My mother pastored a small country church when I was a teenager 20+ years ago.  Female pastors were rare in SouthEast Ohio then, but most of the church was related to her then-husband.  Now the church needs a pastor again.  I was thinking about applying, but this morning I was remembering my teenage years there & now I'm not sure if I'ld be a good fit or if I even want to.

I was one of those geeky misfit teenagers.  I graduated high school when I was 15, so I was taking advanced college courses when the other teens in the community were concerned about passing 10th grade but mostly about partying.  Mostly I kept running afoul of the church leadership.  I wasn't outwardly rebellious, but I was always creative and thinking outside of the box.  I also had a liberal slant due to my liberal arts college courses. 

Church leaders didn't like it when I changed around their dead hymns.  I changed the slow, hideous song "I guess I'm just a little old-fashioned 'cause My Savior was old-fashioned too..." into the rocking "I guess I'm just a little psychotic just because I like to kill...".  Still don't know why they didn't like that--it was all in fun.  Either way the original hymn is unBiblical and deserves to be rewritten because Jesus was NOT old-fashioned--He was considered a dangerous revolutionary  by the religious and civic leaders of His time.

The church leaders thought I was "demon-possessed" when I used their fellowship hall to act out a scene from Star Trek.  They certainly didn't like it when I tried to introduce CHRISTIAN rock in an effort to attract young people. 

I heard enough end-of-the-world, Jeus-is-returning-this-year sermons to permanently turn me off to the end-time Biblical prophecy movement.  And I heard enough anti-Gay sermons (from my Mom, other leaders, & guest speakers) to permanently turn me off to the anti-Gay movement.  If anything, the sermons had the opposite effect.  No wonder so many groups hate Christians these days when we Christians are the ones who started spewing the hate in the 1st place!

But everyone deserves a 2nd chance.  My mother stopped pastoring 20+ years ago when her then-husband died.  I've only been back there a few times since then.  I guess I should attend a time or 2 to see if they've changed.  I certainly have...or have I?

Current Mood: nostalgic

Got a long list of things on my plate ATM.  That's probably a good thing, else I'ld get bored.

• Getting ready to put in a big garden - it's expensive to feed 3 teenagers...
• Got 12 more chicks (hopefully hens!) to replace the ones that were decapitated
• The first 3 weekends of April (plus the 2 weeks in between), the ministry that ordained me is having an "Equipping School" (http://www.fatherheartministries.org/upcoming-events), which is basically an intensive, advanced Bible school.  Thankfully, I'm not teaching, but I'll be expected to help with setup, food, music, etc.  That's probably the weekends when I'll need to put in my garden!
• Easter weekend I'll be performing my wife's great-niece's wedding near Buffalo, NY.  Any wedding, esp. out-of-state, requires some prep work.  Plus we'll probably be the wedding baker, decorator, & candlestick maker -- all of which are in a pastor's job description.
• Preparing for the Masquerade & Fursuit Parade at Morphicon.
• Planning a big present for my oldest's 18th birthday -- a Memorial-Day-week trip to Virginia Beach to see her oldest biological sister with a stopover in DC to see the Smithsonian dinosaurs.
• Help transition my 16 & 17 year olds to be on their own more -- this summer they'll have jobs & in the fall they're going to vocational school to learn landscaping and plant nursery.
• Writing custom components for 2 large-scale commercial software solutions -- one will be used by Federal Reserve Banks and other will be U.S.Treasury-wide (including IRS & ATF) -- No pressure!
• The church where my Mother pastored when I was teenager needs a new pastor and I'm thinking of applying.  It's in a village of about 100 about 10-15 miles from my house.

In other news, I got my blood work results back at work (we have our own clinic).  My blood sugar, protein, calcium, cholesterol, white cell count, red cell count, hemoglobin, and PSA (for prostate) are all normal.  My triglycerides are borderline high, but as busy as I am, that should come down this Spring.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Tourniquet -- "Crawl to China"

I'm not normally a sports fan, but I like this story from my home turf: http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Fennville-advances-in-first-game-without-fallen-?urn=highschool-331012. A few days ago, the star player in Fennville, MI had a heart attack after a game. Instead of bowing out of the play-offs, the team decided to play anyway. The opposing team gave up their home court advantage to play closer to Fennville at the neutral, larger college court in my hometown. Despite loosing their star player, Fennville still won their 1st playoff game. It's refreshing to see such sportmanship amid a tragedy. My parents had a lake cottage in Fennville, and my dad had relatives there, so I've always felt a connection to the charming, little, agricultural community.

