Val gave me "S"

The Deal: Comment on this post and I'll give you a letter. Then you take that letter and write ten words that start with that letter and what they mean to you. Easy.

Small Group: We are now SGC, sub of SGL, sub of The Bigham group. I lead, no one listens to me, and they all make fun of me. I don't deserve any of it. But I keep a stiff upper lip and continue on... Actually, small group is a very important part of my week, allowing for discussion and socializing time with my brethren.

Scott/Sammie: My brother and The Cole. Both very cool people. As for Sammie, need I say more?

Simmons: My mother's maiden name and subsequently the name of the largest side of my extended family. The reunions are always great (cuz we're a family that actually likes getting together...)

Sweet Pea: My wife's handle in games and the name of her old Corolla.

Shadow: My handle in games and began when I started playing Halo. Also the main character in an old radio show. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows...

Sugar: What's not to like? It's sweet goodness in crystallized form. Sucrolose isn't a bad substitute in diet drinks either...

Sea, Great Big: Alright, I'm stretching this one, but Great Big Sea is one of my favorite groups. I usually say I don't know what my favorite group is, but if I can listen to them all day, I guess that makes them my overall favorite group.

Strongbad: The best character with the best e-mails on Homestarrunner.com. Created by the brothers Chaps, whose father apparently died recently from, I believe, liver cancer at the age of 66.

Surfing: As in "the net," of which I do a fair amount.

Savior/Salvation/Saved: All things that I have or am because of Jesus Christ.

Illegals and Iraq

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the illegal immigrant stuff that's going on, but this Cartoon is an interesting way for people to look at it. Especially people who support the illegals and at the same time think the U.S. should get out of Iraq.

Microsoft

This is my second post of the day, but I just read an article from a Microsoft employee that some people (geeks, nerds, etc) may find interesting. It's about working at Microsoft from a person who uses Apple computers...

Working at Microsoft

Octopi tricks

Octopi (I'm assuming that's the plural of octopus) are weird and impressive creatures. The following short clips are absolutely incredible and apparently factual. I found the camouflage clip from the Popular Science blog, so it must be true, right?

Camouflaging Octopus

Walking Octopus

Stereotypes and more...

BEGIN RANT:

Let me begin with stereotypes. Stereotypes, by definition, are applied to an entire group (often people) unfairly. However, they became stereotypes for a reason...usually that there is some grain of truth in them. That doesn't mean they should be applied to everyone, but I've personally seen people acting out stereotypes without even realizing it while accusing other people of stereotyping. I'm just as guilty as the next person about knee jerk thoughts based on stereotypes, though I try to look through them and see the person in front of me instead of the stereotype.

The reason I bring this up is that there many stereotypes about Christians, and the media tends to highlight people that support these stereotypes. Not only that, but, in my opinion, several of the most outspoken "Christians" tend to play into stereotypes. God didn't call for us to make fools of ourselves and accuse others in hateful ways, yet often those are the kinds of people I see in the media. I don't often see the people who do things and don't ask for recognition. You know, the ones that are embarrassed to receive recognition when it finds them. Take televanglists...I'm sure there are good televanglists out there somewhere, but I can't stand the lot because there have been so many bad eggs. Of course, televanglists are stereotyped too...

The world views us through the outspoken (a.k.a. "Extreme") Christians that take the stage. Just as in politics, the media focuses on the divisive issues and candidates. The far-left or right share opinions that are inflammatory, and that's good for business.

Sam Harris apparently has a new book (which I haven't read) about the End of Faith. More specifically, how faith based religion should be stamped out because of it's divisive influence on the world. Below is a link to a talk Sam gave about his book and some of his ideas. There are a few things I agree need to be thought about, but predominately his comments express an ignorance of what Christians are called to do as compared to other religions. And while I wouldn't call myself an extremist on any level, I also wouldn't call myself a moderate as per his definition. And I feel like he twists parts of the Bible to support his views (but then again, many others do this too). If you listen, be prepared to take offense not because he is offensive, but because he is an extremist in his own right and just as guilty as looking at the issue from one side. Or at least presenting only one side.

I feel like Sam Harris is playing to some Christian (and general religion) stereotypes...applying his comments to Christianity/religion as a whole but using examples that represent a small section of believers. The problem is that there are people listening (the Amazon rating on his book averages 4 stars).

If you listen to the talk, let me know what you think. I didn't really go into what he talks about, and it's a LONG talk, but I think some ideas are presented that we should know about and defend against. Go here for Sam Harris' talk:

End of Faith talk

END RANT

Bacon

How would you like to feel like a piece of bacon?

Like Butta (On a Hot Skillet)

Live-action Still-Frame?

Check out this video. A person suggested you think Gumby crossed with the Matrix.

Art of Motion

Pretty cool.

Fruit Animals

I love me some Kiwi Mice. Or Orange Frog...

http://bleargh.net/wordpress/?p=125

Enjoy.

Toilet Lid Sink and SmartTrips

Am I the only one that thinks this would be over kill? (or even a little odd to use)

Toilet Lid Sink

In other news, in the last month I have broken not one, but TWO SmartTrip cards. For those of not familiar with them, they are the plastic cards that are replacing the paper fare cards on the D.C. metro system. They use an RFID strip (or something similar) in the plastic, and apparently the smallest crack, anywhere on the card, will render it entirely useless.

On the first one, one corner snapped off entirely. I had to send it in and hope I get a new card back with the ~ $25 that was left on it. This morning another one I was using cracked. It doesn't even look like that bad a crack, but apparently it's enough since it won't work at all (for me OR the station manager, who made fun of me because he remembers helping me with the first broken card). So now I have to send in THIS one too...and hope I get back the $20 still on it. And these are not cheap cards - just getting a SmartTrip card is $5, which means I'm out $10 just from getting the new replacement cards they send me.

Argh.