Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

I have written quite a bit about Michael Gleason on this blog and how much I identify with the music he has written - especially the work he did with AD and the solo album I have of his called Children of Choices . It seems that our paths have crossed again. Our church uses a curriculum from North Point Community Church in our children's ministry's HighPoint program on Sunday morning. Going over the lesson last week I noticed that there was a Michael Gleason credited with the music for the program. I thought that was an interesting coincidence at least, but it turned out to be much more. It turns out that he, indeed, has been involved with the program for the past six years and has written much of the existing musical catalog. It is great to see him active and involved in this and it brings me much satisfaction to know that the music my sons sing now is composed by the same man that I had the pleasure of "discovering" in my college days. I have to hand it to God, agai

Well, almost everyone has heard that there was a rather expensive tool bag that was lost during a spacewalk by a NASA astronaut. Well, it looks like an astronomer actually videoed Earth's newest artificial satellite. He said it was easily an 8th magnitude or brighter object as he filmed it passing by the 4th magnitude star eta Pisces. An object that bright would show up quite easily in my Newtonian reflector which is 4.5 inches in diameter. Well, reading Slashdot there was one comment that made me laugh as much for it's wit as for the Star Trek reference that it made: ...in the future it'll come back as an alien intelligence named T'lbg. Truly a classic comment and I am not one who was as down as most on the first Star Trek movie. I thought it was more than a decent bit of science fiction.

In the midst of an upgrade to Ubuntu version 8.10 I thought that I would scratch out a blog post on my Palm. It is a bit slower and more error prone than typing, but I have gotten fairly used to using Graffiti as a way to input text. At any rate I think it is groovy to have multiple ways to generate electronic text and make it available for processing. It sometimes makes me wonder how long the keyboard as I know it is going to be around. Probably longer than I think, but I do believe that its days are numbered. Just like the pen. I have not used a pen at work for 3 weeks and it may even be longer than that. Strange times we live in for sure.

I often joke that English is my second language. I work with translators here at my place of employment where this is, actually, true and it provides some interesting interactions. I just received this email from one of my colleagues (* inserted to protect identities): The contact would be T**** R****** (he is either the President or Vice President) at t*****.r******@la********.com If you are not familiar with his capabilities I would ask for an overview… Thanks, K**** I am not sure what this means and I am a bit too timid to ask for clarification. I think I will just rifle off the email and get more familiar with his capabilities that way.

For some reason, when I was ironing my pants this morning, Ruth Buzzi popped into my head. I was very young when she entered (and, presumably never left) my psyche but I do remember her Saturday morning show The Lost Saucer. For some reason the world of Sid & Marty Croft resonated with me on multiple levels and I am quite sure that my mind is more twisted as a result of watching it on multiple occasions. So why didn't Jim Nabors make it into my stream of conscious thought this morning? I am sure that the fact that he didn't hasn't diminished him in any way nor has it detracted from his accomplishments up to this point, but Ruth has left much more of an impression on me. "Discussing" this issue with my wife this morning was of no use because she had no idea what I was talking about. That's all right. I am sure that some people out there joined me around the TV on Saturday morning to watch this.

One of the worst decisions I have ever made was to purchase 72-inch shoelaces. I struggled and struggled with those things last year (there was a lot of shoelace manage) and refused to buy another pair with which to lace my boots. Well, this year I broke down and bought 54-inch shoelaces. I just got done tying my boots. This must be what heaven is like.

In a moment that will live in political perpetuity Senator Barack Obama was asked when human life began. He had some roundabout things to say and then finally mentioned that to make that determination was "above his pay grade." That is a refreshingly honest thing to say and one that strikes deep into my dilemma and place in this universe. Making that determination is above my pay grade too and, without the revelation afforded to me by God Himself, I would not have the ability to make that determination either. I am finely tuned to describe what "is" in incredible detail. God even placed inquisitiveness in my heart but, tainted by sin, my inquisitiveness is misguided and often fails to determine the right facts. In addition to this is the fact that I am awful (I mean putrid!) at determining what ought to be. In fact, I run in the other direction too many times when I am called to do the right thing. That has an impact on my respect for life and finding facts that wou

I think I may have written about this before, but I remember watching a video in a Sunday service (or was it a Wednesday service) where John MacArthur was on the Larry King show and he mentioned that his authority was the Bible. That struck me (maybe it shouldn't have, but it did) in a deep way and I haven't been able to shake it. It has certainly helped me sort out and make sense of a lot of things that have happened since and why those things have happened in the manner that they have. Obviously there are quite a few people that are upset about Proposition 8 and the definition of marriage it imposes (yes, that is the right word) on people that live in the state of California. Imposition is not always a bad thing. I find that the definition of murder that the laws of New York State impose on me and others to be quite satisfactory because they coincide with where the Bible stands on the issue. As someone who finds the Bible to be his authority I find that the imposition of the

You were my taste of heaven We'll have forever - Breakfast Table, Chris Rice Rather than diminish Him (if in my heart only), it seems to me that the longing for heaven that is made so palpable by the passing of a loved one, magnifies Him more. That longing that I may feel for someone who has found their heavenly dwelling before me is just an inkling of the love shared between the Father, Son, and Spirit that they have in eternity. Tapping into and meditating on, and bringing those longings close to my chest as f is an ever-more-perfected reflection of Him and allows me to embrace more of this "image" He has created me in. There is nothing He would want more than for me to act, feel, and love like Him. It would seem to be so ungodly to do otherwise.

