I think tonight we're going to focus some on our "post-trip" activities. Label pictures, financial report for the church, short trip summary--what we learned or accomplishesd, that kinda stuff. But for now: your one stop source for interesting conservative political cartoons.

Back home now, finally. More about the trip later. Lots to do today to catch up. Just wanted to mention this book for those of you who are into theology and Paul. The first chapter on justification is amazing.

Well,
here I am in an internet cafe in Stockholm. We left Kiev with a certain amount of weeping very early Monday morning. Our flight left at 6:30, so we had to get up at 3 to get ready. We are now in an apartment right smack in the middle of the olderst part of Stockholm (Gamla Stan, for those of you famailiar with Stockholm or who want to look on a map). To be honest our part of town looks sort of like a Lutheran version of Disneyworld. Very touristy, all pedestrian traffic, and restaurants with 30 dollar menu entrees. Very pretty, just kinda weird, especially after Kiev.

The part of town we were in in Kiev was all built in the last several years, but it looks much, much older. Someone need to introduce paint over there. In any event, we really fell in love with the people we met there, both the staff of IP and the people in our English classes and Bible studies.

I really need to write more in my journal over the next couple of days so I don't forget too much. Kiev is a great place to visit just in case any of you get the chance. More later when I'm more collected.

Ah, looking at the new blogger stuff. Looks snazzier from inside here. 11 hours to leave in the morning. We just found out that the guitar I had so carefully wrapped in bubble wrap was not the guitar we are supposed to take. I sure hope we can re-use this bubble wrap. Flexibility. I learned it in music performance, but it's always a bit hard to change things at the last minute.

Countdown: now 50 hours left til we leave the house to start our trip to Ukraine.

So I've been poking around the atheist board on and off today. Sheesh, those guys have arguments almost as nasty as Christians do :)

I was so impressed by NT Wright's new book and his arguents for the resurrection that I thought to myself, surely, this will be good for some intelligent atheist out there. Thus, I have started a little discussion thread at a place where I know people like to discuss atheism. Just go to the forum on biblical criticism. Any Wright readers and fans who care to would be welcome to join in the fun. Gotten a few responses already.

A friend of mine who visited Australia a few years ago reported to me that the folks down under had a generally bad attitude towards the more successful members of society. They were referred to as "tall trees" who needed to be cut down. I won't stand in judgment, but it sounds like a serious cultural envy problem. But apparently Atlas is shrugging a bit, or at least going out for a walk.

from game design blogger Greg Costikyan:

but inspired by the fact that actor Hugo Weaving plays both Elrond and Agent Smith.

"You seem to live two lives, Mr. Baggins. In one, you are a peaceful and productive resident of the Shire. In the other, you flit about the world in the company of wizards, dwarves, and other low lives, apparently attempting to hurl a magic ring into a volcano.


"One of these paths has a future, Mr. Baggins."

I know I've said this before, but this is really the funniest thing I've ever seen (or heard in this case). Go down to "They might kill you/We are the Microbes" and take a listen. Just don't do it with a mouthful of liquid.

I suppose this would be one way to watch the day go by.

You are Morpheus, from "The Matrix." You
have strong faith in yourself and those around
you. A true leader, you are relentless in your
persuit.


What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

This article points out something I've known for a long, long time, namely that our education system favors girls. George Gilder pointed this out to me in a book he wrote back around 1980. But what I've learned recently, due to my particular circumstances, is that the problem of males fslling behind seems to be much, much worse in eastern Europe. The typical east European (of either sex, from what I've heard) views the typical male as a worthless drunk. This is not meant to make us feel better in any way. Just if you think of praying for Ukraine or Russia, pray that God would raise up some male leadership.

and BTW, we watched A Man For All Seasons tonight. I'd always heard that it was good, but shied away from it before. I have this irrational instinct that historical movies are boring. In any case, this is a GREAT film. Go find it and watch it. Now. Stop reading and go to the video store or library of your choice. I mean it. Go away.

My most natural state is to remain silent, and that, I'm afraid, is the only reason I haven't posted more lately. Progress toward our mission trip is coming along. It appears now that the team in Kiev has secured an apartment for us to stay in while we are there, so that's one more thing we don't have to worry about. For some reason now I keep thinking about the possiblilty of our luggage being lost. I know that I have to put all my absolute essentials in my carry-on, so I shouldn't worry too much.

Also quite enjoying the new Wright book. It's dense and slow, of course, but I do get a chuckle out of it now and then. Like his comment about Philo being discarded and only the academic worms gnawing his bones. Guess you had to be there for that one.

My other big worry, though, is teaching SS in July-August. I've done lost of research already, and always haveideas coming into my head, but I worry about my ability to organize it into coherent lectures. I also worry about whether anyone will come, given that there will be quite a number of classes to choose from. And I worry about . . .well, enough of my worries. I should just do the work and stop whining.

Freind of ours just got a good article published at FrontPage about a certain university.

We certainly have no monopoly on interesting baby names in this country (tx to K-Lo).

BBC Proves Hobbes Right

Yesterday I heard a BBC reporter interviewing some Iraqi women. One of them stated, surprising both me and the reporter, "I'd rather have five Saddam Hussein's than our current situation." The reporter asked if freedom of expression didn't count for something now. the woman replied that there is no freedom without peace and security.

