It’s official as of this afternoon. I will be co-president of the Bachelor of Social Work Student Association with my friend, Rachel Jardine, for the year 2006-2007. I’m officially stoked.
Monthly Archive for March, 2006
So, I decided last week that I’m going to run for president in the Bachelor of Social Work Student Association at the U. I decided to do it because I think that it would give me some good real-world experience in Social Work, but also because I just think it would be fun. I learned recently that there would only be one other person running “against” me. That’s when I got bummed.
The person I opposite me was a friend of mine from the program named Rachel. I have her in a few of my classes this semester and she was the first person that I met when I first came to the University of Utah. Rachel and I get along quite and and I respect her knowledge and experience in the field. Of course, you can see why I was bummed. However, she had a great idea.
She thought that perhaps we could have a co-presidency. I actually think this is a great idea. Mostly on account of the fact that there were two other positions open (secretary and treasurer) for which there has been no interest shown. She consulted with the current BSWSA president and he just contacted me to see if I could be interested in going that route. Being that the presidential position is quite a lot to take on, and the fact that we’re obviously going to need some help, I responded to him with a resounding yes.
Now I guess we’ll see how things work out. With my schedule this week, I really wasn’t all that up to campaigning, but I would have done what needed to be done. Hopefully the higher-ups will see this as a good thing and understand that it would help to have two very dedicated people on board to help pull the BSWSA, and its associated activities, together. I’ll post updates on the situation as I get them.
I mentioned a while ago that I’ve been having a hard time getting used to have two chitlins around. While their tandem screaming is still tough on the nerves, I’m getting better with it.
I’ve also really began to enjoy having Mason around. He’s becoming very interactive. He smiles a lot, coos all the time, and now tries to blow bubbles with his spit (yuck). Even funnier is that he really likes the ladies. He’s been seen on more than one occasion throwing eyes at someone other than his mother. It’s quite funny. The funniest thing is that he plays around while he’s feeding. He’ll stop eating, look up at Corinne, smile and laugh, and then dive right back in where he left off. Most of the time though, he’s unable to latch back on quickly enough so he starts flailing for a bit until mommy pays attention. It’s comedic to watch.
He’s began sleeping through the night (finally) and hates being in his car seat unless it’s in motion (on the floor or parked in the car just won’t do, we have to be moving). Mostly though, he’s just a very well-tempered child. Everyone says that he didn’t get it from me, but my mother tells me I was low-key too.
All I can say is that I’m happy to be over the major stress of the first few months and I’m glad that I can finally start enjoying my son.
For some lame reason, I have an affinity to Apple’s basic software applications. I love Safari, I think Mac Mail is great (apparently so does Microsoft, who is renaming Outlook Express to “Microsoft Mail”…how original), but I’ve never gotten into using iChat. Mostly on account of the fact that I use all of the different messaging services and iChat only supports AIM, ICQ, and .Mac. That was until iChat version 3.
With version 3, Apple brought about Jabber support. For those of you who don’t know what Jabber is, it’s an open messaging protocol. When I was using Linux, Jabber was all I used. I should also mention here my liking of Google stuff, particularly Gmail. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing other than the fact that Google Talk, like Jabber, supports XMPP. In other words, Google Talk will allow me to connect to any Jabber server on the Intarnetweb. “But, you can only talk to other Jabber members, right?” Nay. Let me explain.
Jabber servers have the capability of “hooking” into the various messaging services through Jabber’s transports. Using these transports, you register on a server with your MSN/AIM/ICQ/Yahoo! account, and you’re online.
The thing I like most about this is, again, the consolidation. Everything is traveling through a single connection. This has its drawbacks (single point of failure, not having video chat, and a few other minor things), but chatting is not mission critical to my day, so it’s a risk I’m willing to take. Even neater is the the capability of chatting when I’m away from my computer through Gmail’s interface. Schweeet!
