Correlation and Causation

Let me preface this anecdote with a brief description of the difference between correlation and causation. I'm sure most of you know that just because two events are correlated that it does not mean that one caused the other. For example, even if event A happens around the same time as B, A might not cause B. A third event, C, could have caused both A and B. If this is too abstract, just ponder this little fact: the US has never lost a war in which donkeys were used. Now should we trade in all of our M1 Abrams for Eeyore in a flak jacket? Remember this, or nothing that follows will seem wondrous and amazing--or make any sense. Anyway, on to the story...

Although it may seem surprising, I was very serious as a child. Very serious, very matter-of-fact; a precocious and therefore obnoxious know-it-all. Moreso than I am now, even. I also had a tendency to not get the joke; or at least I would get the joke but them proceed to tell the questionable comedian where he or she was mistaken. I was a barrel of laughs back then. Case in point, the phrase "it's always in the last place you look." I took this advice solemnly to heart as a great piece of wisdom about how hard it is to find things that you've lost. I never made the logical leap that, by definition, any missing item is in the last place you look because once you find it, you stop looking. I had assumed just correlation, when causation had reared its ugly head. Embarrassingly, since this phrase entered my head as an idiomatic expression long before I could question my analysis, I did not make this connection until very late in life--high school, in fact. One of my fellow thespians made some comment about how much that phrase annoyed her. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why that particular colloquialism would be annoying, when it hit me like a ton of bricks. The world became a little bit bigger for me that day, and the stars just a little bit brighter.

I have had many such "blonde" moments over the past quarter century. Most of them are just as harmless and humerous as this one (or even funnier, if you didn't care for it), but one in particular stands out as having a powerful impact on what is important to me and one of my self-described defining characteristics.

I was once an altarboy at Mountain View Lutheran Church, for those who know it. Save your jokes; I was Lutheran and our clergy were allowed to marry, sparing us from the iniquities of some other unnamed denominations. One Sunday morning, as I was in the narthex in my robe, lighter/snuffer in hand, waiting for my opportunity to shine, an elderly man who was volunteering as an usher struck up a conversation with me. The conversation meandered like good banter does, and shortly before I was to go on, he said to me, "the day you don't learn anything is the day you die." Which brings us back to correlation and causation. There are two events in this statement: learning something (A) and being alive (B, or more specifically, not B, but that's not the question). A is clearly correlated to B. You can not be alive and not learn something, even if it is something mundane and trivial like "it was cloudy today." However, in my earnestness, I took this as more of a commandment: learn or you WILL die. I don't know if this short and inauspicious episode had a direct effect on how important it is to me to always be learning and trying something new, or if it just struck a mental chord with me (good ol' correlation and causation, yet again), but considering this is coming from somebody who can only stand the monotony of exercise by doing math problems in his head, it does at least seem a pretty accurate description.

(Let's see, a 150 lbs. person burns 100 calories per mile so that works out to...hmm...Let's see what that is in calories per step...that means I'm burning calories with X efficiency...cool, one mile down. Oh, and faster than usual...I wonder what my improvement per week is...)

Oops, I mean, the moral of the story is: learn something, or I'll kill you. NOW.

Did you vote today?

Why not?

Eminem

As some may know, I've been an Eminem fan for a while now. Misogyny and homophobia aside, he has written and produced some phenominal music--especially on The Eminem Show. He has a new video out, which is just amazing, in my opinion. He has positioned himself remarkably well over the past several years to put himself in a place to influence a lot of people, and he does a great job of using that in this video. I have a lot of respect for this man, and what he does. View. Listen. Discuss.

If interested here is another video I am fond of.

Of course, since this is Eminem, you may not want to play this at the ol' family reunion, or at Bible School. :)

I Got a New Car

I bought a new car this weekend -- a 2004 White Honda S2000 with tan interior. I've already managed to put a couple hundred miles on it in two days.

Without further adieu, here are pictures:
pictures have been removed - Feb. '05

Notice the big grin on my face. :)

How many people know somebody who turned 24 today?

Answer: all of you :)

And to make this post interesting, here's what happened on my birthday, 45 years ago:

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring the brilliant rocket designer Wernher von Braun and his team from the U.S. Army to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Von Braun, the mastermind of the U.S. space program, had developed the lethal V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany during World War II.

I rocket.

So Long And Thanks For All the Episodes

BBC Radio is reviving a series most of us are too young to have experienced first-hand. They have created 6 new episodes of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy that will air over the coming weeks. Through the miracle of technology, Douglas Adams will be playing the role of Agrajag, despite the notable handicap of being dead.

Let's all raise a Djinan Tawnic to this sci-fi masterpiece and its talented creator. I will be glued to my (internet) radio after Thursday, when it becomes available for general download. The times listed on the web page are GMT+1, hence I can't listen live. I will be working, but such is life. If I can find a way to save the audio streams, I will do so.

Back Once Again with the Physical Master

Found out Friday that I passed my qualifier, which means, officially, I have completed all the requirements for my Masters degree. Finally have that milestone under my belt :).

