Books, Bungalows and Boondoggles

Since a lot has happened since my last post, I am going to break down this post into three areas:

Books:

More like just 1 book...the final review of Anathem

Bungalows:

Our adventure into home ownership

Boondoggles:

The election, in all its glory

Books:

Well, I finally finished Anathem.  It was a good book, but it was very painful to read in some parts.  About 2/3 of the way through, there is a section that is really tedious.  Basically, you are observing a group of philosophers sitting around a table and arguing over extremely theoretical subjects.  I think that went on for a little too long, but then the book gets back to a little action.  Anathem could really be split into 3 books, but  I am glad Stephenson lets you read the whole thing in one shot.  Most of his books have abrupt conclusions

(There is a specific literary term for it, but I can't think of it now.), but this one has a couple of big jumps at the end while still giving a solid, less detailed closing.

As a whole, I think Stephenson comes to the conclusion that the "secluded scientists" of the world can't corner themselves off.  Christians fall into that trap as well.  It is interesting how we create are own little worlds and get very upset when "apple carts" get turned over.

Bungalows:

So, we finally moved into the Haas last weekend, and we were battered, bruised, and exhausted Saturday and Sunday after moving the remainder of our belongings on Friday.  The final car load was delivered to our new house at 8:00pm on Halloween.  It was crazy to drive through our neighborhood and see 50-100 people dressed up from hunters and faeries to parents looking like Jason. 

We have painted the whole house (inside), and we had new carpet installed on the Friday that we moved in.

I spent a good portion of Saturday and Sunday setting up the computer room.  We have 4 computers in there so it can get quite toasty.  With the cooler weather coming, that should be nice.  We still have some big issues that we have to address: now that we don't live in a 1 bedroom apartment, we have room for and need new furniture (whether we can afford it is a different issue, haha).  We need a second chair or "love seat" of some kind in the living room.  Noelle and I actually don't have any kind of bedroom furniture for either of us, and our mattress is falling apart.  The guest bedroom doesn't have any furniture in it at all.  The only room that is fully furnished is the computer room...shows where our priorities are, hahahaha.  However, I am missing two little things from the computer room, aka "The Lab": a huge white wipe board (for brainstorming) and a Tron poster (Who knew they were that expensive!), or maybe a poster for this.

The one project that I am really looking forward to is creating a garden.  We have a wooden playset in our backyard, and I am trying to give it away.  (Someone at our church is currently interested.)  Once I get that out of the way, I will be laying out how big the garden is going to be.  When we went to Green Bay for my Grandmother's funeral back in May, my Grandpa (a master tomato grower) had Organic Gardening magazines laying all over the place.  My Mom noticed that both Noelle and I thought it was interesting, and she got us a subscription for our birthdays.  They have some really interesting tips so it will be cool to try some of them.

Here is what I am planning for now: strawberries and tomatoes are the easiest and most popular to grow. Beans, green bell peppers, and cucumbers all get along with strawberries and tomatoes, so they will be in the garden as well.  I really like raspberries, but South Carolina humidity supposedly is not very kind to them, as well as the fact that raspberries take 1-2 years to bear fruit.  I am not sure about that yet.  It will be interesting to see how the garden works out.  Hopefully, I can augment the garden with some cool electronic sensors similar to what I was doing with my previous Project Tomatoes just on a larger scale.

Boondoggles: 

 I guess I could be stereotyped as a Rightwing Nutjob.  This election was a little bit different for me.  Here is what it was like to me: What do you do when you want a hamburger and your choices are a veggieburger (McCain) and salad(Obama)?  To be honest, none of the candidates in the primary represented me.  I really did not know what I was going to do.

With all that said,  Noelle and I were supposed to vote at the polling location near our new house.  Well, when we changed our registration, the lady forgot to give us a letter so that if we were not on the roll by election day, the poll workers could just add us to the bottom.  Needless to say, we weren't on the list when we went to vote.  We had to go to the Lexington County voter registration office and wait in line there for an additional hour and half.  They finally let us vote, and I have to say that I am really disappointed in the system that is in place right now.  South Carolina does not allow write-in votes for President (who knows why), and  I had already decided that I was not going to vote for McCain or Obama...so I abstained.  In previous elections, Noelle and I had made the decision that if we did not know about a specific race or who the candidates were, we were not going to vote for anyone.  An uninformed voter is just as bad as not voting, in my opinion.  I voted for my House Representative, and I wrote in Mike Ditka for one of my Senators. All the state and county elections were very disappointing since there was only 1 person up for re-election against no one except a write-in vote.  In the end, I don't think I voted for more that 2 people, and then I voted on the amendments to the South Carolina Constitution and the school bond issue for Lexington County.

Noelle was upset about the overall election results,  but for some reason I had a peace about it.  (Either I had peace that God is still sovereign, or I am really that apathetic.)  My Dad thinks we are going to be plunged into a massive depression.  He is even planning a garden in case it gets really bad.  The next 4 years are going to be interesting to say the least.

Peace out