Mindless Juices

So, after a not particularly eventful weekend of visiting the family in Florida, we're heading back. There's not much to tell. Recently, my sister got engaged, so we got to see the ring up close. I saw most of the family that frequents FL and even some friends. For spending so much time together, especially for not having spent much time together in the weeks preceeding the trip, Sabrina and I managed to not kill each other. We had our moments of frustration with each other, but overall, spending something like 17+2+4+4+10=37 hours in the car together without any major crimes being committed is a special thing. I suspect that Sylvester is a major player (no pun intended). I highly recommend the investment into an iPod if you're planning a long road trip with your spouse. Also, you'll need an adapter to play your own Sylvester through your car's sound system. I also recommend renting a car. There's something nice about driving behind a dump truck and getting pelted with sand and not caring. You don't think about the about the mileage your putting on the car. You don't care about what kind of gas you put in the car (only one gas station at that exit when you're on empty and you've never heard of "Stix gas," who cares!?). Somehow, we managed with only two power connectors in the Chevy Impala we got. Typically, one was dedicated to Sylvester. So, the other was left to charge our device of choice. We made a concious effort to chare everything fully before leaving to allow for good battery life. This is also very important for a long road trip, especially if you're a geek like us. Oh, wait, there was the stop over in Atlanta, GA to visit our friends Jeremy and Kara. This was probably the best part of the trip. We got to see their house and have dinner. While family is nice to see and we saw Aunt Debbie's new house, they're still family, you know? It's somewhere between "wanting to" and "obligation" when you go to see them. So, it was nice to see friends. They cost us a lot of road time and next time, we'll plan better if we make this road trip in the future. Meanwhile, Thanksgiving was nice. Food was great. Leftovers were great. Sleeping in three different beds over 4 nights was rough and I'm glad I don't have to work tomorrow. I miss my bed. I believe I will feel quite refreshed on Tuesday when I get back. I hope you all had a happy holiday and I am hoping to post a Christmas list soon just in case anyone thought, "Hm, I have all this extra money, what should I do with it?"

We won't even talk about the 'Canes' loss last night. We will talk about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. We went to see it on Saturday night. This was a giant mistake as it was also the night of the giant tree lighting at the mall. So, pretty much all of Durham was there and standing, not moving. So, after looking for a parking spot for a while, I dropped my wife off to let our friends know we WERE here, just looking for a spot. Well, after circling some more, I thought to check on valet. The first lot was full, but second was not. I paid to park and this was at 7:45pm when the movie was supposed to be starting. It then took me about 15 minutes to travel the approx. 1000 ft. to the movie theatre. In retrospect, I should have gone around the back of the building. Meanwhile, I arrived late, but still enojoyed the movie greatly. My only complaint, and I may have NEVER made this complaint about any movie before this: It could have been longer. It was almost 3 hours, but I caould have watched at least 30 minutes of the Quidditch World Cup and I could have definitely watched some of the slower, but funnier plot lines from the book that were left out. Meanwhile, my post about god taking care of us, while I'm sure is true, is not in the way I expected. The car from the guy at work doesn't look like it's going through. We're going to have to figure out some other way to purchase a car and get a good deal. So, if anyone knows of a way to do that, please let me know.

