Tyler Blogs

One of my favorite songs was written by one of my favorite musical groups, Poor Old Lu. The song, All Pretty for the TV, is a commentary on television and a society dominated by entertainment. While I have some comments to make on television, this song makes enough comments of its own. This may not be the author's thoughts, but they fit the script.

I see the wealthy guy
The world in his eyes
He need not contain no pain or shame
"And never will," I cry

At the center of television is the emphasis on wealth and the world, and with that obsession there is very little need to show any kind of remorse. Ironically, that obsession in real life does bring pain and in many cases shame. The world, our society, is one of the Christian's biggest obstacles to a successful Christian life.

And I'm a dirty word
You know I'm so absurd
If I write things off as meaningless
So I'm never heard

Obscenity is one of the hallmarks of much entertainment today. Even though there is some censoring in television, the bleeping or fading out of those obscenities does nothing to eliminate the intent. Just as obscenity rules on TV, the things that are good in life are just overlooked.

Stare and no care into nowhere
Round and round pounds the sound inside
We never give it up
Well, I can never live up and the box won't shut up
Ground me out without a doubt
We never give it up

On the other side of the tube is the viewer that is mesmerized by whatever comes on. From story to story, he sits there with nothing to do but look. He is in a gaze and the box just won't shut up.

And now I'm turning blue
Without a thing to do
Cause I'm wrapped, enthralled and my brain it stalls
I can't think it thru

Entertainment has that ability to not only hypnotize a person, but to choke him. He is so overwhelmed that he can't think. Every presumption that's made is accepted without argument and whatever conclusions the plot reaches are okay with him.

So make your senses soft
And never turn it off
Just step inside and join the ride
Here's our real God.

If you don't agree with all that, then you may be normal. Yep, normal. It's normal to sin, to serve self, to find whatever life they can in this world. It's normal to controlled by the powers of this world, and entertainment is at the center to that control.

It's not normal to be a Christian. Christians are not of this world. In essence, they're alien creatures, reborn by the Holy Spirit. They see more to life than what they see on TV.

Some of the most entertaining people I know are talk show hosts. I'm not talking about their talk show, but some of their character nuances are amusing.

If you've listened to talk shows at all, you may have noticed that they have opinions, and they also act as judge over everyone else that may call with an opinion. As any instructor, he will decide if your reasoning has a passing grade, as if you have to convince him. A little more intelligent way is to add that logic to come up with commonly agreed solution.

Another aspect of the job is the use of proofs in fortifying their position, or should I say, lack of proof. In many cases, they have one presupposition that demands that their position on an issue is the only correct one. One of Scott Wilder's favorite arguments is that 13 is the minimum age that you can try a minor as an adult, and his reasoning is as simple as his claim. Single mindedness rules in talk show circles.

One other characteristic that amuses me is the political bigotry that they hold to. If you call Rush Limbaugh and say you are a conservative and then make some points that, according to him, aren't conservative, then you aren't conservative. You might even be accused of being a democratic imposter.

Yep. There are imposters that call in, but this accusation is an immature way of confronting someone that is suspect. In general, I agree with many of the talk shows I listen to; or should I say I listen to the ones I agree with. They have the right perspective on a lot of issues, but more than that, they are entertaining as well.

"There is a new fascination to amateur photography. Pictures that but a few years ago would not have been attempted are now easy snapshots."

That was written in the early 1940's, in a book published by Eastman Kodak. That book was one of my finds at the Book Fair, and a bargain at 25 cents.

While the "remarkable new films" of the 1940's are a bit out of date, the principles of lighting, exposure and composition in the text are still useful today. There are also some good tips for taking pictures of children, posing, candids, architecture, landscapes and night photography. Those are things that will never grow old, but that can't be programmed into any camera. Cameras don't take photographs, photographers do.

Photography is one of those commodities that requires someone with an eye for photography, much like one would have an ear for music. Not only do those people have the skill or artistic ability to capture a good photo, it often takes those kinds of people to recognize and appreciate good photography. That's not to say good photography can't be learned, but it takes attention to detail that often comes naturally to others.

In my first year of college we were required to take an allied arts course, in my case, for appreciation of the arts. I particularly remember the study of music in the course, and attention to detail was the one thing it seemed to focus on. We learned about all the elements of the composition, and about the composition itself.

