J. Daniel Ashton

National Security Must Not Cost Our Core Values

2009-03-23T10:54:00.003-04:00

"I fundamentally disagree with Dick Cheney -- not surprisingly," Obama said. "I think that Vice President Cheney has been at the head of a movement whose notion is somehow that we can't reconcile our core values, our Constitution, our belief that we don't torture, with our national security interests. I think he's drawing the wrong lesson from history."

It remains to be seen, of course, whether this is merely political rhetoric. I hope he really means it.

-- from this CNN article

What Am I Missing?

2009-02-24T13:05:00.002-05:00

I recently received an invitation to solo with our local community orchestra. While this is by no means an opportunity to "make it big time," it's still exciting because it gives me a reason to study and practice, perhaps to learn a new piece of music or dust off an old familiar one, and to do something that's high on the list of things that I'm able to do skillfully.

In traditional Vulcan fashion, I'm trying to manage the excitement, fight it, repress it. ("Come and see the violence inherent in the system!") Excitement gets in the way. It distracts from the other things I need to do (and I don't need any more distraction, thank you very much), and it creates a huge opportunity for disappointment. Excitement is not pragmatic.

As I over-analyze my internal workings, I find myself wondering just what I'm missing by refusing to revel in excitement, to bask in it briefly. Surely God gave us this emotion for a purpose. And what physiological effect does excitement-management render on my body? Am I damaging something by suppressing this form of eustress?

Brass at Westminster

2008-12-19T22:55:00.002-05:00

Our brass group will be playing at the Westminster SDA church tomorrow morning, with prelude starting at 10:45. See you there?

320 Crest Lane
Westminster, MD 21157

Recycling Electrons

2008-12-15T13:03:00.003-05:00

I'm sure this has been done to death in high-school and college physics classrooms and labs around the world, and I'm showing my naivete by bringing it up again. But it strikes me that we're set up to use our electric potential very inefficiently.

To look at it one way, you could say that electrons flow from the ground into our houses, through our appliances and down the wire to whatever utility generates electrical potential for us. What bothers me is the perception that a stream of electrons will generally flow through only one appliance of mine on the way from ground to utility.

Many of my appliances have no need for the full potential available on the wire. Shouldn't there be some way to reuse the available current?

What I'm imagining is some kind of master router that would replace my circuit-breaker box. Rather than the hard-wired (literally) division of current between the various circuits in my house, this master router would manage the provision of potential among the various circuits, taking what comes back down the black wire and augmenting it to provided the needed current for the next circuit.

At its simplest, I think this would be like wiring lamps in series, instead of having all the circuits of my house wired essentially in parallel. And I'm not remembering if wiring in series would make the electric meter spin any more slowly.

If you could do this, would there be any reduction in my demands on the power company? Would it help if you could do something similar at each electric socket or switch?

Sleepy ThinkPad

2008-12-04T10:38:00.003-05:00

For the past several weeks I've been living with a ThinkPad annoyance: my T61 puts itself into stand-by mode whenever it gets too warm. Suggestions on keeping it cooler?

A Different Kind of Memory Problem

2008-12-04T10:01:00.002-05:00

As I look back on brass rehearsal last night, I notice something unfamiliar: with two different topics, I had something in my mind, but not in my mental schedule.

In conversation, I mentioned that I would need to leave quickly (because I had another rehearsal to attend). But that need didn't "click" with me until nearly half an hour after rehearsal should have ended, when I suddenly "remembered" that I needed to be rushing out the door.

And on the way out the door, I mentioned to someone that we had brought three new, still-in-the-box music stands with us, but didn't remember until this morning that we needed to unbox and assemble them.

With two different topics, my "autopilot" was working with respect to having critical knowledge available for conversation, but it was broken as far as getting me to understand that I needed to act on that knowledge. I've never noticed this kind of discrepancy before.

Why Today is So Exciting!

2008-11-26T11:57:00.002-05:00

OK, I give up. I really can't explain it! Just know that it has to do with four french horns, a piano and this incredible piece of music. And my parents. All happening at six o'clock this evening.

Sweet Dreams!

