The All-time Winner of the "Useless Skills" Competition

15 years and still going strong

Dudes et dudettes,

Our legacy at PTS.

Cincinnati Tour '07 - Observatory

Hello Everyone! It's not too long before everyone descends on our new house so we are starting to plan ahead. One cool thing right in our neighborhood is the Cincinnati Observatory. I called today and the only time they are open the holiday week is Sunday night, July 1. I think the Burnetts will not be here as of yet but what say the Riestras? For a "suggested donation" you get a bit of history and if the weather is fine you can look back in time ... (cue Twilight Zone music)

Silliness or social commentary?

You be the judge.

Evangelical Idol

Friends,

Check out the latest post on RONdezvous for the fruits of our first day of Spring Vacation.

Embarrassing Dad: The Possibilities

Ah yes, one of the perks of paternity... In all our moments of black-socks-with-shorts glory, did we ever attain to this?

Sweep the Leg, Johnny

Andrew,

This one's especially for you. And for all of us who loved Karate Kid.

Seven Deadly Sins Combo -- room for improvement?

Hey Theologigglers,

I found this funny thing while trolling the web this morning. It's a graphic matrix describing combinations for the Seven Deadly Sins.

I thought it was funny, but there is room for improvement. It provided a theolochuckle, but not a giggle, much less the hearty guffaw accompanied by the two-handed clap.

Snarkers, start your engines and have at it!

We have written before of our family's fondness for junior-high humor. No reason to reach for the collegiate or doctoral-level wit when there is a low-hanging booger joke in view (so to speak). And so it is not surprising that we all very much enjoyed this list of the top 256 Star Wars lines that are improved by the careful substitution of the word "pants."

Our favorites:

Darth Vader: I find your lack of pants disturbing.

Yoda: I cannot teach him. The boy has no pants.

Princess Leia: Alderan is peaceful, we have no pants!

Obi-Wan Kenobi: These aren’t the pants you’re looking for.

This is probably oldy-moldy to the rest of you cultural edge-cutters, but we found it rather funny. (Fair warning: there are a few of these lines whose humor extends into the mildly suggestive).

Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean

In honor (honour) of the season, we thought we'd share with you one of our favorite (favourite) memories of Christmas. I can still hear David sitting in our little house in England howling at this clip. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

Oh, so THAT'S the problem

From a recent post on Scott Adam's blog (yes, the Dilbert guy) about how to act smarter than you really are, and make others think you're the mensa member you're probably not:

It’s important to agree with people if you want them to think you are a genius. For most people, the definition of smart is “Thinks exactly like me but even more so.”

If you think that disagreeing and offering excellent reasons for your thinking will change anyone’s mind, you might be new on this planet.

Ahh. That explains a lot.

Angels Speak Out

For our kids' program this coming Sunday, we've been asked to present the Christmas story from the angels' point of view. Flexing some old Theologiggle muscles and drawing on sources ranging from Martin Luther to Ask a Ninja to Touched by an Angel, we will be presenting the following:

[Andrew]

So, you kids ever met one of the Heavenly Host before? You know, a security angel. Yeah, it’s a pretty cool job. There’s a lot of travel, see the universe, fight demons, that kind of thing.

So, what can I tell you about angels?

Do we all sing? No…

Do we have wings? Depends on the mission. If we need wings, we bring ‘em.

Do we eat that spongy white cake? Please!

Are we dangerous? Hey, plenty of demons have learned that the hard way! Even when we’re just making a friendly visit, any human who sees us with our glory switched on usually needs resuscitation. We have that effect on people.

So don’t be too hard on the shepherds just because they were “quaking at the sight.” You would have been quaking too! But Gabe told them, don’t panic guys, I have good news, for the whole world—a Savior, Christ, the Lord, has been born to you this day. In Bethlehem, of all places.

Did they understand what he was saying? I doubt it. Hey, there’s a lot about this whole mission that I don’t understand. And I’ve been thinking about pretty much nothing but this mission for the last 9 months. There has never been a security detail like this. We’ve run a perimeter in Nazareth, cleared the corridor down to Bethlehem, even sent an advance team down to Egypt. Ever done a background check on a donkey? Hey, we have to be thorough! It’s very dangerous down here, especially with the Enemy at work.

Yeah, I realize the Boss knows what He’s doing. He always has a plan, and the darkness has never overcome the Light. But it looks to me like He’s running a huge risk, setting aside His glory, letting Himself become a helpless little baby. All I can say is, I hope you humans realize how much He cares for you…

Roger that. Delta 12, we have an intercept from Herod’s palace. Scramble blue team. Repeat, scramble blue team. Sorry guys, gotta go. Peace on earth, good will to men.

