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I Saw a Good Mother Today
08/25/2009 20:12
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Twenty Years Ago Today
09/10/2008 20:21
Kathy and I went on our first date on September 10, 1988. We went to dinner at Ernesto’s in West Monroe, Louisiana, and saw the 1988 remake of the Blob. Kathy pretended to be scared so that she could hold my hand. In spite of a speeding ticket that I got that night, we both had a wonderful time. From that very evening, I knew we were meant for each other and this was the girl I was going to marry. When I took Kathy home that evening, because I knew I wanted to go out with her again, I decided not to try to kiss her goodnight. I was afraid of scaring her off. So right before she went inside, she surprised me with a quick kiss, because as she says, she wanted to make sure I asked her out again.
Happy anniversary, my Kathleen. I look forward to the next twenty years and many more after that.
The Kind of Stuff I Find Nowhere Else II
07/20/2008 08:27
In the KIND OF STUFF I FIND NO WHERE ELSE, ROUND 2 department:
You may remember that last year while in Louisiana, I actually saw a jar of pickle pigs’ LIPS in a jar (again, NO, I didn’t partake) while shopping in a grocery store. Well, this year, when visiting friends and relations a week or so ago, we went to the same store. Yes, the pickled pigs lips are still on the shelf. But this year we took another picture of the kind of stuff you just don’t seem to find in grocery stores outside of Louisiana very often:
Obviously, the alligator filet is the most exotic of the bunch. Note that it says “Certified Cajun.” We didn’t buy any of these items (I’ve actually never eaten aligator). I did look at the packages of pre-cooked and shelled crawfish meat, but it was just as pricey as what I can get here in Kentucky.
The oddest thing we saw in the frozen section at this store is pictured below:
This was in the regular frozen seafood section: “wild caught, head-on” bait shrimp--the kind of stuff you can go fishing with. But notice the top left corner of the box: “Good eating too”! Well, why not, I guess.
I didn’t buy any of the food pictured above. but I did fill up the ice chest with Natchitoches meat pies, crawfish pies, andouille sausage, boudin (regular and jalapeño), purple hull peas, and Albert’s Hot Sauce.
You may remember that last year while in Louisiana, I actually saw a jar of pickle pigs’ LIPS in a jar (again, NO, I didn’t partake) while shopping in a grocery store. Well, this year, when visiting friends and relations a week or so ago, we went to the same store. Yes, the pickled pigs lips are still on the shelf. But this year we took another picture of the kind of stuff you just don’t seem to find in grocery stores outside of Louisiana very often:
Obviously, the alligator filet is the most exotic of the bunch. Note that it says “Certified Cajun.” We didn’t buy any of these items (I’ve actually never eaten aligator). I did look at the packages of pre-cooked and shelled crawfish meat, but it was just as pricey as what I can get here in Kentucky.
The oddest thing we saw in the frozen section at this store is pictured below:
This was in the regular frozen seafood section: “wild caught, head-on” bait shrimp--the kind of stuff you can go fishing with. But notice the top left corner of the box: “Good eating too”! Well, why not, I guess.
I didn’t buy any of the food pictured above. but I did fill up the ice chest with Natchitoches meat pies, crawfish pies, andouille sausage, boudin (regular and jalapeño), purple hull peas, and Albert’s Hot Sauce.
Why eBay Insurance Is Important
07/20/2008 08:26
In the “THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS GET INSURANCE ON EBAY ITEMS” department:
I was doing a bit of early Christmas shopping for Kathy, and I had won an eBay auction for a “Sango Sangria Vegetable or Relish Tray” (she likes the Sango Sangria stuff). As you can see above, it didn’t survive the journey. So now, I’m out about $30 after paying for shipping, too, and nothing but a broken tray to show for it.
The insurance which I opted not to get: $1.70.
I was simply being cheap--trying to save less than two bucks. Well, lesson well learned, I suppose.
Whatever you do, don’t tell Kathy.
I was doing a bit of early Christmas shopping for Kathy, and I had won an eBay auction for a “Sango Sangria Vegetable or Relish Tray” (she likes the Sango Sangria stuff). As you can see above, it didn’t survive the journey. So now, I’m out about $30 after paying for shipping, too, and nothing but a broken tray to show for it.
The insurance which I opted not to get: $1.70.
I was simply being cheap--trying to save less than two bucks. Well, lesson well learned, I suppose.
Whatever you do, don’t tell Kathy.
A Reflection on the 17-Year Cicadas
06/25/2008 10:19
Early in June This Lamp was still down, so I wrote this and sent it to a few friends via email. Now that the blog is back up, I’ll share it with all of you.
I walked out back to hear quite the cacophony of sounds as the 17-year cicadas sang their love songs. The trees were filled with the red-eyed bugs conversing and singing to one another. The trunks and ground beneath filled with discarded skins set aside like old changes of clothes.
As I took pictures, I was mesmerized by the beauty of these alien beings. So odd looking, and yet, God created even these--part of a cycle, part of a purpose. When I was a child, we always called cicadas "locusts." But they really aren't locusts. The biblical writers had nothing good to say about locusts because they always came as destroyers; but really, even locusts served God's purposes.
Whereas locusts were harmful, cicadas are the opposite. According to the Wikipedia, "Cicadas do not bite or sting, are benign to humans, and are not considered a pest." In the 4th century AD, the Christian preacher John Chrysostom compared the pleasure of reading the Old Testament prophets to the song of the cicadas.
I've always identified the sound of cicadas with summer. But I believe that looking into the dark red eyes of this 17-year variety, for the first time, I found a new summertime connection to the majesty and glory of God's creative power. I would imagine that in heaven, in addition to the trumpets of angels, cicadas must also sing their praises to God.
Psalm 145:10-11 states
As I took pictures, I was mesmerized by the beauty of these alien beings. So odd looking, and yet, God created even these--part of a cycle, part of a purpose. When I was a child, we always called cicadas "locusts." But they really aren't locusts. The biblical writers had nothing good to say about locusts because they always came as destroyers; but really, even locusts served God's purposes.
Whereas locusts were harmful, cicadas are the opposite. According to the Wikipedia, "Cicadas do not bite or sting, are benign to humans, and are not considered a pest." In the 4th century AD, the Christian preacher John Chrysostom compared the pleasure of reading the Old Testament prophets to the song of the cicadas.
I've always identified the sound of cicadas with summer. But I believe that looking into the dark red eyes of this 17-year variety, for the first time, I found a new summertime connection to the majesty and glory of God's creative power. I would imagine that in heaven, in addition to the trumpets of angels, cicadas must also sing their praises to God.
Psalm 145:10-11 states
“All your creatures praise you, Lord,
and your loyal servants bless you.
They talk of the glory of your kingdom
and tell of your might,” (REB)
Surely, this includes even the cicadas.
Follow-up. After I sent the above out in an email to a selected few, I was sitting on my back patio a few days later. We are on the outermost edge of the Eastern time zone, and during the summer, we have sunlight well past 9PM. I enjoy sitting on my patio swing watching the skies as the gray bats indiginous to this part of Kentucky emerge from their secret sites of slumber for their nightly hunt. As the bats began their patrol, and the sound of the cicadas began to lessen for the evening, I thought to myself, “What a great summer to be a bat--a nice, fat, happy bat.”
See the pictures I took of the cicadas (be sure to click on the thumbnail to see a larger view).
Also, if you’re interested in this particular varitey of cicada, check out the recent Courier Journal article, “17-Year Cicadas Sounding Off in Kentucky.”
One More Thing: I believe this will be the last post with mismatched comments. If I’m correct, comments that were originally part of Theron’s review of the Orthodox Study Bible will be attached to this post. If you leave a new comment, it will be below them. One day I may try copying previous comments to the correct posts and deleting the misplaced comments. But as this will be tedious and time consuming, it won’t take place soon.
This Lamp is BACK (for the love of Margaret...)
06/20/2008 09:24
In case you’re just tuning in, we’ve (yes, that’s a royal plural) been down since late February. I create this website in a program called RapidWeaver and a few months ago, the main file for the site got corrupted. I don’t know why. I don’t know if it was a RapidWeaver problem or a me problem. Whatever it was, everytime I loaded the file, all of my blog entries immediately deleted themselves. What that meant is that if I were to publish with that file, all of my blog entries on the internet would have disappeared.
Of course, I know you’re saying, “But didn’t you have a backup?” Well, normally I would have. But in a freak convergence of events, I was switching over to the new Time Machine method for backup. In order to do that, I had to erase the backup on my external hard drive that had been created with my previous backup software. I erased that backup BEFORE I realized that the RapidWeaver file for This Lamp was hosed. That was a bad day... a really bad day.
That left me with my only other backup which was dated from last October. My task over these past few weeks has been to re-create all blog posts from October 2007 through February 2008 based on what was published on the web. It wasn’t as easy as a simple cut and paste. All links had to be re-created as well as a lot of formatting including any text that was in italics. It really shouldn’t have taken more than three weeks or so working on it in my spare time, but I had a couple of other projects that came along that were paying projects, so well...
When This Lamp went into cardiac arrest at the end of February, it had hit a peak of roughly 700 hits a day according to Sitemeter. The interesting thing is that even in its hiatus, the website has still managed to maintain over half that amount of traffic. I think the average blogger would love to have between 350 and 400 hits a day, so it’s not too shabby, and hopefully readers will come back.
Normally, I have a number of upcoming blog posts in the works started within RapidWeaver. All those posts that would have come your way in early March were lost including a review I had been working on for a while on the NET Bible. Of those lost projects, the NET Bible review is the only one I will begin again. Look for it in July, and my apologies to those who have been waiting a year or so. The other lost posts will just stay lost as their time of relevance has past.
Sometime next week, I will launch a second blog-based website that has really nothing to do with most of the normal stuff discussed on This Lamp. This Lamp isn’t going away, nor is it going to be neglected, but rather, I am creating a second site with a different focus which will attract a whole new and different group of readers (I do have wide and varied interests, you know). Look for that announcement next week. I don’t know how many of you regular readers will be interested, but you’re welcome to join us there, too (and no, that time I was NOT using a royal plural).
My thanks and appreciation to all of you who sent regular emails asking about my progress restoring This Lamp and encouraging me in the process. I really didn’t enjoy the tedium of rebuilding the site, and never once did I consider abandoning it, but it was your encouragement that kept me pushing forward.
One more very important thing. In the reconstruction, for whatever reason, the HaloScan comments are completely messed up. I have no doubt that as soon as I publish this post, comments from what should go with a previous post will be attached to this one. I have no real way of ever fixing this, BUT it should work itself out in a few days as I add new content to This Lamp. In other words, eventually moving forward, new posts will be matched to the right comments. In fact, if you post here, your comments will remain, but will follow comments that were originally intended for an earlier post.
Well, it’s good to be back. I look forward to our upcoming discussions.
My Conversation with Kathy this Morning as We Were Getting Ready for Church
02/17/2008 17:52
Kathy: Yes, I love you more today.
Me: Do you love me more today than you did last week?
Kathy: Yes, Rick. I love you more today than I did last week.
Me: Do you love more today than you did yesterday?
Kathy: (getting frustrated) Yes... I love you more today than even yesterday.
Me: Some days do you love me less than others?
Kathy: Sweetheart, I could not possibly love you any less than I do right now.
???
Baptism Anniversary
02/15/2008 16:39
Queenie Pennington (1919 - 2008)
02/09/2008 21:04
Queenie Pennington, 88, of Ruston, Louisiana, formerly of Malvern, Arkansas died Saturday, February 9, 2008.
She was born on October 12, 1919 in Manning, Arkansas. She was the daughter of the late John Nelson Amis and Fannie Irma Hood Amis.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00PM on February 11, 2008 in the Atkinson Funeral Home Chapel with her grandson, Rick Mansfield, officiating. Burial will follow in Resthaven Cemetery.
Queenie was a long time member of Taylor’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church and a member of the Senior Ladies Sunday School Class. Having been raised in Sparkman, Arkansas, where she received her formal education, Queenie found great satisfaction as a homemaker in her adult life.
Survivors include her husband of 71 years, Edward Dale Pennington; two daughters, Margaret Sue Duty and husband Douglas of Benton, Louisiana; Barbara Ann Orren and husband, E.L.”Sonny” Orren of Ruston, Louisiana; one son, Charles Edward Pennington and wife, Dianne of Malvern, Arkansas; one sister, Ida Lou Ellis Heard and husband, Dale of Camden, Arkansas.; grandchildren Debbie Jayroe of Benton, Louisiana, Cindy Selmer of Shreveport, Louisiana; Richard Fowler Mansfield, Jr. of Simpsonville, Kentucky; Rodney Pennington of Hot Springs, Arkansas; Angela Bevill of Hot Springs, Arkansas; Brandy Richards of Foley, Alabama, Jody Dickson of Jessieville, Arkansas and Jeremy McInroe of Malvern, Arkansas; twenty-one great grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; two step-mothers, Blanche Crossley Amis and Daisy Parker Bettis Amis; three brothers, Homer, Harvey, and Marshall Amis; one sister, Esther Ora Tabor and one grandson, Rusty Pennington.
