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Random, Personal Stuff...
Glenn M. Miller, committed (in intent, less so in practice...sigh), theologically-evangelical, follower/disciple of Jesus Christ for the last 50 years of my life; research/writer, retired from a career in IT and IT-finance, natural father of three gifted, delightful, over-stimulated, people--all seeking, questioning, open-minded, authentic people [one lives in heaven, one in PA, one in CO], step-father/adopted-father of two other incredible sons (one in NE, one in ministry in MS), and step-dad of the only life-time 4.0 student I have ever known. Amateur philosopher, theologian, mild Mojito-er, extreme empathetic, serious but passionate about the deep issues of life/existence.
Favorite joke: "Did you hear the one about the X (fill in your own membership ethnic group/school affiliation/occupation) who said they would give their right arm to be ambidextrous?"
Demeanor: A mixture of Puddleglum ("what with winter coming on and all..."; "There's nothing AT ALL enchanting about the smell of burnt marshwiggle"), Ziggy's simple naivete, Charlie Brown's social innocence (my date at the night of that inflection-point party called me that often), and with a core of constant laughter, jokes, and cynicisms.
Job: Retired Jan 2020 - a former researcher/writer/consultant/speaker/author (on senior IT executive issues and technology finance issues) in the outsourcing, systems integration and technology finance industries. I started my technology career as a college freshman in 1968, cutting Fortran II/4 and assembler code on an IBM 360/40, as part of my financial aid.
Favorite music genres:
The song that is my life-prayer and creates unavoidable worship experiences for me (smile) is Be Thou My Vision-- I cannot even type that without misting up... the line "and I thy true son" alternately shames me to the core, or strengthens my resolve closer to Isaiah 50.7 "I have set my face like a flint")
Avocation: Aggressive Christian service--individual and social. I have tried various 'versions' of this, but the only thing that God has seemed to encourage me in is this website research. I ended up trying to help people find answers to tough questions that shred their souls. It's a peace-maker role sorta.
To me, it 'feels' like a 'research' site (because it is filled mostly with '... and show your work' materils), but because the results have historically supported the basic Judeo-Christian truth claims, it 'looks' like an apologetics site, and seems to be called that by others. It is broader than that, obviously, since I have shared many things from my walk with the Lord (e.g. lessons-learned and general worldview/theology).
I originally planned / hoped to be a Christian professor in a secular university [started on a Ph.D in Computer Science for that] (they had such a powerful witness in the often 'hostile' university settings of the 60s and 70s), but I got 'side-tracked' into getting a seminary education. [I thought I was then being directed to preparing for teaching in a theological context, but since that didn't work out, I assume the seminary education was 'remedial work' on my character and worldview--LOL.] It was unclear even after that -- I was working on a Ph.D in philosophy (full-time) while teaching Biblical Greek and Philosophy in an undergraduate bible college, running a small software shop, and teaching SOFTWARE ENGINEERING at the same time at the University of Texas at Arlington (lol)! [Busy season... whew..] But personal/family/financial issues killed that, and I stayed in the computer science field the rest of the time.When I started the Tank (much longer story for that... later), I adjusted my perception of His will for me. I began to hope that my work would influence FUTURE scholars and academics, who would take some of the ideas and arguments God had led ME to and flesh them out, buttress the logic, eliminate the mistakes, address the literature that I could not get to, etc. This went along with empowerment of us rank-and-file Christians in the trenches -- dealing with the objections of others and the internal doubts the Spirit leads US believers to, in order to challenge us, sharpen us, call us back to honesty CONSTANTLY, and discover the amazing reality of the God of Truth and His joy-inspiring works. A further addition to the vision came in the 3rd or 4th month of the Tank's life (circa. Feb/Mar of 1995), when I noticed that 35% of the readers (all text-based, most using the Lynx browser--lol) were from overseas. The reach of that staggered me, and when one of the readers asked me to QUOTE the sources instead of just CITING a REFERENCE to them in the footnotes-- BECAUSE IT WAS ILLEGAL TO HAVE THOSE BOOKS IN THEIR COUNTRY, or BECAUSE THEIR WERE NO COPIES IN ANY OF THE LIBRARIES in THAT COUNTRY-- I realized how close this web-ministry could be to a type of God's Smugglers conduit. And finally, as more and more of the visitors prefaced their questions to me with "I tried asking this at my church, but they marginalized me as being impious or blasphemous, and social ostracism hurt me badly...", I realized there was an important niche of His kids who--like me--needed support in their walk with the Lord. Hence, the shape the Tank has taken...
Past/current Memberships:
I learned a LONG TIME AGO, that it was much easier to be BRIGHT than it was to be RIGHT!
Favorite reading material: Besides the technical journals in philosophy and theology, I read the 'less rigorous stuff' on particle physics, mathematics, social psychology, cosmogony, and genetics/paleontology. When God forces me into R&R, I read alternative-versions of the most common childhood stories (e.g. Alice, Peter Pan, Oz, Red Riding Hood, etc), and vampire and werewolf novels (I have probably read well over 1000 of these over the past 25 years.) [I actually wrote a plot outline for a v-book and w-book, "illustrating" aspects of a Christian anthropology, but I don't have the writing skills/time/imagination to develop them--so far.]
Formative works? As many in my demographic cohort, I was initially 'shaped' and 're-shaped' by the L'Abri works, FF Bruce, The Singer Trilogy, The Beggar King, Lewis, Tolkien... I will never forget the servant heart of Samwise, who a hero himself, begged Elrond to be able to serve his master Frodo at the table at Rivendell...would we all had hearts in tune with Philippians 2.5-11...
Education: BS, MS in Computer Science // BA, ThM in theology // two years toward a Ph.D. in philosophy, never to finish [missed the exam to convert that to MA, due to family crisis.].
Main Research interests (although the question-driven nature of the Tank doesn't allow me to pursue these much--YET):
Biblical/ANE intertextuality, information networks in the ancient world, theological method,
the suffering of God, writing/literature in the ANE, genetics, sub-atomic/quantum physics, social ontology, and (recently) trauma studies.
Ministries I pray for (and support when I have some discretionary shekels):
[I get to pray for tons more, but generally don't get to give to any more than the above few...sigh]
A couple more, special to my heart, are:
Recreational interests: tennis (shoulder surgeries killed that), hiking (knees killed that), pop-up books, reading (but all I do with my discretionary time is the ThinkTank, and dabble a couple of times a year in music making ...technology can overcome lack of talent/smile... I have Avid's Protools, Propellerhead's Reason, FL Studio, and most of the tools from IK Multimedia, Native Instruments, Antares, Korg, EastWest, SpectraSonics, etc....but haven't been able to do anything with them (except pay for upgrades...smile) in a decade or more --but ABOUT TO START BACK! (famous last words...)