Choices of Integrity

Last Sunday in the morning service, the message was on choices. The speaker (who I might add did a very nice job of addressing the subject) spoke about the difference between making easy choices and making the right choices. As a way of remembering the message, at the end of the service we all made friendship bracelets as a way of reminding ourselves that God is our friend and that He cares about the choices we make.

I've been wearing my friendship bracelet all week and it really has been an excellent reminder to me about why I should make the right choices. All my life, I've striven to be a person of integrity. And so it is with this in mind that I've had to face a very difficult week. There have been a number of things that I've needed to decide this past week, both professionally and personally. These decisions involved choosing between what was easy and what was right. One choice in particular was quite painful to make, but in my heart of hearts I know it was the right choice to make. It's now just a matter of living with the ramifications of that choice and giving it all over to God, which is all I can do at the end of the day.

Bible Software

Ever since I've moved to Windows Vista, I've been unable to use my old Bible software, which I've used extensively over the past ten years. This was a product made by Zondervan, therefore it had a number of modern translations, including the NIV. It also had a great Bible dictionary, concordance, commentaries and an atlas, all initially published in book form by Zondervan.

The problem is that this software was designed to work under Windows 95. I had to get an upgrade for the software from Zondervan's website when Windows XP came out. But I didn't feel it was necessary to buy new software, as really, how much has the text of the Bibles or the maps in the atlas changed in the past ten years?

Lately though I've been meaning to get a new software program, but I've been holding off until I can get one program that has both the Bible Knowledge Commentary and the Bible Background Commentary (both OT and NT) in it. But it looks like I might need to buy the software sooner rather than later.

Wayward Email

Recently I received an email at my work address from a girl named Kirsty. I thought this was rather strange as I don't give my work email address out to any of my friends. I didn't recognise Kirsty's surname, nor did I recognise any of the other people it was addressed to.

So I emailed her back, simply asking, "Do I know you?" This was rather embarrassing for me as I routinely forget people's surnames. She sends back the original email to me saying, "Look at the bold print below, you big galuff." I'm not sure what a 'galuff' is, but I'm assuming it's a joking way of saying 'you idiot'. So I looked below and saw that she had now put her name in bold type. This didn't help at all though, as I didn't recognise it the first time around. Now I'm feeling really bad about it all as she obviously knows me and I should know who she is.

Realising that it can't get much worse, I decided that I was going to email her back and ask her where I knew her from. But before I could send the email, I get another email from her saying, "Oops, wrong email address. Sorry." Needless to say, I left it at that.

Fund Raising - Part 3 of 3

It was two days before I had to go down to Minneapolis to catch my flight to Russia. In the past three months, I had been furiously working away at fundraising. I had done car washes, raffles, and other, even more desperate, activities, only to see an additional $500 come in. Of the $3,200 that I needed to raise, I was only at $2,000.

I knew God wanted me to go on this trip, but I had exhausted every avenue of fundraising that I could think of. So with no other options available and no further money coming in, I resigned myself to not going. I prayed all that night, asking God what I should do.

The next day, I got a phone call from the mission leader. I knew he would have to call me to let me know that I didn't have enough money raised and that he wouldn't be able to let me go on the trip. I had braced myself for this phone call for the past two weeks. I was actually surprised that it hadn't come sooner. When I answered the phone, he said, "I have to let you know where you stand with your fundraising and the ramifications of it. Last night, an anonymous person called me and said that they wanted to donate $1,200 specifically to your account. Congratulations, you're going." And so my fundraising adventure ended as it began, with an anonymous donor out of nowhere.

Fund Raising - Part 2 of 3

I had reached the halfway point in fundraising, which meant that three months had now passed from the time when the stranger wrote me a $100 cheque in the restaurant. By this point I had pretty much approached everyone I knew and I had only managed to raise $1,000 of the $3,200 total that I needed. Many of the people opted not to support this short-term mission trip for various reasons. Most of the people who had chosen not to donate questioned why they should fund my 'holiday' to Russia. Others questioned why I needed to go to Russia while there was so much that still needed to be done in the States. And yet others opted to donate to non-religious charities in my name instead of sponsoring me on this mission trip.

I knew fundraising was going to be especially difficult for me, given my background and that my entire family was against me going on this trip. But I ploughed on and I decided to arrange some meetings with a few of my former employers during a weekend trip back to my hometown. I took the time and explained to them exactly what this mission trip entailed. These meetings proved to be quite successful, which resulted in another $500 being raised. This meant that I was nearly halfway to my goal and it would encourage me to continue on fundraising.

