At the right is my Sony Clie in the process of getting it’s digitizer replaced. That’s the old digitizer in the upper part of the picture, the front case at the left, the rear case at the upper right and the working bits in the middle.
You might remember, that my Clie TJ27 got run over after my belt clip broke and it landed in the snow back in January. Or you might have a life and not be concerned about my trivial personal problems. Anyway, it was a little crushed, the digitizer was shattered but it still powered up just fine. I found I could order a new digitizer for about $40 from pdaparts.com. So I bought one and one for my old Clie S320 that also had acroken screen.
Changing the digitizer is a little tricky because it’s glued to the LCD. You need to use an X-acto knife to pry them apart. On the older one the whole processs took about an hour. A few screws, pry the old digitizer off adn stick the new one on. The connectors are a bit tricky, but in the end it powered up just fine. My wife wil put it to good use. (I had thought I’d Ebay it to recoup the cost of the two digitzers, but oh well.)
The newer one was a bit harder. First of all, half of the screws were these funky triwing security screws. I guess Sony thought there was something dangerous inside. Probably didn’t want folks trying to change their batteries. A coworker had bought a new case for his son’s Gameboy and it came with a little triwing screwdriver that he let me borrow. Once I got the case apart, the real fun began. In the old one, the LCD and digitizer were held in with one screw, in the new one it’s glued down. In the old one the connectors were completely exposed once you removed that screw, in the new one the connectors were sandwiched between the metal frame and a PC board and because of the way all the connectors are laid out, you can’t completely expose them. In the old one there was only the metal frame holding the LCD/digitizer assembly, in the new one the LCD/digitizer frame is tucked down inside another metal frame. The old one was merely cracked, the new one was shattered in dozens of little shards that were hard to get cleaned out.
Anyway, I know this is all very exciting. The bottom line is that it was more challenging that I anticipated, but I managed to get it all put back together. Unfortunately, since it’s been almost 3 months, the battery is dead and the charger is at work so I don’t even know if it works yet. I’ll let you know in the morning, well, later this morning.
Final Week – Tuesday Morning
Matthew 21:20-46, 22:1-46, 23:1-39, Mark 11:20-33, 12:1-44, Luke 20:17-47, 21:11-4
Matthew 21:20-22, Mark 11:20-26 – Where is my faith in God? Am I so confident that I could give orders to nature and believe they would be carried out? I find that I tend to see God on the sidelines for me. Always there, but rarely active. I’m afraid I run a little too close to deism in my practical faith. I intellectually acknowledge an active God, but am skeptical of any evidence that He actually does anything. I long for God to be real and living for me. I too rarely feel His presence in a way that is tangible. I’m not exactly certain how that would play out, but I think that I am missing an aspect of God that is personal, present and able to be felt.
Matthew 21:43 – I am so conditioned to think of evangelism and converting people when I think of ‘fruit’. To bring someone to Christ is an amazing thing, yet I believe that fruit can be so much more. I’m tired of feeling guilty for not sharing enough or baptizing in years. Yet I also fear that I’ve had an overreaction to years of evangelistic emphasis and I am now dismissing the spirit when I’m called to share my faith. Lord, help me hear your voice and find the proper balance.
Matthew 22:15-33 – All this energy spent trying to trap Jesus. They are so convinced of their own knowledge that they don’t bother to listen to Him. I’ve seen this in so many people, and even in myself. Pride is such a powerful and evil thing. It blocks understanding and learning, it prevents us from hearing and acknowledging God. It keeps people divided, so they are prevented from learning from each other’s wisdom. I hate my pride, yet it is ever with me. I think I know enough, I don’t need to read much. I think things are OK, I don’t need to pray much. I think I understand a situation, I can tell you what you need to know. I think I could lead better, manage better, preach better, organize better. It’s sickening how often it is intermingled in my existence.
Matthew 23:23-24 – I see so much of this scripture in the religion of our nation today, including my own church. We religious folk do a good job at playing church, showing up on Sunday and living by the ‘rules’. But how good are we at mercy or justice? When there’s sin in the camp, do we seek justice or a scapegoat? Do we speak up for the voiceless? Jesus did that and he condemned those who’s religion was all ceremony. Isn’t our religion in the US just ceremony sometimes? Personally, what does my religion lead me to do? I too am guilty. I sit here at my wireless laptop in my comfy house and I wonder, is my religion worth anything to God? Or does he weep at my deception?
