Author: Glen

Email Bankruptcy

Stanford law prof Lawrence Lessig has declared email bankruptcy.

In a script-driven note sent out last week, Lessig wrote: “Dear person who sent me a yet-unanswered e‑mail, I apologize, but I am declaring e‑mail bankruptcy.”

He went on to note that he had spent 80 hours the prior week sorting through unanswered e‑mail built up since January 2002, and had determined that “without extraordinary effort” he would simply never be able to respond to these messages.

Evidently he gets an average of 200 non-spam emails a day. I have to say that makes me feel better about my own email inadequacies. My next three days will be chiefly comprised of a concerted effort to whittle down my inbox. I started this morning at 387 non-spam, non-newsletter emails. I end today at 347. It doesn’t look like much progress, but I had two hour long phone conversations and a bunch itty-bitty ones that kept me from the computer most of today.

My goal for tomorrow is to get my inbox down to 200…

Shrek 2

Public thanks to Elizabeth Garcia (good friend and Stanford Chi Alpha alumnus) for babysitting Dana last night so Paula and I could go enjoy an evening out.

We watched Shrek 2, and loved it. It was doubly cool, because Hector Yee (a friend of ours) works at DreamWorks and wrote the code that rendered the shadows cast by the fur on the cat. He’s listed in the credits.

Anyway, we had a great night. Thanks, Elizabeth!

Scripturizer in PHP

UPDATE 12/23/2004: I’ve moved my version of the code to the new WP Plugins repository, so you can download it at http://dev.wp-plugins.org/file/scripturizer/trunk/scripturizer.php

UPDATE: plans are afoot to merge the three existing codebases (Dean’s, Scott Yang’s, and this one) into a single Sourceforge project. (UPDATE 12/23/2004: nothing has really come of that–we’re all a little busy and haven’t really worked to make it happen. Oh well…)

Not realizing that Mean Dean was porting Scripturizer to PHP, I went ahead and did it so that I could begin using it on this WordPress site. At about the same time Scott Yang made one, so there are two versions out there. Sorry about that.

I originally wasn’t going to package it for release, but it turns out that I had to do it to actually use it on my site :), and so I figured I might as well put it in the public version to make it easy for anyone else to use. Also, figuring out how to use add_action was nonobvious (at least when I first did this–I believe the documentation has improved considerably), so I wanted to provide a clear example.

It extends the functionality of the original and also changes the data permanently in the user’s database (as opposed to Scott’s, which filters it on the fly). You can set mine to do that (see the source code), but Scott’s will work that way out of the box. Which you prefer is up to you. Mine is more efficient, his affects all the archives without making you manually edit anything.

Usage: just copy the source code to a file named scripturize.php in your wp-content/plugins folder. Go to your administration panel, click on Plugins, and activate it. Then just refer to the Bible in your posts. If you don’t want a Bible reference hyperlinked, be sure to enclose it in preformatting tags, like so: 

<pre>John 3:16</pre>

Changes from Dean’s original:

  • You can specify a translation you want to link to by putting the standard abbreviation after the reference like so: John 3:16, NIV or 2 Cor 5:20 (NET). This one is huge, for me.
  • Added New English Translation. I like this translation for several reasons, but mostly for its philosophical underpinnings.
  • Made syntax a little more permissive. For instance, you can now specify a reference by saying Gen. 12:1 or Gen 12:1 (period/no period).
  • Made syntax a little less permissive as regards whitespace. Just write things normally and everything will work fine (I changed this to correct some errors I was seeing wherein the link would run into the blank space after the reference).
  • The regular expressions handle linking a little bit differently. It does something more useful when confronted with a crazy reference like Rom 1:3, 5–8, 10,12 that the online Bibles don’t know what to do with.
  • As I mentioned, by default it will actually change your post as stored in your database. Forever. Irreversibly. With no backup. Just be aware of that.
  • You can now specify a default translation. It is initially set to the NIV, because I assume that’s what most people will want.

Please Report Bugs In Bug Tracker
I’d really like to know if you catch any bugs. I use this plugin myself, so bugs directly affect me! 🙂

There is a bug tracker set up at http://dev.wp-plugins.org/newticket, so please report any problems there.

A Message to Stanford Students

Hey–glad you stumbled across the site.

You’re welcome to poke around here and learn more about Paula and I. Just so you know, this website is a tool we use to keep family, friends, and ministry partners up-to-date on our lives and ministry.

So if you came here wanting to learn more about Chi Alpha, check out Chi Alpha @ Stanford or national Chi Alpha.

If I’m Freaking You Out
If you just stumbled across this website while searching for something else and are growing increasingly horrified as you read of my nefarious plans to engage students in spiritual discussions, allow me to explain myself.

Some students are really uptight about religion, but most are not. Students generally enjoy having a non-pushy and thought-provoking discussion with someone about interesting things like the meaning of life, the existence of God, the nature of morality, and the power of religious belief.

Those are the people I interact with. I don’t roam about the campus like a lion seeking unwitting students to devour. I talk with people about things they want to talk about.

For the record, Chi Alpha is an organization in good standing with Stanford Associated Religions and is also a registered voluntary student organization at Stanford. That means our presence is sanctioned by the university.

So chill.

If I’m Freaking You Out Now
If, on the other hand, you were fine with everything I said until I explained that I’m not pushy and obnoxious, read on.

Being pushy and rude isn’t the Biblical model for evangelism. Don’t believe me?

  • Consider the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12), wherein Jesus tells us to treat others the way we want to be treated. That applies to evangelism, too. If you wouldn’t want an atheist, Muslim, or Mormon talking to you a certain way, don’t talk that way to others.
  • Notice Peter’s advice that we are called to live in such a way that people ask us questions about our beliefs, and when they do we answer them gently and respectfully (1 Peter 3:15–16)
  • Consider Paul’s prayer request in Colossians 4:3–4, in which he prays for opportunities. Note that he does not announce his clever plans for tricking people into talking with him. He prays that God would bring the conversations about.

In other words, I’m not shirking back from proclaiming the gospel clearly, nor am I capitulating to some insane campus speech code, nor am I living in fear of the secular status quo. I’m merely being wise and biblical.

Just think about it: I’m an ordained minister and nationally appointed missionary with the Assemblies of God, which the world’s largest Protestant denomination and which is considered by many to be the most effective missionary movement in the history of the world (reflect on this: we didn’t exist 100 years ago and are now one of the largest religious movements anywhere). The Assemblies of God didn’t send us to reach Stanford because we’re some kind of cowardly wimps. They sent us because they believe we are called, gifted, and guided by God for this task.

So chill.

XA in Arkansas is Tearing it Up!

This news from University of Arkansas Chi Alpha leader Ronnie Hoover. They’re building a ministry center, and are having great success at raising the funds:

Hey everyone,

Many of you know that I gave away $1600 to our students after reading to them the parable of the talents. I gave away 50s, 20s, and 10s. The students were to go out and multiply their talents just like in the parable. Well, they brought back just over $10,000 last Wednesday night. PTL!

They did so many so many cool things like investing in clay and making pottery, investing in bike parts and putting together a Mt. bike, hosting a bake sale, selling a CD of P&W songs, Selling cookie dough, suckers, and so much more.

We also hosted a Fund Raising Banquet on Sat. night and our goal was 50K. We brought in $51,900.00 in one night. Praise the Lord. All of this money of course goes to build the new house. Please just take a moment and thank God with us.

I just had to tell,

Ronnie Hoover

How cool is that?