Dana Bell

What's in a name? Or a title?
Today I was considering how amusing it is that a person's title is so often not characteristic of what he does. My work title, for example, is Offset Press Operator, although I spend most of my time doing things other than operating offset presses. I troubleshoot computers, finances, do computer programming, organize stuff, make construction layouts, and plan projects.

Institutions go through phases every few decades when naming their leadership with titles, from headmaster, dean, VP, director. Likewise, the different areas go by different titles. There are departments, then schools, then colleges. In others, their name is often preceded by the word Center, as if it were a central office for whatever ology they practice.

Then, of course, there are the "I'm better than you titles" that are common in orthodox churches. There's the plain reverend (though they don't use the term plain), the holy reverend, or the right reverend, and the most holy reverend. If you are a Mason, then you know what I'm talking about when I refer to the Grand Master, or the Worshipful Master. Shriners know what a potentate is.

I'm not saying these people don't deserve these titles. To earn the title of doctor (M.D.), you have to go through a lot of school. Titles can reflect what you do and how proficient you are at it. But, just as easily, many titles are not representative. Many are simply that, titles, having little to do with what you do.

There is only one person that I'm certain lives up to the titles assigned to Him. Some of those titles are Prince of Peace, Holy One, Messiah, son of God, High Priest, Shepherd, Savior, Yeshua, Jesus.

Nino and Gigo are a couple of concepts in Information Technology that often seem to be ignored. Nino is "nothing in, nothing out" and his famous cousin Gigo is "garbage in, garbage out".

The field of IT is constantly bombarded with requests for information about business in the form of summaries and reports. One of the things that many people forget is that what you get out of a system will only be a reflection of what you put in, both in terms of quality and quantity. Nino and Gigo are not limited to computer information either. If you don't collect and maintain relevant information about transactions, you won't be able to learn from it.

In the past, we were limited to gathering basic information due to limits on storage and data processing capabilities. With current systems, the ability to store and process the raw data is considerably improved. Compression algorithms are better, disk space is cheaper and computers and their operating systems are faster. Now there is little reason not to put everything relevant that you can in the system.

But, that's just the raw material. Planning an information processing system must involve a careful analysis of the information you have (or want to gather) and how the components relate to each other. If the data is unrelated, then any analysis based on it will be limited. This is where the quality of the information is important.

Even if the info is related, what you want to learn must be relevant. You have to decide what you want to learn, and be able to prove that the data you have does indeed relate. You can still make garbage out of good groceries. Just because there is more data, doesn't necessarily mean there is less garbage.

Computers aren't magicians. Humans have to make it work. Data are just ingredients. Humans have to put that information IN and humans have to get the information they want OUT.

One of the most interesting passages spoken by Jesus was in the beginning of Matthew's gospel, a part of the sermon on the mount.

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

This comes after the beatitudes, the often quoted verses of the blessed, the poor in spirit and the pure in heart; And after the pronouncements, ye are the salt of the earth and the light of the world; And just before he promise, Ask, and it shall be given you.

The entire sermon is packed with, not just instructions, but divine wisdom. This is no exception. When Jesus preached to the publicans and sinners, rather than the Pharisees, he was giving them something that was valuable to them. Similarly, we should also be sure to share what we know with those who would find it valuable.

We are told to preach the gospel to all the world, but there is no need to waste our time and resources trying to change the unchangeable. It is not our purpose to try to force people into the Way. Attempting to do so is like throwing the things that are valuable and holy (set apart for a purpose) to beasts.

When we are not welcomed, and the message is not respected, we must take the stand, brush off our feet and leave. To continue to force the gospel onto the ungodly, will just provoke them. They don't care about what we have to give them, and think we are trying to take something from them. They are like dogs and swine whose only interest is very often something to eat.

Among many politically savvy people, being a racist or sexist is tantamount to committing the cardinal sin. We have been trained this way since the 60's, so if you're under 40, and attended public institutions of learning, you have likely been fully indoctrinated.

Many of our anti-discrimination laws are founded on the premise that all people are equal. To even hint that this is not the case would be heresy. Well, here's my hint. We are not equal. The races are not equal. The sexes are not equal. And even families are not equal.

There was a Christian football player a few years ago that suggested that different races had different characteristics, and he was criticized for it. They said he was stereotyping. However, any licensed physician knows risk factors for various diseases. Some races, cultures, age groups are more at risk for heart disease, or asthma, or some cancers than others. It's statistical fact, and not just health related differences.

Statistically, more people of one race are more likely to spend some time in prison. Fact. Much of that has to do with culture, but it's still true. There is also some truth in the fact that "white men can't jump." Black people may always dominate the football fields and basketball courts.

Different tribes of American Indians also had distinguishing characteristics. Some were more savage, while others were more industrial. The same goes for family heritage. I share and take pride in many of the characteristics of my parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and beyond.