Just as biologically we cannot exist without oxygen, so socially we cannot exist without a modicum of safety for our persons and possesions. Perhaps we all need to take a break to thank God for the gift of peaceable society we have enjoyed for so long.

And of course, only users lose drugs.

Some theories need to be checked out once in a while, and it's about time for this one. Brief quote:

At first, said Phillips, "the lead male got a stone and started bashing the hell out of it.

"Another thing they were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard," added Phillips, who runs the university's Institute of Digital Arts and Technologies.

I'm not linking to this to make fun of the japanese. I'm doing it to . . . umm . . . ok, I don't know why.

I hope someone can explain this site to me or it will bother me for the rest of my life.

Not sure if I have much blogworthy this week, besides being stung by a bee. Also had to change the number our men's singing group will be singing this Sunday due to someone unexpectedly not being able to make it. This weekend will also be the church's women's retreat, so I look forward to seeing all the men trying to take care of the kids :)

In the spirit of everyone making favorites lists, I've spent some time to think up my top ten list of symphonic pieces of music. The task of coming up with favorite pieces of any kind was just too daunting. So I have left out wonderful chamber pieces, solo pieces, choral masterpieces, and short works. These are all multi-movement (with one exception) symphonic works. In looking over them, I've noticed certain weird things about my taste, among them that most of these pieces are ones I became familiar with in high school, or earlier. I suppose the music of youth has a way of estabishing itself in one's mind. So here is my annotated list, alphabetically by composer:


1. Johannes Brahms, sym #4. This serves as a stand in for all 4 symphonies, not to mention the fact that he is in my estimation, the most skillful composer to live since J S Bach.

2 Havergal Brian sym #1 (The Gothic). An overwhelmig piece of music my perhaps the most unjustly neglected composer of the 20th century. Brian created a prodigious output of what I understand to be high quality music (I haven't heard much of it myself). This particular work is notable for the fact that it takes around 300 muscians to pull it off. You have to hear it t believe it, but it isn't for the timid or the time-challenged as it lasts over two hours.

3 Anton Bruckner sym #9. Don't know what to say about this one other than I never grow tired of it. Seems like the sort of thing an Ent would like; slow, ponderous, deliberate and powerful.

4 Aaron Copland sym #3. If you have ever enjoyed Copland but aren't familiar with this one, go get it. This is, if I understand correctly, the source for his famous Fanfare for the Common Man.

5 Howard Hanson sym #5. Again, this is a stand in for all his work. Another lesser known composer, but someone who tirelessly promoted the music of other americans. This particular piece I performed with a youth orchestra in Sweden, Denmark and Germany, so it carries a lot of memories for me. It is designed as a musical depiction of Passion Week.

6 Aram Khachaturian sym #3. Brass, brass and more brass. I grew up playing brass (French Horn) and have never gotten it out of my system. This one has some zip to it.

7 Felix Mendelsohn Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. This is a piece which I listened to every night at bed time for several months when I was about 14. By far the closest to "classical" of anything on my list. I think I'm just amazed that he wrote this at the age of 16.

8 Dmitry Shostakovich sym #5. I think Shostakovich appealed to the melancholy in my character. I used to have a great love of the tragic, and there isn't much for me that evokes tragedy quite like this.

9 Sibelius sym #2. Though I like all his symphonies (#5 is also terrific), this is the one I performed so I got a real sense of the details of it. The final movement reminds me of being carried along giant waves.

10 Ralph Vaughn William sym #6 (The Pastoral). I don't think many are familar with this, but it's another one I've never tired of, and quite a chage from the louder stuff on this list. Quiet, smooth, and peaceful.

Runner's Up:

I had to leave off works such as The Planets and Respighi's Roman set, because I didn't think they quite fit the category (plus I wanted to keep it to ten). Other close calls were Dvorak's sym #9 and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade.

You probably shouldn't visit this site.

In other news, last night we attended our first eeting of the Mebane Historical Society. Heard a terrific lecture by the man who heads the county historical museum (also a lecturer at UNCG). Learned a lot about what yo umight call the pre-history of our little town. Long story short, the town exists pretty much because the Mebane family paid off a legislator in the next county to the north and we ended up with the railroad tracks instead of them.

Also watched Run, Lola, Run. Enjoyed that quite a bit. Certainly was funnier than I had anticipated.

Phew! We got our visa applications in the mail today. Lenise got her updated passport bak on Monday, so I made sure we got the forms ready. Then just as I went to get the mailing address, I find that the Ukrainian Embassy website was down. Fortunately on the internet there is usually more than one way to skin a cat, so I found the info I needed. BTW, if you want a little intellectual puzzle, look up the list of countries for which Ukraine does NOT require an entry visa. Such entities as Mexico, Israel, Croatia, Cuba and Vietnam. I figured I'd go to the grocery store, buy the money orders for the fee and bring them over to the local Wrap Pack and Ship. Not having bought a money order in about 10 years, I had forgotten that you need CASH MONEY DOLLARS to buy them. So I had to go back to the bank to get the money. Even though I go into the bank about every week, I happened to get a teller who didn't know me, so I had to show ID. No biggie. Back to the store. Now there was a line to wait in. Thumb twiddling. Bought the money orders. Wrap Pack and Ship is 2 doors down. Unfortunately they don't open til 10. Got some reading done. Go in at 10. Took about 25 minutes to arrange everything. Also the store didn't know where the business cards were which I had ordered from them 2 weeks ago, but that's another story. In any event, the applications are on their way. Pray that the consular beaurocrats would not find fault and return them to us in a timely fashion.

