Showing posts with label Personal Log. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Log. Show all posts

Eight Traits of the (dis)Informationalist

The author of this has a few other lists which make for interesting reading but not exactly scientific level of analysis. Still, since the web site that they were originally written for no longer exists and I can't seem to find contact for him right now, I felt they were too good as "points of interest" to let slip away completely. Also, the observations were interesting to me on other levels, and I'll be referring to these posts when I get around to indulging in those interest areas.

So, again, I didn't write these, nor is their posting on this blog a sign of condoning or agreeing with the body of information presented.



Thought about happiness

I find it increasingly interesting, that at this point in our history our power, technology and ability makes the Greek pantheon look like babes by comparison, and yet our knowledge of happiness is no more than the understanding acquired by Aristotle.

The soul(s) of the Chimera

This is perhaps a bit deep for blog posting, but it has been on my mind since starting the novel Winter's Harvest.

One of the characters is a Chimera, which I'm sure most of you have figured out from the amount of time I've spent researching the subject. The idea of a chimera is that you have two different embryos, and one has been completely absorbed into the other.

Now, if we look at the (very controversial) question of 'when does life start', this condition brings up the interesting point of how many souls does the chimera have?

Let us (for the duration of this blog posting), take the answer to the question of the beginning of life, as the moment of conception.

Since this is the standard answer for most Christian religious groups, it should not be too much of a shock to suggest that the beginning of life would also be the moment the soul is present in the prenatal form/body. Perhaps it is however, I find that many discussions and articles of this nature tend to make unwarrented assumptions as to the state of things. I am making this assumption based on the idea that the breath of God is the beginning of life, and thus assuming the presence of a soul at the moment of life.

In the chimera, the second child is not killed, but absorbed by the primary twin. So, the question I have is the state of the primary and secondary souls.

In a practical area of pondering, let us take a story line that has the primary twin as a Cain, a real bastard, who in 25 short years of life, has racked up enough death sentences to cause a state-wide power shortage if they were all to be executed on his mortal form.

Now, even though it is only up to God, let us also assume that damnation is the course for our primary twin after the death sentence is carried out.

What is the state of our secondary twin?

I would like to think that this secondary twin, if he exists, is understood to be a complete innocent, that although he has been exposed to the world, the world has not been exposed to him. --- but I wonder about this as well. Two souls could also suggest two areas of influence on the actions of the body and the beliefs of the mind.

There are cases where the communication between the right and left hemispheres of the mind have been damaged and/or severed. This severing creates two distinct persona, two minds, inside the same body, with the existence of a primary personality (normally the one that got to keep the speech centers of the brain).

Such a state could also be created by the existence of a binary-soul chimera, and in fact, in chimeras, portions of the brain are from one of the twins, while parts of the brain and even portions from the same areas of the brain, are from the other twin.

Since this is an underlying theme within the plot of Winter's Harvest, I'm having to consider several possible resolutions to this quandary.

Passing the Buck - Homeless in San Diego

The Museum of San Diego History, for its NOW! program starting Feb 25th is showing the Passing the Buck: Homeless in San Diego exhibit.

"Although there is great concern for assisting the homeless, where to house them in San Diego is a political hot button."

Time for the show is 6:00pm - 7:30pm Admission is Free, and promises to be an informative look at what is really being done for the homeless in San Diego.

Scion, and RPG from White Wolf Publishing

Looking forward to getting into the Scion RPG Series and learning the Storyteller rule set. I'm working quite a bit on the Scarn.com web site, and expanding the content areas into Scion, and World of Darkness.

World of Darkness is coming out probably next year as an MMORPG, so there is quite a bit of work to do on the Scarn.com site between now and then.








Scion-Hero-Book-CoverScion-Demigod-Book-CoverScion-God-Book-Cover-White-WolfScion-Ragnarok-Book-Cover


Patina, Forgery, Tombs, and Brothers


Today boys and girls our new word is Patina

Patina (pronounced /'pætnə/ or /pə'tinə/) is a film on the surface of bronze or similar metals (produced by oxidation over a long period); a sheen on wooden furniture produced by age, wear, and polishing; or any such acquired change of a surface through age and exposure. On metal, patina is a coating of various chemical compounds such as oxides or carbonates formed on the surface during exposure to the elements (weathering). Patina also refers to accumulated changes in surface texture and colour that result from normal use of an object such as a coin or a piece of furniture over time.


