Jealousy (Pt 1)

Have you ever been jealous before? I don’t mean envious, but really hopping green with jealousy? A lot of people get envy and jealousy mixed up by the way. According to Merriam-Webster, jealousy has 3 common definitions. The first describes one’s predilection for jealous behaviors. So a jealous person is someone that would be more likely to suspect someone of unfaithfulness. The second definition is the more common notion of hating someone who has an advantage. The last definition has a less negative connotation, merely meaning to really guard a possession. What about envy? Here, M-W say that it is a “painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage.” Do you see the difference now? Whereas both words basically means you hate or resent someone that has an advantage over you, envy takes it a step further by also meaning that you want that advantage as well.

Here’s a scenario that should highlight the differences very well. One very familiar situation with jealousy is the jealous husband. Let’s say that George was married to a beautiful woman. Naturally he would be jealous of any man that talks to his wife. That’s because not only does he perceive every guy as a rival for her affections, but also he might be thinking that she might be unfaithful to him. But you cannot say that he is envious of any man that talks to his wife, right? He may feel resentment to the other person (jealousy), but he’s already married to her. On the other hand, other men may be envious of him because they all want his wife. Clearer now? Good, moving on.

… Oh yeah, so, have you ever been jealous before? If you aren’t married, most likely you’ve never been jealous of someone. You were probably envious, but not jealous. But if you are married, I’m sure deep down that mortal body of yours, you’ve felt that seething hatred. Jealousy and hate get along very well, you know. You see your spouse or SO (significant other) chatting with one another, having a good time while you are not there! Maybe she touches him innocently on the arm while they share a laugh. Maybe he’s whispering something to her. Whatever it is, thoughts immediately start forming in your mind. Evil, non-Christian like thoughts. Like what if they’re spending more time together than you realize. Or imagining them in uncompromising situations. You get yourself more and more worked up, getting angry every second until you completely lose it. Then you’re flinging chairs, upending the buffet table with the lovely ice sculpture of an ice swan or duck or something on it, all the while incoherently roaring and stalking closer to your wife.

Ok… maybe not that drastic, but you get the idea. Jealousy is a very basic human emotion, we all have it, it’s what makes up an important part of our self-esteem, be it high or low. Human jealousy wrecks relationships, because trust is broken. In order to protect your advantages, you start to guard it closer and closer. If your gorgeous boyfriend goes out, you want to know where he’s going, with whom, and when he’s coming back. After assuaging your fears, you let him leave but you’re carefully watching the clock. One hand is always hovering near your phone… one second late and you’re ready to dial him up to see why he’s late. Jealousy is living in a constant state of fear, fear that your loved one will leave you, fear that someone will take your loved one from you or fear of both.

But jealousy isn’t all bad. Everyone needs a moderate amount of jealousy, believe it or not. I call it healthy jealousy, similar to healthy skepticism. You’re probably disagreeing with me right now, “Nope, I have no jealous bone in my body. I completely trust my man (woman). (S)he will never betray me.” I’m sorry to say, but if you’re like then, then don’t be surprised when that person leaves you. Do you honestly think it’s a good idea for your SO to go on a week-long vacation with a member of the opposite sex? And sharing one room? It doesn’t matter what the reason is, “oh she got a great vacation package and she has no one to bring.” If you don’t say no, that it’s a bad idea, then you deserve 100% the consequences of that trip. A little healthy jealousy shows that you care about someone, not that you don’t trust that person. It also lets your SO know that you’re watching out so they best be on their best behavior. God created that feeling so you can protect yourself and the ones you love.

Interesting toy

Wow... I don't even know what to say....
So yeah, just click here to find a toy I would not be caught dead carrying.

Top Cities List

An interesting list of the top 100 cities sorted by various data.

And for all the single guys out there: top 100 cities with highest percentage of females

I didn't forget all the single ladies as well: top 100 cities with highest percentage of males

Another interesting thing I noticed... the city with the highest percentage of females is only 68%. But the city with the highest percentage of males is a whopping 94%! And no, it's not Silicon Valley.

