God’s Dominion

Well, the big storm that dumped snow in Seattle (the Seahawks’ first ever home game in the snow!) is bearing down on us.  So far all we’ve had is cold weather (I haven’t seen it get above freezing all day).  However, the rain/snow/ice hasn’t hit us yet.  It’s supposed to start around 3 (which was over an hour ago).  I can see it coming on the radar.  Eddie and Maria, I know you guys are enjoying wonderful 60+ degree now, but watch out…it’s heading your way.  It looks like it’s a bad one, but I’ll let you know after we’re done with it.  Maybe we’ll wear it out and you’ll only get the cold weather.  Of course, by the time it hits you, it will be accompanied by 40 mile per hour winds (yes, Boston is windier than Chicago…the “Windy City” earned its nickname because of the politicians, not the weather).  Good luck!

At this point I’m just wasting time because if we get a lot of snow tonight and/or tomorrow, I will be working at home.  I’m afraid that if I finish what I’m working on now, I won’t have anything to do tomorrow.  The estimate on this particular project is 6 days (not sure where she came up with that!) but I’ve been working on it for a few hours and I’m half way done.  Admittedly, the part I have left is the hard part.  It’s not 5 days worth of hard, though (probably not even a full day, but here’s hoping).  I can go home in an hour, so I have to try to kill that hour without doing actual work so I have something to do from home tomorrow (that’s okay, it makes sense to me).  It’s just occurred to me that I probably sound like I’m showing off with how quickly I finish these projects.  It’s not because I’m such a wonderful programmer.  They’re just really easy.  I mean, yesterday afternoon I was assigned to do the same thing I did the day before to a different web page.  How hard is that?  It’s called “copy, paste”.  It took me about an hour to figure out what I needed to do and five minutes to do it.  Big deal.  That was supposed to take me all day?  Now, I’m working on this six day project which involves adding three fields to a database and an application.  Six days?  Yeah, right.  Maybe if I had to learn how to program.

Well, I can get away with only so much time-wasting on my blog.  I guess I’ll try to look more like I’m working for a little bit.  I will definitely start talking about Christmas at some point over the next two days.  Eventually, I will talk about it from the perspective of how it’s always under attack in America, the actual Biblical story of the birth of Christ (compared to what most people believe happened), and the history of the current celebration of Christmas (Christmas trees, lights, etc.).  Obviously, I’ll be doing this over many posts over many weeks, not all at once and not in consecutive posts.  I guess that’s all for now.  Time to go check the weather and traffic.  Laterz!

I haven’t posted in a couple of days.  I’ve actually had work to do.  Today’s post will be short.  Tomorrow I’m going to start talking about the annual assault on Christmas.  Some of the stories I’ve found have been interesting (at least Walmart has gone back to saying “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”). 

Anyway, the weather this morning here is dreary.  Have you ever heard or said that?  Well, I’m not saying it.  The weather today is actually dreary.  This morning I was checking the weather as I was getting dressed and the current AccuWeather report actually said the weather was dreary.  What does that mean?  Is that an official weather term?  I think everybody has a different idea of what dreary means.  Everybody knows what sunny or snowing means, but dreary?  Oh, well.  Whatever.  The weather today is dreary so try not to get depressed.  Laterz!

Well, the game went pretty much as I expected.  The Bears did enough to win the game and Rex Grossman gave it away.  Every game is the same.  The Bears don’t play against their opponent…they play against their quarterback.  If the rest of the team can overcome his attempts to give away the game (a fumble on the four yard line and an interception with under two minutes to go?), the Bears win.  If they can’t, the Bears lose.  Oh, well.  Hopefully he learns how to throw to his own team and how not to drop the ball before the playoffs.  If he does, they can book their ticket to Miami.  If not, it will be one and done for the Bears just like last season.  I bet if Griese had played the last two minutes of the game yesterday, the Bears would’ve won.  It was painful to watch Seau break his arm.  It’s a pretty bad way to end his season and his career is probably over, as well.  Maybe the Pats can win him a Superbowl before he heads to the Hall of Fame.

Anyway, since it was asked where I got my info for the Thanksgiving post, I got it from two websites: http://wilstar.com/holidays/thankstr.htm and http://www.holidays.net/thanksgiving/.

I apologize for not getting the message board up and running for the Bible study.  I tried, but it wasn’t able to connect to my database for some reason.  I actually broke my photo gallery in the process and had to go back and get that working.  I have learned that I will have to rebuild my photo gallery as the crash I had a few months ago apparently did more damage than I originally thought.  I can’t add any new photos until I get that working (sorry Wendy…maybe I’ll burn you a CD for now?).  I’m going to try to figure out what is going on with the database and I hope to get the message board up and running before the end of the week (if not sooner).  Well, that’s all for now.  I hope you all had a great holiday.  Laterz!

Not really going to put up a real post today.  Just going to say Happy Thanksgiving to everybody.  I may post something over the weekend.  If not, I’ll continue with my regularly unscheduled posts on Monday.  Laterz and Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, last Friday was my grandmother’s birthday (Vovo, as everybody calls her, is Portuguese for “grandmother”).  Sunday the entire locally-based family went to her church where they had a tribute to her during service and a party afterwards.  I’m sure she was suspicious when everybody started showing up (it was a surprise), even those who don’t speak Portuguese (it’s a Brazilian church).  It’s a good thing the church is located across the street fromt the fire department as she turned 92 (Just kidding!  We didn’t put any candles on the cake as she probably wouldn’t have been able to blow them out.).  She seemed to be happy to see everybody there.  My mom took one of the songs Vovo had written and had it put to music, which she then sang during service.  They also had a slide show with pictures of Vovo when she was younger and various pictures of the family (I haven’t seen myself with hair in a long time!).  All in all it was a good weekend.  The party was fun and the Bears won (look out Maria & Eddie, they’re coming to town next Sunday).  Short post today, but I may post more when I get home.  Laterz!

I still plan to post an update to Halloween, but I haven’t had an opportunity to watch the documentary I recorded on it.  At any rate, here’s a little about Thanksgiving.

As you may or may not know, the Pilgrims landed in the New World in 1620.  They came here so they could practice their religion without being bothered by those non-religious people.  There were 44 Pilgrims (they called themselves “Saints”) and 66 others (whom they called “Strangers”) on the Mayflower.  During the 65 day trip, many of them became ill (they were unable to cook their food because of the dangers of a fire on a wooden ship) and one died.  There were many disagreements between the Saints and Strangers during the trip.  Once land was sighted, they drafted the Mayflower Compact which guranteed equality and unified the two groups.  They all became known as Pilgrims.

Although they first spotted land off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, they didn’t actually land until they got to Plymouth, New Hampshire.  (By the way, Plymouth Rock is just that…a rock.  Not even a big one.  It’s not a boulder or anything.  It actually has a cage around it so nobody takes it home with them.  Rather unspectacular.)  Of the 110 Pilgrims and crew who left England, less than 50 survived the first winter.  The following year, the Pilgrims met the locals.  I won’t go into to many details, but the local Native Americans proved to be quite helpful.  It is believed that the Pilgrims never would have survived without their aid.  As a reward for this, America later slaughtered many Native Americans, took their land, killed their animals, and relocated them into the middle of the desert.  Sorry about that.  Just slipped out.   Anyway, Squanto, an English speaking native, helped the Pilgrims a great deal.  He taught them how to tap maple for sap (thank you for maple syrup, Squanto!), which plants were poisonous and which were medicinal, and how to plant corn and other crops.  The harvest in October was abundant enough for them to put away food for the winter.

In order to celebrate, Governor William Bradford declared a day of thanksgiving to be shared with the Native Americans.  Over 90 of them attended the three day celebration.  It is uncertain what days this occurred, but it was believed to have happened in October.  The menu probalby bore little resemblance to modern Thanksgiving.  They most likely would have eaten geese, ducks, venison (deer), boiled pumpkin (they had no flour to make any type of pie or bread), fried bread made from corn syrup (I have no idea), fish, berries, watercress, lobster, dried fruit, clams, and plums.  There was no milk, cider, potatoes, or butter.  They had no cattle for dairy products and the newly-discovered potato was still believed to be poisonous.  What, no cranberry sauce?

Two years later, summer was hot and dry.  After a day of fasting and prayer, it began to rain.  The Pilgrims once again celebrated a day of thanksgiving on November 29th.  This is believed to be the true birth of modern Thanksgiving.  Over the years, various thanksgiving celebrations were held after the harvest.  In 1817, New York adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom.  In 1863, President Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving.  Since then, each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation usually designating the fourth Thursday of November as the holiday.

Just a brief history of Thanksgiving.  I just thought I’d throw that in there so at least we know something about why we’re spending all day watching football and eating way too much food.  Next up…Christmas, of course.  I could write pages on that.  I’ll try to keep it short.  What most people believe about the Christmas story is based on popular belief and not the Bible (for example, the Bible never said there were three Magi).  I’ll probably post that one in parts.  I guess that’s all for now…well, until I post about my weekend later today (I’m so bored at work…I wish they’d give me more to do).  Laterz!

Pepper seems to really enjoy being outside.  For the most part, she doesn’t run around or anything.  She likes to either sit on the deck or at the bottom of the steps and just look around.  I’m not really sure what it is she’s looking at.  I just know she loves it.  Sometimes she gets so amped up that we put her out at night for a few minutes, just to calm her down.  The other night, she decided to chase after an animal.  Turns out, the animal she chased was a skunk.  Needless to say, she didn’t smell too good when she came back into the house.  Since it was 11:00 at night at this point, there wasn’t much I could do.  She would have to wait until the next day.  So, yesterday on my way home I picked up some peroxide and baking soda.  For those who don’t know, tomato juice is not the best way to get skunk smell out of your pets.  As a matter of fact, it’s not even a good way.  All it does is cover the skunk smell with tomato smell.  You will only smell tomato and anybody else who shows up will smell skunk and tomato.  The best way is with 1 quart of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of dish soap.  This mixture should get the smell out.  One caveat: it may bleach your dog’s hair, but that is much better than the skunk smell.  Anyway, last night I gave her a bath in this solution.  She hates baths and is a large dog, which makes it more difficult.  We managed to get through it and she doesn’t seem to smell anymore.  I’m not really sure if we’re just used to it, though.  I sprayed the house and I don’t smell it anymore, but I think I’m just used to the smell.  I’ll find out the next time we get a guest.   Anyway, just thought you’d get a kick out of this story.  Laterz!

So I have a question for all my faithful readers (both of you).  A friend of mine and I have been reading through the Bible…okay, we just started.  We’re starting in Matthew and reading through the New Testament first.  We’ve been writing up our thoughts on each chapter and emailing them back and forth.  We’ve decided to open it up to a few others, but that would require something a bit easier to use for multiple people than email.  I think the easiest way would be for me to put my message board back on my website so everybody can post their notes and everybody can access it. 

If I decide to do this, I wanted to know if anybody else is interested.  If so, I’ll create it and you guys can read through the Bible with us (have you ever actually read the entire Bible?) and post and/or read your thoughts and/or notes.  Let me know what you think in the comments.  Laterz!

Since the subject has come up twice in a few days I figure I’ll throw out a little love for one of my favorite websites: www.snopes.com) is a website that has a whole bunch of urban legends (use the search!) and explains (with references) whether or not they are true.  I get a lot of emails from people telling me about how somebody did something or a company did something or it’s dangerous if I do something.  A lot of these emails tell me I should stop doing business with somebody because they support something that is counter to God’s will.  Most of the time, the emails are just flat out false.  Eating Menthos then drinking diet Coke will not kill you (got that one on Sunday).  Nobody is petitioning to have Religious programming removed from public airways.  Signing an email petition will not get Bush to restore “Under God” to the Pledge (it was never removed and he doesn’t have to power to do that anyway).

So, if you get an email stating something as fact, look it up on Snopes before you forward it to 50 more people.  It will most likely not be true (I usually take the extra step of replying to the person with the Snopes link).  Now, the next question is, what do we do if it is true?  While I understand that as Christians, we usually try to keep to the Bible as much as possible.  We try to be Holy and try to impress that upon those around us.  In my mind, as long as you’re not bashing anyone over the head with a Bible (which usually serves to drive people away more than anything), that’s great. The problem is that it’s not always practical.  Most businesses are in business for the sole purpose of making money.  As a result, most if not all of their decisions are focused on trying to make more money.  Why is Walmart suddenly donating money to the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC)?  They want to attract more homosexual customers.  Why?  Because they want to make more money.  There are some Christian businesses that will stick to Christian principals, but others will use the general American view of morality, which dictates that homosexuality is nothing more than a personal preference.  Incidentally, the NGLCC is an organization that works towards helping homosexual-owned businesses.  They have nothing to do with gay marriage, etc.  Although Walmart donated $25000 to them (pocket change for Walmart), the 5% of online sales they are donating is not from walmart.com.  It is only from sales made through NGLCC’s website (once again, pocket change).  On the other hand, Walmart doesn’t give their homosexual employees marriage benefits (i.e., they can’t get insurance for their homosexual partner).  Walmart is not giving preference to homosexual-owned businesses.  In this particular instance, it seems they are just supporting a (in their mind) minority group.  The Bible tells us we should hate the sin but love the sinner.  You can shop at a homosexual-owned business while sharing the Gospel with the owner.  There isn’t anything wrong with that.

That being said, there are instances when Christians have to take a stand.  The problem is that if we jump at everything, people start to ignore us.  We have to pick our battles.  I’ve seen so many black people scream “racism” at every little thing, that I’ve started tuning them out.  The white guy might have gotten the job because he went to Harvard instead of Bunker Hill Community College, not because he’s white and you’re black.  If we do the same thing, people will tune us out as well.  I would rather fight Walmart if they start to back gay marriages, not because they want to help homosexual-owned businesses succeed.

I would say more on this, but this post is getting kind of long.  I may revisit this later.  I’m guessing I’ll get a few comments on this one.  I hope so!  I used to have a message board but nobody used it.  If I’ve finally found something people want to discuss, I’ll be happy to put it back.  Laterz!

Well, I think I have finally found the best way to get to work in the morning.  I just wait until everybody else is at work.  I asked my manager if I could work from home for an hour or so each morning, then leave for work around 9 to avoid the traffic.  She agreed.  I tried it today for the first time and wow!  What a huge difference!  It normally takes me anywhere from 30-50 minutes to get to I-94 (which isn’t even the halfway point).  Today, it took me roughly 45 minutes to get work!  This isn’t going to be so bad.  I wonder if I can get all my employers to allow that.  

I’m here at Kraft until December 29th to work on this web page.  I finished it today.  Go figure!  They do have one more enhancement they want me to make, but it certainly isn’t going to take me weeks to finish.  They’re already talking about other projects they want to give me.  My manager says there is no danger of ending my contract early.  They will find work for me.  All in all, a pretty good day so far…of course, it’s only 4.   Laterz!