Enjoying Some Cultural Commentary

Switchfoot is a great band, and I finally got my hands on their "Oh, Gravity!" release. Thought I'd share the lyrics from one of their songs. They always have these great commentaries on life and priorities, and I found this song especially relevant considering the season we just emerged from (which, as of late, has more a mindset of Claus than Christ). These lyrics are the compliments of lyricsmania.com (no, I didn't feel like typing them out myself!).

American Dream
by Switchfoot

When success is equated with excess
The ambition for excess wrecks us
When top of the mind becomes the bottom line
When success is equated with excess

If you’re time ain’t be nothing for money
I start to feel really bad for you honey
Maybe honey put you’re money where your mouth’s been running
If you’re time ain’t be nothing but money

I want out of this machine
It doesn’t feel like freedom

This ain’t my American dream
I want to live and die for bigger things
I’m tired of fighting for just me
This ain't my American dream

When success is equated with excess
When we’re fighting for the beamer, the lexus
As the heart and soul breathing the company goals
Where success is equated with excess

I want out of this machine
It doesn’t feel like freedom

This ain’t my American dream
I want to live and die for bigger things
I’m tired of fighting for just me
This ain't my American dream

Cause baby’s always talkin ‘bout a ring
And talk has always been the cheapest thing
Is it true would you do what I want you to
If I show up with the right amount of bling?

Like a puppet on a monetary string
Maybe we’ve been caught singing
red, white, blue, and green
But that ain’t my America,
That ain’t my American dream

This ain’t my American dream
I want to live and die for bigger things
I’m tired of fighting for just me
This ain't my American dream

I'm a Dad...again!

okay, so if you haven't heard, I'm gonna be a dad - again! Yep, my wonderful wife is pregnant. Before you ask, yes we know what causes that...and, no, we weren't "trying" - but I guess we weren't "not trying" hard enough...

Anyways, today I was picking up us an illustrious and delicious meal "to-go" on the way home. Tranlsation: McDonald's for dinner, baby! Being pregnant, my wife, of course, does not order in her usual manner, so I write her order down before getting to McDonald's. Well, even though I wrote it down, I forgot to get her the apple pies she so desired. Big mistake. Never screw up a pregnant woman's desert order.

Never fear, though. I have an unusually gracious and forgiving wife, so I am still alive, head and limbs intact.

She will be getting the apple pies for an afternoon snack tomorrow.

This time, I won't forget...I hope...

Semester is over!

wow, this semester is over! Man alive, it's been crazy....

But I just finished my last exam and presently I'm glorying in the joy of being done for a few weeks. Actually, next week I dust off the Hebrew books because I was finally able to fit Exegesis and Syntax into my schedule. I think I need to "remember" all my vocabulary...

aaaannnnd, I also signed up for Christian Philosophy with Bruce Little. I've heard he's an incredible teacher - but he'll blow your socks off.

I'm insane, that's all there is to it.....

I'm gonna be doing philosophy papers for one class and then most likely an exegesis or two for another....how crazy am I?

Mythbusters idea!

okay, I've finally submitted an idea to the Mythbusters forum, and, if I understand things correctly, the more popular a post is, the more likely they are to address it on the show. So, if you've got the time, create a login and then post in the forum with your thoughts on the myth. Just note, I had to use Windows Explorer to access the login/registration information because they've got it set up with a new-fangled Flash Player 9 thing. So if you're running Firefox, it may not recognize the login stuff. That was a major pain! But after that, the posting was pretty simple.

Here's the post address: http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6761919888/m/9771993739

What's up with "48 Hours"?

okay, I know nothing about this show except that my loves it and it's about real life mysteries. But where does the name come from? It's called "48 Hours", but it is only a one hour long show, and the events it covers seem to have taken more than 48 hours to happen.

Was it only filmed in 48 hours? It doesn't look like it... so what's up with the name?

long time....sorry....

yeah, I know it's been awhile since I've blogged on here... sorry. Things have been crazy. The semester started and I've been pretty much overwhelmed between working roughly 45 hours a week, doing school, and keeping my family a priority over top of that.

I'm not complaining, mind you - just informing you my life has been super busy.

I just finished mid-terms and then went to beach with my wife, son, and mother-in-law. I know most people would try to avoid that like the plague, but we all had a marvelous time, and Barbara got to spend extra time with her grandson while we got some free babysitting. Yeah, good times were had by all!

And now Keaton is crawling everywhere and starting to pull himself up! Insane! And sometimes it's almost like he's trying to talk to us...mainly through this "raspberry" language, where he's going, "thsb-thsb-thsb-thsb" funny, but hard for us to understand.

Most recently we got a gate to keep him out of the kitchen, and now he's trying to pull himself up to his feet on it...from the other side of the gate, on his level, he looks like a little convict behind bars. A cute little convict...

another free office suite?!

crazy news, just found out that IBM has released a FREE office suite, basically it's own version of OpenOffice. I found out about it here, but you can check the Lotus Symphony out here.

check your health insurance.....quick!!!

Okay, so I've been checking into my company's health insurance. Since I'm aware of how health insurance providers can be infamously finicky about doling out dough to pay for stuff, I thought I'd try and work through as much of the small print as I could.

And I found something interesting. Medical aid recieved because of an "act of war" whether "declared or undeclared" is not covered by this health plan. What?! How unpatriotic is that?!

Here's the rub, though. A friend mentioned that this line of exceptions were probably added after 9/11. Why? Because so many people probably had to file insurance claims after that event. Why? Well, probably because they got hurt because of an "undeclared" act of war.

Here's my question, are health insurance providers here to help us get decent health care, or are they in it for the money? That may seem to be a flippant question, but it's answer will largely determine their direction and their decisions.

So, um, I'd grab the latest copy of my health insurance coverage, if I were you, and check out some of that smaller print.

awesome practical joke

Okay folks, I don't know if this is the best practical joke I've ever seen, but it ranks up there with the top ones. check it out here.

awesome add-ons for firefox...

