Have you ever had a body check? I bet you have. When I was a kid, I remember those days when after dinner we had all gotten ready for bed and in spite of the wisdom against it, all three of us boys would tackle dad. Somehow or another, we would all end up under dads legs and arms, suffering delightfully while dad checked to make sure everything worked. Body checks… see, he’d grab us and tickle in all the ticklish places every so often, just to make sure that it still worked. Dads a bit old nowadays, and the only people getting body checks are my nieces and nephews, but those were some of the best times growing up. Someday when I have children of my own, body checks will be an integral part of their growing up. How else am I going to make sure everything works?

The length of days grows longer each morning and it has been too long since I’ve greeting my friends in cyberspace.

So what goes on in the blogsphere… Well, Tim descends into vulgarity to prove a point. It’s an interesting point, but some how I wonder if it was necessary to make it that way. Comments abounded of course.

Vulgar language does more than just convey the dictionary meaning of the words, it conveys disrespect, rebellion and irreverence for the subject being discussed. It is for that reason that Paul commands us to avoid it in Col 3:8 and Eph 5:4.

I think what I found so initially offensive wasn’t the idea that Tim would use the word in a story to portray someone as vulgar, but that he would flaunt his use of it before christians in an attempt to teach us something. Regardless of the veracity of his point, the truth is lost behind his attitude.

ValueWeb is a hosting provider used by a friend of mine. I was helping her with some stuff and guess what I found on their home page. *grin*

This is just the kind of thing I might have done when I was a kid… in fact.. I do remember dressing up in similar fashion once…

Telemarketers are evil. I’ve had friends remark about this truth, and as I don’t get telemarketer calls because I don’t have a land line, I’ve never had the chance to use this handy little script. You see, telemarketers have a handy little script they use to help them keep on topic and guide you back to their questions. Often times that script gives them an advantage. Well… now the battle is fair…

Oh Sweet the Rapture of His Love has been updated. The music has been written for it and sounds truly awesome. If possible, I may try to get a recording of it online for you all to hear. Take a look at the changes, I think you will like them.

I heard news today that a friend of mine’s father has discovered a lump where there shouldn’t be one. If you think of it, keep Mr. C. in prayer for me. Thanks.

A couple of upgrades may be noticed. The nav bar can now me traversed using the acesskey feature. The bold letters are the accesskey. If you use the alt key, you can select that link by pressing the bold letter like so: alt + h then pressing enter will take you to the home page. The accesskey feature is used primarily for accessibility, making it easier for those who use screen readers to traverse the website. I have also added alt and title attrubutes to several key places.

The December 2002 Photo Essay pics are online and live! This concludes the 2002 Photo Essay. In retrospect it has been a great year and a wonderful learning experience. I wanted to document some of the cool and artistic aspects of the Saint Louis area. The essay gave me a chance to explore places I had never been. I’m looking forward to going back and doing some writing and describing of some of the pictures I’ve taken. Look for some revisions in the layout of the photo section, and more meta date on the photo’s themselves. These changes may not occur for several months, but it should add a new level of enjoyment to the photos. Thanks to all for watching! I will be continueing with photo projects, and will be coming up with some ideas for 2003 here soon. Thanks again!

I’m goin to New York in a few weeks, and I thought I might get reccomendations of the cool places from those who have been or who live. I’ll post a partial list of places allready reccomended, just for my own records.

Grand Central Terminal, NY Public LIbrary, The Guggenheim, The Metroplitan, Natrual History Museum, MOMA, Battery Park (for view of statue) near Ground Zero, Central Park, Times Square.

I’d be interested in stories about places you’ve been in NY as well, as personal history makes new places more fun. Thanks!’

You know… there are moments in a persons life that just make them stop and think.. “OH yeah…” This is one of those moments. Ok… I understand that I betray my childishness in the fact that I care about the fact that I was indirectly refferred to by an A list blogger and that you aren’t supposed to care about it, but… but… ahh who cares what you think. Course… I can’t prove that Anil’s remark was prompted by me, but in my own mind I am secure in my knowledge. So there… *grin*

Two intersting things I wanted to note, the Montanist Movement and this site about cooking for loosers found via brown pau

The Montanist movement was a heresy that arose in the early church, around the second century. It was characterized by imitations of the spiritual gifts, i.e the charismata specifically. The heresy came from Phrygia and it bears looking into when answering the questions that surround the use of spiritual gifts today. For further reading:

• CHARISMATA IN THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES OF THE SECOND CENTURY
• ORTHODOXY AND HERESY IN EARLIEST CHRISTIANITY

I’ve decided to remove the mobilog link. The problem was that bloggerbot isn’t on enough, and my phone minutes didn’t allow quite as much freedom as I’d like. Here in the near future look for mobile posts to appear in the main log. Til then…

Happy Birthday to you… Happy Birthday to you… Happy Birthday dear Blog…. Happy Birthday to you. He’s so cute… just one year old… To see what I posted exactly one year ago… Go here.

I’ve added Trackback functionality. I’ve not been able to test it yet, so if anyone is willing, let me know if you get errors. You may also notice that my permalink link is gone. After due consideration, I figured that since my commenting function displayed the text of the post, it worked as a permalink very well. It seemed redundant. I left the anchor tags in though, so all links that previously used the permalink will still work. Enjoy the new functionality, and let me know if it breaks… Thanks!

The celebration of those things that lead to excess is a dangerous habit and it speaks of a man whose chief goal isn’t to glorify God but to enjoy self. Weather those things are good or bad is irrelevant.

Greetings fellow poets… I have a proposal. I want to publish a pdf mini book of poetry, to be released online at walljm.com. Here are the details. I need 10 volunteers who would submit two poems apiece. The topic is "Time". There are no limits as to how you tie your poem to the topic. I’d prefer the poems not to be epic in length, as it would make formatting and illustrating difficult. I will announce a deadline after I the final poet signs up. I will be illustrating the book photographically if possible. Please sign up via the comments below, by giving me your contact info (preferably an email addresss), and a short reason why you want to participate. I will pick 10 poets from the list, and notify you. Thanks!

Why is winter so hard on the creative mind?

Life happens in waves, or at least big things occur in that fashion. You might be walking through life, wondering when things will happen. You may not be able to see into the future and concieve of what you dream coming true. Yet if you remain faithful to the little things, being diligent with God’s commands as you know them now, the waves will come.

It has been my experience that things happen in waves. They don’t come a little bit at a time, making things easy to handle. No, they come all at once, when things are ripe. And you know why this is better than the other way? Because people rarely do because they can. No, they usually do when they have to. God knows this… so He plans things to happen that way. Oh, He’s careful to make sure that we can handle it, but He makes sure to make it hard enough to stretch us in the process.

I’ve been extremely blessed in my life. I have far more than I deserve. The quality of my friends, my job, my parents, and my relationship with God are far better than I should have, considering what I have done to gain them, and I am profoundly grateful.