Category: life

Packing is not Okay

I’m off to the gargantiomous family reunion tomorrow. The timing is unfortunate as the lawns will not be happy once I get back, and I’ll also probably miss a letter or two. On the bright side, we’re coming back with another dog, Season 4 of 24 will be done, and I’ll get to see Christopher. So, we’ll see.

[geek]

Those new maps came out for Halo 2 – I was quite disappointed. Gemini and Backwash are poorly designed, especially with the sword. It often turns into a game of “scramble for a nearby weapon in hopes that a combo-er or sword-er doesn’t see you in time. Backwash is just hard to see in, so you’re always surprised by the sword, and the one shotgun is impossible to find, since everything is leaned against trees, and there are trees everywhere. As such, I do not like those two levels. Relic, Terminal, and Elongation are good, especially Terminal.

[/geek]

Paul got me the absolute coolest song, ever. Amazingly enough, it’s French, a techno of sorts, it has the style of techno, at least. If you’ve seen Ocean’s 12, it’s from the scene with the laser field where Tolour is jumping around. Ocean’s 12, by the way, is possibly one of my favorite movies. Something about it, I can’t put my finger on it, is really, really awesome. I don’t know what it is, but I watched it 3 times yesterday, something about it really intruiges me.

I won’t be back till Tuesday night, so until then, farewell.

The One Redeeming Quality

Something I’d forgotten over the past few years is something about Ithaca that redeems most of the liberal extremists, leftist tree-huggers, and drugged up hippies.

During my daily checking of Slashdot, I came across an article about video game violence, written by a student who went to Columbine during the shootings, and was friends with the shooters and the shot. I’m always on the hunt for good backup for the day when I’ll have to defend myself against someone who doesn’t understand what I do for a hobby, so I checked it out, and also read the comments on the article on /..

The sole blessing of Ithaca is the fact that as a high school student, I can be who I am, and I am not going to suffer in any way for that. Seeing stories about ignorant parents who take away their child’s computer permanently and news about geeks like myself having their only defense against the sucky world that is high school taken away, really strikes home. God has blessed me with parents that know and understand me enough to see that the tube I sit in front of all day is not a handicap or an escape. Knowing that other parents are foolish enough to give into the public hysteria that is the mainstream media pains me.

I am comforted to know I don’t have to deal with real rednecks and jocks.

Not that I’m stereotyping or anything.

But it’s not like they’ll find out anyways, being rednecks and jocks.

That wasn’t a stereotype either.

The Joy of Geckos

VBS was surprisingly fun. It got better as the week went on. I got kind of attached to a few of the kids, they were pretty cute. It was really, really obvious which kids had solid homes, though. It was fun sitting behind the wall after the puppet shows goofing around, too. And then there was Mr. Missirian’s class…which was not so fun. I’m glad I did it though.

I’m officially signed up for Word of Life, which, was kind of late, but whatever works. I’m supposedly paying for 100 dollars of it, a big chunk out of my upgrades, because my parents don’t have enough to pay for it themselves. Admittedly, they are paying for me, but….

Moving on, those new Halo 2 maps come out Tuesday, and I’ve been playing rather much recently. The new maps look fairly sweet, especially Terminal and Gemini, and Relic might be fun. We shall see.

EDIT: Ithaca, the only place where fireworks are secinctly followed by a chorus of “O, Canada!”.

EDIT2: That’s just funny.

“Back, in a Color Roughly Akin to Black”

By the time this post is done, the DNS address should have resolved, and the blog will be back online. Not that any of you will notice. You all deserve many apologies from myself for having ignored all of you and stood on the sideline in a dark-colored pancho daydreaming. Metaphorically speaking. I am, however, back, and in a good mood, with loud music again, and with good speakers. First on the list: landmarks in geekdom.

Suspended Animation: 1, 2, 3, 4 (watch this one, very funny).

Intel sued by AMD: 1, 2.

American (IT) Economy Sucks, the EU sucks: 1, 2, 3.

