Uh huh....

Had a random conversation on aim today. Someone named lemonbars2000 imed me and they weren't really keen on letting me know who they actually were.

BTW, this is the begining of the actual conversion.

lemonbars2000 (5:34:53 PM): Evening
lemonbars2000 (5:35:02 PM): I just wanted to tell you my HP count is really low
lemonbars2000 (5:35:14 PM): It's at like 1%
Padfoot240 (5:36:02 PM): what?
lemonbars2000 (5:36:25 PM): If you slay me right now, I will pop all the way back to my house because I am bound there
Padfoot240 (5:36:52 PM): oh okay
lemonbars2000 (5:37:01 PM): I'm soulbound there
lemonbars2000 (5:37:41 PM): so can you slay me?
Padfoot240 (5:37:48 PM): not right now
lemonbars2000 (5:38:02 PM): I'm serious, just hit me one time and I'm toast
lemonbars2000 (5:38:13 PM): Since I'm only a caster... my HP is super low
Padfoot240 (5:38:44 PM): yea, you told me that already
Padfoot240 (5:39:39 PM): if I get around to it, maybe but i'm kind of busy at the moment
lemonbars2000 (5:40:16 PM): Hmmm, dang I really need to get back so I can get some Hot Pockets
Padfoot240 (5:40:30 PM): yea that's a shame
Padfoot240 (5:40:38 PM): why don't you just walk back
lemonbars2000 (5:41:07 PM): I lost my mount
lemonbars2000 (5:41:39 PM): So I need you to do it for me
lemonbars2000 (5:42:14 PM): can you sign into the real world right now?
Padfoot240 (5:42:59 PM): ah i'm in the middle of a Homework raid right now
lemonbars2000 (5:43:28 PM): Arrgh! Every time

I found it humorous.

Last FM Update

So I passed my 20k listing in LastFM, which I think is broken... I thought I should put up my top listings. Could be fun. I posted some pictures.
Top Bands

Overall











Last 12 Months











Last 6 Months











Last 7 Days











Feel special Sam, you're in my top listened to bands.

What I've been listening to lately? Not much. I know I've listened to more than this in the last 7 days...and I've definitely listened to those bands a LOT more than what it says. Like I said, I think it's broken...I'm actually thinking about starting over a new account. Some of my most played songs are rigged and don't make sense. Or can I just clear this? Something isn't letting my iPod scrobbles go through, even thought it says they are. Anyway...You can kind of see my music tastes change as we get smaller and smaller time windows.

Inciting Incident updates? Paperwork for Rock Harbor is in the mail and then I can actually start volunteering. Spending my time is going really well actually. I have TIME TO DO STUFF?! Yea, I've been hanging out more with friends AND getting my homework done. Imagine that. Sleep is probably going to be the last one I get around to. I just keep staying up late. But I have initiated a mandatory 2 am bedtime. No matter what. Oh and I really didn't feel that people thought this, but this way that I'm changing my life wouldn't be possible without God, duh. I thought that was a stress, you know with the whole Donald Miller and theology stuff. But who knows. You guys are weird sometimes.

Living a Better Story

If you haven't read Donald Miller's new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, I highly suggest you do. That aside, I'm going to talk about what I've learned from Miller.

I've enjoyed Miller's previous books to date, my favorite being Searching for God Knows What. I guess he really got noticed after his best seller, Blue Like Jazz, came out. Each book seems so different that I find it hard pin down just who Miller is. When I first read Searching he seemed like a recently renewed Christian getting excited about Theology all over again. He couldn't contain himself, and that really edged me on to get excited about it as well! That might be why I loved the book so much. It woke me up from my God slump.

Then I read Blue and was thinking how Miller had started to think about Christianity from an outward perspective. 'Nonreligious Thoughts on Christianity' was a pretty good tag line for this collection of short essays. It seemed like a cool modern/Godless take on what the human condition is and why we do, in fact, need God. I say Godless, not because it is in opposition to God, but because he writes the book from a nonreligious standpoint. It allowed me to build upon my foundation for my faith in Christ. I think it also allows non Christians to connect with his points a lot better. I was later surprised when I found out that Blue was written first.

