OK, so I have revised and corrected my previous Esperanto Primer (v1.0) and here is the new one An Esperanto Primer (v2.0).
Let me know if there are any corrections or suggestions.
Category: Esperanto, Language
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Thursday, December 15th, 2011 | Author: James O'Neill
Interpreting the Constitution by Erwin Cherminksy
I received an unexpected birthday present in the mail from Katia, who is a great friend of ours who is living in Belarus. She ordered a gift certificate from Barnes and Noble for me. I was really, really shocked to receive it.
With this wonderful gift I bought a book that I have been wanting for a while: Erwin Cherminsky’s Interpreting the Constitution. Erwin Cherminsky is a well known scholar of Constitutional Law. He is a professor at the University of California – Irvine, and has wrote the Introduction to Constitutional Law book that I purchased for my birthday last year (see my previous post on 22 Dec 2010).
I still really want to go back to school to get my degree in Law specializing in Constitutional Law and Civil Rights.
Thanks again Katia! =)
Thursday, December 15th, 2011 | Author: James O'Neill
I have not been posting since life – family, business, and work has kept me really busy, so here is a quick update. =)
Reading: I have not had much time to read, but recently I have finished “The Da Vinci Code” and I am working on “Angels and Demons” now in what little spare time I find.
Writing: I am looking at attempting some writing of some fiction…
Broken Toe: For Thanksgiving I broke my toe while taking Uliana downstairs to put her down for her nap. If you did not know I was sailor before that, you sure knew it afterwards. =O
Uliana: For a few months now Uliana has been sleeping without a pacifier and is pedaling a tricycle on her own. She is getting so big. We are watching too much Sesame Street… hence the previous post!
Smart Phone: Tanya and I both got our first smart phones in August 2011 – droid based smart phones and I love having a smart phone.
Cars: Both of our cars are in the process of dying so we are looking for a new car to at least replace one of ours. We are considering trading in both of our cars to purchase one, and going without a second car for a while. It will be annoying, but we can handle it.
Work: Work has just been really busy with new projects here and there.
Studio: We bought a second house in Baraboo to live in and to run our Yoga Studio out of in May of 2010. We went from having 5-6 classes a week to 15-19 classes per week and we brought on 2-4 more instructors. I am also working on a new Drupal based website for the studio.
Dells House: In July of 2011 we spent a bunch of money fixing up our Dells house to prepare it for new tenants and we have luckily found great tenants. Fixing it up was a weeks worth of vacation.
Category: Life, Update
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Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 | Author: James O'Neill
For all of you out there that are having a problem sleeping give Ricky Gervais’ Sesame Street Lullaby brought to you by the letter ‘N’ a try. I blame this completely on my 2 year old little girl.
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 | Author: James O'Neill
I am not an atheist. I label myself as an agnostic deistic humanist (see my posts under the Ministry tag for more info), but there are a lot of things about this that I agree with. I love the comment about Galileo, but I think the most important point she makes at the end is that atheism, as a movement, is not angry because of harm that is done to them, they are angry because of the harm done to others due to religion.
The following video is of the presentation given by Skepticon 4 titled “Why are Athiests so Angry?”.
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
As a follow up to my previous post on this topic titled “Ugandas Death Dentence Legislation for LGBT Peoples and the ‘Christians’ Who Counseled Them Towards This End ” – I just recently found this link from WATCH: RACHEL MADDOW INTERVIEWS UGANDAN MP DAVID BAHATI, AUTHOR OF THE ‘KILL THE GAYS’ BILL. It is actually is disturbing to know that this sort of blind zealotry still exists. I do really know that it does, but it really saddens me to hear of it. Please take the moment to watch it. Something interesting to note is that I do not think that this interview would have happened if MR. Bahati knew that Rachel Maddow was a lesbian.
Interview with David Bahati – Part 1
Interview with David Bahati – Part 2
Interview with David Bahati – Part 3
Category: Civil-Rights, Gay-Rights, Links, Ministry, Politics, Relationships, Religion, Sex
Tags: David Bahati, Rachel Maddow, Uganda, Video, YouTube Leave a Comment
Monday, December 06th, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
If you have not followed California’s Prop 8 trial please take the moment to watch the district court appeal which should give you an ideal and a great summary as to what this is all about and both sides’ views. One of the places it is available is via C-SPAN and it all starts at noon (CST). There is also a live BLogging of the district court appeal available at Prop 8 Trial Tracker in case you cannot watch the video at work… like me.
Please watch/read it. This really matters.
