Video: Kurzweil on Expanding Intelligence

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweils-sxsw-keynote-expanding-our-intelligence-without-limit

This past week

This past week we made a trip to Springfield.  We drove there on Wednesday and came back to Sand Springs on Thursday.  While there I walked the halls of the Abbey for three miles in order to maintain my effort to walk an average of a mile a day this year.

Today we did a combination labyrinth walk and volkswalk this morning.  The labyrinth was part of the volkswalk.  The walk started and finished in Hunter Park in south Tulsa.  My walking total for the year is now at 109 miles.  I'm a little ahead of my mile a day average.

Apparently we a having an early spring this year.  Now that warmer weather is here, I hope to get out more and do more volkswalks.  The walk I did today is number 251.  It was 5 kilometers (or 3.1 miles) long.

Woody Guthrie exhibit at Gilcrease

Yesterday after walking three miles at the fitness center, we went to the Gilcrease Museum to see the exhibit on Woody Guthrie.  The exhibit has been open for a couple of weeks.

Guthrie was the famous singer/songwriter born in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1912.  This year would be Woody's 100th birthday.  He died of Huntington's Disease sometime around 1967, if I remember correctly.

It just so happened that when we were there Woody's sister-in-law and other Guthrie family members were touring the museum.

For the longest time the city of Okemah ignored Guthrie because of his leftist associations.  But when they realized they could turn a buck off his name, they started taking advantage of the tourism opportunity.

Birthday celebration

Today I turned 64 years old.  My cousin Vicki from Houston called to wish me a happy birthday.  She also sent me two shirts and several pairs of socks.  My son sent me a $50 Amazon gift card as did J.  My parents sent a check for $50.  So I have a healthy balance now with Amazon.  I can download more books.

We went out to China Star for dinner tonight.  I ate a lot of scallops, shrimp, and salmon.  It was all very good.  I have lost a few pounds in the last month, but I probably put them back on tonight.  I have a health coach who calls me about once a month.  I would like to be able to tell him that I have lost weigh since we last talked.  I walked another three miles at the fitness center this morning. 

Our oven quit working last weekend.  We called Collins Appliance and a repairman came out today and replaced a part.  About a month ago our hot water heater sprung a leak.  We had to have that replaced.

Week in Review Continued

On Tuesday, we went to our new polling location, the Cathedral of Praise.  It had been the Church of Christ.  Why it changed, I do not know.

In Oklahoma, when you vote in the primary, you are asked your party affiliation.  I told the poll worker that I was registered as a Democrat.  She gave me a ballot, which I marked for President Obama.  There was a second ballot having to do with some local issues.  I marked it as well.

Next we went across the street to the fitness center and walked a couple of miles.  We went home and showered and left for St. Patrick's Cathedral.  There were about a hundred people at St. Patrick's for the Journey to Easter program.  Most of the people were from the Methodist church.  As we were sitting there waiting for the service to begin, out comes the priests and chastises the people in the pews for talking.  A hush fell over the gathering.  Ten minutes later the service started.  St. Patrick's might be the most attractive church in Sand Springs, what with its stained glass windows and statuary (objects which some regard as idols).  After the service, we went downstairs to the fellowship hall and ate chili and a dessert.

When we had returned home, I got a call from someone asking about my education.  They wanted to know if I might be interested in taking further classwork and in what discipline.  I said I might be intered in working on a MA degree in English.  Just prior to receiving this call I had completed another online lesson on building your vocabulary which the library offers through its web site.  I don't know if the two are connected or not.  The person I spoke with asked if it would be all right to contact an online educational institution and provide them with my information.  I said it would.  Within five minutes my phone rang.  Someone from Grand Canyon University called to see if I would like to enroll as an online student.  I asked if they offered a MA degree in English.  It turned out they don't.  That was the end of that.

That evening J and I picked up Gail and Glenn Storey and went to a concert at Tulsa University.  The concert was held in the new Lorton Performance Center.  Tulsa Trio was the group performing.  Roger Price played the piano and two women played violin and cello.  We heard music by Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel.

Glenn has had jury duty this week.  We heard on the news tonight that there had been a shooting down at the court house.  Four or five people were shot.  It will be interesting to hear what Glenn has to say about this incident.

Church announcement

Cell phones in church:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/D2_c81Nnsc0

The last few days in review

Sunday was Humanist Sunday at Church of the Restoration.  Gail and I played a piano duet as the special music.  We played a piece by Scott Joplin titled "Solace." 