Something is afoot...

Hrm... something wierd is going on with blogger. I had posted the followup to Pruning the Roses today, but for some reason it got pushed to Monday. So, I technically did post on Thurs, but stupid blogger messed up.
I hope it won't do this all the time.

That's it. So if you were looking for today's article, it's actually in the Monday section.

A time to sow, a time to shop...

Good article on when is the best time to buy everything from games to homes.

Pruning the Roses (Pt 2)

Ok, and we’re back! I’m glad you made it, I’m sure you’ve been eagerly waiting to see how getting stuck with thorns and hacking off bushes relates to God. Well, I’ll tell you. But first, a recap. Last time on “Water and Oil”… Ohhhh, just scroll down to see it.

Have you ever wondered why God seems to allow bad things to happen to your life? I mean, this one life, it’s all we got on this world. And if He truly loves us, doesn’t He want us to be happy? So, why does He give us misery and pain? Would it be better if He just made us all rich, so that we can devote our free time to worshipping God and furthering his ministry, rather than having to get up at 7, 8, 9, 10, 11a just to go to work? Why do our dogs have to die? Or our parents, or even worse, our innocent little babies, who didn’t even get the same chances we have? Why did He send Hurricane Katrina? Was it really to punish the heathen city as some vocal Christian leaders have said? What about that huge earthquake in India? Well, I don’t really have any answers to all that. There is a great book about that sort of thing, “Where is God when it hurts?” by Philip Yancy.

One thing that struck me about the book is the nature of pain. People always assume that pain is bad. However, Philip showed through the first quarter of the book, that pain is actually good. It’s an early warning sign that something bad is happening to you and you should pay attention to it. Using an extreme example, he explained how leprous patients often lose their fingers and toes precisely because they don’t feel pain. So when they grab a pencil for example, they can’t tell when to stop gripping the pencil too tightly. It’s the slight pain or resistance that will tell your fingers to stop squeezing. Or if you leave your hand too close to the stove, pain in your hand sends the signal to your nervous system to jerk back your hand. In fact, that’s an example of a simple reflex. See? Now you don’t have to buy this book either! What a deal! Not only does this blog inform, but also saves you money.

Anyway, you can see that pain is actually a safety feature. Likewise, misery or hardship is also good for you. You are exactly like a rosebush. Your actions are the rose buds. One bright rose might be you helping a little old lady cross the street. Another rose might be you leading Sunday School. But just like a rosebush, you need to be pruned. And guess who’s the pruner? Yup, and unlike a human pruner, God has the perfect green thumb. He knows infinitely better which branch to cut from you, and which bough to shear. Not only that, He knows the exact time to shear. Reading up on pruning, I have learned that if you prune too early, frost may set in. Prune too late and you’ll get unwanted facial hair, or something. I don’t know, I just skimmed it. But you get my point.

Going along with the analogy, how does God “prune” you? Well, of course, there’s many ways, but one way He does this it is by forcing you to uncomfortable situations. He could literally prune your family tree, by sending some of your relatives off this wide dusty earth. Or He could prune your chances with that cute girl(/boy) sitting the next pew over. Or if He feels you’re getting a little too much pride, He could lop off some of your good fortune, whether it’s a job layoff or losing a bet with someone over a football game.

But the point is not what the exact method is, the point is what are you going to do as a result of the pruning? Will you wither away as the frost hits you, or will you bloom bigger and brighter the next summer? The choice is sorta yours. If you choose to wither, then God will simply lop off more branches and more branches until you do bloom. Taken to the extreme, he could cut the entire bush down, leaving only the root, just like He did with Job and just like gong-gong did with my rose bush gift. But learn from my example, and listen to God when He prunes you. You’ll lose less branches.

