UT2004: There HAS been some progress

I actually have a beta-quality version of the ol' SeaPack completed, so there HAS indeed been some progress which I'll be able to release at some point, here. The major changes are two: ONS-DeepSix has been finished, and so has my SeaBass submarine. Again they're beta-quality meaning they WORK but there're probably bugs unfound and definitely room for improvement. Anyway, message me if this is important to you, cool?

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Bible: John 1:14; not what you thought

Most people point to this to "prove" that Jesus (Yashua) was together with our God (YHWH) before the world was created, but if you really read it properly, that's not what it says, is it? It says that the Word was embodied in flesh, but that does not necessarily mean that said flesh and the Word are literally the same. Think of Jesus as an avatar for the Word, and that, I believe, is a more accurate description of what's going on here. Not only does that make sense, but it also works properly with the concept of a SINGLE God, not a "triune" god. There are numerous references of our God saying that there is no other god than Him, as well as other references about His son specifically not being equal to Him. To believe in a "trinity" you have to disregard far too many verses.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201:14;&version=31;

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Bible: Psalm 19:14 (Keeping centered on God)

A great prayer, to ask that one's thoughts and words are pleasing to God. Your actions will follow what you say and do. Like Solomon asking for wisdom, God is definitely pleased when we ask to be as He wants us to be.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=Psalm%2019:14

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Bible: Romans 12:2, the pattern of this world

Think about this; "the pattern of this world" means "what everyone else does." So usually, whatever people think is right, when it's thought as such in popular opinion... it's probably wrong. This also parallels the story of the wide gate vs. the narrow gate. Popular opinion is usually wrong! I also like this verse because it shows that you CAN align yourself with our God's plan and know what it is. That is, although you can't possibly know what His overall plan is, you can certainly be guided by His spirit and feel that a certain course of action is right or wrong. Thanks, YHWH.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=Romans%2012:2

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World: G7 pledge %u2018no more Lehmans%u2019

Wow. How great would it be to have someone backing you so that it's IMPOSSIBLE for you to fail? Next thought after that: How great would it be to sit on your duff and do NOTHING because someone's guaranteeing to back you up? Match that together with "power corrupts" and you've got something eerily similar to what's really going on...

Link:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5a4ab6f2-988a-11dd-ace3-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

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Bible: Jeremiah 29:11(I gots PLANS)

This is a "classic" verse in the sense that many people have heard it. For good reason; it's a very reassuring verse and as it is from God, one can gain real hope from it even when times are down. Which, coincidentally, they are right now for many, many people. I go to sleep at night, able to relax, because I know enough to give my worries to God. I know that even if the "world should end," that is, the economy goes to poop or should I lose my house, job, whatever - life will still go on, it will get better, and I can look forward to some really great times that will make it all worth it. Yeah, our God is pretty cool.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=31&search=Jeremiah%2029:11

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Bible: Always be ready

I like this one. It does remind me of a speech given by, I believe, Sheldon Emry, where he described a practical modern application of this, but it also brings to mind another verse in (again, I believe) 1Timothy where it says to rejoice when being questioned. The thing to remember is that God is with you especially when, trusting in Him, you are placed in a position to answer according to His word. This verse also contains instruction to read and consider His word, the Bible, on a regular basis. This is what will HELP you be ready at any time. Even reviewing things that you already know is important because it just strengthens your resolve - and it might shed light on areas that you may have previously misunderstood.

Link:http://bible.christiansunite.com/search.cgi?version=all&search=blessing&passage=1Pe 3:15&from=gadget

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Bible: Wives and beauty

1 Peter 3:3-4 talks about a woman's beauty. As I read this the thought occurred to me of how much my daughter, now four years old, loves to dress up and make herself beautiful. She can change clothes a million times a day and never tire of it. Each dress is more beautiful than the last, even if it's going back to one she had on earlier. Is it coincidence that while the Bible tells women to not concern themselves with outer beauty, little girls are obsessed with it? It is a sign of maturity for girls to grow past the outer beauty and focus on the spirit, becoming good in the eyes of God.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=67&chapter=3&version=31

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BibleGateway.com - Col 4:6

Pretty nice how the Bible is clear about being sneaky. This basically says, "Don't pound someone over the head with the word of the Lord... just sprinkle it here and there among your regular speech." The thing is, unless you know someone - unless you know a person is receptive to ideas which may go against their beliefs, you shouldn't go about criticizing or correcting them. More often than not a strange confronted with the truth will run and hide.

Link:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Col%204:6;&version=31;

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Bible: Romans 11:33

This is boiled down to: "You don't know what you don't know." And the great thing about it is that the more you know, the better you will feel... the better you'll be able to help others... the more centered you will be.

Link:http://bible.christiansunite.com/search.cgi?version=all&search=blessing&passage=Ro 11:33&from=gadget

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Bible: 1 Thessalonians 4 :16

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: 1 Thessalonians 4 :16;

This is a description about death and hope, and the context of it talks about not grieving for those who have died, because all will be brought back at the pretty much same time, in the end. Whenever God Himself declares it, all the world will know and must admit to the Truth, which He is - even those who have died.

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High fructose corn syrup ad

Amazing what the Industry implies with this. They try to say that it's simply EMBARRASSING to deny HFCS by showing some random chick that hasn't studied up properly. If they really wanted to give an honest review of HFCS, they'd prop up someone who DID know their stuff and try to defend against it. And of course, they can't. In a way, it's pretty cool to see that someone has put the effort in to create such an ad as this because it shows that the truth about this highly processed by-product is finally coming out!

Link:http://snhbw.blogspot.com/2008/09/high-fructose-corn-syrup-ad.html

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Bible: 1 Cor 1:18

The thought which crosses my mind is how difficult it is for us humans to really know who is or is not perishing. I mean, some are already chosen by God to perish, as in the case of Pharaoh or the destiny of the seed of Esau (not really perishing, there, but destiny has been defined). So what to do? Just go about your lives, getting to know people (know them by their fruits, right?) and sharing God's word with those which evidence suggests they are saved.

Link:http://bible.christiansunite.com/search.cgi?version=all&search=blessing&passage=1Co 1:18&from=gadget

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Health: Cascadian Farm's "Cinnamon Raisin Granola"

With the amount of sugar added, degree of processing, and quality of oils used in the production of Cascadian Farm's "Cinnamon Raisin Granola" cereal, this should NOT be qualified as an organic food, nor should it be listed as good for your body.

Ingredient analysis, taken from the Nutrition Information (10) on cascadianfarm.com:

organic whole grain rolled oats
naturally milled organic sugar

• SUGAR (8)

organic crisp rice
    (
        organic rice
        naturally milled organic sugar

• SUGAR (8)

        sea salt
        organic malt
    )

• Puffed grains are, in fact, NOT healthy.  They are "very" processed grains and have little or no nutritional value to them.  They are "dead" foods.  70% or more of your daily food intake should be from raw, or living, foods. (7)

organic raisins
organic whole grain oat flour
organic honey

• SUGAR (8)

organic sunflower oil

• Polyunsaturated oils, such as sunflower oil, contain long-chain fatty acids, which are extremely fragile and unstable. (9) 
• Polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFAs in vegetable seed oils are the bane of human health - they actually cause cancer, diabetes, obesity, aging, thrombosis, arthritis, and immunodeficiencies. (9)
• See also the notes about canola oil below.

sea salt
organic molasses

• SUGAR (8)

baking soda
organic cinnamon
soy lecithin (an emulsifier)

• Extracted from soy beans using a solvent such as hexane.  A by-product of soybean oil.

• Nearly all soybeans in America (89% in 2006) are from genetically modified (GM) sources. (5) This means that not only have these plants been injected with strange or unusual substances (like bacterial genes), but they have also been grown under the heavy use of pesticides.  Note that more countries outside the US implementing bans on GM foods.
• Polyunsaturated oils, particularly corn oil and soybean oil, cause numerous health problems, including and especially cancer. (6)
• Hexane is a mild anestheic and is used as a solvent in industries such as shoe manufacturing, furniture restoration, and automobile construction. (4)

• Soy Myths and Truths: (3)
• Read the comments about soy in this article: (2)

organic canola oil

• Typical oils such as canola oil are processed with heat and high pressure, and are often exposed to sunlight for lengthy periods after processing.  Contemporary vegetable oils (like canola oil) contain omega-3 fatty acids; Since omega-3 fatty acids rapidly become offensive smelling and subject to rancidification when processed with high heat and oxygen, the oil is then subjected to a deodorizing process which removes much of the Omega-3 and replaces it with trans fats.(1)
• Canola oil is not permitted in infant formula by the FDA due to concerns about inhibited growth in human infants. (1)
• See also the notes about sunflower oil above.

organic vanilla extract



(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola_oil#Health_effects
(2) http://www.chow.com/stories/10701
(3) http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtsoy.html
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexane
(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean
(6) http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/conola.html
(7) http://www.living-foods.com/articles/environmental.html
(8) While not listed as the first ingredient in the list, SUGAR is essentially listed four times.  This is a devious practice by major corporations to hide the amounts of sugar in a list.  It's probably a good idea to qualify THIS cereal as a "sugar cereal"; according to the nutrition facts label, 29% of this cereal is made of sugar.  (55g serving size / 16g sugar)
(9) http://thescreamonline.com/essays/essays5-1/vegoil.html
(10) http://www.cascadianfarm.com/products/product_detail.aspx?cat=8&upc=0-21908-13334-8

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Tech: RememberTheMilk, Twitter, and Google Calendar

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

They make it pretty easy to integrate, I think.  Browse the site (sign up, of course), and then on the homepage there click both the Google Calendar button and the Twitter button, and follow each of their instructions.  When it's all done, you can just IM your Twitterbot something like "Lunch with Julie at 8pm Apr 30" – it'll set up an appointment in itself, and then sync up with Google Calendar.  You can ALSO add their widget to your iGoogle homepage or Google Desktop, if you feel like.