I gave the message which I titled "Human Life Extension."  I began by noting the early deaths of several well-known composers and how long they lived: Mozart (35), Robert Schumann (46), Franz Schubert (31), Chopin (39), Beethoven (56).  And the English Romantic poets: Byron (36), Shelley (30), and Keats (26).  I quoted the poet Dylan Thomas who wrote the lines: "Do not go gentle into that good night./Rage, rage against the dying of the light."  Thomas died when he was 39.

I mentioned that sanitation and medicine have come a long way in extending the lives of people living today.  I cited myself as an example, having contracted pertussis (whopping cough) at two weeks of age.  Today in the U.S., life expectancy is 77.2 years.  Aubrey de Grey, a scientist working in the department of genetics at Cambridge University, says that by the year 2100 human life expectancy will be in the region of 5,000 years.

Bill Gates believes Kurzweil to be the best in the world at predicting the future.  According to Kurzweil computers will have consciousness by 2029.  Then their intelligence will start to exceed that of humans.  By the 2030s, computers will have become millions of times more intelligent than humans.  Then the question becomes, Will the artificial intellegences (AI) be willing to keep humans around.?

We will understand how our brains work in 2024.  We will have "flash memories" we can plug into our brains.

When asked "Does God exist?" Kurzweil replies, "I would say not yet."

I mentioned the DVD a small group of us watched on this subject titled "Transcendent Man."  It can be found in many libraries.  I also mentioned a web site http://www.kurzweilai.net/ which tracks developments related to life extension. 

Following my talk we had a potluck dinner during which I fielded several questions from the congregation on the topic about which I had spoken.

Afterwards Steve Nunn and I talked about replacing the sign out front (which gives the names of the church and other information) with a better sign.  We will be working on that in the coming months.  Presently Steve is working on replacing the doors of the church.  Steve is the new leader of the Humanist Association of Tulsa.

I have a few other things to write about, but I will save them for tomorrow.

A Cause for Optimism

Peter Diamandis is an associate of Ray Kurzweil.  In this video he explains why he has such an optimistic outlook on life.

http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2012-03-02&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Mainstream Baptist: Dominionists at Work in Oklahoma

Below is a link to a posting found in the blog Mainstream Baptist.  Please read.

Mainstream Baptist: Dominionists at Work in Oklahoma

Fantastic Voyage

Last night I watched a DVD I checked out from the Tulsa Library titled Fantastic Voyage.  It is a science fiction story about a group of people who are trying to save a person with a brain injury.  Thanks to some medical technology, they are able to be miniaturized so that they can enter a person's blood stream and travel to the site of the injury.  The movie was made in 1966 and in some ways is very dated.  My interest in the movie springs from a book written by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman which has the same title.  I am making preparations for a talk I will give next Sunday at Church of the Restoration.

My talk will be on the subject of Human Life Extension.  According to Kurzweil, we are only about 20 to 30 years away from some remarkable medical technology which will give us the capability to halt and reverse aging.  Kurzweil envisions nanobots which we inject into our blood stream to repair our bodies.  Nanobots are blood cell sized robots which are programmed to achieve a task.  Much of Fantastic Voyage and their other book Transcend focus on being healthy enough to get to that point in time.

Nick returns from England

Today Nick returned from England, specifically London, where he worked with a client for a week.  We surrendered our grandchildren to Nick and his wife, Jennifer.  We kept them for nine days.  Some of the time we slept here, and some of the time we slept at Nick's house.  We enjoyed watching Nick's large screen TV.  It is about 3' by 5'.  We ate out most of the time.  I lost about four pounds during those nine days.

I went to church today.  It was the first activity that I attended while we kept the grandchildren.  I wanted to annnouce that next Sunday would be Humanist Sunday.  I have made a few notes, but I will try to write out the talk this week.  Normally I select the hymns from the hymnal, but Bill D. suggested we sing "Imagine" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" in place of the traditional hymns.  We had a good size crowd today, 15 or so.  In some churches that would be the size of a Sunday school class, but our Sunday school classs (there's just one) usually runs about four or five. 

Because we kept Luke and Ayla last week, I had to cancel piano duet practice.  Tomorrow will be our last chance to practice "Solace" by Scott Joplin, the special selection for Humanist Sunday.

