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Your Inner Child Is Naughty |
 Like a child, you tend to discount social rules. It’s just too much fun to break the rules! You love trouble – and it seems that trouble loves you. And no matter what, you refuse to grow up! |
“And no matter what, you refuse to grow up!”
My wife’s comments will be moderated.
Hat tip: Cao’s Blog
This posts is in response to La Shawn Barber’s questions on her blog this morning. She asks the following questions shown in italics. My responses to those questions are in bold. You can read more responses to these questions in the comments section of La Shawn’s post titled Disgruntled and Begrudging Bloggers.
“1) Do you or someone you know spend 50 percent or more of your blogging time writing (negatively) about other bloggers?”
No. I don’t nor do I know anyone who spends 50% of their time writing negative about other bloggers other than maybe the guy who gave me my first ever trackback. I will get to that in a minute. I do my share of holding others accountable like with my post on Sunday Google China Censoring or NOT?.
“2) Do you or someone you know begrudge another blogger’s “success”?”
No. I believe that there cream will rise to the top. Bloggers who are good will get return visitors from those who land on their blog(s) from searches or links.
“3) Are you or someone you know angry, perplexed, stumped — or the adjective of your choice — because certain bloggers seem to get linked frequently by the bigger bloggers, although you believe your posts are much more interesting and well-written?”
Yes I am amazed at how some bloggers get so many links, but not surprised. Although I do not believe my posts are that much more interesting or well written. I write much of my stuff during the middle of the night and quite often make mistakes. God willing, I will get better with time and write more interesting stuff.
“4) Do you believe it is wrong, impractical, wasteful, comical, useful — or the adjective of your choice — to build a reputation by trying to tear down other bloggers? “
Yes! I have a big problem with those blogs built on a foundation of negative criticism of other bloggers. I have been the target of a blog that built its foundation on tearing bloggers down. As a matter of fact I got my first ever trackback from a post that was dedicated to tearing me and my blog down. I got so excited about getting my first trackback. I did not pass on the chance to answer the critic. Here is the post titled Yee Haa..I got my first trackback”. That said, I do believe in holding each other accountable. (See answer to question 1)
What is the foundation of my blog? That really depends on which blog you are talking about. I have one blog where I have not revealed my identity. It is sort of an experiment. It is not negative and I don’t post there very often. As for the others:
The Land of Ozz: This blog is a Home of Everything Interesting to me and a few others. The numbers are growing. I get the most enjoyment from my Godcast postings of “The Living Bible”. I am working on getting some great new content for The Land of Ozz. I have a very good friend who has just received her certification as an herbalist. She has expressed interest in joining The Land of Ozz to share some great information on growing and using herbs.
Caden’s Page: My first/original blog. I started Caden’s Page on a static HTML page before I even knew that the term blog existed. Caden’s Page was created to keep family and friends updated on the events surrounding the birth of our second child because we did not and still do not have any family within 150 miles of us. Caden was diagnosed with a rare heart defect in utero that was linked to a genetic condition called Di George Syndrome. I have continued the blog due to some very positive experiences with others who have been touched by our experiences with Di George Syndrome and the dozens of medical professionals that we deal with on a regular basis. By the way, Caden will grow out of most of the things related to Di George and will lead a normal life.
Grill’n Time: It is about grilling and cooking in general. I enjoy cooking on and off of the grill. I have let this one rest for a while, but I am cranking it back up. I have a draft post sitting over there right now. It has recently been converted from Blogger to WordPress. Look for more tasty stuff to come soon on Grill’n Time.
The Tech Land of Ozz: This one is a pure technical blog. I have sort of let this one slide too. I cross post most of the stuff on The Tech Land of Ozz to this blog that you are reading in the Techie category. I may at some point just dismantle The Tech Land of Ozz and post all techie stuff in the Techie category of this blog. I am still undecided.
Summary: Blogging is a fun activity that helps me grow my web development skills and hopefully share something inspirational along the way.
There were 27 Sources reporting on the condition of ABC news anchor Bob Woodruff and his camera man on Topix.net this morning. The “Woodruff War Injuries” story comes in second for the most sources reporting only to the “Sheen for Senate Circus” which had 31 sources reporting as of the time of this post.