But, wait, what you do about the differences is another thing altogether. Every race, nation, culture is susceptible to certain tendencies. The bad traits we need to confront, the good, nurture. Just as physicians look at risk factors in determining how to treat a person, we also need to look at the issues in our own race, culture or family. We can either demand equal rights (the Indians were here first), or we can confront and nurture our own weaknesses and strengths.

We should all understand that each person is able to overcome whatever undesirable characteristics defines their culture, race. It's not just in our racial makeup; there are many other areas of segregation. Our economic class, our religion, and our education also separate us from those who are different. Yet, we are all individuals; we are not compelled to follow our culture, race or family. We may not be able to control our status; we do determine our character.

Once we have done that, we can move out to change our culture for the better.

If you watch the Animal Planet, you have no doubt seen programs where the survival of various animals is tracked and evaluated in the light of their predators. It is a vicious world in the Animal Kingdom. It is also a vicious world among humanity.

The larger, wealthier, more powerful take advantage of the less fortunate, the less shrewd. There is really very little real humanity among humankind. A drive through the local university will reveal that most every building there has a name, named after a significant contributor to the cause. It's not the cause, although, as much as it is the recognition they want.

Throughout society, those in need are made to be in need by those who have taken advantage of them. In the educational community, administrators drain the community and to support their elaborate facilities and their personal fortunes, and then to alleviate the problems, put on programs to raise money for scholarships.

The medical community is the same way. Medical expenses continue to rise (which is another way of saying they get more money) and to fund their operation, they hold fund raisers to help children, or women, or whoever is most pitiable at the time. They create charity cases and then play the part of the charity.

It would be easy to stereotype here, but in other countries, just the opposite may be true, with individuals, like parasites, taking advantage of those providing health care and education because of their concerns for people. It's just a cruel world, that's all. Often, the best we can hope for is a polite world.

I've been involved with computer and networking technology since the 80's, and the one thing that amazes me is how much of the problems we have with them are the result of programmers writing in code that makes the systems more powerful, but with less control.

Much of the malware associated with Windows was built into the system. With Windows, the idea that one could get a computer virus from reading an email was made possible. On the internet, things like port 25 email, open proxies and simple disorganization have contributed to a system that is almost out of control. Spam accounts for better than 75% of email now and there is little control being built into the protocols that speed information (or garbage) around the world. The randomized messages that often accompany spam may be an apposite illustration of how well we are communicating.

When I was involved in BBS systems, a predecessor to the open internet, arrangements had to be made to be able to send mail or files to another system. Most of it was hierarchial and documented. If you got a mail message you could find out where it came from and how it got there. SMTP looks like it could have been like that when you look at the headers, but apparently specialists have thrown caution to the wind in speeding up processing.

With all of the power built in to our systems today, there is considerably less control over it, and without control, power just isn't very powerful or useful. While we are building our powerful system for information gathering and dissemination, we may also be heading toward a digital Tower of Babel.

We watched the telly over thanksgiving and Christmas commercials were all over. This year McDonald's is going strong with the promo of their gift card, the Arch card. It's hard to find a company that doesn't offer some kind of gift card or a shopper that doesn't consider getting one as a gift.

The gift card is one of the lamest gifts you can give. It is one way of saying I don't know what you want, and I don't want to really find out. Many times gift cards are useless. They are at stores the recipient doesn't go to, and wouldn't take time to visit. Plus, it is telling someone else that they need to do the shopping. For some women, shopping is a past-time. Not me. And those "shoppers" are likely to be more discriminant.

The gift card also doesn't fit into my concept of gift giving. If I want to give someone a gift, I find out what they need and then buy it. If they don't need anything... True, the thought counts, but I personally think there's a mental disconnect with that concept. The way I look at it, the thought and resultant action should be logical.

The "you pay, I promise" idea doesn't make a lot of sense to me either. Would you go to the grocery store and give them $50 and say hold this for me and I'll come back some time and get groceries. But, I suspect there are many businesses that are surviving on gift cards. They get the revenue and don't have to make a sale, other than the gift card. Then there's the economics of gift cards. As prices of things raise, the true value of your gift card goes down.

The gift card is just one of many "you pay, we promise" scams. The entire insurance industry is built on this concept, but that's another day.

I was quite content to use my name as the name of the my blog, but with people asking what my blog is called, I guess I need a name.

Writers of fiction and poetry occasionally have episodes of writer's block when they are working on a novel. Those are books, but that may describe my predicament as well, as I anticipate what these writings should be referred to.

There are a few stores that still go by their founder's name, like Sears and Penneys, but Bells just doesn't have a nice ring to it. It just seems a little cheezy, whatever that really means.

Something like Ramblings, Thoughts, or even the subtitle "Yet Another Blog" are somewhat vague. Those may be terms that have been declared "overused".

What about one of these?

• The (or My) Open Book
• Serious, sassy and suspicious
• The Truth About...
• Sociopoliticoeconomoecclesiasticopersonal
• The Lookout

Of course, I am being lighthearted here. I really need to analyze the purpose and goal of the site and come up with something that's appropriate. That's the professional way. But, then, today's not a workday. It's Thanksgiving.