After To Own A Dragon came out, I got acquainted with how I learned what a man is. I can't tell you how many "be a man of God talks" I've been through and think, 'Wow, that was a waste of my time.' Don't have sex before marriage, don't beat your wife, don't be a fool, and always watch them sports! Hoo-rah! Wow, something tells me there is something more to this whole man of God thing than a bunch of dos and don'ts. And isn't there a better way to learn these things? Enter Dragon. Rather than just put a bunch of rules down, Miller explored how he learned what a man shouldn't be through his fatherless home and later, what a man should be through his psuedo-Dads in his older years. I'll tell you, this book made me appreciate my Dad a whole lot more. It also taught me how to identify what I was learning from my Father(heavenly and earthly). No "man of God" talks needed.

So, A Million Miles came out. And it didn't disappoint. Tackling another topic, Miller explores how to make one's life better. He takes what he has learned from writing stories and applies it to his own life. What is a story? A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. I find myself watching movies and wonder why such awesome things don't happen to me. Why don't I get entrusted with a ring that will save the entire world? Why aren't I the One that has the power to manipulate reality and save the human race? Well there are easy answers to those...But seriously. I fall in love with all these characters that undergo amazing journey's, learn who they are, fall in love, and change their personality dramatically. Why can't I get the same in my life? What am I missing?

Bingo, conflict. A story is not about a character who wants something and gets it. They go through hell to get what they want. Sometimes they lose other things they want in the process. That's why the story is so good. Would Raider's of the Lost Ark be as good if Indy just followed a map to the ark in a tomb somewhere and that was it? NO! He fought Nazis, braved snakes, got saved from poison by a monkey, killed giant sword man, and finally had to survive the ark's wrath. How does this conflict start? Why the inciting incident of course! That point in the story where the character can't turn back. After Frodo has seen just what will happen to his Shire if he doesn't destroy the ring. After Neo gets woken up from the Matrix and realizes his world was a facade.

Miller started creating his own inciting incidents in his life. He signed up to ride his bike across the USA, and he did. He told a friend that he would join him to hike Machu Picchu, and he did. He started a non-profit for mentoring fatherless boys while he couldn't afford it, and he got sponsors and is now on Obama's task force. He drove out to Illinois to meet his father that deserted him as a child, and is establishing a relationship with him. This is something I'd like to have in my life. Instead of sitting around wishing cool things would happen, I want to go do them. I was thinking that maybe I need to create some inciting incidents of my own.

So, I am.

Inciting Incident #1: Rock Harbor
Ever since I came to UCI I've felt out of the loop with Church. I couldn't make it back to DFCC every Sunday, nor could I still be involved with The Burn youth since I wasn't there on Wednesdays or come to all the events. I was really involved in DFCC my later high school years, but I just got farther and farther away until I wasn't really needed. Not that there was any blame. I mean I went off to college, so they needed to find other volunteers. Well, here I am making a new Church home at a church in Irvine called Rock Harbor. DFCC will not be forgotten, but it's time. While I have been attending Crusade at UCI for a while, it's not the greatest in spiritual growth. It's awesome to meet other people around campus, but you just can't compare to a Church Community. Missing the involvement of past church, I've decided to take the plunge! I'm applying to be a Jr High youth volunteer! I can't count the ways that Mike, Amy and Nathan helped to shape my life into what I am today, and I hope I can do the same to some kids over here. I want to be heavily involved with a Church again, so I'm signing up to hang with the youth. Conflict can be read as college.

Inciting Incident #2: Girls
I've been single for a while, but I think now I'm ready to mingle. Having utterly blown a relationship chance last year, something was revealed to me. I have never really asked a girl out before, without knowing if they would say yes prior to asking. Is this lame? Girls, you tell me(please tell me!). I want to start a relationship with a girl again, so I'm gearing up to ask one out. Conflict can be read as college, fear, girl's answer.

