July 2008 Archives

Maya and Lucy started school today. Our neighborhood elementary school, Foothills Elementary, is on a year-round schedule, so that is why they're starting so early compared to traditional schools. Maya started fifth grade and Lucy started second grade. Eli will be starting kindergarten, but he'll be on a traditional schedule as he is attending an all-day kindergarten program provided by our day care provider.

Christine went with the girls to school this morning and took a camera, but it had dead batteries, so I went this afternoon and got some pictures after school. You can see those at <http://picasaweb.google.com/fozzmoo/MayaAndLucyStartSchool2008/> or enjoy the embedded slideshow below.

This last weekend, I came down with some kind of weird sickness. I woke up Saturday morning, showered, got dressed, and was about to eat a bowl of cereal when I suddenly felt very fatigued. I ate my cereal and then layed down and fell asleep. A couple hours later, I woke up and had a salad Christine made for me. The salad wasn’t very appetizing (it should have been) and I was again very tired, so I went back to sleep. I slept most of the rest of the day, only getting up for short amounts of time and then resuming my slumber.

Sunday morning, I woke up, showered, and went back to bed. I slept until about 2 in the afternoon. When I got up then, I finally felt I had some energy and I’ve been up ever since (blogging like mad, by the looks of it.)

My two daughters have had these one-day stomach “flu” things this last week, but my sickness didn’t seem to be gastrointenstinal. It just seemed to be more... just tired. I had a headache that seemed to be worse when I moved around, but no fever and no distinct pain anywhere else in my body. Very odd.

Hopefully it’s past and I can resume normal life.

I've been wanting to read Freakonomics for many months and I think I've picked it up at a bookstore or grocery store at least a half dozen times without purchasing it. Finally, a week or so ago, I got it.

I guess I'll add yet-another voice to the choir that resounds there is not a unifying theme to this book. But, that's only a minor complaint.

Freakonomics is written by award-winning economist Steven Levitt and award-winning author Stephen J. Dubner. Without really knowing these two guys very well, I got the impression the end result (the book) is a combination of Levitt's geeky love of statistics and causal relationships and Dubner's pop-culture awareness. Either way, it's pretty good writing.

The book examines a number of surprising statistical relationships in unusual fields of study. For example, the first chapter asks, "What do schoolteachers and sumo-wrestlers have in common?" Yes. What? I've been wondering that since I was 10... not.

Each chapter asks an unusual question and then proceeds to break down the evidence until it arrives at the answer- and it's usually not one you expect.

Most people, when they think of economics or statistics, they immediately grab a pillow and a cup of warm milk. This book, on the other hand, is not a sleep-inducer. While there are a small number of data tables given, the reader does not need to dive into the data to understand what the authors are presenting. In fact, in the one case where data was used more heavily, the authors broke the data down row by row to explain their position.

I found myself reading the chapter on children's names ("Would a Roshanda by any Other Name Smell as Sweet?") out loud to my family because its findings (and predictions) were just fascinating to everyone.

The treatments on crime ("Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?" and "Where Have All The Criminals Gone?") really do an excellent job of making swiss cheese of what we call "conventional wisdom." Whether the results Levitt got from his studies are completely true or not, I think these chapters could be required reading for all kids because it really inspired me to wonder how much of what believe is factually true?

My biggest complaint about this book is that it ended too quickly. The edition I bought is the "revised and expanded" edition, which means the authors have reorganized the main chapters and have added some additional materail at the end of the book which includes articles written for the New York Times in conjunction with the book and a smattering of blog postings. While the extra material was somewhat interesting, I still felt the book was just too dang short!

Stephen Dubner's website states that he is working on another Freakonomics book with Levitt. I hope the next one is bigger because I think they've only touched the tip of the iceberg here.

In the extra material, the authors write a bit about "peak oil" and some of the problems with the theory from an economist's perspective. I hope they give this subject much more attention in their next book considering the price of oil was only about $60/barrel when they wrote about it and has since peaked at nearly $150/barrel since then.

I taught at church today. I’m a member of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints and I was called by my ecclesiastical leaders to be a teacher, once of month, to the Elders Quorum (men 18 years old and older who haven’t been called to be in the High Priests group yet).

This year we are teaching from a new book the Church has produced called Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith which contains lessons taken from the recorded writings, sermons, etc. of the first prophet and president of the LDS Church: Joseph Smith.

This book is fascinating to me because the way Smith taught is different in many ways from how later and more contemporary leaders taught and teach today. I think this is partly because he had a big job on his shoulders: to convince people to join his new church and that the beliefs the religion is based on are grounded in truth.

Today’s lesson was on missionary work and sharing the gospel with others. I started a group discussion with the class about why members are reluctant to share their gospel beliefs with others in their life who are either less active members of the church or non-members. Lots of people responded saying it just has become increasingly inappropriate in today’s society to share such personal, sacred things with people, that we’re supposed to just accept other people’s beliefs regardless of what they are.

This is in contrast to the way Joseph Smith behaved. He relished the opportunity to speak to people about his beliefs. He encouraged missionary work among all members. He explains at one point that Christ died so that people can be saved, but only if they have the opportunity to learn of the Plan Of Salvation. That’s where church members come in: Sharing the knowledge of the Plan Of Salvation with those who haven’t yet had that opportunity.

To close up the lesson, I read from Elder Russell M. Ballard’s talk in December 2007 in which he talks specifically about using New Media to Support the Work of the Church and encourages members to write about their religion, their beliefs in their blogs, to participate in online discussion forums social networking communities, to comment on online news stories that may misrepresent the beliefs of the LDS Church, etc.

Having not really written much of a religious nature on the Fozzolog, I thought I would give it a shot.

I should have attended this service. I definitely want to make a point to attend it next year, regardless of who is speaking, because of the way it made me feel to watch it.

KBYU has streaming video of the service. If you want to skip straight to Glenn Beck's speech, you can seek to 50-55% into the stream where Stephen Covey (yes, that Stephen Covey) introduces Glenn. 

Glenn shares some personal stories, stories from the history of our country, and some counsel for those "looking for a leader" in today's troublesome times.