Some thoughts on biblical interpretation...
(From my Pomoxian email list, tonight)
Though I have a shelf or two full of books that endorse analytical study of the Bible in various ways, I agree that we are most unlikely to really discover the spirit of the text if all we do with that analysis is sit back and congratulate ourselves with how knowledgeable we've become after we digest all the teaching.
Those qualities of...
beauty, enchantment, mystery, hope, and comfort
...as Bilbo put it are precious and quite elusive when we try to insist on them, or set up some kind of fail-proof process to instill them in ourselves and others on demand. And yet so often that is exactly what we expect our religious practices to provide, and it's that tendency to "erect booths at the Transfiguration" that gets us in so much trouble.
I concur with Rick's contentment to leave matters of biblical narrative as close to the "both/and" state as we can stand, without trying to allegorize them away as naive superstition of simple primitives or concretize them as non-negotiable facts of space-time history despite the inherently non-verifiable nature of so many events described in the scriptures. It may be that voices like ours, which do indeed come at these issues from different angles, will always be in the minority, but I hold out some hope that what we're developing here may eventually become a meeting place that Christians can learn to dwell in, if not always comfortably, at least peacably.
(You can follow the full thread by going here.)
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Captain Kangaroo Tribute
I must admit, I haven't thought much about this show in many years, but when I heard that Bob Keeshan died, I realized that my memories of his TV show go back about as far as anything else I remember from my early childhood. Here's a link to a nice website that chronicles the career of Bob Keeshan.
I must admit, I haven't thought much about this show in many years, but when I heard that Bob Keeshan died, I realized that my memories of his TV show go back about as far as anything else I remember from my early childhood. Here's a link to a nice website that chronicles the career of Bob Keeshan.
Kerry Moore Samurai Paycheck
Even though I've been busy with a lot of different stuff lately, I don't feel like spelling much of it out in detail here. I'm going to start the process of selecting my new assistant at work next week - that's pretty big, as far as my job is concerned, but of only marginal interest when it comes to blogging. I have the last of the postmodernism classes at Christ Church coming up tomorrow morning, as well as the class on family life from a biblical perspective that Ron is leading at Park Church. I've been interested in following the Democratic presidential campaign, and find myself feeling pretty comfortable with the idea of John Kerry as a viable challenger to Bush over the next ten and a half months or so. Nothing against Howard Dean, but I just have significant doubts that he's the guy who would be able to persuade enough voters to consider an alternative to the incumbent president. I would like to have a president that I could genuinely respect and appreciate, and from what I've seen of Kerry, he's probably registered the most positively with me of any of the candidates on a likeability scale. Wes Clark is OK too. The others don't really connect with me very well.
One thing that I'm looking forward to next weekend is Michael Moore coming to Grand Rapids to speak at Fountain Street Church. He's going to do a book signing and plug Wesley Clark. My sons were watching Bowling for Columbine tonight while Julie gave me a haircut in the kitchen. They like the film and are looking forward to seeing Moore in person as well.
Last night I watched Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai." It's a pretty impressive movie, but it is also long and I was kind of tired after a week of work and two glasses of cheap zinfandel. So I'm gonna have to watch it again, with the commentary, to fully respect this work of cinematic genius.
I saw "Paycheck" today with my boys. I thought it was pretty cool, flashy high tech entertainment with a interesting time-manipulation element in the story, and an intriguing puzzle as we try to figure out what the junk in the envelope is all about. Basically just a fun inconsequential movie. I am not quite sure why it got such downer reviews - it's not great art, but it kept me interested all the while. No complaints at all.
I also started a new blog today. It's for the West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition, a group that I support and helped get started. Here is where you can find it (it's small now but it's gonna get bigger and better soon!)
Even though I've been busy with a lot of different stuff lately, I don't feel like spelling much of it out in detail here. I'm going to start the process of selecting my new assistant at work next week - that's pretty big, as far as my job is concerned, but of only marginal interest when it comes to blogging. I have the last of the postmodernism classes at Christ Church coming up tomorrow morning, as well as the class on family life from a biblical perspective that Ron is leading at Park Church. I've been interested in following the Democratic presidential campaign, and find myself feeling pretty comfortable with the idea of John Kerry as a viable challenger to Bush over the next ten and a half months or so. Nothing against Howard Dean, but I just have significant doubts that he's the guy who would be able to persuade enough voters to consider an alternative to the incumbent president. I would like to have a president that I could genuinely respect and appreciate, and from what I've seen of Kerry, he's probably registered the most positively with me of any of the candidates on a likeability scale. Wes Clark is OK too. The others don't really connect with me very well.
One thing that I'm looking forward to next weekend is Michael Moore coming to Grand Rapids to speak at Fountain Street Church. He's going to do a book signing and plug Wesley Clark. My sons were watching Bowling for Columbine tonight while Julie gave me a haircut in the kitchen. They like the film and are looking forward to seeing Moore in person as well.
