New Developments...

I haven't written lately about my personal life. I've been analyzing and waiting, didn't want to write too soon. Since the Christmas Banquet I've really gotten to know Betty. I realized how comfortable I was with her, and how much I like to be with her. You're probably asking, "So, do you like her?" I hesitated to write about her because I wanted to give that question an answer. I wanted to be able to write a "Yes" or "No." Since this Blog to me is an online journal/news/information hub for my friends and strangers I didn't want to just jump to conclusions.

I have tried and failed with some relationships; I think I might have tried to hard to make things work with some people. However, this is different. Why is it different? Because it just happened, it wasn't forced, it wasn't awkward or uncomfortable. It was like trying to jamb the square into the circle slot all my life and then finally realizing that the square hole was in front of me the whole time and that it was the right slot. So, the answer to the question above, "Do I like Betty?" I have to say that the answer is yes. It wasn't an emotional decision for me, rather a logical one. We both get along, we both have fun together, and we connect on so many different levels. We don't have just one thing in common but multiple things. After the "logical" part of it fell into place the "emotional" part came. I like being with her, I found myself physically attracted to her or, as Bro. Weaver would put it, "romantically" attracted to her. "So what then?" Well, I told her. Probably the hardest thing I had to do. I actually feared rejection. This hasn't happened. Sure I never liked it and I avoided it like any other guy. However this time I feared it. Well, I got the nerve and I told her, and she said that the feeling was mutual. GREAT! She told me that there were some things that I needed to do first. One of those things was to read two books: Dating with Purpose by Dr. Jack Schaap and Christian Dating by Mike Ray. Mike Ray is her Pastor in Napa Valley, he pastors Hopewell Baptist Church. The second was to talk to five people: Her Pastor, Father, Step-father, brother, and Bro. Weaver (Dean of Men at WCBC). I was ok with this. In fact, I agreed with 100%. Why not? This should be a serious thing. I also talked to some people, I talked to Bro. Schmidt, Bro. Whitman (he led me to the Lord), and Bro. Weaver.

For Christmas she was supposed to go to her brother's house but because the trains weren't running she had no where to go. So I convinced her to come to my house and meet my family and share Christmas at my house. She met my mom and my dad and they loved her. We hung out quite a bit and just talked. It was awesome. Today, she went to talk to Mrs. Weaver about me. Please understand that Mrs. Weaver is a mother figure to Betty. Betty lost her mom when she was a kid so she gets a lot of direction and guidance from Mrs. Weaver. Mrs. Weaver is an awesome person who "tells it like it is." One of the reasons why I highly respect her and Bro. Weaver. Well, Mrs. Weaver, being concerned about Betty's well-being and Mrs. Weaver not really knowing me sort of gave Betty the impression that it was not a good idea to date me. The response than neither me nor no Betty wanted to hear. I did expect it though; I don't have the greatest reputation at college because I don't really hang out there or know a lot of people there. As my dad once told me, "Persons are smart but people are stupid." If people don't know you they make up stuff to fill the void, or judge you some other way. Not once, not twice, but multiple times people have come up to Betty and told her that she shouldn't date me, funny how none of them have a legitimate reason good thing Betty doesn't listen to them, that's one of the reasons why I like her.

What Mrs. Weaver told Betty was a little upsetting, not to just her but to me. While I was reassuring her that it would be alright her voice was cracking, I could tell that she was disturbed. I told her that I wasn't perfect and that I'm still growing and coming to understand some things and Betty got up and said that she was going to go practice playing the piano and walked out. I just sat there saying to myself oh man I'm an idiot. Didn't know what to do. I talked to Bro. Schmidt and he reassured me that everything was to be alright, it was just that Mrs. Weaver didn't know me all that well, and that Pastor Chappell, Dr. R, Dr. Goetsch, himself believed that I was responsible enough to go pastor some teenagers in Visalia then it makes no sense to say I'm not responsible enough to date. He also said that Pastor Chappell, Bro. Whitman, Bro. Weaver, and he thought it was a great idea to date Betty then I shouldn't worry about anything too much. I still feel unnerved, I'm not for sure if Mrs. Weaver has talked to Betty yet or if everything’s been put back together (it really wasn't broke), Betty just respects Mrs. Weaver's opinion and wants to get an the ok from her which is totally commendable.

I called Betty at work and she answered but told me that she was busy and couldn't talk and hung up. Kind of unusual for her, she always puts me on hold for what seems like a decade and then comes back to me. This made me feel even more worried, but she called me back and left a voicemail hoping that I was having a good day and that everything was going alright. I still don't know what to think of all this, we were trying to get a trip to see her family tomorrow for New Years approved but I won't know about anything until tonight when she gets off work and I'll have a chance to talk with her face to face.

Cell Phone Viruses

Fast moving phone viruses appear: "The Cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the Symbian Series 60 phone operating system."

How my favorite video game was delayed

Wired 13.01: The Shadow Internet

It's cool how they did it, and what they did. However, becuase they did it Half-life 2 had to be reprogrammed and because that happened it delayed it's release for another 2 years. So I have been waiting 4 years to buy Half-life 2. If those hackers didn't do that then maybe we would have a Half-life 3 right now. I guess I'm only mad becuase I didn't get the pirate version of Half-life 2 like everyone else did.

What is RSS?

I Found this article on BBC explaining essentially what RSS is.

TreasuryDirect Account

TreasuryDirect Account

Buy Government Bonds. I've been slowly buying government bonds. Why you ask? Well, for a couple of reasons.

1) Better Interest. They get a much better interest rate than a savings account. Right now, from off the top of my head, the interest rate for my savings account at Washington Mutual is 0.4%; For my Government Bond account it's 3.67% and interest is dished out monthly like any other account.

2) It's secure. In fact, it's more secure than a bank (If you have more than $100,000 in your savings account). Let's face it. If the Government goes bankrupt even cash is worthless.

3) It's liquid. Unlike a CD's or Mutual Funds that require a long-term commitment you can pull the money out of your Treasury account at anytime with the exception of the first year. That's the only commitment

4) No minimum. There are no minimums, I was at Bank of America opening a bank account with them the other because they said if you opened an account with them the first day they opened you would get $125. Talk about bait and switch, but that's another story. For a money market account they give the weakest interest rates. My PayPal account gives me 2.02% why go through Bank of America?

5) Electronic. You don't need a broker. In fact the only way to buy government bonds anymore is online electronically. It deducts straight from your checking or savings account. It's really easy to use, they just put up a nice website with a better interface then the previous one.

6) Secure. This is probably the most secure site I've ever been too. If you hit the back button at all while signed in the account becomes void. It just won't work anymore, you'll have to go back to the sign in screen and sign in again, it can be annoying but it is very assuring.

7) Customer Support. Their online customer support is phenominal. It's all done by e-mail but you recieve an e-mail back within the hour, get this, by a real person!

If only the DMV and Post Office were this good.