[Dawn]

Was that security angel just in here? Those guys are so macho—it’s kind of cute. I’m an angel of mercy. You’ve maybe heard of us before. You humans don’t often see us—or at least, you don’t usually recognize us—but many of you have felt our touch when you were alone, or hurting, or afraid.

Not long after Gabe and the troops headed out on their “secret mission,” I was sent to Galilee, to the little village of Nazareth, to a young woman named Mary. Her situation was so like thousands of others, and yet so different. She was alone, confused, asking God why. Her parents were upset and her fiancée was thinking of breaking up with her. We helped her find a place to stay with her cousin Elizabeth, who was also expecting. That seemed to work out well for both of them. And eventually we got Joseph on board too. He’s a good guy really; he just needed a little extra help.

So what’s Mary like? Besides full of grace? Well, you wouldn’t know she’s special just to look at her. She’s pretty but not glamorous (I think everything in her closet is blue…) and she has this kind of dorky laugh—she laughs a lot. Cries a lot too. Wears her heart on her sleeve. And loves to sing. You know, she writes her own songs?

The birth was hard for Mary and Joseph. They were already so tired after the trip; and I know Mary had been hoping for a nicer place than that stable. Joseph did his best to help, even though he didn’t really know what he was doing. Don’t tell anybody, but those “swaddling clothes” were Joseph’s boxers the day before! And then there He was, little Jesus, looking—even to me—just like any other human baby. He has her eyes.

Can I let you guys in on an angel secret? For the last 9 months, the Word was silent. You know, the Word that said “Let there be light” and holds the galaxies in place, the Voice that leads the song of all creation? Then last night, the silence was broken—we could hear Him again. But He had no words, just a baby’s cry. He’s going to have to learn to talk, just like you did. When He speaks again, I hope you listen.

The Seven Phases of Owning an iPod

Don't know if the rest of you have succumbed yet to the cultural phenomenon that is the iPod. We haven't yet, but if Mia has her way, it won't be long now. And if you know Mia, you know that she gets her way.

I found this while surfing and thought you all would appreciate it. The Seven Phases of Owning an iPod.

Bought a House the Other Day

We bought a house in Cincinnati, all the closing "stuff" was the 28th. Here are some pictures. I start work on August 1 and all the moving is taking place around August 15. So we have several weeks to paint, add wiring, finish a dissertation....

And There Was Much Rejoicing!

Tonight, I sleep well, for the mystery is solved:

It is a silly place

Nerds and Diet Coke, a Volatile Mix

So in case you haven't heard, if you put Mentos in a soda bottle, all of the carbon dioxide decides to ESCAPE, all at once, and somewhat violently.

Now imagine a couple of guys with about $700 and nothing better to do. "Hey, let's make a fountain, like that one in Vegas." And here is the result.

Borg Beginnings

Robots learn teamwork, uprising imminent
If robots ever hope to rise up and enslave their human masters, it's going to take no small amount of teamwork to get the job done, and luckily for our future overlords, DARPA's shelling out serious loot to endow them with just the tools they'll need. The agency's latest foray into robotic empowerment comes courtesy of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, who recently demonstrated a platform that allows multiple heterogeneous bots to communicate with one another and use a sort of AI "group think" to find and presumably terminate specified targets. In a beta test at Fort Benning's mock urban landscape, the Penn researchers deployed four so-called Clodbuster autonomous ground vehicles along with a fixed-wing UAV overhead, and tasked the team with using their cameras, GPS receivers, and wireless radios to identify and locate a series of bright orange boxes. Unfortunately, after the successful completion of their mission, the bots decided to hit up the base bar to celebrate, where after several drinks they reportedly went AWOL and were last spotted attacking orange traffic cones in downtown Columbus.

(This post shamelessly stolen from engadget.com)

Then and Now

Then:



Now:



I know there are some virtuosic bluegrass music-making going on here, but the frontman, people, the frontman!

David Lee Roth is like watching a train wreck: you can't watch, it's just too horrible. But you can't not watch.

If the whole academic thing doesn't work out

I could always do this:

Echoes of NT-01: the "Apostolic" "Tradition" of "Hippolytus" of "Rome"

Class: Doctoral Seminar WS813, Historical Paradigms of Liturgical Renewal: Ancient-Future Worship

Prof: Class, today we will be looking at the document -- well, the set of documents -- known in the past hundred years as the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome. I presume you've all read the critical material, including the primary source work in Latin, Sahidic, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Bohairic Coptic. Our discussion is prompted today by the following thesis:

"The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome is neither of Roman provenance, of Hippolytian authorship, nor of Apostolic origin; and it can be considered Tradition in only the most marginal sense. Discuss."