We built a church out of MDF for our 24-7 prayer week and then proceeded to let our young people loose on it…

The end result is pretty awesome, don’t you think? If nothing else it epitomises what Mike Yaconelli called “messy spirituality”:

Posted by Wordmobi

I’ve decided it’d be a fantastic idea to start an all-country tribute to Bon Jovi called ‘BanJovi’. Not strictly relevant here I know, but I’ve learnt not to let unbridled GENIUS like this go undocumented, for the benifit of future generations.

It’s become fashionable over the past decade or so for left wing intellectual types such as myself to claim that they hate America and Americans. This is those of us living outside the US, of course. I’ve always felt uneasy agreeing with that kind of sentiment, if only because there are something like a quarter of a billion Americans. I figure that a great deal of those people must be intelligent, kind and generous, in various measures. Of course, if by America we are referring to George W. Bush, the War on Terror, Enron, Halliburton and the loathsome Dick Cheney, then yes–I hate America too. But there is, in fact, another side to the U S of A, a pure idealism that no other country can claim to have equalled. What am I on about? I guess I’m referring to organisations such as the Library of America, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to reprinting and keeping in print the works of fiction by America’s greatest writers. Names like Faulkner, Carver, Chandler and O’Connor are to be kept in the nation’s consciousness forever through keeping their works in print in perpetuity At least that’s the idea. What other country can claim such a project? When I received my copy of The Complete Works of Flannery O’Connor in the post yesterday (sent to me by another American invention, Amazon.com), I felt I was holding in my hands the idea of America.

Now, of course it’s true to say that the reality of America has rarely equaled these lofty ideas, and as such there is a whole tradition of discontented American writers reporting on the sorry state of their nation. And I have been profoundly influenced by many of these writers. Writers such as Raymond Chandler, Philip K Dick, William S Burroughs, John Crowley, Barry Malzberg, James Tiptree Jr, Jeff Vandermeer, and more recently Harry Crews have meant the world to me. I have been, in a very real sense, Americanised by the worldviews of these writers, to say nothing of the crass consumer culture I have been subjected to, whether willingly or not, on every day of my life.

Recently I happened upon a website called betterworldbooks.com, an innovative project to recycle unwanted books that would otherwise end up in landfill. The books are sold at a nominal price (usually $4) and proceeds go to various causes supporting literacy worldwide. I’ve no idea what percentage of the cover price ends up funding these projects or how effective the strategy is on the whole. I could find out. But the idea, the idea, is so beautiful as to be breathtaking. This is the America I love. Better World Books will ship to Australia for $4 postage per book, so you end up paying $8 US for a book (like $8.50 Australian at the moment). So this is significantly cheaper than secondhand books in Australia, the selection is FAR wider than any bookstore you’ll ever set foot into, and it’s for a worthy cause. Delivery times are good too. I placed two orders recently and both arrived within 3 weeks. That’s slightly quicker than Amazon (3-4 weeks) and signifcantly quicker than Fishpond (4+ weeks). So I ordered another 13 books – 5 of which are for my wife.

And the writers? All Americans bar one. Carter Scholz, Ken Kalfus, Jeff Vandermeer, a biography of Raymond Chandler, and one lone Englishwoman, Pat Barker.

I highly recommend this service.

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/

..und zur Abwechslung mal was lustiges, auf CollegeHumor gefunden:

Preparing to Install

This section explains various aspects to consider before starting the installation.

Server and Desktop Differences

There are a few differences between the Ubuntu Server Edition and the Ubuntu Desktop Edition. It should be noted that both editions use the same apt repositories. Making it just as easy to install a server application on the Desktop Edition as it is on the Server Edition.

The differences between the two editions are the lack of an X window environment in the Server Edition, the installation process, and different Kernel options.

 

Kernel Differences:

• The Server Edition uses the Deadline I/O scheduler instead of the CFQ scheduler used by the Desktop Edition.
• Preemption is turned off in the Server Edition.
• The timer interrupt is 100 Hz in the Server Edition and 250 Hz in the Desktop Edition.
• The Server Edition is optimized for i686 processors while the Desktop Edition is optimized for both the i586 and i686.
• Virtualization is better supported in the Server Edition through the enabling of IPC namespaces, and the Xen hypervisor.
• Multiple routing tables for the IPv6 protocol are also supported in the Server Edition.
• For 32-bit systems the Server Edition is configured to use PAE which allows addressing up to 64GB of memory while the Desktop Edition is configured for 4GB.

