I owe my sister a reply to her Myspace message.

Well, this past week has been eventful. Lots of stuff going to the new backup network. I discovered a new live365 station, Aramis, radio by night -- it plays American, French, Greek and a smattering of Italian/German/Dutch oldies. Pretty cool, actually. Will hang out with Eugene tomorrow night -- just need to decide what movie to see. I'll head up to Rockville since last time he came from Silver Spring down to Springfield.

Today on Fark there were a couple of thoughtful threads -- one regarding the "Quiverfull" theology and the other regarding the Church of England considering a nuanced position on allowing severely deformed infants to die.

I think to repost my posts. At 8:55am:

Most reasonable ideas become repulsive if carried to their extreme conclusion. The slippery slope arguments are made because we HAVE fallen down that slope in the past, and humanity HAS repeated its mistakes in the past.

Over the course of the past 100 years we have advanced in our ability to care for infants.

Deformities that in 1906 would have meant a short, brutal lifespan or nearly instant death allow either a fairly productive life or even a nearly complete life.

My wife was born three months early. She was given to the care of her parents because, frankly, they expected her to die. Today, her survival would be expected. In 1978, it was considered a miracle. In 1906, well, there would be a gravestone that says, "born and died on November 4, 1906."

She is a college graduate with a job as an engineer today.

Some babies are born with deformities that might be resolved in 2500. Today, all that can be done is say a prayer for those involved -- nurse, doctor, parent and child.

Hopefully even in the death of a child with a borderline deformity there is knowledge gained that can save this child 10-15 years down the line.

On a secondary front, I'd like to add that life has never been unicorns and flowers. As recently as 100 years ago, most people lived and died on the weather. A drought that lasted more than a couple years meant people -- often in the housands -- DID die from starvation.

--end post

One thing I just learned is what is Harlequin fetus syndrome -- and I've heard there's other, worse disabilities. The wonderful thing is that we slowly become better able to handle these and other disorders -- so what caused death 100 years ago allows a life of 20-30 years today and in 100 years, disorders such as cystic fibrosis will be no more impediments than being deaf or blind are today. The sad part is that perhaps the research that allows future babies to live fulfilling lives forces some babies to lead a "life" of but a few weeks in neonatal ICU.

-- from last night's thread about Quiverfull theology

The love of Christ demonstrated by that love appearing in our thoughts, words and actions. To show that love in the face of hatred, whether the hatred carries the banner of "God" or of the "World," is the greatest challenge.

Too often I allow the cold water of hatred to put out the all-consuming fire of God's love that yearns to build within me.

Is having kids an expression of the love our Father holds for us, or is it to achieve some worldly goal? There is so much talk of electing Republicans, as if a Republican President and Congress would guarantee a more moral nation! Does my the bond of marriage I hold with my wife strengthen based on the occupants of power in Washington?

We are each given many gifts. Some unfortunate ones -- their only gift is the strength to overcome their innumerable demons. Others are blessed with many children. Still others are blessed with the ability to teach. Yet none of the parts of the body of Christ are somehow better than the other.

I will pray for serenity of the sort Paul writes about: I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

--

God and His Son, Christ, tell us to love much more than they tell us to go forth and fark like bunnies, burn the heretics, hate the gheys, etc.

It is interesting how many people want to create a Heavenly Kingdom in this world.

Well, as you might have noticed, my spam counting project has ended prematurely. It was simply taking too much time out of my day, really -- who wants to devote 20 minutes a day to reading spam when there's Scholastic Bowl questions to be written and work to be done at my work?

This weekend was pretty chock full of my regular work -- I ended up spending 13 hours working on servers on Saturday into Sunday (6pm to 7am) and then another 6 tracking down a pesky problem with a private database network. The former ended up with me restoring a 20gb file system in about an hour (I love the new backup system) and the latter ended up with me tracking down the issue to a faulty GBIC fibre-to-copper adapter on the private network's switch. I got a lot of help on this one from the weekend shift lead. I imagine the non-technical among my eight readers are now bored to tears on this one. And, for good reason.

The elections are all through. Right now, the Democrats are the party of destiny. Every 20-40 years, the time is simply right for one or another party. In the 1930s, it was time for the Democrats, in the 1970s, it was time for the Republicans. I just hope that I don't become so dogmatic that I lose sight of when to become a Republican again.

