Timex Sinclair ZX81: My First Computer

A NEW LEARNING

It was in the early 1980’s and computers were exorbitantly high priced for what you purchased specially by today’s standards. I was 39 years of age when I was introduced to a computer for the first time. I may have paid something like $60.00 for a Timex Sinclair ZX81 because this tiny appliance was priced for affordability and targeted to families. It was so small it could serve as a door stop.

The Timex Sinclair 1000 computer had 2K of program memory. The keyboard was printed on a large flat membrane, much like one might see on a microwave oven. It displayed B&W text and crude character based graphics on a TV set and it had no sound. It could be hooked to a cassette recorder or printer. A 16K expansion was available and I saved up enough money to buy one of these for $39 or so.

One could do some limited word processing, play chess and other elementary games. It was ridiculously slow but I had nothing with which to compare it so I waited while it did its thing. It wasn’t much but it was a mystery buster for me. From my experiments with this machine I soon moved to a more productive and utilitarian computer gifted to me by computer store owners for my use in the church office. I had joined the computer revolution.

One can still find these collector’s items. http://www.zebrasystems.com/zebrasystems/zx81/

Two Men Along the Hudson River in New York

A NEW LEARNING
My reading is so diversified these days and I surprise myself at times with my observations. Here is an example, a comparative study of two men whose connection is their involvement with the Hudson River.

The Hudson River was most recently in the news when US Airways Flight 1549 was ditched in her but stayed afloat for the rescue of all 150 passengers and five crew members. Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, meaning the Great Mohegan is the Iroquois name for the Hudson River which flows its 315 mile course from the Adirondack Mountains to New York City emptying in the upper bay. Englishman Henry Hudson sailing for the Dutch East India Company explored the river and its uninhabited shores in 1609 naming it Mauritius in honour of Prince Maurice of Nassau. He himself was later honoured when his name was given to the river. European immigrants settled around the river. It inspired the mid 19th century Hudson River School of painting, a group of landscape painters influenced by romanticism and using the Hudson River Valley, and the Catskill, Adirondack and White Mountains as their idyllic inspiration. The river is a premier example of industrial pollution.

Donald Trump was born in 1946 in New York City, the fourth of five children of Fred Trump, a wealthy real estate developer. Go figure! So much of his highly publicized business career has located along the Hudson River. His own offices and Penthouse home look out upon the waters. The Donald, as Ivana, the first of his three wives named him has been in and out of legal bankruptcy throughout his career having filed it three times, yet staying afloat by restructuring the debt by surrendering large percentages of ownership. His is ambitious and aggressive. His name and his moniker is born by the Trump World Tower, Trump Tower, Trump Entertainments Resorts which include (Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza, and Trump Marina), to name only a few. He has been earning in the range of 32 to 40 million dollars annually. In 2008 he failed to pay a $40M loan to Deutsche Bank citing the crisis was an Act of God. His most recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed on February 17 2009 on the Trump Entertainment Resorts. But it’s all business. He is on TV and he has written many books and his hair is lousy.

Pete Seeger was born in 1919 in Patterson, New Jersey near the Hudson River. His father, Charlie Louis Seeger Jr was a composer and pioneer ethnomusicologist and his mother, Constance Edson was a classic violinist. Although his parents divorced when he was seven, his stepmother, Ruth Crawford Seeger was one of the most influential female composers of the 20th century. In 1943 Pete married Toshi-Aline Ohta, a folk musician to whom he has been married ever since. Seeger himself became a key personality and contributor to the American folk music revival during the 50’s and 60’s. He wrote such memorables as “Where have all the flowers gone?” and “If I had a Hammer” and “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Countless other artists and musical groups have recorded these songs after Seeger made them famous. Seeger himself became famous for his anti Vietnam War activism and then later the environment and what has become his legacy, the efforts at Hudson River recovery. He also wrote “That Lonesome Valley” in 1969 to highlight the polluted Hudson River. He founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, built a sailing sloop used to education grade school children. Over time the US Government listened and began legislating and funding the cleanup.

Seeger is financially worth less than Trump but he may leave behind more that is worthwhile for everyone.

ROD DOERKSEN - WE ARE MISSING HIM

A NEW LEARNING
Rod Doerksen was my cousin. March 21st is the anniversary of his death in 2003. As far as his wife and two adult daughters and his sister were concerned, he was far too young to die. He was only in his middle years. Dying when he did, he missed his eldest daughter’s wedding. He wasn’t here for his first grandson’s birth. Because he was known as a good man by everyone in his community and church and family, he would have been a wonderful grandfather. All of us miss him very much.

I met him when we were both children. His parents lived in Minnesota. In following years I lost contact with both Rod and his sister. He resided in California. Then in 1991 Christine and I moved to British Columbia and I reconnected with both Rod and his sister. Now he and I were both adults, married and with grown children of our own.