Matthew 23:25-36 – This section is hard to read and not feel inadequate. I can see my self in these passages and it’s painful. I fall so short of God’s will, it’s scary. Praise God for Jesus and His grace. Yet it feels like a cop out to say that. Yet I must remember that God loves me, not for what I do or how I measure up, nor even for who I am. He loves me because of who he is, perfect, loving. He loves me because he cannot do anything else. Even in my worst sin, he despises my behavior (because of the hurt is causes me and those around me) but loves me. What I do has no bearing on that. As a dad, I can understand that a little, for that’s how I treat my girls, or how I want to anyway.
The Triumphant Entry
Matthew 21:1-19, Mark 11:1-19, Luke 19:29-48, John 12:12-36
Luke 19:28-35 – I’ve always been amazed at this scripture. If someone you didn’t know came up and asked for something of yours – your car, bike, scooter – saying “The Lord needs it.”, would you just let them have it? I can say that I wouldn’t. Perhaps in the context of the hoopla of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem it would make more sense. I’ve always thought of this happening away from all that, well up ahead. It does say “go to the village ahead of you”
Luke 19:39 – Did these Pharisees rebuke their disciples when they were praised?
Luke 19:40-42 – Though the people are rejoicing at his coming, they don’t understand the significance of it. But the creation does, and if man could not rejoice at Jesus coming to achieve what had been foretold, the rocks and trees would. This is most significant event of history, He’s finally here to bring peace to the war between God and man. And God would sacrifice Himself in the name of providing man peace.
Mark 11:15-17 – He had seen it the day before, but decided not to deal with it then because it was late (Mark 11:11). But he did not just let it slide, he returned to deal with this desecration of the temple.
Matthew 21:14-16 – Boy, the Pharisees have got their short in a bind over this, don’t they? (Mark 11:18 and John 12:19 too) They were so concerned about doing things right, following the letter of the law, that they missed the Messiah. It’s quite easy to get caught up in that. I see people that look just like these Pharisees; angry, offended at doctrinal ‘mistakes’, consumed with doing things right, going to great lengths to deal with those who are ‘wrong’, but missing Jesus.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow ..
Wednesday it was 75 balmy degrees in Columbus Ohio. As I type this now there’s an inch of wet snow on the ground and it’s coming down like mad.
Stupid groundhog.
Two Things That Make Me Sad
I’ve been reading a string of items on two subjects lately that have saddened me.
The first is a series of posts by Kristen at Walking Circumspectly (Three of them: here, here and here.). I only know her from her blog and I only found my way there from one of my readers. Kristen’s been writing about her experiences in the ICOC in college back in the early 90’s. She was a part of the Atlanta ICOC church for around a month. She calls the ICOC a cult, and frankly I don’t blame her (though I don’t agree). In the month she was a part of the campus ministry there, she was exposed to the worst of the ICOC of those days. The performance mindset, judgementalism, high evangelism expectations, warnings about spending any time with, or even contact, her family and more. I can remember the warnings about my family when I was in campus, and they were in fact scary and intimidating. I too had strong a strong family which saved our relationship (in ways I would only learn of in the past couple of years.)
Her story saddens me for a couple of reasons. First, of course, is the sadness that anyone should come to a church looking for God and be told that to find Him means to abandon the most important folks in your life. All too many over the years have found elitism, arrogance and high expectations instead of grace and forgiveness. To be told that the ICOC was the only church and everyone else was not. She says that the month long experience over 10 years ago still impacts her today.
The other thing that saddens me about it is how one sided it is. I don’t fault Kristen for that, it’s what she knows. After she left, as was common, those who she had thought were her friends didn’t want to talk to her anymore. She was a ‘fall away’, a casualty of the war to save souls. She had made her choice and they had more souls to find. That’s the result of the lopsided, evangelism focused ministry the ICOC practiced. (I am not saying that evangelism isn’t important, just that it is not the most important thing.) She still wanted to know what the ICOC was and to learn more. With no one from the ICOC talking to her to keep her informed, she got her news on the ICOC from anti-ICOC organizations like Reveal. (Frankly, I am speculating here a bit, making assumptions from her posts. Kristen, if you’re reading, please correct me if I’m wrong.)
