In terms of God's ownership, we yield ourselves to Him as a living and continual offering and sacrifice (Rom. 12:1). We give our children to Him in baptism from infancy, not because of some mystical meaning, but because we confess thereby God's property rights over us and our children, and we vow to bring up our children as God's possession. We tithe, beacue God, who owns all of us, requires a percentage for His work. All that we have, and all that we are, our persons, families, possessions, and time, bleong to the Lord. The whole meaning of the festivals and of circumcision-baptism, the passover-communion, and all rites and ordinances of the life of worship, simply set forth differing aspects of God's property rights over us, and His gracious covenant to care for His own. When we tithe, baptize our children, and obey God's law, we confess thereby that we are not our own, but that we have been bought back by the lord at a price, and we are therefore totally His possession. (R.J. Rushdoony, "Law and Society", p. 692. Vallecito, California: Ross House Books, 1986)

We do not believe that the rite of baptism bestows salvation upon an infant from that very moment. It is covenantal: a dedication, an offering, an extension of a parent's commitment to live out their new life as children of the Father - it is obedience to the One whose property they are. I do believe, however, that infants who die in infancy and are the offspring of faithful parents are received into heaven by the God who promises in His covenant that cannot be broken that He will bless covenant obedience from His subjects to their future generations, and make them fruitful. This is an aspect of how one's salvation does not stop as a mere personal fact, but has social implications: covenant obedience is not a passive, internal, metaphysical fact, but is an acting, working, influential, consequential vitality.

Autumn, together with Spring, are the two most creative seasons of the year. I think the milder weather and the anticipation of something new (hot/cold) helps.

I picked up my car today: finally got some fading paint removed and fresh layers of paint put down in its place. The difference between this Hyundai dealership and the other one I've been to makes them antithetical. Tremendous and quick service, and the luxuries and treatment of a high-end dealer. Anyway, to continue with the autumn theme, the guy who drives out to my place to take me to the dealership to pick up my car is a retiree and he recommended a German restaurant that is not too far from where I live and that I am eager to try. Bratwurst, sauerkraut, strudel and a Warsteiner Premium Dunkel in the fall sounds like it would hit the spot. Known as the Bavarian Brathaus or "House of Bratwurst", one resource describes this restaurant as "The only German Bavarian restaurant in the Sandhills - homemade bratwurst and strudel". How could you not want a piece of that?

As you may have already noticed, if you are one of the millions of habitual YouTube viewers, today YouTube started displaying ad overlays within videos posted to this popular video-sharing website. Fifteen seconds into a video, a mostly transparent ad will take up the lower part of the viewport for approximately 10 seconds (the ads are clickable if you want to visit the website behind the ad). The commercialization is undesirable but inevitable and good for YouTube, and the choice of method for displaying the ads could have been more intrusive and frustrating.

Finally, each year the Red Sox television broadcast seems to have a hilarious half inning, and last year's manifestation was a guest appearance by Denis Leary in which he discovered that Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis is Jewish, and Leary proceeds to have fun at Mel Gibson's expense.

Fall classes have begun: I am taking two classes online.

My new place is larger and cleaner, with a good view of the western and southern sky - enabling me to view stars as opposed to the trees I had become accustomed to at my previous residence. The process of packing, updating mailing/billing addresses, and cleaning my old apartment made for an undelightful weekend a couple weekends ago, but I am now settled in. My apartment building and those outside my windows are mostly vacant and awaiting their first tenants, so for the moment this is a rather private area.

Perhaps you've heard of the modern artist - or "composer" - whose current major work is the world's longest piano composition. Every year or so he plays a single note of his composition. That is how I think of my college career: one class or two courses every year or so: really drawn out. Probably as dubious a collegiate career as that composer's composition is dubious art. For those keeping track of my errant pursuit of this modern American necessity, I am undertaking two college courses this autumn: one focusing on PHP-driven websites and the other on something regarding databases; these will be of some use and interest to me.

With autumn approaching, I can anticipate not only the resumption of classes and cooler weather, but playoff baseball. With somewhere around 35 games to go in the regular season, divisional match-ups are taking on a playoff-like intensity as the crowds try to cheer their teams into the postseason. As it has been in recent years, the Phillies are right there in the chase but facing many obstacles.

That's a brief update to break the silence of this blog. Perhaps my next post will not be so long in coming.

