BelongingMy older sister's blog
Blibby's BlogMy little sister's blog
Gixxer For ChristMy brother's blog
Grantian FlorilegiumDr. Grant: literary, bibliophile, wordsmithy, and professor
Blog and MablogPeople either love him or hate him; I'd go with the former
The Evantine AbbeyMy former landlord, current Christian teacher and philosopher
Roots by the RiverThe elder Wilson, providing practical encouragement to Christian living
Christus RexHe's masculine during the week and feminine on Sundays
BabbelogVirgil Hurt, pastor in Lynchburg
Trozzort's TalesShe drives three hours to church every Sunday
Blog of NashThe Nashes like football and their daughters
Joy in the JourneyDoes her husband know what
she blogged today?
IkimayShe raises her children and smashes down walls
Filled With TruthRefreshing thoughts from a young Christian woman
The Cedar RoomThoughtful stories and anecdotes
Social AnomalyOff doing something chemistry-related, most likely
A MinorWhen a young couple lives in Monroe, LA blogging is one of the few things they can do
This Classical LifeYoung family living the classical life
Sir JakeHe's happily taken
UnrivenThe writer, student, and Chicago style pizza lover
Gulf
CoastalCovers a lot of territory
Odd ThoughtsThe Booth is thinkin baseball
EffableWatch out you peer-to-peer music sharing terrorists
The High PostClever Christian chaps, triumvirate of family men
Weighing GlorySomewhere chasing his hat
Down To A Sunless SeaTorn between Florida and Minnesota
Moscow Is My HomebaseWordless blog
Crash Into MeNo problems with authority
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 T h u r s d a y , J u n e 1 s t
5:55PM | Moving To A New Domain
 t long last this blog has moved to its new home, though its recreation is by no means complete. Right now you will not notice anything particularly visibly different, except for, of course, the absence of ads.
In addition to the new address for this blog, my RSS feed now has a new address (and is working).
Thanks for visiting.
T u e s d a y , M a y 3 0 t h
8:38PM | Hitting Z'news
 ews stories courtesy of Yahoo: a baby born with three arms, the Netherlands sees the emergence of a new polticial party called The Charity, Freedom and Diversity (NVD) party which is pushing for the legalization of pedophilia, bestiality, and the provision of sex ed to toddlers, among other wicked things, and a duck x-ray that curiously reveals what looks like an alien's head (this x-ray is up for auction on Ebay and bidding is at $4500).
10:27AM | Cerebral Vocabulary 1
 anguage and alternative phrases for the Genteel, the Refined, and the Learned - Part 1.
Spelunking your nose
The refined nomenclature for the vulgar act referred to by the common populace as "picking one's nose". Spelunking is far more dignified and grand-sounding than the low connotations of "picking"; what's more, many commoners will not possess knowledge of the definition of spelunking, hence covering up any embarrassment or shame when you must demand that your child cease and desist from spelunking his nose. If they don't know what you're talking about, it is no longer vulgar - only filthy children of the unrefined pick their noses.
S u n d a y , M a y 2 8 t h
11:13PM | Span Of A Life
 his evening I was thinking about the Lord's sovereignty: how all things are his creation and therefore under his control, including time (all things). I teased my mind with trying to approach that perilous concept of eternity, in which the Lord, who does not dwell in time, dwells. Being of course unable and unwilling to breach such a concept, my thoughts turned instead to eternity's opposite: my own temporality.
The span of my life, according to the Bible's estimates, should be a good eighty years - if the merciful Lord so wills. This is really an extremely short time, both in the shadow of eternity and the yawning backdrop of history, and in the knowledge gained through experience of the cumulative acceleration of years. So what I am I doing with my brief appearance in this nugget of the Lord's creative beauty called Time? In such a short appearance, is there anything that I can do which can be called important?
Answering the first question, it is with ready admission and subsequent disappointment and shame that I am for the most part wasting time in laziness, sin, and naivety. Like every other convicted soul, I know that I should be doing something different or something more and yet I predeterminedly and conscientiously make a choice on too-frequent occasions to perform a sin or engage in idleness, perhaps embodied in a poor choice of living for the moment.
Unlike some percentage of those convicted souls, I recognize my silliness and sinfulness and want transformation and sanctification. So what can I do in my eighty years that is Important, that as I breathe my last will have me catch those dear words "well done, my good and faithful servant"? There are three things, the first of which is obvious, and yet for its manifest position does not meet an equivalent measure of simplicity. First then is the conclusion of the wisest non-divine man in history: fear God, and keep His commandments. Worship the Lord in word, deed, and sincerity with joy, thanksgiving, and humility. Second, set goals and perform work oriented around the objective of working to restore the earth to an Edenic state, purifying the world from the effects of its brief yet poisonous enslavement to sin. This is a task of no short order, and so, third, raise God-fearing offspring, teaching and guiding them in the hope that they will build upon my meagre accomplishments for the kingdom, entrusting them to the Spirit's care so that they can continue the work of me and our God-fearing ancestors into the future, beyond this blink of the eye which is my allotted time.
7:59PM | Recent Listening
 created a mix cd for a friend and kept a copy for myself, and have been playing it over and over again. It's a compilation of edgy alternative metal tracks, a few of which are from bands with which I only recent gained familiarity. Others, such as those for which multiple tracks appear on this cd, or from bands to which I wanted to introduce him.
1. Wilma's Rainbow - Helmet
2. Blinded In Chains - Avenged Sevenfold
3. Put It Off - Pulse Ultra
4. Sunburn - Muse
5. Dying In Your Arms - Trivium
6. World Ablaze - Killswitch Engage
7. Be Quiet And Drive - Deftones
8. Come Clarity - In Flames
9. Death Trend Setta - Crossfade
10. Slip In Sin - Pulse Ultra
11. Bat Country - Avenged Sevenfold
12. Hysteria - Muse
13. Lizaveta - Constantines
14. Magdalena - A Perfect Circle
15. Crazy - Mushroomhead
16. My Last Serenade - Killswitch Engage
F r i d a y , M a y 2 6 t h
11:57PM | Record Catch
new world record for the largest hammerhead shark ever caught appears to have been set on Tuesday. A fisherman off the coast of Florida reeled in a 14.5 foot, 1280 pound hammerhead after the fish dragged his boat 12 miles out to sea. In addition to the video within the article I have linked to, there is another video here.
T u e s d a y , M a y 2 3 r d
11:06PM | Health Update
finally asked my doctor about my leg, which has been giving me problems and flaring up with pain especially after a run - ever since last August. Describing how it is aggravated by running and how the pain spreads throughout the leg even when not putting any weight on it, she figured that some of the muscle fibers a couple of inches above the ankle (the main source of the pain) was the problem. I'll take some anti-inflammatories and not run for six weeks, and she says that should take care of it. If that is truly the case, I will be glad to have my leg back at 100% and be able to work on distance running again. At the same time, I had back spasms for the first time on Saturday, and maybe this will help take care of my back muscles as well.
M o n d a y , M a y 2 2 n d
8:46PM | Faith Always Disappears In The Daytime
t's actually rather nice having Mondays off again. Working Saturday evenings is so low-key that it is almost like having three days off each week: on Saturday I'll spend the eight hours reading a book or watching a movie or tv. As opposed to working Monday-Friday, when I would only get to sleep in one day a week, I can now sleep in Saturday mornings and Monday mornings. I even got extra sleep time today when after lunch I opened the windows to the pleasantly cool air and took a nap in my recliner.
I finally picked up Dostoevsky's Devils again and am rapidly coming upon the conclusion of that work. Every one of Dostoevsky's novels contains an especially notable discourse from one of the character's on their opinions of Christianity - perhaps most notably Ivan Karamazov's monologue on the problem of evil and the existence of God in The Brother's Karamazov - and in Devils I think that portion is a brief statement by "The Major" (Kapiton Maksimovich) in which he speaks of faith and the existence of God:
"Wait a minute, Kapiton Maksimovich. You yourself told me you don't believe in God," Liputin squeaked at the other end of the table.
"What if I did? That's a different matter altogether! Perhaps I do believe, but not entirely. And even though I don't believe entirely, I still don't say that God ought to be shot. When I was serving in the Hussars I used to think about God. There are lots of poems in which hussars drink and have a good time. Well, perhaps I used to drink too, but believe me, I'd also jump out of bed at night and stand in my socks crossing myself in front of the icons, asking God to give me faith because I could find no peace even then, not knowing if there was a God or not. I had a very rough time of it! In the morning, of course, I'd amuse myself, and once again my faith would seem to disappear; as a rule I've noticed that faith always disappears in the daytime."
And so it is, that it is easiest to remember and believe in God when things are dark and dire, and someone is needed to turn to. But once the sun comes out and things are going well, faith disappears, God is forgotten, and life continues as if His existence is not acknowledged.
