Lots of people have Attention Deficit Disorder, or so they claim. Yes, I agree that some people have a true chemical imbalance which creates this disorder, but far too many people claim they have it, when, most likely, they've just developed something akin to it. Among the people I know, I would be one of them.
A blog at Christ the Victor.
So, today I ran across something called Google Chrome, Google's new internet browser. The interesting thing about Chrome is the technology behind it. It basically allows not only your pages, but different portions of the pages you pull up to be a separate processes, which just means that ultimately it handles memory better, so that once you close a tab, memory is dropped back into the system. This means that if the browser had to pull extra memory to run something on a page, then the memory is given back to the system when the tab is closed (most browsers expand their memory allocation on the machine when they need more memory, but the memory isn't given back until the browser is shut down). Chrome can do this because, as mentioned above, each tab in the browser is a new process (a new root directive which guides subsequent logic flow), so shutting off the spigot at the top ... you get the point.
Anyway, the good thing about the browser is the privacy/security tech behind it. All items within a web page are kept in what Google calls a sandbox, which is where the scripts and web page flim-flam is allowed to play, but in a read only environment; this means that any malware and viruses that want to write data to your hard drive simply can't. Nothing can be installed on your local machine because everything in this browser gets absolutely no rights to anything other than the right to display in your open tab. Nice concept. For those of you that want to get the technical mumbo jumbo, read this comic book (yes, I said comic book).
I like it already. I'm using it to write this blog post.
I've not posted in a long time. I said I would, but when it came down to it, I simply didn't post. Several people now have told me to begin posting again.
Unfortunately, I haven't quite had the mind for it most recently. I've been a bit distracted, and haven't really given much of a focus to the writing, and the "keeping my peeps informed" routine; instead, I've been on the "where'd my clients go?" and "how do I get more clients?" mindset.
Well, so let me try again with this blog thing. I've been reading a lot of very interesting books, with some interesting concepts, some of which you might agree with, and some which may tick you off. I'll write about some of that stuff here in the next couple of weeks.
First book: Church Marketing 101.
So, this is the place I'm staying in Palm Springs. The house is amazing. Floorplan, layout, and design are all geared toward how people really move about their daily lives. It's wide open, airy, roomy, and just fantastic. Pool, internet, cable TV - what more could you ask? Oh, and of course, the whole thing isn't costing me any out of pocket - traded it for a website - how cool is that?
Take a look at the photos.
James tells me he'll be putting it up for sale soon. Check back if you want to buy.
So, I ran some more stats. March ended up with 2507 unique visitors during the month, with an average of 80 visitors per day. April dropped a bit, with only 2364 unique visitors during the month, with an average of 78 visitors per day.
These visitors are coming from all over the world. The following networks are represented:
Canada, Non-Profit Organization (.org), United Kingdom, US Commercial (.com), US Educational (.edu), US Military (.mil), Australia, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand (Aotearoa), Philippines, US Government, Russian Federation, Sweden, South Africa, Belgium, Brazil, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, Poland, France, Indonesia, Old style Arpanet (arpa), Austria, Kenya, Spain. By far the biggest is, of course, the United States.
I've added in some advertisements for two priests in the CEC: Holy Symbols, and Stitched with Grace, among others.
Let's hope that this brings at least one or two new visitors to their web sites, and perhaps generates some sales.
So I ran the statistics for the Book of Common Prayer website. It turns out that in the last 12 months, unique visitor count to the website is 198% of what it was last year. That's remarkable growth if you look at it with just the math portion; numbers are not so stellar, but still pretty good. Current monthly average for last month (February) is 77 unique daily visitors (monthly average was 2247 unique visitors for February). The count of unique daily visitors is currently at 84 for just the 10 days of March we've had so far, which probably means that the number will grow higher by the end of the month.
So for all of you who use the site - Thanks for using it!
Promote prayer in every way - even if it's online.
Person 1: "Dude, my deodorant is triple strength."
Person 2: "Wow! That's strong. ... [pause] ... I wonder what regular strength is?"
Person 1: "One. ... [pause] ... and this is like 3 times as strong."
Person 2: "Dang."
Person 1: "Yeah. This will cover the smell of 3 men."
If anything else transpired after this, I don't know, I was laughing too hard.
And Yes. It's true. I live with these persons.
Comments have been re-enabled. However, if you put a link to your site, you'll be moderated. No links, and your comment will be posted. Kind of a simple work-around until I can find a better solution.
So in the last two days I've received over 200 spam comments to my site, usually only seconds apart. They come in waves, so ten at once, then nothing for an hour or so. I've got a spam comment filter set up on this site, but the filter blocks keywords generally found in advertisement comments (like "insurance" or "vicadin", etc.), and it also blocks IP addresses. The trouble, thoug, with this latest comment spam is that there are no keywords - just gibberish like "xkljafwek" and "qouasfdlafd' - with one single link to a website that's selling some idiot product. So there's no way to block the spam based off of keywords. And what's really interesting, is that the IP addresses are a set of constantly changing IP address, suggesting that these spammers are using some sort of "distributed computing" network. Now that's kind of interesting, since that means that they hacked into some system that uses that sort of thing, and then got it to spam for them; that takes some smarts.
If spammers weren't such idiots when it comes to online advertising, though, they might actually be able to use their smarts to benefit the world, rather than screwing with the rest of the world.
Still, you may have noticed comments have been turned off site-wide. Until I can figure out a better way to block comment spam, I'm going to have to remove that option.
Apparently, the girlfriend had made a comment about the amount of hair on the chest. So he decided to let her wax it. Results were humorous - for me:
One patch down, at least 20 more to go...
And yes, he is holding someone's hand. Apparently - shocker! - this sort of thing hurts.
But I wonder what happens when you put a coffee mug on this table?
This is pretty cool: a 7' LEGO church. Make sure you check out all the photos.
Just a quick update. Today it was released that for the first time ever scientists have discovered a planet which has Earth-like properties. This, of course, means that there is greater hope than ever that other lifeforms will be discovered - at least life as we know it. Read all about it here: Physics Today, European Space Organization, BBC.
And, in other news, a Japanese engineer has made a robot that looks like himself. It's practically lifelike, and just plain weird. Watch the video appropriately titled "I-Robot."
So, today, I got one of our staff emails telling us about an exciting new technology that could eventually - possibly - lead to something called a cloaking device. You read that right: Cloaking Device.
Apparently, physicists have figured out a way to refract light in a way that makes light bend similarly to the way light bends in water or glass, except that the physicists control the direction in which the light bends, utilizing a special medium that messes with the properties of light. The concept has many uses, including microscopes that would allow you to see DNA without using complex technology.
The downfall of this cloaking device? People inside the object wouldn't be able to see out. Bummer, huh?
Still, not many people going to make fun of Star Trek now...
So, I had fully intended to write a blog entry today about something in particular. In fact, I remember I was even working on some of the wording in my head. Then I got distracted by a Linguistics Game, and now the blog entry has completely slipped my mind. I mean gone. Like it never existed. At this very moment I'm trying hard to remember what it was I was going to enlighten the world with, but... I got nothing.
Enjoy the game. Question #17 is the last one, in case you're wondering. Ask me for clues if you want them.
So there's a new little dealio on the website. Nothing so incredibly special, you may think, but it's a bit more than the two images than it appears.
It started out with me having a bad day in which I was extremely irritable. I speak with someone who asks me why I'm irritated beyond reason about something and asks what else in my life is irritating me. I start to think about it, and realized that <overly dramatic>EVERYTHING</overly dramatic> was irritating me. Nothing was going right, and therefore my life was clearly over. Fast forward to the next day. I spent a good portion of my lunch time walking to Target, contemplating the end of my existence as I knew it. Then, when I'm back, I have a conversation with a coworker about how they had seen me walking on Lake Ave during lunch, and how I looked - not intense, or in deep thought - but homicidal.
