The Grey Shadow

If you forgive me the obviousness, you may have already heard that somewhere else that “common sense is the least common of all senses”. As far as popular wisdom goes, this saying is usually right; but there are two special corollaries:

1. Proposition is specially true in all commercial/business environments; and
2. Proposition is uniquely true in regards to computing.

I don’t have anything to add now to corollary 1. Why is that common sense is so rare in business? Why is that all kinds of weird nonsense gets respect as “business plans” in the corporate world? I don’t know. Maybe because, as some have pointed out, the skills required by the corporate world border on sociopathy. But I do not want to discuss this, at least not now.

The other corollary, however, deserves some attention. Computing is supposedly an area where the best and brightest would reign, and, therefore, the choices made by IT people would be the best ones given the circumstances, right? Yeah, right. The prevalence of Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer alone belies that.

Therefore, I am planning some posts (at least two) where I would like to examine how current choices in computing defy common sense and, therefore, are paving the way for failure, or for more difficulties. And no, I won’t talk necessarily about Windows or IE; that would be just too obvious. I plan to talk about two issues that are the current fad or are being part of it:

• Cloud computing
• System resources

Stay tuned!

You might remember that I called your attention to Tim’s insightful piece, “The Hidden Danger of Peacemakers“. In response to that, I wrote two opinion pieces. The first one is online at OfB, and you can check it out: When Jerks Abuse an Organization. It was also picked up by VarLinux.org. Food for thought.

Time goes on, and with it, new software releases come and go. So, I think it is appropriate to comment on some software I use. Let’s see:

My GNU/Linux distribution: Slackware. After all these years, I am still a Slackware user. If anything has taught me on Linux distributions during this time, is that Slackware’s stability, speed and ease of use are unmatched. The plus is that is the closest thing to having real Unix running on your box.

In fact, many would be surprised to see Slackware considered “easy-to-use”. Believe me: it is. It is very simple, and while making mistakes might be easy, recovering from the is usually very easy, too. All the defaults are sensible, and almost every software package is untouched and unpatched from the pristine sources upstream. I began using Slackware in version 9.0. The last version I used, version 13.0, was a great one; and right now I am using Slackware-current, the “development” series. Despite being in the cutting edge, -current is surprisingly stable and simple. Slackware is nowhere near perfect, but it is clearly among the best GNU/Linux distributions.

My desktop environment: KDE. I begain to use KDE with the 1.1.x release that came with Red Hat 6.2, back in 2000. I liked it a lot, but it wasn’t adequate to my desktop needs, yet. I took a new look at it when the project relesed version 2.1, and I was instantly hooked. I began to use it as my only desktop environment, and it has been so ever since. When the KDE community released version 4.0, that was a difficult point; I reverted to 3.5 until 4.1 was ready; but then, I used 4.1 and 4.2, and was generally pleased. Now I am using 4.3, and I think it is an excellent environment. Additionally, I began to help the project as a Spanish translator since version 2.2, because I wanted to give back to it.

Screenshot of KDE 4.3 on my computer

My blog software: WordPress. I began to use WordPress back at version 1.2; the latest version I’m using is 2.9, and it’s still a great platform.

I don’t plan to change this stack sometime soon. Right now, KDE SC 4.4 is right around the corner, and I am awaiting it with eager anticipation.

Tim, in a recent blog post, has tackled a subject that touches a sensitive area of Web surfing: ads, and the ethical validity of blocking them. The issue is that an increasing number of Web surfers are taking advantage of ad blocking techniques. For Firefox and Seamonkey there is the well-known Ad Block Plus extension. Internet Explorer can do it with the inPrivate mode. And Konqueror can block ads, too. (And way before, we had Junkbusters). Suffice it to say, the issue of blocking Web ads is not recent.

This is an important question, because advertising is, in many cases, the sole source of revenue for webmasters of many informative and useful Web sites; and even if it is not, it is an important source of income that alleviates the cost of bandwith, equipment, and many other expenses involved in making available online content.

