Found via Boing Boing:
A fisherman caught this rainbow trout with two mouths in Nebraska last weekend. Pretty freaky, huh? See the article.

But that's not what made me post this. What made me post this was his golden comment to the Associated Press when they asked him what he's going to do with the fish:

"I'm going to smoke it up and eat it."

World Jump Day

JOIN US IN THE ATTEMPT TO DRIVE PLANET EARTH INTO A NEW ORBIT, BY LETTING MILLIONS OF PEOPLE JUMP!

Scientific research has proven that this change of planetary positioning would very likely stop global warming, extend daytime hours, and create a more homogenous climate

Haha. Hahahahahahahaha.
...
Hehe.

Edit:
Wanted to add (because of Zakcq's comment) that the site specifies that only people in the Western hemisphere are to jump, since otherwise everyone would cancel each other out. See, it makes total scientific *cough* sense!

Since Gmail continues to absolutely rock, I thought I'd give it another plug:

Switch to Gmail

Gives you a bunch of specific instructions how to easily switch from wherever you're at now to Gmail.

BTW, remember you can continue to use your old address, so you don't have all those Hi-everyone-my-email-has-changed...AGAIN-pains.

World of Warcraft Tops 5 Million Subscribers

5. Million. Subscribers. Each of which are paying, say, $12 a month. (That's what Stephi and I are paying.)

That's $60,000,000 dollars a month (give or take $10,000,000) going into Blizzard's pockets. Well, sure, Blizz has to pay a bunch for the servers and stuff, but they are making so much cash it's absolutely mind-boggling.

Wow, this is pretty intense - there's a 16-year old boy in Nepal who has been meditating for months now, and villagers say he hasn't eaten or drunk anything for 6 months.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Scientists to check Nepal Buddha boy

I wonder if there's some thing scientists don't know about yet that enables bodies to withstand that, by going into some kind of hibernation, since there are records of other monks doing the same thing, also you have the record of Jesus (who was fully human!) doing the same thing (although not necessarily hibernating ;) for 40 days.

Anyways, it'll be interesting to see if the scientists figure anything out - like, it's 3am, the boy super-quick pulls out a hidden Pepsi can from his cloak, takes a gulp, and instantly goes back into meditation.

Nice little Google hack I wrote to see what Google thinks of you:


is extremely is the best at sucks at desperately needs

John desperately needs a transfusion
John desperately needs his estranged wife
John desperately needs approval from his father
John desperately needs Freud to explain his own urges
John desperately needs this encouragement

Time for a little insider joke.

THE 47 SOCIETY

I am home.

Most of these are pretty obvious, but there are a few I had never noticed, but that are so true - 40 Things That Only Happen In Movies - Nostalgia Central

Some of my favorites:

All beds have special L-shaped sheets that reach to armpit level on a woman but only up to the waist of the man lying beside her.

During all police investigations it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once.

All single women have a cat.

If a microphone is turned on it will immediately feedback.

Whoa, this is a typo you don't want to make - a company ended up selling 610,000 shares of a company at 1 yen (less than a penny) each, when they wanted to actually sell 1 share at 610,000 yen. Ouch. Really ouch.

$225,000,000 typo

Here's something pretty cool - a world map with each country sized according to its population. India and China are GIGANTIC, while America and Europe seem pretty small...
Check it out.

Found via BoingBoing.

From the same page (wow I'm impressed they put this on there!):
Over Three Hundred Disproofs of God's existence.
Just as humorous:

ARGUMENT FROM BESTSELLERDOM

1. The Bible is the best-selling work in history.
2. Just because it's popular doesn't mean it's the Word of God.
3. And there's plenty of evidence to suggest it's not.
4. [Sound of theist squirting milk out his nose]
5. Therefore, God doesn’t exist.

TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

1. Check out the world/universe/giraffe. Isn't it complex?
2. Evolution (aka random chance) is a good enough explanation for me how they became so complex.
3. Therefore, God doesn’t exist.

ARGUMENT FROM PERSONAL ABILITY

1. I lifted a car off my trapped puppy.
2. I did that without God.
3. Therefore, God doesn’t exist.

ARGUMENT FROM DENTAL OPPORTUNITY

1. Bite me.
2. Therefore, God doesn’t exist.

ARGUMENT FROM DENTAL OPPORTUNITY, ACCEPTED

1. Bite me.
2. OW! YOU BIT ME!
3. I'm being persecuted!!
4. Therefore, God doesn’t exist!

Over Three Hundred Proofs of God’s Existence

Very humorous.

ARGUMENT FROM BELIEF
(1) If God exists, then I should believe in Him.
(2) I believe in God.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM THE BIBLE
(1) [arbitrary passage from OT]
(2) [arbitrary passage from NT]
(3) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM GUITAR MASTERY
(1) Eric Clapton is God.
(2) Therefore, God exists.

ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION
(1) See this bonfire?
(2) Therefore, God exists.

Just found this cool code snippet which shows our Flickr pictures as a slideshow within this blog post. Enjoy:

Found here.

My Dad sent me a link to this picture: Europe at Night, found at the incredibly cool NASA Astronomy Picture Of The Day site.

If you're into space pictures and stuff, that's the place to go, also check out:

Blue Marble

Celestia, an incredible space simulation

Why smart people defend bad ideas - This is a bit long, but just skimming it smarted (ha ha) a little, because I see myself in this article a few times too many.

Smart people, or at least those whose brains have good first gears, use their speed in thought to overpower others. They’ll jump between assumptions quickly, throwing out jargon, bits of logic, or rules of thumb at a rate of fire fast enough to cause most people to become rattled, and give in.

"Brains with good first gears." I like that.

Wow, this is powerful:

More, an Academy-Award nominated short film by Mark Osborne.

Coolest. Gadget. EVER.

USB Powered Air Darts. Aim and fire with your mouse. C’mon, wage your very own war with weapons of mass compression. You know you want to. £19.50.

Powered by your mac or pc, you’ll have hours of flying fun with these USB air darts. Let the mission begin! * Control the aim and the firing mechanism of the darts via your computer mouse * Cylindrical base * 3 darts * USB powered * Software included

Unfortunately hopelessly sold out. :'-( I want one. *sob*

Found via BoingBoing, via The Red Ferret

Stephi got Civilization IV for her birthday, and it ROCKS. We've been playing it quite a bit (it is dangerously addictive, though - one of the if not THE most addictive game(s) I've ever played... "One...more...round...*yawn*").

Anyways, it has an extremely cool intro song called "Baba Yetu" for the opening menu, you can get it here, courtesy of civfanatics: http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ4/music/BabaYetu.mp3. Very epic, kind of mysterious, very catchy.

