…or World of Warcraft is an interesting game, but the jury is still out on whether or not I like it.
I was bored and more than little lonely one night last week, so while I was at Target, I popped for a copy of World of Warcraft to see what the buzz is about. The undertaking did not, shall we say, begin auspiciously. Just getting it installed on Windows Vista proved to be a challenge. Next, after installing a DVD's worth of software, creating an account, arranging billing, and logging in, I had to download another CD's worth of "patch." That was one honkin' big patch.
When I finally logged in and started playing (last night), I was amused and curious enough to stick with it for a couple of hours. I made it out of the starting area after a couple of deaths and resurrections at the hands of this huge, nasty spider in a cave, then sleep overtook me. I'm not playing with a group, just against the computer and Non-Player Characters, or NPCs in WoW-speak (I was going to say "I'm not playing with a group, just with myself," but that didn't come out sounding the way I intended). As such, I'm likely missing the social aspect of the game, but I want to have a clue what I'm doing before exposing myself to taunts and ridicule at the hands of more experienced players.
The action isn't riveting at this point, and mashing a button to start fighting and see who wins isn't my idea of a ripping good time, but I'm going to withhold a final decision until I've played more of my free month. Conveniently, that will also be the point at which I decide whether or not to pay for a continuing subscription. I'm not inclined to do so just on principle, preferring to spend the money on something else, but I'll decide for sure later.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 19:31 2007-11-28 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Rosicrucian Museum (San Jose)
I visited the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium today. It was interesting, but nothing about which I got overly excited. The grounds and the museum buildings themselves were much more interesting than the majority of the collection. For example, there were far too many "replica" items, the lighting was awful, and it was generally poorly curated, IMNSHO. I suppose the interpretive work was accurate, but I'm not an Egyptologist so I can't be certain. Overall, I give it a C+ and would recommend it more for children than for adults wanting a solid look at Egyptian history.
Nevertheless, it wasn't a complete disappointment. Some of the artifacts, particularly the mummies and the items from the early Christian (Coptic) and Islamic periods, were fascinating. There were at least two mummies of adults, a mummified child, and a number of mummified animals, including an Apis bull, a baboon, and Nile catfish, and at least one cat.
I took a few photographs but had a rough time with the lighting and also struggled to with battery life on my camera. On the subject of camera batteries, I think I'm going to investigate lithium ion batteries instead of using the alkalines, which this camera eats the way my nephew eats chocolate cake.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 22:41 2007-11-24 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
A Bash Debug Function (Linux)
I wrote a debug function for a largish bash script I've been working on. I'm sure others have thought of something similar, but this one is mine. Mine, I say! Mine! Mine! Mine!
Here's the code:
function debug()
{
_date=`date +%H:%M:%S`
_line="$BASH_LINENO"
if [ "$1" == "-v" ]; then
shift
while [ $# -ne 0 ]; do
echo "$_date [$_line] $1 ${!1}"
shift
done
else
echo "$_date [$_line] $1"
fi
}
Called as debug -v VARNAME, it prints the name
of the variable specified by VARNAME, followed by
the variable's value:
debug -v FOO
This yields output that looks like the following. A timestamp,
the line number where the debug() function was called,
followed by the variable name and it's value:
20:59:12 [6]: FOO=this is the foo string
I coded the function so you can specify multiple variables to a
single debug() call. Thus, debug -v FOO BAR
BAZ results in the following:
debug -v FOO BAR BAZ
00:23:07 [10]: FOO=this is the foo string 00:23:07 [10]: BAR=and this is a bar string 00:23:07 [10]: BAZ=don't forget the baz string
Called as debug STRING, it prints the specified
STRING:
debug "Your message here"
Here's the output of the second, simpler form. Again, it's a timestamp,
the line number where the debug() function was called,
followed by the string message:
20:59:12 [7]: Your message here
Sure, it's nothing to write home about, unless you're debugging someone else's bash script, which was the original motivation for writing this thing. I was debugging a script written by someone else and needed a function that would make it easy to sort out what it was doing when. This little function helped out enormously.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 00:34 2007-11-17 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Fan? Check! Network? Nope! (Work)
...the replacement chipset fan works, the machine booted, but it doesn't want to talk to other machines on the network. :-\
One of my tasks today was to replace a non-functioning motherboard chipset fan. I waited until the end of the day, shut down the box, removed the mobo, and replaced the fan. The fan works fine. After the machine booted, there was no video—turned out I'd missed reconnecting one of the power cables for the PCI Express-based graphics adapter. Fixed that. Started the box. No network. I've got link activity, but the box is not reachable over the network, obstinately refuses to respond to ping, and declines to mount NFS exports during boot. Scrud. I gave up at 7:00 p.m., had dinner, and came home.
