Category: History

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Lessons

The first week of school is now over.  Most of the classes seem to be decent.  The only class that I don’t think I’ll like at all is a computer class.  I don’t think she (the instructor) likes Google.  It’s basically the same class I took last semester, which is lame.

Someone hit my car yesterday.  I’ll have to take it to a body show.  It was at the dangerous intersection of Taylor Road and the I-85-west off ramp.  We were both okay.  I just want to get my car fixed.  I don’t like having anything wrong with it.

Prayer in the Darkness is tomorrow night at 10.  I hope people come.  Something I’ve had to learn is that there may not be a lot of people, but never to be discouraged.  It’s easy to get discouraged, though.

This past week has been busy with the release of a new version of E-Blah.  It’s been a little bit of a pain this time, as there were several problems at the start.  I’ve fixed just about all of them right away, though.  I just didn’t have enough people to beta test before release.

I’ve really been enjoying my Urge music subscription.  I’ve found so many new CD’s and artists that I would have otherwise never listened to.  Ten dollars a month may seem like a lot, but when compared with buying several CD’s every month that costs the same amount, it’s well worth it.  Currently I’ve been enjoying Jessie Daniels, Decypher Down, and Fireflight, among others.  One of my favorite songs right now has to be “You Decide” by Fireflight.  The music video made me fall in love with it all over again.

Someone told me not so long ago that one of the reasons why it’s good to get out of Tallassee sometimes, is to see joy.  I guess I wasn’t so sure what was meant by that … until this week.  Maybe I wasn’t paying attention.  Maybe I was overlooking it.  I’m not really sure, but I’m beginning to see that what this person said was true.  Maybe everyone’s just hopeless (or feels that way, I should say).  I went to several places in Tallassee this week and the people were just so down.  I went to Wal-Mart today, for instances, and the lady checking me out literally looked like a zombie.  I’m not sure what needs to be prayed for first — things broken (such as drugs and religion) or fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, etc).

Something I have been learning recently is attitude and how I look at things.  When I first walked into English class (late, I might add) and realized it was British Literature, I could have turned off and just said I’m going to hate this, or I could go in with the mind set that it’s going to be interesting.  So far it has been interesting.  It’s attitude though.  I wonder if I just have a bad attitude about a lot of things, so that’s something I’m going to try to work on getting out of. I don’t want to make pre-judgements about anything — people, things, places, ideas, etc.

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Smooth Talking …

This past week has went by pretty quick.  I had to work Monday, but I got off Tuesday for the Forth.  I drove the family to watch fireworks.  It was a pretty good 30-minute show.  I didn’t get home until around 11 (and I didn’t fall asleep until 12).  I’ve been reading a new book I got call, “The Burning Heart Contract” by Becky Tirabassi.  It’s very good so far, although I’m not too fond of the 21-day reading (I like a sit-down and read it all, kind of book).  It’s been challenging though, as the book is about committing a certain set of time each day for the rest of your life to prayer and reading the Bible.  I recommend it highly … remember though, it may cost you.

I’ve got another month-and-a-half left until the fall semester starts.  I’m sort of ready for it to start.

Over the past three or four days I’ve got “invitations” for MySpace … being sent to an e-mail address I don’t use publically that much.  It doesn’t even show you who it is, either.  After the fourth one or so, I decided to tell them to block my e-mail address.  Hopefully I won’t get anymore spam from them.  I met several people through the site when I was a member.  Facebook is great, I’ve only met one person through it though (and she was from one of my classes).  It’s just hard to meet new people.  When at school, people have the phone stuck in their ears most of the time.  It makes me wonder how people did 15 years ago when there weren’t any cell phones.

“Prayer in the Darkness” was pretty good.  There’s already another one scheduled for the 22nd of this month.  I should have called the sign up sheet a “Commitment Sheet”.  I may do that, actually.