And since I didn’t use the Bible at all, I’ll leave you with these verses:

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Pe. 1:6-7)

Pruning the Roses (Pt. 1)

Do you know anything about gardening? I’m probably the least qualified to talk about gardening. I could care less about the differences between a gardenia and a petunia, other than the fact that they would make a good rhyme. When I see flowers, I don’t necessarily see the aesthetic beauty. What I see is more scientific or rational. This flower is brighter, this flower is bigger, this flower smells good, this one tastes funny, ooo look at those pretty colors swirling around. Whoops, shouldn’t have eaten that flower.

But there’s a thing or two I know about the grand science of horticulture. One, roses have thorns. I learned that the hard way when I was trying to go between two large rosebushes to escape from Jimmy Tay during a game of tag. I hurt in places I didn’t know I had! But at least I wasn’t caught! Yeah! Who cares if I have scratches up and down my face and neck, at least I wasn’t IT! And the second thing I learned was if you want bigger roses, you have to cut the entire bush down to its root. I too learned that lesson the hard way as well.

Here’s another long aside. Y’see, my maternal grandparents, whom I shall now call gong-gong (grandfather) and po-po (grandmother), had just moved into a new townhouse. As a welcome gift, we bought them 2 rose bushes. By “we”, I mean my sister and I picked out the rose bushes, while my parents paid. We planted them very carefully in front of their house. And again, by “we”, I mean my dad (cash machine) and gong-gong (grandfather) planted them while my sister and I watched TV inside. During the summer, each bush grew such beautiful roses. My sister and I would view with pride at how high each bush grew, and we would competitively count which bush had more roses (Mine did of course!). This was a great gift! It added such color to the house. Then one wintery day, the bushes were gone! It was the equivalent to finding your favorite horse’s head in your bed! I was devastated! Did this mean gong-gong and po-po didn’t like me anymore? I mean, why else would you destroy such a lovely gift? Later, I learned that in order for the rose bush to grow even more roses next year, you had to prune the bushes during the winter time. So, I still had my grand parents’ love, which really, was all that mattered…. Plus the red envelopes I got every New Years, but that’s a different story.

So why am I telling you this tale? Didn’t I promise you this wasn’t going to be a mushy blog about my past and how it made me who I am (a homicidal writer)? Nope, don’t worry, there’s a biblical application to this story. Stay tuned next time to find out what! Or not. Whatever, it’s up to you. …But no, seriously, come back.

It's the Ultimate Showdown

Very funny movie with LOTS of cameos. You should turn on subtitles to appreciate it.
Click here.

Cell phones != brain tumor

Well, there's another study that shows that there is no causal link between cell phone use and brain tumors. But then, you probably already knew that. You smart readers, you!

Telephone Cheat Sheet

I found an awesome page that tells you how to get to the operator quickly for many many businesses, banks, and stores. Very useful if all you want to do is talk to someone, not a machine! Linky

Cursive: A lost Art?

Seems like cursive is going the way of calligraphy and the dodo. Actually, I won't miss it that much. I hated cursive writing! I never understood how a 2 looks like a "Q".
Oh well. Here's the link again.

New Honda Civic Ad

Fridays are relaxing days. Who wants to work on Fridays anyway?
I'll be posting random interesting links on Friday so you can procrastinate more!
Here's a site about the new Honda Civic. I personally don't like the car, but the ad is pretty cool. It uses people to create all the sounds.
I got this from Katie, my cousin's fiancee.

Official Civic site
Unofficial mirror

Bono said what?

Bono - "The less you know, the more you believe."

I saw this at the top of gmail. I think it’s a cool feature that they have. It changes pretty often, so you don’t get bored of it. Anyway, this quote was up there and it caught my eye. First thing that went through my head was, “Wow, that’s deep.” The second thing, right after was, “Bono said that?!?” This coming from the guy who counts in Spanish, 1, 2,3, 40? Well, I guess the philosophy lightning’s bound to strike everyone at least once in their life.

