The neatest thing I've done so far teaching ESL happened tonight. Jesus and Belen brought their daughters with them to ESL and the lady who normally teaches the children was sent home early. I had the pleasure of teaching their daughters English. What is neat about teaching kids English is that progress happens much more rapidly. It's not like adults which take weeks or months to see progress. I saw progress in less than one hour. They were like spounges soaking up the information. They were polite almost to a fault. I do hope at some point in the future I get to teach these kids again.

I don't know how many of you have looked through the 117 LCMS-related blogs on Xanga. I've looked through quite a few of them. I do have to say this. I hope most of these people mature some soon. I started my trip from the happy-clappy Lutheran to orthodoxy at 18 and I didn't really start to get it until I was 22 and started reading the Book of Concord. The confessions are a dangerous thing in the hands of someone with lots of questions about what exactly we believe. Hopefully, most of these bloggers will grow up.

A couple of quick points before I fall asleep and drool all over the computer.

First, my posts on beer shall wait until after Beerfest. I need to see what's new in the world of beer before writing about the topic.

Secondly, Xanga hosts a whopping 112 blogs by LCMS Lutherans.

Finally, no habla.

Retired Colonel: Bush Volunteered for Vietnam

Mt St. Helens is restless once again.

I haven't blogged on geology for a while, but I can tell you this: when the epicenter is less than a mile below the surface, all geologists take notice.

The Phenomenon of Matt is another new member of the WELS family.

I posted a sermon on the long blog.

Welcome Brian Braatz to my blogroll. He earned a spot due to the recommendation of Theresa. He definitely has potential. I might have to try to convince Josh to let him join Here We Stand.

I have mentioned many times that I do have one pet peeve: commenting on anything except what a given post is about. If you want to say "nice blog" or "I don't like your blog," that's what I have e-mail for. Don't jam up my comments with complaints.

What is it with Lutherans and beer?

We're German.

Here I'm trying to run a nice clean "dry" blogroll, and every time to click to you, I get alcohol references.

Then don't have me on your blogroll. I am not dry. I like beer. I drink beer in moderation. I occasionally write about beer.

If I could find another interesting Lutheran, you'd be history!

Read my blogroll. There are plenty of interesting Lutherans there to choose from.

I've never tasted beer, it stinks too bad, but I've known beer alcoholics.

Really? I'm directly related to three alcoholics and I know of two more within my family. I've seen AA meetings. I also know that alcohol consumption does not automatically equal alcoholic.

Surely Lutherans can find better things to talk about.

When have I talked about alcohol recently? Oh, that's right. I haven't. It's mentioned in my blogroll, it's shown with the beergals (of course, the whole Oktoberfest theme goes right over your head), and I mention it occasionally. The last time I mentioned alcohol was to advise Chris H. on a choice of alcohol for his 21st Birthday. The time before that was in a piece of satire aimed at my own synod. I even satirized my own former obsession with talking about alcohol.

You would have been better off not complaining because I will ignore the presidential campaign and go into all alcohol all the time mode because of this. Teetotalers have bound too many people's consciences by making the freedom of the Christian into law. Where does God say, "you shall not drink?" Why did Jesus turn water into wine if alcohol was bad?

If I didn't give you enough reason to remove me from your blogroll, here's the last one. Norma, do you and me a favor and remove me from your blogroll please.

Michael Moore: Truthteller.

Of course I'me being sarcastic. The day Michael Moore bothers to tell the truth he'll probably keel over in cardiac arrest and die.

Kieschnick Urged Werning to Charge Cascione On Definition of God

Werning VS Cascione Issue

Exit Letter From LCMS Congregation To Kieschnick and COP

Discussion of Ballot - Amendment A

Someone who is more familiar than I am with the heresy of modalism might want to check the first two links and see if they think that Werning is a modalist.

How to make friends and influence people.

1) Badmouth Australia.
2) Badmouth the rest of the partners in the war.
3) Contradict the leader of the country you're trying to rebuild.

Yep. That's leadership you can count on to build a coalition to fight a war. Vote for John "Dunderwhelp" Kerry.

When teaching ESL, you never know what will work and what will not work. Tonight, I told my students I was crazy and we all read Dr. Seuss. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish is a hit. What can I say but it is all dumb luck. I figured whatever we could use to work on vocabulary would be OK, and we spent time reading this book and explaining the various words within. With beginners, reading these books seems to help. The pictures help overcome language barriers and the rhyming helps in memorization. I'll pull out another book soon for us to read. Green Eggs and Ham cannot be far behind.