I detest leaving loose ends like that, especially when the box is used by other people, but I'd been at work since 7:45 and had had enough for one day.
More generally, I spent a good portion of the day trying to get my head back into the work habit. I'm surprised at how quickly I got out "work mode." It's even a little distressing because I'm accustomed to hitting the door and getting down to work; yesterday was a lost cause due to orientation, so I had high hopes for productivity today. No joy. Instead of a surge of task-oriented work, I seemed to move forward in fits and starts. I hope Lonni isn't ready to hurl me to the curb.
Seriously, I should be able to get down to some serious business tomorrow. And today wasn't a total loss; I did establish that I could build debug and release versions of the CUDA libs and apps and I'm also getting my computing environment squared away. But, this is not the blazing, accomplishment-laden start for which I was hoping. Grmph!
Posted by Kurt Wall at 22:15 2007-11-13 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Day 1 (Work)
Today was my first day on my new job at NVIDIA. Not a bad first day, as first days go.
Orientation ran from 8:30 a.m. (well, 8:45 a.m.) to approximately 2:45, followed by a very short tour of the campus and about 45 minutes spent waiting to run 18 people through the badging process. Lonni walked me to my desk at 3:30, introduced me to the rest of the team (no, I don't remember anyone's name, save for Lonnie's and my own), showed me to my cubicle, and cut me loose. I spent the balance of the afternoon, until about 6:30 p.m., setting up my computers, installing Linux on one of them, going over my email, and prioritizing tomorrow's work.
Real work begins tomorrow. I greatly appreciate Lonni helping me get the job by recommending me to our boss. The task now is to demonstrate to him and to our manager that they made a good decision offering me the job. Oh, my job title is "GPGPU QA Engineer," which is another way of calling me a "tester."
Today was also my first official commute in Silicon Valley's rush hour.
Fortunately, I'm only 20 minutes away from NVIDIA even with heavy traffic
on the 101, so the commute is vastly better than what I dealt with in
Pittsburgh, which involved 45 minutes to an hour crawling up Route 51. Going
in this morning wasn't bad; traffic was backed up merging from 87 North onto
the 101 North, but it picked up the pace pretty quickly after that and the
San Tomas Expressway was a breeze. Coming home, again, the slowest going
was getting from San Tomas onto the 101 South. After that, the ride was
smooth and uneventful. I could get used to such easy commutes…p>
Posted by Kurt Wall
at 21:20 2007-11-12
| Trackbacks (0)
| Comments (0)
Starting RCIA
(Religion)
...a/k/a "Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults" or, more prosaically, how to become a bona fide, card-carrying Roman Catholic.
I've been mulling this over, literally, for years. Recent events in the ELCA have made continued membership in that church impossible, so I'm finally taking the step. God willing, I'll be going through RCIA at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph here in San Jose. RCIA is the same process at all parishes, but each parish runs it a little differently. St. Joseph is committed enough to the process to have given it its own Web site, complete with calendar, agenda, and a pretty detailed explanation of what to expect at each step in the process.
In some ways, I feel like I'm coming home. I was first curious about RCIA when I still lived in Huntsville, which would put my first call to conversion before 1983. If my enfeebled memory doesn't betray me, my first interest in becoming Roman Catholic began when I was 19. So, no one can say I've rushed into this.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:46 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Road Trip (San Jose)
...what a long, strange trip it's been.
I left Pittsburgh on Friday morning about 7:00 a.m. and arrived here in San Jose on Monday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. The trip wasn't really that strange, but it was certainly long: 2,766 miles door-to-door. After a short stop in Indianapolis to visit my agent and friend, Marta, I continued on through Illinois and into Iowa. I spent the night in Coral Ridge, which is just west of Iowa City, Iowa on I-80. Saturday saw me exiting Iowa, passing through Nebraska, and finally coming to rest in Rawlins, Wyoming. On Sunday, I left Wyoming, passed through Utah (that was like returning to a nightmare, so I was glad to Nevada), and wound up spending the night at the Circus Circus in Reno, Nevada. I paid my Nevada tax at the craps and blackjack tables in Reno. I completed the trip on Monday.