On the other hand, Web ads are clearly annoying to many; that’s why ad blockers are so popular today, and that’s also the reason why many less-than-reputable advertising networks are in a perennial arms race with ad blocking softare, with each one trying to outdo the other.

1. And this points out the main reason why most people try to block ads: they are annoying, yes, written in bold letters. While the initial Web banner ad was generally nice, it began to be annoying because of the cheesy animations… and it has been downhill ever since. The size has changed —they are bigger— and ads became generally more and more and more annoying. We began to see ads in Flash, ads that incorporated sound, ads that broke HTML standards compliance, interstitials, and so on. We have now those stupid moving ads, blinking, appearing in pop-ups, flashing, and making noises. Don’t ever get me started on inappropriate ads, those of the NSFW kind, that too many times have appeared on supposedly safe sites.

2. Another problem with the use of the ads is the ad networks. If ads were just a linked element from the same Web site offering the advertisement, that would not be a problem. However, they usually come from ad networks; and believe me, the enormous lag they add to navigation is, in some cases, unbearable. The pun that says that the World Wide Web became the World Wide Wait is the responsibility, in great part, of ad networks. Just think of it yourself. How many times have you stared to a blank page of a site, supposedly loading? You wait, and wait, and wait… that is, until you decide to enable ad blocking and them all of the site loads like a charm. The ad networks would like to serve ads in your site, right, but the performance of their servers is downright abysmal.

3. Finally, another reason why so many people choose to block Web ads is privacy. By using cookies —third party cookies— Big Ad Network Brother is able to track your surfing habits; they can learn that you have browsed OverthrowGovernment.com as many times as you have browsed MyLocalNews.net. They can learn about your sex, your age, your preferences, and other information that can be potentially all linked back to you. This bulk of data is used to serve ads that are “relevant” to you (yeah, right), and also is sold to any interested party.

I really don’t know why is that the state of Web advertising became so terrible. People is fond of comparing online media to printed media; but you open a magazine and the ads down there don’t blink at you, or require extraneous plugins (Flash), or make annoying noises, nor make a scan of what you read and then phone home… you get my idea? And ad rates in printed mags are usually way higher than Web ads! that’s right: the advertisements pay much less in the Web for the latitude of being more invasive than ever.

Because of all these reasons, I have ad blockers available on all my graphical browsers. Note that I said “available”, not “enabled”. When a Webpage becomes too annoying, I enable ad blocking, and I can continue browsing with no problem at all. However, I recongnize that this is not a definitive solution.

Whan should we do when confronting this reality? Should we move to a “walled-garden” model (i.e., subscription model with no ads?). In my opinion, the walled-garden approach is never a good one. Under this approach, I think a Webmaster would stand a far lesser chance of making decent money from a Web site. In addition, the epic freedom of information and the global exchange of ideas would end, taking with it the chief reason why people surf the Web today. In extremis, the Web would implode and die.

We must recognize, then, that the only way that stands any chance of long-term feasibility is so far the persistence of Web advertising. However, if this alternative is to be fully realized without the widespread blocking of today, Web ads must evolve. They must load fast, should not impose an unreasonable load in system resources (such as is the case with Javascript-laden ads, heavy images, Flash or other plugins, etc.), should not be annoying, should be appropriate, and should be far more respectful of end-user privacy; and all of this, while representing solidly the message the advertiser wants to be delivered. But it looks like we are just too far behind on realizing this dream…

So, what should one do to cope with annoying help ads? Here is some advice taken from my personal experience.

1. Block all plugins by default. Enable them on-demand only. Especially, do not forget to install the Flashblock extension in Firefox, and enable on-demand only loading in Konqueror. Really; Adobe Flash is the scourge of the Web and, besides YouTube, I did not see too many useful examples of it. However, there are valid exceptions and that’s why I am not advising its uninstallation. Keep it around, but restrained. In this way, you will block all annoying Flash-based ads, while still retaining the ability to use the technology when it is really appropriate. Do this with a clear conscience. I feel no pity for advertisers who feel that it is their right to abuse your system resources, annoy you with sound, or put you at risk from Flash malware just for the privilege of showing you an ad. If they want to show us an advertisement, let that be in plain HTML.