Both of my brothers had opportunity to visit with Rod as well when they travelled west and for the three of us, the reconnection with these two cousins was like finding a long absent brother and sister. Rod’s father and my mother were siblings, the two children of Montana settlers who had come from Minnesota. When my mother was two years of age and her brother was four, their dad died, and their mother was alone without government assistance or any other help. She was directed to Saskatchewan where she met a widower with six children. Then together this pioneering couple had five more children. My mom’s brother (Rod’s dad) left the family home in his early teens to return to Minnesota. There he married and farmed and had two children. He died at an early age of forty or so and from what I recollect his death may have resulted from factors connected with the same genetic disorder that complicated Rod’s life and compromised his health.

Rod was strikingly tall throughout his childhood and youth and as an adult his height compared to some of the tallest NBA basketball stars. He suffered from Marfan syndrome (or Marfan's syndrome) which is a genetic disorder of the connective tissue. It was so named after Antoine Marfan, the French pediatrician who first described the condition in 1896 after noticing striking features in a 5-year-old girl. The gene that makes the protein fibrilin, and gives skin and connective tissue its stretchy feel, is faulty. Because connective tissue is found throughout the body, Marfan syndrome can affect the skeleton, eyes, heart and blood vessels, nervous system, skin and lungs. People with Marfan's are typically tall, with long limbs and long thin fingers. The most serious complication is defects of the heart valves and aorta. It may also affect the lungs, eyes, the dural sac surrounding the spinal cord, skeleton and the hard palate. There is no cure for Marfan syndrome which does shorten life expectancy which has increased significantly over the last few decades. The syndrome is treated by addressing each issue as it arises, and Rod lived through many procedures and corrective surgeries.

Wonderful husband, father, brother, son, friend and a good, good person. Thank you Lord for allowing Rod Doerksen to touch our lives.

David Wilkerson, the Prophecy of Calamity

A NEW LEARNING
There is a whole lot of scaring going on. There are so many websites and blogs written by professing Christians that are proclaiming the near end of the world. Recently a well known Christian pastor and leader, David Wilkerson, the pastor of Times Square Church in New York City, made a pronouncement that an earth-shattering calamity will happen and his comments focused upon New York City. He claims the Spirit told his spirit to publicize this prediction because the event is a demonstration of God’s wrath against wickedness.

The actual March 7 2009 blog entry says: “AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE - EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US. For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago. There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting—including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath.”

Written on his blog, this entry swept the internet like a prairie fire. It has incited concern, fear and bewilderment. It may also have resulted in some repentance which was Wilkerson’s chief intention of course. What are we supposed to do with this? I must confess that the cynic in me shouts to immediately dismiss the man and his prediction. But because I have noted many sincere people lining up in support of his prediction, I determined that I would be biblical and respectful.

I feel compelled to respond, so this is a bit of a heavy blog. If you hang in here, I will be interested to know what you think by the end of it. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you possess His Spirit. Wilkerson too is a Christian and he possesses the same Holy Spirit. With the same Holy Spirit, if the message is from God, shouldn't there be resonance? Does your spirit resonate with this prediction? Mine doesn't and that poses a problem for me. Here is a biblical prescriptive from 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21. “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good." And that is what I want to do.

That means that I will not arbitrarily dismiss Wilkerson’s comments but I must test them and then hang on to what is true. I am testing for resonance and verifiability.
1. The segment of his prophecy which depends upon the Bible I do accept with unqualified sincerity. Canada and the United States have become secularized and the scripture informs us that rejection of Jesus Christ is punishable and may incur punitive calamity but also spiritual awakening (Romans 1:18-32; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8). God has already said this. One does not require special revelation for that which the Bible already pronounces. We have resonance here. This is authentic. It’s true. God said it. Hang on to it but understand that this isn’t new information.
2. Anything within the prophecy that goes beyond scripture should be evaluated by biblical criteria. This is where there is resonance deficiency for me. Wilkerson wrote in his blog, “First, I give you a practical word I received for my own direction. If possible lay in store a thirty-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials. In major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster.” Now God may have told Wilkerson this, but I am suspicious because it has no time reference. What kind of counsel is that from God? No starting date. In 1992 Wilkerson made a similar sounding prophecy and used the word “soon.” It was coming soon. Now he is unclear about a time for these provisions to be collected. That lacks authenticity. Make a scary claim without a reference to time and the odds are that eventually something will happen.
3. And when a prophet cites scripture he is not permitted to mishandle it to support his prophecy. Wilkerson advises in that blog that his spiritual advice is this. “As for our spiritual reaction, we have but two options. This is outlined in Psalm 11. We ‘flee like a bird to a mountain.’ Or, as David says, ‘He fixed his eyes on the Lord on his throne in heaven—his eyes beholding, his eyelids testing the sons of men’ (v. 4). This is not an authentic treatment of the verse. The verse is not a prescription of what David did in the face of calamity, so you do likewise. In fact, the words “he fixed his eyes” do not appear in the verse. Rather verse 4 is a categorical statement about God. “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.” This is not a small point. My spirit does not resonate with manipulation of God’s Word.
4. The Snopes site investigates the authenticity of various claims. Janet Porter wrote several articles in the WorldNetDaily about David Wilkerson, his prior predictions and the most recent forecast of economic holocaust. WorldNetDaily is right of right wing journalism, so highly sympathetic to the Wilkerson communications. In one article Porter wrote that God gave Wilkerson a warning in early Fall 2001 with a command to make sandwiches, lots of them. She told how he and his church made 2000 sandwiches through the night of Sept 10 2001 and at 8:46 am in Sept 11 the first plane hit the Trade Center. Her closing sentence was “…when the guy who made the 2000 sandwiches on Sept 10 warns us: ‘AN EARTH SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN,’ I think we would do well to heed it.” Then later an editor’s note was prepended to the article saying that: “The story in this column about Times Square Church making thousands of sandwiches just prior to 9/11 is false. Janet Porter confirmed the story with a church staff member as she wrote the column, but was given incorrect information. WorldNetDaily regrets the error.”
5. Hold fast to the written Word of God.

