Lest Blood Be Shed

The blogging software that I use is called Serendipity and as I'm sure you can tell I've been fiddling around with it. I'm currently using the 0.7beta3 version of the software and it is great! There are a whole bunch of new features (karma, threaded comments, etc) that just make the layout of the blog really cool.

There were a few things that I didn't like about the software though and that was the recent entries and recent comments plugins for the side bars. The formating of the plugins was less than steller. So, being the geek that I am, I modified the "Recent Entries" plugin and wrote a brand new "Recent Comments" plugin. I think they look really cool.

But that's not all. I also fixed the statistics plugin to work with postgresql. It required changing the code on the serendipity statistics plugin proper as well as the serendipity karma plugin.

I've submitted the changed to the developers list but I don't know if they will incorporate the changes into the software. At least it makes my blog look spectacular and run great!

Last night I found myself in what I can only describe as a tohu va-bohu. I don't know why that term came to my mind and I'm not even really sure what it means (neither are any scholars of biblical hebrew). But it just seems to fit. With the way things are going it is like two sparrows flying and fighting around each other not paying attention to what is going on only to run into a big glass window. It might also be described as sitting in a big dark church at midnight only to have two seperate groups of people come from different locations at the same exact time and meet in front of you only turn on the light and leave. God is brooding like a mother hen over my tehom and I'm not sure what is going to surface.

to'-hoo -
1) unreality, formlessness, confusion, emptiness (primary meaning difficult to seize)
1a) formlessness (of primeval earth)
1a1) nothingness, empty space
1b) that which is empty or unreal (of idols) (figuratively)
1c) wasteland, wilderness (of solitary places)
1d) place of chaos
1e) vanity
2) groundless arguments or considerations
2a) moral unreality or falsehood
2b) worthlessness
Part of Speech: noun masculine

va -
1) and

bo'-hoo -
1) emptiness, void, waste
1a) i.e. plummets, employed, not as usual for building, but destroying walls
Part of Speech: noun [masculine]

I finished with my first class this morning somewhat dreading the six hours between. I thought I would spend it by driving home having a free lunch then doing some reading for four hours then return back to McCormick. Windows had a different plan for me. I got home around 1:00 and had a quick lunch. No problem, everything going according to plan. Then my dad emerges from the basement and informs me that "the computer is broke." Now this is to be expected it is a Windows machine. So I head down into the dark, cold and damp basement thinking I would spend maybe 30 minutes and then I could get to some reading for class. The first problem was that the machine had been taken over by the "SBC Yahoo DSL" install. Not only does this software suite install it's own browser, email client, tcp/ip interface, and PPPoE login module but it install some various spyware programs. I knew it would be a problem the moment I installed the DSL three weeks ago but I thought it might be fine to install if I told my parents not to use the browser and not to use IE. Well, that didn't work. It took an hour alone to uninstall all the SBC crap. The list of spyware that was on the computer was endless (and reinstalling as fast as I could remove it). TV Media, EzOla, Web Offers, Cash Back, and on and on. I finally got the computer into safe mode and removed most of the spyware. With a few exceptions, I had to use three separate spyware removal programs to get them all! Spybot Search and Destroy, AdAware, HijackThis. After I cleaned everything (I hope). I had to setup the Linksys router to handle the PPPoE login for the SBC DSL (now that the computer wasn't doing it, which I don't think it ever should). Now, finally, I pray that the computer is clean and working with the router.

The problem I think is that my father is going to a whole bunch of porn sites as well as my sister going to a whole bunch of "punk rawk" sites that are selling stuff. AND they were using the "SBC Browser" which was just a shell for IE so they were being infected that way.

I never thought I would have to have "the talk" with my dad about going to porn sites and the problems it causes!

By the time I was finished it was 5:00pm and I had to rush to class. Blah. I was going to blog today about Post-{Modernism|Traditionalism} and a key image that would help people see that it is not relativism! But that will have to be for another day.

One good thing that happened this afternoon was when my dad and I were chatting about politics. My dad said the way our society is going is not dependent on how we vote. He used the imagery of an airplane with a "right wing" and a "left wing" they are both holding the plane up in the air heading in the same direction. He said no matter how we vote its all going to crash. Then he and I complained about fascism. Weee!

(I'm going to wax metaphorical on this one)

[metaphor]
The democracy that has evolved within the United States Government no longer works as the founders intended. In this time of elections and political spin it is refreshing to hear of people that see the problems in how government is run in the United States.

I recently discovered that the US government was based not only on the Presbyterian form of Government at the time but also (and more so) upon the Tribal Confederacy of the Iroquois Nation. A true democracy where the voice of the people as well as the souls of the land and the creator spirit were heard within the assembly. A place where what was detrimental to any part of creation was rooted out and stopped and all other things were considered Good. The confederacy didn't last long. Europeans were a people coming from a history of hierarchy, patriarchy, oppression, suppression, and most importantly from a place where humans were considered above all else in decisions. A twisting of a holy theology into the corrupt tools of empire is to blame for this.

After only 200 years+ an empire based on the fiction of money has arisen and the democracy started by its founders is all but lost in the sea of green that covers the land. Money rules the democracy in America and no longer do the people, the souls of the land, or the creator spirit have a say. The God of Free Market has silenced the people, decimated the land, and started to break creation. We must destroy this God and reclaim the land and all of creation before there is nothing left in our world but fiction.

But how can this be done? The first step is to get the Bush of Oppression and Expansion out of the White House. Emperor Bush II is a poison upon this Good Earth and his policies need to be stopped. If you have money to vote, vote this beast out of office otherwise cast your vote upon the waters of this fascist government and pray that the Creator Spirit will lift your vote and return it to you fulfilled. But the most important thing that needs to be done is to care for ALL of humanity, to care for the many creatures in creation, and to listen for the voice of the Creator Spirit to lead you in the direction of righteousness and justice.
[/metaphor]


The US Government is owned by corporations and the love of money. We must get money out of our government and corporations out of office!

Growth in one's own character is a funny thing. It comes when you most expect it but in ways you never could have imagined.