Insignifica

Friday, Poker, Atheists, Blurkers

Oooh, it's Friday. I love me some Friday. First baby shower on Sunday, and some prep for next week's baby shower tomorrow. Otherwise, free and open. Some one of these days, I'd like to get back to Pechanga and play some poker. $20+$5 is a nice buy-in for me. Who's in?

Picture of the day!

Adam and Chris Stankevitz at one of our first poker parties. For some reason, Chris almost NEVER makes it into pictures.

Lots of response to the letter than I wrote to MSNBC/Newsweek columnist Rabbi Marc Gellman at the Orange County Atheists site in reference to his article on trying to understand angry atheists. Other people have written letters, too...both there and listed in the comments to the previous entry here. NoGodBlog also has a call for letters. wonder if the good Rabbi was expecting this kind of response.

What's up for this weekend, friends? So many blurkers - Leave a comment. Say hello!

ugly, letter, daily posting, time

Wow, busy again. Look how late it is! I'm not even sure if people have noticed that I've been trying to post every weekday, and have for the last few months - I find it makes the site much more fun, as well as driving more regular readers here. Odd, then, that comments are down. Oh well. Just say hello!

Picture of the day!

I love public signs - I've collected some in pics I've taken here.

I've posted a letter than I wrote to MSNBC/Newsweek columnist Rabbi Marc Gellman at the Orange County Atheists site in reference to his article on trying to understand angry atheists. Take a read, and let me know what you think.

It's kinda ugly out there today, but it should be a beautiful weekend! Enjoy!

Garlic, DVDs, Travel

Busy day here - so busy it's already the late afternoon. How goes the day?

Picture of the day!

Girlfriend, groovin'

We're going up north in July, but it looks like we're gonna miss the Gilroy Garlic Festival. The wedding we're going to is on the 21st, and the Garlic doesn't start until the 28th. Anyone know any other happenings in the greater Bay Area that might be fun for us (and a one month old baby) around that time? We're happy just seeing friends and eating at nice restaurants, but activities are fun as well.

I have new DVD burner and a stack of blank DVDs. Thoughts?

comments, ice cream, baby

Hi. I don't know if I've got much to say today. Tonight's our childbirth class, and the first of two baby showers is this weekend. This poor child is going to have so much stuff that her poor parents are going to have to store somewhere...

Oh, free ice cream! It's Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's. You've got until 8pm tonight.

Picture of the day!

A very well-played Scrabble board. Scrabble rules!

Comments have been few and far between lately. Say hello, and see if you can remember what you were doing on today's date in 1999!

Update! "Code" above changed to "Cone", as it should be. Thanks Joz!

pictures, sick, ren faire

I seem to be fighting a cold. I'll keep you updated on my battle.

Happy Birthday Karen!

Had a good time at the Ren Faire yesterday, and the weather was almost too cold. Still got a bit burned, but nothing too bad. Tom got many, many pictures to make up for me only taking a couple. I'll post to his album when it's up.

Picture of the day!

A nice action shot of just after midnight on New Years Day this year.

On the subject of pictures, Tori has a great collection of pictures from her Japan trip up at her Flickr site.

Tell me about your Monday!

home today

Not too much going on today - Stayed home from work. Anyone have any really good or really bad experiences with LA Fitness? I'm considering them, since they've got a location right across the street (compared to the 24Hr Fitness 3.5 miles away).

Picture of the day!

Marek with giant claws.

I'm jealous of Tori - she's in Japan for the week. I'd love to see Japan, but between the language barrier and the cultural differences, I don't think I'd have anything I was sure I could eat. You can't exactly pack a box lunch to another country.

Happy Weekending!

Pirates, pictures, writing.

Wow, I did a lot of writing yesterday. That's always nice. Of course, today, I can't think of a single thing of interest other than to say it's Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday. That pretty much rules.

Pic of the day!

Breaking the chains of age 27, from the 2006 birthday pictures set.

I'm very excited about going to Ren Faire this Sunday. Dressing like a pirate rules, and it helps stop global warming.

What's new with you, readers?

More on gas prices

Even with gas prices in the news again, I was surprised to pay $3.07 for the cheapest grade gas this afternoon - that's more than I've ever paid before, putting me back almost $40 to fill my tank. Even with that, I was amazed at the odd resposnes collected by CNN of people complaining about gas prices. Some examples:

It has change my whole daily routine. I bring lunch & snack, so I don't have to go out. If I need to go to a store,and it's not on my route home, I won't stop. I have to map out my weekend shopping stops.

