Wayne D's Blog

When I was in Miami last week I finally got a chance to try out Hulu. I had heard so much about it that I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately it wouldn't stream, it would start, then stop, then start again. I would have thought that it was because my EEEPC didn't have enough power but I heard the same report from one of my friends who had also tried it while visiting the United States. She said that ABC.com streamed fine for her. My friend also reported that pausing the Hulu stream, a common technique to allow more video to be buffered didn't work. Is this because of some DRM paranoia?

Today while browsing through Valleywag I cam across an embedded video for Amanda Congden's new project sometimesdaily.com It didn't stream very well either, this time on my Windows XP desktop system so you can't blame Linux this time. It appears that in order to satisfy our requirement for instant gratification video services aren't buffering as much video as they used to before they try to play it. Sessions.aol.ca worked fine when I checked it today so I don't think it's my internet connection. I have embedded the Amanda Congden clip below so you can try it out yourself. It's nice to see that Amanda is back, I had subscribed to her occasional podcast on iTunes but there hasn't been a new one for quite some time.

Introducing Sometimesdaily from Sometimesdaily on Vimeo.

(update May 25, 2008, misspelled Amanda's last name, sorry, fixed now)

It seems that the default behavior on Linux when it detects an error during the fsck check during boot is to pop out to a shell and tell the user to fix it. This is a really bad idea, if you want to take over the world, fix problems that you can automatically. How many people running Linux these days are competent enough to manually fix a file system? In the past couple of months I have ran across two people who have ended up with auto fsck check failures during the boot process as a result of power failures. Both cases were fixed without incident by running fsck -y after the system had popped out to a naked shell prompt.

The use of windows has dumbed most computer users down to the point where they don't know what to do at a shell prompt, in fact it tends to make them break into a cold sweat. Even Ubuntu 7.10 which is supposed to be Linux for Windows users doesn't try to fix things automatically during boot. Maybe the new version does but I doubt it.

Done ranting.

May you live in interesting times, can be either a curse or a statement of hope. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) has been following a halting path over the ordination of openly gay and lesbian candidates for clergy for a number of years, wrapped up in this has also been a discussion on the blessing of same sex unions. At the Eastern Synod convention in 2006 the assembly voted to allow a “local option” on the blessing of same sex unions. The National Convention of the ELCIC in 2007 overruled the Eastern Synod to maintain the status quo. No one expects the issue of the treatment of gay and lesbian members of the church to go away. Now one congregation in the Eastern Synod has decided to take a bold step and call an openly gay candidate to minister to their congregation. Where will this action lead? With an Eastern Synod convention coming in July 2008 and a ELCIC National convention in 2009 there are surely interesting times ahead.

I asked a learned friend of mine to comment on where he thought these actions might lead, his thoughts follow. I encourage everyone to leave comments, but I will delete comments that are disrespectful or inflammatory.

Throughout the history of the Lutheran presence in North America we have gravitated to, and represented our interests in, different synods. Early immigration followed distinct European interests and language was one of the primary dividing factors between Lutherans. Over the years we have seen that language is not the only divisive force. Opposing, strongly held points of view have divided Christian denominations in North America over issues of slavery, segregation and civil rights, and the ordination of women, to name a few. Today, Lutherans, and others are working through the issue of same sex blessings and the inclusion and ordination of people of non-heterosexual orientation.

It is not a bad thing to have strongly held views. Many would say that a lot of children today would benefit from parents who had more strongly held views. But judgmentalism and exclusion are not the Christian destination of strongly held views. Jesus had strongly held views that led him to inclusion and restoration, not condemnation; but he was much better at discerning the will of God than any of us ever will be.

So how do we as people of God reconcile our opposing, strongly held views. Neither side of the argument wants to be wrong, neither side wants to compromise. These positions are understandable and sadly human. Lionel Ketola just may show us a new solution. Educated at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Saskatoon during the 1980s, Lionel's ordination path was halted for fourteen years when he came out to his bishop. According to Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (www.elm.org) Lionel recently completed an internship and has now been called as associate pastor to Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Newmarket, Ontario (ELCIC).

The people of Holy Cross are putting feet to their strongly held views and by 'pushing the envelope' seem certain to bring this issue to a head. There is little doubt in the writer's mind that motions both for and against will be prevalent at the next convention of the Eastern Synod as well as the next National convention of the ELCIC. What will be the result?