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Tech: Mobile phone thoughts

(reposted from my response on Cathartic Tome )

One of the first things I install on any PDA phone is some kind of app (for WM5, I use "Magic Button") that turns the "X" button into an actual CLOSE application button - so I pretty much never have any apps running in the background.  Since Windows CE, I always thought that was a bad idea.

There are some quirks in WM, but I still like it a whole lot - primarily because there's SO much good-quality freeware and regular apps for it.  I've got a (now "old") T-Mobile MDA (2?) and it's still the best danged phone I've ever had.  Incidentally, WM7 will not be a vast upgrade as I hear tell, but WM8 is going to be a complete rewrite of the software, so expect to finally see WM in a form that is everyone-friendly, not just nerd-friendly, in a few years.

I just bought the wife a new, low-end phone from Target.  Some cheap Nokia thing but it dials and has a speakerphone so it'll do.  Her old phone's battery is completely dead, which is why we got the new one.  It's sad and very Brave-New-World-ish that her new phone uses the exact same battery as the old phone and while the battery can be purchased online for $40, the new phone can be had for $30.

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Web: Testing Disqus

Webware's "Under the Radar" series recommended Disqus for a multi-blog commenting system, and I'm curious to see how it works, so I'll be testing it out.

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Politics: A better form of government

We are not a democracy, nor have we ever been.  We are currently more nearly a corporate oligarchy.  Corporate money elects our presidents and selects our congressmen, our cabinet members, and our judges.  Corporate money has bought the country.

Plato argued in his Republic that our representatives should be selected at random from the whole population, that from a fund of all qualified voters we simply draft up our representatives.  Those whose names come up in the selection process would be required, by law, to serve.  More poor and middle-class representatives would be chosen than those who are economically privileged.  We would have proportionately as many members of minorities as exist in the whole population.

These representatives would sreve one term - perhaps four year During their term, they would receive an adequate salary and the jobs they leave would be protected by law. Such leaders would have values consistent with those of the people themselves; that people, not money, that justice, not profit, are the first considerations. They would understand that progress is realized when we feed and house and educate our citizens, that progress is realized when we preserve the earth.

Some observe that such a method of selecting our representatives bears with it the danger that some will not be qualified to represent us. But we have survived in a system for over two hundred years where most who represent us re either not qualified or are committed to interests antithetical to our own.  It is easier to trust the schoolteacher or bulldozer operator over the professional politicians we have now.

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Health: Ice Cream, the delicious poison

When you order a banana split at your neighborhood ice cream parlor, you may order vanilla flavored ice cream, chocolate, and strawberry.

But you will probably eat iperonal (a lice killer) for vanilla, amylphenyl acetate for chocolate, and a solvent called benzyl acetate for strawberry. The toppings will probably be aldehyde C-17 for cherry, ethyl acetate for pineapple (causes lung, liver, and heart damage), rutyraldehyde for nut flavor, and a paint solvent called amyl acetate for that great banana flavor.

It's all economics. Aldehyde C-17 costs seven cents per gallon of ice cream. Real cherries cost thirty-five cents a gallon. There are over a thousand different chemicals used in commercial ice cream.

-The Milk Book, by William Douglass II. Emphasis added.

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Politics: What do politicians do with your private data?

I think it's a bit telling to see what politicians do with your private information when you donate money to them.  Here's a quick cut-n-paste from their websites and -- Hey, look at that!  Ron Paul is the only one who says, "NO SHARING"

 

 

Barack Obama: It is our general policy not to make Personal Information available to anyone other than our employees, staff, and agents. We may also make personal information available to organizations with similar political viewpoints and objectives, in furtherance of our own political objectives.

 

Ron Paul: Do you use the information that you collect for any other reason?  No.  We collect the information to comply with FEC regulations, but do not sell or otherwise distribute any piece of information about any of our donors.

 

Hillary Clinton: On occasion, we may also use the information that you provide online to contact you for other purposes or to solicit you for contributions. When you register or sign-up online, we may share your contact information with successor organizations and other like-minded Democratic candidates and organizations, and they may contact you. When you make a contribution to us, we may also exchange your contributor information with successor organizations and other like-minded Democratic candidates and organizations, and they may solicit you (see below for additional information regarding your contributor information). However, we will not sell or exchange your credit card information to any other third party under any circumstances.

 

John McCain: We may share information -- that you voluntarily provide us -- with like-minded organizations committed to the principles or candidates of the Republican party, Republican State Party organizations, local Republican groups and like-minded organizations.

 

 

Here's a Reddit discussion about this, spawned by the fact that Hillary's campaign was busted for selling information. http://reddit.com/info/68o6i/comments/

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