Sunspots 700

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

 
Computing: National Public Radio on the question of whether self-driving cars should have ethics built in.

Food: National Public Radio reports on the likely effect of climate change on five important crops. All five will be impacted negatively.

Health: (or something) Gizmodo reports that families have been scattering the ashes of their loved ones at Disney theme parks.

Politics: Gizmodo discusses a case, from the 19th Century (!) on the question of whether people can use photographs of individuals without their permission.

National Public Radio discusses the meaning of "nationalism," and the history of the use of that word.

Earther reports that the newly elected President of Brazil wants to turn the rain forest into a soybean field.

Earther also reports that President Trump has designated a new national monument, with significance for African-American history.

Science: Science Magazine reports that there is considerable variety in the shape of women's birth canals, which means that fetuses have different challenges when being born, depending on their mother's anatomy.

New Scientist has posted winners of an astronomy photo contest.

Scientific American reports that tiny bits of plastic are commonly found in people's poop.

Scientific American discusses the determination of sex, which is complicated and difficult to predict, and may even change as the individual matures.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.

Thanks for looking!

The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11 by Thomas Watson. Excerpt 50

Watson next considers the evil of being discontented.

Consider the evil of discontent. Malcontent hath a mixture of grief and anger in it, and both of these must needs raise a storm in the soul. Have you not seen the posture of a sick man? Sometimes he will sit up on his bed, by and by he will lie down, and when he is down he is not quiet; first he turns on the one side and then on the other; he is restless; this is just the emblem of a discontented spirit. The man is not sick, yet he is never well; sometimes he likes such a condition of life but is soon weary; and then another condition of life; and when he hath it, yet he is not pleased; this is an evil under the sun. Now the evil of discontent appears in three things.

Evil 1st. The sordidness of it is unworthy of a Christian. (1.) It is unworthy of his profession. It was the saying of an heathen, bear thy condition quietly; “know thou art a man;” so I say, bear thy condition contentedly, “know thou art a Christian.” Thou professeth to live by faith: what? and not content? Faith is a grace that doth substantiate things not seen; (He. 11. 1) faith looks beyond the creature, it feeds upon promises; faith lives not by bread alone; when the water is spent in the bottle, faith knows whither to have recourse; now to see a Christian dejected in the want of visible supplies and recruits, where is faith? “O,” saith one, “my estate in the world is down.” Ay, and which is worse, the faith is down. Wilt thou not be contented unless God let down the vessel to thee, as he did to Peter, “wherein were all manner of beasts of the earth, and fowls of the air?” Must you have the first and second course? This is like Thomas, “unless I put my finger into the print of the nails, I will not believe;” so, unless thou hast a sensible feeling of outward comforts, thou wilt not be content. 

True faith will trust God where it cannot trace him, and will adventure upon God’s bond though it hath nothing in view. You who are discontented because you have not all you would, let me tell you, either your faith is a nonentity, or at best but an embryo; it is a weak faith that must have stilts and crutches to support it. Nay, discontent is not only below faith, but below reason: why are you discontented? Is it because you are dispossessed of such comforts? Well, and have you not reason to guide you? Doth not reason tell you that you are but tenants at will? And may not God turn you out when he pleases? You hold not your estate by juridical right, but upon favour and courtesy. (2.) It is unworthy of the relation we stand in to God. A Christian is invested with the title and privilege of sonship, (Ep. 1. 5) he is an heir of the promise. O consider the lot of free-grace that is fallen upon thee; thou art nearly allied to Christ, and of the blood royal; thou art advanced in some sense, above the angels: “why art thou, being the king’s son, lean from day to day?” (2 Sa. 13. 4) why art thou discontented? O, how unworthy is this! as if the heir to some great monarch should go pining up and down because he may not pick such a flower.

Thomas Watson lived from 1620-1686, in England. He wrote several books which survive. This blog, God willing, will post excerpts from his The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11, over a number of weeks, on Sundays.

My source for the text is here, and I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this text (and many others) available. The previous excerpt is here.
  
Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. (World English Bible, public domain.)      

Sunspots 699

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: Christianity: Christianity Today on why the news isn't as important as most of us seem to think it is.


Finance: (or something) China is to open the world's longest over-ocean bridge today, according to National Public Radio.

History: (or something) From the New York Times, a map of every building in the US, with some accompanying text.

Humor: (or something) Relevant reports that a man ordered two glasses of water in a restaurant, and left a $10,000 tip.

Politics: Christianity Today has reported on a survey of evangelical voters. Sojourners has criticized the methodology of the survey.

