Friday…

Yes, it’s Friday…

Last night we had some company over.  Kelli’s sister Shawna and her fiance’ Joe, and then our friend Janet.  It was a nice time as we carried on discussions.  Joe and Shawna have finalized a date for their wedding, June 19, 2009.  They will be getting married at a Unitarian church in Clifton, and then having their reception at the same place Kelli and I had ours.

But part of our talks lately have been revolved around what different denominations believe, or what sets them apart.  Specifically, Presbyterians and Unitarians.  So I’ve been doing a little bit of reading and according to Wikipedia the main thing that sets Unitarians apart is their rejection of the Trinity.  At first, I wasn’t sure if that meant that they did not believe in Jesus’ divinity or that they somehow held a non-trinitarian belief that there is only one personality of God, which includes Jesus.  Turns ou that Unitarian’s hold the former,maintaining that Jesus, while a good teacher and person, was not God.

I suppose that there are many people out there who hold this idea.  I have heard that Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet in a line of prophets which included Abraham, maybe Moses, and Muhammad.  But what struck me about the Unitarians, at least those from the early days of the Unitarian movement, was that they considered themselves fundamentalists (this is hardly true today as many Unitarians have shifted to a more “universalistic” approach).  Usually, to me, that means that they take the received gospel’s as the word of God and that all of it is true.  Now if you are one who believes that the gospels we have today are not 100% accurate, that things have been added or taken away, then perhaps it is possible to believe that while Jesus was a good man, he was not divine.  But as a self-proclaimed fundamentalist and you believe the gospel is 100% accurate then I would think there is a breakdown in logic if you somehow assert that Jesus did not claim to be God.

Believe me, I am not the first to come up with this idea. Haha.  In fact, I believe the first time I thought of this was while reading some writings by C. S. Lewis.   I understand that people have certain issues with Lewis’ point but I still believe that it can illuminate the issue for some people:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.”  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.

I guess that’s all I’m going to say about that for now.  On to another topic is Presbyterians.  Presbyterians come from a calvinistic viewpoint, which beleives in the total depravity of man and the full reflection of God’s grace and mercy in man’s salvation.  But one interesting thing is the Prebyterian’s namesake, and its possible origins.  According to USA Presbyterian Church website, presbyter means elder, and refers to the Church’s governing body of elders who are democratically elected.  This would make sense, since the church started as an outcry against the Church of England’s officials which the laity had no control over.

But when I first started thinking about the origin of presbyter, which can also can mean “priest” it made me think about the very calvanistic viewpoint of the “priesthood of all believers.”  Becoming a Presbyterian at one time perhaps meant that you were signing up to do work, not just be a pew sitting member.  There is no such thing as “laity”, all are believers, and all are called to do all that they can.  Very interesting…

So, this ended up being a somewhat lengthy post.  I wonder whether it will generate any response or just kind of make its way further and further in to the archives…

Running…

Yesterday, I was able to go running for a second time.  I was going to do the same route and I really did not know what to expect.  Would I do better or worse? would it be harder or easier?  I suppose it was a little bit easier since I knew more about what I was getting in to.  I also had a better idea of a time to shoot for so I was able to use that as a goal.  So, on the first day I finished the 1.5 miles in 18:34.  This time, I knocked off 2:22 to finish with a total time of 16:12.  Not Bad!

It still comes out to somewhere around a 10:48 mile.  With my goal of getting it down to an 8:00 mile, I still have plenty of work to do.  But, I was excited to see improvement right away.  My next mini goal will be to get it down to a solid 10:00 mile, meaning I will have to shave off another 1:12 seconds and complete the 1.5 in 15 minutes.  It is possible, I know that.

I don’t think I will be running today, with it raining and all.  I will probably do some major stretching and some upper body strength exercises.  Then, hopefully I will be able to resume tomorrow and get closer and closer to the 8:00 mile.  Once I reach the 8:00 mile, I will probably either extend and move the route for a change in difficulty and scenery.

A Warning Relevant for Present Days…

As I have been continuing to read Sowell’s “A Conflict of Visions” I have been coming across all sorts of great quotes from the great minds of the past.  Some I am familiar with and others I had not seen before.  Here is a great one from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations:

The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load himself with most unnecessary attention but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of man who have folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.

This seems so relevant today as we are seeing a government expand further than it ever has before, way outside of the boundaries established by its own constitution.

An Excerpt from Federalist #51

While reading Thomas Sowell’s “A Conflict of Visions” the other day I came across a quote from the Federalist Papers.  While the quote was limited I decided to dig it up and read more of it.  So simple and brilliant:

But the great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroachments of the others. The provision for defense must in this, as in all other cases, be made commensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Afternoon Run Recap…

So, yesterday after work I went for a run when I got home.  It was the planned 1.5 miles.  Going for a walk/jog/run like that can really reveal to yourself just how out of shape you are.  About .25 miles in I was out of breath and struggling…  Somehow I managed to finish the entire 1.5 miles, and my recorded time was 18:34.  This comes out to a 12:22 mile…  I’ve heard that an 8 minute mile is what to aim for, so I’ve got some work to do.

I wonder though, if I go running today, being the very next day, can I expect better results or should I expect worse?  We will see what happens…

In other news, Joe and Shawna are in town.  Shawna is Kelli’s sister and Joe is Shawna’s fiance’.  We went and visited them over at Kelli’s parents house lat night and it was pretty fun.  We got to talk about what Joe is up to, and their wedding plans, and looked at pictures.  We will probably be seeing them a good amount over the next few days until they are gone again.

