A Plan to Restore the “Xanga Style” Community on “Free” WordPress

Xangan Community!

Soullfire

(Note: This is a “Pinned Blog” – newer blogs below this one)

Soullfire is Bringing Sexy Community Back** Former Xangans – Like and Reblog if you support this idea ** It’s been close to a month OVER SIX MONTHSA YEAR TWO YEARS since Xanga has launched it’s “updated” “Xanga 2.0”, driven with the WordPress engine, and it’s still operating well below the “free” WordPress state. The “community” that was, disappeared with the end of Xanga 1.0 with the loss of free blogging, along with all of “1.0’s” community centric features like having a front page, ring groups, and general areas where users could find each other and congregate. Xanga has given no updates – so no one over there knows how long the “non community” condition will last. Many former Xangans like myself have moved their general blogging over to “free” WordPress but are also feeling a general…

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Infinity Is Bigger Than You Think

Numberphile is awesome. But this video really gave me such an insight of how infinite our infinite God is.

For the nerdy bunch. This is a super interesting video. For the un-nerdy bunch. This is also a super interesting video.

 

For those who aren’t gonna bother watching the video. Well, let me give you a summary. Dr James Grime, a Cambridge university lecturer, is telling us that infinity isn’t just bigger than the biggest number that we can imagine. Infinity is also there in the small numbers. And in the negative numbers. And in between everything. For example, he drew a line, marked 0 and marked 1. In between those numbers, there are 0.5 (a half), 0.25 (a quarter), 0.2214 (any random number), and on and on. Then he proposed that it’s not possible to list down all the numbers in between 0 and 1. Not Possible?? Honestly, I would’ve thought that, to list numbers from 0 – 1 I just had to write 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4… then 0.11, 0.12, 0.13… and so on. And all I have to do is be hardworking to work it out. Well, according to Dr Grime, Georg Cantor, a very dead mathematician, found that no matter how many numbers you’ve listed, anyone could make a NEW number that was not listed. It’s an infinity. Because it’s not possible to end listing numbers in between 0 through 1. There are an infinity of numbers in between 0 and 1. Oh my goodness. What the heck just happened to my brain?

So, how many numbers are there in between 0 through 1?

Is God possibly SO BIG and SO INFINITE that something God created, so small as 0 – 1, is INFINITY to us?

 

God, am I finally scraping the tip of the iceberg with my spoon on finding out how BIG you actually are? How vast your hold. How deep your understanding. How great your glory. Lord, I want to understand, how wide is east to west for You? Lord, how long is a second? Lord, how much thought have you put into creating us?

Lord, how great is Your love?

If ONE little tiny puny piece of love from You can only be understood as infinity to us, how can we possibly understand how deep, how high, how wide, how strong, how thick, how real, how crushing, how painful, how boundless, how timeless, and how great Your LOVE is for us?

 

My heart is longing

My head hurts

Doctorbutterfly out

Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been (Acoustic Version) – Relient K

Culture Starts With You

Ever dislike a culture you’re in? I have. I wish I had friendlier neighbors. I wish ‘Christians’ talked about their problems and about God more. I wish people asked me how I was doing not just to strike conversation. I wish people didn’t use Facebook just for entertainment. I wish leaders in church (that’s me isn’t it?) prayed for members with problems more often. I wish close friends listened more and opined less. I wish laziness wasn’t cool. I wish people thought about saving money when thinking about shopping, but not when a poor man walks into church asking for money. I wish teenagers opened their eyes to all the awesome Christian music in the world. I wish people would take the same care to come early to church like they go early to school and work. I wish people were more patient. I wish the rich didn’t think that taking public transport was dangerous just because it’s used by poorer people. I wish people did the silent treatment less, and actually worked out problems they had with each other.

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All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.

A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47

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That’s a super nice community don’t you think? I’d like to see that, but I’m not gonna see any change if I don’t start myself.

See anything you’re not happy with? Well, DON’T be happy with it. Don’t be satisfied. Make a change. Start with yourself.

 

doctorbutterfly

Librarian

I had an odd dream last night. It went a little like this.

… Me and a group of friends reached a river. I think I had my school things. Papers, books, maybe a file. I’m not sure. Then I wanted to cross. But the water was too strong. We saw a bridge in the middle of the river that connects to the side of the river that we wanted to go. But why it wasn’t connected to this side… Sigh, i have weird dreams. Anyways. I put my stuff down on the river bank. Then, tried to cross again. But the mossy rocks underneath were too slippery. So I took off my slippers. Why was I wearing them to cross the river in the first place beats me. Then… I suddenly remember being across the river already. I dunno if I reached the bridge or what. Hmmm. Okay, seems like I’m dry too. As I was walking towards shops, I see quite a number of people walk into this particular shop. So I walk into that shop too. It’s like a Christian bookshop. Selling all sorts of random stuff that aren’t books as well. After I went in, I realised (more like I realised after I’ve awoken. During the dream I didn’t notice lol) I don’t know where all the other customers are. Seems like it’s just me and the boss in here. So I talk to him. Somehow I mentioned that I’m looking for a job and I asked if he had any vacancies. He said he did. And he was paying an amount I was looking for. So I told him I’d like to work there. He then started to tell me all the things I had to take care of. I felt overwhelmed. Like “this is too many things to do” and “why don’t you have more people working here?”
Then I woke up. Wondering what that dream was all about.
P.s. Yes all my dreams are weird and each scene don’t seem to be related to one another.

Doctorbutterfly at your service

Silence (Psalm 62:5-8)

Dear,

Sometimes, just take some time out.

Silence.

Time.

Heal.

Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.

Apologies

Hey all, Sorry bout not updating for a while. Normally I try to update at least once a week! But the past week has been quite crazy. Anyways listen to this awesome song!

 

I promise I’ll be back to updating. Maybe even tomorrow. We’ll see!

 

Over and out

doctorbutterfly

Joe Average

There was once an odd butterfly. That’s me.

I dislike my wings (they’re ugly). But I love to fly.

I hated my life. But I never wanted to die.

 

Honestly, I grew up a normal butterfly.

I didn’t have many friends. I didn’t know my parents.

Didn’t have much choice of food. Didn’t have much choice of talent.

 

But hey, life went on. Make the best of it.

I did what I did. Day out and day in.

Same old routine. Sipping tree sap, relaxing.

 

One fine, flowery, bright mooned, windy night.

A scent attracted me as it blew by.

One look at her, a tear dropped from my eye.

 

What’s this happy crying going on?

I have met females before. So I have to wonder.

Is this a biological reaction, to seeing my mother?

 

Slowly, my curiosity led me to a stranger.

Slowly, this stranger became a friend. We knew each other from antler-nose to sticky-toes.

Slowly, this friend, oh you could say, we got pretty close, pretty close.

 

It took me a while to realize this.

That her best interests became my heart’s desire.

And involvement from her, fueled my life’s fire.

 

But before I presented to her this notion.

Find I, another butterfly, to whom her heart has won.

And my, did they look cute. I could only look on.

 

I became quite close to him.

You see, she’d bring him, as we did our activities.

And I noticed some incapability.

 

However she chose to choose him nonetheless.

I thought she’d be good for me. But she was good for him too.

And life took a different turn suddenly, as she said “I do.”

 

Looking back, I knew I could’ve got to her.

But this love I felt wasn’t selfish in nature.

Fluttering around as I wonder, I realized my teacher.

 

Whom my heart still so desires to meet. My mother. 

She loved me, this egg / caterpillar / butterfly, with all of her heart.

Yet, though hurt her desire, as nature designs, did she depart.

 

I know how you feel mom.

Strong, intense desire to hold, to care, to see future grow.

But find a love powerful and unselfish enough, to let go.

 

Big GOD

 

 

Yes I do have a Big GOD!

You know, I was feeling encouraged by this phrase. It’s a catchy phrase. Pretty popular now. Going around. If you’re a christian, or a facebook-, twitter-, tumblr-, instagram-, or any social platform -user, you’ve probably have heard of this phrase too.

