The perfection of Autumn

Penny Says:
Sometimes with all the stress and bustle that comes with September we forget to look up and watch the perfect colors and shapes. Take a break play in the leaves you just raked!




Pacey recently noted that the months are numbered wrong. The prefixes are not appropriate for their numerical monthly match - you would expect that Sept-ember would be the 7th month, Oct-ober (8th), Nov-ember (9th), Dec-ember the 10th. But most of us use the Gregorian calendar a reformed version of the Julian calendar which is a reformed version of the Roman calender all of which seem to be lunar shifts. The reforms were necessary to keep Easter and celebrations in tune with the actual celestial event they reflected Spring Equinox. It turns out that several days of the year fell under an unnamed months, this was corrected and leap days were added and now we have to remember that September is the 9th month of the year not the Seventh as its name suggests! To read all about it go to Wiki and get your fill.

These days I care less about what its called and more about the pleasure of bonus summer like days with cool evenings and all of those beautiful crispy leaves!


But in our neck of the woods we have to watch where we step as the creatures of fall are often right beneath your feet!!

The other colors of September are pretty great too - but I don't suggest jumping in the river with these Salmon no matter how pretty they are!

Get out there and enjoy the perfection of Autumn!

Stupid people are rational

Pacey says:

I’m beginning to think that stupid people are indeed rational, but what they do is deceive themselves by asking themselves questions so that they can arrive at the answers they want rationally. It is a way of framing the discussion.

For instance, when it comes to belief in deities, a believer will not ask themselves critically what is the best evidence. Moreover, they will ask themselves questions that will land them into a cognitive loophole where there the existence can be rationally believed. Such people may throw the onus onto others to come up with a non-deity universe and play gotcha with any gaps in the presented theory, falsely believing that the deity-filled universe is a default condition. Others will invoke Pascal’s Wager, a risk aversion method contingent on the possibility of a vengeful deity actually existing. Many point to the popular belief in deities as evidence they are onto something, or that belief in deities is persistent over time as a good reason to believe. The commonalities between these is that they stop asking questions once they’ve rationally reached the answer they wanted to get to all along, in this case that their favourite deity exists, but then resist to rationally analyze and criticize their conclusions.

Using reason to support poor decisions is quite pervasive among intelligent people. People who are depressed will explain their depression as a result of a series of equations that all rationally support, say, personal failure, and ignore or discount all personal triumphs because they would rationally detract from the conclusion of the depressed mind.

Commonly, global warming proponents will employ the highest levels of reason, not to criticize, examine, and strengthen their own position, but to weaken vigorous skeptics. Too often, environmentalists will use the very logical fallacies and exploit the same deceptive rhetorical devices that they would reflexively point out in their opponents. In many cases, environmentalists closely resemble rational theists in the argumentative tactics.

One of the most perplexing, yet common, situations where intelligent people deceive themselves is use of their credit card. Sadly, these practices are well known to creditors who allow and encourage their customers to lead themselves to financial destruction. Most people understand how interest works, and that debts accelerate rapidly, and they do so coolly and rationally. However, at the point of purchase, these same rational thinking people will employ self-deceptive techniques to rationalize frivolous spending (“…but, I deserve this”, “so what? I’m already in debt”, “I’ll make up the difference later”, “the kids are worth it”, “the Jones’ need to know that I can do it too”). In fact, many financial planners and accountants (who calculate debits and credits professionally) cannot apply what they do to escape their own financial ruin. Creditors love to know that their customers are fooling themselves (albeit rationally, and often with the best of intentions) into forking over lifetimes of cash, but it is so sad, really. Rarely is the debt actually worth the reward.

In posting this, I asked myself “was this the best way I could make my point in this blog?” So, I looked in the mirror, asked, and the mirror responded “Yes, yes it is, and you look fabulous”. I then rationally deduced that I had satisfied all criteria in posting.

*click*

Random Thoughts from American Idol:

Pacey Says:

Random Thoughts from American Idol:

-Overall, this season showed out of touch AI producers are out of touch with contestants, where the majority of contestants were born in the late-80s / early 90s. Theme nights included 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, (not 1990s or 2000s), two Beatles weeks, Dolly Parton, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Neil Diamond. If you were born in, say, 1990, and your parents were born in 1970, only your great grandparents would have even been alive when the Beatles wrote Sgt. Pepper. Only two weeks were explicitly contemporary (Songs from birth year and …. Mariah Carey), and the kids’ song choices routinely bewildered the judges.

-I believe this season was Simon Cowell’s first exposure to a Mormon. When David A. picked a seemingly obscure song (“You’re The Voice”), he seemed to accuse David of having been coached to pick such an odd song. That song is actually used prominently in Mormon dances, and I’m certain David A. knows all the words by heart.

-Mormons again learned another hard lesson in the finale: prayer doesn’t work.

-David C. thinks he has the best taste in music that the show has ever seen, and you know he believes it when you see the smug smirk he puts on when he unveils a Whitesnake cover song or a song by Switchfoot. The veil that covers his insufferable snobbishness is a thin one.

