Some Good Christmas Music

I have found myself wanting to listen to Christmas music a lot this year. I'm sure I will have grown tired of it by the time Christmas gets here, but not yet. One of the albums I've been listening to a good bit is Silent Night by Red Mountain Church's band. While the band is made of member's of that church, the vocalist is from my church, Shades Mountain Independent Church. I bought the album on iTunes but it is also available for sale as a CD or a download on the Red Mountain Music site. I highly recommend it. I know this sounds like an advertisement, but I just wanted to share with you some music that I've really enjoyed. Most of my other Christmas music is several years old so it has been nice to add something fresh and new to the collection.

Pandora Christmas

As I write this, I'm listening to Christmas music on Pandora. It turns out to be a very good way to listen to a good variety of Christmas music you don't own by artists you may or may not have been exposed to. I'm listening to a station called Folk Holidays. There are a number of Christmas or holiday stations. This one has a lot of acoustic guitar instrumentals but also has music with vocals. Right now James Taylor is singing "Go Tell It on the Mountain".

If you're not familiar with the way Pandora works, you can pick one of the predefined stations or simply pick an artist or song that you like. If you pick an artist or a song, it will build a station around that artist or song, playing songs that it thinks you will like. These songs are similar to what you originally picked based on a large number of properties about those songs. As it plays the songs you can give each one a thumbs-up or thumbs-down and it will learn more precisely what you like and what you don't. It's actually quite amazing and is a great way to discover artists you aren't familiar with.

The only bad thing about Pandora is that you have to listen to it on your computer...or on an iPhone.

Granny

My grandmother (my mom's mom), Granny, went home on Wednesday, November 24, 2008. She is no longer an alien and stranger in this world. She had been in a lot of pain and in declining health recently, so it wasn't a complete surprise that God took her home. I'm thankful to be confident that she knew Christ, and now knows him in a much greater way.

This Christmas will be different, but I'm not sure how yet. Every year, the Saturday after Christmas was spent at her house with her extended family. She was central to that whole get-together and it was right that she was honored. She will be missed by all of us.

In some ways, she played a part in my salvation that perhaps she never knew. As an 11-year-old, I went to Vacation Bible School several years at her church. One year I was invited by the pastor to pray a prayer, "asking Jesus into my heart" (an expression I've grown to dislike for its ambiguous message but more on that in a later post). I told Granny that I was now a Christian. Her response could be best described as "loving doubt". She was very kind but I could tell that she was concerned that I didn't understand what I had prayed. I'm sure she tried to explain to me the truth, but it was her response that stuck with me.

I tried for years to "act like a Christian", reading the Bible, trying to be good. That experience after VBS seemed to always come back to my mind, making me wonder what it was that I really did that day. It wasn't until 7 years later, between high school and college, that I really understood the gospel: that my good works meant nothing, that at was only by trusting in Christ's payment for my sins on the cross and repenting of my sins that I would be saved. It was after I realized all of this that I finally understood Granny's reaction...and I understood it to be one of real love.

She was concerned that I would someday be in heaven. Now she is there herself. I will miss her here on earth but these relatively short years we have here as aliens and strangers will go by fast.

I'm Going to Love ESPN360.com

I was looking at schedules for the upcoming games this Saturday on ESPN.com, when I discovered that Troy at LSU is playing on ESPN360.com. Thinking that this is a pay service, I hesitated to go there but my curiosity got the best of me. As it turns out, it is free to AT&T DSL customers, as AT&T pays for the service. (Of course, indirectly I pay for it, but since the cost is spread over all the customers, it is probably not much.) I get to see the game this Saturday. In fact, I could have seen the Arkansas State at Alabama game. The picture quality is actually pretty good too, even at full screen.

By the way, if you have Charter as your Internet Service Provier, you'll just have to go to ESPN360.com to see if it works for you. From what I've seen in searching the web, it appears that Charter only payed for ESPN360.com in the St. Louis and Los Angeles areas. If you're a Charter subscriber, comment and let everyone know if it works.

Shovel, Shuffle, or Shuttle

I heard an sportscaster—I think it was Brent Musberger—say "shuttle pass" tonight. I have heard over many different games, professional grown men, trained in sports announcing, say "shovel pass", "shuffle pass", and "shovel pass". Now I had to know. I did some research, and according to Merriam Webster it is "shovel pass". Maybe you knew this, or maybe you just slurred it together to sound like it could be interpreted as any of them...as I used to.

Reflections on the Election

I started to write all of the reasons I was thinking that Barack Obama was elected as our next President: the willing help of the press, the bad economy and the perception of Republican responsibility, the charisma and celebrity of Obama, the lack of a compelling and truly conservative candidate, etc. However, God reminded me of the real reason Barack Obama will be our next President:

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Romans 13:1 (NIV)

Great Kid's Song

Mandy came home yesterday singing a new song:

I will obey the first time I’m told
I will obey right away!
Never asking why, Never with a sigh
I will obey right away!

I love Christian school.

I Agree With Obama...On One Thing

Barack Obama and I agree on one thing: NCAA Division I-A football needs to have playoffs. Of course, I would want the government to stay out of it. I'm not sure he feels the same way.

