Owlish Mutterings: March 2005

It's 100% Bloggerific!

Cheese and Crackers does an excellent job of collecting responses to Delinkgate. Just for fun, I will blogroll anyone who jumps on the Delinkgate bandwagon. Starting tomorrow, it's way late now.

- posted by owlish @ 3/31/2005 11:38:00 PM 0 comments

The last word

A very well done faq on Terri Schiavo is at Football Fans for Truth. This is the first time I've known that the reason she hasn't had an MRI is because she has metal implants in her head, that would require surgery to take out. H/t: INDC Journal. Let's see: Instapundit is refusing a radio interview because he isn't sure he can avoid certain banned words on the case, Protein Wisdom is in a full scale flame war with some rightwing fuckwit, and INDC seems to think this could be an issue that pushes certain moderates to '08 Hillary. Interesting times.

- posted by owlish @ 3/31/2005 09:48:00 PM 4 comments

Caviar Dip

Straight guys take note: every time I've made this for a party at work, several women have been extremely impressed. The Caviar Dip 1 8 oz package of cream cheese 1 cup sour cream 2 hard boiled eggs 3-4 green onions [scallions] 1 tsp. Worchester sauce 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 3 oz. caviar [lumpfish roe works fine] Warm cream cheese to about room temperature. Separate whites from yolks of eggs. Finely chop whites; crush yolks. Discard tips of green onions. Chop green onions into small pieces, separating the white part. Mix cream cheese, sour cream, whites of eggs, white section of green onions, garlic, Worcester sauce. Put the mixture in your serving dish, cover, and throw in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight. Prior to serving, layer on top the egg yolks, the remainder of the green onions, and then the caviar. Serve with relatively bland crackers.

- posted by owlish @ 3/30/2005 06:31:00 PM 1 comments

Welcome back to Junior High

Hundred Percenter [who is this guy, anyway?], is delinking various blogs that in his view have " a naked disregard or milquetoast standing for Terri's life." In what may be the most overblown statement of all time, he "consider[s] Terri's fight for life a seminal moment in American history." Look. Terri isn't fighting for anything. Her family and her husband are legally fighting about what Terri's wishes would be in this situation, as far as I can tell, without any hard evidence. In general, it would not surprise me if more people are able to have a true conversation about this topic with their spouse, rather than their parents. Reasonable people can disagree on whether or not they would want to be kept alive in her state. I certainly would not want to be. My parents may have a problem with that. [or maybe not, this isn't a topic that comes up often]. Hundred Percenter has a perfect right to delink anyone he wants. And I have a perfect right to laugh at him. So, ha. H/T: Protein Wisdom. Who is clearly quivering in fear. Or amusment. Or delerium tremens.

- posted by owlish @ 3/30/2005 11:36:00 AM 0 comments

A google words of crap

Texas Best Grok's dystopian vision of the future begins here. The ACLU's vision is here. Great minds think alike. Hat tip: DPM again.

- posted by owlish @ 3/29/2005 11:19:00 PM 1 comments

Cthullu wants to be your DJ

A somewhat, unusual, movie being filmed. H/T: Boing Boing, Dreaded Purple Master.

- posted by owlish @ 3/29/2005 11:13:00 PM 1 comments

Life

If I ever come out to some friends as a blogger, I'm going to have to delete this. Anyway... So, a family I know: the wife works full time, the husband occasionally gets outside contracts, and their 3 1/2 year old son goes to day care. The day care was closed Thursday, Friday, Monday for spring break/Easter. Grandparents took the kid Thursday and Friday; I volunteered to take him today. The babysitting itself went relatively smoothly. Some fake crying when he wanted to watch a movie, and I probably could have done without the kicks to the abdominal region that came along with him using me as a jungle gym. Vaguely fun, and got me some exercise, but not a rip-roaring good time. The issue is, I got about the same amount of verbal thanks that I get after I give him a bath, or play with him while his dad is fixing dinner. Now, cash would be right out - either it would be small enough I would be offended, or large enough I would feel that I would have to refuse it. And maybe the guy going out drinking on Friday counts as payback. But at this point, I just feel like I'm being used. So, either I stop allowing myself to be used, in which case I might as well move to a different city. Or I continue this pattern, knowing they'll continue to accept whatever help I provide. Or I let them know how I feel, in which case I create some resentment with little possible positive change.

