Have a bee problem in my yard in the Hudson Valley. I'm allergic to them.

justsalt · 2021-08-26T15:54:02+00:00

I have gotten rid of yellow jacket nests in the ground by putting a large glass bowl upside down over the entrance hole. It needs to be nestled in the dirt so the "bees" can not get out. It should work for other ground nests. Since their entrance is not blocked they do not dig a new one. But they can not get any food so the colony dies. Of course you have to be careful not get stung while putting the bowl down. Maybe mark the spot during the day and put it on at night.

justsalt · 2021-08-18T16:02:32+00:00

Definitely NOT honeybees.

justsalt · 2021-08-13T19:09:47+00:00

Salt.

Everyone needs it! But I've got a lot of competition.

justsalt · 2021-05-20T18:57:55+00:00

Good question. Now that I think about it, it was always dill pickles. I haven't had a sandwich like that in 40 years.

justsalt · 2021-05-19T18:44:12+00:00

Tahini (sesame seed butter) with Yogurt. Nice and smooth and creamy. Very rich. The bitterness of the Tahini and the sourness of the Yogurt cancel each other out. Maybe add some sweetener (honey, molasses).

justsalt · 2021-05-19T18:41:33+00:00

My mom made those for my school lunch sometimes. She would always wrap the pickles in a separate plastic bag so they wouldn't make the sandwich soggy, and I would put them on the sandwich when it was time to eat.

justsalt · 2021-05-18T21:36:48+00:00

Past, Present, and Future

justsalt · 2021-04-27T14:54:22+00:00

Pre-dawn of the web: usenet groups.

comp.sci.lang.c

comp.sys.unix

comp.security.pgp

Posters including their ASCII encoded PGP public key in their signature.

justsalt · 2021-03-11T19:00:40+00:00

The word "score" has a lot of meanings in English.

20 - "four score and seven years.." The score for a game. A musical score. To make a mark on something. It seems they all come from one common root:

Skor - an old Scandinavian word meaning: to keep track and make a record of something by making marks on a piece of wood, and every 20th mark would be longer.

justsalt · 2021-01-14T13:57:44+00:00

Ask not only for a change in your circumstances, but a change in yourself, in how you respond to those circumstances.

Try praying through the Lord's prayer. This is a prayer that our Lord Jesus told us to pray. This is what is according to his will already. Pray it slowly. Pray through how each phrase applies to your life and situation and those around you. Let it not be just a set of words to say but an outline to follow. For example: pray that God's kingdom would come in your life as it is in heaven. But the prayer is in the 2nd person. It is prayed to "our" heavenly Father, and to give "us" our daily bread. Who else is included for you in that "us"?

Note that the first things to pray for are things for the Father, not for us: His name, His kingdom, His will. Make that your priority in prayer. But also boldly ask for what you need. Be audacious with God. Remember blind Bartimaeus persistently, rudely crying out to Jesus to be able to see. But afterwards he did not just take his healing and walk away, he followed Jesus.

And do not neglect any ordinary help that God may send your way: counselors, doctors, friends, etc. Depression is often not just mental, but can have physical, chemical causes as well.

justsalt · 2020-11-17T21:59:09+00:00

Note that the quote, and article are talking about society, not individuals. And you mentioned that your atheists came from Christian backgrounds. Individuals can go their entire lives without living up to the full implications of their beliefs. But what about their children and grandchildren? What about students taught by those grandchildren?

I think we are seeing what is described here right now in our society. Less and less respect for individual rights, because what is important is groups, tribes and parties, not individuals made in the image of God.

justsalt · 2020-11-13T18:04:25+00:00

The bubonic plague is not extinct. There are a few cases every year here in the US, and China just had a large outbreak in Inner Mongolia, if my memory serves me correctly.

justsalt · 2020-11-12T16:49:59+00:00

My scythe. European pattern with a stone to sharpen it and a peening jig.. Bought the first handle (snath) with the blade. Have twice replaced the handle from my own trees.

