Once upon a time. . .

If you have never heard that ancient phrase, that begins so many heroic and romantic stories, you probably are not from a western culture. But every culture has their own stories. As a matter of fact every person has their own stories, both to tell and to live.

I was reading "The New Testament and the People of God" by a theologian named N.T. Wright. In it, he points out that stories are the basic building blocks of science and basic human interaction. He points out that a scientific fact is only a fact because it tells a story about something. Science takes a hypothesis and that is the "Once upon a time. . ." The facts just are events in the story and scientists are the story tellers. In the end, we have a story that explains something. Take gravity for example, Newtonian physics said that because an apple fell from a tree (and hit Sir Isaac Newton on the head) then the culprit must be a graviton molecule that is exerting force on the apple, pulling it down. There was an event, the apple falling and to explain the falling there was a story. The story is that the graviton pulled on the apple until it fell. It is short and sweet and was adopted into a scientific law.

This is a little hard to grasp, so lets bring it down to a more everyday level. What does a good husband do. Well, he remembers birth days, anniversaries, grocery lists, chores ect. Husbands also find a career and work hard to build a prosperous home. These things are good, but why does he do them? He does them because in his mind, he has to do them to fill the role of a good husband. In effect, he role plays. Now, what if someone does not play the part very well? If he does not, then he certainly has other roles that he is trying to fill. Perhaps, a "bad" husband wants to fill other roles; such as, a sexual item or a drug dealer or of a couch potato.

When I thought about this, everything made perfect sense. I want to be a good provider for my wife, because I am playing a role as a good husband. I want to be strong in technology, because I feel that my role as a professional will have a lot to do with IT work.

Some times, in a world of 6 billion stories, there are stories that do not fit with each other. Sometimes stories subvert or replace other stories. When this happens things dramatically change. We can see it in history and in the world around us. The American dream is a story that has subverted many other peoples story; because it is a strong story, it can subvert stories of dictatorships and monarchies. By the way, Einstein came up with a better story to explain the apple falling from the tree and has now been accepted into science (Einstein's story better fit the evidence that he discovered).

It should be left to a different blog, but can you think of competing stories and how we can judge to see which stories are worth replacing other stories?

Teaching Theology

My wife, Heather, has started a dream of becoming a theological professor. I, for the most part, think that it is an amazing idea. The ability to interact with others in an academic setting combined with helping others to learn and grow the Kingdom of God is a dream of mine as well. I have considered going down this road before. It can actually be quite scary for the timid at heart. The theological, philosophical, and historical disciplines can be very challenging (she has already taken many steps down this road already). I am very proud of her that she would take up this dream. I know that whatever avenue she does go down, her studies in these areas will help her in ways that she cannot now know. It will be quite the adventure to see where all of this take her, she may teach children in remote areas or adults in huge university; the important thing is that the skills that she will learn will help to bring about God's Kingdom. Even if she later changes her mind, she will not have wasted her time.

Free Computer Tools

I dont know if anybody that reads this post likes free computer repair tools or is concerned about security, but if you are I have a lot of good tools that I think you will like. I currently work at a place where I do over the phone IT. All of the tools that I use can be used by individuals for free! So, I will post some of them on here and if you need help using them; just post here and I can help you.

First, does anybody want to make there computer run faster and have less junk in it? Here are a couple of free Windows Registry and Windows cleaning tools that I have used that are very good.

First CCleaner: This program is a free program for both individual and corporate use. It is light and easy to use. You can get it from www.CCleaner.com.

The next is Glary's Utilities. Glary's can do what CCleaner does and more, it can defragment the Windows Registry and give you easy access to Windows tools like System File Checker and hard drive defragmenter. You can get it from http://www.glaryutilities.com/gu.html


Now, lets talk about Internet security. Everyone knows that viruses are bad, but not everybody uses anti-virus programs. This is for a variety of reasons. One reason is the cost of anti-virus programs are high. It is very hard to pay 30-70 dollars a year for a program that doesnt give you any positive utility, it can slow down your computer and at best it only keeps bad things from happening to your computer. Well, here is some solutions that will not cost you any money.

