Fun – The Plucked Chicken

Tolkien and Contemporary Worship

11Aug2008 JesseLeave a comment

You probably never thought of these two things at the same time before. I don’t think I did, until I read just now this great little commentary in the words of Saruman of Many Colors. (White robes were no longer good enough for him.) I am amazed at how fitting they are in the context of contemporary worship. You see, worship is about power. In the true worship of the Christian Church, it’s God’s power to save, manifested in the forgiveness of sins and administered through the Means of Grace — Word and Sacrament — by those appointed to do so, according to His will. However, it’s possible to substitute something else for that power of God. Hear Saruman:

“And listen, Gandalf, my old friend and helper!” he said, coming near and speaking now in a softer voice. “I said we, for we it may be, if you will join with me. A new Power is rising. Against it the old allies and policies will not avail us at all. There is no hope left in Elves or dying Numenor. This then is one choice before you, before us. We may join with that Power. It would be wise, Gandalf. There is hope that way. Its victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those that aided it. As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means.”

The point is that God has provided certain means to accomplish His gracious will, when and where it pleases the Holy Spirit. I use the term “Contemporary Worship” to describe the worship movement that seeks not “any real change in our designs, only in our means.” If you or your pastor is considering changes to the Divine Service in the interest of evangelism, or in search of effectiveness among a certain demographic, then there is a good chance that you are playing the part of Saruman of Many Colors. Yes, there is such a thing as Christian freedom, but even the Wise can easily lose their way in matters greater than themselves.

Hmm. Upgrades.

26Feb2008 JesseLeave a comment

If something seems different at The Plucked Chicken, I’d be surprised. But if it does, it’s because I’ve upgraded and rearranged some things on the old home network.

It began when I wanted to install something on the server that hosts the PC. (I don’t even remember what it was at this point!) For those who don’t use a Debian-based flavor of Linux, I have to explain how most software installs and upgrades work. It’s pretty easy. Software is split into packages by task, functionality, mutual compatibility, and versions. So the first step is to find the package you want to upgrade or install, and there are package-management tools that make this fairly easy. (Understand that there are somewhere over 6,000 Debian packages.) After that, you use one of several package-management tools to do the upgrade or install. The computer handles the rest: figuring out dependencies, downloading packages and installing them. It even checks cryptographic signatures when possible to make sure nothing insidious has happened.

So I tried installing something remotely on the server machine, but it had been a long time since I’d performed a major upgrade, and years more since I’d upgraded the Linux kernel. I just didn’t want to mess with it, because it sits there, happily running connected only to 115v AC and 10Mb ethernet. Then, I messed with it. The installed system was quite outdated compared to current Debian systems, and it needed a new kernel.

Time past, I’d compile a new kernel without blinking. It was standard operating procedure for a long time while using Linux 2.2 and 2.4 kernels, and pretty easy. (I fondly remember a presentation Joe Abrahamson made to the LUG in Mankato on configuring a kernel for compiling.) This machine was still running 2.4, and Debian is now shipping with something like 2.6.20. I didn’t like the prospect of a full kernel compile on that 333 Mhz machine, not really remembering exactly what hardware it contained. So tried a few short cuts and rebooted it remotely, fingers figuratively crossed. It didn’t come back up. That was Friday morning.

Fast forward past a late night/early morning, one-man emergency computer rebuilding party, involving a GRUB emergency boot disk, a spare hard drive, a CD-ROM drive borrowed from the kids’ room, a newly-burned Debian net-install disk, and an uncooperative DSL modem. As you can see, the PC is up again. Now it has more hard drive space than ever before, sporting its own CD-ROM drive (invaluable for emergency boot/install situations), and a brand-new hostname in honor of a fictional young man whose brief experience as a dragon changed his life for the better. It still has only two wires: 115v AC and now 100Mb ethernet (swapped with kids’ computer).

I remember spending many late hours trying to get Windows or its programs to work. That was many years ago. It’s inevitable, because computers are just complex machines. Even appliances go berserk from time to time. The frustrating thing for me was that I paid good money for the privilege of that sleepless (and often fruitless) wrestling to get things working properly. It was about that time that I tried some alternatives in the hope of finding a Better Way. That included OS2/Warp, and would have included MacOS too, if I could have afforded it. (MacOS 7 was current at the time.) Then, I learned about Linux. I reasoned: “Why pay for my problems, when I can have them all for free?” The surprising thing was that my problems and frustration were also dramatically reduced, while my productivity and satisfaction were dramatically increased. See? You get what you pay for.

Linux is still free, and my problems are still few. Now, though, you can buy low-cost computers running Linux from Wal-Mart and many other places. Also, many (most?) of the embedded devices you use without even realizing it are running Linux.

