Wednesday, April 30, 2008

New favicon.ico file for my web site



Hi all.
For those unfamiliar with favicons, they are the little graphic images before the URL text in the address box of an internet browser. I created one some years ago, working pixel by pixel. The result wasn't too bad for my limited abilities, but the past few days I took a little time to improve the image. I also scaled it down from 35 pixels wide to the 32 pixel size that is commonly used for favicons. Compare the two images above. The biggest changes are to the handlebars and below (including my legs), my hair color, and the glasses on my face. I also changed the shape of my head and hair a little bit and removed the black border box surrounding the image. These images are stretched 200% to make them easier to see (favicons are tiny little images; they have to be in order to fit in the address bar of the browser).

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Spring Cleaning

I've been busy doing Spring Cleaning lately. Once the springs are clean, then I'll start on cleaning the house.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Thank God for Evolution!

I just saw Michael Dowd speak about evolutionary theology at a local church. He is the author of Thank God for Evolution! and other works. I was leery of his ideas at first, but what he said for the most part agrees with what I know to be true.

While walking to the church (a few blocks from my house), I passed an elderly couple who were walking to their church, a fundamentalist evangelical Christian one. The subject of evolution came up, and the old man said it is a lie. He said the final result will be who gets to go to heaven. I said that the Bible teaches God made man from dust and science says much the same thing. My final words to him were to ask if he also believed the earth was flat, because that is what a literal reading of the Bible indicates. I said if you're going to insist on fundamentalism, you might as well go all the way.

I went up to see Michael Dowd after his presentation. I commented that I recognized he was familiar with Alan Watts, since he had used the analogy of people coming out of the universe the same way apples come out of apple trees, one that Alan Watts used in many of his talks. Michael Dowd did not remember where he had heard it, but thanked me for giving him the source. The subject of plagiarism came up, and I mentioned the famous case of George Harrison. I was surprised nobody knew about it, so I explained how My Sweet Lord used the same chords and melody as the Chiffons' He's So Fine.

I waited a bit and then offered to play my evolution song for Mr. Dowd and those standing around. Nobody minded, so I played it. The television reporter asked if I had written it, and I said it was one of hundreds of songs I had written playing guitar while riding a bicycle for tens of thousands of miles. Mr. Dowd expressed surprise at that, and the television reporter assured him that it was true, that he (the reporter) had seen me himself and I had been in the local newspaper.

Later a woman came up and asked Mr. Dowd to explain how free will exists. He said we have a choice to decide which of the many conflicting drives within us we will follow. I mentioned the episode of The Changeling from the original Star Trek television series, where a robot spacecraft absorbed the contents of Lieutenant Uhura's mind and described it as "a mass of conflicting impulses."

I could have stayed longer but it was getting late so I left.