But while I was showering, a thought came to my mind: How biblical is this ‘proverb‘?

I’ve given it some thought. Tried to think of biblical examples or verses that could help me out. Here are my thoughts.

1. Do I have a big God? All scripture and stories tend to point in that direction very specifically. So, yes, affirmative, absolutely.

2. Can I tell my problem that I have a big God? Yes, I think so. I kind of have two point of views in this. FIRSTLY, yes, we SHOULD tell our problems that we have a great God. For me personally, it increases my faith to do so. We can learn from David. Goliath was taunting David saying stuff like “you’re a nerd” and “I’ll stuff you down the toilet in 5 minutes” (1 Samuel 17). But David told his Huge Ginormous Problem and Enemies that “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” So this was big talk back in the day. What a daring thing to say from David, a little shepherd boy, to the enemy, all trained-to-kill soldiers. Well, we need to learn to be daring. So yes, Big talk boasting our God is actually good. BUT, here’s my SECOND thought: “Tell your problem you have a big God” makes God sound like a tool. Like a handy Solve-It-All. We’re so used to being fed and people taking care of our problems, that we don’t see the need to take our own action. You know, neither David nor Moses nor Abraham nor Paul nor anyone who were really spiritually mature just told their problem off and expected God to do the work. Could you say Job just sat around discussing his problems with his friends and scratching his itch with a stick? “Did he do anything? Yet God blessed him.” Yes, I think he DID do something. He had faith. And he stood his ground and told his friends that God is good and everything happens for a reason. You need lots of guts to say something that will make you look like a total idiot in front of your friends. And God appreciated that, and blessed Job. Little David told his enemies he had a supreme God, then he acted on his faith, and Sling-Bang-Boom (this is an awesome song btw. I loved this song while growing up. Still do). So we not only have to tell our problems we have a great God, we also gotta do something about it. God is not your nanny whose job is to clean up your soiled diapers.

3. Now last but not least. Where in the bible does it say not to tell God we have big problems? Well, I see the opposite a lot. Did you know, that all the people in the bible, ALL of them (even Jesus), were like us? Human. Problematic. Weak. And like us, they cried out to God. They told God they couldn’t take it any longer. They complained to God. Did God know we (and they) had problems? Yes. Did God know it was coming? Yes. Did we need to inform Him, saying “Hey God, just in case You didn’t see me down here, but I’m in a bit of a rough”? NO, He knows all things! But He WANTS us to come to Him. To cry aloud. To weep. To despair. To be crushed in our spirit. To be totally open and honest. To repent. He wants us to come to Him, longing for comfort. He’s the big father. And He’s never too busy for us. And He wants us to commune with Him. To have a relationship. And the most vital thing in a relationship is communication. Tell God. Sometimes we may feel like we’d be ridiculed by God. We may feel like telling God will look like this: Hey God. And He’d say yeah? Oh I got His attention, you think you can help me? God’d be like what about? And we’d say well my daddy and mommy are fighting again, and I feel like it’s my fault. And God’d be like *snickers* pfft come on. Your problem is like ten billion times smaller than mine. Grow up. And then we hear the disconnected dial tone. God is not like that. He LONGS, yes, let me repeat, LONGS for intimacy with us. He wants to be your daddy. And a real daddy is one who can listen to us and be totally honest with us, and one who we can be totally honest to too. Even with the itsy-bitsy issues. Right? So, yes, I’m pretty sure that God wants us to tell Him our problems. Even how big our problem is. In fact, I’ve noticed how lots of really good conversations with Him come out of this topic.

Anyways, as a conclusion, I’d say this ‘proverb’ Don’t tell God you have a big problem. Tell your problem you have a big God is a bust. It’s not very biblical. Sure, it makes us want to thank God for being there for us. But we don’t grow up in our character and maturity (because we may expect God to solve our impossible situation), and we don’t grow closer to God because we may not feel the need to cry out to Him.

 

Food for thought.

 

At your service

doctorbutterfly