richard's notions.

Those of you that are sensitive to highway safety... Rest Easy.

My car stereo started working again out of the blue. So, I will now use my tape adapter (until it konks out again).

posted by Richard Okimoto at 14:05.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 17:41.

I am outside, sitting at the picnic table, while G&A are making chalk drawings on the sidwalk. This is what wireless is all about, I tell ya. Can't get better than this.

I should post some pictures...

posted by Richard Okimoto at 17:41.

Last night Ashley was being a real pill at dinner. She refused to eat. So she sat at the table for much longer than everyone else (it seems to be a regular occurence for Ashley). Anyhow... at one point, I told her to take a bite, and she wouldn't, and started fussing and crying about it, and I got up to resituate her and help her get the food on the fork and into her mouth. In the midst of all this action Megan gave me a look.

Now, thinking back the look was entirely appropriate. Ashley needed to know that Daddy loves her, but Daddy just wanted Ashley to do what he told her to do. And that's what Megan was trying to get me to recognize with her look.

But, I was getting frustrated with Ashley, and was all sensitive, and I ended up snapping at Megan. We then left the room to have a discussion. Things were resolved, and she left to go to a ladies book study. There's a whole story here about how the lady that was giving her a ride showed up in the midst of our discussion, and we weren't about to go answer the door like that...

Then I went out to the girls and told them that I was wrong to speak to Mommy that way, and asked them to please forgive me. They were quite cheerful about granting their forgiveness, but then Geneva asked me why I spoke to Megan the way I did. I replied, "Because Daddy was sinning". There was a look on her face that was just great. She didn't say anything more about it, so I only have the look to go on. It was sort of surprise, but also understanding. Like she thought, "Hey, Daddy sins too, and he needs to be forgiven just like I do when I sin."

I felt like, even though I had screwed up, the situation was redeemed by teaching the girls that I submit to the same God that they do. The buck doesn't stop with me... I am just an earthly minister of the authority.

And, Ashley ate enough of her dinner that I excused her from the table, and then, later in the evening, she ate all the rest of her chocolate easter bunny (except for the part that was smeared all around her mouth).

posted by Richard Okimoto at 14:02.

I just got this in an email:

LYNCHBURG, Virginia (AP) -- The Rev. Jerry Falwell was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday, battling his second case of viral pneumonia in just five weeks, hospital and church officials said.

Falwell, 71, was admitted to Lynchburg General Hospital shortly before midnight Monday suffering from "respiratory arrest," the hospital said in a statement.

He was put on a ventilator and stabilized but remained in critical condition, the hospital said.

"He's resting comfortably and in stable condition," said Ron Godwin, Falwell's executive assistant. "It's a recurrence of the viral pneumonia."

I know Rev. Falwell is the butt of not a few jokes, and often aggravates us all to no end. But he has done quite a lot in this little town of Lynchburg for the cause of Christ, and we need to keep him in our prayers.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 20:58.

A family from church, our neighbors, is currently on their European Vacation. They left on Saturday, and will be gone for just over two weeks. They planned their trip months ago, and at the time didn't realize they would be gone Easter Sunday.

But, they ended up being in London then, and decided to visit NT Wright's church for Easter service.

Now I have to wait til they get back to hear about it.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 14:36.

At Providence, we have a time of corporate prayer, where we pray for various things. Men are asked before hand (usually the night before) if they would pray, and are given a section (Thanksgivings, Petitions, Ongoing, etc.)

One thing we consistently do is pray for another CREC congregation, and also for a local congregation. Each we we pray for two different churches.

This past Sunday, I was called on to pray the petitions, and the CREC congregation we prayed for was Christ Reformed Evangelical Church in Annapolis, MD. Having met Pastor Sauder a few times, and some of the congregants once, and knowing (in bloggerland) Valerie, it was a nice change. I was able to put some actual faces on the people we were praying for, which makes it that much easier to pray for them, and be sincere in the prayer. Not that I'm not sincere otherwise, but it's much more real when you know them as actual, flesh and blood people, and not just abstractions.

Now I'm waiting to pray for Christ Church of Searcy, AR, since I sort of (that whole blogger/internet thing) know Mike and Pastor Davis.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:12.