I think to myself, "Hmmm.... You must die."
I swear, my feet are continuing to grow. They just keep getting bigger and bigger. At least that's what it seems like. Today I put on a pair of shoes I've had for a while - made of leather no less, so they should stretch out - and when I put them on and started walking, my toes felt like they were curling up against the front of the shoes. This has never happened before, and I can only make the logical assumption that my are growing.
I've heard that your ears never stop growing (which is why several old men look like they've got satellite dishes strapped to their heads), so maybe it's not so unlikely that my feet would keep growing. If my feet only grow a little every decade, I think I should be alright before I die; I don't believe a Bozo look is in my future.
So I must apologize for my half-cheeked attempt at recreating René Magritte's famous Treachery of Images, except with an onion, and not a pipe. What can I say? I had thought I needed a blog charrenge to alleviate the boredom of the slow work day; alas, I was wrong. I was lazy, and discovered that instead, I wanted to do a quickie blog charrenge. Perhaps this particular entry will alleviate any misconceptions about the lack of onion-ness inherent in said imagery, and will meet my charrenger's approval.
A great use of money.
Women on Walk Signs (Reuters Video)
I think I agree with Juan that it's kind of silly. Why not just go to red and green lights, instead of male and female walkers? Besides, at some point you'll hear an uproar about the little walker women wearing dresses and sporting pony tails....
This most definitely is not an onion.
...so it's easier to see the large quantities of crazy people.
L.A., where we also have lots of crazy people, hides them better because we've got five times as many people running the streets. Not to mention, half of everyone in L.A. is on a cellphone with one of those ear-buds or boom-mics talking to some agent or movie executive, so it looks like all of L.A. is talking to itself.
Yesterday, I took the bus to downtown, and on the way there, had one of those interactions where one person one the bus was talking while looking (kind-of) at people, so it was hard to discern if she was talking to any one of us, to all of us, or to the people in her head. Shortly thereafter, three of her friends got on the bus, and thus began the Symphony of Blah-Blah. Crazy, but sad.
This morning, as I sat in the Student Union Building at my alma mater, I looked out the window and noticed that not only was the sky dark, but there was something falling from the sky. I know what you're thinking: "Rain, Michael. It's Seattle after all." But it wasn't. It was big fluffy white snowflakes. Which melted the moment they hit the ground. What a bummer.
So yesterday, one of my brothers and I decided that since today is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, we needed to train up for the feast we'll be having at the Mski's. So we called it Fat Monday: Training Day, pulled on comfortable clothes and sat down on the couch with a movie.
Thanks to some very wonderful people, we had several large drumsticks, which we smothered in our homemade buffalo sauce, some leftover birthday pizza, which we ate cold, an Ameci's sandwich, and evil ice cream which retains its shape even when it melts.
When it was all gone, we looked at the empty containers and plates and said, "Man, that's a beautiful sight."
I think we'll be ready for pancakes tonight.
So, there's this great comic called Piled Higher and Deeper, by Jorge Tran, who used to be a professor at Caltech. He's got life in academia down. Apparently, he recently went on a speaking tour to several universities, from which the above comic comes. It's actually a cutout of a much bigger piece, which you can see here.
Honestly, it's a shame I quit programming in Perl.
So, I've written this fantastic little bulkmailer program that sends out customized emails and tracks whether users opened the email, and whether or not they click on a link. All these items are encrypted and stored in a database to analyze later.
