My New Friend

I haven't done a really geeky post in quite awhile. Prepare yourself — here comes a megadose of 100% pure geekiness.

I've been using SQL databases for about five years now, and I've slowly learned the Structured Query Language that goes with it mostly out of necessity — I need to do something new, so I learn a new bit of syntax. Tonight, I did a bit more of that. You see, I designed SAFARI (the CMS that runs this blog) so that it creates an entry for each posting in the table known as “articles.” Besides that entry, it also creates numerous entries in the “objects” table for things such as what categories an entry belongs to. Essentially, the objects table is a metadata table.

Now, the problem arises when I want to view a category, such as “Computers and Technology.” Previously, I asked MySQL to collect all of the article ID's (or aids) in the objects table that belonged to the Computers and Technology's parent object id (or pid), then I sent another MySQL query which selected all of the items in the articles table that had one of those article ids. This is really inefficient, not only because it requires two queries, but also because of future growth: if there are 1,000 articles in “Computers and Technology,” the second query must include every one of those ids. Why? Because, for instance, if I am sorting by date, it can only find out which of those 1,000 articles must be requested to get the last twenty posts by actually requesting them. Sure, I could presume that the twenty highest numered ID's were the most recent, but I think that's sloppy.

So, tonight I read the MySQL manual and learned about subqueries. With a subquery, MySQL can be told I want all of the items in articles that match one of the appropriate objects in the objects table. To present a simple example, I am basically saying to MySQL, “Give me every article in 'articles' that has an object in the 'objects' table that belongs to the 'Computers and Technology' parent object.” At first, this didn't work, so I read a bit more closely and found out that my old, 4.0.x version of MySQL was incompatible with subqueries. Thirty minutes later, I upgraded the server to MySQL 4.1.x and the subqueries worked!

My code will be more efficient in no time!

What does this bode for the future? I'm not ready to unveil my master plan, but it means some exciting changes for the currently hibernating OfB, as well as asisaid, in the coming days and weeks. I'll talk about this more very soon.

Dedication

In 1999, my church first presented a plan to expand our building, a plan that would have been OK, but did not garner enough support to pass and fell by the way side. This led to a much better expansion project being designed, one that was passed in 2001, one we broke ground on in 2004 and one that was dedicated today.

While the object of a church isn't a cool building, I have to say this new project is really, really nice. We now have one main entrance that is a straight hallway that looks all the way down to the Narthex and straight through the sanctuary to the stained glass front of the church. We have a huge new multipurpose room ideal for our two annual church dinners and other special events, better office facilities and nicely remodeled old facilities that now look bright and cheerful. Thanks to the strict building code of Creve Coeur, the expansion also ties very nicely into the brick, buttressed design of the old part of the building.

I only did a few minor things to help with the project (some IT consulting and other minor stuff), but it still feels like a big, long project that finally has come to fruition by God's grace. How exciting!

Charter, Take Two

Some of you may remember my last run in with Charter's Cable TV service. If not, I'll go over it briefly, but first, I'll note this was especially painful for me, because I have long been a proponent of the vastly superior nature of cable over satellite. Cable's bi-directional, high bandwidth, fiber driven network can run circles around satellite, and can certainly give AT&T's upcoming Project Lightspeed/U-Verse fiber-to-the-neighborhood a run for its money (I tend to be dubious about IPTV). But, here I am harping on why cable is the best presently available and yet can't get cable TV to work.

Charter installed Digital Cable last March at my home after they offered to make it worth my while to get a triple play (telephone/internet/video) from them, as opposed to just telephone and internet. Essentially, they offered to beat the price of Dish Network and throw in all the premium movie channels. Unfortunately, they installed a DVR (Moxi) which did not get along with analog channels, and channels 1-99 were still analog. After much ado and no solutions from Charter, I managed to get them to refund the half month of service “received” (albeit in an unusable form) and in the end, they did make it up with an additional credit and a 1 year price drop of $5 on the high speed internet.

So, fast forward to this week. As I understand it, sometime in recent months, Charter finally started up Digital Simutrans, the system by which they simultaneously send analog and digital signals of channels 1-99, allowing digital boxes, such as the Moxi to go “all digital.” Moreover, I spent time in the Ozarks, where the hotel rooms have cable TV; this leads me to want cable because cable, unlike Dish Network satellite, provides local weather on the 8's on the Weather Channel. Even worse, I've been itching to try again ever since I produced a 3 minute segment for Lindenwood's public access channel and was unable to watch it since satellites also do not get public access channels.