Happily, my new apartment was ready. The furniture had been delivered and set up Monday morning, so all I had to do was sign the lease agreement and schlep my stuff from the car into the apartment. That duty done, I did some shopping for basic grocery items (1/2 'n' 1/2 for my morning coffee, for example) and some necessary home furnishings (pillows, which it had not occurred to me to pack), and then collapsed in a heap.
I spent Tuesday, 6 November, on more complete shopping trips to Safeway and Trader Joe's for groceries and Target for furnishings. I finished up Tuesday getting a much-needed haircut at the Great Clips near SJSU. Today, I went over to NVIDIA, signed my offer letter, and then had lunch with Lonnie, my friend and soon-to-be immediate boss. My orientation at NVIDIA starts at 8:30 a.m. on Monday the 12th, so I still have a couple of days (and the weekend) to dink around before I resume gainful employment. Today, I also took a quick tour of the Guadalupe Rose Garden, which is just across the 87 from my apartment. The array of roses is simply breathtaking, as the photos I took can only hint.
I'd like to visit the Rosicrucian Museum here in San Jose on Thursday or Friday and then drive out to Santa Cruz one day this weekend to kick around there. I'll continue to update the blog as I get settled in and discover San Jose.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:46 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
An Apartment! (San Jose)
I won't have to sleep in my car or under a bridge.
My lease application at the Pavona Apartments was approved today. I got a nice, small, one-bedroom apartment in downtown San Jose. I have no idea if they neighborhood is safe or if the place is roach-infested, but it's always a challenge to rent an apartment long distance. I only have a six-month lease, so if the place is awful, I'm only stuck there for six months.
Here's the floor plan. It's definitely on the smallish side: 531 feet2 with a 9'x8' bedroom and a 10'x12' living room, but it will do. It comes with a full-size washer and dryer (among other amenities), so I won't have to suffer through schlepping my clothes to a laundry or, worse, a laundromat.
The next step is to fill it up with furniture. I've never rented furniture before, so, again, I hope I'm able to get some decent furniture without having to go deep into hock. Given the size of the bedroom, I can probably only fit a full-size bed into it; I'd prefer a queen-size, but 9'x8' doesn't give me much room to play with and I'll be sleeping alone until Kelly gets the house sold and can come out to join me.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:45 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
But What Does the Apartment Look Like? (San Jose)
<tirade mode='mild'>
I've been browsing apartment Web sites looking for an apartment in the San Jose/Santa Clara area. Generally speaking, they are attractive, easy to use, and informative…
…except when it comes to showing images of the interiors of the apartments. Property managers naturally want to show off their buildings, amenities, and grounds. Unfortunately, too few property Web sites include comprehensive or representative photographs of the units' interiors. It's making me crazy.
I can accept those photos that show model units. You know the ones I'm talking about. The models are furnished and decorated by professionals, so the furniture and accessories make a terrific impression on the viewer. They also give me an inferiority complex because, well, my apartment will never be as gorgeously decorated or as (anally) clean.
More often, though, there are no photos of the interiors, furnished or otherwise. I don't understand this. Yes, I want to see the immaculately maintained buildings and grounds, but I'm not going to be living in the clubhouse, sleeping by the sparkling pool, or camping amongst the acres of trees, shrubs, flowers, and fountains.
Rather, I want to see what the inside of the apartments looks like because that's where I'm going to be spending most of my time. The floor plan diagrams are a good start, but it is much easier to formulate a mental picture of what an apartment looks like if I have images of the interior in addition to the floor plan.
So, from a prospective tenant to all of the property managers out there and the Web designers building their Web sites: please show me what the apartments look like on the inside! Thank you.
</tirade>
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:45 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Other Outstanding Questions (Religion)
Two outstanding questions for which I finally have answers:
- Why is it called "The Mass"?
- The term "mass" is derived from the Latin word missa, which means to send forth. In the early church, after the Eucharist was celebrated, the consecrated elements were delivered given to deacons, who were "sent forth" to deliver these means of grace to those members of the congregation who were absent. Justin Martyr described this in his First Apology.
- Whence the rosary?
