January 2006 Archives

R Is For Ricochet (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)

by Sue Grafton

R is For Ricochet is a standard Millhone fair. If you're a fan of Kinsey, you'll like the book. I've been reading Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone detective series for about two years now. If you've never read any of the Kinsey Millhone series, you should start with A is For Alibi. After that, whether you go in order or not is up to you. The novels are sequential but the story in each is self-contained. That is, if you started in the middle of the series there would be references that you would not understand but you would always understand the main plot and the majority of the sub-plots in the novel.

In R is For Ricochet Kinsey accepts a job babysitting a newly released convict. As the story plays out it is better to pay attention to the actions and activities of the ex-con rather than Kinsey. The story the unravels is about the ex-con. In the sub-plots, Henry almost finds a girlfriend, Dietz now has competition, not that he's around to enjoy it and Kinsey gets a decent haircut for, what, the second time in her life?

Aloha

Technorati Tags: book, reading, review

Several recent articles in Dan Kimball's Vintage Faith blog have been driving a discussion in the comments portion about Christians and their relationship with those outside their belief system. Three articles in particular:

1. True Story - What would you do?
2. What I said to the fellow with the T-Shirt
3. The Longer We Are Christians

The articles are interesting but I am more interested in the comments. Especially those in the second and third articles. In the second article Dan challenges those who read his blog to become more involved with people outside their faith on the pretense that only then will others outside the faith be able to "see Jesus." In the third article, Dan postulates that the longer an individual is a Christian the less involved with people outside the Christian faith s/he becomes.

The comments reveal, in my opinion, the core essence of why Christians are viewed as such a pretentious and irritating lot. I would even go so far as to say that it is at the core of why Christians are such a pretentious and irritating lot. The primary reason for most Christians to socialize with, make friends with or even interact with non-Christians is so that the non-Christians will become a Christian. The Evangelical Agenda. Hang around an evangelical church long enough and it becomes apparent that the Evangelical Agenda is the overriding motivation for virtually everything the church does.

There were several large scale natural disasters last year both here in the States and around the world. It struck me that the church's motivation for finding ways to assist the disaster stricken areas had less to do with the fact that people were devastated and in terrible need but rather because rendering aid provided the opportunity to 'share' Christianity. Somehow, it seems that Christians have come to the conclusion that their god needs them to tell others, forcibly if necessary, about their god.

As I see it, if God is as described in the Bible, whatever His use for me might be, He does not need any thing from me. God does not need me to tell anyone anything. God does not need me to do anything. As I look back on my life I can see where He has done a lot for me, or so my world view would ascribe it. If God is so small that He needs man to deliver His message, that is hardly a god at all.

The Evangelical Agenda says that I must constantly be looking for an opportunity to talk about my beliefs and my faith with others. The Evangelical Agenda says that I should be quick to the side of anyone who is suffering because in their moment of weakness they might be open to accepting my faith. The Evangelical Agenda says that the overriding motivation for everything I do in this life is to win another soul to heaven and save them from hell.

Some of the friendships I enjoy most are with people who adamantly and even violently disagree with my faith. Some of the conversations I enjoy most have as their topic issues that are, for me, governed by my belief in Christianity. I believe that we can have those conversations because the relationship is built on tolerance and respect. Tolerance* of beliefs that differ from my own and respect for that individual's intellect and choices. I am certain that I am wiser for having had close personal friendships with people who believe very differently from me. Muslims, Atheists, Buddhists, Agnostics, Theists. I have or have had friends who held deeply to all of these belief systems (haven't had any friends yet who held all of them at the same time).

Each of us makes our own decisions as to what we believe or do not believe. Setting the course of one's life so as to maximize the opportunity to impose your beliefs on others or to challenge the beliefs of others is arrogant. If God has granted each the free will to choose what they will believe, who is any man to think the he may decide for others. And even if one's purpose is to persuade others of the rightness of any one belief, that persuasion will most likely begin from a position of honesty, respect and love. Not from a position of deceit, deception and manipulation that is the Evangelical Agenda.

