So apparently AT&T has decided that I am close to getting charged $10 for another gig of bandwidth, having used 2.9 gig so far this month. I've already been charged $10 for going over 2 gig so that would make my monthly usage $45. I talked to a rep and he said that even though my billing cycle ends on the 3rd they won't roll over the next gig to be purchased to the next month. So I have turned off the data network on my phone to avoid going over 100MB usage and their price gouging. I have to keep it off until the 3rd to save $10. Let's see if I don't go into some kind of cold turkey convulsions. I will miss all of the data features. There is something about watching streaming movies on your phone, listening to streaming radio stations and watching all of the cameras gaurding my house.

So I was thinking about the whole hotspot thing to make up for it. Sprint and Verizon offer them but there are data limits on that and it is $60 a month. Then I found Clear 4G, which Best Buy sells. They give you a personal wifi hotspot for $43 a month for unlimited data. But because you have to have a data plan with the iPhone you have to get the minimum iPhone plan at $15 for 200MB. That would mean that you end up paying $58 for truly unlimited data. Now we have unlimited text messages and that doesn't count towards the data plan. I wonder if I could create an app that routes all internet traffic on the text message spectrum. Eh, sounds complicated.

But I was thinking, say you pay for home internet access at like $30-60 a month plus your phone data plan. If you had a wifi hotspot only you could get rid of your home internet service and it would be cost effective with more versatility. However, since I have servers at home that wouldn't work, but for the everyday user it would work. The real issue is why don't they have wifi at work? That would solve so many problems. Oh well, time to check in to Internet Addicts Anonymous. I wonder if they have a website?

Today's post is about Christian behavior. For those non evangelical Christians just skip it cause you won't understand. Lately Holly and I have been doing a couples Bible study on Tuesday night. It feels good to get back into the Word and to keep on learning. It has sparked a remembrance and I have learned of a spiritual gift that I have. The gift of knowledge. Not of wisdom but of knowledge. I used that gift back in the day when I would deliver a message to the homeless. God would show me passages in the Bible and tie them all together for me. I could always see the scarlet thread that is throughout the Bible. This scarlet thread is where Jesus is mentioned by analogy or prophecy hundreds of times. When I gave messages to the homeless God brought them hope through the words I spoke. I could see that bright as day.

So I have been thinking about ways to use this gift in my current state. The gift of knowledge is just the knowing of the Word in deep and it is given supernaturally. When someone has a spiritual question to me I can get at the answer without thinking. I just know. There is alot of stuff I know about current society and knowledge. The thing is, it is abundantly clear there is so much deception in the churches of today it stands out as bright as day to me and is kind of sad. I started writing a book on it a year ago. It is slow going but I think it will help all of us understand God's will more. However, I do not know what will become of it, but I just feel like this knowledge needs to be known by others. You never know. I have faith that what comes of it will be by design.

Anyways, so I am not sure about how to use my gift. I am sure I have been using it for myself. I can tell you that change is in the air, good change. For a while I had some resentment towards God about my business. I questioned why I went through all of it and the only answer I came up with was humility because pride was my weakness I learned that pride could destroy a man and lead him astray. So in due course of time I grew in knowledge of what was happening and why. Now I am ready to come back and do a ministry. But I now want to use my gift to further God's kingdom. If that is in teaching a Bible study I do not know. If it is in some seminary classes that may be possible. We shall see. Anyways it is exciting to have Christian renewal. It is always fun to get back to it all. Peace to all.

Let's see. I talked to my sister last night, we are going to accept an offer on the house. They are taking the week off to remodel both of the kitchens in their houses. They are remodeling the old one to get it to sell and the new one they are redoing the entire kitchen, even removing walls. Of course they have contractors helping. I'd like to see the place when it is finished. Considering she is a doctor and he is a cofounder of a company they are pretty well off. I often think it is weird that success has followed the Bass family through hundreds of years. I think maybe someone back in time must have done alot of good deeds or something. Is it odds? Is it luck? Is it genetics? Is it a blessing on our family? It is probably a combination of things. I consider it all a blessing.