What is Blogging?

The more I tell people about my Blog, the more I get the same question. What is a Blog? Well a Blog is short for "Web Log." Wikipedia.com (An open-source dictionary) gives this definition. Time Magazine also put an article about the importance and the rising popularity about blogs and their impact on our world. Blogs can be an online personal journal, for your insurance business, to spread personal opinions on political, and religious opinions, or a place to post your baking recipe's to the world. It could be the Boston Sports Blog for all your Boston Sports needs. A Blog is a tool to inform or disinform, to persuade, or to ridicule, to bring up, or to destroy. You can get inside people's lives or read about topics.

The best way I guess to understand what a Blog is would be to just go find one you like and read it.

.: StickRPG 2 ::.:.

.: StickRPG 2 ::.:.

The BitTorrent Effect

Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect

This is a great article about file-swapping, the movie industry, and what can be done. It also gives a little insight into the mind of the creator of one of the most used file-swapping programs in the world.

The Pirate Bay Plug-in

The Pirate Bay

This is a bittorrent plug in for Mozilla's Firefox and Netscape. You can use this utility to search for torrent files and then download.

How to Rule the World

Amazon.com: Books: How to Rule the World: "Price:"

I want

Yahoo! News - Tsunami Death Toll Soars Past 55,000

Yahoo! News - Tsunami Death Toll Soars Past 55,000: "Desperate refugees foraged for coconuts or looted food on battered
Sumatra island Tuesday, as the number killed in a mammoth earthquake
and tsunami soared above 55,000 and tens of thousands still were
missing. Grieving survivors buried their dead by hand, trying to ward
off an epidemic that the U.N. health agency warned could double the
toll yet again."

Can you picture 55,000 people? I can't. It's amazing the damage one tsunami can do.

Jamacain Dictionary

Jamaican Dictionary

I wish I had this while working for Countrywide when we would call New York. It seemed as if, in the entire state of New York, the only ethnic population consistantly late on their mortgage payment were the Jamaicans.

Gadsby

Gadsby

A whole story written without using the letter "e." Check it out.

sidesh0w.com

sidesh0w.com

Trillian

Cerulean Studios: Creators of Trillian and Trillian Pro Instant Messengers

I just downloaded Trillian - Above is the link. If you have AOL, MSN, Yahoo, IRC, and ICQ, consider getting Trillian. You can simplify your chat with this program that combines and utilizes all of the major chat programs. You can stay connected with friends and family on a sweet interface. Also whats cool is while you're chatting you get underlined words from Wikipedia that will supply you with definitions. The sounds were the first thing my friend Eric and I noticed. They're smooth and pleasing to the ear. Also, some emoticons come with sounds. Try it out I'm sure you'll like it.

Folding@Home Distributed Computing

Folding@Home Distributed Computing

Donate Computer Time to Stanford to help them figure out protein folding, protein aggregation, and related diseases. They have split up work and sent it out to hundreds of thousands of computers that are donating their unused CPU time to better science. While my computer is on at night downloading I've got it set up to also solve these complex equations. Above is the link, they have software for Windows, Linux, and Mac. So everyone can join.

Avalanche - Very Addictive

Avalanche - Flash Game


This game is very addictive! Try to beat my High Score....14302

I'll try to do better though...

Badger Badger Badger...Christmas Style

Santa Santa Santa Badger Style - Flash Animation


If you've ever seen the Badger's, that I've posted before, they made one for Christmas. It's funny.

Apple iTune Phone Coming

Personal Tech Pipeline | Apple iTune Phone Coming: "While precise details of the device remain sketchy, Forbes quoted Eddy
Cue, Apples' vice president in charge of applications, as saying the
phone was close to being released."

Betty Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Tree Friends : Watch Episodes

Happy Tree Friends : Watch Episodes


Gather the family together to enjoy some holiday cheer.

Take Action: Workers' Rights Are Human Rights

Take Action: Workers' Rights Are Human Rights


Countrywide should have a look at this.

TIME Person of the Year 2004: 10 Things We Learned About Blogs

TIME Person of the Year 2004: 10 Things We Learned About Blogs


I saw this in my Time magazine this week....they mentioned how blogging is becomeing a big thing.

The Google Compute Project

The Google Compute Project

Google Hacks

Google Hacks

The Physics of Santa Claus

I gave this my senior year of High School Speech class around this time of year, everyone got a kick out of it. There are also some rebuttals listed below. Enjoy!

Is There A Santa Claus?
Richard Waller

Editor's Note: Originally published in Spy magazine, January 1990.

1. No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2. There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total -- 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census)rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.

3. Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west(which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second -- a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4. The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal anoint, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh -- to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison -- this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5. 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance -- this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim)would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion -- If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.

The Physics of Santa Claus - Rebuttal 1

Rebuttal 1
Jim Mantle

Come on, ya gotta believe! I mean, if you can handle flying furry animals, then it's only a small step to the rest.

For example:

1. As admitted, it is possible that a flying reindeer can be found. I would agree that it would be quite an unusual find, but they might exist.

2. You've relied on cascading assumptions. For example, you have assumed a uniform distribution of children across homes. Toronto/Yorkville, or Toronto/Cabbagetown, or other yuppie neighbourhoods, have probably less than the average (and don't forget the DINK and SINK homes (Double Income No Kids, Single Income No Kids)), while the families with 748 starving children that they keep showing on Vision TV while trying to pick my pocket would skew that 15% of homes down a few percent.

3. You've also assumed that each home that has kids would have at least one good kid. What if anti-selection applies, and homes with good kids tend to have more than their share of good kids, and other homes have nothing except terrorists in diapers? Let's drop that number of homes down a few more percent.

4. Santa would have to Fedex a number of packages ahead of time, since he would not be able to fly into Air Force Bases, or into tower-controlled areas near airports. He's get shot at over certain sections of the Middle East, and the no-fly zones in Iraq, so he'd probably use DHL there. Subtract some more homes.

5. I just barely passed Physics and only read Stephen Hawking's book once, but I recall that there is some Einsteinian Theory that says time does strange things as you move faster. In fact, when you go faster than the speed of light time runs backward, if you do a straight line projection, connect the dots and just ignore any singularity you might find right at the speed of light. And don't say you can't go faster than the speed of light because I've seen it done on TV. Jean-Luc doesn't have reindeer but he does have matter-antimatter warp engines and a holodeck and that's good enough for me.

So Santa could go faster than light, visit all the good children which are not uniformly distributed by either concentration in each home or by number of children per household, and get home before he left so he can digest all those stale cookies and warm milk yech.

6. Aha, you say, Jean-Luc has matter-antimatter warp engines, Santa only has reindeer, where does he get the power to move that fast!

You calculated the answer! The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy. Per second. Each. This is an ample supply of energy for the maneuvering, acceleration, etc, that would be required of the loaded sleigh. The reindeer don't evaporate or incinerate because of this energy, they accelerate. What do you think they have antlers for, fighting over females? Think of antlers as furry solar array panels.

