There is a saying that goes back to who knows when (and honestly I don’t feel like looking it up to find out when it started), that states “You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your family.”  Ok so maybe it’s been changed a bit since the person I heard this from most often was my father.  While doing Christmas cards this year I thought of this phrase.  Why can’t we pick our family?  In a way we do.  Think about it.  You have people you are related to that you refer to as “relatives” don’t you.  Then there’s some friends that you call “family”. So I began to ponder the question and the answer came in the source of another Christmas card.  Well, actually two.

According to Wikipedia, Family denotes a group of people or animals (many species form the equivalent of a human family wherein the adults care for the young) affiliated by consanguinity, affinity or co-residence.  Wikipedia also states that Relative can refer to: Kinship, the principle binding the most basic social units society. If two people are connected by circumstances of birth, they are said to be relatives.

So just because you are related by blood are you family?  Not really.  I am related to several people by blood that I don’t call family. These are the people I refer to as relatives.  I also know for a fact that these same people don’t even consider me a relative so I’m not concerned as to their feelings once this is posted, not that they pay any attention to what I do or say anyway.

For some reason I have always been the black sheep.  There has never been a reason for me to have been.  I never stole from them, wasn’t a huge black eye, and never got in trouble with the law, which is a lot more than I can say about most of them.  So while I always have felt like an outsider, it was never made quite as clear as when two relatives told me to my face I didn’t belong.  Now, I know both will deny it because the more believable ones are them rather than the black sheep.  So baaaah.  While they were blunt about their feelings, other hid them well until recently.  It’s become clear I no longer exist.  I am no longer even being acknowledged.  I’m actually sitting here laughing about it.  A lot of people would be hurt but we all work out things in our own ways.  Well, since I can’t throw anything, not in the mood to bake, not upset enough to cry, and sure can’t fight anyone, I’m putting into words.

For those sitting here wondering why I would do this since it can possibly start an even bigger fight, my theory is this:  I have not used any names, dates, years, or even which side these relatives are on.  If someone takes offense to anything I have said, which is all truth, then they need to look as to why they would take offense to this blog.  Have they don’t something that would cause them to be offended?  If someone has treated you with kindness and never once made you an outsider, then why do you need to take offense to something?  Yes, I’ve not been the nicest person to some of my relatives, but then again, you get what you give.  It’s a vicious cycle of all of us not really liking each other but being forced to be civil, which most of the time no one is.  So for those that I have not been the best to, here is my Christmas present to you.  I’m sorry.  You can accept it or not.  I will not be hurt by it if you don’t accept it and I expect nothing back.

There are two more sayings I’m gonna share before I leave for the day.

First:  Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.  It’s a saying learned in childhood to try to make us feel better when someone has been mean to us.  I also believe it’s something that is forgotten as we grow older when we tend to throw around very hateful names to people we are supposed to care about.  I’m done letting your angry words get to me and will kill with kindness.  (Stop laughing I can do it)

The second one came from a country song I haven’t heard in ages.  “Blood is thicker than water, but love is thicker than blood.”

So to my friends and family, Merry Christmas.

Hearing an opinion on a subject from an information source, one Chooses to dismiss, believe or to accept the given info as part of ones understanding. If “believed”,  and the information is incorrect, one should retract his belief (relative opinion) and admit the error in order not to offset a chain reaction  of erroneous information interpretation and then distribution. To eliminate the problem of error, one must know from direct experience and not “knowledge of the experience” “know about”. One must strive for a true understanding, not an opinion or belief of another, & if not… he will go on with the false opinion throughout life, the false opinion being the source of ones collection of misinterpreted thought, with a sprinkle of righteousness whole life is a miscalculation and a hindrance to evolution of self, thus all. In human case opinion was labeled as part of absolute knowledge, while being only relative separate collective of views of the human experience (the separate “I”). Relative opinion has been passed on as “absolute” truth throughout “civilized” human existence in form of Identification of self with opinion. To be good or bad, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly. Are not all those relative and merely  opinions in form of language & calculation coming from different perspectives and only humans? Example: my god is more powerful than yours…. That makes me right and you wrong, which makes me good and you bad. This being Your exact view of me. So how can 2 wrongs and bads exist while both claiming to be good and right? Impossible, which makes it an opinion and not an absolute truth but a relative one which is an individual perspective which can’t be right or wrong it can just be a different calculation of the information while at the source it might be the same information.  Language is a classifying tool, we created calculation by watching the stars and learning from nature, because we are part of it, and we participate in the process of its universal evolution. We are form with free will, we are offspring of the universe we were once dust of the stars, we are the marriage between air water wind fire and earth we prosper we separate we move we evolve we learn we grow complex we speak we calculate we trade we fight we love we come and go we’re never the same and will never be, we are change, we are now, we are one energy in different shapes, moving at different speeds & on different frequencies. birth, change, and destruction all at the same time in different places and on different levels and in different ways. Entities are separate mechanisms of change in a nature of their own, dealing with their own conception and destruction while still being under karmic law. (Universal Law) There can be no good for self if it isnt good for the survival of the earth. That is if survival is our goal?

