computers suck

This new template is fun, but I'm having difficulties customizing it. The other night, it took me about two hours to figure out the code to get my clock displaying properly.

Now I want to create extra sidebar boxes for links to other sites, and for any other stuff I might want to put there. I want them to be different colors. Problem is, all the code I know is self-taught, and there's something about the structure of this new template that I'm not getting. I think it's the style sheets. There must be something about the way they work that's going over my head.

Ah well, I'll figure it out. Eventually. [sigh] The old template was so much easier.

On a positive note - I think I finally got my laptop computer running smoothly. For the first time ever! The thing's about - oh, I don't know, nine or ten months old. It crashed every time I turned around, had slow bootups and shutdowns, and several times it would not boot into Windows and I had to use Dell's PC restore feature, losing all my personal files and settings in the process. I tried all sorts of tune-ups, nothing worked. I even wiped the hard drive and did a clean install. Didn't work.

I went to Dell's tech support forums and found that a lot of Dell customers are really pissed that their computers don't work.

Dell kept telling me it was a software or malware problem. I didn't buy into that because I've never had problems on my desktop, on which I run all the same software and visit the same - reputable and safe - internet sites.

I visited tech forums, I researched Microsoft and Dell knowledge base articles, I googled the error messages I received. KB articles suggested that it might be a hard drive problem or some kind of hardware conflict. I ran all sorts of diagnostics, and was frustrated because all the hardware ran perfectly. I updated drivers. I downloaded updates. I disabled hardware deviced one by one and in groups. Nothing worked.

I even upgraded my memory to 1 gig.

Turns out it was the OS. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. When you install .net framework before certain other critical OS updates, some components of the registry get corrupted and everything goes haywire.

It's taken me literally months of research, and I finally happen upon this information by chance. That made me mad, because from what I've read there are LOTS of people with this problem.

On top of that, Microsoft's recommended solution did not work, and THAT is not unusal, either.

I googled again and found a blog site run by a software developer who had the same problem. He he took matters into his own hands and wrote a little program that un-registers all the MCE components and then re-registers them. I figured it was worth the risk, so I downloaded his program and ran it.

I used to avoid running all mce features because of the increased chance of a crash. Now my computer is all-around faster, and I have not seen one of the error messages that I used to see. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

scientism

"Scientism" is an irrational belief that only that which can be observed and measured through the technique of "Scientific Method" is real, and everything else is unreal. It has become a popular epithet among creationists, who have latched on to the term and use it as a prejorative, designed to cast doubt indiscriminately on conclusions drawn by the scientific method - and "scientistic" is a term designating those who have confidence in said conclusions.

I performed a google search on the words "scientistic evolution" and found this web site, self-proclaimed as the "only site on the web devoted exclusively to intellectual conservatism". (Apparently it's "intellectually conservative" to attack a distorted and over-simplified view of science and rationality, and to dismiss hundreds of years of valid, rational, scientific progress as mere "scientism". I offer the link merely as an example of anti-science rhetoric that is readily available and gaining widespread acceptance today.)

Can no one see the difference between science and scientism? Scientism is an irrational belief in the conclusions of science. Those who study the methods of science, understand that science is based on rationality, and therefore (provisionally) accept the conclusions of science as being the best possible ones are not scientistic, because we are being completely and utterly rational. People who do not understand the rules of good reasoning, including the rational basis for science, and who accept scientific conclusions on the basis of faith, these are the scientistic ones.

Creationists want to portray scientists, philosophers, and all others who understand and accept good principles of scientific reasoning as being scientistic materialists. They do this in order to present science and religion as being on equal footing, both matters of "blind faith". Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is completely rational to believe and understand that there are limits to what science can tell us, while accepting the perfectly valid and reasonable conclusions that science has to offer.

That's my opinion, briefly stated. What's yours?

never watch a 4-year-old eat

Today is Havilah's sixth birthday!

I wrote several paragraphs last night that would have been especially loved by all true snaars fans, but blogger was having some problems and I lost it. Ah well.

The whole family has been terribly sick. Michelle and the girls succumbed before I did. Last Friday night I was practically delirious with fever and nausea. I hardly slept or ate all weekend. I am well enough to work today, but still weak.

