Enter my not-so-old hp notebook. It had begun to show some wear after a year and half but nothing too terrible (que ominous foreshadowing music).

I waited as it...slowly...turned on. I checked my email (nothing at all...praise the Jesus) then turned my attention to Drudge Report. I like to start my day knowing I won't be eaten by some sort of genetically mutated butterfly. I know that sounds outrageous but what can I say? I'm a quarky person.

While perusing the headlines I suddenly find myself looking at Jackson Pollock painting. Oh wait, no, that's just my monitor. The screen had shifted to white with red and green stripes splashed across it in various locations. It was like Christmas morning gone terribly awry. I then thought "Okay, this is not good but surely fixable. I'll just turn it off and try starting it again." With this detailed plan in place I knew I couldn't fail. So I tried...and nothing happened at all.

I decided to give it some time to calm down. Four hours later it continued to sit there silently while mocking my growing desperation. The "not good" was quickly becoming catastrophic. You see, my laptop doesn't just give me headlines. It also helps me be productive at work. And that's a big part of the reason I get paid. My laptop was also an integral part of my plan to go back to school in the spring. The eternal fates of my job and education were suddenly being held in the cold, clammy grip of computer treachery.*

A trip to my local Geek Squad confirmed what I had feared: my not-so-old hp had kicked the bucket. But there's a light at the end of this tunnel, folks. One might even call it a bright, fresh and chipper light.

Meet Ella.**

She's shiny and beautiful - basically one of the greatest things in the world. Global warming takes a vacation and Russia decides against ethnic cleansing every time I turn her on. That's how amazing she is.

On the off chance anyone follows my little story to the end...a new computer was most certainly not on my list of upcoming expenses. My budget in no way allows for random $2,000 purchases. My credit card company, on the other hand, jumps for joy at random $2,000 purchases. There would almost certainly be free cookies available to anyone who can help a sister out (even a little).

The End.

* I truly am this dramatic in my head. If you've ever met me you now know I've learned to tone it down quite a bit when interacting with real people. I hope you've enjoyed (and not been at all frightened by) this glimpse into the inner workings of my brain.

** For all those wondering, I have adorned my shiny laptop with a red sunflower. Ella brings joy to my life in and of herself, but the red sunflower makes it that much better. I do love, love, love red sunflowers. They're like happiness in a bottle, or something.

In the meantime, let's talk about one of my assignments:  to find the top 10 Google AdWords for us.  The main goal is to set up a monitoring systems that allows us to monitor these keywords in conversations relevant to us on Blogs, Twitter, Friendfeed, etc.  Sounds easy?  I wish!

Finding the right (key)words is hard, just like NY prepsters, Vampire Weekend sing on "Oxford Comma":  

Haven't got the words for you / All your diction dripping with disdain / Through the pain

So what is a web analytics newbie to do?  I set on the following 3 tasks:

1. Review Brian Clifton's "Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics" for all mentions of Google AdWords.
2. Review Google AdWords' Keyword Tool.
3. Read relevant blogs on the subject.

1. Check your handbook / It's no trick:  There is a lot of literature available on selection of keywords.  Try the tutorials at Google AdWords and AdSense first, then complement your ideas with Clifton and web analytics' blogs (refer to my Blogroll on the left side for some references). 
2. Adjust my tie / Know your butler, unlike other guys: Two words > Keyword Tool!  Listen to your website.  Let it do the legwork for you.
3. I met the highest lama / His accent sounded fine:  Quality over quantity.  Selecting a single word with a high AASV may provide you a greater hit rate, but these site visitors may just exit on your home page after realizing that your site has nothing to do with their search.  Remember the key is conversion!

[caption id="attachment_172" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Vampire Weekend playing "Oxford Comma" at Pipeline Cafe (Honolulu, HI). Photo credit: me!"][/caption]

From St. Silouan the Athonite.

Enlightened by baptism, people believe in God. But there are some who even know Him. To believe in God is good but it is more blessed to know God. Nevertheless, those who believe are bless, too, as the Lord said to Thomas, one of the twelve: 'Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.'

If we were humble the Lord in His love would show us all things, would reveal to us all mysteries, but our trouble is that we are not humble. We puff ourselves up and boast over trifles, and so make both ourselves and others unhappy.

The Lord, though He is merciful, oppresses the soul with hunger on account of her pride, and withholds grace from her until she has learned humility. I was perishing from my sins, and would long ago have been in hell, had not the Lord and His most holy and blessed Mother taken pity on me. O, her quiet, gentle voice! A voice from heaven the like of which we shall never hear on earth! And so now in tears I write of the Lord of Mercy, as He were my own Father. It is sweet for the soul to be with the Lord: Adam tasted the sweetness of this bliss in paradise when he saw the Lord with open eyes, and we feel in our souls that He is with us according to His promise: 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.'

The Lord is with us. What more cou8ld we desire? The Lord created man that we might live and bask in Him for ever - that we might be with Him and in Him. And the Lord desires to be with us Himself, and in us. The Lord is our joy and gladness, and when pride causes us to withdraw from Him, it means that of our own accord we deliver ourselves up to suffering. Anguish of heart, dejection and evil thoughts lacerate us....

The proud man fears obloquy, while the humble man cares nothing. He who has acquired Christ-like humility will ever upbraid himself, and it rejoices him to be abused, and grieves him to be acclaimed. but this humility is still only elementary - when the soul comes to know the Lord in the Holy Spirit, how humble and meek He is, she sees herself as the worst of all sinners, and is happy to sit in shabby raiment in the ashes like Job, while she beholds other men in the Holy Spirit shining in the likeness of Christ.

