BioLogos Foundation

Those of you who know me best know I love to share information, especially when it pertains to my beliefs and belief system. In searching for an email address last evening late I discovered this site and believe it may be one of my best finds in the Internet.

The site is called The BioLogos Foundation, and was formed by a number of scientists who are devout Christians. One in particular, Francis S. Collins, I mention in recent blogs here.

You can find this amazing site at http://biologos.org/. Of great interest to me is the resource section where one can find books, article, papers and videos written by scientist whose faith in a creator/God is profound and unshakable.

I suddenly, at 60, am finding the answers I really believed were out there since the eighth grade. My hope now is to find more people who I can share these new concepts with that won't drop my friendship like a hot potato. One such person is my true friend, Arnold. Arnold has always been able to immerse himself and walk with people of a number of fundamental groups but hold their concepts and beliefs at arms length so as to provide a certain distancing for himself. All without antagonizing or alarming anyone. A true peace maker among fundamental Christians.

In a conversation with another so called Christian, a man who was close friends with my deceased brother, was so shocked and apparently in risk of being poisoned when I told him I didn't believe in inherited sin he nearly made a new door in the back of his delivery truck distancing himself from me. At least that is what it seemed to me.

Check out the site, if your religion can stand some enlightenment. If it can't, go ahead and turn your light off. No one wants to ride in your taxi anyway. We'll walk, thank you very much.

Another site you will enjoy if you believe in dualism of a divine Creator and evolution (now called evolutionary creationist) is http://www.beliefnet.com/. Go there and take the quiz, Belief-O-Matic. Highlight this phrase, Belief-O-Matic, and paste it into the search window of belief.net. You may be surprised at how well the quiz pegs your religious leanings. It found I am 100% compatible with the Quakers. I wouldn't have known. I will have to look more into that. Just to see.

Current Reading List

The books below my screen are the books in progress at the moment. I haven't gotten much past the forwards in a few, well into some others, and essentially done with others but refer back to them from time to time to reseat some of the more interesting parts in my brain.

The Colin Tudge book on the far left, "The Engineer in the Garden," is a book that considers the role of genes and genetics in the creation of life. Tudge is a Brit scientist who has widely written about biological systems, food systems and famine throughout the world. I have not examined this book enough to speak of it as yet.

My two road biking books are next, one on Virginia and one on Wash DC, then a book titled "Doctrinal Standards in the Wesleyan Tradition" about the growth of the Methodist church in England and into the colonies.

"Reasonable Enthusiast" is another book about the rise of Methodism and John Wesley. "Doctrines that Divide" is a book about the major points of contention among Christian denominations and churches. Pretty much to the point. "Are Men Born Sinners" by A.T. Overstreet pretty much blows the Inherited sin dogma away. How anyone can believe we are created in God's image with sin in our hearts after reading this is beyond me.

"When Christians Roamed the Earth" is a book given to me my my theological checkpoint man, Arnold. I haven't been able to get to it yet.

"The Language of God" by Francis S. Collins is going to be another one of my SELECT books in my reading experience. Collins is the new NIH (read that National Institute of Health) director just recently having been appointed by President Obama. Collins grew up in Staunton, Virginia, on a farm just a few miles from where I live now. His parents were the founders of the locally famous Oak Grove Theater which is still in continuous production. Even more interesting to me, his parents were on site and instrumental in the Eleanor Roosevelt Arthurdale Project. Georgiann and I lived in one of the original Arthurdale Project homes and restored it 1979 to 1986. Small world. Collins is also the geneticist that unraveled the DNA code. He is equating the DNA code to the language God used in creation. I think this book will become my lifetime pinnacle book.

"Jungle Pilot" is about the missionary work of Nate Saint in Ecuador where he was killed in 1956. That book has been turned into a docudrama that you may have seen. "Salvation on Sand Mountain" is a book about snake handling Pentecostals in Georgia. Not my cup of tea for sure, but having been exposed to the snake handlers of West Virginia during my WVU days, Arnold knew I'd be interested.

The last book, one I finished in KY a couple of weeks ago, "Angles and Demons" by Dan Brown I wrote about in an earlier blog.

And you want me to add WHAT to my reading list? Call me in 2012. I may have caught up by them.

Of course, the book I wrote mostly about in one of my theology blogs, "How to Read the Bible" by James L. Kugel is always beside my keyboard. The pinnacle book for me unless replaced.

New glasses?

Yes, they are. Thanks for asking.

My old ones decided to commit Harakiri. Well, after the fashion of the WWII Japanese suicide pilots at least. Only these didn't hit the boat. They totally missed the boat. But at the speed the boat was running I can see how that would have been easy to do. Misjudge the point of impact.

Another day of drama on the dark waters of the Shenandoah River. Before launch we had electrical problems that with some urging on our part nearly esculated into a full blown maritime disaster with smoke and all kinds of special effects.

But we managed to launch and fish, or pretended to fish since fishing often brings along with it the expectation of catching fish. Then just before heading back to the slip we ran the boat hard up and down the river a few times. In one of the high speed turns I rotated to get a glimpse of the wake just created when the glasses reached their launch window and were down range so fast we never found them.

So, hope these will do.

A couple of pictures of the river just to "prove" we were there.

A bad day fishing...

...well you know the rest. Actually the fishing started out with a bang. Todd hooked a small large mouth but didn't land it. I almost immediately hooked a large mouth about a pound or so and landed it. Then put him back into his own neigborhood with a change of clothes, some money in small bills and a warning about hanging out with hookers. Then Todd hooked another small large mouth which gave him the slip before he was able to cuff him.

