Here's the article, apparently the Huckabee campaign created an attack ad against the Romney campaign and at the last minute decided to pull the ad in an attempt to keep the the campaign focused on the issues (so they're saying anyway).
Ok that sounds good, right? seeing your mistakes responding to them...the only problem is they had a press conference, where they told the reporters there what they were doing, and then they played the ad for the reporters...
There's no way to see this other than being cheap and childish and manipulative. I'm going to give Huckabee to the end of the week, but he may have just lost my support with this stunt.
All he had to do was stick to the message...he didn't even have to mean it, but he couldn't deviate from it, and now he has...
Looks like it's over for Huckabee. We'll see what happens. I think I might go on over to http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ and see what's going on there, I think they might still be on message....sigh...
[UPDATE] There may be hope yet, here is an excerpt from another blog, quoting Mike talking to Wolf Blitzer. I like it...seems genuine...risky, honest, sincere...that is good...maybe it's just damage control, but he needs to do something...
Mike Huckabee’s comments to Wolf Blitzer a moment ago, about the ad he decided not to air.
“A lot of cynics are going to say this is all contrived and planned. I don’t care what they say.”
“If it costs me the caucus, it does.”
“I don’t want to run an ad where I feel like have to take a shower when I’m done.”
“We didn’t give out DVDs, which we were prepared to give out. We said ‘we’re just not gonna do it.’ …The video didn’t work, so it’s not usable anyway.
“If we’re going to wrap ourselves in the mantle of Ronald Reagan, let’s wrap ourselves in the tone of Ronald Reagan. Let’s remember his 11th Commandment, which said, ‘Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.’
Asked by Wolf Blitzer if he has a message to Mitt Romney: “He’s free to run his campaign any way he wishes. He can say anything he wants about his record, and.. he can say anything he wants about my record. We’re going to run a positive campaign.”
Smooth. I didn't see anything of the anger or wackiness in Huckabee that others described in his press conference appearance earlier today. And I think the "no negative ads" pledge will be catnip for exhausted Iowans. His rivals had better bring their A-game, because this guy isn't going to drop the ball as the clock winds down...
Here's some insight from Rick H:
Huck's stock is in his pragmatism. Unless he loses that, he will still attract voters. People are sick to freaking death of the bitter partisanship that has denominated American politics for so long. They want someone that can speak in a manner that people relate with and give answers that are at least defensible to the average person. I guarantee you that not every Huck supporter believes everything the same way he does. They support him because they LIKE him. If he continues to give well-thought-out responses, is honest (which he needs to be very careful about) and is positive in his vision for leading this country then he cannot fail.
I think he's right on, however I still think that integrity is key and that there is going to have to be some major damage control done here in order to fix this. Mike's gonna have to do some work to earn back my trust.
The house of representatives just passed a ridiculously ignorant bill, HR 3791, that would fine free wifi internet providers up to $300,000.00 if a customer on their system browses porn or other illegal material. This is nothing more than a push by the telcos to basically "outlaw" free wifi because it is a threat to their ISP business. This could put anyone from a coffee shop to a hotel who offer free wifi to their customers at risk of this fine based on their customers activities, and probably just make it to cost prohibitive and risky to provide the wifi service.
The only way for free wifi operators to control or monitor what content their customers are accessing would be to implement content filtering software which is in general either costly or difficult to manage, and at best it is not very reliable anyway, especially the systems that a small business could afford to implement. Many of these free wifi operators are simply coffee shop owners and people who operate hotels or offer it in their businesses, heck it could even apply to a wifi router in a church. They generally don't have the technical expertise to do any more than set up the wifi router and offer the service to their customers, and with this bill the action of setting up wifi for their customers now opens them to the risk of a $300, 000.00 fine based on activity of a person on thier network that they have limited technical or economic way of monitoring, this is ludicrous!
The bill also gives the government sweeping powers to force ISPs and other businesses to hand over personal information of their customers. This is very big brother-ish and scary!
This bill is equivalent to prosecuting the owner of some property for a crime committed by another person on that property. How would you like to be fined $300,000.00 because some criminal mugged someone on the sidewalk outside your house or business?
You're not going to believe this but the bill passed the US house of representatives with only 2 votes against it! This shows how ignorant our representatives are about technology and how beholden they are to the Telco lobbyist. This kind of legislation can put the future of the freedom of the entire internet at risk as they continue to try to regulate and legislate the free transfer of ideas and connectivity over the internet.
I'm not advocating for pornography here, but we can't go after business owners and regular people who just want to use the affordable wireless technology that is available to offer wifi internet to their clients and customers. This is not the domain of the government, get them out of it and let them know.
This is a big deal, it is a direct attack at the freedom of the internet, not just for wifi but this will reach further into what information we are allowed access to.
Do something about it!, or at least forward it to a friend who will!
BTW, hats off to congressman Ron Paul, who was one of the only 2 congressmen to vote against this legislation. I'm not a Ron Paul supporter, but I do respect many of his ideas (I can't get over his views on the war however).
Watch the difference in how Gulianni, Romney, and Huckabee handle this question. It's amazing.
Who do you believe answered that question honestly. Obviously Huckabee knocked it out of the park, but I believe Gulianni answered it honestly, and Romney, well he really didn't know what to say.
So many of you are tired of my emails and talking about Huckabee all the time. You ask yourself, "man why is he so caught up in all this political stuff? All those politicians are crooks anyway, whoever gets elected, they're just crooks."
Well I can understand how you feel, years of this kind of experience have led you to think this way about the whole American political process. In fact I feel the same way as you. So why am I so excited by Huckabee?
Well there is of course the issues, I agree with him on almost every issue he puts out there, he even puts out the issues that I think are important (Faith, Fair Tax, Securing the border, Homeschooling, Sanctity of Marriage and Life, etc). Huckabee also seems to "get it" as to the importance and uniqueness of America, read my Get out the vote..or REPENT!!! blog post, Huckabee understands that this is a government of the people and by the people, and that our freedoms were given to us by God, and we relinquish those freedoms to our Government in order to have a civil society. This is a huge idea, unheard of in human history, however we have become so accustomed to it that we almost don't realize it's significance.
You might say, well sure, he SAYS he believes all that stuff, but really he just wants power like any other politician. My answer is this, I don't know the man personally, maybe your right. However, he is out there spreading a different message than all the other candidates, he's not afraid to tell you about his faith, he's not afraid to attack the IRS and support the Fair Tax, he's not afraid to say that the 2nd amendment isn't about hunting it's about killing tyrants etc...yeah maybe this is just a twisted strategy to get all of us Christian conservative types up off our seats and to the polling booth, but think about this for a second...
This message is motivating people, Huckabee has shot up in the polls based almost solely on how his message is resounding with his grass roots supporters. He has spent very little money on TV ads, mostly internet and word of mouth has spread his MESSAGE, and that MESSAGE has woken some people up.
