Louie Crew (<lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>) is composing a book of LGBTQ prayers to be offered to and for Lambeth 2008 and has asked people for submissions; I thought I'd post mine ( here, too: )

So, Brezny for this week:

Your first assignment is to practice feeling that everywhere you go you are standing on holy ground. Capitalize that phrase in your imagination -- "I AM STANDING ON HOLY GROUND" -- as you move through the world. Your second assignment, which may at first seem unrelated, is to kick your evil twin's ass. Do it tenderly and compassionately, with full awareness that both you and your evil twin are standing on holy ground. But don't stop kicking until you convince your evil twin to take greater responsibility for his or her personal share of the world's darkness.

I get the first part; and it makes me also think of being held up by holy ground (and holy people).

But the second part confuses me: I think I'm not actually clear on this "evil twin" stuff. (Well, beyond that if wordweaverlynn and I are twins, I'm definitely the evil one. It surprises people sometimes, but it's true.)

So, what is your "evil twin" like? And what do you think of mine?

Two Down, More to Go -- two provisions of the Patriot act ruled unconstitutional in federal court. (duh!)

I think most of you are aware that my mom has Alzheimer's, and a fair number of you are probably aware that I'm walking in the Alzheimer's Association's Memory Walk fundraiser in a couple of weeks (10/6/07).

The Alzheimer's Association funds research as well as providing support and education to patients and caregivers -- they've been helpful to us, and to many other people, and they're a significant source of funding for Alzheimer's researchers.

This is a cause that means a lot to me. I'm hoping to raise $750, and I'm a bit more than half way there.

If you can donate anything, however small, I will really appreciate it -- both for the money and for the care that I know goes with it (and I'm sure is there even if you don't have any money to spare right now). Here's a link to a page where you can donate on line or print a snail-mail donation form (I've made it a tinyURL because it was three or four lines otherwise):

http://tinyurl.com/2gktde

Thank you all so much -- !

The universe is conspiring against my people, and it should Stop Now.

So there.

Scientific American reports that in 2007, the summer ice at the north pole was 22.4% smaller in area than the previous record low in 2005.

"Covering 1.59 million square miles (4.12 million square kilometers), this summer's sea ice shattered the previous record for the smallest ice cap of 2.05 million square miles (5.31 million square kilometers) in 2005—a further loss of sea ice area equivalent to the states of California and Texas combined."

Oh. Joy.

The Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Archives are on line. Thought some folks might be interested :)

Happy Equinox, folks -- as the nights get longer than the days, enjoy them ;) ((and remember to turn your headlights on, 'k?))

My friend, the winds are burning dry today,
bitter and hard to face. They scorch my skin,
send ashes to my eyes. And I within
am hot and bitter, dry, and without rain.
You know this weather, know the desert place
I walk in. You have been this route before.
Hardpan and salt, hard tears, and little more.
No greening here, no water, and no grace
but walking. Each step dryer than the last.
The dead soil shifting underneath the foot.
The hot wind in my face that tastes of soot.
And all my hope in walking. When I've passed
my last dry hope, and I have stopped again,
call out to me, and tell me tales of rain.

c. 2007 - do not use without permission.

Madeleine L'Engle was probably my foremost theological influence after my parents. She was an Episcopalian, but more than that she was great of heart. I didn't always agree with what I understood her to be saying in her books, but I probably agreed more than with any other fiction writer I can name. She was important to me, in many, many ways.

( From the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church: )

LJ-Genie of all-knowingness-when-given-enough-data-in-the-question ---

I tried to ask this a while back, but I didn't know enough for anyone to be able to help me. Now I've learned more, and I hope I can be sufficiently informative to get some ideas from the many-many people who know more about user interfaces and report generation than I do.

I have a bunch of users who need to generate custom reports from a database on the fly. They need to be able to say things like (but probably more complicated than),

"for all items in the database with
<field one> = <string>, and where
((<field three>-<field two>)/<field two>)>=.2 OR where <field four>-<field two> >=20,
please show me the following fields: (list of fields)"

(I'm picturing a GUI that would let them select fields by pull-down, select comparators (<,=,>, <=, >=, !=, contains, etc.) enter values to be used in comparisons, that sort of thing.)

Ideally, they'd be able to use the same interface to produce graphical reports as well -- pie charts and what not. (how many objects in the database fit a given criteria, how many others fit another, etc.)

My mental picture of this is a user interface that generates something like an SQL query (admittedly, sometimes a very *complicated* SQL query), runs the query against the database, and returns the result either to the user as a spreadsheet, or to an application that will convert it into pretty pictures and graphs.

Are there existing tools out there that are meant to do this sort of thing? Or should I plan on needing to work out a custom solution?

I have not had this much fun since I first discovered the joys of theology (Intro to Religion, Dr. Jay McDaniel, I think fall of '81, spring of '82).

!!

Head First Java.

I'm really amazed.

But if you'll 'scuse me, now I'm going to go start on chapter 6.

Two researchers find possible medicines from micro-organisms growing in toxic water.

There's a hole in the middle of it all--

Brezny has clearly been playing peeping tom in my backbrain. ( see? )Humph! Only my nearest-and-dearest are supposed to catch on to that. ;)

serenejournal (on LJ) wrote me a poem. (It makes me cry.)

telesilla finally pushed me over the edge, and I have to do this:

The quotes/references I hope the people around me know (or rather, that I tend to use without stopping to think about whether they will or not). (This started as "the pop culture references..." but I have no idea whether they're actually all that popular...)

1. As you wish.


2. watermelon, watermelon (added when I realized I was about to use it in -- )


3. (watermelon, watermel)--Look! A Shiny!


4. The plan should be shaped like us not screaming.


5. Well, I'm back.


6. Purple Alligator! (and if you recognize this one, please tell me your backstory for it!)


7. It's.... it's green!


8. There is no ___; there is only Zool.


9. It just won't be (Christmas) without (presents)!


10. You keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means.

I'm sure there are more; this is just some. Feel free to cite sources, or tell me yours, or whatever :)

Oh wow oh wow oh wow.... live space plasma dust stuff. Inorganic. Acts alive. Wow....

I didn't think I could make this work at this size, but I think I actually did.

And yeah, I'd like us all to please have braek tiem nao. And for some weeks or months to come, please.

I like the journal style I've got right now, I like that it's been easy to set up -- And of course I like what I'm hearing about policies etc., too. I'm thinkin' I'm going to be staying around here.

Not sure if I'll cross-post to LJ or post links to my IJ entries, but it'll be one or the other. Anybody got thoughts or preferences? (I'm thinkin cross-post behind a cut, to minimize repetition for those of us still reading multiple journalsites...)