Women are often treated badly in South Korea, according to National Public Radio. One symptom is that voyeurs place spy cameras in public bathrooms.

Science: Christianity Today also has an essay on how, and why, God seems to stay hidden -- not immediately visible.

Earther reports that climate change is expanding tick infestations on moose in New England, killing lots of moose.

Sports: (and science) A professor at the University of Illinois has produced the physics of baseball.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.

Thanks for looking!

The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11 by Thomas Watson. Excerpt 49

Watson continues discussing how the evils of affliction may work for good:

Sixthly, These evils of affliction are for good, as they bring with them certificates of God’s love, and are evidences of his special favour. Affliction is the saint’s livery; it is a badge and cognizance of honour: that the God of glory should look upon a worm, and take so much notice of him, as to afflict him rather than lose him, is an high act of favour. God’s rod is a sceptre of dignity, Job calls God’s afflicting of us, his magnifying of us. (Job 7. 17) Some men’s prosperity hath been their shame, when others afflictions have been their crown.

Seventhly, These afflictions work for our good, because they work for us a far exceeding weight of glory. (2 Cor. 4. 17) That which works for my glory in heaven, works for my good. We do not read in Scripture that any man’s honour or riches do work for him a weight of glory, but afflictions do; and shall a man be discontented at that which works for his glory?
The heavier the weight of affliction, the heavier the weight of glory; not that our sufferings do merit glory, (as the papists do wickedly gloss,) but though they are not the cause of our crown, yet they are the way to it; and God makes us, as he did our captain, “perfect through sufferings.” (He. 2. 10) And shall not all this make us contented with our condition? O I beseech you, look not upon the evil of affliction, but the good! Afflictions in Scripture are called “visitations.” (Job 7. 18) The word in the Hebrew, to visit, is taken in a good sense, as well as a bad: God’s afflictions are but friendly visits. Behold here God’s rod, like Aaron’s rod blossoming; and Jonathan’s rod, it hath honey at the end of it. Poverty shall starve out our sins; the sickness of the body cures a sin-sick soul; O then, instead of murmuring and being discontented, bless the Lord! Hadst thou not met with such a rub in the way, thou mightest have gone to hell and never stopped.

Thomas Watson lived from 1620-1686, in England. He wrote several books which survive. This blog, God willing, will post excerpts from his The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11, over a number of weeks, on Sundays.

My source for the text is here, and I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this text (and many others) available. The previous excerpt is here.
  
Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. (World English Bible, public domain.)      

Posted by Martin LaBar at 3:29 AM

Sunspots 698

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Christianity Today reports that many US Christians hold heretical beliefs about the gravity of sin, the importance of worshiping with others, and the nature of the Holy Spirit.


Finance: (or something) Scientific American reports that there are now a million electrically powered autos in the US.

Food: Listverse on the origins of 10 common foods (including bagels, ice cream cones, and others.)

Health: Scientific American on doctors being slow to use new technology. (The article says that thermometers were resisted for a long time!)

History: About the life of Ella Mae Wiggins, a textile worker who became a leader in the struggle for better pay and conditions for textile workers, but who was shot to death in 1929, by textile mill security employees.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight has a solid analysis of how the Supreme Court responds to resistance to its actions from Congress and/or the President, based on the history of such situations.

Science: Scientific American tells us the function of a horse's tail. Really.


The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.
Thanks for looking!

The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11 by Thomas Watson. Excerpt 48

Watson continues discussing how the evils of affliction may work for good:

Fifthly, These afflictions do bring more of God’s immediate presence into the soul. When we are most assaulted, we shall be most assisted; “I will be with him in trouble.” (Ps. 91. 15) It cannot be ill with that man with whom God is, by his powerful presence in supporting, and his gracious presence in sweetening the present trial. God will be with us in trouble, not only to behold us, but to uphold us, as he was with Daniel in the lion’s den, and the three children in the fiery furnace. What if we have more trouble than others, if we have more of God with us than others have? We never have sweeter smiles from God’s face than when the world begins to look strange: thy statutes have been my song; where? not when I was upon the throne, but “in the house of my pilgrimage.” (Ps. 119. 54) We read, the Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire: (1 Ki. 19. 11) but in a metamorphical and spiritual sense, when the wind of affliction blows upon a believer, God is in the wind; when the fire of affliction kindles upon him, God is in the fire, to sanctify, to support, to sweeten. If God be with us, the furnace shall be turned into a festival, the prison into a paradise, the earthquake into a joyful dance. O why should I be discontented, when I have more of God’s company!

