Thoughts on www.godisimaginary.com

Intro

I was just checking my email and facebook this morning and I noticed that I was invited to a group on facebook. I was looking through the group and found a discussion thread where the user wanted people to prove that God doesn't exists. One of the users posted a link and mentioned that the website was the only proof you needed. Now, I was born and raised catholic, but like the majority of catholics out there, I don't really practice it much anymore. I don't have a very biased mind, especially on the subject of religion. So, as always, I entered the site with an open mind. The content of the website, as you might notice if you decide to visit, consists of a page with links that are titled Proof #1 and go all the up to #50. These are all the 'proofs' that this site has for why God is imaginary.

Complaining

The main structure that this website follows for their content is:

1. Make an absurd statement
2. Search through the bible for passages that 'support' the statement
3. Add ridiculous/biased comments to further 'support' statement

Now when I say 'support' I mean the passages that the person picks for the proof is often a passage that clearly is meant to be comprehended one way, but the person picks at the passage from a literal point of view. For example, look at Proof #13 - 'Take a look at slavery'. From this page, we are supposed to believe that God is alright with slavery. The passage the person uses to proof God's position on slavery is this:

Genesis chapter 17, verse 12:

"And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised."

The idea of this passage is that God wants everyone to be circumcised. The person only looked at the part "he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised" This is absolutely ridiculous. The money part, people don't realize that richer people hire servants to do house work. They were not slaves. True Christians don't believe in slavery (remember the love thy neighbor bit?).

Conclusion

Any way, as far as the site goes, it is a pathetic, ignorant, illogically defined site, and should really not be taken seriously. The creator is most likely an angered atheist. But, who really knows if God is real

Learn to Throw Chi Balls

I found this very interesting article on how to learn to throw chi balls like in Street Fighter. I think those who’ve played the game or love martial arts would appreciate it.

http://meditation-energy.blogspot.com/2006/05/how-to-throw-chi-balls-like-ryu-in.html

GRUB Bootloader Mistake Correction

I have discovered this correction empirically, having accidentally set up GRUB incorrectly, causing my Windows partition not booting up and returning to the GRUB boot loader screen.

The Mistake

I made the mistake while setting up GRUB.

my partition layout is this:

/dev/sda1 - windows
/dev/sda2 - /boot
/dev/sda3 - /

when i set up GRUB, I typed this:

grub > root (hd0,1) <- sets the root drive to /boot
grub > setup (hd0,0) <- sets up grub on my windows partition
grup > quit <- quits grub

The mistake was the ’setup (hd0,0)’ command I ran, which should have been only ’setup (hd0)’.

This caused GRUB to write the MBR into the Windows partition, so when I booted up, I could only boot to Linux.

The Solution

To fix the problem, I ran a simple ’mount’ command:

mount -o errors=recover /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows

The result allowed me to mount to /mnt/windows with no errors. I was able to look through every directory and read from desired text files as well as write to the text files.

Conclusion

I’m surprised that GRUB even followed through and wrote to my Windows partition. But, for all those who run in to this problem, I give you the solution.

-- Cheers

Post2Blog Test

To sort of make life easier, I downloaded Post2Blog - a desktop blogging client for Windows. It is really easy to use and it obviously works with Blogspot as well as other blogging communities.

I recommend using this if you don’t want to spend time opening a browser, getting to your blog page, logging in, adding a new post, typing a new post, and then publishing it.

-- Cheers :-)

Fluxbox Menu Generator

I wrote a simple script to generate a customizable fluxbox menu. open your favorite editor and copy & paste the following:

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#!/bin/sh

fluxbox-generate_menu -t favorite_term -b favorite_browser -i /path/to/icons


echo "Done!"

done

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Replace the respective values and save the script in /usr/local/bin (it varies per distribution)

then do:

chmod 755 /path/to/scriptname

then run it.

any questions? comment here or email me (no spam please)

NOTE: The icon directory don't really matter. I recommend you add your favorite term and browser because it is very convenient for it to be on the fluxbox menu.

Webcam images to Flash FLV

Many Linux users have asked me how to convert webcam images to FLV and have them streamed on myspace or other massive blogs via flash player. Satya does a very good job explaining how this can be done.

His site can be found at:

http://satyap.livejournal.com/144508.html

Island Explorer - BETA

I've been working on a web browser that blocks pop ups automatically for a little while now. If anyone wants to test it, I am going to post up a link to download it when the time comes.

Why I Thank God I'm Not a Celebrity

After watching the Golden Globes last night, the first time I've watched TV since college, I realized many reasons why I have no desire to be a celebrity and praise God I'm not.

1. Two-faced people
I can't handle being in the same room with a million two faced snobs. Actors act: nice, mean, happy, sad, etc. Either, they are happy to see you, or they don't and hide it very well. Not for me. I can't tell if the winners of the award even felt greatful for the award or just tried to get it done and over with...

2. Designer outfits?
Since when has it become necessary to sport designer everything on the red carpet - Oh yeah, since the 1950's. Why don't they suprise the audience - do something new. It gets boring real quick. I'm waiting for the day that Ryan 'Big Wet Vagina' Seacrest, or any other soulless entity/host, asks a celebrity what they are wearing and for him or her to respond 'Target' or 'Wal-mart' or better yet 'Big & Tall.'

3. Privacy Issues
We are all aware of paparazzi and their eagerness to get the precious picture for the magazine cover or whatever. I'm not too worried about this since I'm not a whore, fag, trailer trash, or bound to bare all on any given basis.

4. Living Standards?
I could never, ever, live in a humungous mansion that has no practicality. I would never waste money on random crap 'just because!' When ever we watch MTV Cribs, we see stars with all this crap and show no appreciation towards it. I think Dave Chappelle basically summed it up in his rendition of MTV Cribs.

5. Conclusion
While many of you people wish to become famous celebrities, you just may get tired of it quickly. Just hearing about all the crap stars go through in today's media wouldn't you get tired just from hearing it? I can see the wealth that comes out of it, but do you really, honestly believe that it is worth it? Not to me.

--Yours truly