A Pilgrim's Journal

Hello! My name is Chris Frey. Welcome to my blog.

Christian

I list this first, not because I'm such a great Christian, but because Jesus Christ is my life. I have no life apart from Him.

I believe in God, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and I believe that the whole Bible is God's message of truth to the world.

You will find posts every so often on this blog with my ideas and thoughts that come from my personal Bible study. I do not claim to know the abstract absolute truth, but I do know Who is the Absolute Truth. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)

	31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,
	If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
   
	32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 
   
	   John 8

When I write about the Bible, it is not because I'm an expert, or even because I'm necessarily correct. I write because I have an urge to share the good news that I've found, like one beggar showing another where to find bread.

It is also a record of what I learn, for my own benefit. I hope that the results are helpful to others as well. But I encourage all readers to be a Berean and study the Bible for yourself to see if what I say is true. If not, I welcome your correction.

Computer Programmer

My first real access to a computer was a 386 with DOS 4.01. Starting with batch files, progressing to GWBASIC, and then jumping right into C and C++, my teen years were filled with fun exploration in making computers do what I wanted.

Over the years I've had experience with dBase and SQL style databases, written cost and inventory systems in FoxPro, written terminate and stay resident (TSR) programs in assembler, written firmware boot code in assembler, written industrial network firmware and applications in C and C++, written web applications, written GUI applications from Borland OWL to Windows MFC to Linux Gtk and wxWidgets, reverse engineered USB protocols, and lead the Barry open source project.

I am a big fan of Linux and Free Software. These days, as a contract programmer in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, my preferred work is with open source. My general practice is to release the code to my clients as well as the built binary, even my own copyrighted code. Locking your customers up with closed software is the way of fear, and therefore the lower road. Sometimes external factors prevent me from releasing the code, but I release it when possible.

Writer

I have not written my book yet. But nevertheless I enjoy writing, from fiction to technical documents. As I get more organized, my stories should appear under the "fiction" tag.

Artist: Enjoyment of Beauty

I occasionally enjoy doing pencil sketches when the mood strikes. I like working with very basic tools to create something beautiful, and so a few pencils, an eraser, and paper result in my favourite art, whether I'm the artist or not. Pen and ink drawings come a close second.

I also enjoy photography, but do not have any fancy equipment. I have an old Canon Powershot point and shoot, that allows for a surprising amount of customization in manual mode. With the hacked firmware, CHDK, your little pocket camera suddenly sprouts some very odd and useful wings.

I once had a photoblog, but ran out of time and disk space to keep it up, and so it fell by the wayside. I may start it up again, and incorporate photos into this blog someday.

But art is not just pictures. To me, it is the care and the craft of what you do, and the enjoyment of beauty and quality in everything, whether that is other people, literature, computer code, mathematics, religion, politics, or food.

Musician

I was blessed with piano lessons as a kid, but unfortunately my skills in that area have gone unused for the most part. I still remember some Christmas carols and hymns, but to learn something new takes me a while until I lock it into my muscle memory. My sight reading is pretty slow, usually glacial.

I play a bit of guitar as well, and experiment more with that than I do piano.

Cyclist

When the weather is nice, and the bike is tuned, I'm a very happy road cyclist. I love the combination of the exercise, the outdoors, the fresh air, and the human powered transportation. All kinds of human powered transportation fascinate me, actually, including canoeing. In the city, a bike is the ultimate transportation.

My bike is an old Canadian Tire SuperCycle. It ain't fancy, but it gets the job done.

Armchair Political Watcher

I used to think of myself as a conservative. Then Mike Harris happened, and I had a change of heart when I saw how the goal of "less government" meant something different than I had assumed.

I suspect that when most people talk of less government, they are talking about lightening their burden; but when government talks about less government, they are talking about lightening their burden. There's a difference, and it usually means putting the load on the little guy.

When government adds a burden to the citizen, I believe it has the corresponding responsibility to share that burden as much as possible, either by ruling wisely to make the burden as small as possible, or by carrying part of the load in a distributed manner.

Sinner

In most cases, a person's blog is a way to share one's best. The thoughts are polished, the words are measured, the articles are crafted with care. It is not a true journal of innermost thoughts and struggles. As such, it is easy to get a very skewed view of a person, when you only see their best.

But do not be deceived. I make lots of mistakes. Please do not think of me more highly than you ought. Though a few polished thoughts make it to this blog, there is a pile of confusion in the corner of my mind and life, that still needs work.

Human

I'm a human being. I share this planet with everyone else. I seek to learn new things and share it with others. I welcome your thoughts and feedback. See the Contact link on the side for how to reach me.