Love and sorrow in Pensacola

I was in Pensacola, Florida for the night last night. The highlight of my visit was getting to go to Whataburger for breakfast. Living in a state that doesn't have Whataburger, it is a big deal to get to go to one when the opportunity arises. That opportunity was this morning.

I had a Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit for breakfast. I cried tears of joys.

I read the ketchup package that said "MFG for Whataburger San Antonio, Texas." I cried tears of sorrow.

My love of Whataburger was slightly tarnished when they left Corpus Christi and moved the headquarters to San Antonio. But the shine returned as I bit into the HBCB, with honey butter dripping off my chin and oozing off my fingers. Oh the goodness of Whataburger.

Momentous Moments

I missed two momentous moments in my life the other day. One, my truck turned 90,000 miles. Two, I turned 10,000 days. How could I have missed such important milestones?

Time Machine

The Internet Archive has a program called the Wayback Machine. Using the Wayback Machine, you can view how websites looked in the past when the machine cataloged the pages. I find the news websites to be the most interesting, to see what the headlines were on a specific day, especially since I know how the story turns out.

Today I was looking for a file on my computer when I came across an old profile that was setup on my computer when I first got it. When I first got my computer, it had Windows XP home addition. I had bought Windows XP Professional for the computer I had prior to this one so I thought I would just upgrade it. It seemed like an easy process until I executed it. I put the CD in the computer and said "upgrade." The computer said that since the version already installed was newer than the "upgrade" it would have to erase the OS and reinstall the new one. I said, sure! What's the worst that can happen?

Well, the worst that could happen was the OS was deleted and all my drivers were gone for my computer. The computer didn't come with restore CD's, instead it recommended using Windows Restore. Well, that doesn't work well when you erased the OS! Dell offered to fix the problem for a subscription fee of around $100 and Microsoft left me on hold for over an hour. I almost gave up hope until a friend recommended the Help Desk at school.

They did it! Not only did they diagnosis the problem in minutes, they even offered to download all the needed drivers from the internet and burn them onto a CD for me, all for free!

I thought I had lost everything, that my files were lost forever. Little did I know that lurking on my computer was that profile from the first few months of my laptop.

One of the files I found was a drawing a friend of mine made of his girlfriend. He had met a girl and started dating her and since I was out of the state for the summer I asked him to send a picture. Not having any pictures, he made a drawing. Spitting image!

Let us not forsake one great commandment for another

When the lawyer asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”he responded with two commandments, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. He then says that upon these two commandments hang all the laws and prophets. Clearly these are fundamental in determining how we should behave as Christians.

Before Christ ascended into the heavens, he told the Disciples go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all things that he commanded them.

I have several friends who are currently in the mission field. Now, granted all Christians are “in the mission field,” but when I say they are in the mission field, I mean that they are out acting with the sole intention of spreading the word of God. Now this should be a goal of all Christians, but many of us do this in conjunction with our daily jobs or lives. We wouldn’t call our jobs mission work, it is just something we do in life where we have the opportunity to spread the Word. For many this is in subtle ways, such as lifestyles or actions, though the occasional opportunity arises where one can have a talk with someone else about the Gospel. But for missionaries, they are “doing God’s work” so to speak.

When many people think of or talk about missionaries in the mission field it seems that there are two types. One group is made up of people who are like preachers whose job is only to convert people to Jesus. The other group is made up of people who do medical work or construction work, who do good things for people but never actually speak the word.

My friends who are missionaries have shown me through their lives that while the avenues of spreading the Gospel may be different, both commandments can be fulfilled. One may use the love of neighbor as a way of expressing the love of God to someone or to create the opportunity to spread the Gospel. The other uses the Gospel as a way of getting close to someone to love them as themselves.

In our daily lives one should not forsake one commandment for the other. Love of God and love of neighbor are both commandments that we are to live by. They are not exclusive of each other, but must both be done. We love others because God first loved us. If we love God but not our neighbor, we accomplish nothing. If we love others but do not share the love of God, we are doing it for our own glory.

Shaver in the Court

In a news story that is only fitting for a country song, Billy Joe Shaver was acquitted in a Waco court today after testifying that he shot a man in the face outside a bar while acting in self defense. Willie Nelson and Robert Duvall went to support their friend. His attorney was the same attorney that represented David Koresh.

