ETC: Everyday Thoughts Collected - Latest Comments

Re: Disqus Acting Up

giannii — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:59:31 -0000

Randy,

(laughing at self) You're right, I think it's that time in the day when I need a cup of caffeine. Sorry about that it has been a long day for me. *shrug*

I never did get that error log. =/ Have you changed anything on your site recently? Updated a plugin? Installed a new plugin? I'm not seeing the duplication on our end.

I was asking for your export do I can see the duplication and if anything has changed.

Giannii
DISQUS
Community Manager
help@disqus.com
http://twitter.com/disqus

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:56:37 -0000

RaLph - I just don't know that I can do that. You have at it though. I have heard cokes being referred to as a "cold drink" as in "you wanna' col'drink?" before.

In Florida we don't have auto inspections :).

Re: Disqus Acting Up

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:48:36 -0000

Actually it says, "Right now the MJ post on his becoming a Christian says it has 139 comments on the “Home” blog page but the actual page itself has 28." I can now kind of see where you got that but that isn't the point. I don't have an error log and I have emailed you screen captures I thought adequately exposed the problem. Disqus has some sort of synching problem creating multiple copies of one comment OR a cookie problem that just hold all the comments and republishes each one every time a new comment comes along. That's my guess.

Exporting my comments is a LOT of comments and I don't know what that would show you that I haven't already explained in those screen captures.

I don't want to be a pain in the ass and I certainly don't want you to think I hate disqus. I love it... I just don't want my WP database bloated with an ever increasing amount of comments that are dozens of copies of just one comment.

Re: Disqus Acting Up

giannii — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:38:56 -0000

Above it says "Christian says it has 139 comments on the “Home” blog page but the actual page itself has 28.".

Have you installed any new plugins recently?

Can you email me your error log and an export of your database to help@disqus.com.

http://wiki.disqus.net/ExportWordpressComments

Giannii
DISQUS
Community Manager
help@disqus.com
http://twitter.com/disqus

Re: Disqus Acting Up

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:32:30 -0000

I am the one catching the discrepency. Not sure how you got that "Christian" was catching it. I am using Firefox. Now the home page matches the disqus count but if you look in my sidebar it shows that the "Michael Jackson Became a Christian Before Dying" post now has 168 comments. And there is literally 168 comments sitting in my comment Database within wordpress ... and I am not putting them there and neither are my users. They are the 28 comments randomly duplicated, triplicated and multiple times duplicated.

Re: Disqus Acting Up

giannii — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:35:28 -0000

Hey Randy,

I only see 28 comments on that post from home. Would you kindly ask Christian send me a screenshot and which browser he is using to help@disqus.com.

Cheers,

Giannii
DISQUS
Community Manager
help@disqus.com
http://twitter.com/disqus

Re: Mainline Denominations & Evangelicals Unite for Counter-Cultural Conference on Homosexuality

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:22:03 -0000

Call the main office and they can explain the different options.

Re: Mainline Denominations & Evangelicals Unite for Counter-Cultural Conference on Homosexuality

Diane5 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:18:53 -0000

I would like to go, is there a way to pay just for a day session? The whole conference would be too expensive.

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

RaLph — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:42:11 -0000

Thanks! That's their order of birth too. Poor Laura. Middle child and too much like her dad.

I am still trying to get hold of some left over coffee here at work to mix with my diet soda (Diet Coke). Ah! Found some and it worked as advertised. Coffe+Diet Coke+Sweet'n Low=Foamy Head (Shasta Root Beer)

Regarding the map. If you select a specific state it shows survey numbers from the different counties categorized into Pop, Coke, Soda or Other. I was wondering why Orleans Parish (County) had a survey number of 113 for Coke to 104 Other. There are 2 engineers here at work who grew up in New Orleans and they said that one segment of the population refers to sodas as "cold drinks". One of the engineers actually started using that term. He also calls an automobile inspection sticker a "Brake Tag". What is an automobile inspection called in other places?

Cold drinks? My stash of Diet Cokes are consumed at room temperature.

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

BTCarolus — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:34:21 -0000

Oh, ok. I will be encouraged then. Sorry you can't bring up the maps, they look really cool. The second one is especially interesting because it shows that the places where 'soda' is most prominent are: the entire region of New York and New England, California, and then small-ish areas centered around St. Louis and Chicago. I wonder if that's because major cities draw people from all over, and they wind up standardizing to one thing [which is soda because soda is what's heard most often on tv]?

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:01:46 -0000

Well, I can't honestly get them to pull up at the moment but I was genuinely trying to encourage you.

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:00:21 -0000

OH and I love that your pseudonym is derived that way :).

Re: Are Gay Christians Really Saved?

twitter-31788404 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:07:49 -0000

Hello Peter;

Quick or not so quick, I like it either way.

1) Whether you take Adam and Eve as literal or not the reality is God still created man in His own image. The Catholic Faith does believe in the creation of all things through Jesus Christ it is clearly expressed in their catechism under girded by the appropriate scriptural references, such as Col 1:16, etc. What Catholics will say is that Creationism and evolution do not necessarily contradict each other. That does not mean that they fully subscribe and endorse evolution but they will not categorically refuse it. They are open to that evolutionary process to being able to fit into the reality that God create or "formed" man out of "dust from the ground." That could possibly explain the physical body but does not do anything for the soulish and spiritual part of the body. When it attempts to do this evolution becomes a theology and not science.

