+his is all.

"There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone..."

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:34:00 -0500

“There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.”

- President Reagan, Letters of Note

Dear Jesus,

I am waiting.

Please come soon.

Love,
Benry

Good (Calvinist) luck, class of 2012.

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:31:00 -0500

Good (Calvinist) luck, class of 2012.:

In other words, you’re probably capable of thinking for yourself. And here’s Fact Four: There will always be a market for people who can do that.

In every generation there’s a strong tendency for everyone to think like everyone else. But your generation has an especially bad case, because your mass conformism is masked by the appearance of mass nonconformism. It’s a point I learned from my West Point intern, when I asked her what it was like to lead such a uniformed existence.

Her answer stayed with me: Wearing a uniform, she said, helped her figure out what it was that really distinguished her as an individual.

Now she’s a second lieutenant, leading a life of meaning and honor, figuring out how to Think Different for the sake of a cause that counts. Not many of you will be able to follow in her precise footsteps, nor do you need to do so. But if you can just manage to tone down your egos, shape up your minds, and think unfashionable thoughts, you just might be able to do something worthy with your lives. And even get a job. Good luck!
— Bret Stephens

chitwoodandhobbs: And If You Don’t Know I’m blowin’ up like...

Mon, 07 May 2012 00:47:56 -0500

chitwoodandhobbs:

And If You Don’t Know

I’m blowin’ up like you thought I would
Call the crib, same number, same hood
It’s all good
— The Notorious B.I.G., Juicy (2004)

Photo of the weekend. Must be viewed large.

/via dunkofdeath

"We are in love with football players, with their courage and grit, and nothing else—neither..."

Fri, 04 May 2012 09:40:00 -0500

“We are in love with football players, with their courage and grit, and nothing else—neither considerations of science nor those of morality—can compete with the destructive power of that love.”

- Malcolm Gladwell, Offensive Play

Time to rethink football.

This is an article from 2009 that highlights the real tragedy in Seau’s suicide. Love watching the game, but not as much as others, and not enough to see one of my favorite players like Witten or DeMarcus go through whatever Seau and Waters and others went through.

After the End

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:44:12 -0500

runofplay:

Cue the End-of-an-Era music: Pep Guardiola has resigned. But from this vantage point what seems clear is that Pep’s departure, and all the accompanying verbiage — about the intensity of his personality, his perfectionism, the hardware his team has won over the past four years, the success of the Barcelona Way, Pep as the embodiment of the més que un club ethos, and on and on — are part of a vast mopping-up operation. The story really ended almost exactly a year ago, when El Clásico descended into melodrama and handbags. Barça hasn’t been the same since, and neither has Pep.

I wrote at the time that “if I were Emperor of Soccer, I’d not allow these clubs to play each other for a couple of years.” But really, the damage had already been done. Too many overwrought encounters in too short a time had left Barcelona, Real Madrid, the Spanish soccer culture, and, hell, the whole soccer world emotionally exhausted. What had been the most exciting clash of styles in forever became instead an exercise in discovering new forms of pettiness: diving, stomping, pre- and post-match posturing, even a combination cheek-tweak and
eye-gouge.
Read More

"No matter what the documentation says, the source code is the ultimate truth, the best and most..."

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:40:00 -0500

“No matter what the documentation says, the source code is the ultimate truth, the best and most definitive and up-to-date documentation you’re likely to find. This will be true forever, so the sooner you come to terms with this, the better off you’ll be as a software developer.”

- Learn to Read the Source, Luke, Coding Horror

Yes, yes, I know this is about JavaScript, but really, this is what I’ve been learning about studying God’s word, too: commentaries only get you so far. Matthew Henry is not the Holy Spirit. John Gill is not the Holy Spirit. Ray Ortlund is not the Holy Spirit. R.C. Sproul is not the Holy Spirit.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
1 Corinthians 2:12-13

Reading Scripture is an exercise in study, yes, but is made effective only in the Holy Spirit that dwells in every believer of Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you. He will.

newsweek: Andrew Sullivan writes this week’s cover story on the...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:54:52 -0500

newsweek:

Andrew Sullivan writes this week’s cover story on the crisis in Christianity in America, which has been overrun and destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists. Sullivan’s argument? Ditch all that and just follow Jesus. Here’s an excerpt:

We inhabit a polity now saturated with religion. On one side, the Republican base is made up of evangelical Protestants who believe that religion must consume and influence every aspect of public life. On the other side, the last Democratic primary had candidates profess their faith in public forums, and more recently President Obama appeared at the National Prayer Breakfast, invoking Jesus to defend his plan for universal health care. The crisis of Christianity is perhaps best captured in the new meaning of the word “secular.” It once meant belief in separating the spheres of faith and politics; it now means, for many, simply atheism. The ability to be faithful in a religious space and reasonable in a political one has atrophied before our eyes.

