Regular readers know that my writing production has dropped off over the past year. If you see that I haven’t posted lately, it is because I can’t. My spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak. Outside of attending concerts, school events, and occasionally eating out, I am pretty much homebound. I have noticed of late that my recovery after an outing is taking a lot longer — often days longer.
For new readers, I have a lot of serious health problems: gastroparesis (uncurable), exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (uncurable), osteoarthritis, peripheral neuropathy in my legs and feet, fibromyalgia, and degenerative spine disease. An MRI in 2021 revealed widespread damage to my spine and neck:
Disc herniation (T7,T8)
Disc herniation (T6,T7)
Central spinal canal stenosis (T9/T10, T10/T11)
Foraminal stenosis (T5,T6)
Disc degeneration/spondylosis (T1/T2 through T10/T11)
Facet Arthropathy throughout the spine, particularly at T2/T3, T3/T4, T5/T6, and T7/T8 through the T12/L1 levels.
Hypertrophic arthropathy at T9/T10
I had surgery on my spine a year ago, and now it looks like I will have to have surgery again. I have an MRI scheduled for Friday. This should reveal what is causing insufferable pain in my lower back and whehter it can be surgically fixed. Regardless, chronic, unrelenting pain is ever with me, and, thanks to the government’s incessant war on narcotic pain medications, my pain is no longer well-managed. I need twice the medication I currently take, but no doctor (including local pain management doctors) is willing to prescribe it. I am using an increasing amoung of cannabis that helps, but the only thing that reduces my pain to a whisper is sufficient narcotic pain medications (I am taking half the amount I took ten years ago). And please, if you want to keep your head on your shoulders, no unsolicted medical advice. I know my body quite well — what works and doesn’t work. I know many of you care, but all I ask from you is your kindness and support. I have come to terms with the fact that this is my new lot in life, and unless Jesus shows up and divinely heals me, one or more of the diseases that afflict me will eventually kill me; that is if I don’t die from falling (an increasing problem, for me).
Every day of my life is dominated by unrelenting pain, along with stomach and bowel problems. Life is a challenge, to say the least. Nights are the worst, often taking hours, upon hours for me to finally fall asleep, only to wake up again two or three hours later. I sleep when and how I can, but I am NEVER rested. When you see me publish an article, leave a comment, or respond to an email at 5:00 am, you will know I am unable to sleep.
I appreciate your love, care, and understanding. I will continue to write until I can no longer do so. So far, I have been able to keep writing, but there will be days when I cannot sit up let alone type a new post.
Saved by Reason,
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Dr. David Tee is the tall white man in the back row
Another day, more drama emanating from a dark, musty basement somewhere in the Philippines. Dr. David Tee, whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen, is upset that yours truly and Ben Berwick called him out on his unethical behavior. It is troubling that Thiessen refuses to use our legal names when writing about us. There’s no reason for him not to do so.
But one thing that has bothered us is that both MM and BG make everything we write personal to them. They continue to use our wrong name as if to get a rise out of us. But their disrespect undermines their points of view.
If they had stopped to think about it, our use of initials was not personal. MM stands for Meerkat Musings which indicates that we are not addressing the person writing the content. Instead, we are addressing the content only and have left all personal aspects out of our own content.
The same for BG. His website is titled ‘The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser’ So our use of initials again only refer to the website content, not the man behind it. But they do not think about these details in their haste to try and do everything they accuse us of doing to them.
But expecting rational and polite behavior from unbelievers is an unrealistic hope. As we read their content and responses, they are the ones making it personal, not us. But we will try to ignore their badly written responses and focus on the content we can use here.
Unbelievers have nothing to offer the believer except destruction. The believer needs to be warned about them and their views.
Does any of that ring true to you? Of course not. Instead of admitting his childish behavior and amending his ways, Thiessen concocts a ludicrous justification for his refusal to use proper form by typing out our names.
Of greater concern is Thiessen’s refusal to link to our articles when he mentions them, even when he is excerpting large amounts of text. Thiessen’s behavior not only goes against proper blogging conventions, but it is also unethical. Both Ben and I have called him out on his unethical behavior.
Leave it to the unbelievers to make false accusations and ignore the reality of what took place. We are not techno experts and sometimes when we use technology, things mess up. But leave it to MM to make false accusations because he can:
“has written a couple of posts that relate to my material, but has decided against providing direct links, and even giving credit where it’s due. So, he’s gone from not even being capable of using my name, to not even linking to my site when he quotes me, to not even acknowledging that he’s quoting me!”
It turns out after checking, that we can’t link to his website using the technological aid we have been using. It is a simple mistake but leave it to MM to make a mountain out of a molehill.
Instead of telling us, there was a problem with the links, he leaps to a faulty conclusion and points a finger where a finger should not be pointed. We read his post and we checked so that is how we found out. Having people make such false accusations makes us go slowly to repair the links.
Maybe MM should learn how to give the benefit of the doubt until he hears the truth.
According to Thiessen, Ben and I are acting uncharitably towards him; that the missing links are just a technological snafu. Why, then, if that is the case, has Thiessen not fixed the posts that are missing attribution? How hard can it be, right? Thiessen uses the WordPress platform. He has been blogging since 2012. Does anyone believe that he suddenly doesn’t know how to make an HTML link or that there is some sort of bug in WordPress keeping him from hyperlinking? Not a chance. Thiessen has a minimalist blog and uses the latest WordPress install. I use WordPress, as does Ben. We have been using the software for years. I started using WordPress back in the wild, wild blogging days of 2007. I have never had a problem making a hyperlink, and I doubt Ben has either.