I can't really play any instrument, but I can appreciate good music. I'm no artist, but I can be impressed by a painting. And while I do take photographs, I can still appreciate good photography by others.

Going to the movies is generally a good escape, although I have grown more and more indifferent to the movies and video entertainment in general. I suppose much of it is my fault. Having been a writer and student of writing, I've learned most of the basic plotlines of novels and their quicker movie scripts. There's very little new. Different people, different locations, same stories. The exception might be the mystery with numerous twists, although even then, the "who done it" is generally and almost obviously, the least suspected.

I just returned from the big screen where I saw The Marine. Maybe I should say, I saw the rest of The Marine. The trailer had already given us the storyline and compacted all the action scenes in the 2 minutes promo.

Machoism was the key principle, and the patterns in the movie were repeated at least three times. You find the good guy in a car, building or something; the bad guy blows it up, and in the midst of the explosion the good guy jumps out and into the water. One of the characters was cast as an a pyromaniac, but the real pyromaniac was the script writer. That was just about all there was to the movie.

The action scenes on it weren't even that impressive. As some of you may have noticed, it's the same explosion several times in a row, each one at a different zoom level, and with the main character dubbed into it. The things he managed to escape were also unrealistic.

I do like action movies, but generally, these movies are an insult to our intelligence. Not only is it insulting to me, but given the simplistic nature of the pursuit and final conclusion, this one was an insult to real Marines. Unfortunately, there are many movie-goers that aren't insulted.

Why did I see it? It's better than the endless barrage of horror flicks that take insult to the max. But I'll have some other things to say about them.

One of the things that always baffles me at work is the amount of time that is spent entering and re-entering data into the computer to create a report. The way that reports are generally formatted, the data in them aren't generally re-useable without being reformatted. So, when the report is done and a related report is needed, some of those numbers are copied to the new report.

Not too long ago, the spreadsheet was the exception. Visicalc and 1-2-3 was a little more complicated and a little more intimidating. In the present, anything that resembles a report or that has columnar data is put into Excel.

Before spreadsheets became so popular, the database was the standard practice in many operations. At least with the database, any number of reports could be generated, without having to re-enter all the numbers again.

Business (in a general sense) has in many ways abandoned IT expertise and has attempted to delegate a lot of the number crunching to the clerical staff. They think they don't need database specialists and instead rely on the secretary with a minimum of training. They think, after all, any staff member can put the information in the neatly arranged square boxes. In their world, IT handles all the computers, printers, networking and the like.

What they apparently don't realize is that one database report can be printed out every week, without having to type all the numbers in again. Not only does that one report live on, but the database can be used to create reports with all kinds of useful information.

This is one example of the difference between a struggling and a successful business. The way a business handles information will largely determine how efficient they are and how effective they can be in operating their business. While many businesses use SQL databases to maintain some major number-crunching operations, the spreadsheet report lives on in many offices.

This subject is probably too complex for the time and space I have for today's entry, but this may be some food for thought. When I started to write on this subject, I remembered some things I composed ten years ago...

With the advancement in technology and the economy of mass produced computer software and hardware, one might think it easy to develop publications, monitor business information, and maintain the support systems necessary for survival in any unsure economy. NOT so.

On the one hand, the advancements in technology have only made these goals possible and reachable. The economy of mass produced software and hardware have made it easier for people with the skills to use the tools. On the other hand, the sophisticated nature of much of today's software has made it necessary for businesses to find people that have the skills.

Ten years later, we are at a point where, even more so, it's not what you have, but what you know. Not only is software cheaper, open source software (and source code) is in many cases freely available. But, this isn't about free stuff; or even cheap stuff. It's that the tools are readily available to those who know how to use them. They are no longer limited to the big companies.

The downside is that the tools are also available to bums that do shoddy work and pass it off to the technically uninformed, or intellectually challenged as professional. That's salesmaship. Another day, another blog entry.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Fall book fair. The book fair that I'm talking about is where you can purchase used books at a fraction of the cost. The Smith County Medical Society Alliance sponsors the sale and proceeds go to provide scholarships for students nursing and related fields. There is also a spring version sometime in April. The books are all donated to the organization for their semi-annual sales. The first one was held in 1969.

