27 septiembre 2006

thought one: [oh no! done with proper ctrl + i, ctrl + b technique! i'm losing it!]

it almost scares me how happy coffee and good music makes me. but "scares" me in a good way... i'm glad the human emotion system is not some intense inertial mass... i'm glad we're easily moved...

Al Taller de Maestro

Ella y el

Psalm 93

26 septiembre 2006

You might be a missionary/ MK/ expat/ third culture/ non-american if you...

(from Latin American Evangelist July- October 2006 and Andrew and Deborah Kerr, with occasional editing :-))

... greet everyone in the room when all you need to do is say hello and sit down.
...read a nat'l geographic and get homesick
...have to stop and think about what to do with used toilet paper.
...keep switching languages when speaking with good friends.
...shake hands with the policeman who stops your car.
...think a 2 hour, 7 song church service is too short.
...can't finish a sentence en un solo idioma.
...have 6 different varieties of ants in your house and you ignore them all.
...your children think it's acceptable to kiss strangers.
...your kids can recite from memory the airplane safety speech, but draw a blank on the "Pledge of Allegiance"
...bring a bag lunch and a novel when you go to the bank.
...know your height in meters and your weight in kilos, and think 40 degrees is some terrible heat.
...are okay driving without brakes, but are frantic without a horn.
...are surprised when the electricity has stayed on all week.
... can't figure out how to turn the water on in a U.S. bathroom.
...pull up to the gas station and wait for someone to come out and pump the gas.
...point with your chin.
...motion "come here" with your palm facing down.
...walk into a church and are given 2 minutes warning that, not only are you speaking, but you are translating for yourself.
...don't have any pages left in your passport.You flew before you could walk.
...consider the U.S. a foreign country.
...have a passport, but no driver's license.
...have memorized the calling card number.
... uses the phrase "Then we went to..." five times in your life story
... watch nature documentaries, and you think about how good that would be if it were fried.
... know exactly the amount allowed overhead and to be checked, and how much you have to pay if it's over...
...go to the U.S., and get sick from the food
... send your family peanut butter and Kool-Aid for Christmas.
...have strong opinions about how to cook bugs.
...live at school, work in the tropics, and go home for vacation.
...have trouble replying definitively to "where is home?"
...do your devotions in another language.
...ask long-lost friends what continent they are on
...keep dreaming of a green Christmas.
... tell people where you're from, and their eyes get big.
...have been told, "Oh, I knew an American once..." and then asked if you know him or her.
... are grateful for the speed and efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service.
... can say that the majority of your friends don't speak English as a first language.
...believe vehemently that football is played with a round, spotted ball.
...know the difference between patriotism and nationalism.
...tell Americans that democracy isn't the only viable form of government.
...realize what a small world it is, after all.
... think all preaching sounds better under a corrugated tin roof.
...know raw fish [with limon!] tastes better than cooked.
...going to the market is the highlight of your day.
...sing in the shower in a language other than English.
...carry Bibles in two languages to church.
...watch an English language video and read the foreign language subtitles.
...dream in a foreign language.
...can't find shoes to fit your feet in any of the shoe stores.
...are used to a crowd gathering around the computer when you check your E-mail.
...have explained the difference between "The cow is on the field" and "The cow is in the field."
... consider parasites, dysentery, or tropical diseases to be appropriate dinner conversation.
...have stopped in the middle of an argument to find the translation of a word you just used.
...hyperventilate at the sight of mangoes
....know what REAL coffee tastes like.

i love you guys. hang in there...

Interesting in light of my new profession...

25 septiembre 2006

Ni chicha ni limonada...

thought one:

i "hate" missions chapels. they make me emotive.

thought two: advice

much would be kept holy if we were always to treat the "others" as if they had a [hypothetical] spouse at their side.

thought three:

~> America accounts for over 20% of the world's energy consumption, but only 4.5% of the population.

~> We live in a society of surplus... what would it be like to live in a society of scarcity?
scarce: water, calories, heating, light, transportation, money, work, housing, ideas, freedom, truth, love, hope... are we not responsible for our surplus(es)...? liable, even?

thought four:

i have decided to become a capitalist as of 3:20 last Monday afternoon.

that's really funny in light of the quote of the day, but hey, i'm 19 and in college for the procurement of brains. this is progress, really.

quote of the day: [i continue with my ctrl+k, ctrl+n-ness... yessss!]

"If you are not a socialist at 18, it shows you have no heart. If you are a socialist at 30, it shows you have no brains."

Ramadan 1427

"Dates for Ramadan 2006 (or the Islamic year of 1427) are 24 September thru 23 October."

Ramadan started and I didn't even realize it...

misericordia, Padre Santo.

22 septiembre 2006

Not that I really understand what this means or if it's true, but...

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?'

