For those of you fans of the show House M.D., here is the lead actor Hugh Laurie performing a song on the Inside The Actors Studio show. He's actually quite talented, and as you can tell, quite British. At any rate, enjoy the humorous song, mystery, and see the return of House on Tuesday at 9/8 C on Fox.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
It's All Set Out Before Me...
Tonight was a little different. I went to another local church other than that one that I normally go to as there was a guest speaker by the name of Patrick Mead that had been giving a series of lessons over the course of the week. I had heard from others that he was quite an exceptional speaker, and figured it would be a good opportunity to hear someone that I hadn't heard speak before. I looked online, and the lesson title for the evening was "Forgiven Much, Forgiven Little", which, as many of you reading this might guess, dealt with the "sinful" woman who came in while Jesus was with Simon the Pharisee. She wept on his feet, dried them with her hair, and poured perfume on them. Simon was shocked by this action, and questioned Jesus in his mind why he would allow a woman such as this to touch him, for if he was truly a prophet, than he would know and would have been appaled as well, because, well, that's how you should be when "sinful" people come up against "good" people. Rather than agreeing with the usual thought pattern of the learned teachers of the day, Jesus tells the story of the man who cancelled the debts of two men, who owed 500 and 50 denarii respectively. When he asked Simon who would love his master more, he correctly replied the one with the larger debt. Jesus makes the telling statement in Luke 7:47 - "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven - for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." An excellent story to remind us that we all should love much, for we have been forgiven much. Nobody in the eyes of God is righteous in and of himself. The blood of Christ makes us that way. And without a humble spirit to recognize that we are not any better than anyone else should lead us to a life where loving others, and loving God, is of the utmost importance.
However, that wasn't exactly what caught my attention, as I have heard that story and that lesson preached a hundred times. What got me interested was a little Q&A session, that maybe lasted 10 minutes, that happened right at the start of the service. Of the 3 questions he took, there was women in the church (where he referred us to his online sermons which he said were prepared after 3 years of study with the elders of his church and scholars of language and religion), something regarding the role of elders and deacons (I wasn't really paying attention to that one as it was the last question), and that of the meaning of predestination mentioned in Ephesians 1. And in the space of the 3 minutes that he talked about, he probably made it clearer in my head than anyone else had before. Here's the general idea:
Ephesians 1:4,5 says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." Now, some people will take this to mean that God has already chosen who will be saved and who will not be saved. I cannot agree with this in the least, for one, it takes away free will, which we all have. Secondly, it would negate the many, many, many times that Jesus specifically says "Whoever believes in me..." and then fill in the rest. If only some of us were to be saved from the beginning, He would have said something like, "Well, for the four or five of you, but not for anyone else, that will believe in me...".
Looking back at the verse, we see that Paul wasn't talking about our spiritual journey being predestined, but that in fact, God had predestined the journey of Christ as our intercessor. It says we were predestined "to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ." God wasn't taking away our ability to make decisions. He was in fact giving us another decision to make...whether or not we would become an adopted son of his by coming to Him through Christ.
I guess when I've heard it discussed, so many people get to the word predestined, and then something blows up in the thought process and the rest of the verse, chapter, Bible, gets tossed out. Suddenly, our thoughts are controlled, our futures are set in stone, and there's not a thing that anyone can do about it. To me, what he said, and how he said it (to which I've tried to reproduce here) made perfect sense in terms of being consistent with other statements in the Bible, and the fact that God has given us free-will to make decisions, whether they be good or bad for us. The thing that we didn't have control of was whether God would offer us a way back to him since we are all sinners. But from the beginning of time, He had a plan that would bring us back to him. In that sense, I guess it was all laid out before us and set in place before we had a chance to have a say. And for me, that's not such a bad thing.
