The Lengths I Go to Organize My Books
A few years ago I installed OpenBiblio on one of my websites to keep tab of all my books. I wrote a Perl script that uses a book’s ISBN number to retrieve the bibliographic information from Amazon and then enter the book into my library. I can now search all my books as well my DVDs and I have a complete list for insurance purposes. Also, now if someone wants to borrow a book, I can check it out and know who borrowed what and when.
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Coffee, Deadlines & FUD
To say the last few weeks have been stressful is an understatement. I have subsisted on 2-3 cups of coffee a day to stay focused. I am a part-time employee but it feels like I’m working full-time hours.
Last week my supervisor told me that I needed to create a site that handled event registrations and accepted ACH transactions. So I began working on this project and it needed to be done by Friday. I spent some time making sure that what I was coding would work with the current code base I had created. I was told repeatedly to not worry so much about making sure it integrated as opposed to just getting it working. That just goes against how I think. I know that Murphy’s Law will kick in at some point and I will end up wasting the “time I saved” by just hacking something together to get it working. As I came across areas of concern I expressed them. The responses I got were less than encouraging. The responses came across as “Keep quiet and do your job.” Read more
Technology and the Ministry of Reconciliation
I ended up writing my Systematic Theology paper on technology and how it has impacted Christianity in the past and how it will in the future. I’m including an excerpt of the paper from my discussion of GodTube Tangle.
Download Technology and the Ministry of Reconciliation(pdf). I would appreciate any feedback you could provide.
GodTube Tangle is a new video sharing site that is marketed to be a direct competitor to YouTube. Upon arriving at the site, you begin to understand that this is supposed to be YouTube for Christians. A look at the top 20 videos on the site confirms this assumption. The number one video is of a little girl reciting Psalm 23. It is a cute video with over four million views. A video called “Baby Got Book”, a parody of “Baby Got Back” from a decade ago is third on the list. There are also three parodies of the Mac vs. PC advertisements, that round out the top 20 videos on GodTube Tangle.
As the body of Christ why is it we must try to emulate or rip off the world’s ideas instead of coming up with our own. We are Christians, which means the God of the universe lives inside each believer. He created this world. He gave each of us minds to pursue thought. Why don’t we ask God for unique ideas that will reveal His glory to a lost world instead of trying to Christianize bad rap songs?
Leaving the discussion of the content, the question needs to be asked. What is the purpose of GodTube Tangle? According to an interview with CEO Chris Wyatt on ABC Nightline, the goal of GodTube Tangle is to reach the 2.1 billion Christians in the world and help them grow in their faith.
This I believe is the problem with many so-called Christian entities. They are inward focused. They take the words of John in his first epistle and use it for a proof text. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world.” Alternatively, they take the symbolism in Matthew 5:14-16 too far, that we are to be a city on a hill, shining our light that others would see our works and glorify God.
Dr. Daniel Morgan, Associate Professor of Missions and Director of Nehemiah Project at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, puts forth that the church has moved away from a fire base mentality. With a firebase, a soldier goes to reequip and rest after battle, but then he goes back out to the front line and re-engages in the battle. He states that many in the church have adopted a fortress mentality. They go inside their fortress and do not leave the security of the walls. They eat, sleep and fight from behind the walls.
There are those in the Christian church who have adopted this mindset. They believe that we are to separate ourselves and protect ourselves behind fortified walls. When the world attacks, we will defend ourselves and yearn for when the battle will be over. We will live pious lives so that we can fulfill Matthew 5:16. The world will be able to see our light through the arrow slits in the walls of our fortress.
To begin with, the fortress mentality goes against the Great Commission. Christ commands us to go into all the world. That cannot be accomplished from behind the walls of a fortress. The armor of God that Paul describes in Ephesians is one of an infantryman, not of a fortress guard. We see how we are to live in the world in 1 Peter 2:11-12. “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” We are to live among the world but not be conformed. By rubbing shoulders with the world every day and living lives set apart from the world, God will receive glory. Just a few sentences before Jesus talked about believers being the light of the world, he called believers salt of the earth. Not only are we to reflect God’s glory through our actions but we are to be change agents in our culture.
A better use of the time and resources of GodTube Tangle would be to infiltrate, for lack of a better word, YouTube. They should begin by not posting “Baby Got Book” or the little girl reciting the 23rd Psalm. They should pray and fast as they wait on God to teach them how they should go about redeeming YouTube. Then they create videos that clearly explain the Gospel and God’s work in humanity through preaching, story telling, music and even parables. Jason Moore was quoted in Jennifer Harris’s article about the use of metaphor. “We’ve gotten so far from the method Jesus gave us… Most sermons are informational, mostly removed from story and parable. Jesus gave us the model for a reason. If Jesus didn’t say anything without using metaphor, what does it mean that we don’t use it all?” Those at GodTube Tangle should heed that advice, put forth their very best effort, and create something that is original, culturally relevant, but above all eternally significant.
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You Have to Love, Big Dumb Corporations – Part II
I just finished reading the updated story on Ars Technica about AT&T and the update to their Terms of Service. The terms now read as follows:
5.1 Suspension/Termination. AT&T respects freedom of expression and believes it is a foundation of our free society to express differing points of view. AT&T will not terminate, disconnect or suspend service because of the views you or we express on public policy matters, political issues or political campaigns.
So AT&T wised up after all the press they received.
