Cogitations by Brad

I was browsing through a Christian bookstore today, and just so happened to pick up a lesson planner that had some ideas about teaching lessons. I don’t remember the title exactly, but it was about the hard teachings of Jesus. I read the first lesson, which covered the rich young ruler, and it gave me a new perspective on the story.

The ruler, even though he had kept all of the commandments, Jesus told him that he had to sell all he had to be able to inherit the kingdom of God. The ruler left, not feeling so good about himself. I always thought the point was that we have to share what we’ve been given, to be generous to others.

The way the author explains it though, he says that the money, and the garments that made him appear as a ruler, defined him in society. It was his money that he had put his hope in in life, and the only way for him to truly be a Christian, he needed to shed off that old societal definition of being rich, young, and a ruler, and to become fully devoted to God.

It’s the same with us. We are defined by our popularity, by the crowd we fit in, and even by our wealth. I see in myself that I often define myself by the way other people see me. Whether I feel like a “fun” person at the time, or slightly boring, often my self-worth is measured by what society tells me. I’ve recently had problems with vehicles, and two incidents happened with my car. When something of monetary value of mine is threatened, I start to worry, and it gives me huge butterflies so much so that I can’t sleep. Jesus tells us not to worry about food or clothing, and yet I can’t even imagine life without a car. I think this was the rich young rulers problem. He was defined by his wealth, and so if he lost it, he would be a nobody.

When we are defined so much by something in this world, we lose our definition as Christians. We put our hope in our jobs, instead of our walk with God. Or maybe our hope is in the car we drive, or the crowd we are with, or even our family. All these things are blessings to have, but they can easily come between us and God.

What’s it going to take for us to be God’s child, to see ourselves by what God sees, and not by what’s on the outside. We need to leave the popular crowd, and reach out to those who are a little lower than ourselves. We have to get out of our mind off of the cars we can’t afford, the clothes that make us look like snobs, and the newest Gadget that might give us a couple of hours of entertainment.

So what is Jesus saying to us. “Leave your best friends, and follow me” (2 Cor 6:14). “Don’t work so many hours at your job; teach your kids about my love.” Jesus tells us to put our teasure in heaven, instead of in things that are just temporary on the earth. What are you defined by?

I attended Haskell Singing School this past week. The song I wrote, I actually wrote 2 years ago, but we had a class over writing harmony parts. It’s the best song I’ve ever done, which may not be saying much. Feel free to use it as you wish. I arranged the parts as well while attending Haskell Singing School. I’ve included the pdf sheet music, a midi file to listen to, and the lilypond source used to create the music.

Romans 15:13 - PDF
Romans 15:13 - MIDI
Romans 15:13 - LilyPond

I was driving today, and I was thinking, why don’t normal cars have an autopilot yet? It’s very much possible with the power of computers. I’m sure they have cars that do it, but with a pretty big price tag.

It really wouldn’t be that hard. Some sensors for lines in the road, sensors to test the distance of obstacles in front of you, and a camera to record speed limit and other road signs. They already have distance sensors for backing up, but front sensors would have to be able to sense for a longer distance.

It would need to disengage during bad weather, traffic, or extreme road conditions. I would have an aggressive knob, to know what the minimum preferred speed is (least aggressive would use the least gas).

I’m sure there’s a lot more to it, but it’s possible if a car company would just do it, and they could go a long ways. There would have to be “Not Responsibile in case of X” clauses that the person would have to agree to, and lots of safety issues as well.

I would go for a car with autopilot.

I just bought my new laptop a couple of months ago, but there’s some things I need to do first.

The 40GB Hard Drive isn’t going to work for long. I do have a hard drive my brother had that he couldn’t use, but unfortunately, I really need to have windows to where I can dual boot it with Ubuntu. I don’t have a copy of windows lying around (XP would do). They should make a Priceless Edition. I have a product key on the bottom of the laptop for XP Tablet Edition, but I’d have to pay $40 to get it from Toshiba.

I also need RAM. It’s got a 512MB Stick, but, boy, does it get slow when I have 15 windows open when I’m at work.

Maybe I’ll go get some RAM in the next couple of days.

Edit: 1.5 GB > 512 MB. I got an upgrade in RAM, and the difference looks amazing so far. I’ll have to run it for a while to know for sure, but loading the O/S seems slightly faster, and web-browsing seems better as well.

I only work 5 hours a day on average, but this accounting class on top of working takes a lot of brain cycles up. I get to accounting, and with nothing left to give accounting. I usually leave work earlier, but today, I left at 5, leaving 30 minutes at home before I have to leave for class.

I don’t like having little personal relationship with people here. I talk to people at church, and my boss at work on some days, but I just don’t have a social life other than that.

