Welcome to ancient SIO history! Please be advised that this is no longer the active location of Set It Off, but rather only a means by which to read the old comments without the painstaking if not completely impossible effort of getting Haloscan comments transferred to Wordpress. Enjoy and check out SIO if you got here via the randomizer button.
Patience
I have once again switched servers, so the link is down temporarily pending the new DNS resolution! We have almost arrived, people. The new link will be:
http://sio.jameswlanning.com/
Please update all bookmarks, page links, and Cool-o-meters accordingly. If it says "coming soon" yet, that means the DNS has not yet resolved, but will shortly (I hope).
http://sio.jameswlanning.com/
Please update all bookmarks, page links, and Cool-o-meters accordingly. If it says "coming soon" yet, that means the DNS has not yet resolved, but will shortly (I hope).
SIO has moved!
Well the domain resolved quickly (it can sometimes take up to 2 days), so SIO has officially moved! Please adjust all your bookmarks, pagelinks, and Cool-o-meters to www.jameswlanning.com. Please keep up to date at your local bookseller for my upcoming title, "I Kissed Blogger and Haloscan Goodbye". Huzzah!
Big Changes Ahead
Just to give you all a heads-up on what's going on, I'm working on porting SIO to a new server and a new format. Why? Mainly because I don't want to have to depend on Blogger for my archives/posting and Haloscan for my comments (hundreds of which have already been lost forever). I was going to be moving this eventually anyway, and I'd like to get this web log into MySQL as soon as possible. As soon as I can get the domain name registered (jameswlanning.com), I will not be posting here any longer. In the meantime I will post some odds and ends, but SIO is in a slightly dormant state until I get the DNS resolved. Smell the excitement!
God vs. Man
Today saw the passing of Pope John Paul II, doubtless one of the domiant global figures of the 20th Century. From what I've read about him, he was a remarkable individual in terms of strength and character, as well as knowledge and piety.
Many in Reformed circles believe the office of the Pope to be *the* Antichrist of the Bible. As I've stated in earlier posts, I do not believe this is true. There are serveral things we can say about it from the Bible, however. It is a position of great idolatry, in that the Pope claims to be inerrant. He is the leader of a theology that worships beings other than God, and believes in salvation by good works. And those are just the most glaring of many ideas and practices that have no basis in Scripture whatsoever.
It's been an ongoing debate in my household if Roman Catholic people are unbelievers, or just christians in great error. I believe many Roman Catholics to be true believers, quite possibly the late Pope as well. My philosophy in this area is one of unity over minutia; if I can find a man with a genuine faith in the saving work of Jesus, I'm not going to cast him out into the darkness for not being a Calvinist. This is part of the balancing act that was mentioned before; and as we all know, balance is the key to life.
Many in Reformed circles believe the office of the Pope to be *the* Antichrist of the Bible. As I've stated in earlier posts, I do not believe this is true. There are serveral things we can say about it from the Bible, however. It is a position of great idolatry, in that the Pope claims to be inerrant. He is the leader of a theology that worships beings other than God, and believes in salvation by good works. And those are just the most glaring of many ideas and practices that have no basis in Scripture whatsoever.
It's been an ongoing debate in my household if Roman Catholic people are unbelievers, or just christians in great error. I believe many Roman Catholics to be true believers, quite possibly the late Pope as well. My philosophy in this area is one of unity over minutia; if I can find a man with a genuine faith in the saving work of Jesus, I'm not going to cast him out into the darkness for not being a Calvinist. This is part of the balancing act that was mentioned before; and as we all know, balance is the key to life.
Moving Forward
Realizing that SIO's former music setup was somewhat ghetto, I am pleased to announce that we have installed a new music player! You no doubt have already noticed it, as it has been placed in a more easily-accessible location on the sidebar. This one uses Flash rather than a raw embedded javascript, so it is not only more universal but way cooler-looking. It also plays continuously, rather than just one song per page load. Some other changes with the new technology: it's not random, so it will whatever is on autoplay first, then proceed down the playlist.
Even better news: I have discovered that I have 500mb of space at my disposal for songs. This means I am now taking requests for the SIO playlist (all requests subject to the minute scrutiny of the SIO Library Control System). Sadly this means we must do away with the Music Randomizer button. It will be missed. In the meantime, enjoy the music, and let's have some requests. If they're good enough, I'll make them autoplay.
Even better news: I have discovered that I have 500mb of space at my disposal for songs. This means I am now taking requests for the SIO playlist (all requests subject to the minute scrutiny of the SIO Library Control System). Sadly this means we must do away with the Music Randomizer button. It will be missed. In the meantime, enjoy the music, and let's have some requests. If they're good enough, I'll make them autoplay.
Journal Excerpts
Thursday, July 1, 2004
Berlin, DEU
"I felt like being a toughguy today and grabbed a piece of bread away from a street pigeon. I felt bad about that. Street pigeons have a rough life." James
Berlin, DEU
"I felt like being a toughguy today and grabbed a piece of bread away from a street pigeon. I felt bad about that. Street pigeons have a rough life." James
Report from Lanning Labs
Many long-time readers of SIO will remember that last september I switched my email service from Hotmail to Google's new service, Gmail (which is still in beta, for some reason). I promised back then to give a report on the service, and I am happy to say that I've used it long enough to offer some insight on the matter.
Now, as I figure it, most of us use email. Probably free email, or email that is somehow related to a website with paid hosting. There are still those AOL types out there, but if you ask me AOL is now a dinosaur. Anyways, for those of you in the free web email scene, Gmail is your best bet. It's fast, clean, simple, and yet complex. Its organizational capability is unmatched. Multiple replies get stacked together as conversations, and your sent email is also included. You don't put email into folders, you put labels on them which you use to sort stuff out. A star can also be put on important mail so it doesn't get lost in the pile. You never have to delete anything because you've got a gigabyte of space (recently Yahoo upgraded their offer from like 2 meg to 1 gig... I wonder why?). The address book is great, and you never actually have to open it because it shows you all the choices you have while you're typing.
So there you have it. Switch now. Oh, and if anybody needs an invite let me know. I have fifty invites to give out, or somesuch. Technology is moving forward. Are you being left behind? Oh, and for those who haven't noticed, I've changed SIO's site tracking service. I'm quite satisfied with the results. On an aesthetic note, this is now 2 posts in the same day. I think that is a record.
Now, as I figure it, most of us use email. Probably free email, or email that is somehow related to a website with paid hosting. There are still those AOL types out there, but if you ask me AOL is now a dinosaur. Anyways, for those of you in the free web email scene, Gmail is your best bet. It's fast, clean, simple, and yet complex. Its organizational capability is unmatched. Multiple replies get stacked together as conversations, and your sent email is also included. You don't put email into folders, you put labels on them which you use to sort stuff out. A star can also be put on important mail so it doesn't get lost in the pile. You never have to delete anything because you've got a gigabyte of space (recently Yahoo upgraded their offer from like 2 meg to 1 gig... I wonder why?). The address book is great, and you never actually have to open it because it shows you all the choices you have while you're typing.
So there you have it. Switch now. Oh, and if anybody needs an invite let me know. I have fifty invites to give out, or somesuch. Technology is moving forward. Are you being left behind? Oh, and for those who haven't noticed, I've changed SIO's site tracking service. I'm quite satisfied with the results. On an aesthetic note, this is now 2 posts in the same day. I think that is a record.
The Ultimate Price
Wounded teen says shooter asked students if they believed in God. What would your answer be? This is what it all really comes down to, folks. There are christians in many parts of the world who face this kind of threat every day.

