Filter complete

Posted by me on Tuesday, the 6th day of June, anno domini 2006 at 10:28 PM, local time.

So, my script to filter things is complete, I think, and works pretty well. I think :) As I use bits and pieces of it, I shall find out.

Anyway, as I mentioned a while ago, I didn’t think the Unbound Bible was quite up to par but there was another one with better concordance with the Strong Numbers. Well I found it: http://www.bju.edu/bible/bible.php works great for that sort of thing. Only KJV, but that’s really to be expected with the use of Strong Numbers.

Tags: , , ,

Blogging from Emacs

Posted by me on Monday, the 5th day of June, anno domini 2006 at 10:24 PM, local time.

So, I’m testing a simple method of blogging from emacs by way of my command line blogging script. I think it should work pretty good. I guess we will find out. Now, one thing I was reading about somewhere was making it easier to link things. Essentially, my command line blogging script can be made to preprocess the body of the post to make it easier to do italics, bold, etc., as well as linking to arbitrary websites, or wikipedia, or other random websites based on keywords. I should also fix up some keywords to map to category numbers so I don’t have to figure out what the category number is for the category I wish to blog in!

Plan for preprocessing then is:
*bold*
<b>bold</b>
_underline_
<u>underline</u>
/italics/
<i>italics</i>
{sitekeyword:siteargs linktext mouseovertext}
<a href=link(sitekeyword,siteargs) title=mouseovertext>linktext</a>

Some initial keyword/arg sets will be:
wp:topic
for a given topic at wikipedia (no topic links to wikipedia itself).
google:search
for a google search of the given search terms (no search links to google itself)
map:place
for a google maps search of the given place terms (no place linkes to google maps itself)
bible:book:chapter:verse
for a link to a given book chapter:verse in the bible at some bible site. Likely the KJV with good Strong number concordance that I have somewhere.
compare:versions:book:chapter:verse
for a link to comparison versions of a bible verse or chapter at unbound bible. (Still need to figure out its interface)
guten:book
for a link to a gutenberg project text of a given book.

And we’ll see how that all works. Maybe something will suggest itself for further enhancement.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Marana Tha!

Posted by me on Sunday, the 4th day of June, anno domini 2006 at 10:43 PM, local time.

A phrase that sounds so familiar, yet is in Aramaic. And all instances of it my Bible-At-Hand had it translated and the Aramaic relegated to the footnotes. But, I liked the phrase, and think it should be brought into the consciousness of us all a bit more. Marana Tha!

The phrase is simply a request: “Come, O Lord!” and was frequently used by Paul to end his epistles, after the final greetings, entreating Christ to return quickly. Often times I feel that way (surely I should and do wish for that day to quickly come always, but some days, even more so), for surely the burden of our earthly tribulations seems as though it could get no greater and sweet relief would be greatly appreciated.

But, while the wish for The Return to come quickly is certainly a good one, I wonder if it is not quite right to wish for The End merely to avoid one’s own trials and tribulations.

And so, Marana Tha! …but, in the meantime, help me deal with the problems and issues in my life constructively and in accordance with Thy Will, bitte, rather than just ending it all so I don’t have to. Seriously, its not called der finstern Todestal or Rissetal for nothing.

Other such ritualistic phrases are pretty common in the epistles as well as in modern (and ancient) Christian groups. A common one that is rather seasonal, though it needn’t be, is the greeting “He is risen!” during the Easter season. The proper response is, of course, “He is risen indeed.”

While I recognize that there is no real need to keep these sorts of phrases around for anything other than purely traditional reasons (no one’s soul is in mortal danger if they do not know or frequently say any of these greetings), I, being the traditional tradition-bound Lutheran of traditionality that I am, hope we can carry them on a bit longer. That is mostly done, I suppose, through strong family-church community.

On the subject of the epistles and common phrases used therein, Paul begins most of his letters with (variations depend on translation): “Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Another phrase worth saying more often. For those of you wondering where I came up with that wording, its actual a translation of the German version. More common versions in English would be “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (KJV) or “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (NIV). Its a phrase reminiscent of the common Greek greeting wishing grace upon a person, and also reminiscent of the Hebrew greeting “Shalom,” meaning Peace. (Even more reminiscent of the longer phrase “Shalom aleichem,” or peace be with you, from which Shalom is the standard shortened version.)

At any rate, its a perfectly good farewell as it is a greeting, so grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

One night in a club called the Shakin’ Hand…

Posted by me on Thursday, the 1st day of June, anno domini 2006 at 9:50 PM, local time.

It’s funny how the mind works. I read a random “funny” quote on the quote-a-day thing on my google homepage which had to do with “Let there be light…” This led to a random chord flipping through my mind, followed by some more chords, and some words, tonal inflections of the singer’s voice, lyrics, and soon I had the entire AC/DC song, “Let there be Rock” flowing through my head, full with guitar, bass, drums, and singing. Start to finish.

I was not displeased, and the route to get there from the quote was not all that complicated, but it was strange how the things from the song started to come piece by piece until they were all there again, as though I had just finished listening to the song. I don’t know if this has any relevance, but it was an interesting experience, and seriously, just means everyone really should go out and listen to that song :-) Or read the bible. Maybe even both.

Note: The unboundbible.org has its uses, but it is not the best I have found. 1) You can’t link into it for a specific verse with specific translations and 2) the Strong number concordance interface is weak. I may have a better one bookmarked on a different computer. I shall have to find that and mention it here (or add it to my sidebar of links).

Tags: , , , ,