They are located on D.C. Drive in Tyler. Inside you will find a well categorized, selection of books at severe discount prices, while many of the books displayed under the tents outside are 25c each. At the very end, they usually go on sale, for $1 or $2 for a bag full.

While you may not have in interest in books, given the availability of almost every useful fact on the internet, I have a "thing" for books. I have a number of interests and book collections to go with them. I'm obviously not trying to get the most books, but I do like to have a reference library on a number of subjects.

For one, I get anything I can on every form of statistics, probability theory, and other higher math subjects. There are many varieties of introductory statistics texts, but I also have texts of statistics applicable to different fields. Unfortunately, I don't yet have one devoted to inventory control statistics, although I've studied that subject quite a bit. That'll be one I'll be looking for, along with something on Arpad Elo's rating system.

Another collection is one of cookbooks. Lots of folks have lots of recipes. Again, I don't need a lot of them, but like to have them to cover any dish, prepared in any instrument, and for many cultures. Not just recipes, but catalogs of utensils, techniques, famous chefs. After all, eating is one of my most favorite things to do.

I also like dictionaries, and other books of "words". Being a Scrabble player, it is "useful" knowing a lot of words. Books related to creative writing and journalism are also good finds. One of my prized items is an encyclopedia set from the depression era. The books are only about 4" x 7" with 25 volumes. It may not have much archival value, but it's a neat thing to have. It's funny to look up words that have only been around a few decades, words like "computer".

Cell phones. What's the deal?

For fifty bucks and up a month, you can have a cell phone and never worry about having someone around when you need them. Cell phones do have a purpose, but the craze with cell phones is more than just convenience. Cell phones are being used to give us security, while also building insecurity into our character. It seems that people can no longer drive more than 10-15 minutes without thinking they need to call and talk to someone. One of the clinical terms to describe this may be co-dependence.

It's not just cell phones, though. We have the ipod, photo phones, text messaging, automobile dvd players. We have a silver spoon in our mouth, a spoon that will not enable us to experience discomfort, discouragement or loneliness. We have an endless number of diversions to keep us occupied or entertained.

We are blessed with the technology to communicate, but unfortunately for many of us, that technology doesn't help us deal with the realities of life. We depend on it, like any other habituation. That technology dominates our life. That technology is our life. If we lose it....

Well, I have a different kind of addiction. It keeps me occupied and helps me when I feel like I need someone to talk to. It's also a type of communication. It is spiritual communication. God is always present and waiting for me to start a conversation with him. He dominates. He is all the life I'll need. If I lose Him... He is still there.

Being monday and all I thought I would take a break from my usual commentary (or criticism) for the blog and say a few words about me and what I do. By "what I do", I don't mean what I do for a living, but what I do after work. I guess you could say this is my belated introduction.

This blog is one of the things I do. I also design web pages and sites. A few of my sites are
Tyler Web Sites - a search site for Tyler, Texas, which also includes some web page and web design commentary.
Tyler Web Sites : Hosting - In the backroom, I am a web site host. If you need a temporary home, I have a place for you. Single bed, no kitchen, shared dining. I am speaking figuratively, of course.
Tyler Forums - This is the shell for a forum board for Tyler. Again, it's not quite ready for business. Both need to be shielded before I open them up to attact by the spammers.
Home on the Web - A few things about me, my job, my life.
There is also a section about Disc Golf and a section called Streetworks, which contains some of my older commentary about Christianity.

In addition to the web pages, I am also an amateur photographer. I participate in a variety of on-line photo groups, complete with contests, challenges, assignments and the like. You can search pbase.com search for my name if you're interested. I also have my own photo site at pbase.com/dbell154.

There's not a web page about it, but I also enjoy playing competitive Scrabble, either on-line or out of town. There's much more, but you can read that on my personal web page. And that's the way it is on October 23, 2006. Good Day.

Don't Vote!

Every year you hear candidates and organizations plea for you to go vote, or that it's your duty. You'll hear that from the conservative Free Market Foundation and the liberal League of Women Voters. My advice might be to stay home and watch something on your telly. If the candidates or their issues aren't important to you, don't mess with them. If you don't have a real interest in the elections, you don't need to be there. Don't be a fly in the ointment.