Now, there's two things the program needs: 1) content that's been modified with flags to insert the unique tracking fields, and 2) an email list. I received three messages that needed to be modified (numbered 1,2,3), and three lists (numbered 1,2,3). I paired up message 1 with list one, and so on. The largest list contained 11,394 emails, which I naturally sent out just before going home, as the processing could be done in the background while everyone slept soundly. Turns out, however, that the lists and the messages were not paired properly, and we sent out a message that does not apply to all 11 thousand people on the list. In fact, they so much don't apply that people seem to think that one of America's Finest Institutions has lost its mind.
I don't disagree.
(pebkac)
There's nothing quite so exhilarating as logging in to your bank account online and learning that in less than 10 days you've saved a whopping amount of cash.
Yes. I know. You're all jealous at my ability to put it away.
Sorry.
Sounds like a name, doesn't it? "Minutiae! Come here. Now." Or, "Minutiae, honey, would you pick up all the little stuff just laying around? Thanks, you're sweet as a trifle."
Well, whether it's a name or not, it's the little stuff that's been keeping me away from writing. Ok. Maybe one big thing, like moving from one city to the next, had something to do with it too... But all in all, I've found myself lately logging on to the system to write something, only to discover my mind wandering to some minor detail that needs attention, some small program that needs fixing, or some small whozitwhatzit that grabs my head and yanks in a new direction.
And so I don't write. Today won't be any different - other than to tell you why I wasn't writing, and to tell you that I hope to get back into some regular rhythm again soon, so that all 3 of my readers will have something to look at when it gets boring.
Yeah, this one had to go up just because of the title. I think it's a fancy play on words: City fights leaky carnival crowd
Part of the reason for slacking off, I think, was more than the busy holiday schedule, but the apparent need to produce some kind of blog entry that had serious meaning to it. You know, something deep, insightful, and moving.
When half your thoughts revolve around eating cheese and crackers, watching movies, and scratching your belly (and the other half around programming tactics), those types of entries are hard to come by.
Continue reading "so after a long break, I decide to write again" »
So, as an aside, I would like to request willing parties to take a gander at - and find errors in - the new online BCP. I've updated the look, and included all the documents, from the Daily Offices (page 37) to the Consecration of a Church or Chapel (page 567). Since things are in flux regarding the Catechism, I've left that out, and also the Historical Documents of the Church, as they don't pertain to the CEC. Still, the text needs editing. Because I've done this by hand, I've missed a couple of spots, I'm sure, where things should be in italics, or where they should be bold, or whatnot. Also, because this all comes from a pre-scanned text file from the Anglican Church, some of the text has gotten run together, whole paragraphs at times are missing, or run together, and etc. I could use help tracking them down.
If you'd like to volunteer, please let me know so that I can get you into the new development site.
Today, while reading Mallard Fillmore, I ran across a link to a site which fights for freedom of speech in the Higher Education realm, called FIRE. They primarily fight for people who have been "shut down" for using a single word that others found offensive, for posting things on a non-university related website, or even for studying the Bible in their dorm rooms.
FIRE seems to fight for anyone who's been censored, so that means that they'll fight for a person's right to use foul language on their own website just as much as they'll fight for someone's right to offer a Bible Study in their dorm room. Their primary concern is that freedom of speech be free, and that anything that someone finds offense at be confronted with dialogue, rather than censorship. For the quick read I gave it, it seems a bit more levelheaded than the ACLU.
Ok, this was too good to pass by. Apparently several people have been working on ways to move electronic things with the power of the brain alone. One of the positive implications is for people with artificial limbs to be able to move the limbs just by thinking about it. Some not so practical implications include turning on a toy train, and playing Space Invaders. All of this, apparently, fueled by Hitachi Corporation's new technique in NeuroImaging.
Pretty cool if you ask me. Pretty soon we'll be able to look at the computer and make it do what we want, instead of having to type it in. So I could be in a hammock, and just think what I want it to do, and it'll do it. I like that idea.
Every now and again, I come across business signs, slogans, taglines, or license plates that just make me go, "Hmmm..."
