Blog on the Lillypad
Saturday, September 06, 2003
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Eating Happily and Cleaning Yesterday's fast was difficult, and I ended it with four turkey tacos. I have learned that if I fast, I must fast. Chewing gum makes it far more difficult. Anyway, today I woke up with a bit of a headache. Didn't know if that was blood sugar woes or plain old sinus trouble. I did my grocery shopping early and then came home and tackled my vast kitchen floor. Wth my bad back, there is no such thing as cleaning the house on a Saturday morning like I used to do. And it's easier on my back to get down on hands and knees to clean than it is to use a mop or a vacuum cleaner, though I will use the vacuum for brief stints. The broom is tall enough to be usable. I have to slow down my schedule though. At most I can do the bathroom and one other room on a single day. So I swept the kitchen several times, then finally vacuumed. Then I filled the bucket with all natural, biodegradable, etc., cleaning fluid from Whole Foods, mixed with water, and got down on hands and knees and washed the floor. I had to take a couple breaks. For lunch I had two more turkey tacos and a Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale. Boy was that good! |
Then I started the bathroom. I had to rest after doing the tub because of all the twisting I do. The floor is left to wash (on hands and knees), but it's only about a tenth of the size of the kitchen floor. I already swept it. It's after four o'clock on Saturday, so after I do the bathroom floor and empty all the trash containers, that will be the end of cleaning. But two rooms are better than nothing!
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The Structure of Fiction is Indirection (part 2 of the essays on fiction) When the Lord Jesus used parables, He depicted people as His audience understood them: the doting father, the prodigal son, the dutiful son, the grudging laborers in the vineyard, the tolerant master of the vineyard, the latecomers to the work, the clever merchant, the anxious housewife. His stories don't all end happily. We don't see the dutiful son reunited with the prodigal. We don't see the permanent laborers satisfied that the latecomers got the same wages. |
The most common fictional form used by the Lord was the parable, though He also condescended to use startling analogies in order to create memorable images. He incorporated parables into His longer lessons and sermons, but the parables themselves were often jarring. The prodigal, who used whores when he had the money to do so, gets the party from his Father. The long-term laborers get the same wages as the latecomers. The unscrupulous servant saves himself by granting favors under the table to his master's debtors.
The Lord's pattern does not depart from the classic structure of fiction. Fiction differs from the sermon form in that the sermon relies upon direction, and fiction relies upon indirection. The sermon gathers all the doctrinal ideas into a meaningful order and targets them at a single thesis. Fiction, when it works, presents first the image of the world as the audience sees it. Unlike the sermon form, Fiction starts at some distance from doctrinal and moral realities and depicts the visual world.
 | Even science fiction, which holds up a very ornate mirror, still only works when it starts by showing us characters we recognize on some level. After all, we would never appreciate the Klingons if we did not understand the samurai. We would not find the Daleks meaningfully horrible if the Nazis had not come first. The cry of "Let us die well!" existed in our realities before Paramount put it in the mouths of big green warriors. And "We are the superior race!" was a well known slogan long before the Doctor encountered it on the BBC in 1963.
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The key to well-structured fiction is that no matter how ornate that mirror that we hold up to the reader, the reader still sees a true world, an honest depiction. A story cannot move forward in the reader's mind unless the reader believes the characters he or she is reading about. Thus, before the writer can ever get the plot up to a really full head of steam, the characters have to maintain themselves as reflections of the real.
In the real world, people are flawed. That's the nice way to say it. The reality is that they are selfish, grasping, vicious, lustful, cowardly, etc. Even the best of people give in to their worst impulses.
Christian fiction that uses only model characters loses the reader straightaway. Some writers, recognizing this, still use unrealistic characters but compensate with compelling mysteries or adventures, but in the end you get a book in which the readers skip long passages to get back to the action. And worse, you end up with a literature that is dishonest. Instead of preserving a witness to the world, Christians have created a literature that people read only because it is safe for them, or because they suppose they should, or because somebody else expects them to.