- Video of Wilkerson preaching 10 days ago on the subject of catastrophe in USA.

- In this free online document Wilkerson teaches on his subject of “God’s Plan to Protect His People in the Coming Depression.” He forecasts this worldwide economic holocaust and the hope held out is that God’s children will be preserved.

TOUGH BANANAS

A NEW LEARNING
The wealthiest people have certainly taken a hit in the downturned economy. Mind you I am not crying sympathetic tears. They are not relegated to food stamps. A few weeks ago in commenting about the world’s hungry, I referenced the world’s capacity for feeding all the world’s people and I casually mentioned the world’s three wealthiest men in order of their worth from Warren Buffet with 62B, Carlos Slim Helu with 60B and William Gates III with 58B. Times change. A recent report informs us that the recession has knocked these boys around and Buffet got buffeted into second place losing 25B taking him to 37B. Helu and family also lost 25B rendering him next to penniless with 35B, and Gates claims top spot once again with a minimal loss of 18B for a worth of 40B.

Canadian billionaires are bumpkins in this extraordinary network of wealth. David Thompson and family of Canada rank twenty-fifth in the list of the world’s billionaires with 13B. Canadian Galen Weston and family have 5B, and brothers James, Arthur and John Irving share 3.9B. Vancouver’s Jim Pattison is a pauper at 2.1B. While Canada has 18 billionaires, the Unites States has 335. Customarily it takes people a number of years to acquire billionaire status so the average age among the world’s 793 billionaires is 63. Not Oprah. She is still riding a crest at 2.5B. What surprised me was the relative poverty of Donald Trump with 1.5B. Three hundred and seventy-three people lost their billionaire status during this past year. They will have to survive with multi millions of dollars.

No, don’t cry for them. The average Canadian family lost 14 thousand dollars this year and that hurts you much worse than the 15 or 20 billion of the big boys. Most have left their investment or RRSP portfolios intact waiting for recovery. That's advisable if you are young. Other people have pulled their monies out, unwilling to risk more. A financial advisor told me,"Well you only lost the gains that you have made over the last six years." That was a tactless comment and callous comfort.

SKIPPED CHURCH - BIG MISTAKE

A NEW LEARNING
We didn’t go to church yesterday. It was a gloomy wet day.
I used to tell this joke. A despondent son says to his mother, “I don’t feel like going.” His mother answers with, “No, son you must go to church today.” He counters, “But I don’t want to go to church.” Just as insistently she says, “But you have to go, you’re the pastor.”

How many Sundays are there in thirty-four years of pastoring and six years of national leadership in a denomination? With few exceptions I was at church on Sunday. We didn’t go yesterday. We would read our Bibles and pray on our own was the plan. Christine followed through as usual. I began reading and writing e-letters, writing blogs and other bits. The two of us began a conversation that became the predictable difference of opinion and grew from there. Two first-borns and whatever ingredients go into wiring and rearing numero unos, that’s us. Christine and I are the poster people for Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. And as we made up for the unnecessary escalated disagreement, which was my fault, because that too is invariably the case, not because I have big shoulders, but sloping ones so the liability rolls right off for me to recommit next time.