- Briefly, from the earliest days of the Church, ordained or set apart leaders incorporated the Psalms, all 150 of them, into a daily routine of prayer and worship: morning prayer, or Lauds; midday prayer; evening prayer, or Vespers, and nighttime prayer, or Compline. Because the laity were largely illiterate and did not have access to printed Scripture, so instead of reciting the Psalms, they would pray the Our Father or the Ave Maria, using pebbles or a cord with counters on it to keep an accurate count. Over time, this practice evolved into the form of praying the rosary that we know today.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:44 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Why Aren't I Catholic (Religion)
As a life-long (and now former) Lutheran, I was taught a number of reasons that Catholicism was "wrong" and why Lutheranism was the proper solution to this error. In no particular order, the most common objections are (or were):
- Indulgences
- The Pope
- The definition of True Presence (transubstantiation versus consubstantiation)
- The role, position, and propriety of prayers to Mary, the mother of Christ
- The role, position, and propriety of prayer to saints
- The proposition that one cannot be saved outside of the Roman Catholic Church or that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true church
- The celibacy of priests
- Only a priest can properly celebrate the Mass
- Using tradition as source for faith and practice, instead of Scripture alone (that is, sola scriptura)
- Faith and works being efficacious for salvation, versus justification by faith along (that is, sola fide)
- Purgatory
- Prayers for the dead
- Papal infallibility
- Papal primacy
- Apostolic succession
This list is neither exhaustive nor authoritative. It is not exhaustive in that historical and modern anti-Catholic sources enumerate many more objections than I have listed here. Indeed, Luther hammered 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg church, and these 95 theses specifically addressed indulgences (although, of course, they necessarily touched on other issues as well). My list is not authoritative in that I have listed only those issues which I can remember.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I never questioned these things. I redress this defect now. I've decided to revisit these apparent problems and understand for myself the nature of the original problem and, more importantly, if they are valid today. I will update the above list with links to entries that describe the results of my study and research. My goal is honest inquiry, to examine the basis of what I can only describe as prejudices derived from 45 years of being Lutheran and 45 years of not examining my beliefs.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:43 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
On Tradition (Religion)
Lutherans have a fine tradition, if you will, of hammering the Roman Catholic Church for its reliance on tradition as well as Scripture. The typical argument is that Holy Scripture is the only authentic source and norm for Christian faith.
After two hours of research, I've determined to my own satisfaction that what Catholics refer to as Sacred or Holy Tradition is or can be a valid source for Christian faith and practice.
In the first place, the early church lacked an established, universally accepted canon. To be sure, various episcopal letters (such as Athanasius' 367 Easter letter) and conciliar decrees (such as the Synod of Hippo in 393 and the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419) listed precisely those documents that would become the New Testament canon, but the formal, dogmatic definition(s) emerged in the middle of the second millennium. The point being that, in the absence of an established canon, the "Scriptural" sources were two: the Hebrew Scriptures and the various epistles of the Apostles and other luminaries of the early Church, that is, the Church Fathers.
It seems clear, moreover, that much of the early church's actual faith and practice was not codified in writing but was transmitted orally from leader to leader. As such, sources for faith and practice were, by definition, transmitted from generation to generation and from church to church as tradition. Insofar as the Apostles and many of at least the first generation of leaders that succeeded them had first-hand experience not only of Christ and His ministry but also of what the primitive church believed and how it worshipped, it seems reasonable to conclude that these beliefs and practices are legitimate sources of faith and practice for us today.
Secondly, the great ecumenical councils acknowledged the role that tradition had played in determining the church's faith and practice. Consider this statement from The Council of Trent, session IV (8 April, 1546):
Decree Concerning the Canonical Scriptures
The sacred and holy, ecumenical, and general Synod of Trent,—lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, the Same three legates of the Apostolic See presiding therein,—keeping this always in view, that, errors being removed, the purity itself of the Gospel be preserved in the Church; which (Gospel), before promised through the prophets in the holy Scriptures, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, first promulgated with His own mouth, and then commanded to be preached by His Apostles to every creature, as the fountain of all, both saving truth, and moral discipline; and seeing clearly that this truth and discipline are contained in the written books, and the unwritten traditions which, received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ himself, or from the Apostles themselves, the Holy Ghost dictating, have come down even unto us, transmitted as it were from hand to hand; (the Synod) following the examples of the orthodox Fathers, receives and venerates with an equal affection of piety, and reverence, all the books both of the Old and of the New Testament—seeing that one God is the author of both—as also the said traditions, as well those appertaining to faith as to morals, as having been dictated, either by Christ's own word of mouth, or by the Holy Ghost, and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continuous succession (Decrees of the Council of Trent, emphasis added).