Last night I watched Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai." It's a pretty impressive movie, but it is also long and I was kind of tired after a week of work and two glasses of cheap zinfandel. So I'm gonna have to watch it again, with the commentary, to fully respect this work of cinematic genius.
I saw "Paycheck" today with my boys. I thought it was pretty cool, flashy high tech entertainment with a interesting time-manipulation element in the story, and an intriguing puzzle as we try to figure out what the junk in the envelope is all about. Basically just a fun inconsequential movie. I am not quite sure why it got such downer reviews - it's not great art, but it kept me interested all the while. No complaints at all.
I also started a new blog today. It's for the West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition, a group that I support and helped get started. Here is where you can find it (it's small now but it's gonna get bigger and better soon!)
Saturday, January 17, 2004
PoMo Presbyterians
Last Sunday I went to a class that Christ Church is offering on the topic of postmodernism. The speaker, James K. A. Smith, is a professor of philosophy at Calvin College. He's doing this series for the month of January. I missed the first class, because it took place on the weekend following New Year's Day and I was under the impression that it was still a holiday weekend, hence no Sunday School would be offered. But I did make it for Session 2 last Sunday, and I plan to be there tomorrow morning.
So to stay current, here's my summary of last week's lecture. It focused on Jacques Derrida and his semi-famous quote, "Nothing exists outside the text." Smith started off talking about the movie "Memento" and likened the main character's short-term memory problem to our postmodern condition. In order to interpret what was happening around him, he devised a system of texts and habits that would continually remind him of who he was and what he was supposed to do. He went so far as to tatoo the most important messages on to his body. "Memento" is one of those "landmark" pomo films that I would imagine are frequently cited in these kinds of talks - Prof. Smith also commented on "The Matrix" in Week 1. He also went on to use "The Little Mermaid" as an illustration, using Ariel's misuse of human artifacts as an illustration of how we interpret mundane objects like forks, even if we do so with such rapidity that we don't notice the act of interpretation.
This is the essence of what Derrida is saying in that quote. He's not alleging that we live inside a book or that written words are the only thing that's important. He's just pointing out that our minds aren't able to directly attain knowledge in some unmediated way - everything goes through language and requires interpretation.
What I found interesting about the class is just how subtle and deft the prof had to be to not go "too far" in the eyes of his mainly conservative and decidedly Reformed audience. There were some edgy exchanges at the end of the hour, the Q & A time, where he was pressed on the point that his (or Derrida's) arguments could be used to undermine the authority of the Bible, by reducing it to "just another" text, even though IMO Prof. Smith held back a bit from doing so by endorsing the value of the historic testimony of the Christian community. As I sit here thinking about it, I can see how even this might not be enough for those who would dismiss any inherent value in the witness of the church, preferring instead to assert the Bible as "objectively and absolutely" supreme and inerrant, regardless of any subjective opinion or defense that could be made based on human reasoning.
I detected a bit of restlessness from some of the people in the class (over 100 people though, so give them some credit - that's a good turnout) as the hour wore down. As I looked over the crowd, I have to admit that I went by appearances a bit and wondered to myself just what appeal or value this postmodern stuff would have to some of the people sitting in that room. Postmodernism is in many ways kind of an airy ephemeral business that fails to register on the "what's important" index in many people's lives. But I appreciate the church's willingness to grapple with these issues. If I had felt this kind of openness some years ago, things might have worked out differently in my relationship with the church as far as weekly attendance and leadership was concerned. But that's just speculation. I still have good connections with a number of the people there - in fact, I was at a book discussion last night with several guys from the church. We talked about Webber's "Younger Evangelicals" and split a six-pack of Bell's Ale while we were at it. Good stuff - the conversation and the beer (and Mark's excellent ice cream and fudge covered cookie dessert, while I'm at it!)
Last Sunday I went to a class that Christ Church is offering on the topic of postmodernism. The speaker, James K. A. Smith, is a professor of philosophy at Calvin College. He's doing this series for the month of January. I missed the first class, because it took place on the weekend following New Year's Day and I was under the impression that it was still a holiday weekend, hence no Sunday School would be offered. But I did make it for Session 2 last Sunday, and I plan to be there tomorrow morning.
So to stay current, here's my summary of last week's lecture. It focused on Jacques Derrida and his semi-famous quote, "Nothing exists outside the text." Smith started off talking about the movie "Memento" and likened the main character's short-term memory problem to our postmodern condition. In order to interpret what was happening around him, he devised a system of texts and habits that would continually remind him of who he was and what he was supposed to do. He went so far as to tatoo the most important messages on to his body. "Memento" is one of those "landmark" pomo films that I would imagine are frequently cited in these kinds of talks - Prof. Smith also commented on "The Matrix" in Week 1. He also went on to use "The Little Mermaid" as an illustration, using Ariel's misuse of human artifacts as an illustration of how we interpret mundane objects like forks, even if we do so with such rapidity that we don't notice the act of interpretation.
