Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Favorite Christmas Passage

Revelation 12 should be read more at Christmas. Iit places the Christmas story at the center of the cosmic battle between good and evil. It's a wonderful antidote to Christmas cuteness.

- Peace

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

6th 'Harry Potter' book already a hot seller

July 16 is the release date for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It's already a hot seller. I'm wondering when it will hit the WRW list. Any guesses?

- Peace

Monday, December 20, 2004

Three Funerals and a Christmas

Kim's uncle passed away early Sunday morning. He died of injuries from being broad sided, he may have been at fault. Kim flies to Saskatchewan tonight, the funeral is tomorrow. That's three family deaths in 2004 for Kim.

Sarah and I will join her there at the end of the week for Christmas.

- Peace

Saturday, December 18, 2004

The Twelve Voices of Christmas: Gabriel

I'm doing a monologue tomorrow as Gabriel. I'm thinking the only way this will work is to do it off stage as we just don't have the tech to do angels, at least not the type where their first words are 'Do not be afraid.'

- Peace

Thursday, December 16, 2004

A Geek Proverb


Far better to be right and poor
than to be wrong and rich.

Proverbs 16:8 The Message

- Peace

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Thinking about Michal

In Leap Over a Wall Peterson takes us through 2 Sam chapter 6. In the chapter Uzzah is killed by God when he tries to prevent the Ark of the Covenant falling of a cart. Peterson makes the case that this is not isolated incident of Uzzah, that he’s been trying to control and manage God for years. We just see him at the end of his story.

That got me thinking out Michal and how she criticizes David at the end of the chapter

How wonderfully the king has distinguished himself today--exposing himself to the eyes of the servants' maids like some burlesque street dancer!

And the chapter ends with this comment 'Michal, Saul's daughter, was barren the rest of her life.' I’ve always heard that has God’s judgement of Michal. Not a stated judgement but implied. This weekend I’ve been wondering about an alternate iterpetation: Michal had no children because her love relationship with David ended that day.

Michal was David's first wife. She loved David helping him escape Saul murderous rage. That was ten years before. Ten years that David spent in the wilderness. Ten years that Michal spent as a princess in Saul’s court. After David fled for his life Saul ordered that Michal be married to Palti. David relaims Michal when he returns form the wilderness but he also returns with a second wife. I think it's fair to say their relationship was under some serious stress. Not sure what that changes if anything. For me it adds depth to the story.

I also wonder about David’s response to Michal

by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor

I’m not sure why by I read that as a double entendre.

- Peace

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Outdoor Attitude Brought Indoors

I did a session on the XBike at the familly leisure center.

I do think the 'true-to-outdoor cycling exercise' line on their web site is over the top. It's closer to real ridding the way Medicine Hat is closer to Halifax than Calgary.

That said, it's a great workout. You do get to use your upper body more, pumping from side to side as you do a standing climb for example. Your legs can also stop while you pump because the xbike lets you coast For those who haven't been to a spin class: regular spin bikes will rip your legs off if you try to coast. Suprisingly stoping while pumping your arms makes for a great work out as you have push hard to get started again.

I was pouring sweat 10 minutes into the class.

- Peace

Friday, December 10, 2004

Real Live Preacher: How To Find a Church

We're looking for a church, not very hard we've only been to one since deciding to look. The above article spoke to me, especially point 1: you won't find that church.

- Peace

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Dreaming of a Geek Christmas

An MP3: Super Mario World Super Mario's Sleigh Ride OC ReMix. It's better than you'd think.

- Peace

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

President's Choice Financial Sets It's Customers Up for Identiy Theft and Fraud

I've gotten my fair share of phishing attacks for American Banks that I'm not a customer of. They are easy to spot as I'm not a customer of these banks. I just delete them, no big deal. This email did catch my attention

Dear David King,

This email is to inform you that you have not logged into your President's Choice Financial MasterCard online account for 32 days. In order to ensure your online account status remains in an active state, please click here www.pcfinancial.ca or www.pcfinance.ca (for Quebec residents) and log into your account.

Regards,
Customer Service
President's Choice Financial
1-866-246-7262


It follows the classic Phising Attack Formula,

Dear Customer,

Due to [random technical reason] We ask that you to sign into your account, please click [url].


The only variant is that I do have a MasterCard with President's Choice Financial, so I called their 1-800 number from the back of my card. Turns out they do indeed send out these messages. This is just plain dangerous. They are setting up their customers to fall for Phishing Attacks.

Banks will tell you that they will never, under any circumstance, ask for your bank card PIN number. Anyone claiming to be from the bank and asking for your PIN is a fraud. It's a simple easy to understand rule.

The same logic should apply to emails asking you to log into your account. By sending out legitimate emails asking people to log into their account to keep them active President's Choice Financial is making fraud much easier. Ironicaly President's Choice attempte to warn it's customer about the dangers of Identity Theft.

I've tried to report the issue to Presiden't Choice with little success. The customer service people get very confused, one told me I needed to send a screen shot of the security issue.

Security needs to be more than 128 bit encryption and browser settings, it needs to be a culture.

- Peace

Thursday, December 02, 2004

2nd flat tire this week

For the second time in three days I got a flat tire on the way home. Tonight was about 1km sooner than on Tuesday. I walked up the hill to Britania, called Kim and headed to Starbucks.

On the upside: Starbucks was having their Christmas customer appreciation night, so Tall latte's were on the house. Nice.

- Peace

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Her mother should provide her a coat

Her mother should provide her a coat!

Sarah's exclamation
When Kim dug out
a like new red coat
that Sarah out grew
all too quick

Yes she should provide her a coat

End of November
mornings are cold
minus twenty
by next week

Yes she should provide her a coat
Mothers should know

Why she doesn't
I don't know
don't understand

We learn
the mother isn't around
girlfriend of her stepfather
takes care of her
you can call it that
I guess

a like new red coat
is little protection
from realities harsh

- Peace