And happy Easter to all. We had what should be mandatory for Easter, i.e. lamb. Plus asparagus, carrots (which all the kids present called Laura), vino (French, in the spirit of forgiveness), cake and cigars for the men. Lovely day all around.

Nerds rejoice! TRS-80 computers were Y2K compliant.

This might be one of the best paragraphs I've seen from this writer (and I've seen a lot of them).

I'm looking at a slide: It shows me, standing on the beach in my bathing suit, displaying a degree of musculature rarely found outside the asparagus family. My face has an expression that conveys the emotion: ''I cannot see a thing.'' I had removed my thick, Soviet-style eyeglasses, in the foolish hope that this would make me attractive to girls, which it did not, and even if it had, I would have been unable, without sonar, to locate them.

I'll paypal $.02 to the first person who can tell me who wrote it.

Courtesy of William Gibson, this is both a fascinaing and disturbing look at the war from our "friends" abroad.

Amazing. Where's the academy award for this one? Also, I won't link directly to this one, because of content, but someone made a really interesting short film about internet chatrooms, called The Parlor. It explores what a chatroom would looklike if it was in an actual room. It appears to have been an entry in something called the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Fest (or something like that). I found it at albinoblacksheep.com. That shoul give you plenty of info to find it for yourself. It does contain the sort of language that keeps me out of chatrooms myself, just to warn you.

You have to ask yourself, would we be better off today if our poiticians wore masks.

Finished the Paul Tourier book today. No great feat, as it ws only 63 pages long. But goodness, what a great writer and thinker he was. Inspires me to think that someone well outside of the professional religious community could write so well on Christian issues.. This particular book asks several questions about how people, especially Christians, should participate in conflict (not limited to military ones). He had amazing skill at what we americans would call cutting through the crap on this issue. Short summary of his approach is that a purely intellectual approach to the question, "Am I obligated to stand up and fight about this, or am I obligated to let it all pass", is not likely to be fruitful. Beyond trying to reason it out he suggests the two approaches of prayer and letting God change you. This may sound trivial the way I put it, but when illustrated with real examples from his patients, it was quite powerful. If yo ucan find or borrow this book, I do recommend it highly.

On a down note, did a little googling of Mr Tournier today. One of the top entries was an old paper from a Wheaton student which showed pretty conclusively that Tournier was a universalist. I say conclusively, because Tournier said as much in a personal letter to the writer. I guess no one's perfect. In any event, I don't have the least doubt that Tounier was quite genuine in his faith, theological stumblings aside.

It is exciting to see the funding start to come in. We've gotten a check each of the last 3 days. I do waver between faith and doubt on the whole funding of our trip. I guess I'm leaning towards the desparation of faith since we've bought the tickets now.

Mission trip update:

I do love searching for best prices on things, just as a theoretical exercise. However, trying to get the best price for a group of people for this trip has been a little time intensive. Plus there's the minor frustration of finding what looks like a good price, but then having to check with others before actually booking the tickets, then having that fare become unavailable. Also, if one more person suggests one more "great place to find cheap tickets" I think I'll scream. Then there's the "what if we change this date", or "what if we leave from a different city" scenarios. Good thing I have some time available and a certain amount of patience at dealing with this sort of thing.

If any of you would like more info about what we will be doing, or would like to help with funding support, just email me (link over to your left), and I'll send you our official letter.

I'm curious as to exactly how many churches send their business to this company (notice the top of the left sidebar).

Math for doctors:

I'll give you a couple examples relating to medical care. In the U.S. and many European countries, women who are 40 years old are told to participate in mammography screening. Say that a woman takes her first mammogram and it comes out positive. She might ask the physician, "What does that mean? Do I have breast cancer? Or are my chances of having it 99%, 95%, or 90% ­ or only 50%? What do we know at this point?" I have put the same question to radiologists who have done mammography screening for 20 or 25 years, including chiefs of departments. A third said they would tell this woman that, given a positive mammogram, her chance of having breast cancer is 90%.

However, what happens when they get additional relevant information? The chance that a woman in this age group has cancer is roughly1%. If a woman has breast cancer, the probability that she will test positive on a mammogram is 90%. If a woman does not have breast cancer the probability that she nevertheless tests positive is some 9%. In technical terms you have a base rate of 1%, a sensitivity or hit rate of 90%, and a false positive rate of about 9%. So, how do you answer this woman who's just tested positive for cancer? As I just said, about a third of the physicians thinks it's 90%, another third thinks the answer should be something between 50% and 80%, and another third thinks the answer is between 1% and 10%. Again, these are professionals with many years of experience. It's hard to imagine a larger variability in physicians' judgments — between 1% and 90% — and if patients knew about this variability, they would not be very happy. This situation is typical of what we know from laboratory experiments: namely, that when people encounter probabilities — which are technically conditional probabilities — their minds are clouded when they try to make an inference.

What we do is to teach these physicians tools that change the representation so that they can see through the problem. We don't send them to a statistics course, since they wouldn't have the time to go in the first place, and most likely they wouldn't understand it because they would be taught probabilities again. But how can we help them to understand the situation?