This is the essence of what Derrida is saying in that quote. He's not alleging that we live inside a book or that written words are the only thing that's important. He's just pointing out that our minds aren't able to directly attain knowledge in some unmediated way - everything goes through language and requires interpretation.
What I found interesting about the class is just how subtle and deft the prof had to be to not go "too far" in the eyes of his mainly conservative and decidedly Reformed audience. There were some edgy exchanges at the end of the hour, the Q & A time, where he was pressed on the point that his (or Derrida's) arguments could be used to undermine the authority of the Bible, by reducing it to "just another" text, even though IMO Prof. Smith held back a bit from doing so by endorsing the value of the historic testimony of the Christian community. As I sit here thinking about it, I can see how even this might not be enough for those who would dismiss any inherent value in the witness of the church, preferring instead to assert the Bible as "objectively and absolutely" supreme and inerrant, regardless of any subjective opinion or defense that could be made based on human reasoning.
I detected a bit of restlessness from some of the people in the class (over 100 people though, so give them some credit - that's a good turnout) as the hour wore down. As I looked over the crowd, I have to admit that I went by appearances a bit and wondered to myself just what appeal or value this postmodern stuff would have to some of the people sitting in that room. Postmodernism is in many ways kind of an airy ephemeral business that fails to register on the "what's important" index in many people's lives. But I appreciate the church's willingness to grapple with these issues. If I had felt this kind of openness some years ago, things might have worked out differently in my relationship with the church as far as weekly attendance and leadership was concerned. But that's just speculation. I still have good connections with a number of the people there - in fact, I was at a book discussion last night with several guys from the church. We talked about Webber's "Younger Evangelicals" and split a six-pack of Bell's Ale while we were at it. Good stuff - the conversation and the beer (and Mark's excellent ice cream and fudge covered cookie dessert, while I'm at it!)
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
What if they had a meetup and nobody came?
Well it's been about long enough since I've last entered something new to my blog so my apologies to any who've checked recently but clicked away disappointed. Here I am to catch up a bit.
The PoMoXian email list has been quite busy lately - we have had more posts this month than any month previously and we started the group back in 2002. And we're not even half way through January. So keeping up
with all that traffic has been taking up the majority of my on-line time. There's been some interesting debate, input from new voices and that has stimulated several of us vets to throw in our thoughts as well. And I've had some moderatin' to do as we restore a bit of equilibrium
to all the unsettledness provoked by hard questions, some venting and the ever-present threat of misunderstanding that comes with the email medium.
But that's all documented on-line. What else have I been up to?
Last night I was supposed to go to an "Indie Allies Meetup" that I discovered somehow on the internet. I did go, actually, but when I got to the coffee house that was hosting the event, I didn't see anything indicating that a meetup event was taking place. It looked just like your ordinary Tuesday night cafe' crowd, mostly couples or singles, a couple of small clusters, but nothing resembling an organized effort to bring strangers with a common interest together. So I had a cafe au lait, read some more of my Fortunate Son book (where I learned about some connections between an early GW Bush business partner and the bin Laden family...) I'm not sure what to make of this non-event. The concept is that this Indie Allies group is a bunch of independent Christian thinkers, maybe somehow connected to the emergent church pomo Christianity trend. My interest is in seeing how my PoMoXian ideas would go over with this crowd and simply meeting some new people in my area. But it didn't happen, oh well, nothing really lost in the process, and I did discover a cool new place to drink coffee, right downtown on Fulton Street where it crosses the Grand River. Nice spot!
On Saturday I went to a morning retreat with the Shalom worship group from Park Church. It was a good opportunity to get to know more about the people I spend Sunday mornings with in contemplative prayer. I particularly enjoyed the meeting because work had been tough that week, I'd had some friction at home that I won't write about here, sorry, and I just needed a touch of tranquility in my life at that moment. Which is pretty much what I got from that retreat. It helped me feel a lot more connected and invested in the Shalom service, even gave me a sense of community with these folks, which is still in the process of growing and becoming something unique and valuable in my life.
The snow is coming down in a steady tumble right now so I best be getting on my way. I'm writing this from work, which has been pleasantly manageable this week, especially compared to last. I spoke with my former assistant and now just good friend Roxy today and we shared some good laughs. I'm getting ready to go into another interview process as I prepare to replace my current assistant Kristen, which is going to be interesting but tough when we get down to decision time. And I will miss Kristen. But that's how it goes - life throws changes at us and it's our response that reflects who we are and what we're about. So let's discover just what it is that we're all made of...
