I'm a Minneapolis-area GTO-driving bass-and-northern-fishing God-fearing brown(and silver!)-haired green-eyed politically- and socially-conservative ex-sinner, ex-smoker blue-collar middle-class ecstatically-married tech-school-educated dad, step-dad, and grandpa with an older brother and a younger sister. Did I miss anything...?
I realize I'm a little early with this, but I feel I owe it to JLF and all Canadians to be the first to say, "Happy Canada Day!" since I drew a blank when JLF quizzed me on the upcoming holiday. I didn't know there was so much to know about Canada! I wonder how they celebrate that though, all huddled in an igloo.
Last night Jay Leno said that a new report indicates second-hand smoke may be even more dangerous than previously thought. "Well before, they said it could kill you... What could be more dangerous than that?"
If I stand on my tiptoes I can see a long, holiday weekend on the horizon. My sweeter half and me are planning a little overnight getaway up north, and I'll probably take the GTO out for a "spin" after we get back, and very likely grill up some Johnsonville brats. Other than that, I plan to get less done in those four days than in the whole rest of the month combined. Hello, Independence Day. Hello, couch!
I'm a little annoyed by all the inserts in my bills each month urging me to "sign up for Easy Pay!" or "Kwik Pay!" or "Hassle-Free Web-Pay!" or whatever their brand of electronic payment is called. It's not that I don't appreciate all the trouble they've gone through to make my life easier ("You can spend more time at the lake instead of stuck at home paying bills!") or to save me all the money I spend on postage when I mail them a check. Maybe then I could retire earlier, and spend even more time at the lake! Many restaraunts and convenience stores as well as gas stations no longer accept personal checks. I read in last Sunday's newspaper that some companies now pay their employees through "payroll cards", which contain their wages in "stored value" and can be used at ATM's or to make purchases. My employer encourages, but doesn't (yet) require, automatic deposit of our paychecks, and when I return something I bought at Menard's I can never get cash back, just an "in-store credit voucher."
I like to mail in the payment for my electric bill when I have the money in my account, and I don't want it withdrawn automatically. I don't like anybody withdrawing money from my account automatically. Whatever happened to cash money? I like to keep a little around the house in case of a freak snowstorm or power outage or other unforseen event, of if the kids or a friend would need to borrow some in a hurry. Maybe they can't wait ten business days for the money to be transferred from my account to theirs.
I was hoping I'd be able to talk about this irritant without mentioning the book of Revelation, because much of that book is so far over my head that I really have no idea what it meant to the original readers or what it means to us. But there IS that part about no one being "able to buy or sell, save him that receives the mark of the beast." Conspiracy? Paranoia? Well, maybe both I don't know. I don't know how receiving a "666" or "616" or any other mark on my hand or forehead would mark me, a Christian, as a follower of the Beast. But it's written there for some reason.
Is having all of my transactions pass electronically from a barcode or microchip in my right hand through some database controlled by the Antichrist the only way I'll be able to "buy or sell"? Well, jeez, ya know a guy needs groceries... No, I don't know, that could happen but it seems a little iffy to me right now. My main concern is that from time to time my computer has crashed, and I've lost valuable data. What if that happens with this huge, mega-financial giant world-wide database with all of our financial and personal information (think retirement fund)? I can't reach under my mattress (no, that's not really where it is!) and grab some money to buy my groceries if they won't accept cash money. And if I use paper dollars instead of EDU's (electronic devil-units) how will the Antichrist know that I bought more oatmeal that morning? That really is a big privacy thing, by the way. Not with the Antichrist but I mean with electronic transactions. Someone knows where you shop and when and what you buy and how often. It's crazy!
That was a long way to go to say, "I like cash. It's convenient, it's anonymous, and it never crashes or has technical difficulties. Why can't we just keep using it?"
Our washing machine konked out on me while I was washing a load Tuesday night. When I pulled the thing out away from the wall to have a look at it, I saw this.
And my wife had told me earlier that she cleaned the house last weekend! I'm just glad we didn't have any guests over last weekend, because one of them might have slipped in the laundry room and fell, landing next to the washer and while they were down there, accidentally glanced underneath it and seen that mess. How embarrassing that would have been! I always say, "If you can't keep the area underneath the washing machine clean, then why even bother cleaning at all?"
Researchers in Europe are about to launch a project where software "beings" they have created will interact with each other, learn, share what they've learned, and even reproduce. You can read more here.
It's kinda funny, but on a similar topic a couple years ago my son was asking for my opinion on the salvation of robots. Sounds crazy, right? I think so too, but it was something they were discussing in school about how far AI (Artificial Intelligence) can go. It started with the idea of replacing the brain with machine in an effort to reach immortality. From there, our own discussion went toward implanting chips to improve your memory, increase your math skills (a built-in calculator!) and vocabulary or what have you. We talked about the possibility that the implants would eventually be able to not only perform, but learn. If you took it far enough and had enough implants, and the implants outlived you but decided that the show must go on, when would you cease to be you? The bit about computers that could learn brought my son to ask whether a robot could scan the bible and come to the conclusion that he (I mean, "it") needed to be saved from its sins. Once it was evangelizing other robots and humans, would we still be able to call it so much metal or would it at some point take on a "life" that we would value?
I think it's fun stuff to think about and talk about, but it all really seems pretty black-and-white to me. And I don't think God will ever be confused about when we're alive or dead, and I don't think He'll be issuing souls to robots any time soon. On the other hand, there's always that nagging question about, "How do I know that I'm not just a computer program running in my head?"