So, I called. And called again. And again. Charter has about as many different pricing schemes as Pizza Hut has pizza specials. Many of them were cheaper than Dish, but only until all the extras were added on. Finally, I pulled out my trump card: I had called AT&T and found out they were cheaper than Charter for a triple play of phone, internet and TV, and I let Charter know I was aware of that. Suddenly I had a wheeler dealer guy on the line who offered various “retention” incentives until the price ended up somewhere between $5-$10 cheaper than the current arrangement of phone and internet through Charter and TV through Dish Network. They also gave me free installation, which they insisted they did not offer any longer a few hours earlier, and all of the movie channels again.

Charter is coming to install the system on Monday. We'll see if it works this time.

Spring Ozarks 2006

So, last week was my family's spring trip to Table Rock Lake. We left Monday, May 22, and came back on Saturday, May 28. As a whole, it was a great trip, with good weather other than one evening.

The most notable activity was probably the Spirit of America catamaran, which we had sailed on previously, a number of years back. This time, we were the only ones to set off on the 90 minute cruise, so we had the boat (and the crew of Captain Jack and his nephew) pretty much to ourselves. The ride circles around the large, open part of Table Rock that is next to the dam and is one of only a few opportunities to get a tour of the water; Big Cedar's very nice, private Go'in Jesse private boat ride is another option. As opposed to Go'in Jesse's $99 flat rate for up to four passengers (which includes drinks, soft or not — I went with bottled water), the Spirit lets you set sail for $20/person sans beverage. It's a fun experience to ride on the largest sail boat in the midwest, and Captain Jack is a pleasant captain who goes easy narrating the trip, but is happy to answer any questions you might have.

During this part of the trip, we stayed at Rock Lane Resort, a hotel on Indian Point, not far from Silver Dollar City. My grandparents and mother started going there in the early sixties, and its still chugging along. I'm the designer of their web site. It offers surely one of the best lake views of any motel or hotel on the lake, looking straight at the dam (albeit from several miles away). For dinner, we dined at the Branson Cafe (home of very good fried chicken and many, many delicious homemade deserts), a place we had not visited in quite awhile, and the Wooden Nickel, which also offers delicious fried chicken, along with some great barbecue. The latter has a unique salad bar built around an old tree (hence it is called “the salad tree”). The former has many very nice meals for $7 or less (desserts figure in at $2.50 to $3.50 and are well worth it); at the latter one should expect to pay $12-$15, unless you want a steak. For breakfast, we went to one of our favorite spots, Billy Gail's (named after the owners). Gail runs an amazingly clean, efficient restaurant and flea market, and always takes time to talk to us while we are there. The food is reasonably priced, very good and served very fast. Plus, the owners and workers are wonderful people.

We also went to Dogwood Canyon, which we had not been to in several years. Dogwood Canyon is one of the most beautiful places in the Ozarks, an enchanting canyon tucked between two Ozark mountains. The canyon features several streams, including Dogwood Creek, that are crystal clear and stocked with rainbow trout and other fish. There are really nice tram tours that run for 90 or 120 minutes, and the 120 minute one is well worth the extra time; it goes farther into the canyon as well as on top of the hills to the park's ranch stocked with longhorn, bison, elk and other fauna. Though it is called a nature park, it is a private park (owned by Bass Pro Shops and Tracker boats' genius owner Johnny Morris) and costs a very worthwhile $25 for a tram ride. Admission is less if you want to walk or bike the canyon.

Unfortunately, my trip there this time was a little less pleasant as the beginnings of food poisoning were getting to me at the park (I'm not sure where I got it for sure, but I suspect it was a fluke because everywhere we ate has been fine many, many times in the past). I was hoping it was something else, but by the time we left, I had a pretty good suspicion what was coming. A tram ride in the heat did nothing to mitigate the onset, either. I'll save the gory details, but let's say I didn't do anything too pleasant the rest of Wednesday and am just starting to get my normal appetite back. Minus the appetite, I felt better Thursday, although we stayed in our cabin at Big Cedar Lodge and read books, which is a nice way to spend a day. Over the trip, I read the Wager by Bill Myers, as well as returning to the Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancy and starting the Lord of the Rings from J.R.R. Tolkien.

Big Cedar, which we stayed at for a little over half our trip, is more of a “vacation experience” than just a hotel. The rooms have a “rustic elegance,” as the brochure says, offering a cabin like feel with pleasant decor (including more taxidermy than I'd normally be comfortable with, but done very tastefully). Big Cedar, set in Big Cedar Hollow, which goes down to Devil's Pool and Table Rock Lake, includes several hundred cabins and lodge rooms, two full service restaurants and a nice quick service restaurant. Devil's Pool Restaurant is a four or five star restaurant, yet it takes a gourmet twist on homestyle favorites, not entirely exotic fare. The menu prices are higher than average, at $16-$20 on average. The quick service Truman Smokehouse offers some really good barbecue ($5-$8), and this time I tried a cinnamon roll that was probably 6” in diameter ($4.00).