Back on the right side of each other we took a drive in the MX5 sports car to sit on a windy day and watch the white caps at low tide. The sun peaked out occasionally so we drove 8th Avenue to 216th Street and stopped at Domaine de Chaberton to inquire about their quaint Bacchus Bistro with its marvelous food. But we are seniors and ultimately we drove home, picking up a pizza to reheat and we watched About Schmidt during the evening. We had no idea what we were about to see. That stars Jack Nicholson who has just retired at age 66. He and his wife adjust to living together 24/7 and they have big plans to see America in their brand new Winnebago bus size Adventurer. We learned how both of them had grown to despise each other’s myriad personal habits when the youthfulness of their love was gone yet they were mutually committed to the marriage. Christine and I looked at each other and smiled knowingly. One day he returned from an errand to find her dead on the floor from a blood clot to the brain. He was alone. Soon a daughter got married in a far away state to a man he couldn’t stand and the rest of the movie is a marvelous character study of numerous people in this unblended family whom the scriptwriters understood perfectly with all the reactions, tired clichés and behaviours of ordinary people in ordinary life situations. Nicholson’s character finds an iota of joy in a note from an African Foster child whom he supports with $25 monthly cheques. And that was that. The credits scrolled. An overcast ending to the day I missed church. Oh, we kissed one another goodnight.

"So did you learn a lesson from the day?" "I don't want to learn a lesson! This is my memoir."

Taking Issue with the Slanderers - Part one

A NEW LEARNING
I received a friend’s expressions of deep concern about President Barak Obama’s executive orders which some American political bloggers are associating with an Islamic lover’s agenda. I immediately began doing research to gather evidence to support my belief that Obama’s administration is one of integrity.

The communication that initiated the worry came from the keyboard of Kim Priestap. She wrote the following title, ‘Obama Signs Presidential Determination Allowing Palestinians Loyal to Hamas to Resettle In US.’ To support her contention she cited this link in the government’s own federal registry of legislative orders, www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488. She can be read at www.wizbangblog.com

I don’t know Kim Priestap at all but as I investigated her claims I came across countless other end times blogs and sites that have jumped on the same issue that caused her indignation. What disturbed me was the discovery that she appears to have plagiarized. Her piece contains verbatim the prose of a comment by an online name called crmann who wrote precisely what Priestap wrote as if it was her own.

* His first call to any head of state as president was to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.
* His first one on one interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.
* He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.
* He ordered all overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.
* He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and 9/11.
* Today we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to and live in the US at American taxpayer expense.
Anyone else seeing a pattern here?

At times some of us will want to take issue with some of the Obama administration positions that touch upon moral principles and biblical directives. For instance yesterday Obama reversed the Bush administration ban on stem cell research. Some will find that morally repugnant. However, he is keeping a campaign promise in so ordering and we should be pleased that one of the early hallmarks of the Obama administration is transparency and disclosure. Read his commitment below.

“In our democracy, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages accountability through transparency, is the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open Government… All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government… The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”

So for that reason the Obama administration informs the people of such areas as his or his administration’s approach to abortion rights, and gay marriages and other important moral issues. Americans who object to something should voice their objection and the confidence he is extending presently is that he and his authorized committees will listen. But he is governing a pluralistic society and conservative values will not always, in fact may seldom win the day.

Gross National Happiness

A NEW LEARNING
Most countries define quality of life by the measure of GNP or Gross National Product. GNP is the total dollar value of all final goods and services produced for consumption in society during a particular time period (i.e. one quarter or one year). A more accurate gauge of health is the GDP Gross Domestic Product which takes into account not only income from goods and services but also cost of labour and property. Countries measure their GNP and GDP by comparing with other countries.

High in the Himalayan mountains is the country of Bhutan with 600,000 people who measure their progress as a nation by placing higher value on spiritual development. Assessing quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms they tag their measurement vehicle the GNH or Gross National Happiness. This term was conceived by the Bhutanese and officially embraced in 1972. Bhutan is the world’s youngest democracy and it held elections for the first time in March 2008. Notwithstanding this, Bhutan still has a monarch, having crowned its fifth king, 28 year old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck on November 6, 2008. He succeeds his father King Jigme Singye Wangchuck to become the world’s youngest reigning monarch. The new king is an Oxford educated bachelor who has promised to maintain a protectionist posture against globalization’s most evil features. He will maintain the GNH coined by his father when bringing this unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values into the age of modernization.

GNH value is proposed to be an index function of the total average per capita of the following measures:
1. Economic Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution
2. Environmental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic
3. Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses
4. Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients
5. Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and lawsuits
6. Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates
7. Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.

Can anything be learned by Canadians and Americans from Bhutan’s example?

Thanks to the Reuters News Service and Royal Government of Bhutan for its Handout

The Memory Hole

A NEW LEARNING

A memory hole is a term applied to the deliberate concealment of elimination of information. It refers to that place where information is consigned when someone does not want it to be known. It is commonly agreed that the expression derived from the George Orwell novel ‘1984’. During World War II, the author and broadcaster Eric Blair whose pen name was George Orwell, worked for the BBC’s Eastern Service. This excerpted passage from his novel “1984” is believed to have been an allusion to his tenure at the BBC where classified or secret or damaging documents were immediately destroyed.