Well, I just found a page that explains the lyrics here.

And...it's the Lord's prayer in Swahili! That's friggin' cool! :)

You know, there are some Flash games out there that are really a lot of fun.

But, these games at the official Harry Potter site are mind-numbingly horrible. I mean, they're so boring that a four-hour lecture on the epistomological differences of left from right would be more exciting.

But here's the killer: Try one of the games out, and remember how many points you have after enduring a half a minute of the game. Now, look at the high score table on the main page. Un. Believable.

Found via Game|Life

I am an...

INTP - "Architect". Greatest precision in thought and language. Can readily discern contradictions and inconsistencies. The world exists primarily to be understood. 3.3% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

What are you?

BREAD IS DANGEROUS.

Here's a fun way to test your general Bible knowledge (if you even want to): 2005 Bible Content Exam

Some of those questions are real tricky. :)

Found via Todd-from-Amsterdam's blog "being free"

This is hilarious (and slightly...sad):

via BoingBoing, via Godlorica.

United States Patent Application
20050212207

Abstract
A game board apparatus having a game board horizontally divided into two sectors representing heaven and hell. The start position is at the bottom of the hell and the finish winning position is situated at the top of the heaven. The players use playing pieces to traverse spaces in the heaven and hell sectors, the amount of advancement being dictated by indicia provided on decks of question cards and answer cards.

The idea is wild enough, but the best part are the question cards which decide which direction you go on the board:

Would you make a deal with Satan?
Yes: Remain on spot. No: Advance 5 spaces.

Do you lie?
Yes: Remain on the spot. No: Advance 10 spaces.

Are you a drug user?
Yes: Go back 4 spaces. No: Advance 4 spaces.

Do you like pornography?
Yes: Go back 4 spaces. No: Advance 8 spaces.

Do you believe money is more important than your personal salvation?
Yes: Go back 11 spaces. No: Advance 11 spaces.

Do you follow God's word?
Yes: Advance 7 spaces. No: Go back to hell or satan green star.

It goes ON and ON like that - 80 questions in all. I am laughing so hard right now it hurts.

OK, and here's the REAL irony of it all: Question 8 of the "Hell Cards":

Do you think being a good person will keep you from going to hell?
Yes: Go back 3 spaces. No: Advance 7 spaces.

---

Edit:

I just can't get over this. After reading for a few more minutes, here are a couple more of my favorite questions and their consequences:

Are you an atheist or communist?
Yes: Go back to start. No: Advance to next heaven blue star.

Would you sell your country's defense secrets?
Yes: Go back to start. No: Advance 6 spaces.

If cutting off any part of your body would give a satanic power, would you do it?
Yes: Go back to start. No: Advance 7 spaces.

To go a little deeper on this...
I noticed something - the game functions according to what most people view religion as - do something good, get closer to heaven/Nirvana/paradise - do something bad, get further away.
In fact, you could have some type of version of this board game for virtually every religion out there!

Islam:

Have you ever been to Mekka?
Yes: Advance 4 spaces. No: Go back 5 spaces.

Do you pray daily?
Yes: Advance 4 spaces. No: Go back 5 spaces.

Do you observe the Ramadan fast?
Yes: Advance 4 spaces. No: Go back 5 spaces.

Hinduism:

Do you lie?
Yes: Go back 3 karma. No: Advance 2 karma.

Do you eat meat?
Yes: Go back 1 karma. No: Advance 1 karma.

Do you tithe one tenth of your income to God?
Yes: Advance 2 karma. No: Go back 2 karma.

Buddhism:

Do you steal?
Yes: Go back 3 spaces. No: Advance 3 spaces.

Do you lie?
Yes: Go back 3 spaces. No: Advance 2 spaces.

Do you have sex outside of marriage?
Yes: Go back 3 spaces. No: Advance 3 spaces.

Judaism:

Do you keep the Sabbath?
Yes: Advance 3 spaces. No: Go back 3 spaces.

Do you commit adultery?
Yes: Go back 2 spaces. No: Advance 3 spaces.

The ironic thing is that Christianity is supposed to transcend this "game", not join in, adding stupid rules like "Thou shalt not sell thy country's defense secrets." The principle being: Christianity is about a relationship, not about rules!

The author of this board game seems to have heard about this somewhere (see the question on "being a good person"), but he completely misses the point, making even that principle part of the game! Whoa.

You want scary? Here's scary for ya:

How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball' - Los Angeles Times

Funny quote of the month:

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

- Winston Churchill

Methinks my socialist friend Zakcq will like that quote. ;)

OK, so this is officially the coolest thing I have seen this year. Just to warn you, you probably won't get that excited about it, but I think it's friggin' AWESOME.

NumberSpiral.com - really hard to explain without pictures (and the images are copyright so I can't post them here). Basically, he makes a number spiral by starting with 0 at the middle , then rolling the numbers around it like a ribbon, keeping square numbers next to each other. Zooming way out you can see cool patterns regarding prime numbers and other stuff.

The beauty of math sometimes blows me away. :)

Heard this interesting quote from J.K. Rowling:

"Yes, I am [a Christian]," she says. "Which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I said I thought there was no God. Every time I've been asked if I believe in God, I've said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what's coming in the books."

Found here.

OK, forget the whole "is she a Christian or not", I'm thinking about the book content - this kind of confirms my theory about book seven that Dumbledore is coming back from the dead. Resurrection, the Phoenix, etc. etc. (highlight to read). :)

Found at: The Klingon programmer

Top 20 things likely to be overheard if you had a Klingon Programmer:

1. Defensive programming? Never! Klingon programs are always on the offense. Yes, offensive programming is what we do best.
2. Specifications are for the weak and timid!
3. This machine is GAGH! I need dual Pentium processors if I am to do battle with this code!
4. You cannot really appreciate Dilbert unless you've read it in the original Klingon.
5. Indentation?! - I will show you how to indent when I indent your skull!
6. What is this talk of 'release'? Klingons do not make software 'releases'. Our software 'escapes' leaving a bloody trail of designers and quality assurance people in its wake.
7. Klingon function calls do not have 'parameters' - they have 'arguments' -- and they ALWAYS WIN THEM.
8. Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Our software does not coddle the weak. Bugs are good for building character in the user.
9. I have challenged the entire ISO-9000 quality assurance team to a Bat-Leth contest on the holodeck. They will not concern us again.
10. A TRUE Klingon Warrior does not comment his code!
11. By filing this bug report you have challenged the honor of my family. Prepare to die!
12. You question the worthiness of my code? I should kill you where you stand!
13. Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!
14. Our competitors are without honor!
15. Python? That is for children. A Klingon Warrior uses only machine code, keyed in on the front panel switches in raw binary.
16. Klingon programs don't do accountancy. For that, you need a Ferengi.
17. Klingon multitasking systems do not support "time-sharing". When a Klingon program wants to run, it challenges the scheduler in hand-to-hand combat and owns the machine.
18. Perhaps it IS a good day to die! I say we ship it!
19. My program has just dumped Stova Core!
20. Behold, the keyboard of Kalis! The greatest Klingon code warrior that ever lived!

