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Nadal must be really hurting to withdraw from Wimbledon. He’s a very tough athlete, and he was defending champion.

And to top it off, he had an apparently easy draw – all the players who have given him some difficulty in the last year or two were in the bottom half (Federer’s), including Robin Soderling (who beat him at Roland Garros a couple weeks ago, and also nearly beat him at Wimbledon a couple years back), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (who beat him in Australia in 2008), Novak Djokovic (who nearly beat him on clay in May, and also has given him fits at Wimbledon in the past), and even Fernando Verdasco (who came within a hair’s breadth of upsetting him in Australia this year). The only nemeses in his half were world #3 Andy Murray (who beat him at the 2008 U.S. Open), who he wouldn’t face until the semis, and Mikhail Youzhny, who once posed a problem, but hasn’t been a threat for some time.

If Federer wins Wimbledon, he will not only be the new recordholder for career Grand Slams (fittingly breaking Sampras’s record of 14 at the latter’s favourite tournament), he will also regain the #1 ranking. (Even had he entered, Nadal would have needed at least a semifinal berth to retain #1 were Fed to win the title.)

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There will doubtless be those who suggest that Roger Federer’s long-desired championship at Roland Garros is tainted, because he  didn’t have to defeat Rafael Nadal in order to win it.

I will not be one of those. To be sure, a victory over Nadal would have been more dramatic and much sweeter. It would invoke more staying power in people’s memories. And it’s also true that – not so unexpectedly, really – the moment was just too much for Robin Soderling, playing in his first Grand Slam final (he had never so much as reached the quarters previously).

But Federer was the best player on this fortnight, and that’s what any championship is about. If we go through the lists of titlists in any sport, almost all of them at some point have won a final against someone other than their chief archrivals. It’s just the nature of sport, and there will be no asterisk beside Federer’s name, explaining that he did not have to defeat Nadal in order to win the 2009 Roland Garros crown. Nadal on this occasion was not good enough to beat Roger’s eventual finals opponent. He was not good enough to win Roland Garros in 2009; Roger was.

Today we are reminded why it has been so important for Federer to improve continually, to keep putting himself in positions where he has a chance to win, even on the clay at the French, where supposedly he would never succeed. There were many naysayers who said he could never beat Rafa Nadal at Roland Garros, and therefore would never win the title. But nonetheless, he became the second-greatest claycourter of his time. Only Nadal himself was able to stop Federer at Roland Garros for the last four years. It is therefore not a cheap victory, but entirely fitting, that the man who invested so much of himself in winning this tournament has finally done so. This could never have happened had Federer resigned himself to being an also-ran on clay.

This tournament has raised all sorts of other questions. What does this event do to the confidence of both Nadal and Federer, respectively, heading into Wimbledon? Will Federer reclaim, not only his Wimbledon title, but the number one ranking? Even if Nadal’s tendonitis was some sort of factor, has Soderling’s dominant performance against him shown the way for other players to present a real challenge to Rafa – even on clay? And what of Soderling himself: has he finally turned a corner, so that the promise of his talent will be fulfilled to the extent that he can challenge repeatedly at the majors?

The coming months promise some very interesting storylines….

A year ago, it almost seemed inevitable that the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins would meet again in another Stanley Cup final.

But the Penguins lost some key pieces of their puzzle over the off-season, including local favourite Ryan Malone, and more importantly, superstar Marian Hossa, who signed with… Detroit, as a free agent. And halfway through the season, neither club looked likely to make it: Detroit was having all sorts of defensive and goaltending woes, while Pittsburgh didn’t so much as have hold of a playoff spot.

But here we are, and they’ve both made it, and done so in pretty impressive fashion.