“In the walls of the cubicle there were three orifices. To the right of the speakwrite, a small pneumatic tube for written messages, to the left, a larger one for newspapers; and in the side wall, within easy reach of Winston’s arm, a large oblong slit protected by a wire grating. This last was for the disposal of waste paper. Similar slits existed in thousands or tens of thousands throughout the building, not only in every room but at short intervals in every corridor. For some reason they were nicknamed memory holes. When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building.” - George Orwell, 1984

Whether or not BBC had such a provision as Big Brother did, the notion points in contrast to the severe liability of electronic messaging today. Many a time we have wished for a memory hole. We can buy shredders for paper but we don’t have an electronic e-equivalent. Not only can the involuntary click of the enter button send a dispatch on its irretrievable trip to the recipient’s inbox before it has been proofed or refined or discarded altogether, but once sent or posted, our e-stuff is not recyclable. It is often permanent. You can purge your own system but not someone else’s and certainly not the memory banks of twitter or Facebook and other networking sites. There are vestiges of your communications floating out there accessible by Search tools.

If you, like Christine and me, have been journaling in paper journals for years, do you ever consider what your children will think when they read some of your recorded rants? Christine has trashed some of hers. I need to yet they serve as resource if I get enough resolve to write some real memoirs. That’s why my blogged memoirs are as opaque as possible, so they don’t return to haunt me or someone else.

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling

A NEW LEARNING
Christians are frequently cultural chameleons. We change out colours when it suits us. We are satiated by the very culture we publicly criticize. We practice selective abstention from aspects of culture that are deemed inappropriate to our specific milieu. We relish other aspects of the same culture. This might be regarded as hypocrisy, certainly insincerity.

I know how easy it is to engage in this duplicity because I have been a preacher for over forty years. Invariably we preachers must direct our muzzles at facets of the secular culture and empty our magazines. We are justified in censuring the cultural activities and values that the Bible condemns. What I have found is that I and my colleagues did not, do not, respond with affirmation of laudable features in our culture. And further, while I should know better, I have not made an acceptably earnest attempt to supplement my culture. I am an artist and a writer, or let’s say I can do both and I enjoy both activities. Culture is what all of its participants make it. Instead of warring against the culture in which we live, might it not be a better use of God’s gifts within us to reclaim the culture? The Christian community is integral to this identity. Author Andy Crouch has written an emotive book that calls Christians to be culture makers, thus the title, “Culture Making.”
“Crouch unpacks the complexities of how culture works and gives us tools for cultivating and creating culture. He navigates the dynamics of cultural change and probes the role and efficacy of our various cultural gestures and postures. Keen biblical exposition demonstrates that creating culture is central to the whole scriptural narrative, the ministry of Jesus and the call to the church. He guards against naive assumptions about ‘changing the world,’ but points us to hopeful examples from church history and contemporary society of how culture is made and shaped. Ultimately, our culture making is done in partnership with God’s own making and transforming of culture.” – quoted from Crouch’s website

Conrad Black Begins His Second year in Prison Today

A NEW LEARNING
He has 6 ½ years to serve and his second year behind walls and bars at Coleman Florida’s federal prison begins today March 4th. It’s located near Disney World but this is not a kids’ ride.

Fortunately for him he is contained in the low security segment for non-violent crime designated inmates. Incarcerated for a money crime, how paradoxical is it that this wealthy man is allowed no money within the system. He wears the olive green shirt and pressed slacks of all inmates and stands out from the pack with his intellect.

Those of us who did not know him personally but followed his life and times online or in print knew that given his drive, he would predictably turn this horrific life stage into something productive. One could have put money on the likelihood of him writing a book or two while locked up. He has done that. His publisher already has a manuscript describing his trial and initiation into prison life. It is expected that he will also write one about life within the Coleman prison. The National Post carries an article by him almost every weekend.

Peter Worthington who visited Conrad in prison for a lengthy interview believes that Black has discovered a new side to himself which is teaching others. He prepares lessons and he gives lectures on history and politics to anyone, inmates and staff alike. He finds his fellow inmates interesting and it appears they like him. Some of them like Black are educated men who held responsible and productive roles in society.

He is also taking piano lessons, Worthington informed us and according to Black this is his personal response to his mother who refused to allow him to take lesson when he was a child.

With his ability to research he will undoubtedly make comment sometime about the U.S. justice system which he observes to have serious faults and that doesn’t relate solely to his case. The U.S. has seven times more prisoners than other countries, numbering about two million people in federal, state and private prisons. That is 25% of the world’s prison population and it has escalated exponentially within the past thirty years. It is the reasons for this which are so important to discover and explain. After Worthington visited Black he offered the opinion that “Prison reform in the U.S. is a cause waiting to be discovered.”

