[Master Fibbles]

Of course, I'm only supposed to work until noon on Fridays during the summer...I kind of don't like my job; I mean, I like my job, I just don't like how they make me do it - maybe I should say how they prevent me from doing it. I worked for 4 years as an undergrad and had more access to stuff at my old school than I do here as a grad student working here. This sucks. Why can't I just get keys? How about an admin password? Come on, people, I know this stuff at least as well as you when you started here.

[Jeff]

I've only been here since Tuesday and I've got five words to say "I want to go home". I miss my place as well as Cosmo. This place just doesn't feel like home to me. Oh well, back to Toronto on Tuesday and the plane takes off around 3:15 PM EST. Plane arrives in Calgary around 5:20 PM MST. My mom is picking me up to take me back to her place to pick up Cosmo as well as take us home so I can get back to living a somewhat normal life.

[TerminX]

I got a hardcover copy of Masters of Doom off of eBay recently for about 2 bucks and started reading it yesterday. It's really interesting so far!

[Hank]

Jeff, on 29 July 2011 - 09:36 AM, said:

Oh well, back to Toronto on Tuesday and the plane takes off around 3:15 PM EST.

It's a shame. This weekend is Caribana weekend in Toronto. One hell of a party. Try to catch it, the Stampede cain't compete.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=8zVoLQsW-jE

[Jeff]

Back from the party. Was pretty fun seeing all these relatives I haven't seen in 20 years. Got a picture of most of them, as well as a group picture.



^ That is my dad's internet connection here and at home. I guess he doesn't want to pay for two plans, but talk about a guy who's living in the stone age. This is a wireless plan, so he doesn't even have a coaxial cable in his place. I've gotta show you the roof. Basically, if it's -40 C outside in the winter, it's -40 C in here as well. I would call this place kind of a log cabin, but there's no attic or anything. Just wood planks, and on the other side, there's shingles for the roof. I've decided to sleep out in the garage because it's the coolest place and I can't hear my dad snoring. I took a few videos of him snoring, which I might share with you guys when I get home.

[Kathy]

Jeff, on 30 July 2011 - 04:36 PM, said:

^ That is my dad's internet connection here and at home. I guess he doesn't want to pay for two plans, but talk about a guy who's living in the stone age.

Huh? That's not a bad bandwidth.

[Jeff]

Helel, on 31 July 2011 - 12:01 AM, said:

Huh? That's not a bad bandwidth.

I thought most people had at least 5-10 Mbps these days? Maybe I need to do more research. That's his net speed. His total bandwidth is 2 GB per month. My plan is 25 Mbps/2 Mbps, and I get 250 GB per month.

[Master Fibbles]

That is better than what I have but the US has notoriously bad Internet speeds.


Of course, I think we are also on the low end of the pay range for high speed Internet. This ain't that fiberwire stuff they offer now.

[Hank]

I think it's time to clean my comp! 0.92 upload??????

[Master Fibbles]

I just noticed the little tid bit that compares your speed to the rest of your country...mine says slower than 80% of the US...wow, that sucks.

[Jeff]

Dad's wife's cat getting his hairball medicine

[Kathy]

Jeff, on 31 July 2011 - 04:10 PM, said:

I thought most people had at least 5-10 Mbps these days?

Maybe. But 1-2Mb is hardly a stone age.

[Micky C]

How about a change of topic? All this talk of internet speeds is depressing.

[Kathy]

Let's talk about Jesus Christ, our Savior.

[Micky C]

Oh god...

Anyway I spent the last 3 days brewing some ginger beer. It's not bad.

[Kathy]

Jesus spent several seconds brewing wine.

[Micky C]

The stories about Jesus' "miracles" must be the most exaggerated stories of all time. They weren't even written down until about 30 years after his death, and in those days that was the life expectancy, so the stories had to go through an entire generation relying on word of mouth, which always distorts the message. Add onto the fact that people already believed in God via some kind of religion back then, so it's not like those people wouldn't have believed any of that stuff. If the entire planet was atheist before Jesus' time, then suddenly became believers afterwards, then maybe I'd be convinced something important happened, but otherwise no dice. As my yr 8 science teacher once put it: "the further back you go, and the dumber they are (in terms of scientific knowledge), the more likely they are to believe in a God." Back then, theology explained everything, all the important questions like how life started, and there was nothing to prove it wrong. It's exactly how we view things now, we have a system of understanding, say, the atom, to do with protons and electrons. We didn't always have that system, but it's the one we're currently using, and we're going to keep using it until we're proven wrong or there's something better.

[Hank]

And when there comes to them
A Book from God, confirming
What is with them,—although
From of old they had prayed
For victory against those
Without Faith,—when there comes.
To them that which they
(Should) have recognized,
They refuse to believe in it
But the curse of God
Is on those without Faith.