First and my favorite, Panda Cloud Anti-virus. This little anti-virus program is super light on your system and super easy to use. It never needs to be updated and you never have to pay for it. The secret is that it does all of the anti-virus and anti-spyware processing on Panda's servers, leaving your computer's RAM and processor relatively free. You can get Panda Cloud anti-virus at cloudantivirus.com

Now, there are more tradition anti-virus programs that are free. The best is Avira, then Avast, then AVG. These are more resource heavy but also do provide heaver protection. All of these anti-virus programs now come equiped with built in anti-spyware. You can get these from there prospective websites by just adding .com at the end of there name.

There is one more anti-virus program out there that is worth mentioning. That is Malwarebytes. This program has a free version that is good because it can be installed alongside most anti-virus programs. The free version does not have an active scanner, so you have to manually tell it to update and to scan your computer. This version is excellent for a backup antivirus program.

It is also important for every computer to have a firewall. A good firewall regulates data both coming and going out of your computer. Windows comes with a free firewall for XP and Vista, but it only regulates incoming data.

I have recently just installed a free firewall from Webroot. Webroot is a good company that is best known for it's anti-spyware products. The firewall is pretty easy to use and is easy to install. You can get it from the download section at Webroot.com.

There are also a couple of other free firewalls out there, although I have not personally used them. The best known free firewall is from ZoneAlarm.com.

There are a lot of other free programs out there, depending on what you need. My favorite websites to get free programs are download.com, filehippo.com, and MajorGeek.com

Breaking Something.

Today, I discovered how easy it was to break someone's computer. It is kind of funny; I was trying to fix a issue that a customer had with a program. The problem was probably caused by his computer to begin with and probably needed what I done to it, but I was not expecting it. The customer basically had an old office computer that was given to him, but it was not properly setup for someone who didnt work in a large office. I simply changed his network setting from domain to a local network; one little change and it completely wiped his access to the computer. Talk about frustrating!

The good thing is that even though it may seem to be broken, it will get taken care of. I am kind of waiting for him to receive a special package that I had to send to his house to help, but in the end he will have a better computer and I may even be able to fix an older computer for him that has a bad Windows file.

I guess that I can kind of compare this story to the brokenness of humanity and how currently we are waiting for the coming package which is the Messiah who will fix not only our mess, but all of humanities mess.

I will state that one reason that I love this job is that in fixing things and helping people, I am in some way emulating the Messiah's work on the earth in which he will fix everything.

In the midst of a recession there is still life.

The times are pretty bad in most places around the United States and even the world for that matter.  People are being let off of jobs and those that are looking for jobs are having trouble finding one.  Companies are cutting back on bonuses and asking for hand outs and some are even going under all together.  My own wife, Heather, has been out of work for months and has been struggling to find a job.  Heather is a very bright college student and is just looking for a part time job; that should not be hard!  But there is hope in this economy. 

I am currenty working for Intuit, a company that does financial software.  You may have seen them around; they make software, such as Turbo Tax and Quicken.  I am part of a pilot program that they are going to start testing.  Intuit is wanting to provide technology support for their clients.  This is giving me a very unique opportunity to develop my tech skills and learn a lot, while helping others.  I am sure that Intuit is looking ahead, not behind.  In this economy it is hard to still invest in the future when you dont know what will happen tomorrow.  If Intuit is investing in the future, then it is for sure that other companies are as well.  I am sure for those of you who currenty are working, you can tell that the economy is starting to get a little bit of life again.  

I might just be optimistic, but I think that we all will pull through this.  I know that even if things mess up now, with Yahweh and his Messiah, we will be flexable enough to adapt and eventually we will be back on top of things.  

good stuff

I am writing this post from an older computer that I just installed Linux OS on. Now for a lot of people that is either really easy and for others they must ask, what is Linux? Well, Linux is just one of the many open source programs out there, in an online community of software developers and users that work together to create a free product that anybody can enjoy for free.

I really enjoy the whole community working together thing and am going to enjoy trying to figure out how this Linux program works. For me it is a badge of honor of how far the Messiah taken me in a process of continual improvement. Being able to use a piece of alien software (at least to me) is really cool and for me to understand it is something all together neat. I will hopefully be getting a tech support job pretty soon in which I can use this knowledge of programs and technology to fix peoples software woes. What is more that I know that I will be using all of this both currently and in the future to help bring about the Kingdom of Messiah.

I think this symbiotic relationship with Yahweh and the Messiah is the whole reason that we are here. God gives us people and experiences and our brains to create things and in return we use it to create something magnificent that reflects our creator and helps our neighbors. The ultimate fix for reflecting our creator and helping our neighbor is the Kingdom coming on the earth. For that I cant wait!!