My point is that it doesn't really matter if he is insincere (which, by the way, I think he is completely sincere), what matters is that Washington sees and understands the message that we the people will respond to. We are their boss, we own them, and through the message of Huckabee we are telling them how we want them to govern. If they choose not to govern according to the message they got elected by, then we the people must fire them. Huckabee has the message that makes me not only want to vote but to give, and fight and debate and get excited about the entire American political process. And if he wins you better bet I'm going to hold him accountable to the standard he set in his message.
So yes, I am asking you to get out there and support Huckabee with your time, and your money and most importantly your ever precious vote. But even more I am asking you to get out there and support the message that Huckabee is sending. We can change our government, we the people, really, we can. Support the message by supporting the candidate brave and bold enough to speak the message that you care about.
Here's the deal, you can't gripe about our government if you aren't involved in changing it. If you want to gripe about a government, move to a dictatorship where you don't get to choose who governs you, but wait, most of those take away your right to gripe as well...dang...I guess your best bet is just to get off your butt and get involved in getting behind the right message and setting the tone in Washington for what we the people expect of them.
Our candidates WON'T win unless they have our support. We have to understand the system, and participate in it. That means your time, your money, and your vote. If you leave any of these out your are crippling the chances that your message will be heard.
My time, my money and my vote are for Huckabee's message, join me.
One thing that I was thinking about the other day is how as Christians we are to be good stewards of what God has given us. Usually we prescribe this to how we handle our money and really "good" Christians apply that to their time other resources as well, and even to their whole life. I think it is good to look at what we have stewardship of and decide how we best can manage it for God's glory.
As this election year begins, I think if we will understand or remember how our government was founded we will find another area of our lives that we will be held to account for and of which we must be good stewards. The area of our life that I am referring to would be our God given freedom.
First some theory. As a whole, people can be governed in one of a couple of ways. People can be governed voluntarily, where they choose to obey the laws of their government and follow the biblical command to obey those in positions of authority and in doing so create a peaceful and orderly society in which to live and spread the Gospel. As Christians we are to love one another and do what we can to build a peaceful society in which we can work and support our families.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-11: 9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
The problem is that many times those in authority choose to persecute Christians or other groups and take their rights or otherwise force them to follow rules or to live in a way contrary to their beliefs. You could even extrapolate this to the example of a socialist welfare state that prevents people from living a life where they are "dependent on no one". This creates people stripped of their freedom and stripped of their dignity and makes them dependent upon the government for everything. Or worse, the government becomes hostile to certain groups and the people are forced to retaliate. So you have instances of people like Detrich Bonhoeffer who was a Christian pacifist involved in a plot to kill Hitler, the leader of his country, who the Bible commanded Bonhoeffer to obey (a command that Bonhoeffer in no way took lightly as he struggled through his plan).
If people won't be governed voluntarily, the other way to govern people is by force or manipulation. In this case a dictator or group has control of the military, police, or economic means and by force and manipulation they subdue the people to the point that they obey will of the ruling power or suffer prison, death, or economic hardship as a result of disobedience. Those who subscribe to Voice of the Martyrs can read about this kind of stuff in every issue, this is the kind of government prescribed by fascist and Islamic Extremists.
Most every form of government operates under the premise that power flows from the top town, and that personal liberty is a gift of grace from those who happen to be in power. In America our country was founded on a very unique premise. That all people are inherently free, and this freedom is a gift from none other than God alone. Our government was set up in such a way that, as citizens, we voluntarily choose to give up some of those freedoms in order to facilitate a orderly and peaceful society. The main conduit for that freedom to flow from the individual to the Government in America is through the individual votes for the political candidates that the people choose to govern them.
When we vote we are voluntarily "spending" our God given freedom. Because the outcome of the vote determines the people the Bible says that we are to obey. Our vote determines who will govern us, and sets up the situation where we will either be able to live peaceful and productive lives, or where we will have to choose to live lives of rebellion.
Therefore, as stewards of what God has given us it is of utmost importance that we not only vote, but we do so in an educated and prayerful manner, because we are spending something more precious than money, we are spending the freedom God has given us, and we must do so as "slaves" to Christ and His righteousness.
As Christians, our vote and our involvement in the political process is right and it is necessary. Not all of our forefathers were "super" Christians, and many were not even Christians, and many were, never-the-less they did know what they were doing when it came to creating a government that could rule primarily through the voluntary submission of it's people's freedom. This type of government suits Christians perfectly so long as we are active and thoughtful about how we cast our vote, and so long as we continue to evangelize and preach the good news of Christ and make disciples so that more people will also be good stewards of their freedom. If we loose this idea, or if we choose not to participate in this process, we are committing a terrible sin of poor stewardship of a God given gift.
We can already see the erosion of our freedom that happens when Christians don't lovingly and effectively participate in the American political process. This erosion of freedoms is symptomatic of the erosion of the values of the country as a whole and is caused by the failure of the church to properly disciple its people. It is caused by Christians living lives of low integrity, where we start to believe that our politics and our faith are two separate things. And if these freedoms continue to erode, we will see a day when we must choose between obeying our authorities and rebelling against them much like Bonhoeffer had to do, or worse, we will simply accept the stripping of our freedom and dignity and slip into mindless submission to a manipulating and controlling government. On the day of Judgement we will be held to account for allowing that situation to transpire, and for wasting the freedom God gave us, and trading it in for the risk-less life provided by a manipulative power hungry government that we substituted for God to meet our needs..
Some may argue that the Church thrives under persecution, and while that may be so, God does not call us to create that persecution by apathy, laziness, or rebellion, rather it calls us to love our pagan neighbors and live peacefully among them so that they will be able to see that God is real. And it calls us to be good stewards of what God has freely given to us.
My choice for president is Mike Huckabee. He is an unashamed Christian (like he's not afraid to say "Jesus is the only way") and he understands the how unique and incredible the American constitution is and how it relates to living a life of faith.
For those of you who don't like the name "Huckabee", check this out:
Educate yourself. Know what the candiates believe. Get a feeling for who they are and how they will rule. You are giving them your freedom, that was a gift from GOD to you! That's a big deal.
Now go vote.
1 Peter 2:12:
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Romans 13:1-7:
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. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
If you haven't read Atlas Shrugged you should, I had a very similar reaction to is as Piper describes in his article.
In his perfect Piper style he very eloquently explains the truths and the major flaw in Ayn Rands philosophy, mainly that it rejected that God was real.
I can perfectly relate to Piper's reaction to the book:
I was attracted and repulsed. I admired and cried. I was blown away with powerful statements of what I believed, and angered that she shut herself up in what Jonathan Edwards called the infinite provincialism of atheism. Her brand of hedonism was so close to my Christian Hedonism and yet so far—like a satellite that comes close to the gravitational pull of truth and then flings off into the darkness of outer space.
