From Mark, as always:

1. What Firefox extensions do you use?
I don't normally use Firefox, but when I do, the Google toolbar is the main one. I used one to put little close buttons on each tab too until Firefox 2.0 “fixed” that for me.

2. What family/Friends tradition do you most look forward to regarding Christmas/ etc all holidays?

I'm not sure I have one favorite tradition. I always enjoy going to the Christmas Eve (candle light) service with my family and then sitting around the Christmas tree in the quiet of expectation.

3. What is your favorite tea to drink and how do you take it?

A plain, somewhat strongish tea with ice. Lipton is just fine.

4. What is your opinion on Mod_rewrite?

A site without mod_rewrite is, well, a site without mod_rewrite. I love mod_rewrite. I think it is an indispensable part of the web developer's toolkit.

5. Do you think this site has the right idea? Sorta like what these guys are doing in my state.

For the most part yes. I say, Merry Christmas, if that is what you mean.

Mark provides another interesting TQ that I'm answering really late.

1. Do you think your attire effects [sic] the way you work?
Yes, and in a two-fold way. In some settings, I will probably be better off in a suit (or at least a sports jacket) — say giving a presentation or talk. I wouldn't be comfortable otherwise, so I'd probably stumble somewhat. Comfort is another matter. I won't function very well if I'm hot, so in the middle of the summer, a dark suit or trousers or anything of the sort is probably going to decrease my productivity.

Incidentally, in the realm of pants, my bottom level is khakis or other similar types of trousers, preferably with a pleat, not jeans. I don't like jeans. My shorts are similar in style to my pants, only, well, shorter. Short sleeved polo shirts are pretty much my standard shirt, unless I'm wearing a suit; I will occasionally wear a t-shirt.

2. Do you think your attire effects the way others judge your work?
I know so. I've been told by people that they appreciated that I was not dressed as casually as my colleagues in projects. (In one memorable incident, I was wearing a suit, while another fellow was wearing a polo shirt and jeans. Almost everyone around us had at least dress slacks.)

3. Do you judge others by the way they dress?
Yes, in two ways. Incidentally, can you tell I'm in a class that is studying Aquinas at the moment? On every answer I feel obliged to say, “I answer in x number of ways.” I always like Aquinas's straightforward ordering of his arguments. But, I digress.

I'd say, first, I judge people improperly in this. Sometimes, I'll look down on someone, say, at church, for not dressing up a bit more. That's wrong, I know, and its petty. I've gotten better over time, but I'm still not completely over it.

The second way is more appropriate. The way someone looks and dresses says something about them. Someone who dresses entirely inappropriately for whatever event and looks like they could care less probably isn't taking the situation seriously. There may be exceptions, especially in the case of someone who cannot afford proper attire (or doesn't typically attend things demanding proper attire), but in other cases… You don't go to a job interview wearing your 1982 World Series T-Shirt, a ratty baseball cap on backwards and jeans that should have been retired three years ago.

Probably far more meaningful is when someone dresses in a way that obviously takes a lot of work (so their appearance is not from a lack of concern or effort) yet it is disturbing. I'm dubious about goth, for example. I'm dubious about overly baggy pants. I'm dubious about overly revealing clothes. That kind of thing. Those likely speak something about the person.

4. Do you think attire as a society is overrated, underrated or just right? Explain.
Overrated in the amount of time people worry about it, underrated in that every day is super-casual Friday now.

5. Do you think pay scale should dictate your dress code?
Not really. Attire is dictated more by the job position than the amount of money tied to the job.

Note: The questions on this page written by Mark are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 license. I believe my responses are allowed under fair use and therefore are not licensed under the Creative Commons license (I don't want people messing with adapting my personal opinions, thank you very much).

About eight weeks ago, I ordered some new license plates. Specifically Missouri Conservation plates — they have a nice picture of the state bird on them and the money goes to support Missouri's wonderful system of parks operated by the Conservation Department.

To get the plates, you must fill out a form, send it to the right people in Jeff City, wait, receive a form back, and then send that form back to Jeff City (this time to the Department of Revenue). This was much more of a project than I originally anticipated — I doubt I would have even bothered had know precisely how long it would all take to get organized.