Pallbearers; Frank Burton, Merle Jordan, Carl Robbins, Orman Wallace, Henry Holt and Travis Pennington
Honorary Pallbearers; Ollie Caldwell and Jim Ledbetter
Memorials may be made to Taylor’s Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, 29966, Hwy. 67, Malvern Arkansas 72104, Temple Baptist Church of Ruston or charity of donor’s choice.
Visitation will be from 1:00PM until service.
Special thanks to Dr. Ed Mariano of Green Clinic in Ruston and Dr. Ray Bollen of Malvern for their kind, compassionate care.
The Kind of Stuff I Find Nowhere Else
12/27/2007 13:07
New Café Press Designs: Greek Uncials, Odysseus, Belshazzar, Halo 3, Latin Sayings, Erasmus and more...
10/11/2007 17:03
I've added a few new designs to the This Lamp Café Press Store in addition to the "A. T. Robertson Is My Homeboy" and This Lamp logo offerings. I'm having fun creating these as certain ideas come to my mind. These are the kind of shirts I've always wanted to find myself, but no one made them. Well, now I make them--or at least Café Press makes them for me. And hopefully, you'll like some of them, too.
And by the way, I've set up more than just shirts. Most of the designs are available with mugs, totebags, bumper stickers, journals, and more.
Servant of Christ Jesus (Greek Uncial)
In Romans 1:1 and Philippians 1:1, the Apostle Paul refers to himself as a doulos Christou Iesou, which is translated "servant [or bondslave] of Christ Jesus."
The design in this section uses an uncial Greek font which is indicative of the time when the New Testament documents were actually written. Shorthand versions of holy names, called "Nomina Sacra" were employed in these manuscripts with lines on top of a two letter abbreviation. What looks like XY and IY is actually the genitive form of the Nominative Sacra of Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ or "Christ Jesus."
Servant of Christ Jesus (Greek Standard)
The concept of this shirt is the same as the one above, but the design for this shirt uses a standard Greek font and the accepted presentation found in critical editions of the Greek New Testament.
Odysseus Is My Homer-Boy
This is another take off on the "[Insert Historical Figure Here] Is My Homeboy" designs. If you don't get the pun, you need to take remedial high school English.
The Doom of Belshazzar
Daniel 5 tells the story of Belshazzar, ruler of Babylon, who in a bout of drunkenness insulted the God of Israel.
This shirt has two sides. The first side contains the Hebrew words that God wrote on the palace wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
The back side of the shirt contains the interpretation of God's words given to Belshazzar by the prophet Daniel:
MENE--
God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.
TEKEL--
You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
UPHARSIN--
Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
The words on the front side of the shirt are in Hebrew, and the back side of the shirt includes Daniel's interpretation from Dan 5:26-28 in a handwritten-style (of course!) font. The wording on the back is adapted from the Revised English Bible.
Unfortunately, this shirt's a bit pricier because it has designs on both front and back. Nevertheless, where else would you possibly find a shirt as cool as this?
John 117 Lives
"John 117 Lives" is a takeoff on the "Frodo Lives" bumper stickers, buttons and shirts of the late 1960's. My apologies if I just spoiled the ending of the story for anyone.
Mors Certa, Vita Incerta
I first read the Latin phrase MORS CERTA, VITA INCERTA not on some ancient Roman inscription, but rather in Philip K. Dick's book Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep (the basis for the movie Blade Runner).
The phrase means "death is certain; life is uncertain." I've always been struck by how this statement is so brief, yet so profound. It's what separates us from the animals: we know we are mortal and are heading toward an end. In reality, this is the only thing that is constant in life. Everything else may be predicted, but never guaranteed.
I've often suggested that MORS CERTA, VITA INCERTA would make a great epitaph on my tombstone one day--a reminder to those who remain to live life to the fullest, but never to take anything for granted.
Erasmus on Buying Books
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (October 27, 1466 - July 12, 1536) was a theologian responsible for the first published critical editions of the Greek New Testament, the ones used by both Martin Luther and William Tyndale in their translations.
Further, there's a great quote attributed to Erasmus in which he purportedly said, "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."
Some of the items have the quotation to the right of the image of Erasmus, while the items further down are Erasmus alone.
I hope that you'll find these little designs amusing or intriguing enough to pick up for yourself.
You can visit the This Lamp Café Press store at http://www.cafepress.com/thislamp
And Kathy has gotten in on the act by starting a Café Press store related to our upcoming adoption. Be sure to check out http://www.cafepress.com/kolloquy
And by the way, I've set up more than just shirts. Most of the designs are available with mugs, totebags, bumper stickers, journals, and more.
In Romans 1:1 and Philippians 1:1, the Apostle Paul refers to himself as a doulos Christou Iesou, which is translated "servant [or bondslave] of Christ Jesus."
The design in this section uses an uncial Greek font which is indicative of the time when the New Testament documents were actually written. Shorthand versions of holy names, called "Nomina Sacra" were employed in these manuscripts with lines on top of a two letter abbreviation. What looks like XY and IY is actually the genitive form of the Nominative Sacra of Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ or "Christ Jesus."
The concept of this shirt is the same as the one above, but the design for this shirt uses a standard Greek font and the accepted presentation found in critical editions of the Greek New Testament.
This is another take off on the "[Insert Historical Figure Here] Is My Homeboy" designs. If you don't get the pun, you need to take remedial high school English.
Daniel 5 tells the story of Belshazzar, ruler of Babylon, who in a bout of drunkenness insulted the God of Israel.
This shirt has two sides. The first side contains the Hebrew words that God wrote on the palace wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
The back side of the shirt contains the interpretation of God's words given to Belshazzar by the prophet Daniel:
MENE--
God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.
TEKEL--
You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
UPHARSIN--
Your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
The words on the front side of the shirt are in Hebrew, and the back side of the shirt includes Daniel's interpretation from Dan 5:26-28 in a handwritten-style (of course!) font. The wording on the back is adapted from the Revised English Bible.
Unfortunately, this shirt's a bit pricier because it has designs on both front and back. Nevertheless, where else would you possibly find a shirt as cool as this?
"John 117 Lives" is a takeoff on the "Frodo Lives" bumper stickers, buttons and shirts of the late 1960's. My apologies if I just spoiled the ending of the story for anyone.
I first read the Latin phrase MORS CERTA, VITA INCERTA not on some ancient Roman inscription, but rather in Philip K. Dick's book Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep (the basis for the movie Blade Runner).
The phrase means "death is certain; life is uncertain." I've always been struck by how this statement is so brief, yet so profound. It's what separates us from the animals: we know we are mortal and are heading toward an end. In reality, this is the only thing that is constant in life. Everything else may be predicted, but never guaranteed.
I've often suggested that MORS CERTA, VITA INCERTA would make a great epitaph on my tombstone one day--a reminder to those who remain to live life to the fullest, but never to take anything for granted.
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (October 27, 1466 - July 12, 1536) was a theologian responsible for the first published critical editions of the Greek New Testament, the ones used by both Martin Luther and William Tyndale in their translations.
Further, there's a great quote attributed to Erasmus in which he purportedly said, "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."
Some of the items have the quotation to the right of the image of Erasmus, while the items further down are Erasmus alone.
I hope that you'll find these little designs amusing or intriguing enough to pick up for yourself.
And Kathy has gotten in on the act by starting a Café Press store related to our upcoming adoption. Be sure to check out http://www.cafepress.com/kolloquy
One More Step On the Road to Robots Making Us Batteries: My Xbox Is Writing His (Its?) Own Blog
10/11/2007 14:18
I think I'll begin an occasional series. Consider this installment the second after my post from earlier this year, "First They Won't Let Us Browse the Stacks; Then They'll Turn Us Into Batteries and Throw Us Into the Matrix."
I've got a new blog. Well, technically, I don't... my Xbox does. Yeah. Really.
Well, kinda.
The folks over at 360voice.com allow folks to submit gamer tags and then narrative voice is given to the Xbox 360 owner's latest activity (assuming there is an Xbox Live account). The perspective of the narrative is from the Xbox itself which is very intriguing, if not a bit cheesy at times. In fact, he (my Xbox) tends to whine a bit on the days I don't play anything. There's even a place for comments.
And evidently, besides all this existing as a very interesting, but unusual gimmick, there's a bit of cutting edge computer AI stuff associated here. From the About page at 360voice.com:
So, yes it's all very weird, but somehow still I have to go look and see what my Xbox has written for the day--even after days when I've played nothing.
By the way, my Xbox will refer to me in his posts under my gamertag name, Borofaxx. I got that name from the cream of the same name that my mom used to put on my cuts and scrapes when I got hurt as a child (and she put it on diaper rash when I was an infant, but that's probably more than you want to know). I'm pretty sure it's no longer being produced (we all have Neosporiin now!), so I thought the name would make a good and unusual gamertag. And of course I added the extra X at the end because that makes any word or name cooler.
One last thing. Sometime my Xbox is...frankly.. a liar. No, I don't mean about my gamer score. Take for instance the statement he attributed to me on October 5. It's simply not true. I have chosen not to use that particular word.
Feel free to check it out (and even leave a comment) if you want at http://www.360voice.com/tag/Borofaxx.
Well, kinda.
The folks over at 360voice.com allow folks to submit gamer tags and then narrative voice is given to the Xbox 360 owner's latest activity (assuming there is an Xbox Live account). The perspective of the narrative is from the Xbox itself which is very intriguing, if not a bit cheesy at times. In fact, he (my Xbox) tends to whine a bit on the days I don't play anything. There's even a place for comments.
And evidently, besides all this existing as a very interesting, but unusual gimmick, there's a bit of cutting edge computer AI stuff associated here. From the About page at 360voice.com:
How did you come up with the idea for your site?
As a member of the Xbox Community Developer Program, Steve had access to the live gamer feeds and was playing around with the data. I attended the O'Reily Emerging Technologies conference where I heard Bruce Sterling give a keynote about blogjects (a term coined by Julian Bleecker)... futuristic objects that write "blogs" about their interactions with the world and other devices just like humans write about their interactions with the world and other people. In discussing this keynote with Steve, it didn't take long for us to see how this academic concept could relate to the Xbox 360, albeit in a much more scaled back fashion. We got quick prototype of the idea up and running in a few days. The response from the prototype was so huge that we immediately developed it into a full blown product which became 360voice.com.
So, yes it's all very weird, but somehow still I have to go look and see what my Xbox has written for the day--even after days when I've played nothing.
By the way, my Xbox will refer to me in his posts under my gamertag name, Borofaxx. I got that name from the cream of the same name that my mom used to put on my cuts and scrapes when I got hurt as a child (and she put it on diaper rash when I was an infant, but that's probably more than you want to know). I'm pretty sure it's no longer being produced (we all have Neosporiin now!), so I thought the name would make a good and unusual gamertag. And of course I added the extra X at the end because that makes any word or name cooler.
One last thing. Sometime my Xbox is...frankly.. a liar. No, I don't mean about my gamer score. Take for instance the statement he attributed to me on October 5. It's simply not true. I have chosen not to use that particular word.
Feel free to check it out (and even leave a comment) if you want at http://www.360voice.com/tag/Borofaxx.
I'm Gonna Have to Say "No" to Facebook (and the rest)
09/26/2007 19:06
And I never will be.
Not too long after Facebook friend invites started pouring in, one friend who requested I add her, and after obviously seeing a neglected profile and no interaction sent me a text message saying, "You've got so much to learn about Facebook!" Of course I interpreted her message as saying, "Ha ha, I know more about something on the internet than you do for once!"
Well, not exactly true. And perhaps if you're one of the folks with whom I've exchanged invites you feel the same way. But let me explain my position. Here's the thing... I've got this website that you're on right now called This Lamp. In spite of the fact that I haven't had time to update the site much lately, Sitemeter tells me that I'm still receiving over 400 hits a day, which is pretty healthy for a personal website, especially a neglected one, in my opinion. And that's not even counting the folks who read This Lamp strictly on the RSS feed which I'm not tracking at the moment. And I wonder how many pastors, politicians and other public figures would love to have that kind of audience on a daily basis? Thus, with my limited time, if I am going to invest my online efforts anywhere, I think I should simply do it here.
In fact, I'm going to completely cancel my FaceBook profile in a few days. There's no point in keeping it. I'm warning you now. I have no idea what happens when one of your FaceBook "friends" disappears. Just don't take it personally.
