Eclectic Amateur

Yes, there’s a new look at this place.  I’ve changed hosting providers, and migrated the blog from Blogger to WordPress.  We’ll see how that works out.

After (mumble) years absence (something about Real Life™ interfering), I’m returning to the GNOME project, and attempting to contribute some programming.

I’ll add more details later; this is a placeholder post to establish a category feed for my GNOME work.

Just to prove I’m only “mostly dead”, I finally made it out to the Ann Arbor Sword Club tonight.

Wow. What great, good fun!

I tried out English Sword (1575 Rapier). Those things are heavier than I expected — I’m not sure I’m any quicker with this allegedly small sword than with a longsword. I think the weights are almost equal.

Then, on to the Poll Axe!

The poll axe may now be my favorite toy.

Thanks to David Hoonstra for letting me drop in, and to Matt and Joe for a great time of swordplay.

“Dear friends, let us learn from the Lord Jesus not to judge and not to condemn our neighbor. Let us learn to be intransigent with sin — beginning with our own! — and indulgent with people.”
— Pope Benedict XVI

I learned today that, in the unlikely event of the nock failing just right at the point of release, it’s possible for an arrow to travel sideways, bash you in the nose, and then fly off backwards behind you.

Ow.

Fortunately, no real damage done. But it was exciting, and something you don’t see every day.

Thanks be to God, for His blessings and mercy are greater than we can imagine. Happy Thanksgiving!

“Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern.”
– G. K. Chesterton

Former clinic director: Church chilly to my pro-life turn

Whereas clergy and parishioners welcomed her as a Planned Parenthood employee, now they are buttonholing her after Sunday services.

“Now that I have taken this stand, some of the people there are not accepting of that,” she told The Washington Times. “People have told me they disagree with my choice. One of the things I’ve been told is that as Episcopalians, we embrace our differences and disagreements. While I agree with that, I am not sure I can go to a place where I don’t feel I am welcome.”

…

The couple made St. Francis their home. They were confirmed Episcopalians, and their daughter, now 3, was baptized there. A photo on the front page of the church’s Web site, stfrancisonline.org, shows her seated at the right end of the front row, holding a girl dressed in pink. Her husband, dressed in an orange shirt, is to her right.

“Chief among our values,” says a statement below the photo, “are service, tolerance and understanding of the people and events that God has put into our lives.”

Now the Johnsons are “reconsidering” their membership. Another Planned Parenthood staffer who was a member of St. Francis has not attended since Mrs. Johnson made her new views public a month ago.

I wish I could say I’m surprised. But “we embrace our differences and disagreements” actually means “you will be assimilated.” Since Mr. Johnson has rejected the Borg programming, she now needs to be expelled from the collective.

Because, after all, one can’t tolerate the “intolerant.”

I’ve updated the blog template to show my Amazon.com wishlist.

Because I know you were all wondering what to get me for my birthday / for Christmas / for the anniversary of the breaking of the Siege of Vienna / out of sheer gratitude for my witty blogging…