S a t u r d a y , M a y 2 0 t h
3:35PM | Trusting Love
 peaking of the characteristics of love, Paul says "It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres" (1 Cor. 13:7). Jim Wilson quoted this verse on his blog when providing samples of passages that showed that Paul wasn't just a condemning meanie who talked about everything that was wrong with both Jews and Gentiles. The "always trusts" bit is what caught my attention, rendered in the King James as "believeth all things". It is a characteristic of love that I could be particularly prone to struggle with and is tied in with jealousy, which is closely related to self-love.
I could see myself allowing myself in idle or stressful moments at work allowing myself to worry about what my wife is doing while I'm away, or taking too much notice of how she interacts with other men in social situations. While some couples to drift away in affection for each other and even break marriage vows, such worrisome thinking on my part would be foolish and unloving. It is the sin of inventing faults within one's own mind and picking fights that aren't there, and the disposition of the mind and heart always manifests itself in one's subsequent actions.
Biblically defined love trusts in the beloved, and this trust is a two-way street. If I am being untrustworthy and flirting with or dating another woman on the side, then I will naturally suspect the same thing in the other. Trust is only possible if my own heart is right - if I am persevering in my own trustworthiness. If I am busying myself with inventing faults of my wife's then I am failing to protect her, because I myself have become her enemy.
W e d n e s d a y , M a y 1 7 t h
10:45AM | Links Of Interest
Christian blog that I have been enjoying for the last couple months is Reformed pastor Marion Clark's A Proverb A Day. This (mostly) daily blog traverses chronologically through each verse of Proverbs, expounding upon and making application of one proverb a day. Pastor Paul Duggan and Joel Garver are substitute contributors to this blog which serves as a nice daily devotional for me while I am at work.
For those of you who enjoy building websites, you should find it advantageous to discover and implement sIFR, an image-free method of rendering artistic text for headlines, quotes, etc. Rather than using editing-unfriendly, storage-eating, invisible to search engine image files to render fancy text, the developers of sIFR created a 10KB javascript file that will render fancy text in any font by embedding it (invisibly to you and the site visitor) as a Flash (.swf) file. This does not mean that you have to do the work in Flash... all of that is done for you. Furthermore, sIFR is supported by virtually all current web browsers - and in cases where sIFR is not compatible with a browser, the text will still be rendered... only in a plain font (but at least it is still there). Though the Flash file sizes are small, sIFR should be used judiciously for only headlines, quote extracts, and so forth; rendering entire paragraphs in sIFR would eat up bandwidth. I will not go into details of how sIFR works, because you can read all about it from the source: Mike Davidson.
For a good laugh, ScrappleFace places a humorous spin on their retelling of the news, and smart-alecky re-writing of news stories. Mmm, scrapple.
Work on recreating my blog on my new domain will continue to progress slowly, as I clean up the code, make the code XHTML compatible, rework some of the CSS and tweak the layout, and test out the application of new things, such as sIFR and maybe some fun things for you all to play around with.
M o n d a y , M a y 1 5 t h
5:29PM | Working For The Man
rather unexpected and major layoff at work helped put careers and employment in perspective for me. I was not cut in this layoff, but since the company I work for is small (in quantity of employees), its effects were very much felt and noticeable. In short, an entire software suite that this company has been working on for about five years was terminated completely. Three months ago I was promoted to join the IT workforce devoted exclusively to this software. Even before my joining that particular group within this company, this product line was noticeably the biggest marketing and development concern for the company, and many people were engaged in long hours of work on building and selling this product. The landing of major clients was in the works, and there was excitement about the future profits that this product would bring.
Suddenly, though some may have suspected this doom, the project was yanked completely. Employees who had been patted on the back a couple weeks before were dismissed, as were others who gave many hours of effort beyond 40 a week, night and day.
Though my promotion was short-lived, I was one of the fortunate ones who were chosen to remain with the company in a different role, which for now happens to be my former role. Layoffs are a regular part of life in the corporate world, but this event was a personal reminder that my position is determined by six or seven individuals sitting around a table who do not know me personally, and who can either reward and promote me, or deem me expendable at any time. It comes with working for another man. The perspective this brings to my attention is a question: how much of myself do I want to give to my employer in light of this setup, and how high a priority should my work be in my life?
M o n d a y , M a y 8 t h
8:44AM | Sharing The Spotlight
 arry Bonds complains that there is "no joy" among baseball fans, the press, and the baseball community as he chases the last two stalwarts on the career homerun list. Fans jeer him in every ballpark outside of San Francisco, his image is tainted as he is surrounded by steroid and perjury allegations, and swarms of press hover around him and the San Francisco Giants clubhouse as they just wait for a comment or some hubbub about which to write.
What does Bonds expect? In an age where it has been revealed that steroid use among athletes abounds, the implication of the most important active player, historically speaking, using steroids is bound to draw the most ire and controversy. As a fan-created sign in Philadelphia said "Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs and beer... Hank Aaron did it with class...", leaving us to consider how Bonds got where he is with 713 homeruns, and leaving us doubting his legacy and place in history.
For all the negativity and despite the steroid scandal, Bonds is still essentially a media icon. Whenver he hits a homerun it is a front page story on sports websites or a highlight alert on ESPN. In the past couple years sports websites feature a Bonds HR tracker. The truth is, players admire his accomplishments and he features a tremendously powerful short compact bat swing. But he will remembered as the best player who (probably) played on steroids. If investigations and testimony reveal that Bonds really did take steroids, which is probably the truth, Bonds will have to understand that his associations and actions come with consequences. He'll have to pay his dues and share the spotlight with what got him to where he is.
W e d n e s d a y , M a y 3 r d
1:38PM | Price Tag
 .S. mothers now have a dollar value. Go tell your wife.
T u e s d a y , M a y 2 n d
11:58AM | How To Recover From A Cold
 own with a cold, I am taking the afternoon off from work, throwing open the windows, and trying to rest and recuperate. There is plenty to do:
1. Sleep
2. Watch baseball games, which start at 12:35
3. Catch up on reading
4. Catch up on reading blogs
5. Work on transferring my blog to its new domain
6. Create compilation cd's with Lightscribe
BBC news online is my favorite source of news, despite what we here in America would call a liberal spin, because they offer the most international news up front. There is good selection and variety all nicely presented on the best-designed, least-cluttered, ad-free frontpage (but you'll have to pardon their spelling and grammar mistakes; and no, these are not British foibles in the use of English). Yet my most nagging complaint against BBC news online is their overuse of quotation marks in headlines. Sometimes it is ok, as in today's headline French PM 'hurt by terrible lies' because that is a story on how the French PM says he feels, though honest reporting could leave out the quotes because the readership would expect that the news source is reporting the facts. Then you have many headlines such as Sudan heads 'failed states index' where the quotes are really unnecessary. The abundant use of quotation marks instills in me a feeling that the BBC is almost apologizing for what they are reporting, or refusing to confidently assert the veracity of their reporting, in order to cover their backs in case they are wrong. Well, we envoloped that phrase in quotation marks because we felt this may or may not have been true. It's timid yet not humbly so, and is the reverse of the confidence and deliberately measured clarity of their radio broadcasts.
One thing that continues to intrigue me, and is again reported on by the BBC today, is the reality of online virtual reality. It is interesting to ponder the ramifications and possibilities of this going forward.
M o n d a y , A p r i l 2 4 t h
10:47AM | Weekend Recap
 riday evening I went to a Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Devil Rays minor league [AAA] affiliate) game for the first time. I enjoy baseball, and since it was a pleasant spring evening, the tickets were free (provided by work), and I wanted to see uber-prospects B.J. Upton and Delmon Young play, Friday was the perfect day to go. I was impressed with the stadium and surrounding restaurants; it is a fine minor league ballpark at which to spend a spring or summer evening. Even I felt like I was playing, because B.J. Upton smoked a rocketing line drive foul into my side, just below my last rib. Fortunately, it just missed my rib, which would have been cracked, and fortunately I have substantially more flesh above my waist, so there is no pain and only the slightest bruise. Unfortunately, B.J. Upton never made it back to first base (near which I was sitting) otherwise I may have beaned him back with that ball.
I took a four day weekend in order to have some time off to perhaps work on my final projects, and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have all passed without any work at all accomplished on these tasks. I think I will work on creating my design portfolio right now.
T h u r s d a y , A p r i l 2 0 t h
2:56PM | Blessed Plains Of Heather
 esterday, while perusing their online beer menu, I was surprised and thrilled to discover that downtown Raleigh's Flying Saucer, which serves hundreds of local and domestic beer draughts, now peddles Fraoch Heather Ale. I first tasted this Scottish heather (rather than barley) based beer at Durham's Beer Festival in 2003 and fell in love with it, but had not been able to find it since, whether online or at beer festivals, except listed as available through a Baltimore distributor. So it is with great rejoicing that I will again hoist a pint of Fraoch Heather Ale.
T u e s d a y , A p r i l 1 8 t h
10:35PM | Getting Stuff Done
can hardly think of what to say here: I haven't been doing this in a while and am kind of out of it. The last couple weeks I have been fixated on the computer than ever before, between work, coursework, and design projects. Plus, I have Photoshop again, and it has been a joy getting reacquainted with that wonderful tool. College classes have lately yielded some useful Javascript knowledge that I have applied in various projects, and has produced exposure to depths of 3D modeling and animation. While 3D animation very much interests me it is not really natural for me, so I do not know where I will take it. As of now, exercising my nascent abilities, I do not really have any projects worth showing off. They are quite rudimentary.
