Friday, August 24, 2007

Ha ha

Global warming: The newest religion



Do you ever feel squashed by post-modernism?

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

MLK, Jr. quote via The Irresistible Revolution

"To our most bitter opponents we say: Throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our houses and threaten our children and we will still love you. Beat us and leave us half dead and we will still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory."

That is a beautiful example of radical grace.That is the kind of grace that Jesus preached and continues to preach to this day.

By the way, the Simple Way recently experienced a huge fire in their neighborhood. Go to their website to see what happened, what they are doing about it, and what you can do to help.

www.thesimpleway.org

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Funny word

"Separatrix"

What do you think it is?

Also known as: virgule, solidus, slash, diagonal, or stroke.

Who knew that something so seemingly simple could have so many names?

Sunday, August 05, 2007

I thought I was the only one who couldn't get no. 5 out of my head

This is really funny. I saw this on digg. It's the top 10 songs that people get stuck in their heads. I have had experience with 5, 2, 9 and, of course 1.


1. Other. Everyone has his or her own worst earworm.
2. Chili's "Baby Back Ribs" jingle.
3. "Who Let the Dogs Out"
4. "We Will Rock You"
5. Kit-Kat candy-bar jingle ("Gimme a Break ...")
6. "Mission Impossible" theme
7. "YMCA"
8. "Whoomp, There It Is"
9. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
10. "It's a Small World After All"

The other day I had "Low Rider" by WAR stuck in my head for some reason, and also that song from the flea medicine commercial with the cute puppy singing, "I ain't got bugs on me, I ain't got bugs on me...!" That puppy is so cute, isn't it? I like it at the end of the commercial when he starts walking kind of sideways.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

This bugs me

A pet peeve of mine since I got back to Texas is that people call the pronunciation of Spanish by Spaniards a "lisp." You may or may not know this, but is Spain the correct pronunciation of the letter "z" and the soft "c" is a voiceless "th" sound like in "theater." Because Americans are used to hearing South American Spanish, which pronounces the "z," the soft "c," with the "s" sound, when they hear a Spaniard (or someone like me, who speaks Spanish with the Spaniard accent) it sounds to them as if they were lisping, and they call it so accordingly.

Then, you get this story about how one Spanish king had a lisp. So to make him feel better, all of the people around him began to speak as he did. And there you have it=why Spaniards lisp. This is all complete crapola.

Okay people. A lisp is a speech defect. It means that the person speaking with a lisp is not pronouncing words correctly. Like they are defective in some way.

This is the real story. The "th" sound was evident in Spain even before the Spanish travelled to the New World. The sound developed from the sounds associated with the cedilla (รง) and the "z." So the original pronunciation of the "z" and the soft "c" is as a voiceless "th."

However, in some areas of Andalucia they started pronouncing them as an "s." One of the articles that I read says that this might have been because of the strong the Mozarabic influence in the south. People from Seville and other places in Andalucia still speak like this today (some also still use "ustedes" instead of "vosotros" which is another difference in the use of the language).

Well, I bet most of you didn't know this, but many of the famous explorers and "conquistadores" from Spain were from Andalucia. As were many of the subsequent Spaniards that immigrated to the New World. They were the original "mispronouncers" of the the "z" and the soft "c." They removed themselves from their original population and the "sss" stuck.

So if we are to say that someone is mispronouncing, who would it be? I, for one, would have to say that no one is mispronouncing. I believe that language is alive and it evolves as cultures evolve. I also speak American English, which is different than British English. If I say that the British have a speech impediment because when they pronounce the "r" they open their mouths more, that would be stupid.

So please, stop saying that Spaniards have a lisp. It's insulting.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

A homeless bum

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Luke 9:58

Have you ever thought about that?

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Anniversaries

Tomorrow is our 5th anniversary. As I say every year, it's feels like an eternity...

We were actually married at the court house on May 23rd, but our wedding ceremony at the church was on June 29th. I recognize the first date, but Jose recognises the second date. He always gets what he wants.

