rolling my eyes

1. Wow! 1 week and change since a post...have a handful running around my wee little brain...need to do something with them.

2. Someone, don't know who (but I have a guess) signed me up for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee e-newsletter last fall. So once a week (sometimes more), I get this email from some DNC big-wig whining about the President, Majority in the Senate/House, something like that. It's normally worth a chuckle and a shake of the head (what fools these mortals be!) but that's about it...today's was no exception. Under the heading The Lion Roars , we read:

Sen. Ted Kennedy has been on the Senate Judiciary Committee for years and knows the difference between good nominees and bad nominees. And, boy, has Bush nominated some real stinkers!

followed by a link to his web page wherein he smears these nominees.

So the question of the day: If they're just that bad...why not let the Senate vote on them?

HGTTG

David Learner gives his review of the Hitchhiker's movie...he played Marvin on stage and on TV, so his thumbs up means something..the way he writes about Adams tho is what makes this one worth a read. (marvin is played by Warwick Davis and Alan Rickman in the movie)

lighter side

The Top 5 Signs You're About to Be Fired

FYI

Over at my semblog is a very half-hearted reading report on Fighting the Good Fight: A Brief History of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

New Blog on the list...

Lukerisms, aptly subtitled "The only place on the web for Lukerisms" (unless I quote them here...which I probably will). Today's entry, "The real question . . . . " is one of the tamer, and yet wholly sound things I've read on the topic of John Paul II's eternal destiny.

Life inside the Headphones

I really love my job with the Tax Commission...work is steady, consistent. Sit down, look at a form and type, when finished, move to the next. Lather, rinse, repeat as needed. It would literally be the perfect job if it went year round....

This last Saturday was a little creepy--I had a string of forms that must've come in the same envelope from a military base. They all had this little note in the corner, "COMBAT ZONE"--a little unnerving. Thankfully they all got refunds, would've felt guilty if they had to pay Idaho taxes on top of everything else--oh, and all of them? Woefully underpaid. Disgusting.

Anyhow, one of the nice things about the gig is that as it is so conssistent, you don't have to pay a lot of attention to it and still do a good job. So for a few hrs a day, I get to just sit in pretty much silence, and let my mind wander, think of a particular issue, book, whatever. Last year I plotted out about half a dozen short stories...never got around to writing them, 'tho. Go through a bazillion batteries for my CD player, though.

Recently listened to a very challenging, convicting and convincing sermon by Joel Beeke, The Great Boon to Sanctification: Conducting Family Worship. Glad no one was around to see me on the verge of weeping... "You okay there? Yeah, those Fuel Use Deductions really get to me, too."

A few years ago I decided that the best music to do data entry to was Boy Band stuff like 'Nync or Backstreet Boys (or is it Boyz? Don't care). For the record, never bought any, but would keep the radio tuned to a station that would play that a lot.

But a good second place entry is 80's music. So last week I made this huge mp3 CD of 80's tunes, taking full advantage of the size of mp3's and the CD. A playlist that would make Methuselah and Mithradites say, "Dude, this is taking forever..." Granted , there's no art to it, Rob Fleming would be disappointed in it for that. Basically just dragged and dropped 700 MBs on to the disc. There's a danger to that tho, there's this impulse to sing along...can you just imagine sitting there tap-tapping on your keyboard to hear my caterwauling:

I’m begging you, please...
Don’t talk to strangers, baby don’t you talk
Don’t talk to strangers, you know he’ll only use you up
Don’t talk, don’t talk, don’t talk,
Don’t talk, don’t talk to him
Nobody, talk, nobody, ever told you, don’t talk

Okay, enough time-killing, I have report/paper/stuff to write...putting the headphones back on to get some done...but at least I'm at home and my kids won't complain (they're used to it)

Turnaround, every now and then I get a
little bit lonely and you're never coming around
Turnaround, Every now and then I get a
little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears
Turnaround, Every now and then I get a
little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by
...

Sing along!

Another reason to be a Red State kind of guy

Can you imagine how lame John F(ancy Pants) Kerry would've looked doing this?

yeah, I know...lame post, beating a dead horse...hey! haven't posted anything since Monday, had to do something

Big Weekend

Samwise played his first T-ball game. He's got great instincts--only kid out there who once he got his hands on the ball didn't have to be told where to throw it (who says MLB2004 for the Game Cube isn't educational?). Getting his uniform was one of the proudest moments of his life. He kept saying "I'm a [team name] today! I'm a [team name] today!"

Frodo was clearly a veteran on the field--always the second man to the ball (usually by a step). Why do I think that's good? Because it wasn't long before he'd figured out that no one else knew what to do, so from Left Field he started dashing for any ball that made it out of the infield--all of which were to Center or Right. So something'd get hit to RF and he'd take off, and get there one step behind. Good hits, too.

Turns out that it's not next Sunday as originally planned that will be my last doing pulpit supply, but it was yesterday. Relieved to be done and have more time in my life...but hate to give it up. (unless something goes horribly wrong at Presbytery and I'm in for another 6 mos. + of this)

Biggest news of the weekend: the Kidney Kid WALKED!!! Friday we tricked him into taking a couple of steps while he was distracted by a toy. But Saturday we got him to walk between the Mrs and myself. After doing it a few times, he realized what he was doing :) Yesterday I broke out the videocamera to capture the steps. He took a couple steps toward me and then stopped, uncertain. So I flipped the little LCD screen around so he could see himself in it. He uttered a very Tim Allen-esque grunt (it's in the genes) and hobbled towards the camera :)

If you'd asked us a year ago to predict where he'd be...we'd have been sure he'd have been healthy. But probably on dialysys, maybe a feeding tube (and of course, the humane thing would then have been to starve him and let him die a peaceful, noble death). This is beyond all our expectations and hopes. Soli Deo Gloria.

Welcome to Post-Schaivo America

Granddaughter yanks grandma's feeding tube

May God have mercy on us all.

Sell Out

Could Chuck Colson sell out to Rome just a little bit more? Is that possible?

From today's tribute: "Under his care, the Church opposed, both in word and deed, the false idols at whose altar so many of our contemporaries worship."

Gut Wrenching Irony on Line 2.

John Tesh, Criminal at Large

Okay, I'm on the way from Job 2 to Job 1 tonight, and Jerry Doyle plays this song clip
from the new John Tesh album, and then goes on a huge, and mildly
entertaining, anti-Tesh rant. Now if I was to say just 10% of the things he
said in the chat channel I hang out in, Dr. White would click a couple of
buttons, and I'd be unable to chat for at least 1-2 minutes, maybe a day.
And on the whole, I can see his point: nice guy, apparently Christian, gives his audience what they want.

But this... this ... is just wrong.
This is audio vandalism, this is a crime against art, this is...ugh. Words
fail me. But my pop music listening readers, you have to click on that link
(Bernice, Susan..eh, don't bother) AND, you really need to listen to the
whole clip. Feel my pain.

I love this internet thingy...

All while sitting in this little chair in front of my desk, I:

• Attended Presbyterian Church History class this morning via videoconferencing.
• Am listening to the archived edition of today's Dividing Line
• Just finished watching the Yankees beat the Sox on mlb.com's Gameday.

Couldn't have done any of this 10 years ago. Just think of that!

New Blog

D. Patrick Ramsey has a new blog, Patrick's Pensees, well worth reading and pondering. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to arrive at the same conclusions he seems to be going with his thinking on the covenant. But I find his thinking and method profitable--much more so than most contemporary explorations of the topic. His latest two posts, A Greater Scandal in the Church and Covenant Children and the Kingdom of God are keepers.

Well today officially cannot suck

I don't care if I get fired (from either/both jobs), if I get hit by a train, mugged, stabbed, lose the house in a blaze because I forgot to turn off my George Foreman grill....doesn't matter. Great Day.

Close to an actual transcript:

Frodo (comes out of his room) Did you know there's actually eleven commandments?
Me: What?
Frodo: Jesus said, I give you a new commandment.
[quick discussion about said commandment]
Me: Um, when did you read this?
Frodo: Just before you told us to come out...
Me: You were reading the Bible?
Frodo: Yeah, I was reading Joshua, but decided I didn't want to, so I was reading John.
Me: Why?
Frodo: I wanted to.
Me: You were reading the Bible just because?
Frodo: Well, I didn't want to read Joshua, so I was reading John and Jesus said "a new commandment."

UPDATE: Seeing how impressed I was at Frodo's doing that, Samwise is flipping through the book of Hebrews :)

"Let's go, Tino!"

Warning: for the next few days in particular, and over the next couple of months, there will be a lot of Yankee Noise.

Watched some clips of last night's season opener on mlb.com with the kids. Tino's diving catch and toss to to Sturtze...nice. Would be very nice any day, but for your first game back in pinstripes in front of a crowd just begging for a chance to go crazy for you? Priceless.

Oh, and don't get me started on Matsui's home-run denying catch in the second. My kids had me play that 3 times :)

9-2, baby. One game down, 161 (and the post-season) to go...

Health Plan

Yesterday's Pearls before Swine sums it pretty nicely.