If I can't get it on my way to or from work, we don't get it. No trips on days off, no movies, no dinners out etc. Gas prices have caused us to stop any clothing shopping, put off prescriptions until we have a few and not to buy anything special. If all that we have done is multiplied around the country, in a short time the economy will feel it badly.

I fear that gas could go as high as $4.00 per gallon. If so, I will be eliminating more from my life: land-line phone, cable etc.

Yes, gas prices are more. But as happens when I hear weird quotes like this, I feel the need to repost this piece from April of last year.

Let's say gas costs $2.50/gallon, and your car gets a not-very-good 15 miles to the gallon. Now let's say you travel 45 miles a day on average. Some people go much less (my roundtrip, including returning home for lunch, is around 7 miles). Some, of course, go further. 45 miles is a little more than the average workday commute (even in Los Angeles), but I'll round up for comparison purposes. This means in a day you use 3 gallons of gas (45 miles/15 miles to the gallon), and your day's worth of gasoline costs $7.50 (3 gallons x $2.50).

This certainly isn't cheap, that's $37.50 for a work week! But if we run the same numbers for $2.00/gallon (high in a lot of places, cheap and currently unseen in California), you're still paying $30 for a work week - The difference is a whopping $7.50 a week. That's two fast-food meals out, or two Starbucks coffees, or about 1/2 to 1/3 of one meal at a cheap restaurant.

While I'm sure $7.50/week is a hardship for some people, it's most certainly not for most of us. Remember also that this is a high estimate - if you have a shorter commute (as most people do), or if your care gets better milage (as most cars do) or gas isn't $2.50 a gallon, this number is much less than $7.50/week - probably closer to $3.00 to $4.00. If this amount represents an economic hardship for you, then gas prices are certainly the least of your worries. I think what's more likely is that people like to complain about high gas prices with no idea of how much they're actually spending.

With my assumptions above, every $0.50 increase in gas prices adds $7.50 a week to the "average" commute. Maybe it's because I'm considered upper class for California (though not for OC or my zip code, but i digress), but $7.50 a week, or even $15 a week ($30-$60 month) isn't a sum that causes me great grief or hardship.

Web services i love, evolution, the site, still sunny

Day two of perfect springtime weather! It's not too hot, it's sunny and clear. Awesome.

It's funny how things like blogs change and evolve, and you don't really notice it until you go back and look at your past entries. Lately the site's seemed like a collection of 2 minute feature presentations about me/my life - they're all about the same length, all feature the pic of the day, all end similarly. Not that there's anything wrong with the format - I love that I'm posting every day - but I should just remind myself that as this is my site, I can do whatever I'd like. If you've got suggestions, feel free to let me know, too. I think the design and features of the site are pretty good at the moment.

On that note...

Picture of the day!

Funky tree at Point Lobos, central CA coast. Click on the pic for a larger and better view.

Again on the subject of change and evolution, I thought I'd list some of the web resources I'm using daily - everyone's got their own list of these (Rob at Cockeyed.com did a great feature piece on his "internet circuit"). Places I'm using (not just visiting):

Flickr - More than just somewhere to store my photos, Flickr's sharing tools and hotlink capability have changed my site. I love that with every photo you upload, links are given to you, ready to copy and paste, for different sizes of your pictures. The organizational tools are also top notch, with sets and tags, plus more. Their free service is great, but their $25/year pro account is amazing.

Myspace - Poor Myspace. Everywhere I look, from traditional media to discussion areas like Fark and Slashdot, everyone seems to hate it. They hate the design, they hate that it's so popular, they hate the outages, they hate that people keep telling them to use it. I see their points, and resisted for a while, but it really is great for these reasons - it's truly wonderful because it's getting masses of non-geeks together online, starting them blogging and photosharing, and giving them their own space.

Wikipedia - Wikipedia also gets its fair share of hate from the masses, and mostly from those who haven't ever used it, or had one bad experience. But for general cultural knowledge, there's no where better. When I needed to find out who Danny Phantom was, I went to Wikipedia. When I have no idea what the background of a current news event is, I go to Wikipedia. If I need the history of almost anything, I use Wikipedia first. Peer creation and review really works.

Evite - Evite is like my hidden little gem that I never talk about but use all the time. It lets you plan events and accept RSVPs for any type of get-together you might be planning - I've used mine for just about mikestravaganza, game night, bachelor party and Saturday night dinner I've had for the last 3 years. It's one of those simple little apps that several companies were working on in the late 90s, but it won out, stuck around, and remained free.

