Merlin's Musings

QOTD - The Cost of Discipleship

2013-05-24T09:42:00.001-04:00

Barry Cooper looks at the difference between free grace and cheap grace, the cost of discipleship, and asks why don't churches do a better job of discipleship.

When the gospel is preached in your local church, what do your people hear? Do they hear, “Of course you’ve sinned. But now everything is forgiven. Jesus paid the price for your sin. So everything’s taken care of.”

That’s okay as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough. The problem is that this gospel contains no demand for discipleship. There’s no requirement for repentance. No holding out for holiness. Isn’t that at odds with Jesus’ insistence in Mark 8:34? “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

As the old truism goes, grace may be free—but it isn’t cheap. It cost Jesus his life. And it will cost us our lives too, if we want to follow him. The invitation may be extended to all, but only those who obey Jesus’ call—deny yourself and take up your cross—have received it.

And the question is, are we teaching this gospel in our local churches? Does our gospel contain the demand for discipleship? Or do we cough loudly over Mark 8:34, and relegate it to the small print, hoping no one will notice until after they’ve signed on the dotted line? Are we lowering the cost of discipleship in the hope that more will buy? (emphasis mine)

Is the church pulling a bait-and-switch on its followers? We need to preach the entire gospel, without pulling any punches or hiding any of the hard truths. The fact is that life in this world will not automatically be made "easy" just because we choose to follow Christ. In fact, He tells us exactly the opposite. Jesus warns that just as he was persecuted so will his followers be persecuted. Our treasures are stored in Heaven, and we serve with an eternal purpose.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Goodbye Google+ comments

2013-05-13T10:21:00.001-04:00

I was experimenting with Google+ comments, but didn't like them. I wasn't getting notifications, and it required commenters to have a G+ account.

I read numerous complaints about how it worked, especially on blogs that had customized their templates in any fashion (which I had). So, I've turned off G+ comments and reverted to standard Blogger comments.

One downside to this is it appears any G+ comments have now gone the way of the dodo bird. I don't believe it was very many, but since I never got any notifications I really don't know.

So, if you had commented on a post, and it's now gone, my apologies. I didn't delete it on purpose, and I'm not trying to stifle the signal. I just changed commenting systems.

One of these days I may have to finally take the plunge and move over to WordPress instead.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Cleaning up Kronos Employee Groups and Labor Level Sets

2013-04-26T12:45:00.000-04:00

In Kronos Workforce 6, one the key components of security is the Labor Level Set when used as an Employee Group. These sets restrict the employees that a manager can see.

One issue with these sets are that they are not self-healing or self-maintaining. If you deactivate a labor level entry, it will still be included in a labor level set. While this doesn't directly cause any harm (it won't grant someone access to employees they shouldn't, for example) it can negatively impact system performance. Why include a condition that is no longer valid?

Unfortunately, there are no system-delivered reports that will identify inactive labor level entries assigned to sets. Likewise, there is no magic "cleanup" button that will just go through and remove them for you.

This became a specific pain point for me just recently. We went through a major account change in our financials system that reworked a bunch of our labor levels. This rework included inactivating a lot of old ones that are no longer used. This was coupled with a quarterly audit report of manager accounts that showed exactly what labor levels each manager had access to. Seeing a lot of old inactive departments included on the audit report caused a bit of consternation and raised a few yellow flags.

The question then became, "What is the easiest way to clean up the labor level sets?" In our case, we completely changed our naming schema, so it was pretty easy to tell the old accounts by visual inspection. However, I didn't relish the thought of manually going through hundreds and hundreds of labor level sets looking for old labor level entries to remove. Instead, I poked around in the database schema and was able to come up with a query to identify inactive entries for me.

This query was written against the 6.0 schema on SQL Server 2005. If you are on Oracle, you may have to tweak the syntax slightly. I don't believe these tables have changed in the 6.x product line, so it should work all the way up to 6.3.

select
    laboracctset.shortnm,
    laboracctset.laboracctsetid,
    llelabacctstmm.laborlevelentryid,
    laborlevelentry.laborleveldefid,
    laborlevelentry.name,
    laborlevelentry.description,
    laborlevelentry.inactive
from
    laboracctset
inner join
    llelabacctstmm
on
    laboracctset.laboracctsetid = llelabacctstmm.laboracctsetid
inner join
    laborlevelentry
on
    llelabacctstmm.laborlevelentryid = laborlevelentry.laborlevelentryid
where
    laboracctset.labacctsettypeid = 2 and
    laborlevelentry.inactive = 1
order by
    laboracctset.shortnm,
    laborlevelentry.laborleveldefid,
    laborlevelentry.name

A few explanations are in order. The field 'LabAcctSetTypeID' in the LaborAcctSet table specifies what type of Labor Account Set it is. Since I was just worried about Employee Groups, I specified a value of '2'. The other possible values are 1 (All Sets) and 3 (Labor Level Transfer Sets).