The biggest blessing of course is family. Brennon is continuing his development of a personality. That is so cool. When he was born he didn't do much - eat sleep and poop. Now he is communicating and responding to us. When I walk in the room he lights up and smiles. I can get him to laugh. I like to play with him and show him my iPhone, which he loves to touch. I will get on the floor and he will crawl all over me and pull himself up. I think I might be having as much fun as he is. He is still waking up at night. Sometimes I will be awake, most of the time Holly will get up since I sleep through everything. Luckily Holly is off for the summer so she is spending alot of time with him. I can see it will be hard to go back to work.

Holly has developed a routine to wake me up. In the morning she will hand Brennon off to me and go walk Princess. This forces me to be conscious. The other day Brennon started saying "go.go.go.go". That is what I have the house speak to me when it runs my morning routine. I think he is also learning speach from the house, which we have named Jeeves. It compliments us every half and hour - like "you look good today" and "you are pleasant to be around." Of course it is all in an English accent. It makes me wonder if Brennon is going to grow up with an English accent. Having one is cool. Although explaining where he got it will be interesting. More tests.

Quick update. I am always busy. Relaxed a little this weekend. Stayed upstairs mostly as our master bedroom is hot because the first floor air conditioner broke. They should be coming today to fix it. In other news we may have an offer on the house. However, I doubt it. It is someone trying to lowball us and I have seen it before on our old house. I think it is an actual technique where someone puts 3 low offers on houses and hopes one person takes it. It is pretty unethical, but I think that is what is happening here. We shall see. I'll be glad to get rif of it when it happens though.For now we must play the game.

So what is going on with the Bass household? I would like to thank Obama for buying me an island - a kitchen island. So we got our movemonup credit and thought what better way to spend it than to upgrade the house's kitchen. Thanks to everyone. Really, I don't know why we did it, probably because I was accosted at home depot, but the contract is signed. I would actually like to stop payment on it and cancel after having some buyers remorse, but I don't think that is possible. At least it will increase the value of our house. So we now have a home depot contractor coming in to build us a kitchen island and put a fence around our patio to prevent Brennon from getting into the pool area. As a result our tax credit is going to a contractor and going to Home Depot. In turn the Home Depot workers will get paid and the granite and wood industry will have less supply. We are helping the economy.

I think Reagan had it wrong. It shouldn't be trickle down economics, it should be trickle all around. We are helping our country by spreading its wealth. The corporations and rich are not to be trusted to spread the wealth. I think this latest recession has proved that. Or maybe no wealth should be spread and everyone should keep what is theirs and let those suffering do so. Nah, that's not that Christian, but it is republican. It is weird but sometimes I think democrats are more Christian than republicans. They want the government to feed the poor, accept foreigners into the land, provide social services to those in need and heal the masses for free. Didn't Jesus do that? It is hard to find fault in that, but yet it is done everyday because of the love of money. I think the cause of this so called socialism that is being talked about is really the lack of social responsibility from everyone. If we cared for the poor would the government have to? If we healed those who needed it who couldn't afford it would the government have to? If we helped out New Orleans and the beaches near the oil spill ourselves would the government have to? The government is doing this stuff because we are failing to do what is our responsibility. I am all for us keeping our money. But, if we are all selfish what will become of our society? A true republican is one that does a civic duty for the betterment of man and one who needs no government intervention. Unfortunately, most don't have any civic duty anymore. And that is why we are where we are.

Anyways, on to lighter things. Brennon is growing strong. He is a squirmer and can pull himself up and hold on to one hand and move. Any day now he will be walking. He is infatuted with a large purple dinosaur called Barney. I think it is a rouse to get us all to love him, simply because he loves us. Yes, he loves us. Brennon's words are four now. The first was Da Da. The second was Ma Ma. The third was Dog. And now the fourth is Teeth. He says this as he touches my teeth. He has made the association. He is also on the fast track to becoming a dentist.

I don't know what to think about Brennon's future dental career. I suppose I am ok with it as long as he is happy. I do know that being a dentist is a pretty hard life. Everyone hates you and I think the suicide rate is high among dentists. I know, I am being an anti-dentite. I should take a politically correct class or something. Dentists are people too. If we prick them do they not bleed? I know I do when they cut my teeth, even though it has been a couple of years since I have been to one. Back in the day I had too many root canals to like dentists. But if Brennon becomes a dentist I will change my opinion of them. I do know I am going to stress to him to brush his teeth and floss. From that his desire to become a dentist will be stronger. Maybe he will join Rudolph and go on a misfit adventure together. Or maybe not.

