Primary tabs
Posts
Posts
All articles from all albums, full content, latest on top,
not including Doodles
not including Doodles
Page 52 of 133, posts 256 - 260 of 664
There wasn't much for a blind man to do but beg in those days.
Josiah, at least, had a good high-traffic spot near the healing pool.
Blind from birth, Josiah didn't complain about his lot. Could be worse. At least he didn't have leprosy.
One day, Josiah overheard some strangers talking nearby, one saying he proposed to use Josiah. Suddenly, there was mud on his eyelids. "WTF?" thought Josiah, "That's spit!"
He got up, stumbled down the steps to the pool, washed off the mud, and discovered he could, for the first time in his life, see!
He didn't ask for it. He didn't know who his benefactor had been. Some guy named Jesus.
He didn't even know what to do, so, at first, he went back to his usual begging spot, but folks pretty quickly took note that the old blind guy could see.
Word got around. The authorities heard about it. They dragged him into court. They interrogated his parents. They accused him of fraud. Even though they all knew, at heart, that the blind had been made to see.
Josiah gave great testimony.
He simply told the facts. "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."
Then he told the truth. "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing."
They couldn't handle the truth.
Jesus picked a pretty good messenger.
They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
When Josiah learned that he had been cast out of the synagogue, he was at first greatly downcast, but he was much encouraged when Jesus directed that he should immediately prepare to go with them to the camp at Pella. This simple-minded man of Jerusalem had indeed been cast out of a Jewish synagogue, but behold the Creator of a universe leading him forth to become associated with the spiritual nobility of that day and generation.
And now Jesus left Jerusalem, not again to return until near the time when he prepared to leave this world. With the two apostles and Josiah the Master went back to Pella. And Josiah proved to be one of the recipients of the Master’s miraculous ministry who turned out fruitfully, for he became a lifelong preacher of the gospel of the kingdom.
•
•
•
•
•
When Harry Truman left office,
he drove himself and Bess
back to Missouri.
When Barack Obama is done,
perhaps he can drive
himself and the beard
back to Hawaii.
Click either image for larger version.
"After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them."
-Lulac Political Letter blog (source for Bess & Harry Truman photo).
Cory Booker claimed he "drove to Hawaii" as a teenager -Fox News
•
•
•
•
•
A rhyme is
what I
really want.
what I
really want.
But Webster
says these
two lines can't.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Besides being Green Beer Day, March 17 was also the 18th anniversary of the day I first put a page up on the web.
My goodness, how our little web has grown in 18 years. And so has my website.
I didn't know what to do with a website at first. I started by advertising (semi-seriously) my 25c print mini-comics.
Then I put a "sample" comic up. Then the light bulb went off.
Unlike my blurry, xerographed, monochrome print mini-comics, the cartoon on-line was sharp (as much as monitors of the day permitted), and wow! sixteen whole colors! Four times as many as print!
It took me a few days, but that's when I realized Print is Finally Dead. I've been loading comics, opinions (of course), VR worlds, songs, noises, vids, and all kinds of nonsense and drivel onto my website ever since.
I'd published the mini-comics for years under "Little Mindless Publications," but the website became "Mindful Webworks," just to go upscale. I was getting old. At first I didn't have a domain; my site was on that spin-off of CompuServe known as Sprynet. Something like home.sprynet.com/~mindful, IIRC. Sprynet got eaten by MindSpring. MindSpring got eaten by EarthLink. The Sprynet site was good all the way through, until the EarthLink account eventually got dropped. By that time, the site was just pages that forwarded to the domain. But, History lost.
I can't even remember getting the domain name, but apparently I did.
Now, there's about five hundred webworks under several topical albums, some derived from nearly seven hundred random doodles, and just for fun a giant Blog Heap o' Links that I maintained for many years and lately have been trying to revive… Also many Playlists of media found around the web and scads of comments made elsewhere.
A couple of years ago, I moved from "static" to "dynamic" website. I've spent the past several years trying to figure out how that works, and how to make my site take best advantage of it.
Among other things, with a dynamic site, I can finally have comments mostly without spam. I've opened a few pages to comments, and actually received one. (Imagine, 18 years on the web and 1 comment. Why I call it the web's best-kept secret.)
I haven't opened up most pages to comments, though. The site was originally just my portfolio of eclectic nonsense. The webpage is a frame. You don't hang a work of art on the wall, carefully framed and lighted, then leave a Sharpie hanging on a string so folks can write their opinions on the wall all around the art.
Or would you? People like interactivity. Sure, there's trolls, and spam, and h8rs, but look at any well-run online community. Take an "art" site I really like, The Lost Issues — all the comments discuss the guy's work and make suggestions and it's nice. I could name several others.
So, I've wondered about opening up my site more for comments. I watched a lot of SysOps in action, especially back on CompuServe. Had a brief but exciting tour of duty as sub SysOp myself. From BBS to Blogs, it can get weird, but it's a new and interactive age. I might do more comments-opening on pages, but I'd hate to get into that, then find it such a burden, consuming time I could be creating, or, worst of all, dealing with tsunamis of off-topic comments or flamewars that lead to closing out comments altogether.
I've spent the past couple of weeks tinkering with the website behind-the-scenes stuff, adjusting the pulleys and levers that make the website work, trying to give it a bit of housecleaning and facelift for the anniversary, wishing I was creating content instead.
However, you know the saying, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans?" I had some things I really wanted to do before this anniversary. Instead, these past few days were spent dealing necessarily with Real Life Drama (however manufactured or unnecessary such usually is).
Good thing hitting my website goals doesn't matter to anyone but me.
A very brief run of online daily comic strip about creating an online comic strip, from 1997: Mind Fuel
An MP3 audio promo for Mindful Webworks from 2002.
A reminder: Mindful Webworks works for peanuts, or other remuneration, which may be sent by post to 74005-1215 USA. Donations may be made by credit card at PayPal (see buttons on this page). For the non-donating types, there are commercial products in the Mindful Webworks Marketplace at CafePress. Those are ways you can pay for the free Mindful Webworks lunch buffet. Honor system.
•
•
•
•
•