The Football Game

The first hint of a problem with our plan was the total absence of both people and signage at the Carlson school pick-up point. We were early, but not that early. In the unseasonably cold temperature of early November, we waffled about what to do.We asked two other men; they thought the shuttle to the stadium was still running. We decided to try hoofing it to the stadium. I was game, but barely.

“Are you two going to the game?” John shouted to a couple who had left the same sidewalk we were on and were walking down a grassy knoll to a road.

“Yes," one of them shouted back. John rushed up to them, and she continued, "We’re going to catch the campus ‘connector’ inter-campus shuttle just east of us on the road down there,” pointing up a bit from where our walk would bring us to the road. “It makes a stop at the stadium.”

“We were going to take the stadium shuttle,” John told them, as I caught up.

“They abandoned that one at the beginning of the year. There were 5 buses initially; then 3; now the only one is from the State Fair Grounds – that one still runs."

When we passed the stadium without anyone getting off, our new female friend pulled the “I want to make a stop” cord; I heard “You passed the stadium,” from a number of young mouths.

“I said the last stop was the closest to the stadium,” the driver retorted as the bus continued its run to the Agricultural Campus.

"This would have been quite a hike from the hotel," I observed. “I like football and everything, but I am not sure how that would have gone for me. I am very glad we got this bus!”

"Me, too," he nodded. He also said, “I know I wanted to pick you up early, but I didn’t know this was why. Sorry.”

No apology was necessary; I knew we’d circle back to the stadium in plenty of time. Suddenly … a light bulb ... a story … . “You know what John? There’s a story here. No matter what else happens.”

“You mean how this knucklehead friend of yours took you to a college football game, with no hint of how to actually get to the stadium?” he suggested, with a hint of a grin.

“You read my blog, John; I wouldn’t say such a thing where you might read it!” I replied. This was, in my view, well below the threshold of a knuckle headed operation. And  John was no knucklehead.

The bus came back toward the stadium. We got off, made our way to the stadium, found our seats, put up with forty degree temperatures featuring a cold, gusty north wind ( “Where’re your gloves?” “Don’t you have ear muffs?” “OK, I’ll stop being your mother!” ), walked around a bit at half-time, ate bratwurst, shared some salted in the shell peanuts, and confessed, "I'm cold.”

After, we returned to where we had gotten off the bus. We noticed, in the crowd, the couple with whom we had boarded the incoming bus earlier in the day, and we exchanged pleasantries. 

“They’re waiting here, too; must be the right place,” I said, as an aside.

Time crawled by, as if it, too, were frozen up by the unseasonably cold weather.

“I’m not too impressed with the shuttle service,” John muttered.

Eventually a city bus pulled to the curb; much of the horde with us, like a wave in the sea, made their way to it. Behind it, another bus pulled to the curb. Its marquee: "Connector Shuttle.”  

Our new friends and John and I scooted to it. The four of us exited at a stop they told us their driver had skipped several weeks previously. We were astounded to see that this stop was just a bit further than a long pass from the entrance to the hotel where John and I had parked. We bade farewell to our new acquaintances.

As we walked, “Well, that was quite the adventure.”

“All’s well that ends well, no?”

Oh yeah … our team won, extending its conference winning streak to four games and improving its overall record to 8-2.

Movie Review - Ender's Game

One of the first books I read on purpose was Ender's Game. I knew it would be a movie someday based on how awesome it is, but I never expected it to be a good movie. The problem is that there was just too much happening for one movie. Having seen the movie, I can say I was wrong. A lot was lost from what they had to cut, but they kept enough to make a good movie. The following will be my comparison of the two, with lots of spoilers.

I expected Bean's roll to be expanded since there are books that follower this character. I didn't think this was a good idea, and was happily surprised that they didn't.
Harrison Ford's character, Colonel Graff, was extended, which I expected and enjoyed.
I was surprised by the expansion of Major Anderson, who was well acted by Viola Davis, who I'd never heard of before.

Peter and Valentine were drastically cut. This is my biggest disappointment. They had to make cut to make it one movie, I understand that. In the book Peter and Valentine go about taking over the world in Ender's absence, and make good headway. This subplot that comes together at the end, really making the story for me. They did make a good movie without it, but they could have left it to make two great movies.

On the bright side, I was glad to find they fixed the part that happens after that. The ending of the book was sort of shoehorned into the next book in the series. They were two unrelated stories before this. The result was a little silly, and brisk. Instead of sending Ender off to an alien world where the aliens had reshaped the landscape for him like in the book, the movie actually fixed this by making one of the human bases be a former alien world.

What a brilliant change. It's simple and it works. Then they went further. Instead of the aliens reshaping the landscape to match the game, they communicated the existing landscape to him through the game. Again, simple, and elegant. I couldn't have fixed that any better myself. The result is that emotionally, the story ends in a logical place. It ends the story at the end of the movie.