It was also a year ago that I wrote about my family reunion. We are going again this weekend. Remember last year when I fell in the lake and nearly killed myself? Remember how my little cousins suffered from post traumatic stress disorder for about 5 hours after witnessing the fall? (Well, they did.) Remember cornhole??? Those were some good times. Well, those times are gonna look like crap compared to this weekend's times. This weekend's times are gonna ROCK!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Again a new layout

Now blogger lets you change stuff on your template a lot easier than before. I like change. I just want to note that the photo behind my title was taken from this flickr site. This guy takes some nice photos, people. He was in Granada and took pictures of a lot of my favorite places.

Check out this guy's Spain flickr set as well. It's completely awesome.

Friday, June 08, 2007

A snippet of my life

Say goodbye to the spelling bee and hello to a running update on my life! Jada introduced this to me.

Twitter!

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Part 5, y'all

Wilson v. Hitchens, part 5

I don't know if this is the last one. They said it would be throughout the month of May and this is the last day, so maybe it is.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

I changed my template...cool!

Here's a new template. I know, it's just another Blogger one, but I wanted to see something different. I was getting tired of the green one.

Anyhoo, we went to my mom's this weekend. Here are a few pictures.

We drove together in Amber's car. We met in Lampasas and we left our car at the hospital. I spent the entire weekend thinking that our car was going to get towed.


One of the many warnings on a gigantic combine (that's for cutting wheat). They are apparently very dangerous. You could get pelted with flying arrows.

My mom put Amber and I to work. Where was Jose? Watching the Sci-fi channel.

It's still very flat out there.

Last but not least, my GRANDMA! She's so cute. We played Skip-bo for about an hour.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Wilson v. Hitchens, cont.

Here are parts 3 and 4 of the online correspondence between Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens, continued from my last post on the subject:

Part 3

Part 4

Very, very interesting.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Market for cat dentures? HERE!


I just got back from picking my cat up from the veterinary dentist, yes, that is what I said, the VETERINARY DENTIST. Or more specifically, the veterinary dentist/oral surgeon. She had to have 11 rotten teeth removed.

It cost $1150.00uch.


Moral of the story? Take care of your pet’s teeth, or be prepared to have various body parts removed.













Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Spellalicious

Check out the awesome new thing in my sidebar. It's from one of my fave dictionary websites, thefreedictionary.com.

It's just under the site meter. Spelling bee!

Monday, May 14, 2007

UPDATE: Sabrina


Hey, do you guys remember Sabrina?












This notice is currently appearing on her homepage, findsabrina.org.


NOTICE:
Our Investigators and Law Enforcement believe that Dara may be
attempting
to come back to the
United States.

Please be vigilant, and report any sightings to your
local law enforcement.






Watch out for Dara!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Guess who came to visit!

This little guy showed up yesterday in the tree outside our apartment.
This, my friends, is a lesser nighthawk. According to the range map on whatbird.com, Austin is a little north of where he usually hangs out.
He didn't even care that I was standing below waving an empty paper towel tube at him and taking his picture. He just opened his little eyes and looked at me and then went back to sleep. I love him.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Atheists v. Christians, Times 2

There is something in the air this month. Two new debates between Christians and Atheists are out on the web. Check them out.

1. Christianity Today is publishing a correspondence, all this month, between Douglas Wilson (Christian) and Christopher Hitchens (Atheist).

Here is part 1 and part 2.

So far, it's very interesting and promises to get even better as the month goes on. There will be more installments, so bookmark it and check back.

2. ABC online is doing a debate series called "Nightline Face-Off". The series will be about various themes, and this first one is between Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron of "The Way of the Master" and two people from the "Rational Response Squad," Brian "Sapient" and a woman named "Kelly" (those are not their real names).

The Way of the Master is a organization that is dedicated to "seeking and saving the lost the way Jesus did."

The Rational Response Squad is a group that is dedicated to "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" and confronting the "irrational claims" of religion.

Personally, I found that Kelly and Brian (especially Kelly) both acted and spoke with such a condescending and arrogant tone. They just came off as so unlikeable. On the other hand, Ray and Kirk spoke in such a loving and kind way. You could hear gentleness and genuine care in their voices. You really could hear the difference. There is one lady in the audience that yells at Ray and he speaks so kindly in return.

The link to the debate is here, also here.

Let me know what you think!