I'm a Creep

I ran across a very well done flash animation set to Radiohead's Creep. I highly recommend viewing.

Peace Out.

EDIT:
Okay, it appears the flash has been taken down (temporarily?) due to possible copyright reasons or what-have-you. Here is the launch page for the site. Check back here as the will possesses you. If it gets put back up, then this will be where it happens first.

Thank you, Brian, for the updated mirror.

I took Jess's quiz as well.

Here is the quiz I got from Jess's Blog 53/100 ain't too shabby...

IMDB's Top 100 Best Movies of All Time generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com
Rank Movie Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It! 1 Godfather, The (1972) Finished It 2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) Finished It 3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) Finished It 4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) Finished It 5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Finished It 6 Casablanca (1942) 7 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) Finished It 8 Schindler's List (1993) Finished It 9 Shichinin no samurai (1954) 10 Star Wars (1977) Finished It 11 Citizen Kane (1941) Finished It 12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Finished It 13 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Finished It 14 Rear Window (1954) 15 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Finished It 16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Finished It 17 Memento (2000) Finished It 18 Usual Suspects, The (1995) Finished It 19 Pulp Fiction (1994) Finished It 20 North by Northwest (1959) 21 12 Angry Men (1957) Finished It 22 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) Finished It 23 Psycho (1960) Finished It 24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Finished It 25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) 26 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) 27 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Finished It 28 Goodfellas (1990) Finished It 29 American Beauty (1999) Finished It 30 Vertigo (1958) 31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 32 Matrix, The (1999) Finished It 33 Apocalypse Now (1979) 34 Pianist, The (2002) Finished It 35 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Finished It 36 C'era una volta il West (1968) 37 Some Like It Hot (1959) Finished It 38 Third Man, The (1949) 39 Taxi Driver (1976) Finished It 40 Paths of Glory (1957) 41 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) 42 Fight Club (1999) Finished It 43 Boot, Das (1981) 44 Double Indemnity (1944) 45 L.A. Confidential (1997) Finished It 46 Chinatown (1974) Finished It 47 Singin' in the Rain (1952) Finished It 48 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) Finished It 49 M (1931) 50 Requiem for a Dream (2000) Finished It 51 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) 52 All About Eve (1950) 53 Se7en (1995) Finished It 54 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Finished It 55 Saving Private Ryan (1998) Finished It 56 Cidade de Deus (2002) 57 Raging Bull (1980) 58 Rashômon (1950) 59 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) Finished It 60 Sting, The (1973) 61 Alien (1979) Finished It 62 American History X (1998) Finished It 63 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 64 Léon (1994) Finished It 65 Vita è bella, La (1997) 66 Touch of Evil (1958) 67 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 68 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Finished It 69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) 70 Great Escape, The (1963) Finished It 71 Wo hu cang long (2000) 72 Reservoir Dogs (1992) Finished It 73 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) Finished It 74 Amadeus (1984) 75 Modern Times (1936) 76 Ran (1985) 77 Annie Hall (1977) 78 Jaws (1975) 79 On the Waterfront (1954) 80 Braveheart (1995) 81 High Noon (1952) 82 Apartment, The (1960) 83 Fargo (1996) Finished It 84 Sixth Sense, The (1999) Finished It 85 Aliens (1986) Finished It 86 Shining, The (1980) Finished It 87 Strangers on a Train (1951) 88 Blade Runner (1982) 89 Metropolis (1927) 90 Duck Soup (1933) 91 Finding Nemo (2003) Finished It 92 Donnie Darko (2001) 93 General, The (1927) 94 City Lights (1931) 95 Princess Bride, The (1987) Finished It 96 Toy Story 2 (1999) Finished It 97 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) Finished It 98 Great Dictator, The (1940) 99 Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957) 100 Lola rennt (1998) Finished It
Which movies have you seen?

I have returned

I have returned from Hawaii, and in the same vein, I have returned to blogging. I have abandoned it for far too long and it's time to write more again. With school now safely out of the way I will have fewer distractions pulling me from my more creative pursuits. I know actions speak louder than words, but in this case the actions are words.

JoAnn ran her first marathon this past Sunday in Kona, Hawaii, and she finished in 5 hours, 24 minutes. Not too shabby for a first shot, eh?

Jo and I also got engaged while in the tropics. We have not set a date. We will likely begin the planning process next year. I have my quals this fall, and we will be house hunting later this year and we don't want to have to deal with wedding planning on top of that. I will keep all of you apprised of important updates, of course.

For pictures and whatnot, check out JoAnn's website and click on "Pictures." It has a link to some photo galleries. Hawaii pics aren't up yet, but will be tonight or tomorrow night.

Blog Resuscitation

There are only three things needed to accomplish anything in life: resources, motivation, and time. I have been short on all three, hence the neglect of my blog. I am slowly nursing it back to health, and hope to have a couple of short stories posted in the near future.

Thank you for your concern.