Couple more Updates

I have finally finished my updates for pictures for the time being. I’ve just finished uploading and tweaking the Christmas Break 2005-2006 album, and even though I have more pictures to upload, my next project is to work on my paper for therapeutic foster care and getting my new laptop set up properly.

Also, I tweaked some things on the Wishlist page. I added some of the children’s series I read when I was growing up and absolutely loved.

Anyway, it’s time to get back to work now. Good thing I have spring break this next week….

Making the Transition

Monday morning, our tax returns came in. It’s amazing what a difference it can make to *pay* taxes as a single man, and then to file your return as a married couple. The amount returned to us was almost to the dime the amount we needed to get a laptop for Valerie, which she’s been pining for ever since she realized she had a 4 hour commute every day to and from school. We immediately went to Best Buy and bought the thing.

But the great news for me is not what we’ve so suddenly acquired, but what we now have the opportunity to *get rid of*: The Internet. I anticipate this very week making the great transition to The Quiet Home. Halelujah. Continue reading “Making the Transition”

Barth

Reading about Karl Barth is something of an inspiration for me. But it’s difficult to describe in print in a modern setting without sounding a little bit silly. Barth’s enthusiasm, even zeal, for theology is a little disconcerting, almost off-putting. He’s totally overboard. You want to walk alongside him and put your arm around him in an elderly brother sort of way, and say “Karl. I appreciate your passion for talking about God. I really do. I’m with you on this one. But Karl, can you calm down a bit? Surely, at least, you could say that the actual practice of Christianity is more important than *talking* about it.” But Karl won’t calm down. Continue reading “Barth”

Perhaps I Think It’s Me

A long time ago, in what now seems like another life, I used to worship in the chapel of a large university. The amazing thing for me about this chapel was always how high and how wide the ceiling was near the front of the building. Walking toward the pulpit (the platform, the stage… I hesitate to call it an altar), the floor sloped gently downward, while the ceiling, already 60 feet above the back, angled upward, so that at the front of the room it towered more than 100 feet above. The building itself was shaped like a diamond, with the platform in one corner, just past the midpoint. The result was that, when you stood near the “front” and looked up in worship, you were filled with a sense of the vast spaciousness of the place. This was, no doubt, an unmoderated blessing when the chapel was completely packed.

But many times when I would pray during the services there, I would see in my mind’s eye a figure dancing. Continue reading “Perhaps I Think It’s Me”

Picture Day

I have done some rearranging in the gallery.  I decided to organize things into categories so I could navigate easier when I want to upload stuff.  I also have added a lot of new pictures including several new albums of pictures.  I wanted to go ahead and burn all of my pictures that I took in 2005 to cd so I thought that I would go ahead and tweak them a bit and post them on the site for visualizing.  No you don’t get to see all of them because that would take too much time, and some of the pictures I took came out terrible.  Besides I’m running behind and still have pictures waiting to be uploaded from my camera for a trip we took in January with our church.  So, without further ado here are the new categories (I hope it makes navigation easier):

I have also posted some new pictures in the end of the Magnolia album.  And here’s a list of all the new albums:

And a list of the new albums that are listed with nothing in them yet because I haven’t finished working with the photos:

  • Labor Day 2005 
  • Ohio 2005 
  • Christmas Break 2005-2006 

I’ll put up another email when I have those last three albums completed…and maybe a few more…

Permalinks fixed… again!

For about the forth time in a row, I have re-done how archives are arranged at Neumatikos.org. Hopefully, this time we’ve finally got a system that doesn’t break anywhere, allows the RSS feeds to work properly, and generally just works.

If you’ve linked to me in the past, and you want those links to stay up-to-date, you might want to update. Again. Please accept my apologies.

If you notice any problems where things don’t pull up right, please tell me.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, good. You probably didn’t notice any problems in the first place. No worries.

KB

Liberalism

We see in Christian Liberalism not that which is “modern” or “mainline”, but merely that which is contra-orthodox, unendorsed by the Holy Spirit, and as such, she is limpid, dying. She has no need for anyone to attack her, for already she is fading away.

I see her now, a deranged old prostitute, crying out to all her former lovers – “lama sabachtani?” as she paints herself again with the newest ideological fashions. There is no more need to look on her with horror now that she is an old prostitute than when she was young and drew men with her pearls and honey. But perhaps now the True Church will be inspired to finally give her what she has always deserved: a little pity

She is wrong, but she is sick and dying. She doesn’t need to be blasted for what she is because in her heart of hearts, she already knows what she is. She only needs what any tired old woman needs: to be comforted with the grace of the gospel, to be captured away from all that has enslaved her, to be told that no longer shall she be “lo ammi”, but instead, “my people.” She needs to discover that no longer can she be buffeted around by Ba’al, her manied master, but instead she must be held firm by her husband, her loving, gracious, jealous husband.

For it is Jealousy that will save her.

Nasty little secrets come to light.

I’m doing homework….yeah I know that’s not a big deal or unusual, but something I read needs to be shared with a larger audience.

I’m reading for my HS755 course on Organization and Delivery of Acute, Long-term, and Community-based Care.  I’m sure it sounds boring, but I actually have found the readings and classes quite insightful.  Recently we’ve been focusing on hospitals: accreditation, report cards, standards of care, and today’s illumination, routine accidents.

Here’s some figures that I thought were rather disturbing:

Accidental Deaths in the US

  • Commercial aviation deaths – 329 
  • Drowning deaths – 3,959 
  • Deaths from falls – 14,986 
  • Motor vehicle deaths – 43,649 
  • Deaths from medical errors – 120,000 

A Harvard University School of Public Health professor named Lucian Leape first discovered that 1,000,000 people are injured by medical errors during hospital treatment and 120,000 die as a result.  He likened it to having a jumbo jet plane crashing every day.  Leape and his collegues examined medical records for a 1991 report and found that “one of every 200 patients admitted to a hospital died as a result of hospital error.”  Not only are these numbers not reported to the public (had you heard anyting before now…I hadn’t), but only between 5 and 10 percent are actually reported to the hospital itself because medical professionals are so afraid about letting down their patients by admitting they aren’t perfect and risk losing their liscences because of errors that might or might not have been avoided. Continue reading “Nasty little secrets come to light.”