Final quotes from 'The Myth of a Christian Nation'

Because our source of worth, significance, and security is found exclusively on God's love and God's reign, not our own immediate well-being, an because we believe in the resurrection, we are empowered to love even those who threaten our well-being--for this does not threaten our essential worth, significance, and security. pg 180


In the early Church, Christians considered an honor to be martyred for their faith and to testify to the loving lordship of Christ by dying the way He died. They weren't glutton for punishments; they simply saw their life and death from a kingdom perspective. If dying furthered the purpose of the kingdom of God, they considered it an honor. How things have changed! We now find ourselves in a version of Christianity where protecting ourselves is one of the main things we stand for--"in Jesus' name"! In the name of the one who surrender his rights and died for sinners, we fight against sinners for our rights! As with many other things, we do what ordinary pagans do--we simply Christianize it. pg 182

As a final word on the book, IMHO, it's the best 'religious' book I've ever read in my life, I found myself agreeing with Pr Greg Boyd over and over again. Throughout this past few weeks, I had the opportunity to exchange some thoughts with the Pastor myself, which was incredibly delightful.

I now have a couple of books to pick from:

* Escaping The Matrix: Setting your mind free to experience real life in Christ by Pr. Greg Boyd
* Don't Waste Your Life by Pr. John Piper

I will keep the blog posted as I go along with them.

F*ck you sodas!

I am mad, yes, I am mad. I am mad at myself, I am mad at the circumstances, I am mad at my old dentist, I am sodas, but mostly mad at myself.

I need a new root canal, which totally sucks, I've always taken pretty good care of my teeth, and I've always been pretty proud of my bucal hygiene.

Five factors have contributed for my root canal, they are:

1. Due to the fluorine treatments on my teeth as a child, my teeth's outer shell (whatever they are called) are pretty strong, making it hard for bacteria to eat through it, which is good. BUT, if they do get through it, instead making the cavity grow outside of the tooth, the bacteria starts going inward because they outer shell is to 'well protected'.

2. My old dentist, the same one I complained about here, instead of investigating, and treating the 'tiny' little cavity when he first saw it, he decided to 'watch it,' so even though from an external point of view the cavity was really really tiny, internally, my tooth was being destroyed.

3. The dentist today brought to my attention, that my teeth nerves are 'higher' within the teeth than most adults... something he said it is mostly genetics, but this basically says that bacteria will be able to reach the nerve of my teeth faster than the normal, because the nerve is basically 'sticking' out.

4. Sodas... sodas, sodas... F*ck you, Mountain Dew! The sugar is bad for you and your teeth, no surprise there. The 'fizz', a.k.a. carbon dioxide, isn't good for you teeth either, but when added to citric acid that Mountain Dew has, it creates a powerful corrosive chemical to your teeth.

5. I, myself, and me. Who drank the soda? Who accepted the dentist diagnosis? Who could have brushed his teeth more often (like 3 times a day, maybe?!) I suck!

As of today, I am done with sodas... water, juice and tea... that's it.

Muslims > Catholics

Very interesting read - I might write some more about this later today.

Photography: The American Teenager

I just found this 'digital' gallery to be fascinating: check it out.

The myth about giving

I heard a story today about a teacher who has taught in both 'rich' and 'poor' public schools in North Carolina, and she mentioned something that caught my attention. She said: "It's fascinating to see how the rich kids are willing to share, and how willing they to do things for the poor. I mean, really, they are more aware and active towards it than the poor kids. The poor kids are always fighting to see who gets it first or who gets more of something. They don't want to share.'

That made me think a bit... and the following is not to take away from anyone who gives. Giving is possibly one of the most satisfying experience a human being can partake on, yet...

It's so easy to fall into the trap about being a 'good' or 'better' person because you'd like to think you help noble causes like: tithing to the Church, helping the poor, volunteering a few hours a week to help someone out. It's so easy to say that as a nation nobody gives out more aid to other countries than the United States of America. It's easy to be proud of that, nowt if you look at the nation's total GNI (Gross National Income), and compares the percentage given by other nations to their GNI, the US ranks poorly compared to other nations...

Wow, how nice of us...




Sad to say...



It's easy for Bill Gates to give away 40 billion dollars (or whatever amount he has committed), when he is sitting on top of another 40.

It's easy for me to feel good about the fact that I can give this or that away to someone in need, when I know I have 4 or 5 of those at home.

Jesus once again gets it right:

41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.