Reading is pretty much a thing of the past, except for daily Bible reading and occasionally a couple pages here and there elsewhere in some book. With summer nearly here, I am hoping to take advantage of some time reclaimed due to the absence of classes and do a bit of unambitious travelling around nearer parts of the country: the beaches, Philly, the mountains, places like that. Though I like my apartment and being cooped up in here by myself, where there is always something to do, it will be nice to get away and do and see something different for a little bit.
T u e s d a y , A p r i l 1 1 t h
9:59PM | My Domain
will not deny that I have been a bit tardy in my web presence lately. I have finally purchased my own domain, and hopefully before too long you will be able to view my blog off of www.joshuamcinnis.com - ad free and with over a terabyte of bandwidth capacity (which means more pictures, multimedia, and other cool things). For right now, however, I am supposed to be working on an online web design portfolio for one of soon-to-terminate college courses, so that will absorb my attention.
T h u r s d a y , A p r i l 6 t h
10:32PM | Juggling Prowess
here are two jugglers who have gained notoriety for their amazing... interpretive juggling... to the tune of the Beatles' "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End". They are Chris Bliss and Jason Garfield.
W e d n e s d a y , A p r i l 5 t h
5:06PM | Science Strikes At The Bible Again
 ow could scientific research such as this ever prove a miracle such as Jesus having walked on water? You might as well be checking the water of the Sea of Galilee for footprints.
Related to this, 60 Minutes on Sunday presented an interview with a certain scholar who set forth his theory of the conspiracy of Christ's "death" (quotes are his). The vinegar on the sponge was really an anesthetic that made Jesus appear dead, the frankincense and myrrh that the disciples brought to Christ's tomb were actually medicines to help him recover, Joseph of Arimathea was eager to obtain Christ's body because he knew Jesus was really not dead, etc. This scholar spun the actual words of the Greek New Testament to support his conjectures... but why bother basing an opinion on a book that obviously must be faulty, if its entirety is based on the redemptive story of Christ's coming, death, and resurrection?
S u n d a y , A p r i l 2 n d
8:06PM | Spring Cleansing
t's starting to feel like summer, and I'm loving it: sleeping at night with the windows open, a lot of people outside getting exercise, sunlight late into the evenings, and the smell of hamburgers cooking on a grill. Today I enjoyed some more running, an enjoyable drive, a good dinner, and now a fine lager and the first baseball game of the season. The best is yet to come: the trees have not yet begun to fully bloom and baseball's official Opening Night is tomorrow.
2:26PM | Exciting Sport
esterday's running was some of the best I've had in a while, since my lower left leg was not hampering me for a change. It probably helped that the second park I ran at in Raleigh yesterday was mostly flat.
I've never watched very much Major League Soccer (MLS), but yesterday afternoon ABC televised the first game of the season, which matched Chicago against FC Dallas. I was impressed by the energy level of the spectators and the crowd noise: lots of flags, singing, dancing, drums and other instruments... a kind of passionate cheering in the stands that seems more restrained at most U.S. sporting events, with only college football and basketball coming close to the intensity. Maybe this was due to the fact that this game was in Dallas, with many Hispanic fans in attendance. It was certainly enjoyable to see and hear, especially during a sport which its detractors call boring due to its low scoring and agonizing pace.
T h u r s d a y , M a r c h 3 0 t h
9:18PM | Things That Come With Spring
hese past two weeks I have been introduced to Indian food, having gone to three different Indian restaurants a total of four times. I've tasted such dishes as vegetable samosa, fried idlies, onion pakodas, masala dosai, tandoori chicken, various tasty rices (such as lemon rice), naan, chicken saagwala, anda curry, and mutton rogan ghosh. First I tried Spice and Curry, then Suchi, and today I lunched at The Tower Vegetarian Restaurant. I am by no means vegetarian, but as vegetarianism is common among Hindu Indians all-veg meals are common Indian cuisine. Indian food is, in general, not as spicy as some would boast and others would surmise - though the chiken marsala, butter chicken, and other chicken dishes can get rather hot. I was favorably impressed with this assortment of new tastes, but can't really say I have a favorite among these three Indian restaurants so far (and there are more around here).
One of my favorite times of year is coming up, the vernal equinox. A loss of one hour of sleep is a worthy price to pay for the blessing of daylight hours extending into the late evening. With the warmer weather (right now it is like a mild version of a desert: hot in the day and chilly at night) 20 or so of us at work have begun playing basketball during lunch on Wednesdays at the park just down the street from the office. By the end of the second game, I was doing more walking than running, losing my chief asset: quickness. What I hope to gain from this weekly exercise is increased endurance, helping revive my leg strength and running endurance, and learning to move better with the ball since I have always been more of a catch-and-shoot kind of player.
Other exciting things coming up are topped off by the advent of the baseball season. Spring training will be giving way to Opening Day and meaningful games in a week's time, and in addition to closely following Major League action and managing my fantasy baseball team, I hope to catch several games for the local Triple-A Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Devil Rays affiliate) where top prospect Delmon Young will start the season, and the Carolina Mudcats (Double-A Florida Marlins affiliate). Marquee players and top prospects such as Dontrelle Willis, B.J. Upton, and Delmon Young have passed through or are passing through these venues on their way to the big leagues.
5:30PM | Effectiveness Of Prayer
n a study of heart patients, to determine whether those who are prayed for by strangers fare better, scientists have concluded that God does not really help those who are prayed for any more than those who are not prayed for. Praying does not affect these patients, and if anything only makes things worse, as more of the patients who were prayed for developed other complications. So scientists have not only put God to the test, but they presume that he can be studied like a lab rat.
W e d n e s d a y , M a r c h 2 9 t h
8:52AM | Sermon Audio
ellow congregant Shelley Duchemin has posted the audio file of Doug Wilson's sermon preached at our church this past Sunday to the Christ Church NC website's sermons page. The sermon is entitled "Reformation and Backbone". It was good to hear Doug preach again.
T u e s d a y , M a r c h 2 8 t h
10:09PM | Does This Count?
s you can undoubtedly see, I haven't had much to blog about lately (and I've been busy), and since the same remains true at this moment, I will post something easy that is not really a blog entry, and yet is: another small playlist sampling the music that I am listening to, and that I think you should give a listen to and learn to like. Here is my first interactive animated 3D object for the web... simple, but it's kind of like getting my first paycheck. Also, read about the college student who spent 41 straight hours wandering around in a Wal-Mart as part of self-inflicted project.
Song/Artist
1. Put It Off - Pulse Ultra
2. Cold (But I'm Still Here) - Evans Blue
3. Closer - Burn Season
4. Save Me - Shinedown
5. This Is A Call - Thousand Foot Krutch
6. Paper Thin Hymn - Anberlie
7. Bohemian Like You - The Dandy warhols
8. Bat Country - Avenged Sevenfold
9. Butterflies And Hurricanes - Muse
10. In Church - M83
11. To Love Somebody - Bronski Beat & Jimmy Somerville
12. Longing - Karsh Kale
13. So Cold The Night - The Communards
S u n d a y , M a r c h 2 6 t h
10:36PM | Returning Fire
oug Wilson was in town this weekend, and preached here on Sunday. One of the things he said was that the devil does not attack everyone to cause them to sin, but oftentimes he leaves them alone and they will still sin anyway: perhaps they have already fallen to a particular secret sin and are not really resisting: why bother attacking them because they are already double-minded or at risk of falling away. Doug said that Satan knows how to return fire, and that when we are resisting temptation as we should, it is then that the devil attacks us. Are you facing trials, mockery, hatred, false accusations, or persecution?
W e d n e s d a y , M a r c h 2 2 n d
9:52AM | Persecution
n Afghan man is facing execution for converting from Islam to Christianity, a capital crime in Afghanistan. However, the Afghan government appears to be trying desperately to find a way to put away the trial due to the negative attention it is causing.
M o n d a y , M a r c h 2 0 t h
8:31PM | Running, Laughing, Animating
will not say that "one day I will run in a marathon if it's the last thing I do" because it just might be the last thing I do. So it was for two runners in the Los Angeles Marathon: one died from a heart attack 3 miles into the 26.2 mile race, and the other died less than three miles from the finish. I'd be one to die only three miles into the race.
Jerry Seinfeld was in town giving a live performance at a comedy club. My employer was raffling off tickets to four winners, and unfortunately I was not one of the joyful recipients. I would love to see Seinfeld in person. Maybe next time.
Right now in my advanced internet multimedia class, I am learning something that very much interests me, even if it is too deep to grasp in a few sittings. This class has me modeling, rendering, adding visual effects to, and animating 3D objects. I probably would not endure the monotony and excruciating detail of 3D modelling for a movie production, were I ever to attain such a skill level, but I hope to utilize 3D in more modest projects optimized for the web.
