Gov't Mar 11, 2005
Some may argue that my purpose in working for the government (not that I do...you see, I'm supposed to keep quiet about it because you can kidnap me and get secret information from me. The thing is, I don't know anything, so you'd just be wasting your time) is in fact quite minimal. I would agree with that. I think the country would get along just fine without me. But I would imagine that some would argue that the government could be saving money by not employing me. While this seems to make sense, it's not true. Even if I wasn't sucking my share of money out of the taxes that every employed person pays (including me), the government would still find a way to spend that money. It's not like you'd get a check in the mail one day saying, "The government has downsized and you're the one that benefits!" Actually, if you figure there are about 295,638,647 people in the US right now, and assuming I make $100,000 per year (an obviously overstated estimate), each person would get $0.0003. If you think this is worth firing me, by all means get me fired. #business
Animal instinct Mar 11, 2005
I'm reminded of something I read a while ago concerning sexual immorality and other "things done for the feeling." It was said that one thing that separates humans from animals is humans' ability to act on things other than feeling. Animals survive by instinct. They do things because they know no other way. Similarly, as a recent example, in learning how to train our cats, Wendy and I learned that cats don't respond to punishment like some other animals do. They respond to good and bad experiences. If they climb on the counter and find something good, they'll do it again. But if their experience is somehow made unpleasant, they'll stay away. So in other words, they act based on feeling. Which brings me to my point: as humans, if we just do whatever feels good, there's nothing that separates us from animals. #religion
Neill Mar 10, 2005
A guy named Neill is leaving work tomorrow (for good). That's a shame. He was a great part of our Bible study. I'm always surprised when he says anything because it's always so heartfelt. It's the same as with Cristian. We're just doing the normal Bible study thing, and then all of a sudden, they say something that's so full of feeling and so totally focused on having Jesus Christ as your personal savior. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised by these things, but I am. #psychology
Fast Mar 10, 2005
Yesterday was my fast. It was part of a Bethlehem Church-wide thing to focus on God and loving others. I ate on Tuesday night at around 10 p.m., and lasted until Wednesday at about 5:30 p.m. It always tastes so incredibly good to eat after you haven't eaten in a little while. I would consider doing it on a somewhat regular basis so that I'd enjoy food more. But then I'd just binge when it's over. And I'm also missing the whole point: to concentrate less on the distractions of the world, and concentrate more on God and prayer. #religion
Mozilla Mar 10, 2005
On the technology front, I'm so impressed with the products put out by Mozilla.  With Firefox, everything's simple and free, and there's a whole bunch of addons (called extensions) that are also free, made by a bunch of computer geeks that write the code because they actually want the functionality, not just because it's "what the competitor does, but better."  Probably the best extension is called Adblock.  It finds ads and lets you block the images or scripts from loading.  This is ingenious.  Plus, Mozilla Thunderbird is the first email program I've used at work that could actually connect to Yahoo webmail.  Amazing.  I didn't even have to do anything.  This is why it's a great program.  It's just install and go.  I think that's what Apple's motto is, but I'd never drink anything other than the Microsoft Kool-Aid. #technology