Isqua Istari

I am anti-gay. I am a Christian. I believe that God punishes people, organizations, and countries, for their actions and the actions of their consitutuents.

I am not, however, an inconsiderate moron (well, not most of the time). This article (rightfully) villifies someone who shares the beliefs I listed above, but who fails to pass the “not an inconsiderate moron” test. I agree with Reverend Phelps that homosexuality is wrong, and I agree that it is a possibility (though by no means a surety) that long wars of attrition and acts of terrorism against our country are a punishment for that and myriad other sins committed by our nation, but picketing a funeral–ANY funeral–is a sure way not to get your point across. As a point of fact, it is a sure way to get the entire world, saved and unsaved, to think you’re a rotten person with no regard (read: love) for the people to whom God wants you to minister. I’ll be the first one one to tell you that I have no great love for people in general, saved or otherwise, but Rev. Phelps’ actions, in my opinion, step outside any form of decency.

People like Mr. Phelps give the body of Christ a bad name. I can’t put down zealoutry, but I can put down what is nearly barbarism, and not only ineffective “ministry,” but a performance that is clearly detrimental to the cause Rev. Phelps professes to be promoting.

That’s right, there is now a free soft drink, OpenCola, licensed under the GNU General Public License. It’s not just Linux anymore.

What with my excursions into the land of open source operating systems and software of late, I’ve been developing a great respect for open source products in general, and especially software. While I’m not about to project the “everyone helps” methodology into societal models, projects like the many Linux distributions, Wikipedia (and its many derivates), and even OpenCola do seem to foster a very giving attitude by all involved, which is a refreshing look at a side of persons that is almost impossible to find elsewhere.

Now, does anyone know where I can find some gum arabic?

Because my wife and I are big nerds, we’ve started a family blog for you and yours to check up on us every now and again. If you’re in to that sort of thing, check it out!

*edit: link fixed*

So, I’m graduating and stuff. And moving back to California. And in a last-minute turn of events, I’m NOT going back to work for NFESC. Two weeks ago, God dropped a new job right in my lap. This new job is at Budlong & Associates, a small engineering firm that offers “Mechanical, Plumbing, and Electrical Engineering” services to the local business world. Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the terminology in that context, “Mechanical” essentially means “HVAC.” Yes, I will be designing plumbing and heating/air-conditioning systems for business throughout Ventura and Los Angeles Counties.

Now, one of the great things about this is that Budlong’s main office is actually in Camarillo (actually in Mission Oaks, on Verdugo way, for those who are familiar with the area), which means that it’s about a 7 minute drive from where Mollie and I will be living, and close enough for me to ride a bike (which would be good for my health). Now, just a week before God dropped that job in my lap, he dropped a home in my lap, as well: Mollie and I will be renting a flat behind some friends’ house for a great bargain, which will save us nearly as much per month on living expenses as we pay for them here in Longview. This setup was really a godsend, since we’re essentially “moving blind,” since we don’t have a chance to actually visit any apartments/rental homes before we go, and this way we know the landlords, and that we’ll be well treated. If you want our new address, e-mail me, and I’ll get it to you.

So, now we’re moving. More accurately, we’re packing to move, and our house is full of boxes of all sizes (but only one color). It’s kind of weird to know that a lot of the things we’re doing this week–regular, routine things–are actually the last time we’re going to be doing this particular thing, with these particular people. Tuesday night dinner and House with the Scholls will be gone after tonight. I’m probably never again going to sit in Mr. Warke’s office and chat with the only professor I’ve had who actually thought like I do about education. It’s not bad… it’s just weird.

Finally, I’m actually writing this blog post in lynx, a command-line web browser, running in xterm, in Gentoo, which is still compiling Gnome. If you care about that, you understood it all. If you didn’t understand a word of it, you don’t care.