Blog Reboot

It has been an appalling amount of time since I've posted anything.  The only thing this blog has been good for is collecting spam comments.  And it has been over three years since I had anything substantial to write about other than the occasional SDA clash with good science.  I sort of grew bored with that whole topic.  Not that it has gone away, I just lost my ability to care now that I have the appropriate time and distance from the source of my frustration. 

So, it was a few years ago that I though being a bodybuilder would be a fun thing to try, and I wrote a lot about that experience.  The "iron" part of Iron Soul.  My effort was good for a below average result, and I never really worked up the passion for another attempt to see if I could improve.  The gym rat part of my soul never withered away though. It is just much more fun without the extreme dieting, fake tan and speedos.

Starting last summer I was inspired by my Superstar Wife to try a new way to torture myself.  I faced down fear of swimming and got into the triathlon game.  I did two sprint distance events last summer, that I enjoyed a lot.  Now I'm trying to take it up an notch.  I signed up for the olympic distance at this year's ChelanMan.  

Life and weather have not cooperated in my training so far, but I had a good weekend where I swam a mile on Saturday and did a 25 mile - 4 mile bike/run day on Sunday.  That has given me confidence that I can complete the distance.  Don't know yet if I'll be able to turn in a time that will satisfy me, but so far even the training has been fun.  Looking forward to race day July 16.

Time to Think Again

I'm about to complete my second month as a blogger, and thanks to some advice from ERV and an unfortunate power outage I've improved my blogging technique. Here is a new post composed completely in gmail.

I'd been noticing over the last few weeks how my passion for analyzing the effects of godlessness and religion on my life was fading. Not that my desire to understand the world as it real is was diminished. I still value truth above most anything else. It was just that I'd made my peace with my world view, and most of the people who wanted to discuss my world view were either bored or convinced I was beyond hope. The action on my blog and Lori's MySpace blog had sort of died down. I even took a break from reading science to get caught up on some neglected fantasy novels. Of course I've had a huge back log on my reading list of science and logic stuff I need to understand, should I ever need to defend rational thinking from the many dogmatists in my life.

Now, it looks like it might be time to dust off those critical thinking skills again. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to uncover flaws in facts and logic. I mostly only get inspired to interact with people I know though. I don't have the energy or skills to lurk around blogs just for the sake of an argument.

Anyway, there have been two new developments in the last week.

The first was Lori got a nice long letter from my cousin who is a pastor. He covered a broad spectrum of topics from evolution vs. creation to the problem of evil. I thought his most compelling argument consisted of the Free Will Defense. Basically that an omnipotent, benevolent god is compatible with evil and suffering because god gives us the option to choose for good or bad ourselves. It is also why he is does not give evidence of his existence. Proof of god would defeat free will I had never taken the time to read up on this. Probably why I found it so compelling. There are many weaknesses to the free will defense, but the most concise came from Jim. Basically if Adam and Eve had free will (the ability to reject God) and proof of God's existence (face to face communication). There was more and maybe I'll be able to post some of it later. For right now it is private correspondences and I don't want to make it public without permission.

The second thing that happened was that Lori got a call from someone at church asking her to teach a children's class. I suppose a little background on that is in order. We still go to church on occasion because I'm on the A/V crew. I'd quit but the team is small and it would mean more work for some of my friends. We also have a strong social network going on there and some good friends we like to see. Church as a social club right. Okay, to get back on track, Lori got a call about teaching a class. Up to this point we hadn't really outed ourselves to anyone at church other than our closest friends. People talk so we didn't think it was a secret or anything, but if they are asking for a skeptic or an atheist to teach a children's class maybe not every one knew about us. So Lori ended up explaining her current stance to the church elder on the phone. I'm guessing it is only a matter of time before some people start calling to save our backsliding souls.

Blog Interrupted

I try to post at least something here semi-regularly just in case there are people that actually read what I write. This last week has been a struggle though. I had a my one free evening derailed by a power outage. I'll have to try to resurrect the post that got eaten by the blackout. I think I'll stop using the blogger window for composing my posts as well.

Blogging is Fun

I'm beginning to reconsider . . . maybe I do like blogging. I was wondering how long I would keep this up, but then I started getting comments and feed back from people I respect. My friends have been supportive, and I really like the formality and organization required to put my thoughts in to words. It has helped me become a lot more secure in what I stand for as well. Even better when the occasional blogger leaves you a comment. What a rush to have a stranger you know only by what they have written interact with you and what you have written.

I hope I don't become and attention whore. . . I suppose you do have to be a little narcissistic to want to be a bodybuilder though.

I need to try to get a few more people to visit my page. My last comment said to post comments over on some serious blogs. I think I'm still a little too shy to do that, but I'm working up to it. I think I need to add some more content a well. I had some ideas yesterday on the plane. If I can get over this jet lag, I might actually be able to write something.