Beacon in the Darkness

From 830pm to 930 pm on March 28, 88 countries and 4000 cities turned out the lights as a demonstration of concern to fight Global Warming.

I didn't.

My house was the brightest on the block. There were a few houses with a couple of lights on, but many turned off their lights around 8:30. I was watching a documentary with my family at that time and had to pause it so I could turn on all the lights in my house.

Many say that Earth Hour helped to save money and cut down costs. Of course it cut down costs, people turned out the lights! I'm into saving a few bucks on energy myself, which is why I turn on lights only when necessary. But to say that turning off lights will help bring down CO2 emissions is utter nonsense. There are those who have calculated that lighting a few candles during that hour created more CO2 than the energy used to turn on light bulbs. Whether or not it made a dent in the levels of CO2, the fact remains: humans are not contributing to global warming or climate change or whatever they call it these days. Every 50 years or so, a new group of scientists or a new study points to this or that to "confirm" a change in the environment. One of these days, I hope the majority opinion will finally accept the truth that these changes are natural and cyclical. Not holding my breath, of course.

Earth Hour only proved to me that there are way too many people who bought into the Gore sales pitch of human caused climate change.

Does anyone else think this Earth Hour business is hilarious?

Stuff I Like

Stumbled onto this blog while spell-checking: Stuff Christians Like. While reading the guy's entries, I was inspired to return to heightened playfulness in my writing, which leads to creativity. That's the stuff that allows people to read really long blog entries. I get turned off by articles that go for more than a few paragraphs, unless it's a subject I'm really interested in at the moment. But since I follow several blogs, I only have time for short entries. That's the reason my more serious blog, the 12th Letter, has on average two or three paragraphs. Most are only discussion starters - they're meant to be controversial, not comedic. But now that I've been reminded, I'm inspired to go the way of Glenn Beck: a fusion of entertainment and enlightenment.

This guy Prodigal Jon has written over 500 articles in two years! That's inspiring enough! But one article caught my attention, entitled Good enough for the church (Or God's Love Letter to Artists). Prodigal Jon wrote about the importance of the artists and craftsmen that God gifted for building the Tabernacle, so much so that they were second to the priests. Such a great reminder of what's important to God's heart. I remember reading that part of Exodus back in high school, that God assigned skilled artists and builders to create His Tabernacle, the precursor to the Temple. Back then, the only thing I could claim as my well-developed skill was art - illustrating, painting, sculpting, and calligraphy. So as a kid reading that, I thought, "Wow, God uses even the lowly artist." God didn't choose the strong, the intellectual elite, or even the politician - He chose the artist! Artists and builders are important to God's heart because His first act was in expressing Himself in the creation of this universe.