Darwin and the LDS Church

At the request of family and friends who are too far away to meet our beautiful puppy, here are some shots of Darwin. What you hear in the background is the latest LDS General Conference. As one of my former professors at BYU would point out, Darwin and Mormonism seem to go together quite nicely.

I have a dream remix

Since I'm the sort who compensates for my lack of good blogging ideas with amusing youtube videos, here you go. Auto-tune being used for good, not evil, for a change.

Girly Man!

Many many thanks to Lindsay Pallin for showing this to me.

For Kristen

It's our wedding anniversary today. (And it's Sean's birthday!)
I gave Kristen three gifts, and she gave me permission to share her favorite one with the world. Let me preface all of this with a word of caution: if you have not seen the movie Nacho Libre, the chances of you understanding what I have done are slim.

Microsoft has this new experimental software called SongSmith, and I think it is pretty sweet. You can sing into a mic and the software will detect the key you're in and generously supply you with a solid-gold karaoke backup track.

Instead of my own voice, I injected Nacho's heart-felt ballad to Encarnacion into the SongSmith. This is what it pumped out.

* Note: It loses the beat halfway through, but don't fret; it finds the beat again just in time.

Goodbye, Maurice

Maurice was hit by a snow plow on Oxford street last Wednesday. His initial prognosis was negative, but not unmanageable: a broken femur. We were able to spend the weekend comforting him here at home. Today was going to be his surgery. The surgeon found that his shoulder had snapped as well, causing nerve damage and complicating Maurice's prospects for recovery. It made sense to let him go.

We'll miss you, Maurice.

Meet Maurice

We picked up Maurice (named after the french phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty) from the Michigan Weimaraner Rescue yesterday. We not only got a great dog but also went to P.F. Chang's and Wendy's. All in the same, awesome day.

Maurice is settling into his new home and routine. He's an older fellow, between 4 and 6 years, but when you see him leaping in and out of the ample snow in our backyard it's hard to think of him as anything but a puppy.

Many people out there (you know who you are) contributed to the Maurice fund in various ways. Thanks. And Janell, he wore his coat on the walk today and was by far the most fashionable dog in the vicinity.

Goodbye, 2008

Sitting on the deck of Starlodge, looking out over the hills at dusk. Hard to think of a better way to end the year.