Receive the Power

This is a rather nicely done video from the organizers of the pope's “Youth Day” celebration last week. I thought it was worth sharing, in case you hadn't previously run into it.

90 Years of Muny

This year is the 90th anniversary of the Muny, St. Louis's municipal outdoor theater (as I understand it, the oldest and largest in the country). I went to see a special celebratory show tonight that went through favorite music from the past 90 years, from its early operettas, through Oklahoma, past the King and I and the Music Man, all the way up to Cats and Beauty and the Beast. It did not have a story per the usual show, but it was fun, colorful, exciting and featured excellent talent, as always. I highly recommend you catch it, if in St. Louis this week, before it ends. Remember, in addition to the pay seats, the Muny has free seats, so you have no excuse to miss this show!

iPhone Day, Take 2

Well, I don't think anyone will say that today was a day marked with an eerily smooth product launch, unlike last year's iPhone launch, but despite Apple's troubles with activations and the continuing pains in the switch from .Mac to MobileMe, I think this day has been successful. I was able to easily bring my iPhone (first generation) up to iPhone OS 2.0 and so far I am pleased as punch.

Why? Well, first off, the new push service seems to work really well. After the upgrade, suddenly my .Mac — excuse me, MobileMe — address is fully push enabled, vibrating my phone whenever a new message comes in, not when I check my mail. We'll see what that does to battery life; if it hurts it too badly, I'll turn off push.

But, I'm also excited after playing with some of the new App Store apps. Apple's Remote is pretty nifty for controlling iTunes, and I think it will come in handy in the future for uses I haven't quite imagined yet. Perhaps more exciting was Shazam, which can listen to a song from the radio, computer, TV, etc., and identify it. For the moment at least, it is free, and is relatively accurate. It has not falsely identified a single song, and has only come up with a blank on a few hard songs, Rusted Root's “Beautiful People” and the live recording of Evanescence's “Imaginary,” and one easy song, Sixpence's “Million Parachutes.” I tried a bunch of other music, from big and small names, and even some stuff from the Music Choice channels on TV, and it managed to correctly identify those and provide helpful links related to them. Check it out.

Need Some Web Space?

Here's something I posted to the mailing lists OFB hosts:

Hi everyone,
I'm usually hesitant to advertise any of my services on the mailing lists I host (I do not want it to seem like I am hosting them to sell stuff), but I did do a little pitch in 2004 and I hope no one minds if I do the exact same thing in 2008. Here's what the deal is. As some of you know, I do web hosting almost solely as a courtesy to my web design clients — I do not advertise on the web, etc. However, I am looking to upgrade my server and to make it cost effective, I would like to sell a few more accounts. As I did last time, what I would like to do is offer accounts that are larger than my normal plans but with a major caveat. I explained it thusly in 2004:

The real catch would be that it wouldn't really be supported. I have a vested interest in keeping it up (OfB and my web design clients would be on it), but unfortunately I can't provide 24×7 support. I would help if something went wrong with the server, but I'd rather promise no support and provide something than promise support and be unable to. If something happened like your site was completely down, then I'd get it working. Hopefully that makes sense.

Now, just to be clear, the server is watched 24×7, I just am not personally around to provide support 24×7. On the upside, you're otherwise getting what I like to call an over engineered account. Your account is backed up off site every week, with five backups kept in the off site archive (rotated). Moreover, I never oversell servers: no one wants to be the last person to show up on an airplane when it is overbooked and most everyone showed up, and likewise it is not fair to web hosting customers to oversell the server. I will be moving less than 25 clients on to the server to start, and expect to keep the amount of users under 50 in the future — far less than the hundreds that go on a typical web server. In addition, the server is in a fully redundant data center with multiple tier 1 connections offering a total throughput of more than 120Gb/s. Over the current server's run, we have achieved significantly better than 99.999% reliability.

This deal will only will happen if I get at least five people to take the offer (e.g. enough to make the server upgrade happen). The account costs $10/month paid annually.