However, they still have a problem when it comes to customer service. My first bill was due on October 1st. There were charges on there for the month that I didn’t have service. I wanted to contact customer service and get those charges taken off before I paid the bill. Printed right next to the due date was a second due date, October 3rd. At which time, I would be assessed a $5 surcharge. So on the 1st, I attempted to call customer service and got tired of sitting on hold. On the 2nd, I decided I would go ahead and pay the bill and dispute the charges later. So one day after the bill was due and a day before it was really due, I paid the bill in full.
On Saturday, I opened my mailbox to find an envelope from AT&T. I figured it was another bill for the next month. Not quite. It was a Disconnection Notice printed on October 2nd. I was told that I had until October 13th or my service would be disconnected. The closing paragraph of the notice shows the irony of the situation.
Thank you for choosing AT&T Texas. We value you as a customer and understand that sometimes circumstances may cause a delayed payment.
That’s great and all. Too bad I already sent them their money. They just wasted all that time and money printing up this pretty notice harassing me for the money I had already paid them. I just don’t understand big corporations some times.
You Have to Love, Big Dumb Corporations
I saw this article on Ars Technica about an addition to AT&T’s new Terms of Service. According to the new terms what I’m about to say could get my service canceled. Well, if the last month is any indication it won’t be that big of a deal.
So at the end of August, I decided to get DSL and cancel my cable and internet service with Ygnition. Ygnition uses a Dish Network feed and I imagine their home office is a temporary building with satellite dishes halfway mounted to the side of the building.
Enough about them. So I signed up for the cheapest phone service and DSL I could get. A few days later, I was contacted that everything had been connected and was ready to go. However, my DSL was not working. So I called tech support. They walked me through all the basic steps and they couldn’t figure it out. They gave me some stupid excuse and told me to try again in a few days. A few days passed and nothing. So then I called back. This technician told me she couldn’t check my line because there was an outage. The only problem is that my DSL was not working before the outage. So the next time I called they asked me if I had a dial tone. I don’t know. I don’t own a landline. I haven’t had a landline in a year and a half. I had one in Louisiana but that was only because I had DSL there. I owned a phone but it was never plugged in because I didn’t want to get telemarketers. So I broke down and bought a phone. No dial tone.
So the technician ran a test and told me that my line had not been connected at the central office. He put in a trouble ticket. Two days later, still no dice. So the next technician told me they could send out a technician but if they had to come inside it would cost $30 for the trip and then $99 for the first half hour. I told them to send the technician but I was not going to spend another $100 for service I have been unable to use for the last month. Then he tried to sell me on the $87 package that would cover the inside repairs. The only reason I signed up for DSL is because it was $25. Why would i want to pay 4 times that. So I called back this week and they told me that if you don’t have phone service for more than 3 months then they disconnect a device in the complex phone box. So basically they break the phone so they have to charge me to fix what they broke. The technician told me that they don’t charge $99 ever for their repair work. But he couldn’t give me a hard number on the costs. I was frustrated by this point and I just want my DSL to work, so I told them to do it. So when I got home from class today, I had DSL service.
And then I listened to TWIT, Episode 115, where they also mentioned the change to the terms. According to the changes,
5.1 Suspension/Termination. … AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes … (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.
So because I just wrote about how their support is horrible and it took them a month to fix my DSL, they could terminate my service.
As Patrick Norton and the Ars Technica article pointed out, if AT&T begins down this path they are opening themselves up to a world of economic and legal issues. As an ISP, they are a safe harbor, which means they aren’t held responsible for anything illegal that their users do while online. However, if they begin restricting what goes over the lines then as Patrick Norton pointed out, they become a publishing company and lose their safe harbor status. So then if they allow copyrighted or illegal material through, then they are liable. Plus if they start disconnecting customers, they are going to face a consumer firestorm. So, go ahead AT&T. Cancel my service. I’ll take my money elsewhere and watch as the lawsuits roll in.
Day in the Life of a Pizza Delivery Guy – Part 2
This Friday morning began like most any other Friday morning, an epic battle of wills. Will I lie in bed until 30 minutes before I need to be at work or will I get up early and be productive? There is a reason sloth is one of the seven deadly sins.
What can I say about delivering pizzas? You cut the pizza, put it in a box, then in a bag and you deliver it. Rinse and repeat for 8 hours. I did notice some things about some of the new personnel that have begun working at our store in the past month. In the past, if a manager needed me to stay past my scheduled time, they would ask nicely. If I said no, they accepted it and let me go. However, the shift manager I had tonight tried to guilt trip me. She told me that both of the orders she was giving me were late. I told her I would stay. I had already stayed 30 minutes past time because our general manager had asked me to stay. I was trying to get away to get to a friend’s going away party.
So anyway, I got my orders and began driving to the first house. I looked at the ticket. This order was not late. The second order had 20 minutes left. At this point, I was aggravated. If this manager had asked me nicely and not tried to guilt me, I would not have had a problem with it. However, she stretched the truth to make me stay. I got both of the orders to the correct houses before the promised delivery time. I was expecting pizzas that were 30 minutes past their promised time.
One ritual we have as drivers is that once we have cashed out for the evening, we complete some task for the manager to lighten the load for the drivers that will be closing. I have no problem with this. I will wash some dishes or take out the trash, no big deal. But, when a manager has asked me to stay over an hour past my scheduled times as a thank you, they should just let me go after I cash out. That was not the case tonight. I got back and had to fold boxes before I could go home.
This is probably just because this manager does not know me and I do not know her. One of my last manager’s would try and guilt me by giving me sad puppy dog eyes but she also understood that I was tired after eight hours and just wanted to go home. Maybe as I get to know this new manager better, things will work better.