When some of the first election laws were made, I suspect this was the reasoning behind only allowing men and in some cases, property owners to vote. They had an interest and they were kept informed. No, I'm not racist, sexist, or whatever they call it to discriminate on the basis of wealth, but I do discriminate on the basis of knowledge. If you don't know what you are doing, stay home.

You've heard about the claims that our nation is divided, with the last presidential election vote almost split down the middle. The reality is that the politicians create that seemed division. The parties align themselves on either end of a political fulcrum and work to move enough of the extra weight to their side.

That's not to say there aren't major differences between the parties at the voter's level. Both parties have platforms with a few of the key issues clearly defined. The problem is that many voters don't really understand these basic issues much less the less popular issues. If their party is in favor of it, however, they will be. That kind of ignorance of the issues and the nature of politics and politicians is the very reason we are continually moving toward a socialist form of government.

Then there are those that vote, just because they want a change. That kind of irrational passion is what brings dictators and communist governments to power. Your vote could be affirming that the government is moving in the right direction and consenting to the laws that create chaos and corruption in government and business.

No, I'm not really saying people shouldn't have the freedom to vote or that not voting will lead to greater freedom. What I am saying is that you need to get and stay informed. That's your duty! If it's an issue that matters to you, be vocal about it. There's no room for ignorance and passivity in our election process.

Elections are only a few weeks away now. Last Sunday, our visiting preacher prayed for our elections and urged us all to get out and vote for good Christians to be elected to leadership. He, of course, was concerned about moral and family values.

It's undisputed that there are attempts by certain groups to put our nations moral values aside, but I wonder also about the motives of the other side. They refer to the character of individual candidates in terms of whether they have family values, whether they are moral, or they are Christians.

Politicians on both sides are guilty of throwing God's name into a speech to suggest that they are on God's side, and in so doing to suggest that God is on their side. But, aside from the issue of politicizing God, there is also the issue for Christians of whether they are truly Christian or just moralists. Is their motive to make the United States more receptive to the gospel, creating a social climate that allows us to live in peace, or making a world that doesn't offend them.

Like so many things in life, it is not as simple as that. Just because a man (or woman) boldly claims to be a Christian (or name your religion) doesn't mean his decisions will be based on the faith's belief system. And just because a man is moral, doesn't mean he will be wise. The Pharisees were moral by their standards. Integrity is much deeper than our morals and the ability to shape our government demands more than a religious affiliation.

In our age of salesmanship (the polite term), we need to look closer to see just what we're getting.

Music is a nice diversion.
When you talk about politics, religion or business, any disagreement is a source of contention, even if you're not being contentious. When you talk about music, everyone has their preference and most everyone else seems to respect it. That is, unless it's the loud rap or hip-hop with boosted bass in the low-rider behind you.

I was born in the 50's, so I obviously identify with the music of the 60's and 70's. That's to be expected. That's how musicians, radio stations target their audience, based on their age. They either use the music of the era or the style of the era.

To me it seems quite odd that people's musical tastes don't generally grow with age. They settle with a single music style. You won't find many 50 year olds enjoying alternative music like some of today's indie bands, or punk rock. At least, not like I do. I enjoy almost every style of music there is, and really enjoy the new sounds.

Making music requires skill at any age, but I really appreciate the creativity of young people. I can often identify with them too. After all, I was once at that age and I can see what's happening in their lives today. And the energy, passion. Closing out a musical style and the people that represent it is like not having both eyes open. It's like not tasting the new dish because you only want to eat peas and corn. You don't have to act like a teenager to like their music.

Well, let me check on how Eisley is coming with their newest production. Oh, and Happy Birthday, Stacy, belated.

It's been ten years since the last minimum wage increase. Every year it's proposed, and every year the Republicans put it aside. With their emphasis on what's good for business, it'll be a hard sell to get one passed next year.

Meanwhile, the lowest paid workers in our country often have to work two jobs to make ends meet. It doesn't just affect the young minimum wage workers, however. The minimum wage sets the scale for many others in the workforce. One of the ironies is that while the Republicans are tauting traditional family values, those parents who might be with their children can't because they have to work so much.

It's not really about putting down low paid workers. It's about building big business at the expense of the low and middle class. If it weren't political suicide, they might even lower the minimum wage. In fact, there are some Republicans that would favor circumstances where business get practically free labor, the labor of Mexicans that will work for next to nothing just to stay in the country. How close do you have to get to call it slavery?