Viruses and Malware

I thought that I would discuss what I know about some of the latest threats to technology: malware  and viruses.  These nasty programs are meant to do things like harm your computer, scam you out of money or even steal your identity.   I will discuss the most common types of viruses that I personally see and where the most common ways of getting those viruses and some ways to remove them and prevent them in the future.  

Imagine your computer gave you a pop-up that looks like your My Computer screen, only instead of the normal C: drive you see a C: drive that is flagged with viruses and a message stating that there are 500 + viruses detected on your computer.  That is pretty scary but then this message tells you that these can be removed if you download ____ antivirus.   The blank can be filled in with any number of fake anti-virus programs; such as, anti-virus 360, anti-virus 2009, WinPC defender, Antivirus 1 or Antispyware pro.  These are the most common viruses that I see today and all have strong root kits that make it extremely difficult to get rid of.  Most anti-virus programs cannot remove these at all; as a matter of fact, no anti-virus program can that I have seen and even GeekSquad agents tend to shy away from doing anything but formatting the computer.

There is another virus that I have seen that gets special attention and that is the Conflicker virus.  Many people have seen this on the news lately because they thought that on April 1 it would go live and do lots of damage (possibly even shut down many internet servers),  This Conflicker is a special type of malware called a worm.  It can get into someone's computer by it just being on.  This worm is so deadly that it shut down Parlament computers and ABC broadcasting news network.  ABC took 24 hours a day for 10 days to remove all traces of this virus.  Some of the symptoms of this virus is being redirected from some anti-virus websites and not being able to update Windows.  If you think you have this virus double check at http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10212286-12.html?tag=mncol.  There is a free and simple test to see if you have it.  

Where do all of these viruses come from?  Well, some are domestic, but most are foreign.  The antivirus 2009 that I mentioned earlier was created by a Texas company and is now currently being sued by Microsoft and the attorney general of Washington State.  The others could be from countries in asia or in eastern europe.  There are countries in these regions that dont have strong laws against this sort of thing and local populations hail hackers as heros (they do bring lots of money into the local economy). 

There are some websites that can give these viruses to an unsuspecting computer.  The most common places that have viruses that can be downloaded are Limewire, Adult related websites (if you go to these expect many issues to occur, viruses are the least of your worries), facebook and myspace.  The problem with Facebook and Myspace are that people have links on them and customizable coding from who knows what 3rd party websites. 

Email attachments are another easy way to get a virus; you should always have your anti-virus program do a scan of any attachments before you open them.

How on earth can viruses be removed.  There are a few different ways that viruses can be removed.  My personal favorite is to simply back up any data that you dont want lost and then use either your computer's recovery partition or the system recovery disks that came with your computer to just erase everything and re-install the operating system.  Obviously, if Windows cannot startup this is the best way to go.  

Now, if you are brave enough to want to manually remove viruses, expect a fight and a good length of time to try to remove them.  The first thing to do if you want to try to manually remove a virus is to go into Windows Safe Mode with networking (press F8 upon startup) and then use a good antivirus program to scan the hard drive and see if it can remove the virus.  If it cannot, then you need to at least find out what type of virus it is, then you may be able to download manual remover from Norton or Trend Micro.  Both companies give free virus removal tools to the public and some times it is as easy as typing the name of the virus in the search bar at their websites.  If these fail to do the trick, I would recommend having a professional assist you.  

With viruses and other malware the best way to defend against them is with a good firewall and conservative internet browsing habits.   I would personally recommend getting a good anti-virus program.  The anti-virus programs that I researched and found to be the best are Kaspersky, Norton, and Avira.  Both Kaspersky and Norton have a firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus programs and are pretty reasonable and do great.  Avira is special because they offer a free anti-virus program and it is comparable to Kaspersky in finding viruses, the only problem is that you would have to find an anti-spyware program to go with it (possibly Spybot: Search and Destroy) and use the Windows Firewall.  If there are children in the home I personally recommend parental controls.  They are not only valuable for keeping children safe and temptation free, but they also a proactive in preventing unsuspecting children from clicking on things that can cause a virus to installed.  