- posted by owlish @ 3/28/2005 07:38:00 PM 0 comments

Life

If I ever come out to some friends as a blogger, I'm going to have to delete this. Anyway... So, a family I know: the wife works full time, the husband occasionally gets outside contracts, and their 3 1/2 year old son goes to day care. The day care was closed Thursday, Friday, Monday for spring break/Easter. Grandparents took the kid Thursday and Friday; I volunteered to take him today. The babysitting itself went relatively smoothly. Some fake crying when he wanted to watch a movie, and I probably could have done without the kicks to the abdominal region that came along with him using me as a jungle gym. Vaguely fun, and got me some exercise, but not a rip-roaring good time. The issue is, I got about the same amount of verbal thanks that I get after I give him a bath, or play with him while his dad is fixing dinner. Now, cash would be right out - either it would be small enough I would be offended, or large enough I would feel that I would have to refuse it. And maybe the guy going out drinking on Friday counts as payback. But at this point, I just feel like I'm being used. So, either I stop allowing myself to be used, in which case I might as well move to a different city. Or I continue this pattern, knowing they'll continue to accept whatever help I provide. Or I let them know how I feel, in which case I create some resentment with little possible positive change.

- posted by owlish @ 3/28/2005 07:38:00 PM 0 comments

Smallville

It's been a while since I've seen any episodes. I came across this spoiler site, and am going huh? Hmm, so Lois showed up, Chloe is dead, Lex may be split into good Lex/ bad Lex, and Kryptonians are wandering around. Yeah.

- posted by owlish @ 3/26/2005 06:00:00 PM 1 comments

GayPatriot

GayPatriot is stopping blogging. GayPatriotWest will continue to blog on the blog GayPatriot. Got it? Why? Not clear. I just hope it's nothing major.

- posted by owlish @ 3/26/2005 04:32:00 PM 1 comments

Beer

Went on the St Arnold's pub crawl this evening, a good time was had by all. I think I came out to a couple of guys, at least one of which is an acquaintance. Or at least I said things that I think expressed that I'm gay; whether the other person understood that is another question entirely. And, fortunately, not a question that I really care about, since it's clear everyone else is straight. And, yes, I may still be slightly intoxicated. We took the light rail to my friend's house; no driving under the influence was involved.

- posted by owlish @ 3/25/2005 10:51:00 PM 0 comments

Zoacodes

Spacy, cool site. Very little clue what it all means. Bionic ethics? Hat tip: Fishbucket.

- posted by owlish @ 3/25/2005 12:28:00 PM 0 comments

#32 is up. I may try this Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup this weekend, I've been wanting to make something like this for a while. Crockpot shrimp creole. And finally, recipes for real men: "More Beef than Stew." How cool is that? And by the way, TexasBestGrok is hosting next week.

- posted by owlish @ 3/25/2005 11:13:00 AM 1 comments

Christian Witnessing, part 3

Mutter, mutter, stupid computer doing what I tell it to do instead of what I mentally commanded it to do. Part 1. Part 2. Probity Rules comes back, and leaves a comment on Part 2. He has a blog named Yellow. Tagline: You. Eternity. Life. Love. Obedience. Wisdom. Mostly scripture, comments on scripture, and a link to an article on Civ II. [Which is a great game, by the way.] 3 months of posts in 2003, one post this march. An interesting post on control here. Is there an explicitly Christian gaming subgroup, similar to Christian rock? Anyway. His thoughts on his second comment:

Since we both believe that God inspired the Bible, I assume we can also both agree that in its very basic essence, it is Truth. As such, I wanted to share truth in a manner where the truth could be seen without the reader immediately becoming distracted and defensive because it is quoted from the Bible. It appears that once again I am in the wrong: this is clearly a type of deception. You have also clearly mentioned that you want scripture with references to the passages. I am aggravated that I am doing such a poor job in witnessing for faith in God, so as you have better ideas, feel free to let me know.

I am clearly no expert on Christian witnessing. I can only talk about things I know and experience. As such, when I was reading his previous comments what I felt was that the person commenting wasn't trying to understand what I was saying, just noticing a few keywords [axiom, gay marriage] and going from there. Which is about how I feel about Jack Chick publications. I believe such an approach might convince a few people to accept Jesus, but will turn off many more people. Especially in the Western world, in which most adults have at least an idea of what Christianity is about. If you're concerned that directly and clearly quoting the Bible might turn someone off [and it could, I agree], make the argument in your own words. Basically, either make the argument using the authority of the Bible to make your claim, or use the logic behind the Truth. Directly quoting Paul, in a way that only partially made sense, without using the authority of the Bible did neither. I have yet to directly experience useful witnessing, even though I've been around several people who were trying. For example, one woman at work made her religion known fairly often, and it affected her actions at times [when presenting a patient's history would normally require her to say a four letter word, she would look at me and I'd say it]. She asked me once if I was saved. It wasn't bad, at that point we were at least acquaintances and it fit in the conversation. But it wasn't great, since we really didn't use the same axioms, to go back to the first point. And I suspect Probity Rules and I don't use the same axioms, either. At least to some extent. So, should you argue from my point of view, or try to change my point of view to yours? I don't know the answer. I do suspect that changing my point of view will require something [trust? openness?] on my part, although you can always pray for a miracle.