Should two or three more churches follow Holy Cross it seems to me they would be in a position to declare themselves a distinct Lutheran body and then perhaps enter into synodical relations (friendly or not) with other Lutheran bodies. Perhaps they would be the Open Lutheran Church in Canada (OLCIC). Looking at an even bigger picture, our Anglican friends are in the middle of their own turmoil over the same issue. Perhaps we will see a redrawing of synodical lines on a multi-denominational basis – that certainly casts a new light on ecumenism!

Why don't I sound worried? In spite of the worst efforts of us petty and often idiotic humans to control and browbeat each other, the Holy Spirit keeps the church alive. Where we can only see impasse God sees opportunity. What we hear as the last, dying toll of the bell God hears as the fresh ting of new beginnings. When we declare something dead and gone forever, God says, “OK, now let's start something fantastic”. God's church will never die. So be it. Amen

I made a quick trip to Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami for a day and a half this week to attend a conference. It was hot and humid, visting Florida isn't as fun when it isn't snowing and blowing outside. The weather here is actually quite pleasant though I understand there wet snow flurries are in the forecast for Monday or Tuesday. When I got back it was off to the woods for a camping trip with the Explorer troop. I think I am getting crotchety in my old age because the two inch thick Thermarest wannabee I use as an air mattress doesn't seem to be that comfortable anymore. I wake up stiff and sore in the morning, as well as waking up every time I have to roll over. Thankfully the weather has turned warm so at least I wasn't cold like the last time. Even after taking a shower I can still smell the wood smoke.

I was surprised to have to pay for wifi access at Doral, you think that they could throw in free internet but it was 12.95 a day for a wired internet. The hotel I stayed at in Orlando in January had free wifi while the motel in Boston threw in free wired high speed access. Why is it the more you pay the less you seem to get?

Short post for now, I'm off to visit my brother.

This blog posting will not have a happy ending, if this disturbs you stop reading now.

No one would ever accuse me of being fashionable. I have simple tastes in clothes and generally wear cotton khaki pants to work. I have worn out out a couple of pairs and gritted my teeth in preparation of entering the retail maelstrom. In the past I have purchased said pants at Walmart because they are cheap. I hate the Walmart experience,especially the long lines to check out. The problem with pants shopping is that I am tall and I generally find it hard to get pants in my size. I can tolerate searching through stacks of pants that are sorted in no discernable order because the prices are so low at Walmat. The other night on the way home from work I stopped at the nearby Walmart and managed to find one pair of pants in my size. I took them to the change room only to find that the zipper was hopelessly jammed. To add insult to injury when I checked out the other items I had purchased I first went to a self serve checkoot where the previous shopper had left her purchases without finishing the transaction while she checked a price. I of course didn't realize this until I had already added my purchase to her bill.

Today I went to another Walmart and managed to find one pair of pants in my size. The Sunday afternoon business of the store also meant there were long lineups at the cash registers but a couple of the garden centre employees had jumped in to help speed up the checkout process at the express checkout area. One pair of pants were not enough so it was off to Zellers where I found that their khaki pants were a mostly polyester/cottom blend. Sigh. Nothing at Roots, when I went to the Gap they had stacks of $60 khaki's for sale. I was willing to pay the $60 dollars but I was not willing to wade through the stacks to find my elusive and probably nonexistent size. I checked the Bay and it was the same except that the pants were even more expensive. Stacks of pants for me to wade through with hard to find size tags. Hint to retailers, want me to buy your pants? Make it easier for me to find my size.

After my only partially fruitful shopping trip I stopped by my local for a calming libation. Of the three TV's over thee bar one was stuck in an endless Windows crash loop. It would start, then crash, sit at a screen asking if it should submit the error report for two or three minutes, then restart and crash again. While the crash screen was up we were treated to a view of the XML configuration file for the program which was called Buster. Perhaps they should have called it busted, I got a sor neck from having to watch the hockey game on another screen.

Posting this now, it's too bright to proofread effectively but I will fix up the major groaners later. Eeek, blogging outside produced a massive number of spelling errors, if you read this before I fixed it up I apologize.