Had a friend tell me about an awesome add-on for Firefox, called Bookburro. Basically what it does is if it detects that the page you are viewing has a book in it (or is about a book), it pops up a little thingy in the upper left-hand corner of the page which you can click on. When you click on it, a little menu drops down searching for and then listing the prices of the book on different websites (you can indicate which ones). Pretty awesome, huh? Get it at bookburro.org.

Oh, and note that you will have to give the site permission to install it in firefox - just follow the instructions on the little thingy that pops down at the top of your browser.

Here's a list of all the other Firefox Add-ons I use and love:

Download Statusbar - this is just a better way of managing your downloads than Firefox's native way.

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer - This is especially awesome if you use Firefox on multiple computers. Just install it in each Firefox installation and it will synch up your bookmarks and links bar whenever you use 'em. Prett snazzy, huh?!

Random Theme Switcher - Okay, this is just because I enjoy different themes and am too lazy to switch 'em myself. Pretty much it just randomly chooses a theme every time you start up Firefox. I enjoy it because I never know what Firefox is gonna look like! (it keeps things interesting...)

Google Notebook - I just enjoy this for collecting random stuff from all over the web. I've also used it for some research for school projects.

MediaPlayerConnectivity - this is primarily to play streamed media in Ubuntu, but it does give you more control over what your browser does with media links on a page (and more options).

Colorful Tabs - really the most simple concept, but really awesome. basically this just makes your different tabs different colors, and you can assign specific colors to specific sites if you want to.

So there ya go - my favorite add-ons for Firefox. Let me know if there are any you suggest!

man - the cross-eyed reader

Interesting article about the latest research into how we read. I just think it's interesting that our eyes don't focus on the same letters, but on different letters and our brains fuse the 'image' of the two views together into one view.

So my question is, does the man with the lazy eye actually get more of the big picture because he doesn't have such a narrow focus as the rest of us? ;-)

interesting new movie from Pixar...

So, we just got back from a great weekend at my parents place and I'm trying to distract Keaton until Terra's ready to feed him and put him to bed. Some times I do this by showing him trailers on Quicktime's trailer portion of their website. I found this one, which looks like Pixar is actually going to take on a sci-fi themed movie.

I can't wait to see how this turns out!

Kiddie Camo

So my wife and I decided to start letting our son sleep through the night. You know, let him cry it out if he woke up - because he's getting to that age where kids need to learn to "self-soothe." (He's four months old...).

Well, the first night we did this my wife also decided to get him out of his sleep positioner. It was a little too much for him, and in the end us. So my wife did a little more research and decided we could let him cry it out, but we'll keep him in the swaddler (as well as the sleep positioner) for present.

That worked decent, but we both realized that since he is a little long for his age (97+ percentile on the height - way to go son!) the swaddler was becoming more and more like a restrictive kilt. I kinda thought he looked a little like a mer-man...

So we decided to finally do away with the swaddler as well as the sleep positioner - hey we figured long as we were changing stuff on him, might as well do a bunch at once! The first night things got a little interesting. My wife had found some pretty cute "sleepers" (as they're called), I think he looks perfectly manly in 'em myself. The ones she chose for that night was yellow with black stripes.

Now our crib is black - and thusly has black "bars" going up the sides (no it doesn't remind me of a jail at all...), and she had happened to have put a yellow cover on the mattress. We had taken off the bumpers because we didn't want him to suffocate himself if he rolled over and stuck his face in 'em.

This being our first child, before we go to bed, my wife is watching him sleep, worrying just a little. She motions me to come in and look at him because he's doing something cute. Well I go in there, and the lights are out like they're supposed to be, with a little night-lite on. Well, it's so stinking dark it took me a minute to find my child in his crib. And when I did find him, I couldn't figure out why it was so stinking hard to make out where his head and rear end were - when I realized he was in Camo! He was wearing a yellow sleeper with black stripes in a crib with yellow sheets and black 'bars' coming up the sides. It was stinkin' hard to make him out!

So kiddie camo...yeah...let me advise all parents out there to put their children in clothes or 'jammies that CLASH with their sleeping arrangement, that way there are no questions about where the bedding ends and the child begins!

Internet phone fun...

Well, here I am scratching my head trying to figure out how I can cut my bills each month. Finances are more than tight as of late... But I had the brainstorm that we could get a single cell phone to share between Terra and I, and then maybe switch to having a home phone with DSL for internet - in switching the three around, we might actually be able to save around $50 a month!

The first disappointment was that Embarq (our local phone and DSL provider) would hand us a bill of approximately $65 a month (some friends who have Embarq let us know about this). I was almost hoping to be able to use AT&T, but they would have to run a cable to our house and all that fun stuff - though the cool part was if it worked we could combine all our internet, home phone and cell phone into one bill.

Then I remembered that voip providers (that would be internet phone service providers) usually charge around $15 to $20 a month. I could keep our present high speed hook-up and add home phone for just a little bit more. Disappointment. Time Warner voip service costs $30 a month - ridiculous!

But then I remembered Vonage - weren't they supposed to be cheaper? I checked 'em out. Yes they were cheaper, but they had all these taxes and extra charges. Could I go cheaper yet? Actually, yes. So now I'm weighing basically three voip providers: vonage, itel, and voip.com.

Yeah, if anyone out there knows anything about these, feel free to let me know!

More iPhone mania

I think i am actually more fascinated with the iPhone's impact on our society than in the actual iPhone (mainly because I'm extremely eager to see and play with the linux/open source equivalent which will come out in the next year or so...).

So I ran across and article on PC World which had all these random, crazy stories related to the iPhone. Check it out here.

And then there is this iPhone bill:



yeah, crazy stuff, huh?!

The Duck-tape Seamstress

Okay, almost. See, at CarQuest you can't wear pants with holes in 'em (go figure). Alas, all mine do have holes because of the various and sundry parts I've had to load and move around. And we can't afford for me to buy new pants every couple of weeks. In addition, neither myself or my wife do patching...

So I've had to go another route: Duck-tape. Yep that's right, duck-tape. I put it on the inside (sticky side facing out), and on the khaki-colored pants I have it almost blends in. Though a little of the sticky stuff got on the wrong side of the tape and sticks to me when I sit down. Luckily, I don't really sit at my job...