Let's change the representation using natural frequencies, as if the physician would have observed these patients him- or herself. One can communicate the same information in the following, much more simple way. Think about 100 women. One of them has breast cancer. This was the 1%. She likely tests positive; that's the 90%. Out of 99 who do not have breast cancer another 9 or 10 will test positive. So we have one in 9 or 10 who tests positive. How many of them actually has cancer? One out of ten. That's not 90%, that's not 50%, that's one out of ten.

Here we have a method that enables physicians to see through the fog just by changing the representation, turning their innumeracy into insight. Many of these physicians have carried this innumeracy around for decades and have tried to hide it. When we interview them, they obviously admit it, saying, "I don't know what to do with these numbers. I always confuse these things." Here we have a chance to use very simple tools to help those patients and physicians to understand what the risks are and which enable them to have a reasonable reaction to what to do. If you take the perspective of a patient — that this test means that there is a 90% chance you have cancer — you can imagine what emotions set in, emotions that do not help her to reason the right way. But informing her that only one out of ten women who tests positive actually has cancer would help her to have a cooler attitude and to make more reasonable decisions.

Blogger ate my last three entries. Not sure how I offended the internet gods. Or who I need to propitiate.

hmmm

Oral arguents in Grutter v Bollinger going on right now apparently. Can listen here if you like that sort of thing.

Yummmm. Eel ice cream.

Imagine you are walking down a neighborhood street. Not one you walk down everyday, but one that is close enough that you COULD walk on it each day if you needed to. On this street, on a telephone pole, let's say, is a flyer. This flyer annonunces that a meal is being served at an establishment nearby. You walk in, and discover that this is one of the most beautifully appointed buildings you've ever seen. There is a large buffet table set up in the middle, and a sign announcing "Free: Help Yourself". As you approach you notice the table isabsolutely covered in delicacies both familiar and exotic. Taking this food to your table, you savor it in a leisurely fashion, and after finishing, you discuss the various entrees with your friend (you did bring a friend along, didn't you?), noting those you liked more than others. In the middle of the table is a small booklet describing the food you've eaten and the world class chef who prepared it. As you get up to leave, you notice the chef himself standing near the door, and if you are the bold type, you walk over and tell him how much you enjoyed the meal, especially the (whatever was your favorite). The chef graciously thanks you for coming and asks you to come back next time. You think to yourself, "Now why exactly don't I come here more often?"

The scenario above describes pretty well my feelings about my evening tonight. Lenise and I went to an organ concert at Duke Chapel. Absolutely beautiful music in an absolutely beautiful setting and absolutely free. Not to mention they have recitals pretty much all the time. Tonight's concert featured music of Buxtehude, Bach, Reger, Franck and others. Organ music is just so visceral, especially live. I'm personally of the opinion that Buxtehude is perhaps the most underated composer of western music. He had the misfortune of being followed closely by an even better composer (J S Bach), and I think for that reason alone his name is fairly unknown outside of those who study organ music.

On the light side, (in case you missed it before) here's the story that almost killed my wife with laughter. Beware of THE BLIMP OF HORROR

can't resist this one:

"Umm Qasr is a town similar to Southampton", UK Defence Minister Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons yesterday. "He's either never been to Southampton, or he's never been to Umm Qasr", said one British soldier, informed of this while on patrol in Umm Qasr. Another added: "There's no beer, no prostitutes, and people are shooting at us. It's more like Portsmouth."

I've been thinking ("And it's about time," you say). Specifically I've been thinking about Christian Historiography. As a history major in college, I read a couple books on historiography, the content of each I have largely forgotten. But I do remember thnking about a couple of questions along the lines of how being a Christian would affect the way one would be a historian. I suppose I probably should have spent a bit more time thinking about how being something else would affect how one would study or write history, but it's a bit too late to redo my college papers over, so I'll have to leave that be for now. Anyhow, the questions in my mind at the time were, "Should a Christian historian strive to see the hand of God in history?", and "What is the role of moral judgement by the historian?"

The second of these questions just came back to me today, occasioned by this article by the brilliant Niall Ferguson, author of The Pity of War, which itself is an amazing treatment of the historiography of World War I. For those afraid to click, the article is an assessment of the merits of the Brittish empire, and the lessons that might be useful to the United States. But the question in my mind is, Is it appropriate for the Christian historian to ask of some large even or state "Is it (or was it) a good thing?" I am bypassing the question of evaluating individual people. Certainly the scriptures themselves describe certain historical persons as evil (Ahab comes to mind) and others as good (the description of David as "like an angel of God"). But is it our role to say "The Brittish Empire was a good (or bad) thing"? Or what about the Roman Empire, or the Babylonian? I imagine I have a lot of thinking still to do on this, but my inclination at the moment is to say no. God, in His rulership of the world, works through kings, rulers, states and empires (among other ways certainly). These entities are, despite what rulers themselves might think, His servants. They are, in my opinion, the most obvious driving forces of the course of human events. It seems unquestionable, by way of example, that WWII would by no means have occurred if Hitler was not himself determined towards aggression.

Bringing up WWII of course leads to an obvious criticism of my position. Of course, we would all say, WWII was a horrible thing. Whatever good things may have occured as a consequence (maybe a reduction of violent anti-semitism would be an example), surely they do not outweigh the terrible costs. This does get to the heart of my question, though, of what makes a Christian historian different. I don't know Mr Ferguson's religious persuasion, but his argument in the cited article is a type of utilitarian calculation, jus tas my very simple analysis of WWII is above. Does the good outweigh the bad? I think there are times to ask that sort of question, say in policy analysis or business planning, but I am not convinced that that is the way a Christian should analyze history. If God brings all things to pass accoding to His own plans (rough paraphrase of the Westminster Confession), then we may lament the evil we see, and rejoice in the good, but I think we overstep when we ask "Was it good?", or "Should this have occurred?" I know many would disagree, but I would point towards the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah was, quite rightly, overwhelmed with the estruction of, not only his homeland, but the land God had promised as the inheritance of the Israelites. But Jeremiah never looks to God and says "You should not have done this." God had promised judgement on Israel, and executed it as He saw fit. God's wrath is both terrible and mysterious to us. I think we are right to ask "Why did this happen?" (knowing full well we may not get an answer), and we are right to cry out before God, we cannot ask whether His plans are good ones.

I think God does move in mysterious, and sometimes not so mysterious, ways, His wonders to perform. Our pastor preached Sunday on conflict within the body of Christ and the steps one should take if your brother offends you. as it turns out, I was wronged by a member of the church this week. I was, frankly, kind of angry. Not only was I wronged, I was wronged by someone I like and respect and worship with weekly. But I knew that I should just speak to the person, and get it over with. I did sit on it overnight, but called today and talked it out very briefly. It wasn't really a HUGE wrong, but it was enough to upset me a bit. My friend apologized and offered to mae it right. I was amazed at how quickly my indignation subsided. I really want my church relationships to not have the baggage of enmity and strife, so I think I was ready to forgive. Plus I knew from Sunday that it was not an option, but what God expects of me.

Sorry if this seems too elementary. I just need to relearn the basics from time to time.

I realize that all of you who have been looking to me to provide continual updates on the military operations in Iraq have been moderately to serious disappointed. I hope that you will forgive me somewhat after I provide you with this very interesting story. All kidding aside, I found the story to be quite fascinating on more than one level.

Work yesterday took me out to to Wake Forest and its environs. What a lovely city. It is certainly the first city I've been to whose layout was dominated by a seminary. You cannot taake either of the main routes through town without taking part of the cirlce around SE Baptist Sem right there in the middle. The places I actually worked, Youngsville and Rolesville, were less than inspiring.

This is just my opinion, but I think that this guy, despite what he might or might not "want", needs to grow up.

This is just way to weird to pass by.

Not too much to blog about I suppose. Still preparing for mission trip. Starting to do a little reading about Ukraine. Have my fundraising letter almost ready. More prep meeings next weekend.

Had a customer no-show me today. Hate it when that happens. It certainly shows a disrespect for my time, but the nwhen I talk to the person later, I feel uncomfortable being too confrontational about it. I need to just make up a fee sheet to hand to all my customers saying there will be a $30 fee if appt is cancelled without 24 hr notice. But I'm too lazy at this point.

Why is it that everything seems to go through u s mail pretty quickly execpt my tax refund? Nothing like waiting for money to stir one's soul.

Take the test, by Emily.

Just saw Gods and Generals, mostly at my wife's urging, as she was eager to see the parts filmed in Lexington. What a movie; and what a tearjerking ending.

If all hip hop videos were like this one, I would watch a lot more of them (warning--big long video type file).

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Entirely my fault, I assure you. No need to feel guilty on my account. BTW, I did run into possible the most out of control used book store in the western hemisphere. Stevens Book Store in Raleigh has quite an extensive religion section, running from devotionals to academic works and journals. However, at least 4 of the aisles were completely impassible due to the shoulder high stacks of books piled in the middle of the floor. I'm not talking about just a stack here or there. I'm talking about the entire aisle. I'm sure they have lots of good stuff. Somewhere.

Ugh, yet more freezing rain. I wish that global warming thing would hurry. I've been too cold here. Maybe I can trick some environmentalists somehow into paying my enormous gas bill.

Tell me if this has happened to you. I got a couple of cards and letters in the mail from a company which had arranged to publish a class directory for my high school class. They wanted me to call and confirm my info. Knowing full well that they would want to try to sell me a copy, I still called them to mke sure my info was correct. Plus I might want to buy one, if the price wasn't too unreasonable. Say $20-$25. So I called them up. They already had most of my info, apart from my email. The they offered to sell me a copy, either hard bound or on CD for the low low price of just eighty bucks. When I balked on that, they said there was a special where I could get both the book and the CD for just $140. No? How about the soft cover version for $70? I have a feeling that no one in my class will be rich enough to ever see my info.

More lawsuit news. I like this one. It seems that Ohio State wanted (for once) to side with University of Michigan in it's pro-affirmative action stance, but was unable to file a brief because the state AG refused to file on their behalf. Since OSU is a public institution, all legal briefs must go through the AG's office. See story if you like.

Recovering from my lithotripsy yesterday. If you don't know what that is, don't ask. I'm doing well though. Just takes a while for the sedatives to run out of my system. Discovered that Alamance Regional is a VERY nice hospital. Everyone there treated me very well. The building looked brand spanking new. Looked a bit like SouthPoint Mall, actually. The only weird thing for me is that my urologist wants me to be inverted for a few hours a day now, which is to say my hips need to be higher than my head. Not quite sure how that will work. (I'm not even making this up.)