I told me so; regarding a certain "discussion" about Wright.

Some strong accusations were made about what Wright believes and teaches. A person asks for sources to back up the accusations. I said to myself, "It's going to be articles written by others that are just as antagonistic towards Wright... not actual quotes or references to what Wright has written".

The accuser gives a general reference to WSPRS, with the comment that he has "discussed at length" (which, apparently, you can do without so much as a single quote! In reality, he can't remember what exactly Wright said in the book because he read the book once, years ago, and then threw it away), and a link to an article by Cornelis P. Venema.

I so called that one.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:33.

We had a great day yesterday. Church was good, and Pastor Hurt preached a great sermon, with a particularly catchy title. Of course, I screwed up on recording the sermon... so you can't listen to it. Unless you want the second half of it... I could send you that, but i'm not going to post it on the church website.

After church we had some friends over... one family, and one student. Our girls were just crazy. They didn't sleep all day. I think it was the effects of the easter candy... which also caused them to run around and scream a lot. But they had a blast.

Megan made a leg of lamb, which I don't think I've ever had before. I enjoyed it, but she didn't like it. So I probably won't ever have it again. :)

The kids had an easter egg hunt. It was a cold and rainy day, so it was an indoor hunt. Just as much fun, I think.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:21.

I didn't get around to posting yesterday about the Maundy Thursday service we attended, so I'll do it now, and also include a few comments about our Good Friday service last night.

Rivermont EPC is a beautiful building... there is no argument about that. The building we normally meet in is old, and pretty cool, but it is worn down and not taken care of very well. You can tell it's been around a while. So being able to worship at Rivermont is a privlege and joy in itself.
The acoustics of the sanctuary are great, and they also have a huge pipe organ installed there. Thursday was the first time I had heard it in action, and it was great.
There were several readings, each by a different pastor of a reformed church in our community. In total, there were five churches represented... Providence, Rivermont, Grace Assebly (a local, baptist non-denominational congregation), Redeemer PCA, and New Covenant Reformed Episcopal Church. There is an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in town as well, but they chose (for whatever reason - I do not know) not to participate.
In between readings, we sang songs. Most of them were simply printed in the bulletin (we only sang one or two verses of each), but some we needed to look up in the red trinity hymnals available. The singing was nice. And it was fun to sing some songs that we don't usually sing.
We did celebrate the Lord's Supper, which was sort of weird for us. At Providence, it is a very corporate event. The bread is passed out, and we wait for everyone to get their bread. Then Pastor Hurt gives a short supper homily followed by a prayer, and we partake together. And, when we are eating the bread (and then again with the wine) we look around at one another. It is a way that we recognize the body of Christ... who are our brothers and our sisters.
But at the Maundy Thursday service... there was no waiting for everyone to get their bread. You, apparently, were on your own. As the plate was being passed, we each took a piece of bread, and waited. I have developed a short catechism that I go through with the girls during this time, and Thursday night was no different. Then the wine was disributed. Well, "wine". It was grape juice.
But, as I looked around, I didn't see anyone else holding their bread. And most people had their heads down. I felt weird. It has been a while since I've experienced the Lord's Supper "celebrated" in this way.
So, we all ate our bread and drank our wannabe wine. Like I said... it felt very strange. I felt like we weren't really a part of one another. At least my family all ate together, and recognized each other. But looking around at others, we felt very isolated.
After the Supper, we received a blessed, and the service concluded. We didn't stick around too long, because Megan was still recovering from her cold. It was pretty funny when we got the bread... It appeared to be plain white sandwich bread, cut into small, 1/2" squares. Geneva looked at it and said, "this is small! And, when we got the juice, she and Ashley both commented that "this isn't wine!". I was reminded of that story David Chilton wrote about a conversation with his son.

Friday night, Megan stayed home with Fiona. She felt like she needed to rest, so that she would be well enough to attend church on Sunday. So Geneva and Ashley and I went. I was readin two of the lessons, so I was a little nervous about how the girls would behave while I was up, but I figured they'd do just fine. Turns out that As I went up, one of Pastor Hurt's daughters went and sat with them, to keep them under control.
We sang from the Book of Psalms for Singing between lessons. It was pretty cool, actually. There was a reading from one of the gospels about a particular series of events leading up to the Crucifixion, and then we would sing a Psalm foretelling those events.
At the end of the service, we did receive a benediction. I've read some other descriptions of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, where the benediction was withheld until Sunday, at our Easter service. I plan to talk about that with my session, because it seems fitting. A stark contrast to our typical liturgy, which draws attention to what we are remebering... especially on Good Friday.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:46.