I’ve been getting sick of politics here lately.  There’s several African Americans on the GOP ticket this year (more than any other year, for any party, I should add).  This is a great thing.  Slowly, but surely, this group of voters are finally seeing who wants the best for them.  The sad thing is, many of their leaders (ie: NAACP) want to keep them poverty stricken.  However, there are an increasing number of up-and-coming black leaders that are making considerable headway, and quite frankly, their sick of the garbage the DNC has thrown at them.  The DNC knows this and is terrified.

The next part of politics is the democrats have succeeded in keeping DeLay on the ballot.  In other words, the GOP can’t replace him with another candidate.  Anyone with a brain (which seems increasingly hard to find in the world of politics), will tell you this is both unfair and dishonest business.  They’ve already trashed his good reputation with things that have yet to be proven.  He’s not even living in Texas anymore.  I’m hoping the Texans have a brain and do the right thing — vote straight ticket Republican.

Finally, the fact that government secrets have a “right” to be leaked.  If we’re attacked again, it won’t be anyone’s fault but the leakers and media.  The leakers are, by all means, committing treason (read definition number 2).  The media is relaying this information to the terrorists (and those who are pretty violent towards the US who are living in the US), committing espionage.  The US Department of Defense Dictionary states:

The act of obtaining, delivering, transmitting, communicating, or receiving information about the national defense with an intent, or reason to believe, that the information may be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation. Espionage is a violation of 18 United States Code 792-798 and Article 106, Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Unfortunately, there’s little chance that anything will be done about any of these incidents.  It’s sad that in America you can get away with this type of stuff.

Finally there’s the people out there that are sad that Ken Lay died in his home before getting to go to prison.  There’s people that wish he “suffered” in prison.  People need to learn that vengeance is the Lord’s.  Unless we were the jury or the judge, we have no right (what so ever) to judge what should, or should not, happen to this guy.  Those that lost money, they need to understand the art of forgiveness.  Life isn’t fair.  Things blow up and don’t go our way — those are the times we’ve got to learn to forgive and keep going.  However, if everyone did this, there wouldn’t be a need for News networks, governments, or anything else.  And politically correctness wouldn’t be a part of that society.

I wasn’t wanting to get too political, but I suppose I did.  I’m tired of watching the news and seeing smooth talking liars leading good people down a dark, deadly path.

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Random Thoughts

I wasn’t planning on writing anything here, but decided that I probably should since I’ve not written for a week or so (and I’m feeling a little random, but that’s beyond the point).

For some reason I couldn’t fall asleep last night until around 11 or 12.  I’ve been getting into a good sleep routine, but last night screwed it up I fear.  Maybe it didn’t — I hope, anyway.

Saturday night at 10pm is prayer night at the church. About 5 people signed up, but I’m thinking more will show (I was lame and only put five slots for some reason — I modified the later versions to include 12).  The focus is supposed to be on Isaiah 43:1-44:5 and Isaiah 62.  I’m not sure if that was made clear though, so maybe this will just be a prayer time.  Either way, it’ll be good.  Officially it doesn’t have an end time; unofficially it ends at 12. I’m ready for it!  I’m hoping that I’m NOT tired that night.

Today I had to do a little public speaking. Wasn’t much to it, really (I like public speaking, only when I write what I’m speaking about).  It was a good experience in a way though as I got to help people from literally around the world (this was International Officers).  It was a little different, but a good different.

A week or two ago I was pumping gas and an older guy came on the opposite side and started to talk about gas prices and such.  I went along at the beginning (agreeing gas prices were too high).  Until he started blaming Bush and congress about gas prices and the like.  He told me I should “watch the news” and such.  I told him I did.  Other than that, I just smiled.  One of the things I’ve learned (and still am learning) is that debating draws dividers — nothing more, nothing less.  Unless the other side gets a revelation of the truth (or vice-versa), there’s nothing much good that is going to happen — both sides will remain true to their case no matter what.  The more defensive you are, the more bitter the debate ends.  The doesn’t mean all debates are bad, but many are.  I’ve thought about something I could have said to the guy, but I’ve came to the conclusion that I’m better off how I handled it — with my mouth shut.