However, that wasn't exactly what caught my attention, as I have heard that story and that lesson preached a hundred times. What got me interested was a little Q&A session, that maybe lasted 10 minutes, that happened right at the start of the service. Of the 3 questions he took, there was women in the church (where he referred us to his online sermons which he said were prepared after 3 years of study with the elders of his church and scholars of language and religion), something regarding the role of elders and deacons (I wasn't really paying attention to that one as it was the last question), and that of the meaning of predestination mentioned in Ephesians 1. And in the space of the 3 minutes that he talked about, he probably made it clearer in my head than anyone else had before. Here's the general idea:
Ephesians 1:4,5 says, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." Now, some people will take this to mean that God has already chosen who will be saved and who will not be saved. I cannot agree with this in the least, for one, it takes away free will, which we all have. Secondly, it would negate the many, many, many times that Jesus specifically says "Whoever believes in me..." and then fill in the rest. If only some of us were to be saved from the beginning, He would have said something like, "Well, for the four or five of you, but not for anyone else, that will believe in me...".
Looking back at the verse, we see that Paul wasn't talking about our spiritual journey being predestined, but that in fact, God had predestined the journey of Christ as our intercessor. It says we were predestined "to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ." God wasn't taking away our ability to make decisions. He was in fact giving us another decision to make...whether or not we would become an adopted son of his by coming to Him through Christ.
I guess when I've heard it discussed, so many people get to the word predestined, and then something blows up in the thought process and the rest of the verse, chapter, Bible, gets tossed out. Suddenly, our thoughts are controlled, our futures are set in stone, and there's not a thing that anyone can do about it. To me, what he said, and how he said it (to which I've tried to reproduce here) made perfect sense in terms of being consistent with other statements in the Bible, and the fact that God has given us free-will to make decisions, whether they be good or bad for us. The thing that we didn't have control of was whether God would offer us a way back to him since we are all sinners. But from the beginning of time, He had a plan that would bring us back to him. In that sense, I guess it was all laid out before us and set in place before we had a chance to have a say. And for me, that's not such a bad thing.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
1 Week Down
To say that this has been one of the slowest weeks I've experienced would probably be an understatement. School's started, but since I'm not taking any classes, I don't have to do anything. So essentially all I should be doing is working on my thesis, but until today we weren't able to get everyone involved in the group that I'm with together, so I haven't really done anything with that either. All in all, pretty boring. Wow, what a first paragraph.
So here is a Google Earth picture of the city Mandi is in. I haven't got any clue where she is within the city, but it's pretty large, and this was about as far away as you could get before all the detail was lost. I'm guessing the only big patch of green is the field where she went to the soccer game that she talked about in her blog. Maybe when she checks she might be able to point out more where she is exactly. Or maybe you can't see it, I don't really know.
So here is a Google Earth picture of the city Mandi is in. I haven't got any clue where she is within the city, but it's pretty large, and this was about as far away as you could get before all the detail was lost. I'm guessing the only big patch of green is the field where she went to the soccer game that she talked about in her blog. Maybe when she checks she might be able to point out more where she is exactly. Or maybe you can't see it, I don't really know.
The word games of the day:
31) 101 D
32) 7 D S
33) 17 is a P N
34) 4 S of the Y
35) 2 H of a C
Bend It Like Beckham
As anyone in the states might know, Beckham is coming to the US to play for MLS in the coming year. Now, he is past his prime, but I think that he still has more to offer the game of soccer than just marketing. At any rate, here is one of the most clutch goals that I've seen. A 93rd minute free kick to send England to the 2002 World Cup Finals. If he didn't score, they were staying home.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Ninja Warrior
So I had the tv on today while I was doing some work, and would you believe that I ran across a program on G4 called Ninja Warrior. Now, the premise is simple. Take 100 men, put up 4 separate obstacle courses that challenge strength and agility, have a really excitable Japanese commentator, and let the games begin. I have to say, this is the first time that I've ever seen it, but it seemed pretty humorous. Kind of a less campy version of MXC, which is one of the classic game-shows, but probably just as amusing. Basically what they try and do is get through a series of traps and physical agility programs in order to become the next Ninja Warrior. The commentator at the start said that only 1 person had ever made it through all the traps.