But the world has been shut out from this literature because the literature stinks. It has failed to compel a wide range of readers to read it. Instead, it targets a narrow range and succeeds with them mostly on moral grounds, and not because the stories are better than other stories that are out there. Creating a literature like this is not occupying in the way that God intends for Christians to do. It is a retreat and fortify strategy, and it as long as the current role-model type literature is what Christian publishers publish, they guarantee that Christian literature will never be meaningful to the world, nor will it ever serve as a compelling witness. A dishonest literature fails to be a witness of the Truth of God, no matter how much it touts proper behavior and moral righteousness.
What Makes Fiction Succeed
The Purpose of Fiction
The Design of Fiction
The Action of Fiction
The Integrity of Fiction
The Limits of Fiction
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When our world changed forever Part 2. I jumped awake from the dream and sat right up. The first words through my head were "O God, why did You make me dream that?" It was an immediate burden to confront such strangeness. I have known far too many Christians who get sidetracked by tongues and dreams and faith healing and second blessings. As a much younger woman, I had been briefly entranced with dreams and had soon realized its a great big trap of the spiritual life. Enlightenment comes from the Word of God. |
Once, in my late twenties or perhaps early thirties, I'd had a genuinely precognizant dream. I'd dreamed that a former teacher of mine with whom I stayed in contact (a nun), was suddenly ill, and then the sisters were shouting to me over a great distance that she was dead. It frightened me so much that the next day I called to see if she was all right. My anxious, long distance phone call amazed the sisters. She had fallen the night before, breaking one leg in two places and the other in three places and was in serious condition. But she recovered.
But that dream had not been accurate as a predictive dream, not strictly speaking. I had viewed it as the Lord's nudge to me to tell me to get up to Pennsylvania and see her. There had been the dream; there had been the verification that it was from the Lord (because something really was wrong), and there had been the necessary action that God required of me, (which I obeyed.) Afterwards, it took me a few months to realize that such events are rare and just move on. But I did. The heart of Christianity is knowing Christ, not experiencing wonders. Eventually, as I saw how subjective so many people are who long for and live for such phenomena, I realized all over again that dreams, tongues, visions, etc., are a tangent.
So my first reaction was a certain mystification that God may have sent me this powerful, incredible dream, and I didn't really think it was appropriate. Then I realized that I was in danger of forgetting it. And if it was supposed to be meaningful, I had to be wary of muddling it up with my own thoughts and reactions. So I carefully recalled it, moment by moment, and ruled out anything that I took to be interpretation on my part rather than the dream itself. I repeated the bare bones, strictly honest account of the dream back to myself a few times and even swung my feet over the edge of the bed to go find pen and paper, but then I worried that writing it out would cause me to dramatize it.
It had actually been a very brief dream, so once I got it as simple as it had actually been in my experience of it, I had to consider what to do. The very real danger of all of this being a distraction from the real business of VALKYRIES and the calling to speak for the victims of rabid, heretical forms of Fundamentalism still troubled me. Finally, I decided that God, as the sovereign over all things that we experience, could be left to His purposes. I only needed enough people to witness that I'd had the dream so that I could have verification. And I also wanted to know what a select few people thought so that I could feel better about discussing the dream. I decided to choose three very different people, and I would tell them the bare bones account of the dream and see what they said. And, I promised myself, at this stage I wouldn't tell anybody else or trouble Christians with the tangent of dream-visions. Nor would I trouble myself further, if I could help it. So then I prayed and asked the Lord for wisdom and to show me what to do if this dream had been from Him; or to help me forget about it if it had not been from Him.
In retrospect, I see that I was still thinking of any dream sent from God as a nudge from God to do something very specific. That's how it had been the one other time: I had been sure that the Lord had wanted me to go see this former teacher and witness to her. Once it had been verified that I'd been "nudged" by God, I obeyed and went. But I didn't realize that, in this case, it wasn't quite that simple. The dream had been terrifying, but in spite of it, I had no clue of what was ahead. My greatest concerns were that hard hearted Fundamentalist preachers were excusing themselves from confronting the awful corruption that was brutalizing children and women and destroying families in Christian Fundamentalism; and that Moody Press had undertaken---with no prompting from me---to consider publishing VALKYRIES, my life's work about the Grace of God.
