richard's notions.

I'm better off for having read this article by Mark Horne: The Pastorate and The Presbytery

I never knew why ministers were members of presbytery and not the congregation.

Now I'm off to read this one: Ministers and Ruling Elders Do Not Occupy the Same Office

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:32.

Whew. Great extended weekend. Thanksgiving was wonderful. We spent the morning lounging around our home, watching the parade and spending time together. We also made some food, which, around three, we took over to a friend's home, where we enjoyed a very big meal together. I am thankful we were able to go, because the girls weren't feeling too hot. Wednesday night Geneva woke up around 3ish and felt very warm. I didn't take her temperature at the time, but when she got up in the morning she still felt warm. She didn't have a fever (according to the thermometer), but she has had a runny nose and didn't appear to feel very well. Our friend said that they weren't about to cancel because of a bit of a cold (which is what I suspected she had), and so we went over and Geneva (along with Ashley and the rest of us) had a splendid time. We left a bit earlier than we wanted, though, because Geneva started to feeling down again. Still, we were there well into the evening, and enjoyed the hospitality shown to us.

Friday was Ashely's birthday. Happy Birthday to Ashley! She is now two years old. Crazy how time flies. She had a CareBear birthday. One present is what she now calls her bike. It plays a song. We all now know the song by heart. Part of me is just waiting for the batteries to die.

Saturday we got our Christmas tree, and decorated it. It is a glorious thing... very beautiful. And big! It's funny how Christmas trees always seem to grow so much on the trip home, isn't it? We actually had to trim off quite a bit from the top in order for the star to keep from hitting the ceiling. And we have 9' ceilings! The girls helped us put the decorations on, and it was a deight to see them enjoying themselves by celebrating Christmas.

Yesterday, we celebrated the Lord's Supper, which is always a great blessing, and worth noting on here. We didn't have anyone over for dinner, but did have some friends over for dessert in the evening. We shared a nice bottle of wine, ate leftover Thanksgiving desserts, and talked - I'm just now noticing - about the future and the past. Our conversation (at least, the gentlemen's conversation) was about eschatology and history.

After they went home, we had The First Annual Okimoto Family Advent Worship. It was pure delight. The girls behaved wonderfully... much better than I had expected. I think the candle was something that they were able to really get excited about, whereas our 'ordinary' worship doesn't have a 'fun' element like that. We'll have to try to encorporate something like that into ordinary time. Anyhow...
Our advent wreath is just beautiful. Megan came through big time on that. We ended up buying some of that wetfoam stuff, and using clipping from the holly bushes in front of our house, together with a few fake berries. It looks beautiful, really. I'm very happy with it... I want people to come over so I can show off my wife's handiwork. I'll put pictures up soon.

So, that gets you all up to speed.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:18.

Everyone needs to know about this: BugMeNot.com

It gives usernames and passwords for sites that require registration. First newspaperlogin, and now this.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 16:36.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:08.

Remember everyone, Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.

And, of course, that doesn't mean get rid of all the food and celebration. It means get rid of any strife.

Happy Thanksgiving!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:56.

The James White/Douglas Wilson debate 'Are Roman Catholics Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ?' is now available for purchase at aomin.org. The mp3s are just 3 bucks. DVDs 15.

If anyone buys the dvds... i'd love to borrow some time.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 14:17.

For the past year and a half or so (since we bought our house), I've been collecting big boxes in our garage. Not that I want to be collecting them, but they were too big for the garbage can, so I just put them in the garage 'until later'. Plus, other things that were too big to throw out, or didn't below with regular garbage... like an old tabletop grill.

The pile in the center of the garage grew to the point where it is the defining feature of the garage. You have to shimmy around the pile of boxes and other junk to get around. So, earlier in the week, I finally got around to scheduling a bulk garbage pickup. They are coming today, some time between 7 and 3:30.

Except... I forgot to put all the garbage out. I realized this at about 9 o'clock this morning. I called my lovely wife, and told her. She cheerfully took on my duties of garbage piling. Thankfully there isn't anything very heavy in there... just bulky. I imagine the girls played in the year while she dragged stuff from the garage to the front curb.

