We haven’t had any resource problems for the past several hours. I’m cautiously bringing the main index back online. If it starts to flare up again, I may have to go back to the barebones index.
Year: 2005
Dumb (Technical) Question
Is there a program or utility that will tell me what parts of T & S are using server resources? Right now, I’ve got cpanel, and that’s it. So I can watch our resource use spike, and I can turn off plugins. And I can pull the index offline. And see if that helps any. But it would be nice if I could get a more exact picture. (i.e., “server use – 10. Breakdown: 2.0 for index.php, 1.0 for wp-comments-post.php, and 7.0 for blacklist.php” which would tell me “aha, the blacklist is what’s tying up resources”). Suggestions?
Sunday School Lesson 16
Doctrine and Covenants 59
Further Update
Okay, that didn’t work. We spiked again, knocked out Apache again. I took down our index file and reverted back to the out-of-the-box default wordpress index. (Pretty, huh?) We’ll see if that helps. Maybe there’s a script in our index that’s crashing the site.
Server issues, again
We just had a technical mini-crisis. I think it’s past.
Blogospheric discussion of conservatives in academia: Krugman, Kerr, Kleiman
An interesting discussion has been taking place in the blogosphere. It begins with recent studies showing that very few academics are conservative or Republican. (The ratio is about 15 to 1). Paul Krugman’s op-ed in today’s New York Times suggests a few reasons for this imbalance, among them the influence of anti-evolution politics and the idea that “today’s Republican Party – increasingly dominated by people who believe truth should be determined by revelation, not research – doesn’t respect science, or scholarship in general.” It is not surprising that Krugman’s op-ed has not been received with unanimous approval.
Thinking Mormon Philosophy and Theology
A few days after I returned from my trip to New York, I packed the suitcases again–this time with the children’s pajamas and toothbrushes, too–and flew to Utah for the annual conference of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, where I was slated to read a paper.
Folklorization
– And, Brother Decoo, could you come in your native dress? It’s this time of the year again. Circus by the aliens. Officially it’s called Cultural Heritage Night, or International Fashion Show, or LDS WorldFest. Mormons love it.
On Assembling a Basketball Standard
My wife bought a basketball standard this winter. It was on sale, our oldest son had been asking for one for months, and my wife is a great basketball player. The only problem: assembly required.
Death of a Prophet
When Pope John Paul II was named “Man of the Year” in 1994 by Time Magazine, I cut off the cover, framed it, and put it up in our apartment. We kept it up, from one apartment to the next, for a couple of years, and even at one point had a framed photo of President Hinckley on the wall next to it as well. (No visitor ever commented on our arrangement, though I often wonder what some of them may have thought.) So yes, you could say I was a major fan of the Pope. I mourn his passing, and I was glad to hear President Hinckley’s kind comments about the man. He deserved nothing less–and indeed, probably deserved much more. Am I saying that we owe something–something beyond simple respect, perhaps–to this pontiff, whether as a man or as a leader of the Roman Catholic faith, or even both? Yes.
Sunday School Lesson 15
Lesson 15: Doctrine and Covenants 46
Sunday School Lesson 14
Lesson 14: D&C 42:30-42; 51; 78; 82; 104:11-18
Sunday School Lesson 13
Lesson 13: Doctrine and Covenants 5:10; Moses 1:40-41; 2 Nephi 3:11-15; Doctrine and Covenants 84:19-25; 88:15-24; 93:29; 107:23, 33, 35; 124:37-42; 128:16-18; 130:22
An Open Thread on General Conference
This is the place, as it were, for comments on conference. I’m going to stop typing and listen.
A Big Thing?
Jim’s post “A Small Thing” and the comments it elicited reminded me that good Mormons not only can’t have beards, they can’t have tattoos either!
New Feature: T & S Karaoke
We’ve been in close negotiations to purchase some used karaoke equipment from a despondent Steve Evans. Given the course of negotiation, we’re confident that we’ll close the deal soon. And so, without further ado, it’s time to announce our latest regular feature: Times and Seasons karaoke! Once we get a few technical bugs worked out, we’ll post the first installment, which is Nate’s not-to-be-missed performance of My Way. We expect to follow shortly afterwards with Kristine’s rousing rendition of Dancing Queen, as well as a special performance of The New Kids on the Block – Please Don’t Go Girl, sung by Matt and Kaimi. As far as the rest of the schedule — well, we’re happy to take your requests. UPDATE: You drive a hard bargain, Steve Evans. So you really won’t close the deal for the karaoke gear unless we include your rendition of You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman) on the blog? Well, never let it be said that Times and Seasons is unreasonable. We’ll accomodate your wishes and change the schedule; we’ll be leading off with your masterpiece. I’m looking forward to it.
RIP, BCC
Wow — I didn’t see this one coming. It is with a heavy heart that we announce a major shake-up in the blogosphere. Steve at BCC is calling it quits. We would say that we enjoyed reading BCC; that its posts were always top-notch; that it made the sunshine brighter and the birds song sweeter. But none of that is really true. I mean, how far can a blog really expect to go when its founder is a Canadian? But we’ll miss BCC around here. We’ll miss having them around as a convenient foil. We’ll miss the cautionary tale element — I could always threaten my co-bloggers “we don’t want to become like BCC, do we?” We’ll miss the unintentional laughs, and a few intentional ones. And most of all, we’ll miss that color scheme, which we all lovingly nicknamed “Life After Airsickness.” Rest in Peace, BCC.