Don't Fall For the Class Warfare Lie

It's the night before the election so here is some food for thought regarding election ads: Be wary of anyone who demonizes the wealthy and pits the poor or middle class against them. Also, be wary of anyone who pits people against corporations, which are owned by...you guessed it, people. In fact, if you own any stocks, even in a 401(k) or retirement account, you are one of the owners of probably a number of corporations.

Anyone who argues for raising taxes on the wealthy or on corporations to benefit the middle class or poor, is either ignorant of economics or is dishonest. The current economic crisis is a problem of a decrease of wealth in the United States, not the shifting of wealth. Wealth is actually created in the United States (and can therefore be destroyed) not merely shifted from one group to another. Trying to increase taxes on the wealthy actually creates disincentives for wealth creation as those who have accumulated wealth seek to protect it from being taken away by the government, rather than risking it in investment (which leads to jobs, which leads to more wealth created, etc.). Trying to increase taxes on corporations simply results in higher prices for consumers and/or decreased business costs, including investment and labor costs (meaning layoffs). As Ronald Reagan once said:

The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us. Business doesn’t pay taxes, and who better than business to make this message known? Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business. Begin with the food and fiber raised in the farm, to the ore drilled in a mine, to the oil and gas from out of the ground, whatever it may be—through the processing, through the manufacturing, on out to the retailer’s license. If the tax cannot be included in the price of the product, no one along that line can stay in business.

So, here is the bottom line: Don't fall for the class warfare lie. It's steeped in jealousy but not in truth.

Liberal Arrogance

There is a guy I work with that sends out an occasional political e-mail to a group of us. He and I are in the minority in the fact that we are politically conservative. (For some reason, there are a lot of liberal software developers out there.) Recently he sent out a link to an article entitled House Democrats Contemplate Abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks. Much argument ensued over the fact that it was mere contemplation. Here was my response:

The problem is not the contemplating. The real problem is the disturbing belief system and arrogant attitude that has prompted the contemplating. For example:

• “I want to stop the federal subsidy of 401(k)s,” Ghilarducci said in an interview. “401(k)s can continue to exist, but they won’t have the benefit of the subsidy of the tax break.”
  This is really disturbing. She regards money that we earn that is not taxed as a subsidy. So does she regard charitable contributions that are deducted as the government subsidizing my church? Does she regard the mortgage interest deduction as the government subsidizing my debt? This comes from a scary and arrogant attitude that I did not earn the money I worked for but that it belongs to the Nanny State...and maybe they'll let me keep some of it.
• “I want to spend our nation’s dollar for retirement security better."
  This is the problem. Why does congress get to decide this (and on what Constitutional grounds)? Shouldn't the person that worked hard for the money in the first place decide how to save his or her money for retirement?
• "Everybody would now be covered” if the plan were adopted, Ghilarducci said.
  I hope she doesn't mean that. Should those who don't work get retirement at the expense of those who do? I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she doesn't really mean "everyone" since it says "workers" earlier.
  

Behind all the contemplating is the arrogant attitude that congress and bureaucrats know better how to take care of your needs than you do. The scary part is that many of them either actually believe it or they are being deliberately dishonest to give themselves more power.

Fantasy Football

This is my second year to play Fantasy Football. I had avoided playing for several years because the only leagues I knew of were pay leagues, which were a form of gambling, and because I thought it would take too much time, a resource of which I don't have an abundant supply. Last year I joined a free league at work and found that it didn't take that much time at all. Since MNF is on right now and the game is one-sided, I figured this is a good time to talk about how Fantasy Football works. It is important to note that the rules are different for every league. This is how our leagure works.

The Players

The rules for every league are different. It first starts with the draft, which is probably the most critical aspect of the season. If you don't draft well you typically won't do well. You draft for the following positions:

• 1 Quarterback
• 2 Running Backs
• 2 Receivers
• 1 Tight End
• 1 Running Back or Receiver
• 1 Kicker
• 1 Defense
• 6 Bench Positions - These can be any of the above.
  

Every team in the NFL has a bye week so it is important to draft backups for your key positions. Since you don't have enough bench positions to back up everyone, you will end up dropping and adding players through the year. Because players get injured, you often have to replace them. Its important to draft well because the players remaining, the free agents, are typically not as good, but there often are surprises. Sometimes these surprises are rookies. Sometimes they are backups for an injured player.

The Scoring

Scoring is relatively simple and is based on how each player on your team does in real life that week. Every player gets 6 points for touchdowns. Outside of that, here are the other scoring rules:

• A player gets 1 point for every 20 yards of passing.
  
• A player gets 1 point for every 10 yards of rushing.
  
• A plap gets 1 point for every 10 yards of receiving.
• A kicker gets 1 point for every extra points, and 3, 4, or 5 points for a field goal, depending on the distance.
• A defense gets 15 points at the start of the game. This is reduced based on how much the offense playing against them scores. A defense also gets 2 points for each sack, fumble recovery, or interception.
• A player loses 2 points for throwing an interception.
• A player loses 2 points for fumbling.
  

The Time Investment

The biggest time investment is the draft, which lasts a little over an hour, if I remember correctly. We do it online at Yahoo! Everyone has 90 seconds to make a draft pick and there are 15 rounds, as you would expect. Then every week, I had to spend about 30 minutes--sometimes more but often less--making sure that I'm happy with my lineup of starters and making any trades.

Fantasy football used to take a lot of time because participants had to keep score themselves. Now the fantasy football providers such as Yahoo! or NFL.com, keep score online for you.

