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So I was tuning in this morning and realized that Evanescence had disappeared from Christianrock.net’s playlist. Further investigation reveals that the band no longer wishes to be associated in any way with Christian music, and all their CDs are being recalled from Christian music stores.

I guess this is a serious wake-up call then. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, band members Moody and Lee reportedly used the f-word repeatedly (”I noticed we are at the top of Christian music charts and said, what the f— are we doing up there?”), and used the name of God in vain in what almost appeared to be a deliberate act of rebellion. Furthermore, they seemed to have denounced their Christian roots, with terms like “youthful indiscretion” being used to describe earlier interviews where they had clearly expressed their desire to share God’s love and true Christianity. (Note: there are rumors that that phrase was used by the interviewer, but it does not matter — they clearly assented to it).

I used to think Evanescence was a seriously cool band. I particularly liked the lyrics to songs like “Bring me to Life” and “Tourniquet”. But this turn of events just seems to underscore what fame and popularity can do to one’s foundational values. Whether Evanescence were really sincere in their Christianity at the beginning, I don’t know. But this for me is inexcusable, and I’m only hoping that Evanescence comes forth and apologizes for this sort of behavior. Until that happens, I will no longer be listening to any of their music. I recall being concerned after one of P.O.D.’s members talked about rocking “a–” on TV, but since then that member has been removed from the band, a clear indication of the band’s desire to be uncompromising in their faith.

Bands like Evanescence cannot use the Christian music industry as a prop for their own fame and then refuse to live up to the responsibilities of being a Christian. CCM has been accused of being “over-analytical and critical”, but I commend them for it … if you want to be associated with Christian music, then please live the Christian life. At least it’s a good thing that Evanescence has renounced their association with Christian music, so we know where they stand. One thing is clear: I will give much more scrutiny to the “Christian” bands I listen to from now on.

Quite a lot has happened over the past couple of weeks … in fact, so much that I haven’t had time to do anything important, let alone update this site.

So the Senior Design robotics competition at UH was on Friday March 27th. It turned out to be nothing short of a complete disaster. I tried my best to hold off ranting about it, but I was not a little peeved at the circumstances. Till this moment it perplexes me how a whole ECE department cannot spend approximately $400 or so to build a simple track out of wood and black paint. Instead, the task was delegated to one of the teams, who used a felt-tip marker to paint a track on paper. Even the team that built the track failed to make their robot work on it. There’s a lot more to say on that topic, but I’d rather just try to forget the whole episode.

What’s new is that there will be a new “demonstration” on Tuesday that will be used to determine our grades, and rules have been laid out. We are well on track to complete readiness for that demonstration. At least we were, until this afternoon when we discovered that someone had taken our connector. I am totally perplexed at this point…that connector is a special RS-232 to RJ-11 converter that only works on Rug Warrior boards (doesn’t even work with the regular handyboard, which requires a converter!). So unless someone’s trying to be mischievous or playing a practical joke, I can’t possibly think of any reason why anyone would want to take it. The robot wasn’t stolen (in fact, there were three robots in the lab at the time), neither was the computer or any of the electrical equipment in there. My teammates have gone searching for a new one, but I am still perplexed.

Went to see Chris Rock’s new movie “Head of State” a few days ago with Waqar and Jamal. It wasn’t bad, actually quite funny, even though the premises presented in the movie were quite ridiculous. I just wish Bernie Mac had been given more lines to say…that guy can make you laugh at just about anything.