I'll Be Returning Shortly, Hopefully (Insert More Adverbs Here)

Well, as I posted on my Facebook status:

Timothy is celebrating that “ἡ δευτερη θλιπσις της κοινη ἑλενικιας εστι τελος” (the second tributation of Koine Greek is finished).

Less cryptically, I finished the second exam for Greek class. These are take home exams, but they are on the honor system as closed book and limited to 2.5 hours in length. I ended up taking less than an hour to complete the exam and another forty five minutes or so to do two checks of all my answers.

So, given that, I might have a bit more flexibility of time. Plus, spring break is next week. After Friday, I'll be off from classes until Monday, March 26. On that day, one of my two classes is canceled, so I just have an evening class. Then, the next day of class (Wednesday, March 28) is canceled for “campus day,” meaning my first full day back will be two weeks after spring break started (Friday, March 30). Then, to make things even more interesting, I have both Good Friday and Easter Monday off, and I never have classes on Thursdays or Tuesdays, so I'll have another week off about a week later. With all the time off, hopefully I can catch up on stuff for my seminary classes, plus get some other things done.

Burning burning burning burning

I'm not sure why, but spring is making me melancholy this year even while I am glad to see its arrival. With that in mind, I must revisit my good friend Eliot.

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

I cannot even begin to comprehend “the Wasteland,” which is why — perhaps — it appeals so much to me. (As noted before, someone wishing to explain the above quote would do well to checkout “the Prologue” to Chaucer's the Canterbury Tales.) However, the entire sense of disconnect and the eventual deterioration of communication as the narrator falls more and more into transitions between languages (Eliot showing off his vast skills, of course!) seems somehow powerful to me. It is as if Eliot grants us the opportunity to open up someone's head and glance into the madness instilled by the Great War. But, more than that, I think it describes to some sense that disconnect that goes with the modern world in general.

There is a sense of desperation that tinges every line and permeates it with a sense of imminent destruction. There is a cry for help, and Eliot, not yet a believer, still poignantly focuses, ever so slightly on the intervention of God, when he does his interesting interlacing of the Buddha's “Fire Sermon” with St. Augustine's Confessions:

To Carthage then I came

Burning burning burning burning
O Lord Thou pluckest me out
O Lord Thou pluckest

burning

These lines strike me perhaps more than any other in the poem. Although tonight, some lines that appear above it strike my fancy:

But at my back from time to time I hear
The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring
Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring.

These are interesting for their allusion. Eliot, by the admission of his own endnote admits that this is a reference to Marvell's “To His Coy Mistress.” But, instead of “time's wingéd chariot,” Eliot gives us “the sound of horns and motors.” Is this a suggestion that modernism has destroyed man's ability to hear something beautiful? While time might be horrifying, how much more so hearing a mere cacophony of machines?

That'd be my guess.

Park Side Mini-Mart

I know what all of you are asking. “Tim, if I happen to be driving down Hwy. 47, by Cuivre River State Park, where should I stop to get a nice, tasty lunch?” Well, of course, I have an answer for that most frequently asked of questions: the Park Side Mini-Mart. It's a little Sinclair gas station that looks, uh, decrepit. But, amidst the standard convenience store stuff, and some fishing supplies, you'll notice a little deli area. Between October and April, they have home cooked chili every day, which can be served a number of ways — I recommend the $3.00 Frito chili pie (cheese, fritos and chili). It is the best chili pie I've had the pleasure of eating.

But, they tell me that their most popular food item is the cheese burger. It looked good too, and they make the patties there rather than having some kind of pre-pressed burger, although I've not yet tried one. I have tried their french fries, which are crinkle cut and reminiscent of some little diner — that is, they are really good, if not terribly healthy. Deli sandwiches? Yup, they have them. Pizza? Yes, apparently they even have a breakfast pizza. They even have some kind of cheesy cauliflower dish. I found out today they've actually been at this business for thirty years.

So check 'em out next time you are just outside of Troy. I think you'll be pleased.

Late Night Haiku XX

LV. Wind blows, blows and blows,
Winter's desires are swept
Away by Spring's march

LVI. Truth. What is this thing
That slips through my hands like sand
Or a startled bird?

LVII. A bird perches there,
Quietly observing the view,
As all else goes by.

Still the One: I'm Barth!

I took this quiz almost a year ago. When I ran across it again, I decided to see if things had changed. I ran through it once and it had, Barth was second to Calvin. I tried it again, this time doing it all at once and reading closely rather than fooling with it while doing something else, and I ended up having to pick a tie breaker between Barth and Calvin. The first time I read a few things wrong, I realized. I seem to be less Anselmic these days. Maybe I need to go read about the being that than which none greater can be conceived again. Otherwise, this is unsurprising. Barth loved Anselm and is reformed, so it makes sense that these three rank at the top of my list.