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

*A quick note: Tolerance does not mean acceptance or approval of something. There is no need to tolerate that which you accept or approve of. To tolerate means to live with those things we do not accept or approve of.

Technorati Tags: christianity, sociology

Every Saturday morning I have breakfast with a friend of mine. We usually end up hanging out together most of the day. We go to various restaurants throughout Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz has some great offerings. This morning we went to Ideal Bar & Grill, mostly because they are currently running a breakfast special. You can read my review of Ideal Bar & Grill on Yelp.

Ideal Bar & Grill

Aloha

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: food, review, santacruz

March of the Penguins

Morgan Freeman is the narrator. Nice voice. Personally, I think a gun was involved in getting Mr. Freeman to read this script. It was the most uninspired, sometimes melodramatic, largely boring verbiage I've heard on TV or film. The repetition of the words "empty belly," full belly," "70 mile trek," and "literally starving" was pretty unbelievable. Someone needs to buy the script writer a thesaurus and maybe a dictionary. The script was redundant and boring.

The photography was awesome. Even more incredible was the fact that the crew had to winter over on the Antarctic continent in order to capture the movie. More interesting than the movie is the Extra Features item about the crew's experience. The penguins came right up to the crew and their equipment, no fear whatsoever. That was pretty interesting.

The film would be a lot more enjoyable if you turn down the movie sound and make your own sound track. Think of it as National Geographic meets Fantasia.

Aloha

Well, I'm no Guy Kawasaki but I have managed to collect two photos in my Flickr group. Well, OK, one if you insist on not counting me. I made the URL to the group a little easier with a new feature they just implemented. It is now http://www.flickr.com/groups/smittiesramblingreaders/. Go put your mug up there. No one looks anyway.

Aloha

My hard drive died on Friday. Friday morning I was using my PowerBook for email and web while waiting for my tower to do work. Suddenly it started making this click, click, click sound. It didn't sound at all good so I shut the thing down. I was going that direction anyway so I decided to take it in to the Apple Store. I learned several things in this episode.

I arrived at the Valley Faire Apple Store, signed up for an appointment and settled in to wait. Some 40 minutes later it was my turn to talk to the Apple Genius.

"What can I help you with today," says Mr. Genius.
"I think the hard drive died," I replied.
"Let's take a look."

Of course, initially the PowerBook boots right up. I explain that it was making a clicking noise. The Apple Genius takes it, does some magic and the clicking noise starts.

"Is your hard drive backed up?"
"No."
"Go back up your hard drive," says Apple Genius like he's talking to the maid.
"How am I going to do that here in the store?"
"Go buy a drive..."

I managed to convince Mr. Genius that I wanted to continue the conversation on the assumption that I didn't mind losing the data but it was an effort. The Apple Genius offered no indication that the Apple Store had any capability for backing up the hard drive. Mr. Genius' arrogance was really frustrating me. Instead of helping me to understand my situation and the available options, bossy and argumentative. Frustsrated and angry I decided that I really did not want to do business with him or that store. Mr. Genius had left me to think about my predicament while he helped some one else. Presently, he came back and asked what I wanted to do. I had already started packing up the ill computer having decided that whatever I was going to do, I wasn't going to do it at this store.

"So, is everything OK," asked Mr. Genius.
"No, but you can't help me with the back up."
"Well, we can but it is $150."
"No, thanks."

I had some knowledgeable friends take a look at the drive. They confirmed that it was indeed dead. OK, so, what's lost is lost. Let's get it repaired. Fortunately, the PowerBook is covered under AppleCare. No longer willing to do business with the Valley Fair Apple Store, I went to the Palo Alto Apple Store. The difference was night and day.

I waited an hour or so. Mr. Genius was friendly. As I had already determined that the hard drive was dead, we discussed the issue of back up only long enough for me to discover that it would only $50 at the Palo Alto store. Huh. Why is there a $100 difference in price between the two stores? Mr. Genius took my PowerBook and the relevant information. That was Friday night around 9:00 pm. And the Palo Alto store asked if I'd like to have the computer shipped directly to my residence so I wouldn't have to come in and pick it up. The Valley Faire Apple Store didn't offer that when I had my iBook fixed there.