T h u r s d a y , M a r c h 1 6 t h
7:16PM | Sports Info
f you to watch college basketball's March Madness live, but do not have cable or are stuck at work, CBS Sportsline is providing free online video of all NCAA tournament games. Don't be discouraged when you register and launch the video player... a lot of people are trying to access the website so you may have to wait a couple minutes. When I first logged on, I was person #170 in line to access the games, but within five minutes an opening was found for me. I am watching the Gonazaga vs. Xavier game and the United States vs. Mexico World Baseball Classic game at the same time over my computer, and both are coming in crisp and clear, even full screen for the baseball game.
The fantasy baseball league that I am participating in for the fourth straight year held its draft last Saturday. While I did not travel down to Monroe for the draft this year, it was still fun. This is a 12-team head-to-head keeper league: nine tier-based keepers heading into the draft, and sixteen more players drafted to round out the roster at 25 players.
S u n d a y , M a r c h 1 2 t h
12:00PM | Warring Season
he year seems to have given spring a pass and jumped straight from winter into summer. I am liking it: plenty of sunshine, open windows, mild nights, and not many bugs yet.
Speaking of bugs, I engaged in my first major creepy-critter slaying of the year. In this ongoing war, I have the advantage of possessing two powerful artifacts: the Impregnable Shoe and the Dustpan of Valor, the latter of which I prefer because with it I can in two or three (or four or five, depending on the ruggedness of the critter) fluid motions smash, scoop, and dump. With the Dustpan of Valor, I have a reusable weapon - unlike when I use a tissue, which cannot be reused and should be saved for other engagements such as purging the nose of its transient residents.
It is another beautiful day, so I will now avail myself of its enchantments.
S a t u r d a y , M a r c h 1 1 t h
11:41AM | More Than A Season
ent, the forty days (excluding Sundays) leading up to Easter, marks a participation in Christ's forty days of fasting and resisting temptation in the wilderness (Mat. 4:1-11) and a purification leading up to the Sunday especially set aside for celebration of Christ's resurrection. While Jesus was tested throughout his forty days in the wilderness, it is important also to note that this testing continued at the conclusion of those forty days (Mat. 4:2-3), and this testing continued throughout the Messiah's life (e.g. Gethsemane, see also Heb. 2:18). Likewise, when we give up something for Lent for our physical or spiritual well-being or purification, we should be ready to make the same commitment throughout the year. The forty days of Lent are not intended to be just a special time of abstinence, and after forty days you are done. Rather, it is intended to be a period of training and preparation to apply the same discipline to your life beyond those forty days. Like New Year's and its resolutions, Lent should also put us in remembrance of these things and what we want to purge from our lives or add to our lives. As such, I think when choosing something to abstain from for Lent, it should be something that either was sinful or something that without which you will be healthier or a more productive member of the Kingdom. Or, alternatively, the addition of something to your life that will enrich its worshipful or healthy quality.
T h u r s d a y , M a r c h 9 t h
10:15PM | Forgiven
do not always easily "forgive and forget", and one of the hardest aspects of Christian faith, for me, is to believe that God really does. Considering the seeming magnitude and innumerable quantity of my offenses against God, and my willful disobedience of what I know He requires, and all this given back in return for the undeserved, condescending mercies and blessings that He showers upon me... I have a hard time grasping what should be a wonderful and joyous truth, and, compounding my sin, sometimes I doubt that He forgives and forgets. But when one of God's people repents, the Lord forgives, punishes, and cleanses - the sin is not held to our account.
One of the most resonant Scripture proofs of God's complete forgiveness is the record of what happens after David married Bathsheba, and his first child by her dies. Because David committed adultery, had Bathsheba's husband murdered to cover up his sin, and took Bathsheba for himself, God announced His judgment through Nathan the prophet, declaring that the son born of Bathsheba would die. David's merciless and compounded sin greatly displeased the Lord (2 Samuel 11:27). When Nathan spoke to David, David repented (2 Samuel 12:13). After David repented and the Lord punished David through the death of his son, the Lord then did something remarkable: He continued the Davidic line through Bathsheba, rather than one of David's other wives, so that Bathsheba's next son, Solomon, was not only a direct ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:6ff), but he was especially loved by the Lord (2 Sam. 2:25) and endowed with greater wisdom than any man had ever had. David would still suffer the repercussions of his sin of adultery (e.g. Amnon and Absalom), but God blessed David with the great blessing of a son who would be a rise ruler, build an earthly house for the Lord, and continue the line leading up to the Messiah's birth. Praise the Lord!
9:59PM | Favorable Profile
he Christian Broadcasting Network's (CBN) 700 Club gushingly features an overview of classical Christian education, presenting Logos School and New St. Andrews College.
HT: Joffre
Saturday, March 25, Pastor Douglas Wilson will be in Cary providing a series of talks on "Loving the Brethren: Living in Community with Fellow Believers". Registration information can be found on Christ Church NC's website.
10:32AM | Tyco Animal
he outskirts of Raleigh are somewhat astir concerning a mystery creature that was spotted and continues to be seen on the Tyco Corporation's campus in Fuquay-Varina. Dubbed the "Tyco Animal", it looks part-deer, part-kangaroo, part-fox - but despite several people weighing in, including vets, biologists, and hunters, there is no positive identification concerning what it is. Similar creatures have been spotted in the southeastern United States, and a similar mystery animal in Maryland was once captured and identified as a hairless Samson Fox.
Personally, this reminds me of last year's incident in Elmendorf, Texas (story and photos here, here, here, and here). A farmer killed a strange hairless fanged animal that was killing his chickens. Cryptozoologists eagerly surmised that this might be a chupacabra, a mythical dog-like creature that stealthily roam sat night and sucks the blood from goats in a vampire fashion. Just like with the Elmendorf animal, I think that it looks like a hairless dog of the jackal family.
I hope someone live-traps this animal, and I'd be interested to find out if it has fangs similar to the Elmendorf creature. Employees at Tyco have posted various photos and video of the Tyco Animal online, some of which show the creature running/leaping like a deer.
W e d n e s d a y , M a r c h 8 t h
8:11PM | Hellos And Farewells
he warm weather is welcome, and with it comes basketball. I started shooting last weekend and was surprised to find that I had my shot back, and will begin playing pickup games at work and elsewhere. There are two plays in basketball that I like about as much as seeing someone dunk, and those are a blocked shot and a solid rebound. That may be because those aren't my specialty, so I admire seeing them well done. If 5'9" (bogus) slam dunk champion Nate Robinson can get up there and throw it down, why shouldn't I be able to?
I really miss Photoshop. Fireworks just doesn't cut it for custom web graphics. Photoshop currently resides on my 8-year old secondary desktop, from which I am unable to transfer it, and upon which it cannot really run anymore because the computer is so slow. Maybe $1200 from next year's bonus check can go to the Adobe design suite, and I can get back to creating graphics and resurrecting latent skills.
Despite the artistic hit I thus endure, I am still designing "stuff" - thanks to work and college classes. At work I have created a handsome website for customers of a certain product of ours, and phase one has been submitted for approval. For school, I am creating Flash-based applications and web multimedia. I tried posting some of that here but: 1)the files are too large for hosting on Geocities and 2)the Geocities ads cause problems. I still need to purchase my own web space, but I am slow at motivating myself to do the simplest things. Like submit my tax returns. My tax returns (both state and federal), were completed online almost a month ago, but I have not felt like printing them out and pressing "Submit". Perhaps I am loathe to touch anything having to do with the IRS after I found out that I owed an additional $800+ for 2004's return.
My tenure in this apartment is the longest in which I've maintained residence in a single place since living on my own, and like all good things it is about to come to an end. I'm going to move somewhere that boasts a fireplace and built-in bookshelves. I'll get on that right now...
S a t u r d a y , M a r c h 4 t h
10:12PM | Forty Days
ince the point of Lent is to do something transforming your life, which involves not only giving up something but also adding something beneficial to your spiritual life, I am celebrating the 40 days of Lent by adding a spiritual study to my life called The 40 Days of Purpose. Just kidding.
Penitential Prayer of St. Augustine of Hippo
O Lord,
The house of my soul is narrow;
enlarge it that you may enter in.
It is ruinous, O repair it!
It displeases Your sight.
I confess it, I know.
But who shall cleanse it,
to whom shall I cry but to you?
Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord,
and spare Your servant from strange sins.
T h u r s d a y , M a r c h 2 n d
10:14PM | Shark Spies
f this technology was perfected and implanted into human brains, someone wealthy enough could create an army that would unquestioningly bend to their will.
I'm busy as dammit with work and classwork, but at least it is spring-like outside. Additionally, something to be happy about is the start of spring training, which saw preseason baseball games commence yesterday.
W e d n e s d a y , M a r c h 1 s t
10:32PM | Representing Deutschland
 n ESPN tonight, somewhere around the end of the Florida State vs. Duke basketball game and the Sixers/Rockets game, I saw for the first time one of the commercials in the Volkswagen Golf GTI "Un-Pimp Your Ride" series. I thought it was great, so I went to Youtube to view them all. They're really funny. The whole point is to make fun of the "Pimp Your Ride" culture, as you can see for yourself by viewing them through the links below...