You can now see that the blog of the week has changed. I changed it to Chris H. in celebration of him turning 21. Happy Birthday! Just don't overdo it and drink a lot of water before going to bed to avoid the nasty hangover.

Once upon a time, a blogger said he would be more mature. This blogger then realized that he had bouts of maturity followed by thoughts which can only be described as absolutely stupidity. I vacillate between what would be called normalcy and insanity.

Michigan Congregation Declares Independence From LCMS

Congregation Leaves LCMS Over CCM Violation of Constitution

Numerous Contradictions at 2004 LCMS Convention

Minority Objections to Resolution 1-04 of 2004 Convention

Letter About Constitutional Amendment A

In high school, I had a history teacher that would tell us to, "Ponder the secrets of the universe." I went walking today and did just that. I came up with one conclusion.

"Whoever smelt it dealt it."

In a rare bout of insanity (maybe I mean sanity), I ask the readers of my blog for a little advice. First, I wonder if anybody knows of a good, one volume history of England. Secondly, I would like to find the same thing except for Germany rather than England. I am quite deficient in the histories of these two countries and I would like to at least begin plugging those deficiencies.

One concept I have had trouble trying to understand is the idea of the case and what function casing in language provides. I have been reading about the history of the English language. Old English has four cases and, I guess because of the cases, sentence structure wasn't all that important whereas, because Modern English (and Middle English) lost its casing (for the most part), sentence structure is extremely important. I'm going to see if I can get this casing thing straight in my mind.

Gender-neutral language is a crock for many reasons. The first is simple: English, at its core, is a Germanic language and has three genders: male, female, and neuter. Many of the male and female words have vanished as English has evolved. English, in many ways, is already gender-neutral. Secondly, the only words used on a regular basis that are not gender-neutral are singular pronouns and the occasional cuss words. To make my final argument of why gender-neutral language is worthless, I present to you Psalm 1 in the NRSV and the ESV.

1 Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 but their delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
3 They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.


1Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

3He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.

4The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

One of the most important ways I learned how to read the Psalms is Christologically. When you read Christ in the Psalms, the gospel jumps out at you suddenly and you see this prayerbook and hymnal in ways you never imagined. The NRSV eliminated all mentions of the first-person singular masculine, even though it is there in the Hebrew. When you see "Blessed is the man," you can see Christ in the Psalm. When you see, "Blessed are those," Christ disappears and the one aspect of the Psalter that has led the Church to use them for its hymnbook for the past 2000 years is gone. By neutering the Bible, that eliminated the Christological aspects of the Bible and also the distinction between law and gospel. You lose law/gospel, the whole key to understanding the Bible is gone. By emasculating the Bible, the NRSV emasculated the Gospel. That's why gender-neutral language is a crock.

When did the study Bible cease to perform the function it was originally designed to perform? A good study Bible at one time helped bring a historical context to the Bible and helped explain the text by giving a fuller explanation of the words. It helps in cross-referencing and helps bring the Bible into the 21st Century. How many Bibles can you think of that does that? There's the Teen Bible, the Woman's Bible, the Men's Bible, Life-Application, Pastor's, Eschatological, etc. Not one actually accomplishes what a study Bible is supposed to. Rather, they're all products manufactured by the Christian subculture to play to people who either don't know better or to people who do know better but don't actually care. So, is there a Bible out there that still does this? Yes, the New Oxford Annotated Bible and the Harper Collins Study Bible. Unfortunately, they are both NRSV Bibles. The NRSV translation is trumped by academics to be a very accurate translation. The NRSV wouldn't know what to do with a male pronoun. Wait, they do know: eliminate. Did I mention most of the academics are liberals? So, what other problems do these Bibles have? The editors are all liberals so the historical-critical method is rampant throughout these Bibles, even with all the good stuff. So, us poor conservatives have to deal with a lousy translation and notes which offend every fiber of our body. They also have great historical information and excellent tools. Why isn't there a conservative equivalent to these Bibles? There is a market for a Bible like this. I'd buy it. Use the ESV, NKJV, NASB or any other conservative translation and put together a solid study Bible.

