No Apologies Necessary
This seemed to be a well thought out quiz. I found it via Eduardo. I'm pretty happy with the comparison to C.S. Lewis.
 | You scored as Classical Apologist. You are a classical apologist! Marshaling arguments first based on competing worldviews, you can show reasons to believe in the Christian faith. You have learned much from C. S. Lewis, Norman Geisler, and Peter Kreeft. |
What kind of apologist are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
It Just Makes You Want to Say, "Inside Cheke and Cimble"
Kevin got the answer to the question that has been haunting the asisaid Challenge: it was the Garden of the Forking Paths, a delightful short story from Jorge Luis Borges. (It is much more interesting than the first paragraph — that which I quoted — gives any indication to). You can read it here.
The story is complex and elegantly crafted. The concept expressed inside, well, I won't tell you… I'll make you read it and see if you want to say “inside cheke and cimble” afterwards or not.
asisaid Challenge #4: More Questions
Now, luck yet send us, and a little wit Will serve to make our play hit;
(According to the palates of the season)
Here is rhime, not empty of reason.
2.) What are the original names of the units that form C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and what form did they take (5 pts.)?
3.) In honor of the IBM PC division sale, name the company that was hired to develop the software for the first IBM PC. Name the software this latter company purchased the rights to as part of the IBM PC Project (10 pts.).
4.) Who wrote “How many deaths did I die before I was awakened to new life again” (10 pts.)?
5.) BIG BONUS ROUND: I don't know the answer to this one, but I want to. Who was the author of the quote “Seek truth knowing there can be no conflict behind God and truth.” My friend who gave it to me recalls originally reading it in a 1960's magazine aimed at soon to be college freshmen, such as he was at the time (200 pts. [no typo there]). You may use Google and other search engines on this question and this question only.
Don't forget, Borges work from round one has yet to be named. I'll offer double points to the person who names it.
Also, don't forget, no web search engines may be used in searching for the quotes in these questions, but you may use any web resource other than that.
The Blogroll
Here are some blogroll items I've been meaning to do and/or ask about:
asisaid Blogroll now with a personal touch: I decided to give my blogroll a more personal touch by switching from blog names to the names of the bloggers. Here's how I did it: if you publish your whole name on your site, your whole name went on the roll. If you publish only your first name and/or I am aware that you don't really want your whole name tied to your blog, I only included your first name or first name plus last initial. If I made a mistake, let me know. If I didn't put down your last name and you don't care if I do, comment below; if I did put down your last name and you don't want it listed, let me know that too. Thanks!
I also added a link to a blog by a friend of mine who just joined the blogosphere. Go take a look at Deep Thought and give Chris a hardy welcome! It looks like it should be an interesting blog for those interested in Macs (Chris has contributed a couple commentaries to OfB.biz, including one I mentioned the other day).
please ping weblogs.com: I'd like to ask a favor, if I may. If you have a blog, please “ping” (your weblog software should support XML-RPC pinging) weblogs.com and/or blogrolling.com when you update your blog. If your blog is at the bottom of my blogroll, that probably means you never ping and therefore blogrolling never moves your name to the top of my list. If you ping, then I'll know when you've updated and that means I (and others using BlogRolling's or Wordpress's ability to denote updated blogs) can enjoy your new posts.
blogrolling asisaid.com: In a similar vein, if you are blogrolling me, remember that the address I ping is http://asisaid.com/journal/, not just http://asisaid.com/ or http://www.asisaid.com/ or any other variation. Therefore, if you are wondering why update notification never works on my blog, you now know why. It is rather unfortunate that the XML-RPC ping spec does not provide a convenient way to provide alternate URL's (as far as I know), but since it doesn't, the address must be exactly the correct one for update notification to work.
Spam Update
Here is a snapshot of my spam blocking statistics for the past two days (approximately). This is prior to re-enabling DUL blocking, something I did about a half hour ago. I'll let you know how it goes now that DUL is back on.
Total Spam Count = 17784 Total Success Count = 4914Spam detected and blacklisted, by blacklist, since last refresh of exim log (2004-12-12 04:02:09.000000000 -0500).
Note: checks against blacklists stop after first positive match, therefore lower numbers from blacklists lower down should be expected and do not indicate performance of a given list.
sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org = 15306
LAST UPDATED: Monday, 13-Dec-2004 22:05:03 EST
zombie.dnsbl.sorbs.net = 0
cbl.abuseat.org = 120
opm.blitzed.org = 0
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net [disabled 2004.12.05 00:15 due to overactive blocking] = 0
relays.ordb.org = 3
spam.dnsrbl.net = 0
dnsbl.njabl.org = 1215
blackhole.securitysage.com = 0
hil.habeas.com = 1
list.dsbl.org = 1080
manual =0
verify fail= 290
No Relay = 158
Christmastime
Loved ones close to our hearts and strangers in lands afarThe CD is a masterful blend of tracks with instrumental, children's choir, and of course, MWS's singing as well. MWS has a knack for composition, and this CD is a testament to it. While the individual songs are good, it is best experienced played in its original order rather than being shuffled, I think. It is a Christmas experience — with a little work, it would probably make an amazing Christmas cantata service.