Well, I hope this information is valuable.  I have seen a lot of viruses and even has one on my computer recently.   They are pretty nasty, but can be taken care of.  They are examples of the brokeness of the world taking it's toll on cyberspace.  I cant wait until the Messiah does come and fix the world and restore everything to rights; only then can we browse the internet without ever worrying.

Technology

I personally work for a technology repair company named Geek Squad.  I do basic troubleshooting over the phone and sales.  An interesting part of my job is seeing how technology affects people.  

I see people using their computers for many different reasons.  Some of the things that I see people doing is getting online.  Obviously everyone reading this post has done that, but people use the internet for many different reasons.  I see people communicating with relatives from accross the nation, I see people finding information about their hobbies, and I see people connecting to people that they could have never met otherwise.  I have on occasion saw pastors and other christians use technology for purposes of spreading the Good News.  I know there are many christians that do give their witness online and go into community forums to discuss religion.  

I do work hard to fix people's computer, even if I can only sell them a package to have it fixed by a field technician.  I know that technology is a new way of life for humanity.  It is interesting that with technology, things break; just like the rest of the world around us.  I did not really think about this too much until now, but I am actually doing something that my Messiah will do; I am helping to fix this world.  I am empowering people to live and communicate and to spread the Gospel; and I am creating an expectation of that great and glorious day when Jesus will come and fix this world and all of the technology in it!  

I personally can not think of any greater praise to God then when his people find the things that they are good at (things that God has put in them!) and use them to do good and point that good back towards God!  I think that is better then singing any song :)  I know that my current profession is not the only profession that God can use and I hope that I can empower my brothers and sisters to use their skills to live in expectation of the coming Kingdom!!

PS Here are a few websites that I enjoy for fun.  Take a look at them, you may like them too.  If you have any cool websites, feel free to post them on hear.  I would love to hear about them.  

Download.com-  A one stop shop for free programs ranging from Video converters to Registry cleaners.

Avast.com- Free Anti-virus program

Hulu.com-  Free (legitimate) place to watch recent TV shows and some Movies.

Pandora.com- Free music in a radio station format.  It has about any genre and it is legal, safe and clean.

Cnet.com- Has tech news and resources that give technical advise (even some good tips to speed up your computer, just search in the website for the computer resource center).

blogspot.com- You know :)

GeekSquad.com- Has a lot of tech tips and 2 minute video's that are internesting.  It also has a free broadband speed test and a free anti-virus/anti-spyware scanner.  

Celebration

I think it is important to celebrate things that God has done for us.  I personally celebrate my conversion to following the Messiah on February 18.  That is not the first day that I learned about the Messiah, or the first day that I started to follow him.  I actually have been raised a christian and was utterly confused about what my walk with God was.  February 18 marks for me a Telos.  The work Telos is a greek term for "the end purpose of a thing" or "the point at which on a thing seases to be something and becomes something else"  (kind of like a butterfly).  I am going to take a little time right now and put down some of the things, that I celebrate every day, that God has done for me.  

My story has a very rocky beginning.  I end up being raised by my grandmother and grandfather, because my father left and my mother had a nervous breakdown.  I was raised with 2 brothers.  I did have a home, although my grandmother was by-polar and extremely aggressive for most of her time, but my grandfather was a good man.  I was raised in really great church, which gave me a chance to survive.  But for most of my life, I kept feeling a desire have some sort of sanity.  My Christian walk with God was based on emotions and no matter how much I prayed to God, he did not make me any better or improve my situation to point that I could live.  God did do a lot of other things for me, which I am greatful, but he did not give me essential things that I needed to survive (such as a logical though process).  For a boy with no father, a by-polar mother (and grandmother); logic was something that I creaved, even if I had know idea that it existed.  

In an earlier post, I tried to explore speaking in tongues.  I dont really want to get into that debate right now, but I do want to say that speaking in tongues did give me a sense that God was there.  All of the spiritual gifts that I had, made me know that God loved me and that was great!  The problem still existed that I could not deny; after every church service, I would go home and my illogical, emotional self would be there with all of it's confusions and fears.  I was prayed over by many traveling evangelists and pastors, but nothing actually happened.  The point at which I started getting a handle on reality, was when I came to a Christian College.  I was 21 and had no career path, but I knew that I had to come to this particular college; it was something spiritual that drove me.  

At college I was not let down.  I had a support staff of some of the finest teachers in the world.  Dr Tinker and Mike Aleckson were the ones that made the most difference.  They both took many hours out of their days to talk me through by illogical feelings and give me a logical basis for living and living for God.  At this very point, life started to become something that I could live.  

