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hsuehf
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Name: Frank
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: San Jose
Gender: Male
Interests: biking, guitar, math, piano, philosophy, physics, poker, psychology, sociology, software.
(BTW, my contact info is all spelled backwards)
Expertise: Software
Occupation: Engineer
Industry: Computers (Software)
Message: message me
AIM:  heushf
MSN: moc.liamtoh@heush.knarf
ICQ:  9874645
Yahoo:  heushcf
Jabber: moc.liamg@heush.knarf
Member Since:
2/9/2005
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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| Sunday
Nothing going on.
- Article: U.S. Births Hint at Bias for Boys in Some Asians [NY Times].
- Article: Too Poor to Make the News [NY Times].
- Article: How Much Student Debt Is Too Much? [NY Times].
- Article: Facebook and Divorce: Airing the Dirty Laundry [Time].
- Article: Have a Purpose in Life? You Might Live Longer [health.com].
- Article: When Young Men Are Scarce, They're More Likely To Play The Field Than To Propose [Science Daily].
3 Choices; Pick 2
Sample problems:
- Good quality, on time, within budget. Context is work project.
- Sleep, work, social. Context is college life.
- Strong christian, nice, socially desirable [1]. Context is a relationship with someone.
- Zerg, Terran, Protoss. Context is your races in a 2 on 2 Brood War multi-player game.
Such is life that you can't have everything. So, for #1, I would rather the project be of good quality and on time and not within budget. For #3, I would rather have a relationship with somebody that is nice and socially desirable but not a strong Christian. Yeah, I'm part of the majority that does not reward strong Christianity and punishes lack of physical attractiveness.
What would you pick? And if you want to answer but don't want to be publicly lynched, email / IM your answer and I will write an anonymous comment (except that it communicates your gender). In case it wasn't obvious, I'm most interested in #3.
[1] Let's define terms.
- How to define "Strong christian" ? Let's use George Barna's fairly technical definition of evangelical as found here [barna], under heading "survey methology", 3rd paragraph.
- How to define "nice" ? Let's say it's stuff like kind, generous, gracious, patient. Notice that the definition of "Christian" does not have any causal relationship to being "nice".
- Finally, how to define "socially desirable" ? Let us say a socially desirable girl is one you find physically attractive and a socially desirable guy is somebody you can emotionally connect with. So, a socially undesirable girl is one you don't find physically attractive and a socially undesirable guy is one who you can't connect emotionally.
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| Tuesday
Nothing going on.
- Article: Why Your Baby’s Name Will Sound Like Everyone Else's [Wired].
- Article: Why the poor pay more: More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace [Seattle Times]. Being poor sucks you into the continuing cycle.
- Article: Going under the knife with open eyes [Globe & Mail]. At what price, beauty? And is beauty worth it?
- Article: The "Bitch" Evolved: Why Girls Are So Cruel to Each Other [Scientific American]. Interesting, this evolutionary psychology.
- Research: The Paradox of declining female happiness [UPenn's Wharton]. An interesting quote from Women are more unhappy despite 40 years of feminism, claims study [Daily Mail UK]: We pushed so hard for equal rights, for having the right to work, for having equal status, we pushed so hard to have choice. But what we hear from many mums is: I have no choice, I have to work, I don't love my career, my childminder is taking half my salary and I'd rather bring up my children myself but I can't afford to. Feminism has traded one set of problems and benefits for another set of problems and benefits. Is it better? The answer depends on which set of problems and benefits you like better. So, better for some and not for others.
My Opinion: The Cost of High Christian Standards in Spiritual Maturity
This is about relationships, again.
Being a pragmatist, I think that for many (most?) folks in the church, the lack is not in spiritual credibility but in dealing with real-world social issues. But we all still focus on Christian standards of spiritual maturity in despite of this.