Early this afternoon my PowerBook was delivered to my door. Two business days. That's pretty sweet. The computer had nothing but Jaguar on it. I got out my Tiger DVD, installed the OS and began rebuilding my system. I'm about half way there. On the Real Soon Now shopping list: a large hard drive for backing up mine and my wife's computers.

I still need to file a complaint about the Valley Faire Apple Store. I'll never shop there again.

Aloha

I'm A Bad Boy: Google had sent me an email explaining that my account was disabled and why. It landed in my JUNK folder which is why I didn't see it until a day or so later.

The Evangelicals: If you read Dan Kimball's article that was linked in 'The Evangelicals' then you'll probably want to read the this sequel.

FilmLoop: I had an interesting email conversation with Guy Kawasaki about FilmLoop vs Flickr. What I didn't understand (and still don't) is what FilmLoop has to offer that Flickr doesn't. I can see a lot of things that Flickr provides that FilmLoop doesn't. Guy and I went back and forth on it for four or five emails. Guy Kawasaki finally said, "OK smittie, you win." I didn't want to win. I wanted to understand. The conversation moved on to blog entries.

For those who don't know, Guy Kawasaki was the original non-religious evangelist. Guy Kawasaki was on the original Macintosh team. He went on to do a bunch of other things which can be loosely summed up as entrepreneur extrodinaire. Guy now spends his days (this is mostly guess on my part since Guy doesn't yet share such mundane details with me) helping new entrepreneurs become successful entrepreneurs.

Our conversation started because I basically dissed his current pet product on my blog and TrackBacked his blog. I'm one of 10 to 15 thousand readers of his blog. He could have blown me off. I'm nobody. He didn't. That's pretty cool. I've worked in, on or around Mac and other Apple products for over 18 years. Guy Kawasaki is one of the legends in the Mac world. One of the original Jedi Knights. The Obi Wan of Mac. Guy likes to play the humble card a lot. I think it's an Asian thing but in fact, he is a pretty regular guy. He even asked my thoughts on his most recent blog entry.

Thanks, Guy. You made my day.

Aloha

Guy Kawasaki is touting a new application called FilmLoop. The company developing FilmLoop is one of Garage.com's latest children. Guy Kawasaki is one of their directors. Guy wants FilmLoop to be successful.

FilmLoop is an interesting concept but, in my opinion, flawed in its implementation on one major point and one related minor point. FilmLoop 'allows' you to upload photos to make 'loops' of pictures. So, pictures are grouped according to criteria set my the loop creator. An excellent example is the loop mentioned in this entry in Guy's blog. The loop contains pictures of the people who read Guy Kawasaki's blog. OK. That's pretty cool. However, in order to play with FilmLoops one must download a client. The client is required for all features of FilmLoop. And, at the end of the day, FilmLoop does not offer anything significant over Flickr and other online photo album. The major flaw is the requirement of a client. Why? What is gained? The minor related flaw is that the requirement of a proprietary client means that if FilmLoop has not developed a client for the platform that your friend/mother/brother/son/sister/whoever uses, they can't participate in your really cool FilmLoop.

Mostly to prove this to myself (but you are welcome to participate if you so desire) I set up a Flickr group called Smittie's Rambling Readers. You need a Flickr or Yahoo account to add your photo to the group. There are several options for uploading photos from iPhoto to Flickr. Unlike Guy Kawasaki, I have no books that I can give away as prizes. It might be fun to see who actually reads the drizzle I post here. And that, at the end of the day, is what this is all about. Fun.

