Dwight::Knoll

My new site

2005-06-23T17:02:00.000Z

This site has been continued at http://dwightk.com/

Double Dangit

2005-06-22T18:37:00.000Z

Well, there goes my template... I was changing it and it disappeared. So that's that.

I'm getting a wordpress blog, I will post the link soon.

Dangit

2005-06-21T16:34:00.000Z

I was installing the new XCode (2.1) and the installer seems to have gone crazy and started writing wherever it wanted. Now my computer will not boot. The best part is, while I was trying to fix it, I thought I had it fixed and restarted it, but I unplugged the external harddrive too early, which made it impossible to boot from that disk.

I would just erase and start over, but I don't have my Tiger install disks...

Photofriday: Sport

2005-06-17T12:59:00.000Z

Spring Cleaning

2005-06-16T21:15:00.000Z

I've had some things on my mind, all stewing, so I thought I'd share some of them here.

I have been auditing a class called Misseo Dei, or Mission of God for the last four days (one left) which has been a great experience for me. Basically it is a walk though the bible through the hermeneutic (or lens, interpretation) of God the Missionary. He starts coming to man in Genesis 3, and he keeps on doing it up to today. (Don't think that Gen. 1 & 2 are excluded, the very act of creation is an act of grace, a key component of God's mission.)

I have been noticing before this week that when I am thinking, and I come to some (relatively) "cool" conclusion, I am usually moved to talk to someone. Many times my internal "monologue" is a discussion with someone. I am usually thinking about what I would say to that person if they were here. I usually don't get around to actually talking to whoever I was thinking of, but it is interesting (to me anyway) that I never really just think "to myself." I think this is a pretty clear example of God's call to mission. I need to start heeding the call more often.

Another thing I have thought about recently is how vividly I have experienced God's Grace through my interaction with automobiles. My modern, scientific skepticism extends deep into meand I wish it didn't. But when faced with the grace I have seen in my driving I cannot be skeptical. There have been countless times where I have been driving and kinda zoned out... you know, not falling asleep or anything, but just doing what I have always done. (This usually occurs when I am doing the same thing over and over, day in and day out, like back when I lived in Stephenville and drove the same routes.) Something would seem weird, and when I started paying attention I would notice that I have just come up to a red-light and treated it as a 4-way stop, or just completely ran a red light and missed an accident. Skepticism counts it as happenstance, or absurdly calls it fortune, but I know that it is Grace.
Also, the only two cars I have owned have come to me at a much lower cost than the worth they have provided (and one of those is the Volvo I bought less than 2 months ago, but I have driven it more than 7,000 miles already)

God's Grace. And when I didn't notice it, God brought it to my attention. I had been driving every day the same route a couple of summers ago in Stephenville, and just days before I was to return to Maryland, I get pulled over. When I zoned out this time, I had been speeding in a school zone. All summer that school zone hadn't been in effect, but this last time I drove it, it was. "Wake up, look how I have blessed you."

I think that is about it for now.

My theological worldview

2005-06-15T18:34:00.000Z

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

86%

Reformed Evangelical

61%

Neo orthodox

57%

Emergent/Postmodern

57%

Roman Catholic

57%

Fundamentalist

46%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

46%

Classical Liberal

36%

Modern Liberal

14%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

I wouldn't say this was the best quiz I ever took, but I think it was a little better thought out than the last one I took about my theological whatever...

Still there were too many statements that I would disagree with, but I wouldn't agree with the inverse "X is more important than Y in..." so I didn't know what to do.

Keep up with what I read (online).

2005-06-14T17:45:00.000Z

If you want to follow what I am reading (at least online) you can use this page from del.ico.us, or subscribe to this rss feed.

Photofriday: Nerdy

2005-06-10T05:32:00.000Z

Photofriday: Rare

2005-06-03T12:03:00.000Z

My Preference

2005-05-30T03:39:00.000Z

I was really excited when Google came out with Google Maps, but I'm sticking with Mapquest until Google improves. Twice I have had trouble with Google directions and I have never had trouble with Mapquest.

For all direction services, please get rid of the "slight left 0.0 miles" and crud like that... just put "follow signs to...."

Photofriday: Symbol

2005-05-27T05:14:00.000Z

Photofriday: Green

2005-05-20T11:42:00.000Z

Photofriday: Space

2005-05-13T05:21:00.000Z

Sideways

2005-05-12T15:29:00.000Z

In a fit of movie watching that proved my complete lack of pop-cultural I.Q., I watched the movie Sideways (that's the title, not the orientation of my head while I was watching it, although I have noticed that I have no trouble watching movies while lying in my bed with my head oriented in a horizontal sort of way...)

I have not seen the best picture winner (Million Dollar Baby) but I have seen Hotel Rwanda, which was not even in the same league as this pile of crap. The academy awards are worse off for allowing this movie to put on it's cover "Nominated for 3 Academy Awards..." and now, if it won any "winner..."

Strange

2005-05-12T12:27:00.000Z

After Houston fell to the Mavs, Yao has made a rather interesting decision:

'Yao Ming will not play for the Chinese national team this year and plans to spend his summer in Houston on holiday.
"I just want to relax," Yao said. "I don't want to do anything. I'm not too used to being relaxed."'

Not that we really think China is a Communist country anymore, but it is nice to see them let Yao take some time off... I wonder if it is because of the rise of capitalism over there, or if they want him to have a break because they think the only reason he doesn't have a title is because they are making him play so much?

Uh oh!

2005-05-10T12:24:00.000Z

So I took this quiz... Looks like I'm not very in tune with Lutheranism... I think my %ages may be screwed up, because I put a low priority on most of the things I answered, and on things like baptism, since they worded it as "what is the correct belief concerning baptism" and each of the answers was exclusive, I answered "Not Sure" and put a high priority on it...

