Monday, May 31, 2010

Log On to Lobster...Get Connected, Get Organized and Get What You Need!


I am not entirely sure what Lobsters and Networking have in common...but I am pretty certain that the services offered (for free!) on the Lobster Network are going to be invaluable for many people. It is one of those websites that make you wonder why you didn’t come up with such an idea yourself, or, how you got along without it in the first place?
What can the Lobster Network do for you? Well, one of the simplest services is to help you keep track of your stuff! I think all of us suffer from the TOO-MUCH-STUFF disease. Do you share curriculum or reading material with others? Does your husband loan out tools or DVD’s? Do your kids like to share their video games with friends? Ever forget who loaned what to whom? With the Lobster Network, you can create your own personal inventory of things you have, things you are willing to loan, and who has borrowed them!
When you get your friends to use Lobster Network with you, they can see (for instance) that you have the Pride and Prejudice movie that you are willing to loan. They can ask to borrow it for a predetermined amount of time (say two weeks) and then you will each get a reminder for when it is due back! No more wondering what happened to the movie when you want to watch it, or feeling awkward calling your friend and saying, “Uh, remember that DVD you borrowed 6 months ago...we were wanting to watch it now...”.
Beyond the inventory control (which can also come in handy for insurance purposes in the unfortunate event of a fire or burglary, when you need to list your damaged/missing property), you can also have groups on Lobster Network that could suit many needs. These groups are secure within themselves to share information that not everyone can access.
For instance, a church library can utilize the Lobster Network as a way to track their items and remind people of when they are due without investing in an expensive compute system. How about a homeschool group that wants to share curriculum? A gardening club whose members want to share their seeds? There’s really no end to the possible uses for a secure networking site like this!
Within the Lobster Network you can set up personal accounts that only YOU can see. You can set up places for friends to browse your stuff that you are willing to share, and you can set up want ads or sell items, choosing how big the viewing audience is (from your own contacts to everyone on the Lobster Network).
The Lobster Network fills a niche I bet you didn’t know you had, until now! Click here to create a free account and let your friends know about this helpful site too. The sooner you connect, the sooner you guys can enjoying the benefits!




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At the Intersection of Creation and Evolution: A Dream

The alliterating story below is based on a dream I had several years ago. Please contact me for permission to reproduce.

Darkness devours me.

I am enveloped in emptiness.

Are my eyes open or are they closed? I strain against this shroud of night and still see nothing.

What is this place?

An image illuminates in front of me. A large, leafy tree streaks past and vanishes.

It deserts me to the darkness again.

In a moment, more images appear. A rapid succession of snapshots and thoughts clamor before my eyes and mingle in my mind.

I see seedlings. Several supple shoots have emerged before me and then swiftly stream away.

“The first trees on earth were not seedlings”, my mind observes. “They were not created as small insignificant saplings.”

That thought is rapidly replaced with a vision of a man.


He’s maybe 30; he is muscular and needs to shave.


He fades away.

In his place I see an infant.

A tiny bundle of pink skin upon a soft blanket flickers briefly in my brain.

“Man was created with age,” is the next statement I hear. “Adam did not begin his life as a baby, he began as a grown man.”

The voice seems like my own.


The thoughts do not.

Reeling before me now is a blur of rivers, forests, mountains and even layers of the earth. It is like a movie rushing rapidly before my retina.

The soundtrack of this epic is proclaiming a peculiarly plain concept:

“The earth was created with age. Creation and evolution are not in total opposition. There is a reason that science finds the earth to be quite old: it was made that way.”

Thoughts continue to tumble through my mind; pictures parade before me. I listen in amazement to what seems to be puzzlingly profound and yet rather apparent all at once.

“Adam was created as an adult. Trees and plants were made fully grown.”

I suddenly feel quite certain that, if I were to chop down some of the trees that had been spoken into existence, I would find a range of rings running through their trunks.

“The earth was brought to life with age built into it… just like Adam. He did not begin life as an infant. The earth came into being with what it would need to sustain the life that was created. It was old when it was young. The world was
made with maturity; it was also produced with purpose.”

These thoughts are thrilling. Why had I not seen this before? It seems so simple. Obtusely obvious. Had others not observed this correlation? If they had, why wasn’t it being candidly conveyed?

In the span of thirty seconds I have been ravaged by a radical revelation. I feel the weight of its worth resting on me; it is tantamount to tangible.

I am neither a theologian nor am I a scientist. I don’t claim that the ethics of evolution are completely compatible with the Bible’s account of creation. But certainly Science can come concurrent to creation and affirm our faith with facts.

Of course, the Omnipotent Originator of the Universe is exceedingly elusive to what our mind could ever envision. Above what science could ever extensively elucidate.

Accordingly, creation is confounding too. Each diverse discovery deems it more marvelous to grasp. Many scientists have reluctantly relented to the theory of Intelligent Design.

That’s why, alongside those facts, we also need faith.


Lying inexplicably at the intersection of those two essential elements is an exceptional endowment: the intermittent insight of our dreams.

Followers