May the Merciful Lord give all men to savor Christ's humility which passes description. The soul will then know no further desire but will live for ever in humility, love and lowliness.

Some added thoughts of my own...

I am constantly aware of the many dangers that assault us. Dangers from within (for the Orthodox) and dangers from without (for us all). And yet I know of no danger that is not defeated in the humility of Christ. There is something about danger that speaks to us and calls us to battle - and yet, such battle does not yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. That which speaks to us in such cases is fear - the same that would call us to run away. Humility alone knows no fear and never runs away. It does not fear the battle for in the humility of Christ the battle is already won, the victory complete. Humility does not run away but embraces the Cross with joy, for it knows that humility is indeed the very similitude of God. If we run away or fight the battle on the brave terms of man, we lose, for we do not fight in the humility of Christ. Christ alone is victorious and humility alone can save us in the manner of God's gracious salvation.

How hard and yet how simple!

He will be interviewed on the "Seize the Day" radio program with Gus Lloyd. If you get satellite radio, be sure to have a listen!!

[Português] - Este Blog foi feito durante uma viagem à Espanha no verão de 2008, e tem a finalidade de ajudar pessoas que desejam informações sobre câmbio de moedas ou reservas de hotéis.

[English] - This Blog was made during a travel to Spain in Summer 2008, and it´s up to help people who desire information about money exchange of different currencies and hotel reservation.

[Español/Castellano] - Este Blog fue hecho durante una viaje a España en el verano de 2008, y tiene la finalidad de ayudar las personas que desean informaciones sobre valores de cotizacion de divisas y reservas de hoteles.

***

[Português] - Abaixo pode-se conferir o valor do cambio diário de moedas como dólar americano, euro e real.

[English] - Behind you can check information about money exchange of different currencies like american dolar, euro and brazilian real.

[Español/Castellano] - Abajo puedes comprobar los valores de cotizacion de divisas como dólar americano, euro e real brasileño.

Conversão - Convertion - Conversión

Anyway, the rumbling started in my tummy. I had felt very generous that morning...you know, the thrill of converting GBP into INR ... I had given away Rs.20 to a beggar. She didn't go ga-ga but I was too elated to be back home, that I didn't quite care, though I was a wee bit surprised. Coming back to my rumble, I spotted a nice little latticed stall in a corner of the complex. The guy smiled me a welcome. I nodded affably, and ordered a delicious-looking paneer-sandwich and musambi juice. I was startled by the contrast in customer service, between now and a few years ago. Earlier, we would see unshaven men wiping off their nose before handing over spilt juice in a thick, dirty glass tumbler. And here was a neatly dressed chef-like gentleman handing over a tall clean glass of chilled juice in a nice little tray. "Wow!" I thought aloud, suitable impressed.

The guy smiled politely. And handed over the bill. I opened my wallet with a flourish and took out the solitary crisp Rs.100 currency note, and handed it to him. "Keep the change", I said graciously, in appreciation of the ambience and service. Wait! Something was wrong. He returned a glare that seemed to ask "Which village are you from?!!!". He shoved the bill back into my hand. It read "Rs.75 + Rs.55". My eyes popped out. I thought I wasn't able to read well because of the dim lights. I re-read the bill carefully. Yes, it was a WHOPPING Rs.130 "plus service tax".

"Er...um...actually..." I started..."Do you accept credit cards?", the brilliant thought suddenly struck me.

"Yes, we do, but not for small amounts", came the carefully-worded reply, as he pointed to the board hanging on a side. "Credit cards - minimum amount Rs.250".

"Humph...rude!!", I thought, but all I said aloud was a meek "Oh". "Strange practices here", I added lamely. And I returned the sandwich (as I could not return the juice)!!!

And walked away as fast as I could. I could still feel the bugger muttering behind my back.

This was one of the prayers offered by Sara, one she specially wrote for use at the Food Pantry where her and her volunteers distribute free groceries to upwards of three hundred people once a week. I think the main reason it caught my eye as I read it this time around, was that it is reminded me very much of a prayer Bart Erhman described in his book, God’s Problem. For Bart, the doctrine of a God who feeds people became proof that there is no God because millions of people starve every day. For Sara, the doctrine of a God who feeds people became the knowledge that God was asking for her help, because millions of people starve every day.

I hardly know where to begin with this book, there are so many themes and things written in it that just stop me in my tracks, I can hardly refrain from just blurting out “oh, did you read this part?” and “I LOVE what she said here” and “this quote just blows me away!”

So, actually… I’m gonna just blurt stuff out here:

I LOVE Sara’s doctrine of inclusion that welcomes everyone to the (sacramental) table;
“As I interpreted it, Jesus invited notorious wrongdoes to his table, airily discarding all the religious rules of the day, and fed whoever showed up, by the thousands. In the end, he was murdered for eating with the wrong people.” –pg 92

I am profoundly humbled by her belief that you cannot be Christian by your self,
“I was going to get communion, whether I wanted it or not, with people I didn’t necessarily like… the people God chose for me.” –pg 97 The atheist, the Buddhist, the wealthy liberal church member who doesn’t want the Food Pantry interfering with ‘church’, the schizophrenic, the hopeless drug addict, the homophobic evangelical, the sexual deviant (as she occasionally refers to herself) … all part of God’s flesh, the body that we are a part of.