This past week

This past week has been a real adventure.  We have spent a lot of time with my grandchildren, Luke and Ayla.  Today we took them to a park nearby where they played for quite a while.  We ordered take-out pizza for lunch and for dinner we ate at Braum's.  Their parents should be back from a week in London tomorrow.

I will be speaking at Restoration on March 4.  J said I could go tomorrow to the main service to make the announcement about Humanist Sunday.  I will miss the Religious Education hour, as well as the congregational meeting following the service tomorrow.

Regenerative medicine

Below is a link to a video about the state of regenerative medicine.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ntd-organ-manufacturing

Universal Class

Thanks to Rosemary at church, I learned about an online series of courses provided by the library called Universal Class.  Rosemary works at the Tulsa Library.  I signed up and am now taking a course on building your vocabulary.  There are dozens of courses available.  The first course I tried to sign up for was filled.  You have six months to finish the course.  There is an instructor with whom you communicate by e-mail. You take tests periodically.

Back from Broken Arrow

We are back home from Broken Arrow.  We left Tuesday afternoon on the BA Expressway.  We soon reached the motel just off the BA where we spent the night.  The first thing we did was drive to the campus of Northeastern State University to see how long it would take.  It takes about a half hour.  We drove back to the motel (a Hampton) and checked in.  For our dinner that evening, we walked over to the Shiloh restaurant.  They were having a Valentine's Day special which we took advantage of.  J had steak; I had talapia.  We both had a dessert and a glass of wine.  J was given a long-stem rose.

For some reason, we both woke up around 3 to 4 in the morning.  It might have been because to AC/heating unit was constantly going on and off throughout the night.  The motel provided a breakfast of scrambled eggs, potatoes, waffles, cereal, and other breakfast items.  After breakfast, we drove over to the campus.  I let J out of the car and went back to the motel for more sleep.  I checked out of the motel around 10:40 and drove to a McAlister's Deli where I bought a couple of chicken sandwiches, chips and iced tea.  Then I drove on to the campus where I met up with J and we had lunch together in the car.

After lunch, J went back to her insurance class (continuing education), and I went to the library.  I sat in the library and read a portion of Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman's book Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever on my Kindle.  I am reading this book in preparation for a talk which I will be giving at Restoration in March.  I earlier read a book by this pair titled Transcend.  Both books deal with life extension technologies.

We left the NEO campus around 3:30 and was home by 4 pm.

Walking club, poetry night, movie night

We attended the February meeting of the Tulsa Walking Club at the LaFortune Library on Wednesday.  There were about 25 members in attendance.  The main issue was whether to meet once a month or once every other month.  They decided to leave the frequency at once a month.  This was the first time in years there we attended a club meeting.

The poetry group met at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Friday night.  There were just four of us there: David, Suzi, Sandra and myself.  Gail was away on a trip.

Tonight (Saturday) was Movie Night at the Bradleys.   We picked up Barbara Frey at the retirement home where she lives now.  We saw the movie Examined Life.  It is a montage of vignettes in which philosophers speak for about 10 minutes each.

Piano recital

Tonight we attended a piano recital in the new Lorton Performance Center at Tulsa University.  The facility open just last fall.  This was our first visit.  The concert tonight was free.  The pianist was Roger Price, who is on the faculty at TU.  The man played flawlessly by memory for the better part of two hours.  He played two Beethoven sonatas in the first part of the program.  After intermission, he played several pieces by Franz Liszt. 

I find it difficult to memorize just a single page of music.  Price played by memory for almost two hours.  The program climaxed with Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2."  He wowed the audience.

Pelican Rag went well

Last Sunday, Gail and I played "Pelican Rag" as the special music at Church of the Restoration.  The speaker was Clinton Wiles from Oklahoma City.  He spoke on "The War on Drugs."  Attendance was 16 or more.

Gail came over today around 12:30 for our weekly practice.  Next month was will be playing a piece by Scott Joplin titled "Solace."  Before Gail come over, I went to the fitness center and walked three miles.

In March, I will be the speaker once again at Restoration.  My topic will be "Human Life Extension."  Sanitation practices and modern medicine have made it possible to live into our 80s and 90s.  This is a big change from just 200 years ago.  I sometimes wonder what great music we lost when Mozart died at age 35.  Robert Schumann was but 46 when he died.  Chopin was 39; Mendelssohn was 46; and the great Beethoven was 56, when they checked out.  Think of the Romantic Poets of England, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.  They lived only until the ages of 36, 30, and 26 respectively.  There were exceptions.  Haydn lived to 77, and J.S.Bach lived to 65.  Rossini lived to be 76.  Verdi was a ripe 89 when he drew his last breath. 

