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Before the Throne of God Above
Words by Charitie Lees Bancroft, Music by Vikki Cook
From Together for the Gospel Live

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea
A great High Priest whose name is love
Who ever lives and pleads for me
My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heav’n He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart
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This is much hyped around the blogosphere… Mark Driscoll and Annie Lobert debates Deepak Chopra and Carlton Pearson on the existence of the devil.

It’s tonight at 11:35 on ABC on Nightline.

Note: the actual debate was 2hours long that was recorded last friday… so this 20 minute feature has been editted considerably due to time constraints.

Update: For the Full debate click here.

One Ring
Well, here’s google’s attempt to gain another foothold in conquering the world. They have one ring to rule them all. Grand Central users have now been upgraded to Google voice. Invites are not available yet, but the features are quite rich… You have voicemail, SMS, ability to transcribe voice mail to text, 1.00 of free credit. They have this feature called ListenIn which allows you to listen to voicemail being recorded. You can either pick up or just let the call be recorded… similar to screening answering machine.

I’ve connected my wife’s cell, my cell, and my office number to the number google gave me, so that whenever someone calls that number, all our phones will ring. You can also set it up so that only some ring or have the person directly sent to voicemail.

I’ve also included a link on Geezlouies.net so that you can call me. No international calls yet.
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No One-One-Two
I could not for the life of me remember the science fiction short story which contained this line. I knew it had to do with Mars… Anyways a few weeks back, two was the extent of my daughter’s counting. She knew there were more numbers, but two was about all she cared about, so that’s all she counted to.

But in the story, a human meets an alien and tries to communicate with him/it. He learns to count and uses numbers to convey his meaning. The story is called A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum. A story I read in high school… a long, long time ago.

“I tried questioning him. I pointed at a pyramid and asked ‘People?’ and indicated the two of us. He set up a negative sort of clucking and said, ‘No, no, no. No one-one-two. No two-two-four,’ meanwhile rubbing his stomach. I just stared at him and he went through the business again. ‘No one-one-two. No two-two-four.’ I just gaped at him.”

“That proves it!” exclaimed Harrison. “Nuts!”

“You think so?” queried Jarvis sardonically. “Well, I figured it out different! ‘No one-one-two!’ You don’t get it, of course, do you?”

“Nope—nor do you!”

“I think I do! Tweel was using the few English words he knew to put over a very complex idea. What, let me ask, does mathematics make you think of?”

“Why—of astronomy. Or—or logic!”

“That’s it! ‘No one-one-two!’ Tweel was telling me that the builders of the pyramids weren’t people—or that they weren’t intelligent, that they weren’t reasoning creatures! Get it?”

Anyways, when my daughter counts up to two… she may mean more than she lets on ;)

Here is more background information on Weinbaum and Martian Odyssey.

Or check out the collection of stories in the: Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

According to Wikipedia:

Origin & Meaning

Eliana may be derived from the Greek name Helene, and would thus be one of the many forms derived from that Greek name, such as Elaine from Old French. Another theory derives it from Hebrew, literally translated as “My God has answered me”. In Arabic, it is translated as “the Bright”. Eliana may derive from the Latin name “Aeliana”.

Popularity

In the United States, Eliana first appeared on the charts in the 1990s, spurred by the momentum of popular names like Ella, and Anna. In recent years Eliana has become an even more popular name, ranking in the top 1,000 female names for the past sixteen years. Most recently, it ranked the 251st most popular name used by females in the United States for 2007, according to the Social Secuirty Administration.

According to Wikipedia:

Edith is a female given name, derived from the Old English words ead, meaning ‘riches or blessed’, and gyð, meaning ‘war’, and is in common usage in this form in English, German, many Scandinavian languages and Dutch. Contractions and variations of this name include Ditte, Edie and Edythe.

It was a common first name prior to the 16th century, where it fell out of favour. It became popular again at the beginning of the 19th century, and in 2007 it was ranked at 730th most popular female name in the United States, according to the Social Security online database. It was more common as a name for children in the early 20th century than in the late 20th or early 21st centuries.