I think it is pretty neat that I am so high on so many denominations...

1: Anglican/Episcopal/Church of England (100%)
2: Pentecostal/Charismatic/Assemblies of God (100%)
3: Congregational/United Church of Christ (91%)
4: Eastern Orthodox (91%)
5: Seventh-Day Adventist (91%)
6: Methodist/Wesleyan/Nazarene (88%)
7: Presbyterian/Reformed (88%)
8: Baptist (Reformed/Particular/Calvinistic) (85%)
9: Anabaptist (Mennonite/Quaker etc.) (82%)
10: Baptist (non-Calvinistic)/Plymouth Brethren/Fundamentalist (70%)
11: Lutheran (70%)
12: Roman Catholic (52%)
13: Church of Christ/Campbellite (38%)

Movin on up (to the east side).

2005-05-07T18:20:00.000Z

I'm loaded.
It's official.
I'm the 860,388,099 richest person on earth!

How rich are you? >>

Doesn't sound like much until you think of the 5+billion people below me on the list... I just guessed my annual income... I'll probably earn more than 5,000 this year...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

2005-05-07T15:22:00.000Z

It's my car!

It's got a lot of miles! (But that 392 is how much I've driven it... on 12ish gallons of gas...)

I broke the antenna, and the clear coat is mostly gone... but it sure is ugly where it is left...

Photofriday: Action

2005-05-06T05:16:00.000Z

Driving is Fun!

2005-05-05T13:48:00.000Z

Well, I drove back up to Bel Air (where I bought my car) yesterday. This car is a dream to drive, and it gets 33 miles per gallon. My dad (and others) will be glad to note that, because of the high miles on the car, I'm taking it easy on accelleration, and traveling at the speed limit, instead of 3-5 MPH over... (also, after 55, the rpm per mph goes up quickly, ruining my gas mileage.) The only thing that could make driving this car more pleasureable would be if the sunroof opened.

Yesterday was a pretty fun day. In lab we played kickball against the other lab class that meets on Wed. Our team killed the other team, but they put on a good rally that fell short. It is really fun kicking a single and then stealing second (and maybe even third) while people are looking at the person who just ran home from third...

We played from around 2 till our class picture at 3:45... then I played handball... fun game, but we lost. We only had 5 players and the other team would put 6 in until they were comfortably ahead, and then take one out, then put one back in when we started catching up...

Then I left to pick up Josh's wallet... (That's why I drove back to Bel Air anyway...) There is no convinient way to get through Baltimore without paying a toll...

Safari 2.0

2005-05-04T02:54:00.000Z

Safari 2 is much better than the old Safari so far. I used to open about 10 tabs, each to a different comic site and the whole application would not respond for about 3-4 minutes... now it loads them faster than I can read them...

Over all, Tiger seems faster, but there have been a few times that it seems to grind... that will probably be fixed in the next release (or if not then, when I get a new computer...)

New Car

2005-05-04T02:48:00.000Z

Well, I got my car. It is a '93 Volvo 850GLT... It has bunches of miles (200K+) but it came at the right price, and it is a solid car as far as I can tell. I'll post some pictures later (it is in free parking right now, grocery store parking lot...)

Tiger

2005-05-03T04:56:00.000Z

Just got Tiger (OS X 10.4)!

Trying to get Mail working... everything probably would have gone smoother if I hadn't deleted everything and started with a new installation, but I decided to so that I would only install applications that I use and get rid of old pref files and stuff that I don't use...

Oh, for cute now...

2005-05-01T21:38:00.000Z

No Car (Yet)

2005-05-01T14:20:00.000Z

Well, yesterday was a pretty long day. I went to pick up my car in northern NJ (took about 5 hours to get there because a moving truck burnt down on I-95). I drove it around the block and payed and signed the title. But then as I was driving off, I got to the last intersection before I got back on major highways and the car stalled out. luckily I was right beside a shell station with a mechanic. He checked the car out and told me there was no coolant in the car and it was overheating. I called my Uncle Tom (family mechanical genius) to figure out what I should do. As I was trying to drive the car back (after about 30 minutes for lunch, and to allow it to cool off,) I couldn't even get it to back out of a parking spot (it was slightly uphill) so I drove back to see if I could get a refund. The people who sold it to me decided to go ahead and relist it since I was so far away. I think the mechanical problem was repairable (I think it was a leak in the coolant system, but it had to be a pretty big leak.) So I'm looking for newer cars that are closer to Annapolis...

Mc Manus

2005-04-29T16:25:00.000Z

I thought this was pretty funny:

Photofriday: Fancy

2005-04-29T16:11:00.000Z

Photofriday: Soft

2005-04-27T02:47:00.000Z

Clippers broke

2005-04-27T02:17:00.000Z

I planned on giving myself a haircut today, but about 10% of the way through my clippers stopped working... I took them apart and cleaned them out, but when I put them back together they would run for about 5 seconds and stop. I dunno what happened, but I had to go and get a haircut at the only place I knew (the mall) and it cost freakin' $20... I should have gotten the shampoo... they charged me for it, but I thought when I said "no" that meant it cost less... silly me...

2005-04-25T15:38:00.000Z

Who comes here?

2005-04-18T12:07:00.000Z

Since I started participating in photo friday my non-USA visitors have exploded... Although I'm surprised to find that I don't have any visitors from South America yet... especially considering that when I was using fotopages almost half the sites I saw were from Brazil (or so it seemed). Outside of one Tunisian and one Egyptian visit, Africa has also pretty much missed out on this wonderful site...

