What Really Matters

This blog is of my musings…my “nibbles and bits.” As such, it’ll sometimes touch on “third rail” topics. I ask for your charity and forgiveness if ever I offend you (or worse). No matter what subjects inspire my posts, in the end, you matter more to me…and love matters most:

1 Corinthians 13:4–8, 13 (NIV):

Jesus

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Even if we disagree, you have my love.

A Bulgarian Doing a Bulgarian

Have I told you how much I hate Bulgarians? Not the people, the exercise! (Bulgarian split squat.)

Well, I figured I’d try an AI image generator to get a Bulgarian doing a Bulgarian. Being a total newbie, I got some interesting results, but nothing close to a Bulgarian doing a Bulgarian. Until…

The final prompt was an image I found on the web of someone else doing a Bulgarian with me adding the following prompt: “bulgarian soldier with handlebar mustache in 1884 parade uniform doing Bulgarian split squat photo realistic.”

A Bulgarian doing a Bulgarian

Not perfect (e.g. the back foot should be up on the bench), but pretty impressive Midjourney. 🙂

(Cross-posted on my AI: Alan Intelligence blog.)

Big Dad Ritch’s Testimony

This is an inspiring Christian testimony from Big Dad Ritch of the Texas Hippie Coalition. I recorded it during the “The Name Lives On” release party at the Wild Goose Saloon in Parker, Colorado on Friday, April 21, 2023.

In the video, the actual song follows the testimony. Be sure to listen to it on official THC released version. It’ll sound better without all the bar noise, and it’ll support the band!

Please be sure to comment…I’m interested in your take on what he says.

P.S. This is the thought for today it inspired:

(Cross-posted on my AI: Alan Intelligence blog.)

What Is “Woke?”

A key quote from Jennifer Sey’s article:

I believe there is bigotry in the world — there is racism, and sexism, and homophobia and all of it.

But I do not believe that every challenge we face can be defined in these simplistic terms.

I believe if we do define every problem in these terms we miss the opportunity to solve them, to take real and meaningful action to course correct.

I would suggest that not only do “we miss the opportunity to solve them,” “woke” approaches often (usually?) make the problem worse.

Please read the entire article…

Same Disease, Different Symptoms

BTW, if we all have the same disease, that should give us compassion for fellow sufferers, not judgmentalism.

Speaking of sin…

Trader Joe’s Haul

Although I’ve been Trader Joe’s in California, today my youngest and I went to one in the Denver area for the first time (specifically, in Parker, Colorado).

My wife has been away helping with the grandkids, so I have had more reason to grocery shop, and I can tell you, for the same $$$, I would have never gotten as much as is pictured at the closest chain grocery store. $154 total…but it would have been less than $120 if I hadn’t purchased four bags.

Oh, and bonus, they are in the same plaza as a MOD Pizza!!!

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Final note: Employees at both Trader Joe’s and MOD Pizza were awesome.

Censorship-Industrial Complex

Great article by Matt Taibbi today:

“The Democrats’ Disastrous Miscalculation on Civil Liberties”

As he notes at the end…

Instead of facing the boiling-ever-hotter problem underneath, the managerial types decided — in the short term only, of course — to mechanically deamplify the discontent, papering things over with an expanding new bureaucracy of ‘polarization mitigation,’ what Michael calls the Censorship-Industrial Complex. Instead of opening society’s doors and giving people roles and a voice, those doors are being closed more tightly, creating an endless cycle of anger and reaction.

Making a furious public less visible doesn’t make it go away. Moreover, as we saw at the hearing, clamping down on civil liberties makes obnoxious leaders more conspicuous, not less. Democrats used to understand this, but now they’re betting everything on the blinders they refuse to take off, a plan everyone but them can see won’t end well.

Of course, even if it did “end well,” it would be wrong…and regardless of whether their intent is noble.

Hmmm…

2023 New Year’s Resolutions

2023 New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year!

May 2023 be the best year ever for you and yours.

Right or wrong, illogical or not, New Year’s Day is a good time to make resolutions. Yeah, maybe it is an excuse to procrastinate (e.g. Why didn’t you start doing X or Y months ago?) Maybe we are setting ourselves up for failure (when we resolve to do something we’ve failed at before, e.g. a diet). Maybe we are just fooling ourselves.

But, isn’t it better than giving up?

Yes. It. is.

Assuming I’m correct, how should we choose what makes the list?

As 2022 came to a close, I realized that I have been prioritizing wrongly. That how my spend my time does not reflect what is really important. That modern blessings have become a curse.

As such, this year I have only two resolutions:

  1. To love the Lord my God with all my heart and all of my soul and all of my mind
  2. To love my neighbor as myself

(See Matthew 22:34-40.)

In the “Which are better, systems or goals?” debate, I would argue those are a system. I also have goals for 2023 (e.g. to slim down, to learn to play the keyboard, to become proficient with Python), but I intend to weigh how I spend what little time I have left on this earth by those two measures.

In line with #2, loving you as myself, I ask you to consider choosing the same two resolutions, definitely so if you are a Christian.

For the non-Christian, I would suggest that everybody worships something, whether we admit (or recognize) it or not, and that may mean it better you just have #2. If what you worship makes #2 impossible or difficult, then you are undeniably devoted to the wrong god.

For the Christian, if you live in a country like the United States, it is likely your blessings are a curse too. Yes, we are saved by grace through faith, not by our own works (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, the Lord our God makes it clear through His Word that “easy believism” is bogus and may instead indicate you don’t truly believe. (Take a look at the Epistle of James, John 14:15, and Luke 6:46 to start.)

A simple barometer of our faith is how we spend our “elective” time. Look at the things you do every day. Look at how much time you spend on each item.

Then ask yourself if you really put God first and love your neighbor as yourself…

…while thoughtfully considering the wise words of a non-Christian, physicist Richard Feynman: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”

Back to the non-Christian, please reconsider who you worship. I explain more on my Gospel Claims site.

To everyone, I truly wish the best this year for you and yours. At the end of my thought for todays, I end with, “I love you, see you again soon.” I come up short on loving you as myself…and I definitely come up short on putting God first. But, I am working on it and committed to those resolutions.

Will you join me?

P.S. In addition to the image above (full-sized version), feel free to use these two 2023 calendars to help remind you of what is really important:
Read More

Band to Check Out: Walking After U

P.S. This is the video that introduced them to me…

“Now to Him…”

“Now to him who is able
to keep you from stumbling
and to present you blameless
before the presence
of his glory with great joy,
to the only God,
our Savior,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
be glory,
majesty,
dominion,
and authority,
before all time
and now and forever.
Amen.”

Jude 24-25 (ESV)

Jude 24-25

In Today’s Edition of My Shocked Face (Not)

Kind ‘a seems to explain their silence about China’s human rights abuses and their treatment of Ener Kanter Freedom, eh?