Although it's a short book, it's taken me a while to finish Living with Darwin by Philip Kitcher.

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Darwin-Evolution-Design-Philosophy/dp/0195384342/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

It was worth the time -- I learned a lot, and the final chapter describes much of my own thinking. Kitcher is sympathetic to people of faith who find comfort in their religion and don't use it as a tool of oppression -- and who are genuinely concerned about the theory of evolution and what it means -- so he tries to address the subject without rancor. I think he succeeds, and from the reviews at least some self-professed people of faith agree.

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Listening to: Stanley Simmonds & Full Companies - When Mabel Comes In The Room
http://foxytunes.com/artist/stanley+simmonds+%26+full+companies/track/when+mabel+comes+in+the+room

22 hours later than we were supposed to be, but we're home. I'll be writing about the entire weekend, with photos and maybe a couple of videos, sometime this week.

Sorry I've not been keeping up, but I'm skimming what I missed. Let me know of anything super important. :)

I posted videos by Voice Farm before, but I love them so much. They're so weird.





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Listening to: Voice Farm - Walk Away
http://foxytunes.com/artist/voice+farm/track/walk+away

This is a serious video about increased crime in Baja California (Mexico). And all I can think is, well if Bill needs a new place to live, he can come live with us... (sans the wife, though).

Even though I was still denying my sexuality in high school, I remember thinking the drummer and keyboardist were both cute.

And now -- geez, what a dork is the guitarist with the green jumpsuit? Especially the way he knocks his knees in... ew.

(Embedding is disabled.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nv4cOz0zt4

So Oh Great Collective Wisdom that is my friends' list and beyond:

Cornelius, my laptop, is unhappy. No clue why that is the case, and I'm figuring run diagnostics and see how to make him happy. However, my parents hold that he is rapidly becoming outdated (!; he's not yet a year old, I think... or maybe it's not quite two? Can't remember) and he weighs a lot. Monitor so large that I have yet to find an easily portable case he fits in, because he's an Acer and thus rather thicker than a MacBook Pro (he has a case he travels in but it's one of those old-fashioned over the shoulder bags and I'd rather he drop into my backpack). And, of course, he has Vista, that 21st Century version of Windows ME.

They propose I go back to a desktop (which, how handy, I already have... and it's an XP box! no memory hog here!) and they will support the purchase of a "netbook" so that I have ease of email communications, etc. while traveling, if out for a cup of coffee, whatever. Apparently, Acer even makes one with a full numeric keypad (which makes engraving music rather easier than on a standard laptop... when I think of how much I engraved without one, it makes me marvel at my patience!).

I know nothing of such beasts... thus I throw it out to all of you in friends land (and your friends; feel free to summarize for people though I'm friends-locking this post for privacy reasons) for recommendations, the do do do's and the don't don't don'ts (we'll leave the da da das to some rock band!), the "You must have" and the "Steer clear of" and so on and so forth...

The one thing I will say is that Cornelius is dreadfully underpowered... who knew that the enhanced home version of Vista would want more than 2 GB... but -- then again -- I just saw a standalone 2 TB box for around $250!! my concept of what is necessary to run a machine and for storage thereto (because yes, I know the 2 GB is ROM and the 2 TB would be RAM) is rather dated (the thought of anyone having 2 TB for home use just blows my poor brain to heck and gone!)... and his sound card needs serious help (in fact, I will need to buy a real sound card for the desktop I think, what with my cute mini speakers and sub-woofer!, instead of the integrated sound), so it's not outside the realm of possibility to just replace him (though I'd need to -- of course -- save all the files to a jump drive, etc. and, at some point, integrate the files from George and all, too (though I think I actually gave Cornelius all of George's files).

So.... now that I've babbled long enough and shown off just how totally non-geek I am, I throw it open to you, dear readers...

Many thanks!

ETA: I've unlocked this post in hopes of getting more comments/thoughts/replies.

PC only; I do NOT want to hear about advantages of the Mac. Sorry. I just can't make the bounce between the two kinds of machines.