7. If that's not enough, watch the news on the 24th at 11 o'clock. NORAD (which may be one of the few government agencies with more than 3 initials in it's name and therefore it must be more trustworthy than the rest) tracks Santa every year and I've seen the radar shots of him approaching my house from the direction of the North Pole. They haven't bombarded him yet, so they must believe too, right?

The Physics of Santa Claus - Rebuttal 2

Rebuttal 2
(author unknown)

Several key points are overlooked by this callous, amateurish "study."

1. Flying reindeer: As is widely known (due to the excellent historical documentary "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," the flying reindeer are not a previously unknown species of reindeer, but were in fact given the power of flight due to eating magic acorns. As is conclusively proven in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (a no punches pulled look at life in Santa's village), this ability has bred true in subsequent generations of reindeer, obviously the magic acorns imprinted their power on a dominant gene sequence within the reindeer DNA strand.

2. Number of households: This figure overlooks two key facts. First of all, the first major schism in the Church split the Eastern Churches, centered in Byzantium, from the Western, which remained centered in Rome. This occurred prior to the Gregorian correction to the Julian calendar. The Eastern churches (currently called Orthodox Churches) do not recognize the Gregorian correction for liturgical events, and their Christmas is as a result several days after the Western Churches'. Santa gets two shots at delivering toys.

Secondly, the figure of 3.5 children per household is based on the gross demographic average, which includes households with no children at all. The number of children per household, when figured as an average for households with children, would therefore have to be adjusted upward. Also, the largest single Christian denomination is Roman Catholic, who, as we all know, breed like rabbits. If you don't believe me, ask my four brothers and two sisters, they'll back me up. Due to the predominance of Catholics within Christian households, the total number of households containing Christian children would have to be adjusted downward to reflect the overloading of Catholics beyond a standard deviation from the median.

Also, the assertion that each home would contain at least one good child would be reasonable enough if there were in fact an even 3.5 children per household. However, since the number of children per household is distributed integrally, there are a significant number (on the order of several million) of one child Christian households. Even though only children are notoriously spoiled and therefore disproportionately inclined towards being naughty, since it's the holidays we'll be generous and give them a fifty-fifty chance of being nice. This removes one half of the single child households from Santa's delivery schedule, which has already been reduced by the removal of the Orthodox households from the first delivery run.

3. Santa's delivery run (speed, payload, etc.): These all suffer from the dubious supposition that there is only one Santa Claus. The name "Santa" is obviously either Spanish or Italian, two ethnic groups which are both overwhelmingly Catholic. The last name Claus suggests a joint German/Italian background. His beginnings, battling the Burgermeister Meisterburger, suggest he grew up in Bavaria (also predominantly Catholic). The Kaiser style helmets of the Burgermeister's guards, coupled with the relative isolation of the village, suggest that his youth was at the very beginning of Prussian influence in Germany. Thus, Santa and Mrs. Claus have been together for well over one hundred years. If you think that after a hundred years of living at the North Pole with nights six months long that they remain childless, you either don't know Catholics or are unaware of the failure rate of the rhythm method. There have therefore been over five generations of Clauses, breeding like Catholics for over one hundred years. Since they are Catholic, their exponential population increase would obviously have a gain higher than the world population as a whole. There have therefore been more than enough new Santas to overcome the population increase of the world. So in fact, Santa has an easier time of it now than he did when he first started out.

Santa dead, indeed; some people will twist any statistic to "prove" their cynical theory.

The Physics of Santa Claus - Rebuttal 3

Rebuttal 3
Edward Green

5. That's nonsense. I repeated the calculation, and the correct figure is 17,500.03 times gravity. How can we place belief when such an implausibly high figure is accepted! The entire concept is obviously deeply flawed and arises from incorrect method!

Besides, Santa simply realizes all of his alternate quantum states at once. Everybody knows that.

The Physics of Santa Claus - Rebuttal 4

Rebuttal 4
Jerome Elisha

Surely the 'esteemed' professional making the analysis means 'forces of acceleration', and not "centrifugal forces" as stated. Furthermore, to accept the ability of reindeer to defy the law of gravity and then bind them to the remaining laws of physics is an error in argument.

The assertion ignores empirical data - Santa does exist: one can see him often during the months leading up to the Big Day. Indeed, it is a frequent occurrence to see him on multiple street corners, or in front of several businesses, at the same time. Either A) Santa has many helpers, or B) Santa is capable of numerous manifestations. In either case, the acceleration arguments above are not valid, since the multiplicity of Santas (manifestations or helpers) could easily handle smaller portions of the task with time left over for cookies and milk.

Arguments A) and B) are both are supported by the different guises he sports in various countries (Santa Claus, Sinter Klaus, Kris Kringle, et al.), and by his acknowledged ability to "see you when you're sleeping; he knows when you're awake". The decision between A) or B) is left as a proof for the student.

The Physics of Santa Claus - Rebuttal 5

Rebuttal 5
Lorenzo Sadun

I wrote this rebuttal to the "physics of Santa" analysis back in 1993:

If you're going to criticise Santa Claus on physical grounds, you may at least do it right.

The payload calculations are nonsense. Adding, say, 1000 stops back at the North Pole for reloading adds only a few percent to the entire distance covered, while reducing the payload by a factor of 1000. This is clearly the way to go.

The nonuniform distribution of children has a tremendous effect on the routing. With sensible routing, the average distance from a good child to the next good child is only a couple hundred feet in suburban conditions (this is clearly higher in the country, but is much less in, say, New York City). With only .05 miles between average good children, Santa need only travel at Mach 200, just a little faster than Ulysses. This reduces the force of air resistance by a factor of 200, and the power absorbed by the reindeer by 3000.

(Of course, if Santa stops to give coal to bad children it could slow things down a bit. But it appears that increasing population has made Santa give up that trick. When was the last time you heard of anybody getting a lump of coal?)

We all saw the pictures of a smart bomb falling through an Iraqi smokestack during the Gulf War. Clearly Santa uses the same technology for toys and chimneys. By dropping, say, 100 toys at a time from high altitude, Santa can reduce his speed by another factor of 10. While still supersonic, this is now slightly less than orbital velocity, sparing Santa and his team the trauma of extreme centrifugal force.

Santa's trip IS a remarkable feat of aeronautics, but please don't say it's impossible.

The Physics of Santa Claus - Rebuttal 6

Rebuttal 6
E. B. Davis

As a result of an overwhelming lack of requests, and with research help from that renowned scientific journal SPY magazine (January, 1990) -- I am pleased to present the annual scientific inquiry into Santa Claus.