As an example, the first series of traps for everyone to attempt involved: 1) running across diagonally spaced tilted blocks, 2) running up an inclined narrow log, 3) jumping to a ring that is hung across a sliding metal bar and hanging on and swinging to the next safe point, 4) running across a series of planks set diagonally opposite each other on a narrow pivot point, 5) jumping off a trampoline onto a rope net and climbing across without touching the pool of water underneath, 6) running up a ramp that comes over the top of itself, kind of like a C with a hook across the top of the C, and finally 7) climbing a rope on a wall that is approximately 20 feet high. And that's just the part to weed out the weaklings. According to the website, of the 1400 people to have attempted, only 200 have made it to the second stage. Tuesday's at Midnight on G4 tv. If you're a fan of MXC, I can pretty much guarantee you'll like this one. I guess I found it interesting because I am a ninja at heart (most people just don't know that about me though), and it's always funny to listen to overly-excited Japanese comm1.6entator people screaming things such as "Go Curry-Man! We like our curry anyway you serve it!" (said to a contestant that is a chef for his real job). At least, it was something like that, and certainly funnier when you hear it while watching some guy in a chef's apron running through all the obstacles. I guess my relatives over there in Japan really are quite funny a lot of the time.
On to the game of the day. Here they are:
26) 1.6 K in a M
27) 4 W of a C
28) 191 U N M S
29) 2 D in a W
30) 168 H in a W
As an example, the first series of traps for everyone to attempt involved: 1) running across diagonally spaced tilted blocks, 2) running up an inclined narrow log, 3) jumping to a ring that is hung across a sliding metal bar and hanging on and swinging to the next safe point, 4) running across a series of planks set diagonally opposite each other on a narrow pivot point, 5) jumping off a trampoline onto a rope net and climbing across without touching the pool of water underneath, 6) running up a ramp that comes over the top of itself, kind of like a C with a hook across the top of the C, and finally 7) climbing a rope on a wall that is approximately 20 feet high. And that's just the part to weed out the weaklings. According to the website, of the 1400 people to have attempted, only 200 have made it to the second stage. Tuesday's at Midnight on G4 tv. If you're a fan of MXC, I can pretty much guarantee you'll like this one. I guess I found it interesting because I am a ninja at heart (most people just don't know that about me though), and it's always funny to listen to overly-excited Japanese comm1.6entator people screaming things such as "Go Curry-Man! We like our curry anyway you serve it!" (said to a contestant that is a chef for his real job). At least, it was something like that, and certainly funnier when you hear it while watching some guy in a chef's apron running through all the obstacles. I guess my relatives over there in Japan really are quite funny a lot of the time.
On to the game of the day. Here they are:
26) 1.6 K in a M
27) 4 W of a C
28) 191 U N M S
29) 2 D in a W
30) 168 H in a W
Saturday, January 13, 2007
The Hunt Is On
So today began the job hunt. I ended up applying to 3 jobs today, 2 in SC and one in NC. I'm not entirely sure how qualified I am for them. I guess I wonder how much of the qualifications list they really mean, and how much lee-way they will give to someone that doesn't meet each one of them to the letter. I guess that when they look for a few years experience, and I instead have graduate school, I would figure that those would be interchangeable. At any rate, apparently most of the jobs for physics and math majors, or at least that look for a physics and math degree are situated in California. That is a problem, since I have no desire to move to California, or anywhere that far west for that matter. Who knows. I'll just have to pray that something will come along, and I'm confident that God will provide options for me.
Outside of that, it's been a slow day at the apartment. My roommate is out of town on a trip he went on with his on-campus church group, and outside it's been gloomy. At least it's been fairly quiet, since there is a holiday here on Monday, I guess a lot of people might have gone places for the long weekend.
The word games for the day:
21) 1000 Y in a M
22) 15 M on a D M C
23) 208 to 214 B in a H B
24) 5 to 7 C of the W
25) 6 S of a C
Outside of that, it's been a slow day at the apartment. My roommate is out of town on a trip he went on with his on-campus church group, and outside it's been gloomy. At least it's been fairly quiet, since there is a holiday here on Monday, I guess a lot of people might have gone places for the long weekend.