And yet another excellent article from "The Escapist":

The Escapist - When Gamers Breed

Donna and Jack can use games as effective parenting tools because they know and play the games. "George was behind the benchmarks for kindergarten in letter recognition and associated sounds," Donna remembers. "So over spring break he'd sit behind me and I'd use the World of Warcraft in-game page function to send him letters and phonics combos. (I have logs that go 'B' - 'f' - 'J' - 'TH.') He was so excited, and he'd yell 'em out. After he could call out the letters really well, I let him sit on my lap and call out mobs I'd go after. He would have to spell the names of the monster before I'd shoot at it. We got killed a lot early on - WoW mobs have big fantasy names, weird unfamiliar letter combinations - but he got faster and faster. George's teacher was very impressed with the progress we made over spring break - which is entirely due to the WoW pager function."

Very cool.

Deep thought for the day...

On Saturday we were talking about the value of the church, looking at verses like Ephesians 1:22, "and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church..." or Acts 20:28, "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood."

I realized that the act of Christ being the payment for our sins defined our value to be of equal value to Christ himself. Let that sink in for a moment.

When someone pays a certain amount for something, they declare it to be of that value for them. For example, someone paid $26,000 for a piece of virtual real estate in a computer game last year. By doing that, that hard drive space on which that real estate exists became that valuable...to that person. Now, that's a relative thing. There's no way I (or probably you) would ever pay that amount of money for something virtual, but for that person, it was worth it.

Now here's the really cool part: Since God is the ultimate, absolute authority of the universe, when he declares us to be as valuable as his own Son, he thereby is objectively declaring our value to be that of his own Son.
What is subjective to God is objective to us, since God is absolute!

BTW, this is why there are verses like "to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus..." - God is placing us on the same level as Christ himself when it comes to value.

Now for a few caveats - naturally, we are not God, nor ever will be. We are not the Firstborn, nor the Head, nor "above all else".

But we are the Body - and the Body is as valuable as the Head! And that rocks my world. :)

Any thoughts?

OK, this is too cool: You know those magnetic poetry things where the words are little magnets so you can rearrange them and make little poems and stuff? Well, someone programmed an AJAX version of that so that anyone visiting the site can rearrange the little magnetic words, and (every 4 seconds) everyone else can see the change automatically!!!
I am in the midst of learning AJAX - it's a really cool new Web technology that Google made popular with Google Maps.

Anyways, here's that link: Go henceforth and make thee poetry.
Magnetic AJAX - Version 1.7

Siedler with a river

Siedler with a river
Originally uploaded by epaga.

We played Siedler yesterday with a combination of a couple cool variants which I found here.
One of them caused there to be a river dividing the island. Another allowed you to have an army which could block others' resources if you had enough Knights.

Anyways, it was a blast, except that I lost. :-(

Just noticed something funny on GMail - at the top of the screen, they always have one-line interesting links (funny quotes, news stories, etc.). Well, go into your spam folder, and their one-liner links are various recipes using spam, like:

Spam Primavera - Toss with linguini, serve immediately
Spam Breakfast Burritos - Bake 5-10 minutes, serve with salsa
Ginger Spam Salad - Serves 1, refrigerate overnight

Yes, sometimes (actually rather often), Google makes me laugh.

Don't know how many of you heard about the decision in Kansas to start teaching Intelligent Design (ID hereafter) as an alternative theory, in addition to evolution (read the CNN article here), but I thought it was pretty amazing that in the entire Technorati blogosphere regarding that article out there, there isn't one blog post I could find that thought that decision was at all a good thing. Everyone was busy ridiculing everyone from Americans or Kansans to Bush. :)

I thought I'd try and process the whole thing as well (warning, this could get long, and it's pretty unedited):
I think are tons of misunderstandings when it comes to ID and that decision.

For example:

"Kansas now has to teach ID as fact"

That's not true - they now are ALLOWED to teach that Intelligent Design exists as one possible explanation. They're still NOT allowed to teach ID as fact (which is a very good thing, since it really is not "scientific fact", it's a proposed explanation).

"ID is basically the cave man's explanation of things you can't understand - you see a lightning bolt - that must have been Zeus. You see an incredibly complex cell - must have been God."

The problem is that exactly that step is taken by evolutionists as well, they just don't see it. You see an incredibly complex cell - that must have been Evolution. I'm capitalizing that word since at that point in their logic it becomes more than a scientific theory, it transcends science and shows their presupposition of materialism. Evolutionists would say "Stick to Ockham's razor" which says you always should pick the most simple solution to a question if all else is equal. The problem is - what's "simpler" - supernatural creation or random sudden appearance? Who decides what's simpler? Well, YOU do!

"ID is basically about bringing religion into science, leave religion out of the science classroom"

It is NOT about religion- you're not saying a thing about who "the Designer" is, how many designers there are, whether it/he/she/they still exist(s), or even whether the Designer is good or evil. Sure, most if not all ID proponents are Christians, but that doesn't mean the theory itself is religious. Don't toss the theory out the window just because you don't like the people who put forward the theory or their world view (Same goes for Christians regarding evolution and evolutionists, BTW).

"ID is unscientific because it is neither verifiable nor disprovable."

First off - a theory doesn't need to be verifiable in order to be a scientific theory, it needs to be disprovable. And ID is easily disprovable - take as many of the same cells as you want and let them randomly mutate as many times as you want - if you can observe just one cell develop a flagellum (basically a motor with which some one-celled creatures can move about) on its own, you've disproven ID.
I see more of a problem trying to disprove the theory of evolution: How would you even go about it, since the answer would always be "Well it happened over a course of millions of years, so of course you can't disprove it with that experiment here and now without taking millions of years yourself."

So there ya go, a few (quite random) thoughts on misunderstandings about ID.

A couple of VERY humorous, satirical (and critical) looks at ID are the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Intelligent Falling.