- posted by owlish @ 3/25/2005 09:47:00 AM 0 comments

Thoughts

My other thoughts on the Terri Schiavo case: Back when I was in my second month of intern year, a lady came into the ER who had just had a massive stroke. She stopped breathing on her own, so she was put on a vent, but her heart was still beating. Being on call, I ended up spending the entire night in the ICU, essentially waiting for her heart to stop so I could start a code, get the doc from the ER to finish the code [small private hospital, we were the only ones around], and then pronounce her death. Her heart beat all that night. It was a damn long night. The next day, waiting for my attending physician to arrive, I made the mistake of doing my physical examination in front of some of the family. I did the various reflexes, and the lady's granddaughter thought that her moving that way meant she was alive and conscious. EEG showed she was completely brain dead, and she was taken off the respirator that morning, after a meeting with various family members [I think eldest son and 2 grandchildren]. Yesterday, on the news, I saw the tapes that make people think Terri Schiavo is still conscious. I don't believe it. If you went into the room and she was always acting that way, maybe; if these tapes are 5 sec intervals gleaned from hours of video, no way.

- posted by owlish @ 3/25/2005 08:27:00 AM 3 comments

Fashion

Yes, here we have proof fashion in the 70's really was that bad. Making today's Fugly look good.

- posted by owlish @ 3/25/2005 08:00:00 AM 2 comments

Why

EXTREME UNDERWATER IRONING? I guess if you're going for a world record now, it's better to go for an obscure one. And money was raised for charity. HT: The Volokh Conspiracy.

- posted by owlish @ 3/24/2005 06:45:00 PM 0 comments

Offended

I am rather offended, watching CNN's Headline Prime now. Huge amount of stuff on Schiavo, Senator saying she is "clearly conscious." Around 5 minutes, say. Wondering how much is going to be on the explosion in Texas City. The explosion was rather loud by the way. Crap. They just had 30 seconds on it, leading the story with how will it impact gas prices. Now I know why I never watch news on TV.

- posted by owlish @ 3/24/2005 06:04:00 PM 1 comments

Too much fun

And in the category of people with too much time on their hands, we have this sideways room. H/T: Fark

- posted by owlish @ 3/23/2005 08:39:00 AM 2 comments

10 bucks a gallon

Timmer is posting on The Daily Brief, wondering about the price of gas. Quite a few people talking in the comments about hydrogen fuel, and it's problems, including yours truly. My question is, say in the next 5 years gas hits 10 bucks a gallon. [probably unlikely, but hypothetically]. Or 20. Then what? 3 bucks a gallon seems unlikely to make changes in the population, 10 bucks might. Let's see. Smaller, more fuel efficient cars. Long commutes become hideously expensive, so people either move closer to work [reducing the desirability of suburbs] or constantly telecommute [meaning you could live anywhere]. Prices for most goods go up. The cost involved in moving things around becomes a significant portion of the total cost. Free shipping on Amazon becomes a thing of the past. It's book section goes nearly all electronic download. Same thing for newspapers, probably. Other thoughts?

- posted by owlish @ 3/23/2005 08:12:00 AM 1 comments

Mardi Gras Galveston

The Houston Chronicle has a short article about this year's Mardi Gras. Basically, it lost 170, 000$, which wasn't the hoped for event, but was better than losing 500 K like the year before. One quote:

As in the two previous years, marginal weather conditions played a major role in losses this year, causing paid attendance to fall more than $250,000 below projected ticket sales of about $1.1 million, board accountant Mike Moser said.

My thought is: farming is somewhat dependent on weather as well. But if the only way you can make money is if the weather is perfect, you're screwed. This year, the weather wasn't perfect, but it was far from horrible.

- posted by owlish @ 3/23/2005 07:57:00 AM 1 comments

VodkaPundit

He's back, and photoblogging up a storm. Nice. Time to do more with my digital camera.

- posted by owlish @ 3/22/2005 08:35:00 AM 2 comments

Grand Rounds

Instapundit linked to the Grand Rounds. On the lighter side we have the heroic efforts to separate conjoined quintuplets. [ie, Peeps]. On the more serious side we have several people writing about Terri. Bioethics Discussion Blog notes the ethical dimensions, on several posts. CodeBlueBlog looks at the CT scan I saw earlier, notes that there is some cortex left, and has some questions:

I HAVE SEEN MANY WALKING, TALKING, FAIRLY COHERENT PEOPLE WITH WORSE CEREBRAL/CORTICAL ATROPHY. THEREFORE, THIS IS IN NO WAY PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE THAT TERRI SCHIAVO'S MENTAL ABILITIES OR/OR CAPABILITIES ARE COMPLETELY ERADICATED. I CANNOT BELIEVE SUCH TESTIMONY HAS BEEN GIVEN ON THE BASIS OF THIS SCAN.