There's one here in Pasadena that's called Professional Business Bank. The concept seems good, a bank created by business professionals with the intention of helping fellow business owners in business; in other words, a bank that caters to small business owners. Not bad. Unfortunately, the sign out front reads ProBizBank. Now, count me silly, but I've never considered the abbreviation Biz to be all that Professional. But what's worse is that they make the claim that they are professional; I've always been under the impression that if you have to state it, you aren't it. In any case, I see ProBizBank, and the image that comes to mind is this guy wearing far too much cologne, way too many necklaces and rings, and a shirt unbottoned to about mid-chest saying, "Well, let me tell you, I'm a professional, see, and in my biz, I would treat you right, you know?" Not something that inspires any sense of trust in this bank. I'd feel about as safe as putting my money into Honest Joe's Savings.
When stating a request for help, particularly one in which you are asking that a bug be fixed in some web software, please do not merely forward an email in which someone else states "I got an error message." This is highly innefective.
When stating a request for help, please use the following format:
1) State, "I got an error message when doing such-and-such on this-and-that page. The error message was: <insert copied error message here>" Exact copies of error messages will help to determine if the problem exists with the server, the programming, or whether the problem exists between the keyboard and chair.
2) Do not state, "this system needs some work," and expect a favorable response.
I fixed the cookie setter for the comments. Your personal info will now be stored.
My mom sends me an email every now and again called "Weekend Ponder," which she gets from someone else and forwards to me. Normally, the email is a quick quote, a story, or something to make you go "Hmm..." I thought this latest one was pretty good, as I get ready to take on some more serious responsibilities:
Good leaders have a vision
Better leaders share a vision
The best leaders invite others to join them in spreading this vision1
Halloween. My friend and I decide we want to go hang out in Pasadena's Old Town to see the sights. One such sight: a guy wearing a "Strong Man" costume. Basically it was a big puffy costume that looked like he had lots of muscles, and was wearing a speedo. Weird. Then there was Superman, Batman, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, several pirates (both guys and girls), and a Robot Family - this was by far the most creative costume set. Then, of course, there were lots and lots of costumes that can only be described as scandalous. Basically, there were lots of women who apparently took Halloween as license to wear next to nothing and call it a costume.
Oh well, in the meantime we took some photos of ourselves, in our more traditional costumes. Not to mention less scandalous. So here goes, Puffy Shirt and Frilly Dress.
So yesterday I had a bit of a situation with the ATM. As I walked by my bank near home, I decided to use the ATM, only the door to the 24 - Hour ATM vestibule was locked. Since an armored truck was sitting outside, I figured I would have to wait until they were done, since they must have locked the door. So I stand off to the side when the guys come out, one of them carrying a nice little Smith and Wesson 40 Caliber. The guy with the money apparently didn't like what side I was standing on, so he asked me to move to the other side, which I did. There I leaned up against the wall, and scoped out the security on the truck. This didn't make "MISTER I'M-TOTING-A-LIVE-GUN" so happy it seems, as he kept a watchful eye on me. I thought about saying "Boo," but figured that would cause more trouble than fun; besides, it didn't look like they had much more than $50,000 with them, and that's not worth going fugitive over. As soon as they left, I tried the door again, only to find it still locked. Irritating. How's that supposed to be a 24-hour ATM? After talking with some guy waiting for the bank to open, I learned that you use your ATM card in the little slot off to the right of the door, you can get in. Once he told me that, I noticed a little sticker that had those instructions on it. Yes, it would help to read the instructions, but it might be helpful if they made the instructions a bit more visible.
some people have too much time
Today, as I was driving to work, I looked in my rear-view mirror and had a sudden attack of the peeves. See, there was this woman sitting in her car chewing gum.
Now, some people chew gum and you can hardly tell - they keep their mouths shut. Others, you get the occasional bubble, and that's the only way you know they're chewing anything...
Not so with this one.
