I promise, once Bloo is released into the wild I’m setting up a Developer’s blog so that I will be able to spare you my nerdvana moments regarding the Bloo Software.
But . . . we’re not there yet. So I will be blathering on about this stuff here in this space. Today I took another step toward public release: I have requested a SourceForge.net project space for Bloo. I should know in two days whether they think Bloo is worthy.
Here’s the text of the request (on the wiki).
I’m getting ready for the public release of Bloo. This is now the main image on the wiki too.
I’m not a graphic artist, so a question to my three readers: what do you think?
I have been working feverishly on Bloo version 1.0, which will be the public domain release. I’ll lovingly release it into the wild sometime between February 29-March 2. So I now have a real release date, and not just the 33rd of Neverary date that I’ve been working with to this point. I’ve been doing a lot of code review and refactoring, and the final product will be a lot more stable and extensible I think than what I have now.
If you get a chance, check out my new Wiki. I was using PHPWiki earlier, but it kind of applied a vacuum, so I switched to MediaWiki, which is the same fine software that powers Wikipedia. The documentation will be expanding on the Wiki as time goes by, and hopefully I’ll come up with a better logo too. Anyone want to help on that score?
Wiki software is so cool. [Bill makes that face geeks make when they are thinking of something cool, like Wiki software or the Lord of the Rings].
I had the day off today, which consisted of finishing Blake’s poem, cooking Jill breakfast (my scrambled eggs and bacon are becoming legendary. Well, not really, but I’m getting better), working for awhile on Bloo, fixing a fuel-leak on Andrew’s car, taking Molly a lunch that she sweet-talked me into, looking at the shells Bethany got at Galveston on her weekend adventure, briefly tossing the baseball with Blake, “checking the mail” with Andrew and Jill, and not doing my taxes.
I taught a spiritual gifts class tonight for students. I forgot how much I miss students. Wow.
Our second GAP class went well (at least I got a lot out of it). We’re going through a study of Philippians right now. Double wow.
I’m praying for you every day, multiple times, oh guitar-playing, Chili’s table sharing, Quessadilla-eating, lunch-skipping, paper-writing, Maxima-driving, deep-thinking one. I love you more than you can imagine.
This post is so much like a Livejournal post. I think I’m regressing.
Good night all. God loves you.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
– Philippians 1:2 (ESV)
“Grace to you and peace”; this was the common epistolary greeting of Paul. I’ve blown through it many times, without realizing its importance.
Greetings in letters in those days held more importants than the greetings of our day – the greeting in most of my emails is “hey!”, for instance. It was quite common for Greek letters of Paul’s day to begin with the word charein, which means “rejoice”, or “greetings”. An example of this can be found in the beginning of the book of James.
Paul diverged from this custom by starting many of his letters with the word charis, or “grace”. It is derived from the same root as charein but carries with it that central theme of the Gospel, the theme of unmerited favor. Grace! The favor of God, undeserved yet purchased for us by the willing shedding of the blood of Jesus.
The common greeting in a Hebrew letter of Paul’s day was shalom, or “peace”. Paul knew the source of peace, the “peace that passes all understanding”. It is grace, from whose fountain peace flows into our lives. So Paul combined these two customs in one: charis umin kai eirene, “Grace to you and peace”.
May you experience both today!
Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
– Philippians 3:14-16 (ESV)
Blameless.
That is what we are called to be. In reading these lines from Philippians 3 I am reminded of the description of the blessed man of Psalm 1:
There is an aspect to this that I hadn’t thought of before tonight. Look at these commands: don’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers. Do everything withough grumbling or complaining. Why? Well, the first answer is, of course, because these actions dishonor the Lord.
But we should also avoid them because they waste time.
When a lamp is lit, it shines. It doesn’t grumble or complain about the lighting, or what it is illuminating, or the fact that its lampshade could use some dusting.
Sitting for a time with the scoffers can be enjoyable; most of us enjoy venting our cynicism and getting our vitriol on now and then. The self-indulgence of perceived hurt carries with it a perverse pleasure. But what a colossal waste of time. I’m reminded of the scene from the movie Gettysburg in which Robert E. Lee scolds general Jeb Stuart for the late arrival of his cavalry to the battlefield. Lee states that Stuart’s honor is being questioned by the other officers. At that Stuart becomes indignant and demands a chance to settle the score with his accusers. Lee will have none of this nonsense, however. “There is no time!” he shouts.
We live in a world that pulls at our cynicism, trying to drag it out of us. These are, indeed, evil days. The natural state of man is to complain, to grumble, to scoff. Yet we are called to have none of that; there is no time! Why delay the shining of the light of Jesus into the darkness? And why let the fog of our sarcasm and bitterness cover it up?
Do everything without grumbling or questioning. That is the command. It may not seem natural, but we are children of God now, called to live blameless lives and to shine the light of hope in this dark, smoky world. May I take this to heart in my own life. It’s incredible, the effort it takes me just to cast a dim glow through the lampshade I have pulled so tightly around myself. Yet for some soul I meet tomorrow there may be no more time.
