The Arrow's Path

I had already given up on my Tennessee football team and kicked them out of my top ten NCAA football poll at halftime when they were down 21-0. I was even calculating whether they would drop out of the top 25 altogether after that kind of a thumping. i do half to admit that my prediction was correct: If LSU could score 30 points or more, they'd win. Little did I suspect that they would rally with 17 points in the fourth quarter to force overtime and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Way to go, fellers...Pardon me while I find my MP3 of Rocky Top

Over on his blog, Cliff has links to a very good 5 part blog series on one man's journey toward 'Why Orthodoxy?'. Its well written and worth the time. Kyle has written some interesting blogs about 'Why Anglicanism?'. That last one is currently posted. The previous ones are can be linked if you scroll down on the right side.

Well, we caught one of the mice on Friday with Trap #1 in what can only be called Episode II: Attack of the Clones. As I went to dispose of Trap #1, another of the buggers ran across my foot. This morning, for some reason, trap #2 has disappeared. So, if you see a mouse named Anakin running about with a trap on its tail, you will know why. If you see a mouse carrying around a trap, tell him to return it. The force is strong with this one, must be from the South Side of Tatooine.

This is an update on Bigfoot. I posted on a dobie rescue/transport ( click here for before picture) I had to do back in May I guess concerning a dog with the biggest paws ever. I've reconnected with my friends over at the Illinois Doberman Society and I got permission to use this photograph and give an update. Bigfoot apparently had a rough summer, as he was malnourished, had kennel cough, and heart worms when he came into IDR. Bigfoot is apparently almost back to normal now and is ready for adoption even. That's great because he was at death's door last I saw him in the spring.

This is a truly interesting if pointless article by the BBC. Look at the pictures of the IPODs compared to the old transistor radios. What's old is new again in fashion apparently. And the article even quotes scripture...I'm impressed. In other news...I saw an ad at an L train station for a play that a theater in Chicago was doing a recreation of the Wizard of Oz. The slogan on the ad: "The Viaduct Theatre is dropping the Baum on Chicago." OK...It may not be much now, but I thought it was clever.

Brain Lateralization Test Results Right Brain (40%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (58%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain Are You Right or Left Brained? personality tests by similarminds.com Considering I am left handed which is supposed to be controlled by the Right hemisphere, this somewhat surprises me. But then, other than writing and throwing a baseball, I do everything else with my right hand. Go figure... I am having CPE flashbacks. Please, somebody stop me!

I had a rather unusual adventure today. (I will be glad when class gets back in session as it will keep me out of trouble.) I heard through the grape vine that there was a Catholic monastery in Chicago. I found it to be a nice little place and the monks are friendly Benedictine chaps. Here is an excerpt from a conversion I had with the Prior: Prior Peter: Oh, you go to Seabury? Me: Yes, up in Evanston Prior Peter: Isn't that the where that AKMA blogger is? Me (with some surprise): Yes, he is my New Testament Professor. You've heard of blogs and know who AKMA is? Prior Peter: Oh yes, I read his blog Me: You read blogs? Prior Peter: Oh yes, I have my own blog . In fact, we also have a blog where we post of sermons. Me: Really? Monks with blogs? Prior Peter: Oh yes, and we also sell caskets on our website. Me (awkward pause): You do... what ? Prior Peter: Besides our guesthouse we have a casket business. Incense and candles aren't free you know. We have some very nice wood...

I was hopping about town on the L train and came across this (used) halloween costume down in Belmont (the retro hippie district of Chicago). If only I could wear it to the Boar's Head feast, I might have bought it. What was truly disturbing was that all the 18ish Generation Y'ers in the shop had no idea who or what it was. I felt old. Its dee' plane! Dee plane!

Being a membe of the Doberman Rescue Society, I found this article disturbing. If you have a dog in a kennel, you might want to read it.

This may in fact bring scandal upon us all, but I am very close to converting to the Dark Side. I made my first ever trip to a White Sox game this evening and had a blast. As any good city rivalry, you can't sit the fence. If you live in New York, its either Mets or Yanks. Here in Chi-Town, its Cubs or Sox. Or as one T-shirt read, "Cubs Sux." Let me go on record as saying that my ueber-baseball team is now and ever shall be the Atlanta Braves. Being from the South and named after a Civil War soldier/relative, that's just a given. But being here in Chi-town and being a huge baseball fan. I have heretofore been reluctantly placing my local allegiance to the Cubs, having been to several games at "the friendly confines." In fact, I rigged my initial visit to Seabury to be on days the Cubs were in town. I have never been a huge Cubs fan jut a fan of Wrigley field, although their announcer Ron Santo is cool. US Cellular is no Wrigley, but its clean and spacious an...