No, this isn’t a random musing. I’m not that senile, yet. It’s a good quote though. Think about it. We have mighty men of God, who are the most learned people in the world. We have great ministers who have graduated from seminary with top honors, the works. They have been groomed since childhood to love the Lord, serve God, and convert millions. But that doesn’t mean their faith is bigger than yours or mine. I am constantly amazed at some of the great stories of faith. Peter, who would later be the rock on which Jesus will build his church, was just a simple fisherman, and a poor one at that. Fishermen were definitely not a learned class, known for their great theological thinkers. But by his words (of course, augmented by the Holy Spirit), he converted thousands, in a single day. I’m sure if you compared his knowledge with some other great preachers today or even with lay people like you and me, it wouldn’t be a fair contest, we would win. Plus we got the added bonus of seeing the rest of the scriptures, all he had to go on was the OT. But the less he knew, the more he believed. He may not have great head knowledge, but his faith, man, watch out!

Paul knew that too, when he said in Phi 3:7 (NKJV) “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss.” You should really read the entire chapter, but he talks about how he was like the ultimate Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews, but all these accolades meant nothing. It isn’t what you know, or have been indoctrinated since you were a little child, it’s all about what you believe. That's probably what Jesus meant when he said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Mat 18:3) And to do that, no amount of learning in the world can help you, it's all about faith and trust.

Toilet Paper

Here's a poem I wrote recently. If people are wondering about the meaning of the poem, I'll be happy to explain it later. Also, I'd like to welcome you to my blog. Feel free to browse around and comment on anything you want. Controversies are welcome =) Oh yeah, and if you do enjoy this blog, please feel free to pass it on to others.

Toilet Paper


I walked around campus with toilet paper stuck to my shoe.
It wasn't big, no more than 2 squares
but everyone noticed it as much as they
would notice a billboard of a half-naked girl
along the freeway.
I wondered why people were staring at me
and some even giggled and shared it with others.
So I glanced at the darkened classroom windows
as I walked to the next class,
subtly checking my reflection. But I didn't see
what they see.
I even sat in class, with my leg crossed
over my thigh, guy-style
and wiggle my foot,
the toilet paper flapping in rhythm
a miniature Olympic rhythm gymnast
spinning on amphetamines.
I talked to friends, with my paper hitchhiker eavesdropping
but no one said a word.
It wasn't until I was back home,
sitting on the very instrument of my unbeknownst shame
that I noticed I had been walking around school
with toilet paper stuck to the heel.

I wonder what the President would do
if he went out to a press conference
with the white tissue trailing behind him.
Would he simply hide behind the lectern
and try to take it off with his other shoe
while delivering his speech like nothing is happening?
Or would he secretly whisper the codeword
into his microphone that would cause the Secret
Service to jump in and tackle him
and the one who grabbed his legs
would have to tear the paper from his shoe and
ball it up unseen into his pocket?
Do you think they put that in their entrance exam,
alongisde "Would you give your life to protect the President?",
"Would you dirty your hands to grab the President's toiletpaper?"?

I bet if a Hollywood starlet walked across the red
with the toilet paper stuck under her Prada shoe,
and when Joan Rivers asks what is she wearing,
the actress would show off that artificially sculpted tan leg and say
demurely into the camera,
"It's a Charmin, two-ply, monogrammed on each square
with 24k gold."
Joan would of course, ooh and aah and later
when she's quite alone in her house,
in front of the full-length mirror,
would delicately lay that newly-fashionable white sheet
down on the ground and daintily step onto it,
pose with her arched heel and nod.

I wish everyone could spend one day like that
oblivious
until they get home,
flushed,
from all their daily accomplishments
and they would step in the doorway
and look down to see they had spent the entire day
with the morning toilet paper.
While they gave presentations, sales pitches,
talked shop and powered through lunches,
their clients and co-workers cooly listened to them,
all the while thinking
"I know where she's been."
Wouldn't the world be a better place if
everyone did that?
Well... maybe...
unless they're movie stars.