Jogging and General Fitness…

Well, I suppose it is a little late to be getting an early start on my Summer body…  But, I must maintain the philosophy that in body fitness it is all spilled milk.  Meaning, you can’t let anything discourage you.  If you start working out for a week or two and then for some reason forget to keep it up, well that doesn’t entirely negate what you did do the first couple of weeks.  Don’t let the fact that you stopped get you down and hinder you from starting up again.  Start up again and forget about it.

The same idea follows with starting too late.  I meant to start earlier in the season to build up my fitness but kept on pushing it off.  No matter, I will start today.

Once, I was in a discussion with a friend of mine concerning eating healthy and he imparted some words of wisdom.  The problem I was having was that I was letting the fact that I ate the worst kinds of junk food keep me from working out and running.  He told me that you have to not worry about it and start running.  Your body will then make you want to eat better since you are doing all of this work.  It sounds right to me.  I’ve never had the chance to fully test that out but I think I just might get that opportunity.

You see, lately my eating habits have been very bad.  I have been eating fast food almost every day and all kinds of soda-pops.  So, I will run today and my body will hate me for the abuse that I am giving it.  But, hopefully that will help kickstart better eating habits.

All this to say, when I get home today I am going to change in to some jogging clothes and run/jog/walk a mile and half.  Last time I got the fitness bug I did a 2.2 mile course, and guess what? I only did it once.  So I am hoping by starting out a little bit smaller it won’t be as intimidating.  So, I’ll give it a run and I’ll time it.  I’ll be keeping track of it in a google spreadsheet and we’ll see what comes of this…

Weekend Recap…

Friday night after work Kelli and I hung our for a little bit, worked around the house, and then went to Friday’s on Glenway with Janet.  It was a nice time as we ate and conversed about this and that.  The conversation turned to current issues which was fine with me, I could talk about most of these things for a very long time.  The problem with having conversations on certain issues is when people don’t even act like they’re listening to the other person.  Fortunately, we did not have that problem and it was kept civil. Hehe.

I guess current issues and politics were on everyone’s mind because later on at Arlin’s the conversations continued.  Also, I ran in to old friends of mine, John and Megan.  It was nice to see them and catch up on old times.

Saturday, Kelli and I headed down to Sherri’s house.  Sherri is the mom that Kelli babysits for every once in a while and Kelli had a gift for her son Jimmy.  After that, we stopped at Devou Park for a minute to check the view, and then went down to Sawyer Point where we walked across to Newport on the Levee for a little bit.  It was nice out, and they had plenty of “street entertainers”.  A nice time.

Then Saturday night, after we visited at Kelli’s Grandpa’s, we were thinking about meeting up with Rachel and Janet but we just could not come up to a consensus on where to meet.  They were pretty set on going to the Italian Fest (Where Kelli and I had already gond earlier in the day) and I wasn’t really interested in that.  So Kelli and I stayed home and watched “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”  I thought it was a great movie but the funny thing was Kelli crying her eyes out.  She was literally wailing and crying.  haha.

Then on Sunday we went over to Rachel’s parents’ house for Rachel’s graduation party.  Sunday, weatherwise was great until about 3:00 when the party started.  That’s when it began to pour down rain.  So, most of the party was spend on their covered back porch.  It was still a nice time, though a little crowded.

So now, here I am, on Monday and back to work.

Edisto Island, SC…

Just thought I’d get some pictures up.  About a year ago Kelli and I were able to secure a time-share condo down in Edisto Island, SC for a great bargain price.  Since my sister Jill and her husband Phil live somewhat close by they were able to come up for the first couple of days.

We had a great time down there and by clicking on the above picture you can take a look at the album.  I think the most enjoyable thing about staying there was that our condo was right on the beach.  This was the first time I had ever stayed so close to a beach and didn’t have to drive to get to there.  It is much more enjoyable being able to walk right out and back in, rather than changing in a public place or the car.  The scenery was awesome and walking around Charleston, though it was extremely hot, was very enjoyable.

Importing of Blogs…

Throughout the years of being on the Internet I have started a couple of different blogs.  Some of them have dissappeared completely while others just sat in limbo.  Fortunately, WordPress has made it somewhat easy to import these and I have now combined my other blogs (one from blogger.com and the other from livejournal.com) with this one on WordPress.  So now, all of them are present here in the archives.  Most of these older posts are from 2006 and 2007.

Along with importing these old posts, I also came across a few private ones from the livejournal account from 2006, back when Kelli and I were dating and starting to get serious.  Man o man, what a trip down memory lane!

Flood Lights, Conclusion…

Well, by happenstance Kenny was able to come over yesterday and finish up the flood lights installation.  We were worried with the intermittent rain throughout the day but just as we started the sky began to clear.

We had estimated that it would take us about an hour to finish up but it ended up being about an hour and forty-five minutes.  No biggy, we weren’t in a huge hurry or anything.  They went up without a hitch and the job looks nice and professional.

And then of course, I couldn’t go on and on about these lights without showing the end result:

So all in all, it was a great success.  Now, we just need to schedule a night for all-night corn-hole… badminton… out door texas hold’em…