The coolest thing: Jabberwacky.com

Go to jabberwacky.com
It's an AI (Artificial Intelligence) chat robot.
It's a robot.
It learns language based on what people have said to it and how they have interacted with it.

Is this robot thinking??

What Would Augustine Do?

I'm know attempting to teach Augustine's Confessions to a group of freshman (anyone praying for me: please add in something about this). They tend to assume that they know what the Confessions must contain, without reading it, because it's written by a Christian. They neglect to consider the difference that one thousand six hundred years can make. So, I made up the following questionnaire. I will have them give their answers, and then give the answers Augustine would have given. Take it yourself, if you like. The goal isn't to give Augustine's answers, but to contrast our answers with Augustine's. If you want to guess what Augustine would say, that's okay too. I'll post Augustine's responses in a few days.

Read the following statements; if you are a Christian, check those that you believe; if you are not check what you think a present day Christian believes.

1. ___ It’s okay to keep a concubine.
2. ___ It’s okay to abandon a woman you love and with whom you have a child for the sake of your career.
3. ___ It’s okay to go see horror movies and be thrilled with them.
4. ___ It’s appropriate to weep for your parents when they die, even if you are sure they are going to heaven.
5. ___ God is completely spiritual and entirely lacks human form.
6. ___ One of the best ways to live as a Christian is to renounce sex altogether and become fully chaste.
7. ___ A Christian thinks about the condition of his or her soul every day, nearly every minute of every day.
8. ___ In the end time, our physical bodies will be resurrected and turned by Jesus into an incorruptible substance.

Here's a cheesy portrait of Augustine. I take it that he's a model Christian: handsome, male, serious, concerned about his soul...

my new job

i got a job at an elementary school, called North Rock Creek/Korte, in the kansas city public school district.
they have a website: http://www.kaboom.org/Default.aspx?alias=www.kaboom.org/nrckorte
a couple of times a year, they have a wildlife/environmental studies camp in warrensburg, mo, which is about an hour and a half from kansas city. the one for this semester starts this sunday. and guess what? i'm going along, too. as part of the job.

next week, everyone will need to send john e-mails and phone calls because i won't be there for him to talk to.

if you would like a view of the school, follow these steps:
1. go to http://maps.google.com
2. type in "2437 S Hardy Ave, Independence, MO 64052"
3. in the top right corner of the map, you will see the buttons 'map', 'satellite', and 'hybrid'. choose satellite.
4. the school is actually located a little bit south east of the green arrow. you will have to zoom in on the map in order to see it. (this can be done with the mouse roller or the zoom scale on the left of the screen)
5. now, south east of the arrow, you will see an oval-shaped parking lot. just south of that is the school building.
located behind the school building, and behind the parking lot, are things like an amphitheatre, a log cabin, and a little wooded area that has benches and a path where the kids can go to read if they want. i think they've started calling it 'the secret garden'. pretty cute, huh? i don't think you'll be able to pick these things out on the map, but it's still neat to see a bird's eye view of the school.

so, even though this job is not going to be luxurious or high profile, or even well-paying, i think that it will be a great job. it is important to me to make connections and friendships with people. it is hard to do that if i only see them once or twice a month (at most), which is what happens with substitute teaching. i think that if i were able to sub everyday in liberty, i would end up making more than i will make at this full-time job. but i think that the life i will have at this job will be better than the life in which subbing plays a substantial role.