Need something interesting to do on Thursday?
Beaverton First United Methodist Church is excited to host the Beaverton Lecture Series on Thursday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m., featuring Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner and New York Times columnist.
A Yamhill, Oregon farm boy turned Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar, and a New York Times columnist since 2001, Kristof has reported from six continents and more than 140 countries, won two Pulitzer Prizes, and co-authored the No. 1 best-seller “Half the Sky.”
THE TALK
“A Pulitzer Prize Winner’s Thoughts on Fixing the World’s — and Oregon’s — Problems”
From Tiananmen Square to Darfur to the main street of his Oregon hometown, Kristof has spent four decades chronicling human struggle — and the stubborn hope that outlasts it. A candid evening on what a lifetime of reporting has taught him: how we find hope, and how we build it. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets needed — a suggested donation is welcome at the door.
An Evening With Nicholas Kristof
All through the day, I talked to Deborah and plan to see her in about two weeks for her birthday. I also watched For All Mankind and completed the third season. I lost control of Monday, and it seemed to disappear; I felt I didn’t get enough out of the day.
Last night (I am writing this Tuesday morning), I had more leg cramps, two nights in a row. I will get some packets of Liquid I.V. (no sugar) and see if that helps. Water helped to slow it, but it came back in the morning. I know Dad had terrible issues with leg cramps. Ugh!
I was planning to play Dungeons & Dragons in October and realized that Thursday is Friday! I am revising my 4E D&D version to the current 5E-ish version. I returned to that work for a while. I did not make much progress, but I need to focus on getting the house ready to host D&D again and trying to assemble some players. I am excited to get back to DM-ing, but it takes years of effort to establish a strong gaming group. We will see if I can get a group playing over and over and enjoying a campaign. Most gaming groups do not survive the first three to four plays.
The day ended early. I was very tired, made the bed, and read a new book (The Demon of Unrest on the start of the American Civil War that I purchased last year), but I soon started to nod off, put the book aside, turned off the light, and slept. Before that, as I said above, I finished Season 3 of For All Mankind, washed some pans, and put the other dishes in the washing machine. I also reached into the new garbage disposal, always a worrying task, and removed a ball bearing that somehow got in there, and now it is back to sounding normal–a growl–and not a screaming horror of stops and starts. The ball bearing is larger than the ones I add to paint bottles to make them easier to stir by shaking. I wonder if it was there from the start, or if it came from a paint bottle that popped off its end cover and covered me in paint. I washed off the paint, and maybe there was a ball bearing in the mess that I didn’t notice. Better now.
Before that, Corwin stopped by and grabbed some dinner. I made a lot of pasta, sauce from a jar, and fried ground beef, then baked it. I had some bowls, with another bowl of peach slices, also from a jar. Corwin had his first day at his new job selling used cars, and while he liked it, unless he can sell a car soon, he will have to find something else. He likes his coworkers. He stopped by to get his packages; he still has them delivered to the house.
At 6:30, before Corwin stopped by, I attended a short Outreach/Missions church meeting on Zoom. He covered many topics, and it is always interesting to see how busy we are even with only about 40 people attending on Sunday.
My books arrived today from Crescent Books in New Orleans. Jeff, who remembered me from my previous purchases, threw in a Gram Greene book to try, since we had discussed his writing and I had never read his stuff. I had passed on a set of his works because I was not sure I would like him. Jeff said he would pick a copy and toss it in for free. Very kind. The Heart of the Matter is now on my short read list.
I spent the mid-afternoon drinking a London Fog while reading Quantum Computer and various related math and quantum information online. I am beginning to see how matrix operations and complex numbers correspond to this process, and the author again reminded the reader that the structure of the qubits is based on reality and this math; it has been proven to represent the actual physics. This is not made up or a convenience but is representational. I am having trouble remembering everything and will need some practical work to make this stick. I already have a simulation running in Python, and I need to try it more. I have another 100 pages to reach the algorithms in the book. More to follow.
Before this, I heated up the sourbrot from Costco for lunch. I made spatzel to go with it (I still had some dried from Mount Angel, Oregon). It was an extravagant lunch. I have another meal or two left. I did this as I finished the laundry. Monday is my laundry day. Sheets, towels, and anything that has accumulated get washed. I made another mess in the kitchen.
Before that, I got up around 7 after multiple leg cramps and made coffee. I had chocolate croissants I made the night before. I made coffee and had a banana to go with it. Then I sat down, watched the squirrels and hummingbirds from my office window, wrote the blog, and did my usual updates.
Thanks for reading.