I plan on adding this query to my routine maintenance checks, so that we can keep our Employee Groups cleaned up. Also, a partner query that I plan on writing is one that will identify unused Labor Level Sets. I prefer to keep these types of configuration items as lean as possible. There is no reason to hold on to old, unused sets if they're no longer used by anyone.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Social Media Customer Service Done Right

2013-04-26T12:18:00.002-04:00

First, a little background.

I've been slogging through some drudgery work here at the office, reviewing user account audits and making changes as necessary. I have a dual-monitor setup on a laptop running Windows 7 Pro SP1. Well, it's a docking stations for my laptop with an external monitor, configured in dual display mode.

The external monitor is configure as my primary display, and the laptop as secondary. For processing these reports, I've had the application window open on the monitor, and the audit reports open on the laptop screen. The reports are Adobe Acrobat PDF files. My frustration is that whenever I double-click on one of the reports to open it, it has been opening on the primary monitor, even though the secondary monitor has "focus".

With most other business applications, they launch on whatever screen currently has the active window. So, basically, where ever I have Windows Explorer when I double-click the file to open, that's where the application launches. Either that, or the application remembers the last monitor it was on and opens there.

But not Acrobat Reader, for some reason. The only way I can get it to open a new PDF file on my secondary monitor is to close the document I was viewing but leave the application running. Then, when I open a new file, it opens in the active application window. But if Acrobat has to launch a new application window, it always does it on the primary monitor.

So, now that I've bored you with the technical details, on to the moral of the story.

I was pretty frustrated by this after the 15th or 20th time I had to move the Acrobat Reader application window, so I took to Twitter to vent. I fired off a quick screed and thought nothing else of it. I felt better, so my primary purpose was accomplished. I didn't even tag Adobe's primary Twitter account, mostly because I wasn't sure what it was and was too lazy to go look it up. I just used the hashtags #adobe and #acrobat in my tweet.

Imagine my surprise when I received a response to my tweet from Adobe today. They apologized for my troubles and said they would forward it on to the development team. Do I actually expect the dev team to do anything about it. Probably not. But the fact that they have a social media team actively looking for Adobe mentions, and not account mentions but just name and product mentions is impressive. And they actually responded, which is even more impressive.

I like Reader for the most part, and the PDF format is ubiquitous, especially in the business world. (Don't get me started on Flash; that's a post for another time). It's refreshing to see a major technology company not just resting on its laurels, but actively engaging the community and hopefully looking to improve the usability of their product.

Even if it's something as simple as opening on the "right" monitor.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

How to be a friend

2013-04-18T14:04:00.003-04:00

We all go through trials and tribulations in life. Some are relatively minor while others can be earth-shattering in their impact. Whether it's an external pressure or an internal struggle, having someone come alongside you and help you through it is of immeasurable worth.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 makes it abundantly clear when it says that "[a]nd though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

This is something that we talk about in Celebrate Recovery as well. Having a support team, comprised of accountability partners and a sponsor, along with regular fellowship and attendance at the meetings is crucial to facing down our personal demons.

Regardless of whether it's an addiction, depression, co-dependency, or being unfairly attacked and maligned, a helping hand is most helpful indeed. It's even more helpful if you can find someone that has already walked that road before you. It gives you the hope that the obstacle can be surmounted. And it gives you the wisdom of someone that's already made the mistakes, so you don't have to make them again.

Jennifer is standing in the gap with a friend. I have no idea what life circumstances her friend is going through, and it's really none of my business, but it's obvious Jennifer has been there before. For being willing to share the pain, and share your wisdom, I thank you. And please tell your friend that she has my prayers.

For others that are struggling with life, regardless of what it may be, please know that there is hope, and there is help. Reach out to someone. Be willing to admit your weakness and cry out for help. You'd be surprised how many people are willing to stand in the gap with you.