Ps.
Just because Im right doesn’t not make it so

Here is a perfect example of what can happen when you trust someone from your church or Aunt Sally or a friend of a friend to create your wedding cake. Just don’t!! Hire professionals. Don’t look back on your big day with regret and resentment.

Hire professionals!

To anyone out there who will be spending the holidays with family:

Relative Discomfort

Wow.  Still not even a single visitor.  Not one person has clicked on my blog, even accidentally.  Oh, well.  Until someone decides to read it, I guess this is like an online journal.  Dear Diary…

I saw my cousin that I haven’t seen for nearly two years today.  He has a fucking beard.  Of course, I have blue hair, so who am I to judge.  A beard, a plaid flannel, mud boots that go up to his knees…  Damn.  This kid could win the Redneck of the Year Award.  Even the accent.  I mean, shit.  He can’t be any older than nineteen and he has a full-blown fucking beard and is saying that cheese curds are just as good as peanut butter cups!  Someone shoot me!!!

I’m trying, yet again, to write a book.  I got a suggestion from the security guy at my school, Roy, that I should write out a plot.  Nothing to detailed, or detailed at all.  Just what’s going to happen.  I think it just might work.  Here’s a piece from the small amount I’ve written so far:

LED headlights hit the wall behind us and the car they belonged to drove up over the curb in a rush.  I ran around to the passenger side and popped the door open.  It was no time for civility, so I said nothing more to Charlie.  Wanda spun the Toyota around and began to drive me back home.

“Where is it?” she asked, finally speaking.

“Where’s what?”

“The goddamn tattoo, Patricia.  Where is it?”

“I didn’t get a tattoo, mom.”

“Bullshit.”

“I didn’t get a tattoo,” I repeated.

“Then where’s the goddamn piercing?”

“I didn’t get a piercing!”

Wanda had an odd way of giving a tone without raising her voice.  She always stayed calm throughout arguments, which made the person she argued with feel like shit for losing their temper.

“Patricia, there is no way in hell you were at a tattoo parlor and didn’t get a tattoo.”

“Well obviously there is, seeing as I’m right here without a tattoo,” I snapped.

“I don’t know that.  Why were you there if you didn’t get a tattoo?”

“For Charlie!”

“Yeah, okay,” she spat.  “For Charlie.  You know, that Charlie has never been anything but a bad influence.”

“You didn’t say that when we were five.”

“When you were five she wasn’t sneaking out of her house and getting tattoos.”

“No shit.  She was five,” I muttered under my breath, partially hoping she would hear it.

“Do not talk to me in that tone, Patricia,” she scolded.

“What tone?”

She gripped the steering wheel even harder.  “That tone.”

“I’ll use this tone if I want to!”

At this remark, Wanda turned to face me in her seat and hit me hard across my cheek with the back of her hand.  I started to bring my hand up to my mouth, where I had begun to taste blood.  Before I could, my seat belt tightened quickly around my chest.  The air bags blew up in my face as I was whipped forwards.  The glass crashing in every direction was cutting my arms and face.  I shut my eyes and felt as my head flew back and banged against my seat.