You get everything my $10 Pine Account offers:
- 20,000 MB transfers
- 4 MySQL databases
- 10 subdomains or parked domains
- 2 FTP accounts
- CPanel and Fantastico

But, instead of my normal 300 MB of disk space, this account will come with 1 gig of space. Also, instead of 40 POP/IMAP accounts, you would get unlimited (whatever you can fit in your disk space). While you may not resell parts of that space, you may resell entire accounts if you wish and then provide tech support to your clients. If you are interested in being a reseller, I'll provide a reseller control panel for working with your accounts.

The standard web hosting fine print (AUP/TOS): http://www.serverforest.com/aup-tos.html

Let me know if you are interested. Also, if this plan doesn't meet your needs, let me know what would.

Thanks for bearing with my little sales pitch. For your amusement, my previous self-serving promotion from 2004 is included down below.

-Tim

The server will be, like the old one, an Red Hat Enterprise Linux server (great for its stability and security). It will also feature at least a Xeon 3040 for its CPU.

100 Megs of space
5 GB of transfers
cPanel Control Panel
Unlimited e-mail addresses within that 100 meg block
SSH Access
FTP Access
1 MySQL DB
Several domains and several subdomains (how many do you need?)

Interested? Let me know.

Happy Fourth!

I hope everyone had a good time filled with fireworks!

Every Christian Should Read the Da Vinci Code

I have been meaning to write about a new series I am teaching to my senior high students in Sunday School for a few weeks now. I received permission to drop the curriculum I had been working with and build my own summer series based on the Da Vinci Code. While not every student has done so, the objective has been to get as many as possible to read the book and then discuss given chapters each week in class. In addition, we've been delving into the backstory, loosely speaking, looking at the parts of history the Code claims to speak about.

I had already been planning to present my case on here for why every Christian should read the Da Vinci Code, but I got started the other day when Mark was airing more of his distaste for the books and I tried to convince him that he should first read that which he is complaining about.

The Da Vinci Code is an excellent tool to teach what the world believes about the church — a lot of people believe precisely what the book says. Too many Christians live partially or mostly in the Christian ghetto, unaware of what the world thinks about them other than that they are bad, bad people (or worse, “secular humanists”) that need to be rebuked. This is not fulfilling our mission to be salt and light to the world! So, we are working through the Code slowly and carefully, looking at the claims. Now, I could just tell them to read some polemic against it and then my students could go rattle off that polemic to others. But there is another route: I can help them engage the issues thoughtfully, in context, so that they can intelligently discuss them with others. Christians are far too good at keeping up on polemics with no idea what can be affirmed in the stuff they attack. Most things are not black-and-white evil.

For example, many Christians read books like the Kingdom of the Cults and get the idea that there are some serious issues with the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and other non-orthodox groups that claim to have the true Christian message. If that is all the ever read on the issues, they hear that someone is a Jehovah's Witness and assume the person has to be an idiot. Try having a discussion with a person with an attitude like that, and do you really think the love of Christ is going to come through from you?

That is the problem. Say you have someone come up to you and say, “I just read this exciting book, the Da Vinci Code, and listen to what it said about Jesus and Mary!” In response, you reply, “Ah, it's just a bunch of hogwash fiction with a horrible author who claims his work is fact.” Now, we have a disconnect, and the person who enjoyed the book probably assumes you are just another Christian with knee jerk reactions (not that you are, but too many Christians are). You have shown the person zero respect by downplaying their opinion while putting in no effort to actually understand it a bit. They could rightly become angry with you, since you have not even read the book and yet you are telling them what to think about it. Conversely, if you say, “yes, it had me on the edge of my seat too, but you do have to realize yadda, yadda, yadda is wrong with the historical background,” you'll be much better at reaching them and doing good for the Gospel. Isn't that the goal?

In relation to Jehovah's Witnesses, imagine if people read books like the Kingdom of the Cults, but did so as a resource while carefully and critically engaging with materials from the Jehovah's Witnesses themselves. If the Christian would do that, she would understand how the person she is talking to can be a rational, decent human being and still believe the stuff they do. Moreover, by being able to affirm the good of the material — things like affirming the family, acting like Christ to others, etc. — we can build a “bridge,” as one of my professors, Jerram Barrs, would say to help the person we are talking to see that their core beliefs are built up and not torn down by the Gospel.

