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TWebTiger
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Country: United States
State: South Carolina
Metro: Clemson
Birthday: 10/1/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: I have varying interests. At the moment, I am involved in exahustive studies in Christian Theology and Apologetics. I have had passing interest in Computing (it's my major). I am also a wannabe sociologist (a people watcher).
Expertise: CCNA and A+ certifications with about 3 years experience in the field.
2 years schooling at Clemson University.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Computers (Hardware)
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  XavierofTWeb
Member Since:
2/23/2005
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| And Now for Something Completely Different...
Stepping back from my own existential wasteland... I suppose I should tell you about my weekend. 
Friday, I ditched work early and drove down to Clemson...
Earlier that week, the director of the Wesley Foundation here on
campus had emailed and requested my presence at a planning meeting for
the upcoming year.
A dilemma presents itself. I'm not going to be at Clemson this coming
semester. I'm not going to be able to give of myself in the way that
the ministry needs most. I realize that what I do I do for the good of
myself and my mind, but that doesn't make the separation any easier.
So in my own selfish way, I traveled down to Clemson to be with people and "be people".
... to the assistant director's house in Pendleton. The menu was
Burgers, Hot Dogs, and Jambalaya. More than just jambalaya though...
This was Simoneaux Jambalaya. The best of the best. A homegrown cajun
making with the homegrown cookin'. Simply marvelous.
That night, I was confronted by the depth of my own loss. While a
burden I carry, the people around me make it feel that much lighter.
They know that I'm not abandoning them. They realize that what I do is
what I have to do. Sometimes, the simplest things don't set in until
someone else tells us.
Wrapping at just past 9, my friend and I went into Anderson to try to catch Fanstastic Four,
only to discover a sold-out theatre. Driving home, passing the four
cops, we crash back at the Wesley Building just off the Clemson campus.
Waking up the next morning, life proposes a new challenge. How do
you stay active in a community that you don't physically belong to
anymore? I find myself torn between complete isolation and complete
immersion. I know that I don't want to be a burden (the overbearing
overseer), yet I want to remain a part of the community that has made
such a difference in my own life. Sometimes, I marvel at the problems
life sends our way. They seem so incredably complicated and yet more
often than not the solution is a simple as being real.
I realized that Wesley will continue without me. I also realize that I can find anger in that fact...  I can use that anger to drive my own shift. I must break free of myself in order to return to the community.
Oh, the sermon illistration that my life could make... 
So, now I'm sitting here in the Wesley Building, in the one haven that
I can lose myself in, tapping out my own garbage for the world to see.
I don't know how people can stand me when I can't even stand myself.
Guess that's why they call them "friends"... | | |
| The Struggle
I found myself struck by a thought today. I wondered if I spend to much
time attempting to establish an understanding with people. I think that
this leads to problems in my own social background and affilation.
I spend more time talking than I do listening. I think that often times
I expend too much thought and energy to rationalizing input and placing
it in categories than just letting life tell me what I need to know.
I sat in a meeting today and realized how non-assertive one of my good
friends really is. It's not that he doesn't seek out that type of
interaction. It's simply that he doesn't feel the need to do so. Why
does it take my brain so long to put the small, simple things together?
There is little in this world that enjoy more than being able to sit
down with a group of friends and simply chat about life as we have
lived it. Today, I realized just how much that he had to teach me.
Should we forget trying to put things into neat packages? Why do we
search for structure where chaos is adequate? Why do I not respond in
the ways that I know that I should?
It was a drive back from a movie theatre in North Greenville, South
Carolina. About 10 miles west of town, John had a story to tell me.
There was no point to the story. No magnificent ending. No great pearl
of truth. Just a simple story of driving from Charleston to Orlando
after a week of non-sleep. I sit here now going over that conversation
and I realize that there is no reason for me to even remember the fact
that we had it. And yet, here it is gnawing at the back of mind
searching out its own resolution.
I want to assign it a meaning. I want to place it in one of my nice
neat categories for the world around me. Yet, I realize that true
people (that is, the people I want to be like and with) do not fit the
molds. The people I like are not your average joes seeking the same
thrills that the crowds seek. The people I like will tell you a story
about nothing with no intentionality. Just the simple relation of life
from one person to another.
Life Unedited. . . . | | |
| Biblical Scholars annoy me.
I was listening to a series of lectures on the New Perspective on Paul.
I was struck that, while certain critiques against the New Perspective
and particularly N.T. Wright were well-founded, the basic gist of the
argumentation was "Well, Wright's not Reformed enough for me, therefore
he is wrong."