2005-04-17T23:42:00.000Z

Recently Finished:

2005-04-17T22:55:00.000Z

New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton

Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Wilard

Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross

Killing the Buddah, These Guys

I have been working on the first two since this summer, and I read the last two in the last couple of weeks... There were also some seminar and tutorial readings strewn in there, but none of them were whole books.

I'm now working on Go Down, Moses by Faulkner and Chesterton's The Ballad of the White Horse both of which are really good. (I have to read "The Bear" from Go Down, Moses anyway, so I figured I'd read the whole thing.)

Photofriday: Rest

2005-04-17T15:53:00.000Z

Seal

2005-04-10T20:42:00.000Z

Photo Friday: Plastic

2005-04-10T17:04:00.000Z

Google Sightseeing...

2005-04-10T16:30:00.000Z

offers views of various notable locations from Google's new satellite map service...

Photo Friday: Hot

2005-04-06T02:37:00.000Z

if you open the picture in a new window or tab, it will be bigger...

My Ring

2005-04-05T21:00:00.000Z

I got my ring!

Book of Days

2005-04-03T16:19:00.000Z

I found a neat new book, the Oxford Book of Days. It has all sorts of events that occur on each day of the year. Most specifically it lists the saints days and a little about their lives. It also has the dates of great historical battles (Hastings, to Pearl Harbor.) I couldn't find a good link for it, but you can find it on Amazon...

Python

2005-03-31T00:46:00.000Z

I've added 2 new things to my "Do everyday" list:

1. Read one epistle a day, selecting from:

Galatians

Ephesians

Philipians

Colosians

1st Thessalonians

2nd Thessalonians

1st Timothy

2nd Timothy

Titus

Philemon

James

1st Peter

2nd Peter

1st John

That's 14 Epistles... once through the cycle every 2 weeks. I picked these because they are relatively short. I still try to leave some time for unplanned reading, so I don't feel have to try to get to some "finished" state when I am reading, but for this, I want to get much more familiar with these books soon.

2.Also, I'm learning a little Python. It is a programing language that seems relatively easy, and has a way (PyObjC) to integrate with Apple's Cocoa.

I've worked on learning programming languages before, but the only one I've really stuck to was TI Basic which isn't object-oriented, or any other cool buzzwords (and it only runs on Texas Instruments calculators.)

I'm working through an 80-page .pdf that I got off of the Python site(Python for Non-Programers, and I'm on page 18. After that book is under my belt, I'll kick over to one my bro sent me that is 800 pages Dive into Python.

Roasted Green

2005-03-31T00:31:00.000Z

A big thumbs up for roasted green tea. The stuff I have smells a lot like green tea with roasted rice, but has a different taste. As a bonus, the little wet roasted rice things don't stick to my filter. (But I still like the roasted rice...)

The Republic of Tea calls theirs "Chop Wood Carry Water Tea."

(sorry about that comic, It really screwed up the formating... If I knew a second thing about HTML I'd fix it)

Oh the Humor

2005-03-25T12:42:00.000Z

Amazing

2005-03-24T16:29:00.000Z

The internet is an amazing place... I got to see this actually appear on my screen, so I thought I'd pass the opportunity on to you:

(Seen in an article on the San Antonio Spurs recent injury woes:)

It’s no hex folks. It’s not voodoo or some silly curse. It’s just bad luck

Are/Could conflation

2005-03-23T20:12:00.000Z

A recent article from Wired News about OS X's security entitled "Mac Attacks Are on the Rise" mentions that "Attacks on Apple's OS X operating system... are on the rise..." (emphasis added)
But then, we only get some weak comments to back it up:

"Apple's recent introduction of the Mac mini... could actually increase the likelihood of more malicious software computer code targeting the Mac platform..."

and

"the number of vulnerabilities can be expected to increase"

Of course Wired says all the right stuff so that they can pass the buck to Symantec, the company that released the report... So it is a pretty poor showing by Wired, but an even worse showing by Symantec, who I wouldn't trust to secure my computer over Microsoft... (and if you don't know how bad an insult that is, you probably shouldn't be reading this post ;-) )

Mate Latte

2005-03-23T13:25:00.000Z

Well, mate is not tea, but you make it the same way, and I found a new favorite... Mate Latte

It has almonds in it... I'm convinced the way to my heart is through almonds...

The people at Tevana told me that The Republic of Tea was really expensive, but I can get republic of tea in bulk at HEB central market... No dealing with the internet, and I buy as much as I want...

Neat-O

2005-03-23T04:11:00.000Z

Wow... while writing that last article, I noticed that PithHelmet had a new version... I downloaded it to try it out and it rocks! I bought it for $10 bucks... It adds per site cookie-management (I can block all cookies from all sites, then simply allow sites I want to have cookies at store info on my computer) and per site java/javascript/plug-in management...

No more turning on and off the plug-ins by hand...

It also looks like it can be customized a whole bunch to do more than I am even mentioning...

For a Mac User who knows anything about what I am talking about, I would recommend this as a well-spent $10...

Banner Ads

2005-03-22T04:09:00.000Z

Well, I got tired of the FLASH banner ads that not only get around my ad blocking Safari Plugin but they also move... which draws my eye over to them... So I have started turning off flash and shockwave in Safari.app preferences. It works great!

Now I would like it if I could use an Apple Script to turn plugins on and off... I go to lots of sites at which I want to see the flash animations, so I have to turn it on every once in a while...

Another thing that would be nice is if I could turn it on for just one window or tab, instead of having to deal with those ads while I'm tracking the Mavs every once in a while... or Waiting for Homestarrunner to load.

From the Desk of Mr. Merton

2005-03-20T20:45:00.000Z

Learn how to meditate on paper. Drawing and writing are forms of meditation. Learn how to contemplate works of art. Learn how to pray in the streets or in the country. Know how to meditate not only when you have a book in your hand but when you are waiting for a bus or riding in a train. Above all, enter into the Church's liturgy and make the liturgical cycle part of your life-- let its rhythm work its way into your body and soul.