The word games for the day:
21) 1000 Y in a M
22) 15 M on a D M C
23) 208 to 214 B in a H B
24) 5 to 7 C of the W
25) 6 S of a C
Friday, January 12, 2007
Wondering
Do you ever have those days when you just have all the time in the world to think (whether you really have that time or not)? Today has been one of those for me. I don't even really know what about half the time. They are just scattered fragments of thoughts that come in and go right out without really making a mark. Just one of those days I guess.
For Christmas, I got one of those 1-a-day calendars, and there was a little puzzle a few days ago that had me stumped for a little while. Maybe you'll get it without any difficulty. For me, the directions were what screwed me up, cause I was thinking the completely wrong thing. Here we go:
WORDEZOID: Start at any letter, then spell a common 8-letter word by moving along the lines from letter to letter. Example: You can spell ONION but not UNION. You are not allowed to use a letter twice in a row. Clue: Not income.
G---O---I
/ / /
U---T---N
The horizontal lines are correct. The vertical lines are supposed to connect between the U and G, the T and O, and the N and I. There are also lines connecting the U to the O, and the T to the I, but given my inability to draw satisfactory lines for the easy ones even, I'll just describe it. Can you believe that had me stuck for about 5 hours? It's not like I sat there constantly staring at it for 5 hours...but I felt like an idiot when I re-read the directions for about the millionth time and the answer hit me. I highly doubt it would take anyone else that long. Wow.
As a little plug, anyone who wants some new desktop pictures or likes to have a picture slideshow scrolling as a screensaver, check out Digital Blasphemy. Now, there is a members section where you have to pay, but there are also about 20 free pictures. Not bad for someone with a computer and a pretty good ability at art.
In conclusion of today rather's slow post, here are the usual 5 word associations. We're almost through Part 1 of 3. At least, part 1 of 3 of the ones that I have gotten.
16) 365 D in a Y (a gimme, for Friday)
17) 52 W in a Y
18) 9 L of a C
19) 60 M in an H
20) 64 S on a C B
For Christmas, I got one of those 1-a-day calendars, and there was a little puzzle a few days ago that had me stumped for a little while. Maybe you'll get it without any difficulty. For me, the directions were what screwed me up, cause I was thinking the completely wrong thing. Here we go:
WORDEZOID: Start at any letter, then spell a common 8-letter word by moving along the lines from letter to letter. Example: You can spell ONION but not UNION. You are not allowed to use a letter twice in a row. Clue: Not income.
G---O---I
/ / /
U---T---N
The horizontal lines are correct. The vertical lines are supposed to connect between the U and G, the T and O, and the N and I. There are also lines connecting the U to the O, and the T to the I, but given my inability to draw satisfactory lines for the easy ones even, I'll just describe it. Can you believe that had me stuck for about 5 hours? It's not like I sat there constantly staring at it for 5 hours...but I felt like an idiot when I re-read the directions for about the millionth time and the answer hit me. I highly doubt it would take anyone else that long. Wow.
As a little plug, anyone who wants some new desktop pictures or likes to have a picture slideshow scrolling as a screensaver, check out Digital Blasphemy. Now, there is a members section where you have to pay, but there are also about 20 free pictures. Not bad for someone with a computer and a pretty good ability at art.
In conclusion of today rather's slow post, here are the usual 5 word associations. We're almost through Part 1 of 3. At least, part 1 of 3 of the ones that I have gotten.
16) 365 D in a Y (a gimme, for Friday)
17) 52 W in a Y
18) 9 L of a C
19) 60 M in an H
20) 64 S on a C B
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
A New Beginning
So I've noticed that it's been a while since I last entered something in this blog thing. Between now and a month ago, many things have happened. We've had Christmas holiday, another New Year has come, time has been spent with friends, family, and loved ones, and now it's back to work, school, or whatever else it is that time is spent doing. It's crazy how quickly another year has come and gone, and how many things have happened over the course of it. I can't even hardly remember everything that I've been a part of or done this past year. There are some stand-out highlights however. In no particular order:
1) Having read Philip's blog, I was reminded of the amazing little show that the people at camp put on regarding bringing fire down from heaven, and lighting an altar that would show people the true God. In our rendition, however, God actually didn't show himself, because the fire only managed to light a small patch of grass about 15 feet from the altar. Read here, and look at the comments to get more of a view in to the show of power that never was.
