partsofspeaking

This is a helpful and interesting discussion of the problems related to religious freedom in Middle Eastern and South Asian countries. https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/july/mecca-declaration-dignity-religious-freedom-ministerial-dc.html It causes me to understand a bit more about why religious freedom is not a given in those countries. Not that I agree or appreciate it, just have a tad more understanding. If one values tradition and a traditional morality (although we could debate those moral standards, specifically treatment of women), complete religious freedom may seem like a license. However, these folks look at the sexual profligacy of the West and tend to equate it with our emphasis on freedom, including freedom of religion (and perhaps they have a point!). They are high context and collectivistic and desire to preserve traditions that have served them, or at least they have held on to, for generations. We value something different; a higher law, perhaps, to the se...

People are actually downloading an app that shows what they'll look like older? Well, I don't have to. I know. Look at your parents. Don't be so narcissistic, too. Your data and image are being appropriated with your permission.  No thanks.

Reflections on the recent tweets of our "fearless leader" (I use that because it used to be a moniker on the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, and I find this particular person in question as the very least cartoonish). Well, reflection requires something of substance to reflect on and contemplate, rather than just react to, and his tweets do not merit more than reaction, and a pretty nauseating one. First, they are stupid and ill-informed, since only Omar is an immigrant (a problematic one, to say the least, but a citizen and member of Congress, duly elected). Second, they are disgusting and xenophobic. Third, they are embarrassing. Fourth, they are ungodly. I don't see how any Christian who is concerned about ministry to immigrants or even missions can countenance them.  As one of those in the last category, I can't help but think about what my ESL students say and feel about Trump (especially since they are Muslims and come from the forbidden countries). They come...

I highly recommend this. The designers have put pieces on similar themes and subjects next to each other for comparison. Glackens was called the "American Renoir" because of similar use of color and brushstrokes and because both were Impressionists. I don't know how Glackens really felt about being called the American version of another painter. He is quoted as saying, "who better to be compared to" but no artist really wants to be seen as a shadow of something or someone supposedly greater. While I wouldn't mind being compared to some writers, I don't want to be named "the female X" or the "Christian Y" or the "American Z" or "white A." I suspect his remark was either ironic or just for public consumption. For me, I fall on the side of Renoir. His technique and control just looks more accomplished to me. Surprisingly, he suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and as he aged his hands were fairly disabled and twist...

Somehow I started getting Quora emails in my Yahoo account. I don't know how it started, but I confess to being hooked on them. Some questions and their subsequent answers are silly (Kardashians), some are disturbing (reports of incest and abuse), and some are fascinating and insightful. This one is about screenwriting, specifically professional versus amateur ones. The discussion goes on for a while and it's quite helpful for a newcomer.   https://www.quora.com/What-makes-a-screenplay-appear-to-be-written-by-an-amateur I wish to rewrite my novels as screenplays, but that does not mean putting them into a script form. All of them would need significant reworking. A novel is not a play is not a screenplay.  Screenplays tell stories in pictures and actions with reduced dialogue and no inner thoughts. That in itself is a huge hurdle, much less getting it to the professional level of storytelling.

It's a good thing that Bible passages are not watered down and clear cut. We must use our analytical skills to understand the Bible. Of course, this fact of the Bible's largely narrative, rhetorically driven, rather than expositional, form means we have more to debate and get confused over. This is my 2100th blog post on this blog. I have kept this blog since 2006, so that's an average of 161.5 posts per year, one usually every 2.25 days. So I can't be accused of starting a blog and letting it dwindle. The most popular: my post coming out as a Kallman Syndrome patient. Second, an essay I wrote on the movie Twelve Angry Men, which I took down because I knew it was being plagiarized (it was on one of those sites). Others have been popular, but generally they get 20-30 hits, probably from nefarious types in other countries and from porn sites. I may be blogged out; I may be going into a depression because of a career situation; I may just be more focused on long-form...

This one is about processes. There are many moving pieces with this process. 1. Paperwork: the will; identification papers; deeds; car ownership; insurance papers; military discharge papers; birth, marriage, and death certificates, and more. Only an organized person should do this job (or someone with a private secretary who is organized). 2.  A set of file folders, an accounting system (preferably spreadsheet program), and a calendar for appointments are needed. 3. Get extra copies of the death certificates, even if it costs. Five or ten might be needed, depending on how complicated the estate is. 4. Be prepared to find out things about people you wish you wouldn't have to know. In one case, the deceased's will indicated something that was probably not what she wanted to happen, but the lawyer had misunderstood and written it up a certain way, or the deceased had misunderstood. It can't be changed. 5. Along with going to court, you may need to open up a bank account...

This one has to do with debts of the deceased. Debts come out of the estate. If the family is willed $10,000 and there is $5,000 in credit card debt, the family is getting $5,000. That's an oversimplification, but the principle is the same. Debts do not disappear if someone dies. Credit card companies still expect their money. Yes, some will write it off. Some will not. In my mother's case, one did, two did not, so out of the meager remainder from her life insurance and sale of her house, I had to pay those creditors. The creditors cannot come after the heirs, however, unless they are cosigners on the cards or loans. (Yes, I know, you can say that the life insurance was for the beneficiaries, not the creditors, but there wasn't enough out of the house sale to pay the creditors, and I didn't want to go to court over it.) Related to debt is mortgage. My mother had a reverse mortgage. While that is a subject unto itself, most people don't really know what those a...

The other day I was listening to a call-in radio show about money management on a Christian station. It is a program that has been on for years but under different "management" and names, so to speak. A caller asked about being the executor for his mother's estate; his mother was still alive but he wanted to know what to prepare for. This is the kind of topic best done in blog posts, rather than a book. Why? Because there are 50 states in this country, and each one is slightly different in regard to such matters. I should know. I have executed estates in two different states and live in a third, where I have a will. As the host of the show was given his answers, I said several times, "No." "No." "No." It wasn't so much that his answers were wrong, but they were quite generic and incomplete. So I'm here to give some advice from experience. It will take several blog posts, and I'll be crossing the benchmark of 2200 blog posts in...

I am coming up on my 2100th blog post. I want these last few before that benchmark to be to God's glory. Our pastor preached on pride last Sunday morning. It was thought-provoking and reflection-inducing. Without occasional sermons on pride, we lose track of how motivated by pride--or egoism, self-glorification, "merit-mongering," defensiveness--we are. Most of my conflicts stem from pride. However, the opposite of pride is not false humility, a "I must be wrong" or "I'm worthless" mentality. That is the tough part. One can be assured and not prideful. One can have strong convictions and not be an egotist (or egoist, as the Victorian writers would say). It's a fine line we walk circumspectly and slowly. One of the worst sins of this present age is the constant phrase, "I'm so busy," or "I'm too busy." It's so pointless. What's worse is hearing it from people in the next breath who say, "I just bing...