2008-11-24T17:05:00.001-05:00

This sounds too fun to be legal: http://www.umbrianserenades.com/about/index.html

Gmail 2 for Treo 700p - Don't Do It!

2008-11-05T16:37:00.002-05:00

I downloaded the new version 2 Gmail midlet to my Treo 700p today, and found that it refused to do anything, and pretty much locked up the phone in the process of doing it. I tried a few different work-arounds, and reinstalled once or twice, but to no avail.

To my great relief, I found that Evan Brewer has a copy of the previous 1.5.0 version on his server, as mentioned in his article here. Thank you Evan!

What Will They Say About You?

2008-08-14T14:20:00.000-04:00

It has been suggested by some that a useful way to find out what's important to you, in the process of trying to set life goals and make plans, is to imagine your funeral. What do you hope will be listed as your most significant accomplishments and lasting achievements? What will your family, friends and acquaintances be saying over dinner as they remember you?

Certainly, this type of analysis was critical in the conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge. It seems reasonable that it could prove useful for less fictional characters as well.

It occurs to me that a similar exercise is to imagine yourself leaving your place of employment. This is something that each of us may have the chance to actually do more than once in a career.

We had a farewell luncheon today for a team member who is leaving both the project and the company, and I just found myself wondering what kind of speeches would have been made if I had been the dearly departing.

Free Speech Unique to America

2008-06-12T09:41:00.002-04:00

A thought provoking and (for the moment) encouraging article about First Amendment rights in my country.

In other news: Beth had significant oral surgery earlier this week, and could use prayers, flowers, cards, et cetera.

Also, I'm involved in quite a lot of music (this isn't Easter or Christmas, is it?) and I'd love to tell you about it when I have a moment to write another post. The big ear-worm at the moment is Puccini's Messa di Gloria: beautiful stuff.

PBA Begins

2008-04-19T14:35:00.025-04:00

We're sitting in the church, and listening as Elder Dodge organizes this mammoth event. The numbers this year are staggering: it looks like 45 teams made it to the finals this year! This doesn't reach the proportions I had hoped for: see the opening paragraph at PBAWiki.org. But it is very easily the largest group in the four years that the Triadalphia Sparks have been here.

About half of the pews in the church have been allocated to the 45 teams. Each team comprises six (typically) Pathfinders, and is assigned an adult local judge and scorekeeper. Each team also has a runner, usually an Adventurer or similarly-aged youngster, and the runners were assigned this year by calling all eligible kids to the front, and then directing them to each go find one of the local judges, who were standing until they connected with a runner.

This is the first year that the local judges have been asked to check the uniforms for completeness. According to the rules any participants who are lacking parts of the official uniform are to be disqualified, but this is the first year that the inspection has occurred during the orientation.

A little more rigor this year with respect to who may walk around and take pictures during the event. Official photos are to be posted on the PathfinderBibleAchievement.org website within three weeks.

As always, the scoring is based on the highest-achieving team. Any team that reaches 90% of that score is considered to have a first-place finish, 80% second place, and the remainder third place. My personal prayer as we go into this event is for 45 first-place finishes. God is able to grant this if it brings glory to His name.

Because of the way these events are conducted, we will not have an accurate picture of how the kids are doing until the end, when the scores are announced. At the half-way point, we'll get a few minutes to chat with the players, and we can get a feel then for how they think they are doing.

Opening prayer . . . and they're off. :-)

If you've been following along, it will be 45 questions (I expect) before I have much more to report. Take the time to shoot me an e-mail, please, so I can tell the kids at half-time about all the people who are praying for them.

Note to the organizers for next year: take steps to ensure that the cameras and cranes are removed from the sanctuary before the event next year, so that all the teams have a good view of the screens.

This year our team wound up on the opposite side of the sanctuary from where we chose to sit. We could have tried to move closer, but it didn't seem worthwhile at the time. But I'm finding it even more difficult than usual to get a sense of how our team is doing or feeling.

The yellow sign in the center is for our team.

45 questions, time for the half-way point stretch.

Well, the news is not the unburnished enthusiasm we have been praying for. Because the team is short by one player, there are five chapters that have had less polish than the others, and one eight-point question came from those chapters.

