Quote from Heilein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

"I sighed. Where do you start explaining when a man's words show there isn't anything he understands about subject, instead is loaded with preceptions that don't fit facts and doesn't even know he has?"

 

-- Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Orb edition, 1997; originally printed in 1966), 163. Note: Quote is accurate and seeming typos portray a "Lunar dialect" Heinlein created for the novel.

Workbench links

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/workshop/bench/below20xl.html

http://www.woodcraft.com/Articles/Articles.aspx?articleid=352

http://www.cornerhardware.com/howto/ht082.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/woodworking/1302961.html?page=1

http://www.shopnotes.com/issues/075/extras/making-a-longer-plank-top-workbench/

http://www.shopnotes.com/issues/089/extras/heavy-duty-workbench/

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/175_Workbench/

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/24-hour_Workbench/

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/how_to/4294051.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/workshop/4219723.html

Films to see

9.1 - The Shawshank Redemption (1994) 447,277

9.1 - The Godfather (1972) 366,681

9.0 - The Godfather: Part II (1974) 214,651

8.6 - Sunset Blvd. (1950) 47,514

8.4 - Chinatown (1974) 69,377

8.4 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) 192,025

8.4 - Singin' in the Rain (1952) 49,295

8.4 - Some Like It Hot (1959) 59,706

8.3 - Metropolis (1927) 34,262

8.3 - The Elephant Man (1980) 50,733

8.3 - The Sting (1973) 58,621

8.3 - On the Waterfront (1954) 36,492

8.2 - Witness for the Prosecution (1957) 15,542

8.2 - Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) 12,119

8.0 - A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) 29,598

8.0 - Changeling (2008) 47,218

Scholarly Bibles website

http://www.scholarly-bibles.com/

Links to Great Astronomy pictures

The Heavens Declare the Glory of God!!! (Psalm 19:1)

 

NASA Astronomy picture of the day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

 

Archive for NASA Astronomy picture of the day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

 

Hubble Telescope site: http://hubblesite.org

 

Great image from Hubble:

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1996/01/image/a/format/large_web/

"Tiers of Glory" book on Church Architecture

	In Tiers of Glory: The Organic Development of Catholic Church Architecture Through the Ages by Michael S. Rose In Stock Price: $29.95 17 used & new from $19.99
How to Read a Church: A Guide to Symbols and Images in Churches and Cathedrals by Richard Taylor Architecture in Communion: Implementing the Second Vatican Council Through Liturgy and Architecture by Steven J. Schloeder No Place for God: The Denial of Transcendence in Modern Church Architecture by Moyra Doorly
http://www.amazon.com

Screwtape's advice to Wormwood from "The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis

A summary of Screwtape's advice to Wormwood from "The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis:

 

1. Make him preoccupied with ordinary, "real" life—not arguments or science.
2. Make him disillusioned with the church by highlighting people he self-righteously thinks are strange or hypocritical.
3. Annoy him with "daily pinpricks" from his mother.
4. Keep him from seriously intending to pray at all, and if that fails, subtly misdirect his focus to himself or an object rather than a Person.
5. Don't hope for too much from a war [in this case, World War II ] because the Enemy often lets our patients suffer to fortify them and tantalize us.
6. Capitalize on his uncertainty, divert his attention from the Enemy to himself, and redirect his malice to his everyday neighbors and his benevolence to people he does not know.
7. Keep him ignorant of your existence, and make him either an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist who regards his cause as the most important part of Christianity.
8. Make good use of your patient's series of troughs and peaks (i.e., "the law of undulation"), and beware that the Enemy relies on the troughs more than the peaks.
9. Capitalize on trough periods by tempting him with sensual pleasures (especially sex), making him content with his moderated religion, and directly attacking his faith as merely a "phase."
10. Convince him to blend in with his new worldly acquaintances.
11. Understand the four causes of laughter (joy, fun, the joke proper, and flippancy), and shrewdly use jokes and flippancy.
12. Don't underestimate the power of "very small sins" because "the safest road to Hell is the gradual one."
13. Don't allow him to experience real pleasures because they are a touchstone of reality.
14. Make him proud of his humility. Use both vainglory and false modesty to keep him from humility's true end.
15. Make him live in the future rather than the present.
16. Encourage church-hopping.
17. Encourage gluttony through delicacy rather than excess.
18. Convince him that the only respectable ground for marriage is "being in love."
19. Understand that the Enemy does not genuinely love humans. (But we don't know what his real motive is.)
20. Don't give up if your direct attacks on his chastity fail. Try to arrange a desirable marriage.
21. Convince him to use the pronoun "my" in the fully possessive sense of ownership (e.g., "my time," "my boots," "my wife," and "my God").
22. Understand that the Enemy has filled His world full of pleasures and that you must twist them before you can use them.
23. Encourage him to embrace a "historical Jesus" and to treat Christianity as merely a means to a political end such as social justice.
24. Confuse him with spiritual pride for being part of an elite set.
25. Replace "mere Christianity" with "Christianity And" by increasing his horror of "the same old thing" and thus increasing his desire for novelty.
26. Sow seeds of "unselfishness" during his courtship.
27. Twist his prayers.
28. Guard his life so that he grows old because real worldliness takes time.
29. Defeat his courage, and make him a coward.
30. Capitalize on his fatigue, and manipulate his emotions with the word "real."
31. His end is inexplicable, but we must win in the end.