I really think it's important that as Christians we don't go running around claiming ID is the ONLY way to view things, because those two links show what our reputation is in the world. Remember that believing the literal interpretation of Genesis is not a condition for a relationship with God. ;)

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this whole deal.

Wow, it's been forever since I last posted. Yikes.

Anyways, on Monday, Stephi and I saw "The Merchant of Venice" with Al Pacino. Wow, what a thought-provoking, weird Shakespeare flick - at least in the interpretation of the movie (which by the way only used the "original dialog"), everyone but the Jewish lender (played by Al Pacino) seems to be more or less Anti-semitic (one of the "hero figures" spits at the Jew at the beginning of the movie), and the Jew himself craves revenge and is not exactly Mr. Nice Guy either. However, there's this brilliant dialog piece where the Jewish lender (supposedly the villain!) very eloquently speaks out against the Anti-Semitism of his age:

He hath disgrac'd me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked my gains, scorned my Nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies, and what's the reason? I am a Jew: Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

I think that was a pretty much revolutionary thought for your average Joe Blowe ;) in Shakespeare's time.

So the Jewish lender's problem is he needs to learn mercy, everyone else needs to learn tolerance. Problem is, at the end, noone really seems to have learned anything.

Anyhow, very strange, but I'd recommend it if you're into deep stuff. ;) Here's the Wikipedia entry on the play.

This is a neat new site which I'm sure will be acquired by Google or Yahoo in the very near future: Frappr. For free you can create groups where anyone who knows about the group can enter their location, a little picture if they want to, and a shoutout to the group.

So, faithful readers, here's your chance - go to the johnstephi-blog group I just created, and post where you are in the world.

Let's see how many thousands of people actually read my blog. OK, maybe it isn't thousands, maybe...it's 4? 6? :)

A very surreal thing happened to me this week

I'm walking down the street, and suddenly notice a car stopped in front of a pedestrian crosswalk (one of those without a traffic light or anything). What's weird is no pedestrian is crossing or wants to cross, but the driver has this blank look like she's waiting for someone. OK, so she's spaced out, I think. But the taxi driver behind her and the car driver behind the taxi driver have the same blank look. Nobody's getting impatient with her at all for just standing there. I seriously am staring at this situation for a full 20 seconds at least before a truck comes up behind these three cars, honks, and everyone starts driving again as if nothing weird just happened. You have entered The Twilight Zone...doodoodoodoo....

Oh, another funny thing: Someone's listening to rap music in the subway so loud everyone can hear the music. Again, nothing special, except for the music: The chorus's beat is the loading sound of a shotgun and the shotgun shoots every 2nd beat. Writing this down I wonder if you all think that's as funny as I do. I couldn't help but laugh, in any case, and hope the guy doesn't pull out his own shotgun to shoot me. :)

Cool link of the week: Right here.
Click on one of those pictures for a year-long time-lapsed satellite shot of the States with each hurricane very visible. VERY VERY cool.

Us Three

Us Three
Originally uploaded by epaga.

Hi, just a quick pointer to our Flickr site, especially for this picture, this is the only picture of the three of us that we have, since usually one of us is snapshooting the other two.
Anyways, I think it turned out nicely (especially Joshua's drool line, very artistic).

Sorry for the delay, o great and mighty faithful readers. :)
Wow, I just noticed Stephi blogged! Sweet!

Anyways, my thoughts on that article - it's kind of a sensationalist article, since naturally the Catholic church still says the Bible is true, just not meant literally in all passages.
However it still shows a shift in their thinking - the Bible is losing more and more of its sovereignty - it is now subject to scientific interpretation: If something like Genesis is hard or impossible for scientists to accept as literal truth, then it's interpreted symbolically. But that's definitely a slippery slope. Which scientists decide what is to be interpreted symbolically? Do we take a vote?

In other news, I'm TOTALLY into "Getting Things Done"(GTD) lately, a book on stress-free productivity by David Allen.


I really think that after long years of searching (seriously!) I might have struck gold here on a system that actually works for me. I noticed there are loads of techie geek blogs saying the same thing so I think the system works especially well for techie geeks, although I'm sure the author would disagree and say it's for everybody. ;)
Here's a pretty good summary of the book in practical terms.
Here's a very cool blog on "life hacks", that is, productivity tricks.
Here's another very cool blog having to do with various GTD things.

Enjoy.

Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible - World - Times Online

This is a pretty intense article. Read it for yourself. Thoughts later.

This window popped up at me this morning at work. Thought it quite funny. Microsoft is protecting me from Internet Explorer. Nice.
Oh, and a cool link - check out this INCREDIBLY close-up detailed picture of a grain of salt next to a peppercorn. I like to think how God is not only infinitely big, but also infinitely small - going into the depths of cells, atoms, quarks is just as amazing as going into the depths of space.

Joshua on Cover of Cute Babies Magazine!

There are some nice little Flickr toys over at http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/.

In just about five minutes I made up this (fake) magazine cover. Pretty cute, eh? ;) Admit it, at first you actually thought this was genuine! ;)

Found this neat little personality test on politics right here: The Politics Test. Here's how I fared, believe it or not:

You are a Social Liberal (61% permissive) and an... Economic Moderate (50% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist

For those of you faithful readers who don't speak a word of German, try using Google's Translate tool to decipher what Stephi wrote. It gets especially interesting when you translate it into French then back to German then English.
"I hope you forgive me for not having written a blog entry for such a long time" then becomes:
"I hope that you forgive me, in order one blogeingang during a so long hour to have written."
Nice, eh?

One final note - the comments for the posts are getting spammed, so I had to switch to a word verification thingy that you have to enter. Sorry, but better than having a bunch of offers for "curing baldness" or enlarging your...uh...credit rate, for example. ;-)

Well, we're back!

We've been gone on our vacation for the past two weeks which is why the blog hasn't been updated for a while.
I'm debating whether or not to do one major post on everything or a bunch of littler ones and think I'll do a bunch of littler ones.
What's really cool is I can set the time and date for each post so at first glance you'll think you just missed all the updates when in fact I'm actually just now adding them.
Muahahaha...

Anyways - short version: REFRESHING, RELAXING, GREAT. Long version: Read below. :)

Oh yeah, one more thing - guess when our flight left to go back to Berlin? 5:05 a.m.
What does that mean? It means the bus came to pick us up at the hotel at 1 a.m.
Yeah. Ouch is exactly what I said.
So we got in about 1.5-2 hours of sleep before the bus trip then maybe another 2 on the plane trip to Düsseldorf (yep, they threw in an extra stop just for fun), then another 2 this afternoon. We're dead tired. We need a vacation. Just kidding.