At one time many children did not live to see their fifth birthday.  If you knew you were likely to lose several of your children before they reached maturity, you might be inclined to have a large family to insure that you had someone to take care of you in old age.  (This was before the days of Social Security.)

Another update

Last week we drove to Springfield for a short visit with my parents.  We left on Wednesday and came home on Thursday.

On Saturday night we had a fundraiser at Church of the Restoration.  The event was a chili dinner.

On Sunday, Restoration members attended Gerald's class on "Black Liberation Theology" at All Souls Unitarian Church.  After it was over we drove to Restoration and heard a talk on Woody Guthrie.

This is the last day of January.  This month I have managed to walk 38 miles.  I have set a goal of walking 365 miles this year.

The MP3 Saga

Earlier this week I was about to go to the fitness center and walk.  I looked in the drawer where I keep my MP3, only to discover it was not there.  I looked around the house hoping to discover my MP3 player.  No luck.  Where was it?

I decided to look again in the car.  I found it underneath the driver's seat.  I found the MP3 player, but the ear buds were not attached to it.   I suppose the MP3 player had come out of my pocket, but what happened to the ear buds?  I searched the car over for the ear buds for about 20 minutes, but never came up with it.

Off I go to WalMart.  There were several ear buds available.  I bought the least expensive model ($5).  They worked out fine.

Whatever became of the original ear buds, I have no idea.

Still waiting on the computer

A few days ago we took the computer to a shop to get it checked out.  To make a long story short, a virus had wiped out Windows.  Today we had lunch at the Crescent Cafe, which is next door to the computer shop.  We stopped in to see how things were going.  The guy said it would be ready later this afternoon.  We may go get it, or we might wait until tomorrow.  I am typing this on the laptop.  This is why I haven't been posting as frequently as I normally do.Yesterday, I went to Church of the Restoration, as I usually do on Sunday mornings. 

During the R.E. period, the hour before the service starts, we continued watching a video series on the history of Unitarian Universalism.  The series is called "Our American Roots."  We learned about William Ellery Channing and presidents JohnAdams and Thomas Jefferson, all of whom were Unitarians.  The Unitarians and the Universalists merged into one congregation in the early 1960s.  Unitarians believe in, at the most, one god.  Many, like myself, are non-theistic.  The Universalists believe in universal salvation.  They do not believe a god would damn anyone to hellfire.

During the service, Rev. Gerald David (google his name to hear him preach) spoke to the congregation.  There were between 15 and 20 people in attendance.  Gerald speaks on the fourth Sunday of each month.  The first Sunday is Humanist Sunday.  HAT is responsible for the service that day.  The February Humanist Sunday will have Clinton Wiles from OKC speaking.

The day before, we had our Humanism and the Arts program.  17 were there for it.  Gail and I played three piano duets by Melody Bober.  I was impressed by the oral interpretation by Gerald Fitzgerald as he recited two poems from memory by Robert W. Service.  One of the poems he recited was "The Cremation of Sam McGee."

Today began with Gail coming over for our weekly piano duet practice.  I think for our next Humanist Sunday, we might play "Pelican Rag" by Melody Bober.

Occupy Tulsa rally

There was a rally held by Occupy Tulsa today at the Greenwood Cultural Center.  I took some pictures which I will post later after we get our computer "fixed."  We plan to take it in to the shop tomorrow to have a card replaced.  The card is essential to connect to the internet.  Tonight I am writing on the laptop.

The event started around 3 pm and went until about 5 pm.  While there I saw Larry H. from Restoratiion and Jean M. from the HAT group.  Today was MLK day.  The weather was great - near 70 degrees today.  There were some great, inspirational speeches made at the event.  There was also music.  A woman played accordian as a man played guitar.  There was also a group of drummers there.

The purpose for the rally was to focus attention on the Greenwood Cultural Center.  Greenwood is the section of Tulsa which was destroyed during the race massacre of 1921.  The continuation of the GCC is threatened due to the lack of money to sustain the community center.  There are tentative plans for OSU-Tulsa to take over the property.  The GCC has been defunded like so many other organizations which formerly received government support.

