Clouds are starting to part

June 12, 2006 Ken Martin Leave a comment

Big weekend. Replaced a bathroom faucet. Visited a family birthday party. Then spent about twelve hours at my Mac working on various projects. And finally, many are drawing to a close.

But in the midst of my busy weekend, I still had time to notice that our home is becoming a nature center. Well, it was actually last week I woke up to this baby robin hanging out at the dining room window (click for a bigger view). What I couldn’t catch with the camera was Mama Robin bringing baby a worm. That was pretty cool. The baby was too young to be nervous about being near a Human’s house, but Mama was definitely uncomfortable.

But big deal, right? Robins are all over the place. True, but bunnies aren’t. Well, at least not out in the open taking a nap. He came out at bedtime last night and just sat there. I was able to take this picture by creeping out of the front door. He saw me and didn’t even care. We wondered if it was the same one Kenny used to chase around and around the house when he was little. Probably not – that was about six years ago – but it brought back a fun memory.

OK, fine… bunnies are not exactly novel city creatures, either. Well, my favorite of the weekend was discovered Saturday morning when I woke up. I was clicking away at the dining room table, when I looked over and saw this fellow. Yes, a goat. I’ve heard his little bleats floating around, but I’ve never caught a good look at him. He’s new to the neighborhood. A little mexican lady came over and tied him to the tree in our boulevard for a snack. He’s their pet. There’s a little kid in their family who came over and bugged it for a while. I kept hoping the goat would get fed up and bite him. Or I was going to have to. I’ve never understood kids who were unkind to animals; portends bad things. Anyway, to my disappointment, no one got bit.

As I was driving in to work today, I remembered that I’d sprayed some weed killer over there. I was wondering if I should tell them, but their english is poor and I wouldn’t want them to think I disliked having the goat on our boulevard. Then I thought a sign might do the trick. Symbols! International!

What would I do? I thought “well, a goat with a circle slash for ‘no goat’… that’s good… and then a skull and crossbones for ‘poison'”. Then I realized that would look like “if you bring your goat here I will kill him”.

So I’m not doing the sign.

General

This last week

June 9, 2006 Ken Martin Leave a comment

It’s been a tough one. It started last Saturday with a nasty sunburn earned by finishing up the garden area fencing. That was sore for a few days. Then Monday night while working on my web site it went down. Shortly afterwards a powerful, exciting thunderstorm blew through. I assumed they were related.

Tuesday came. Yes, 6/6/06. No, I don’t put anything into that date. Came in to work to a broken water main having flooded the basement. Later, my boss’s email went down while she was out of town. Then another employee’s email for a different reason. The I find out that my blog being down was just the symptom of my provider (and friend) having lost his server to a hard drive crash. I stopped by and helped him for a few hours. We decided to rebuild using Apache instead of WebStar.

The next days were a blur of working my regular day job, working on building a new server remotely, and occasionally seeing the visiting South Carolina Martins. Little sleep. Lots of stress. A handful of big, tough deadlines looming.

Well, it’s almost over. The day job deadlines have largely been met. The server is running (as you can see), though it’s not complete yet. I have a bunch of catch up work to do for past clients. Looks to be a weekend in front of a screen. But forecasts promise rain, so it won’t be bad to hang out inside.

General

Mind over matter

June 5, 2006 Ken Martin Leave a comment

[1]: http://www.firewalking.com/

Matter won.

I was out doing yardwork all day Saturday. Barefoot. Why wreck my shoes, I thought. Feet clean easily.

I had been gathering up scrap wood and twigs into our little copper fire pit and I finally decided to set it aflame. Everything was burning nicely, but I needed to tend it occassionally[1]. At one point I came in close to pick up a branch which had fallen out. I stepped on something with the foot I was leaning in on. Well, I had been stepping on things all day and usually just a little twist of the foot will relive the pain until I can shift my weight and pick up my foot. I shifted. It hurt more. And more. OW!

Well, I hadn’t stepped on stray twigs or pebbles as I had thought, but rather a few burning cinders. Oh man.

It wasn’t too bad and it doesn’t hurt anymore, but what a surprise! It funny how benign hot cinders look in the daylight.

I guess I need to go to [school][1].

[1] Whew. I almost split my infinitive.