Aloha

You'll notice that the Google AdSense section of my sidebar has been removed. That is because I'm a bad boy. It should have been obvious. It started to dawn on me this weekend. It is interesting that Google sorted out what I was doing even as I was figuring out that what I was doing was in violation of the rules and regulations. I'm one of those that doesn't read the instructions. I got the email from Google AdSense activating my account. There was all this fine print - well, ok, it wasn't really fine print - with suggestions and, at the very end, an admonition. Yeah, I didn't read all that.

Now, in retrospect it makes perfect sense that Google does not allow web site owners or their agents to generate "invalid clicks". More plainly, clicking on ads that appear on your own site or having people click on the ads that appear on your own site is strictly forbidden. Hum. Probably should have read that part at the beginning.

So, this morning I attempted to log into my AdSense account to see how much free money had landed in my account. What's this? Account Disabled? Huh? No email from Google, no explanation. Interesting. Reading through the AdSense documentation I am quite certain that Google has disabled my account due to my generating invalid clicks.

As I said, this should have been obvious at the onset. It's one of those moments when I feel kind of silly. Advertisers would want some assurance that they were actually getting what they paid for. They are paying for unique visits from interested parties. Obviously, my daily clicks on their ads did not fit that definition. The policy and Google's enforcement of it simply ensures the value of advertising through AdSense.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next. My account was disabled without explanation but the ads continued to work. Given that my account has been disabled, I have removed the ads from my site. I don't want to display ads that I'm not going to get paid for. If Google re-activates my account, my might put the ads back. I'm not sure yet. This blog currently has about a 50 readers. Realistic return rates on AdSense advertising appear to be in the 1 to 5% range. This a web site will see about 1 to 5% of total impressions in clicks. Not a lot of money. It might not be worth it.

An interesting experience. Like I said, I feel a little silly. I should have realized that what I was doing could not be self-sustaining.

Aloha

My daughter went off to camp for the weekend yesterday. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not glad to see her gone, not in the least. However, I know that she have a great time. I also know that she be glad to be out and away from home for a few days. I'm glad she's getting the opportunity. Wednesday night I took her down to do some last minute shopping. My wife hates it when I take her. She always ends up with extra stuff and we end up spending more money. Yeah, what the heck. I'm only going to have one chance at this.

Today, I had lunch with my son. We went to McDonald's. He had a gift certificate to use there. Man, he really got a kick out of that. Then we drove around doing mostly nothing. We checked out the crazy sand at Cowells. Wow. I've never seen that much sand at Cowells. We went down and check out the cave.

It is the simple things in life that really matter. We've all heard the adage about never having heard anyone say they wish they'd spent more time at work but lots of people saying they wish they'd taken more time for family and friends.

Aloha

I have been involved recently with a number of people who are, in one form or another, involved in ministry. Numerous discussions about the church, Christians, Christ, non-Christians, evangelism and sundry related issues. Recurrent in these conversations is the concept of evangelism. In most case, evangelism means "telling others about Christ," at least in the minds of the Christians talking about it. However, in the course of listening to Christians talk about evangelism I have gained a fuller understanding of why many non-Christians are adamant in their desire to avoid the discussion of spirituality, religion, Christ, or anything even remotely related to the church. Although I am a Christian I am arriving at the notion that I would probably prefer to not be counted among the crowd that calls themselves evangelical Christians.

In a long series of comments on Dan Kimball's blog in response to Dan's posting about a t-shirt that Dan saw a young man wearing in an airport, many talk about tactics for maneuvering the conversation around to a discussion of God, Christ and Christianity. Some to the point of argumentative. The evangelical church seems to convey the idea that it is the responsibly of all evangelical Christians to always be looking for or manufacturing ways and opportunities to manipulate the topic of conversation around to a discussion of God, Christ, the Bible and, most importantly, salvation.

