Things I Can’t Buy

Ah, Facebook, you know me! Facebook serves ads. Ads and algorithmic content are Facebook’s raison d’être, after all, not keeping up with friends, family, and things of interest. It’s vitally important that Facebook show me interesting restaurants in Memphis (never been) and concerts I’d like to see in Tulsa (also never been) instead of, oh,Continue reading “Things I Can’t Buy”

Archons and Pentacostines: An Exegesis

There’s an amusing Tweet I’ve seen the last few years about hardcore Catholic converts that amuses me in a dark, sarcastic way. You’ve probably seen it, too. Let’s do some exegesis here. “Archon” is a Greek term meaning “ruler.” So, a ruler of Constantinople. But this ruler is writing an “epistle on the… eucharist,” soContinue reading “Archons and Pentacostines: An Exegesis”

Trump Threatens War Crimes

This morning, the president posted this to Truth Social: The inner Gen X kid in me, the one who grew up with the threat of nuclear war pretty much daily, is screaming his head off. I wrote my Congressman, Lloyd Smucker (R-Toady). I don’t know that I need to quote what the president said onContinue reading “Trump Threatens War Crimes”

Long Journey, Small Steps, That Sort of Thing

I saw this while scrolling through Twitter a few days ago… No, Alfin. My coding journey began here. Yes, the venerable Timex Sinclair 1000. With its membrane keyboard, 2 kilobytes of memory internal, and a 16 kilobyte external memory pack. A RF switch for connecting to the television. A heavy DC power adapter that gotContinue reading “Long Journey, Small Steps, That Sort of Thing”

Signs of a Late Spring

When I was little, I remember the saying, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” The way I understood that was, March is stormy and awful at the beginning, and it’s spring’s early days at the end. Life experience tells me that’s sorta true, and this year has probably beenContinue reading “Signs of a Late Spring”

Scraping the Barrel of Authority

It was announced earlier this week that Stephen Colbert, late night talk show host and well-known Tolkien expert, will be writing a new Lord of the Rings movie for Peter Jackson, this one based around several chapters of Fellowship of the Ring that were not included in Jackson’s 2001 film adaptation. Colbert said in theContinue reading “Scraping the Barrel of Authority”

Pop Culture, Snoopy Style

I was out of town the last several days. One cute thing I saw on Twitter was this — Snoopy and the Beatles. It’s not perfect — the audio doesn’t sync well to the video — and the Schulz-ified Beatles don’t really look like the Beatles, but it’s so charming I can’t resist. I alsoContinue reading “Pop Culture, Snoopy Style”

Grief Written in Stone

A week ago it was almost eighty degrees. This morning I woke to snow on the ground. It’s been a wild couple of days. It was pretty but with gale force winds on Saturday when I was in Lancaster for the Shamrocked Beer Festival, genuinely nice on Sunday, and yesterday (Monday) was warm and rainyContinue reading “Grief Written in Stone”