"James" written by Jim on estrip.org

Category: photos

08/09/08 12:34 - 73ºF - ID#45289

James

On his birthday, practicing to be a grumpy old man.

Permalink: James.html
Words: 12
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: technology

08/08/08 09:51 - 66ºF - ID#45282

SSH Yay

Permalink: SSH_Yay.html
Words: 2
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: music

08/08/08 02:50 - 68ºF - ID#45279

SO MUCH FUN

Girl Talk's latest album Feed the Animals is super awesome. I'm having so much fun listening to it today. (Remix/mashup/dj stuff)

It is available online, set-your-own-fee-or-free (like Radiohead's last):

Seriously best new thing I've listened to all year.

Track 12 from the album:

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

Linked file is CC licensed NC w/attribution (see album list for details).

Permalink: SO_MUCH_FUN.html
Words: 66
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: life

08/07/08 11:17 - 65ºF - ID#45263

Quit Smoking

I haven't smoked all week, except one on Monday morning. So far so good. Definitely have mood swings. Well more like a permanently shitty mood. Getting better today. Haven't killed anyone yet. Thanks for putting up with me James :)

As incentive to quit, I bought myself a ridiculously nice, but used so not too expensive, chair. Definitely worth the money considering I sit in it for like 2100 hours a year. The one I had before was so crappy and badly fitting I was starting to get pains and aches by the end of the work day. Yuck, not worth it. My body didn't come with a warranty.

I think without James' encouragement and my self-bribery I wouldn't have been able to quit. Feels pretty good!

Permalink: Quit_Smoking.html
Words: 125
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: zombiebirthdays

08/06/08 08:46 - 69ºF - ID#45248

For My Zombie

It's (e:James) birthday today!

Permalink: For_My_Zombie.html
Words: 7
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: apple

08/01/08 05:52 - 80ºF - ID#45220

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

So, there is a now a tethering app (NetShare) in the Apple iPhone app store.

Now I'm sorely tempted to upgrade to the new iPhone. Mmmm, internet everywhere. Might be worth the $200 upgrade fee for iPhone 3G since I'm on call for server emergencies.

Here it is (link requires iTunes 7.7)

Permalink: O_frabjous_day_Callooh_Callay_.html
Words: 54
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: culture

07/27/08 11:56 - 73ºF - ID#45162

Ignosticism

Ah, a new word (to me): ignosticism. I am not sure how I've missed that so far in my life, considering how much I've thought and researched about this sort of stuff. I am more accurately ignostic. God doesn't matter to me, and my strong atheistic streak seems to flow from ignostic roots.

Pondering the recent discussions about what it means to have faith as a Christian, I've admittedly been more concerned about what it means to have faith as Jim, so let me summarize my thoughts so far, as discovered over the course of 30 or so years.

I have faith that I am a human being, that this life is real, and that anything before or after it is too nebulous to worry to much about, in a personal sense. I didn't mind not existing before I was born, so I aim to be cheerful when faced with my deathbed.

I have faith that human beings can learn from their mistakes. And more specifically, that I have been and will be able to learn from my own mistakes. My many, many mistakes.

More importantly, I have faith that human beings can learn from the mistakes of other human beings. This is the key to human culture. I don't think a culture needs a God to look to to get stuff right, human beings are capable of introspection and examination on their own.

I believe that we are tied to the past, and future tied to the present, but that being tied to this continuum is not a form of bondage, but of progression. Culturally, before and after my life is of a lot of importance to me (as opposed to personally, as above).

The foundations of my beliefs are as minimal as I can make them: buy into existing, into consciousness, into trial and error, and into broad human culture. Anything beyond those 4 pillars is extraneous, and everything I have ever managed to make better within myself is based on those simple statements. I've tried to brutally reduce the dependencies in that chain and that's as far as I've been able to cut. For consistency's sake if I could find a simpler way to state it I'd cut more out.

This faith is based on personal experience, but it's also personal experience that I can observe mirrored in the lives of other people. It's faith based on as much sense and definition as I can give the terms involved.

I've known lots of people who've lost or never had belief in God and they seem better off for it. Some seem worse, too, true.

The people I know who believe in learning from trial and error and not repeating their own mistakes would not be the same people if they give that up or didn't have it.

That's why I believe what I do and consider it essential, and could care less about God. When people can't agree on what the word God means, much less what 'he wants', it's a giant sink for me to spend time to even consider it (and I've personally spent much time considering).