2. Block third-party cookies. In this way, you prevent Big Brother advertisers from stealing your personal data while you still allow the parent site to set cookies that might be useful for site navigation.

3. If the animations are becoming just too annoying, disable them. Firefox, if I remember correctly, has a setting where animations are allowed to cycle once and then stop. But Konqueror in this case is the best: animations are allowed; but there is always a right-click setting of “Stop animations”. In that way, animations are allowed until they become too annoying, and then they can be stopped on demand by a right-click.

4. Finally, if all else fails, you may resort to ad-blocking; but remember, the Webmaster depends on the income of the ads to maintain the site. Consider leaving the site if you find the ads unbearable.

The issue of Web ads is really complex, as I have tried to show here. Let’s pray that the advertising industry —an industry known for its lack of values, their ruthlessness and their extreme greed— begin to use some common sense, and choose to behave.

As a flip-side piece to my 2009 evaluation post, I would like to set some things that I should take into account regarding the year 2010:

In the personal side, it is clearly evident that I should become more careful about my own health. It is also clear that I should do this not only because of myself, but because I am a steward of God’s creation of my own body, and because I am indebted to people who love me and appreciate me. It is going to be a tough effort, no doubt; but I should do it nonetheless.

Regarding work, it is clear that I should go look for a better job. This would include a better-paying day job, and also see whether I can improve on my translation practice. A tough call, again.

In my studies, I have several goals, but the most important of these is to try to keep as high as GPA as possible and to read as much as I can.

As for the computer stuff, it looks like this year is going to be interesting in both Slackware and KDE fronts. I just converted the laptop to Slackware-current, and so far it’s great.

Finally, I should improve my spiritual life, in church attendance and in devotional practice.

All in all, this is just a small sample of what I see ahead for me in 2010. Please keep me in your prayers.

Tim recently wrote a great piece at Open for Business. He tells about the hidden danger posed by people trying to transform church discipline into just another feel-happy church program. Definitely worth a read and your careful consideration: The Hidden Danger of Peacemakers.

Oh my. 2009 was such a year! It was a year full of news good and not so good, and it came and went in style, but all was so hectic! But I digress. The year 2009 was a year full of blessings, challenges, and opportunities and one more reason to be able to give thanks to the Lord.

In the work front, things were not so easy. I got a much needed raise; but falling U.S. Dollar prices and a serious threat of cuts in our fundings reminded me of how unstable my position is despite the good efforts of Rev. S., my patient, kind, and understanding boss. Now, more than ever, it is clear that I should look for a job that could allow me to improve on my weak finances. For that reason, I went to see Uncle M. (you’re right, the big shot lawyer) to see if he can get me a position in the Judiciary Power (one of our three branches of government). He told me upfront that the situation is not very good, but he would look into that for me anyway. Now, I am awaiting for news. Let’s pray for that.

As for my personal life, things were more or less okay, but this year will mark the departure of Don Victorio, my father in law. He was quite a character, and I liked him a lot. His countenance and ideals were the perfect embodiement of the Quixotic archetype; but despite his quirks he was a kind, generous, and fair gentleman. We all miss him. As you may have read in my previous post, too, one of my sisters got married near the end of the year, and it was a joyful moment for all the family.

I also realized that I was having increasing problems with sleep, tiredness and lack of concentration. This made me see a doctor yesterday, and he gave me some news I would rather not hear. I am going to write about this ASAP.

Regarding my spiritual life, I recognize that I should really get my act together. A number of circumstances that act very well as excuses —tiredness, my hatred of praise bands, noise and music, and the disagreements with the current church leadership, and so on— all led to a dismal attendance to church services. One may chose to ignore this fact, but the truth is that my spiritual life will not be helped by it. I am trying to revert this dreaded habit, but it is not easy.