I lay back down, still troubled by the strange dream, but more aware of the two current spiritual issues in my life and my responsibilities to both of them. I had to honor God's righteousness by speaking for those who have no voice; and I had to ensure that VALKYRIES was never trivialized into being just another ridiculous goody-two shoes Christian novel.
Over the next week, I selected three very different people to talk to: Dr. Steven Henry, a brilliant graduate from Yale with whom I worked. Steve is a medical doctor and had just earned a Masters in Biotech Engineering. He also had done his undergraduate work in History. Steve believed in God in a philosophical way. For me, he was at the Rationalist end of the spectrum. In spite of what I took to be a bit of intellectual snobbishness at times (which may be excused because he is brilliant) Steve always behaved with generosity, patience, and a high sense of his responsibilities to others. When I told him about the dream the next day, he would not absolutely say it was not visionary, but he told me he believed that because I study astrology and the Bible, it was pretty normal for me to have a dream with such startling images. I told him I'd never had a dream like that, not ever, but he said that probably the pressure from the FFF and the news regarding my book had contributed to an extraordinary state of mind to produce such a dream.
The second person, Margaret Lester, is an executive Marketing person with IBM, and she is a believer in Christ. I told her about the dream the next week at church. Margaret is a "thorough" believer. She reads the great thinkers and preachers of our day and devotes a good part of her time to understanding her faith. Like Steve, Margaret did not want to say the dream absolutely could not be visionary. But her conclusion was that probably it was just a startling dream.
Finally, I told the dream to Jeanne Luttrell, a 77 year old woman at my church who read her Bible and prayed daily (on her knees). Jeanne is both Presbyterian and Charismatic. She's on the opposite end of the spectrum from Steve. She tends to believe everything is a miracle. But even though I disapprove of this mindset as a general rule, Jeanne's life and consistency as a Christian prompted her as my third choice. Anybody who, at the age of 77, admonishes people to trust Christ is a person worth consulting. Jeanne, of course, believed that the dream was from the Lord. But she cautioned me to just let it rest and let God do whatever He intended to do. Then she tried to get me to read one of her Charismatic magazines, and I rolled my eyes and said, "Oh Jeanne!" So we had tea instead.
Friday, September 05, 2003
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Audio Dr. Who Adventure now online Tricked by the crafty Mr. Castanata and his own arrogance, the Doctor accidentally loses Jo in a poker game to an alien! And the alien intends to bet her in a game against creatures who find humans fun to frighten and even better to eat. The Doctor has only one chance to win her back. If you have a dial-up connection, this 31-minute episode may be inconvenient (or downright impossible) to download. But if you have a speedy connection, you might enjoy Episode One of the two-episode adventure, Two of a Kind, which was a runner up at the National Fan Quality Awards and was featured in the Canadian Dr. Who fan magazine, MythMakers.Click here to listen. It's in MP3 format. Episode Two has been completed and is scheduled to air a week from today. |
 | Two and a half hours to go I'm fasting, and today it is quite a struggle. I got so hungry that I got nauseated and broke out into a sweat. The problem is from chewing some gum. My throat often gets dry, and chewing Double Bubble sour gum helps. I didn't think a couple pieces spaced two hours apart would affect my blood sugar, but they sure did! A little bit of sugar can make your body crave food---even if you don't really need food. No more of that. Actually, two and a half hours from now I will be at the trigger point massage therapist, so I will have to survive another hour beyond the 24-hour mark. I share Homer's complaint about food |
 | The Purpose of Fiction is to Entertain. (part 1 of the essays on fiction)
Everything works when it is designed according to its purpose. You don't surgically operate on people with a can opener, and you don't open a can with a scalpel. Not every thought we think can be meditative. Not every perception can be focused on doctrine. Not every private moment can be spent in prayer. We were not even designed to spend all of our time praying or meditating or reading scripture or studying doctrine. We were created to know God, which is our highest purpose; but we were also created to occupy the earth and make it beautiful. Our occupation of this earth means that we create a culture in which our art, architecture, literature, etc. reveals God's wisdom in more subtle ways than we get from the directness of doctrine or the immediacy of prayer. |
From this purpose of filling the earth with a compelling and delightful beauty that causes the heart and emotions to revel and ponder and discover new insights about God, we have never been excused. It is a shame that secular society often does a better job with meaningful design than Christian society.
