CaptainTux

I came here at a confusing time in my life. I have been a Christian since 1986 and was even a pastor at one time. After a few blows in life, much of it from the christian community, I had given up. Then life drew me to re learn my need for God. Most of the christian forums and chat rooms were more of the same, it seems that most churches in America has been co opted by political parties. This site may be LDS, but the thoughts conversations, and perspectives are universal in many instances and the people are very real. I wish I could credit this to the LDS, but I have found other lds boards that are more dogmatic than community as well. This site is unique and I enjoy the community.

Well, I do better on the quick gotchas, you can write long ones that I can't compete with..medium would be fair.

Dr T. Congrats, my friend. Wait....What the heck are we gonna debate about now?

The ten countries that drink alcohol (based on consumer purchase is 1. Portugal 2. Luxembourg 3. France 4. Hungary 5. Spain 6. Czech Republic 7. Denmark 8. Germany 9. Austria 10. Switzerland Now, the US, who does not even make this list has the highest ratre of alcoholism by a huge margin. Indonesia is our closest rival. I am not sure why this is.

And with that last comment so full of love and tolerance for other beliefs under the Christian umbrella...well..... Cheers

Mrs Tux likes me scruffy. I like me clean.

I would be concerned about your character if it did not hurt. I will be praying that he gets cleared of all charges. I am glad you are giving him his decorations. You may want to explain to his wife the reasoning so she can explain it to him in case he feels odd about it. He deserves a welcome home and I thank him for his service.

It is. About a week before the presentation I compromise the security of as many students as possible and they are unaware until the day of the lecture when I ask them to pull my presentation from their hard drive and tell them what their new password is. I do this by pretending to be a headhunter offering a juicy internship to each student on the phone and after a 15 minute phone call I usually have enough info to get into their system. In a class of 20, I average about 3 successful invasions.

Confession: Once a semester I lecture at a local college regarding cryptography, social engineering, and exploiting weaknesses in computer systems. Much of that requires pattern recognition and logic exercises have never hurt.

Just to be a smart alec I almost said becuase it was #2 and all the answers I have gotten right have been option #2.

First letter of every word. Ya forgot to ask what time. ATtaCkwedDawn

In most cases an investigation occurs. This is not as insidious as you might think. A soldier is dead. It is always a sad event and when the bullet has an American flag on it, it is even more unfortunate. An investigation as to the reason for the death by freindly fire is necessary...not to assign blame, but to understand what went wrong and see if there are means to implement protocols that will reduce future friendly fire incidents. In most cases, a “friendly fire” inquiry clears the soldier completely and is determined it to be “an accident resulting from the chaos of combat” due to "the fog of war". In rare, but not unheard of situations, charges including, but limited to involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and dereliction of duty can be placed on a soldier who could face military prison. For those that do not understand the term fog of war, here is a wonderful explanation for civilians that I read once The military understands this principle and factors it in these types of incidents. If the bullet was recovered it will be a simple matter to identify the rife that it came from. Even if it is the rifle of your friend's husband, there is a very good chance he will be cleared of any and all charges. Even if not his rifle, this is day that will haunt him for the rest of his life. He is a soldier and served his country. His head is down, but he has defended freedom and done his duty to the best of his ability. He has earned the yellow ribbon and he has earned the right to receive hugs, warm smiles, and a welcome home.

Wednesday

Thank goodness I did not see that one before it was answered. I would have blown it.

2 out of 3 probability. In vegas I would say 2/3 Hm...either I am smart or I worked at that darn casino too long in my youth.

I have a three song rule before I buy a CD. I have to actually hear three cuts and like what I hear before I will buy it. Every once in a blue moon something new will hit me and I will buy on impulse. The last time I did this was Nickle Creeks first album. When I heard the first release I knew this was different and unique and really really good.

I can see how this is a question that would be answered incorrectly more than correctly. It is not the wording, but you have to go through the logical process thoughtfully as opposed to going on first instinct.