Have a happy one.

I confess. Although I may seem normal, I really am a obsessive glutton in several ways. I'm a pack rat and a collector of many things it seems. For one, I have several chess sets stashed away in the garage in case I might need them or someone else might. I have several hundred disc golf discs in there too, from a business I had several years ago. I also have tournament records from several years ago well preserved. If I haven't, I probably will say something about our bell collection in one of these entries, and maybe some pictures of some of them. Oh, yes, pictures, everyone collects photos.

You may also know a little about my book collecting from a previous entry about a book fair, but that fixation isn't so bad. I visited a lady whose two-story house was filled with books, with shelves two deep in some places. Computers, yea, there's probably 8-10 in the house (not all of them complete systems though), but I'm using almost half of them. I also "collect" words, but any Scrabble player will do that. It would be neat to have a collection of all the Scrabble dictionaries, though.

Fortunately, I'm a really organized person, and the computer helps with my collections... or not. At one time I collected shareware programs, and now it seems I have a good collection of software. Then today, I got another fontpack to add to my collection of fonts. I wouldn't know how many there are, since I have duplicates of many of them, but 20,000 sounds like a good round number. And email? Yes, I have a sophisticated system to organize the 100,000 or so emails I have. I'm on several mailing lists, so I get 300 new ones each day. Often, I don't even get to read them all.

I am trying to work on my obsessions with collecting stuff. I got 22 spam email messages today and deleted them all. I don't collect spam. ...But then, that would be a unique collection, wouldn't it?

A week or so ago I called a company (Presstek) and asked them to send me some prices for some of the equipment they sold. Today I got a letter, brochure and note to call if I needed more information. Still no prices. For some odd reason, many companies do not like to give out their prices until they have a buyer.

I had another company (Heidelberg) call on me a few years ago, trying to sell some equipment. I asked for some prices and he left his card. Weeks later he stopped by again and gave me another card. I collected 4 of his business cards before we ever got a bid.

When a company is afraid to display their prices, part of the reason may be that the prices are just too high. Another reason may be that they have different prices depending on how much they can get from the buyer. A lot of auto dealers operate just that way.

The escalating health care costs are partly due to the fact that health care consumers often don't see the costs. In the same boat are companies that charge for their services on a subscription plan. We have a local EMS company that has an annual fee for the use of their services, services that they aren't likely to use for years.

Much of the insurance industry is built around the hidden costs of services. We buy auto, home, life, health, dental, vision and others. Okay, you may think that your company pays for that, but if they didn't they would be paying you more. We've been conditioned to believe that insurance is so vital, while agents in suits and ties shuffle some numbers and rack in the bucks. Much of our economy is built on a promise to pay or do. We pay, they promise. The banking industry is designed that way as well, but that's another rant.

Even government is based on mostly hidden costs. Our taxes, social security, medicare, and other taxes come out of our pay every month. Until April 15, our pay check is all we look at. The longer we are in the dark, the better.

A young country boy was confronted by his parents after he returned home from church. In an effort to determine if the boy had indeed gone to church, they questioned him about other people there. After he confidently assuring them about all he responded, they finally asked him what the preacher spoke on.
He quickly answered, "Sin."
They then asked him what he said about sin.
In his final response he simply said, "He was again' it."

In the many times I've attended Baptist and other churches, I could have said the same thing. Many churches, pastors, and evangelists have a single theme that they speak on. In fact, whole denominations could be said to operate with a single predominate theme, "sin and salvation."

I'm not saying that is not a justified topic. Salvation from sin and its penalties is possibly the foundation of the Christian faith, but it is often the only message, repeated each week with different passages, different illustrations. One of the reasons this message has been so important in many churches is because that is how they get new members and new revenue.

The church is predominantly made up of saved people, Christians. Salvation is a prerequisite to becoming a member of the church. Consequently, all of the current members are missing out on the message they are supposed to be getting. The scriptural message to the church is essentially a message that builds up, encourages, and provides resources for spiritual growth.

"Sin" isn't the only "one trick pony" in the church. In other denominations it may be "spiritual gifts", or faith, or "baptism in the Holy Spirit", or ministry to others, or worship, or evangelism. We will never enjoy the richness of the gospel and our life as believers if we continue to focus on a single aspect of it. Even worse, God will not be able to fully use us if we aren't open to knowing His will and doing whatever he directs.

Many companies have been considering the conversion from QuarkXpress to InDesign, and I suspect a few have gone the other way. The battle between the two is sometimes intense. There is even a site devoted to that battle, Quark Vs InDesign. Working in tangent with InDesign are two other applications that companies are considering, Version Cue and the latest, InCopy. Version Cue is simply versioning and a means of networking design work. InCopy is a content editor program that links to InDesign documents.

InCopy has only been available since the release of CS, but people are just now getting to know about it. For experienced users, it doesn't take long to see how it works. It looks similar to InDesign, but without a lot of the options, which is the purpose of the program. InCopy users can edit the text of an assigned content area and the InDesign document can be updated to include the current content.