We've got millennia of rich human history of to learn from, and that's plenty to keep me busy.

drew writes at 01:59:41 07/28/08 - Comment #37459: Just saw your last comment. Thanks for the props :)

I agree. Openness and directness is the best way to go. And that sometimes looks arrogant, but I think it can be done (and is being done) respectfully.

drew writes at 01:57:29 07/28/08 - Comment #37458: It takes just as much guts to proclaim that you know something about God as it does to claim that God doesn't exist.

One thing agnostics and the best of believers have in common is humility--which means that statements regarding God are limited and/or qualified.

(e:joshua), Christians have been attacked much of late because the public face of Christianity has been so negative. To put it in marketing terms (which is another thing we do that I hate), we have ruined the "brand." The word Christian communicates a whole lot of ideas that should have nothing to do with faith in Jesus.

But you are right, (e:joshua), the more Christian graciously receive attacks on their faith, the more they will reveal about who they were. The early church spread quickly, not because of fantastic preaching, but because of brave martyrs. Now we are far more likely to kill for the faith than die for it.

I also think that everybody puts together a belief system, and even if one is rejected, these questions are worth thinking about just as much as any other human experience is worth thinking about. Questions about divinity are part of the human experience for most of humanity, even if some people reject the idea.

I think I have shared this before, but where you and I agree, (e:jim) and (e:paul), is that there is an awful lot of bad religion out there.

Where I differ is that I think the answer to bad religion is good religion (although that is another word that has been just about wrecked. Maybe "good belief/action" is better.) And that, though we have distorted it, there is a way of good belief/action in Jesus as revealed in the Bible, even if people have ignored it, distorted it, and/or abused it.

jim writes at 01:51:52 07/28/08 - Comment #37457: I've never been in a church service where they haven't prayed for the world to come to Jesus. Religions assume that non-believers would be better off believing, without any exception that I know of. Christians believe the way the see the world is better then how I see it. Else why would they believe? Doesn't that take similar arrogance and guts? I am fiercely advocating my opinion, and don't mind them advocating theirs.

So sure, it's hard to talk about what I believe without saying what I *don't* believe in and why. It makes it antagonistic sounding. The other option is to not talk about it at all, and I don't see how that is any better. Conflict is sure to arise, but that's the nature of conversation.

I carefully phrased my post to make it clear that it was about me and how I came to see the world as I see it, and put that in the context of the largely Christian society of which I am a part. I do not want to go any further then that.

I didn't talk about religion much before Drew showed up. I love when Drew posts, and it makes me think and post about my take on some of these issues. I speak here in front of the (e:strip) community, as Drew does. I'm not leafleting random churchgoers and telling them to give up Jesus. I speak more surely and strongly here then I would elsewhere, because I know many of you personally and try not to equivocate and be politically correct and respectful.

So I'm not sure how much of your comment was directed at me, but I will try to moderate myself in my opposition to clearly defining the scope and personal nature of my statements.

Thanks, Josh :)

joshua writes at 12:07:27 07/28/08 - Comment #37448: Remember, it is freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. The genius of America is that it is okay to believe what you want to believe, if anything at all.

What is particularly interesting to me in these types of conversations is the non-religious person's views on what it means to be religious in a sense they don't agree with or believe in. To me that takes a large amount of guts, if not arrogance. It is never enough to just believe that there isn't a God - there still seems to be a need to stick it in a religion's eye because of some lack of satisfaction. It is almost more important to repeatedly explain why the Christians are wrong than why the athiests are right. That mode of thinking is ENTIRELY self-absorbed and in the end is superfluous and hateful. Christians tend to turn the other cheek when people attack their religion... I think far more is revealed about the person doing the attacking in these cases then the actual topic at hand.

Still though (e:jim), being an athiest I think if you live your life according to your belief system then you'll be fine in any sense, religious, non-religious, good guy/bad guy, etc. I would even argue, much to the chagrin of many religious people, that in your own way you've developed a set of morals. You put far more faith in your fellow man then I do, thats for sure!

paul writes at 12:16:52 07/27/08 - Comment #37429: I feel very much the same. I would actually prefer to just never evn discuss religion again as it has already wasted so much time in my life. However, like fashion and the latest movies I reallly don't have a choice as everyone else can't stop.

Permalink: Ignosticism.html
Words: 538
Location: Buffalo, NY

07/21/08 05:18 - 74ºF - ID#45091

Rails Dev Job

By chance, should there be any lurking Rails developers on this site, please send me an email if you're looking for work (fulltime position with benefits, local to WNY only).

jim/at/jimlindley/dot/com

Permalink: Rails_Dev_Job.html
Words: 35
Location: Buffalo, NY

07/19/08 12:33 - ID#45072