Hypocrites! and how we learned to love them.

Hypocrite!

Everyone is a hypocrite. I am one for sure. But it’s a label that always seems to go together with Christian. “That church is full of hypocrites!” It’s easy to say that about Christians, especially since we not supposed to sin. And what’s worse, like adding salt to a wound, is that we tell other people not to sin. You can see this isn’t going to end well.

The first misconception is we’re not supposed to sin. Before you take up the pitchfork, flaming torches, Bibles, and any combination thereof, let me quickly explain. Yes, I know that the Bible says we aren’t supposed to sin. If you love God, you will follow his commands. However, it’s not as easy as it looks. Just by becoming a Christian and saying that you love God, won’t stop you from sinning. The only one who can do that is the Holy Spirit living inside you. But even then, you will never be able to stop sinning. It’s simply impossible. It’s like trying not to breathe air. Maybe when you are able to stop breathing, then perhaps you can stop sinning. Even then, there’s no guarantee. I mean, who knows, maybe when you keel over, you fall on top of somebody’s dog and kill it or something, I dunno. God doesn’t expect us to hold to his perfect standard. If he did, we wouldn’t have needed Jesus. The old way, the old convenant would still be in effect. But God knew that we will fall, he expects us to fail. But the beautiful thing is, that He created a safety net for us…. Jesus Christ.

Paul talks about this far better than I.
20The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom 5:20-21)
This is just one part of the discourse on sin and grace. I’m not going to talk too in-depth because frankly, Paul writes it better than I. Pretty much the rest of Romans deals with grace and sin. And if Paul’s writings are a little too dense with information, there are lots of books dealing with just this one topic. Here are a few that I would recommend.

On to the second point! The easiest way I have found to avoid being called a hypocrite (or at least avoid being called one to my face) is to not criticize other people. One very famous verse which I take to heart personally is, when Jesus said, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." (Jn 8:7) Since it’s pretty well-established by now that I have lots of sins, I definitely am the last person to start throwing stones at anyone. However, sometimes it’s unavoidable. But those times are usually reserved for extreme cases, like if it involves harming a person or causing others to stumble. But for little nitpicks like, “Oh you should tithe”, “You should volunteer for ministries”, “You should wear pants”, those things are very minor. And there are better ways to criticize people than using the word “You should”. Remember, we are here to build each other up, not tear each other down. Before you start giving people rules and directions, think first. “Will this impact their salvation?” If the answer is no, or probably not, or any other derivative of the negative, then it’s probably not important enough to bring up. And if you are telling someone what to do, then definitely be sure you aren’t guilty of the same thing.

The third thing I want to say about hypocrisy is that it’s not something that Christians have exclusivity. Police, teachers, parents, basically any group that tells someone what to do are guilty of it. So what is the difference between when a Christian is found guilty of it and when another group is guilty? As Christians, we should be humble. We should get on our knees and plead for forgiveness, preferably with tears in our eyes. Well, maybe not to that extreme, but we should apologize. Don’t make up excuses, and definitely don’t say “Do what I say not as I do.” Believe me, that doesn’t work very well. That is the one thing that will separate us from others, and even if people’s respect for us has been lessened by our hypocrisy, hopefully our willingness to admit that we were wrong will reduce the loss. Perhaps by showing our human frailty to others, we can reveal the desperate need for someone, someone better than us, to save us.

Funniest video yet

Saw the funniest video I've seen yet. Check it out!

Song Tapping

Have you ever wondered what's the name of that song that's stuck in your head? Well here's a site that can help. You tap the song on your space bar and it will return you the likely songs. C'mon, you know you want to try it.
I think I've got the worst rhythm ever, because all the songs I tapped, the site couldn't get any of them. Oh well, I think I screwed up their rating system now with my bad tapping. This is why I don't dance :)

Removing the High Places (Pt. 2)

So, last time I was talking about how during Kings and especially Chronicles, many kings followed God's laws, but most didn't get rid of the high places. I thought it odd that the Bible would mention that. Now it's Application time.

