lucid latin lessons

I like knowing things. I like doing things right. So here's some info both for my record (so I can remember), and so you can know too, if it interests you.

viz. - is short for the Latin word 'videlicet' which means "that is; namely"
i.e. - is short for the Latin word 'id est' which means "that is to say; in other words"
e.g. - is short for the Latin word 'exempli gratia' which means "for example"

I'm not sure of the exact correct usage of these but I notice that a lot of people will use 'i.e.' when they should use 'e.g.' (e.g. here's a great example, I shouldn't have used 'i.e.' because I'm giving an example I'm not saying "in other words" [i.e. If you first understand the english meaning of the latin abbreviation then you can know when to use each one {viz. when to use viz., i.e., e.g., etc.}]).

whew, that was kinda fun to write.

Note: I've just been reading C.S. Lewis, so my brain is in high gear :). (And I'm not sorry. Being in high gear is good ;) ).

by the way, 'etc.' is short for the Latin phrase 'et cetera' (commonly mispronounced "exsetera" and written 'ect.') which means "and the rest".

there you have it.

sin?

another quote from C.S. Lewis' "Problem of Pain" (pp. 50-1):

A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to Christianity. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world He came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed. We lack the first condition for understanding what He is talking about. And when men attempt to be Christians without this preliminary consciousness of sin, the result is almost bound to be a certain resentment against God as to one always inexplicably angry. Most of us have at times felt a secret sympathy with the dying farmer who replied to the Vicar's dissertation on repentance by asking 'What harm have I ever done Him?' There is the real rub. The worst we have done to God is to leave Him alone--why can't He return the compliment? Why not live and let live? What call has He, of all beings, to be 'angry'? It's easy for Him to be good!

To me it's sad when I see Christians who have a flippant attitude toward sin. How can you claim to be a Christian but not understand that sin is BAD?! That's paradoxical. Christians are supposed to be people who have realized FIRST that they are sinners and SECOND that God cannot tolerate sin. Then they learn that God made a way for our sins to be covered (by the shed blood of Jesus Christ), and in order for that blood to cover their sins they simply have to turn from their sins and have faith that Jesus' sacrifice was sufficient to pay for their sins. After this, they are covered with the blood of Christ and washed clean of their filthy sins and may enter into God's precense and have fellowship with Him and receive His gift of eternal life.

How can you travel down that path and become a 'Christian' if you have not FIRST realized that sin is bad? And then how can you, being a Christian, not continue to live as if it is bad?

lol

gosh, it's been a while since i received an email like this. they always make me laugh. here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Dear Elias,

I crave your indulgence at this mail coming from somebody you have not know before. I decided to do this after praying over the situation. You should please consider the transaction on its content and not the fact that you have not known me before. I need not dwell on how I came by your contact information because there are many such possibilities these days.

I would like to introduce myself as Mrs. Fatima Ali, of Repulic of Benin, widow to Late Mr. Usman Ali (for Consular of the benin embassy in Madrid,Spain.I have been recently been daigonosed of Cancer of the Pelvics. I am writing from my sick bed.

There is this consignment (containg US$29.5Million cash, in US$100 bills) my husband deposited with a security company, here in Cotonou, Republic of Benin of which I am the next of kin. With my health condition and because my husband and I have no children, I am looking for a credible person to whom I will pass the right of next of kin. This person will apply to the company and request, from them, the procedure towards retrieving the consignment from them.

This is on the condition that you will take 25% of the fund for yourself, 5% used for expenses, while you will use the remaining 70% for the less previlege people in the society. This is in fulfilment of the last request of my husband: that a substantial part of the fund be used to carter for the less previleged.

If this condition is acceptable to you, you should contact me immediately with your full names and contact information so that I will send you all the documents that the company gave to my husband when the consignment was deposited. So that you will contact the company directly, and demand from them the procedure towards retrieving the consignment from their company.

I cannot predict what will be my fate by the time you wll recieve the fund, but you should please ensure that the fund is used as i have described above. I look forward to your response.

Yours,
Mrs. Fatima Ali

N/B: Pls reply to this email: fatima22@inbox.ru

signs

wow...huh -- Luke 21:25 "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves."

"Signs in sun and moon and stars"? look at Mars, this year it'll be the closest its ever been to earth!

"On the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves" Ha! Not sure about you, but that makes me think of Dec. 26th 2004 -- the tsunami that just happened in the Indian Ocean. That caused huge distress of nations and great perplexity.

i hope He comes soon.

heavy

"This may stretch you beyond belief, but one teaspoonful of [the matter of a neutron star] weighs 3 billion tons!" ~"One Thing" - Galactic Grandeur - Sam Storms - p. 98.

I tried to wrap my brain around that. I couldn't get past picturing 20,000 tons...well, no I couldn't even picture that many. But this is 3,000,000,000 tons! Try to think about that.

my point?

"[God] exerts sufficient power and strength to hold them all in place (the stars)! Yet, God never gets tired! His energy never diminishes! God is as infinitely energetic after doing all that as he was before He started. He's never tuckered out. He never says, 'Boy, I'm wasted.' God never gets pooped!" ~p. 101

"What are your thoughts of a God who could pull this off without the slightest effort or loss of energy? Is that kind of God able to meet your needs and satisfy your soul and supply you with all good things?" ~p. 96

Behold, your God!

cool quotes from tonight's reading

from "The Problem of Pain" C.S. rad Lewis:

p. 46 - "A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

p. 47 - "To be God--to be like God and to share His goodness in creaturely response--to be miserable--these are the only three alternatives."

p. 47 - "If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows--the only food that any possible universe ever can grow--then we must starve eternally."

don't know about you, but I'm going to seek to share in God's goodness--a fitting response for a creature such as myself; i'm going to seek to eat the only food the universe grows--God, His holiness, goodness and love.

kittens

This just in! Its Kitten Wars! http://kittenwar.com/

...make of it what you will. I think this cat wins: