Dan Seto j20001124

Week of 20 November through 24 November 2000
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Monday Roll-over. Hawai'i born Chad "Akebono" Rowan took the title of the Kyushu Basho (sumo tournament) yesterday in Fukuoka, Japan, his second championship this year and 11th overall.

Local Politics. Also over the weekend, our Public Administration class had several speakers to talk about the results of the local elections. Included were two Democrats and two Republicans.

One interesting perspective is, according to one of the Democrats, the growing power of the new evangelical church. He noted that the unions used to be able to turn out the vote and provide man-power for election activities. No longer. To fill the void, has now come the revitalized, new evangelical churches.

Their pastors have organized their congregations into voting blocks that are full of single-minded passion and zeal. Unfortunately for the Democrats, these churches are all right-wing conservatives who vote Republican. This person predicted that both the Governorship and the state House will go to the Republicans in two years. In large part to these churches.

I have a seven-page paper, two administrative journals, and draft testimony on a bill due tomorrow for class so I gotta go - Aloha!

Costco Run. I forgot to mention yesterday that since I was in class on Saturday, SWMBO had to make the Costco run by herself. And a good job she did. She got the Beatles' 1 CD, and Disney's Fantasia 2000 on DVD. Both are terrific. Yes, I know. Many of you are too young to have been around when both the Beatles and the original Fantasia were first released, but both hold up very well.

Of course, if Fantasia 2000 IMAX ever comes to your town, by all means, go and see that instead. It is amazing how sharp the IMAX images are. And the colors and inventive animation is top-notch.

Speaking of Music. The Backstreet Boys release their latest CD today. The BBs are SWMBO's favs right now. I'm not sure why, but she really likes them. What is that you said, Dear? Yes, Dear. I will Dear. <grumble>. Just because she bought the Beatles CD for me I don't see why I have to get the Backstreet Boys for her</grumble>

Speaking of the Next Big Thing. The New York Times has an article (see it here) on the Atlas particle detector being built 250-ft (about 76 metres) underground. The detector will be used in conjunction with the 17-mile (about 27 kilometres) long Large Hadron Collider.

It was the worst of times. This has not been a good week when it comes to this page. First I was told the links for "last week" and "next week" were pointing to the wrong weeks. Then someone else pointed out that not only were the dates wrong, but so was the month. First, thank you for letting me know about the problems, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed them. And second, I plead age and stress related injuries. That, and the dog ate my diskette [and someday, maybe he'll actually have a dog - Ed.].

Speaking of this page. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and I will not be at work. As usual, that means my post will be up a little later than usual. I am also taking Friday off so the same thing applies. Unfortunately, even though I'm off, I will need to meet with our study group from school to work on our next project (actually giving testimony on a bill before Legislators at the state Capitol) so there won't be much shopping for me [let's hope he remembers to get something, other than a power tool from Sears, for the wife. And remember, "'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug." - Ed.].

Easy Reading. Never got around to reading the "classics" of modern literature? Well, have I got a site for you. www.bibliomania.com where you can find everything between Louisa M. Alcott's Little Women to Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris. All on-line. All free for the reading. Check it out. Note that the site is MS Internet Explorer centric. Using anything else will just give you a blank or mis-formed page.

Well, Watson, what do you make of it? The New York Times has an article (see it here) on how your memory is affected by the amount of sleep you have [well, duh!]. The study, published in the December issue of Nature Neuroscience indicates that proper rest is necessary for learning to take place. In other words, rather than cramming the night before the big final, you should get a good night's sleep [yah, right - Ed].

Misc. Ramblings