The worrisome, no alarming thing, for me, was that I heard a bioethicist and several important figures on the major media describe Terri's brain as MUCH WORSE. One "expert" said that she had a "bag of water" in her head. Several experts described her as a "brain stem preparation"

These statements are wholly inaccurate. This is an atrophied brain, yes, but there is cortex remaining, and where there's cortex (?life) there's hope.

- posted by owlish @ 3/22/2005 06:56:00 AM 2 comments

Terri Schiavo

Because damn near every blog in existence has posted on this case, I thought I should add my 2 cents. I suspect this has gotten so politicized, it is difficult to get reasonable medical information. Lots of stuff floating around fourth or fifthhand, but mostly worthless. Therefore, I'm not going to guess what the patient's intentions were, or her husband's, or her parents'. I strongly suspect if I knew I was going to be in a similar situation I would not want to live through it. What it does make clear though, is the need for essentially everyone in the US to have a living will. When I was working at the hospital, every single patient, as part of their admission paperwork, was asked if they had a living will, and if they didn't and wanted to make one, help was provided. By the way, this MSNBC article claims 85% of americans don't have one. Wouldn't surprise me at all. Update: Downtown Lad posted a picture of the lady's CT scan - just one cut of the full scan, but it got a spontaneous "holy shit" from me. If that is the real deal [the blog doesn't say where it got the x-ray] I want to know what doctor thinks there can be any sort of recovery, and what correspondence school they got their diploma from.

- posted by owlish @ 3/21/2005 08:56:00 PM 2 comments

Ok, one more

Official Survivor Congratulations! You scored 72%!

Whether through ferocity or quickness, you made it out. You made the right choice most of the time, but you probably screwed up somewhere. Nobody's perfect, at least you're alive.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 94% on survivalpoints

Link: The Zombie Scenario Survivor Test written by ci8db4uok on Ok Cupid

- posted by owlish @ 3/20/2005 10:05:00 PM 0 comments

Last one

The most random thing I've seen in a long time: alttag

... you got THIS result? brad? you are BRAD?!
*runs screaming in horror* NOOOOOOOO! NOT
LATIN CLASS AGAIN!!!

hamsters driving cream coloured lamburginis
brought to you by Quizilla

- posted by owlish @ 3/20/2005 07:44:00 PM 0 comments

Whee

Jet Pilot You're perfect to jump into a high speed jet
aircraft and scout the skies for enemys that
challenge your skills. You like speed,
adventure and the adrenaline pumping through
your veins. You can fly aircraft such as the
F-15, F-22, F-16 or F-14... Some of the most
superior aircraft in the skies.

What aircraft should you pilot?
brought to you by Quizilla

- posted by owlish @ 3/20/2005 07:31:00 PM 3 comments

Hmm

The Parking Lot Tram: The uncredited workhorse of
the Disneyland resort. You take visitors from
the largest parking lot on earth to the front
door of Disneyland and back again. You aren't
the picture of glamour and most wouldn't even
think you provide any sort of excitment, but
without you no fun could be had at all. You
don't mean to, but you seem often sour. You
get little respect and sometimes get losts of
scorn, but yet you are faithful and eager to
please. People need you and you need them.
Your simpleness is the perfect backdrop to
showcase the eager smiles of children riding
you for their first time to the Happiest Place
on Earth.

What Disneyland attraction are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

- posted by owlish @ 3/20/2005 07:22:00 PM 2 comments

What, me bored?

Morpheus

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

- posted by owlish @ 3/20/2005 07:17:00 PM 1 comments

Quiz 2

Morpheus

?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

- posted by owlish @ 3/20/2005 07:14:00 PM 1 comments

No comment

Gay Bear

Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

- posted by owlish @ 3/20/2005 07:07:00 PM 1 comments

Book Meme

I've seen this meme on several different blogs, including TexasBestGrok, LlamaButchers, and Downtown Lad. So. You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be? I still don't understand the question, and I couldn't find the ... Never mind, Shiela's explanation was in the yips of the Llamabutchers post. Basically, what book would you memorize, to save for posterity. Emergence, David R. Palmer Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Not really. I can imagine various fun scenarios, though. The last book you bought was...? Galveston, Sean Stewart and Singularity Sky, Charles Stross. The last book you read was...? Permanence, Karl Schroeder What are you currently reading? GURPS UPLIFT Five books you would take to a desert island... I'm asssuming (1) I don't need How To books and (2) trilogies are ok, intermnible series [cough, Robert Jordan, cough] are not. 1) The Bible. Given a huge amount of time I might read the whole thing. 2) The Collected works of Shakespeare. 3) Owlflight, Owlsight, Owlknight by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon. 4) The Door into Fire, The Door into Shadow, and The Door into Sunset. Diane Duane. 5) The Great Book of Amber. Roger Zelazny. Yeah, ok, so it was originally published as 10 separate books. I've got them in one volume. Who are you passing this stick on to and why? No one, very few people would I consider tagging with this, and they've already done it. Update: slightly clarified, one answer added that I forgot.