I highly recommend the movie, but I still recommend the book highly-er.

Trying to Rescue a Fountain Pen

"They don't know what they're doing down there."

This response sounded arrogant to me, but, along with the impressive before and after pictures, it gave me hope that the man who spoke them would be able to restore my fountain pen to its luxuriously-writing capability. I had seen his before/after pictures of injured fountain pens. I was impressed and had called to ask him if he thought he could help my fountain pen, which I had stupidly allowed to have a topless adventure in my man-bag. The adventure had bunged the nib up pretty badly; it would not write. I 'fessed up that I had taken it to a stationary/pen shop and the owner had helped, but the nib still was "not right."

I have told you in a past post ( Writing is Hard ) that I enjoy using a pen, especially a fountain pen. I am here confessing that I may be addicted. I have many and varied ballpoint and gel pens, and fountain pens that number more than I will ever need. I toyed with fountain pens as early as grade school, but didn't appreciate a truly fine pen until much later.

I was heartsick when I realized the damage done to the nib of my fountain pen. I took it to a favorite stationary store where I knew a pen doctor resided. The pen doctor no longer resided there, but the owner also knew a thing or two about fountain pens, so I spoke with him. I was looking for advice about where to send it for repair, or perhaps he would send it and charge me for his service.

Nope. He got out his magnifying glass, inspected the nib, put the point of the nib to the top of the glass case we were standing at, and pushed. He inspected it again, put the nib back to the glass and adjusted. He did this several times, got some ink, dipped the pen, tried it, adjusted a time or two more, tried the pen again, adjusted, tried it, and handed it back to me. "What do you think," he asked.

I tried it. While I wasn't sure it wrote like it did before it got lost in my bag, it seemed to write well, which was a significant improvement over its condition when I walked in. "I'm not looking for a freebie," I said.

"Thanks for stopping in," he said. "No charge."

My excitement that the pen wrote at all soon gave way to disappointment that it did not write as it had; now it didn't seem to write well at all. It would skip, it would write well for four words, then hardly at all for the next. And it scratched. I could have gone back to the stationary shop, but I figured they had already done the best they could; and I could hardly complain as the pen did write and they charged me nothing for the service.

I remained disconsolate ( I am sure I am exaggerating my mental state here ).

But then I found the pen fix-it shop and the arrogant-sounding man who ran it. Excitedly, I went to his shop and gave him the pen. He got out his magnifying glass, inspected the nib ... and did nothing. He got some paper and wrote with the pen. It wrote well for him; no skipping at all.

I tried, and it wrote like it had been doing ... OK, not great, varying line widths. "Your touch is much lighter than mine," he commented.

"Well, yes, that's what I like about fountain pens," I replied, "no pressure."

"There is nothing I can do for this pen."

You were so sure when I spoke on the phone with you!

"The hooded nib has a flange inside which makes it impossible to take the nib out without getting into all kinds of other trouble.

Isn't that what you do here? Your before pictures showed some awful damage ...

"I could heat the feed, but that could ruin it altogether. "

Of course I would not want to risk that!

"You might try cleaning it good ... soak the nib section overnight in water with a couple of drops of dish washing soap. It doesn't look particularly dirty, but somewhat. That might help."

"Well, thanks," I said, stuffing my disappointment, "I have had it since the early 80's and never cleaned it good."

I have not done that yet, and will, perhaps, report when I do. For sure I will if the results are dramatic. Until then, however, I am left with a pen that only reminds me of a high-functioning, luxuriously-writing instrument.

10 Things I Disagree with the Wall Street Journal About

The Wall Street Journal just wrote an article called 10 Things E-Cigarettes Won't Tell You.  Now I was never a smoker, but I have enjoyed using a vaporizer.  I use it without nicotine, but I'm sure it's more enjoyable with nicotine.  Even without, it's relaxing, tastes good, and is calorie free.  I think you'd need a good reason to be down on these, but many people are with no good reason.

The Wall Street Journal article was entirely negative, and I feel the need to respond.

1 "We're Big Tobacco in disguise."
Ridiculous.  Yes, tobacco companies are trying to get into the market, just like they sell Nicorette gum, and the patches.  They seem to be selling high priced disposable models to people who don't know better.  They're definitely not the only game in town, and they never will be because it can be mixed yourself for pennies.

2 "We can't promise this won't kill you."
They go on to say that there haven't been any long term studies, and that no one will give you a written guaranty.  Well, duh.  You can't have a long term study on something that hasn't been around for a long time.  As for the written guaranty, that's just the state of our legal system.  You can't go around guaranteeing things, or you're going to get sued.

3 "This probably isn't the best way to quit smoking."
It's clear they don't consider someone who switched from smoking to a vaporizer to have "quit smoking".  Do I need to say more?