The analysis you sent me about the death of Santa Claus, based on classical physics, is seriously flawed owing to its neglect of quantum phenomena that become significant in his particular case. As it happens, the terminal velocity of a reindeer in dry December air over the Northern Hemisphere (for example) is known with tremendous precision. The mass of Santa and his sleigh (since the number of children and their gifts is also known precisely, ahead of time, and the reindeer must weigh in minutes before the flight) is also known with tremendous precision. His direction of flight is, as you say, essentially east to west.

All of that, when taken together, means that the momentum vector of Mr. Claus and his cargo is known with incredible precision. An elementary application of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle yields the result that Santa's location, at any given moment on Christmas Eve, is highly imprecise. In other words, he is "smeared out" over the surface of the earth, analogous to the manner in which an electron is "smeared out" within a certain distance from the nucleus in an atom. Thus he can, quite literally, be everywhere at any given moment.

In addition, the relativistic velocities which his reindeer can attain for brief moments make it possible for him, in certain cases, to arrive at some locations shortly before he left the North Pole. Santa, in other words, assumes for brief periods the characteristics of tachyons. I will admit that tachyons remain hypothetical, but then so do black holes, and who really doubts their existence any more?

The Physics of Santa Claus - Rebuttal 7

Rebuttal 7
Matthew Davies and Martin Slaughter

[Editor's Note: Reprinted from "In Search of Schrodinger's Reindeer," New Scientist, December 1999.

With the festive season upon us, many scientific minds will yet again be attempting to solve that perennial chestnut, the Travelling Santa Problem (or TSP). This problem was first brought to our attention by the child prodigy, Vernon P. Templeman, in his seminal paper "Please may I have a bike for Christmas, Daddy" (J. Appl. Window Shopping, December 1988, vol 7, p 1-122).

In simple terms, the problem boils down to one of speed. How can Father Christmas visit the homes of all the children in the world in a single night, albeit 24 hours long? Templeman demonstrated that the classical (sequential) explanation forces us to invoke faster-than-light travel, which is somewhat at odds with current thinking.

Thus, he argued, we should infer that the Father Christmas effect does not really exist. This contentious hypothesis was the subject of much debate at a recent symposium held at the Santa Fe Institute for Present Research.

Our initial thoughts were that Templeman had over-estimated the size of the problem, forgetting that Santa only visits good children. This would reduce the number of visits by a factor of order 10^9.

However, a simple back-of-the-lab-coat calculation shows that this renders the problem no more tractable. This threw suspicion on the use of classical physics. At this stage, the teachings of our old mentor, Erwin Schroedinger, came back to us ("Famous people what we claim to have known, honest", by Matthew Davies and Martin Slaughter, Annals of Physics, 1983, vol 12, pp 379-381). From a detailed study of reported phenomena, it became apparent that Santa shared many of the characteristics of elementary particles, suggesting a quantum mechanical interpretation of his behaviour. We have since developed this theory, and are confident that a quantum mechanical model of Santa Claus allows many of his observed properties to be explained, and several interesting predictions to be made.

Clearly, viewing Santa as a waveform removes the apparent paradox of his "presence" being measured in several locations within a short interval of time. As the waveform collapses down in a specific location (attracted, we suggest, by the Goodness Quantum number of the recumbent child) it becomes perfectly valid to state that a "visitation" has occurred.

However, our calculations suggest that the process of measurement (for example, turning on the bedroom light) will almost certainly lead to a localised, space-time instability which, in turn, will cause the waveform to relax and render detection almost impossible.

Once again, this ties in with the experimental evidence that Father Christmas is rarely caught delivering. Indeed, on those few occasions when a sighting has been claimed in the literature ("Mummy, mummy, there's a strange man in my bedroom" by S. T. U. Peedo, Journal of Sleepless Nights, 1979, vol 5, p 35), closer scrutiny has often revealed it to be an imposter wearing a red cloak and beard.

Moreover, the quantum mechanical model predicts that energies involved in a waveform collapse will result in the emission of a jet of sub-atomic particles. Studies of bedroom carpets in the vicinity of alleged sightings, using an X-mass spectrometer, have often revealed evidence of mince pion activity; though these have usually been Hoovered up.

One of the most appealing aspects of our theory is the manner in which it allows the most likely sites for visitation to be estimated. These may be identified from the first derivative of the expectation value as:

d (Spot) |
-----------------|
d (Fireplace) | night

It turns out that the distribution of household chimneys is exactly that required to act as a diffraction grating for objects of Santa's predicted wavelengths, focusing the zeroth order onto the bedroom floor below ("Chimchimmeny, chimchinny, chimchin cheroo", by Bert, Mar. Popp. 1969).

Yet another predication which agrees with commonly reported observations concerns the Christmas Stocking effect. Within the general theory, the stocking would be expected to act as an infinite potential well, momentarily capturing the Santa waveform. The resonance within the stocking is predicted to transfer energy from any batteries within the well (causing them to run out by Boxing Day) before collapsing back down to a new ground state characterised by a tangerine in the toe.

Apart from the successes reported above, the theory makes a number of predictions about rather low probability events; that is, events expected to occur in fewer than one hundred homes in the world each year (for example, a full night's sleep for parents of under-8s; no clothes given as presents; fairy lights still working from last year). In order to collect the huge volume of data needed to assess these rare events, we have decided to appeal to the scientific community for help.

Well as the few observations available fit the theory, a detailed experiment to provide quantltatlve.support is now necessary. This will require a vast amount of data to be collected with observations from as many global locations as possible.

New Scientist's readers are, therefore, asked to maintain a Yule log of the events in their domestic laboratories and to send their results to the authors via the magazine.

Participants are requested to make a note of the following:

1. Their children's Goodness Quantum number;
2. The approximate dimensions of their bedroom;
3. Whether Santa visits and, if so, at what time;
4. Their address and galactic bspace coordinates (or postcode);
5. Any evidence of Charm or Strangeness;
6. Whether Santa is seen to be spinning (needed to check the "No L" theory)
7. The number of presents left;
8. The colour of his reindeer's nose (often quoted as red when seen moving away at speed, but unknown in its rest frame).

On a note of caution, participants are urged not to try to localise Santa as the delta p. delta x equals or is greater than h relationship suggests that the energies involved could demolish a timber frame building.

At a time when Europe is leading the world in fundamental physics research we hope that this knotty problem can be resolved with this experiment. The Americans are not far behind, with Senate approval for the $12 trillion Turkey/ Anti-Turkey Synchronous Santatron. Let us make sure we cook their goose before they foil our efforts.

Google Desktop Search Download

Google Desktop Search Download

This is the greatest utility for today's computers. Even if you know where everything is on your computer, this program is still faster and cooler than clicking a ton of folders. Try it, I dare you!

Things that make you go huh?

Things that make you go huh?!

Inside Joe's Mind

Inside Joe's Mind

For some reason I decided to Blog my Blog. Wierd huh?

Do Geese See God?