VW Un-Pimp Your Ride 1: What Time Is It
VW Un-Pimp Your Ride 2: Drop It Like It's Hot
VW Un-Pimp Your Ride 3: Sucking
S u n d a y , F e b r u a r y 2 6 t h
10:54PM | Henry of Huntingdon And Things Enduring
n his History of the English, early 12th century historian Henry of Huntingdon clearly was fond of pointing out the transitive and fleeting nature of life, delusions of power and grandeur, and, in contrast to this, God's promise to us of eternal glory, wealth, and life. On the death of King Henry I he wrote:
Observe, then, reader, how the corpse of this mighty king, whose head was crowned with a diadem of precious jewels, sparkling with a brightness almost divine, who held glittering sceptres in both his hands, the rest of whose body was robed in cloth of gold, whose palate was gratified by such delicious and exquisite viands, whom all men bowed down to, all men feared, congratulated, and admire; observe, I say, what horrible decay, to what a loathsome state, his body was reduced! Mark how things end, from which only a true judgment can be formed, and learned to despise what so perishes and comes to nothing!
In one section, Henry of Huntingdon lists a summary of kings' names who ruled various prominent sections of Britain, and after naming the first two kings of Sussex, he confesses that the names of the other Sussex kings are unknown, forgotten - except the one (Ethelwold) who first adopted the Christian faith. Henry exhorts the reader:
And now, reader, observe and reflect how soon great names are lost in oblivion; and since there is nothing enduring in the world, seek, I pray you, carefully to obtain a kingdom and treasure which will not fail, a name and honour which shall not pass away, a memorial and glory which shall never grow old. To meditate on this is the highest wisdom, to attain it the highest prudence, to enjoy it the highest felicity.
12:26PM |
Sunday Readings
he Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath; today was such a Sunday in which I needed to take this into account. I am sick with a cold, and thus giving my body rest was more evocative of Sabbath rest than getting up and going to church would have been; additionally, this rest should better prepare my body and health for devotion to another week of work.
I am still engaged in a semi-daily re-reading of Rushdoony's Law and Society, and though I have been at it for over two years I am not looking forward to turning the last page. This week I read, in a chapter on idolatry, Rushdoony explain Luke 6:37: "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." Rushdoony explains that this is not a blanket rule against criticism of others when their deeds are ungodly, but rather against hypocritical judgment.
The hypocrite tells the truth, i.e., he describes men accurately, but he judges as though he were God. God is on the judgment throne, not man. We are not to usurp God's judgment. the meaning of verse 37 is, "Judge not, so that God may not judge you." One who never misses a chance to cite the failures and sins of others and to judge them will have God citing their every sin and judging them.. Theirs is not righteous judgment, however correct, but censorious judgment, hypocritical judgment. It does not seek the removal of our brother's mote, i.e., the fault of a fellow believer, but to condemn him for it. It manifests neither love, patience, nor forbearance, but distaste and distance.
...Hypocrisy is thus an aspect of idolatry, because the hypocrite warps reality by judging men in relation to himself, not himself and men together in relatino to the Lord. Hypocritical judgment is personal, not theological. It is personal even when it cites moral faults only, i.e., motes in the other person's eye, because its principle in judgment is our irritation and annoyance with them, not our struggle to heal ourselves and them also of our mutual infirmities.
...Having said these things, it is necessary to add, lest Scripture be misinterpreted, that we cannot use these passages to justify overlooking heresies, being indulgent of their errors, or of any attempt to forestall a judgment of their errors. We are strictly forbidden such conduct (II John 9-11). It is never our kindly disposition which is the criterion: it is the Lord and His word. To elevate our kindliness or love in any form to a position of priority is idolatry. Judging and condemning come very easily to some; being indulgent and tolerant comes very readily to others. Neither course is godly: both are ruled by man's disposition rather than the word of God. This constitutes idolatry.
Reading the Bible this morning, I saw a note for Psalm 118:8. Did you know: this verse is the middle verse in the Bible? "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." Now go map out a chiasm with that.
W e d n e s d a y , F e b r u a r y 2 2 n d
10:47PM |
Debut
id you notice that the previous blog entry was written using my new computer? Best Buy is doing something really good, and that is their offering instant rebates instead of mail-in rebates on laptop purchases. They are in the process of converting mail-in rebates to instant rebates for the rest of their merchandise, so unfortunately I had to exert some saliva in licking envelopes and wading through receipts in order to mail off the rebate forms and accoutrements for money back on my desktop PC/LCD monitor/all-in-one printer. I bought a new desktop for the processing speed, as opposed to the portability of a laptop; the reason for purchasing a new computer is that, with my promotion, I had to give my laptop and backup desktop PC back to the company.
Speaking of my promotion, I have been two days at my new post, and it is already going quite well. I always knew it would be pleasant to be able to work without the phone ringing every few minutes and interrupting me with unlooked-for surprises. I've already made modification requested by the business team to the procedures that gather data from our plethora of databases and display these results as a PDF report retrievable from a certain website of ours. And these modifications were successful. I like the flexibility of liquid work hours. If I want to, and I do, I can arrive at work around 7:00 and leave at 4:00 instead of 5:00, thus enjoying a longer evening and more daylight in my life. I suck at waking up in the morning, but I do it anyway, and wish that I could handle waking up even earlier so that I can get the day started and then finished sooner.
Apparently the IRS doesn't think that 50% of my paycheck is enough. Gotta fork some more over.
T u e s d a y , F e b r u a r y 2 1 s t
9:08PM |
Jumping Here And There
 y doctor must thing I am fat. For the first time in my life, I've been told to lose weight. I gained 30 pounds in eleven months and I guess this alarmed her. To me, 180 pounds is not overweight for my height, plus I have to consider that last December/early January I was very sick and not really eating for a period of a couple weeks. As mentioned earlier, I would like to redistribute some pounds from my belly to my muscles, but I don't want to go below 170.
I started my new position at work, and it is quite nice to be able to work without the phone ringing and interrupting me.
Today I was scouring the internet for a bagpipe mp3 or wav file to use in one of my Macromedia Director projects, and though I did not find the kind of tune I was looking for I was rewarded when I stumbled upon a website for the Mark Saul band, which is described as Celtic techno - don't think repetitive dance beat but rather a digitally enhanced, electronica accompanied bagpipe tune. I love their stuff; give an ear to their audio samples.
With the new television season underway, I thought that the tv would be a big distraction. However, the only good show on is Lost. I was watching 24 for the first few episodes at the begin of the season, but the series has become really boring and silly to the point where I can't stand it. I was watching last night's episode in the gym and did not feel like I was missing out on anything by walking out around 09:40 and missing the end. The whole show is so shallow: it's created in such a way that you can jump in on any episode and grasp what is going on... it's like everything else that has gone on before is irrelevant.
S u n d a y , F e b r u a r y 1 2 t h
10:33PM |
Partridge In A Poe Tree
e is well known for his dark and eerie stories, but I think it is unfortunate that Edgar Allan Poe is not more widely regarded for his poetry. One night before bed a couple weekends ago, I began reading some of Poe's poetry in the back of my copy of his collected works. I was familiar with his two well-known poems - The Raven and, to a lesser extent, Annabel Lee - as well as Lenore, but had overlooked the rest of the verse penned by Poe. Continuing my reading tonight I was delighted to discover the beauty of his poetry, particularly in his choice of words to convey emotion. If you are unfamiliar with Poe's poetry, I encourage you to look up some of his verse, and I imagine many have not become acquainted with Poe's poetry because they don't want to be associated with stereotypical Poe-reading melancholics. I have another one of his poems over to the right on this webpage; I decided to go with The Haunted Palace this time. I hope you enjoy it.
F r i d a y , F e b r u a r y 1 0 t h
11:51PM |
Week In Review
y week in review, starting with Sunday.
Sunday: I had to work Sunday morning. Watched the Super Bowl that evening.
Monday: Worked all day long on a project for a class.
Tuesday: Work and school.
Wednesday: Work and school.
Thursday: Work and school. I hate computers. I am a slave to computers. It is encouraged.
Friday: Off from work today. Threw stuff around and broke things.
I don't know what I was angry about. I think I am losing my mind. I'm going to go to sleep, because I can't do anything that would get me into trouble while I'm sleeping, right? At least I had an hour a couple nights this week to get a couple pages of leisure reading accomplished. God is good; I am wretched. I don't deserve all the good things and mercies I receive from Him.