So what are my thoughts? I am not sure. RideSearch is actually picking up - I am getting close to 20 people a day signing up now. I have over 13,100 members. The problem is I have pretty much washed my hands of RideSearch. So it is like I have a site that is growing but I don't want to do any work for it. What do I mean? I haven't posted a blog post or sent out a monthly newsletter in over a year. Take my recent conversations with a marketing guy from NewEgg.com. He wanted to provide car decals to carpooling members so that they would get paid to promote the site. I entertained it for a couple of weeks, but I never followed up because that would mean I would have to do work for it. I even found a site that would get RideSearch an iPhone app for like $200. There are always opportunities for business with this site. It is a good idea, I just got tired of it though. So now I am thinking, what if I gave someone 5% commission to sell my site? Its future value could be worth millions. But I think the hard part is the valuation of it. What if it is the next Facebook? Who knows? I will give whomever sells the site 5% commission as long as I approve of the sale.

Anyways, I think the reason why more people are coming to the site is because of the oil spills. People are seeing the environment being affected negatively and are willing to carpool to save money. Or because of the bad economy people are needing a ride to work to save money. That is one of the many reasons why I am interested in a Nissan Leaf. I think we all can see that electric cars are the future. They have to be. While the 20th century was the heyday of the gas powered car, the 21st century will be the heyday of the electric powered car. Just wait till they start driving themselves. In 20 years gasoline powered cars will be hard to find. I think the Leaf will be the Model T of our time.

So am I an environmentalist? Yes. I like the environment. We recycle and today we just put in some LED bulbs in the house. That saves money as well. A normal 65W bulb is equal to a 4W LED bulb and those bulbs last 30 years. That is the best part about being a conservationist. Saving money. Even Biblically I think mankind was put in charge of the earth and it is our responsibility to take care of it. The recent global warming trend and environmental disasters relate directly to mankind's sin of not caring for the planet. That is easy to see. I think global warming is all but proven - there is no scientific body that disputes it. The only people who believe that there is no global warming are people who don't research things and only get their news from talk radio, where they are not held accountable for lying. Anyways, those are my thoughts.

Today I shall give a list of some of my favorite iPhone apps aside from already known favorites: Pandora, Evernote, LogMeIn, Tv.com, Joost and Orb Live.

Mog - I am on the three day trial of this service and am really thinking about getting it. Basically you can download as much music you want to your iPhone directly for a monthly fee of $10. If you find yourself downloading more than an album a month from iTunes it is worth it. Plus you can view other peoples playlists, listen to a song by streaming it, listen to their radio stations and have access to over 8 million songs. That is pretty cool.

TuneIn Radio - Out of all of the radio apps out there this one is probably the best. Simply because it has a wide selection of radio stations and you can actually record from the radio station you are listening to.

Atomic Web - I have replaced Safari on my phone with this web browser. It has tabbed browsing, fullscreen mode, the ability to turn off mobile page viewing and has way more settings than Safari.

JotNot Pro - The ultimate in scanning tools. If you ever needed to copy a piece of paper all you need is your iPhone camera. This app will format the image, perform OCR and upload the image to Google Docs, Evernote, Box.Net and even your desktop.

Documents To Go - The ultimate in document creation. This app creates Word, Excel and Powerpoint docs. It enables sharing on Google Docs, Box.Net, Dropbox, iDisk, and SugarSync. I like that I can create a Word doc and put it into Google Docs for later use. It almost replaces having to use Evernote for notes access.

Visible VM - If you have Google Voice then you need Visible VM. It arranges your Google Voice Mail to look like the iPhones voice mail. It will also notify you when you have a new message. It is a little hard to get set up but once you do it is worth it. Google Voice recently called me and let me listen to the person leaving the voicemail and if I wanted to I could interrupt the voice mail and talk directly. That was pretty cool.

Angry Birds - This app is fun. It is a top game where you use a slingshot that holds a bird and have it destroy other birds. It is well written, has good graphics and is easy to play.

Talking Carl - This app is really for kids, but it is humorous. Basically it repeats everything you say in an annoying voice. You get to prod Carl and he yelps when you do. For some reason this makes me laugh. Maybe I am a kid at heart?

This Friday I came home and there was Princess Leia, hair cut with a purple bow and purple bandana. For some reason it looked weird. I had to laugh. Holly and I went to Spring Creek while her mother watched Brennon. Brennon is sleeping through the night again. That is nice. Saturday we had our belated fourth of July party. We had about 12 people there. We went swimming and I grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. Sunday Holly went to teach the 4 year olds at church and I stayed at home and watched Brennon. Then I went to mom's church at 2pm. I ended the day fixing some programming at the house. There is no earthly way a person could do this home automation without programming experience. Maybe if I made some user friendly software I could market it and add it as an operating system to a home panel device. More tests.

So the big tech news is that the folks who got an iPhone will get a free case. I wonder if Best Buy will give me a refund on the case I bought with the phone? That would be nice. Now I have never experienced this whole call drop issue because I got a case when I got the phone. I am still saying this is the best phone I have ever had. The fact that I can control the house, watch movies and do so many things with it makes me know that it is the apps that make this the best.

So the other day as I was installing an English sounding voice for my house I was wondering where all this technology is headed. I figure there is going to be super device come out that's even better than the iPhone. We all can see it, it is just going to take probably 10 years for the super device to come out, but it will. It will have 2 way voice, 2 way camera, 2 way video, 2 way audio, Text to Speech and Speech to Text. It will be able to wirelessly connect to everything - macs, pcs, refrigerators, people via wifi/phone plans and will be able to broadcast facetime to anywhere on the planet. It will have access to all tv stations, movies and photos not only by the cloud but by terrabytes of space that come with it. It will have a GPS locator and will be able to connect to home appliances and a home brain. It will be cheap enough to mount and unmount in every single room and will act as an intercom system connected to all of the super devices in the home. It will act as a home control system, audio and video player, and internet surfing device. It will be able to run apps from all OSs - Android, Appstore, and Windows. This will be the ultimate device.

See, all of this is possible right now. It will just cost alot and there is no company out there that makes it completely. It is all about convergence. That is where it is headed. Maybe I should patent such a device and build it. Eh, I bet it is already in the works by someone. Technology is progressing at a rapid rate. Too bad it is my generation that is doing most of it. I say this because it appears the older generations are not keeping up and the newer generations do not want to learn the basics of how things work. There is a gap. But I bet it will be filled eventually. Maybe... More tests...

So at lunch I am watching Star Wars IV on my phone. I wonder if Obi-Wan really dies? I mean you don't see his body cut in two you just see him disappear as the lightsaber touches him. When he disappears it would only be a flesh wound Vader even steps on the robe as if he wonders where Obi Wan went. Also, I wonder if Han Solo is really a good guy. I mean he just got Leia for the reward money. And when he got his reward money how come he didn't pay back Jabba? He was paid by Jabba to deliver cargo and dropped his shipment in space when he got boarded. He really did owe Jabba some money. He was going to pay off Jabba, but then at the end he helps Luke and then I guess decides to keep the money. What happens to the money? Shame on you Han.

Also, I wonder why Obi Wan calls him Darth when he is fighting him? He should be calling him Anakin or Vader. Darth is just a title, like Darth Sidous or Darth Maul. It's like saying "Doctor, you should not have come back." "I am going to get you doctor." Shouldn't they be on a first or last name basis? Also, I think it is funny how Han calls Leia sister when she is really Lukes sister and Luke is the one kissing her. I think when Episode 4 was made George Lucas had no idea about the plot twists in the other movies.

I wonder if the actor who played Biggs got paid some money when they released the special edition and put his scene back in the movie? He should have cause he did have some speaking roles. He probably felt vindicated when they added his scene 20 years later. Before then no one would believe he was in Star Wars. Also, I wonder about Luke's relationship with Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. I mean Obi Wan dies and Luke is heartbroken, his parents who raised him dies and he is like, "oh good, now I can join the rebellion". I think Luke really didn't like Uncle Owen. He was always afraid of him. Like getting the droids back or there will be hell to pay. Yup. He is the most evil person in the Star Wars Franchise - Uncle Owen. And that is the answer to that trivia question.

Well the economy was completely dead for a while. Now it is picking up as recruiters keep calling. I have no plans to leave as I have a good stable job and I am getting kudos for my work. I think the tech sector is always the first to recover. Probably because of the latest gadgets like the iPhone and iPad. I find it oftly weird how the iPhone 4 is getting a bad rap. In my opinion it is the best phone I have ever had. I guess because I have a case on it I don't experience that connection drop. Who doesn't have a case on their smart phone anyways? I am hoping others will get an iPhone 4. I want to try out this facetime stuff. I can imagine my sister getting it and being able to show mom her grandkids over the phone. That is pretty cool.

My house is now starting to get antsy. Whenever I leave it sends me an email and a text message and calls me to let me know it is thinking about me. I have set it up for Holly too. It is weird hearing the house profess its love for Holly. I set it to compliment us every 30 minutes. I am going to set it up for my friends too. In order to do that I need to give them a code to enter. So ask me what it is and when you come over you can activate it.

Brennon had his 10 month checkup yesterday. His weight is down to 84% from 95%. I think that is good. He doesn't look like a chubby baby. He is more of a muscular one. His development is going well. He says Dada, Mama and dog. I guess he knows who is in his family. He is now able to walk with me holding one hand. I think it is getting close. The doctor said he still has a little water in his ear. He also said he can still hear a murmur. I think that is because of his bicuspid valve. He goes back to the heart doc in September. He recommended childrens claritin for his allergies. Besides that Brennon is still the cutest baby I have ever seen. I just think though that a career in showbusiness would ruin him, so I am going to avoid that. I think I will just let him have fun being a baby. Sounds like a plan.

Hmm, what to talk about today? My knee is doing better thanks to the magic of the hot tub. Last night as I was maxing and relaxing I thought, wow I am glad I have this thing, otherwise I would be hobbling around. For some reason our flowers have bloomed out back. Now we have pink petals floating in the pool. I wonder what it would cost to go fake with the flowers? That would be easier to manage. Of course, I don't deal with the outside plummage. My allergies would get to me. So instead I have a service that cuts my yard and trims the bushes. I am glad of this cause I would not do it.

I always hated mowing the yard anyways. As a teenager it was my job to mow our yard. I now remember sneezing and itching as I did it. Why could I not put 2 and 2 together back then? Now my evil stepdad was a stickler about every week having me mow the yard. Of course he was off his rocker and would go to bed sometimes a 8PM and wake up at midnight and start drinking. During which time if I was still up he would come out in the living room and say "work day". So naturally to appease him I started to mow the lawn at midnight.

I can just imagine the neighbors waking up from their slumber, looking at the clock and hearing a lawn mower in the background. They would be like "whaa?" My mom of course would wake up and come screaming out the door. What are you doing? Robbie said mow, so I am mowing. Stop that this instance. And so that was the end of that. I often let them fight it out as I learned very early to not fight him and just humour him. What a weird youth I did have. Now the only thing that happens at midnight is you can see me relaxing in the hot tub. I think there is a kind of karma in life, where those who go through bad things will eventually go through good things to even things out. I am glad I am now on the good side of things. Life is good.

This weekend we hungout around the house. It was another rainy weekend. I worked on getting the combos set up on the house. I also went to home depot and got some baby gates. Now I just have to install them. Brennon is crawling twice as fast now. You just turn your head and he is 10 feet away. I am baby proofing. Saturday night we took him to Chilis. He did pretty good there.

I also need to Brian proof the house. I think my legs were sore from the treadmill. All my numbers are good except for my stamina, apparently I should be doing 16 minutes instead of 8 minutes. Anyways, on Saturday as I was walking down the stairs my foot came out from under me as I thought I was at the bottom. Instead my knee twisted and I heard it grind as I fell to the ground. As time went on it started getting hot and is very sore. I looked it up and apparently I have sprained my knee. I am now walking like I need a cane. It is sore but not as painful as Sunday. I think I just need to rest it.

Sunday after Sunday School we went to Gazebo burger eith a couple from class, during which Brennon cried alot. Sunday afternoon I visited mom. She is doing good. She talked about her saliditorium speech she gave when she graduated from high school. Apparently it was so good in the newspaper it said "Linda Ripper had a good speech, her mother probably wrote it." I am surprised she remembers that. Now I am on to putting more plugs in the house. I wonder if I can get some foam to put over all of the corners in the house. Is that overkill?

This morning I did not want to get up. I had set my house to wake me up early for my appointment today so it started its routine at 6:30AM. Last night I turned on the emotion chip for my home. I awoke to my home saying this: "I think, I love you". Five minutes later,"You look beautiful today." Five minutes later,"You are so clever." It is rather amusing. I wonder if Holly heard my house profess her love for me? Maybe my house just loves me in a brotherly way. Yeah, thats it. I do know it has an insult mode as well. Should I turn that on too? Although waking up to "You look ugly today" would be weird as well.

Last night I set it for a random compliment every 5 minutes after 7AM, when I am home. The computer uses a bluetooth connection in my iPhone to detect if I am on the premises. If it detects me it will then know I am home. I can also set it up to tie into the door lock for all my friends. For instance I will give all my friends a personalized house code. When you come to the door to unlock it you use this code. Then the house knows you are there, at which point you will get compliments or insults from it, whichever you prefer. I could even have it turn on lights for you when you enter.

I wonder how far I am going to take this smart home stuff? As time goes on touch screen computers and web cams will get cheaper and cheaper. I can envision a panel pc in every room, with an embedded nightvision camera, microphone and speaker intercom system using a gps so it knows what room of the house you are in. Back in the day that was sci-fi. Now it is reality. I don't think about turning on lights in the morning because that is done for me. My computer does the following: lets me sleep to realistic waves, when I wake up it turns on the bedroom light and bathroom light, speaks a voice alarm for 30 minutes encouraging me to get up, speaks the weather forecast, speaks a daily joke, speaks a daily bible verse, speaks the traffic report for my route to work and turns off all of the lights when I am gone. During the day I can get on my phone and check the cameras in the house and turn on and off lights. Then I can activate the lock to let people in if they need it. I can control which music plays in which room - the bedroom, bathroom, living room and pool area. All that is left is for me to call it HAL and have it say "what are you doing Brian, this is highly irregular" when I try to unplug it. As long as I don't remove the humans from the system we should be fine. Maybe I should call it the WOPR. 2 points for the movie references.

Tomorrow I get to go in for my heart stress test. Every year they have me run on a treadmill and sometimes they take a sonogram of my heart. I find it rather interesting and technical, but hard work. Basically I go in and they have me run as fast as I can for as long as I can. Considering I have not been exercising the results should be pretty bad. However, since last year I have lost about 20 pounds so it may not be that bad. My blood pressure has also been normal for years since I am on medicine for it. I am well controlled. I think my heart is just fine. I did quit taking those cholesterol drugs because of the side effects, yet my cholesterol is still normal even after I quit. I think that whole cholesterol thing might not be as understood as we think.

So the question people ask is - why not exericising? Why not dieting? Well, I actually have been dieting, but it is a different way of dieting. It requires a long post as to my methodology but let me put it this way. Since I started on my patent pending "Stasis Diet" I have not gained any weight. I am going to create an iPhone app for it and will release it to the world. It is going to change the way people think about weight loss and I think will make people happy as well. On the surface it is probably the world's easiest diet, but underneath it all there are psychological games being played. The net result is that you are happy with your weight, conscoius of your food decisions and gradually train yourself to stop overeating. All without surgery and rules.

But first on the iPhone app market is a RideSearch app. This time I am actually building it and will release it because I found a simple way to do it. Go to SeattleClouds.com to see how easy it is. Finally I can complete what I started. Of course, my level of caring about the site has decreased, but this week I jumped over 13,000 members. For some reason I had a couple of days where 20 people joined up. I wonder also about adding facebook and twitter integration. That could increase the members rather rapidly. However working on the site could bite into my schedule. I will only do it if it is fun.

Brennon is really starting to slobber now. I think he has more teeth coming in. Sometimes he gets so squirmy it is hard to contain him. He is able to pull himself up and stand. The other day when I was playing guitar in his room he grabbed my legs, proceeded to stand up and grab my guitar. I think he wants to play. That is kind of our routine. I put him to bed when I come home. I take him upstairs, change him, put him in his pjs and play with him. I play with him on the floor then I grab the guitar and entertain him. He of course thinks he's got it figured out. He will grab the fretboard with one hand and grabe the other strings with another. However, strumming eludes him. I think to most kids the idea of strumming is hard to grasp. They are all used to push buttons, even in playing guitar hero. Brennon loves remote controls and iPhones. He likes to push the buttons. That must be in his genes.

