Building a Cabin with a Bowie Knife

I've been building a cabin with a Bowie knife. Really I've been using a chainsaw and a hammer and nails too. Not much more than that though it seems. It's been fun but very hard. I should've blogged the whole series of events, from how to get the parts and planning the structure to buying the parts (cutting down the trees, I really mean) and hammering it all together. But, I've been too tired everyday to think about blogging it all too. The most amazing part for me has been how expensive it is to just drink water and then to poop and pee. I tried digging a well myself and then gave up after one hour of pick-axe work, a two foot pile of rocks, and six inches deep of a "well".... I apparently live on all rocks.... (I really thought that, "Hey, this ground is moist here, maybe I can dig a little and find a spring.... heck, how'd they do it in the old days?"
I thought wrong.

I ended up paying $8,000 for a big truck to come in and drill straight down 300 feet and install a pump and a little tank.

Then someone had to rocksaw another 300 feet across the property just to lay the pipe to get the water from the well to the cabin.

To actually be able to "go to the bathroom" in anything close to a civilized manner is also very expensive. (Believe me, I tried building an "out-house" and my wife threw a fit. I also looked into the humanure concept and composting your own waste. But pooping and peeing into a bucket and covering it up with sawdust to later take outside to dump into a pile, just had a certain barrier of cultural overcoming that I couldn't bring myself to conquer.) A septic system is a big deal and it costs me another $9,000.

Then you've got to put it altogether. That takes another $500 worth of pvc pipe and valving and lots of hard, hard labor. My wife found the toilet at a Good-Will store for only one dollar (yes, that's right - $1.00 ! We were very excited about that.)
So, just getting water and then to excrete and rid myself of waste-water has cost me $17,500. It's just unbelieveable, that as incredible as it might sound, when you own your own land, you still can't even START to survive without taking out a major loan from a bank!
So now I can poop and pee and drink water. And I owe the bank. I still have to build my shelter. I have a bowie knife. I'm working on that part still.

Grizzly Man

I'm looking forward to seeing this movie of a questionably sane young man who goes out to live with grizzly bears, like one of them - Grizzly Man.

I've heard this guy and his wife were eaten alive by grizzlies and the video camera was running but the lens was still on... but the sounds recorded were said to be horrifying beyond endurance.... I guess they are not releasing it to the public.

The trailer hints at this but doesn't explore it.

Muslims against Human Rights and Democracy?

So, let me get this straight.... our system of freedom allows them to train and develop their ideas to completely undermine us here in America and other free countries? What's wrong with this picture?



And in case you think for a minute that people everywhere actually value the same basic freedoms that we in America value (Hello, Bush?), then consider this call to arms from the Islamic book, "The American Campaign to Suppress Islam":



"It is time to distinguish Truth from Falsehood as clear and distinct as

life is from death. On one side, the side of Falsehood - are America, the

KaafirWest, and your rulers and their supporters which includes the

politicians, thinkers, economists, people of the media, and others

allured by Capitalism and seduced by its way of life, together with

those who call for democracy, pluralism, human rights, and free market

policies. And on the other side, the side of the Truth - are the aware and

sincere carriers of the Islamic Da'wah and those who follow them

from among the Muslim Ummah who adhere to their Deen."



Yes, that's right - at least this one Islamic author is AGAINST Democracy and Human Rights and enjoins all Muslims to be also! Read 'em and weep people.

I don't think America has a campaign to wipe out Islam - but maybe it should.

I don't think America has a campaign to wipe out Islam - but maybe it should.



Maybe I am totally clueless or have only been reading extremist Islam materials, but if what I've been reading is anywhere near the center of Islamic thought, then America is deluding itself if it thinks peaceful coexistence with Muslims is possible. By their own publications, non-Muslims seem to be only worthy of death and there is no tolerance whatsoever of other peoples or other religions.



The Christian God that I know of doesn't seem to be the same Allah fellow that I've been reading quotes from out of the Koran. This Allah and his "messenger" (Mohammed) seem totalitarian, absolute and intolerably nuts if you ask me.



If there's a God in heaven that's good, it ain't the same God as this Allah of Islam.



I'm sure America isn't fighting Islam, but rest assured Islam is fighting America.

Bin Laden's Fatwa

After reading some of Josh's blog, I realized I didn't know what a "fatwa" was. I looked it up and found it is an Islamic declarative legal curse upon something or someone. Salmon Rushdie had a fatwa placed on him for writing "The Satanic Verses" and Bin laden has made a fatwa against America, Israel, and against as he puts it - "people of the cross."

Wow! Powerful and ugly stuff. This guy really is evil and seriously wants to incite young Islamic men to kill as many Americans as possible. Scares me. So exactly why should all Americans be put to death? Don't quite get it still?

Headlines: All Spammers Go to Hell

I have a well-intentioned, not so web-savy, cousin of my wife's that likes to mass email all her relatives. She'll headline something like, "New Type of Cancer Discovered" and then forward a copy of some hyped-up worrisome article to about 100 of her friends and family. She is very religious, sheltered and stubborn.



Yesterday, I got one of these emails. I wrote her back and told her spamming was the unpardonable sin, and that she was going to hell for doing so. (I was joking of course.)



She emailed me back today and informed me that this article was very important and something my wife should be aware of. (Like awareness is something that can be captured by email.) Was this good-intentioned spam or just cheap love? Something to one make the sender feel like they're doing good, when in reality they're doing nothing at best - being rude, self-deceptive and clogging email at worst - certainly not helping anyone.



It reminds me of where James writes to the early church:



"If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled'; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?"



It's easy to offer up words of advise of "Be clothed and fed." It's akin to shouting at a man in the unemployment line, "Get a job."



The ignorant but good-intentioned queen - Marie Antoinette, when told that the people were out of bread to eat replied, "Then let them eat cake!"



The people revolted and cut off her head for such naiviete.



Maybe spammers really do go to hell.

Writing a proper query...

I came to me desktop this morning (Monday) to find my "note to self" on how to start where I left off Friday (I'm a software programmer by trade). My note was:



// ***************************************

// build sql string and insert here

// ***************************************



which essentially means "do all the proper thinking to frame the question into understandable syntax". And I realize that this is not what I'm good at - posing the question well. If I could do that I could get good answers.



It seems life for me has just been one long attempt to just get the question right. Somehow naively, I'm convinced that if I can just get the question right, then I can get the answers to everything I want to know and understand - about God, the universe, our histories, our destinies and the meanings of life.



Gee, am I a nit-wit or what?



Instead of programming (this stupid computer), I go and read some of Josh's great blogging with

links to depressing articles about how creative people we admire are really just 8th grade educated automatons of idiotic cults.



Again, I'm almost convinced that I may never be able to phrase up the questions properly - and even worse - that it probably doesn't matter.



Does anybody out there know how to write a proper query?