Diversity?

A front page article in today's Plano newspaper reports on a public art project to recognize the history of Plano's Douglass Community. The Douglass Community is an historically black neighborhood named after Frederick Douglass, a slave and abolitionist.

So what's wrong with this? Well, nothing, I guess. But two things strike me as a tad bit... odd. First, the project is a mosaic to be placed along the train tracks where, I presume, it will only be visible to people riding the DART train. That doesn't seem very public to me, and also hints at the "wrong side of the tracks" stereotype.

Secondly, the two artists featured in the story (I don't know if there are others or not) are white. The photo accompanying the story doesn't show much of the art (which is not yet complete or even partially installed), but I can't help but worry about the style and theme(s). Will they reflect the community and its history (and future)? Or will it be a typical white bread interpretation? The article makes no mention of the opinions, good or bad, of anyone living in the Douglass Community today.

Or am I being a racist by suggesting that only black artists should have been chosen to produce art recognizing a black community?

The Big Two-Oh!

My truck's oh-dough-meter just turned over the big two-oh. Yep, twenty thousand miles! In only 1725 days! That's 1,298.5 furlongs per fortnight, which seems rather high given that I work at home and walk my kid to school most days.

Must be those runs to Home Depot, Whataburger, and bowling.

At this rate, my son, who can be seen in the pictures of my truck and who just turned 8 today, will start driving this truck before it hits 55. 55,000 miles, not 55 mph. It's slow, but not that slow. :-)

R.I.P. Dick-Bob

Pro bowling pioneer Dick Weber died in his sleep on Feb. 13, 2005. He had just returned from the ABC (bowling) championships in Baton Rouge. He was 75.

Weber began making a living from bowling in 1955 when he toured with a Budweiser sponsored team. Three years later he helped found the PBA. Many will remember Dick as a fixture on Saturday-afternoon bowling broadcasts in the 60's and 70's.

While some think that Bob-ness comes from living in Texas, I believe that it is more a state of mind. And if making your living from bowling isn't synonymous with Bob-ness, well, then I just don't know what is. So here's to ya, Dick-Bob. The weather guessers around here are predicting more thunderstorms than usual this spring, they just didn't realize that it was because God has a new bowling partner.

Pope John Paul II, Part II

A couple of weeks ago I wondered if God was well pleased with Pope Johnny P Numero Dos swatting away His symbols of peace, love, and the Holy Spirit. Wasn't he rushed to the hospital the very next day?

Beloved, never avenge yourselves,
but leave room for the wrath of God;
for it is written, "Vengeance is mine,
I will repay, says the Lord."
     -- Romans 12:19

For extra credit, what is Paul quoting in this passage from his letter to the Romans?

My Lent Filter Is Clogged

Jesus H. Christ! Is it Lent already?

Went to church on Ash Wednesday to get my ashes and couldn't help but notice the diversity among the parishoners here in Plano. Our fair town has a very homogeneous image, but I saw people with all kinds of different hair colors. That's a start, isn't it?

Anyway, it isn't just that Lent seems early this year, it actually is early this year. Last year Ash Wednesday was on February 26th. You see, Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter, and Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox. Except that we aren't really talking about the astronomical vernal equinox or the astronomical full moon, but the ecclesiastical ones. There is a table maintained by the Church that defines the ecclesiastical full moons, and the ecclesiastical vernal equinox is always on March 21.

No, these aren't the same tables used by Astrologers.

What? You don't have access to the church lunar tables? Well, you're in luck. Some geek named Oudin had way too much time on his hands back in 1940 and came up with the following set of equations to compute the month and day of Easter using only the year, y, as input.

c = y / 100
n = y - 19 * ( y / 19 )
k = ( c - 17 ) / 25
i = c - c / 4 - ( c - k ) / 3 + 19 * n + 15
i = i - 30 * ( i / 30 )
i = i - ( i / 28 ) * ( 1 - ( i / 28 ) * ( 29 / ( i + 1 ) )
    * ( ( 21 - n ) / 11 ) )
j = y + y / 4 + i + 2 - c + c / 4
j = j - 7 * ( j / 7 )
l = i - j
m = 3 + ( l + 40 ) / 44
d = l + 28 - 31 * ( m / 4 )

Gene, put down your hand. Yes, Gene, I see the 19 times y divided by 19. No, that isn't the same as y. Why? Because these are all integer operations. That means that you throw away any fractional parts.

Let's work through a bit. This is 2005, so y = 2005. We immediately compute c to be 20.05, but since we're doing integer division we throw away the .05 and are left with c = 20. Still with me? Good. Plugging 2005 into the equation for n gives us

n = 2005 - 19 * ( 2005 / 19 )

After doing the integer division shown inside the parentheses we get

n = 2005 - 19 * 105

And that is clearly 10.

If you are determined you can finish the calculations (be careful with your precedence rules) and figure out that Easter will fall on March 27th this year. At least for the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestants. Yes, the Protestant churches, even the Suthren Babatists, follow the Pope's rules on this one.

Shallow Thought #1: Do I have to read phishing emails on Fridays in Lent?

Hope you've all recovered from the Mardi Gras celebrations. And speaking of Mardi Gras, you can figure it out from Easter as well. Once you know when Easter is you count backwards 47 days and you find yourself on Mardi Gras.

No, they don't give you beads if you go to church on Mardi Gras.