BTW, Joshua, as always, did INCREDIBLY well during the entire time. On each of the 5 flights over the past two weeks he pretty much slept from takeoff to landing. At the hotel, he was gushed over by more "antique little girls" (that is, grandmas) than you could shake a stick at and smiled back at each one. Even during that belly dancer thing on the boat when the music was REALLY REALLY loud, he was snoozing away. I remember my sister Jana being really easy-going as a baby, but Joshua is just ridiculously easy, it's so great!

Unfortunately it rained pretty much the whole day on our last day there, which was especially disappointing for Stephi, since we had planned to get a whole day at the beach - something she had really been looking forward to. Tuesday and Thursday would have been perfect for that, but I had asked if we could just chill at the hotel on those days (not thinking the weather could actually change) - so we had planned on doing the beach on Friday and Saturday, neither of which ended up working.
But at least it stopped raining in the evening, so we went shopping.

OK, moral question of the day - I bought two Game Boy games there for pretty cheap, unfortunately the reason they were so cheap is because they weren't original games, they were copies. The police apparently completely tolerates that there (there was a police station right on the main store street where they were selling all sorts of crap). So - what should I do? Toss the games? Keep them and just don't buy any more of that sort? I think that legally I'm fine, since that sort of thing is completely allowed in Turkey, and I didn't do the copying of the game which is the big offense in Germany - but I'm not sure.
Thoughts?

Well, all in all: Simply great vacation, wonderful time.

Wednesday was the highlight of the trip, at least for me - we took a day's cruise along the coast of Turkey stopping at a few different inlets to swim in the ocean (jumping off a ship into a beautiful blue ocean is a very relaxing experience, BTW).
Then, shortly before lunch, we stopped at Phaselis - basically a set of ruins of an old city (probably dating back to around 700 B.C.) - mainly Roman / Greek ruins.
You can still see the aquiducts and the Roman baths' floors and an old theater with the awesome acoustics. Not especially informative, seeing as there were no signs anywhere about anything, but a beautiful place surrounded by forests.

Then the afternoon was more swimming plus a (very good) male belly dancer who I think put Stephi under some kind of spell since she dragged me onto the dancefloor (in the center of the boat) where she and about twenty others danced and I wiggled for two songs or so. :)

Pictures soon.

Our first actual "just us" vacation for the past two years! We're in Kemer, Turkey.
Phew, the weather is awesome here - pretty much non-stop sunny, the water's about 24°C, we're in a great four-star hotel (which is about the equivalent of a U.S. or Euro 3-star hotel) with good food, as many free drinks as you like, and a nice swimming pool.
We went to the beach on Monday, which is a pebbled beach rather than a sandy one (advantages: no sand in every crevice, disadvantages: it...ouch...can hurt your feet a...ouch...bit to just walk in or...ow...out of the water).
We'll be updating our Flickr page with pictures soon - remember boys and girls: the address is h-t-t-p-:-/-/-w-w-w-.-f-l-i-c-k-r-.-c-o-m-/-p-h-o-t-o-s-/-j-o-h-n-s-t-e-p-h-i.

We've been in Krakow this first week for the GCM Euro Pastors/Leaders' Summit.
It's been a wonderful time, touching base with various church leaders and their wives from all over the place.

Krakow itself is an interesting place, there's a very cool castle-plus-cathedral up on a hill that Stephi and I visited called uh..."Wawel" - John Paul II. actually served there as a priest for a long time.

Other than that: There was some major planning time for the upcoming GCE (Great Commission Europe - gotta love them abb.). Also, some awesome prayer times for the various countries in Europe - each of the different countries represented shared on what's going on, and then we'd pray for that country and its neighbouring countries (including mini mini countries like Andorra or San Marino, or the Holy See).
The food was just great, we had some good Texas Hold'em poker-playing with my Dad, my brother Timothy and his wife.

Oh, and, gotta share this with you, it was in our free Krakow travel guide - it seems the author has quite the experience:

Drunk Tank
Be warned: Polish beer and vodka are rocket fuel. If you’re determined to make a prat of yourself then make sure it’s not in front of the law. A trip to Krakow’s premier drunk tank (ul Rozrywkowa 1 – which literally translates as Entertainment Street) will set you back 250 zl [equivalent to about $85] for a 15 hour stay. In return for your cash expect a strip search, a set of blue pajamas and the company of a dozen mumbling vagrants. Those resisting arrest will find themselves strapped down to a bed, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest-style. Refreshment comes in the form of limitless coffee, though the mug it comes in will smell of urine for a reason. Credit cards not accepted.

OK, before I go to bed, three very cool links (I know, I really need to stop always just handing quick links to you guys and writing more substantial stuff, just don't have the time right now...):

1. Digg - this is actually where I'm finding a lot of cool links. Basically anyone can sign up there and submit a "cool link" (in their opinion that is) - anyone else can then "digg" the link if they like it - basically give it one positive vote. There are no negative votes, only one (1) positive vote or not, per person. The links with the most "Diggs" (up in the thousands) really tend to be very cool - it's kind of like grassroots democracy for cool links! :)

2. PocketMod - Create your own organizer with just one single piece of paper and a pair of scissors - it has folding instructions, and a little tool for making your own pocket-size 8-page daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly organizer, or to-do list, etc. I like this idea a lot, maybe having a little thing like that will make me actually use it rather than forget it at home all the time. Then again, maybe not. ;)

3. BlogLines - sign up and create a list of your favorite sites with an RSS feed (if you don't know what that is - basically any blog or news site has one). BlogLines keeps the list and can notify you if there is a new article. So basically you no longer need to visit the sites to know whether someone put up a new entry or not - you just go to your BlogLines account and see for ALL the sites you like whether there's anything new or not. No more asking yourself over and over again: "Did Mike Biang finally update his blog?" ;) (That one goes out to my new faithful reader...)

Woohoo! I now have 100 GMail invites. So, anyone who wants an invitation to the invitation-only exclusive top dog GMail club, simply ask me (either in the comments, or send me an email)! :)

Oh, and I repeat what I wrote last week some time: GMail rocks!

Here's a funny quote for the day:

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
- Emo Philips

US President announces "War on Weather"

:D

Declaration of Revocation by John Cleese
Very, very funny.

My dream job used to be "game developer", till I had an interview at a game company and realized they regularly expected 60-80 hour weeks at pretty low pay.
Well, here's my new dream job (seriously): "casual game developer". Enjoy. :)

OK, this is the most incredible optical illusion I've ever seen (and I've surfed quite a few optical illusion sites...), right here, the third one (the first two are kind of standard fare). That is just plain wrong. There is just no way my brain can be THAT off...uh...right?

