Journal

I spent the last couple weeks working to make this site better during my off hours. Here is a quick summary:

Welcome back to Drupal. I've moved my site back on to the Drupal 8 platform.

So, I started with plain old HTML way back on GeoCities. Used Wordpress for a blog, then Drupal 7, Hugo, and now I'm on Drupal 8.

The latest change is for a couple reasons. First, I didn't post enough to get used to Hugo. Second, I have plans that really need a full CMS. Not just a static site generator. Here's to new beginnings!

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Not a lot to say about myself right now, but I have updated this site.

First, we have a new logo! That is a lot nicer than the old one. It pays to actually pay someone with design skills. :)

Second, I've added a Photography page to replace the link to my SmugMug gallery. I plan on updating the featured photo and gallery every once in a while. So keep you eye on it.

Every year WORLD Magazine awards several ministries their Hope Award. The overall winner gets $15K, each regional winner gets $2K. But, more importantly, each story demonstrates the amazing work God can do. Seriously, each of the stories hits right in the heart.

WORLD does have a paywall, but you can view several stories for free. And these are definitely worth the time.

I read this World Magazine article today:

Starting from zero - Iraq’s Nineveh churches are retaking their towns from years of ISIS control, without guarantees of money, safety, or a future

So, this is just a quick note to inform any readers that I am still alive. Unfortunately, or maybe not, I have been quite busy working at Lane Community College. Thus, this site has taken the back burner. 

So, we'll see if I find time to do anything here. Until then, thanks for visiting!

I just came across this thread on Hacker News. One of the comments asked the usual questions about why God doesn't just make everything perfect. Now, for me, the answers are obvious. I've spent lots of time thinking about them, and I grew up hearing the answers in church. The commentor, apparently, has never hear the answers before. Thus I replied to them. And, since they are common questions, I thought I'd crosspost over here.

As He was passing along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, Simon's brother. They were casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen. "Follow Me," Jesus told them, "and I will make you fish for people!" Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in their boat mending their nets. Immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him.

Think about it for a minute.

So, I just had a wild idea after getting a prayer request email from my churches prayer chain.

The basic idea would be to set up a bug report software system and use it for prayer requests.

Basic use would be, you sign on, click add prayer request, fill out as many of the forms as you want, then it's posted for people to see. After it's posted, people can subscribe to it and get updates whenever you update it. And so on. The same kind of stuff that a bug report site has, just tweaked for prayer requests.

What do you think? Would you use it?

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine And a transcript here.

Key thing to remember people, pray before you start your daily Bible reading. I have been struggling to get much out of my readings, but today I prayed before hand. Second verse in, boom, something I hadn't realized before. :D Genesis Chapter 1 is the Creation story. And it starts with a message of transformation. Verse 2:

Acts 4:32-37

Isaiah 57:16-21

So, I got an email from the White House about health care. In it, they actually addressed some of the concerns that have been brought up by Obamacare opponents like me. Here's what they said, and my responses to it. 8 ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage

Geocities is shutting down this year. Any of you remember that place? It's where I first created a website. David's Islands.... Oh those were the days... Of bad designs and horrid graphics with slow download speeds... I think I still have a back up of that site on a disc somewhere. Heh. Scary thought.

Anyway, this is relevant to the PK because David's Islands was replaced by Preachers Kid when I became a PK. The old address www.geocities.com/heartland/bluffs/6032 now redirects to here.

This is what you get when playing D&D Tiny Adventures on Facebook. Not the most exciting game in the world, but the amusement factor is there.

Enjoying the fresh mountain air, Corin Altera began to juggle a few objects he had with him. A few skeletons came upon Corin Altera and were so transfixed by the juggling that they started tossing him bones to juggle.

Corin Altera was able to keep it up until the skeletons had dismantled themselves.

Skeletons, dismantling themselves to be juggled... Wow...

20 God came to Balaam at night and said to him, "Since these men have come to summon you, get up and go with them, but you must only do what I tell you." 21 When he got up in the morning, Balaam saddled his donkey and went with the officials of Moab. 22 But God was incensed that Balaam was going, and the Angel of the LORD took His stand on the path to oppose him. Balaam was riding his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 When the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD standing on the path with a drawn sword in His hand, she turned off the path and went into the field.

19 Even when the cloud stayed over the tabernacle many days, the Israelites carried out the LORD's requirement and did not set out. 20 Sometimes the cloud remained over the tabernacle for [only] a few days. They would camp at the LORD's command and set out at the LORD's command. 21 Sometimes the cloud remained [only] from evening until morning; when the cloud lifted in the morning, they set out. Or if it remained a day and a night, they moved out when the cloud lifted.

In the past couple days I found a couple blog posts by Christians complaining about worship songs. The posts were not very clear to me, but as far as I could tell, the bloggers didn't like how so many worship songs use the pronouns 'I' and 'me', instead of 'we' and 'us' and 'you'. They also were saying that the songs were not appropriate for corporate worship. This bugged me a lot. Who cares what pronouns are used?! What matters is that the songs enable you to focus on worshiping God. And if you are in a group of people, all worshiping God, then you are obviously worshiping corporately.

to tell us what the Bible says. Abortion is NOT Condemned by the Bible. Not even close.

This is my comment:

In regards to the original post. The Bible says that God knew us and formed us in our mothers womb.

Psalm 139:13
For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother's womb.

Job 10:11
You clothed me with skin and flesh, and wove me together with bones and tendons.

Today I had really really really bad stomach pain. No matter how much I passed gas, I couldn't get rid of enough to relieve the pain. I was literally bent over on the floor rocking back and forth. I can only thankful right now that it now just hurts.

So, why am I talking about this? It's because of some of the thoughts I had.

While I hurt a lot, I remembered that the pain Jesus felt when he died for my sins was many many times worse. Not only was he physically tortured in ways that I can't even really imagine, but he was subjected to the pain of my sins.

So, I was just thinking about why I believe that the Bible is God's Word. Initially I believed that the Bible was true on simple belief. That resulted in my salvation. Then I believed in the Bible due to personal revelation from God that it was His word. After a while I ran into people questioning the accuracy of the Bible. So after some research, I saw that it is one of the most historically accurate documents around. Basically something like the Odyssey has fewer accurate surviving documents than the Bible does and historians still consider it accurate.

Heh, been a while since I posted. As usual for me.

Anyway, for those of you who read this and aren't my parents, here's what I did for the past few months.

I only took a 8 credits because I wasn't able to get my adviser to clear me for advanced registration, and thus my classes filled up... She was really busy and apparently my email was buried. Go figure. Anyway, I took Discrete Math, Web Developemnet, and Archery.

If you look to the right, you can see I added a page called State Quarters List. This is a page that lists all the quarters I have. It is mainly an attempt to get you to send me the ones I don't have... Hint hint. :D

So, I bought Smallville Season 7 the other day and have been watching Clark Kent save the day. Plus I just saw Hancock in the theater. It got me thinking.

In Hancock the guy tosses a kid way up in the air and then catches him. In Smallville, Clark superspeeds to pickup people out of the way of speeding cars and such dangers.