Claims for and appeals to the validity, legitimacy, and existence of Sacred or Apostolic Tradition certainly precede the 1546 Council of Trent. Some might discount Trent insofar as it was a distinctly Roman council that, among other accomplishments, fixed the canon for the Catholic church. Accordingly, consider these comments from Irenaeus in Against Heresies, which was written between 182 and 188 A.D. Irenaeus himself lived between 120 and 202 A.D., dying a martyr's death at 82.
It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times; those who neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave about. … [we do this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its preeminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere (Against Heresies, 3,3,1, emphasis added).
Irenaeus is far from the only ante-Nicene father of the church to give place to tradition. Nor is he the earliest to do so. My point here is neither polemics nor didactics. I'm not trying to change your mind. Rather, I hope to show how I've changed my mind. If the fathers of the church accepted and acknowledged the role that tradition played in forming and sustaining the church, it behooves me to do the same.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:42 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Speaking of Famous Last Words (It's Funny, Laugh)
In the more-proof-that-booze-separates-people-from-their-better-judgement department, a Cambodian man died after attempting to capture a two-meter long cobra in his pants (he wasn't wearing them at the time).
I couldn't make this up if I had to.
As reported in the Bangkok Post, the unfortunate, drunken fellow doffed his britches and tied the cobra in them, intending to sell it later. The cobra was having none of this. While the man continued to drink, the cobra got its fangs free of its fabric prison and bit the guy three times on the stomach.
The part that kills me, as it were, is the last sentence in the story:
The newspaper reported Kear's last words as being “don't worry–it's nothing a drink can't fix” before he succumbed to the cobra's venom.
Talk about famous last words!
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:41 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Who I Didn't See in Orlando (Religion)
Kelly and I returned yesterday afternoon from a week-long vacation in Orlando. We had a blast—more about that in a different post. We visited five theme parks: Disney World on Monday; Sea World on Tuesday; Epcot on Wednesday; Universal Studios on Thursday; and the Kennedy Space Center of Friday.
Over dinner one night we were remarking on the variety of languages and accents we'd heard. There were visitors from Germany; France; several Spanish-speaking countries; Brazil and/or Portugal; England; Scotland; Ireland; India or Pakistan; Israel; China; Taiwan; Japan; Korea; and at least one Scandinavian country.
In the middle of the conversation, I realized that during the five days we spent in Orlando, we hadn't seen any overtly Muslim people. Save for the Israelis, we didn't see anyone from the Middle East. Not at the parks, restaurants, the hotel, or the airport. Neither of us saw any women wearing burqas or hijabs, something we can see in Pittsburgh on a daily basis. We didn't even encounter so-called Black Muslims, members of the Nation of Islam.
Initially, this surprised me. In retrospect, though, it makes sense. People from Islamic countries likely don't regard America a vacation destination. Muslims who already live here, similarly, seem to be keeping a low profile, probably to avoid trouble. Anti-Islamic sentiment is running high in the United States just now (and for good reason), so if I were Muslim, I'd stay out of sight, too. Actually, I'd convert to a different religion entirely, but that's a rant for another day. As a Christian, I wouldn't want to visit a predominantly Islamic country, you know, one populated by people hostile, often violently so, to Christianity. I value my life and health.
Whatever the reason, it struck me as unusual. It didn't especially trouble me, it was just something I noticed.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:38 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
My Latest Book (General)
<self-promotion mode="shameless">
My latest literary undertaking is Tcl and Tk Programming for the Absolute Beginner, to be published in October by Cengage Learning, neé Thomson Learning. It is a beginner's book, as the title suggests, so if you are looking for instructions on how to create extensions, tclkits, or starkits, please refer to my colleague Brent Welch's book, Practical Programming in Tcl and Tk.
It's been an interesting book to write. What I've learned is that Tcl (pronounced "tickle") is an amply capable, if wordy scripting language. Tk, alas, still lags behind other GUI tool kits in terms of its support for modern UI elements. Tk is catching up quickly, though. The great virtue of both Tcl and Tk is that they are cross-platform so the script you write on your Linux system should run unmodified on a Windows or OS X system.