I haven't shaved for nearly four weeks.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:40.

There is a joint Maundy Thursday service tonight that we are attending. This will be my first ever Maundy Thursday experience. I had never even heard of Maundy Thursday until two years ago, or so. And I didn't know what it was until about a month ago.

But, now I do. And I am excited to be able to worship together with some of the other reformed churches in the area. One thing that we have been trying to do is establish some unity with the other churches. When our church was first planted, our pastor received some less than favorable comments about 'another' reformed church in the area. Of course his reply was that we need fifty more reformed churches! Anyhow... hopefully it will all go smoothly, and no one will freak out when our (Providence's) two year olds receive the Lord's Supper.

If you are in the area, it is at Rivermont Evangelical Presbyterian Church, at 7:00.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 14:43.

these are pretty cool. And weird.

I think Jon Barlow would like them.

EDIT: this is really, really weird. I had NOT seen jon's blog when I posted this. He posted these same pictures this morning. I must really know that guy! It's also weird that he also posted about Maundy Thursday.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:21.

As some of you know, I commute to work. I drive about 55 miles twice a day. It typically takes me an hour and a quarter each way. That time is not wasted... You'd be amazed at how many lectures and sermons and books I've listened to the past three years or so.

But... my car stereo died. It doesn't even turn on. So, I use my headphones on my iPod. I know, I'm a bad person... so dangerous.

But, yesterday, for the first time, I had something of an encounter about it. I was driving down the road, excited to begin listening to Pastor Randy Booth's series on childrearing.

Then I see the guy next to me yelling at me through his window. I smiled at him. He was motioning for me to take the headphones out of my ears. I smiled and nodded. He rolled down his window and was really yelling at me. He had his arm hanging out the window and was looking over at me screaming. He had a gold tooth. I laughed. I just had to. How could I contain it?

I mean... here was a guy that was, I assume, concerned about the safety issues of having headphones on while driving... and yet he's got his arm and head hanging out his car, screaming at the guy next to him, all while driving 55-60mph on a some what busy interstate highway.

And then... he threw something at me. I don't know what it was, but it hit my car. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry about that. I mean... I drive a 1991 Dodge Dynasty with 207000 miles on it... I wasnt concerned about the car. But just the sanity of this man next to me.

And then I saw, as he sped ahead of me, that he had a child in a carseat in his car. What do you do??

He happened to take the same exit I did. And, as God ordained things, I happened to pull right up next to him at a stoplight. He glared at me. I looked at him. He looked tough at me. I waved to him. Then he looked away and went about his business.

I had to stop for gas, or else I might have had more episodes to share.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:03.

A question of church membership in the OPC (and, PCA if you know).

Is it an acceptable or normal practice to simply remove someone's name from a church role? Without a transfer of membership? Just... release them into the void, without any accountability or leadership?

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:51.

A friend on a messageboard asked what the biggest threats to the Reformed tradition are. What say ye?

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:08.

That last car note, the visible/invisible one, came to me as I was listening to the 2003 AAPC. I was listening to Steve Wilkins' initial response to Joey Pipa, and one comment in particular that he made stirred me. He said that Dr. Pipa believed that children were members of the covenant before they were baptized, and he disagreed with that point.

This is an issue that I have wrestled with for some time, as regular readers of this blog might recall. I wonder about the covenant status of the children of believing covenant members, before they are baptized. Are they included in the covenant by virtue of the parents' covennat membership? Or is baptism the entrance into the covenant, and prior to that they are not covenant members?

The second option, to me, does not appear to be acceptable. I do not like that. However, I am convinced of Scripture's teaching on the efficacy of baptism, and the covenantal union that is initiated at baptism. So, I am uncertain about the status of those unbaptized children of covenant members.

But, as I was listening to that lecture, and having recently heard Doug Wilson's lecture and following discussion on the Visible/Invisible nature of the church, I wonder if it could be applied to this question of covenant status.

