BibleGateway.net

Here is a link to one of my favorite pages to visit on the web. It is a great encouragement to hear the Word of God. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." (Romans 10:17 ESV)

ONE MONTH AGO TODAY

It's hard to believe that it has already been a month since my last post! Never fear, for I am even now smitten with Blogger Influenza, the strain which presents itself as a desire for self-promotion and fun. I fully intend to continue blogging to myself, since, you may recall, NOBODY reads this blog!!!

In the event, however, that I should visit my blog and post an entry for your perusal and reading pleasure, I shall do so with the utmost consideration and care for what goes into it each and every time. If not, you may visit another blog at no cost to you!

Now if that doesn't draw the readers in like fish in a dragnet, I don't know what will!

SO, THIS IS WEB 2.0!

COOL!!!

The web address in my browser says, "www2.blogger.com..."

Does that mean we are in the infamous Web 2.0?

I suppose so. Right now, I'm listening to Fox News Radio online. It's pretty engaging, informative, and entertaining. Well, that's a winning combination.

At this point, I am out of things to blog. Enjoy 2.0.

BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION

I would like to take this opportunity to recommend that everyone who gets sick and stays home during the day listen online--when you're feeling better, of course-- to BBC radio. It is a refreshing, if not depressing, look at how people in other parts of the world look at the world, and the USA. Intellectually engaging, rather than sensually driven, it is a nice change from the usual hyperactive, attention-deficit-making cadence normally delivered by our mainstream media. It is particularly interesting to listen to how they cover stories from America.

What I like about it is, they take the time to discuss the issues and stories of interest, with plenty of input from the people involved and analysis by experts. You will feel, as I did, that the story has been adequately covered. A plus, which I also noticed with pleasure, is the noticeable--hence, I noticed-- LACK OF COMMERCIALS!!! Now I am betraying my apparent hypocrisy of supporting capitalism and disdaining commercials. My remedy for this would be to buy a satellite radio, right?

I encourage you all to check out the BBC World Service online.

HAIKU

I still have the itch to post a blog entry. So here goes.

Er, what was I saying? Oh, yes. Haiku is Japanese poetry in which there are three lines totaling seventeen syllables. It may look something like this:

A haiku is a
poem with five, then seven,
then five syllables.

There. Now you try it!

A SILLY, STUPID POST

A blog
is a good place to go
and vent, even though
it is "uncouth" to do so
in mixed company.

A blog
is your space,
not MySpace!
It's all yours
to post and read
your inmost (not anymore)
thoughts.

It's your call
whether to end it here
or here.

What drives the psyche to pursue
endless verse,
only to end it in utter
...writer's block?



Perhaps this is a good point to end my poetic diatribe.
Is that what that was? Come on, this is a blog, not Open Mike Poetry Night!!!
Sure it is. Next time, I'll try haiku.
Is that like sudoku, only with words?

Sayonara.

FOR BLOG'S SAKE!

This is a blog post "for blog's sake." That means it is only a self-indulgent attempt at maintaining some semblance of credibility as a "serious" blogger. I will not admit to not being a "serious blogger." I will only promise to take a stab every now and then at making an effort to contribute a little wisdom if not enrichment to the life of some imaginary reader. Perhaps this is...YOU.

I am presently listening to Hugh Hewitt on the radio. During commercial breaks, however, I am listening online to the White Horse Inn, which is a reformed, Protestant, evangelical Christian talk show.

Well, this is my third paragraph, and I haven't figured out what to blog about. I am, however, having a blast typing and listening to the radio. That's all that matters.

Now I have the radio on the Suns game. It's almost game time. ESPN.com has the game posted and ready for stats. Well, I think I'll keep simul-blogging for now. Actually, I think they call it a "blogcast" when you simultaneously blog and cover a mass media event such as a basketball game (which I won't do).

As they say in text-messagese: BFN :)

A NEW TEMPLATE FOR A NEW YEAR

Well, even though it's already February, I am inclined to make changes to my blog (regardless of the time or season of the year).

Now then, the last time I posted, we were mulling the subject of, what was it.. oh, yes, the year of Christ's birth. We had established the "fact" that Christ was born, er, four years before He was born! Sometimes history just doesn't add up.

[I had to peek out of my Editor's window to see that, because these things escape me from time to time.]

But that's not the subject of today's post! I just thought it would lend continuity to the flow of things if I referenced the previous entry before proceeding to...

... today's topic: a new template. For those who are unschooled in all things blog, that is the appearance of your blog regarding colors, layout, etc. Now I don't purport to be a teacher or anything. But a blog is a good place to pretend you are one. And why not? Nobody else is reading it!!!

But I digress. Whenever I go six months to a year without seeing any comments left on my blog, that concerns me. It tells me: (A) I am a lousy blogger; and (B) nobody reads lousy blogs. Why can't I be like Hugh Hewitt and command the attention, loving or otherwise, of thousands if not millions of readers who have no opinion of their own (yet) or who have not yet discovered the joy of blogging to yourself?

Ah, my biting sarcasm has returned full force. No delinquency of rhetorical venom here! Ann Coulter is the Gold Standard for biting, sarcastic wit; and we miniscule blogger-wannabes type our little diatribes out with tremulous vigor and drooling spittle --okay, okay, that's a little "over the top." What fun it is to exhaust a word-picture to its utterly graphic end!

Does this blogger pretend to channel Shakespeare? Why doth my mind achieve new heights ere I consume chocolate and ice cream? Nonsense! Imagination and Creativity travel alone--and light!!!

Adieu! My right-brain has spun out of control...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, folks, it looks like we've made it to another year on the Julian calendar. Just remember: Jesus was born in 4 BC because of "history's greatest numerical error."

But first, let me say thank you to HeathersWorldAz for leaving a nice comment on my last post. It's always encouraging to read of someone else's opinion about what you're writing on.

Now then, according to Dr. Paul Maier in his book, "The First Christmas":

"It was a sixth-century Roman monk-mathematician-astronomer named Dionysius Exiguus (Dionysius the Little) who unknowingly committed what became history's greatest numerical error in terms of cumulative effect. For in reforming the calendar to pivot about the birth of Christ, he dated the Nativity in the year 753 from the founding of Rome, when in fact Herod had died only 749 years after Rome's founding. The result of Dionysius' chronology, which remains current, was to give the correct traditional date for the founding of Rome, but one that is at least four or five years off for the birth of Christ."

Well, now that we all know why Christ was born before He was born, let's have a happy, safe, and prosperous new year! May God bless us, everyone.

LIVE FROM QUEEN CREEK...

HELLO, WORLD! I am typing at you live from Queen Creek, Arizona, where I am spending a quiet New Year's evening with family. Before I sign off, Happy New Year!!!

THE WISDOM OF ECONOMICS

Well, readers of my blog, I have a pithy saying to impart to you. It is this: Nothing puts the brakes on spending like running out of money!

Did you get that? Was its profundity overwhelming, so much so that you blinked and missed it completely?

I was so impressed with the wisdom of spending less than you make that I just had to share it with the world. In fact, I'm at a loss to elaborate on it! But I did want to point it out as a public service. Thanks for reading it (if indeed you are out there, and you ARE reading!).

Many blessings, few problems to you. Now I must get back to my self-directed Internet Experience.

LIVE 365

To Whom It May Concern:

If you want to try a new website for listening to music you want to hear, then listen to Live365.com! They have ALL genres of music and talk radio for free or pay. I recently discovered it by listening to iTunes and noticing that many internet stations were playing their music through Live365.com! Wow!

I hope everyone has a joyful and blessed Christmas season.

GIVE THANKS EVERY DAY

I trust the Lord gave you all a happy Thanksgiving Day. I feel that, as Christians, we should give thanks every day! Even though "it goes without saying," we need to be reminded, above all things, to be thankful to God for all things.

Right now, I am watching/listening to RC Sproul teach about the free will of man versus the sovereignty of God. I am thankful that I can do that. Christian instruction in sound Biblical doctrine is the most valuable activity we can engage in. Let us take every opportunity to do that.

Well, I have once again posted an entry here on what is probably the least-read blog on the Internet. I say that with a little sarcasm. I would hope that someone does leave a comment at the end of the posts. My desire to blog outpaces any response from readers (God bless you if you are one).

This concludes my latest attempt to blog successfully, that is, with real people(?) visiting. What can I do? Get a visitor counter? Eureka!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Well, I couldn't let today pass without first wishing any and all readers of my world-unfamous blog a Happy Thanksgiving. Now that I have completed that task, let me continue surfing and listening to Live365.com.


God bless and save the USA!

COUNTRY VS. NATION

One of my favorite activities, or inactivities if you consider sitting at a computer inactive, is to listen online to any of a number of favorite audio clips of music, sermons, lectures, or internet radio.

At the moment, I have RC Sproul on Ligonier.org's Flash Player, talking about Thanksgiving Day in our history as a nation and country. I consulted my Microsoft Encarta Dictionary for the difference between "country" and "nation." Country can refer to either the geographical area containing a political body of people, or to the people in that country (e.g., the whole country supported him). But nation refers to the people in that country. This is my humble, educated opinion.


Well, today finds me at my desktop window to the digital world, hunting and pecking out a spontaneous message to the vast reaches of cyberspace, a work of cyberprose to fellow bloggers abiding anonymously in the blogosphere. As you can see, I am quite capable of stretching an otherwise short blog post out to infinity, or at least nausea.

I feel it is imperative that I somehow at this point summarize my argument(s) and conclude this meandering entry into the digital blue yonder and say, Thanks for humoring this blogger.

Blog on!

RANDOM POST

Well, now, today finds me once again blogging for blogging's sake. I wonder if anybody is reading this. It is every blogger's dream to have a readership, someone besides him/herself who likes to visit and read their blog. Well, I find no evidence that there is any such person, Therefore, I have decided to post this entry.

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." That, I believe, is a direct quote from the Bible. There, I just looked it up: Hebrews 10:31.

JUST A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR...

Okay, so this is another post to celebrate my ongoing maintenance of blog cred (weblog credibility, for the unwashed masses). I listen to Hugh Hewitt on the radio, and occasionally he uses the term "street cred" (credibility), for example. I have been trying to post blog entries, but Google's Beta Blogger (not beta blocker), or Blogger Beta, was having difficulty completing the task. So here I am again...posting up.

I am a happy surfer since I've discovered how to purchase and download songs from the Internet, using either iTunes, Windows Media Player's URGE, or Real Player. My, life is happy (not gay) once again, as I can fill the airwaves immediately surrounding my computer (and myself) with sounds of my choice. I am hereon no longer beholden and enslaved to the programming whims of complete strangers (and ninnies) who have no concept of what I like or deem appropriate for my listening pleasure.

For example, I have downloaded and played the theme song from The Pink Panther, songs from Mary Poppins, and listened to bluegrass gospel music! What fun! Makes me wonder what will motivate me to turn the TV back on. Probably boredom.

I urge everyone to purchase music this way. It's so much cheaper than buying a whole album, many of the songs on which I may not particularly like. But, avast, now there's legalized piracy!

Ahoy!

THAT'S A WRAP

Well, it seems a slight controversy has erupted over the definition of a sandwich. In a story at FoxNews.com, a sandwich shop in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts tried to prevent a Mexican restaurant from opening in the same shopping mall, citing a clause in their lease with the White City Shopping Center. It prevents another sandwich shop from opening in the mall.

The Panera Bread Co., a bakery and cafe chain, claimed that burritos are sandwiches, thus their claim against the restaurant. The definition as ruled by the judge in the case came down to two slices of bread versus one tortilla.

The judge wrote in his decision: "A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans."

Cambridge chef Chris Schlesinger said in an affidavit: "I know of no chef or culinary historian who would call a burrito a sandwich. Indeed, the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian."

I agree. That's a wrap.

THE DAILY BLOG

Is it any wonder people don't blog EVERY DAY? Wow, what in the world would I blog about if I blogged every day? Whatever I want. Okay, let's say I blogged yesterday (which I did). Yesterday was Election Day! Did I say a word about that? No. I simply gushed about blogging for blogging's sake.

Now let's say I choose to blog TODAY (which I did). I am also listening to RC Sproul lecture on "Is God in a Rut?" I am simultaneously composing this blog entry, which you are reading now. The audio clip has ended. I must advance a plausible argument before starting the next paragraph, as this will greatly improve my credibility as a serious blogger.

Wannabes, retire! Sleep shall be thy help in thy quest for credibility tremendously!

You know, I really should go to bed rather than continue. This daily blogging business has me wondering if I can overcome fatigue and a drought of ideas--at least for today.

Nope.

THE WONDER OF IT ALL

I was mulling the phenomenon of blogging just now, and decided to post an entry fresh with inspiration. These moments are precious and few. Therefore, I must seize the opportunity to publish them. Pffff! Why not?

A healthy fear of saying something really stupid hangs over the conscientious blogger. He or she must exercise restraint when publishing comments over such a vast expanse of readership as the Internet. I fully realize that the interjection "Pffff!" is not necessarily stupid. But not elevating one's vocabulary above that is.

Well, I feel I have succeeded in putting forth a few lines of intelligent prose. Don't you?

One side note: I occasionally like to pose a question to the reader, assuming there is one. I like to think there is. But one can't be sure using such a unilateral medium as a desktop computer.

But I digress. How I love to say that, especially in print. Gutenburg, you reinvented life!

Whatever. Who in their right (or left) mind would want to read this blog of mine? I hold on to an ongoing hope that someone will post a comment saying:

"I read with interest your blog post dated _______, and found I agree/disagree on this/that point(s). Here's why..."

Is that so impossible? Hope springs eternal.