Listening to a recent podcast by Greg Laurie, pastor at Harvest in Riverside California, Pastor Laurie talked about the fact the many non-religious people opt to pray before holiday meals. When the moments come up, the non-religious in the crowd often look to those they know to be church goers to say the requisite prayer. Pastor Laurie explained that this is an opportunity to share the gospel with the crowd gathered there. He went on to give an example of a prayer one might use. Pastor Laurie instructed listeners in how to encapulate the story of Christ coming to earth, living a sinless life, being crucified and resurrected in the course of giving thanks for the meal. I am not at all sure that these methods and tactics are at all effective and I suspect that they may even be counter productive to the cause that those who use them are pursuing. And, in the case of the prayer that Pastor Laurie suggests, I would like to point out that prayer is suppose to be a discussion with God. What Pastor Laurie suggests is a monologue with those present in the guise of a conversation with God. This seems to me an attempt to delude both those present and God. Deceiving others is rude. Attempting to deceive God is the height of foolishness.

We have all met that individual who is constantly working a Bible verse into every conversation they participate in. Everything is "Praise the lord" to the point where you begin to wonder, are they really that excited about the Lord or is there some ulterior motive. While this is a rather extreme or exaggerated example I think the underlying notions permeate all such tactics. In the end, I think that the people we are most trying to influence are, at the very least, made to feel uncomfortable and, more often, offended by attempts to inject God into conversations. Dan Kimball and others have noted that people not involved with the church often say that they like Jesus but do not want any thing to do with the church. I am pretty sure that this is, at least in part, because of the almost militant evangelical nature that is so prominent in the Protestant denominations today.

1 Peter 3:15 provides the best template for Christian living in my opinion. To live one's own life in accordance with the teachings of Christ so that, when asked one can provide an answer for the hope that is in them. My faith in Christ is my decision to believe in and pursue the precepts of the Bible. If we believe the Bible then God has given each individual the freedom to choose whether or not they will believe in Him. I do not believe that anyone can be dragged through the pearly gates, kicking and screaming. The decision to seek God, to investigate the spiritual side of life has to begin inside oneself. God respects the individual's choice in seeking Him. I think many Christians would do well to also respect the choices of others.

When asked, I am glad to share my reasons for my beliefs. If you don't agree, I will respect your opinion. I think it is disrespectful to denigrate another's beliefs. I am entitled to my opinions about other religions. Tolerance means that I respect the fact that other people believe things that I do not necessarily agree with. Respect requires tolerance. I think the world could do with a lot more respect and tolerance.

Aloha

Song: Take Five
Artist: The Dave Brubeck Quartet

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: christian

I think we seldom stop to think through, how does anyone make money on the web. Typically, we think of the web as free information, freely distributed. Yahoo, Google, flickr, MySpace - we tend to think of all of these as free services. Yet, there are large corporations behind some of them and there are people making a living behind all of those listed. So, how does that happen? How does that work? At some rudimentary level we intuitively know that it has to do with advertising but I wonder if many of us stop to think about how or why that advertising works.

Newspapers carefully track and try to drive up their number of subscribers. Television stations spend a lot of money to document and drive up the number of viewers. Likewise radio stations and their listeners. Subscribers, viewers and listeners are the commodity of their respective media. Unique visits, unique page views is the commodity of the web. How many individuals load any given page of a web site is the money of the web. The more people that view your web site, the more money you make. Anything that prevents or deters people from viewing your web site reduces the income.

There are two basic concepts at play. Impressions and clicks. An impression is when someone looks at the advertisement. This happens, at least in theory, when a user loads any given web site. The web site loads, the user looks and sees the ad. One impression. A click is when the user not only looks at the ad but also clicks on the ad. Most online advertising is ultimately concerned with the Click Through Rate (CTR) which is the ratio of impressions to clicks. Obviously, the click is the part that advertisers are most interested. A click indicates that someone has shown enough interest to click on the ad and visit the advertiser's web site.

The moral of the story? If you like a web site, you like the message of the site, you find the site entertaining, visit often and make a point of clicking on a few of the ads that appear on the site. In this way, you make a tacit contribution to the financial return on their efforts, thereby helping to ensure the continued existence and development of the site.

Aloha

The new year. Many of us reflexively review the past and contemplate where we'll be at the end of the year that has just started. Some people set new year's resolutions. Some people set goals for the new year. I've never been a big one for resolutions and I am general not a goal oriented person.

It's been two years since I was called to active duty to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom. In April I will be eligible for deployment again. It's a been year since I left Apple. It's been nine month since I formed Tako Productions. Tako Productions is still grossly in the red. This year will likely see Tako Productions succeed or fail.

It's been a great year. I've been able to spend a lot of time with my wife and kids. Both of my kids are at important stages of their lives. It's been great being around. I have taken time to develop deeper friendships with men in my community. Friendships that are significantly different from the happenstance relationships that I found myself in while working in the corporate world. I haven't surfed as much as I had hoped. I haven't stayed in shape the way I had wanted. Those are things I'd like to change in the coming year.

The prospects for the coming year are good. Tako is working with one client on a project that has potential in the tens of thousands of dollars. That would definitely be a substantial start toward the break even line. A potential client with whom Tako is currently negotiating would offer significant income. If these two opportunities come to fruition in this year Tako Productions could, quite possibly, hit break even by the end of the year. That would be a big year.

I don't talk much about it but in all of this is God's hand. The path I am on is, for me, a walk of faith. There's not a lot I can do to make the two clients happen on my own schedule. I believe in God. I believe that God has brought to the place I am today. I believe that God will see me through, one way or the other. I don't necessarily believe that God has promised me success. I may fail and that may, indeed, be God's plan. I don't think He has it for me to fail but it is a possibility. The greatest riches I have, the greatest riches I will ever have, is my family. The most important thing I will ever do in my life on this earth is being a Dad to my two kids. And the one greatest gifts I can give my kids is to love my wife.

2006 promises to be an interesting and exciting year, one way or the other.

Aloha

While writing this entry Smittie listened to:
Ray's Rockhouse
"The Very Best of The Manhattan Transfer"
The Manhattan Transfer
--
Spider B.
"Timeagain"
David Sanborn
--
Suicide is Pain (MASH Theme)
Joe Locke
--
Memories Are Made of This Dean Martin
--
Wai`oli
"Call It What You Like"
Mark Keali`i Ho`omalu
--
Mexico
"Greatest Hits"
James Taylor
--
Chapel In The Valley
"The Complete Glenn Miller & His Orchestra (1938 - 1942)"
Glenn Miller
--
OId Black Joe
"The Complete Glenn Miller & His Orchestra (1938 - 1942)"
Glenn Miller
--
Pipeline
"Surfing"
The Ventures

So, the latest craze (of 2005 and running into 2006) is online communities. The number of them is incredible. I'm sure I don't know that half of it. Most of them are 'community' for the sake of community with no overtly stated purpose other than a place to hang out online. Others seem to try to add some value.

My awareness of these online community sites started when my daughter told me about MySpace. My daughter and her crowd manage much of their lives on MySpace. I got an account on MySpace mostly so that I could say I had one. I find most of what MySpace has to offer clumsy and incomplete. I find it to be a lot of extra work to get the appearance I want over there. I wish there was a way to point MySpace back to my own web site. But then, that would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it.

Next, I became aware of something called Near-Time (I gotta wonder what they were thinking with that name). Near-Time proposes to be a collaboration portal. A place to coordinate the efforts of a virtual and geographically scattered team. "Work Together - On The Web" Hum. Not so much. I suppose it might work for some. It doesn't work so well for me. However, I do have a presence on Near-Time.

Then there is Gather. It strikes me as being something akin to what Yahoo was back in the beginning. Yahoo was the first index of the web, if you will. Gather appears to want to be an index of the Cyber-Community where people connect themselves through catagories called Topics and tags. Tags is definitely a running theme through all this cyber-connectedness. Everything has tags. In most cases, the tags are pretty random which limits their usefulness.

It's kind of like ID3 tags for music. In order for everyone to use them the have to be so generic that they are mostly useful to no one. A song marked 'Jazz' is useful information to my daughter. She now knows that she does not want to listen to that song. However, Jazz tells me very little. Being a bit of a Jazz fan, I immediately wonder what kind of jazz. My iTunes genre list contains 13 genre in the Jazz catagory. In order for tags to be useful they need to be specific and universal. Or not. My tags are useful to me. And as my friend cls might point out, that's all that matters.