One of the astonishing features of this year's event is that the judges (we assume) have selected questions to remove preemptively. So far five of the questions, now six questions, now seven, now eight, have been removed from the event. This significantly reduced the potential score and the opportunity for teams from behind to make up their scores. Now nine. We are told this is for the sake of time.

We're waiting for the teams to finish writing the 90th (last) question, which was the list of generations between the captivity and Jesus.

According to our record keeping, there should be a total of either 191 points or 198 points.

Uncle Dan from Your Story Hour is here to say a few words.

I gave an announcement about PBAWiki.org.

There's announcement that Battle Creek will be hosting a Pathfinder museum.

I haven't forgotten about you. The score tallying is taking a very long team, and our emcee is continuing to discourse on many topics as we wait for the score to be returned.

The scores have been returned. We should be hearing something momentarily.

We have the scores now. This is not official, but my count as they were handed out was that 40 of the 45 teams scored a first-place finish, and the remaining five were all second place. This is a very close finish, and an amazing number of very high scores. The Triadelphia Sparks suffered from the missing member, and wound up with one of those 2nd-place finishes.

Closing song and benediction, and we hurry for supper and the train.

Pathfinder Bible Achievement '08

2008-04-18T17:39:00.002-04:00

It's been a month and 4 days since my last post: sorry to be so incommunicative, but that's really representative of my emotional state, I suppose. But in some areas I'm feeling like life is getting back to normal, and some schedules just refuse to wait for me, so I have to catch up and handle them as they come.

One of those is Pathfinder Bible Achievement, sometimes known by the older term Bible Bowl. This is the fourth year that my kids have made it to the national event, and we're here in Michigan now, resting up in our hotel and studying the gospel according to Matthew.

In years past I have tried to post to my weblog during the event itself, so that you can stay up to date as events happen. I'm not sure if I'll do that again this year, but if not, I plan to at least update my Twitter status. So keep an eye on that if you're not seeing new data here.

Thank you for all your prayers and warm wishes. The kids are excited, and even though their team is short one player, I believe they have a good chance of scoring in the top 10%, i.e. a first place finish.

As you may know, this years material is the gospel according to Matthew, and you can visit Matthewpedia.com and download the study questions there to get an idea of what these kids are facing. I've also registered the domain name PBAWiki.org to point to the same site, as a more all-encompassing term for future years.

I Am a Walking Death Sentence

2008-03-14T16:07:00.002-04:00

At least I understand now why I feel like someone punched me in the stomach and lower back, both, but only on my left side.

That little scamp, the zoster virus, decided to wake up and give me the shingles. You can check the Wikipedia article for all the whys and wherefores.

The good news is that this seems to be a mild case (not much headache or fever, and only mild malaise), and that we're catching it pretty early. (The blisters came on only last night, I think.) I'm facing some pain and itching, but I'll probably make a good recovery. And I'm statistically unlikely to face this a second time.

The bad news is that there is no certainty that I will be non-contagious before Easter.

Without this impediment, this is what my schedule would have looked like:

Tomorrow: church, followed by the conference-level Pathfinder Bible Achievement event
Sunday: church (2 services x 2 anthems), and the Montgomery Philharmonic concert in the evening
Monday: potential orchestra open board meeting
Tuesday: ACMP string quartet reading session
Wednesday: Big, final dress rehearsal with both Rockville and Bowie choirs and five string players
Thursday: Maundy Thursday service (1 anthem)
Friday: Good Friday service (Bach's Cantata #4 with strings, and other beautiful music)
Next Sabbath: church, and Easter Vigil service in Bowie repeating music from Friday
Next Sunday: church (2 services x 2 anthems with brass)

This contagion is serious for anyone with a compromised immune system. That would include anyone with AIDS or undergoing chemotherapy, for example. It's also a significant risk for people over the age of 60, at which point postherpetic neuralgia is more of a problem.

The doctor was very emphatic that I am not to participate in the above activities until I reach the stages of non-contagiousness. And that will probably be sometime in the next 3 to 14 days. He said that I could be conducting at the Kennedy Center (I liked that bit) and an immunocompromised person in the balconey would be at risk of catching this from me, and dying. Then he shooed me out the back door of his office.

