Merry Christmas, Y'all!

To all of you who read this, may you all have a very merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! And though it may be inappropriate, ot eht eno I ssim eht tsom, Yrrem Samtsirhc! Dna eht lanosrep golb si llits pu, dna I lliw eb gnitrats ot tsop ot ti niaga. Mu...

Tseuqer

Eirelav, dluoc I esaelp evah eht drowssap ot ruoy gniddew etisbew? I thguoht tuoba gnidnes a lamrof tseuqer, tub I t’ndid wonk woh Ttam dluow ekil eht aedi. No dnoces thguoht, ebyam eht elohw gniht si a dab aedi. M’i yrros I deksa...

Loneliness is Selfishness in Disguise

Hear me out. I’m not saying that lonely people are bad people. Good people suffer from loneliness, too; but I am saying that the focus of loneliness is self. Check it for yourself. The next time you get lonely, are you going to say, “__________ needs me; I suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to go do something nice for him/her”? No! The first thing that comes to mind will be something like: “I’m lonely. I miss __________. I wish he/she were here. I feel really good when we’re together!”

Please don’t get me wrong. I get lonely myself. But it’s important to understand where the loneliness comes from. A’ight?

ot eirelav

mi ton erus fi i dluohs neve yas gnihtyna tuoba siht tub i tnod kniht ti dluow krow rof a tcefrep regnarts hcus sa flesym ot klat ot ttam tuoba taht eussi ti thgim neve erifkcab knaht uoy rof gniulav ym evitcepsrep no eht tcejbus tub i leef retfa hcum reyarp dna noitaredisnoc taht uoy dluow eb retteb devres fi i tndid erefretni dna tel uoy krow siht tuo neewteb uoy i lliw eunitnoc ot yarp

Creative Signage Options

(Or, How to Annoy Passing Motorists)

1. Upside-down “A” in place of “V”
2. Backwards “B” in place of “8”
3. Backwards “D” in place of “O” or Zero
   
4. Backwards “E” in place of “3”
5. Flipped upside-down “F” in place of “L”
6. Flipped upside-down “G” in place of “E”
   
7. “I” in place of “L”
8. Rotated upside-down “J” in place of “F”
9. Flipped upside-down “L” in place of “F”
10. Rotated upside-down “L” in place of “7”
    
11. Upside-down “M” in place of “W”
12. “O” in place of Zero
13. Flipped upside-down “P” in place of “B”
14. Rotated upside-down “P” in place of “D”
15. Upside-down or backwards “Q” in place of “O” or Zero
16. Backwards “R” in place of “A”
    
17. “S” in place of “5”
18. Backwards “S” in place of “2”
19. Upside-down “T” in place of “1”
    
20. Upside-down “V” in place of “A”
21. Upside-down “W” in place of “M”
22. “Z” in place of “2”
23. Zero in place of “O”
24. “1” in place of “I” or “L”
25. “2” in place of “Z”
26. Backwards “2” in place of “S”
27. Flipped upside-down “2” in place of “5”
28. Backwards “3” in place of “E”
29. Backwards “2” over backwards “3” in place of “&”
    
30. “4” (the open kind) in place of “Y”
31. “5” in place of “S”
32. Flipped upside-down “5” in place of “2”
33. “6” in place of “G”
    
34. Flipped upside-down “6” in place of “E”
35. Backwards “6” in place of “A”
36. Rotated upside-down “6” in place of “9”
37. Rotated upside-down “7” in place of “L”
38. “8” in place of “B”
39. “9” in place of “G” (yes 6 and 9 both work, sort of)
40. Upside-down “!” in place of “I”
41. Upside-down comma in place of apostrophe
42. Upside-down apostrophe in place of comma
    

Of course, I certainly don’t recommend these, except for a few that won’t look bad. For instance, upside-down W for an M looks pretty good, though the reverse is not true.