Inciting Incident #3: Spent Time
So, this quarter at UCI has been my hardest one yet. Usually my classes are split up into coding classes and and other classes which can include writing or just tests. This quarter, I am taking all computer oriented classes. Two are are studying/information, Algorithm Analysis and Artificial Intelligence, and the other two are more coding oriented, Language Pragmatics and Digital Graphics with Opengl. However, the AI class is quickly bringing coding into it's homework assignments as well as its regular reading and quizzes. This is new for me. Usually my homework on the same schedule, either due during the week or on the weekends. With this split I have homework due during the week and the weekend. Every time I finish one set, another is assigned. This is new for me in the sense that I don't get much of a break between the old and new homework. At least I don't have to write papers, that's a relief. Anyway, with all this homework and school I've decided to finally re-evaluate my spent time. I want more time to do what I want, namely inciting incidents #1 and #2. On top of my job, I've been primarily involved with 4 clubs on campus. Campus Crusade for Christ, Invisible Children, Video Game Development Club, and Dumbledore's Anteaters. I've decided to basically axe the last two from my tentative schedule, atleast for this quarter. Not that I don't have a blast quoting Harry Potter to death with some other fellow Potter nerds, but sometimes priorities need to take over. I want to start having more time to do what I want, so I'm going to cut some time out of my schedule as well as start focusing more on homework to finish earlier. Do what I want can be read as inciting incidents #1 & #2, learning guitar, and free time. Conflict can be read as wanting to attend, doing homework in a facebook free environment.

Inciting Incident #4: Sleep Early
And a final thing that I am really looking forward to making myself do, is sleep earlier. Ever since this summer I have been stuck on a 2 am bedtime. While it's kind of fun to stay up late, it's not so great when I have early classes or work. Thankfully, I've haven't had early classes this quarter but I have a feeling this won't last. So I better take care of my sleeping schedule before it really hurts. I'd like to go to sleep and wake up on different days, so maybe head to bed before midnight. I can wake up early and do homework in the morning to make up for the time that I would usually do stuff. I want to start sleeping early again and waking up at a reasonable time, so I am going to start going to bed early and wake up if I need to finish something that can wait. Conflict can be read as the internet, college, friends.

Wow. How is my story going to unfold? Will I fail to accomplish all of these? Maybe. But succeeding isn't what makes the story.

Friday Night Lights was a great movie and had an awesome story, but they didn't win.

If you are wondering what to take away from all of this; Go read some Donald Miller. He's changed my life in multiple ways.

Now, I gotta see about this girl...

Everyone is different/the same

"Things like this are why I don't proclaim my very real faith to the world at large."

I came across this comment a while ago while sniffing around online. I think that statements like this are just sad.

1. If anything is keeping you from proclaiming your faith (what you consider truth) to anyone, maybe you need to rethink some things.
2. If you are embarrassed by what your faith is, how can anyone take your faith seriously?
3. Whatever your faith is, it doesn't sound very real to me right now.

Now to be far it was referencing something that horribly/falsely represents Christianity. And I hope that they just wrote this caught up in the moment in response the abomination. I mean we all do that sometime or another. But maybe we need to watch what we type. Especially when it concerns our faith.

An alarmingly large number of "young-new-age" Christians are very proudly declaring their differences(being democrats, believing in conflicting beliefs, going against 'the-norm-of-Christianity'). Now this is cool. I mean, being a republican isn't one of the pillars of Christianity. In fact Christ calls us to be different from the world. Our lives should be demanding explanations from the rest of society. But at some point, this gets a little dangerous. You can only believe in different takes on Christian theology to a point, after that it isn't Christianity anymore.

Ha

The irony!

So I moved

So I just moved into my new apartment. And by just move I mean I have been rearranging things for the past week. And everything is STILL a mess. But I think I finally got my desk right, so now the rest can just fall into place.

Said "interesting post":

Andie brought up a point saying that religion is a leading cause of violence. But is this true? How many of you reading this would kill for your family or country? I know I would. How many of you reading this would kill for your faith? Not me, what’s the point of it? Seems to me that family and country ties are the cause of violence well over than religion.

