Wednesday, June 28, 2006
I'm Done
I'm sitting here in the computer lab after my last test and worrying about other things, and it just struck me. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. I never ever have to come back to this place-- well except to graduate and for good things like that. I never have to take another class here- ever again. Right up until the last minute I never thought it would really happen, but it has finally, finally done so. I'm honestly tearing up a little bit. Out of joy-- not nostalgia or anything. I'm done, done done!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Mr. and Mrs. W
This morning, quite of their own initiation, my school-agers held a wedding. Sarah dressed herself up in a bride outfit using the dress up clothes that are really in there for the preschoolers, but they all secreatly enjoy wearing and occassionally break out when fun overcomes the longing to be "grown up." The wedding was complete with a processional, bridesmaids, rings and ring-bearer, Zac as minister-- using Grace's Harry Potter as the Bible (which seems rather sacreligious and something I intend to rectify so that next time there will be a Bible in our little Christian school room), a bouquet and bouquet toss, flower girl, "father" walking her down the aisle, and annulment a few minutes later when Jake realized that he had done something kinda "girlie." There was also a wedding photographer-me- and I'd post the pictures here when I get them if it weren't for all you sickos out there in cyberspace. Bad sickos, ruining things for everyone.
They left for the school wing discussing what they would do differently in the next wedding that they hold. I really hope this doesn't become a trend, like singing "Who Let the Dog's Out," or finger crocheting. I'd much prefer the finger crocheting to my 5-10 year olds already planning their weddings.
They left for the school wing discussing what they would do differently in the next wedding that they hold. I really hope this doesn't become a trend, like singing "Who Let the Dog's Out," or finger crocheting. I'd much prefer the finger crocheting to my 5-10 year olds already planning their weddings.
Still Not Used To It
I'm still not used to seeing something that I have written come up on google.com.
Right now for suite101.com I'm writing a series on illnesses and the daycare, and I gogles "Daycare Illnesses" while doing research for the second article in the series and I readthe number four post and thought Hmmm, that sounds a lot like what I wrote...wait- duh. At that point I realized it was not Like what I had written, but was in actuality what I had written. I' still beat by daycare.com, babycenter.com, and kidsource.com, but I'm beating childcare.about.com, and ibabydoc.com, which despite the odd name seems that it should have precedence over my article. Haha. My article is the fourth entry on google.com. Okay bragging over.
Really, I don't think that it has sunk into me yet that my dream from the time I could write of being a published writer has really come true-- that people will look to my words for advice and insight and humor. I always say it and it really is true-- that words have power and that we need to be careful how we use them. I think it hasn't really hit me after 6 months of being published (first w/ County Wide News) simply because I somehow imagined that I would be published in book form, so thins seems unreal, even though I get statistics every month of how many thousands of people read what I have written, and even though I knew what the circulation of CWN was. It is still a eventuall dream to have a book-- or more than one :) published, but I think that I need to realy sit back and absorb that I have acheived somethingthat I've wanted for so long. Instead I seem to get focused on deadlines and staff/editor/ceo/other staff intrigue that happens. And serch engine optimization. Always the SEO.
Right now for suite101.com I'm writing a series on illnesses and the daycare, and I gogles "Daycare Illnesses" while doing research for the second article in the series and I readthe number four post and thought Hmmm, that sounds a lot like what I wrote...wait- duh. At that point I realized it was not Like what I had written, but was in actuality what I had written. I' still beat by daycare.com, babycenter.com, and kidsource.com, but I'm beating childcare.about.com, and ibabydoc.com, which despite the odd name seems that it should have precedence over my article. Haha. My article is the fourth entry on google.com. Okay bragging over.
Really, I don't think that it has sunk into me yet that my dream from the time I could write of being a published writer has really come true-- that people will look to my words for advice and insight and humor. I always say it and it really is true-- that words have power and that we need to be careful how we use them. I think it hasn't really hit me after 6 months of being published (first w/ County Wide News) simply because I somehow imagined that I would be published in book form, so thins seems unreal, even though I get statistics every month of how many thousands of people read what I have written, and even though I knew what the circulation of CWN was. It is still a eventuall dream to have a book-- or more than one :) published, but I think that I need to realy sit back and absorb that I have acheived somethingthat I've wanted for so long. Instead I seem to get focused on deadlines and staff/editor/ceo/other staff intrigue that happens. And serch engine optimization. Always the SEO.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Following Tricia's Lead
Hi All-
I'm following Tricia's lead in posting a link to an interesting article on the subject of devotions and how Christians are often lead to feel guilt at their inability to remain faithful in reading and praying every day. I want to sya more on it and give my opinion and personal reaction, but I'll leave it to y'all to read it and tell me your opinions. I may post on it later, but I am honestly still reading it, but I wanted to post a link before I left the library.
http://gregscouch.homestead.com/files/Quiet_Time_Guilt.htm
Here's a quote that I think will elicit a response from you:
"“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me” (Jn 5:39). Yes, that’s what Jesus said. Bible study can be a sin. The Pharisees assumed the Bible a book of rules or principles for living, but failed the grasp it as a story about God’s love for his people."
