God and the origins of life

It’s been quite a few years since I have had the opportunity to be intellectually stimulated in the areas of religion, philosophy and science – I very much miss the days of tutelage under my friend and mentor, Bill Johnson.

One of the topics that I really took an interest in, was the intersect of religion and science. I recently added a new author to my “to read” list. His book(s) appear to settle comfortably in the company of Collins, Jastrow, Tipler, Davies, and the likes: Stephen Meyer.

Although I haven’t read his books yet (just found him this morning), I enjoyed his cursory overview of his latest book Return of the God Hypothesis from Uncommon Knowledge.

Especially appreciated his reference to Jastrow, when he wrote:

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers.

Geek Alert: When I’m bored…

I have to admit, I’m not one to go stir-crazy. I could be completely happy sitting around the house, as long as I have access to a computer, iPad, Instruments (like a Piano or Guitar), and/or Kindle.

I’ve spent a lot of my “extra” time going back and refreshing my programming skills, and recently someone @Work reminded me of PlantUML. I had completely forgotten about it!

With PlantUML you can program pictures. If you like to draw UML/Architecture type pictures to express ideas, I highly recommend you check it out.

So here I am, on a Sunday morning, doing another thing that I enjoy: brain teasers.

So – I had this brain teaser that I was staring at and I thought: Why don’t I draw it out. Which is where PlantUML comes into the picture. Here we go. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do (@Amanda says – you are so boring).

You live on an island, you are coming back from a trip to the store, you have in your inventory a duck, some seeds and a fox. You can only carry one item across on the boat at a time. You cannot leave the duck alone with the seeds or the fox alone with the duck, as they will eat each other. How do you get the Duck, the Seeds, and the Fox over to your island?

Enter PlantUML:

@startuml
Participant "Left Shore" as L
Participant "Boat" as B
Participant "Right Shore" as R

Rnote over R
Duck
Seeds
Fox
Endrnote

R->L: bring over duck

Rnote over L
Duck
Endrnote

Rnote over R
Seeds
Fox
Endrnote

L->R : go back for fox
R->L: Bring over Fox
Rnote over L
Fox
Endrnote

Rnote over L
Duck
Endrnote

L->R : bring back Duck

Rnote over R
Seeds
Endrnote

Rnote over R
Duck
Endrnote

R->L : bring over seeds

Rnote over L
Fox
Seeds
endrnote

rnote over R
duck
Endrnote

L->R : Go back for duck
R->L : Bring over Duck

Rnote over L
Duck
Seeds
Fox
Endrnote
@enduml

And here is your result:

You are welcome Internet.

The Power of humility

Ignore the click bait title related to “contentious leadership”, but according to this columnist, the Army has started down a path of understanding #transformationalleadership and #servantleadership.

Back in the 90s, a man by the name of Dr. David Jeremiah taught me a valuable lesson on humility.

I have used this lesson to weigh and measure my leaders over the last two decades; to learn what behaviors I wanted to emulate, and those behaviors I wanted to filter out of my own.

Those lessons and experiences have helped to shape and mature me into a leader that strives to inspire others to the same, and here is that lesson, which appears to be at the core of what the Inc columnist is trying to capture:

Humility is not a form of weakness, it’s not about becoming a door mat for others, it’s not being unwilling to make the hard decisions.

Humility is a form of strength, it’s being self-aware in understanding the uniqueness and value of those you work around and with, and being willing to learn from them, while serving them to help reach their individual and the overall organizational potential: humility is power under control.

Be a Multiplier, not a Diminisher.

#leadershipdevelopment #leadership #humility #inspirationalleaders

https://www.inc.com/chris-matyszczyk/the-us-army-is-promoting-a-contentious-new-leadership-value-heres-why-every-business-leader-should-embrace-it.html

Updated Bubble Sort in x86 ASM

So, after another week of studying assembly, I went back and rewrote my bubble sort algorithm.  I’m feeling a lot better about this implementation.  I’m sure it could could be even better, but I’m pretty pleased with it this time.

Here is the code:

 

; Author J. Logiodice
; Date: 05/28/2016
; Purpose: Bubble SOrt
; This method will read in a series of TOTAL_NUMS numbers
; And bubble sort them, then print them out in sorted order to the screen
format PE console
entry start

include ‘win32a.inc’

TOTAL_NUMS = 10 ;10

section ‘.bss’ data readable writeable

array_numbers dd TOTAL_NUMS dup (?)
nMinus1Mem dd ?
boolSwapped db ?

section ‘.text’ code readable executable

start:

; Set up the loop variables
mov ecx, dword TOTAL_NUMS
mov esi, dword TOTAL_NUMS ;ecx
; +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
; Read in one number at a time, for TOTAL_NUMS numbers, store them in the bytes that
; start with array_numbers
; +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

loopRead:

; have to use esi because read_hex uses edi
dec esi

; read input into eax but first clear out eax
xor eax, eax
call read_hex

; move value into memory offset (reverse order)
mov dword [array_numbers + esi * 4], eax

loop loopRead

; +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
; loop iteratively over the array until no more swapping occurs,
; and the highest number ends up in the lowest part of the array (lowest to highest)
; start with array_numbers
; +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
; Set back up the loop variables
restartLoop:

mov ecx, dword TOTAL_NUMS – 1
; set the swapped variable to false
mov [boolSwapped], byte 0 ;dword 0

lea esi, [array_numbers]

loopSort:

; jump to the loop exit if ecx is 0
; this will occur if we are at the end of the counter, or if the
; initial array was of size 0 bytes
jecxz loopExit
; load the first number in array_numbers into eax
lodsd
; after lodsd, edi is pointing to edi – dword
; if we compare the value at edi at this point it is effectively the value below eax
; compare eax to the number below it in the array
cmp eax, [esi] ;, eax
; if [esi] > eax, then no ZF or CF set, so jump below or equal
jbe noSwap
; if here then eax is lower, swap eax and the higher number in memory
mov ebx, dword [esi]
mov [esi], dword eax
mov dword [esi-4], ebx

; if a swap occured, set boolSwapped = 1

mov [boolSwapped], 1b
noSwap:
; jump here if no swapping needs to occur, but we’re still in the loop
loop loopSort

loopExit:

; if boolSwapped isn’t false, then we’ve swapped at least one
; during the iteration, let’s go through it one more time to make sure
; that we don’t have any more to swap
cmp [boolSwapped], 1b
jae restartLoop
; +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
; Print each number back out to the screen for unmodified numbers
; we will loop from the lowest to highest part of the array – which is the largest to smallest number
; +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

mov ecx, TOTAL_NUMS
lea esi, [array_numbers]

loopPrint:

jecxz loopExit
lodsd
call print_eax

loop loopPrint
exit_prog:
push 0
call [ExitProcess]
include ‘training.inc’

I must go down to the sea again

There is something indescribable and wondrous about the vast and endless sea.  The call of the ocean, echoing in history, throughout the future.  I cannot recall physically going into the ocean for the past 30 years.  It is an amazing feeling, a feeling of both insignificance and of fortitude: insignificance in the realization of how tiny and insubstantial I am, but strength in realizing that of all creatures in creation this world was made for me.

I, as human, represent the pinnacle of crowning achievement for creation; the most complex, the most intriguing of all creatures with my abilities to think and love and reason in unique ways: being granted the blessing (or curse) of being one of the few known reasoning creatures that will spend most of my lifetime contemplating my own mortality.

I started this weak on Cocoa Beach officiating the wedding of my brother-in-law, and new sister-in-law: Jeremy and Rebecca Jewers.  It was an honor and a privilege to be asked to perform the ceremony, it is the second time in my life I have been called upon to do such an amazing thing.  Marriage is as wonderful as birth, and baptism; both representing a transition, a newness, a transformation from old to new; from form to form.

2014 Cocoa beach
2014 Cocoa beach

The wedding started with the scene from the Princess Bride:  Mawage, Mawage is what bwings us togethwer today.  It was the perfect fit, a perfect couple: a farm boy turned pirate and a princess.  Two people, that were meant to be together.

Cocoa beach wedding 2014
Cocoa beach wedding 2014

On our last night on the beach, Amanda and I were taking a walk down the beach in the moonlight and we ran into a majestic but ominous looking foot long crab.  We were in awe at his size and amazed at his beauty, until we saw that he held in his claw a baby hatchling loggerhead turtle.

We immediately went into rescue mode.  I took on the crab (and he was vicious!) and encouraged him to drop the turtle (ok, I might have kicked him in the rear with my bare foot while Amanda kept his attention). Then, while I kept the crab occupied (he continued coming after me), Amanda guarded the baby turtle as it made it to the water.

In the end, we both were able to watch the turtle swim out to sea, and we then returned to the crab to take a picture of him.  He belongs on the wall of shame! This was one of the most amazing things I have experienced in nature.

Being saved from Crab
Being saved from Monster Crab

Attempting to eat a Loggerhead
Wall of Shame: Attempting to eat a baby Loggerhead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are now preparing, after a full week of God’s beautiful nature to head back to the city of San Antonio.  We miss friends there, but honestly, we are not overly excited to go back; we miss the nature, the openness, the sea breeze of the east coast.  It’s hard to say what the future will hold for us, but one thing for sure.  Home is where the heart is, and there is no place like home.

Amanda and Jediah August 2014
Amanda and Jediah August 2014