Just think: my recent upgrade adventure, which wasn’t even so bad overall, used to be so commonplace that it was hardly worth writing about. Now, it’s rare enough — for me, anyway — that I mentioned it on the Plucked Chicken. So thank you, all who contribute to Free Software!

Magnatune

13Jul2007 Jesse2 Comments

I enjoy music, but several years ago I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy any more albums. They were — and are — ridiculously expensive, and the rules for sharing, borrowing, and such were so restrictive that “buying” CDs no longer made any sense. Beside that, I have plenty of CDs already, but usually find myself out of range of a CD player.

(I don’t spend lots of money on portable gadgets like music players. My only one now is a Palm Tungsten E2, which I use constantly and appreciate for its long battery life.)

Recently I’ve been listening to my music collection in digital form. I’ve ripped nearly all my CDs to Ogg Vorbis format, a flexible, high-quality, royalty- and patent-free encoding. Most recently I’ve been ripping to FLAC, a lossless encoding. One reason for my reluctance to buy a portable music player is the paucity of players supporting the Ogg Vorbis encoding and useful with a Linux desktop. There are some, however, and I think some day I’ll take the plunge. Meanwhile, it’s been nearly alarming to see the intrusion of the wma (Windows Media) format into the arena of digital recordings, and also the various drm (Digital Rights Management) -encumbered systems.

But now, there’s an alternative that will have me buying new music recordings again: Magnatune! Get on over there and check it out. Apple enthusiasts will tell me “We already have this with iTunes!” Not so. Magnatune is an online recording label with a growing collection of quality artists from a broad spectrum of genres. According to a current Linux Journal article, fifty percent of the purchase price of Magnatune music goes directly to the artists. You can sample full albums before buying them. At this moment, I’m sampling a delightful album from American Baroque called Mozart, 4 Quartets for Strings and Wind. It’s wonderful music to work by, and I’m only on the fourth track. I may actually buy this album, not only for the music but to support the great work that American Baroque are doing.

When I’m finished sampling this album, I’m going to check out at least one album from American Bach Soloists. They have a recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. I already have an outstanding recording of that, but I’m curious to hear the differences of interpretation. I’m already tempted to buy their recording of Bach’s Cantatas Volume V, and I’m excited to sample an album of Heinrich Schutz music: Musicalische Exequien.

Later, I’d like to hear the music of The Seldon Plan, just because the band’s name caught my eye. (Since first writing this post, I’ve taken a listen. The Seldon Plan is pretty good, but I liked the bluesy guitar of John Williams even better. I’m tempted to buy one or more of his albums.)

So, how much will I pay for the albums I buy? According to the same Linux Journal article, there is a minimum cost of $5 per album, and there is also a maximum. Within those limits, I’ll pay what the music is worth to me. What a system! I hope Magnatune’s business thrives. Understood in a non-theological sense, their motto seems to be right on the mark: “We are not evil.”

Oh, and apparently, Magnatune also provides recordings in the Ogg Vorbis and FLAC encodings, among others.

Wolf Time available as a free e-book

29Jun2007 JesseLeave a comment

The publisher Baen, which publishes science fiction, makes certain titles available as free e-books. This was begun to combat the problem of piracy, which I suppose happens when someone buys an e-book and shares it with others by giving them a copy. (There’s an unfortunate limitation for e-books, since sharing your printed copies of the same books is not piracy.)

Anyway, one of their freebies is Lars Walker’s Wolf Time. If you haven’t read any of his writing yet, this would be a good way to try it out. I found Wolf Time to be provocative and entertaining, but you have to like a dark plot. I enjoyed Walker’s The Year of the Warrior more than Wolf Time, and have been trying to buy a copy to send as a gift to my dad, but so far it hasn’t worked. Amazon can’t seem to find a copy. Next, I’ll try Powell’s.

The Worms Complex

10Apr2007 JesseLeave a comment

(A Dissociated Press story from the trenches of our Postmodern Psycho-Times)

(For your enjoyment. If you do not enjoy it, do not read it.)

It’s well known that Martin Luther had his problems. Here is a brief study of one of them that seems to be resurging in some circles.

No, we will not bring up his medieval opinions about how Christian rulers could best defend the eternal well-being of their subjects from the persistent challenge of unbelieving Jews. We’ll save that study for another time.

I’m writing today about the Worms Complex. Martin Luther is the first known case, and it has passed on to Lutherans and others ever since. It seems to be a mutation of the more general Martyr Syndrome, exhibited by the likes of Stephen in Acts chapter 7.

The initial outbreak of the Worms Complex has been captured and reproduced in multimedia, and made available online.

The symptoms are as follows.

Continue reading “The Worms Complex” →

Tag: Fun

Tolkien and Contemporary Worship

Hmm. Upgrades.

Magnatune

Wolf Time available as a free e-book

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The Worms Complex