01.26.06
Random Thoughts
(Not to be confused with “Deep Thoughts”…)
I…uhh…yeah, I dunno…
(Definitely not to be confused with “Deep Thoughts”…)
Quotes
So I’ve been watching Star Trek Voyager, I quit watching it after season 3 or so when it was on TV, so I’m starting all over again (I’m told it gets better near the end, but I need to refresh my memory of everything that happened before). The episode I’m watching has had a few good quotes.
“You are in love with a computer subroutine?” —Tuvok
“Vulcans do not hydrosail.” —Tuvok
Vulcans always have the best quotes. And one more quote from a random character:
“So Vulcans don’t hydrosail, and they don’t have friends?”
And last Friday we had a great quote from Trevor:
“You know you’re in a house full of girls when you look in the trash can and there’s a hairball the size of Missoula.” —Trevor Hutton
01.24.06
Funny Site
I found a hilarious web site:
http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/
Some people have made some really good quotes lately, but I can’t remember any of them. 
Soon I’ll post the latest results from the “points” game…yay!!
01.18.06
Outage
Power went out at my parent’s house (where the server is) for a few hours last night. You might have noticed. Everything was back online at 1:32…
01.12.06
Sailing
“I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky. And all I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by.” —John Masefield
I was going to sailing this morning, but it didn’t happen–I was too lazy. I’m shooting for Friday now. I work in the morning, and then I can go straight to the water and sail from about 1:00 to sunset. I saw Andy this morning–he says he’ll be there to laugh at me. It probably will be pretty funny, I haven’t been out in a while.
I’ve been thinking lately, and the only moments I’ve been really happy over the past 4-5 years have been sailing. I bought a book of sailing quotes the other day (that’s where the above came from, you may also have heard it from Star Trek V). There really is something about sailing that can’t be explained…
When you’re sailing…it just seems like everything melts away…you’re only 20 minutes from shore, but everything there seems infinitely far away. Nothing on shore (work, school, whatever) can bother you while you’re out on the water. There’s you, the boat, the water, and God. I could swear God has a stronger presence on the water than on land. That’s probably due to the absence of distractions out there.
I think the best thing is when you go out in a storm, and it’s kind of nerve-wracking, and you’re putting all your effort into not capsizing. It’s kind of scary, but it’s great. And then the storm settles down and there’s still plenty of wind, but it’s not scary anymore, and you realize you’re still alive and the rest of the world just seems so trivial in comparison to what you’re doing right then. It’s purifying.
sudo
I don’t know why I’m so amused by the smart-donkey comments sudo makes when I type my password wrong:
“You speak an infinite deal of nothing” —sudo, OpenBSD 3.7
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01.01.06
UCF Fall Retreat
I’ve decided to push this since it isn’t going to get any better rotting on my hard drive. Apologies in advance.
So…way way later than I meant to, I finally get around to posting on the UCF fall retreat.
Many weekends ago (Oct. 28-30) I went on a retreat with UCF (University Christian Fellowship–student group at UW) to Whidbey Island to hear Gordon Fee speak. Dr. Fee currently teaches at Regent College in Canada, and he was a major figure in the NIV translation of the Bible.
For some reason, speakers frequently can’t hold my attention. Maybe I find preaching boring (actually…I know I do, anything requiring me to sit still while someone else does all the work, is going to bore me). This was not the case with Dr. Fee, he had my attention most of the time, and I was even riveted at times. He is a very good speaker, not only good at speaking, but he knows his Bible extremely well. Obviously because of his background, his grasp on the Bible is far better than that of most people. I also enjoyed his comments on the translation committee and the decisions they made (“I lost this battle, I wanted to translate this as….”).
OK, writing this so long after the retreat, my recollection of the theology is sketchy at best. I’d written part of a paragraph not too long after the actual event, I’ve included it below…maybe it will make more sense to you if you went to the retreat.
Dr. Fee covered Philippians. I don’t remember half of what he talked about that actually applies to our lives today (yeah…I was paying more attention to his technical details on translation). However, he did go into humility. In Chapter 1, Paul talks about how despite the fact that people preaching the gospel for the wrong reasons is not a good thing in intself, the end result is that the *gospel is preached* and that’s what really matters. Christians get caught up in this a lot. Here is Paul rejoicing because the Gospel is being preached “even of envy and strife” (Philippians 1:15, KJV). Modern denominations have bickered over less.
There were some great Quotes from Dr. Fee:
“God is not like us.” (duh…I guess it sounded a lot better coming from him)
“Every other deity on Earth has been created in our image.”
“We become like the God we worship.”
“You have to be careful with a guy like Paul–if you let him out in the world, he’ll turn the world upside down. If you lock him up in your palace, he’ll turn your palace upside down” (see Philippians 1:12-14 for context)
And an amusing anecdote:
[Just as Dr. Fee starts speaking, the windows start-up chime is heard from somewhere in the audience]
Dr. Fee: I recognize that sound…I may be old, but I have one of those, too!
I also had a very inelegant theological argument with someone from UCF…ok, so it wasn’t actually an argument, I just dismissed the subject outright with a very nasty comment…but, yeah, definitely NOT my finest moment. Usually I try to make real arguments but…yeah. Bad Matt. If you want to hear about it, ask me and I might tell you…I don’t want to post it.
Pictures from the retreat can be found at the following URL:
http://www.macadamfamily.com/gallery
So… (plus Quote)
I have three blog posts in progress. They are all very long. One is my review of the Fall Retreat. Yeah, I’m quite behind. The other 2 are…well, one is kind of theological, and the other is…hmm, I can’t fine the other one. Maybe I’m thinking of my Intelligent Design rant, but I already posted that. Hmmm….
And there was a good quote from Nico, who showed up to Levi’s New Year’s party. He said it was from one of his seminary professors:
(this was during a discussion about people who are fairly set against Christianity…I may not have gotten all the words exactly right)
“It’s better to talk to God about them, than to talk to them about God.”
I have a similar opinion in one of my blog-posts-in-progress. Stay tuned…
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