God has ordained that the Gospel be communicated through the preaching of the Word. Doctrine is established, false doctrines answered, and people converted by preaching. Fiction that tries to do what sermons have been ordained to do ends up being implausible. Sermonistic fiction, ultimately, fails as a sermon because it relies on an imaginary landscape; and it fails as fiction because it is always boring, sentimental, stilted, and predictable.
I am not saying that fiction has to be a vacuum where God is not glorified. The Christian writer can glorify God by means of fiction, but not by turning fiction into a sermon. Good fiction has to be entertaining. It has to be fresh, vivid, unexpected, startling, breath taking, and unpredictable. The sermon form is direct in propounding Truth; fiction relies upon indirection to unveil truth. Furthermore, we have to see the reality of ourselves in fiction, but that's another topic that I will have to post later.
What Makes Fiction Succeed
The Structure of Fiction
The Design of Fiction
The Action of Fiction
The Integrity of Fiction
The Limits of Fiction
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When our world changed forever. Part 1: The Night of August 28, 2001 For me, September 11 began on August 28, 2001, though I didn't realize it then. Three weeks earlier, on August 5, I'd been contacted by Moody Press becuase they'd seen VALKYRIES on the web and wanted to consider it for publication. I was busy learning about and communicating information regarding the death of a child named Brent Stevens and other gross corruption in Baptist Fundamentalism and was getting a lot of flack about my point of view in the Fighting Fundamentalist Forum. I had a terrific job and worked with terrific people, and I was doing so well financially that I was able to help others. In spite of things that were troubling me, I was happy and optimistic about my life. |
In the late night of August 28, 2001, I dreamed that I was walking up a high mountain with lightweight fiberglass skies on my shoulder. (I have never skied.) It was cold. There were ski lifts, but I had walked. I got to the top of the high mountain, and there were families---men and women and kids all around, getting ready to ski down the mountain. I started to get into my skis, and then people started saying,, "Look at the sun! What's wrong with the sun!" I looked up at the cloudless, cold blue sky.
The sun had become huge. And even though it was cold on the ground, we could see that the sun had become very hot. It swelled with heat, and the air shimmered around it. Visible rays of light (which may have been some type of runic writing) radiated out from it, but the air around the sun was so hot that these rays evaporated quickly. Everybody was afraid. And then, in the 10-11 o'clock position of the sun, a rippling started. And then, from that spot, the moon emerged out of the sun. It was white and full (and of course smaller than the sun). We all saw that it was burning hot in the sun's heat. I realized that it couldn't withstand that terrific heat. Indeed, the air around it continued to shimmer with the intensity of heat. And then the moon shot across the sky towards the farthest horizon and fell to the earth.
In the dream, I realized that the world was ending, and I fell on my knees. Then I went forward on my face (yet in my terror I did feel a slight vindication in realizing that the rapture truly was a bunch of nonsense), and I prayed, "O God, You are righteous, and everything You do is righteous. And in righteousness, You are ending the world. Help me to help these people at the end of the world." Then I waited in breathless silence, because there was no knowing what was going to happen next. But after a moment I looked up. Everybody was looking at me, and their faces showed that they weren't sure what was going on, but maybe I had a better idea than they did. But the world didn't end. Everything was still and quiet and cold. And then I woke up.
