Sermon: The Debate

October 15, 2012

This is the text of a sermon I gave at All Saints Episcopal Church, Sacramento on October 7, 2012. It is based on the readings from the Revised Common Lectionary for Proper 22, year B. Please see my standard sermon disclaimer. Read more

Sermon: The Underdogs

June 24, 2012

This is the text of a sermon I gave at All Saints Episcopal Church, Sacramento on June 24, 2012. It is based on the readings from the Revised Common Lectionary for Proper 7, year B. Please see my standard sermon disclaimer. Read more

We Do Believe

February 12, 2012

This is the text of a sermon I gave at All Saints Episcopal Church, Sacramento on February 12, 2012 as part of Evolution Weekend. Please see my standard sermon disclaimer.

An Audio Version is also availible. Read more

Issues of Translation: Pronouns, Gender and the Bible

September 21, 2012

Beginning in the mid 1960’s a new issue arose for biblical translation. Society became fare more aware of gender in language and with it both the overt and subtle forms of discrimination that gendered language embodied. Over the next decade the English language was pulled, sometimes gently, but often with much discord, towards a more gender neutral form. This article looks at the issues that caused fro translators.

Issues of Translation: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English and the Issue of the Virgin Birth

September 14, 2012

On the fourth Sunday of advent this year, we will hear a very strange thing in the reading of scripture. The bible will quote itself, and have a hard time doing so. The readings will be Isaiah 7:10-16 and Mathew 1:18-25. To understand why this happened and why it gives translators such headaches, I want to take you through the early history of biblical translation.

Issues of Translation: The Bible's Poetry

September 07, 2012

The biblical text has also been sung, prayed, and generally felt through the heart as well as the studied intellectually. The bible contains a great deal of poetry. In this article we examine those translations that attempt to transmit the linguistic feel of biblical verse.

Issues of Translation: The Long Nose of God

August 31, 2012

Did you know that God has a long nose? At least that is what God says of himself to Moses. This article will explore the use and abuse of idioms in the biblical text.

Issues of Translation: Thou and Thy

August 24, 2012

We are all aware that the English language shapes the way we view the view the bible, but did you know that translating the bible also influences our Language? One curious case is the persistence thou and thy long after they fell out of use in vernacular speech and writing.

Issues of Translation: Wind and Spirit

August 17, 2012

It is tempting to think that languages are merely different word for the same set of concepts, and that a one-to-one correlation exists between a word in one language and a word in another. Unfortunately this is not the case, and because language is the basis for so much of human cognition, these differences can lead to more then just differences in translation, they can have philosophical and theological consequences as well.

Issues of Translation: Jehovah

August 10, 2012

We have all heard the word Jehovah used for God, but have you every wondered where it came from? This history of the “Name of God” has a long and illustrative history which shows just how difficult translating the bible can be.

Wiki: A Layout Editor's Gripes

August 23, 2012

After a long day editing The Crown, I felt I just had to write down some helpful hints for people who are going to be sending me things to put in church publications. It is probably good advice for anyone who writes but another formats. Read more

Wiki: Americans Hate Cars

August 13, 2012

My first wiki essay, Americans Hate Cars is up. It spells out my opinion that most every american would love to get out of their car if only the alternatives that existed were not either non-existant or worse then being stuck in traffic. Read more

Parsec Internals

April 22, 2013

I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking through the internals of Haskell’s Parsec monadic parser combinator library. This post is intended as a brain dump so what in six months when I’ve forgotten it all I can come back and remember what I’ve forgotten. This post is based on parsec-3.1.3 which is the current version as of April 22, 2013. Read more

Baseball

October 28, 2012

The San Francisco Giants have just won the World Series. They deserved it. What a final game! The Dodgers will be back next year. Some may wonder why, when I live 90 miles from San Francisco, I continue to root for the Dodgers. Here’s why: Read more

Ford's Burgers Closes after ADA Suit Filed

October 01, 2012

Ford’s Burgers, a classic burger joint on Sutterville Rd. across from Land Park, closed yesterday after a more then half a century in business. The business had been struggling for a while but a lawsuit from a serial ADA litigant and quadriplegic, Carmichael attorney Scott N. Johnson was the straw the broke the camel’s back. (Coverage from New10) Read more