St. Thomas Aquinas meets Pope Innocent IV: Silver & gold

The story is famous of the discourse between Pope Innocent IV and Thomas Aquinas. When that great scholar came to Rome, and looked somewhat amazedly upon the mass of plate and treasure which he saw, Lo, said the Pope, you see Thomas, we cannot say as St Peter did of old, silver and gold have we none. No, said Aquinas, neither can you command, as he did, the lame man to arise and walk. — Bishop Hall

Two Key "Battlestar Galactica" quotes

Gaius Baltar: ...Now I may be mad, but that doesn't mean that I am not right. Because there is another force at work here. There's always has been. It's undeniable. We've all experienced it. Everyone in this room has witnessed events that they can't fathom, let alone explain away by rational means. Puzzles, deciphered in prophecy. Dreams given to a chosen few. Our loved ones dead ... risen. Whether we want to call that God, or Gods, or some sublime inspiration, or a divine force that we can't know or understand, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. It's here, it exists, and our two destinies are entwined in its force.

 

----------------------------

 

Lee Adama: ...If there's on thing we should have learned, it's that, you know, our brains have always outraced our hearts; our science charges ahead, our souls lag behind.

 

----------------------------

 

From the Episode "Daybreak", written by Ronald D. Moore and directed by Michael Rymer. Baltar portrayed by James Callis, Adama by Jamie Bamber. Rights owned by Syfy Channel.

The Essence of Time Management

Fromn http://www.whatsbestnext.com/2009/10/the-essence-of-time-management-in-one-paragraph/

 

THE ESSENCE OF TIME MANAGEMENT IN ONE PARAGRAPH

 

Stephen Covey pulls together the essence of time management into four sentences:

The essence of time management is to set priorities and then to organize and execute around them. Setting priorities requires us to think carefully and clearly about values, about ultimate concerns. These then have to be translated into long- and short- term goals and plans translated once more into schedules or time slots. Then, unless something more important — not something more urgent — comes along, we must discipline ourselves to do as we planned. (From Principle Centered Leadership, p 138.)

October 30, 2009

Three questions to ask in a job interview

From http://www.whatsbestnext.com/2009/10/questions-to-ask-in-a-job-interview/

 

In this down economy, a lot of people are looking for jobs. Part of the interviewing process is asking good questions of the interviewer.

 

Marcus Buckingham lists three questions you should always ask, and I think he's right: 

(1) What are the three top priorities for the person in this position during the next ninety days?

(2) What are the key strengths you're looking for in the person you select for this position? How do these strengths relate to what this position is responsible for?

(3) How would you describe the company culture? Would you give me some examples of the culture in action?

First, you ask about top priorities so you can know what's expected, especially at the start, and so you can identify if the employer has sufficiently thought through the position. If they don't know what to expect, you won't know what to expect. (And one of the three priorities they list will hopefully be: learn the position well.)

 

Second, you ask about strengths because the purpose of any organization is to make strength productive and because you will be at your best when you are in a role that calls upon your strengths. If the organization does not have this mindset, it's a yellow flag and it may not serve you to work there. So you want to know if they think in terms of maximizing strengths. Also, you want to know if the position matches your strengths and thus if you truly are a good fit.

 

Third, you ask about the culture because this is fundamental to knowing your "fit" and because you want to work for organizations with a healthy culture. One of the best answers a potential employer could give to this question is: "Trust."

 

And one last thing: Present your true self. First, this is right. Second, the interview will go better. Third, it won't serve you or the company if you get the job on the basis of an inaccurate understanding of your fit for the position.