I wanted to get out of the car, walk up to hers and ask her, "Do you realize that your mouth is wide open, your teeth are showing, and your jaw is moving both up and down and left and right? Have you ever seen a cow chewing her cud? Or a camel, grazing? Any of the ruminants with a mouth full? NO? WELL LOOK IN THE MIRROR!"
What's worse, is that at every stop light, there she was. I tried hard not to look in the mirror, but to no avail. It was like slowing down on the freeway to see the horrible accident that has occured, even though you know you'll be traumatized if you do. I finally lost her just blocks from work. But my eyes are scarred for the rest of the day.
had to share with everyone:
Conquer Antarctica
There's an interesting little tome called On Bullshit by Professor Harry G. Frankfurt from Princeton. It's a quick read, and I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions, and the topic is - as the title tells you - all about bullshit. And no, it's not the kind produced by our bovine friends.
I am White and Nerdy, because I am fluent in Javascript, and while I may not be fluent in Klingon, I know enough to make jokes in it. And, I find this movie funny too.
So, today at work, I got a new computer.
Not just any computer, but a really, really fast one. In Geek speak:
A dual-core Pentium D, running at 3.4GHz.
1GB of RAM
Two 19" flat screen displays, running digital cable.
I feel good today.
My blog software allows me to set up a "scheduled" entry, so that it publishes when I tell set the time for it to go live. Apparently, though, I forgot to make some adjustments on my server, so those scheduled entries failed to show up. So, take a look at the previous days to see the entries listed there.
And as for "paying for it later," you might say I'm living on credit today.
Yesterday I ran across an interesting article about Pope Benedict's visit to the Fatherland - Germany. It seems that his message was a simple one: that people should "pray together, go to church and 'walk with Jesus.'" At one point, he even compared "the sour notes of rundown organs to the dissonance that can arise inside the church when too many members are out of harmony." (1) Now that's good stuff. Straight, simple, and to the point.
Yes, these women had a challenge, and they didn't take it sitting down.
Reality Check by Dave Whamond.
I think this pretty much sums up the current state of American English education.
[a quick addition: 3:10pm] The definition of goodly, and the difference between good and well.
Sent to me by a friend at work. I'd like to call, but the area code is in Jamaica. Somehow I don't think commuting would work.
Joann sent me a link to a blog, where the guy used the Hero Machine to make himself a nifty little Defender of the Faith. Since I seem to have an infatuation with St. Michael, the Archangel, I figured I would have to make a St. Michael, the Hero. Unfortunately, there is no Make Your Own Action Figure module you can install to make this come true, although, a few months back I ran across a company that lets you build your own personalized Action Figure. I think it's something like $150 bucks, and you get an action figure that looks like you. Not bad, if you have money to blow.
I can't find anything sweet to eat. I may have to go and force myself to buy something desert-like. All I have are chocolate chips for cookies.
Hmm... maybe a trip to Cold Stone is in order....
Last night, while sitting at home watching Voyager, and taking care of financial stuff, the power suddenly went out. Lately, because of the heat, apparently, this has not been so unusual. In fact, on Saturday our neighborhood was without power for 9 hours, and it's been out more than five times in the last 4 days, all for more than 2 hours each.
An incredible story of forgiveness.
So, what to do when you've been assigned the task of writing a bulk email marketing program that tracks when a user opens an email, and keeps track of all the links that the user clicks on in the email? And by keeping track, I mean, by writing everything to a database, and by user, I mean round about 8,000 people.
Somehow, there is this vague notion that says that this might not be legal, except that it's completely legal. It's called marketing. We're not doing anything other than keeping track of when a message is opened, and when that same anonymous person - whoever they might be - actually clicks on a link. The whole point is to see what content gets people to click on links, and what links get the most hits from the email. A simple enough marketing ploy, and it was my job to implement.... so I grabbed the weapon my company gives me and typed away.
