ehewlett

This blog has moved

2011-04-05T00:35:00.001-07:00

This blog is now located at http://blog.ehewlett.net/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://blog.ehewlett.net/feeds/posts/default.

The Young Man Who Wanted to Get Rich - original text

2009-07-08T17:32:00.004-07:00

It's more than a few years ago now that I wrote my first (and almost assuredly my last) short story in Japanese, "The Young Man Who Wanted to Get Rich". By the time I finally got around to publishing it online, I thought I had lost the original Japanese manuscript, and had to content myself with adding a brief note that it was "translated from the original Japanese by the author". Today, I finally found the original Japanese manuscript!

Here, for those who can read Japanese or are interested in such details, is a scanned PDF of the story as I wrote it in the original Japanese.

The Browser is the OS!

2009-07-07T22:56:00.004-07:00

The title of this post is also the title of the last link I bothered to post on Del.icio.us, as I had come close to finding something that I had been searching for for years. The link was to Webconverger, a minimal Linux distro which consisted of only enough back-end to run the Firefox web-browser as a web-kiosk. Now Google plans to go one better, finally announcing that it is, in fact, working on its own long-rumoured OS which, not surprisingly, will consist of an absolutely minimal Linux core - just enough to get Google Chrome up and running.

Interestingly, Google Chrome is not yet available for Linux! - although that may now be attributable to the fact that Google is not as interested in getting Chrome to run on Linux as it is in getting Linux to run just Chrome. As the browser becomes the OS, I think we will see netbooks finally start living up to their names! Now I can hardly wait to nuke XP on my HP 2133 and replace it with the new Google Chrome OS. Watch out Microsoft! Google is hard on your heels...

Interesting carrot from the church garden

2009-07-07T02:31:00.002-07:00

Odd though it may seem, this carrot was delicious!

Life is Good

2009-06-04T23:28:00.004-07:00

Life is good, and then it's bad,

and then it's good again.

But if this life were all we had,

I ask, would it have been

worth all the effort, all the trouble,

only to have it turn to rubble?

But if this life is not the end,

but just the shadow of

the tragicomical Event

upon the stage above,

I ask, would it not be worthwhile

if that event were Love?

One of my Japan poems, composed shortly before the Great Kobe Earthquake in January of 1995.

"Had an app for that..."

2009-06-01T13:44:00.002-07:00

Looks like Apple, in a bid to stop some very marginal illegal (or grey) app-copying, may be considering removing our ability to re-download apps we've purchased over the air. iPhone 3.0 is still in beta, of course, and the reports of those who are running it vary (not surprisingly), but some users are reporting that if you try to re-download an app that you've purchase (as I've had to when my daughter accidentally deletes an app by pressing too long on an icon on the home screen and then taps the "X" that appears) some versions of the 3.0 beta won't let you re-download over the air without paying - instead they require you to re-download it via iTunes and sync your device, an inconvenient process which I avoid as much as possible! My two bits, for whatever they're worth:

If you've purchased an app, it's yours - you shouldn't have to re-purchase it for any reason!
I really, really hope Apple finds another way to resolve this - or at the very least enables syncing with iTunes over WiFi. That wouldn't eliminate the annoying sync process, but at least it would avoid the unnecessary hassle of having to hunt down a physical cable and leave your phone tethered to your computer for an extended period of time.

All that being said, this could all be cited as a classic example of our society's "instant entitlement" attitude - when one considers how difficult re-installing software on a desktop can be (grr... DRM!), having to physically sync one's phone with iTunes is not really that much of a hassle that it's worth complaining about. Still, when a technological convenience exists and then is taken away from us, it shouldn't be surprising if we see it as an unnecessary and inconsiderate step backwards...

I Want to Wave!

2009-05-29T03:03:00.004-07:00

Google Wave, just unveiled today (well, yesterday, actually, now) at Google I/O, Google's developer's conference, has the potential to revolutionize the internet, just as e-mail transformed the nascent internet itself from a tool for remotely controlling and communicating with distant computers into a medium for transferring information between distant computer users. If this is done right (as it appears Google is doing, open-sourcing their software and turning Wave itself into an open protocol), we could be witnessing the rise of Web 3.0!

I want to Wave!

Official Google Blog: Supporting equality???