Worthington quotes Black. "Yes, time is strange here," says Conrad. "You lose track of days and dates, and they all blend together."

See the Worthington Interview article on McLean’s online magazine from which information for this blog was adapted.

FINISH STRONG - Nick Vujicic

A NEW LEARNING
One of his best lines and most valuable lessons is something like this. “If you fall down, what are you going to do? You will try to get up. And if you fail the first time or fail trying one hundred times, it doesn't matter. What matter's is how you finish. So you try again, and at last you get up."

It might be trite if it were spoken by anyone else but Nick Vujicic. A friend sent me a link that introduced me for the first time to Nick Vujicic, a twenty-five year old Aussie man. He is a motivational speaker. He was born without arms and legs. Now he travels to countries around the world and speaks to businesses, schools, prisons, churches inspiring people to rise above obstacles and challenges. Yet he states that his real mission “is to cross boundaries and break down barriers to build bridges that bring people to the love and hope found in Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:28 says, "We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ."

He certainly moved me to tears. I asked Christine to watch it with me. He got me again. Then I looked at all the Internet references to this wonderful man. I found his website which is entitled ‘Life Without Limbs.’ On this site you will hear his profound personal love for Jesus Christ. You can also find numerous videos to see and hear him in action.
But for now, take 2 minutes, to watch this one. It will put your life into perspective.

And of course there are tons of others:
Greg Laurie interviews Nick
Nick is speaking at a Conference (23 minutes)

Procrastination - The Decision not to make a Decision is still a Decision!

A NEW LEARNING
Mark Twain wrote, "Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow."

Many famous people were procrastinators. Among them was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci had astonishing talent, exploring numerous fields in science and art. He made noteworthy contributions in engineering, architecture, biology, botany, anatomy, math, and physics. He sculpted and painted portraits and murals. He designed imaginative equipment (e.g., planes, submarines) that were not realized until centuries later. He never finished a project on time. The cause of Leonardo's procrastination appears to be distractibility which we might term Attention Deficit Disorder today. Being unable to focus on one project until completion is highly predictive of procrastination. The Last Supper was only finished after his patron threatened to cut off all funds. Mona Lisa took twenty years to complete. The Adoration of the Magi, an early painting, was never finished. As he aged, his procrastination grieved him because he felt he could have achieved much more. Doubtless more of his aspirations could have become a reality in his own time had he finished things. So much was half-completed that he appealed to God, “Tell me if anything ever was done. Tell me if anything was done.”

Procrastination is a behavior characterized by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. While it is normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. It is a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision. For a behavior to be classified as procrastination, it must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying. It may result in stress, a sense of guilt and the loss of personal productivity, the creation of crisis and the disapproval of others for not fulfilling one's responsibilities or commitments. These combined feelings can promote further procrastination. Procrastination has been associated with perfectionism, a tendency to negatively evaluate outcomes and one's own performance, intense fear and avoidance of evaluation of one's abilities by others, heightened social self-consciousness and anxiety, recurrent low mood, and workaholism.

> "Procrastination: A hardening of the oughteries." Anonymous
> "The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up." Anonymous
> "Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week." Anonymous

I can’t believe Anonymous made time to even write this much.

Website dedicated to Procrastination

Jim Cymbala Preaching

A NEW LEARNING
Yesterday I mentioned Pastor Jim Cymbala, the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York City. I remember first reading his books during the 1990's. These touched my life. I listened to him as well and recall regarding him as a humble godly man. Everything that he and his church did, and do is first committed to God by praying about it. That's his message - the essential nature of prayer.

If you can set aside one hour to listen to an online sermon, then please listen to him preach. He is introduced in this video by Bill Gaither and the year is 1994. Don't let the year disuade you because it's the message that is of importance. Or, better yet, go to the Brooklyn Tabernacle website and listen to the sermons provided there.

The Youtube video of Cymbala preaching.

The Brooklyn Tabernacle

NEWS! Paul Harvey, Broadcasting pioneer Paul Harvey died in an Arizona hospital on Saturday Feb 28 2009 at the age of 90, less than a year after his wife Lynne passed away.

REVIVAL BEGINS WITH PRAYER

A NEW LEARNING
In the late 1960’s Bill McLeod pastored a church of two hundred people in Saskatoon that caught a spirit of prayer. Prayer became the most important activity of their church life. They poured out their hearts to God to send revival to them and their city. In 1971 God sent revival. It went on for months and involved countless other churches and moved to ever large venues to accommodate people night after night. In the years that followed the revival movement moved to every province and every US state having similar life changing results. Families were reconciled. Destructive habits were abandoned. But it all began with concerted prayer because praying people take God seriously.