Together share in the joy
Emmanuel
He has come to dwell
With one voice
Let the world rejoice
Summary of Past Answers, Current Point Board, New Questions
Here's the status of previous questions:
1.1.) It was armor for the Humvees (military Hummers). [solved]
1.2.) Yes, Jason and Flip are correct that it is Borges. The complete answer for this one is still pending.
2.) Thomas Jefferson was a deist and the organization I had in mind was the Unitarian Universalists Association (UUA). [solved]
3.1.) As Kevin noted, this flew right over asisaid readers, but the answer that Kevin correctly named is none other than our new theist friend, Antony Flew. See my post from December 9 to see why this relates to this blog. [solved]
3.2.) UNIX was properly linked to Multics by Ed. Flip correctly added the words behind the Multics acronym: Multiplexed Information and Computing System. What's left is the pun that is the name UNIX. It began as UNICS (Uniplexed ICS), but the bad jokes that came from what the word sounds like (think castrated Multics) were alleviated by changing the name to UNIX which does not stand for anything. [solved]
3.3.) Kevin got this one too, the answer being the song Whisper by Evanesence (Amy Lee and Ben Moody). I don't recall blogging about this group, but regardless, Kevin got it. I was hoping the Latin would make it confusing (call me mean). [solved]
This leaves only question #1.2 remaining. Aren't there any Borges fans on here? Try to take different routes and maybe you will arrive at the answer.
Kevin pulls in the lead by taking on my two “difficult” questions from set three. Jason makes a fast rise toward the top. And the two EDifying readers Ed and Eduardo are tied at 10. For the first time in the history of this blog, Christopher has fallen behind someone in points. What in tarnation is going on here?!?!? Mr. W needs to get to work.
Kevin: 40 [30 from 3.3, 10 from 3.1.]
Christopher: 20
Flip: 20
Jason: 15
Eduardo: 10
Ed: 10
(If you see an error in this scoring, let me know.)
As long as everyone seems to be enjoying this, I'll post a few more questions. If this gets old faster than I run out of challenges, someone hit me on the head and tell me.
1.) What country recognized 5 minority languages on 1 April 2000? [10 pts.]
2.) What important event in Catholic (and, technically, Protestant) history occurred on 13 December? [10 pts] What international events happened on the same day in 1996 and 2003? [5 pts ea.]
3.) What famous Librarian of Congress was a member of Skull and Bones? (Name the activity that this person was best known for as well.) [20 pts.]
4.) What did dioxin have to do with politics this week? [5 pts.]
5.) What is the proper name of the color of the first iMac? [5 pts.]
More Challenge will appear on Tuesday.
I Hear Ya
| What kind of learner are you? Auditory Learner You are an auditory learner and learn by listening and responding to what you hear. |
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Post your results below (remember that HTML won't post in the comments, so just post the text of your answer).
I Found It... Finally.
Last year, I had ordered the older Michael W. Smith Christmas cd to compliment the newer Christmastime I already had purchased. I played it only once because I procrastinated and did not get it ordered until after Christmas. Today I went to pull it out, and the jewel case was… empty. That's not good. After digging through numerous other Christmas CD's, I finally located it, but I was worried for a bit. I don't even have it ripped onto my computer yet, I can't lose it yet!
That was about the biggest excitement of the day, otherwise I've been taking a day off to recuperate from the last few weeks. I slept in, read the Post-Dispatch, a bit of Voltaire's Candide and checked on the articles over at OfB. If only life was always this peaceful!
asisaid challenge: Question Set #3
Suppose then that we are in doubt as to what someone who gives vent to an utterance is asserting, or suppose that, more radically, we are sceptical as to whether he is really asserting anything at all, one way of trying to understand (or perhaps to expose) his utterance is to attempt to find what he would regard as counting against, or as being incompatible with, its truth. For if the utterance is indeed an assertion, it will necessarily be equivalent to a denial of the negation of the assertion. And anything which would count against the assertion, or which would induce the speaker to withdraw it and to admit that it had been mistaken, must be part of (or the whole of) the meaning of the negation of that assertion. And to know the meaning of the negation of an assertion, is as near as makes no matter, to know the meaning of that assertion. And if there is nothing which a putative assertion denies then there is nothing which it asserts either: and so it is not really an assertion. When the Sceptic in the parable asked the Believer, “Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?” he was suggesting that the Believer's earlier statement had been so eroded by qualification that it was no longer an assertion at all.DISCLAIMER: I do not agree with the above statement, at least in its original context and the point it tries to make.
2.) How was the term UNIX originally spelled and what did it serve as an acronym for? [5 pts.]
3.) Where did this quote come from (Hint: it is only a few years old)? The final quote had more than one person involved in “preparing it” for public consumption — if you can name more than one, you'll get 5 extra points, if you can name all three of the best answers, I'll give you 10 extra points. [20 pts.]Speaking to the atmosphere No one's here and I fall into myself
[…]
Servatis a pereculum.
Servatis a maleficum
Remember, no web search engines (other than for searching only this site, using site:asisaid.com in the query), but you can use other web resources, if you wish to really seek out this answer (as Jason is trying to do with Question #1.2).