Currently listening:
Bellatrix
by Rene Gruss

Advertisements appear as small unobtrusive eight-second still-image boxes in the lower-left corner, as well as breaks in the show for a single advertisement. These are the same ads you see on television, only in most cases clickable so you can visit a website; while most advertisements occur at natural breaks in the show you are watching, I have found a few shows where they interrupt at odd moments.

Currently in this release, stations are not airing live, continually updating content. There are just maybe five or fifteen programs you can choose to watch on a channel, just to get a feel for how Joost will work and hopefully provide feedback to the developers.

I was pleased to find a couple sci-fi stations, including a Warner Brothers sci-fi station that features some old Babylon 5 episodes. In all I've found 14 channels that I particularly like, such as a couple sci-fi channels, a full-length movie channel, multiple National Geographic channels, and some comedy channels among others. Joost is currently invite-only, but invitations are easy to come by. If you want an invite, let me know.

Apparently I am not as alone in this practice as I thought. Americans are showing a trend toward taking shorter and less vacations. I can relate to getting in a somewhat addictive rut, and not wanting to be completely disconnected from work and home lest I miss something important. As busy and time-consuming as work is, it can feel somewhat like home, and like one's calling, and where a lot of the people you know are. For me, when I get out of work there are so many things that I need to do, should be doing, or want to do around the house or town and am eager to either get busy making progress on those things or rather to escape to the peace, quiet, and rest of being at home.

Celebrating the Sabbath certainly helps bring rejuvenating rest - and this is a weekly event.

Holidays and adjacent half-days at work are frequent enough and timely, providing a good respite when work becomes especially tiresome. I prefer the short break over the long vacation. It is always harder to return to work and get back into the groove and catch up on things after each extra day away from the office.

I will probably save and take most of my vacation days toward the end of the year. I like to save good things for the end, for as long as possible. When I have to do something, or get motivated to start a task, I like to engulf myself in the task and work long and hard in one great sustained plunge, then take any breaks toward the end of the task and return to complete the work when there is very little left to do. I practice this at work: rather than taking lunch in the middle of my shift or at regular dining hours like most people do, I will delay my lunch until well beyond the half-way point of my work day, so I can ride my beginning-of-the-day energy as long as possible rather than breaking in the middle of the day and returning to essentially a second work day: the first half all over again in its entire length.

Being single and living by myself, I am less likely to find attraction in wandering off on a vacation by myself (I just don't see the point in making a habit of this) - and most of my friends my age have families and just cannot schedule such jaunts, and need to spend time with their families anyway... as they should. While I am single, there are plenty of things I can do here in town or at my own home to enjoy some rest, explore, or gain education in - if not culturally and experientially enriching as a typical get-away vacation would be, then at least they would hopeful be enriching in a practical and useful way.

Thinking of an odd get-away, I once blogged about the movie Danny Deckchair, in which an Australian man fastens many large helium-filled balloons to one of his deckchairs and, to his surprise, flies out of his backyard party and across a chunk of Australia. Seems the same thing has happened in real life.

1. Last Sunday, NBC's Dateline aired an inspiring two-hour special on a story examplifying the US Army principle of "no man left behind". Rescue on Roberts Ridge tells the story of a group of US Army Rangers who conducted a heroic yet ill-fated rescue attempt of a comrade who was lost within an enemy hot zone during one of the earliest battles of the 2002 campaign in Afghanistan, specifically in Operation Anaconda. I was impressed that the show did not use the opportunity for rhetoric against the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, but instead offered up a patriotic tribute to the men of the United States military.

2. This weekend CNN.com launched a beautiful redesign of their website.

3. Judge Roy Pearson lost his $54 million lawsuit against the family-owned dry cleaners that lost a pair of his pants. I think an ironic punishment for Mr. Pearson, along with being stripped of his position, would be for him to be ordered to work at the defendants' dry cleaning shop.

4. We've seen a Croc Hunter and a man who lives in the wild with bears, and now we are introduced to the Lion Whisperer. I like cats, but probably wouldn't care to frolic with grown lions.

5. A convert from extremist Islam in Britain says that people who think that Islamic terrorism is an angry response to Western culture just don't get it.

6. DivShare, a relatively new online file hosting service that I've mentioned before, continues to impress me. The two young guys running the site are doing everything right, and it is fun to watch their market share grow. Now VentureBeat has a favorable review of this online application.

