Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Ultimate Geek


There once was a man who was richer than Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, more connected than the Bushes, Clintons, or Daleys, smarter than Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking. Every man who worked for him, and every woman who married him (he had 900 wives) learned how to and became wealthy. 
Before tweeting or even printing was invented, he perfected the ultimate viral post. His quips went mouth to mouth around the world, and still circulate today.
At least one of his poems is a classic rock and roll song.
Kings from around the world traveled just to meet him. Women by the score gladly became his wife. His household, including his wives, were loyal and happy.
He was the ultimate geek. His name was Solomon.
I'm reading from one of his books today. Join me. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+1&version=KJV
This is a double post. The original is found at http://therevmaddogsheikgeek.blogspot.com/2012/04/ultimate-geek.html

Monday, April 23, 2012

#blogtips: Multiple personalities can help



Ever have your back arch up in fear when somebody teetering on the edge of sanity says to you, TRUST ME!? Get ready.
Trust me.
Personalities are built into everything. The shepherd boy/King who wrote songs that later were incorporated into the Holy Bible noted that rocks, trees, oceans, etcetera ad infinitum would praise God in the right circumstances.
This applies inwardly as well as outwardly. When I realized this, my hitherto unfathamable personality began to make sense.
One personality that I have had since early childhood is The Counter. He was extremely useful in my passion for music. He had to be released and encouraged. He was really useful when learning new music, and he's extremely useful now, especially in Twitter World, where posts have to be 140 characters or under. If you want your posts re-tweeted, they have to be under 120 characters. If you want to add a link and get them re-tweeted, they have to be under 100 characters.
Of course, strengthening and encouraging The Counter can have a down side that you have to live with. Every one else will be enjoying the hymn while I am going 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 loudly in my head.
Another personality, sort of a cousin, is The Editor. Cut this guy loose. People don't like to wade through mountains of words.
One day, in the year 2007, I had a crisis. Life was pressing in. I was preaching, working, taking care of an ailing, dying wife, and a home. I made a decision.
One of my personalities was The Preacher. He could look at anything and draw inspiration from it. From that inspiration would come a sermon, the traditional intro, 3 points, and a conclusion sermon. between 20 to 30 minutes long. I deeply wanted to shorten it. I had no idea God was preparing me for my blogging posting and micro posting future.
I brought the 2 personalities together, the preacher and the editor, and performed a shotgun wedding. I made them one.
They were not happy. I was very happy.
From then on, I preached one point sermons. Shortly after that, in 2008, The Parables were born. I also found the short format fit well in the internet world.
Later, in 2009 I entered the Twitter world. Here, both the editor and the counter felt right at home. As I cut and pared a thought, I noticed it often took on power, and would become a poem.
Hope this info is useful to you. One more reason the moniker revmadddog stuck.

Another Story Teller: Welcome, Brother!


I was strolling though my blog comments when I found a recent one that had a familiar ring to the name: TWDittmer. Following the link I see that my brother has ventured out into the jungle of blogging.
He has written a book that he is trying to get published, and is working at self publishing it himself. The title of the book is The Valley Walker. I wish him great success. He deserves it. He's an outstanding brother.
Here is the link to his blog and one particular story that I love: Sunshine's Pop-top.
http://twdittmer.wordpress.com/category/random-posts/
Any genetic resemblance is purely coincidence and should not be construed as reality.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

String theory, evolution, creation, Dr. Who and God


This Sunday the pastor preached about time, God, evolution, and creation. He came from the perspective that a longer time line than the fundamentalist with their 7 day view of creation shouldn't throw their faith.
I agree with his premise, even though I am a fundamentalist. The timeline of creation is a secondary doctrine, not essential for salvation. We have only to look to the Cross to be saved. The Holy Spirit leads us into all Truth in His time.
I am patient with my pastor on this doctrine because for years I was a preacher of the gospel and entertained the notion of evolution at the same time.
His sermon sent me on a search to understand an area of science called string theory, the attempt to unify quantum mechanics with general relativity.
After reading material for a couple of hours in which I only understood one word out of 20, I crawled perhaps a half inch closer to understanding the universe.
The reason why string theory interests me is a startling observation made in quantum mechanics. 2 quarks were observed to spin in opposite directions, and when one reversed direction, it's mate also reversed without any measurable laps of time. It appeared the quarks were connected, perhaps with a string like substance.
Which brings me to my point. The Word claims that God the Father and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ are totally connected to His creation, in all times, past, present, and future. The Word not only claims He is connected to all, He gets total informational feedback from all, He controls all, He sustains all.
As we run head long into technological knowledge, we are learning how to make machines as small as nanos. Working from the assumption that there is a Supreme Being Who did not grow into His understanding, but understood it completely from the get-go, it would not be hard to imagine this Being creating His own proprietary technology of strings to connect Him to His creation, to supervise, and control His creation. Indeed, each connection could even be a doorway for Him to personally step through and check on his Creation.
Dr. Who introduces to entertainment the TARDIS, a living machine created by the Time Lords, that travels anywhere the pilot (and sometimes the machine itself) desires. The inside of the machine is bigger than the outside, enabling the machine to land anywhere and disgorge its occupants, and hide itself inconspicuously among the background.
We are learning that we can create anything our minds can conceive. If there is a Supreme All Knowing Being, it is more than probable He has done the same.