When you first come down the steps to my little basement apartment, you come across a strange concrete mass to your right, nestled among the trees and shrubs. Among further inspection, you realize that there can only be one explanation for this odd little room, and the explanation is not one you would want to dwell on.
Lucky for you, I have.
Some of you might remember that I thought I lost a filling while on my trip to Mexico back in February. Actually, as it happens, the filling actually stayed in, but the tooth around it appears to have sheared off - or something like that - so that I ended up with a razor-sharp tooth inside my mouth. And, since my tongue likes to fiddle with the thing that's "not like the others," I've ended up scraping my tongue on that darn tooth for the last five months.
Anyway, today I went to the dentist to get this thing fixed. As soon as the chair went backward, my eyes went shut, and they just didn't seem to want to stay open, even though the Dr. was drilling away. Three times I fell asleep, and on the third time, I woke up with one of those whole-arm-twitch maneuvers, and a half a snort.
After it was all said and done, I managed a brilliant conversation with the Dentist: "Wow, that was so gentle, I fell asleep." His reply: "So I noticed."
I'm so cool.
So, when we left Texas, we drove those 950 miles to Tucson, where we spent a whole day with my sister, in her humble abode. The second night, Friday, we went to J-Nippon, a Teppan restaurant, where they cook the food right in front of you. That was fun, and good too. Unfortunately, the serving sizes were so huge, I couldn't finish it, and had to bring it home. I'd have liked to, because it was sooooo good. Oh well, at least we had a decent breakfast.
Continue reading "the final stretch: Tucson to Pasadena and beyond [photos]" »
So, no hype this year.
I hardly knew it was even on.
No hype because Lance won it for the seventh year in a row last year, and then promptly retired. Sadly, the US takes very little interest in this sport unless we have a big name in the running.
In any case, here's the route, and here are the standings.
Free speech, so long as you aren't a Christian: District pulls plug on speech: Foothill valedictorian criticizes decision to censor her proclamation of faith
Just so that you know I'm not red anymore...
...tired as a dog.
So yesterday I spent several fun-filled hours in the sun, and today I'm lathering myself up with Vitamin E & Aloe gel, while drinking large quantities of tea to help me wake up and recover from my vacation. The strange thing is that the sun didn't seem like the burning type. Maybe it was the cool breeze that was blowing that made me forget that I was getting hot, or maybe it was the water balloons. Hard to tell.
"The faithful expect only one thing from priests: that they be specialists in promoting the encounter between man and God."
-- Benedict XVI to a group of priests in Poland.
He doesn't want them to get distracted by political, or economic concerns, but to dedicate their time to prayer, and not consider that time wasted, because, as he says, "it is precisely then that the most wonderful fruits of pastoral service comes to birth." Hmm... prayer, a thing so often forgotten in the daily crunches of life, and yet I would think that any pastor should be more focused on this than on any other concerns, since he has been entrusted with tending to the those people God has put in his path.
"'We grow in affective maturity when our hearts adhere to God,' the pope said, adding that 'Christ needs priests who are mature, virile, capable of cultivating an authentic spiritual paternity.'" Spiritual paternity. They're called Fathers for a reason.
Good article on the Pope's priority on restoring Unity among all Christians.
"A marriage between Christians of different denominations can be 'a practical laboratory of unity' if the husband and wife are guided and supported by both their churches, Pope Benedict XVI said."
So on Tuesday I stopped by the pharmacy to pick up the drugs my podiatrist prescribed for this monster on my toe. Cost of monster killer? $400.29 for 30 pills. Sick and wrong. Then I pulled out insurance, and after getting authorization from my doctor, I picked up my pills this morning. Cost today? $30. Whew...
Star Trek is having a garage sale!