So, back to iChat. Now that I have my Jabber account fully configured, I’m glad to be using iChat. It’s not as “full-featured” as, say, Adium X, but like I said, I really like Apple’s apps. If you’re interested in learning how to set up iChat with some serious Jabber action yourself, I’ve included some links below.
Lastly, I realize that I could just use a public Jabber server to do this, but alas…my past experience has proven them to be somewhat unreliable. I think Google will be more reliable and eventually, I’m hoping that Google will make use of their own transports for hooking into the other services.
Links:
Google Talkabout: XMPP Federation
Google Talk: Gtalk for iChat
Connect Google Talk to AIM, MSN, & Yahoo
Okay, so this post is more about the U.S. than Canada, but I love saying that. Those of you who know me, know me to be a fairly tolerant and accepting person. I believe myself to have very little prejudice and I’m friendly with just about everyone I meet; however, I have my limits.
I recently read an article detailing a Canadian University’s refusal to print the infamous Mohammed cartoons, but who this last week published a scathing and vile image of Jesus Christ involved in an unmentionable activity. Granted, the paper’s editor resigned, but it does seem that this was a parting shot and it came without repercussion.
Everybody knows that Canada is known for its liberalism. Even with that in mind, I would never say that all Canadians are kooks. What I’m having a hard time with though is this literal attack on Christianity that is occurring in the U.S. and Canada. What I find so hard about it is not that people are actually attacking Christianity, but the fact that SO FEW are going on the defensive about it. It seems that everyone is just content to play ducky, sitting by and letting the offense roll off their backs. I don’t think that such defiling imagery would be tolerated here, but I do believe that it won’t be long before it will.
Of course, living in Utah gives Christians of all denominations a certain level of comfort in that they rarely have to endure such blatant bigotry, but we do occasionally face it, especially in Northern Utah. I simply cannot understand why the Christian Nation is not rising up to quell this utterly open attack on the country’s foremost religion. Are we simply “turning the other cheek,” or is it something more than that? Is it that most people simply don’t know what to do to battle such hypocrisy? Is it that they view themselves as weak and powerless? Is it because we don’t have a major figure leading the charge? I don’t know, but whatever the reason, it needs to change.
Extremist Muslims around the world make demand after demand of people who offend them (which is apparently not a hard thing to do) and everyone just gives in. Is it because of the extremism that we see played out on a daily basis? Perhaps. I for one, do not believe that the majority of the world’s muslim population are violent extremists. I am accepting of their beliefs and know that they have a right to believe as they see fit. I do think though, that Christians could learn a thing or two from these often-portrayed hardliners. I’m not calling for Christians to rise up in a murderous riot in the streets, but I do think that we as a people need to take a more active role in publicly fighting the forces that continue to chip away at Christianity.
If the tables had been turned and it were Mohammed, Buddha, or even one of the many great civil rights leaders in that picture, all hell would have broken lose HERE in America. The ACLU would be clamoring over themselves to bring suit to the offenders and apologies would be demanded of them. Of course, my civil liberties as Christian can not be infringed upon because I am of the majority. Forget that!
I say that it’s time for this madness to stop. Christians as a whole, no matter what their denomination, need fight to eradicate ALL forms of religious intolerance and not leave it up to the REAL kooks of this country to continue pushing their anti-Christian agenda. The situation is already out of hand. Many liberals refuse to associate with any anti-Islam sentiment at all, but sing praises to an artist’s rendition of the Virgin Mary covered in cow dung and prurient photography, or Christ in a bottle of urine. I believe that it is entirely plausible that, if action is not taken soon, we will be exposed to such blaspheme as was exhibited in Canada. All in the name of freedom of expression, no? Freedom of speech has has been judge to be inapplicable with “fighting words.” I can’t see how this statute fails to apply here. If I were a Canadian Christian, I would be ashamed of, nay…outraged and appalled with, my country.
I would continue on my rant here, but I’m utterly sick about this. Perhaps I’ll re-write it after I’ve calmed down a bit.
