Joanna, my sisiter, relayed to me a story involving a discussion she had with her (at that point) future father-in-law. In casual dinner conversation she had mentioned that Esther and I try to eat as much organic that we can. The father-in-law works in the agribusiness, actually works for the largest producer of genetically engineered seeds. My sister’s small mention of my diet turned into a showdown at the OK Corral. Him wondering why anyone would want to eat organic, her finally firing back with the fact that my wife’s father died of cancer and that it’s okay to eat organic. I found it interesting that Mr. Agribiz was so anti organic. On one hand I can understand, it can eventually take food out of his kids mouth, but after today I have decided that he could ultimately find a new line of work. CNN is reporting that a California study links autism to pesticides. Now I know that Mr. Agribiz doesn’t work in the pesticides division, but ultimately it’s all the same ball of wax. Needless to say, this blog is certified organic.

I went to my sister-in-law’s going away party tonight. She’s leaving for the Army in the next couple of days and while I’m happy for her, I am concerned about some of the choices she is making. Those choices are neither here nor there, but the party setting is pertinent to this post. Being a male vegetarian is weird. Not from my end, I enjoy eating vegetables, not eating meat. That’s the point right? I’m at this party and there is no one manning the grill, hot dogs, brats and burgers. I know that the number of people coming is going to be many and without someone grilling now, a disaster is brewing. The hostess walks up, hugs me and then asks me to man the grill, finishing up what she had started. Dilemma: Does the vegetarian prepare the meat for the group or does the only guy there with grilling knowledge shirk his social duty? I ended up grilling all 40 burgers, 36 hot dogs and 24 brats in record time, but ended up having next to nothing to eat during the party. Such is the odd life of being a male vegetarian.

Okay, I thought I would get to post, but the hangover was pretty bad on Friday and Saturday, I was without wifi on Sunday / Monday and super busy yesterday. Now the wedding recap: Friday I went and got my hair cut with my dad. I went to the barber that he has been doing for years and it was funny how my dad is so oddly intimate with this guy. Telling him all about the wedding, a new boat he wants to buy, gardening. Oddly intimate. After getting cleaned up, Esther and I brought her mom and brother with the Paulson boys, to go and get a wedding present. I don’t know if my sister has had a chance to open her presents so it will remain a secret for a little while longer. We drove in to the heart of KC and checked into the hotel, which was nice, if not basic. As we were checking in, all of my cousins, aunts and uncles were milling around. It was great to see everyone. The great thing about a Benoit get-together is that we pick up like no time has passed. We start up conversations and just roll with the punches. Esther and I got dressed up for the rehearsal (my sister’s request, not my idea) and after running through the mechanics of getting married, we made our way over the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art for the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal dinner was a very fancy soirée. An open bar with hard drinks, very fancy plated dinner. I enjoyed a couple of mixed drinks and some great conversation with my grandmother, whom I was seated next. The great thing that she and I talked about, which I also shared with my Gramps, was that Esther and I are going to start our family in the next year. Yes, that means babies. After the official dinner broke up, we all went to Salon A at the hotel, which was setup as a hospitality room. Stocked with beer and snacks, it became the hangout room. Lots of great conversation, although, most of them were a little slurred, if you get what I mean. Some of you may know that I had sworn off alcohol. I have to had any to drink in about a year. Joanna and Esther asked that I imbibe a little, seeing as I was so much fun when I did. Needless to say, when one’s sister is getting married, you give her what she wants and you drink to cope with the fact that your sister is getting married. The party kept going on into the morning with the Benoit’s walking (read: stumbling) to the Quick Trip down the street to stock up on beer and liquor. After we made it back, I stopped by the new party spot, but faded quickly and made it up to our room. Saturday The big day! So what do the Benoit’s do? Go motorcycle shopping! My dad and rest of the men went to a motorcycle cycle shop and I think I found my motorcycle, the Triumph Scrambler. My dad ended up buy a bike (the make/model evades me) but before that most of the guys went and got a great greasy spoon breakfast from a restaurant down the street. After he did the hand shake, we headed back to the hotel to meet up for lunch, a great taco combo at Chipotle. I caught up with my cousin Jason, who is out in Hollywood, talking about movies and I even got slipped a … probably shouldn’t say, don’t want to get him in trouble. We kind of just hung out and then shortly after 4 started getting ready. Tux and dresses… it is always fun to play dress up. The ceremony was fabulous, my sister looked great and it was a very spiritual event. As a groomsman, I played a pretty prominent role in the wedding, walking my mom down the aisle and then walking down the aisle with my wife. Let me tell you, it is so much better when you are walking down the aisle after being married. Not that I’m knocking waiting up front, that’s fun too. My sister getting ready to kiss her husband… not eat him! The reception was fabulous. Held at the Kansas City Public Library, which was an amazing location. We partied on the roof and had a great dinner, with some excellent speeches and quite possibly the best cakes ever. It was comprised of lots of cupcakes, different flavors of cake and frosting, delicious! The reception went on and after the Bride and Groom left, the party really started. The Benoit’s closed down the library and went hog wild at the hotel. Let me tell you, when you have had a “little” bit to drink, cigars are great, when you are sobering up, your mouth tastes like garbage! Sunday My wife and I woke up as early as we could (after fading from the party around 5 a.m.) and then started driving her mom and brother down to my parents lake house. We had a great time once we got there… and this post has gone on for too long. So let me wrap up by saying. I am incredibly happy for my sister. I hope that she and her new husband find all the happiness that they are due. A final picture for the road. Ray (next to be married) and my brother-in-law Clayton, air-guitaring during Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’. I think it adequately captures the mood.