Advertising companies are always wondering how to advertise to people effectively. Well, Amazon.com has gotten the hang of it. I was surfing their site the other day looking for a Christmas gift for my father, I hope he likes it, when I stumbled upon these short flicks which can be viewed at their home page. The first one I saw was "Do Geese See God?" The title intrigued me and lured me in. I watched the flick and thought Wow! How trippy! Then I started wonder, what does this have to do with Amazon.com? I found out once the credits rolled, besides the usual names of the actors were the products displayed in the flick, and you could click those products and it would pull up on Amazon giving you an option to buy. I thought, how clever? They did it, they advertised to me and not only did I not know it, I enjoyed it. In my family the only action the remote control ever gets is during a commercial break. So, there you have it all you big advertising companies; don't shove billboards, signs, flashing lights, loud speakers, brought to you by's, or distinct product placements. Make the product part of the story.

Wired News: Nintendo Surgeons More Precise?

Wired News: Nintendo Surgeons More Precise?

Also, the Army considers video gaming a plus for flying helicopters. I was watching Discovery Channel also and they stated that the new soldiers entering military boot camp have a better understanding of weapons and war tactics than any other generation that has been in military service before, and that they credit this to video games. Parents told us it would rot our brains, but I always knew that my eye-hand coordination would save the day.

What's Going on...

Well, I haven't had a breath lately to Blog much except about Sho's wedding quickly. I forgot to write about our College and Career classes Christmas Party last Thursday. Our teacher Bro. Tierney is a way cool guy. I really like him and respect him and look up to him. We had this mystery dinner where someone died and everyone splits up into teams. Of course I got together the smartest people in the party - Eric and I. Of course, since Eric and Megan are dating she had to be in our group, which was fine because we had all the brain power we needed. Also, Amanda Michael was in our group but as stated above we already had all the brain power we needed so even with Amanda and Megan it was like overkill. Our group brain capacity was running at these quantities:

Joe = 65%
Eric = 65%
Amanda = 32.5%
Megan = 32.5%

Now, you're probably saying, "How come the girls have half the brain power as the guys?" Well, everyone knows that guys are twice as smart as girls, and if you're even asking that question it probably means that you're a girl. You're also probably wondering how in the mathematical world our group attained 195%bp (brain power). Yes, it is amazing; I believe that the statistical impossibility alone shows how awesome we were. In fact, I took a picture of the brain activity of our group at the party - just disregard the date on the picture. Well, whatever, it was fun and we ended up having the best results of who killed who, with what, how, and all the other sorts of questions that needed to be answered. Even though that was fun, the real fun was playing Battlefield 1942 with Bro. Tierney until 3 am. I have to admit that was the most fun I've had in a while.

Moving on, Saturday (which was yesterday) was Sequoia Baptist Church's official first youth activity in a long time. We had an awesome time! We played lots of games, had a gift exchange, ate pizza, and Jacques von Rooyen, a good friend of mine, preached on purity. Probably the best thing that came out of this youth activity was that it really broke the ice with the teens and I. I think that they saw a side of me they didn't know was there. There was one game where you get two people to sit across from each other and they have to start talking to each other at the same time about whatever. The person who can go the longest having this one sided conversation without saying "Ummm" or "Like" or pausing wins. It was my turn and as I sat down to face my opponent the teens were saying, "Yah right, Bro. Philipson is way too quiet, he never talks." Boy did I shock them! I think that made them a lot more comfortable around me. So that's that. Nothing really more important to write about. Of course there are tons of things that happen to me that I really can't share because of the audience and I have to think about who might be reading and stuff, not that what I would write would be bad or inappropriate but just for confidential reasons. I might start another Blog, one that nobody really knows about where I can just write my true feelings out on, but managing just this Blog takes time.

Well, it's getting late and I need to go to bed. See Ya!

SpaceWeather.com

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

This is my number one source for meteor showers, and comets.

The Big Day

Today is going to be a busy day. First thing is one of my good friend’s weddings. Sherwin "Sho" Santiago and Melissa Adams. Those cats have been together for a long time. Since I've known Sho, a little over 5 years, they were dating then. From what I hear is that they've been going out since 6th grade. That's crazy; I guess some people just get it easy in the realm of dating. Sho is a good guy and I hope today is a good memory for him. After the wedding I'm going to drive up to Visalia, California where my weekend ministry is at Sequoia Baptist Church. I teach the youth up there and lead the songs. Today is our first "Youth Activity" with me being their teacher. I'm pretty excited, not really nervous, probably when I get up there I will be. Jacques von Rooyen is going to preach, he is also a good friend of mine. We're the same age and went to Highland High School together. We've had some good times because we've always managed to get a job working together, but could write all day about the stuff we get into. Pretty much all of my friends now have girlfriends are seriously liking them. John and Michelle, Eric and Megan, Jacques and the Arkansas chick, Larry and Ashley, and anyone else I forgot. This is the first time one of us "guys" is getting married. Done. Married. No more hanging out and staying up late watching movies. Oh well. Moving on, then I'm staying the night down there as usual to teach the teen class tomorrow. I'm praying that everything goes smoothly and that it will be most importantly fun. I fear they already think I'm a loser with no sense of humor. Well I've got to start packing and getting ready.

Shopping?

Unique gifts, top quality functional products for the home: Hammacher Schlemmer

This place has the coolest and most unique gifts collection of stuff I've ever seen. A lot of products have made there debut with Hammacher Schlemmer. Like the Roomba robot vacuum and the Segway, for people that don't appreciate the full use of their legs. I remeber the first time I heard of Hammacher Schlemmer they were selling a two-seater submarine. That's pretty cool.

PayPal - Use PayPal on iTunes—Get Five Free Songs!

PayPal - Use PayPal on iTunes—Get Five Free Songs!

Itunes, Paypal, and Costco have recently signed contracts with each other. Not for sure where Costco comes to play but they reported 26% profit increase the day of the signing. I'm sure everybody is wondering what Steve Jobs has up his sleeve.

Google Suggest

Google

Wired News: Media Wish List for 2005

Wired News: Media Wish List for 2005


The Media is Evil.

Update

So, It's been over an hour now and we've come up with nothing funny. We're thinking of Power Rangers now, or transformers. Eric is being dumb. Kelli Gallagher is texting me questions about Napoleon's life, and trying to stump me and make me admit that I don't know everything in the world. Texting Kelli is almost acutally more fun then listening to all these guys crack homosexual jokes at each other.

Bobby suggested Lord of the Rules as an obvious spoof of Lord of the Rings. We might be on to something however I still like the Power Rangers idea.

I want to go home and as usual our night ends with nothing accomplished.

Youth Conference

Every year our chuch/college hosts an annual youth conference where churches from all over the country come together to...well you can check it out here. So right now I'm sitting at Denny's on Ave. K with David Delany, Eric Hayes, Bobby Ayers, and Larry Chappell (who hasn't arrived yet). I don't like Denny's but I like their free internet. So far we have an idea for our theme is "Behind Enemy Lines." I can't really say much because it's secret. The years before we did a police thing which was a sort of mixture between Cops, Starsky and Hutch, and Strongbad's Dangeresque 1 and Dangeresque 3, and a Karate Kid type thing which took place out in the middle of nowhere. All are funny.

