The White Man Is The DEVIL

Yes. I said it. The White Man is the devil.

Consider this. The genes for dark skin pigmentation are dominant genes. Knowing that fact, it could be said that white people have been cleansed of their color so they could be recognizable for their lack of holiness. This is why African-Americans have such strong religious ties and such deep faith. The White Man must work harder to earn his place in Heaven because his mark of holiness has been removed.

That is why The White Man has so often treated those who were not white as lesser men. The White Man is angry that these people are obviously of the chosen. It is right there for everyone to see. The White Man desires to punish God for cleansing him of his rightful inheritance and therefore punishes those who bear the mark of God in their very skin.

The White Man is responsible for perpetuating slavery. The White Man is responsible for perpetuating racism. The White Man's actions throughout history cover five of the seven deadly sins. The White Man envies the chosen for their favored status with God. The White Man has perfected greed and extravagance to an art form.

And what of pride/vanity? The Bible says that God made man in his own image. But I say that The White Man has made God in his own image. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is in the Middle East. Have you ever seen Jesus depicted with Middle Eastern features? Have you ever seen Jesus depicted as a Hispanic? Have you ever seen Jesus depicted as an Oriental/Asian? Have you ever seen Jesus depicted as an African? I never have. I have only ever seen Jesus depicted as a Caucasian. How audacious is that? And let's not even get started on The White Man rewriting history to glorify himself.

I could rant on but I have run out of steam. This came out of a comment a friend made on a social networking site about "how 'off the mark' our notion of Jesus can be." It started as a bit of satirical commentary but I have come to see so many contradictions (one even pointed out by a priest during a Christmas mass!) within and between modern religions and so many updated interpretations (check the Wikipedia entry for the Seven Deadly Sins) that it's hard to know what to believe. It's hard to know in what to put my faith. It's why I don't go to church.

I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I have faith that God has a plan for me and that plan will unfold in God's time, not mine. Maybe not going to church is hampering my faith. How can I learn if I don't seek to be taught? But is it teaching or is it brainwashing? I mean, have you ever seen a Catholic mass? All the standing and sitting and kneeling and canned group responses to prompts from the priest like so many zombies. It's creepy when you really look at it.

I mean, for crying out loud, L. Ron Hubbard made up a religion on a dare and people take it seriously. I'm not saying they're wrong but who's to say who is right? Are the Catholics right because they look down upon the Baptists for their gathering and display of wealth rather than investing in philanthropic endeavors? Are the Baptists right for believing that Catholics are going to Hell because they aren't baptized as adults and don't profess that Jesus is their personal Lord and savior? Is the man on the corner right who preaches that Heaven is a chocolate choo-choo train and God is its monkey conductor? The one truth I can put my faith in is that when I cast off this mortal shell and my spirit moves on to the next plane of existence - when I go to meet God - I will learn what, exactly, is beyond this Earthly existence.

I don't know why this spark lit such a fire. I think it has been smoldering inside me for some time now but I have been unable or unwilling to put it into words. I don't even know what it really means now that I have put it into words. Maybe I should seek answers. Or should I wait for God to reveal them to me? Do you see my confusion?

Comments. PLEASE. I want to know what you think. Even if you just thought my opening was kinda fun (or kinda scary).

Quick Check-In

I have several things I could talk about but have been a little busy. I literally took 5 or 6 phone calls in a row yesterday. They were timed so perfectly that my cell phone didn't even have a chance to ring in between. Then, the last time I tried to put together a real entry, Blogger wouldn't let me in to the editor.

I wasn't going to do this but here's a few things happening:

• Had my performance review @ work
• I should probably be a little upset about it
• Was judged on some unspoken expectations
• That have now been spoken
• Rearranging the office
• And it's not going particularly well but we're almost done
• Got a new 'netbook' at work (Dell Latitude 2100) and having fun with it
• Switched from the Matrix Pro back to the Fuze
• The Fuze's ringer is too quiet since I flashed the ROM
• There's a fix but I haven't found it yet
• Wish I could combine the two phones
• Still think I'd be happy with a slate style smartphone with a touch screen
• Laughing at the 'new' features of the iPhone
• That Windows Mobile has been doing for over 10 years :)
• They couldn't fix the iPod hard drive
• Found a replacement drive on eBay for $20
• Waiting for iPod to come back and hard drive to get here
• Hope they both arrive at same time

I could bullet-ramble on but I'll stop there. Have a good Thursday y'all. And leave me a comment to say hello. It's getting lonely just hearing from my sister. I love her dearly but sometimes you want to hear a different voice. Plus, I'm wondering if anybody else even stops by.

Calling Any PHP Programmers

If you know PHP, I could use your help. I've got some code that's not functioning as expected. I am attempting to break some data extracted from MySQL into three sections. The relevant segment of code is below:

function Row1() {
$Part = ceil(($this->Articles()->Count()) / 3);
return DataObject::get("ArticlePage", "", "", "", "0, $Part");
}
function Row2() {
$Part = ceil(($this->Articles()->Count()) / 3);
$Part2 = floor(($Part * 2));
return DataObject::get("ArticlePage", "", "", "", "$Part, $Part2");
}
function Row3() {
$Total = ($this->Articles()->Count()) ;
$Part = ceil(($Total / 3)); $Break = ceil(($Part * 2));
return DataObject::get("ArticlePage", "", "", "", "$Break, $Total");
}
}

Row 1 displays the first third of the results. Row 3 displays the last third of the results. Row 2, however, is displaying the second third all the way to the end.

