• Books - Uncategorical Weirdness

    Needful Things: Prayers and Supplications

    I keep meaning to purchase the New Zealand Prayer Book because it’s got some amazingly beautiful and poetic liturgy in it. Also, things like the Night Prayer and little gems like this: For People Critically Ill, or Facing Great Uncertainty God of the present moment, God who in Jesus stills the stormand soothes the frantic heart;bring hope and courage to N,as s/he/they wait/s in uncertainty.Bring hope that you will make her/him/them the equalof whatever lies ahead.Bring her/him/them courage to endure what cannot be avoided,for your will is health and wholeness;you are God, and we need you. Good, eh? Speaking of…

  • Hot Off The Presses

    This Is How They Support Our Troops

    Walter Reed patients told to keep quiet – Army Times Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media. “Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training. Soldiers say their sergeant…

  • Home Improvement

    Home Sick

    Rats rats RATS. One of the issues that came up in the staff meeting last week was the problem of people who come to work sick. One of my cow-orkers has been down with strep and a cough the last week or so, and since the policy is you can’t be out more than 3 days in a row without having to get a doctor’s note and or go on salary continuation, people tend to come back too soon. Now it seems the annoying sensation at the back of my throat has become something that feels like the beginnings of…

  • Uncategorical Weirdness

    Lambeth 1998: The Crux of the Matter

    I started browsing old headlines for 1998 at Anglicans Online, because I wondered why the bishop of Chicago didn't sign a letter of apology to gay Episcopalians after the Lambeth 1998 bishops' conference passed the notorious "incompatible with scripture" statement on homosexuality. I found out that we didn't have a bishop at the time – +Frank went on to be Presiding Bishop, and +Bill wasn't elected until November of that year. I barely paid attention to the news items from Lambeth then – I wasn't really part of a parish yet, having just moved to Illinois the year before –…

  • Uncategorical Weirdness

    Review: Kris Longknife, Mutineer

    Kris Longknife: Mutineer, by Mike Shepherd =:) =:) =:) That third smiling alien is flickering a bit, in my estimation. I’m not quite done reading this book, but I’ve read enough to form a reasonably informed opinion. I’ve read all or most of the Honor Harrington books (such as The Short Victorious War (Honor Harrington (Paperback)) ) by David Weber, and although I got bored with them because the formula had worn a little thin for me, I liked the idea of reading SF books about galactic warrior women. This one struck me favorably; as the first in the series,…