4 "We're advertising like it's 1960—while we still can."
By which they mean that vaporizer sellers are advertising the same way that everyone else does.  That is, everyone except for cigarette companies who have been banned from many types of advertisement.  They also complain that, "You won't see a Surgeon General's warning on e-cig packages."  That might be because the surgeon general doesn't warn against them.

5 "We defy categorization."
They complain here that people who make vaporizer supplies don't want them to be categorized as tobacco products.  Well, they're not tobacco products, so...

6 "We're cheaper than cigarettes because we aren't taxed like cigarettes."
They're saying the taxes are coming.  This can't happen.  The ingredients in the liquid you vaporize are cheap, and used in many other things.  If the nanny state tried to impose impossibly high taxes like they do to cigarettes, more people will just mix it themselves from stuff they can buy at any drugstore.

7 "Kids love us."
They're not saying kids use them more than adults, or even more than cigarettes.  They're just saying kids are trying them like anything else they're not supposed to have.

8 "We're bringing smoking back indoors…"
They're not binging 'smoking' back indoors.  Smoking creates secondhand smoke, which is harmful and smells bad.  Vaporizers don't do either.

9 "…and back into aircraft."
That is banned, and for no apparent reason.

10 "E-joints and e-crackpipes are the new e-cig."
Here they claim that "some users" claim that you can "easily vaporize a liquid form of marijuana."  The truth is that the THC that can be extracted from marijuana and taken in pill form is sold in other countries for use in vaporizers.  It's not something you can extract in your basement, and it's not any more available or transportable than the pills.  They might be confused by the kind of vaporizer that can vaporize plant material like marijuana, but that's not the kind of vaporizer we're talking about.  Even if it does come true someday, I don't see that as a reason to blame the vaporizer.  That's like outlawing paper because it can be used to smoke drugs.

I've Changed the Title of some Previous Posts

It occurred to me recently that I have done a disservice to you, the readers of this blog. The disservice was titling my writings in a humorous way
( some might call it a "cute way" ), which almost completely obscured the content ... as if you're going to read it no matter what it's called and "get" my little joke.

I apologize, hopefully most humbly. In addition to 'fessing up I am also fixing up. I've retitled items that were done this way with the new title giving a much better idea of the content.

And, to be even more helpful, I've included below a table which documents what I've done. Note that I've included only the posts whose titles I've changed.

Old Title	Content	New Title
North Korean religious freedom ( variation on Second Story )	A redo of the writing assignment from last time ... retitled because the first story was retitled.	North Korean Religious Freedom        ( variation on A Writing Class's Assignment )
Second Story	I post a one-hundred fifty word fictional story based on a one-sentence prompt provided by Benjamin's and my writing instructor.	A Writing Class's Assignment
Retreat? Read all about it!	I share some of my reflections about my silent five-day retreat ... nearly silent retreat.	Reflections Regarding my Five-day ( nearly-Silent ) Retreat
Retreat? Charge to it!	I share my excitement and fears about my upcoming Five-day silent retreat.	Thoughts about my Upcoming Five-day ( Silent ) Retreat
Techie Heaven, a version of	Some things I notice first about Windows 7, all of which I like.	Walter Enjoys being a Techie
Summary of the Life of ...	Having shared my six-word autobiography, this is my two hundred word effort.	Walter's life in 50 words
Ham Dinner ... Anyone?	The story of how Benjamin and I met on a night we each went gambling.	Benjamin and I meet
May we GO on?	Benjamin and I play the ancient game of Go. Here is some of what that game is about.	GO ... an ancient and endlessly fascinating Board game
And in this corner ...	My response to my blogging partner's thoughts about the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, all of this post-verdict.	Responding to Benjamin's thoughts about the verdict and/or shooting
The Tale of the Deer	Ellie and I witnessed deer crossing in front of our car. We disagreed on some easily observable specifics.	Deer in the Headlights

Do You Have Faith? Please Be Specific

I've have had many confusing discussions about 'faith' over the years.  Part of the reason is the wide variety of beliefs on the subject, most of which come down to what a person values.  It took me a long time to realize there is a whole 'nother source of confusion in play here.  As far as I can tell there are three common uses of the word 'faith', and the dictionary seems to be no help at all.

The dictionary's first definition is, "Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing."  I'm not aware of anyone using that definition.  If someone has absolute proof that something is true, they wouldn't say they have faith it's true.  It is not one of the three common usages I'm listing here.

The second definition in the dictionary is, "Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence."  I do find this to be one of the three ways I hear people use the word 'faith'.  As in, "I have faith I'll win the lottery this weekend."  It's likely someone will, but there's no reason to believe that it will be you.  As unlikely as it seems, people do believe in things without logical proof or material evidence all the time.

