One of Delta’s assignments was writing a letter to someone (or something).
Translation: Dear Room, I think you should help clean inside you. One reason – then my room will be cleen. Reason two – it will help me get to my bed. I will help clean. Please write me back.
I need to write him back and sign it “Room”.
Then I gave an order and they cleansed the rooms; and I returned there the utensils of the house of God with the grain offerings and the frankincense.
Nehemiah 13:9
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One of the options at my accent-generating website is an Irish accent. It’s a tough one, because much of the Irish accent can’t be spelled – it’s intonation and such. But that doesn’t stop people from trying to sound Irish. The following image is a graph of website traffic during the month of March. Without looking at the dates at the bottom, can you guess which day was St. Patrick’s Day?
If only there were a popular Australian holiday in the US, that would certainly bump up the stats then too.
nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you;
Ezekiel 3:6
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We were heading somewhere, all of us in the family minivan. As is my usual custom, I call out “Shoes! Coats! Buckle up!” throughout the house to let the kids know it is time to leave. Sometimes in the warmer weather I will still include “Coats!” just for fun.
Another tidbit you should know if that we park the van nose-in, for our 1-car garage. And everyone has his assigned (by habit) seat. The only one with a truly designated seat is Delta – he has to sit where the car seat is. But his car seat is always behind the driver’s seat and Gamma is next to him behind the front passenger seat.
Last week, we were headed to something. I rounded everyone up, they all went into the garage and I started putting on my shoes. I had barely finished tying the first shoe when Delta came stomping back through the garage door, crying and yelling. He was so mad that Gamma had moved his car seat so now Gamma was in the wrong spot. I, of course, had to go out to the van to find out why Gamma moved Delta’s car seat.
It was not an emergency though, so I started tying my other shoe. And before I finished with that, I heard Beta call out from the back of the van, “Delta, your seat didn’t move – the van is backwards.”
For some reason, probably someone blocking part of the driveway, I had to back the minivan into the garage previously. So it was nose-out. And therefore everyone’s normal seats were on the opposite side of the garage. Delta had such a force of habit that he did not notice the van was backwards, all the seats were facing backwards. He just knew Gamma was where he wanted to be.
Once I realized what happened, it was quite funny. And Delta calmed down pretty quickly once he caught on.
Even if I have truly erred, My error lodges with me.
Job 19:4
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I recently received this letter:
As you can guess, I did not want to disobey the instructions on the envelope.
So I discarded it on purpose.
Take double the money in your hand, and take back in your hand the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks; perhaps it was a mistake.
Genesis 43:12
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I like to try different BBQ sauces. One of the habits that my wife puts up with is that when she sends me grocery shopping, I usually come home with a bottle of BBQ sauce.
Her: “I didn’t know we were out of sauce…”
Me: “We weren’t, I just thought this one looked good.”
My main criterion is that it can’t have high-fructose corn syrup. If I see that, I put it back on the shelf.
Bonus points for a glass bottle.
And in this particular case, bonus points for simple, clear directions.
When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked, and received instruction.
Proverbs 24:32
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There are some things that everyone just knows, like tetanus is caused by rusty metal and planes can fly because of the Bernoulli principle. And of course everyone knows that the wisdom of crowds means that a bunch of people who agree on a topic must be right.
Not so fast though.
I learned something recently about the supposed wisdom of crowds. The book that started all this – by James Surowiecki – highlighted that phrase but the concept is a little more nuanced. Crowds are not wise because they are a large group of people, rather, crowds are wise because (or more correctly, if) the individuals bring unique information.
Consensus is useful if all parties have arrived at the conclusion independently, using their own methods and data sets. If everyone looks at the same data, you don’t have a wise crowd – you have a crowd of average intelligence.
When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.
Matthew 22:33
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I’m trying to figure out what’s a better situation for having a nail in a tire: hot weather or cold weather.
I have a slow leak in a tire and the leak rate seems to change with temperature.
One could argue that a hot tire is better because the softer rubber can better seal around the nail. One could also argue that a cold tire is better because the cold rubber will contract around the nail, providing a tighter seal.
I don’t know if there’s a nail in my tire, I just got thinking about the situation and haven’t decided yet. I’ll let you know if I ever resolve it.
Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent; The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
Isaiah 5:28
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This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
