I was given the last name of Gott which came from my grandfather and then through my mother.  It wasn’t until I was in highschool that I found out that it meant “God” in German. I wasn’t happy about the way that I found out because I was in a line up in JROTC and a real general was invited to come to our school to inspect us during that line up.

I was “nervous as hell” to use the appropriate idiom that I would have used at the time.  The General stopped in front of me and I thought for sure that I was getting ready to be in big trouble as I was called to present arms and he stepped towards me to address me. “Cadet Gott; do you know what your name means?” I think I was expecting some sort of question meant to trap me. My mind went on the blitz as I couldn’t comprehend such a simple question and I was expecting the worst if I answered incorrectly.

In that moment I could only stumble through a weak  ”no sir” response to which he replied “It means God”. What followed after the information he gave me was one of those uncomfortable moments where (in hindsight) I think he was looking for some sort of moment of amazement from me and I was doing good if I could keep breathing. After one of the earliest really uncomfortable moments of my life, a moment that seemed to last much longer than it did, I was asked to fall back in line and return to an at ease position. I was anything but at ease for sure.

In any case, welcome to this spot on the net where I write in spurts here at GottMilk ?!? It’s the place I share what I’m thinking about with family, friends, and anybody else that might have an interest. You can see the latest posts by clicking here or just clicking on the “Newly Published” link on the right side of his page.

The best summary of topics for my GottMilk journal would be Truth, Eternal Relevance, and IT Stuff. I think everyone at various points in their life (some more than others) think a bit more in-depth about things than at other points in their life. A large portion of my site is about giving mental food and soul food for those times.
I have a Jesus following slant of course, but don’t think of me as a “christian” as I will very likely ‘not’ fit into your box or connect very well with the “right-wing”. If anything seems to gel between me and someone in that “right-wing” it probably won’t be for long, I’m just being realistic here. My experience has been that “the right wingers” don’t seem to stick around for long.

I’m willing to accept an exception to the rule, although I think that the person I really connect with is the one that hasn’t given up on Christ but intrinsically knows that there is something wrong with “the church” or with what is popularly called “christian”.

And yes I live in the Philippines. So you will from time to time see a little bit and piece of content that introduces the reader to the perspectives of an American living in the Philippines. And there is also that occasional dabbling in technology that I have. I occasionally worked on a Mac for roughly three years of my life, bit my teeth into the IT field in Windows world for fifteen years, and after dabbling with Linux off and on for a few years I jumped in with one foot in 2009 (Fedora), and in with both feet toward in 2010 (Ubuntu).