Category: Of Random Interest

No baby yet.

Oneida Shen, a Chi Alpha intern in Arizona, just spent the last few days with us checking out campuses in Nor Cal and Nevada. She’s seriously considering coming to work alongside Paula and I here at Stanford. Pretty cool.

Also, apparently one of our alumni is currently in the Miss Universe Singapore finals (according to another Singaporean alumnus). How wild is that?

And I just learned one more really strange thing about the Bay Area–there are flocks of wild parrots that roam San Francisco. Seriously–there’s even a book about it. Apparently they just fly around the city. Read the FAQ. It reminds me of a chapter in the Life of Pi.

I saw a neat t‑shirt while I was walking around campus today: 

“I Thank Therefore I Am.”

Food for thought.

For some strange reason, the MP3 encoding of last night’s message was completely blank. Not a single sound was captured.

Oh well, it wasn’t the best message I’ve ever preached anyway. It’s still frustrating.

We do have other messages for download, however.

On an unrelated note, is it just me or did everyone start wearing a lot less all of a sudden? I swear that some of the people on the Farm painted their outfits on, and didn’t use much paint in the process…

I just ran across a great article that unpacks some of the differences between the movies and the books, and how it affects Tolkien’s message: The Return of the King: Best Picture, Perhaps, But Not Best Version.

In case you’re curious, we’ve got two other significant entries on Tolkien:
* Splintered Light (from Tolkien’s eleventy-first birthday)
* Saint J. R. R. The Evangelist

On a completely random note–have any of you seen the video of the pilot ejecting right before his plane crashes? (link takes you to a page containing info about the crash and a link to the video).

If you’re a regular visitor to the site, you’ve no doubt noticed the substantial redesign. Play around with the menu (lifted with permission from netscape devedge) and you’ll notice that it’s messed up. I’m going nuts trying to fix it. Argh!

update: the menu is functional, although uglier than I’d like. I’ll try to make it spiffy soon.

The NY Times had a fascinating article on Governor Arnold that included this unique little perspective: Everybody pities the weak. Jealousy you have to earn. (source).

That’s an interesting way to express the nature of ambition, no?

In other news, Pastor Joss Walters (of Kansas City, MO) suggested that we screen Brother Cole more carefully before allowing him to enter the hallowed ranks of Chi Alpha.

I would like to suggest that [Brother Cole] would need to [pass] a test … to establish whether or not he could properly connect with this audience. The test could begin with a Game Cube or PS2 followed by a brief sermon on “WHAT IS MARILYN MANSON SO UPSET ABOUT?” [edited slightly for brevity]

I just learned that Harvard is launching a porn magazine featuring students download boondock saints the .

Harvard students. Nudity. One shudders. 

Actually, they’re probably shuddering themselves. It gets cold in Boston.

Seriously, I can’t help but wonder how long it is until someone at Stanford tries to copycat Harvard (consider our copycat mascot as evidence).

Once again for the record, Chi Alpha thinks porn is bad. The fact that Harvard is now complicit only makes it worse!

Stanford has been dominating the world of hoops lately, but for some strange reason Duke is still ranked number one. Sports Illustrated has a really good piece explaining why we ought to be ranked first.