quiet!

At least till Dormition [edit: perhaps Transfiguration, Deo voluntas] I won't be saying much here or following what goes on in Blogoslavia. First, I'm busy. Second, it'll be good for me. As always, this chief of sinners covets yr prayers. I might put up a couple short posts discussing what I'm up to these days if I feel like it, but nothing substantial. Here's a sample of what it could look like:

Today: more gardening. The lady remarked that I'm getting the work done much faster than she thought I would: this means less money for me, I suppose. But, there's some horrible digging coming up, and digging takes forever. Forever == money. Then: it's too hot to make quesadillas, so I went out. Tomorrow: still too hot for quesadillas, but I'm operating on a budget. A budget that smiles on quesadillas because there's a monstrous sale on the cheap cheese that is only good for making quesadillas. Also: tutoring opportunities coming up. All this should tide me over until test results come back and it'll be easy enough to get real employment. Speaking of test results: my EKG is normal and I have no outstanding warrants for my arrest.

usage notes

• One is enrolled as a catechumen.
• Web-log, or, at least, anything but blog.
• When I say for all intensive purposes, I really do mean for all intensive purposes. Trust me, I'm a trained professional.
• per se.
• When to use "holy smackerels": whenever!

Hope that helps.

current gig: gardening.

I was squatting in some peonies all morning for grocery money. It was well worth it: it's good to do something physical again. There was free pizza out, and I thought, "well, it's Friday, but the pizza is free and most likely at least vegetarian, knowing my roommates." Apparently it was from the roommate who does eat meat?

So now for the theology: how does one respond when somebody comes to your place and respectfully asks what it means when somebody says the Orthodox Church is The Church and then, upon hearing the reply, asks where all these traditions of men came from? My response was to tell him to slow down and stop trolling, but people don't generally like that response. They think it means I think they're insincere [which is absurd, it means I think they're trolling]. I said something nice about Paul, Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Cyprian of Carthage, as well as something about schism and heresy that should get the point across, but I was wondering: how do you readers respond?

Remember, the secret to good propaganda is "simplify and repeat".

I feel stupid.

I put a typo on a cover letter today. Also, I was saying I type 55wpm, but I just took a test and was getting 60-70 consistently and spread uniformly on the interval, so I updated that to 65wpm on my resume just now. My keyboard is not set up for French and its damnable AZERTY right now, so no accents for you. I don't know how fast I can type on AZERTY, it's hard to measure when the keyboard is flying onto the street below. I might have another pro bono typesetting project lined up: a good reference and learning how to typeset in exchange for ~40hrs of labor in air conditioning to be done before the end of August, I'll have to consider it. I do need good references and knowledge of typesetting, but I also need money in August. And lots of it. I'll think about it. If it looks like I'll have something lining my pockets at that time that gives me time for it, sure, why not. All I know is that, on the thirty-first floor, a gold-plated door won't keep out the Lord's burning rain.

So, gentle reader: pro bono typesetting or not? I already need to learn typesetting for a possible theological side project for much later, so should I volunteer for this?

things which Southern Baptists get right

• Dancing is, if not immoral, at least inadvisable for all but the purest of heart.
• You've got to admire the strength of conviction it takes to come down more consistently against alcohol over the past 100 years than against abortion.
• See the comments on Protestantism.
• Rightly or wrongly, at least they take seriously what the Bible has to say, unlike some modernists.
• These days, they support integration.

Of course, I'm only commenting on Southern Baptists and not American Baptists - the latter have their own problems of much the same type as the Episcopalians [ie, Spong-style heretics hiding behind the doctrine of "soul liberty"].