Joseph likes playing with a beach ball hanging just above him, which also makes a great travel toy. Here are a few videos of him playing in his bed. Below the videos I’ve placed the links to youtube, if you’d rather see them in a larger format.
I started my blogging at thduggie.vox.com, and VOX has decided to close. (Like Bloglines. Both happen to be services I never really used.) VOX provided a simple way to export the blog to TypePad, so the oldest posts (valuable mostly for a link to a good restaurant) are now stored there. One of these days, I’ll get around to importing them to this blog.
Maybe.
LinkedIn has recently added a Captcha to its security elements. I remember Jon saying that Captcha had outlived its usefulness: I think the following screenshot of a recent Captcha LinkedIn showed me confirms that. I entered what is in the input field and the Captcha passed me.
I’ve uploaded my first ever youtube video. It’s a time lapse video of Joseph sleeping.
I’ve previously mentioned Micronaut’s work, and now offer a link to a National Geographic Magazine video of how he makes his beautiful colored electron microscope images.
Then there’s the TugTub. Challenge: find out what it has to do with microscopy! First correct answer wins a chocolate bar or some such thing.
And post them here, as usual.Â
Yes, we’re slowing down, mostly because I am back at work again and have a little less time to play with the camera. In my stead, Janet has been taking a lot of pictures (and doing a good job), and once again, what we’ve taken is up as a new album at Janet and Stephan’s Albums. If you have forgotten the login/password combination or would like a full-size photo, let me know.
At BCF, we’re doing a series on the Armor of God this summer. Last week’s speaker, David Beazley, mentioned what the difference was between the Roman shield and the perspex shield of the riot police: the Roman shield extinguishes the flaming arrows, whereas the perspex shield merely makes them bounce off to the ground, where they continue to smolder at your feet.
That comparison made me think of Every Man’s Battle. I received the book as a gift and did find it helpful at the time: it speaks honestly to some points that are often barely mentioned in the church. With time, however, I found my irritation growing: how is it that I am allowed to look at all of creation and see its beauty as pointers to God, but I am to bounce my eyes away from all women, to look at the pavement instead of what is one of the most impressive manifestations of beauty in the created world and should therefore be an extra clear pointer toward God and encouragement to praise him. In a way, I think Every Man’s Battle has the perspex shield syndrome. Its behavior modification by self-control is great at keeping the flaming arrows from hitting me, but doesn’t help to deal with them. Sooner or later, I’m in a situation where I have to deal with a woman without the option of staring at the floor. It is then that it pays to have gone farther than just bouncing off the arrows. An understanding of the value of a woman’s beauty, the far greater value of my marriage and the beauty I know in Janet, the sinfulness of my desires to which a beautiful woman might tempt me, and the all-powerful grace of God are a much better preparation, are parts of the Roman shield that takes care of the arrows thoroughly.
I haven’t got it all figured out, by no means: if you have other suggestions on how to deal with those temptations, I’m happy to hear them!
One of our wedding gifts was this set of Trudeau Cheese Knives. It came in a clear plastic presenting box, which made it impractical to use them, so I thought I’d make something to present them and also keep them handy. I took a picture of my cheese knife holder and sent it to Trudeau – let’s see if they react at all to it. Anyway, exclusively on thduggie’s blog, here’s the cheese knife holder I made. It keeps the knives at an angle (easier to grab) and keeps them from being bumped or jostled out (that’s what the top strip is for).
I decided to skip testing if the jostle-proof bar works under all conditions.