Apr 28, 2007

The Truth is cooling

Wow, things just seem to be getting better and better. Found another little story, err, I mean, study about global "warming."

The part I specifically liked?

Gore, ignoring the advice of several key Clinton Administration officials, took a last-minute flight to Japan in November 1998 to sign the Kyoto Protocol even though the Energy Information Administration, the official forecasting arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, found that meeting the treaty's requirements could increase gasoline prices by up to 66 percent and electricity prices by up to 86 percent, and throw up to several million Americans out of work.

The Clinton Administration, however, never sent the treaty to Capitol Hill for ratification, in large part because the Senate unanimously passed a resolution urging the Administration not to seek approval of any global warming treaty that "would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States." President Clinton even signed appropriations bills in 1999, 2000 and 2001 prohibiting the Environmental Protection Agency from using any funds to "issue rules, regulations, decrees of orders for the purpose of implementation, or in preparation for implementation, of the Kyoto Protocol" unless and until the treaty is ratified by the Senate.

The Bush Administration, now struggling to move the country out of a recession, pretty much delivered the coup de grace to the Kyoto treaty last year when President Bush announced that the United States would withdraw from Kyoto, although it would continue to participate fully in the international meetings that developed it. On June 11, 2001, the President committed his administration to support for greater levels of funding for scientific research into climate change.10

In light of the new information, President Bush's decision to pursue more research seems especially perceptive.

Yeah, I'm getting fed up with all this bs. Please let it stop in 2009, one way or another.

Apr 25, 2007

April 26th's Realization

I plan on writing a post about going to see the Kaiser Chiefs last Saturday, as well as another post offering a review of Jeffrey Overstreet's "Through A Screen Darkly," but that will have to be for later. For now, here's something I wrote on Facebook a while back. Thought I should share it with a wider group of people.

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I'm slowly realizing something. (See, I get like this when I'm alone and thinking..) What I realized is something pretty important I'm guessing.

It's...what, 2007? I graduated from high school in 2003. Now, if I had played it safe, I could potentially be graduating from a Baptist college this summer, probably with a degree in accounting or youth ministry or something.

Odds are I would be in much better physical shape, probably have a girlfriend if not a fiance, maybe even have an internship lined up at Fourth or some other big name Baptist church.

But I would not be where I am now.

All those things above...those are things I want. A college degree, a wife, a job with a certain amount of prestige to it, better physical fitness...etc.

But...and I can't help but think this...

I would be spiritually bankrupt. I would be living a lie. I would be serving a false god, made up out of rules and regulations culled from theology and the church. I would have more in common the Pharisees than I would with the believers.

So...while I see all my old friends graduating, getting married, living the "dream" as I've had it...I should not complain. While the last few years have been tough, and especially have had their low moments...ultimately, God has a different path for me, and it's not what's expected.

The future scares me. But also excites me as to it's possibilities. It's time I get more serious and embrace that future.

A friend of mine who I graduated high school with has admonished me on occasion that I seem to hate all Baptists; that the name Baptist automatically carries bad connotations with it. That's not true.

I don't hate Baptists. I respect, admire, and even love many Baptists. But I do hate the religion that has sprung up around it. But more importantly...seeing where they are at, what they live for and strive for...

I can't help but be thankful to God that He has chosen a different path for me.

Because I could not live life as a Fundamentalist Baptist.

Apr 18, 2007

New addiction...I mean, addition

See that new box on the bottom right hand side of the page? That's a LastFM box. Basically, it will show you the last ten songs I have listened to on my laptop, all courtesy of the amazing website LastFM.

My complete profile is right here.

While I'm still trying to figure out how to get that box to show completely in the corner...need to resize things somehow...I'm probably going to keep that design since I tend to like it the best out of all the pre-made ones they have. They DID have a U2 themed one, but the text was way too dark for the image they used.

Ah, but I haven't explained precisely what LastFM is. It's a free service that tracks the music you listen to via a plug-in that is available in a wide variety of players. It keeps track of which artists you listen to the most (U2), both weekly (U2) and overall (U2), as well as top tracks (Kaiser Chiefs??? Wahuuuh?).