1. My username is Krazy Celtic because my family is of Scottish ancestry and I enjoy Celtic things, whether the product of modern romanticizing from the days of Kipling or from ancient British history. Crazy is spelled with a K replacing the C because crazyceltic was already taken on Geocities (where I first hosted this blog), and though Krazy represents a misspelling that I do not usually like to see, the initials KC is more attractive to me in presentation than CC (closed captioning or carbon copy?).

2. My journal is titled Krazy Celtic's Hideout because like a hideout this blog was perceived by me to be my own small personal space on an internet crowded with millions of other websites. It has been a place for me to write - frequently at first but sparingly of late - for only a very small audience.

3. My subtitle is The personal weblog of Josh McInnis because that is my name and this is my blog.

4. My friends (links) page is called Other Blogs because because this simple classification fits with the minimalistic design and formal coloring of my blog.

5. My default userpic is the stony gray circle with a square gold Celtic knotwork because it fits the Celtic theme of my blog, is a versatile shape, and because I like the way the cracked stone circle that I created and upon which the Celtic knotwork is overlaid turned out.

Nevertheless, the drinking-age law is unfortunate and leads to unncessary hurt and penalties such as a family is currently facing in Virginia. A 16 year-old's parents threw a birthday party for him and his friends and purchased beer and wine for the party. They responsibly took the careful measures of confiscating car keys and ensuring that all party guests slept over at the house. Now the parents each face at least 2 years jail time apiece. This results in unnecessary suffering for the parents, hardship for the children who will be without the care of their parents (under state social services appointed care perhaps?), and a wasted slot in a nation that has too many overcrowded jails.

This family should have obeyed the law, because the law exists, but this particular law should not have been there in the first place. The government exists with one of its functions being to protect its inhabitants and ensure their freedom. Legislating what should be in the realm of the family steals freedom from the family and makes them slaves of the state. This is bound to create more hurt than help.

Fred Thompson is a former governor of Tennessee, and these days (and in former days) as an actor appears in Law and Order, and appeared in notable films such as The Hunt for the Red October and In the Line of Fire. His stance on key issues: he is anti-abortion, opposed to big government, and supportive of stronger borders. Regarding the issue that is mentioned the most among those evaluating candidates, he supports the war in Iraq.

He authored a timely feature piece for ABCradio.com, expounding on the background of the United States' first war in foreign lands - the war with the Barbary pirates of Tripoli, referenced in the first line of the U.S. Marine hymn, and in doing so makes subtle commentary on the America of today as he describes that prolonged (14 year) first U.S. war against Islamic extremists, which cannot but force the reader to draw connections with the present ongoing war against Al-qaida. Part of his unspoken commentary is that the young United States, uneager for war and not desirous of building and funding a standing army, nevertheless committed itself to protecting its sailing merchants and citizens from the radical aggression of the Islamic Barbary pirates, whose ambassador proclaimed before U.S. and British delegates in London that the pirates' abduction, torture, and enslavement of Americans was justified and commendable because their Prophet ordains such persecution of all who do not embrace Islam. At that time the United States mobilized a navy to defend its sailing merchants and citizens, and check this shameless aggression of the Barbary pirates. The United States did not back down from its trading ventures, nor did they succumb to hardships, losses, and stalemates as the struggle with Tripoli dragged on for fourteen years, but our nation's young military forces pressed on until they captured Tripoli and at least subdued the Barbary pirates. Fast forward to today, where our country's military is facing forces of the same extremist religious foundation, and our citizens have been attacked by and are in danger of these modern day Barbary pirates. We are used to everything in fast motion, and we want results quickly - we seem to not have the resolve, the fortitude, the pride, or the understanding of the principles behind the fight to tolerate a war that is dragging on into a number of years.

What Fred Thompson does outrightly make mention of is a personal point of interest: America's awareness of history. Foreigners and semi-astute citizens will tell you that America in general is not very aware of history and the past, not so much as we probably should be, or as other nations are. Thompson's take on this is different than mine, and interesting: that Americans are forward-thinking, moving to a future goal while leaving the past behind, not dwelling on the past as they press forward in hope. Sounds postmillenial, doesn't it?

