Category: Rants

Soapbox issues

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School, History, and Creation

Over the past few days, I’ve been wondering about what I’ve actually learned in college thus far. I’ve almost got a full year out of the way … sadly, only two of the classes really taught me anything. What’s more, there have been studies that have pointed to those who throw away usless information (hence: music appreciation, among other information) are generally smarter. Maybe it’s just these core classes, I’m not sure. Math and Economics — those are two subjects that are real world and I know I’ll be using constantly throughout my life. Essays and the history of China are two things that (unless God really surprises me) I won’t care about two months from now, much less remember (note: I’ve learned a lot more from the History Channel than I have any history class since 10th grade). Sorry to say this, but essays don’t help people learn a subject. Tests don’t either (I may remember a date better, while another person may remember the color of the leaders robe better, for example). I’ve almost (almost) came to the conclusion that [freshman?] college makes people more ignorant.

On another point, I’ve found that I can understand why the statistics for people coming out of college whom are Christians are less than those who do not attend college. Anyone taking what the professors say at face value are ignorant. No one should do that. There’s a lot of debate about what this and that 5,000 years ago really meant. It’s not proven fact — it’s speculation. The History Channel generally tries to make this assumption. Text books, some do and some do not. Sometimes I seriously wonder if they’re trying to brainwash and make people believe everything they say to be history. Parts are great and interesting. Roman history is great — there’s tons of laws and text to actually back things up there. Pots and picture text in these other civilizations — that’s not really a lot to go by (no matter how educated you are).

There is so much history in the Bible it’s incredible. What I don’t get is why we didn’t go over the laws for the Israelites in my history class. What other civilization had so much history and laws (not to count that it’s been the most widespread history book — not including the other great lessons — of all time).

Moving on into Creation discussion …

There’s one question about the creation account that I’ve came up with (that would explain an “old” Earth), when God created the Earth, did he create it and then just let it sit for a while? Why I say that is because,

IN THE beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep.

Genisis 1:1-2 (Amplified Translation with emphisis added)

When was the beginning? Did day one start there, or did it start when God created light? Other planents are void and formless (Mars, Saturn, etc). I’m aware that this really doesn’t matter, but I think it’s interesting. Thinking a little deeper on this … if there was no light, then there would be nothing seperating night and day so therefore there would technically be no night or day and so when the light was created, would that begin the first actual day? God could have created entire galaxies (and even put the stars in place), accounting for the time it would take for light to reach the Earth (this was an interesting question posed by a friend). Light speed could have been sped up. The speed of light could be diffrent then and now, or there could be holes in space, among countless other possibilities. Light could have been created thousands of years after the Earth was created (I honestly don’t buy any “million year” theories).

The entire debate and discussion on this could be very interesting. I found an interesting quote today, “saying life came from evolution is like saying a library was made by someone spilling a bottle of ink” (Annale Fleisher, high school student). Also, if evolution took place, why aren’t other planents still “evolving”? There would be “evolving” on them too because organisms would “adapt” to their enviorments. So far, there’s not been anything found on the other planents. For the most part, scientists still seem to be looking for water and oxygen — even though it works on Earth, why would it have to work on other planents? Didn’t we evolve and adapte to use oxygen and water (evolution supporters thinking, that is)? And if there was a “big bang”, where did the bang come from? There would have to be some sort of origin. You can’t get something out of nothing (that’s why 4 times 0 equals zero).

I jumped to a few topics tonight, but purhaps I’ve got some people thinking. Creation happened. There’s evidence there. I personally believe the world was created in a 6 day period (+1 day of rest), just as God said it was (literal translation). There’s some thought provoking questions that can be arived from the first few sentences of Genisis though. Also, I don’t dislike my professors, I just dislike the work they give. Most of them have great personalities, and I like them all okay (some more than others, of course). Are essays really that important? I can freelance just fine … I think … why don’t they just ask me to do that?

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Goings On

I’ve not really posted much about what’s going on with me lately, so here I go I ‘spose.

School is actually kind of lame (and getting lamer by the day).  Essays, I’m okay with — as long as it’s not about literature.  That’s some of the lamest stuff I’ve ever heard of.  Just something I’ll have to try to manage to get through.  I’ve always been a B student in English, but this class may push me to a C.  Hopefully not, but I don’t know.  The two classes I enjoy are on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, which is Economics and “the computer class” (that’s boring as I know most of it, it’s in front of a computer though … so, not all bad, GMail with GTalk is great for that class).

