Uh, Doc?

Of all the grad school prep activities I've had to do in the past month, the hardest apparently is getting my doctor to sign off on the vaccinations I have had (MMR, Meningitis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, and since I somehow avoided it as a child, Chicken Pox). I knew the doctor's office did not have a record of the Meningitis shot, as I received that from another medical center, but they also could not find the MMR records. This is interesting, since they had the information five years ago when a similar form was filled out so I could go to St. Mary's. After three weeks of looking, they found the record. So I will finally be able to pick up the immunization form and send it off the UMD, and with very little time to spare.

Moral of the story: if you can, get your own copy of your immunization records.

Now back to that other thing I've been putting off, packing.

Wow, XKCD, Just Wow

I had a little bit of a laugh when I read XKCD earlier today. The comic does a play on the Discovery Channel commercial with the song "I Love the Whole World" (I guess that's the title; the comic has a link to the YouTube video of the commercial). It brought back memories from Sunday when the thing was forced into my head (and burrowed so deep that it will never come out). All because I decided to shotgun the Discovery Channel's miniseries "When We Left the Earth." All six hours of it. I have to admit, it was a good set of episodes, chronicling NASA's manned space program, from Mercury to the shuttles. While it did not go into as much detail as I would have liked (two hours on Mercury and Gemini, two on Apollo with a brief discussion of Skylab, and two hours on the shuttles), it did keep my interest. In fact, I kind of wanted to buy the DVD set of the series until I saw the price tag. Maybe something for the Christmas list.

And on a political note, Thurmont is joining the ranks of small towns that are making English their official language. I know the reasons behind it, and they do make some logical sense, but in Thurmont, it seems like declaring water is wet. Perhaps this will require the locals to actually learn and speak grammatically correct English (one can hope, as I'm not sure that some of the natives know basic subject-verb agreement). I guess they solved all the other pressing concerns like fixing the sewer system, getting rid of the corruption in the town's police department (tip: don't destroy exculpatory evidence, especially when the state's attorney tells you to keep it), and figuring out how to pay for the new police station (another tip: don't build a jail right across Main Street from the elementary school, in front of the Little League park, and next to the Senior Citizen's Center, while hiding the local library on some back road in town, far from a main road--thus, let's hope no one escapes from the Thurmont holding cells).

Things to Do...

With about ten days left until the move (unless there is a major snafu), I realize that there are a bunch of things left to do. First is to finish shopping, mostly small things for the bathroom (exceptions: TV and futon). Then I need to make a deposit at the bank, finish packing (which requires finding more boxes), and visit my grandmothers before I leave. A busy week and a half left.

And provided everything goes to plan, I would like to invite people over the weekend of July 12. Going to plan of course means no major snafus and getting settled in by then.

Well, back to the packing.

A Humble Request to Frederick County Voters

Do NOT vote of Joe Chmelik for Frederick County School Board.

Toward the end of the school year in Frederick County, a small controversy arose. An extracurricular student group at Urbana High School invited the local Islamic cleric, who also happens to be a professor at Georgetown University, to speak about Islam and some issues relevant to the Middle East. As this group was formed by IB students to learn about the Middle East, such a talk/lecture/presentation seemed appropriate and was approved by school officials, as it did not promote Islam, it just provided some information about Islam. However, a small (and I do mean small) minority of residents in Frederick County decided that the cleric should not be allowed to speak on the grounds of separation of church and state. (Mind you, these seemed to be conservatives who are the first to denounce such a separation.)

Well, the day of the talk came (and attendance at the talk was voluntary, I might add), and the controversy did not die down. Apparently, someone called an attorney from the Eastern Shore of Maryland (I guess the lawyers in Frederick County knew better) and said attorney threatened a lawsuit. But the kicker is the reaction of one of the candidates for school board, Joe Chmelik. He decided he needed his photo-op at Urbana, and was quoted by the Frederick News-Post as saying, "(Muslims) are the masters of the death squad and they are good at it" (Frederick News-Post, page A1, 11 June 2008).

Funny, I would have given the title to the Nazis, and I don't think they were Muslims. Or perhaps Josef Stalin, and he wasn't a Muslim. History has seen many "Christian" death squads (Northern Ireland, anyone?).

And may I give Mr. Chmelik some advice? "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:3-4, NRSV). Okay, these words aren't mine, but they come from a source very credible to Christians. We Christians have been quite capable of killing large numbers of people on our own. Let's not say Muslims are the greatest offenders. We all have blood on our hands.

Very rarely will I make an endorsement (or anti-endorsement) of a candidate on this blog (most of you reading this should already know many of my political leanings). But this situation called out for it.

So please, vote for anyone but Joe Chmelik. And maybe we should rethink the whole elected school board thing.

I Caved, Again.

Much like when I caved over a year ago and joined Facebook, I have now joined the world of the blog (I'm not quite sure if they really mean Borg). Anyway, after toying with the idea for a few months, I've decided it's time for one. Expect observations on politics, Frederick County, and life as a graduate student in applied mathematics trying to get his doctorate.

On that note, I had a bit of a surprise today in church. As president of the church council, I decided to inform the congregation that I will be moving to the university soon. The preacher, having been informed of this a week ahead of time, graciously made time for me to make the announcement during service today. However, the rest of the council decided to give me a poster to decorate the new apartment, one only a nerd could love. So to any church members who may actually read this (highly doubtful), thank you so much.

And to everyone else, look out.