W e d n e s d a y , F e b r u a r y 8 t h
10:15PM |
Waters Of Baptism
rom an old posting by Jonathan Barlow, via Richard, Martin Luther's flood prayer:
Almighty eternal God, who according to your righteous judgment did condemn the unbelieving world through the flood and in your great mercy did preserve believing Noah and his family, and who did drown hardhearted Pharaoh with all his host in the Red Sea and did lead your people Israel through the same sea on dry ground, thereby prefiguring this bath of holy baptism, and who through the baptism of your dear Child, our Lord Jesus Christ, have consecrated and set apart the Jordan and all water as a salutary flood and a rich and full washing away of sins: We pray through your same unbounded mercy that you will graciously behold _____ _____ _____ and bless him with true faith in the Spirit so that by means of this saving flood all that has been born in him from Adam and which he himself has added thereto may be drowned in him and engulfed, and that he may be sundered from the number of the unbelieving, preserved dry and secure in the holy ark of your Church, serve your Name at all times fervent in spirit and joyful in hope, so that with all believers he may attain eternal life according to your promise; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This is a beautiful prayer, and in fine words illustrates the symbolic predecessors to baptism: Noah's Flood, the Red Sea, and the Jordan River. These comparisons bring out two aspects of baptism. First, baptism is both a blessing and damning: it is deliverance to God's chosen people, and the curse of death to those who cast it aside and trample it underfoot. Second, baptism is a means of separation, as in distinguishing - or a cleansing, if you will (separating the pure from the impure. It divides and defines God's people from the damned; like Noah and the Israelites fleeing Pharaoh's chariots, it puts us on this side of the curse. Yet, lest we be tempted to think that baptism saves us, was it really the water that saved Noah and the Israelites, the fact of the waters' interaction with those people? No, they were chosen and delivered from a hopeless state entirely by an act of God, and declared their faith in the Lord by their behavior in response to the water gathered and poured by the Lord. In this way, the presence of the water - the baptism - was/is important, and I would contend that it is important as a test of sorts rather than an instantaneous mode of salvation.
2:36PM |
Cartoon Comment
 egarding the Danish cartoons that angered the Muslims, one of the best statements by a Muslim that I have read is surprising for two reasons: 1) it came from a youngster (15 years old) and 2) it was found on the BBC website. It still presupposes that what the cartoonist and the publishers printed was wrong - which to me is not black and white. However, I believe that his words are good for us to consider:
"We should not even pay attention to the cartoons. This caricaturist is an artist. He could have used his art in a much better way. If he had reflected a little more, he could have drawn something for the benefit of Christians. Then Christians could have come and said, 'You did something good.'"
Meisam, Iran
T u e s d a y , F e b r u a r y 7 t h
9:54PM |
A List
don't have much time for smalltalk right now, so instead I'll make a list: things that I like right now.
Things that I like right now:
1. Hebrews 10
2. Beef roasts for $1.99/lb
3. Programs that I write actually working
4. Everything about tacos
5. A living man who wants to attend his own funeral before he dies.
6. Spring training begins in about a month, which means that the fantasy baseball draft is coming up.
7. James Dvorak's incredible new portfolio site: Litfuse Design.
8. Underworld: Evolution
9. Director projects are complete up to date.
10. Any free time I can get.
T h u r s d a y , F e b r u a r y 2 n d
8:42AM |
Basketball Feat
high school girl in New York scored a girls' high school record 113 points in a basketball game. I like her name: Epiphanny Prince. Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie once scored 101 points in a half, back in high school.
M o n d a y , J a n u a r y 3 0 t h
6:38PM |
Woes Of The Runner
 hat can I say in praise of the weather? It has been a very welcome spring-like day in the middle of winter, and on my day off from work no less. Mid 60's, upper 50's, and unoppressive humidity. Mondays are usually the day in which I buckle down and indulge in some homework, but this pleasant day outdoors could not be avoided, so outside I went for the afternoon. Spring, come quickly.
For the first time in my life, I have to worry about getting fat. No, I am not fat and you would not notice if you looked at me (clothed). But I have noticed something very unusual, and that is that I am starting to get a belly. This could be due to a couple things: one being that I eat a lot (but not as much as I would like since I am always ready to eat and my body mercilessly demands food) and the other being that I don't run as much anymore, mainly because it is winter and cold outside, and because I don't like treadmills very much. I will need to run more, not just to keep my belly in check, but for one even greater reason.
I have a lot less endurance on the track than I used to, and am out of condition for running. I went to Lake Johnston Park today to get some of my favorite exercise, and after running only about a mile on rolling terrain I started getting my newest nemesis: shin splints. To my humiliation I had to walk most of the rest of the way around the lake, with occasional heavy jogging. I don't like being made to stop by my shins. I drove home, and upon reaching my apartment my legs were feeling loose and lively again, so I decided to put them to the test and go on a second run - if the unsatisfactory first run can be named as such.
One other thing about my episode at Lake Johnston. I arrived at the parking and commenced stretching, and a hot girl drove by and parked. I like running past hot girls. She got out of her car, failed to stretch, and took off down the trail. Once I finished stretching, I began running in the opposite direction from which Hot Girl was running. I knew that eventually we would run into each other because the trail loops, in a serpentine way. She was a good and fast runner, and needless to say she completed probably 1.75 laps in the time it took me to hobble my one lap. I was very displeased.
After returning home I began running the more straight and level sidewalks along Morrisville Parkway and branching roads, and this went very well as I recorded about 3.5 miles of running. I'll need to continue running regularly in order to build up endurance in my legs, and then maybe I can figure out why I get shin splits every time I go to Lake Johnston now.
I'm out like Eric Liddell.
S a t u r d a y , J a n u a r y 2 8 t h
10:52PM |
Annoying Things About The Internet
have become annoyed so many times by certain things on the internet that they have sort of become pet peeves of mine. The first great annoyance is, not surprisingly, a variant of the good old pop-up advertisement. This is the kind that is usually animated and that pops up onto the screen when my mouse cursor passes over a static advertising banner. It sits there and won't go away until either its timer runs out or I click the little "x" to close the ad's window (it won't minimize, so one of these two actions needs to be taken). But here's the real kicker: I click the "x", and some of these ads are designed so that when I click the "x" once, the ad merely shrinks a little, but still hasn't disappeared or returned to its original static, unobtrusive position. So I have to click a second time to kill the slightly transformed advertisement. This is commonly found with US Army ads and other pop-ups on sports websites.
But that might not be annoying as the self-collapsing ad. Go to cbs.sportsline.com anytime to see one of these. These are always found at the top of a webpage, so that when you arrive at the site virtually the whole screen is covered by this large ad. You can click the "close" button and watch it too-slowly collapse into a small more-appropriate ribbon, or you can scroll down to see the real content of the webpage. But if you choose this second option, in about six seconds the ad will automatically start to collapse itself into that little ribbon, and the rest of the webpage goes sliding up and off the screen with it. That's not fun when I'm reading or in the middle of trying to click on a link.
The next amusing curiosity of my personal experience with the internet is the questionable usefulness of third-party website visitor tracking tools, whether SiteMeter, eXTReMe Tracking, or whatever it is that you use. I use eXTReMe Tracking, and have for a long time. Just for ha-ha's, I installed a second eXTReMe Tracker to this blog, so both simultaneously monitor this site's traffic, until the ET guys find out (if they ever do) and deactivate the older instance of the tracker. Guess what? The reports don't match. For example, stats for January 20 on the old tracker say that I received 48 visits to my blog. According to my new tracker, I received 15. Today, my new tracker reports more visits than my old tracker does. Both are set up with the same time zones, so there is not any weird day overlap affecting the stats. The old tracker usually reports a greater visit number. Guess which one I like more?
T h u r s d a y , J a n u a r y 2 6 t h
10:58PM |
Blog Him With Many Blogs
y tracker tells me that there are still people visiting despite my sudden lack of daily blogging, so I will write something to oblige those who stop by. First off, let me point out a few blogs that I have started reading and enjoying, and that might provide enjoyment for you during my lack of serving up for my visitors:
Cardco - home of Matt Wilkins and host to his Cardco comics creations. His remakes of "Family Circus" comics I find to be hilarious, just perfect.
Christus Rex - not to be confused with my church's not-yet-famous because not-currently-in-print publication, Christus Rex is the blog of fellow church-goer Gregory Soderberg. He writes about Christian and theological topics mostly, and provides quotes of interest from the books he is reading.
Well, that's all I have. Just two blogs.
I'll add those blogs to my list-o'links. There are several blogs for which a feed is linked into my RSS feed reader, but that are absent from my blog list. Speaking of which, my RSS feed reader - aptly named "Feedreader" - mysteriously rebelled against me and caused my entire list of blog feeds to disappear. After waiting patiently for a couple of days and resigning myself to the realization that they would not be coming back, I went through my Favorites, searched for the RSS URI's, and hooked them back up in Feedreader. My list of feeds is now noticeably shorter, but I cannot think of the feeds that are missing.
Before continuing, my gastro-intestinal system wanted me to pass on to you its expression of how excellent my pot roast is that just finished cooking tonight. It's the best I've ever made, by far - probably because I accounted for the fact that this was not a huge chunk of bovine shoulder, and consequently reduced the cooking time. I cooked it tonight after dinner because I just won't have time here as the week ends, with the thawed roast sitting in the fridge, and me uncomfortable leaving food cooking while I am absent from the house. At least now I have lunch prepared for a couple days, and enjoyed a tasty late evening mealish snack today.