- posted by owlish @ 3/20/2005 02:51:00 PM 2 comments

Time Machine

And for less than 700$, you can have your very own non-functioning time machine. I can't decide if this is more or less silly than the Jesus' face in a piece of toast auction.

- posted by owlish @ 3/19/2005 09:38:00 PM 2 comments

Carnival of Recipes

#31 is up, and only a day late. Go and make fun of The Flying Space Monkey for having a real job. Go make SALADE MORT DE VAMPYR, but don't make the little carbonized Pellets O' Death. Onion Ale soup. Mmmm, beer. And it uses the slow cooker!

- posted by owlish @ 3/19/2005 01:40:00 PM 1 comments

Secret identity

Saw some friends on Thursday. Had a short discussion, in which the guy claimed that Spiderman was Peter Parker's secret identity, rather than the other way around. I don't think he was trying to make a philosophical point [of the two identities, the person's emotional energy goes into Peter Parker, so Spiderman should be considered the secondary, secret identity]. I think it was just a definition: when there's a civilian life and a superhero life, the superhero life is the secret identity. Which might be interesting from a psychological point of view, but that's not the point. Anyway, by chance we watched The Incredibles that evening [good flick, check it out], and some of the first scenes involved Mr Incredible and Elastigirl talking about their "secret identities." Thought about specifically pointing that out, but decided not to. Basically, with him, I can't win arguments.

- posted by owlish @ 3/19/2005 07:38:00 AM 2 comments

Photo essay

A fairly cool photoessay Bush vs Kerry is here. How revelant it is now, who knows. H/T: Tim Blair

- posted by owlish @ 3/19/2005 07:36:00 AM 0 comments

Machine

This was dated Nov. 26, 2004, and is a pointer to a person's blog. Somewhat philosophically based? No clue. This is interesting.

- posted by owlish @ 3/18/2005 06:46:00 PM 3 comments

The Ultimate Fighter

Puttering around, I found several posts I had writen that apparently got saved as drafts instead of being published. This one was dated Feb. 16, 2005; some comments added at the end. Pne of the fun things about staying with family was watching tv shows I never see. Around my mother it's various mysteries. Around my dad it's usually sports. Around my grandfather it's Wheel of Fortune. Around my brother this week, it was The Ultimate Fighter. It seemed like a take on Tough Enough, ie, a reality show showing just how hard it is to do professional wrestling, but working with UFC. So, they are apparently several episodes into the program, and they end up relaxing a little and having a few or more drinks. Which is when the fireworks start. One of the contestants calls another a "fatherless bastard," knowing that the guy's father left his family when he was 2. The red headed guy takes this badly [duh], some male bonding goes on within the team, and the other guys keep picking at him. The red headed guy puts his fist through a window and a door. So, the next day, the coaches have to figure out what to do. The red headed guy [who went to the ER, was ok] had to pay for damages, and the guys involved will end up fighting next week. Which, by the way, is the normal way for eliminations from the reality show to take place. Calling someone a bastard, usually not a big problem. Specifically insulting someone with "a fatherless bastard," in college, at least some property damage would have been done. Which makes me want to tune in next week, and see the shit beaten out of this snot nosed brat. Of course, it may not be that simple, the red headed guy might get beaten up instead. Trial by combat, yippee. Update: and in what was not a big surprise, the guy I was rooting for lost. Haven't watched any episodes since.

