Reject Evolution and Live Longer?

Scientifically, evolution is on its last legs and has become a faith-based institution. So, I'll start from there.

In evolutionary thinking, mankind is evolving from a primitive state to a more advanced state. In Biblical thinking, man is devolving from an advanced state to a more primitive state. History and science support the Biblical view. Languages are more primitive than they used to be. Humans lose an average of 200 base pairs of DNA per generation instead of adding information. Ancient records, including non-Biblical texts, give lifespans in terms of hundreds of years. Etc. However, scientists have been conditioned to think with an evolutionary worldview. What would happen if they ignored the scientific "knowledge" of evolution and looked at the facts as they are?

Some parts of the body never stop growing. One of those is the brow ridge. When evolutionists find a skull with a large brow ridge such as a neanderthal, they immediately assume it's a less-evolved cousin of man, although that's been changing in light of recent discoveries. When a Biblically thinking scientist sees a skull with a large brow ridge, he automatically knows it's a normal human who lived a very long lifespan, hundreds of years.

If, instead of looking at neanderthals etc., as primitive relatives, what if we looked at them as a more advanced form of man from post or even pre-flood times the way the Bible and other records suggest? One of the main differences between people today and the people of the flood era is lifespan. We live a fraction of the time they did. Why? Is the answer in neanderthal or other DNA? I think a very interesting line of research would be to investigate "primitive" DNA to see if we could unlock genetic therapies that would allow modern humans to live hundreds of years just like our ancestors. If the Bible is correct, there's a major discovery waiting for us. We don't have to live these short, brutal lives only to die just as we're finally starting to figure things out.

That's something I think about sometimes. Evolutionary thinking is holding us back. Scientists are trying to unlock the mysteries of anti-aging genes, when the answers are already in plain sight if we would invest in research based on the right worldview. What if you could live to be 900 years old, and closed-minded, evolutionary thinking is the only thing standing in the way?

Who Actually Cares?

I was able to throw the old TV out today. It took a while, but I got it done. I still haven't found a new one that's cheap enough to buy. I can't help but wonder if I'm being too picky. My old one was 120Hz native. Most of the ones I've seen are 120Hz "effective refresh rate", which means they're actually 60Hz and use some kind of processing to simulate 120Hz. Would the processing tricks really work, or are they just a marketing gimmick? I don't know. Maybe I should settle for one of these fake ones and see how it goes. I hate to settle. Maybe I should just wait.

But enough of that. I kind of wanted to talk about people who just don't seem to care. Do you ever feel like no one really cares what you're doing in life or what you're going through? I feel that way a lot. It gets reinforced when I try to have a serious conversation with someone. I don't do that too often, but when I do, it's like I'm not even talking. The other person never seems fazed. I can lay out the thing I'm talking about, and then the other person instantly reaches some sort of conclusion before I can even get all the words out. Proverbs 18:13 He that answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame unto him. That verse, of course, immediately applies to those people. :)

I guess I really only have this problem about spiritual things. There was this one thing several years back that I was trying to get some feedback on with two different people at two different times who didn't even know each other. They both had the same answer, and it didn't have anything at all to do with what I'd said. Satanic word of knowledge, I finally concluded based on their spiritual condition. I think I've blogged about that before.

The feedback I get seems to be based strictly on what the five senses can perceive instead of what God can do. As I've mentioned before, I've been in a terrible desert for a while now. Answers feel few and far between. And when I do get one, it has a tendency to be something other than what I expected. I thought I got one of those kind of answers this week but wasn't completely sure. Yeah, I'm being vague. That's what I have to do when the people I'm talking about could theoretically read this. I don't think they will, but nothing's impossible. If the answer I thought I got was genuinely real, I'll blog about it at some point.

Snap answers make me feel like the other person doesn't really care. No one ever offers to pray for me and see if God gives an insight. It kind of makes me feel like I'm giving God too much credit and putting too much faith in him. Crazy talk. Time to check the other person's spiritual condition. Not that I feel like a spiritual giant. If you read my books, you can tell I try to Biblically ground them. It doesn't mean I'm super spiritual. It just means I'm trying to pay attention.

Anyway. Be careful who you seek advice from about spiritual matters. Even Christian can give incredibly carnal answers.

Marry me, Scully!

I watched the X-Files when it was on TV. I never finished the series and never saw the movie. At some point I just drifted away and quit watching. However, there was an episode that had a funny moment in which Agent Scully demonstrates more than a layman's knowledge of the paranormal things that Agent Mulder is into but she isn't. It runs from about 44 seconds to 64 seconds. I set it to start on time. It had no consequences in the show and was a throwaway scene simply for laughs. If you watch the clip, the line to remember is "Scully,...marry me!"