My major beef is that, in the release version (8.4.15 as I write this), not all of Tk's widgets support the native look and feel of the host operating system. A second gripe is that the 8.4.x release doesn't support skinning or themes. On the second point, the tile extension, currently being integrated into Tk in the development version (8.5a6 at the moment) does support skinning. I haven't played with tile, so I can't speak to the quality of its implementation, but I'm sure it is good.
God willing and the crick don't rise, I'll complete the final chapter tonight. It's down to the wire because the manuscript is scheduled to go to the printer on 25 September. Practically speaking, it has to be completed no later that Saturday, 22 September, because Kelly and I are leaving for a long-delayed vacation on Sunday, 23 September. Reserve your copy now! Better still, buy ten copies so you'll still have a copy if you should lose the other nine.
</self-promotion>
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:37 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Home Work (Domesticity)
Home ownership has proven to be a pleasure…
…and an expense and a lot of work. Kelly and I are about two years into owning our own home (well, borrowing it from the bank). I've been surprised to discover how much I enjoy working around the house. As my photos in GardenWerks show, I've had a great time creating and maintaining the gardens around the house. Fixing the odd broken widget gives me a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment—I've never considered myself especially handy or talented with power tools, but I've learned that with some instructions and patience, I can do pretty much anything in the home improvement area that doesn't involve lethal elements, such as electricity, natural gas, or heights. This has really been a surprise. I am not proposing that I'm highly skilled, but I'm at least capable.
It's expensive, or at least it can be. I appreciate now why people become do-it-yourselfers. Replacing the counter tops and sink in the kitchen would have run north of $2000 had we had someone do it. The cost to us for doing it ourselves was less than $800 for the materials, not counting the time we spent actually doing the work. Some tasks I'm not going to undertake, such as playing with natural gas or adding electrical circuits—the former is potentially explosive and the latter potentially shocking, so I'm more than willing to let an expert come in and do the work.
In any event, the meaning of “homework” has definitely changed since I became a homeowner.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:36 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
ELCA Update (Religion)
One day, I'll learn to stop second-guessing myself.
After penning my resignation letter to the ELCA (by the way, does one actually "resign" from a church or just leave?), I began to have second thoughts. My church of which I was a member was not likely to go down the path of calling a homosexual who is "in a mutual, chaste, and faithful committed same-gender relationship." Nor was the the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod (a synod is a regional organizational unit comparable to a diocese) of which my former church was a member likely to to so.
I misapprehended the direction of the synod. In the midst of my hand-wringing, I read this article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette heart-breaking as it is. The newly elected bishop of my former synod, Kurt Kusserow, intends to honor the request made in the ill-advised, spiritually cowardly memorial. "I think [the memorial] already reflects the hearts of most of our bishops," he told the Post-Gazette.
It's disturbing enough that the incoming bishop will disregard the ELCA's official policy forbidding ordaining non-celibate homosexual clergy. But if his statement that most bishops feel the same way is true, the ELCA's problems are more numerous and profound than just the blatant disregard for 2000 years of Christian doctrine, 5000 years of Jewish teaching and practice, and several millennia of general moral belief.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:32 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
ELCA Winks at Homosexuality (Religion)
It was only a matter of time. Luther would be apoplectic.
Although I'm not surprised, I am deeply disappointed to learn that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has counseled its leadership not to discipline congregations who call homosexual clergy. I therefore resign my membership in the ELCA effective immediately.
The text of my resignation letter:
To whom it concerns:
With profound sadness and deepest regrets, my conscience demands I part company with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I no longer consider myself a member of the ELCA. Three days of Lutherans talking and voting have done what 450 years of anti-Lutheran rhetoric couldn't do: destroy and discredit Luther's gospel- and Christ-centered message and legacy.
I will not participate in or support any church body that adopts the following statement in a 538-431 vote:
RESOLVED, that in an effort to continue as a church in moral deliberation without further strife and pain to its members, the Churchwide Assembly prays, urges, and encourages synods, synodical bishops, and the presiding bishop to refrain from or demonstrate restraint in disciplining those congregations and persons who call into the rostered ministry otherwise-qualified candidates who are in a mutual, chaste, and faithful committed same-gender relationship; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Churchwide Assembly prays, urges, and encourages synods, synodical bishops, and the presiding bishop to refrain from or demonstrate restraint in disciplining those rostered leaders in a mutual, chaste, and faithful committed same-gender relationship who have been called and rostered in this church (http://www.elca.org/assembly/pdf/E3_Landahl_substitution.pdf).