Well it's been about long enough since I've last entered something new to my blog so my apologies to any who've checked recently but clicked away disappointed. Here I am to catch up a bit.
The PoMoXian email list has been quite busy lately - we have had more posts this month than any month previously and we started the group back in 2002. And we're not even half way through January. So keeping up
with all that traffic has been taking up the majority of my on-line time. There's been some interesting debate, input from new voices and that has stimulated several of us vets to throw in our thoughts as well. And I've had some moderatin' to do as we restore a bit of equilibrium
to all the unsettledness provoked by hard questions, some venting and the ever-present threat of misunderstanding that comes with the email medium.
But that's all documented on-line. What else have I been up to?
Last night I was supposed to go to an "Indie Allies Meetup" that I discovered somehow on the internet. I did go, actually, but when I got to the coffee house that was hosting the event, I didn't see anything indicating that a meetup event was taking place. It looked just like your ordinary Tuesday night cafe' crowd, mostly couples or singles, a couple of small clusters, but nothing resembling an organized effort to bring strangers with a common interest together. So I had a cafe au lait, read some more of my Fortunate Son book (where I learned about some connections between an early GW Bush business partner and the bin Laden family...) I'm not sure what to make of this non-event. The concept is that this Indie Allies group is a bunch of independent Christian thinkers, maybe somehow connected to the emergent church pomo Christianity trend. My interest is in seeing how my PoMoXian ideas would go over with this crowd and simply meeting some new people in my area. But it didn't happen, oh well, nothing really lost in the process, and I did discover a cool new place to drink coffee, right downtown on Fulton Street where it crosses the Grand River. Nice spot!
On Saturday I went to a morning retreat with the Shalom worship group from Park Church. It was a good opportunity to get to know more about the people I spend Sunday mornings with in contemplative prayer. I particularly enjoyed the meeting because work had been tough that week, I'd had some friction at home that I won't write about here, sorry, and I just needed a touch of tranquility in my life at that moment. Which is pretty much what I got from that retreat. It helped me feel a lot more connected and invested in the Shalom service, even gave me a sense of community with these folks, which is still in the process of growing and becoming something unique and valuable in my life.
The snow is coming down in a steady tumble right now so I best be getting on my way. I'm writing this from work, which has been pleasantly manageable this week, especially compared to last. I spoke with my former assistant and now just good friend Roxy today and we shared some good laughs. I'm getting ready to go into another interview process as I prepare to replace my current assistant Kristen, which is going to be interesting but tough when we get down to decision time. And I will miss Kristen. But that's how it goes - life throws changes at us and it's our response that reflects who we are and what we're about. So let's discover just what it is that we're all made of...
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
I got a sty in my eye!
A couple of days ago I noticed a slight tenderness at the outside corner of my left eye. I didn't think much of it - figured maybe I'd bumped it or something minor was going on. But at work today, one of the girls looked at me for a second and said "you got a sty!" At first, she thought I had some kind of pink eye shadow on! So she ran to get her mirror and sure enough, I saw that my eyelid was slightly droopy and reddish. What am I supposed to do about a sty in my eye? I've never dealt with one before, though I think I've experienced this kind of discomfort in the past. My body memory indicates it, anyway.
I called my eye doctor, where I'd already set up an appointment for this Friday just yesterday in order to get new glasses. My current lenses are very scratched up - they're four years old, and I was thinking that I might even be needing bifocals based on a few encounters with fine print that I've had recently. When I had set up the appointment, they had mentioned a 3 pm Wednesday afternoon slot that was available, but I had a 4 pm meeting and I didn't think it would work. But then this morning the meeting got cancelled, so I grabbed that 3 pm appointment and got my eyes examined.
Turns out that a sty is no big thing. WebMD will tell you pretty much the same thing that I heard from my optometrist - apply heat compresses a few times each day. I also discovered that my lens prescription hasn't changed in four years and I'm still a year or two from really needing bifocals, but it will be necessary, no avoiding that. And most importantly, I ordered cool new titanium frames that look a lot like my current glasses but are just a bit smaller and darker and can twist like mad and still retain their shape. It's kind of freaky for me, thinking of all the frames and lenses I've mangled over the years. I was a lot harder on my glasses than my two kids who wear them ever were. But that's another story...
In much bigger news, long term anyway, my assistant Kristen informed me today that she's taking a job out of town and will be finishing up her duties as of January 23. I will have more to say about this later, but for now: BUMMER! WAAAAHHH! I am not looking forward to replacing her, but she wants to do some other things, so what choice do I have? It's gonna be interesting, let's just say that for the time being..!
A couple of days ago I noticed a slight tenderness at the outside corner of my left eye. I didn't think much of it - figured maybe I'd bumped it or something minor was going on. But at work today, one of the girls looked at me for a second and said "you got a sty!" At first, she thought I had some kind of pink eye shadow on! So she ran to get her mirror and sure enough, I saw that my eyelid was slightly droopy and reddish. What am I supposed to do about a sty in my eye? I've never dealt with one before, though I think I've experienced this kind of discomfort in the past. My body memory indicates it, anyway.