I dunno. Sometime in December.

I disagree with the assertion n that we are now a post literate society. I will have to research the sales figures and stats, but I see the competition between Borders, B&N, and Amazon. The stores get bigger and the books keep rolling. Oprahs book club and the View have women all over the world talking about books. Entertainment Weekly and People have increasingly larger literature sections and full page ads for new books as if it were a movie. Heck, millions gasped when it turned out some guy lied in his memoirs. It became page one scandal in some papers.Reading is a part of our pop culture. I have felt that the Church sub culture is usually 4-7 years out of touch with what is going on. Just watch what these guys show that tour the country telling the evils of rock and roll and then look at the Billboard chart. Most of the acts they warn kids about have not been played by the hep cats for a while. I would say that it is true that current events such as world events and politics are something people are becoming increasingly ignorant of. Now you have a choice. Dumb down the content to an ineffectual power point presentation to meet the felt need of the lazy or meet the real need and ask people to raise the bar and perhaps take more notes than fill in the cute blanks on three points. Ignore what they say. When you were taught the basic principles of effective speech and homiletics you were taught solid principles of how people think and react. Incorporating technology is fine, but relying on it to replace the focus from the speaker and the words to pictures...not for me. Case in point, my pastor encourages us to bring our Bibles and has ushers pass out Bibles to people that do not have one. THEN he has every word of every verse on the power point projection. I no longer bring my Bible to church now. I used to take detailed notes on his sermons...now I fill in the blanks. I am a clone and I have been encouraged to that. Now ask me what last Sunday's sermon was? I can tell you about sermons I heard years ago before the dumbing down of the Evengelical culture. We have been encouraged and trained to check our brains at the door. Give the people the benefit of the doubt that they can do more than sit in a corner and drool. Tease them a bit to rise to a newer height and you will have an effectual people going to all four corners of the earth...or power point it and have a whole lotta nice...and boring.

2 None of the other options is correct.:) That is not a guess.

Last CD I bought was the Corrs latest called Home. It is a return to very tradition Irish music. I am thinking about buying Nelly Furtado's new one.

nice choice!

Well heck. I have learned to drive stick, maintain a vehicle properly, and have not had a ticket in 8 years.....have I not proved myself worthy of a Ferrari yet? If I have, please send me a 328, Onyx blue with Burgundy interior and targa top please. I am being greedy, I will settle for a Daytona Spider

Moving to Ubuntu by Marcel Gagne' Practical Demon Keeping by Christopher Moore (satire fiction).