It would be nice if there was this sort of concern over our troops when they were injured.
With these two big sporting events coming up in the next few weeks I thought it might be good to put them up against each other in an OzzPoll. This poll is publicy availible on dPolls.com as well.
I am trying things a little diferent this week. I am using dPolls.com for the first time. I am not posting the poll itself in the sidebar primarily because it doesn’t fit. I have requested the ability to modify the size fo the image from dPolls.com. We will see what happens. The last option was added for Mark over at the Imagine Kitty. 
This is my OTA open post for Monday January 30, 2006.
Post links to:
http://www.hoei.com/blog/archive/2006/01/30/197/
Send trackbacks to:
http://www.hoei.com/blog/archive/2006/01/30/197/trackback/
Links to:
Linkfest Haven, Freedom Folks, Is It Just Me?, Don Surber, Conservative Cat, The Florida Masochist, Imagine Kitty
Are our fellow bloggers taking up some of the Main Stream Media’s habits of reporting only the juiciest information even when it might be far from the truth? I took a little closer look at the JunkYardBlog story on Google’s censoring of the Google.cn web search engine. While the JunkYadBlog did a great job of showing how images.google.cn is filtered, they did not bother to tell what the main Google.cn search engine returns when plugging in things like the word “Christian”. It seems that the main Google.cn search engine actually returns more hits than the US version of Google when searching on the word Christian. Why make such a big deal over the images site and skip the fact that the main search engine seems to not reflect such an anti-Christian sentiment?
I got 251 Million hits on Google.cn when searching for Christian
I got 201 Million hits on Google.com when searching for Christian
Why not report this? Is this a case of a blog gone MSM? Why not share these facts Mr. Preston?
I also wondered what would happen if you took some of the terms that are likely being censored and translated them to Chinese and then run the search again on Google.cn. I did come up with very different results. I got less than 64 million results when I searched for “Jesus” on Google.com. You can click on the images below to see the actual current search engine results.
I then searched for “Jesus” in English on Google.cn. I got just over 93 million results.
Then I translated “Jesus” into Chinese using the Google Language Translate page. Next I searched Google.cn for the translated version of Jesus. I got 1.7 million results.
This example of the differences in the Chinese version of the Google Search engine and the regular Google.com site does not confirm censorship at all. I am really surprised that Michele Malkin didn’t catch this, but rather played right along by stating, “Searching for Christ in China – Google won’t be of much help”.
Here is another one reported on the JunkYardBlog that only mentioned the images.goolge.cn results.
JunkYardBlog reported:
On a clean search, Google-China turned up 10 hits on an image search for jesus christ. Just like that, no quotes. By comparison, the US version of Google image search turns up 168,000 hits on the same exact search terms. 168,000 versus 10. And this is just an image search.
Why didn’t the JunkYardBlog go ahead and report on a search using the main search engines of Google.cn verses Google.com for the term “Jesus Christ”? Because it would not have been as sensational of a story, that’s why. Here is how it would have read if they had included the main search engines of Google instead of only using the images search. On a clean search, Google-China turned up 32 million hits on a search for Jesus Christ. Just like that, no quotes. By comparison, the US version of Google search turns up 29.6 million hits on the same exact search terms. 32 million versus 29.6 million.
The JunkYardBlog says:
This is a very serious issue. Google has put its financial bottom line over basic human rights. An American company is assisting the Chinese government in a Stalinistic airbrushing of faith from the internet. That Google is helping Beijing wipe Jesus Christ off the web…
I say this is a very serious issue too. Is this a case of a blog trying to draw in readers using a partial truths? Is this the whole truth or only enough of the truth that will capture the attention of the likes of Michelle Malkin to get a little link love?
Update: Google China Censorship and Google Business Decision
Grill’n Time is alive on WordPress 2.0. I did a manual cut over from Blogger due to continued unresolved technical difficulties trying to post from Blogger via FTP to Grill’n Time and other blogs by TheOzz. Keep your eye on Grill’n Time for my childhood recipe concoction called Turd Candy. I am searching for a new less offensive name for this concoction. Your help would be greatly appreciated. The post should be up on Grill’n Time within a couple of days.