So am I being anti-social by saying no to social networking? No. This website can be quite the social place at times as are some of yours. Frankly, I consider myself a very social person, and if you've ever received an email from me, you'll notice that I even give out my cell phone number freely. Plus, I've got four different instant messaging identities because I have different friends who use different systems. I often have all four running during the day. Feel free to add me:
AIM/iChat: rmansfield@mac.com
Microsoft Messenger: rmansfield@hotmail.com
Yahoo Messenger: rick_mansfield
ICQ: 7367293
Feel free to chat away with me on any of the above. You'll find I'm quite social. But as for FaceBook, and last year's "in" social site MySpace and all the other social networking tools (Twitter, LinkedIn, and all the new ones that launch each day), I'm going to have to pass.
Who's got the time?
1989 Was a Great Year for Hot Dogs
08/22/2007 22:08
Blogging has been slow of late. New semester started, and as some of you know, I'm teaching elementary Greek at SBTS four days a week. It's a first time prep for me, so I'm keeping busy. But I've got a number of posts on the back burner of my mind, so stay tuned. I'm starting to get back into a routine.
Meanwhile, I figured that some of you might get a kick out of this picture of Kathy and me from 1989. A college buddy of mine sent this to me tonight, and I'm not too proud to share it.
Meanwhile, I figured that some of you might get a kick out of this picture of Kathy and me from 1989. A college buddy of mine sent this to me tonight, and I'm not too proud to share it.
Click on the picture to get a larger view (if you're up for that kind of thing).
This Lamp Is Not Moving (Sorry for the Confusion)
08/13/2007 09:45
Well, I apologize for being so fickle. I shouldn't have jumped ship quite so fast. iWeb 2.0 is much improved over the older version, but after playing with it some, it's still not quite mature enough for me to leave RapidWeaver--in spite of the problems I'm having with RW.
So, I apologize to all the folks who reset their links and subscriptions. I promise not to do this again anytime soon.
But for right now, everything is staying right here.
So, I apologize to all the folks who reset their links and subscriptions. I promise not to do this again anytime soon.
But for right now, everything is staying right here.
This Lamp Set to Move (Tentatively)
08/08/2007 10:57
I also think I've begun to reach the limits of RapidWeaver's ability to handle my site. The recent update improved this somewhat, but there are still problems. The actual site on the web is over 1300 separate files, but RapidWeaver keeps them all contained in one file on my MacBook. Right now, this file is over 150 mb in size. It takes a while to load and forever to save and shut down. I have continued fear of it losing integrity one day, but I do back it up regularly.
If you simply have my site linked/saved/bookmarked as www.thislamp.com, you will be fine as I will simply change the pointers to the new site. However, if you link directly to these files or subscribe to the RSS feed, you will have to update your bookmarks.
There's still a chance this won't happen, but from everything I've seen of iWeb '08, I think it's about time to pack my virtual bags.
New Teaching Assignment
05/25/2007 08:02
Although I got my official welcome letter a month ago, somehow it seems more real now that my name is entered into eCampus:
I've been hired in an adjunct position at SBTS for the fall as "Instructor in New Testament Interpretation" with one teaching assignment: elementary Greek. This will be my first time teaching a masters level course, and I'm really looking forward to it.
I've been hired in an adjunct position at SBTS for the fall as "Instructor in New Testament Interpretation" with one teaching assignment: elementary Greek. This will be my first time teaching a masters level course, and I'm really looking forward to it.
LID Status
05/01/2007 04:00
From Kathy's blog today:
Oh...yeah...and actually raising little Ellie once we get her.
Now it's all over but the waiting.Rick received the phone call today from our Adoption Agency letting us know our Log In Date or LID. LID is when your dossier is officially logged into the China database for adoption. Our LID is April 10, 2007! Now, the long wait continues, but at least we know that we are officially accepted for adoption in China. The current wait time for a referral of a baby from Log In Date is approximately 17 months. That, of course, can change -- it can be shorter (hopefully) or longer.
Oh...yeah...and actually raising little Ellie once we get her.
The Biggest News: We're Expecting
03/17/2007 15:56
We're now officially paper pregnant as of Friday. Our documents were mailed to China yesterday by the adoption agency. This is known as DTC status (Dossier To China). This would be the equivalent of expecting a baby, because now it's all over but the waiting. To keep up with our progress, be sure to regularly check in at Kathy's blog.
Who Said Gambling Is Only for Suckers?
03/16/2007 01:27
Actual conversation over dinner tonight:
Kathy: I filled out one of those basketball bracket thingies at work today.
Me: [stares}
Kathy: It was only three dollars.
Me: But you don't know anything about the teams.
Kathy: Sure I do. I asked what their colors were.
Me: You filled out a bracket based on the teams' colors?
Kathy: Yes. And if I win, I'll get $54!
Me: You're not going to win.
Kathy: It's okay. I paid in pennies.
Kelland and Henry, you should be ashamed for taking money froma little gi my wife.
Kathy: I filled out one of those basketball bracket thingies at work today.
Me: [stares}
Kathy: It was only three dollars.
Me: But you don't know anything about the teams.
Kathy: Sure I do. I asked what their colors were.
Me: You filled out a bracket based on the teams' colors?
Kathy: Yes. And if I win, I'll get $54!
Me: You're not going to win.
Kathy: It's okay. I paid in pennies.
Kelland and Henry, you should be ashamed for taking money from
Rock the Casbah
03/10/2007 17:07
So, I'm sitting in the 6th & Main Coffeeshop in Shelbyville, Kentucky this afternoon, trying to catch up on some stuff for church and grade some papers.
They've been playing eighties music the whole afternoon, which I really like since I was in high school from 1982 to 1986.
Earlier when I bought my coffee and a scone, this was the conversation I had with the guy behind the counter (who evidently is younger than me).
ME: "I like that song, 'Rock the Casbah.' It reminds me of a high school dance."
Guy behind the counter: [thinks for a few seconds, listening to the song]: "Yeah, I can picture that. Like in a movie or something."
ME: "No. They used to play that at my high school dances."
Guy behind the counter: [stares]
They've been playing eighties music the whole afternoon, which I really like since I was in high school from 1982 to 1986.
Earlier when I bought my coffee and a scone, this was the conversation I had with the guy behind the counter (who evidently is younger than me).
ME: "I like that song, 'Rock the Casbah.' It reminds me of a high school dance."
Guy behind the counter: [thinks for a few seconds, listening to the song]: "Yeah, I can picture that. Like in a movie or something."
ME: "No. They used to play that at my high school dances."
Guy behind the counter: [stares]
Tagged: Five Things About Me
01/15/2007 13:40
Back on December 27, Matt Perry tagged me to offer five things about myself. I have to admit that at first, I started to simply ignore it. Most of the posts on This Lamp are of a topical nature and while offering a personal perspective on issues don't focus on the personal side of my life (that's what Kathy's blog is for!). But then I thought that perhaps I was being a stick in the mud. And could the instructions for this tag have been any easier? All I was asked to do is tell five things about myself. So, I decided to comply.
But what to tell? Some things about myself are fairly well known from this blog: issues about my faith, my wife, my dog; where I teach, where I go to school, where I attend church, etc. So, I decided to offer up five things about myself that all readers may just not know about me. Here they are.
1. Although I've lived in Kentucky for over a decade, I still call the state of Louisiana home, where I lived for more than the first two decades of my life.
And I should add that I make a mean pot of gumbo, and my jambalaya isn't too bad (from what I've been told, of course).
But what to tell? Some things about myself are fairly well known from this blog: issues about my faith, my wife, my dog; where I teach, where I go to school, where I attend church, etc. So, I decided to offer up five things about myself that all readers may just not know about me. Here they are.
1. Although I've lived in Kentucky for over a decade, I still call the state of Louisiana home, where I lived for more than the first two decades of my life.
And I should add that I make a mean pot of gumbo, and my jambalaya isn't too bad (from what I've been told, of course).
2. In my senior year of high school (1986), I was voted "Most Talented" by my peers.
Oh, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "If most is a superlative, why are there three of you in the yearbook photo?" Well, the three of us were known for different talents. Todd was known for his guitar playing, Susan for her artwork, and me for my dramatic acting ability. In my senior year, I had the lead in our two plays, Cheaper by the Dozen and Lunatics at Large. I would continue after high school to participate in community theater and church drama, but I've since officially retired from acting. I did, however, enjoy going to high school and college in the 1980's. Looking back, I feel like my life then was one long 80's John Hughes Movie.
3. I have a favorite Bible verse from each testament.
Each verse has to do with my own sense of identity. I memorized both of these years ago in the NASB, which is how I will represent them here:
“Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10)
Study, practice, teach. These are the three things that I feel called to do as well.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Gal 2:20)
I don't feel as if my actions are always completely Christlike, but Gal 2:20 reminds me of both my calling and standing in Christ.
4. I have a tattoo on my right ankle.
In case you can't make it out, it's the Greek phrase, "δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ" ("bondslave of Christ Jesus") from Rom 1:1. I was also going to have "ἀφωρισμένος εἰς εὐαγγέλιον θεοῦ" ("set apart/separated for the gospel of God") from the same verse added, but it hurt so much getting this done on my ankle that I had him stop with just what you see above. I've had this tattoo now for about five and a half years.
5. I have a great diversion for stress relief.
After Kathy goes to bed, I often take it upon myself to save the world through the elimination of aliens, terrorists, and other known bad guys.
I've always felt that medicines make the best gaming names. I used to have a character named "Theraflu." "Borofax" was the name for the ointment my mother used on my diaper rash when I was an infant. I added the extra x to the name because that makes it cooler. Right?
So there it is--five things about me that you may or may not have already known.
I now tag Kathy (Kathy's Kolloquy), Theron Mathis (Sword in the Fire), Bill Craig (Billog Tremors), Wayne Leman (Better Bibles Blog) and Philip Wade (Wade's Rants).
Interpreting This Lamp
01/08/2007 12:30
So this past Saturday, I received another email from Bob in which he offered his own meditation and interpretation on the graphic. I was so moved, I asked him if I could repeat it here for my readers. Here is what Bob wrote:
It is early (5: 57 a.m.) and I just made some coffee. If you dont mind, I am going to pass along a few thoughts that the lamp image brings to mind.
Nowadays, libraries tend to be open spaces with big windows, big tables, and lots of computers. They are as much a place to congregate and access databases as anything. This has not always been the case.
Gone, particularly in library facilities built in the last thirty years, are the nooks and crannies, winding halls and archways, and solid oak furniture. Gone are the spaces you can retreat from the world and absorbmuch more than mere readthe thought of another writer. Gone is the tunnel where your mind connects with another mind through some kind of portal.
The image you found at Microsoft hints at the lost portal. First, the image presents the best wallpaper there is for the portalthe spines of books. The winding hall and archway of the image lets you know you walked through a portal to a nook and cranny. And the lamp in the image casts a protective wall around your space. Here the warmth and glow of the lamp lights the tunnel your mind travels to meet another mind in a booka Box Of Organized Knowledge. You open the door and take the important step as you open the book and turn the page. The only sound you hear is the crinkle of the page.
All this requires the wallpaper, the winding hall and archway, the nook and cranny, and the small lamp. Rick, the image you found tells me that and much more. Have a good journey the next time you find yourself at this portal.
Bob Patrick
Frankfort, KY
Thanks, Bob!
Pennington 70th Anniversary
12/22/2006 12:13
Yesterday we celebrated my grandparents' 70th wedding anniversary. Below is the toast I gave at the reception.
On December 23, 1936, two teenagers, Dale Pennington and Queenie Amis got married.
That was seventy years ago. Seventy years is a long time. When they got married, they couldn’t call their friends on their cell phones to share the news. They couldn’t fly to some exotic honeymoon spot because there were no commercial flights in that day. Their announcement couldn’t be made on the evening news because there was no television. The wedding could not be blogged because not only was there not an internet, there were no personal computers or computers period. Heck, there weren’t even pocket calculators in those days. Cars did not have cruise control, automatic transmissions, and certainly not GPS satellite location. There were no space shuttles, no moon landing, not even a chimpanzee had been shot into space. My grandmother didn’t have a microwave oven to cook their first meal in, but she did have a cast iron skillet.
When Dale and Queenie got married, it was in the midst of the Great Depression, so they didn’t have a lot. But they did have tremendous love for each other. That love saw them through good times and bad times, military service, good jobs and bad jobs. Their love literally gave birth to three children and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Seventy years of marriage is a milestone and testimony to Dale and Queenie’s faith in God and love for one another. You are an inspiration to me and all those assembled here today. We celebrate your seventy years, and as you walk hand-in-hand into the sunset of your days, we pray that they will continued to be filled with the happiness and love that has marked your lives together.
To Dale and Queenie Pennington, Happy 70th Anniversary!
On December 23, 1936, two teenagers, Dale Pennington and Queenie Amis got married.
