davehayes.org

Andy Hill and Derek McCallum have just launched their site, bibleshark.com. It’s a very fast, customizable, online parallel Bible featuring 10 different translations. Here are a few examples of what you could do…

• 2 Kings 2:23-24 in KJV, DBY and NAS (Elisha and the bears)
• 1 Kings 18:21-40 in NAB, BBE, WEB and DRB (Elijah and the prophets of Baal)
• Judges 3:12-16 in NAS (Story of Ehud)
• John 3:16 in all available translations

Definitely a great resource, and without the painful load times of other online Bibles. Thanks for the great work, guys.

or, a stream of consciousness account of an insomniac’s (that would be me) typical evening…

12:05am

0.84 miles is entirely too far for me to drive to taco bell. i wish it were closer so i could walk and get some exercise before compulsively overeating. man, i am such a fat kid these days… but i am starving to death and will have to make the journey at some point, and they close in 2 hours. i probably should get going soon.

i’ve always been amazed at the people that are disgusted by taco bell’s food. seriously, i’ve always really enjoyed it… it’s not like it’s any less healthy or consistently any less clean than any other fast food, so why the hate for taco bell?

i’m looking forward to listening to imogen heap in the car. hopefully it’s not too cold.

how is my dad so obsessed with ren and stimpy? he’s been talking about that show for weeks, which is odd considering it’s the first time he’s really mentioned it since i’ve been old enough to be allowed to watch the show.

El Kabong: my 2 favs are Stimpy goes through puberty and the other where they join the army

off to newzbin we go. i seem to remember a ren and stimpy cartoon where ren had insomnia… unfortunately all the ren and stimpy at newzbin is dvds, and hopefully i won’t be up long enough to wait for one of those to download so i’ll just skip it.

you know, the last time i was home i sat and watched evil dead 2 with my parents. that was pretty interesting since it’s one of my favorite movies and draws heavily from the 3 stooges, who my dad loves. the 3 stooges do rock pretty hard. i don’t think he liked evil dead though.

stupid god forsaken stomach! i guess i’ll get dressed and drive to taco bell. $2 says i come back with a steak nacho cheese chalupa (no tomatoes), a steak quesadilla and some of those new steak taquitos. you’re on.

12:48am

what do you say,
that you only meant well?
well of course you did
what do you say,
that it’s all for the best?
of course it is
what do you say?
that it’s just what we need
you decided this
what do you say?
what did she say?

i love fourthmeal. WHERE IS THE SAUCE ON MY QUESADILLA!? dang it, that’s the best part, don’t skimp on it!

1:00am

i’m not even close to tired. i have to get up for work in exactly 5 hours, which sucks immensely. it could be worse i suppose… i could be getting up for school. or i could be getting up to be executed. either one of those would suck much worse i think. at least this way i get to make a little money.

i’m pretty sure the get up kids are my favorite band. i love the new amsterdams too, but they can be a little bleak at times. the get up kids’ music just makes me feel good, which is strange. it’s strange that recordings and pictures can evoke such strong emotions in most of us, both positive and negative. i’m glad matthew pryor is out there doing his thing to counteract idiots like the zach guy from rage against the machine. have a glass of chocolate milk and smile once in a while, sour puss.

where did sierra mist come from? one day i was happily going along with my life, enjoying my sprite. then, out of the clear blue sky, none of the restaurants around here have sprite… they all have this sierra mist stuff. and it’s great. thanks for that one, God.

if you’re ever trying to install windows (as paul is right now), do remember to keep your driver disc for your SATA controller handy, or you’ll run into trouble because windows won’t be able to see the drive. that presents a problem considering you’d like to install windows to the drive, which it does not currently see.

The Paul: I’m the bomb.com: on a note… for a mass cleansing of a computer, would taking off both sides and using a the compressor from a gas station be a plausible idea?

upon further consideration, perhaps his problems are more far reaching than i had previously thought.

another strange thing about music is the way that it can trigger certain memories in a very big way. the new amsterdams’ never you mind, the get up kids’ something to write home about and reggie and the full effect’s promotional copy evoke very strong winter memories for me. i can remember having a snow day, and braving the storm to go spend the day at erin wexstten’s house and listening to never you mind for most of the day. i can remember listening to promotional copy at the new year’s eve party i attended that year. i can remember working at inky dew by myself on a saturday, listening to something to write home about. i sat for hours and watched out the window as it snowed and snowed and snowed so badly that i had only a brave few customers the whole day.

none of these things happened a terribly long time ago, 5 or 6 years at the most, yet i suddenly feel quite old and distant from them. only last week, my friend’s 15 year old daughter was amazed that i (being a quite elderly 23 years old) would have a myspace account. i am, apparently, much too old for such things, at least in her mind (i hope you don’t mind me re-using this, rachel). so, 23 years old… and here i sit with my laptop resting on my buddha belly and scratching the top of my balding head thinking fondly of a better time… long before global warming came and ate our winters like a big bowl of snow ice cream.

dagger576: some music makes me think of the video games i was playing as i listened to it

i hadn’t thought of that, but nothingface’s an audio guide to everyday atrocity does evoke the memory of playing the catacomb abyss on that old 386 dale reese gave me. dos games rock.