Her take on the Holy Scriptures is delightful to me; “ ‘The Word of God,’ [Donald] said, ‘is what’s heard by the people of God when the Bible is read.’ That meant the Word was living not because it was magical but because over and over, down the centuries, believers wrestled with texts, adapted them, edited them, interpreted them, swallowed them whole an spat them out. The stories in the Bible were records of human attempts to understand God- attempts that were hopelessly incomplete. But through words and acts, we kept trying.” –pg 172

One of my favorite parts, the one lodged in the back of my mind like a seed, is when Sara takes a vial of rosemary scented oil to the Food Bank and shyly goes around asking the workers there if they wanted a blessing. A special anointing, a ‘blessing of the hands’ that she thought up just for the occasion. Dipping her thumb in the oil, making the sign of the cross upon the palm of whoever said yes, giving a little prayer. As they all go about their work of feeding the poor. The imagery is one I just cannot shake.

I was sometimes uncomfortable with her ‘new convert’ fervor, slipping scriptural phrases into conversations with her atheist partner, self-righteously strong-arming her new church community into the good-works sector using the guilt card (“it’s what Jesus would do if he were here”). And my heart hurt a little bit when she shared the account of the young girl, obviously abused, who wanted baptism; ‘…the water God puts on you to make you safe…’ It was a beautiful, intimate ordinance, as Sara and Lynn (the female minister) washed and anointed this girl (pg 237)… but I found my self thinking, aching; does she think this will protect her? Did they explain well enough to that beaten abused child that the water and the oil won’t keep her from getting hit (or worse)?

I could go on and on… (the politics of food, the ordination of women and homosexuals, the wars within religious communities and between different factions of Christians, same-sex marriage, the spirituality of sharing food and of the dinner table, etc…) but I’ll stop now.

However, I’m hoping you will go on, I’m dying to know what you thought of the book!

What did you think of Sara’s conversion, of her experiences at St Gregory’s, of her radical politics and her unconventional education, of her work with the Food Pantries and her unorthodox gospel?
What parts were memorable, which were uncomfortable?
What similarities do you see between Sara’s beliefs and experience and your own?
Anything else that I am not asking but you want to share, please feel free.

     BEND - The Conference which I attended in Chicago this week dealt with the spiritual activity in the Church known as deliverance ministry and exorcism. I wrote about this last year after I had listened to a series of tapes from a conference on the same topic which was held in 2007. Many aspects of deliverance and exorcism were covered in the course of the four-day conference including the canonical, the theological, the psychological, the spiritual and the personal. At the very foundation of the conference stands the truth that we live in a world surrounded by spiritual beings and those spiritual beings, including angels, saints and demons, interact with us in a variety of ways. Some of that interaction is very helpful and supportive, some of it is not. Obviously any interaction with satanic or demonic spiritual beings is fraught with spiritual danger and we as Catholics need to be aware of the reality of Satan, aware of his wickedness and snares, and live in such a way that we do not fall under his sway or influence. Just as we were accustomed, perhaps more so as children than at present, to recite the Guardian Angel Prayer asking for our Angel's light, guardianship, rulership and guidance so we should also pray to be protected from the "wickedness and snares of the devil."

     In the course of the conference I was pleased to engage in a conversation with a young priest who reminded me of a book on the activities of the devil which is very much a classic. The book, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, is a series of one-sided letters written by senior devil Screwtape to his nephew apprentice devil, Wormwood. Uncle Screwtape gives guidance and direction to a sometimes hapless and quasi incompetent Wormwood who repeatedly fails in one way or another to properly ensnare his assigned subject. It is a wondrously topsy-turvy world in which, from the devil's perspective, blessedness is devilishness, success in resisting temptation is failure, and human causes of genuine joy are disastrous losses for Satan. Repeatedly the despicable (which is a high compliment) Screwtape chastises Wormwood, who is perhaps too good (what a horrible insult) for his failure to be devilish or shrewd enough in his assigned duty as junior tempter. Besides being quite entertaining, the book awakens the reader to the reality of the spiritual or supernatural world and very imaginatively portrays the machinations and strategizing of the evil one in "winning souls."

     While there is a great deal of interest in and curiosity about the devil in the realm of possession and exorcism, there is much less interest in him in the realm of one's day-to-day life. Indeed, in the realm of our own lives. For the most part, people of America generally proceed with their daily lives as if Satan did not exist at all. An undue fascination with the details of possession is perhaps not spiritually healthy but neither is ignoring the existence of the devil and the reality of evil. We can be sure he is not ignoring us.

     The devil is insanely jealous of us. He is jealous because God, bypassing the angelic spirits, chose to link His Divine nature with our human nature in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. The singular purpose of Satan then, with a fervor which is fed by jealousy, is to sabotage as many of the individual relationships with God as possible. We are assured that those who maintain a strong relationship with the Lord in prayer and sacraments are extremely unlikely to fall prey to possession but we are all victims of ongoing temptation. It is this role of tempter which C.S. Lewis explores in The Screwtape Letters. A sensitivity in the spiritual life needs to include an awareness of the tactics of the devil and a firm resolve to avoid and resist the wickedness and snares of the devil. This is precisely the purpose of the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel. In that prayer, we acknowledge that we are involved in a battle with the forces of evil, "Saint Michael, Archangel, defend us in battle" and we ask his specific intervention, "be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil." We then go one step further invoking God's own direct assistance, "May God rebuke him, we humbly pray," and then back to Saint Michael and all the angels, "and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits." Then at the end of the prayer we take note of the reason why we have sought the intercession of the great Saint Michael in the first place. This is because those evil spirits are the ones "who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls." These souls whom Satan and his evil minions prowl about the world seeking to destroy are not anonymous other souls but rather our own souls and those of our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