I called my eye doctor, where I'd already set up an appointment for this Friday just yesterday in order to get new glasses. My current lenses are very scratched up - they're four years old, and I was thinking that I might even be needing bifocals based on a few encounters with fine print that I've had recently. When I had set up the appointment, they had mentioned a 3 pm Wednesday afternoon slot that was available, but I had a 4 pm meeting and I didn't think it would work. But then this morning the meeting got cancelled, so I grabbed that 3 pm appointment and got my eyes examined.
Turns out that a sty is no big thing. WebMD will tell you pretty much the same thing that I heard from my optometrist - apply heat compresses a few times each day. I also discovered that my lens prescription hasn't changed in four years and I'm still a year or two from really needing bifocals, but it will be necessary, no avoiding that. And most importantly, I ordered cool new titanium frames that look a lot like my current glasses but are just a bit smaller and darker and can twist like mad and still retain their shape. It's kind of freaky for me, thinking of all the frames and lenses I've mangled over the years. I was a lot harder on my glasses than my two kids who wear them ever were. But that's another story...
In much bigger news, long term anyway, my assistant Kristen informed me today that she's taking a job out of town and will be finishing up her duties as of January 23. I will have more to say about this later, but for now: BUMMER! WAAAAHHH! I am not looking forward to replacing her, but she wants to do some other things, so what choice do I have? It's gonna be interesting, let's just say that for the time being..!
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
The Heat is On
...and that's a good thing! Last night I called a different furnace repair guy than the one I've been waiting on to fix my problem over the past two weeks (which have been warmer than usual for this time of year.) Yesterday afternoon, the snow started coming down as one would expect for a West Michigan January, and it hasn't stopped since then. We have had probably seven or eight inches overall and the temperature has been down in the teens. No matter now, because we have a working furnace once again! It set me back over three hundred bucks but the way money has been flying out of my accounts lately, it don't even faze me. It's just what I've come to accept in life.
In other news, I have had a chance to do a fair amount of posting to various email lists, where I can elaborate on my views on various issues of interest to my fellow subscribers. Topics touched on today include American patriotism and Christianity, our favorite Bible versions, and the significance of the Virgin Birth doctrine and whether or not we see it as essential to being a Christian or "proveable" in any meaningful sense. Follow these links if you want to see what I have to say on any of those topics.
...and that's a good thing! Last night I called a different furnace repair guy than the one I've been waiting on to fix my problem over the past two weeks (which have been warmer than usual for this time of year.) Yesterday afternoon, the snow started coming down as one would expect for a West Michigan January, and it hasn't stopped since then. We have had probably seven or eight inches overall and the temperature has been down in the teens. No matter now, because we have a working furnace once again! It set me back over three hundred bucks but the way money has been flying out of my accounts lately, it don't even faze me. It's just what I've come to accept in life.
In other news, I have had a chance to do a fair amount of posting to various email lists, where I can elaborate on my views on various issues of interest to my fellow subscribers. Topics touched on today include American patriotism and Christianity, our favorite Bible versions, and the significance of the Virgin Birth doctrine and whether or not we see it as essential to being a Christian or "proveable" in any meaningful sense. Follow these links if you want to see what I have to say on any of those topics.
Monday, January 05, 2004
Resuming Normalcy
I'm about to jump in the shower to begin getting ready for work. I've just been sitting by the furnace, manually lighting it every 3 or 4 minutes since our ignition system is still not functioning (new furnace installation will be ordered tonight.) As if on cue, the heavy snow came down last night, as we all get ready to return to work, school, our normally scheduled activities. We had no snow over holiday break so no one got a chance to go sledding. Now that we're all about to get busy again, here comes the snow and the extra-cold weather.
But heat problems aside, I'm glad to be getting back to the routine. I checked the fill-in at work using my Citrix software and it looks like things have been busy but manageable in my absence. We'll see what kind of a pile is waiting for me when I get there in about an hour or so.
David Block from the radical-middle list sent this humorous piece about a woman who ran into opposition from the Transportation Security Administration when she recently tried to take an exotic fish with her on an airplane.
Something to help me be content to stay at home, work in town and miss out on traveling the not-so-friendly skies.
I'm about to jump in the shower to begin getting ready for work. I've just been sitting by the furnace, manually lighting it every 3 or 4 minutes since our ignition system is still not functioning (new furnace installation will be ordered tonight.) As if on cue, the heavy snow came down last night, as we all get ready to return to work, school, our normally scheduled activities. We had no snow over holiday break so no one got a chance to go sledding. Now that we're all about to get busy again, here comes the snow and the extra-cold weather.