42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,[a]worth only a fraction of a penny.[b]

43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.

44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

Mark 12

This is why wars suck

I laughed when I saw this, but then I actually thought about it a bit harder. It doesn't matter who is the 'good guy' or the 'enemy,' we are all sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. We all have friends. Oh, yeah, and Jesus died for the 'good guy' and the 'bad guy' WHOMEVER they are!

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. -- Ephesians 6:12

I am learning

During the past few weeks, maybe months, I've been learning a lot. I've been learning from others and from myself.

Everyday that goes by I wake up more determined to not be determined.

I am learning that I do not hold any answers to anyone.
I am learning that head knowledge is worthless without a caring heart.
I am learning that on my own, nothing I do makes a real difference.
I am learning that my wants are mostly the causes of my troubles.
I am learning that what matters in life is what I do, and not what I want to do.
I am learning that a kind gesture can catch people off guard and make them your friends.
I am learning that patience can be reached with practice and patience.
I am learning that what I do for living, is just that, what I do for living.
I am learning that when I forgive, I am forgiven.
I am learning that it's only when 'I' is replaced with 'You' that motivation is found.
I am learning that violence is the easy way out.
I am learning that a meal is a privilege.
I am learning that eternal life has began.
I am learning that kindness, love and faith is what life is all about.
I am learning that to re-assess myself, try new things, step into other people's shoes.
I am learning to be quiet.

No Fear Message

Download it, and listen. It's a great message.

I hope it will speak to you as much as it spoke to me.

Back to work tomorrow

I haven't done any real work since last Thursday, Lord knows I was needing a break. Tomorrow, I go back to the grinder... life resumes.

Today I took the family to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. The last time we were there was 3 years ago in the middle of the Summer, it was hot! Today, it was the most perfect day to be out and about. It was beautiful.

I have posted some pictures of the trip on Picasa Web.

On a side note, most people in the US probably knows that there is a drought going on in the Southeast of the country, but I had no idea it was this bad:


My wife and I at the 'North America' entrance of the NC Zoo in 2005.


The same entrance as of today, March 26th, 2008. Note: The dead trees aren't dead, they just haven't bloomed for Spring yet... but it makes the scenario a bit more dramatic :-)

Yikes!

I am a twitter-er now

Twitter is a little like a social network site that basically lets you and your friends update your current status, and text each other. I've added a twitter plugin to this blog (not available via RSS), which allows people to see what I am up to.

My Twitter home is: http://twitter.com/bean2

When your number is not up yet

Our reputation

While tax collectors and prostitutes gravitated towards Jesus because of his magnetic kingdom love, these sorts of sinners steer clear of the church, just as they did the Pharisees, and for the exact same reason: they do not experience unconditional love and acceptance in our midst--they experience judgement.
The brutal fact is that we Christians are not generally known for our love--for the simple reason that we, like the Pharisees of old, generally judge more than we love.
The Myth of a Christian Nation, pg 133-134.

At church today, we talked about one of the most famous verses of the Bible (if not the most famous): "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." The Gospel According to John, Chapter 3, Verse 16.

And even though, this verse sometimes loses its depth because of the frequency of its use, the pastor today brought this verse up from an interesting perspective.

He focused on the word 'whoever,' which implies that God, and logically the Church shouldn't care about race, religion, sexual orientation, political stands, age, profession... nothing. WHOEVER believes!

He went one step further, and mentioned that WHOEVER implies 3 other words: HOWEVER,
WHEREVER, WHENEVER.

Jesus took people in the way they were, people went to Jesus because they knew Jesus would treat them all the same with unconditional love.

WHOEVER you are, HOWEVER you feel, WHEREVER you stand, WHENEVER you need...

GOD LOVES YOU!

Happy Easter!

AS

The veggies keep coming!!!!

Shocking Dinner, originally uploaded by afsilva.

The above was my dinner tonight. It was the 5h or 6th 'only-salad-meal' I had this week. The components were:

* Dark green Lettuce
* Spinach
* Cherry Tomatoes
* Snap peas (new on my list)
* Green beans (new on my list)
* Mushrooms
* Carrots
* Grilled Chicken (grilled by me)
* Grilled Asparagus (grilled by me)
* A little bit of cheddar cheese
* Greek Vinaigrette dressing on the left side
* Aged Parmesan Caesar dressing on the right.

And that was my supper!

Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix

This weekend the Malaysian F1 GP is on. It is pretty late, with Qualifying & Race coverage starting at 2 AM EDT on Speed. I am not sure if I will wake up to watch it yet, but I will definitely catch the re-broadcast at 1:30 PM on Sunday.

For now, Chris and I, did some laps around the Sepang Circuit last night, here are some cool shots from rFactor.

Easter thought

In this world
we lived to die
Until the day
He died so we could live

He conquered death
He is risen
He fooled nature
Freeing us from life's prison

A crappy day for sure...

+++++++++++++ THE BAD +++++++++++++++++++

1. Dentist appointment in which they need to replace 2 fillings, and take care of a tiny cavity, in which by looking at their cool digital x-rays, we were able to see that it actually bigger once you get through the tiny whole. The dentist explained to me that due to all the fluoride and sealants I've had growing up, that the outside of the tooth gets strong, but if a cavity happens, it can disguise itself as a tiny cavity because of the outside of the tooth being so strong.

That is actually how I ended up having a root canal last year, because a tiny cavity ended up being a deep one. The two fillings I have to replace are due to a poor job done by my previous dentist. I have to say that it was great to hear the dentist say that the previous dentist did a poor job on my teeth, because I've always thought he was not a good dentist. I am not going to mention his name, but if you live in Lynchburg, VA, feel free to ask who it is :-)

2. My youngest son, Luke, is sick, he threw up last night, this morning, my wife had to take him to the Dr, and she things he has some virus... something that will go away with time.

With that said, that meant, that I had to leave work early to go get the kids at school, which is incredibly distracting during work, specially on a day where working sucked mostly... Too many requests, too many mistakes, too many things not working...

3. On my way to get the kids, I get pulled over by a police for not doing a 'complete' stop on a stop sign. Yeah, it was my bad... I deserved it. What I don't deserve though is the following:

I get home, I look at the ticket, and I want to find out where to mail in the payment for it. I look on the front, on the back, there is no address. So, I decide to look up a number to see if I can call someone. I look on the front, the back, there is no number!

WHAT THE CRAP, JOHNSTON COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA?! HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO PAY A FINE, IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME THE INSTRUCTIONS ON WHAT TO DO!!!!!

I go online, find the non-emergency # for the Clayton Police Department, they transfer me to the the Courthouse Clerk, and there they proceed to tell me that my fine is $50, and not $25 as the police officer had written down?!

So, my question is, is a Ticket considered to be a contract? Do I have to pay what the County says is the fine of the violation or what the police writes down on the ticket?

With that said, I intend to go to court, not to claim that I am innocent, I am not! But, to see if anyone is willing to hear me about making the system a tiny itsy better.

4. I don't know the details, but I got the news my sis-in-law is going to get a kidney removed... It is my understanding that by some abnormality, she actually has 3 of them, and one of them is giving her all sorts of problems... I've been praying for her, and I will keep praying. It's in time like this that I feel like saying: "C'mon God, do something?!"

5. Work has been a killer this week... I don't feel overwhelmed thanks to my team lead and my boss, but I feel like everyone in the company can decide to re-group and re-arrange, and then expect us, Release Engineering, to be 100% responsive when they decide they are ready to go live, with incredibly unrealistic deadlines. VERY FRUSTRATING!

++++++++++++ THE GOOD +++++++++++++++

1. Sean, my 6 year old son, decided to take off his training wheels, and w/o even trying, I held his seat, he started to peddle, I let it go, and off he went. It was fantastic!

2. In all of this... I keep trying to find the love of God on all things. I have to admit that for about 35 minutes after getting that ticket, I was PISSED, I couldn't even talk... then I thought about His love, what He has done for me. What we celebrate this weekend... And I felt His love around me once again.

3. I truly wish as Christians (not the product, but the person) that we gave more importance to Easter, to the resurrection of our Savior, than to Christmas. Yet, due to being such an important date, and less commercialized in this culture, we seem to not give it as much importance.

If it wasn't for Easter, Christmas would still be a Winter Solstice pagan holiday.

4. Oh, I got a free t-shirt at work.

Veggies++ and a Reply

Veggies++

To my list of vegetables add:

* Alfalfa - Tonight I had alfalfa, spinach, carrots, radishes, mushrooms and brown rice (w/ Chicken).

