http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%204:3-30&version=NLT

You've heard the songs.

"Oh the blood of Jesus..."

I've been thinking a lot about blood lately. The most precious blood in history is that of our Lord Jesus. I imagined today what his childhood was like. Did He ever fall and scrape his knee? Did He get cut, or perhaps bitten by a mosquito? Being fully God, He may have walked around with a sort of charmed life, perhaps. But I don't think that's the case. Why?

He asked for a drink of water. The woman at the well (John 4:3-30) was surprised by this. I don't know if she gave Him that drink or not, as they seem to have gotten caught up in conversation after His initial request. That's not the point. He asked her, a woman who had been married 5 times, and was living with a guy she wasn't married to, to give Him a drink of water.

What happens to water when it enters our body? Without getting technical (if you're into that sort of thing, look up hematopoiesis, the constituents of plasma, hypovolemia, and dehydration), it is easy to see that we manufacture blood, and that it is really wet stuff. Just look at Red Cross donors; they re-make the blood they give over time. That fluid comes from somewhere.

Tag: http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/blood.html

We focus so much on taking in our Lord; as with communion, being an expression of His desire that we take into ourselves His body and His blood... You are what you eat, they say. But I've been thinking a lot about what Jesus took into His body, what made up His blood. Every glass of wine or water, every bit of moisture in every fig or grape, every drop of fluid from Mary's milk to the Samaritan well water... He took these in. Some of that became His plasma, His cells...

What are the ingredients to the most precious gift in the world? Where did they come from?

Think.

.:3

http://vimeo.com/7192879

A preview of our upcoming short film. Stay tuned for details! =)

Dear Tegan,

Hey baby, how's my girl? I just got back from the village. I was thinking a lot about how you like slides. I decided to combine that with the fact that mommy likes drawing things composed of countless tiny circles and apply those interests to a problem-solving exercise.

I'm really frustrated right now with something I'm sure every serious programmer faces at some point in their work. I'll explain that later on; first -- SLIDES!

I got you a pink slide. It's just the right size for you, and it's out in the village in case you ever need to slide out there. I took an acorn and walked it up the steps and rolled it down several times, thinking about the process. Ok, mostly I was thinking about you and mommy, but I grabbed a notepad and made some observations.

The process of sliding is cyclical. That means it repeats in a way that starts over again each time, right back where it began. In this case, the cycle goes like this:

1) Climb up the steps, one step at a time
2) At the top, you have to commit to going down
3) The potential energy you built up on the climb is unleashed (that's usually when you giggle and/or squeal "wheee!")
4) You have to repeat the process in roughly the same manner when you want to slide again

It's as easy as 1-2-3-4! ;]

Your slide is too small for mommy and I to enjoy in the same way that you can at your size. I realized that's part of what makes it special, because it is meant just for you! In business terms, we could say that the process is scalable, and also customized for the target audience. I thought a lot about how it wouldn't be as special or as fun if the slide were made of steel and 300 feet tall. I think you'd recognize that this particular slide is there just especially for you. =)

So what is it you like about slides? I won't pretend I could guess your answer; I'd love to hear you tell me all about it in your own words, and not so I can analyze it -- I love you and I want to know how you think and feel about everything, even slides. =)

I did form some generalities that were useful to the problem I mentioned earlier. The unique things I noted about slides include:

- Sliding is a front-loaded effort. You do all the work up front, and then enjoy it.
- Sliding requires a commitment. At the top, you have to decide to go down the slide, or return the way you came.
- Sliding is something you have to do for yourself. It is fun to watch others slide, and even to slide together, but it's REALLY fun when you get to do it yourself.

So I rolled that acorn down the slide 3 times, and watched, and thought... Then I traced the acorn on my notepad. It didn't look right, so I started filling in the little top cap thingy with tons and TONS of tiny little circles. (Mommy loves those). Jeje. That started me thinking about uniformity and modularity. That means things that are either all the same or at least ordered and organized, and things that are self-contained.