The next time a pay raise comes up for the members of congress, they don't even have to vote to get that passed. The congressional raises are put on auto-pilot to avoid bad press, while issues like minimum wage have to be debated. They could have set the minimum wage to use the cost of living as a factor. That's politics, and that's one reason so few people go to the polls.

Yes, I know about all the problems with amendments, sharing and trading votes for this and that. Instead of letting their yes be yes, politicians swear, and wheel, and deal, until they've become part of the very injustices that they were elected to eliminate.

You go into work on a monday and your boss is in a bad mood. You have a few cross words and he decides you need to be on your own. After a few weeks at home of trying to figure out a 7-letter meaning irritable, and solving the daily Sudoku, you decide to go get yourself a job. You got a good severance package, so you decide to purchase a franchise business. Let's say it's in printing, which is my vocation.

You don't have to know everything about printing; you don't have to know anything about printing. They will teach you and provide support. In fact, you don't even have to learn anything about printing, or business. You can just hire someone. You pay someone else to do the printing and then pay the franchise 5-10% of your sales for their support.

Six months later, business is slowly growing and you start to see some light. Then the franchise district representative comes in to adjust your pricing software, cutting back on your prices in order to boost sales even more. You'll lose money on every sale, but you'll make it up in volume.

He makes copies of several business guides with suggestions and tips for building business, making them on your copier, at your expense. After a year or two of wishful thinking, you begin to discover that you and your business are running out of money while the franchise is making a bundle. You were the big fish feeding off of someone else, but didn't realize there was a bigger fish feeding off of you.

People throw away their life savings in a business without knowing anything about the business or the trade, and live off of the work of others. Sometimes successfully; sometimes not.

This is one of those days when I have nothing to say. Now, I do have a file drawer of notes for things I want to write about, but often when I go to the notes, the notes I have don't make sense or don't seem that important any more.

A lot of that may have to do with remembering what you were thinking at the time. But, you know, some of it may have to do with what's important at the time.

As we go through life, our goals change, and whether or not we have any goals. As we go through life, the value of things change. Sometimes it's for the best; sometimes not. And though we may forget what we were thinking two years, it could be that today we have learned some things. Sometimes our daily blog entry just doesn't seem that important.

Whatever the case, I plan to continue note-taking, if for no other reason than to insure that I continue thought-taking. Or to be able to look back again and think, "what was I thinking?" When we fail to consider the value of life and the things, people, activities that give it value, we fail to really live life.

Speaking of transportation and travel, my boss gave me a paperback a week or two ago about travel in texas. Titled "52 More Offbeat Texas Stops", it includes a collection of historic sites, museums, events and generally odd destinations. Bob Phillips has the scoop on such things as a hat shop (where they clean hats), an Aggie bootmaker, a cow calling contest, a medicine ball maker and someone who makes television aquariums.

There are several museums, whether they have that in the title or not, including the Toilet Seat Museum, Edison Museum, a Music Box Collection and the Airpower Museum. Museums always interest me. Whatever your interest, there's probably a museum about it somewhere, if not right here in Texas.

Though not in the Lone Star State, one of the most interesting sites, internet site that is, I've seen was the bubble gum collection. I've seen several matchbox/matchbook collectors in my time and I'm sure there a matchbox museum somewhere. But, have you ever heard of a vintage toaster collection? You can find that at http://www.toaster.org/. What about coathangers or odd socks? Yup. Check out http://www.museumstuff.com/museums/unusual.html for these and other unusual collections.

Someday, I might have my own collection open to the public. We collect bells. If you'd like to donate an unusual, or not so unusual, bell to the collection, my address is 607 Pam Drive, Tyler, Texas 75703.

Huh?

My name?

Dana Bell

In the late seventies, one of the things I enjoyed doing was getting a newspaper and reading the highlights of the day; or maybe reading a chapter in a good book, or a magazine article. If I had some project I was working on, I might pull out some of my own notes and start working on them. I had plenty of time, I was on the bus. And I liked it.

That was in Sioux City, Iowa where there was probably a dozen routes, running on 30 minute (or less) intervals. I transferred at the downtown central station, but usually stopped and had breakfast and caught the next connection. It was part of a natural, non-hectic routine. I didn't have to drive; I just enjoyed the trip.