2) Playing again with the guys from Harding at the frisbee tournament in Memphis at the start of the semester was probably one of the most fun activities that I was able to do. Having not played in a tournament for over a year at the time of that one, it was actually a lot of fun, and I still had a little bit of frisbee skill left in the tank. One of the best groups of guys that one could expect or hope to play and hang out with.
3) I took up playing soccer again this past year. Strange, since this was the first time in over 5 years that I played soccer. However, after the first few weeks of trying to get back in to playing and controlling a soccer ball, it got to be fun again. I even scored a few goals during the past year...
4) I completed my first year of graduate study. As of now, there's only about 6 months of graduate work left. That means I have to get my tail in gear and work hard on my thesis, and get in to the job market searching. Yay for growing up.
5) Thanks to Mandi, I attended a US Soccer game in the build-up to the ultimately dissapointing US campaign. I've always wanted to go to a game, and thanks to that gift I was able to go. Maybe one of these days when I manage to travel to Europe, I'll be able to attend a Champions League or European league game. All in all, however, a great experience.
Those are just a few of the stand-outs. There's so many other intangibles and small moments that I am no doubt forgetting. All-in-all, though, 2006 was a good year. Now to look forward to 2007.
In addition, if you guys could pray for Mandi, it would be much appreciated by her, myself, and her family I am sure. She left for Guatemala today, and will be down there for 10 weeks until March 20th. She is studying to improve her Spanish speaking ability, and will be working with some of the missionaries and other events and people down there.
I almost forgot...the word games return:
11) 100 C in a D
12) 12 M in a Y
13) 29 D in F in a L Y
14) 27 B in the N T
15) 13 L in a B D
1) Having read Philip's blog, I was reminded of the amazing little show that the people at camp put on regarding bringing fire down from heaven, and lighting an altar that would show people the true God. In our rendition, however, God actually didn't show himself, because the fire only managed to light a small patch of grass about 15 feet from the altar. Read here, and look at the comments to get more of a view in to the show of power that never was.
2) Playing again with the guys from Harding at the frisbee tournament in Memphis at the start of the semester was probably one of the most fun activities that I was able to do. Having not played in a tournament for over a year at the time of that one, it was actually a lot of fun, and I still had a little bit of frisbee skill left in the tank. One of the best groups of guys that one could expect or hope to play and hang out with.
3) I took up playing soccer again this past year. Strange, since this was the first time in over 5 years that I played soccer. However, after the first few weeks of trying to get back in to playing and controlling a soccer ball, it got to be fun again. I even scored a few goals during the past year...
4) I completed my first year of graduate study. As of now, there's only about 6 months of graduate work left. That means I have to get my tail in gear and work hard on my thesis, and get in to the job market searching. Yay for growing up.
5) Thanks to Mandi, I attended a US Soccer game in the build-up to the ultimately dissapointing US campaign. I've always wanted to go to a game, and thanks to that gift I was able to go. Maybe one of these days when I manage to travel to Europe, I'll be able to attend a Champions League or European league game. All in all, however, a great experience.
Those are just a few of the stand-outs. There's so many other intangibles and small moments that I am no doubt forgetting. All-in-all, though, 2006 was a good year. Now to look forward to 2007.
In addition, if you guys could pray for Mandi, it would be much appreciated by her, myself, and her family I am sure. She left for Guatemala today, and will be down there for 10 weeks until March 20th. She is studying to improve her Spanish speaking ability, and will be working with some of the missionaries and other events and people down there.
I almost forgot...the word games return:
11) 100 C in a D
12) 12 M in a Y
13) 29 D in F in a L Y
14) 27 B in the N T
15) 13 L in a B D
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