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The Jamison’s spent the week in Arkansas. Here’s what I learned:
1. Kids can be so interested in seeing their cousins that they don’t want to stop and eat meals.
2. Kids who have been in recording sessions several times (over 3 years) get the hang of it and make quick work of a long complex song – especially if you have a talented sound guy.
3. 15 people can sit in a small trailer pulled by a tractor and really enjoy it.
4. Petit Jean State Park (Arkansas – just west of Little Rock) is the nicest state park I’ve been to (south of Minnesota).
5. It’s nice to be a 4 year old girl’s favorite uncle, even if it’s only for a week.
6. 2 boys (aged 9) can almost single handedly make pancakes for two large families.
7. Two large families can in one day polish off a 9 cup-of-flour recipe of pancakes and 6 Pizza Hut pizzas.
8. Kids can get sick of fast food.
9. A 6 year old boy can go from being afraid to jump into the pool to not wanting to stop jumping into the pool in about 3 minutes.
10. It is possible for a family of 9 to sleep in a hotel suite for 9 hours straight, especially after several late nights, 8 hours of travel and swimming.
11. One of the covered “Bridges of Madison County” is only about ¾ miles from Interstate 35. It’s cool to walk through.
I would have said “Our family is blessed by God in many many ways”, but I already knew that.
850 Miles is a long way to go in one day, especially for a family with 7 kids.
Item Counts In The Bible – Multiples Of Eleven
(Complete Lists)
11
Stars bowing to Joseph in his dream Genesis 37:9
Curtains in the temple Exodus 36:14
Bulls sacrificed in the temple in the Feast of Booths Numbers 29:20
Days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. Deuteronomy 1:2
Cities in Judah’s Hill Country Joshua 15:51
Years Jehoiakim Reigned in Judah 2 Kings 24:18
Years Zedekiah reined in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 36:11
The Hour the last workers were hired by the Master of the House Matt 20:6
Disciples given the Great Commission Mark 16:14
22
Cities in the inheritance of Asher Joshua 19:30
Years Jair the Gileadite judged Israel Judges 10:3
Years Jeroboam reigned in Israel 1 Kings 14:20
Years Omri reigned over Israel 1 Kings 16:29
Age of Ahaziah when he began to reign in Judah 2 Kings 8:26
Age of Amon when he began to reign in Judah 2 Kings 21:19
Commanders from Zadok’s father’s house – they fought for David 1 Chron 12:28
Sons of Abijah 2 Chronicles 13:21
Stanzas in Psalm 119
33
Sons and Daughters of Jacob Genesis 46:15
Days of Purification after giving birth to a Boy Leviticus 12:4
Years David ruled all Israel in Jerusalem 2 Samuel 5:5
44
None
55
Years Manasseh reigned in Judah 2 Kings 21:1
66
Jacobs Descendants who went into Egypt Genesis 46:26
Days of Purification after giving birth to a Girl Leviticus 12:5.
77
Strength of Lamech’s revenge Genesis 4:24
Officials and elders of Succoth, written down by Gideon Judges 8:14
Lambs offered to God in the burnt offering Ezra 8:35
Times you should forgive your brother Matthew 18:22
88
None
99
Abram’s age at the Covenant of Circumcision Genesis 17:1
Sheep left by the good shepherd to find the lost one Matthew 18:12
Number of righteous persons who need no repentance who cause less joy in Heaven than one sinner who repents! Matthew 18:13
In case you’re curious, here is a list of other posts on my blogs which show a whole category of items from the Bible.
Everything I Ever Needed To Know I Learned From Fellowship Of The Ring (part 2)
A loon is he that will not sing. *** Water hot is a noble thing. *** Sweet is the sound of falling rain and the brook that leaps from hill to plain, but better than rain or rippling streams is Water Hot that smokes and steams. *** Water cold we map pour at need down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed. *** O wanderers in the shadowed land despair not! For though dark they stand all woods there be must end at last and see the open sun go past. *** East or west, all woods must fail. *** The trees and the grasses and all things growing or living in the land belong each to themselves. *** Some things are ill to hear when the worlds in shadow. *** Heed no nightly noises. *** Nothing that goes on two legs is a weather master. *** Clothes are but little loss if you escape from drowning. *** Sharp blades are good to have. *** Be bold but weary! Keep up your merry hearts and ride to meet your fortune. *** There’s no accounting for East and West. *** Caution is one thing and wavering another. *** Apples for walking. *** Not all birds are to be trusted and there are spies more evil than they are. *** Trolls do not build. ***
So yesterday I watched “Over The Hedge” with my kids and it’s a pretty good movie, but one of the better parts of the movie is music created and performed by song-writer Ben Folds. A good mix of Joy and Sadness. And Keyboards and Low Brass. And Humor and Irony.