Material on Fred Thompson's views is not as easy to come by as the casual searcher might like, and I would like to hear more about his particular views from his own mouth, but I am certain that will come when he commits to running for the Republican nomination. Once he commits, look out: he is alread third in Republican polls behind Giuliani and McCain, and he is not even a candidate yet! Furthermore, he is the only Republican candidate or potential candidate to secure a key speaking engagement at a dinner attended by the wealthy and powerful Republicans of Orange County. "Even Fred Thompson is only down six points to Clinton’s 46 percent in an April NBC-Wall Street Journal poll — impressive for a guy who hasn’t spent a dime campaigning and is till completely unknown to 45 percent of Americans," cites the National Review

Fred Thompson is a man the Republicans can rally behind, he is a plain talker that the common person can relate to and confident in, and he has the Reagan thing going for him... I hope he is in the race for the long haul.

Today I ponied up to the pharmacy to fill a prescription that I'm supposed to have been taking for cholesterol, but have been neglecting for some time now. In the months since I started working for my current employer, I had enjoyed a generous supply of samples of this medicine (she knew that I was having problems with my employer regarding receiving the medical insurance that was promised to me as a benefit for joining the company), so I never had to fill a prescription. In my previous job, I was spoiled with a terrific health insurance plan that required co-pays which were minimal or anything. So today, when I filled a prescription for the first time with my new insurance and was shocked by the triple figure copay for a month's supply of medicine, I realized what millions of Americans have already been complaining about - the high and often prohibitive, yet continually rising, medical costs in our country. Upon returning home, I found that contranemesis had linked to an article, "Why Is Medical Care So Expensive?", on this very subject, about how the controlling interference of the government in the medical industry, through legislative programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, have driven up prices elsewhere in the industry as the industry is forced to respond to what the government spends and legislates. The article is worth a read. The cost of medical care is more than just the hit on the wallet - contranemesis looks like it will discuss some of these ways in future blog entries.

As for me, rather than throwing away my money on preventive medicines, I can think of many ways to put money to better use - so that I can enjoy life while I still have it. I do not want to be so attached to this world that I live my life and spend my money on preventive medical care in a way that says that death is something to be feared, and this world as something precious to be clung to at all costs. As Screwtape says to Wormwood, that is a key step in drawing a soul away from heaven.

1. How to beat a traffic ticket in court [Story]
2. A Japanese researcher develops a robot that looks and moves like the researcher himself [Story]

Micah 4:5
"For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever."

Thinking from a postmillenial hermeneutic, I thought it would be interesting to look at clearer translations of this verse, and see if the distiction between "his god" and "the Lord our God" carries over accurately from the Hebrew into the English KJV translation, in the collective opinions of other translators. If it does, then this is an interesting distinguishing attribute of these two clauses. This verse is preceded by the exaltation of Zion, all men will flow to Zion to hear God's law and walk in his paths, nations will beat their sword into plowshares and spears into pruninghooks, and there will be no more war, every man being able to sit peacefully in his fruitful habitation. If some men are still walking in the name of their gods during this time of unprecedented peace, prosperity, and dominion of Christ's kingdom, then this verse can be applied by postmillenialists as evidence that the "millenial" reign of Christ will exist on this earth through His people. It points to a progressive taking of dominion in the world by the Church, because only in history can there still be men who "walk every one in the name of his god".

Looking at other translations of this verse, the contrast between "his god" and the "Lord our God" holds up, and this verse is presented by these translations more clearly as an "on the one hand/on the other hand" contrast.

"Even though the nations around us worship idols, we will follow the Lord our God forever and ever."
- New Living Translation

"All the nations may walk
in the name of their gods;
we will walk in the name of the Lord
our God for ever and ever."
- NIV

"For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever."
- English Standard Version

"For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever."
- Revised Standard Version

The "but" conjunction really makes a difference, helping the contrast and significance of the two clauses of Micah 4:5 stand out. Regarding the postmillenialism of this verse and passage, "Zion" and "Jerusalem" do not refer to historical, political, Jewish Israel. That is another topic exhaustively touched upon by theologians who know a whole lot more than I do, so you can chase down their books to read the arguments for (and against) that important interpretive detail.

Turning to your least favorite subject, myself

I started looking at houses (i.e. for first time buyers such as myself, jargon for actually physically visiting houses for sale that I am interested in) yesterday, checking out two of them. I'll look at four more on Saturday. I intend to choose one as an abode before the month is up. We shall see what transpires.