Then I realized that acorns reproduce TREES. The seed dies in the ground, and new life springs up, just like the parent tree. The acorn wants to be a tree, and it wants to do it on its own, too. There's lots of them, like mommy's circles, and they are all self-contained. Although quite similar to one another, the acorns can fall in patterns that are really quite random. Where they take root and grow, that determines the pattern that the forest will follow, and that doesn't have to be uniform at all.

So here's the problem I was working on:

Given a range of functionality between impossible and effortless, technology continues to progress towards the effortless end of the range. That means that if it was hard work to do something a year ago, it will probably be easy to do next year. The reason for that is usually that a hacker like daddy sees the effort as a problem, and they set out to solve it. Once the problem is solved, it isn't so difficult anymore.

So... I started thinking about how hackers will be solving their problems in the future, and started imagining how our family's software will hold up against the test of time as things get easier and easier to do. Of course, daddy plans to keep working on our software to make sure I'm the one making it easier for people to use. But what happens when people can just say what they want to see, and it appears on their screen? Or maybe even just think it, and it pops into existence?

There could be a day when software doesn't have to be written anymore, if that line of thinking holds true.

Thinking about your slides really helped me to understand something important. It's FUN to slide! You don't have to own every slide in the world to have fun, and just because people invent things like roller-coasters and elevators....that doesn't make a simple slide any less fun to play on! Yes baby, I knew about fun before thinking this through today. ;P What I didn't know was how the mechanics of enjoying a slide could illuminate the mind(s) of computer programmers around the world. Most things we already know can be used as a model inside our heads; something to study when we can't seem to figure out a bigger problem.

(1/3 = x/9), for example, could be a tricky problem to figure out if all we had was (x/9)! We might never know what 'x' stood for! Because of the smaller problem we can see (1/3), we can wrestle with it a moment and see that 'x' must be 3, because the little problem (1/3) shows us the ratio we're dealing with in the bigger one (x/9). We just plug it in on a bigger scale, and it works! (1/3 = 3/9).

So as I studied the little slide, the little acorn, and the little circles, they helped me get a better picture of the big problems I'm working on. More specifically, thinking about *how* we think about slides, acorns, and circles, helped me to observe the connections between things that would otherwise *seem* simple.

If a slide were a problem to be solved, we wouldn't go back and do it over again would we? Well, unless that's the specific problem we want. ;]

And that's the answer.

We choose the problems we enjoy, because they are the answers. We like doing things ourselves and, like mommy's circles in her drawings, it might look like we're making pointless copies of something over and over and over-- until you back up and see the big picture, that is! Then you can see how the uniformity of repetition (circles) can be arranged into a non-uniform pattern. It's really quite brilliant of you two! =)

Repetition of a cyclical, autonomous function to produce a unique and enjoyable product...

Know another word we could use for that?

ART!

In summary, modular uniformity is not put at risk by aggregate uniformity, and therefore creative tools are not put at risk by automated tools. Even with identical outcomes!

The reason I got stuck on that line of thought was that our software, NMOX, is getting really advanced. So much so that it wouldn't be hard to make it DO everything, given about 2 more years of hardcore development. I released NMOX Server 1.0a (codenamed "ACE") on mommy's birthday last year. The next version, NMOX Server 2.0 (codenamed "BETH") is what I'm working on for release as soon as possible. (Those codenames, if you're curious, are based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet... Aleph, Bet... Ok, so I was entirely biased about the first release.. Jeje. Anyways, it goes Aleph->Ace, Bet->Beth, Gimmel->Jim, etc.)

So yeah, I was at a critical point, deciding what should go into NMOX next, and what should not. That's extra important in software development, because you have to do all the work of creating your software ideas before you can run them, and by then they'd better be good! It's a front-loaded effort, like climbing up a slide. You've got to decide way, way in advance about several critical goals and directions, and if you look up from your work mid-stream (like daddy did today!) and wonder if you're really heading down the right path, it helps to have little problems like acorns and slides and circles to solve, to make sure the big problems you're playing with are actually the ones you want! =)

I like when things make sense. And I really like knowing that you and mommy can be a part of my work like you were today. We have exactly the problems the Lord wants us to have, and I'm glad. =)

I love you, Tegan! Give mommy a big hug and kiss for daddy, and tell her I love her! I'm working on slides and circles, one step at a time. I guess I had climbed to the top of a slide today in my thinking, and I had to decide all over again if I really wanted to go down it like I had planned on the way up.