I know I was.

For those that have friends that are struggling, please know that you can help. Be a friend. Lend your ear, not your judgement. One of their biggest fears is that people will be disappointed with them, or won't understand, or they'll be angry about it. Let them vent their spleen. Let them share. Stand in the gap with them, and it will make all the difference in the world.

I know it did for me.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Happy Pi Day!!

2013-03-14T09:28:00.001-04:00

Why have I never noticed that before?!?!?

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Google is killing off Reader - No More RSS For You

2013-03-13T20:21:00.000-04:00

According to this blog post, Google Reader is going the way of the dodo bird in their latest round of spring cleaning. I understand that development and maintenance resources are limited commodities, and they should be focused on those applications that are growing or heavily utilized. I find it highly ironic, however, that I read about the impending shut-down using the very tool that they are killing off.

The D-Day for Reader is July 1, 2013, or just under 4 months from now. The one good thing is that Google provides the Google Takeout tool (part of their data liberation initiative) to export all of your Reader subscription data. It also includes files with all your starred items, bloggers you follow, etc.

The only trick now is finding a suitable replacement RSS tool. One of the things I liked about Google Reader was that it was "in the cloud" and was browser agnostic. Most of the previous RSS tools I've used were plug-ins or add-ons for specific browsers. Either that, or they were thick-client installs. Reader allowed me to maintain one RSS subscription list that I could access from a multitude of devices. Granted, the Chrome browser is available on almost every device I use, and it has synchronization capabilities for its plug-ins, favorites, etc. I don't know how that plays with RSS readers, and I still don't like the idea of my RSS feed being tied to another piece of software. When it was in the cloud, I could use any browser to access it, so I was only halfway tied to the Google ecosystem.

So, does anyone have recommendations for an RSS reader that works across multiple devices and OSes, will synchronize item state across all of them, and is not a pain to manage?

I'll share anything I find and let you know what I settle on, if you care.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Jeff Gordon's "Test Drive" - Who is in control?

2013-03-13T13:30:00.003-04:00

This Pepsi MAX/Jeff Gordon "Test Drive" video has been making the rounds on social media lately. If you haven't seen it, take a few minutes to watch it real quick.

All done? Good.

It's hilarious. There's are several visceral reactions going on at once. You see, we are in on the prank, so we can laugh at the sales rep's expense. His exclamation such as "You are liable for any damages!" and "Sir, please take us back now!" are belly-slappers because we know who's driving the car. The sales rep is naturally freaking out because all he knows is that he's being driven around by some sort of psychopath.

But did you catch what happened at the end?

Watch those last 15 seconds or so again. Jeff reveals himself, realization dawns on the face of the sales rep, and then he says "Can we do it again?!?!?"

Once he knew who was in control, what was a horror show became a thrill ride to be experienced again.

How many times in our lives has this same dynamic played out? How many times have we stressed out because we felt out of control. Once we realize who is in control, we can actually sit back and enjoy the ride.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

LG HDTV UI Fail - OTA Program Information

2013-03-04T09:21:00.002-05:00

I must admit, this has to be one of the most confounding User Interface/functionality design gotchas I've ever seen. And in 15+ years of doing IT, I've seen (and perpetrated) and lot of bad UI designs.

I own two LG HDTVs. Neither of them are network capable, and they are not "Smart TVs". Both of these TVs allow you to set the time on them. It is generally displayed when the devices first turn on, but there are a few other times it will display the time. You can also use the time feature to let them turn on and off automatically and different times. The time feature has two modes: Automatic and Manual.

When I was on digital cable, the Automatic setting didn't work. I'm assuming there is a standard time signal that can be embedded in the broadcasts that the TV uses. In the IT world we have NTP servers to automatically set the date & time on our computers, so I imagine it's something similar. As I said, it never worked, presumably because my digital cable provider didn't embed that signal in their repackaged broadcasts.

As I mentioned previously, we finally cut the cable. I had noticed that the Info button just displayed "No Information Available" on the OTA broadcasts. I was mildly frustrated that I'd lost program guide info, but just assumed it wasn't part of the OTA signal. Well, last night I noticed that the Info button wasn't displaying the current time even though it was set on the TV so I went into the settings to poke around. On a whim, before manually resetting the time, I toggled the setting over to "Automatic" (hope springs eternal, right?). Imagine my surprise when it actually showed the correct date & time!!! Obviously, the OTA broadcast has some sort of NTP signal embedded in it.

