myJaxon

Going to church once a week does not make a “good Christian/Islamic/Buddhist/etc”. It’s not the weekly trip to a building where you listen to some holy man preach his own interpretation of the sacred text that makes a person a “good Christian/Islamic/Buddhist/etc”. Everything discussed in a church is subjective. There are multiple different variations of Christianity throughout the world using the same basic Holy Bible as a guide, yet each person gets something different from it. What one receives from any passage depends on themselves and what they are going through. I personally don’t believe that the tales of men dead for centuries should be telling me what to do, what to believe, how to act. God gave us free will and that allows us to make our own choices. Choices that may or may not be shared by everyone, but they work with our individual lives. If a person doesn’t have the belief that someone above is watching over them, whether it’s polytheism or monotheism, than what they do on a weekly basis means nothing. I person can have the belief, know that someone is watching over them, then they don’t need someone telling them this on a weekly basis. They already know.

In my humble opinion, it’s the daily actions of each individual that makes for a good “Christian/Islamic/Buddhist/etc”. Even though a person may not go to church on a weekly basis, or at all, but when they see someone drop a $100 bill and hand it back to the person, that is what makes a good Christian/Islamic/Buddhist/etc. It’s the people who spend every day of their lives helping the poor, rallying Congress to pass a better health care bill, protesting against the injustices of the world; these are the people who have the belief and they don’t need the weekly reminders that their is a God.

I may not go to church every week, but when I’m asked, I do go with friends. I plan on making sure that Ian spends some time going to church; and not just one church, but be exposed to all varieties of religion. He needs to be able to make up his own mind and not let others influence him. He needs to know, that even though there are people fighting for their beliefs, that they’re not doing it because someone is telling them to, but because they believe in their cause. Everything begins with the belief, for if no one had ever believed in the impossible, then there wouldn’t be religion.

I know this was random, but for some reason, it popped into my head while I was rocking Ian. It’s not often I get these thoughts, so I felt the need to write it down. Agree with me or not, it’s how I feel and no one can influence me otherwise.

So Jesse and I sat down tonight and designed the new OpenSourceCook site. It’s still pretty raw, but I thought I would put it out there for people to see and give any feedback. Is there anything missing from the layout that should be there? Is there anything you want me to include? Here’s the link to the layout. It’s a PDF file, so you’ll have to download it.

Here’s a brief description of what you’ll find:

1. The first page is the main page. This is where you’ll come when you first go to OSC.
2. The second page is the individual recipe page. You’ll be able to submit variations to the recipes, add any comments, and even submit any images if there isn’t any.
3. The third page is a users page. In order to submit recipes or leave comments, you’ll have to register and there’ll be a section where you can add your favorite recipes and keep a list of recipes you’ve submitted.

So what does everyone think? I’m looking for feedback here people.

I just saw Evan Almighty today and I actually liked it. Even though it’s kind of a sequel to Bruce Almighty , it was good to know that they didn’t try and mimic anything.

This year, I’m going to make some resolutions and I AM going to stick to them. At least I hope so. I really only have one I really want to accomplish, but all of them are important to me. Here they are:

1. Complete any and all book challenges - So far, I’m participating in two challenges. One is to read 50 new authors regardless of genre. The other is a numbers challenge; read 5 books that have a number in them. I have my five picked out, but I may change one. I’m not really sure if it counts as a number because I think I read the title wrong. But for now, it’s on my list. I’ve already started reading the books and I even have a list I’m going to read. I’m also going to review each new book I read, but I won’t put them up here. You’ll find them at Literacy Escapism.
2. Lose a significant amount of weight - I’m not going to say how much because I fluctuate way too much. Needless to say, my goal weight is around 150, so that means I have ALOT of weight to lose. I doubt I would get down that far in a year. Let’s just say that’s going to be a lot to lose and I’m not sure if it would be healthy to do it in a year.
3. Knit a scarf - I bought the yard and some knitting needles last fall. I had my sister show me how to do it, but something didn’t click because I haven’t been able to get past the first two rows. As such, I haven’t done anything with them in awhile. I want to finish the scarf I initially wanted to do. Hopefully, but doing that, I can figure out how to do something spectacular.
4. Give up chocolate - maybe if I can motivate myself to get rid of the main thing that is preventing me from losing weight, I’ll actually be able to do it. I should give up all sweets, but lets be realistic. I’ll have a better chance and succeeding if I start out slow. If I’m successfully giving up chocolate, then I’ll add something else. Either way, this should help me being to lose some of the weight.
5. Get OpenSourceCook.com operational - Jesse went and bought me a domain for my cookbook and we’re going to completely revamp the site for the new URL. Right now, it still has the old design up, but the new one will be shiny. It’s going to have a lot more features and will be more interactive. People who actually use it will be able to leave comments, add their own variations, and even submit recipes. Everything is still in the planning stages (and has been for a couple of months), but I want to get it done.

There you have it. My new year resolutions. Keep your fingers crossed that I’ll actually be able to pull all five of them off.

Happy New Year everyone!