It says, "Yes, we have a policy, but we don't want you to follow it." I appreciate that this resolution is "merely" a memorial, but it represents the wishes of a majority of voting members at the assembly. I cannot and will not be part of a church that ordains homosexual clergy. I don't believe I need a crystal ball to know where this move leads and how it will end up.
The ELCA is no longer Christ's church; at best, it certainly isn't behaving like it. The ELCA is no longer guided by what is approved by God and what glorifies Jesus Christ; the ELCA is not a light on a stand. Rather, the ELCA is guided by what soothes itching ears and seeks to cloak the light lest it reveal our sinfulness.
The ELCA has abandoned its God-given responsibility to set an example of Christian living and to set the agenda for discussion of morality in public and private life. Instead, the ELCA winks at sin and allows the world to set its agenda.
Accordingly, I resign my membership in the ELCA effective immediately.
Kurt Wall
Formerly of
Zion Lutheran Church (Brentwood)
Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod
Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:31 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Driving in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh)
...or, "You can't get there from here."
Driving in Pittsburgh is an exercise in aggravation. Southwestern Pennsylvania is an area of hills and valleys connected by thin veneers of poorly maintained asphalt and concrete. Then there's the whole fundamental lack of rationality, rhyme, and reason in the naming and layout of the streets. An example will prove the point.
My borough (answering the question "What's a borough?" is a rant for another day) is situated at the south end of Route 51. "Route 51" is a nice, simple, clean name for a road. But Pittsburgh's traffic engineers and city planners have hopelessly complicated what should be an uncomplicated affair, the name of a road. At our end of Route 51, it is also known as Clairton Boulevard. Closer in to Pittsburgh, at a point known to no one save The Almighty, the name changes to Sawmill Run Boulevard. Further up Route 51, the name changes again (or back) to plain vanilla Route 51. It makes no sense to me.
The occasion for this rant is having to describe to my father how to get to the Hillman Cancer Center in Shadyside. He was told, "It's across the street from Shadyside Hospital." That was perhaps interesting information, but useless to him because he's unfamiliar with the area. Never mind that "Shadyside Hospital" is actually "UPMC Shadyside." The latter point bears on the tendency of Pittsburghers to give directions in terms of landmarks that no longer exist (yet another rant for another day). But, I digress.
Giving him directions for traveling from our house to Hillman and back home was not a viable option. Pittsburgh natives and long-time residents might understand "Take 885 across the Glenfield Bridge; turn right to Swinburne; take the Swinburne Bridge into Oakland; then follow Forbes Avenue until you get through Oakland and can cut over to Center Avenue."
Not surprisingly, newcomers lack familiarity with Pittsburgh's landmarks, the maze of back roads and side streets, and alternative routes on which to fall back when the "established" routes are blocked by the inevitable road construction. Sure, I could have given him directions, but the way that road names change here, combined with the manner in which a street will apparently come to an end only to resume several blocks later, makes the directions more like suggestions or recommendations. Ultimately, it was easier to show him how to get to Hillman by driving over and back.
No, unless you have knowledge of the Pittsburgh area genetically imprinted, you can't get there from here, regardless of where "here" and "there" are.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:30 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)
Son of Blogwerks (General)
BlogWerks is back. I know you're all relieved and can't wait to see what pearls of sarcasm my fingertips can emit…
I had a tolerable, if infrequently updated, blog going on KurtWerks for a while in 2005 and 2006. Alas, when the host machine started ailing, most of KurtWerks made it over to the new machine, but not the database holding my blog entries. So, 18 months worth of literary rant and wit met /dev/null. One thing led to another and I never made time to start over. $DAYJOB has the annoying habit of interfering with the trivia I really want to undertake.
Speaking of the host machine, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Bill Campbell, the proprietor of Celestial Software, for hosting KurtWerks for the past two years. When I lost the ability to maintain KurtWerks on one of my own systems, Bill graciously offered to host it, free of charge. I readily accepted and can only hope I haven't been too much a pain. Thank you, Bill.
After two years of freeloading, though, I'll be moving KurtWerks to another server. I should make crystal clear that this is not out of dissatisfaction with Bill or the services he's so generously provided. Rather, I want to free up his server space and bandwidth for paying customers. So, if you need first class consulting, ISP, and email systems, give Bill a call.
Posted by Kurt Wall at 10:29 2007-11-09 | Trackbacks (0) | Comments (0)