This list will be continued in succeeding posts.
Thomas Watson lived from 1620-1686, in England. He wrote several books which survive. This blog, God willing, will post excerpts from his The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11, over a number of weeks, on Sundays.

My source for the text is here, and I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this text (and many others) available. The previous excerpt is here.
  
Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. (World English Bible, public domain.)      

Sunspots 697

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Christianity Today reports on the shockingly low numbers of refugees, and refugees who have been persecuted for being Christians, that entered the US last year.

A Christianity Today author on the stress of caring for kids at home and for aging parents, at the same time.

Relevant responds to a question about whether giving to Christian charities makes it unnecessary to tithe to one's church.

Relevant also offers an essay on "Five Myths of Christian Political Engagement."


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware on an application that lets you listen to radio stations from all over the world, free.


Health: National Public Radio reports that patients with colds want doctors to prescribe antibiotics, even though such medications aren't effective against viruses, and may contribute to antibiotic resistance.

National Public Radio also reports on using apps to help you go to sleep. Some of them work!
The Scientist reports that abdominal fat can play a role in protecting us. (Too much of it is still bad for us!)

Philosophy: A Scientific American writer argues that science can never solve the mind-body problem. (Here's the Wikipedia article on that problem.)


Science: Listverse tells us about Europa, the most interesting moon of Jupiter.

Earther reports on high-flying (like about 8+ kilometers up) bacteria, and their effect on weather, and maybe on disease transmission.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.
Thanks for looking!

"I am" in the Gospel of John -- important occurrences.

There are about 70 occurrences of the word pair "I am" in John, most rather trivial. Those below are not trivial.

This “I am” is not in John, but is the source of one that is in that Gospel:
Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

John 8:58 Jesus said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM.” Jesus was referring to the experience of Moses indicated above, and his critical hearers understood that He was doing so.

In John 4, Jesus, in effect, told the Samaritan woman that I am living water. 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not be hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 47 Most certainly, I tell you, he who believes in me has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.

8:12 Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

10:11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 26 Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” [To Martha]

14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. [To Peter. Perhaps other disciples were present.]

15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. 2 Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

18:37 Pilate therefore said to him, “Are you a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Thanks for reading. He is!

The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11 by Thomas Watson. Excerpt 47

Watson continues discussing how the evils of affliction may work for good:

Fourthly, Afflictions do both exercise and increase our grace. They exercise grace; Affliction doth breathe our graces; every thing is most in its excellency when it is most in its exercise. Our grace, though it cannot be dead, yet it may be asleep, and hath need of awakening. What a dull thing is the fire when it is hid in the embers, or the sun when it is masked with a cloud! A sick man is living, but not lively; afflictions quicken and excite grace. God doth not love to see grace in the eclipse. Now faith puts forth its purest and most noble acts in times of affliction: God makes the fall of the leaf the spring of our graces. What if we are more passive, if graces be more active. Afflictions do increase grace; as the wind serves to increase and blow up the flame, so doth the windy blasts of affliction augment and blow up our graces; grace spends not in the furnace, but it is like the widow’s oil in the cruise, which did increase by pouring out. The torch, when it is beaten burns brightest, so doth grace when it is exercised by sufferings. Sharp frosts nourish the good corn, so do sharp afflictions grace. Some plants grow better in the shade than in the sun, as the bay and the cypress; the shade of adversity is better for some than the sun-shine of prosperity. Naturalists observe that the colewort thrives better when it is watered with salt water than with fresh, so do some thrive better in the salt water of affliction; and shall we be discontented at that which makes us grow and fructify more?

This list is to be continued in succeeding posts.

Thomas Watson lived from 1620-1686, in England. He wrote several books which survive. This blog, God willing, will post excerpts from his The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11, over a number of weeks, on Sundays.

My source for the text is here, and I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this text (and many others) available. The previous excerpt is here.
  
Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. (World English Bible, public domain.)      

What to call your beliefs about origins?

Naturalis Historia has posted an excellent web page, which provides a flow chart for determining what your beliefs about origins are usually called, and also has descriptions of the major categories of belief on origins. (Young-earth creationist, etc.) This post must have been a lot of work.

You may also want to look at my own web page, which attempts to do more or less the same thing.

Thanks for your interest.

Sunspots 696

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Weekend Fisher lets the Gospel of Mark tell us what it is about, and how it is structured.

Michael Gerson, of the Washington Post, attacks the hypocrisy, and political wrong-headedness, of the adulation some evangelical leaders have for President Trump.

Finance: (and health, and politics) NBC News, and other outlets, report that an Associated Press investigation shows that President Trump's claim, in May, that drug prices would be falling in two weeks, was false. Drug prices have been rising, unfortunately.

