For some reason I have mentioned and briefly discusses Paul’s letter to Philemon. This is probably because I have been leading Tapestry on Sunday’s the Paul’s letters to Timothy and therefore I have been thinking a good bit about Paul. Anyhow, it is a short and great book that is full of social justice. In this case, how the gospel of the kingdom of God was going to lead to the abolition of slavery eventually – they path was set and it was a matter of time and followers of Christ recognizing the direction of God.
Anyhow, today N.T. Wright a writer and thinker that I respect a great deal announced that he is offering an online course on the letter to Philemon for free. Here’s the link. I’ve signed up for it and would love to hear what others who sign up also think about what we learn.
One of the members of the Tapestry Leadership Team has been after me for years to move the Tapestry website from being hosted on Godaddy because of the them and us not really being on the same page values-wise (Hey Adam). I actually agree with him but the problem is that while I am generally a pretty ambitious person there are some things that I am down right lazy on. One of those is moving an already established website from one hosting site to another. It is the equivalent of replacing a water heater in your house – its a lot of work and will make things better but nobody will notice that anything is new. For me infrastructure work is fun when you are starting something but it is a pain after it has been started.
Anyhow something has happened over the past week and the older servers that we are on have gone crazy. The church website and therefore the church message podcast and my personal blog have been up only hours a day for the past week. Godaddy’s support has said they know about the problem and are working on it. I’ve heard that for a week. Other people are saying that it is older server vs newer server problem and Godaddy is encouraging people to start new accounts and thereby move to a new server. According to what these online forums are saying Godaddy will gladly do that for you for $99. I haven’t heard this from Godaddy but if it is true there is no way I am paying someone to enable me to use a server that I have already paid for. So I guess if things are corrected in a day or two I will be doing infrastructure work and starting up a new server. Oh how I dread that.
I’m probably going to go ahead and move my blog over to Nearly Free Speech hosting. It is dirt cheap hosting but not the easiest to use. We’ll see.
Just posting this here so anyone interested in how the change of the speakers in the Mustang’s “premium sound” went can see that it is finished. Yep, under that carpeted rear trim panel are new speakers that match the rest of the upgraded audio system. They sound pretty good considered they are covered by plastic trim with carpet on top of it. Worst spot ever for speakers!
If you are searching the web looking for photos of the uncarpeted trim so you have some idea what it looks like you’ll find a photo in my last post on the stupidity of this speaker placement. The good news is that the rear 6.5″ speakers do add a little more bass,which isn’t saying much because the top lets all the bass go into the wild.
I don’t speak German, though I do like some German food and theologians. I do however love the word Schadenfreude, which basically means “pleasure derived from the misfortune of others”1. I like this word so much because it conveys a very real feeling every now and then.
I don’t usually get pleasure out of other people having misfortune but every now and then it happens. Such as with this video that I saw thanks to Kirby. Two people on high on trucks crash their Geo Tracker into a fence, only to discover there was a bee hive located in the spot they crashed. Just watch the video.
I believe Gary Lee could be a hero of mine now. Maybe this is a case of instant justice but I’m going with the German word. Anyhow, I hope you have enjoyed this brief moment of Schadenfreude. I know I have.
Here is a shortened version of Patrick’s Breastplate, the prayer that I mentioned today during the message. Yes “shortened” means there is a longer version.
I arise today through
God’s strength to pilot me, God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to see before me,
God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to secure me –
against snares of devils,
against temptations and vices,
against inclinations of nature,
against everyone who shall wish me
ill, afar and anear,
alone and in a crowd…
Christ, be with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit,
Christ where I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.
How I dream the conversation went at Ford concerning the rear speakers in a 1989 Mustang Convertible.
This is where the rear speakers are in my 1989 LX Convertible
Car Designer (CD): You know what would be great? If we had premium sound in our Mustang convertibles.
Audio Engineer (AE): That sounds good … what does that involve?
CD: Well instead of four speakers we will put 6 speakers in them.
AE: I like that. Of course, we have to make a few design changes to make room for the additional speakers.
CD: Oh no we can’t do that. I like the design a lot. Let’s just put the speakers under the side panels.
AE: That could work if we put a grill in the carpet of the side panels.
CD: No that would mess up the aesthetic of the interior.
AE: But if we keep the carpet there it will muffle the sound and thus it won’t be premium sound.
CD: Yes it will premium sound because they will still have 6 speakers.
AE: Yes, but if we put the rear speakers under the carpet you basically won’t hear anything out of them. They’ll be muffled by the carpet that covers them.
Once the carpet and side panel was removed I drilled out the rivets that were holding the speakers. RIVETS!!!! Who would use rivets!
CD: But they will have 6 speakers and that equals premium sound.
AE: I guess if the owner ever decided they wanted better sound quality they could always change those rear speakers out for better speakers.
CD: No, we don’t want that to happen. They could mess up the premium sound. We should make the speakers very difficult to get to and then make sure that the speakers are even more difficult to remove by attaching them with rivets rather than screws.
AE: Seems like we aren’t making the car sound very good for the owners.
CD: What do you mean? They’ll have premium sound with 6 speakers. What more could they want?
Anyhow, after a good bit of work over the past week (when not roofing a friend’s house) I have been able to remove the rear speakers and will replace them with Kicker DS 6.5 speakers once they arrive. Then the sound in Buddy will be closer to actual premium sound … and still have 6 speakers.