Happy birthday, son in law!

I sent my son in law a birthday card today. Thought y'all enjoy it.
Happy birthday, son in law!

Tim, when Beck first asked me to bless you as a potential son in law, God allowed me to see into your heart. I saw two things. 
1. You really did love Jesus, although you didn't know much about him. 
2. I saw you would make a good husband, father, and provider, because I saw that you would lay down your life for Becky and your future family.
Time has not proved me wrong. I am incredibly proud of you. Thanks for picking our family and Becky for your future.
Dad in law
What did I get him for his birthday? an Amazon Gift Card, sent by email, with the above note attached!

Watching Google, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco Lawsuits


Watching Google, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco lawsuits remind me of my son in laws favorite TV program, the World Wrestling Federation's Monday night RAW. 
Each contestant likes to grapple with each other, causing as much pain as possible, yelling long diatribes about the other's shortcomings, BUT when the theater lights are off, they all go out and have a beer together.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Sheik Geek Journal


Lots of negative posts about Apple, especially from my Droid friends.
Does charging high prices make Apple evil? No, just expensive.


Ran into a road block when I switched to a Droid to post by phone to Twitter and Facebook. Found out Droid threads multiple phone #s together, which Facebook and Twitter block. I switched to the old style SMS messaging available on the Droid, went right through.



So why Google for me? I could have spent the money on Apple, though it would cut severely into my chocolate budget, a high priority for me.
Google did several things that other posting sites didn't. 
One, they offered to monetize my blogs. Facebook makes money off of me. Apple would have made a lot of money off of me. Google offered to share.
Google rather than Facebook offered to let me choose the type size of my posts. In fact, Google offers an incredible amount of variety.
Google rather than Microsoft or Apple offered better security. Mary account has been hacked on her iPhone. My former Microsoft Live email was hacked.
Google offered secure storage of my photos and documents. I have lost a lot of documents because Microsoft upgraded to newer versions. I was chomping at the bit when the Google cloud opened up. I pay an outrageous amount- $5 per year. I'm using about 2% of what I've rented.
Google also has me hooked on Google search, Google images, Google news, and I'm starting to get into Google+ for posting and feedback, geek words for a social site.
Google makes it easy for me to keep posting to my other sites, Facebook and Twitter, with their tabbed browsing on their Chrome Browser. I like the Chrome browser so much, I got a Chromebook.
Am I a rabid, drooling Google fan? Not really. Google seems to have what I need, and they do it without breaking a sweat.
http://therevmaddogsheikgeek.blogspot.com/





Thursday, April 19, 2012

Insanity of Preaching


Embrace the Cross through the insanity of preaching. Do not stand in my wisdom, but in the POWER OF GOD.

Verizon, AT&T, Growth - Price Catch22


Verizon and AT&T are in a growth phase Catch22. They have to generate income to keep upgrading their "can you hear me now?" quality. They have to keep building to generate income. 
Even their increased profits is to generate capital by selling their stock. Hence the despised new fee for upgrades even as their profits are rising.
Meanwhile they do generate savings. I don't have satellite or home phone in my house.
Will they ever feel they can slack off and give us a break? Naaaah.

Recognizing Stroke


Now doctors say a  bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:




S  *Ask the individual to SMILE.


T  *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A


SIMPLE SENTENCE  (Coherently)
 (i.e.  Chicken Soup)


R  *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.




If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.




New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue




NOTE:  Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue. If the tongue is


'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other that is also an indication of a stroke.




A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved. 







Calling in DEAD


Note: employees calling in DEAD must give three days advance notice and a certificate from their doctor. -management



Deadly Assumptions: Earthquakes and Evolution


We built our marvellous civilization on an assumption that's similar to the one made by the people in Noah's time.
If you'll recall the story, God told Noah that He was going to send a flood that would destroy the earth. Noah's neighbors laughed at such a possiblity. Hasn't rained yet, therefore it will not rain in the future, was their logic.
We have built our buildings, highways, bridges, damns, OUR ENTIRE INFRASTRUCURE on the data we have gathered in the last 100 years.
When we do look to the past, we greatly exagerate the length of our guestimate, and totally disregard the account given in the Bible. We assume that the writers had no understanding of science. We assume that their observations of history were fictional, a morality play.
Major cataclysisms are given a date back millions or even billions of years, statiscally eliminating any possibility that the earth might have periods of major instability.
The most egregious assumption that humanity has made ever since the first couple inhabited the earth was that the pursuit of knowledge was more important than the pursuit of a relationship with God.
Since we ignored God, we were unable to have Him guide us around the pitfalls of our ignorance.
It is never too late to call on God, as long as there is breath in our bodies. I know humility is my greatest need. Pride is my greatest weakness. Join me in asking for forgiveness on ignoring our God.
Almighty God, You're the Revealer of the hidden. You know where every lost person is. Supernaturally bring the rescuers to them!
You're the Sustainer of the weak! Strengthen them while You guide the rescuers to them.
Forgive me, Lord, and forgive us all for turning our backs on You. Restore us by Your grace back into a 24/7 fellowship. 
Amen.

Don't Overlook India



Don't overlook India's influence on world politics. They have the ability to become a major player.
http://www.wespeaknews.com/india/india-creates-history-tests-5000-km-agni-v-missile-48012.html