Well, it has been a bit since I have given an update about what has been happening in my son's aquarium, so here it is: All the fish are doing fine. Currently we have 6 glowlight tetras, two corydoras panda catfish, and one otocinclus. They are all extremely active (especially the cories) and seem to have adapted well. I am not impressed with the anubias hastifolia and have since read that it does much better in an emersed environment rather that a submersed environment like it is now. The growth seems to have stagnated somewhat. On the other hand the anubias coffeefolia is looking great. I thinned out some java moss as it was getting clumpy and I think there was some rot going on. It looks much better now and I am looking for the pale green points to note new growth. My java fern is not growing quickly but I think it is growing - it is still too small for my taste, but I hope that the holdfast spreading I performed on it a month back will help it root on the rock it is attached to

My single most visited blog post (according to statcounter.com) is the one on Bible Family Feud . There are a lot of people looking for information on this subject and they like to come to my blog to find it for some reason. The post on Bible Jeopardy is pretty popular too but it is a distant second to the Family Feud one. Well, we had another round of it last night and the kids seemed to have a better time this time around than the last. One of the problems (if you can call it that) is that we split up into Red/Yellow/Blue/Green teams but had too many kids on each team to get them all up on the stage. We mitigated that somewhat and the prizes were handed out to everyone, but I think some of them were not thrilled that they couldn't get up there to participate. Here are the categories and answers that we had in place for last night: Round 1 Name a city or body of water in Israel 1. Jerusalem 2. Sea of Galilee            3. Bethlehem 4. Dead Sea            5. Nazareth 6. Capernaum

I am listening to the first movement of Vangelis' Soil Festivities and a thought just struck me. The movement opens with a clap and echo of thunder and the sound of rain. Soon, the instrumentation is revealed as if emerging from the rain. The tempo that is realized is carried throughout the movement and the festival begins. I began to wonder about the meter and rhythm of the rain as it always sounds so chaotic to me. But, knowing that God is so orderly and precise, I wonder if the rhythm of the rain merely escapes me. I cannot be so bold as to deny that it's there can I? Or is it truly absent only to when the rain is restored to its original form? I'll presume it is there for now. To think otherwise would lead me down paths I have no business treading.

Ugh - I feel like such a slacker. The 8.1 release for the Ubuntu Linux OS has been out since the beginning of October and the upgrade is nowhere on my radar screen at this moment. In fact, I haven't even been in the OS in a while with the changing of my job functions recently - this brings me much pain, but I need to get used to it. Presumably there is better WiFi support in the new version of the OS and I was looking forward to trying it out due to the fact that we have some nice wireless capability in the new building I am occupying now. I'll have to see how free I can be later in the month when more and more people leave for the holidays. Maybe this will (**gasp**) have to wait until the middle of December or early next year. Just a small glimpse into the problems that I have. Well, actually, there are many more than that but this is the one that I am comfortable sharing at this point.

Did the sun really ever shine before she entered my life? Was there ever a perfect day or a straight line? Was the warmth really comforting or was it just an illusion? Friendship, laughter...all of it must have existed purely in my imagination because there is no sight to it now apart from her. She is the purest reflection of the Goodness that swirls over my head and through my heart. She is the beating heart of my being. My life wasn't life before her and my death is sweeter in the light of the picture she continues to paint of Him.

Of course I am disappointed that Obama won the election last night. I would be less disappointed if the Senate and the House were more or less split or if the Republicans were in the majority. But, alas, this is the course that we have chosen and we will have to continue to be vigilant. I am happy that the defense of marriage bills passed in California (of all places), Arizona, and Florida. It looked like the votes were not even all that close in any of the votes for amending those state constitutions. Of course I also am fully aware that Obama, the defense of marriage bills, or even Sarah Palin cannot change anyone's heart to repent and move in the direction that God would have them to move. As a Christian I rejoice when God's will is done here on earth - Christ told us to pray for it - and some of the things that I saw last night showed me that was being done. I also know that the church in this country has a job to do and we need to do it regardless of the political leanings

My dad is from Wayland, NY where he grew up on a farm and played on the high school volleyball team. Well, he did a lot more than that, but not a whole lot more. It is Wayland after all. Actually, all kidding aside, I have some great memories that are centered there (Dansville and Hornell as well) and I would like to get back there some day. Well, I came to find out that today that there is a new X Server for Linux called, you guessed it, Wayland. It is a lightweight rendering and compositing server that will, hopefully, be in use in embedded systems that run Linux. Kind of exciting. It would be more exciting if my dad was a geek so we could toast the re-implementation of the X.Org Server together with the name putting the town of Wayland, New York on the map. OK, maybe that's a little strong, but this has the potential of bringing Linux to more and more systems that we use everyday. Even if it was codenamed "The Pit of Dispair" that is still something to celebrate.

A few things that I know are true all the time: God is shaping me to look more and more like his Son. Every event that occurs in my life gives me an opportunity to please and glorify God. If I approach life with the above two statements in mind I will look a lot different than I do now.