     It is certainly important that we not become excessively consumed or obsessed by the presence and activity of the evil one but it is also most important that we not be oblivious to his presence or activity, for it is real. All one needs to do is look at the state of moral confusion which reigns in our present society. The killing of the sick or elderly because they want it is being promoted as some kind of right or good but this can be so only in the topsy-turvy world of Screwtape and Wormwood. When taking the life of an innocent pre-born child is seen as right and a right and when the preservation of precisely that right becomes the object of a political campaign, I suspect the letter from Screwtape to the demon master of that campaign would be filled with praise. When a whole society begins to question whether marriage really requires one man and one woman, faithfully committed to each other in an exclusive and child-centered relationship, Satan must be very pleased indeed. Screwtape's letters to the untiring tempters who pulled off that coup would have to be filled with devilish pride. For that kind of confusion and moral inversion to have made this kind of progress in our society, it was and is necessary for Satan to have been very active and at the same time to remain very hidden. When he is so subtly hidden, there is no limit to the wickedness and snares of the devil.

     When we look at our society and see the depths of depravity to which it has already sunk we must, like in the parable of the wheat and the tares, come to the unmistakable conclusion that "an enemy has done this."

This is my last post on Todd Bentley.  I don't want to spend too much time thinking about him.  But there are things I think need to be said, for the cause of Christ.

I came across this yesterday but didn't address it.  Contrary to what Todd Bentley told Stephen Strader, there was another party involved.  Fresh Fire Ministries announced that he had an unhealthy emotional relationship with a staff member, and that this had happened before.

My original point, which I didn't express clearly, was this:  Is this-
A. an example of a man who did not appropriate the blessings of the gospel in his battle with sin.
B. the result of a truncated, incomplete understanding of the gospel.
C. the result of a deviant, and therefore false, gospel.

If the first, it doesn't affect the validity of the 'revival'.
If the second, it should cause those who partake in the 'revival' to gain a fuller understanding of the gospel.
If the third, I hope it will bring people to realize a false gospel was being proclaimed and to forsake it for the true gospel.

The press release from Fresh Fire Ministries places the blame on the Enemy, as though sin was "out there" instead of in our hearts.  As a result, there is little personal accountability, just the need for "healing".  This minimizes the sinfulness of his actions- they need healing, not repentance.  Perhaps there are some ways in which Todd Bentley has been sinned against in the past that still require the balm of the gospel to bring healing.  But his transfer of affection in sinful, and indicates a bigger problem than he admits. 

We are not sanctified after encounters with angels (as he seems to claim)- we are sanctified as we appropriate the gospel and put our sin to death in the power of the Spirit.  The obsession with miracles and power is remarkably similar to the triumphalism (and sin minimization) of the Corinthians as taught to them by the false apostles.  This obsession with miracles reveals at least a truncated understanding of the gospel, and most likely a false gospel.

This is not a continuationist-cessationist argument, but one about the central message of the gospel (regeneration => conversion => justification by faith => adoption => sanctification => glorification).  When parts of this are dropped off, you have a truncated gospel.  When something is put there in its place, or in addition to them, you have a false gospel.  In the NT they authenticate the message and messenger.  But in some circles they pretty much are the message.  I fear that healing has replaced the core message and people are being summoned to a false gospel that leaves them in their sins and under the wrath of God.  This is far more important than Bentley's marriage problems.

This means that you'll be able to either build rich multimedia applications or website functionality using the social network as your content management tool.  To be clear, the API set will only be available to Corporate level members but will provide a growing set of features that we hope will be seen as a value add. We'll keep it really simple at first - just two simple but useful interfaces.

Manage Content Hierachically - Folders are a collection of items organized into personalized hierarchical groupings. Therefore, the first API will represent the simple sub-collections within these groupings. 

In simple terms, the API will provide a feed of all content within any named folder in your workspace regardless of the source or type of that content (Vidlisting video, Real Estate Shows, Youtube Video, PDF, Office document, or link). This means that you or your web developer can make any of this type of content appear or disappear on your website by simply using the social network to drag and drop the content out of a social network folder.  It's about the easiest way that we can think of for a non-technical person to manage content on their website.

You'll also be able to choose if everyone with whom you have shared a virtual folder will also get an API key regardless of their member level. Even free members therefore will be able to put your content on their websites if you allow them to.

Convert Video Content: For me, this is the really exciting of the two APIs that we are releasing. Corporate members will be able to place video content on any internet accessible server to which they have authorized access and via the API be able to convert it into a variety of formats simultaneously using the ForSaleByLocals conversion cluster, and then place the converted content on the same server or any other internet accessible server to which they have authorized access. 

In short, you can move a video file into a directory on one of your own servers and then send a simple API command to one of our servers to process the file into multiple file formats, and finally send the converted file(s) back to that server or any other server (production server, file server, customer server, etc.)

In short, by making use of this second API, the Corporate level user will be able to outsource only the conversion capabilities of our conversion cluster and maintain 100% control of their own media within an entirely automated process. We think that this may well revolutionize how organizations view how they use and process video content by third party providers.

I always viewed myself as having had a keener interest in the Christian religion than my classmates at school. I listened intently to the pastor's explanations at our religion lessons on Friday mornings while my classmates mostly acted bored or even tried to disrupt the lessons to get attention. In church services, I tried to listen attentively and gain some kind of benefit from the rather rigid, formal rituals. There were some Christian kids at school who had something different about them, but I must admit at the time I was too shallow and thought it would be uncool to go to any of their meetings. On top of that, I was a loner with a very low self-esteem for reasons I describe futher down.