But heat problems aside, I'm glad to be getting back to the routine. I checked the fill-in at work using my Citrix software and it looks like things have been busy but manageable in my absence. We'll see what kind of a pile is waiting for me when I get there in about an hour or so.
David Block from the radical-middle list sent this humorous piece about a woman who ran into opposition from the Transportation Security Administration when she recently tried to take an exotic fish with her on an airplane.
Something to help me be content to stay at home, work in town and miss out on traveling the not-so-friendly skies.
Sunday, January 04, 2004
Mission to Mars
So we (the USA, that is) now has a spacecraft called "Spirit" that's about to go roaming about on the surface of Mars? That's an interesting choice for the name. I wonder who decided that, and how they go about approving the titles for these missions. We are familiar with the old mythological names, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the Saturn V rocket, and all the noble-sounding space shuttles - Discovery, Challenger, Endeavour, etc. The last Martian missions I can remember were the Pathfinder/Sojourner missions, where Sojourner was the little wagon-sized contraption that toodled around and shoved a few rocks around. I hear that Spirit is more like a golf cart. I am very interested to see what the scientists find in this crater!
Just spent a few minutes surfing the NASA website. Apparently, the name Spirit was chosen by a third-grader in a "name the rovers" contest. The article goes on to say that later this month, a second craft, named Opportunity, is scheduled to land somewhere else on the planet.
The Europeans appear to have lost their "Beagle." I hope no one uses this as an opportunity to take a cheap shot at the Euros, but I can imagine that it's gonna happen regardless of what I have to say about it...
So we (the USA, that is) now has a spacecraft called "Spirit" that's about to go roaming about on the surface of Mars? That's an interesting choice for the name. I wonder who decided that, and how they go about approving the titles for these missions. We are familiar with the old mythological names, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the Saturn V rocket, and all the noble-sounding space shuttles - Discovery, Challenger, Endeavour, etc. The last Martian missions I can remember were the Pathfinder/Sojourner missions, where Sojourner was the little wagon-sized contraption that toodled around and shoved a few rocks around. I hear that Spirit is more like a golf cart. I am very interested to see what the scientists find in this crater!
Just spent a few minutes surfing the NASA website. Apparently, the name Spirit was chosen by a third-grader in a "name the rovers" contest. The article goes on to say that later this month, a second craft, named Opportunity, is scheduled to land somewhere else on the planet.
The Europeans appear to have lost their "Beagle." I hope no one uses this as an opportunity to take a cheap shot at the Euros, but I can imagine that it's gonna happen regardless of what I have to say about it...
A few quickies...
Aaron McGruder's "A Right to be Hostile" had me laughing out loud so much last night that my kids were laughing too even though they weren't reading the comic. The travails of Huey Freeman are so funny to me!
Just started reading J.H. Hatfield's biography of George W. Bush (written before Election 2000) titled "Fortunate Son." The edition I own is quite collectible. It was actually recalled by St. Martin's Press prior to publication and all the copies obtained were physically burned! Apparently, Hatfield puts together the most comprehensive gathering of evidence that Bush used cocaine in the 1970s. I haven't read that yet, obviously, but the controversy about this book's publication and apparent suppression is intriguing. I got my copy for five bucks at a local Bargain Book store. Amazon Auctions sells it for considerably more! New editions have since been released, with new material, but I'm proud to have a copy of the original.
Our family is using a brand-new edition of Eugene Peterson's Living the Message for our after-dinner reading this year. It's a considerable improvement over the teen-oriented Josh McDowell book that we settled on by default last year. But I don't want to get too negative here... I like Peterson's approach, I think the Message is a very good version of the Bible to read, and I respect that he's an evangelical who appreciates the arts and seems intent on building on the more positive aspects of culture rather than injecting so much scorn and pessimism into his... message.
I am happy to see the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens out of the NFL playoffs. My sons like Seattle (simply because that's Nintendo headquarters), Julie likes Tennessee (because she'd like to live down there someday) but I would love to see a Packers-Chiefs rematch in the Super Bowl, not like I expect that to happen.
Maybe I've just been in the wrong media stream, but I do not get why there is this flurry of publicity about the Sex in the City program beginning its final season? I've never seen the show, mind you, and I'm not that big on episode TV to begin with. But this show seems wack. I could care less about its premise and the role it's played as a fashion trend-setter for barely functional high priced accessories makes it contemptible in my esteem. It's not worth going on about, but I've just heard more fuss made about it than seems at all warranted.
Aaron McGruder's "A Right to be Hostile" had me laughing out loud so much last night that my kids were laughing too even though they weren't reading the comic. The travails of Huey Freeman are so funny to me!