An interesting statistic that I heard a few weeks ago that while the divorce rate in America is, sadly, at around 50%.  That’s not that interesting though.  The interesting statistic is that of the couples who pray and read the Bible together less than 2% of them end up in divorce.  Two percent when the rest of America is 50%?  Quite a large difference.

I listened to John Bevere the other night (he spoke at New Life Church again) and it was something I probably needed to listen to.  To sum it up — if God calls you to do something and you decide not to do it He’ll move right on to someone else.  I’ve heard many stories (a LOT of stories) about pastors who where the second and third pick (meaning God had told a few other people to start churches and they didn’t — hence he had to find someone who would).  I can’t speak about it even close to as well as John Bevere put it, so it’s better to just listen to it yourself.

I got a new iPod.  It’s one of those cool video ones.  My case still hasn’t came yet though, so I’ve not really used it much because I don’t want to get it scratched (if possible).

I found some quotes for the prayer night on Sunday. Some of them are so awesome they need to be repeated, so here they are …

“People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD.” — Proverbs 19:3 NLT

“When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy.” — Corrie Ten Boom

“It is as true today as it was in Bible times that the man who hates his sins too much will get into trouble with those who do not hate sin enough.” — A.W. Tozer

“Pray, and let God worry.” — Martin Luther

“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.” — Abraham Lincoln

This one wasn’t one I found (and isn’t for prayer night), but needs repeating as well:

“And why ask for wisdom if you ignore the Holy Spirit?” — Why by KJ-52

So with those quotes I end it.

Quick edit: I just switched from my closet server to the E-Blah servers (for speed and reliability reasons). Let me know if you see a noticable speed increase. Also, if there’s any issues with links let me know.  I transfered it over in about a total of 15 to 20 minutes so there could be some issues (although I doubt it).

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Encouragements

I've been pretty silent on The Da Vinci Code debate. It honestly doesn't interest me that much. If it was historically accurate it does sound like it'd be interesting (although how can you make something that far out accurate?). Honestly, just reading 1st and 2nd Kings is some of the best reading in the world. It's awesome. That's besides the point I'm getting at though. One of the largest reasons why I do not wish to read this book is the fact that is tries to confuse fact with fiction. This is actual a great tactic for governments trying to brainwash someone. If you can confuse someone about what is good and what is evil, your job is MUCH easier. For example: say you wreck your car and it was the other persons fault. Three years later someone writes a fictional book about a situation almost identical to yours but blames it on themselves. The reader knows he was not at fault before the read, but at the end he's confused as to whether or not he was really blameless. Bad example, perhaps, but it works.

The book is number one on Facebook. Aside from the fact that this probably isn't "scientific", it does include a great majority of college students (or once college students). The Bible is number three (below Harry Potter). I'm not too sure how the whole "don't go see this movie" campaign from a large majority in the church went, but honestly it drew a lot of attention to it — good and bad. The church needs to proclaim the authenticity of the Bible (it's authentic, and there's a lot of proof to back it up). I watched something tonight that said the majority of people are ignorant to church history. I couldn't agree more. We've got to know the church history. It's incredibly interesting too. I'm think we'd be surprised at the amount of people who do not know what Protestantism is. That's not even the largest part (in modern church history, I'd say it's close to number one, if not number one). I don't know near as much church history as I'd like.

One side note on this, why isn't many people defending Leonardo Da Vinci? Talk about slander. Everyone who thinks of him now thinks of this book [of lies] as something he thought up. Not good.

I'm thankful for those who are there that give encouragement. Everyone has bad days (weeks, and months), and we all need people here to encourage us. Sometimes I feel like I'm not reaching anyone, but then I'm proven wrong. A few weeks (or months) ago I was wondering if E-Blah even reached anyone with the credits. Not too much later, I got an e-mail from a guy who said that it planted a seed. Even if it didn't do much, it led to something.

We should all be encourager's. I want to be an encouragement to people. Someway. Somehow. I love just listening to people, maybe that's some encouragement to someone. It encourages me sometimes when I've got something going on. I love just helping people. Several weeks ago we had an in class assignment that I knew and understood pretty well. I could have left 30 minutes early or so, but instead decided to stay and help the those that sat around me that did not understand it. I'm not saying that for credit, but this is what we, as Christians, should do. If we have a talent, we should use it … sometimes it causes discomfort. We are supposed to live selfless lives. Would I have really missed those 30 minutes? Not really. I would have got home that much sooner. Lame excuse for not helping someone, I think.