And duck-tape actually will stay in place through a wash. In fact, the gooey glue (that's kinda fun, saying "gooey glue" over and over again...alas I digress...) almost begins to bond with the cloth after a few washes.

Almost as good as a real patch...

Life philosophy...hmm...

A friend on facebook posed a "question" about my life's philosophy (actually, she just wanted to get everyone's, but you can't answer with everyone's, only yours...because, well...this rabbit trail just went over a cliff....).

so I wrote in response: Pursue God and everything else falls into perspective (and eventually into place as well); and patience, though a virtue, can be a long time in coming - so learn to live where you are now and let God deal with bringing your tomorrow to where you are today.

not too bad, I think. And, at least at the moment, it seems to describe where I am right now.

New favorite show!

Well, okay, it's not my new all-time favorite show. But last week, while we were at the beach and actually had access to cable channels I discovered this show called Dogfights on the History channel. Of course, when I first told my wife about it, she thought it was about dogs fighting - yeah, not so much.

Actually it's all about airplane dogfights in the different wars. Very fascinating. I've always been fascinated about flying and all that, and they do a really good job of explaining some of the physics involved, as well as comparing the various aircraft. Though the CG recreations are a little cheesey - they're actually not that bad. If you're into that sort of stuff, I highly recommend it!

Gotta love them crabs!!!!

So we went to the beach this past week. Great times. We also went crabbing - and I got this shot:



Note that I wasn't using the zoom function on the camera when I took that!

My wife...jealous?!

Yeah, so I think my wife might be jealous...and I better watch out, because she does read this blog... But yeah, I think she's a little jealous of me - only a little, mind you. You see, the past two years we've used Sprint for our cell phone service (yeah, I'm sorry too...). Being the wise husband I am (knowing how rough I am on phones...) I got the insurance. And I also got my second new phone on yesterday (second, not counting the original phone). Not that it's any different (other than this one is red, just as the first replacement was, because they didn't have the black like what I originally had - which wouldn't be so bad, except she got the red one so we could tell ours apart).

And now, I think she's a little jealous that I'm on my third new phone in two years, and she's still on her first one. Just a little, mind you...

(I love you, honey! ;-)

iPhone vs. Blender

Okay, I ran across this video and just had to share it. This goes out to you, Greg - since you're really the only person I know who has one... ;-)

Transformers Movie

Well, I went out to see the new Transformers Movie this afternoon. Let me say, "Wow!" Yeah, totally loved it and can't wait until my son is old enough to see it - which is probably not going to be until he's about ten or twelve. Yeah, the movie was a total blast, but it was a little violent for younger children, I think. A friend commented to me that there were parts which seemed to be aimed a little more at a younger crowd, but then there were a couple of parts which were not really appropriate for that younger age group.

But, let me just say that the special effects and the action sequences were insane, completely awesomely insane. Loved it, loved it, loved it! The story was pretty darn good as well...and what nerd doesn't enjoy a movie where the less-than-cool guy gets the girl - and a robotic car as well!

So yeah, highly recoomend it. Get ready for a fun, action-filled ride!

interesting google earth pictures...

sorry I haven't been on here lately folks...kinda got overwhelmed with stuff lately. But I did manage to dig up this interesting bunch of pictures of interesting stuff off Google Earth. Check it out, it's rather cool.

Can't wait to see...

Yeah, had to mention this. Less than a month to the transformer movie. If you haven't seen the full trailer, check it out on the website transformersmovie.com.

Freaking awesome.

My Awesome Son...

Okay, I don't want to make everyone sick of me bragging about my son - so that's why I haven't really written much about him. I know he's awesome, but I also know other people sometimes get sick of hearing the awesome stuff he's been doing lately. But I had to share this. So we go in for his checkup this week.

His head size, can't remember the actual number, but it's about average for his weight. His weight...well, it's up to almost 13 and a half pounds, which is about in the 75th percentile. So he's eating healthy, right? But wait, there's more! Yeah, his height. He clocked in at almost 26 and a half inches - for a ten week old?! They recorded that as >97%. What does that mean? Well, my wife found a little chart on the internet which has this pretty little rainbow to display the growth curve. The lowest color being the shorter, slower growing babies, the middle the average growing babies, and the highest color the fastest growing babies. Well, he started in the middle - just average. But then, instead of following the little "rainbow path" like everyone else, he just took off running for the sky - literally. He busted out of the rainbow like a five year old after chocolate.

That's my boy!

Lady in the Water movie...

Well, my wife and I haven't been able to get out to the movies much since the baby came. Okay - not at all. And we really hadn't gone much in the months preceeding it because, as most fathers know, when a woman is in the later stages of pregnancy, the baby pushes against her bladder, making it smaller... need I say more?

Anyways, we were given "Lady in the Water" as a birthday gift (for me!) and we actually got to sit down and watch it (we were only interrupted about 8 times by lil Keaton - I think it only took us 3 hours to watch a 1.5 hour movie... ;-).

But, despite all that, I greatly enjoyed the movie. I think I just enjoy M. Night Shamalayan's perspective and how he writes and stuff. It was a different movie - not quite the same as the Village (which we both loved). But I enjoyed it and highly recommend it! (probably not for elementary aged children...)

Stephen Lawhead's latest...

As some of you know, Stephen R. Lawhead is my favorite author (right behind him are C.S. Lewis, Ted Dekker, Isaac Asimov...and then a few more I won't bore you with). Well, his latest trilogy is covering the Robin Hood myth. The first book, Hood, I got as soon as possible and literally consumed it within two nights (we're talking probably less than five hours total reading time - I was flying!). You can check out my thoughts on it here. But I recently found out the next book in the trilogy is coming out soon. It's called Scarlet and you can check out Lawhead's page on it here or on Amazon.com. Man I can't wait for this!

Been updating muh website...

Well, I've had a chance this week to do a little updating on my website. On my home page you now can see some articles I've come across in my Google Reader browsing. You can also see what I've been blogging about lately from all three of my blogs. These regularly updating lists are also available as RSS feeds or as live pages on the web (here for my blogs and here for the web articles). You can actually get the feeds from these pages in an RSS reader so you can see what I've been up to lately...