Would you kill to protect yourself? Yes.
Would you kill to protect your family? Yes.

Would you kill to protect your friends? Yes.
Would you kill to protect your country? Probably.

Would you kill to protect your computer? No.

Would you kill to protect the rainforest? No.

Would you kill to protect your faith? No, killing someone does not protect my faith.

The comparison with faith doesn't really hold in this situation. It is kind of an odd ball out. I mean, you can't further protect your faith by killing someone like you might be able to do for your family. Your faith is internal. The only person that is any threat to your faith is yourself.

So which of these can potentially cause more violence? I'm inclined to believe Andie's point is just wrong. Sure people can point to the great murderous times of the Crusades as an example, but was that actually driven by religion? Or more of a medieval "I'm right, so you better believe me or I'll kill you" mentality? For that matter, how can we discern what is driven by religion? Some may ask, “Weren't all those mass suicides part of a religious cult?”(Jim Jones and the People's Temple, the Heaven's Gate deal in San Diego, etc) or “wasn't the 9/11 terrorist attack fueled by religion?” Well, if a "religious" man commits violence, can we confidently say that his religion was the sole cause for his violence? If someone simply says they are doing this for their religion, is this necessarily true? Could they possibly be just a little confused about what they claim to follow? Can we take someone-who-would-murder-thousands-of-people-because-they-think-its-right's reasoning seriously?

Before we dive into the argument any further, I’d like to bring up a fact. Correlation does not imply causation. This is important to remember that just because you happen to see these things as connected, you can’t just blame violence on a religious backing. It may hint towards causation, but correlation can never prove it.

Now what exactly is religion? Religion is defined as "a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe". Doesn't everybody have a set of beliefs concerning the universe? Doesn’t your outlook on the universe drive everything you do in your life? Then isn’t every single person driven by their religion? That’s what it sounds like. So not only is religion responsible for all the violence, but for all peace as well. Religion is actually also directly responsible for the argument that “religion only causes violence”. Haha, I was just having some fun there.

Well, let’s set a narrower definition for what religion is, just for kicks. Let’s define religion as believing in a god, but excluding agnosticism. So this covers Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. Lets attribute the Crusades as being the fault of Christianity and Islam (why not since they were both involved) and throw in the Holocaust as being Christianity or Islam's fault too (Hitler claimed to be Christian, but he said he wished to be Muslim). Well it looks like the Jews are a little low, so lets’ just say that all those deaths in the Biblical history were actually murder and that evens up the score. Not to mention all the wacko murderers, rapists, and general wrongdoers who believe in a god that have ruined other peoples’ lives. So now we have, under a definition that helps this argument the most, religion being responsible for many of the major murders and atrocities that have been detrimental to our world so far. Wow, that's pretty messed up.

(Keep in mind that the brutal mass murders that happened under Stalin in China were actually fueled buy nonreligious people)

But what is the flip side of this? What about all the beneficial things that have happened so far? The civil rights movements in the 60s? That was started by a very religious man, Martin Luther King. The peaceful end to Britain’s tyranny? Also, a very religious man named Ghandi. Mother Theresa and her works for the poor orphans? Yea, she was pretty religious too. These are three prime examples that many people point to when they want to think of something peaceful and beneficial to society that humans have accomplished, and what do you know they all were apparently driven by religion! The list doesn't end there. Missionaries drop their lives and travel around the world to help others. Churches raise tax free money to help others. I could keep talking about all the things that have helped others accomplish something they couldn't have before they were backed by religion.

"Oh yea Paddy, but Churches, Mosques and faith aren't the only things that help poor people." Well, I never said they were. I was just showing that at best, as long as it is very much narrowly defined, religion can be both detrimental and beneficial to society.

So what are we left with? Is religion detrimental to society? What conclusions can we draw from this? I can think of a couple.

