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dandv

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I'm doing 41 things
  

dandv's Life List

  2. 1. Watch all the awesome TED.com/talks
    2 team members . 11 entries . 12 cheers     		6 people
  3. 2. learn krav maga
    1 entry . 4 cheers     		194 people
  4. 3. become a morning person.
    3 entries . 22 cheers     		1,405 people
  5. 4. get a green card
    5 entries . 14 cheers     		77 people
  6. 5. godisimaginary.com
    6 team members . 28 entries . 6 cheers     		9 people
  7. 6. leave this town
    3 entries . 4 cheers     		89 people
  8. 7. find my soulmate
    2 entries . 23 cheers     		3,026 people
  9. 8. Promote English as a global language
    4 team members . 9 entries . 4 cheers     		4 people
  10. 9. Master the Catalyst Perl framework
    5 entries . 1 cheer     		9 people
  11. 10. Learn DOM Scripting
    3 cheers     		8 people
  12. 11. Start my own business
    1 entry . 6 cheers     		8,275 people
  13. 12. continue to encourage the separation of church and state
    2 team members . 2 entries . 19 cheers     		23 people
  14. 13. Watch truly moving pictures
    1 entry . 5 cheers     		1 person
  15. 14. Never give up
    2 entries . 8 cheers     		343 people
  16. 15. Watch a space shuttle launch
    2 entries . 12 cheers     		949 people
  17. 16. bungee jump
    5 cheers     		3,310 people
  18. 17. Spread the word about Jesus
    4 entries . 5 cheers     		3 people
  19. 18. Buy a House
    8 cheers     		12,131 people
  20. 19. Spread the truth about the Bible
    8 team members . 9 entries . 4 cheers     		10 people
  21. 20. learn photography
    2 entries . 6 cheers     		2,541 people
  22. 21. figure out a single phrase which will convince those who hold religious beliefs to become atheists
    2 team members . 5 entries . 7 cheers     		5 people
  23. 22. Drive across the USA
    11 cheers     		2,146 people
  24. 23. Enter a topcoder competition
    1 entry . 3 cheers     		4 people
  25. 24. Make love in front of a log fire
    2 team members . 3 cheers     		8 people
  26. 25. go zorbing
    5 cheers     		284 people
  27. 26. join the Mile High Club
    3 cheers     		893 people
  28. 27. witness the end of the Imperial Unit System
    1 entry . 5 cheers     		6 people
  29. 28. hang glide
    3 cheers     		667 people
  30. 29. invent something
    1 entry . 3 cheers     		1,262 people
  31. 30. see the northern lights
    7 cheers     		16,369 people
  32. 31. Read "The Selfish Gene"
    1 entry . 2 cheers     		4 people
  33. 32. go skinny dipping
    2 team members . 4 cheers     		3,001 people
  34. 33. Swim in a bioluminescent bay
    11 cheers     		272 people
  35. 34. get married, stay married, and live happily ever after
    2 entries . 10 cheers     		1,896 people
  36. 35. colonize mars
    1 entry . 5 cheers     		25 people
  37. 36. reform English spelling
    2 entries . 3 cheers     		2 people
  38. 37. find 43 bugs in 43 things
    2 entries . 5 cheers     		65 people
  39. 38. visit Romania
    1 entry     		31 people
  40. 39. Help defeat Prop 8!
    1 entry . 2 cheers     		5 people
  41. 40. Find more people who enjoy the inane and celebrate the nonsensical
    2 team members . 2 entries . 1 cheer     		87 people
  42. 41. Start and Finish P90X
    1 entry     		82 people

How I did it
How to publish a perl module on cpan
It took me
1 week
It made me
\o/

How I did it: I was using Wadja.com to send free SMSes and with their website being slow as hell, I was very happy to find out that there's an API. So I wrote a Perl script to use it, then figured out that others may want to use it as well. The script became a module, which I published on CPAN. Read how I did it…

May 11, 02:29AM PDT | 0 comments


How to skydive
It took me
1 day
It made me
exhilarated

How I did it: Here is a short but amazingly well-written experience of skydiving, from a girl's perspective: http://www.yelp.com/biz/parachute-center-lodi#hrid:TbCXxyee7gulFJyEh3RRHg Read how I did it…

Apr 05, 06:45PM PDT | 0 comments


How to buy a new car
It took me
2 weeks
It made me
Lexus IS250 AWD

How I did it: I looked for three things in my new car, in this order: safety reliability cost efficiency Took me about two weeks to get educated about safety rating agencies (InformedForLife, IIHS, NHTSA, Germany's ADAC, EuroNCAP, Australian New Car Assessment Program, Japan's National Agency for Automotive Safety and Victims' Aid, Folksam Insurance, Sweden), online sources on vehicle reliability (I won't even start listing them), and aggre… Read how I did it…

Mar 23, 07:40AM PDT | 0 comments | 1 cheer


See all "How I Did It" stories...

Recent entries
Start and Finish P90X
P90X needs an FAQ 3 weeks ago

I found that I had a lot of diet and exercise/gear questions about P90X that were not answered in the guides provided with the program, and not even on the forums. So here’s my contribution: the

P90X FAQ Wiki

Jun 06, 11:25PM PDT | 0 comments


godisimaginary.com (read all 28 entries…)
How to debate religious believers and have a chance at success 3 months ago

After five years of debating with religious folks, I have reached the conclusion that no matter how rational a person is, it’s extremely hard to have them apply reason to their religious beliefs.