– Titus 2:11-14 (ESV)
I was just thinking about hope. It’s a wonderful thing! I hope to write more cogently and thoughtfully about it in the near future. I hope that you are experiencing hope today.
I will start updating regularly again, soon (I hope!).
Have a great day, blogosphere!
Laura Winner of the webzine Boundless has some interesting – and convicting – thoughts on cell phone usage. I was particularly struck by these paragraphs:
About a year ago, I was standing in line at the drugstore. The gal in front of me was talking on her cell phone. I (naively) assumed that when she got to the front of the line, she would hang up, or at least put her cell phone down. I was wrong. Where her turn came, Cell Phone Gal stayed stuck to her cell phone, paying for her gum, magazines, and lip gloss without so much as a hello to the cashier. It occurred to me that our gal was treating the person, the cashier, like a machine, and treating the machine like a person.
. . .
I am struck by the sad thought that we are no longer ever alone. We have eroded all the space we once had for solitude. I’ve had some of my best conversations with myself, and with God, strolling across campus. Now, when we stroll, we are talking into tiny bits of plastic – and most of what we’re saying is pretty lame. (“Well, I’m about 10 seconds from the library … yep, now I’m walking up the library steps … no, okay, well here I am entering the library, I’ll see you in three seconds.”) Is solitude so scary that we have made it impossible? Solitude is scary, but scarier still is the prospect of a society in which no one has time to be quiet, to be reflective.
Food for thought . . .
[hat tip: Transforming Sermons]
As quoted on Some Thoughts:
For even though our eyes, in whatever direction they may turn, are compelled to gaze upon God’s works, yet we see how changeable is our attention, and how swiftly are dissipated any godly thoughts that may touch us.
– From John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.xiv.2.
Man, ain’t that the truth!
Some undissipated godly thoughts would be wonderful. I think those long neglected disciplines of meditation, stillness, and silence perhaps hold the key.
Praying for undissipated meditation on the One most deserving of our attentions today . . .
. . . and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
– Psalm 46:10 (ESV)
[Hat Tip: Gratitude & Hoopla]
For some reason my time and mental energy have seemed limited lately, at least in this space. I can’t point to any one thing, though there are a few suspects. My attentions have been focused elsewhere, and this may explain both the dearth of posts and their relative lack of depth.
J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote that “It is a curse to have the epic temperament in an age devoted to snappy bits.” Unfortunately, snappy bits seem to be all I can produce these days. But I think that will soon change.
I am learning more about myself. I find that I live to fix, I live to create. Opportunities to “fix” I’ve had in spades recently, as a website that I do the webmastering for has had numerous performance problems recently. All appear to be resolved now. Wooohoo! [Bill does the Dilbert engineer’s victory dance. Be glad you can’t see it]
Then there’s creativity. I’m not a particularly good artist, but one area where I have (if I can say it) been gifted is in the area of software development. I consider it more art than science, and I believe God himself is a programmer. The proof I have is the DNA in every cell of your body. In a small, imperfect, and infinitely less elegant and innovative way, my work on the code for Bloo has been an inspiration to me, because it is my imitation of the creativity of God.
I have been working quite hard on Bloo, preparing to put it into the public domain. I wonder sometimes if this is worth it. I’m not doing it for money, certainly (it will be free, after all). For pride? Possibly. I would be a liar to say that I don’t take pride in my code, because I do. I think every good developer does. But in some ways I believe that this is almost an act of worship. Hear me out: we are told to do everything heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. Maybe God will be pleased with my imitation of him, in ways I don’t understand. And perhaps someone will take pleasure in being able to use Bloo to create their blog.
So in my free time-slices I am working heartily on Bloo. I have a lot to do before the end of the month. I’m taking risks in the code, re-factoring some pretty important parts, to get it in the most understandable and maintainable form possible. I’m very thankful I get to work on this. I’m hopeful that when Bloo is released I will be able to devote more time to other creative pursuits, such as writing my stalled novel, or playing my guitar more.
And teaching. That’s one thing that I am concentrating very hard on these days, regardless of the doings in Bloo. I’m so thankful that God is allowing me to teach again!
Good night Blogosphere. God loves you!
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men . . .
– Colossians 3:23 (ESV)
Today was our first day teaching the GAP (Graduates and Professionals) class at church. It was very enjoyable (for us at least. Hopefully they enjoyed it to!). Today we studied Habakkuk 3, which is not a chapter you read everyday, but is one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible, in my opinion. I’ve posted on it before in this space, and probably will again. It just inspires me.
Habakkuk was a man who questioned God, but yet never relinquished his faith, even in the face of tragedy. May I have that same spirit when tragedy strikes.
The ending of chapter three is breathtaking, and I’ll leave you with it:
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
– Habakkuk 3:17-19