Number: 5786 Date: Sept 16 By Jonathan Wynne-Jones (Courtesy: Church of England Newspaper) AN ANTHOLOGY of writings by Christian martyrs printed in the 17th Century has been discovered in a London cellar by a retired teacher. It is believed to be the only book in this country with all four parts of A Cloud of Witnesses, which is made up of extracts from works such as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Other martyrologists in the book include Fuller, Petrie and Clark. The letters and prayers of martyrs such as Ridley and Latimer are collected alongside correspondence with Queen Elizabeth, with references to events such as the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. The book, which was printed between 1665 and 1678, has been in the family of Eric Inwood for centuries, but he only recently rediscovered it lying in his cellar. Alongside the text are marks and annotations, which could have been made by one of the book’s original owners, believed to be an Exeter clergyman. Mr Inwood said that it was likely that...

Well, i have been intrigued by this IPOD game people seem to be playing on their blogs. I don't have an IPOD (Thank God. Sorry, AKMA , I had an Apple briefly when I was in college, and had nothing but problems out of it, so I swore I'd never own another Apple product.). I have been concocting a way of doing this and came up with cruising my hard drive and adapting. How many total MP3s? 12,382 (48.1 GBs)* *In my defense, I collect old radio shows in MP3, so probably 40 GB or so are pre-1960 radio shows. Hey, don't tell me you have never collected something weird... Sort by Time - first and last songs? First: Three Stooges Face Smack.mp3 1 Second Last: Mercury Theater.The Count of Monte Cristo, April 1939.mp3 1 Hour 3 minutes Sort by Song Title - first and last songs? First: 19320512 Tarzan and the Diamonds of Asher, Part 1 of 37.mp3 (the number is the date of original broadcast) Last: Zoomaway.soundeffects.mp3 (This is technically a sound effect not a song, but since I am in...

Back by popular demand is my ongoing Cherokee myths of the week. This week: Why the Mole lives underground... A man was in love with a woman who disliked him and would have nothing to do with him. He tried every way to win her favor, but to no purpose, until at last he grew discouraged and made himself sick thinking over it. The Mole came along, and finding him in such low condition asked what was the trouble. The man told him the whole story, and when he had finished the Mole said: "I can help you, so that she will not only like you, but will come to you of her own will." p. 278 So that night the Mole burrowed his way underground to where the girl was in bed asleep and took out her heart. He came back by the same way and gave the heart to the man, who could not see it even when it was put into his hand. "There," said the Mole, "swallow it, and she will be drawn to come to you and can not keep away." The man swallowed the heart, and when the girl woke up s...

Due to an unwanted visitor in my new cell here in the Pen, I was checking out mousetraps down at the hardware store. It is truly amazing how much store space is devoted to mouse and rat traps. They had regular mouse traps, mouse traps with fake cheese, poison, poison with assorted flavors (the mouse will be about to croak but his breath will be fresh and minty), humane "don't kill the mouse" traps (complete with a cutsy little picture of a mouse waving a white flag), rat boxes, rubber decoy rats (I was afraid to ask what those were for), and mice strips were the mouse gets caught in the glue like fly mouse (So when you see a mouse running around with bald spots, you will know why). My favorite was one that had flashing LED lights, sonic vibrations, and, as far as I understood the directions, administered random shocks (I dubbed that the BTK trap). Also worthy of mention was the one large enough to trap rats the size of small watermelons or perhaps the family cat, which wo...

Celtic Fest is going on this weekend down in Grant Park, pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday. I went last year and had a blast. I am going tomorrow afternoon...if anyone wants to go with me, leave a comment. I'm taking the L train, probably around 1 or 1:30. Its well worth the time and its free...

I have safely returned to Seabury. I did not run into any more interesting sights on my way from Louisville to Chicago, unless you count the stop off at the Amish furniture place. The traffic on 80/94 was completely stopped yesterday as I found out. Back wreck, the entire interstate was stopped going my direction. I have a sweet dorm room though, although moving all my junk up 2 flights of stairs was a bugger. My back is a bit stiff this morning. However, the day has come...and gone. If you are on the block, stop by and see me. I'm in Copeland's old room.