Once I exited the configuration menu, I hit the "Info" button again. Imagine my further surprise when it displayed the current time, the current program name, the current program time slot (including a bar showing how far into the program it was) and the description of the current program.

So riddle me this. Why does changing the Time setting from Manual to Automatic control whether or not the OTA program guide information is displayed? The only thing I can come up with is that all of this information is embedded in the same side-channel of the broadcast. Disabling automatic time control tells the TV to not read that side-channel at all. When you're on digital cable, which provides its own program guide functionality, it's not a big deal at all. You never use the TV "Info" button anyway. A better design, to my mind, would be for the TV to always consume the program guide side-channel, and only set the time automatically if that option is turned on. There is no logical connection between program guide and the time setting for most casual consumers.

I'm just happy I accidentally stumbled across this, so I don't have to grab the TV Guide app to figure out what's currently playing.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

New Elections Legislation in Kentucky

2013-02-09T09:22:00.001-05:00

Now this is a piece of legislation I can fully support.

Due to various vagaries of the Commonwealth's Constitution, we apparently have elections 3 out of every 4 years in the election cycle. Senator Chris McDaniel has proposed a constitutional amendment that would move the election of "constitutional officers" (Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, etc.) onto the same cycle as the Presidential elections.

Why can I support this?

From the article at the Cincinnati Enquirer:

By combining the statewide office elections with the presidential elections, Kentucky would only have elections on even years. This would save the state $4 million to $5 million dollars in the odd years and save even more for local governments, McDaniel said.

and

The county clerks from Boone and Campbell counties said adding the state constitutional offices to the presidential election ballot would save money without causing difficulties.

The major costs associated with conducting an election are primarily labor-related. The counties have to pay the poll workers, get the machines out and set up, and collect everything at the end of the day. Those are all fixed costs. If the commonwealth can completely remove one election day from the cycle, I really don't see any downside.

I hope that it would also increase voter turnout in non-Presidential years. Voting is not an overly onerous or difficult task, but it's easy to get tired-head when it feels like there's political ads up every single year.

The one hangup? It would extend the term of all the current constitutional officers by one year. I can see someone arguing that this is just another conspiracy theory to protect some elected official. But really, the only other choice is push it out a full cycle, shorten that term, and then elect on a four-year term again. That's just asking for a lot of confusion. I think adding one year to the existing term to align the cycles is cleaner.

Also, it requires a constitutional amendment. That's not a bad thing, but I can't say that I trust the legislature to do the right thing. That being said, I'm hopeful for this one. I really don't see a downside to it at all, and it should easily pass the 60% threshold to be put on next year's ballot.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Paul Harvey - "If I Were The Devil"

2013-02-06T12:18:00.001-05:00

Dodge had one of the more impactful commercials during this year's NFL championship game with "God Made a Farmer":

Old NFO points us to another classic Paul Harvey monologue, "If I Were The Devil":

And yes, it sure looks like Lucifer has kept on doing what he was doing.

What are you doing to counter him?

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Sanitize Your Inputs

2013-02-05T13:23:00.002-05:00

In the tech world, especially when writing software, there is a philosophy known as GIGO, or Garbage In, Garbage Out. In short, what this means is that no matter how well-written the code, if you have junk input, you will most likely get junk output. But even worse than junk output is when this bad input causes the program to misbehave.

This is actually the attack vector for a lot of security vulnerabilities. Hackers will attack websites using various methods like SQL injection attacks, code injections, or cross-domain scripting attacks. For desktop applications or embedded software (the software that runs devices like your corporate desk phone or your BluRay player), these vectors are usually buffer overruns and underruns.

The biggest tool in the IT security toolbox for preventing these types of attacks is a philosophy known as sanitizing your input.

Perhaps if they'd learned about parameterized queries. . . .

Basically, your program should never trust the user to enter valid data, and everything should be checked. If it's a field expecting a numeric value, ensure that they actually entered a number. If you're writing to a buffer, check the length of the input against the length of the memory buffer before writing it to memory. If you're executing SQL statements from a web page, make sure you use properly parameterized queries to isolate the user input from the execution engine.

