Men

I was eating lunch today. Looking around I saw several men eating alone. There was a similarity about all of them. The emblems on their shirts let me know they all worked at different jobs. They where different ages, had different hair styles and overall where not very similar. But still they had something in common. I thought for a few moments, contemplating what it was. Then it came to me. They all had a look of cynical pessimism and disdain. They all looked mad at the world.

A few moments latter a man in hospital scrub pants and a classy T-Shirt came in with his young attractive wife and family. He seemed different. He was confident, self assured and more pleasant. I thought of the other men I knew. A fireman who had muscles everywhere and an attractive family; he was almost always in good humor. A rich business owner, who I once saw break his leg, yet stay happy. And others who where struggling in marriages and hopping from one job to another, in disdain and depression.

What was the difference. I'm not thinking about just on that day, but the difference between a man who, as a base line emotion, is happy content, strong and confident; and the man who is pessimistic, cynical and sad. I think it goes back to what degree a man perceives he has lived up to his self envisioned potential. Not the potential he feels he has now, but that vision of life he started out with before the world crushed it. Does the man live up to the expectation the boy inside him had of himself. That seven year old boy, looking at the stars and say " I wanna be an astronaut". Or the 5 year old with a red plastic hat and his parents garden hose who dreams of rushing into the flames and saving families from the burning embers. That boy stays in us all and measures us to his expectations. Does that boy find a firefighter or middle aged man in a cubicle. We measure ourselves by our ability to fulfill our personal life vision. I think many of us feel that kid inside of us looking at us, and we dare not look in his direction, for fear our eyes will meet and the disappointment will be crushing. That causes our cynicism and depression. That kicks the air out of our lungs and shrinks our shoulders.

So what can be done? It is carcinogen to the overall organism of humanity when our men do not live up to their dreams. Like muscles atrophying from a disease, our stability as a people is waned. So what can be done? I think there are multiple faceds.

First of all the man himself, must force himself to look that boy inside himself in the eyes, apologize to him and embrace him. Then realize that every bit the potential that was in the boy is still in the man today. Time and practicalities can not erode that. But he must first break off the crust of apathy and self pity. And stand strong, pot a course and hit it hard and unyielding, like a charging rhino!

Those around the man play a roll in his vision. Many a man will yield on his vision because of the perceived pressures of the world and the short term responsibility. The family unit as a whole must realize that the ultimate health and well beeing of the family is dependent on everyone reaching their full potential, and this begins with the man. When a man is working toward the vision there may be an intermediate time when immediate needs may go unfulfilled, this is where the support must come in. The pressure must be alleviated so the man can aspire.

I have been blessed to have a wonderful wife. I remember the day she said "get a vision and I will follow you anywhere, just get a vision. " So empowering and supportive. Her strength enables me to strive after my vision and look the boy inside me and the boy that's following me, in the eye.


-Xion-

Unfair Pay - Cool!

Matthew 20: 1-16 the parable of the works in the vineyard. Jesus has already told us this, No matter who you are and how long you have been saved, or what your back ground is, if you confess Jesus and Believe in him we all get the same wages.  It’s by grace our reward is based, not on how we live.

 Now there are all those scriptures that say “those that do this will be cast into outer darkness”. True, those that do not truly believe in Jesus and do those things will, those that have done those things or struggle with those things but DO truly believe in Jesus will have eternal life, and what Jesus declares “Clean” nobody can declare unclean. Gods grace is the power to not sin and his mercy is giving us what Jesus deserves even when we act like we do. So do we sin so that grace and mercy can abound no, but don’t freak out. Live life, Love God Love each other. 

So the good news is the sinner and the saint get the same pay, if they love God and man, through Jesus. Cool. 