Obviously since 1 out of every 3 songs I have on my computer is a U2 song of some form, that tends to dominate the charts. My only complaint is that the program does not differentiate between different albums. A song that was played at my Minneapolis concert, like Vertigo, will just show up as Vertigo from the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album. I could listen to 5 different versions of New Year's Day, remix, live, or single edits, and yet it will still show either War or The Best of 1980 albums. A handy plug-in that allows you to edit or supply albums and artwork would be nice.

One other nice feature of this program is the ability to choose which songs you "love", as well as tag songs. Tags can be pre-selected (rock, dance, country, whatever) or you can make up your own (all time favorite, great live, remix, spiritual - rock, etc). REALLY addictive.

I must admit, I have a little bit of apprehension putting this ticker on such a public place. I don't know if really everyone needs to see what I listen to. Most of this apprehension comes from past experiences, where someone would condemn me on the spot for listening to something with a drum beat, or was "secular" vs Christian. But you know what I figure now? I'm really not ashamed of the music I listen to. In fact, I'm rather proud of it, and desire to freely share it. U2 in particular has opened the door and allowed me to share Christ with people. I am definitely not ashamed of it. And yes, I listen to Metallica too. I have my reasons, which you can disagree with.

And besides...anything that is not of faith is sin, right? I think I have the faith to listen to rock and roll...

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Kudos to Granticus for All Because of You. We really need to get you and Dean a Memory Man unit.

Apr 17, 2007

Virginia Tech shootings

Those of you from Marantha who are on the campus talking to people...you who man the table at the hall...

This is going to be very important for the next few weeks.

I don't know how to say this without sounding like we're trying to "profit" from this tragedy...

But those of you who went to Summit know just how important this is. We know firsthand just what series of events led to this shooting. And we know what we can say about it.

I'll be praying all day. Let this event be for good.

This does not need to happen again.

Apr 6, 2007

Laptop Update #2

Sitting here waiting for the DivX codec to update...so got a minute or two of time to kill. Kinda nice to be able to blog from the comfort of my own room.

Ok, more new laptop impressions. Yes, I hate the mouse pad. I'm sure there is some way to tweak the settings, legally or otherwise, so that will happen later. I'm having an easier time typing this with the laptop actually sitting in my lap than on the kitchen table before.

Ok, have to mention this. The first cd to be played on my laptop...nay, the first official music on my laptop, not counting YouTube earlier...is...badum badum...

U2-Zooropa!! "What do you want?" indeed...

Great cd...great song. Sounds pretty good too...sore spot number one, cause it could sound BETTER...cause I am paying for it to sound BETTER!! Yet no better soundcard...stupid Dell.

Well...here's the main deal with the laptop. You can not buy a new PC without getting Vista. Vista is too new, nothing runs on it, and I don't want it. So...we had to scrub out Vista. Complete deletion, reinstall with XP. We decided to create a smaller partition for XP in the hopes that we could get both XP and Vista installed; dual boot as it is called.

So far, only XP. Need to call Dell to ask some questions about the crappy discs they sent with the computer before we want to attempt to install Vista. Right now XP has maybe a 30 gig partition even though I have a 120 gig drive. Not to worry though, I have a 250 gig external sitting around somewhere...

Mad Dog, as it is called.

Now that I have this laptop...and keep on accidently hitting the mouse pad when I type...which pisses me off...anyways, I was thinking of trying something later on.

Live blogging from church. I sit there, have lots of questions, lots of observations, and tend to forget them after the sermon is over. Well, now I can blog them! Might be interesting to try sometime...

Ok, back to the updates. Later.

Final thought a minute later...now that I've listened to both Zooropa and Babyface...I'm already hearing parts of the songs I've never heard before. You know how awesome that is?? Hearing a new part or harmony or lick or something in the background....

Tight!

Laptop Update #1

Well, I got my laptop. Actually got it last Tuesday. It's...got a lot of work to be done yet. I have it for the weekend then I'm giving it back TPTB to fix it some more.

Already the mouse pad is driving me nuts. The mouse icon bounces as I type this. WAAAAY too sensitive, I'm afraid I might delete the whole blog if I breathe on it.

More on this later...





Heh..."Granticus"...I am entertained.