The Elephant's Child

The Internet Has An Answer for Any Question.

Wiki on Baby Jesus Theft.

 

Chance of Fire Hurricane: Zero

A map from Google of the the path of the BP oil spill superimposed on NOAA's computer model of the possible paths of Tropical Storm Alex. 

The Collusion of Bugs.

I came down with a sore throat last Thursday that has been determined, by throat swab, to be strep throat.  I'm now on good old penicillin, which the doctor said is still the first line of defence against Group A streptococcus, the bacteria that causes strep throat.

Curiously, in some fifty years of use, Group A Strep itself doesn't seem to be showing any proclivity towards becoming resistant to penicillin.  (This is different from our other everyday nemesis, staphylococcus aureus, which has developed all sorts of varieties of antibiotic resistance, including to methicillin and vancomycin.  Methicillin-resistant staph is now endemic in many hospitals.) Instead, a secondary group of bacteria present in the throat have become resistant to penicillin and work to shield the streptococcus from the action of the penicillin.

Pretty canny, eh?

It's almost like they're out to get us.

But, we still start with penicillin, in case my secondary friends haven't gotten the memo yet.

Housekeeping Note.

I've picked up a pron spammer (oh, joy!), so comment moderation is on for awhile.  Let me know if you have any commenting problems.

Newsflash!

I have a digital camera to use for the time being. 

I have now rejoined the modern age.

Pictures of my bedroom painting project will be forthcoming.

Love Your Neighbor; Format Your Blog.

I'm hard at work writing up some news blurbs from around Christendom. That means I'm landing on quite a variety of Christian blogs and news portals, from big sites like Christian News and Christianity Today to the dark corners where the existence of Four Point Calvinism is debated.  (According to some, there's no such animal.  Of course, the none-suchers assume the 4-pointers are dropping the T in TULIP, and are thus evil Arminians.  But most 4-pointers are actually dropping the L. Have a headache yet?  I'll let you Google up all those terms.  If you think that Lutherans can get their panties in a bundle over some arcane theological point, you ought to read through a Calvinist vs. Arminian smackdown.)

The screen shot at right demonstrates what is, in my opinion, one of the most egregious blog formatting errors, second only to really tiny white print on a black background, which itself is second only to multiple sizes of Comic Sans with tons of animated .gifs in the text of the post. 

It's really hard to take you seriously if you need to use four different colors, bold AND underlining, clown fonts, or if my eyes hurt from all the typographical bling on your blog.

Bookmarked This Week

My friend Brenda has some very good advice for lay people when calling their pastor's home phone.

If you haven't found the Really Bad Vestments blog yet, you really must add it to your rotation. 

A friend of a friend is involved with a project to produce the first Lutheran hymnal ever for the Lutheran Church of Kenya.   It will be the first time many of these Swahili hymns will be written down. 

There's a website for everything. This one is tracking the death of malls all over the country. 

There are few modern ecclesiastical artists that I can warm up to. But I could look at Edward Roijas' work all day.  His "The Prodigal Son" can be bought in high-quality print form here.  (Hint to family near and far- that would make a great gift....)

I'm a fan of cutting-edge Scandinavian design, but this is just beyond me. 

Worst church website. Ever.  You should have to have a license to use Flash. Or electric guitars. And yikes! was that Kennie Rogers?

After that little bit o' fun, you'll need this YouTube palate-cleanser: Baby laughs at Wii.

Have a great weekend.  Don't fall asleep.

Social Notworking.

Social networking has gotten out of hand.  We've seen a lot of growth in the last few years.

MySpace --> (which was ugly as sin, and now seems to have a reputation for being FULL of sin)---> Facebook (the normal people and aging Gen Xers , like me, have pushed the college twits over the starboard rail. And all the people say, "Amen!") --> Twitter (which is just like Facebook except you're friends with the entire world, not just the people you actually know) --> Plurk.

Here are a few totally random Plurk pages.

I don't get Plurk.  It looks terrible.  It's visually stunning, and not in a good way.  All the little animated emoticons have escaped the forums! Someone call the zoo!  Too much motion! Not enough Zen! I look at some of the Plurk pages and I want to grab a flyswatter.

Plurk looks like Twitter got drunk on the way to the Facebook conference and dragged his rear end through a big ole pile of MySpace on the way there.   "Uh, Twitter?  Hey, dude, you've got some... stuff on your jeans."

For all the annoy stupid apps on Facebook (all of which can be sucessfully ignored; you can control your notifications, too, so you don't NEED to be obsessively connected unless you WANT to be) at least Facebook is all uniform and has enough whitespace so your eyes don't bleed. 