I will write more about this tomorrow.
Thursday, September 04, 2003
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Thursday September 4 is my birthday. |
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A Real Birthday Surprise So guess what I got on MY birthday? If you're a woman, I bet you can guess right away. If you're a man----well, never mind. Let's just say code red is now Go. I am writing this at 8:50 a.m. The people at work are tiptoeing around me to keep the party a surprise. But as we all unfailingly give people a morning birthday party on the day of their birthday, it is merely good form for me to pretend to be surprised and for them to keep everything as secret as possible. This is how it goes when you work with very nice people, and I do work with very nice people. This company makes vaccines to protect children against meningitis. We have pictures of chubby, healthy babies everywhere, and the people (overall) are very gentle and kind. |
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Birthday Poem for Candle lighters You've been banned from having birthdays A new rule has been made Signed ,sealed and delivered By the local Fire Brigade! They say that all those candles Would create such a blaze They'd have to come and put it out And stay around for days ! So, I guess You'll have to party Without the birthday cake, Perhaps You'll light one candle Just for old time's sake , Those firemen ! So fit and strong, Such handsome looking men - Whose birthday is it ,anyway ? Heck, light them all again ! |
Thanks to my sister Patti for TWO gift certificates to Amazon.com!
Send Happy Birthday wishes to jeriwho@pipeline.com
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Dear Miss Massi, I want to write fiction that glorifies God. Great! But keep in mind these limitations: |
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Birthday Poem for Old Farts Author unknown Edited for brevity A fart can be short, A fart can be long, Some farts have been known to sound just like a song... A fart can create a most curious medley, A fart can be harmless, or silent, but deadly... A fart can occur in a number of places, And leave everyone with strange looks on their faces... But not all farts are bad, this is simply not true - We mustn't forget... Old farts like you! |
Thanks to the guys at Whole Foods for the beans, the cheese, the tabasco sauce!
Send birthday wishes to jeriwho@pipeline.com
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Warning of Terrorism by food poisoning The FBI now warns that terrorism manuals seized in the War on Terror include instructions on how to poison by nicotine and solanine. These are two alkaloids that do not have specific antidotes available. Poisoning can occur via ingestion, inhalation, or absorption through the skin. Burning in the mouth, dryness in the throat, nausea, vomiting, are common symptoms. Best treatment: medical care. Symptoms may develop from moderate to severe, so waiting is not a good option. Normal medical treatment for severe poisoning includes support for the cardiac system and the respiratory system, stomach lavage with activated charcoal, and (in the event of posioning through the skin) a thorough washing and rinsing of the contaminated area. |
Wednesday, September 03, 2003
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You're 43 today! Based on "FIFTY SOMETHING " Copyright; Shirley Friend From her book 'Another Dose From Floozie' “Do you know what day it is?” “Nope,” said my beau. “What's today?” “Well! If you can't remember”, I cried “I'm not gonna say. Well aren't you gonna ask me?” I insisted with a few tears. “Alright”, he said...”You're forty today... and you have been for three or four years”. |
Thanks to George Ward for the Solar Return Report!