Well, Larry just arrived. So we'll see what we can cook up.

You think they would have learned the first time...

You think they would have learned the first time...

Denied

So I get a letter from the unemployment office today saying that I am being denied unemployment because Countrywide stated to them that one of the reasons why I was fired was that I wasn't productive enough. Disregarding the fact that I was one of their top employees on their team for 7 running months and never missed a "step increase" (raise) because my performance was so good. Can this company lie any more? I'm still waiting my check for the retroactive pay for the past 4 months and the pay for the time I worked on the day that I got fired. They lie to protect themselves and their money. To any employee there I give a warning. Don't question their finances because you'll get fired. Christine Hall said that she would take care of it, a month later haven't heard a peep. I asked an employee to ask their team leader, she said that she would take care of it, haven't heard anything yet. So, I question it even now. Does Countrywide Home Loans pay their employees? No, and when they do they don't pay them on time with the right amount.

If a Countrywide employee just so happens to come across this website, I am officially saying, "Countrywide Home Loans, are you handling your employees paychecks and finances properly?" So, if you just read that and you know a little bit about the law. That link that I just posted gives a PDF File containing the SARBANES-OXLEY ACT that congress passed in 2002. I can just give you a quick description. If ANYONE, employee or non-employee, questions the financial business of an organization than there needs to be: 1) an investigation of the matter. 2) A correction if one needed. 3) It needs to be documented. The person that questions the organization (Whistleblower) is protected from any retaliatory action and given complete secrecy. He can't get FIRED, demoted, or punished in anyway. The consequences result in 10 years in prison and/or $10,000,000 fine. So, Countrywide, even though you got rid of me, you can't shut me up. I'll be awaiting my retroactive pay, the pay on the day that I worked, and the official report. Have a nice day.

Last Day of School!

Right now I am getting ready to go to the last day of school. I already took all my finals and all I have left is the last chapel service. I'm gonna be late if I sit here and Blog all day, so. See Ya!

Denny's

I was sitting deep in thought as usual thinking about today. I stayed up all night pretty much last night at Denny's studying for my Greek (Koine) and History of Civilization class's final exams. Then it hit me. Denny's is a 24 hour restaurant and they have free refills on all their drinks. Also, which I just learned last night, they recently put in free Wi-Fi. This thrilled me so much when I found this out because I for one think it's horrible that Starbucks and all these other places charge you $30 a month to use there Wi-Fi in their restaurant. That's ridiculous! It should be free! It's an incentive for me to come to your establishment and drink your coffee. I could just stay at home in my pajamas and use the internet there for $30 a month, why would I go to a "T-Mobile Hot Spot"? Really?

So back to Denny's; talk about bragging rights, man; A whole 24-hour in one restaurant drinking free refill coffee. The waitress that served me my first drink would also serve me my last. She would have gone home, went to bed, dropped her kids off at school, watched TV, then come back in for work- and I'm still there. This is exciting, I already have people agreeing to come visit me and play Monopoly or just hang. If I get some good video games like Half-Life 2 for Christmas (my favorite video game) *hint* *hint* and some movies I can tough it. I can also Blog the whole event to keep you all up to date. I told Eric and he did a quick search to see if anyone else has attempted anything like this and he found this.

Also....there's this meteor shower last night and tonight. It's crazy because every time I hear about a meteor shower I stay up looking to the sky's and never really see anything. So last night I saw three in a row. So I checked the space weather and sure enough the earth was about to be showered upon. Tonight was going to be the most so Eric, Megan (the anime character), Betty, and I kept our eyes peeled. I saw one at school but didn't really see many until I got home in the middle of nowhere at which time I saw Five in a 45 second period. It was exciting! So that's what happened today. Peace!

Introduction to Mozilla Source Code.

Introduction to Mozilla Source Code.

10,056,138 — Houston, we have ignition! - Spread Firefox

10,056,138 — Houston, we have ignition! - Spread Firefox

Super Cool Pic Illusion

Super Cool Pic Illusion

Christmas Musical

Our church has an annual Christmas Musical. So, that's what's been going on lately. I play the violin and usually about 5,000 people show up to watch both on Saturday and Sunday. So, actually I have to get ready because we're about to play again at 6pm.

Christmas Banquet

You're all probably wondering what happened, and to see whether I had fun or not. I met Betty at her dorm at 6:25 and when she came out I have to tell you, I was shocked! Seriously, I never really thought of Betty (Don't take this the wrong way) as a girl. More like she was one of the guys. Although, seeing her all dressed up and wearing make-up and the shoes and all that extra stuff that girls do with there hair. I tell ya, it scared me. I really liked her dress, it was maroon and she wore this black thing under it that went down her hands, it was lacy. The best part about her dress was that the top was this medieval type thing, like a corsett I guess. I knew, as a guy, this would be very hard to describe so I searched Google and found some stuff that wasn't exactly what she wore but could give you a good idea. Ok, so her outer top was like this. Under that she wore that lacy thing. and then the rest of her dress was like a prom dress. When I get pictures and can figure out how to post them I will.

Us guys have it easy, we wear the same thing - a tuxedo. However, if you must see it then here. Of course that's not me wearing it in that picture. I told Jackie to be careful with it.

So anyways, we ate and as usual I told all the jokes at the table. I kind of feel like it's my duty in life to make other people laugh. I hate that dead akward space sometimes. The reason why it's akward is becuase there is no one there (ex. ME) to fill it. The night flew by fast. So all in all I did have a great time. Now I know what everyone is wondering. Did I see Andrea there? Yes I did, and to be honest with you, she didn't look all that great. In fact, (This is going to sound bad) I don't think she deserved to go with such a stud like me! J/K. Seriously though I don't think I would have had the ability to be myself and make jokes and have true fun if I did end up going with her. To answer the second question on everyone's mind. No I don't like Betty, but she is a way cool person, like totally! So there you have it, all that drama for what? I should have asked Betty in the first place, that would have been the logical thing to do. Then again, my emotions are so persuading. It's like every time I have to make a decision my brain is playing chess with my heart, and it's always a close game.

It's late so I'm going to bed. Talk to you all later.

Wristwatch Television

Wristwatch Television Set at Hammacher Schlemmer

Jargon

Wired magazine has a section in their magazine for the latest jargon so I e-mailed them some jargon that they may consider putting in their magazine. Here are some and their meanings.

Cobweb Site:
A Web site that hasn't been updated for a long time. A dead web page.

Crapplet:
A badly written or profoundly useless Java applet.

Meatspace:
The physical world (as opposed to the virtual) also "carbon community" "facetime" "F2F" "RL."

Percussive Maintenance:
The fine art of whacking a device to get it working.