The reason why I am so busy is that I my mind is jumbled with a helter-skelter influx of facts, rules, and procedures: functions, stored procedures, expressions, cursors, variables, datatypes, et cetera. I am learning three programming languages all at once, which is the source of confusion. For work, I am learning PL/SQL and Oracle 9.i, while college courses are teaching me Javascript and Lingo (Lingo is the native programming language that powers Macromedia Director). Programming languages are designed in such a way that they all pretty much adhere to a general set of rules and structures, so that programmers of one language can better acclimate themselves to a different programming language with some sense of familiarity. Because of this common feel and sharing of many features among programming languages, distinctions can be blurred when learning them all at once. Thus, the slight but extremely important nuances of one language are learned, and then the next day you (I) can't remember what rule applied to which of the three languages. Work has been busy enough that I do not have as much time as I would like (need) to have to focus on learning PL/SQL.
What day is it? I've answered this question wrong several days this week.
Keep your shot glass nearby.
S u n d a y , J a n u a r y 2 2 n d
9:23PM |
Lazy Sunday (Not The SNL Movie)
his afternoon and evening were spent in a sports bar with friends watching the NFL playoffs. It was a great way to unwind after a busy and stressful week: drinking beer and playing poker. I don't go to bars very much anymore, so it was nice plus I had a Guinness on tap for the first time in too long. I anticipated a Denver vs. Carolina Super Bowl, but I was wrong. I don't usually join pick-'em leagues because I am almost always wrong about who will win a game.
Yes, the week was stressful. Trying to become acclimated to a new job while in the midst of college courses is rather difficult, and I have not been putting all my time and effort into it as best I should, so I guess I need prayer about that. Got to be more responsible. Therefore, a day of worship and beer is just what the doctor ordered to get the week started (I try not to do any schoolwork or work-related stuff on the sabbath).
W e d n e s d a y , J a n u a r y 1 8 t h
9:48PM |
Quoting Hanso
he representative (leader?) of the Others who talked to Jack, Sawyer, and Locke in LOST tonight just quoted Alvar Hanso: "A man smarter than any of us here once said, 'From the dawn of our species, Man has been blessed with curiosity. Our most precious gift, without exception, is the desire to know more.'" (Alvar Hanso, Address to the U.N. Security Council, 1967)
T u e s d a y , J a n u a r y 1 7 t h
11:16PM |
Quick Update
ot much inspiration or time for blogging here lately. Good thing I only signed up for two classes this semester, because I am rather sluggish getting into the swing of project deadlines this time. My procrastination skills are running at full tilt. My project for this week, built with Macromedia (now Adobe) Director MX, involved drawing original artwork, and I loathe drawing because it just isn't my thing. Animating other people's graphics and manipulating photos is more my specialty. If drawing, I prefer Photoshop. Photoshop is installed on my oldest computer with no feasible means of transferring it to another computer right now, so I am making do with Fireworks.
I have been promoted to a new position at work. The new job involves working with SQL and Business Objects. Should free up my weekends, but at the cost of having to carry my pager all the time. I look forward to the transition, which should begin shortly.
It is very windy outside. The past few nights heavy branches have been crashing down to the ground. I like it, and no one and nothing has been hurt so far.
F r i d a y , J a n u a r y 1 3 t h
5:38PM |
Post #1200: The Emerging Church
his evening I felt the need to blog about something intelligent, something that smacks of intellectual acumen. I will talk about the emerging church.
Perhaps you have seen the term springing up lately: whispers about the emerging church are popping up on blogs everywhere from those belonging to reputable clergymen to pop-theologiphiles to those who want to throw around a Christian buzz word to be hip in a geeky sort of way. I fall into the latter group, and thus I feel aptly qualified to introduce you what "the emerging church... is".
If you're like me, you are a visual learner; you pick up things easier if you can see charts, graphs, pictures, or otherwise have things drawn out for you. I present to you... the emerging church.
Scary indeed.
As we see here, the emerging church has 12 legs, and thus falls outside the scientific classification of "insect" or "arachnid". A crustacean? Perhaps, but this creature lives on land. The emerging church has a stout stone shell completely covering the body. The best way to attack it is to come up from underneath and crawl inside, attacking it from within. Many hunters have tried to pin down and locate the emerging church, but this creature is adept at camouflaging itself to blend in with its surrounding environment, hence the trails of ivy clinging to the stony shell. Its sheer size also scares off many would-be predators. Observe the picture above: three multi-colored "eyes" glare from the longest portion of its shell, but these are not eyes - they are just there to fool you into thinking that this creature is fiercer, bigger, and more ill-tempered than it really is.
As we can see, the emerging church is basically in its infancy, "bursting into the scene" if you will. It is cantering from a rather shady portion of the driveway, and is getting dangerously close to the street, where no doubt it will traverse the countryside and wreak havoc.
While some fear the emerging church and wish to thwart its advance at all costs, not all are repulsed by it, and some have embraced it - and it is no exaggeration to say that they have cast in their lot jubilantly. Observe some of their practices at their website: www.emerginchurch.info. Baptism by being dunked into the ocean by a crane? Sharing communion while skydiving? Postmodern!
Is the emerging church something to be worried and concerned about? You decide.
10:42AM |
Court Jester
his was a poor photo op for The Prez.
T h u r s d a y , J a n u a r y 1 2 t h
11:37AM |
Charbucks Scores
federal judge granted victory to small New Hampshire coffee roaster Black Bear Micro Roastery in a legal battle with Starbucks, allowing Black Bear to continue selling it's Charbucks line of coffee.
T u e s d a y , J a n u a r y 1 0 t h
6:24PM |
Do Not Neglect
had been in a rut, albeit not really a bad rut, in which my habit of Bible reading consisted of reading two sections from the Bible each day: something from the post-gospel New Testament books (Romans thru Revelation) as well as travelling through Psalms into Proverbs and back to Psalm 1 again. Sometime last year I realized that I needed to branch out and re-read the books that I had been somewhat ignoring for too long a time, and so I started working through the Old Testament starting in Genesis. This extended reading has been beneficial and enlightening throughout, but I still find myself not reading as much as I should. My daily Bible reading of three chapters really only takes approximately thirty minutes of my day, a measly sum which I could improve upon. I think I will add a fourth chapter so that I can regularly cycle through the gospels. There are, of course, "read through your Bible in a year" programs, but with how easily I forget things, I want to go through the epistles many times each year, and the Psalms as much as possible every year. By all this I do not mean that God is impressed by the quanitities of what I read, or that a Secret Service angel is tallying a sum of how much I have read, but instead I mean that I do not spend nearly as much time in the Bible as I should, and really need to work on diving into Scripture and seeking to grasp, remember, and apply what I read. It would probably be a helpful practice to write about what I read as well, basically keep a personal commentary as I go.
My two classes for the semester are starting out well. I am excited about the Advanced Multimedia class and am very intrigued by creating animation and "movies" (which I already know how to do, at least on a beginner level). With such a light courseload, I should be able to invest adequate amounts of time in my projects, and turn out something I can truly be pleased with.
There were a couple news stories that caught my amused eye today:
The mummified body of a dead woman was found by authorities sitting in front of her television set on the second floor of a house in which some of her relatives still lived. She had been there for nearly two-and-a-half years, and was left in the room by her caretaker because she divulged the fact that she did not want to be buried when she died. The air conditioner mummified her, until it broke a month or so ago.
There is doubt over the effectiveness and accuracy of prostate tests. Now they tell us.
The weather yesterday was warm and gorgeous. I was sitting in my recliner for some reading, and my windows and balcony door were open, and I soon found myself dozing in the pleasant air. There will be more of the same towards the end of the week.
S u n d a y , J a n u a r y 8 t h
7:30PM |
Mother Of All Great Whites
ince a front page headline on many news websites, you have probably already heard off the 21-year old woman who was swimming with a group from her church 50 feet off the coast of an Australian island in murky waters, and was savaged and killed by what is thought to have been three bull sharks. To show that I am interested in shark stories in general, and not just stories of sharks mauling people, let me point out a good shark story.
A shark-viewing tour boat owned by a diver named Jimmy Hall sent tourists into the semi-submerged aluminum cage to try to get a glimpse of sharks. After an hour, an 18-20 foot female great white shark appeared. On average, great whites are 10-15 feet long, and the lengthiest ever recorded was 21 feet. Jimmy Hall was not content to just view the shark from the aluminum cage - this was the first great white that he had ever seen and he knew that this one was special. Shockingly, he decided to swim out of the cage so that he could get close-up video of the shark and touch it. The shark hung around the boat and cage for 45 minutes, just swimming around peacefully and even gently rubbing against the boat's hull. You can view the story and some pictures of the shark, and video of the shark recorded by Jimmy Hall.
F r i d a y , J a n u a r y 6 t h
3:39PM |
Music For Today
his is a glimpse of some of the music I have felt like listening to and have been enjoying lately. They do not all share a particular mood or style. I have them arranged alphabetically by artist.
