And Thank Goodness They’re Both Of Them Over February 24, 2008
Posted by Anya in : I won't keep things purposely vague , 3commentsBut the darkness has passed, and it’s daylight at last, and the night has been long – ditto, ditto my song – and thank goodness they’re both of them over! [From the song Iolanthe by Gilbert and Sullivan]
I can definitely sympathize with that feeling. Last night/this morning I was having a horrible nightmare. When all the worst parts were done (at least I certainly hope that all the worst parts were over, because I don’t even want to think about how it could have gotten worse)… it dawned on me: You can wake up.
That sounded too good to be true, but I tried it.
The amazing thing? It worked. I woke up somewhere between a sob and a gasp and realized that yes, I had been dreaming.
And then this morning I had this passage… yes, it just “happened” to be the next chapter…
“For a brief moment I deserted you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.
In overflowing anger for a moment
I hid my face from you,
but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,”
says the Lord, your Redeemer.
“This is like the days of Noah to me:
as I swore that the waters of Noah
should no more go over the earth,
so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you,
and will not rebuke you.
For the mountains may depart
and the hills be removed,
but my steadfast love shall not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
“O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,
behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
and lay your foundations with sapphires.
I will make your pinnacles of agate,
your gates of carbuncles,
and all your wall of precious stones.
All your children shall be taught by the Lord,
and great shall be the peace of your children.
In righteousness you shall be established;
you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
If anyone stirs up strife,
it is not from me;
whoever stirs up strife with you
shall fall because of you.
Behold, I have created the smith
who blows the fire of coals
and produces a weapon for its purpose.
I have also created the ravager to destroy;
no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,
and you shall confute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.” [Isaiah 54:7-17]
Or, as Derek Webb put it, “There’s got to be a love stronger than our fear of everything being out of control…”
There is a love… stronger than our fear (of everything being out of control or any other fears)… a love for the King Who conquered the final enemy — death itself — and even more than that: that same King’s love for me.
For your Maker is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called. [Isaiah 54:5]
February 24, 2008
Posted by Anya in : spontaneous degeneration , 1 comment so farPost from yesterday: (It was posted on my xanga :))
Foreward ho: Strange experience today.
Dad had bought Mom a computer version of Mah Jongg the other day. She tried loading it yesterday night, but it wasn’t working, so today she mentioned it to me and asked if I could load it up. I figured that it wouldn’t be a big problem, that I’d just have to go into “My Computer” and actually tell the stubborn thing to run. Well… I tried that. Not only did that not work, the computer failed to even recognize that there was a disk in that slot! Uggggh. It repeatedly refused to recognize it. So I tried the disk in the other tray. That was better… but it still wasn’t auto-running it. Tried the “My Computer” trick again. It opened a folder of things. Hello? I’m just trying to open Mah Jongg… don’t need the SAT prep… or the ACT prep… or any of the other junk on this CD… and where’d these other programs come from, anyway? By this point I was fervently hoping that it wasn’t some sort of virus-laden disk. And then I saw the file called “Mah Jongg”. That, you will admit, sounded promising.
Click.
This will install Mah Jongg. Would you like to continue?
Of course I’d like to. Click.
Please enter the password.
Password? Uh… *tries leaving it blank*
The password was incorrect.
No fake.
At this point, I was feeling less than happy with the programmer.
Back to the general ol’ folder of programs… looking for anything which seemed remotely connected with a password… aha. A Word document call “Password” or something of the sort.
Click.
If this program came packaged in a jewel case (ours did) the password is in the front cover of the paper insert.
The paper insert, I noted, did not actually have a front cover. It’s just a little square. But I looked at it dutifully. Nope. Nothing saying, “PASSWORD is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ” or anything of the sort. *sigh* I looked at it several more times. There was still nothing. I tried going on their website (www.starshinesoftware.com) and searching “Mah Jongg password” and such. Nothing of any use whatsoever. Grr.
Eventually, I decided to just start clicking virtually every file in the folder which looked as if it could possibly have anything to do with getting the game to launch. (Had that not worked, I would have gone to the files which looked unlikely.)
Success at last. The one file informed me, that if the program was purchased in a jewel case, the password was on the insert. Really. First word, fourth line of the ”program description”.
*takes a deep breath*
It worked, too. It worked fine.
Simple, wasn’t that?
It brought to mind a passage from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
Mr. Prosser said, “You were quite entitled to make any suggestions or protests at the appropriate time, you know.”
“Appropriate time?” hooted Arthur. “Appropriate time? The first I knew about it was when a workman arrived at my home yesterday. I asked if he’d come to come to clean to [sic] windows and he said no, he’d come to demolish the house. He didn’t tell me straight away of course. Oh no. First he wiped a couple of windows and charged me a fiver. Then he told me.”
“But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine months.”
“Oh yes, well, as soon as I heard I went straight over to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything.”
“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard’.”
That summed it up pretty well, I thought. The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide does that to a lot of things (at least, non-theological things). It was incredible how many other quotes I thought of, from that book (or five books and one story, if you want to label it that way) while I was writing this post!
Goodnight, and wonderful Sunday to you. 