The second common usage of the word 'faith' I hear is, Belief based on logical proof or material evidence.  As in, "I double checked all the equipment, and have faith we'll have a safe climb up the mountain."  We checked the evidence before determining what to believe.  This definition is not in the dictionary, but it is common usage.

Let's stop for a moment to analyze that.  By my estimation, these are the two most common uses of the word 'faith', and they have the exact opposite meanings.  Most people use both, and don't realize there's a distinction.  I personally didn't realize the distinction for a long time.  Part of the reason is the third usage.

That is, Belief without absolute certainty.  You will not find this definition in the dictionary, nor should you.  It is used, but not as commonly, and is not useful.  The gambler who has faith he's about to win the lottery without any evidence, and the climber who placed his faith in a careful examination of the evidence, are both believing without absolute certainty.  Our ticket holder may not win the lottery, and our rock climber may fall to his death when his line breaks.  The problem is, we can be certain of almost nothing, and we don't wait for certainty before believing in anything.  This definition would apply to just about anything anyone believes, and only leads to confuse matters.

Revisiting Older Relationships

I have changed the names of the pastor and the parish in this story; otherwise the names are correct and this actually happened.

 “Father Sean, over at St Mitch’s parish, is a wonderful pastor and person. I like him a lot and the way he celebrates Mass; and I think you would, too. We should go there some Saturday,” Loretta said.

“Fr Sean … is that Sean Adams?” my wife, Ellie, asked.” I used to know a Fr Sean Adams when I worked in campus ministry in the late seventies. Tall, dark, nice beard; very pastoral; handsome; socially progressive. A great guy.”

“That’s the one,” Loretta assured us.

Some time, maybe a long time, later, we spent a quiet Saturday afternoon at Loretta’s, listening to a CD of a lecture on a discipline called Centering Prayer. We were hungry, tired, ready for Mass. “We’ve wanted to attend a Mass said by Fr Sean for a while, and it’s starting in 20 minutes. St Mitch's is only 10 minutes from here. Why don’t we go?” asked Loretta.

“Sounds good, I’d like to see him again,” said Ellie.

“I'm in,” I added.

We’re sitting in one of the front rows of the church. “Too bad Fr Sean isn’t here,” Ellie whispers to Loretta.

Loretta looks quizzically, as if to ask, “Huh?”

Ellie motions to the elderly, balding, slightly paunchy priest who might have, in Ellie’s words, “been mistaken for Friar Tuck,” sitting in the first row waiting for the clock to strike, to begin Mass. “Too bad Fr Sean isn’t here … must be a substitute.”

Loretta dismisses her, “That IS Fr Sean.”

Ellie is amazed … she clearly would not have recognized him had he knocked on our front door and introduced himself. As Mass went on, she kept muttering to me, “Wow, he’s changed,” and, “I’d never recognize him.”

I was tempted to say, “Well, a lot can happen in thirty years,” but I kept such thoughts to myself. I did give her my best smirking, puzzled, shrugged shoulder, “I don't get it, either” non-verbal.

After the Lord’s Prayer, as is customary at a Catholic Mass, Fr Sean invited the community members to exchange some sign of peace with each other. As is not customary, Fr Sean then walked into the community and exchanged a greeting of peace with most everyone in the front rows. His exchange of greetings with Loretta was filled with mutual affection; his exchange of greetings with us was filled with hospitality.

When our greetings with him were finished, I said to Ellie, “Hmm, guess what: he didn’t recognize you, either.”

PC Gaming

I've always enjoyed playing console games, but I recently bought a gaming PC because of Skyrim.  Well, it may not be the only reason, but it's a big one.  Generally it's been my habit to become obsessed with one game for a month or so every year; sometimes twice a year.  Hopefully it will be winter.  I'll play it to death, and then go back to the world of sunshine, and human interaction.  A couple of years ago it was Skyrim, and after more than a hundred hours I had barely scratched the surface.  I realized that for the first time, I wanted to play on the PC for two reasons.

The first is the command console.  If there's a bug, the console can fix it.  For example, one time I had an item that I couldn't remove from my inventory.  On the PC, I could just manually tell the game to remove it from my inventory.  Sometimes I ran into problems, that weren't exactly glitches.  Like if a non-essential character died accidentally, and it interfered with game play.  I could enter commands to fix that too.

The second reason is that this game is heavily 'modded'.  By which I mean people made modifications that can be installed to change the game.  The result is that, not only is the game more fun, and have more options, but it keeps the two year old game current.  For example, non-essential characters sometimes died because of a dragon attack, because the fools tried to fight dragons.  Someone made a mod that makes them run and hide.  That makes much more since, and it makes it a funner game.  There's even mods that update the graphics, or just completely change the look of different elements.

The thing that surprised me is that I haven't even needed to fix glitches, because people make modes that fix those too.  They're unofficial patches.  We'll see what the future brings, but I think I'm done with console games.