Millionaire Potential

Anyone feel like getting ticked off? Follow this link - a guy called up a TV preacher and had him send him a "Miracle Packet".
Seriously, only look at the stuff if you're ready to get ticked off and angry (if you're a Christian, otherwise it's probably just funny).

Some poetry, anyone? This song has been going through my mind after reading Romans 10 today: "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen."

And
-Waterdeep, Album: "Sink or Swim"

I am haunted by my love for comparison
My fascination with a single common theme
And I am hounded by the fear that I might be losing it
Slipping from reality into dream

When my mind is muddled by the way it seems to work
I start looking for just one connecting Force
Someone to assure me we that didn't lose the war today
That the battle's General's still riding on his horse

In the mornings when I pray, I've often come to You with dreams
Little bits of power that I can't comprehend
And sometimes I can keep my eyes unclosed for long enough
To see the blowing of a distant steady Wind

The distance doesn't take too long for You to cover it
And when You reach me, You just blow these things apart
You clear the crowd that's gathered 'round the crisis of my soul
And whisper to my suffocating heart

Chorus:
And is the juice of the joints of the motion of life
And is the love that is between God and his beautiful wife
And has two hands and two feet and a long, lovely side
And rose three days after he was crucified

So You're the Force of gravity that I feel pulling at my feet
You're the Fuel at the center of the sun
And, it's your Ghost that fills the atmosphere with what we need to breathe
And, everything I've ever wondered, You're the one

Both my hands are stained with blood
And both my lips are stained with tears
From when I kissed the widow of the man I killed
And, yet You're asking me to swallow Your forgiveness here today
You say the bond required for my pardon's been fulfilled

Well, news from my good friend Mike Caron (also known as the one and only Rad Man) - he's engaged! For those of you who know him, here's his blog.
BTW, that blog goes back WAAAY far, even to the day of the "Rad Pad", where I live in an apartment with him, Dave Foote, and Zakcq and Jessica Lockrem. :)

What's also cool is that I met the girl he's engaged to a few years back - she was on the very first Rock Berlin team to check Berlin out, back in 2000. She was really nice back then, and Mike says she's even cooler now, so that's good. :)

Anyways, congratulations to Mike! Prepare yourself for a whole new wonderful world with a whole new set of problems. :)

Hi - I'm officially switching to GMail starting today, no question about it whatsoever.
Check this out to see why it rocks.
Anyone who would like an invitation, ask me, as soon as I'm getting some, I'll be dishing them out left and right. ;)
Also, check out Google Talk while you're at it.

Oh, one extra cool thing about GMail which you don't see in that tour - no one will notice I've switched except for you wonderful in-the-know blog readers, 'cause I'll still be sending as "from:" my rockberlin.de address, and having my rockberlin address as my "reply-to:" address, just forwarding all those emails to my GMail address. Anyways, there ya go!

BTW, from the same author as that last article:
Loads of statistics which you'll never see in a Michael Moore movie NOR ever read in a Focus on the Family article: Enjoy.

What would you say: Is violence among youth becoming more common, or less common?

I'll bet you thought "more common" - I mean hey, with all those horrible violent computer games causing things like Columbine (*cough*)...

Well, check this out:

“Escalating violent crime?” The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’ September 2004 National Crime Victimization Survey reports that “violent victimization rates” are now at “their lowest point recorded since the inception of the NCVS in 1973.”

“Escalating youth violence?” FBI Uniform Crime Reports show that in the past decade, youth violent crime arrests dropped 40 percent, led by a staggering 66 percent drop in murder. Over the past 30 years, children and teens are the only age groups to show a decline in violence arrest rates. Murder by teens is lower now than in any year since 1965.

Read the whole article here.

OK, this has "absolutely, totally and in all other ways" (bonus points for anyone who knows which movie that is) got to be the coolest thing I've seen in months:

A keyboard in which each key has its own display - so at any time, using open source software, you can cause it to display a different language, or controls for the game you're playing, or whatever!
Check it out to see what I'm talking about.
It's supposed to come out in 2006, and should cost "less than a good mobile phone" - so...what, 200€? 100€? I have GOT to get me one of these. :)

Well, I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a week or so ago. In my opinion, the best book of the series, well worth a read or even two.

Here are a few musings of mine on the seventh book, and about you-know-who-number-1 killing you-know-who-number-2 and whether you-know-who-number-1 is really evil and you-know-who-number-2 is really dead. :)
Simple highlight the following to read it:
OK, Snape kills Dumbledore - well, here's the deal.
1. Remember that Dumbledore is basically Mr. Phoenix - meaning that him coming back in book seven is totally plausible and probable. He's too much like Gandalf to not come back. ;)
2. Snape kills him as a result of his Unbreakable Vow from Chapter 2 - I think it is very possible that Dumbledore knew about this, and that he and Snape set the whole thing up so that a) Draco didn't kill him; b) Snape now has Voldemort's complete trust; c) Voldemort thinks Dumbledore is dead. Remember that Dumbledore knew Death Eaters were coming up the tower and did not "Accio" his wand even though he easily could have, also that he froze Harry so that Harry wouldn't defend him. It was clearly a voluntary death.
3. Snape does not kill Harry at the end even though he could - in fact, he saves Harry, and also teaches him a few things on the side!
So...I think Snape is a bitter person, but I also think he isn't "evil" in the sense that he is against Voldemort - probably wants revenge.
Well, there we go. :) My musings on Potter and the HBP.

Two cool links before I leave for lunch break:

First: Grassroots Music - a bunch of Christian indie songs and albums for sale, plus loads of free MP3s. My favorite MP3 so far is the acid jazzy "Ominous" by a guy named John Mark McMillan. Check it out!

Second: A very funny blog called "Old Grandma Hardcore" by a guy about his grandma's video gaming experiences. She's a gamer - has beaten Final Fantasy VII, and is playing Prince of Persia on XBox right now. It's hilarious, although (because?) she swears a lot at the games, so you've been warned. :) Here's a quote that kind of summarizes the page:

She's had two knee replacements and countless surgeries. If you were to see her in a grocery store you would see a old, Midwestern diabetic with thick glasses held up by a crutch or a shopping cart stumbling along smiling at everybody. She's polite, a safe driver, mother of five and grandmother of twelve. She's great. But if you get her in front of a game she likes, she becomes a monster; a demon who craves the blood, nay- the life-force of her enemies manifested as a swear happy old lady in a comfy chair. She has destroyed many controllers in frustration, already wore out two PS2's, and will gladly walk into a Gamestop or EB Games with the swagger of one with more knowledge about games and gaming than the teenager behind the counter can ever hope to amass.