Do you agree- do you think that Bible Study can sometimes be a sin? Let me know.
I just realized that I wrote that last question in much the same way that I do when I'm writing for my work at suite101.com. I guess that shows just how ngrained it is in me now. BTW- thanks again to everyone who has been visiting the site and helping my pageviews. Search Engine Optimization is beginning to become easier for me, and the site has a new owner and site design that will hopefully bring in more readers.
5 days left of WMU!
I'm following Tricia's lead in posting a link to an interesting article on the subject of devotions and how Christians are often lead to feel guilt at their inability to remain faithful in reading and praying every day. I want to sya more on it and give my opinion and personal reaction, but I'll leave it to y'all to read it and tell me your opinions. I may post on it later, but I am honestly still reading it, but I wanted to post a link before I left the library.
http://gregscouch.homestead.com/files/Quiet_Time_Guilt.htm
Here's a quote that I think will elicit a response from you:
"“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me” (Jn 5:39). Yes, that’s what Jesus said. Bible study can be a sin. The Pharisees assumed the Bible a book of rules or principles for living, but failed the grasp it as a story about God’s love for his people."
Do you agree- do you think that Bible Study can sometimes be a sin? Let me know.
I just realized that I wrote that last question in much the same way that I do when I'm writing for my work at suite101.com. I guess that shows just how ngrained it is in me now. BTW- thanks again to everyone who has been visiting the site and helping my pageviews. Search Engine Optimization is beginning to become easier for me, and the site has a new owner and site design that will hopefully bring in more readers.
5 days left of WMU!
I was reading an open letter from Walter Block to Gary Haugen, the president of International Justice Mission, in which he addresses a speech that Haugen gave at Regent University in Vancouver. Among some of his other rather odd claims he writes this:
"In closing, one last criticism of your presentation: lose that film clip showing a child buyer being tied up by the police. You may not have noticed it, but it also showed a television set in the background. But this implies electricity, and a certain minimal level of prosperity – all totally incompatible with your story of people selling their kids motivated by dire poverty."
Television is no longer, nor has truly ever been exclusive to the rich, and its mere presence does not exclude the possibility of a person being under dire financial duress. Also, Mr. Block is an economist and therefore his knee-jerk reaction is to focus only on economic issues and ignore the many other factors that cotribute to human trafficking in his letter. If these issues were simply to be solved with money, then we should all simply begin to give them aid as a disincentive to participate in slavery- the way that we give aid to countries to stop them from developing the atomic bomb, or pay farmers to not produce crops so that the market will not crash. If only it were only economic issues that created slavery. Much of the time economics are an issue, but also at fault is the lower value placed of female lives, the deciet of the few (many women are hired as housekeepers or child care providers and then trapped into prostitution.) Also much of the time race is the primary issue.
In his open letter, which I am presuming was never answered- Mr. Block also mocks someone he assumes is a theological seminar student because, "since his remarks were based on the usual Marxist claptrap taught in such establishments of higher learning," and also says that humainity will never think of others because it is "sociobiologically" ( a word he likes a lot, but really means very little) wired into us from the time we were cavemen to think of our narrow communities. Good thinking there, try to dispute the argument of someone who doesn't believe in evolution on the basis of "evolutionary hard-wiring."
Block also largely quotes "Wealth of Nations" which advocates merit based economic systems where people are allowed to succeed or fail based upon their individual abilities. The flaw in this thinking in association with social justice is first that many of those effected are children who are unable to acheive this economic freedom- unless Block is advocating sweat-shops, which I doubt is his intention, and also that for many of these people there is a societal history of subjugation to the extent that there is no possibility of their gaining freedom through free trade.
While the idea behind this is systematically appealing-- with little effort on our parts, this seems to be the "Baker's Dozen" rule of justice- that if one or two fail and must be thrown out, at least on the whole it works. And the sad thing is, in many of these cases it is not simply one or two that are thrown away, but thousands. The problem is, we are not dealing with economic systems, we are not dealing with the conceptual, we are dealing with real persons. Sometimes there is too much of a false sense of security in statistics.
