Bag of Randomness for Monday, December 14, 2015

Screenshot 2015-12-13 at 8.39.27 PM

  • The blurry picture on the left was taken five years ago before we lit one of the Advent candles at church.  The one on the right is from yesterday before having the honor again of lighting an Advent candle.  Five years sure does fly by and changes a family.
  • My pastor, a conservative Republican, started his sermon quite interestingly by playing clips of the famous LBJ “I Will Not Run” speech and Vice President Joe Biden’s press conference announcing his intent not to run for president.  He talked about the personal ambition it takes to make a president run and its seductive power, and how interesting it must be for people to recruit you to stay in office or to run for it, and then to turn it down.  He explained it much more eloquently than I’ve just summarized it (and I know you histories have your own thoughts on LBJ, but I think you get the gist), and then related it to the story of John the Baptist in the first chapter of John.  John had a chance to achieve top dog status when he was asked if he was the Messiah, Elijah, or a prophet, but also turned away selfish ambition and seductive power by testifying about Jesus, directing the attention on where it should have been focused – saying he is not the one they are looking for, but he was simply the preparer.  My pastor also went on to say that too many people in the overall church focus too much on the preacher instead of who the preacher is pointing to.
  • I can only imagine what could be going through the mind of a visitor to our church when a video of Biden was being played – we are in a very conservative state after all.
  • I needed to crop an image in PowerPoint 2013 and thought it would be intuitive.  I selected the image, chose the crop feature, adjusted the frame, and then hit Enter, which didn’t work.  That was a bit perplexing, so I tried looking for a button to confirm the changes, but no luck.  It turns out to save changes to an image you crop, you have to hit the Esc key.  I find that odd and wouldn’t have ever thought to use that key to save changes in any program.
  • “Do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” – I was thinking it would be neat to write a story or screenplay in which a witness is sworn in and either a lawyer or judge cuts off the witness or forces him or her to answer in such a way that truth is distorted, only for the witness to state that he or she just swore to tell the whole truth and the line of questioning is distorting the ability to do so.  But then again, I know nothing about law except the “C” I earned in a business law class back in 1998.
  • Disney’s crazy ‘FaceDirector’ software can change actors’ emotions in a scene – Disney has released video of a new, bizarre tool that allows people to visually modulate actors’ emotions, seemingly in real time. 
  • Buzzfeed – 12 Disneyland Treats You Can Only Indulge In During The Holidays
  • Buzzfeed – Trump Calls Cruz A Maniac, Cruz Responds With The Song From Flashdance
  • Buzzfeed – The Little Girl With Severe Burns Who Wanted Christmas Cards Has Been Flooded With Them
  • Buzzfeed – 12 Best Hymn Covers Of 2015
  • CNN is hosting another GOP debate, but of course, since there are too many candidates, they have to have a primetime version with the leading nine vote getters and another with just the four remaining contenders.  I think it’s time the GOP or CNN just drops the undercard debate.
  • It’s a Barbie cake, except Chewbacca is wearing the dress.  I like how he’s holder a banner with the little girl’s name.
  • I saw a commercial that Ford has a feature on their trucks that will help in the backing up of a trailer.  While that’s a cool feature, there are some things I think that technology shouldn’t touch.  But then again, I’m the type that prefers to keep bowling scores with pencil and paper instead of letting some device do it.
  • When I heard the NFL commissioner was going to put together a committee to define what a catch actually is, I thought that was similar to another Sunday institution.  It sounded a lot like a pastor or church elders putting a committee together for something most people consider would think is pretty simple.  And if you ever been a part of church leadership, you definitely know what I’m talking about.
  • GIF – Police drone capturing trespassing drone – I wonder if this was how Skynet started.
  • GIF – Drone racing
  • GIF – The cutest GIF you’ll ever see of a dog and red Solo cups.
  • When the Army/Navy game broadcast started, CBS opened with a live shot of Army cadets in the stands. When they noticed they were on camera, about five of them pulled out banners provided to them by USAA to show to the camera, but all of the cadets were holding them upside down.  I’m sure midshipmen and their graduates are passing a GIF of that moment around.
  • I think next up on my binge watching schedule is ‘The Man in High Castle’ when I take some time off for Christmas break.  That’s the Amazon show, which is based off a novel, in which German and Japan wins WWII and what the U.S. is like some twenty years later.  I read somewhere that in the novel, it mentions a novel about what life would be like if the Allies won WWII.
  • For the first time in my life, I might actually contribute money to a Republican candidate.
  • I’m in the red area, but I live on top of a hill, so I might be OK – The Army Corps of Engineers will need millions of dollars to repair the Lewisville Lake Dam, one of the nation’s most dangerous. A breach could put 431,000 people in harm’s way.
  • A Christian version of Cards Against Humanity.
  • Texas Tech, A&M draw battle lines over vet school
  • Some football teams are traveling the distance of entire countries for Texas state championships
  • 99-year-old woman wins shopping spree at 99 cent store
  • I’d rather have some sort of public transportation out there – Arlington considering $200 million proposed development near Rangers ballpark
  • I thought I knew everything about my own stapler until I read this.
  • Today’s dose of ‘MURICA!
  • I’m not a fan of doing non-traditional things during the Christmas season, but I had to run the air conditioning on Saturday as it was just too warm.
  • The only thing I plan on doing tonight is watching the season finale of ‘Fargo’ and I expect nothing but greatness, even though almost everyone is dead.
Posted in Personal | 8 Comments

ChristianCarryPins.com – Encouraging Christian Self-Defense In A Hostile World

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KINGSTON, Tenn. (WVLT) — “There ought to be a way for Christians to kind of be able to give a nod to each other that they’re Christian and carry and that they’re not going to kneel down and allow someone to kill them,” said Brant Williams, Owner of Frontier Firearms.

Williams decided to create Christian Carry Pins.

“I wear these pins as you notice saying I’m Christian and I carry weapons,” said Bobby Dodd who shoots at the range five days a week

“It seems as a nation, we’re working hard to exclude Christians from the public discourse,” said Williams.

Now he’s selling four different pins. He said it’s so Christians know it’s okay to defend themselves.

“Christ was a man of peace and he preached peace and tolerance but he did not preach that Christians should give up their lives in the course of their day,” said Williams.

The pins have different bible verses on them talking about self defense in the bible.

Full Article

Check out his online store here: ChristianCarryPins.com.  You will also  see a link for BiblicalSelfSDefense.com.

Posted in Political, Spiritual | 3 Comments