Month: February 2004

Luke 1

(NIV) (KJV) (NASB)

I have just read Luke chapter 1 in three translations (linked above, though I read mine from paper editions), and I encourage you to read at least one version of it rather than just my quick summary, which follows:

So Luke starts by saying that many people have written accounts of Jesus’ life, and since Luke has investigated “everything from the beginning”, he thought he should put together his account of it for … uhhh… some guy named “Theophilus” whom historians don’t really seem to be able to agree was really a specific person and not “one who loves God” as is the meaning of that name.

Then he says there’s this older couple, living in the hill country of Judea, named Zecharaiah and Elizabeth. They are upright people, but they don’t have any children, so they’re looked down upon by their community. One day, when Zechariah’s name got pulled out of a hat (or however they chose lots back then), and he was changing the incense at the altar by the “Most Holy Place” in the temple, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that he would have a son. Zechariah didn’t believe him, so Gabriel made him mute (unable to speak) until after the baby was born and named. Gabriel told Zechariah that his son would never drink alcohol and would be filled with the Holy Spirit before he was even born, and that he would bring many people back to the Lord. Since he was mute, Zechariah couldn’t tell anyone what he’d seen, but he tried to communicate with hand gestures. Elizabeth became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months, and was totally happy that she would no longer be disgraced as childless.

Then in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Gabriel went to Mary to tell her she would give birth to a son. And not just any son; her son would be named Jesus, would take the throne of David, rule over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom would never end. She was a virgin and was pledged to be married to Joseph, and she didn’t understand how that was possible at first. Then Gabriel told her she would be “come upon” by the Holy Spirit and overshadowed by the Most High. He also told her of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, as if to impress her. Mary was not phased at all, and had no more questions.

Mary went straight over to Elizabeth’s place, where she stayed until Elizabeth gave birth three months later. As soon as Elizabeth saw Mary, the baby in her womb jumped and filled her with the Holy Spirit, and Elizabeth knew that Mary was pregnant with the Lord and that Mary had believed Gabriel immediately and without question. Mary sang a song praising the lord.

When Elizabeth gave birth, everyone wanted to name the boy after his father, but Elizabeth said he would be named “John”. Apparently this was a ridiculous thing to say, but when they asked Zechariah, who still couldn’t speak, he wrote on a tablet that the boy should be named “John”. This was apparently even more ridiculous, because the entire region of Judea gossipped about it. Luckily, Zechariah was once more again able to speak, and he sang a song praising God and prophesizing about his new son.

Then, apparently Elizabeth and Zechariah died and John lived in the desert until he was about 30.

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Yep. Luke chapter 1. How about that?

Quote for 1032.0 A.C.

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; Some blunders and absurdities crept in; Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

A little progress

Last night I pushed myself to finish going through reading Lost and Not Found for the Nth time, making little notes about changes that needed to be made. To give myself a clear mind, I hadn’t looked at it in a couple of months, and that seems to have worked. I fixed the couple of minor continuity problems that I noticed (not more than removing a couple of paragraphs or changing a few words here and there), and made a lot of little changes that will make reading it a lot more smooth and natural.

Now all I have to do is go through the entire thing and put it into the computer. I was working with a paper version, see. So once I have all the changes input into the computer, I can upload it to CafePress and you can order the “final” edition of the book. As soon as I re-modify the cover design to reflect that it is a final version.

And then I just have to put together a “Store” page where you can order the PDF version via BitPass or link to the CafePress store to get the paperback version, so it’s there and easy to access for everyone forever. And easy to link to. Yep.

Anyone have suggestions as to the way I should format the PDF version? Do you want to be able to print it out on standard 8’x11′ paper and read it? DO you only plan on reading it on your computer? Should I offer two versions? What do you think?

Anyway, I’m off to not work on anything at all soon. TTYL.

Does this count?

So, I was going through … a box of older papers and things … sorting some of it, some reading … I don’t know. All my tax papers for … ever … were in there, and are now … still just as messy. Most of the documents regarding my first pass at college were in there, but are now re-filed with the documents from my more recent pass. But there was some other stuff. All the remnants of my trip to Woodstock ’99 in one folder (now mostly in the circular file), and a surprising amount of other interesting stuff… notes from a high school girlfriend, a journal a fiancee wrote for me when we were separated for a couple of months (though I’d love to get a copy of the one I wrote to her, it was destroyed just before I asked for it last year), and from a similar period, a lot of pages and notes and things I wrote in and around the time of high school.

Including not less than 29 poems, 7 short stories, and 1 children’s book.

There are only one or two people I know of who visit Modern Evil who may have been exposed to my high school poetry, so I’m thinking I’ll share it with the rest of you. Mostly via BitPass. Say, 10cents per short story (50cents for all 7), 2cents per poem (50cents for all 29), and for $1 you get everything; all the stories, poems, and a scan (or perhaps an updated Flash version) of the children’s book. How many of you would buy that, eh?

Better yet, if I re-type all that stuff from the hand-written and other paper originals, does that count towards my “focus on: writing”?

’cause that would rock.