That was seventy years ago. Seventy years is a long time. When they got married, they couldn’t call their friends on their cell phones to share the news. They couldn’t fly to some exotic honeymoon spot because there were no commercial flights in that day. Their announcement couldn’t be made on the evening news because there was no television. The wedding could not be blogged because not only was there not an internet, there were no personal computers or computers period. Heck, there weren’t even pocket calculators in those days. Cars did not have cruise control, automatic transmissions, and certainly not GPS satellite location. There were no space shuttles, no moon landing, not even a chimpanzee had been shot into space. My grandmother didn’t have a microwave oven to cook their first meal in, but she did have a cast iron skillet.
When Dale and Queenie got married, it was in the midst of the Great Depression, so they didn’t have a lot. But they did have tremendous love for each other. That love saw them through good times and bad times, military service, good jobs and bad jobs. Their love literally gave birth to three children and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Seventy years of marriage is a milestone and testimony to Dale and Queenie’s faith in God and love for one another. You are an inspiration to me and all those assembled here today. We celebrate your seventy years, and as you walk hand-in-hand into the sunset of your days, we pray that they will continued to be filled with the happiness and love that has marked your lives together.
To Dale and Queenie Pennington, Happy 70th Anniversary!
Andrew Wells: 1973-2006
11/05/2006 00:25
Published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on 11/4/2006.
Andrew Wells was a frequent contributor to This Lamp and my very good friend.
The Andrew Wells Report
10/11/2006 20:10
Continue to pray for Andrew, and you can keep up to date at http://andrewwellsreport.blogspot.com/. Any encouraging comments for Andrew and Leila on their blog would certainly be appreciated by them.
Pray for Andrew Wells
10/11/2006 12:43
Andrew Wells, a frequent contributor to This Lamp, was hospitalized in ICU on Tuesday suffering from respiratory issues related to graft vs. host disease from a bone marrow transplant he received as part of his treatment for leukemia.
Andrew's condition is very serious and he needs your prayers. When I talked with his wife Leila Tuesday, she said that they were trying to sedate him because his body seemed to be fighting the respirator--trying to breathe over it. I asked Leila if he was awake. She said that when she went in to see him his eyes never opened so she doesn't even know if he was aware of his surroundings. This is a result of graft vs. host disease in his lungs and he may have a touch of pneumonia on top of that.
As of this morning Andrew was calm due to meds to sedate him. His heart rate is still very high and his blood pressure is fluctuating sometimes fairly low. Apparently the heart and bp issues are somewhat normal for what he is going through. One scan found nodules on his lungs which are likely pneumonia but further tests today will confirm if it is that or something other. He is on antibiotics for the possible pneumonia.
Leila and Andrew's mom stayed at the hospital overnight. She said she was able to get some sleep--she actually sounded a little better this morning.
A little while ago, I received this email from Leila:
"Rick, Just to let you know that we have some tentative good news. Andrew's fever has dropped by a degree (from 102 to 101) and they have gotten him off of one of three blood pressure medicines. This is good news. (It was bad that they had him on three.) I'll send out a larger update later once we have spoken to the doctors. The prayers are working. Keep 'em coming!"
I will post updates as I know more. If you are a praying person, please pray for Andrew.
UPDATE 10/12, 10 a.m.: Leila sent an email this morning with good news:
Andrew's condition is very serious and he needs your prayers. When I talked with his wife Leila Tuesday, she said that they were trying to sedate him because his body seemed to be fighting the respirator--trying to breathe over it. I asked Leila if he was awake. She said that when she went in to see him his eyes never opened so she doesn't even know if he was aware of his surroundings. This is a result of graft vs. host disease in his lungs and he may have a touch of pneumonia on top of that.
As of this morning Andrew was calm due to meds to sedate him. His heart rate is still very high and his blood pressure is fluctuating sometimes fairly low. Apparently the heart and bp issues are somewhat normal for what he is going through. One scan found nodules on his lungs which are likely pneumonia but further tests today will confirm if it is that or something other. He is on antibiotics for the possible pneumonia.
Leila and Andrew's mom stayed at the hospital overnight. She said she was able to get some sleep--she actually sounded a little better this morning.
A little while ago, I received this email from Leila:
"Rick, Just to let you know that we have some tentative good news. Andrew's fever has dropped by a degree (from 102 to 101) and they have gotten him off of one of three blood pressure medicines. This is good news. (It was bad that they had him on three.) I'll send out a larger update later once we have spoken to the doctors. The prayers are working. Keep 'em coming!"
I will post updates as I know more. If you are a praying person, please pray for Andrew.
UPDATE 10/12, 10 a.m.: Leila sent an email this morning with good news:
I have some wonderful news to share this morning. (I would have put it on the blog, but the Blogger server is not accessible at the moment.) Through the night, Andrew began to respond to the medicines. His heart rate is now down to about 120 beats per minute, which is the best it has been in a very long time (even before all of this started). His blood pressure is holding steady and they have taken him off of ALL of the blood pressure medicines! His fever is gone. His oxygen level is holding at 99% and they have scaled back the level of O2 they are giving him. Finally, they have identified the bacteria that brought on the sepsis: it is a garden-variety strep that caused his pneumonia, not the strange fungus or unidentifiable bacteria they originally suspected! We're not out of the woods. He's still on a vent, he's still on heavy antibiotics that bring increased risk of bleeding, he's still heavily sedated. We've got a long way to go, but we're pulling out.
Prayer works!!!!!!! Please keep praying and praising God this morning, because the lung doctor who is second in command here at Emory gave Andrew very little chance of pulling through the night yesterday. Given that he has/had sepsis, is severely immuno-compromised, and has pneumonia, I can't say that we had much confidence yesterday either, except in our God!
I'll update the blog as soon as I can get on the server. Thank you, everyone, for your fervent prayers. Please spread the word for us.
Family Correspondence from Five Years Ago Today
09/11/2006 18:46
Subject: New York
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 11:15 AM
From: Barbara & Sonny Orren
To: "'R. Mansfield'"
Rick,
The white house has been evacuated because of an explosion at the World Trade Center in N.Y. All airports have been shut down. The third explosion collapsed the World Trade Center in N.Y. People jumped out from the top of the tower.
Mom
Subject: Do you know where your children are?
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 12:21 PM
From: Barbara & Sonny Orren
To: "'R. Mansfield'"
Rick,
Do you know where your dad is at this time?
Mom
Subject: Important Things!
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 2:42 PM
From: Barbara & Sonny Orren
To: "'R. Mansfield'"
Early this morning, I thought that I had important things to do today!
I’m going to run my errands now, but somehow they all seem so trivial.
Love you,
Mom
Subject:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 3:14 PM
From: Mansfield, Kathy
To: "Mansfield, Rick - work"
are you keeping up with the news?
Subject: Re:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 3:48 PM
From: Richard Mansfield
To: "Mansfield, Kathy"
Yep. Your rehearsal is cancelled tonight. They are having an emergency prayer meeting tonight instead. I think we ought to go.
Subject: RE:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 4:05 PM
From: Mansfield, Kathy
To: Richard Mansfield
I'll go home to let Bessie out. I can just meet you at the church at 6:00
then.
Subject: Re:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 4:07 PM
From: Richard Mansfield
To: "Mansfield, Kathy"
OK.
Subject: RE:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 4:11 PM
From: Mansfield, Kathy
To: Richard Mansfield
Clark works at Barksdale Air Force base. The President stopped by their on
his way into hiding. I emailed Mom to see if Clark was evacuated from the
base since he's a civilian or if their was a lock down situation or
whatever. Haven't heard back from her, yet.
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 11:15 AM
From: Barbara & Sonny Orren
To: "'R. Mansfield'"
Rick,
The white house has been evacuated because of an explosion at the World Trade Center in N.Y. All airports have been shut down. The third explosion collapsed the World Trade Center in N.Y. People jumped out from the top of the tower.
Mom
Subject: Do you know where your children are?
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 12:21 PM
From: Barbara & Sonny Orren
To: "'R. Mansfield'"
Rick,
Do you know where your dad is at this time?
Mom
Subject: Important Things!
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 2:42 PM
From: Barbara & Sonny Orren
To: "'R. Mansfield'"
Early this morning, I thought that I had important things to do today!
I’m going to run my errands now, but somehow they all seem so trivial.
Love you,
Mom
Subject:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 3:14 PM
From: Mansfield, Kathy
To: "Mansfield, Rick - work"
are you keeping up with the news?
Subject: Re:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 3:48 PM
From: Richard Mansfield
To: "Mansfield, Kathy"
Yep. Your rehearsal is cancelled tonight. They are having an emergency prayer meeting tonight instead. I think we ought to go.
Subject: RE:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 4:05 PM
From: Mansfield, Kathy
To: Richard Mansfield
I'll go home to let Bessie out. I can just meet you at the church at 6:00
then.
Subject: Re:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 4:07 PM
From: Richard Mansfield
To: "Mansfield, Kathy"
OK.
Subject: RE:
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 4:11 PM
From: Mansfield, Kathy
To: Richard Mansfield
Clark works at Barksdale Air Force base. The President stopped by their on
his way into hiding. I emailed Mom to see if Clark was evacuated from the
base since he's a civilian or if their was a lock down situation or
whatever. Haven't heard back from her, yet.
Where Were You on September 11, 2001?
09/11/2006 08:46
Few of us will ever forget where we were on September 11, 2001, when we received the horrible news of the attacks upon our nation. Just two or three weeks earlier, I had begun my second year of teaching Bible at Whitefield Academy (then known as Highview Baptist School). My classroom had been moved to the basement (eventually referred to as "the dungeon"), which I liked very much because its isolation allowed for fewer distractions for my students. Although the first tower was hit at 8:46 AM, I did not receive word of it until early in second period (the classes were roughly an hour long at the time--before block scheduling). The seniors were in my classroom that hour. And that morning, since I was also chaplain, we were planning a chapel service revolving around their experience from the retreat we had taken the seniors on during the first week of school.
At the exact moment I received word that something had happened, I was sitting at my iMac helping Hannah Davis, a senior, edit footage that we had filmed at the retreat. David Balty, our English department chair, sent word via a student that something had happened in New York and there was smoke pouring from one of the World Trade Center buildings. There was a television in my room used for videos and PowerPoint, but it was not connected to cable service, so all we could see were static-filled images. From what we could see, though, there was definitely something happening in NYC. I know that a teacher is not supposed to leave students alone, but I slipped upstairs to the office of our principal, Brian Rose, because he had a television in his office. There was already a group huddled into his office transfixed by the images on the television. After viewing the images on television, I went back down to my classroom and informed my students with what I knew at that point. We said a prayer, but not knowing how serious the situation was yet, I encouraged them to continue planning the chapel service. My students remember that they first heard the name "Bin Laden" from my lips that morning (of course at the time, they asked "Ben who?"). Coincidentally, I had just read or seen something about Bin Laden in the days before this event. When my students asked me who I thought would do something like this, he was the first name that came to mind. Over the next couple of hours I stole up to Brian's office at various points. It was on his small television, that I saw the horrible images of the second tower struck, the attack on the Pentagon, and both towers fall. I remember people in Brian's office and on television speculating how many people worked in those towers. The highest figure I heard at the time was 50,000.
That was a very frightening day for us all. I remember the uncertainty as to how widespread the attacks were. We had seen the twin towers fall, a plan crash into the pentagon, and a false rumor that a car bomb had gone off in front of the State Department. From the point that the second tower in New York was hit, we knew that this was no accident--that our nation was under attack. When word reached us that a plane had crashed in Pennsylvania, there was fear that the attacks were spreading west. How widespread was this attack? Would it hit us, too? There were reports on television suggesting people stay away from public places such as malls and especially government buildings.
I can only remember a couple of parents coming to pick their children up from school that day. Such parental instinct is certainly understandable, but I was glad that this was not the pattern. As word of the attacks spread through the student population, many in my classes wanted to suspend our work and move to one of the classrooms with actual television reception. A few students maybe even thought I was slightly unconcerned about the situation because I insisted that outside of a prayer for the situation that we carry on class as usual. I still believe that was the right thing to do.
The best Christian reflection I've come across on September 11, I only read a few days ago. In the current issue of Christianity Today, Timothy George writes a profound piece titled "Theology for an Age of Terror" (not yet available online) in which he looks to Augustine, St Francis, and C. S. Lewis for direction on how to look at the world in the midst of seeming chaos. I especially identified with the words of C. S. Lewis quoted in George's article. The quotation came from an address Lewis gave at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Oxford on October 22, 1939. He was speaking to students a mere two months after the Nazis had invaded Poland. Lewis said:
Lewis was right. History has indeed shown us that life is short and the world can be fragile. But in the midst of seeming chaos, we must never forget that God is in control regardless. We have a calling, and in response to that calling, we press on.