I believe many in evangelicalism have concluded that to see crowded churches in North America we have to redesign, reorganize, renovate, restructure, rebuild, retrofit, and reshuffle. So we spend money on capital items when we should be spending time in prayer so that God will send revival and people will crowd into any kind of facility where God is busy. Over the decades as we modernized and contemporized our church programming I noticed that we became satisfied with less and less corporate prayer. Then along came the testimony of one pastor Jim Cymbala and the Brooklyn Tabernacle and his first books and videos that inspired thousands of Christian leaders as though Cymbala had stumbled on something revolutionary. Jim was a brand new pastor at his first church in Brooklyn which had only twenty members until one day there was standing room only at prayer meeting and until today when it is deemed a mega church. In his book called Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire Cymbala provides a one-word answer: prayer. He tells how passionate, persistent prayer transforms individuals, revives churches and revitalizes communities.

Instead of losing hope we need to go back to the biblical basics.
Communication with God through prayer is one of the foundational and unchanging essentials of a life with God.

See Bill McLeod's website
See Brooklyn Tabernacle site

IT’S AS PLAIN AS THE VERITABLE NOSE ON YOUR FACE

A NEW LEARNING
Why is it that we miss some things that should be so obvious to us?

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine they lay down for the night, and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend awake. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see." Watson replied, "I see millions and millions of stars." "What does that tell you?" Holmes questioned. Watson pondered for a minute. "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?" Holmes was silent for a minute, and then spoke. "Watson, you idiot. Someone has stolen our tent."

We are presently living in a worrisome time but we may be missing the point. The Stock Market indexes are still falling. Perhaps we are mistaken about the true nature of crisis. Maybe this is not about the economy at all. The most serious issues that this world is facing may not be economic. America and Canada have been degenerating for some time into godless societies. The world economic crisis may simply be a warning that the eternal God of the universe is profoundly displeased with world ethics and morality.

Our churches are visible certainly and the US has more of them and larger churches but churches appear powerless to reverse the downward spiral and the speeding secular currents. Religion is up but morality is down. We have little impact on our societies. In fact the influence of cultures is permeating our churches so that we are seduced by the social agenda of wealth and pleasure. Our two countries are stalled in moral and spiritual crises. The only hope is a revival from God. If a spirit of holiness captivated God’s people, of how much would we all need to repent?

THE YEAR OF THE LOCUST

A NEW LEARNING
Twelve animals comprise the Chinese zodiac: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. 2009 is the year of the Ox. The significance of the Ox is a power sign. Oxen are dependable and possess an innate ability to achieve great things. The Ox is thought to be the sign of prosperity through determination and hard work.

We city dwellers know very little about locusts except what we are told. We see the occasional grasshopper. When environmental conditions are suitable, locusts swarm in the billions and cover hundreds of square miles and within hours strip entire fields of grain or corn. Locusts are edible in some cultures and if a person is desperately hungry. But locusts are chiefly considered a nuisance, a pest because of the incredible crop destruction they can effect.

This Chinese sign of the ox for 2009 is an oddity given the fact that in most of our memories, we have never known a time when the entire world has been involved in such an economic crisis. Prosperity doesn’t appear anywhere on our economic horizon. It appears to me that given the world economic crisis, and even though the Chinese Zodiac doesn’t include this, I believe that 2009 could be viewed as the Year of the Locust.

Within just a few months late in 2008 and in early 2009 stocks have lost ten trillion dollars globally. The economies of developed countries have gone south and foreclosures and bankruptcies and layoffs are all we hear. Everyone is trying to understand it and to deal with it. Recovery and stimulus packages are being thrown at the locusts to stop their advance. But I don’t hear anyone speaking about a link between our locust problems and God Himself. Has it crossed your minds to draw a connection between Almighty God and the global and national crisis? There are numerous disasters that are classified ‘acts of God,’ so why not this reversal of fortune? Have any of you been wondering whether in the economic downturn and our feelings of defenselessness, God is seeking to communicate with us about something more serious than money?

Bread for the World

A NEW LEARNING
6,761,860,106 people live on this planet.

One third of us are well fed. One third is underfed and one third is starving. 18 million people die of starvation or starvation related diseases annually worldwide. Malnutrition is implicated in more than half of all child deaths worldwide. Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.

3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on US$2/day.

Warren Buffet is an American and at 77 years of age he is the wealthiest man on earth with 62.0 billion dollars. Carlos Slim Helu lives in Mexico and is worth 60 billion dollars. Bill Gates III is American and worth 58 billion dollars. The assets of these three richest men are more than the combined Gross National Products of all the forty-nine least developed countries on the planet. (map is of LCDs - least developed countries)

I am not laying the responsibility for feeding the world's hungry on the doorstep of these three aforementioned men. Each may already be a philanthropist. I am saying two things. There is tremendous disparity between the wealthy and the poor of this world, and there is more than enough money in the world to feed everyone. The world's wealth (businesses and individuals)is estimated at 44 trillion dollars. Nine million people worldwide each have one million dollars of worth.

