Chris' Blog

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—

as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

— Isaiah 64:1-3, ESV

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

— I Corinthians 2:1-5, ESV

While reviewing a PHP function for a website that I am working on, I came across this codified version of Rambo (as a replacement for unset()):

Unfortunately I can't use it on $_SESSION, which was the reason for the research. From the session_unset() notes:

Do NOT unset the whole $_SESSION with unset($_SESSION) as this will disable the registering of session variables through the $_SESSION superglobal.

I could modify the function but it is simply easier to use session_unset().

The search for a quote's source lead me to an article from 1904 by "The Bachelor Girl." The author had a longer excerpt of the quote:

By a girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her own house.
In childhood, a woman must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent.
[...]
No sacrifice, no vow, no fast must be performed by women apart from their husbands; if a wife obeys her husband, she will for that reason alone be exalted in heaven.
A faithful wife, who desires to dwell after death with her husband, must never do anything that might displease him whether be be alive or dead.
[...]
Day and night women must be kept in dependence by the males of their families.

The clipped portions are arguments against the wife leaving her husband over various issues. You can read those from the full article if you are so inclined.

It does not seem that I will be getting out of it this year. Too many people in too many places are reminding me.

So for the record, I am not 25. I'm 24.99. Got it? Good. ^_^

There is one expletive and a brief (~1 second) clip that in rather indecent. Please pardon those. Actually, please pardon the entire video.

Let's see, in the past we've had women "marry" a dolphin, a lion, a German Shepherd. Oh, there was also the woman who married the Eiffel tower. And we can't forget the dead boyfriend:

The groom, a former policeman identified as Eric, was killed by a drunk driver in September 2002.

Demichel told LCI television she understood "it could seem shocking to marry someone who is dead," but her feelings for him had not dimmed. His body was not present for the ceremony.

Now we add Laptop to the list of other things.

Some of you already know that my pastor of the last two years has returned to his work overseas. An evangelist and long-time friend of the church has taken over the pastorate. He said this morning that he knew we loved him since we asked him to pastor for us even though the last time he was here, he had called us hypocrites.

This morning he also made a couple comments about suicide and I had briefly mentioned the topic in my last post on Anger. He spoke about the kind of darkness that pushes people to commit suicide. Then he contrasted it with the darkness that we face as Christians.

That wasn't even the introduction for his sermon, so I'm going to insert some of my own thoughts. C. S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, said this:

When you are younger, everything seems much bigger than it really is. Dad is the best dad in the world and can beat any other dad in town (or even Chuck Norris). You absolutely loathe broccoli. Ice cream can make your day. As you grow older, those emotions tend to mellow out. Some of them hide and wait to catch you off guard.

During those younger years, my parents used to gently remind me that I couldn't be angry forever. They sometimes quoted the second part of Ephesians 4:26 (paraphrase):

Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

I always knew that meant I only had a couple hours to forgive, and I knew that I couldn't hold a grudge much beyond that anyway. Yeah, it was almost as bad as teenage girls. But suppose that the verse was intended that you should forgive yourself as well.

In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), Jesus said:

All of you have probably heard about the special election in Massachusetts to cover Kennedy's vacant seat in the Senate. It is quite literally all over the news and is being taken as a backlash against the infamous health care bill.

The latest news is that Obama and other Democrat leaders are thinking about downsizing the bill:

Shorn by Massachusetts voters of their pivotal 60th Senate vote and much of their political momentum, the White House and congressional leaders are considering a more modest version of Obama's top legislative priority. It could focus on curbing insurance company practices like denying coverage to sick people and on helping low-earning people and small businesses afford coverage, officials said.

That is a little better, really, except that Obama chalks it up to less communication with his countrymen:

I've been told that Twilight gets worse as the series progresses. I'll read the rest of the series as I have time. Anyway, after reading the first book in that series I turned to Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass.

There were several waves made in 2007 from conservative reviewers when this book was turned into a movie. The production attracted several very big-name actors and actresses. The movie itself has been changed to make it more marketable and those reviewers worried about the effect that the book would have on young minds.