Thomas Merton New Seeds of Contemplation

There's a New Digital Rebel in Town

2005-03-19T18:08:00.000Z

Wow... I almost impulse bought a $1000 item just now... I just saw that Canon released a new Digital Rebel, going up to 8 MegaPixels...

You know... I am graduating soon...
;-)

Poetry

2005-03-18T17:28:00.000Z

I don't know how many of you know this, but I don't really understand poetry... and by poetry, I mean poems... So I decided to write a poem to try to get into the head of a poet... See, I can imagine someone seeing something beautiful and thinking "I'm gonna take/paint a picture of that" or someone sitting down and thinking "I'm going to write a beautiful piece of music" but not "I'm going to write a poem" so here they (I wrote 2) are:

I. Deconstruct This! (That's the title...)

He danced upon the flowers of the sky.
And sang a sad swan song of sweet sorrow.
With tangible reverence to the night,
A quick, slip-shod council of nature,
Commenced to their business of doom.

Along for the ride, ran round the staves,
Came breathless, bride to be.
Ample opportunity to allow organization
Was given gladly by nature's cabal.

But no rescue was to be,
The man of men would not flee,
His punishment would destroy the sea,
Down among the small fishes.

II. Amazing Feats of Carlton Thrask

Down to the marketplace, yesterday he ran,
allowing orthogonal trysts to fly.
Travail and effort given life;
Methuselah sat to sing twice-long.

Among the crowd of cauliflower
planted the evil crown's fore-brow
the man-upon black and launched
a wave of sorrow o'er the sea.

Bent flint flicked forcibly upon
the ragged crew of orange vultures;
And gangly-armed muppet men worked
about the ghastly gorges.

Windy conversations of deep-throated rocks
beset whenever the man would sing
about most any topic or thing;
And n'er was disorder among his socks.

The Albino Elephant of Angle Rock
ran to and fro among the ships;
Able to swim as easily as chalk
And eat hors d'evours with all the dips.

Crackling cackling crazy cars
drive up the lazy highways,
causing countless cans of oil
sold down on the byways.

Carlton Thrask, n'er basket met
could hold him underwater;
And so he flew, deep underground
to stop... once he saw her.

I know it is really bad... but this is how all poetry looks to me... except, I'm not able to create lines that don't signify anything... I could present these poems I've written in a series of pictures... Most poetry lines don't actually signify anything to me...

Oh well...

Email Etiquette

2005-03-18T17:16:00.000Z

I'm not sure what to do. I've sent a couple of emails to people anticipating a reply. I know that lots of people are rather sporadic on checking their email, but I've been waiting for replies from two people for months now... Should I send another email? What should be in it?

I Stand by the Door

2005-03-17T04:35:00.000Z

I stand by the door,
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world-
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There's no use my going way inside, and standing there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find,
Is only the wall where a door ought to be,
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands.
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it....
So, I stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the world,
Is for men to find that door--the door to God.
The most important thing any man can do,
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch--the latch that only clicks,
And opens to the man's own touch.
Men die outside that door, as starving beggars die,
On cold cruel nights in cold cruel cities in the dead of winter-
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it-because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him....
So I stand at the door.

Go in, great saints, go all the way in-
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics-
It is a vast and roomy house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden basements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms,
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in,
Sometimes venture in a little farther,
But my place seems closer to the opening.....
So I stand by the door.

There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid,
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great, and asks all of us.
And these people feel cosmic claustrophobia,
And want to get out. "Let me out!" they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them they are spoiled
For the old life, they have seen too much:
Once taste God, and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened,
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people to far in do not see how near these are
To leaving-preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door,
But would like to run away. So for them, too,
I stand by the door.

I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was,
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who want to run away again, from God.
You can go in too deeply, and stay too long,
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there, too.
"Where?" Outside the door--
Thousands of them, millions of them.
But-more important to me-
One of them, two of them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait,
For those who seek it.
"I had rather be a doorkeeper...."
So I stand by the door.

By Samuel Moor Shoemaker, founder of Faith@Work

Use Gmail with Mail.app

2005-03-17T02:28:00.001Z

Now that I can use gmail with Mail.app I will start using it more often.

Dwight Update

2005-03-11T18:28:00.000Z

This is a dual post, I'm going to put it on Johnnymail too, so sorry if you are forced to see it more than once.

I'm about to go back to school for the last run before graduation. Spring break ends on Monday, and then there is not another official break until dead week, after all my classes are over. I'm only about half way through The Brothers Karamazov, so I need to light a fire under myself.

On the Tuesday after I get back, I have my senior oral exam. I'm glad I got to go so quick, I didn't want this hanging over me for too long. It is one hour, and there are three tutors who will examine me. We will be discussing my senior essay on "The Kingdom of Heaven in The Sermon on the Mount." I only have one class that day, but I will have to take off of work in the music library. I am going to meet Ms. Silver for lunch, because she may not be able to attend (she was my essay advisor.) I'm not too worried about the oral, although I've been getting a little anxious now and then over spring break. If you want, I could use some prayer that I will speak the truth clearly and fluently.

Then, the rest of the month I will be studying Relativity, Genetics, recent American poetry, and whatever the senior seminars are about (I know there is one on Flannery O'Connor and one on Faulkner, but I can't think of many others...) I will also be attending my friend's orals, and trying to figure out how to buy a used car that can carry me and my stuff from Maryland to Texas to Minnesota this summer.