That was the last I could remember.

Let me know what you think.  I’ll take any suggestions I can get.  Where to add detail, where I sound repetitive, how much of it is absolute shit…  Anything.

Oops!  I guess some people have visited it.  Thank you for clicking, but why not comment???~♥

English makes a distinction, as in the following sentences, which seems not to be found in either German or French:

The house I saw yesterday was not for sale. (Relative clause defines which house we’re talking about.)

The house, which I saw yesterday, was not for sale. (Relative clause, being non-defining, contains no more than additional information, so can be removed without destroying the meaning of the sentence.)

In German and French it is impossible to tell which sense is meant:

Das Haus, das ich gestern gesehen habe, war nicht zu verkaufen.

La maison, que j’ai vue hier, n’était pas à vendre.

Unless someone can tell me otherwise.

Happiness is a feeling and state of well-being from within that acts as a positive feedback mechanism to let us know that we are doing the right things and living the right way.  It is this intuition that has allowed us to survive for thousands of years.

The term “happiness” encompasses several different meanings and shades of feelings.  A simple way to classify happiness would be to separate it into two main categories, which I have coined “relative happiness” and “baseline happiness.”

Your baseline happiness is your average level of happiness, whereas relative happiness is represented by the fluctuations in your mood.  If happiness is shown on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the most depressed mood possible and 10 being the most elevated possible, an average person might have a baseline happiness of 6 with fluctuations during the week ranging from 5 to 8.  The relative happiness, or the fluctuations, is caused by external events and physical conditions such as buying a new dress, getting into a car accident, receiving a complement from your boss, or not getting enough sleep.  Eventually, once everything settles down again, you will go back to your baseline level of happiness.

In other words, all of your reactions to external factors, or things that you cannot control, affect your relative happiness and not your baseline happiness.  The only thing that can change your baseline happiness is a change in your perception.  This can be achieved by actively working on your attitude and outlook as well as by experiencing realizations through random life events.  For example, if you have just realized that you had been hurting someone’s feelings this whole time, then that might bring your baseline happiness down.  However, if you correct the bad habit that was causing the pain and make amends with that person, then your baseline would actually increase from the original level.  A realization can increase or decrease your baseline depending on what you do with it.

Now that we understand these two concepts of happiness, let’s relate them to true happiness.  It would be ideal if your happiness was at a constant high level instead of feeling like a rollercoaster ride, right?  This translates to maximizing your baseline happiness and minimizing your relative happiness.  This combined goal is “true happiness.”  So in other words, true happiness is achieved when one has a healthy attitude and outlook as well as possesses full control over his reactions to the outside world.

Unfortunately, many of us have been reprogrammed by mainstream media to work against true happiness.  We are bombarded with television ads that try to convince us we need to have their material objects or need to look a certain way.  Shows and movies also constantly model unhealthy behaviors and values.  These negative influences condition us to chase after relative happiness and neglect our baseline happiness.  They are similar to drug dealers, aiming to get us addicted to their products.  If we do not consciously defend ourselves against these negative messages, we shall fall victim to the never-ending cycle of false happiness.

So, how does one increase his/her own true happiness?  How do we learn to control our emotions and want only that which we already have?  That, my friend, will be the focus of the rest of this book.  It is a lifelong process, requiring dedication and concentration, but the rewards will be incredibly worthwhile.  As a quick overview, first, we will review basic laws that govern this world.  Then we will put these laws into action through full body-mind-emotional integration.  Finally, we will touch on advanced laws and principles that will help us improve exponentially.

—————————————————————————

This essay is one of several written by Alexander V. Nguyen for his series on individual development entitled, “Freedom for the 21^st Century.”

…

I See Drunk People

Joi 26.11.2009

Remember Pub Cluj

…

…

Relative

!!!!!

După cum zic năzdrăvanii de la Truda, „Iară-i bine!”

Prezenţa scenică. Beton.

Idei trăznite. Beton.

Luci (săracu’) era foarte stresat înaintea cântării … aşteaptă din clipă în clipă să fie sunat că naşte nevasta! Să-i fie într-un ceas bun şi să-i dea mai multe idei trăznite în cap pentru a promova imaginea trupei, care în seara asta s-au îmbrăcat toţi în beţivi şi oameni ai străzii … era concertul I See Drunk People!