How I'm Doing

I haven't done so well the last couple of weeks. I'm now 3 - 4 and in fifth place out of 10 teams. My star player is Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints, who is right now leading the league in passing. Last week he scored me 39 points but most of my other players scored in the single digits. This week Drew Brees scored only 9 points. My leading receiver, Anquan Boldin of the Arizona Cardinals, has been out the last few weeks. I made a big mistake in dropping the Pittsburgh defense on their bye week instead of holding on to them. They were picked up by someone else pretty quickly. I won't make the mistake of letting go of a good defense again.

Last year, my first year, I started out 1-7 but managed to finish 2nd. You never know how its really going to go. You try to draft wisely, pick up promising free agents before someone else does, and hope that your players play consistently.

Why I Play

Here is why I play:

• Strategy - Despite the fact that players have bad games and you have no control over that, there is still a lot of strategy involved. You choose who to play based on how a player is playing and what team he is playing against. For example, I might play one running back one week and replace him with another running back from the bench because the defense the second player is playing against defends poorly against the run. I enjoy finding that new rookie who ends up doing well also.
  
• Fun - I happen to love football and am going to watch some NFL games anyway. Having players that are on your fantasy team playing adds another fun element to the game.
  
• Relationship - It gives me something besides work to talk about with those I work with.
  

Meeting Neighbors

One of the things that has bothered me since I moved back at the end of May is that we hadn't met any of our neighbors. In the neighborhood I used to live we all knew each other. In fact when we moved in to my former neighborhood, there were several families we hung out with in our cul-de-sac. Our kids would play together, we had Memorial Day and Christmas parties together, the ladies would go out together once a month, and the guys even did a Bible study together. The funny thing is that even after everyone has moved away, we still have had a Christmas party together for the last few years. (We were last of the original group to move away.) I've missed that.

Things began to change last Saturday. John had to sell popcorn for the Cub Scouts so now he and I had to go around and meet neighbors. Overall it was a good experience. I met some nice people, one of whom invited John to come play with her boys whenever they were out. I also met a couple that we first walked by because we didn't want to interrupt them when they were fixing their car. On the way back to our house, they were done so we stopped by. She and her husband were working on their car to save the big expense of repairing it. She also looked at the prices of the popcorn and knew she couldn't buy any. Somewhere in the conversation, God was prompting me to ask her about her situation and if I could pray for her. She told me about her situation and I told her I would pray for her, which she seemed to genuinely appreciate. Pray that God can direct me and Laura in other ways we may can be used by God to help them.

Christianomics

This post is about something I've been thinking about for a while and may be longer than usual, so hang in there as I ramble. With the economy the way it is and the election looming, it seems appropriate to talk about economics from a Christian perspective.

Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand

Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations described capitalism as an "invisible hand", through which the selfish behavior of men benefited the society as a whole.

As every individual, therefore, endeavors as much he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was not part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.

Contrast a restaurant that you've been to that has really good food and good service with a restaurant that has poor service, poor quality food, or both. Which one do you visit the most? The good quality restaurant will typically be in business for longer, have more customers, and make more money than the poor quality restaurant. For the selfish reason of making more money, there is an incentive to provide something that benefits others.

Now think of a socialist, or perhaps, communist economic system. Imagine the extreme that the government owned all restaurants, hired cooks to run them, taxed the citizenry to pay for them, and then "gave" the food away for free. Is there now incentive to provide good quality and good service?

A Christian Perspective

Inherent in the example above and in Adam Smith's quote is the Biblical truth that man is sinful.

As the Scriptures say,

"There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one." ^[1]

I believe that the best economic system to promote good when man is sinful is capitalism. Socialism and Capitalism both deny the truth of man's sinfulness. The reason they don't work very well is because of this truth.

Some of the principles promoted by capitalism are indeed Biblical. For example, 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says "For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: 'If a man will not work, he shall not eat.'" (Note that it says "will not work", not "cannot work". More on that below.)

Rising Above Capitalism

The standards for a Christian are higher than any economic system, however. For a Christian, doing good is something we do to bring glory to God rather than to benefit ourselves. While in business, we work to provide for our families and we should do that work to the glory of God and for the benefit of others. However, we are also called to give out of love for Christ, to help those who truly need.

Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. ^[2]

The Church or the Government

Our economic system is the best there is at, as one friend of mine said, "exploiting" the sinful human nature for the good of society. It benefits others buy both providing quality goods and services that others need, but the jobs that are required to produce these when success comes to the producers. As someone once said, a "rising tide lifts all boats".

However, this is never sufficient to truly lift all boats. As Jesus said in Matthew 26:11, "The poor you will always have with you". This means that people need help. I believe the church (i.e., Christians, the body of Christ) can better provide help where it is really needed than the government. Also, this is the most compassionate answer to the problem of need. Which requires more compassion, to give from your own resources (which are really God's anyway) or to lobby that the government give from the resources collected from someone else?

The government has to treat all needs the same, whether real or perceived. The church on the other hand, can discern real needs from perceived, and meet people where the real needs are. The man who has lost all his money due to his gambling addiction may get a welfare check from the government. From the church he may get a bag of groceries, accountability, and spiritual help to overcome his addiction. Which is more effective?

One last question: If the government didn't attempt to help by giving money from the public coffers to both real and perceived needs, would there be less needs or more? I'd like to hear your thoughts. You may can guess mine.

