Carol Rutz’s Annexe

Enjoy some old school dance tonight. “I’m the lyrical THEOLOGICAL Jesse James!”

UPDATE: I got the recent CN (11 Jun 07) and I found out that the white-haired dude behind me was Pr Don Prange ‘57 of Virginia, who is now with the United Church of Christ. Looks like Prange gave Pr Otten some articles of controversy of the liberal sort, which can be found in that issue.

In April, I’ve mentioned about the Council of Presidents at Fort Wayne, and how I met DP Dave Benke there….and here it is! Pr Herman Otten…you’re next.

Thanks to Ballastexistenz for the heads up.

Call for Immediate Action:

Below is a letter from a mother regarding an egregious example of mistreatment of her daughter, a member of our special needs community. Brigid, a girl with autism and a serious physical injury, will not be graduating with her class, and will lose out on a scholarship that she has earned to Cornell College because her school district has refused to accommodate her special needs! Read the rest of this entry »

Wanted to design my business cards, but I do not have my Wacom tablet installed with my OS. Thanks to the guys at the Linux Wacom Project, I get to use my tablet. And those who are using Ubuntu, you can find these instructions useful.

I want to see what the GIMP can do, as I heard good things about using it in a professional manner. It’s quite limited with vector graphics, but otherwise it’s pretty good for other uses. (All the more reason why we should support Open Source software with time, talent, and treasure. Someone is bound to make improvements.)

This beautiful and tender song from Black Celebration should have its own video produced like Stripped did. However, some devoted* fan did put together a collage of DM pics with the song.

Depeche Mode has various albums that are strong and worth listening, especially Violator and all albums prior to it. I love Black Celebration simply because it has a great bunch of music. This is my favorite track from that album, as this song captured the essence of home, fidelity, and belonging.

This song reflects the power and strength of love, the sacredness of trust that makes one’s house a home. In my Confessional Lutheran tradition, this power is called chastity. Some of us might think: “Isn’t chastity means not having sex, period?” That was what I’ve heard about the most in my high school days. Later on, I’ve learned that it means much, much more. I got a glimpse of it in Here is the House, and when I met my Prediger– the meaning became richer and sublime. Consider our Lutheran Confessions in regards to marriage:

Let me now say in conclusion that this commandment demands not only that every one live chastely in thought, word, and deed in his condition, that is, especially in the estate of matrimony, but also that every one love and esteem the spouse given him by God. For where conjugal chastity is to be maintained, man and wife must by all means live together in love and harmony, that one may cherish the other from the heart and with entire fidelity. For that is one of the principal points which enkindle love and desire of chastity, so that, where this is found, chastity will follow as a matter of course without any command. Therefore also St. Paul so diligently exhorts husband and wife to love and honor one another. Here you have again a precious, yea, many and great good works, of which you can joyfully boast, against all ecclesiastical estates, chosen without God’s Word and commandment.

–The Large Catechism on the 6th Commandment

I remember riding my bike around Irvine, and the lights in each home were lit, giving off this certain feeling that CS Lewis sensed: “There is an extraordinary charm in other people’s domesticities.” And back I go to my dorm room. In songs like Here Is The House, and other secular media, there are echoes of that longing and understanding. Sometimes we find it, and other times it cannot be found. In the Christian faith, we have a voice, a fuller vocabulary of this union.

I pray that your house is a place where “body and soul come together”. To those whose houses do not feel like home, I can only point to Christ– Who on earth did not have a place to rest His head, but has a place for you in His heart.

(*Yes, that is a reference from one of DM’s albums, Songs of Love and Devotion. Thus the word play.)

I’ve rented V for Vendetta, and it was a great, entertaining movie (even though things departed from the original graphic novel). Planning to write an article on Bishop Lilliman, the Office of the Holy Ministry, and Church and State. But first: a special request from your Friend of the Predigtamt.

If you have not made Eggy in the Basket, do so when you can.

There was this scene in which V made breakfast for Evey, who was hidden away in V’s sanctuary. What made it so humorous is that the guy in the Guy Fawkes costume…was wearing a cute patterned apron while frying eggy in the basket to the tune of The Girl from Ipenema. I mean…this guy blew up the Old Bailey, beat the living crap out of Fingermen, and took over the British Television building…and he decided to don something Martha Stewart would have worn. No wonder Alan Moore disassociated himself from the Wachowski Siblings’ project! Nevertheless, it was a great entertaining movie. The breakfast looked extremely great, and I had a craving to eat that today…and made the same meal the next day.

When I was in Irvine, a roommate referred to the dish as “One-Eyed Jacks”, which reminded me of the house of ill repute in Twin Peaks. But the method is still the same: Cut a hole in a slice of bread, fry both sides with butter. Crack an egg over the hole and the yolk should be in the middle of the hole. It’s okay if the white is all over the bread: it will soak through. Cook ’til the egg’s done. Adjust the temperature accordingly if you want a hard yolk or a soft yolk. I prefer mine hard. (Remember to follow food safety guidelines!)

You do not have to steal butter from wretched despots like Chancellor Sutler, but butter really makes the dish. It makes the bread golden brown and the bread will soak up the flavor. Using any other frying agent will make the bread taste like “Epic FAIL”.

While I’m getting some gigs to fix computers, I also posted up my wish on the Robinhood Fund. The best description I can make about the Fund is that it is the Web 2.0 version of “Queen For A Day”.

Basically, one ask for funds for various things, from a pair of industrial-grade shoes for work to a trip for a terminally-ill child. Your wish can be “naughty” or “nice”– selfish or alturistic, hedonistic or educational. And now, this is my wish: that airfare to OSCON won’t be a burden in my budget.

Airfare for the O’Reilly Open Source Conference in Portland

Vote: 1 2 3 4 5

Here’s to many years more.

Love,
Carol

You may have notice that I’ve added Google’s Adsense to my blog. I figured that now I’m planning to focus on my business and work, I want to have the blog earn enough so I can pay for my website hosting (which is cheap to begin with).

Adsense will feature ads based on keywords that I use, like “Lutheran”, “shirts”, “Linux” and the like. So whatever ad you see is at random. There will be non-Lutheran* stuff featured (like the guys from LMNOtees), so to my fellow Confessionals: DO NOT PANIC! And to the Threadlessbians and the Farkers: DO NOT PANIC, either! Thanks in advance.

*ADdenda (ha! a pun!): By “non-Lutheran”, I meant stuff that espouses the Theology of Glory and/or “secular” advertisements. It can range from a popular Rapture-themed fictional book to shirts with questionable taste.