Old Fart Rant: This Stops Right Now.

I don't think most blog or Facebook memes are fun or funny.  They're creepy, and getting creepier by the day.  I've done a few out of guilt, having been tagged by dear friends.  I'm not doing any more, unless they are of such creativity and novelty that I am blown away by their ingenuity and fresh approach.  (Trust me; there aren't many like that.)

First of all, nearly all memes of any kind are way too long.  The other day I was tagged with one that had 60 questions; I've seen ones that may have exceeded that amount, had I taken time to count.

Secondly, many of the questions on typical memes are just stupid, but thrown in into the mix are questions that could get people in trouble.  Why would you answer "[What was the] Last time you had a run-in with the cops?" and stick it out there for everyone to see, misinterpret, email around, and condemn you for?  Or how about "[Are you] sleeping alone tonight?"  Good heavens, is nothing sacred anymore?  Why don't we go ahead and tell everyone about the frequency of our bowel movements while we're at it?

Lastly, most people have no idea how complete a picture can be formed of you, your family, and your personality when all sorts of random bits about you are assembled and looked at as a whole.  Why put so much detail about yourself into one place?  I understand that we're moving into an age where the notion of "privacy" is being completely reinvented (that is a blog post in itself), but that's all the more reason to maintain some modicum of (virtual) personal space.

The next time you get tagged, you should send this meme back to whomever tagged you:

Thank you for tagging me.  Rest assured, I'll fill out your meme and follow your directions to the letter.  I know that a small child in Africa dies of AIDS for every day that a tagged meme goes unfulfilled, so I'll be sure not to wait too long to answer all 74 of those intensely personal and inane questions in excruciating detail.  In the meantime, you can fill out MY meme and mail it back to me and to every third person in your address book! Thanks!

1. How many siblings do you have?
2. Are you married?
3. To whom?
4. Does your spouse snore?
5. Are you a side sleeper, a back sleeper, or a stomach sleeper?
6. After eating which three foods are you likely to suffer heartburn?
7. Do you always use your blinker?
8. Check your blindspots when changing lanes?
9. Do you ever speed?
10. Ever re-gifted a gift?
11. To whom?
12. What was it?
13. pink or purple?
14. Jello or pudding?
15. Beer or wine?
16. Flannel, satin, bamboo, cotton, or microfiber sheets?
17. What's your middle name?
18. Tell me your social security number.
19. Home phone?
20. Did you have your “morning constitutional” this morning, or shall I get you some fruit?
21. List five of your favorite foods.
22. List four of your best friends.
23. List three ex-love interests.
24. What was your mother's maiden name?
25. At this very moment, are you wearing clean underwear?
26. How badly, on a scale of 1 to 11, do you wish you'd never started doing this meme?
27. Will you delete this meme?
28. Do you hate me because I'm beautiful?
29. Will you still love me tomorrow?
30. Come on now, be honest. Remember, this is for posterity.

Brainless Monday.

Because I love and cherish my readers, I didn't want you to go post-less today even though I'm completely wiped from a full week. (Don't mind me. I'm fine. No, really, I am. ) Mad Musician was out of town last Sunday until Tuesday, and then we had choir practice Wednesday night. Thursday night we went to hear one of the nation's top-level collegiate wind ensembles.  (It was awesome. It was loud.) Friday night we went to a night-time nature walk and I helped Sparkle Kitty dissect an owl pellet.  (Owl puke, not owl poop, just so you know. We are now the proud owners of a rodent skull, scoured clean by screech owl digestion. Umm, yay?) Friday night after we got home, Mad Musician and I got to sit down and have a smoke (him with his Devonshire blend in a pipe, me with a little cigar) and finish off a bottle of cheap Liebfraumilch from Aldi (my wine friends are falling over in horror right now), something we haven't been able to do for a long, long time. 

Saturday we were home, but Mad Musician worked on basement wiring and I finished three little dresses to sell on Etsy. Sunday morning was church - and the most rip-roaring baptismal sermon I've ever heard. (Here's what Pastor preached on. If there were any credo-baptists visiting, they would have been quite fairly disturbed. I suspect a fair number of the Lutherans in our congregation might have got squirmy, too. Bravo, Pastor!) a nice big dinner for Mad Musician's birthday after church (a pork loin roasted in Sam Adam's Honey Porter, onions and apples; served with steamed broccoli in havarti cheese sauce) and Cloverbuds Sunday evening. I am completely fried!