It happens with every musician, early on. There’s that moment when the instrument quits being a frustrating bafflement and becomes something that works, and that can be joyfully built upon.
I’m listening to my daughter Bethany in her room, playing guitar and singing. She’s reached that moment in the last few weeks, and is progressing at a really swift pace.
I love the sound.
As a follow up to my last post, Andrew got his grades today from Baylor.
Our eldest has completed his first year of College. We go to pick him up tomorrow and bring him home.
Assuming all four of ours complete a four year program, we have fifteen more years to go (a number of them will be simultaneous)! It’s an adventure. Praise the Lord, who provided for us to pay for this first year without debt. We’re hoping to keep up that trend.
And thanks to Andrew, who was remarkably self-sufficient (he never once asked us for spending money – unless his Mom is keeping that a secret 🙂
Good job on getting this first year under your belt, Andrew! Well done.
Our venerable iMac G5 (from the early production run of late 2004) blew its mind two months ago. Since then I’ve had a crash course in replacing iMac logic boards. I use the plural because I’ve been through three of them while on this 60 day technological adventure.
Our original board developed a video ram problem. I ordered a replacement from some place in Cali, and the replacement had a . . . video ram problem. I got them to ship me another one. It had bulging capacitors (a common problem with early G5 boards). It worked for awhile but kept losing its mind whenever we put it to sleep, make undue noise, or breathed on it.
After some wrangling, I received a refund after shipping the deranged board back. Then I ordered a third board from another place. I was disappointed to find that it too has a couple of bulging capacitors (a mild case), but at this point, because a) it appears to be working and doesn’t lose its mind when we put it to sleep and b) beggars can’t be choosers, we’re going to try it for awhile.
I really only want another year out of this Mac before replacing it. Hopefully we’ll get there.
It’s good to have it back. I was getting really tired of using our Wind’ohs machine.
We’ve had a busy and good weekend. There is much I could write about, but a contented weariness steals over me (in other words, I’m beat). I’ll leave you with this (we sang this in church today):
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
From Wikipedia:
The original Old Irish text, Rop tú mo Baile is often attributed to Dallan Forgaill in the 6th century. The text had been a part of Irish monastic tradition for centuries before its setting to the tune, therefor before it became an actual hymn. It was translated from Old Irish into English by Mary E. Byrne in Ériu (the journal of the School of Irish Learning) in 1905. The English text was first versified by Eleanor H. Hull in 1912 and is now the most common text used.
I was talking to my mother in law today about how many young people seem to either not take their faith seriously or just lose it entirely when they come of age. Many, not all, of course. Lots of anecdotal evidence feeds into this opinion, such as my eldest son telling me recently that he only has one friend who really prays (she’s a Godsend, by the way).
My MIL’s reply was very wise: “Maybe they still don’t understand that they need to be saved.”
So true. We live in peace and plenty, even in our current “hard times” (which are, historically speaking, still very mild).
Why accept the Lordship of a Savior when it’s so easy to remain your own personal lord and your own personal savior?
Pray for our younger generation. For my entire Christian life, I’ve heard Christian young people declare “we can be the generation that changes the world for Christ.”
It’s been a long while since I’ve heard that sentiment. May they, and we, wake up.
Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before – it takes something from him.
Louis L’Amour (H/T Milly)
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
– Proverbs 16:32
This Fox Sports commercial never gets old:
Watch my Kobe Briant no-look Confusion Makuh!
This may be old news, but it was news to me. The Hobbit will be not just one movie, but TWO movies, as reported in this Empire article:
We spoke exclusively to both Del Toro and Jackson for our birthday issue, and they told us the latest, which is…
“We’ve decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur,” says Del Toro.
“We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie,” adds Jackson. “The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy.”
So there you go. The second film will not, as had previously been suggested, a film that will bridge the 60-year gap between The Hobbit and the start of Fellowship Of The Ring.
The one thing that will make me completely flip is if they bring back Ian McKellan as Gandalf (a cameo of Orlando Bloom as the ageless Legolas in the battle of five armies would be cool too).