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We had a birthday party tonight for Havilah. Michelle baked two modest cakes. Havilah decorated one and Simcha decorated the other. After dinner we lit candles on them (on Simcha's too, so she wouldn't feel left out).

After they blew the candles out, we enjoyed cake. At one point Simcha's jaw was working, lips pulled back in a sort of mirthless grin, distant gaze in her eyes, thinking about something. Michelle hates it when they eat with their mouths open, but this was obviously not the standard careless chewing. "Simcha," Michelle asked, "is something wrong honey?"

Simcha's face lit up. "My teef is rainbow!" She showed us. And she was right. The sticky sweet cake icing was all over her teeth.

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A little while later, and we started hyping up the birthday presents. Anyone have an idea what we got Havilah for her birthday?

Simcha pipes: "A pony! A pony! Oh. mommy a pony a pony a pony - mooooooommy, a-a-a-a-a pony, pony ..."

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The presents have been opened and Havilah has some new clothes, and plastic jewelry from the dollar store.

Simcha leans over and points to the jewelry. "What is up with these rings," she asks, incredulously.

Oh, Simcha, do tell. Those rings are totally pretentious, aren't they?

Come, fellow believers.

Brother, sister, enter in. Self-consciousness is but a stumbling block. Snaarsconsciousness is the key. Do but this: devote yourself to the snaars, and all else will be revealed as dreamstuffs.

The party you are trying to reach ...

... is unavailable. Please check the URL you have entered, and try again later.

I shall be off the grid for a few days (at least!) so don't worry if you don't see me posting or commenting on the other blogs I frequent. We are moving in to the new apartment and then I will be looking for a second job to tide us over indefinitely.

I remember when life was boring. (No we don't!) I can't stand all this drama, and I want to put it all behind me and just get on with life. (What, are you kidding? What is life without drama? We want life to be an adventure, don't we? Are you tellings us we wants the same old routine, day after day after day? We chose to have a family, we chose to go to college, we chose to move cross-country, all because we don't wants to be like everyone elsesses!)

Ummm ... okay ... who is that? (It's us, it's us! Gollum!)

Ah. I see. Well, I'm not Smeagol, you know, I'm Snaars. Smeagol has his own blog. (We knows, we knows. We were trying to help out and, you know, gollum, gollum, be encouraging. We had the day off and didn't know what else to do.)

Thanks. You know, what you said is true. I just have to roll with it and take the bad with the good.

Jeez, I' can be such a nerd sometimes.

The interconnectedness of all things

So I was driving home from another day of work this evening, and I started thinking. A bad habit, I know, but I just can't seem to stop myself.

I was thinking about the fact that every individual has a variety of roles or functions that they play in the world. For instance, I am a father, a husband, a son, an accountant, a consumer, a teacher, a student, etc. We members of this human beehive are fairly versatile, no?

Would that this blasted thinking stuff had stopped there.

We serve vital functions within these various systems. The words "vital" and "function" lead me to compare people with the organs of a living body. I serve a vital function within my family. My liver serves a vital function within my body. Without a properly functioning liver, or some suitable replacement, I will die. I am dependant on the proper functioning of my liver. It follows, then, that my liver serves a vital function within my family. Huh? Could you read that last part again? My liver serves a vital function within my family?

This is not really profound; I think most of us have thought something like this. Why, then, does it come as such a surprise? My liver is part of me, I am part of my family, so my liver is part of my family.

Oh, thinking, stop, please!

Since we are all so connected through the various roles we play, what connections are we missing or misunderstanding that might be analogous to the connection between my liver and my family, which seemed so strange to me at first, and which now seems so natural and obvious?

We may never know, and that's the point! You can't know what you don't know, unless you think of it first. If you think of it, then it's not unknown, so you still can't know what you don't know. Damn frustrating, that.

This is what happens when our thoughts are not directed toward constructive tasks - they go in circles.

Oh, by the way: We have secured an apartment and we will be moving in a week or two. Happy day! Originally that was all I was going to write, but then I thought why not ramble on meaninglessly?