In my academic life (i.e., law school) things went very good. I was able to study on full scholarship thanks to a perfect 5.0 (equivalent to a 4.0 in the American system). We had some difficult subjects, but thankfully I was able to pass all of them with flying colors. I got an 5 in everything save for one course, where I got a 4. But I am happy, and I look forward to my third year with confidence and anticipation.

Well, this is a short summary of what happened on 2009. Please keep me in your prayers. Stay tuned!

A typical manger scene from Paraguay.

for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.
(Luke 2:30-32, ESV [show]Luke 2:30-32 [30]for my eyes have seen your salvation [31]that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, [32]a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel."
)

I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The year that just passed was a difficult one, but the Lord granted us His love, comfort and wonderful provision in all times. More than anything, I have seen the Nunc Dimitis (Simeon’s song, Luke 2:29-32 [show]Luke 2:29-32 [29]"Lord, now you are letting your servant(1) depart in peace, according to your word; [30]for my eyes have seen your salvation [31]that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, [32]a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." Footnotes 1. [2:29] Greek 'bondservant'
) become a reality in my life.

On Christmas Eve we had generally a good time. Since my father in law passed last June, we had to spend the traditional Christmas Eve dinner with my in-laws. We ended up having a wonderful time, not exempt of tears, of course, but all in all it was full of gratitude and joy for the gift of Christ’s presence among humanity.

Later, we had some hectic times since one of my sisters married on Sunday, December 27. It was a beautiful time, only that it was too hot, even for a late evening. Our clothes were drenched. But we were very happy.

Then, we spend the New Year’s Eve dinner with Mom and my other sister (the married one was too busy in her honeymoon ). It was a peaceful time, and that allowed me to think long and hard about the blessings that God granted us along the year.

I hope you had a wonderful time these holidays, and may God grant you peace, hope, forgiveness, and happiness.

I just discovered a great blogging app: Bilbo Blogger, a blogging app for KDE4. I set it up in its simple config dialog, and presto! it retrieved all my last posts, and automagically set itself up. So far, it looks very promising. We’ll see. Until then, it surely looks like a winner.

For Tim: I plan to post something related to my law studies ASAP. Stay tuned!

=-=-=-=-=
Powered by Bilbo Blogger

I finally caved in and enabled the Akismet web service to stop comment spam. I was getting between 250-300+ comments per day, all of them spam. So far, it seems to work well… and whoa! what a relief!

Meanwhile, I’m spending the day at home, doing some errands and pampering my wife, who caught the flu. Tomorrow will be a whole different day, though… Friday, the dreaded Church Bulletin Day. Carpe diem!

I need a hammer. A Really Big Big Big Bad Hammer(TM), and also Some Things to Crush In a Fit of Anger. While moderating my ever-increasing spam comments, some perfectly good and legitimate comments (especially those from Tom Di Giovanni) went down the drain, mistakenly classified as spam. My mistake, and my apologies to those affected.

This makes me think again about how uncomfortable the moderation system became since WordPress 2.5. I upgraded to 2.6 yesterday, but the “improvements” (?) in the comment system are still there. Arghhh…!!! where’s my hammer???

I cannot believe how fast March went down the drain. One day, and we were just on the beginnings; and the other, and it’s the 31st!.

Several things happened during this month in my life. The most important change is that my dad fell suddenly ill with pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. After being discharged from the hospital, Dad chose to leave the family home and move in with a woman who is the mother of a 9-year old brother of mine. I feel sad for that; but then, Dad is happy and I just want the best for him.

In other news, I managed to upgrade all my WordPress sites to version 2.5. The upgrade looks all right, although the comment moderation page looks to me as something much more cumbersome and bothersome (try to moderate in batches of 25 when you receive spam in excess of 150 comments a day). So, this upgrade is not as “recommended” as it should. Take it with the mandatory ton of salt.

I still lack an Internet connection, so posting will be more scarce than it should. But this is a temporary situation, and I hope to update this blog more often.