More details on the Blogger problem that I continue to see:
001 java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out/2005_12_01_wordpress.php
The best answer so far to this problem is to get off of Blogger.
This is the official OTA post for Monday 1/23/06.
Here is the URL for this post:
http://www.hoei.com/blog/archive/2006/01/23/194/
Here is the trackback URL to ping for this post:
http://www.hoei.com/blog/archive/2006/01/23/194/trackback/
Linked to: Bloggin’ Outloud, Freedom Folks, The Uncooperative Blogger.
I want to start with a promise that this posting is not going to be a repeat of anything you will read on another blog after the first few sentences. It’s about time that I dedicated a post to this subject. What better time to do it. Tomorrow will be the 33rd anniversary for Roe V. Wade. I want to offer a big thanks to La Shawn Barber for the link and great post today titled Blogs4Life/March for Life.
I write this post as a man with first hand experience on the subject of abortion. I have witnessed more than one abortion first hand, meaning I was in the room with a friend or girlfriend when they got an abortion. I want to make it perfectly clear that these abortions were performed on women before I even met my wife. I will not go any further in explaining the details to maintain the privacy and dignity of those women who were involved. I shared this because I want you to understand that I speak on this subject from a position of experience.
I look back on what I was a part of and regret it deeply. I wish I could go back and have a chance to do things different. So where does that leave me? It left me in a position of confessing and repenting of my sins before God. I have been forgiven by God and I have repented. One definition of repent says, “To feel such regret for past conduct as to change one’s mind regarding it” according to Dictionary.com. I like this definition because it clearly states what I have done. I felt such regret for past conduct that I have changed my mind on abortion. Obviously I once believed that abortion was just another form of birth control.
Let me tell you a story about where I am today now that you know where I come from on the subject of abortion. It was less than 20 weeks into my wife’s pregnancy with our second child that we got some disturbing news. A standard ultrasound found some abnormalities that warranted a level II ultrasound. My wife’s doctor at that time wanted her to go immediately for the level two ultrasound, but I had to leave later that day for a ten day trip to California. We went for the level II ultrasound as soon as I got back into town. That doctor’s visit was where we learned that our baby was going to be born with a very rare heart defect. They found on the ultrasound that his aorta was plumbed up wrong to his heart (interrupted aortic arch) in addition to having an enormous hole between the ventricles called a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). The findings were confirmed in a pediatric cardiology lab at the local medical university a few hours later where they performed a fetal echo cardiogram. That was not the end of the findings with his heart, but that really has no bearing on this story. The emotions were absolutely overwhelming as we prepared to leave the room where the echo cardiogram had been performed. I will share with you a very small part of the manuscript of a book I am writing about our experiences.
The whole thing had really not sunk in for me just yet. The staff realized that we were near a state of shock. They told us to sit as long as we needed before leaving. They offered contact information for us to call with any questions that we had after we got home. They scheduled follow-up appointments for Sherry to have the echo cardiograms throughout the remainder of the pregnancy to see if the defect had progressed in either direction. We finished our talk with the doctor and prepared to leave.
A nice lady from their office escorted us to the elevator. What happened next still gives me chills to this day. I started to have trouble breathing. My knees felt as if they were about to come out from under me. I grabbed the wall and asked if there was somewhere I could sit down. The lady walking with us immediately helped me into the nearest room. I sat down and began to sob uncontrollably. Sherry comforted me as she cried. I cried and gasped for air for a while. It seemed that nothing could stop it. The reality of the day’s events had finally caught up with me.
I would guess that you are saying that this is a really emotional story, but what does it have to do with abortion? Well, this is where abortion comes back into the picture. It was made very clear to us that we should come back to the clinic where the level II ultrasound was performed before we went home that day. My wife and I did go back, but we did not know why it was so important. You may have guessed by now. The staff in the clinic wanted to make sure that they offered us an opportunity to get an amniocentesis. We were puzzled as to why an amniocentesis was so important. My wife ended up asking straight up, “What is the big deal with getting an amnio as soon as possible?” Well it turned out that with my wife being at approximately 22 weeks pregnant was on the edge of some threshold for getting an abortion if we chose to “not proceed with this pregnancy”.