Two years ago, I called out Thiessen on his refusal to give proper attribution and provide proper HTML links. For a time, he was trying to obscure the links by making them the same color as the body text. Cute, right? On both occasions, he said problems with WordPress were to blame. I didn’t believe him then, and I don’t believe him now.
MM replied to our comment above and like a true unbeliever, he condemns without knowing any or all of the facts. The owner of MM should know better than to do that as he demands that Christians do better when he makes mistakes.
At best both MM and BG website owners are hypcorites [sic].
Sorry, Derrick, all the “facts” are in. You are behaving unethically. We can’t — well, we could file takedown requests if we had the time — stop you from continuing to do what you do. All we can do is continue to point out your unethical behavior. Thoughtful readers will see your behavior for what it is.
Recently, Derrick Thiessen (aka David Thiessen, aka David Tee) has written a couple of posts that relate to my material, but has decided against providing direct links, and even giving credit where it’s due. So, he’s gone from not even being capable of using my name, to not even linking to my site when he quotes me, to not even acknowledging that he’s quoting me! Derrick, that’s pretty poor form.
Can I be bothered with his lengthy diatribe? No. Suffice to say, he is misconstruing Biblical references and occasional references from external sources, with the idea that the Bible is to be taken 100% literally, which isn’t logical and isn’t an observation-based form of reasoning. I will however reference one particular line from his latest post, which is hilarious!
[Thiessen wrote] The words in the title are found on a website we have visited from time to time.
From time to time? Derrick has routinely tracked my site, posted comments (often unpleasant and unreasonable ones), and made numerous posts out of what I’ve had to say, even when I haven’t referenced him in any way. I have no doubt he will spin something out of this too, and I have no doubt he will continue to make posts about me, and Bruce too, as he won’t be able to help himself.
All quotations were properly linked. See, Derrick? You can do it (think the movie The Waterboy)! If you truly need help figuring your “technical” problems out, please email me and I will be glad to help you “fix” your WordPress software. I’ve been building my own sites for years. Using the scientific method, I am sure I can help you figure out why you can’t properly hyperlink. Maybe I can even show you that evolution is true. Or, you can admit your “malfunctioning” software excuse is Grade-A bovine excrement. May the Holy Spirit lead you to do what is right.
Update
Thiessen used more content from this site today without attribution.
1. BG’s website- we are not linking to the BG or MM websites anymore. We will just acknowledge their words as they have shown they can do nothing but insult., attack, and cause harm to those they disagree with.
We have nothing more to say to them but we will keep looking at their websites to find material we can use here
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
I put out the call to readers, asking them for questions they would like me to answer. If you have a question, please leave it here or email me. All questions will be answered in the order in which they are received.
Alex asked:
You mentioned on a recent post that your website costs 135 dollars a month to run. It is a little daunting to me as someone who is getting started on running a website.. What are the reasons for the high costs and what advice would you give those of us who want to start a website? Thank you.
Clubshadenfreude asked:
I’m curious too, since I have my blog on WordPress and it’s free. I do know that ad appear on it, but for the functionality that I need, it’s okay.
There are numerous free and low-cost blog hosting providers bloggers can use when getting started. If your traffic numbers remain low, such services are sufficient. However, when your site begins to grow, you will start to notice slower page load speeds. Sometimes, traffic spikes lead to your site not being accessible.
Seven years ago, I decided to go with a managed WordPress hosting provider. My reasons for doing so are as follows:
Fast page load speed
SSL certificate provided
CDN service provided
No advertisements
Automatic software and plugin update
Responsive tech support by phone
Ability to handle large traffic spikes from Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, news sites
No throttling of service when going over alloted monthly visitors
Staging sites (ability to design/update site offline)
Free site migration
Using the above criteria, I decided to go with Flywheel (now owned by WP Engine) as the managed hosting provider for this site. Years later, I am still a satisfied client.
I use premium services from Clicky (site stats), Grammarly (post editing), Yoast (SEO — search engine optimization). I also use several paid plugins to add functionality to this site.
Using the aforementioned services, this site is well suited for continued growth.
If there are functions you would like to see added to this site, please leave your suggestion in the comment section. I do plan to update the theme used for The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser. I am hesitant to change themes, but the current one is getting “old.” I will likely go to a paid premium theme.
My goal is to make this site easy to read. I personally don’t like being assaulted by numerous advertisements when I visit websites, so I made this site ad-free. I also hate post excerpts that require people to click on a link before accessing the article. When people come to the front page of this site, they are served five full content posts — no clicking required. Taking this approach means readers can read up to five articles while only clicking once on a post link. This reduces the number of daily page views, but speedy accessibility is more important than higher page view numbers.
The costs for this site are paid from donations received through Patreon and PayPal. Thank you for your continued support.
If you have any further questions, please ask them in the comment section below.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Long time readers, all three of you, know that I had a plethora of blogs over the past fourteen years. I would write for a while, burn my blog to the ground, only to resurrect again months later. Welcome to the mind of a depressive. The good news is this: The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser will celebrate its sixth anniversary come November. Can I get an AMEN! Or dare I not mention this milestone lest I find the gasoline and matches again?
Several readers have asked me about the names of my former blogs. Here ya go:
Fallen From Grace
The Way Forward
Rethinking Church Life
Bruce Droppings (my favorite name)
World of Bruce
A Restless Mind in a Restless World
The Hungarian Luddite
The World According to Bruce
The Emergent Church
Northwest Ohio Skeptics
Restless Wanderings
Crazy, huh? Hey, I have never claimed to be sane.
I want to thank readers who jumped on Bruce’s crazy train in the early days and continue to ride today. Your love and support are appreciated.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
