No Grasp of Your Reality

I’m a sucker for street performers.

When Bob, Billy and I were down in Australia, we ran into two guys with two didgeridoos and a drum machine performing near Darling Harbour. The sound they produced was incredible, so I picked up a CD for $20 Aussie. The album was even better. Here’s samples of two of their songs, Forest Phunk and Yulara.

They’re called The Web.

In a few days, I’ll post some music from some street musicians I saw in Shimbashi station in Tokyo.

UPDATE: Sorry… should have looked up the spelling for “didgeridoo”.

Following up on Sarah’s Mini-golf post, I’ve got some video online of our outing. It’s kinda big, and I’m not sure how much this is going to kill my webserver.

That’s why this is a test.

After the premature decisions by Mississippi Valley and Central Carolina Presbyteries, Louisiana Presbytery has actually adopted a lucid position, and explicitly exonerated Rev. Steve Wilkins and declared him “faithful to the Confessional standards of the PCA”.

You can read the entire adopted report over at The Parchment.

UPDATE: William has also posted a response from a few “leaders” in the PCA (as much as the PCA has leaders).

I’ve decided to lose some weight. My surgery last year has had wonderful results, so I have no more excuses for not getting back into shape.

For those of you who didn’t know, my surgery was due to an cyst that I had that first got infected my senior year of high school during track season. Even though the initial infection was taken care of, it was always susceptible to a recurrence, especially anytime I put stress on the area at the base of my back. After that, anytime I started some sort of an exercise program, it would get reinfected. So I stopped exercising. And put on 100 lb in 10 years.

So, now that the root is gone, I’m back in the gym. Today, I walked a mile and biked for 5, and I feel great. I’m putting myself back on the Hacker Diet, and my goal is to play competitive soccer again. My coworker, Bill is going to be exercising with me, so we’ll be able to commiserate together.

So, in order to keep you all sufficiently annoyed, I’ve created a new diet category, and you will all get to experience my pain.

misc/nursing 1 Thessalonians 2:7 “But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.”

This metaphor has much meaning to me, as nursing Micah – almost constantly- is part of my daily life.

For those of you who have never nursed a baby, it must be done tenderly. Babies won’t even suckle if you try to push their head against the breast! In fact, they brace their arms, push against you and cry. It must be done with gentle coaxing, especially if they are already upset or if they are just starting out. If you gently brush their face against the breast – sometimes even a few times, they open their mouth and then begin to eat. While they’re eating, you must quietly care for them and guard them from distraction or they stop!

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Whose idea was it to read A Chick Hatches?!?!

Um, that would be mine. While Tom was gone, we would read it aloud every day to the nest on our porch. Eventually, the chick did hatch! A little Robin. He fell from his nest a little too soon, but learned to fly within a few days. We kept our eyes on him while he hobbled around the yard.

Since then, the kids are fascinated with eggs. Tabitha and Aiden had to confirm the contents of an egg – by cracking it on the living room carpet. (Hmm… Peanut Butter, Eggs, and Chili powder have been spilled on this carpet.. sounds like the beginnings of a Thai dish )

Tabitha just brought me one. “Is there a chick in this one?”
“No, Tab. That one has not been fertilized.”
She is so hopeful that surely one out of 18 eggs in the carton will have a chick, that she keeps carrying eggs around the house to ask me about each one.

Thomas found one under the couch this morning!

Yes, there is a rule, now, about taking things out of the fridge without permission.

And, yes, egg whites DO take the finish off of hardwood floors. Just a good factoid for all of you to file away.

Jim Sauer and Dale Van Ness stopped by tonight to deliver the indictments and list of witnesses as required in BCO 32-3. The packet included the revised citation, rescheduling the July 25th meeting to August 1.

Indictment:

• Page 1
• Page 2
• Page 3
• Page 4
• Page 5

It looks as though the Session has sought the wisdom of the moderator of the Heritage Presbytery, and thankfully, he has concurred with the interpretation of BCO that I stated in an earlier post. The email I received today from the Clerk of Session cancelled the July 25th meeting, and tentatively rescheduled the meeting for August 1.

His letter makes no mention of the list of witnesses. I guess we’ll see what ends up being delivered later this week (I guess by Friday).

“If you were paying for a hotel room on vacation would you want to pay for a room with dust? We are turning our homes into our own personal vacation retreat. Your home should be your very favorite retreat!” – from Kelly’s Flylady Mission

This past weekend, we took the children to Boulder Falls Miniature Golf at the United Sports Training Center in Downingtown. They had never been miniature golfing (though Tom has taken Thomas golfing with him – Thomas even has his own kid-size club). There is only one course at Boulder Falls, and it’s not decked out with cutesie animal figurines. It’s simple, well landscaped, with great water obstacles. Men could play here and still feel manly. The prices are reasonable, and they even have specials and frequent golfer punch card. Like with some coffee places, you get a free round after so many.

The weather threatened downpour, but we only fared a few sprinkles. Tom did get some digital video footage – I hope it turns out. Aiden got a hole-in-one! Thomas and Tabitha were very excited about every shot. Lots of champion stances and jumping up and down.

The biggest hit was a hole about half-way through, where the ball went through an opening on the top of the hill, and then lined it up for a nice shot. Another particularly fun hole was a shot on a small bridge over a little stream… and if the ball landed in the water, the current carried it over a metal grate that directed the ball to the hole.

We stopped keeping score. This is a good thing.

misc/jdiskreportI hate it when my hard drive starts to fill up. Usually, there is just a bunch of junk laying around all over the place, and most if it is useless, but it’s hard to figure out what’s taking up the most space.

I found a piece of software via Digg called JDiskReport that will run on your Windows system and give you a full graphical report of any directory (including your whole hard drive). You can drill down and find those huge Barry Manilow wav files you downloaded as a prank, forgot about, and are now taking up 200 megs on your hard drive.

“Where there is no wood, the fire goes out and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a talebearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body. ” (Proverbs 26:20-22)

In my last post, I quoted from Dr. Morton Smith’s commentaries on the Book of Church Order. Sarah was reading through other areas of the commentary, and found this interesting section, commenting on BCO 32-5, which states “In drawing the indictment, the times, places and circumstances should, if possible, be particularly stated, that the accused may have an opportunity to make his defense.” Smith writes:

An indictment that is made in vague generalities, thus not giving the accused opportunity before the trial to know specifically the offenses with which he is charged is justifiable ground for the accused to move the dismissal of the charges. A Court that allows such a vague or general indictment, without specifications, could well be deemed as prejudiced by an appellate Court. The purpose of the whole system of due process is the protection of both parties, and any proceedings that fail to protect the rights of both should be set aside by the appellate Court.

Heck of a way to start a vacation. Jim Sauer came by yesterday afternoon with a letter summoning me and Sarah to appear before the Session to “hear charges brought against” us.

They managed to get this done just under the wire, as they were about a week and a half short of the one-year deadline for beginning process.

I find it interesting that Jim Sauer has been named as prosecutor. This pretty much disqualifies him from sitting on the court for judgement. I’m a bit confused about who is actually on the Session right now. Sometimes, emails will go out from Jim to everyone on the Session, including Chris Catranis, Rob Miller, and Rich Pyle. Other times, it’s just to Ray Doreian and Rev. Van Ness. I’ve shot an email to Jim asking who is actually on the Session. Here is the letter I sent.

As far as the details of the letter, it’s pretty straightforward. The PCA Book of Church Order almost has a form that they need to follow. However, they seemed to have missed some major requirements on their part.

1. The BCO says that along with the indictment, there needs to be included “names of witnesses then known to support it, served on the accused”. We’ve not received this list, even though we’ve been asking who our accusers are for the last year. They continue to refer to a secret list of people, without naming anyone.
2. The same section says that the indictment is supposed to be delivered along with the citation. In other words, we’re supposed to have 10 days to consider the charges before we plead. The indictment has not been delivered. I find it amazing that they’re expecting to give us these charges, and expect our plea in one evening.

Anyway, I’m trying to clear this up with the Session before the meeting starts. For anyone who is concerned, we’re not too concerned for ourselves. We know, of course, that all things happen for God’s glory, and do look forward to clearing our name. In the process, I’m looking forward to the Church witnessing this spectacle. It’s obvious that restoration of relationships is the farthest thing from the goals of the Session.

We’ll keep you updated.

UPDATE: I may be mistaken regarding the timing of the delivery of the indictment. The question lies in the interpretation of BCO 32-3, steps 2 and 3. It does not explicitly say that the indictment must be delivered along with the citation… in fact, it doesn’t give any time frame for delivering the indictment to the accused, except when it is to be read to them at the second meeting of the court. However, in Dr. Morton Smith’s commentaries on BCO (which are not authoritative, but very instructional), writes “The citation to the accused must include a copy of the indictment drawn by the prosecutor, thus allowing him to prepare his defense.” So, while it seems that BCO is ambiguous as to whether the indictment comes with the citation, Smith thinks that it is explicit.