My first conscious experience of the Holy Spirit was at a weekly youth event at my university about 13 years ago. I had intensified my search for a deeper meaning behind Christianity since my older brother came back from a semester at his university and claimed he could speak in tongues. My mom, coming from a faithful Christian but highly conservative Lutheran family, was taken aback. I remember feeling ambivalent at the time, but my curiosity was triggered and it later turned to frustrated longing.

I wanted to experience something deeper than what I had seen as Christianity so far. Little did I know I was actually looking for a living relationship with Jesus. During my school years, I had times where I would sit at my desk for hours on end, reading the Bible and copying out passages, praying and trying to sift out the meaning of the verses. At times, I had a measure of revelation, but not at a level I was really happy with.

I suppose my greatest problem was that I wasn't happy with myself. How could anyone else be happy with me if I didn't like myself? How could God be hapy with me at all? I was extremely aware of my shortcomings and I now know that I'm by nature an overly sensitive person, which puts me in constant danger of living by my feelings. I suppose it didn't help that I was abused by an older boy around the age of 6 or 7; not sexually, rather he would regularly whip me, like a teacher would beat a naughty child. He would also subject me to other humiliating treatment – largely because he experienced the same in his home. I still struggle to find my self-worth and a reasonable level of self-confidence as a result.

I was invited by a school mate of my brother's to the youth event I visited 13 years ago. I suppose I would have been more reluctant to go if my brother hadn't agreed to go too. The tone of the event was very charismatic, influenced by the Toronto Blessing that was in full swing at the time. The participants were singing worship songs as I came in. I don't remember if I sang too. The head of the youth movement preached a message I don't recall and then he announced a time of praying for each other. My brother's school mate and another girl came up to me and asked it they could pray for me. I felt it was the right thing to do. While we prayed, he told me felt I had to let go of some people I had something against. I knew it was my parents and brothers. For reasons I couldn't understand (or perhaps I had refused to analyse) I had built up enourmous feelings of bitterness and anger towards them. As I told God I was willing to let go of them, I felt a lightness come over my head and shoulders. It was as if a blanket was coming down but at the same time a weight was being lifted off me. Immediately, I was able to worship Jesus in a way I was unable to before. I felt happier than I had ever been and released into a new consciousness even though I felt fully in control of my senses and mind.

I must mention here that, looking back, I don't think my letting go of my parents was a prerequisite for receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit or subsequent fillings. That part is a free gift for anyone who asks and earnestly seeks after Him. I think, the word of knowledge that was spoken was to get my attention and my response signified a step towards receiving the blessing. I think it happens to each person in a different way.

In the wake of that first encounter, I had experiences in the subsequent weeks and months (perhaps years) that I viewed as extraordinary and totally different from anything I had experienced before. I began speaking in tongues a couple of weeks later - I was rather disappointed about the simplicity of the sounds, but I was so elated by everything else that happened, that I was willing to give God the benefit of the doubt. ;-). Sure enough, I speak in various tongues, I sing and chant in the Spirit these days! Other activities involved crying, dancing, shouting, walking in circles, lack of peace and what I now call "driving under the influence" (I'll explain later). Although to onlookers it might have seemed that I was in a trance, I was always fully conscious - usually I was all too self-conscious because of my low self-esteem. But because others were doing it too, I didn't mind as much. Thinking back, perhaps I also used it to boost my image - I am definitely still "of this world" in many respects...

Over the years, the God blessed me with various manifestations of the Sprit's Gifts. I can't quite tell, if there is a specific one I am more proficient in, but I find prophecy, words of knowledge and tongues and interpretation are very interesting. Different people will obviously be fascinated by different Gifts.

The things that happened did not originate in my mind. My mind was aware of what was happening and I think understanding with the mind in light of the Bible is critical so that we don't get mislead. But the most profound impact I think my experience had on me was make me aware of the reality of God. I am so thankful that I can feel His love! It is something that goes beyond what the mind can comprehend and yet it is so REAL!

I was ecstatically, deliriously in love with Jesus, something I'm aspiring to recapture. I remember sitting on the sidewalk in from of one of the lecture halls, smiling blissfully, talking to Him, feeling asif my life would never be the same again.

It has never been the same again, not in the sense that I had no more struggles with my past or my sin or myself or with others... I still fall down, I get discouraged, I get depressed, I get angry for the wrong reasons, I'm selfish in too many respects to count. I could go on for a long while about my faults. Sometimes I sin so deliberately that I wish that I hadn't met God in such an intense way, so that perhaps I could use it as an excuse...

But I have tasted that God is good in a way I didn't think was possible and it gives me courage to go on.

After performing some investigation, I found that the 404 Error Page was populated with a sitemap of the entire Web site, including a list of URL's by product. Visitors were redirected, so to speak, from a serious issue.

The root cause of the problem was resolved by identifying a URL that was renamed. A 301 URL level redirect implemented via .htaccess redirected the old filename to the intended new URL. The problem was fixed immediatly. It took 2-3 weeks for Google to cache the new URL information but the redirect worked as intended.

Use 404 Error Pages for more than just reporting an error. Be creative and take the opportunity to fix a fubar gracefully.

Asked if she was annoyed by media suggestions that Stuczynski was a challenger after her U.S. record vault of 16 feet, 3/4 inch (4.90 meters) earlier this season, Isinbayeva was utterly dismissive.

This was followed shortly by a quote from Isinbayeva:

"They said, 'Wooooo' when she jumped 4.90 (16 feet, 1 inch), but I jumped this height four years ago. It is nothing special."

Personally I think that vaulting over 16 feet is pretty special indeed: I believe these are the only two women who have ever done it. But what caught my eye was that 4.9 meters was stated as the equivalent to 16 feet, 3/4 inch in the first case, but was translated to 16 feet, 1 inch in the second.

