Just a quick note – I’ve tweaked the Bloos Riff theme just a bit.
I was starting to really, really dislike how it looked.
(also – 0.17 is coming soon! I’m working on some relatively exciting improvements in the behind-the-scenes areas)
. . . as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
– Philippians 1:20 (ESV)
I don’t know if I have a “life verse”, or even if having a “life-verse” is a good idea.
But if I had one, it would be this one!
It is very easy for me to feel ashamed. Of myself, mainly. It’s hard to explain, but this has been a struggle for me all my life. It is a struggle I would like to put behind me.
I am not naturally noble or cool, and I still can’t figure out why I was blessed with such a cool wife and cool children. God is so good. He has been incredibly good to me.
My dream for my own life’s ending is that I won’t be ashamed. That I will have “full courage” – and not just at the ending of my life, which I probably think about more than is normal or useful :-), but also now. Oh to live a life that leaves me not at all ashamed.
Christ deserves to be honored in my body. Whether I live or die.
May it be so.
I’ve been away – my family and I evacuated to San Antonio in advance of Rita. We’ll be heading back today.
It turns out that our area of Houston was, thankfully, spared from any major damage.
If you’d like to read about our evacuation experience, you can read it here on Thinklings.
Sorry for the light posting lately. Been very busy. I’m at a conference today and on break at the moment.
Bloo v 0.17 is coming soon.
I was also thinking the other day that I need to get back to this:
“Well, the ancients only counted the nine muses, all of them females,” Piper got out of his chair and stood, adopting a professorial tone. Daniel rolled his eyes. “They are the children of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. There is Calliope, the muse of epic poetry -.”
“Since when did you become an expert in Greek mythology?” Daniel interrupted.
“I know much about many things, young pup. Don’t interrupt.” Piper continued: “Euterpe is the muse of music, Erato brings us love poetry,” at this Piper winked at Daniel, “and, um, there are a few other muses whose names I can’t remember at the moment.”
“Speaking of love poetry,” Daniel said, “how’s your new love interest doing? What was her name? Chloe?”
Piper shook his head, eyes lidded and head inclined toward Daniel; a philosopher correcting a wayward pupil. “She who we shall not name has, shall we say, flown the coop.”
“No way.” Daniel glanced sidelong at Michael.
“So who’s the web muse?” Michael asked.
“The web muse has no name,” Piper said, “but she descends upon me often, and through me weaves a symphony of Internet e-wonder. Ergo my throng of delighted customers.” Piper bowed his head, holding his hands up to quiet the unheard applause.
Daniel was unimpressed. “So, who’s the muse of bull-”
At that Toni stuck her head in the door. “Daniel, are you almost done in there? I need to talk over some things with you. I’ve got some ideas.”
“Yeah, be right there.”
Toni threw a hard look toward Piper and left the doorway.
Piper smiled at Daniel. “Your muse is calling. I believe she will inspire you to greatness.”
“Call me Melpomene, Mr. Lyper.” Toni’s voice echoed from down the hall. Piper flinched.
“Man, she’s got good ears,” whispered Michael.
“I’m coming,” Daniel called after her, and turned to walk out of the room. When he reached the door, he turned back toward Piper. “Who’s Melpomene?”
“She’s one of the muses.”
“The muse of what?”
“Tragedy.”
My novel – working title Twenty Three Notes. This is an excerpt from one of the last bits I wrote (from chapter six) and there I’ve been stalled for quite some time. This part is a tad “salty” but (I hope) all to good purpose.
Toni remains in the hallway, and Michael, Daniel and Piper look at each other quizzically while I fiddle. Maybe I’ll get back to it soon. I have no illusions about publication. Just finishing. And in some way communicating redemption.
Be back soon.
Please pray for the Matthew’s family. They are a family at my children’s school. Their sweet little daughter Dinah passed away yesterday morning after a long battle with cancer.
They are believers. Please pray for God’s comfort in this terrible time of grief.
Update:
Seen on Dinah’s site :
Hospital Information:
Patient Room: Mansion
The Kingdom of Heaven
Sitting on the lap of Jesus
Bringing Glory to God
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing–as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
– Colossians 1:3-14
Paul loved the people he had ministered to and with. Just absolutely loved them. You can see it shine through passages like this one. He wanted nothing but the best for them, and for God to be glorified in them. He wanted them to have a walk worthy of their calling. To increase in good works. He wanted them to be strong, and to stay strong in the heat of tribulation. He prayed for them every day, for them to have endurance, and patience, and joy.
I have no wisdom to add to this. I was just touched by reading this passage tonight. I have felt this way myself, although I don’t claim to have anywhere near the passion and self-sacrifice that Paul had for his people. But I know the feeling. They aren’t your people, they are God’s people, but in a way, they are yours. You want them to grow, to be strong. To make it! To endure but not just to survive but rather to live abundantly in joy. So that one day you can sit at their feet and be challenged and exhorted by them, because they have passed you up.
