Hackers don't have to die after all

So, B, my friendly Facebook hacker, mentioned that rather than go through the bother of figuring out the scanner (which I still haven't, although I did get a second printer up and running so yay for that), just take a picture with a digital camera and upload it. Brilliance!! The thought had crossed my mind momentarily but I'd dismissed and forgotten it.
See, I own a digital camera as do Mom and dad. Unfortunately both are broken. Mom's won't even turn on, and the display screen on mine doesn't show anything but green streaks on a black and white background although it technically still takes pictures. So I tried taking pictures of my license, but the flash bleached everything out, and since the screen doesn't work, I couldn't see to turn the flash off. I had an idea maybe I could take a movie of my license to eliminate flash, then select one screen once I got it onto the computer. I had a fun time figuring out how to take a screenshot of the frame I wanted, and editing it to my satisfaction. However, it's all done now. I've sent my 'picture of a government issued identification card' to facebook and am now just waiting for a response and a password reset code or some such.

Death to All Hackers!

I got home at about 11 pm last night and did a routine facebook/email check before bed. Turns out my facebook had been hacked while I was in town, so I had warning emails from facebook saying someone accessed my account by correctly guessing the answer my security question ('What street did you live on when you were 8?' How much more naive could I have been? Everyone knows that!) and they'd changed my password. I freaked out and accepted facebook's idea that I could lock my account from all access until I get it cleared up and have control over it again. A few screens later they tell me to send them a picture of a government-issued ID (with personal things like ssn blacked out) and they can verify it's mine and not the hacker's.
Unfortunately my scanner isn't set up. So I have to wait 20 minutes today to install the printer/scanner driver, so I can set the printer/scanner up, so I can scan my driver's license, so I can sent it to facebook, so they can put my case in a queue with everyone else's issues, and eventually give me access to my account.

Turns out the hacker is my friend Nobody. All this hassle isn't his fault though. I was tired last night and freaked out and made much work for myself by locking the account up.

I just looked and the driver is downloaded so I can install the printer now. Guess that means this post is over.

Divorce & Remarriage: A Position Paper

Very long, but so good.


Divorce & Remarriage: A Position Paper

Eleven Reasons Why I Believe All Remarriage After Divorce Is Prohibited While Both Spouses Are Alive

1. Luke 16:18 calls all remarriage after divorce adultery.

Luke 16:18: Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

1.1 This verse shows that Jesus does not recognize divorce as terminating a marriage in God's sight. The reason a second marriage is called adultery is because the first one is considered to still be valid. So Jesus is taking a stand against the Jewish culture in which all divorce was considered to carry with it the right of remarriage.

1.2 The second half of the verse shows that not merely the divorcing man is guilty of adultery when he remarries, but also any man who marries a divorced woman.

1.3 Since there are no exceptions mentioned in the verse, and since Jesus is clearly rejecting the common cultural conception of divorce as including the right of remarriage, the first readers of this gospel would have been hard-put to argue for any exceptions on the basis that Jesus shared the cultural assumption that divorce for unfaithfulness or desertion freed a spouse for remarriage. (...Read more.)

Praise God

God fills me with awe. I feel overwhelmingly thankful today for His love and mercy. I could be a very different person than I am, but he never let me go even when I shoved Him away. I'm thankful for the many blessings God's given me.

I have parents who both work overtime:
Mom does well juggling everything she's involved in. She always has some pressing matter or other to attend to in politics, and she has so much on her mind always. She finds time to teach her children and keep her home together though. She has such a store of wisdom and godly counsel, and she doesn't hesitate to pause in a hectic day to give it to those who seek it, or to minister in some way to someone in need of help.
Dad doesn't see his job as just money. He's always on duty, willing to get up in the middle of the night to go fix a truck that's broken down on the road. Rather than seeing how he can get out of jobs and earn more money while doing less to deserve it, he's always looking for ways to be more efficient, save money, and expand his knowledge. He's slow to get angry.
Mom and Dad recognize love is a commitment, a choice. And they've made that choice. I've never heard them yell at each other, and they're dedicated to raising their children up to be godly men and women.

My little sisters constantly surprise me with little spontaneous outbursts of generosity and thoughtfulness.

Nearly three years ago I became involved in a youth group made up of great teens who want to serve the Lord. The Youth Pastor is full of desire to minister to the kids, and time and again delivers really convicting messages.

For over a year, we've been attending a little church full of wonderful, encouraging people. The church body is like a tight-knit family. In the last few weeks, as I've mentioned my desire to start something for the youth (the men have a bible study, the women have a bible study, but the teens have nothing,) I've found that many of the other kids want to as well as do many parents.

I have faithful friends who have shown me much grace in light of my neglect of our friendships.

I have a well-paying, full-time job a few months of every year. And various babysitting, petsitting, gopher runs, etc. the rest of the year.

I have a beautiful viola and an even more beautiful violin, and I know how to play both, because of four years' teaching by a skilled lady who knows her stuff and how to teach what she knows.

I have many memories of fun times with my two older siblings, who, although they've both moved out, are still nearby.

I have a house with electricity in it, a bed with clean sheets on it, clean water to drink and wash with, an abundance of food, books for pleasure and education, technology for education and pleasure, a car to drive here and there.

Sights, smells, tastes, textures, sounds, that are so pleasing to the senses. They cry out of the wisdom of their Creator. God fashioned so much beauty out of nothing.

I have a new desire to read my Bible in the last couple weeks. Not just a desire to be able to check it off my to-do list, but a desire to read it because of it's content. Praise God! This is such a new and wonderful thing.

I'm just overflowing with praise and thanksgiving tonight. But why shouldn't I be? Actually, it seems to me this should be my usual state of mind.

Altitude Change

Summer of '09, my sister and her then fiance came out to help us with yard/outside work in preparation for their wedding reception.
a bare wall on the outside of the back porch.
I was on a stepladder with a roller, and commented that if I bent down I got a headache, and if I stood up straight I got a headache. (I get headaches from bending over, I guess from the blood draining to my head. And the afternoon sun shone over the roof into my eyes when I stood up straight.)
My now brother-in-law's response:
"it's from the altitude change."
(I was 5'8" then, at age 14)

I was amused. Still am.