I am such a blessed man. What a woman.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:58.

Andrew Johnson was President from 1865 to 1869. He was the first President to be impeached.

He was impeached because he dismissed the Secretary of War, which was, allgedly, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act - one of the rules implaced by the radical republicans in Congress. In the spring of 1868 he was tried, and was acquitted.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:50.

I just realized yesterday evening that the album Laid by the band James is really quite good. Apart from the title song, which is really not the picture of moral uprightness, it is really good songcraft. I suppose one other song is pretty immoral as well... One of Three. It's sort of along the lines of XTC's song Dear God (which is also a pretty cool sonically).

Anyhow... I used to own the album, sold it, and I think I might get it again through BMG one day.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:36.

I bought the mp3 of yesterday's Dividing Line. Listening to it now. I'll fill you in on what he says about the debate.

So far, they've just said the mp3s/DVDs/videotapes will be available today. And White recommends the video over the audio only. There were "visual moments" to give a "more accurate gauge" of the debate.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:30.

Mike has gathered a few synopses of the White-Wilson debate. Worth looking at as well is Wilson's opening statement.

#1

#2 (in the comments)

p.s. White says he'll discuss the debate on today's Dividing Line, but I can't listen to real audio. If anyone listens, can they send me a summary of what he says? Or, even better, make another format available?

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:13.

One of my biggest complaints about derek webb's music has been that it peaks too soon. I think I've said it before on this blog, but when I compare derek's music to music by, say, don chaffer, an obvious difference shows itself. Derek's music is immediately appealing, and I really like it. But then it starts going downhill... it wears off. It gets kind of old. Don's songs, though, take more effort to appreciate. At first listen they're "eh, it's all right", but then, as you listen to them more, they get better and better. Derek's music gets less and less spin time the more I get to know the music... don's, though, gets more and more.

But that has now changed. With his newest album I See Things Upside Down, Derek Webb has finally given me something I have to work at to appreciate. The description of Don Chaffer's music above fits perfectly with ISTUD. I've had it for a week now, and I think I'm just now getting to the point where I can appreciate it.

I'm not sure how to describe the sound of the record. Definitely Wilco influenced. I think it's more accessible than Wilco, but the general feel of the record is very similar to a (recent) Wilco record.

If the music takes some work to appreciate, the lyrics are meet for it. This album, unlike his first solo record, does not deal strictly with the church. It isn't a concept record like that one. It includes songs written to the church, to his wife, and, interestingly, written from the perspective of the devil. I think all this makes it a much more enjoyable record. More rounded, more real.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:13.

I was just at the City of Lynchburg website, looing up information on leaf collection. They have a link about composting, and so I checked it out. And I saw something that made me laugh.

It's in this section:

Is Composting Easy To Do?
Yes. If you're the lazy composter, then you need a pile of leaves, water and sunshine. Nature does the rest. For more active composters, use a bin; put in three parts brown (leaves, hay, etc) to one part green (grass clippings, vegetable/fruit peelings), wet material, turn once a week, and walaa... compost, (black and crumbly and smells like rich dirt.

Can you guess what I laughed at?

I'd like to start composting, but I am not going to start by just having a pile. Can you say "Welcome, rats, make yourself at home"?

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:14.

Part of an email I got this morning, from my lovely wife...

geneva just said something cute at breakfast. she asked me to say to
daddy, "we eat pizza tonight. we go out to dinner."

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:07.

I just watched the trailer for In Good Company. It looks like it could be pretty okay. Also, Hitch made me laugh out loud several times.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:44.

When Geneva gets tucked in at night, she gets cozied up with three blankets, and each of them have a name. (Actually... one of them is named "the cozy blanket", so I probably shouldn't have said she gets cozied up with three blankets.)

When I cover her up, sometimes I say which blanket I'm putting on her. And the last one... the real comforter on the bed, is called 'the big blue'. So, when ever I cover her up with that, I quote Finding Nemo.

It's quite funny.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 14:04.

A new, new Pixar film, due out November 2005: Cars

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:46.

(kind of) Funny Situation

One of my coworkers, and instructor, was a pallbearer in a funeral today. The funeral was at 1, and he had a lecture class at 1. That lecture class also has a lab that meets immediately after lecture, at 2. He asked me to start his lab, and he would arrive late to finish up. I was happy to do this, and put a note on the classroom door informing the students that there was no lecture, but there will be lab.

A student just came to my office and informed of some "bad news". She said the class was mutinous... they congregated together and decided that since he cancelled lecture, they were all going to skip lab. It's really pretty funny... those students are so stupid. They are going to get hammered for this. Especially doing this to this particular instructor.

Being this close to the end of the semester, he won't be able to make up the lab. And he isn't going to just skip over the material. And those idiot students... they're going to be tested on it, and they won't know any of it. And I'd be surprised if he gives them an opportunity to come into the lab another time and look at the slides and various specimens. Very surprised.

There are two students, though, that proved their fidelity. They are waiting for him to arrive... to explain the situation. I'm eager to see how this works out.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:30.

This is pretty cool.

It shows a bunch of chinese characters that seem to have biblical origins. Like, for instance, righteousness is the character for 'sheep', or 'ram', over the character for 'me'.

Some of them are a stretch, but others seem quite compelling. What does 'two trees' and a 'man' have to do with being naked? Well, I don't know... but that's the chinese characters.

interesting stuff.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:51.

Thinking of something to buy me?

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:02.

This year, for the firs time in my life, we're going to celebrate advent. At the end of the christmas season last year we got a wreath on sale at Target, which we will use for our advent wreath. We talked about it a bit last night... Megan needs to get that puppy ready!

However... we need guidance. This post by Kelly is really helpful. Does anyone have any other suggestions for books or other helps for celebrating advent?

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:55.

Imagine my surprise when, reading through a pdf file of George Grant's book, The Changing of the Guard, I see the following in the acknowledgments:

Fortunately, a number of kind-hearted souls coaxed me
through the agony and ecstasy of this book project, and as a result,
my hemoglobin loss was minimal. David Dunham, Jim Jordan,
Kemper Crabb, Frank Marshall, Gary DeMar, Dave Marshall,
and Brian Martin all afforded me transfusions of wisdom, encouragement,
and joy when I most needed them. Kathe Salazar, J. D.
McWilliams, and Suzanne Martin mopped my brow and nursed
me along, all the whale taking care of business and holding down
the fort. Great thanks is here given to each of these dear friends
and fellow-workers in the Kingdom.

Among thos thanked, you'll notice, is one Kemper Crabb. Yes, Kemper Crabb. The one time member of Caedmon's Call. One time member of Atmoic Opera. Musician extraordinaire. I have several Kemper Crabb albums. I love them. His live Christmas record is one of my favorite christmas cds ever.

This is a surprising connection. It's a small world, afterall.



posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:25.

Firefox 1.0 releases today.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:36.

Here's a little recap of our Reformation Day Ball from the band's perspective.

I don't think I've said anything about it... but it was a great time. Next year we're going to need a bigger place. We really, really enjoyed having live music. It added something to the experience that you just can't have when you're playing a cd.

Good times, good life.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:11.

Everyone's seen the red/blue map of the country, divided by county. What I'm interested in, though, is a map similar to that, only divided by congressional districts.

I've searched and the closest I've found so far is a state-by-state look at C-SPAN election results.

But I don't want to go through each state and compile all the data myself... which wouldn't only be time consuming... but actually pretty difficult to sort through considering how the maps are set up.

I'd really like a list with each state, how many congressional districts there are in the state, and how many went to Bush and how many went to Kerry. I'd love it if someone knows of such a map/table/whatever form of date presentation.

The reason I'm interested in this, is to see how the electoral votes would turn out if our system worked like this:

The electoral votes in each state are determined by the number of seats in the house of representatives (the number of congressional districts) plus two for the Senate seats. I think it would be a better system if electoral votes were given to the winnder of each congressional district. And then, the winner of the popular vote in the state would get the two senate electoral votes (or they could simply be decided by the governor of the state...).

I think that would be a much more accurate representation of the spread of all the people in a state, and thus all the people in the country.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:22.

Just some links I don't want to lose...

No More Excuses

Are Votes on Third Parties Wasted?

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:23.

The other night, as we were watching the wrap up of election coverage (at least as far as we're concerned), I flipped around a bit, and saw a program that interested me.

It is called Nanny 911 The show is about a group of professional nannys that are called on to help families with crazy, out of control children. One of the nannys is chosen, and stays with the family for a week, giving guidance and instruction on how to make the children behave. Of course, there's nothing about spanking, but it's still a fascinating show.

Last night it was a couple reaching their ten year wedding anniversary, and they had two children: a boy named Dylan, 6 years old, and a girl, Natalie, 3 years old. They were both horrible. The boy was especially bad... he would hit his mom, and cuss at his parents.

The nanny observed for a day, taking notes on specific ways the parents were failing in their duties. Then they had a family meeting, where the new rules were established.
And then the enforcement came, which was pretty neat to watch.

My summary of the situation, so far as I could tell with what they filmed and how they edited it, was that the mother couldn't stand to here her children cry, and so constantly gave in to them, letting them do whatever they wanted (even though she screamed "No!" an awful lot). The husband was essentially absent. He would stand on the sidelines, observing, and not taking any part in controlling the children, unless his wife demanded that he come. And then he would only do what she told him to do; nothing more, nothing less. Because the dad/husband wasn't leading, the mother/wife was in charge. And because she was weak, the whole system was weak. It just didn't work.

And it was really sad, because even though this mother loved her children, and was doing what she thought was best for them, they were very disturbed and unhappy children. She didn't want to let them suffer at all, but her understanding of what suffering is was wrong. She didn't teach them to be disciplined, or content. Those children lacked authority, and that clearly has a bad effect on kids. They love to be told what to do. They need to be told what to do.

When the nanny started teaching the parents how to deal with the children, the dad got it, and started following through. The mom, however, didn't. She still couldn't stand to have the children cry. But the dad then started to actually put his foot down, and tell his wife how things needed to be. He relied a lot on the nanny to keep his wife busy, but he was at least going in the right direction.

If they had spanked their kids, though, I think it would have been a lot easier. There would have been much less anger in the household. The way they did it... if they children didn't obey, they were sent to their room. In their room they cried and screamed and kicked and shouted and had a fit. They did this until one of the parents would go in and give them another chance to obey. If they didn't, more of the same. I imagine over the course of the week there was hours and hours of this type of thing. With a spanking, it it quick. swat swat swat. Now you're forgiven, come out and behave yourself. Sending them to their room just seemed to prolong the disfellowship.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:35.

Convicted spammer gets nine years in jail

In Virginia, to boot!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:23.

I voted for Peroutka. He, obviously, didn't win. But, I didn't expect him to win, and I'm not upset about him losing.
I do not believe Bush will lead our nation in the direction we need to be going. I don't believe Bush will do anything to slow the abortion madness. Or any other madness. I am glad that I did not vote for him.

That being said, I am not adopting a "shake the dust" attitude. I'm not going to simply wash my hands of it, and go away. My hands are clean, but I can't just leave. I know that I, and other Peroutka voters, need to start working with what we have.

We need to work on a plan, as barlow put it. I don't want to be one of those people that points out every mistake and complains about it, without actually doing anything to change it. I'm reminded of a commcercial where someone drops their trash on the sidewalk, and a group of people gather around it, some disgusted, some making excuses why they aren't doing anything about it. THen one guy comes along and just picks it up and puts it in a garbage can.

I want to put the garbage in the garbage can.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:18.

Election results for Virginia

If you're curious... I'm in Lynchburg City, Third Ward First Precinct. 10 votes for Peroutka there. I'm guessing I know all of them.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:10.

Right now, after reading barlow's recent post, I feel like Bret:

I know it sounds kind of twisted but sometimes I find myself hoping that Kerry gets elected just so those who believe that 'W' is God's candidate can vent their spleens at those of us who voted the Constitution party, or who decided not to vote at all.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:29.

Hareios Poter Kai he tou Philosophou Lithos

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:26.

Three chapters from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:

Chapter 2 Spinners End
Chapter 6 Draco's Detour
Chapter 14 Felix Felicis

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:20.