Cha-ching!

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Funniest Video In a Long Time

Props to Big Red for tipping us off to this video.

Our family has been enjoying it repeatedly.

Crying Oranges

Found this pic on the web a few days ago:

Back and cold with a cold

We made it back from our trip safely. Thanks for asking! It seems to be significantly colder now than it was before we left. Fall is here, folks. It looks like that daylight savings game ends this week too. Back to getting dark at 5:30pm.

I seem to have picked up a cold while away. A nasal sniffly thing. No matter, I still knocked out 325 pushups tonight -- this takes a while for me to do, and that frustrates me because it leaves little time for my situps, tricep dips, and wall-sitting. Why am I spending so much time and effort on pushups? Because the next test requires that I do 75 pushups at one shot -- and I'm pushuply-challenged. To make up for my inability to do many in a row, I'm doing excessive amounts over an hour or two. If all goes as planned this week, assuming we'll be doing pushups in class too, I should end up doing 1000 pushups this week, D.V.. But how to fit in the other exercises too? It's almost November and I'm starting to freak out a little bit.

Plus I need some time to respond to Erica's challenge! This is going to require some thought. Off hand, I'm thinking of using the following lyric which pretty much sums me up:

"Bawatiba da bang da dang diggy diggy diggy said the boogie said up jumped the boogie." -- Bawitaba, by Kid Rock.

But yeah, this will require some thought.

Another Weekender

Well, we're getting ready to head down to Virginia for the weekend. Because my wife is pregnant, "getting ready" to leave on a trip means "we need to move furniture before we leave." I mean big heavy dressers up and down the steps. This, falling on my pushup day, is making for quite a tired me.

In other news: We have a new porch. I'd show you pictures but our camera is broken.

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken.

Broken bottles, broken plates,
Broken switches, broken gates,
Broken dishes, broken parts,
Streets are filled with broken hearts.
Broken words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is broken.

Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground

Broken cutters, broken saws,
Broken buckles, broken laws,
Broken bodies, broken bones,
Broken voices on broken phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',
Everything is broken.

Every time you leave and go off someplace
Things fall to pieces in my face

Broken hands on broken ploughs,
Broken treaties, broken vows,
Broken pipes, broken tools,
People bending broken rules.
Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking,
Everything is broken.

Copyright © 1989 Special Rider Music

My Gut, it is a' changin'

Which Bob Dylan song are you? The Times They Are A-Changin'

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

In other news: 210 pushups, and 210 situps yesterday. I'm sore for sure today.

Tag, I'm it.

I recall being tagged once in the past, but I just ignored it. If I remember correctly, the question was about things I missed from my childhood. I skipped it because I don't like thinking about my childhood. Sorry!

But I recently got tagged by Liz, and this time I'll take a shot:

List five things people may not know about you and tag five other people to do the same.

1. I lack confidence in myself. I don't mean I lack sinful self-confidence. I mean I lack just plain old functional confidence that I can do stuff.

2. I've never met my maternal grandmother, or my paternal grandfather. My maternal grandmother drank herself to death long before I was around, and my paternal grandfather's whereabouts were unknown when he died in the 1980's, "and when he died, all he left us was alone."

3. Why don't you shut up because I just happen to like the Bee Gee's, especially the pre-disco Bee Gee's.

4. My handwriting is horrible. In fact, I don't write at all, I print.

5. This is terrible, but I'm more often late for work than I am on time. I really honestly feel bad about this, and I want to reform my ways.

Next up: Bro. John, Erica, Cheryl, Deejay, and Ann Coulter! Ok, if Ann Coulter doesn't do it, Josh can. Give Ann a couple of days to respond though, Josh, OK?

In Birae Predestinas...

Arkansas Josh clued me into what has the potential to be my favorite beer ever:



Now, if I could just try a taste.

Dear readers, Jerry has a nice, crisp, brand new ONE DOLLAR BILL for whoever can arrange for a case of Calvinus to end up on my doorstep.

Misc.

Me: Elisabeth, you're so cute I want to put you in my pocket.