Rather than in my life, it seems like the action is at a certain zoo, where a veterinarian's forearm was bitten off by a crocodile. Yes, there are pictures of the forearm being grasped in the crocodile's jaws.

Also with spring comes the pollen, but baseball, the warmer weather, and the extended daylight hours make it worth it. This is now the second year that I have been adversely affected by the pollen in the air, though previously I had never been allergic to the airborne stuff. It coats my car in a yellow dust, and out of necessity and because it was warm (and because jury duty enabled me to have longer evenings of daylight, because I would return home earlier than if I was at work) I washed my car twice, and almost a third time over the weekend. However, trusting that it would rain later and seeking to indulge rather in running, I spent yet another weekend mostly outdoors, jolting my beer belly on the park trails.

In a return to an earlier era, I am without a television at the moment, which is ok, because I have baseball on my computer. Who cares about the NCAA championship this year anyway? Watching Florida celebrate two previous college championships (one in football and one in basketball) was enough to last a decade. With the absence of television, it is phenomenal how much easier it is to read, and to endure in straight hours of reading. Even the presence of a silent, dark television in the room kills my reading stamina. Where is my television? It is getting repaired.

Here is an oddity: I hardly have time to get everything done that I need to get done, but I do not feel like I am really accomplishing anything or working on anything big that would demand so much of my free time, and yet I do not have time even to eat dinner somedays. My work and my work hours take too much out of me, I think. As for this moment, I should assemble a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something so that I can say that ate something tonight.

Speaking of these two web browsers, I am now probably 80% a Firefox user. I still have to use Internet Explorer for things such as MLB.TV (enables me to watch major league baseball games in streaming live broadcast over the internet) until I figure out why it is not working in Firefox. But for ordinary everyday browsing, Firefox is now my browser of choice. Again, just as with Google, Firefox is another trendy web choice among today's savvy users that I am only recently embracing. What separates Firefox apart is that is crashes less, and, best of all for frequent and curious internet users such as myself, is highly customizable. Firefox sports easily installed Add-ons, things which make surfing the web more tailored to the individual doing the browsing. For example, one of my favorite add-ons takes unclickable text links such as http://news.bbc.co.uk and automatically recognizes that text as a URL and makes it clickable like http://news.bbc.co.uk. There are hundreds of other Add-ons, some more advanced and specialized than others, such as community file sharing run through the browser, FTP clients built into the browser, and an add-on that enables you to use all that humongous storage space on your G-Mail e-mail account as an online hard drive. Another open-source (i.e. source code is freely available and the product is developed by teams of volunteers as a hobby) browser worth keeping an eye on is Flock, which is being engineered to be a "social browser", geared at making it easier to upload and share photos and other multimedia and build community with people of similar interests.

While trying to keep up with such things as baseball news, PHP, online web design journals, and web initiatives such as microformats (not employed on this blog, as is the case with so many techniques I am learning and practicing), I have sadly been unable to keep up with the dozens of blogs in my RSS Feedreader. I think I have 160 unread articles to sort through right now, and it is a losing battle. There are several blogs I could probably remove from my list though, to make keeping up less intimidating.

In the office at work I work off of two monitors side-by-side, linked into the same computer. I need that here at home.

Baseball playoff fever is upon me, as the Major League Baseball season is drawing to a close and despite all expectations after a poor start to the season and a trade of a key player, the Phillies are again in the thick of the race for the Wild Card playoff spot in the National League. Between today and Saturday, the Phillies have played a whopping four games, all against the Atlanta Braves. Yesterday afternoon the Phillies blew a 3=0 lead and lost to the Braves in the ninth inning, then came back in the nightcap and slaughtered Atlanta 16-4 with contributions from unlikely sources. Today there were a couple of close games. In the first, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard hit three home runs. He now has 52 on the season (!) in his first full year in the Majors, ten away from the single season record. It took a ninth inning rally to win that first game by one run. The second game was lost in extra innings.

Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from the terror of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The proud looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exaled in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.