The United Nations classifies a Least Developed Country with three criteria:
* low-income (three-year average GNI per capita of less than US $750, which must exceed $900 to leave the list)
* human resource weakness (based on indicators of nutrition, health, education and adult literacy) and
* economic vulnerability (based on instability of agricultural production, instability of exports of goods and services, economic importance of non-traditional activities, merchandise export concentration, and handicap of economic smallness, and the percentage of population displaced by natural disasters)

$30 billion per year is what UN officials estimate is needed to eradicate hunger.

Bread for the World has a site with links to countless organizations seeking to relieve world hunger.

YOU CAN MAKE F.R.I.E.N.D.S. ANYWHERE

A NEW LEARNING
She is always smiling a pleasant smile. I always wondered why all the male curmudgeons that preceded her at this corner bothered reporting for work. They never talked to the children. They never smiled. They barely responded to my good morning greeting.

She is a crossing guard at our local Martha Currie elementary school. She is in her mid forties and she wears the customary guard coat, hat and big red cross over her body and she carries a Stop sign. Each day when I do my walk/run, still more walk than run at this point, she greets me. We exchange a courteous salutation or weather comment as I pass by her on her corner.

Today she asked, “Did you enjoy you holiday?”
Not always certain about my own memory I was sure this time that I hadn’t ever conversed with her about a vacation so I asked, “Did I tell you I was going on a holiday?”
“Maybe I confused you with someone who looks like you,” she answered as we stood momentarily together.
“You look like your brother Mike,” she told me.
Not convinced that this was true, I said, “No!”
She asked, almost stated, “You don’t have a brother Mike?”
“No, I don’t” and I was in a half turn to continue on my homeward saunter.
“But I am going on a trip soon,” I hinted and she followed up with “Where are going?”
“France” I boastfully said.
“Do you speak French?” she wondered.
“A little” I lied to her and she wished me a good trip.

And now I am thinking that if you want friends and care to be friendly it’s so easy. All one needs is a cache of good lines like the one she used with me. You can always generate a short conversation.

I might see a total stranger and ask, “Did you enjoy your dinner at Moxie’s last Thursday?”
To which I might receive, “No, I have never been to Moxie’s. You have mistaken me for someone else.”
To which I can say, “Oh, you and your sister Amanda look so much alike.”
To which I might get, “My sister’s name is Kelly.”
To which I could answer, “That’s right, I often get those two names mixed up.”
And then I can add, “You should try Moxie’s. You will enjoy the ambiance and the food is good. Have a nice day.”

To have friends, you must show yourself friendly.

Friends official site

Internet Addiction

A NEW LEARNING
This is a serious entry. I won't apologize for it. It might be beneficial.
I have become aware that since I retired, I have been exploring the internet for more hours per day than I realized it was possible to do. I am seeking information, supportive material for articles and blogs, reading news. That’s all quite legit. What I am asking myself is whether I am an addict. I don’t think I am. The internet is a resource for me like any library and it’s a mouse click away. I do wonder however, whether people can become addicted to the internet.

Now I have come across the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery and its director Dr. Kimberly Young. She has been finding that study respondents report marital problems because of internet use. Customarily the difficulty arises because of the amount of time users spend on the internet. The Stanford University School of Medicine asserts study results of one out of eight Americans suffering from Internet Addiction: 14% of respondents claimed they found it difficulty to abstain from Internet use for several days; 5.9% said their relationships were suffering because of excessive Internet use; 8.2% said that the Internet was an escape from real life. Get this, 71% of office workers abuse Internet use during work hours as they socialize at networking sites, shop online, do personal email, and browse porn, gaming and gambling sites.

Several categories of this impulsive control problem have been identified.
1. Cybersexual Addition: viewing, downloading and trading porn or using fantasy role play chat rooms;
2. Cyber-Relational Addition: addiction to chat rooms, IM, or social networking sites or engaging in virtual adultery;
3. Net Compulsions: addiction to online gaming, gambling, eBay;
4. Information Overload: compulsive behaviour regarding excessive Web surfing and database searching.

I am putting myself on alert. I will be more evaluative about my time on the internet so that my wife doesn’t at some point claim that I have deserted her. Perhaps it is a good thing for me that she has her own laptop and now spends some time communicating and exploring the places we will soon visit. So she understands the vehicle.

You can received more information about Internet Addiction Recovery at Dr. Kimberly Young’s web site http://netaddictionrecovery.blogspot.com/index.html