Fund Raising - Part 1 of 3

When I was accepted to go on a short-term mission trip to Russia, I had to raise $3,200. This was an incredible amount of money for me to raise, considering I came from a small town and my home church wouldn't support me in any way due to the fact that this was not a Catholic mission trip.

I prayed about whether I should go, because I didn't know if I could raise that much money. I gave God until the end of the weekend to give me a sign.

It was 10pm on Sunday night, I had just had my section closed at the restaurant where I was a waiter. This meant that I just needed to count my money and go home. A fellow waitress asked me if I could cover her section so she could go home early. So I said I would. The very next table I got was a grungy looking man. When I saw him, I thought, "Oh great, I'm not going to get any tip from him."

When he was done with his dinner, we got to talking. I mentioned this mission trip that I was thinking of going on during the summer. Immediately, he took out his chequebook and wrote me a cheque for $100 and said that he didn't want any thanks, but rather that my going on the trip would be thanks enough. I never saw him again.

Now all I needed was a sign to see if I should go on the mission trip. Oh wait, do you think that maybe this was it?

PC is Good

In the early 90's, I came across the 'PC Manifesto'. This was only a couple years after I first heard about the PC movement and how it had been sweeping across universities throughout the nation. I found it to be a very good read and very informative. There are lots of good things contained in it and you would not believe how wrongly you've been in living your life prior to reading this. I was flabbergasted as to how un-PC I really was. If you have time to read it, I would highly recommend it, even though it is now 15 years old. I've uploaded it to my website and you can find it here.

Lord, I Feel You Near Me

It's time for another song. I often sing this song when times get tough for me. And once again, I can't find the lyrics online, so I had to type them in myself.

Sometimes the load is heavy
And sometimes the road is long
And sometimes, Lord, this heart of mine
Is not so very strong
But thy will be done, Lord
Thy will be done

Father, I do not ask you
To take this cup from me
I only ask your guidance
Down paths I cannot see
And thy will be done, Lord
Thy will be done

Our Father who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On Earth as it is
As it is in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts
As we forgive our debtors
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the Kingdom
And the power and the glory forever
Amen

Now Lord, I feel you near me
I feel your guiding power
And now you're standing by me
Through every passing hour
And thy will be done, Lord
Thy will be done

The Week Ahead

Well, it looks like another busy week in the world of Robbio. Tomorrow night I have a meeting with my tutor for this course that I'm taking at a local college. Tuesday, I have the English Bible Study that I lead for the Korean Church. I've been leading this now since the beginning of the year and it's gradually evolved to take a life of its own, including sharing a meal together. This week's menu includes one of my personal favourite recipes, which I haven't prepared for years, due to the complexity of making it. Wednesday is a triple decker of going to a friend's music recital in the afternoon, having another friend around for dinner in the evening, and finishing with going to yet a third friend's flat to fix her computer. Thursday is the Bible study that I lead for my church. Friday night is the prayer group that I attend weekly. This doesn't even include what I have to do during my day job, which is to start and finish two semi-major programming projects. This leads me into the weekend, which in itself will be sufficiently busy for me, including giving a sermon at my church on Sunday morning and running the sound board at the Korean Church (something I've been doing since shortly before Christmas) that afternoon.

Ben Vorlich

There were six of us that journeyed up to Ben Vorlich (about an hour north of Glasgow). It took us an hour in driving rain to make it a third of the way up the Munro. A couple members of our little party were sorely under prepared for the weather we had today and were soaked to the bone. So at a natural stopping point, we reassessed our situation and decided to abandon the climb. As soon as we turned around, it stopped raining and the sun came out shortly thereafter. Ouch. It was the first time that I didn't manage to finish climbing a Munro after having started it. It didn't feel very good.

When we were going down the hill, one of the members said that this was the third time that she had failed in climbing that particular Munro and that maybe she had jinxed our expedition. So I now hold her personally responsible for our failure today. In fact, I think for good measure, I'll just hold her personally responsible for all of the failures in my life. Man, I feel better already.

However, on a more positive note, when I got home, I went to make an assault on my bike lock so that I could take my bike home. I managed to jimmy the broken piece of key out of the keyhole and then use the spare key to unlock it. So that sort of made up for the less-than-fabulous hillwalk.

