NOVA

One of the reasons that I don't mind not having an expanded TV selection is the PBS channel and its programming. Between this free tv and not as free internet, I don't feel like I need to pay that extra bill for internet every month. Those activities provide me enough entertainment to fill my days.

I just finished watching an episode of NOVA that dealt with evolutionary genetics. Apparently evidence has shown that most development of life depended on when an activator gene told your body to grow what. From this, it can be shown how the finches on the island that Darwin studied can be different and have the same genus and such. From this it can be inferred as to how all land based forms came from a fish that developed strong enough limbs to escape to land to be safe from prey. This also explained how our brains are as developed as they are. Nearly half of the start stop activators in our DNA are based or centered around brain development. The NOVA epsiode said we a monkey has 1 different gene from a chicken that controls brain development, whereas we humans have 18. I found this all very interesting, but I have to reflect on a topic I have been reading lately.

I started reading a book about a New York guy who decides to live as close to the Bible as he can for a whole year. I haven't finished the book yet, but it is very good. He finds the rules and so forth in the Bible that should be practiced. The part that I have found the most interesting is the rules that people follow because they are in the Bible. The most common answer is that they are done because they are in the Bible and God must have a reason for including them. As a Christian, I am not as obligated to follow the rules as the Jewish followers are. Since Jesus's death was the ultimate sacrifice in our eye's, we aren't obligated to blow a horn at the end of the month and or bind money and the ten commandments to our bodies. The author considered himself an agnostic, and has not quite found himself a true believer in God as from what I have read so far. The author has found praying to be quite useful, which I should probably be doing more of in his model or any fashion anyways.

The conflicting ideal here is that God created all of life in the form that it is in today. Science is working hard to disprove this based on the findings from the NOVA program. I am not sure which side of this argument I am on at this moment. I don't think it is impossible for God to have set up all this evidence that we are finding. The techniques we use to date the rock materials indicates things are much older than the beginning of life as described in the Bible.

times typed "oftern"-0

Corn, Corn, Corn

This past week has been corn dominated. I started off last sunday by going to the Corn festival in Wilmington with the Corns sisters. The festival itself was a mixture of the antique machinery show that I used to frequent, and a flea market. The food was what I would have expected from a fairgrounds based event. It was however nice to get to hang around with the vet assistant and her sister. Sometimes I may dominate her time with much. Seeing her interact with her sister was pretty cool.

We also started our corn harvesting for the year last monday. My crop has been the highlight of the season thus far, outpacing dad and grandpas fields by nearly 30 bushels per acre. All this adds up and with the market at a high, I went ahead and sold all my corn. This turned out to be a big payday for me, I won't have to worry about selling my beans anytime soon to have more income. I should have enough to finish off all my agriculture based bills, get my savings where it was last June, and do some home renovations. As I was telling the vet tech the other day, we are lucky to be making the progress we are. The fields are especially dry, the corn is ready early, and the tobacco is all done and put in. We are planning on finishing by the middle of this week with corn, and I don't think any of the beans will be ready for another week or so after that. The bean crop looks to be below average by my novice eye, but the price is currently high enough to be profitable. Hopefully the price can maintain until we are finished this season.

Speaking of tobacco, we did exceptionally well harvesting this year. In three weeks we put in 20 so acres, and found time to take a week off between and finish the week of labor day. I was impressed with our effort. We hired nearly everyone that came by and said they would work which turned out pretty well. Dad was impressed also, but grandpa didn't know what to do when he had twenty people to keep an eye on to boss around. It was however like dad said, when we had mexicans we wanted to stretch out the work to last as long as we could. With a larger crew we weren't responsible for after work hours and when the work was done, and as such we did the work as fast as we wanted to.

I also recently finished my graduate degree/program. Now that I have a new certification, I need to renew my teaching license. Right now it is expired and I am not sure if I am allowed to sub without one. I should have the paperwork in the mail in the morning, but schools have not called at all as of now, so I am not very worried.

times typed "oftern"-0

New Era

The divisional realignments were announced last night for the new look big 10. Overall I was indifferent towards what was decided. I wasn't going to protest if they moved the osu-um game earlier in the schedule. I wasn't going to protest if the teams were in different divisions or who was in the division with them. To me, Ohio State football is more about staying with my team than who is on the schedule. With my current occupation I can rarely plan ahead that many weeks with certainty that I will have a clear conscious to get away. So as it is, I just get to watch them on TV and be proud that my alma mater is playing.

I am also getting more work done on my house today. The furnace wasn't working correctly and and my guy said he had the whole day to make some upgrades. So I will now have vents upstairs and functional return vents on the 1st story of my home. I might end up spending a grand to have everyting put together, but its only money and I can't take it with me. Running the AC has not proven to be as expensive as I thought it might be, but I cannot confirm that my meter was read last month. My electric bill was lower than I would have guessed, so AEP likely estimated the bill. I did decide to use a clothesline, which means I won't have to use my dryer as much. This should save me some billing, but the AC use will likely override my bill some.

times typed "oftern"-0