So I checked. It turns out that 16 feet, 3/4 inch is 489.585 cm, which does round to 4.90 meters. Furthermore, 4.90 meters is 16 feet, 0.91 inches, which rounds to 16 feet, 1 inch. So my initial thought was that everyone was just rounding.

Then I checked the USA Track and Field conversion site which had the same hedging, but in the opposite direction — everything is rounded down instead of up. It says 16′ 1″ should be converted to 4.90 meters, but 4.90 meters should be converted to only 16′ 3/4″ . And what should 16′ 3/4″ be converted to? To 4.89 meters. Which converts to 16′ 1/2″. Which converts to 4.88 meters. Which converts all the way down to an even 16′. And of course 16′ converts to 4.87m, which converts to 15′ 11 3/4″, which — hold on to your hats here — also converts to 4.87m. Finally, a fixed point!

And by transitivity of conversion, we have that 16 feet, 1 inch is equivalent to 15 feet, 11 3/4 inch.

Photo (cropped) of Yelena Isinbayeva by Eckhard Pecher, published under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5.

I am toying with the idea of writing a short screenplay based on the piece because I've always been interested in fusing theater and film. But first, I'm going to send the first draft off to some friends to get notes and hopefully, get enough feedback to start on draft two. I'd love to develop it with New Georges. I rented a space from them when I did a screenplay reading and along with being very friendly and organized, they produce some really interesting independent theater.

An excerpt from "The Art of Leaving":

CONSTANCE
I don’t have a temper.

REVERIE
Of course you do.

CONSTANCE
No, I don’t.

REVERIE
It’s perfectly normal for a woman to have a temper.

CONSTANCE
I’m not perfectly normal. What do you mean it’s perfectly normal for a woman to have a temper?

REVERIE
Acceptable. I meant perfectly acceptable.

CONSTANCE
No, you meant normal.

REVERIE
Poor choice of words.

She flips through the old book.

CONSTANCE
I find both of those words perfectly offensive.

REVERIE
Which words, dear?

CONSTANCE
‘Normal’ and ‘acceptable.’ Being normal is a sham and being acceptable is a bore. And coupling them with the word ‘woman’ is simply bad taste.

REVERIE
It’s perfectly acceptable for a normal woman to have bad taste. I do.

CONSTANCE
Yes, you do.

REVERIE
Do I?

CONSTANCE
Yes.

REVERIE
Hm.

CONSTANCE
You saying I’m acting normal does anything but make me feel better about feeling awful. You’ve never been good at that.

REVERIE
At what, dear?

CONSTANCE
Making me feel better when I feel awful. Are you listening to anything I’m saying?

REVERIE
Bits and pieces. I thought you wanted me to leave you alone when you’re angry.

CONSTANCE
I’m not angry, I’m frustrated.

REVERIE
All right. Does that mean you don’t want me to leave you alone?

CONSTANCE
I don’t know what it means. Perhaps you should try to figure me out without my help.

REVERIE
And why would I do a thing like that?

CONSTANCE
Because I want you to.

REVERIE
No, you don’t. You want me to leave you alone.

CONSTANCE
I want you to know whether or not you should leave me alone.

REVERIE
How can I know what you want without asking?

CONSTANCE
By paying close attention.

REVERIE
Without paying any attention?

CONSTANCE
Yes.

REVERIE
That sounds complicated.

SIDE NOTE FOR PEOPLE WHO MIGHT CARE: When I had finished the first draft the first time (yeah, there were two times), I accidentally saved the title page in place of the entire script. That was fun. Luckily, I had a pdf version. Problem is, it's a lot more complicated to convert a pdf to a Word document than you think. You really need to purchase software for it. Amazing, right? You can easily copy the entire document from Adobe, but once you paste it into another program, you lose all formatting. Someone I know had conversion software, which worked fine but still lost some formatting. Final Draft should add some sort of recovery option for dumb asses like me. They have a revert option that allows you to go back to the last saved version, but let me again highlight what a dumb ass I was because I exited the program before I knew what happened. If you have any more pointers on this subject, let us know.

My data comes as an ascii text file from a MSQL server which I import using Heidi SQL, a neat free package that can be found here. As far as I can tell it's the only freeware supporting imports to MYSQL with some graphical help. It also has a number of other nice features and is under active development. In general it is better suited for me that the MYSQL workbench (which is pretty useless in the "free" edition), and for the time being I don't feel like spending even the small $ to get the full edition. For the import, define the fields as terminated by \t and define the lines as terminated by \r\n .Ignore one line (to skip the headers, since you have to import into a defined table with field names. It took me a while to find those escape chars!!! not intuitive for someone accustomed to Microsoft!!

Anyhow once you get the dates into the database they are simply text and  may be in various forms, long or short. The fields Month Day Year are in different order.. so here is a small piece of code that changes the Microsoft format into a MYSQL one, you must have defined the destination field (DATE_MODIFIED in my example) in your database as a date field. The code uses two nested functions, The substring_index, and the STR_TO_TEXT to get the job done. So you can look up the references to see how it does its' work. It handles nulls and blanks in the source field.

Old hands may think how simple, but I was rather pleased with my 1st, and so far only line of MYSQL code!

This takes the text contents of SDATE_MODIFIED (a string field) and puts a proper MYSQL date into DATE_MODIFIED (a date field).

Update ARESIMPORT set DATE_MODIFIED= STR_TO_DATE(substring_index(SDATE_MODIFIED," ",1),'%c/%e/%Y');

I wanted to take some time to write to you (I've been thinking about this for a while). I know that you don't know me and I don't know you but I know your love for the Lord and it is a love that makes us one.

