my windows to make sure they were all the way up. Suddenly the back right window came back down. I hit the button, it went up and came back down. I hit the button, it went up and came back down. The cars ahead were moving toward the now threatening tunnel of doom. I hit the button, it went up and came back down. By now there were only two cars in front of me, and a mile of cars behind me. The carwash attendant came over and said, "you'll need to roll that back window up."
No kidding.
I told him the situation and he looked at me for an answer. I had none, except to hit the button. The window rolled up, and came back down. The crowd behind was getting a bit restless.
The attendant moved several orange cones, I did an eighteen point turn, and left down the wrong way lane. As quickly as I could find a place, I fiddled with the window. I couldn't fix it, but with quick staccato presses I moved the window up incrementally, micron by micron (actually micrometre by micrometre as of 1967), until it was shut. Then it came back down. But I was sure I had the formula now, so I tried again. This time it worked.
So back in line I went. Another twenty minutes later I paid my money, the yellow gate went up and I was on my way in the short line. Now to just check the windows one last time. Crap.
Fortunately I had perfected my method to the point that I could do it quickly and finished just in time to enter the maw of the carwash tunnel.
The great thing about this carwash is that when you finish getting the car washed, you can vacuum all you want for free. Fortunately I had thought ahead. Up until that morning my car had been crammed full of Vacation Bible School materials accumulated over years and years at the church. Surely someone can use this, I thought, so let's not throw it away. Let's put it in my car. Along with the boxes of grape jelly I need to deliver to the Church of the Reconciler. But I removed all that stuff before I went to the carwash.
Man that Prius looks good. Even with the VBS stuff and boxes of jelly stuffed back in it.
Anyway, I don't know why I decided to post this. Except maybe we all felt good about washing our cars this Saturday. Work weeks can be hard, and frustrating, and you wonder if anything ever gets finished.
But a clean car, now that's getting something done.
.
I decided to get my car washed. Not a very original thought as it turned out. The line into the fancy-shmancy car wash was bumper to bumper. I sat in line for about twenty minutes before I got to the machine that takes your money. Finally the yellow gate went up and I proceeded to the short line waiting to move into the tunnel of sudsy automotive shiny-ness. As I usually do, I checked my windows to make sure they were all the way up. Suddenly the back right window came back down. I hit the button, it went up and came back down. I hit the button, it went up and came back down. The cars ahead were moving toward the now threatening tunnel of doom. I hit the button, it went up and came back down. By now there were only two cars in front of me, and a mile of cars behind me. The carwash attendant came over and said, "you'll need to roll that back window up."
No kidding.
I told him the situation and he looked at me for an answer. I had none, except to hit the button. The window rolled up, and came back down. The crowd behind was getting a bit restless.
The attendant moved several orange cones, I did an eighteen point turn, and left down the wrong way lane. As quickly as I could find a place, I fiddled with the window. I couldn't fix it, but with quick staccato presses I moved the window up incrementally, micron by micron (actually micrometre by micrometre as of 1967), until it was shut. Then it came back down. But I was sure I had the formula now, so I tried again. This time it worked.
So back in line I went. Another twenty minutes later I paid my money, the yellow gate went up and I was on my way in the short line. Now to just check the windows one last time. Crap.
Fortunately I had perfected my method to the point that I could do it quickly and finished just in time to enter the maw of the carwash tunnel.
The great thing about this carwash is that when you finish getting the car washed, you can vacuum all you want for free. Fortunately I had thought ahead. Up until that morning my car had been crammed full of Vacation Bible School materials accumulated over years and years at the church. Surely someone can use this, I thought, so let's not throw it away. Let's put it in my car. Along with the boxes of grape jelly I need to deliver to the Church of the Reconciler. But I removed all that stuff before I went to the carwash.
Man that Prius looks good. Even with the VBS stuff and boxes of jelly stuffed back in it.
Anyway, I don't know why I decided to post this. Except maybe we all felt good about washing our cars this Saturday. Work weeks can be hard, and frustrating, and you wonder if anything ever gets finished.
But a clean car, now that's getting something done.
.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Thurvey 2/17/011
The survey question for this week is:
What makes you want to yell "just stop it?"
(see previous post)
What makes you want to yell "just stop it?"
(see previous post)
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