Jodi Comes Home

I first discovered her about a three weeks ago at the Austin SPCA. After hours of debate and consideration, I adopted Jodi today. Jodi is a 5-year old terrier mix, so she's already had a bit of training (including the all-important potty training) and she knows a few tricks.

Jodi Comes Home Originally uploaded by whatnext.

She's a sweetheart and I'm already totally in love with her.



Classes start tomorrow with Old Testament at 9:30 a.m. and Worship at 1:00 p.m. I'll file a report about my first day back to school once the lectures and induction ceremonies have been completed.

The Bat Bridge

About a week ago, I joined a small group of seminary friends to check out the much-heralded Congress Avenue Bridge bat flight. I was very excited to see my second bat flight in as many weeks. Earlier, during the long drive to Austin, my family decided to take a slight detour off of Interstate 10 to see Carlsbad Caverns and their daily bat flight. Impressive. The Congress Avenue display, however, was astonishing. Just after 8:00 p.m., the bridge expansion cracks disgorged about 1.5 million Mexican Freetails. Five to six thick streams of bats (and cubs) swarmed out in pursuit of their daily insectoid meals.

Bryce Originally uploaded by whatnext.

Of course, I wasn't able to capture any of this with my digital camera because I had exhausted the already-low battery taking pictures of several cute kids who where there for the flight.

Bryce was one of those kids. With his cherubic face, he's Hollywood material at age one.

Time Warner Completes Me

I finally have my own personal high-speed internet connection. All it took was about 25 phones calls, three appointments, and 24 hours of waiting. I'm now going to take a nap.

Student Orientation Tomorrow

I'm chilling in the McMillan classroom building, within which can be found the student lounge. My cable and high-speed internet were supposed to be installed and connected yesterday afternoon, but it seems that the installers were "over-scheduled" and they never bothered to show up. So, after eight hours of waiting and repeated calling, I asked when the appointment could be rescheduled.



"This Friday afternoon", says the disappointed-sounding CSR.



"WHAT!? Are you folks aware that there are actual alternatives to Time Warner?"



"Oh yes sir. I'm really sorry you've had this problem." Etc. Etc.



Eight hours of waiting for nothing. I'm not even sure I can make myself available for the new appointment.



Anyhoo, tomorrow is the first day of a three-day student orientation. More will be reported our new incoming class becomes more familiar with the campus, curriculum, UT, etc. I've already purchased my first official round of textbooks, so things are getting pretty exciting!

George Foreman

No, this post isn't about his famous grill (I do love mine, though), it's about George finding Jesus. Mr. Foreman's conversion experience is remarkable:

Nowadays, the beloved bruiser-turned-minister sells grills and preaches the Word in his own church. Once upon a time, though, he was the meanest, most lethal cat around. His about-face began in 1977, after a tough split-decision loss in Puerto Rico.



"I started thinking, 'I could go home and retire. I got money. I could retire right now to my ranch and die,' " he told Beliefnet.com. "And before I knew it, that had taken over my whole conversation -- you're gonna die. I realized I was going to die in that dressing room from a boxing match. ... It was like someone dropped me off in the deep sea -- no help. There was no way I could get out of this."



"I saw blood coming down my forehead, and I hadn't been hit in the boxing match. And I told my masseur, 'You move your hand because He's bleeding and they crucified Him.' And I started screaming words I never screamed before, that Jesus Christ was coming alive in me. And I jumped in the shower, started screaming, 'Hallelujah! I'm clean, I'm born again, I'm going out to save the world!' And they said, 'You better put on some clothes first.' "

Other celebrity spirituality stories from the same article can be found here.

The Vampire that Can't Be Killed

Mark Steyn is at it again, this time he's on to the laggards at the New York Times, etc., who seem flummoxed by the "partisan politics" that have shockingly appeared during, of all things, an election season (from the Jerusalem Post):

So both groups are "politically motivated." Good for them. That's what multi-party democracy is all about. The New York Times and CBS News are also "politically motivated." So is this column. It's a political column, and it's "politically motivated." One day I'll start a ballet column, and that will be politically motivated.



So now that we've got all the preening patrician media snobbery out of the way, would it be too much to expect so-called political journalists to investigate Kerry's Cambodian stories? You know, the way they did when the comparatively minor question arose of whether Bush was AWOL from his National Guard base three decades ago. Boy, The New York Times loved that one:

February 4: "Military Service Becomes Issue in Bush-Kerry Race"



February 11: "The President's Guard Service"



February 13: "Seeking Memories of Bush at an Alabama Air Base"



February 15: "Still the Question: What Did You Do in the War?"

As the Times put it, "Mr. Bush himself also made the issue of military service fair game by posturing as a swashbuckling pilot when welcoming a carrier home from Iraq."



Well, the other feller made his military service fair game by posturing as a swashbuckling Swift Boat lieutenant to the exclusion of the other 59 years and eight months of his life. The story now is not John Kerry's weird secret-agent fantasies but the media's willingness to act as elite guardians of them. They're his real "band of brothers," happy to fish him out of their water, even if their credibility sinks in the process.

You can read the entire article here.



MORE: Is this all Douglas Brinkley's fault? Some say yes.

Trip to Austin - Texas Capitol Dome Interior

An impressive edifice, the Texas State Capitol features an amazing dome. Click the image to navigate to a larger version. You should be able to make out the "Texas" letters surrounding the gold Lone Star. The Texas capitol is, naturally, the largest capitol building in the United States. The complete set of pics can be found here.

Texas Capitol Dome Interior Originally uploaded by whatnext.