Plug and Play:
A new hire who doesn't need any training. "The new guy John is great. He's totally plug-and-play."

I especially love "Carbon Community" in reference to the real world.

Counting to Infinity!

These people are counting to infinity. This is there goal, and I totally support it. I fully believe that one day - they will fulfill their dreams. Keep it up guys, and set your sights high!

Forum Sector - Counting to Infinity!

Who I Am

Allow me to introduce myself to everyone. My name is Joe. I go to a Bible College in Lancaster, CA called West Coast Baptist College. I go to church at Lancaster Baptist Church. I am a Junior and my major is Church Ministries, which is a broad 4 year degree. I play the violin, people say that I'm pretty good but I'd feel weird bragging. I am 20 years old and became a christian 5 years ago from out of high school. I like to snowboard, play my violin, read, and surf the net. I just got into blogging and I really enjoy it. So if you have any other questions e-mail me and I'll post them.

Panther

I was in Eric's office today and he was installing Mac OS X (Panther) onto a computer when the intro movie kicked in. This song quickly caught my attention for it was a fairly cool song. Anyways my friend Eric said that he really likes that song but he can't find it at all. This immediately became a challenge to me becuase I have the ability to find ANYTHING on the internet. That's right, a quote, a fact, a song, a movie, a script, whatever is needed I can find. So after, 15 seconds of hard searching I found the song.

Now I don't have a Mac so I can't verify this information for myself but from what I've found is that you can find the movie at -
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SetupAssistant.framework/Versions/A/Resources/intro.mov

and a sound clip at - /System/Library/CoreServices/Setup Assistant.app/Contents/Resources/intro-sound.aiff

The official song information is:
Title: Sofa Rockers
Artist: Sofa Surfers
Album: See the Light

Sofa Rockers (Richard Dorfmeister Remix) is indeed the mix used on the Cheetah/Puma/Jaguar installers. However, the Panther track is Eple (which is Norwegian for Apple) by Röyksopp on the Melody A.M. album. You can get a clip of this song here, you can also buy the cd at Amazon.com. I have not had any luck trying to download a full version of it but here it is.

Honest Resume

Text / Honest Resume

I'm still unemployed and still having trouble finding a good job. Although I keep getting job offers to "Work at Home" and selling insurance and stuff. I have never recieved a phone call from a real place saying that they read my resume and would like me to come in and have an interview. Places like Monster.com with whom I have been a member with for years has never helped me one bit besides showing me who is hiring so I can drive out there and ask. Other than listing available jobs I think it's a sham. It's a way for pyramid type companies to get people my age who don't have a career to waste there time. They know that they couldn't get a 35 year old with a family and house to walk around business to business trying to sell credit card terminals.

The Truth

Well, last night the truth came out. Every Monday night the girls at our school have something called "Dorm Devotions." It's when all the guys and girls get together separately and get some instruction on life and talk and share stuff.

So the question was brought up, "Who has something exciting they would like to share?" Well, from what I hear Andrea (who dyed her hair black by the way) rose her hand and shared with everyone that she finally got asked to go the Christmas Banquet by the guy that she wanted to go with and now they are going to the Christmas Banquet together - Yah, Ouch! I received this valuable intel from one of my good female friends who was keeping her ears open around the girls’ dorms. So now comes other questions:

1. Why didn't she just say "No?"
2. She went out of her way to have her mom break it off? How lame is that?
3. Why didn't I just follow my rules like I was supposed to?

What am I going to do you ask? I'm going to go with Betty, my good friend, and have lots of fun. I'll just be sweet to Andrea when I see her and not go off on a monologue about how her actions are a plague upon the female race. Who knows what could happen, I may still be in the game - or am still diluted either one.

Squeezing Out Monkey Clones

Squeezing Out Monkey Clones: "Watch the video"

Diary of a Flight Attendant ;-)

According to a Wired.com article,
people are getting fired for blogging...take this flight attendant for example.

I see the reason why a company would be protective, but this is a person's personal journal that can be viewed by others. However, if an employee shows disloyalty to her company than that probably would be a different story.

Conclusion

So, Friday night there was a basketball game at our school. I knew that Andrea was going to be there because from what I hear she is always at the basketball games and I was really interested to see what the answer to all my questions would be. I walked in and found my friend Betty and started hanging out with her while watching the game. It was about 15 minutes into watching the game did I realize where she was sitting. She was seated at the farthest end of the gym, almost on the opposite side of the court where I was sitting. I kept my eye on her and was devising a strategy plan in my head and I noticed something. There was a guy that she was sitting next to and she they were occasionally talking to each other. I figured ok, no big deal because if I was sitting there and I didn't know her then I would totally be talking to her too, I think she saw me too looking at her.

So I went back to the game and talking to my friend Betty. There was about 5 minutes left in the game and we were tied up and it was starting to get brutal on the court. At this point the whole croud was standing in the bleachers and I noticed that Andrea had climbed up higher on the bleachers probably to get a better look at things (since she's short). However, the thing that interested me was that the guy that she was talking to was still with her. Man did I feel like a dope! I think she was on a date with that guy, and I don't know for sure but I think that that is the guy that was going to ask her to the Christmas Banquet. When the game ended (we lost by the way) I saw her coming towards me. I was shocked, I didn't know what to do so I conveniently got myself "lost" in the crowd. It turns out that she was by the exit to the gym, I don't know if she was waiting for me or just hanging out but we started to talk. I asked her what happened last night with her mom and she said that the guy finally asked her and that she is going to go with him. I was dissappointed of course but I told her that I hope that she has fun. We talked a little bit about the game and then I told her that I had to run.

Feeling like crud I decided that I needed to go to the Christmas Banquet anyways just to show her that all the fun that she is going to miss out on. So I asked Betty because she is a way cool friend and I'm always cracking her up. So that's what happened, I told Betty that we should go together and so we can have fun.

Well, today I'm getting ready to play my violin in the orchestra at our church when someone tells me that she might not be coming back to school next semester, something that she had told me previously. I was like that stinks becuase the Christmas Banquet is the last dating activity this semester so if she doesn't come back then I won't see her again. When this whole thing started I almost didn't care either way, but the more complicated it's getting the more I want to go with her. I guess it's the whole "I want what I can't have" thing. Well whatever. Thursday is the Christmas Banquet and Betty and I are going to have fun.

Space Ghost Kid

In an ealier post I put up a link for the All You Base Are Now Belong To Us website. It could be compared to the Star Wars Kid phenomenon that swept the nation. Well the other day I was watching my favorite Cartoon Network TV program Adult Swim, which is the only TV show that I know of that targets to my generation, and on one of the commericals Space Ghost did a spoof on the Star Wars Kid. So here it is, and if you still don't know what I'm talking about just click the links above and figure it out for yourself. Adios!

Defeat!!!