- posted by owlish @ 3/18/2005 06:45:00 PM 1 comments

Christian Witnessing, part 2

In case it's not clear, part 1 is here. Ok, so I've got this guy who's posted some comments. I find I'm responding to these comments as a blogger, as a Christian, and as a homosexual. Let's take them in that order, shall we? As a blogger, I'm a tiny part of the long tail. As such anyone bothering to look at this is welcome, and anyone taking the time to send me email or post a comment is doubly welcome. On the other hand, Probity Rules isn't so much engaging me in a conversation, he's flinging religious memes, presumably hoping some will stick. He used a humorous mention of gay marriage to quote Leviticus; he used my noting an atheist's post to quote 1 Corinthians in a concealed way, calling Paul "a former Jew" and using a version of the Bible that I would consider simplified for the modern man, seemingly trying to hide the fact he's quoting the Bible. Probity Rules is welcome to engage in a conversation; he is welcome to start his own blog, assuming he doesn't have one already. More trollish comments will be laughed at unmercifully. As a Christian, I think he's doing a horrible job witnessing for his faith. If you're going to quote the Bible, then quote the Bible, give chapter and verse, and give some context for how it applies in the present circumstance. As a starting point for where I'm coming from, I believe the Bible was inspired by God, not dictated verbatim by God, and I know personally that my being a homosexual was as directed by God as my being right-handed. As a homosexual, I'm pissed. The "God Hates Fags" meme that has invaded the Christian right is why I'm afraid for my family if I'm publicly out around them. The so-called ex-gay therapy is harmful and ineffective enough, in my opinion, that if it was being practiced by doctors there would be constant malpractice suits. And this weasel refers me to Leviticus, specifically because Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. So, I'm going to stop there, since I'm getting into Justly Angry mode, which is never a pretty sight. Comments? Go for it.

- posted by owlish @ 3/18/2005 02:53:00 PM 4 comments

Christian Witnessing

Back in high school, the local Methodist Church was the focus for a fair amount of my socialization. In other words, I spent a fair amount of time there, and am quite conversant with the theology of various Christian subgroups. During college, I attempted to continue that, and joined Campus Crusade for Christ. I became more comfortable with group prayer, and memorized some Bible passages. It became clearer and clearer that my beliefs and the group's beliefs were not the same, and I dropped out after a year or two. Part of the problem was, I felt the pure obnoxiousness of some of the proselytizing was significantly more likely to drive off unbelievers than help them to become Christian. Much later, Steven den Beste helped me understand why things worked like that, in an essay in which he mentions that the Mormon mission year might help convert some people, but more importantly helps the missionary understand and strengthen his belief. Someone has posted a couple of comments under the name Probity Rules. No email tag, no web site. [If I've done something to my comments to make this not possible, please let me know]. The first time it happened, I thought it was kind of odd, googled the name [in case it was the name of a blog], and didn't get anywhere. My first post was a mention of a humorous web essay describing how to destroy the earth, for those over-ambitious evil overlords [basically, taking over the earth, or even wiping out all life on earth, is significantly easier than destroying the planet completely]. The essay also has a listing of methods that won't destroy the earth, and specifically mentions the Biblical Armageddon - not only is the earth not destroyed, but a remnant of the human population lives, so it's not even close. The last method mentioned is 2 words : Gay Marriage. This made me chuckle, since it is ridiculous compared to the scholarly nature of the rest of the article. But Probity Rules manages to take it seriously, saying:

Although gay marriage might cause a Biblical Armageddon: Leviticus 18:22, 28. Well not quite. But land vomiting up people won't be a pretty sight either.

For those of us who don't have the Bible completely memorized, The Bible Gateway seems to be a reasonable site, including 7 slightly different English translations. Leviticus 18 is mostly getting the laws about who a man cannot have sex with, and includes his mother, cousin, niece, daughter-in-law, brother's wife, wife's sister, and neighbor's wife. It includes some more general prohibitions: don't have sex with an animal, don't have sex with a woman while she's menstruating, and don't sacrifice your child to Molech. And it includes Leviticus 18:22: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable." [New International Version]. One might note other passages in Leviticus: Chapter 19: ²⁶ Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it. Do not practice divination or sorcery. 27 Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.²⁸ Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD . Leviticus chapter 20: ⁹ If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head. ¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with another man's wife-with the wife of his neighbor-both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. ... ¹³ If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. My second post links to Corsair the Rational Pirate, a proclaimed atheist. He often points out people making public religious statements. Probity Rules' comment is this:

Here is a small excerpt of what a former Jew said about the differing axioms: "God's message to men does not make sense to those who are dying, but his message is his power for those of us who are being rescued from death. God already said, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and frustrate the intelligence of the intelligent.' Where is the intelligent man, the scholar, the philosopher of this era? Hasn't God made the world's wisdom into nonsense? By God's wisdom, those who are dying cannot find life through intelligence. Rather, this is how God decided to do it: what seems to be nonsense to the dying is what will bring them life if they simply believe that it is true. Jews thought miracles would bring life. The Greeks thought it to be wisdom. But here is life - the crucifixion of Christ. This trips up the Jews and it sounds like pure nonsense to the rest of the world. But for us -- the living, Jews or otherwise -- it is God's power and wisdom. This is the reason: God's foolishness is more intelligent than humanity's intelligence and his weakness is stronger than our strength."

The quote comes from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 18-25, although I don't know which translation. For example, the King James version: ¹⁸For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. ²⁰Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? ²¹For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. ²²For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: ²³But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; ²⁴But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. ²⁵Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. This is getting too long, and I want to think about it some more. Continued in second post.