Think of Harry Potter and how the Christian reaction has made the church look. Conversely, Prof. Barrs insists he can actually find the Gospel in even the first Harry Potter book. And, I think he is right. Christians were so upset at the possibility that Harry Potter would make “witchcraft acceptable” that they missed a really good series that can be used to affirm much of the Christian message! Harry Potter is far less dangerous than the Da Vinci Code, of course. Nevertheless, the reactions to the Code that I've seen from the best theologians and historians are wise enough to say, “yes, I too found it really exciting and well written, but here are the issues.” You can't say that if you haven't read it. And, given that it is possibly the most influential book on peoples' perspectives on church history in a very long time, it seems critical to be able to interact with people on it.

In interacting with it, I have read Evangelical responses, but I am also using Bart Erhman's book on the Code for precisely the same reason. Erhman is an Evangelical turned agnostic and a serious critic of the Church. But, he is also a historian of some merit, so his critiques of the book are extremely helpful. Moreover, if my students have not only read the Code, but also have heard critiques that are informed by Erhman's views, they are vastly more prepared to give answers outside of the Christian ghetto. (As an aside, Erhman said the book had major errors, but “like everyone else” he found it an engaging read.)

Are there factual issues throughout both Robert Langdon books (_the Da Vinci Code_ and Angels and Demons)? Absolutely. Are there glaring factual errors in virtually every piece of pop fiction in a book or movie? Yes. Sure the author claims some facts and he definitely pushes the limit on those fact pages at the beginning of each book. But get over that, and analyze the rest of the book as you would any other very influential work of fiction. That does everybody a whole lot more good.

Is it great literature? No, of course not. I am not going to even think about claiming that. But I enjoy my McDonald's double cheeseburger meal as a compliment to my pan seared chicken with alfredo and asparagus. I love Shakespeare, but when I'm in bed, getting ready to go to sleep, I'd rather have some fast food that allows my mind to wind down. Yes, even lit majors do read things other than literature at times.

So ends my catechism.

Sixpence Lives!

Somehow I missed it until today when I received a “Sixpence None the Richer Newsletter” in my inbox, but it seems that my perennial favorite band has been revived after closing its doors in 2004 on friendly terms. According to the message, a Christmas album, the Dawn of Grace, is on target for launch this October (Sixpence's first Christmas album) and a new regular album is on tap for 2009. I am giddy at the prospect.

Many folks only know Sixpence for its few pop hits — typically, “Kiss Me” and “There She Goes,” though their cover of “Don't Dream It's Over” gets the most airplay these days. But, if you are not familiar with the band, go on iTunes and check out some of their excellent work. Here's a quick pick from each of their albums, though certainly every album is worthy of owning in full:

• From the Fatherless and the Widow: “Meaningless”
• From this Beautiful Mess: “Circle of Error”
• From Tickets to a Prayer Wheel (EP): “Healer”
• From Sixpence None the Richer (the “Kiss Me” and “There She Goes” album): “Moving On”
• From Divine Discontent (the “Don't Dream It's Over” and “Breath Your Name” album): “Still Burning”
• From the Best of Sixpence None the Richer: “Too Far Gone”
• From Leigh Nash's solo album, Blue on Blue: “Just A Little.”

Personally, I think the album with the most standout songs is this Beautiful Mess, however the eponymous album has the most cohesive “feel.” Also, don't miss the under released song, “Sad But True,” which appeared on the “Kiss Me” single and on the vinyl release of Sixpence None the Richer (it's sad but true that “Sad But True” is not available on iTunes — but it is worth looking for a cheap copy of the “Kiss Me” single on eBay to get it).

Have a favorite Sixpence song? Let me know in the comments.

A few key blog posts about Sixpence over the years:

• My review of “Divine Discontent”. Ironically, in that review, I state, “we can only hope our 'friends' at Sixpence don't stay out of contact for five years before the next CD.” Given that my review was posted in early 2003, it looks like five years is about what it is going to take to hear a new recording from the band. Interesting.
• Christians and Secular Music — about the anger that came from some corners of the Christian music world arguing that Sixpence “sold out” to the mainstream market.