Just started reading J.H. Hatfield's biography of George W. Bush (written before Election 2000) titled "Fortunate Son." The edition I own is quite collectible. It was actually recalled by St. Martin's Press prior to publication and all the copies obtained were physically burned! Apparently, Hatfield puts together the most comprehensive gathering of evidence that Bush used cocaine in the 1970s. I haven't read that yet, obviously, but the controversy about this book's publication and apparent suppression is intriguing. I got my copy for five bucks at a local Bargain Book store. Amazon Auctions sells it for considerably more! New editions have since been released, with new material, but I'm proud to have a copy of the original.
Our family is using a brand-new edition of Eugene Peterson's Living the Message for our after-dinner reading this year. It's a considerable improvement over the teen-oriented Josh McDowell book that we settled on by default last year. But I don't want to get too negative here... I like Peterson's approach, I think the Message is a very good version of the Bible to read, and I respect that he's an evangelical who appreciates the arts and seems intent on building on the more positive aspects of culture rather than injecting so much scorn and pessimism into his... message.
I am happy to see the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens out of the NFL playoffs. My sons like Seattle (simply because that's Nintendo headquarters), Julie likes Tennessee (because she'd like to live down there someday) but I would love to see a Packers-Chiefs rematch in the Super Bowl, not like I expect that to happen.
Maybe I've just been in the wrong media stream, but I do not get why there is this flurry of publicity about the Sex in the City program beginning its final season? I've never seen the show, mind you, and I'm not that big on episode TV to begin with. But this show seems wack. I could care less about its premise and the role it's played as a fashion trend-setter for barely functional high priced accessories makes it contemptible in my esteem. It's not worth going on about, but I've just heard more fuss made about it than seems at all warranted.
No Excuses
Well I can't say that I've been "busy" exactly, as an explanation as to why my blog has been unattended since last Thursday. I haven't gone to work, I've mostly been hangin' around the house, trying to keep my furnace lit, straightening up my basement, getting my computer set back up to how-it-used-to-be-only-better, trying to be somewhat disciplined with all the leftover cookies and goodies to be found in our kitchen and elsewhere. Maybe I just haven't had much worth blogging about? That would make sense.
I did finish (more or less) inserting links into my Top Ten list (which you can find in the 12/28 entry, or on my homepage at www.pomoxian.com) over that stretch of time, so the blog hasn't been completely neglected. But probably the main reason that I've not written a lot of new stuff is that my downstairs computer lab is just so frikkin' busy! I have at least three or four people down here almost all the time when the kids are home and they've been home a lot over the past couple weeks. The twins like to play this Real Life Ragnarok role-playing game, Alyssa is always doing her art work and chatting with her on-line pals, and now Curt has just gotten ahold of the newest Need For Speed title, which looks great but features a thought-disrupting soundtrack with acts like Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz (beware of this link though, since it has the dirty version of "Down Low" playing), Rob Zombie, the Crystal Method, etc. (TCM ain't that bad though - I have a few of their CDs!) So it's always feeling crowded and noisy down here, interrupting my concentration and inducing a kind of writers block when might otherwise feel inclined to compose something - a new article, an email to any of the groups I subscribe to, a blog entry, whatever.
At the moment, I'm alone. The rest of my family hasn't returned from church yet. I went to Park Congregational this morning, only to discover that they didn't have the class or service scheduled that I usually attend. I like to go to their contemplative Shalom gathering, which I knew was on hiatus this week. After that, I go to the class taught by Ron Skidmore, but this is still considered a holiday weekend, so no classes, only the traditional worship service. I thought there would be some kind of offering, but there wasn't so I had a cup of coffee, said hello to a couple of people, then came back home. But next weekend, I'll be getting deeper into it again. Ron is putting together a retreat for the Shalom service participants on Saturday, then we'll have our regular meeting on Sunday, after which he'll begin a new class series on "Marriage, Divorce and Family in the Bible." Which ought to be interesting!
So that's a little update on what I've been up to.
Well I can't say that I've been "busy" exactly, as an explanation as to why my blog has been unattended since last Thursday. I haven't gone to work, I've mostly been hangin' around the house, trying to keep my furnace lit, straightening up my basement, getting my computer set back up to how-it-used-to-be-only-better, trying to be somewhat disciplined with all the leftover cookies and goodies to be found in our kitchen and elsewhere. Maybe I just haven't had much worth blogging about? That would make sense.
I did finish (more or less) inserting links into my Top Ten list (which you can find in the 12/28 entry, or on my homepage at www.pomoxian.com) over that stretch of time, so the blog hasn't been completely neglected. But probably the main reason that I've not written a lot of new stuff is that my downstairs computer lab is just so frikkin' busy! I have at least three or four people down here almost all the time when the kids are home and they've been home a lot over the past couple weeks. The twins like to play this Real Life Ragnarok role-playing game, Alyssa is always doing her art work and chatting with her on-line pals, and now Curt has just gotten ahold of the newest Need For Speed title, which looks great but features a thought-disrupting soundtrack with acts like Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz (beware of this link though, since it has the dirty version of "Down Low" playing), Rob Zombie, the Crystal Method, etc. (TCM ain't that bad though - I have a few of their CDs!) So it's always feeling crowded and noisy down here, interrupting my concentration and inducing a kind of writers block when might otherwise feel inclined to compose something - a new article, an email to any of the groups I subscribe to, a blog entry, whatever.