February 18, was a day that, in the middle of all this change at College, I decided to rededicate my heart to God and to be re-baptized.  Although, that in itself was very confusing, but while being baptized, the Pastor (Rev Steve Finney) prayed over me and this time, God did give me a truly spiritual type of thing.  I did speak in tongues, although I dont know for sure if that was from God, but I did really feel something inside me change.  That day marked the end of one long chapter of my life and a beginnng of a new day; armed with logic and an awareness that God was with me, and some truly spiritual experiences (I know they are spiritual because they cause substantial change) I began to live this life that I have now. 

God has granted me a life that I can live; I have been able to find the women of my dreams and has given me friends that I can build the Kingdom with and many,  many other great things.  I write this post, because I know others have struggles that I have had; all I want to do is let people know there is a path that does work and God is part of it (and so is logic)!  

A breath of fresh air!

It is so amazing that, after a weeks of cold weather and snow, one bright an shining day of 70 degrees seems like heaven. It is days like those that make me think the kingdom is still coming. I feel, almost like, I am a Jew just being dismissed by Joshua to go in an settle the promised land. In the book of Joshua, the Tribes of Israel get to finally cross over the Jordan river and go into the promise land and then have to fight against Perizites, Hittites, Jebusites, Cannanites, Philistine, and all sorts of other peoples that lived in Canaan. After traveling through the desert for 40 years and fighting against a looong list of cities (Read Joshua if you want the lists), the Israelites finally get their portion and inheritance on the earth. When Joshua releases the Israelites to go in and settle their lands, they get to eat in fields that they didnt plant and drink wine from vinards that they didnt tend. God's kingdom was finally on the earth and the Istraelites were finally getting their portion of the Kingdom.

I can only imagine the joy and excitement about their new home. It is this same joy and excitement that I get when I feel a warm breeze after a cold month. The warm breeze gives me a taste of what my portion will be like when God's Kingdom finally gets to come on the earth again. When God's people are out of our messed up environment, when we have tasted of vinards that we didnt plant, and get to rejoice in our new home. Interestingly enough, I get the feeling when I do other things to, like overcome a challange or drive a new car or some times when I get to hug my wife. I really get a sense that the Kingdom coming could actually be real. It is enough to keep me going! I cant wait!!

Why do people limit their options and build lives that they cant live?

It has came aware to me recently that some of my friends are building lives that they cant live. Rather, they built a life for themselves that they could not continue. Now, many people would condemn my friends for their failure; but is that failure really their fault? Everyone grows up and we make stupid mistakes, but we are fooling ourselves to believe that God is going to give us the strength to do something that he did not intend for us to do. Many times, we as humans, decide a path to take our life down but do not explore the options that we have. Christians specifically do this when we date without making preparations for marriage. Having premarital sex is just one of many ways we make lives that we cant live. My personal favorite is the crash diets; people starve themselves for weeks only to breakdown and start all over again. In my life I have needed God's help and good guidance from friends to make good decisions that I could live with. Thats why both my wife and myself married as virgins (we dated for 6 months before I proposed and waited for 4 more before we got married). Both my wife and myself realize that we could not have waited any longer to be married; so we got married. Why do people limit their options and build lives that they cant live?

"Power is defined by choices [options]. Often the best way to enhace one's power is to develop better choices." Bernard Mayer.

Technology and God?

A lot has happened in my life lately. I just got the internet in my home!! I have got a new puppy. I have a new 2008 Nissan Sentra!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been learning tons about technology and business and God!!!!!!! Actually, I believe that the more I learn the stronger all of the other areas in my life are. I believe the better I am at business and using technology, the better I will be at doing God's work (ie spreading the Kingdom of God).
My current job, GeekSquad Mission Control, I get to do basic troubleshooting and selling people services. I get to fix people's computer every day and help them do what they do better. Today, I helped a Pastor get setup using a word processor. The pastor was able to use the software to write sermenetts and to send his fiancee help with her homework. The pastor was very happy and said that I had done him a big favor. I really hope that I can be use by God to bring about his kingdom in a substantial manner. I know that this pastor was just one of many people that I have helped to do God's will more. I just need to figure out create more signposts pointing to the coming Kingdom. Technology is a very good beginning to this goal.