VIDEO 1. Relative

…

Heavy Days

!!!

Deşi se vede că au un anumit public format la Cluj, mie personal nu mi-au zis nimic. Solista drăguţă, cu părul aranjat special pentru concert, era susţinută de chitaristul de pe partea stângă care mai intra la microfon să aţâţe lumea. În a doua parte a recitalului a început să se mişte mai bine pe scenă, fiind neconvingătoare până în acel moment, nici măcar co coveruri de la piese ce le cunoşteam. Este o formaţie cu potenţial. Are PR, are look, dar mai trebuie exerciţiu. Dacă nu se pornea solista spre final, nota era clar mai mică.

VIDEO 2. Heavy Days

…

Band for Rent

!!!!

Formaţia de închiriat suferă de sindromul debutanţilor aflaţi pe scenă. Problema lor este că nu ştiu să se oprească, nu înţeleg importanţa la început să faci o selecţie din piesele mai bune şi SĂ NU ÎŢI CÂNŢI ÎNTREG REPERTORIU ÎN CONCERT DE FIECARE DATĂ. Fiecare spectacol trebuie să fie altfel şi deosebit. Acesta este MARELE avantaj de care trupele LIVE trebuie să se folosească în combaterea Playbackului! Acesta este unul din motivele pentru care publicul în general, dacă ar avea curiozitatea şi interesul să intre la un astfel de concert, ar aprecia muzica Live din prima. Numai formaţiile PLAYBACK au un repertoriu strict cu o anumită ordine a pieselor şi cântă TOATE cele 10 piese de pe CD, că altele nu au. Fiţi mai creativi, oameni buni, pentru că de asta vi se dă şansa să urcaţi pe scenă! Voi trebuie să vă impuneţi publicului, şi nu vice-versa.

Mi-a plăcut mult trupa asta, cu arpegii şi cârnaţi şi tot tacâmul … dar s-a exagerat cu repertoriul personal. 30 de minute cu piesele cele mai de impact bate oricând un concert de o oră unde nu reuşeşti să ţii publicul băgat în priză constant … şi atunci poate omul căruia te adresezi şi care ţi-ar aprecia penultima piesă se află la bar fix atunci când tu cânţi piesa AIA care ţi-ai trecut-o penultima pe listă la concertul de o oră …

Video 3. Band for Rent

More Photos.

după multe deliberări cu serverul, mouse-ul şi luna de pe cer

(să nu uităm că este vorba de ştrampii proaspăt purtaţi de Luci de la Relative pentru poza de aici).

CÂŞTIGĂTORUL CONCURSULUI, persoana care va putea purta aceeaşi pereche de ştrampi acasă, după ce vine cu prietena lui la concertul DIN SEARA ASTA la Remember Pub (fostul Club Fire) la Concertul Relative, Band for Rent şi Heavy Days … este …

domnişorul Lică Finta din Cluj-Napoca

să aveţi buletinul pregătit la intrare.

…

nu putem să nu menţionăm două din multitudinea de e-mailuri primite.

• într-una, la “întrebarea” nr. de buletin, am primit răspunsul “1 (unul!)”
• într-alta, nu am primit decât un scurt mesaj despre cât de mult îşi doreşte ştrampii lui Luci !

Povesteşte Posset, de la Relative.

Cu ocazia concertului de mâine, l-am întrebat pe Posset, De ce s-a ales sloganul I SEE DRUNK PEOPLE pentru a promova următorul concert?

Ideea cu betivii îşi are originea într-un Kaufland din …, unde, în timpul unui popas făcut, venind dinspre Vama Veche (Golden Stufstock 2009), Luci, compozitorul, s-a gândit că nu era prea penibil să porţi şlapi cu sosete, şi din acest motiv şi-a găurit în mod deliberat şoseta scoţându-şi degetul mare de la picior la vedere.