-People seem pleased that Cook won as a sign that American Idol can approach ‘artistic integrity’. I’m not going to lie to you: I listen to a lot of modern music. That said, I have found the genre Post-Grunge to be the one with the least redeeming qualities. If someone thinks artistic integrity is found in someone who sings Collective Soul and Switchfoot (who?) songs competitively and sincerely thinks Our Lady Peace is their favourite band of all time, they need to give their head a shake.

-The addition of Andrew Lloyd Webber this season was fantastic.

-There was definitely something wrong this season when Jason’s phoned-in performances saw him outlasting Carly or Michael Johns.

-Amanda wants to get as far away from Idol as possible, and her performance last night proved that she didn’t want to be there.

-Maybe I’m being too hard on the winner, but I can’t get past the irksome smugness, the post-grunge (awful music), and the fact that he was the inferior singer of the final two.

Deep Thoughts

Pacey and Penny list our favourite Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy:

Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff.

If you ever drop your keys in a river of molten lava, let them go because man they're gone.

If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy.

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.

I wish a robot would get elected president. That way, when he came to town, we could all take a shot at him and not feel too bad.

When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we'd all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us. It wasn't until later that I found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear.

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is, "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is, "Probably because of something you did."

Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm myself down. I'll go over to the persons house and ring the doorbell. When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on the porch? A jack-o-lantern with a knife stuck in the side of it's head with a note that says "You." After that I usually feel a lot better, and no harm done.

It takes a big man to cry, but it takes an even bigger man to laugh at that man.

Children need encouragement. If a kid gets an answer right, tell him it was a lucky guess. That way he develops a good, lucky feeling.

If you're in the war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at some guys, throw one of those little baby-type pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think of how crazy war is, and while they're thinking, you can throw a real grenade.

When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges.

If God dwells inside us, like some people say, I sure hope he likes enchiladas, because that's what he's getting.

I remember as a boy watching my grandfather get up early every Saturday morning, put on his fishing gear and go down to the river to fish. He'd come home in the afternoon and we'd all laugh at him. However we weren't laughing when he came back one day with a hooker he picked up in town.

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.

One good thing about hell, at least, is that you can probably pee wherever you want to.

As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way.

If I ever get real rich, I hope I'm not real mean to poor people, like I am now.

The memories of my family outings are still a source of strength to me. I remember we'd all pile into the car - I forget what kind it was - and drive and drive. I'm not sure where we'd go, but I think there were some trees there. The smell of something was strong in the air as we played whatever sport we played. I remember a bigger, older guy we called "Dad." We'd eat some stuff, or not, and then I think we went home. I guess some things never leave you.

Fantasy Sports

Pacey Says:

Managing a Fantasy Sports team is a great time-killer. It just so happens that I am actually quite good at these things, particularly hockey and baseball. Currently, my hockey team is in the Championship Bracket of a league of 14 teams. With two days to go, I am leading my opponent 6 categories to 5, and looking for my 4th championship in 6 seasons. While my opponent has completely structured his team around waiver acquisitions, my team largely resembles the team I drafted in September.

I have a knack for drafting well. I know that scoring would be at a premium and that regular (not necessarily spectacular) goaltending would keep me near the top of the league. I also know that guys like Modano would be outscored by guys like Ribeiro, and that Prospal would play most of the season between two scoring champions in Tampa Bay. While an outstanding season by Ovechkin has no doubt made my team a consistent threat to win, I think late round selections like Ribeiro and Prospal (both nearly a-point-a-game players) have actually put me over the top with scoring depth. Also, the consistent starts by goalies on mediocre teams (Khabibulin and Ward) proved to have better fantasy value than good goalies on good teams (like Gerber/Emery). With these players, and others, I maintained 1st place every single week of the season and now find myself with a chance to take the Championship.

I also draft well in baseball, but this season was weird for me because I didn't play last year, so I didn't have a particularly good feel about who to draft and what positions would be crucial. I took an hour (that's all I need) before the draft to essentially figure out what happened in baseball last season. My first pick was a player I'd never heard of before draft day (Hanley Ramirez) because he was the consensus 'best player' after A-Rod. One thing I made clear was that drafting the only good catcher in baseball was going to be key. So, after the first two rounds, where I would simply draft the best player available, I reached for Victor Martinez with my third pick (27th overall). I appears that 30th was the average draft position for V-Mart, so it was reassuring that I didn't reach too far to land the only impact player at the shallowest position in the game, catcher. In previous leagues, I've always put a priority on catcher because I hated seeing that position waste away in my fantasy lineup, and now that I have the guy I want it affords me a tremendous advantage over other fantasy teams.

It's still early in baseball, and my team isn't off to the greatest start (and V-Mart got a minor injury keeping him out of my lineup for a few days), but I think I will win my first head-to-head matchup. I'm confident I drafted well enough to be competitive this year, and I'm sure I'll have a ton of fun playing fantasy baseball all summer.

Oh hey, the Canucks are going to have a new logo! Check it out, I think it suits them: