Rights

Posted on August 31, 2010 by guiroo

I have recently had a heightened awareness of the reality of copywritten photographs so I removed all the pics from previous posts. I also am pretty sure that I can’t keep up any kind of magazine format so I went back to a standard WordPress blog theme — how boring eh?

But college football starts up this weekend and pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks so maybe the new season will inspire more writing. I recently looked at my blog roll and most everyone’s last post is a “I need to write more” post from two or three years ago.

Anyway, see ya on Facebook.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Fixed Background Image In Flex

Posted on January 14, 2010 by guiroo

It seems like it would be easy. A large background image in the back of your flex app that doesn’t stretch the entire width and height of your browser. Unfortunately the CSS control of the current version of Flex does allow for the positioning of the background.

You can’t drop it in a Box and position the box in the Application because the size of the browser then adjusts to the size of the full image.

So how do you do it? Here’s a quick solution I found to have a large background horizontally centered and vertically aligned to the top of the page.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="vertical"
backgroundColor="#000000">
<!-- This is my large image, change it to your image -->
<mx:Image source="Assets/Images/Andromeda.jpg" includeInLayout="false"/>
<!-- Add your UI here -->
</mx:Application>

I haven’t had time to find a simple solution for aligning the image to the bottom, left or right. Feel free to post one if you have one.

UPDATE

I’ve had some issues with the background image set to “includeInLayout=’false’” displaying consistently when creation is complete — especially when using effects and transitions. Here is my solution:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="vertical"
creationComplete="init();" backgroundColor="#000000">

	<mx:Script>
		<![CDATA[
			private function init():void {
				bigBackground.includeInLayout = false;
				bigBackground.visible = true;
			}
		]]>
	</mx:Script>

	<mx:Image id="bigBackground" source="Assets/Images/Andromeda.jpg" visible="false"/>
	<!-- Add your UI here -->

</mx:Application>
Posted in CSS, Flex, Web Design | Leave a comment

Sasquatch and the God of the Bible

Posted on September 30, 2009 by guiroo

I have to admit, I’ve always been fascinated by stories of Bigfoot. I watched In Search Of every chance I got and checked out every book at the library I could. Today I watch MonsterQuest, subscribe to the blogs, and listen to the podcasts for any recent news or reported sightings.

But also being a Christian that is into apologetics (defending the faith), I can’t help but recognize that I get some of the same responses from people when I talk to them about Bigfoot as I do when I talk to people about God.

Here are some similarities that are shared by the two topics:

  • The scientific community shuns any research regarding either
  • The majority of evidence depends heavily on human testimony
  • Any amount of circumstantial evidence is often countered with a ”reasonable” explanation that is impossible considering the whole of the account that occurred. Or it is dismissed because, “It just can’t be.”
  • Both have people that are using their name for personal profit while dragging the name through the dirt
  • Once the topic has been broached, it is quickly changed to something else. My friend Allan calls this the “Hey, lets go get some pizza” counter-tactic in Christian apologetics.

So while I’m sure everyone has their own opinions about either topic, if you’re a Christian that finds the topic of cryptozoology laughable and irrelavent, take this opportunity to sympathize with what non-Christians are thinking and feeling as you discuss Christ with them.

Posted in Featured, Kingdom Bits | Leave a comment

It’s Just Fiction

Posted on July 7, 2009 by guiroo

I am compiling my ideas regarding the book “The Shack”. It’s been a while since I’ve read it but it keeps popping up in discussion. Many reviews seem to discredit themselves by either focusing on the creative freedoms of the story or by misrepresenting an idea in the book so I feel I must write a thorough one myself. That being said, I believe there are many dangerous things about this book. There is danger on several levels and for various reasons. I also intend to show the harm it has already done on a practical level. This is the first of many posts that will then be assembled in a logical order to best address the issues at hand.

Let’s just get this out of the way first. If you read any online review of the book The Shack then you will inevitably see someone post a negative comment about the book. Then no matter how solid the points are and no matter how clearly they are stated, inevitably someone replies in the book’s defense by saying, “It’s just a fictional novel.” The points are not rebutted. The points are not challenged. They are dismissed by this one simple statement.

But, it is just fictional novel? The Pearl by Steinbeck is just a fictional novel. Nineteen Eighty Four by Orwell is just a fictional novel. Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury is just a fictional novel. Yet no one can deny the great influence these books and many others have had on American culture and society. The arts either reflect culture or attempt to influence it. Do we as Christians look at any other book or art with such a standard? What Christian parent just hands their teenager The Catcher In The Rye by Salinger as says, “Eh, it’s just fiction”?

How is this now a valid excuse to ignore the content of a fictional novel that is speaking in the name of the Christian Godhead — especially when most of the promotions includes quotes like, “Reading The Shack has changed my life”? There is no question that this book is affecting people so the excuse that “it’s just a fictional novel” is self-defeating to the defense of the book’s own worth.

Now let’s look on a high level of how it it is effecting people. Somewhere in the vicinity of the “it’s just a novel” excuse you will also find someone defending the book by saying, “It’s just a story, not theology.” Or something similar to, “The story didn’t change my theology, it just changed how I view God.”

Let’s look at the definition of theology:

Theology: the study of religious faith, practice, and experience ; especially : the study of God and of God’s relation to the world

Based on the content of the book, the claim that “it’s just a story, not theology” is, by definition, false. When someone says, “the book changed the way they viewed God” they are, by definition, saying that the book changed their theology — not to mention their anthropology, soteriology, and their Christology. Believe it or not, we are all theologians. We all hold a view of God, a view of humanity, and a view of how they relate.

We will look into what view of God the book actually portrays is later, but one thing is for sure, The Shack is not being offered as mere fantasy or entertainment, so it cannot be placed outside of spiritual scrutiny just because it’s fiction.

Posted in Flex, Football, Kingdom Bits, Local Songwriters, Photography | Tagged | 2 Comments

Parsing XML in ColdFusion

Posted on April 20, 2009 by guiroo

In a previous post I showed how I sent XML out from ActionScript 3, here is how I parsed it in ColdFusion and created a PDF.  You have to check to see if there is any data in the XML or else it blows up.  Also,  notice the placement of the importing of the stylesheet to be applied to the PDF.

<!--- Check to see if there is any XML to parse --->
<cfif form.xmlPledgeData NEQ ''>
    <!--- Parse the XML --->
    <cfset myXml = XmlParse(#form.xmlPledgeData#)>
    <cfset elementRoot = myXml.XmlRoot>
    <cfset myArray=ArrayNew(1)>
    <cfset myArray=elementRoot>
    <cfset recordCounter = ArrayLen(elementRoot.XmlChildren) />
</cfif>
<!--- Create a PDF. By not putting a document value it opens directly in the browser. --->
<cfdocument format="pdf" overwrite="yes">
    <cfdocumentsection>
    <!--- Import your print stylesheet --->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="print.css" type="text/css" media="print" />
    <body>
        <h1>Fun Run Pledge Form</h1>
        <table>
            <tr>
                <th width="25%">Name:</th>
                <td width="25%"><cfoutput>#form.userName#</cfoutput></td>
                <th width="25%">Today's Date:</th>
                <td width="25%"><cfoutput>#DateFormat(Now(),'MM/DD/YYYY')#</cfoutput></td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <th>Total Pledges:</th>
                <td><cfoutput>#form.totalQuantity#</cfoutput></td>
                <th> Total Amount Pledged:</th>
                <td><cfoutput>#LSCurrencyFormat(form.totalAmount)#</cfoutput></td>
            </tr>
        </table>
        <table>
            <tr>
                <th>Name</th>
                <th>Phone Number</th>
                <th>Amount</th>
            </tr>
            <!--- Check to see if there is any XML to loop over --->
            <cfif form.xmlPledgeData NEQ ''>
                <cfloop FROM="1" TO="#recordCounter#" INDEX="i">
                    <tr>
                        <td><cfoutput>#myXml.PledgeList.Pledge[i].name#</cfoutput></td>
                        <td><cfoutput>#myXml.PledgeList.Pledge[i].phone#</cfoutput></td>
                        <td><cfoutput>#myXml.PledgeList.Pledge[i].amount#</cfoutput></td>
                    </tr>
                </cfloop>
            </cfif>
        </table>
    </body>
    </cfdocumentsection>
</cfdocument>

Yes, I still use tables, but only for tabular data as that is what they were originally designed for.

One other thing I noticed is the parsed XML is cast as a String and ColdFusion doesn’t allow you to recast it to a number (Val()). If you need to do more math in ColdFusion then there is a way to query the XML data and recast it there, but I just decided to format the data as Currency and Phone Numbers in ActionScript3  and just display it in ColdFusion.

Posted in CSS, ColdFusion, Flex, Web Design | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

If You Think You May Have Alzheimer’s

Posted on April 20, 2009 by guiroo

This is an open blog post to those of you that are beginning to suspect that you may have Alzheimer’s and also have grown children. I can’t assume that I know what it is like to be in your position — fear, doubt, depression — but please allow me to offer you a little perspective from the point of view of your adult children.

Please don’t keep this from your children and act as if nothing is wrong. They are grown adults and there is a good chance they already suspect it anyway. Please don’t act as if you are protecting your children from something. They will have to deal with it whether you are aware of it or not. Please don’t feel embarrassed or ashamed to discuss this disease your children. No one is to blame here and time is short, use all of it for what it is worth.

Me? I let two years go by while I suspected that something was up with my mom. She didn’t want to talk about it and I guess I took the easy road by deciding to respect that. But by the time there was no way for her to deny it and a clinical diagnosis was given, too much valuable time was gone. And sadly, the opportunity to be able to carry on a conversation was gone by then too.

Instead of facing the future, enjoying the time we had, planning for what was to come, and being proactive, our time was spent trying to delicately dance around the subject while figuring out ways to protect her from this horrible disease without her knowledge. By the time we were forced to act on things like finances, medical, and legal issues her emotions were in such a delicate state from the disease that everything was a gamble as to if she could handle it or not.

I love my mom, and this is the way things have worked out in God’s plan. I write this to give you the perspective of someone who is a little further down the road so your children might have a little less to regret in the future. Go to the neurologist and be honest with them. Find out what the issue is and see if it’s anything else that can be helped. Then, if worse comes to worse, walk the road before you WITH your family.

I pray that I would have the strength to do this and would not be surprised if I eventually get the opportunity.

Posted in Family, Featured | Tagged , | Leave a comment

ArrayCollection to XML in ActionScript3

Posted on April 20, 2009 by guiroo

As I was searching the web trying to find out how to do this all I found was the opposite scenario, XML to an arrayCollection. When I finally did find a bulletin board post on this, all it said was, “LOL. Everyone always asks this.” That wasn’t so helpful so I figured I would write something up.

This is based on a hypothetical application where you enter information of people that pledge an amount of money for some sort of charity. You just enter a name, phone, and amount and it adds the data into an arrayCollection that is displayed in a datagrid. From there you hit a button to create a PDF — no databases involved. They just want a print out.

I know this would never happen with this kind of application in the real world but I had a different scenario where the data didn’t need to be stored and it seemed like a waste to store the data in a database just to go get it again, create a PDF, and then delete the data.

My example function assumes you have an arrayCollection called “acPledges”. You can find everything you need to know about that the bottom of this page (their arrayCollection is called “ac”): http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/quickstart/using_data_providers/

private function sendFormAndXML():void {

// Define the Root container and an XML list to go in it
var myXML:XML = <PledgeList></PledgeList>;
var myXMLList:XMLList = new XMLList;

// Loop over arrayCollection adding pledge data to the XML Root
for(var i:int;i<acPledges.length;i++) {
myXMLList = XMLList('<Pledge><Name>'+acPledges[i].name+'</Name>
   <Phone>'+acPledges[i].phone+'</Phone>
   <Amount>'+acPledges[i].amount+'</Amount></Pledge>');
myXML.appendChild(myXMLList);
}

//Export data as form
var url:String = "myPageThatCreatesPDF.cfm"; //url where the form is going
var variables:URLVariables = new URLVariables();
variables.userName        = txtUserName.text;
variables.totalAmount     = totalPledgeAmount;
variables.totalQuantity = totalPledgeQuantity;
variables.xmlPledgeData    = myXML.valueOf();
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url);
request.method = URLRequestMethod.POST
request.data = variables;
navigateToURL(request);
}

Whether you’re using ColdFusion, PHP, or whatever type of page that the data is sent to, the variables are treated just like posted form data. I’ll save showing how to parse the XML in ColdFusion for another blog post.

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Facebook Killed My Blog

Posted on April 7, 2009 by guiroo

It’s happening all around the world. Blogs are either being left unattended for months at a time or worse yet, becoming victims of what’s commonly known as “mercy killing.” After all, who has time to write a semi-complete thought when you can just spit out a single sentence about what’s on your mind?

Well, this is my declaration to get this thing going again. Not right at this moment though. I’m too tired to write anything of substance and I have some work to do for my day gig.

But I hope to bring a variety of content about what’s going on in my corner of the world and what I’ve been thinking about. I’d also like to compile some writing to possibly assemble into an online book. I’m gonna have work on my follow-through. I think I have the first two chapters of 50 books ready but that’s about it.

So use Facebook for what it’s good at — keeping people connected at the base level — but not at the expence of the care and nurture of your blog.

Sidenote: I don’t Twitter much but was wondering if anyone can say that Twitter killed their Facebook?

Posted in Headline, Web Design | 4 Comments

Robots In Heaven

Posted on March 30, 2009 by guiroo

The explanation usually goes like this:

“You cannot force someone to love you. That’s how God is, He doesn’t force anyone to love him. Because that wouldn’t be true love. Forcing would be God entering your brain and rewiring it so that you think and act in a certain way. God never does that.”

If this is true, which of the following is true once Jesus returns and Christians are in their glorified bodies?

A) In order for true love to exist, the potential for them to freely sin and fall out of communion with God must remain.

B) God removes the option to sin by giving them glorified minds and His Spirit — essentially forcing them to worship Him by rewiring them to think and act a certain way.

My point is that many Christians are very comfortable with the idea of not having free will — just not right now.

Posted in Kingdom Bits | 4 Comments

Intensions, Power and Purpose

Posted on March 24, 2009 by guiroo

Something I’m learning is that when you question things that are usually just taken for granted, it’s easy for people to assume the reason that you are asking the question. From there you can either be shortly entertained with answers that don’t address your question, or you are dismissed because you’re assumed to be just like all the others before you that asked the same question but for the wrong reasons.

As I continue to explore the idea of evil in regards to God’s sovereignty and His eternal will, let me just say the following:

  • I am NOT trying to prove that God shouldn’t be worshipped
  • I am NOT trying to prove that God is guilty of sin
  • I am NOT trying to prove contradiction in the Scriptures
  • I am NOT trying to prove that God is not sovereign
  • I am NOT trying to prove that humanity is not responsible for its actions and motives

So now let me give you some background on where I’m coming from.

I spent a good part of my life assuming things about why things are the way they are. I was taught that God was in complete control of everything except for humanity’s free will — otherwise God wouldn’t be fair and a “true relationship” could not exist between God and humanity. Yet at the same time, I firmly believed that everything happens for a reason. I never stopped to realize that if God won’t violate humanity’s free-will then He’s not really in control of much of anything — not to mention that He can’t claim eternal purpose or reason in anything involving people.

I’ve sense been introduced to the Doctrines of Grace which made sense out of so many things that were avoided by my spiritual leaders growing up. I’ve come to realize that in the process of justification, God doesn’t “try” or “attempt” — the words themselves imply “failure”. In my earlier days I would say that God was desperately trying to get my lost friends to believe in Him (and also claim that He has a plan and is in control). But now and even though I don’t like it, the idea of unconditional election explains what I observe in Scripture and in the real world.

So here’s the rub, as I listen to teaching that embraces the Doctrines of Grace, I see inconsistency when it comes to applying the same idea to the process of sanctification. It is often said that “justification is monergistic (all God) while sanctification is synergistic (both you and God). The God that is sovereign and never failing in salvation is all of a sudden doing His best to try to get His children to be more like Christ — sanctification.

Which leads me to another rub. What does sanctification involve? Trials. And what do trials involve? Temptation and evil. For someone to be refined by a trial or persecution, someone else has to be in a situation to be tempted and actually commit the sin. We are quick to acknowledge God’s purpose of refinement in trials but when it comes to the other parties involved and their sin, we say that God no longer “purposes” or “causes” that, but merely “allows” or “permits” it.

For the martyrs to endure their trials, someone had to persecute them. For God to show you that you were putting your music above Him, someone had to break into your car and steal your iPod. Was God fortunate that the opportunity arose to make you more like Christ? If we are going to assign Divine purpose to the good effect of someone’s sin then we must also assign Divine purpose to the act itself. Otherwise God is just a cosmic fortune teller that plagiarizes the will of all humanity — merely predicting the future and taking credit for all the residual good that occurs from the evil that He has nothing to do with.

This is essentially the question of, “Did God create/cause sin?” This is where you’ll Google and get the Augustinian argument that sin is like darkness or cold, it is not a thing but the absence or light and heat. It sounds good at first but if you are going to accept that then you also have to accept that God didn’t create/cause darkness or cold — they just happened as some cosmic side-effect that God had to accept as if He was under the law of nature.

I think the more accurate question is, “Did God purpose sin in His eternal-mind?” I have no other answer but yes. On day three as God was creating plants, Christ was already crucified and a remnant was already preserved in the mind of God. Which also means Adam and Eve had already rebelled, and Judas had already betrayed Jesus in the mind of God. Making it a bit more personal, let’s say you have a Christian friend that was conceived out of wed-lock. That means that your friend’s parents’ fornication was already in the eternal mind of God as God was creating the plants.

If you are a professing Calvinist, this is where the “God looked down through the corridors of time and knew that humanity would sin” answer is tempting, but if it doesn’t work for salvation then why should it work for the fall as it makes the eternal will and purpose of God contingent on an external agent?

Psalm 139:16
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Acts 4:27-28
…for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

Posted in Kingdom Bits | 6 Comments