Apparently this can also be created by micro-biological buildup on stone as well.

I came across this little antiquity word jewel from reading Biblical Paths, ... That man is always presenting wonderful stuff.

YouTube - Eisenman vs. Shanks on the James Ossuary



I especially like the word right now because it is the focus of a crime dealing iwth the possible forgery of the Ossuary of James, the son of Joseph, ... brother of Jesus. The discovery of this Ossuary occurred

National Geographic - Burial Box may be that of Jesus's Brother, Expert Says


Wikipedia - James Ossuary

The Canadian Encyclopedia Historica - James Ossuary Declared a Fake


Matthew Kalam has put together a blog area, diligently recording the events of the trial, which I will admit to spending much more time devouring today than is sensible. Mr. Kalam co-authored the first published story on the James Ossuary for TIME magazine in 2002 and has since reported on the case for the Globe & Mail, BBC, CTV, the Discovery Channel, Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle. So, that is his interest in the story, but I would guess that none of that was really necessary for him to be just as interested with out.

Forgeries of Religious artifacts are of course, nothing new. Paul talks about it in II Thessalonians 2:2 That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. What is even more interesting is that II Thessalonians was probably a forgery itself, and not written by Paul, just like Colossians and Ephesians are very likely "pseudo-Pauline" forgeries.

Whether these books are forgeries or not, it is obvious that religious forgery is a long practiced form of self expression, since (as we have already pointed out), Paul in II Thessalonians mentions such forgeries existing at his time, and in enough of a number that he was aware of them. So, he is either a fairly good witness to these problems with forgeries or, that statement was written by the forger (which was notably common in forged documents... in fact it is the verse 2:2 which draws the eye to possible forgery as much as anything else about the document).

Lost Christianities By Bart D. Ehrman, the book I am linking at the top, is a very good resource book and a great place to start when looking into the forgeries adn alterations f the biblical material we have left, and why it is so important to really ask ourselves what is impoprtant in faith, and our spiritual relationships, and what is not.

Sharpening the saw at Yale

There is more to life than what I know, and certainly my powers of observation, while above average, do not bring n all that they could in any situation. Have to sharpen the mind from other sources. The OpenCourseWare that many of the larger colleges in the country are participating in , definitely helps when I want to add something larger to my experience than a blog post or a book.

I've been gonig through the Old Testement course I took from Yale that I did a few months ago, which is what this brought this subject up today. There are several other places on the web. Some of them are only text courses, and some offer more than others. I've listen some of the better ones below.


I am continuing my search for tools for research and visual understanding software, I came across Visual Understanding Environment which came up as being connected in some way to the OpenCourseWare organization.


The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an Open Source project based at Tufts University. The VUE project is focused on creating flexible tools for managing and integrating digital resources in support of teaching, learning and research. VUE provides a flexible visual environment for structuring, presenting, and sharing digital information. ( List of Features)



Short List of OpenCourseWare Publishers

Open Yale Courses



OpenCourseWare Notre Dame


MIT OpenCourse Ware


Open Course Web Casts UC Berkeley


Stanford Open Courses



Harvard At Home


Sofia Course Gallery


JHSPH OpenCourseWare


OpenLearn -- Seems to be mostly text


OpenCourseWare Consortium

What is really fun... and perhaps telling

I took a quick break here to eat some lunch, and jumped on to YouTube (obviously). Instead of my normal delving into the world of Anime madness, I looked up some lectures, book readings and authors who talk about writing Fantasy and Science Fiction. I find it comforting that most “made” writers freely talk about the insanity and force of will involved in novel writing.

What I found first, however, were several short “instructional” videos by people how “teach” fantasy and fiction writing – and then I found William Gibson. The contrast between those who teach and those who do, is seriously stunning.

This isn't really the slight it may appear to be on the surface against those who teach. Not at all, really. Gibson, King, Butler, Ryn, Miller, and most of the major writers who have altered the world, or simply amused a major portion of us, have one thing in common, and that is … someone taught them. While the nights of staring at the computer screen, under siege by the voices who say “you are stupid” and “your ideas suck”, and “are you ever going to take grammar seriously?” have to be gotten through, and no teacher ill ever help you through those moments (in fact their voices will probably be the loudest), we still need them.