General

Yes, I’ve been away again

May 30, 2006 Ken Martin Leave a comment

[1]: http://www.kpmartin.com/?p=92#comment-589
[2]: http://www.kpmartin.com/?p=92

But how nice to log in after my long absence and see a [comment from the mayor of Maplewood][1] on [my post giving the business][2] to the East Side Review for their coverage of recent Maplewood events. Well, I have some things to say about that and a couple of other topics, but I’m not blogging any more until I contact my mom, whom I didn’t call on Mother’s Day. Oh, I’m so bad. Guilt!

So until I’ve met my Official Offspring Obligation, adieu.

Greek Class

Greek 2 – sixteenth class

May 11, 2006 Ken Martin 3 Comments

[1]: http://www.kpmartin.com/files/class16-instruction.mp3
[2]: http://www.kpmartin.com/files/class16-homework.mp3
[3]: http://www.kpmartin.com/files/class16-reading.mp3
[4]: http://kpmartin.www62.a2hosting.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/lackey-moods.pdf

Another great class. Pete took us through an overview of “all” the verbal moods (well, the major four plus infinitive) to help us settle in on what the subjunctive mood was about. Good stuff. I’ll probably turn some of it into a PDF soon. (Done. See “update” below.)

I tore right through my first reading/translation verse of the night. Bam… nailed it. Yeah, I know, big whoop. Well, it is to me. :)

Doubling up on chapters again next week as we careen toward the end of the semester.

###Homework

– Read chapters 32-33
– Vocab for both (trivial)
– Wkbk: Parse 1-5 for each chapter
– Wkbk: Try to translate 1-5 for both (at least do 1-5 in 33)

###Preview

– What is infinitive and how is it formed
– Five ways infinitive is used
– What is imperative and how is it formed
– Understand **3rd** person imperative
– Five ways of saying “no” in Greek

###Recommendations

– P. H. Davids, *The First Epistle of Peter*, NICNT
– J. H. Elliott, *1 Peter*, Anchor
– J. R. Michaels, *1 Peter*, WBC
– E. G. Selwyn, *The First Epistle of St. Peter: The Greek Text with Introduction, Notes, and Essays*

###Audio!

Well, I initially did this for Nichole, but now that I’ve done it I think I’ll probably listen in again to a few parts: audio files! I recorded the class in three parts available here as MP3s: [instruction][1], [homework][2], [reading][3]. Please only download if you’re really going to listen. My server space is gratis and I don’t want to abuse the privilege. I only wired Pete, so you can barely hear our quesionts and comments, but that’s probably for the best, and his stuff is the good stuff anyway.

**UPDATE:** Here’s the [Greek Verb Moods chart][4] Pete made and was talking about during the “instruction” part of the class (mp3 available above).

General

Java Drive rocks

May 6, 2006 Ken Martin Leave a comment

[1]: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=234+Snelling+Ave+N,+St+Paul,+MN+55104&hl=en&ll=44.948198,-93.166895&spn=0.002027,0.005375&t=h&om=1
[2]: http://www.kpmartin.com/?p=69
[3]: http://www.spcballet.org/

I was out with all the kids, shuttling Anna to her ballet class, and since I’d overslept, I didn’t have time to make the morning coffee. I decided to swing into [Java Drive][1], mentioned before in my [post][2] lamenting Caribou Coffee’s poor decision in changing their mocha recipe.

Anyway, The very nice girl there always knows what I want: a cheerful “the usual?” Yep, big mocha. Today, however, I pulled up to ask if she took plastic as I had no cash. No, she only took cash and check. “But if you just want to pay me next time you’re by, I’d trust you.”

Funny how such a little thing can make my day. It felt like stepping back from the contrived barriers of corporate policy into a time which perhaps never actually existed where business was something that simply happened between people.

The old, long-time hardware store below Anna’s [ballet school][3] which closed down a few months ago has reopened under new management. I went in a bought a few things I marginally needed to support the local, non-big-box shop.

The old one went under because it opened a branch in a mall near Mendota Heights, but it couldn’t support itself and leached money from the successful Saint Paul location until, apparently, things got too bad. It was sad to see it close. It’s nice to have it back.

I appreciate and use the services of huge corporations who, because of their resources, have the ability to develop products of vast scope. But I sure do like small businesses where you’re just that much closer to the people who had the passion to start the business in the first place.