A lot of churches have either moved or are moving to using overhead slides, but a lot of them don’t know a lot about the hardware and software available to them. I think by advising these churches on a good solution, I could know the right solution to save them money, and get a portion of the money that was saved by the congregation for my service.

This idea stems from a website I did for a guy that advised people on a another issue, but it’s consulting work, which is this idea.

Maybe I won’t have to charge a lot if I have another full time job, and just charge enough to cover costs, but if I decided to try and use this as an income, I don’t see any immediate problems with it. I might could even build some of the hardware, and become a wholesaler to make the product even cheaper while retaining more of the profit. Both sides would benefit.

I wish some people would come with disclaimers on their forehead. (And I’m not talking about you, the person reading this, because you yourself, are perfect as you are ). It could say, “I’m not rational,” or “I think too highly of myself.” Maybe even, “I have too much money and it’s going to cost you a lot to be my friend because I don’t know what efficiency is.”

Maybe I just need to learn to say no.

Since my accident, I haven’t updated this thing much. Maybe that’s because of the condition of my fingers. I had major lacerations on the outside 3 fingers of my left hand, and had to have stitches, and wear bandages for the past 3 weeks on them. I’ve seen a hand doctor twice, and this last time, he told me that I was ready to start using them a little more.

I’m still going to be wearing a wrap on my middle finger, but the outside two are actually healing nicely. The pinky has definite scars, and the ring finger still has a spot that is healing, but they’re good enough that I don’t have to protect them as much.

I’ve been doing sporatic work on Exposong, including getting image slides, but nothing to show for it yet. I’ll actually be starting back to work on Tuesday, so I’ll be looking forward to getting back to work.

We were driving in Lubbock yesterday. My roommate, Garrett, was driving his Toyota, I was sitting shotgun, and Tina was in the back seat. Someone was tailgating us, so Garrett decides to break to get them off. “Hold on,” he says, not actually knowing that we’re going to have a real reason to hold on soon. The vehicle swerves left to avoid him and over corrected, coming back to hit the left side of the bed of the truck. We fly left, and it feels unreal; the top of the truck hit on the ground, I see the windshield shatter. Most of the impact was on the drivers side. I had blacked out.

Now we’re on all four wheels with people all around the car. A lot of medical people had witnessed it, and they were making sure we were all not too badly injured.

The roof had caved a little on my side, but more so on the drivers side. The windshield in front of me was shattered, and disconnected at the top. I looked down, and my hands were bloody. Turns out most of my injury was in my left hand. I started to see spots.

Emergency vehicles arrived a little later. They put a neckbrace on all of me and pulled me out, making sure that they did all the effort. They had to pry the backdoor off to get Tina out.

Tina and I went in one ambulance to University Medical Center. Garrett went to Covenant Hospital.

Once we arrived, they put me in the hallway. Random nurses were asking some questions. The hospital was overrun with people coming in on carts and police officers. I heard someone say that we flipped 2, maybe 3 times. It took 45 minutes to get a doctor (estimated). Another 15 minutes, and a guy came to get a catscan on my neck, and an x-ray on my hand. They took me back to the hallway.

I had been thirsty since I got there, but they wouldn’t give me a drink. My brother came in finally, because they had locked down the ER (I think for an investigation of some sort). Other people came in and out to visit me, and it would take at least 1.5 hours to get me to a room. Another hour and the doctor came to stitch me up finally. Another 45 minutes and a nurse came and cleaned my wounds up. They must have liked me so much that they wanted to keep me around.

They finally released me, and Daniel and I went and got my medicine.

Thanks to Daniel, Jeff, Hollis, and all others who showed up at the hospital. (I typed this with one hand and another finger)

I know a lot of Americans who absolutely hate the idea of our products coming from other countries. They whine and complain, saying, “they’re stealing our jobs,” or they state that in fact, the workers are underpaid and oppressed in their jobs because it is a 3rd world country.

In fact, when our factory jobs go overseas, it’s a good thing. Not only do we stimulate the economy of the countries, and add wealth to the country, we get a good product as well, at a lower price. They are happy to have a steady income, that probably pays more than they would get without the factory, and our pocketbooks are better off because the wages of paying their employees are lower.

Does it take away American jobs? In a way. Do we as Americans want to work for $5.15/hour (actually more now that minimum wage is going up)? Do we want mundane factory jobs? No, most of us do not. Our nation is moving away from the low, hourly rate jobs, and into the educated, high salary jobs. There are plenty of jobs for the uneducated, and even though it hurts when 1,000 people lose their job to a factory relocation, without change, our economy will never grow.

It’s important to remain informed on the major issues. A lot of times, politicians will tell us what we want to hear, but it’s  not always what’s best for us in the long run. So, before you complain about the economy, make sure you know the facts.