Seeing God in Relief

I've been rereading the book Beginning to Pray by Archbishop Anthony Bloom. This passage, from the first chapter, has been something that jumped out at me both times I've read through it:

...when a man or a woman experiences love for another, other people no longer matter in the same way. To put it in a short formula from the ancient world, 'When a man has a bride, he is no longer surrounded by men and women, but by people.'

Isn't that what could, what should happen with regard to all our riches when we turn to God? Surely they should become pale and grey, just a general background against which the only figure that matters would appear in intense relief? We would like just one touch of heavenly blue in the general picture of our life, in which there are so many dark sides. God is prepared to be outside it, He is prepared to take it up completely as a cross, but He is not prepared to be simply part of our life.

My New Toy

My New Toy
Originally uploaded by coderforchrist

I recently got a new toy: an Air Hogs RC Havoc Heli. The 'copter charges off of the remote (hence the cord you see between the two in the photo), and goes for about 6 minutes (I think) before needing to be recharged.

These things are incredibly sensitive to the slightest movement of air, and as such, you've gotta be careful if you fly it outside. Just the breeze from an A/C vent can send it out of control. Fortunately, this thing can take a beating!

So, how did I come across this? My brother and sister picked up a couple for my dad for Father's Day (which we celebrated on Thursday). We all had so much fun flying them around my parents' house, I went and got my own the next day!

Given it's aforementioned resilience, this toy gives a lot of fun for it's price: $30. Granted, after a weekend of abuse, my dad's 'copters have needed some repairs. I suppose I've not abused mine as much, because it's still running fine.

And, I think I'm finally getting good enough to really annoy people at the office...

Oh, if anyone wants one, I got mine at Target, and my sister got the two for my dad at Wal-Mart. If you'd rather order it online, they've got them over at ThinkGeek as well.

Insightful Quote

On my iGoogle homepage, I have a module called "Quote of the Day," which, as you might guess, gives me a quote for each day. Sometimes the quotes are just silly, but today's was, I thought, pretty good:

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

High-Level Nerd

Okay, apparently I'm slightly nerdier than wezlo:

Now, That's Politics!

Apparently, a fight broke out in the Alabama Senate recently. Well, not much of a fight; one senator punched another in the head. Regardless, if this kind of thing went on more often, I might actually watch CPAN!

Buddhism and Suicide

Another great bash.org chat log:

<Neo-Tokyo> wouldnt you say suicide is a permenant solution to a temporary problem?
<`[6]> I'm a Buddhist, I'd say suicide is a temporary solution to a permanent problem.

Out-Moralizing the Bible?

Found this great IRC chat log here. For convenience's sake, here it is:

*** Now talking in #christian
-Word_of_God- Welcome Abstruse to #christian I am a Bible Bot. For more info type: /msg Word_of_God !info
<abstruse> !kjv numbers 22:21
<word_of_god> Numbers 22:21 -- And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. - (KJV)
*** SageRider sets mode: +b *!*@c211-30-208-111.rivrw3.nsw.optusnet.com.au
*** Word_of_God was kicked from #christian by SageRider (Please dont Swear)
<abstruse> I know I'm never going to be able to come back in this channel again after this, but damn was it worth it to see that...