still and always, just a geek

So, I'm sitting here reading Wil Wheaton's blog (I've caveated his language before, so you've been duly warned), and I come across a post in which he mentions the one where he won a Super Mario competition against, among others, Jason Bateman. There's a link to a picture of said event. In this pic, Wil is probably 12 or 13.

I angled my Mac toward Ed. "Look, honey, here's when he won the Super Mario competition!"

In a voice à la Lumbergh, Ed drawled, "Grrrrreaaaat."

Even after more than eleven years, I'm not sure my poor husband has completely adjusted to the fact that his wife is just a geek. ;o)

elitism tastes good sometimes

"I don't have scientific data to back me up, but I've anecdotally witnessed a direct relationship between someone's willingness to read and their level of education, success, expectations for themselves, and general, uh, interestingness they bring to the table. I guess that makes me one of those 'elitists' we keep hearing about, but with that in mind, you may understand why it's been pretty...important to me that I instill a love of reading in my kids."

--Wil Wheaton
in his blog


If this were a Commonplace Book, and my profs were leaving me Post-It Note comments in it (which they did in my real Commonplace Book back in the Dark Ages of 1997), they would tell me that my posts are "heavy on Wil Wheaton" (in 1997, it was "heavy on Elton John). Guilty as charged (on all counts, past and hypothetical present).

That admitted, I really do enjoy Wil's thoughts. I won't say that I agree with him 100% on this particular quote: It doesn't apply to everyone; personally, I know plenty of highly interesting people who aren't big readers; but I do believe that the willingness to read affects education level and expectations for self.

In some ways, it can even determine education level and expectations for self.

Reading swings my verge!

i couldn't agree more, and i am a geek

As regularly as I read any blog (which has not, of late, been regularly at all), I peruse the blog of Wil Wheaton. On March 6, 2008, he posted the following:"

"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."
-Tycho, at Penny Arcade

Yeah, let that roll around in your head for a little bit. It's really as simple and beautiful as that, isn't it?

I see a bookshelf, filled with different books from different authors, all acting as portals to different worlds and different times. The author may give them birth, but it's the readers who keep them alive.

--yellow text penned by Wil Wheaton
_________________________________________

That's exactly how I feel about books and about reading them. I've mentioned the worlds and universes aspect before. Here.

As for why I'm a geek....well, Wil Wheaton's a geek, and I love his blog. I don't always like his word choices, but I ignore them because I like how he writes and the fact that he revels in his geekdom. Besides, he played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: TNG, and I loved him heart and soul when I was 13.

I revel in my own geekdom (see here and here,) but I suspect my secret recalcitrant side often prevents me from engaging in revelry in public. I admire Wil for his blatant and unhesitant revelry. I find, though, that I become more and more open about my geekiness as I get older, so perhaps I am learning something.

And, in the spirit of such...

Happy Belated π Day!
and
Happy Belated Ides of March!

Jesus doesn't have a blog...

...or a Myspace page. Or a Facebook page. Or anything online of that sort.

Recently, I've been seeing blogs and homepages and whatnot that purport to be written by Jesus. As in, the administrators of the blog or page write their entries in first person singular (that is, from an "I" perspective), as though Jesus were the author of the words that appear in the text.

A lot of people are going to call me an old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud, but I don't care: I have a problem with this.

If it were only a matter of scripture quotations, that would be one thing. Actually, I think that would be a great idea, provided the scriptures were being quoted in the context in which they originally appeared in the Biblical canon. However, the websites to which I'm referring all contain explanations of scripture (read: interpretations) that are penned by an "I"-narrator, as though the interpretations were the direct word of God.

In my opinion, the people who are writing these interpretations are going against what God has always required of us humans: that we not speak as though we know the mind of God; that we not claim to speak for him; that we don't add to the words he has given us in scripture. I think that the authors of these blogs and sites are in direct violation of those commands.

Some will claim that in the paragraph above, I am "speaking for God" in the same way as the website authors I'm talking about. Well, my answer to that is that I say quite openly that these thoughts are *my understanding of scripture*; I am not claiming that these are the words of Christ himself.

The scripture that comes to mind most readily is Proverbs 30:5-6: "Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar" (English Standard Version).

The Good News Bible also has an apt translation of verse 6: "If you claim that he said something that he never said, he will reprimand you and call you a liar."

I understand that most of the authors of these blogs and sites have good intentions. I recognize that they are only trying to spread God's word and increase people's understanding of Jesus's teachings. But the ends do not justify the means. In the very least, I think the authors are putting themselves in a spiritually dangerous position. For them to respond to readers' comments with "Yes, I am Jesus" and "I am the Son of God" is akin, I think, to walking a tightrope with no net and no tightrope.

I fully support sites that quote directly from scripture; but the authors who write as though they were Jesus himself...these are another matter entirely. The words 'presumptuous' and 'disrespectful' come to mind. I'm not angry at these people; yes, I am slightly offended on a spiritual level, but mostly I am afraid of what the consequences for them might be.

thought-of-the-day

 
Some humans improve with time and age. 

And some don't. 

 

Fare thee well, and good night. 

 

Jan. 27 Addendum: 
I want to emphasize that this thought 
is not in reference to any particular 
person. It's simply an objective 
observation on the human condition. 

--C.

sites i frequent

Some Writing-Life Resources:

Thesaurus.com, the thesaurus and dictionary that work best for me.
Wikipedia, where I've learned about bellmetal, fencing, Redwoods, archivolts, and lots more!
Leo, an English-German, German-English online dictionary.
NaNoWriMo, where you can undertake the crazy task of writing a 50,000 word novel during November each year! I've NaNo-ed four times now, and am pleased to call it a yearly habit. ;o)
NaNo 2003: over 50k (novel incomplete)
NaNo 2004: didn't make it past 12k :o(
NaNo 2005: over 50k (novel incomplete)
NaNo 2006: over 50k, and new novel complete!!!

Others:

My Other Blog, where I post Bible studies and other helpful materials.
ChessWorld--play chess online.
Oklahoma Christian University, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English/Writing in December 1999.
Ancestry.com--build your own family tree and research your ancestors.
TCK World, which explains a lot about who I am and why! ;o)