I know I've already posted quite a few links to articles about computer games, but this one simply blows them all away:
Cultural Wargames
Here's one quote, but it doesn't do the article justice:

Despite the nay-sayers, games are still in the enviable position of being capable of expressing experiences other forms have had difficulties with, where its competitors' possibilities are at least partially quenched. While film, and its smaller-screened sister television, casting the last hundred years in soft, flickering light, still achieve magnificent things, its ideas and boundaries are increasingly well plotted. Games have barely even started.

I ran across this picture on a train ride, and had a very good laugh. It's so simple, kind of a Zen moment. Enjoy - and keep staring at it, it gets funnier that way. :)

Cool web page:
Play chess where you can watch the computer think as it plays you - it sketches a colored line for every possible move it's thinking about. After a while, you see this web of lines visualizing the possible moves, anyways, it looks VERY cool - plus, it's not impossible to beat it (but enough of a challenge to not be boring!). Have fun.

Thinking Machine 4: "The artwork is an artificial intelligence program, ready to play chess
with the viewer. If the viewer confronts the program, the computer's
thought process is sketched on screen as it plays. A map is created
from the traces of literally thousands of possible futures as the
program tries to decide its best move. Those traces become a key to the
invisible lines of force in the game as well as a window into the
spirit of a thinking machine."

I now have a Flickr account.
Join up at Flickr and check out all the pictures I'm putting up there, also be notified whenever there are new ones:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnstephi

Found a very very cool Internet site:
johnny.ihackstuff.com - this site has a huge list of so-called "Google Hacks" - basically, Google search strings that show up a load of stuff that show people have files set as public which should not be public, like password files, etc.
The guy (BTW a professing Christian, check out his "About" page!) works as a security advisor, warning sites about their huge security problems. :)
Just a quick example to show what this means:
Click here for Google to search for configuration files of web server accounts that people have left public.
See the ones with the long passwords(PWD=VDFG345...)? Those are very weakly encrypted password keys which you can decipher here. With that data, you could easily hack into someone's web server account, and completely take it over. BTW, only then would it become illegal - a Google search is not illegal. ;)

I for one welcome our new ultimate Google overlords.

Yeah, I'm a geek, so what?

Saw this quote today and thought it mighty cool:

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
- Aristotle

So true - so quickly we tune out as soon as someone has a thought contrary to ours, rather than being able to entertain it, weigh it, and think over it.

My thought for the day. ;)

The new Rock Berlin web page is up and running.
Check it out and tell us what you think!!!

-> http://www.rockberlin.de

Hi everyone!!



:)
Here are some new pics of the baby, to download them, right click and select "Save as...":

Joshua with Grandma Klement
Nice close-up (see above)
Joshua mesmerized by his first bath
Joshua with Grandpa and Grandma Goering

It's so weird to be calling our parents "Grandma" and "Grandpa", makes them sound so old, which they're not. Really! :)
That's it for today, folks, I wish I had more time to blog. I'll be trying to stay on top of this though, I promise, so keep checking in!

OK, so, yes, it's been FOREVER since we've written last. Sorry. :/
Anyways, BIG NEWS!!! Joshua Daniel Goering was born yesterday (May 8th) at 9:34 pm! Weighing in at about 2920 gram, but 51 cm tall, he's long and skinny. :) Here are three nice shots of baby as well as baby + Mom:
Just Joshua
Joshua + Proud Mom
Kind of artsy (cause overexposed ;) pic of Joshua.
It's laaate (zzzz), so a tired but very very happy and proud Dad is going to bed right about 20 seconds from now. :) More information to follow soon!!!

Here's, like, a really hilarious link, that, like, totally translates the web pages into, like, "Valley Girl" English - you know, like, with totally a bunch of, like, "likes" and "totally"s. Check this out for a, like, totally bodacious version of CNN:

Like, click!

:)

A bunch of other funny tools can be found here. Have fun!

Hi everyone...
This is kind of a follow-up to the article on violence in computer games (see below for that): This is a really thought-provoking collection of answers from game developers on the question "Do game creators have any moral responsibilities in teaching values to their audience?"

Both sides give very deep, logical answers, here's my favorite answer on the "Yes" side:

Of course they do. Like most responsibilities, however, there's no external motivation to take it upon oneself to fulfill them. The only way we will begin to accept responsibilities like that as an industry is when we can grow up enough to accept that all games, including violent ones, affect people. They don't turn kids into stark raving serial killers, but it's not all safe exploration of fantasy either. I dare you to play Grand Theft Auto for four hours and get into your car and NOT think about side-swiping or stealing other cars on the roadway. The issue, as always, is more complex than the two extreme viewpoints would suggest.

Of course games affect people. We're betting our livelihood on it, aren't we? We can only be taken seriously when we take ourselves seriously.
- Borut Pfeifer, Radical Entertainment

And here's my favorite on the "No" side:

No - parents do. There's a rating system for a reason. Parents - know something about your kid's lives for a change. I can't count how many times an adult will mention their kid's playing video games and say something like, "I can't do those things... my kid can do them all." Yeah, you don't say. Those same parents can barely use a computer for anything more than an occasional email, or a favorite website. It actually excites me that when I have kids I'll at least be able to understand and participate in their computer/video game/technology-esque lifestyles, know what they're talking about, doing and have fun with them all while protecting them and doing my job as a parent.
- Bryan Erck, Shiny

I also found it very interesting that the majority of game developers asked back "Whose values?" Let the battle for truth in a post-modern world begin - hey, sounds like a cool, violent computer game! :-)

THE HARD, COLD TRUTH
Something has come to my attention I must make known to the public - we've all heard the story about how German almost became the official language of the U.S. - and lost out to English by only one vote, right? I've told it myself to many people many times. Well, today I was shocked to find out that the story is an urban legend, a myth...NOT true at all! There never was such a vote, in fact, the U.S. never voted in any "official language" at all. Also, the percentage of Germans in the U.S. was never more than around 10%, so even if there HAD been a vote, it never would have been close for any language other than English!!
Read the shocking, disturbing disillusionment here, if you are strong enough to take it.

OK, real quick cool link to an article about Janet Jackson and her effect on violence in computer games...right here. Cool thoughts - the gist of it is that parents, not the government need to be the ones deciding what their kids are allowed to play and what not.
Here's a great quote from it:

It's the parent's job to decide what's appropriate for their children – not the government's. If your kid buys and plays something that seems inappropriate, pop the eject button on the console, put it back in the box, and march your son or daughter back to the store and demand a refund. Should the store absolutely refuse, destroy the game and teach your child an expensive lesson: You don't buy games of this nature without my approval.