When reviewing InCopy, I only saw a few potential problems. The check-in, check-out system can be initially confusing. For one, you can open and view a file without checking it out. Also possibly confusing are the assignments and the content areas. Content areas are the elements that make up an assignment, although you can edit content areas that aren't part of an assignment. With each assignment, though, you have to check-in, check-out each content area. Once you figure it out, it is logical and flexible. If you establish a standard workflow, the confusion shouldn't be an issue.

Another potential problem with InCopy is the unpredictable UnDo and the frequent alert prompts. Many Adobe users are used to being able to make edits, save, make more edits and still UnDo back to the beginning, before the save. With InCopy, you can also do that, but once you check-in a file, you can't undo to a state before the check-in. In fact, that's an InDesign issue too, since any content areas must be checked out in InDesign too.

One of the cool things about InCopy that some executives may enjoy is that with InCopy you can open InDesign files, even though there may not be any editable content areas. This would allow you to review the actual file design, without having the power to edit or destroy it.

One other feature of this system that needs some enhancements is the use of InDesign/InCopy notes for content areas. This can be useful for execs to pass information back and forth to designers. The enhancement that it needs is in that the Notes palette doesn't initially show any of the notes.

QuarkXpress hasn't fallen behind on the concept of multi-user content editing, though. With Quark 7, composition zones were introduced which allows a designer to assign certain parts of a layout for editing by others. It's not as powerful, not as confusing, and not as expensive. InCopy must be purchased separately.

Quark is battling for survival in their area, while Adobe is looking to totally dominate the design software market. The battle between the two page layout giants is fascinating, and best of all, page layout software users are enjoying the spoils of war. On the downside, When the battle is over, we will probably be the biggest losers. Such is the nature of monopoly.

Today I played a round of disc golf and discussed some of the events that are coming up in the next two months. The disc golf course at Lindsey Park in Tyler, Texas will be the site for the Piney Woods Open and the local Ice Bowl.

The Piney Woods Open will be December 8-10. It will be a two-day B-tier event that I will miss because I am to be best man at my brother's wedding that weekend. Jerry Power will be the TD for the event that has been going on for a couple years now. For more information about this and other disc golf events, you can search the schedule on the PDGA site.

Another event coming up is the Ice Bowl. This event is national with local events set to raise money for the food banks and, of course, have a little disc golf fun in the "off-season". The Tyler event is set for January 27th. Whether or not you play, you can also be a sponsor. Proceeds will go to the East Texas Food Bank.

For more information about the national event, visit the Ice Bowl 2007 website. It is orchestrated by Disc Golf World. The local event calendar is also located there.

Tyler already has four courses, two at Lindsey Park, one at University of Texas at Tyler and a fourth one northeast of Tyler. There has also been talk of another course possibly in Faulkner Park.

For the last two or three years my route to work has been under construction. Depending on what was being worked on, I had to use different lanes as I traveled. Sometimes it's not a problem. At other times the makeshift roadway is quite rough. But everyday, I traveled the same route and have to encounter whatever problems are associated with it. As I see it coming close to completion, I look forward to a nice, smooth surface with more lanes.

When a person becomes a Christian, Jesus immediately starts construction, building character into that person. Depending on what he is working one at the time, others may have to learn how to deal with them. Sometimes it's a simple matter while at other times, or with other people, the construction area in their life is quite unrefined. Still, we continue to deal with those people and whatever problems they are encountering. Unexpectedly it seems, there comes times with the construction in a certain area or phase is coming to completion, and we begin to look forward to the fruits.

Through much of our lives, either physically or spiritually, we are under construction, or are around people who are under construction. In whatever phase, we need to remember that progress is being made, and we may need to ask ourselves just who is under construction. We might also need to consider that the problems in the lives of people around us may only be some of the tools that God is using to develop our spiritual roadways. He knows what he is doing. He is a master builder.

Driving home in the dark tonight I got to see my first Christmas lights of the season. No, they're not Holiday lights. With Thanksgiving one week ago, we are now in Holiday Chores mode. There is the Thanksgiving meal to plan and then the shopping and preparations most people customarily make for Christmas. With the seasonal weather change here, it is a lot like spring cleaning with everyone thinking of things they want or need to do.

The Christmas spirit has somehow morphed into a friends and family spirit. That's not all bad though. Christ's teachings were predominantly about relationships, and building and restoring relationships with others is a good thing. This season is also a good opportunity to do or say some things when people are actually listening. We usually have an event for work, one or more for church, and events for most of the organizations we are part of, and every event can be an opportunity of some kind.

We generally don't have big Christmas plans; a few gifts, a dinner and a few cards. Last year we sent out our first significant holiday mailing, a Christmas newsletter. Since then, I made contact with several family members. I'm looking at doing something special this year, too. This is a good time to renew friendships and get together with family. It is when we replace these relationships with our affection for things that the energy is sucked out of the holidays. Keep the energy. Keep the spirit.

