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| 7-20 -10 Jean-Philippe Rameau, Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin, Suite en Sol: VI. Les sauvages, played by Céline Frisch. Rameau semse to make dhe harpsikord seme like it iz beeing strummd insted of kede, az if it wer a harp. He rellee had the harpisikord down. I think I like the harpisikird beter soeloe than akompanede. |
| 7-19 -10 Here iz my nue flash .mp3 player. It still haz a fue bugs, but I am prettee happee with it. It duz not look like much but it iz dhe result uf six munths uv studeeing Actionscript kode. The muesik kuntrol is much impruvde frum dhe erlier protoetipe. I wood like tue eventualee poot the songz on teh rite into the nue player format, but I nede tue figure out a fue mor things. When I waz a kid and the cold war waz stil goeing on, I ges I had al dheze |
7-15-10 I am bak in NM frum a week and a haf in Texas racing and visiting dhe familee. I drove around Austin, San Antonio and Houston, which wuz rillee interesting. I hav bin working on studeeing Actionscript 3.0 for Flash and almost hav a nue .mp3 plaeyer dun. I wil stik it up here when I get dhe bugs out uv it. Dhis first pik iz uv bare trax in dhe Sandias. Uperentlee dhey step in dhe same place going up or doun a trale and make theze littul depressions in dhe forest flor.
5-28-10 I am now famus. I hav my piktur on a genueine spoke kard.
I hav bin lisening tue Ballads of a Bohemian by Robert W. Service. I got it ahf librivox.org which iz won uf the koolest sitse on dhe internet. Endles free ahdeeoebooks, ahl publik doemane, red by volunteers. Onlee old books, dho, wons dhat ahr past thare copeeritse. Here iz a poewem frum dhe book:
The Wonderer, Aug 1, 1914
I wish that I could understand
The moving marvel of my Hand;
I watch my fingers turn and twist,
The supple bending of my wrist,
The dainty touch of finger-tip,
The steel intensity of grip;
A tool of exquisite design,
With pride I think: "It's mine! It's mine!"
Then there's the wonder of my Eyes,
Where hills and houses, seas and skies,
In waves of light converge and pass,
And print themselves as on a glass.
Line, form and color live in me;
I am the Beauty that I see;
Ah! I could write a book of size
About the wonder of my Eyes.
What of the wonder of my Heart,
That plays so faithfully its part?
I hear it running sound and sweet;
It does not seem to miss a beat;
Between the cradle and the grave
It never falters, stanch and brave.
Alas! I wish I had the art
To tell the wonder of my Heart.
Then oh! but how can I explain
The wondrous wonder of my Brain?
That marvelous machine that brings
All consciousness of wonderings;
That lets me from myself leap out
And watch my body walk about;
It's hopeless--all my words are vain
To tell the wonder of my Brain.
But do not think, O patient friend,
Who reads these stanzas to the end,
That I myself would glorify. . . .
You're just as wonderful as I,
And all Creation in our view
Is quite as marvelous as you.
Come, let us on the sea-shore stand
And wonder at a grain of sand;
And then into the meadow pass
And marvel at a blade of grass;
Or cast our vision high and far
And thrill with wonder at a star;
A host of stars--night's holy tent
Huge-glittering with wonderment.
If wonder is in great and small,
Then what of Him who made it all?
In eyes and brain and heart and limb
Let's see the wondrous work of Him.
In house and hill and sward and sea,
In bird and beast and flower and tree,
In everything from sun to sod,
The wonder and the awe of God
5-14-10 It haz bin a cold wet spring in my nek uv dhe woods. Here ahr sum faerlee resent pix. Dhe storm coming in dhe last foto dumpt over an inch uv popcorn snoe on mee in che last 20 min uv my hike.
4-28-10 I vakyumde up under dhe caroeselz last weke. This is part uv wut I found. Dher wuz ahlsoe ubout a cuebik foot uv lint, and maebee $5 in chanje. I like dhe "God Rocks" ball. Onlee in America. :-)
4-13-10 God is in control. I was listening to Michael Savage for a minute last night. He was talking about the fact that the Muslims in Europe have a lot more kids than the native Europeans(four times, he says, but I am not sure about that), and in the US quite a few more than the European Americans, and what this means for the future outlook of the Western World in the next 50-100 years. (He failed to mention that the exception to this statistic is the conservative Christian families, which tend to have more kids.) Anyway I do not listen to him much, as he is often kind of bitter, angry, and depressing. This is not happy information. My dad gave me a book on the same topic, which goes into much more detail. (America Alone, Mark Steyn) What I have written lately about the moral decay of Western Christianity is not very happy news either.
It struck me though, listening to this, that it is not the whole picture. We should do what we can to resist evil in the world, for sure, but the really important thing is that even if the world becomes more evil by the day, God is in control. The true God, who has not changed since the beginning, who since that beginning has loved the same good and hated the same evil, this God is in Control. He loves us and sent his Son Jesus to die for our sins. He will bring us home to heaven.