Send Happy Birthday wishes to jeriwho@pipeline.com
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Don't Miss Preying from the Pulpit Readers are starting to offer comments regarding the content of this site. While I think we all agree that Pastor Hugh Jass's site is hoot to visit, the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) movement has a dark side---a desperately dark side. And Christians would profit themselves and the testimony of Christ to face it and grapple with it. I hope that you'll listen to the six segments of "Preying from the Pulpit." Each segment is roughly five minutes long (MP3 format). Click here for the first segment. |
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Through another fast Well, I completed another fast last night and made the mistake of eating too much. In spite of the lovely picture to the left, I broke the fast with rice and cooked celery. I only fantasized about things like pancakes, waffles, whipped cream, etc. I was surprised to feel somewhat nauseated after eating, but after about 30 minutes I was ok again. And I am happy to report that this morning the back feels much better. Saturday's trigger-point massage session was intense and thorough, yet I felt no difference afterward, but today (after last night's session) I do feel a much greater freedom of motion, far less inflammation, and even a sense of rejuvenation. (Of course, that hour-long drive to work usually diminishes a lot of the benefit.) Overall, I think fasting has a role in recovery from the prolonged inflammation. It certainly seems to limit pain. |
Hungry? Send comments about favorite food to Jeri at
jeriwho@pipeline.com
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
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Feel Free to Speak up, Preacher Simpson! Homer Simpson does his Jack Hyles imitation. Click here to let Homer air his views on manhood in true Fundy fashion. This is one of those jokes that define you. If you recognize the style, you've been a genuine IFB-KJVO Fundamentalist and have probably been to Pastor's School in Hammond IN, at least once. If you think it's funny, you're cured. If you take it seriously, you're hopeless in Hyles-ville! If you don't get the allusion to Hyles, you're here in good conscience but have never been to the heart of IFB-KJVO Fundamentalism. |
Beefed up? Send favorite quotes heard in church to Jeri at
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Back to the Trigger Point Massage Therapist
Inflamed? Send comments on muscle pulls to Jeri at
jeriwho@pipeline.com
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Ack! Another agonizing 35 minutes. I found a picture that shows a better representation of what trigger point massage is like. My therapist uses her elbow most of the time. Today the erector muscles up the right side of my spine were like cords. Even I could tell. It hurt like blazes to have her careully and slowly mash them with her elbow. When she'd finished, I had some better movement in the upper part of my back, but my lower mid-back is still inflamed, and the erector muscles are standing out like little steel cables. We cannot figure out what is wrong, but we're hoping the inflammation eventually diminishes. The chiropractor has told me that the spine itself is now normal and healthy. No mor inflammation there. The fasting has helped reduce pain and inflammation, but as it is now "that time of the month," when any inflammation is made worse for me, I assume Ijust have to get through this week. |
Inflamed? Send comments on muscle pulls to Jeri at
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Mercury Retrograde
Disturbing Book on Why 9/11 Happened
Catch this synopsis of a disturbing new book on 9/11.
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So I've got about three new ventures for contract jobs launched, but I expect I will not make progress until after Sept 20th. The one possible exception is going back to Glaxo, because I worked there before, and I've been submitted on two different bids. Glaxo, from what I've heard, gives previous contractors an edge over newcomers. I hope so, because Glaxo is a great place to work (provided the latest merger hasn't altered the culture there). |
Disturbing Book on Why 9/11 Happened
Catch this synopsis of a disturbing new book on 9/11.
So Who is Pastor Hugh Jass?
A Fundamentalist Right from the Heart
According to legend, Pastor Jass and the Church of the Open Road came to a fateful end when they were sideswiped by an 18 wheeler loaded with Chick Tracts. There used to be a page devoted to the sight of the wreckage, but I suppose that either Hyles-Anderson College hauled it off to make a memorial out of it (as they did with the wreckage of Lester Roloff's plane), or the web page just got too many hits and was clogging up line.
Inspired? Send most hilarious websites to Jeri at
jeriwho@pipeline.com
A Fundamentalist Right from the Heart
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If the thumbnail of Hugh Jass to the right of the main screen does not impress you, please drop your expectations and go visit Pastor Jass's web page. Believe me, you will not regret it! Please visit the links beneath the banner on Pastor Jass's page to see pictures of Pastor Hugh's Visit to Hammond and pictures from when Dave Hyles preached against Andy Jass. These are quick-view pages. And if you have a cable or DSL connection, you may want to spend the 10 minutes or so required to download the incredible sermon, "I Don't Like You," that is posted on the page. Yes, dear readers, that is a real sermon, preached by a real guy, from a real (yipe!) Fundamentalist pulpit. |
According to legend, Pastor Jass and the Church of the Open Road came to a fateful end when they were sideswiped by an 18 wheeler loaded with Chick Tracts. There used to be a page devoted to the sight of the wreckage, but I suppose that either Hyles-Anderson College hauled it off to make a memorial out of it (as they did with the wreckage of Lester Roloff's plane), or the web page just got too many hits and was clogging up line.