In contrast, my 17 year experience with the ICOC has been overwhelmingly positive. I have seen much of the things she talks about in her posts, even (shamefully) participated in some. But they did not have the negative impact on me they did on her. Over the years I was able to have an amazing and pure dating life in college (how many guys have a date nearly every week with a variety of wonderful women?), to meet the woman of my dreams, court her and marry her, to have relationships that would help me to become the husband I wanted to be, to help my marriage shine, to help me learn to not stop questioning things, to take sin seriously and seriously pursue repentance and more. My point is not to say, “See Kristen, you’ve got it all wrong.” Rather, I’m saying that my perspective without hers or hers without mine is an incomplete picture of the ICOC. We’ve had our faults and we’ve had our successes. We should look at both.
The second thing that has saddened me lately is both unrelated and completely related. Pinakidion has been writing about the teachings coming from the Portland ICOC church. Portland is where Kip McKean, the former leader of the ICOC, is currently leading. Pinakidion has been chronicling some of the things said and comparing them to things said years ago (Have a read: here, here, here, here and here.) The talk out of the NW (and there’s been a lot) sounds familiar. There’s lots of talk about how many great things they’re doing there in Portland, how folks have been coming from miles around to see how they’re doing it, how they’ve heard the other churches aren’t discipling anymore and have forgotten the mission to evangelize and grow and there’s even been talk of how they’re targeting cities where churches have abandoned discipling and evangelism. Pinakidion points out, and I agree, that it sounds a lot like 1979 all over again.
It makes me sad because I thought, hoped, that we had learned something in the past couple of years of re-evaluating and reconsidering our practices. Perhaps not. Now certainly, Portland does not speak for the whole of the ICOC, but not many are speaking against what is being taught there. I may disagree with Mr. McKean’s teachings and priorities in his message, but I will give him credit for knowing what he believes and speaking passionately about it. He’s an amazing man, with amazing passion and charisma. Where are the charismatic, passionate and outspoken men to make a difference teaching the radical grace and love that Jesus taught rather than works, performance and growth?
It’s sad to see so many papers and apologies written, so many relationships strained or broken, so many churches split and so much hurting over the last couple of years to perhaps end up, collectively, right back where we were. If we do, it will not be because that’s where we decided to go, but instead because we didn’t really decide to go anywhere else.
The Final Journey
Matthew 19:3-30, 20:17-34, 26:6-13, Mark 10:2-52, 14:3-9, Luke 18:15-43, 19:1-28, John 11:55-57, 12:1-11
Matthew 19:3-12 – Jesus’ stance on divorce is radical. How do churches get away with looking the other way? Certainly divorce is easier that staying together in may cases. A case could be made for divorce in circumstances of abuse or neglect. Jesus here says plainly that divorce and remarriage is adultery. He also says plainly that divorce is condemned by God. I’m also amazed by the disciples’ response. It’s as if they’re saying, “Gee, if I’m gong to be stuck with her forever, I better not get married.” I like Jesus’ response: “Marriage is not for everyone.” We look at people who are not married with pity. I know that I am not cut out to be unmarried, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t those who equally find married life unfathomable.
Mark 10:13-16 – I sometimes wonder what it means to receive the kingdom like a child. Innocence, trust, yes, but how would a child receive the kingdom? I just can’t quite get it, I’m missing something.
Mark 10:21-22 – I wonder if Jesus is thinking, “Dude, you’ve got a lot to learn about yourself.” I wonder what this rich young man did with the insight into his heart that Jesus gave him? Was he eventually changed? Or did it haunt him until his death.
Mark 10:23-27 – This passage, perhaps more than any other, should scare the bejeebez out of us in the USA. We are so stinkin wealthy, yet we are a ‘Christian Nation.’ Jesus tells us it hard for the rich to enter God’s kingdom. Yet most Christians in the US wouldn’t agree, I think.