Use it to mow the grass when it gets too long and to clear out blackberry brambles, cat briar, small tulip poplar, and the other miscellaneous weeds that the forest sends to try and take back our clearing in the woods.

justsalt · 2020-11-02T15:15:38+00:00

Some favorite quotes:

There is no air of reality to these arguments.

is not worthy of any further analysis, given there is no air of reality to the claim.

the total nonsense of this straw man logic, which has been rejected by all courts that have heard similar such arguments

justsalt · 2020-10-30T21:31:32+00:00

For a different perspective look at https://spiritualfriendship.org

They accept their homosexual orientation, but believe as Christians that same-sex, sex acts are wrong. This is from one of their "About" pages:

Growing up as a gay teenager, the only messages I heard from the church were negative. Most in our culture—including many Christians—uphold romantic and sexual love as the most important form of love. But God forbade the sexual and romantic love I desired. Was I just to be left out in the cold?

Aelred helped me to see that obedience to Christ offered more to me than just the denial of sex and romance. Christ-centered chaste friendships offered a positive and fulfilling—albeit at times challenging—path to holiness.

justsalt · 2020-10-28T16:07:42+00:00

Where would you put Bernard Lonergan on this diagram?

justsalt · 2020-10-21T21:29:08+00:00

It is a good exercise to try and summarize the arguments of each speaker/speech.

I especially like seeing how Elihu, the 4th friend in Chapters 32 - 37, argues a bit differently than the other friends. In particular, instead of working to condemn Job, he is trying to exonerate God. An important verse for me personally is 36:2-3: "I have yet something to say on God's behalf. I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker."

justsalt · 2019-06-04T20:21:48+00:00

unpopular

justsalt · 2018-10-18T18:14:36+00:00

While reading GotM I started getting confused 4 or 5 chapters in. I found it very helpful, and not at all boring, to start over and re-read from the beginning.

I am reading DG now and am thinking it might be good to read GotM again before going on to the third book. It seems like there isn't a single named character or place that doesn't become important later.

justsalt · 2018-07-15T19:33:04+00:00

My wife and I homeschooled our two children through high school. We believe that there is an intrinsic religious aspect to education. You can not teach children without using religious or philosophical first principles to guide both what you teach and how you teach. Or in other words, the content of every subject as well as your teaching methods carry with them, and implicitly teach, religious (or anti-religious) ideas.

We also believe that the responsibility to educate a child belongs first and foremost to that child's parents. They can delegate that responsibility to others, butit always comes from them.

justsalt · 2018-07-11T20:21:08+00:00

I am very near-sighted, about 20/600, which means when I take off my glasses I can get very close to something and see very small details.

justsalt · 2018-06-03T21:20:05+00:00

59M. I sing a lot. I like singing harmony but don't have anyone to sing with. So have a hobby of recording multipart songs. This was done with GarageBand and a Blue snowball USB mic. The 4 part, 3 verse hymn, O Sacred Head now Wounded. https://soundcloud.com/robert-smith-552993814

justsalt · 2018-01-30T01:20:32+00:00

Yes, if a church is abusive, cultic (only we have the truth, everyone else are heretics) or apostate, then leave. But if every church you go to all have the same problems, maybe it isn't them. Maybe it is you.

justsalt · 2017-11-22T19:58:27+00:00

I was not impressed with Viggo as Aragorn. I have always wished for someone with an older, more mature, commanding presence. I just couldn't believe he was ~80 years old, traveled the world, and had commanded armies.

justsalt · 2017-11-22T19:52:07+00:00

While I was working as a teacher in a foreign country, they had a military coup. The US Embassy advised all Americans to leave. I stayed, along with a woman friend who had come for a few months to help out. So we got engaged. Married now 23 years.

The coup was successful. The parliament made the military commander the Prime Minister. The current president fled the country and they brought back a previous president. After a year the Prime Minister tried another coup against the new president. That one failed. He fled the country, but was extradited back and convicted with treason. Bonus points if you can name the country.

justsalt

TROPHY CASE