Month: October 2006

  • Obsessed with Christianity?

    Taken from James Randi’s weekly commentary, the following bit of amusement… if you find this sort of thing funny, which I tend to do. These are the “Top Ten indications that you’re over-obsessed with religion,” and by “religion” I assume Mr. Randi means “Christianity.”

    Those with a Bible at hand and a poor sense of humor may want to skip the rest of this entry…

    #10 ”“ You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

    #9 ”“ You feel insulted and “dehumanized” when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that humans were created from dirt.

    #8 ”“ You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

    #7 ”“ Your face turns purple when you hear of the “atrocities” attributed to Allah, but you don’t even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the male first-born babies of Egypt in “Exodus” and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in “Joshua” ”“ including women, children, and trees.

    #6 ”“ You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods consorting with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

    #5 ”“ You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of the Earth (4.55 billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is about a couple of generations old.

    #4 ”“ You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs ”“ though excluding those in all rival sects ”“ will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering, and yet you consider your religion the most “tolerant” and “loving.”

    #3 ”“ While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor “speaking in tongues” may be all the evidence you need to “prove” your choice of religions to be the correct one.

    #2 ”“ You define .01% as a “high success rate” when it comes to answered prayers, and consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% failure was simply the will of God.

    #1 ”“ You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history ”“ but you still call yourself a Christian.

  • Mad (Scientist) Pumpkins

    I got a laugh out of the Cylon pumpkin, yes I did. However… I now wish I had the skill to make one of these.

    C’mon. You know you want one. Who wouldn’t?

    (I couldn’t resist that pun, either. Yes, I’m a bad man and should be punished.)

  • Yahoo: The black hole of email?

    My sister’s primary email address is at Yahoo, which I find amusing considering that for years she had an address here that she barely used. Maybe she’ll change her mind now.

    If you use Yahoo! mail as your main email account, you might not be receiving all of your emails. […] Since about October 16, 2006 they have been “overly aggressive” in blocking emails.

    I was wondering, this morning, why my server logs report indicated a bunch of strange SMTP errors. Eventually I traced it down to a bunch of deferrals from Yahoo’s server. Normally I don’t correspond with anyone on their system, but Sis and I have been in touch lately. Or, apparently, we’ve nearly been in touch. Maybe she’ll get my reply, maybe she won’t…

  • I was looking for incentive, I suppose.

    Lil’ discovered something that I may very well have been better off not knowing about. See, she’s going to do NaNoWriMo this year. (All power to her, I say. Not this little grey duck, I also say. Been there done that, I have.) She briefly considered doing another November challenge: National Blog Posting Month.

    Considering how unhappy I’ve been with my journal writing output lately… I pretty much have to enter that challenge, don’t I? So. November will be an interesting month around here. Just, you know, not as interesting as if I were doing NaNoWriMo. Which I’m not. No matter how tempted I may briefly be, every so often. Not this year, okay? At best I’ll toss you a couple of my trademark very-short stories.

    Posting here every day for thirty days? I can do that.

  • The (Unexpected) Gift Of Music

    A package awaited my arrival home last night. “Wait,” I said to myself, “I didn’t order anything from Amazon!”

    Somebody, apparently, did:

    A Midnight Oil single and a Tony Banks solo album! Imports, even! (See the stickers?) Don’t mind me, I’m just going to go all fanboy for a few minutes… and then I’ll give these babies a spin. (Reviews forthcoming? Most likely.)

  • Timeline: Another feature that will bore you all.

    It’s not like I need more self-absorbed nonsense on this site, but you know what? I’m just that kind of nonsensical self-absorbed guy. So, as I remember dates and get the urge to plug them in, I’ll be updating the new Timeline feature, powered by the now-functional Timeline WordPress Plugin. Huge thanks go out to David Gagne for making this nifty little tool.

    (What? You wanted actual content, like I’ve been promising you for weeks? Hang in there. I’ll get to it. Honest.)