The Universe Plays Tricks On Me

So this morning I started my English 102 Class. Sort of.

Basically, I got up at 6:30, got ready, showered, ate a yogurt on the fly, etc. I was on the Metro by 7:05. Turns out there was an accident on the Metro so the trains weren't actually servicing the Rockville station that I needed. So I had to get off one earlier and then take a bus, making me late to my class that was supposed to start at 8:00. I got there at 8:09 and the class was dark, empty, and the door was locked. Headed over to the English department offices, where I was informed that, unlike the vast majority of the classes at MCCC, mine starts next week, not this week. So I trudge back to the bus and just ride it all the way home.

Then I decide to make myself a heartier breakfast of scrambled eggs. Tossing peppers and tomatoes into a skillet, I decide to use some olive oil on them before I add the eggs and cheese. Open the pantry, reach for my olive oil, it slips and as it does so I realize the cap isn't screwed on.

Luckily it was a plastic bottle, so it didn't shatter upon hitting the floor. Instead the impact spurted a bunch of the oil out, covering me in a straight line from my right shoe to my left eye. At this point my day was going pretty crappy. But I hit the internet while eating and discovered this:


After that, my day was, on the whole positive. My roommate had to come out of the bathroom because I was laughing so hard. Reminds me of this day, so this isn't the first time the universe has done this to me.

Then the Institute director showed up this evening to watch me teach the lesson wherein we dealt with evolution and the creation. That wasn't nerve wracking at all. Luckily I have a guy who is training to be an astronaut as well as a Ph.D. in geology who were both there, so the science part was covered by those more competent than I. The director didn't chastise me.

But my pants and shirt were ruined.

But the video made this whole day. Also, quote of the day: I guess you shouldn't operate olive oil when you're drowsy.

Biting Off More Than I Can Chew? Or, "Sleep is for Mortals."

Well, this is forewarning to all who are readers of this blog. I would not be surprised if my blogging decreases drastically this semester. Maybe it won't. Who knows.

Why am I making predictions of gloom and doom for my blogging? Well, it's just that I'm going to be outrageously busy. You see, I thought I was going to be done with coursework this semester but it turns out that a class I through fulfilled a requirement actually doesn't. So aside from the four classes I was already taking, I decided to tack on a fifth one so that I can just be done with coursework.

You hear that right. Not only am I teaching 2 classes, one for my church and one for Montgomery County Community College, I'm also taking five graduate level courses, one of which is a language course.

In other words . . . this is my mantra for this semester, courtesy of the Courage Wolf meme:

Knowledge is Awesome

Nothing really all that new to report. Had a fantastic weekend hanging out with Susan, hitting up some of the Smithsonians on Friday. It reminded me very much of how BYU was set up to be "temples of learning." To see the huge Mall there in DC basically dedicated to showing off the pursuit of knowledge and the things we humans have learned is simply awesome. To see the X-1, or visit the Museum of Natural History and the dinosaur bones, or the art galleries. It's just great.

I love learning. I have two book clubs this week. I'm in my last semester of full-time coursework for my Ph.D, and I'm basically reading for my courses the equivalent of 2-3 books a week. I start teaching next week at Montgomery Community College, and I absolutely love teaching Institute here in the DC area.

"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain into in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection" (D&C 130:18). This is true. I'm glad to be in situations where I can be expanding my own intellect and mind, and with my job at MCCC and calling as an Institute teacher hopefully expanding the intellects and minds (and in the case of Institute, testimonies) of others. This is why I want to be a professor. Forever paid to read, write, and teach? There's a downside? (Okay, the pay, but whatever. Rather be happy than rich, and in my case this is not a false dichotomy.)

Teaching Institute

Bob Millett, a professor and good friend of mine at BYU, suggested always trying to teach an Institute class (mid-week LDS scripture study, for those non-LDSers who read this blog) wherever I go for several reasons. First, it would help me get some letters of recommendation from the institute directors at the various places I've been. Second, teaching Institue is a sign of orthodoxy in the LDS community, something that BYU is very wary of when hiring new faculty. I'm not specifically aiming to end up at BYU, but of course am cognizant that it is a very likely place for me to end up, so I've tried to teach Institute wherever I go. I co-taught a class with Devan Hite at Yale in the Spring of 2007 where we covered the Synoptic Gospels--Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I've been trying to teach here in DC since before I even arrived.

Well, last semester I was riding to Institute with Eve Pate and she mentioned that she wanted another class and was thinking of teaching it herself. I just about exploded internally because I had sent the local director emails every semester since I'd arrived offering my services, and she wasn't even aware I had volunteered. Anyway, long story short, I told her I had wanted to teach for a while, and she lobbied the director and lo and behold I give you:

My Old Testament Class, because "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," (Gen. 1:1) . . . and then it got really complicated.

Feel free to follow along and comment if you like. I hope my lesson plans and outlines make sense to people other than me.

