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After spending over an hour talking to a worker at the pet store, I've made a few new purchases for the fish tank. What was so great about the guy I talked to is that, unlike one of the other guys in the store, he wanted to actually help me, even if that meant I didn't buy the most expensive things or even shopped elsewhere. He even told me not to buy any of the plants they were selling. He is a freshwater planted aquarium hobbyist (which is also what I am trying to do) and he just works at the store very part-time to get some cheaper deals to feed his addiction.

Without much further ado:
We have two new Otocinculus affinis catfish (the same fish as Jackhammer). We can't tell the difference anymore, but they are so much more interesting as a school than as an individual.
We also have five snails. Two snails are about 5 mm long and have almost semi-spherical shells. There are also three ramshorn shell snails in varying sizes; about .75 cm, 1.25 cm, and 2 cm.

We have also put much thought into when and how we will upgrade our aquarium(s). I'll probably have it narrowed down to exactly what we want by, oh, the beginning of next month...

Previously on Felicity . . .

Since we last talked:

A Neon Tetra died. He was one of the newer ones. Either his stomach blew up from over eating, or his swim bladder blew up (he was one of the fish that had problems staying under water).

I beat Tiger Woods 2003. Well, not fully, but my character is past maxed out and I beat the Tiger Challenge. Just a couple of tournaments and it's done.

I became Bulletin Boy at church. During a time of transition on staff, I've needed to step in and type the bulletins. My first major typo was to leave an entire line out of a song. As if the congregation didn't struggle enough with singing along.

Medical payments from over a year ago start showing up. We've (Katy) spent more time calling insurance companies than calling friends and families. Some great answers to prayers. Doctor joke #1: some doctors like to charge you from wherever the camera ends up. Runner Up Doctor joke: some types of doctors should add "Up the" to the beginning of their scientific realm (i.e. endoscopy, colonoscopy, etc.)

3 new distractions

3 new games:
Tiger Woods 2003
Tony Hawk 2X
Harry Potter's Quidditch

I'm letting Katy open everything in the game for Quidditch, and she has also openned the first couple of things on TH2X. That leaves me with Tiger Woods, which Katy probably won't play. I'm about 2/3 the way through already.

Speaking of which . . .

Speed Television

10 days.

That's all it took to watch the third season of Felicity. Sure it was only 17 shows versus the typical 22, but it took us 15 days to watch the last season, so it was still faster.

If we buy the last season too soon, we will only watch it faster. Pray that we can hold out for . . . at least a week.

P.S. My money's on Noel.

Inspiration

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness." 2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)

Since when did we get the idea that this passage meant that the canon that we now have is inspired?

While 2 Timothy was probably the last Pauline letter, the epistles of James, Peter, John, Jude, and Hebrews and Revelation were all written throughout the next 30-50 years. Do we also believe that Paul's statement in 2 Timothy is prophetic? That he is not only including his own letters into the canon of "Scriptures" but also letters that had not even been written yet?

If so, then what about the writings from that same time period that didn't make it? Shepherd of Hermas? Didache? 1 and 2 Clement? Many, many others? Was Paul also anticipating what would and would not be included into the canon almost 400 years later?

Maybe we can give Paul the benefit of the doubt that he is only talking about what we consider to be the Old Testament canon. This is more likely, since the word used for "Scripture" in the New Testament regularly refers to our Old Testament. But the Old Testament canon was completely "closed" when Paul wrote this.

Sadly, most Christians use this statement to argue for biblical inerrancy. How can a writing provide its own credibility? Even biblical scholars don't believe that - and shudder. Many writings include this kind of self-approval. John writes that no one should add or take away from his writings in Revelation. Since Revelation made it into the canon, we don't worry about this. But most writings from this time that didn't make it into the canon also have internal statements about their own inspiration.

Even canonical lists include statements about their own inspiration. Yet out of the 13 differing canonical lists at the time, the Church went with Athanasius' list from the late 4th Century. (I wrote my History Senior Sem paper on how Usage, above any other factor, was why the Church chose Athanasius' canonical list)

In closing, let me just say that everything I have written here is the truth and no one has the option of disagreeing with it. (Sounds stupid, doesn't it. I would actually appreciate any comments and disagreements)

Don't You Hate It When . . .

Don't you hate it when you called someone a couple of weeks ago (on Easter) and they still haven't returned your phone calls? Or maybe they communicate information to the World Wide Web before communicating it to you?

You know who you are. . .

The Fan

I think a better name for The Ministry would be The Fan. Or maybe the Hokey Pokey: for every step forward you take another step back, eventually you throw your hands up in the air and spin around in circles.

On a totally different topic, sometimes I stop and wonder how much people talk about me in general when I am not around. I know how much I tell stories of other people, so I just wonder how much I make it into other people's stories.