Well, we went to lifegroup as usual. We were all a bit surprised by a sudden flash of lightning and clap of thunder… (Which turns out probably struck something 2 streets over since there were 3 firetrucks & 2 ambulances pulling in there a few minutes later…)

Anyhow, back home in Haltom City, there was a decent wind storm accompanying the rain… It was strange driving through the area today because it seemed like the main damage was about 3 blocks wide & only maybe 1 or 2 miles long (with out street on one side of that 3 block width). We even got a little new coverage. (This was shot right there on NE 28th near Oakwood St.)

Anyhow, I drove around during lunch today & snapped a few pics of the damage… Enjoy!

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I was hanging out at my parents’ house when my sister was in town & Winter (her son) was trying to do cart-wheels inside, so I got him outside to show him how it’s done…

Cart wheels?  No problem…

Front Handsprings… Ouch. My shoulder didn’t feel so good after that one.

But I had fun!!!

Well, a few weeks ago I had the brilliant idea to actually start thinking about a Father’s Day present for my dad. We are on a tight budget these days, so no gift cards to Home Depot, no tickets to any local sporting events… I ended up seeing a few articles online about hollowing out books for various purposes.

Some were hollowed out for e-book readers (kinda ironic, no?)
Some were hollowed out for ipods
Others were just hollowed out for misc stuff.

I decided I would do the latter as a gift for Tom & have some fun making his Father’s Day gift.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of it, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it’s cool! Sweet! My Mom took a few pics for me, see below! I went to a local Half Price Books store and got the thickest hard-back book with an interesting title that I could find. It didn’t have the dust jacket, & was an unassuming blue bodied book with a black spine. It also had a more rugged feel to the outer cut of the pages which gave it a more “rustic” feel to it. Perfect!

I hollowed it out with a utility razor & glued the pages together from the inside area with a paintbrush & book binding glue.  I think it turned out really well! It looks like a normal book from the outside, but it’s got a large-ish cavity to hide things away in! (cutout approx: 4in. wide X 6 in. tall X 1.5in. deep).

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The fun part of it was my parents didn’t come to church that morning… Our church always gives gifts to Moms on Mother’s Day & Dads on Father’s Day. Anyhow this Father’s Day they gave away steaks. Yup, steaks. Anyhow, a good sized Rib-eye fit perfectly in the book I hollowed out.

Needles to say, we had steaks for lunch that day. (They gave out one for each father).

I received an awesome painting that Taven crafted. Then Mommy helped him put his hand-print on there, and then Bradey’s foot print. It’s hanging in my office already. Lovin it.

Not that I think on this much, but what would it mean if “an advanced alien race” did contact us mere humans? What impact would/could it have on our view of God and Jesus?

Would we need to evangelize to them?

Would they need a savior?

Would they too, be created in “God’s image”, or just another of God’s creations?

What do I think? I think it wouldn’t make much difference to our faith or belief in what God has given us. I know that God didn’t inform us of every detail of creation. He didn’t have men record every aspect of Christ’s life here on earth. He left a lot of questions unanswered. That’s part of life. He didn’t want to have an army of robots that all thought the same, acted the same, and praised him the same. He created each of us with unique talents, abilities, and “leanings”.

If God did create another civilization on another planet, he may or may not have created them with the same expectations or fates. For them, there may be no heaven & hell. The deal he struck with us & our creation is that we are sinful beings who need a savior. God cannot be in the presence of sinners, so we needed Christ’s sacrifice to have the opportunity to spend eternity in heaven. To the best of my knowledge, animals do not go to heaven. They are nothing more than a soulless organic being created to co-exist with us on Earth. Who’s to say that if he created aliens, that they are nothing more than that?

OK… I’ve spent too much time on this already. This spewing of randomness was brought to you because of this article: Christian Theologians Prepare for Extraterrestrial Life

I fancy myself a hacker of sorts… (See the proper definition to see what I mean).

Here’s a fun quote I ran across today:

“… God is a hacker, not an engineer, You can do reverse engineering, but you can’t do reverse hacking.”

Via Slashdot | Kurzweil on the Future

I got a kick out of this statement because of one of the “types” of hackers from the above link is :

7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.

I’d have to say that God definitely creatively overcame the challenge of making this rock we call planet Earth… And as far as limitations… What limitations?

Hehe… So now you know the sort of thing that makes me laugh.