Science: Gizmodo asks if perfect memory would be a blessing or a handicap.

FiveThirtyEight reports that we are bad at being able to tell whether another person is lying or not.

Scientific American on why nicotine is so addictive.

And Scientific American says that cats aren't really very likely to catch rats.

And Scientific American also reports on the largest birds that ever lived.


Sports: Two women will be (and already have been) broadcasting NFL football games for Amazon.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain. I also believe that it was first used in Sunspots, 13 years ago today. Thanks for looking!

Thanks for looking!

Some books I have recently read: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Prydain, Goldstone Wood, Paksenarrion

I have recently re-read three or more books by each of four different authors.

Let's go with the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books first.  The Late Betty MacDonald was the author. These are children's books (or maybe parent's books) about children with various common childish flaws, such as not telling the truth, quarreling, not putting toys away, bullying, losing things and not wanting to go to bed. The list goes on. In each case, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle persuades the child to behave more positively, sometimes just by portraying a character herself (a queen who demands absolute neatness), by animals (a parrot that answers back faster than the child can say something nasty, such as "whose the boss around here."), or by minor magic. MacDonald is a genius at inventing funny names for children and their parents. Pergola Wingsproggle, and Enterprise Beecham, for example. The books show their age in spots -- all the mothers are housewives without outside employment, and no one has a TV, for example -- but they are still funny, even laugh out loud funny, and make us wish that we had a child-loving fairy godmother type to help us with our children's, grandchildren's, or other child's behavior. Human nature doesn't change. Most libraries should have these books.

There's a dark side of fantastic literature. Anne Elisabeth Stengl is the author of the Goldstone Wood books. (There is a Wikipedia page for her, but it's not very informative. If you are want more information, try the GoodReads Tales of Goldstone Wood page.) These are fantasies. Evil fairies (there are some very good ones, too) appear in these books. There seems no doubt that Stengl is a believing Christian (she has won two Christy awards) but the books aren't preachy. They are well written, with many characters, some through the series, and more in just part of it. To summarize in a phrase, the books are about conflict between good and evil. The evil is a dragon, or more than one dragon, as evil, intelligent and malevolent as can be. There is a Christ-figure, a high lord or prince, the Prince of Farthestshore, but he appears seldom. A recurring character is a speaking cat, sometimes. At other times, he is a fairy, and a knight of Farthestshore. The religion of the books is complex. There are elements of paganism, with priests and temples, practiced by some of the people in these books. There is also more than one good deity, or, if not multiple deities, powerful good beings. The moon, the sun, and the North Star are personified in one or more of the books. There is also a thrush, who calls characters back to goodness, repeatedly. One of Stengl's inventions, or, if she didn't invent them, she uses them a lot, is paths. Paths are hidden, except for those using them, and allow characters to travel rapidly from place to place without harm, so long as they stay on such paths, even though they may go through some dark places. Why did I start this paragraph with "the dark side?" Because the personalities of the dragons are so utterly evil. But there is good, too. This is a well-written series, and I recommend it to readers interested in fantastic literature. I have previously posted about some of Stengl's work: Veiled Rose here, Starflower here and Heartless here.

Another series is the Chronicles of Prydain, a series for middle- and high schoolers (and adults) by the late Lloyd Alexander. There are five books, namely The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer and The High King. As the Wikipedia article on the series says, the series is a Bildungsroman -- the story of how a young person, in this case, Taran, grows up, emotionally. The Black Cauldron was a Newbery Honor book, and The High King was a Newbery winner. The books have swords and sorcery, and good and bad wizards, elves, and humans. There are some really well-drawn characters, some of them more than a little strange, and not all of them human. Alexander was especially good at dialog. Several of his characters have clearly distinct ways of speaking. One of them scarcely every stops talking. There is no explicit religion of any kind in these books, but there is certainly a struggle between good and evil, and it is clear which side Alexander was on. I posted, in more detail, about these books, a few years ago.

The last series is the Paksenarrion books, by Elizabeth Moon. They are sword and sorcery stories, well told, with some characters readers can identify with, and some evil ones, too. Moon pays a lot of attention to ordinary soldiers, and their lives, and what it takes to have an army move to a battle site. Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia page on these books. (There are 10 novels in these settings, and they are tied together in various ways.):

The Deed of Paksenarrion has an engrossing religious theme. The world is presented as henotheistic; there is a "High Lord" followed by supposedly lesser deities and saints, such as Gird, Falk, etc., who serve it. There are also several references to the World tree and other animistic aspects of the natural world. This work encompasses themes such as "Hero as Redeemer" and "Hero as Saint" as described in Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The trilogy also deals with the concepts of absolute good versus absolute evil, the death of friends and loved ones, and an enlightened look into the origin of courage and fear.
One of the most significant themes of The Deed of Paksenarrion is the balance of gender and the role of women. Women are portrayed as powerful leaders and strong fighters. They are accepted and praised as much as men. The book's protagonist is female, as is the Marshall-General of the fellowship of Gird, the book's primary religious sect.

