The Internet

I know I've blogged about how we can't live without all the technologies we have today but this post is dedicated to the Internet.

It's amazing how many things you can't do when you don't have access to the Internet.

You can't check your email, you can't play Tinker, you can't work on the software you're writing 'cause the documentation of the framework are online, you can't get the story you're reading--Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--because you can't find out what lynch means, you can't find a solution to the problem your phone is having, you can't find a background for the website you're designing, you can't check your Facebook account, and you can't remove the tag from the photo of you your friend just uploaded.

It is scary how dependent we are on a single fragile technology. With Google Chrome OS coming, moving everything to the web, one can't help but wonder what will happen if ever something happens to the Internet, will our lives ever be the same again?

Seek the Truth

Why is it so hard for us to seek the truth about what we believe in?

This is how a typical person's belief goes: That person is born, his parents teach him what they believe, once he's old enough he starts to question his belief, but convinces himself that what he believes is right, even though he's not fully convinced with that.

Why do we do that? So we won't have to accept the fact that we've been wrong for so long. That and because we are taught that you should believe blindly.

I don't know about you but I think that is wrong!

If you're taking a test, you write your answers, and before you give your answer sheet, you review your answers and you find a mistake, do you correct it or do you just submit it as it is because you don't want to accept that you were wrong? Sounds silly, doesn't it?

Which is better? Dying believing the wrong thing or correcting yourself and dying believing the right thing?

'So Jesus said to those who believed in him, "If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciple, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'
John 8:31-32

Seek the truth damn it! Question your faith, if it is right you can never prove it wrong, and if anyone can prove it wrong then it's wrong, so you might as well not believe it.

Take Christianity for example, it's been around for over 2000 years so far and no one has been able to prove it wrong, no one can say "It couldn't have happened because if it has actually happened XXXXXXX would have been impossible". No one can say that.

On the other hand, certain Christian beliefs are obviously wrong: Kneeling and praying before statues. COME ON! It's mentioned in so many places:

"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Matthew 6:6

and

"Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 26:1

There you go! A belief proven wrong.

Some might argue that not all Christian teachings can be found in the bible and that many things were started after the bible was written. That raises a lot of questions, one of which is: How do you know who is credible enough to tell people what to do? The pope?

"You shouldn't wear black all the time!", that is one of such teachings, there are many wrong things about this: It's either OK or not OK to wear black, how often is not relevant; it's not in the bible; the reason they claim you shouldn't do that is because black is assosicated with evil, but that is in humans' eyes only, not God's for God looks at the heart.

And don't even get me started on Hail Mary and the rosary!

You know what I think? I think people keep coming up with such rules so they'll feel good about themselves and feel they are righteous and worthy of God's forgiveness, but you know what? Read your bible!

"...I no longer have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I now have the righteousess that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith."
Philippians 3:9

We're Still Missing Something

So there's this guy who lives in another country that I ask for advice, usually, I leave him an offline message on his Yahoo Messenger and he IMs me when he goes online.

This time, it's urgent, leaving him an offline message and hoping he checks it sometime soon is not an option so I sent an SMS to a guy that probably knows his phone number so I cab send him an SMS asking him to go online but I didn't get a reply.

My next attempt was to ask his friends in that country for his number but I didn't find any of those online either.

I left him an offline message and I sent him an email hoping he'll see one of them somehow.

I checked his Facebook profile for his phone number but he doesn't have it there.

I asked mutual friends from other countries if they have his number but they don't.

So I tweeted asking people to tell him that I need to talk to him. My twitter is linked to my Facebook status so it'll show there too.

With all that done, I still haven't talked to him and I don't know when I'll get to.

It's really frustrating knowing that we have all this technology and we still can't get in touch with someone we know if we need to do so fast.

We're still missing something that allows us to get in touch with anyone anywhere.

Precious Comfort

So I'm sitting in Dubai International Airport and I see all those people either getting on their airplanes or waiting for their flights--like me--and I look around me and notice all the stuff we have that are there just for our comfort: chairs for people to sleep on, charging stations to charge people's phones, ready-to-eat food, fligts on which you can sleep and wake up when you arrive, and the list goes on!

Considering we're just evolved animals, this is way too much; we've invented way so many things for our comfort, maybe even too much!

If, for one reason or another--God forbid--we lost all these things: No comfy chairs, back to sitting on rigid uncomfortable chairs; no airplanes, back to traveling on ships and busses; no cell phones, back to using land lines. I know I can't live like that. And I doubt anyone can. We got used to living in a civilized manner that it became impossible for us to live on our own, hunt for food, and al the other things our ancestors used to do.

Don't get me wrong, all these things are nice, but in case anything happens and we have to give them up we're doomed!

A Story That Touched Me

Today in church, after the worship, before the speaker starts his talk, a woman wanted to share something, she's from Iraq, it was related to the last hymn we sang which had to do with God breaking the chains.

Her son, an architect, after graduating from college, got excited so he started working on these big projects to make big profit, of course, that also means big risk.

His father and uncles advised him not to do that but he still did it anyway, he ended up losing a lot of money and borrowing money.

One day, one person he'd borrowed from wanted his money back, since he couldn't pay, he was arrested until he could pay.

Now, cells in Iraq aren't up to par, they're small with lots of people jammed into them, there are so many people that they can't sit so they'll fit, they have to stand. The toilet is in the cell itself. It's hot and dirty.

He was put in a police station in an area where there are no Christians.

His father and uncles didn't do anything 'cause they'd advised him and he didn't listen. But his mom went to the police station every day, once in the morning and once in the evening bringing him food and stuff, she even brought bibles and distributed to the people there, though they are Muslims.

Every time she asks her son to pray to God to get him out of trouble and every time he says to her "Don't tell me that, find me money!" and she'd tell him "Son! If only you pray! God can do anything, he can shake the foundations of this cell and set you free!"

After two weeks she said to him "If you want me to keep visiting you have to pray!" so he promised her he will."

Next morning, on her way there, when she was near the police station she saw a big crowd gathered.

When she went closer, one of the guards that knows her 'cause she goes there everyday told her "Saddam ordered that all prisoners are set free"--I remember the day that's happened.

It's really amazing.
Hallelujah! :D

(10+2)*5

While browsing Lifehacker today I stumbled upon a post that features a simple application called Procrastination Killer.

The idea behind it is explained on the page, simply put, you work for 10 minutes then you take a break for 2 minutes, thus the 10+2, you repeat that for 5 times (12*5=60) and you get a full hour.

I've been using it the whole day now and it seems to be working; I'm finally getting some work done! But it's so annoying, you HAVE to take a break, and it's just 2 minutes long, by the time you have something fun and interesting to do the break is over. Like, just when I started to type this post the message popped up saying that my break is over, luckily, it doesn't start counting until you press the button so I'm taking a 5-minute break instead!

Let's see how this goes.

Windows 7

Just recently, I downloaded and installed Windows 7 RC and I've gotta say I'm impressed.

All my laptop's Vista drivers worked just fine, Windows installed most of the drivers through updates.

Everything just works, which is something I really missed in Linux, the closest it got was with Ubuntu but even then it wasn't as easy as it is with Windows 7.

It's fast, it's light, no unwanted features and an amazing new UI.

I'm a big fan of the changes they made to their UI, I like how you can keep only one window open by dragging it and shaking it, and all the other windows will be minimized, do that again and they're back.

And I like the new taskbar I don't know why no one's thought of it before.

I can safely say that M$ has officially outdone itself and that I am actually willing to pay for Windows 7 when it's released.