May 30, 2007

  • AOL, Bible programs, & Mirth

    Two things tonight:

    1) Sometimes I really hate AOL.  AOL forced an upgrade to their OS that messed with one of my favorite programs, which I use everyday.  The program is a nifty one that resides behind everything else going on on my desktop.  When I place my mouse cursor over a scripture reference, that passage pops up in a new window.  In that program I have multiple translations of the Bible, including a couple of NT Greek ones, and even one in Hebrew (the Hebrew is not as good, lacking vowel pointing, a pre-Masorite text).  With this program I can insert the passage with a combination of key strokes, like this:

    Psalms 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. (NASB)

    Psalms 23:1 psalmus David prima sabbati Domini est terra et plenitudo eius orbis terrarum et universi; qui habitant in eo (Vulgate)

    Psalms 23:1 א מזמור לדוד יהוה רעי לא אחסר׃

    John 3:16 ουτως γαρ ηγαπησεν ο θεος τον κοσμον ωστε τον υιον τον μονογενη εδωκεν ινα πας ο πιστευων εις αυτον μη αποληται αλλ εχη ζωην αιωνιον

    John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (ESV)

    What happened was that the program disappeared from my toolbar under the influence of AOL, and I had to reload the source programs for it.  It is still not 100% operational, and I may actually have to repurchase the main program, EZWord, from Lifeway.com.  If you don't have this program, I encourage you to get it ($9.95).  More Bibles are available for small amounts ($5 -$10).  I can't tell you how many times I have found errors in Bible quotes from others, or how often I have used it to put Scripture into something I am doing.

    OKAY

    2)  We own (?) two cats. One is Jazz, the other is Mirth.  Both love to be in my lap and to be petted.  The Mirth hates Jazz, even though he would like to be friends with her.  Even now, as I type, Mirth is laying in my lap, partly on my keyboard, taking every movement of my hands in the motions of typing as efforts on my part to pet her.  She is fuzzy furry, and slobbers when she is delighted, as in petting.  There she lays, legs splayed akimbo, head twisted under my wrist, nose nuzzling, purring.  Her body heat transfers to me and makes me sweat, in the winter she is a nice lap heater, but not in the summer.  I think I may be ready to have just one cat!

May 29, 2007

  • Okay, so I have been tagged by my daughter and my son.  I am just figuring out this tagged thing.

    "Here's how this little exercise in randomness works:

    Grab the book closest to you. Turn to page 161, and type the fifth complete sentence on your blog."

    This is easier for me than for some others, because the book I am reading right now is an e-book, Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology:

    "Similarly, we read God’s word in Psalm 50, “every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world and all that is in it is mine” (Ps. 50:10–12)."

    Grudem, Wayne A.: Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich. : Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 1994, S. 161

May 22, 2007

  • report_md_clr

    Okay, I have not written recently, so here goes.

    Most of my stuff has been fairly heavy reading, so here is something in a lighter vein.

    I recently began some independent contract (IC) work for several companies. Part of the work involves writing reports, and the companies are anxious to have well written reports from the IC's that do not require a lot of editing before the reports are usable. Thus the companies "threaten" the IC's by saying that their reports will be downgraded, and perhaps their fee will be reduced, if the spelling and grammar is poor.

    In the middle of one such "threat," I found the following sentence: "Our system may be a little tougher than some other companies you might (work) for; we have very high standards." So, what is the problem? Having first checked with my grammarian daughter, she confirmed my suspicion that the quoted sentence is itself poorly written. She suggested the sentence might be rewritten as follows: "Our system may be a little tougher than some other companies for which you shop; we have very high standards."

    Later in the same list of requirements I also found a few misspelled words, mostly dropped letters from the ends of the words. No problem really, the sentences are perfectly understandable as written. I cannot claim to be a master of typing, let alone writing, myself; I tend to drop the "h" out of the word "the," I guess I am typing too fast.

    I do, however, use the spell checker to find my spelling and grammar errors; plus I am not demanding that others attain to that which I myself do not comply.

    My daughter is right, the more "correct" ones writing is, the less "readable" it becomes. It also tends to have less personality and punch. But, why do people demanding spelling and grammatical correctness not comply with their own standards? I just had to laugh about it!
     
    How many of my errors can you find in this posting?
     
    I am sorry for the repeated post from my blogspot, but since Google bought out Blogger, a lot has been lost including the animation in gif's.  I am just not willing to continue with the inferior service of Blogspot, so I'll be trying Xanga for a while.