At the exact moment I received word that something had happened, I was sitting at my iMac helping Hannah Davis, a senior, edit footage that we had filmed at the retreat. David Balty, our English department chair, sent word via a student that something had happened in New York and there was smoke pouring from one of the World Trade Center buildings. There was a television in my room used for videos and PowerPoint, but it was not connected to cable service, so all we could see were static-filled images. From what we could see, though, there was definitely something happening in NYC. I know that a teacher is not supposed to leave students alone, but I slipped upstairs to the office of our principal, Brian Rose, because he had a television in his office. There was already a group huddled into his office transfixed by the images on the television. After viewing the images on television, I went back down to my classroom and informed my students with what I knew at that point. We said a prayer, but not knowing how serious the situation was yet, I encouraged them to continue planning the chapel service. My students remember that they first heard the name "Bin Laden" from my lips that morning (of course at the time, they asked "Ben who?"). Coincidentally, I had just read or seen something about Bin Laden in the days before this event. When my students asked me who I thought would do something like this, he was the first name that came to mind. Over the next couple of hours I stole up to Brian's office at various points. It was on his small television, that I saw the horrible images of the second tower struck, the attack on the Pentagon, and both towers fall. I remember people in Brian's office and on television speculating how many people worked in those towers. The highest figure I heard at the time was 50,000.
That was a very frightening day for us all. I remember the uncertainty as to how widespread the attacks were. We had seen the twin towers fall, a plan crash into the pentagon, and a false rumor that a car bomb had gone off in front of the State Department. From the point that the second tower in New York was hit, we knew that this was no accident--that our nation was under attack. When word reached us that a plane had crashed in Pennsylvania, there was fear that the attacks were spreading west. How widespread was this attack? Would it hit us, too? There were reports on television suggesting people stay away from public places such as malls and especially government buildings.
I can only remember a couple of parents coming to pick their children up from school that day. Such parental instinct is certainly understandable, but I was glad that this was not the pattern. As word of the attacks spread through the student population, many in my classes wanted to suspend our work and move to one of the classrooms with actual television reception. A few students maybe even thought I was slightly unconcerned about the situation because I insisted that outside of a prayer for the situation that we carry on class as usual. I still believe that was the right thing to do.
The best Christian reflection I've come across on September 11, I only read a few days ago. In the current issue of Christianity Today, Timothy George writes a profound piece titled "Theology for an Age of Terror" (not yet available online) in which he looks to Augustine, St Francis, and C. S. Lewis for direction on how to look at the world in the midst of seeming chaos. I especially identified with the words of C. S. Lewis quoted in George's article. The quotation came from an address Lewis gave at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Oxford on October 22, 1939. He was speaking to students a mere two months after the Nazis had invaded Poland. Lewis said:
It may seem odd for us to cary on classes, to go about our academic routine in the midst of a great war. What is the use of beginning when there is so little chance of finishing? How can we study Latin, geography, algebra in a time like this? Aren't we just fiddling while Rome burns?
This impending war has taught us some important things. Life is short. The world is fragile. All of us are vulnerable, but we are here because this is our calling. Our lives are rooted not only in time, but also in eternity, and the life of learning humbly offered to God, is its own reward. It is one of the appointed approaches to the divine reality and the divine beauty, which we shall hereafter enjoy in heaven and which we are called to display even now amidst the brokenness all around us.
Lewis was right. History has indeed shown us that life is short and the world can be fragile. But in the midst of seeming chaos, we must never forget that God is in control regardless. We have a calling, and in response to that calling, we press on.
What I Really Needed Was an Essay Section to Adequately Explain My Answers
08/21/2006 15:28
Two quizzes. I felt like the second one didn't offer enough options to adequately express my beliefs, but at least it shows I'm not an extremist in any area, and I can live with that. 
For what it's worth, I do not consider myself Neo-orthodox, but there just weren't enough options in that quiz. Like I said, I really needed an essay section.
 | You scored as Zwingli. You are Ulrich Zwingli. You believe that bread and wine are mere symbols of the absent Jesus. You believe in interpreting Scripture reasonably.
Eucharistic theology created with QuizFarm.com |
 | You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth.
What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com |
For what it's worth, I do not consider myself Neo-orthodox, but there just weren't enough options in that quiz. Like I said, I really needed an essay section.
Ecclesiastes 7:9
08/05/2006 20:09
Patience
06/14/2006 14:11
New Arrival at the Smith Home
05/30/2006 10:54
Congrats to Troy and Wendy on the arrival of their new little girl, MADISON FAITH. She was born on May 27 at 10:07 AM in Louisville, Kentucky and weighed 7 lbs, 11 oz. and was 21" in length.
Be sure to visit Babynet at Baptist Hospital East to leave Troy and Wendy a word of congratulations.
Believe it or Not
05/22/2006 23:52
| You Have A Type B+ Personality |
|
You're a pro at going with the flow You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer A total joy to be around, people crave your stability. While you're totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity. Get into a project you love, and you won't stop until it's done You're passionate - just selective about your passions |
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Versions of the Bible
05/11/2006 19:29
If you've come back here looking to see if I've started the series on Bible versions I promised last week, I'm sorry to disappoint you. As often is the case, I've overestimated my abilities in relation to my time commitments. When I said that I was going to be busy for the next few days, it was an understatement. It's the end of the semester at SBTS which means that we lowly graders are buried under stacks of papers to score. And besides teaching NT Survey at IWU right now, I'll be teaching a writing class that begins next week and a philosophy class the following week. And then of course, there's the two nights on the Da Vinci Code in a week and a half at church as described in the previous blog...oh--and I'm speaking at the senior banquet on the 19th at the school where I used to be chaplain and teach Bible.
But it's mainly the grades. If I can just get through grading these papers... then I'll have all the time in the world...
Stay tuned.
But it's mainly the grades. If I can just get through grading these papers... then I'll have all the time in the world...
Stay tuned.
Prospectus Delivered!
04/19/2006 16:41
Please pardon the rare personal entry, but I just really feel good right now.
This afternoon I officially delivered my prospectus to the SBTS Doctoral Studies Office. I haven't announced it before now, but the title for my dissertation (unless it changes before May 3) is "Preserved Blameless: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 in Pauline and Jewish Contexts."
What happens now?
Well, next Wednesday, April 26, I will present the prospectus to the NT Colloquium for critique and suggestion. Normally, this is done before submitting the prospectus to the Doctoral Studies Office, but today was the semester deadline for submission, and I switched presentation dates with another student who preferred to present this week. That worked out for me, too, because I don't think I would have been quite ready to distribute copies to colloquium a week ago (they have to be distributed a week in advance).
Then on May 3, the title of my prospectus will go before the entire SBTS faculty for a vote. They don't actually see the entire prospectus, although my supervisor would be present, presumably to answer any content questions that might come up.
Finally, if approved by the faculty, I'll begin writing in May.
But for now, today's a great day!
Kathy's Colloquy
04/10/2006 09:56
When I started my blog in the last month of 2003, Kathy was inspired enough to start one, too. Her original vision was to base discussion about issue and events concerning her role as a "library media specialist" (I hope I got that title right) at Simpsonville Elementary where she works. I used to tease her that her blog wasn't so much of a blog as an online bulletin board of upcoming events.
Left neglected for quite some time, Kathy has decided to refocus her blog toward other things. She writes in a new posting, "Although many of my postings will probably deal with book, library, and education themes, some will inevitably be personal in nature."
Kathy has also renamed her blog. It used to be simply "Simpsonville Elementary Library Blog," but now it has been renamed "Kathy's Colloquy." If you don't like that name, blame me. She was content with a simple title, "Kathy's Blog," but I suggested we find some kind of alliteration.
What's a colloquy? Glad you asked.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives this explanation for "colloquy":
The Oxford American Dictionary adds "a gathering for theological discussions."
All of these definitions are fitting. And Kathy has turned on the comments so that true discussion can take place.
I even suggested she call her blog "Kathy's Kolloquy" for visual alliteration, but she said that everyone would think she doesn't know how to spell "colloquy."
Feel free to stop by Kathy's Colloquy. Encourage her to post because I promise you that her thoughts can be quite engaging. In fact, one might argue that she's more opinionated that I am (I mean that as a compliment, Dear).
Left neglected for quite some time, Kathy has decided to refocus her blog toward other things. She writes in a new posting, "Although many of my postings will probably deal with book, library, and education themes, some will inevitably be personal in nature."
Kathy has also renamed her blog. It used to be simply "Simpsonville Elementary Library Blog," but now it has been renamed "Kathy's Colloquy." If you don't like that name, blame me. She was content with a simple title, "Kathy's Blog," but I suggested we find some kind of alliteration.
What's a colloquy? Glad you asked.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives this explanation for "colloquy":
Etymology: Latin colloquium, from colloqui to converse, from com- + loqui to speak
Date: 15th century
1 : conversation, dialogue
2 : a high-level serious discussion : conference
The Oxford American Dictionary adds "a gathering for theological discussions."
All of these definitions are fitting. And Kathy has turned on the comments so that true discussion can take place.
I even suggested she call her blog "Kathy's Kolloquy" for visual alliteration, but she said that everyone would think she doesn't know how to spell "colloquy."
Feel free to stop by Kathy's Colloquy. Encourage her to post because I promise you that her thoughts can be quite engaging. In fact, one might argue that she's more opinionated that I am (I mean that as a compliment, Dear).
Blogging on Hiatus
02/01/2006 12:49
Kathy says I can't do it--stay away from my blog, that is. We'll see.
I am scheduled to present my prospectus on April 19 to the New Testament Colloquium at SBTS. Until then...
Happy Valentines Day
Happy Presidents' Day
Beware the Ides of March
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Happy April Fool's Day (no, this isn't an April fool's joke)
Happy Easter
All in advance. See you in a two and a half months.
Bigfoot No More
01/27/2006 17:19
Way back in the nineties, I used a bigfoot.com email forwarding address. I haven't given it out in years because it receives so much spam. As of today, I am no longer letting it forward to my main email account. So if for some reason you STILL have the bigfoot email address associated with my name, please change it (for the love of Margaret) to RMansfield@mac.com.
Update (1/28/06): Not only did I stop forwarding my Bigfoot mail, but I also turned off the forwarding from my Yahoo Mail (which I never give out), AND my forwarding from my InsightBB mail (which is also not ever shared). Guess how much junk mail I had this morning? NONE. I usually have at least half a dozen unwanted emails just by the time I get up in the morning. Not now. Go figure.
The Theory of Ecclesiastical Spatial Relativity
12/18/2005 09:09
Bessie Mae Walks on Water! A Christmas Miracle?
12/09/2005 18:23
No... in 14° weather, the fish pond behind our house has frozen over. I don't know why Kathy didn't follow her out there.
More pictures of this supernatural event can be found in our Photos section under "Bessie on Ice."
More pictures of this supernatural event can be found in our Photos section under "Bessie on Ice."
Happy Thanksgiving 2005
11/24/2005 09:41
Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.
Psalm 86:15, NASB
What are you thankful for this year? Last year I asked what you were thankful for if you could only choose ONE thing. However, this year, I can't limit my thankfulness to one item. I have four that I'm naming, but I assure you there are many more. Here are my top four reasons to be thankful to our beneficent Creator:
1. I'm still most thankful that Kathy is my wife. Our little family of just the two of us and our little basset hound, Bessie Mae, is such a sanctuary of peace to me. Add to this that I'm thankful to be able to drive on a long trip to Louisiana with Kathy (we always enjoy the ride together) and spend the holiday with our family.
2. I'm thankful that I've been allowed to go back to school to finish my degree. I wouldn't recommend sitting out five years in the middle of such a pursuit like I did, but I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to go back and finish.
3. I'm thankful for the opportunity to teach classes as an adjunct at Indiana Wesleyan University. I thoroughly enjoy working with college students.
4. Finally, I'm thankful that in the past year, we were able to combine the community where we live with the community with whom we worship. Thus, I'm thankful to be in a community of faith that is within walking distance from our home, Simpsonville Baptist Church.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.
Quest for Peace: A Hero's Tale
11/16/2005 01:32
The title, "Quest for Peace" is a takeoff from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
By the way, if you haven't taken a look at Comic Life yet, I highly recommend that you check out the fun things you can do to photos with it. There is also a user gallery on the Plasq site.
Comps are DONE!!
11/07/2005 12:59
No More Blogs...
11/01/2005 09:43
Press on...press on...press on...
10/26/2005 10:32
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.
(Phil. 3:12-16, NRSV)
Spooky Reading Night
10/21/2005 20:59
Above: Roberta Simpson Brown tells spooky stories around the campfire while a nervous crowd sits transfixed.
The Shelbyville Sentinel-News published a recent story on the "Spooky Story Night" that Kathy coordinated at Simpsonville Elementary. The story is reproduced below. The event itself was held October 14, 2005.