My only qualm about it would be that some of the questions are nearly direct quotes from theologians. Hence, I can respond in one of two ways: (1) select what I think about the doctrine, (2) select how I feel about that theologian's interpretation of the doctrine. I favored the second method, rejecting statements not so much for the doctrine behind them, but the particular manifestation of the doctrine. Is God the Ground of All Being? Well, sure. But, is He the Ground of All Being in the Tillichian sense? No, if I can figure out what Tillich really thought (which would be no small feat), I suspect I'd say no. It seems I was fairly anti-Tillich today, whereas I was feeling a bit more Lutheran after spending a few weeks studying the Reformation, I guess.

You scored as Karl Barth. The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology. Karl Barth 87% John Calvin 87% Anselm 73% Martin Luther 67% Jonathan Edwards 67% Augustine 53% Charles Finney 47% Friedrich Schleiermacher 40% Jürgen Moltmann 20% Paul Tillich 0% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Writer's Blo

With the start of seminary, I've fallen pitifully behind on Open for Business. My big problem is that it is a small operation: there are only four writers on the masthead. While Ed carries a lot of the load of keeping fresh content on the site, I really need (and want) to keep posting my voice on OFB's esteemed pages as well.

The problem is that I seem to have a case of writers blo. Not writers block, but writers blo. Now, you might ask, “what in the world is writers blo?” So, let me tell you: it is hitting the equivalent of writers block about half way through each article. I have a whole bunch of stubs of articles, where I get a really good idea, but seem to lose momentum and cannot seem to come up with the supporting themes to make the piece work. As I write this, I have two partial articles sitting on my desk, yearning to be finished. One of them hopefully will be done for a Monday publication. But, right now it sits there, just taunting me.

Hey, maybe I should have written an article on writer's blo!

New Look

Well, it was not intentional, but asisaid celebrated its fifth birthday with a new look. Last night I was feeling rather worn out, and so decided I needed to do something different — doing a little web design hit the spot. As I was finishing up, I realized it was a perfect thing to be doing to recall that my personal web site became blogified on February 21, 2002.

Yes, the internet somehow has put up with me opining for five whole years here. Open for Business celebrated its fifth year last October. I'm starting to feel like a regular internet fixture!

Let me know if you see any bugs in the new design. I'm still tweaking it, and it may adjust a bit more, but after two years with the last look it was time for something new. About every year or two I alternate between a green and a blue design, and staying true to that trend (which I do not follow on purpose) we are in the blue era again.

Hat Tip to Carl Jung

For my Spiritual and Ministry Formation class, we did a packet of “diagnostics tests” to determine our personality type, evangelistic style and other interesting things. Later this semester, Dr. Douglass will then talk with each of us and help formulate an idea of where best to aim in ministry.

At any rate, one of the first tests was none other than the famous Myers-Briggs test. I know I've done that before, but I cannot recollect what my personality type was. Whatever it was, this time I came out INFP. I was probably something similar before. I had always been skeptical of the personality type test, although listening to how well Dr. Douglass seemed to be describing me when he talked about typical INFP traits, I've gained a new respect for the test. Here's the actual breakdown of my “score:”

If you'd like, take the test here and then post what result you received.

This Is Just To Say

I thought I might try to start regularly picking out bits of poetry and commenting on them here. Here's a fun one I haven't read for awhile, “This Is Just To Say:”

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

— William Carlos Williams

I think Williams had a unique gift for “picturesque poetry,” or, more properly, “Imagist poetry.” Unlike much of the poetry of the last century that aimed more at painting a scene than telling a story or arguing a point, but failed to do much of anything at all, Williams's works actually seemed to succeed in being primarily a sensory experience. This one always makes my mouth water as if I really have missed out on a cold, sweet plum.

Thoughts?

Spam Wars

A couple of days ago, I noted an increase in blog spamming on asisaid. Now, generally speaking, asisaid was ignored by blog spammers in the past, so I'm not sure how long it has been broken, but I've discovered the blacklists I checked against were no longer in service. No wonder the filter wasn't blocking spammers!

I've switched my filters around and merged in more of Brad Choate's SpamLookup (the official spam filter for MT, which, since it is written in Perl, can be easily integrated with SAFARI) so that I check not only the links but also the IP address of the poster. Hopefully this will work. If not, I plan on requiring authentication for commenting (e.g. you'll link your e-mail address with a password and verify that e-mail address), unless any of my regular readers object to that.