The above paragraphs apply to all of the books. (For more on the books, see this page, which Moon, herself, is responsible for.)

I have previously written on the question of whether or not Moon's fantasy works are Christian novels. My conclusion is that, in some ways, they are, in others, they are not. A student once told me that his high school English teacher had said that every story has a Christ-figure. I'm not sure that I agree with that, but Paksenarrion is, in many respects, such a figure. She is celibate (except for being raped under torture), she sacrifices herself for others in a terrible and prolonged way, and she is vindicated by the High Lord. And she becomes a paladin, fighting evil.

Moon has also written some science fiction, set in the present, or the future. Her Remnant Population was a Hugo Award nominee, and her Speed of Dark won the Nebula award.

Thanks for reading. Read Stengl, Alexander, MacDonald or Moon, or any other good books. And re-read something.

 

How God recently helped me, involving our computers

A few days ago, we were visiting some of our family. Part of the visit was to see one of our grandsons, who plays water polo with his high school team. We were glad to have seen that, more than once. We had never that game before.

I'm not as spry as I once was, and am not always as balanced (physically!) as I should be, I guess. A couple of years ago, I managed to fall while walking along a wide concrete walk around a harbor. During last Thanksgiving season, I walked over to a neighbor's in the dark, and forgot that he had put some loose bricks at the end of a wall. I stepped on one or two of them as I went around the wall's end, and fell, landing on his concrete driveway. While at one of the water polo games, I stepped on some miscellaneous stuff, a couple of meters from the pool, and down I went. I thank God that I took no injury in any of these accidents -- not a bruise, not sore a bit. That's one praise.

During the last fall, I lost my grip on my Android tablet, and it fell into the swimming pool. The referee stopped the game while one of the players dove down and got it. But the tablet would not come on. As far as I can tell, it's dead for good. It served me well. I had used it for various kinds of reading, including devotional reading, and for other purposes.

We like Coldstone ice cream. There is a store near where the games were being played, and we went there. Ice cream stores, and other small fast food franchises, in California, usually don't have restrooms. I discovered that I needed one. I was directed to a public restroom, but it was padlocked. There is a Target store near the ice cream store, and I decided that was my best bet for a restroom. While at this Target, it occurred to me that I might purchase a new tablet there, which is another praise. (Otherwise, I would have had to find another store, or go on-line to order one, and not gotten one for a day or so.) So I went back to the electronics section. I asked the clerk how much storage a tablet, for sale, had, and she pointed out something that I had forgotten, namely that this new tablet had a spot for a memory card. I suddenly recalled that my damaged tablet had had a memory card in it. I bought the tablet, and, as soon as I could, placed the memory chip from the damaged device into the new one. It worked! I didn't have to copy files from our computer to the new tablet! That's another praise. If she hadn't reminded me of that, it would have taken hours to copy the files I wanted on the tablet from our computer.

We got home, a couple of days later. A few hours after we did, our laptop computer would not access the internet. We got it with a protection plan, so I took the laptop to the store where I got it in the first place. I first copied all of our data files -- photos, spreadsheets, etc., to an external hard drive, in case the laptop was no longer usable. After less than 24 hours, I was able to pick up the computer. The repair person said that something had gone wrong with a Windows 10 update, which is plausible, and that I could not have fixed this without special software. He accessed the internet, using our computer, from the store, to show that the problem was fixed. But when I got home, I discovered that our graphics programs, and Microsoft Office, were no longer accessible. I could get on the internet, which is another praise, but I couldn't get along without a spreadsheet, a word processor, nor that graphics program, and, of course, I had already paid for them. I got in contact with the store's on-line repair people, through chatting (I couldn't have done that without internet access), and having her take control of the machine, from wherever she was. In a couple of hours or so, Office, and the graphics suite, were again usable. There was no charge for the repairs, other than the original purchase of the protection plan. Those are also both cause for praise. I'm now using this laptop to write this, and expect to post it on the internet, as this blog post, in a little bit. I thank God for his goodness!

I needed to back up our files, anyway.

Thanks for reading!