I have been playing World of Warcraft a bit too much in the past few months, but I am seeing a trend that is common throughout many things in life today.

Instead of providing a platform and letting users find their own way around, the developers seem to have too deep a compelling need to control how people use their product. So they continually make changes to make "their way" the easiest/best/whatever way to proceed through the game.

I like things like this because I like building things. I don't play with Legos much, but this is in many ways a quite similar area. Their tweaking to push me to play "their way" is really annoying.

It is also a lot like the rest of life today, unfortunately. Note that you can carry out almost any form of sexuality you like, but if you want to smoke you are the worst person in the world. Soon we will likely see an effort to stamp out certain food choices.

All this comes from those claiming to want freedom. Yet they continue to limit it by those who don't fit with their definition of freedom. Their actions don't fit their words.

Stop the nanny state, in life and World of Warcraft!

Expensive E-Books

Why are e-books so high priced? I would buy a lot more at $0.99 to $2.99, but not for the $6.99 and up many of them charge. Technical ones are even higher priced. It is too expensive to build up a good digital library today.

I wish publishing companies would realize that some of us would buy a lot more at a much lower price point. Here they have drastically reduced costs and they only seek to jack up their profits instead of increasing adoption. Most paperbacks can be bought cheaper than the e-book version, especially at a used bookstore.

Their loss.

Why Do We Have a Debt Ceiling?

So much talk is saying we have to extend the debt ceiling. Why do we have a ceiling at all if that is the case? A ceiling that always moves is not a ceiling....

Government Overhead

We believe so many foolish things in life. The ongoing belief that the government can provide "free benefits" is one of those things. Too many people think this or that program is just and proper, not realizing that whatever the government does it must take from other people.

This can be directly, in the form of taxes and such, or it can be indirectly in the form of inflation, primarily by printing more money. Both steal from one group to pay benefits to another group, with the government skimming off a portion along the way.

In fact, this skimmed amount can be really bad.

Wake up and realize that everything has a price.

Why are You Here?

What is your point for being alive? Do you know?

I would strongly argue that anyone who can't answer that is living a very pointless life.

Some things must be pushed through, even painful things, but a true purpose makes it all bearable!

How Intolerant are You?

While it doesn't completely surprise me, I find it interesting that those who are supposedly the most tolerant are completely intolerant of anyone who doesn't accept their belief system. They may claim that we can all "believe what we want," but if your beliefs including thinking you are wrong, you are worse than an infidel to them.

How tolerant is that?

It is really a human problem. No one can really completely accept anything, so they only claim to do so until their hypocrisy is exposed. Unfortunately, most people don't currently hold others accountable for such hypocrisy.

How honest are you about your intolerance?

Imagine if This Were the Tea Party

Look at the coverage of the effective riots in Wisconsin. Imagine these were Tea Party members. The media would not be off the "bad people" argument. Yet they say barely a peep about the far worse behavior and even death threats of those involved here.

Couldn't be bias, could it?

Most of you have probably seen the demonstrations (and worse) going on in Wisconsin. Those who had negotiated quite cushy perks are really upset that they may lose the right to negotiate those in the future.

Whether you are in favor of unions or not, having them in the public sector (the only place they are growing or maintaining strength) seems a bit wrong. The can organize and support candidates who will give them more benefits. That is a kind of self-feeding system, for the worse.

The state is broke, they need to tighten their belts and live without things they may have claimed as their right in the past, just as all of us are doing now. They don't like it, so they are "throwing a tantrum." What is not surprising, but still saddening, is how many liberal apologists proclaim they have the right to everything.

Brad

I am Awed by Design

It never ceases to amaze me that men can look at the complex designs in nature and yet credit them to random chance. This is in spite of the fact that nothing in life that they can observe works that way! I have worked many years in software development and information security and neither of those areas will work right if you don't put a lot of effort into designing things to work properly.

Even the "simple cell" is complex beyond our imagination. Yet we maintain the persistent myth that random forces caused all this.

Talk about believing "its turtles all the way down"....