This very concept of sanitizing inputs doesn't just apply to tech geeks, however. It also applies in our daily walk with Christ. Romans 12:2 says "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (emphasis added). We are to test everything, so that we may discern the will of God. We shouldn't just accept things that are presented to us.

Why should we do this? Proverbs 4:23 says that we should guard our heart because it's the wellspring of life. The principle of GIGO applies to us as well. If we are constantly filling our mind and our heart with impurities, it poisons our spiritual wellspring. We begin to reflect and repeat all of that nastiness, hiding the light of Christ that is within us.

So, how do we go about sanitizing our inputs as Christians? Well, first we have to reject all those things that we know are immoral or unworthy. We might have to change what we watch, or what we read, or who we hang out with. We have to evaluate every decision we make through a lens of holiness and godliness. Colossians 3:5 is very blunt on what we should do. It tells us to "[p]ut to death therefore what is earthly in you:sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Howver, if there is one thing I've learned over the last year, it's that nature truly does abhor a vacuum. It is not enough to simply take out the bad, you have to replace it with something good (see Matthew 12:43-45). So, what do we replace it with? When we've put to death what is earthly in us, what do we bring to life in its place? Philippians 4:8 is a perfect road map for this: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

But none of us are perfect and we all carry around baggage. Even one of the great Kings of the old Testament struggled with sin. David wrote the 51st Psalm after he committed adultery with Bathsheba. In verse 10 he cries out "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

So this is our model for sanitizing the inputs of our life. Through faith in Christ we are born again, and we are given the clean heart that David cried out for. We put to death our earthly desires and instead replace them with things that are worthy of praise.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Cutting the cable

2013-01-29T10:37:00.000-05:00

For a variety of reasons, but primarily economic, my wife and I made the decision to cut the cable. We were spending well over $100 a month for internet, phone and video services from the local provider. With the changes in taxes and health care premiums, it was rapidly becoming a luxury we couldn't afford.

So, how did we do it?

First, we signed up for a 20MB internet service from the other local provider. I decided to move my business after Insight Communications wanted to raise my monthly cost for dropping a service from our bundle. I'm sorry, but spending $10 more a month for less service was not a winning proposition for me. Second, we went with MagicJack for our home phone services. We decided to port our number, and our ongoing costs will be in the $30 - $40 a year range. Third, we already had a Netflix streaming account and Bluray player and gaming console that provide access to that service. We will most likely supplement that with either a Hulu Plus account or an Amazon Prime account. Finally, I bought an antenna to provide access to the over-the-air broadcast channels. In the Greater Cincinnati area, I am able to pull in 21 channels. Granted, the majority of them are public television of some sort, but I get all the Big 4 networks.

I did have one bit of luck in that when we built, I had the house fairly well wired. There is an A/V and networking distribution panel in my basement that feeds the rest of the house. This is where my internet service primary router is located, so I was able to put my MagicJack Plus device down there and connect it to the supply feed for all my phone jacks. We didn't have to make any changes with regards to phone placement or anything like that. Also, my best antenna reception came from the 2nd story of my house (for very obvious reasons). The antenna that I purchased (an RCA ANT1650R digital flat antenna) included an amplifier. I was able to take the feed from the amp and run it into a splitter. One leg from the splitter went straight to my TV upstairs. The second leg I connected to the CATV port installed in the wall. The other end of this connection was down in the wiring closet in the basement, so I was able to run that feed back up to my living room connection. One antenna, located upstairs in my bedroom, is able to drive both of my televisions.

All told, I had upfront costs of around $175 for the MagicJack Plus, the antenna and a few other ancillary items. My monthly costs are going to be around 1/3 of what I was previously paying for service, and my ROI is less than 2 months.

The only thing I thin I'm going to miss is ESPN. If they ever offer WatchESPN access as part of an ESPN Insider subscription, or through some other subscription model, you can just about guarantee I'd pick that up.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

The truth about Robb comes out

2013-01-22T09:46:00.001-05:00

Ahhhh, and now we know why Robb Allen doesn't wear pants.

He's a quantum physics kind of guy.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Mr. President, what are your priorities?

2013-01-21T20:12:00.002-05:00

As a new presidential term begins, attention naturally turns to the agenda and tone that he will pursue. Across the entire political spectrum, pundits are putting forth their ideas for what he should do, what he shouldn't do, and what he'd be crazy to try or leave off the table. There have been copious electrons sacrificed to analyses of his prior term and expectations for his new one.