De aici şi până la ideea de a face un party cu motto-ul “I see drunk people” nu mai e mult, e destul de clar, de mergi într-un bar, asta e, vezi oameni beţi, şi mai ales dornici de împerechere. Uite că la faza asta imi vine încă o idee, da … pe bune, din moment ce scopul multora care merg la Party e de fapt împerecherea, iar consumul de alcool e doar mijlocul, poate organizăm o dată o cântare unde să ne îmbrăcăm ca păuni cu penele desfăcute, sau ca spermatozoizi, respectiv ca ovule, cine ştie…

În orice caz, revenind la ceea ce facem, putem să zicem clar că nu e pentru promovarea alcoolismului, e mai mult o subliniere a unui fapt real, ca şi când foloseşti marker-ul pentru a evidenţia pasaje centrale dintr-un text.

Şi… dacă privim acum mai îndeaproape, tema “drunk people”, sau faptul că noi ne îmbrăcăm ca alcoolişti boschetari, nu are legătură cu credinţe sau atitudini cu valori înalte, nici cu vreun lifestyle pe care-l ducem, sau îl promovăm, ci în esenta, e un decor, un instrument de show pentru a lubrifia puţin minţile oamenilor înainte să le pentetrăm cu sunet.

În mod paradoxal, cu toate că rockul promovează în general atitudini rebele, anti sistem, sau promovează un aspect fizic neîngrijit, mulţi artişti, cu toate că nu recunosc, recurg totuşi la promovarea propriului succes reproductiv şi a sex appeal-ului. E un proces firesc, şi în mare parte inconştient. Îşi aleg cu grijă hanoracul, pantalonaşii sau papucii, şi unii chiar îşi desfac părul pe scenă. Limbajul trupului, suferă şi el modificări, gesturi agresive, tonul vocii de războinic, etc, etc. Revenind la ce vorbeam mai devreme, poate nu doar cei care vin la party, ci şi cei care fac party-ul sunt mânaţi în mare parte de fantezii de împerechere. Şi aceste fantezii dansează în mare parte în aceeaşi horă cu orgolii, mândrii, fenomene în group-out group de gen “Ce? Că noi suntem mai buni ca ei!” şi rivalităţi între trupe.

Noi, la fel, ce sa zic, ne plac femeile, şi ne simţim sexy pe scenă, dar prin toată faza asta cu tematici sau costumaţii de party încercăm să ne lovim sub centură propriile orgolii si vânătorii de aprecieri şi aprobări. E extraordinar sentimentul de libertate, faptul că te poţi deconecta temporar de la dorinţa de a comunica oamenilor cât de mareţ, cool, inteligent, stilat, forţos sau periculos eşti. E pe bune… un concediu.

Oricum scena rockului e cam serioasă, şi publicul e uşor cinematografic, în sensul că stau mulţi şi se uită analitic spre scenă, şi din acest motiv, ne calculăm strategii de a aduce mai multă jovialitate şi dinamism în toată treaba. Totul e un test, aşteptam cu răbdare să vedem dacă tematicile şi costumaţiile se vor dovedi eficiente în împlinirea acestui scop.

…

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/relative_band

I see drunk people

…

starring

…

in super-alphabetical order:

…

RELATIVΞ

Band for Rent

Heavy Days

…

ok, so it wasn’t alphabetical. we tried.

26 noiembrie. JOI. Remember Pub… remember … pub … ok.

Concursul:

OK.

e puţin mai complicat ca primul.

De data asta trebuie să vă scrieţi

• numele
• prenumele
• vârsta şi localitatea
• nr. de buletin.
• piesa preferată de la Relative
• genul de articol preferat la CZB
  

pe adresa: clickzoombytes@gmail.com

Prin tragere la sorţi, un norocos sau norocoasă (şi partenerul) va avea dreptul, pe baza buletinului, să participe GRATIS la concert. Deasemenea, la locul faptei (JOI 26 noiembrie la Remember Pub) i se va înmâna ştrampii purtaţi de Luci la ultimul concert RELATIVΞ

Luci garantează că

“ăştia au termen de garantie 10 ani dacă sunt păstraţi ermetic!”

