This Classical Life

One of my favorite classes at UNC was Religion 24: Introduction to Judaism with Dr. David Halperin. Dr. Halperin was someone everyone on campus knew, by sight if not by reputation. He wore a three piece suit every day he taught, usually adorned with a carnation on the lapel. He always wore a hat outdoors. Reli24 was his “big” lecture class, but he kept it small (max 120 students) and learned every name within two weeks WITHOUT ASSIGNED SEATS. He was one of the most honest professors I ever encountered. He would speak about things fully, describing what scholars said, what traditional Jews believed and almost always told where he fell on the spectrum so we could identify for ourselves the bias he brought to the subject. He made his large lecture class warm and interactive, and he listened to students and respected their opinions and validated their insights by doing things like finding his top hat so he could put it on for a brief moment and tip it off to a student who said something that really impressed him. My one and only class with him was his last class before an early retirement due to illness, and we sent him out with a standing ovation. I’d see him around Chapel Hill from time to time before I graduated, almost always wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, such a far cry from his professional look. He remembered my name for several years, even though I never was privileged to take a small seminar with him.

I learned an incredible amount from his class, and was delighted to find he developed the course material for the web: Judaism: A Course. He developed study guides for readings and posted lecture notes, and it seems thorough. He did have us do some other things in class, but of course the web has its own restrictions. I’d highly recommend this to anyone interested in learning about the history of Judaism (ancient to modern) or for high school homeschool students. Other than buying the books, it’s free!

This traditional Latin American dessert goes *GREAT* with all kinds of Tex-Mex (like South of the Border Lasagna and Fajitas) and should sit in the fridge for a least a few hours if not overnight, which is always helpful when you have guests. It’s a simple sponge cake drenched in three kinds of milk, and though that sounds kinda weird, it’s rich and yummy. I usually top it with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

TRES LECHE CAKE (more…)

I got the new Andrew Peterson CD, The Far Country, a little early. It’s fantastic! You should really order it before the price goes up…

Foxnews is reporting that the Association of Christian Schools International is suing the UC system for “discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints.”

“According to the lawsuit, the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta was told its courses were rejected because they use textbooks printed by … Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books.”

I never thought I would ever say this, but: I have become a believer in the potential of BJU press. (more…)

We are not anti-vaccination. Kate was fully vaccinated ’til her first birthday, and though I do think it is the parents’ right to choose whether to vaccinate or not, we want our children protected both from diseases and from spreading them to others who might not be able to fight them off, though probably on a more delayed schedule than the average pediatrician’s office pushes.

What is bothersome to me is the use of aborted fetal tissue in the development of many vaccines Kate *should* be getting now. MMR, Varicella (Chicken Pox) and Hep-A vaccines were all developed using aborted fetal tissue lines. That’s just a fact. (more…)

Google now has a cool new IM service available: GoogleTalk. Kristen and I both like it. First, it is a very simple, eye-pleasing IM service. No annoying multi-colored text flashing around, no ads, no smilies-on-crack. One thing that Kristen and I really appreciate it is that it doesn’t keep printing your name over-and-over if you keep posting. (more…)

I really like thethingsiwant.com, it’s convenient to be able to add things with pictures from a whole host of sites and have it show up on ONE list. Here’s my registry for Lexi so far.

The trip in numbers:
Nights away: 7
Places we slept: 4
Friends visited: over a dozen
Miles travelled: 1698
Gallons of gas pumped: 61.472
Cheapest gas found: $2.36⁹/gallon in Greenville, SC on 8/23
States traversed: 5
Texas license plates spotted: 40+
Visits to the Atlanta Ikea: 2
Really good sermons heard in person: 1
Exhausted girls happy to be home: 2

(Kate and I went to Atlanta and Birmingham via Charlotte, Greenville and Wake Forest.)

Which is more stupid/surprising/hard-to-believe: 1. Pat Robertson’s comment to “take-out” the Venezuelan president OR 2. People actually watch Robertson? Whether the public likes them or not, I’m really surprised at the amount of attention people like Robertson or Rush get from people in the mainstream media.

I just discovered that some people use Podcast to download sermons. I have signed up for Jon Barlow’s podcast and John Owen Butler’s Psalmcast, but wouldn’t it be great in Doug Wilson, Rich Lusk, or others put there sermons on podcast? It would certainly save me the trouble of having to go to a website, check for a new sermons, and download that sermon.

It looks like Tenth Pres has already started doing it (only recently perhaps?), and I’ve downloaded a few.

Even if it is terrible, I will go and buy this because of the ad.

I tend not to like bible software. I’ve been let down too many times in the past. However, a friend showed me e-sword. This isn’t the best software — especially if you prefer not to read scripture broken into verse — but it does have its uses. For me, the kicker was having the LXX, GNT, Vulgate, ESV, KJV (w/Apocrypha) etc bible translations, and a commentary section where I can read the Ante-Nicene fathers, Calvin, Westminster Confession, Three Forms of Unity, Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Josephus, Philo, et al.

Tonight, the tool came in handy. I was reading in Exodus (btw, it also has a customizable bible reading plan) and noticed that Exo 4:19 reminded me a lot of Matt 2:20. Well, I was able to check the GNT with the LXX and noticed that it was nearly identical. I suppose this is the theme of Jesus as the new Moses being developed in Matthew.

Anyhow, I was able to make a note in e-sword and can pay particular attention to this sort of thing when I read through Matthew.