At any rate, I sent the second batch of stuff in about eight weeks ago. The idea is that you hear from your local licenses bureau when the plates come in. So I waited. I figured it might take a couple of weeks. Or maybe a month. Or maybe six weeks. Finally, at the eight week point, I decided to call. I get ahold of a the bureau and the staffer goes and looks in the plates that they've received. Sure enough, the plate was there. It seems they forgot to tell me the plate came in. Just a minor detail, eh?

Tomorrow, I shall get my plates.

Below is this week's Thursday Question from Mark.

1.After a rough day at the office what is the first thing you do to help unwind?
I'm not consistent, but often times, I'll sit down and check my e-mail. That's a nice break before I start on whatever I need to accomplish at home.

2.If your day has been particularly rough, do you change something about your normal schedule to help ease the stress?
Maybe I will do less when I get home.

3.Do you find that working out helps you to deal with stress better?
No, not really.

4. What do you consider a nice stress free thing to do? Like on a day off or maybe right before going to bed.
Reading a good book. As time permits, I always have some book I'm in the middle of to read before bed (usually fairly fluffy fiction). For a break during the day (or on a “stress free” kind of day), I'll have something else I'd like to read, but requires me to be sharper than something I'd read before bed, that I'll read. The latter may be fiction or non-fiction — I switch back and forth.

Photography is another stress free kind of activity on a day off.

Note: The questions on this page written by Mark are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 license. I believe my responses are allowed under fair use and therefore are not licensed under the Creative Commons license (I don't want people messing with adapting my personal opinions, thank you very much).

I heard this last night and thought it worth posting:

Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

I certainly was right about the first part. My cat woke me up several times last night as he tried to take more and more of the bed. But, he isn't spoiled or anything like that.

American is having a warehouse sale at the moment. I went there today to see if there was anything terribly useful I might need that was on sale (last time they had this sale, I ended up with two Mac Mini's, as some may recall).

Well, I did not find much, but I did leave carrying $0.02 worth of merchandise. No, you didn't read wrong; I said two cents. For whatever reason, American had little kits from Nikon that consisted of a strap to attach to a camera (to go around one's neck), two lithium batteries and a roll of 35mm film. I don't recall American ever carrying a 35mm SLR, but that's what these little kits were intended to go with. At any rate, the strap seemed useful enough, in case my Sony one would ever wear out, and perhaps the batteries could come in handy too, so the Nikon kits had a buyer for one penny a piece.

I probably should have bought a protection plan to cover the purchase…

Maybe it struck me because I just spent several hours reading a logic text. Maybe it is just the fact that I tend to love locating logical fallacies — especially post hoc fallacies. At any rate, the American Family Association gave me another reason to shake my head. According to an e-mail from them that was forwarded to me:

The boycott of Ford Motor Company continues to be effective. Sales in August dropped 11.6%. This follows drops of 5% in March,
7% in April, 2% in May, 6.8% in June and 4.1% in July.

Let's consider this in the form of a logical argument. The AFA has told people to boycott Ford because of its support of homosexuality and Ford's sales are dropping, therefore the boycott is effective. This just screams of the type of propaganda that the AFA normally uses. The letter continues by noting how “stubborn” Ford is for continuing to support “homosexual groups:”

“Rather than save money by cutting financial support to homosexual groups, Ford plans to cut production by 21%, trim the number of
dealers, reportedly is seeking a merger or alliance with another auto
maker, studying taking the company private, and considering selling
their Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover units.”

Now, if Ford had been doing great when the boycott began, I'd concede maybe the boycott is working. I might even be happy the boycott is working — I am, after all, on the same side as the AFA in rejecting “homosexual rights” such as homosexual marriage. But, the point must be made that all of the American car companies are facing major struggles at the moment, and only Ford is being boycotted. Moreover, Ford's woes go back several years before the AFA decided to boycott the company. All of the strategies the AFA mentions Ford considering are sensible given Ford's situation. Its buying spree of the mid-to-late 90s was ill-advised, lower purchasing necessitates lower production and less dealers, etc. GM is working through a similar set of considerations, and Chrysler already followed through with the idea of merging with another car maker (I guess the AFA missed the “Ask Dr. Z” commercials that remind everyone that Chrysler is a division of DaimlerChrysler).

