Mob Wars

So, I've discovered Mob Wars on Facebook. This game is really fun. Overall, I've spent very little time maintaining it and I'm doing pretty well. I played Knighthood for a while, but that was insane because of the amount of upkeep it required. Mob Wars opens up to new items and properties as you gain levels and build your mob. It can just sit there and make money for you. And I haven't gotten attacked too often, yet. Eventually, you can become a made man. It's fun, you should try it out.

Last night we had dinner with my boss Bryan and his wife Sue. That was incredibly fun. Their kids, Jack and Sully (almost 4 and 19 months) are extremely cute kids. I was really happy that there wasn't any awkwardness or anything during the night. We got the tour of the house and then determined to stay in and order out for dinner. It ended up being a whole lot of laughs and we stayed till almost 11:00. I'm looking forward to doing it again.

We went over to my parent's house tonight and had German Beer Roast and Spaetzle. It was fantastic. We had fun laughing and telling stories at the dinner table too. The funniest thing happened when I came over though--my dad immediately put me to work on his eliptical. I'm kind of tired now. Haha. It was a nice machine and makes me want to work out more. My dad looks incredible. He's going to have abs to show off pretty soon and all I have is a big obstruction between my eyes and my feet. I'm back to feeling uncomfortable again as well. I did so good with Weight Watchers for a while, but I just couldn't keep with it. It ended up being too much work trying to get into the website and enter all my points each day. I'm going to start trying harder to be conscientous though. My health is too important to let go.

Anyway, play Mob Wars, it's fun.

It makes for some good writing

You might be wondering why I'm posting things that seem like they'd take a lot of time and then concluding that I must not be very strapped lately. Well, I guess it's lightened a little, but I'm still pretty busy. Sometimes, too, I like to just relax with a little light reading--like Josephus. So, here're my latest ponderances.

According to the historian Josephus of two thousand years ago (wrote during the reign of Vespasien, Titus, and Domatian), Seth's descendants were "the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars; the one of brick, the other of stone:they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day."

Modern day historians note that the pillars in the land of Siriad, or Seiris, were erected by a Seth (Sesotris) that was king of Egypt and not by the antediluvian (pre-flood) Seth. The general tradition, however, must be founded on something that was passed down, so the coincidence, although strong, might just be that. Maybe there were pillars standing in the Egyptian desert with inscriptions that aided in informing the Egyptian astronomers. Perhaps Sesotris rehabilitated the old pillars or erected new ones on the memory of what was once there. Egypt, after all, is of the most ancient among peoples. This is speculation, of course, and will take much more learning and research before I can say anything with confidence.

So, Seth and his descendants may very well have had ancient wisdom about the heavenly bodies and it is peculiar that, according to Josephus, they were concerned about preserving the knowledge of their "inventions". This seems to allude to the possibility that there might possibly have been inventions that dealt with the heavenly bodies. Perhaps it only means that there were sundials, telescopes, and star maps, but wouldn't it be great if it were space shuttles or star gates? That makes for some good writing.

Lineage of Thought

It's kind of sad that Graham Hancock went on to write such hits as Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization and The Mars Mystery: The Secret Connection Between Earth and the Red Planet since those books relegated him to the fringes of scientific respectability. His book Fingerprints of the Gods, though, is still fascinating and thought provoking.

Hancock believes that the advanced civilization existed and was destroyed by a huge flood, but that its survivors retained remnants of the old technology, architecture, and cartography that was then passed on through the centuries giving rise to things like chronometers, pyramids, and Admiral Piri Reis's map. This theory supposes that the flood was likely more of a local event than a worldwide one, but that the shock of it was probably felt by the rest of the inhabited world. If this flood were local and it only destroyed the advanced, Atlantis-like civilization, then it stands to reason that the earth was likely not that much different looking than it is today--meaning the continents had already separated. Thus, the mapping of Antarctica is made possible by that civilization that met its end and ultimate dispersion.

Dispersion of a different kind occurred in the Bible however and could just as easily explain the drop off of advanced technology. That dispersion took place at the building of the Tower of Babel and is recorded in the book of Genesis, chapter 11. God says, "Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." This effectively began the dispersion God was after.

It is interesting to read the words of God Himself as he admits that "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." This key phrase lets me know that God saw them as being very advanced and potentially great. This was a problem since mankind would inevitably look to himself as the reason for his achievements. Josephus even states that Nimrod sought to turn mankind from God as a means to enrich his vision of himself. His idea of Nimrod was that he championed himself as the revenge for the destruction of their forefathers. His intent was to build a tower so tall that another flood could not consume it.

From this perspective, it seems obvious that men immediately turned from God even after the great flood. They took no heed of God's power and transfixed themselves on their own power as a means to their salvation. It is probably fair to say then, that when God confused their language and scattered them that the memory of God was already perverted and simply remained that way. Memory of the great flood remained, as can be seen in the writings of all the ancients from Europe and Asia to the Americas. Memory of the Zodiac went on with the ancients. Memory of some technologies went along, as well as various other elements that link the resulting great nations that are most remembered in history now. Egypt, the Mayans, the Greeks, the Chinese, etc. became the established children of the first Babylon. Those nations, however great, retained the perverted version of the truth. It was as though the new nations came out of a dark age. Brilliant ideas eventually rose to answer the eternal questions, but none ever hit the truth. This explanation can account for the similarities in history, flood legend, and astronomical understandings while the memory of God became something completely different.

The line of Eber, which eventually became the Hebrews, who eventually came to be known as the Jews were preserved by God supernaturally. They retained the correct knowledge of God and began the long genetic trek to the Messiah. Thus began the history of mankind. Many paths were begun, many legends would develop, and some things that flowed through from prehistory became enigmatic reminders of an age that diffused as confusion set upon it. Perhaps, as we study the Admiral's map, we are seeing a little of what the first Babylonians had drawn in forgotten times.

Inspired by Unknown Achievements

A while back I bought the writings of Josephus. I read a little of it, but put it down to finish the other ten books I was still trying to read at the time. Today I picked it back up.

I've done a lot of thinking over my years about a civilization far advanced for its time that has since been largely forgotten. Much of it started when I spoke with a friend who introduced me to the author Graham Hancock and his book Fingerprints of the Gods. I've since read the book through twice and am always provoked to thought and study because of it. Hancock proposes his own theory about a long lost civilization that could have been Atlantis.

I took his book to indicate the evidence for the flood and the establishment of an advanced people under the leadership of a man named Nimrod. I have a hypothesis that things like the map of Admiral Piri Reis are likely little traces of that first civilization that built the tower to rise above another flood.

The map seems to depict part of the coast of Antarctica, an impossible knowledge during the 16th century when the Turkish Admiral made his map. The Admiral, when he presented his work, made it clear that he'd used some other maps from the library at Constantinople, but didn't mention which maps or their probable antiquity. The map is a little misguided since it runs the coast of South America into the coast of Antarctica, but the general coast line is discernible and lines up well with modern, 20th century knowledge of the real coast line. According to Graham Hancock, the coast line was covered by ice and had been for fifteen thousand years preceding the Admiral's map. This date is calculated according to scientific estimates from contemporary scholars cited in Hancock's work. It can be assumed, for our purposes, that Antarctica probably was not covered in ice at the time of Nimrod and his tower. The implication, if you're still following and haven't fallen asleep, is that the map might well have been based on older maps that were perhaps based on even older maps dating back to a time of great antiquity.

I'm so impressed by this line of thought because it makes for some good fiction, but also because it may indicate that the start of history, where we draw the line between it and prehistory, may have been an emergence from a dark age rather than the beginning of our advancement. The age preceding may have fallen only because of the confusion of languages that occurred with Babel. Before this, the whole world might have been explored and documented. We may never know what heights the tower builders may have reached in the realm of knowledge, but the search is pretty fun.

I love this kind of stuff, but I don't get a lot of opportunity to go down these roads of thought. It's nice to throw off the yoke and delve into it every chance I have. I look forward to the next time, whenever that might be.