One Crazy Idea for the Political Season

September 25, 2012

I find modern politics frustrating. No, it is not that I don’t care about the issues. It is that the issues are not discussed. Politicians have learned that being vague and using feeling language it the way to win elections without tying themselves too closely to any unpopular positions. We elect black box politicians based on how their branding makes us feel. I read, for example, the Lincoln-Douglas debates and feel sad that such candor and actual debate of specific issues does not happen in contemporary politics. Read more

A Trip to Lassen

September 10, 2012

This past Saturday, we took a trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We had wanted to get away for a while and this was a good excuse. Read more

A Response to "A Growing Church is a Dying Church"

September 06, 2012

A few facebook friends have been sharing a link to a blog post titled “A Growing Church is a Dying Church” by Pastor J. Barrett Lee who blogs at The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor. This is actually one of a number of different blog posts I seen recently from clergy who feel like their congregations expect too much from them. The thrust of this article is that clergy cannot grow the church, God does that. What they can and do try to do is to make changes to a church that will allow it to grow. These changes and the new people they might attract, necessarily lead to the dying (in the sence of Good Friday) of the original stuck congregation. Read more

Telemarketers: A Rant

September 05, 2012

Would you like to know one never-fail way to ensure I never buy your product or service? Call me on the phone and tell me about it while I’m working on something important. Read more

Freemuim

September 04, 2012

Freemium is a business model where a substantial portion of the services (they are almost always service oriented) are given away for free to most users, while a small portion pay for premium services. The premium members cover the cost for themselves and the free members as well. Read more

Monday Bike Ride

August 27, 2012

If you look at the side bar, you will notice a new widget. I have linked my Strava profile into my blog. As of today it also has a new ride. I extended my favorite airport loop ride out to 31.5 miles today, taking advantage of the sunny but significantly cooler weather. Read more

Weekend Recap

August 23, 2012

It was another busy weekend for the Millers. We did our usual loop through our two families, but with a twist. This trip included a family reunion with Beth’s Family in Van Nuys. Read more

Burgess Brothers' Burgers

August 22, 2012

There is a new place to eat in the neighborhood I work. Burgess Brothers’ Burgers opened Monday at 2114 Sutterville Road. In my time this place has been at least two pizza places, a cafe and now a burger shop. Regardless of what it is this place has always held a special place in the hearts of those who work at All Saints. Sandy Burgess is the most recent in a string of small business entrepreneurs to try to make a living out of this little shop across from city college, and we will enjoy cheering her on and being regular contributors to her success. Read more

Meta-Blogging #2

August 15, 2012

I have updated the look of the blog. The major change is the inclusion of new lines next to the sidebar and a gradient with rounded corners on the home page. The date of posts is also now listed there. Read more

Murphy Strikes the A/C

August 14, 2012

As I am typing this it is 85° in our house. It could be worse. The compressor on the air conditioner failed last evening, on one of the hottest days of the year and with a fire in the delta sending huge plumes of smoke into the city. Read more

A Long Weekend

August 13, 2012

It’s Monday. For most people, it is the first day of the week. For me, it is my day to relax after the weekend. This weekend more than most I am enjoying a day to sit back and breath before the plunge into this week’s tasks. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very enjoyable time; just one that I need to recover from. Read more

Meta-Blogging #1

August 07, 2012

In the days of HAM radio, the most common topic of conversation over the air was of course HAM radio. I don’t want this blog to be all about blogging, but part of the fun – part of the reason that this is a homebrew blog on my own server and not another spot on blogger – is getting to play with the technology that makes this all run. In that spirit, this is the first of a planned series about what makes this blog tick. Warning: technical stuff coming up. Read more

A Night at the Ball Game

August 04, 2012

This past Wednesday Beth and I went to watch the San Francisco Giants play the New York Mets. As a Dodgers fan, I’m happy to say that the Mets won 2-1. Beth got the tickets for arranging a lunch-‘n-learn at her office. Normally a Dodgers fan would not be going to a Giants game, but what honest baseball fan turns down free tickets? Read more

Starting Again

August 03, 2012

It has been some time sense I blogged regularly. Part of that has been not having a platform that I liked. Another part was lack of energy. Well I’ve overcome both and now I’m going to try bloging again with a slightly different format then the last time. Read more