I have about three posts backed up in my brain right now. I have on about how useless most study bibles are and the ones that are useful have problems with translations used and a nasty liberal bias. I have a post about gender-neutral language and how useless it actually is. I also have a post on how nervous I am thinking about teaching ESL. In case you are wondering, I am fine. The only thing I am even remotely concerned about is I have a slightly elevated liver enzymes. I have no idea where this came from. I honestly don't drink very much, so I have to wonder if I caught something that I don't know about. I'm not really worried. My hernia is slight, so I don't need surgery.

Help me out
Dig

All I do is grunt and groan
Hurts me to walk anywhere
Went to see my physician, Dr. Jones
He took my trousers off, told me to cough
Doctor says there ain't nothin' to discuss
He tells me any day I might have to wear a truss

Living with a hernia, ow
All the time, such aggravation
Living with a hernia
Gonna be my ruination
Living with a hernia
Got to have an operation
Feel so old, ow

Too much bad pain
Good God, drives me insane
Can't run, barely crawl
Got a bulge in my intestinal wall

Walk real funny, bless my soul
Can't play tennis and it's hard to bowl
You can't even do the splits now
Say it
Better call it quits now
Now I'm sick of all this dancin' anyhow

Living with a hernia
Hurts me bad in a tender location
Living with a hernia
Had enough humiliation
Living with a hernia
Got to have an operation

Ow, I live with a hernia
Can't get up, can't bend over
Now I live with a hernia

Wait a minute
You may not be familiar with the common types
Of hernias that you could get
So just settle down, let me clue you in

There's incomplete ( incomplete)
Epigastric (epigastric)
Bladder, huh (bladder)
Strangulated (strangulated)
Lumbar hernia (lumbat hernia)
Richter's hernia (Richter's hernia)
Obstructed (obstructed)
Inguinal and Direct

Living with a hernia
Rupture
I said it's causin' me such irritation
Living with a hernia
Have to have my medication
Living with a hernia

Yeah, I feel bad


If you've never had the joy of listening to this song, it's by "Weird Al" Yankovic and it's to the tune of James Brown's Living in America. The video is awesome. Too bad he didn't mention hiatal hernias in this song.

For those of you who may not be keeping up with Rathergate, you might want to check this summary out. Power Line has been covering this story since because it literally broke when someone sent an e-mail to them and they started snooping. If these fake memos have any connection to the Kerry Campaign, he can kiss the presidency goodbye. Dan Rather can already kiss his job goodbye and CBS can kiss its credibility goodbye. Dan, it's time for you to do the honorable thing and fall on your sword. The sooner, the better.

Alright, I know my silence has been somewhat disconcerting to everyone, including me. Here is what was going on. I had been having chest pains that I sometimes also felt in my stomach and I thought I was having problems with my heart. I went to the doctor and heart problems have been ruled out because of my age and because my symptoms, while mimicking heart problems, are missing two key symptoms which would have made heart problems a reality. I haven't been experiencing shortness of breath and the pain doesn't correlate with exercise, per se. Now that I know what it up, what I was feeling made sense. I started feeling better whenever I walked or ran, but my pain increased when I started lifting heavy objects. My Physician's Assistant sent me to drink "the milkshake" and receive a radiology exam. I had the upper gastrointestinal exam, and I have a hiatal hernia. This thing can be nasty. Some people end up with chest pain so bad that they think they are having a heart attack. So, I have to see what plan of treatment they may want to take. I do know this. I have to lose weight.

My insurance card came in today. Off to the doctor tomorrow!

Yes, I missed the part about the steak that made me nauseous. I don't think Ron and Erica knew how close I was to blowing my diner all over their apartment. I'm feeling better since I ate a banana.

How did I celebrate Labor Day? I'm glad you asked. My bedroom looked like someone took a bunch of paper and put a fan behind it. There was paper everywhere, and I had books lying all over the floor. My bedroom looked like a recycling plant gone mad. So, I chose today to try to tame the mess and bring some order into a room where order was lacking. I spent about six hours in my room and it's about halfway done. I figure another four to six hours and I'll have my bedroom back. I drug out three good sized trashbags worth of paper. I filled my fourth about a quarter of the way. This is what happens when you collect eight years worth of geology, religion, and politics papers. You end up throwing much of it away and you only keep the stuff you absolutely need. My room does look better, however. Not clean, just better.