Meebo - Ah, Meebo. I remember when Trillian came out, and I could finally use one interface for all of my IM services (I have a big problem with icons in my tray). While great, it didn't help at work or on other people's machines, where I couldn't easily get access to my IM networks. Meebo makes it easy, clean, fast, and safe, and is getting better with new features all the time.

Boy, that turned out longer than I thought. That's good though, I'm glad to give my readers something to pass their day with. Check them all out. And remember to keep on rockin'.

Bay area trip, cable and DSL, great weather

Sunny, warm, a wee bit hazy out there...perfect. My kind of weather.

So in addition to getting rid of my cable television, I'll be getting rid of my cable internet this week (assuming my DSL hookup goes off well). I found it hard to justify paying $45/month plus modem rental when similar speeds from SBC/Yahoo/AT&T/Whoever DSL was 60% cheaper, plus would reduce the number of bills I have to pay. Poor Adelphia.

That said, we only get watchable reception on channels 9, 11, and 13 plus some UHF stations now - even with antenna. We might have to go back to something just so we can watch anything.

Picture of the day!

Delicious Cake.

Looks like our bay area "take the baby to see everyone" trip will be mid July. We'll be hitting Santa Cruz and San Francisco, at least, so let me know if you'd like to get together. We'll be up there about five days, on either side of July 21.

Baby class tonight, then some catchin' up on sleep - unless, that is, I get wired at night like I usually do, then stay up too late again. Bastards and their crazy time-change.

Keep on Rockin!

Charity, thanks, myspace nerdage

Thanks to everyone to was able to make my birthday celebration on Saturday - I had a great time, and while I haven't counted the donations yet, I'm sure we're over $500.

On that note, if you'd like some very delicious cake, we've got a lot to share. I'm considering an ad on the "FREE" section of craigslist. I just can't eat any more.

Pic of the day!

Happy people at Ryan's birthday party last year.

I'm not sure if this makes me sound like a total nerd, but I had a very successful day on Myspace this weekend finding old friends - Scott, Dan, Karin, Ginny, Lisa, Brook, Melissa and Noelle, all over the last two days. As I noted in a comment to Dan, it really is like a little cult - as soon as you join in, and let one person know you're there, their friends who know you come to welcome you - telling you how nice it is to see you, and how they've wondered what took you so long.

We're going to Ren Faire on Sunday! Join us!

How goes Monday, gentle reader?

Yay!

Happy Easter, and Happy Birthday!

Rock, Texas Bars, Mikestravaganza, Good Friday

It's a bit of a rainy Friday here, but it's supposed to be nice this weekend for the Charity Birthday Mikestravaganza on Saturday and Easter on Sunday. I guess you could say it's a Good Friday...

Pic of the day!

Joe and Eric at the 2003 Birthday Mikestravaganza. Almost everyone in that photoset is making an absurd, "mug for the camera" face. Must have been some good pie...

Yay! Texas halts arrests of drunks in bars. That policy really bothered me for some reason.

So, readers, any big plans this weekend? I hope whatever you do, it Rocks, and Rocks hard.

Rock!

So many of me, cable, atheists

Cable TV is gone - even the broadcast channels aren't coming in at all. I'm going to have to rig up an antenna to my Replay TV. That's Anachronism, baby!

Picture of the Day!

Sequoia, 2004. We were on this trip the weekend before escrow closed on our house.

A reminder that the next meeting of the Orange County Atheists will be held tonight, Thursday, April 13 at 7:30pm at the International House of Pancakes at 18542 MacArthur Blvd in Irvine, near John Wayne Airport. A map to the location is available here. If you're planning on attending please RSVP at our website forums. More information and discussion is available there as well.

I found a bunch more Michael Dosses recently: Race Car Driver, Percussion Instructor, YMCA Director and Amarillo, Texas Basketball Official

How many of you are there?

the hat, popular pictures, cable

Cable TV cancelled. As of this morning, the signal's still on. We'll see what happens when I get home for lunch, and tonight...

Picture of the Day!

Ken at Cinco de Mayo last year, wearing The Hat. Looking through my pictures, I've noticed that The Hat shows up a lot. You can see them all here

Speaking of pictures, there must be scores more people reading here than every comment, because the last picture I posted of my baby's mama jumped into the lead as my flickr "most viewed" picture, just two days after I put it up. Who are all you people?