In response to Mark's comment below, I've put up the first quarter of my reading list on an Amazon list. The last six are ones in my stack which I haven't read yet, but in the interest of efficiency I thought I'd put them up now. If you have a title to submit to my quest, something you think I absolutely HAVE to read before the year's up, feel free to let me know. I always like recommendations anyhow.

We are having, officially, the most miserable winter weather I can remember. Right now it's raining ice from the sky. I knew we didn't want to attempt to drive to church this morning (more on that later), so I thought we would walk to a local church. We could see by looking out the window that the Weslesyan church was closed, as they are right accross the street. I thought it would be nice to try Mebane Presbyterian. We started walking the 8 blocks at about 10:40 , noticing that it was not only icy, but there was quite a wind blowing. On the way, we noticed the United Methodist church was closed, but continued on. Seeing no cars at the presby church, we decided to trek home. Although my wife has many wonderful skills, walking fast is not one of them, so it was about 11:25 by the time we got back home. I felt very much like a popsicle, which is to sy I would feel damp if i wasn't already frozen. The radio announcers have now been saying to stay off the freeway in our town, the one we would have driven on to go to our church, as it is littered with accidents and is down to one (out of four) lane.

I think I hadn't mentioned it here, but instead of having a New Year's resolution this year, I decided on a New Year's quest. My quest is to finish 100 books this year. So far I'm slightly ahead of schedule. I certainly have a lot of books I've been meaning to get to.

God needs your feedback.

Favorite roadsign:

I always notice a sign when we go through (ugh) Toledo. It says--

CATHOLIC WAR
VETERANS OF THE
USA HIGHWAY


This always leads me to ask myself a. when was the Catholic War, b. who fought in it, and c. how many of them were killed by the highway?

Sheesh, I've been working a lot lately. Kinda nice, but I'm tired now. Also it seems like half of my work is driving aroung in my car all over our beautiful state. Headed out to Goldsboro tomorrow, which is WAY far from here, as the kids would say.

I suppose it's just me, but I question the way we handle tragedies as a society. Everyone knows about the space shuttle disaster yesterday which killed seven astronauts. It was mentioned twice in our service this morning. But on the scale of almost 300 million people in this country, seven deaths doesn't seem like much. Certainly it means much to the coworkers, friends and families of those people, but when all is said and done, there will probably be more deaths, not to mention the dozens of injuries, from the plant explosion in Kinston, NC. Kinston is certainly much closer to our church than any NASA facility, yet it didn't get mentioned. I'm just puzzled, much as I was puzzled by those in our country who were quite shaken by the death of Princess Diana. Of course it's news and is worth mentioning and discussing, but really, what impact does this have on our lives?

Sorry to be so cold about this.

So if you haven't seen THE TWO TOWERS yet, no need to fret. It's all nicely summarized for us by our friend dave.

My favorite part of this article:

"Brown, a former Louisiana secretary of state and state senator, was the third consecutive Louisiana insurance commission to go to federal prison."

Boggles my mind.

Maybe I'm the onl yone who finds a periodic table of rejected elements funny.

Had my first successful googlewhack today: zygotic eschatology.

Well waddayaknow? Americas favorite libertarian columnist now has his own blog. Like I don't have enough to read now already.

I want to be the first at something, so how about this: a Joel Garver pool. When do you think he'll start blogging again. We could have one guess for next new entry on his blog site, and one for next comment on a theological/philosophical discussion on someone else's blog (so obviously this one doesn't count). If people sent in money and I sent him half the proceeds, maybe the financial inducement would be too much for his silence to bear? Or maybe he'll continue holding out to see how high the total will go? Who knows what the future holds? Place your wagers NOW, while it's still hot and the best dates are still open.

This is for Scott Cunningham. All others read at your own peril.

I've got a book on my shelf by Donald N McClosky. After I was married, my wife looked at it somewhat surprisedly and said, "why do you have a book by her?" Of course I had no idea what she was talking about, and I'm sure the rest of you don't either.

This probably isn't worth blogging about, but today I had my first job working for undergrads. I have no idea haw many gals were living in this house, but they said there were four pastors daughters living there. Quite impressive, no? They were very nice to me, and someone's boyfriend came over and recognized me from church and shook my hand. For me the best part of the house was the foosball table in the living room. Wish we had one of those. Brought back a lot of those college memories. Playing foosball every day after lunch, and sometimes after dinner. The piano itself was quite flat, and I would be surprised if they came up with the money to actually get it up to standard pitch. You never know though.

Don't know that there's too mmuch to talk about lately. Our cat set his tail on fire, even after I warned him verbally about using candles in the house. Kidneys aren't really causing ny pain, though I'm a bit anxious about getting that resolved. Great church service yesterday. About once a month I think about how fortunate I am to have such a great to (not to rub it in for any of you who are struggling with your own church in some way). Our pastor preached yet again another great sermon. And our SS class on what old folk...excuse me, what the more mature in our congregation have to teach us whippersnappers was very good again.

We also had our first team meeting about our upcoming Ukraine trip. We are very fortunate to have John Hamilton, who has planned about a million of these trips, both working with us and going with us. Most likely itinerary at this point is to go to Kiev for a week of teaching English (using the bible as a text) in June, with a couple of days for sight seeing somewhere else in Europe either before or after.

