This is sad. If you feel like praying, I'm sure they could use it.
Smile for the Camera
Great News #1: My camera (see Sunday's post) arrived today! Hopefully I should have some good photos to post by tonight.
Great News #2: It's shaping up to look like Fall will be my last quarter @ Sinclair and that financial aid will pick up most of my tuition @ UD when I transfer there :).
If I start singing "my future's so bright, I gotta wear shades," feel free to punch me in the stomach.
Found a couple good articles today. First off, Elijah Wood is saying that The Return of the King will be "a full-on war movie." Awesome. Then, Relevant Magazine has two great, nonpolitical, articles on abortion; here and here.
Yesterdays's Calvin and Hobbes is great.
They say that you find what you're looking for when you finally stop looking. I don't know if that's true about girls, but it's definitely true about digital cameras. Today I noticed that OfficeMax.com has the HP PhotoSmart 320 for $100 (it's normally $150), and it comes with a free 32MB memory card (normally $30).
It's a pretty basic camera, but it's made by HP so it should be pretty decent quality. It shoots @ 2.1 megapixels w/ a max resolution of 1650 x 1250 pixels, but that's all I need. It only has a 1.5" LCD and it's digital zoom (of course), but a bigger LCD would just be a matter of convienence and any optical zoom camera is gonna be really freaking expensive. So, overall, it's perfect for only $100.
Not sure how often I'll use it in day to day life (although I've got a few ideas for cool photos), but I definitely want to have it for trips like Mexico and D.C.
"...but joy comes in the morning." (>>)
Blogs4God had a post today which linked to this post by John Hawbaker where he makes a great quote: "You can 'claim it' in faith but you still might not get it." John also has a link to this really good article on Derek Webb's solo album.
Earlier today Slashdot posted this question:
"Personally, I sit at a computer desk for 10 hours a day with very little actual work. I've also started to get a little belly and out of shape. I know it's real bad in my office, especially with all the beer I consume. What do you do to stay in shape? Any secrets? Recently I've started to do sit ups, push ups, and running up and down the stairs. I get a lot of odd looks, and would prefer something that doesn't make the whole office stare at me. I've looked through some websites with equipment, but it's all serious equipment I can't/won't lug into work. Any suggestions?"
It has generated some helpful comments. (There's a few crass jokes and cuss words mixed in with the good advice.)
"the words of the strongest men
could never sway the hearts of the purest souls."
The Trailer for The Passion is here (22MB Quicktime).
This is a good article on Bill Bright's death, which also gives a short biography.
Here are a couple good Relevant Magazine articles:
"Outdated" Ministry Methods Still Minister
"Maybe older paradigms of ministry are still appropriate after all. There are millions of people in the country with varying degrees of church in their background. Surely traditional church methods will continue to meet the needs of some in the foreseeable future."
"There is no real point to my work—I simply run computer programs that complete the audit for me. And I get paid mostly to conquer the world in Age of Empires II. I’m not complaining I guess, just observing."
"A gossip betrays a confidence,
but a trustworthy man keeps a secret."
(>>)
"The Lord detests men of perverse heart
but He delights in those whose ways are blameless."
(>>)
"One man gives freely, yet gains even more;
another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty."
(>>)
"A fool shows his annoyance at once,
but a prudent man overlooks an insult."
(>>)
Derek Webb wrote a great journal entry about The Prayer of Jabez. Here's an except (but I suggest reading the whole thing, it's really good.):
"i want to be clear about my concern in all this and why i'm so opposed to this teaching. it's not necessarily because of the horrendous exegetical work. it's not necessarily because 98% of bruce's teaching is unwarranted in scripture. it is for only one reason: because it simply undermines the Gospel. this is the only reason that i could justifiably have. please don't misunderstand me; i do not mean to tear down bruce wilkinson or any other aspects of his ministry (i consider his work with 'walk through the bible' good teaching), i only desire to exalt the Gospel. what is the difference in what bruce says and what the Gospel says? bruce says that even if you're a Christian that God has withheld His blessings from you (the 'flood-waters of blessing' as he says) and that He'll give them to you if you systematically pray this rather obscure old testament prayer. i would challenge that idea and say that if you believe upon Christ for your salvation today, God has withheld nothing from you. in fact, he has already flooded all of the blessing you could ever imagine into your life, and that IS Jesus. He is ALL of the blessing. He is ALL our reward. He is sufficient for all of our needs and we should in Him be satisfied. what more could anyone possibly offer you? if you possess the very righteousness of Christ, which earns for you a share in the inheritance of the kingdom of God as though you were His very son or daughter, what more could there possibly be? what more blessing than His body and blood? what could anyone possibly offer more that Christ has already provided? this prayer does not, and cannot bring us "extra-ordinary favor with God," only Christ can. if we truly understood and believed the Gospel, we wouldn't look twice at a teaching like 'the prayer of jabez,' because it would have no power and nothing to offer."
One of the classes I'm taking this summer is Music Appreciation. One of the requirements is a review of a live show, so I chose the Benjamin Gate show I went to last month. Just so my professor can get a idea of what they sound like I'm including a mix CD w/ the paper. The cover and insert I made for it aren't as good as Amy's mix, but I think it turned out ok (which isn't saying much since they both use professional photos... pretty hard to screw that up.) Here's a screenshot of it (67k jpeg).
I used The GIMP to make some small adjustments to the photos, and MediaFace II to make the design itself. I used the Sylfaen, Conga and Georgia fonts.
Relvant Magazine has a decent article on spiritual growth. CNS News has another warning about the growing movement to legalize pedophilia. The Atlantic Monthly has an article about secondary virginity becoming a trend. It's not really worth actually reading since the author only writes a few lines about the actual subject, and then rambles on for another page or two with nothing but mildly accurate similies; but I'm linking to it because the fact that a major, secular newspaper has a story about this is in-and-of-itself interesting.
This is a good article on community and political perspective from Meshereth Magazine.
Found this post on The Limey Brit blog about this quiz to see whether you can distinguish between real and fake photos.
"To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy--to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." (>>)
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (>>)
"The packaging is nice,
we're building it to sell,
call all your people in Hollywood and Nashville.
It's one in a million,
in fact we broke the die,
it's all of the hype that your money can buy." (>>)
"Beloved, these are perilous days.
When your culture is so set in its ways,
that you will listen to salesmen and thieves,
preaching other than the truth you've received" (>>)
Lipsum
If you ever see a bunch of Latin text starting out with "'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" it's not just random letters and words garbled together. It's actual text from The Extremes of Good and Evil by Cicero, a 45BC Latin treatese on ethics. It's dummy text used when designing something (like, a webpage, for instance). It helps you to focus on the layout instead of being distracted by reading the actual text. There's some good information, and a lipsum generator at lipsum.com.
Jolly Napier makes the most beautiful music you've never heard... even if they are Red Wings fans.
Psalm 73:1 -- "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart."
Cool thing is... He's good to the rest of us, too.
"'We were up against everyone in every other booth giving away free porn, but a Bible was so different than everything else that people wanted it,'" Gross said. 'Plus, they know deep down that the porn in the bottom of their bags is going to leave them just as empty as when they came in.'" (>>)
Relevant's Daily Slices is reporting that MxPx's new album, Before Everything and After, will be released on August 19th. I'm a happy, happy boy.