This prophecy is a call for men to trust not in wealth, military might, and idols (vv.7,8), but in contrast to those wicked men, we are to humbly run and hide ourselves in the Rock of a majestic and vengeful God. The context of this prophecy is a promise of judgment and destruction to those of Judah and the surrounding nations who deliberately turned away from the Lord to pursue idolatrous living. Yet the promise of a terrible destruction to the wicked, and the invitation to the humble to hide themselves in the Rock, are a covenantal sequence found throughout the Old Testament.

We can enter into the Rock and hide there because of our deliverance through Jesus' life and redemptive death. In baptism, we enter into that rock where Christ's body was laid in death, and so claim participation in His death, to be covered from the wrath of God. The wicked also try to hide under rocks when the impending judgment of God is manifest (vv.19-21), but unless you are hiding in faith under the Rock, there is no escaping from God's wrath (Ps. 139:7-9). From these rocks there is no return. But from the Rock of Christ, from His tomb that we share, we triumphantly emerge participating with Christ in His resurrection. Even here we must take care: one might try to hide in Christ, in the Church, making a show of hypocrisy in appearing to be a Christian, but even here God will see you. How much greater will be the wrath and sorrow towards those who, having emerged with Christ from His tomb, later for lack of faith hasten to turn aside and take position under one of the rocks of this world!

The wicked borrows, and does not repay: but the righteous shows mercy, and gives.

I've read this psalm many times, and am amazed that every time I misread this psalm. In my apparent haste, I interpreted it as saying that wicked men will not pay you back, but the righteous, because he is a good guy, does you a favor and what he knows is right and pays back what you loaned him. However, this verse says that the righteous gives, not takes and repays (though he certainly is required to do that as well). He does this because he is merciful. He is doing someone else a favor, helping them out and demonstrating the godly charity that the righteous are required to joyfully and habitually display. It is a giving back to God, essentially; God has given good things to us abundantly in such measure that without him, we would be ruined and have nothing - ultimately, He has saved us. We are to reflect our Father by reflecting His love and sacrificial benevolence on those who need our aid.

God's people are required to give to those in need. The law is full of repetitive stressing of the requirement to take care of the fatherless, widow, stranger, and fellow-man, and this guideline for holy living continues in the New Testament (2 Cor. 8:2, etc). Psalm 112:5 echoes Psalm 37:21 - "A good man shows favour, and lends: he will guide his affairs with discretion".

This lending is not conditional on what we think about the recipient. If a Christian brother is in need, it is our duty to help him out as we can. If my Christian brother is in dire need, and though he already "borrowed" $1000 a couple years back that has not been re-paid, if he comes to me for my aid it is my God-ordained duty to help him; with care, but willingly and generously. However, rather than exercising disregard for what God has entrusted to us, we are to "guide our affairs with discretion" and avoid foolishness (Prov. 6:1-3).

The main responsibility here is to imitate God. This requires being selfless, and the self is a difficult idol to put away.

Despite all my imperfections as a person and a child of God, He continues to do what is best for me and give me good things. The best thing is that despite all my imagining what would comprise a perfect life, the Lord, by His grace, still has something beyond anything I can imagine for me when my body breathes its last.

I am cheerful because I have the all-too-uncommon pleasure of having a couple of draught Guinnesses in me. This evening was the meeting of The Thinklings, our local book reading and discussion club, comprised for the most part of men in my local church, and entirely of Christian gentlemen. This month's book (we try to alternate fiction and non-fiction) was Flannery O'Connor's Complete Works, and for this upcoming month is an uncontroversial (ha) exposition in favor of paedocommunion (a subject about which I hope to write something brief tomorrow), The Case For Covenant Communion, edited by Gregg Strawbridge.

We met in a room in an Irish pub downtown, and upon arrival the tap was not working, so there were no draught beers at first, and on top of that the fire alarm started going off. But everything righted itself and the evening was good.

Noah's Ark
Amusement Park
Cops
Tarzan
English Knights
German POW Camp
Jurassic Park

YouTube will be down for maintenance late tonight, but afterwards these videos will still be there. I encourage you to watch them; laughter is good for you.

Jesus shoves me from the dough
For my pastor tells me so
Little ones do not belong
They can't eat 'til they are strong

[refrain]
Yes, Jesus shoves me!
My pastor tells me so.

Jesus would be petrified
If my mouth were opened wide
To receive His blood within
I must still be in my sin.