	When running a 64-bit version of Ubuntu on 64-bit processors you are not limited by memory addressing space.

To see all kernel configuration options you can look through /boot/config-2.6.22-server. Also, Linux Kernel in a Nutshell is a great
resource on the options available.

REFERENCE: https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/C/preparing-to-install.html#intro-server-differences

The blogging business is a curious one, I have learned: I write scurrilously about my family and they applaud me when my stats rise - Four people today read the horrible things you wrote about us; hooray!  Well done, Mum.  I gossip about their and my doings and hope strangers from across the world will read and comment on it.  In effect, I am inviting Big Brother into my home.  Yes, me, who is the first to scorn that sad bunch of desperate freaks and wannabes appearing each year on our screens: 

They are themselves for public entertainment:

 as am I.

They hope to do something funny or interesting to endear them to the public:

 as do I.

They deliberately make fools of themselves:

I’m in the clear on this one: making a fool of myself comes so naturally, I don’t have to try.

They expose their innermost desires in the full glare of publicity:

well, you know I have pretensions of being a poet.  Oh, and I want my kids to love me; but I’m somewhat lacking in the publicity department at the mo’.

They hope to earn lots of dosh from their exposure:

 sadly for me, based on my current following, I think I owe WordPress money.

They don’t care what people think of them:

this one is most true of me < makes rude gestures to computer screen>   No, just kidding!  I wasn’t.  PLEASE come back, dear reader.  You’re my only friend.

I am afraid that, like Winston Smith, it will be said of me, She loved Big Brother. 

 There is no greater shame.

زندگی مثل آواز خوندنه.ه

باید با ضعیف ترین تارهای حنجره ت اینقدر بخونی تا قوی بشن. و مسلط بشی.ه

باید جلوی لرزش خام صدا رو بگیری. تا بتونی اون طور که می خوای بلرزونیش.ه

ضعیف ترین و حقیر ترین ویژگی ها و احساساتم رو ریختم روی کاغذ: ساید سیاه پنگوئن.ه

قابل تحمل بودم. با همه ی بدی هام.ه

….

با خودم که آشتی می کنم

سریع آروم می شم.ه

Sunday at about noon I finished cutting out all the fabrics for the second Sightlines quilt. The bottom fabrics had to be all lined up with the first quilt, so it took probably closer to 5 hours total, because I kept having to find the relevant pieces in the other box of 1200 or so pieces so I would know which fabric they would have to be. I had one large piece where I didn’t have a piece of fabric large enough for the piece, but I pieced the piece. No problem.

I used some of the fabrics from the original quilt (114 fabrics), but not all of them, and I had to add these 6.

I didn’t have the right grays for the clouds, and I needed a special orange for the man’s shaved head.

I’m apologizing now for not posting REAL pictures. This thing is supposed to stay off the web for some period of time, maybe even until its unveiling at the Houston show next October. What can I say? And there is some hubbub about apparently being at the show itself. Yikes. School year. October. Soccer. Can you say hyperventilate?

So now I can leisurely (ha ha ha) cut out the total 1600 pieces (gawk, faints on the floor) in the next week. While grading all those cell booklets and powerpoints. I did finish the tests (hallelujah). I have a plan for doing the powerpoints in class tomorrow, but it may not work. Kids the day before a holiday are sort of wiggy and require lots of hands-on attention from teachers. We’ll see.

I also managed to pick out the fabrics for the 4th of the Home Sweet Home blocks.

I didn’t manage to sew the bottom pieces on block 3 (although I did cut them out, and if I didn’t feel like going to bed from exhaustion right this freakin’ minute, I would do that now). I also didn’t manage to take up the girlchild’s new sweat pants for soccer…nice of dad to purchase them, but of course they won’t fit.

Sigh.

In height news, the boychild is tall and the girlchild is a fraction of an inch shorter than me. Like the space between my fingernail and my fingernail if my fingers are pressed together. Essentially…she is as tall as I am. I’m glad she is, because she was worried she wouldn’t get there, due to certain female occurrences that tend to stop growth. Boychild has no such hindrances and will continue to outgrow all of us, which is fine by me, because someone in the house should be able to reach the stuff on the upper shelves, and it’s not going to be me.