Faith

We make God’s Word relevant!™

May 5, 2006 Ken Martin Leave a comment

In the car I heard a commercial for a Bible with study notes – like a Life Application Bible or something. During the commercial they said something like “over 10,000 notes make God’s Word relevant!” Oh, puh-leeze.

Let me thank the note writers on God’s behalf for going that extra mile and filling in the gaps, finally making His Word relevant. Yeah, it’s the notes.

News flash: It was and is already relevant. It’s not His Word that’s lacking.

Greek Class

Greek 2 – fifteenth class

May 4, 2006 Ken Martin Leave a comment

Yep, 15th! Wow, it’s been a while since I blogged on the class. Been to busy simply trying to do the work. We finished verbs and just tonight finished participles. Had a nice eureka moment: the “noun part” of the participle is only necessary to identify the antecedent, and can be ignored after it’s served that purpose! I kept trying to squeeze a genitive key word in (for instance) and it just didn’t make sense. I finally get why.

Also, Mounce, in my opinion, talks backwards sometimes. He asks something like “why do we know it’s dative? Because of it’s function in a sentence!” Well, yeah, from the **writer’s** perspective. From mine, I know it because it ends with iota. That little revelation cleared up a lot of misunderstanding I had when listening to him on CD. (iPod, actually.)

###Homework

– Read chapter 31
– Chap 31 workbook: parse all, translate 1-5

###Preview

– Understand differences between indicative and subjunctive
– Note (but not necessarily memorize) subjunctive paradigms
– “Uses” on pages 293-295
– Section 31.19

###Book Recommendations

– (coming soon)

###Other notes

– “Mood” = How the action of a verbal form relates to reality
– Need to tweak Pete’s Participle Chart, I think to have three starting points to avoid mistaking participles for verbs as quickly as possible
– **Eight Parsing “Slots”** covering all verbal forms: Augment | Reduplication | Tense Formative | Connecting Vowel | Participle Morpheme | Personal Ending | Case Ending

And farewell to Nicole! I hope we’ll see you back in the fall! If we have Greek 2. Time to start petitioning the MacLaurin men. :)

The audio recording I made as a test tonight didn’t work very well… too far away. But I’ll have a nice recording of next week’s class available for you to download so you can keep up. :)

Family, General

Happy Birthday to me!

May 3, 2006 Ken Martin Leave a comment

Yesterday. Very nice day. The sun broke through after four grey days of rain. I had an office party on Monday where I got pizza, pie, and a nice Apple Store gift card. What to get? I think I’d like this iPod audio recording accessory, but it’s not actually out yet.

Later I had a nice evening at home, even though yet one more has fallen to strep; Anna. Not fallen like died. Been stricken, maybe? Anyway, Helen, despite illness and sick kids, prepared an awesome meal: chicken tortellini alfredo, ceasar salad, nice bread, and creme bruleé for dessert. Well, *first* dessert. Then there was cake.

Kenny spearheaded (and mostly financed) the family buying me *The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)* widescreen DVD. Cool.

Politics

The local paper is at it again

April 29, 2006 Ken Martin 3 Comments

[0]: http://www.kpmartin.com/?p=86
[1]: http://www.eastsidereviewnews.com/main.asp?SectionID=64&SubSectionID=130&ArticleID=538
[2]: http://www.maplewoodmn.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B5A0F0A6A-2DD6-4D98-A349-12B17C26A488%7D&Design=PrintView
[3]: http://www.cfboard.state.mn.us/campfin/rpdetail/rp13350.html
[4]: http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/14263173.htm

Well, [I didn’t want to think][0] Holly Wenzel’s *East Side Review* coverage of the shakeup in Maplewood, Minnesota politics was just the rambling of an unhappy constituent or partisan, but good heavens, what can I conclude after this week’s piece [“Fursman firing raises resident ire”][1] with the promised next in the series “Who ordered a background check on Interim City Manager Greg Copeland?”.

Even the way the three pull-quotes were done bugged me. In the second, why highlight “loser” and not “move on”? Well, because “move on” doesn’t look as negative in bold. “Loser” can be mistaken to be in like spirit to the other two comments. (You lose a bit of this without seeing the actual paper.)

The article spends little time on Fursman, and somehow still can’t seem to track down **any reason** he was fired. Great reporting.

But perhaps this isn’t meant to be reporting.

Continue reading The local paper is at it again →

Get this, and get it straight: Crime is a sucker’s road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison, or the grave. There’s no other end… but they never learn.