Anselm

87%

Karl Barth

80%

Martin Luther

67%

Jonathan Edwards

67%

Charles Finney

67%

Friedrich Schleiermacher

67%

J?Moltmann

53%

John Calvin

47%

Augustine

47%

Paul Tillich

33%

Which theologian are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

19 septiembre 2006

“Sharp nostalgia, infinite and terrible, for what I already possess.” ~Juan Ramon Jimenez

thought one:

"Pointing to the fundamental difference between humans and animals, [C.S. Lewis] explains that what makes a person human is his or her desire to know things,

to ask,
to examine,
and to understand.

When a person loses this desire, it is as if he has become something less than human.

It seems there comes a certain responsibility to being human. There are great and far-reaching questions we all must answer, questions we can wholly choose to ignore, but in so doing we must realize that not answering is still in a very real sense answering. We can choose not to think about God or Scripture or the person of Christ, but we are still making a choice.

-from A Slice of Infinity

thought two:
one of these days, i'm going to learn to stop putting people in boxes. until that time, humans can be such lovely surprises.

thought three:
you can tell when a person has procured the genuine heart of a servant by how that person acts when treated as such.

thought four: of the unnecessary goodness of God

before you say "God is good" (or something to that effect) one more time, take a moment to think how much He doesn't have to be.

for goodness' sake... He's the Almighty. Who's going to compel Him to be good? If He wanted to be evil and sick and torture you for the thrill of it, who would stop Him? Your displeasure? Your sense that "it's not fair!"? We're pansy mud-made humans, proven rebels. Just 'cause He created you doesn't mean He's obliged to care about you...

He's not under any necesity to sustain your nervous system, nor your digestive, nor your respiratory, for that matter.

Who could coerce Him into making the sun rise? (or, if you want to get technical, "making the earth continue its rotation business"?)

What if He decided to see what happened if He suspended the laws of gravity...? oops, there goes the earth heading off into space to collide with a meteor or a giant ball of burning gases or something...

What if He decided the mockery and treachery, blaspheme and sadism of the human race wasn't worth allowing one minute more and consumed the universe with the breathe of His mouth?

What if He got tired of the irony of pitiful creatures called "little Christs" and ended the whole project... not to mention the hypocrisy and unmitigated fleshliness hovering about the periphery...

He "could..."

...nothing "could" detain Him...

...not you.

...not my moral sense.

...not the media.

...not His "arch-enemy"

...not an underground revolution.

...

...

...just His nature.

...

...

that is the glory we want to live in, think in, react in... my God [think of it!] is GOOD.

...because He is.

11 septiembre 2006

Logical fallacies by Brian McGroarty, slightly edited, but very entertaining

"Excellent list of logical fallacies:

Ad Hominem:
This is the best logical fallacy, and if you disagree with me, well, you [are not a nice person].

Appeal To False Authority:
Your logical fallacies aren't logical fallacies at all because Einstein said so. Einstein also said that this one is better.

Appeal To Emotion:
See, my mom, she had to work three jobs on account of my dad leaving and refusing to support us, and me with my elephantitis and all, all our money went to doctor's bills so I never was able to get proper schooling. So really, if you look deep down inside yourself, you'll see that my fallacy here is the best.

Appeal to Fear:
If you don't accept Appeal to Fear as the greatest fallacy, then THE TERRORISTS WILL HAVE WON. Do you want that on your conscience, that THE TERRORISTS WILL HAVE WON because you were a pansy who didn't really think that Appeal to Fear was worth voting for, and you wanted to vote for something else? Of course not, and neither would the people you let die because THE TERRORISTS WILL HAVE WON.

Appeal To Force:
If you don't agree that Appeal to Force is the greatest logical fallacy, I will [put a hurting on you].

Appeal To Majority:
Most people think that this fallacy is the best, so clearly it is.

Appeal To Novelty:
The Appeal to Novelty's a new fallacy, and it blows all your [less than superior] old fallacies out the water! All the cool kids are using it: it's OBVIOUSLY the best.

Appeal To Numbers:
Millions think that this fallacy is the best, so clearly it is.

Appeal To Tradition:
We've used Appeal to Tradition for centuries: how can it possibly be wrong?

Argumentum Ad Nauseam:
Argumentum ad nauseam is the best logical fallacy.
Argumentum ad nauseam is the best logical fallacy.
Argumentum ad nauseam is the best logical fallacy.
Argumentum ad nauseam is the best logical fallacy.
Argumentum ad nauseam is the best logical fallacy.
Argumentum ad nauseam is the best logical fallacy.
Argumentum ad nauseam is the best logical fallacy.

Begging The Question:
Circular reasoning is the best fallacy and is capable of proving anything.
Since it can prove anything, it can obviously prove the above statement.
Since it can prove the first statement, it must be true.
Therefore, circular reasoning is the best fallacy and is capable of proving anything.