Bike Lock

When I bought my bicycle, I bought a very good lock for it. It is supposed to take two days to cut through it with a hacksaw. Tonight the key broke in the lock. I guess I'm going to have to find out the hard way how indestructible my bike lock is. This is so not what I needed to happen now. But on the bright side, I have another hillwalk lined up tomorrow. Will write more about it when I get back.

Grapes of Wrath

One of my workmates (a team leader) was having a bad day today. He has been under a lot of pressure lately and needed to unload. So I lent him a listening ear, asking appropriate questions to help him think things through about what courses of actions he could take. He finally came up with a plan of attack and told me about what he was going to do. When he had finished elucidating his thoughts to me, he looked at me to see what my response would be. I was of course deep in thought about things. Finally, I said excitedly as the thought came into my mind, "I have some grapes at home I can eat tonight." Not one of my finer moments.

Washing Your Hands

We recently had a visitor at work. He needed to go use the loo, so he asked one of my workmates where the gents toilet was. My workmate (let's call him Jerry) pointed towards the hallway and said that it was that way. Jerry then handed the visitor his ID pass and said, "Here, you'll need this to get back in the office."

About five minutes later, the visitor returns. As he hands the ID pass back to Jerry, Jerry tries to be funny and says, "Now, I hope you've washed your hands." The visitor gets a bit flustered by this and mumbles out an "Ummm... sure." The visitor then heads into one of our meeting rooms.

I then went up to Jerry and had the ensuing conversation:

"Jerry, you know that guy only had one hand."

"No!"

"Yes, really. He did." At this point others around us confirm this statement.

Jerry looks at all of us, determines that we are indeed telling him the truth and cries out in a state of horrified disbelief, "NOOO!!!"

I simply reply, "Yes."

For the next couple of hours, all I could hear out of Jerry was an occasional wincing pain followed by a muttering under his breath of, "Surely, he must have known I didn't know."

Ramblings by Robbio #159 - Baldness

Have you ever wondered why some ugly, bald men manage to date gorgeous women? I have. I've also been wondering lately about the curse of men - that being male pattern baldness. You know, the condition that causes normally sane men to grow the few remaining hairs they have to lengths that would make even Rapunzel jealous. And then they comb those hairs over the bald spot in the hopes that other people won't notice that their hairline is retreating at a speed greater than that of my dust bunnies multiplying when my parents are about to visit.

Not only does the hairline recede, but the back of the head starts going bald, thus creating a doughnut on the top of one's head. This could be why Homer Simpson is always fond of saying, "Oooh, doughnut."

Ever wondered what the evolutionary advantage of male pattern baldness was? I can't think of anything beneficial to come from it, except maybe in the days of the caveman, when the glare off the shiny head would help blind their prey, which would thus make it easier to kill said prey. However, with our food coming pre-packaged these days, the advantage of blinding our prey is no longer beneficial. Except perhaps if the guy is really ugly and the prey is some extremely gorgeous women. Have a good week.

Robbio

Phobias for Fun: peladophobia - fear of bald people. Example of it in context: Being a gorgeous woman, I have peladophobia to the extreme, especially considering my last two boyfriends, where things were going along great, until I put my sunglasses on.

Feminism - Part 2

I think it's okay for people to be feminists. Some of my best friends are feminists. They can't help it, they were born that way. Being a feminist isn't a disease to be looked upon, but something people should feel like they can accept and revel in. It might seem like there are more feminists around in today's society, but there aren't really. They've just been more bold about coming out of the closet.

We need to be more tolerant in today's society and not look down upon people who choose the alternative lifestyle of being a feminist. After all, feminists are people too. They have feelings. If you prick them, will they not bleed? In fact, since feminists have been ostracised and discriminated against throughout most of modern history, we should seek to rectify that gross imbalance of justice and give them special legal protections. Our rallying cry should be, "Be a feminist, share the love."

Feminism - Part 1

I think it's time for me to weigh in on the whole idea of feminism. There have been many terms for women who have a strong sense of independence, from the rather innocuous title of "Womanists" (which has subsequently developed into a whole new religion) in the film 'PCU' to the more militant-sounding invective neologism of 'feminazis' first coined by Tom Hazlett.

I believe women, like children, should be seen but not heard. We read in Provebs 21:9 that for men it's "better to live alone in a tumbledown shack than share a mansion with a nagging spouse." And Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:34 that "women should remain silent in the churches." Clearly, men are superior to women, which is why the New Testament tells wives three different times to submit to their husbands. When I was in college, a couple of my (male) friends and I would sing the man song. It's done in a round. The first half chant repeatedly, "Men, men, men, men..." while the other half in counterpoint would sing, "Men are better than women." It's a very good song.