Chrisy, it hurts me to see you so far from the Church (I say this as one who struggles to make it there because of procrastination and sin) and her sacraments. I wish there were something I could say or do to help you see the Church and your brothers and sisters in a different light.

You see, we are connected, we are one body in Christ. We are being built upon the surest foundation; which is Him. There is nothing you can say or do that would change the fact that I love you.

Chrisy, I know that what you believe about certain things and what I believe about them are polar opposites, like for example our view on Obama and his beliefs. But, even though I believe that I am right, and that I believe that you should submit to the Church's authority (on issues such as abortion) I would (and I don't believe the Church would either) ask you to go against your conscience.

I believe that we should talk about these things and if there is any disagreement then we should pray and ask God to make it right. Chrisy, I would never want to seperate from fellowship with a brother or sister because of sin; we are to build one another up. My hope is that you will not judge me for what I believe and that I will not judge you but that we may grow together in the faith.

Yours in Christ,

Richard

Algunos lo llaman Síndrome de Peter Pan. Soy adulto y quiero serlo, pero me gustaría no haber perdido cierta frescura y capacidad para disfrutar del momento. A la gente que quiero se lo digo: "Cuando crezcas y te hagas mayor, no abandones el niño que llevas dentro."

Señor, ¿qué me sucede? ¿Por qué quiero ser como los niños? ¿Por qué acajo con tanta facilidad esa llamada: "Si no os hacéis como niños..."? ¿Por qué me cuesta tanto su sencillez? Es curioso, pero siento la contradicción: por un lado, sé que sigo siendo en muchas cosas "como un pequeño", pero en otras me he convertido en un feroz adulto. Gracias, Señor, por esta vocación: "Ser como los pequeños." A lo tonto, a lo tonto... mi vida conjuga grandes seriedades pero también grandes "inocentadas". Gracias, Señor, por las veces que disfruto como los pequeños, aunque no sepa qué me sucede del todo. Es el camino de mi conversión, lo sé. Es el camino que me llevará hasta ti.

A un pequeño nadie se atreve a decirle ciertas cosas, ni a protestar. Se convierte en alguien admirado y gracioso, que trae nueva vida. ¡La Iglesia! ¡Por favor, seamos pequeños!

Es de esas preguntas que llamamos retórica, porque no esperamos respuesta. Si bien es cierto que sería interesante responder: "¿De qué vas cuando...?"

Vamos a intentarlo: "De qué vas cuando estás con tus amigos", "De qué vas cuando estás solo en tu habitación", "De qué vas cuando nadie te conoce", "De qué vas cuando estudias", "De qué vas en tu trabajo", "De qué vas con tu familia"...

No es que esté enfadado. Simplemente me pregunto. Esto de IR POR LA VIDA siendo de una manera concreta tiene su intríngulis. Esto de IR POR LA VIDA queriendo ser uno mismo, con autenticidad pero incapaces siempre de dar la cara, tiene su aquel. Esto de IR POR LA VIDA con una imagen concreta, rodeado de ciertos "prejuicios", de ciertas "espectativas"... es curioso cuanto menos. Yo soy de esos que vive, en cierto modo, con un papel claro ante las personas, y parece que cuando se acercan a mí saben cómo pienso y en qué pienso y en qué no pienso. La verdad es que todos nos llevamos sorpresas, porque cada uno es un mundo y, sin querer vivir "encerrados en nuestro propio mundo" lo vamos creando con nuestras decisiones y con nuestros "misterios personales". Cada uno, con su historia, es alguien más allá de la imagen. Pero es tan importante...

Y tú, DE QUÉ VAS POR LA VIDA. Jesús de Nazaret, llamado el Cristo, también FUE POR LA VIDA. Algunos decían que era un judío, otros que un profeta, otros que Elías, otros que... y de vez en cuando, alguien era capaz de enlazar con su misterio más íntimo y personal. Por eso, cuando Jesús se sentía conocido como Persona, daba gracias a Dios. "Eso no te lo ha podido contar nadie, sino mi Padre."

¿Tú de qué vas? ¿Quién es capaz de contar tu misterio?

We hosted Luke 8:4-15 this morning as a text to help us evaluate how well we hear the 'word of God'.  This is known as the parable of the soil, and gives us four types of soil related to how well they receive a productive sowing of seed.

Most generally, our assumption is always that God is up to something, that God is speaking and acting in our midst and that we have the opportunity to participate in and receive what God is doing or to reject (actively or passively) that activity.

As we take a deep breath and then rush headlong back into the school year and Fall season, this is a good time of year to slow down long enough to test the soil of our lives personally and in community.  What sort of environmental work needs to be done in order to be a potentially productive recipient of the activity of God?  The parable of the soil gives us rich metaphors for soul care and compelling questions for evaluating our own availability and vulnerability toward the activity of God in our midst.

Israel Today: Saudi girl executed for becoming Christian

A young girl in Saudi Arabia was brutally executed by her Muslim father this week after he learned his daughter had converted to Christianity.

Middle East business news website Zawya.com reported that the man, who is a prominent member of a "virtue committee," first cut out his daughter's tongue and held a one-sided religious debate with her. He then burned his daughter alive.

Observant Muslims hold that their Prophet Mohammed taught that Muslims who convert to any other religion must be killed, often in extremely brutal fashion.

Brutal as this father's actions were, they did carry a bit of unintended symbolism. Much like he brutally forced an argument on his daughter without her being able to respond, so do some Muslims wish to do the same on the West.