There are a host of reasons why this particular matchup is highly intriguing:

1. It’s the first back-to-back Stanley Cup finals rematch since 1983-1984, when the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers faced off in successive years.
2. It’s the first opportunity for a team to win back-to-back Cups since New Jersey made the finals in 2001 after winning in 2000. The bid was unsuccessful – the last team actually to win two in a row was… Detroit, in 1997-1998.
3. It pits Hossa against the team he left because he felt he could win the Cup in Detroit (even signing for much less money than he could have received elsewhere). Naturally, there are folks who say that karma will get him, and Pittsburgh will win….
4. It pits probably the two most skilled teams in the NHL. It is so nice to see the cream rise to the top.
5. It offers a chance for redemption to Evgeni Malkin, who virtually disappeared halfway through the 2008 playoffs, apparently when he was taking a physical pounding early in the Philadelphia series. This year, he has only seemed to get stronger as the postseason has progressed.

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Regretfully, I have just learned that Canon Press will not be publishing These Are Two Covenants. We signed the contract about 13 months ago, and contract signing to release date is usually about a year, so I thought I’d contact them and see what the story was. My understanding is that Canon is cutting back for financial reasons.

Unfortunately, I have no idea regarding an alternative publisher at this time. Disappointing, but five years after first writing and two failed contracts later, I’m still without a publisher, and don’t have the resources on hand myself to print it through my own company.

If the fourth century were the twenty-first century….

This would be highly amusing were it not so sad. A fossil is discovered which has certain shared characteristics with humans, and this proves “direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.” Why we must imagine that we are descendants of a creature simply because it has nails rather than claws, and opposeable big toes, will perhaps be lost on some of us.

Just for the record: It is impossible for a fossil to demonstrate that humans descend from another form of animal life. Just because it would be impossible for evolution to be true unless there were transitional moments does not at all imply the roughly converse – viz, that an animal appearing to be somewhere between humans and other animals is a transitional creature proving the evolution of humans.

But evolution is every bit as much a faith as Christianity is. In this case, apparently quite a lot less logical.

The Rainbow Health Coalition knows that the homosexual lifestyle is self-destructive. We know that it knows because it keys upon the evidence.

But the solution to the problem is to demand more funding to deal with health issues which “disproportionately affect” the homosexual community. It is due to homophobia that Canada is not spending untold additional dollars to defuse the effects, not of heredity or environment, but of a lifestyle.

The path of destruction is clear, including homosexual men with a life expectancy 20 years less than heterosexual men. Suicide, drugs, alcoholism, depression, and cancer (oddly enough, including anal cancer)… these are the fault of others, sez the Coalition.

I grieve for homosexuals, but trying to deal with the symptoms rather than the root issue never works.

I just learned this morning that one of my closest friends from my young adulthood has been absent from the body and present with the Lord for many years. I had tried tracking him down many times over the years. Last I saw him, he was preparing to move to South Africa (he had been born in Malawi, I believe, and was of half African and half Caucasian descent). Apparently he died in a car accident not too long after his arrival there.

Al John Losacco was probably mid-40s when I met him. Not even sure how we found each other when I started going to Falconridge Full Gospel in Calgary back in 1986. Perhaps someone introduced us. At any rate, we connected from the beginning, perhaps in part because we were both something of “outsiders” in different ways.

I was a newcomer to an established church (as well to Calgary). My dad was an independent itinerant Pentecostal preacher with a strong anti-institutional bias, so while growing up I was largely in house church and revivalist settings. Yet somehow when I moved to Calgary, I decided I should be in a local church. To be a light to all the poor hypocrites, I’m sure. God works in mysterious ways, because that was a significant turning point in my life.

Al John was simply different. He was the guy traversing the neighbourhood, going door to door with the gospel. Not just randomly (though that was likely the case when he began); he seemed particularly adept at establishing relationships among people of other religions. He would then go into their homes repeatedly with the gospel. I went around with him on one occasion and remember talking with some Hindus he had developed friendship with.

Al John was a gentle, thoughtful man who loved people and wanted nothing more than to serve the Lord faithfully. He sought his counsel from Scripture and didn’t keep it to himself.

Well done, good and faithful servant. We miss you here.