Example: Let's say there are 6 items.

Row 1
Item 1
Item 2
Row 2
Item 3
Item 4
Item 5
Item 6
Row3
Item 5
Item 6

Click Here to see the actual output.

Any ideas why it's breaking down like that? The calculation for $Part2 should be correct since it's the same as $Break and Row 3 is starting in the correct place. I'm not a PHP programmer so I can only assume the last parameter in the Get statement indicates "start, end"

I would also like to alphebetize the list but I haven't even started on that yet.

UPDATE: I figured out what my problem was. I was assuming that the last parameter meant starting record number, ending record number when in actuality it means starting record number, number of records to display. It works now!

Something New (ish)

After many (many) years, I am once again revamping my wav archive. I am trying to get away from Frontpage as much as possible since MS stopped developing it.

GoDaddy has several open source programs that you can install on your site with one click so I tried out all of the content management systems. I was originally just going to go with Joomla since that's what we use at work but the more I started looking at SilverStripe, the more I liked it.

Keep in mind it's basically just a framework right now and the theme will most likely change but feel free to check it out and let me know what you think. My original wav archive is still online.

Plastic Restoration

I told you about my $2 GPS. In the process of trying to buff out the fogging on the plastic lens that covers the LCD, I gouged it a couple of times. (shame on me for using power tools) I thought about replacing it somehow but the Magellan 315 is a sealed unit. I can live with it if I have to - they're not that bad, but does anyone know of any products to fill and fix gouges in clear plastic?

What About This One?

I was thinking of going with a blue theme.

Which One Do You Like?

I was playing around a bit and put together some graphics for the header of the blog. Click the image below for a larger graphic. Please tell me which one you like best. Thoughts on colors, fonts, etc. are also welcome.

CALLING ALL ÜBERGEEKS!

I have a WD 250GB SATA hard drive (if I've lost you already, just skip this entry) that is starting to show signs of failing. To stave off the headaches associated with a hard drive crash, I purchased a Seagate 500GB SATA hard drive to use as my boot drive and expand my storage.

I had some challenges in getting the system to recognize the drive and get Windows to install but the short version is this: If I connect either of the drives individually, the system boots fine. If I connect both of them, setting the boot order to boot off the 500GB drive, the system bogs down and startup is very slow. When and if I get to the windows boot menu (I'm dual booting XP and Vista) I select which OS I want to load but it doesn't work. Usually it hangs at a black screen. Sometimes the mouse cursor is visible but won't move. I once left it to boot into Vista and got to the login screen but couldn't move the mouse or use the keyboard to select any options.

I bought a USB connector for the drive (think hard drive enclosure without the actual enclosure) and managed to pull all the data off the 250 with no problems. I have deleted all of the partitions and am back to a raw drive but that doesn't help. I thought there was some sort of software conflict but it appears to be a hardware conflict.

Any suggestions? My next step is to format or possibly zero out the drive. Do you think that will help?

Keep Your Fingers Crossed

The job I have been waiting to get posted finally popped up late Friday. I will be submitting my application sometime Sunday or Monday. It's a good job that I would be well-suited for and it pays well. All prayers, well-wishes, and internet mojo are appreciated.

How Do You Take An Attitude Shower?

I was checking out the blog of another Joe Fusco when I came across a link to an article entitled Happiness is a Moral Obligation by Dennis Prager. Prager has some wonderful points about happiness and the effects unhappiness has on people. The part that Fusco quoted and that drew me to the article was as follows:

"We should regard bad moods as we do offensive body odor. Just as we shower each day so as not to inflict our body odors on others, so we should monitor our bad moods so as not to inflict them on others. We shower partly for ourselves and partly out of obligation to others. The same should hold true vis a vis moods; and just as we avoid those who do not do something about their body odor we should avoid whenever possible those who do nothing about their bad moods."

Interresting. I will endeavor to do this but the question becomes, how to take an attitude shower? How do we wash away our bad mood? I'm going to work on this. I will find an answer - At least, one that works for me - and I will let you know. If you have an answer that works for you, please leave a comment.

Burning Question

My wife likes her ice cream dead solid.  I don't mean extra firm, I mean HARD.  Here's my problem, our freezer, for some reason, won't even get it to firm.

Can anyone give me some tips on keeping ice cream firm in the freezer?

I'm thinking there's probably something wrong with the freezer.  The fridge is nearing 15 years old but everything else seems to be working - I just can't keep the ice cream firm.

The Results Are In

Someone asked about the results of my test survey so, here they are (click the thumbnail).



I'm going to leave the survey open in case anyone else wants to play with it or see what phpESP looks like.

Testing... 1-2-3-4

Hey, folks, I'm trying to test out some survey software. Help me out and take the test survey so I can have some results to look at.

Thanks!

Soliciting Opinions

I am considering updating my photo site(s) using a content management system. I am already using one on my photo site but am considering changing my celebrity site and possibly using a different system on my photo site.

My photo site is at http://photos.unclebubby.com
My celebrity site is at http://starstruck.unclebubby.com
I have a test site up for the system I am thinking of using at http://unclebubby.dnsalias.org/gallery2

Here's what I need your help with. I'd like you to tell me what you like and what you don't like about each of the sites and how they compare to each other. Or, you could just tell me which of the three you like best (and the reason why would be helpful, too). Feel free to solicit the opinions of others. You can either leave a comment here or send them to me via email (jfusco at gmail.com).

Thanks!