Spirit and Life (version 4.0)

Please Stand By

2007-02-24 22:10:50 -0600

Please Stand By

Date Created: 24 Feb, 2007, 10:05 PM

For some reason, I'm having technical difficulties with my BlogWaveStudio and OS X 10.3.9 here. My guess is that the architecture of iDisk has changed enough that this older setup is a bit... oh, asynchronous or something like that?

Anyhow, gonna take some snooping around to solve this little problem. In the meantime, here's a test pattern you've probably seen here and there around the internet, since Google images turns up a lot of 'em.

And who knows? Maybe I'm gonna have to actually move things, such that Spirit and Life 5.0 will come into being. I'll be waiting excitedly with you to see how this all turns out -- well, waiting while I try to figure it out anyhow. Hang in there.

Silence and Siege

2007-02-21 23:39:07 -0600

Silence and Siege

Date Created: 21 Feb, 2007, 11:39 PM

For Lent, I have given up silence here at Spirit and Life.

If I have even a single reader or two left, in your pity checking in from time to time, you've doubtless noticed I hadn't posted anything substantial since well over a year ago now. After giving this matter some considerable thought, I hereby give up my silence.

My calculator says that if one adds 390 and 40, subtracting 365 along the way, one arrives at precisely one year, two months and five days. My substantial silence and siege has not been quite that long, but Ezekiel's was:

4 [The LORD said,] "Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. 5 I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel.

�6 "After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. 7 Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege." (Ezekiel 4:4-8, NIV)

Planning and fighting great battles, we were. Ezekiel and me -- we're quite a team. I doubt I was bearing anyone's sins but my own, consequences at least of choices I made in my youth. I can't boast the same divine command so to lay siege, perhaps. I made no models of Jerusalem. There is a certain purple palace and it's GQ groomed denizens who continue their theological mischief, though...

Regardless, I've done some lying around. It's how too many of these days have passed through this last year, my weak flesh refusing cooperation with a willing spirit. First an onslaught of migraines -- one headache lasting 3 consecutive months until finally, hospitalized, my neurologist broke it. Getting them into some semblance of control has taken far more time and medication than I care to consider. Then the herniated disk in my back, the searing down my leg most every day and night. Thus my silence: I found it difficult to write.

Heck, I've not even driven myself anywhere in over a year. So be it. My beloved wife, my chauffeur -- there is true romance!

But this is Lent. I give up my silence. I'll write no more about my health either. It's none of the world's business. But if I have a reader or two left, I thought you deserved a word of explanation, at least, for my silence and for my breaking of it. Me and Ezekiel -- down, bound and strategizing. Time does pass, doesn't it.

So ends the silence. So begins the siege.

Technological Syncretism: WinXP on Your Mac

2006-04-05 08:56:09 -0500

Technological Syncretism: WinXP on Your Mac

Date Created: 05 Apr, 2006, 08:56 AM

From Apple's new "Boot Camp" beta web site:

As elegant as it gets

Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.(1) Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don't have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them.
System Manager

Run XP natively

Once you’ve completed Boot Camp, simply hold down the option key at startup to choose between Mac OS X and Windows. (That’s the “alt” key for you longtime Windows users.) After starting up, your Mac runs Windows completely natively. Simply restart to come back to Mac.

That's Not What I Thought You Thought I Meant At All...

2006-02-15 09:57:06 -0600

That's Not What I Thought You Thought I Meant At All...

Date Created: 15 Feb, 2006, 09:57 AM

From Wikinews, Feb. 14th story:

"Study says people don't understand the emotional tone of emails, but think they do"

People only ascertain the intended tone on an e-mail message about 56% of the time, not much better than chance, according to a study led by Prof. Nicholas Epley (University of Chicago) and Prof. Justin Kruger (New York University). The research also found that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone 90% of the time.

Epley and Kruger discovered that not only were the receivers of the e-mails overconfident about their understanding of the message's tone, but the senders were as well. About 78% of the senders thought that the receiver would correctly interpret the tone of their e-mail message.

But you and I are probably the two rare exceptions, aren't we? We grok!

I am presupposing that there is some kind of relationship, some correlation between writing an email and writing a blog article, of course. Perhaps there is not.

If I understand the study correctly, the accuracy of our communication here increases to the degree that a blog article is unlike an email we might send to one another. On the other side of the coin, though, our feeling of certainty that the reader really understands what we meant reportedly increases with the similarity between an blog article and an email -- though, we would apparently be quite mistaken.

Man, that's whack! You know what I mean?

Aboard the Nebuchadnezzar

2006-02-14 12:23:49 -0600

Aboard the Nebuchadnezzar

Date Created: 14 Feb, 2006, 12:23 PM

You scored as Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix). You can change the world around you. You have a strong will and a high technical aptitude. Is it possible you are the one? Now if only Agent Smith would quit beating up your friends.

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)

81%

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)

81%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)

75%

Serenity (Firefly)

75%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)

75%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

69%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)

69%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)

63%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)

56%

Enterprise D (Star Trek)

56%

Moya (Farscape)

50%

SG-1 (Stargate)

50%

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
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