Difficulty and Rejuvenation

Today was a rather difficult day, but I made it through. School work is tough. I have to do it to get my degree since it was one of the stipulations in my review from Bryan. He explained that he didn't want to see me end up losing out on any future opportunities because I lack the degree. So, I'm going for my IT degree in Software Engineering with the University of Phoenix.

I managed to keep positive for the majority of the day. I pushed through all of the work for my team, by myself, and then capped it off by almost finishing my work on my individual paper that's due on Monday.

We went to church then and heard Pastor Tom preach. He taught on Galatians 2. I seriously felt like I'd never heard any of what he said before. He spoke about Paul, Titus, and Barnabas going up to Antioch to investigate the Christian Gentile phenomenon and whether it was necessary to induct a Greek follower into the Jewish religion before he or she qualified for Christianity. The current series is called "Vote No on Religion" and focuses on eliminating the religiosity, or works, as a means to gain acceptance by God. Paul sums it up at the end of Galatians 2 by saying "if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

Now, this is a great truth, but there was a great deal more. For instance, Tom spoke about Paul's statement, "I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain." (verse 2 of chapter 2) He explained that Paul really believed what he had been doing was right, but thought it wise to seek counsel as to whether he could be mistaken. Tom informed us that he seeks God's will with great sincerity to know whether he is telling us what is the right thing to do. He mentioned that things he's said have caused people's lives to be completely changed--they've up and moved or something on that kind of large scale. With that kind of power to reach people and affect them, he says it's really important to be sure what he's saying is right.

Without going into more detail, I'll just recommend that you download the sermon or watch it online. It may not be tonight's (it might be Sunday's), but I'm sure he'll still cover many of the same things. He did go over on time, which I'm always grateful for, but probably will not when he does it again tomorrow. I praise God that my Pastor can kindle the flames of my relationship with Jesus so well. I'm continually inspired and rejuvenated each and every time I hear him deliver a message.

Now I'm closing off the night by unwinding through writing. I hope to eventually slide back into writing my Atomorphism story on a more regular basis as well. Time is difficult to come by right now, however, so it may be a little while before I can develop a good system for managing all of this. I'll ask for your prayers on this matter. As it is, I stay up too late so I can get out some of my pent up creativity. The next day I always get up tired. I'd like to correct all this. So pray for me. Thanks.

Back to my blogging slash stress relief

I really enjoy posting on a blog. I've gotten away from it in recent times and have felt a certain level of dissatisfaction with myself. I went back and read a few posts from elder times and it reminded me of what it was like when I posted regularly. Since life is fairly interesting again I've decided to get back into it. I transplanted my blog postings from my new blog (which flopped) to this blog (home sweet home). I'll carry out the rest of my life from here.

Now I'm in a new job as a programmer, which you'll see a lot about in future posts. I'm working on an all new writing project with the working title of Atomorphism; it's a little bit like a Christian Harry Potter, but not really. I'm also working, mostly for fun, on a vampire lore/history/speculative/fictional work; you'll see that peppered throughout my previous posts here. Maggie and I have recently set our sights on moving to Oregon in the next few years. We've purchased a second house with two partners out in Apple Valley and put renters into it. And, I've started on my Bachelor's program with the University of Phoenix.

The school work has got me bound up right now. I recently read in an article somewhere that writing about things important to you (blogging) helps to alleviate stress and promotes a healthier existence. I do seem to remember that posting on my blog was a good way to shed some stress.

See, with my job now I'm working a lot more, so school doesn't come as easily as it did in times past. Now, I happen to work late every once in awhile, I take frequent trips to Phoenix (where I always work late), and my work takes a tremendous amount of brain power. With those factors I'm having a difficult time mustering the mental agility to be able to do school work. It doesn't help that there're learning teams I have to deal with.

As posts progress you'll be able to catch up on my current dealings. I'd love to go on and explain everything that's happened, my various pent up thoughts, and allow for any spur of the writing musings to jump out into the post, but it's late and escape to the comfort of sleep and dreams is calling to me. Watch for future posts.