Judgement Day Date:

I ran into a dude on campus today who was down here from New Jersey on a tour with Family Radio letting people know that the world would end on May 21, 2011!! That's soon!! I tried to engage this guy in conversation, but he wouldn't really have it. He told me that he's convinced himself that this is the correct date and that I need to convince myself. He recommends using the King James version of the Bible because it's the least watered down. I told him that it's not in the vernacular and he said that I could work through the olde English. I asked about the Jehovah's Witness version of the Bible, which is translated from the original source and he just repeated to use the King James.

I said that this group was taking a big gamble on this. If May 21, 2011 passes without incident, then they've lost ALL credibility. He said that he would be ready for Judgement Day when it comes and that it's best to be prepared. He had definitely made up his mind that this is happening. He would not entertain a counterfactual (or in this case, maybe just a factual).

I took his literature even though, or perhaps because, I thought this doomsday prediction was a little out of the ordinary. It has interesting math in it and some questionable stretches of the imagination (e.g. "In 2 Peter 3:8,...one day is as 1,000 years. Therefore, with the correct understanding that the seven days referred to in Genesis 7:4 can be understood as 7,000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world there would be exactly 7,000 years (one day is as 1,000 years) to escape the wrath of God...")

If you're curious about this, I would totally recommend checking out their site. I especially like the 2012 with a circled red slash through it, but there's such other gems as: Another Infallible Proof and Gay Pride: Sign of the End. I wonder if they'll have a radio show on May 22nd.

Pick #230

Arctic Monkeys - "Mardy Bum" from Beneath the Boardwalk

Tri the Rez 2011

Edit: 4-25-11 - Tri the Rez 2011 will officially be on October 8th! Mark your calendars!

Band of Horses Coming to The Moon

Band of Horses will be at The Moon on April 3rd! When I found out, I saw the event on The Moon's website, but not on Band of Horses's website. Weird. Anyway, you should totally go. I saw them when they came to the Beta Bar (the place that's now the Engine Room) a couple years ago and they were amazing.

Pick #229

Dminor - "Can't Get You Out of My Head" from an untitled album (and I can't find a link, but I heard it on Pandora)

Costume Parties as Signaling

When I moved to Tallahassee, I noticed a big difference between Tallahassee parties and HC parties. The majority of parties I attended in Tally my first year here were themed such that attendees were encouraged, if not required, to dress up. Not that there was an absence of themed parties at the HC, it's just that there was maybe one pimps-n-hoes party to every 15 normal ones. In Tally, there are about 15 themed parties to every non-themed one. Why the difference? If you guessed economics, you must have read the title of this post...

Have you ever been to a normal (non-themed) party when some people who were not invited stopped by and somehow ended up ruining everyone's good time? I can remember everyone being sent home because some unknown dude punched an invited party-goer in the nose. There was a party from which I was fortunate enough to be absent when some kids tried to sell hard drugs then stole some personal property. I think everyone's had the experience of wondering if some of the people at the party are vouched for or if they're just drinking free booze.

Dressing up is a way to let everyone else at the party know that you are on the inside. You got the invite and prepared for the party so you belong there. This mechanism wasn't needed at the HC because everyone knew everyone else at a glance. If a stranger was spotted, they were asked who they were with. That's not so easy to do in a school a couple hundred times as big as the HC.

I went to a party in Tally where I knew one of the guys who lived there and some other invitees (who had confirmed that they were coming via Facebook). Well, these other invitees ended up going to a different party and I was there with a ton of people whom I'd never met. Luckily, I was dressed for the occasion and nobody thought that I might not belong.

Signaling is costly. It means that one must dress up for parties in Tally. This act requires forethought, perhaps purchase of new attire or accessories, and time to get dressed up. However, the benefits of keeping strangers away (and having an automatic topic of conversation with fellow party-goers) outweigh the costs in places where this phenomenon exists.

Pick #228

Glenn Miller - "In the Mood" from In the Glenn Miller Mood

Anti-Choice

WARNING: The link below takes you to a site with very graphic images which you may find disturbing.

I was invited to a protest of an "anti-choice" group on campus over Facebook and I commented that it's not very nice to call the group anti-choice (do they call you "anti-life," etc). It turns out that the group calls themselves the "Anti-Choice Movement at FSU." They have a link on their fb page that takes you to this website which sells graphic pictures of aborted fetuses, presumably for protests/demonstrations.

While I am all for providing material to help make educated decisions, I can't help but think that the aborted fetuses used for these pictures have been mutilated by the same group. The mutilation really adds to the macabre nature of the photos, even if an intact fetus is an unpleasant sight.

I guess outlawing abortion may lead to a marginal reduction in the number of abortions, but what the anti-choice/pro-life side of the debate forgets is: if you eliminate legal channels for abortion, it's just going to be done in less regulated and sterile conditions. The life of the mother will be put at risk (which you should be against if you are "pro-life") as well due not only to shoddy procedures but also infections and aftermath. Another alternative to not having an abortion is to throw the baby in a dumpster or completely neglect it after birth. The economist will remind you that good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes. And speaking of economists, it may be interesting for these people to read Chapter 4 of Freakonomics.

White v. Hispanic Dancing

Have you ever noticed that white people can dance without moving their feet and hispanic people can dance without moving their upper bodies? I've seen it happen.

Terracycle

Today I bought a package of cookies with the Terracycle logo on the package. The packaging doesn't tell me much about what exactly that is, so I'm in the process of exploring http://www.terracycle.net/. It looks like they use "trash" as a raw material in the manufacture of new goods. Seems like a neat idea.

Apparently, people sign up to collect particular types of garbage and they drop it off at specified locations or ship it somewhere. I don't know how great of an idea this is, but I guess they're going great if they're making profit...and they must be profiting when they can afford to dole out $1.6M to charity.

They have a website called DwellSmart where you can purchase some of the products they've made out of upcycled trash.

Jessica's Wedding

I went to Orlando last weekend for Jessica's wedding. We've been friends since we were 5 years old and she chose me to be her best man. Or man of honor. AKA Bridesman. Not really a well established name for my role. I like "bride's best man." Anyhow...

I got there on Friday and got to spend some with the happy couple and meet the groom's parents & brother. The groom's dad doesn't speak English and the mom & brother are better in spanish, so I got to practice. His family was very nice. While it's not very convenient to have to translate for the in-laws, it might keep intrafamiliar tensions down a little. Of course, I think that Jessica has a nice family as well. Speaking of whom, it was nice to see all of them. It was also nice to see some of Jessica's friends whom I've missed seeing for a little while too.

Watching Jessica get married was a little weird when that idea is still so far away for me. We learned to drive together and graduated/went to college at the same time, we started seriously dating people about the same time. I guess this means that I could do it too some day.

Make Your Own Double Layer Socks

Have you seen double layer socks on the market? They are purported to be blister resistant or even blister proof. The idea is that the inner layer conforms to your foot and the outer layer moves with the shoe's movements and the two layers rub against themselves thereby not rubbing against your skin and causing irritation. This example shows that they can be kind of expensive.

A few years ago, I came up with a way to create your own double layer socks. You just put one sock on and then don another on top of it. You can customize the properties of your own double layer sock by changing up the types of socks you use for your inner and outer layer. One of my favorite combinations is to put a good wicking SockGuy style sock underneath a padded Thorlo style sock.

Try this out and let me know what you think.

Pick #227

Night Ranger - "Sing Me Away"

Being Nice Doesn't Always Pay...

...but it does pay to be nice within a group of nice people.