Piqued

Note: The following is a chapter from an unpublished book I wrote a year ago. The purpose is to share lessons and observations from my time in college. I hope to revise and somehow publish the book in its entirety at some point, but for now I’m sharing the current drafts one chapter at a time.

Part I – The Past: More than Just a Bunch of Dates

“Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.”
- Ronald Reagan

Growing up, History didn’t interest me much. I guess I knew in my head that there were lessons to be learned from those who lived before me, but it still seemed like a lot of tedious memorization of facts that I’d never need in my daily life. Some of my peers found it fascinating…I would have much rather learned about technology, science, or computer programming. But I’ve come to realize that understanding the past is a great way to make the most of the present and succeed in the future. Generations of imperfect people have been trying things, some of which have worked and some which haven’t. Rather than going through that whole process ourselves, doesn’t it make more sense to learn about what they did and how it turned out, so that we can avoid making those same mistakes?

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So I’m planning to take the HD plunge soon, and as such have been trying to figure out which format to go with (first, at least). Now I don’t yet have an HDTV per se, so I’m planning to just hook up the player to my 24″ computer monitor (capable of displaying better than 1080p video). My home theater tv is a 480p widescreen projector (Infocus IN72) which DVDs look amazing on, and I don’t plan to get another projector until I can afford a 108op one. So it looks like I’ll be stuck watching HD movies on my computer monitor, or in low-res through the projector (which can downconvert 1080p video).

Still, I’m tired of not being able to grow my movie collection without knowing that for a few dollars more I could get a version that isn’t practically obsolete. If I could play it.

So HD or blu-ray? Toshiba’s HD-A2 HD DVD player has gotten as low as $100 recently, and their current entry-level HD DVD player is still under $300. Problem is, I can’t justify spending that much on a player that can’t do better than 1080i. My monitor and next TV will almost certainly be 1080p, so I want a player that can do justice to the hardware. True, the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on is a great way to play 1080p HD DVDs…but I don’t have an Xbox 360, and I don’t really want one.

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So today I was scanning digg and came across this somewhat humorous article, which led me to this amusing take on suicide (actually makes some good arguments for why it’s a bad idea), which led me to this video:

Apparently, it’s not a joke, and it even has a website dedicated to its glory. The sad thing is, I can’t seem to stop watching it.

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I realize this is now the third Ron Paul-related posting since I began this blog not two weeks ago. I’m sorry about all the Ron Paul spam, but if you still haven’t given him a serious look, I think you owe it to yourself and this country to do that much. Form your own conclusions by looking into what the man has actually said. This is the first time in years that I’ve found a political candidate to be excited about, and I am so glad to see Paul’s popularity rise that I want to do all I can to make it count on election day.

On that note, this is a really good editorial I found by a Florida pastor and radio host.

With that out of the way, I’d like to address something my mom heard on a conservative talk radio show about Ron Paul and white supremacy groups. My initial reaction was that it was untrue, but I wanted to make sure before I continued to support him. Here’s what I found:

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Last week I received my latest issue of Gilbert Magazine, a magazine that features reprinted writings of Christian writer G.K. Chesterton as well as editorials relating to the worldview he espoused. It’s the magazine’s 10th anniversary, and I liked this paragraph:

By being devoted to Chesterton and his ideas, we have often faced the accusation – as did the man himself – of being narrow or of being on the fringe. But our defense is the same as his: we are not eccentric. We represent the central ideas of civilization: family, faith, and friendship. The normal and human ideals remain birth instead of contraception or abortion; natural death instead of suicide or physician-assisted murder; marriage instead of a revolving door of divorce or homosexual mockery; freedom instead of coercion; self-government instead of Big Government; taking care of one’s own property instead of taking care of someone else’s property; science as a tool or a toy instead of as a materialistic philosophy; education as truth passed from one generation to another instead of as state-sponsored indoctrination; beauty instead of ugliness; tradition instead of faddism; laughter instead of sneering; hope instead of despair; and finally, faith in God and Christ instead of endless doubt, relativistic tolerance, or nirvana.

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