Inspired? Send most hilarious websites to Jeri at
jeriwho@pipeline.com
Monday, September 01, 2003
More Radish Juice!
How I spent Labor Day Wekeend
Today, Monday, I spent a few hours writing episode nine of a Liz Shaw Forensic Mystery, but these days it takes me forever to get a few pages out. Then I juiced up radishes and parsley together and stored the juice in a 24 ounce jar. I also did straight carrot juice, about 20 ounces, and stored it in a jar. Both jars are for tomorrow's fast. I can have only a little radish juice at a time, and I also dilute the carrot juice. But now that I am getting to be an old hand at this, I strain the juice three times before I bottle it. Removing as much of the tiny fibers as possible prevents some of those quick "detoxifying reactions" that some authors talk about. It is ten until six, so I had better go see about supper, inversion, and other health stuff. Back to work tomorrow!
How I spent Labor Day Wekeend
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Well, I was allegedly going to clean my house over the three day weekend, but I didn't do it. I had the trigger point massage Saturday, and I must admit that I did not feel that well for the rest of Saturday. There is nobody to hang out with, nobody to talk with, and I am still not allowed to be active and do the things I normally do if I get bored or lonely (ie, work out at the gym). So Sunday I spoke over the phone with my dear friend from Indiana, Debbi, who I have re-named Motivational Deb, or sometimes to really emphasize the point, I will call her The Original Motivational Deb, because I am sure that smebody has tried to copy her, but it is certain that anything other than the original is a second-rate knock-off. I felt better after talking to Deb, but life right now is difficult. I miss all my old pals from Indianapolis; yet I hated a lot about Indy! And to keep me peppy I drank a wineglass of radish juice and water every few hours |
Today, Monday, I spent a few hours writing episode nine of a Liz Shaw Forensic Mystery, but these days it takes me forever to get a few pages out. Then I juiced up radishes and parsley together and stored the juice in a 24 ounce jar. I also did straight carrot juice, about 20 ounces, and stored it in a jar. Both jars are for tomorrow's fast. I can have only a little radish juice at a time, and I also dilute the carrot juice. But now that I am getting to be an old hand at this, I strain the juice three times before I bottle it. Removing as much of the tiny fibers as possible prevents some of those quick "detoxifying reactions" that some authors talk about. It is ten until six, so I had better go see about supper, inversion, and other health stuff. Back to work tomorrow!
Sunday, August 31, 2003
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Song of the Little Grass Frog After diligent search in the wild and muggy rain forests of Google.com, I have found an audio file to play the song of the Little Grass Frog, which is my favorite type of frog that lives in the cool mud and under the sidewalks of the construction site where I work as a tech writer for a pharmaceutical company. The Little Grass Frog is the smallest North American frog. Click the link to hear the Song of the Little Grass Frog (227 KB, MP3 format). |
All Enchanted Princes! This could be your big chance! Send recipes to break the spell to Jeri at
jeriwho@pipeline.com
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Thanks for another great quote, Father Ted Over on the Fighting Fundamentalist Forums, "The Equalizer" is still arguing that a man who has committed adultery or even the sin of molesting a 15 year old girl, can still hold church office. Everybody has been hitting him with the coherent declaration of Scripture that the pastor/elder/deacon must have a blameless life. His defense is that as we are all sinners, no one has a right to remove a pastor from office. I have explained to him that the basis of the blameless life is not in the man, for we are all depraved. But a blameless life is the evidence that God is at work in a person, overcoming sin and keeping a man back from his most base desires. That's the only hope for any of us, I explain to him. The work of Christ in us holds us back from what we are and restrains us. He doesn't comprehend this line of reasoning at all (though it is the entire basis of the doctrine of sanctification in all major Protestant catechisms). He just ignores this and goes back to his point that as we are all sinners we cannot put a fallen pastor out of office. I picked out another great Father Ted quote for him. Father Ted's famous explanation to Dougal on how to praise God. |