^[1] Romans 3:10-12 (New International Version)
^[2] Matthew 5:42 (New International Version)

Another Important Reason to Switch to OpenDNS

Back in June of this year, I wrote a post called Filtering the Right Way Using OpenDNS. Now there is another important reason for switching to OpenDNS, protection against a big security hole in the internet. If you don't know what I'm talking about please read my original post.

What Every Wide Receiver Wants

I just watched the Cincinnati-Marshall game. Marshall has a wide receiver named Passmore. No kidding.

What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

Today the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was signed into law by President Bush. Despite whatever you might think of the new law, commonly referred to as the bailout, you have to be asking yourself what caused this to begin with? My Dad sent me to a link to the following video, which I believe explains this complicated issue very well. I don't agree with 100% of this--it plays to class warfare somewhat--but it seems to be an accurate picture of the facts surrounding this issue.



Also, here is a New York Times article from 1999 that was a foreshadowing of things to come.

Football: Gotta Love It

It's been a while since I've posted to the blog. I've wanted to but I've just been very busy. This weekend we've tried to get a little rest. It has been a big football weekend. Last night we went to the Briarwood game and watched them beat up on Moody. Neither Laura nor I have felt very well today so football has been on most of the day. I watched Alabama beat Arkansas (Roll Tide!) while listening to Troy get beat 28-10 by Ohio State on the radio.

The Troy game was much closer than the score indicated. In fact, the rest of the stats really show this:

	Troy	Ohio State
1st Downs	15	17
3rd down efficiency	5-15	3-11
4th down efficiency	0-0	0-1
Total Yards	315	309
Passing	218	139
Completed-Attempts	30-43	10-17
Yards per pass	5.1	8.2
Rushing	97	170
Rushing Attempts	23	42
Yards per rush	4.2	4.0
Penalties	8-80	6-46
Turnovers	2	1
Fumbles lost	0	0
Interceptions thrown	2	1
Possession	29:50	30:10

I just got through watching LSU beat Auburn (26-21) in an incredible game. Geaux Tigers.

Reflections on the 2008 Olympics

Now that the 2008 Olympics in Beijing are over, it seems like a good time to think back on some favorite moments. Here are some of mine, in no particular order:

• Jason Lezak's coming from behind to beat Alain Bernard to give the U.S. swim team victory over the French in the 4-by-100 freestyle relay.
• David Neville diving for the bronze metal in the 400-meters, giving the U.S. a sweep in that race. I liked his statement after the race, also: "...to give it my all and...give God the glory."
• The attitude of the U.S. Olympic basketball team this year. This year they were proud to represent the U.S., attended other events (cheering on other U.S. teams), played like a team, and were genuinely excited to win the gold medal (which they fought for like they really wanted it).
• Dara Torres, the 41-year-old swimmer, having the 50-meter race delayed because of a malfunction in the suit of an opponent. It's always good to see an Olympic athlete that is older than me, too (that's not participating in Olympic curling).
  

These are some that come to mind. I could probably come up with more, if I thought about it longer. What are some of your favorite Olympic moments?

Punk Rock Jewish Hymn from the Reading Festival?

I rip the sermon CD from my church using iTunes and upload it to our church web site every Sunday. This way people can listen to it online or podcast it for listening later. iTunes attempts to find the track information for any CD you import from the CDDB database automatically. Of course, these sermons aren't in the CDDB database but iTunes often comes up with a suggestion anyway. The latest suggestion from iTunes is pretty humerous:

Advertisement:
As soon as you have a chance, head over to Megan Clark's MySpace page and listen to her Chime in the Wind demo album. It's very good.

My Old House on Google Street View

I just read about New Orleans being included in Street View in Google Maps, so having grown up there, of course I was excited. I actually lived in Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans, for 10 of the 15 years we lived there until we moved to Pelham. I thought surely that Google didn't go out into the suburbs but I thought I would check. The roaming Google picture-taking vehicle actually drove down the street right by the house I grew up in. I had heard that it was under about 9 feet of water though I'm not sure if I got those facts right and I didn't know its condition. I actually assumed it was leveled. A quick search and a switch to Street View showed me that it is still there. See it for yourself. It is the house on the corner. In fact, you can see the FEMA trailer sitting just to the right of it. The house next door has a FEMA trailer also. I wish I knew the story behind all of this but it is pretty cool to see it is still there.

Small World, Big God

This morning in Sunday school I had a small world experience. A friend of mine, Kent, brought a visitor. We'll call him Troy (because that's his name). Kent introduced Troy as a longtime friend and a former staff person for Campus Outreach at Montevallo that had discipled Kent when Kent was in college. Being that I was involved with Campus Outreach at Troy, I introduced myself after class. Troy --this is going to be confusing now--said that he graduated from Troy the year before I started there. We began to ask each other about names of people that we might both know. One of them was a guy named Charles, the guy who discipled me during my time there and was a very instrumental person in my life as a brand-new Christian. Troy told me, to my surprise, that he discipled Charles. What a small world and what a big God that did all that. It was encouraging. It was a needed reminder of what is really important.

Football in the Air

Laura copied down the Saints schedule into her Palm yesterday. I just got my e-mail invitation to the fantasy football league I played in last year with a bunch of guys from work. (That was actually a lot of fun and didn't take near as much time as I thought it would.) And we are counting down to only 3 days until the first NFL preseason game. Yep, football is in the air again.