Philip Pullman wrote The Golden Compass as the first book in a series called His Dark Materials. It was intended to be a reply to C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia from an atheist's perspective. Pardon the lack of references for right now, but a couple of the interviews that I read with Pullman at the time seemed to indicate he was more of an agnostic.

The book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer has been talked about a lot among my friends lately and seems to be making its way through our society. The book has made #1 on the NY Times Best Seller list (even though it isn't on that list now) and two movies have been produced that are based on the first two books of the series (Twilight and New Moon).

I had intended to hold off on reading Twilight until I could find it in a used book store. There is a certain aversion to supporting something that is controversial until I know more about it. Well, someone bought me the first three books because they had enjoyed the series immensely. The fourth is still available only as a hard-cover book and that would not look right next to the other three.

With a three day long train ride, I read the first book of the series.

It seems that some of you have figured out I was traveling. So, yes, I made it home safely after visiting my parents for Christmas and New Years. Here were some of the funnier happenings (that don't violate the stated purpose of this blog):

• On the train out there, a Lebanese man nearly adopted me. He kept reaching over to hand me candy or other food items from across the isle or sliding across to talk.
• My sister has been telling me to come home so that she could introduce me to a couple of the girls she works with. If I introduced her to more girls, does that mean that I win?

And direct (or approximate) quotes:

[A couple friends explained a foreign courting game that involves the girl giving a guy jewelry when a ball is dropped. He is supposed to return it that evening and talk to the parents.]

Me: These people look bored. Wouldn't it be easier to just ask the girl for some of her jewelry?

Sister: Q-U. That's 31 points!
Me: Um... that's not a word.
Sister: Yes, it is! That's what Chinese men do with their hair.

These two e-mails arrived in my inbox two and a half hours apart from each other. Their line-up on my screen was too good to pass up.

As you might have guessed, the first message is from an organization (Downsize DC) that is trying to improve the united States' federal government. The second is from a reporting magazine (Governing) that tells what federal and state governments are up to.

How do those look side-by-side? We need people to start acting smarter. Those kids are the ones who are going to be in state and federal offices in a few years.

By the way, this post is not a campaign for better public schools. It is a campaign for personal learning.

On a forum, the question came up (concerning ECD -- English Country Dancing):

What's been your luck scouting gals at these dances? A lot of them tend to have fathers, brothers or mothers to meet.

What do you say to something like that?

I find that, Scripturally, when a guy dances he incurs his wife's wrath. Once that happens she becomes infertile. I will decline to dance until we have enough kids already.

Sincerely,
Chris

(or perhaps not so sincerely)

My brother is watching Star Trek: Voyager in the other room. A voice yelled "Captain, the engines are out!" Shortly afterward the computer warned, "Warp core breach in 30 seconds." There is lots more yelling; most of the phrases begin with "Captain!"

It's funny how each crewmember waits their turn to address Captain Janeway. The ship is under attack, the engines died and worse -- their big power supply is about to explode and kill everyone.

How often do you manage to remain steady when everything around you is falling apart?

I'm not saying that I make resolutions during this season (I don't) but I think a good pick this year is to not panic when things get rough. There is always more to do. There are always issues that can be pressing.

Don't ignore those things. They do need to be addressed. All I am saying is that you should not let those issues run your whole life. When you feel frustrated, there is always someone that has it worse than you. The Voyager crew is within 30 seconds of being blown to bits.

When asked (Christian Science Monitor) on Wednesday why she pushed so hard to pass a health care bill before Christmas, Pelosi said "It’s very hard to merchandise healthcare until we have a bill."

What? We can't tell people why it is so good for them until the bill is passed? That's encouraging.

From 2020 to 2029, "it will reduce the deficit of the United States by $1.3 trillion," he added. "At the end of the day, 94 percent of the people in the United States will have health insurance – the highest percentage in our history."

How does that work, you ask (LA Times)?