So, I solicit your prayers. God knows about everything that has been on my plate. He knows how quickly He plans to heal me, which events I will be healthy enough to help with, and who He has prepared to step up and take over while I'm absent. Please pray that He will work this all out exactly as suits His purposes.

Quartet Reading Session #3

2008-02-13T19:03:00.002-05:00

Last night was the third get-together of our ACMP-connected string quartet, just reading for fun, and in spite of the icy roads, all five of us eventually showed up. Yes, five, because our coordinator and founder had suggested reading quintets this time, and had invited another violin/viola player.

When I arrived, the other three players from last month were already working on a Mozart trio. I enjoyed the sounds of music wafting from the house as I slipped my way up the icy driveway. We jumped into the first three movements of Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet (D minor) while waiting for our fifth player. We had read this at the end of January's session, but only the first and third movement, I think, and I had been playing viola. This time I was reading first violin.

Towards the end of the third movement our new friend arrived, and I switched to second cello for Schubert's great C Major quintet. This was a big thrill for me, as I know the piece well, but had never played a cello part before. For the final movement, the other cellist offered to trade instruments with me. I was embarrassed to have him play my beginner-model cello (he's an incredible cellist), and worried that I would do damage to his. But I also wasn't going to let this opportunity flit by. It's difficult to express how rewarding that was!

We finished the evening with Mozart's K 516 G minor quintet for two violas, and I switched back to first violin. I think that none of us noticed until the end that we had run 45 minutes longer than planned.

Playing chamber music is usually a positive experience for me, but this evening was unusually rewarding. I can hardly wait for next month's session.

How to Fight Evil

2008-02-12T10:02:00.000-05:00

Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it. -Shakti Gawain, teacher and author (b. 1948)

Pathfinder Bible Achievement 2008

2008-02-09T16:11:00.000-05:00

Today is the first official Bible Bowl event for 2008. For our area (and a neighbouring area), the event is being held at New Hope church in Fulton, MD. We're up to question 32 (out of 90). I'll update this blog post later, when we know the results.

** Halfway point now . . . time for a break

** All the questions have been asked now. It's chaos and pandemonium as we wait for the official scores to be announced. Already word-of-mouth is that our team set the bar a bit below 90%.

** It's official now: Triadelphia and one other team are going on from this area.

Well, that was nice. :-) I got a nice mention and round of applause for having kicked-off the Matthewpedia.com website. I was already planning to continue the website with a new domain registration for next year, and I would love to see it grow into a rich study resource with material renewed for each year.

Montgomery Philharmonic

2008-01-28T11:31:00.000-05:00

Just a quick dump of something that's on my mind today: Early in January I began playing violin with the Montgomery Philharmonic, a community symphony based in nearby Gaithersburg. I was initially hoping for a group that would push my abilities, perhaps even something approaching the minor-league professional orchestras, such as the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, where I played for ten years.

While this fledgling ensemble has not yet attained to those standards, I realized that this orchestra could well meet my family's needs. They need players in the string bass section, and part of the mission of the group is to introduce students to orchestra playing.

So we will be attending the next rehearsal as a family, and 75% of the family will be experiencing their first orchestra rehearsal beyond CMW.

Music Making

2007-12-19T09:24:00.000-05:00

I was recently contacted by a fellow member of the ACMP. She was looking for a quartet to get together for sight-reading about once a month. Last night we got together for the first time, and spent about two hours playing.

It was an A-minor evening. We read through Brahms No. 2, Op. 51, Mendelssohn No. 2, Op. 13, and the first two movements of Schubert's "Rosamunde", D 804 (op. 29). It was double fun for me, because I got to play cello!

On an unrelated note, I request your prayers for Cindi, a dear friend of ours and Vicki's matron of honor, who this morning is undergoing her third surgery for breast cancer in about as many weeks.

Postcards for a One-Room School

2007-11-26T21:59:00.000-05:00

I've been sitting on this for a couple of months, but we finally found and purchased a postcard, and that made me think about sharing this with you.

A friend of mine is the schoolteacher in a one-room, eight-grade church school in Camden, South Carolina. US Geography is one of the major subjects (apparently across several or all grades), and they are pinning postcards to a map as a means of helping to make our nation a little more concrete in the students' minds.