In celebration of the upcoming season, here is an explanation of the new rules in NCAA football. It has accompanying video of some of the things that are now illegal. Warning: The videos are a little painful but you can skip playing them.

Murder in the Old Hood

I just recently wrote a post about visiting our old neighborhood. Since then there has been a murder, just a few blocks from where we used to live. It was the first murder in two years in Pelham...and in our old neighborhood. Wow. Very sad.

Visiting the Old Hood

We ate dinner with some friends from Sunday school at the Cardinal Drive In, a new Sonic-like restaurant in Pelenabaster, where Dairy Queen and the A&W used to be. (It was good by the way. Get the onion rings.) It's right outside our old neighborhood. Being so close, it was a good opportunity to take something I borrowed from an old neighbor back to him.

It felt weird to be driving through the old hood, like reliving the past, even though it wasn't that long ago that we moved. We have lots of great memories there. God put us there at a time in our lives where he knew it was what we needed. We got to know neighbors right away and it was common for all the neighbors to be out in the cul-de-sac while the kids all played together. We had a Christmas party every year together, a memorial day cookout every year together, and the men would meet once a week for a Bible study (each week at a different house with the host teaching). This was an experience I really miss and one that I think is rare nowadays.

We still keep in touch with some of these old neighbors. Last year we were still having a Christmas party together, even though we all live in different neighborhoods now. Laura just last night went to visitation for the father of one of them.

We haven't yet met any of our new neighbors. It feels like its time to change that.

Facebook Turning Useful

I signed up for a Facebook account maybe a year or so ago. To be honest, I mainly did it to look at how I might integrate some software I've started developing into Facebook's applications, especially since Facebook has so many users. I wouldn't visit it often, since much of it seemed silly to me, such as virtually "throwing sheep" at someone or giving virtual gifts. (If you are a Facebook user that enjoys these things, please forgive me. I'm just being honest.)

Facebook had its usefulness, too, however: It could be used as a communication tool to a group of people, people shared photos, etc. These were actually practical uses that I could appreciate but I still only went to Facebook on those occasions that someone I knew wanted to connect with a friend request.

The practical use of it has jumped up an order of magnitude however recently. For about the last week and a half, there has been an explosion of connections I've made with old friends from college. These were friends that I've lost touch with over the years but were "impactful" (as my pastor would say) at a time when I was a new Christian. Many of these were the kinds of friends you could just pick up talking with after years of not seeing and it be as though time hadn't passed. So, I'm seeing the usefulness of Facebook now.

...and I just figured out how to get this blog incorporated into my Facebook profile with "Flog".

Why "Alien and Stranger"

I have been reading Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening" as part of my time with God each day. (Actually, I've just been reading the "morning" part.) Today's verse was Ephesians 2:19. It explains that we are no longer strangers and aliens in God's kingdom. This is actually not the verse I based the name of this blog on but it did remind me that I've never explained it.

Instead, I based it on Hebrews 11:13 and 1 Peter 2:11, which explain that we are strangers and aliens on this earth, that it is not our home, that we long for a "better country". If only I could live with this perspective consistently instead of looking for comfort and satisfaction in this world...

Google Apps

Our family was at my wife's brother's house in South Carolina this weekend. He and his wife have been using AOL for all of their e-mail. Like many AOL customers, they were not happy. The AOL interface was slow and, in my opinion very klunky. I showed them Gmail, which is what Laura and I use. I love Gmail. It is very easy to use and has spam filtering that is simply amazing in its accuracy.

I initially thought I would get them set up on Gmail. However, my brother-in-law has his own landscaping business and had no web site of its own. I have read a good bit about Google Apps but haven't actually used it and it seemed like a good fit for solving their e-mail problems and providing a simple web site for the business. I went to the Google Apps site and it was very easy to set up. Setting up a web page was as simple as using some very simple WYSIWYG tools, much like using a word processor. Also, it gives you unlimited users, each with 6 GB of e-mail (and their fantastic spam filtering). Instead of johndeaux@gmail.com, you can have an e-mail addresses like johndeaux@cajunbasketweavers.com (in addition to having your own www.cajunbasketweavers.com web page). It even gives you the ability to create word processing documents and spreadsheet online that users can all collaborate on. All of this was free except for the yearly domain registration (so that you can register cajunbasketweavers.com, for example). Google walked you through setting up, which was a very simple process. The domain costs only $10 per year.

How is it free? It's free the same way that Gmail is free. There are very non-obnoxious text ads next to each e-mail, based on the content of the e-mail.

For personal use, I highly recommend Gmail. If you are running a small business and need some simple to create web pages, Google Apps is an excellent choice that is simple to use and simple to set up.

Supreme Court Rightly Interprets Consitution...Barely

I haven't read all of the details of the case, but it appears that the Supreme Court of the United States has, at least for the most part, rightly interpreted the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Today, the Court decided that Americans could own guns. And I thought that was determined 217 years ago. Oh, well.

The Court also determined that laws that put unreasonable burdens on gun owners, such as trigger locks or having the guns remain disassembled in the home, were unconstitutional.

The scare thing was that this only passed 5 to 4. This highlights how important this year's presidential election is. The next president may appoint up to three justices to the Supreme Court.

What do you think? Are you going to vote?

Filtering the Web the Right Way with OpenDNS

I currently have a subscription to the BSafe Online Filter, which is there to keep the bad stuff that's on the internet from getting to our family's computer. The downside of it is that it costs $49.95 per year for one computer and it on only works on Microsoft Windows. I have been planning, when I have time, to revive an old computer by installing Ubuntu Linux on it (which is free and will make it seem like new). However, I hadn't found a good way to secure it from the bad stuff, until recently.

A guy at work recently told me about OpenDNS, a free Domain Name System that also has free filtering ability, where you can choose what categories of bad stuff you want to filter. If you are not familiar, a Domain Name System (DNS) is the thing that turns a URL (the internet address for a web site) into an IP address (which is a series of four or six one-to-three-digit numbers, each separated by periods). Your Internet Service Provider has already set up a DNS for you to use but you can actually choose to use a different one.

One major difference between OpenDNS and other Domain Name Systems is that is very reliable. Some Internet Service Providers have less reliable Domain Name Systems, meaning that sometimes you may not be able to get to any web sites, check e-mail, etc. Another major difference with OpenDNS is that you can set up an account that has filtering, much like what BSafe Online Filter does. However, it has some major advantages over BSafe Online Filter:

1. There is no software to install, with possibly one minor exception.*
   
2. If you have a wireless router, you can configure it to use OpenDNS, meaning that every computer or internet-connected device (PDA's, iPhones, gaming consoles, etc.) use the filter. It doesn't matter what operating system you are using, either. It can be Windows (any variety), Mac OS, Linux, Palm OS, etc.
3. You can configure what categories of bad stuff you want to block on the OpenDNS web site.
4. It was very easy to set up. You pick your router from the list (which has pictures) and it gives you exact instructions. The instructions even have screen shots.
5. It blocks phishing sites. Phishing sites are phony web sites that pose as real web sites such as your bank's web site to get your user ID and password. With your user ID and password to a web site, bad people attempt to steal your identity and/or your money.
6. You can set up custom messages for the blocking pages (e.g., "Daddy doesn't want you to go to this web site."). You can even upload a custom picture that will show, such as yourself looking sternly at whoever is using the computer.
7. It is much less hackable than software installed on my computer because it requires someone to know the user ID and password of your router. This is less important now but as the kids get older and more computer-savvy...
   

* To use the filtering, you may need to install something called the OpenDNS Updater on one computer. It uses the IP address of your internet connection (i.e., your router) to know to use your account settings to filter stuff. Since most Internet Service Provider's assign you a different one each time you log on to the internet, you will need to say "yes" when it asks you if you want to install the OpenDNS Updater. You only need to do this on one computer. One other thing that is not so obvious, is that you will need to check the box on Set Up a Dynamic IP page. If you know you have a static IP address, you can skip all of this. If you don't know, don't skip installing OpenDNS Updater.

Update: There is a good review of OpenDNS by PC Magazine that demonstrates it.

Firefox 3

You may have read this elsewhere but Firefox 3 is out. Mozilla is trying to set a world record for downloads in a 24-hour period, which ends at 1:16 PM CDT on June 18, 2008. I don't know that there is a current world record that Mozilla is trying to beat since that may not be a current category in the Guiness World Records. I did a search on the Guiness site on the word "downloads" and came up empty.

I downloaded it tonight. It has a new look but I haven't yet delved into the new features (but I will). Most of my extensions are compatible. There is a Field Guide to Firefox 3 for those who want to know what is new.

If you still are using Internet Explorer, download and check out Firefox. You will never want to go back to using Internet Explorer again. With the IE Tab extension, you may never need to open Internet Explorer again, even for those pesky web pages that have been written to only work in this nonstandard browser. (Internet Explorer uses proprietary technologies, such as ActiveX, and does not conform to many web standards.)

Powers Not Delegated by the Constitution

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
--Amendment 10, The United States Constitution

Being About the Truth in a Highly Communicative World

I have been hesitant to write about this because I don't want to sound preachy or arrogant. However, an interesting post by a friend of mine about a web site called You've Been Left Behind reminded me of this subject again. He humorously points out this as the interesting web site that it is. (He does not advocate it by the way.) Looking at the web site and researching who registered it, it saddened me, however. It appears to be a scam but one many Christians have probably already fallen for.

We live in a world where communication happens fast, not all of it true. Several years ago, when internet access was just beginning to get commonplace, I got an e-mail about how antiperspirant cause breast cancer. I'm ashamed to say that at the time, at least for a while, I found the e-mail plausible and believed it. Fortunately, I didn't forward the e-mail on but, on finding out the truth about it on truthorfiction.com, I learned a valuable lesson about the hazards of spreading lies, even unintentionally, and the unfortunate gullibility we as Christians are sometimes known for.

It made me think back to the rumor about Proctor and Gamble and it's ties to Satanism, another lie that predated the public internet (and that I believed for a while), but was particularly harmful to a company that was not guilty of the alleged claim. I believe the spread of this false rumor was also harmful to the name of Christ. It made it look as if the church was not committed to truth.

Even today, I still get e-mails from well-meaning Christians who haven't checked out the e-mails they received before forwarding them on. I have gotten e-mails about Dr. Pepper removing "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, about atheist petitioning the FCC to ban religious broadcasting, and even one e-mail from a Christian organization that spoke of a same-sex marriage law in a way that was only mostly true (but contained some unfortunate exaggerations about the wording of the law).

Now I check most forwarded e-mails against Snopes.com. Please, I implore every Christian to do the same. Check it out before you forward it.

What do you think? Am I being to hard? I hope not. My intention was to talk about what I learned from my own mistakes.

What Are the Odds?

It was Tuesday at 2:00 PM, three days ago. I was sitting down at the start of a meeting when Laura called. She was stuck on the side of a side street near our church with our van overheated. I headed that way, picking up some overpriced convenience store already-diluted coolant on the way. As I headed her way, I noticed the engine temperature guage on my car go up and down, with each cycle getting closer and closer to the hottest end of the guage. It was getting hot enough that I cranked up the heater all the way and rolled down the windows to make the heat from it bearable.

I was almost in the red when I pulled up behind Laura. On opening the hood to the car, I could hear the coolant spraying below the reservoir. I took a look at the van and saw immediately the busted hose that connected the radiator to the engine. We were now both stuck. What are the odds of two cars overheating the same day, stuck now in the same spot?

I called my parents who split up, my mom going to pick up the kids from school and my dad meeting us at the site of our immobility. We filled the reservoir on my car and headed south for Pelham. He headed to his house to drop of Laura and Mandy while I headed to The Garage (the auto shop in Pelham where we get most of our car repairs) and then walked over to AutoZone to get a replacement hose for the van. My dad picked me up and we headed back to the van, replaced the hose, and filled the reservoir with coolant. We then headed towards his house, me in the van, he in his car. The van overheated on the way and soon found out that the reservoir had coolant but the radiator was dry. We emptied the coolant into the radiator and headed south again. The heat kept going up again and I ended up having to drop the van by The Garage. By this time it was after 6:00 PM and the only rental places open were near the airport. Both cars were out of commission and we had no car. My parents graciously gave us a ride home.

This ends well, however. A good friend loaned us a car and brought it to us that night. Our friends at The Garage got both of our cars back to us the next day and the repairs were much less than I had feared. And I was reminded once again that God is in control of everything and that I should trust Him. I'm a slow learner.

First Big Mountain Idol Winner

Congratulations to Megan Clark for being the first Big Mountain Idol winner! Thanks goes to No Sleep in Helena for letting those of us know who weren't able to be there.

Dogfights

No, not the Michael Vick kind. I'm referring to the show on the History Channel called Dogfights. It is one of the shows I have recorded on my DVR, really enjoy, but rarely get to watch. Today, when I got home, I caught the last few minutes of an episode that was on live TV as I was doing other things. It was about my favorite fighter plane from World War II, the P-51 Mustang. If you've never seen the show, it is a recount of dogfights from various wars since the beginning of the fighter plane. It combines the storytelling of the actual fighter pilot (if he was alive at the time of the show's filming) with very realistic CGI re-enactments of the actual battle. The part I caught today was impressive, featuring a pilot named Richard Gomez Candelaria, who shot down 4 German 109s in one battle in which he was the lone American fighter pilot. The entire portion of the show which I saw was on YouTube. (Watch the move this guy puts on the first German, the leader.)

This really makes you appreciate what some of these guys did over 60 years ago.

Google Real Estate Search

If only there had been a Google Real Estate Search a few months ago...

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act

John Campbell, a Republican congressman from California, recently introduced a bill called the "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act". This bill was designed to allow those rich liberals who complain about themselves and others not paying enough taxes to easily donate money to the federal government on their tax forms. He said, "It's a great injustice that citizens wishing to fulfill their dream of paying more taxes cannot simply check a box on their 1040 form to make a donation."

This bill would give liberals the opportunity to assuage their guilt while not putting a further burden on the rest of us who already feel overtaxed. I love it.

Podcasting

I love podcasting, especially since Apple has made it so easy with the iPod. It's like having a DVR for the radio, except sometimes with broadcasts that you cannot find on the radio. I subscribe to everything from John Piper, Ravi Zacharias, and my own pastor, to a podcast about the New Orleans Saints, to old Lone Ranger and Green Hornet radio broadcasts. I have even been subscribing to video podcasts such as Best of YouTube, Movie Trailer Park (movie trailers, as you would expect), and the Discovery Channel (which has some good Future Weapons and Mythbusters excerpts.) The video podcasts are good when you are sitting in the doctor's office or somewhere else just waiting.

Ravi Zacharias podcast from today, Secularism & the Illusion of Neutrality (from his Just Thinking broadcast) was very interesting and very funny (yet in some ways sad). It's actually the third of four messages in the series but stands on its own. You can listen to it ahead of parts 1 & 2 and not be lost.

I also listen to some other sermon, technical, and political podcasts on occasion. What podcasts do you subscribe to?

Cinco de Cuatro

I know there is something not quite right about the title of this post, but that is actually the story...

Sometimes I take my lunch to work and eat at my desk while I work. It saves money and gives me a little more time to catch up on work. However, I always eat out on Fridays, usually with the guys I work with. Several years ago, maybe 10 or more, Cinco de Mayo fell on a Saturday. So the day before, I went around the office trying to muster up interest in going to eat Mexican for "Cinco de Cuatro". A lot of the guys were interested and no one said there was anything peculiar about my newly proclaimed holiday. After talking to around a half-dozen people around work, one of the guys said to me, "Did you know you have been saying five of four all day?"

I took French in high school (a lot of good that did me) but I knew enough Spanish to immediately recognize that I'd been saying it wrong all day...to multiple people. (It should have been "Cuatro de Mayo" for any of you that might be asking.) The funny thing is how that has stuck. There are still a few people around the office from way back then and the legend of Cinco de Cuatro is still propogated. Every year now we have a tradition of going out to eat on "Cinco de Cuatro" to beat the Cinco de Mayo rush. This year it fell today, on a Sunday, so we won't enjoy quite the same tradition this time around. But as a family, today we celebrated Cinco de Cuatro after church at Sol Azteca in Vestavia. (We were headed there anyway before we realized what day it is.)

Happy Cinco de Cuatro everybody!

Big Mountain Idol

Last night Laura and I and the kids went to Big Mountain Coffee in Helena to see Big Mountain Idol, a local version of American Idol. One of the four remaining contestants was Megan Clark, the daughter of some friends of ours. Not that I am biased but I thought Megan was the most impressive. She sang a song that she wrote herself and her mellow, coffee-house style was a joy to listen to. She has some real talent. You can read about the contest on the No Sleep in Helena blog. Megan and Randall Nichols (who was also quite good) were the two remaining finalists after the night was over. Next Friday night they both sing at the Buck Creek Festival to determine who wins Big Mountain Idol.

Global Warming Discussion Leads to Creation-Evolution Discussion

A guy I work with often sends out links to articles disputing man-made global warming to several of us that work with him and that used to work with him. A couple of days after my post called The Power of Popular Thought, he sent a new one out. After some interesting exchanges, one of the recipients of the original e-mail turned the conversation toward the movie Expelled and stated that he thought creationists should stay out of science. I responded and we had a short (but cordial) debate over e-mail about the subject. In the end, we both knew we couldn't convince each other but it was interesting nonetheless. I have to admit that, even though he is incorrect in his thinking, he is an excellent debater, a much better one than I am. It is a good reminder that only God can change a heart. I cannot rely on myself.

Leodis McKelvin Selected Early

Leodis McKelvin was selected as the 11th pick in the first round by the Buffalo Bills. It wasn't the Saints, but the Saints picked up a good one in Sedrick Ellis (a Trojan also, but from USC).

The Power of Popular Thought

It amazes me sometimes the power that popular thinking on a subject has, often spurred on by the media, and backed up by those who have much to gain. Two powerful examples of this are man-made global warming and evolution. Opponents of each of these are often ridiculed and persecuted because "everyone knows" that man-made global warming is real and that the universe happened by chance.

Man-made global warming advocates are many, to the point that even the Weather Channel is on board. Why is that the case? If you look at what James Spann, a well-respected local meteorologist in Birmingham, says, it is a matter of following the money. Those who have livelihood to gain from man-made global warming have a loud and popular voice. The media cooperates so much with this position that often evidence to the contrary isn't heard, and hence, most people don't question it. Channel 4 in Great Britain had a great documentary on the subject. It is a long one but is quite well done and very understandable.



I apologize for the German subtitles. I couldn't find the original in its entirety without the subtitles.

Evolution is another belief that has much support because many don't question it. As a believer in a literal 6-day creation as the Bible describes, it often surprises people to find that out. It doesn't make sense to some of those that know me that I would believe such a thing, because it is a given to them that all that we see around us is the result of chance over billions of years. Although some people I know are well-read on the subject, most don't even question it. In fact, many often don't know that there are a lot of scientists who believe what I believe (or more importantly, what the Bible says). In fact, those that believe this in the scientific community are often persecuted. Ben Stein, not really a Biblical creationist himself, has released a documentary that I really want to see about this. Here is the trailer.

A Taste of Football

Tomorrow (at 2:00 PM CDT) is the NFL Draft, a small taste of football excitement in a time of the year when football is for the most part absent. This year they have a new format. They will only have the first and second rounds on Saturday, with the remaining rounds on Sunday. The first round will be 10 minutes between picks (instead of 15), the second round will only be 7 minutes between picks, and all subsequent rounds will only be 5 minutes between picks. I guess the NFL is trying to make it much more watchable.

As a New Orleans Saints fan, of course I'm very interested in their picks. They have the #10 pick in the second round. As a Troy University fan and alumnus, I'm excited to see maybe the second first round pick they've ever had in Leodis McKelvin. (The first was Demarcus Ware, drafted 11th in 2005. Osi Umenyiora was drafted in the second round in 2003.) In the best of all worlds, the Sporting News' annual correspondents mock draft had the Saints picking him at the number 10 position.

I'm looking forward to it. I'm also interested to see where McFadden and Dorsey land. With the exciting names and the faster format, this year's draft is going to be a good one.

Something to Say

I have thought about blogging for a while now but just haven't until now. I've actually had a Blogger account for probably a couple of years now with no blog. The biggest reason I haven't started blogging was that I wondered if I really had something to say or not. Tonight I found myself in essence blogging in the comments on a friend's blog.

What will this blog be about? It will be about personal stuff, technology, maybe a little apologetics (because that interests me), and life in general. I guess I don't really want to put it in a box. As a Christian and a software architect with a lot of interest in technology, I have opinions on how technology and the Christian life relate. Although it's not the focus, like with some blogs that are geared that way, I'll probably talk a little about software, websites, and other tools that are useful to others.