Living in Tyler, I don't have that freedom. The bus doesn't come close to where I live and doesn't go near where I work, 30 minutes away. Today's front page discussed Tyler Transit problems, questioning what needs to be done. With the traffic problems in Tyler, particularly south Tyler, there is a need for public transportation. At the same time, the transit doesn't have the resources to meet the demand. And then there is the personalism that further widens the gap between the need and the demand.

The transit really is for the poor, or the crowded. Tyler is just too fast and flush. People don't (think they) have the average 30-40 minutes to wait for the bus, (Tyler routes are spaced an hour to 1:20 apart) and they don't worry about the expense. That's not a statement of fruitlessness, but a note that it is not as simple as throwing money at it. There are priorities and other issues and there may be other solutions, things that need serious consideration. But to keep this entry short, these are just notes.
Instead of focusing on fixing traffic problems in Tyler, how about working on readily available (time-wise) public transportation.
There is a lot of talk about getting more money, funding, grants. A lot of the expense with this is administrative. Success with this issue will not tolerate a lot of wastefulness.
There are groups that build houses for the poor, Habitat for Humanity. There are groups that bring food to the elderly. How about some groups to show up and help out with the transportation problems? How about an organization starting their own transit service?
They (local government officials) say they know the limitations of the current transit systems, that it will take money. But, we can't always just wait for the government to be the solution. If we wait, it could be a long wait.

We had frozen za today, baked in the oven, of course. The box says, "New Look, Same Great Taste". I thinking though, if there's a new look, shouldn't the consumer see it, without reading it. Also thinking, why brag that the package is better, but the product isn't.

Advertising is a humorous commodity. Much of it is entertaining, but there is a lot that is humorously stupid. Another example... There was a fast food product I used to get, don't remember for sure what it was, something like vegetable beef. The thing that I remembered about one of it's improved products was, "Now more vegetables!" The product weighed the same, so I'm assuming it had less meat. Why didn't it say, "Less meat"?

Everyone has had pork and beans, but as long as I can remember, it was all beans, with an occasional sample of fat with a little meat on one edge. This was apparently the result of the evolution of the food packaging industry.

There are many other industries that have portrayed themselves as professionals while inflating the cost of what you have to buy. Some of them even have laws passed to protect their occupations, under the guise of protecting the consumer. The real estate industry is one of the most corrupt of these. Conventionally at 6%, an agent can make $9,000 on a $150,000 house, just for talking someone into buying it. They don't even own it, and much of the technical work is done by mortgage companies.

The most vexing of consumer stories today has to do with the Wal-mart giant. They advertise low prices, but in order to do that they have to do two things. On the one hand, they do their best to put the local companies out of business, while forcing manufacturers to drop their prices, and their ability to insure factory workers are adequately paid.

Wal-mart is one of those things that's too good to be true. Of all the major companies in the world, this one does the most to deflate our economy. They work to depreciate the value of your time on the job and then arrogantly proclaim, "Low Prices, Always".

In the last few weeks I've heard a lot about church growth. Though that term never came up, the thought was there; how to grow membership in the church. We go to a small church and there is room for growth. There are some programs that they are working on, that are designed as opportunities to minister to people, but there isn't enough people interested in leading them up. One of the ideas is to have the ministry in place for when the need arises. The question is "how do you get people involved?" Or is it?

Many times we come to God with questions that don't seem to get answered, and among other things, I've often found that the questions don't get answered because they are the wrong questions. They are questions based on our own presumptions, based on our own analysis of what the problem is.

When God first laid down the foundations for the church in Acts and the apostolic letters, he compared the church to a body, not an organization or a machine. Central to that concept was that it is made up of members with inherent gifts. Instead of starting with a program and trying to find volunteers, we should be analysing the body to see just what it should be doing, both as a body and individually. Occasionally, that will be revealed by some need within the church (cf Acts 7). If one has gifts in teaching, he should be teaching; if encouragement, encourage; if some type of service (car repair, carpentry or computers), he should serve. It almost makes too much sense.

It appears that seminaries have so structured their own ideas of what a church should be, that they have forgotten to examine the principles in the New Testament. In effect, they teach that churches must be patterned after some order of worship, standard set of programs, or proven church growth PR. Apparently, taking the members and their gifts and building a church from that is too difficult, unpredictable, outside of the box.