Like most people who try to excuse sin inthe pulpit, Equalizer accuses those who defend the purity of the pulpit of being unloving. He castigates us for not forgiving, not loving, not helping a pastor keep his pulpit, even when he abuses his office. On the other hand, Equalizer has no problem in behaving in the very way he has accused us of behaving. Here are some quotes from him,
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Doctor Who Reviews On a less theologically horrific front, I just got an e-mail from a new reader who says she enjoys my Doctor Who fiction very much, and her favorite story so far is "Christmas With Friends," which featured the Third Doctor, Liz, and the Brigadier. Indeed, my new reader tells me: "I've found other fan fic out there, but yours is my far the best characterization I've come across." thank you! I can also juggle while under water, but I would have to charge you extra for that! No, just kidding. I do appreciate e-mail from readers. I have not posted any new fiction, and the engines aren't firing like they used to. I do have a Liz Shaw forensic mystery on a back burner, and I have also tried to construct a short (three episode) story that is supposed to be for Sarah Jane but at the moment looks better for Liz. Click the pic to the right to view the story. |  |
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jeriwho@pipeline.com
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Code Red Meanwhile, we are approaching code red here at the Lillypad. Will it be a throw-up fest like last time, or have fasting, juicing, and other alternative health measures purchased a more peaceful event? My inclination to kill people is not very high at this point, but I am achy and starting to feel tired and sleepy. I cannot begin my newly approved exercise program until I'm out of the red zone. Did you know that most women with chronic back trouble experience their "crisis events" (throwing out their backs) within a few days of starting their periods? Nobody knows why (of course). My chiropractor theorizes it is from the swelling of fluid retention that makes them more susceptible to inflammation. I say the opposite. Though my ankles swell, the rest of me dehydrates a LOT, and I think it makes my back less likely to handle even minor stresses. Anyway, once again my life is on hold until I'm out of code red. And, by the way, emotional swings were never a part of it for me until I started early menopause. I HATE early menopause. |
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Day of thunder and Occasional Lightning Today started with blue sky and sun. Then we had a massive clouburst at about eleven, and ever since then, thunder has never stopped rumbling. It goes far away and then comes back. I cannot hang on my inversion table as the storm returns because the frame is metal. I have turned off and unplugged the computer three times. The thunder is distant at this moment, but I assume it will come back again. Equalizer pulled a whole slew of his posts off the FFF. He did this because he said some really out of bounds things about browsing, and browsing told him he had crossed a line and better pull those posts or risk action for libel. So he did, while sulking furiously and insisting that browsing was picking on him. |
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I warned Equalizer that he has not been prepared to deal with a courageous man, and he'd better just leave it alone. Browsing has taken a lot of pains in the lat 20 years or more to help people (including me) with legal advice, and he has been a spokesman for a child whose death was declared suspicious but was left unresolved. He doesn't adorn himself with fanfare; he just does the right thing. These rabid IFB-KJVO people are used to ranting and raving and especially namecalling. I learned from my own experience that they don't know what to do when you just toss off their antics and continue to calmly face them. So I warned this kid that browsing is the type of man who simply acts at the proper moment and doesn't waste time with words. I told Equalizer he'd be wise not to push against a brave man. At this point, it looks like he has taken my advice. |
When will we Christian Fundamentalists stop congratulating ourselves for doctrinal purity, stop haranguing those who act in good faith, and stop berating our opponents? When will we turn to Christ, clean up our pulpits, and make the church that beautiful Haven of Rest for the brethren?
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Rise up, O men of God! The church for you doth wait, Her strength unequal to her task; Rise up and make her great! Lift high the cross of Christ! Tread where His feet have trod. As brothers of the Son of Man, Rise up, O men of God! |
And don't forget the women!