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Things I Hate

Today I was getting my daily dish of news (first from Drudge Report and later from SRN).  The headlines was the "NSA Wiretapping" thing.  I think USA Today has been living in an area of the world without Internet, TV, or radio for the past six or seven months.  The news that "broke" today was "broke" months ago by the NYT.  It was as stupid then as it is now.  Nothing has changed between then and now.  What's even more foolish is how people get in a hissy fit about this.  Are people so ignorant they don't even read the full article?  They're tracking phone numbers to see the incoming and outgoing calls, making sure it's not going to terrorist organizations (not getting your address and name, etc).  I highly doubt they'll care if you take to your wife or girlfriend about dinner.  It should be clear: they aren't using it for anything more … they aren't breaking down all the druggies doors, are they?  It's not cross-America tracking.

Traffic doesn't bother me.  Other people that love to go 20 MPH over the limit tick me off.  I'm going the limit (and sucking down less fuel in the process) … if I slam on breaks, I don't want to have an Intrepid plowing into me.  Why can't people obey to law and just go the limit?  When passing people — and going over the limit — always try to check for cops.  Don't start edging past and then see the cop and slow down 10MPH under the limit.  The cop might pull you over for going to slow.  Be smart — go the limit.

Murder.  I guess it's obvious, most sane people should hate murder, right?  Well, most do.  The guy that was in college, going to research a cure for cancer.  He was given the cure, he was going to college to be able to prove it and put it to use.  Sadly, this was one of the 47 million people killed 21 years ago by "abortion" (you can't really "abort" a life).  Even worse is there are people trying to put legality to the murder.  It's not a right to murder someone.  I guess I honestly got a pure hatred for it when I listened to the JHOP podcast a week ago.  The one that got me was the girl who lost twin brothers by abortion.  It's an evil practice and it shouldn't be stopped, it MUST be stopped.  Why are people so blind?

Liberal propaganda is lame and much (most) of it is evil.  They accept ideas that go in direct opposition to the Bible.  Abortion.  Homosexuality.  List goes on …

Text books that use the words: bigot, fanatic, dogma, etc.  If you want creditability — never use these words.  It makes you look like an ignoramus.  You're going to make people read your propaganda anyway — why use words that discredit all your work?  Personal blogs don't count.  Don't put it in a text book.  Especially if you want people to believe anything you say from that point forward.

Scientists who are still stuck on trying to prove things that have been disproven countless times look funny.  It makes them come off as coo-key.  After a while, you'd think they'd try to come up with a better "solution" to the earths creation (while, of course, still trying to disprove the provable).  Come up with something about more than, "oh, it was millions of years".  Not all are so funny — some are serious and further technology and do things worthwhile — like find cures for things.

Loneliness.

I think that's about all for now.  I'll have to post the things I love one day.  I don't hate the people doing these things … I just hate the actions of these people.  Just wanted to make that clear.

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The History of Tallassee

I’ve been reading a book my granny has let me borrow. The book is titled: “A History of Tallassee”. So far I’m on about page 30 and it’s been somewhat interesting. Most of it is information so far has been on diffrent families and their helping found the city. The book was written in 1949, so by no means is it up to date (but very informational and historical). There’s a bit of information, also, on the Native Americans who once lived in this area (Talisi, or “old town”). Some of the most interesting items, though, are the pictures. These pictures that date back to the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. There is also a picture of the high school, presumably from the late 1940’s. Honestly, it looks about the same as it does now (minus the huge air conditioning units on the sides now). Oh, there are also some trees that aren’t there or have been replace. Other than that, it looks the same. There are other pictures of the flood of 1919, the twister of 1916, and the building of the powerplant (dam).

It’s been interesting so far, I may add more later. It’s time for bed now. Time is about to change (losing an hour, sadly).