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Emery’s “Jesus Gave Us Christmas”
Dec 11th
For those who don’t know, Emery ranks among my favorite bands right now. I love their in-your-face music, but also admire the thoughtfulness that they put into their lyrics, as well as the steps they’ve taken over the years to grow as a band. Over the course of their last 4 releases, the band has explored new styles, tried new things, and I think has created within their fan base an expectation for innovation.
If you’ve listened to Emery–ever–you might expect their Christmas offering for this year’s Happy Christmas compilation (by Tooth and Nail records) to be more of the same intense approach that has been a hallmark of their music (including their last Christmas single, Ho Ho Hey, a Way for Santa’s Sleigh). However, Emery’s contribution is atypical, in more ways than one.
What is most immediately apparent is the aesthetic of the music. A far cry from the scream-core for which they are most well known (and loved), this song is a stripped down acoustic set that would could be easily imagined to come from a group like Copeland. It’s simply, but tastefully arranged and composed, and I think really shows that Emery is capable of much more musically than what some More >
Cutout Nativity
Dec 8th
A while back, my brother created some cool color-and-cut-out nativity figures. In the spirit of the holiday, I had my daughter bust out the crayons and color the full nativity scene for an art project. Here are the results…enjoy! 🙂
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Auto-Tuning Theology: The Trinity
Dec 4th
St. Athanasius – First letter to Serapion
More Athanasius! In this installment, Athanasius–in his distinct way–nicely summarizes some of the more important aspects of Trinitarian theology. Definitely a great passage 🙂
Listen to the TrackIt will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles and guarded by the fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built…
Light, radiance and grace are in the Trinity and from the Trinity
Light, radiance and grace are in the Trinity and from the Trinity
We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created being.
Light, radiance and grace are in the Trinity and from the Trinity
Light, radiance and grace are in the Trinity and from the Trinity
It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power,
For the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity is preserved.
Light, radiance and grace More >
So Apparently I Just Started Using ColdFusion Yesterday…
Dec 3rd
I’ve been using ColdFusion for probably about 5 years now. While I certainly do not consider myself an expert at it by any stretch of the imagination, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of what CF can do and what some of the more standard features of it are.
Well, I did until today. While browsing the docs, I came across the isValid() method. I could have sworn that I’d used this in the past, but as I looked at its capabilities for validation, it was clear that I apparently missed that day in class.
So isValid() is super-sweet because you can use it to…well…validate whether or not some ColdFusion variable is of whatever type that you’re expecting it to be. Like an email address. Or a phone number. Or a flippin’ component. Or an integer…no, not just a numeric value, but a real INTEGER. There’s a bunch more goodness, so be sure to check it out when you have a chance.
As for me, perhaps I need to spend some more time in the docs every day to figure out what other awesomeness I’ve been missing… 🙂
Share this: Beginnings
Nov 24th
Over the weekend, my family and I moved to Maineville, OH. We were able to find a really nice house with a lot more space than our old cramped apartment. While unpacking, I decided to finally tackle a task I had been putting off for years: pulling data off my old PC so that I can stop dragging it around everywhere I go…
While browsing these old files, I found the source code for the very first web site that I ever made.
As a disclaimer, this site is very rough. I had no idea about HTML–so it’s basically an export from Photoshop to the web. But as rough as it is, it was where I got my start, and so this site will always have a special place in my heart. Plus, it was something that I made for good friends, so that’s an added bonus 🙂
Anyway, check it out when you have a chance, and marvel at the awesomeness!
Share this: Really Nice Update to MOG
Nov 16th
I’ve been using the MOG iPhone app for several months now. While I’m more or less happy with the service, the app itself has always left a lot of things to be desired. In it’s most recent update, however, MOG has finally addressed what I considered to be some of the biggest deficiencies…with these updates, it’s finally a real app 🙂 Here are some of the upgrades:
- New “Now Playing” Screen
- Seeking within a song (duh, can’t believe it took this long)
- New queue features:
- Queue Next
- Add to End of Queue
- Clear Queue and Play
- Stop audio by unplugging headphones (to me, this is the biggest upgrade, and is something I’ve been looking forward to for about 4 months)
Anyway, that’s about it. Again, MOG is a great service, and it’s nice to see continued improvements to the app.