I started our first fireplace fire this year. After hauling the wood inside, lighting some of the solid fuel from last year and placing a few logs on top, the fire was going. All the time, our cats were wondering what I was doing, but when the fire started going good they were really curious. They approached the flame from several angles, stretching their neck toward it to get a good view. Every crackle it made renewed their curiosity. These cats had never seen this phenomenon. They didn't understand how it worked, or why.

I'm reminded of a story told by a missionary about some natives they were working with. They were curious about the automobiles and such, but they were also quite fascinating by a simple measuring tape. They examined it repeatedly, pulling it out and allowing it to retract, wondering how it could do that.

One who is not familiar with such things as radios, tellies or radio waves will, at least briefly be fascinated by them. Then they will begin to accept them, even though they may never fully understand how they work. The concept of music, notes, scales and sound in general is equally fascinating and enamoring to many. Very few people really understand computers, electronics and circuit boards, but most of them have at least one.

We don't have to understand these things to believe that they exist or have value. They may even serve as an illustration, to teach us that although we don't understand the spiritual realm any more than radio waves, that it exists and has a purpose. Equally, we know that there is a spiritual being that lives in this realm. Nations all over the earth, often independently, have developed numerous religions to try to explain this spiritual concept and the One who uses it to communicate with us.

Our people (American Indians) may have been one of the closest to have identified it without the aid of Judeo-Christian writings, by calling it a Great Spirit. The scriptures have identified this being as God, and explained His nature as Father, Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.

You've no doubt heard the snarling, reluctantly submissive response from someone who did (or undid) something to please you. You may not have been happy, but you were satisfied.

It seems much of adulthood is content to live contentedly. We're not happy at work, and we haven't arrived at the social status that we feel we need to be at. We don't have enough money to have that car, home, furniture, or whatever that will make us happy. Our kids or parents are not doing (or letting us do) what we want to make us happy. Some of you may even think that happiness is not a grown-up thing, that it's something our kids and grandkids have, that we've grown out of that.

You don't have to be happy all the time. There are definitely times when you should be unhappy, but if life is worth living, it is worth living to the fullest. You can do that too, because real happiness isn't dependent on having a nice or even a running automobile, nice furniture or people that do what we want. You have fun sometimes and like memories of that fun, but that's not really happiness. Real, lasting happiness is one of the things that Jesus promises to those who follow him. He promises joy, life, peace, things that we have so much trouble grasping.

The first thing many think when someone talks about following Jesus, is joining a church, tithing or doing something, when the important thing is following him personally, with you doing whatever He wants. It's something that we can only do when we are fully convinced that he cares for us, and will take care of us.

Are you happy?

I bought a CD over the weekend at Best Buy and as I checked out the cashier asked if I had some kind of Best Buy discount card. The last time I was at PetSmart, they asked about a Pet Perks card, and every week I have to hand the Brookshire's partner my Thank You card. We are making great strides toward a day predicted in Revelation.

My employer, the state of Texas, no longer gives me a check; it must be direct deposited in my bank account; Wal-mart only uses electronic checks or credit/debit cards; and unless you prepay, the petro station only accepts credit cards.

The day I'm talking about is the day when we won't be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast. Our commercialism and the lusts behind it, is welcoming that day, making all the necessary accomodations. Whether it's a real mark or not is irrelevent; there will be a time when the powers, government, commerce, or something else will hold us hostage.

"...that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Rev. 13:17

That's not meant to make you feel helpless or hopeless. We all are, now. There are two powers in the world that are greater than we. Practically speaking, one has the power to destroy us; the other the power to save us. I'm not talking life or death; I'm talking about after death.

There are a lot of Christian traditions that the modern church has inherited that have been altered through history. One of our traditions, Good Friday, comes from a polluted view of the actual history of Christ's death and resurrection. Christ died on a Wednesday, followed by: passover, a holy day after passover, and the sabbath. That was three days and three nights.

Then, although Jesus replaced the Jesus priesthood as the only necessary priest, the Roman and other orthodox churches have reinstated a pagan priesthood and the idea that we still need another priest.

Another tradition that has taken over the church is the idea that the early church worshiped on Sunday morning. While true that they traditionally worshiped on the first day of the week, days in Jewish culture (and according to Genesis) began with the evening. Sundown Saturday was the first day of the week. Sunday morning they went to work. If we had our weekly worship on Saturday night, people might not sleep through it. :)

There are a lot of traditions and concepts that the world just assumes are accurate. One of the most popular concepts the world has about Christianity and the gospel is that good people go to heaven, and that the better you are, the better chance you have of making it. The fact is nobody can be good enough. That's why Jesus died on the cross, punishment for our sins. What we think of as heaven is reserved for those who put their trust in Jesus and follow him.

Whether you recognize Good Friday or Good Wednesday, or worship on Saturday night or Sunday morning is really insignificant. The truth of the message of the gospel, however, is crucial.