The weather was a bit hot for walking around Big Cedar, but like I said, it is so pleasant to sit in the cabin, that wasn't a big loss. Plus, we happened to get a lakeview cabin this time, which made staying “home” even nicer. We ordered in a Big Cedar Pizza Express pizza one night ($12.95), which had a delightful hand tossed crust.

The night I was sick, Big Cedar was nice enough to send me a (complementary) bowl of chick broth, saltine crackers, Sprite, ginger ale and a get well card via room service.

Big Cedar is another wonderland created by the vision of Johnny Morris, filled with impressive waterfalls and streams (including ones that purposely go over the entry roads you drive through), huge gardens filled with flowers and a mix of old and old-looking buildings filled with history. For those looking for activities, it has free mini golf, croquet, many walking trails, horseback riding, a full service marina, and a number of very nice pools with great vistas.

On the way home, we stopped at the Hen House in Bourbon, MO as always, and I got their Broasted Chicken I always talk about on here ($6.99, I believe). We also brought home some pie, of which they have some of the best. It was a toss up, I'd say, between them and the Branson Cafe for the best pie — both were great.

In all, you can judge a trip I go on — probably — by the number of pictures I take. Walking around the lake the first few days, and taking other jaunts, I managed to nab over 1,500 photos during the six day trek. It was just the kind of vacation I needed, minus the food poisoning in the middle.

In the News-Leader

Well, I'll post a real post tomorrow. In the mean time, Christopher said he wanted to know about my trip, and I thought I'd note you can learn about part of it in the Springfield News-Leader. No, don't go flipping to the “Crime Reports” section — sheesh. The News-Leader's cover story for Sunday was on travel in the Ozarks, and I happened to get interviewed by a reporter while dining at one of our favorite Ozark stops. You can read the report, here. The two reporters were there to interview the owners of the cafe, and since we're loyal, long-time customers, I went and talked to the reporters to tell them how great the place was.

More tomorrow.

Back at the Mic

Well, in my last post, I really did intend to post the continuation of my responses concerning Karl Barth, but time got away from me with the end of finals, the baccalaureate, commencement and finally heading down to the Ozarks for my family's annual spring trip to Table Rock Lake. I got back last night, but was too tired to post (from normal trip lag and food poisoning that I had midweek).

I'll post more on some or all of these things soon.

An Ending.

I'll hopefully resume my consideration of Karl Barth, looking at his alleged universalism, tomorrow. Tonight, I just don't have it in me. Finals normally drain my writing abilities, and they have certainly done that in the past week, especially given that I've also turned nearly 40 pages of essays in over the last week (the grand total for the past month being somewhere between 80-100 pages — I have to mention that to reassure myself I've accomplished something). But, if anything, the real drain tonight is something different: the departure of a friend.

This friend was a classmate of mine nearly two years ago in a British Literature course that she ended up in fairly randomly. I ended up in it because I had just switched from being a Business major to an English Lit major (my religion major staying constant throughout). While she was not a lit major, she was amazingly astute at it, and we began to talk. I ended up with a very dear, special friend whom I have talked to ever since. She is an international student, and though she is planning to come back to the States for an internship, she won't be coming back to Missouri. I think we'll stay in touch, but nonetheless it was sad to see her for the last time for who knows how long.

I'm just not very good at endings.

A Late Night Haiku
Oh! If a moment
Could be frozen and ne'er thaw,
But time does melt it.

Nein or Nature and Grace?

After my most recent post on Neo-Orthodoxy wherein I noted my reasons for leaning toward Neo-Orthodoxy over Fundamentalism (though many would probably still consider me a “fundie”), Eduardo provided a very nice response. He says a lot of good things, and I would say anyone interested in the subject should go read his post. Nevertheless, I wanted to provide a slightly different perspective on the three areas he critiques Karl Barth on, particularly, natural theology, universalism and higher criticism.

I'm going to start off with the easiest in today's entry. Natural theology. Eduardo says,

The strong emphasis on the centrality of the revelation of God in Christ causes Barth to deny all possibility of a natural theology, understood as theological thinking without recourse to a special revelation from God.

[…]

I fully concur with Barth when he explicitly denies any possibility of attaining true knowledge of God to that second-type of “natural theology”; but to go from that position to the claim that all natural and rational knowledge of God is impossible is, in my opinion, too much of a leap. Even the Reformers, for all their condemnation to the Scholastic natural theology, gave some place to rational reflection on God; only with the proviso, of course, that this reflection could not be normative for Christian life and doctrine, and totally superseded by special revelation.

I tend to think because Barth so vehemently attacks all of natural theology in Nein! (a book that begins with a chapter entitled “Angry Introduction,” no less), people have come to see Barth as anti-rational. However, he claims in his Dogmatics in Outline that belief is quite rational (23). This point, which I'll dwell on more in a series on Kierkegaard and Barth later this month, is essentially boiled down to this: it is rational for the believer to reflect on God, but that rational reflection ought to take place with regards to God's revealed self, not from something we might reason separately.

