Random thoughts from Star Wars Day

I have a whole bunch of things I need to post about, but not enough time in which to do it, so I'll throw a few of them out here and hopefully find some time in the next couple of days to write about some of the others.

Wow, it was more than 10 years ago now when our musician at Faith UCC asked me to do "Gethsemane" from Jesus Christ Superstar as a solo for Maundy Thursday. Since I am not now (nor have I ever been, well maybe I was briefly, anyway...) a tenor (are there any parts in the entire show other than Caiaphas for basses?), we took it down a little bit and changed the arrangement slightly (and I took a few parts down an octave), but I really like that song. The whole story of Gethsemane has always been one of my favorites because it shows Jesus as struggling with doing God's will, just like the rest of us. I was reminded of this when John Shuck posted a link to this youtube video (it actually starts at 1:44).



The other thing I wanted to mention today has to do with my weight.  I am just shy of 6' 2" tall and when I graduated from high school I weighed 147 lbs, yup not a lot of body fat there.  Apparently, that is at the bottom end of "healthy weight" for my height.  I remained there until about my junior year of college.  I was still about 160 when I graduated from college.  By the time I returned to grad school for the second time I was in the 190s.  I topped out at 242 in 1999 (after my back surgery).  Yup, at that point I was 95 lbs heavier than when I graduated from high school.  In 2000, I talked to my doctor and devised a plan to take off some of that weight.  I ended up losing 44.5 lbs in 7 or 8 months.  I eventually got down to 197.5, but I didn't stay there long.  I was in the low 200s for a while, but over the next year or so, I gradually crept back up to the point that I was pretty consistently 227± 2 for about 3 years until last July.  When I got home from SANSFIRE in July, I weighed 232 again.  At that point, I decided enough was enough.  I've changed the way I eat (limiting calories by watching portion sizes, increasing fiber, drinking lots of water -- about 140oz/day) and I exercise regularly again (something I haven't really done in a very long time).  This morning, I weighed myself at 197.0 lbs which is the lightest I've been in at least 15 years (I was about 208 when we got married if I remember correctly).  I'd still like to take a little more off, but I'm very happy with this.  More later.

Oh, and may the Fourth be with you (yeah, lousy pun I've seen numerous places today).

Fuel - the documentary

I posted last month about Josh Tickell's book Biodiesel America and mentioned a couple of weeks ago that his documentary, Fuel was coming to Columbus.  I went and saw it at Studio35 in Columbus on Tuesday (tonight is the last night it is showing here) and it was every bit as good as I had hoped.  Now I just need to find ways to put it all in practice.  If it comes to a town near you, please go see it.  It is well worth the time and money.  I just wish I would have been able to get a few more people out with me to see it.

Fuel (the documentary) coming to Columbus

Before I forget, I wrote a couple of weeks ago about Fuel and Biodiesel America.  Well, I got an e-mail the other day that the documentary will be coming to Columbus 17-23 Apr.  I'm looking forward to seeing it.  Join me.  Info is here.

What is going on?

Things have been pretty busy for me lately.  I took a brief vacation last weekend and visited my baby sister and got to see my nephew, the baseball star, play.  His team won both games, he scored the first run in one and drove in the game winner in the other (and according to my internet research, he appears to have won this past Thursday's game with a solo homerun in the top of the 7th inning).  It was a good time, I always enjoy spending time with Munchkin and her family.  Yesterday and today seemed like they would have been great days to fly, but, alas, I didn't get to.  I hope to get in some flying again in the next week or two, but that will depend in part on the work situation.  The company and the union are still negotiating although the contract expired last night at midnight.  If the union goes out, I'll have to work in a new place and, I'm told, it will be 6 12-hour days per week for the first few weeks (if the strike lasts that long).  Ah, well, it isn't flying weather now, we have thunderstorms and a tornado watch and they are predicting snow tomorrow and Tuesday.  Gotta love spring, huh?!  Oh, well, tomorrow is opening day of the baseball season and the NCAA championship game (in basketball), so I'll try to OD on that and enjoy the snow.  It also just occurred to me that yesterday was the 41st anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King in Memphis.  As I think I wrote before, I really came to appreciate him much more in the mid-70s, but I do remember the rioting that broke out after that awful day.  I'll try to write something of substance in the next week.

Hoops OD and first ride of the year

Yesterday, I enjoyed the Buckeyes win over Michigan State (after upsetting Wisconsin in the quarters) in the Big Ten tournament semi-finals.  Today, the temp is around 60°F, so I decided to get the bike out and take my first ride of the season.  You can see the info in the column to the left.  It was a bit chilly and I probably would have gone a bit further, but I got a headache about 0.5 miles into the ride, so I settled for the 6.4 mile loop.  Fortunately, the tail wind was for the last half of the ride (I like those), so it overall felt pretty good for the first ride of the year.  Now, I'm sitting down to watch the Big Ten championship game (Purdue-OSU), then the NCAA tournament selection show and later this week will be the annual hoops overdose days Thursday and Friday from noon-midnight (half days of vacation both days, so I don't feel guilty).  Spring must nearly be here.

Biodiesel America

A couple of weeks ago, Josh Tickell was on the Tonight Show talking about his documentary Fuel and his book Biodiesel America.  He had what I thought were some excellent ideas about how we could wean ourselves from fossil fuels, so I ordered the book the next day.  While it got a little repetitive in places, I thought it was an excellent book.  In fact, I loaned it to Shane right after I finished it.  It has been a while since a read a book from cover to cover in one day, but I did with this one (even longer since I read anything non-fiction cover to cover in one day).  The book made me aware of a few things I hadn't been before.

1. The largest oil field in the world, in Saudi Arabia, has seen declining output for nearly 2 decades.  The US oil fields (primarily in Texas) peaked in the early 1970s.  That means we are running out of oil much more quickly than folks are probably aware.
2. I was stunned at the number of jobs that buying oil from overseas costs the country.  I don't have the book here now, so I don't remember the number mentioned there, but it was appalling.
3. Even mixing a relatively small amount of the biodiesel he described with petroleum diesel greatly reduces the harmful emissions.
4. There are diesel vehicles available in Europe that get 70+ mpg, but none available here in the US.
   

Now is the time we need to do something about our (the world's) reliance on fossil fuels.  Unfortunately, with the drop in price from their highs last summer (just like after the two oil shocks of the 1970s), I think the will to do it has evaporated again.  I'm hopeful that the president will pump some research and development funds into this area anyway because I fear that we'll wait until the supply becomes dangerously low and then it will take too long to develop the new sources and the prices will be ridiculously high.  This also reminded me of some exciting news I heard last summer about a company that was developing a new aviation fuel to replace the current 100LL.  This is being developed from switchgrass and sorghum (which have no food uses).  Anyway, I highly recommend the book (even though, as I said, it gets a bit repetitive at times) and if (when?) the documentary makes it to this area, I intend to go see it.

Some random thoughts for March

Okay, I still don't have the time (or more accurately the motivation) to write up the book thing, I promise I'll get it out in the next few days though, but I did want to post some links to some other people's work.

• I've mentioned it before, I really like a lot of the stuff that Don Brown writes over at Get the Flick.  Anyway, I finally figured out that we don't disagree as much as I thought about ADS-B and the FAA's NextGen project.  He wrote a piece this week making fun of Newt Gingrich (well, several, all probably well deserved, but I digress).  The key thing I finally figured out is that ADS-B and GPS can be very useful for general aviation (i.e., my flying), but won't be the panacea the FAA brass tries to claim for commercial aviation (which is all most people really think about when they hear the word aviation).  The real problem there is (as Don has pointed out before) "it's the runways, stupid".  Even for GA, however, the price can be a problem, especially if the ADS-B can't replace the Mode C transponder.
  
• He also, posted 2 excellent stories last month that should be required reading by those pushing for an entirely "space-based" air traffic control system.  Radar can't and won't ever go away completely.
• Although a bit overcast and windy, it is over 70°F today and would have been a nice day to fly.  Sigh...
• Also from Don, last week, another story about why the suggestion of privatizing ATC is just plain stupid.  We have the busiest airspace in the world by quite a bit.  User fees (which I think would be inevitable in a privatized ATC world) would kill general aviation in this country just like it has in Europe, Canada, and Australia.
• Okay, the labels would suggest that I'm not only going to talk about flying stuff.  Also, via Don's blog, (yes, I do read other things, but he had a number of good stories in the last month that I had marked in my RSS reader to share with my friends) Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, a rather conservative economic commentator, also saying the $787B stimulus package was too small.  Which reminds me, I may not have cared much for our former President at times, but I don't recall actually wishing that he would fail, so it really bothers me that there are a bunch of bitter Republicans (including the blowhard Limbaugh) who are actively hoping to see the current President fail.  How can you call yourself an American and say you hope the President will fail when he hasn't even been in office 2 months yet?  If he fails (especially now), we all pay the price.  It just makes me sick. (Okay, end of rant, I promise)
• And, finally (for today) from Fred Anderson's blog, a story by Kent Nerburn that touched me.
• Oh, wait, I guess that wasn't my final thought for today.  Thanx to Facebook, I've gotten back in touch lately with a number of classmates from high school and college.  I'll admit, I didn't really talk to (or care for) some of them that much back in the day, but we've all (well, at least I have) grown up some since then, so it is kind of cool finding out what they are up to now.  One of my good friends from high school will be having knee replacement surgery on St. Patrick's Day (at the ripe old age of 47), so I'd appreciate it if you'd keep her in your prayers (though I won't share her name here because I haven't asked her if it would be okay).
  

Religious Diversity

I know I still owe a story about the book I read the Sunday before last, but that probably needs to wait until next week.  This evening, I just want to point to a blog post over on Faithful Progressive I read last week.  This definitely looks like a book I need to read (as if I need another book to add to my pile). :-\  I've always had problems with the usage of the passage from John to condemn the majority of humanity for eternity.  Anyway, go read the blog entry and I'll probably post something more after I read the book.

Nice days and I'm stuck inside watching and other thoughts...

Work has been really busy lately for a number of reasons (that I won't go into now) and this blog has been one of the victims.  The other thing that has been driving me nuts is the weather has been so nice   I did manage to get out a fly for an hour last Monday, but there have been another 4 or 5 (including today) that have been absolutely gorgeous (and most of them not too windy) that I'd love to have flown more.  I did take the opportunity to intercept and track radials and even took two turns around in a hold at the Appleton VOR (APE).  I still need to do a post on the book I read last Sunday.  It has been a while since I read a book from cover to cover in one day, but I did last weekend, but that is a topic that requires more time than I can devote to it right now.  Today is Ash Wednesday, but I didn't make it to church this evening because I was working on something that my daughter needed.  I have a book (or two or three) that I'd like to knock off my list during Lent, but whether or not that happens will be determined in part by how much more work I need to put into the paper I've been working on.  More on that later, too.  Last thought for this evening, today was the first spring training game and the Reds won, 7-0.  No, I didn't watch or listen, just read that online after the fact.  I'm hoping for a better year than the last 8, but I'm not holding my breath.  Hopefully, my next post won't be so scattered.  Shalom. ---Jim

A couple of links

I know I haven't been posting much here.  I hope to rectify that soon, but in the meantime, I have a couple of links I'll post here for anyone who is actually reading this.

• The first is one that I really like from James McGrath is a thoughtful discussion (continued in the comments) about what it means to be Christian and about the historical accuracy of the Bible.
• The second one is one I put up as a link on Facebook, too about what we should be doing as a church during tough economic times.