E-Blah has been going pretty good the past month.  I’ve started working on version 9.75 (don’t ever ask me how I’ve numbered E-Blah, as I still don’t know).  There’s a lot of new things that I’ve implemented just over the past six months that from version 9.2 to 9.75 makes it feel almost like a brand new system.  I just enjoy seeing people get it and see that what they’ve wanted all this time is finally there.  The moderator team there has been pretty stable as well, those are some of the best support guys any company could ever have (anyone who’s got support from them can atest to it).

MinistryTalk.com lately all I’ve been working on with MinistryTalk.com is the Church Broadcast (or “sermon”) section.  I’ve added several new features with a few more planned in the next few days.  I’m actually hoping that we can expand and grow and offer a few more services for churches and other Christians “areas of interest” (whatever that’s supposed to mean).  Either way, hopefully Tim and I can get something going that pumps it up from being “just a sermon site”.  Ah, and I’m hoping to allow a few more churches to join in the next few days (with the approval of the server admin — Tim).

Church is going great.  More and more things are coming in and it’s just awesome.  The projector is now working, which is what I like to do.  I’ve been spending several hours lately trying to find some things to make things better software wise.  Overflow (band is coming from Wetumpka) is Saturday and prayer walk is Sunday at 10am.  The sad thing is, I’ll have to cut both events short as my sister is in the city wide pagent and on Sunday morning my other church is going to need me (my mom said).  I’ll probably get to stay at Overflow for an hour or two, and then I’ll probably get to go to the first 45 minutes of the prayer walk … at least I’m hoping.  Now I just need to figure out which one I’m more ready to go to (hmmm) …

There’s other things I could talk about, but none of it’s that important.  I’ve not been as focused on many other things here lately.  I guess something that does deserve mention, I’ve gotton back into playing Enemy Territory (the free multiplayer FPS World War II game).  Now it’s an “older” game, so I can max out all the settings with my computer and it has no slow downs.  There’s still hundreds of users playing the game too, that’s what makes it all the more great (and it’s free).  That and Age of Empires III are the only games I have installed (I believe).  Both are relatively clean games, so that’s a plus with me now (actually, I wouldn’t mind burning a few of my old games).

With the Bible on Radio podcasts, I’ve been going through the book of Numbers.  I’ve really enjoyed a lot of it (minus the parts I skip — the census numbers, for instance).  There’s a lot of good teaching in Numbers though.  A lot of good discussion topics too!

I’m going to start building people up and encouraging them more.  I think sometimes we can have friends that are really close, but yet we also pull them down sometimes by joking with them (when it may be something they can’t handle).  A good example is, for instance, joking with a friend about their weight.  The person could be skinny as a stick (and even if they aren’t), but saying they “really big” may not exactly be helping them.  I think it’s based on the person though, too.  Some people take things in stride, while some people wallow in them and believe everything and take it to heart.  Other times, I think that some of the words are friends say are taken the wrong way (especially if that person is going through depression or feeling worthless).  Point being, we should all be encouragers.

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Open Source Software

Over the past few days I’ve started to understand why I decided to go the way of Open Source (“free software”, with source code, basically) when I released my software, E-Blah.  When I released E-Blah I wanted it to make money, but I was persuaded to follow the open source direction.  In the end, I’m very happy I did.  I’ve got to see more people use my software without restrictions, than I ever would have putting a hefty price tag on it.  With E-Blah, I’ve also got to actually share the gospel with people via the software credits in the Admin Center (I have no idea if anyone has turned their life over).  Now I say all that to maybe (just maybe) pursaude others that, before they release their software to the public — consider making it open source (or at least free).

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Reach Out

Eventful. Different. I enjoy randomness and change. I ate my first meal today at McDonalds (Spicy Premium Chicken Sandwich) — it was okay. Two o’clock I went to the church — I helped install the projector screen and I moved the microphone to the back where the computer is (so we can record the messages to the computer). I came home and my dad fixed something up that we never had before — it was good, filled me up. They left and gave Jenna some at work (or that’s what they said they were doing). While they were gone I got a call saying someone we know, his dad committed suicide. I guess I’ve never thought I’d know anyone in this time period who’d do that. I suppose I was wrong. It’s just so sad. One shot is really two shots. You’re not just killing your body, but you’re pushing yourself into eternity in an instant. I’ve just been hoping and praying the family gets over this easily and that as much evil the enemy meant to come of this, much more good will come out of it. To say the least, today has been a very different day (on many fronts, I suppose).