1:38am

my eyes feel like they’re going to bleed.

1:40am

this season of 24 is pissing me off. i don’t know what it is… just seems like the middle ones (3, 4 and 5 maybe) were so much better. i still haven’t watched last week’s episode. it wasn’t too long ago i would be up at this hour simply because i was so engrossed in 24 that i couldn’t turn it off. now, i’ve had last week’s episode sitting on my hard drive for a week and just can’t get excited about watching it. maybe those chinese losers beat all the BA out of jack, i don’t know. rush says to just wait, cause it gets better… but i don’t know man. it’s honestly boring me to death. i’m ready to see some terrorists meet the wrath of jack bauer.

myspace is such a huge hunk of crap. seriously, what a flaming poo of a web site. i curse it.

well, it’s now 1:50am. i’m feeling somewhat tired so i think i’m going to try to actually go to sleep.

2:40am

still can’t sleep. why is it that the most “enlightened, progressive and culturally aware” people tend to be the biggest racists, bigots and irrational, emotional, unreasonable and least tolerant loudmouths in a given area? news flash: the toothless redneck, backwoods hillbilly and various iterations of billy bob and bubba, yeah… those are offensive racial stereotypes. we get the point, you’re an elitist, hypocritical jerk face and you think that since obviously the entire southeastern united states is running around barefoot banging their sisters, eating roadkill and spouting their ridiculous fundamentalist values, none of the rest of the country (or world) will mind your belittling an entire geographical region and culture. well, guess what: we do mind. we do not act out deliverance on a daily basis, like i’m sure you think we do.

i’m a network administrator. i am a linux enthusiast. i enjoy writing xhtml and css. i went to school for audio engineering. i scored a 29 on my act as a junior in high school. if, after reading that, the fact that i am a christian who enjoys drag racing and firearms instantly invokes caricatures of buck toothed, uneducated imbeciles in overalls with straw hanging out of their mouths… congratulations! you’re a bigot, a prejudiced scum bag and probably a racist too. your offensive and inaccurate portrayal of the people southeastern united states and their culture needs to stop.

3:13am

regardless of the fact that i am now mad enough to spit, i’m going to try to sleep again.

earlier today, i received an instant message from a friend of mine complaining that, “this chick told me i couldn’t cuss, because the bible said i couldn’t.” he was understandably annoyed at the notion that he, an (self-proclaimed) unbeliever, was expected by a coworker to adhere to the moral obligations set forth by a religious text to which he does not subscribe. how would she feel if he were to deride her for eating beef, stating that the rigveda says cattle are sacred. the rigveda means nothing to her, why should she care what it allows and forbids?

obviously, we as Christians believe that the Bible applies to all of mankind, but in what capacity? the Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and also that “no one comes to the Father except through [Jesus].” the Bible also tells us that “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars” will be cast into the lake of fire.

but are we given the authority to hold our fellow man accountable to the standards set forth by the Bible?

paul makes an important distinction in his first letter to the believers in corinth:

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NASB)

⁹ I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; ¹⁰ I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. ¹¹ But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler–not even to eat with such a one. ¹² For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? ¹³ But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.

(more…)

DAPHNE, Ala. — Worried about the safety of her family during a stormy Memorial Day trip to the beach, Clara Jean Brown stood in her kitchen and prayed for their safe return as a strong thunderstorm rumbled through Baldwin County, Alabama.

But while she prayed, lightning suddenly exploded, blowing through the linoleum and leaving a blackened area on the concrete. Brown wound up on the floor, dazed and disoriented by the blast but otherwise uninjured.

She said ‘Amen’ and the room was engulfed in a huge ball of fire. The 65-year-old Brown said she is blessed to be alive.

Firefighters said its likely she was hit by a bolt of lightning that apparently struck outside and traveled into the house yesterday afternoon. She was found lying on the floor by her 14-year-old granddaughter.

Fire officials think the lightning likely struck across the street from the couple’s home and traveled into the house through a water line. The lightning continued into the couple’s backyard and ripped open a small trench.

A family member said he will no longer assume it is safe to be indoors during a lightning strike.

Dime-sized hail and wind gusts of up to 45 miles-per-hour moved across coastal Baldwin County. As much as three inches of rain fell in some areas in three hours.

this weekend was host to a bit of a debate with some friends, and there was some other discussion today that had me thinking about the authority of men to deal death as a punishment. it is not a pleasant subject to discuss or consider, to be sure. it is not nearly so cut-and-dried as many other subjects in the Bible due to a fair amount of dissonance in the scriptures, primarily between old testament law and some of the teachings of Jesus with a few new testament instances sprinkled about.

basically, my views boil down to the fact that i put a lot of stock in tradition and in the wisdom of my elders - second only to the Word itself, actually. in light of these things, i find fault in the views of pacifism held by a growing number of my contemporaries, both in regards to capital punishment and the defense of one’s self and his beloved. the arguments for each side are tired and i will not at this juncture delve deeply into the topic, because i am still working out many of the details for myself. however, for those of you ashamed to live in a country that will take a person’s life for his transgressions, i hope that romans 13:1-4 can ease your mind in the face of such painful considerations.

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.