richard's notions.

Speaking of the vanities of life, these comments sure are pointless.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:39.

Whoo hoo, again!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:03.

Last night I had the best time playing with Geneva. She discovered a straight line of space that's around 25-30 feet long. It runs from her room, through the dining room and into the living room, dodging doors, walls, corners and various pieces of furniture.

So last night she was just running back and forth on this line. Then I started chasing her back and forth. She was loving it, going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I finally started tickling her at each end, and she had a ball. And, it was nice because it tired her out. She zonked right out almost as soon as I finished tucking her in, and was in the same spot a few hours later when I put Ashley in the crib.

But seeing Geneva have so much fun by doing such a monotonous thing reminded me of the glory of God in the sun rising and setting every day, from the seaons coming and going year after year. God glories in doing the same things over and over. And it really isn't monotonous at all, now that I consider it.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:40.

comments up again (for the moment)

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:34.

btw, comments are not working again.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:02.

R.J. Gore, in the last chapter of Covenantal Worship (which I just finished), writes:

Theologically, there are some tremendous implications involved in the regular, weekly observance of the the Lord's Supper. First, it is a sign of judgment, in that it discriminates those who have been admitted to the family from those who are yet without. Indeed, all who are admitted have undergone the waters of judgment in baptism and have been delivered. Thus, there is an eschatological focus in that every time the communion is observed there is an anticipation of the final judgment when the people of God will be eternally separated from the unfaithful.

Yikes! The children that - despite being baptized - are banned from the Table are weekly receiving a sign of their eternal separation from the people of God!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:56.

btw, comments are working again.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:20.

I used to read a lot more.

Looking at my list of books I've finished this year, I realize that it's pretty small (although, it is three or four times as long as the list from any year of my life before, say, my twentieth birthday. I just didn't read). I guess three hours a day in driving time has cut out a big chunk of my reading time. The stack of books waiting to be read is growing rather than shrinking.

The list of all the sermons and/or lectures I've listened to this year, though, is quite impressive.



Ah, the vanities of life.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:11.

Megan is reading The Lord of the Rings again, and she can't stop saying how good the books are. The movies - as good as they are - actually made her (erroneously) think the books weren't as good as they are.

If you're one of those freakish people that haven't read the books yet... get to it! You're only hurting yourself!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 22:37.

Less than 24 hours after I add an email address I get spam.

How lame.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:28.

Oh yeah... in the conversation with my wife, I was informed that the power company came out and connected our power line. We're up to 200 amps, baby!


In other news, I received from my brother a month-late birthday gift... $25 gift certificate to Borders. Of course, there are no Borders in Virginia, but it works online. I got John Granger's book on Harry Potter and the hardbound Leave It To Psmith. Looking forward to reading them both.

Thanks, David!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:29.

So I'm talking to my wife on IM, and then, out of the blue, she says

"anyhow. geneva just put a fork in the fan."


Always exciting, those kiddos.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:26.

Woo Hoo!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:29.

The Klink family website is down, and that's where my comments are. So, for the time being, I've removed the coding for comments. Now the page should load a little faster, and not give some of you script error warnings.

And I'll be checking other blogs that use blogout to see if comments ever come up again.

I've added an email address for any comments that you really want to share with me, or if you have an answer to some weird question I ask.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:27.

I also failed to update our Harry Potter reading. We did indeed finisht the book last Friday. It was good, but I'm not sure I really get everything. I mean... what was Dumbledore's big plan? And how did not telling Harry about the prophecy screw it up?

Overall, I think the book was good. I don't think it was the best, and I suppose it could be the worst (I'd have to look more into that...), but I don't think I'd say I was disappointed by it. It seemed to be more a part of the series than an individual story, unlike the last two. The first two seemed to be more like individual stories than part of the series. I think book five had to give us a lot of information before things could get really exciting for the last two installments.

I hope they aren't so far apart. It'd be nice if book six came out in a year, and then book seven a year or two after that.

Man... I'm gonna be an old man reading these books. I hope they're all out before I turn 30. Not that it's bad for adults to read Harry Potter... or anything....

A friend of mine was telling me about a recent lecture by Doug Wilson at a Classical Christian School conference about Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. He also, briefly, compared and contrasted HP with Tolkien, and from what my friend said, it looked like HP was frowned upon. Something about the magic being a means to gain power, whereas in Lord of the Rings, the magic is to get rid of power (the ring). My friend bought the tape, and said I could borrow it when it comes in. I'm looking forward to it.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:21.

I forget to give an update on our electrical stuff. The guy from the power company came out yesterday morning, and after looking at the situation, didn't know why a 'mid-line tap' wasn't possible. He called around and discovered that it was possible. He said the technician that came out might have refused to do it because he didn't have the equipment in his truck to do a mid-line tap. They're going to cut out a few branches of a tree the powerlines run through, and the electrician is going to run the cable a bit further along the side of our house, but they should be able to connect it. And I think we'll paint the powerline so it won't stand out so much on the side of the house.

Hopefully it will get done this week.

If you happened to pray about any of this, we thank you and appreciate it.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:53.