And, last but not least, Happy Easter! The Lord is risen!

I still don’t know the outcome of my church’s administrative session that was planned for today. I went to the 8:00am service and promptly left afterwards. Rev S. told me that the session was planned for 11:00am. Let’s hope it was good. Dinner was delicious; we enjoyed some barbecued steak and salads. I spent the rest of the day surfing and reading; all in all, a great day.

I would like now to share with you some great, timely posts related to events on October 31.

Reformation Day. Tim gives us two excellent pieces on the subject, written in OfB.biz:

1. My friend and namesake Ed Hurst wrote in 2006 a drastic, but well-deserved, indictment of Evangelical Christianity: “We need a reformation.” He explains:

Within the Evangelical Protestant community today, we are very nearly in the same place which broke Luther’s heart. We have an informal hierarchy. The highest vestments are based on talents more suitable to television and marketing. It’s all about the packaging; no one seems to care much about the content, our declarations notwithstanding. We do not need another dynamic leader; we need spiritual direction which points to Jesus Himself. Forget the CDs and DVDs, the books and programs. We don’t need more information, a new explanation, or another touchy-feely experience. We need a fresh examination of the same eternal truths, a fresh commitment to what we already know. If the primary complaint is boredom, maybe we need more people actually reborn and changed by the miracle of God bringing to life a dead soul.

2. Tim himself wrote this year’s piece on Reformation Day. He speaks in an irenic note, but his advice is no less drastic: Reformation Day should be a yearly reminder to check our beliefs. He goes on to consider the meaning of Reformation Day in a Church rightly concerned with the cause of Christian unity. From Tim’s insightful piece:

The Reformers, well aware of the need to be conscious about our theology and to always realize our potential for corruption did not seek a static church, but rather the “ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda:” the church reformed, always reforming. This is the key lesson of the Reformation: the people of God should be diligent in seeking to be reformed by the will of God. Whether or not you agree with Luther’s particular grievances in their entirety, this remains the central principle that everyone ought to take to heart.

Halloween. Jared of Exultate Justi fame presents a reposts of two classic posts on Halloween. Jared writes with wisdom, charity, intellectual rigor, and he is backed by good research. His first post deals on why he was wrong about Halloween, and the second is a great piece on what’s fundamentally wrong with horror-oriented entertainment. You can read both pieces in his archive. As Jared insighfully asks: “While it may be a sick world, do we really need to wallow in the filth?”

Yes, you are allowed to bring your special comfy armchair, your beverage of choice, and your classical music playlist. Enjoy!

I continue experimenting with themes. This is Fluid Blue 1.5, a great theme by Srini. The big merit of this theme, in my opinion, is its resemblance to the old Blue Theme. Maybe this is a keeper

I managed to upgrade to WordPress 2.3. This is a pretty serious upgrade, and for the first time it comes with native tag support!

Because of this I also decided to change theme. After years of using the excellent and sober Blue Theme 1.0 by Alex King, I am tentatively switching to the Unnamed theme by Xu Yiyang. This is a great theme that greatly resembles the old Blue Theme while supporting the latest WordPress features such as widgets and tags.

Meanwhile, all the info you saw on my previous theme will be gradually migrated to the new, improved theme.

So far, I find the new WordPress very good. Upgrading is recommended.

It’s been a long time since my last post. Of course this is an uninentended condition; I really meant to post more often. However, besides the usual deluge of work that I have to deal with, my father in law (Don Victorio) was hospitalized again due to complications of his heart disease.

These weeks were really trying and tiring for all of us; and our ability to function properly in our jobs and our society was put to some serious tests. Thankfully, Don Victorio was stabilized and discharged from the hospital, and now he is recovering at home. Please keep praying for his continued recovery.

And, by the way, I upgraded to WordPress 2.2.3 in the meantime. Upgrade is recommended. Go get it!