Matthew 19:29 – This verse has been twisted to justify neglect of one’s family. In the context of the rich young ruler, is he really saying we must leave our family? Or he simply encouraging the disciples that those who have put their priorities in the right place, and given up many things to pursue God, will be rewarded. It’s an encouragement, in case you need it, not an admonishment to turn your back on those you ought to love.
Luke 18:34 – Intellectual Inertia again. The idea of Jesus being tortured and killed was unthinkable, so even when told plainly, they didn’t believe it.
Matthew 20:23 – I just now got that she was probably thinking of an earthly kingdom. I always wondered how she could be so arrogant to ask for those spots in heaven. She’s trying to secure her sons a prominent place in the new government!
Mark 10:41-45 – Give yourself to my people …
Luke 19:1-10 – Another Rich Young Ruler.
Mark 10:46-52 – Look at how this man’s faith makes him act. He is convinced that Jesus holds hope for him, so he ignores the jeers of the crown and shouts out for him. Then, when Jesus responds, he throw aside his cloak to go meet Him. His cloak was likely one of his only possessions, and his most valuable. Being blind, it would be difficult for him to ind it again in the crowd if it were lost. Yet he tosses it aside like an empty soda can to get to Jesus. I need that kind of faith again. Faith that runs to Jesus with little concern for anything else.
John 12:11 – Here’s an idea, let’s kill the guy who was dead already to stop folks from believing in Jesus. Were they banking that Jesus couldn’t do it twice?
MT Notifier
Well folks, I’ve fixed my notifications by installing MT Notifier. If you were subscribed to my notifications before, you should have gotten a notice about this entry. Installation was pretty straightforward, although it didn’t seem like it would be. Frankly, I should have done this weeks ago.
There are several very cool things about MT Notifier:
- I don’t have to do anything to get notifications sent out, they’re automatic.
- There’s a user management system for subscriptions. Each person can access their subscriptions and change them as they wish.
- You can subscribe to the entire blog, a specific category, by entry and you can choose to receive notice of both entries and comments or just entries.
I’m going to have to figure out how to create a form to add subscriptions like I had before. The old form calls the old (broken) notification system, so I’ve removed it. I’ll also have to figure out how to add a subscription checkbox to the comment form so folks can subscribe to comments.
If you haven’t been here since the notifications stopped, the last entry that you were probably notified about was just before the upgrade to MT 3.15. If you’d like to catch up, start here.
Another test entry
Testing MT notifier. Here goes …
Salguod QuickTags with Preview 0.1
I’ve implemented an upgrade to my commenting form that I’ve been working on.
It starts with the Quicktags I first saw at Arvid’s Movalog site. He tweaked Alex King’s JavaScript Quick Tags that I guess are built into WordPress. I took Alex’s files and hacked my way through them until I ended up with a 2 line series of buttons with different labeling.
I added to that the instant previewing that I stole from Greg’s blog. It was part of the equix theme for the WP 1.5 theme competition.
So, now you can add bold, italics, underline, strike through,
blockquote,
links and
- bulleted
or
- numbered
lists to your comments at the touch of a button! All while watching it magically appear at the bottom of the page.
Now, to work on those notifications …
Raising Lazarus
John 11:1-54
John 11:5-16 – Jesus tries to speak of deeper things, but the disciples cannot see beyond the surface. Thomas’ comments are indicative of his complete respect and trust in Jesus (If Jesus said that it was good that Lazarus died, then it would be good for us to die too!), but also his inability to see what Jesus saw.
John 11:20 – Was this after Luke 10? If so, Martha has learned something since then. Before, she was busy making preparations while Mary ignored those responsibilities to be with Jesus. Now that tables are tuned. With visitors from out of town showing sympathy, there was much to do. Yet it is Martha, not Mary, who leaves all of that to greet Jesus.
John 11:25-26 – Was Jesus referring to our physical death and then going to heaven, or the transformation that takes place when we die to ourselves when we become Christians?
John 11:45-48 – What sort of mind looks at a man raised from the dead and thinks that it’s trouble, something that must be reported to the authorities. And then they are distressed that folks might believe in him! It’s amazing how powerful a preconceived notion can be. It’s something I’ve called intellectual inertia. We approach an analysis with the end result already in mind, therefore the facts are of no use to us. The urge to believe what we already believe is so powerful and overwhelming.
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