You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December, 2007.
I would like to get a Wii for my birthday in August. As we all know, it is currently hard to find one. My friend Stephanie pointed me to an interesting article about the reasons for the shortage.
A while back I was pointed to the FreeRice website. I now have spent quite a bit of time on it. The basic premise is that the site presents a word and the player selects the best definition from 4 options. If the player gets the word correctly, the site donates 20 grains of rice to alleviate word hunger. The money for the rice comes from the advertising on the bottom of the screen.
What’s not to love? you’re increasing your vocabulary and feeling like you’ve contributed to solving a major world issue. Besides, where else are you going to find out words like ‘bumbershoot’?
On a side note, does anyone know the number of grains of rice in a fifty-pound bag?
A good friend lent me a computer while I wait to afford a new one (which should be mid-January when we’ll buy an iMac). So I’ve been able now to check my email, check out The Shepherd’s Scrapbook Blog which has very nice pictures of books and found an interesting article on infralapsarianism versus supralapsarianism; a topic I was very interested in a year or two after I became Reformed but (while it is still interesting) have come to the conclusion that it is delving too deep into the mind God — although it does show the unsearchableness thereof. But, perhaps I’ll get Berkhof’s Systematic Theology for Nativity and I can brush up on it.
But that is not the reason I borrowed the computer. I have decided to attempt to learn how to programme for computers. My friend was gracious enough to give me some materials to start programming in C#. I’ve only worked through a few simple programmes, the first of course being “Hello World”, but it seems it should be interesting and more important, useful. Of course it is quite a bit easier to learn by doing examples with the computer than trying to learn just the knowledge without. (While I learnt the concept in the University, I didn’t always heed it.)
(Sadly, because my computer died, my posts will be infrequent until January)
I went to Phoenix this weekend and visited with my sister-in-law & her husband. While my wife was with the girls shopping and going to female-only makeup parties. I went to hear Drs Godfrey and Horton in an conference. It was interesting; the topics were evangelism thru the preaching of the Word.
After much debate and £125,000, ‘Welcome to Scotland’ is Scotland’s new tourism motto. Just a wee bit underwhelming, except of course that price tag, which is US $257,000. That’s $86,000 per word. Obviously I’m in the wrong business.
I think they could have at least translated into Scottish, ‘Walcome tae Scotland’.
This week, I went to see the Broadway (or off-Broadway, I forget) musical The Rat Pack: Live at the Sands The show was great and the performers sang very well. However, being in the back meant we that we couldn’t see all that well; I had forgot to bring my field glasses, which I guess is okay since I’m sure my 10x or 12x binoculars would look quite out of place.
I enjoyed the introducer, stating in a Mafia accent that the is show is not sponsored by nor affiliated with organized crime.
But I think my favourite comment was before the last song, Frank said, ‘I’ll now sing the national anthem’ and proceeded to sing I Did it My Way