This has been a challenging week. Things are not going as well as I would have wished in the financial front; but we are holding on. But the most difficult problem is a delicate situation that must be overcome by my local church. Our senior pastor unexpectedly passed away last week, and the outlook for our congregation is delicate because of circumstances I would not like to comment right now.

On other news, I finally managed to upgrade all my WordPress sites to version 2.2.2. The upgrade was simple, and the good WordPress folks reduced the steps in the upgrade process from five to three. So far, it’s good.

Please keep praying for my local church, my family, and this writer. That will be greatly appreciated.

Right now I am immersed in two small writing projects for OfB.biz:

1. A review of the Unicomp Model M keyboard: This is basically an expansion of this post, with more details concerning the acquisition process. The Unicomp keyboard is really outstanding, and I think the public deserves to know the existence of such a keyboard, along with some bumps in the purchasing road they might need to be aware of.
2. A review of Slackware 12.0: I just got Slackware 12 installed on phoenix, my home system. Phoenix was incredibly stable with Slack 11, but Slack 12 brought a host of minor troubles. I managed to fix almost all of them, learned a great deal on the process, and I would like to share my experience.

So, please pray that I might get to finish those articles. It’s not that I have writer’s block; the problem is my limited availability of quality time. I also plan to write with more news soon.

Ramkumar Shankar writes on his blog: “The day when Linux will take over the desktop (or at least have a significant footprint in the market) is still not upon us. That’s because there are a number of things the Linux community still doesn’t get, slowing down adoption of the OS in the home and home office.”

read more | digg story

I posted this story because even though it contained some tired-old overgeneralizations and misconceptions, it still raises some good points.

1. Over-generalizations: Mr. Shankar still echoes the old, tired FUD about “the Linux community”, trying to caracterize Free Software advocates as elitist, snobbish religious fanatics with a zealous hatred of Microsoft. It almost looks like it was talking about Mac fanboys! (yes, Tim, I know you use a Mac, but you definitely are not a fanboy).

   When I advocate Free Software, I try not to dismiss Microsoft; I try to present the case for software freedom. And believe me, with racketeers like the BSA breathing under your neck and whispering things like “software audit”, you usually tend to appreciate that.

2. Mis-conceptions: Some of the critiques were made under the assumption that for GNU/Linux to gain some footing in the desktop arena, installation should be done by clueless end users in the most user-friendly way possible. (Please note that I am using clueless in a respectful way here. I am not dismissing newbie or clueless users in any way.)

   This assumption is wrong. The only ones installing operating are nerds, script kiddies, consumers of illegal copies of proprietary operating systems… and computer manufacturers and systems integrators. I said it once, and I will say it again: It is completely unreasonable to expect an end user to install his or her own operating system.

   OS installation-related procedures (such as determining which particular version of the OS is suitable for a particular user) should be performed by a technically savy person—the resident nerd, the ‘whiz-kid’, the tech support representative… you get my drift. If you don’t believe me, try right now to install and configure Windows XP or Vista.

3. Good points: Despite all the shortcomings, Mr. Shankar still has some good points to make. GNU/Linux has very good hardware support, but it still must be better prepared to deal with all the hardware that is out there. Sadly, this is an issue with no easy solution unless the hardware makers get convinced about the value of having their drives ported to GNU/Linux. On the other hand, this is an issue that is mostly out of the community‘s reach, and he was talking about community.

   Another good point Mr. Shankar makes is that we need to keep improving the user-friendliness of our system and applications. Here he’s got a point. And I am not thinking on the command-line. I am thinking on things like the awfully cluttered KDE Control center, the extremely rigid GNOME settings, the stupid package-management tricks, and the arcane settings of many apps. We surely can do better!

Therefore, reading is recommended with a little bit of salt… or two.

Rev. Harold Segura works with World Vision Latin America and he also serves as the Director of Theological Education for the Union of Baptists in Latin America. He was invited as an observer to the 5th Latin American Roman Catholic Bishop’s Conference in Aparecida, Brazil.