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Are You a Sledge of Destruction?
Nov 14th
In a recent post, I shared a snippet from the Irish epic, Tain Bo Cuailnge (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley) in which the bard lauded the virtues of the ancient hero Cúchulain. Lest one thinks that these are an exhaustive list of this hero’s awesomeness, a few pages on in the epic, we find a detailed description of Cúchulain’s valor and feats in war. In this selection, Cúchulain’s foster-father, Fergus, sings the praises of the feared “Hound of Ulster”:
We have not found there a man-at-arms that is harder, nor a point that is keener, more terrible nor quicker, nor a more bloodthirsty wolf, nor a raven more flesh-loving, nor a wilder warrior, nor a match of his age that would reach to a third or a fourth the likes of Cúchulain.
Thou findest not there…a hero of his peer, nor a lion that is fiercer, nor a plank of battle, nor a sledge of destruction, nor a gate of combat, nor a doom of hosts, nor a contest of valor that would be more worth than Cúchulain.
Thou findest not there one that could equal his age and his growth, his dress and his terror, his size and his splendour, his fame and his voice, his shape and More >
In Memoriam
Nov 13th
Today, my family celebrates the life and commemorates the death of my grandfather, O. Dean Watson. Although I was unable to attend the memorial service, I wrote a few thoughts that I shared with my family.
Grandpa, you lived your life full of virtue–anyone who met you, and especially those who knew you well and loved you dearly, could immediately see that. You lived daily with immense compassion, purposeful integrity, and limitless generosity. Your words were always graced with good will, and you found—and brought out—the best in everyone, revealing to family, friends and strangers alike the love of God which filled your heart and soul.
And as if these great virtues were not sufficient, your life was marked indelibly by the deep faith which you held out for all to see. In good times and in bad, in rejoicing and in suffering, you always demonstrated the abiding trust you had in the promises of our Heavenly Father, a trust which you worked tirelessly and to your final days to cultivate in your family, your friends, and every person with whom you had a moment’s opportunity to fellowship. Even in the face of death, your confidence did not waiver, and courageously you More >
Do You Have the Virtue of Laying Waste and Plundering?
Nov 12th
I’ve recently been working my way through the Irish epic, Tain Bo Cuailnge (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley). One of the more interesting characters I’ve come across so far is Cúchulain. Cúchulain was a magnificent warrior, and was famous for his single-handed defense of Ulster against a formidable army. In one passage, he lops the heads off of four charioteers in a single swipe, and proceeds to conspicuously affix their heads to poles in an effort to goad the invading army to pursue him to their doom. Seven-fingered, seven-toed, and seven-pupil-ed, Cúchulain was a paragon of the human species, and is therefore lauded by the epic writer for his various and numerous virtues:
Now, many and divers were the magic virtues that were in Cúchulain that were in no one else in his day. Excellence of form, excellence of shape, excellence of build, excellence in swimming, excellence in horsemanship, excellence in chess and in draughts, excellence in battle, excellence in contest, excellence in single combat, excellence in reckoning, excellence in speech, excellence in counsel, excellence in bearing, excellence in laying waste and in plundering from the neighboring border…
I imagine he was the envy of his high-school class, and probably was featured on the majority of the More >
Quick ColdFusion Goodness: Case-Sensitive Column Name List
Nov 5th
Ok, so I should be working on my novel right now, but I thought I’d share a quick ColdFusion tip (not original with me).
Imagine that you want to use the column names from your query to populate the header row in an Excel file. If you use myquery.columnlist, you’ll get the list of column names, but they’ll be in alphabetical order…and in all caps.
An easy way around this is–surprise, surprise–to tap into some of the Java beneath the query object. The following will get you the column list as an array, in the proper order, and respect the column name casing:
columns = myquery.getMeta().getcolumnlabels()
Ok, back to the book! 🙂
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