A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS:

Time of Day

- the morning because it is where the possibilities of the day are born

Vacation

- destination need only have the word "river" associated with it

Movie

- "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and "Jaws" are nose to nose at the wire

Book

- The Journals of Lewis and Clark
Edited by Bernard DeVoto

Quotation

     - "Get busy living, or get busy dying."  from "The Shawshank Redemption"

Drink

- "I never drink water." - W.C. Fields

Sermon

- Words dated 1692 found in an Old St. Paul's Church in Baltimore, Maryland.

• The internet was a nice quiet place for research and education. Now it's Times Square.
• Want to live longer? Doing all the right things to live longer? You might not be if you're not studying history. You could be missing an opportunity to add thousands of years to your life. Consider your memories of the things you have experienced in your life. Some are clear, some are fuzzy, some are forgotten. But they are your life, years logged on this earth, yet in many cases the memories of them are no more clear than your recollection of events in history that you have only experienced through the writings others. You can live history if you use the right sources. Through journals, biographies, and historical narratives you can extend your life for thousands of years into the past whereas trying to extend your life into the future is folly. At best you can only hope to add about 20 years.
• Another way of living longer is to join a religion. At a relatively small cost you will be guaranteed an eternal life after death. It's not a bad deal, but it does entail some risk. Generally religions require that you "practice" their religion usually by attending their weekly meetings. In most religions there are penalties for failing to follow the instruction set of the religion and this is where the risk comes in. Some religions, although they give you a life after death as promised, will make that life hell if you didn't do well in practicing the religion. Shop carefully for a religion as there is considerable variability in practices, cost, and penalties. One other cool thing about belonging to a religion is that you will feel good about yourself and superior to those who have not discovered the truth as you have.
• Here and There
• Believers in a supernatural life after this natural life are guaranteed not to be disappointed.
• Another way of looking back in time is to look deep into space (telescope is helpful). The light of distant stars and galaxies that you see would have been generated long before you were born. The most powerful telescopes can see objects as they existed millions of years ago. That's a million years added on to your life just by looking through the telescope! Of course, you may have some memory gaps between the event you see through the telescope and the present.
• The invention of computers is as important to mankind as the invention of writing. Humans are the only animals that can store information outside of their bodies in the form of writing. The value of being literate has never been underestimated. Now we have another invention that is equally important. We can now store a thought process outside our brain in a machine that will run the process. The machine will run the thought process and run it tirelessly and at speeds far beyond that of the human mind. Without fast thinking computers space flight, supersonic jets, fuel efficient cars, fractal geometry, sophisticated business and financial planning would be impossible. Is it any wonder that computers have permeated every corner of civilized society? Computers have become as pervasive as writing. Literacy and computer literacy have become equal in importance in advanced societies. The invention of computers is indeed as monumental as the invention of writing.
• A Camel is a horse designed by a committee.
• Politics? Show business for ugly people.
• Politics is a substitute for violence.
• American politics is a substitute for Professional Wrestling
• If the United States were a democracy, Al Gore would be President
• If a man says something in a forest, and a woman isn't around to hear him, is he still wrong?
• Man is an arrogant animal. If he cannot understand something, such as how a vase fell to the floor, or the chemistry of the formation of life, he has been quick to attribute it to supernatural rather than humbly accept the notion that he doesn't know. Although the tools of science have given us a deeper knowledge of the world, science reveals yet more that we don't know. It would appear that nature could be infinitely deep, both infinitely large and infinitely small. A quark could be a universe and the known universe could be a quark. And even if nature were finite, our potential knowledge could be unlimited as we seem to demonstrate an unlimited number of levels at which nature can be described and understood. Quantum mechanics works at one level while classical mechanics works at another level. This is difficult for finite creatures to accept. It also begs for an appreciation of how little we know. It begs for a need to work harder to broaden our knowledge to improve and prolong life for all nice living things.
• Hunters enjoy killing.
• Guns are offensive weapons, not defensive weapons. If someone has the drop on you, your gun in its holster doesn't do you much good. If everyone carries a gun, then the one who has the gun drawn and pointed at the victim wins. If everyone carries a concealed weapon then the person pointing the gun better shoot just to play it safe. If everyone carries a gun you will be attacked only by people using guns. In some locations in the U.S.A., fist fights and knife fights have been replaced with gun fights. Inner city kids are shooting each other rather than fighting with their fists. They have no choice, because too many inner city kids carry guns. What if an intruder comes into your home? Statistically, most so-called intruders who are shot, are relatives or friends of the shooter. War is the only scenario where guns are useful defensive weapons.
• Without the complicity of the news media, terrorists would be out of business. Terrorism is only a state of mind induced by the news media. Sharing the roads with other drivers is much more terrifying than than any group of terrorists.  If 40,000 people die each year in automobile accidents and 4,000 people die at the hands of terrorists, which should we be more terrified of?  Is our rage toward terrorists similar to road rage?  I don't think people are terrified by the terrorists.   People should give thought to the source of hatred that underlies terrorism rather than reciprocate with more hatred.
• Invest in America; buy a congressman
  

skiing rock hard snow with friends

whitewater kayaking through ice bergs 

reading the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel - Sunday Edition

walking out of a matinee

breaking rocks for next spring

• Is there logic in nature, or is logic only in our heads? We are, afterall, able to find order in chaos. At different levels of observation we rewrite the rules to explain phenomena. Classical mechanics explains phenomena at one level, Einstein's Theory of Relativity is required at another level, and quantum mechanics is needed to explain phenomena at still another level. All of these theories are talking about the same thing, but at different levels of observation. Is nature in chaos? Is order only in our minds? Will a Unified Theory that pulls all these levels of observation under one theory resolve the question of whether nature is orderly or in chaos? Einstein belived that God does not play dice with the universe. He spent the latter part of his life unsuccessfully looking for a Unified Theory. But even if a Unified Theory is successfully developed, it will not resolve the fundamental question of whether nature is orderly. The pursuit of a Unified Theory can be driven by a belief in the orderliness of nature or an optimism about man's ability to apply order to chaos.
• Let's get back to the mystery of the hole in my sock. The hole is on the big toe of my left sock. This is very bothersome so I figure if I put the sock on my right foot the hole should no longer be over the big toe.
  Buuuut . . .I put the sock on my right foot and the hole is magically moved to the big toe again. How could this be?

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