Burden Of Proof:
Can you prove that Burden of Proof isn't the best logical fallacy?

Complex Question:
Have you stopped beating your wife and saying Complex Question isn't the best fallacy?

False Dilemma:
I've found that either you think False Dilemma is the best fallacy, or you're a terrorist.

False Premise:
All of the other fallacies are decent, but clearly not the best as they didn't come from my incredibly large and [good-looking] brain.

Gambler's Fallacy:
In all the previous talks about this subject, Gambler's Fallacy won, so I just know the Gambler's Fallacy is going to win this time!

Guilt By Association:
You know who else preferred those other logical fallacies?
*(insert pictures of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot here)*

Non Sequitur:
Non Sequitur is the best fallacy because none of my meals so far today have involved asparagus.

Post Hoc/False Cause:
Since I've started presuming that correlation equals causation, violent crime has gone down 54%.

Red Herring:
They say that to prove your fallacy is the best requires extraordinary evidence, because it's an extraordinary claim. Well, I'd like to note that "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence" is itself an extraordinary claim.

Relativism:
Well maybe all those other fallacies are the best for you, but to me, the relativist fallacy is the greatest logical fallacy ever.

Slippery Slope:
If you don't like Slippery Slope arguments, you will do poorly in class, drop out of school, commit crimes, go to prison, and die of [tuberculosis].

Special Pleading:
I know that everyone is posting about their favorite fallacies, but Special Pleading is out-and-out the best, so it should just win with no contest.

(Credit should go to Brian McGroarty who compiled this list, which was subsequently sent out as an e-mail fwd.)"

Keep it holy.

thought one:
juxtaposition, again.

what could be worse than
a man full of God next to
a God-empty one

all humanity was made for the Creator,
but
MEN
especially.

thought two:
diamonds hiding in the grass
half a milimeter high
who put them there
and who will care
that they are there
at all?

thought three:
i like physics so much (i think), because it answers "why?" when all the other sciences answer "how?" and "how" is irrelevent (to me.)

thought four:
i still do "control + n" for bold, effectively opening a new "create post" screen every time i try to bold a thought. seeee, peru, i'm still with you, amado!

thought five: from 20th century Europe, basking in the enlightened thought of Dr. K

Middle-class is a state of mind.

With globalisation and the outsourcing of "intelligence-heavy" jobs,

is it over?

07 septiembre 2006

"May you gain your crown"

thought one: of professors and patience
Professors are the best, really. They get some pretty robust knuckleheads sometimes, and it's really beautiful to see how they handle them.

Say we're talking about the French Revolution, and some kid starts discoursing about this book he read where Robespierre yadayadayada and he totally contradicts the prof.

Now, I have to privilage to study under some pretty brilliant academicians, and their humor is pretty fined tuned... they can totally and completely blow this kid out of the water and make him cry himself to sleep in his dorm tonight...

But time and time again, I have seen them nod their head, add a sincere "Ahh?" or "Is that so?", add something either tying the child's wacked comment into the lesson or otherwise legitimizing it in some unwarranted way. No barbed sarcasm, no condescension... just respecting imago dei. It's such an expression of excellence.

May I learn it.

thought two:
"True, we may regularly struggle with doubt when it comes to historical faith-claims that we cannot verify. But faith in Christ is not faith in a fact, it’s faith in a person.

His presence inexplicably speaks from heart to heart. It elicits an intense desire to be near him, and an outpouring of love, trust, allegiance, and gratitude.

The person who has experienced this presence can continue having faith in the beloved Christ, even when doubts about facts dance and mock. The fact-faith of other believers, the immense Body of Christ that transcends time, helps the individual ride out the storm "

-Thank you, ma'am. (Frederica... you've gotta met her...excerpt taken from her article on the faith of the thief on the cross)

thought three:

"I can live for two months on a good compliment"-Mark Twain

maybe it's just my personality, but i am fiercely motivated by sincere compliments. if i'm just sitting there making a list of my faults, nothing happens in the way of self-improvement. i just get exponentially glummer as the list grows longer. but if somebody gives me a compliment, i can't shake it. hounds me for days and i absolutely MUST live up to it or beat myself trying. (i also assign that person my undying loyalty and affection, being funnily subjective about that sort of thing.)

"Life and death are in the power of the tongue."
Go use it well.

thought four:
i like definitions. "glory" needs (at least) one.

there's a poster up here at my school that says at the top: "IT'S NOT FOR" and then lists a whole poster-full of words like "love" "money" "ministry" "souls" "friendship" "success" "the Kingdom of God" "goodness" etc etc and then at the bottom you read, ".... but for the glory of His name."

so. what's glory, if it's so all-fired important?

dictionary.com lists: Honor, praise, distinction Adoration, praise, and thanksgiving offered in worship. Majestic beauty and splendor; resplendence A height of achievement, enjoyment, or prosperity

Uy! that exhausts me! "glory, honour, glorious, abundance," Strong's contributes, "excellence."