Content "Piracy"

We regularly here that accessing content "illegally" is stealing. We really need to reevaluate this stance. While we have certainly "owned content" for the past several decades, this was not the historical norm. Prior to this, anyone could reprint just about anything, though the costs of doing so were the more limiting factor. Now, the duplication costs are effectively zero, so it is much harder to keep control.

One serious flaw in the argument is that stealing takes something from someone else. If I steal your phone, you don't have a phone. On the contrary, if I copy your mp3 file, you still have full access to your own. By this logic, if I hear you singing a new song I will have "stolen it" if I sing it myself.

This doesn't hold up to logic and I suspect that it will not hold up in the long term.

As with much of life, those arguing for the "new order" are not looking for the good of society, they are looking out for their own pocketbook. While this is to be expected, we should keep it in mind when deciding what is the right thing to do.

NOTE: I am not advocating the copying of material. I am just discussing the reasoning behind things.

Focus Pocus

I believe I have written before that this is my biggest challenge. I do great once I have a clear goal (whether I generate it or it is given by others), but I can have a hard time getting to that point if nothing is driving me there.

That is the biggest challenge in life too!

In fact, each of us must ultimately decide what to focus on. Allowing others to do that will almost certainly take us to a place where we do not want to be. While the individual decisions may seem fine, each one may take us farther from a goal that we would be really satisfied with.

I do not believe you can really plan your entire life out, though a few people do seem to come very close to that. Life has a way of stepping in the middle and messing up the best plans. That should not be used as an excuse to not do anything though. It is far better to aim at something and adjust your aim, than to aim at nothing and hit it!

"I Don't Want Anything"

Most people loudly insist that they don't want any outside support. They will often proclaim, "I don't want anything." Yet I think this is far from reality. What is much more likely is that they don't want any "strings" with what they get. They want an ATM machine that they never put money in, but that they can take it out without even a receipt saying, "be thankful for what you got."

In the past, I believe some really did want to "do it on their own," but that inner drive is largely missing. While I am an incredibly motivated individual, I have to constantly watch myself, how much more for someone that really isn't interested in things?

Look at all the programs (government and otherwise) to help people out. None of them (that I know of) are hurting for applicants. If anything, we are constantly told we need to "do more" even though the need will never be filled. Some people are in truly rough situations, but the answer is to help all of us learn skills to get out of the mess, not just throw money and resources in to let us keep the same attitudes that kept us in the mess in the first place.

We need to have an attitude shift. We need to stop doing the things that poor people do and start doing the things that enable people to gain wealth. Everyone will never be "above average," but we can certainly do much better.

Life is about always improving, yourself and your relationships with others. How are you furthering that goal today?

NOTE: The reason it is impossible for everyone to be "above average" is because average just means "in the middle." Someone will always be in the middle. Some will always be above and some will always be below average. Nothing can change this. The key is to raise the tide, not just specific boats.

I suppose this is why "the poor will always be with us." Poor is often a relative term, even though a mindset is often what keeps people stuck there. The poor of today have far more than even the rich several hundred years ago, but we don't have a gratefulness for that, which goes back to the start of this entry. Thus the circle continues.

No More Collections?

I was just listening to a podcast and one of the comments was that the transition to purely online media faces a challenge since it goes against the human desire to collect things.

How many of us have at least a small collection of CDs and DVDs. While all are not as compelled to collect things as I am, we all tend to collect some things. With the "pay per use" method, you no longer will have that option.

I wonder how strong this collection desire is in everyone. If it is as strong as I suspect, this transition may not ever be complete, no matter how much the producers and studios want us to change to renting what we watch.

Focus

This is my biggest area of challenge these days. Though I suppose I would have to say that in relationship with my life. I can do well at a wide range of things and enjoy almost all of them. That is good in one sense, but it is hard when I face decisions about where to really focus with my life.

No answers here, but perhaps by writing about it some direction will come out that helps me and those who may read this.

How Have You Improved Yourself Today?

What have you done today to make yourself a better person? This is a key thing all of us should keep in mind. Our most limited asset is our time and we need to use it the best we can.

Make sure you do something each day, however small, to improve yourself. Take a step toward being the person you want to be!