Category: Civil-Rights, Gay-Rights, Links, Marriage, Ministry, Misc, Politics, Sex
Tags: C-SPAN, California Proposition 8 Leave a Comment
Thursday, December 02nd, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
The 2:00pm announcement from NASA today is they have found the first life Form that uses arsenic as a genetic building block. This will change much in science. Science fiction has said such things were possible for many, many years, but this is the first evidence of it.
The Science Daily article Life Built With Toxic Chemical: First Known Microbe on Earth Able to Thrive and Reproduce Using Arsenic has the info.
Category: Evolution, Genetics, Links, Misc, Science
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Thursday, December 02nd, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
I came upon this really interesting article in Science Daily titled “Pregnant Mother’s Diet Impacts Infant’s Sense of Smell, Alters Brain Development“. It says that a baby’s sense of smell is affected by what foods the mother eats while pregnant. This makes a lot of evolutionary sense. If the mother is consuming certain foods then it must be good for the baby to have a predilection to consume and have desires for this food as well. This is an effective way of helping to ensure that the baby will want eat the food that is available in its future food sphere. However, this horrendously backfires when the mother is an alcoholic or has a horrible diet to begin with allowing the potential to pass a desire in the baby for a similar life style. =(
If you are currently pregnant please keep this finding in mind…. think of the children.
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
I came upon this link for something called Sugru, which seems to be a silly putty like silicone material that dries and sticks allowing you make changes or additions to fix up your stuff. Very interesting and affordable if you are into that sort of stuff.
Monday, November 22nd, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
In reference to my previous post ‘A Birthday Present and Vacation – Constitutional Law Reading‘ I spent the last 9 days on vacation doing various things, but trying to concentrate on reading this Constitutional Law book. The idea was to read approximately 100 pages a day while on vacation…. =) Life steps in and says…. think again sucka! =)
So this is the way the 100 pages a day turned out, taking into consideration I worked on Monday and I had at least one other day that was basically spoken for do to business obligations – so we are looking at 900 pgs down to about 700 as a goal:
- (sat) pg 107
- (sun) pg 146
- (mon) pg 237
- (tue) pg 275
- (wed) pg 327
- (thu) pg 398
- (fri) pg 441
- (sat) pg 507
- (sun) pg 583
So, I read almost 600 pages worth which is not so bad. Almost half way there and still reading. I will, of course, not have a much time to read since I am not on vacation, but I will try to find time where I can. I would love to finish the book within 3 more weeks.
Saturday, November 20th, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
Here is a really neat rebuttal to John McCain’s antagonistic and ever-changing stance towards repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell titled It Gets Worse PSA by Jon Stewart of the Daily show:
Category: Civil-Rights, Gay-Rights, Links, Misc, Politics, Video
Tags: Don't Ask Don't Tell, Jon Stewart, The Daily Show Leave a Comment
Monday, November 15th, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
Here is the “It Gets Better Project” and other associated It Gets Better videos on You Tube to which Obama, Jewel, Chris Colfer from the Glee cast, Prince Poppycock from America’s Got Talent, Zachary Quinto from Heroes and the New Star Trek movie, and many, many more participate to show their support for gay children who are suffering and may potentially commit suicide due to ignorance, intolerance, and bullying.
Also, Cindy McCain and some Hollywood friends create An Anti-Bullying Message From the NOH8 Campaign.
Our children need to know that they are loved and that bullies are not the norm, or even right for that fact. The rest of the world, especially once you get out of high school, is not necessarily filled with ignorant assholes. Shocking and hard to believe, I know, but there you go. Please watch these and spread the word, for this is a really important topic.
Category: Civil-Rights, Civil-Unions, Gay-Rights, Links, Ministry, Misc, Politics, Religion
Tags: It Gets Better Project, Video, YouTube Leave a Comment
Friday, November 12th, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
So, for my birthday I have somehow convinced my wife to get me a Barnes and Nobles gift certificate so I can purchase a college text book on Constitutional Law - Constitutional Law: Principles And Policies (~ 1300 pages) and I have also somehow convinced her to let me take vacation next week so I can spend a significant amount of time to read it. I am hoping to finish it during this next week off, but we shall see how that goes. I hope my brain can handle it. If I seem like a zombie the next time you see me, this might be why! =)
Constitutional Law: Principles And Policies by Erwin Chemerinsky
I really would like to go back to school for a degree in law specializing in Constitutional Law and Civil Rights and this sort of reading and other reading that I have done is, perhaps, a stepping stone towards that dream.
Books I Have Already Read Toward This End
- Founding Fathers
- Constitutional Law Case Study
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
I found this interesting link Green Float concept: a carbon negative city on the ocean @ Gizmag (Nov 2010) detailing a floating green city concept that would exist near the equator. This is a very fascinating design.
Green Floating City from Gizmag