My church is having a get-together tomorrow night. Play games and socialize. I guess there’s not much to say until after the event though … I do like hanging out with the church family though, great fun!

My Glorious is one of my favorite worship songs. I bought the “Our Love is Loud” Passion CD from iTunes since they were two dollars off. Overall, that has been the best Passion CD ever released, in my opinion. Speaking of Passion, Passion 07 registrations starts next week (well, they’ll sell out within a few hours, I’d guess). It says the official site will be up next week. They will probably do a few awesome videos that make me want to go even more … maybe I’ll get to go this year.

Common sense. You know it’s going “out of style” when you do a search for it and you see ads on how to get “common sense” on eBay. For those that have no clue what common sense is, read this nice definition. It’s true that I don’t have common sense on everything (no one really does). I mean, if I worked on cars since I was a kid, sure I’d have “car common sense” and be able to diagnose problems better than someone who spent four years in college learning all about how to fix it. It’s the same way with everything, though. It’s bad, really bad, when someone who has eight years of book sense think they know all about something yet don’t know anything about how to actually diagnose a problem. Sure, there is always a ten-step manual that can be followed, but honestly, it could be something not even listed and someone with common sense would pick it up first — not the one with a ten-step program on how to diagnose the problem. I guess I’m just posting this to say that, in college, try to get lots of hands on experience with what you’re learning (real world, not lab experience). It’ll help in the long run. It’ll be bad the day jobs start requiring common sense and college education is just a “want” (not required). If I ever started a business I’d like to do a common sense test … college is good and dandy, but I’d want people with sense for the job.

Respect. Youth. It bothers me deeply when I see an adult (obviously greater than 25 to 30 years) does not respect youth and younger adults. Some just think they’re better or know it all. Others just want someone to beat down, so they find someone who doesn’t matter: youth. I don’t know everything. An adult who’s 98 doesn’t know everything. Would these people ever send Timothy out today? Or would he have to go to college before he could be any help to Paul? Paul obviously thought very highly of Timothy (or else he wouldn’t be referenced so often by Paul, nor help Paul in writing and sending the letters to the church’s). 1 Corinthians 16:10 says tells the church of Corinth to “treat him [Timothy] with respect”. Now, am I against adults? Of course not. I normally get out of situations where adults think they’re better than youth. Youth are told to respect those in authority (which is good), but those in authority need to also show respect.

Men in the church. The other day when coming home from school, I was listening to the radio and they were talking about why, there aren’t as many men in the church. They made the argument that one reason is that church is seen as a feminine thing and, for the most part, only tailors to the females. They brought out and excellent example of how there was once a church with a prayer room that was decorated with ribbons and such. The church wanted to reach more guys, so they asked them to come in and completely remodel the room. What they did was remodeled the room with items such as Celtic shields and the like. When I think of the remodel, it can have a deeper meaning and actually be exactly what a prayer room should be for — spiritual warfare. Finally, after the remodel, the guys were more “at home”, but the females loved it so much they couldn’t even stay away. There were many other examples too, but this was the one I liked a lot.

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Evolution?!

There’s been something that’s caught my attention …. to some extent …. lately.  It’s the little Nasa “Stardust” mission.  I’ve not read up on it or rolled around in it like some people do, but the entire purpose of it had me dumbfounded.  I go to a very popular website who’s main purpose is to provide technology news.  From time to time there comes these topics on evolution.  For instance, there’s some “scientific” test being done in some vacume or something to show how the “Big Bang” occured.  Sometimes it seems like I’m the only one with a level mind.  I’m almost positive if these people were in their right mind, they’d see how foolish they look.  Maybe?  Then there are the rest who aren’t that sure what their right mind even is because everything that’s truth is just an allusion to them.  What?  How can there be no absolutes?  There can’t.  An absolute is “not to be doubted or questioned; positive” (dictionary).  I’ve honestly tried to think of a good reason as to why people believe in evolution.  Do they realize how complex life really is?  Do they realize how if we were just a little closer to the sun we’d burn alive?  A little further we’d freeze?  Do they realize that any sort of “big bang” would have to begin, it self, somewhere?  There could never be an “explosion” that would bring about something if there’s nothing to explode in the first place.  The evidence that has been used to prove evolution has been revoked countless times.  This all makes me wonder — if these people, these scientists, were to try to disprove evolution would they see how foolish and dumb it really sounds, and actually is?  They’ve tried to disprove everything in the Bible but they’ve been, countless times, proven wrong.  First you have those saying the history is wrong — then later you have them find the history to back up that it WAS right.  I wonder if a few were to try to actually prove creation if they would still see evolution as an even feasible solution.  I doubt it.

