Photo out of context

Anybody have any idea what these are?

Sometimes I forget where I find some of the stuff I find. These little guys don’t even look real.

These are so cute, but I don’t know what the are.

Wasted prayers

Via Reddit

Search engine term of the day

“okyne media lab”

I’m getting tons of hits off the search engine term above. This is sweet Schadenfreude, because of a review I wrote here.

If you’re thinking about hiring these guys, don’t. Drop me a line for more info.

Stephen Hawking on Religion: ‘Science Will Win Because it Works’

Do yourself a favor and watch this video. It’s only 4 minutes.

Via Atheist Media

The Naked Pastor’s daughter writes about belief

The Naked Pastor David Hayward had a guest blogger featured at his blog recently. It was his daughter Casile (pronounced “ka seal”) and she wrote about her family for a school assignment.

Casile Hayward

It’s a sweet and honest view of her thoughts regarding her dad’s retirement from pastorhood and about her own thoughts on church, its follower and belief. You should read it.

Reading her words, I can’t help but think of “The Grapes of Wrath,” how we’re all on a journey together through the good and bad of the world — or this life — and we all bolster each other through with a myriad of different ideas and personalities.

The whole thing is a fine read, but there were two standout parts:

Now I’ve come to realize that there are people in the world who want straight answers. They come to church looking for an instruction manual on what they can and can’t do to get into heaven. They come to church looking for answers on how to live the Christian life. But how can they expect my father to have all these answers for them? Every Christian in the world has questions, doubts and periods of disbelief. Even pastors! Whether they admit it or not is a different story.

Many people would leave the church for these reasons. Which I guess in some ways is a part of life. Not everyone can live by the same feeling towards something and expect the same things. My dad has a blog called nakedpastor.com which, yes, gets a lot of talk about its name. However, if you had any poetic thinking in you, you’d realize it’s saying that he is trying to be open, real and raw, not literally naked. I regularly go to his blog, which has many readers from different faiths, struggling faiths or no faith at all, and read what he posts. Every post is amazing. I could just be saying this because he’s my dad. But you need to witness it to feel it. Whenever I’m feeling angry at my dad, or that he is off and something is wrong and he won’t talk, I go to nakedpastor.com, read his latest post, and automatically understand where his head is at. I guess I’m like him in that sense. I’m better writing out what I’m feeling rather than trying to put it into spoken words.

And her conclusion:

Now my family and I sometimes wake up on Sunday mornings with no church to attend (which hasn’t happened in over 30 years for my mom and dad!) We sit around talking, eating, drinking coffee and sharing what is on our minds and hearts. In a sense I feel thankful. Not for the pain that it took to get here or the hardship that was experienced, but for the outcome of the situation and the smile on my dad’s face. He is truly one of a kind!

There’s a cartoon from Hayward right underneath the post that relates to Casile’s words:

Via Naked Pastor

Maher rants against climate deniers

Via Pharyngula

Greensboro secular groups seeking equality

Friendly Atheist Hemant Mehta has been following a story in Greensboro, North Carolina that I should be more intrigued by, but I haven’t posted about it here yet. I grew up in the neighboring town of High Point. And I spent a lot of time in Greensboro throughout my adolescence.

Mehta has been posting about secular groups that have been going to city council meetings to protest the Greensboro mayor Bill Knight’s decision to continue having prayer before city council meetings. He has also said that non-believers of any ilk are somehow less American.

Doesn’t kvetching about what is and what’s not American seem to be the adult cut down of the times? In preschool it was my daddy could beat up your daddy. In elementary school I know you are but what am I. In middle school, yo mamma. In adulthood, you’re not American enough jokes. At least when you’re elderly, you have to mumble through a mouth full of gums.

What a joke.

Today Mehta posted for the third time (link), including a video of a speech by resident Heather Spealman. The other two posts can be found here and here.

Unfortunately, I can’t really provide much more information about Greensboro, as I haven’t lived nearby in 15 years. I have a couple of readers that might be able to give a little feedback on the situation.

In any case, here’s the speech Mehta posted today (below).

Otherwise, go check out the story and I’ll forward the story as he follows it. I’m lazy like that. Well not like this. But like that.

Billiards photo crop question

Yesterday I posted a couple shots to my facebook account.  A friend told me that I should crop one photo differently.

This is the photo I posted (click to enlarge a little). Underneath is the suggested crop. Without any other details about the guy who said it, what do you think?

And yes, I’m talking to you, person who reads this blog and NEVER says diddly.

Search engine term of the morning

“not in my pants if you dont like jesus”