Obama and 9/11

For months now, I’ve been wondering what Obama will do for his first 9/11 in office. My wondering revolved largely around the fact that he is 1) trying to distance himself from the previous administration even though he’s handling the war identically to Bush and 2) he has set himself up as a very pro-Islamic/pro-Arabic president and I was wondering how he was going to handle the day where Americans remember the single greatest (radical) Islamic attack since the crusades.

For those who haven’t seen it, here' is Obama’s speech made this morning.

I found a couple points of interests (including his copious use of scriptures, albeit misquoted and abused, right after saying we weren’t a Christian nation, the way he never really mentioned the attack itself, just referenced to things around it, and his redefinition of the war as fighting Al-Qaeda rather than terrorists).

But most interesting to me is the fact that he is attempting to redefine this whole day. The way he’s trying to coerce us into forgetting that we, as a nation, must remain vigilant. And I don’t mean vigilant against Islam or Arabics, that would foolish and racist. I mean vigilant against those who would seek to do us harm regardless of if they’re a terrorist who believes it is the only way to assure salvation, or some guy out in West Texas who follows the original teachings of Joseph Smith to the point of sexually abusing young women, or even if it is the wholesale slaughter of our children via abortion.

People may disagree about that last one, but the point is today is supposed to be a day of remembrance for vigilance. A day were we recall what happens when we get too lackadaisical, when we ignore the warning signs and fail to co-operate with one another.

Instead Obama wants us to toss aside the remembrance of what happened here. Oh, he talks about that “barbaric event” when he starts to discuss Afghanistan, but as long as the focus is on the US, it’s darkened skies, and falling planes. And I think that’s wrong. I think what he’s doing is insulting. 8 years ago today terrorist hijacked 3 planes. Two of them were rammed into the World Trade Center and violently butchered almost 3,000 people. The third plane did not fall from the sky is was forced into the ground when the passengers rose up and valiantly defended our country.

I think it’s great that Obama wants a day of service. That’s a wonderful idea to promote community and cohesiveness across America. I think him making that day of service to be today is insulting and an attempt to erase what happened here 8 years ago a silent memory. It would have been like FDR making December 7 national boating day. Sorry Obama, but you made yet another poor choice. With any luck the next individual will repeal this farce you tried to make out of today.

Obama and 9/11

Belief - What's the Standard for My Beliefs

Belief, it’s defines the way we perceive reality without actually affecting reality. Yet, we all seek to mold the world into the image of our beliefs regardless of the validity of said beliefs. I believe that it is important for an individual to understand their beliefs be they religious in nature or otherwise. Interestingly, I have always felt this way and seem unable to do any task without first hearing the why of the issue (much the annoyance of teachers, parents, and 3rd grade soccer coaches alike). So, I decided to go ahead and write down these beliefs of mine and see if I still believe them in the years to come.

To that end, I figured the best place to start with beliefs is the foundation of my beliefs. In so far as religious beliefs are concerned, my basis is founded on the scriptures (aka, the Bible), and SOLELY on the Bible. It is, in fact, a part of my beliefs that any extra-scriptural source which trys to dictate my spiritual beliefs and which contradicts the Bible is in error.

But why this belief? Well, some of it is faith. Faith is defined as “something that is believed especially with strong conviction” (Merriam-Webster). It is, to me, the top layer of belief, it is the result of something but not the source. If someone were to tell me they had faith in something I would ask why. Faith is not an end all reason (I’ll quantify this more fully some other time, so if this statement offends, confuses, or concerns you, I promise to explain it next time). So when I say some of it is faith, understand that there is a deeper foundation under that faith. Faith will allow me to leap from mountains, but it cannot coerce me to climb it in the first place.

So while faith motivates me to believe the Bible, the underlying foundation under that is logic. (Which I present to you as follows)

1. The Bible was written by many different authors over the course of more than a thousand of years. Yet the authors do not conflict with one another

2. The Old Testament and New Testament flawlessly presents the truth of God redeeming His Creation without any contradiction (though many people fail to study the Old Testament and are left believe that God was petty and cruel in the O.T. and suddenly changed His tune in the N.T.)

3. Apart from Genesis, the accounts recorded in the Bible were eye-witness accounts. In a hundred years when historians want to know about 9-11 or the Clinton Scandal they are going to use eye witness accounts as their sources. So why would I trust some guy from today to tell me that the Bible is incorrect when it says x about y subject? That makes as much sense as denying the holocaust or saying all those people who suffered in the camps didn’t really have to endure the things they lived through. I trust the eye-witness.

4. Archeological evidence and extra-biblical accounts confirm the locations of the cities within the Bible as well as the events that the Bible records.