The issue is not just the views of leadership, be it LDS, A of G, Baptist, Lutheran, etc etc etc . Many of these faiths leaderships and official dogma do not prohibit women from working, but there are still attitudes in the Christian circles that exist within the bodies of believers. I have seen single mothers take flak, I have seen working families take a few jabs, I have seen some other judgmental action on a more personal level. For 12 years I have been married o the greatest gift God has ever given me. For six years now I have enjoyed the greatest gift God ever gave US, our daughter. Prior to dating my wife I became a born again Christian in 1986 and cut my teeth in the Assemblies of God. When I graduated High School I went to a good charismatic Bible College as a pastoral studies major. I had completed two years of my studies and then I went and quit Bible College....long story...maybe I will tell it someday. I then met my wife and she grounded me and completed me like I have never thought possible. We would get engaged and become married. The man who performed our wedding was a fellow student from Bible college and he was starting a church planting project near our home. Given a second chance in life I had signed on to be his associate pastor. Standing at his right hand we were building something special that is still thriving today and about to get a new building to accommodate their growth. My wife had graduated college Suma Cum Laud with a degree in Finance and was enjoying herself in a pretty entry level position with a Fortune 50 (50, not 500) company. She loved what she was doing. To accommodate my duties at the church(which really had no money to pay either of us much at the time) I was working at a car wash (flexible hours, closed at dusk, etc). Then came the talk. My friend and my pastor told me that my wife had to be more like his wife. She was not working and raising the kids. She was leading ministries in the church. My wife enjoyed helping setting up chairs and unloading vans on Sunday's, she loved proofreading our newsletters and editing programs, but she felt no call to spiritual leadership. Being a good worker bee was not enough......for him. As far as her job. She was moving up the ranks swiftly and we had no children of our own living with us. Who cared that she made more than me? We lived well below our means in a little one bedroom apartment. I told him I saw no point in her taking on leadership and no point in her quitting just to silence the critics. He then put it to me in an ultimatum. I gave him my set of keys and walked away. Over the years she would continue to move up and I would end up working my up through ADP as an account executive, then a few other companies moving up the ladder till I took an offer at up and coming telco company to be VP of sales and marketing. During this time my wife got her Masters and we had our daughter. My mother was watching our daughter while we worked until shortly after 9/11. Personal depression threw her back into the arms of old friends and chemical dependency. So we put our little girl in day care. About a year into it she started becoming very aggressive. We were concerned, and then the nightmare happened. One of the children of my boss who was also at the daycare was found to have been repeatedly abused by one of the daycare workers. She was finally caught when another daycare worker saw her literally drop the boy on his head. When all was said and done there was circumstantial evidence that she may have done this to other children in the daycare. Even if it did not happen to my daughter...she saw it. Sadly we will never know. Now comes the discussion between my wife and I. She was swiftly heading towards a director level and loved what she did and I was pretty burnt out. The higher I climbed the ladder, the more cynical I got, the higher she climbs, the more of a difference she makes. We made the decision that I would become a stay at home father. My in laws think I am an idiot with no motivation living off my wife and eating bon bons all day. My church refuses my help during the day for they think I should be seeking employment. I have a neighbor across the street who is always trying to tell me who is hiring. Now here is the other side of the coin. My daughter's aggression went away rapidly. She is an ace at school and has amazing social development. I am involved in the PTO, yes it is mostly women but my different way of looking at things has added so much to it. I go to school board meetings and ask questions that the school board is not ready to deal with and they cannot side track me for my biz know how is superior to most of the mortals in that room. I teach intro to computers once a week to advanced ESL students at the local Hispanic heritage chapter. One single mother has had her life changed by passing a MS Office cert test and getting a job at an insurance company now being bi lingual with computer skills. I volunteer once a week at my daughter's school and make a difference there. I do volunteer work at the Village hall and make a difference. My wife? There is more to her than just moving up the ladder. The initiatives she has made has drastically reduced her companies attrition level. She has done this by making her company a more family friendly place knowing that happy employees will be productive employees. She also added silly things. An office will close for a day to go canoeing or golfing and stuff like that. Other companies are now beginning to adopt some of her policies. If she is still working there in 5 years, she will be a VP and you will be reading about her in magazines. Our daughter is stronger and we are both making a difference in the world. I do write professionally and do public speaking engagements on Linux and corporate espionage and computer safety and some months that makes and extra 5k, other months it makes and extra $400, and still other months (most of the time) it makes us nothing. The Lexus is now a Ford Escort that does not always run the way it should. But I am also building a solid reputation in two interesting circles. This step back has allowed me to collect myself and change some of the directions I have in life and do some things I never would have...or could have before. These opportunities have led to some interesting possibilities. Should one of these possibilities lead to one of two fascinating-as well as lucrative directions-my wife and I have already discussed switching roles and she would gladly do it if one of these two opportunities ever became a reality. I can, and do pursue them in the directions and choices I make, but the closing of the deal is in God's hands. The switch is not because this is how families should operate or because of the voices of the fools who judge us and refuse to see the good that lies in our circumstance. It is because she sees the enrichment in my life and the changes that have occured and she would like a taste of that and she would like to see what our daughter does in the day...she also would like to see me be happy vocationally which is something she has not seen since we first got married. I have yet to b given convincing argument that what we have chosen to do is detrimental and outside of God's calling for our life.