As good as it is that we have Easter, I didn't want to call it an Easter update (because it's mostly not about Easter).
The Easter service at church was pretty good. The band played, the choir sang, there was a skit, the pastor preached, and we celebrated the risen Jesus. The only thing that was out of place was the smoke machine. It just felt weird and unnecessary. Afterward, the small group came over to grill some food. The food was all very tasty and it was good to just hang out as a group.
I got to meet the two new babies in the small group for the first time in person today. I don't really have much to say about it, although part of me feels like I'm socially obligated to talk about how cute they are and things like that if I'm going to bring it up (they really are cute babies). Since it's the first baby in each family, I guess this means that the parents have now officially crossed into a new life stage. Congratulations and good luck to them.
There's been some chatter among the Thursday night basketball crowd that we're going to try to get guys together a team for a city league. We're apparently gunning for the competitive league (as opposed to the recreational one), which should be interesting. I have no idea how competitive it will be, which is somewhat exciting for me. Maybe I should start working at getting my cardio back.
There are only two weeks of school left. I'm definitely feeling the crunch, and it's not helping that extra stuff is being tossed into my lap. But that's just how things go sometimes. And now I've got a mid-week meeting at UNLV to attend.
I've started up something new in my classes. I'm starting to record my lectures. Right now, the system is able to capture audio and the video feed from the Sympodium (like a tablet computer that you write on, except that it's attached to a podium). I've gotten to the point where I don't think it's weird to hear my own voice on recordings, which I guess is a good thing. One thing that definitely comes out is that random side conversations I have with the students are only one-sided (because the students don't have microphones). This is being done for the students in the class (and not for any other purpose), so this is not a big deal.
Here's a useless anecdote about the usefulness of math in real life. I use a liquid laundry detergent, and the instructions on the side recommend that you use about 1/3 of a cap-full for regular loads of laundry. But when you look inside the cup, the markings on the side range from 1 to 5 (5 being full). If people don't read the instructions, I would guess they would be inclined to fill the cup to 3 (because it's an "average" load), and end up using almost twice as much detergent as is recommended every time. And if someone reads the instructions, will that person know that 1/3 of a cap falls just above the halfway point between the 1 and the 2, or will they just fill it to 2 (and use about 20% extra on each load)? Maybe it's an intentional ploy by the company to sell more detergent.
For most people, this is a side story that probably didn't even catch their attention in the news. Black Friday hit the online poker world last week, and it's not a good thing like it is for retailers and shoppers. Online poker in the US has been halted due to an investigation by the Department of Justice. This has rocked the online poker world, and a lot of people are trying to figure out what's going to happen to their money. I also had money in an online poker account. It's not enough that I'm highly concerned about it, but it's still a reasonable amount of money. The good news is that I've always kept poker money separate from my real money, so that not having access to it does not impact me at all, financially speaking. I guess I'm losing a little bit less than $1 in interest every month, so there is some damage being done. Nobody is quite sure what will happen, but it will probably take a few months to sort it out. The poker world is cynical and frustrated about it and some are finding interesting ways to express themselves.