Harold published his recollections as a conference observer in a blog, Desde Aparecida, which is written in Spanish. Fortunately, there’s an English translation with almost all the posts, From Aparecida. I found the translation generally good despite some obvious translationisms.

This would make a great reading to those interested in the state of Protestant-Roman Catholic relationships in Latin America, and the particular spiritual needs of this continent. Enjoy!

I found this excellent article at All Unkept, Luke Plant’s blog : What’s so bad about the Nazis anyway?. It is a great application of slippery-slope logic in hindsight, and makes you question whether slippery-slope arguments are really that worthless. Recommended.

As usual, tomorrow is Mothers’ Day in the Paraguayan holiday calendar. In our culture, this is a really important celebration. I suspect we will end up spending the day at our in-laws’, in a really big noon dinner. This is not exactly great news for me; I’d rather spend the day in quiet reading and reflection.

However, this is a good time to show my appreciation for our moms, who pulled through a lot of hard times to see us grow safe. Thanks, and God bless you!

Today I would like to tell some good news. On March 29 and 30 I had to sit on two rather tiring qualifying exams to achieve the certification of Registered Public Translator granted by the Paraguayan Government. My intention was to get certified on the English-Spanish pairs (both English > Spanish and Spanish > English). And before translation theory purist bash me for daring to aim for Spanish > English certification, let me add that our Government does not allow a single lanaguage pair without its reciprocal. The exams were administered by the Higher Institute of Languages from the National University of Asunción.

Yesterday I went to the Higher Institute to check my results, and thanks to the Lord I made it! Hooray! The exam was very difficult, and the two other folks who also sat on the exam failed. On our meeting, the examiners said that it was apparent to them that I was a voracious reader, and that made the difference.

So, Lord willing, I hope to become a Registered Public Translator, with a Government-issued diploma, real soon now. There are many other details and procedures to follow; but the biggest stumbling block has been overcome. Theoretically, it’s all downhill from here. Please pray that I can safely complete all the remanining procedures.

Happy birthday! Today is my wife birthday, so I have to be Mr. Perfect Hubby for her

Upgraded to WordPress 2.1.3 There is yet another row of security issues in WordPress, so the good developers issued us version 2.1.3. Upgrade is recommended. This is hardly good news, but it’s worth mentioning.

The folks at Think Christian graciously linked to posts on my ongoing On Porn series, and they had some very nice words about it. The blog post also features some great discussion. I find this quote from Matthew priceless:

…it seems so very hard to be a man within the church these days without feeling like you need to act like a woman in order to survive.

Go read it for yourselves: Straight talk about pornography and the church. Thanks, Think Christian!

This month has been hectic! I find myself overwhelmed with work, but even then there are some things to share with you.

Letters, yay! I got two letters that made me happy. One was an e-mail from Isaiah, an old Seminary friend from Nigeria. He is truly a good friend, and he is busy doing doctoral work at a seminary on the States. Having news from him was a real blessing. Another letter was from my Seminary itself, telling me that I was awarded ~$20 in financial aid (this gets all the awards in the ‘weirdness’ section! Go figure…). That letter prompted me to write back to them, sending my regards and renewing old acquaintances.

The exam is looming… On March 29-30 I plan to sit for two written exams to qualify for the Certified Public Translator degree that is granted by the Paraguayan Government. Please pray that the examinators would be fair, and that I could give the best of my abilities for those exams.

On Porn, linked. The ongoing On Porn series was linked again. I will talk about it on the next post.

Oh, boy. They messed up big time. The good folks at WordPress discovered that some 2.1.1 releases contained a trojan horse added by a cracker. Consequently, they prepared a new release, 2.1.2, which also has some minor updates.

Thankfully, close inspection of my WordPress sites (my church’s and this one) did not show anything beyond the usual, but I upgraded it at once. If you have WordPress 2.1.1 in production somewhere, upgrading is strongly recommended.

Well, it has been a long time again! This time, the lack of posting was because my wife and I went away on vacation! Our location was the beautiful island of Florianópolis, in the Santa Catarina state of Brazil (info from Wikipedia, Wikitravel, BrazilTour). We had a great time, and the location was gorgeous.