After a certain amount of time the dating techniques scientists use have proven to be uneffective (thus making the dates wrong).  Almost all early civilizations have an account of a flood.  There has been finds all over that seems to question whether there was an actual civilization that was on earth pre-flood.  Underwater currents could move things and put them in actual layers when the flood waters were to go back to their original states.  Right there could make it look like thousands of years are burried all at once, when in actuallity they weren’t.  A lot of this is just my speculation and reasoning as I know the underwater currents are quite strong, and could easily move things around and make them settle anywhere.  Trying to interperate pre-history from a scientific standpoint may seem good …. but so far they’ve done me no good and have yielded no evidence of anything.  Thus I must ask, why is Nasa, being funded by my tax dollars, allowed to carry on their senseless “discoveries”?  I’m all for exploring the galaxy, it’s interesting the pictures they bring back.  I’m just tired of seeing people waste my money on some crusade to find truth where there is none.

Change of subject now …. we got, in the mail, an invitation for the new movie based on the book by Frank Peretti, The Visitation.  It’s going to be shown in Montgomery and it comes out the 20th.  I can’t wait to go!  I’m going to try to go the day it opens.  I was reading Piercing the Darkness, but I believe I’m going to read the other book I had sitting out (to read after it) … The Visitation.

Well, I have some sort of “essay” work to do for English, so I’m going to go get that done.

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The Blurry Fading

So I got up, went to school, came home, went to my grand parents and grannys, then game back home. I did nothing of value today (or did I?). I did fix a bug or two with E-Blah I think. Today was cold and rainy. It wasn’t that fun. I like driving in the rain, it’s just that I don’t feel too comfortable using cruise control with it raining. Speaking of which, my cruise control has a mind of it’s own. It’ll all of a sudden just speed up and then forcefully kick itself off for no apparent reason. And then sometimes it just refuses to work. It’s not that bad, it’s just annoying, and without it I slowly creep up with my speed. I sure wouldn’t want to get pulled over and tell the officer my cruise control didn’t work that day. Haha.

Tomorrow is the last day of this week for school. Then it’s Thanksgiving time and then sales – friday (maybe Amazon and Newegg will have some sort of deals). I’ll probably go shopping with the family that day, although I’ll probably get nothing.

Ah, I know what I want for Christmas …

Tomorrow I turn in the first part of my math final [that took me hours to do]. I’m hoping to get an A on it. I looked back over it today and it looked like I did good on it. I think after a while of doing certain problems, some can be relooked over and figured out easier. The algebra is the toughest part of it all, but I think I learned more doing the final than I did in class when we were [quickly] going over the material. I’ve finally got certain things I didn’t get, so that’s good.

I played some Age of Empires 3 again tonight; it appears like ESO finally has fixed the servers. I’ve been getting disconnected a lot less frequently now, fortunatly. It’s understandable I suppose.

I’ve not been able to sleep good these past few nights for some reason (so right now I’m really tired). Maybe the chocolate I eat before bed sometimes keeps me up all night. I probably should eat it in the morning for it to be of more benifit to me. Chocolate is one of my favorite foods.

As I look over to my right I am reminded of our countries heritage — per my American Calendar. The bad part about it is that the picture has been up for the past two months. I change it like once every 3 months. Gotta love it.