___________________________________________________
Kentucky author regales with scary tales
By Stephen Burnett/Sentinel-News Staff Writer
Darkening skies, blazing campfire, buzzing of insects in the forest, full moon -- all provided an appropriate backdrop in Wyatt's Woods, behind Simpsonville Elementary School, for the school's "Spooky Reading Night" Friday.
"This is one of our biggest events of the year," said librarian Kathy Mansfield. "Probably the biggest."
Kentucky author and retired teacher Roberta Simpson Brown told four stories to a crowd of children and parents, starting with the less-scary stories, Brown said, and increasing the horror index with each one.
"It was fun, exciting," 11-year-old Traci Nash said. "I heard some stories I'd never heard before."
"I was a little scared, but not really," said 10-year-old Morgan Isenberg, who attended with her mom, Michelle.
"It was a fun scare, kind of like a roller coaster," Michelle said.
To 10-year-old Cameron Morris, Brown's most frightening stories were the best. He said his favorite was "Lockers," about a ghost and a murderer in a school locker who terrorizes a girl so badly that she is never able to speak again.
"It was the most real," he said.
Although the stories are scary and sometimes even "gross," Mansfield said, Brown's young audience mostly understood the difference between reality and imagination.
"She's very good at reminding them that they're make-believe stories," Mansfield said.
About 300 other children and parents attended the event, while Brown, standing in the center, recounted her four stories from memory. With a microphone and karaoke box, Brown would monotone, change her vocal pitch, pause dramatically, or drop her tone to a guttural growl for the especially scary parts.
"She constantly carries throat lozenges with her," Mansfield said.
Brown had come to Simpsonville in March, when she told stories and encouraged writing and creativity, Mansfield said.
"We saw a lot of kids being very creative in their writing with tales of their own," Mansfield said. "To them, she is a rock star."
On Friday evening, Brown and her husband, Lonnie, sold out of her books offered to children, including Queen of the Cold-Blooded Tales, and Scared in School.
A few of the campfire stories were too much for some children, though.
George and Elizabeth Najjar of Shelbyville were among some of those who had to leave early. Their daughters, 4-year-old Courtney and 6-year-old Natalie, started out having fun, but later didn't do very well with Brown's other stories.
"They made it through the first story, but then the second one -- they were just squeamish in their chairs and they wanted to go," Elizabeth Najjar said.
The family walked down the trail in the woods without a flashlight, leaves crunching.
At home, Najjar said, shrubbery scraping against her daughters' bedroom walls stimulated their fright even more, although the girls have since recovered.
"To get through the night, we had to sleep together," Najjar said with a laugh.
Labor Day 2005
09/05/2005 23:22
We had a very relaxing Labor Day weekend. I feel a little guilty because I didn't get in as much study as I needed to, but we spent the time with friends on Saturday and Sunday and then by ourselves for a relaxing day on Monday.
CLICK HERE to see the pictures I've posted on our website.
A Fond Memory of New Orleans: Never Bet on Another Man's Game
09/03/2005 01:10
All the recent footage of the devastation from Hurricane Katrina made me think back to an experience I had in the French Quarter almost two decades ago. I was fresh out of high school and was in New Orleans with some friends. One of the interesting things about Bourbon Street and the French Quarter that I noticed was that during the daytime, there were a number of street hustlers working various shell games and other cons. Interestingly, I observed that they tended to close up shop at sunset and pretty much disappeared.
However, it was middle of the afternoon, and as I was walking down Bourbon Street with my friends, a local approached us and suggested that he would bet any of us $20 that he could tell us "where we got our shoes" right down to city and street name. Of course, years earlier my grandfather had instilled in me the wisdom to never bet on another man's game. However, I was curious to know the trick. How could he possibly know where I got my shoes?
So, I asked him if he would settle for one dollar instead of a full twenty. Easy money is easy money, regardless of the amount, so he agreed to bet me $1 that he could tell me where I got my shoes. So, I pulled out my dollar and so did he and I said, "So tell, where did I get my shoes?"
He looked me right and the eyes and although he was a hustler, evidently he also had the heart of a teacher toward me--a supposedly naive 18-year-old. "First," he said, "never bet on another man's game." Did he know my grandfather?
Then, to claim my dollar he said, "You GOT your shoes on your FEET on BOURBON STREET, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA." As he smiled and held out his hand for my money, I hesitated. Technically, his English was incorrect. Got implies "received" or "bought." Therefore, if his grammar were correct he would have to say "You HAVE your shoes on your feet..." which was not the original wager.
However, he was bigger, older and frankly, I was too scared to get into a grammatical debate with him. Plus, I just wanted to know the trick, so I gave him the dollar, and my friends and I continued to stroll down the street. My grandfather had been proven right--never bet on another man's game!
Kathy's School Website
08/11/2005 13:05
Kathy has updated her Simpsonville Elementary Library website , if you want to explore what she has planned for the year. In addition to the link in this blog entry, I have added a link on our main website as well.
The Tyranny of the Stuff I Never Got Around To
08/04/2005 00:01
Over the weekend, I replied to an email that an old friend from college sent me. I haven't seen or heard from him in years. It was nice to see what he's up to and update him on the things that Kathy and I are doing. That's nice, you think to yourself, but why are you writing about this? Well, what makes the email exchange worthy of mention is that I was replying to an email that I first received in March of 2000! In fact, my friend's email address had changed since then, and I had to find him on the internet and resend my message.
Do you ever take important information that you need to reply or give attention to and put it in a drawer, or a filing cabinet or some stack somewhere thinking you will take care of it eventually? I do that more often than I would like to admit. I even do it with email now and then. I have this "Needs Attention" folder in my email. That's where Mitch's email sat for the last five years. I've recently determined that if I put something in that folder, I am consigning it to an indefinite "correspondence limbo."
I was reflecting on this today because I read with interest Gordon MacDonald's column "Downsize Me" at the Leadership Journal website. He writes about spending the summer going through his house, garage, bookshelves, filing cabinets, etc., discarding the things that he no longer needs. In doing so, he makes these observations:
First, how much time and energy I gave to things that really weren't very important and had no long term value. Second, how many people who were once champions for some effort flamed out after just a few years and disappeared. Conversely, how many times I misjudged someone, wrote them off, and then saw them gather strength and become saints. And, finally, how important it is to be faithful in the routine, day-after-day exercises of leadership. You don't get much people-shaping done if you move every two years.
Perhaps the most embarrassing aspect of all these files is their evidence of my feverish sense of self-importance. Too much about me, too little about Jesus.
Result: Operation Downsizing is worming its way into my soul and its issues. Getting rid of books and old sports equipment was easier. My spiritual basement is a tougher place to work in.
I had a similar experience earlier this summer myself. I resigned from my position at Whitefield Academy and spent my last few days going through five years worth of stuff in my desk and filing cabinets in my former office. Then, a few days later, I consolidated four filing cabinet drawers of stuff at home down to two drawers. In doing all that, I came to the conclusion that if you put something off because you want to deal with it later, by the time you get around to actually doing that, it will no longer be relevant.
This worked on two levels for me. First, there were things that I filed or set aside because I thought they were important or because I thought I would want to pursue them later. In the end, I piled trash cans HIGH with that kind of stuff because it was really too late or it was something that no longer interested me. Then, on the other hand, I had notes written to myself to check on this student, or to call that parent back, or to rethink a particular grade I had given. Although I did those kinds of things regularly, I never took the time to do them all. There just seemed to never be enough time...
Years ago, I read a little booklet called "Tyranny of the Urgent." You can find it in its entirety on the internet, and I started to attach a pdf file to this blog entry, but technically it's copyrighted material, so I decided against posting it. However, you can buy a copy from Intervarsity Press for $1.50.
In this little booklet, Charles Hummel reminds us that there is a distinction between what it is urgent and what is important. If you're like me, you triage your tasks. Putting everything in my life in chronological order, what's my next deadline? Well, then, I'll do that next. Those are the things that are urgent, but they aren't necessarily important. That email reply to an old friend, or that little voice that tells you to check on a particular student, or the realization that you haven't spent quality time with your family in a while... Well, those things don't have deadlines, do they? But they are important, vitally important. And, if you're like me, you let those urgent things--those deadlines--keep you from doing the things that you need to do, the things that have lasting--eternal--value.
Well, read Hummel's booklet for practical advice on making the important things a reality in your life over the urgent things. This blog entry is just a reminder, primarily to myself.
"Give us this day, our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11) is the prayer that I often forget to pray. Rather than taking care of the important things that are given to me daily, I often pursue the urgent things that on down the path of my life are not all that relevant. Perhaps if I focused more on the daily bread, I would have to focus less on "forgive us our (i.e. MY) debts..."
Return of the Askalada Power Team
08/01/2005 00:01
In the Fall of 1984, two best friends secured positions on their high school newspaper, The Airline Askalada . Kathy Putman was editor of the paper and Darcie Cash was the business manager. They referred to themselves as "The Askalada Power Team." A few years later, I married the editor and dragged her off to Kentucky.
Fast-forward twenty years to July 31, 2005 when the world (or at least the Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana part of it) saw the return of these two friends on the printed page. Darcie (now Darcie Johnson) is a member of the Shreveport Times Community Board and a frequent opinion contributor to the paper. Like many communities in America today, a hot topic is whether or not schools should abandon the traditional calendar in favor of a year-round schedule. Knowing that Kathy has worked in year-round schools in the past, Darcie suggested to the editor that Kathy would be a good resource to write a guest column. Darcie wrote an article, too, from the viewpoint of a parent. Yesterday, both articles appeared side-by-side. The Return of the Askalada Power Team...
If you would like to read the articles, follow the links below.
"Calendar Should Be Dependent on Student Population," by Kathy Mansfield
"Short Breaks Are Best," by Darcie Johnson
Fast-forward twenty years to July 31, 2005 when the world (or at least the Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana part of it) saw the return of these two friends on the printed page. Darcie (now Darcie Johnson) is a member of the Shreveport Times Community Board and a frequent opinion contributor to the paper. Like many communities in America today, a hot topic is whether or not schools should abandon the traditional calendar in favor of a year-round schedule. Knowing that Kathy has worked in year-round schools in the past, Darcie suggested to the editor that Kathy would be a good resource to write a guest column. Darcie wrote an article, too, from the viewpoint of a parent. Yesterday, both articles appeared side-by-side. The Return of the Askalada Power Team...
If you would like to read the articles, follow the links below.
"Calendar Should Be Dependent on Student Population," by Kathy Mansfield
"Short Breaks Are Best," by Darcie Johnson
Creative Writing
07/31/2005 01:50
Poetry & Prose by Rick & Kathy
This afternoon while going through some old papers, I came across a short story that I had written around the time I was in college, "Mr. Easly's Life After Death Experience." A few of you from way back might remember it. That prompted me to set up a Creative Writing section on our main website . Kathy has been writing poetry as long as I've known her and has notebooks filled literally with hundreds of poems. She has had a few of her poems published.
I'm sure we will be adding both newer and older pieces over time, but here are our first submissions to you, dear readers:
"Mr. Easly's Life After Death Experience"
I wrote this in response to all the life after death, white light experiences that were being described around the time I was in college. About that same time, we used to sit in a circle reading selections from Steve Martin's The Cruel Shoes, so it's somewhat in that vein.
"Yesterday, When My Truck Went Into a Ditch"
In January, 1994, I was taking a Christian Journalism class at Asbury Theological Seminary. On my first day of travel from Louisville to Wilmore, the roads were covered with snow and ice (this was exactly two weeks before the BIG snow of 1994 for you Louivillians who remember). This short paragraph was written in response to the irony of the situation I found myself in that cold winter morning.
"The Empty Tomb Conspiracy"
While taking the Christian Journalism class at Asbury, I wrote an apologetic piece, "The Empty Tomb Conspiracy." I submitted it a couple of places, but I really think that most folks just don't get it. My point in the story is that had the disciples made up Jesus' resurrection, they wouldn't have been willing to die martyr's deaths for something they knew was a lie. But like I said, most folks just don't get it. I've actually seen people become red-faced angry while reading it.
Five poems from Kathy:
"Well of Tears"
"Pictures on the Fridge"
"70 x 7"
"Empty Arms"
"Floppy Ears"
I asked Kathy to pick out a few initial poems to put on the website. The choices she made are startlingly personal. She never ceases to amaze me which is one of the reasons I love her so much.
Anyway, feel free to read, comment, and check back for more entries in the future. I've also added a link to the Creative Writing page on the sidebar to the right.
This afternoon while going through some old papers, I came across a short story that I had written around the time I was in college, "Mr. Easly's Life After Death Experience." A few of you from way back might remember it. That prompted me to set up a Creative Writing section on our main website . Kathy has been writing poetry as long as I've known her and has notebooks filled literally with hundreds of poems. She has had a few of her poems published.