San Francisco was an interesting place to visit, but I would NOT want to live there. My inner otter enjoyed the Bay with its wharfs, piers, boats, seafood... However, downtown SF is very congested & crowded. Even though Columbus is also a big city, it has a different feel to it, perhaps because it's so spread out.

It was interesting listening to execs from Microsoft, HP, Intel, RSA, McAfee, all the big names. I also heard Bill Clinton who, despite some idealogical differences, is a very good speaker.

I lost count of the number of times I was asked for money by the homeless or panhandlers. I'm normally a giving person, but if I had helped everyone who asked, I'ld end up begging for money too. That's a lesson for home too, where we'ld have more money if we weren't helping so many people. I particularly found it interesting, even a little sad/mad, too see the homeless begging in front of $100 per person restaurants & $500 per shirt stores. If people can afford to go into those places, why can't they help the ones in front of those places?

In the 2 weeks since we've been back, we've lost our 4 egg-laying hens. They were attacked by some animal who could squeeze through tight spaces because our hen house was fairly secure, or at least we thought it was. We still have 2 roosters. We'll have to get more hens in the spring.

Yesterday, the former foster daughter who was living on our property borrowed our van & promptly crashed it by pulling out in front of someone at a blind intersection. She's only had her license 2 weeks & just moved out of our mobile home a fews day ago. There's some front-end damage, but it's still drivable. She's bonded with insurance, so we'll have to see who's going to cover our costs. We've helped her & her boyfriend quite a bit the past few months & it's starting to wear thin.

Thanks for reading.

I just got back from a business trip to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. It's a nice, newer building that sits on the banks of the Mississippi. I was really impressed by their security and their cafeteria. One day when I was eating lunch there, we saw an eagle fly down the river.

In 2 weeks, I'm flying to the RSA computer security conference in San Francisco. My wife & 3-year-old are going with me. Considering all the techies I know, I wonder if anyone I know is going too.

SwiftFox's post of his SantaFox poem reminded me of the furry lullaby I wrote for my son. I just sung it to him last night when he had trouble settling down to sleep. It uses the same tune as the traditional Lullaby.

Lullaby, Woodland Sprite.
Otters swim in delight.
Foxes too spread the news
That it's night-night time for you.

*Alternate version*
Lullaby from woodland sprites.
Fairies dance in delight.
Elves too spread the news
That it's sleepy time for you.

Current Mood: sleepy

Next Saturday the 30th at 11AM, my wife & I are leading worship (AKA playing music & singing) at the House of His Presence (http://www.houseofhispresence.com/) at 13 Pride St, Pittsburgh, near the new Consul Arena & Duquesne Univ. If you're near the Burgh, stop by and listen.

I had an interesting dream last night. I dreamt that Josh Gates and his team from SyFy channel's Destination Truth were investigating paranormal claims at a big historic stone mansion. As usual, they spent all night investigating and videotaping the mansion and found the usual, questionable evidence, like unexplained sounds and flashes of light. They were getting ready to wrap up and leave since dawn was breaking. Gates was alone in the big kitchen at the rear of the house when he noticed human shapes moving on his hand-held thermal camera, but no one was there. He called for his team, but got no answer. He then saw several human figures on his thermal coming down the back servant staircase. As they came down, they became more solid and passed right by him. He was getting really excited at the evidence and was calling on his walkie-talkie for his team, but no response. As he backed up toward the back outside door, he saw 2 ghosts sitting at a small table. They turned to him and said "Welcome Josh" with decaying zombie-like faces. That freaked him out and he ran out the back door around to the front of the mansion. Their equipment van was gone, which really freaked him out. He jumped in his rental car and drove off, vowing to figure out what happened to his team. They wouldn't leave him like that. As he drove, he noticed that the streets looked different, yet the same, like the difference between the real world and the foggy world in "Silent Hill". He stopped at the 1st gas station he saw to buy a beer and calm down. He noticed everyone there was acting strange. He asked the clerk about it and he replied "Don't you know this is the ghost realm? The spirits here are in purgatory to work out their problems and sins before going to their final place." When Gates walked out the door, he awoke back in the mansion with his crew, who were asking if he was OK because he hit his head. They were preparing for the final shoot in the kitchen before dawn broke. So he was left wondering if his experience in the kitchen and the station were all a dream, or was he really dead and trapped in purgatory?