Prayer

Dear God, it is all in your hands. You deal with it. Let come what may, still I will trust you. Give me grace to pray once more, and I will believe for the answer. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Making Right Choices

Making right choices often means no one realizes that we did! It often involves refraining from certain types of behavior, or from talking about someone or something we used to. But if we point out that we’re making the right decision, we miss the point: Right actions are right by virtue of what they are, not whether other people know. Well, that’s my thought for the day. Stay with it, folks!

Morality

Let me begin this post with a caveat: I am not speaking to or about anyone in particular, but I believe these things so strongly that I feel a certain obligation to share them. My comments are about the world in general, and are not to be construed as directed at specific individuals.

Now that we’ve come to the 21st Century, it appears that many people are abandoning the strong morals that were prevalent when our nation was founded. In short, we no longer understand the full import of the sanctity of marriage. Couples are enjoying the trappings of marriage without the marriage covenant itself. And these live-in relationships are on the rise. It seems people would rather have the benefits of the marriage relationship without all that difficult responsibility.

But boyfriends and girlfriends who “play house” invite for themselves a host of problems which, although also present among traditional marriages, exist in to a greater extent among couples who either cohabit or were married after having cohabited. What has happened to us? I see that we’ve lost our way, and the problem is that we fail to take the Bible seriously.

The Bible says, “And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help[er suitable] for him.” (Genesis 2:18) As the story unfolds, God proceeds to form Eve out of one of Adam's ribs, presents her to him, and officiates at the first wedding ceremony. What, you don’t believe me? Verse 24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

That the becoming one flesh comes after the cleaving to the wife is evident from this New Testament passage: “Honorable be marriage among all people, and the bed unsullied; but immoral persons and adulterers God will judge.” (Hebrews 13:4, my own translation) The message is very clear: Ring before fling. God doesn’t want us to have trouble; because He loves us, He wants our ultimate marriage to succeed.

Some of you may be in this identical situation. My advice to you is to separate from each other physically until you’re ready to be married. Even if you’ve done it with no one else but your partner, this have long-term benefits for you: it will build trust, character, respect, and purity. But above all, God is able to forgive past failures if we commit to doing it the right way.

Having a dilemma

I’ve got a dilemma: if you have someone you’ve estranged from yourself with your attitude, do you just give up and leave them alone, or do you post something where they’ll find it saying that you’re sorry?

Why do we spell, Part 2

Iph lhu kan nheed dhis, lhonh hebhee on phonniks. Iph lhu nheed bhizhuallee, lhul habh monh diphikuhltee dhan iph lhu heenh dhuh samhdz in lhonh hed.

Why do we spell the way we do?

Just for fun, try reading the following words:

Iph lhu kan nheed dhis, lhu ahnh smanhtnh dhan moast peepl. Sum ubh us need tu habh the spelng cloas tu pnhopnh tu nheed enething undnhstanduhblee.

Update (3/11): “Corrected” the spelling of some of the sounds. Namh its eebhn monh tshalenzhing dhan bephonh.

Here I sit... again.

Well, here I sit, two weeks or so into the new semester, about to get eaten alive by another book critique that’s due tomorrow. Also think that the official position of the love of my life is that she absolutely hates me. That can take a man and discourage him in a hurry, but I can’t let her know that. Oh, wait—I think I just did!

Caucus Update

Well, Thompson didn’t win Iowa, but he did tie for third with John McCain. Not entirely a bad start. We still have all the primaries ahead of us. The first and second on the Republican side were Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. The Democrat winner was Barack Obama, followed by John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. After the caucus, Joe Biden announced he would drop out of the race.

On Conservatism and Fred

When it comes to the Republican candidates, Fred Thompson is the only electable candidate that’s truly conservative. Duncan Hunter doesn’t have enough support, and Alan Keyes got into the race a little too late, and you can forget about the others. I know Mike Huckabee sounds conservative; but take a long look at his record. That is why I hope Thompson can win—yes, I said win—in Iowa today. And, my goodness, I really hope he doesn’t drop out of the race before we Virginians get the chance to vote him in!