Yeah, I have a presence on Gather too.

A bit more to the useful end of the spectrum, Last.fm - The Social Music Revolution proposes to do community based on the music we listen to. I think it's kind of a cool idea. There is a client that installs on your computer. It posts the songs you listen to to your account on Last.fm. As Last.fm gains an understanding of your taste and preferences in music the site fosters community by bringing those with similar tastes together. This through the concept of neighbors. A neighbor is someone whose taste in music is similar to yours. Kind of a cool idea. You can take a look and see what kind of eclectic stuff I listen too.

A week or so ago my friend, cls, turned me on to Yelp. Now, I don't know about anyone else but these days when I am planning to buy just about anything, I go to Amazon and read the user reviews. I prefer this to all other reviews because these reviews are not paid for. If a product has 30 reviews, none of them good, it is a safe bet the product sucks. Yelp aspires to be the same thing only for restaurants and the like. Members review the places in their neighborhood. If you're traveling to another neighborhood Yelp might be able to provide you with useful information about where to eat, have a coffee, hang out, whatever. Interesting idea. Of course, Amazon works because you can also buy stuff there. In fact, I would have say that Amazon is probably my primary shopping destination. I love Amazon. Yelp? The jury is still out. It's a great idea. We'll have to see how well it implements. Yes, I'm on Yelp too.

Listening to:
`Ulili E from the album "Alone in IZ world" by Israel Kamakawiwo`ole

Aloha

Spent most of today geeking out. Installed MovableType plug-ins and then altered the page to take advantage of them. It was a good learning experience. I also got the Portfolio page over on the Tako Productions page put together and working. There are a couple of short clips over on that page to look at, if you are so inclined.

So, buy me something off my wishlist, click on one of the Google Ads down there (that gives me money if enough of you click on them), check out the other blogs I read by looking at the Blog Roll. Of interest, at least to me. Guy Kawasaki finally started blogging. Wow! Now we have to wait for him to get though all of the stock articles that he uses before we get to some new and original writings. Almost everything in his blog so far is stuff that I've seen from him before. Maybe I've just been following Guy for too long.

Aloha

Voter pressure to force Bush to quit Iraq: Murtha

Maybe al Qaeda et al are right. Maybe America no longer has the strength or the will to do what is right.

Aloha

If I Really Believe, Why Do I Have These Doubts?

by Lynn Anderson

Dr. Anderson first defines faith. What is faith? What faith is not. He then goes on to discuss doubt, how to grow faith.

The book is short, witty, and fun to read which is unique in its genre.

Aloha

Articles like this embarrass me as a Christian as they do Dan Kimball.

From what I gather having read two of Paul Proctor's articles I have to conclude that Paul's view is this. You preach hell, fire and brimstone every Sunday in a little whitewashed country church with everyone sitting in hardwood pews. The music is always a choir backed by either an orchestra or, if you can't afford one, an organ. You sing your worship songs from a hymnal and those that can sing the harmony are a little further along in their spiritual walk. Christians strive to maintain good, peaceful relationships with other Christians but should not shrink from telling unbelievers what sinners they are. And if this results in one being unpopular or even reviled within the community, praise God that one is worthy of persecution.

I have to wonder if it has occurred to Paul Proctor and those like him that Christ's harshest words were not for the 'sinners' of the day. Christ's harshest words were reserved for the church leaders of the day. "You brood of vipers," "you whitewashed tombs." Those terms were not used in reference to the sinners of the day. Those terms were directed at the church leaders.

I have to wonder who the Pharisees and Sadducees of today are? Well, to be honest, I really don't wonder that hard. I have an idea.

Aloha

2006 is off and running, we're already 10 days in.

Should be an interesting year.

Here's to you and your's. All the best, happiness and health in 2006.

Aloha