Saturday, November 22, 2008

Late Night in Nashville

Sitting in the lobby of the Doubletree, where I finally found internet access, answering questions on my online courses and skulking around the internet, while downloading the new iphone update. There's a wedding reception wrapping up and about a dozen people wobbling past me in nice dresses and tuxedos. Next to me is another laptop user who is doing something that makes his computer sing "Yahoo!" every 5-10 seconds and he is not turning it off. OMG....

Today was very informative. That's the best word I can use. If you've followed by Twitter updates, here are the details. I never sleep well the first night in a hotel. It didn't help that every time the heat came on it was preceded by a very loud clunking sound. So I did wake up in time to attend the early bird sessions. The one of interest was a beginners Photoshop course. I knew most of the tools, but it was still good to finally HEAR someone explain it rather than just self-learn it from a book. I won a DVD of the instructors on some more advanced techniques! :) I also found out he was having a more advanced course that afternoon. I had wanted to attend the "behind the scenes" tour of the main sessions, but I felt this Photoshop workshop would be more practical. Definitely learned some cool techniques. It makes me want to get the creative juices flowing and create some cool "Christian-esque" graphical art to put up in my house. (Yah right...)

The main sessions have been, well different. Last night they had three mini-speakers followed by a Q&A that we could text to. Problem was they got to about 2 questions each speaker because the facilitator kept asking their own questions. Actually, overall the speakers have been a bit odd to me. One guy can only speak in one tone: dramatic...and did I mention he ended by disco dancing? I did get one thing out of it though...I'm now a member of the Slow Club.

The rest of the group I came with wanted to watch the Tech/OU game, but I wanted to go to the session again, so I did. I'm really glad, too. Unknown to me at the time, I got to hear the manager of the Human Genome Project talk about how he reconciled science with faith...his journey from atheism to Christianity. The. Head. Guy. Of. The. Human. Genome. Project. He spoke. He's a Christian! OMG! I'm kinda wigging out! His talk lost a lot of the crowd, I'm not going to lie (maybe part of it was the football game coming on). And really, I don't like to get caught up in the evolution/Genesis/creation/faith argument. Cuz really it shouldn't be an argument. It's a non-essential; the questions will be answered when we see God's face in heaven. For him, the reconciliation was important. And he laid out evidence that evolution is occurring and is a tool being used by God. That Genesis isn't a framework of 7 literal days. Okay fine. Bottom line: science and faith don't have to clash; they can flow together. We can figure a little bit out of how God did things, and doing so does not challenge His position as God.

Tomorrow's a lighter day. Walking around the vendors; one seminar. Football game is in town so it is going to be car-azy around here. Good night from Nashville.

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