If I wake up tomorrow and I am the last orthodox* Christian in the world, God is still in control. Not just sort of in control, he will still count every hair and watch every sparrow fall. What happens in the world is important, but it is of secondary importance. It is better to know this and die a martyr tomorrow, than to not know this and have the world tuning out just like you like it.
*That is to say, orthodox in a general sense with a little "o", not Orthodox in the sense of the denomination.
4-12-10 Great shot of Fernando Alonso before practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix last week.
4-7-10 I was thinking about a couple of things related to what I wrote on 3-10 about the future of the Catholic church. If you have not read it you might want to read it first.
First: I read a couple of documents on the Vatican's website,(1,2) and I am encouraged that the official policy of the Catholic Church as it stands now clearly teaches that homosexuality is a sin, even though there are people of the opposite opinion sitting in Catholic pews now. (As I am sure that there are people of this position sitting in Missourri Synod Lutheran (my denomination(3)) pews right now as well.) This excerpt summarizes their position:
"It is only in the marital relationship that the use of the sexual faculty can be morally good. A person engaging in homosexual behaviour therefore acts immorally."(1)
So I think that they are "holding the line" on this issue at least as far as the official policy goes. What concerns me is what are the sympathies and long term goals of the upper clergy in the western world. Do they really agree with this? Are some of them wising it would liberalize? I was at a meeting of a Catholic women's group a year or so ago and I remember a lady talking about how disappointed she was that the Vatican had elected such a conservative Pope (speaking of the current Pope Benedict.) I was somewhat shocked by this. I do live in a generally liberal leaning university area, but still among the Catholics, especially those at a meeting that expressed a time investment beyond going to mass, this surprised me. Now, I am not saying that she should not be free to say this, but I remember thinking later: Why, exactly, are you Catholic? Maybe you should be an Episcopalian.
Second: I think in a society such as ours, all people should be treated equally under the law. A balance needs to be found in which those who think homosexuality is normal behavior, and those who think it is a grievous sin are both treated with respect. I do not have any close friends that are openly homosexual. Of the acquaintances I have, I have generally found them to be courteous, rational, nice, and intelligent, though I always feel a certain awkwardness around them, knowing the extreme gulf between our differing world views. I oppose prosecutors turning a blind eye to assaults on homosexuals because they are homosexual. I also oppose hate crime legislation that says that someone should be punished more because the assault was made against a historically oppressed group, such as homosexuals. We should be equal under the law. Also the Episcopalian (4) pastors should be free to say from their pulpits that homosexuality is normal and healthy behavior, and my pastor should from his pulpit shuold be free to say that it is a sin and condemned by God.
I am speaking as to what I think should be permitted under US law, where we have citizens who hold opposing viewpoints, and I think they should both be respected. From viewpoint of God's law, the liberal Episcopipalian pastor is doubly evil. It is bad enough to encourage sin, but to do so and at the same time to present onself as a pastor, God's representative to care for his children, and then to lead them away from His will, is a very serious thing indeed. I am not saying that most of them do this deliberately, but it is still tragic that such a situation can exist. Some of the harshest condemnations of human behavior in the New Teatament are given for this, not so much for the people living in sin, but for religious leaders that say it is ok. (5)
Notes:
1. On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (Vatican) This article contains an excellent summary of the situation that exists today.
2. Criteria for the Discernment of (Priestly) Vocations
with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies (Vatican)
3. Homosexuality (The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod)
4. Not all the Episopalians, thankfully, but sadly most of them in America. Also several other demoninations, such as the ELCA.
5. II Peter 2 is a good example of this.
4-4 Christ is Risen!
Note: I hav started pooting a subjekt in bold on the longer artikuls to make the blog eezeeyer to skim over.
3-19 Sin at the door. Something brought this verse to mind, I guess the endless struggles in my own mind:
6 So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
Some of the translations say "crouches", like an animal about to pounce. The hebrew dictionary on blueletterbible.org seems to support this.
If one believes the Bible, which I do, out behavior and even thoughts are personally important to God. Furthermore He cares about out needs and feelings. He is simultaneously aware of the thoughts and actions of everyone in the world. This separates religious thought from deism.
The fact that sin is always at the door, always waiting for us, it something to really keep in mind. We do not get a day off. It is interesting that Jesus uses a similar analogy when he says: "Behold I stand at the door and knock." It is as if we are presented with the choice between Jesus and sin at our door every day.
3-10-10I
was reading an article
on sexual abuse in
the Catholic Church on the BBC’s site this morning. Once
again people
were
talking about letting priests marry. Pope Benedict is strongly opposed
to this,
says the article, and that is likely true. Generally I like his
conservative
stances.