First off, I watched Gate's show last night and recently watched Silent Hill, which is probably why I dreamt it, but I was wondering about purgatory. Being Protestant, I don't actually believe in it. However, is purgatory considered to be the ghost realm, like a parallel ghostly universe? Do any Christian churches teach this version of purgatory? This sounds like a bad B-movie or bad short story, but I was wondering where I came up with that explanation of purgatory.

I'm tired of flaky Christianiy. The website www.wecanknow.com exemplifies the weirdness and bad logic that can come from religiosity taken to the extreme.

According to the site, *TRUE* Christians will be raptured on May 21, 2011 before God destroys Earth 5 months later. Even though Jesus said that NO ONE knows the day nor hour, He didn't mean *true* believers (i.e. the elect pre-destined by God).

According to them, the Earth was created in 11013 B.C. & Noah's Flood was in 4990 B.C. Noah was instructed that man would be judged by the flood in 7 days, and since a day is as a 1,000 years to God, man has 7,000 years until judgement. 7,000 years after the flood is the year 2011.

Also, there are exactly 722,500 days from Jesus' death on April 1, 33 A.D. until May 21, 2011. To quote:
"The number 722,500 is made up of two sets of identical significant numbers. Each number is intimately related to God’s salvation plan:

5 x 10 x 17 x 5 x 10 x 17 = 722,500

The atonement or redemption demonstrated by Christ’s suffering and death on April 1, 33 A.D. (the number 5) is 100% completed on May 21, 2011 (the number 10) when all the true believers are raptured into Heaven (the number 17)." *sarcasm* Perfect logic and great Biblical exegesis!**

This brings back painful memories of "88 Reasons Why Jesus Will Return in 1988". I'm just not sure what to say about this type of bad reasoning and worst scholarship. Sometimes I just don't understand Christians...

*head to desk*

Summer always seems to bring busy work & weirdness. We're usually busy outside with 4-6 kids, 6 acres, swimming pool, horse, 10 chickens, 3 ducks & 6 cats.

Our former foster daughter who's now 19 tried moving back into the mobile home on our property & brought new weirdness. In the few weeks she was here, she fell off our horse & spent the night in hospital, her boyfriend had a severe panic attack & went to the psyc ward, they broke up & she starting hanging out with multiple boys at the same time, and the list goes on... She's happier being a homeless wanderer right now (which I don't understand at all), so she moved out of trailer, leaving it a flea-infested mess. I HATE FLEAS!

Our 2 daughters, 17 & 15, are working weekday mornings at the city parks, painting picnic tables, picking up debris, etc. They're getting a taste of the real world & they don't always like it. It's better than working McDonalds though. I also use it as a selling point that the real world will be easier if they get an education & a good job like mine.

Speaking of work, I'm busy reverse engineering old C++ code that only a few of us understand & creating UML diagrams. What fun!

I'm also working on creating new ministry opportunities for myself. I'm applying for a part-time pastorate at a small non-denominational church about 20 miles from home. I've also signed up to lead worship (AKA music) a couple of times at a week-long Christian festival in Columbus in September. The festival is called "7 Days of Praise" (www.7daysofpraise.com) and is partially based on the Old Testament "Feast of Tabernacles" (Sukkot in Judaism). I hope to network & get some exposure there. I'll post the exact times I'll be there when they're solidified. I wonder if they'ld allow fursuiters at the festival.

Oh crap! I just remembered I left my otter fursuit in the trailer when we flea-bombed it with foggers 2 days ago. I hope they didn't stain or stink up the suit. :(