On my website, though, I've also added two new book reviews: The Cross of Christ, by John Stott, and Paradise War by Stephen R. Lawhead. I've also changed my links page, dividing it into two categories, Friend Links and Linux Links. The latter of which is mainly composed of good articles and "how-to's" I'm finding as I try to do stuff in Linux. The former, the Friend Links, are basicly links to friend's blogs and websites. If you'd like for your website or blog to be featured there, please let me know - I'd love to add you!

This summer I'm probably going to be posting at least one book review a week, if not more. And I may be updating other parts of the website in different ways as well. Feel free to browse away and please let me know if you catch a link that doesn't work or if you have any problems on the website.

New Will Smith Movie

yeah, just ran across this on quicktime trailers... Looks awesome!

Have I mentioned how I love almost every movie that Will Smith is in? I haven't seen 'em all - but man does he know how to pick 'em...

fun letter

I came across this through a random article in my Google Reader...But it's one I want to share with everyone. You can check it out here.

I've Gone Linux!

Yep, it's true. On Memorial Day (Monday) I installed Ubuntu (a completely free Linux OS) as my primary operating system on my desktop. The primary reason I've switched is that I'm pretty much fed up with Microsoft (though they just came out with a pretty awesome new technology - see articles on right...) and their system requirements. With a minimum of 2 GB of RAM required to run Vista, that makes for a pretty expensive base system - all for a system who's biggest selling point seems to be some really simple eye candy.

Now, when I found out that there were some programs for Linux which could do the same and even better, I perked up. I ended up using Beryl to really make my desktop shine. If you want to see some of it's capabilities, check out this video from youtube which compares what Vista can do and what Beryl can do:

Beryl Vs. Windows



Pretty stinkin' sweet, eh? Yeah, and the best part is, I can run this on my present desktop (512 mb of RAM) without upgrading (Okay, so I splurged on a nice video card a few years ago - but I've read of people running this on pretty old and 'weak' video cards). The best part is - it's all free!

I started a separate blog to chronicle my adventures as I stride forth (ever confidently, because I am Zach) into the Linux realm. Check it out if you're interested for more details on what I've been up to.

Done with the Semester!

Yep, that's right - I finished my spring semester this past week. I was up until midnight on Wednesday studying and taking exams, and then on Thursday I wrote 22 pages worth of stuff (a research paper and two book reports) in less than 12 hours. I finished around 2am...I think that last book report is slightly delirious...

I've got a few projects for the summer I'm going to detail soon, but for now let me give a shout out to my sister and brother-inlaw who just had their first child.

Cheese, you have conquered me...

Well, I'm feeling a little under the weather at the moment. And the culprit is cheese. How you ask? Well, I was doing fine and life was great until last night - and the cheese. Let me share my tragic story with you...

So I was minding my own business, pulling some frozen hamburger patties out of my freezer to fix for my wife and I. As a side note, our freezer is rather stuffed, and opening it can be a hazard unto itself - but I take precautions and try to be on my toes, so to speak, just in case anything gets a little "crazy". Well, I'm pulling the patties out when things start to shift. I move fast, catching the frozen chicken and side stepping the ice cream as it nails the floor. But a 1 lb block of frozen cheddar cheese slipped through my defenses and landed corner first on my big toe.

I'm sure if my wife had been videotaping, the little jig I did dancing away from the refrigerator would have viraled out of control on YouTube. But, thankfully for my dignity, she was occupied trying to comfort our newborn son who had decided his world was shattering moments before these tragic events unfolded. I like to think my son had a prophetic vision of what was soon to befall his father and was only sharing in my anguish.

So after my vision clears and I can slightly limp around, I proceed to fix dinner and try and get on with my evening. But when I went to bed, the pain wouldn't fade. In fact, it steadily throbbed, feeling like someone was shoving a steak knife under my toenail and just going to town there. After writhing in bed for about twenty minutes, I decided my wife would probably have a better nights sleep without my convulsions, so I went downstairs and tried to distract myself with late night talk shows.

I finally realized action would need to be taken on my part when I caught myself fantasizing about what size of drill bit to use on my toenail to drain the blood underneath said toenail which was providing all the pressure on my toe resulting in the pain which was causing me to fantasize about swiss cheesing my toe with my cordless drill. It was then I realized I needed help.

After figuring out when an urgent care facility was open, I finally dragged myself out of the house and down the road to get my toe checked out. The good news was it wasn't broken, the bad news was that didn't make it hurt less. So the Doctor did this very interesting thing where he basically used a very small, thin heated thingy (reminded me of a miniature soldering iron, without the solder) to put a small hole in my toenail to drain the blood. Yay. That didn't hurt a bit, but after doing that the doctor grabs starts dabbing up the blood with some medical gauze or clothe, and then starts MASSAGING my toe to get the blood out. Okay, that was not cool on any scale I know of. He finally let me torment myself, which I proceeded to do in a more gentle manner.

So things are going great, and the blood flow finally dribbles down to a minutiae amount and he puts a band aide on my toe. I get up to leave and make my way to the little check out counter. As the nurse is pulling up my info and figuring out what I owe I start to feel a slight drop in blood pressure, and realized I was getting light-headed. I was in the process of swallowing my pride and saying I didn't feel so good and should probably sit down when I realized that my eyes were closed and I was hearing voices from a distance asking if I was okay. I had fainted.

That is the weirdest feeling. To be vertical one moment and then realize your eyes had closed and when you open them realize that the floor is behind you, not under you.

So they checked me out and made sure I was okay. I apparently don't do to well with a loss of blood when I'm working off three hours sleep and a virtually empty stomach. I had to call my wife so she could come and get me. And here I sit, a man broken by a block of cheddar cheese, telling the world about it because I'm slightly loopy and think this is something everyone wants to hear about.