The reason
for allowing
priests to marry, as
I see it, is not to remove temptation, which is what we usually
hear
talked about, but rather to raise a new and completely different group
of
priests, one that is rigidly and exclusively heterosexual. It seems
that
generally when they have some scandal about sexual abuse it is about
someone
abusing boys, not girls. This is not about temptation, this about who
they are
getting as priests. Although homosexuality is considered a sin by the
Church,
(a good thing, I think) they have set up a clergy system that attracts
homosexual men. It seems to me that they are shooting themselves in the
foot on
this one. Sadly, I do not see this changing soon, because those who
like things
the way they stand are in some of the supervisory positions now. Are
they
likely to take a really devoted stance towards changing things, if they
themselves are homosexual or sympathetic to that moral decision? There
are tons
of good priests, but it does not take a lot of bad ones to really cause
a
problem in the system. I think they need new people at all levels,
people who
believe what the Church teaches, that homosexuality is a sin, period.
The
present system does not seem conducive towards collecting that group of
people.
I have a
great deal of
respect for the
Catholics in a lot of areas, and for the present pope, but this is
something
they need to consider.
On a sort of
related
topic, whenever I hear
something like this, I remember reading The Vision by David Wilkerson
of The
Cross and the Switchblade fame. He said that he foresees a global
liberal
church which would combine the Catholic Church with most
protestant/evangelical
denominations. I am thankful that this has not happened, and I really
hope it
never will. (I do not think it will happen under Pope Benedict,
anyway.) If it
had not been the David Wilkerson, with all he has done, a hero among
evangelicals, probably no one would have ever even read that book. It
is hard
to know.What does the Bible say
about prophets?
Basically if what they say doesn’t happen, ignore them. Or if they try
to turn
you away from your faith, ignore them (or under the Law of Moses, they
were to
be executed.) If what they predict does happen AND they try to turn you
from
your faith, they are not to be followed. This is the tricky scenario.
(Deuteronomy 18 (latter part) and 13) So I think this is what one
should do
with Wilkerson’s book: Keep it in the back of ones mind, and keep ones
eyes
open. It has been a long time since I read it, but it Wilkerson himself
says
something similar about the book in the introduction.
Returning to the
Catholics, I was thinking
that this is really a critical time. If they cannot deal with this
problem now,
eventually they may get a Pope who just says that homosexuality was not
a sin
after all. There are plenty of Catholics in the developed world who
would like
to see this happen, and I would suppose that the Church pulls a most of
its
clergy leadership, and most of its money, from the developed world. It
is
possible that the Catholics could fight this by staunchly drawing the
line and
saying that if you are homosexual the Catholic clergy does not have a
place for
you, and avoid letting the priests marry, but I think a more secure
decision
would be to do both. There are a lot of Catholics that wish to maintain
the
current moral conscience of the church, but they are largely family
types.
These are some of the best people they have, many of them really stand
behind
the moral teachings of the Church. They need these people in the
leadership
positions. I would hate to see the Catholics end up like the
Episcopalians or
the ELCA Lutherans, but it could happen.
This is not merely an
issue of abuse. That is
just the result of a much bigger problem. The deeper question is one of
who is
running the Church now and more importantly who will be running the
Church in
the future. I think that they need to take a twofold approach: First,
capitalize on the family oriented Catholics and bring them into the
clergy by
allowing priests to marry. Second, If the Church is committed in its
teaching
that homosexuality is a real sin, do not tolerate it. In my opinion
this needs
to be done now, while they have a conservative Pope and he can appoint
who he
wants to leadership positions. The next Pope could be a "John Kerry"
style Catholic, and God help the Catholics if that day comes. I realize
that
the celibacy of the priesthood has positive aspects and a long history
in the
Church, but this is a desperate time for the Catholics, and they need
to weigh
this issue against the very real possibility of losing the moral values
of the
Church. Though this would help the abuse issue, the secularists of the
BBC and the
west in generally will hate you even more than they do already if these
steps
were taken, but I think it is the best course of action for them. I
think what has happened to many of the Protestant denominations is
tragic and do not wish this to happen to the Catholics. I
would encourage my
Catholic brothers to do as they did in Battle or Tours in 732, to make
sacrifices, to
stand, to
fight, to overcome.
2-11-10 Dhis iz dhe oenlee pik I cood find uv dhe nue Lotus F1 cahr. (with dhe huje Autosport ad) I just found out dhat dhey wer feelding a F1 cahr dhis yere. OK I noe dhey ahr now oend lahrjlee by dhe Malaysians, but stil I think it iz prittee cule, and cule cdhat dhe Malysians hav a rele F1 teme.
I thot dhis wuz a cute way uv not getting down ubout yore wrekt cahr. Ahlsoe here ahr a fue mor nue pix. Sum ov dhem ahr frum last summer; I just got dhem ahf Steven's camruh a fue daze uhgo.
1-10-10. I did the little CX race in Cruces today. I got second to Ryan Blickem, who lives down there. I also set up a little CX race in Amarillo on 1-3, where I also got second to my brother Alex. I am planning on setting up another CX race there on 1-23. Misc pix below: Very strange body english in the sand at Polk MS, Two winter pix from Amarillo. Christmas pies by mom, note apple shaped topping on the left pie. Interesting neogothic LDS church in Show Low, AZ. A cool photo of Saturn from NASA's site, with the rings seen edge on, and their shadow visible in the northern hemisphere.
2009 blog entries with Panama pix.
2008 blog
