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Weight Watchers
Okay, I joined Weight Watchers Online. It seems rather complicated. However, I'm resolved to give it the ol' college try before switching to meetings, mainly because it's cheaper. I dutifully logged in today's eating, and I was duly shocked at the "points" total: 47! When I was supposed to be shooting for 29! Well, it's not as if I was ( Read more... ) -
Wow, long time, no post!
I have decided to get serious about losing weight. Although I certainly don't feel particularly fat, my doctors have been making very grim noises about risk factors and pre-disposition to Type II diabetes (and a friend who is a nurse and runs a dialysis clinic described some of the complications of diabetes for me, thanks Steve!). And objectively ( Read more... ) -
What is " Welcoming Congregation?" --sermon
What is "Welcoming Congregation"?
It's a workshop series. We will be examining ourselves, our church, our denomination, and society. Hopefully the workshops will culminate in our taking a series of actions to make our congregation a more comfortable place for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons to be themselves.
The natural ( Read more... ) -
Focus
The most frustrating thing about writing a sermon for me is that often the theme of the sermon isn't clear to me until after I've given the sermon!
--And what a horrible sentence that is.
I've always hated sermons (or speakers, in general) that waffled all over the place. I once asked, "What was the theme of that sermon?" only to be told, "Well... ( Read more... ) -
x-men fanfic
Been thinking about this one for a while.
This is a work in progress. It's a sequel to my previous Magneto fic, New Boy. The X-Men and related mutants and hangers-on are the property of National Publications and its parent corporations, and their assigns. Stan Lee gave me permission to write stories about them years ago in Stan Lee's Soapbox ( Read more... ) -
Hiroshima Memorial Service
The service went well.
The books that were recommended to me were not particularly helpful--actually, they were only peripherally relevant! Most of the info I used came from Judge Evan Wallach's website, although I also used an essay by Kenneth Roth and some other stuff. But Wallach's pages organized all the material for me, bless his heart.
I ( Read more... ) -
Law of War--Part 3, Law and War
So given that Law is a means for settling disputes without bloodshed, obviously war is all about bloodshed.
Therefore war is a great big abrogation of law, right? So what is the Law of War?
Ah! Follow my reasoning! We said that Law, or Rules, allows you to 'play the game' or go about your business with minimal interruptions, nu? That Law, in fact ( Read more... ) -
Law of War--Part 2, Law
It tends to get treated as strictly humanitarian,
but the Law of War is really very practical, from the standpoint of: how do you run a war?
Begin by asking, what is law in general? Um...rules of conduct in society? For what? Why do you have rules. Well--you have rules in a game so that you can play the game. Little kids experiment with no rules ( Read more... ) -
August 6 & 8
It's the end of July and I'm trying to write a sermon for Hiroshima Memorial Sunday.
This used to be our only summer service. Now we have services summer same as winter, only with spotty attendance.
I took over this service a number of years ago because I was sick of all the paper cranes, so to speak. It had generally been an excruciatingly self- ( Read more... ) -
Snape, et al. Probably SPOILERS
I've been thinking about Snape and Voldemort...
Given that JKR supplies poor motivation for Snape in DH, I've been musing about why he turned on Voldemort, and more particularly why he became a DE in the first place.
First, it's clear to me that the DE's were a cult, and Voldemort was a cult leader. They worshipped him, and he abused them. At the ( Read more... )