[I wanted to really work this post, but I started it a long time back and I'm not quite getting into the flow... more as more comes.]

While I have Iraq on the brain...

September 07, 2006
Islamic Terror's Endless 'Root Causes'
By Froma Harrop

In Oliver Stone's movie "World Trade Center," the people who know least about the Sept. 11 horror are the two Port Authority cops closest to it. Asian peasants follow the awful events on television, but the men buried under smashed iron and concrete don't know the "who" or the "why" or even that the towers had collapsed.

Through their own courage and that of their rescuers (this is a true story), the officers live to learn what happened. But five years later, neither they, nor anyone else, fully understand "why."

That Islamic terrorists hate the United States is an all-purpose explanation. Dig deeper into the reasons for that hatred, though, and the confident answers of "expert opinion" don't quite satisfy.

Since that gruesome blue-sky day, Islamic radicals have staged more attacks and have been foiled in others. But try to find a connecting theme, other than psychosis. There's only a pile of shifting motives.

Denmark just arrested nine Muslim men preparing explosives for some new outrage. Why, no one knows for sure. Could be the Danish cartoons of Muhammad. Could be because Denmark has troops in Iraq. Could be something else.

When German authorities caught two Lebanese men planting bombs on trains, they assumed the motive was the war in Lebanon. Turns out it was the cartoons. The suspects did tack Lebanon onto their grievance list, but actually, the attack had been planned before the war began.

The 2004 bombing of commuter trains in Madrid took place in the days preceding a Spanish election. Its goal, the thinking went, was to scare voters into replacing a government that had sent troops to Iraq. They did, but three weeks later, a bomb similar to the ones used in the March massacre was found on a track near Madrid.

Why did Islamic terrorists bomb nightclubs in Bali? Were they aiming at Bali itself, a Hindu island in mostly Muslim Indonesia? Was the target Australia because it sent troops to Iraq -- or Australia because it helped liberate East Timor from Indonesia? (Nearly half the people killed were Australian tourists.) Was it an objection to bikinis?

The attacks on Mumbai commuter trains have been linked to Pakistani anger at India's control over much of (Muslim) Kashmir. The bombings on London subways were traced to sons of Pakistani immigrants supposedly unhappy over how they're treated in Britain. Intelligence officials say at least one had trained with al-Qaida in Pakistan, where the terrorist group was also prepping suicide bombers to blow up 10 airliners flying from London to the United States.

Terrorists vowed massive attacks against France over its ban on Islamic headscarves in public schools. And a Muslim gang murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in the streets of Amsterdam over a movie he made.

Given this Wal-Martian selection of motives, one must smile at the five-years-after editorial in The Economist, which states the number of jihadis has multiplied since Sept. 11, "partly as a result of the way America responded." By that, the British magazine means the war in Iraq.

We can agree that the war was based on trumped-up evidence, that it was poorly planned and that it is going badly. But Islamic terrorists are attacking people on nearly every continent -- many who have little or nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy. Multicultural, huggy-bear, we're-not-in-Iraq Canada has uncovered a plot by 17 Muslims to invade its Parliament and chop off the prime minister's head.

Perhaps terrorists see countries that make sensitive analyses of their complaints as easy marks. If so, then the eagerness to prettify mass murder with "root causes" could itself be a root cause.

fharrop@projo.com
Copyright 2006 Creators Syndicate

06 septiembre 2006

Simplistic, but i like simple things...

"An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied that it only took a little while.

The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish. The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The American then asked, "but what do you do with the rest of your time?" The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip [COFFEE] and play guitar with my amigos; I have a full and busy life."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?" To which the American replied, "15-20 years.""But what then?" The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO ["a company's first sale of stock to the public"] and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions." "Millions.. Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip [COFFEE] and play your guitar with your amigos." "

05 septiembre 2006

hmmm.. Iraq

In Spring 2003, i was a peacenik, mainly just to be adolescent-y and difficult.

I still don't like war. At all.

(Can you believe that idiot Europeans used to line up and let people shoot at them-repeatedly! over centuries!- because they thought it was honorable?! MEN!!!)

But, I really don't like the idea of biased evaluation of... well, anything. There's always more to the story and asterisks to the fotos that are not easily seen...

Anyhow, got a wearisome email from the fatherland (patria) this afternoon, "blah blah blah mangled children blah blah blah dead parents etc etc etc bush is a monstruo" and a coward, etc."

and i found an interesting statistic:
"Insurgent forces" (i.e.: terrucos) responsible for

"Killing over 12,000 Iraqis over the period of January 2005 - June 2006,

according to Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, giving the first official count for the largest category of victims of bombings, ambushes and other increasingly deadly attacks. [100] "

man. even so, come Lord Jesus.