How Certain is "Natural History"?

I was watching a show tonight on the beginning of the oceans (I missed the first part). It was full of tiny bits of facts stuffed with lots of "scientific imagining" at its own admission. (I may have the exact word wrong, but they basically admitted to making a lot of it up.)

It is amazing how certain they are of so many things, without any solid evidence to back them up, just their own guesses.

It was interesting to note their focus on the shift to plate tectonics. They noted the clever "everything fits together" without noting the size differences of the continents. Its kind of like taking the pieces from several different sized puzzles and then insisting they all fit together. Though perhaps they did, that doesn't prove the stories they weave.

Clearly, the plates move, but they were quite far from proving that all we can see can be explained by slow gradual processes. It is ironic that they claimed the alternative was a belief that "God made it static" when that doesn't fit with what even the most hard core Creationist believes. (Check out the Flood of Noah for lots of shifting, for example. See also the Mount St. Helens eruption for fast-forming canyons.)

My wife asks me why I watch these shows. I like true science, yet find little of it. Lots of myth telling though. I am not sure, though maybe she is correct when she says it is so I can argue with the TV! :)

Brad

Today's Election

I have tuned out of a lot of political hype in the past few years. I used to be a lot more concerned about things, truly believing the idea that my vote mattered. I no longer am convinced it really matters, except as much as it is following the overall trend in our culture.

Right now many voters are "mad" about some things and many felt they were sold a bunch of junk with our current president. However, I am not convinced that most of those really want the radical cut back of government that would be required to have a more balanced society.

We rely on government to do to much for us, not realizing that we are ultimately responsible for ourselves. A big danger is that many will step forward claiming they can help us manage things better, in spite of reality.

The only time letting someone else handle things is appropriate is when you are a child. The modern American citizen needs to grow up and stop being a child. We all need to realize that while we should personally help each other out, our own future is pretty much in our own hands. No one can manage it better, nor should we ever give up our freedoms to attempt to reach that.

Droid X

I got tired of my Samsung Omnia phone and replaced it with a Droid X.

The Droid X gets hot, though looks like it will be a great phone, if I can keep the heat away from me. :)

The Omnia had high ratings, but I don't believe it lived up to its hype.

Blaming God for Life's Troubles

I was listening to a PBS show on Mark Twain (via Netflix) while doing some work tonight. The biggest thing that struck me is that on the one hand he blamed himself for all bad things, but on the other he blamed God.

I suspect this is a problem with those who claim to always blame themselves. They ultimately know they are not as wrong as they think, so they have to blame someone. Since God is not there and usually gets the burnt of everyone's blame, they then dump on Him.

This completely ignores their own role in things and also the results of sin in the world. How few of us acknowledge that we are really getting far better than we deserve? It is quite common in the modern world to think we all deserve perfection. Some think that everything should go well, all the time. Ultimately, this is normally just selfishness. I have especially seen this in those who don't work hard for their own advancement, instead thinking someone else "owes them" merely because they "suck air" as Dave Ramsey says.

If this fits you, consider that perhaps you are not seeing the whole picture. Sure you can blame God, but He has already taken action, yet few of us accept His Son and what He has done for us. Then we blame Him because we don't get the good times we think we are due.

While I have faced my own series of troubles, I will never bow to the temptation to blame God for them. Sure, He knows everything, but He has chosen to let us face the lives we mostly make ourselves.

Stop blaming Him and start thanking Him for the good things you do have. Countless stories show that those who do so face better lives, even if they end up going through even worse troubles.

Time Keeps on Slipping into the Future!

I am constantly reminded of the song by the Steve Miller Band, Fly Like An Eagle. Time certainly slips away quickly.

My life is much more flexible now than it has been at times in the past when I was physically "on site" for an employer for 40 or more hours a week, yet I find my time vanishes just as fast now as it ever did. In some ways, it seems like it goes quicker.

Not sure the point of this post, but something to ponder. We need to use our time wisely. It slips away and is gone before we know it. We can never get it back. It will be spent regardless.

Are you spending your time wisely?