elger's · wonderful · magical · universe!

and now these parts are almost ready for assembly :-)

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At the object level, Fischer-Lichte explains, “linguistic signs are organized by means of emphasis – and pauses – in such a way that the organization can generate respectively different meanings for the linguistic signs” (Fischer-Lichte, 25). At this level the speaker uses this category of signs to stress meaning that is important for the listener. A good example of this can be found towards the end of the main part of Falwell’s service. The main text is about the notion that having a relationship with Jesus is enough in one’s despair – Jesus is all one would ever need. 55 minutes into the service, Falwell refers back to his recent trip to Israel. He states the following:

A couple of days ago I stood at the Wailing Wall, the western wall in Jerusalem, the place where many [Jews] will go and they will go because it’s the closest they can get to the holy of holies. And there, they will write their prayers on a little piece of paper and they will fold them up and they will slide them into the crevasses of that two thousand year old wall. Why? Because they think that’s as close as they can get to God. And as I was sitting there looking at those people doing that, as I saw hundreds upon hundreds of people placing the prayers in the crevasses of the wall, praying at that wall, I couldn’t help but think, how sad it is that they don’t realize that they don’t need to go to a wall to try to get close to God because God can be in their hearts, that Jesus Christ because of what he did on the cross, that he’s alive and he can live in their hearts [audience applauds].

Looking at the last sentence of this segment, starting with “And as I was sitting there...” the words that get clear emphasis are nouns and main verbs: realize – need – God – hearts – Jesus Christ – alive – hearts. Additionally it is worth noting that the word that receives clear emphasis from Falwell in that sentence is the adjective "sad" when talking about Jews.

Excerpt from the service of Falwell:

"Well it’s great to be back, as you know Charles and I for the last ten days have been traveling through Israel with about three hundred of our closest friends and had a wonderful, wonderful time, an incredible experience but it is great to be back. I landed Friday morning at seven o’clock after flying all night, had to go straight to Stafford, Virginia where I spoke three times Friday afternoon and then down to Virginia Beach where I spoke three times yesterday and got back at about ten o’clock last night and back up at five o’clock this morning getting prepared for here. But I want you to know that as soon as I landed in New York City and got back into Stafford the first thing that I did, I had to go get a cheeseburger [audience laughs]. ‘Cause one thing you can get, you can get burgers in Israel and you can get cheese in Israel but you just can’t put them together. And so for the last couple of days I can assure you I have been well caught up on all the cheeseburgers and French fries and all the wonderful things that we celebrate here in America. It was an incredible time, we did, eh, I took one suitcase, I don’t know how many suitcases we had, Sheri packed and I think we had to get an extra airplane just for the luggage, but we had one suitcase that I carried with me, it was a roll-on bag and it was very important because it was full of nothing but pop-tarts [audience laughs] and so at least our – and that is absolutely true – so at least all our breakfasts were all covered while we were over there."

Comes pretty close to a comedy performance, doesn't it?

One can never have too many Spitfires :-)

I have been waiting for over a year to start this kit of a Spitfire Traci's family gave me for Christmas almost a year and a half ago. Paints are actually one of the more expensive parts of scale modeling and given that this Spitfire and the Halifax are mostly painted in the same colors for budgetary reasons I waited before I started.

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quite remarkable... and gone is that horrible brown!

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finally got somewhere with the halifax. today I installed the last few parts and now it's ready to be primed. I'm really curious what it will look like under a coat of paint.

things worth noting: I'm rather proud of the navigator's desk lamp which you can see in this photo, and I used one of an old pair of pantyhose Traci kindly donated to make nets that held oxygen bottles. In total there are 3 of those: one on the left hand side, in between the navigator's and bombardier's position (you can see in this photo), one on the right hand side behind the navigator, and one behind the pilot's bulkhead in the engineer's compartment.

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progress has slowed down to a crawl with the halifax. it's mainly due to the fact that it takes much more effort than I thought to add the interior; I guess I should have known given that I have to hand build almost all the parts - just because a photo etched part is provided I still have to make it fit.

it's nowhere near done at this stage, but it's getting busier as you can see. the latest thing I've added are the pilot's rudder pedals.

what I still need to add are the radio operator's seat, several boxes on the walls (oxygen regulators, etc), wires and hoses, radio boxes, oxygen bottles, fire extinguishers, a flare gun, an emergency pickaxe, throttle quadrant, a lamp for the navigator's table and arm rests for the bombardier. lots more, in short.

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this actually looks promising; "Tinded Windows" the new supergroup featuring Taylor Hanson, James Iha, Adam Schlesinger and Bun E. Carlos.



you can listen to the entire first single on http://www.tintedwindowsmusic.com/

I don't care what anybody says, Cliff rocks.



:-)

Sometimes you see work by another scale modeler and it's simply breathtaking. I already mentioned Daniel Zamarbide of what is referred to as "the Spanish school" in scale modeling, but this is somebody whose work I only recently discovered: Andrea Vignocchi, an Italian.

A few days ago I found these photos of a model he built and I've been staring at them. The model is of a Short Stirling, the third of the three 4-engined British bombers of WW2 (the Avro Lancaster and the Handley Page Halifax were the other two).

This model is the same scale (so about the same size) as the Halifax I am working on, and the basic kit is of the same quality. This really is amazing skill. Truly inspirational - this is what can be done.

( some more pictures behind the cut; I wish I was this good )

Bishop Williamson has been rehabilitated in an effort to end the schism between his fraternity, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), and the Roman Catholic Church. Christopher Buckley, columnist on The Daily Beast rightfully asks, "Why on earth would Pope Benedict XVI want to rehabilitate a Holocaust denier?" (emphasis mine)

"But really, I have to say, out loud, as it were, What—the fuck—were you thinking of, Your Holiness?"

"The official Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi, said, “These are declarations that we don’t share in any way.” Perhaps it sounded more forceful in the language of Dante and Petrarch, but fair enough. Up to a point. Why, one wonders, hasn’t Bishop Williamson been re-excommunicated?"

(http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-30/pope-a-dope/full/)

Just so you know what everyone's talking about, have a look at this:



Bishop Williamson is an idiot - don't let his funny costume fool you. It's all nice and dandy that he apologized to his holiness and the church for the bad publicity he's generated, but how about an apology about what he actually said?