5. I believe that the “God inspired” in 1 Timothy 3:16 (All scripture is inspired by God” is not the same as me seeing a picture and feeling inspired to write a short story about it. I believe that God used men as a musical composer chooses an instrument to play a specific part. It is the composer who writes down each and every note to be played and chooses an instrument to convey the mood he’s desires. God gave the words to each writer and allowed them to flavor the words with their particular style. But EACH and EVERY word is 100% accurate and fully as God intended as it to be shown.

6. If any part of the Bible were to be incorrect or outdated, EVERYTHING within the Bible must be rejected equally as none of it can be trusted to be accurate any longer.

Under these 6 beliefs I can do nothing but reject the notion that a person alive today could write ANYTHING truly from God that contradicts with what He’s already revealed. To do so would deny His unchanging nature (Hebrews 13:8) and present Him as a liar.

To that end, either the things written within the Bible are the 100% accurate, God-inspired words that exist as our ultimate standard for Christians, or NOTHING within the Bible can be trusted as there can be no measure for discerning which parts are true and which parts are in need of updating.

And that’s what I believe.

Belief - What's the Standard for My Beliefs

1st Corinthians 15:55

  So, I need to make sure I have more time to post on this since I have several topics I’d like to write on, including a time traveling bathtub, but need to make sure I do things in the right order.

Which brings us to today’s post.

Death has always been a morbid fascination of mine ever since I was nine and my best friend died.  It has always struck me that this was not how God designed us to be, but was rather the unfortunate consequence of our choice to sin; marring the perfection of creation.  As I think back over the plethora of funerals I’ve attended I’ve been struck by two facts.

The first, and less profound, is that a funeral is not for the dead, but for the living.  To the dead, it doesn’t matter what happens to their body.  They have already entered into salvation or into judgment.  Instead, it is the living who have need for the funeral.  It is a time in which we are fully confronted with the reality of the individual’s death and a time in which we permit ourselves to say goodbye to our loved one.

The second fact is one which I especially noticed a week ago at my grandmother’s (dad’s mom) funeral just a week ago, almost to the hour.  There exists an undeniable, tangible difference between how a true Christian views death and how those without Christ, or even those who hope that maybe there is a Christ, view death.

To illustrate, allow me to present to you the death of my cousin Grant.  Grant is a believer and rejoices in heaven with the other saints, but at the end of his life he made his friendships with those who were not saved.  At his funeral they wept as those with no hope.  Those words just cannot accurately encompass the reality of the situation unless you have been in a similar situation.  It was not just a tragedy to them, it was a hopeless tragedy.  It is much like Hamlet throwing himself onto Ophelia’s coffin and demanding that he be buried along with her.

More than that however, there is even a difference between a person who claims to believe in Christ and a person who truly has been transformed by the regeneration of the cross.  While at my cousin’s funeral.  A friend of mine, approached me and stood by me for bit.  She hadn’t really known my cousin all that well, though she knew myself and my cousin’s sister, but she stood there and was tormented as one who was totally consumed by the fear of death.  To me, it was the most tragic part of the funeral.  Standing next to me was one who was claimed to trust in God but was wholly lacking in faith.

By was of contrast, however, I present my grandmother’s funeral.  I don’t know if I really saw anyone outside of her family there.  Some 50 people of Bennett and Blanton relation the majority (if not totality) of which have placed their faith in Christ.  And while we cried, it was not the uncontrolled weeping of hopelessness.  It was the sorrowful goodbye of two friends who are moving away from one another.

So allow me to come to the point of what I’m trying to say.  I’ve been to funerals of all sorts, from the very young, to the very old, from those of various religious beliefs and no religious beliefs.  And I have learned this very, very important fact: 

Belief, no matter how absolute, in a set of religious laws cannot begin to compare to a person who has been transformed by a faith in Christ Jesus when they are confronted by death.  This peace is not something that can be manufactured by “religiousness” nor can it EVER be found in a pill.  The evidence of the divine Creator is unequivocally displayed in each and every believer when they stand before death.

1st Corinthians 15:55 says, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” It refers to the still future day when God restores the perfection of creation and gives us imperishable bodies.  So while we may still feel the sting of death (which verse 56 tells us is sin) as believes in Christ we know that death has already lost its victory for the redeemed.

1st Corinthians 15:55

Sprinklers! (Part 3)

Not a to report on the sprinkler project took place yesterday. It rained the first part of the morning meaning I wasn’t able to really get started until almost 10:30. I was able to finish the tunneling under the wires with only a medium amount of frustration, so that was nice. The rain made the ground a little more workable and the heat a LOT more tolerable so that was a nice side affect of the rain.

Once the tunnels were burrowed, it was just a matter of laying the pipe down and gluing it all together. It was rather surprising just how much time it took to glue the pipe all together. Hopefully, I’ve done a good job and everything will stick!

I was also able to get the controller installed in the garage and the wires stretched out to the valves, I’ll hook the valves up to the wires first thing this morning. Here’s a list of the remain tasks.

1) Attach valve wires

2) Test system for leaks.

3) Attach Sprinklers

4) Cover up trenches

5) Install Rain Detector ( still might have to be delayed since it gets installed on the roof)

There’s not a lot to show visually about the difference from yesterday to today, so here’s a picture of the remaining parts in my house.

Sprinklers! (Part 3)

Sprinklers! (Part 2)

I realized I hadn’t posted the above photo before on the blog yet and today seemed like a rather appropriate day to do so.  The sign comes from my Grandfather Bennett’s (nick-named “Benny”) garage.  A couple year back us Grandkids were given an option to have any one thing of their grandparent’s that they just really desired.  It was, of course, a time in which everyone was saying something along the lines of “well, if no one else really wants this then….” For me, the sign in the garage was definitely what I desired.

My grandpa was well known to us for making stuff out of junk.  He’d take old pipes and such and make the most amazing things (Like a playground for us grandkids).  Anyway, I felt it would be rather appropriate to tag this projects I do with the above photo since I inherited a lot of his “I can build that” attitude.

So, yesterday saw phase 3 of the project (with phase 1 being the research, planning, and presentation for approval, and phase 2 being the last post about tapping into the water line).  I called up a local (and free) business that came out and marked all the lines that were in my yard (electricity, phone, cable, etc).  With the lines properly marked, I laid out my parts and went over my plans one last time to make sure I had everything.  Here’s a picture of the parts I’m using (minus the parts I used in part 1, and 620 Ft of PVC pipe)

Convinced that I had all the connectors, couplers, glue, and controllers I needed, it was time to head out to Home Depot and rent a machine I affectionately refer to as “The Beast”

This thing took three full-grown men to lift it into the back of my dad’s truck.  My neighbor, Mr. Stroope,  and I managed to impair its decent just enough to not destroy the driveway getting it out of the truck.  It is a wonderful machine though.  Rather than having to dig every last inch of trench myself (a nightmarish task), “The Beast” would dig a perfect, 2-inch wide, variable depth trench with the dirt laid up in a pretty little line right next to it.  It was, however, a beast to pull (because you couldn’t push it, you had to pull it) and I was quiet worn out by the time I had dug all my trenches.

I had hoped to get the whole project completed in one day, and at first focused on digging the trench for one zone than laying out the piping for the zone.  I realized after the first zone was complete, however, that I was really needed to focus on getting the trenches dug completely so I wouldn’t have to worry about renting “The Beast” a second day.  Mr. Stroope was very impressed with the machine and I personally think he’ll invent some reason in the near future to let him rent and play with it himself in the near future.

At the end of the day, I had accomplished the following on the sprinkler project

1) Attached the sprinkler system to the water supply

2) Dug the trenches for all the zones

3) Laid out the pipe for half the zones.

Here’s some photos of my very own Maginot line.

Side Yard (Zone 1 and Water Supply)

Back Yard (Zone 2)

Back Yard (Most of Zone 3)

Front Yard (Zone 4)

My Anti-siphon Valves that Control the Zones

Though this project has been largely “McCormick’s Law” free, I have encountered two problems.  The first is all the Cable/Phone lines that cut straight through my backyard.  The solution is simple in theory.  You simply buy an attachment for going under sidewalks glue it onto a length of PVC pipe, hook it onto a water hose, and let the water pressure burrow your way to success.  There are two problems with it though.  The first is it has a tendency to go… askew.  Primarily, that means down, but it also means left or right.  In one of the burrows I did, I went down by about… 4 inches and too far left by 2 inches.  It may sound like nothing, but it really adds up in a project like this, especially when you have no true method of finding the errant other than blindly digging.  The other was hitting rocks, water pressure just won’t cut through rocks as quickly as I need it to.  The second issue I encountered was this:

Don’t see the issue, let’s zoom in a little.

That funny little black thing is a TV cable.  One of two cables right next to each other that Time Warner failed to mark for me.  It specifically leads to my internet.  I’ll call them up tomorrow and have them come fix it after I lay my pipe there.  Since they failed to mark it, I’m not liable for it’s destruction, fortunately.  Also fortunately, I was able to hook up to a non-damaged outlet and keep internet in the house! 

Total time of the project so far (times include mid-projects trips to Lowes/Home Depot to get missing items):

Thursday: 4 Hours to cut through old pipe and solder on new pipes)

Saturday: 12 Hours

Monday’s Tasks:

1) Finish laying out pipes (Zones 3 and 4).

2) Test system for leaks.

3) Attach Sprinklers

4) Install Controller

5) Cover up trenches

6) Install Rain Detector (might have to be delayed since it gets installed on the roof)

Sprinklers! (Part 2)

Sprinklers! (Part 1)

  The latest project that I’ve gotten to undertake recently is installing sprinklers around the house.  Several months ago I measured the area around the house for my dad.  Last week I was able to use those measurements to plan out the placement of a sprinkler system.  It’s been a long time desire of mine to get  a sprinkler system installed so we would be able to keep grass alive in the midst of these Texas summers.

After getting the plans laid out and getting the green light from mom and dad it was time to start with the water supply.

Here’s the old water supply line into the house.  I was rather glad to find it.  Originally I was going to tap into the supply inside the house, but then I noticed a strange little water meter box just to the side of the house… completely full of dirt.  Some minor digging revealed that it was the cutoff valve shown above.  The extremely beat up looking cutoff valve shown above.

The plan was simple, cut off the old pipe, solder on a new pipe with a T leading to the sprinkler system.  Then McCormick's law kicked in. (I made McCormick’s law, it states: The easier a project should be the longer it will take).  The first problem I encountered was the beat up pipe.  I tried to use pipe cutters on it, but all they did was crush the pipe (it was REALLY cheap/old piping) so I had to dig out a larger area to allow the use of a hack saw on the pipe.  Once I finally got the pipe off, I realized that I had to make my cuts further back than I had originally planed due to some major pinches in the pipe I noticed.  My original plan wasn’t going to work, I needed some couplers. So after my 2nd trip out to Lowe’s today (the first happened when I first got up to get some plumber’s bread), I was ready to solder it up.  I had a full can of MAPP-Pro gas and plenty of flux, it should have been easy, right?

About half an hour later and some Google searches on “how to use MAPP gas” I discovered a link to the torch head I was using.  Turns out the torch head was incompatible with MAPP gas.  Oops.  3rd trip back to Lowe’s later and the correct torch head (which was more expensive) and I was now ready to get soldering.  I had meant to take more pictures, but once I got back with the right head, everything just went FLYING.  So here’s the final product.  And best part, there’s no leaks!

Sprinklers! (Part 1)

Shogi Boards, Stories, Fish Tanks, and Certifications.

  So, long time no update.  Which is kinda strange since I was in the middle of a story and a project, but I hit a wall for both of them.

With the story, I realized that while I had wanted to make a book for nieces/nephews etc., I had just introduced the main character who had just graduated college and was going to get a job.  It makes for a bad kid’s story when they can’t identify with the main character.  Rewriting it so that the main character is more around the right age won’t be too hard, but it will take some time to make sure the story still goes when I want to.  I actually know how the story will end and the climatic…er.. well climax of the story.  Being patient long enough to get there, however, is the hard part for me.

With the Shogi board I hit a major problem.  The method of getting the images onto the pieces themselves have proven… not good.  No matter which method I tried, the images wouldn’t really stick to the wood, and what little image did remain, would make the area around it impossible to stain.  And seeing as how this is supposed to be a log budget project, I’ve been having problems deciding where to go.

Then it hit me: Card stock paper!  I’m going to print the images onto a piece of cardstock then I’ll use an exacto-knife to cut out the shapes I need.  It’s much sturdier than regular paper and won’t rip on me.  Then I can use the cut outs like stencil paper and paint the images I want onto the shogi pieces.  It will apply paint only for the images and allow me to apply a nice stain once it dries.  Perfect!

As for the fish tank, it seems that everyone forgot to mention that you’re only supposed to start off with a couple fish to get the bacteria in the tank going.  Putting so many fish in at once caused my tank to go into shock. So far the following fish have died:

1 blue guppy x 2 (I replaced him and his replacement died, then I learned that I should hold off on buying replacements until the tank settles)

2 Neons

1 yellow guppy

2 Mollies

Making for a total of 7 dead fish (since the blue guppy’s replacement died).  The fancy tail guppy has survived and seems to love to show off for me (though he looks a little aged from the survival).  A single neon, both algae eaters, and the catfish have also survived.  My last trip to PetSmart revealed that my water had FINALLY balanced out from the initial damage so many fish had caused and I have to go ahead to start getting my fish back, SLOWLY.  I think I’ll start off with 2 guppies then work on the mollies and neons in another couple weeks (or month)

Also for those who didn’t hear, I passed my Network+ Certification a month ago and am now working on my CCNA.

Shogi Boards, Stories, Fish Tanks, and Certifications.