What is manhood?

2009 February 3
by Rob

Julie posted a response to my review of Gran Torino and  I began writing a response.  But the comment became too big, so I turned it into a full post.  Let the discussion begin!

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O great mystery

2009 January 29
by Rob

Last week our choir sang Morten Lauridsen’s composition of O Magnum Mysterium. To say it was moving puts it lightly. It was ethereal.

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The way men talk to each other

2009 January 21
by Rob

Gran Torino is a fine film, but it’s as deeply flawed as some of its characters.  I can forgive its characters for their foibles, but not its filmmakers.

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Star Wars according to Sarah

2009 January 17
tags:
by Rob

… or at least probably how Sarah would summarize the original Star Wars trilogy.  Have a look, this is genius:

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Bernstein’s Mass

2008 December 27

For my church choir’s annual Christmas concert two weeks ago, one of the solos was a piece from Bernstein’s Mass, titled “Hymn and Psalm: A Simple Song.”  It’s a very modern sounding song, not at all like traditional requiem masses.  At times, it was very dissonant and haunting, other times similar to big band Broadway.  Nevertheless, Lenny wrote a mass.  And I can’t get it out of my head.

Give this a little listen…

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I have OCD… not the one you’re thinking

2008 December 9
tags:
by Rob

This one required some knee surgery.  Have a look…

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Our first snowfall

2008 December 9
by Rob

Here are some pictures of the snowfall we had last night.  Is our new neighborhood gorgeous?!

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Lamp repair project

2008 December 9
by Rob

My electronics inspection lamp died and I wasn’t sure why.  So I set out to fix it.  Check out the pictures below.  Click on them for fuller descriptions of each step.

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Thanksgiving (faux Xmas) trip

2008 December 9
by Rob

Sar & I and Mel & Jim all met up in KC for the annual holiday celebration spectacular. Much loot was swapped and turkey consumed!  Here are some pics:

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Aluminum trigonometry

2008 November 21
by Rob

I ran into an interesting trigonometry problem a few weeks ago, when I was working on the cable pole installation.  The problem was simple enough: extend the pole such that the trash trucks wouldn’t snag it, thus ripping it down.  But the real question was: how tall must I extend it to get adequate clearance?  Indeed.

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Bench power supply fix

2008 November 21
by Rob

This power supply belonged to my company and it died one day while we were using it. Just quit. So I took it home, tore it apart, and discovered that one pole of the power switch had failed. A replacement was in order!

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CamMate tally light indicator prototype

2008 November 21
by Rob

Quite a while ago, I made a “tally light indicator” prototype for my uncle’s CamMate. It was only a rough mockup, but functional. Here are the project highlights…

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Reinforced steel strike plate

2008 November 15
by Rob

The garage of our new house was broken into long before we bought it. Someone had kicked in the side entrance door. So I reinforced the doorjamb with a piece of steel angle iron, making my own door latch / deadbolt combo strike plate. Here are some pics…

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Polity

2008 November 4
tags:
by Rob

Cowardice asks the question: “Is it safe”? Expediency asks the question: “Is it politic”? Vanity asks the question: “Is it popular?” But conscience asks the question: “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one what is right.

– Martin Luther King Jr.

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Electoral Epistemology

2008 November 3
by Rob

I was speaking with someone recently about tomorrow’s election and they brought up a very good point that I want to explore in myself.

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