Update! Cable was still on at lunch. Other than time, there's no way to know if I've been disconnected and still have a signal, or if they haven't gotten around to disconnecting me yet.

cable, babies, classes

In case you didn't see it, scroll down a bit and see the early pregnancy vs. current pregnancy pictures of the girlfriend. It's gonna be a big baby girl.

On the matter of such things, Tuesday nights are our childbirth classes, where we go over terminology, watch videos, practice exercise and breathing techniques, and generally learn what to expect. The teacher's fun, and most people in there are about our age. But because it's weekly, and goes until right before our due date, it's really like a countdown, and each meeting is one step closer - in 10 or so weeks, I'll be a daddy.

Picture of the day!

The girlfriend and demon-eyed Luke, from July 2004.

In non baby news, I'm cancelling cable this week. I'm starting to get the feeling that I won't really miss it, and that's weird for me to say. I'm not going to be one of those "Kill your TV" guys, but the internet has really replaced television as my primary form of entertainment. The girlfriend, however, enjoys the Food and Animal channels, and we both like Sci-Fi, so there's always the chance we'll get it back. Of course, there's always bittorrent...

Happy Tuesday! What's new with you?

New pics of my baby's mama

Here's my baby's mama, taken day before yesterday, right around 31 weeks on the left and at Halloween, at 8 weeks, on the right. Click for larger pics.

Christians, birthdays, elbows

In cleaning my counter yesterday so I could roll out pizza dough, I smashed my elbow against the side of the cabinets, hard enough for it to still hurt this morning. I also realized last night that I kinda rest on my elbows when I sleep, and since I couldn't do that, I slept weird and hard, and now the outside of my ear hurts. Bodies are strange things.

Picture of the day!

A delicious table full of pie from pi day this year.

With so many other things going on in my life, my birthday has really sneaked up on me (it's on Easter Sunday again this year). Last year I spent weeks thinking about it and planning it - I haven't put more than a few hours thought this time around. I'm sure we'll all have a good time (some new people are coming), and hopefully we'll raise some money for various charities. Strange that I'll be 28 in 6 days, though...

The other guys have a good article today (available at http://tinyurl.com/hprsr) about Christians suing for the right not to tolerate policies aimed at protecting gays from hate speech. It also goes into the "Christians are a persecuted minority" aspect of all this too. Discussion at the Orange County Atheists site forums, at http://www.ocatheists.com/viewtopic.php?forum=4&topic=93.

General question for the masses: Have American conservatives ever had protests for things they find important (anti-illegal immigration, anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, bibles in schools, etc) anywhere near as large as the groups on the left have (millions against the war in 2003, hundreds of thousands the last few weeks for immigrants, etc.)?

immigration, busy weeknds

I've remained quiet on the recent immigration discussion, mostly because I don't think I'm going to change many minds, and I get tired of calling people racists. But there's an AP story today about how the cost of deporting 12 million illegal immigrants would be huge - hundreds of billions of dollars. I think people also fail to realize that the boost to our economy to have millions of low wage workers (though I think they should all be paid minimum wage, at least) far outweighs the "burden" on the system. These people would also be the first to bitch when their restaurant bill doubles because the guys in the back aren't there anymore, or their lettuce is $4/head.

If you really feel that strongly that Mexican immigrants should be deported/arrested/whatever, here's a challenge: Stop supporting them. Don't buy any produce picked by undocumented farm workers. Don't eat at any restaurant that has undocumented workers in the kitchen. Don't patronize any store that works with low-cost textile factories in the US. Otherwise, you're supporting the problem just as much. And don't you dare bitch about price or time of your effort. If you care, do something about it.

And good luck.

Picture of the day!

A beast with a box at the zoo.

It's Friday, and most of the weekend seems pretty much free. That's good, since it's the last before weekends including the two baby showers, my birthday, Easter, ren faire, and mother's day. I love having things to do, though I fear the toga party and BBQs I've been looking to throw just aren't gonna happen before I have an 8 pound bundle of joy.

How will you be rocking and/or rolling this weekend?

Thursday, Atheists, beautiful day!

Busy, beautiful day out there! It's already Thursday, the weekend's looking good, and it's only 10 days until my birthday (and Easter). I'm doing my charity thing again this year, so if for some reason you're interested in buying me a gift, instead consider giving what you would have spent on me to the charity of your choice. If you're in need of a suggestion of a charity, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County could certainly use your help.

Picture of the day!

A similarly beautiful (though probably hotter) day at the Huntington Library.

