Whoa, I made a photostory, or something

At the behest of a nudge from the Spirit, I put together a photo story of my weekend as a counselor at Burnamwood, a camp that I attended in middle and high school as a camper. Enjoy!

Some Thoughts on Mannatech and/or Glyconutrients

A recent recommendation by a friend of mine brought this post to my mind. The recommendation was for my wife, who has not been feeling well for weeks, primarily because of morning sickness (btw, if you didn’t know, we’re having a baby!!!1)

The recommendation was to consider taking Ambrotose, the headline product made by a company called Mannatech as a potential way to alleviate some of the issues Heather’s been having. His wife had had similar issues and had noticed a difference when taking Ambrotose.

A little background info - Over the past few years, I’ve had a decent number of friends (7-10) purchase Mannatech products and said that they had see a difference in their life. During the time that I first heard of Mannatech and heard a sales pitch for it, I did what I do for most things I don’t know much about - I researched it. This process tends to be a bit more detailed when said thing desires money from me =). This was in 2006/2007.

Before I get in to what my research “found”, a brief aside - I am a cynic by nature, and my primary means of researching topics tends to be through the Internet. I realize these two traits means that I could pretty much disprove any idea or theory anyone ever had, by finding some whacko writing about how it’s untrue on some no-name blog. As such please bear with me and keep that in mind, and I’ll do my part to try and be impartial and present the truth - if that’s possibe.

So anyway, at the time of my first hearing of Mannatech, my research was generally inconclusive. The company was not well-known, and there was not a large amount of information on non-Mannatech websites. I’ll freely admit that I was skeptical from the beginning. Furthermore, Heather and I were in generally decent physical health, and didn’t really have the money to put forth $50 to $100 every-other-month for something we didn’t truly need.

Since that time, out of curiosity, I’ll google a few words related to the topic every couple months - specifically, Mannatech, glyconutrients, etc. I’ll check the wikipedia articles, and find forums where the topics are discussed back and forth, by supporters and detractors.

Given that the below points get kind of wordy, I’ll go ahead and summarize as succinctly as I can:

Though I have reasons to be completely in doubt of Mannatech and the glyconutrients they market, I cannot say for sure that their products are fraudulent. The anecdotal evidence provided by my friends would indicate that they can have a positive effect, but points #2 and #3 listed below makes it difficult for me to support a company with a growing history of deception and use of multi-level marketing to sell it’s products.

That said, here’s the things that I’ve found over the past three years that support what I’ve just said above. Read on if you care, stop now if you don’t =).

1. There is a disconnect in the science presented by Mannatech. This first and foremost reason tends to be the purpose of me googling terms about Mannatech. A study that decisively proves that taking glyconutrients would raise energy levels, or cure a disease, or anything would go a very long way to silencing my concerns. Something that I could use, that would make my life better. Sure, that’s a very consumeristic viewpoint, but they’re marketing a product for me to buy, and it’s not cheap.

To date, I’ve not seen such a study , so I can only conclude 1 of 3 things:

a. Studies were done, but proved little to nothing, and were not promoted.
b. Studies were not done and will not be done, and Mannatech has no desire to make their product have definitive proof behind it. This is either because they don’t care about people like me, they’re satisfied with their word-of-mouth endorsements, or they know nothing would be proven. As I don’t buy any products from them, the “why” of this doesn’t matter to much to me either way.
c. Studies are in progress, and take a long time. Hence I continue to search the internet, in case c is the answer.

I know this may seem sarcastic, but I’d love to be proven wrong on this point. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t keep trying to find a study that proves such things.

2. There are indications of deception in the leadership of Mannatech. Two main indicators here:

a. Sam Caster, the founder of Mannatech, has had two business ventures before Mannatech declared as hoaxes and not providing the benefits as advertised by the Texas Attorney General’s office. link. This point by itself is not enough to make a huge difference, but doesn’t lend credence to Mannatech’s credibility.

b. Mannatech paid $6 million settlement in a lawsuit stating that Mannatech launched “an unlawful marketing scheme” that over-promised what the effects of their products would be, including potentially curing Downs Syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and cancer. link. Speaks for itself. I recall in the sales pitch I saw seeing a picture of a girl with Downs Syndrome, and then another picture of the same girl that did not appear to have DS any longer (as far as physical appearance goes). The implication was that glyconutrients was responsible for this change.

There was a seperate lawsuit, that Mannatech settled for 11.25 million, that was the result of similar claims being made. As it was settled out of court, Mannatech admitted no wrongdoing (unless $11.25 million out of your pocket means your wrong). link.
3. Mannatech is sold only through network marketing / multi-level marketing (MLM).

This one is more of a personal issue for me, and doesn’t necessarily say anything about the products efficacy. MLM raises two large red flags in my mind:

a. The inspiration that selling Mannatech will allow a person to reach “financial freedom” as mentioned on their Opportunity website. In MLM-speak, “financial freedom” is a euphemism for millions of dollars for little work. It’s laced with greed, which is ironic because….

b. Very few sellers in MLM networks break even, and even less of them make large amounts of money. The very nature of a business that requires exponentially more people for any one person to make money requires that the last people, the people at the bottom of these downlines, to completely lose out.

I’ll grant Mannatech that their marketing focuses more on the product than the opportunity to sell the product, but the point remains.

That’s all I have to say on this topic, for now. As always, your comments, emails, etc. are welcome.

Things that make me geekier than you

(or equally geeky, depending on the person. Jason and Jeremy, I’m looking at you two).

- I run a custom firmware (Tomato) on my household’s router, and specifically purchased the model of router I did (Linksys WRT54GL) so that said firmware would work on it.

- I am in the process of setting up a home server with RAID’d disks, Terminal Services, and a custom DNS A record from the domain this blog is hosted on. We’re not quite there yet, but some of the components are ready to roll.

- My wife runs Ubuntu as the primary OS on her laptop. I think of all my nerd friends, I am the only one with this particular claim. She’s used it for about two years, and gets upset at me if I consider changing her away from it. She’s on 8.04 - Hardy Heron - right now. (seed of doubt - maybe it’s Heather that is the one true leet haxxor in our relationship, and I’m just the figurehead? hard to say. I tried to run Ubuntu on my work laptop for about a week, but some required compatibilities with IE that didn’t work in Wine, forced me back to Winders.)

- About half the time, I see a viral video somewhere between a short (8 hrs) and long time (2 weeks) before it “blows up.”

That’s off the top of my head. Feel free to add any or dispute any of the above claims as you see fit.

On House Church

Post one in a series of posts on house church. Navigation:

1. On House Church - Part One - Intro
2. On House Church - Part Two - The Meeting
3. On House Church - Part Three - The Monies
4. On House Church - Part Four - The Leadership

Today we’re going to talk about the house church/simple church model of “doing church.” The purpose of this post and/or series of posts is not to explain why other models are bad, but why house church is good.

But first, a short history lesson.

About three-ish years ago, our great friends the d10s felt that God was calling them to host a house church in their home. Heather and I were invited to be a part of this, as well as several others. Since then, we’ve grown and learned so much about the Lord, and about growing closer to one another in community. The meeting has changed nights, changed locations, changed members (both leaving and coming) drastically, and much more.

During this time we’ve learned a lot about church, what the bible says about church, and what to do in the event of all sorts of situations. And throughout that entire time, we’ve found our approach to be the most biblically sound approach to church, as laid out by the New Testament. That’s not to say our group perfectly lives out what we see in the Bible about church, but that our vision and what our meetings look like try to reflect what we see in the Bible.

Ben, in explaining what I said in the paragraph more effectively than I, said the following (paraphrase):

“Since we’ve started doing church this way, I’ve read through the New Testament several times. And with this way, there’s no ‘gotcha’ verses that I have to ignore or downplay to fit into my framework of church.”

That probably conveys my point as much as anything else I could say would. We’ve found a peace and steadiness in both our ecclesiology as well as our community that we didn’t necessarily find previously.

So where does that leave me as far as the traditional church goes? Do I hate it and everything it stands for? Hardly. I still feel honor and respect toward the traditional church goes, as well as many believers I know that are a part of it. I will say though that as a result of not being a part of this type of church after 3 years does make it more difficult to relate and understand the particular methods some churches employ - my thinking being that I’ve stepped back, and now some things just seem so alien, so strange.

In [potential] future posts, we can explore some of the specifics that makes what we do work, and what makes it different than what others do. If you would like such posts, you know how to contact me (and if you don’t: email, gmail chat, blog comment, facebook message, homing pidgeon, etc.).

Final Fantasy Geekiness to the Max.

This post won’t make alot of sense if you don’t know much about the game/series, Final Fantasy.

So not sure what prompted it, but I decided to try and play through Final Fantasy 1, on the original NES, using party setups that are especially difficult.

The game is designed to be played with characters, of varying power and roles. The way to make the game most painful is to only use one character from the outset, and making that character be one of the most weak ones….

… so that’s what I did! First up, is a red mage. He’s a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy. He turned out to be fairly simple, as he can do everything just well enough to beat the game.

Below, a white mage. This was much more difficult. He has nearly 0 offensive power for the most difficult stages of the game, and ends up doing 1 damage per round on bosses than have 130 to 180 hp. In the end, I had to upgrade him to a white wizard for the spell FADE, as physical attacks were not enough to kill the last boss, Chaos, who heals himself to full life every 8 to 10 turns.

Screenshots show full info on both characters, as well as all theor compadres dead at level 1.

Some Thoughts on Freedom

Been alittle while since a fluff-less post, so let’s give this a shot!!11 Yeah!

Heather and I, as well as a few others, have been discussing the nature of freedom in a Christian sense. Not so much as the freedom from sin in Christ, but more the freedom to act, go, and say as we are guided by the Holy Spirit.