I would firt ask a question... The person that is not a member of a local congregation, has scarcely even shown his face in the church, and has not been baptized, and yet has true saving faith in Christ; is this person in any sense a member of the church, and if so, can you describe that membership.

I don't want to deny the importance and reality of the one church, with visible and invisible aspects, but I also want to adequately deal with this anomally. I know it isn't an ordinary situation, and one that should be quickly solved by the individual being baptized asap. And the same is said of infant children... they should be baptized at the first opportunity. I'm not saying we should have a bowl of water standing by to splash them as soon as the head pops out, but we want to have the children baptized relatively soon.

I also understand that this question may be asking more than we should be asking. Maybe it isn't our place to know the precise workings of when and how a person is included in the covenant in any subjective/invisible way. Thus, the objective status is what we should be concerned with... that which has been revealed to us.

However, Matt Colvin once said,

My membership in the covenant is my objectively knowable relation to God. That is what our children have, and so I call it covenant membership. There is no point at which they do not have this relationship, and so I deny that there is a transition from outside the covenant to inside it. After a child's baptism, this relationship is objectively knowable because of his baptism. Before his baptism, this relationship is no less objectively knowable because of who the child's parents are. It is like human parent-child relationships: right now, the child inside my wife's womb is objectively known to be a Colvin because of who his parents are; later, he will be born and we will name him. His membership in the Colvin family will then be objectively knowable because of his birth certificate.

If this is true, then our children do have an objective reality of covenant membership... their connection to us. Further, the Canons of Dordt, First Point, Article 17 says, "Since we must make judgments about God's will from his Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature but by virtue of the gracious covenant in which they together with their parents are included, godly parents ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their children whom God calls out of this life in infancy." I don't know what the Synod thought about baptism and covenant membership, but can parents that lose children before baptism be comforted by this? Or parents that lose their children before they are even born? If, as Steve Wilkins said, children of covenant members are not covenant members themselves until after their baptism, what assurance can we have of their salvation?

So it isn't just a systematic, theological, speculative question. It isn't a 'how many angels fit on the head of a pin' question. There appear to be real, practical implications of the question. We still might not be able to fully answer the question... but I think it is one worth working through.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:13.

Car Notes.

I have a tiny little blue notebook that I carry around with me, and jot down random thoughts I have. Here, for the first time ever, I will share a select few of those thoughts... unedited, straight from the pages of the notebook.

You know, it just occurred to me that I should put the date, and perhaps time, that I write these little things. Anyhow... onward and upward.

Covenantal Blessings.
God gives us things and we must be obedient for them to be blessings. Otherwise, they are curses. Children, baptism, Lord's Supper...
>
God has spoken.
His word speaks to us - so does the world. Providence.
>
The parables Jesus told were not literal, historical narrative. Those things did not actually happen. However, Jesus telling those parables did.
>
God's requirements are not so strict. There is leniency. This sounds liberal, but our error is hyper-conservativism. The correction is to pull the wheel to the center, in this case that's to the left.
>
Visible/Invisible.
Aspects of the church. Why not aspects of the covenant?
objective/subjective aspects of the covenant?

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:02.

Today, inspired by Christo's description of me, I am going to be wildly enlightening. We're talking insight from the gods here. No holds barred. Get ready. I'm going to enchant you with my intellect.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:01.

I just discovered the Late Night Fox Show, via Rick. It's pretty funny. If you like that sort of thing...

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:39.

Ha! In another post from The Shadowlands (the actual post that referred to me), in the comments, Rick Capezza said, "ive been trying to figure out his last name forever..."

Right back at ya, brother! (three years late)

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:25.

Somebody followed a link to my blog from kristen's old blog, In the Shadowlands. So I followed the referral, just for fun. I saw this post, where she talks about our friend Phil, and his then self-imposed rule against dating fellow med students.

Well... hahaha Phil just recently married a fellow med student!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:20.

So I taped the short segment about Nate Wilson and the shroud last night. Here is the video. Sorry about the quality. We just have some (broken) rabbit ears, so it wasn't the best reception. Then I recorded it on an old VHS tape. And then, finally, transferred it to the computer through our camcorder. And then had to downsize it to make it manageable for the web. It's about 3.8 mb now.

