Better Practice

Practice does not make perfect. it does end to make permanent, though. So, whatever you practice, do it with as proper a form and content as possible.

Still, practicing some things can be dangerous. Practicing knife fighting skills pretty much requires a skilled sparring partner, but knives are inherently dangerous tools/weapons. So: rubber knives with the same form, weight, and balance as one’s primary edged weapon can make for Good Practice.

Similarly, dry fire exercises with firearms can help hone one’s grip, aim, and trigger skills, but dry firing revolvers is generally disrecommended. So. . . dummy rounds. But dummy rounds can make other firearms practices safer, as well. For example, practicing reloading revolvers using speedloaders. It’s just that wee tad safer.

I was glad to find some dummy loads for a wee lil revolver that were S&W “longs” instead of the more easily-found ACP dummies, since they more accurately replicate reloading the preferred round for that lil revolver (it accepts and safely fires either the ACP—”short”—rounds or the “long” though it was built for and functions better with the “longs”).

Sadly, the only company I could locate (only 40 miles away!EIGHTEEN DAYS for USPS to lose/find/lose/find/HOLD/lose/find and finally deliver it.

*smh* That is why I send packages via UPS. It’s just. . . Good Practice. *heh*

The One-Sided War Has FINALLY Seen a Reply to the Enemy

I see some saying the craziness resulting from TDS and completely whacko reactions to DOGE cutting waste, fraud, corruption, and blatant treason (supplying BILLIONS in aid and comfort to avowed enemies of the US) is evidence that the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade does not think of long term consequences. Au contraire, mon frère. Some leftists do think of long term consequences. It’s why they have had so much success with the “Department of Misunderedumacationism” in dumbing down America. #gagamaggot Surely you don’t think the 45 years of policies and pressures from the DoE that have caused such harm in the supposed cause of “helping” schools have all been from a LACK of thought about the results! Nope. The harm done has been intentional.

“Once is happenstance; twice is coincidence; three times is enemy action” and 45 years of harmful acts is a war.

DoE: DOA. RIH.

Bones to Pick?

Well, not exactly bones to pick, but a few observations and opinions. Kinda off the top of my head, stream of consciousness semi-rant/opinions/observations. . .


Churches often shortchange their congregations in corporate worship in several different ways. Both contemporary “praise and worship”-oriented and traditional-format churches are guilty, IMO. Of the two essential areas areas of worship—gospel proclamation and corporate expression of worship, I’ll leave aside the neglect of gospel proclamation for now and focus on corporate expression of worship.

The first thing to dispense with is the execrable phrase “praise and worship,” because the shallowness of contemporary “praise and worship” services impeach themselves with that very phrase. Praise is one of many elements of worship. Other elements include expressions of confession, repentance and reconciliation, adoration, gratitude, giving and, of course, praise, to touch on some main elements of worship. But on top of the shallow representation of worship, the shallow expressions offered in congregational participation deny church-goers opportunity for deeper corporate expressions of worship.

And then there is the reprehensible trend in many contemporary churches to turn what should be a communal expression into a performance experience, turning the congregation into a passive audience. *smh* There is a place, IMO, for choirs, etc., but not to the extent that they dominate what should be the BIG CHOIR: those who are in the pews.

But are traditional worship services really better? Often, not. The most traditional are churches that follow a strict liturgy, even to the point of congregational worship expressions being solely from a psalter—singing the psalms (though often altered for meter). But what, I ask of Colossians 3:16 (echoed in Ephesians 5:19)?

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

There is more to express in corporate worship than can be expressed solely through a Psalter. How do hymns differ from Psalms? Are some Psalms effectively hymns? What are “spiritual songs” and how do they differ from Psalms and hymns? Clergy or lay folk who lead corporate worship should think deeply about that, and about how to lead their congregation in sharing a wider, deeper, fuller expression of worship. What does a spiritual or Gospel (no, not the popular genre that is usually NOT an expression of the Gospel) song offer that might not be as easily expressed in a hymn or a Psalm?

Of course, there are other considerations, but those, IMO, are more “inside baseball” topics for church musicians, though, sadly, from my experience they are topics not often seriously considered by church musicians. *profound sigh*


OK, a bones to pick with liturgical churches where congregational singing is “led” from the organ. Every single church I have known over my lifetime where this was the case—and every example of such I can find on the Internet nowadays—has demonstrated absolutely execrable congregational singing. The “Big Choir” is both poorly-led and almost completely overshadowed by excessive volume from the organ. I would much rather hear a cappella congregational singing from any Church of Christ congregation (despite their shameful twisting of scripture making a cappella singing de riguer) than listen to a misled congregation being drowned out by an organist who doesn’t bother to listen to the “Big Choir.”

But maybe that’s just me.

“Reflecting” on I Corinthians 13:12

The “glass” referred to using King James’s Early Modern English is. . . a mirror, a looking glass. 16th and 17th Century mirrors were neither as commonplace as today, nor as well-made, and often the reflective surface, most commonly made via a tin-mercury amalgam, with the mercury evaporated to leave the tin as a reflective surface, delaminated or otherwise became cloudy.

Mirrors were also viewed metaphorically as windows into another realm, so

“For now we see through a glass, darkly [view ourselves/see into another realm as in a cloudy mirror]; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known,”


Off topic, but maybe kinda related:

And then methought, divergently and NOT exegetically. . . If the eyes are the windows of the soul, maybe that explains why some people use reflective tinting and don’t even clean that. . .

The Joys of Life

When the top two “joys of life” are good bowel movements and a solid night’s sleep. . . I just don’t know how to even describe what that means.

Well, at least I have good bowel movements.

*sigh*

😉

The Ongoing Saga of Aussie Lap Puppy. . .

For a couple of weeks, Da Boi “forgot” how to heel. Yeh, right. “Teenagey” puppers? Seems about right. Back to being more well-mannered in following direction/commands. *whew* Still, he has never stopped giving great pupper-hugs, so there was that.

What? ME Do Stupid Things? Surely You Jest!

Yeh, yeh, OK, so sometimes I do do (yes, I said “doodoo” 🙂 ) stupid things. . . Aussie Lap Puppy (all 65#s of him) is at that gangly youth stage where he’s sometimes a bit clumsy from growing into his size, hence a (very welcome) jump into my lap having him knock into my not quite far enough away “chair desk” dumping my coffee ALL over the place. My fault (I certainly knew he had recognized an empty lap and pushed-away “desk” as an invitation), but a bit irritating. *sigh*

I’ll learn. . . or not. *heh*

Diversions. . .

Shopping can be. . . fun? Well, at least it can be amusing. Huckster sites (always view in a TOR browser/browsing session!) offer an interesting product? Do your omework. Find it elsewhere. Check some more. Oh, found it, three for the price of just one at the huckster site. Sweet! Wait. $5 shipping added? nah, look for same or lower price shipped at no additional cost. . . for exact same product. Found it! Three for 2/3 the price of one at the huckster site AND free shipping. That’s the one.

Two extra minutes. Big “discount.”

And that is just one example. It’s not exactly fun, but can be rewarding IF the [whatever product] solves an issue you need solving or fullfils a purpose you have already been seeking to fill. If it’s just some cool thing to add to your collection of junk, a better Shopping Sense will tell you to skip it entirely.