My Wife

Sometimes the sexyist moments is just watching my wife sleep. She is absolutely beautiful.
-Xion-

Apalachee Indians

Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 06:07:58

Today I went to Mission San Luis, in Tallahassee Florida. This was a location where Spaniards and Native Americans lived in harmony. On this site Jesuit and Franciscan monks built a church and very basic type of monastery. In 1604 the Apalachee Indians became disenfranchised with their Native American spirituality, this was mainly due to their perceived failure of their deities to protect them from a culmination of circumstances that had been eating away at their cultural peace. Seeking a belief that would provide a more mellifluous existence, they reached out to the local Franciscan monks. They converted to the more successful Christianity. An evangelism by success. I find this applicable for todays culture, in that this is exactly what is called for currently. Americans today convert to what works, whoever seeks to evangelize must have the real day to day goods, as far as the answers to day to day issues. Those who would claim to put their trust in God, must live a life that exemplifies what a heathen would expect to find in someone with unlimited power and resources dwelling within them. Evangelize by winning.

-Xion-

Energy Problem: Proposed Solution

1) Fuel Source conversion

a) Design a clean running diesel hybrid engine that runs off of biofuel that can either be grown or recycled from restraint grease

b) Sign agreements with nation’s largest fast food chains to make available their extra fry grease for consumers to use in their vehicles at less than 0.99 per gallon. Cap and regulate this so that the fast food industry is still making money off of this but that the American public has a cost effective source of fuel.

c) Invest in our domestic agrarian resources as a source for producing bio-fuels. The bio-fuels that are developed should be a compensation of oils from corn, soy and other replenish-able crops. These should be grown traditionally (soil) and hydroponically. These should be grown in multiple locations to install redundancy in the system.

d) Redirection of major domestic oil and gas companies to focus on the agrarian growth and processing of bio-fuel. Making agreements with farmers as they would fossil fuel deposits and minors. The profit for the oil companies should stem off of quantity and quality of bio-fuels and as a result of their alignment with the farming community.

2) Reduce our overall consumption of liquid fuels in vehicles : It has been widely stated that one opposition to organic renewable fuels is that it is not speculated that we could produce enough biofuel to maintain the country’s current need for fuel. In a budget you can increase income or reduce spending. We need to reduce spending on liquid fuel. This is a plan for such a reduction:

a) Re-establish a national rail system for freight and commuter interstate traffic. Invest in fast high capacity mag rails and electric trains that run on existing, upgraded or newly developed rails. These should be power by nuclear, hydraulic and wind turbine power plants.

b) Migrate the majority of domestic airline and bus passenger traffic to train. Airline, train and bus are all part of the same union. A multi-year program to retrain and merge the majority of employees to train traffic and building out of train stations, infrastructure and facilities needs to be developed and implemented.

c) Interstate freight delivery of raw products, goods, vehicles, mail, packages, merchandise etc. needs to be migrated from Semi Trucks to trains. Truck drivers are currently experiencing lower profit margins because cost of fossil fuels for their rigs are is going up and the price companies and organizations are willing to pay is not increasing at proportional rates. Truck drivers, and others in the intrastate trucking industry could also be migrated into the train systems on the freight side. Rails should deliver cargo into the heart of most major cities in the country and a drastically reduced fleet of semi trucks could then deliver the freight in the final in-city or intercity leg of the journey. High torque, low install, low maintenance Diesel Hybrid engines should be developed and installed in these trucks within a 10 year period of time, utilizing enhanced biofuel production processes, such as hydroponics and accelerated growth research.

d) Overall, develop a 5 to 10 year plan to migrate most interstate traffic to clean rails from air and road.

3) Transition stationary energy requirements to non-centralized sources.

a) Single Electric and gas companies should not be the main source of power for homes and offices within specific area or region. Power stations should be owned and operated by a minimum of 3 different and competing privately owned companies, with rates subject to government caps to keep pricing moving in a comparative direction.

b) Houses should be retrofitted with domestic generating systems consisting of items such as wind turbines, solar panels, rain refilled hydrogen fuel cells that should equal a minimum of 90% of the average energy requirement per foot of the square footage of that house. A way of calculating per square foot power consumption of a house needs to be developed. Then utilizing that number a system needs to be developed where new houses are required to cover at least 90 to 100% of their usage and older retrofitted houses need to produce a minimum of 70% to 90% of their usage. Sufficient insulation, storm energy efficient windows etc. need to be included in housing codes.

Modern

The modern person does not believe in heaven, they do not believe in hell, nor sin or consequences of sin. Some may have an awareness of these, but practically and day to day, these concepts have no impact on their day to day life. So an offer by Christianity to "save from sins" or "deliver from hell" or "eternal life" has no real impact on the modern man. What the modern man wants, what Christ, Christianity, Christians and more importantly, the modern church, must provide in order to be relevant and effective; is to meet the modern mans felt needs. What people are looking for is: to be able to pay their bills, get out of credit card debt, have their cancer or AIDs removed, their astigmatisms healed, pay for gas. They want to have their business succeed, to be loved and to experience love. They want to have custody of their kid and to have child care taken care of and be able to send them to college. Real practical day to day needs must be met. In order for the church to be relevant in today's world, in fact to maintain the right to thrive in today's world, Christ's church must be able to meet these needs. Only then and after has the church earned the right to talk to people about concepts such as "salvation". If a church spends its time in internal social events, singing praise and worship, speaking sermons mealy about salvation and does not meet or pay for the communities energy issues, heal the sick, solve relationship and professional issues, than it is not serving Gods purpose, and should move on. Jesus said "the same things I have done and greater, shall you do." Jesus healed peoples practical needs, that's why people flocked to Him, that's why he could speak into peoples' lives and that's why he changed the earth.

Not so basic Instinct

Ok, got a brief chance to touch on the new Samsung SPH-800, otherwise known as the Instinct. Overall the phone is fantastic. The touch screens sensitivity is somewhere between the iPhone and the HTC Touch. However the phone features Heptic feedback which allows you to actually feel when you touch a virtual key by a slight vibe. The phone switches orientation when entering text. This allows for a much more spacious typing experience over the previously mentioned devices. Other nice features include: Textual voice mail, voice interaction allowing navigation and operation with your voice, GPS navigation, Sprint TV and blazing fast EVDO-RevA connection. The unit uses the fast internet connection, allong with a decent browser, to allows .flv videos in some sites such as YouTube mobile. The instinct can be navigated via your fingers or the included stylus. The instinct email application supports pop3, and unlike the iPhone, easy access to MS Exchange corporate email. Setting up a pop account was very easy and the large graphics make the process seem friendlier to those less tech savvy. One thing that is easy to overlook, but is an important feature: Changeable battery. If the Batt goes bad, change it, not the entire phone. What a concept. One more really cool feature: while web browsing, if you hold down the camera button on the side of the phone, and tilt the phone, the web browser changes the angle of view and even the content around as you move the phone. It gives a "navigate by Wii" feel. really cool.

Ok, here was the main disappointing topic: Office Doc support. I sent an email with MS Word, Excel, Power Point and a PDF to the phone. The email showed the attachment but when attempting to open the Excel received an error that appropriate viewers where not installed. I sincerely hope this is a condition that will be either included in the production model (since I was using a pre-launch demo) or that plug ins for this option will be shortly available.

Overall, my opinion is, the phone is great for most moderate to psuedo-techie people. It is very sexy and is definitely a head turner. I would certainly say it is an upgrade from the iPhone in most areas. If you want serious corporate email with document view and even edit; and also plan on doing a tone of typing, I would still recommend a BlackBerry. And that's my 2 Cents on the Instinct.

True Religion

I have had a great opportunity to study religion, in particular Christianity, since 1978; including reading the Bible cover to cover and multiple times. I have had the privilege to have studied in Bible schools and colleges under numerous modern theologians, fathers, pastors and teachers. Multiple conversations with multiple church leaders; with many "behind the scenes" discussions on reality of life and theology have been had. And now, still, I am faced with a frustration. There is a reality that is a quagmire that threatens to holds true followers of Christ stagnant. Those who would live in Christ, from the land of Christ … Christ-ians back. It is this…We focus on minor issues and not on what is truly important. Augustine first raised this point that we should not spend our time focusing on really insignificant issues and focus on the truth. We should not be bickering about theology (once saved always saved, speaking in tongues, cussing, sex before marriage, adultery, divorce, immersion, sprinkling, etc. ) as it is stated in 1 Timothy 1:6-7. But rather, what true religion is, is physically loving and taking care of people. James 1:27 says that true and lasting religion is to "…care for orphans and widows in their troubles…". Basically the entire Bible, all the commands all the teachings boil down to this: Love God & Love Man. I would go as far as to say that you express your love for God by loving man. In 1 John 2, God points out the futility of claiming to love God but not showing love, compassion, empathy and assistance to our fellow man. Love is so hard sometimes, especially when rules and rituals are so much easier. It is easier to say " Hope ya feel better…", "good luck with that electric bill…"," Hope that cancer doesn't come back…". Instead of giving real tangible and empirical hope. Real Christians should be able to give hope, be successful enough at what they do to have money to give (as opposed to begging for it on TV). Real Christians should have the power to lay hands on the sick and have them recover. "Awe, but that kind of power disappeared with the apostles.", "Christians shouldn't be ambitious.", "that wouldn't be living on faith, to be successful at work." Excuses I say, Excuses all, not even real theology but lame excuses the modern church has come up with to explain away our lack of power. We should not be as those who claim to know Him, but deny his Power, claiming to follow him but not living lives that serve him. And how do we do that? How do we live as He did? It is easy. Here is what Jesus says:

Love God and Love man. Matthew 22:34-40; Luke 10:26-28;

So we love God by loving man, all mankind. Even that guy at work you hate. Even that loved one who betrayed the most sacred of loves and turned it into something ugly. We love. Because "Whatever we have done to the least"¹ we have done to God. And you know, a lot of times we are the least, that are in need of loving. So I say, that the measure of your true character, as a human, is how you treat the person you like the least. You only love God, as much as the person you love the least. If we look at Jesus, he said, if you even look at a woman with lust you have committed adultery with her. This is the warning to stay away, but when the woman, caught in the physical act is brought to Him, He does not judge, rather he forgives and she joins His group of close friends. Jesus says If you hate, it is as if you have murdered someone, Yet he had murders, zealots, in his apostles. He laid out the path of a successful life, but never condemned when people fell short. He only ever was disappointed when people didn't act on what he said (faith), and was angry at those who claimed to know God but laid down rules and regulations instead of loving. Again, we need to tangibly:

Love God and Love Each other.

^{Matthew 519, Matthew 10:42, Matthew 25:40}

Frogs

Catching frogs with the kids. Beautiful day, lots of fun.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Belief

Belief: Is a decision made within the mind, by the will and with the emotions that directly and instinctively mandate behavior and personality.

    

Belief: Bible New Testament Greek: pivstiß Pronounced Pis'-tis: "A conviction of the truth of anything" Translated in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 as "Belief" and 239 other times in the New Testament as "Faith". The word "believe" from the New Testament Greek is from the word peivqw, pronounced pi'-tho, and means to convince or be convinced or persuaded.

 

Merriam-Webster defines belief as:

"1: a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing2: something believed; especially
: a tenet or body of tenets held by a group3: conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence" – Merriam-Webster Web site 2008.

 

We may say that we believe in something, but the real evaluation of the matter is if it is shown in our lives. It is not that a person is a hypocrite because they do not act out what they believe but they are a hypocrite because they claim to believe something that they in reality do not act out. Hypocrisy is lying to one self about what you believe. Not a deception of others but of self. Therefore it is not for anyone to evaluate another's hypocrisy or belief, but for each of us to evaluate our own life. Look at your check book, your calendar, your completed tasks, the eyes of your children. Take a snap shot of the last 3 months of your life, that is what you believe. It's not that our belief's motivate our actions, our actions are our beliefs. Don't look at how you want to be like, or at ideals you think grand or at the motivation of others for what you believe, look at how you act day to day. Now look at the ideals that you want to act out in your life, what you want to be. The degree that the two line up, is the measure of your integrate. If you are not happy with your integrate you have 2 choices: 1. Change your outward behavior until it matches your ideal or 2. Change what you think you claim to believe until it matches your behavior. The second option requires a realization and ability to accept reality. Option one, requires self-discipline, self-respect, self-motivation, self-confidence, the help of a core set of close friends and very often the help of "a higher power" (Bill W.)

 

So, what do you believe?

Wireless as a Utility

It has begun. In 1999 I speculated that the wireless industry was going to migrate to a utility by or around 2010. So what are the components of the wireless utility? What does it look like? Most wireless carriers' offering flat rate voice access to nationwide no long distance charges, with a possible charge on tiered data usage. The actual carriers will not actually carry phones. They will offer the service for a nominal contract and better coverage than available in the 90s and even today. Handsets will be sold either directly from the manufacture or, most likely, via retail outlets; similar to how TV's, car stereos and cameras. Therefore carriers would not need to subsidize the handsets and not need to recover that expense with longer term contacts.

So what does that look like to the customer. The average customer will go to a Wal-Mark, Best Buy or specialty retailer to purchase the handset. The handsets will cost about $100 to $200 more for an equivalent phone today. If the phone broke or needed repair, it would be handheld similarly to how the service, repair or warrantee works on a TV you buy from BestBuy or another big box retailer. The consumer will then take the phone into the carrier to have it activated. Most likely, in the long run, this will be on line or over the phone. The need for a retail location would be only as necessary as the retail locations for you home phone, or home gas service.

The effects of this is tiered. For the handset manufacturer, such as Nokia, Motorola, Sanyo etc. the value is put back into the handset. Currently these manufacturers feel that their handsets are not perceived at their accurate worth, because a phone that should have a MSRP of $200 is often sold for free to the customer. So when the phone breaks the customer doesn't feel they should pay the $200 to have it replace it. This cost the manufacturer money. So when the carriers are no longer selling the phones the prices will more accurately reflect the worth of the handset, presenting a more honest view of the phone. The carriers should be able to focus on the network and the billing providing a better business plan for the carrier and better experience for the customer. Carriers should also be able to offer more advanced services with better coverage. Most likely they will give voice away unlimited and charge for the data services. The customer will get more selection on phones and better services and better service prices, but will pay for the better phones and service with higher handset costs.

The utility migration has begun.

Handsets: Steve Jobs power to make the industry sign exclusives on his much demanded iPhone swayed power back toward the handset manufacturer. Google's android and bid on 700 mHz, Verizon and AT&T commitment toward allowing unlocked phones all goes towards taking the phones out the carrier and into the retail and customers hands.

Plans: Just this week, Verizon and AT&T have announced flat rate unlimited nationwide voice plans starting $99.99; along with T-mobiles existing plans and the rumors that SprintNextel will launch a $60 national unlimited plan, moves us closer to the voice part of the utility. Carriers may be realizing that voice is just the commodity and data is the revenue.

So it has begun. Within the next 5 years. We may be using wireless like they do in Europe. For a good view on the future of wireless, look at Finland, Germany, Korea, Saudi Arabia, South Africa. Then you will see the future of the US Wireless Market.

History Channel asks …

who are the Daughter n-Law of Adam and Eve

Really, can secular intellects be so stupid. Maybe they just haven read the entire text with an open mindset to get honest answers. They always go to traditional liberal theologians who either explain the Bible figuratively or use extra-textual , in some time non-biblical text. They treat multiple religions with equal weight on Biblical topics, which is to dilute and get skewed view with which no practical follower of any of the compared religions actually hold plausible. Only these theologians, for 15 min of fame and for flamboyant class lectures, take intellectual satisfaction from the scriptural contortions. However in Gen 5:1-5 it states that Adam lived over 900 year and had multiple children. Heck, my wife and I have been married 13 years and with birth control had 4 kids. Adam and Eve had more than 900 years and no birth control. Even just one child a year was born they could have had close to 900 kids. Now, does the Bible list each and every one? Some are listed but not necessarily all. Because a child is not listed, does it mean they did not exist, No! So doesn’t that insinuate Incest? Yes. But incest is not listed as a sin until Deuteronomy, recorded hundreds of years later. From an anthropological point of view incest, or a loose cousin of it, would have be the only way, outside of apparent age theory multiple creationism, would have been the logical option. Now assume that every year after 13 years, each of the 900 children have a child a year, and then there children. This group of humans would have multiplied exponentially. So Cain or Able may not have even known all of their immediate family. The answer is not fantastic , just common sense and already written in plain text in the current canonized Bible. All one has to do to find the answers, is to read the Bible, not watch the History channel. So, read the Bible.