On second thought...

Weblogs are kind of like cars. Much like when behind the wheel of a car, one can feel empowered to act ways they might normally not were they outside the vehicle, behind the keys of my laptop I can feel empowered to say things that I might not normally in real life. (Or might say, and later regret.) I think that by even posting the first line of (What was originally) this entry, I've said too much. I've opened the door to a path that I don't want to go down...the door of gossip. Therefore, I'm not going to post things that I don't know are true. And that's that. Moving on.

Managing Volunteers

For the past couple of weeks, I've been playing “Join the Tech Team” commercials at POG...including an interactive one that was apparently well-received by the congregation – and as the date steadily approached for those interested to come and join our little team, I grew steadily apprehensive. I had gotten only one e-mail asking about the event, which had me slightly worried as to the response the meeting would attract. Anyways, on the Sunday in question, I ordered eight pizzas from Dominoes and waited for people to arrive at the designated meeting coordinates.

I was disappointed.

A total of three people, out of a potential audience of 1,600-2000 showed up. The rest of the people eating my $70 worth of Italian goodness were already on the tech team. “Alright.” I thought to myself. “Three is more than I had before.”. Except, oh yeah, one left. D'oh! He practically ran out of the room with a “OH LORD HELP ME I'M SURROUNDED BY TECHIES” look on his face. Great. So I'm left with two of the original three, and one of those is going to the Ankeny campus when it launches in...one week. Which is not to say that I don't need volunteers for the Ankeny campus, it's just that I also need people for the Waukee campus, and it's a more pressing need, seeing as how the Ankeny campus doesn't exactly...exist yet. On the bright side, the one person I did acquire does seem to have a decent head on his shoulders, at least at first glance. (I say “at first glance”, because I have a rather dim view of humanity after my last new volunteer, who is practically deaf, wanted to run front of house.) And I have a few more hopefuls in the wings...one of the original people from the team, who left after getting into a spat with Jeff Mullen, came up to me last week and said that he was ready to “Get back on”. (He also was very up front about his abilities, saying that if I put him on a camera that I would regret it. This is a refreshing change from volunteers who airily declare that they can do “whatever”.) I've also gotten MJ involved with a few things here and there, running lights for one (Which isn't the best thing for him, he has no sense of rhythm.) and perhaps I can get him running the Edirol (And ProVideoPlayer, when we get it up and running) in a while. Of course, actually getting him out to the building is the toughest thing to accomplish. I also need to tell all the current techs to go out and find one person who should be on the tech team but isn't, and tell them to join up. We need people badly.

Free Will?

I typed this on an airplane when the thought struck me after reading a chapter of "The Elegant Universe" (Which I recommend, by the way.)

Quantum uncertainty = free will, since we can't accurately predict how particles will respond according to quantum electrodynamics – for instance, the particles that dictate our emotions, serotonin, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, etc, are supposed to respond a certain way according the classical view of Newtonian physics, however, with the introduction of Schrodinger's and Bohr's equations, we cannot accurately predict how the particles that make up these chemicals will react at the quantum level, thereby introducing an element of uncertainty into the equation.

Discuss.