I've had my current collection of web sites up for about a year now. I haven't publicized them much and already they are showing up on most search engines. I've used searches like tyler web sites, tyler forums, dana bell, and get first page results. I even get on the front page, above the fold, with a search for this blog with dana bell blog. About the only engine that doesn't do so well is Ask.com and those that use their engine.

There is also a new search site coming in 2007, hakia.com is already around with their beta and it looks good. With simple searches you might get a categorized list of different types of searches. Try a search for cancer.

Search engine sites are a real service to the web, and surprisingly still all free. Not that I don't have some complaints. As spam continues to dominate email, spam sites are also growing wildly. With every search result you are likely to get multiple links to sites that deceive you into believing they are what you are searching for and littering the information superhighway. It's not unlike the bombarding of our highways with advertising signs. Googlebot and Inktomi YSlurp just don't know the difference between a legitimate site and an advertising shark. Such is the cost of free search engines.

The spam site is also a nuisance in that spammers keep an eye on expiring domains and grab them before legitimate users can get a chance. Then when users are trying to visit that old site, they present a list of links for which they are paid for clicks. A key component of such spam sites are the Ads by Google. By indiscriminately pushing links onto web pages for the advertising bucks, they are encouraging continued abuse of the internet with these spam sites.

With Google's continued bonding with spammers, good searches are becoming more and more difficult. The irony is that their PPCs are promoting spam sites and with the spam sites showing up on searches, the value of their search is being jeopardized. 22

A human generated list like The Open Directory (dmoz.com) would be the best answer to our searching problems, except that there isn't enough support to keep it viable. It's too soon to tell, but if hakia is fully computer-generated by search bots, spam sites will also make their way into the list of pages. If they truly develop to provide intelligent results and are able to monitor the results to limit the spam, then they will have my undivided devotion.

You might think the title says how I feel about home schooling, but you would be wrong. I'm an avid proponent of home schooling and parents' right (or responsibility) to home school. You might think that to be radical, but it is a lot more natural than sending the kids off to a government school. That's what public schools are. In fact, I would say that home schooling is a key element to Christian parenting.

There is, however, a group of home schoolers that is carrying the concept to an extreme. In order to protect and preserve their children they are rarely allowed to participate in external activities. Things like sunday school classes with other children are questioned. Every aspect of the children's live is under close scrutiny, including relationships with the opposite sex.

In some cases they have their own churches, or denomination, where similar sentiments are shared. In many cases, they use the same logic as the early Christian churches when they formed monastaries and escaped from the world and its influences. This spiritual self preservation, a sort of pseudo-purity or super-morality is often at the center of the most religious efforts, and radical home schooling is just another one of those efforts.

Don't get me wrong; Christianity is not a permissive faith, but equally, it is not a seclusive faith. Scripture doesn't teach us to physically escape from the world, but to develop spiritual strength and wisdom so that we can overcome its influences, and so that our children can also overcome, by themselves.

I discovered a new photo contest web site. If you enjoy amateur (competitive) photography, then you might want to check out the photo contests at http://www.pbase.com/cslr_challenge. The name of the site is Canon SLR Challenges and the challenges are hosted by members of the Canon DSLR forums at DPReview.com

The entries are generally high quality and the contest is challenging and educational. The last contest had something to do with the rule of thirds. The current challenge is to include bokeh (aka boke, bocca) in a photo. Within each challenge, there are two galleries/categories that you can enter submissions into: Eligible and Exhibition. In the Eligible category photos must be taken during the designated time-frame and must be taken with a Canon Digital SLR camera. The Exhibition category can be used for photos taken with any camera at any time.

At the end of the contest, the photographers vote for the best dozen or so photos. There are also more than 70 previous contests you can browse through from this site. And, of course, there is a maze of photos on the main pbase.com site. pbase has really supported the photography community for several years and sites such as these are great resources for study and ideas. You can also see some of my pics at http://www.pbase.com/dbell154/

I'm also a contributor at another site for Canon photographers, the cdrebel group. Though they don't have a contest, they do have a variety of galleries, a weekly gallery and a weekly assignment. Yes, it's also coordinated by the photography group on groups.yahoo.com by the same name (cdrebel).

In looking through the many galleries on pbase, one of the questions that I've had is, with so many good photos, why do I need to take pictures. The answer is really simple, I like to. The creative spirit doesn't demand that a need exists, and often the creative spirit doesn't even demand to be rewarded or recognized. It is one of the things that differentiates us from animals. It is a characteristic that we are given from our Creator.

Happy Anniversary to Me, the Blog.

Relationships are always somewhat special, and as they grow we often celebrate anniversaries. This is one of those. We met one month ago today. That was when I first started this web journal, or "bjournal". Even though I feel almost obligated to make a daily entry, just to be sure I don't quit, it's been fun. Writing is an essential outlet for me a lot of the time. This relationship is relatively insignificant however, compared to relationships with wife or husband, parents, children or family.