Speaking of iPhones I am frustrated with AT&T a little. While my phone is the best ever, my data plan leaves something to be desired. When I came back they gave me 2 Gig a month for $25. Then $10 after that for each gig. My wife however has the unlimited plan for $20. If she were to upgrade her phone she would get to keep her data plan. She does not use it like I do. In just 3 days I racked up 200MB. I am on my way to surpassing the 2 Gig limit. So I call up AT&T and ask them if I can get back on the unlimited plan and they say no. So I try to figure out a way. What if Holly and I switched phone numbers. Then I would get the unlimited data plan on the iPhone 4 but I would have her number. Then I said, "well, what if I set up call forwarding so that it sends calls to my number on her phone to her number on my phone. Then I did the reverse. That way calls would go to the correct place." According to the AT&T rep there would be an endless loop of call forwards. Plus text messages won't be forwarded.

I am sure I can figure this all out. For now I am going to see how much data I use a month. Maybe getting a third phone would work. I take Holly's number and data plan and forward calls to her number to the her phone. Then the new phone takes my number and forwards the calls to my phone. So we would have a phone whose sole purpose is to forward calls. Of course I would still receive her text messages and the new phone would receive my messages. Ack. I wonder if there is such a thing as text forwarding. More tests...

Let's see. I had a good relaxing weekend. On Friday it was date night so Holly and I went to Rafain's. They had a special going on for the 4th. That place is the best Brazilian meat buffet ever. I had a lot of the house special. They call it Picanya. It is really rump roast cooked tenderly with garlic and salt on it. I tried to make it one time and it was pretty good, but it takes like 3 hours to cook. Saturday I hung around the house with Brennon. It was raining all day so we cancelled our 4th of July gathering at our house. I am thinking we will have it in a couple of weeks. I was like, why have a swimming/cookout when it is raining? Saturday night we watched Return of the King with the rifftrax. That is a very long movie. The rifftrax was funny. We didn't finish it and had to watch the rest on Sunday.

On Sunday Holly started teaching the 4 year olds at Sunday School so I actually made it to church and sunday school. Then I went to mom's church with her. So there are all these grey haired ladies and then there is me. Kind of weird, but I sure mom enjoys my prescence. She is going to see an obgyn soon about her bleeding problems. We are hoping it is not endometriosis. It is like a cancer. I am surprised that the doctor has not quickly done stuff. Mom has been like this since December. IMO that is ridiculus, but the fact that he is waiting makes me think there is a low probability.

So on this fourth of July I saw one firecracker. Just one. I heard loud popping in the backyard so I went back there and someone had shot off a roman candle. That was it. Then I could hear black cats. So I got in the hot tub and proceeded to watch for some more. Unfortunately none were up in the air. Of course the baby woke up as well after hearing the popping. Monday I relaxed at home and didn't wake up till 11AM. It is nice to finally have some sleep. I put up our new door lock as well. It is a Schlage Link lock. I have the ability to control it from my phone. That is so cool. I can also issue combinations to friends and have them active at certain times of the day. Holly is starting to decorate the house as well. I think we are here to stay.

Happy Independance Day to one and all! I always liked the 4th of July. To see fireworks and listen to patriotic music. To do the old "oooh" and "aaah" when you see them. I wonder if I will see some this year? Now I am grateful just to have Monday off. So I was wondering, what was my great-great-great grandpa doing during the American Revolution? Most people have no idea. Fortunately I did the family tree back in the day and know.

He was the son of the first Bass in America and his name was Samuel Bass Jr. Samual Bass Jr was born December 29th, 1724 and died Aprl of 1807. That makes him 52 when July 4th happened. He had a son, named Josiah Bass who was born in 1768 when Samuel was 44 years old. Wow, that is a late arrival. Josiah would have been 8 years old when the Revolution happened. He was in it. At 8 years old he was listed as a soldier. He must have been the kid with the drums who marches with the soldiers. They lived in Braintree Massachusets. It was later renamed to Quincy Massachusetts. Apparently that is the place where the Basses and Adams hung out. I imagine Samuel Bass Jr had a role in the war. He was a surveyer of roads and probably helped in the planning of events. He also ran an Inn and had a license to sell liquor. He probably served many a soldier.

Now his son, Josiah, was too young to be involved, but I can imagine he really wanted to be involved. As a result in his later youth that led to what I now call "The Incident". An incedent so nerve wracking that the President of the US was called on to help. On December 9th, 1781 when Josiah was 13, Josiah's mom pleaded with Abigail Adams to write her husband to get her son back from England. Apparently young Josiah had joined an American Privateer ship, called the Essex, and it was captured by England. From the letter written by Abigail Adams:

"Capt. Cathcart, Commander of the Privateer Essex, from Salem, went out on a cruise last April, and was on the 10th of June so unfortunate as to be taken while cruising in the English Channel, and carried to England. The officers were all confined there, but the sailors were sent prisoners to Plymouth jail, twelve of whom were from this town (Quincy), a list of whom I enclose. The friends of these people have received intelligence, by way of an officer who belonged to the Protector, and who escaped from the jail, that in August last they were all alive, but several of them were very destitute of clothing, having taken out few with them, and those for summer — particularly Ned Saville and Job Field, Josiah Bass and Bryant Newcomb."

He was only 13 years old and had lived through the Revolution. Apparently he was a "cabin boy" whatever that is and got caught when he was 12 and was in jail for at least a year. I wonder if Ned, Job and Bryant were all friends. I can just imagine them going to their parents "Dad, Ned and Job are going on the cruise ship this summer. I want to go to. Come on, we want some fun. I am already a war veteran, what's the worst that can happen?" Then all of a sudden they get captured and put in jail. Meanwhile the moms are worried and get together and get John Adams to work out a deal. Apparently they do and young Josiah Bass is sent back to the US. But by now he knows what he wants to do in life. He becomes Captain Josiah Bass. By age 14 he was a Revolutionary War Veteran, a pirate and a prisoner. Wow.

So today I shall think about philosophical differences in the world. The other day Holly and I were watching a show on PBS about an athiest vs creationism and fundamentalism. The whole thing was rather sad. As I watched it I had an answer for why everyone was wrong in their belief systems. Of course the TV can't listen or answer back. It comes down to one fact that cannot be disproved - humanity knows very little about the Bible, God and the universe. From the athiest perspective they claimed that as science found out why things were happening like cell regeneration, the water cycle, the orbits of the planets and sun then the old fallback "because God made it" was becoming minimalized and eventually proved there is no god.

Their idea is that God only fills in the gap of the unknown and once we know how things happen God has nothing to do with it. That scientific equation seeks to turn God into an unknown variable, say X. When you solve the equation for X then X ends up being 0. For instance having a baby in science terms would be: Man + Woman = Baby. In God terms it would be Man + Woman + God = Baby. So to disprove god, science turns the equation into Man + Woman + X = Baby. X = 0. If X is God then God = 0. It is a logical equation but flawed because the premise of the entire system of nature is not taken into account. God is said to be an agent of change and not a maker of the equation, which He is. Why? Because you cannot logically prove a creators non-existence or existence based upon a creation no matter how hard you try. Creation is only circumstantial evidence of God. Therefore disproving creation does not disprove God. If God is above all and we cannot see how He works then we can only see evidence of His works.

Just because we know how the planets revolve around the sun does not mean that God did not make and does not control gravity. The athiests could not disprove God so they sought to disprove that God is a creator of the world. In doing so they come up with a flawed assumption that their knowledge of the universe is greater than the universes creator. So an athiest has to have faith in their own reasoning, something that even Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin would call foolish. So then the question always comes down to faith. But it is not over. There is evidence for God. I have direct evidence. However when I give it that means that someone has to put their faith in me, something I would not want. Instead you must let God reveal himself to you.

On the flipside I also was talking about the flaws in creationism and fundamentalism. Mostly it is because of a lack of understanding of the Bible. The same thing scientists do in proving evolution is the same way a creationist proves creation - by studying the evidence and in some cases twisting and ignoring evidence. However, there is not much evidence for their current interpetation of the Genesis account. That is what makes it so sad. It is like if this were the 15th century they would be people talking about how the Earth is flat and at the center of the universe. Christians need to accept what little we currently know about the universe and accept that no one on Earth knows the answers. Even the word "day" in Hebrew can mean "a long period of time". I would think that a Hebrew bible is more correct than an interpeted Bible. Matter of fact, most words in Hebrew have multiple meanings. That is why there are so many interpetations. As a Christian I chose not to lean on my own understanding, but on the Spirit of God in my heart. That is where the real Word is. And that's all I've got to say about that... for now.