My desk last week

This is a picture of my desk one day last week. Pictured (left to right) are my bosses laptop, the computer we're giving away one lucky online banking customer, my laptop, the second monitor for my laptop (used for terminal services sessions mostly), and one of our servers. Only the last three are at my desk normally, but since I had all of them there I thought I would snap a picture. My job is fun.


Horked Off

For the last couple of days, I have been extremely upset with Christians. Not so much with the ones I know, but with our representatives in public. Here are a few examples:

1. Tom DeLay
Dave posted about this speech here. It's another example of idiocy, or of complete disregard for human dignity; possibly both.

2. Star Jones of THE VIEW
Not that I really care what she thinks, or ever watch this show, but I did hear a quote from her that went something like this: "I was there on my honeymoon a month ago; it could have been me. God really blessed me [by making sure I wasn't there]." I don't know why exactly, but this rubs me the wrong way. I guess because it sounds self-centered and is of the "I have to make everything, even a global tragedy, somehow relate to my own piddly life" school of thought, which I also can't stand.

3. This article in The Lookout
For those of you who are not familiar with this fine piece of literary work (or with my sarchastic nature), I apologize. I also must apologize that it will not work in Mozilla. Grrr. I stumbled across this issue, all about the 'dating dilemma', when I had nothing better to do. I should have watched some more Dawson's Creek. Suffice it to say that this is the best (read: worst) quote in the whole article; it also sums up the guy's lack of credentials very well.

"I would never encourage Christian parents to allow their children to date unbelievers. I wouldn't want them to experience my anguish."

His anguish? The only thing that happened to him was that he was too controlling of his daughter, and that she rightfully got angry. Then, when they broke up, he saw this as the 'hand of God', thus proving him right. How convenient.

4. Yet another article
Another Lookout prize-winner, the very scientific writer of this piece of work writes, "Though I know of no studies that have been conducted, I suspect that the divorce rate among those who maintain their sexual purity before marriage is significantly lower than that of those who choose not to.

WHA?
(a) "Though I know of no studies...." is not a good way to gain credibility, especially when you are making erroneous claims.
(b) I'm not so sure that if this poll were to be taken, it would come out in this guy's favor. If you've ever been around those Christian couples who love to tell everyone how great their sex life is (in great detail) because they waited until they were married, you know what I mean. Yuck.

5. This
But if you read this site, you probably already know what I'm talking about.

And finally, the whole reason I decided to post this rant,

6. www.realrelationships.com
I got this book for Christmas from one of my good friends, and I was very excited because it has a special online evaluation that you get to access for free (a $30 value, so the book cover says). First, as I'm reading, I can't help but notice that there are several ploys to get me to purchase their workbook; namely, that I can't get all that I want out of the book without the exercises therein. "That's all right," I keep telling myself, all the while waiting for chapter 9 when they tell me about the online personality evaluation, the evaluation for my mate, and the couple's evaluation. Of course, I go to the website and am told this:

"To take your indicator, click here now and insert your passcode, and remember, you can always come back later and purchase an additional love talk indicator for your partner ($15) and receive your Love Talk couple's report."

Gee thanks for lying to me. And as if that weren't enough, I then read that I have to purchase the couple's report for an additional $15.

So, as far as I can tell, Les and Leslie, if I took your stupid test (which actually did sound interesting, and may have saved me from horrible communication blunders down the road--do you know how valuable that would be?), I wouldn't save $30, I would actually spend it. Capitalism at its best.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

In unrelated news, Emma performed her first successfully funny prank today. We were at a friend's house, and she ran in the kitchen saying, "Is there something on my teeth?" while laughing hysterically. She had strategically placed a raisin on her front tooth, making it seem like she was missing a tooth--Genius.

X Minus One

I've been listening to the 1950s sci-fi radio program, X Minus 1. It's pretty fun so far. I've listened to about half of the second episode (the first episode was 404'd). I heard about it on the Engadget podcast. It's set in 1987 on board a spaceship headed for another solar system. Five ships have been lost trying to make this trip, but the captain thinks he can do it. If you're offended by bad language, then watch out. The salty old spaceship captain does at one point say st***d id**t.

Update: I should also link to the main site, RadioLovers.com. There are lots of cool programs like Abbott & Costello, Amos & Andy, Avenger, Batman, Buck Rodgers, Calling All Cars, etc. And it's all free.

Ad in this weeks paper

This post was written before I became an atheist and does not represent my current views. You can find more up-to-date posts on religion in my faith/skepticism category.

Concerned how our country is being
led away from God to socialism?

So are we! Big gathering in Branson on Saturday, January 8, 9 a.m.-4
p.m. For strategy and information by nationally known speakers and
organizations.

RSVP: 417-754-9253 or 4170754-8774 or 660-598-0011. Duane Klepel

That ad was in a local paper this week. I always thought that socialism was a form of government and God was a form of religion. How can being led away from one be the same thing as being led toward another? And how, exactly, is our nation being led toward socialism when our president and congress are both controlled by the capitalism-friendly Republican party? More to the point, is a socialist state inherently incompatible with Christianity? Why doesn't this ad identify the organization that is putting this meeting on? Sara suggested that I google the name "Duane Klepel." I guess he wrote a letter to the Truman State University Index last summer.

G4 from the inside: Dan Huard, Wil Wheaton

This post was written before I became an atheist and does not represent my current views. You can find more up-to-date posts on religion in my faith/skepticism category.

Dan Huard: Life as a TechTV/G4 Employee - Dan is the guy who screened my call when I was on The Screen Savers. If I had called after G4 took over I probably wouldn't have been on, since they've adopted a policy of no geeks and no technical questions. I also thought it was funny how Dan says that some of the new hosts have been banned from answering live calls because they know jack squat about computers. Here is a good article from Wil Wheaton about how things worked at G4 when he was there. So sad.