Keep reading!

[Photo: Brooks Kraft / Corbis]

Food for thought. What is your response? Is it correct in theology? Is it gracious in love? Is it glorifying to God?

"Spurs guard Danny Green still remains close to the North Carolina basketball program. So it was..."

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:06:00 -0500

“

Spurs guard Danny Green still remains close to the North Carolina basketball program. So it was understandable he was feeling a little Tar Heel bluer than normal after his alma mater lost in the finals of the Midwest Region to Kansas.

His ire was intensified when Spurs general manager R.C. Buford, a former Kansas assistant coach, stopped by his locker room after the game and wanted to know if he could use his room reservations next weekend in New Orleans for the Final Four.

”

- Tim Griffin, Spry Leonard posts double-double

This is why I love my Spurs.

I am so glad I get to use C# at work. Oh wait...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:34:31 -0600

For instance, Javaland children oft recite the famous cautionary tail:

For the lack of a nail,
    throw new HorseshoeNailNotFoundException("no nails!");

For the lack of a horseshoe,
    EquestrianDoctor.getLocalInstance().getHorseDispatcher().shoot();

For the lack of a horse,
    RidersGuild.getRiderNotificationSubscriberList().getBroadcaster().run(
        new BroadcastMessage(StableFactory.getNullHorseInstance()));

For the lack of a rider,
    MessageDeliverySubsystem.getLogger().logDeliveryFailure(
        MessageFactory.getAbstractMessageInstance(
            new MessageMedium(MessageType.VERBAL),
            new MessageTransport(MessageTransportType.MOUNTED_RIDER),
            new MessageSessionDestination(BattleManager.getRoutingInfo(BattleLocation.NEAREST))),
        MessageFailureReasonCode.UNKNOWN_RIDER_FAILURE);

For the lack of a message,
    ((BattleNotificationSender)BattleResourceMediator.getMediatorInstance().getResource(
        BattleParticipant.PROXY_PARTICIPANT,
        BattleResource.BATTLE_NOTIFICATION_SENDER)).sendNotification(
            ((BattleNotificationBuilder)(BattleResourceMediator.getMediatorInstance().getResource(
                BattleOrganizer.getBattleParticipant(Battle.Participant.GOOD_GUYS),
                BattleResource.BATTLE_NOTIFICATION_BUILDER))).buildNotification(
                    BattleOrganizer.getBattleState(BattleResult.BATTLE_LOST),
                    BattleManager.getChainOfCommand().getCommandChainNotifier()));

For the lack of a battle,
    try
    {
        synchronized(BattleInformationRouterLock.getLockInstance())
        {
            BattleInformationRouterLock.getLockInstance().wait();
        }
    }
    catch (InterruptedException ix)
    {
        if (BattleSessionManager.getBattleStatus(
                BattleResource.getLocalizedBattleResource(Locale.getDefault()),
                BattleContext.createContext(
                    Kingdom.getMasterBattleCoordinatorInstance(
                        new TweedleBeetlePuddlePaddleBattle()).populate(
                            RegionManager.getArmpitProvince(Armpit.LEFTMOST)))) ==
                BattleStatus.LOST)
        {
            if (LOGGER.isLoggable(Level.TOTALLY_SCREWED))
            {
                LOGGER.logScrewage(BattleLogger.createBattleLogMessage(
                    BattleStatusFormatter.Format(BattleStatus.LOST_WAR, Locale.getDefault())));
            }
        }
    }

For the lack of a war,
    new ServiceExecutionJoinPoint(
        DistributedQueryAnalyzer.ForwardQueryResult(
            NotificationSchemaManager.getAbstractSchemaMapper(
                new PublishSubscribeNotificationSchema()).getSchemaProxy().
                    executePublishSubscribeQueryPlan(
                        NotificationSchema.ALERT,
                        new NotificationSchemaPriority(SchemaPriority.MAX_PRIORITY),
                        new PublisherMessage(MessageFactory.getAbstractMessage(
                            MessageType.WRITTEN,
                            new MessageTransport(MessageTransportType.WOUNDED_SURVIVOR),
                            new MessageSessionDestination(
                                DestinationManager.getNullDestinationForQueryPlan()))),
                    DistributedWarMachine.getPartyRoleManager().getRegisteredParties(
                        PartyRoleManager.PARTY_KING ||
                        PartyRoleManager.PARTY_GENERAL ||
                        PartyRoleManager.PARTY_AMBASSADOR)).getQueryResult(),
            PriorityMessageDispatcher.getPriorityDispatchInstance())).
      wait ForService();

All for the lack of a horseshoe nail.