Book Review: Green Eggs and Ham
Theodore Geisel’s treatise Green Eggs and Ham (Beginner Books) is an ambitious work. It seeks to unify themes of longing, friendship, anger, acceptance, and culinary conformity. In addition, the book delves into Mormon themes — as one might expect, given Geisel’s little-known affiliation with the Mormon church — including blood atonement, polygamy, eternal progression, Kolob, Facsimiles One and Two, and sugar beets. Covering all of this ground would be a hard task under any conditions. And Geisel’s attempt to do so in a mere 62 pages is breathtaking in its audacity. One must give the man credit for his gumption. And given his past success in covering similar themes in The Cat in the Hat, I went into this book with high hopes. Ultimately, however, Geisel’s project fails, and this reviewer is left saying, “I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them, Sam I Am.”
Polygamy Restored!
The leaks are just too many to ignore. It’s apparently official. Following the legal victories of alternative marriage advocates in state and federal courts, the Church will announce this weekend that the doctrine of plural marriage has been restored.
12 Questions for Zelph
We’re happy to announce our next installment in the 12 Questions series. Our new participant is someone you’ve all heard of, and whose name is often discussed in the bloggernacle itself. Yes, that’s right — we’re going to be doing 12 questions with Zelph. Zelph, as you all know, was a white Lamanite and a righteous man. He participated in some of the great battles of the late-era Nephite-Lamanite wars, and was a personal friend and follower of the prophet-general Onandagus. We’re very excited to get a chance to interview Zelph and get a glimpse into late Nephite culture. So please post your questions for Zelph; we will select 12 of them, and send them to Zelph for his responses.
Is Mormon Feminism a Zero-Sum Game?
A sometimes charged little threadjack discussion has been going on in Julie’s latest book review, over a statement by Adam. Adam’s initial statement was “In my experience, the more sympathy and prominence paid to feminists, the more excluded people like my wife feel.” Adam’s reasoning is, I think, a good example of a broader phenomenon which I think deserves closer scrutiny, and which I will (with Julie’s permission) focus on in this thread. That is the argument that any movement towards feminism in the church necessarily demeans or diminishes Mormon women who do not consider themselves feminists. If this argument is accepted, that every step forward for outspoken Mormon feminists is a step backward for often silent Mormon women who are perfectly happy the way things are right now. This is a serious consequence, and that makes an examination of Adam’s assertion important. Is Mormon feminism really a zero-sum game?
A Small Thing
When I was in graduate school, I had long hair and a beard.
Page Six Jesus
As I was reading the paper yesterday on the train to work, I happened across a short article discussing the use of religious images in today’s popular fashion culture. The article discussed shirts and sweaters from top fashion houses that are now bearing images of Jesus or scriptural verses, and it mentioned that celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Paris Hilton have recently been seen wearing clothing with religious messages. The text was accompanied by a large photo spread, showing celebrities including Kutcher wearing clothes with religious messages (his shirt read “Jesus is my homeboy”). Apparently, Jesus is becoming a fashion statement. He may even be hip. How pathetic.
Toxic Fumes and Memories of Mormon Art
The summer after my mission I got a job restoring Mormon pine furniture. Over the course of its life, the furniture had been painted many, many times. My job was to painstakingly remove layers of later paint with an exacto knife and Q-tip swabs soaked in paint thinner while leaving the original layer of paint unharmed. It was very slow work — generally no more than a few square inches a day — and it involved breathing in a lot of toxic fumes.
Here and There in Mormon Art
Last month I kindly provided my husband some uninterrupted bonding time with his children and flew to New York City for a few days. On the recommendation of a friend (bloggernacle personality D. Fletcher), I stopped by Lane Twitchell’s current art show, “Here & There,” at the Greenberg Van Doren gallery in midtown.
Book Review: Women in Eternity, Women of Zion
Imagine, if you will, that a stalwart member of the Church approached you with some concerns about the theological underpinnings of the Word of Wisdom. What might you do? Castigate him as a rebellious secularizer? Remind her that questioning was the fast road to apostasy?
Poached like an Egg
Over at Millenial Star, Davis Bell has posted a few thoughts on the phenomenon of blog poaching. This follows up on the protests that some blogs receive at regular intervals about blog poaching. Davis’s post may be kind of weak itself, but he does point to the interesting, broader issue. What is blog poaching, exactly? And assuming that it can be defined, why is it an issue? That is, why do some readers object to following up on a post on Blog A, with a post on Blog B?
Is God an Ethicist?
The Mormon Spinozist has an interesting post lamenting (sort of) the lack of a clear doctrinal answer on the question of when life does or does not begin. What are we to make of the fact that we seem to have important questions about which the scriptures provide cryptic guidance at best? Here is my stab at a conclusion: Neither God nor his prophets seem to be ethicists.
On the Burden of Dealing with Polygamous Founders
It is tough to deal with being a member of a church which had polygamous founders. It’s not easy to look back through your religious history to the key figures, some of the ones on which the entire system rests, and note their ugly warts. Why did they choose to take more than one wife? Why did they even embrace polyandry, the taking of other men’s wives? Were these men sex addicts, deviants, or worse? How can a modern member deal with such a blatantly misogynistic practice? Not to mention the lying about wives. Is there any place in today’s society for a church based on such a barbaric law? It’s a tough question. Yes, I just don’t know how the members of the Jewish faith — and its little offshoot, Christianity — can go to sleep at night, knowing what they do about Abraham’s polygamy.
“Let us walk through the door”
In honor of this holy day, I offer a favorite poem: “Seven Stanzas for Easter.” John Updike wrote it in 1960 as a university student, as I understand, and published it in a periodical called The Lutheran. ___ Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall.