Here we go . . .

I am intrigued by the whole blogging phenomenon. As a Baby Boomer, those of my generation are generally not as confessional as the younger generation. The candor of today's undergraduate students amazes me.

I began reading blogs seriously last summer. A young man that was a student of mine a year ago is now in Iraq. I performed his wedding ceremony in August, and his wife has been a student of mine this semester. She misses him terribly, but appears to be doing well.

Before he went off to full-time training, he sent me an e-mail in which he gave my his blog site at http://www.xanga.com. Reading his Xanga site made it possible for me to keep up on what was happening with him in his training. With the web-like linking together of others' sites (also on Xanga), I found myself reading multiple student blogs. Now, some six months later, there are still six or seven student blogs that I commonly read, just to keep up on what is happening.

I also read more serious stuff. I am getting excited about the capabilities of Libronix Bible Software, especially regarding the study of Biblical Greek. I read the Logos Bible software blog, which has let me to interesting blog sites, like Rich Brannan's blog, and to the OpenText website. I am really excited about the possibility of new syntactical databases in the upcoming Libronix version 3. The other day when I read Daniel Foster's post, I downloaded the Libronix Version 3.0 beta on an office desktop computer that I have (the principal computer I use is a laptop that I carry back and forth from work to home). I am excited about some of this stuff!

I attended a Camp Logos in October, and learned quite a bit of stuff. I'm trying to educate myself in what Libronix can do. A few years ago, when I was regularly teaching a course called Principles of Interpretation, I was still using the pre-Libronix version of Logos software. I was a bit critical of the Logos stuff, primarily because the Logos software was so dependent upon the Strong's Greek and Hebrew numbering system, whereas in the world of print resources, the Goodrick-Kohlenberger system, similar to Strong's seemed to be preferrable. Libronix is still pretty much tied to the Strong's system, but not necessarily to the KJV, as the NASB (1995 update) text is also tagged. The Englishman's Concordance function from within Libronix makes it possible to create as it were an Exhaustive Confcordance based on whatever English version one desires. That is cool! I have not used the English Standard Version all that much, but the addition (next year) of the ESV Reverse-Interlinear (a joint project between Logos and Crossway Books) bodes some good stuff.

I will no doubt want to post some stuff in Greek here at some time, so here goes my first attempt. I hope all of the characters display correctly: ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἦλθεν διακονηθῆναι ἀλλὰ διακονῆσαι καὶ δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν.

Aland, B., Aland, K., Black, M., Martini, C. M., Metzger, B. M., & Wikgren, A. (1993, c1979). The Greek New Testament (4th ed.) (Mt 20:28). Federal Republic of Germany: United Bible Societies.

Blessings to you all. Until I have more random thoughts . . .