Tomorrow, I plan to have the same, but no meat, and add corn to it.

a Reply:

I emailed Pr. Greg Boyd this weekend after my 'I think about that quite often, actually' and he replied, here is the email exchange:

from Greg Boyd
to afsilva@gmail.com,
date Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 2:18 PM
subject RE: Beautiful Scriptures
mailed-by whchurch.org
You're a wise person Anderson,

If you read children's bibles, they (wisely_) take out all the genocide,
raping , pillaging, dismembering parts of the bible. The stuff is rated
"R" at least!

Blessings

Greg

> From: "Anderson Silva" <afsilva@gmail.com>
> > Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 11:44 AM
> Subject: Beautiful Scriptures
>
>
> Pr. Greg,
>
> I want to give you an illustration of your thoughts about the
> 'beautiful Bible.'
>
> Sometimes I find myself wanting to skip stories of the Bible when
> reading them to my kids, specially Old Testament stories due to the
> violence in them.
>
> Thank you for sharing your thoughts because most of the time I agree with
> them.
>
> God bless,
>
> AS
> --
> http://www.the-silvas.com
>

Veggies

This past week, I've eaten:

* Corn (which I've always liked)
* Mushrooms (which I've always liked)
* Spinach (which I've always liked)
* Tomatoes (which I've always liked)
* Carrots (which I've always liked ok)
* Lettuce (only like the dark green leaf type)
* Cucumbers (it's ok)
* Radishes (I actually liked it)
* Asparagus (I actually loved it! With salt, pepper and olive oil)

I already asked my wife to see if we can have salads every night this week.

Ferrari Wallpaper

I made this from the ITV video footage from last night's Australian GP. The car is last year's Ferrari F2007 driven by Kimi Raikkonen.

rFactor + Australian GP

With only 35 minutes away from the first race of the 2008 F1 Season, Chris and I, did some laps around Albert Park, Melbourne. I also figured it out how to take screenshots of the actions... here we go:

The McLaren cruisin' around Albert Park track.

Hamilton.

Massa in the garage, driver's angle.

Massa in the garange, onboard cam angle.

Off-track! I suck :-)

Pitlane.

This game is so much fun, I don't even miss my Xbox 360.

I think about that quite often, actually

Divinely Inspired Infanticide and Genocide?

A number of years ago I read a Christian apologist who argued that one proof of the Bible's inspiration is the fact that it is "the most beautiful book ever written." Now, I believe the Bible is divinely inspired. But this statement made me wonder how many books this guy had actually read. In fact, it made me wonder if he'd read the Bible!

Here's an inspired verse I don't find particularly beautiful.

Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction...
Happy are those who seize your infants
and dash them against the rocks (Psalms 137:8-9)

When an army conquered a city in the ancient world the victors would sometimes celebrate by smashing the heads of the infants against rocks. (Possibly inspired by this verse, this practice was resurrected by Christian Crusaders conquering Muslim cities). In this dark passage, the Psalmist is eagerly looking forward to this being done to Babylonian infants. He thinks the warriors who get to do this are lucky!

Most beautiful book in the world? Sorry. I'm not feel'n it.

Let's be honest. This passage is barbarically ugly, and we've got to wonder what on earth it's doing in the "inspired Word of God"! How are we to see this passage as "inspired" in light of the fact that Jesus taught us to love and bless our enemies, not hate and curse them? How could the same Lord who taught us to turn the other cheek, never retaliate and never use the sword inspire the Psalmist to gloat over the splattering of infants' heads? If harboring anger and speaking nasty words ("Raca") to another person puts us in danger of hell, as Jesus taught (Matt 5), what kind of danger must the Psalmist be in for harboring this utterly vindictive attitude toward the Babylonians?

What intensifies this problem even more is that it's not like Psalms 137 is an isolated case of celebrated violence in the Old Testament. It's found all over the place! The worst episode is when the Israelites were entering into the promised land. As they approached certain cities, the Israelites were commanded -- by God -- to slaughter men, women, children and even the animals! Is Yahweh aiming at complete genocide of the Canaanite people? Could anything be more antithetical to what we learn about God in Jesus Christ? Honestly (we've got to be honest here, even if it hurts) doesn't this depiction of God look more like the God of Osama Bin Laden than the Father of Jesus Christ?

In my opinion, this is the most challenging objection to the Christian faith and most difficult theological question of the Christian faith. It's a problem I want to wrestle with in my next few posts. But I want you to be forewarned: If you think I'm going to have nice and tidy answers to this question, you're going to be disappointed. I don't. I'm still in process, entertaining a number of possibilities.

But I invite you to join me in the process.

In the meantime, I encourage you to walk in the self-sacrificial, loving way of Jesus, not the baby-head-smashing way of the Psalmist.

Later

Greg

Source: http://gregboyd.blogspot.com/

I find his thoughts particularly interesting when dealing with kids. Bible for kids most of the time only paint the 'beautiful' and 'friendly' part of the Bible. As I try to bring my kids into the 'real' world, sometimes I find it hard to read passages from the 'real' Bible for them.

It's Friday -- Funny Youtube Video

When I am weak...

Mornings like this I feel like everything I think, and write, and sometimes try to live out is a complete waste of time.

Why try so hard, when you know you are destined to fail? I am selfish, greedy, lazy, short-tempered, disobedient, and above all arrogant.

If when I am being weak, He is being our strength, then I need God to show up.

I need Him to be strong for me.

Formula 1 is here!

Tomorrow at 11 PM (EDT), Speed TV starts the broadcast of the 2008 Season of the FIA Formula 1 Championship. The first race is in Australia, the schedule is:

Practice - 11 PM (EDT) - Tomorrow night (3/13)
Qualifying - 11 PM (EDT) - Friday night (3/14)
Race - 12 AM (EDT) - Saturday/Sunday (3/15)

My friend, Chris, and I have started to race online again, it's been almost 3 years since we've done it. We are playing rFactor, which already has 2008 Season mods available for download.

Here are some screenshots from the mod:





Chris and I raced for about 1 hour last night... and I hope to race some more tonight, and the nights to follow.

My racing wheel:



And finally, the Brazilian news site O Globo Online, asked each driver this season which was their favorite F1 driver of all time, here are their answers:

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) - Ayrton Senna

Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - N/A

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) - Ayrton Senna

Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) - N/A

Nelsinho Piquet (Renault) - Nelson Piquet

Fernando Alonso (Renault) - Ayrton Senna

Nick Heidfeld (BMW/Sauber) - Ayrton Senna

Robert Kubica (BMW/Sauber) - Ayrton Senna

Nico Rosberg (Williams) - Ayrton Senna

Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) - Satoru Nakajima

Jarno Trulli (Toyota) - Niki Lauda

Timo Glock (Toyota) - Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher

David Coulthard (Red Bull) - Alain Prost

Mark Webber (Red Bull) - Alain Prost

Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) - Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher

Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso) - Ayrton Senna

Rubens Barrichello (Honda) - Ayrton Senna

Jenson Button (Honda) - Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost

Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri) - Ayrton Senna

Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) - Ayrton Senna

Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India) - Ayrton Senna and Michele Alboreto

Adrian Sutil (Force India) - Michael Schumacher

'Taking America back for God'

The following was written by a 19th century slave, who taught himself how to read and write.

Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference - so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked... I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful on, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. -- Frederick Douglass

It's interesting to note that our 'taking America back for God' usually comes from preachers who likes to say that 'back in the day' things were so much better... maybe, if you were white.

More ToDos done

* Got new carpet for the living/dining room.
* Moved desk from guest room and moved into living/dining room.
* Re-arranged furniture in guest room.
* Put away slot car race track.
* Tried out asparagus, and the way my wife makes them, I really liked it!
* Took a picture:



* Went to church with the kids.
* Found this program called 'PamFax' that let's me use Skype credit to send faxes to anywhere in the world... (The two things that suck so far: 1. I haven't tested it yet, so I can't recommend it. 2. It only works on Windows).
* This ministry that I am starting to help out is needing financial support to feed the needy in the area where I live in. If you feel like helping out, check it out!
It was a really nice weekend.

The world of blue jeans...

This is how out of touch we are....





Source: Time Magazine

Work To Do (Part Deux)

Updated 'Work To Do':

* Finishing reading the 3 books that I am currently reading. Finishing 2 books.
* Hang some curtains in our living room.
* Move the desk out of the office *** We need a carpet.
* Hang 'home-sweet-home'-like decorations around the house
* Get someone to take down the dead tree on our backyard.
* Fix up our front yard (re-sodding, re-mulching, etc)
* Find new books to read - 2 new books on the stack: Escaping The Matrix: Setting your mind free to experience real life in Christ by Pr. Greg Boyd and Don't Waste Your Life by Pr. John Piper
* Find a church
* Set up rfactor and racing wheel so I can play online with Chris.
* Get familiar and used to production access
* Get familiar and used to cfengine
* Get more python programming done
* Make up my mind if I really want to start a new Masters program in Engineering at NCSU. *** I am still really undecided about this!
* Get rid off some more junk at home
* NEW - Help out @ 40-42 Basic Needs Ministry **** ongoing
*NEW - Put up shades on th 60" window in the living room

Friday

My favorite day of the week!

Day 156: Nap

Day 156: Nap, originally uploaded by afsilva.

Luke is growing... 209 more days left....

How have I changed?

So, as I approach the abyss of my 30th year in this reality, I've been doing some retro-pondering on my life, and I seem to be reaching some places that might be worth exploring, may be not.

As ordinary as I'd like to see myself as, I have to confess that by looking over the last 30 years, my life has been far from ordinary. From the moment I was born, I've been through some tough times (at least according to my mom, since I don't remember any of it).

Throughout these 30 years, I've had more doors of opportunities open to me that most people have had in their 70 to 80 year life span. Growing up in Brazil, as a low middle class boy (and eventually thanks to my dad hard work climbing the ladder within middle class), I was given the opportunity to do and have everything I've ever dreamed of doing.

I went to the school I wanted to go to, even though I really didn't have the initial capacity to be there, I did (and succeeded) on the sports I enjoyed (handball, volleyball, basketball). I encountered the Creator of the Universe during my teens years, which brought even more improvements to my life.

I went to the United States of America, and learned so much about cultures, and how narrow minded we all (all of us, from any culture) truly are. I fell in love, and I am still down with it, and I hope never to be able to get up again from the love I have for my wife.

I was fruitful, bringing to this reality 3 amazing "little mes." I got a degree on something I love, I got a Masters, so I could teach, which I still do. I got a job at possibly the one place during my College years where I could never think I was good enough to work at...

My parents are still alive and kicking, I have extra-ordinary nephews (and nieces) and even though I don't get to see them very often, they bring me satisfaction in being an uncle, of being someone that someday they will look up to, just like I looked up to my uncles.

That's not average, that's not ordinary, that's a blessing... Yet... and that's a big Yet, what I am coming to realize is that is NOT what life is all about. These are things that the 'world' and 'culture' tells me what is all about.

I am coming to realize that these blessings that I've had, and there are so many of them, I need to share them with people who may not have had the same amazing life experiences as I've had. I don't know and I don't care for the circumstances that one would think could explain people's misfortune... I want do something about it. I want to learn how to be used by God on how to bring God's kingdom to 'Earth as it is in Heaven.'

And I don't mean some crazy Theocracy, where abortion, drug use, cheating, and other types actions are 'forbidden by law.' I mean the God's Kingdom, where you love your neighbor as yourself, where you sell your possession to help the poor and the needy, where you visit the sick and the widows... I want to be used that way, I need to be used that way, because in this life, the life that the 'world' and the 'culture' wants me to have, I've done pretty much everything there is to be done, and I find it to be nice, but not 'biblically' satisfying.

On my 30th year in this planet, I want to be born again... I want to do things differently, I want to do things for people, and not for my own gain or pleasure. That's what I want to do.

NV40 for 30

For my 30th birthday, I want the latest Samsung NV series camera, the NV40. It's actually smaller/lighter than the NV10!!!!

Work to do

Things that needs to be done (in no particular order):

* Finishing reading the 3 books that I am currently reading.
* Hang some curtains in our living room.
* Move the desk out of the office
* Hang 'home-sweet-home'-like decorations around the house
* Get someone to take down the dead tree on our backyard.
* Fix up our front yard (re-sodding, re-mulching, etc)
* Find new books to read
* Find a church
* Set up rfactor and racing wheel so I can play online with Chris.
* Get familiar and used to production access
* Get familiar and used to cfengine
* Get more python programming done
* Make up my mind if I really want to start a new Masters program in Engineering at NCSU.
* Get rid off some more junk at home
* Anything else?

Weekend Update

1. I sold my Xbox 360 and all my gaming stuff. I will be bringing it to work tomorrow... Why? Honestly, because of a paradox. I don't spend enough time playing, yet when I get to play it I feel like I am wasting my time.

2. Chester's Puffcorn is the greatest 'Cheetos' invention ever... Cheetos that doesn't get stuck to your teeth... I love it.


3. Family and I drove to Lynchburg yesterday. It was nice to see old friends, and get to go to our church's 'Soul Station'.

4. Gotta a new laptop coming in this week.

5. I am enjoying a 'I Love Lucy' marathon on TV Land right now.