You may have noticed, but relationships seem to have a life of their own if we don't control them. Getting involved with members of the opposite sex is just one example. In other cases, you have to put in an effort to keep the relationship alive. The key example of that are those we have with family members.

When I talk relationships, I'm not just talking about people. We could also develop relationships with hobbies, sports, games and other interests.

Every time you celebrate an anniversary, you are celebrating a relationship and that may be one of the best times to examine our lives and see just what relationships are really worth preserving. And although this is fun and family is important, these are secondary to the relationship we have with the creator of it all.

From anniversaries to relationships, I could say something about the need to communicate, talk, write, pray, but that's all for today.

If you've wondered if conflict is good, this biblical quote should settle it.

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

You can see it every week in one sports event or another. Individuals and teams go against each other and the more they do, the sharper they get, the stronger they get, the smarter they get. Without competition there is no way to be competitive. Without confrontations atrophy will soon begin to set in, whether physical, mental or spiritual.

A few years ago, before I got married, I used to hang with a few believers that spent a lot of time speculating about different aspects of Christianity. To the casual listener it would have sounded like some folks that were on the edge of heresy. In reality, these speculations were exercises in logic. In many cases there was one that acted simply as devil's advocate, putting the others to the test.

Such is the basis for intellectual debates. With points, counterpoints and all that is involved in attempting to prove or disprove a theory, both debaters (theoretically) discuss everything substantive about a subject.

Conflicting opinions, whether in debates or arguments, are extremely useful in developing not only presentation skills, but intellectual thinking skills. While many schools and churches are content to learn from simple instruction/indoctrination and pass some simple tests, they won't have the ability to defend what they believe or think against critical scrutiny. In-depth study of any subject is necessary to its mastery, and confrontation is the best way to leave no stone unturned.

I suspect that is the characteristics that gave the Bereans their reputation. For those who may not know, the Christians in Berea were known for searching the scriptures to see if what the teachers had to say was true. Those believers didn't just prove what they were taught, in so doing they were preparing themselves for when they would be tested, and proven.

The local Mensa chapter graciously sends me the email version of their newsletter, and I scan through it every month. Along with local and regional news, one of the things that fills the local Mensa newsletter is stock market speculation. Another thing that seems to fill those pages is talk of either evolution or global warming.

The evolution theories talk about various evolving species over millions of years. While there could be other things to impact that, if something happens once in a million years, it would seem plausible to believe that with millions of animals in the earth today, that we would see something happening every year, somewhere. Animals still have the need to evolve in order to survive. Could it be that they have used the large number of years to craft a theory that can't be disproven, or proven?

Along with that is the theory of global warming. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but all of the warnings and the numbers I've seen don't consider all the variables in tracking temperature fluctuations. For example, many of the studies monitors temperatures in major cities. The thing is the city's temps rise based on urban growth and activity and don't reflect reliable averages. Weather cycles that occur over decades are also generally not considered. In this case, they have chosen to forecast something based limited data over a very short period of time.

Although there are many aspects to each argument, and elaborate explanations, from a statistical point of view, neither of these theories has enough statistical information to be proven any time soon. Given the ability of the genii/gifted to learn so much so quickly, and the mass and speed of information today, could it be that many of them have run out of things to learn? Are they now learning things that aren't learnable? Or, are we now entering a new age of philosophasters?

Does a tree falling in the forest make a noise if nobody is listening? I've been told scientists believe it doesn't. I suppose that depends on how you define noise. If a noise is something that is heard, and nobody hears, it's not a noise.

But who wants to just make a noise? If what I have to say doesn't convey something, provide some information, or encourage someone, then what I have to say may be just noise.

If what I have to say in these daily entries doesn't interest you, then you might say it's just noise. To you that is true. Since I write on different subjects, some of the stuff I write won't interest you, although others may enjoy it.

There was another character that talked about noise. The apostle Paul begins I Corinthians 13 with the words, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tickling cymbal."

If what I have to say isn't said with a heart of love, it's just noise. Does that mean we always need to be nice? Jesus wasn't. There's a lot of difference between niceness and love. Real love isn't a put-on; it comes from the heart, and God is the one that looks at our hearts.

This morning, Saturday morning, at 7:15, my sister in law called to tell us about a huge garage sale at her church. Our answering machine heard her tell all about it. Then, she called again. 45 minutes later we were there. I came home with a one dollar keyboard, that I'm typing this on, a set of Garfield/Odie bookends and a heavily tarnished brass candle set. I had it polished before the day was out. I was 5 minutes too late to get that Remington typewriter I've always wanted.

This garage sale was indeed ginormous, with 200+ cars in the parking lot and standing room only inside. It was our only garage sale for the day. It wasn't our normal garage sale day.

When we go garage saling, we normally plan for it and hit several. Here's how.

1. We make a list of the sales we want to attend, usually from the paper. Then we number each one using that days color.
2. We get or print a city map.
3. We look up the addresses for each sale and mark in on the map with the number we assigned it.
4. Start with the most important sales and then connect the dots, errr, numbers.