I would say besides the depth of community we’re just now beginning to grow in to after a few years in house church, this freedom has been one of the more impactful things I’ve enjoyed since moving away from a more traditional church setting.

Succintly, such freedom is…

Coming to terms with the fact that the New Covenant is not just an updated version of the old Law, which was a law of bondage, but that it is a law of liberty. A liberty that extends to all parts of the Christian’s life, and that is only tempered by the role of the Holy Spirit in his and those around him’s lives.

Perhaps this doesn’t seem particularly mind-blowing to you. And in writing, it’s really not. Coming to actually live like it was true is a whole different story.

I think the freedom I speak of is best described in examples:

With regard to where we go:

- It’s the freedom that lets Heather and I go dancing at a club (Opera, to be specific), and be completely wrapped up in each other, despite the drunkenness and foolishness going on around us. I felt freedom from the Lord for us to go, and had a great time.

- It’s the freedom that lets Heather and I go hang out with a bunch of buzzed and/or sloshed old friends and just-met friends at a bar and feel at ease and not be wrapped up in judgment. Ironically, we met a couple that night and talked to them/encouraged them for awhile about communal living and moving toward a house church-type environment. We simply would not have met them, had we not gone.

With regard to the believers close to us:

- It’s the freedom that lets me talk openly (and sometimes in jokes =) about Heather and I working with a marriage counselor about various issues. There’s no shame or judgment, because I trust those I share with are operating from a similar place of freedom.

- It’s the freedom that lets us talk about the no-no topics typically avoided in traditional settings. To be more clear, that would be: sex, struggling with pornography, trouble with money and/or debt, etc. It’s not necessarily easy, but we have found freedom to discuss such things.

With regard to what we do and say:

- It’s the freedom that lets me say the word: “damn”. or “ass”. Or any other word, for that matter. Taking the Lord’s name in vain has alot more to do with calling on the Lord after you’ve done the exact opposite of what He’s counseled you to do, and then blaming him when he doesn’t come through for you, than it does with the singular phrase, “God damn it.”

- It’s the freedom to have a beer. Or a glass of wine. Or really any type of food or drink.

Perhaps you don’t agree with all of these. What’s great is, even if I was completely wrong on one (or more!) of these, I have two huge boons that the New Covenant made a reality, that didn’t exist before:

- The Holy Spirit. The still, quiet, steady voice that guides. Inasmuch as I am able to hear His voice, I have freedom to enjoy life fully, and not get tangled up in a hyper-detailed code of law. (Hear me properly - I don’t have freedom to sin. But inasmuch as I what I do doesn’t damage myself, those around me, or my relationship with the Spirit, I am free.)

- The Body. I can’t always hear the Spirit speaking in to my life. Frankly, it can be quite difficult. But that’s just fine, and even by design. I am surrounded by believers who know about all things listed above. And they can hear the Spirit just as clearly as me. And they have responsibility that if they received a word for me about what I do or say, to tell me.

That about covers it. Feel free to comment or reply as you see fit, all thoughts are welcome!

[note/commentary: it seems silly to write some of those examples, as some reading them would consider them basic/"duh" type stuff. I tried to write this post to believers from all different sorts of places and worldviews, so to any given person, some of them would have to appear to be plainly obvious.]

In this biz, we call this a triple-play.

No messages in personal email, work email, or RSS reader. I’m a processing machine. (and I know the pictures overlap into the sidebar, meh).

Top 3 Youtubes - Covers of Rap Music by White People

Gonna start a new feature(ette) on the ole’ blog. No promises on frequency or rules or any of that nonsense.

Today’s Category - My 3 favorite covers of gangsta rap and/or hip-hop by whities. Keep in mind that given the topic, the language in these is at best questionable, at worst crude.

1. Jenny Owens - Hot in Herre, as made famous by Nelly

This one is an easy first place. Custom-made music video involving igloo’s and very catchy cover.
Plus I love the original song.

2. Dynamite Hack - Boyz In Da Hood, as made famous by Easy E

Another custom video for the cover. This one with the band as a bunch of preps who play golf and wear sweater vests.

3. Alanis Morissette - My Humps, as made famous by the Black Eyed Peas

Alanis has skillz. She turns a mindless, agitating, horrible song into a, uh, masterpiece. Even if you didn’t like the original song, I recommend this one. Seems that the most effort was put into the music on this cover of the 3.

Honorable Mentions
The Day’s - In This Club, as performed by Usher - so white.
The Gourds - Gin and Juice, as performed by Snoop Dogg - Folksy cover with banjo. Awesome.
Ben Folds Five - Bitches Ain’t Shit, as performed by Dr Dre - probably the worst lyrics of any song on here, but mentioned for the contrast of the lyrics with Ben Folds typical dreary tone.
Nina Gordon - Straight Outa Compton, as performed by N.W.A.

Sometimes… you win at the internets.

Something lighter

So it’s been something of a marathon on heavy posts. Time for some fluff!

OM NOM NOM NOM.