Lee's Clothing Guide for Work and Church

I've noticed friends and cousins talk about redressing their husbands so I thought I'd write about what my wife did for me. A few months ago, I came home from work and Staci informed me that there was a note for me on the bed. I'm always skeptical when someone wants to tell me something indirectly. It is rarely good, but this time was not too bad.

Lee's Clothing Guide for Work and Church
Pants: Brown, Black, Green, Tan, Blue
Socks: Black, Tan, Blue (Forget about WHITE)



Black belt and black shoes are always worn with black pants (NOT Brown). Black belt and black shoes may be worn with tan and green, NOT Brown or Blue. Brown shoes and brown belt may be worn with green, blue, brown, and tan pants.

Suggestions for making your clothes last longer:
Don't sleep in your work clothes.
If soiled, soak in cold water as soon as possible.
Change into weekend clothes (shorts, jeans) when not working.
When working in the yard, wear weekend shoes.

• Assignments: Try on the new clothes today or tomorrow to show great appreciation to your wife. Let her be the judge (along with you) of what fits. Sew some colored thread on the tip of the blue socks so they can easily be identified by you in your drawer. GO shopping with Staci to buy some new church shoes.

Dress for Success!

Now of course, a lot of that I knew and a fair bit of it I didn't. A lot of what I knew I had been ignoring both because I still think our society is horrendously over occupied with clothing and appearance and because I am lazy. I was a little anoyed (hence posting this to mock the both of us) but also appreciative that she cares enough to do something like this. And yes, I did my assignments. (Well, I didn't sew the colored thread in the blue socks and they are still hard to tell from the black socks in the morning.) I can't tell much difference, but she can so again thank you sweetheart. :)

Magic Mountain

Southern California is the land of theme parks. With Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, and Universal Studios they are just all over the place. But for all out thrills, the hands down tops is Magic Mountain. So today, Perry and I headed up to enjoy the thrills.

I'm sorry to say this was my first time in about 25 years. The last time I went I was 52 inches tall (I know because I could ride on both the kid coasters and the adult ones) and the only roller coasters they had were Gold Rusher, Revolution, and Colossus. (I think they had Freefall too, but that wasn't exactly a roller coaster.) Since then many more have been added and some have both come and gone, but those three were still there and we went on all of them.

We also went on Viper, Ninja, Goliath, and Batman the Ride. We ducked out on Superman (another not quite a roller coaster), Scream, X2, Riddler's Revenge, and Tatsu because the lines looked longer than the value of the thrill. Of course our longest two waits (Goliath and Batman) were also our favorites, so the other long rides might have been worth it.

We had a thoroughly good time, though if I were to do it again I would run for one of the big rides while opening the park. (We started with Revolution and Viper which we got on almost immediately, but it meant that by the time we hit the big rides they already had waits of over an hour. We were there early enough that we probably could have made a break for X2 and been on within 1/2 an hour. Oh well.) I would also try to be in one of the big lines when the park closed, but Perry didn't really want to stay an hour after closing to wait out a line. Still, I think it was a good vacation activity.

WTH???

Occasionally I like to surf over to Craigslist and look at the various boat listings in the area. No I don't need a boat. I have a very nice one that fills my needs nicely. On the other hand there are times it would be nice to have a little rowboat or kayak to cruise up and down the chanel. I would also like a sabot to teach Libby how to sail. My boat is a bit big for her, but a sabot would be great. Besides, if she takes a class through the city next year it would cost $50 extra dollars to rent the boat, so if I saw one for $50 it would be worth it (of course I haven't seen any for under $150 and that was a super good deal).

But that is not the point of this posting. This posting is about the oddest add I have seen yet.

bulldog 4 boat - pic

Yes, you read that right, someone wants to trade their Bulldog for a boat.

As you can see he is a pretty cute dog, but who tries to trade their pet for a boat. I could see someone who had a boat and a dog they couldn't keep looking to give the dog to a good owner and throw in a boat for good measure, but this has me baffled. But I guess somewhere out there may be someone who's fishing days are over but could really use a sweet dog. Still I can't help but think the man would be better off trying to make this as two separate transactions. First sell the dog, then buy the boat.

How Wrong We Are

As many of you know the Nobel Prizes were recently awarded. I decided last night to read through some of the papers that Nambu (who won half of the physics prize) wrote. These papers helped to understand the origin of mass in protons, neutrons, and similar objects and informed our current understanding of how fundamental masses of electrons and quarks are generated.

For me what was stunning though was how wrong the paper is. It was written based on the views of the particle world that were dominant in 1961 with no real concept of quarks or that protons and neutrons are compound particles. This makes the paper rather clunky compared to the current understanding and how the same principles might be presented in a modern textbook.

Perhaps it is a lesson to us. He was not awarded the prize for an extremely accurate prediction but rather for an insight that fueled our undertanding of the masses of subatomic particles. He wasn't the first to have the idea; he borrowed it from theories of superconductivity. He didn't put the finishing touches on it. But he did apply the insight in a new way that has shaped theoretical physics for 50 years. I think that deserves a prize.

What's in a signature?

We'll try this out in the public forum.

I was filling out Perry's Scout registration and I got into a discussion with Staci about what is actually meant by a signature. In specific, I want my signature to mean that Perry and I will abide by scout rules and attempt to uphold the scouting tradition. I do not want my signature to mean that I support the scout policies forbiding openly gay and atheist leaders and scouts.

I wanted to simply add a brief note after my signature stating this. It would not be a loud or public protest, simply a statement of my belief that scouts should be for all boys and that while I am straight and believe in God myself, I don't believe that being gay or basing your moral grounding outside of the belief in deity makes you unworthy or dangerous as a part of scouting.

So here are my questions.

To what extent does silence imply consent? Does signing it without an adendum make me morally responsible in some small part for actions that I think are wrong?

What would be a more productive form of protest? I don't believe that my note alone would do anything except maybe cause a hangup in Perry's registration (which I don't want). Nor do I want to protest from the outside or cause scouting embarassment or hassle. However, I do believe that if everyone that wanted to be a part of scouting but disagreed with this policy voiced that opinion, the scout counsel would reconsider their decisions.

Thoughts and opinions welcome.

Boat Parade II

I think I've come up with a plan to enter the boat parade. I'm going to simply paddle it like a canoe and decorate it with glow in the dark sticks like kids wear at Halloween. This should cost less than $20 for the paddles (my big one broke a few months back and my little ones won't do for the whole parade) and maybe $10 more for the light sticks. So now the question is, anyone interested in joining me? I need at least two others (I figure it is best to have at least two people paddling and one steering) and can probably take at least 6 (including me).

Where's My Application?

I thought a long time ago that a good way to assign congresional districts would be to require that they each have the same population and then minimize the length of the boundaries. In essense this would push the districts into the most square shapes possible and make them geographically localized. For example, Dana Rohrbacher's district stretches along the Southern Califoria coast from Palos Verdes to Hunington Beach, which in my mind is clearly Gerrymandered to be a safe republican seat. (Though Debbie Cook gave him a good run for his money this time.) This would not stand up in my system because the long boundary would be intollerable.

Until yesterday the idea that I could ever advance this idea to anywhere that it might make a difference was unthinkable. Now with the passage of proposition 11 it is only preposterous. I know it is just for state legislature districts, but the idea is the same. So I really do want to apply for the citizens panel and try to promote this idea. I don't think I'm very likely to be chosen, but what can it hurt to apply.

I'm also wondering if I should reregister to drop my party affiliation. I believe my approach is very non-partisan so I would like to be one of the independent panel members.

So the real question is: How do I apply?