(Extra geeky bonus link: Leo Laporte comments on Slashdot in reaction to the post linking to Dan's article)

Happy Birthday, Emma!

This post was written before I became an atheist and does not represent my current views. You can find more up-to-date posts on religion in my faith/skepticism category.
Emma at her party

Today is Emma's third birthday. We had her party yesterday. The pictures are in the the gallery.

Essays and Writings

This post was written before I became an atheist and does not represent my current views. You can find more up-to-date posts on religion in my faith/skepticism category.

Danny
Church and State: Keep them Separated - An article I wrote for the June 2004 Adrian Christian Church newsletter.

I'm Tired of Religion - This is a message I gave to Jr. High and High School students on January 21, 2004.


LOTR, Spiritual Themes: Part I - The first of three Sunday morning messages based on the Lord of the Rings. It deals with the teaching power of stories, the gospel as a true fairy tale, and the reality of evil and good.

LOTR, Spiritual Themes: Part II - I use the One Ring to illustrate the power of temptation, and characters like Gandalf, Faramir and Galadriel show how temptation can be resisted.

LOTR, Spiritual Themes: Part III - Friendship is the theme of this message. Real friendship requires mercy and, sometimes, sacrifice.

The Bad Son: My Journey Away from the Definitive Church of Christ Doctrine - This is a paper I wrote for a class at Truman called Junior Interdisciplinary Seminar: Music in Religious Thought and Practice.

Mt. Juliet Discussion Board: Instrument thread - If you want to see me jumping feet first into a controversy, read this. It's a long, long thread, and the site admins finally locked it and deleted it. I was able to save a copy just in time.

Sara

Art Appreciation - A call for Christians to return to the fine arts as a form of expression and participation with the culture.

Christian Voters Make Tough Decisions - What criteria should Christian voters use?

Married to Reality - How viewing marriage as a spiritual discipline can help young couples succeed in their own unions.

What (Not) to Wear - A modern look at solving the age-old problem of immodesty.

Stem Cell Research: The Politics of Principle - A look at the political and moral issues surrounding stem cell research.

New Year's Drone - Sara ponders her choice of New Year's Eve activities.

Spreading Ubuntu

This post was written before I became an atheist and does not represent my current views. You can find more up-to-date posts on religion in my faith/skepticism category.

I was talking with a bank customer and he asked me what operating system I used at home. I told him that I use Ubuntu Linux at the moment. He said he found a deal for Windows XP pro for $160. I reached into my drawer and pulled out one of the cds that Ubuntu gave it to him. He said he had tried Redhat and Mandrake before, but had problems getting it to work with his hardware. He said he would give Ubuntu a try. I was so excited to learn that I'm not the only Linux user in town. Maybe we can start our own Adrian LUG.

Favorites from 2004

This post was written before I became an atheist and does not represent my current views. You can find more up-to-date posts on religion in my faith/skepticism category.

I present to you, in no particular order, some of my favorite things from 2004 and their corresponding posts on my weblog.


Bloglines - I was looking for a good, free RSS reader, and I found it in Bloglines. And they just keep making it better. It's probably the site that spends the most time in my browser. I'm up to 180 feeds now, and Bloglines makes it so easy to keep up with all the websites I like to read.


Ubuntu Linux - Ubuntu fixed the major problem I had with Linux. It's hard to install new programs when you have to compile it, or you don't meet the dependancies. Ubuntu's package manager checks dependancies, then downloads the right version from the web and installs it all automatically. This makes Linux accessible for a lot more people, and it gives the user a lot of power.


Napoleon Dynamite - A very funny movie. GOSH!!


Gmail - Hotmail upped its disk quota from 2 MB to 250. Too little, too late. Gmail has 1000 MB of space, great spam filtering, and the best user interface I've ever used for email. It even made me drop Thunderbird. The web really is becoming a platform of its own.


Podcasting - Once I got iPodder, iTunes, and MortPlayer (on my Pocket PC) all working together, listening to podcasts has been great. I listen on my walk to and from work every day. The brendoman.com podcast has been a lot of fun, too.


My new job - I'm a real live IT nerd now. This job has been just right for me.


Jon Stewart - Great show. Great book. Great job of calling the media to task.


Lil' Brudder - The heart of a champion, I tell you.


Free Culture - A great book about why copyright law is broken and the corruption in Washington is making it more broken. If it continues we'll lose important parts of our culture.


Troy - His comments on my Passion of the Christ review kept us entertained for several weeks.


They Might Be Giants in Concert - That was a fun show. Their new cd is very good, too.


My trip to California - Helping Rob move back to Missouri turned into a big ordeal. But if you're going to be involved in a big ordeal, you might as well be with some good friends.


Midwest Vacation (map) - Who knew the Midwest could be so fun?


Top 5 Worst Worship songs - 210 comments and counting.


Tivo - Mmmmmmm, Tivo.


Firefox - Firebird gets its name changed. Again. Microsoft Internet Explorer continues to have security problems. The browser wars are back.


danny.brendoman.com begins - Thanks again, Brendan.


It's been a good year. I can't think of another year in my life that's had this much cool stuff. Thanks to my family and friends who have shared it all with me. Here's to another great year in aught five.

Katamari Damacy

This post was written before I became an atheist and does not represent my current views. You can find more up-to-date posts on religion in my faith/skepticism category.

I got a couple of Best Buy gift cards for Christmas, and I think I might get this PS2 game: Katamari Damacy. I first heard about it from Luis, and it has good reviews. At under $20, it must be worth it.

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