Rand particularly impressed upon me the reality of Justice in the universe, yet she rejected God. Ultimately her definition of Justice was subjectively based, although she didn't see it that way because her premise for reality was wrong. Ayn Rand said in Atlas Shrugged:
Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.
I wish she would have taken her own advise and checked her premises on her description of reality and realized that without a sovereign God to set the standard for Justice and righteousness then pure capitalism is as idealistic as pure communism. The ultimate stumbling stone in coming to this conclusion is that the only way for the justice of a sovereign God to be satisfied would be through the execution of an infinite punishment for sin. Since it would be impossible for us to bear this punishment and live, most simply reject the idea of a just God, or the idea of humans being fallen beings, instead of embracing the truth of the work of Christ on the Cross.
As you may know the band RADIOHEAD is releasing their latest album for free over the internet, and boy are they getting a lot of press about it. Now I think radiohead is a great band, there's no question there, it's just that with all this press about how they're sticking it to the record companies by releasing this album for free (actually the customer gets to set the price they pay), well I don't know if I really buy it.
Lot's of artist put out free music and work on the internet and accept donations for the work. This is also a very popular practice in open source software development. But you don't see these people making the news because of their charity, and bravery, and stick-it-to the man-ness, usually they just struggle to get noticed, no matter how good they may be.
The thing is that the only reason this is a big deal is because radiohead is a hugely popular band. And how did they become hugely popular? Could it have had a lot to do with major record companies promoting and marketing their material for the past X years? So now the band is just basically stabbing the people who financed their rise to fame right in the back by using that fame as a means to promote what their doing now with their "by donation" album. Not to mention the insinuation to up and coming artist is that "hey you can make it to, just be like us", when in reality, without some very inventive promotion no artist will make it, especially with this model.
I know that some think it's the essence of rock and roll, "sticking it to the man", but I don't really see it that way. I see it as exploiting the success that was the result of a system that they were happy to use to get rich but now that they are rich and popular they don't want to be a part of it. It's not that special, artist, authors, and software developers have been doing this for years and with alot more integrity...well I say integrity, I don't really know the hearts of the men in radiohead, all I'm really saying is that what they're doing is not all that special. Because of their major record label success they are able to do what everyone else has to do by default, and they're going to make alot of money at it, most good artist out there doing this very same thing are struggling even to make it. Why? it's basically because promoting the music is the hardest part of making a living at it. Getting in front of people, getting people to listen, and getting people interested. This is true for any good idea or product, not just music, anyway, radiohead got this service rendered to them with tremendous success by Capital Records etc... and now their being toted as some kind of "everyman's band" by the fact that their sticking it to the people that enabled their success in the first place.
Now I'm not sticking up for the record companies. I think that most of them are simply using copyright laws in order not to have to innovate and deal in a new digital marketplace. I mean the fact that we can still buy music on Compact Discs, which came out in like 1982 ... and there really has been no major progress in this technology since then...well that's just pathetic. By using copyright laws the record companies are able to artificially leverage the well returned investment they have in the compact disc technology way beyond it's market relevance, that's a good deal for them, but a bad deal for consumers who want instant access to the music they want through the medium we all share (the internet). No wonder the MP3 piracy revolution was so huge, and it scared the record company to death because they see that their ability to make money is threatened by losing the direct tie they have the CD product.
Maybe what the record companies should focus on instead is developing an industry standard file format for digital music, and then use their marketing might to promote the bands they want and digitally sell their content for them. Bandwidth and promotion are expensive, but it's easier to streamline and automate, and overall I can almost guarantee that the margins are alot higher than on manufacturing and distributing CD's. However it is different than what they have been doing for the past 25 years in marketing CD's, and besides, as long as they stick with CD's they can keep suing single moms for $220,000 a pop for using the technology of the day to get the music they want. Let's not even talk about the fact that the new digital economy makes it alot harder to sell really sucky songs by forcing people to buy an entire album just to get the one good song on the CD. Yes it's would be alot different for the record company to actually have to sell quality content in the format and method that the customer demands.
The whole copyright problem is a joke in itself. The problem is not a copyright problem is a problem with the ignorant lack of keeping up with technology. When the CD came out there was no broadband internet, file compression, or anything like that. Really there wasn't a whole lot of broadband internet until almost 20 years after the CD came out. Now that there are these technologies where a file of the same or better quality than a CD can easily and cheaply be transmitted over the internet, people naturally and rightfully want to use that technology to their benefit. Seems to me this is a problem with the record companies not innovating. People didn't have the equipment to reproduce records or 8-track tapes in their homes, cassette tapes were just bad quality, and when the CD came out the record companies had 15-20 years where people still didn't have or couldn't afford the technology to reproduce the music. Now we do have this technology, it's just the reality of reality, record companies have to deal with it or they'll go by the wayside as the bands with whom they DON'T Have contracts start to outnumber that bands with whom they do. It's like they're driving a horse drawn carriage down the interstate and screaming at all the people in cars for going way faster than they are.
What radiohead is doing may have this kind of "rob from the rich and give to the poor" ring to it, but I'd really rather see a band succeed at this from a ground roots level before I'll really believe that "by donation" content is really a good way for an artist or developer to make a living. But hey, it works for the church ok, maybe it will work here too. But wait even the church lets you partake of the content before asking for a donation, maybe radiohead should do the same. How can I decide how much an album is worth if I haven't heard it?
As for the record companies I hope they crash and burn, the destruction of the current system is the only way to make room for the new system (and that should have happened 10 years ago...)
I'm an intermediate or less level user of Ruby on Rails, and I have been recently trying to get ActiveMerchant to work so that I can charge people's credit cards over the internet. The funny thing about software writing is that there really is no central repository of information on how to do it...well there is, it's called google, and when you run into a problem you just hope and pray that when you cut and paste the error message into google it will find some blog, bulletin board, or chat archive where someone had the same problem as you did, AND at the same time, one of these magical uber uber uber geeks will come out of the ether and arrogantly berate some idiot peon like me while reluctantly providing the "simple" solution thick with sarcasm. Yes these are the ranks one must bear as you climb your way through the muck of software mediocrity, but just think, once you get it figured out you'll be able to show your boss the cool app you built and hear gratifying accolades like "Um, ok, but can you make the letters green?"
Well just in case your trying to get ActiveMerchant to work on rails with authorize.net here are the main problems I ran into that took me a day or two to figure out because I nothing came up on google.
1.) when you install the gem make sure you go "sudo gem install activemerchant -y"... the "-y" makes sure all the dependencies get installed.
2.) in addition to putting "require 'active_merchant'" in your config/environment.rb file (right at the bottom of the file), you must also put "include ActiveMerchant::Billing" at the top of your controller within the class.
example your_controller.rb:
require 'money' class YourController < ApplicationController include ActiveMerchant::Billing
If you don't do this you will get an error that says something like "uninitialized constant ActiveMerchant::Billing::AuthorizeNetGateway" and you will pull your hair out trying to figure out how to fix it because apparently everyone else on the internet natively knows that you are supposed to do this and no one has ever needed to ask this question or no uber uber uber geek has felt generous enough to answer it when they did, so when you google the above mentioned error nothing really comes up (hopefully now it will though thanks to me).
3.) Finally, if you want the transactions on your app to run in test mode, but you don't want to set your entire Authorize.net account to test mode (like if you have another app using it and setting it to test mode might make you lose money), then what you need to do is NOT use the " ActiveMerchant::Billing::Base.gateway_mode = :test if RAILS_ENV != "production"" setting in your config/environment.rb like everyone else says to. If you do it won't work because apparently this is for some kind of "test" authorize.net account, and won't even work on your real authorize.net account (You'll get a response code 103 back from authorize.net which says something like your account is inactive or your username and password is wrong). To put the transactions from your app in test mode its easy (once you spend 3 hours googling it and finally figure it out), when you build the gateway in the action that charges the card just do this:
if response.success? ##do something if it all works out else
raise StandardError.new( response.message )
end end
end
So anyway, if your as dumb as I am about all this maybe what I figured out here will save you the 2 solid days of hair pulling frustration in making this all work.
I got it all working now, but I sure wished that I could have run along this post when I was doing it, it would have saved me alot of time. So here it is for your reference. uber uber uber geeks leave me alone, I know I probably screwed something up in here and your all laughing at me, but hey, I got it to work.
..except those of you who grew up in Sunday School, you might recognize him:
Julie and I are going to the Acts 29 Network Boot Camp in Raleigh, North Carolina in September. I have been going through their assessment process to become a church planter with their organization, the boot camp is where we will get to meet other church planters, learn a whole bunch about planting a church, and we will also get our final assessment as to whether we will be a part of their organization. We are planning now on planting a church right here in Elk City. The assessment process has been very meticulous and I appreciate that as it has helped me to focus on what God is calling me to do, and it has helped to confirm that call within me.
For a time this summer I was very aggressively considering moving to another city and getting another job, but God has put a stop to that. I decided that I was sinning by constantly looking to the next thing thing to do in life instead of being who I was where I was. I was lacking integrity.
I was reminded of this one day when we took our kids to the duck park. We went to ride the train, and the whole time they were on the train the kids kept complaining about wanting to ride the carousel, and then we went to ride the carousel and the whole time they complained about wanting to putt-putt, and then we went to putt-putt and they kept talking about wanting a snack. By the end of the evening they said "Man we didn't get to do anything!". It struck me that this was how I was living my life and I needed to stop.
The video above is from an Act 29 church plant in Raleigh, vintage21 church. This is were we will be going for the boot camp. We can't wait!
This article shows a hack that if you are on a unsecured network where the packets can be sniffed, like an ethernet network or unsecured wireless network, then your gmail could be easily compromised as the hacker can easily sniff your session id out of the data stream and then basically clone your session on the gmail server using your session id and then having full access to your email account.
This pertains to other webmail applications as well and other general web applications that rely on session ids (which is almost all of them now)
To protect yourself from this (with gmail anyway) simply goto https://mail.google.com instead of http://mail.google.com (notice the https://) when logging into your gmail, if you are using google to host your email domain then you'll need to go to https://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com.
Doing this (adding the https://) will make it so that your entire session is encrypted with SSL making it such that someone sniffing your traffic won't be able to get your session id's. As for you out there who don't believe that this really solves the problem, then you don't understand SSL, and that's ok just trust me.
You should get in the habit of doing this especially when you are using public wifi hotspots, or even if you are on an ethernet network where you don't know what else is on the network (like a sniffing computer or even a wireless access point connected to the ethernet network). Hotels would be a perfect example of a place where it would be easy to sniff out this kind of information.
Anyway, as an avid gmail user I found this helpful, and I thought I would pass it along.
I'm thinking about starting a new career as a consultant to Mexican restaurants. I think I have some pretty good insight into how exactly a Mexican Restaurant ought to be run. Years of experience eating Mexican food and yearning for all the perfect aspects of good service to be present in one place have driven me to consider what it would take to make the perfect Mexican restaurant.
First some general observations:
1. All Mexican food is basically the same - beans, rice, chicken or beef, and cheese in some variation or combination. Maybe some veggies here or there to give it some color.
2. People expect free stuff when they eat Mexican food, minimally chips and salsa, ideally chips, salsa, queso, pico, tortillas and relish.
3. Most people view the quality of service at a Mexican restaurant by whether or not their iced tea remained full and whether or not they ever ran out of whatever free stuff the restaurant offers. They also view the quality of the restaurant by the amenities provided to accentuate certain products. For instance, tea should be served in very large plastic cups with lots of ice. Beer should always be served in large frozen glass (never plastic) goblets with lime and salt on the rim. The only beers offered should be Corona, Tecate, and Dos Equis. You can offer weanie American beer but just serve it in the bottle.
Now some cognitive processing based on these observations:
1. Since all Mexican food is basically the same, the quality of the recipe is not the number one thing that brings people to a Mexcian restaurant. People go to Mexican restaurants because they already know what the food is going to taste like, kind of like McDonald's, most people are cowardly lemmings and are afraid of any kind of change. So advertising that your Mexican restaurant is different or even better (which implies different) is a sure way to keep people away. You should call it "Traditional Tex-Mex", which implies that the food is simply rice, beans, chicken or beef, and cheese, all arranged in the usual combinations and that won't freak people out.
2. Provide all the free stuff and keep it coming. People think they're getting a deal when you provide the free stuff, and they like that feeling. They will never put the fact together that the fajitas that cost $21.95 have the exact same ingredients as the quesadillas that cost $12.95 and require less work. It's a beautiful bit of marketing the in the history of Mexican food that makes the food that is not all the way prepared cost more than the food that requires more preparation, almost as clever as sushi, but it would be a little gross and possibly dangerous not to cook the chicken.
3. Training of the wait staff is vital in order properly provide the illusion of quality. I will get into this next, but the basics are pretty simple, make sure that the customer never runs out of tea, or any of the free stuff. Make sure that if the customer wants another beer, that he or she gets a new freshly frozen goblet, NEVER put another beer into an unfrozen goblet. For people who prefer "American" beer like Coor's Light or something you can just set a "sixer" next to the table, if you didn't already run them out of the restaurant for not wearing a shirt.
Service Considerations:
Being a Mexican Restaurant waiter or waitress is respectable and hard work, and one can make a good living at it if it is done right. As a member of the wait staff what you need to remember is one of the primary reason people are paying for food that they could very simply make at home is that they want to be served. Here are some guidelines to follow:
1. Shut up. People didn't go out to eat in order to talk to you so don't try to be overly friendly. If the customer engages you in conversation realize that he is either a) just being friendly but doesn't really want to talk or b) he is fantasizing about dating you because the only interaction he has with the opposite sex is when they are being paid to service him. Keep your conversations short, and very surface. If a customer asks how you are doing, don't tell them that your kid is sick or you've been on duty for 12 hours or anything like that, just say "Great, how are you guys". Notice you always address the entire table, never a single person in the table. This is very good wait staff etiquette as it helps the table to feel as a group and aids in their camaraderie.
2. Shut up. If you see an empty tea glass it is not necessary to ask "Would you like more tea?". It's free, just put the tea in the glass. This also goes for chips, salsa, tortillas, relish or any other complementary item. I think many waiters and waitresses think they are doing their boss some kind of favor by limiting the number of freebies they give a customer, as if they are saving their boss money by denying the customer a tortilla or an extra cup of watered down salsa. In reality what they are doing is ticking off the customer and their tip is rapidly decreasing every second the customer goes without any complementary item, not to mention they are creating a reason for the customer not come back the restaurant the next time they go out.
3. Take off the blinders. I've noticed that many waiters and waitresses walk around the restaurant and exhibit a very well developed but useless skill. They are able to peruse the entire restaurant without ever making eye contact with anyone at any of the tables they are in charge of. They do this on purpose in order to get out of doing their job. What they don't realize is that this ticks the customer off. ALWAYS MAKE EYE CONTACT with your tables anytime you are within eyesight of them. If you have been enough of a louse that they have to ask you for a refill, then you've already screwed up, don't make it worse by ignoring them.
4. Don't Freak Out. I find this often, I go to restaurants around 1:30 or 2:00 long after the lunch hour rush. It's just me and maybe one or two other tables, but the wait staff acts as if the place is full and there's a line around the block. This is because they are not good at being waiters or waitresses. They suffer from what I call "poor me waitress syndrome" where they are basically trying to shift the blame for their inability to do their job onto the fact that the restaurant is busy. The give away for this disease is that once the busy rush passes, these kind of waiters or waitresses never get out of "freaked out" mode, even if you're the only customer in the building. These kind of wait staff should be fired. A good waiter or waitress should never have to increase or decrease the speed of their service depending on how busy the restaurant is. If they do have to change the effort they put into the service of each table when the place is busy, it means they are slacking when the place is slow, and ticking off customers in the process. As a member of the wait staff, you should find the speed that you are able to properly serve your table, remembering orders and keeping the chips and tea full, and always work at that speed no matter how busy the place is. You will find that you will be much more relaxed at work, you will be able to take care of your customers better and they will give you much bigger tips. Like I said, people are mainly cowardly lemmings, and when they see someone who is calm and in control even in the midst of apparent chaos, they will feel loved and protected and they will reward you accordingly. However, when they see a freaked out waitress it triggers in them the "flight" response and causes them to associate your restaurant with fear and death. 5. Sell the freebies. Here's how I look at it. Your greedy capitalist boss is paying you $3.00 an hour and raking in the cash selling nearly rotten meat on a rusted pan for $30.00. However in the excess of his bounty your boss has given you something in addition to your $3.00 an hour, and that is the complementary items of the restaurant. In the eyes of the customer, your tip is directly tied to your generosity with your boss's complementary items. You will not get a raise if at the end of the month you boss saves $10.00 because you were overly stingy with the tortillas, because your boss will have lost several customers in the saving of that $10.00. However you will get a raise if the customer feels so well treated by the showering of tortillas you provided that he or she leaves an extra $5.00 tip. I actually calculate the tip I am going to give based on the number of tortillas I receive. When my family is out there is 6 of us, and I feel like it would be ideal if we all received at least 3 tortillas if we are having fajitas. So I just pay $.33 - $.50 per tortilla and then I deduct $.50 for every time I have to ask for more of any complementary items. Do you now see how you as a member of the wait staff, you are essential getting 100% of the revenue you generate in the form of tips by "selling" the free items to the customer? Your boss isn't so bad after all now is he? If you work at a Mexican restaurant that makes people pay for the freebies, then quit. This is a bad restaurant, and you as the hard working waiter or waitress will end up paying for your customers tortillas and chips because they will deduct the cost of them from your tip.
Imagine with me if you will a world where all the Mexican restaurants had this level of service. I know in heaven this is how it will be, because there won't be any cowardly lemmings or freaked out people in heaven, only people doing exactly what it is God made them to do and doing it with all their might as an act of worship. Whether they are thankfully eating a fajita to the Glory of their creator, or diligently serving their customer as if they were serving God Himself, in heaven the Mexican food will be the perfect combination of beans, rice, chicken or beef and cheese, the beer will be served in perfectly frozen glass goblets, and the tortillas will be as perfectly satisfying as manna from heaven, all served in perfect execution by a heavenly wait staff determined to do their best.
Until then however I hope that we can make some disciples that can give people a little taste of heaven in the flawless execution of their duties as a member of a Mexican restaurant wait staff.
There is no escape from justice, nothing can be unearned and unpaid for in the universe, neither in mater nor in spirit -- and if the guilty do not pay, then the innocent have to pay it.
-- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Pretty profound for an atheist who believed that man is an end unto himself. It's weird and sad that someone could have this kind of a grasp on justice and reject the work of Christ on the cross.
Here is Ayn Rand's philosophy in a nutshell (this is taken from www.aynrand.org):
My [Ayn Rand's] philosophy, Objectivism, holds that:
1. Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
2. Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses) is man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
3. Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
4. The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man's rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.
Translated simply:
1. "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed" or "Wishing won't make it so." 2. "You can't eat your cake and have it, too." 3. "Man is an end in himself." 4. "Give me liberty or give me death."
Rand states,
"If you held these concepts with total consistency, as the base of your convictions, you would have a full philosophical system to guide the course of your life."
Let's look at this from a Biblical worldview:
Look at point one:
"Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man's feelings, wishes, hopes or fears."
As Christians we know that reality is the revealed will of God, and that in Christ our very existence is maintained by His power.
"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of His power." - Hebrews 1:3
Despite our feelings, wishes, hopes and fears that God not exist, or that Christ not be Lord, or that some other arrangement be made between God and humans, the facts are facts, independent of our feelings, wishes, hopes or fears. God is who He says He is in the Bible, we must deal with that.
Consider point two:
"Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses) is man's only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival."
For the man without Christ this reasoning is limited to his own cognitive ability. He is trapped inside His own mind and left to grapple with the heavy issues of life with ultimately only his own spirit to counsel him.
"For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. - 1 Corinthians 2:11
The company of many friends and advisers can offer little solace as he is left alone with his thoughts, unable to fully communicate them given the faculties naturally available to us.
So if our only means of perceiving reality is through reason, and reason is limited to our own cognitive ability, then we truly are each an island, and possibly and end unto ourself, but the Bible goes on to reveal to us something peculiar about our cognitive abilities within the body of Christ:
"12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ." -- 1 Corinthians 2:12-16
So we can affirm Rand's premise that reason is the means by which we perceive reality, however we must realize that as a Christian our ability to reason is supernaturally expanded by the work of the Holy Spirit enabling us to accept and understand the truths of God. And we can also see how a great mind like Ayn Rand could cognitively develop a very solid philosophy based on reason and yet totally miss the importance of the Cross and regard it as foolishness.
In her own words:
"Philosophy is the goal toward which religion was only a helplessly blind groping." -- Ayn Rand
Look at point three:
"Man is an end in himself."
From the viewpoint that reality is objectively determined solely based on your ability to cognitively interpret it (which is actually pretty subjective), then it only makes sense that this cognitive interpretation in its purest sense would and must seek to preserve and enjoy the self.
The Westminster Catechism says that the chief end of man is to "glorify God and to enjoy Him forever". John Piper in the book Desiring God would only change this to say that the chief end of man is to "glorify God BY enjoying Him forever". Both see man experiencing joy forever. Rand states:
"The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life."
The key phrase being "rational self-interest". If we remember that the Christian has the cognitive ability of the Holy Spirit, it is not hard to see then that the rational self-interest of the Christian would be to pursue joy through the method that we have discovered to provide an infinite supply of it, the Glorification of God. It is what we were created and are commanded by our creator to do, there is no more reasonable rational self-interest than this.
"You make known to me the path of life;in your presence there is fullness of joy;at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." -- Psalms 16:11
Finally, to the politics:
"The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism."
This should be simple enough to understand, it's simply the Golden Rule,
"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." -- Mathew 7:12
I still like reading Ayn Rand, and it is sad to me that she was not a Christian. I suppose that the comfort and logical soundness of her philosophical system can become a sort of trap because it seems to work so well, however it collapses on itself with the simple realization that the Bible is true.
[below added 03/30/2010] I can perfectly relate to John Piper's reminiscing as he marked the 50th anniversary of Atlas Shrugged:
I was attracted and repulsed. I admired and cried. I was blown away with powerful statements of what I believed, and angered that she shut herself up in what Jonathan Edwards called the infinite provincialism of atheism. Her brand of hedonism was so close to my Christian Hedonism and yet so far—like a satellite that comes close to the gravitational pull of truth and then flings off into the darkness of outer space.
Rand particularly impressed upon me the reality of Justice in the universe, yet she rejected God. Ultimately her definition of Justice was subjectively based, although she didn't see it that way because her premise for reality was wrong. Ayn Rand said in Atlas Shrugged:
Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.
I wish she would have taken her own advise and checked her premises on her description of reality and realized that without a Holy God to stand apart and the standard for Justice and righteousness then objective truth is ultimately not attainable. The ultimate stumbling stone in coming to this conclusion is that the only way for the justice of a sovereign God to be satisfied would be through the execution of an infinite punishment for sin. Since it would be impossible for us to bear this punishment and live, most simply reject the idea of a just God, or the idea of human beings short of God's glory, instead of embracing the truth of the work of Christ on the Cross.
If you've come here to find where to get beer steins from the event click here. If you're wanting a T-shirt from the event click here.
I had a great time Saturday night. My friends put on one heck of a show. It was almost like a religious experience for me. It's funny how music can really just take you back in time. Most people have music that when they hear it just takes them back to a place in their past. In our case it's the music of Jebb Stewart, a little band that not many people have even heard, but to those that have it might as well be Aerosmith (the old Aerosmith).
I sat in the old padded flip down seats in the Royal Theatre and soaked in all the music and my mind just drifted back to the great times we had. Many friends showed up that I have not seen in a long time and it really made for an evening to remember. All in all I'd say that a couple hundred people showed up, I really wasn't paying attention to that. Jebb Stewart played until little after midnight and Jigawatt Box played till about 2:30 or 3:00. Both bands were excellent.
I wonder sometimes if the little town of Fairview really knows the kind of talented people that are floating in and out of their community. Many of them can't really get past the fact that people were consuming beer while enjoying the music, some people were even seen dancing (gasp!). Oh well, it's their loss, I'd hate to go through life and miss out on good friends, good music and good beer, all things I thank God for big time!!
For those of you who don't know Jebb Stewart consists of Rick Hudson (lead and vocals), Jeff Woods (drums), and Willie Adamson (bass). Rick and his wife and son are getting ready to move to Kentucky where his wife is going get her Phd, and where Rick is going to see what he can make of the music scene there. Jeff lives in OKC and is an electrician, he also plays in a really good band in OKC called Lemma, check them out if you are ever in OKC. Willie lives in Fairview and does oil field mineral leasing. He plays in the other band that played that night called Jiggawatt Box. They were excellent! These guys are so talented, it's really fun listen to and watch them play.
Here's some video I took so you can get a little taste of the evening. They recorded the show from the soundboard so as soon as I get a hold of that I'll point you to it. I think there were some other videos made, and I'll post them when I get them.
I have been commenting on a blog call "The Parish" over at typepad. I enjoy the conversations that happen there and the people there seem to be pretty open to argument without to much vitriol, they're actually all very thoughtful and seemingly considerate as far as I can tell from the virtual reality in which I have met most of them. The ongoing issues always seems to revolve around epistemology or how one comes to know what is true. I, being of the reformed persuasion, believe in the whole Bible as the standard for truth, but many of the people commenting there don't accept that premise. It makes for interesting debate. The other interesting thing about these debates is that they are pretty high stakes from a theological standpoint because in order for one "side" to win the argument the other side must abandon it's premise. Needless to say it can get pretty wordy.
I have found that engaging in these kinds of conversation really challenges me to know what I believe and it challenges me to attempt to see how the person on the other side of the argument are coming to their conclusions. It helps me to practice listening to what someone else is saying versus simply trying to come up with clever arguments to refute their points. I think this is helpful because I don't want to be one of those people that use the Bible as a club and arrogantly lord my position in Christ over all those "sinners" who haven't got it yet.
I've found some very very intelligent people who are sincerely trying to work out what they believe and I'm doing my best to not come off as condescending when I present my viewpoint. I think that a lot of the time we Christians do come off a little high on our horses and forget the part of our own theology that says that there must be a work of the Holy Spirit within the individual before they will be able to understand and accept the Bible as truth. And because it is only by God's grace and by Christs work on the cross do we have the privilege of understanding anyway, it leaves us with no grounds in which to boast in our position in Christ.
The subject of faith came up as it is essential in being able to accept the Bible as truth, here is some good CH Spurgeon on the issue of faith:
"What is faith? It is made up of three things — knowledge, belief, and trust. Knowledge comes first. "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" I want to be informed of a fact before I can possibly believe it. "Faith cometh by hearing"; we must first hear, in order that we may know what is to be believed. "They that know thy name shall put their trust in thee." A measure of knowledge is essential to faith; hence the importance of getting knowledge. "Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live." Such was the word of the ancient prophet, and it is the word of the gospel still. Search the Scriptures and learn what the Holy Spirit teacheth concerning Christ and His salvation. Seek to know God: "For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." May the Holy Spirit give you the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord! Know the gospel: know what the good news is, how it talks of free forgiveness, and of change of heart, of adoption into the family of God, and of countless other blessings. Know especially Christ Jesus the Son of God, the Saviour of men, united to us by His human nature, and yet one with God; and thus able to act as Mediator between God and man, able to lay His hand upon both, and to be the connecting link between the sinner and the Judge of all the earth. Endeavour to know more and more of Christ Jesus. Endeavour especially to know the doctrine of the sacrifice of Christ; for the point upon which saving faith mainly fixes itself is this— "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." Know that Jesus was "made a curse for us, as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Drink deep of the doctrine of the substitutionary work of Christ; for therein lies the sweetest possible comfort to the guilty sons of men, since the Lord "made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Faith begins with knowledge.
The mind goes on to believe that these things are true. The soul believes that God is, and that He hears the cries of sincere hearts; that the gospel is from God; that justification by faith is the grand truth which God hath revealed in these last days by His Spirit more clearly than before. Then the heart believes that Jesus is verily and in truth our God and Saviour, the Redeemer of men, the Prophet, Priest, and King of His people. All this is accepted as sure truth, not to be called in question. I pray that you may at once come to this. Get firmly to believe that "the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, cleanseth us from all sin"; that His sacrifice is complete and fully accepted of God on man's behalf, so that he that believeth on Jesus is not condemned. Believe these truths as you believe any other statements; for the difference between common faith and saving faith lies mainly in the subjects upon which it is exercised. Believe the witness of God just as you believe the testimony of your own father or friend. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater."
So far you have made an advance toward faith; only one more ingredient is needed to complete it, which is trust. Commit yourself to the merciful God; rest your hope on the gracious gospel; trust your soul on the dying and living Saviour; wash away your sins in the atoning blood; accept His perfect righteousness, and all is well. Trust is the lifeblood of faith; there is no saving faith without it. The Puritans were accustomed to explain faith by the word "recumbency." It meant leaning upon a thing. Lean with all your weight upon Christ. It would be a better illustration still if I said, fall at full length, and lie on the Rock of Ages. Cast yourself upon Jesus; rest in Him; commit yourself to Him. That done, you have exercised saving faith. Faith is not a blind thing; for faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative thing; for faith believes facts of which it is sure. It is not an unpractical, dreamy thing; for faith trusts, and stakes its destiny upon the truth of revelation. That is one way of describing what faith is."
Triston and I are now both orange belts in Tae Kwon Do (it goes white, yellow, orange, green, high green, blue, high blue, red, red white, high red, recommended black, black, and then degrees of black). Both of us really enjoy it and we are learning alot and working hard too. The school we go to here in Elk City is called "Team Chip", our instructor is Steve Fischer. Here is a video of Chip Townsend, the "Chip" of "Team Chip", doing a demo for Century Martial Arts.
All of the black belts are fun to watch because they can do some amazing stuff. Chip is particularly good:
I'm working on a video for Steve (our instructor) now, I will put it up when I am done with it.
Julie and the kids and I spent the 4th right here in Elk City yesterday. I heard that on the 4th it was OK to take some fireworks to the city park and set them off. I guess I really didn't properly envision the ramifications of that statement, because apparently in Elk City EVERYBODY goes to the city park with their fireworks, and it is pretty cool. Here are some videos I took with my cell phone while I was there. Notice the smoke, and all the firework sounds too:
Pretty cool huh? This was just the collective fireworks display of all the probably 2 or 3000 people that showed up to the park with their own fireworks, the city put on a $10,000 fireworks show as well.
Then to top it all off, right after the city's firework show, God put on a show with a thunderstorm to the east of us, and a spattering of rain that sent all the people at the park scattering for home.
I thought the fireworks were cool, my kids really loved it (however it did take about 30 minutes to get Evan to come out of the car, because it kind of freaked him out), it was like a 2 or 3 hour fireworks show. It struck me though that fireworks are like alot of things we become enamored with, up close they look beautiful and powerful, but in comparison to the simple little thunderstorm that provided the backdrop for the evening, they were nothing but smoke and sparks. I don't know that many people even noticed the awesome display of lightning, until the rain came and they were forced to deal with it.
Anyway, it was fun, and if you're ever around Elk City on the 4th of July, I would recommend checking this out, because it's cool, in a chaotic, communal sort of way, and I'm sure that they can't keep doing it for too long, some whiner is bound to put and end to it at some point.
Is it just me or do I take everything way to seriously? I think I need to lighten up a bit, but I don't really remember how to do that. I think I burned up all my "lighten up" brain cells in college and now all I have left is the cynical ones.
I am looking forward to a concert some friends of mine are putting on at the Royal Theatre in Fairview, OK on July 14th. It will be the reunion and possibly also the final performance of "Jebb Stewart". The best rock band ever in my opinion. This was the band that we all partied with and vicariously dreamed about stardom through while we were drinking our way through "college". It will be a bitter sweet time to hear all the music again and to ponder the past and the possibility that it is all coming to an end. My friend Justin even made some T-shirts that are pretty cool, you can pick one up at http://www.zazzle.com/stonefunk if that is something that interests you, you can also come to the show on the 14th of July, only $5.00 to get in, click here for a map to the Royal.
The band really didn't turn out the way we dreamed it would, but never-the-less it left and unforgettable impact on my life and on the lives of many others who were charmed by the music, who basked in the richness of the relationships developed because of the band, and who were also often seduced by the fleeting promises of the rock and roll dream. Sometimes I long to return to those days. When the ruts of daily life seem to repeatedly roll me over and the unrealistic expectations of everyone around me start piling up like manure at a feed yard, I'll admit I find myself day dreaming of the time in my life when I was totally satisfied with chasing that sweet smoky dream of the perpetual party.
I'm sure there are several theological statements in there, and several more statements as to my own failings as a person and as a follower of Christ, but once again I've found myself to be the cynic, even while reflecting on the glorious past.
It sucks that the empty promises of sex, drugs, and rock and roll are so very alluring, because they really are, and that the fullness of Christ is so repugnant in it's most common method of presentation (denominational legalistic religion). I read about missionaries and scholars and preachers who really seem to get it, and I really long to be able to live like they do, where I can take refuge in God, and not in the cheap gluttonous memories of my past jaunts of hedonism.
But instead I forge ahead in my quest to "make a living" while the living part of life sometimes seem to be relegated to the hazy memories of a rock band that never made it. The folly of chasing after sin, and the struggle of turning away from it, all while trying to be a good Christian, a good husband, a good dad, a real man...
Julie and the kids and I went to the zoo in Oklahoma City a couple of weeks ago. If your familiar with Oklahoma City you know that the zoo is just off Martin Luther King street somewhere around about 50th or something. Anyway, as any kid raised in all white small town Oklahoma knows, this part of OKC is the "bad" part of town. I mean there are liquor stores and places to buy wigs and you'd better just scurry on through if you have to go there because your likely to get your Edmond-belonging-in butt robbed.
During this trip we were pondering the possibility of maybe moving to OKC, which is something we would like to do at some point. Of course me being a missionary minded person with a real bad problem stereotyping people (see my previous story about Al the carny) I came to the assumption that maybe we should consider moving into the "hood", because "obviously" this is where they need the gospel the most right? Somewhere in the midst of this thought we drove up upon a KFC where there was a black Baptist church youth group having a car wash for a fund raiser. I thought it would be neat to stop and just see what this neighborhood was like, at least from the vantage point of this fund raiser.
We pulled the van in and handed our keys over to the lady in charge of the car wash. They were very friendly and let us know that we could go in and eat and when we were done eating the car would probably be ready. I stopped for a moment just to watch the people for a while. There were mostly young people (because it was a youth group function) but I noticed that several adults were there as well. It struck me that they all were really enjoying themselves, and seemed to be enjoying each other's company as well. I paid the lady in charge for the car wash and we headed inside to get ourselves some lunch.
The KFC was pretty busy that day, no noubt because of the car wash, so once we got our food we all found a place to sit. After we had taken our seats I noticed that there was only one empty seat left in the restaurant, and it was at our table. Just then another man came in and ordered his food and politely asked if we minded him sitting with us (as opposed to sitting on the floor I guess). He sat down and Evan (my youngest son) immediately sat up and reached for his food, the man thought it was funny. We engaged in some small talk, and I just felt welcome there somehow. We finished our meals and went out to check the status of the car.
When we came out we were again cheerfully greeted and taken to our car where some ladies were putting the finishing touches on the car. The car looked GREAT! I don't think it has ever looked so clean. I thanked them for a great job and started to leave, and upon doing so the church pastor's wife gave me a big hug and thanked us for coming to thier car wash and she told me a bit about the trip their youth group were saving up for.
Once again my sin of stereotyping was blatantly exposed as I realized that not only was the Gospel alive and well in this place, but the people in this neighborhood had something on many of the rest of us, they had a community. I walked away with some thoughts about the "bad" part of town. There are alot of good things about the "bad" part of town. I think they might just know about having and living in a community that is meaningful to them. I think they understand how thier church is a positive aspect adding depth to the relationships of the community. Sure they have problems like higher crime rates and more poverty, but I got to thinking about some stuff.
If you go to Edmond or the "good" part of town where there are nice houses with nice cars, do you experience this kind of community? It's been my experience that most of "middle class white" America live in housing developments where they have really nice stuff but have no idea who their neighbors are. They might have lived there for 20 years and never have met the people around them. When their neighbors die, they aren't sad, when their neighbor's kids get married they aren't happy, they might not even know. Sure there is less violent crime in these neighborhoods, but there has to be...the people never come into contact with each other. So they get a nice clean safe place to live, but they give up being a part of "neighborhood".
Is it possible that part of having that sense of "community" has to come along with some problems like crime? We do still live in a world tainted by sin, and for community to exist people have to be around each other, and interact with each other and get to know each other. This interaction is obviously going to cause some friction, and sometimes bad things will happen when tempers flair and sinful pride erupts. However, is it worth losing the community just to avoid the problems? It's sad that in our prosperity we've allowed our communities to die. It's more even more sad to see people that might live in an actual neighborhood doing everything they can to get to the "good" side of town, and the people on the "good" side of town do everything they can to keep from going to the "bad" side. Seems like both have some things to offer and some things to learn.
I realize that some of the crime stems from problems surrounding poverty or a lack of education, such as those crimes that stem from drug and alcohol abuse, and gang crimes that stem from fractured families. However the good neighborhoods are not immune from these problems. The alcohol or drug abuser on the "good" side of town can simply afford his addiction and he can also afford to keep it behind closed doors. Families are fractured by the drive for prosperity that leaves most middle class kids being raised by childcare employees. And as for education, this doesn't stop crime, it just tends to more sophisticated crime that most would refer to as "white collar crimes".
The point is that living in Edmond "may" be safer than living on "MLK", but at the expense of the richness of a real community with real neighbors. You may feel like you are better off in the newest housing development, but you may just be sacrificing community in order to gain prosperity.
That all being said, here's my test for if you are a good neighbor. If your neighbor were to move or die would you be sad? Here's a challenge, get to know your neighbors, even the dieing old man down the street who can't have but a couple of months left. Get to know him well enough so that when he dies you won't only go to his funeral but you'll also shed a tear. If you can't get your self motivated here's a tip, shut off the cable and the AC and spend your summer evenings on the porch where you might accidentally see another person and get the chance to talk to them.
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, Jesus had to use the illustration of the good Samaritan to explain that our neighbors are anyone around us in need, even those people on the "other" side of town. But before we get to worried about loving the ambiguously imagined person in desparate need, we might want to consider at least finding out the name of the guy that lives 20 feet across the yard.
Thought you might like to see my cool rig on my city issued ex-police cruiser. I have outfitted my car with high speed wireless internet. It connects to one of the many internet access points that I have been busy installing around Elk City. I can pretty much get internet anywhere in town now.
The chief of police saw the car the other day and he wasn't to thrilled about the prospects of all his cop cars being outfitted with Martian looking antennas. I told him that this was just the prototype, the actual finished product will hopefully have much bigger antennas thus making it much cooler in my eyes :)
Here's the inside. You can see my laptop and my massive power converter (1500 watts) I can probably run a small town from my car. My goal is not to ever have to leave my car. The end product will report it's GPS location to a central server that I am writing software for, and it will also be it's own access point so that you can take the laptop from the car and the car will act as a relay to the wider wifi network.
This is my signal splitter that takes the signal from the two antennas on the roof and combines them for the radio to interpret and magically turn into data. The range is really good on this, and the unit that is in my console is very good about switching from access point to access point as I drive down the road. Because of my brilliant network design I have uninterrupted communication as I roam from AP to AP.
Just in case some of you may have thought that I had ceased being a geek...