… if for nothing else, but to have someone else's voice in our head, reminding us through their presence alone that we aren't quite crazy yet, we still have the slip of a shadow of time to get it done... before they come for us.


William Gibson - Spook Country

This guy is very much a hero of mine. When I read his book Neuromancer (years ago), it opened an amazing world of words, and action and story telling which no other writer before (or since ... to be honest) has been close to, and while my style of writing is nothing like his, it is his vision-art which illumed my darkness, birthing shadows... in screams and blood, and night... just like most births.









... very much a hero of mine.

Maybe politics is better

It is amazing to me the weirdness which is instantly brought into any discussion of religion, belief or spirituality. At this moment I'm not talking about anyone who has posted an email to me, or left a comment. What caught my eye, and prompted this post is an Ad in the strip on the side, which suggested that you could learn how to jump into the dimension of God, and go visit him.

As far as I know, jumping into other dimensions is not required to talk or visit with God. So save your money (and his too), and don't click on that ad (and if he offers you grape drink, run).

So useful its frightening...

Google Docs and OpenOffice

It is rather rare that a writer gets a new tool that is more than simply a distraction from doing things he should be doing... like ... writing. However, this one is amazing, and if you work as a writer, or if you are a student, take the time to check this out.

I use OpenOffice, instead of hampering tools like Microsoft Word (which cost a fortune and don't do what I want them to). Now, you can open your gDoc documents from inside OpenOffice, and you can save your OpenOffice documents to gDoc, so that no matter where you are, or what you are doing, your material, assignment, blog post, or chapter, will be safely in the Cloud, as well as on your computer.

Open Office

The Extension you will need for Connection

Google Docs

There is nothing worse than losing that inspiration you had at lunch, and only remembering later, that you “had” a good idea.

Lectures on the Book of Genesis

I was very impressed with the Teaching Company's lectures on the Book of Genesis. These were way beyond expectation and certainly helped with my writing of Forever Jack.

Gary Rendsburg gives 24 lectures on the book, and he brought up several points I had not considered, or didn't know about -- which is a treat for me. I don't know how many times I have read Genesis as a complete book, and certainly couldn't estimate how many times I referenced the book for various interests, or how many bible studies, classes, and courses I have taken in the last 25+ years, but to have basic areas presented which shed new perspectives and understanding to my experience is worth a great deal to me.

This should not be taken as a claim of expertise in biblical study and knowledge. Certainly not, but seriously, after 25 years, having some one give you a foundation shaking insight into the first chapter of the first book of the Bible? That is something.

In fact, let's give a spoiler here, because much of the novel Forever Jack was conceived during the tremors of some of these first insights, and I don't believe it will detract from the value of getting his lectures at all, because there are plenty more where this came from.

As he puts it, the first area we have to look at is the area of translation. Hebrew, is not a dead language. That should be understood right away. Ancient Hebrew, is not a dead language either. There are plenty of people around who read, write and speak fluently in Ancient Hebrew.

Most translations are not obscured by the lack of understanding Hebrew, they are obscured by a Roman Catholic, Christian bias which is the belief that God created everything, from nothing. This is called the belief in creation ex nihilo, meaning literally 'from nothing'. Prior to these lectures -- because of my own education coming from Methodist and the Catholic College -- my understanding of creation was based on this idea as well, and this idea is rather deeply defended by the Roman Catholic church, whose specific explanationcan be found on the new advent web site.

However, apparently this is not what Genesis says, and in fact is says the complete opposite. Which blew me away.

Hearing the actual translation and then spending the time to make sure of what I was being presented (because after all, we are bucking against 25+ years of my own experience and over a 1000 years of church teaching), I find no way of arguing against the translation he presents.

The actual translation of the first few chapters of Genesis is not "creation ex nihilo".


When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the water, God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. And God saw the light, that is was good, and God divided the light from the darkness...

What an amazing difference! You can scan through part of a very good translation in Google books, looking up The Five Books of Moses by Robert Alter , but the translation we are suggested to use in the lectures is The Jewish Study Bible, and if we are looking for the most literal translation of the Torah currently available, he suggests Everett Fox's translation (a professor at Clark University, Worcester, MA).

This simple change, ... changes thousands of perspectives, once you get going. First, there was not "Nothing", according to the authors of Genesis. We have in this first passage clear reference, that, before God began to create heaven and earth... there is waste, welter, darkness and the deep. This is not nothing. This is, to any understanding of the time, (and even today) the clear description of evil and chaos.

