Money is hard to come by

So right about now I'm starting to worry about my finances. I have, I don't know, about 20$ on me. Maybe less. It's hard to get around with that little of money, I'm noticing.

But here's the thing: I have plenty of potential money. I mean, I have a car that I'll be selling this weekend, Kelly Blue Book estimates it's value at 1200$. I have a pretty cool cell phone I can sell for about 25 bucks, once this part comes in. I have a laptop that I'm selling for a couple hundred. I could even sell my netbook for a little over a hundred, and with a little work I could sell my other car for about 1000$.

So it's not that I don't have capital, it's that I don't have Federal Reserve Notes. The almighty dollar. And that's where it counts, don't it?

It's not that I'm doing badly, it's just that I don't have 10 million in untraceable dollars sitting around in my bedroom.

Because that's what I want: 10,000,000$

Ten million smackers. Ten million.

I guess if it was in gold bullion I wouldn't complain, but it's hard to buy things with gold. It's hard for me to go out and buy a 12-axis CNC machine with gold.

How on earth do mad scientists get their funding? I'm sure it's through some illegal means, but it's never talked about and I want to find out so I can follow in the steps of the mad.

It is very late.

It's nearly midnight here, and I should be getting in bed so I can enjoy the Sabbath tomorrow. Thankfully I slept in today, so I can stay up for another few hours and be fine. I mean, be mostly fine.

Lately I have been accosted by many troubling situations, mostly by friends who, I found out, no longer consider themselves to be "Christian". These are people who have, at least to my general knowledge, been reasonably active "Christians", and people who I never would have suspected to desert "the faith".

You will notice I put a few choice words in quotation marks, and perhaps you wonder why I did that? I have been thinking, since this happened, about how several of my friends currently attend church, and if pressed would probably say they are "Christian", but in reality I would not be able to tell. What I mean is, I think a disturbingly large percentage of youth presently attending church have not made a conscious decision to believe the need for God's saving sacrifice.

Many times I have even become dissapointed by the lack of commitment shown in the current "youth" of the church, and I wonder why it is that this could happen.

In a large part, I would place the blame on the previous generation, for not raising their children as they ought. I have spoken against public education before, and the more I study the Bible the more strongly I conclude that public education is a sin. Not just "a bad idea" but a sin, and like murder and theft it has far-reaching results. While this may be a conversation for another time, I would place the blame for the failure of this generation on the failure of the previous generation to actively take part in their childrens education.

Bit I digress.

When I see all of these people, and don't know if they are saved or not, it makes me wonder: "Do they know that I am a Christian, or do they just assume?" Must I always say "I am a Christian" when I see people? Certainly I must not be ashamed to say it, but should I say it all the time, just to remind everyone?

These are the things which keep me awake late at night.

That and wondering if I could assemble a Victorian era suit for a reasonable price.

Found: 105 year old letter, very sad.

Today I was trying to clean up my room (nice try) when I found an old Bible that I had picked up at an auction a few years ago. I had decided to throw it away, since the binding is falling apart and it's in such bad shape, but then I decided to see how old it actually was.

The earliest marked date inside is 1894, making the Bible itself at least 115 years old. I couldn't find a printing date on it, so I had to rely on the writings inside to date it.

While flipping through the pages, I found a letter dated February 1, 1904, which I am reproducing as best I can here. It is a sad letter about death: Family members, wishing for it, and more.

The writing is in a difficult cursive, so there are several words I can't make out, my apologies. Additionally, the punctuation, capitalization, and line breaks have been preserved.

Feb 1, 1904
my Dear friend my
heart has been going
out for you ever since
I heard of your little
girl would of liked to saw
her we have had two
such little girls in my
family my oldest brothers
girl and a sisters girl
are lived to be fourteen
and a constant suffer
at the time until death
released her the other are
is living and is 46 years
old she was helped so she
does not suffer but is
cripple and I have heard
her say she did not see
why they did not let her
die when she was little as
long as they knew she had
to be a cripple we carried
her on pillow for year and
half and when she would
??? we would ??? to
now sister what is your
loss is her gain she is
a bright star for your
??? try and be ???
and live to meat hes in
that better world.
I will come and see you
as soon as I can and if
you came to Perkins ever
come and see me
I thank you for the little
dress and I shall always
keep it yours very Lovingly Mrs E P Coats

I can't make out a few of the words, sorry, the cursive was very difficult to read!

When it says "if you ever come to Perkins", I wondered if there was a Perkins, Nebraska? Surprise! I doubt it meant Perkins the Restaraunt.

One strange thing: When I was helping my brother on a house in Ashland, I found a short hand written note with the same exact style of handwriting! The letter formation was systematically the same: I would give the letter formation and stroke pattern an 85-92% similarity. Additionally, the paper was the same type and fiber, although it could have been a common peper back in 1904. When I can, I will see if I can find the Ashland document and do a more thorough comparison.

The letter is rather sad, and on the last page there appears to be a tear spot. From the ink movement I think it was from the person who recieved the letter.

The letter was not addressed to anyone except "my Dear friend", but inside the Bible were the following names:

Charlotte Christine Spurgeon
Family Bible, died Sep 1923
WilliamMadison Spurgeon
died 1906-
Allen Faradome? Spurgeon
died Nov 18 - 1945-
Ca_etti_ Stockton Spurgeon
died Nov 10 - 1947-
Given to Dorothy Ann Johnson
Christmas time Dec 1969
By Myrtle Bentlty [76 yrs old]
after having this Bible in
her preession a number of
years.

That is all.

Edit: Here is a picture.

How things are going

A little update: I have started classes again, this morning I started with a class on ordinary differential equations. It is a real blast so far, I am pretty excited to learn this. Also, a friend's husband is in the same class, so that should be fun.

I have been thinking about yesterday's (Sunday) sermon, where Rodney talked about Ecclesiastes. The first verse says that the book is the "words of the Preacher", which is the normal translation. But Rodney was saying how the word (qoheleth) also means something like "collector of information", which would roughly translate to a modern "scientist". Then he talked about how one could view the whole book as a sort of "white paper", that is, as a scientific analysis of (from 2:3) "what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all their days".

I started rereading the book of Ecclesiastes in this light -- as a sort of research paper -- and it makes a lot more sense to me, of course with a little help noticing some terms from Rodney. So basically, Solomon spent many years of his life doing research, trying to figure out what it was that people were supposed to be doing with their lives. He spends some time on gaining possessions, some on building beautiful architecture, some on developing art, and at all of these things he says he excelled greater than anyone.

But in the end, Solomon grows bitter and despondent over his failed experiment. But notice the two terms "under heaven" and "under the sun". The former is used twice at the beginning of the book, when he tells what his goal is "what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all their days", but all the mentions of "under the sun" have negative connotations. In a word, Solomon was trying this experiment without living his life "under heaven", that is, under God's direction.

Like many scientists of our day, Solomon thought that truth could be gained while completely divorced from anything spiritual. This is simply not the case, and Solomon's failed experiment serves as a lesson to us. Much like all scientific experiments, even if they fail they serve as something that you don't need to do: Someone already tried that, don't bother it won't work.

Solomon tried living life apart from God, and he failed. He grew bitter at his wisdom and wealth, despondent over the fact that it would be inherited by some fool later, bothered that everybody just seems to die in the end.

But in the end, I think Solomon reconciled to God, since at the end he says:

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgement, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.