We spent some time on the net yesterday pricing flights to various cities. Looks like London is the cheapest way to go, but for just a bit more we can spend a couple of days in Stockholm. It'll be a group vote, but I think we may be able to convince the rest that Sweden in June is something to see.

Blog ate my homework. I seem to remember writing/posting something yesterday and don't know why it isn't here. In any even, I had a short interview Mon evening with the man who manages the largest piano store in the area, and he wants me to take over the tuning of thier newly sold pianos. This should mean a big jump in business for me, and therefore an answer to many people's prayers.

Today, on the other hand, I found out a have yet another kidney stone. Going to see a urologist tomorrow to see what we'll do about it.

Today we had one of the best Sunday school classes I can remember attending. The format was simply to have several older members of the church sit in a panel and talk about what they had learned and what they remembered about being in their thirties (My ss class is pretty much people from ages 29-36). The seven panelists each had very interesting things to say. The most surprising moment came when a member of our class asked then panel how they dealt with balancing their Christian obligations with work obligations. "Not very well" was the immediate response from someone who is very successful in the medical profession. We all had a laugh at that, though he apparently meant it quite seriously.

I would heartily recommend seeing if you can arrange a class in this format in your church, whether you are a pastor or layperson.

This will probably come as shocking news to all, but here it is. Microsoft sucks (spam).

Could we somehow incorporate this into the war on terror?

Just pulled this off The Corner (who got it from somewhere else, etc.:
Reasons Why Homeschooling Is Like Owning A Pet Rat:

1. Most people would never consider doing it.
2. To many people, it just doesn't seem right somehow.
3. Well, that's OK for your family, but we could never do it....
4. Is that legal?
5. You must be weird.
6. People hope you don't bring it up in conversation.
7. There are stereotypical images of both:
Rats smell, bite, are creepy; homeschoolers are
fundamentalists who stay home all day and shelter
their children from the world.
8. Everyone has a horror story to share:
Rats as big as cats attacking people; children held against
their will and abused by fanatic parents.
9. There is a suspicion you are irresponsible:
Aren't you afraid they will escape/bite/attract wild rodents?
Aren't you afraid they won't learn to socialize/read/function?
10. Family members will forward articles about:
how animals make people sick; how homeschooling is
anti-American and undemocratic.
11. You will be given gifts of workbooks/Lysol.
12. No matter how much you love spending time with your
homeschooled child/pet rat, you will never convince anyone
to try it themselves.
13. Friends and family will talk about you behind your back

I was just thinking some more about the film, The Sweet Hereafter. This is one Lenise rented because she thought it look weird and therefore might appeal to me. Of all the poignant drama films I've seen, I think that this one is the one I've thought about the most. While I enjoyed, say, Schindler's List, and found it very powerful, it was not very morally complex. TSH draws you into a tragedy and then lets you think about it from quite a number of angles. I just looked over some of the reviews at amazon. One guy said, "if I could give it 10 stars, I would." While I didn't have that reaction immediately, over time it's grown on me. Maybe I should watch it again. Any of you dear readers seen it??

I gave my first haircut last night. To my wife. It was her first haircut since our honeymoon (if I remember correctly). She's donating the hair to some outfit that makes wigs for post-surgical kids. Hope she's not getting laughed at too much at the office today.

Maybe those parties (all of tomorrow's) interested already know, but William Gibson just started a blog.

I'm finding now that you get a lot more bang for your buck when you buy or rent DVD's, at least some of the time. We watched the first four episodes of 24 tonight. Somehow they worked it so the bigget cliffhanger so far was at the end of episode 4. Good drama, but kinda violent. Last night we watched Spinal Tap. Lenise hadn't seen it yet, so she really enjoyed it. part of the "extra" features on the DVD were the outtakes. This was about 90 minutes of unused scenes, most of which were almost as good as the ones they put in. There were a number of scenes in a hot tub that were pretty good, but the actors looked kinda funny with the lighting shining off their wet faces. the best part was at the zoo. They were discussing how gorillas were a bread eating race ("I think they're more of a genus than a race."), who ironically had never developed baking technology. It got a bit too late to watch the whole thing again with the audio commentary.

Top (relatively recent) films which didn't make Seth's list.

Last Days of Disco

Metropolitan

Barcelona

You Can Count on Me

The Sweet Hereafter

Repo Man

At least those are the ones that come to mind. If anyone can remember what my favorite movies are, maybe you should remind me.

While I don't want to go back on what I just said, I decided that my last post really had nothing to do with what AKMA was talking about. Just forget I mentioned him. He was discussing the nature of digital identities and how that relates both to the marketplace and to who we are as people and how those two intersect. The stuff I wrote is just stuff that has been on my mind and I happened to think of it while I was reading AKMA's site. But since Scott has already commented, I'll leave the post there.

Also, I was playing around with my blog settings. Apparently turning archives "on" makes them all disappear for some reason. Sorry to anyone really hoping to look through all my old posts. You're undoubtedly better off this way.

I was just having a few random thoughts about AKMA's latest posting. Since I haven't followed the thread of the conversation very closely, I figured I'd spare him from writing on his comments and just waste my own space to think out loud.

Thought one: economists are not exclusively interested in financial/commercial dealings. This is quite tangential to any larger points being made, but I thought I should at least point out that economics, as I learned it, is concerned with man's preferences and decision making, or to put it another way, allocation of scarce resources. This can include how you choose to spend time, how you decide who to marry, or if you should marry, etc. Related to this is the fact that our non-commercial/financial selves are not entirely separable from our money spending selves, which maens that even "the market" has some reason to care about who we are in the non-commercial realm.