As a way of resuming my blog posting, I plan to add one more article on my “On Porn” ongoing series.

I would like to comment on some news related to the Bible. I intended to comment on some of those for a long time; thankfully, now I can

1. ESV Sales Growing at a Fast Clip Worldwide. It is no secret that I am very fond of the ESV, which I regard as the best contemporary English Bible translation available. This post on the ESV blog says that I am not alone on my appraisal. Right now the ESV is distributed through partnerships with such powerhouses as the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, and the United Bible Societies. Furthermore, it is being increasingly used by Anglican and other churches worldwide; for example, in Singapore, the ESV is the selected translation at national cathedral of the Anglican Church. For once, it is heartwarming to see such «mainline» organizations and denominations turning to a literal, conservative translation.

2. Daily Office Lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer Available Online in the ESV. The folks at the ESV website came up with this wonderful new service. From now on, you will see a link to it under the «Liturgy» section of my sidebar. So, if you are liturgically minded, this is a great way to read the Bible daily.

3. Cheyenne Bible dedicated. Wayne Lehman of Better Bibles Blog fame recollects the wonderful time they had dedicating the Cheyenne Bible after several years of hard work. The Lord blessed the efforts of the translators, and now the Cheyenne people have the Bible in their own language. Kudos to all of them!

4. Words and Relevance: Removing Repentance is Unjustified. In this post, as well as in its sequel, Language: Don’t Lose It – Use It, Catez (of Allthings2all fame) makes a great case for the forensic/theological specialized terminology found in the Bible, and especially in the New Testament. (Incidentally, this is a response to a statement made by Wayne Lehman.) I was wondering about taking the subject for some time, but Catez said everything I wanted to, and much better. Therefore, this is strongly recommended reading.

Hat tip goes to Tim, who tagged me.

A- Available or married? Married.

B- Best Friend? I got great friends, but the one that really shines through is my wife. How she was able to selflessly give so much of herself to me without asking anything in return is simply astounding.

C- Cake or Pie? Usually, pie.

D- Drink of Choice? Tereré (yes, there is even a Wikipedia article for it!).

E- Essential Item? A good book.

F- Favorite Color? Blue and gray (does it show…? )

G- Gummi Bears or Worms? What???

H- Hometown? Asunción, Paraguay, South America,

I- Indulgence? Reading.

J- January or February? Difficult choice. Two unbearably hot months where nothing happens.

K- Kids & names? None yet…

L- Life is incomplete without? Besides God (obviously): A Bible, good books, a computer, my belowed wife.

M- Marriage Date? June 7th, 2003.

N- Number of Siblings? Two sisters, one half sister, and one half brother.

O- Oranges or apples? Oranges. All the time.

P- Phobias/Fears? Syringes’ needles, to be hospitalized… oh well.

Q- Favorite Quote? It depends. I like this one:

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity. (Ecclesiastes 1:2 [show]Ecclesiastes 1:2 [2]Vanity(1) of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. Footnotes 1. [1:2] Hebrew 'vapor' (so throughout Ecclesiastes)
)

R- Reason to Smile? GNU/Linux, no phone calls, no TV, silence, a great book, excellent music…

S- Season? Fall, especially at the NE USA, with all those beautiful trees…

T- Tag three people! Well, anyone liking my blog and reading this should consider himself/herself tagged.

U- Unknown fact about me: I hope to be proficient in building model planes someday…

V- Vegetable you hate? Cabbages, broccoli, and similar ones.

W- Worst habit? Procrastinating.

Y- Your favorite food? Too many of them. Let me mention, however, a good barbecue and Passover spinach pie (Tarta Pascualina).

Z- Zodiac? Sorry, won’t comment on this. Goes against my faith.

The WordPress folks released version 2.1 just some days ago. I just upgraded my WordPress sites to it; and so far, so good. Upgrading is recommended, if only for the more than 550 bugfixes. Yay!