The Metro

I spend five and a half hours a week on the metro train. This video is more true than you'd think:

Election Day

Because of the recent election and a few recent conversations I've had with family members, I decided to clearly state my opinions on matters of politics. The websites of those running for office inspired my format here. While I may seem to declare my opinion with certainty here, on some of these issues I'm still trying to weigh and consider:

Abortion: Legal only in cases of rape, incest, when the life of the woman is threatened, or when the baby has severe defects that would make its survival outside the womb impossible. I understand that any system like this rests on the honesty of the woman seeking the abortion and is near impossible to enforce, but it's the only policy that reflects my personal views.

Affirmative Action: No, but in education some additional consideration to first-generation college applicants, regardless of race.

Capital Punishment: No

DADT: No

Economy: No more government bailouts—-in my opinion, they are ineffective in bringing an end to the recession, not to mention costly.

Education: Steer away from standardized tests; instead, increase teacher’s salaries to make the job more competitive, attracting young professionals to this ailing market.

Environment: I support the expansion of public transportation, the reduction of industrial pollutants, the pursuit of cleaner forms of energy, and the preservation of American wildernesses.

Gun policy: Keep guns legal, but regulated.

Immigration: I imagine a system of fewer restriction, one not based on quota by foreign country. We should set illegal immigrants already living in the United States, especially those with dependents, on a path to citizenship.

Health Care: Universal health care run by local or individual state governments.

Iraq War: I'm saddened that we invaded because of faulty intelligence and desire a swift return of government and military control to the Iraqis.

Marijuana: Maintain its illegality, but mete out lighter sentences for possession.

Prison: Refocus on rehabilitation, not punishment; lower recidivism rate, not maximum sentencing.

Space program: Renewed funding; eventual goal being a manned mission to Mars.

Taxes: An across-the-board taxation of income (take-home pay).

Torture: No

War in Afghanistan: I support it as a war to end Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and bring justice to the individuals and organization responsible for 9/11.

My Vegetarian Summer

This year, from May 29 to Sept 4--a total of 98 days--I ingested no meat besides the occasional fish.

For the bulk of that time, I didn't really miss the taste of animal, not until the very end. I also inadvertently lost over ten pounds. Ultimately, I learned that I need to listen to my body's nonverbal cues and that a vegetarian diet is not for me. Rather, for this body of mine, at least a little meat is best.

This really all began in the summer of 2008 when I went about 60 days without meat. I found during that time that I ate healthier in general because I had to prepare meals in advance or choose from the veggie menu. I don't know if cutting out meat was the real health-boost, or if it was simply my new conscientiousness about what I put in my mouth.

I resolved to repeat the experiment for a longer duration, not only to increase food awareness, but also to more strictly follow the wording of Doctrine and Covenants 89. In it, the Lord's charge is that we eat meat only in winter or times of famine. I'm not saying it's LDS doctrine to follow this wording to the letter, but in my mind it was worth trying.

And aside from near lapses in memory, it was surprisingly easy to forgo at first. Since meat is expensive, the new diet saved me a bit of money. I supplemented my diet with a lot of beans, peanut butter, eggs, and other protein-rich foods. I rode my bike a lot and worked out in the weight room downstairs in my building. All seemed to be going well and I wondered if I should become a permanent vegetarian.

With only two weeks to go, my cravings wildly kicked in. Evenings often found me spooning peanut butter into my mouth from an open jar. What's more, I started to really crave meat, to feel pangs of jealousy and hunger when a roommate made a delicious meat-tainted meal. It was strange to me that this only occurred as Labor Day approached and not earlier in the summer.

I also started to lose weight. It's not atypical for my weight to drop in the summer as my appetite naturally decreases and outdoor exercise increases. But I lost over ten pounds without really trying. I've gained five back since Labor Day, but for a stick figure such as myself it was worrisome.

So at a cabin in Pennsylvania over Labor Day weekend, I broke my months-long meat fast with a simple turkey sandwich. No fanfare, no averse reaction. In fact, after a few meat-laden meals, I felt healthier than I had in over a month.

Still I don't think I'll ever eat as much meat as I used to. I just don't think it's environmentally sustainable, physically healthy, or in accordance with even a loose interpretation of the Word of Wisdom. But I doubt I'll ever entirely omit meat from my diet either. As with so many other things, I'll stick to the middle road.

I've cut out sugary desserts from my diet now. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Reality Check

In perusing my blog, I realized that I haven't actually updated you, gentle reader, on the goings-on of my actual life. This post is to remedy that.

My ignorance as to how many people actually read my blog causes me some trepidation. It used to be easy to write about intensely personal things. No one read my blog, except family. Now I feel I'm flinging my secrets to the far corners of the world, to the scoffs of potentially any English-speaker equipped with internet.

