Stuff

First, a victory for the good guys. Want to read something fun? Go to:

Logic and reason finally prevail!

Yes, it's long, but go to page 136 and read the conclusion. Great stuff...

Now, on another subject, I bet you've been wondering, What Has Mike Been Doing With His Genealogy Recently? Well, wonder no more!

Just in the past few weeks, I've discovered some Canadian records of Boomer Partridge, a great-great-granduncle, sent away for Irish birth/marriage/death records, sent away for some Polish birth records, sent letters to cemeteries in New Jersey, requested a death record from New York, and discovered some wills of old dead Scottish relatives.

Not a bad bit of work to kick off the new year. Some other goals for this year include:

• William Nixon was my great-grandmother's half brother. I know he had at least one child, Virginia, who lived into adulthood. I'd like to find her or her relatives.
• I'd like to dig around in some Polish records from the towns of Zaborow, Niebylec, and Glinik. I can get the Zaborow records from the Mormon Family History Centers, and perhaps even the other ones...
• I'd like to make some breakthroughs on the Lord line. Right now, it ends with Robert Lord, my G4-Grandfather. I know he had a son, John Lord, who's my G3-GF, but that's it. I don't even know who Robert's wife was.
• I'd like to contact some more close living relatives, to learn about what photos they may have buried in basements, or hiding in attics.
• One thing I've wanted to do is send some letters to addresses in NJ, where my relatives used to live. Who knows, maybe there's some boxes marked "Lord" in an attic in Kearny, NJ, that someone doesn't want to throw away, that hold some rare items... I know, a distant hope, but genealogy is all about hope.
• The ScotlandsPeople website will be releasing the 1851 and 1841 Scotland Census records soon, hopefully by March. It'll be interesting to see what comes of those...

I think that's a pretty good list for now. Ask me in the future how I'm doing...

NP: Robert Fripp, Green Park Suite: Polychromatic Park - 21 Nov 1996

Addicted to Oil?

No, it's not a new Robert Palmer song (RIP), not even a new Power Station song (RIP ditto), but something that Our Great Leader talked about in the State of the Union address last night.

Interesting now that people in power are realizing that if we had energy independence, perhaps we wouldn't be as beholden to regimes or other leaders who control the energy supply of the country. And this is not just a Republican thing, the Democrats, while being a little better with it, are still far off from being good advocates for alternative energy sources.

So, kudos to OGL for mentioning this in the State of the Union, but if something actually happens from this, I might actually be a happy guy. The only other kudos that OGL gets from me is giving NASA a goal to head back to the Moon by 2020, which NASA actually hopes to do by 2018 or 2017, according to Space.com.

Just finished exercising for the day. I try to do at least 30 minutes each day on the recumbent bike. It gives me a bit of activity each day, and keeps most of the flabbyness away.

Got something for Sue last night for her birthday. Can't tell you what it is yet though... Not till March.

Today was payday, so bills were paid, and I'll put some money into savings tomorrow, and throw some additional cash at my student loans either this week or next. I'd really like to get rid of this loan before the end of the year. I have less than 10K to pay off, and I'm just tired of paying it each month. If I were to pay it normally each month, it would take till April 2009 to pay off the loan. So, if I can aim to get it done this year, I'll knock off a bit of interest that I'd be paying in the future.

NP: Chris Squire & Billy Sherwood, Days of Wonder

Tuesday Evening

Just had a good phone conversation about Babylon 5 with Joe over the phone. He's rewatching a lot of the show on DVD now, and is picking up a lot of interesting parallels, for those of you with interest in the show. Perhaps he'll detail some of them on his blog...

Sue's feeling a bit under the weather, hopefully she won't get any more sick...

I think this weekend I'm going to be trying to record something new on my home recording setup. I want to do something, but don't have any immediate ideas. I'll see what develops between now and then, setting that for my goal...

NP: Steve Hackett, The Devil Is an Englishman

Ach!

Okay, before you read this blog, read the one below it...

Have you read it yet?

I realize I didn't mention the issue with my presentation in Friday's blog. Here it is. The conference has put my Sociobiology presentation at 9:45am on the closing day of the conference. Unfortunately, my flight is at 11am or so. Therefore, I can't really do the presentation without missing my flight, and the cost to change the reservation would be over $300, and I can't make my work pay for that.

So, I've put in a request to have my presentation at a different time, but I have not heard yet if it's going to be changed at all...

Uh oh, I just realized maybe I did talk about this, in a blog before Friday's. I didn't check back that far when I went to look before. Ah well, repetition never hurt, at least with one of my stories...

I would like to still do the presentation, but if it has to stay on Wednesday, I'll have to pull out... And the other thing is, I don't know how many people actually go to presentations on Wednesday. Not that attendance is everything, but I would like people to actually attend the program if I'm going to put the work into it.

If nothing else, the work now can get me ready to do it again for next year, should I choose to resubmit it.

NP: Jeff Buckley, Lover You Should Have Come Over - July/Aug 1993

Reading

Have I mentioned that on here before that I pretty much need to be reading a book at all times? I finished the 3rd Harry Potter book on Saturday, and I thought about taking a little break from reading something, but I couldn't do it. I started "The Triumph of Sociobiology," written by John Alcock, last night. I am continuing to do reading for my presentation at ACPA in March, although I'm a bit unclear if it will happen now, due to what I mentioned on here in my last entry.

I did mention it on there, didn't I?

Anyway, I'm about 50 pages into it, and I'm enjoying it quite well. Sometimes, when I'm reading "scientific" books, I worry about skimming over hard parts. However, I've been pretty good about re-reading sections that are giving me trouble, so that I can be conversant in the ideas when/if I do the presentation in March.

I have a few other books on my "To Read" shelf right now. There's "Return to the Moon," by Harrison Schmitt (or Schmidt), about resources that could be used on the moon to make it worthwhile economically to go there. There's "Darwin's Children," a book by Greg Bear that's a fiction book about the next "stage" of human evolution. I have another Sociobiology book, called "Defenders of the Truth," which is about the debates that raged in the 70's/80's about the veracity of Sociobiology as a discipline within biology. I also have "Consilience," by E. O. Wilson (yet another science book), and "The Blind Watchmaker," by Richard Dawkins, a great writer in the field of evolutionary biology.

I'll probably pick up in paperback the 4th and 5th Harry Potter books at some point. They're great reads, and I can see why both kids and adults get into them. The adventure is good for both age groups, and adults can remember what it's like to be that age, or it's good to be reminded periodically of what kids, even fictional kids, can get into at that age.

I continue to be on the lookout for good books to read. It is one of my vices, but any vice that keeps the mind active, reflecting, and thinking can't be that bad...

NP: Brian May, Driven By You - 15 June 1993