I got an iPod a few months ago for my birthday, and it maintains a count of how many times a particular music file is played. It even has an automatic playlist of the top 25. So, after about three months of usage (mainly hooked up to my car stereo), here’s what’s in my Top 25. (The number in parentheses is the play count.) Read More »

I voted in today’s Republican Primary, and it was my first experience with Utah’s new electronic voting machines. (I used Virginia’s electronic voting machines a few years ago, and was not particularly impressed by them.)

The touch-screen ballot was clear and easy to use. After I made my selections, it confirmed them on the screen, allowing me a chance to go back and change them if I realized I’d made a mistake. (I don’t live in Palm Beach, so I hadn’t.)

Then — and this is the part I like best — it printed my votes on some paper that I could view through a window, allowing me again to confirm that my vote was being recorded properly. If I had noticed an error on the paper version, I could have cancelled that ballot and corrected my vote. Only after confirming the correctness of the paper ballot was my vote recorded.

It seems this system is well-designed to counter the problems encountered in recent elections, and the paper trail provides a nice way to confirm the vote, thus avoiding some of the conspiracy theories about stolen elections.

A Democratic friend invited me to see Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Since I’m generally a fan of science fiction, I agreed to go.

The good: It was entertaining to watch, for the most part. There were perhaps a few too many shots of Al Gore looking pensive, but he was actually funny at times. And there are some spectacular views of nature. The movie also contains some interesting scientific explanations, and it wasn’t quite as partisan as I anticipated. Read More »

Earlier this month I read The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, and this week I finished reading the sequel, Enna Burning.

The Goose Girl is based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the same name, with which I was not familiar. (After reading the book, I read the original fairy tale, which is posted on Shannon’s site, and I have to say she has improved the story immensely.) The basic premise is: for political reasons, Princess Ani is sent to marry the prince of a neighboring kingdom. During the journey, she is betrayed by someone who wants to take her place for nefarious reasons, and she barely escapes with her life — eventually ending up tending geese while she tries to figure out a way to reveal the imposter without getting herself killed.

The characters are engaging and the plot is unpredictable (except in the general way that you know Ani will find victory in the end.) It’s sold as a young adult fantasy, but it works for not-so-young adults, too.

The sequel, Enna Burning, centers on one of Ani’s friends from her goose-tending days. As the kingdom is being invaded, Enna develops the magical power to control fire. Sounds like a pretty useful talent, unless you have to worry about whether it’s the other way round: the fire is controlling you.

Enna’s story is somewhat darker than Ani’s. But it’s still an intriguing tale of friendship, betrayal, and redemption.

I look forward to reading Shannon’s most recent novel, Princess Academy, which is a Newbery Honor book.

The Utah Browncoats are fans of Firefly/Serenity (and pretty much the whole Whedonverse.) They have organized a charity screening of Serenity on June 22 at 11:59pm to benefit the Christmas Box House. I just bought my ticket.

Anyway, if you want to do something shiny, here’s your chance. (UPDATE: The place to buy tickets is on the Utah Browncoats website.)

Arthur B. Erekson passed away peacefully June 7, 2006 at his home in Provo, Utah, after a short illness.

He was born June 25, 1906 in Murray, Utah, to John Benbow and May Oberblander Erekson in a home built by his great-grandfather John Benbow, who was an early pioneer from Nauvoo and England.

He graduated from Murray High in 1924 where he won letters in baseball, basketball and football. In 1988 he was the recipient of Murray High’s Outstanding Alumnus award and was the first president of the Murray High Alumni Association.

Arthur graduated from the University of Utah in 1928 with a B. A. degree in Education and High Honors from the R.O.T.C. He taught in the Granite School District for 2 years, following which he returned to study at Utah State Agricultural College in Logan and was granted a B. S. degree in Dairy Science. Read More »

“The hard is the good.”

That was one of my Grandfather Erekson’s favorite sayings. I can remember him saying it many times when my family visited him and Grandmother during my childhood — probably when one of us children was complaining that we didn’t want to do something because it was “hard.”

Grandfather was probably the most self-disciplined man I’ve ever known. Even as he approached his hundredth birthday, he had a daily regimen that he stuck to, as much as his health would allow.

He taught himself that discipline. When he was a young man, he loved the coconut creme cake that his mother used to make. In order to learn to control his appetites, he would take a slice of that cake and place it nearby as he studied. You might suppose that, after finishing his studies, he ate the piece of cake that had been tempting him. But he didn’t. He put the piece of cake back. That’s discipline.

After college, he went to Switzerland to learn how the Swiss made Swiss cheese. While there, he learned to speak German by trading language lessons with students eager to learn English. Because a world cheese conference was being held in Italy, he biked from Switzerland to Rome in order to attend. On his way, he stopped off in Pisa and recreated Galileo’s famous experiment by dropping two pieces of cheese off the Leaning Tower.

Though his name was Arthur Beau Erekson, his friends called him Erek. And when I was born, I was named Eric in his honor.

Grandfather Erekson passed away peacefully this evening. He died at home, surrounded by loving family.

We will miss him. It’s hard to see him go.

But the hard is the good. It was his time, and he has gone to join Grandmother, his eternal companion. He always wished the best for us, and now we wish the best for him. Goodbye, Grandfather. Till we meet again.