Update

Here it is Sunday night, and it has been a few days since I last posted something.  Today I went to Church of the Restoration.  The service today was a memorial of sorts to MLK.  Three congregation members each spoke about their personal background and their memory of King.  About a dozen were present.

In the announcements portion of the service I announced, once again, the upcoming Humanism and the Arts program coming up next weekend.  I had five performers sign up last week.  Today one more joined the group of performers: Joy Avery.  With six people, we should have a nice performance.  Gail and I will be playing piano duets during the program.

Last Monday, I went with J to the Second Monday book club at the Methodist Church.  The book we will be reading for next time is You've Got Mail, Bellie Letts by Molly Levite Griffis.  Letts is an Oklahoma author best known for Where the Heart Is.  This novel was made into a movie.

Five of us were present last Friday at Poetry Group.  We decided for next time that we would once again select two or three poems and read them to the group.  For our March meeting we talked about selecting song lyrics and reading some of our favorites.

A strange night at the movies

J had been wanting to see Warhorse, a movie showing in the area.  We decided to go tonight (7:15 pm screening time) and see it in Sand Springs.  As we entered the theater, people were milling around in the lobby.  We entered the seating area of the multiplex, one of eight theaters in the complex.  We immediately noticed that we were the only people in the room.  About two-thirds of the way through the movie, I needed to pee.  I went to the restroom out by the lobby.  As I walked out, I noticed that we were still the only two people in the screening room.  Out in the lobby, there was not a soul to be seen.  No one was selling tickets; no one was at the concession stand.  Some of the lights had been turned off.  When I re-entered the screening room, I remarked to J that the lobby was vacant and we were still the only two people watching the movie.

After the movie was over, we walked out to the lobby.  Still no one was in sight.  Our car was the only car parked nearby.  It had snowed about an inch while we were inside.  We got into the car and drove home.  I was starting to wonder if we were in the twilight zone.

The Universe is in Us

Neil deGrasse Tyson speaks on the Universe:

http://www.youtube.com/WorldPantheism#p/a/u/0/5rr-jyg0MyI

So far this week...

It is now Thursday.  This week has progressed like so many other weeks.  On Sunday I went to Restoration.  It was Humanist Sunday, and I gave the talk that day.  I spoke on "World Population Growth."  Gail and I played the special music, "Angels from the Realms of Glory."  Following the service we had a potluck dinner.

Next day was duet practice.  We plan to play a piece by Melody Bober for the February service.  We are still working on "Tierra Del Sol," but it is not yet ready.  We performed the piece about five year ago with no problem.  We got the piece out recently to re-learn it.  If you go for a while without playing a piece and then bring it back, it is about like starting over from the beginning with the piece.

On Wednesday, we drove to Oklahoma City.  On the way, we stopped at Chandler to do some geocaching.  However, we discovered we did not have the geocaching sheets with us.  We got back on the turnpike and drove in to OKC.  We stayed at the Best Western on N. Santa Fe.  We had dinner at Mamacita's.  J had business in OKC which she took care of the next day. 

Then we went downtown and parked in a parking garage.  We had lunch at the Art Museum.  It's a nice place.  Next went to the OKC Memorial & Museum.  There was much more there than I had expected.  I guess we were in the museum for two and a half hours.  The museum is the most thorough treatment of any one event (the OKC bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995) that I have ever seen.  There are many TVs showing various aspects of the event.  The axle of the truck is there.  McVeigh's .45 handgun which was in his possession when he was arrested near Perry is on display.  Bits of the Ryder truck are there.  Film footage from a security camera of the Ryder truck going past a nearby builidng is there.  In short, there is so much there I could not see it all.  Toward the end of our visit, I was merely skimming the displays.  A part of the builidng (the old Journal Record building) was damaged by the blast.  It is left as it was following the blast.  You can see through the plexiglass and view the untouched rubble.

And now a message from RZ

Here is a New Year's message from Roy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjFEF2qOtwM&feature=uploademail

Goals for 2012

Last year I set a goal of walking an average of a mile a day, or 365 miles for the year.  I met that goal.  For 2012, I want to repeat that goal, plus I hope to do a few more things.

In volkswalking, I want to earn 15 event credits.  It's not a very lofty goal.  It is quite modest, but it will take the cooperation of Mrs. N.