1. Yes. Religion is detrimental. You are right, those religions DID cause genocides and murder. All those examples of compassion and kindness are simply in the innate human desire to help others. Even if you are religious, you still have that desire to help and that is why religions keep helping people. Only religion causes violence!
2. No. Religion is beneficial. All those examples of murder and dark deeds are simply in the innate human desire to be selfish. Even if you are religious, you are still flawed and that is why religious people still do bad things. Only religion causes tranquility!
3. There isn't enough evidence to link religion to these terrible acts. Human nature can cause both anger that leads to murder and compassion that leads to kindness. While religion is a big part of people's lives, you can't just equate a couple of people's actions to the group as a whole.

Well, if you subscribe to either of the first two, your argument defeats itself simply because there are always counter examples. You can’t label religious people or non-religious people solely as the violence causation. You don’t have and can’t get enough proof. So numero tres is the winner. Perhaps try dividing that huge "religion" group into smaller groups, maybe even the different belief sets themselves, if you want to attribute specific sets as detrimental.

Back to a previous point, can someone be wrong about their own set of beliefs? Well, kind of. I mean, you can't be wrong about what you believe. What you believe is well, what you believe. But you can be wrong about what it is. If a belief set teaches nothing but kindness, can we trust that it really caused a man to murder another human being? Were the Crusades actually fueled by Christianity? If so why isn't the Church still running its murderous crusades? Something apparently has changed in their priorities and beliefs. This shows that the two belief sets from that time and our time are different. Well which is the one that follows Christianity the closest? Which is the right one? Or are both of them wrong? Why don't you examine the Bible's text to see which seems more inline. The Bible historically dates back to within decades of Jesus Christ (the man who started it himself). If you suggest that the man who started Christianity had it wrong...well something is probably incorrect in your reasoning.

Well, there it is.

• Just because you can correlate something two things, you can’t say one caused the other.
• If you can attribute all the violence in the world to religion, you can also attribute all the harmony in the world to religion.
• And just because someone says they follow it, a better investigation is always a good idea before we start labeling things. I mean, there are quite a few Christian cults that say they are Christian, but in reality they very much are not.

Moreover, I'm inclined to say that to find out what someone cares most about, you need to ask them a different question. I think a killing question is not the right way to find out about someone's level of commitment. Why don't you ask them something that involves themselves? What would you die for? What would you live for?

For me, the way the answers change is very interesting. Faith is now more relate-able to the other two. If, you choose your own life over your faith, you effectively disown your faith. If your belief set isn't more important than you, why would you hold yourself to it?

Wow, that was a doozy. But I think it was called for. I completely respect your opinions Andie, and I am in no way trying to demean you because of that blog post, but it seemed like you threw some logic out the window a little. You also made some pretty blanket statements even though you said you weren't.

I also don't mean this to be some "Rawr! Andie made a stupid post!! Everybody gang up on her! Arrrgghhh!" I wrote this in love, not hate. I think its a good topic that we all can draw insight from. This actually started as a comment but turned into 3 pages, so I think it justified its own post.

All of you. Tell me what you think.

I have an interesting post coming up, but first...

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!
Except I'm a level 36 in Halo.
And place at 192 in Harry Potter Trivia

Session II

So session II has started. I'm taking another Computer Science class, and my final writing class(which is also computer based). I think the writing class will be interesting, I have to find a system to write about and propose a change about. Not sure what to pick yet, any tips?

The first class though, ugh. Not cool. It's everything about computers that I don't really like. Assembly code, Instruction Cycle, and floating point numbers. All of that combined into one class, blegh. Not looking too good.

Anyone else watched Avatar: The Last Airbender? Trevor turned me on to it, and I must say it is quite good. Probably one of the better American animations we've had in a long time. I'm in the second season right now, and I'm already excited for the movie coming up. Although, lately Shyamalan's movies have not been up to scratch...


And in life...something has been missing, I can't put my finger on it....

I didn't think it would interfere this much...

So this thing called summer school, it's pretty much destroying my social life. I didn't think it would.

Thankfully one session is down. One more to go.

I really do want to hang out. I'm not canceling on purpose!