Thought two: I do think that american culture, on the whole, is guilty of financial reductionism. As Wordworth said, "getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." I don't know if there is an appropriate place to lay blame for this, or even if it would be fruitful to try to find out why it is the case. I'll leave that to the intellectually ambitious. But I do see few people in my circles who are content with their place in life. This includes me as well. Everyone seems to want more income, a "nicer" neighborhood (i.e. a different one, not to try to fix up their own), a newer car/truck/SUV, new gadgets (especially I've noticed lately people fixating on stereo equipment), and on and on. Also, as I picked up from Habits of the Heart, I see few people who think about the social/religious/moral consequences of their work. Of course many people are willing to criticize other people's work, but I can't recall hearing anyone say "I gave up tobacco farming bacuse I didn't want to participate in the cigarette industry/contribute to the lung cancer rate", or "I gave up my job in the entertainment industry because it seemed pointless/didn't contribute to anyone's well being." Now I'm sure there must be SOME people like this, but they are the exception who prove the rule. When it comes to work, people usually say if it's legal and moral and remunerative, I'll do it. Some leave out either of those first two.

Thought three: I had a third thought, but I rambled too long on thought two and forgot it. Maybe I'll remember it later.

If that wasn't the best church service I've been to, it was certainly the best one on a Monday night. we went to the consecration service at Church of the Holy Family for their brand new nave. They had a nicce brass quintet starting things off with some carols, then a couple of praise songs, a procession to the new nave, blessings of the the new furniture, two baptisms, a sermon by a terrific bishop, much more singing, a saxophone group, songs written by the rector and a member of the church, the eucharist, a letter from the archbishop of Canterbury (read by Stan Hauerwas), and LOTS of incense. Lasted about 2 and a half hours. we have quite a few friends at Holy Family, so we didn't feel too out of place, plus the contractor who built the building is a friend of ours from our church, so he got invited as well. The rt. rev. Michael Curry, the bishop who preached, sure is a gifted preacher. If I thought all their services would be that good, I might become episcopalian.

Some of the locals did comment that not only is preaching skill an anomaly among anglican bishops, being a Christian isn't all that common either. For myself I can't comment on that, just passing it along.

Just made it back from vacation. Had a good time with both families, but I think I'm ready to get back to normal life. Lots of good gifts got exchanged. Of course my favorites were the amazon gift certificates. I punched them up just a bit ago and started working on my wish list. I was thinking to myself, "wow, if I get these books from the used vendors, I can clear out about half my list." Then tragedy struck: "We're sorry, gift certficates can only apply toward the purchase of amazon items." bummer. Oh well, still got a chunk of it. But if any o you want to by me something used from my wish list, knock yourselves out.

Oh, special mention goes to Lenise for buying me a book which amazon doesn't carry, i.e. Brahms' symphonies for solo piano. Even though it arrived late, I think it will provide me a lot of enjoyment (and hard work) for years to come.

First leg of the trip went pretty well. We made it to Columbus by dinner time despite a late start. Jason and Dawn invited us over for quite a feast. Had a great time. If any of you bloggers have to stop in Ohio, I recommend mitigating the experience with a visit to the Garretts.

Merry Christmas to all you lovely readers. To the ones who aren't as lovely, just try to keep your chin up. Just kidding. I'm leaving for Columbus in the morning. We may see Dawn and Jason tomorrow night when we are there. I hope so anyway. I guess they still haven't forgiven me for not stopping in last time I went to Columbus. We're on to Detroit on Sat, then to Massilon OH next week before we get to return to cozier climes.

On a more important note, I just got my first piece of German spam (from an address in France???). Fortunately Lenise was able to translate it for me. It said someone really wanted to meet me, but was too shy to write directly, so I should download something or other to find out who it is. Nothing says internet safety like downlading files from strangers who can't decide what country they're in.

Be good all. Don't drink too much eggnog. And if you behave, I might bless you with a post or two from my parents house.

Like it or not, I think I'll just keep y'all updated on the U of Mich. case. In this column, the school prez defends, apparently, the idea that discrimination is only discrimination if it's against blacks.

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that Avram Davidson is the greatest sci-fi writer that no one has ever read. I don't usually expect references to Noah and Hobbes in a book with a picture of a dragon on the cover.

hmmm,

Blogger kept eating my posts yesterday. I seem to vaguely remember that I had lots of informative, witty and inciteful things to say. Unfortunately I'm back to being my regular self now. Plus I'm coming down with a cold or something. I just hate that feeling of knowing that it'll get worse before it gets better. I do hope I'm not too miserable on Friday when we head into the frozen north.

too busy to blog right now

In case you are interested in the Grutter case I mentioned below, here is the U Mich lawschool FAQ on the matter. I especially like question 4 (and it's answer).

For all who aren't strict pacifists, you may find this amusing. Being against something sometime does mean being for something else.

There's a useful Frech expression, esprit d'escalier, lit. thought on the staircase, which means something really witty you think of as you are leaving the event at which it would have been appropriate. On the way home from our dark and cold (but very fun) church service yesterday I came up with this pseudo verse: It's not by light, nor by power, by by my Spirit, says the Lord.