Haley introduced my brother and I to the movie Second Hand Lions tonight. I think it's a great movie - it's nice to see that people are being creative with family movies still. I think I enjoyed the deleted scenes and the background behind the movie more on this DVD than I have on any other I've seen so far. I think it's great that they switch back and forth between "reality" and what happens in Walter's (the boy) imagination. The scenes were entertaining by itself, but the way they structured the movie made it extremely fun to watch. I'd say it's one of the best family movies I've ever seen.
Wednesday, 28th of April, 2004
Saturday, 24th of April, 2004
Went to the Mazda Rev-It-Up competition again this year. This time it was raining really hard. Wow, what a wet course! The Mazda 3 was definitely a lot of fun, though. It was surprised how much grip it had in the rain with the Falken Azenis and Eibach springs. Straight-line traction wasn't bad either - I could floor it with the automatic transmission and the car gripped up instead of torque steering and sliding around like some FWD cars.
Picture - I actually did a lot better than last year. I got there early so of course I was at the top of the score board for a little bit, but the really good people that autocross a dozen times a year came later that day and Sunday to set some real times.
Monday, 19th of April, 2004
If A is caused, then let us refer to its cause as "B." By definition, given B, it is determined that A will occur. If it is determined that A will occur (i.e. A is caused), we have no free will with respect to A. (In other words, determinism implies no free will.)
If event A is not caused, then its occurrence is not dependent on any prior state. If an event's occurrence is not dependent on any prior state, the event must occur arbitrarily. If something occurs arbitrarily, its occurrence not in our control. Therefore, if event A is not caused, we have no free will with respect to A. (In other words, indeterminism also implies no free will.)
Therefore, we have no free will."
This is one reason why I believe our existence is not about our own free will.
Thursday, 15th of April, 2004
Sunday, 11th of April, 2004
Saturday, 10th of April, 2004
Picture - I took a picture of Rice Auto Body, which is located just South of Oxford.
Thursday, 8th of April, 2004
What in the world... a scale working "mini-bike" with 4.2-6.5 horsepower, is 16 inches tall, 37 inches long, and weighs 36 pounds. And it goes about 35 mph, which is probably ridiculously fast once you're on it. Yours for $500 at the right sources? Looks like quite a toy...
Saturday, 3rd of April, 2004
Picture - Shedd Aquarium is now playing Finding Nemo! Not really, but it's definitely cool to see clown fish hiding in a Sea Anemone! The aquarium was full of people like I've never seen it today - I think Finding Nemo increased nation-wide interest in the aquatic sciences.
Movie - Animators for Finding Nemo really nailed the way Blue Tang fish swim right on. Check out the way they move - it's just like Dory!
Friday, 2nd of April, 2004
Picture - 3 train locomotives towing 3 little trailers. That's a rare sight. What's also rare, according to Nolan, is that the front 2 (left 2) locomotives are C30-7s. The third one is an SD40-2. That's about 11800 combined horsepower.
Picture - Hey, our chartered bus has 4-wheel steering.
Our sight-seeing today consisted of visiting the Art Institute of Chicago - saw lots of cool stuff.
Picture - I found this German stained glass panel to be very interesting, titled "The Hanging of Judas", c. 1520.
Picture - Of course, the museum would not be complete without some interesting modern art, and some useless modern art. Here's an interesting... thing. They put some string around the room to make it look like there's glass or a mirror there.
Picture - The Hyatt at O'Hare International Airport is the official hotel for the Heritage "Gold" music festival that the group is playing in. It's quite a hotel - there is a gigantic 10-floor atrium with 4 elevators in the middle and bridges that spoke out from the center pillar of elevators.
Picture - Each floor had 2 spokes, and they interleaved between the floors. It's something pictures can't quite capture - it was really cool.