Predominant themes are gun control in the wake of the Newtown shooting, marriage equality for homosexuals, the fiscal cliff, and religious freedoms under the Affordable Care Act. Poll 5 pundits, and you'll receive 15 different answers, depending on which tracking poll they've looked at last.

Well, here's your chance. You have been named President. You are guaranteed that your next policy or legislative proposal will receive filibuster and veto proof (of course, you're the President so why would you veto it, but let's ignore incongruities for now, shall we?) votes for adoption or passage in Congress, and it will be fully funded in the requisite budgets or appropriations bills. Let's double-down and state for this thought experiment that this legislation will remain in effect for at least the next 12 years (your entire term, and the next two presidential terms). Unfortunately, you do not know, you have zero guarantee, as to how your proposal would actually work out. This isn't complete fantasy (just a very close approximation). You don't get to override the Law of Unintended Consequences. You still have to pay the piper.

So, what would your legislative proposal be? What critical ill of the nation's would you attempt to solve? Why is that issue more important that any other? On what basis do you think you have the authority to pass that legislation?

I have gone back and forth on this. The three issues that concern me the most right now are protecting the 2nd Amendment, preserving religious freedoms, and restoring some sort of fiscal responsibility in Washington.

My three proposals would look something like this:

2nd Amendment
I would push for National Reciprocity, with a definition of civilian firearms that basically stated that if it's good enough for LEOs it's good enough for civilians, excepting weapons capable of select fire. I have Federalist concerns, but between the 1994 AWB and NICS background checks, that horse has left the barn. The Federal government already intrudes in State legislative control over those matters.

This is a Constitutional question, and the President is sworn to protect and defend that document. Now, granted, the fight would simply move on to other issues of populace thought-control, but I would draw the first line in the sand on this one.

Religious Freedoms
I would provide that any and all persons or organizations would be allowed to claim the religious equivalent of conscientious objector status to the mandated coverage requirements of the ACA. In fact, I would try for broader legislation that would grant this status for all persons in any economic activity. If a wedding photographer wants to limit their clientele, I believe that should be their choice. Let the nature of free market economics sort it out. If no one is willing to utilize their services, they won't be in business long. However, I don't think the government has any right to force a company to do business with someone when such a business transaction would violate their religious beliefs.

Government Spending
This would be omnibus legislation incorporating several proposals. These would include initiatives like a Balanced Budget Amendment, having the annual budget tied to GDP, and No Budget, No Pay for Congress. Something has to give, and I fear it's too late.

Yes, I'm cheating at my own game by not proposing a single initiative to push, but these are the three "biggies" on my list. They are most likely listed in order, too, but the first two could easily be flipped.

So, that's where I sit today. What say you?

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Priorities

2013-01-06T08:43:00.004-05:00

This morning, I tweeted "If we spent as much time 'following', 'friending', 'liking', and 'pinning' #God as we do each other, what would our lives look like?".

I asked this question after I realized I'd spent over an hour catching up on social media and news feeds. I was reading (even more) post-game reactions from the Aggies victory over the Sooners in the Cotton Bowl, trying to think up my latest failed bon mot to put out on twitter, and seeing what the rest of my extended friends and families were up to. Finally, I said "well, I guess I could go read my morning devotional."

Why don't we spend as much time catching up on God and what He's doing as we do our earthly friends? I can name most of the big-impact players on the Aggies football roster, but I can't name all the books in the bible. I can rattle off weird acronyms like OSPF, BGP, EIDE, SCSI and SATA (and know what they mean!!!), yet I stumble around concepts like Christology, epistemology, and sanctification.

In Deuteronomy 11:18, God tells us that "[y]ou shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul." Peter reminds us that we should always be prepared to give a defense.

Why is it then that too often studying God's word is an after-thought? As we step into this new year, let's make it a priority to put God first. Let's be more interested in what He's doing, in what victories He's winning, than some random collection of highly talented entertainers.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

In Memoriam - Sandy Hook Elementary

2012-12-17T13:29:00.005-05:00

John 15:13 says:

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Principal Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherlach, Anne Marie Murphy, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel Davino, and Victoria Soto showed the great love they had for the children of Sandy Hook* Elementary in Newtown, CT this past Friday.