Anyways, I’ve been at Daniel’s house since the 17th. I was there a total of 11 days, which, when you think about spending time with any one group of people, is a long time. It was overall pretty fun, I spent a lot of time helping out at Daniel’s church (which, I maintain, is identical to mine). Ben got me convinced to get Star Wars Galaxies after watching him play and learning the level system. I had been set on Guild Wars, but I then learned the level limit is 20, which kind of defeats the fun I hope for in these games. I didn’t do much at Daniel’s house in particular beyond watch Babylon 5, 24, and play Gladius with them. I was also not able to blast my techno without my large speakers. What can one do?

I was not a complete bum, though. I helped out at their VBS (Vacation Bible School), which was more interesting than expected. Daniel and I got the four and five-year-olds, and while they aren’t exactly aware of their surroundings at that point, they manage to be a handful. It’s hard to teach anything complex or meaningful to kids that young, and some of you would have laughed heartily at what they were doing.

Example: “God Loves You”
A non-competitive version of musical chairs, four hoola-hoops are placed on the ground. The kids run around in a circle while the leader sings some tune, and jump into the nearest hoola-hoop when the music stops. Upon jumping into the hoola-hoop, kids say “God loves you!” to eachother. Remove one hoola-hoop, rinse and repeat.

Events such as this and a puppet show, with one puppet commandeered by myself, are to be found at VBS. The unfortunate side-effect of VBS is the teen study, in which a highly aged and experienced engineer (whom I admire for his personal quality and ability) gives us a sort of “look at me as an example” lesson. On top of the style of teaching, it is a low-discussion class, which does not fly smoothly with me. My style of “saying something against the grain, and then backing it up with experience or references” does not work, as I usually get stopped at “saying something against the grain”, making me look like some kind of “bad” Christian. Anyways.

Beyond helping out at the church, I also attempted to bike around the lake with some of my Scout troop. This is a 100 mile trip, which, contrary to what I was thinking, is not just a 50 miles trip that goes for 50 more miles. No, this is much harder than that. Factors that did not help: I forgot an essential tube to my camelback, the route was very badly planned, and I forgot sunscreen. I made it 70 miles before Daniel, K2, and I all quit. It gets hard after 65 miles. Oh well.

EDIT: Pictures, stolen from Benjamin.

At the first grocery stop, nice and healthy. 15 miles.

[2012 edit: lost forever]

At the lunch stop, fairly healthy. 50 miles.

[2012 edit: lost forever]

At a shaded area, not very healthy. 65 miles.

[2012 edit: lost forever]

My mom and dad had some interesting stories about their bike trip, which may or may not come later. At the moment, I need to grab a coke, mow some lawns, and relax for the wonderful 10 days I have before running off to see my grandparent’s 50th anniversary, instead of getting to see Ben and Gemma’s wedding.

Strangely Akin to a Boy (O.o)

That’s right. It’s time for me to summarize and complain about all my classes. I will finish this quickly, so I can return to my game of Rome.

    • German 3H: Oh, we all know how I feel about Mary. My feelings towards her softened a little towards the end of the year, mostly due to the extreme feeling of ‘I don’t have to do anything to please this woman.’. At least I’m done with her.
    • Math 10H: Ms. House turned out to actually be a pretty good teacher. She started to warm up a little bit more towards the end of the year, but I still can’t get past the fact the she looks exactly like a chipmunk. And I’m not even joking. She was nice though. Hopefully my Math teachers next year won’t be among the sucky ones.
    • Principles of Engineering: Mr. Peters tried so hard to teach our class something about engineering, and I dare say he failed. I can’t really blame him, but he just didn’t know the material enough to teach it. He’s a nice guy, and would be a great teacher, if he only knew what he was teaching. Fun class, though, making mousetrap cars, the machine-contrapto thingies, and bridges. Which is basically all we did the entire year.
    • Global 2H: Mrs. Rumney left me really, really unsatisfied most of the year. She’s a really, really good teacher, but she didn’t really challenge us at all. Admittedly, most of the class wouldn’t want the challenge, but the class was really, really easy. The lowest grade I ever got on a test/quiz in there, iirc, was a 78. Most of them were 100’s. I didn’t really learn anything, although i kind of knew a lot of history beforehand anyways.
    • Programming: Mrs. Teukolsky is probably my best teacher, and she taught my favorite subject, so it was kind of automatically my best class. I need not say more.
    • English 10H: Mr. Asklar is probably one of my not-so-favorite English teachers. He was really impersonal, really forgetful, and seemed like he was only here to pay the bills. He missed school more often than I did – think about that for a moment. We didn’t really do much writing or anything, just kind of….I dunno. Hard to describe.
    • Physical Chemistry: Ms. (b) Smith is a horrible, horrible teacher. Horrible. She doesn’t know it, she just kind of drones on and on about whatnot, but she does not know how to teach. Chemistry could have been a cool subject, but it was mad boring with her. Some stuff was cool – making ice cream with liquid nitrogen, cooking marshmallows with liquid nitrogen, cooking cheez-its with liquid nitrogen, spilling liquid nitrogen on my arms, throwing moles in liquid nitrogen, throwing balloons in liquid nitrogen, throwing bananas in liquid nitrogen, and, of course, pouring liquid nitrogen into cups. That’s actually suprisingly difficult – there’s so much water vapor everywhere you can’t see when you’re pouring the liquid nitrogen. Ahem.
    • PE: Uh….

