Today I read on another website about how employees of photo developers
(particularly one hour photoshops) were being put in a bad place because
they were having to develop images of things that were questionable, and
in some cases images of things that are illegal.
The problem was that their employers were telling them to ignore the moral
implications of the images and just develop the images leaving the
photographer to their privacy.
The problem with that lies in the fact that when people are harming other
people, or preparing to harm other people, they should be stopped.
Ignoring something on the grounds that a person has assumed privacy is
irresponsible, and it leads to moral apathy.

Similarly if we had been able to identify that one of the people involved
with the Columbine, Colorado events back in 1999 because they had put some
note in their garbage and somehow that note was discovered by a sanitation
worker, would the information in the note be considered invasion of
privacy if acted upon by legal authorities?
Anyway, I was irritated to hear that and because Walmart is one of the
perpetrators of such policies I’m glad to take my photo business else
where.
Now, I don’t want to play the ‘guilty by association’ game, so if you have
your images developed there, that is fine.
I’m not a political activist, I’m an evangelist for truth and Jesus Christ.
Get your relationship straightened out with Christ, and then we’ll worry
about your camera 🙂

Resting in Him,

Randy “Hot Potato” Peterman

Next year will be a longer year, at least by 24 hours.
That’s right, because on February 29th we’ll get to do more.
This is probably a big deal for union labor since that’s an extra day that
they have to work.
Salaried employees get to give 7-24 more hours of work to their employers for
free.
However, the truth be known we’re so blessed to have the jobs, clothes and
niceties we have in the USA.
After all today the former dictator (AKA
Richard Potato) was found in a dirt hole hiding.
Of course once we found him we gave him a nice warm shower, a medical
check-up, a nice shave (I don’t know if they gave him a razor or an
electric shaver – sharp objects may not be good for him) and a news
conference announcing his capture.
They don’t do that for me at work when I come out of hiding on the
weekends.

But this is America.
And Today in America we opened the Christmas presents we got for each other
before we hit the road (figuratively, we’re flying).
That way we could have a week of playing with toys, things and such before
going somewhere else and playing with more toys and things.
This also allowed us to have a little bit of private, intimate, family time.
Of course family time with Abigail consists of reading short books over and
over and then deciphering some of her hand gestures to figure out if she’s
saying she wants a banana or that there’s a hand grenade in the piccolo –
her sign language is a wee rough.
Anyway, back to the present(s).
Jessica got Indiana Jones and the Temple of DVD’s, some gloves for kneading
bread, Pirates of the Carob Bean, a cutting board, a spatula, and a Creme
Brulee kit (without butane[!?]).
Abby got so much stuff that we had to have an addition added to our second
story apartment, so now our apartment building looks like something out of
an M.C. Escher picture, but at least we can fit all of her toys in her
room.
I got socks, underwear (Sponge Bob Boxers!), a calendar, magnets (words for
the fridge), Cranium, and a Dave Barry book (Boogers are my Beat).
There could have been other things, but frankly I can’t recall, it all
happened so quickly and I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.
Abigail helped unwrap the gifts, in fact if she wasn’t helping unwrap she was
pretty upset.
I think that the next 5-6 years of our lives will be filled with this as our
child(ren) grow(s) up.

So, as I think of overthrown dictators in small holes with $750,000
USD on them, I think of
all of the other Iraqis who are stuck living in their smallish villages,
waiting to see if they’ll be able to turn in another person who’s face
showed up on a list of most wanted men via playing cards.
I am sad for them, not because playing cards encourage gambling and they may
not have the money to lose at the tables, but because I know that they are
right there with their families this Christmas, and when they see a
United States soldier dressed in a red suit they’ll be confused.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Overly Affluent American” Peterman

Baah

It’s the ‘holiday season,’ which translates in today’s world as two things:
Dollars and Political Correctness.
Dollars because of the amount of money people sill spend outdoing Santa.
And Political Correctness because we need to make sure that we market to all
of the religious holidays.
I’d like to turn people’s hearts and minds to the manger, where Christ was
born in Bethlehem.
When a Savior for the world was born in a place that only God expected and
the arrogance of man had no hold.
Where the sheep said “Baaah.”

Hummmm

Last night we had Christmas music on, which was fun, at least some of it was,
some of it was pretty poorly done.
So we fast forwarded those tracks which needed it.
I was glad to have been able to hear “Oh, Come Oh Come Emmanuel.”
That is one of my favorites because it is so emotive.
I like to sing along, even if my voice doesn’t have the range it used to when
I led the congregation in singing.
So, even if you don’t know all of the words this Christmas, humm along!

Bug

Prayer requests abound this season, but do pray for the people with this new
Flu strain.
It’s apparently a doozy.
Pray that folks don’t get it.
Pray that those who have it will get better – and pray that those who will be
traveling (us and so many others) will have safety in their journey.
And remember that prayer is part of your relationship with God – keep it real
and keep it constant.

Resting in Him,

Randy “Punny Guy” Peterman

The message that I’ve been getting this year is this: Read your Bible every
day.
A simple message.
One I’ve been getting since childhood.
However, it has taken 25 years for me to put it into practice – and still I
have days where I foolishly don’t make it a priority.
But here’s the thing: doing so makes renewing your mind a lot easier.
Romans 12:2 says:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is
good and acceptable and perfect.

The part of this passage which I have struggled with at times is the renewing.
If you think about how much you are bombarded by this world and its media,
advertisers, your social peers and your own flesh’s desires you see that
we’re not in a light weight paintball battle.
So renewing our minds, conforming them to Christ, will

• enhance our relationship with Christ – our savior
• help us to stand against the schemes Satan (Ephesians 6:11)
• help us to edify other saints (Romans 12:4-9)
• help us to know what the Lord’s will is
• help us to be lights unto the world

With this in mind, even though I read/listened through the whole Bible once,
and am wrapping up a New Testament read/listen Jessica and I are going to
read through the Bible together (separately, and then discuss together)
this year.
Paul Henebury encouraged me towards this early this year and I’ve made it a
priority.
The sad thing about Seminary is that this was not a priority emphasized by
any teachers I had, save one.
John and Karen got me the Bible on audio CD for Christmas last year and its
been great listening through.

Make the time, it can only benefit you!
If you’ve got questions about what you read ask someone you trust as a
spiritual leader.
And if you’re not sure who that is, you’re more than welcome to ask me and if
I don’t have an immediate answer I can find out from my resources.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to open your eyes as you read – it will be a bright year, if only lit by the Word of God!

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman

Footnotes

1 The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, (La Habra, California:
The Lockman Foundation) 1996.

However, I’ve got one of their video cameras now, and its digital.
It even uses a memory card if we’re crazy enough to use one.
However, I’m already giddy due to the fact that it supports Firewire.
Firewire is super fast.
So now I can take video footage of Abby and then put it onto the computer at
lightning speed and so far my limited tests have shown that my PC can
handle such a high speed video stream.
My old Dazzle USB connection would mess itself up horribly when we’d try to
record more than 5 minutes worth of audio and video.

What this means for you, the reader/viewer is that I can make videos of Abby,
life and crazy comic sketches and then stream them from this website.
It also means that I’ll probably start pushing some bandwidth limits on my
site if I put up much video.
I might have to put them on my yahoo archive, but all of the segments will
have to be 5 megabytes or less to be put up there.

Jessica and I went to dinner tonight with Abigail and she was really
impressed with the animal heads mounted on the wall.
I pointed to a stuffed buffalo head on the wall and said, “Buffalo” (surprising, huh?).
Abigail said, “Buffafo.”
I was shocked!
I dropped her in astonishment, she sustained a sprained appendix, has an
involuntary wink and talks backwards now, but the buffalo thing was cool*.