So I looked him up on youtube . . .
. . . and my first thought was “Why haven’t I heard of this guy before?”
My second thought was “Boy, I wish this guy wasn’t so coarse and sometimes offensive.”
I can hardly recommend him. But his music is exactly the kind I like.
So here’s my Tuesday Stand Alone Statement:
I pray that Ben Folds becomes a Christian
Yes, I know – some of you are thinking “Y’know, if he becomes a Christian, he might lose his angst and his muse and stuff and not be able to make good songs like the one you like”
Yeah, like I’m going to go with that – “Well, he might be going to Hell, but at least the world will get some great music out of the deal.”
This is a paperback I picked up at a used book sale at work. It’s a techno-thriller from the 90s. I don’t recommend it, but it was interesting to see how computers have changed since then. There are quite a few notable comments here about computers and programming
Everything I Ever Needed To Know I Learned From The Fools Run By John Sandford
We have an abundance of good-looking blondes in Minnesota *** If you leave bad paintings laying around they end up on walls. *** A good guy, Occam. *** Power to the people. *** A war is business by other means. *** Dreamers lose track of what’s going on around them; Dreamers try to outrun bullets and outshoot cops. They move from one act to the next with no assessment of consequence. *** Personal cars are invisible in America as long as you don’t buy gas on credit cards or get traffic tickets. *** A computer attack on a major corporation is a technological-age nightmare. If word of a corporate war got out to the computer community the reaction could be violent. Some unpleasant people could come looking. *** Think about the money. *** Always be alert. America needs more lerts. *** There’s a technique for following another car. You never get too close. You stay in an adjacent lane rather than directly behind the car you’re following, and you memorize the other cars taillights. A good surveillance man will risk losing the car before he risks being spotted. *** I couldn’t do computers. I mean it sounds neat, but it really just sitting in front of a TV tub and pushing buttons. *** Nothing is completely okay. *** Computer programming can be as beautiful and complicated as a tree, as compelling as the best painting. Programmers admire each other’s code. They talk like rock climbers: That was a very difficult pitch, and look how he did it – with style. *** A good programmer uses a computer’s potential to create worlds where other people will live. *** Anytime you build a complicated electronic machine there are always mistakes. *** Computers are the water engineers swim in. They don’t question the answers the get from a computers any more than a fish questions water. They know the computer is correct: the problem must be elsewhere. *** You never carry plastic explosives in your teeth.
Last week I was listening to MPR on the way to work and I hear an interview on Midmorning with Richard Dawkins that on the webpage is described like this:
A vociferous defender of Darwin, Richard Dawkins has a new book that lists the evidence that the theory of evolution explains how life on Earth came to be.
Quite interesting and fairly respectable until around the ten minute mark where he says –
I’m not really attempting to convert those people who are simply, totally shutting their ears because they’ve been brainwashed into believing the Bible is literally true. I’m interested in showing people the evidence who are interested in this and might use it as ammunition, as you say, arguing with these wingnuts who believe the Bible is literally true.
. . . I’d like to hope that my book will start a discussion and maybe people who read the book will talk about it to their relatives, to their friends who are benighted in this way and really do think that a particular book, written by a tribe of bronze age goat herders with no knowledge at all of science . . .
First, is there anyone else on earth that believes that Genesis (where the Creation story is) was written by a goat herder?
And secondly . . .
Okay, let’s say a man is on trial for murder and the defense puts up a forensic expert that shows that based on the man’s height and gunpowder residue and bullet trajectory and the position of the victim’s body, the man on trial could not have shot the other man.
Then the prosecution brings forth a witness who testifies that he happened to be looking through the window and saw the man on trial shoot the other.
The defense might say “You’re lying” or “He can’t be trusted” or “You weren’t even in the right county at the time of the murder”. But here’s what the defense won’t say:
“You know nothing of science.”
Because who cares what the witness knows of science. He saw the murder happen.
That’s what Bible believers proport to have in the Bible – access to an eyewitness.
Now Mr. Dawkins can say that the eyewitness is not credible, or biased or doesn’t exist. But it is redicuous for him to say that the Biblical Authors know nothing of science.
Living life without knowing the future is like driving a car backward with no rear view mirror and without turning your head.
The Responsible Puppet 