2009-01-17T02:17:00.001-08:00

Official Google Blog: Supporting equality

This is when I am ashamed to be such a big fan of Google. Same-sex marriage is not a "fundamental right" - it is a redefinition of the concept of marriage that is at odds with the understanding of marriage held by every major religious tradition and most historical cultures. It has nothing to do with hiring or search or equality: being denied the right to call their same-sex union a "marriage" will not make Google's employees significantly less efficient; Google's stance on this issue seriously compromises the neutrality that I would expect a company committed to internet search would be concerned to maintain; and, as a secular company, Google has no special expertise to offer on the important moral and cultural question of whether or not allowing same-sex unions to be called "marriages" is a question of "equality" or merely a matter of personal preference.

Please, Google, concentrate on what you do best: providing quick, unbiased search results in an internet-friendly fashion. And if you are really committed to equality and to not being evil (both good things!), please allow for the possibility that there might be some truth in the religious traditions and philosophical beliefs that have lead so many to object to such a radical redefinition of marriage.

This Is Not a Frame - and Is

2008-08-28T12:47:00.005-07:00

I have been meaning, for some time now, to publish this essay of mine, based on Foucault's This Is Not a Pipe, and Magritte's Ceci n'est pas une pipe:

Enclosed in the framing essay is an earlier essay about Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics [Google Book link]. The poem that begins the enclosed essay was written while I was working as a missionary/English-teacher in Shukugawa, Japan, and the essay as a whole deals with epistomological and linguistic issues that I had begun wrestling with in my final year of high-school and which ultimately led me to convert to Orthodox Christianity.

Anyhow, without further ado, here is a link to a scanned PDF of the essay in question, "This Is Not a Frame - and Is". Enjoy!

How times have NOT changed!

2008-02-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

I've been reading George MacDonald's The Princess and Curdie to my boys as a bedtime story whenever we are at St. John's House in Vancouver for the night, and tonight I ran across this passage. MacDonald's 19th Century fairy-tale description of a society in decay sounds eerily familiar...

At last river and road took a sudden turn, and lo! a great rock in the river, which dividing flowed around it, and on the top of the rock the city, with lofty walls and towers and battlements, and above the city the palace of the king, built like a strong castle. But the fortifications had long been neglected, for the whole country was now under one king, and all men said there was no more need for weapons or walls. No man pretended to love his neighbour, but every one said he knew that peace and quiet behaviour was the best thing for himself, and that, he said, was quite as useful, and a great deal more reasonable. The city was prosperous and rich, and if everybody was not comfortable, everybody else said he ought to be.

When Curdie got up opposite the mighty rock, which sparkled all over with crystals, he found a narrow bridge, defended by gates and portcullis and towers with loopholes. But the gates stood wide open, and were dropping from their great hinges; the portcullis was eaten away with rust, and clung to the grooves evidently immovable; while the loopholed towers had neither floor nor roof, and their tops were fast filling up their interiors. Curdie thought it a pity, if only for their old story, that they should be thus neglected. But everybody in the city regarded these signs of decay as the best proof of the prosperity of the place. Commerce and self-interest, they said, had got the better of violence, and the troubles of the past were whelmed in the riches that flowed in at their open gates.

Indeed, there was one sect of philosophers in it which taught that it would be better to forget all the past history of the city, were it not that its former imperfections taught its present inhabitants how superior they and their times were, and enabled them to glory over their ancestors. There were even certain quacks in the city who advertised pills for enabling people to think well of themselves, and some few bought of them, but most laughed, and said, with evident truth, that they did not require them. Indeed, the general theme of discourse when they met was, how much wiser they were than their fathers.

Good Quote

2007-09-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

Did you know you can fit 54 books in one of those large Rubbermaid containers?

2007-06-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to clear some space in our little basement suite by packing some of my "haven't read this one for a while" books into boxes. Well, a box... So far I've only gotten one. The only problem with packing books into boxes is that they are less accessible in a box than they are on a shelf - conversely, the only problem with having books on a shelf is that they take up so much wall-space!

Anyhow, not wanting to lose track of these "books I haven't read for a while" that are packed away in Box 1, I've just entered them all into LibraryThing (at www.librarything.com). And, since it's so sad that these books have to languish away in a box, and simultaneously so cool to be able to list a random selection using a LibraryThing widget, I offer here a random selection of the books now stowed away in Box 1 (at least those that have cover pictures in LibraryThing):

Reflection

2007-06-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

I am a modern monk, whose diet's meat,
not pulse, or low-cholestrol diet leaves.
I do not flagellate myself, but weep
for my own sins and pains and others' hurt,
results of both our first and further falls.
I am not walled within my lonely cell,
though oft I enter it instead of curse
the world's chaos, defying chaptered verse,
wherein I read, despite sin, all is well.
For as I read and write within these walls
and ponder our descent from flesh to dirt,
some pattern, sometimes forced, but always deep-
er than the eye at first perceives,
emerges, and the planned and Planner meet.

