Challenge Set #7
Scoreboard
Kevin: 180 (up from 160 on January 28)
Christopher: 65
Flip: 60 (up from 45 on January 28)
Jason: 35
Josiah: 30
Eduardo: 20
Ed: 10
Chris (answering vicariously for his wife): 10
Christopher is losing ground to Flip again… this does not look good for the owner to the title of first recipient of asisaid points.
New Challenge Questions
1.) Who is saying this, in what and (if applicable) by whom? What's the irony to it? (5 pts.)
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.2.) Who is saying this, in what and (if applicable) by whom? (5 pts.)
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
We have known times of sorrow, and hours of uncertainty, and days of victory. In all this history, even when we have disagreed, we have seen threads of purpose that unite us.
3.) Something in the last week gives Rick Warren, Chuck Colson and Dr. James Dobson something new in common. What is it? (5 pts.)
4.) Who was the one clergyman to sign the U.S. Constitution? What was his affiliation? (5 pts.)
5.) What are the two parts of AT&T, other than Baby Bells, that will be reunited if the SBC-AT&T merger is approved by regulatory agencies? What makes this merger such an interesting contrast to AT&T's 1998 acquisition of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI)? (10 pts.)
A Statement on the State (of the Union)
I'm not feeling energetic enough to give Dubya a full review this year, but I'll just say he did an excellent job. Every year he gets better at presenting the State of the Union. I just wish I could have been there.
Our president laid out a confident, clear plan of what needs to happen in Iraq before we leave, the need to modernize social security, the need to vote on judges in the Senate and much more. Of course, he also threw in another nod toward lowering dependence on foreign oil, a push for the Marriage Protection (Constitutional) Amendment and acknowledgment of the need to protect life at every stage.
There was not anything surprising but it was good. It was much more of a nuts-and-bolts domestic issue kind of speech rather than the philosophical champion of freedom style of speech that we had two weeks ago at the Inauguration. That's not to say that Iraq did not get significant attention (or that there weren't some not so veiled threats went out to Syria and Iran), but that international issues were not the main focus of the speech. I expect the big discussion point in the coming days to be Social Security Privatization rather than the “Axis of Evil” or Iraqi Interim government plans, as the discussion went the last two years.
What did you think?
And By a Sleep to Say We End
Tonight has been rough. My one cat, a calico of just under thirteen years, died. She was struggling to breath this evening, and after being examined at the emergency animal clinic it was clear that something was pushing into the space of her lungs (perhaps fluids from congestive heart failure) and her one kidney was massively oversized. There was nothing to do other than to have her put to sleep (other than have her slowly suffocate over the next few hours).
She was never a real “people cat,” but after such a long time it is still odd to think that she won't be around any longer. Never running across the floor to the food bowl or laying peacefully under the table. While odd for me, I am sure it will be even more difficult for my other cat (just under 5 y/o), who will have to get use to spending his days alone without his “sister.” I'm not sure how he'll take it.
It isn't the worst tragedy in the world, but it still was painful. Cats quietly share a lot of one's life with a person. Now thirteen years worth of sharing is gone.
As a side note, I noticed that y'all responded to my Topics and Evanescence posts, but I haven't had a chance to look at the comments yet and I'm exhausted at the moment, but felt the need to post an entry before heading off to bed. I'll read and respond tomorrow.
Topically Speaking
I'm not sure if anyone has (or ever will, for that matter) make use of the topics on the sidebar, but as long as I have them, I decided to start putting things in order. My blog has been subtlety shifting to less of a technology focus (at least I think it has, did you notice?) and so I shifted things around to avoid placing new content into Miscellaneous. The Linux category and some other technology sections were merged into the existing Comp/Tech category, which makes more sense. Here's what's new:
- Books, Literature and Language: This category will be a good place for discussion of books when they don't fit anywhere else. It will also contain my musings on literature (several longish pieces coming soon) and the English language. This kind of stuff is already on the site and I'm sorting through the other categories and moving stuff here as appropriate.
- Holidays: This category absorbed the Christmas and Christmas Cheer categories and will also house some of my stuff from other holidays. Again, I'm still working on populating it with posts that previously went into less appropriate categories.
- Creative Works: This takes over for my Writing and Poetry categories that house creative projects I've placed on asisaid. When inspiration of Haiku or Villanelle strikes, it will land here from now on. I have a few pending that I have not decided if I will release or not. If I ever get a start on the next Great American Novel, that will go here too. I've started placing items in it, expect some older ones to be added in the future.
- Learning: Stuff from “the Academy.” I'm not sure exactly what will find its way here, but it will be more than mere discussion of course schedules in the future. More informal posts on the joy of learning may factor in too.
- Question: This category is home to previous asisaid Challenge posts. If you want to revisit our friend Mosca from Volpone or recall the official languages of Sweden, check out these entries.]
- Current Events: Apparently I don't comment on Science and News independently from other categories all that much, so I merged them together. I'll probably find some old posts that fit here in the future. If I discuss voting in Iraq, it will likely go here.