I am applying to go to Concordia St. Paul (where my brother goes) to take some pre-seminary type courses. For example: New Testament, Old Testament, Greek, Hebrew, Mission of God, and possibly others. After next year, Thomas graduates (in May) and we may go to seminary together... He is looking hard at Luther, which is in the Twin Cities area, and I haven't really started yet, but am thinking about Concordia Seminary (St. Louis), Luther Seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, and maybe Fuller Theological Seminary (In California).

After graduation, I'm going down to spend a week in North Carolina on the beach. My friends Sir Robert and Johanna are getting married, and invited a bunch of people to the week long celebration. From there I will drive with my Mom either in a rental car, or in my car (if I can get one) back to Texas with all of my stuff (tons of books :-D)

I think that is it!

Tilt Sensitive Mac Game

2005-03-10T18:55:00.000Z

Bubblegym is a game for the new powerbooks with the Sudden Motion Sensor technology (sensor causes the removal of the read/write head from the hard drive surface if it senses a sudden movement, like the powerbook falling off of the table)... I can't see this catching on, but it is pretty cool.

Wow

2005-03-10T05:44:00.000Z

It has been a while. Spring Break is almost over, and I need to finish The Brothers Karamazov

It is really good.

Now Reading:

2005-02-10T13:12:00.000Z

Beyond Good and Evil Nietzche
Origin of Species Darwin
As I Lay Dying Faulkner
On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies Einstein

Still trying to finish:

Divine Conspiriacy Willard
New Seeds of Contemplation Merton

I'm done

2005-02-05T05:50:00.000Z

Finished up the last edits on my senior thesis this afternoon! I'm going to print it out tomorrow (today, saturday) at staples and bind it.

If anyone is interested in reading 27 1/2 pages on "The Kingdom of Heaven in the Sermon on the Mount" then I can send you a word Document, or pdf... I'll probably have it converted to HTML and up on johnnymail soon.

My first 8 hour day

2005-02-01T23:40:00.000Z

I just got off of work at the music library. I opened at 8:45am and closed at 5:00pm with a break for lunch. I've never done that before. I was just working on my senior essay most of the time. The sitting in one spot kinda got to me, but it wasn't so bad (I mean, hey, I know I've sat that long playing video games before ;) )

Happy St. Brigid's Day

2005-02-01T15:30:00.000Z

Here are some links to make your celebration complete:

Catholic encyclopœdia entry on Brigid

How to make a St. Brigid cross

Brigid of the Gael (more info)

Thumbs Down AOL

2005-02-01T15:27:00.000Z

I hope my "thumbdown curse" is as effective as it was on Bill Gates and Larry Brown.

AOL charged me for a free trial that I thought I had cancelled. That's not so bad as the run around they gave me on the phone trying to rectify it. I would say, never give your ccard number to AOL, they will probably legaly extort money from you, but legal doesn't mean right...

Hotel Rwanda

2005-01-30T05:56:00.000Z

The second winner of my "Run, don't walk" movie award*: Hotel Rwanda.
This isn't an easy movie to watch, but it is well made, and very good.

If you have seen it, check out SaveDarfur.org (or check it out anyway.)

*Previous winners include: Napoleon Dynamite

How about this:

2005-01-28T19:13:00.000Z

Why does God not just abolish the law? Without the law, the fault of sin is not attributed to anyone,* but a just** God cannot allow sin to simply exist without attributing it to someone and punishing them. So now “the Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”# And so justification before the law is possible without injustice, through grace, for we can become “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus”## Abolishing the law would mean God was unjust, so instead he offers justification as a gift, and our sins are imputed to Christ.
So Jesus came to fulfill in the sense of completing the law. The law was sent to increase sin, and therefore increase grace. Jesus was sent to be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world^ and allow grace to begin, thus completing the purpose of the law. So not a single bit of the law will become void until heaven and earth pass away;^^ We all remain guilty before the law until the end of days except for the grace of Jesus.

*Romans 5:13 “For until the Law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”

**“Consistent with what is morally right; righteous: a just cause.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

#Romans 5:20

##Romans 3:24

^1 John 2:2 “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

^^Matthew 5:18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

Free Gift

2005-01-28T18:43:00.000Z

That sure is a weird phrase... especially considering the definition of "gift:" Something that is bestowed voluntarily and without compensation.

Lend a Hand

2005-01-26T16:22:00.000Z

Here's your chance to help me with my essay (again) I have this sentence:

God makes the Holy Spirit avaliable to the great and the poor alike.

and I need a reference...

NASB

2005-01-21T18:42:00.000Z

Hmm... it seems the NASB translators strove hard to make each of the groups of people Jesus blesses in Matthew 5:3-11 desirable.

* "poor in spirit" has a note "i.e. those who are not spiritually arrogant"
* mourn is skipped, hard to make that blessed (by skipped, I mean they didn't do anything to make it desirable)
* meek is changed to "gentle" (although meek is in the footnote)

That's all I've noticed...

The Big Questions

2005-01-20T17:25:00.000Z

I posted a list of my questions about the Sermon on the Mount over at johnnymail but here are my most pressing questions:

What is the "good news [gospel] of the kingdom"?

Where is the good news in the Sermon on the Mount?

also:

How can I develop the Legalism vs. Heart-condition... How can I even put it in the form of a question?

How does the slave -> son/heir transition work? (Gal. 4:7)

A break

2005-01-18T20:20:00.000Z

Phew... I need a break... I just typed about 3000 words for my essay. Unfortunately, most of it was Matthew 5-7 from the NASB, so I'm not ahead any :-( (crap, I have to type to post to my blog... this isn't a break...)

It was 14 this morning, and I was walking to my dorm from picking up a package, and about halfway there, my left hand went numb (my right hand had a cup of tea in it, so I think that kept it from suffering the same fate.) then as I approached my door, it felt like it was getting bigger and bigger... When I checked, with windchill, it "felt" like -15degrees. I tried to type a little email, but I couldn't use the ol' left hand... it just kinda flopped there. When I went back out in shoes and gloves, I was fine.