Aldi/Tevion Video Chat Webcam

Last fall, Aldi had a great deal on a little VGA USB webcam — and I had been wanting to pick one up for a few reasons, not the least of which was trying the video “ISBN scanner” Delicious Library (and similar programs) has. I didn't have time to do much with it beyond plugging it in and seeing that the camera was not going to be a plug-and-play matter. So it sat there… until tonight.

When I could not get it to work with macam, I googled the USB string 0x60fe, which I found on the Linux-USB site as being the Tevion model MD85081. A bit more digging revealed that it uses a Sonix SN9C110 video chipset. After trial and error, finding that programs such as macam did not handle my little camera, I decided to look up the manufacturer of the chipset. Going to Sonix's web site, I found out they had a driver for cameras based on their controller, which I downloaded here. I was surprised and pleased that they actually had a Mac OS X driver! After installing that driver, the webcam now works in Photo Booth, Delicious Library and other programs that can look for a video source — other than iChat, which needs iUSBCam to find the camera. The little shutter button on the webcam even works — if you tap that, Preview opens up with a snapshot taken from the camera.

I'm rather pleased, I must say!

On Reading, Part IV: Structuralism

This is a continuation of my series on literary criticism and Biblical hermeneutics. You can find the previous pieces of the series here: I. Old Historicism, II. New Criticism, III.1. Reader Response, III.2. Reader Response Cont'd., IV. Mimeticism.

I realized I never finished this series, and that means I never got to some of my favorite schools of criticism, including the school I myself now claim to belong to. That school is still down the road a bit, but for today, we can stop and consider Structuralism.

This school, it seems to me, shares a lot of affinities with Wittgenstein's Language Game theory. Essentially, the argument of Structuralists is that the text derives its meaning from its membership in its textual world (generally, in criticism, we would be talking about membership in the literary canon). For example, to understand Shakespeare, we must understand the broader literary frontier that his works access — Greek mythology, the Bible, contemporary stories, political intrigues, and so on. Without any of theses, Shakespeare's brilliance would be muted. But, according to Structuralist theory, much like Reader Response, this “sharing” is bidirectional. Shakespeare informs the Greek poets. Virginia Woolf informs Shakespeare (and I do not mean just Judith). In some odd sense, might we even say blogs, like this one, take part in a conversation with Shakespeare? Yes, we might.

This may sound odd, problematic or even — if we apply it to the Bible — heretical. However, the key recognition of Structuralist theory is language's existence as a constructed framework which is meaningless without the meaning instilled intra-framework. Our understanding of the language of the Bible is influenced by our understanding of the Bible, which is influenced by our understanding of the language of the Bible. For example, when interpreting 1 Corinthians 14, I proposed that we look to the English word “idiot” to understand the Greek word ἰδιοτης, for the English word itself derives its meaning from the thirteenth century interpretation of the Greek. That's not to say it is right, but it is an important undercurrent, to say the least. We cannot approach the Bible with a blank slate, if we could, it would be impervious to interpretation.

Even if we wish, rightly, to stay true to the Biblical text, we must recognize that our present theological contributions change in some real sense the Biblical text, perhaps as much as our theology is influenced by the Bible. Outside of any contextual framework, the Bible would be meaningless, just as Shakespeare is only sensible to someone who knows English and has grasped at least a few conventions of Elizabethan or Jacobean culture. Without divine intervention, certainly, this should be a serious alarm for the Biblically oriented theologian. In this, Structuralism offers not only a proper critique of our understanding of language, but also serves to call us back to humility as part of a critical language game, and, further, to remember that we should never see ourselves as members of the church, properly reformed, but always part of the church ever reforming.

Tim Russert Dies at 58

One of the few really good journalists of this era has died today. Tim Russert, by the estimation of pretty much everyone on both sides of the aisle, was a journalist's journalist. His work was, whenever I encountered it excellent — well researched and fair. His reporting was an encouragement to strive for excellence. It is a sad day for the nation, as one of the real keepers of the Fourth Estate has passed away.

How sad too, for his family, particularly right after a celebratory vacation for his son's graduation from college.