(refrain)

Jesus waits to feed until
I'm no longer weak and ill.
If I eat too soon, oh my!
Pastor tells me I might die

(refain)

Jesus says to stay away
From His flesh and blood today
So I'll look for food to try
From the world that is nearby

(refrain)

1. A 15-year old girl caught an 11 ft, 364 pound shark. She looks proud, and rightly so. What a catch - the fish I mean, not the girl.

2. Mr. Kentuckyfriedcruelty (yes, his legal name) has changed his name back to... Chris.

3. Cats rocking out to their favorite music.

4. Joffre linked to a YouTube music video by I'm From Barcelona. For those of you who think I only listen to alternative, depressing music (?), I also will link to this is a 29-member Swedish pop band. Very happy music and creative videos. Watch We're From Barcelona and Collection of Stamps. Regarding alternative music: it's not depressing, it is how some people process it that is depressing.

...the Sabbath contemplates the fulness of God's work. It commemorates the completion of the work of creation, and also the work of redemption. The Sabbath marks the end of the creation work. It also marks the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His victory over sin and death. The Sabbath thus is a foretaste of the fulness of God's work and the new creation. It rejoices in the first creation and its regeneration and glorious calling in Christ...

...We are to rejoice at what He did in creation, and in the history of redemption as it culminates in the First and the Second Coming. It is all a finished work in God's eternal decree, and we are to rest in it, and to rejoice over it. There is therefore a cessation of work: we rest from our labors, knowing that he has already ordained and accomplished all things. "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18). Thus, on the Sabbath day, we not only do not work, but we also do not plan: we rest in God's predestined plan. We become aware of and confident in the past, present, and future under God, because we are mindful of eternity and God's eternal decre of predestination. We rest in that by faith. The future is not in our hands, but the Lord's. We cease from our work and our planning, because it is God's plan we contemplate.

Law and Society "The Quest for Time Outside of God" p.557

My disappointment arose this evening when I was preparing a breakfast dinner; I cut open a brand new package of hardwood smoked bacon and to my astonishment discovered that the slices were unusually and extremely thin, such that when cooked (not burnt) their width is akin to that of a shoestring, though not nearly as long as the lace that holds your shoes together. Usually Gwaltney's bacon is generously sliced to a goodly width, and long enough that a slice cannot lounge stretched out across the length of a frying pan, because the bacon is longer than the pan. What, is Gwaltney forcing me onto a diet without my endorsement? To bring home to you the impact this had upon me, and to capture your attention with catchy buzz-words, the discovery of this unsightly bacon was, to me, something that could be described as approaching adjectival qualifications such as paradigm-shifting or worldview-bending.

Why all this fuss about bacon, and why do I speak of it as if you should care? Because bacon is one of those common yet inexplicably wondrous gifts that God has provided to man. Why else did He give us pigs but for the abundance of their culinary delights to man? Pigs start out born in mud from a fat mother, a select few get chosen to perform in films in which voiceovers try to convince the audience that it is a talking pig, and then, once fattened, the pig is consumed on tables common around the world for breakfast or dinner. There are many things in this fallen world which God has given to undeserving Man as nothing but a blessing, and bacon (or pigs) is one of those many such abundant graces.

* Or cows, or turkey, or whatever derivative source of bacon you prefer

Postscript:
I still gave God thanks for my bacon; despite its size, the bacon was delicious mixed with fried eggs, homemade hash browns, and maple sausage links. I will continue to be a patron of Gwaltney brand bacon.

I'm tired of being on vacation. A week off is too much.

The movie of the day was Lady In The Water, a treatment of the interactive nature of stories, an apology for fairy tales, and a wry mockery of literary and film critics, which served as the icing on the cake for me since I do not like "literary surgery" or scientific approaches to stories. So I enjoyed the movie, though it wasn't really standard Shyamalan. This film seemed more like something Shyamalan always wanted to write and produce, without caring too much about reception.

It was with great anticipation that I used to count down the days until the professional football season, weeks ahead of time. I guess I have more to do and think about now, because this season has sprung up by surprise - I did not expect to see a preseason game on the tube today, but the Eagles were playing in the Hall of Fame Game, and their starting unit looked sharp in their first and only offensive drive.

One of the most encouraging things this summer has been the gradual healing of my leg (some muscle beneath the calf muscle and above the ankle). I have been able to return to running without that leg stiffening up, and the pain only returns seldom and is fleeting. Now I can work on building up my running endurance to what it used to be.