Somehow, I don't know how, but somehow, without it making any sense, somehow BOTH my wife and I missed the fact that there was a televised Canes game on last night. They played the Rangers, who are my sister's recently acquired fiancé's favorite team. That means, it was incredibly important to watch the game so that, if we won, which we did, I could be sure to call him to rub it in and mention specifics. The good news: The Canes are playing the Rangers tomorrow @ 1pm. We've already set the DVR to record it. So, assuming we beat them down again, I can, at least, call him to rub in that we beat them twice, back-t0-back. Obviously, rubbing this in is VERY important. So, I hope we win again. Lastly, I am seriously considering getting a second DVR for our living room. I have enough inputs and cable signal to easily hook up another DVR to the one TV. This would allow us to tape up to four shows at one time. Now, you have to understand that some of Sabrina's shows come on at the same time and she's been watching shows like this since the days of the VCR. I'm not about to ask her to give up a show so that I may watch something I want to watch. Additionally, since we've gotten into hockey, many of the game cut into prime time, which these days, you have to have a DVR just to watch all the good shows in the networks. Anyway, the short of it is, between hockey games and my shows (CSI, Mythbusters, Family Guy, etc. {all which Sabrina will watch, but do not pre-empt her shows}), I would really enjoy having a second DVR. So, this brings up the question: Although most of you think we watch too much TV right now, would this REALLY be too much? Remember, we get every channel Time Warner offers in the Raleigh division. It's a lot of TV to choose from... all I'm saying is, why should I have to choose? What do you think?

I'm sorry. A whole week without posting... my wife explained how busy we've been. I've rarely been home much earlier than her. In classic Mindless Juices style, I have comments to make about Creative Juices. First, about the Fall lineup on TV: Really, the only thing I have to say is John Leguizamo single handedly saved E.R. for me. It sounds like he may have saved it for more than just me. The character is great and, man, ever, did we need a doctor who has some personality and knows something and leads the newbs. I mean, why did we really love E.R. before? It was watching Carter being mentored by Dr. Greene and watching a young doctor grow in knowledge and life. Second, I suggested the Lord of the Rings, but Sabrina couldn't even stay awake during the movies, I doubt she could handle the audio books. I would prefer fiction so that I can get involved in the story. I think non-fiction would have me stopping to pause and think ponder over what's being said... and probably often enough to completely annoy my wife. I know there's at least a few guys that read my blog, the question is, do they read anything else? If you do, please get me a recommendation. While I am a good sport, I don't think I'd be very interested in anything having to do shopaholics.

What do you think? http://people.howstuffworks.com/intelligent-design.htm I didn't realize this idea had a name. Now, I know.

So, I was at a customers house and somehow she asked if I went to college. Of course, the follow-up question is my major. For anyone who doesn't know, I have a Bachelor's of Science in Philosophy. The answer to the question that inevitably follows is, you teach it. There's other things you can do, but mostly, you teach it. Just so you know what else you can do with it: Study medical ethics, get on an ethical board at a hospital and help doctors decide who lives and dies Study business ethics, help develop policies and make decisions with a major company Study the philosophy of law, help lawyers develop arguments Unfortunately, I fell in love with existentialism which may be less of a philosophy and more of a study of life and death. The easiest way to describe existentialism is to say it sort asks the question: What does it mean to exist? Kierkegaard went from the Christian perspective. Nietzsche leaned more towards what it meant if God did not exist. Both are extremely interesting studies of existence, meaning, and purpose. Meanwhile, the customer asked who my favorite philosopher was. I answered Kierkegaard, but I thought that Nietzsche definitely pulled up a second place finish. I could tell you about Kierkegaard, but most people think Nietzsche was a Nazi and claimed that God was dead. I offer a different thought: Consider the study of what does it mean if the concept of god does not exist. It means man is on his own. He is the only one to blame for atrocities and the only one to take credit for benevolence. He presents a case for what he calls the "über-man." Consider men like daVinci or Mozart... without God, these men acheived amazing things all on their own. Their inspiration and motivation can only be self. Moreover, what if someone prevented them from acheiving greatness? Then, the world today would be somehow less than it is. Therefore, assuming the above, the masses would need to raise up those who are great and insure that they are not prevented from acheiving greatness. Anyway, it's an interesting study of the nature of man. Particularly those who deny God's existence. It still calls them to a certain morality that is not based on divine rules. Some of the rules might actually be stricter in certain regards than the morality Christians tend to strive for. Moreover, whether you believe God exists or not, you likely believe you exist (see Descartes if you don't). If you exist, then it's safe to say that the study of man's existence is applicable to you.