I think of our own kids, and this desire for them burns in me. And they aren’t even our kids, they are God’s kids, but in a way they are ours too as he has loaned them to Jill and I for this short while. I look forward to the day when I will marvel at how far they have come in the Lord, and at how they are now leading me. And, finally, on that Day when we meet again and embrace in eternity, I will be thanking them for being shining examples and mentors to me, and not the other way around.
I have also felt this way (and still feel this way) for the band kids I was allowed to minister to for awhile. I don’t see them much anymore, but I have an inkling of how Paul felt. How I want them to grow, and to not just survive but to thrive! To pass far beyond my walk as they run in joyful faith the race God has set before them. To shine so brightly that when I meet them five or ten years from now I will have to put on shades. Lord, let it be!
. . .giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
As some of you know, the Thinklings is a blog that I webmaster. It had been down last week but was brought back and converted to WordPress.
There are two other blogs in the Thinklings domain – one, which is still down, is Jared’s Mysterium Tremendum (coming up soon, Rod – don’t lose hope!). The other is Katherine’s Blog, which I have converted to Bloo. Bloo version 0.17a, to be exact. This is basically the version I’m running here, with a slight modification on how settings are loaded. I will be upgrading both blogs to 0.17 proper when I get it done.
I haven’t, um, exactly communicated this new development to Katherine yet. 🙂 But she’s a good friend and hopefully will be ok with me using her as a guinea pig.
The expansion of Bloo across the blogosphere has begun! [Bill adopts a Darth Vader pose . . . ]
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
– Genesis 1:1-2 (ESV)
“The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”.
I’m pondering this statement as I sit here importing database records for some blogs I’m trying to restore. I am engaged right now in what could modestly be called a creative action – configuring and writing blog software. I enjoy this – it’s something that energizes me.
I believe fully that God enjoyed (and enjoys) His creation too. We can try to fathom, unsuccessfully, the working of the unfathomably complex mind of our Creator as he pondered what He was about to do, hovering over the face of the deep. He is at peace, in control, competent in a way that we cannot even comprehend. Skilled beyond our wildest imagination. The Expert.
His mind – what a mind! In this creative act, performed in the beginning, I see the joy of our God. He hovered over the face of the deep; just imagine His mind at work. How unsearchable is His amazing wisdom! The nuclear physicist, designing the strong and weak forces, the spin of sub-atomic particles that we haven’t even discovered yet and this amazing quantum paradigm that drives the universe. The software engineer – a programmer if you will – developing the DNA strand with its limitless ability to replicate and recombine the genetic code in nearly incomprehensible complexity. The geologist, setting in motion the stirrings, the groans of this planet and indeed all planets. Massive continents in motion! Worlds spinning around enormous stars in the depths of space. He is the great botanist, painter, zoologist, blacksmith, chemist, architect, inventor, musician, astrophysicist, meteorologist, creator. He is God. There is no other.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
– Genesis 1:31 (ESV)
Blo read this to us Sunday night at the IHOP mini-moot.
God is faithful. This is a great reminder.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!– Psalm 146:5-10 (ESV)
May the Lord lift those who are bowed down, watch over the sojourners, uphold those who have lost parents, husbands, wives, children.
Winds blow, waves rise, rains lash, buildings crumble, our works fade. The Lord will reign forever, and He will make all things right.
Blessed be His name.
Bloo version 0.16 has just been deployed!
This release concentrates exclusively on look and feel, which you may have noticed. In this release I have implemented the use of Cascaded Themes. If you’re seeing the default theme right now, you are looking at what I call “Bloo’s Riff”. There are two other themes available – “Bloo Classic” and “Blue”.
And, yes, that is an actual Blues scale – in “B” of course – being played on my venerable Guild dreadnought. 🙂
You can select a theme from the new ThemeDropDown SnapOn (“Select Theme”) located in the left navbar (for Bloo’s Riff) or in the right navbar for either Bloo Classic or Blue.
If you select a theme Bloo will store it in a cookie and reuse it next time.
These themes all “cascade” from a private theme called Bloo Base. In addition, you may notice that Blue and Bloo Classic look pretty much identical, with a bit of color and font finagling. Blue really is just a simple theme that cascades off of Bloo Classic and just does some tweaking of the style sheet.
Speaking of style sheets, one thing to realize about these themes is that they are far more than CSS changes. You can change as much or as little of the look and feel of a page with a theme as you desire and, if designed right, you should be able to cascade off other themes if you just want to make a few small changes, rather than having to create an entire new theme off a cloned and tweaked version.
I will be publishing the spec for this soon (“soon” being a relative term 🙂 with the ulterior motive that perhaps I can get one or more of my many (heh) readers to create a new theme or two for this blog. Feeling artistic and wanting to take part in the Bloo experience? This will be your chance (provided I get that spec created!).
Well, that’s it for 0.16. I wanted to keep this one focused. 0.17 will branch off into some other new features, and hopefully will be coming out soon.
Watch me for the changes . . .