The only approach that remotely seemed to work was the Socratic method. Here’s an excerpt from my essay on applying the Socratic method to debate religious believers:

Note the insidiousness. This is not a topic you can fight with your cards in plain sight.

Skeptic (in disguise): I just watched Schindler’s list last night and was horrified. How was it possible to murder so many people, in the name of what? My mind cannot grasp a tragedy of that scale.
Believer: That was definitely atrocious, let’s pray to God it will never happen again.
Skeptic: Let us… Such an evil act… Do you think the Holocaust was evil?
Believer: Um, yes, of course?
Skeptic: I still can’t grasp its size… So many people… Would you think that killing 26,500 children each day is evil?
Believer: Yes…
Skeptic: If someone were to commit that crime, what should be done to them?
Believer: Death penalty? Life sentence?
Skeptic: What if someone very rich could intervene to greatly reduce that crime at little to no cost to them, for example by distributing a vaccine which they have anyway, and would expire in a few weeks if not distributed, and is already there? Should they do so?
Believer: Absolutely! Why let the poor children die when you can prevent it?
Skeptic: But what if that someone just wouldn’t do it? What would you think of them?
Believer: I think they are a cold-blooded murderer by non-intervention!
Skeptic: It saddens me to no end that these 26,500 children actually do get killed each day. Have you read about the study published by Global Issues?
Believer: What do you mean?
Skeptic: Take a look at this article, Today, 26,500 children died.
Believer: Nobody’s killing these children. They just die of disease, or because nobody feeds them, but nobody is exactly obliged to.
Skeptic: Well, I don’t know… May God have mercy on them… You do believe in God, do you?
Believer: Of course, and in Our Lord Jesus Christ!
Skeptic: Do you believe God is almighty?
Believer: Yes!
Skeptic: And all-knowing?
Believer: And all-knowing as well!
Skeptic: And all-good and all-loving?
Believer: That too.
Skeptic: Have you heard about chaos theory or the butterfly effect?
Believer: I’m not sure I see the point, but yes. It means that very very tiny changes in the physical world, like a butterfly flapping its wings in New Zealand, can have wild effects across the planet, say causing a tornado to happen in Mexico instead of Florida.
Skeptic: Do you believe in chaos theory?
Believer: I guess I do… God Almighty can certainly arrange for it.
Skeptic: Do you believe that we have free will?
Believer: That is one of God’s greatest gifts to us.
Skeptic: Would something like a butterfly flapping its wings affect anyone’s free will?
Believer: I don’t see why it would.
Skeptic: Now what if God caused such a butterfly to flap its wings and trigger a chain reaction of events that would eradicate the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria?
Believer: God can certainly do that, but probably has His reasons not to do it!
Skeptic [internally: WTF?!]: We agreed earlier that if someone could save those children, they should, and if they don’t, you think they’re a cold-blooded murderer. Why does God get away with it?
Believer: God is above this kind of logic! He has His plan and we are too limited to understand why 26,500 children must die each day as part of it.
Skeptic: If God is above logic, can he do logically contradictory things, like draw a square circle?
Believer: I suppose so?
Skeptic: Or tell a truth that is a lie at the same time?
Believer: God doesn’t lie!
Skeptic: If God tells the truth all the time, but at the same time he’s above logic, he can then tell truths that are lies all the time, no? Like the truth that you will end up in Heaven if you accept Jesus as your Savior.
Believer: God doesn’t do that!
Skeptic: How do you know?
Believer: I just know!
Skeptic [internally: end of debate…; returns to a different track]: OK, so maybe God just has a different definition of good and evil than we do? In other words, to us things like the Holocaust or the 26,500 daily children deaths are evil, but to God in is unknown infinite wisdom, they are not?
Believer: Yes, we cannot understand God’s will, but it’s ultimately for our good. Imagine that one of those children would become a genocidal terrorist who would kill millions.
Skeptic: What about the other millions of children mass-murdered to kill one potential terrorist?
Believer: God’s mysterious plan.
Skeptic: If we don’t understand these big things that God does, why do we claim to understand the little things, like when we should fast, or what day of the week to observe the Sabbath?

Apr 05, 07:25PM PDT | 0 comments


godisimaginary.com (read all 28 entries…)
The funniest indictment against atheists 3 months ago

I was watching Bill Gates’ Harvard address and one of the usually inane YouTube comments caught my eye:

You’re an idiot and go preach your Atheist views somewhere else. I hope when you die. You become a tree!! I am going to chop your ass down and send you to the paper mill and print the bible on you!

Mar 23, 07:43AM PDT | 2 cheers | 0 comments


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I want to:

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Harri wants to move to Canada go fly a kite be more confident get another tattoo Learn how to grind dance for free and fast. get the word "like" (like, where it isn't necessary) out of my speech habits! Keep in Better Contact With the Friends I Have and Make New Friends Be more tolerant Make a quilt make the guy i love love me back flirt more write with my left hand Go on a road trip participate in a triathalon Michi wants to study abroad Learn to knit learn yoga learn to love myself watch all three extended 'lord of the rings' movies back-to-back-to-back take more photographs Buy land consume less caffeine clean my bedroom Sundays Child ~ Faith, Hope & Love ♥ wants to pray more Maintain a positive attitude create my virtual model Make a reading list and start reading more start painting again
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