I don't know what is up with the comments, but it's enough to make me decide to get sensus plenior. However, the cashflow isn't enough for me to make that decision, so I must simply be content.

If you really, really want to make a comment, check back every day or so to see if the comments are back up.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 15:46.

A Really 'Icky Blog Entry'
(and you thought the last one was bad)


The Bible talks about disciplining children, and it prescribes the method we are to use. We are, when appropriate, to physically strike them. I'm not sure Scripture could be much more clear...

He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

Of course, it's true that wisdom must be employed. Scripture doesn't say to beat our children senseless. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. There are times to spank, and times not to spank. But it is without doubt that there are times to spank.

I should also note that there are unbiblical, sinful ways of spanking. Of course, anything that seriously harms the child is out of the question. A good spanking should sting for a few moments, maybe up to a minute, but that is it. And there should be no marks left on the child to see where the spanking was. If there are, you didn't do it right. The Bible tells those that are spiritual to correct. If a parent is flying of the handle mad, they are in no position to discipline their child. This doesn't accomplish the purpose spanking serves, but rather, the opposite. So keep in mind that I'm only endorsing spanking that is consistent with the teaching of Scripture.

So, what is discipline? Is spanking a child punitive in nature? Perhaps in some homes, but not in Godly ones. Spanking, which is a form of discipline, is not punitive, but corrective. It is not punishment. A child is spanked because they have sinned, but the spanking they should get as a result is not the punishment that sin deserves. Sin deserves eternal torment. That is the punishment for the sin. The spanking is the parent teaching the child to not sin. Discipline is to keep the child from sinning any more... to alter their behavior. And, in the wonderful world that God has made and graciously put us in, spanking works.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:31.

Geneva is not yet at the stage where she needs to go to the bathroom to have a meeting with the wooden spoon for each episode of discipline. I'm still able to get a good result by slapping her hand.

But lately, when I use that method, she runs away to Megan, crying for Mommy. I have been feeling bad about this, thinking that maybe I'm too rough on her, and she's afraid of me. Maybe I don't give her enough love and play time, and so she only knows me as the bad man that hits her...

But yesterday, I was listening to Schlissel, and he compared this very phenomena with Israel in Exosdus 20, pleading to Moses that God not speak to them again, that they would obey Him, but they would die if He spoke again. They had a fear of God, and it was a good thing. Moses, answering them, said for them not to be afraid, that God was testing them to keep them from sinning.

Then I thought about how when Geneva runs crying to Megan, she is always sent back to me. And she comes back, with her arms in the air, wanting nothing but for her world to come back together, to again be united with me in love and fellowship. She knows that, despite my discipline of her, the safest place she can be is in my arms again, only this time without any rift of sin between us. She knows that she has to come to me openly, wanting to please me.

Parenting, like marriage, teaches you so much about the Christian life, and about God. I am continually awe struck by the amazing ways that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us, to make known His ways to us. Of course, it is primarily through His Word, and everything else must be seen in light of that. But everything else really does teach us about God. And, again, I'm just fascinated that He has created the world so perfectly that us getting married or having kids are pictures of God's relationship with His people.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:56.

Wednesday morning a technician from the power company is coming out to my house, and I've also arranged for the electrician to come out, and we'll hopefully find out what can be done about this electricity situation. sigh

In other news, this morning I had a voicemail from an instructor requesting a TV/VCR in her classroom. Me, being the git that I am, was about 20 minutes late getting it to her. She was nice, and it was the first time I'd been face to face with her, so she introduced herself. Nice lady. So I gave her the TV stuff, and apologized for disturbing her class. She replied, "Oh, don't worry... we are already disturbed." That's a good one, I'll have to remember it.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:55.

You may want to keep this in mind for any future circumstances you may be in...

The new mouses that don't have a ball in them, but use a light shining out of the bottom don't work on glass. We have a large piece of glass on the top of a desk, and it must refract the light funny back into the mouse, because the pointer just squiggles along, not really moving.

Looks like we'll need a mousepad for the nonmousepadneeding mouse.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:58.

Well, I was quite wrong about when we'll finish Order of the Phoenix. Once we got into those last chapters, we started flying through! We'll finish tonight, I'm sure. Two chapters left.

We were up until 11:30 last night reading it. That may not be late to some of you, but to us... it's very late. I got up a five this morning for work. And, for some reason, the babe was having some problems last night. So that kept us up for a while. anyhow...

If you haven't read it, you ought to. Of course, I'm sure everyone that's already read the first four has already or is already planning to read this one. So I'm just wasting my breath.

I gotta find out about that lost prophecy!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:45.

Okay, now that I've got a bit of my senses back, let me try again.

The electrician we hired to get the work done has screwed up. Pretty bad, too.

He was working for several hours on Monday, putting in a new circuit breaker box, and putting a meter on the outside of our house... basically doing all the inside work to change our house from 60amp service to 200amp service. He did some finishing touches yesterday, and the power company was supposed to come out today to run a bigger powerline in from the street to the all new system just installed.

