BSERC

Dear BSERC,

I just wanted to thank you all for making this Fall 2007 quarter memorable. I miss you all immensely, but I’m excited to see what 2008 has in store. May your Christmases be wonderful and blessed.

Amy

Dear Bserc,

I know that this does not pertain to the Word of God or any such Christian topic, unless one can argue that lemon scones were Jesus’ favorite pastry, but here is the recipe I keep forgetting to put up:

1 1/2 cup flour
3 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 lemon’s zest
6 Tbs Butter (chilled)
1 lemon’s juice
8 Tbs whipping cream

Preheat oven 375 F

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in a mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter (I just use 2 knives) cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbles. Add the juice and the whipping cream and mix with a wooden spoon until you form a dough (may require you to add more flour). I try to use my hands so that I can knead the dough, of course, constantly having to re-flour my hands and the dough. You can either drop them onto a floured cookie sheet by the tablespoonful or try to shape them on a cutting board.

Bake for 12 minutes or until you can lift the scones off the sheet without it sticking. Let cool.

You don’t have to, but I drizzle them with a glaze made out of powdered sugar and lemon juice.

Enjoy!

Love, Margret

Come join us this Sunday for Easter services with the Rock Church at the Cox arena!
Here are the times and such. I know at least a couple of us are going so there won’t be any shortage of rides. Email me if you want to join us!

Also, there’s a free concert Friday night featuring Something Like Silas and Starfield - we’ll be meeting at 6:00 at Pangea if you want to come with! Should be pretty good ; )

See you Wednesday at BSERC!

I often read posts by Simon Cozens, and he just posted concerning a Christian group/church breaking down the success of missions in terms of numbers and not humans. I’m not sure, but I believe the peeps he mentions are associated with Fuller, where I considered going a year ago. Anyway, I highly recommend reading it. It’s not that long, and, like most of what he writes, it’s food for thought.

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/mcirreversible.asp

paraphrase: “loss of a complex trait is often irreversible”
“genetic coding data indicates complex trait studied did not arise multiple times, contrary to conclusion which would be reached based on statistical analysis of living species with said trait” (that sounds a lot like complex traits must be inherited from ancestors to me… )

quote: “The study contradicts earlier studies of complex trait evolution, which have tended to favor multiple reappearances of complex traits after these organs were lost in ancestral species.”

I hope everyone is having a good summer! Relevant Magazine has re-done their website, and now it seems more sluggish and cluttered (IMHO I think they used flash a bit too much, and didn’t take the advice of Edward Tufte). However, whatever the aesthetics, they still have some thought-provoking articles. I received 850 Words of Relevant today, and here is a link to it. The article “Why I Went Back to Church” made me think about the author’s perception of the church, and how it is different to my own perception. Anyway, I hope someone finds it useful

Someone on slashdot is citing an AP article coming out of San Fran which suggests the Real ID Act was passed last week. Looking at the article and (briefly) skimming over the legislation referred to, I didn’t notice any mention about the Real ID Act of 2005. I then did some more searching and found that yes, much of the Real ID Act of 2005 was included in the FY 2005 Supplemental, which was passed unanimously in the Senate yesterday. The good news, as someone commented on slashdot, is the restriction against pre-packaged (read government propaganda) videos (i.e., VNRs). I wonder how much this bill is going to impact the U.S. after FY 2005.

There’s this post on slashdot talking about the possible passage of a bill (tomorrow!) that would require national identification cards. Here’s a link to the text and status of the bill. Has anyone else read The Illuminati, or the more (in)famous 1984?

UCSD’s Kaibigang Pilipino presents its 14th Annual Pilipino Cultural Celebration, “withinsight.”
May 6 & 7, 2005 at Mandeville Auditorium.
Doors open at 6pm and Show starts at 7pm
Reserve you FREE tickets at pcctickets2005@gmail.com by April 30… which is this Saturday!!!
Limit is 6 tickets… all you gotta do is put your full name and the friends you are inviting and the day in which you are going to… k?

Once again it’s FREE, so take advantage of this. Come and be amazed of the Filipino Culture. LOVE YOU ALL!!! If I can hug you guys and gals right now, I would, but all you gotta do is imagine!!!

There is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ JESUS, our LORD!!! AMEN!

Every once in a while, I go by the bookshelf outside the Language Lab in McGill Hall to see if people have left any books that they don’t want anymore. Last time I went by, I picked up some interesting works: Anthology of Chinese Literature, The Sense of Music, A Manual of Plainsong, Music in the History of the Western Church, and The Cathedral Psalter with Chants. I don’t know if any of you are interested in these books (most of them are on the older side), but if you want me to lend them to you, just ask! The Cathedral Psalter is a little beaten up, but it has managed to stay in one piece. Music in the History of the Western Church(published in 1908) is about 2 inches thick, and covers from “ancient and primitive” music to “problems with music in America”. So if any of you who listen or play music (the title means “do y’all listen or play music?”), let me know if you’re interested. Peace out, homeskillets.

[Update: Reading the title outloud this morning made me realize I had not properly declined. I had Musica Auditis Aut Cantatatis?, which would mean….well, let’s just say it isn’t comprehensible. I fixed it, tho’. Good ol’ language learning mistakes! :)]