 

And there you have…

…my year.

Another Quickie…(O.o)

[geek]

Happy, Gwen?

New case is wonderful – far quieter and sexier than before. I’ve set my next goal on what to buy – 150 dollars is the required amount this time. CD-RW, DVD/CD-ROM, Arctic Silver, HSF, PSU. Should have that before the end of the month – this is aesthetically the biggest upgrade – the drives will be black, the computer will run slightly faster and cooler, all that jazz, which will be rather nice.

[/geek]

I had the interview with Sho’s dad on Friday, which went rather well – I didn’t actually know it was an interview until Sho scolded my Army shirt near the end of school. It went well either way – it’s exactly what I’d hoped for. That, plus the 7 bucks an hour makes for a very good job.

[geek]

When I got home I promptly ripped apart my computer as Karel watched in laughing horror as I recklessly constructed the beast. My mistake in the building process was in not putting the seperators (my mind blanked on the actual term…) between the mobo and the case. Thankfully my ‘Power Supply’ brand PSU was smart enough to stop before frying me and my hardware. I didn’t know this at the time, and the squealing noise emitting from the PSU scared me witless. After spending the entire night laboring over the mess, I gave up assuming the power surge that day had shorted the PSU, which fried the motherboard and processor.

The next day I was severely distressed – I’d gone a full 18 hours without a computer, and I was beginning to crack. I retreated to my dad’s computer, when available, to sort out which parts to order, which added to 600 dollars. I obviously don’t have 600 dollars on me – I was set on loaning it from either Karel or Christopher. Dad was DEAD set against me borrowing from Karel, and spent all of Sunday arguing with him over the phone and bargaining with Christopher to get him to loan me the money. The other choice was to wait 12 days (actually more than that – about 20) for my Dad to get home to order them for me. Truly, a stressful situation.

[/geek]

In between all this, Paul, Ben, and Zach spent the night Saturday, after randomly appearing as I was going out to mow lawns (at the time Kerry and Julia were there too). Thoroughly mocking my biking gloves, they felt absolutely no mercy for my ego. I didn’t go to church the following morning even though I was ready by 9:15 – Mom didn’t get back from dropping Dad at the airport until almost 10:00, and Paul was still around, so I decided to stay home.

Today, I got myself a grand olde haircut (which I rather like, as per usual). I think I like this one enough to replace my :-O picture. Ye shall see.

I also watched Gladiator two or three times over the weekend. Possibly my favorite movie.

Quickly…(O.o)

A few quick things. The case arrived today, but mom and dad weren’t home when it came, so we’re dropping by to pick it up from the FedEx office after my interview-thingo with Mr. Shapiro. If the interview goes well, I’ll be working 4 hours a day for two months, probably doing paperwork, but that is yet to be seen. I’ll also be working with Greg at the greenhouses 4 hours a week for the summer, and with the added mowing, I’ll have plenty of money to complete this computer before the end of summer.

I selected a PSU today during Programming (she was doing review, and offered to let whoever didn’t want to review for the final could go in the lab, which was really nice. I might have enough from mowing all tomorrow, depending on how much is left over from the case. We’ll see.

And now, away I go.