Edward Hewlett.

This is one of the last (and, in my opinion, best) of the poems I wrote before I became Orthodox and simultaneously became way too busy to write any more [good] poetry.

Pope Benedict's Conclusion

2006-09-25T01:05:00.000-07:00

I was pleased to learn recently that the whole of Pope Benedict's much-maligned address at his meeting with the representatives of science at the University of Regensburg is actually available online. I rather liked his conclusion:

"Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God", said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures.

Evidently the Muslims, given their violent, knee-jerk reaction to the pope's address (or at least to the 30-second media sound-bite version), have elected to decline his invitation to be reasonable.

Google Spreadsheets

2006-06-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

There has been an awful lot of hype on the internet about Google's new online spreadsheet offering. Nicholas Carr's blog post on the subject, Google's Office add-on, comes the closest (IMNSHO) to actually getting it right.

Scan This Book!

2006-05-14T22:56:00.000-07:00

The New York Times has just published an excellent article on the scanning of books - not just Google's current effort, but the principle of the thing. It's a must read for anyone interested in reading, writing, publishing, and/or copyright.

4 Things

2006-02-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure where this chain "4 Things" thing started, but it has produced some interesting responses... Here's my response:

4 Jobs
1. Grape-vine gardener
2. Data-entry operator for Elections BC
3. Substitute receptionist at St. Vladimir's Seminary
4. In-office Tech Support, Web-master, Grad-coordinator, and Online English/SS Specialist for Traditional Learning Academy's Distributed Learning Program (quite a job title, eh?)

4 Movies
1. The Princess Bride
2. Seven Samurai
3. The Matrix
4. The Incredibles
(Not quite a movie, but worthy of mention: Masterpiece Theatre's Pride and Predjudice, which got me into Jane Austen.)

4 Places I've Lived
1. HewlettHill, Surrey (27 years now and counting!)
2. Shukugawa, Japan (1 year)
3. Crestwood, New York (3 years - also known as St. Vlad's)
4. New Westminister (first place I lived!)

4 Albums
1. Pop Goes the World (Men Without Hats)
2. Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"
3. Naxos' "Introduction to Classical Music" Collection
4. Songs (Rich Mullins)

4 Writers (only 4?!?)
1. C.S. Lewis (fiction)
2. J.R.R. Tolkein
3. C.S. Lewis (non-fiction)
4. St. John the Theologian
(Did I mention C.S. Lewis?)

4 Vacations
1. family trip to Britain when I was 13
2. lots of family trips to Manitoba - about once every 3 years when I was growing up
3. church youth group camping trips to Lake Erroch (now, unfortunately, a nudist colony!)
4. honeymoon to Cortes, Quadra, and Vancouver Islands
(a number of trips to Deception Pass and other parts of Whidby Island were also great!)

4 Foods
1. pizza (preferably just meat and cheese)
2. sushi and sashimi
3. homemade strawberry milkshakes
4. "glums", a cottage-cheese veraniki (sort of Mennonite perogi)

4 Places I'd Rather Be
1. at home with my family
2. St. Herman's
3. Lower Mainland, BC
4. Great Britain and Europe

4 Sites (only 4?!?)
1. Christian Classics Etherial Library - Church Fathers Collection
2. St. Pachomius Library
3. Pocket PC Thoughts
4. Spruce Island: The Unofficial St. Herman's Blog
(Engadget, Slashdot, Wired, and Google News should also get an honourable mention - as should many others!)

4 bloggers to whom I'm passing on this heavy burden...
Sorry, I don't do the "chain letter" thing! (Not that this one wasn't fun!)

"A young man..."

2006-02-19T23:40:00.000-08:00

Made this one up when I was working as a data-entry operator for Elections BC. It was my habit to liven up the otherwise rather mundane job by passing around interesting sayings and bits of poetry - mostly by other people. This was one of my few original contributions:

A young man who worked at a terminal
made up, from a thought that was germinal,
a deep saying for the day,
which was, by the way,
"True beauty is not epiderminal."