I'm sure we will be adding both newer and older pieces over time, but here are our first submissions to you, dear readers:
"Mr. Easly's Life After Death Experience"
I wrote this in response to all the life after death, white light experiences that were being described around the time I was in college. About that same time, we used to sit in a circle reading selections from Steve Martin's The Cruel Shoes, so it's somewhat in that vein.
"Yesterday, When My Truck Went Into a Ditch"
In January, 1994, I was taking a Christian Journalism class at Asbury Theological Seminary. On my first day of travel from Louisville to Wilmore, the roads were covered with snow and ice (this was exactly two weeks before the BIG snow of 1994 for you Louivillians who remember). This short paragraph was written in response to the irony of the situation I found myself in that cold winter morning.
"The Empty Tomb Conspiracy"
While taking the Christian Journalism class at Asbury, I wrote an apologetic piece, "The Empty Tomb Conspiracy." I submitted it a couple of places, but I really think that most folks just don't get it. My point in the story is that had the disciples made up Jesus' resurrection, they wouldn't have been willing to die martyr's deaths for something they knew was a lie. But like I said, most folks just don't get it. I've actually seen people become red-faced angry while reading it.
Five poems from Kathy:
"Well of Tears"
"Pictures on the Fridge"
"70 x 7"
"Empty Arms"
"Floppy Ears"
I asked Kathy to pick out a few initial poems to put on the website. The choices she made are startlingly personal. She never ceases to amaze me which is one of the reasons I love her so much.
Anyway, feel free to read, comment, and check back for more entries in the future. I've also added a link to the Creative Writing page on the sidebar to the right.
Alter-Egos
07/15/2005 19:38
I came across this quiz today that determines which theologian you are most like. This will mean nothing to some of you who read this blog, but a few of you may want to take it yourself. If so, click the link below.
Here are my results:
Anselm? I can live with that.
Then, I was emailed another profile quiz. This one matches you to various science fiction characters. My results? See below.
Click on the link and take the quiz yourself. Post whatever theologian or character you are in the comments below.
Here are my results:
 | You scored as Anselm. Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period.He sees man's primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read 'Cur Deus Homo?'
Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com |
Anselm? I can live with that.
Then, I was emailed another profile quiz. This one matches you to various science fiction characters. My results? See below.
Click on the link and take the quiz yourself. Post whatever theologian or character you are in the comments below.
Personal Note: Heading Back to School
04/10/2005 13:06
Saturday a week ago, I received my acceptance letter in the mail granting my re-admission to the doctoral program at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary . Thank-you to all of you who have been praying for me in this regard. I will officially enroll as a student in the Fall semester with the seemingly heady tasks of taking comprehensive finals in November and presenting a dissertation prospectus sometime before then.
Unfortunately, this means that I will no longer serve as chaplain or teach classes at Whitefield Academy as there is no way I could do both. I do hope to find part-time work on the seminary campus. Currently, I am scheduled to teach at Indiana Wesleyan University through the beginning of June, but will then take a hiatus from teaching there until my comps are over at Southern.
Over the next few weeks, I will begin transitioning back to student life again, organizing my notes, re-researching a dissertation topic, and if I am able to obtain it, setting up study space over at the seminary library.
I would still ask for your prayers, especially in regard to the comprehensive finals since I have not been in the program since 2000 and have a lot of catching up to do.
Unfortunately, this means that I will no longer serve as chaplain or teach classes at Whitefield Academy as there is no way I could do both. I do hope to find part-time work on the seminary campus. Currently, I am scheduled to teach at Indiana Wesleyan University through the beginning of June, but will then take a hiatus from teaching there until my comps are over at Southern.
Over the next few weeks, I will begin transitioning back to student life again, organizing my notes, re-researching a dissertation topic, and if I am able to obtain it, setting up study space over at the seminary library.
I would still ask for your prayers, especially in regard to the comprehensive finals since I have not been in the program since 2000 and have a lot of catching up to do.
Searching for Financial Peace
06/14/2004 19:40
How I finally gave up and shaved my head and drank the Kool-Aid...
The only thing that has ever interested me about money is the ability to spend it. However, if you think about it, that attitude has all the maturity of a nine-year-old. A few months ago I began to grow up in regard to handling money. However, it was not an easy journey; it's one that I went into kicking and screaming until I finally gave in.
I used to make fun of people who did the "whole Dave Ramsey thing." I always said that I wasn't going to join that cult. It's funny I would say that because the joke about giving into his principles is that you've "shaved your head and drunk the Kool-Aid."
Why did I do it? It's really pretty simple.
1. I was tired of being broke all the time in spite of having a pretty good income.
2. I was tired of living paycheck to paycheck.
3. I was tired of watching my debt increase month by month.
4. I was afraid to look at a future in which I might not have any retirement saved meaning no financial security when I grow old.
If you can relate to that or if you're just plain interested, keep reading.
The thing I like about Dave Ramsey's plan is that it is manageable. You don't do everything all at once, but you go in what he calls baby steps. Here they are:
1. $1,000 in a "starter" Emergency Fund ($500 if income is udner $20,000/yr)
2. Pay off all debt (except the house) utilizing the "Debt Snowball"
3. 3-6 months expenses in Emergency Fund savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5. College Funding
6. Pay off home early
7. Building wealth! (Mutual Funds/Real Estate)
Kathy and I finished the full-blown Financial Peace University a little over a week ago. When I look back on how far I've come, it's been a long journey. Here's my story...
The fact that I've been irresponsible with money is strictly my fault. I was definitely taught better. My mother was a banker who always stressed saving and not getting into debt. However, I never really heeded her advice. I remember going through the registration line my sophomore year in college and getting my first credit cards. At the end of the line there was a table set up right in the way of students leaving the building. You actually had to walk around it to get out. They were signing students up for Visa cards and Sears cards. If you signed up for both, you got a t-shirt! Who-hoo! Well, guess who got a t-shirt? Yeah, that and a whole lot of misery.
I never really used those cards in college though. It was actually in the first month out of college in my first real job that I took on my first debt. I charged a $1400 laptop (it had 728K of RAM, a 720K floppy and a 20MB hard drive, and a monochrome CGA screen--this was 1990). It's crazy to think that the very first thing I would do out of college is leverage 10% of my yearly salary from my first job, but I did. A couple of years later I remember charging software to that Visa I got in college to the tune of about $200 and the snowball started rolling from there, but it was rolling up hill and getting bigger.
Flash forward a decade later and now I owe...well...I'm kinda embarrassed to say how much. But at last I'm finally growing up and starting to do something about it.
Dave Ramsey says that a sign of maturity is the ability to delay gratification. A friend counseled me a year and a half ago that my problem was that I want what I want when I want it. Gluttony takes on more forms than just food, and I was guilty of this sin. Heck, I was the poster child. I had the best computer, best laptop, best digital camera, best PDA/cell phone, and like the guy says on the TV commercial, "And I'm up to my ears in debt!"
I first put my debts in order from least to greatest with the idea to do a Dave Ramsey snowball well over a year ago. He says to list all your debts from least to greatest and start attacking the lowest one. Once you've paid that one off, take that amount and add it to the next debt. By the time you get to your last debt, you will be making huge monthly payments to get rid of what you owe.
I’d been tracking the debt for a while, and I am a Quicken junkie, so I have minute by minute scrutiny on my finances. However, my debt was not going down because I was still not changing one little (okay, actually big) habit--I was still charging. And, of course, there was no written budget, so when I didn’t have enough money at the end of the paycheck, I would charge meals or groceries or whatever I needed to get by. So I was watching my debt climb higher and higher—but, hey [input sarcastic tone here], at least I was tracking it, right?
Well, I finally got to the point that I had had enough. That was about the last week of December, 2003. I drew a line in the sand that said I wasn’t going to charge anymore. I remember sitting in a Starbucks that morning during the second week of my Christmas break. And I was resolved. No more charging...that was it. Dave Ramsey talks about having some kind of test after you’ve decided not to charge and usually it comes in the form of some kind of emergency. Mine was much worse. I’m telling you I was still in the Starbucks and it had not been but about two hours since I set my resolve before my phone rang and it was Apple Computer! They were calling to remind me that my year’s warranty would soon expire on my PowerBook and it would only cost $300 to renew it for another two years. I said that I didn’t have that much, to which she replied that she could just add it onto my Apple loan! And can you believe that for a split second, I almost did it! I have always bought extended warranties on laptops because the risk of breaking them is so much greater. But all of a sudden my resolve came back and I hung up the phone. I watched the deadline for my renewal come and go and that was that. Of course then a couple of weeks later, the strap on my laptop bag broke and it fell and now my PowerBook won’t close properly, but it still works (I'm writing this blog on it), and I don’t think that kind of accident would have been covered anyway. Regardless, I haven’t charged anything since the first week of December. My credit cards have all been torn up so now I can’t charge even if I want to.
Then a month later, I actually was able to track my debt go DOWN for the first time since...well, as far back as I can remember. Mind you it wasn’t much because I was only making minimum payments, but it was something. A year earlier my stepfather had offered to sponsor me through Financial Peace University if I would take it. So in February, I called and signed up and found a little church in Georgetown, Indiana offering it on Sunday nights (which was what I needed so that I could still continue to teach night classes at IWU on weeknights which I had started in January). They let Kathy take the classes with me at no extra cost.
I gave into this thing one step at a time. First, I was willing to do the debt snowball—a year ago. Then I signed up for the class after deciding not to charge anything else. I was going to do that, but I didn’t know if I wanted to do a written budget. THEN I decided to do the written budget, but I didn’t want to do that cash system/envelope thing. But I listened to all the CDs ahead of time and started reading the books, and decided to just do the whole thing. Kathy and I did separate written budgets in the month before we got remarried. Then after we married we were able to combine our budgets. And although Dave says it takes three or four months to really get your budget right, ours has been pretty solid from the get-go. We tweak it a little bit at our monthly family budget meetings, but it’s working well.
By working extra jobs such as teaching night classes at IWU and Kathy teaching summer classes at her school, and by selling quite a bit of stuff we weren't using anymore, we've been able, on average, to pay an extra $1,000 on our debts the last three months. I don't think we can keep up the momentum for an extra $1,000 of income coming in every month, but that was enough to get the whole snowball rolling and now three of the debts on the snowball are gone and those payments can now be applied to the next debt. It's rolling!
Dave says that normal in America = BROKE. I decided I don't want to be there anymore. If you're in similar straits, I really recommend this program. Plus, it's about much more than getting out of debt. It's comprehensive in regard to finances such as saving for your children's college the right way so that it will be completely paid for. He shows you how to properly invest your retirement savings and explains insurance and how to buy things cheaper than regular retail prices.
And the whole program is rooted in the Judeo-Christian principle of stewardship--that is, properly managing the things you've been entrusted to so that you use your resources to their best potential.
I will tell you that the plan is pretty simple, but it's not easy. It meant for me that I had to grow up, I had to be disciplined, and I had to be a man--but it's worth it.
As Dave says, "If you live like no one else, LATER, you can live like no one else..."
The only thing that has ever interested me about money is the ability to spend it. However, if you think about it, that attitude has all the maturity of a nine-year-old. A few months ago I began to grow up in regard to handling money. However, it was not an easy journey; it's one that I went into kicking and screaming until I finally gave in.
I used to make fun of people who did the "whole Dave Ramsey thing." I always said that I wasn't going to join that cult. It's funny I would say that because the joke about giving into his principles is that you've "shaved your head and drunk the Kool-Aid."
Why did I do it? It's really pretty simple.
1. I was tired of being broke all the time in spite of having a pretty good income.
2. I was tired of living paycheck to paycheck.
3. I was tired of watching my debt increase month by month.
4. I was afraid to look at a future in which I might not have any retirement saved meaning no financial security when I grow old.
If you can relate to that or if you're just plain interested, keep reading.
The thing I like about Dave Ramsey's plan is that it is manageable. You don't do everything all at once, but you go in what he calls baby steps. Here they are:
1. $1,000 in a "starter" Emergency Fund ($500 if income is udner $20,000/yr)
2. Pay off all debt (except the house) utilizing the "Debt Snowball"
3. 3-6 months expenses in Emergency Fund savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5. College Funding
6. Pay off home early
7. Building wealth! (Mutual Funds/Real Estate)
Kathy and I finished the full-blown Financial Peace University a little over a week ago. When I look back on how far I've come, it's been a long journey. Here's my story...
The fact that I've been irresponsible with money is strictly my fault. I was definitely taught better. My mother was a banker who always stressed saving and not getting into debt. However, I never really heeded her advice. I remember going through the registration line my sophomore year in college and getting my first credit cards. At the end of the line there was a table set up right in the way of students leaving the building. You actually had to walk around it to get out. They were signing students up for Visa cards and Sears cards. If you signed up for both, you got a t-shirt! Who-hoo! Well, guess who got a t-shirt? Yeah, that and a whole lot of misery.