Now, the AFA may be illogical and prone to hyperbole, but they aren't stupid. They admit this, but only farther down in the e-mail, after some (many?) may have gone off to celebrate the power of their boycotting the Blue Oval. That admission reads:

“While Ford, General Motors and Chrysler had similar financial problems when the AFA boycott began, most analysts see General Motors and Chrysler conditions improving. While not responsible for all of Ford's financial problems, the boycott is not doubt having a major effect. Ford blames it on the cost of gasoline. But General Motors and Chrysler face the same problem of $3 a gallon gas, yet their situation is improving.”

This too draws on logical fallacies. While constant talk of GM teetering on bankruptcy protection does not strike me as much of an improvement, there have been signs maybe — maybe — GM and the Chrysler Group are fighting back (though Chrysler lost market share in the most recent quarter, as I recall, whereas a few quarters ago, it was gaining market share). But, let's say both GM and Chrysler are doing better. The AFA is assuming a domestic car market where all else is equal (_ceteris paribus_). Could GM and Chrysler's “improving fortunes” maybe, possibly, sorta kinda have something to do with the little bitty fact that those two companies have been busy with major product line changes? Look at the Chrysler Group! Dodge has an almost totally redesigned lineup, Jeep is over doubling its variety of models, and the namesake marquee is midway through a similar makeover. On the other hand, Ford's makeover of products has been going on for a little longer, and their styling, features and marketing just seem far less impressive. Just why would I buy a generic looking Ford Five Hundred over a Honda Accord? Does anyone really think the 2006 Ford Freestar looks that much different from a 1999 Ford Windstar?

Why does this bother me so much? Because I think the AFA's actions generally do more to make Christianity look bad than good. “Christians really must hate homosexuals if they are willing to go so far as to decide what $20,000+ vehicle they will buy just because Ford gives to some homosexual charities,” is the type of thing I see people reading into actions like this. Precisely what does that really accomplish? Does it preach the love of Christ to anyone? Does anyone receive the Gospel because I didn't buy a Ford? Does anyone become “straight” because I didn't buy a Ford? Does it even save a life? When the AFA not only does these actions, but then justifies them with questionable analysis of statistics, I just find myself irritated.

Let's find something better to do then make the Church look like its main purpose is to condemn the world, eh? Let's “believe in the future salvation of all people” and then see what useful thing we can do toward this end.

With this guy's additions to his Volkswagen, I could get back and forth to where I need to go a lot faster. What do you think? Should I go ahead and add one to my Beetle?

Oh, and just imagine how well this would work as a solution for quieting those annoying drivers that always have that THUD-THUD-THUD of an overactive bass disturbing everyone sitting around them in traffic. A quick flip of a switch and I'd have their attention and their car might have a nice, blackish discoloration on it too.

1. Would you shave your head for any amount of money? If yes, how much?
I'm not sure. I'd really dislike shaving my head, although it wouldn't be really what I'd call suffering. A few thousand, maybe?

2. What “whacky” thing might you do for a large sum of money?
Run around while holding scissors? I don't know. The person offering the large sum of money has to do the hard work of thinking of the ridiculous thing I am suppose to do.

3. What do you think is a “large sum of money?”
Depends on the context. If someone comes up to me and says they earned a “large sum of money” this year at their job, I would expect the number to have six digits. If someone said it was “my lucky day” and they were going to give me a “large sum of money” I would expect that would be a five digit number. If buying a computer costs a “large sum of money,” I would be thinking above $2,000, but likely under $3,500. If dinner was going to cost me a “large sum of money,” I'd expect the price to be between $18-$25/person.

4. Do you watch “reality” tv shows?
No.

5. If so, which do you watch and in what order do you prefer them? If not, are there any you may consider watching?
If I was going to watch one, I might watch one of the talent-focused ones or the “Amazing Race,” which I always hear very good things about.

6. Which reality show have you thought about participating in? Why?
None. If I had a talent worth entering, I might consider one of the talent related shows. I would not consider doing “Survivor,” “Fear Factor” or anything like it.

7. Share one thing you would like to do in life but have not yet done….. think about why you haven't done it and share if you wish.
Sheesh, there are a lot of things. I'd like to learn to play an instrument. I have not done it because it simply requires such a large time commitment.

I ordered some books through BN.com the other day, and they were scheduled (according to UPS) to arrive today yesterday. As of midnight, they are still being shown as “out for delivery.” Think I should expect a really late night delivery?