Resting in Him,

Randy “I’m a digi-geek” Peterman

*This is a joke, though not funny to some, it is part of my weird humor.
Abigail is doing fine and was not dropped.
Ooooh, look at all of the pretty buttons on that camera.

The lethargy around here is high.
We’re tired, we’re physically drained and I think its just because we’re
coming down from our weekend.
We stayed up late, got up early, and now – we have to get back to normal.
So with that in mind – this is my entry tonight.

The only other things I’ll say is that last night I put up some pictures of
Abby.
In case you didn’t see them, they’re here.
I think my favorite is the spaghetti ‘we want you’ picture.

Resting (literally and figuratively) in Him,

Randy Peterman

This year you will find Abigail Ruth Peterman modeling the finest in
spaghetti strap tops and pajamas.
Her Super-Model status has been sealed for the remainder of the decade.

Smile, you’re on daddy’s camera!



WE WANT YOU!



Are these things comfortable? Depends.



On the phone…with grandma.



Abby opening some presents



Amazingly, Abby opens more presents



Jessica acting ‘goofy’ (I mean that in the most adoring husband sort of way).
I actually made her do that.



Abby being cute again.

Yesterday afternoon my boss bought a Dodge Viper.
Wow.
That is a fast car and it is slick looking, too.
His is all black and to make matters blacker he had the windows tinted.
The only things that are not black are the lights, brakes and rims.
The seats are covered in suede and the car just looks fast.

Mr. Utter

Our friends the Utters, who kept us company when we first moved to Texas live
in Michigan, but fortunately they sent Jamie Utter down to visit us and
tonight we had dinner with he and two other elders from the church he
co-elders, Doug and David.
I could have spent the rest of the night talking with them, but time ran out
and they had to get back to the conference they came down for.
We missed Ruth, Jay and Lacy, but hope to see them sometime next year anyway.
I didn’t get enough time!
But time seems to be the one thing that is always running out.
I can’t wait for Christ to return because then we’ll get to be with the
Utters for a lot longer – eternity.
It won’t be like that perfume/calogne called eternity because it will last
and smell better.

Shopping

I’m going out shopping tonight for Jess’ presents too, so we’ll see what I
find.
She’ll never guess…

Resting in Him,

Randy “Sneaky Snake” Peterman

The Alt-N trip to Cancun.
Pictures provided by our little Kodak digital camera 🙂

A view from the Plane as we were landing.



A view of the beach from our room.



Here you see a slightly different view.



Isn’t this also a nice view?



What are the chances a girl like that and a guy like that would get together?

100%!



Dolphins are a tasty snack – when they’re orange and for kids.

Don’t eat these at home.



Fashion Sea Horses 😉



This is so cool!



After you play with dolphins you should always have a hearty bowl of
butter soup.



This is what we watched as we rode the ferry back from Isla Mujeres.



Louanne and Jessica on the beach Sunday Morning.
What good friends!

This morning I drove into work from Sherman.
Jerry had said I could be late due to the trip.
I got to work at 10:00.
After a short bit of reading email and newsgroups Jerry came in and invited
me to go to lunch with himself, Arvel and Jon.
We went to the Cacherel, which is a fabulous restaurant near
Alt-N.
After a lunch retelling our adventures in and out of Cancun we headed back to
Alt-N.
But on the way down to the car from the Cacherel Arvel mentioned wanting to
go look at cars.
So we did.
We looked at Dodge Vipers.

The new 2003/2004 body design is much better than the older body
design.
The interior also is better.
Arvel really liked them.
They’re way outside of my price range 🙂

I know, a tough day at work.
I’m tired now from entering my hand written articles from over the weekend
(here, here and here).
I put up many of the pictures I took with our
digital camera under the media section.
Hope that you had as fun a weekend as I did – you should visit Cancun.

Resting in Him,

Randy “They don’t make’em like they used to” Peterman