Fast forward to this week. For a while I've been checking out language learning videos and French TV shows on YouTube. The language learning ones have tips, tricks and advice to make learning a foreign language faster and more enjoyable than mindless memorization. Over time I've seen a lot of things from various people. One of those people is a French woman who has some instructional videos but also other non-French stuff. Last week YouTube recommended one of the non-French ones. The title was kind of interesting, but it wasn't about French. I ignored it. They stopped recommending it.

This week they recommended one of her language videos I haven't seen. It was short. I watched it. After that they recommended the video I'd ignored the other day. I still thought the title was kind of interesting, and it wasn't too long. So, I clicked it. The first three or four minutes were okay but not exactly riveting. She was sort of losing me. I could see her point but couldn't really get on board with what she was saying. I listened to it on the side while I did something else on the computer and ended up hitting pause to go do some laundry instead.

I came back and hit play. English isn't her native language, although she's pretty fluent. I'm not sure what happened, but somewhere along the way she became eloquent, passionate and articulate. I became completely caught up. It was very, very weird. It was like she was suddenly speaking my love language, and there was this marvelous beauty about her. The video ended, and I sat there in shock not knowing what to think wondering what just happened and trying to make sense of such a strange experience. I don't know how to explain it. I went from feeling like not finishing the video to knowing with the deepest certainty within my soul I could spend my life with this woman and be happy. No doubts. I just knew. It flooded my soul. It was exhilarating, even euphoric. Epiphany. Whiplash.

I was sitting there trying to organize my thoughts when the thought popped into my head, "Marry me, Scully!" It was so funny. I didn't remember the line correctly, but I thought of that scene, a life imitates art kind of moment. It was definitely the high point of the week. It still makes me smile. C'est la vie.

That was the good news. The bad news is that my TV died first thing this week. There was a storm that seemed no worse than the others we have here, but after it was over the TV was completely dead with nary a sign of life a'tall. I had it on a surge protector, and it still died. Remember last week when I wasn't sure whether to send that cell phone I bought back or try to hang onto it until I could move? I sent it back! Ugh. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I guess I need a new one. And I still need a new cell phone.

I kind of don't miss the TV, but I can't watch French or Hebrew DVDs without it. And no, I still don't have a multi-region DVD player or any region 2 DVDs. Losing the TV isn't the end of the world. It's just a hindrance on top of all the other ones. I wish things would go my way more.

I could always use prayer. I'm praying about that French woman. The whole thing makes me scratch my head. It would seem like an impossible thing, but I can't say impossible. Extremely unlikely? I don't know what to think of it. The experience was more emotional than I've let on. The impossibility of it makes me think of God. Hmm, is God telling me something? Or should I just laugh it off? It was too odd to ignore, but I don't know.

Not So Fast

I bet if somebody used a drill to remove some screws from a board and then, five or ten minute later, used the same drill to drill a hole without changing the reverse setting, it would probably feel very weird. It would still drill the hole even in reverse. It would just feel unusual and strange and make someone wonder why the drill felt so weird. You wouldn't do that yourself, of course. Somebody else might. Even if you accidentally did that, later on you wouldn't admit it. It would be someone else. Like a friend or acquaintance. Have I told you what my friend did with his drill?

Last week I mentioned my new cell phone. I was excited about it, since it's the best phone I've ever had. It's usually $449, but Amazon put it on sale for $189. That was too good to pass up. I'd been looking for a decent cell phone for a while.

Alas, the other shoe dropped. I got the phone and tried to activate it but had some trouble. I didn't think much of it. It can take a while to port a phone number between carriers, which is what I was doing. To be on the safe side, I called tech support. At one point I had to go out in the yard to make sure I had the best signal. Bingo! It finally worked. Yay! I went back inside to verify it. They made sure I still had a signal. I had two bars. That's not great, but it's perfectly fine for me. It would turn out those two bars were deceptive. Woe is me. I basically have no service indoors. Occasionally, I'll get a bar or two, but as soon as I swipe the unlock screen, they go away.

The new phone I bought is GSM. My old phone is CDMA. GSM used to work here. Apparently, enough trees have matured since then to interfere with the signal. It probably would work in the winter. I bought a dirt cheap piece of junk phone and swapped the SIM card to test if maybe the new phone was the problem and not the signal strength. It's definitely the signal.