But it was fun. Got to drive the boat a little. Less than we expected, but I'll let the master mariner explain all of that. Something to with wimply electrons and high voltage requirments of big motors. Not sure I followed it all.

But did we have fun? No it was not love, but it's not bad.

Facebook

So if you are not on Facebook, why not? If you surf and read blogs, then you'll like Facebook. I like it because it is so easy to upload pictures. So if you want to see more of the pictures I take join in. www.facebook.com.

See you there. Ask to be my friend. The most I can do is ignore you, right?

It's me, it's me, it's Ernest T.

This is a picture from a while ago. I have since shaved the face and filled the walls behind me. And lost a couple of fingers on my left hand as well.

This picture was taken July 4, 2009 by my very sweet daughter-in-law, Lesa, at her and Chad's house in Staunton. The guy in the middle is a very large stunt double of me. He looks a LOT like me only I'd guess him to be at least 30 pounds more than me!! I WISH.

I was thinking of all the new/old friends I have been encountering lately whose only reference to me may be an old yearbook photo (again, a stunt double only 50 pounds lighter) or a vague memory of what I used to look like. And those would probably be only a ghost image of who I am today. No pun there.

Check out Facebook for other pics.

Just fishin'

Been fishing with the boys lately. I have yet to catch anything, Todd does some, but Chad reels them in. But it is fun. We are tentatively planning to fish Claytor Lake in September. I am hoping to camp out from Tuesday through Sunday, with the Todd and Chad coming down Thursday or Friday. I won't take a boat with me, but will be able to fish off the dock. Will take reading material and my bike. And maybe sleep some. Or a lot.

Donkey Watch is King

Not finding my normal cheap Timex this morning Georgiann found this watch in my dresser drawer. I haven't worn it in a while, and do not wear it often. I believe it was either a Christmas gift or birthday gift to me from my parents when I was about 5. Which makes it about 55 years old. My mother found it among her things perhaps 10 or 15 years ago and gave it to me again. It was in the hands of a local horologist for nearly a year (look it up, my word of the day to you) but it was returned to me in wonderful shape.

It is not battery driven or even self winding. But I love it. The donkey constantly shakes his head no while the watch is running. Kids love it.

Nothing like it appears on Ebay. There are many "Vintage" Donkey Kong watches, games, etc dating from 1983. You have got to be kidding me. VINTAGE? I'll show you Vintage. Try 1954 for vintage. 1983 is vintage like trips to Mars maybe. Shut up already, youse thinking 1983 is vintage. Youse still in diapers 1983. Cloth diapers.

July 4th 2009. Happy 233rd birthday America. Youse is changing, but you are still the most comfortable place to live. I'd like to live some other places, but not because they are better. Because I believe I could be of more help. But you still are a beautiful lady, America. You must be, so many people want to be a part of you they are sneaking in day and night. To those who hate us so much they want to tear us down I say, "Go away kid. You might get your nose bloody."

Lean Time Management

When I left for vacation on the afternoon of June 17th I was manager of Tool World. Coming back on June 25th I found I was manager of Hardware as well. I can't go into the details here of how or why all this came about, I don't believe that I am allowed, and it isn't interesting enough to be made public anyway. Just moves that companies do to hold on to employees and make themselves better stores to the public. It was all good.

But becoming manager of a suddenly larger department will be a challenge for me. I think I am up to it, but I have to focus and learn as fast as I can. The two departments compliment each other in product. The personnel that we have in both departments currently have always worked closely together, and continue to do so.

Not a lot of visible change, but some reorganization of employees. All of which keeps our jobs from becoming monotonous or boring. A good thing. Maybe a great thing. And we all have an opportunity to accomplish more than we could have before.

Once again I am up in what many call the wee hours of the morning. I am guessing that comes from the numbers we assign to the hours being very small . Not much weeer (hows that for a word?) in real numbers than 1. I am not as wee at this hour of 5. And in fact, many mornings I am already clocked in at this hour. I like getting to work at 5 on the mornings I open so I can get a jump on the freight. If there is no freight left it doesn't make good sense to go in at 5 since customers are not in the store until 7.

I am off today and tomorrow, but have two important appointments. One is to check on my financial well being and the other is to check on my health well being. I need the former to be in as good of shape regardless of how good the latter is. I have more issues with the latter which I need to iron out with our family physician.

I turned 60 just over 3 1/2 hours ago. I was sleeping. Just like my dad was doing when I entered into this world. But in his defense the doctor had sent him home for rest because it didn't appear I was shortly forthcoming. I recently heard from my mother's sister closest in age to her who told me she, Aunt Dolly, was the first Aunt to see me. I don't know if she might have been first in the family to see me. Mothers in those days were often put completely to sleep when birthing, and with Dad at home, well I don't know. I was the first grandchild on the Catlett family side, and the first grandchild of my Grandma Newberry's, but the second grandchild and first grandson on the Newberry side. Granddad Lum Newberry had two daughters from a prior marriage one of which had a girl older than me. Barbara is 3 years older than me. Her family moved to California before I was old enough to even remember them, so I have had little interaction with them over the years. I wish I could get to know them.

July 1st is the start of the government's fiscal year. I hope they have a better year than last. One thing I am wondering about; if the government mostly owns GM now can a GM purchase be tax deductible? And what are all of those Chevy fans going to call Ford now? You can't say "Found On Road Dead." Ford weathered this thing and as far as I can find has never had to be bailed out or claim bankruptcy. Got to mean something or someone is doing something right.

Cheers.