Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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King Putz: People Hate Him Because He’s “Black”?!?

MHWA.

I’ve seen folks defend King Putz’s claim that people don’t like him because he’s “black” with comments about living in the South and witnessing racist comments about him. *meh* I live south of the Mason-Dixon line in a county that seceded during the Great Unitarian-Baptist Shootout, and I have never heard a racially disparaging remark about King Putz. Methinks folks who do hear such things (especially in such hyperbolic numbers as have been claimed) are very likely either seeking them out or manufacturing them in their dog-whistle fantasy eisegesis of legitimate criticism of the lying son of The Father of Lies.

Of course, there just might be a few folks who don’t like King Putz because he’s “black” (whatever that means post Rachel Dolezal, et al), but the number of assholes things like that matter to is almost vanishingly small, and “racial discrimination” against those identifying as “black” seems to be centered in King Putz’s own cohort, so his claim seems even sillier to any rational observer.

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Passing Shot. . . and Chaser

Food network cooks/chefs prove that fluency in English is obviously unnecessary for success in the kitchen. *heh* One example, of many: “paparika”.

Anthony Bourdain ain’t as classy as he thinks he is. (But that’s no surprise. No one could be.)

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Just One More Reason to Deplore the “New Truckers’ Version”

I’ve seen a few citations of John 3:16, as mistranslated by the “New Truckers’ Version” (NIV), in the run-up to Xmas:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I deplore the “New Truckers’ Version” (NIV) in part because of rather gross mistranslation like this. My only gripe with this is that “monogenes” does NOT mean “one and only son” but “only begotten son”. The two are rather profoundly different.

“One and only” is easily impeached by other scriptural passages, even without simply translating “monogenes” correctly. Adam is called a son of God; Israel is called sons of God, Jesus calls peacemakers sons of God; the resurrected, those who have faith in Christ, etc.: all “sons of God” according to scripture. Jesus is the only BEGOTTEN Son of God: unique, no other like Him.

Yes, I know more and more commonly illiterate folks nowadays might stumble on “begotten,” but that’s just another reason for Xians to be more literate, so we can explain things like the virgin birth, the miracle of the Incarnation.

Or heck, give ’em a dictionary.

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Upgrade Denial

Mixed house: Windoze, Linux, Android, etc. “Upgrades” of Windoze boxes? *shrugs* Eventually, Win10. . . maybe (with some more being transitioned to a ‘nix OS). I’ll probably keep one computer at Win7(Pro) for aye, simply because it’s my current “Freecell zen” box with 7700 wins/0 losses. Yeh, yeh, I could copy the score over to another box (I think it’s just a registry key, IIRC) or even a VM, but the compy’s really only good for “Freecell zen” and light web browsing, anyway, so. . . Anywho. . . after the first few thousand games of Freecell even a slow learner like me starts to notice, semi-unconsciously, the same games coming up again and again. Makes it even easier to zone out and play mindlessly.

I had an earlier Windoze 2000(Pro) box with well over 10,000-to-0 racked up, but that became a Linux box, then morphed into a PC-BSD box, then finally got shuffled off into a corner.

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Just Stuff

My “comfy chair” is gone (may it bless someone else, but hopefully not the Spanish Inquisition 😉 ), as is my Wonder Woman’s, and now we share two matching love seats–sometimes together, often one each, spreading out our various paraphernalia or, in my case, often simply sprawling in a semi-reclined position across the length of “my” love seat. Older cat has decided this is a Good Thing. When he wants, the backs of these love seats provide comfy cat beds, open areas provide good sprawling room and at other times–quite often, in fact–when my lap’s otherwise occupied (by Zarkon-II, a lappy that’s set up to be similar to my “desktop”), he’s still able to get in as tightly as he can be without being grafted onto my leg, tucked under lappy hangover from a lapdesk. (Sometimes it does seem as if he were testing me out for a “leg graft”.) Young Dog of the House (it would seem strange to type, “Old Puppy”. . . wouldn’t it?) doesn’t even stir him when he’s like that, even with copious licking around the face and neck. *heh*

BTW, Having a laptop and a desktop set up with very nearly the same apps, desktop(s)–I use multiple desktops on both of them, but only the main desktop on each is set up exactly the same on both–etc., works well mainly because I mirror/sync all the data generated by apps or saved from the web (videos, music, graphics, offline web pages/sites) in two other locations so that when I need the material, it’s readily available on either computer, whether both are booted or not (saving me the negligible–really trivial–step of remotely booting one or the other; saves time, more than anything else, while providing redundant backups of data).

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Music for Xmas, In Your Head

I’ve never really been satisfied with Gustav Holst’s CRANHAM as a tune for the following poem, probably because the words seem too quietly, gently powerful for the tune, but perhaps you’ll hear it differently in your mind’s ear as you read the words.

In the Bleak Midwinter
By Christina Rossetti

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

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“Xmas Month”

I’ve sort of set aside the traditional Advent calendar/observations for a more general “Xmas Month” wherein I ponder the miracle of the Incarnation, plan family events/gift exchanges and catch up on Fall/Winter household tasks, as time presents itself (a hugely increased amount of time, what with no distractions from couch potato entertainment, cos “Christmas” TV shows are almost universally crap).

OK, so Xmas shopping: finished. Xmas dinner: in the freezer and pantry, ready for assembly. Xmas decorations: not yet up, but easy-peasy. Xmas playlist(s): playlists from last several years ready to cue up and play on MCPC. I’d say that December ought to be a piece of cake, assuming I don’t have some weird techie problem handed to me, and even then all that’d be is fun.

Of course, the sky could fall (as it seemed to almost nine years ago with a huge freezing rain that brought power lines and trees down all over the county leaving most of the county w/o power for a month or so) or some other unforeseen event occur, but. . . pantry/freezers, camp stove, oil lamps, etc. Other things could happen to throw the month off kilter, but that’s just life.

Other life events, speed bumps will naturally occur (indeed, a minor car problem for my Wonder Woman as she headed out to one of her libraries this A.M.), but, again: just life.

Looking forward to the rest of December: Xmas Month.

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In All Innocence. . .

I would try looking at things through the eyes of a child, but society seems to prefer I leave kids’ eyes in their own heads, for some reason.

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Number Five?

“I’m number 5!” doesn’t sound as cool as “I’m number 1,” but I’ll take what I can get. (Bing search turned up ONE of my posts referring to “King Putz”.)