2010: A belated beginning

I started this post on 17 Jan 2010, but life got in the way... It went a little something like

In the week of heading back to work for 2010 after a generous 2 month holiday, I figure it is time to declare the goals of 2010. I realise this is a little premature given that I haven't reported back on 2009, but I will catch that up in the coming weeks.

This will be a series of posts as I explain the reasons for the goal and how I plan to achieve them, but for now the 2010 Goals:

Health: Waist circumference <= 100cm

Reading: The Bible

Cooking: Sauces and Beer

Finance: Improve my net position by 10%

Family: Spend Quality Time with Hayden and Julie

Study: Finish my 2nd and 3rd Masters Degrees and take my longest break from study since Pre School

I am sure I would've explained a little rationale behind the goals, instead I have drifted along a path. As always, I can't help but think I am exactly where I should be.

Early in the year, I became aware that there was a position on the Canberra Officers' Mess Committee as the Wine Officer. And given that wine is something that I am passionate about, I decided to take it on. The role of the Wine Officer is to nurture the appreciation of Wine among members and provide opportunities to access great drops.

Some of the ways that we this had previously been achieved is through a combination of tastings, Wine Appreciation Dinners and through a bottle shop service. Although only remnants of the Dinners and a shadow of a bottle shop remained.

I will aim to describe the Wine Officer's journey through this Blog over the coming weeks/months.

But before I sign off an update on the original goals:

Health: Start 115cm - Now 105cm

Reading: Not Started

Cooking: Not Started

Finance: Improved by 7.5%

Family: What does that mean?

Study: Two assignments and two subjects remaining in MSysEng

New Goals:

Health: Spend 45mins/day exercising averaged over the week

You Might Be In a Cult if...

• There are rituals that validate the hierarchy
• Everyone wears the same clothes
• There is one true way
• When the one true way fails, it is always due to a lack of faith
• Dissent is treated as a lack of faith
• Information is controlled

Sound familiar?

Multiple Ontologies

I found this and this through Skepchick (though I am not sure how I got to her blog).

The issue of education of children (and extrapolate as you will) is one that I hold dear. As a child I fought tooth and nail to not be forced to attend Religious Education. Now in retrospect, I was only ever fighting the fact that I was being forced to attend. I had chosen not to attend because the presenters of the material were unable to satisfy my curiousity about inconsistencies.

So how do these tales tie together? My $0.02 would argue that the role of educators is to provide balanced education in as many fields as the professional educators can provide. I think the role of the parent in this is to guide how a child interacts with the knowledge. Surely, no censorship but guided education is far more worthy in the pursuit of excellence?

I think that by providing rounded education de-politicises the curriculum and encourages everyone to their role. Thus religion in education is 'studied' not practiced allowing exposure to the gamit of Dahmic, Abrahamic, atheist and other schools of thought (faith) which would surely assist intuiting tolerance.

Maybe the real fear here is that children may find joy in the multiple moral tales available to them...