Bryan’s Web (.net)

I saw this article on Digg, and I think that it’s completely rediculous.  I think we need more teachers like that one, and not fewer.  If kids bring guns to school, that is certainly a problem- but we’re talking about a teacher.  A teacher, who brings a rifle to school in order to demonstrate physics.  As long as safety precautions are taken, then it sounds like a good idea to me.  Too much of physics, especially to high school students, is theoretical and has no basis in the real world.  Here we have an honest attempt, and it sounds like it’s working, to get the students interested in the material that they’re learning about.  If there is one problem with education, I’d say that it’s probably that students aren’t always interested in every subject, and as a result they don’t learn as well.  I would have the parents sign a permission slip ahead of time, noting that nobody has ever been hurt and that it is very safe, and call it good.  That way, any parent with an objection shouldn’t have a problem, and the other kids can still get a good education.  Besides, we’re not talking about elementary school or middle school- this is high school, 16 or 17 year olds, the males of which have to sign up for the draft once they graduate and could legally be forced to shoot a gun to kill another person.  Hopefully it won’t come to that, but still the point is made that as long as it’s being used constructively, and in a safe manner, parents shouldn’t just freak out because it’s a gun.

The other thing was I wrote this response to a post on Scott Adam’s blog:  There are three types of knowledge availiable to humans: Knowledge learned from observation, knowledge learned from society, and knowledge engrained in genes (let me know if I missed anything).

I wrote the following as a response to this article:

I reject the possibility of that many black holes in our solar system because we still have a solar system.

First off, since the theory says that the black holes existed before our solar system, and our solar system is full of them now, I suppose that the theory also says that they are not a recent member of the solar system and have been here since it was formed.  Anything getting closer than the event horizon to a black hole will be sucked up into a black hole, thus adding to the mass of said black hole and making it’s even horizon larger.  Asteroid impacts played a major role in the development of our solar system, especially during the period of heavy bombardment soon after the earth formed.  Just look at anything without an atmosphere - the moon for example - and you’ll see it’s heavily cratered from impacts.  Not to mention the fact that a black hole wouldn’t be partially ablated by a descent through the atmosphere like an asteroid or comet would.  So if any of these black holes existed, the chances are very, very, good that a moon, planet, or even the sun would have sucked one down to it’s surface by now (I’m willing to bet that Jupiter has swallowed quite a few asteroids).  Once at the surface, what’s to stop all of that matter from falling into the black hole?  Nothing.  You’d end up with a black hole the mass of whatever planet sucked it in, plus the original mass.  Since that hasn’t happened, we’ve either been very, very lucky for billions of years now, or asteroid-mass black holes aren’t common in our solar system.  Which explanation makes more sense?

So, I’m 24 now.  But, for the past 3 years I’ve pretty much been the same I think.  Well, for a while I had a beard.

I always seem to get sentimental on my birthday, thought not since I turned 10 have I faced so much uncertainty in my life.  I remember crying and crying then about moving into the double-digits.  I was upset because it was a big change- the next time another digit would get added to my age will be when I turn 100.  I also remember how comforting it was with my parents trying to console me.  I’d like to have children at some point in my life, and it’s things like that, that I don’t think you can prepare for, but that you remember forever.  But now I face not simply the uncertainty of another digit, but the uncertainty of what’s next.  I’m graduating in a few short weeks, and what happens if I get a job that forces me to leave Columbus?  If I go to grad school, my life won’t change all that much but at the end of the summer I’m still forced to leave the job that I’ve had for 5 years now. Since it was my first real job, it’s a big change.  Up to this point, everything has really been planned for me- school, what happens next, etc.  Occasionally I’ll dream of the future, and when I do I see my Brother and his wife and their kids.  I have kids too, but I never see my wife.  My parents are my grandparents’ age, and we’re all together because it’s Christmas time.  We always talk about my grandparents, and how I used to hang Christmas lights with Grandpa Jack or Grandpa Turk and his magic lamp.  But it’s never as happy as you’d think it would be, because we only see each other for the holidays, and that’s something I can’t let happen.  I have a picture that my Dad took hanging above my computer as I’m typing this, of my Brother and I throwing the aquaskimmer back and forth in the lake up at the cottage as the sun sets behind us, and I couldn’t stand to lose the close bond that I have with my family, even as we grow older and start to go in the separate ways that our lives take us.  But whether the future turns out that way or not is something I won’t know until future birthdays, so right now I look forward to the things that this new year brings me.  A new job, maybe grad school, and hopefully somewhere along the line I’ll fall in love.  But nobody knows what’s coming next, least of all me, and that makes it all the more exciting.

My Birthday is coming up this Sunday, and since I’ve been spending a lot of money just living lately, I’ve been a responsible “Adult” and I haven’t been buying any DVDs.  So here’s a list of some of the DVDs that I could use:

• The West Wing: Season 6: As you can tell from my last post, I love the show, and I already own Seasons 1-5 on DVD.
• Arrested Development: Season 1: The best comedy to come to TV in a long, long time.
• Arrested Development: Season 2: I don’t have Season 2 either.  Season 3 comes out in November.
• Family Guy: Volume 3: I already have volumes 1 & 2 (Seasons 1-3), so this would round out what’s avaliable.
• Firefly: The Series and The Movie
• Indiana Jones or Star Wars: What happened to you, Lucas?  You used to be cool.

I mentioned in my last post that I really get into movies when I watch them.  Well, it’s not something limited to movies- it’s even more pronounced whenever I read a good book, and I don’t like it when I suddenly get pulled out of the story and become aware that I’m just looking at ink on a page.  Which happens at least once for every story- at the end.  Whenever I finish a good book, it’s like getting teleported back into reality, where you’re just sitting in a chair or lying in bed not doing anything.  After investing so much into characters, I always want to read more, to find out what happens next.  The West Wing was such a well written TV show that I got the same feeling after watching its last episode last night.  The episode, which delt with President Bartlett stepping down as President Santos took the oath of office, felt like the last day of summer camp- sadly saying goodbye to all of your friends that you won’t see again for what seems like forever (and in this case, we’ll never see them again).  MSNBC has a good article about it.  Though the show lost a little bit of its focus after Aaron Sorkin left, it regained its momentum when it began to focus on the election to replace Bartlett (in an almost-documentary style).  But, the best episodes were in the Aaron Sorkin years, and I’ll always remember the show fondly with CJ behind the press podium, Josh yelling for Donna, Leo (or “Gerald”) yelling for Margaret, Toby annoying Sam by bouncing his ball against the wall of Sam’s office, and President Bartlett turning down an exasperated Charlie’s latest attempt to get the president the perfect something-or-other because the balance was wrong, or the print was too big, or whatever.

Can you tell I liked the series yet?  I’d say it was The Best TV Drama.  Ever.  So, I say to thee, West Wing, farewell, and thank you…