I’ve been wanting to do a video for this pro-life song for some time, and now I’ve got something up on YouTube…

Lookin’ Away on YouTube

Unfortunately, I don’t really have any real video resources, so it’s just a series of still images patched together in Windows MovieMaker, but hopefully it’s worth a look and (mostly) listen. If anyone out there has a bit of cinematographer (sp?) in them and wouldn’t mind a freebie project, I’d be happy to toss the audio your way….

Another acoustic/vocal recording at timgallant.com – Wanna Be Someone You Love. This is a love song I wrote ages ago. Always liked the melody but never got it recorded in any form, so here’s a start. I plan to have an electric version on my Anthology Love Collection CD.

One of the cutesy things I was messing around with vocally was a bit BeeGee-ish falsetto harmonies. Let me know how it worked.

Here are the lyrics:

Wanna Be Someone You Love

it’s written on every page, written on every line
it don’t matter where you start
you could see it clear as day, I know that you’re not blind
if only you’d read my heart

it’s more than my pride that’s on the line
can’t you see it in my eyes, read it in my mind
hear it in my voice as I call your name
hear it in the wind in the trees and the rain
hear it in my fears and my tears and my shame
hear it in my schemes and my dreams and my pain

I wanna be someone you love
I wanna be the one you need
someone you care about
the one who bleeds when you bleed
I wanna be someone you love

I wouldn’t say this unless I meant every word
I’m not just out in the stars
oh please don’t think I’m foolish, cause I’ve thought this through
so won’t you please read my heart

I wanna be someone you love….

don’t matter what you say to me
as long as it’s “yes”
don’t matter what you give to me
as long as it’s your best

I wanna be someone you love….

It’s more than my pride that’s on the line….

I wanna be someone you love….

© Tim Gallant, written April 16, 1988

Yes, a Christmas Day launch (of sorts – my official launch took place rather late in the evening).

http://www.changeinthewind.ca

For various reasons, I have recently had occasion to start thinking about matters related to sociopolitical issues.

On a couple earlier occasions in my life, first as a late teen (when I actually contemplated going to university to major in Political Science) and then later when I was in my Reconstructionist period, politics were very high on my interest list. But when, for exegetical/biblical-theological reasons, I moved away from Reconstructionism/theonomy about a decade or so ago, I largely stepped away from those concerns.  I suppose part of that was due to the fact that, upon moving away from a directly theonomic approach, I wasn’t entirely sure how to think about politics.

I certainly do not claim now to have all the answers, but this new site is aimed at becoming an educational/discussion resource to help Canadian (in particular) Christians work through what we should be aiming for on a sociopolitical level,  as well as to help stimulate ideas for how we can serve our country on a less directly political level.

The site features four main sections: (1) Articles section dealing with various matters of principle, policy, values, etc; (2) Special features section for focusing on current events; (3) Categorized links library to help Christians find valuable articles etc around the web, as well as other web sites; and (4) a blog for keeping up conversation and commenting on current events or whatever. I am hoping to draft a few more contributors, as well.

At this point, the articles section has four articles available, dealing with foundational matters as well as economics and a summary piece on marriage/family/sexuality. There are a couple of substantive posts on the blog, and the links library has a modest beginning. As of yet, there are no special features on current events.

Anyway, do check it out, and pass on the news.

Another serious security hole has been uncovered, and no patch is currently available:

Read the alert.

… and the workarounds either don’t work or can’t be performed as Microsoft themselves explain them.

Someday, I’ll have to create a list of the handiest free utilities I’ve used. One of these definitely has to be CutePDF. While there is a Pro version (49.95), since I have Acrobat Professional, I just use the freeware. What’s great about it is that you simply use it like an alternative printer, and instead of printing on paper, it saves a .pdf file. (It’s much simpler than Acrobat’s Distiller.)

This convenience came into play again for me today. One of my clients was attempting to send me floorplans. Trouble was, the only image file type their floorplan app would save to was .bmp… and it was doing something to the .bmp file so that, while the bitmap would open nicely in the program itself, the image was just a black box everywhere else.

So I had my client download CutePDF and print from the floorplan app. Bingo. Nicely optimized to send me via email (all the files saved at between 25kb and 70kb each). I opened them up in Acrobat, saved them as PNG files, and presto! I can display them as is.

Here is an introductory set of tips that I am working on for safer, smarter web browsing and email use, including being a good “web citizen.” Many of these ought to be common sense, or would be if we all thought about things. As a web developer and a bit of a “power user,” I’ve had more opportunity to think about them than most. Please check it out and make sure you’re not unwittingly being foolish or even contributing to “the problem.”

My new adventure in business is up and running.

I’m quite excited about this concept. Now for the work of getting the word out.

Well, this was VERY stressful, but it forced a chuckle nonetheless.

I’ve been moving sites from one host to another. Was going okay, but when I set one site live, it was a disaster. Only text would show. Following image links generated level 500 server errors. I thought it was javascript-related.

Contacted support, and they told me that mod_security was blocking something. Funny, never did at the old host.

Well, when all the dust settled, it turned out to be the domain name – innocuous enough: gpconcretespecialist.com

You don’t see the problem?

Well, the host’s local mod_security rules were blocking c i a l i s.

Kinda a bad rule at that level, as there must be zillions of sites with “specialist” in the name… but kinda funny too, as I’d never even noticed that before.

The official presentation of my first print project.

I’ll be using the pactumstudio.com site as the home for my print portfolio as I develop it.

…you can view a real live Firefox bug: http://timgallant.org/gdesign/gpconcrete/

If you check out that link with Internet Explorer (yes, even IE6), Safari, Opera, you will see four images on that page – a poster image just under the heading, two mid-size brochure images down the left, and a small business card image in the lower right.

But if you look in Firefox, chances are you won’t see the poster image at all; in fact, Firefox goes further: sometimes hiding the descriptive text I’ve used in place of captions to identify the various images, and on occasion, it won’t even reserve the proper space for the poster image, thus messing up the layout and bringing the business card image to the top of the page.

I’ve encountered the Firefox disappearing content bug before, but Internet Explorer is the one that usually has the reputation for it. Unfortunately, while it probably occurs more frequently in IE, it’s more difficult to resolve in Firefox without reconstructing the layout altogether.

Which I will do, of course – if you’ve paid attention to the actual content of the linked page, you’ll see it’s a presentation of my first graphic design print project, which I worked on for my employer (for my full time job). As I get more experience working with Illustrator and InDesign, I’ll be advertising that I’ve expanded from web work into print, as well. Should be fun.

If you’re viewing this in Internet Explorer 6 or earlier, you’ll have discovered that I have got the infamous peekaboo bug going on here (whether or not you’re aware of its name). Symptoms: the headings are coming in and out of visibility (mostly out). The usual fixes haven’t worked so far, unfortunately, but I’m still tinkering.

Web developers everywhere will breathe a sigh of relief when IE6 is put to rest.

You’ve heard of the three pixel jog? That’s horizontal. But there’s also a bug in IE that causes a 3 pixel vertical jog, and the usual hacks don’t work.

Like the more familiar bug, this is 3 px and float-related, as well.

I’ve encountered this bug more than once in the following scenario:

1. Inline unordered list of text hyperlinks.

2. Hyperlinks floated.

3. Any text link of multiple words will display 3 px lower than it is supposed to.

Actually, I almost think my description in (3) is backward, since IE7 displays single words roughly 3px higher than other browsers – thus the “jog” may actually be reverse: except where there are multiple words in the text link, IE displays 3 pixels above where it is supposed to.

Note that assigning a height does not work in this case. (Nor does zoom.) The only workaround I’ve discovered so far is to create a class for IE to render the item with 3px less top padding than its mates.

I queried the famous bug-quasher Big John Gallant (no relation) about this, and even he had not been previously familiar with the bug.

If you’ve encountered this IE behaviour and are aware of a fix, post away.

I have just posted “Sabbath and Sunday: A Brief Biblical-Theological Consideration” at my biblicalstudiescenter.org site.

The essay includes treatment of Paul’s comments about “days and months and seasons and years” in Gal 4.10, as well as discussion of “the Lord of the Sabbath” passage (Mk 2.23-28) and a variety of related material.

This has really been a paper that I probably should have worked on long ago, given how often the subject comes up and I get involved in protracted discussions, but anyway… judging from the sorts of issues that have come up in conversations/debates I’ve been involved in, I think I’ve covered the major bases necessary. See what you think….

Regretfully, I have just learned that Canon Press will not be publishing These Are Two Covenants. We signed the contract about 13 months ago, and contract signing to release date is usually about a year, so I thought I’d contact them and see what the story was. My understanding is that Canon is cutting back for financial reasons.

Unfortunately, I have no idea regarding an alternative publisher at this time. Disappointing, but five years after first writing and two failed contracts later, I’m still without a publisher, and don’t have the resources on hand myself to print it through my own company.

If the fourth century were the twenty-first century….

My former prof has a recent book on paedocommunion – I don’t have it yet myself, though Doug Wilson and Lane Keister are going at it on their respective blogs.

Yesterday, William Hill of the online Covenant Radio did an interview with Venema on the subject. The audio is available here.

In turn, I’ve written this response. Enjoy.

Michael Bird has an interesting post here (dating from January 2008) regarding the relationship between biblical theology and systematic theology. His concern is that in certain circles (especially Reformed), systematic theology is an uncorrectable governor over biblical theology, and thus certain exegetical conclusions are ruled out of bounds even though they may be correct.

Part of the problem with working through this issue clearly is that biblical theology can mean more than one thing. Is it the historical-critical method as developed quite recently, or is it something more organic that in fact the Church has always practiced? Does practicing biblical theology entail that I look at the Scriptures as made up of a bunch of “theologies” of the biblical writers – and if so, is there implicit in that a subtle compromise of the belief in Scripture as God’s own self-revelation?

Then too there is the matter of saying that biblical theology ought to influence and shape systematic theology, rather than the reverse. Are those our real choices?

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My latest song, written today, April 1, for our Easter program….

Dead Men Don’t Rise

early in the mornin’
they come into the garden
nothin but some women
who don’t expect the livin

don’t call me gullible
it don’t take no science to see
dead men don’t rise   dead men don’t rise
you say you’re sensible
with wisdom of your century
I know what I’ve seen with my eyes
dead men don’t rise
dead men don’t rise

I’ve stood at the gravesides
of beloved faces
I know well what death is
I don’t expect them livin

and I stood on the hillside
a few short days ago
if anyone has looked into death’s eyes
brother, I should know
and dead men don’t rise

so don’t call me gullible
it don’t take no science to see
dead men don’t rise   dead men don’t rise
you say you’re sensible
with wisdom of your century
I know what I’ve seen with my eyes
dead men don’t rise
dead men don’t rise

early in the mornin
Mary comes into the garden
and what does she see with her eyes
ah, but dead men don’t rise….

don’t call me gullible
it don’t take no science to see
dead men don’t rise   dead men don’t rise
you say you’re sensible
with wisdom of your century
I know what I’ve seen with my eyes:
Christ is alive

Well, I didn’t manage to sleep a wink last night. After two or three times in bed, I pretty much gave up at around 5 a.m. and got up – listened to music until it was really “get-up” time. It was actually good; I had some opportunity to worship the Lord in the still of night.

Anyway, several hours before that, I wrote another piece for Change in the Wind. Working in part from Romans 13, “The Supremacy of God and the Rule of Law” shows how the prologue to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms offers the foundation for true liberty.

There are now five articles on site, as well as a growing list of links and blog posts. Check it out.

Yes, a Christmas Day launch (of sorts – my official launch took place rather late in the evening).

http://www.changeinthewind.ca

For various reasons, I have recently had occasion to start thinking about matters related to sociopolitical issues.

On a couple earlier occasions in my life, first as a late teen (when I actually contemplated going to university to major in Political Science) and then later when I was in my Reconstructionist period, politics were very high on my interest list. But when, for exegetical/biblical-theological reasons, I moved away from Reconstructionism/theonomy about a decade or so ago, I largely stepped away from those concerns.  I suppose part of that was due to the fact that, upon moving away from a directly theonomic approach, I wasn’t entirely sure how to think about politics.

I certainly do not claim now to have all the answers, but this new site is aimed at becoming an educational/discussion resource to help Canadian (in particular) Christians work through what we should be aiming for on a sociopolitical level,  as well as to help stimulate ideas for how we can serve our country on a less directly political level.

The site features four main sections: (1) Articles section dealing with various matters of principle, policy, values, etc; (2) Special features section for focusing on current events; (3) Categorized links library to help Christians find valuable articles etc around the web, as well as other web sites; and (4) a blog for keeping up conversation and commenting on current events or whatever. I am hoping to draft a few more contributors, as well.

At this point, the articles section has four articles available, dealing with foundational matters as well as economics and a summary piece on marriage/family/sexuality. There are a couple of substantive posts on the blog, and the links library has a modest beginning. As of yet, there are no special features on current events.

Anyway, do check it out, and pass on the news.

…to Lisa Miller of Newsweek.

It’s beyond amazing what sort of gall both Miller and her editor displayed in this.

Vote with your pocketbook, is all I say. The media is becoming rapidly more contemptible and corrupt (and it wasn’t starting from a very high point to begin with).

Has it ever struck you that the culmination of the wall of Jerusalem going up in Nehemiah 12 is a great music procession (12.27-43)?

Surely this is intended as a reversal of the wall of Jericho going down in response to a great music procession.

This correspondence is drawn closer by the fact that the procession in Nehemiah comes at the dedication of the wall. To my knowledge, no city or its walls had been dedicated (consecrated) before. That is a form of setting apart (sanctifying to Yahweh’s use).

Or rather, one city had been so set apart previously.

Jericho.

The other cities of Canaan were given to Israel to plunder for themselves, but Jericho was the “firstborn,” as it were, set apart for God. The city itself became a sort of ascension offering (otherwise known as a burnt offering); it was burned along with everything in it (Josh 6.24), with the exception of the silver, gold and vessels of metal, which were put into Yahweh’s treasury. Jericho was devoted (a city of cherem, sometimes translated along the lines of “accursed,” but the fundamental meaning is devotion) to Yahweh, which was why Achan’s theft of its treasures was dealt with so severely. (And also, incidentally, why his punishment took the specific form it did in Josh 7.25. Just as Jericho was “stoned” with its own walls and burned with fire, so Achan and his family, who had apparently been in collusion with him, were stoned with stones and burned with fire. By laying hold of the devoted things, the things of cherem, Achan also became cherem.)

Leithart points out that in Nehemiah 12, the whole city of Jerusalem has become “the house of God” (see 12.40). This is confirmed by the anomalous dedication (anomalous in the sense that this was normally something done to the temple or its vessels, not to a city or its walls), as well as by the fact that the returnees from Babylon are chosen by lot to be tithed to God to live in Jerusalem (Neh 11.1-2).

I believe there is a strong correspondence between that “tithing” event and the choice of the Levites to serve as the firstborn in Numbers 3.40-45. (Note again that the “firstborn” in Numbers 3 are set over against the destroyed firstborn of Egypt; a further suggestion that we are on the right track in seeing the chosen in Nehemiah as being set over against the destroyed “devoted” population of Jericho.)

I’m sure that it would be fruitful to reflect further upon this correspondence between Jericho’s destruction and Jerusalem’s rebuilding….