1. Venus - Air
2. 59th Street - Amy Correia
3. The Luckiest - Ben Folds
4. Be Quiet And Drive - Deftones
5. Supersonic - DJ Icey
6. After Midnight - Eric Clapton
7. Cars - Fear Factory
8. Double X Minus - Five Pointe O
9. Inner City Life - Goldie
10. Jesus of Suburbia - Green Day
11. What Comes Around - Ill Nino
12. Specialist - Interpol
13. Naked As We Came - Iron & Wine
14. Hurt - Johnny Cash
15. U Boat - Kasabian
16. World So Cold - Mudvayne
17. Bring Back The Sun - Our Lady Peace
18. Take California - Propellerheads
19. Struggle - Ringside
20. Bled For Days - Static-X
21. Hypnotize - System Of A Down
22. Lizaveta - The Constantines
23. Andy, You're A Star - The Killers
24. Attack Of The Ghost Riders - The Raveonettes
25. Unsure - The Stereotypes
11:05AM |
Hand Implants
ave trouble remembering your computer passwords? Get a radio frequency identification card (RFID) implanted in your hand, and with just a wave of your hand the computer (with appropriate devices) will read the password from the RFID chip. This is not just another alternative to biometrics for laptops, but could also carry encrypted information for interaction with other electronic devices.
T h u r s d a y , J a n u a r y 5 t h
9:43PM |
Off To The Classes
y college semester started today. Kind of caught me by surprise. I'm taking online courses again, and I received an e-mail from one of my teachers today welcoming me to class and the beginning of the term. Guess I'll have to crack open the textbooks this weekend. It should be a fun, productive, and easygoing semester as I am taking two classes. The one that I am most excited about because I will definitely be learning something is the Advanced Internet Multimedia class. Part one of this class, taken in autumn of 2004, taught Flash and ActionScript. This advanced class will teach me to create 3D objects, incorporation of those objects with Flash and Macromedia Director, and advanced ActionScript for more eye-popping Flash abilities. My only other class is on Internet Programming - a rather basic class going over things I already know, like XHTML, DHTML, CSS, XML, and even a little of the basic ole HTML. Javascript, too. I have never used Javascript very much, and probably should, so that will be the most useful part of the class as I learn how to make more dynamic websites. But best of all, this class will force me to practice designing websites, which I tend to slack off on doing at the risk of my abilities atrophying.
It seems like my site has been hitting its bandwidth limit due to amount of traffic (not that I get a lot of visitors) and the large number of kilobytes each visitor downloads on their visits to my blog, since I keep so much stuff on the front page here. Rather than tidying up, perhaps I will put some of my end-of-year bonus money towards buying a domain and host with greater data transfer, no ads, and an easy-to-remember URL. We shall see.
T u e s d a y , J a n u a r y 3 r d
10:38PM |
On The Board Of Smorgas
ere is quite a Bible verse:
"And [we beseech you] that ye aspire to lead a quiet life, and to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you..."
Some of my favorite Bible reading is of Paul's letters. This is despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that they often include checklists of everything I often fail to do that I should rather be doing: see 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22; Romans 12:9-19.
Yesterday I stayed awake for longer than 24 consecutive hours. I have become unaccustomed to such a practice over the last five years, but being conscious has its rewards and is well worth it (assuming I am not operating heavy machinery). Something that I have really been enjoying lately before turning in to bed for the night is a White Russian, which, if you happen to not know, is one shot of vodka over ice, one shot of Kahlua, and milk. Tastes like a chocolate milkshake with kick.
I wanted to point out a website that has been useful to me and that I hope will be useful to you. Adtunes.com helps you discover what that song that you heard in a television commercial and enjoyed is.
 M o n d a y , J a n u a r y 2 n d
4:37AM |
Look For Melting Skies Tomorrow
 alvin Gentry Jr. said one thing in his brief discussion of Matthew 24 (the Olivet Discourse) in He Shall Have Dominion that I especially appreciated. Matthew 24 has been pointed to by dispensationalists as describing the end times and the signs by which it will be identified: the tribulation, stars falling from the sky, etc. But Gentry points out that Jesus could not have been talking about His second coming, because "the Second Advent was to be at 'that' far day and hour, and was not to be preceded by particular signs of its nearness, for no man can know it (24:36)". Christ's return will come "like a thief in the night" (1 Thess. 5:3), and will not be something that the weatherman on the six o'clock news could forecast for the next day.
S a t u r d a y , D e c e m b e r 3 1 s t
11:47AM |
Hogmanay
oday, by various means, we celebrate the gift of another year. It is this time of year that people set about to conjure a list of New Year's resolutions, implying that the past year was a disaster and the change of calendar signals a fresh start, a blank slate. In a way, this recognition of our failures is correct, but in a couple ways the underlying attitude that may invade our New Year's resolutions, hopes, and reflections could be ungodly. First, we need to take care to avoid trusting in ourselves to straighten out the problems in our lives and draw ourselves out of whatever pits we might be stuck or sinking in. Our deliverance is not in a new year, a fresh start, or our own efforts. Relying on ourselves, our own power and ability, will lead to the same disappointments next year. Second, the reflective aspect of the New Year should not be consumed solely in regret about all the bad things that happened (or did not happen) in the now-completed year past. Hopefully we all can make an effort to counter this solemnity with grateful thankfulness to our Lord and His provision for and gifting of us.
The new year is a gift, and Dictionary.com's "Word of the Day" explains how the Scottish celebrate this fact. New Year's Eve in Scotland is called Hogmanay, celebrated by children going about singing and asking for gifts. This close upon the heels of the celebration of our Savior's birth, let's take care to remember who is our redeemer, and the source of all the good gifts that have been bestowed upon us.
T u e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 2 7 t h
9:35PM |
Merry Christmas
hope everyone celebrated a pleasant and joyous Christmas this year. I visited my family Christmas day for church, dinner, and gifts, and I received a dining room table. Know ye now that if you ever get subjected to my cooking, you will now have a place on which to set your plate, aside from your lap. Upon returning home Sunday evening, against everything I was expecting, I ended up making a long red-eye drive up to Maryland and spent Monday there for an enjoyable visit, and probably subjected my lovely hostess to too much sleep-deprived yawning. She's a blur of activity for someone who gets even less sleep than I do.
Movies arrive on my doorstep one after another now that I am using Blockbuster's online service and a few good ones that I have seen recently are Assault on Prencint 13 and Internal Affairs; a few okay titles were 11:14, A Lot Like Love, and A Very Long Engagement; ho-hum because it's not my kind of movie was The Aviator; and either horrible or disappointing were War of the Worlds, Robots, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Because I did not post it on Christmas day, being that I was not around, here is my favorite Christmas passage for the year. After all, it's the twelve days of Christmas, right? And we celebrate Christmas every week, and live affected by it and thankful for it every day...
1 "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!"
Says your God.
2 "Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the Lord's hand
Double for all her sins."
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
"Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough places smooth;
5 The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."
6 The voice said, "Cry out!"
And *he said, "What shall I cry?"
"All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever."
9 O Zion,
You who bring good tidings,
Get up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem,
You who bring good tidings,
Lift up your voice with strength,
Lift it up, be not afraid;
Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
10 Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand,
And His arm shall rule for Him;
Behold, His reward is with Him,
And His work before Him.
11 He will feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.
- Isaiah 40:1-11
 T u e s d a y , D e c e m b e r 2 7 t h
7:44PM |
Medical Records
 uinness unveils medical record breakers, encompassing such categories as "longest attack of hiccups" (68 years), most operations endured in a lifetime (970), and most kidney stones endured by a single person (4,504). BBC provides some of the records and pictures.
S a t u r d a y , D e c e m b e r 2 4 t h
2:49PM |
For God So Loved The World
omorrow we celebrate the Lord's greatest provision for the earth: the sending of his Son to the earth to be born as a man, live a perfect life, die a sacrificial death, and arise from the dead triumphantly and ascend to the right hand of His Father, thereby providing redemption for mankind and establishing His Kingdom on earth. God did not leave the world in slavery to sin and without hope of reconciliation, though that is what we deserved. God loves the world and it is precious to Him, and he demonstrates this not only in the historical event of His redemption of mankind and His mandate to the godly to take restorative dominion over the earth, but also in His active, daily provisioning and care for the earth. Psalm 65 displays this love of our Creator, Father, and King well:
1 Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion;
And to You the vow shall be performed.
2 O You who hear prayer,
To You all flesh will come.
3 Iniquities prevail against me;
As for our transgressions,
You will provide atonement for them.
4 Blessed is the man You choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Of Your holy temple.
5 By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us,
O God of our salvation,
You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
And of the far-off seas;
6 Who established the mountains by His strength,
Being clothed with power;
7 You who still the noise of the seas,
The noise of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
8 They also who dwell in the farthest parts are afraid of Your signs;
You make the outgoings of the morning and evening rejoice.
9 You visit the earth and water it,
You greatly enrich it;
The river of God is full of water;
You provide their grain,
For so You have prepared it.
10 You water its ridges abundantly,
You settle its furrows;
You make it soft with showers,
You bless its growth.
11 You crown the year with Your goodness,
And Your paths drip with abundance.
12 They drop on the pastures |