 

October 23, 2009

Windows 7 help

http://lifehacker.com/5386953/lifehackers-complete-guide-to-windows-7

Books for Boys

From Virginia is for Huguenots :

Books for Boys

via Virginia is for Huguenots by noreply@blogger.com (VirginiaHuguenot) on 10/23/09

Standing tall among the likes of Jules Verne, Joseph Conrad, James Fenimore Cooper, Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Alexandre Dumas, Frederick Marryat, are distinctly Christian or Christian-influenced adventure writers, such as, to name a few:

• Daniel Defoe -- Presbyterian dissenter who chronicled the history of the Scottish Presbyterian Church.
• Johann David Wyss -- Rector of the Reformed Protestant Cathedral in Bern, Switzerland.
• Robert Michael Ballantyne -- Ballantyne travelled to the places that he wrote about, and he stated, Personal Reminiscences in Book-Making: "...in all my writings I have always tried — how far successfully I know not — to advance the cause of Truth and Right and to induce my readers to put their trust in the love of God our Saviour, for this life as well as the life to come." Elsewhere, he wrote: "In writing these volumes, the author has earnestly endeavoured to keep in view the glory of God and the good of man." See this website.
  
• Robert Louis Stevenson -- Presbyterian, although he tended away from the beliefs of his church, wrote of Covenanters and Camisards, and coined the phrase "Ballantyne the Brave".
• William Henry Giles Kingston -- Devout Christian, missionary supporter and translator of the works of Jules Verne from French into English.
• George Alfred Henty -- Henty once said in an interview: "To be a true hero you must be a true Christian. To sum up, then, heroism is largely based upon two qualities-truthfulness and unselfishness, a readiness to put one's own pleasure aside for that of others, helpful to your parents, even if that helpfulness demands some slight sacrifice of your own pleasure. You must remember that these two qualities are true signs of Christian heroism. If one is to be a true Christian, one must be a Christian hero. True heroism is inseparable from true Christianity, and as a step towards the former I would urge most strongly and urgently the practice of the latter."

A common theme running through many of these adventure stories is named after Daniel Defoe's greatest novel, Robinson Crusoe. Sometimes called the "Robinsonade," the story of castaways stranded on desert islands may be found not only in Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island, but in Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson, Ballantyne's The Island Queen and The Lonely Island, Kingston's The Coral Island and Henty's For Name and Fame. Stevenson's Treasure Island does not involve castaways, but he spent time in the south Pacific later and is one of the great nineteenth century travel writers. Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe both strongly reflect the Reformed world view of their authors. I am partial to these having had my own experience on a desert island (Gun Cay, Jamaica).

It is the historical novels focusing on religion that are of particular interest to this blogger, who is himself slowly writing a work of historical fiction. I will highlight a few which I think are worth having in the family library.

• William H.G. Kingston, Exiled For the Faith: A Tale of Huguenot Persecution (also titled Villegagnon: A Tale of Huguenot Persecution). -- A story concerning the French Huguenot colony of France Antarctique, located at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the mid-1500's. The leader of the colony, Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, is known as the "Cain of America," having turned from Protestantism to Catholicism, and executing the first Protestant martyrs in the Western hemisphere.

• William H.G. Kingston, In the Wilds of Florida -- This story takes place in the 19th century but mentions the 16th century French Huguenot settlement in Florida.

• R.M. Ballantyne, Hunted and Harried -- A story of the 17th century Scottish Covenanters.

• G.A. Henty, St. Bartholomew's Eve -- A story about the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of French Huguenots.

• G.A. Henty, Won By the Sword -- A story about the Thirty Years' War.

• G.A. Henty, Lion of the North: A Tale of the Times of Gustavus Adolphus and the Wars of Religion.

• G.A. Henty, By Pike and Dyke: A Tale of the Rise of the Dutch Republic.

• G.A. Henty, By England's Aid: or, The Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604).

• G.A. Henty, Orange and Green: A Tale of the Boyne and Limerick.

• G.A. Henty, For the Temple: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem.

 

Planned Parenthood: Let's Make Profit from Abortion

More from http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6700777.html

“Definitely the most lucrative part of their business was abortions. One of the things that kept coming up was how family planning services were really dragging down the budget, and family planning services include education about contraceptives. It was a drain on the budget, but abortion services were really running up the budget and that was keeping the center afloat.”


From Rod Dreher at http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/11/abby-johnson-ex-abortionist.html

Reason to give thanks down in Bryan-College Station, Texas. From a local news report:

Planned Parenthood has been a part of Abby Johnson's life for the past eight years; that is until last month, when Abby resigned. Johnson said she realized she wanted to leave, after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure.

"I just thought I can't do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought that's it," said Jonhson.

She handed in her resignation October 6. Johnson worked as the Bryan Planned Parenthood Director for two years.

According to Johnson, the non-profit was struggling under the weight of a tough economy, and changing it's business model from one that pushed prevention, to one that focused on abortion.

"It seemed like maybe that's not what a lot of people were believing any more because that's not where the money was. The money wasn't in family planning, the money wasn't in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that," said Johnson.

Johnson said she was told to bring in more women who wanted abortions, something the Episcopalian church goer recently became convicted about.

"I feel so pure in heart (since leaving). I don't have this guilt, I don't have this burden on me anymore that's how I know this conversion was a spiritual conversion."