Boo? October 31, 2004
Posted by Aaron in : General , add a commentA cartoon in honor of pumpkins: Rose is Rose
I stopped by the office on the way back to my apt with the intention of writing a little of the past few days. Upon sitting down at the keyboard, I realized I’ve very little to write about. There was a halloween party yesterday at Michael’s house, for her cooking, his wife put us to work sanding various bits of furnature & a few guys bravely took apart a ceiling fan to try to rewire it correctly. Besides a small blister from “enthusiastic sanding” I don’t think there were any injuries and I didn’t hear any arcing electricity from the other room, so alls well that ends with food & no blood. Just watched Signs over at dan’s, having apparently missed everything else in the M. Night Shyamalan marathon. Found a nice corner to sit in on campus on the way back, keeps me out of the glaring lights but I can still hear whats going on around campus. Now if I could only find a perch that were higher up, I miss those sleepless nights sitting on the roof of christian house. Anyway I guess that brings us to now, so rather than ramble… happy halloween to all and to all a good fright.
Sacraments October 26, 2004
Posted by BatWeasel in : General , 3commentsTwo serious posts in two weeks from the batweasel? What is the world coming to? This one may not be very coherent, but I need to get this out because I’m going to need help…
So, my husband and I met with our pastor tonight about becoming members of the church (Shelby Christian). We’ve been attending for about a year and a half now. It’s such a wonderful church, and really couldn’t have a nicer pastor. I’ve been taking discipleship training classes and we both just feel like we need to take the step towards membership so we can be more involved. Sounds easy huh?
Unfortunately it’s not so easy…. and let me preface this with the fact that the pastor broke the news to us as nicely and diplomatically as a guy could have… but the long and short of it is that I can’t join the church, at least not as I am. I was baptised as a baby (strike one) and was “sprinkled” and not “dunked” (strike two, and doesn’t that make me sound like a donut?). In the eyes of this church, I’m not truly saved and actually all this time I should not have even been taking communion because they believe only IMMERSED believers should do that. In order to become a member I will have to be re-baptised. Or not even RE-baptised… if I decide to do this I have to decide my first doesn’t count or at least wasn’t good enough. And while I had wondered if my baptism might be a problem it had never even occured to me to question whether I ought to take communion!
So a little too much of what I’ve taken for granted got turned upside down today! The pastor did say that he would never presume to judge in God’s place whether a person is saved or is OK to take communion, he truly was very nice about it all. But if I do decide to become a member I’ll have to agree that I NEED another baptism, which is like invalidating my first… which is rough and I don’t know yet how to work that out. And then what do I do Sunday? Do I take communion? Do I pass it by? And how the heck will I know whether I’m doing ANY of this for the right reasons?
I’m befuddled.
Kerry Vs Bush and other fun links October 26, 2004
Posted by Aaron in : Links, Play , 1 comment so farElection 2004 Robot duel
From Tricks of the trade
If you live in a cold area you may sometimes walk out to your car to find the windshield completely frozen over. Rather than scraping away at it you could just start you car, urn the window defroster on, and — here’s the trick — put down the sun visors. The warm air will be forced back onto the inside of the windshield and it will defrost much faster.
– Jaan B.
And from the folks who brought us a robot that can generate power from slugs, one that pulls off the same trick with flies.
The Old New Thing October 23, 2004
Posted by Aaron in : Links , add a commentThe Old New Thing
All you geeks ever wondered why something in windows does something that just doesn’t make sense? Perhaps there is a reason and we just don’t know it. This is the blog of one Microsoft developer who has decided to explain a few of these oddities, along with a lot of other random bits of information from what I see.
Hmm October 21, 2004
Posted by Aaron in : General, Links , add a commentIt would seem that a spam-bot has managed to slip through the mods I’ve made to the comment scripts, eventually perhaps I’ll adapt it to something a bit more clever, for now I’ve turned on comment moderation. Comments won’t show up until I clear them (or perhaps just someone with a real login), and it will email me when there are things to approve/pitch. Sorry, but its better than being used as a way of googlebombing for gambling websites.
If any of you saw any of the comments, you were probably as amused as I. All 4 were vaguely profound sounding, but upon closer examination were easily seen as just rantings.