Well, I went from being on the top to being on the bottom in a matter of minutes. So, I decide to go eat dinner with my friend Eric at the school's cafeteria. It was burger night which was good, so good in fact that I got up to go get another one when I spotted my friend Lydia Scott (who is best friends with Kelli) and I decide to stop and talk to her for a second. She asks my how my day went and I got a big smile on my face and I said that I asked Andrea to the Christmas Banquet and that she said yes. Then I started joking around with Lydia and telling her that I actually really wanted to go with her because she's so beautiful, yadda yadda yadda. Then I notice this look on Lydia's face and I turn and shockingly Andrea was standing right there. My mind freaking out started to race and I stuttered out, "Lydia asked me how my day went and I was telling her that I asked you to the Christmas Banquet." Thinking right now that I just royally messed up she said that her mom wants to talk with me. So I think to myself "no problem Joe, you got this." I was figuring that her mom just wanted to talk with me over the phone to see what kind of person is taking her daughter out which is totally commendable. So she calls Andrea calls her mom on her cell phone and she answers, "Hello." I say, "Yes, is this Mrs. Yachanin?"
"Yes"
"Hi this is Joe Philipson, how are you?"
"Ohhhh, Hi I've heard so much about you."
"Really, just today or previously?"
"No, previously."

Then her tone shifts to a more serious one, I can tell she wants to tell me something but I don't know what it is, all I can sense is that it's not good. Mrs. Yachanin says, "Listen, I need you to not say anything to Andrea but - well- you see-..." I'm think, "Just say it, you don't want me to go with her." Well, skipping all the dialogue basically what happened was is that another guy at the school was going to ask Andrea and he had already called the Mom a couple of days ago and asked her permission to take Andrea to the Christmas Banquet without Andrea's knowledge of this. So the Mom had already told the guy that he can go with her to the Christmas Banquet and what she told me was, "I'm sorry but I don't know how you're going to break it off with her." So now all of a sudden I'm supposed to tell this girl that wants to go with me and I want to go with to the Christmas Banquet that I can't go with her and I can't tell her a reason because I promised her Mom I wouldn't say anything to her.

Well, the Mom finally realizes what she's asking me and decides that she is going to tell Andrea. I tell the Mom that it's ok, it's no big deal, and that I totally understand. I basically lied, but at least maybe her Mom will respect me more after this. So I change the subject we talk about the weather and the usually garbage. By this time Andrea figures out what's going on by the expression of disappointment on my face. I hang up with her Mom; Andrea apologizes to me even though she doesn't know what’s happening. I tell her that it's no big deal, I am a little disappointed but I can take a rain check. I tell her that I'll see her around and not to worry about it. I left the room and she stayed behind to call her Mom.

So, that's all I know for now. Maybe tomorrow there will be some new developments. So many questions like what's the deal with her Mom? I thought it was up to Andrea to make the call on who she's going to date or not. Also, why hasn't this guy asked her yet and if he does will Andrea say yes? Will Andrea talk with her Mom and tell her that she was wrong and come to me tomorrow and ask if we can still go together? The only thing I know is that I've let my emotions blind me and I'm in a ton of drama that I've never had an intention of going back into. Maybe that's the way it is with girls. You can't have any type of relationship with a girl without some degree of chaotic drama entering your life. It's a little frustrating but I hope it all pans out well. I'll just trust the Lord and see what happens next.

Victory!!!

So, I was in chapel today and she was there and my friend Betty was like, "You better ask her or I'm not going to talk to you ever again." I knew that sooner or later if I really wanted to go to the Christmas Banquet with a date I'd have to ask someone, but I was just so nervous. I had never been nervous about asking a girl anywhere before and this was a wierd feeling for me. It was nerve racking, like when you sit at the dentist office and you know he's going to ask you if you have a cavity and then stick that metal thing in it, which by the way you can see here.

So the moment came, my other friend Sarah who takes role saw which door she was coming through and yelled out my name and pointed me in the direction so I could conveniently "bump" into her. So I walked up to her and she looked at me a little startled and I blurted out, "I was wondering if you would like to go to the Christmas Banquet with me." Then she quickly said back, "Yah, sure! Right now?" I didn't know what she meant by that and came to the conlcusion that she was probably startled by my sudden frankness and I jokingly responded, "Yah! Let's Go!" She laughed realizing what she had said and then gave me a reassuring, "Yes."

So there you have it folks, I have a date to the Christmas Banquet. I just hope that I won't regret giving my emotions lead over my logic again.


In other news, I stumbled on some other sites that may interest you guys. Here we have JFK Reloaded, yes even you get the chance to kill the former president. The cool thing is that if you can get the same shot that Oswald got then you win a $100,000. That is if you can make the same shot that Oswald shot. You'll probably need a "magic bullet" to pull it off though. Hot or Not is this website where you can post your picture and people will rate you on a scale of 1-10. My friend Larry and I put my other friend Eric, who I have also mentioned previously, on this website without his knowledge a little while ago. Well, I decided to put myself on there, so be nice and rate well, I do admit that I'm not the most handsome man out there but I do come pretty close. If you think that it's socially wrong to rate people then you can rate monkeys.

Well, you all have a nice day, if you like what you read then feel free to e-mail me @ joemomma17@msn.com, or you can post your comment.

Tormentation

So, December 9th is the big day, the Christmas Banquet at my school. Usually you're supposed to get a date for these things, it's not a requirement but people look at you funny if you don't have one. It's usually this really formal shin-dig with tuxes, flowers, and loads of awkward situations.

So - I want to ask this one girl, but despite my good looks, suave steps, and care-free attitude, I can't seem to summon up the courage to ask her. Of all people at my school I should be the one that should have no problem asking, it's not like I ever cared about what people thought of me before. Maybe I don't care about what people think of me in general, because in some way that's cool, but to have one person think you're dumb who you actually want to have think you're not dumb stinks.

She's a freshman and I'm a Junior, so you say "What difference does that make?" Well, according to the list of Joe's rules, which states that none of these rules can be broken for anyone, says that I will not date any persons who do not have a certain maturity level Thus, freshman, purely because of title, are automatically disregarded. Another rule, is that I shouldn't let my emotions blind me. Yet, every time I meet a girl I allow this to happen; and consequently my heart is crushed. Then I get mad, and hit myself for not obeying my rules! So the question now arises, do I date a fickle freshman who doesn't seem to be fickle; or, do I allow past experiences to judge future choices. They say you should learn from your mistakes, but that's my logical side. My emotional side says, "YAH MAN!!! Go for it!"

So tonight, is church. I will most likely see her at church. So I made a deal with myself to go ahead and ask her today, and despite the logical side of Joe I succumb to the emotional side, yet again. However, this time I have documentation (My Blog) so if anything happens and I regret choosing emotion over logic I will have a common law to refer back to.

Why do you ask I am interested? Well, she's gorgeous, sweet, interested in what I say, likes history, and is a no pressure type gal. So, wish me luck everyone...