It remains wonderful advice, even to this very day.

— Steve Yegge, Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns

"The Objective-C runtime is dynamic, which seems counter-intuitive when you think about..."

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:13:00 -0600

““The Objective-C runtime is dynamic, which seems counter-intuitive when you think about Objective-C’s relation to C. C is about as close to the metal as you can get without writing assembly code, so you’d expect Objective-C to be very rigid, but in fact it’s a very fluid, dynamic runtime. Among other things, Objective-C lets you do function currying, adding and removing methods from classes at runtime, and reflection. Unless you’ve played with other languages that support these features, like Ruby or Lisp, then this feels really weird. Don’t worry! Lots of great things feel really weird the first time you try them, like broccoli or sexual intercourse.””

- Ash Furrow on the Obj-C Runtime, Why Objective C is Hard

One of these things is not like the other, dude.

runofplay: Barcelona training. Ridiculous.

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:33:46 -0600

runofplay:

Barcelona training.

Ridiculous.

"Yipsters"

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:39:00 -0600

My awesome and hilarious coworker, Tony, sent me this e-mail this morning:

Subject: heard on sports radio this morning
From: Tony
To: Benry

“Looks like Jeremy Lin’s LINstincts failed him last night.”

Also, I think if you had a fan base¹, they would be called Yipsters. Maybe next year we can use that name if we add a third after school team.

Brilliantly yours,
T$ ²³

I love this idea.

He’s implying I don’t have a fan base. ↩
Yes, he signs his e-mails to me as “T$”, ‘cause he thinks he’s money. ↩
I’m gonna sign my e-mails back to him as “Yippee-ki-yay” from now on. ↩

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:03:00 -0600

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.

KIDS LOOK AT THESE CRAYONS.

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:24:15 -0600

KIDS LOOK AT THESE CRAYONS.

"Better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and be a hero; better to be content with..."

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:42:33 -0600

“Better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and be a hero; better to be content with poverty than to die a slave to wealth; better to have taken some risks and lost than to have done nothing and succeeded at it.”

- Erwin Lutzer (via ineedtoputsomethinghere)

Teach me to pray.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:30:00 -0600

May I seek first thy kingdom and its righteousness.
May I value things in relation to eternity.
May my spiritual welfare be my chief solicitude.
May I be poor, afflicted, despised and have thy blessing, rather than be successful in enterprise, or have more than my heart can wish, or be admired by my fellow-men, if thereby these things make me forget thee.
May I regard the world as dreams, lies, vanities, vexation of spirit, and desire to depart from it.
And may I seek my happiness in thy favor, image, presence, service.
Desires, The Valley of Vision

Why do I think I know what’s best when my father knows what I need before I even ask? This is what will bring him the most glory and this is what’s best.

I need nothing more.

Bloomberg: Harvard, Princeton in Discrimination Probe

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:03:00 -0600

Bloomberg: Harvard, Princeton in Discrimination Probe:

Or, here’s an idea: stop practicing the (worthless) SAT and spend some time investing in things that you care about. People seem to like people that are passionate about something.

And quit idolizing the Ivy League. How many people have gone on to contribute to society without a BS degree (Double entendre! We learn those at public university, too!) from Harvard, MIT or Princeton?

I seem to have lost count. Hmm, maybe I should’ve gone to an Ivy.

There’s a reason you don’t spell success as s-t-a-t-u-s.

That kind of thinking creates the current educational crisis we have on our hands today.

A little chat about swing dancing tonight with my work mentor.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:10:41 -0600

B: What time are you gonna be thurr?
VanWyk: prolly ate
VanWyk: talk to some fly honies
B: word
B: lol
B: I read "honies" like "ponies"
VanWyk: i like my honies like i like my ponies
VanWyk: little and mine

"It’s hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving..."

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:39:00 -0600

““It’s hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women’s lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying,””

- Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood after learning they had lost Komen Grants for breast cancer exams.

Wrong. Planned Parenthood ends the lives of women. In 2010, they were responsible for the deaths of 160,000 girls. (Source: Planned Parenthood Annual Report 2009-2010, pg. 4-5.)

Praying for women to not abort, for the church to act in adoption for their unborn children and to be a safe and graceful harbor for women no matter their circumstance and most of all, for God to bring his Kingdom and win a people for himself in a broken world.

My mentor just made my day.

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:35:26 -0600

My mentor just made my day.