Question

2005-01-17T17:05:00.000Z

Is there an option between man’s effort entirely being responsible for entrance into the kingdom of heaven (Legalism) and God arbitrarily chosing some to be saved from damnation? Neither option sounds very good, the first seeming entirely impossible, the second seeming malevolent, and neither containing any freedom. So if we are to have any freedom at all, it must lie in our freedom to do God’s will or not do God’s will. But how is this different from Legalism?

Where am I going?

2005-01-16T15:56:00.000Z

Well, I kinda know what my essay is going to look like now. I'm going to ask "What and When is the kingdom of God," use the Sermon on the Mount as an outline, treating it as a sermon rather than a collection of Jesus' sayings (even if it was just Matthew putting them all together, he put them there for a reason) and one of the big answers is going to lie in the difference between legalism and love... following the law and changing your heart... the misconception that following the law brings righteousness... It's kinda hard to say, hope I can before this paper is due :-)

Mac mini

2005-01-12T01:08:00.000Z

Wow. That is all I really have to say, but here's some buying advice:

I would recommend, if nothing else, to get the $75 upgrade from 256 to 512 MB of RAM (You can't upgrade the RAM yourself, or I'd recommend getting it from someone else)... everything will run much more smoothly. I usually recommend getting applecare, but if your computer costs $499 plus $75 for RAM = $574, the $149 for apple care doesn't make much sense, just buy a new one, it will only hurt if the thing falls apart in the first year or so, and Apples don't do that.

Thinking of springing for the DVD-R drive? Don't... Get an external drive, then when you buy a new Mac mini next year, you can save $100 on that one too. But it is really cool to have a 6.5"x6.5"x2" box on your desk with only a monitor, keyboard and mouse... if you are looking for cool, you'll be spending a lot more

The $50 for 40 extra GB is worth it, it just depends on what you are looking for on the bottom line.

Internal Bluetooth is only available if you buy it now, but if you change your mind later, there are dongles you can buy...

Don't buy from Apple, you get sales tax, and no extra deals... Go for MacMall or MacWarehouse to get free shipping, no sales-tax, and extras (like a free keyboard and mouse)

They are obviously way overcharging for the 1GB of RAM... that is probably to separate it from the iMac. When I checked the iMac, they are selling 1GB sticks for it for the same price, so I guess I was wrong...

For $2,500 you could get a very awesome setup, 17" LCD, 1.4GHz, 1GB RAM 80GB HD, AirPort Extreme, DVD Burner, and Apple Care (with a price that high, AppleCare again becomes a must-have...) Well, you can get an iMac for $300 less, with a G5 1.8GHz and 250GB HD, so I'd go that route :-) )

Just for Reference, my G4 800MHz Powerbook runs just fine with 640MB of RAM... 1.4GHz would be plenty fast for photo editing, internet, Garage Band, etc.

NRSV and NASB

2005-01-08T17:38:00.000Z

I've been slacking a little bit on my essay, mostly just replacing all my verse quotations from the New Revised Standard Version to quotations from the New American Standard Bible. I had always thought these two were pretty much the same, but in the few verses I compared, there is quite a difference.

I switched because the NASB has greek notes on Crosswalk while the NRSV doesn't.

My next task is to reflect on the paradox of God's will, using the passage from the Lord's prayer I was asking about the other day.

Ow

2005-01-07T18:27:00.000Z

I just sneezed really hard and now my elbow hurts...

weird.

Matthew 6:10

2005-01-06T23:00:00.000Z

I'm surprised to find that most translations I can find are something like:

Your kingdom come>.< Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

I've always thought it as:

Your kingdom come>,< Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

The Message puts a semicolon there, but that is the closest I could find.

Even with the period, is it alright to say that we are praying both for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and for his kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven?

Ouch

2005-01-06T06:21:00.000Z

Bill Gates on Apple:

They had a hit with the Apple II, they had a hit with the Macintosh, and they have a hit with the iPod, so this is a company that's had three hits...

***Edit***
You may remember this post where I said:

This [icon ()] is [for]when I hand out a "Thumbs Down" to a company or celebrity... you don't want one of these, it follows you around, haunting you until you leave public life, a hollow, broken, shell of a man (or company.)

Well, check this out, Gates had a little trouble with is keynote the other day...

***Edit#2***
I might also point out that another recipient of my thumbs down, Larry Brown, can't seem to get either of his teams (US Olympic Squad, or the Pistons) to perform up to their potential...

Woo Hoo!

2005-01-06T04:55:00.000Z

I don't know if this is the sort of thing I should be telling other people, but I am pretty excited. Within the next week, God willing, all of my outstanding debt (at least monetary and to specific institutions which have finance charges ;-) ) will be paid off. If you are reading this and don't have a credit card, don't get one!

Huh?

2005-01-06T01:25:00.000Z

I was reading this article, and although I'm not a "super-lutheran" I took exception to this part:

We have quoted Luther’s small catechism (followed by every Lutheran group today, including the Missouri Synod): "Holy Baptism is the only means whereby infants...can ordinarily be regenerated...it works forgiveness of sins...delivers from death and the devil [and] gives eternal salvation...." Calvin said, "God in baptism promises remission of sins...regenerating us...makes us his by adoption...let us therefore embrace it in faith."

The first thing that caught my attention is all the ellipses. So I give you the entire section of Baptism from Luther's Small Catechism:

The Sacrament of Holy Baptism

As the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household
FIRST
What is Baptism?
Baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God's command and combined with God's word.

What is that word of God?
Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Matthew: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit." [Matt. 28:19]

SECOND
What benefits does Baptism give?
It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.