In addition, I'll be adding a Religion category soon, which should round out the new “Humanities Section.” This will house some posts I'd like to write on the Academic/Critical Study of Religion (not negative — critical can be positive) as opposed to my present Faith category, which normally focuses on the personal experience of faith in Jesus as opposed to systematic study of doctrines. If this difference sounds vague, stay tuned, as that will be the subject of my next post (or perhaps one post after that), time permitting.
Monday Brunch: I'm Booked
I borrowed this from Christopher (again).
1) Do you use bookmarks?
Almost always. It's usually an envelope or some other piece of material that happens to be available. If I plan to mark out a lot of pages in a book, I might take a piece of scratch paper and tear it into strips instead.
2) What is your favorite book?
That is a very tough question, I must, like Christopher, categorize. Sheesh! I think I am going to interpret the term “book” somewhat loosely. Perhaps Aeschylus' Orestia or Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy for drama. For the lighter side of things, Voltaire's Candide. For non-fiction, perhaps C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity or Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson.
3) Who is your favorite author?
I'm not sure if I have just one. Let's make it easier by saying it must be someone who live in the last one hundred years. Alright then, I'll say C.S. Lewis.
4) What is the movie you feel is the most authentic version of a book?
Most of the books I've read haven't been made into screen plays or I have failed to watch the movies if they had, so I don't know.
5) Is there a book you wish they would make into a movie and why?
The Orestia or an approximation of it, would make an amazing movie. Candide would be good too.
Have some late brunch in the comments.
A Nice, Cheerful Topic
I found this most cheerful of questionnaires over at Michael's blog.
Cheer yourself up by answering below.
A Band Fallen
Given the method of distribution, numerous Christian publications, including Christianity Today, did reviews of the album and generally gave it very good marks. It is not a hopeful CD, but not every CD needs to be or should be. It has many striking lyrics, quite a few with undertones Christian listeners can appreciate. Some of it is ambiguous as to what it refers to, but other tracks, such as “Tourniquet” and “Whisper” deal with salvation and the apocalypse, respectively, if I am not mistaken. In the album pamphlet, the first acknowledgment by Ben Moody was to Jesus, of whom he stated “all the life left in me is you.”
The CD has far too hard of edge, leaning too much on really loud guitar lyrics on some of the songs. But it combines those with excellent piano, strings and vocals for something that is worthy of listening to. I've seen numerous sites describe the band as a hard rock group fronted by Sarah McLachlan. It's something different than normal, needless to say. Tracks such as “My Immortal,” from Fallen and “Missing,” from the more recent album discussed below, even drop the excessive guitar for piano and a synth background of voices, respectively.
Things were looking good until the CD came out. Shortly thereafter, Moody, in an interview questioned the popularity of the CD in Christian circles (it was climbing the Billboard Christian chart) using some rather strong language. Moody, having been involved in the decision to market the CD to Christian stores shouldn't have been surprised. Amy Lee, his co-founder of the band, also peppered the interview with vulgar language. Wind-Up, not wanting to alienate Christian stores from itself, immediately recalled the CD's and brought an end to Evanescence's time in Christian bookstores.
After this occurrence, Christianity Today withdrew its prior review with a story of the incident (which was also reported widely elsewhere). Their new piece, like one published by Focus on the Family expressed concerns about Evanescence, although both continued to affirm the artistic aspect of the work.
Since that time, a number of things have happened. In October of 2003, Moody left (willingly or not isn't clear) to avert an imminent break up of it. It is rather interesting this occurred only months after the group decided to distance itself from its Christian faith. With only Lee remaining at the helm, Evanescence released a new CD this past fall that demonstrated the increasing depths it has fallen to. Anywhere But Home, is, for the most part, an unspectacular live audio CD and DVD combo. Its one real redeeming aspect is a studio recorded track entitled “Missing,” a haunting, quiet track that sounds somewhat more along the lines of “My Immortal” than their other works, and is well worth listening to if you liked the older track.
Sadly, even if Anywhere But Home was an artistic masterpiece (which it is not), it would be hard to recommend, and that brings me back to the point about having fallen. One track from the new CD contains multiple uses of a certain Anglo-Saxon word that has a resilient, if dubious life in modern culture. It is a cover and not an original song, but they chose to use it unmodified, rather than following the tradition of Christian Linux users who substitute the F in RTFM for “Fine,” or perhaps choosing a more suitable song all together. Compounding the situation, the label's choice not to place the appropriate warning label on the album has likely increased sales beyond what they would be if properly marked, and has lead to Wal-Mart getting into hot water for selling it.
Does this mean that Fallen is any less interesting or some of its words less meaningful than it was when originally released? No, what it really shows it what fame can do to people. Presuming that the group was sincere prior to their success, and not merely trying to benefit by claiming to be Christian, it shows that they were willing to give up principles for what they hoped to be better commercial success.
This is an interesting segue into my next piece on music, one on Sixpence None the Richer. The reason for this ordering, as I think you will see, is that there are not only some interesting parallels between the two groups, there are also some important differences. Sixpence found a way to balance commercial success with staying true to God. That's true success, obviously, far more important than simply selling a lot of CD's.
Epilogue
For those of you who haven't heard Evanescence's music, you may want to click over here for the music video of “My Immortal.” It is perfectly free to listen to, presuming you have Real Player, and I am personally quite fond of it. As I said, the actions of the group in recent years does not mitigate what they released previously, so give it a listen. It is a shame that “Missing” is not available in a form other that of Anywhere But Home, for it is worth a listen too, but the group certainly does not deserve encouragement on that album, nor is it worth the cost for one song.
Works Cited:
Breimeier, Russ. “Fallen.” Christianity Today. 2003. ChristianityToday.com 29 Jan 2005 <http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/glimpses/2003/fallen.html>.
Challenge #6 Update
An update to the last post. If you want to answer one of the remaining questions, please answer it here rather than on the last post.
Scoreboard
Kevin: 160 (up from 145 on January 27)
Christopher: 65
Flip: 45 (up from 35 on January 27)
Jason: 35 (up from 15 on January 27)
Josiah: 30
Eduardo: 20
Ed: 10
Chris (answering vicariously for his wife): 10
5.2.) Jason solved the long standing mystery by properly identifying Mrs. Marwood of William Congreve's The Way of the World as the speaker of the quote. I, like Jason, have only read, not seen the play. Although, I believe Congreve actually intended it to be read, so maybe that isn't a bad thing. One expert on the subject insists that TWOTW is the height of satire in the English language as a comedy of manners. Personally, I'd lean toward Jonson's Volpone, as the superior satire; it, of course, is a comedy of humors to an extent (coming from no less an author than the one who wrote Every Man Out Of His Humor), although not to the extent of the Alchemist. The Alchemist is probably the finest of the plays technically, I'd suggest, but Volpone has much of the same “stuff” without having as difficult of “entry.” A few other satires occur to me that are even finer, perhaps, but I shall refrain from mentioning them, they would make good Challenge questions.
6.2.) Kevin and Flip both brought up the Diet of Worms, which is correct.
6.3) I was indeed thinking of Challenger. Being from the Midwest, I can live with Baltimore defeating New York.
6.5.) The New LaHaye/Jenkins trilogy was correctly identified by Kevin as a prequel to Left Behind. Personally, I think both authors should concentrate on their independently developed series — Apocalypse Rising and Soon, respectively — rather than completely beating the dead Left Behind Series horse to smithereens. Will I buy it? Maybe.
Questions Open for the Taking
Lonely question 4.1 still wants an answer. Just for Flip, I'll even permit Googling for this one. Of course, places other than Google may hit the nail on the head better, but Google does help. Hint: the first result I found on Google was a bit too simplistic on the details of the what he had to do to benefit from the action I am referring to.
Question 6.1 received a guess from Kevin which was not correct. A major online technology publication network just wrote about this. Someone familiar with Michael Robertson (presently of Linspire) probably can figure out which publication and track down the information.
Also, question 6.4 was not penned by Benjamin Franklin, although it would have been humorous if he had — the rest of the text from which the excerpt comes would be interesting if applied to Mr. Arnold. Anyone want to take another stab at this one?
Challenge Set #6
Questions Still Open
Here are some questions you can still seize upon (please answer 'em below rather than on the old post).
4.1) The bonus part of the Jonson question is still open — why can he be referred to as the killer cleric? (10 pts.)
5.2) Who wrote it, where and, if appropriate, who said it [20 pts.]:To pass our youth in dull indifference, to refuse the sweets of life because they once must leave us, is as preposterous as to wish to have been born old, because we one day must be old. For my part, my youth may wear and waste, but it shall never rust in my possession.
Frankly, I'm not surprised no one is getting this quote and you aren't missing much for not knowing it. It's part of a play I'd grieve if I had to read through at the moment.
New Questions
1.) What was the first commercially available MP3 player? (10 pts.)
2.) What was convened tomorrow (January 28) in 1521? (10 pts.)
3.)What major U.S. tragedy occurred in more recent times on that day? (5 pts.)
4.) What I am quoting and who penned it? (15 pts.)(To JS/07 M 378 This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State) He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint
5.) What will the new trilogy by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins be about? (5 pts.)
Topics
You may have noticed I've added topics to the side column of the site now. I just stuck them there for the moment without concern for aesthetic issues, which I hope to deal with on this site in the next few weeks. I'll also need to re-organize to remove some of the topics that I've ceased to use and merge topics that are redundant.
Back when I was using my fork of Ciaran's Journal tool, I had hacked in topics by replacing another field, but there was never a place that listed all of the topics being used — an article was simply added if I typed in the right name in the box when posting (if I typed in something different, a new topic would be “created”). Now that I can see them all at once, I can see where I've changed topic names at times and can avoid doing likewise in the future.
