Friday, April 23, 2010

Hither and thither 4/23/10

We are on serious Baby Watch, and excited to be so. The iPhone is kept fully-charged, and monitored at all times. When there's grandbaby news I can share, I shall.  Thanks for your prayers and well-wishes.

And yet, still, I gathered this for you. [Pause while readers feel loved and appreciated. Three... two... one....]
  • OS 4? New iPhone? Turns out "yes," and it's a pretty dicey story for one hapless Apple employee.
  • Rather than sit through President Obama's next State of the Union speech... I think I'd rather listen to this. Makes more sense, and doesn't require trashing everything America was conceived to stand for.
  • "Fire me, I'm a barking loon!" says one Arizona congressman. Okay, those weren't his exact words. Guess the political party?
  • The volcano in Iceland, whose name is... is... Xaslkfdjkqiopui, yeah, that's the ticket.... Anyway, it's given birth to some pretty amazing footage. Like this. Reader Rita Martinez points us to some Mount Doom-like pix.
  • Oh, ouch. Typos can be nasty. Reader Ralph Traylor notes that 7000 copies of the Pasta Bible cookbook had to be round-filed. The cause? A little recipe that called for adding "salt and freshly ground black people." Oh, no no no: pepper, it should have read. Black pepper.
  • Money-saving things that make you say, "Hmmm."
  • Kids balking at braces? Maybe this will help.
  • Here's a pastor who didn't want to read the Bible in public on the Day of Prayer. Why not? He didn't like the portions he was offered (Ezekiel, Daniel). He was afraid reading those passages of judgment would make him seem like a "Repent or burn!" preacher. Can't have that.
  • Here's something you don't want to get stuck in your teeth. Reader Berry Davis found an article appropriately titled "When Life Gives You Locusts, Make Locust Pizza." I'll spare you the picture.  Berry asks,"WWJBE: What Would John the Baptist Eat?"
  • Speak softly and carry a really big...er... stick insect.

  • Someone I know and love will read this article and think, "I'm in Heck!"
  • I have an idea for the premise of 24: the Motion Picture. The joke is that it's going to have to be called "2," or "2.5," depending on length. It would be an interesting stretch of screenwriters' skills to come up with a realtime premise for a two-hour movie. But what if it were two hours, with the first hour covering whatever length is necessary to establish the premise, then the final hour in realtime, with occasional references to the clock? Hollywood, my rates are reasonable.
  • My Josiah would love one of these:

  • "We do not want this man to reign over us," say some Texas students — though I'd wager the allusion would be lost on them. Ironically, the institution is named Trinity University.
  • Fan makes a Bilbo Baggins home.
  • Wonder if the nearby woods have any....
  • Leaving us with...











21 comments:

GrammaMack said...

What an exciting time! Praying that all goes well.

RT said...

To quote Mephistopheles:

“Why this is heck, nor am I out of it./ Think’st thou that I, who saw the face of God,/And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,/ Am not tormented with ten thousand hecks/ In being deprived of everlasting bliss?”

Somehow it's not quite the same . . .

Casey said...

Take a look at the first comment left on the article by the pastor who was ashamed to read the Bible at the prayer service:

"I’d have said the same thing, brother. That whole idea comes across as well-intended but awfully executed (well, at least the reading the bible aloud in public and thinking it will accomplish anything)."

Thinking the Word of God could accomplish anything on its own? Ridiculous! Wait, what was it Isaiah said again?

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Good round up, Dan. I'll have to play the braces clip to the grasshoppers. *sigh*

I'm waiting on the Big News, though. Best wishes to your daughter... it's so hard to be patient through the last few days.

100 Mile Pants said...

Re. Grandkid:
Exciting times!!

Re. Volcano:
I'm supposed to be preaching in Iceland in August - not sure whether to book a flight or not!!

Re. Pastor who doesn't believe in sufficiency of Scripture - I commented over there, but suspect it may be a complete waste of time, so kept it v. brief. But this is just a natural and logical outworking when you don't believe the Scriptures are sufficient.

Merrilee Stevenson said...

Regarding the fraidy-pastor, Incoherence seems an appropriate name for his blog. And I could have done without the violent video link that he posted with the Ezekiel scripture reference. I can understand that he wants to be able to explain the context and meaning, but if what I saw was an indication of how he'd 'splain it, maybe it's just best for everybody that he stay home.

And I find the story about Trinity very interesting, especially the comments by Brendan McNamara. Unfortunately, it sounds like some people think that talking about it before they remove the wording is good enough to satisfy everyone. Makes me sad to think where my future leaders of the world/kids will go to college when it's time.

Looking forward to much happier news of a long-awaited grandchild. And photos.

Happy weekend.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

WHOA!

Where'd that stick bug come from???

Did I miss that the first time?

DJP said...

No, you didn't miss it. It's an addition. I often do a couple of updates. I don't think ever past the day (i.e. I've already started next Friday's HT). But it doesn't hurt to check back a couple of times.

lee n. field said...

>Fan makes a Bilbo Baggins home.

Weren't they, like, tunnels? Not just a buried suburban tract house?

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Well, yes (re Bilbo Baggin's home) - the walls should be rounded like tunnels.

Stefan Ewing said...

Lee:

That's exactly what I was wondering!

Craig said...

Re: locust pizza
Growing up as a missionary kid in Kenya, we would sometimes eat what we called "flying ants". I think they were termite young who would go out to start a new nest when the ground was soft after a rain. Anyway, we would sometimes eat them raw, after pulling the wings off (had to bite them quick before they bit you). Sometimes we would fry them up in a bit of butter. One family I knew would keep a jar of them in the pantry for putting as an extra topping on pizza. Yum!

Aaron said...

Am I the only one who doesn't care for the new iPhone design? I'll wait till summer 2011 to upgrade.

It's hard to be patient the last few days, for whom? I kept praying that my kids would come on the day I planned and not any sooner. On my second child, my wife was allowed to go home a day or two early. After the first night, I wasn't very enthusiastic about that decision.

So when do we ge to give all the unwanted child rearing advice that everyone passed onto us?

Aaron said...

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/23/gizmodos-apple-iphone-prototype/

Good luck with that prosecution. I'd defend that. According to Gizmodo, the original owners tried to return it and Apple wouldn't take them seriously. Then Gizmodo bought it and returned it to Apple. I'd take any criminal charges to jury if it were me.

Paula Bolyard said...

Merilee said,

Makes me sad to think where my future leaders of the world/kids will go to college when it's time.

There are a few schools that uphold traditional values and are training our future leaders. DS is planning to go to Hillsdale College next year and although it is officially a non-sectarian school, its Judeo-Christian roots and mission and independent spirit create an atmosphere on campus where Christianity seems to flourish.

Christian professors, administrators, and students are very open about their faith and nobody bats an eye - although not all are Christians. None of that multicultural diversity social justice nonsense. From their mission statement :


The College values the merit of each unique individual, rather than succumbing to the dehumanizing, discriminatory trend of so called "social justice" and "multicultural diversity," which judges individuals not as individuals, but as member of a group and which pits one group against other competing groups in divisive power struggles.

They talk like that ALL the time there and I leave wondering if they'll let me be the housemother : )

Aaron said...

Arizona Governor signed the bill.

Aaron said...

Paula:

Hillsdale college is becoming increasingly popular. I wonder if there will be future schools modeled after Hillsdale.

Moon said...

yay for babies! well baby in this case, I'll be praying for ya!

Paula Bolyard said...

@ Sir Aaron....if they were smart they would! Hillsdale had it's largest group of applicants ever this year - I think they said it was up 30%.

However, most wouldn't be able to say no to the government goodies in the form of pell grants and government student loans. For most schools, that's too high a price to pay for complete intellectual freedom.

Can you think of another school that can get away with having a class in the The Nature and History of Manhood but not a corresponding women's studies class? Or 'shotgun' as a phys ed option, for that matter! : )

Susan said...

1. Do post photos of your grandbaby when you get them!! How exciting!!! :D

2. The "black pepper" typo... how ridiculous is that?? What were they thinking!? They probably weren't, that's why. (It brought to mind that Twilight Zone "To Serve Man" episode. Yikes.)

3. "WWJBE?" LOL. John the Baptist would probably have enjoyed a slice of Italian goodness with his favorite topping! (I read that article several days ago and thought these Australians were very creative--if you can't beat them, eat them!!!

4. "WWJDIHLTIH?" (What would Jobs do if he lost the i-Phone himself??)

trogdor said...

The Arizona article has some tremendous quotes, such as the whine that "they also should not be able to criminalize illegal immigration". Sweet.

My absolute favorite is this beauty: "The president of the United States should simply say, on issues of immigration, the Constitution is clear."
(1) Since when does the President know or care what the Constitution says?
(2) The Arizonans would no doubt agree fully with the sentiment - this is the federal government's job. Problem is, they ain't doing it, so someone's got to.
(3) Funny how they'll happily do all sorts of things beyond what the Constitution allows, but won't do one of the basic things the Constitution demands.