Also, there's an interview with St. Anne's Pub about the experiment currently On Tap.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 07:25.

Nate Wilson is going to be on ABC World News Tonight (with Peter Jennings) tonight. Right now!

We just happened to have the (4" B&W) TV on, and Megan heard something about "a professor in Idaho" and the shroud of turin. we figure we'll leave the tv on now.

maybe i'll record it and post it.. ha!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 18:31.

The Credit Card Prank

Very funny.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:08.

Doug Wilson has a new section on his blog: Mp3 observations

posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:31.

This is a real post by a real person on a messageboard, in reply to another person...

Quote: "there's no other place to be a Christian except the church."

That's a pretty sad statement, and that sort of thinking is precisely why the modern church is so wrecked.

Being part of the "church" doesn't have anything to do with being a member of a certain congregation. There's no biblical precedent for that.

Quote: "It is absolutely the height of hypocrisy to say that we love Jesus but will not commit ourselves, in an obvious and outward way, to a local body of His church that He died for."

Where does Jesus or anyone else say beans about commiting to a local body? I'm not a member of any church but I'm commited in obvious and outward ways to all the Christians in my community. I worship with them, fellowship with them, study with them, I just don't submit to the beancounting. If a persons idea of being a christian is somehow tied to the status of their church membership then that's a false impression that the modern church has managed to insert into peoples minds, it certainly isn't biblical.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:41.

Andrew Sandlin comes right out and says it: "I suspect (but cannot prove) that the Old Boys Network in the PCA is frightened of the intelligence and influence of these creative thinkers and will do everything in their power to silence them."

A friend of mine and I had a conversation on 'the current controversies' some time ago, and this was pretty much the conlcusion we reached. Our words were, "this is about more than just theology".

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:13.

This weekend, we had a sickhouse. Geneva was the only one that didn't have some kind of sickness going on. We didn't go to church yesterday. We watched several movies, and I watched lots of dvd extras.

Saw Secondhand Lions for the first time. It was enjoyable, but I have some issues with the whole, 'it doesn't matter if its true, just believe in it' idea. Steven D. Greydanus, of Decent Films, said it well in his review:

There’s a key scene in Lions in which Walter tells Uncle Hub that he doesn’t know what to believe any more and wants the truth. Here is Uncle Hub’s regrettably quotable response: “If you want to believe in something, then believe in it! Just because something isn’t true, that’s no reason you can’t believe in it!” Uncle Hub then goes on to list some ideals he thinks are worth believing in whether they’re true or not: that honor and virtue, not money and power, are what really matter; that good always triumphs over evil; that true love never dies.

Now, the fact is that there is truth to all these propositions, depending on how they are understood. I can even appreciate, in a sense, someone like Uncle Hub having the will to recognize the value of these ideals despite not being in an epistemological position to affirm their truth.

Nevertheless, expressed this way, this is bogus sentimentality, not belief or faith — and this notion casts a long shadow over the rest of the film

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:09.

I was just looking at things online, and had this blog pulled up, and Ashley came in. She said, "I want to see Harry Potter." So I scrolled to the cover. She said, "There Harry Potter and Jumbeldore".

SO CUTE!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 16:30.

blogger is ticking me off.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:03.

Megan joined a forum that I post on today, and in her profile, under "interests", she wrote, "none. i am a baby machine."

Cracked me up.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 10:01.

I'm posting this right now from my laptop, wirelessly. I'm still sitting at my desk, though, so it really takes the fun out of it. I should go lie on my bed or something in order to maket his post... but oh well. it's still pretty cool.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 21:08.

Leithart on Sadler

posted by Richard Okimoto at 15:13.

I picked up the DVD of The Incredibles on Tuesday. What a great film. And the extras are good so far, too.

Except the interview with the lady that did Violet's voice. I was bothered by her pro-Lincoln garbage. Only because what she said just isn't true, though. At all. But, other than that little bit, even her interview is pretty funny.

Go Pixar!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:21.

Suppose one boy is not willing to trade his Willie Mays baseball card for less than one dollar. We can say he values that card at one dollar. Also suppose this boy loves bubble gum and would part with $1.50 for a hundred pieces. Another boy migth pay $1.50 for a Willie Mays baseball card, but would care little for the hundred pieces of bubble gum. He would give up his gum for a dollar. These boys meet and trade their goods. Before the transaction, there was two dollars' worth of value in teh two boys' possessions. After the trade, there was three dollars' worth of value - each, in a sense, profited fifty cents in value from the trade.

That's a fun, enlightening excerpt from RC Sproul Jr's book, Biblical Economics. I'm enjoying the book, and learning from it. It seems to be the basics, but that is just what I need.

Also, the first three chapters read less like an book about economics, and more like a theology book. Which is a nice touch... setting things in order, establishing the foundations.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:10.

video rentals...

Equilibrium - already out.
Ocean's Twelve - 4/12
The Life Aquatic - 5/10
In Good Company - 5/10
Hitch - 6/?

Lost: The Complete First Season - 9/6

posted by Richard Okimoto at 15:19.

the body of an email I just sent Megan:


.pu em evom ot yrt dluow ehs ,em rehtob yllaer ot detrats ti fi dias dna ,ecin yllaer saw ydal eht dna. taht naht renoos hcum erehwyna teg d'i kniht t'nod i dna ,dah yeht tseilrae eht saw taht .54:8 ta ht41 lirpa ,yadsruht rof legeips rotcod htiw tnemtnioppa na edam i


The things I do to amuse myself...

posted by Richard Okimoto at 14:51.

The Second Annual Reforming Marriage Conference
Saturday, July 9, 2005

sign up now!



posted by Richard Okimoto at 11:23.

In the church in america, women, and particularly mothers, are not honored enough. Too often a wife and mother that stays home with her children and managers the innerworkings of the household are scoffed at.

A while back I was engaged in discussion about birth control, and one young woman's comment was that she didn't want to have children because she wanted to be involved in women's ministry. The hijacking assumption being that if you aren't having a woman's bible study, or this or that group, or whatever, then you just aren't doing ministry. And that's crap.

A woman's work in the home with the family is what it's all about. That is the epitomy of ministry. That's 'frontline of the battlefield' ministry. You can't get more real than that.

A big thank you to all you stay at home moms, and especially my lovely wife, Megan - who does more around our home than I ever even know. God bless you.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 15:53.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 13:59.

Peter Leithart Literature mp3s

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:14.

Great quote, via Barb

"This very thing is no less expressly delivered concerning future glory. For since good works have the relation of the means to the end (Jn. 3:5, 16; Mt. 5:8); of the 'way' to the goal (Eph. 2:10; Phil 3:14); of the 'sowing' to the harvest (Gal. 6:7,8); of the 'firstfruits' to the mass (Rom. 8:23); of labor to the reward (Mt. 20:1); of the 'contest' to the crown (2 Tim. 2:5; 4:8), everyone sees that there is the highest and an indispensable necessity of good works for obtaining glory. It is so great that it cannot be reached without them (Heb. 12:14; Rev. 21:27)." Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 17.3.12.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 12:20.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 14:22.

RC Sproul, Jr is going to be in Lynchburg on Saturday. I don't know what time it is... some time in the morning. At the Christ College building. My first inclination is, 'of course I'm going to go'. But then I think about the topic... "The Five Points of Calvinism", and my desire to be present wanes.
Not that I don't love calvinism... I do. I am, to quote one speaker, a 'black coffee calvinist'. But, to quote a friend, 'that is so three years ago'.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 09:38.

I was just surfing around a bit, and ended up at Mark Lowry's website. I found this...

Can you do this?
How Smart is Your Right Foot? This is so funny that it will boggle your mind. And you will keep trying at least 50 more times to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't.

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.

2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction. I told you so ...And there's nothing you can do about it.

It's true. And it is funny.

I also learned he and I share the same birthday.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:53.

So I got the laptop yesterday. The long saga is over! Whew! Way to Go The Weather Channel!!

I'm having some issues with the network... but I'll get those worked out soon enough. For now, I'm happy just to get all the settings how I like them, and to install all the software I want. Fun stuff.

posted by Richard Okimoto at 08:12.

Fiona is on the truck for delivery!!

posted by Richard Okimoto at 07:29.