Now lest anyone thinks I'm being serious here, let me just clearly state for the record that I categorically deny holding to any of the statements that I've just recounted here. Tomorrow, I'll share with you my real views on feminism.

The Outdoors - Part 3

For my final installment in this series, I thought I'd share some memories of camping. I remember going camping with my family and waking up in the pouring rain. We'd have to try to hold a tarp over the gas burner in order to minimise the amount of rain that was getting onto our pancakes as we burned them to the bottom of the frypans.

Over the years, I've owned tents and sleeping bags of all sorts, sizes and costs. It's always exciting to see how dry a new tent will keep you or how warm a new sleeping bag will keep you. These days I don't get to go camping nearly as often as I would like, but I'm hoping that'll all change soon. There are certain moves afoot that will allow me to gain more independence whilst in Scotland.

The Outdoors - Part 2

In 1999, I told my friends that I was going to go visit my parent's home to go deer hunting with my father for the weekend. No one believed me. They said that it wasn't in my nature to use a gun, let alone go shoot defenceless animals.

Besides fishing, my father had instilled in me a love for guns and for hunting. I remember how proud I was when I got my first rifle at 13. When I was 16, I bought my second rifle. It would be this rifle that I would use on all my subsequent deer hunting trips. These rifles I still own.

As far back as I can remember, my parents took us to our hunting cabin every year to go deer hunting. It was with great excitement the first year I got to go hunting myself. Sitting out in the woods waiting for deer to come by. Holding your breath as you took aim and slowly squeezed the trigger. The joy in being able to eat the meat afterwards. These were good times.

Here's a picture of me with a target I was shooting at to practice my aim.

The Outdoors - Part 1

I had a couple of conversations recently with some kindred hillwalkers. I had asked them what had gotten them into hillwalking. They had both replied that it was something that their parents did with them when they were younger. This got me thinking about my own life. One of the things my father did for me was to get me interested in the great outdoors. He would often take us out fishing.

Some of my earliest memories were of fishing trips to Joe's Lodge. We would spend a week there every summer and spend almost the entire time doing nothing but fishing. Even now, when I go back to the states during the summers, my dad still likes taking his two boys out fishing. It has been a long time now since I've last been fishing.

Here's a picture of my brother and I after a long day of fishing at Joe's Lodge. I'm in the blue shirt picking my nose.

Galena

I've just returned from spending a long weekend in Wanlockhead (about an hour south of Glasgow) with about 20 people. On Saturday, I led 15 of us out on a four-hour hillwalk through the Lowther hills. It was a leisurely stroll but we still managed to walk almost ten miles, climb over 1000 metres and hit seven peaks. It was unfortunate that it was misty most of the day so the views weren't great, but at least it wasn't raining.

On Sunday, we went to the Museum of Lead Mining. It was a fascinating (and educational) place to visit. We started by going down into the mines for a half-hour guided tour, going to the museum itself and then ended it by visiting the second oldest subscription library in Europe (the oldest being a mile and a half away). There I learned that lead is extracted from an ore called galena. Every tonne of galena extracted produces about 1,200 pounds of lead and 10 ounces of silver.

Monday, it was time to pack up and go home, but not before hitting an art sale where I bought a couple of oil paintings for my living room. All in all, it was a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend. Here's a picture of Graham and I after a hard day's work in the lead mines. There are more pictures from the weekend here.

One Vote

It's election day in the UK. Being a non-citizen, I don't get to participate in the elections. However, as an encouragement to all those who can, here's a true story of the power of one vote, taken from here.

On 18 January 1961, in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), the Afro-Shirazi Party won the general elections by a single seat, after the seat of Chake-Chake on Pemba Island was won by a single vote.

Selling Internet Porn

It's amazing how you think you know someone and yet that person can sometimes still surprise you. There's this person that I know that came out with what I thought was an outrageous statement. I was showing him the other day how to burn CD's using nothing but Windows XP. He asked if it was like burning pirated porn to disc. This surprised me a bit, so I asked him if he's ever done this. He said that he has hundreds of porn DVD's and that he once had a whole business selling illegal porn over the Internet. At first I was incredulous, but then I realised that he was telling me the truth. So I asked him why he decided to give it up. He responded that he decided to go for a legitimate business instead, which I thought was a fair enough reason. He did state that selling porn on the Internet had been a very lucrative business for him. Still, I think I'll give it a miss.