I haven't felt well the past few weeks. I don't know what it is, but I have been eating more fruits and vegetables and that seems to help some. I hope my new insurance card comes soon because I am overdue for a measles and the infamous tetanus shot. The last time I had a tetanus shot, it was right before going river rafting. If I can suggest one thing to everybody, don't get a tetanus shot before doing anything strenuous.

I was pulled over tonight. My break lights are out. A fuse must have gone out because all my taillights shouldn't be all out all at once. I'm waiting for my car to die so I have an excuse to go out and buy a newer car that I can run into the ground.

That's my Labor Day. I hope you enjoyed yours more than I enjoyed mine.

I still have six g-mail invitations to give out. If you want one, just e-mail me. First-come, first-served.

What happened to summer this year? In Kansas, a normal summer includes at least 30 days of 100+ degree F temperatures (and normally more) with maybe two or three thunderstorms that cool us off to 80. We had two days of 100+ temps. We spent most of the summer hovering anywhere between 80-90 and sometimes dropping into the 70s. It rained like crazy. We are currently around 10 inches over our normal rainfall. It sucks because the grass grows quickly with all that water. I would have liked a week or two of really hot weather to kill the grass off, or at least force it to grow much slower.

I just added an amateur radio blog to my blogroll. If you don't like it, tough!

I admit I find some things funny that others will just go "huh?" to. That's how blog of the week came about. Miss Diehl posted this comment.

I think I should have been ranked higher.

So, I though about this dilemma (and the probably silliness that this comment was typed with.) How could I take a comment that, after reading it fifty times, finally got through my head was probably meant to be humorous? The only way to one-up the request is to actually fulfill it. Thus, the blog of the week. The blog of the week will hold the honored position below the German Beer Girl. There is only one real criteria for getting your blog into the blog of the week spot: you have to make me laugh. You don't even have to make me laugh on your blog! You can do it in my comments, someone else's comments, or make bad John Hus jokes that I can't help but laughing at, even though it approaches sacrilegious. How long you remain in the Blog of the Week position will be determined by a scientific formula based on the average density of limestone or how long you can stand the comfy chair. Actually, it will change the next time someone says something funny to me. Thus, Bunnie could loose her position as soon as Monday (being the first blog of the week, she's safe for the weekend) or she may never be knocked off her throne by anyone (possible, but unlikely unless she says, "Ni!" to old ladies). This is completely silly and sophomoric, but I never said I would be a perfectly mature.

I have six g-mail invitations to give out. I shall not give them out willy nilly, however, unlike some anonymous blogger who will soon top my blogroll in a desperate act of appeasement. There will actually be an order of priority. The priority list goes as follows:

1) Confessional Lutheran Bloggers (excluding blogger users, who are supposed to get an invitation automatically).
2) Amateur Radio Operators
3) Everybody else

If you are an amateur radio operator, please give me your callsign. That way, if I ever pass my code exam, I just might be able to talk to you (unless we run into each other on six meters, which is always a possibility). Imagine the Monty Python net on 20 meters! I can see it now! You can send me pictures of your EME array!

Anyway, at 5:00pm tomorrow, I'll sort through my e-mail, first-come first-served with the priorities listed above. If there are any invitations left after that, I'll announce it and it will be first-come first-served, no priority. Your e-mails should be directed towards daniel period sellers AT gmail period com. Not valid in Alaska or Hawaii. (Not that anyone from either of those states is actually reading my blog).

John Kerry: Psychopath. It sure goes a long way to describing the self-destruction he will reap after that insane and incoherent (eighth commandment demands this: better than cheap and petty) speech he gave last night. A canidate who does not think he's in trouble wouldn't have pulled something off like this. Thank you, Mr. Kerry, for insuring President Bush's reelection.

I am probably not going to change anyone's mind about the whole politics thing. All I can say is that I don't want a pacifist in the White House or a guy who is going to sit here and wait around like Lurch until we get attacked to act. I quote a man of great wisdom, a Navy Seal, who once said, "(expletive deleted) the (expletive deleted)ers before they (expletive deleted) you."

The only way to have improved on Zell Miller's speech is if R. Lee Ermey had delivered it. The Democrats need to realize if they don't like fire, you should start the BBQ.

Must I say how disappointed I am in all my readers. I give you all the answers to a very silly quiz I come up with thanks to me mouthing off about a certain piece of music that shall never be named and a certain composer who shall remain anonymous, and no one bit and answered properly. I give you all the answers you would need (comments and trackback is your crib sheet). You all call yourself Monty Python fans?!