My Most Important Post Ever

A few months ago I commented on a photo on my sister-in-law's facebook page. It was a picture of her [and my brother's] dog, Regan. here is my comment

yall might have the most photogenic dog ever. She is moderately cute and never gives that devil eye effect. But she's too dang big

Thus began a substantial controversy in my family. Jarred asked me, "Why is my dog only moderately cute?" My answer, "Because she is only moderately cute. She is not nearly as cute as my dog, Esau.

I need the help of my readers, both of you, to solve this controversy. Below, you will find a biography and 3 photos of Regan, followed by a biography and 3 photos of Esau. Then there is a poll. So with apologies to Chris Leavins, (cutewithchris.com) here is the cute-down between Regan & Esau.

We will declare a winner on April 7.

May the cutest dog [named Esau] win

REGAN
Regan 1

Regan in the pic that sparked the controversy
Birth Date: March 3, 2007 Breed: Saint Bernard Favorite Activities: going for walks and car-rides (she can stick her head out of the moon roof); playing in the snow Most Expensive item she has chewed: Jarred's glasses and 2 remotes for our TV... the list goes on and on and she is still chewing Favorite Food: Peanut Butter Hours sleep per day: 14-16 hrs (she is very lazy) Wt: 150 lbs and growing Quirk: likes to sit on people's feet and lean on them when she is being petted She enjoys laying on the air conditioning vents in the summer and laying in front of the front door in the winter to catch any drafts. Commands: Sit, down, stay, leave it, and we are working bang which is playing dead when we point our finger and say "bang" Favorite Treat for Training: cheetos (she won't eat dog treats/bones... she spits them out)
Regan 2

Regan..."No Photos, Please"
Regan 3

Regan disinterested in the process
ESAU
Esau 1

This Esau from yesterday. In desperate need of a haricut and a bath
Birth Date: Sometime in 1999 (I got him June 1, 2000) Breed: Your guess is as good as mine Favorite Activities: Sitting in the front window barking at pedestrians; Getting a dog treat out of an old milk jug or water bottle Most Expensive item he has chewed: Once destroyed the entire contents of my pantry, but nothing expensive Favorite Food: pretty much anything Hours sleep per day: 18-20 (it's tough being a dog) Wt: 22 lbs or so Quirk: he enjoys laying against me when I nap, and being left under the covers when I get up Commands: stay (that's pretty much the only one) Favorite Treat for Training: What is training?
Esau 2

Esau guarding a ball. Much better haircut
Esau 3

Esau disinterested in the whole process as well

I couldn't find a good embeddable poll anywhere so you have to click here to vote. http://www.opinionpower.com/Surveys/458052885.html

Also..I think you can only vote once, but don't cheat.

And please leave a comment saying who you voted for. ;-)

Why Is This News?

Yesterday I saw this story in at least 5 places around the web.

Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher

Then I heard it again on the news and again on the Kimmel show.

[Edit] Then I heard it yet again on the Tony Kornheiser show on Thursday [/edit]

Here's a quote from the important passage of the story

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday. Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

In case you just skimmed over that paragraph, allow me to summarize:

Moses on Mt. Sinai cannot be true, because I don't believe in a God who can do anything so I decided to just make something up completely out of whole cloth. I have taken drugs that gave me a similar experience, so that must be what caused it.

I'm not shocked that someone would make up something like this. People have doubted the miracles of the Bible since they happened. What I want to know is - Why is this news? A guy made something up. If I publish an article that says "I don't believe the moon exists so it must be a very large, very stale twinkie fooling us all." two things would happen.

1. Nobody at all would pay any attention, because clearly I have an overactive imagination. (Or I've been burning the bush) 2. The people who know me would tell me to shut up.

My second question is this; does the Time and Mind Journal of Philosophy have any standards whatsoever? How can a guy make something up just because he is unwilling to believe what has been believed by most for the last 6000 years, and get it published? Does anyone have an answer?

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RS Wha...?

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This is day 2 and post 2 But if I am realistic, I know that if I manage to keep a regular blog, it won’t be daily. So how are you, my reader to know that I have a new post up? You could visit every single day. That would look good on my stat counter, and would probably be good for my ego. But the much better answer is - via RSS.

If you don’t know what RSS is or if you do but aren’t using it you are missing out on half of the internet. RSS is what allows podcasts to work and it the quickest way to view a plethora of sites every day. (I read 30, not counting my podcasts) RSS stands for really simple syndication and it basically lets you know when blogs, podcasts, and websites are updated. It allows you to read them without actually visiting them in your browser It works much like e-mail with a headline (subject) and a preview pane that lets you read the body of the post. I prefer to get my feeds via my e-mail program. As a service to you, I’ll recommend a few excellent programs or services to help you read feeds.

I use Thunderbird as both my e-mail client and RSS reader If you are a yahoo mail user, the new format has an RSS section Gmail has a feed section (but I really don’t like it) a much better option is reader.google.com If you use Microsoft Outlook, then try News Gator which works as a plugin For Firefox users, (hopefully all of you) there are many extensions, none that I really love, but Wizz seems well supported and good

If anyone else has a suggestion they particularly love, leave it in the comment section.

I’ll end this post with the feed address of several of my favorite blogs and sites, there are no podcasts in this list

SBC related blogs

Sports related Blogs

Comedy

My Friends

Shopping

InterfaceLIFT (Cool desktop backgrounds)

My First Post

Recently I decided to launch a regular blog. This post is the first fruit of that decision. I realize that there is a certain amount of arrogance in putting out a blog. To quote Scott Adams, “the decision to write a regular blog is tantamount to saying What the world needs is more of me and my opinion.” Having said that, I hope to not seem too arrogant or boring as I do this. The students in my youth group were complaining about having a state writing exam today. They didn’t want to do it. Most people don’t want to write. But I told them that it would be good for them to learn, because pretty much every essay test they take in college will be the same thing as this exam.

“But Jeremy,” you ask, “You’ve already graduated college, and seminary, why would you want to keep writing?” Because it is good practice for people, including myself, to learn to write. Writing teaches us to organize our thoughts and makes us better communicators. Also, hopefully I have something useful to say about the world. I hope I will be interesting to read as well as organized and well though out.

Another reason that I chose to begin a blog is that I am horrible at keeping my daily journal. For years, (actually since I was 15) I have kept a daily journal that is really just a rundown of how I spent my days. But in the last 5 years I’ve missed more days than I’ve kept, including a gap of over a year. This blog is a way of replacing that journal. Hopefully the accountability of knowing others are reading will keep me doing it. And I’m sure that literally a quarter of a dozen people will read this blog regularly, including such luminaries as my mother and some guy who just randomly stumbled here because I tagged a post with NFL.

Also I decided to begin a blog rather than just go back to my journal because I would feel silly journaling about how much I hate the in-car view of racing in NASCAR coverage, and I want to be able to occasionally write about something that won’t matter in my journal after I’m dead.

I have two friends who keep a regular blog that also inspired me to do this. One is Adam Reed, a youth minister in South Carolina. The other is John McLamb, a missionary to Bolivia who is currently in language school in Costa Rica. (Go leave him an encouraging comment in Spanish)

My plan is to post three times a week, with something silly like a comic or video on Fridays. (Another idea I stole from Adam) I may post on any of the following topics:

· My life (This will be most posts)

· Church

· Sports (I particularly follow NFL, NCAA basketball and football, NASCAR, and BASS & FLW fishing)

· Theology

· Book reviews

· Witnessing

· Whatever strikes me as interesting

Please feel free to comment at any time, that helps me know that somebody is reading and that I’m not only doing this for my own practice.

Thanks for reading this first one