And some dhimmitude from the Netherlands:

NIS: Netherlands Recognises Polygamous Marriages of Muslims

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, August 15 (Compass Direct News) – A civil court on Aug. 5 denied a woman’s appeal to renounce Islam in favor of Christianity, highlighting the jurisdictional disputes in Malaysia’s dual legal system.

Lim Yoke Khoon had filed a suit in her original ethnic Chinese name to renounce Islam and embrace Christianity. In a 2-1 majority ruling, the Shah Alam Court of Appeal denied her case on a technicality: According to judges Tengku Baharudin Shah Tengku Mahmud and Sulong Mat Jeraie, Lim had ceased to exist under her original name when she converted to Islam and assumed a new name, Noorashikin Lim binti Abdullah.

The 35-year-old Lim is reportedly expected to appeal to the country’s top civil court.

After marrying a Muslim man in 1994, Lim converted to Islam and obtained a new identity card with her Muslim name. She divorced three years later. In 2003, she applied for a change to her name and religion on her identity card, but the National Registration Department told her she must get permission from the Islamic sharia court to renounce Islam.

She sought a declaration from the high court that she was no longer a Muslim, but it ruled in 2006 that it had no jurisdiction to hear the case.

Malaysia’s civil courts have not been known to rule in favor of non-Muslims in conversion cases in recent years. Many, such as Lina Joy, have been directed to obtain an exit certificate from the sharia court in order to leave Islam. But Lina – and others like her – are reluctant to subject themselves to a religious court that has no jurisdiction over them since they are no longer professing Muslims.

Quelling Discussion

A public forum to discuss such jurisdictional disputes, in this case the dual court system’s effect on families of people who convert to Islam, was scheduled for Saturday (Aug. 9) but Muslim protestors succeeded in halting it after only one hour.

Sponsored by a body of legal practitioners called the Malaysian Bar Council, the public forum that began at 9 a.m. was scheduled to last until 1 p.m., but police advised organizers to end it at 10 a.m. as protestors outside the council headquarters shouting “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” “Destroy Bar Council” and “Long Live Islam” became rowdy. A handful of protestors flanked by police officers marched into the building shouting for the meeting to end immediately.

The protestors included members from several Malay-Muslim movements, including the Malaysian Islamic Propagation and Welfare Organization and the Federation of Malay Students Union, as well as members of political parties such as the United Malays National Organization, the People’s Justice Party (PKR) and Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS).

The forum had been widely criticized by various Malay-Muslim groups and individuals for raising the ire of Muslims by touching on issues sensitive to Islam. Among those critical were cabinet ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Prior to the event, the Bar Council had been urged to either cancel the forum or hold the event behind closed doors, but the organizers decided to proceed albeit with the cautionary measure of requiring participants at the open forum to register.

A day prior to the forum, the Bar Council issued a press release to clarify the purpose of the forum through council Vice President Ragunath Kesavan. Ragunath made clear that the forum would not question the provisions of Article 121(1A), which confer jurisdiction over Muslims in personal, religious and family matters on the sharia courts, and that the forum would not question Islam or its status as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

Rather, Ragunath said, the purpose of the meeting was to address issues affecting families of those who convert to Islam and were caught between the separate jurisdiction of the civil and sharia courts.

The morning of the forum, two unidentified men on motorcycles threw kerosene bombs into the compound of a residence formerly occupied by the president of the Bar Council, Ambiga Sreenevasan. Many believed the incident was linked to the Bar Council’s forum on conversion.

Other Muslim Responses

Not all Muslims agreed with the protestors’ actions.

Leaders of the Muslim political party PAS and Muslim-led multi-racial party, PKR, have distanced themselves from members who participated in the raucous disruption of the Bar Council forum.

Dr. Dzulkifli Ahmad, director of the PAS Research Centre, told The Star daily on Wednesday (Aug. 13), “We were unanimous that [the forum] should have been allowed to proceed,” and that “those who had united to oppose the forum had no understanding of the issue at hand.”

PKR Deputy President Syed Husin Ali reportedly also condemned the “rough action” of the protestors, although he said the party agreed with its adviser Anwar Ibrahim that the meeting should have been held behind closed doors “in view of the sensitive reactions and wrong perception among a section of the Malay-Muslim community.”

Karim Raslan, a Malay-Muslim columnist at The Star argued that “we can’t achieve any sense of mutual agreement unless we are willing to talk – and openly – to one another about the issues that matter.”

Non-Muslim Reactions

Civil society groups and members of the non-Muslim community, including those from the ruling coalition government, have also criticized the Muslim protestors’ actions for failing to acknowledge long-standing problems non-Muslims caught in jurisdictional conflict situations have had to face and endure.

Others have urged the government to take decisive and immediate steps to address the problems arising from the country’s dual legal system. In Malaysia, sharia laws are binding on Muslims in personal, religious and family matters while civil laws apply to all citizens.

Joint Action Group for Gender Equality, representing five different women’s groups, reportedly called on the government “to act against mob rule and to allow citizens more democratic space for open dialogue.”

T. Mohan, youth coordinator of the Malaysian Indian Congress, a party within the ruling coalition, told online news agency Malaysiakini on Monday (Aug. 11), “[The protestors] should have come out with their proposals in addressing the issue of non-Muslim husbands who abandon their spouses and their families and convert into Islam, rather than stop a legitimate forum.”

Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, acting president of Gerakan, a party within the ruling coalition government, was quoted in local media as calling for the government to convene a joint committee of civil and sharia lawyers “to formulate, clarify and rectify procedures related to marriage between Muslims and non-Muslims, conversion, custody of children and burial rituals.”  

Report from Compass Direct News