Thursday: The flight in to Atlanta was quick and our connection went smoothly. The second flight was not as smooth, we crossed a major front which made it a little bumpy, but we did get into Kansas City on time. My parents picked us up at the airport and then we went to pick up my dad and my tux. Unfortunately, my dad’s tux was not ready, so we will be driving back and forth to get things done. After a quick lunch, we came back to the Chez Benoit Senior. Hanging out was nice, talking, catching up and waiting for everyone to arrive for the evening’s informal gathering. My parents had about 30 people over to their house to start the wedding weekend off right. Good food, a little bit of adult beverages and great conversation with family and friends got everyone in the mood. I had a great time catching up with my uncles, aunts and cousins. It was also nice to meet all of Joanna and Matt’s friends. During the course of the evening, I had a chance to play with an iPhone. I learned that I was wise to pass on getting one right away. While it is very cool, I don’t think I could use it as a day to day device. It would make a good phone, but the close platform would make it difficult for me to maximize use of the device. Sorry about the tech interruption. Back to wedding stuff. So, last night was great, a lot of fun, a little stress and some planning. It is really hard to coordinate a wedding. I thought our wedding was hard to coordinate, but essentially everyone had to come to us to get information, here in Kansas City, everyone can do their own thing, which is kind of strange. Photos should come tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest.

Esther and I play this game from time to time. When we see a particularly masculine looking woman or a rather feminine looking man, we quickly ask the other “Mann oder Frau?”. The point of the game is not to poke fun at the target, but to try and determine their gender: Mann (German for Man) or Frau (German for woman)? We are getting ready to fly out to Kansas City for my sister’s wedding and airports are a great place to play. Any weird inside games that you play?

I took the Online Identity Calculator and depending on my career aspirations, I am either a 7.8 or a 9.0 out of 10. That’s pretty good. I guess it also means that if I want to become a thought leader, I should write more here, and start writing else where. I wonder what the requirements are to get a Wikipedia entry?

CNN has a story about titled “New 7 wonders of the world named“. While it is fascinating and the list certainly contains attractions that I think are wonders of the world, including Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China, it doesn’t really capture the things that I think are the true 7 wonders of the world.

1. the Internet - Duh!
2. Esther’s cooking - So good you could hardly believe that a single woman could make all of it
3. Apple Inc. design - Simply put, they designed their way into wonder status
4. Quicksilver - the best launcher out there
5. David Allen’s Getting Things Done - The only way to organize your life.
6. Battlestar Galactica - The best sci fi ever!
7. Pitt State ‘01-’02 housing t-shirt

Thoughts?

I have had this post sitting in limbo for a long time. I have been trying to gather all of my thoughts on the subject and I think I have finally reached my conclusion. What is the point of learning how to click, where to click, without understanding why to click. In my freshman year of college (circa 2000), I took “Introduction to Technological Systems”, which was a renamed “Introduction to Computers”. I enjoyed the class and quite liked the professor, eventually getting an A in the class, along with pretty much everyone else in the class. The introduction to technological systems went through a computer part by part, from CPU to databases to the internet, giving a broad overview of a little bit of everything. While the number of students entering college are becoming more technologically savvy, the problem that professors are, or should, be running into is teaching students why to click instead of where or how. Speaking in broad terms, students entering college have a firm grasp on technology. Can they point to the ISA card slot on a late 80’s motherboard? Probably not. Can they install iTunes 7.3 and sync their iPhone? Probably. The level of computer literacy is rising rapidly. Students are rapidly coming to high school and college never knowing what a computer-less household is like. And fewer remember a time when the internet required the computer to make very strange noises via its modem. The imminent failure of basic computer education is this: By focusing on the mechanics of how a computer works, the human element of computer is lost. By this, the computer education received tells us that a computer works, but does not educate us in how to interact with it. What is the most efficient way to store files? How should one reply to email. What are the basics of security when it comes to the internet? Why, when sending a mass email, should one use the BCC: instead of the To: in addressing? Why does my computer run slowly when I have 7 applications open, each with 16 windows? These skills, while not as concrete as the how the laser reads the data on a CD-ROM, are the ones that are not being taught, but can ultimately be the most useful. Efficient, courteous and savvy computer users don’t need to know the physical happening to get work done. While it may be helpful in diagnosing problems or troubleshooting, there are plenty of people willing to take the time and put in the effort in that arena, I happen to be one of them. For the average user, teach them that repetitive task can be shortened to key-commands, that click around the computer’s interface can be shorted by using a launcher, or that email “stationary” is not really all that cute and can sometime gunk up an email client would go miles.

Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgement and well-developed wisdom.
from Wikipedia

The rote memorization of how a computer physically functions is no longer relevant in today’s world. Computer education instead needs to focus on the imparting of knowledge and well-developed wisdom.