They didn’t cut down the tree yesterday. Maybe today they’ll do it.

Some pieces of sidewalk far enough away from the tree to be unaffected by it were poured yesterday. And they are horrendous. I don’t know if it is normal for them to pour the cement, wait a day and then come back and make it look nice… I don’t think so, but I don’t know much about the sidewalk making business. But, if that doesn’t happen, they’re going to have to break these up and start over. Because its terrible. I’ll have to take some pictures of the atrocity.

Someone on the Andrew Peterson messageboard posted a link to this post on FilmChat, about a live action film version of C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters.

Not sure what to think.

Report of Ad Interim Study Committee on Federal Vision, New Perspective, and Auburn Avenue Theologies

I just discovered this website, called LibriVox, which may interest some of y’all. It is audio recordings of various books in public domain.

People volunteer to read portions of books, and submit their recordings, and they are then made available to the public. Some of the books have just one reader, most use multiple readers. They have a pretty big catalog, including Austen, Chesterton, Dickens… Darwin. They have classics, philosophy, historical speeches, plays, and so on. They also have…. Wodehouse.

You can download the recordings chapter by chapter, or the whole book in a zip file. You can also subscribe to a RSS feed, and download it as a series of podcasts.

I just downloaded Chesterton’s The Man Who Knew Too Little. It is read by just one reader, and the audio quality of the recording is great. I wouldn’t complain at all about it. I also wouldn’t complain about the quality of the reader. He reads very well, and has an interesting accent that makes for good listening. It isn’t quite as peppy as professional recordings of books i’ve listened to, but that’s not a complaint.

So check it out.

Ron shares some helpful thoughts on dating.

When we moved into our house almost four years ago, the sidewalk in the front was uneven. A tree next to the road had roots that were pushing up one section. Over time, it got to be about four inches, and so I broke down and called the city about it. This was about two months ago or so.

A couple Fridays back some men came and started working on the sidewalk. They broke up and removed most of the sidewalk in front of our house, and across the street, and various other pieces on the street that need replacing. They put new sidewalk in everywhere except right in front of our house. The tree roots were too overgrown to lay down the sidewalk.

So today they’re cutting down our tree. It’s a big maple that provides almost our entire front yard with shade. And it provides leaves for leaf jumping in the fall. And today, probably right now, it is being cut down. I took some photos of it, so we can remember just what it was like to have that tree. I’ll post the Before and After photos later.

I think I’ll have to plant new grass once it’s cut down… not where it was, but where all the shade was. mostly shady grasses have grown there, and I think they’re going to get burnt up once the sun starts beating down on them. So that’ll be fun.

I’m also starting a garden in the back this year. I’ll post some pictures of that at some point also.

Back in February Buy.com had what any reasonable person would consider a good deal. They were selling a set of two 1GB flash drives for $48, with a mail-in rebate for… $48. I could use a larger flash drive, so I placed the order. There was some problem with the order, saying it was out of stock. Since it had the MIR, I needed to get it to send in the rebate form in time. I decided to wait a week before cancelling the order. After several days, I got notice that my drives had shipped. “Nice!” I say. Until they arrive, and start corrupting data. Both of them. So I called up Simple Tech, and they agreed to replace the drives. I had to pay shipping out there, but they would pay to ship the replacements. So, I got the package ready and forgot about it for several weeks. Then I mailed it USPS for 69 cents, despite their warnings that it might cause delays. I figure a delay was worth the extra $4 in shipping that FedEx or UPS would cost.
Well, about a week later I got the replacements. I copied some files to them immediately, and then brought them to work the next day to test them out. Corrupted data! I called Simple Tech again, and they asked for the number on the drives, and once I gave it to them, they immediately said they’d replace them again. And pay shipping both ways. So, they must have a bad batch or something. Which makes me wonder if that’s why they had the rebate. But anyhow.
They went out to them UPS Ground, and it’s taken all week just to get there. I expect they’ll send them back to me the same way they did before, FedEx 2nd Day Air. Hopefully they will, at least. And then I can get the re-replacements this week, and see if they actually work.

I got the rebate check last week, though, so even if they don’t work, at least it didn’t cost me anything (except the shipping first time).

Douglas Wilson has written a response to Sam Harris’ atheistic bestseller, Letter to a Christian Nation. Buy a copy and spread the word.

Brad Peppo posted some points well worth repeating on his blog, Beside the Still Waters.

I know I had promised earlier that I would chip in my two cents in the whole sex and nudity in movies discussion. The following is a tardy and somewhat unorganized list of some points I believe ought to be considered in this issue. My thoughts are primarily directed to Christian men and are focused upon the impropriety of their watching sexually explicit scenes in movies.

1. Consider, first and foremost, the Lord and Master who has purchased you with his own blood. We are not our own, our eyes are not our own. We and they belong fully to Christ, and we have no right to use them in any way which displeases him.

2. Consider what it is you are actually doing. Sometimes, simply describing an activity helps us understand its true nature. What are you really doing when you watch such a scene? Simply stated, you are paying money to watch a real man and a real woman take off their clothes and pretend to engage in sexual activity for a movie camera. The technical term for this is voyeurism.

3. Consider your own purity. I know that most men who justify watching this kind of material say that seeing unclothed women pretend to have sex doesn’t bother them. By this I imagine they mean that it doesn’t tempt them to lust. If you’re saying this…you’re lying, at least to yourself. If you’re saying this and you’re not lying, you probably need some sort of medical attention. If you are saying this, and you’re not lying, and you do not need medical attention, then you need to find some better way to use your eunuch status for the kingdom.

Usually discussion of this issue only gets as far as the previous point, as if the possible negative effects upon the male voyeur are the only or the most important consideration. However, there is much more to be considered.

4. Consider the rights of your wife. Your wife or future wife has the right to your exclusive sexual attention. Furthermore, she has the right not to be continually compared to your mental collection of images of the mostly plastic bodies of all the women you’ve been watching on the big screen. When you put yourself in a position to see such things, you are sinning against her (Eunuchs, see the end of point 3).

5. Consider the dignity of the woman you are watching. Scripture is clear that, outside of marriage, looking upon a woman’s nakedness is a shame and dishonor to her. Again, the film medium does not change the fact that this is a real woman, whose real nakedness is being exposed to anyone who is willing to pay the $9.50. The fact that she does so willingly to get your money does not give you the right contribute to that dishonor.

6. Consider the woman’s husband or father. Remember the golden rule? Few of us, if we really thought about it, would want millions of men paying to see our wives or daughters take off their clothes and pretend to have sex with another actor. Yet many are willing to pay to borrow other men’s wives and daughters for the purpose. Again, I’m sure some actresses have husbands and fathers desensitized enough not to let such a thing bother them. That does not mean that you are wronging them any less.

7. Consider your own daughters. Be prepared for the difficulty of explaining to your young girls why they shouldn’t do for other men what you’ve been paying other girls to do for you.

http://www.theringingbell.com

You can buy it from amazon or go to derekwebb.com and preorder a deluxe package (if you want to get shilled in shipping).