Ah, this reminds me. I should haven’t thought about it, but I did. A guy today durring class presented his “project” for our music class. Now while he was reading it he was passively putting in his cheezy anti-American propaganda, but I was just listening. Before he played his “music” selection he gave a little speach about how we should “listen to the lyrics” of his anti-American hate song (it was an anti-war song speaking of how the government lies and how there’s blood all over the place). At first I was just mad. The song came on: I was ticked. I was extremely close to walking out. I’m sick of people sitting passively by while people degrade our military. I’m sick of people in the church sitting passively by when prayer is taken out of schools, when the ten commandments is stolen away from our court houses where they’ve been for hundreds of years (and yes, I am guilty too). I’m sick of it. I’m sick of people sitting there just watching like they’re doing something good in life by seeing our heritage stolen away. While I was mad, I also remember that I should pray for him. See, if I grew up in the back ground he has, I’m pretty sure I’d feel the same way about our military. What I prayed, though, was not just for him, but all of the anti-war people. I pray that the lies and distortion from the media be cut down. I prayed that it would come out to pass in a way so real that not one of the people in congress — even republicans — can refute the evidence for the president. I prayed that by the end of President Bush’s term he’ll come out the most liked president in all of American history. The media as we know it will change soon. A lot of peoples ticked off. The Anti-American and Anti-Christian hate speach filling the air waves of America will be undermised. They will be the underdog. The bitterness and hatered that has been rooted deep down in the media over President Bush’s win in Florida in 2000 will be the demise of the liberal media. Far out liberals will be defeated in their states. Those who stand for morals will stand strong (this does include a few democrats). This has got to the best Talking Points memo I’ve heard in a while.

I’m going to pray until it changes — it will change. It’s changing soon.

Wow, while I was writting this I was thinking about the song “Underdog” by Audio Adrenaline (and how I was gonna listen to it when I got done editing it). Right after I saved it (this is an edit), the song came on ChristianRock.net (which hasn’t came on in quite some time, as it’s an old song). Just thought that was a little too … coincidence.

And that’s my post. Time for bed!

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Relief

The city started putting up the Christmas decorations around Tuesday of last week. They still haven’t finished though, because I remember more color in the decorations (all they have up now is white lights). I’m ready for Christmas time … although I do want it to take it’s time to get here too. Today our church, LWWC, had a thanksgiving supper thing. There was so much food. I had a good time.

Anywho, this post will be short. I don’t have much on my mind right now.

I was checking out Fox News.com, and came across this traitor living in America. For some reason, I’m not sure why he’s still in America, especially when Newdow says bogus crap like this: “I’m a minister of the First Amendmist Church of True Science and I can’t raise funds or anything else because all the coins say that we believe in God, and that’s completely against our principals.” For information on where the phrase “In God We Trust” came from, check this out. I guess this song by Pillar, Indivisible, should be played to this guy. Here’s the greatest lyrics:

The other day I saw the news somebody else complaining
They want the motto taken off of the Benjamin Franklin
They got a problem with my God and that I believe in it
But the don’t got a problem with the money when they spend it
They’re so offended by 4 words that need no explanation
In GOD we trust the motto of this greatest nation
Not just a motto but something that we truly believe
If you don’t like it you can pack a bag and you can leave

Micheal Newdow, take notice … pack your bags and leave if you don’t like those 4 words. End of story. Goodness … next he’ll be trying to get “creator” taken out of the Declaration of Independence. Pretty sad. Something else that’s really ticked me off is this. Personally I wasn’t going to join, so I just didn’t talk to them when they were at my school … but never would I have tried to kick them out. Treason. That’s the crime. Sadly, they won’t do the time.

Here’s a new song by Plumb called “Cut” from her new CD Chaotic Resolve (which is where this posts title came from).

Not a stranger, no I am yours
Crippled anger and tears that still drip sore
Fragile frame aged with misery
When our eyes meet, I know you see

[ Course ]
I do not want to be afraid
I do not want to die inside just to breathe in
I’m tired of feeling so alone
Relief exists I find it when … I am cut

I may seem crazy, I’m painfully shy
These scars wouldn’t be so hidden
If you would just look me in the eye
I feel alone here and cold here
Oh, I dont want to die
But the only anesthetic makes me feel anything kills inside

[ Course ]

I am not alone,
I am not alone

Not a stranger, no I am yours
Of crippled anger and tears that still drip sore

I do not want to be afraid
I do not want to die inside just to breathe in
I’m tired of feeling so alone
Relief exists I found it when … I was cut

It’s an awesome song. Almost all Christian music has such deep lyrics, maybe that’s why I listen to it all the time. With that, I leave.