Veneration of the Holy Cross: An Orthodox Apologia

2006-01-14T14:44:00.000-08:00

Mark very kindly asked me for "a good, hearty, orthodox, Biblical case for reverencing the Cross...", noting that a Protestant friend of his had responded to the practice with, "Yeah but what does that have to do with the actual cross itself? It's all just what Jesus did; the cross is irrelevant." I'm not sure that what I've thrown together is "the best orthodox apology for this sort of reverence for the cross itself..." that he asked for, but it's the best I have to offer on such short notice!

I'll take your friend's statement as a starting point: "It's all just what Jesus did; the cross is irrelevant." He's right, of course, it is all about what Jesus did, and Jesus chose to work through physical things - the world that he had created. This is the mystery of the incarnation. Even the Greek philosophers, by the time Christ came along, were leaning in the direction of a single, transcendent, higher power that had created the universe. But that higher power was utterly transcendent - that was what made it divine. This was, in fact, why Arianism held such an appeal for the newly converting Empire: it tied into the Greek philosophies that the educated elite already knew and "safeguarded" the transcendence of God. This was what the Apostle Paul was referring to when he said the the cross was "foolishness to the Greeks" and why he was laughed out of the Athenian Areopagus when he started to teach the bodily resurrection of the dead. Philosophy is wonderful, but it's all about ideas - it's when philosophy tries to translate it's abstract idealism into reality that its limitations rapidly become apparent.

Christianity is not a philosophy - or, rather, it is the true philosophy, for it worships the One Who is Truth who became man. And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate... This is the scandal of specificity. Why should God, who is utterly transcendent and divine, come down and take on human flesh as a Jew, more than that, be born in a stable in the "little town of Bethlehem" and suffer the particularly excruciating and shameful death of crucifixion under the Romans? Why not come down in '60s North America as a hippie, or be born in Africa as a slave or.. Why choose one particular place and time at all? Why bother to die, even?

Christianity, however, sees God as a loving God, not an inventor and distant admirer of some Newtonian "clockwork universe". And the nature of love is to become involved in the beloved's affairs, to realize that, yes, I am my brother's keeper, I do need to interfere, intervene, become entangled. The incarnation and crucifixion are the ultimate end of God's "meddling" in human affairs, the culmination of the divine plan - He had been working and intimately involved in human affairs from Day One, in fact, and Mary's "Yes" was the ultimate end of that work and the beginning of our salvation, through the incarnation of the divine Word. As a man, Jesus walked among us, touched and spoke with individuals, became ultimately qualified to be our "high priest", demonstrated to us that God understood and cared not merely as Creator, but as Father and as Son - as one of us, in fact. And He identified with us even unto death - even the most shameful and specific death of the cross - that He might unite us to Himself by that death, that we might, united with Him not only in His death, but also in His resurrection, be thus eternally united to God in Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man.

All this was accomplished, first and foremost, through the cross. Well, through all sorts of specific things, actually, but, first and foremost, through the cross. The cross was thus transformed from an instrument of torture and death into the ultimate symbol of salvation. As Orthodox Christians, we venerate all sorts of things because God, by His presence and by His work, has shown the sanctity of all material things (both as Creator and as the recipient of a material body and his participation in the material world as a man), and has especially sanctified specific things as particular vehicles of our salvation. Why the water of baptism? Because it was the Jewish purification/initiation ritual at the time of the incarnation? Why bread and wine? Because they were staples of the Jewish diet and symbols of sustenance and joy. Why the cross? Because it was the ultimate instrument of death at the time of Christ. Why the Scriptures? Because God has revealed Himself to us through the only medium of communication that we have, the word.

At the time of the iconoclastic controversy, the Church was forced to wrestle with the question of whether the veneration of icons was idolatry or simply due honor paid to pictoral symbols (icons) of Christ and those with Christ "in them". What ultimately clinched the iconodules' argument for veneration of the icons was the far more ancient example of veneration of the Gospel and of the cross. Everyone agreeed that the Gospel and the cross were worthy of veneration - veneration of the cross and the Gospel had, after all, been the established practice of the Church for as far back as anyone could remember. Eventually, this led people to realize that veneration could extend to other specific representations of our salvation, namely, Christ and the saints.