Sure, this will result in all sorts of shouting and pouting, but it's not like kids won't act much the same way about many other decisions they feel are unfair.

There's no arguing that any of these bills has its heart in the right place. Young players should not play certain video games. But the ultimate responsibility for ensuring kids aren't exposed to something they shouldn't be starts and ends at home.

So true!!!! I wish this column would make its way to some German papers - I feel that more often than not, the "ultimate responsibility" for deciding what German kids are allowed to play and watch starts with the German government and ends at home, sometimes...

Hi!
Stephi was at the doctor's today for a high-resolution ultrasound. Her doctor had said that the baby's body was too small in proportion to its head, and had wanted a close-up check.
Well, it turns out everything is basically fine - after taking another look at her notes and papers and stuff, Stephi thinks her doctor probably got the baby's week (29th) wrong by a week or two. Anyways, one good thing came out of it all: We got a cool picture of him (yes, it most DEFINITELY is a "he", after the high-resolution ultrasound, we know for certain... :). Here it is, check it out: CLICK Oh, for those who don't know what to look for (like me, it took a bit): It's a picture of his profile, his face is facing up, and is at the right of the picture. His shoulders/tummy go off towards the left. Pretty cool, eh?
----------
Hi Leute!
Stephi war heute zur Feindiagnostik beim Arzt. Ihre Ärztin hatte gesagt, dass der Körper des Babys ein wenig zu klein aussah im Vergleich zum Kopf, und wollte eine Feindiagnostik machen lassen.
So wie's jetzt aussieht, ist alles OK - nachdem Stephi sich die Unterlagen und zeugs ein wenig genauer angesehen hat, denkt sie, dass die Ärztin wohl sich in der Woche (29.) um ein paar vertan hat. Jedenfalls ist da was gutes bei rausgekommen: Wir haben eine cooles Bild von ihm gekriegt (ja, es ist 100%ig ein "er", nach der Feindiagnostik besteht definitiv kein Zweifel daran. :) Hier ist das Bild: CLICK Für die, die nicht wissen, was da zu sehen ist (wie ich, hat ne Weile gedauert): Ist ein Bild seines Profils, sein Gesicht schaut nach oben und ist rechts im Bild zu sehen. Seine Schultern/Bauch gehen dann nach links rüber. Cool, oder?

OK, that does it - everyone go buy themselves a headset for like 5 Euros, then go download Skype - a free Internet telephone program. It's just so awesome how well it works, and it's free!
I just got off Skyping a three-way conference with my Mom in Dortmund and my Dad in Amsterdam - for free!
The quality is absolutely incredible, so long as you're not downloading something on the side or as long as you're not sharing your connection with a bunch of people.
And did I mention it's free?
Once you have it, add johnstephi (one word) to your contacts, and skype us!

-----------------

Auf gut Deutsch: wer sich Skype (kostenloses Internet-Telefonieren in unglaublich genialer Qualität) nicht holt ist dämlich. :)

This is awesome: Some terrorist group posted a picture of a soldier they said they had taken hostage, but actually it turns out it was a fake, and - get this - that they used an American toy solider miniature to take the picture. Terrorists may be evil and all, but whoever came up with this idea was creative...and stupid. :)
Here's the link. Click.

Here's a funny little story I laughed at which probably none of you will: A Romanian tabloid printed a story that a couple named their baby "Yahoo" because they had met at a Yahoo dating service web page. It turned out this was just a prank.
What I laughed at was the East European directness of the editor-in-chief:

"It was the reporter's child's birth certificate, which he modified," said Simona Ionescu, Libertatea's deputy editor-in-chief. "We fired him."

:-) Yeah, I know, I have weird humor. I just love the care-free sound of "We fired him".
She then goes on to say: "If it were real, it would have been a good story indeed".

But it wasn't...so [Russian accent]we fired him[/Russian accent]. :D

Here's a short transcript from Bush's inaugural speech yesterday:

There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment and expose the pretensions of tyrants and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant. And that is the force of human freedom.

[...] The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

Awww...inspiring isn't it? Well, it's wrong, too.
The only force of history that can do that is the love of Jesus Christ. Sorry, but human freedom is NOT the fix-it-all. Humans, given freedom, will NOT automatically go to peace together. That'd be nice, but it just won't happen. The problem is that Bush is apparently assuming humans are actually peaceful by nature, and so just give them enough freedom, and there'll be peace.
Don't get me wrong, freedom is definetly necessary for peace, but that's not what Bush is saying - he's going beyond that, putting human political freedom up as salvation for mankind. And that's what's wrong.

Woohoo!!!
I just found out that I got a 1.0 on my Bachelor
thesis!!! That's definetly better than I had expected!
All in all, that puts me at an end grade of 2.0, which is awesome! Thanks for all your prayers and support! Gotta get back to work now... :)
P.S. On Friday, February 11th is my official graduation, where I get my degree and all of that good stuff - as many of you out there as can make it, I'd love to have you there!
----------------

Juhuuu!!!
Hab gerade rausgefunden, dass ich eine 1,0 für meine Bachelor-Arbeit bekommen habe!!! Weit besser, als ich erwartet hatte!
Alles in allem habe ich also eine Abschlussnote von 2,0, was klasse ist! Danke für eure Gebete und für eure Unterstützung! So, jetzt sollte ich mal wieder an die Arbeit... :)
P.S. Am Freitag, dem 11. Februar findet während der Semesterabschlussfeier die offizielle Zeugnisübergabe statt - wer auch immer von euch da sein kann, ich würd mich echt freuen euch dabei zu haben!

Watched "The Incredibles" yesterday. That is one awesome movie I definetly want on DVD. Once again, Pixar (makers of Toy Story, Finding Nemo, etc.) blows away everybody.
I know you'll laugh at me for this, but whatever: Something I found very thought-provoking was the line Dash (the little boy) says some time early in the movie: "Yeah, I know: Everyone's special - which is just another way of saying noone is."
That, ladies and gentlemen, has got to be one of the deepest lines ever spoken in a cartoon. Check out this article in the New York Times for a deeper look at that thought.
I'll leave it at that, my thoughts go a lot further (think "predestination"), but would take too long (and could be misunderstood too easily) to go into them. ;)
Anyways, the movie gets a 9.50 from me - in fact, I'd be up for watching it again at the theaters, I'll have to see if I can get Stephi to do that (she loved it, too, BTW)...