Well, the man from the power company did come today, but we still have 60amp service. Why? Because the electrician installed everything in such a way that the powerline would have to run across our neighbor's property, and this is apparently not allowed. So, no go. The line has to come in from the other side of the house.

End result? We have a huge hole in the side of our house where the power line come through the wall to the circuit breaker box, holes through the wall of our house in the upstairs which were to support the powerline coming in from the street, and a series of screwholes in the siding all the way up the side of the house. Or, in other words, a very ugly sight. Oh, and we already paid the electrician, so I am hoping that he was sincere when he said he would stand by his work. I wish I hadn't given him that check yesterday. It really bothers me that I hired him to do a job, and he didn't bother to find out whether or not he was doing it right.

He said he was going to stop by the house this evening to pick up a few of the things he had temporarily installed. Hopefully he'll be able to call me before then, but if not at least he'll be there, and I can find out what he plans to do about all this.

I think I just want him to give me my money and go away. He's done enough damage as it is. You could certainly pray for us in this situation if you happen to think of it. It would be appreciated.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:00.

We moved in. This is my first day back at work since Wednesday. We moved our furniture into our new house on Thursday, and have been arranging and assembling and storing and all that rot since then. We have attained 'messy house' status, which is pretty good. Much better than 'hurricane came running through' status that we were at Thursday evening.

Today we're getting some electrical work finished up which means we will be able to run our AC full blast without blowing a fuse.

Today also marks the first time I've checked email, blogs, forums, and everything else computer related since Wednesday evening. It's fun to have a full inbox.

We're still plugging away at HP5. My initial estimation holds steady; we should finish it near the end of the month. I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk of it around. I suppose, though, I'm just not looking in the right places. I guess I'll snoop around after we finish.

So long for now.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:50.

All right, so...

What does this say?


Goed ik heb mijn nieuwe cd's binnen. NU weet ik dat daar al een topic over is, maar de cd "She must and shall go free" van Derek Webb is echt zo goed, daar moet een apart topic over geopend worden.

Qua teksten is de cd haast net zo goed als de "60 hymns" uit mijn collectie, alleen deze cd is confronterender. Derek Webb lijkt een boodschap te brengen als van Rich Mullins en Keith Green. Zijn schrijvers kwaliteiten zijn te vergelijken met Bob Dylan.

De muziek is ook goed, behoorlijk gevarieerd. Wel te vergelijken met Caedmon's Call (hoe zou dat toch komen?)

Voor de teksten: http://www.derekwebb.net/songs.php

Voor een nummer (de rustigste van de cd): Kijk op http://www.chard.blogspot.com/2001_03_01_chard_archive.html en dan op good song links boven. En zeg nooit meer dat Christelijke muziek niet verstaanbaar is (En het is echt gospel-muziek)

Vaya con Dios,

Parsifal

posted by Richard Okimoto at 15:47.

James Jordan on the Regulative Principle of Worship:

"The Reformers had realized that God's 'commands' are found in Scripture in 'precept, principle, and example.' Their heirs tended to exchanged this holistic openness to the Word of God for a quest for 'explicit commands.'"

I think it applies just as well to Bahnsenian Theonomy as it does to worship. God's law is more than just a list of commands, "do this, don't do this". We need a great deal of wisdom in order to understand all that is contained in it, and apply it to our lives today.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:47.

Here's a Psalm sung by us Providence Kirkers. It's one of our favorites, 98a from the Book of Psalms for Singing.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 18:29.

My daughter Geneva turned 21 months old yesterday. She has already been catechized through two questions, "Who made you?" (God), and "What else did God make? (everything).

It might be a little while, though, before she gets the answer to the third question, "Why did God make all things?", because the answer is more than one word. In fact, the "official" answer to question two is "God made all things". I can't really get her to even say "all things", so we've settled for "everything". "For His own glory" might need a few more months of her using language.

All the same, it's one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced to see her learning Truth like this. What a privilege and joy to train up children for the Lord!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:32.

Okay, so what's the difference between i tags, and em tags for italics?

I happened to use blogger's formatting button to italicize the quote in my last post, and it used em instead of i in the html.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:30.

In a new article at Meshereth Magazine, Rich Lusk says something I found to be rather profound, or, i not profound, at least quite interesting...

"Moreover, anti-paedocommunionists also have a different view of the Lord�s Supper. Their view insists that adult-like, rational understanding of the meal is essential to receiving its benefits (though apparently not its curses)."

Isn't it strange that the Supper is commonly seen as ex opere operato in regards to the curses, but the blessings having nothing to do with the actual acts of eating the bread and drinking the wine? I made a very similar point some time ago on the Theologia/Biblical Horizons Forums.


posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:27.

My point was that we put the duty of the church on the government, wanting to dowse fires with swords instead of water. If the church itself refuses to say that homosexuality is an abomination before the Lord, then what effect will the government have? - Remy Wilkins

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:54.

When I just posted those test results, there was an error in the html. Blogger told me there was an error, showed me what it was, and asked if I wanted to correct it or leave it.

Pretty cool.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:37.

You are 44% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:34.