Review: Avatar

James Cameron’s name is pretty much synonymous with “awesome science fiction.” The first two Terminator movies, Aliens, The Abyss, these are all movies that would make most people’s Top Ten Science Fiction Movies lists. Then he went off the rails and made True Lies, but that was a fun little movie. Then he made some little stupid romantic movie named Titanic and well, it made 600 million domestically and 1.8 billion total. That’s a lot of money. People expected him to be able to do that every time, and he decided to take a bit of a break so he could drop expectations and also develop the technology he wanted to do for the next movie, another science fiction epic set on a far-off moon. Well, it’s finally out and I applaud his return to science fiction. As to his wanting to lower expectations for box office returns . . .

Oops. (1.3 billion and counting.)

The story is pretty cliché, though with a science fiction twist. Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine, is tapped to journey to the alien moon Pandora where he will be piloting an Avatar, a genetically engineered alien body. You see, the humans are mining the moon and the natives, the cat-like humanoid Na’vi, don’t appreciate it. Jake is taken in by the natives, and then goes native and helps them toss the humans off their world. It’s basically Dances With Wolves, with a bit of The Last Samurai, Fern Gully, and Pocohontas, but in space. There are a few points that the script doesn’t really develop well and it’s a bit clunky in spots, but just because the story is cliché doesn’t mean it’s done badly. The classic hero story is classic for a reason, and this version of it is done adequately, if not great (The Last Samurai was the last time I really liked the “hero goes native” story).

Aside from the cliché script, the rest of the movie is spectacular. Cameron literally had to go to Japan to develop new cameras to even film the thing. He consulted with scientists, botanists, linguists, and others to create the world of Pandora. The movie is incredibly accurate scientifically and rather actually believable, even the floating mountains. I also liked that it, like all good science fiction, had some interesting social commentary, if it was a bit heavy-handed at times. One of the most subtle such moments was as Jake walks through the ash-filled remains of the native’s village home tree, a scene reminiscent of Manhattan on 9/11. Themes of environmentalism, imperialism, corporatism, etc. all figure very heavily into the story. I also like that the Na'vi religion has an actual basis in biology and was actually measurable. Maybe that reveals my own imperialist leanings, but there you have it.

But you know what? It was just fun to watch. Cameron has done a great job of world creation. In fact, the one thing that kept bring me out of the movie was the fact that the Na’vi don’t look like they’re related to any of the other species on the planet, evolutionarily. So I realize that they need to look mostly human for purposes of getting the audience to relate to them, but every time I noticed another animal and the differences, I didn’t believe that the natives were related—all the other animals breathe through their chests and have six limbs. And the motion-capture technology used to create the Na'vi performances using the human actors was spectacular. The Lord of the Rings' Gollum is now completely out of date.

Also, Cameron and remains one of the great action directors currently existing The battle between the humans and the flying forces of the combined tribes of the Na’vi is fun. The last scene featuring a mano e mano fight between Jake’s Avatar and a 4 meter tall robot piloted by the human military commander, Colonel Quaritch, a man who just refuses to die (but always for smart reasons, he’s not just a stock character that won’t die because the script doesn’t want him to yet) is great, classic testosterone-inducing action.

What really gets me excited is that, aside from being great in its own right, we now have an opportunity to see how the cliché story is continued now that's it's made more money than anything but Titanic. Cameron has stated he wants to make three movies and now we get to see what happens when the humans come back to Pandora with orbitally-launched nukes. Or whatever. What happens if the Native Americans or the Samurai or whoever suddenly get to advance technologically, and in a place where the Europeans really can’t bring their full technological might to bear? We’ll see. And I trust James Cameron to take us there.

Overall Grade: 95/100.

Resolutions 2010

Last year my resolutions were as follows:

1. Read a sequential chapter a day from the Book of Mormon.

2. Attend the temple monthly.

I’m sad to say that I did not meet either of these goals. I missed a day in March and a day in I think September on the Book of Mormon, and the Provo temple was shut down at inopportune times, so I only made it to the temple 10 times this year. Still, I think that’s a marked improvement over previous years and so I’m rather happy.

I also did have a perfect day (two of them!), flossed more, ran the Ragnar Relay, was more in contact with my family, and was better about home teaching, so I also made progress on most of the things that I wanted to make progress on. I still need to be better about going to bed earlier.

And for this year:

It’s time. I think that “lose weight” resolutions are so cliché, and they’re the reason I never actually go to any gyms in January or February, so I’ve studiously avoided setting goals in this department. However, I have been good about exercising fairly regularly for years.

So, my official goals for this year are:

1. Be under 150 pounds sometime this year.

2. Do 50 pushups and 100 crunches a day, or do some weightlifting, except Sundays. Try to work it up to 100 pushups and
200 crunches by February or March.

3. Run a 10k in under 60 minutes.

4. Try not to eat after 8 p.m. (just a rule of thumb to try to eat less).

The goal is to look better than this, the best picture of me ever (I will probably not look this tan, however, and I was pretty burned after this day on the Disney cruise with my family in 2002, but the picture was taken before first degree burns set in from the Caribbean sun):


I still need to be better about home teaching, flossing, and going to bed on time. Also, I would like to have 3 perfect days this year instead of two.