A thread on Fark that I didn't get a chance to reply to was very interesting. Apparently, the camp that was featured in the movie Jesus Camp was closed down and will be used for some other purpose. A few of the repliers decided to challenge not only the divinity of Jesus, but the very existence of a Rabbi named Jesus that flourished around 30 AD.

I'd like to think that the existence of Jesus is fairly well-documented. While the Josephus references are attributed as forgeries, we are assured of the existence of a missionary named Paul that in the 50s and 60s wrote several epistles to Christian churches around the Roman Empire. In these letters, he quotes Christ extensively.

By 64 AD, the Christian church had become important enough to warrant the first of several persecutions (although it didn't really get serious until 250 AD, when Decius decided the church was an existential threat to the Roman Empire.)

64 AD is fairly soon after Christ's probable crucifixion (which was between 30 and 35 AD). So soon, in fact, that the Apostles and Christ could easily be remembered by many Christians at that time; in fact, the Apostle John is said to have lived well past 90 AD. Mythical-historical figures (think of Jimmu Tenno) usually become mythical-historical with several centuries of intervening time between their actual existence and their emergence at the beginning of that culture's story.

We must also consider the relatively early existence of the Gospels. Most scholars argue that they were completed by 70-75 AD; again, Christ's ministry was within the memory of a few of the oldest Christians at that time. The Gospels were probably based on earlier oral tradition -- again, this tradtion probably began circulating at some point during the 50s, when the Christian church stopped being of a size where "everyone knew eveyone else" and such storytelling became a necessity.

Then, of course, the obvious question is this -- if not Jesus, who was the founder of the Christian Church? Paul of Tarsus? It seems odd that Paul would not have sanitized his early life, or have otherwise seen to it that his unsavory actions in Acts were not cleaned up. Likewise, Paul bases his own authority on the earlier authority of Jesus.

Now, with this said, why didn't anyone mention Jesus while he was alive? Simply put, he was not important enough to care about in 35 AD. Cults came and went in large numbers -- this is references in the passage in Acts where the Sanhedrin initially agreed to leave the Christians alone. By the time anyone really cared about Christianity, the only witnesses of Christ's life and time were other Christians.

I haven't even gotten into the Dominionist debate. Are they are fringe group or are they a serious aspect of the Christian Right? I'm inclined to think they are the former, although International ANSWER is disproportionately strong within the anti-war left.

Of course, the final question is why am I blogging at 5am?

There was a planned power outage this afternoon. I came in at about 6:15pm yesterday and was hoping to be back at a reasonable hour. We had two servers that just wouldn't come up and a crucial database server that had a disk go bad. We had a bad clock board on another server, a tape drive go bad on our VAX and there was an error of some sort on an external disk array but we couldn't trace what it was. Right now I'm hoping to get a restore kicked off.

Well, I thought my foot was feeling better. But a trip to Starbucks proved me wrong.

I discovered the joy that is French and German hip-hop today. I went on Wikipedia to get some artist name and then typed in those names in Youtube. Result: happiness.

Today's the last day I work the evening shift. Well I go back to normal tomorrow. Then Wednesday I have a dentist appointment, the first one in several years, actually. The podiatrist sees me on the 16th, although I suspect if I just overused my foot, he'll take a look and see nothing wrong. It can't hurt.

I think I'll vote for Mike McMenamin (R) for the County Board. The Board has been dominated by Democrats for too long -- kinda like how Capital Hill has had Republicans for too long. I'll probably vote for Cecelia Espenoza for the School Board, too, on little more than the Washington Post's endorsement. The school bond issue seems to have somewhat of a legitimate opposition -- Wakefield High is in as bad shape as Yorktown is, but Yorktown gets rebuilt and Wakefield might get rebuilt by the time Rebecca and I send our kids there. But even the Arlington County Taxpayers Association didn't have any goods on the other bonds. So I'll vote no on the school bond and yes on the other four.

Yesterday was my wife's 28th birthday. We celebrated by going out to her parents' house in the Shenandoah Valley, and going out to a nice Italian restaurant named Venice out here in Winchester.

We also hung out in her parents' hot tub. That was pretty fun. It also motivated me somewhat to clean out our porch. I think there'd be room to build a bigger porch and put our own hot tub there but we'd have to figure out a way to prevent it from being an 'attractive nuisance' as I think my insurance-selling aunt would put it.

My foot's still hurting just a little but I think I might be able to manage going to the grocery store. Rebecca's been getting on me about that for the past few days -- we'll see how my foot is after the drive. I think sitting around with no shoes helps a lot. I 'borrowed' a cane from Rebecca's dad but we'll see if I need to make good use of it.

The major news item is Saddam Hussein being sentenced to death. Since he was the law he acted in an lawful manner (regarding Iraqi law.) On the other hand, would a UN trial have turned into a 'let's bash America' session? Probably so. The US has done quite a bit to be ashamed of over the years, but the person on trial is Saddam Hussein, not the US goverment.

Of course releasing the verdict this close to the election provides the GOP with some warm fuzzy feelings. Of course if we hear about giant riots in the Sunni parts of Iraq, this will erase all those warm fuzzy feelings and give more evidence to the Democrats who believe (as I do) that our continued presence in Iraq is not helping the situation.

I'm still voting for Jim Webb. He promises to be one of the more conservative Democrats in the Senate, and more importantly, an independent voice, as opposed to the computer program that George Allen really is.

Jim Moran has done sufficiently well to earn my vote for re-election -- I am also voring for Moran to help bolster the Democrats' chances of retaking the House, which I think acts as a much-needed check on Republican power. I suspect Thelma Drake (2) down in the Virginia Beach area will lose, and after that, Frank Wolf (10) and Tom Davis (11) are in some danger. Either of them losing will be a hit below the waterline for the Republicans.

On the gay marriage amendment, I'm not sure this is an issue where a Christian majority can force their will on non-believers. Anyone that believes the few gays who want to get married are an imminent threat to marriage, in a world full of temptations to heterosexual couples, is kidding themselves. Britney Spears has done more damage to marriage than any gay who wants to get married. In addition, there is evidence that a similar amendment in Ohio has led to some discriminatory things being done to unmarried heterosexual couples -- I'm going to vote no.

The second VA amendment strikes some un-Constitutional (with the US Constitution) language about churches not being able to incorporate. I'll vote for that, it's a no-brainer.

The third VA amendment allows localities to provide exemptions from real estate taxes if they like what the owner is doing with the property. If federalism is a good idea on the national level, it's a good idea on the state level. I'll probably vote for that.

There's five bond referenda: Parks and Rec, Metro and Transport, Community Infrastructure, Utilities (expanding sewer lines) and Schools. I'll have to read the Arlington County Taxpayers' Association website and see if they have an issue with the bonds other than "Waaah! The gubmint is spending money!"

The County Board has an open seat. Chris Zimmerman seems to be a decent guy, but I'd like to see a Republican and/or a Green on the board if only to provide some balance. I'll have to look at Josh Ruebner and Mike McMenamin and see what ideas they have.

The School Board has Ceceilia Espenoza squaring off against Sally Baird. I honestly don't know who to vote for here. I'll have to check their websites.

Category 18-Sep Total
Free stuff 31 585
Male performance 10 411
Cheap stuff 20 423
Loans 20 798
Self-improvement 11 174
Porn 36 1469
Meet women 5 76
Stock tips 30 523
electronic scams 3 28
offline scams 3 61
Casinos 7 67
Political 1 7
Blank 20 127

Spanish 10 164
Japanese 1 31
Chinese 33 1304
Undetermined Asian 16 55
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 0 49
Turkish 0 3
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 197 4749

Category 14-Sep Total
Free stuff 45 554
Male performance 25 401
Cheap stuff 33 403
Loans 39 778
Self-improvement 12 163
Porn 91 1433
Meet women 2 71
Stock tips 52 493
electronic scams 1 25
offline scams 4 58
Casinos 8 60
Political 0 6
Blank 28 107

Spanish 18 154
Japanese 1 30
Chinese 74 1271
Undetermined Asian 18 39
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 9 49
Turkish 1 3
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 340 4552

Well, more fun stuff. Read this article from Salon.com about older, female virgins. My own opinion is that a man will use a woman's virginity as an excuse to ditch her if he isn't all that into her to begin -- women will do the same thing too. Basically, some people think if someone else hasn't been there earlier, well, there must be something wrong. This, of course, is as fallacious as thinking, "once a slut, always a slut."

It's times like this that Phillipians 4:12 rings even more true.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Work to improve your situation when you can -- when it can't be improved, then try and enjoy it.

Right now I'm listening to XM Radio's Special X. Apparently it's not on their satellite lineup, but is available to DirecTV listeners and people who buy XM's online lineup. My wife's been asking to get it, although I'm not 100% sure where we'd listen to it -- we get it at home along with our DirecTV but I'm not sure where we'd get $12.95 a month from listening to it.

I've listened to the French version of Lorne Greene's song Ringo and Leonard Nimoy's hit Bilbo Baggins. Fun stuff.

Spam count
Category 8-Sep Total
Free stuff 21 509
Male performance 11 376
Cheap stuff 12 370
Loans 25 739
Self-improvement 10 151
Porn 70 1342
Meet women 2 69
Stock tips 28 441
electronic scams 0 24
offline scams 1 54
Casinos 3 52
Political 1 6
Blank 9 79

Spanish 7 136
Japanese 5 29
Chinese 64 1197
Undetermined Asian 4 21
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 2 40
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 193 4212

Another quick spam update. One of these days I am going to make this a real blog. But for now ... this is it.

Category 6-Sep Total
Free stuff 53 488
Male performance 40 365
Cheap stuff 29 358
Loans 97 714
Self-improvement 16 141
Porn 172 1272
Meet women 4 67
Stock tips 46 413
electronic scams 2 24
offline scams 3 53
Casinos 9 49
Political 0 5
Blank 5 70

Spanish 15 129
Japanese 1 24
Chinese 158 1133
Undetermined Asian 0 17
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 3 38
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 476 4019

Category 31-Aug Total
Free stuff 24 435
Male performance 29 325
Cheap stuff 18 329
Loans 55 617
Self-improvement 17 125
Porn 113 1100
Meet women 4 63
Stock tips 21 367
electronic scams 2 22
offline scams 5 50
Casinos 3 40
Political 1 5
Blank 10 65

Spanish 9 114
Japanese 0 23
Chinese 109 975
Undetermined Asian 1 17
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 4 35
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 302 3543

Another spam count

Category 28-Aug Total
Free stuff 36 411
Male performance 26 296
Cheap stuff 12 311
Loans 53 562
Self-improvement 6 108
Porn 79 987
Meet women 7 59
Stock tips 18 346
electronic scams 1 20
offline scams 4 45
Casinos 2 37
Political 0 4
Blank 4 55

Spanish 6 105
Japanese 4 23
Chinese 68 866
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 4 31
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 248 3241

quick spam update for today

Category 25-Aug Total
Free stuff 10 375
Male performance 2 270
Cheap stuff 10 299
Loans 7 509
Self-improvement 2 102
Porn 25 908
Meet women 1 52
Stock tips 2 328
electronic scams 1 19
offline scams 2 41
Casinos 1 35
Political 0 4
Blank 0 51

Spanish 2 99
Japanese 0 19
Chinese 20 798
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 4
French 0 1
Italian 1 27
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 63 2993

Category 24-Aug Total
Free stuff 15 365
Male performance 9 268
Cheap stuff 9 289
Loans 5 502
Self-improvement 4 100
Porn 34 883
Meet women 2 51
Stock tips 14 326
electronic scams 0 18
offline scams 0 39
Casinos 1 34
Political 0 4
Blank 2 51

Spanish 3 97
Japanese 2 19
Chinese 32 778
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 1 4
French 0 1
Italian 0 26
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 95 2930

Myspace finally worked the way I wanted it to. I heard from a gal who was a year ahead of me at Warren County -- I need to write her back.

But more importantly, I need to edit the myspace page to reflect my wife and me being a couple. I suppose I could also put a picture of my wife and me up there?

Category 23-Aug Total
Free stuff 8 350
Male performance 9 259
Cheap stuff 6 280
Loans 9 497
Self-improvement 4 96
Porn 27 849
Meet women 1 49
Stock tips 8 312
electronic scams 0 18
offline scams 2 39
Casinos 1 33
Political 0 4
Blank 2 49

Spanish 4 94
Japanese 0 17
Chinese 21 746
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 4 26
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 77 2835

Quick spam update.

Category 22-Aug Total
Free stuff 17 342
Male performance 11 250
Cheap stuff 4 274
Loans 12 488
Self-improvement 4 92
Porn 40 822
Meet women 1 48
Stock tips 8 304
electronic scams 2 18
offline scams 1 37
Casinos 1 32
Political 0 4
Blank 3 47

Spanish 0 90
Japanese 0 17
Chinese 37 725
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 2 22
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 104 2758

Well, sorry for the lack of updates of late.

Today was spent on work and editing VHSL questions. I'll be doing the latter for much of the week, and then it's a return to writing questions. It'll be busy, but I've got four fairly easy (for me categories) and I might be able to have 24 matches' worth by Labor Day. We'll see.

Saturday, Becca and I went to the Clarke County Fair. It was okay, I suspect we'd have had more fun if we had been feeling better. Sunday, we went to church and then I went over the math questions with Adam and finished the geography questions.

Here's the spam count since Friday morning. I am impressed. The other categories are actually making a comeback vis-a-vis porn.

Category 21-Aug Total
Free stuff 35 325
Male performance 48 239
Cheap stuff 27 270
Loans 77 476
Self-improvement 9 88
Porn 142 782
Meet women 4 47
Stock tips 23 296
electronic scams 1 16
offline scams 6 36
Casinos 5 31
Political 0 4
Blank 3 44

Spanish 7 90
Japanese 3 17
Chinese 129 688
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 4 20
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 380 2654

Just another quick spam count. The Chinese porn spammers sure are persistent.

Category 17-Aug Total
Free stuff 9 290
Male performance 5 191
Cheap stuff 7 243
Loans 6 399
Self-improvement 4 79
Porn 42 640
Meet women 0 43
Stock tips 7 273
electronic scams 0 15
offline scams 1 30
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 1 41

Spanish 2 83
Japanese 0 14
Chinese 42 559
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 0 16
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 82 2274

Quick spam update

Free stuff 2 281
Male performance 3 186
Cheap stuff 2 236
Loans 7 393
Self-improvement 3 75
Porn 6 598
Meet women 0 43
Stock tips 3 266
electronic scams 0 15
offline scams 0 29
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 0 40

Spanish 1 81
Japanese 0 14
Chinese 5 517
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 0 16
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 26 2192

Quick spam count

Category 16-Aug Total
Free stuff 0 279
Male performance 1 183
Cheap stuff 2 234
Loans 1 386
Self-improvement 1 72
Porn 30 592
Meet women 1 43
Stock tips 1 263
electronic scams 0 15
offline scams 0 29
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 0 40

Spanish 0 80
Japanese 0 14
Chinese 30 512
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 0 16
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 37 2166

Well, another day is through. I wrote some questions and did some work. Not as much Farking today. My wife went to her Lions Club meeting and had a minor crisis when the toilet didn't flush. Turns out there was a used tampon clogging things up, but the snake managed to get hold of it and pull it out. Hopefully, no more toilet clogging.

My MySpace adventure continues. I got two webcam girls (one from Arlington), one Hoodia saleslady and one random woman from Texas. I have no idea how she got my screen name, so I asked her. I may end up taking the darn page down, since I'm not sure what road I'll be going down. Well, here's hoping people from Warren County and Randolph-Macon actually get in touch with me.

Today's Spam:

Free stuff 10 279
Male performance 8 182
Cheap stuff 7 232
Loans 7 385
Self-improvement 1 71
Porn 54 562
Meet women 1 42
Stock tips 3 262
electronic scams 0 15
offline scams 1 29
Casinos 0 26
Political 0 4
Blank 2 40

Spanish 2 80
Japanese 0 14
Chinese 49 482
Undetermined Asian 0 16
Portuguese 0 3
French 0 1
Italian 3 16
Turkish 0 2
Gender-inappropriate 0 0

Total 94 2129