Don't Get Fooled Again - 12 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 457

Micah 6:8
2 Thessalonians 2:3
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

"The 3.8% rise in the core inflation rate, which excludes food and energy prices, was the sharpest increase in nearly three decades."

Wait a minute. How can a measure of core inflation explicitly exclude the core things we purchase: food and energy?
Yes, I know they report it that way because 3.8% (still far too high) is lower than what it would be if they included the actual core of people's purchases. I also understand that they deliberately mis-name it as the core rate to mislead us. I'm just sick of being lied to about nearly everything nearly all the time by nearly everyone. Aren't you?


Here's Hoping.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Ring the Bell! - 11 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 456

Micah 6:8
Zechariah 14:20
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

We had bell choir rehearsal last night as we're playing for worship on Sunday!
It's such a different way to make music with others. Rather than each of us playing (or singing) a part that's recognizable, as we would in a vocal choir or a band, each of us is assigned a few specific notes to play when they come by in the score. Frankly, it's not often that any one person gets enough of a melody to feel they've really played something the audience or congregation would notice.

Still, much like rowing in a crew (at least how I've heard it described), the sense of teamwork and acting as a single (musical) unit is rewarding in a totally different way to any other musical endeavour I've tried.

Here's hoping and praying that we'll play as well on Sunday as we did at the end of rehearsal!

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

He Didn't Start the Fire - 10 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 455

Micah 6:8
Proverbs 15:17
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is National Herbs and Spices Day, so how could we but celebrate Harlan Sanders? And recalling the book-burning theme of yesterday, this seemed a fitting opening illustration.

KFC has become a master marketing operation over the years. Who else would sell scented firelogs like this? I guess it makes sense, (scents?) as they had the matches available to light the logs.

Still, we all remember them best for the Colonel, his 11 herbs and spices, and his finger lickin' good promise. Long may they wave (or fry)!

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

He's On Fire! - 09 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 454

Micah 6:8

Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today I note that Sunday was Plague Journal Day 451, but I missed making a post about book burning because it was Sunday and I did my regular worship posting.
In this day of canceling history, Bradbury's novel is even more relevant than ever, I think. I wonder how hard it really is to memorize an entire book. I've heard of people who have memorized the Bible, and can quote you a randomly selected verse. I don't really have any desire to do that - I'll just look it up, as long as I can have a copy of the Book. Still, as things disappear from search engines at the behest of governments (as the Tank Man at Tiananmen Square did from Bing and the other engines it powers) it's time to wonder what we're really going to lose.

451F is where paper will combust. It's much easier to delete a file on a server than to ignite and clean up the ashes of a physical book. It's also much easier to keep copies somewhere safe - I hope.
 

A totally irrelevant side note. On 09 Jun 1934, Donald Duck first appeared in a cartoon. That means my mother never lived in a world without Donald Duck (but my father did). Weird.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Wheels within Wheels - 08 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 453

Micah 6:8
Ezekiel 1:15-21  Psalm 104:25-27
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

On this date in history – 08 June 452 – Italy was invaded by Attila the Hun.
I just thought you'd like to know.

I can't find a clip of the great song sung by Donald Hollinger anywhere, so just enjoy this bit of non-Attila nostalgia instead.

Today is World Oceans Day. I'm going to use that as a segue to what I wanted to post about:
Fourier series. After all, they're both all about waves, right?
 

OK, that's not what got me thinking about Fourier series, but I don't really know what it was that did.
I was really thinking about how earlier astronomers worked so hard to model orbits using "cycles and epi-cycles" to describe the motion of the planet as they observed it, as opposed to the perfect circles they expected.

Well, it seems to me they were doing the same thing that our modern physicists do with Fourier series - adding periodic functions to match observation - but (as with those earlier astronomers) without really understanding what's going on. Just as Kepler found the orbits were eliptical rather than circular, one has to wonder if we'll find the real equations we're after are some other generalization of all these piles of wave functions rather than a huge stack of slightly different ones.
I, for one, expect that will turn out to be the case. Mark my words - there's a breakthrough coming, and no one knows quite what it is yet.
You read it here first!

Check out the descriptions of the two concepts at this scholarly site to see what I mean:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferent_and_epicycle

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Lunch at the Algonquin - 07 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 452

Micah 6:8
Matthew 7:6
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

First off, let's acknowledge that today is VCR Day.What a change in television viewing those little(?) machines made in their day. Why, one could record a program on a tape and watch it at a more convenient time - perhaps even watch it more than once!
There were tape-rental stores galore, not just Blockbuster, but many one-off Mom and Pop versions. In fact, some of them even rented movies on Beta! Yes, I know this because we were of the Betamax persuasion as long as we could be. The picture and functioning really was superior to VHS, even if I could only(!) record 4.5 hours on a single tape. Why would one need more than that at one sitting?

At any rate, we still have a couple functioning VCRs (of both flavours), and I make the effort to record from the tapes we have for transfer to DVD every now and then. Someday I'll be done.

Next, we should also recognize that on 07 June 1967 Dorothy Parker, American poet, writer, and ascerbician shuffled off this mortal coil. Having read some of the tales of the Algonquin Round Table, I only wish I could have experienced this women in person. Instead, I have to make do with watching for opportunities to emulate her linguistic precision attacks.
For example, when a young, presumably-attractive starlet-type moved aside to let Dorothy through the door first, saying, "Age before beauty," she no doubt thought she was quite clever.
That assessment was dashed as Ms. Parker moved through the door and replied, "and pearls before swine."
Oh! Would that I had been there to see that exchange!


Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Worship - 06 June 2021 - Plague Journal Day 451

Micah 6:8
Mark 3:20-27
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

 

 

When the COVID case levels settled down in Grosse Pointe, we resumed our in-person worship.
Yes, we still have in-person worship in the Sanctuary today, and we're not requiring masks for fully vaccinated worshipers! You still need to have registered ahead of time to attend, and an email went out from the church with all the details.
For our 9:30 worship service have our final (we hope) virtual choir performance offertory time, and two hymns for us to sing while Doug plays. Yes - we're back to congregational singing. We're Methodists again!
Remember, we'll be streaming for all those who can't join us in person, and intend to continue that practice indefinitely.

As usual, today's stream should just appear as the latest entry on our YouTube channel, here.
You'll find all our previous worship videos right there at that same place, and today's stream will stay there as a recording as well.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264