The Hebrews, no matter what we might think or believe about their religion, came up with a completely original belief system. It is an absolutely original view of God and spiritual life. There is nothing, during their time, or even any time since, which is remotely like the conception of God the Hebrews had when writing Genesis... and the author of this book is absolute in his writing. There is nothing "primitive" about this story.

The author of Genesis is putting down on paper, the concept of a Monotheistic belief system, and he wants to be very clear on this matter. He doesn't want there to be any misunderstanding later -- that there are Two forces -- which is how most of the spiritual beliefs begin. There is Good, and there is Evil. But the Hebrews do not have this duality. In their writings, there is God. That's it, and all life comes from God, and all of creation which supports that life, is created by God.

This is really the first hurdle a monotheistic belief system has, because, clearly there is evil in the world, or what we see as evil. Kings coming along and slaughtering hundreds of people, raiders burning villages, raping women... there is clearly evil in the world ... so if there is only one God, and he created everything, then he created Evil.. right? Any prior monotheistic belief system splits right there, coming up with a god of Evil, and then most of the time, coming up with several more gods as well.

Anyone at the time of this writing of Genesis, would absolutely understand that the references to welter, waste, darkness and the deep, are references to Evil. Evil already exists. God doesn't create Evil ... evil and chaos are already pre-existing. What God does is to set order and light, where there is no order or light. He creates, from this universe of chaos, a universe which allows life to exist. He calls this... Good. At each step of his separating, and forming, he calls these separations, formations and the resulting order, Good.

The writer of this chapter is very exact in his wording. For example, he says, after God creates light, God then divides the light from the darkness... something we might believe is self evident, but to the author it is not. God isn't doing something which doesn't need to be done. God is not "simple minded", right? I don't' believe anyone could possibly argue the point that God is simple minded. So God is not doing something which doesn't need to be done here, and the author is pointing this out. God is Dividing.

God then divides water from water. He is not separating water from itself, he is Dividing again. He is putting things in Order. Since, what he creates by this Dividing is a vault between the waters, which he calls Heaven, he could be dividing the Deep, pushing it back, and away, so that he can create life. Either way, God is creating a universe in which he can bring something into being which can not be brought into being with the Deep there.

Third day, God is gathering, and again separating. Apparently, there is land. We know this because God gathers the water so that dry land can appear. So, God doesn't create "earth" or dirt, or land. Again, the author is making a statement, and in fact, is making a supporting statement to what he said before -- making it clear to the reader that he meant what he said before. It wasn't a mistake or a misunderstanding.

Let's look too at the words our author is using, because his vocabulary is exact as well. There are words in the Hebrew language for the Sun and the Moon, which we get to later, but the words our author uses are: "And God made two great lights, the great light for the dominion of the day and the small light for the dominion of the night, and the stars."

We know exactly what the author is referring to here; the sun and the moon. There are specific words in Hebrew for Sun and Moon. Common words, which would be used every day to say things like "Get up, the Sun has risen.", so why isn't he using these words? The answer shows a clear intent -- The words Sun and Moon, used by the Hebrews, commonly at the time, in everyday language, are also the names of Babylonian gods.

Our writer clearly doesn't want it to be mistaken that God, created these other gods. He doesn't want it to be understood that he is simply adding a bigger, stronger, mightier god to an existing pantheon. Our author is talking about God creating lights in the heaven, and stars. That's it.. just lights.

Yes, you know what those lights are, and you can call them what you want to, but they are just big lights in the sky, they are not gods -- Our author is telling us.

Our writer is a very specific man (or men, we aren't quite sure about that part), but it is very clear that these are not primitive minds who simply wrote down things as they "saw them" or "understood them" haphazardly without making sure they were being very clear.

Okay, it is obvious that I'm harping on this very clear stuff and specific stuff, which is true, and I have reasons of my own as well... my own agendas.

My own agendas, are to counter the Roman Catholic and modern Christian arguments for their mistranslations, and misdealing of this first book of the bible, which has not been "lost" or "mistranslated" or written in a dead language, and is very clear in what it is saying. Yet, we are taught creation ex nihilo.

And it kinda pisses me off, because we have people out there warring against science and discovery, based on the assumption that creation ex nihilo is what the Bible says, and the Bible says no such thing, and the Roman Catholic church knows it... so, why the ruse, because we can't call it anything else except for a ruse.

Why does the church of God promote an idea which causes conflict, contention, persecution, and, on the church's will, execution, on the grounds of creation ex nihilo, which they know is false?

That appears to be because --


"The early Christian writers, learning from Revelation that the world was produced from nothing, and seeing the necessity of having a term to designate such an act chose the word creare, which theretofore had been used to express any form of production, e.g. creare consulem (Cicero). The theological usage afterwards passed into modern language. Probably the idea of creation never entered the human mind apart from Revelation."


Wow...That is an absolutely astounding piece of botched reasoning. Let's walk through this...

Because Revelation says the world was produced from nothing...

Revelation is an Apocalypse literature, which is not written by John, the disciple of Jesus (which was clearly known to the "early Christian writers", because it was heavily contested in the beginning to even have it in the book Revelation in the New Testament -- because of that exact reason).

Also we know it wasn't John the disciple of Jesus, because Acts clearly says John was illiterate. The author of Revelation in the New Testament is called John of Patomos. Since John the disciple of Jesus was illiterate, and the author of Revelation is clearly educated (highly educated, and in fact uses words which didn't exist for many years) we are very sure that this John was not a disciple.

Revelation is a work of Apocalypse literature (says so in the title), which is not meant to be specific in word, only in message, and which we have no clear history or authority to, -- which the Roman Catholic church uses the logic of -- uses the word creare, "which thertofore had been used to express any form of production".

Then we are going to say -- "Probably the idea of creation never entered the human mind apart from Revelation."

Are you kidding me? Clearly, the author of Genesis not only thought about creation, he thought about it in very specific and clear terms (unlike the church's argument for their purposeful mistranslation).

This is the reasoning for centuries of hate and persecution based on an idea you clearly knew was wrong from the start? Because you needed Revelation to be right, where it conflicted with Genesis.

Well... I have a strong faith in God, and very little in men, and the church is simply a group of men trying to get by in life, just like I am. I'm just as much to blame for my astounded state (and far more responsible), because, as I've clearly stated, I've been studying these books for years, and I never bothered to look this stuff up or question its accuracy.

Let's get off all of that, because the revelation of this actual translation and meaning of Genesis is way to exciting to be brought down by hate and ignorance.

What we have now, with this understanding, is ... no primary source of evil. We also have no reason that the Big Bang theory, and Creationism, can not both be correct. We also have no reason Darwin and Creationism can not both be correct, and to top all of this off, we have a very interesting new perspective regarding the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This last is the catalyst for huge sections of Forever Jack. Searching for the answers of what really happened to us when we ate the fruit; what it meant to the generations to come, and what it meant to Paul. More than all of these, the question most of us have had since childhood, which we have all pushed to the back of our minds, because we were given stern looks if we pressed the issue past the inane and silly logic given to us in answer : Why was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden, in the first place. Why did God put it there, if he knew it was dangerous?

I'm not going to get into the silly argument that "God Knew We Would Eat.." because that is another, well known misunderstanding of the church which I don't care to get into, but God clearly knew it was dangerous to us, because he says so. And I'm not willing to argue against what God says. The church? oh yeah.. in a heartbeat if they are using faulty reasoning to kill people, but God? no.

Not in this life time.



Free from Jerusalem

 
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It isn't that I don't like historic research -- in fact I love it, but I really need to be more careful regarding the subjects/timelines I choose to jump into. Thirty days writing a single chapter is rather frustrating, but I finally got enough information, and insight to get what I wanted into the chapter, and finished it last night. So now I can get back to editing the rest and move forward to my publishing date.

Often I hear novelist talking about their fictional worlds becoming too real. I know exactly what they are talking about now. It isn't that I believe my fictional world, it is that the world has become so defined inside the scope of the novel, there are now hard walls which must be adhered to, or the story fails to keep the attention of the reader. Fails to maintain that Suspension of disbelief


Coleridge suggested that if a writer could infuse a "human interest and a semblance of truth" into a fantastic tale, the reader would suspend his or her judgement concerning the implausibility of the narrative. -- wikipedia


I was just getting to sleep last night and a whole scene for chapter 32 fell into my brain, so of course I got back up, grabbed my blackberry and jotted down enough of the idea to be able to recall it today. I have to do that with ideas -- write them down. If I don't, all I remember the next day is that ... I had a good idea ... and nothing else, except that it was good.