Well, no matter, here's the open book. My life, right here, right now, laid bare:

* Last week I started an online relationship. Ask me about it sometime.
* I'm studying French. Very soon I'll know all the Romance languages and then I'll, you know, really be able to talk to a girl.
* I've begun writing a novel about a young, narcoleptic man. I'm predicting it will be riveting.
* I starred in an amateur video this week. The choreography was stellar, in my opinion.
* I told my class last week that our goal is to find ultimate truth. Also, when they raise their hand, I acknowledge them by saying yo. It's Spanish, you know.
* I'm studying the universe. It's one of the biggest books I've ever read.
* Having witnessed flood, earthquake, and blizzard this year, I wonder when Charlton Heston is gonna show with his list of demands. Also, I drove against traffic on Interstate 495, deliberately.
* After going on a diet, I felt unhappy when I lost weight. Now I'm trying to gain it back through exercise and swearing off sugary desserts.
* I defended Glenn Beck, but I really dislike his favorite book.
* I cut a few hundred words out of my favorite Shakespearean play and felt a twinge of regret about every blessed one of them.


I promise the aforementioned items are true, albeit veiled and misleading.

A Whole Nother

Here's my latest English nerd video:



So, he makes some good points, but I really don't like grammar nazis. English is a living language, so let's not treat it like it's static. Language is about choices. Let's teach the choices and let people speak as bad or as poorly as they want. Sometimes it's fun to deliberately mangle a sentence. (And he's wrong if he thinks we can't say, "I feel bad.")

Call for Music

In an effort to build my collection of gospel-themed music, I'm asking you, gentle reader, to send me music suggestions.

I need inspiring, uplifting music that doesn't resort to being sappy or cheesy (please no "Scatter Sunshine"). Any recommendations?

What Not To Do

I have no great love for Glenn Beck, his message or his methods. But when I see a writer who should know better use ad hominem, a classical logical fallacy my 18-year-old students know to avoid, to attack him and offend anyone who has been in or benefited from a 12-step program, I'm a little incensed.

By the academic powers vested in me, fail Washington Post columnist. Fail.

I just read that this particular columnist tends conservative. That changes nothing except make me still more grateful I'm a morally-conservative, politically-moderate, socially-liberal individual. I defy you all.

In My Opinion, No. 6: The Universe

My good roommate CC bought me a Borders gift card for my birthday a couple of months ago. I have a weak spot for large, fully-illustrated Smithsonian Institute coffee table books. I've already read Animal cover-to-cover and plan on buying Earth some time in the future.

This time around I redeemed my gift card for a book entitled Universe. I think this all stems from my fascination with creation. Whether it's the complexity of life, the distant galaxies, or the earth around us, if it has to do with the whats and how-tos, I'm hooked.

So, I sit in my living room with a book about a quarter of my height in size draped over my lap and have repeatedly mind-blowing experiences reading it. Not only do I attempt to grapple with the idea that there is an elastic space-time continuum that bends and attracts not only light and matter but time as well, but also that there may be ten dimensions or more:

Also, there is so much stuff in the universe that we have no way of even detecting some of it: the mysterious dark matter and dark energy that sound like something out of science fiction.

I aver that the whole of creation says something about the Creator. Take one example: God prefers symmetry. Whether one looks at the spinning galaxies, spherical stars and planets, bilateral animals and plants, single-celled organisms, and even individual atoms, there is usually a reflection in shape around one or more axes. Asymmetrical matter and beings do exist and actually thrive, but they are the exception, not the norm.

The universe is also extremely good at recycling, turning seemingly bad events into the seeds of positive change. Often cataclysmic destruction is the catalyst for the next generation of stars, the next form of life, the next stage of the universe's evolution. There's an object lesson in there, methinks.

It's also becoming increasingly apparent that what makes the universe work is not a series of laws and forces, but matter itself. Scientists used to believe that light was simply a phenomenon, trackless, massless, almost nonexistent. Now we know that photons are light embodied, zipping about the universe at a (possibly) constant, unthinkable speed. Some scientists also believe that even the force of gravity is actually made up of bodies called gravitons, and there may be other trickier types of matter called bosons and gluons that control weird but inherent forces in the universe.What does all this tell me? God uses physical "stuff" to make the universe operate. It makes me wonder of what exactly is the "light of Christ" and "spirit matter" composed. Gluons?

Archaeologists are certain that even prehistoric humans looked up and studied the heavens to understand their place on earth. I like that even with all we know now, we still do the same. Glory.

Eat to Live

I found out last week that I can, in fact, continue eating this coming fall. I have contracts lined up for next semester and I'll still tutor a little on the side. I can breathe a little easier now.

What's better, no more evening classes. I'll be home before 7 p.m. every night of the week. Movie night is coming back!

A Greater Follower

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about my wrestle with selflessness. Specifically, I went through a phase of asking for blessings for others and not asking for anything for myself. I learned quickly (well, quickly for me) that God doesn't want it that way.

And then my roommate lent me a collection of addresses by an old Cambridge professor named C.S. Lewis who had already written down the lesson I was trying to learn, in "The Weight of Glory," words both eloquent and insightful:

If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any of the great Christians of old, he would have replied, Love.

Lewis goes on to claim that instead of trying to be unselfish, we should endeavor to love better, others and ourselves. And it makes sense: Love thy neighbor as thyself.

God has promised us blessings in heaven we can't now imagine. This is no mere bribe, says Lewis. This contributes to two things--first, if we love ourselves then we will desire the best for ourselves, which is exactly what God wants to give us. Wanting good things for ourselves is a way of actually attuning our own will with God's. Second, if we love others, then we will want to help each and every one of them to achieve the blessings of exaltation too:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. [...] There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

So, the problem is not wanting too much, it's wanting too feebly. Lewis says,

we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us [...]. We are far too easily pleased.