They probably don't. You probably don't. But I don't really care, for I am a man who has been broken by a 1 lb block of cheese. Oh how the mighty have fallen...

fun directions

Alright, got an email from someone with these simple directions:

1) go to Google Maps
2) click on "get directions"
3) in "from" section type "New York"
4) in "to" section type "London"
5) check out direction number 23!

yeah, I really want to know who at google got the crazy idea to put that in there.

I'm a Dad!!!

Yep, it's official. Zachary Keaton Jones arrived yesteray morning (that's right, Easter Sunday!) at 9:05 am, clocking in at 8 lbs and 9 ozs, at 20.5 inches from head to toe! A little scary at the last minute because of an emergency ceasarean, but everybody is fine and dandy now. And I'm lovin' being a dad!

Best bet or not?

I really enjoy when people give me feedback on any of my blogs, especially when they disagree. I always a love a good conversation where opposing views can get expressed. I did get a good response from my last post. I guess one of the things I want to avoid in approaching my "religion" or my pursuit of Christ is this post-modern mindset of "spirituality", which seems to transmute any belief system into some sort of journey wherein you are transformed into a better man. I think the danger is wherein my relationship with Christ suddenly becomes about me being a better man. The reality is that should be a result of my relationship and belief in Christ, not a purpose or goal. And I do think that most people would agree with me, but the emphasis in their mind still is skewed.

Christ came to reconcile man to himself, not to make man better. There is a heretical view being propogated of late that emphasizes Christ's example. The danger is it makes light of the cross and the resurrection. This view says that Christ came to show us a new way to live, and it is his example we must follow. We must believe in what he believed in.

But Paul saw things differently. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19 that if Christ was not raised from the dead, then our faith is useless, and we are still in our sins. Paul concludes by saying that if we can only hope in Christ in this life, then we are the most miserable people in the world.

So if you like to think of Christianity as your "best bet" for this life, we may have to agree to disagree. For I fear that puts us too much in the drivers seat: let us evaluate all belief systems and what they offer, let us make what we seems to be the best choice. What if it doesn't deliver up to our expectations. What if we wake up one morning and realized the depravity of our sins, and that there is nothing we can do to change who we are?

I see Christ as the answer to that last question. For I am depraved, and my sins are many and deep. I have been estranged from God. But there is Christ, and in him alone do I trust. For it was he who died to reconcile me to God, not that I might live better, but that I might draw near to God and worship as I should (see the entire book of Hebrews).

My only Hope

Just read an interesting article wherein Rick Warren (celebrated christian pastor and author) was brought together with Sam Harris. The latter of which is apparently a very intelligent atheist who has recently written a book attacking religion, and I think specifically Christianity. Overall, I thought the conversation was very interesting. Lately I have found that I am slightly wary of Warren's ecclesiology, primarily because of the way he has structured his church. In what I have been studying of late, it appears to me that he has strayed from the biblical example of what a church should be, delving slightly into a post-modern mindset and organization. Thusly I was curious what he would say to defend the faith.

Overall, I think Warren did a pretty good job of "defending the faith" against Harris' attack. I think what most christian's understand (or should understand) and non-believers can't quite grasp is that there is an innate element of foolishness to Christianity. Paul harps on this theme throughout his writings (1 Corinthians 1:18 and the following paragraphs). If you want to have a "logical, rational discussion" about Christianity with a non-believer, there is this bottom line problem, that at some point you will hit that line of foolishness that the nonbeliever cannot cross without the help of the Holy Spirit.

What scares me about Warren's defence is that he summed it up by stating, "We're both betting." One of the pastors I'm interning under made an interesting statement this past week, that if all Christianity is is a bet, then that is a sad state of things. That following Christ, if Christ be a liar and the bible false, would be a great waste of a life. I think I understand that logic. For if this is all I have, this life and nothing more, then I do see that all is meaningless, and therefore the thing I must do is get the most I can for myself out of it. It's survival of the fittest and in that every man for himself - altruism has no rational foundation outside of God and eternity, and there I think Harris is a complete fool. He wants to believe in eternal purposes, but not an eternal God.

I am betting the ranch on Christ. All I have. If I am wrong, if there is no God and the bible false, then I have lost everything. My hope is Christ alone, and in him do I glory and trust.

Lesbian wanting to undo a gay adoption?!

interesting article about a lesbian who had a child with her "partner" through artificial insemination...and she's now claiming the courts shouldn't have let her partner adopt her child (something she originally pushed the court to do).

Is the outrage she has raised among that homosexual community at all concerned with the child in this situation, or are they only irate over the fact that she seems to be pushing for something which could "set gay rights back a century"?

What seems even more interesting here is the morality of the situation. Are the people dictating to the court what should be allowed (and thusly moral), or is the court dictating to the people what is right (and thusly moral). Or are there just laws with morality floating out there somewhere in the air, sometimes being reflected in law, sometimes not?

Finally, how can those who have no moral authority outside themselves expect others to accept and adhere to the morality they prescribe when that individual, on the same grounds as the first, has established his or her own morality which conflicts with that of the first?

If everyone can determine his or her own morality, is there any absoluteness at all about morality? If there can be no absoluteness about morality, why do we even worry about the facade of maintaining it?

cool little program...

Found this new program on PCWorld.com. It's called "Launchy". You can find it on launchy.net. Basically, it's a rip off the Windows Vista function which allows you to hit the 'windows' key and type in a program name and the OS searches for the program it thinks you will want to open. "Launchy" works the same way, but in XP, and with a different key combination to open it. Pretty snazzy. I think it's a pretty cool way to open programs, because, I don't know about ya'll, but I hate opening the start menu and having to go through all those different folders and programs to find the one I want.

Not sure if you'll enjoy this, but it's worth checking out. Completely free. Let me konw what you think about it. I'm going to put it in the "free stuff" section of my website within the next few days.

A little crunch in the Chicken Helper...

Alrighty, interesting story, if you care... I was making some Hamburger Helper last night. First thing I changed was the meat, because my wife didn't feel like beef, so we substituted chicken. All we had were chicken tenders, and I wasn't sure how many would have made up a pound - so I guessed. I think I was a little short of a pound in that arena. I was making the cheesey enchilada meal - which is very good, I might add. It doesn't use noodles, but rather an interesting form of rice.