Example from Hans Bayer's lecture entitled Paul http://www.covenantseminary.edu/resource/Bayer_NewPerspective2.mp3
Bayer first off notes that he is not a "Wright Scholar" (term is mine)
and thus has not read every piece of literature writen by Wright (not
that I blame him in the slightest). Bayer moves to his critique of
Wright. He starts by pointing out that the phrase "works of the Law" in
Paul refers more to the whole of the law being upheld in some manner of
works-righteousness, rather than Wright's view of merely the "boundry
laws" that separate Jew from Gentile. While I agree again Wright that
Paul indeed has the whole of the Law in view, I disagree that the term
is loaded against some form of works-righteousness. Yes, I think that
it is reasonable to argue from context that this is what Paul is
addressing, but Bayer doesn't really make his case there. This is fair
criticism...
Next, Bayer moves into Wright's view of Justification and
Righteousness. Bayer's pivotal point in regards to Wright's view of
Justification and Righteousness: Well, Wright thinks that Righteousness
cannot be imputed, but the correct (and Reformed) perspective says that
Christ's righteousness can be imputed. 
That's the end of the discussion. There's no proof offered against
Wright's view of righteousness, nor does it seem that Wright's view of
righteousness is even adequately defined. Memory serving from Wright's What St. Paul Really Said,
Wright views righteousness (especially in Pauline texts) as a court
room metaphor. Righteousness, therefore has a moral component, but in
the fullest sense is the verdict handed down by the judge. This goes
against limited views offered by the Reformed perspective that states
that righteousness is merely the moral quality of lacking sin. Further,
the Reformed view states that Christ's righteousness is imputed to man
(er, the elect) through the Crucifixion.
That's all well and good... The Reformed perspective may even be
correct, but I fail to see how merely STATING this has a disproof of
Wright's conclusions. From Wright's point of view, the whole notion of
imputing righteousness is abserd. I tend to agree with Wright on this
point. Thus, Christ's sacrifice is not the imputation of his own
status, but rather the ability for sinners to achieve said status.
Again, this does NOT undermine the notion that salvation is solely
based on unmerited grace.
Another person pointed out in my recent readings that the Reformed
critics of Wright often refused to take Wright from his own context.
Instead of challenging Wright's definitions, they default to their own
and declare Wright's to be wrong because they disagree.
Tell me, how does this further our understanding of the scriptures? If
we refused to be challenged in our positions, then we run the risk of
being lost in stale theology or even worse in BAD stale theology. It
seems that scholarship needs to spend MORE time in dialouge and less
time in 16th century commentaries... 
Yours,
Xavier
BONUS MATERIAL:
Further lectures on the New Perspective of Paul (both positive and negative) may be found at the following web pages:
http://www.paulperspective.com/page6.html
http://www.thepaulpage.com/
http://www.ntwrightpage.com/
If you have additional audio material to share, please drop me a line... 
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| UPS and Downs It's been a interesting last few days... So interesting in fact that I had a whole TWO people view my last blog entry...
At any rate, I thought I'd talk a bit about what I'm doing at work right now. Back when the IS dept. first got started, there was no such thing as the "networking guy", so the network was rather piece-mealed together at the hospital level. But as our system grew, our needs for connectivity grew as well. That led to the creation of the Networking section of IS. That's two full-time guys plus about 5 part-time guys (who work dual purpose). I'm the latest addition to this team. One of the ongoing tasks of our division is to clean up the mess that we found ourselves in. Slowly, but surely we are taking things in a modern direction implimenting better switching techonology and practices.
At the time of my hire, our enterprise existed on a per-floor segmentation plan (both physical and broadcast [logical]). However, this is simply not sufficent for the number of devices that we currently employ and no where close to a plan for scalability. So, by the time I leave this fall, every hospital (5 of them), clinic (about 20), and doctor's office (too many to count) will be on a VLAN per wiring closet segmentation. This proceedure involves going out and finding every device, changing the settings on its switch port, and rebooting that PC. In short, I have to restart EVERY COMPUTER in the ENTIRE system... 
And if that wasn't enough, I also get to install UPS devices, get them networked, and full loaded. I'm lucky in that I don't have to move the actual power. That guy gets to take the blame for the downtime...
I'm also on-call for service difficulties. For instance, last Friday the system lost its internet connectivity. It took my boss and I an hour on the phone with the ISP rep to get him to say that they had messed up their core and introduced a routing loop... :loser:
So that's the "UPS and downs" of networking internships... Get it? UPS and Down...
I crack myself up.
Yours,
Xavier
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