Elisabeth: Me? In YOU'RE pocket? I don't know how I'm going to get in your pocket.

In other news --

Cole's birthday was yesterday. Rachel's is tomorrow. Mine's in February.

I got my eye on December as when I will be testing for my next belt (purple). So, I'm starting to focus again on pushups. This time I'm going to make sure I'm more ready with situps and wall-sitting too. My body's saying, "Ah, don't worry about it, just relax and take it easy." My mind is saying "You better start whooping into shape now, or you aren't going to pull it off."

Speaking of karate... it's a funny thing how sometimes if I'm having a good night it feels so good, like I really got this stuff down, and man, I pity the stiff that jumps me, but sometimes, like last night, I feel like I don't even belong on the floor with the other guys and I suck eggs. I don't golf. But I imagine that guys who golf have days when they feel like they can't be beat, and days when they can't hit anything. Maybe it's that way with everything.

The nunchaku. This month we started working with this weapon. It's kind of a scary one to learn, because the speed and force created by them makes it oh so simple to crack your own leg (shuddup, John!) or hand or head, or that of your neighbor, by accident. Kinda fun though.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day, it said "Elect Christ as Your King." I thought it was funny that someone was willing to use the word "elect," though in such a context. I wondered what kind of response I'd get if I talked with the driver of the car about how the Bible uses the word "elect." Maybe someday I'll get to find out. But for now, I must just wonder.

I heard on the radio that a certain professional football coach was taking time off due to a "heart infection." I thought to myself, "Heart infection. Yeah, it's called SIN, and I have it too."

I have it too.

'puter problems

Having computer problems. Plus, I haven't felt like writing anything in a while. So there. :p

God No Respecter of Persons

God accepteth no man's person.

Paul is quoting Moses: "Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty." (Lev. 19:15) This quotation from Moses ought to shut the mouths of the false apostles. "Don't you know that God is no respecter of persons?" cries Paul. The dignity or authority of men means nothing to God. The fact is that God often rejects just such who stand in the odor of sanctity and in the aura of importance. In doing so God seems unjust and harsh. But men need deterring examples. For it is a vice with us to esteem personality more highly than the Word of God. God wants us to exalt His Word and not men. There must be people in high office, of course. But we are not to deify them. The governor, the mayor, the preacher, the teacher, the scholar, father, mother, are persons whom we are to love and revere, but not to the extent that we forget God. Least we attach too much importance to the person, God leaves with important persons offenses and sins, sometimes astounding shortcomings, to show us that there is a lot of difference between any person and God. David was a good king. But when the people began to think too well of him, down he fell into horrible sins, adultery and murder. Peter, excellent apostle that he was, denied Christ. Such examples of which the Scriptures are full, ought to warn us not to repose our trust in men. In the papacy appearance counts for everything. Indeed, the whole papacy amounts to nothing more than a mere kowtowing of persons and outward mummery. But God alone is to be feared and honored. I would honor the Pope[*], I would love his person, if he would leave my conscience alone, and not compel me to sin against God. But the Pope wants to be adored himself, and that cannot be done without offending God. Since we must choose between one or the other, let us choose God. The truth is we are commissioned by God to resist the Pope, for it is written, "We ought to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29) We have seen how Paul refutes the argument of the false apostles concerning the authority of the apostles. In order that the truth of the Gospel may continue; in order that the Word of God and the righteousness of faith may be kept pure and undefiled, let the apostles, let an angel from heaven, let Peter, let Paul, let them all perish.

~Dr. Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians 2:6.

[*] This statement must not be taken to mean the Luther would have approved of the office of the Papacy, or that he would have submitted to his anti-christian government. See Of the Power and Primacy of the Pope and Luther On Antichrist.

Arkansas Quarters for Arkansas Josh.

BULLETIN WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hang on to any of the new State of Arkansas quarters. If you have them, they may be worth much more than 25 cents. The U.S. Treasury announced today that it is recalling all of the Arkansas quarters that are part of its program featuring quarters from each state.

"We are recalling all the new Arkansas quarters that were recently issued," Treasury Undersecretary Jack Shackleford said Monday. "This action is being taken after numerous reports that new quarters will not work in parking meters, toll booths, vending machines, pay phones, or other coin-operated devices".

The quarters were issued in the order in which the various states joined the U.S. and have been a tremendous success among coin collectors worldwide.

"The problem lies in the unique design of the Arkansas quarter, which was created by a University of Arkansas graduate," Shackleford said. "Apparently, the duct tape holding the two dimes and the nickel together keeps jamming the coin-operated devices."

Biblical Rationalism vs. Psycho Assertionism

Vincent Cheung vs. Derek Sansone

If I had to pick my favorite part of this informal debate between Cheung (a Reformed Presuppositionalist) and Sansone (an atheist), I guess it would be when Cheung asks Sansone, "So again I wonder what happens if I punch you really hard in the face while you are sleeping?"

Something on what it's like to be me.

Today I asked a co-worker to bring me some coffee from the cafeteria. A rather mundane event, sure. But whenever I send a co-worker for coffee, and he or she hands it to me, I have this thing run through my head where I think it would be funny if I took a sip of the coffee, forcefully spit it out so it sprays everywhere, throw the cup across the room, and yell, "YOU FOOL! YOU CALL THIS COFFEE??!!" So far, I've not done this, but I am tempted.

How Silly Traditions Begin

OF THE TIMES OF THE BIRTH AND PASSION OF CHRIST.

THE times of the Birth and Passion of Christ, with such like niceties, being not material to religion, were little regarded by the Christians of the first age. They who began first to celebrate them, placed them in the cardinal periods of the year; as the annunciation of the Virgin Mary, on the 25th of March, which when Julius Caesar corrected the Calendar was the vernal Equinox; the feast of John Baptist on the 24th of June, which was the summer Solstice; the feast of St. Michael on Sept. 29, which was the autumnal Equinox; and the birth of Christ on the winter Solstice, Decemb. 25, which the feasts of St. Stephen, St. John and the Innocents, as near it as they could place them. And because the Solstice in time removed from the 25th of December to the 24th, the 23d, the 22d, and so on backwards, hence some in the following centuries placed the birth of Christ on Decemb. 23, and at length on Decemb. 20: and for the same reason they seem to have set the feast of St. Thomas on Decemb. 21, and that of St. Matthew on Sept 21. So also at the entrance of the Sun into all the signs in the Julian Calendar, they placed the days of other Saints; as the conversion of Paul on Jan. 25, when the Sun entered Aquarius; St. Matthias on Feb. 25, when he entered Pisces; St. Mark on Apr. 25, when he entered Taurus; Corpus Christi on May 26, when he entered Gemini; St. James on July 25, when he entered Cancer; St. Bartholomew on Aug. 24, when he entered Virgo; Simon and Jude on Octob. 28, when he entered Scorpius: and if there were any other remarkable days in the Julian Calendar, they placed the Saints upon them, as St. Barnabas on June 1, where Ovid seems to place the feast of Vesta and Fortuna, and the goddess Matuta; and St. Philip and James on the first of May, a day dedicated both to the Bona Dea, or Magna Mater, and to the goddess Flora, and still celebrated with her rites. All which shows that these days were fixed in the first Christian Calendars by Mathematicians at pleasure, without any ground in tradition; and that the Christians afterwards took up with what they found in the Calendars.

~Sir Isaac Newton, Observations on Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, Ch. 11.

Some Dylan for My Loved One

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Awful Quote of the Day

When she told me, "We never wanted to have kids. Then we made the big mistake of having a child, and we don't want any more children. I told [my child] to never, ever, ever, have children, you will regret it," I briefly considered the concept of parental abortion -- a child's right to choose, ya know. But after I chased that idea from my head, I just felt sad for a kid to have to hear such horrible and monstrous nonsense.

Ghosts

Ghosts in Scotland.

I guess I didn't realize that those dust particles that reflect the light back from your camera flash are ghosts. They're supposedly called "orbs."

There was an awful lot of such "ghosts" at the Covenanter Meeting House:

Dogpile

(Cole's a goof).

In other news: 'at a girl!

Some friends told me of this strip...