The Loaner
When the gas prices were around $4 everyone wanted a way to save money on gas. People started driving more conservatively and even went to the extreme of hypermiling. A friend of mine used the scan gauge until he got a Toyota Prius. Since the Prius already has a built in display for MPG and other fun facts, he lent the scan gauge to me to try (which I have yet to return).

You can buy this online for about a hundred fifty bucks. You attach it to your OBD-II port usually found underneath the dashboard (ours is under the driverside). I tried it for the first time today and to my surprise I don’t drive as efficiently as I originally thought. Here are a few observations of the trip home from Springfield to Centreville VA according to the device on our automatic, six cylinders, 1999 Nissan Quest minivan.
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Okay, so this is a not so complete Sangria recipe. Mommy made this Spanish drink for our girl’s 2nd birthday party. This of course was not for the kids since it contains alcohol.

According to the chef, it had a combination of the following ingredients.

Canned Peaches
Cubed Apples
Orange Pieces
Canned Pineapple
Slices of Lime
Strawberries
Red Wine (Merlot, Cabernet, etc.)
Sprite or Ginger Ale

Pretty much the prep work involved cutting the fruit and soaking it with the Red Wine. Cheap wine is the best. We used Trader Joe wine, both Merlot and Cabernet. As for the amounts, use to your liking. We had about three pitchers using three bottles of wine. You need to let the wine soak in the fruit overnight in the refrigerator for best taste.

When the party starts, add Sprite. We had about a one to one ratio of Sprite and wine. Some recipes have you adding sugar, but you don’t need to because of the sugar from the soda. For best results, make sure the sprite is chilled as well. That’s about it. Enjoy! Some of the guests just drank the juice and left the fruit behind, but I think the fruit pretty good and amazing. Most recipes I found online also added Triple Sec, rum, brandy, or some other spirit…

This is a party drink traditionally made in summer, but you can enjoy any time you like.

Even my mother-in-law is getting into the action with 24. Well he just saved the president and mourning Bill Buchanan’s death… and now framed for murder. On to the next adventure…

Here are the top ten facts about Jack Bauer from notrly.com:

1 Jack Bauer once stepped into quicksand. The quicksand couldn’t escape and nearly drowned.
2 The city of Los Angeles once named a street after Jack Bauer in gratitude for his saving the city several times. They had to rename it after people kept dying when they tried to cross the street. No one crosses Jack Bauer and lives.
3 There are two hands that can beat a royal flush. Jack Bauer’s right hand and Jack Bauer’s left hand.
4 Most people would need months to recover from 20 months of Chinese interrogation. Jack Bauer needs a shower, a shave and a change of clothes.
5 When someone asked Jack Bauer if he was afraid of James Bond, he replied “What does ‘afraid’ mean?”
6 If Jack Bauer had been a Spartan the movie would have been called “1″.
7 It takes you 24 weeks just to watch what Jack Bauer does in a single day.
8 Some people see the glass as half full. Others see it as half empty. Jack Bauer see the glass as a deadly weapon.
9 When a convicted terrorist was sentenced to face Jack Bauer, he appealed to have the sentence reduced to death.
10 Jack Bauer once showed up late for work. CTU adjusted their clocks accordingly.

Tent Cities
On a more serious note, it seems that the economic down turn and credit crunch is creating a new industry, tent-making. People losing jobs and homes are flocking to tent-cities all around the U.S. according to various news agencies.

The extent of the fallout is still being figured out, but from what I’ve gathered, most of the population is clueless as to what’s going on. People are continuing in their old ways and have not prepared or planned much for the prospect of losing a job or home.

Joan Burke, who campaigns on behalf of the homeless, said the images of Americans living in tents would shock many.

‘It should be an eye- opener for everybody,’ she said. ‘But we shouldn’t just be shocked, we should take action to change things, because it’s unacceptable.

‘It is unacceptable that in this day and age we have gone back to a situation like we had during the Great Depression.’

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