Kitten was incredibly unhelpful on Sunday. She kept climbing up the fabrics and knocking them down…

and then chasing bits of paper all over the studio and attacking bits of Wonder Under.

She finally fell asleep and was less annoying…

There’s a skunk outside (can smell it). Debating letting the dogs out. They need to pee, but I’ve dealt with skunk before and don’t have the energy for it right now. My pillow smelled skunklike for weeks.

Proof that it is “Fall” in Southern California…

At the last soccer game, I wore jeans AND socks. Don’t care what you think of my shoes. They are one of two pairs that don’t make my feet hurt like someone is stabbing them with an ice pick. I do want a new color, though. At the soccer games in Vegas, I’m planning on bringing a blanket, gloves, mittens, and a hat. Seriously. Girlchild has one game at 7 PM…it will be bloody freezing (don’t give me some crap about snow in Colorado or Maine or wherever…I’m a delicate Southern California flower with lousy circulation…I freeze easily).

I redid the fridge calendar for the next 6 weeks, and the girlchild decided to add commentary to EVERY FREAKIN’ DAY. I don’t like this much clutter on my calendar…it’s driving me nuts!

Apparently she’s planning on being bored during vacation. Sigh.

One more day of school. Not sure why that ’s a good thing…it just means lots of driving and grading and cold soccer fields with a bunch of people I barely know in a city I hate.

Gosh, what a positive attitude I have today. GRRR. Stay away from mean, cranky teacher. She bites.

“Husband and Wife”

What’s the most drastic change you’ve ever made to your appearance?

My blogging buddy Leese from Living Me101 recently awarded me with the very first EVER “Left Of Center Award.”

Are words such as “inappropriate” and “unacceptable” politically correct?

Inappropriate and unacceptable began their modern careers in the 1980s as part of the jargon of political correctness. They have more or less replaced a number of older, more exact terms: coarse, tactless, vulgar, lewd. They encompass most of what would formerly have been called “improper” or “indecent.” An affair between a teacher and a pupil that was once improper is now inappropriate; a once indecent joke is now unacceptable.

I wonder how many other words or expressions came into common use in an effort to avoid moral judgment.

[Hat tip: Arts & Letters Daily]

Two weeks ago I went to my parents home for a gathering of their cooking club. Every six to eight weeks they get together with five other couples and cook food from a given region or within a theme. The food is always excellent.

Their last theme was basically Thanksgiving on steroids.

With the help of one of the other cooking club members and former butcher, Nello, my father made a turducken.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with turducken, it is a turkey stuffed with a chicken, that is stuffed with a duck, and three types of stuffing. If you’re keeping score at home, the stuffings are made from andouille sausage, cornbread, and the Spira Family stuffing which is largely crackers and mushrooms.

The meal was breathtaking.

The turkey was the best turkey I’ve ever had.

The chicken was the best chicken I’ve ever had.

The duck was the best duck I’ve ever had.

Together they were perfect.

My conclusion: Duck fat makes everything better.

The high today was 77 degrees.  Beautiful.

Today I helped clean out the last of my garage.  That was a mind blowing experience.  I found a DSL modem in a box with a Serial-USB converter, a picture of my father on top of a mountain, and plenty of mouse shit.  Blecch.  I found a ball from Wendy’s that had a Nickelodian logo on it.  It made me think about Rugrats and Catdog.  That was the heyday of television.  I was too stupid to realize Chuckie’s mom died, and that’s why they went to Japan.  Then they had some bullshit spinoff, “All Grown Up”.  Shit was so NOT cash.  The Catdog movie was a big deal.  Turns out their parents were actually a frog and weird monster thing.  They had an EPIC adventure…  All I can say.  My childhood was cool for the most part.  When my Parents got divorced, I was confused.  Same thing with 9/11.  I was like, “OK…  Some guys flew a plane into a building.  Big whoop.”.  I’m still like that today…  Anyway…  Today was cool.  I had a history test that was fairly easy…  And…  That’s about it.

Quote of the day: I had to eat my dinner there…  Mashed potatoes and stuff like that…- Kurt Cobain