With good planning, we've been to 40-50 garage sales in a day. When we go garage saling, we also allot each other a certain amount of money to spend (or blow). If you're not careful, you can spend a lot of money for a lot of junk.

If you go to a lot of garage sales you should soon learn the difference between junk and a bargain. If you don't shop in retail stores much, you may not know if something is a good deal or not. Just because it's at a garage sale doesn't mean it's a bargain.

I'm also a quality purchaser. I would rather have one quality item that two cheap items. Quality does a better job and last twice as long, or better. Quality is something you need to look for.

If you're that type, you can also negotiate a price for a certain item. I'm not. If it doesn't have a price, as in any retail outlet, then it's probably overpriced. That's just the way I do it. In this part of the country, there is a limited amount of ideal garage saling weather. We're having some of that weather in Texas now.

More than finding good deals, garage saling is a good time to meet people and socialize. After all, life isn't about how much stuff we get.

I really hate it when people are always complaining. They complain about the price of gas, the weather, their jobs and even their wives, or husbands. People need to quit complaining all the time. If you caught that then you know and see the humor in hypocrisy.

Jesus also talked about hypocrites in the first century, but when he talked about hypocrites, hypocrisy had a purer definition. In our day, a hypocrite is someone who says or instructs others not to do something and then does that very thing himself, like complaining about complainers. That bit of irony is really just a connotation of the word. Jesus may be credited as adding that connotation when he pointed out that the Pharisees don't keep the very laws they want everyone else to. In the first century, though, when Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the word may have had at its basic meaning, to put on a show, or to show-off.

There really isn't that much difference between many of our church leaders and the Pharisees of 33 A.D. Although the Pharisees didn't accept Jesus, theologically they were in step with many of the teachings of Jesus, such as the resurrection. But, at the core of their existence was their own image. They want to be seen and acknowledged.

They are focused on putting on a religious show, while in other areas of their life they don't do the very things that they praise each other for doing. They righteously attend church, tithe, read their religious books and listen to Christian music, but in a different setting, it's a different story. They creatively divert resources at work for their own purposes, they deceive in the name of public relations, and take advantage of the people that work for them. They talk about good morals, but aren't upright in their dealings with others.

Jesus summed up the moral laws in two commandments; to love God and to love others. That's where their motivation should have been. That's one of His teachings. However, Jesus may have been looking at a different type of motivation when He talked to the leaders of His day. The Pharisees failed to meet Jesus' standard because they wanted the praise of men rather than the praise of God.

After reading this message, you must send this message to 10 other people and the person that sent it to you, within 3 hours. If you do this, you will receive unbelievably good luck. If you don't your hair will fall out and you will lose all of your friends.

You may have read that at the bottom of messages from Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob. Often they contain stories of people who experienced good things when they sent the message, or who had bad things happen. Those messages are so unbelievable that they don't justify a hoax warning. But many people believe them, or say "it could happen."

The irony is that the stories or poems that accompany these warnings are usually things that would make you feel good inside. They make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Of course, that's not the problem. I read them. Occasionally I might share them, but I don't distribute them. That distribution makes them just about as bad as viruses and hoaxes.

These compulsory "warm and fuzzies" take bandwidth, and take time to respond to. Another thing is that most individual users who send these messages include the email addresses of all their friends in the To: field, in effect publishing them for spammers. Even without the distribution, the idea that a message carries so much weight is humorous, and as ridiculous as so many chain letter schemes that I've seen.

There is, however, a message that promises a lot more than these warm and fuzzies, and I believe it. Only the message of the gospel has that kind of power. That message also has the most believable stories to confirm it. The best thing is you don't have to bug all your friends before you can enjoy the benefits. Repent and put your trust in Jesus and He will be faithful.

At one time, a famous chess player was quoted as saying that, and most chess experts would likely agree. The threat to take a piece or make a certain move is often half of the game. The threat is also a real thing on the internet.

I received notice that I should not add someone to my IM list. As the warning goes, acceptance means you will get a virus. "Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on your list adds them you will get it too. It is a hard drive killer and a very horrible virus." This particular warning, however, is likely a hoax. You can read about it on silicon.com at http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39125523,00.htm

This kind of thing has been around since the beginnings of public email. I used to be emphatic by stating you can't get a virus by reading an email. A virus is a program. An email message is simply a document.

And, while that is still true, the way in which many computers are set up to automatically open attachments does make it possible to get a virus by "opening" an email. The same goes for those IM warnings. You can't get a virus by adding someone to your buddy list, or reading a message from them. But, you can get a virus from an attached file. That is, until the IM programmers start setting things up so attached files are automatically opened.

Aside from that, there is another issue involved with these warnings. While a virus could slow a computer and clog a network's resources, responding to a persuasive hoax could just as damaging. The message volume could cripple a small network, and the time spent by everyone sending out those warnings is another waste.

On the other hand, you can't write off every warning as a hoax. In either case, as best you can, find out the truth for yourself before you take any kind of drastic action.