I Want to be Left Behind when Jesus Comes

Chances are you've never heard of John Nelson Darby, but if you're a mainstream American Christian he defined the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine you grew up with, shiny and new in the 1800s. On Biblical interpretation, older is generally better.

A Science Project with the Kids: Learn, Design, Construct & Test an Antenna

I need an antenna tuned to 1090MHz. I could just buy one, but with patience I can turn it into a project for a couple of my kids: learn the electromagnetics, design a quarter-wave ground plane, construct it, then test whether our reception improves. More to come.

The Sovereignty of God

My father-in-law gifted Arthur W. Pink's 1918 book on the sovereignty of God to all seven of us. If a book survives a hundred years, it's probably good. Pink contrasts Moses, sentenced for one act of disobedience, with Hezekiah's added fifteen years: God acts to please Himself.

Visiting the In-Laws; Seashells

Things I value in a bathroom: counter space. Things I do not require in a bathroom: bowls of seashells.

The Decline of the Presidency

A Lime Wire coworker once told me he was voting for Obama because of his excellent speeches, and I still cringe. How we speak reflects how we think, but we don't elect a national orator. Set Trump's self-praise beside Washington's 1789 proclamation and Roosevelt's arena.

The Evolutionary Biology of Learning English

We use WordlyWise for vocabulary and I've been pleased, until today's lesson, a short story so rife with evolutionary biology I couldn't salvage it even by scratching out questions and skipping a paragraph. Whatever your views on evolution, you can teach English vocab without it.

Meta Quest 3

My employer's surprise gift store had me pick a Meta Quest 3, mostly for the virtual desktop feature. Setup was seamless, but the 1920x1080 limit keeps it firmly at toy-level usefulness. So I handed it off to the kids, where toy-level is exactly perfect.

Hot Plates

The dumbest thing is laboring over a hot meal only to eat it cold, so I put cast iron fajita plates on my Christmas list. No fajita fixings on hand, so I tested them with scrambled eggs, sausage and english muffins. Everything stayed hot. Highly recommended.

Microwave to Nowhere

Mt. Oglethorpe is an underwhelming summit (too many trees, unthinned around the decks), but it's convenient, which counts for a lot. What caught my eye up top: a small bunker with two microwave antennas aimed at each other across the roof. Redundant, isolated systems, I imagine.

Crosswalk to Nowhere

For years, twice a trip on a long, empty stretch of Florida Hwy 65 through Apalachicola National Forest, I'd think to film the crosswalk in the middle of nowhere, too late. One year I finally caught it. There is just so much nothing out there, and I want to know the deal.