The image above is the Cross bar, that Dismas was crucified on.

Timelines and events

It is amazingly difficult to bring to bear anything solid for accounts happening in Jerusalem in the first fifty years of the first century. For the most part, we are stuck with Biblical accounts, which are vague and rather inaccurate as well. But it is what we have...


Upon the death of Herod, his kingdom is divided among his three surviving sons, Philip, Antipas, and Archelaus.

These three traveled to Rome to apply for legal ratification of their father's will (cf. parable in Luke 19:12,14).

Caesar Augustus and the disposition of power was as follows:

1. Antipas (4 B.C. to AD 39) ruled Galilee and Perea (east of the Jordan in the north). The Jews were offended by the illicit union of Antipas with his niece and sister-in-law Herodias. This formed the occasion on which John the Baptist was imprisoned and martyred (Mark 6:14-29; see also Jospehus Ant. XVIII, 116-119).

In A.D. 39, Antipas was banished from his rule.

2. Philip (4 B.C. to AD 6) had the region east of the Jordan in the northern part of the kingdom. He built a new residence, Caesarea Phillipi (Mark 8:27). Upon his death, the region he ruled passed under the control of the legate of Syria.

3. (4 B.C. to AD 6) ruled over Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. Archelaus was most despised by the people (cf. Matt 2:22) and was removed from office.

Archelaus' territory is then placed under a Roman governor or procurator, answerable to the emperor.

During the times of Jesus Pontius Pilate (the fifth procurator) held the office as Roman governor (26-36). (Philo, Legatio ad Gaium, 302, said his conduct was marked by "corruption, violence, depredations, ill treatment, offenses, numerous illegal executions, and incessant, unbearable cruelty.")


This is a typical time line, with a heavy bias. What we don't really get from this is an account of "who" is leading the corruption, violence, depredations, ill treatment, offences, and numerous illegal executions.

We are lead to believe, by the context, that it is the Romans who are the instigators fo all of this, but the more I read, the more I really wonder about this assumption. For example, one of the bits of information I came across is that the Temple would purchase the sacrificial animals from the herdsmen at a set price, which of course was not what we would call "market value". It is also clear that the herdsmen were obligated to sell the best of their stock to the Temple as well.

What is also clear, is the left over stock would then be brought into the city to be sold. Of course, the Romans, and Arabs are telling these herdsman that since the best of this stock sells for the set price purchased by the temple, the rest of his flawed stock should sell for less than that price.

Then of course, there is the tax for the sales to the Temple, which the herdsman is obligated to pay, and these taxes go up over the years, and so does his rent in the fields (very few herdsmen would be land owners, and this is a major conflict amoungs the eliete of the Jews, and the poorer classes). So this guys cost of living is going up, while his available income is staying the same.

He's caught. Can't move, and there is little in a way out. So, what does he do? Many of the books and research I've gone over, suggest he becomes a robber, so he can afford to feed his family. Of course, he gets caught, or kills several of his own people.

So, while the Romans are certainly accountable for many hardships and deprived actions, we can not simply ignore the violence and hardship instigated by the Temple, or rather the Priests of the Temple during this time period.

What also comes to mind is that the Hebrew law, certainly did not have a clause or accomidation for the Temple existing, and active, in a city where the Jewish people are being ruled by another country; and certainly not another religon. So, I'm starting to get the idea, that these conflicts and wars which happen during this time, all of them, are given birth by the Roman ideal of allowing a conquered culture to maintain its heritage and beliefs, and by building the second temple for the Jewish people (Herod built the temple with Roman money, hiring 1000 priests for the work).

The large sucking sound of Messianic Study



The more I learn, the more I know the Messianic study and idea has little to do with the novel, and yet, I continue to read and learn about the Messiah concept. What a mess that is. Don't go there. It hurts the brain after a while and then, most of the rest of the body as well.

I'm basically writing this to remind myself that I'm not studying the messianic stuff any more, I'm finishing up the novel with the first intended story. So if you were looking for an actual blog entry here, that is not what we are doing today. At least not ... now.. today.. maybe later today.


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Where the Wild Things Are...

Chess is a Wild game I've only been playing for a short time, but I've gained enough understanding to realize that the angles of ...