Which are these words and promises of God?
Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Mark: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." [Mark 16:16]

THIRD
How can water do such great things?
Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water. For without God's word the water is plain water and no Baptism. But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in Titus, chapter three: "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying." [Titus 3:5-8]

FOURTH
What does such baptizing with water indicate?
It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Where is this written?
St. Paul writes in Romans chapter six: "We were therefore buried with Him through baptism in to death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." [Rom. 6:4]

You might have missed (as I did) where exactly it says:

Holy Baptism is the only means whereby infants...can ordinarily be regenerated

in fact in the explanation, question 251 it says:

Is it possible for an unbaptized person to be saved?
It is only unbelief that condemns...

going on to quote Mark 16:16 "Whoever does not believe will be condemned. And in 246 it says that babies also are able to have faith, basing that on Matthew 18:6 "If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." and Luke 1:15, 41-44 which is about John the Baptist being filled with the holy spirit as a baby and even before birth.

Maybe now that I got that out of my system I will go back and read the whole article :-)

I've read some more, and was tempted many times to respond before I got to this little bit of rhetoric:

He neither meant physical bread nor physical death nor physical eating. He was communicating eternal spiritual truth. So it must be also when He said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (6:51), "Living bread" is clearly a metaphor, as is His statement that this "living bread" is His "flesh." Clearly, the "eating" is symbolic of believing that "Jesus Christ is come [once and for all] in the flesh" (1 Jn 4:2,3). He is both God and man in genuine human flesh. That much should be clear.
Yet when Christ goes on in the same breath to say, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you" (Jn 6:53), Rome insists that He means literally eating and drinking His physical body and blood!

The specific part that caught my attention was "in the same breath..." I want to give this guy some slack, but this seems to be an outright lie. When I saw "in the same breath" and noticed that he had previously quoted John 6:51, but this time quoted 6:53, I naturally wanted to know what 52 said:

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
52
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
53
So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Oops... forgot that one little thing. There really does seem to be a difference between Jesus saying "I am the door" or "I am the true vine" and responding to the direct question: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" with "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you"(paraphrase). If you want to write about the bible, and you come to a difficult verse, you shouldn't sweep it under the rug, you should mention it and respond to the difficulties it raises.

Is it just me?

2005-01-05T23:12:00.000Z

... or is it faster to select a lot of text in most browsers by starting at the bottom and dragging up?

Senior Essay

2005-01-05T18:02:00.000Z

I'm having a little trouble with my senior essay:

God rules the kingdom of heaven, and that is his realm. But he made everything, He rules everything, and so his realm extends to everything, even where his will is not obeyed. There is a paradox here, for we truly have free will, and yet our will cannot go against God’s will. Paradoxes are hard to think about, the mind constantly slides down and takes sides on the issue because of the non-contradiction principle. I guess the only way I can think of holding on to this thought is that God’s Will is that which cannot be contravened, and extends to his entire realm, but within his realm he created things which are able to make free choices. These choices are not subject to the Will of God, but can never cause an event to occur which God does not Will. That really just spreads the paradox out with the intent that you forget the first part by the time you read the second.

If anyone can help me out, please do :-)

Now Reading:

2005-01-05T16:26:00.000Z

The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God by Dallas Willard

Galatians 5:12

2005-01-04T22:41:00.000Z

...one of the funniest verses in the bible =)

Wish List

2005-01-04T22:26:00.000Z

This wishlist is really a place for me to remember books I need to get, but hey, if anyone feels generous.... (some of the books have used versions around 2 bucks!)

More on "Separation of Church and State"

2005-01-04T15:09:00.000Z

See this earlier post. I am not an antidisestablishmentarian, I believe there should be no state religion, but the courts are acting beyond their stated powers when they rule on anything using the so called "constitutional separation of church and state principal" on anything besides a law that Congress passes. If someone wants to amend the constitution to allow the courts to rule on other cases, then they will have a valid pretext for their rulings.

Links:
Wikipedia
TheocracyWatch (Notice how they dance around the fact that the constitution does not allow the courts to rule on anything except for Congressional Laws)

Browser Wars

2005-01-03T22:38:00.000Z

***Update:
My friend Shane Anderson helped me to lessen the grinding halts in Safari. The Autofill option was causing it. Turn that off and there is no reason to switch away!***

I've gotten a little annoyed when Safari grinds to a temporary halt, usually when dealing with net applications like amazon.com, store.apple.com, blogger.com etc. But I keep running into problems when I want to switch browsers.

Cookies

I can't find a way to import cookies out of Safari and into a new browser. There aren't a lot of cookies that I want to keep, but there are enough.

Keychain

There are many sites that I have forgotten my username and password. I could look up each one in keychain and paste it across, but I'm way to lazy to do that.

Bookmarks

I just want my bookmark bar to be identical to my Safari bar. I think I got it in firefox, but it keeps adding it's own 3 links in front which I don't want to use. Also, I can't figure out how to make a group open together without a contextual menu.

Ad Blocking

Not originally part of Safari, but I have PithHelmet installed and it just works. I found a way to get firefox to block ads, but it required creating a file in my user preferences, buried deep inside my home folder. I haven't tried it yet, but I guess it will work. The nice thing about PithHelmet is I can easily temporarily disable it (if it is blocking something accidently,) and it also filters other content besides ads.

Tabs

I like being able to close the tab with a button that is on the tab. In firefox (and others, I'm just picking on firefox because I just tried switching to it, Camino and OmniWeb may not exhibit this behavior anymore) you have to right click and select close tab from a contextual menu, or click the close button al the way over on the right.

AutoFill

I will have to re-enter my auto fill info If I ever get around to switching, and that is just annoying.