I can't seem to stop tinkering with the BCP site. Since adding the Holy Days and such, I've added in a function to check a Sunday for a Holy Day - because Holy Days take precedence over normal Sundays - and a function to calculate the observance of Foundation Day. For example, this year, Proper 7 is Foundation Day Sunday, even though Foundation Day is technically on Monday. And, Proper 13, August 6th, is also the "Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord," and is celebrated with different readings than Proper 13. When a person wants readings for Sunday, August 6th, the script checks to see if its a Feast Day, then inserts the Feast Day readings instead.
And, even more exciting - at least I think so - is that I've added liturgical colors into the reading headers. Blue everywhere got boring...
The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, has sparked a lot of controversy - and rightly so - as it attempts to pass off fiction as fact. Fiction that, if taken as fact, discredits the Roman Catholic Church specifically, and Christianity in general.
Unfortunately, many people are taking this fictitious work as fact, partly because of the packaging of the book. On the first page, under the bold-faced word "FACT" comes the following sentence: “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” As a friend of mine pointed out, this made him wonder at first, until he read it again, and realized something: all the descriptions of these documents could easily be accurate, even though the conclusions drawn from them could be completely false. Still, for those not as astute as my friend, this simply translates as "This stuff is all true." What's worse, however, is that apparently not even this statement lives up to its claim of truth. Scholars who have studied the same documents as Dan Brown, point out that even his descriptions are flawed, and his data wrong (the most simple of which is giving the wrong date for the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls). [For more, view these articles: 1,2,3,4]
So where does that leave us? Sitting with a runaway best-seller that many people are taking as truth, and it is affecting their beliefs about Jesus, the Church, and Christianity. A recent poll in England shows that people are "now twice as likely to believe Jesus Christ fathered children ... and four times as likely to think the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei is a murderous sect." (Reuters)
Today my podiatrist sent me to the lab to get some blood work done. They sucked the life right out of me.
New Cheese Perfume and a website to buy it.
This morning as I was driving to work, I was listening to the radio and heard an interesting statistic about leaf blowers: "These machines are a significant source of smog-forming emissions. In one year, the average two-stroke backpack leaf blower emits as much pollution as 80 new cars."
80 cars!
Can you believe it? And this from some piece of equipment that basically just blows yard waste from one spot to another, so that you can't see it anymore - I usually see gardeners blowing dead yard waste onto existing plants, down drains, or into the streets. To me, that seems the equivalent of sweeping the dirt under the rug.
So today, during lunch, several of our people got together and played Wallyball. I'd never heard of it, so for those of you in my position, it's basically Volleyball played in a racquetball court.
It adds a certain flavor to regular volleyball, in that you can't really dive for the ball when it's close to the wall - you might lose your head. The ball can bounce off the walls, and can gain some wacky spin, so it makes for quite a bit of diving. Still, something worth trying. I'll be there again next week.
Since the news is wont to spin the truth, I suppose we could say that. Although, I'm not so sure that Caltech's response was so much as a prank as it was a rapidly executed Rescue Operation. True, Fleming Hovse had several great jokes in response to the MIT prank - like a miniature cannon, with a plaque that read "Here's something more your size." - but I think that by definition a prank needs to be done in secrecy, without the victim knowing what is going on. In this case, MIT knew that CIT was coming, and actually tried to prepare an impromptu barbeque so that both schools could have some fun together. In the end, most of MIT stood around watching CIT's Fleming Hovse crew put the cannon onto a moving truck, cheering them on. To me, that's more of a gracious response to CIT than a continued prank. Continued prank would have involved moving the cannon to some hidden location just hours before Caltech arrived. But alas, MIT proved to be very sportsmanlike about the whole thing, and everyone went away happy. Read more about it at http://www.flemingcannon.com/.
So today marks the eleventh day since I last posted something to read on this blog of mine. Sadly to say, today's entry will also be a short one, just long enough to tell you that the Holy Days have been added to the lectionary pages, as well as all the movable Holy Days, such as Ash Wednesday, Ascension Day, and the Mondays-Saturdays of Holy Week and Easter Week. Movable Holy Days are accessible from the lectionary page.