Last year I read 14 books.  Whenever I finish reading a book, I log the book at GoodReads.com.  If you are not familiar with this website, check it out.  This year I want to read 15 books.

I intend to continue playing piano to maintain my skill at the piano.

That will do.  That should keep me out of trouble.

The tail end of 2011

Today is New Year's Day, but I have a few things to say about the closing of 2011.  I saw my dermatologist Monday afternoon.  We packed up and left for a trip to Springfield on Tuesday.  We took Ayla with us and spent that night at the Arbor, a nearby motel.  We ate at Logan's Roadhouse on Battlefield, not far from where my parents live.  I had the catfish fillets.

Next morning, we took advantage of the free breakfast at the Arbor.  We then went to my parents' apartment.  Nick and his family drove up and joined us.  This day we ate at the Golden Corral.  Ayla rejoined her family, and they all went to Branson.  We stayed in Springfield and spent the night at my parents.

By 9 am the next morning we were on the road back to Sand Springs.  We had a boatload of mail awaiting us in the mailbox.  There was the mail from the holidays, plus mail from Tuesday through Thursday.  We made a trip to the bank and then over to Nick's to feed the goldfish.

When Nick got back, Luke wanted to spend the night at Nanna's, so we drove over to Nicks' and got Luke.

On the 31st, we went out to Keystone Park and got the year-round volkswalk set up for 2012.

A visit to the dermatologist

The day started with Gail coming over for piano duet practice.  We will be playing "Angels From the Realms of Glory" at church next Sunday. 

My GP referred me to a dermatologist.  My appointment was today at 2 pm.  He gave me some prescriptions which we got filled at the pharmacy.  I have dry skin.

After we left the doctor's office, we went to Keystone to pick up the receipts for the walking club.  From there we returned home.

Christmas 2011

One thing different about my daily activities today is that I did not attend church at Restoration.  They had no service today.  Instead I went with J, first to the 9:00 pm service at the Methodist Church last evening, and again this morning at 10:30.  In the afternoon today, we went to the Dobbs' house.  The Dobbs are the parents of Jennifer.  We had Christmas dinner and played games that afternoon.

We had some good medical news about Jennifer.  It seems her brain tumor has gone away completely.  She had several cyberknife treatments recently.

Interview of Ayn Rand

I fail to see how anybody can be so enamored of Ayn Rand.  Watch the following interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7zwO88nRH8&NR=1&feature=endscreen

On understanding consciousness

Here is another TED talk I found interesting:

http://www.ted.com/talks/antonio_damasio_the_quest_to_understand_consciousness.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-12-21&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Walking and tires

This morning I reached one of my goals for this year.  I had hoped to reach an average of a mile a day walking.  With my 3-mile walk this morning, I reached 367 miles for the year.  At times I thought I would not reach this goal, but I kept walking anyway.  Things worked out so that I was able to reach this goal.  There are still a few days left in this year.  I hope to be able to do a volkswalk or two before the end of the year.  I need to go out to the YRE at Lake Keystone with the stamp plug for 2012.

In the afternoon, I went to Hibdon Tire Co. at Tulsa Hills shopping center.  I bought a new set of tires for the 2008 Saturn Aura.  Afterwards, I went to Target and bought an inflatable mattress for J. who will be baby sitting the grandchildren for a few days following Jen's surgery.  The previous blow-up bed had developed a leak somewhere.  Luke and Ayla are now with us for a few days.

Printing a kidney

Here is a video about some amazing new technology.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/printing-organs_n_1160307.html?1324396773&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl21%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D121822

Monday events

On Sunday evening we went to a Christmas Cantata at the Methodist Church.  There was an elderly woman (in her 70s or 80s) sitting on my right.  When her cell phone rang, she dug it out of her purse and answered it.  We were sititng on row three.  After she finished talking, she started sending text messages.  The cantata was Tapestry of Light: A Celtic Christmas Celebration.  It was written by Joseph M. Martin.  The program consisted of ten songs intersperced with Biblical text.

We made a trip into Tulsa this morning.  J had an appointment with a doctor.  I would say more, but J does not like for me to give out details on medical matters.  We stopped at the Crescent Cafe for lunch.  From there we went to Dollar General to get a few items.  It rained much of the day.

Nick brought his children (our grandchildren) to our house in the afternoon.  Nick and Jen went to see a doctor in Tulsa.  Jen will be having surgery soon.