Quran Sūra II 89

@ Micky C - You may want to read the old bible first before making such claims. or at least change teachers, I never heard such rubbish.

[Jeff]

It's my last day here. Back to Toronto at 9 AM Tuesday or so. Plane takes off at 3:15 PM. It's a 4 hour drive back to Toronto and you usually need to be at the airport 1-2 hours before the flight, so I need to be at Pearson Intl at 1:15 PM or so.

[Master Fibbles]

Micky C, on 01 August 2011 - 05:12 AM, said:

As my yr 8 science teacher once put it: "the further back you go, and the dumber they are (in terms of scientific knowledge), the more likely they are to believe in a God." Back then, theology explained everything, all the important questions like how life started, and there was nothing to prove it wrong. It's exactly how we view things now, we have a system of understanding, say, the atom, to do with protons and electrons. We didn't always have that system, but it's the one we're currently using, and we're going to keep using it until we're proven wrong or there's something better.

What started the big bang? What was before the big bang? Philosophy has always sought answers to life's questions and has often come up with better answers than science. "You are a collection of molecules linked together forming a single animal whose primary instinctual motive is reproduction and survival" is rather incomplete (and ignored by even science since we love killing ourselves and preventing reproduction at all costs).

Life expectancy was not just 30 years. Caesar lived to over 50 and he was assassinated. Archeology has already showed that physical health was not disproportional among the upper and lower class in Ancient Rome. This whole low life expectancy is based on the Middle Ages and other periods when technology was shitty. Rome had fucking indoor plumbing!!! INDOOR PLUMBING!!! Sure, the provinces got the shit end of the deal but people lived well over 30 if they made it past 3, which most didn't, but if you made it past 3 you would live a while so long as you didn't piss off the Romans.

Also, memory was significantly better 2000 years ago than it is today. Because people didn't write (but could spell - graffiti is evidence of that) they had to memorize things and recite them. The long epic poems were memorized and recited in verse - Homer was recited before being written but Virgil wrote the Aeneid and it was recited from memory) speeches were memorized and written down at a different time. Oral tradition is much more real than people are willing to give it credit because we live in a written civilization that no longer needs to memorize things, especially now with Wikipedia and Google. Some kid wrote in the school paper here that we don't need to go to class because of Google; that is a load of bull shit and I wanted to write a very mean reply but I cooled off before I had time.

To this rubbish of it being 2nd generation: Paul may have actually seen Jesus at some point in his life (both before and after the Crucifixion, if you want) depending on how you place Paul as a Jewish man and the dating of Jesus' death. He mentions how he met with the Apostles and other first followers of Jesus early in his conversion.
Grant it, the oldest manuscripts are from the 3rd century but there is a point where embellishing stories is no longer acceptable (but extracting names or adding names is acceptable at a later point).

[Micky C]

I brewed some amazing ginger beer, but I drank it all so it's all gone now, and I have to wait several days before the next batch

[Lunick]

Whats that taste like?

[Micky C]

Well I suppose the best way to describe it is like the regular ginger beer you buy from the supermarket, but with a slight alcoholic taste. The thing is traditional ginger beer is created via the fermentation action of yeast, creating ethanol (an alcohol) and carbon dioxide from glucose (sugar) and water, which is where the alcohol comes from. But these days the stuff you get at the shops is created in a different fashion which doesn't involve alcohol.

[Master Fibbles]

When I was growing up, my parents brewed some home beer and all of us kids complained about the smell...then we all (sans the youngest) turned 21 and suddenly, I don't think I'd mind the smell of fermenting beer but my parents don't do it anymore. I've told them to get back in it and since the house will be pretty much empty soon with my youngest sister moving to college and the other moving back in (temporarily, right...) they should have time to do it. I'm going to continue to push it because I want some homebrew. One day, I'll brew my own beer but not until I have money and such because I get the impression that it isn't cheap.

[Jeff]

I'm home, finally!

Anyways best part of the trip was probably seeing the cockpit on the way to Toronto. On the way back, I took videos of the takeoff from runway 23 in Toronto as well as the landing on runway 16 in Calgary. When the plane touched down, as before, I went into the cockpit. Although this time I got to sit in the Captain's seat and the Captain took a picture of me and the First Officer sitting in the "driver's seat". Oh man, I'm so excited.

Anyways, pictures and videos to come.

[Kathy]

Jeff, you ever seen a grown man naked?

[Master Fibbles]

Jeff, do like going to gymnasiums?

[Jeff]

What does that have to do with anything?

[ReaperMan]

I found a old rusted machete in the garage today... looks like it has a ivory handle.

[CruX]

Jeff, have you ever been to a Turkish prison?