Primim e-mailuri până miercuri noaptea la miezul nopţii

(practic, aveţi puţin peste 24 de ore)

Câştigătorul

• va fi anunţat prin e-mail
• va fi anunţat la CZB JOI DIMINEAŢA

]]> http://arcgistip.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/menyimpan-proyek-arcgis-mxd-dalam-relative-path/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:05:13 +0000 Beni Raharjo http://arcgistip.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/menyimpan-proyek-arcgis-mxd-dalam-relative-path/ http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/how-i-talk-to-my-mother-about-christianity/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:00:35 +0000 Wintery Knight http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/how-i-talk-to-my-mother-about-christianity/

I could write a lot about this, so I’ll just try to provide a brief insight. I should probably put up a poll to see what my regular readers are more interested in: 1) news or 2) apologetics and mentoring.

A word of warning

One thing I’ve noticed about women is that they like it when men treat their mothers nicely and what they mean by that is never judging or disagreeing with their mothers, and never trying to change their mothers. This view of love is, of course, false. I want my mother to go to Heaven and to know and love God, so I have to talk to her about these things and disagree if she is wrong about them. So I think that disagreeing with her about spiritual things is being nice to her. But read on and judge for yourself.

The plan

My plan for my mother is not to begin by convincing her that Christianity is true. Instead, I begin by convincing her to approach religious issues just as she would approach any other area of knowledge, such as investing, or nutrition. If she agrees to treat religion as any other area of of knowledge, then I think that she will eventually conclude that Christianity is true. Currently, she is forming her beliefs about God’s existence, character and what he wants from her, using subjective mechanisms, i.e. – intuitions and experience. I want her to try a different method.

Goals

My goal for my mother, as with anyone else, is to try to get her to accept Christianity as objectively true, based on arguments and evidence. I don’t think that a person can be an authentic Christian if Christianity is just wish-fulfillment. I don’t think that a person will stick with Christianity when it goes against their own self-interest, unless their belief is anchored on arguments and facts. People act on what they really believe is true, when stressed by reality.

So, what I need to do is to argue for a method of discovery that is not dependent on emotions and intuitions, but is more rigorous. I need to offer my mother tools, such as the laws of logic, historical analysis and the scientific method. These tools can be used to investigate whether God exists, and what he is really like, and what he wants from her. By using these tools instead of intuition and experience, my hope is that I will be able to get her to arrive at a view of God as he really is.

Questions

The first question to ask her is “Does a Creator and Designer of the Universe exist independently of whether anyone thinks so or not?”. And then I ask the immediate follow-up question “How do you know that?”.

The second question to ask her is “What is the Creator/Designer’s character like?”. And again, the immediate follow-up question is “How do you know that?”.

The third question to ask her is “How does the Creator/Designer expect you to act?”. Once again, immediately follow up with “How do you know that?”.

Discussion

And the results of the inquiry were as follows: 1) she thinks that God is exactly like her and approves of everything she does, and more importantly, 2) her method of investigating religion is basically to invent “God” using her own feelings and experiences. Her method of arriving at these conclusions was by using intuition and experience, and she was resistant to the idea of using logic, science and history to find out the truth about God, his existence, his character, and what he wanted.

The next thing I did was to argue that her method of arriving at her religious beliefs was subjective and unreliable, and that she would never use that method of determining truth in any other area of life. I made a list of everything she cares about and started approaching each topic using her subjective method of determining truth, in order to expose the disastrous consequences that would occur if she made decisions in these other areas using intuition and experience.

For example, I explained my theories on how watching TV produces university degrees, how chocolate causes weight loss, how fruits and vegetables cause cancer, etc. All of this to show that subjectivism is not a reliable method of arriving at truth in any area of knowledge, especially in religion. The desire for happiness should not drive the search for religious truth. People need to avoid inventing a self-serving view of God, just because it gives them a feeling of security without any moral demands.

Finally, I introduce a reliable method of arriving at the truth in any area, including religion. I’m sure that you all already know about the concepts of propositional truth, the correspondence theory of truth, and the test for truth (logical consistency, empirical validation, experiential relevance). And you all know about how to use science/history/logic to confirm/disconfirm religious claims, etc. If necessary, I would apply these methods to other areas to show how they produce real knowledge.

