Power

Everyone's heard the saying, "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."  (Paraphrased from John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton)

I decided I don't agree with that.  I don't think power corrupts, I think it merely exploits or exacerbates existing corruption.  It's like putting pressure on a stone--the stone will eventually crack along existing imperfections or fault lines.

Taking it a step further, the more power granted, the smaller the imperfections that become a problem. Following it to the conclusion, absolute power would cause anyone with the slightest corruption--anyone less that a perfect being--to be destroyed.

Mormons differ from other Christian religions in our beliefs concerning the afterlife.  For one thing, we take very literally the idea of being children of God and joint-heirs with Christ.  As such, those who fulfill to perfection their responsibilities on Earth will (as joint-heirs with Christ) obtain all that God has and become all that He is. 

Now we see the need for a judgment.  That inheritance includes absolute power--the power to create and destroy worlds without number.  The power to create and destroy life itself.  No sane person, no matter how degenerate they personally were, would want that power given to anyone with the least predilection for evil.  Imagine the potential for destruction.

No, most of us would agree that there should be a stringent teaching process (life), including frequent tests (trials), followed by a final judgment as to worthiness (and who knows--perhaps many more millenia of learning), before such an awesome power should be granted to anyone.

Sweet Relief

Sometimes, it's been a long day and you're exhausted and all you want to do is sit down and watch the basketball game and eat something sweet but there's nothing but vegetables and coconut milk in the fridge and you're disappointed because there's never chips or cookies just lying around and you open the freezer and there you find a giant ice-cream/chocolate-chip cookie that you left there a week ago and forgot about and it's a little freezer-burned but you don't care because all you wanted was something sweet and it's like a little bit of heaven.

Robots!

We finally lined up our robots at work and I snapped a shot with my camera.  We're missing one from the picture due to the simple expedient that it's too large to fit through the door (it weighs 4500 pounds), but when we get a nice picture I'll post that as well.

A Plus Updates

In a surprising "coincidence," a week to the day after an unsatisfactory phone call with A Plus, I got an email indicating that they "noticed that you do not have an account manager" and were assigning me one.  Before I even read the email, I got a call from the person who had been assigned, indicating she was my new account manager and casually asking how things were going. 

I knew exactly why they were calling and repeated my previous complaints, as well as indicated my plan to leave their services.  After listening, my "account manager" apologized profusely for the unprofessional behavior of the previous person I had talked to, and offered to give me the domain service that had prompted my original call for free.

For the price of a phone call, an apology, and a $6 perk (well, it saved me $6; it cost them nothing), they kept a customer who pays them $50-$60 per year.  That's doing business the right way.

Wombat wombat wombat!

Most people who've been to been to Latter-day Saint seminary know the mildly interesting acronym spelled by a few words in 2 Nephi 9:39: "[To be] spiritually-minded is life eternal," or SMILE.

For the fun of it, I decided to see what other acronyms there were in the Book of Mormon.  Following are a sampling (not all the phrases that make up the acronym make sense; I just chose a few of the more interesting/amusing acronyms):

PALATES: "perish as long as the earth should" (tied for longest)
HANDOUT: "hearts are not drawn out unto the" (tied for longest)

WOMBAT: "words of my beloved are true"
SITCOM: "strong in the city of moroni"
TWEETS: "the whole earth except they shall"
MAIMS: "mine account i must speak"
SCUMS: "son came unto me saying"
WITCH: "which is to come having"
PANIC: "peace and now it came"
NACHO: "naught and cast him out"
ALOHA: "and lowliness of heart and"

All in all, I found over 400 that were 5 letters or longer, although some were duplicates.

A Plus moves to my Do-Not-Buy list

Another company bites the dust.  After buying over a half-dozen domains from A Plus.net, my next domain purchase will be from a different company.  My primary complaints:

1. Terrible security.  They actually require you to give them your password before they'll help with your account.  Verifying who the account belongs to is good; asking a user to give up a password is a huge no-no.  Any security professional can tell you that.  No one but the customer should ever have access to or know their password.

2. Terrible customer support.  When a customer calls with a complaint, immediately responding with a bad attitude is very poor service, especially if the customer is (I thought) polite.  Giving them the run-around about not being able to talk to a manager before putting them permanently on hold is worse.

Goodbye, A plus.net.  You get an F in my book.