I never really used those cards in college though. It was actually in the first month out of college in my first real job that I took on my first debt. I charged a $1400 laptop (it had 728K of RAM, a 720K floppy and a 20MB hard drive, and a monochrome CGA screen--this was 1990). It's crazy to think that the very first thing I would do out of college is leverage 10% of my yearly salary from my first job, but I did. A couple of years later I remember charging software to that Visa I got in college to the tune of about $200 and the snowball started rolling from there, but it was rolling up hill and getting bigger.
Flash forward a decade later and now I owe...well...I'm kinda embarrassed to say how much. But at last I'm finally growing up and starting to do something about it.
Dave Ramsey says that a sign of maturity is the ability to delay gratification. A friend counseled me a year and a half ago that my problem was that I want what I want when I want it. Gluttony takes on more forms than just food, and I was guilty of this sin. Heck, I was the poster child. I had the best computer, best laptop, best digital camera, best PDA/cell phone, and like the guy says on the TV commercial, "And I'm up to my ears in debt!"
I first put my debts in order from least to greatest with the idea to do a Dave Ramsey snowball well over a year ago. He says to list all your debts from least to greatest and start attacking the lowest one. Once you've paid that one off, take that amount and add it to the next debt. By the time you get to your last debt, you will be making huge monthly payments to get rid of what you owe.
I’d been tracking the debt for a while, and I am a Quicken junkie, so I have minute by minute scrutiny on my finances. However, my debt was not going down because I was still not changing one little (okay, actually big) habit--I was still charging. And, of course, there was no written budget, so when I didn’t have enough money at the end of the paycheck, I would charge meals or groceries or whatever I needed to get by. So I was watching my debt climb higher and higher—but, hey [input sarcastic tone here], at least I was tracking it, right?
Well, I finally got to the point that I had had enough. That was about the last week of December, 2003. I drew a line in the sand that said I wasn’t going to charge anymore. I remember sitting in a Starbucks that morning during the second week of my Christmas break. And I was resolved. No more charging...that was it. Dave Ramsey talks about having some kind of test after you’ve decided not to charge and usually it comes in the form of some kind of emergency. Mine was much worse. I’m telling you I was still in the Starbucks and it had not been but about two hours since I set my resolve before my phone rang and it was Apple Computer! They were calling to remind me that my year’s warranty would soon expire on my PowerBook and it would only cost $300 to renew it for another two years. I said that I didn’t have that much, to which she replied that she could just add it onto my Apple loan! And can you believe that for a split second, I almost did it! I have always bought extended warranties on laptops because the risk of breaking them is so much greater. But all of a sudden my resolve came back and I hung up the phone. I watched the deadline for my renewal come and go and that was that. Of course then a couple of weeks later, the strap on my laptop bag broke and it fell and now my PowerBook won’t close properly, but it still works (I'm writing this blog on it), and I don’t think that kind of accident would have been covered anyway. Regardless, I haven’t charged anything since the first week of December. My credit cards have all been torn up so now I can’t charge even if I want to.
Then a month later, I actually was able to track my debt go DOWN for the first time since...well, as far back as I can remember. Mind you it wasn’t much because I was only making minimum payments, but it was something. A year earlier my stepfather had offered to sponsor me through Financial Peace University if I would take it. So in February, I called and signed up and found a little church in Georgetown, Indiana offering it on Sunday nights (which was what I needed so that I could still continue to teach night classes at IWU on weeknights which I had started in January). They let Kathy take the classes with me at no extra cost.
I gave into this thing one step at a time. First, I was willing to do the debt snowball—a year ago. Then I signed up for the class after deciding not to charge anything else. I was going to do that, but I didn’t know if I wanted to do a written budget. THEN I decided to do the written budget, but I didn’t want to do that cash system/envelope thing. But I listened to all the CDs ahead of time and started reading the books, and decided to just do the whole thing. Kathy and I did separate written budgets in the month before we got remarried. Then after we married we were able to combine our budgets. And although Dave says it takes three or four months to really get your budget right, ours has been pretty solid from the get-go. We tweak it a little bit at our monthly family budget meetings, but it’s working well.
By working extra jobs such as teaching night classes at IWU and Kathy teaching summer classes at her school, and by selling quite a bit of stuff we weren't using anymore, we've been able, on average, to pay an extra $1,000 on our debts the last three months. I don't think we can keep up the momentum for an extra $1,000 of income coming in every month, but that was enough to get the whole snowball rolling and now three of the debts on the snowball are gone and those payments can now be applied to the next debt. It's rolling!
Dave says that normal in America = BROKE. I decided I don't want to be there anymore. If you're in similar straits, I really recommend this program. Plus, it's about much more than getting out of debt. It's comprehensive in regard to finances such as saving for your children's college the right way so that it will be completely paid for. He shows you how to properly invest your retirement savings and explains insurance and how to buy things cheaper than regular retail prices.
And the whole program is rooted in the Judeo-Christian principle of stewardship--that is, properly managing the things you've been entrusted to so that you use your resources to their best potential.
I will tell you that the plan is pretty simple, but it's not easy. It meant for me that I had to grow up, I had to be disciplined, and I had to be a man--but it's worth it.
As Dave says, "If you live like no one else, LATER, you can live like no one else..."
I Probably Think This Blog Is About Me
12/02/2003 15:04
Well, okay...I'll give this blog thing a try, but does anyone really care?
My own internal objections to writing a "Blog" ("web log" for the neophytes) are twofold.
First, it just seems so vain . I mean who am I to think that anyone would would be interested in reading anything that I have to say--especially on a regular basis? Every time I hear of someone starting a a blog, I kinda raise my eyebrows and voice an internal "hmmm.... ."
Second, it's just another thing I am supposed to on a daily basis. I have trouble doing things on a weekly basis (like turning in my lesson plans and posting my grades to the web). I don't even make my bed everyday (actually, I don't sleep in a bed, but I guess that's a subject for a later blog).
I mean daily things... I would like to read my Bible daily, pray daily (i. e. multiple times daily), workout at the gym daily, watch the news daily to stay current, keep my desk neat and tidy daily, translate a verse or two daily from the Bible out of the original languages so I don't lose what I learned in seminary . But Sheesh, I think if I was able to do all of that daily, I wouldn't be able to go to work or sleep.
So why am I doing this? Well first of all I have had more than one person (that means two persons) suggest that I write one. See... there goes that vanity thing which I believe is inherently at the bottom of anyone's motive to keep a blog.
Plus, in reality, I have many thoughts and opinions on a wide variety of topics. For instance, I often go see a movie and then sit down and write a review that I email to my friends or use as discussion with my classes. I guess that I have lots to share with others, although that still doesn't necessarily imply that anyone is really interested.
Finally, I have this .Mac (pronounced DOT MAC) with Apple (yes, I'm a proud Mac user who will only give the platform up when you pry my mouse from my cold, dead... nevermind). One of the perks of having a .Mac account is you get free software every now and then. About a month ago, one of the free offerings was this program call iBlog from Lifli Software . Since I had masses of people (okay, again, two) urging me to write a blog, I downloaded it, and it has sat on my hard drive snoring away for about a month. The nifty thing about this software is that it integrates painlessly and effortlessly. with my website that is part of my .Mac account (where you are reading this, right now). This is my first entry, and I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like all I have to do is hit save and it is added to my my homepage. Pretty nifty, eh? But if you're reading this, I guess it worked.
So...here we are.
Okay let's set some ground rules. Actually, these are rules for myself. I am not going to write an entry everyday. If you come here looking for something from me everyday, you will be disappointed, plus you need to get a life. I mean, I've read other people's blogs before, but I don't read anyone's blog everyday. I guess the opposite of feeling that writing a blog is a vain thing is to read someone else's blog everyday. In other words, I don't have a high enough opinion of anyone that I feel I need daily inspiration from them. My goal is to read my Bible everyday, and I don't hit that 100%, so I certainly am not going to read what someone else says everyday.
But I will write as thoughts hit me, or as I see movies, or when opinions on a particular issue are strong. What will I write about? Probably not much about my personal life. It's that vain thing again that I would prefer to avoid at least as much as possible. I have no illusion that you are the least bit interested in reading about what I had for lunch or who I spent time with Friday night.
But I will write about things I am interested in under the broad categories of religion, technology, culture, movies, and books...and occasionally politics.
If you're really interested, I would recommend checking back maybe once a week. I have no idea how often I will write, but like I said, it won't be everyday. If this becomes a burden or if absolutely no one is paying attention, I'll pull it from my website.
By the way, as we go, if you have any questions, thoughts, comments, or rebuttals, feel free to email me (rmansfield@mac.com). Unless you ask me not to, I will address them here.
Until then...watch this space.
Quick side note department: This iBlog software has a built in spellcheck like that in MS Word where misspelled words get underlined in red. Up above it didn't give any protest to my use of "kinda" (which I like to use a lot even though I know it is not a word). However, it does put a red line underneath the word "blog" and "iBlog." How ironic is that?
My own internal objections to writing a "Blog" ("web log" for the neophytes) are twofold.
First, it just seems so vain . I mean who am I to think that anyone would would be interested in reading anything that I have to say--especially on a regular basis? Every time I hear of someone starting a a blog, I kinda raise my eyebrows and voice an internal "hmmm.... ."
Second, it's just another thing I am supposed to on a daily basis. I have trouble doing things on a weekly basis (like turning in my lesson plans and posting my grades to the web). I don't even make my bed everyday (actually, I don't sleep in a bed, but I guess that's a subject for a later blog).
I mean daily things... I would like to read my Bible daily, pray daily (i. e. multiple times daily), workout at the gym daily, watch the news daily to stay current, keep my desk neat and tidy daily, translate a verse or two daily from the Bible out of the original languages so I don't lose what I learned in seminary . But Sheesh, I think if I was able to do all of that daily, I wouldn't be able to go to work or sleep.
So why am I doing this? Well first of all I have had more than one person (that means two persons) suggest that I write one. See... there goes that vanity thing which I believe is inherently at the bottom of anyone's motive to keep a blog.
Plus, in reality, I have many thoughts and opinions on a wide variety of topics. For instance, I often go see a movie and then sit down and write a review that I email to my friends or use as discussion with my classes. I guess that I have lots to share with others, although that still doesn't necessarily imply that anyone is really interested.
Finally, I have this .Mac (pronounced DOT MAC) with Apple (yes, I'm a proud Mac user who will only give the platform up when you pry my mouse from my cold, dead... nevermind). One of the perks of having a .Mac account is you get free software every now and then. About a month ago, one of the free offerings was this program call iBlog from Lifli Software . Since I had masses of people (okay, again, two) urging me to write a blog, I downloaded it, and it has sat on my hard drive snoring away for about a month. The nifty thing about this software is that it integrates painlessly and effortlessly. with my website that is part of my .Mac account (where you are reading this, right now). This is my first entry, and I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like all I have to do is hit save and it is added to my my homepage. Pretty nifty, eh? But if you're reading this, I guess it worked.
So...here we are.
Okay let's set some ground rules. Actually, these are rules for myself. I am not going to write an entry everyday. If you come here looking for something from me everyday, you will be disappointed, plus you need to get a life. I mean, I've read other people's blogs before, but I don't read anyone's blog everyday. I guess the opposite of feeling that writing a blog is a vain thing is to read someone else's blog everyday. In other words, I don't have a high enough opinion of anyone that I feel I need daily inspiration from them. My goal is to read my Bible everyday, and I don't hit that 100%, so I certainly am not going to read what someone else says everyday.
But I will write as thoughts hit me, or as I see movies, or when opinions on a particular issue are strong. What will I write about? Probably not much about my personal life. It's that vain thing again that I would prefer to avoid at least as much as possible. I have no illusion that you are the least bit interested in reading about what I had for lunch or who I spent time with Friday night.
But I will write about things I am interested in under the broad categories of religion, technology, culture, movies, and books...and occasionally politics.
If you're really interested, I would recommend checking back maybe once a week. I have no idea how often I will write, but like I said, it won't be everyday. If this becomes a burden or if absolutely no one is paying attention, I'll pull it from my website.
By the way, as we go, if you have any questions, thoughts, comments, or rebuttals, feel free to email me (rmansfield@mac.com). Unless you ask me not to, I will address them here.
Until then...watch this space.
Quick side note department: This iBlog software has a built in spellcheck like that in MS Word where misspelled words get underlined in red. Up above it didn't give any protest to my use of "kinda" (which I like to use a lot even though I know it is not a word). However, it does put a red line underneath the word "blog" and "iBlog." How ironic is that?