This really doesn't hurt the Christian cause because objective proofs of God all fail to prove anything anyway (something I'll deal in another piece I'll probably post next week). The ontological, teleological, axiological and cosmological arguments can all be torn apart, and, indeed, are, by Kant, Hume and Kierkegaard, among others. That doesn't mean they don't work for the believer as a reinforcement of faith, but if they are taken from outside Christianity, they serve — at best — to come up with what Barth terms a “philosopher's god,” not the God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.

Emil Brunner, in Nature and Grace, the text that provoked Barth's ire in Nein!, suggested that the “other” task of theology had to do with understanding natural revelation. I think this is the meat of what Barth objected to. Interestingly enough, Barth defends the ontological argument (I have only skimmed the book in which he does, but have a mental note to check it out and read it some day.) Barth in this respect is very similar to Kierkegaard, I believe, and I think they both make valid points. The objection isn't so much about whether rational calculations about God can and do occur, but instead that they don't lead to a knowledge of the real God, given our fallen state, unless those rational calculations draw on God's revealed self.

I believe I read in a Barth biography in ChristianityToday that he softened up on this somewhat in later life and reconciled (at least personally) with Brunner. But, I tend to think Barth might not be quite as extreme as he seemed to be, even before that. I think the rejection of natural theology had a lot more to do with practical concerns about its usefulness than anything else.

Yes, I'm Alive and Kicking

This has been quite a busy period of time for me since I last blogged. In roughly that amount of time, I have turned in somewhere around sixty pages of papers, mostly in the first three days of last week. I'm feeling very good about that, now that all of those pages are done. The Honors Convocation at LU was last Sunday, my Mac minis came in on Monday (I picked them up on Tuesday), the National Day of Prayer was Thursday… busy, busy.

Then there were unpleasant parts, such as someone rear-ending me on Thursday, though fortunately no one was seriously hurt and a sheriff happened to be near by so all the reporting could be done quickly. The damage on my end is a presently slightly sore back and a damaged rear bumper on the Jeep. Not nearly as bad as it could have been. We'll see how well Progressive Insurance, the insurer of the guy who hit me, does about getting an adjuster out to take care of the bumper (and hopefully provide me with a rental while the car is in the shop).

I may post some excerpts or complete copies of the papers in the coming weeks. The longer ones cover the case for a Christian poet writing Beowulf, the rationale for a probalistic argument for God and an analysis of the different interpretations of the Faust tradition in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written, in my estimation) and Lord Byron's Manfred.

Y'all up to anything new?

Choosing Masters: Christ or the Bible?

It is interesting that Ed just posted something about this. I had been meaning to write about this for awhile.

I have realized that I am not a fundamentalist. Well, this isn't exactly a new revelation, but I've been thinking about it more lately. This has been a gradual shift over the last two or three years as I've spent more time really digging into theology and, especially, learning about Barthian Neo-Orthodoxy.

But, recently, I got an urge to write on this when I was reading an entry over at Theopedia. It was critiquing a theology or theologian — I can't remember which — and the problem with this theology or theologian was that it did not adhere to the most important doctrine of Christianity, or so the article said. What is that doctrine? The doctrine of salvation by grace through faith? No. The doctrine of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? No. The doctrine of perfections of God? No. The doctrine of the person of Christ? No. No, it was none of these, it was the inerrancy of Scripture.

Now, the point isn't that inerrancy isn't all well and good. The point is that the author of this actually thought that inerrancy was the utmost doctrine of Christianity. Unless the Bible is somehow going to die for my sins, however, I cannot agree. The center of the Church, the center of the Bible, the center of the Gospel, the center of everything is Christ. Ultimately, we ought to resolve to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified — just as Paul did.

My problem with fundamentalism is deeper than this — I also see an increasingly strong anti-intellectualism trend in that realm — but primarily it is that its ultimate concern, to borrow a nice phrase from Paul Tillich (sorry, Ed), is not God. Fundamentalism today makes idols out of the Bible, out of Creationism, out of politics and “keeping faith public” and many similar things. Many, if not all, of these things are good in moderate quantities, but they aren't our ultimate concern as Christians.

I've read a bit of Jacque Derrida recently, and the phrase “decentering the center” keeps coming to mind. In deconstructionism there can be no center, but ultimately as Christians we must insist there is a center, and if that center is anything other than Christ, then we are worshipping idols. What good is the Bible without Christ? What good is Creationism without Christ? Christ is first, last and everything in between.

Sadly, while many people get that (and Barth emphasizes it as much as he can), many of those who claim to adhere to the “fundamentals” of faith do not get it in practice, even if they claim it in theory.