Now the number I've had for years is on a carrier I can't use at home. The options aren't good. I can return the phone. However, if I still wanted to have Amazon prime, I'd have to re-purchase it, which would leave me $100 to buy a new phone. I would have to port to a CDMA carrier to use it. It appears that I can't just buy any CDMA phone. It might have to be one that's already been used on a network for six months. I don't want a used phone. Another option is to buy a signal booster that I would have to get permission from AT&T to use. However, I'm on one of their MVNOs. I don't know if they would grant permission. That would be an added expense.

I could keep the phone until I move. I kind of expect to do that in a year or two possibly. For a phone better than an iPhone, I wouldn't mind a short wait. Of course, moving depends on factors outside my control right now.
I could eat the $100 and give the phone to my niece as a present. Best uncle ever!
I almost title this post Rage Against the Machine. There aren't any good options.

In other news look what I found! Alice ua Pays des Merveilles. I used to watch that on CBC out of Canada in the old days when I was trying to learn French. Now that I'm back at it, I thought of it. It's a cartoon, but you have to start with simple things. Besides, I like the theme song. lol It's on YouTube, but I might eventually buy it. There's more bad news, of course. I don't have a multi-region DVD player. And if I was going to buy one, I may as well buy a Blu Ray/DVD player combo, right? I guess. I generally don't watch secular movies and haven't needed a Blu Ray player. The only reason I'd "need" one would be for French and Hebrew content. Why do they have to have separate regions for this stuff? Rage against the machine!

And that brings me to some good news. Over a number of days, I spent hours at www.amazon.fr looking for something like a cheap tv series that I could buy on DVD. I saw a ton of American shows. It took me a while to figure out that what I really need to do is find some shows I like at amazon.com that are dubbed in French. :)

I have until the end of the month to return the phone. We'll see.

Waterside Bargain Hunt

I finally got a new cell phone. After my Samsung started draining the battery in less than a day even with a new battery, I picked up a $20 refurbished LG to get by on. It was better than the broken one but couldn't hold a good signal. If I had three bars showing before making a call, it would drop to 1 bar or zero bars when the call went through. The "qwerty" keyboard wasn't a true qwerty layout, making it extremely difficult to type on. I looked at many phones, but the good ones were too expensive. I found a decent one for $249, but that's a lot for a phone and I'm not rich. I prayed about it of course.

Finally, Amazon put their Amazon Fire Phone on sale for $189. The timing was right. It came with a "free" year of Amazon prime right as my $79 promo year was about to expire. I ordered it. I'm still waiting on the SIM card I also ordered to get here to see if it'll work out. I may have to send it back if the battery isn't good enough. I'm already concerned about how fast it drains, but that may be because it's searching for service that's not there yet or because it takes a few days to get the cache organized. One of the best features is Gorilla Glass 3. No more screen protectors! 13MP camera with flash. Big screen. 2GB of memory with 32GB of storage. Can you tell I've never had a really super cell phone before? :)

Anyway, a couple of shows I like are Beachfront Bargain Hunt and Lakefront Bargain Hunt. They're in the vein of House Hunters except on the water. I record them and usually watch them during breakfast. The general concept is a couple is looking for a house right on the water at a bargain basement price. Instead of a million dollars, they want to pay something like $200-350K or whatever. It's different from couple to couple. They sit down with a real estate agent and go over a list of requirements. The agent then shows them 3 or 4 houses(or apartment/condo/townhouse), and they pick one. I'd love to live on a lake or overlooking some water, so I like to watch and dream.

I like seeing the houses and the locations. Some of them are quite nice. However, I've noticed something that gets on my nerves. When the couple goes over the list of requirements, they usually have something that's not negotiable, such as the price or proximity to town or being on the water. When the agent shows them around, he or she always takes them to properties that don't match the non-negotiable item(s). A house that's over budget, a house with too few bedrooms, a house that's not on the water(the main premise of the show!), a house that's not in the target location, etc. As a viewer, it puts me under stress. I immediately want to fire the agent. However, most of the buyers choose the property that lacks the one critical item on their list. For example, on the Lakefront Bargain Hunt I watched today, the man with a boat picked the house that had no boat dock or lake access.

A while back there was a scandal surrounding House Hunters. A woman who was on the show revealed that in order to be allowed on the show the buyer has to already be under contract for a property. The rigamarole with looking at houses is fabricated solely for the show. The outcome is predetermined. I wonder if these waterfront shows are the same. Going against the critical feature creates tension in the viewer during the show. Denying the character what he or she wants is a technique used in fiction. It holds tension for the duration of the show. However, it denies the viewer a payoff. When the buyer fails to get the right house, I find it to be a letdown. After seeing so many people ignore the house that's under budget and has everything they want to pick one that's over budge and is lacking, I find myself not caring which house they get. But I still watch it. :)