On a simpler level, we pay honour in all forms to the objects of our love here on earth. We take care of pictures of loved ones and put them in places of honour in our homes. Americans will salute their flag; actors and performers will bow to honour audiences that are honouring them. It is built into the very fabric of our being to honour symbols and human examples of excellence - how much more should we honour the ultimate symbol of our salvation, on which God's most excellent work was accomplished?

PS - Just noticed that you were also asking for a Biblical case for "reverencing matter... as a way of revering God..." Simply put, it was the universal practice of the people of God, from the careful, reverent handling of the ark, to the strict restrictions placed on the ultimate "sacred space", the Holy of Holies, to the placement of the jar of manna and the stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written and Aaron's rod that budded inside the ark, to the women's insistence upon anointing the body of Christ, to God's working miracles through handkerchiefs that the Apostle Peter had touched. I'm sure there are lots more examples that could be unearthed by a more thorough examination... Proof-texts are hard to come by because it was a completely uncontroversial and uncontested attitutude towards matter that was woven into the very fabric of ancient existence. Indeed, as I noted in my conclusion, the veneration of physical symbols representing that which is worth of honour is, in fact, woven into the fabric of our own existence, unless we choose to deny it - and even if we do try not to work against the natural impulse, we usually end up doing so in some context or other. It is hard to go against our God-given nature - or, as our Lord said to the Apostle Paul, "It is hard to kick against the pricks!"

To Professor Lee M. Johnson: ON POEMS

2006-01-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

I always knew I did not like the poems
of our day, but never knew just why
those golden poems, read from olden tomes,
inspired, while “free verse” seemed but a lie.
I knew I loved those poems Grandad read
out loud to me before I went to bed,
but hated E.E. Cummings and his ilk,
whose modern poems trash taste, metre, and rhyme.
My loves and hates remain the same today,
but now, from Johnson, I have learned the why:
decorum, suiting forms to what they say,
true poems suits to echo forms on high.
A poem is not a poem which doth cease
pursuing its creator's ordered peace.

Note: This is the second in my series of anti-free-verse poems, and, I think, the best. It is also particularly significant to me since it references two of the key influences on my writing and my appreciation of poetry: my grandfather, and Professor Lee M. Johnson. I have to admit that I'm probably a little hard on e.e. cummings here, but for me he functions as a symbol of where modern poetry went wrong, and I am here treating him as a symbol rather than a person. He was, in fact, quite capable of writing sonnets and other complex traditional forms of poetry himself (see, for example, his “the Cambridge ladies...” sonnet), and it is this symbolic unfairness to him that I address in my third anti-free-verse poem.

Note also that the proper reading of this particular poem depends upon both the proper and the modern improper pronunciation of the word “poem”.

Driven by a Dream

2006-01-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in a class today, learning techniques for teaching English composition according to Dr. Webster's method - well, actually, we've just broken for lunch. Our assignment last night was to re-write Aesop's fable “The Milk-woman and Her Pail” (a copy of which will follow, since it's in the public domain). Here (offered here for the purposes of promoting my humility via humiliation) is my revised (and slightly updated) version:

Driven by a Dream

Long ago, in a solar system light years away, there lived a poverty-stricken yet power-hungry young alien miner. On this particular windy day on Tyrrania, because this minor miner had dug deeply and industriously, he had been awarded a spectacular bonus: an enormous, extremely pure, and very volatile dilithium crystal which he had unearthed (or, rather, untyrranianed). The fortunate minor was now skimming his skimmer skillfully and swiftly through the windy Tyrranian sky, warbling gleefully and daydreaming blissfully about what he would do when he arrived at his destination, the trade depot. Threading his way carefully through the tall energy towers that lined the skimway, the alien pondered the possibilities that now presented themselves. Since the crystal was so volatile, it was extremely valuable: when he sold it, he would have enough credits to buy his own trade-ship. He swerved sideways. Barely missed that one! he thought to himself as he drifted dangerously close to a tower.

With a trade ship, the credits would quickly come pouring in. A fleet of ships awaited! Retrofitting them for war would be easy if he earned his credits by engaging in the arms trade, and then his formidable battleships would conquer the solar system. He was getting excited now as his plans were progressing, which set the alien jittering and burbling with excitement and anticipation. Flashing through his brain came visions of the glories which awaited him. When he had conquered all, because of his economic and strategic superiority, all would admire and honour him, erecting statues and composing odes to celebrate his greatness. Inevitably the whole of the galaxy would bow before him!

As he imagined his future, the alien’s driving became more erratic and unheeding. Without warning, the wind shifted. An energy tower loomed unexpectedly close. Wrenching at the controls in frantic desperation, the alien screamed and hissed in frustration because he could see that there was nothing which would prevent the inevitable. In an instant, the ship and the alien erupted in a ball of blue flame. Barely anything, since the invention of the skimmer, is as dangerous as a being driven by a dream.

The original:

The Milk-woman and Her Pail

A farmer’s daughter was carrying her pail of milk from the field to the farmhouse, when she fell a-musing. “The money for which this milk will be sold, will buy at least three hundred eggs. The eggs, allowing for all mishaps, will produce two hundred and fifty chickens. The chickens will become ready for the market when poultry will fetch the highest price, so that by the end of the year I shall have money enough from my share to buy a new gown. In this dress I will go to the Christmas parties, where all the young fellows will propose to me, but I will toss my head and refuse them every one.” At this moment she tossed her head in unison with her thoughts, when down fell the milk pail to the ground, and all her imaginary schemes perished in a moment.

Go and Tell Him His Fault

2006-01-04T08:06:00.000-08:00

I once offended deep a worthy brother.
He did not tell me where my trespass lay,
But left me lonely in my guilt to simmer.
I do not know just what I did today.

Perhaps it was with years of careless sinning
My conscience did not feel it as it should.
Disgusted or too hurt to stoop to winning,
He would not pierce its hardness if he could.

Perhaps he thought, “If time does not reveal it,
My words can never make him feel the blame.
By silence I shall make his conscience feel it”—
And so he never wrote or never came.

So thought Nathan, and the months departing
Passed into years o’er David’s guilty head.
The prophet mute, with indignation smarting,
Those words of accusation never said:

“Thou art the man”—so David’s soul just drifted
Farther and farther as the years went by;
The burden of his sin nor felt, nor lifted,
Nor sounded from his lips that anguished cry,

That psalm of psalms, the contrite heart expressing.
The silence of the prophet never stirred
One conscience-qualm. No guilt his soul confessing,
The Lord’s blest words of pardon were not heard.

Not so! The prophet told his touching story.
He then with faithful words applied the same,
And David bowed: he gave the Lord the glory,
Acknowledged all his sin, his guilt and shame.

And so it is, if you would draw a brother
Back from the drifting tide towards the shore,
Go tell him of his fault—not tell another:
A precious soul you may indeed restore.

When storms of life and clouds of time have lifted,
And morn reveals the wreckage of the wave,
If ocean yielded back one soul that drifted,
You’ll not regret you sought that one to save.

E.O.H.

Note: Poetry runs in the Hewlett family. This is my favourite poem of my grandfather's.

small talk

2005-12-20T02:16:00.000-08:00

i agree
there is no room
for small talk

as a cover or mask or distraction or enterainment or fun or an end in itself
life is too small

too short
too deep

for small talk to cover the chasm that swallows

us
up

but
as a sacrifice
an offering
a first attempt
a reaching out
it may
by the grace of God
become the thread that pulls the string that pulls the rope that pulls the cord
across the gap

a cross

to bridge the gap

that divides

one

from

another

from
One

...not an end, but perhaps a small beginning...

(Thank you, Aaron.)

I like Skype!

2005-12-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to do this since I experimented with an early beta version of Skype in New York. So, since I was going insane marking papers, I took a break, downloaded, and installed it. I like it! Great quality audio and now video for free from computer-to-computer, free chat, and really cheap computer-to-phone calling. So, all my dear friends separated from me by inordinate distances, please download and install Skype and then look me up online!

Get Outlook Not to Open in Reading Layout

2005-10-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

I must admit, I love the Microsoft Outlook-Word 2003 combination - the only thing that has been really bugging me about it has been Outlook's insistence upon opening every single Word document attachment that comes along in Reading Layout. While I like Word 2003's Reading Layout, I get a fairly large number of table-style documents which do not render well in that view, so I'd much rather have Outlook just open Word documents in the usual Print Layout by default.

Problem was, I couldn't figure out how to get Outlook to do this! I searched through every Outlook program setting and option I could find - still no luck. Finally, after numerous Google searches, I discovered that the culprit was actually a setting in MS Word: in Word, under Tools > Options > General, you uncheck "Allow starting in Reading layout". Ahh... Blessed relief! Just thought I'd pass the tip along in case anyone else was experiencing the same frustration!