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Triangle, I am in you. This afternoon after lunch with a friend, my wife & I had some time to kill, so we went to the Triangle Town mall.
My friends, malls are so dead. This one was trying really hard to stay alive, but it was sad. The two escalators were shut off, and one was closed for maintenance, so everybody was walking up and down the other escalator. (Keep to your right!)
It felt like an abandoned ghetto, even though the stores all had their lights on.
A large M7.0 Earthquake has struck the plate boundary in Alaska, followed 8-9 minutes later by a "mistake" M6.4 earthquake being reported in Europe, which wa...
whitehouse.gov/briefings-state… Presidential Message on 8 years since MAGA Don's proclamation to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israell and move the embassy there. Plus a message of peace.
Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau escalated the administration’s pushback against European regulators after Secretary of State Marco Rubio blasted a major European Commission penalty on X.
This is in reply to @fuat2mb asking me: How did my dad's conversion from Lutheran to Assemblies of God to Baptist in his formative years affect my own journey from dispensationalist evangelical to Orthodox, and from there to being clergy?
Well, I'm not so sure that there was any link there. My dad never told me he was born and baptized Swedish Lutheran; he was 6 or 7 when his mom died, and his dad soon remarried, and as a result the entire family transitioned to AoG, since that was what stepmom was. After one year of AoG bible institute, dad decided he was done with the charismatic aspect of Christianity, and went Evangelical/Baptist. (I don't think he was expressly committed to the Baptist cause; he had an affinity with the Evangelical Free church as well.) Dad kept his Lutheran beginnings from us, I think, because he considered it an insignificant part of his life, and also because he believed in “Believer’s Baptism;” he considered his infancy baptism to not be worth anything.
By the time I came along, my parents were making plans to serve on the mission field in Latin America. Since both had been teachers, they decided to become teachers at missionary kid (MK) schools. When I was 1 they moved to the southern edge of Texas and spent a year in language school at Rio Grande Bible Institute. Their plan was to teach at an MK school in Venezuela, but at that time the US and Venezuela were at each others' throats over petroleum, so they couldn't get a visa. They didn't want their Spanish training to go to waste, so they “temporarily” got loaned to another mission agency, which sent them to Guatemala. This is where I grew up. I turned 2 on the road trip between Texas and Guatemala, and we finally left Guatemala for the last time when I graduated from high school. I spent 10th through 12th grades at an Evangelical prep school in the USA, but I went home for Xmas and summer.
Our churches both in Guatemala and the USA sang traditional hymns out of a hymnal. My mom sometimes played the pump-organ for our little Guatemalan church. When she wasn't playing, I learned to sight-sing the alto part by reading out of the hymnal next to her.
After high school, we moved back to California, were our family had lived before the missionary thing, and where we still owned a house. I went to an Evangelical university in LA county. At that time I began experimenting with different forms of Christianity. I spent one summer trying with all my strength to be an atheist. I was unable to do so, and it made me angry that I didn't appear to have a choice in that matter.
Because I had a cousin who was a youth pastor in a Vineyard church, I was attracted in that direction at first. If you are unaware, the Vineyard is one of those charismatic churches that don't demand that you speak in tongues, but it is encouraged. The music was praise-band stuff. I figured that, since all my life I had felt unable to love the abstract figure of God, this touchy-feely worship would help with that. In the end, it didn't, and I wondered what direction to go.
At my university, chapel attendance was “mandatory” twice a week. They said we couldn't graduate without good attendance. My friends and I spent our time there making up alternate lyrics to the dumb touchy-feely praise songs.
I should interject here that the summer between 7th and 8th grade for me, our whole family lived in a borrowed house in Arlington, Texas. This is right between Dallas and Ft. Worth. My brothers, who are considerably older than I, had recently converted to Orthodoxy. They took me to vespers at the cathedral in Dallas a couple times. I was struck by the beauty and solemnity of the services, but I didn't feel like the folks there had the same enthusiasm for the enthusiastic “love of Jesus” that I was looking for in a church.
Fast forward back to my college years. After a while I decided that mocking the dumb aspects of hip Southern California Christianity was not doing my soul any good. I remembered that I had experienced Christian worship that wasn't embarrassing, so I looked up and Orthodox church in the phone book. I was received into the church by chrismation (anointing) in April 1992. You might say that I was initially attracted to the church for aesthetic reasons.
At first I was content to simply absorb the atmosphere of the church services, but after about 3 years I began to study liturgics in earnest. Liturgical correctness became my sinful passion. I learned Byzantine musical theory, including how to read the psaltic neumes, and when a group of us were authorized to start a mission in south Orange County, I became the head chanter, choir director, and rubrical expert.
My wife and I decided to move out of SoCal in 2007. We settled in North Carolina, and because both of us were suffering from significant depression, and because I wasn't a central figure at any parish in NC, our attendance became less consistent.
When we had been newly married in SoCal, my bishop approached me and asked me to begin seminary studies by correspondence. My wife was not happy with this, because she already felt that she was competing with the church for my time. My very wise priest told me to stop my studies, and that he would answer to the bishop for me. I have been very thankful that he thus preserved my marriage.
When my son was 6 or 7, he wanted to serve as an altar boy. But because almost no acolytes were present at Saturday evening vespers, our priest was hesitant to let him, since it would result in him having to babysit a kid as well as conduct the services. I asked him if I could serve vespers alongside my son, and he agreed. After a few weeks, I asked if I could also serve Sunday morning services, and he gladly let me. Because I was not a central figure of the church's musical life, I no longer felt like serving in the altar was taking me out of a vital place where my talents were needed.
