The proper use of apologetics.

Ever read Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell? It’s every high school student’s first introduction to apologetics. Youth pastors love it because whenever someone smart-aleck high school kid has a tough question for them, they can whip out their Josh McDowell and beat him over the head with it. McDowell’s a youth pastor, you know; he had a very practical reason for creating the book.

I like the book. Parts of it are questionable, of course; McDowell’s grasp of Aristotelean logic is shaky in a few parts; he’s awfully fond of the straw man argument, as many Christians are, and for some bizarre reason he quotes a comment by Napoleon Bonaparte more than once about Jesus. He’s pretty sure his big mound of evidence proves that Christianity and Scripture are true, and confronted with this evidence, people should just drop to their knees and accept Jesus as Lord.

Finding a church.

Originally published on my Geocities website “Kent’s Rants.” Technically my first blog post.

I am trying to find a church. I moved to Scotts Valley for school, my home church is all the way back in Vacaville, and Christians are not supposed to go it alone. (That’s how cults start.) So I need a local place of worship.

I realize that, by confessing this, I’ve opened myself up to a lot of emails from well-meaning Christians who think their church is the greatest ever so I should go there. I appreciate the kindness, but there’s no guarantee that I’m going to agree with you once I get to your church. See, I’m looking for a certain thing; one that’s lacking in a lot of Christians, and therefore lacking from a lot of churches. I’m looking for a friendly church.

I haven’t found one yet because I keep going to churches with college students in them. Hang on; I’ll explain this statement soon. But first you should understand that statistically young adults aren’t friendly. They haven’t learned how to be friendly yet. They will someday, when they’re older. But currently they’re growing up, and they’re self-focused and self-centered, and heavily insulated with friends. So instead of being friendly with new people, they’re busy talking with their friends, and I don’t happen to be one of their friends, so I can go to hell for all they care.

Movin’ on up to the east side.

Originally published in Countryside Post, Issue 2.7.

By the time you read this, Countryside Post will have moved across Highway 49 to Lake Center near Lake of the Pines, to the space tucked between Round Table Pizza and Hunan Restaurant. Hence the change of addresses in the newspaper.

Now as to why: Jill likes to describe it as a “total business decision.” That’s probably the most accurate way to put it. The rent is better, the foot-traffic promises to be better, and we expect that if the water pipes should ever explode, the landlord will accept liability.

Sick of the Y2K bug.

Originally published in Countryside Post, Issue 2.6.

Back in 1986, in a moment of idle curiosity, I wanted to see how far in the future I could reset the clock on my high school’s new Macintosh Plus. I discovered a Y2K bug of a different sort—it went as far as 2014 before it dialed back to 1915. I also recall how the computer neither shut down, nor exploded, nor refused to run my programs. I never expected it to act up anyway. Still don’t.

I was reminded of this recently, what with all the silly rumors regarding the Y2K bug, most of them generated by people who don't know squat about computers other than they seem to go berserk in a lot of science fiction movies. This may be why they expect the bug to make every system go FOOM on Jan. 1, 2000—even though less than 2 percent of computer systems are year-sensitive. Date-sensitive, yes: most of your bills are generated by computers that take note of the new month and send bills accordingly. Year-sensitive, no; this is limited to Social Security and other agencies which keep track of people's ages. And Social Security announced they’re Y2K-ready. The worst-case scenario of the Y2K bug is that a few people may get some funny figures on their bills, and THAT’S ALL.

Aw, you’re no fun.

Originally published in Countryside Post, Issue 2.5.

“Hello, you’ve reached Countryside Post. Jill isn’t here and Kent is tired of taking her messages, so if you’re calling for her, leave a message; if you’re calling for him, speak up; if you think this is unprofessional, aw, you’re no fun.” Beep.

That used to be on the Post’s answering machine. We had to take it off. We started getting hang-ups, likely from people who thought it was “unprofessional,” which is a code-word for “not dried up and humor-deprived like me; dangit, business is work!” The headline of this Letter is for them.

To me, a phone call is a request, not a demand, to talk. Don’t confuse the two. Many do, and thus become annoyed—especially when they discover that, at home, I don’t even answer the phone. I put a nutty message on the machine, which drives away all the people I don’t want to talk to. I answer, if I feel like talking, those who have the decency to leave a message.

Thumbs down on reviews.

Originally published in Countryside Post, Issue 2.4.

I’ve had to put off some people who have offered to write reviews for the Post—movie reviews, book reviews; you name it, they want to write what they think of it, and I don’t want to print it.

I don’t care for reviews. I find most of them useless; the only way I can tell whether I’d like a book or movie is by watching it. Few have the same criteria for picking entertainment anyway. We’re all entertained by different things. The only use for reviewers I have is that they tell me what something’s about, and I can get that from the advertisements.

That aside, the reason the Post doesn’t do reviews is that the Post covers local stuff, and most reviews are not of local things. The Prince of Egypt, fr’instance, is a nationally-distributed movie and is therefore not local; besides, it’s been out a month, and if you haven’t seen it by now, you’re waiting for the video.

Deadlines and Monday moveable feasts.

Originally published in Countryside Post, Issue 2.3.

Monday wasn’t really Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, but the government has taken a tip from the church calendar and turned every holiday that isn’t on a Monday into a “moveable feast” so they can get three-day weekends. Since the Post uses a government agency called the U.S. Postal Service to distribute papers, we can’t give them the papers on those Mondays for Tuesday’s distribution. Instead, we have to give them the papers Friday, which means we have to print them the previous Thursday, which means you are now reading old news.

Heck, you’re always reading old news. Every newspaper writes its stuff the day before. You want up-to-the-second stuff, try TV, radio, and the Internet.