A useful thing to do is to show how well-accepted facts like the origin of the universe from nothing and the crucifixion of Jesus falsify various world religions. This helps to make the point that a lot of people believe things that are false. That way, you motivate the question – “am I interested in knowing what is really true or am I interested in engaging in wish-fulfillment and projection in order to make myself feel better about my own selfishness and insecurity?”.

Some things I found out

I found that engaging in these discussions brought out some very interesting data that reminded me of what I see in the church. Each of these is worth a post, so I’ll just throw them out there in point form.

• She viewed my efforts to get her to employ logic and evidence to determine her views as being critical of her
• She felt “constrained” by allowing logic and evidence to override her “freedom” to invent a self-serving God
• She didn’t want to know about the laws of logic, or how religions make conflicting truth claims
• She didn’t want to know about what science and history could confirm/disprove religious truth claims
• She thought that it was better to let everyone believe anything they wanted to believe
• She thought that religion was mostly for making people believe things that made them feel happy and secure
• She didn’t think that God expected her to act morally if it didn’t make her feel happy to do so
• She didn’t care to find out the truth about whether God exists, what he was like, and what he wanted from her

Note: we didn’t get into any fights over this, it was just a friendly discussion, although I could sense her resistance.

My biggest concern about this view is that if it were a common view among Christians, it would increase the incidence of several non-Christian ideas, like moral relativism, inclusivism, postmodernism, pluralistic salvation, the non-reality of Hell, etc. And I think that if a lot of Christians believe Christianity is self-serving, then we will be perceived as being hypocritical by non-Christians when we don’t do the difficult things we are supposed to be doing. Non-Christians want to see some consistency between out actions and what the Bible says.

In a poll of my friends I did a while back, I found that people thought that talking to relatives about Christianity was the most difficult thing to do, higher than talking to people at work. So I’d be curious for readers to share their experiences about who is harder to talk to, and what you found in talking to people.

Mentoring

• the importance of being able to argue both sides of a question
• why does talking about religion make people uncomfortable?
• how to talk to your co-workers about your faith

Apologetics advocacy

• does the Bible teach that faith is opposed to logic and evidence?
• the six enemies of apologetic engagement
• why men flee the feminized church
• why won’t Christians defend their faith in public?

And here are some lectures that got me interested in apologetics.

Relative. Band for Rent. Heavy Days

joi 26 noiembrie. Remember Pub

Godmode. Relative. Front. Irish & Music Pub

24 noiembrie. orele 19.00

There are people who always find something to compliment you on, and there are others who will compliment you once in a blue moon. But somehow, their opinion stands out more because of its rarity. I’ve come to realize that compliments tell you more about the person giving them, than about what they are complimenting.

For example, someone complimenting your shoes, will say something because THEY like that style. You might be around someone else and they’ll think they’re the ugliest shoes in the world. It’s all relative and a matter of taste.

I want to elaborate more on this, but just heard I need to leave.. I’ll be back..

The multi-domestic strategy is appropriate for innovations that depend on understanding local customer preferences, tastes, expectations, distribution channels, and local government regulations than they do on the technological knowledge on which they rest. This strategy is appropriate when the need for market information is high while that for technological information is low. Makers of packaged consumer goods (detergents and cereals) such as Unilever have pursued this strategy. Firms that pursue the multi-domestic strategy have self-sufficient units in each country to better discern and meet local customer preferences and tastes. On the other hand, if technological information requirements are high relative to market information requirements, a firm may want to pursue a global strategy. Firms can locate their facilities either where the environment is most suitable for technological innovations or at home where they have some endowments that give them some advantage. From there they develop products for world markets. If both market and technological information demands are low, a firm can operate using the international arrangement. It can take advantage of whatever home capabilities it has to develop products for its home market. Once the products are successful at home, it can then transfer the capabilities and the innovation to overseas. If both market and technological information needs are high. The transnational arrangement is best. In this mode, firms have access to the best sources of innovation, and the technological knowledge and the market knowledge that underpin them, worldwide.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight.