Oh, yes, he's mine, all right!

Gryffindor!

We went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Grandma Willow made Naters a Hogwarts scarf, and she is pretty certain he belongs in the Gryffindor House.


So, dear readers, please leave a comment and tell us to which Hogwarts House YOU belong, and why.

Tackle-it Tuesday

To Do:

Work on getting Ohio driver license and car registration.

Oh, joy.

The Problem of Evil? More Like the Problem of Theodicy!

I had an interesting discussion at work, prompted by someone else (You know who you are, if you bothered to find my blog. And if so, ha! I am onto you, and you definitely have better things to be doing with your time.) reading about the Old Testament law and wisdom literature and then coming to talk to me about (among other things) Job and Ecclesiastes. Yes, I sometimes talk about this stuff at work, and it prompts me to think about things.

The "problem of evil" has been a popular topic of discussion for centuries, or millenia, rather. As Christianity (and the Hebrew religion prior to it) professes a God Who is both all-powerful and completely good, philosophers and other people have been drawn to grapple with the question of how such a God could and would permit evil to exist. The idea of the "theodicy" developed as a means to vindicate God with respect to the existence of evil.

Now, why do we think God needs our help? While I grieve as deeply as anyone for the suffering of the innocent in the world (I would rescue and care for all babies and kittens, if I could... puppies, too, on a generous day.), I have never felt that I needed to defend God with respect to anything of this nature. He is more than capable of taking care of Himself, and my duty is rather to live as a redeemed person and spread His Good to a hurting world.

Interestingly, Herch put up a post about this very topic. His view of God is similar to mine, and I would add that while people like to whine about their suffering and pretend that they reject God's Lordship out of some sense of outraged justice (And how amusing is this, really?), in reality, the vast majority of unbelievers that I know refuse to turn to God out of pride and a desire to maintain lordship of their own lives. They have no desire to live in such a way as to open their lives up to God's blessings and allow themselves to be turned into blessings themselves, to mitigate the evil they pretend to be protesting. And so I challenge the whiney people: You don't do what GOD wants. So why all this fuss when God won't do what YOU want? I know, that seems a bit overly simple. There is more to it. And yet, when you get right down to it, the bottom line is just simple.

God is God. You are not. The evil that you see as a problem comes from YOU, from YOUR heart, spilling out through YOUR actions. God doesn't want evil to happen, but He has not yet crushed it out of existence because to do so would mean crushing you (and all of us human beings) out of existence, and He is giving you (and all of us) opportunity after opportunity to make things right with Him. Eventually, evil will stop existing (Rev 21-22).

Happy 17th!

Nathan is 17 months old TODAY.

He has been working on some more teeth, and is putting out some molars!

Happy Birthday! In the past week

Sara Brown
Christie Hallett
Laurel Yoshimoto

Past value

Now that I am looking to hire babysitters every so often, I realize how valuable a responsible, reliable babysitter is. I did a lot of babysitting in high school, and didn't charge a whole lot, and now, in retrospect, I think I undervalued myself. I could have charged twice as much! Ah, well.

Aw

I decided to delete my previous post, as it turned out to be more controversial than I'd expected. I have no fear of controversy, but this particular topic just didn't warrant that much attention. It seemed way funnier when I posted it late at night than it was in the morning. Lol.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Remember, birthdays mark increases in wisdom, and nothing else.

Mortality

So it turns out that Michael Jackson, like Socrates, was mortal. But I don't know why his death should have taken anyone by surprise. Mr. Jackson himself obviously found it to be his teleological end, and prepared himself (and the world) by spending the past twenty years looking ever more like a corpse.



Joan Collins' corpse, to be exact.

Best. Video. Ever.

Truly, quite possibly the best video in the history of Youtube. It has stiff competition from "Timaeus: the Movie!" and "All Things Are Better in Koine", but "Buffy vs Edward" has one thing the others lack: BUFFY.

Happy Birthday, Jane Russell!!

Living legend Jane Russell is 88 today.

I was surprised to discover that despite Ms. Russell's sex symbol status as the femme fatale of many a film noir or as an alluring musical comedy star, she is openly and proudly a politically conservative Christian woman. She is, in particular, an outspoken advocate for life and for the rights of tiny unborn babies to not be horrifically tortured and murdered. In keeping with her concern for the welfare of children, Jane Russell also has supported and promoted adoption agencies for years and adopted three children of her own, none of whom has breathed any sort of "mommie dearest" rumors, so she is probably a pretty good mother to boot.

Jane shows her skills as a comedienne, holding her own with Bob Hope in The Paleface and helping to introduce the Oscar-winning song "Buttons and Bows"...
...And matches wits with frequent co-star Robert Mitchum in the atmospheric exotic drama Macao.
May the Lord continue to bless you and expand your territory, using you to bless others in turn. We'll meet in heaven some day!

Sirens

Great time-waster!

I found this linked from the LolCats.

Play to let the cat nom 4 fud! Addictive. Sometimes frustrating. Sort of like a bizarre concept for pool.

Seriously, people, you're killing me here.

So in church this morning, there was one song where the slides HAD NOT ONE SINGLE BIT OF PUNCTUATION. Not one. Except... EXCEPT apostrophes in all occurrences of the word "it's", which UNFORTUNATELY was TOTALLY WRONG, because it should have been "its", being used as a possessive pronoun, NOT a contraction of "it is".

It's just cruel. [See what I just did, right there? I used "it's" appropriately.]

How hard is it?

How hard is it to just PUT CORRECT PUNCTUATION IN THE "WORSHIP MUSIC" SLIDES THAT ARE GOING TO BE VIEWED BY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE DURING YOUR CHURCH SERVICE?!

No, really, how hard IS it? Because apparently NOBODY involved in slide production in ANY of the churches that I have attended over the past DECADE has figured out how to do it. I am fed up enough that I might volunteer, even though nobody has figured out how to ask for help, either. Is grammar a spiritual gift?

I'm going over into the corner with the Panda, to sulk together and commiserate about apostrophes (soon to be the topic of another post, I'm sure).

Catching up

I have so many friends I need to call and email and send things to.

Meanwhile, I am all moved in, and mostly unpacked.

Orang Tua

Mums and Dad have come for a visit. They very kindly drove from SoCal with a moving truck, bringing me most of my stuff, and the kitty cats (who are VERY GLAD to be done with being trapped in a vehicle). Honestly, though, my parents did not come to see me very much. They came to see Nathan! I was afraid that he would not remember his grandparents, but he smiled and laughed and went to them immediately. And that was nothing compared to the transports of joy he experienced when seeing the cats. *chortle chortle chortle* He was pretty stoked about life last night, let me tell you.

Willow always has her camera, so I'm sure we'll have pictures shortly.

Blast from the Past

Okay, I can't believe that I have neglected to mention this for more than three months: Blink-182 has reunited and is going on tour this summer! This makes me happy. And, they will be touring with Weezer and Fall Out Boy! There is talk about All-American Rejects in there, too. A million fangirls went into overdrive.

One would probably have to sell one's soul AND one's firstborn to get tickets.

Me want! Me wish!

More Birthday

And a Happy Birthday (late) to Tim, my darling brother-in-law! I forgot this weekend, and I'm so sorry! I have had a lot on my mind lately...