Packing never goes as planned. Enough said. It’s after 11:30 pm, the alarm is going to be set for 3:30 or 4 am, and we will be on the road for probably 17 to 19 hours. Until we meet again, cheers.
Nuclear Arsenal
Wow. I find it remarkable that a two-thirds reduction in our nuclear arsenal will leave over 1700 operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads. I don’t know the average, but I’d guess it’s between 3 and 5 warheads to delivery vehicle (i.e. missile). That’s still a massive capability.
Growing up on Kwajelein in the Marshall Islands, we used to get up in the middle of the night when there was a mission to watch the warheads blossom from the delivery vehicle (usually an ICBM, I think) upon re-entry and rain down into the lagoon. The missiles were launched from California, about 5k miles away… they reached the atoll in about 25 minutes if I recall correctly.
Now using Greymatter
Okay… I’ve switched over to the Greymatter blog I’ve been putting together behind the scenes. Here’s the caveats: I ported the comments but the dates are goofed up; the comments template is not yet complete… there may be others.
New Format
In case it isn’t obvious, I’m transitioning to a new format. I’ll try to keep it legible while I work out the kinks.
The Long Drive
This coming Thursday, we’ll head out way too early in the morning to drive to my folks home in Flagstaff, AZ. The goal is to do the trip in one long drive… looking at it on the map, I’m starting to feel like I may need to have my head examined. Preparations were a little larger than the normal family trip given that the first item on the check-list was to buy a minivan. What a great time to buy a used car, though. Prices have really come down significantly in the past few months. We found the right vehicle just over a week ago. Though it had a good bit more mileage on it than we were targeting, the price was terrific. Being inherently distrustful of previous owners, I had it serviced (oil, alignment, check the belts/filters/coolant/etc.) this past weekend and it is now ready for the road. My brother has loaned me their portable TV/VCR, and we are putting every Veggie Tale and Winnie the Pooh video we have on few 6-hour VHS tapes. We figure continuous, mind-numbing entertainment is our best bet at helping Jonathan (11 months old) and Abigail (not quite 3 years old) make the trip.
Rice crushes Tulsa
Rice resurrects bowl hopes with rout of Tulsa. This is a Very Big Deal. Keep in mind Rice is the smallest Division 1-A school in the nation, not to mention that they actually have academic standards of some sort for the football team. The year before I showed up at Rice (1989), the team won a single game in the season. The team was gradually improved until it could post an occasional winning season (the 6-5 variety). But this year, things have finally started to gel. Here’s the highlights:
Tulsa (1-8, 0-6) was helpless against the Owls’ offense, which amassed a school-record 653 yards of offense and averaged 9.3 yards per play. Rice scored on its first six possessions and led 38-13 at the half.
The 498 yards rushing were the second-most in Rice history (505 vs. Arkansas in 1953), and the 59 points were the most the Owls have scored in a conference game. Tulsa, which lost its eighth straight game, finished with 506 yards of offense.
Wow! That rushing performance should hopefully ensure we finish second in the nation behind Nebraska in rushing offense… very cool! Stop by here to revel in all things Rice football.
Bin Laden comes clean
Bin Laden: Yes, I did it. I’m so surprised. May he be dispatched from this life to stand before God’s judgment seat very soon.
The Beauty of Truth
I sometimes feel that some people believe an argument from scripture is more likely to be true if the result is, well, ugly. Within the reformed tradition, this approach seems to find particular resonance in discussions of worship. We know that God desires true worshippers, those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. But I feel some are biased toward reading spirit and truth as antithetical to beauty.
Mavs 5 and 1
Five and One. I suppose if you haven’t lived in Dallas for the past 8 years it doesn’t make your jaw drop…
Harry Potter
Is ‘Harry Potter’ by the book? I’ll admit I’m planning to see the Harry Potter movie at some point, but I haven’t read any of the books and am curious if folks thought they were a worthwhile read.