Now, I have seen many churches put on special programs and studies to help people discover their spiritual gifts, but rarely one that actually bases its ministries on the members and their gifts. After all, when the Bible talks about growth and us growing in grace, it's more about maturity than it is numbers. It's more about being strong than being fat. When the time comes, God will add to the church. He will build His church.

Today I found the latest local Mensa newsletter in my email box. While there were a lot of items of interest, the one thing that caught my attention was mention of one of the area Mensans' first novel. Though the novel itself is not the subject of this post, it is written by Fletcher King and titled "The Advent of the King", ISBN 1-4259-1493-4. Read about it at www.AdventOfTheKing.com.

The thing that captured my focus was how much work is involved in writing a book, particularly a novel. As the article states, she sacrificied a considerable amount of her free time on it, like holidays and other days off. I particularly admire that because I've worked on a couple of novels. I didn't tire of it; it's invigorating; but there just isn't enough time in the day.

A writer may spend several hours on a chapter, only to rip it out of the typewriter (figuratively, of course), shoot it into the nearest trashcan and start it over. It looks good for a minute, then something makes you feel sick, or you get a better idea, an inspiration and all the work you've put into it seems lost. It only seems lost; it's a part of the process, like any act of creation, but a creation that stares at you every day, beckoning you. I know I'll have to rewrite half of what I've written just to be satisfied that it will "work". Just this petty blog entry has gone through some torture of its own.

Yes, writers probably get better at it each time they write something new, and I suppose there are some that can write as freely as they can carry on a conversation. But, I admire people that go through the pain of writing, revising and rewriting. For this book, there was a lot of additional work researching the culture and times in which this book was set. It's no picayune undertaking, but anything that has value has costs and demands sacrifice.

Note: Mensa is an organization for the very intelligent. To get in you have to score in the top 2% on an approved IQ test, and of course, pay membership dues.
I'm not a Mensa member. I've scored between 133 and 154 on a variety of unproctored tests, but on the one proctored test I took, I was unable to make the score (c. 132) to get in Mensa. That's not unusual, as each test also has its own personality. The Mensa test is about $30-$40; many others are in the hundreds. It's just not that important to me right now.
The Mensa newsletter is always interesting and there are other topics in it that have already made it into my pile for blog consideration.

The age in which we live is often described by what we are predominately doing at the time. For example there was the Industrial age of the previous century, the Space Age that is continuing into the 21st century, and now we are in the Computer Age.

Along with that, we are also in an age that might be best summarized as the Undo Age. It has its roots, of course, in the use of the Undo button on most every software program we use today. But, that's not just in computers. We live with an Undo attitude. If we make a mistake, we ask for a "do over". At the speed at which we act and react, we often find ourselves starting over. Just throw away whatever we've made and start over on a new improved version. We even do that with jobs, marriages and lives.
We don't look for things that will last; we want the quick and easy, whether it's a product, a relationship, or a responsibility.

The Undo can help us to refine and perfect something, a digital photograph, a musical composition, or a dozen other things, but to most, it's just an easy escape and nothing gets perfected.
Unfortunately, our control over our circumstances can often be misleading. We think we can live life carefree without consequences. We think we can rewind life as easy as we rewind tapes. We don't think of the damage that has been done. We don't see it until it's too late for an Undo.

There is one Undo that you should never overlook. Jesus allows us to Undo our life of rebellion to God and start a new one of faith in Jesus. It's not a careless Undo, it has to be one that results in a commitment to doing God's will in our life. It's the ultimate Undo.

The computer monitor was mysteriously on when I entered the room. The screensaver wasn't working, and the screen didn't have the friendly XP logon screen. Instead, it had a blue screen (BSOD) with a message about IPVNMON.SYS and a page fault in a non paged area. Big deal, you might think. But, that's really irrelevant. One of the cool things about the Internet are the search engines. I just plug in the words "IPVNMON.SYS PAGE FAULT" and get links to some possible solutions.

The internet has essentially solved every computer problem I've faced, whether I needed to reburn my BIOS or find out about some software failure. It's cool. Ironically, most of the answers come from individuals, not the big corporate financiers of computers and the internet. Yes, some of the remaining giants, like Microsoft and Adobe have some good resources, but interaction with them is severely limited, which may be reasonable.