The other teachers and staff also showed their devotion, as they shepherded their charges through the schools, barricaded them in rooms, and otherwise comforted and consoled them.

My prayers go out to all the families affected by this tragedy. I cannot begin to comprehend what they are having to deal with right now. In fact, never in my life have I had a better understanding for the Apostle Paul's words in Romans 8:26, when he wrote that "[l]ikewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."

*Edited: I updated the name of the school, which I'd inadvertantly mis-spelled. My apologies.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

I recognize that name

2012-12-14T13:37:00.001-05:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to do a little shopping with my lovely wife today at lunch time.

As we were browsing the Sci-Fi/Fantasy aisles of the local Joseph-Beth bookstore, I noticed a "staff pick" placard on the shelf. Hey, I recognize that name!!!

I haven't actually read Hard Magic yet, but it's on my list. The Monster Hunter series is excellent, and I've read nothing but good reviews of Hard Magic.

Now if only he'd come do a book signing.

Free Ted Dekker Book

2012-12-03T10:01:00.001-05:00

Ted Dekker is releasing a new series starting Dec. 28, titled "Eyes Wide Open". It will apparently be a 4 book series. The cool thing is he's making the first book available for free.

If you're interested, you can sign up at the promotional site.

A Peek into Borepatch's Life

2012-11-28T06:46:00.002-05:00

What with his new puppy and all, I imagine life inside Borepatch's secure compound is a little like this:

Respecting Others

2012-11-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

In the business world, I've often been involved in conversations regarding respect for others, whether it was a new co-worker, a long-time boss, or a temporary contractor. We would talk about how someone was too new or young to have earned respect, or how their latest escapade diminished the amount of respect due them.

Basically, every conversation came down to whether or not someone had earned the right to be respected. Truth be told, I subscribed to that view for a long time, and still think that way on occasion, even though I know better.

Today on Facebook, I saw this, and it resonated with me.

The Golden Rule of Respect?

However, I think it does get one thing wrong. Or, rather, it takes a worldly view instead of a Kingdom view on the issue.

Romans 12:10 tells us to love one another with brotherly affection, while Philippians 2:3 admonishes us to count others as more significant than ourselves. Neither of them includes an "if they've earned it" or "if you like them" codicil. We are commanded to love and give everyone honor (1 Peter 2:17).

Perhaps the most forceful passage about respecting everyone equally is found in James 2:1-9. James has some very strong words for us in regards to showing partiality to those that are rich or powerful, while shunning the poor and the weak. This applies as well, I think, to showing respect and extending courtesies. (For an excellent treatment of this passage, I would recommend to you this sermon from Dr. Corey Abney.)

In short, it comes down to one very simple truth. We are all children of God, created in His image, and we have all fallen short of His glory. As Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."

So, we show respect not just because of their character or our character, but because of His character in us.

From the mouths of babes

2012-11-23T12:41:00.001-05:00

As we were sitting down to our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, we partook in our annual ritual of talking about all the things we were thankful for. The kids, naturally, were mostly thankful for friends, families and toys. When it was my turn, I decided to add some frivolity to the mix and decided to quote our pastor. I told everyone I was thankful for my smoking hot wife. Everyone chuckled, and I quickly forgot about it.

Well, I briefly forgot about it.

Not 5 minutes later my son looks up and says "Mommy, you're smoking. That's why your shirt is red."

I think I'll be out of the doghouse in 5 years or so.

If he says it in public, maybe never *grin*

Thanksgiving

2012-11-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

I hope today finds you in the company of friends, family and loved ones. As you hang out and celebrate, I pray that you can look back on the previous year with thankfulness, even for the hard times.

I wanted to share a list of verses with you our Sunday School teacher gave us in our last class.

First, know that God wants us, in fact commands us, to be thankful in all things. We need to be intentional in giving thanks. Like biblical love, it is an affirmative action, not just a mindset. Second, don't forget the little things. Don't just remember the big awesome things that have happened, but be thankful for the food in your pantry, the roof over your head, the job you go to each day.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Hebrews 12:28-29 - Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Psalm 28:7 - The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

Psalm 69:30 - I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Psalm 95:1-6 - Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

1 Chronicles 16:8 - Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!

1 Chronicles 16:34 - Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

1 Thessalonians 5:18 - give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Psalm 107:29-32 - He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

Colossians 2:6-7 - Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Psalm 34:1 - I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 100:4 - Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Jonah 2:9 - But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!"