Naturally, I thought to myself, "Bob (you thought I was going to say self, huh? What kind of hack do you take me for?), have you removed your high places?"” And I thought about it, and no, I haven'’t either. There are still some little sins, that are more like comfort sins, ya know? They are so deeply ingrained within me, that they're like a high places... hard to get rid of. But I am trying. It's a daily struggle to get rid of even one of the comfort sins.

What exactly is a high place? Well, I did a little research. It took time, time away from my TV, and it took loads of effort. Well... not really. Yeah that was another lie. Sorry, told you these things were hard to break. Anyway, I googled it and pretty much read the first entry. And this is from the Easton Bible Dictionary, and it says that a high place is "an eminence, natural or artificial, where worship by sacrifice or offerings was made" (1 Kings 13:32; 2 Kings 17:29).”

And if you read on, it says stuff like God didn'’t want people to sacrifice on high places even if it is for him, He wants them to do it only on the official altar. Hmm, well that's something I didn'’t know. I always thought the Israelites sacrificed to other gods on the high places, but He doesn'’t even want them to sacrifice to Him over there. I guess he doesn'’t want copycat altars or something... you know, cheapens His branding.

So, even if you got good intentions, you still shouldn'’t sin. That'’s pretty much it, in a nutshell. What God says, goes: no ifs, ands, nor buts. And you can see why it is so hard to get rid of the high place worship as well. I mean, who wants to pack, travel 5 days behind some smelly camel ass, to go to the official temple to give your sin offering?!? Man, if I lived back then, I'’d be going to the temple more often then eating. And the commute those days! Whew, if you thought Silicon Valley commute in the pouring rain is bad... wait till you see a line of camels stuck in some desert mud while flocks of sheep and cattle are milling all around. So much easier to find the nearest tall place, I mean, it'’s a desert, there must be tons of tall rocks, and then go sacrifice to God there. Kinda like a ATM altar.

Man, lost my point again. This is getting quite long, so to sum up: God doesn't like the High Places. But they're hard to remove because they are convenient and made of rocks. Man has learned to accept that and move on, but God won'’t. High places=sins. So everyone has their own secret high places, and although they may be well-intentioned, it'’s still a sin. Luckily, God forgives all things, but only if you confess.

Removing the High Places (Pt. 1)

Recently, I was going through Kings & Chronicles, as part of my Church’s reading program. As an aside, I could have sworn it was a two-year read-through-the-Bible thing, but apparently that hasn’t panned out. It’s just started the third year, and we’ve just now started with Psalms. At the rate it’s going, Psalms is going to take us the entire year. Who knew a fierce warrior could write SOOO many poems? As an aside aside, do you think David was composing stuff while he’s hacking away at people’s brains and stuff? “Wow, that blood spurt reminds me of God’s sacrifice!”
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Kings and Chronicles. I don’t know about you, but whenever I read them, I always try to guess beforehand whether the king I’m reading about is a good guy or bad guy. Well, with the Northern Kingdom, it’s pretty easy. Bet on black. But with the Southern Kingdom, it’s a little more of a challenge. Granted, they have fewer kings in general, but, on the whole, I’d say David fathered some pretty good people.
Well, for the most part. Have you ever noticed that the Bible will say like this is a good king, followed the laws of God, cleaned up the place (What’s with all these Asherah poles anyway? And why are they always the first ones to be taken down. I guess it can’t be hard to break a stick), etc, and so on. But, most often, they would add, almost parenthetically, (I don’t know why they just don’t go the whole way and add parentheses, big babies), that the kings would leave the high places. Like here, 1Ki 15:14 (NIV) “Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.”
So does that mean Asa is a good king? That always messes up my tally. In the end, I do put him under good, otherwise there will be like 2 good Davidic kings and the rest bad. (Note, I exaggerate a lot and I’m too lazy to fact-check) So that got me thinking. Is it ok to leave the high places? Maybe they’re hard to take down cause they’re so high? Or maybe the high places are like mountains, and it would take a lot of digging to flatten the place—after all bulldozers weren’t invented yet.
But I’m sure God doesn’t tolerate that kind of stuff. But Man does. Well, I guess for the same reason I put certain kings under the “Good” category, it’s hard to be perfect. Hey, this king did do some good, at least he’s NOT sacrificing his kids or anything. This again drives the point that only God is perfect, and even the most perfect person, while well-intentioned, still cannot match God’s measuring stick. It’s just too high. (cont...)