---

Two things I would like to see in a browser that writing this all up has brought back to mind are:

The ability to overwrite the expiration date for a cookie. I'd like to set all cookies to expire after one year if the cookie is set to expire in a longer time. (I think OmniWeb lets you do stuff like this)

Never open a new window unless I purposefully open a new one. Right now I have to use a contextual menu to open new links in a new tab, and sometimes (e.g. when there is a picture that has a link attached to it, but there are others) the menu lacks the option to open the link in a new tab. I'd rather all links open in new tabs, I could close the old window if I didn't want it. (I may get tired of this, because I am used to having some links open in the same window/tab, but I'd like to have to option to open all links in new tabs in the same window.)

I hope that someone will prove me wrong on these points, I'd love it.

Senior Essay Excerpt I

2005-01-03T22:24:00.000Z

I put up a little bit of my essay today over at johnnymail.

Mac Users: Decode Anything!

2005-01-03T17:12:00.000Z

Well, just about anything... This page has freeware and shareware to decode and encode just about any format you can imagine:

.zip, .yenc, .uue, MIME base 64, shar, .rar, Tomes, .tar, .sit, .sitx, .cab, .pkg, .arc, .arj, .b64, .bin, .bz2, .bz, .compressed, .cpt, .gnutar, .gnutar.bz2, .gnutar.bz, .gnutar.gz, .gsm, .gz, .hqx, .lza, .lzh, .macbin, .mime, .pit, .tar-gz, .tar.Z, .tar.gz, .tar.bz, .tar.bz2, .taz, .tgz, .tbz, .tbz2, .uu, .xx, .xxe, .z, .zip, .zoo, .Z, WINAce, .lha, (and more?)

Some of the direct download links didn't work, but the ones I tried let me download after finding the link on the homepage link...

Lambic

2005-01-03T04:25:00.000Z

I had some raspberry lambic over the holidays and it was pretty good. It was what I wish wine coolers tasted like. I think my mom even tried a little and liked it.

Go Aggies!

2005-01-01T00:13:00.000Z

I'm off to go see the Cotton Bowl.

******

Well, I'm back... The game was not much fun to watch. The 12th man showed up, but unfortunately the first 11 didn't for the Aggies. They had more turnovers in this game than the whole season, it seemed. After giving up 3 TDs off of 3 turnovers, they never really got back in the game. Tennessee scored a point for each of their fans in the crowd though.

I rang in the new year at midnight yell, which was pretty fun. They could have used some better speakers though. I was about 20 feet from the yell leaders and could barely hear them.

Porn More Addictive than Crack

2004-12-31T20:37:00.000Z

according to a Wired News story:

The internet is a perfect drug delivery system because you are anonymous, aroused and have role models for these behaviors," Layden said. "To have drug pumped into your house 24/7, free, and children know how to use it better than grown-ups know how to use it -- it's a perfect delivery system if we want to have a whole generation of young addicts who will never have the drug out of their mind.

My Other Blog

2004-12-31T19:57:00.000Z

In case you don't read my other blog, I posted a semester preview for my final undergraduate semester over at johnnymail.

Last.fm

2004-12-30T23:16:00.000Z

If you want to keep up with what Dwight listens too check out my last.fm page

This site is really cool, I use it because it tracks what I am listening to in iTunes, and compiles a list of my favorite artists and tracks. Then it compares my library to other user's libraries and shows me people with similar listening habits. It also recommends similar artists. The coolest thing it does (and the thing I use the least) is that it gives me a streaming radio station made up of tracks I like and might like.

Very cool if you have a always on internet connection (although I think it will send all the tracks you listened to offline the next time you connect.)

MISC

2004-12-30T23:12:00.000Z

I've been struggling recently with my blog. For I while I've been asking myself "who really cares about the stuff you post" and so I have been posting a lot less. From now on this blog is mostly just for me (and my mom.) The only difference you are going to notice is (hopefully) more posts.

Matrix stolen?

2004-12-07T05:52:00.000Z

all I can say is, ouch

Get Fuzzy

2004-12-07T05:50:00.000Z

Really funny... Guess I'm not discerning or intelligent...

Everyman Photo Contest

2004-12-01T04:51:00.000Z

Well, tomorrow is the big day... My pictures are in the entry, I guess we'll see if I win something (I think my horny toad pic should have been put in the nature section, but that is my fault...)

The Incredibles

2004-11-09T05:10:00.000Z

I say that The Incredibles is a very good movie... you should see it. (It is from Pixar (definitely their best...))

It'd be Funny...

2004-11-03T03:37:00.000Z

Although I would rather it not be that close, it would be funny if the 2 electoral vote shift from NY to Texas played into this election.

Daylight Savings

2004-11-02T01:00:00.000Z

For some reason, Daylight savings time (or the lack thereof) has really hit hard this year. I'm all wide awake at 3:30 in the morning (odd since I'm not usually awake at 4:30) and Right now I feel like I'm really late for seminar which is at 8 (it is 7:03 now.)

It is also odd to walk out the front door of my dorm at 8 am and see the sun, way up in the sky... seemingly near the meridian.

Scary Stuff

2004-10-27T10:13:00.000Z

I cant help but agree with Peter Akinola: "The Anglican Primate of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, has been explaining that the difference between his church and the Episcopal Church USA isn't your standard intradenominational infighting. The Episcopal Church (along with other western churches, he says), isn't even Christian any more. Instead, he says, it's 'embroiled in a new religion which we cannot associate ourselves with.'"

When I see stuff like This but more specifically a liturgy for divorce which says:

While the couple have promised in good faith to love until parted by death, in some marriages the love between a wife and a husband comes to an end sooner. Love dies, and when that happens we recognize that the bonds of marriage, based on love, also may be ended.

or A Woman's Eucharist "A Celebration of the Divine Feminine"

via