To make a long story short, after following all the directions and letting it simmer for awhile, it still had a "soupy" consistency. I figured that probably due to switching to chicken and me maybe not using enough meat, I needed less water to make the meal. Oh well, couldn't go back, so I had to figure out something to contribute to help soak of this excess liquid. Ah, I though, I know. I'll just add some rice (since noodles seemed to be contradictory with the rice). So I grabbed some rice off the shelf - it looked the same as the rice that had come with the original hamburger helper meal.

So the rice did the trick nicely and helped soak up the excess liquid. When I told my wife what I had done, I'll admit, I was a little proud of my clever solution to the problem. She, on the other hand, was quite dubious, stopping short of laughing out loud (which was very tactful of her, I might add).

Finally we pray and eat, she allowing me to be the guinea pig for my creation. Not so bad, I say, just a wee bit 'o crunch to the meal.

Yeah, that's right, "crunch" and hamburger helper aren't really supposed to go hand in hand. I don't think I've ever chewed a Helper meal so much. I think we spent the first 5 minutes of our meal laughing between bites because it was just so, well, weird.

So, all you Helper manics out there, note that the rice which comes in the Helper meal is not the same as that which resides on the shelves in your kitchen. Though, if you want a meal with a little different "feal", you might want to try adding it in...

Beatbox Mario!

Okay folks, this just rocks and I had to share it!

Beatboxing Mario Bros Theme

Leadership thoughts

I don't know how many of you watched the UNC vs. NC State game the other night (I think it was Wednesday night), but I found the difference between the first half of the game and the second half of the game amazing. NC State, which was pretty much overall regarded as the underdog and least likely to win, was staying head to head with UNC, but during the half-time the NC State coach collapsed and was taken to the hospital (no sweat, he's fine now). The assistant coach had to finish coaching the game. The craziest part was that State then proceeded to lose by around 20 points. What was the difference? I'd say leadership. Of course there are a million variables, including an amazing coach for UNC, who might have just figured out how to take out NC State.

But the most significant difference I saw was leadership and motivation. First point I want to make is that if the NC State team had no head coach their performance would have remained steady, because there would not have been a massive shift in leadership to upset the team's equilibrium. But the downside of that is that the team would not have been able to perform to the maximum of their potential without a coach. So a simple understanding would be that with leadership they were able to far exceed their capabilities without it, but when the leadership was removed, their performance dropped below where it would have been had they been playing without a leader/coach all along.

Secondly, motivation. A good leader can motivate his team. I'm not saying anything bad about the assistant coach. The poor guy had to step in on one of the toughest, fired up games of the year and try to inspire a team who had just seen their coach collapse. But the real teller was the way the team played the second half, like a ship with no sails. They lost all control of the game, they were only responding. A good leader motivates, an incredible leader empowers his people so that at some point they don't need him anymore - they can go and do without him because he has given them what they need and they no longer depend on him. College athletes aren't necessarily expected to quite operate at this level, but the evidences of great leadership at the college level emerge further down the path of a college athlete's life.

I know the lack of a head coach is not the sole reason NC State lost the game, but I think it was a major contributing factor. Something to be noted for it's effects.

Different way to say it...

"I'm not complaining, I'm just expressing my negative opinion!"

Attention span

I was thinking yesterday (since my job is pretty brainless, I do pretty much nothing else but think through many different random things while I work). One thought that popped out was that our modern attention span may have shortened more dramatically than to the supposed 22 minutes most claim it to have shrunk to. They make this claim because of the numerous half hour shows which fill up the channels on TV. These shows, minus the commercials, run on average around 22 minutes. This phenomenon has made many public speakers rethink their presentations so that they do not run past the 22 minute mark, because supposedly the public begins to quickly lose interest after that.

I fear this may be a wrong analysis. I think the modern attention span has shrunk to around 5-7 minute segments. I use the term "segments" because most people can pay attention much longer than 5-7 minutes, but that's how often they are used to having "breaks" in their attention paying, due to commercials. Anything requiring attention longer than 5-7 minutes begins to seem long-winded unless it is highly stimulating.

Though not universally true, I think this phenomenon is sad. A dependence upon stimulation for cognizant focus and interaction will ultimately undercut an individual's capacity to focus upon something and retain information gained therein.

Yeah, completely random...but sadly true.

Thoughts on Eden

That would be "thoughts on the Garden of Eden." Yeah, just a random thought that popped up in Theology class last week that I've been meaning to get on here to see what you (my wonderful readers) think about it. The basic idea is whether there was death in the Garden before the Fall (you know, Eve and Adam and their apple binge). Now don't get bent out of shape. What I am speaking of is death specifically for plants. Since one of Adam's prescribed roles in the Garden was to "tend and keep", would that not have included working with the plants? And would there have been plants that died (as they do in season and out) - or would they have grown and grown and grown and never died?

And that question begs a second - would the animals that are carnivores now have been carnivores then? Could there have been animal hunters?

The reason I've been wondering this is because the text of scripture is largely silent on this point. The main thing we know is that the wages of sin are death (Romans 6:23) - but the context (in Romans) seems to emphasize more spiritual death (and life in Christ) than physical.

I love seeing people's initial reaction to these two questions (about plant and animal death in the garden), just because it shows how much they might have actually been leaning on an assumed "fact" of no death at all in the Garden. More importantly, I would say, is how there being death in the Garden effects your perspective of salvation and God. If there were (plant and animal) death in the Garden, would that affect your relationship with God or how you perceived him?

Simon Cowell and the American Psyche

So I finally got a chance to watch a little of "American Idol" the other night. Though I only watched a little (less than an hour's worth), a few thoughts stuck out in my head. First and foremost among them was that I found that I really did not have any argument with the judgment of the group choosing those who would go on or not (Simon included). The only reason this surprised me was because of the national uproar over Simon Cowell's comments over so many auditions in the past.