Joke Time!

Well, it's the middle of the week, and to help you get over the hump, here's a joke!

A Catholic priest, a Baptist minister and a rabbi were chaplains at a university. Once a week they got together for coffee to talk shop. One day, one commented that preaching to people wasn't so tough, but the real challenge would be to preach to a bear. One challenge led to another and soon they decided to each go to the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and convert it. A week later, they met again to discuss their experience. Father Flannery, walking with a cane and his arm in a sling, said, "I found a bear and read the Catechism to him. That bear wanted nothing to do with me and slapped me around, but when I grabbed my holy water and sprinkled him, he became as gentle a lamb. In fact, the bishop is coming out Sunday to give him first communion." Reverend Billy Bob, hobbling on a crutch, with his arm in a sling, chimed in, "When I found me a bear, I read to him from God's holy word, but that bear wanted nothing to do with me so I grabbed him and started to wrestle. We 'rassled up one hill and down another until we came to a creek where quick dunked him and baptized his hairy soul. After that, he was gentle as a lamb. In fact, we spent the rest of the week in Fellowship, praising Jesus." Rabbi Schwartz, in a wheelchair with an IV drip, was in bad shape. He said, "You boys don't know what trouble is until you try to circumcise a bear!"

Free software

Still thinking/tinkering on what this site is going to be about. All I know for sure is it's not a personal diary. So if some posts seem random, well, they are.

Anyway, during my daily visits to the web, found a site that is offering free software to poor starving college kids. Actually, what they did was compile all the best freeware onto a CD. You download the CD and burn the image. They have some cool stuff. It's very convenient. Get it here now! Here's the list of software.

So much for resolutions...

Well, it's been 5 days since the New Year, and already I've broken my resolution.
What was my resolution? Well, one of them was to start a blog and use it like my study journal. You know, write in it daily, that sort of thing. And to do that, I was going to actually take some time off watching my beloved TV. Well, since then, I've scaled it back to maybe 2x a week, and if I'm lucky, it'll be regular, like Tues and Thurs. If unlucky, it'll be Fri and Sat at midnight. Yeah, I have a feeling it's going to be Fri and Sat as well. That's the procrastinator in me.
Well, what is this blog going to be about? For one thing, it's not about me. You won't see any entries about how I woke up, went to work, ate, and watched TV. You're most likely not going to hear me recount some of the many stupid exploits I make during the 16 short hours that I'm coherent. And if you're one of my RL friends, I promise you, you won't hear me say, "This is SO going in my blog."
Nope, I want this blog to be a serious (ok, maybe not so serious) discourse about God, and my thoughts on Him. I don't have a degree in ministry, so please don't cite me during one of your arguments. I definitely don't have much interest in apologetics, so if you're one of those God-doesn't-exist trolls, then I won't respond, and most likely remove your comments. Anyway, we'll see how this goes. Even if no one reads this, at least I can look back at this at the end of the year (or after I get bored of this, whichever comes first) and see if I've grown or not. Hopefully, the answer will be yes.

Well, that fulfills my weekly obligation, so... see ya next week!

Hello!

Hi and welcome! Well, there’s not much to see here at the moment. I’m going to write a bunch of stuff beforehand so that I don’t fall behind. Stay tuned!