Spy Vs. Spy

Growing up I loved MAD Magazine.  One of my favorite shorts was "Spy Vs. Spy".  While I would like to say I always rooted for the White Spy, I really often rooted for the Black Spy.

In my black and white mind, white meant good, black meant evil, but in the world of Spy Vs. Spy there was no such delineation.  Both Spies had moments of innocence and moments of mischief.  That conflict (between what I expected and what I read) drove my own thinking to the point where I sympathized and secretly supported the Black Spy in all his endeavors.  The truth was not my perception.

Today I have noticed a trend of Spy Vs. Spy in the Christian community.  Christians of differing opinions and different backgrounds disassembling one another in public forums and web logs.  Sometimes the motivation comes from a simple misunderstanding, sometimes the motivation comes from something deeper, perhaps a bad experience of some sort that simply soured someone's perception toward a larger group of Christians.

Part of this also stems from a differing sense of duty.  Christians feel the tug of responsibility to "love thy neighbor" but also to insure that "the sword" (ie. gov't) is being properly wielded - and if it isn't, they feel they need to do something about it.  This tension can wreak havoc in how a given Christian communicates with people around them.  A second (and often very personal) cause of tension is that Christians know that God wants a relationship with EVERYONE, especially the people who do not know or follow Him.  They try and put themselves in God's shoes, feel what He feels and **it drives them to want to correct people, unfortunately often before they have even begun to have a relationship with God.  To some people the behavior exhibited by such people is unloving, while to the person doing the correcting, it couldn't be more loving.

I have no solutions, I am not even trying to come up with one.  I am simply observing and commenting on what *I* see happening.  What I can say is that every Christian walks their own path in their own time and that instead of picking one another apart, they should spend more time trying to understand the other brother's point of view.  If you find yourself angry or irritated with someone else, try putting yourself in their shoes.  For me it always comes back to James 1:19: "be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger".



** "It" is a loaded word in this case.  The "it" I know I feel when I attempt to consider how God feels leaves me very sad and a little numb.  [see parables of lost sheep, prodigal son, etc. and of course the very fact that Jesus was willing to die for us all, whether we accept and believe that fact or not].

The Trouble With Tribbles and Other Demons

As I grow older I've come to realize that demons come in all shapes and sizes.  I believe I have identified most of my weaknesses, the things that I do that I know are wrong, but I still haven't mastered them, nor have I managed to spot and eliminate the triggers before they've already been triggered.

I think the BIGGEST issue is my trouble with tribbles.  Almost everyone gets the Star Trek reference, the adorable, fluffy always purring creatures who are born pregnant and eat everything in sight that is edible... and somehow manage to get into every nook and cranny and innocently mess up whatever it is they have filled with their offspring.  People can't resist them...  they have an almost magical draw, despite knowing what they can do.

I have demons that draw me in like that.  You know you shouldn't, you struggle with it, but sometimes still give in and do what's wrong.  Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of "victories" but don't want ANY defeats.

I remember being sick in bed for 3 days and one day I caught a television show that reminded me I am not alone in my struggles.  A catholic priest had a TV show and the topic was recurring sin.  He treated the subject well, and didn't sugar coat it, neither did he offer a final solution.  Basically we all struggle with recurring sin, often something that continually drags us down (not constantly, but from time to time) over our lifetime.  It's ours.  It's a struggle we have to deal with through prayer, behavioral change, studying scripture for insight (and meditating on the word).  He said to be prepared to never completely shake those demons, but take heart in the struggle, as it really can be used to hone your faith, and never give up.

I don't plan on giving up!  The gift we've received is far too precious.

YAW8 Post

Just an update of my Windows 8 status.

I've installed the (3 month limited) full enterprise version of Windows 8.  It looks great!  Not that looks are all THAT important, but the explorer changes from the preview versions are significant enough to make it all feel tied together.

Without any manual modifications (ie. scheduler bug) I have not had any significant issues so far (only been a couple of days).  I've become familiar with a number of keyboard shortcuts now and switching back and forth between the desktop and metro apps has become easy.  (Win+Tab is your friend).  The final versions of the basic metro apps are sufficient to meet my needs, but could have some more customization options.  For example you can't set email to mark a message read "instantly" upon being clicked.  But eh, that's no show-stopper.

Some MINOR issues with mail regarding exchange, but I have a feeling they will be worked out in future patch releases.

Other than that major bug fix and the prettier, final interface (oh, did I mention the improved metro tiles?), not too much more to report.

The biggest drawback of me running this version is that when the commercial release becomes available I will have to do a complete, fresh install.  But I have been doing that since February so, not a big deal.

OH!  One other thing, I do believe they have improved IE10's basic compatibility.  There are several websites I go to that did not work well with IE, but now seem to be just fine.  There are still some issues with some other sites and applications, but overall, it seems to have been improved.

That's it, for now...

Going Metro

I've decided to move one more step closer to adopting Windows 8.  I've been using it since February, of course, but today I created a new outlook.com account and created a new local account synced to it.  In the past this has not worked well with my existing live.com account, but I decided it had been awhile since I tried so I would try again, this time from scratch.

I created my new outlook.com account and created a new local account mapped to my outlook.com account.  Not only did it go smoothly this time but I have access to all the account, music and other data that was lacking before.  Another bonus is better exchange support.  I was able to sync up with work as well and now I have my metro calendar and email apps completely in tune with my work accounts as well as my other accounts (google and such).

I still haven't tried plugging my phone in yet.  I hesitate because I was so pleased with the results thus far I was afraid I would ruin the "high".

But while I still have standard desktop apps, I am making an effort to use the metro apps exclusively for calendar, address book, email and social connections.  As many people have espoused on the internet, it feels a little awkward shifting from desktop to metro and back again, but I think, as with the lost start menu, it is something I will adapt to quickly.  Given a few weeks I am confident it will become second nature and I won't feel the need to use the desktop equivalents.  One thing I will need to do is master the keyboard shortcuts.  Alt+tab works well enough, but I think there must be a better way to shift between Explorer and Metro apps.  Maybe I should have bought a touch screen.  But only time will tell.