Steven Krytak tweeted from the courtroom and provides a very interesting take. You can read his tweets on his twitter. It includes great tidbits like "He may be a honky tonk hero and he may have written a lot of wonderful songs... but on that day, he was a honky tonk bully," Toben said or Toben asked if Shaver was jealous Wanda was talking to Coker. "I get more women than a passenger train can haul, I’m not jealous," Shaver said and Prosecutor Beth Toben is questioning Shaver. Asked him if he had broken his neck in a barroom brawl. Shaver said it was a friendly thing.

Here is Billy Joe Shaver and his son Eddy.

Breaking Free

The church I currently attend is named after the founder of the religion, John Wesley. However, my church has seemed to decided that we will no longer follow the methodical practices that Wesley taught in the Methodist Societies, though we will keep the name Wesley.

What Wonderous Love is This

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews." Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, "They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

How to impress people

A few years ago, I was put in charge of a committee to determine the new mission statement for the school I was a teacher at. The first thing I did was read a text book from college that had a chapter dedicated to writing school mission statements. In the chapter it recommended using the phrase "prepare students to be ethical global citizens." The main justification for using the phrase was that administrators would be impressed with it. I included the statement with my proposal to the group and was able to preserve it until the draft was presented to the principal. The principal wrote back to the group that she liked the proposal, but really really liked the line "become ethical global citizens." When the proposal was sent out to the entire school faculty, the biggest response was to remove the line about global citizens as it didn't make much sense. The book was correct, the administrators were impressed, however it failed to mention that the statement was worthless.

There are lots of ways to impress people without actually having to be productive. I'll share a few of these.

First, when you give a presentation, use a pie chart. Your presentation doesn't need to require the pie chart, but including it will impress people. A friend of mine was giving a presentation and gave me a rough draft. I recommended that he add a pie chart. He said he didn't need it, which I agreed with. However, he conceded when I told him that people would like it. He added a pie chart that was quite meaningless and added nothing to the presentation. When he gave the presentation the feedback included the statement "great pie chart."

Second, make spreadsheets. People are impressed with Excel. Spreadsheets can be intimidating and therefore demand respect, so when you are able to use Excel, you are clearly one who must be listened to. It is highly recommended that when you prepare the spreadsheet that you do not organize the working portion of the spreadsheet. Leave that part messy and confusing. It adds to the intimidating aspect of spreadsheets. But make a highly organized, really neat box at the bottom with the results. They will also be impressed if you can insert inputs into the spreadsheet and have all the numbers change at once. It makes for a great show. If you find that the spreadsheet is not very necessary, add color to it. Everyone loves color. I created a pretty simple spreadsheet once that calculated how many teachers were needed to teach a subject based on the number of students taking the course. I could have just used a piece of paper to divide the number of students taking the class by the number of students allowed per teacher by the state, but instead I made a complex looking spreadsheet with an input and output box with some colored arrows decorating the blank spaces. The department head was so impressed with the Excel sheet that he recommended that I take over his position.

Finally, add Macros to your Excel and Word documents. The Macros needn't be necessary, they will be highly impressive for the very fact that they are Macros. If you don't know how to write Macros, find a document that already contains the desired Macro and cut and paste it. That is already more than most people can do, so you will be able to impress people despite your inability to create Macros. I once made a cover sheet that included a Macro that would determine the length of the underscored line in the "From:" line based on the length of the originator's name. This could have been done by using ctrl+u, but I used a Macro that I copied and pasted from another document I found. My boss was so impressed with the Macro on the cover sheet that she mandated that everyone had to use my cover sheet.

Utilizing these three easy methods will insure that you impress people without having to do anything productive.

Questions to Ponder

This past week I met with a pastor. He asked me questions that no pastor had ever asked me before, yet are questions that my pastor should ask me.

Where are you in your walk with God?

What do you struggle with?

What can the church do for you?

Perhaps another question might be, why hasn't your pastor asked you these before?

Listening to Classic Literature

A few years ago I first heard this song Odysseus by Brian Keane.



Now I have never read read Homer's Odyssey, but thanks to Brian I am familiar with the story. Listening to this song might be as good as reading the Cliff notes on the book. The moral of the story is the same whether you read the book or listen to the song, Homer's Odyssey is jacked up.

Letters in the Mail

Bill Carlisle and Bobby Gregory wrote a famous song called No Letter in the Mail. Here it is performed by some Canucks, the Spinney Brothers.



I got a letter in the mail today. It was a very nice letter, a length correspondence from a friend of mine. This is the first personal correspondence I have received in the mail in a month. Now, I probably have received personal correspondences in the mail at a greater frequency in the past, but certainly never more than once every two weeks. Two summers I worked in a place that did not have regular internet access and I didn't have regular access to mail. There, I received hand delivered personal correspondence on almost a daily basis.