If you are curious as to what a baby looks like at 20 weeks in the womb then you will find it in the picture on the right. This picture is from the Option Line which I will talk more about later. 
I could not put my hands on our ultrasound picture from that day, but it looks very similar only without the color.
The staff in the OB clinic was pretty adamant about presenting this option to us because a rare heart defect like this one could be linked to something genetic that could end up taking the child’s life shortly after the delivery anyway. One big problem for my wife was that she is deathly afraid of needles and she told them so. They made it clear that we had options with or without the amniocentesis. It didn’t take long in this conversation for both of us to say in stereo, “There is nothing a lab test is going to tell us that will change our mind on proceeding with this pregnancy.” Unfortunately that was not the end of the push for an amnio. My wife finally had to request that it be written in big letters on the front of her chart, “Do not offer this patient an amnio again!” Needless to say, she was not offered another amniocentesis during regular office visits.
The pregnancy did eventually have some complications that required an amnio fluid draw. This is where the doctors drew off more than two liters of fluid form around the baby in the last two weeks before he was born. We requested at that point to have the fluid checked since they were drawing it anyway. The test did find a micro deletion of the 22nd chromosome called 22q11.2 which is not a genetic condition not normally associated with death of a newborn.
The follow up to this portion of the story is now a blog called Caden’s Page. I officially started Caden’s Page on the day of Caden’s birth which was Election Day 2004. We chose the name Caden because of its meaning “Fighter”. His middle name was chosen to be Gabriel meaning “God is my Strength”. We could not have picked a more appropriate names for this little boy.
The moral of this story is that an abortion in our case would have robbed the world of a wonderful person. Caden is now 14 months old an absolute joy. He is smart, energetic, and he has a personality that will melt your heart.
I believe that the reality of what an abortion means does not sink in for most people who go through with it. Many are like I was when I was younger. I had never seen an ultrasound. I had no clue what a 12 or 15 week old fetus looked like. I just could not picture the fact that this was a little human being inside these women’s bodies. Then I got married. I went to be at my wife’s side for every OB/GYN visit during the pregnancies of our two boys. I got to see what they looked like at different stages of the pregnancy. I believe that if more people were able to visualize the life that they were about to take, then they would make a different decision. I feel that this is a key starting point to reducing the number of abortions in this country.
There are groups out there who are working to get ultrasound machines in clinics where people go for abortion counseling. There are some great resources on the Focus on the Family web site. The Focus on the Family site links to a great site called Option Line. The Option Line site offers guidance on where to go to get pregnancy counseling. The link earlier in this post points to a page with some great pictures of babies at different stages of a pregnancy.
I am signing up tonight to become an official member of the Pro-Life Blogs. If you are a pro-life blogger then I recommend that you let people know it. If you are pro-choice, then we have something in common. I am pro-choice as well. I believe that every couple should have the “choice” on whether to engage in sexual relations. Once a couple conceives they have pasted to point of choice as it relates to the life or death of the child.
Anyone who exercises their pro-choice rights to have sex are in fact choosing to become pro-life!
This is one of the many:
Another great resource to check out: Be Not Afraid
With the official opening day of this movie underway, I withdraw my recommendation of this movie until further notice. I have been enlightened to some undercurrents of the movie that you won’t find in the advertisements. The lead actor Chad Allen is a gay activist and there is pretty good evidence that the producers of the movie knew that Allen was a gay activist before they hired him. Ingrid Schlueter over at the Slice of Laodicea and Carla Rolfe over at Reflections of the Times have the scoop. I received a private message on my Blogs4God account a few days ago that warned me of this movie. The message did not come with much supporting information and I guess my pride got in the way of receiving the message because I had just went through so much trouble to promote the movie.