Now, you might be thinking that I have a philosophy that people are basically good, and helpful. There are good, helpful and serving people on the internet, both Christian and not. But, only in the last few years has the internet become a universal phenomenon, and the more populated it gets, the more we see the destructiveness of human nature. Spam, porn, spyware, viruses, phishing and other scams abound. These aren't computer anomolies; they are human activities.

I'm beginning to see the problem with Mondays. It's not just the return to work that is that bad. It is a conflict of personalities on a day when they are at their most extreme opposites. On the one side there are the people who have enjoyed their weekend and want to ease back into the week. On the other side, there are those who don't really have a life outside of work and go into work with enough energy to do the whole week's work in a single day.

Tyler Web Sites uses the b2evolution system to maintain multiple web logs on a single site. You can select the blog you want to view at the top of the list or from the list of blogs to the side.

If you would like to start and maintain a TylerWebSites.com blog (web log), contact me at http://www.tylerwebsites.com/contact.html. As bandwidth permits, your use of the resources of Tyler Forums and Tyler Web Sites, including these Blogs, is with no charge or obligation.

In order to keep this and related sites clean of spamming, there are a lot of restrictions on anonymous posts and comments. There are daily attempts of spammers logging in to advertise drugs, sex and other commodities, often with fictitious names and emails. I have no intention of supporting those types. That doesn't restrict you from using a handle or other anonym for your blog, but I want to know who you are, what you are up to and how I can contact you.

In the /blogs folder as well as in /blogs/admin there are two files called [sample.htaccess]. You should try renaming those to [.htaccess].

This will optimize the way b2evolution is handled by the webserver (if you are using Apache). These files are not active by default because a few hosts would display an error right away when you try to use them. If this happens to you when you rename the files, just remove them and you'll be fine.

By default, b2evolution blogs are displayed using a default skin.

Readers can choose a new skin by using the skin switcher integrated in most skins.

You can change the default skin used for any blog by editing the blog parameters in the admin interface. You can also force the use of the default skin for everyone.

Otherwise, you can restrict available skins by deleting some of them from the /blogs/skins folder. You can also create new skins by duplicating, renaming and customizing any existing skin folder.

To start customizing a skin, open its '_main.php' file in an editor and read the comments in there. And, of course, read the manual on evoSkins!

By default, all pre-installed blogs are displayed using a skin. (More on skins in another post.)

That means, blogs are accessed through 'index.php', which loads default parameters from the database and then passes on the display job to a skin.

Alternatively, if you don't want to use the default DB parameters and want to, say, force a skin, a category or a specific linkblog, you can create a stub file like the provided 'a_stub.php' and call your blog through this stub instead of index.php .

Finally, if you need to do some very specific customizations to your blog, you may use plain templates instead of skins. In this case, call your blog through a full template, like the provided 'a_noskin.php'.

You will find more information in the stub/template files themselves. Open them in a text editor and read the comments in there.

Either way, make sure you go to the blogs admin and set the correct access method for your blog. When using a stub or a template, you must also set its filename in the 'Stub name' field. Otherwise, the permalinks will not function properly.

By default, b2evolution comes with 4 blogs, named 'Blog All', 'Blog A', 'Blog B' and 'Linkblog'.

Some of these blogs have a special role. Read about it on the corresponding page.

You can create additional blogs or delete unwanted blogs from the blogs admin.

The Internet is dying. Though it has been around for less than 10 years and covers the globe, the internet is now beginning to suffer a long painful death. There are various cancers being spread through the internet through spam, spyware, advertising hackers, pornography, PPC sites, instant messenging and infectious diseases of various types.
There continues to be efforts to revitalize the internet with such things as discussion boards, web logs, and other journals, podcasts and RSS feeds. Like the man drowning in the sea, there's a lot of activity, splashing water trying to stay afloat, but nobody realizes that he is about to go under for the last time.
You think?
That's just a thought, not necessary my thoughts. I needed to write something here.
What do you think?
How long do you think it will last?

Blogging has been adding to Tylerwebsites.com

If you would like to start and maintain a TylerWebSites.com web log (web log), contact me at http://www.tylerwebsites.com/contact.html