What is it about a physical letter that is so special? I receive personal correspondences in emails on almost a daily basis. I enjoy them and get excited when I see I have an email waiting for me from certain people, but not like when I get a letter in the mail. Emails may stay in my email inbox for a few days, possibly even months, but will soon be deleted. Currently in my inbox, the oldest personal correspondence is only 6 months old and will probably be deleted soon. But of letters that have been mailed to me, I have some dating back to 2003 and have no desire to ever throw them away. Why are they different?

The internet is great, it connects me to people, information, and allows me to do things that in the past would have required more time. Some of the people I am connected to are friends who are separated by distance, one of which is 6600 miles away and that is going over the pole. Even though we might talk about the exact same thing in an email, I value the physical letter that I get in my mailbox. The email will be read, probably several times, but soon deleted. The letter will be read multiple times, then placed in a box where I will every so often retrieve it and reread. Why the difference? Could it be that though the internet keeps me connected to those who I can not be physically with, I still value physical proximity? Could it be the physical letter brings me closer to the person than a virtual email could do? Could I just be old fashioned?

When all else fails, think!

I just finished reading a book called Aircraft Down! Evading Capture in WWII Europe by General Philip Caine. The book is a collection of 6 true stories of Allied pilots and aircrew that went down in occupied Europe or Italy and evaded capture and made it back to friendly forces. It does a great job depicting the loneliness they felt, their heart-felt thankfulness to the Europeans who risked everything to aid them, and describing their journey from the beginning of their final flight to their ultimate return home.

In the final chapter of the book, General Caine writes about what made the evaders successful. The success comes down to a few common traits, to will to survive, trust, patience, ability to adjust, confidence, perseverance, positive attitude, good judgment, and thinking. His assessment is very similar to the assessment in the National Geographic Adventure article, Terrorists at the Tea Party. The ability to think and control one's mind and body is vital in emergency situations.

I like to think that I have many of these characteristics, but it is hard to know until one is tested by fire. If anything, I at least acknowledge the need to have these skills and characteristics. Now I just have to wait until all else fails and see if I can think.

Thinking without knowledge

I found these statistics from England interesting.

33% of school children think their teacher is an alien
75% of school children think aliens exist
72% of school children think aliens are friendly
< 10% of school children can name all 8 planets in the solar system

They are thinking, but do they have knowledge?

Looking in the mirror

When I was younger, I use to think that people in their mid to upper 20's looked uglier than they did in their teens and 30's. Looking in the mirror at myself, I still agree with my assessment.

A Song to get Dressed to: This Week's Song of the Week

It is once again Friday and time for our somewhat weekly Song of the Week. How could this week's not be General Larry Platt's original song, Pants on the Ground?




USA Today has a great article on the General, General Larry Platt: A Closer Look. The General is a civil rights worker with quite a storied past. September 4, 2001 was even Larry Platt Day in Atlanta to honor his work.

A great song and certainly an even greater man.

It's OK to Think

Todd Snider has a song called Keep of the Grass. The song is about a world full of rules. You can read all of the lyrics here.




We have a lot of rules in life. Anytime something goes wrong, it is almost a guarantee that a new rule or law will be made to correct what happened. Is our problem a lack of rules?

In New York City, they have rules on what can be used in food. Now granted some rules should probably be used,The Jungle showed us that. But New York's rules go further than just not allowing people to be ground up and sold as lard. Restaurants in the city cannot use trans fats. They are currently looking at reducing the amount of salt that can be in food. Now, yes these things may be unhealthy, but do we really require a rule to be healthy?

With all these rules, we are missing two very important ones. The first rule, law, or instruction should be "Think." It is very easy for people to get by without thinking. After all, when something goes wrong, we just make a new rule. There wouldn't be a need for a new rule every time if people think. The second rule should be "Do what needs to be done." This would require the person to do for themselves what needs to be done and to do for others what needs to be done. If one thinks and acts, the rules become unnecessary. With these extraneous rules, it removes and even impedes thinking as the person is not required and sometimes even punishes the person who thinks because they act outside of the rules. Things would still go wrong. This would be OK though, as long as the person thinks. As with any rules though, they must have some sort of enforcement. The enforcement would be simple, "A person will be responsible for what happens because of their actions."

It should be OK to think, however, it seems that we would rather just have rules and laws.