I really got my confirmed answer on whether to continue my promoting when reading a quote from an interview that Slice of Laodicea linked to there the lead actor Chad Allen said, “It’s true. Part of what’s happened is the result of vitriolic anger and fear that’s been put forth by believers and by us as well.” That was in response to the Windy City Times’ comment that said, “It’s just that if you mention that the movie is about Christian missionaries, some people’s eyes immediately glaze over.” I read the portion of Allen’s response, “…put forth by believers and by us as well,” as a pretty clear statement of separating himself from believers. A commenter over at Reflections of the Times said, ” It seems that for you to be able to write so boldly about this matter that you must, yourself, be without faults.” The difference between the faults (sin) of Chad Allen and the sin believers commit is that he seems to have no intent at this time to repent and ask forgiveness of his promotion of immoral agendas through his involvement in this movie. He seems quite aware of what he is doing and is laughing it off. Those “believers” who have a personal relationship with Jesus handle faults (sin) in a different way. When believes fall short, daily, we confess our sins and repent. Chad Allen has clearly separated himself from believers and is openly defying God.
There is a ton of information and links over at Sharper Iron Forums. I would also recommend visiting Slice of Laodicea and Reflection of the Times for more information on this topic. Both sites are linked int he first paragraph.
When you are wrong, say you’re wrong. I was wrong about this movie! Previous posts on The Land of Ozz supporting this movie have been edited for your viewing pleasure.
The source for Windy City Times quotes is an article titled Chad Allen: Missionary Man.
Links to other sites in this post do not constitute an endorsement of those sites. The End of the Spear™ is a trademark of Every Tribe Entertainment.
Update:
Danny Kaye asked a great question in a comment that I think deserves an update to this posting. He was unclear on why I am not “supporting” this movie. First let me say that I am not promoting a boycott of the movie. Second, I will probably see the movie at some point, but my original posting was to actually promote the movie. The original purpose of my promotion was to try and encourage people to get out tonight or this weekend to see the movie so that it might get more widely distributed as a result of opening week sales. I am simply withdrawing my promotion of the movie with this post. I am looking at it as any other Hollywood production at this point.
I will explain my thinking in this matter. I have no problems with people, period. That includes Chad Allen. I have problems with ideas and messages that pollute and corrupt the value system that God has set for us to live our lives by. For instance, I have no problem with gay people in my church as long as they are their to search for God’s answers to their lifestyle choices. Yes, I do believe that homosexuality is a choice.
God does not tolerate sin, he forgives it or punishes it. I believe that a person who knowingly defies God will be punished. Those who seek forgiveness from God will be forgiven. Chad Allen is laughing in the faces of believers as he uses his involvement and in this movie to promote his belief that we should all tolerate and accept those who choose a gay lifestyle. That is why I will no longer “promote” this movie. I do not want to be a part of promoting the spreading of a movie that will fund such an agenda, indirectly or not.
Like Steve Saint, I sincerely hope is that Chad Allen will get some sense of the sacrifice that the man made whose character he is playing. Here is a quote that I pulled from the comments section of Greg Wright’s review of the movie.
The text that follows is the filmmakers’ official response to the issue of Chad Allen’s sexual orientation. I don’t think anything additional needs to be said… But I’ll throw in a quote from Steve Saint himself: “I could feel physical pain thinking [that] somebody that lives a lifestyle like that is going to depict my dad… [But] I thought: What happens if I stand before God someday and He says to me, ‘Steve, I went out of my way to orchestrate an opportunity for Chad Allen to see what it would be like to live as your father did.’ And then I could picture Him looking at me and saying, ‘Steve, why did you mess with my plan?’”
On the other hand, I am not a fan of putting non-Christians in a role of dramatizing a Christian message, especially in the lead role. Would you cast a self proclaimed non-believer who openly promotes gay tolerance to play the character of Jesus in your church Easter play? Some might say yes. I would not. I have been in some pretty powerful Easter Productions where upwards of 10,000 people were shown the life and death of Jesus. I saw the care that was taken to select the leading roles. These roles were filled by well grounded Christians. I agree with this philosophy of casting for lead roles in particular in productions that will dramatize a Christian message.
I will leave you with one last quote from the Agape Press article that says, ” Steve Saint acknowledges that some Christians may be disappointed that the movie is not a sermon — that is, that the gospel is not more overtly presented in the film.” This is confirmation that the movie was not necessarily created to be a ministry tool even though it may very well inspire many who see it.
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