As a side note for the geeks, here is a open-source product that dynamicly generates flash presentations based on xml scripts and still manages to look really cool.
Ends justifying the means? October 19, 2004
Posted by BatWeasel in : General , 1 comment so farOk, my turn for a serious post for once. I was reading an article from Newsweek this morning about stem cell research and it’s impact on the presidential campaign, and a quote from a senator really caught my eye: “There is no greater way to promote life than to find a way to defeat death and disease,” says pro-life Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch. “Stem-cell research may provide a way to do that.”
This quote really disturbed me. This senator is saying the rightness or wrongness of embryonic stem-cell research is irrelevant because it has the potential to “defeat death and disease.” And the article overall agreed with him. And most movies I’ve watched lately would agree too (guy does bad things to accomplish good goal, happy ending). If the ends are right, then why analyze the means?
I think I understand now why I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy so much. Characters in that book do things just because they are right, regardless of personal risk. “Just because it was right” is hardly considered a valid motive anymore, but in Middle Earth it’s a matter of course. I think it’s a huge division between Christians and the world. Christians are to do things because they are right in obedience to God, even to the point of sacrificing our lives, and are to avoid things that are wrong simply because they are wrong. The ends you are trying to accomplish shouldn’t even come into it when you are deciding on your course of action, but I find them creeping in anyway. It’s scary.
DORK TOWER October 13, 2004
Posted by Aaron in : Links, World News , add a commentRoad trips & impellers October 8, 2004
Posted by Aaron in : General , add a commentSo here I am in Texas, I drove down to Oklahoma to Chris & Mandy’s place last night and then we scurried further south. I’ll probably write more about that later, but I’m just wanting to talk about my drive down. First off, if you get the chance to drive south from St Louis as the leaves are turning, do it. They aren’t quite turning yet, but there is a perfect setup for a beautiful view. One minor hitch in the grand voyage was that as I hit Rolla MO, what I thought was a minor coolant leak (that I was staying on top of) escolated as the impellor in my car’s water pump apparently disintegrated. My first notification that this was a serious issue began as my car began making horrendous noises and my heat gauge shot through the roof. Pulled into the first full service gas station I’ve seen in years & walked across the street to a radiator place to get help. (Keep in mind that I didn’t choose this station, this was the first available place when I realized I had an issue). A guy came over from Aaron’s Radiator & Cooling (Amusing name eh? I think this guy was even Aaron) & figured out what was wrong. Since he was swamped for the day, he called another shop in town, then a tow truck & I went over there. They worked as quick as they could & managed to get it done right as they closed. (Incidentally if you’re ever having problems in Rolla, MO this second place is Coverdell’s, I figured they worked hard to get it done so I could keep going, I’ll plug em on my site). After that I scurried as fast as I could the remaining 4 or so hours. Including some crazy driving in N Arkansas where the roads were doing weird things, it was raining & dark. I couldn’t quite figure out where the road was headed, but I managed to stay on it the entire time, which is good enough. I’ll write more later, but for now thats all from TX.
Legislating Life October 6, 2004
Posted by Aaron in : Life , 2commentsI was lying in bed a few minutes ago & thinking about this upcoming election & our government. Oddly enough I found myself contemplating abortion. Now would be a good time to state two things. First of, mom, I?m not trying to tell you something. Second, for everyone, I?m quite possibly going to offend you at some point here, but I ask only one thing of you before you delete your bookmark. That one thing is that you finish reading (& perhaps even pay attention) to the rest of my post. If you are unwilling or unable to do that then I refer you here where you can find plenty of sites that are less troublesome.
Now where were we? Ah yes, abortion. While I was lying in bed I realized that I believed that abortion should be legal. I?ll wait a second for you to process that?. Ready? Then let us go back to the beginning?.