The next meeting of the Orange County Atheists will be held on Thursday, April 13 at 7:30pm at the International House of Pancakes at 18542 MacArthur Blvd in Irvine, near John Wayne Airport. A map to the location is available here. If you're planning on attending please RSVP at our website forums. More information and discussion is available there as well.

How goes Thursday for you? What's new?

Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jared! We're both 27 for 10 days!

hump day, weekends, ren faire, nothing to write about

Yesterday, I had all sorts of things to write about, and didn't post them all - today, I'm writing about not having anything to write about. Isn't that always the way?

Picture of the day!

Brandon gives his thumbs up.

Hey now, we might have two weekends in a row without rain...watch out! Hopefully that'll keep up, as I've got a lot of busy weekends planned. This includes going to Ren Faire on April 23. Join us!

How's hump day treating all of you today?

Further Discussion on Atheism

As a follow-up today's post, I thought I'd write a little more on Atheism, including some definitions and history - that's what the post started out being (before being edited down a bit), and Tori posted a comment asking for more, so I thought I'd provide some. In general, my linked terms go to the relevant Wikipedia page, which I've found to have great information.

To save space on my main blog page, I've posted my full text in my archives. Please click the link below to read the entire entry.

First off, some widely-accepted definitions:

From The Atheism Web's "An Introduction to Atheism":

Atheism is characterized by an absence of belief in the existence of gods. This absence of belief generally comes about either through deliberate choice, or from an inherent inability to believe religious teachings which seem literally incredible. It is not a lack of belief born out of simple ignorance of religious teachings.

Some atheists go beyond a mere absence of belief in gods: they actively believe that particular gods, or all gods, do not exist. Just lacking belief in Gods is often referred to as the "weak atheist" position; whereas believing that gods do not (or cannot) exist is known as "strong atheism".

Regarding people who have never been exposed to the concept of 'god': Whether they are 'atheists' or not is a matter of debate. Since you're unlikely to meet anyone who has never encountered religion, it's not a very important debate...

It is important, however, to note the difference between the strong and weak atheist positions. "Weak atheism" is simple scepticism; disbelief in the existence of God. "Strong atheism" is an explicitly held belief that God does not exist. Please do not fall into the trap of assuming that all atheists are "strong atheists". There is a qualitative difference in the "strong" and "weak" positions; it's not just a matter of degree.

Some atheists believe in the nonexistence of all Gods; others limit their atheism to specific Gods, such as the Christian God, rather than making flat-out denials.

I think this is a fair definition, and the reason for a lot of confusion. Most non-philosophers and non-atheists have never heard the terms "weak atheism" (also called negative) and "strong atheism" (also called positive), so assume all atheists fall into one or the other, or worse, that there's some sort of central atheist group that defines atheism.

Adding to the confusion is that many people define "agnosticism" very similarly to that of "weak" atheism - a more general non-belief. Again, from The Atheism Web's "An Introduction to Atheism":

The term 'agnosticism' was coined by Professor T.H. Huxley at a meeting of the Metaphysical Society in 1876. He defined an agnostic as someone who disclaimed both ("strong") atheism and theism, and who believed that the question of whether a higher power existed was unsolved and insoluble. Another way of putting it is that an agnostic is someone who believes that we do not know for sure whether God exists. Some agnostics believe that we can never know.

In recent years, however, the term agnostic has also been used to describe those who simply believe that the evidence for or against God is inconclusive, and therefore are undecided about the issue.

To reduce the amount of confusion over the use of term agnosticism, it is recommended that usage based on a belief that we cannot know whether God exists be qualified as "strict agnosticism" and usage based on the belief that we merely do not know yet be qualified as "empirical agnosticism".

Words are slippery things, and language is inexact. Beware of assuming that you can work out someone's philosophical point of view simply from the fact that she calls herself an atheist or an agnostic. For example, many people use agnosticism to mean what is referred to here as "weak atheism", and use the word "atheism" only when referring to "strong atheism".

Beware also that because the word "atheist" has so many shades of meaning, it is very difficult to generalize about atheists. About all you can say for sure is that atheists don't believe in God. For example, it certainly isn't the case that all atheists believe that science is the best way to find out about the universe.

My beliefs fall squarely into the "weak/negative atheism" category - I don't believe in any gods for the same reason I don't believe in King Kong, unicorns, or the Easter Bunny - there's either no evidence they exist, or plenty of evidence that shows that they don't. If there were good reasons to believe, I would reconsider my position. My belief is not dogmatic that gods and fairy tale creatures don't exist - it's simply based on the evidence.

This brings us to another key point in all of this - atheism as faith. Many Christian apologists like to define all atheists as having some sort of "faith in nothing", or a faith (in the Christian sense) that there is no god. For some atheists, this is true - their beliefs aren't necessarily based on evidence or research, but perhaps an emotional interest or something similar.

This does not, however, describe all, or even most, atheists. Weak atheism is a default position - just about all people, regardless of belief, don't accept something as true until they see evidence. Every day, most of us live our lives not worried about the illogical, impossible or even the very, very unlikely happening - It's not an issue of faith to think all green lights will turn blue, or that airplanes will suddenly stop flying and fall to the ground. We have a basis for what we believe, experience with how the world works, and expectations based on this. Believers in weak atheism just extend this to the supernatural, theistic world.

Strong atheism can be more easily associated with faith, and as the definition above states, many people believe all atheists to be Strong atheists. A statement like "God does not exist" falls into the Strong atheism definition, and many theists would consider this a statement of faith, as direct proof of the nonexistence of a god, of course, doesn't exist. This argument holds weight when discussing gods in general. However, when specific gods (such as the Christian God) are mentioned, Strong atheism statements like "God does not exist" can be attributed to logical issues, or evidence presented which contradicts aspects of that God, like inconsistencies in the "perfect" bible. In this case the statement is no more one of faith than saying "1,000 foot tall giraffes don't exist", and providing biological and scientific reasons to prove your statement.

Already getting long, this introduction to the language and basics of atheism is incomplete, and better explained in many other places. Online resources include The Atheism Web, Wikipedia's page on atheism, and American Atheist's "atheism page. I'm happy to answer any and all questions about atheism and my beliefs. Leave comments here for discussion, or email me at michael (at) michris (dot) com.

On Atheism, cable TV.

For those of you blissfully unaware (or new to the site), I'm an Atheist, and I run a group called "Orange County Atheists". I get a lot of questions about the group, both from other atheists and religious folks. We're 90% social group (meeting for monthly dinners to discussion religion, news and politics), and 10% political group, doing some local work (like our city council project) and coordinating with American Atheists (of which we're an affiliated member) to further church-state separation issues.

Are we a "church"? Heh, no. I'm not sure why I get this question/accusation so often, always from people who have never bothered to come to a meeting. Of course, I typically get this from the same types of people telling me why it's"wrong" to be a vegetarian, so they likely have their own issues.

All of that said, members of the group tend to be very outspoken about their atheism - we do have a few members who are still "in the closet" to their friends and family, but in general the types seeking out a group tend to tell you honestly what they believe. And this goes back to one of the reasons we exist at all - it's still very hard for many people, even those strong in their beliefs, to say that they're atheists.

If you're interested in finding out more about us, or attending a meeting (our next one is Thursday, April 13), Check out the Orange County Atheists website.

Picture of the day!

Chris helping me apply the halo for my Jesus costume, Halloween 2002. Note also my "What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar" t-shirt.

Question for the masses: I have a cable modem and cable TV service. If I cancel the TV service (and save $50/month), but keep the cable modem, will the signal coming into my house still have my cable channels? Or are the two signals totally separate? I've heard from various sources that you typically still keep receiving basic cable TV (which I currently pay $50/month for) as long as you have the internet service. Thoughts/Experiences?

sledgehammers, classes, DST

I think one of my favorite parts about being a homeowner is re-learning every so often that new tools used to repair parts of your house make you use muscles you might not usually use.

This is especially true of the sledgehammer.

Deciding to forego spending $50 for four hours with a jackhammer that might or might not have fit into my car, I purchased a 8lb sledgehammer and some safety goggles, drove home, and happily took a few entirely ineffective, yet still jarring, hits. Eventually I was able to break out a few pounds of concrete, loosen it from the dirt, and leave the still-large rock at the bottom of a three-foot hole. After considering it for a while, I borrowed a page from the "World's Strongest Man" playbook and dug in, planted my feet, and rolled it up and out of the hole. I then took the rest of the day off and planted the replacement tree yesterday. As long as today's rain doesn't wash all my fresh dirt away, we're in good shape.

Picture of the day!

Jane and Me.

In baby news, our childbirth classes start this week, and go every Tuesday night from now until just before our due date. This means I'll start work early those days - this week I also got up early today to take my car in, Thursday for a doctor's appt, and Friday for a dentist appt. - not to mention we set the clocks forward an hour, so it's like getting up EXTRA early! The whole "Daylight Savings" sham sucks.

What's new with you, reader?