welcome to spiceland.

We want to share some really good sermons with you from a Church in Knoxville. I don’t quite know how well they will be received without you already knowing the minister’s style, but still they are worth sharing. It is a 2 part sermon from normal Sunday mornings for this Church. Please download and listen to them. If you cannot figure it out or would rather have a CD, just let us know and we’ll mail them to you on a CD.

Right click on the link and choose “save as.”

Sermon 1: In the Name of Jesus

[ audio | sermon outline ]

Sermon 2: In the Name of Jesus II

[ audio | sermon outline ]

Michael and Erin (and Tru)

We don’t need anything for Christmas. We ask that those who would have bought us a Christmas present, if you haven’t already bought us something but were planning to, please give to someone in need instead. You could sponsor a child through Compassion International. We have sponsored a little girl from the Phillipines a while back and it seems to be really good.

Erin

I stumbled on a sad fact today. An acquaintence of mine from Georgia Tech died on September 17th from cancer at age 24. He was a regular attendee at the Georgia Tech Linux User Group that I was vice president of (for a short while). I remember him well as being very nice, smart, and very impressive. He wrote a book called Programming Games in Linux. His website is here and his blog about his fight with cancer is here.

A noteworthy quote from his blog is:

We’re all mortal. And yet a lot of us live like we’re immortal. Days come and go, and we assume they’ll keep on coming. There is no sense of urgency. We treat time like water; so cheap that we can pour it on the ground. Most of us have a vague sense that we’ll eventually die, but it’s not something we tend to think about often. We assume that we’re entitled to our 75 years, which invariably seems like it’s a long way off, so we forget about it and go back to our day to day routine.

– John R. Hall

He died of Melanoma. His blog urges everyone to go get any worrisome moles checked out. I am passing this on to you by recommending that all of you go get yours checked out! He said that his was about a centimeter and bled a little.

Michael

UPDATE: Rumor has it that this information is NOT true! I hope they are right! (8/5/2005)

It was recently announced/discovered that the new Intel based Mac’s operating system uses a DRM (Digital Rights Management) system known as TCPA. Basically, it transfers even more control of YOUR computer over to the makers of the software that is on it (e.g. Microsoft). It is like having a car that asks Toyota each time you install something on it or put gas in it to make sure that it is an “approved” part. Read the link to know why it is bad.

I’m starting to like Apple less and less.

Michael

I found what looks to be a great site for doing research before voting. It seems to have everything you would want to know about candidates positions. You can even look up senate and house bills and see how your representatives voted. You can then use this information to decide how you want issues to be voted on for the following years.

For folks like me, interested but didn’t pay enough attention growing up, there is also a US Government Basics section.

I plan on checking this out when I have time.

Oh, I guess you want the link don’t ya

Michael

In this CNN article, a guy was acquitted (not guilty) of murder for allegedly watching a DVD when he had a wreck that killed two people. He says that he was not watching a DVD but was just reaching for a soda. While I think it is a terribly sad accident, a *jury* found him not guilty. The article quotes the son of one of the people who was killed as saying:

‘ “I’m very disappointed in how the justice system has to prove a case against someone who took two lives,” said David Weiser. ‘

What? What country did he grow up in? I think it is very sad that he thinks it is a bad thing that you are innocent until proven guilty!

It’s scary how someone in the United States could not understand the basics of our legal system. It’s no wonder that so many laws get passed that make us say “what in the world?!?!?”

Michael

I’ve long thought that there was a problem with TV today. The shows are more boring than ever before (e.g. reality TV) and the news is terriablly biased. If it weren’t for the Internet and talk radio I’d have a completely inaccurate view of the world.

I was happy to see an article written by someone who should know, Ted Turner, on the exact issues that I’ve thought about. In his article he addresses things like:

(1) Loss of Quality

(2) Loss of localism

and most importantly …

(3) Loss of democratic debate

He attributes these problems to Big Media and the government rules that allow this to happen. You can read the article for yourself here.

Michael

I was doing a search for Erin to see what came up and found out that we were in the paper on June 23rd! It is an article about helping the local animals. The blurb about us is at the bottom.

Michael

I saw two articles right next two each other on CNN and thought it was quite ironic. One article shines a bad light on a software company that makes software that allows you to copy DVDs. They spin the article as if there is no legitimate reason for copying a DVD. Right under that article is an article that talks about the short life span’s of DVD’s and how they deteriorate in only 5 years! Sounds like a good reason to back up your movies to me.