Notice: If you're reading this after the 2007-2008 school year, please disregard it. I don't want to start any new articles on Snopes here.

However, if you're reading this during the '07-'08 school year, please consider buying a postcard from your area, and from any place you visit, and mailing it to

Camden SDA School
612 Boykin Road
Camden, SC 29020

She Did It Again!

2007-11-20T11:56:00.000-05:00

When Daniel Mosquin mentioned yesterday that he is starting a series on African native plants, Vicki dug out her photos of an African milkweed and submitted them to the Botany Photo of the Day pool. We were delighted to find, today, that her photos were selected for today's post!

Why Your Ear Is Bent

2007-11-15T10:46:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed a recent fascination on my part with Flickr. What's up with that? Why can't I stop prompting you to take a look at it?

Over the last 200 years, the nature of our family and community relationships has been drastically altered, perhaps even damaged. Motorized vehicles and telecommunications have made it likely that our families will disperse after college, if not before, that we will work at a distance from our home and neighborhood, and that we will even worship at some distance from our neighbors and colleagues. We talk with our colleagues about work, with our fellow church members about church matters, and with our family about family emergencies.

But chitchat is crucial to the strength of relationships in our support network. When we don't eat together, walk together, drive together, we fail to know each other. When we fail to know each other, we become incapable of supporting each other.

For many Americans, and to the delight of the long-distance telcos, the telephone helps to fill in that gap. Many people spend hours every week engaging in chitchat with their support network. But some of us either don't have that skill, or see the telephone as a conveyor of serious information. After all, those minutes are costing money! And calling takes coordination: you want to find a time when your callee is not eating, working, or busy at an evening event such as rehearsal. Oh yeah, and preferably not driving, too.

The Internet provides several ways to mitigate this problem, this lack of connection to our support network. E-mail, weblogs and social networks give us a chance to connect on a variety of topics, and on our own schedules. E-mail, like a phone call, feels focused: it implies a more-or-less important reason for communicating. Instant messaging lets us connect much more casually, although we realize that we may be interrupting each other. But weblogs and photo community sites give us something specific to chat about, and let us do that chatting on our own time.

When I write my thoughts in a weblog post, it's an invitation to all readers to respond. That response might be simple affirmation. It might be questions, perhaps leading or rhetorical questions. Or the response might be a contrary point of view, or conflicting evidence. Whatever it may be (excluding spam), it is interaction, and it strengthens our connection. I may even reply in the same forum, and a conversation is born.

When I commit myself to posting a new photo on Flickr every day, I'm giving us something to chat about. When you fave that photo, or comment on it, I know that we have connected on some level. And your comment may evoke a reply from me, and we find ourselves chatting and strengthening our knowledge of each other.

That's why I have such a hard time not begging for you to interact with me on Flickr and on my weblog. I'm trying to connect with you in ways that fit our schedules and abilities. Unless you reply, I'll never know if I succeeded.

Vicki on BPotD again!

2007-11-13T11:14:00.000-05:00

I was delighted to find that today's Botany Photo of the Day features a pair of pictures that Vicki uploaded to Flickr just yesterday. Way to go!

Pathfinder Bible Achievement / Bible Bowl Resource

2007-09-27T11:23:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to announce a new, free, community-based online resource for Pathfinders and their coaches. Our new website is intended to help Pathfinders study the gospel of Matthew, preparing for the 2008 Pathfinder Bible Achievement event, sometimes referred to as Bible Bowl. The web address is http://Matthewpedia.com.

The Matthewpedia website already provides some study materials. In addition, the website is a wiki, which means that visitors have the ability to correct and add material to share with others.

In addition to study materials covering the book of Matthew, the wiki contains an introduction to wikis, as well as sections for sharing study techniques, travel advice and experiences from past PBA events.

No matter where you live, you can help Pathfinders around the world prepare for this event by contributing your expertise. This page mentions several ways that you can help.

What's Keeping Us Entertained

2007-09-21T00:15:00.000-04:00

Our house is suddenly much busier. To see why, check the following two blog posts: