Fly 'til I die...

I finally got my pictures from Christmas off my digital camera and thought it would be fun to post some candid pictures. Does the background look familiar, Hannah? Your mantle made for a good backdrop! I'm all about goofy pictures so Melissa and I staged the first two to express our glee at our gifts. Bluetooth headset, yippeee!!!

Aside from playing hours upon hours of Splinter Cell this week, I have been enjoying the History Channel's Armageddon Week. Last night was about Bible codes...fascinating stuff and right up my alley!

Here's a link to what the code says about the coming of Jesus in 2010:
http://biblecodes.us/pages/endofdays.pdf

So far my week off has started out exactly how I wanted...do whatever I want without time constraints. I've been hanging out in Jackson since Saturday and it's been pretty boring as it always has been aside from the Christmas activities. I did manage to catch up with some friends last night for sushi and sake at Sakura and a couple of movies: The Great Raid and March of the Penguins.

Melissa got me a new Xbox game, so when I head back to Mempho today, I'll definitely kill some time playing that. She really loves me! I also need to update my CV with all my publications and abstracts. I've been thinking about changing jobs for some time now. I don't think my boss has my best interest in mind anymore. Please pray for my decision in this matter. Other than that, not much else is happening. Melissa and I will be spending New Year's at Bev Elliott's house and I won't return to work until January 3. Don't forget about year-end giving to your church, alma mater, or favorite charity. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Luke 2:14

Well, today starts my vacation until January 3rd and it's a great feeling to not go to work for a while. I finished up with shopping today, wrapped the presents (albeit poorly as Melissa can testify), and Melissa and I are having our Christmas tonight. It will be good to catch up with some friends this weekend and see both sides of my family. This morning started off early with a Crackers at the Barrel morning breakfast with my community group. We didn't actually have a Bible devotion, but we did fellowship...always a good thing! I went back home to try and get more sleep, but this whole bit with Russia and Iran has really got my attention. I started reading from Thessalonians 4:16-17 about the rapture and Ezekiel 38-39 about the armies that will invade Israel from Russia and its former Soviet republics, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, and Libya (present day names used). BTW, all are Muslim nations except Russia proper. Ezekiel is clear that this will happen in the "latter days" and it should be noted that no invasion like this has occurred before. Thus, the prophecy still needs to be fulfilled. In today's news, Iran is very interested in developing military-technical cooperation...“Until now, our cooperation has mostly been established in the sphere of trade,” the ambassador was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. “But the Iranian government now wants to strengthen cooperation with Russia in the field of energy, in particular nuclear energy." The European Union has formally protested to Russia about the deal. The tension is building and the news networks haven't picked up on it yet. If we hold to a pretribulation mindset, then we, as Christians, will never see the invasion and subsequent Israeli victory. In the midst of His wrath, God will also pour out his grace and mercy to bring many Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) to salvation.

Many who turn to God and accept Christ as God as a result of His demonstration of power will be among the massive assembly of the redeemed in Revelation 7:9-14.

Noel!

Pornography is allowed in this country because freedom of speech protects it. Rappers are singing songs about killing everybody in the streets, and it's protected. But if, God forbid, you say "Merry Christmas," "Ho, ho, ho," a whole fight breaks out. Love is the only thing that they hate. Hate is protected. Love is obnoxious to them. How nuts could you get? If a store is selling rap music, it's protected. But if that same store hung up a sign that said "Merry Christmas," they would be in all kinds of trouble.

-Jackie Mason

Ok, so Quentin is the Carver, but they did a good job of convincing us early that it wasn't him. I admit, I was fooled. But I did guess correctly that Kit was his sister. So next season will be interesting to see if Matt gets caught as an accessory to Ariel's father's murder, if Julia has a Downs baby, and if the Carver will emerge from hiding after laying low for a bit. Until next season...

Tonight, the Carver is revealed on Nip/Tuck! Dustin and Melissa think it's Quentin, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's Ariel's father, the racist. The show has led you to believe it's Quentin with all the drama, but I believe otherwise. The key thing that tipped me off was her father requesting the patient files from Matt. The Carver is known to attack plastic surgery patients. Dr. Bobbelit is also a possibility, but only if the show wanted to write him back into the picture...we shall see in tonight's 2 hour finale.

Last night, my community group from church met up to go shopping for the aforementioned Binghampton kids. We really wanted to get them paintball and air guns for defending themselves in the 'hood, but we chose to stick to the list of needs instead. We loaded these kids up with stuff for an awesome Christmas that they otherwise would not have had. I told myself that I wouldn't shop at Target this year since it was not being Christmas friendly, but they have reneged and I have as well. I have to give props to Target and the nice lady in electronics who told us a 20" flat screen TV was marked down from $119 to $88! It was a no brainer to buy and best of all it fulfilled a noted family need. I just hope it doesn't get ganked! Special thanks goes out to Jereme, Chuck, Brian and Rob for helping out with the purchases and wrapping and Melissa for her wrapping expertise...because I suck at it! On Saturday, we will meet up at 4:00 to meet our family and hand over our gifts for them. I just wish we could be there on Christmas morning when they open them...they're gonna love 'em!