At the moment, I'm alone. The rest of my family hasn't returned from church yet. I went to Park Congregational this morning, only to discover that they didn't have the class or service scheduled that I usually attend. I like to go to their contemplative Shalom gathering, which I knew was on hiatus this week. After that, I go to the class taught by Ron Skidmore, but this is still considered a holiday weekend, so no classes, only the traditional worship service. I thought there would be some kind of offering, but there wasn't so I had a cup of coffee, said hello to a couple of people, then came back home. But next weekend, I'll be getting deeper into it again. Ron is putting together a retreat for the Shalom service participants on Saturday, then we'll have our regular meeting on Sunday, after which he'll begin a new class series on "Marriage, Divorce and Family in the Bible." Which ought to be interesting!
So that's a little update on what I've been up to.
Thursday, January 01, 2004
A big sigh of relief...
Happy New Year, friends and readers. I had a fun night last night with my family and a couple that we've spent quite a few NYEs in recent years. It helped me get my mind off the aggravating computer hassles I mentioned yesterday. We were up until after 3 am, then we had to get up for the morning newspaper delivery. Even though they were due for delivery by 8 am (yeah right!) we didn't roll out of bed until after 8:30 am. Got one call from one of our sweet little old lady customers about why the paper wasn't there yet, but I think most of the subscribers understood.
After showering and slamming down two cups of coffee, I was now ready to get back to tackling the computer problem. I am thankful to have a second computer (beside's Alyssa's eMac) that I could copy my important files to. I was able to do that, then I formatted my C drive for a fresh reinstall of Windows. (I'm skipping over a lot of the other steps and technical details, assuming that it's not that interesting.) The problem now appears to be that one of my 256 MB RAM chips is bad - at least, I took out one chip and after doing that, I was able to get through a Windows install without going into the reboot loop or blue screen of death sequence that had plagued all my other attempts to get the PC running again.
So I have a fresh and clean C drive, which is nice. I just have a fair amount of software to reinstall, but it actually feels kind of nice to scrub things up, especially today, the first day of the year. My mood has improved considerably - nothing appears to have been irretrievably lost except the time it took to fix the problem, but there's no use brooding over that! It sure makes me realize how central the personal computer has become to my life - the idea of losing all my files, financial info and simply not having access to the wide range of information, contacts, etc. that I use regularly was genuinely disturbing and depressing. But I also like the fact that I was able to fix the problem myself rather than pay someone $50 an hour to do so. OK, enough on that, I suppose that you know as much as you need to about this little chapter of my life.
Just one additional note - I'm gradually inserting some links into my Top Ten list in case you care to revisit it over the next few days.
Happy New Year, friends and readers. I had a fun night last night with my family and a couple that we've spent quite a few NYEs in recent years. It helped me get my mind off the aggravating computer hassles I mentioned yesterday. We were up until after 3 am, then we had to get up for the morning newspaper delivery. Even though they were due for delivery by 8 am (yeah right!) we didn't roll out of bed until after 8:30 am. Got one call from one of our sweet little old lady customers about why the paper wasn't there yet, but I think most of the subscribers understood.
After showering and slamming down two cups of coffee, I was now ready to get back to tackling the computer problem. I am thankful to have a second computer (beside's Alyssa's eMac) that I could copy my important files to. I was able to do that, then I formatted my C drive for a fresh reinstall of Windows. (I'm skipping over a lot of the other steps and technical details, assuming that it's not that interesting.) The problem now appears to be that one of my 256 MB RAM chips is bad - at least, I took out one chip and after doing that, I was able to get through a Windows install without going into the reboot loop or blue screen of death sequence that had plagued all my other attempts to get the PC running again.
So I have a fresh and clean C drive, which is nice. I just have a fair amount of software to reinstall, but it actually feels kind of nice to scrub things up, especially today, the first day of the year. My mood has improved considerably - nothing appears to have been irretrievably lost except the time it took to fix the problem, but there's no use brooding over that! It sure makes me realize how central the personal computer has become to my life - the idea of losing all my files, financial info and simply not having access to the wide range of information, contacts, etc. that I use regularly was genuinely disturbing and depressing. But I also like the fact that I was able to fix the problem myself rather than pay someone $50 an hour to do so. OK, enough on that, I suppose that you know as much as you need to about this little chapter of my life.
Just one additional note - I'm gradually inserting some links into my Top Ten list in case you care to revisit it over the next few days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