A few weeks later, my priest asked me if I had ever considered the diaconate. I responded that I had neither considered for nor against it. I went home and, laughing, told my wife. Her response floored me: “Well, why haven’t you considered it?” So I felt that I had her permission to pursue a clerical path. Thereafter I began a four-semester theological course of study designed for late-vocation “terminal deacons” (that is, not considering the diaconate as a stepping-stone to the priesthood). I was highly motivated and finished the coursework in about 9 or 10 months. I was ordained in late June 2019.
I was wanting to do this one for too long, but I knew I'd take me forever to make and I hadn't even possessed the tools necessary to make this until now. Thi...
you can trace multiple murders to a harry potter fanfic, don't sell yourself short posters are the unacknowledged legislators of the world RE: bsky.app/profile/did:plc:hbpef…
🚨🇮🇹BREAKING: Meloni EXPOSES the Corruption in Ursula's European Union."Elon Musk is NOT a danger to Democracy, it is George Soros."Belgium, Brussels is the second most corrupt city after Zelensky's Kiev in Europe. pic.twitter.
Attention ZX Spectrum, ZX81 and Spectrum Next programming fans. I've released a new version of my speccydev dev container with the latest version of Boriel BASIC, and up to date versions of sjasmplus, z88dk, skoolkit, dezog, pasmo, zx0, inpaws and much more! Get it at github.com/mcphail/spec...
Yasser Abu Shabab had become an infamous figure in Gaza over the past two years for his role in collaborating with the Israeli army, looting aid convoys destined for starving Palestinians, and sowing social strife amid the genocide. mondoweiss.net/2025/12/gaza-ga…
The CEO of The Onion set the publication's goal for 2026 to have more subscribers than The Washington Post. At the rate the latter is going, that won't take long.
"For reasons we don't like or understand, our work has become increasingly important."
"Look, we're an independent company, we don't use AI to write headlines and make art, and we're one of roughly three publications who are up for the fight. Unlike other places, The Onion is quadrupling down on being a pain in the ass, politically. Are you?
I'm sure George will get a cut of some of this. If only he used his small cut out of it to do something crazy, like make one more awesome movie before he croaks.
China is betting its future on a massive, pragmatic AI revolution on the factory floor. It's leveraging scale, massive industrial base, and state support to automate its way out of demographic and economic threats, aiming to lock in its manufacturing dominance through technological supremacy.
A friend is pissy about Calibre adding A.I. into this ebook manager so they are creating a new fork called Clbre, because the A.I. is being stripped out.
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attached Pearl Harbor, Hawaii leading the United States into World War II. Learn about the attack on Pearl Harbor in this m...
disclose.tv/id/zowqeus8jr/ Lo studio più influente e citato da tutti che aveva concluso che l'erbicida chimico glifosato era sicuro, viene ritirato, 25 anni dopo la pubblicazione da tutte le maggiori riviste scientifiche, perché è ampiamente
I see all these stories about the black "white" guy that is now charged with the Pipe Bomb placements on Jan 6th. I thought it was that female Capitol Police officer that they were showing pictures of earlier who was identified as the person. Several of you posted those stories...
@waff It's hard not to talk about politics when you got people on top who think that shoving us into pods, forcing us to eat bugs, and giving up our property rights is a good idea.
When Gallup surveyed who feels safe walking alone at night, China's 94% "yes" was notable. But the real story is buried in the demographics with men and women in China reported nearly identical levels of safety, separated by only two percentage points.
SUPPORT THE SHOW BUY CAST BREW COFFEE NOW - https://castbrew.com/ Join - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLwNTXWEjVd2qIHLcXxQWxA/join Hosts: Tim @Timcast (everywhere) Brett @PopCultureCrisis (everywhere) Tate @RealTate
I might make a Gen AI Is Going Well style website, assuming @molly0xfff doesn’t kill me for the branding, as it seems like there should be a central place to watch business executives crash their car into a wall over Gen AI as something tells me it’s going to become a daily thing.
🚨 BREAKING: A MASSIVE fake news operation has been busted after Democrats claim federal agents ran over illegal alien Jose’s FOOT, causing him to “scream in pain”THEY LIED. pic.twitter.com/q8JOXBfgZ6DHS: “Never happened.
Never happened. ICE did NOT run over this illegal alien's leg. Pure theatre. No Injury.After ICE officers applied wrist restraints, Paniagua launched into an Oscar-level performance, dramatically screaming while officers simply moved his vehicle off …
@greenzeta So good. We've been watching the many variationa of A Christmas Carol which has been fun. Disney ones, old B&W ones. Scrooged with BFM is next up, can't wait.
Kshama is running for the U.S. Congress as an independent revolutionary socialist against genocidal billionaire-backed Democrat Adam Smith. Join Kshama and o...
Fans Worry Sale Of WB To Netflix Could Turn Comic Book Movies Into Soulless Cash Grabs t.co/NiDD9lxdXM pic.twitter.com/9RiRh2dvgG— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) December 6, 2025
A new Postal game was announced yesterday, making extensive use of Generative AI. The announcement was a disaster, players widely rejected it, and now the publisher has cancelled the game - it’s gone from Steam and they’ve put out a statement apologising.
royal
in reply to Daniel Johnson • • •