So the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (kinda looks like Greg Lackey), within the last month or so has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," Israel should be moved to Europe, and doubts the Holocaust ever happened. I feel sorta bad for this guy because he has no idea of his involvement in Ezekiel's prophecy. Israel reported that within three months, Iran would be able to build nuclear weapons. On top of that, Russia signed an estimated $1 billion contract last week to sell Iran advanced Tor-M1 systems capable of destroying guided missiles and laser-guided bombs from aircraft. Combine this with the talks between Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon about a front against Israel and you've got the beginnings of Ezekiel 38-39.
From Terry James
Luke 21:28 is in play in this generation. ”These things” have already begun to “come to pass.” Therefore, the signals we are seeing like, the EU being the precursor of the revived Roman Empire, Russia being in position as the leader of the coming Gog-Magog invasion of Ezekiel 38-39, the record-breaking hurricanes, earthquakes, and the great Indonesian tsunami are all significant as prophecy in the process of fulfillment. They are indeed “stage setting,” but they must also be strongly considered as prophecy in the process of fulfillment.

What this all means, of course, is that we have been seeing these things for some time. Jesus said that when they begin to happen we –Christians—are to look up and look for His coming for us. He didn’t say that when all of these things have “come to pass,” but He said “when they “begin to come to pass,” we are to lift our heads, because His coming for us is near.

The next year is going to be quite interesting and I'll keep my nose all in this stuff! You heard it here first, folks!

Dr. Keller I Presume?

Continuing on with our NYC experience this weekend, we thought it would be appropriate to see Tim Keller at Redeemer Pres for church this morning. His reputation was right on...he did not disappoint. After the service, we headed to the highly recommended JG Melon's for some great burgers and fries (74th and 3rd) before hitting up the Met for the Temple of Dendur (see Jason O's blog for details) and various nude pics...kidding.

The Temple of Dendur
I was quite surprised at how many people were packed into see Van Gogh's "drawrings." After walking numerous country miles around Central Park in search of the famed Alice in Wonderland statue we never found, we headed to The Shops at Columbus Circle for a rest. All the while keeping in mind that the men's restrooms were a bastion for homosexuality (according to the New Yorker magazine I read on the plane). Finally, the evening was complete with a round of brews and some fine Mexican at none other than Mama Mexico, complete with the Mariachi band.

The fabulous $13 guacamole

Tomorrow ends our arctic vacation, but it's been a good one. Next stop...Orlando for some warmer climes...funk this cold mess!

Pimpin' Ain't Easy in the NYC

Rollin' on the subway with J to the A and Flanabalz


The Lone Cross at Ground Zero


I'll use this pic as a plug for my employer's "Thanks and Giving" campaign. Please give where you see our magnifying glass...


Anybody seen baby Jesus? St. Patrick's Cathedral just isn't the same at Christmas without him...

I headed to NYC yesterday with my buddy, Brent, to see Jason O during his brief work assignment. We thought it would be nice to see the city at Christmas and partake of some of the finest food in the world. So far, the city has not disappointed! We hit The Cafeteria in Chelsea, Bubby's in Tribeca for brunch, some Thai place in Chinatown for a brief respite. We're thinking about Italian tonight. We will try and hit up of my personal fav's...Mama Mexico. Feel free to suggest some places to eat for our consideration.

Man's Best Friend Has Been Sequenced...Again

The publicly-funded sequencing consortium has announced the completion of the sequence of a female Boxer named Tasha. This is a more complete sequence than the one I worked on at Celera Genomics three years ago. We sequenced Dr. Craig Venter's poodle, Shadow, when I was there. Craig was the President and CSO of Celera at the time and could pretty much do what he wanted...like have his own genome sequenced, and he did. He was one of the five donors that we sequenced. I have posted some pics of Tasha and Shadow along with a link to the press release.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177989,00.html

As a scientist, I don't wholly agree with the evolutionary argument, but the authors state that dogs evolved from wolves 15-100 thousand years ago...you be the judge. Regardless, I think it's fascinating and would like to share it since I worked on the first dog sequencing effort at Celera. Some of the other notable genomes that I worked on aside from dog were chimp, rat, mouse, chicken, pig, mosquito, cow, pufferfish (Fugu-yummy as long as there is no poison gland), and various extremophiles that have huge names that I can't remember.

Weekend Recap

I'm finally getting around to giving a recap of the weekend. It was actually fun-filled! Friday was my first visit to the FedEx Forum to see the Memphis Grizzlies pummel the Magic. There was a 30 point difference so it wasn't much of a game. Saturday, I hosted an SEC Championship party at my humble abode. Since Georgia ran away with it, we switched over to watch Bev Elliott's precious Hokies lose to Florida State. In the midst of the game, a game of Cranium broke out between the guys and girls...of course the guys lost, but only by two. We then decided to split into different teams for Mad Gab. This game is difficult enough trying to phonetically sound out phrases. I can't imagine the hilarity of watching a drunk person doing this. I'm sure it happens more often than not. I posted some pics from the party or par-tay as Hannah likes to say.

Sunday night, Melissa and I had a fantastic dinner at Josie and Brian Fisher's apartment on Mud Island and then we went to see Walk the Line...a fine movie IMHO. I really enjoyed it. Melissa still won't let me sing "Walk the Line" at our undetermined wedding day, but maybe she'll budge. I don't think my voice can go that low, but it would be fun to try. Ok, Nip/Tuck's coming on...doesn't look as risque as last week...we'll see!