And even though his comments (as I watched) were a little less biting than others which I have heard attributed him, I began to wonder about America's ability to recieve criticism. Simon Cowell may use harsher words than others when confronting someone about their lack of talent, but that doesn't mean he's completely incorrect. I'll admit, there are probably many who get rejected from the show which have huge potential as vocalists, but their potential needs to be developed and shaped. But in the context of the show, he and the other judges must choose the best. But American's do not like to be told that they can't do something.

It's the great American concept of freedom (I won't even go into the problems with that!). But many of the contestants have the attitude of, "You can't tell me that I can't sing!" When, in fact, maybe that is just what that person needs to hear. It brings to mind a story I heard of a music minister who, when taking over a choir at a church he had just joined, warned the pastor that the choir was soon going to shrink a little because he was going to wean the choir of all those who really should not be in it. In the process of this weaning, he came across a woman who had a very great desire to sing in the choir, but who had no musical talent or ability. When confronting her about this, he not only showed her how she had misunderstood her talents in this area, but also brought to her many other ways she could serve her church (specifically in the children's ministries). In the end she ended up being more happy and serving better there than in the choir.

But America doesn't want to be confronted about those things which it lacks or about those areas in which it is incompetent. Why? Because we're the great America! And as individuals, it is unkind (and stifling to our personalities!) to tell us that we are incompetent in an area, or that we are not talented in some way.

That's what makes American Idol such a phenomenon. Here are individuals willing to raise up a standard and hold to it (albeit slightly overly aggressively). They do this in the midst of a postmodern culture which promotes relative standards subjective to the individual. That creates the conflict within the show (the contestants constantly butting heads with this standard they don't think really applies to them) and outside it (America hates being told what is good and is not good, but then again loves it because that's really the way we were made, to live within boundaries and standards).

Baby Construction Mania

Yeah, in the last week I've put together a changing table, a bookshelf, and a crib - all for our expected 'lil one! If you're wondering about the bookshelf for the baby, well my wife and I deced that since she could not find an acceptable dresser in our price range, we would just get a bookshelf of the correct color (that would be black ;-) and then use baskets to keep all the clothes and stuff in. Great idea, and it looks great as well.

So yeah, I am a baby construction maverick, having survived the construction mania, my wife and I are now ready to bring our little Keaton home! Now all we gotta do is wait another 10 weeks for that...

Hopefully, after my wife makes the final call on the layout of the baby's room, I will be allowed to take a few pictures of the room and post 'em on here for all of earth to admire.

Yeah, I know that'll keep ya on the edge of yer seat!

What?! School Starts on Monday?!

Yeah, um, I'm totally not ready for the next semester - which starts next week. Bugger (in the words of Captain Jack Sparrow). Yeah, Terra and I are barely getting ready for 'lil Keaton to come - but we did get a car seat yesterday! That was fun. And the crib my parents are giving us should come in early next week. With those two things we can bring Keaton home from the hospital and have a place for him to sleep. That's major, in my book! So a big thanks to my parents, Grandma Connie, and to Terra's mom for making that happen.

Yeah, but about school. I can't wait to start, and I'm kinda wondering what books I need. That's right, I haven't really checked on that either...guess I'm not so much Johnny on the spot this semester. And since I'm going to be having a child soon, I don't seem much hope for the near future...

So here's a shout out to all those who have started or are starting up the Spring semester: Let the chaos begin!

In response to Christian Science (comments)

First off, let me say I love a good debate. A 'good debate' being one in which all participants act with maturity and do not overstep from the initial setting of the subject matter into personal attacks. Though none of my comments yesterday were intentioned as personal attacks on any who believe in Christian Science - though I guess any time you discuss something which comprises one's personal beliefs, the very nature of the discussion makes it personal. If I offended you, I'm sorry. But if my comments irritated you enough to make you think more - can't say that I am sorry, because one of my goals is to make people think. It is a fool who accepts anything without thinking it through and challenging it.

Yesterday I did use the term 'cult' to refer to Christian Science. Though derogatory, I didn't necessarily mean it as such. Ironically, the term 'cult' also applies to Christianity as well, for a cult is primarily a "particular system of religious worship" (to quote Dictionary.com).

I would like to note that my observations were based on one service I attended, and not based out of any personal study I have done. But I think all Christian Scientists should take note of my observations, because whether or not my observations were accurate, they were what I derived from the service I attended. In the same sense, if a non-Christian (or even a Christian Scientist) were to attend my church on Sunday morning and not walk away with the basic understanding that we believe that all have sinned and that the only way to reconcile ourselves to God is through Christ, then the service was a failure. I would put that challenge out to every church - if a visitor cannot walk away at least with that, then you have failed.

In the same sense, what I walked away with from the Christian Science service was partly my responsibility (how well I was paying attention), but also that of those who structured the service. I was attempting to pay attention as best I could and to also absorb as much as I could so I could later hash it all out. I'm not perfect, so I know I missed some. But one of the main overarching themes that I walked away with was that physical healing is a primary goal of Christian Science. You can also note my other other observations from yesterday, which are those things which stuck out most to me.

As far as my statement about Science and Health interpreting scripture, I stand by it. In the service which I was in, it was stated that the bible would be read with it's "correlative" passages from Science and Health, but all "correlative" means is "related to". And in the setting of reading scripture and then passages from S&H, the latter interprets the scripture reading or at leasts focuses the meaning derived for the listener.

This next statement may be offensive, but it isn't intended to be so. But if came about from only a 3 three year study, what separates it from many modern (or classical) biblical commentaries? Why is Mary Baker Eddie's work so special? I am working on a Masters in Advanced Biblical Studies, and one of the overarching themes of the bible that I see emerging more and more from the Old Testament through the new testament is God trying to reconcile man to himself. Mary Baker Eddie seems to have missed that entirely. Her emphasis of spirituality (if I am beginning to understand it correctly) which subjugates the physical realm to something lesser seems more Platonic than biblical. The Incarnation (God becoming man) itself seems to indicate that God places high value on the physical. Why would God choose to use physicality if it was so pointless or useless? For man? But then wouldn't that point to some desire on God's part for man? Isn't that indicative of a primacy of value on relationship for God?

I know my perspectives are biased (but aren't all perspectives biased?), but the logical inconsistencies flow to easily to be cast aside for me. I welcome your thoughts/responses, but please understand I am not trying to deride your beliefs, only work through them to try and understand them correctly.

First Church of Christ, Scientist

Well, I had an interesting experience yesterday. A close friend of mine had to attend a "cult" service for a class (guess what he was studying in the class...). So Terra and I said we'd go with him for "moral" support, so he wouldn't have to do it alone - and yeah, we were both curious and wanted to see what it was like.

For various reasons we decided to attend a Christian Science service (The First Church of Christ, Science of Raleigh). In our massive amount of luck, we hit one of two communion services they have per year. What're the odds of that?

It was very interesting. They do seem to have a belief (at least stated) that supports the inerrancy and divine inspiration of the Bible. Unfortunately, they also firmly believe that the bible cannot be properly interpreted without using the works of Mary Baker Eddy. So the service consisted of "readings" of scripture and then the "proper interpretation" being read. There were no pastors, but there are elected 'readers' who lead the service.

A few themes emerged over the course of the service. They largely viewed Christ's coming, sacrifice, and resurrection as the enactment/example of living out science in its truest form. Their concept of science seems to have no correlation to what I learned in school (I learned it to be basically the study of the physical universe). Christ's actions, according to Mary Baker Eddy, freed us from sin and thusly sin is nonexistent, though apparently if you believe in sin then God will still punish you for it (I think the internal contradictions of that understanding should be self-aparent, as well as how such a belief might impinge upon God's impassibility, among other attributes).

They also believed the material world (all matter) was nonexistent. This, to me, was contradicted by a primary belief/thrust of their service upon the use of prayer for healing. The members of the church seemed to genuinely desire healing for themselves and to be able to effect that healing in the world at large. As good as this desire is, how can any physical form of healing be consistent with a belief that matter doesn't really exist?

Finally, one other belief that stuck out to me was their emphasis upon love and truth. These also, according to their 'interpretive readings' enable and effect healing in one's life. Though they used the term "Christian" over and over again, this understanding is quite contrary to scripture. Take the story of blind Bartemaeus, for when healing his blindness, Jesus proclaimed that his faith had healed him - though Jesus was acting in love, the healing was linked by Christ to faith not love. Interesting. The huge "word of faith" movement and others have played this concept way out of proportion, but faith remains central to true Christianity.

In retrospect, I find it interesting that they didn't seem to mention faith at all. But Christianity hinges on faith. Check out these words from Paul:
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-24)

To me, it seems quite obvious that God wants us to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled from our sinful state to him through Christ. I'm sure Mary Baker Eddy has some "spiritual" and "scientific" understanding for this passage, but in the words of some character whom I can't remember, her interpretations are "hogwash." The bible itself excludes other works as divine and presents only one way to know God: through Christ. And that, my friends, is something you can bet your life on.

Getting ready for baby

Yeah, Terra and I have been spending a lot of time trying to get ready for 'lil Keaton. I realized the other week that Terra was in her last trimester, so feasibly she could go into labor at any time, though we definitely want her to try to go as close to full-term as possible.

So we've been packing up even more stuff. My fiction library is now completely in storage - everything I've read and/or own fiction-wise, except for my "to read" pile is now boxed up. Next I get to tear down my most awesome sound system and box away around 275 CDs (did I mention that I like music?). Saturday is beginning to look like a fun day at the storage unit. I think I'm going to have to pull most everything out and repack it all just to try and fit all the boxes in.

The funny thing is, a year ago I think I would have fought tooth and nail to keep my sound system up and running and for me to have "my" little office space. But now 'lil Keaton has come along and I care less and less about what I want. It's almost scary to see the change - but it's good, and I embrace it.

I know I have no idea the changes this baby will bring in my life, but I can't wait to engage and embrace them. Children are a blessing from God - even though sometimes I know they make it seem like a mixed blessing. But God uses them to challenge and shape us more in his image. And I am looking forward to enabling my children to be all that God has called them to be, to equipping them to be eaven greater men (and women!) of God than I am. That's my truest challenge and one of the few that I truly desire and will consumingly pursue to fulfill.

Need a piano teacher?

Well, I've officially signed the contract and mailed it in. I'm a piano teacher with Keyboard for Kids and More. It's a cool little school of music here in Wake Forest, NC. So if ya know anyone who's interested in piano lessons, send 'em my way or to the website. I really need to drum up about...say...14 or 15 students. Yeah, that would be great!

In other news...I'm sick of my job. Not my new one (which I will be doing in addition to the one I have right now), my job at CarQuest as a loader. Yeah, the pay is decent and they've been really flexible with my hours and schedule. But I'm still sick of it. So maybe this piano teaching gig will help me some with tolerating my loading job. I hope so...because I'm sick of it!

Finally thinking again

Yeah, just wanted to drop a note and say that I am finally starting to write on my thinking blog again. Today I pulled a quote from a book I've begun reading called, The Doors of the Sea: Where was God in the Tsunami? The book mainly deals with the conflict between the idea of a morally righteous, benevolent, and omnipotent God and the reality of such massive (and natural) tragedies as the Tsunami of a few years ago which had a death toll reaching near a quarter of a million. Really good book, and I think I'm going to be processing much of it on my thinking blog in the weeks to come.

Thr3e Movie

Random note, but a close friend of mine mentioned to me yesterday that he thought that there was a movie of a book we both enjoyed coming out soon. And there is. The book "Thr3e" by Ted Dekker has been made into a movie and will be released soon - haven't figured out when exactly......yet. But here's the website:

http://www.foxfaithmovies.com/thr3e/

The book was great - but since it was more a psychological thriller than an action book, I'm still a little unsure of how it has translated to the silver screen. But the preview seems to be pretty solid.

Another video!

Alrighty folks, I've been meaning to do this for about a year now. I've put Terra and my lil wedding video in my MySpace videos so's all you'ns out thar who want to check it out can. (yes, I think I have been watching Pirate's of the Caribbean way too much...). So here she be!

Zach and Terra Wedding Slideshow