If you want to read all of the letter, it can be found at:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block41.html
"In closing, one last criticism of your presentation: lose that film clip showing a child buyer being tied up by the police. You may not have noticed it, but it also showed a television set in the background. But this implies electricity, and a certain minimal level of prosperity – all totally incompatible with your story of people selling their kids motivated by dire poverty."
Television is no longer, nor has truly ever been exclusive to the rich, and its mere presence does not exclude the possibility of a person being under dire financial duress. Also, Mr. Block is an economist and therefore his knee-jerk reaction is to focus only on economic issues and ignore the many other factors that cotribute to human trafficking in his letter. If these issues were simply to be solved with money, then we should all simply begin to give them aid as a disincentive to participate in slavery- the way that we give aid to countries to stop them from developing the atomic bomb, or pay farmers to not produce crops so that the market will not crash. If only it were only economic issues that created slavery. Much of the time economics are an issue, but also at fault is the lower value placed of female lives, the deciet of the few (many women are hired as housekeepers or child care providers and then trapped into prostitution.) Also much of the time race is the primary issue.
In his open letter, which I am presuming was never answered- Mr. Block also mocks someone he assumes is a theological seminar student because, "since his remarks were based on the usual Marxist claptrap taught in such establishments of higher learning," and also says that humainity will never think of others because it is "sociobiologically" ( a word he likes a lot, but really means very little) wired into us from the time we were cavemen to think of our narrow communities. Good thinking there, try to dispute the argument of someone who doesn't believe in evolution on the basis of "evolutionary hard-wiring."
Block also largely quotes "Wealth of Nations" which advocates merit based economic systems where people are allowed to succeed or fail based upon their individual abilities. The flaw in this thinking in association with social justice is first that many of those effected are children who are unable to acheive this economic freedom- unless Block is advocating sweat-shops, which I doubt is his intention, and also that for many of these people there is a societal history of subjugation to the extent that there is no possibility of their gaining freedom through free trade.
While the idea behind this is systematically appealing-- with little effort on our parts, this seems to be the "Baker's Dozen" rule of justice- that if one or two fail and must be thrown out, at least on the whole it works. And the sad thing is, in many of these cases it is not simply one or two that are thrown away, but thousands. The problem is, we are not dealing with economic systems, we are not dealing with the conceptual, we are dealing with real persons. Sometimes there is too much of a false sense of security in statistics.
If you want to read all of the letter, it can be found at:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block41.html
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
So Long
Yes, shocking. Me. Blogging. I'll give you a moment to recover from the shock. 2 notes-- internet is broken at home, which has kind of thrown a wrench in my blogging and other internet activities, including writing for www.suite101.com-- which I still do. BTW- we've just updated the design of the site and is now a funky green with little round pictures- cool but apparently hard for people wh are colorblind to read.
I only have 7 more days of coming to class here at WMU (I'm sitting in Moore before class) and then I'll be done forever! Its been so long, but it will be so worth it to have that little piece of paper. I also found out that my old college Reformed Bible College is now called Kuyper College. I stopped by their website recently and I found out that I may be eligable to recieve a Certificate in Christian Foundations. Sweet-- that will look nice on my resume. Have I also mentioned that I have a membership now in Sigma Tau Delta (STD-- yes, I know) which is an International English Honors Society. I have a t-shirt that says, "I have an STD" and in smaller letters "membership. On the back it explains it, but I have gotten some funny looks when people only see the front. I just want to laugh because I doubt if I had an STD that I'd be advertizing it on my clothing. Okay, class is about to begin. I promise I'll update soon.
I only have 7 more days of coming to class here at WMU (I'm sitting in Moore before class) and then I'll be done forever! Its been so long, but it will be so worth it to have that little piece of paper. I also found out that my old college Reformed Bible College is now called Kuyper College. I stopped by their website recently and I found out that I may be eligable to recieve a Certificate in Christian Foundations. Sweet-- that will look nice on my resume. Have I also mentioned that I have a membership now in Sigma Tau Delta (STD-- yes, I know) which is an International English Honors Society. I have a t-shirt that says, "I have an STD" and in smaller letters "membership. On the back it explains it, but I have gotten some funny looks when people only see the front. I just want to laugh because I doubt if I had an STD that I'd be advertizing it on my clothing. Okay, class is about to begin. I promise I'll update soon.
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