The laptop I used was owned by the church. It died a bad death around the end of November, just in time to get everything ready for Advent. One minute it seemed to be working fine and the next minute it tried to restart. Then it said that the hard drive wasn’t working. Then when I turned it completely off and tried to turn it back on it wouldn’t turn on at all. It was almost 4 years old. My estimation was that it would cost more to fix it than it was worth.
Fortunately I have a good Property and Finance Committee. They told me to go buy a new one and they would pay me back. I did. But it’s hard to get a new computer these days with XP on it. I was forced to buy a computer with Windows 7 which actually isn’t a bad thing! Usually I wait a year to buy a new operating system so that Microsoft will get the kinks out. But Windows 7 works well once you learn how to use it.
The point of all this is that I had to put a new hard drive in my son’s computer yesterday. Our version of XP wanted to make one partition in the hard drive and only recognize 132 or so gigabytes on the hard drive. Since it was a 500 gb hard drive I was not amused and ultimately put a version of Windows 7 on the hard drive. Which put me in the inevitable and unenviable position of waiting for the operating system to load. And then Norton. And then Firefox. And then Office. The whole time I had to, again and again, watch this little circle go around and around.
So my question is this: is an hourglass more or less irritating than a circle that keeps on going round and round? My opinion is that both are equally bad. Which makes me very glad the church bought a new laptop. I almost never see a spinning circle on this baby.
Anyone out there have a preference?
6 comments:
Can you spell MAC?
I used to be a PC "power user". I converted to MACs 4 years ago, and I have never looked back.
Jodie
I thought about it but the church would have had to purchase a lot of apple software then. It would have been too expensive after buying a new laptop.
But I will say that Windows 7 is a pretty stable platform.
The lack of trouble pays for itself with interest, in my opinion. Just the freedom from virus worries is enough. Plus the regular trouble free software upgrades. My MAC boots up just as fast today as it did the day I bought it. Its just a smooth sailing all the way.
Well, I guess that makes me an OLD computer guy. Been using Microsoft so long I don't want to change!
So having made that decision, you want to comment on the songs in the earlier post?
I find it hard to respond to blog posts that include musical excerpts. That is one thing I don't like doing with my MAC. I'm old fashioned when it comes to music appreciation. I like it live, or with a really good stereo in a quite living room.
That being said, if you close your eyes to listen to Phil Kaeggy you would never guess its just him and a six string guitar. He is very talented indeed.
And I always enjoy Celtic music and Celtic spirituality immensely. It seems to have an innate ability to counter stress.
Celtic spirituality also seems less wrapped around the syllogistic axle, listens more, talks less, that sort of thing. It's more friendly towards the mystical side of faith and the natural harmony of life.
Sometimes I think that what some call "orthodox" Christianity should be renamed Hellenistic Christianity. That way we would be aware of what is really meant by "orthodox" and more free to appreciate the different flavors presented by Christianities that have the imprint of other cultures besides the Hellenistic one.
My wife says that when I turn the music up too loud I scare the dog so I tend to use ear buds these days. Not good enough but what are you going to do?
That was one of Phil Keaggy's easier pieces. You should hear one of his latest CDs if you like hard rock. It's called "Jammed." But the old album that song came from has some of the most calming music I've ever heard.
And I agree with your about Celtic music and relaxing and about Celtic Spirituality. Iona (the group) manages to take about the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity in magnificent ways that I think are easier to hear than the traditional theology wrapped up in NeoPlatonism. It's just as orthodox but it communicates better.
They also have a fantastic piece with part of St. Patrick's prayer that starts "I bind unto myself today."
I don't think the theology that grows out of Hellenistic Christianity is bad. What does concern me is the attempt to restrict theology to certain ways of saying things. While I do believe we need to be cautious about how we say things (the recent Yale School and Eastern Orthodoxy say that the way to teach people about Christianity is in worship) I do think we need to say things in ways that people can hear and understand.
Back in seminary (at Fuller which has a school of World Missions) I learned that one of the essentials of translation of the Bible, and I would include any communication about the Gospel, is that one has to speak in words and images that people can understand. How is one translates or uses images about shepherds and sheep when that culture has no domesticated animals that behave like sheep? Like eskimos.
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