Ephesians 5:3-4 - But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Colossians 3:15 - And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

1 Timothy 4:4-5 - For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

Tech Tips You Can Use: Firefox Backspace Navigation Key

2012-10-16T09:46:00.004-04:00

One of the great frustrations in using a piece of software is when it does something you didn't intend for it to do. It could be it experienced a fault condition, or you hit a key you didn't mean to hit. Perhaps the biggest frustration is when a key has multiple functions depending on the situation and you hit the key expecting it to do one thing but it does another.

The backspace key in the Mozilla Firefox browser is like this. If you are on a web form and entering text, the backspace key does exactly what you want it to. It moves the cursor to the left one space with each keystroke, deleting the character that was there. But what if the field you were typing in has lost the focus? Then, the backspace key becomes a browser navigation key, and Firefox treats it as if you've hit the Back button on your browser. Typically this means you've lost everything you just typed in, and you get to do it all over again.

This can be the height of frustration, especially if you spent a long time carefully crafting a witty takedown of someone that was wrong on the Internet (a full-time job, I well know).

Fortunately, the Firefox team believes in the concept of providing plenty of rope, and the browser is near infinitely customizable. The behavior of the backspace key is one of those options that can be changed.

The behavior of the backspace key is controlled by the browser.backspace_action configuration setting. All of the valid values for this option can be found in the Mozilla Knowledgebase. If you want to disable this behavior, you should set this option to a value that is not '0' or '1'. Mozilla uses '2' as an easy convention, and actually sets that as the default in the latest Linux builds. Why they don't set that as the default for all versions I don't know, but that's a rant for another day.

If you're already a Firefox configuration pro, then you can skip the rest of this article. If you've never changed Firefox before, here's a simple step-by-step on what to do (all screenshots taken using Firefox 16.0.1):

Open a new tab and type "about:config" as the URL
Firefox will present a warning page. Leave the "show this message next time" option checked and click the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button

In the search bar, type "browser.backspace_action"

Double-click on the configuration option named "browser.backspace_action" and a dialog box will pop up that lets you change the value
Set the value to "2" and click OK

Close the tab that you opened (there is no final save button to click; changes are saved automatically)
The change takes effect automatically. There is no need to restart your browser.
The backspace key should no longer act as the "Back" navigation button

Happy browsing!!

His and Hers

2012-09-25T12:17:00.001-04:00

We all draw boundaries in our relationships. We have our side of the bed, our drawers, our cars, even our spot on the couch. But it doesn't stop there, does it?

We also have our chores and duties around the house. In fact, society has some stereotypes when it comes to chores, doesn't it? I think we could look at a list of chores and agree at least 80% of the time whose responsibility it is for a particular chore.

Laundry - Hers
Dishes - Hers
Changing light bulbs - His
Car maintenance - His
Grocery shopping - Hers
Yard care - His
Gardening - Hers

But I think if we let these stereotypes set into our relationships, we're doing ourselves a disservice. Looking after the household should be a shared responsibility. In fact, we should find joy in helping our spouses with those tasks that are "theirs". I think Ephesians 5:33 lays it out for us when it says that we should love our wives as ourselves, and that our wives should respect us.

Out of all the bosses you've had, which have you respected more, those that pitched in and helped out, or those that tossed everything into your queue? Why should your wife respect you if you don't first show her love? Are you worthy of her respect if you never stand in the gap for her and help her out?

Here is my challenge for you. Identify one task around your house that is traditionally her job, and start helping out without being asked. Even better, pick one that you let her do because it's your least favorite thing in the world to do. Don't call attention to it. This isn't about claiming praise for yourself. This it about taking on a servant's heart and loving on your wife. After all, isn't this the model that Christ set for us in His time on Earth?

I've started doing a lot more dishes these days. Especially with my new job, I find I have more time in the morning. Instead of sitting around trying to get caught up on social media, I take 10 minutes to unload the dishwasher. If there are dishes waiting, I go ahead and put them in too.

Guess what? I find I don't loathe doing the dishes as much as I used to. Further, my wife is happier. There's one less chore that she has to make time to get to, which reduces her stress. And when she's less stressful, our relationship is better. After all, if mamma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. And if mamma IS happy? Well, that can be a very good thing.

His and Hers?

Let's make it Ours, instead.