I do agree with you that the relationship between Adam and Eve does not in and of itself automatically say that sexual same sex relationships are sinful. It does show that sexual opposite sex lifetime relationships are set up by God Himself. So the question still is, are sexual same sex relationships sinful? You still have to interpret that through the fullness of scripture and again the only sanctified place that we see the sexual relationship in Scripture is that between male and female as one flesh. We do also see appropriate same sex relationships between family members and friends, like Ruth and Naomi or David and Johnathon. We also see sinful opposite sex sexual relationships. But no where in scripture do we see a sanctified sexual same sex relationship. We do see however the sinful sexual same sex relationships.

2) From your second paragraph it appears that you are making the assumption that it was "White Christians" that have propagated a "stigma" regarding homosexuality. Is that what idea what you are trying to assert here? I do not want to misunderstand you.

It is true that it would be difficult for me to innately know something about myself without any outside influence at all. I see my case and the case of the Black kids that you mention above as apples and oranges. The Black children can be seen always visibly as different. There skin color is always able to be seen. In my case my inner same sex attractions were not seen by others and I did not express them, I just experienced them. I grew up in a time (I'm 49) when homosexuality was not in the forefront of any regular conversation. It wasn't discussed in my elementary schools, high schools, or college for that matter. So it is far more possible for me, because of the time in which I grew up, and my particular settings, to have not had that outside influence prior to my own feelings of knowing it to be something other than OK.

I would also think that if your "argument" for a non biased society creating the self hatred to be true we would see much less of that (self hatred) in Scandinavia. They have had society sanctioned same sex relationships since 1985, over 20 years now. That is long enough for a generation of youth to be in their early 20's and not really known this stigma and self hatred. I have not heard of any studies that are demonstrating that this is the case. Of course I do not follow this daily so perhaps there may be and I've not been exposed to it. I would be happy to read any that you are aware of.

I have never heard of homosexuality being culturally accepted in any society at all. Can you point me to this literature? From what I have been exposed to and what I see today in our Media. Homosexuality is not really accepted by any society which is why such high pressure is being placed on just changing the laws everywhere to accept homosexuality. If there was a society that accepted it as "normal." then I would expect to read about it as a highlighted case demonstrating that and how well it is going. I do not see this anywhere either.

So, with those things said. I welcome your thoughtful reply and would enjoy continuing our discussion. I am finding it a bit challenging to get back quickly as my life is rather full at the moment with my family and church activities. I will do my best to keep current with you.

Re: Are Gay Christians Really Saved?

ShanBam — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:56:48 -0000

Wow, are you comparing a gay person (who loves, by the way), to an unrepentant murderer and bigot???? Your interpretation of that passage is loose and subjective. I have to stop reading right here.

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

BTCarolus — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:24:25 -0000

Does that mean you don't like my maps? :-/

Re: About

Maria L. Madrid — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:10:28 -0000

Thank you very much, Randy. I cherish your prayers for me and for my loved one today. I believe with all my heart that 18+ years of prayers will see its rewards and that one day God's love will win out! God's blessings on your day! Onward Christian soldier! - Maria

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:07:29 -0000

that sounds kinda weird. I will trust you on it.

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:06:28 -0000

absolutely fascinating. Do you feel encouraged by me saying that? :)

Re: About

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:42:26 -0000

That is a very kind thing to say Maria. I really appreciate you and will pray for you and your loved one today.

Re: Michael Jackson Became A Christian Before Dying

Chani — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:28:30 -0000

God is love! Love keeps NO record of wrongs!!! This is awesome news!!

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

RaLph — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:16:20 -0000

I like the map. Since Coca Cola was created in Georgia and migrated across the south, the map makes sense regarding the southerners use of the term Coke.

When I was young ("and they packed me off to school"), most stores that sold sodas had either a horizontal drawer type refrigerator/ice box or a soda fountain. The ones that I remember always had Coca Cola on them.

I commuted to work (75 miles each way) from Monroe, North Louisiana to Vicksburg, Mississippi for several years in the late 80's. In Vicksburg was the old Biedenharn Candy Company building where Coke was originally bottled. The Biedenharns eventually ended up in Monroe.

Randy, Not volatile, but different is adding 1/3 part coffee with 2/3 part diet coke. Add Sweet'n Low and you should get a nice foamy head on top. Try next to a sink just in case there is an overflow of foam.

RaLph (From the names of my children: Rachel, Laura and Joseph)

Re: Michael Jackson Became A Christian Before Dying

Lana Evans-Likumahwa — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:35:58 -0000

Halleluya praise the Lord! If this is true, yes Andre and Sandra have to come out to public and testimony about Michael receiving Jesus, so other people will turn to HIM. May His name be glorified at all times. Blessins, Lana/S'pore xxxx

Re: About

Maria L. Madrid — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:04:13 -0000

Huge fan of Randy's! Have known about his testimony for years now. Exodus International is dear to my heart. I've been a supporter for 20+ years after finding out that someone whom I loved dearly, struggled with homosexuality. Exodus gave me the support and education I needed to understand what had happened to my beloved as a child. I served the ministry in Seattle, WA for years when B. Davies was leading it. I still pray that one day my loved one will be reconciled to his loving Heavenly Father who waits for him with open arms. I pray for Exodus and its mission constantly and rejoice for everyone who meets its staff and hears the magnificence of God through their personal stories full of victory and triumph in God Almighty!

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

BTCarolus — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:42:44 -0000

http://popvssoda.com:2998/ Nope, there's a very pronounced distribution.

Actually, this map is even better http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-cou...

Re: An Explosion In The Kitchen Of Mentos Proportion

RThomasETC — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:34:14 -0000

I think everyone said coke at first because it was the only game in town for a while ... Right?