I?m pro-life and that is unlikely to ever change, however the idea of making a law to back this view has never really intuitively clicked with me. However, now I think I can explain why. As an editorial comment, there was more to this argument in the original hand-written draft of this, and if anyone would like I can try to explain it sometime via some analog means, however the time difference between when I originally wrote it & now are such that I find myself unable to convey it well in a way that won?t make some people immediately tune me out(something about writing late at night when you?ve been pulled in too many directions recently, complex abstract concepts are hard to nail down in any clean fashion), which would be bad since I?ve not hit the important parts of my reasoning. It is safe to say that few laws (and an anti-abortion law would be included here) are 100% enforceable, which is to say every person who breaks it will be caught & dealt with accordingly. So I tried to consider this from the perspective of a young woman who has recently discovered that she is pregnant (not easy considering how little I apparently know of women). I find myself facing this quite probably alone & am probably trying to keep it a secret. I don?t think I have the money or the ability to provide for a child by myself and I?ve no help to deal with this. But I also live in a society that has outlawed abortions. Afraid to say anything, I decide to risk an abortion & manage to not get caught (and the garage-based abortion ?clinic? doesn?t kill me either). I am the only one who knows but often time one person knowing is too many & a pain that I can?t discuss eats at me.
I suppose laws are nice, they let you view the world in black & white, good and evil, us and them. You know who they are? sinners. We stay away from them. Sound familiar? If you ever went to Sunday school as a child, it should. That makes us the Pharisees that Jesus spoke out against, not exactly a good thing. What if Christians worked at abortion clinics? Again, I?ll wait for you to process that?. What if the energy spent fighting a thing on a national level were poured into getting to know a person and be there for them when times weren?t quite so rosy, when quite frankly, they screw up.
Now I write this as a hypocrite (please tell me you didn?t just discard everything I?ve said). I talk & talk about what Christians should be doing, while amidst the shambles of my self-destructive life. I sit here as someone who knows the truth and has deliberately turned away from it. I?ve probably not said a real prayer in several weeks, and perhaps not for weeks before that one. Certainly since that time I?ve done things specifically because I knew they were wrong, but I wanted to thumb my nose at God (and writing all this is unfortunately not likely to change that fact). So is it logic dictating that making the symptoms of a disease illegal won?t cure it? Or perhaps despite my intentions to the contrary, God isn?t quite so willing to turn his back on me. Perhaps there is some bigger picture I?m too numb to see that makes outlawing abortion make sense. I don?t know but as I scratched at my whiskery chin tonight, this is what I?ve found myself to believe.
Don’t Give Me Any Ideas October 5, 2004
Posted by Jax in : General , 2commentsYou know it’s funny how I will do almost anything someone tells me to do, or not to do for that matter. One such example was this past Saturday. While crutching out of Stoll Hall one of my friends said something to the effect of, “You’re not going to slide down that rail are you?” Light bulb goes off in my head and I hop on the rail. I didn’t even really give myself time to think and everyone still hasn’t quite got used to my spontanaity. If I was at home Kristi, my girlfriend, or my mom would have said NO! before Tyler could even finish his sentence. This is not the case here. They’re still learning. Anyway, here I am zipping down the rail suddenly realizing that I have no way to stop. Normally when you slide down a rail you hop off and kind of walk it off but I couldn’t do that due to my still swollen foot. (If it was covered in hair it would look sort of like a hobbit foot.) Not knowing what to do I went along for the ride. At the end of the rail there is a little post that sticks about 2 inches higher. In an amazing feat of grace I slammed into that thing causing me to flip over and fall to the ground without my ankle ever touching. In the process I scraped up my leg and knee pretty bad. I also hit my head against the pavement but that didn’t really hurt because whenever I get bored I start hitting my head against the nearest hard object. The reaction from everyone when I fell was truly worth it. All these girls were gathered around when I did it and they let out an impressive gasp. They came running over to see if I was dead and I quickly hopped up. This guy walking by said, “Dude, you should be a skate boarder.” In my mind I thougth “Dude, I want to live,” but I suppose my actions said otherwise.
Being the bright person I am I told my mom and girlfriend about this and both of them chewed me out, which is probably a good thing but I don’t know if it will stop me from being stupid in the future. Now my “babysitter,” people from the cross-country team which is composed of 1 guy and 5 girls, are keeping a very close eye on me and I am not allowed to do anything on my own. No, they don’t follow me into the bathroom. That’s where I go to avoid watching chick flicks with them.
So the moral of the story: Don’t give me any ideas. Who knows what I might do.