While I stopped overnight at my college roomies place in Lexington, KY, I saw a few interesting things in my journeys. 1. While in the middle of nowhere on I-75 on the TN-KY line near the Cumberland Gap state park, there was a large warehouse with a red roof which was apparently a, shall we say, adult supercenter. You could see it from the interstate (I did not stop). There on a big banner read, "Closed Sundays." Only in the Bible Belt does a porn warehouse respect the Sabbath. 2. After dinner, my old college roomie and I walked into the Historic Section of Louisville and found a little pub for a pint. It was more like just your average bar: dark, people with tattooes, etc. There were several big screen TVs with various channels and music was blaring in the background. Promptly at 7:30, Jeopardy! came on one of the Big Screens right behind the bar. Off went the music and in was piped Jeopardy! to which everyone at the bar was intently watching. And if you think that's wei...

Well, my summer parole (although I don't know what kind of parole CPE would classify as) from Seabury-Western is officially coming to an end, as I make my way back up to the city with the big shoulders. This will be my last post for a few days as I trek, first to Lexington to see Kyle, and then to Louisville to visit Nick. I hear the Buterbaugh as already moved into our pad (formerly the home of the Never Ending Cosmo), and perhaps the other roomie, Boba Fetz. So, to all my loyal readers (all 4 of you)...catch you on the flip side.

Thanks to Wes for this lastest blogging fad ... I am apparently a 'cool, modern nerd.' I can rest in peace now.

I would like to offer a prayer for Northern Ireland. Exploiting Katrina and Iraq, the nearly worthless American media have completely ignored the upstart of violence in Northern Ireland the last few weeks. Its still going on folks...

There was another spam/comment incident yesterday which forced me to up the blog comment option security again. Any time you leave a comment, you have to do the extra step of typing in the word verification thing. What this does is to prevent automated systems from adding comments to my blog, since it takes a human being to read the word and pass this step. I apologize for this, but I am not going to put up with XXX spam advertisements on my blog.

Here is the third and last pic of my spidey friend. I apologize for the numerous posts, but my bloggerbot picture posting program is acting screwy... 

Here is another pic of the same web from a different angle. Said the spider: "Leave me alone, you silly human..."

These are some pictures of a visitor we had on our porch the last few days. This big feller is a writing spider. Perfectly harmless, unless you are a bug. These pictures turned out well...I thought I would share them. Beauty in God's creation comes in all shapes and sizes.  

Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the the Clones. Wait...this is real life. You have to read this . Scientists win the right to create human embryo with three genetic parents.

A NEW report is predicting that Britain’s churches may well face extinction with only two per cent of the population attending Sunday services by the year 2040. The new study by Christian Research, one of the bleakest reports ever produced into church attendance, concluded that with congregations plummeting by two-thirds over the next three decades, the impact for churchgoing was clear: “rapidly moving towards virtual wipe-out.” The report, The Future of the Church’, found that if the current trends continue, the number of Muslims attending prayers at British mosques on Friday will be double the number of Christians at church on Sunday by 2040. Struggling against the rising tide of secularisation, the current 9.4 per cent of the population in regular attendance of Sunday service is expected to be under five per cent by 2040, and of those worshippers 65 per cent will be over the age of 65. The study predicts that some 18,000 churches will be forced to close. Such projections foresee a b...

I have to admit I was out of the loop last week. I was out camping for most of the last week. I knew there was a hurricane coming, but I had no idea that it was as bad as it turned out to be. Usually when I go camping, I make a point to not take a TV or radio or anything and just commune with nature. I have to admit I was completely shocked by what greeted me upon my return to civilization. Gas was over $3.50 a gallon and the radio was talking about thousands being dead and bodies floating in the water. I felt like a bumpkin that came out of the hills. I do not know what to say with this post other than to continue to offer prayers for all those people, the refugees and the helpers.

I found this interesting blog over on Ryan's blog . I was actually going to add it, and lo and behold, the blogger left a comment on my blog. Turns out he is also a "recovering Presbyterian" as he says. Check it out here .

The Archer has returned from his fishing adventure. I caught several fish, mostly bluegill and small stuff and one good sized catfish. I rented a boat and cruised Cherokee lake Saturday and the dobies loved it.