Personal

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Memory Eternal - Archishop Job

I had the pleasure of being in a service with Archbishop Job just this month.  Find out more about here:  http://www.oca.org/news/2032

Thursday, November 19, 2009

yes, by all means, please do so

The New York Times had a story called “Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012 “ which at the time of the writing of this blog can be found here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/science/17essay.html

In it, it says that both CERN and NASA stte that Doomsday will NOT happen in 2012.  This, of course, brings out the cynic in me and so now I KNOW that’s when it is going to end.

Beyond that, however, I read where people like David Morrison, an astronomer at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., get emails (quoting the article)

“Dr. Morrison said he had been getting about 20 letters and e-mail messages a day from people as far away as India scared out of their wits. In an e-mail message, he enclosed a sample that included one from a woman wondering if she should kill herself, her daughter and her unborn baby. Another came from a person pondering whether to put her dog to sleep to avoid suffering in 2012. “

Okay, so, how SHOULD Dr. Morrison respond?  Well, I don’t know HIS circumstance, so Iwill respond for me.  If I got such a letter, I would at least WANT to reply (I wouldn’t for fear of being sued - I am SUCH a coward), “Yes, by all means, please do so.”

I see this as the historically accurate and correct answer.  Life on this planet has evolved, changed, and adapted in response to the environment.  If you watch the lions on the Discovery channel, they eat the young, the old and the ill.  If you watch the fish eating the octipi, you see they eat the little ones, the weak ones, the diseased ones.  The healthy, lucky, strong ones survive.

If we change the scenario around it gets quit simple…

A weak whale writes a letter to a strong giant squid, “Dear strong giant squid, when the water gets dark, my friends and I get eatten.  Should I just go ahead and kill myself, my little whale-kins, and my unborn whale-baby?  Also, while I’m at it, shouldn’t I just go ahead and kill all my close friends and family - after all they are going to die anyway once it gets dark.”

The strong giant squid replies, “Dear weak whale, by all means, please do.  In fact, I would love to be there to help.  Where do you live?”

I keep hearing people say that humans are at the top of the food chain.  I think they have it wrong.  There is not a food chain.  There is a food circle.  Things like H1N1 show us just how vulnerable to the little things. I am quite sure somewhere there is something that eats things like H1N1.  Something then eats that.  Something then eats that and eventually the weak whale eats something only to be treated to the strong giant squid treatment.  You gotta know that the lions in Africa are looking at the little africans and thinking - you know, they don’t taste very good, but those humans are a lot easier to kill than hyenas, maybe I should alter my tastes some.  Plus, there are LOTS of them - I would never have to go hungry again!”

Monday, November 16, 2009

What does your Sunday look like - Brady and Bilichick - what the heck?

Wow, I wanted the Colts to win.  But still, why would Bilichick and Brady do what they did?  They have been slicing and dicing the Colts passing defense all night.  It has been a really fun game.  Then, they go through 4 plays in less than a minute, use up not one but TWO time outs.  Faulk bobbles the ball, catches it, but doesn’t get the first down.

Manning showed them how to run the clock after that; as well as how to move 30 yards and score.

Wow. 

Friday, November 06, 2009

What does your Sunday look like - a couple days early

I’ve been trying to post on Facebook at least once a week.  Lately that has been in a series of “What does your Sunday look like” and either short descriptions or pictures or both of what mine looks like.

This week I am doing it a bit early.  First, because I have some time, second because I have been so busy this week doing some incredible stuff with some incredible people, and wanted to share.

This week my company had its annual technology conference.  We had approximately 170 people attend.  The last two days were classes that were done by SANS (http://www.sans.org).  I went through “Metasploit for Penetration Testers (Security 553)” and “One-Day Version Cutting Edge Hacking Techniques (Security 517)”.

Now, I generally have a fairly healthy paranoia when it comes to security and computers.  I have always said that there is no such thing as a secure system.  However, when I have said this, it has been due to the fact that my systems have been hacked and that I had been told that no system is secure.  I did not have any “real” knowledge of how to do hacking.  I’ve run a few scripts, I’ve investigated more intrusions than I can count, etc.  However, now, i have actual knowledge from a hacking perspective.  I now have run through some of the MANY MANY tools and techniques that there are to break in to patched systems.  I was introduced to Metasploit - a Framework to assist research, development and use of vulnerabilities.  I have used that framework to break into systems.  I have used that framework to set up pdf’s, word docs, and html files that let me have a command line interface on a system.  I have looked at a tool that you can use to boot a windows box and get passed the local administrative password - oh, and it works in XP, Vista, and, as we tested today, works against Windows 7 too.

So, that’s what my last few days have looked like.  what have yours’ looked like?

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

weaning

John Jordan RT @BOBSORGE - Weaning changes the appetite. In weaning us, God withholds what we want in order to change what it is that feeds us-Ps. 131:2

•Weaning is the process of gradually introducing a mammal infant, either human or animal, to what will be its adult diet and withdrawing the supply of its mother’s milk.

I Have Calmed and Quieted My Soul

131 A Song of Ascents. Of David.

1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

David is saying that his soul is weaned.  What is it weaned from?  What is it weaned to?

John Jordan said (I think he was quoting someone, but I could not tell from his post on Facebook) that “God withholds what we want in order to change what it is that feeds us.” I am convinced that this weaning process is prayer and fasting.  For, it is through these, Christ tells us, that demons are rebuked, faith is grown, etc.