All YOUR FACE are Belong to Us (O.o)

Close runner-ups for the title of this post: “Armed with Honor” “Gravity is a Harsh Mistress” “Divorce Court” “All YOUR MOM are Belong to Us”

I’ve begun the process of upgrading all the components in my computer. Starting with this case. The specs will be along these lines, minimum:

  • ~425W PSU – $50 or $60

  • 6600 GT (subject to change) – $180 or $120

  • AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (newcastle, subject to change) – $180 or $240

  • 64-bit, dual channel, hyper-transport, raid 0/1/0+1, etc. mobo (subject to change) – $150 – $225

  • ~768MB PC3700 (subject to change)- $200 or $300

  • black DVD/CD-ROM, and CD/RW, and floppy – $75

  • RAPTOR! – $160

adds to approximately 1095 dollars – about 750 of that is subject to change, because of new technology that may be coming out – it’s why I’m buying the case, then PSU, then ROMs first. After that, comes the mobo/proc, then the RAM, the GPU, and finally the new hardrives. We ordered the case tonight, so it should arrive Friday. I’ll order the PSU as soon as I have the money (basically whenever I mow again). The mobo/proc have to come together, so it will take basically all summer to get that collected (unless I get hired by Mr. Shapiro, or find another available job). I’m excited, anyways.

I stayed home to do lots of things today – find this case and PSU and ROMs, prepare the lesson I taught at Bible Study (which went okay, I thought – definitely could have been better, but nobody responds to anything I say, making it harder to adjust), do English work, Math, and study for my Chemistry and Math finals. I also watched Best in Show last night, which was quite hilarious. I still have Time Bandits, the Star Wars commentaries (I’m curious to see what George has to say..), and Bandits on the current pile of things to watch. The pile’s a lot smaller than it used to be, that’s for sure. I don’t think I mentioned this before – I watched the Tick (a single season comedy that was canceled by FOX a while back), which was also very, very funny. It was only 9 episodes, since it got cut, and it was really low budget, but it was really funny. In the stupid kind of way, that some may not be able to appreciate. And now…a shower.

Part 11-13 of X

Does the Bible condemn astrology?

Yes:

Is.47:13-14
“Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.”

No:

Lk.21:25
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.”

The Bible condemns living by the stars – planning your days, seeing the future, and living by what you see in the stars. There are signs in the stars – the star over Nazareth is a good example.

Should we believe everything?

Yes:

1 Cor.13:7
“Believeth all things.”

No:

Pr.14:15
“The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going.”

1 Th.5:21
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

Hmm….that first quote looks a little short. Context! Here’s the NIV version, because the SAB version would require me to quote the entire chapter to make sense.

1 Cor.13:4-7
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Now, it doesn’t say believe in there, but instead says trusts – this is obviously talking about what love does, not what wisdom or caution does. Ahem.

Does the blood of animal sacrifices take away sin?

Yes:

Lev.17:11
“I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”

No:

Heb.10:4
“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”

In the Old Testament, God asked the Israelites to present sacrifices to atone for their sins. These sacrifices were not actually doing anything; they were symbolic of where their sin was going.

These Fries Sure are Loaded…(O.o)

I’ve had a rather interesting weekend, of sorts. Friday was rather enjoyable – Paul came over, we went downtown, expecting a horde of girls to greet us with unmeasurable joy, and were instead greeted with a capella and greasy pizza. I don’t like spelling a capella, it is most unnatural, suggesting something about the genre itself. Ahem.

We came back (he spent the night), watched the Royal Tenenbaums (good movie, not quite as hilarious as I had expected, but good), and Paul still can’t beat me in soccer. I was Cameroon. CAMEROON. I spent the rest of the day basically doing nothing – I rather badly wanted to get Jesse, Benjamin, and Daniel over, but Jesse had no transportation, Daniel was at his last day of classes, and Benjamin did come over, but we had nothing to do. I sat up in the attic reminiscing, listening to music, for about an hour, doing absolutely nothing. It was actually quite nice, in some respects. I cleaned up the attic some more, moved some signs, and, randomly enough, two couches appeared up there. Dad said Louie (Young Life director-majig) left them here, though it’s not known whether we’re keeping them. Either way, they’re here for a while, and it really rounds off the attic nicely – no weird empty spaces.

The 7 days between now and the end of school seem very, very long. I’m not actually looking forward to the end all that much, I just want to be in a place of regularity, so I can sit down and plan things out. It doesn’t help that I still haven’t gotten an answer from Sho’s dad – that decides a lot of what I’ll be doing over the summer. I really hope I get it, I’m really eager for a new computer, moreso than the repairs on the car. Speaking of which, I’m getting the permit Tuesday.

I’ve begun to appreciate some of Jonothan’s massive 1000+ CD collection in the back room – I’ve dug out his Built to Spill and Sunny Day Real Estate stuff, but it’s hard to find anything in a collection that massive. Admittedly, it doesn’t compare to Christopher’s 100GB library, but his is sorted into folders, which you can scroll down. Flipping through books of CDs is a little slower.

And to end, a fitting quote to my anti-SAB series.

Hebrews 4:2 (NIV)
“For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”

I wasn’t always a Christian, you know.

Parts 8-10 of X

You want answers? (2, 3) You got answers.

8: Is it okay to drink alcohol?

Rom.14:21
“It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.”

Gal.5:21
“Drunkenness … and such like … they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Eph.5:18
“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.”

There are dozens there, but I chose these three, because they sum up what the Bible says. As with most things, the Bible warns against excess – some alcohol is okay, but drinking to be drunk is wrong. It’s common knowledge that your judgment is impaired while drunk, and that can easily lead you down the “garden parth” (as Mrs. Teukolsky would say).

Jg.9:13
“Wine, which cheereth God and man.”

Ps.104:15
“Wine that maketh glad the heart of man.”

Pr.31:6-9
“Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.”

Again, it’s not that it’s wrong, only in excess. Proverbs is a book of true sayings, basically quotes that sound pretty and are true. Proverbs isn’t a guide for life, it’s just stating fact.

9: Does God want some to go to Hell?

1 Tim.2:3-4
“God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved.”

2 Pet.3:9
“The Lord is … not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

This, my friends, is the hardest question of Christianity, although poorly phrased. Here’s a short explanation. God loves everyone, but he cannot ignore our impurities. We’re all equally sinful before his eyes. We all deserve Hell. We don’t all get it. Any person that believes in Jesus won’t go there. In more basic terms, the question is asking if God decides who believes in Jesus or not. Short answer: kind of. God made us unique, knowing what choices we would make. He knew what choice we would make when it came to Him. Take with that what you will; this question has no comforting answer. The Lord COULD make everyone go to Heaven, but many of us would not do so willingly, it would be forced. God wants willing hearts. He wants all of us to believe in Him, but He is not going to force us all to believe. This is a paradox – He wants us to choose Him, and yet our destiny is chosen for us. I have not found a satisfactory answer yet.

Rom.9:18
“Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”

This sums it all up; it’s all up to Him.

10: How long does God’s anger last?

Mic.7:18
“He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy.”

This pretty much sums up the other 2. This goes back to Romans 9:18, which is just above. He has mercy on those of which He will have mercy on. He’s never said His anger is not everlasting. Most of these verses are just contextual – in some cases, it is temporary.

Ps.30:5
“For his anger endureth but a moment.”

These are the Psalms – they’re like a diary of his walk with God. He’s cursed the Lord in some Psalms, in others, he is delighting in Him. It is his experience.

Jer.17:4
“Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.”

The other three actually aren’t relevant – punishment is not anger. You may deserve everlasting punishment, but that doesn’t mean His anger is punishment. He deems that some deserve His everlasting anger. That’s as best an answer as I can give.

Many to go.

Part 7 of X

You want answers? You got answers.

Ex.20:14, Dt.5:18
“Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

Heb.13:4
“Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

Correct. Adultery is a sin.

Num.31:18
“But all the women children that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.”

Wait, what? I do believe SAB has some stupidity issues to solve. This is telling them to save those who have not had sex. That’s what “have not known man” means. Duh?

Hos.1:2
“And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms….”

Not only is this not approving of adultery, it’s not even close to relevant. God commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute, and be faithful to her until death. Even though she ran off dozens of times with other men, he stayed true, and in the end, she was turned.

Hos.3:1
“Then said the Lord unto me, God yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress.”

I’m impressed by the lack of context they give. See above.

Many to go.

Personifying Mr. Dandelion (O.o)

EDIT: Ah, yes…

As much as I would like to write, this is going to be fairly short. I haven’t gotten to do much of anything beyond do 4 hours of mowing. Admittedly, I did make 45 bucks doing it, but if I’m walking 3 mph (which is about what I was walking at), that’s 12 miles of walking, with a mower. Running in gym will be a blast, although, I suspect having new (or, were new, until today) shoes will improve running greatly. In case I hadn’t complained about it to you before, my heel had worn through the sole and padding, down the the rubber frame on the bottom. The shoe itself was actually detaching completely from the bottom frame. That was one crappy shoe.

I’ve got my English portfolio due Friday, which I have not yet started. I’m willing to bet I can do everything in one day. As in, get home from school, work until it’s done, go to school the next day. I’m up for the challenge, anyways. My dad and I dropped by the DMV today, but there were some pretty long lines, so we chickened out. I’m hoping there’ll be time before the end of the week to get that permit, as time’s a-wasting. He seemed rather eager to “get ‘er done”, as it were.

Busy, busy days.

Part 6 of X

Having thoroughly owned 5 minor detail “contradictions”, I’m now going to skip through to general questions. It’s simply not worth anyone’s time to have to go through all of them. I suspect this will entail about 45 more questions, so it doesn’t end this any time soon. If you find one worth considering, tell me.

You want answers? You got answers.

In reality, I shouldn’t dignify this one with a response, but, I know that some want more than logic to disprove these things.

Gen.1:25-27
(Humans were created after the other animals.)
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image…. So God created man in his own image.

Chapter 1 of Genesis is the chronological account of God creating the world. This is correct.

Gen.2:18-22
(The man was created first, then the animals, then the woman from the man’s rib.)

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them…. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Easy. God created more animals for Adam to see, instead of taking from what was already there. Or, if you don’t like that, consider this: just because God created more animals doesn’t mean he didn’t create them before. Common sense.

Part 5 of 339

You want answers? You got answers.

1 Sam.22:20
“And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar.”
1 Sam.23:6
“Abiathar the son of Ahimelech.”

Yep. These two references refer to one Abiathar.

2 Sam.8:17, 1 Chr.18:16, 1 Chr.24:6
“Ahimelech the son of Abiathar.”

2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles overlap as far as the timeline goes – Abiathar had sons, and named one of them after his father, Ahimelech. Simple.

334 to go!

I Need a Haircut (O.o)

Today was quite fun. I spent it at Jesse’s house pretty much from after church till an hour ago. We shot targets with his .22, built an extension for the chicken coup, helped his mom with her stone walkway, it was nice to get out and do some work. They got some chickens recently (within the past few days), and I must say, chickens are ridiculously hilarious. GOBBLEZ!!

Yesterday, I pretty much spent the entire day staring at my programming books and improving this ever-complexifying program I’m making. I’ve almost created my own sorting algorithm, which, with my complete inexperience, will just be a copy of an algorithm that was developed 50 years ago, but, I’ll still have made it on my own. *nod*

I watched Full Metal Jacket the other night. That, my friends, is a really weird movie. I was expecting a bright, comedic war film, but the humor was very dark, and really thrown off by the people constantly dying. I also watched the “new and improved AGAIN” DVD version of Episode IV. I swear…you think they’d have the technology to remove the red and green boxes from around the TIE fighters, and the horrific lightsaber effect (where the actor stands still as the next frame pops in the saber itself). Strangely enough, I’ve never actually watched any of the 3 movies in one sitting. I’ve seen all of them in bits and pieces, but I’ve never seen any of them from front to back. I’m gonna watch V tonight, which is supposedly the best of all of them. Not having any recollection of which scenes go with which movie, I can’t say whether I agree.

My hair is everywhere. I need a haircut.

Part 4 of 339

You want answers? You got answers.

Heb.11:17
“By faith Abraham when he was tried, offered up Isaac, … his only begotten son.”

Gen.22:2
“Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, … and offer him there for a burnt offering.”

These both refer to when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. This, for Abraham, was the ultimate test of faith. Isaac was considered his only true, loved son. While Abraham did have other sons, Isaac was his only begotten son. Ishmael, who was born before Isaac, was not his true son, as he was not born of Abraham’s real wife, Sarah. Isaac, who was born of Sarah when she was about 80-90 years old, was God’s gift to Abraham.

Gen.16:15
“And Hagar bare Abraham a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.”

Yep.

Gen.21:2-3
“For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son is his old age …. And Abraham called him Isaac.”

Yep.

Gen.25:1-2
“Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

Again, yep.

Gal.4:22
“Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond-woman, and the other by a free woman.”

This is hardly relevant. This isn’t saying he had only two sons – if you look at the context, it was comparing the origins of Isaac and Ishmael.

335 to go!

Part 3 of 339

You want answers? You got answers.

Rom.4:2
“For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory.”

This is correct. Christians are saved not by works, but by their faith in Jesus – so that no man can boast. (Ephesians 2:9) Meaning? I won’t be able to say “I am better, because I managed to save myself from death by being better than you.”.

Jas.2:21
“Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?”

Having read James two or three times, I can tell you off-hand exactly what’s going on here. Let’s get some context first.

Jas.2:14-26
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

As shown, this verse is about how faith is worthless without backing it up – you can talk the talk, but will you walk the walk? This is a great example of why context is necessary.

336 to go!

That’s a Negatory (O.o)

EDIT: Is it LEGAL to be that stupid?

I thoroughly enjoyed today, despite being tired from watching Top Gun last night. I don’t really know why I watched it, but it is quite possibly the most classic American movie of all time. It has it all – 80’s rock-pop soundtrack, a corny romance, unrealistic action sequences, and techno-babble.

My man-points are depleted, due to my foolishness in programming. We’re doing wrapper classes, so one of the methods we’re supposed to write adds an integer in the correct place in a pre-sorted sequence of Integers (not ints, mind you). I came up with a way to do it without an if/else, making the code like half as long as everybody elses, but I didn’t bother testing it, and in my confidence I failed in my presentation to the class, forgetting to cast the int to an Integer. The shame. The algorithm had problems anyways, which I’m working on fixing right now.

You may have noticed my “Part x of 339” series – From now, until about this time next year, I’ll be posting a complete and thorough rebuttal to each “contradiction” claimed by SAB. One a day. Read them, or don’t read them, just know that I did it.

I ran 2.5 miles in PE today (i actually only ran like 1.75 of it, but, whatev), and then walked home with Zach after that, making for about 5 miles total today. These jerks in PE keep throwing whatever they can at me while I run. At first it was a tennis ball (I picked it up and threw it over the fence), then it was a sandal (I threw it in the bleachers), and then it was a cell phone. It broke after hitting the ground. That was most hilarious. Anyways, I went to Zach’s house, and he showed me his PSP, which I must admit was quite cool. The screen is friggin huge, the games he showed me had surprisingly good graphics for something so small, and it was generally very nifty. I’m a little biased against the DS, being Nintendo, but the DS is definitely inferior. I’m not much into mobile gaming, but they’re cool nonetheless.

Part 2 of 339

You want answers? You got answers.

2 Sam.23:8
“The … chief among the captains … he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time.”

Let’s get some context in here.

“These be the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time.”

Now that we have the identity clear, let’s look at the next verse.

1 Chr.11:11
“the chief of the captains: he lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time.”

Hmm, it seems they left out an ellipses at the beginning to denote an incompelte quotation. Let’s have some context.

“And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had; Jashobeam, an Hachmonite, the chief of the captains: he lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time.”

Need I say more? In case you’re wondering, Samuel and Chronicles are not tales of the same thing – they go in chronological order. The Tachmonite was David’s captain at the time of 2 Samuel, and Jashobeam his captain at the time of 1 Chronicles.

337 to go!

Part 1 of 339

You want answers? You got answers.

Ten:

Jn.20:19-24
“Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you…. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.”

This is correctly identified as having 10 disciples having seen Jesus. Since Judas was dead, and Thomas was not present, there were only 10.

Eleven:

Mt.28:16
“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him.”

Thomas was present when the angel instructed them to go to Galilee – he went with the disciples to Gililee, but wasn’t with them when Jesus came. It’s not as if there weren’t other places to be in Galilee.

Mk.16:14
“Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.”

If you look at the surrounding verses, you can see this is a summary of what happened. Jesus did in fact appear to all eleven when they were together – he appeared to ten of them before that, but just because it does not mention that, does not mean it did not happen. The Gospels are different accounts – the authors focus on different parts of Jesus’ life and their walk with Jesus.