I do.

.:3

On a whim, I started reading through the qualities that Russian mail-order brides say they are looking for in a man. No, I’m not in the market for a foreign wife; I am blessed to already have met the woman God has created me to love and to serve for the rest of my life. However, the sentiments expressed in some of these listings really stood out to me, and I decided to quote a few anonymously (to protect the innocent). These girls are listed like auction items, but I’m guessing they have final say in the matter and can bail out at any time. Assuming that they realize this is their life they’re advertising, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt as to the sincerity of the message. Some of these hit me like a ton of bricks; a few made me misty-eyed. Maybe that was their goal. Still, I found these 10 quotes below worth sharing. They are quotes taken from the “Ideal Relationship” sections of each girl’s profile:

“I value his diligence, mind and a keen sense of humor, he should be generous and caring with the people who are close to him. I value honesty and devotion most of all. And of course he should be family oriented.” – A, 20

“I am searching for a smart, brave, handsome man, LEADER by his nature. A person, who will put his wife and children on the first place in his life.” – J, 21

“My ideal relationship is one of deep mental, physical and emotional attraction. It is between two persons who care more for the other person than they care for themselves. It is between two persons who stand strong alone, but who stand stronger together. It is total, complete and fulfilling by itself – it does not need anything outside of itself to be ultimately fulfilling. To be best friends and devoted lovers – all in one...” – A, 21

“I just want to be happy and loved. I am willing to meet a man who will become the best friend, partner and husband for me. I am sure that there is no more dear person for a woman, then her beloved man, as he can be everything for her. I will love my man with all my heart. I just need to meet the right person and that is all I need in life.” – A, 21

“I want to be a single whole with my beloved and enjoy good and bad times together! I want to trust him and be his support!” – D, 18

“For me the ideal relationship is the life with person who will be tender, careful and will love me. I don't need more, only simply things. I need person who will be the support for me and our children. I also value friendship, confidence, respect and love:). I think there are not so much, am I right?” – M, 26

“I believe that when two people commit themselves to one another, they are marrying each others family, not just the person. One should always respect and be proud of their family. I want to find a man who is kind, loyal, confident and really knows what he wants!” – A, 23

“I am looking for an interesting man. I am the person who knows for sure whom she wants: that is a real man near me who can make me the happiest woman in the world. I am very serious in my search for my husband and believe that he must be an extraordinary man, too. He has to be secure, optimistic, reliable, neat, hardworking, outgoing, sociable, rarely irritated, trusting, organized, strong, practical and adventurous. It is very important to me that my future husband has a good sense of humor. Besides he should be a good father for our future children.” – N, 20

“I’m looking for sincere, caring, cheerful and generous man. The one, who will be able to complete and support me in everything. Someone, who is willing to work at our future together, with whom I can grow up to a unit of harmony, sharing our deepest thoughts and dreams.” – T, 20

“I prefer to associate with clever and polite people, I dislike when somebody whom I trust turns out to be unreliable. I hope to find my soul-mate who will be my friend and lover for all my life. It does not matter whether he is rich or poor, I just want him to be intelligent, generous and reliable. I am looking for serious relations. I would like to share my love and life with a man, who will appreciate and understand me in different situations. And in my turn I promise to give him all my love and care.” – Y, 22

# # #

'I believe God is deeply saddened by this,
just as we are, but for years we've been
telling God to get out of our schools,
to get out of our government and to
get out of our lives...
And being the gentleman He is,
I believe He has calmly backed out.
How can we expect God to give us His
blessing and His protection if we demand
He leave us alone?'

- Anne Graham