- posted by owlish @ 3/18/2005 07:49:00 AM 2 comments

Andre Norton

She has passed away today, at the age of 93. I have a fair number of her books, including some rather, well, kooky ones. She was rather prolific, and has writen some pretty good ones, too. The original Witch World is a classic. H/T: Instapundit.

- posted by owlish @ 3/17/2005 10:20:00 PM 1 comments

Pirate

I used to read Corsair the Rational Pirate when I was killing time at work. Ran into his blog again. He quotes a guy in his local paper:

Proper behavior is only reliably defined by the Judeo-Christian worldview. Even those who will not believe in God borrow from the the Christian intellectual capital every day. They will agree that stealing, lying, incest or other behavior are wrong and that concepts like free elections, private ownership and equality are good, but natural law (evolution), humanism, socialism, atheism and other worldviews offer no foundation for these beliefs. It is only be appealing to God of the Bible that we can make sense out of what behaviors are right or wrong or which concepts are virtuous.

I don't think, as the pirate does, that this guy is necessarily unintelligent. I do think the chances of us having an intelligent conversation is pretty low - our basic axioms conflict.

- posted by owlish @ 3/16/2005 10:36:00 PM 2 comments

46$

2 guys reportedly agreed to kill a high school seinor for 450 bucks, did the job, ended up with 46$. Man, life is cheap.

- posted by owlish @ 3/16/2005 07:31:00 PM 1 comments

Beer

Gee, what a surprise. I know a fair amount about beer, essentially nothing about mixed drinks.

Bourbon
Congratulations! You're 104 proof, with specific scores in beer (140) , wine (83), and liquor (52).

Screw all that namby-pamby chick stuff, you're going straight for the bottle and a shot glass! It'll take more than a few shots of Wild Turkey or 99 Bananas before you start seeing pink elephants. You know how to handle your alcohol, and yourself at parties.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 8% on proof
You scored higher than 99% on beer index
You scored higher than 89% on wine index
You scored higher than 84% on liquor index

Link: written by hoppersplit on Ok Cupid

H/T: BoiFromTroy

- posted by owlish @ 3/16/2005 05:44:00 PM 2 comments

Pedernales River Chili

In celebration of IEAPD, I made a crockpot full of chili. Tasty, but boring to write about, since I used a couple of seasoning packets to make it easier. My grandmother had quite a few recipe books put together as fund raising activities: a group of people would get together, submit recipes [often including family secret recipes], and then sell them as a fund raiser. One is Favorite Recipes of Texas [subheading: contains 900 recipes from Women's Club Leaders in Texas]. Date: 1964. Pedernales River Chili 4 lb. ground beef 1 lge. onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 t. ground oregano 1 t. comino seed 6 t. chili powder, or to taste 2 cans Ro-tel tomatoes 2 c. hot water salt to taste Sear meat, onions and garlic in large heavy bioler or skillet until lightly browned. Add seasonings, tomatoes and hot water. Bring to a boil. Lower heat; simmer about 1 hour. As chili cooks, skim off fat.

Ms Lyndon B. Johnson The White House Washington, D. C.

- posted by owlish @ 3/16/2005 01:26:00 PM 2 comments

MMORPGs- Star Wars

And in completely useless news, Darth Vader visited what appears to be a guild of obsessive stormtroopers. Cool. I haven't been playing Star Wars Galaxies, partially due to some not too impressive reviews. Still thinking about World of Warcraft. H/T: Boing Boing

- posted by owlish @ 3/15/2005 07:11:00 PM 1 comments

Linear or Exponential growth

Take a look at this article, and the picture. Looks like posts per day total in the blogosphere has increased 5 fold over the past year. Interesting. H/T: Boing Boing

- posted by owlish @ 3/15/2005 07:01:00 PM 1 comments

Gaming insanity

Now, here's a real father-son activity: 24 hours straight videogaming.

- posted by owlish @ 3/15/2005 06:54:00 PM 0 comments

Diplomat speak

This quote from the NYT:

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the United States opposed ``any attempts to determine the future of Taiwan by anything other than peaceful means.''

Says anything and everything. After med school, any writing I do is as specific as possible. I don't think I could come up with a sentence like that, at least not without a lot of effort.

- posted by owlish @ 3/15/2005 06:45:00 PM 3 comments

Carnival of Recipes

#30 has been up for a while. I made a post that was eaten. Thoughts on eggs here. Also, pizza options with dough and sauce.

- posted by owlish @ 3/14/2005 07:52:00 AM 2 comments

RatherGate

Instapundit linked to this New York Review of Books article on the review panel's report, which essentially takes the true, but flawed standpoint. For Example:

Moreover, if lawyers know how to hire appropriate experts even if journalists don't, why didn't the panel, which was backed by a huge law firm, hire its own experts to determine the authenticity of the documents? One suspects that if the panel had done so, it would have ended up with some experts saying the documents were reliable, others not sure. And that would have put the panel back where CBS was.