Lk.24:33, 36
“And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together…And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”

This is a classic case of SAB’s habit of taking things out of context. If you read it with context, you get something more like this.

Lk.24:22-25
“Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken?”

Here we see a clear account of people (not disciples) investigating Jesus’ grave.

Lk.24:24-26
“And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

These people went and saw Jesus, who was with the disciples already. Taken out of context, the meaning is wrong.

Twelve:

1 Cor. 15:15
“And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.”

This doesn’t even make sense, it’s not even saying that the twelve saw him. It’s just saying that he was one of the twelve disciples.

338 to go!

I’m Not Convinced (O.o)

I am recovering from running 11 laps (including the various running outside of PE, I ran 3 miles today). It hurts. It’s interesting how critical people are of me for actually doing what we’re supposed to be doing in PE. When I try to explain why I run, nobody gets it. They get this blank look on their face, and quickly switch back to their sarcastic mockery of an activity they probably aren’t fit enough to do. And now, a rant.

[geek rant]

As I opened up my Google homepage, I noticed a /. article that piqued my interest. So, I checked it out. What I found was an article that was a poorly disguised troll to stir up the standard mockery of M$ and the owner thereof. In general, the Slashdot kind of geek is smart, wise in the ways of science and/or programming, and is a faithful user of a linux variant. This also usually entails a deep, close-minded hatred of M$ and Bill Gates. This ticks me off, a lot.

Whenever anyone mentions M$ (I use the acronym simply because I mock them, and partially because Microsoft DOES make a lot of money), Linux geeks appear from nowhere and make the most horrific generalizations and accusations that are mostly wrong. They complain about the GUI (which you can change), BSODs (which disappeared since NT), poor UPnP, horrific networking capabilities, the list goes on; anything that was bad about Windows 95, they will mention. Honestly? Comparing Windows 95 to the current versions of Linux is retarded. Linux doesn’t have security issues – why? Because there are practically no programs for it. At least Microsoft TRIED to provide programs to use (Internet explorer, windows media player) instead of just saying “it’s not OUR fault nobody is using our superior OS!”. So what if IE and WMP suck? At least they get the job done.

Here comes a typical response: Microsoft forces people to pay for their disfuctional products. They didn’t get where they are now by making completely disfuctional products. Consider this: half the reason using computers and software is so much more streamlined is only because computers are infinitely more efficient, faster, and easier to make and utilize. Most crashes, in my memory, were caused by just overloading the system – that’s a hardware issue. Don’t try to tell me Linux wouldn’t have crashed – that’s a hypothetical nobody can prove. Just because it’s your favorite thing since sliced bread doesn’t make it perfect.

Point is: I’m tired of hearing Linux geeks talk about what Windows used to be. Right now, XP is a stable (it has almost never crashed on me), secure (I’ve never had any kind of virus of adware), and most of all: easy. You have to do next to nothing to get Windows to do what you want. Every now and then I find myself frustrated by having everything in a GUI – there are virtues to doing everything manually, but most of the time I look to my computer as home, not work.

[/geek rant]

So, Zach got his PSP, which I have yet to see. Eventually, one day, I will walk home with him and Ben and see this marvel of technology. For now, I shall stick to my cookies, sour cream & onion chips, turkey, and chicken that I picked up yesterday when I went to the store with my mom. I tell you, my mom does not get the right quantity of food unless I provide specific directions. đŸ˜›

Don’t You Wish… (O.o)

In reality, I have little to nothing to write today, but I feel the need to update regularly after a week of not writing. So, Sunday was church. Cron preached, which was cool, although I didn’t get to talk to him, which was not cool. After church I went with Benjamin and Jesse to see Episode III again. Definately not as good the second time, as the first hour/hour and a half are snoretastic. Benjamin and I concluded that Lucas did nothing different this time – it was everyone else that did exceptional jobs. All the special effects, the music, and the acting (while still terrible) were overall better.

Today was a standard Monday. It doesn’t get much worse than that. We had a sub today in German, so after finishing our little doodad in the book we were playing cards. An amusing anecdote: the German word to surf the internet is gesurfen, and to chat is geschattet. Ahem. There was a rather uneventful fire in the locker rooms just as school ended, which stopped the buses. I got home, went to the SS office (my SS card will arrive in a week), took a nap, ate some bacon, and here I am. Good day.