Work Hard, Play Harder

The Dark Knight.. save your money

Just saw the Dark Knight.  I went in with high expectations, having heard from friends how great the movie is.  It quickly became clear that not only would my expections not be met, but that I stood a real chance of walking out on the movie, which I never do.

I guess I like my movies to make sense, even if my super hero is climbing buildings, or otherwise defying the laws of physics.  I'm fine with that, but there must be a flow to a movie, with conceivable (at least, within the premise of a given movie) action, re-action, and so on.  My villian cannot in one moment plant explosives all over a hospital (and blow them), and then moments later, be whacking some dangerous mobster.  The Dark Knight is a jumbled mess, incoherently veering from one unbelievable scene to another, none of which held my attention. 

In addition, I yearn to care for the characters in my movie that I'm investing 2 hours and 20 dollars into.  In this movie, there's no relationship like the one betwen Spiderman and his girl.  There's no Lois Lane. 

While the villian does a wonderful job playing his part, and comes across with an 'against the Man' attitude that of course plays well with the teenage set sitting next to me, in my view, it's annoying to see a bad guy capable of peeling the skin off of a small child, or grandma, treated as some sort of cool, ironic hipster. 

1 Star out of 5.  The most overrated movie of all time.

OMT: Emergency Response Seminar

On Saturday, October 13 the Emergency Response Taskforce is hosting a seminar at Sunset titled 'Emergency Response - Preparing your family and your community'. 

This event is free to the public, and our hope is to use it as a model that other churches and communities can utilize to better prepare themselves for an event that, God Willing, never happens.  Here's the details:

Date and Time:  Saturday, October 13 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Place: Sunset Presbyterian Church

Location:  14986 NW Cornell Road, Portland OR

Topics

Washington County / Beaverton CERT / TV Fire & Rescue

• How our community is prepared to respond to a disaster

Speakers:  Michael Mumaw, Steven Muir, Ted Morris

Beaverton Schools

• How our public schools are prepared to handle an emergency when kids are in class.

Speaker:  Randy Kayfes

Oregon Trail chapter of the Red Cross

• Together we prepare.

Speaker:  Linda Swift

Medical Teams International

• Lessons from Katrina; how those lessons can be applied in Oregon.

Speaker:  Joe Dicarlo

Microsoft Silverlight.. revolutionizing the web

Microsoft recently released a new multi-media editing tool that is going to be a huge hit.  For those of you that spend time creating multi-media presentations on the web, or just want to show some content on your blog, this tool is for you.

http://silverlight.net/Default.aspx

ODEN

Down at the Rose Garden during the draft, the seen was simply awesome!  Watch this video, and feel the power of people coming together in a beautiful, sweet way!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0pCtkxun9g

Weekend Thoughts

Yesterday, Jos and Heather flew to K Falls, then drove a rented car 90 miles east to Lakeview, OR to visit Jim.  Sounds like they're having a nice time, and getting to see a lot of the area down there.  In the meantime, Hayden and Nate both had friends spend the night.  I'm trying to decide how to spend the rest of the weekend, and debating whether to see a movie, or get outdoors and enjoy this beautiful weather.

I work downtown and caught Greg Oden just as his limo was leaving the Courthouse Square after his rally yesterday.  I love this guy!  The Blazers finally have a bright future.

Speaking of my day job, I don't talk about it much on this blog.. perhaps I'll start doing so more.  For those who don't know, here's a little bit about it..

I work for a company named Centerstance.  We focus on software consulting, which means that other companies hire us to build their software systems used to run the daily operations, and/or provide management with enhanced information.  My current assignment is with a large company (billion-plus sales) looking to completely re-build their point-of-sales system and supporting back-office systems as well.  This is a huge contract for Centerstance, and I've been fortunate to play a lead role moving this project forward.   Yes.. very good for my career.. yes, VERY stressful at times :\

There's much to write about regarding my day job, so I'll leave this post with some thinking I've been going through about a certain topic that might ring a bell with your life. 

Finding the balance between group effort and personal responsibility is crucial to the success of a project, and very difficult to do.  Too much group, and a project can suffer they same fate Marxism faced.  When everyone owns something, no one owns anything, and neglectful indifference can set in.  Everyone ends up suffering in the end when this is the reality.  However, too far the other way and you're in danger of losing a spirit of teamwork, synergy, and a possible leadership vacuum.  We've recently been faced with too much group, and what's resulted is a product that suffered from a lack of quality. We're working to mend this over the next few weeks.

Dark Energy

One of the primary tenants Believers point towards concerning God is His omnipresence.. His ability to be everywhere, all the time, all at once.  This concept is often met by great skepticism by Non-believers, and chalked up as more Christian fairytale and absurdity.

But what if a scientific-based claim could be made that points towards evidence of this?  Is that even possible?  I'm here to tell you that it's very much a possibility, and such evidence has recently come to light, putting the most hard-core, atheistic scientists in a quandary.

Do you feel like life seems to get a little faster each year of your life?  I certainly do.  The pace of life never slows, and always seems to be quickening.  I think this scientific understanding mentioned above is the culprit.

For many years, cosmological physicist (those who study the universe.. the "cosmos") have believed that the Big Bang theory that most of you are likely familiar with will, at some point in the distant future, slow down, and very likely start to implode.  They figured this would be due to the nature of gravity itself, slowly pressing the break-peddle down on the universal expansion that started the moment the universe was birthed into existence.

However, about 8 years ago, through a series of experiments that examined the  Type Ia version of Supernovas, a team of scientists made the remarkable discovery that, not only is the universe expanding, but it is actually accelerating!  That is, something is powering the universe to more rapidly expand. 

Through mathematical experimentation and observation, cosmologists have calculated that, in order for the newly discovered Dark Energy to exist, that it must comprise over 70% of everything that exists in this universe of ours.. the stars, planets, galaxies, EVERYTHING!  Think about that for a second.. this "stuff".. and I use that word precisely, because scientist don't have the faintest clue what this stuff actually is, is EVERYWHERE! 

Dark Energy DOES NOT follow any known laws of the physical universe.  One of the only things the scientists can be sure of is how prevalent it is, and that it MUST BE literally be "floating" around everywhere, due to it uniformity and density (or lack of).  That is, there isn't some of this Dark Energy over there, or over yonder, it must exist in a consistant way among every last corner of the known universe.  This stuff is all around you as you read the words on this page!

THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS MEANS!  All around you, I, and everyone else right now, and always, is an abundance of this mysterious force that is driving our world, our planet, our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy.. the entire known universe at a faster and faster pace!  This force cannot be directly detected, is made up of something completely foreign to the known physical world, is more powerful than any known type of energy or force, such as gravity, but nonetheless, can be indirectly detected by scientific instruments!

Folks, have we NOT just stumbled into the obvious.  God is said to be ubiquitous, omnipresent, EVERYWHERE, and now we have scientific proof that something.. this Dark Energy (a misnomer, made up by the scientists themselves, for they haven't the first clue what this "stuff" really is) is actually the presence of our Lord!  It all makes so much sense.  He's said to be everywhere, effecting everything, and now here is the first hint from the world of science that a force beyond comprehension is swirling all around us every moment of every day.  HALLELUJAH!! 

Tribes

If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath--a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.

I've been reading this long, but thoroughly enjoyable, thought provoking, and Hilarius piece by a fellow named Bill Whittle over at his blog, Eject! Eject! Eject!.

The piece is titled Tribes and speaks to the values people in America live by, and the courage required if we want our way of life to endure.

War of the worlds

Back in the mid 70's a Brit named Jeff Wayne created a musical version of the classic H.G. Wells story, The War of the Worlds.  Wayne's masterpiece has been a favorite of mine for years.  Recently a stage version was made, complete with orchestra, a full assortment of instruments, performers, unreal computer animation, and Richard Burton's head to provide the original narration (Burton died years ago).  I watched this performance last week at my brother's house and was BLOWN AWAY by it!!  Expect to hear more about Jeff Wayne's version of this classic tale, as I believe it will be coming to the big screen in the near future.

Here's a link to his site and Burton's introduction of the story:

http://www.thewaroftheworlds.com/default.aspx

A big thank you on Memorial Day

The debt of gratitude the world owes America, and the countless fighting men and women that lost their lives fighting for these other countries, and the cause of freedom of their people, is enormous.  It is the rare case when America's wars were due to our borders being threatened.  The conventional wisdom today seems to be that this is something to be ashamed of.  That war is justifiable ONLY when a county's borders are directly threatened. It can be argued persuasively either way that war is justifiable (or not) for "non-direct-attacks", but, there is one thing for sure that cannot be denied...whatever your stance on war, real and considerable sacrifice has been made over the years for "bigger" causes, such as freedom (often times,the freedom of others), fighting tyranny, and the interests of others.  This is not something found very often, if at all, in our history books. 

In today's world where interest groups are always looking to exploit an advantage if it means a step closer to power, and will turn our sacrifices into something negative; where certain people and groups in our own country have been duped into thinking this country of ours is a force of evil; when our sacrifices are scoffed at on a regular basis, I suppose I take a very politically incorrect view of it all.  Namely, that our sacrifices will someday, in the not too distant future, be viewed by history as the first time a country set aside selfish gains, and stopped the march of evil.  That, someone finally took a stand for justice, instead of ignoring the cries of help.  That, our efforts were not for the empire, territorial gain, gold, or oil, but instead were made so that others could carve-out a way of life free of the bondages of tyrranny.  I guess, in some circles, saying that means I've drank the Kool-aid.  If that's the case, the bottoms-up baby!

Therefore, since we will not be getting that debt of gratitude anytime soon from a world that would have, long ago, drifted into ruin if not for this “shining light on the hill”, I will do it for them.

Thank you President Lincoln and the half-million men who died to free Black men and women from the bondages of slavery

Thank you to the “Dough Boys” of WWI who turned the tide in Europe and put an end to that thankless slaughter.

Thank you to another half-million men and women who put a stake through the heart of Fascism.

Thank you to Truman and 50,000 men and women who stared down the Communist in Korea, for without them, the sad and sorry state that is North Korea would cover the entire peninsula; where instead, a bustling, free, democratic country now exists.

Thank you to the 50,000 sacrifices in Vietnam, where another noble stand for the freedom of others has been twisted and contorted into something unrecognizable. 

Thank you to so many others who stared down the Communist Bear across the Iron Curtain and did not listen to the shrill shrieks of those begging for appeasement.  Fifty million men, women, and children across

Eastern Europe will be forever grateful.

Thank you President George HW Bush for standing up for a small country overrun by the dictator from Iraq. 

Thank you President Clinton for standing up for Muslims in the Balkans, against another Christian country, mind you, when ethnic slaughter became a common way of life.

Thank you President George W Bush for pushing the cause of liberty, justice, and freedom to a country that for so long sat under the yoke of tyranny and brutality.

Thank you to those Americans who can see the difference between Good and Evil, and do not blink or shy away when others condemn them.  If not for people like you, and the countless who came before you, this world of ours would not be the same, and our comfortable lives of plenty would look very different.

Thank you.

Is God perfect??

I think Christians take this question for granted. 

"Why of course God is perfect.  No question about it."

But then we take a look around the world and see so much suffering, so much evil, so much pain, and a cognitive dissonance begins to creep in.

So what gives?  How can a perfect God coexist with such imperfection of his creation?  If God is the creator of all things, and his creation includes such clear imperfection, then how can God be perfect?

I've heard many attempts to answer this dilemma.  Some make the argument that we simply don't understand the "bigger picture", but what about the parent left on this earth to suffer at the loss of their child?  How is this person gaining from this suffering?  Honestly, I don't think that makes sense.

Others make the case that if you live by God's will, you won't suffer, and it's those who don't follow God's will who ultimately face suffering.  But this argument leaves a lot to be desired as well.

Perhaps the problem is our definition of "perfect".  We hear this word and it has meaning to us in our world, in our current context of what we think perfection looks like.  Perhaps, in our understanding of this concept, God is not "perfect" at all. 

Perhaps we are simply wrong in our understanding of the nature of God, and have simply been misled, and that imperfection, suffering, and pain are indeed a product of God's creation, and we need to adjust our understanding.  Honestly, I don't know... I would love to hear some of your opinions on this matter.

In the end I think God is about truth, and we should not shy away from asking difficult questions... the worst thing we can do is sort of bumble our way through life, afraid to ask tough questions, and living a life of ignorance.