I honestly think good enough is just that, good enough. It's easy to argue that one can never have too high a standard for spiritual maturity. But consider that people will be bummed when they think they don't meet those overly high standards. Good people get disqualified. One might better solve the problem of quality of spiritual maturity (was there a problem to begin with?) and incidentally create another, and in my opinion, worse problem. Are we better off?
Good enough is good enough.
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| I have to say. Blue Moon's Belgian-style White is a damn good beer. Especially when it's on tap. And don't mind the fact that Blue Moon is owned by Coor's; just get a pint. And if you are in Mountain View CA, I recommend Molly Magee's Irish Pub. Very chill place with good music.
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| Monday
Yawn.
- Article: Most Affordable and Expensive Cities Map: Income by State [mint.com].
- Article: In Developing Countries, Web Grows Without Profit [nytimes]. Can't squeeze blood out of a rock, as they say.
- Article: Paying a Price for Loving Red Meat [nytimes]. I read somewhere that we Americans are more prone to osteoporosis not because we don't have sufficient calcium, but because digesting red meat removes calcium and we eat too much of the darn stuff.
- Article: How to Raise Our IQ [nytimes]. Interesting. Intelligence is fairly genetic. But, a poor environment suppresses achieving full genetic potential, much like poor nutrition suppresses growth potential.
My Opinion: Life Purpose as a Single
A couple of observations:
- A lot of single folks find that life is directionless or sense that other people are directionless. (I'm in this bucket.)
- Older single women tend to invest a lot in missions. (I'm not in this bucket.)
- Folks who have been in the church a long time tend to drop off the church social radar. They've done it all -- small groups, parties, short term missions, community service, ... . Striving for social relevance becomes less fulfilling. (I'm in this bucket.)
What's going on?
My thought is that for single folks, you've already done it all. It's like an RPG where you've already explored all of the current world, beat all the bosses, found all the little secrets, talked to every NPC, fought every kind of enemy, ... . There's nothing more to do.
For older single women, moving to the next world is difficult since it is highly dependent on your social relevance (i.e.: your youth and beauty). They want to exercise the affirming and nurturing side, but they don't have kids. The next best thing is missions or the kids your friends have. (The other question to ask is why are there so many girls who fall into this bucket?)
For older single guys, it is more possible. Question: How does one achieve social relevance with a younger and less wise gentlelady who thinks she has time when she really doesn't and who don't know what she care about? Usually, it's by relating to her at her level, which involves being less mature than your age would suggest. Yup; there is pressure to act immature in order to relate.
Yup; One can't win.
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| Monday
- Article: Forty per cent of children now suffer from food allergies [telegraph.co.uk]. Article is specific to Britain. But the question is why that many?
- Article: Charge the Large [Slate]. Lots of airlines are cracking down on fat people. Why? Because the airlines have made a business calculation: The wrath of passengers on whom these people encroach now exceeds the expected wrath of the fat people themselves. The cost of being nice to oversize fliers has become too high. Airlines are all coming to similar conclusions given similar economic pressures and what's feasible.
- Research: Men Might Have Biological Clocks, Too [NY Times]. Interesting. I wonder how this changes things, once this kind of knowledge becomes common place.
- Research: Kids Curb Marital Satisfaction [LiveScience]. Two thoughts. (1) If you mathematically "integrate" real happiness and/or real joy over the entire life of a person starting from when they did have the kid to when they die, how does having kids compare with not having kids? (2) I guess, this is why marrying somebody who is long-suffering is good; picky whiners who think they entitled are bad.
- Article: Ineligible Bachelors: Indian Men Living in U.S. Strike Out [WSJ]. If girls in the US are not what you are looking for, why not go back to the motherland to gain one? It turns out that the idea has already been floated around long ago. Now, due to the poor economy, American guys are perceived to have not as advantageous a circumstance or situation. Darn, eh?
- Article: Bringing up baby bilingually [Economist]. A study confirms the obvious. There is a demonstrated advantage for "crib" bilinguals -- those living in households where two languages are spoken routinely. Time to marry a non-American?
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