I guess I don't get it. I used to use a typewriter in high school [my handwriting was bad] for a fair number of papers. A letter written with a typewriter looks different compared to a letter written with a word processor. The only people who should not intuitively understand this are 20somethings and technological luddites who still use typewriters.

- posted by owlish @ 3/14/2005 07:29:00 AM 1 comments

Breakout redone

Here's a clever version of Breakout. Thanks, Coyote Blog.

- posted by owlish @ 3/14/2005 07:02:00 AM 0 comments

Star Wars

If you haven't seen the trailer yet, what are you waiting for? Can this make up for the evil that is Jar-Jar? Thanks, Suzi.

- posted by owlish @ 3/13/2005 08:15:00 PM 4 comments

Gay Marriage

Post with a huge number of comments here. Whether anything new is there remains to be seen. Hat tip: Mike Silverman.

- posted by owlish @ 3/13/2005 09:59:00 AM 1 comments

SciFi Projection

So what's your favorite scifi and what does it mean about you? Ms. Lanius ought to be worried. Talking about the current Battlestar Galactica: You are in the sci-fi set most likely to be into soap operas, even occasionally. Melodrama is a big part of youe life. (Tim has just woken up. There's enough hot water left for maybe one shower. Will he have time to rinse? Stay tuned next week...) The wackiest description is in the comments, on Larry Niven: You've worked out, in detail, the sex lives of most aliens. Even the non-humanoid ones like Jabba the Hutt. You pride yourself on knowing what rishathra means, you envy people who are anally probed by aliens, and there's a good chance you're a closet furry. Despite spending most of your waking life dwelling on deviant sexual practices, or perhaps because of, you're 36 years old and still a virgin. Hat Tip:GeekPress

- posted by owlish @ 3/13/2005 09:21:00 AM 1 comments

Joy

Back in town, blogger losing posts again [maybe it will reappear]. Thanks to the Llamabutchers for reminding me about Third Annual International Eat an Animal for PETA Day. Fortunately, I've got various steer pieces sitting in my freezer. So, steak or chili? Or a roast? This is going to require some planning.

- posted by owlish @ 3/12/2005 07:23:00 PM 1 comments

Blogger

Weird things are happening again.

- posted by owlish @ 3/10/2005 12:01:00 PM 0 comments

Life

So, what does it mean when you're singing in a dream? The Tiny Texas Town is fun. I overheard a conversation, in which one woman was telling another about the reason presumably for a couple's divorce - the guy's gay. The other woman went "no," "really," and "no way" for about 5 minutes. I thought about asking if the guy's cute, but decided that would be bad. I don't really care about whether people know I'm gay out here for my sake, but I suspect it could impact my mother's and father's business, so I'm not out here. Undoubtedly there are people who would disagree with that.

- posted by owlish @ 3/10/2005 09:17:00 AM 3 comments

Airline Security

Any chance that this report will encourage some changes? In other words, things that might actually make us safer, instead of making sure passengers can't carry nail clippers onto the plane?

- posted by owlish @ 3/10/2005 09:10:00 AM 3 comments

Airline Security

Any chance that this report will encourage some changes? In other words, things that might actually make us safer, instead of making sure passengers can't carry nail clippers onto the plane?

- posted by owlish @ 3/10/2005 09:10:00 AM 0 comments

Roleplaying News

Apparently, the Israeli Defense Force believes people who play Dungeons and Dragons are "detached from reality and suscepitble to influence." Obviously, they should play Ars Magica instead.

- posted by owlish @ 3/09/2005 07:19:00 AM 1 comments

Update

So, I'm likely to be in the Tiny Texas Town all week. Using a computer at my dad's place of work to post. I was looking around, seeing if I wanted to keep various blogs on my blogroll, when I came upon this. Basically, in the category of life sucks, then you die.

- posted by owlish @ 3/08/2005 10:25:00 AM 0 comments

Life

So, yeah, the sidebar is kinda screwed currently. I did a fair number of changes and then blogspot lost it. Maybe it's time to move. I'm going to my parents' in the Tiny Texas Town this morning, so I don't have a lot of time to fool with it. Should be better tomorrow.

- posted by owlish @ 3/06/2005 07:29:00 AM 1 comments

Carnival of Recipes

#29 is up at Rocket Jones. The host has a recipe for "California Chili," which if I made for company it would be my duty as a Texan to immediately commit ritual suicide. However, as it looks fairly simple, it may be added to my solitary bachelor recipe list. Unlike Tacos al Pastor, which looks tasty but too much work, unless I was making it for company. Some recipes for Crockpot Breakfasts.

- posted by owlish @ 3/05/2005 05:32:00 PM 1 comments

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