Disqus - Latest Comments for RobertFischer

Re: An opinionated guide to Haskell in 2018

Robert Fischer — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 12:45:31 -0000

This is spectacular. Thank you.

Re: Is jQuery still relevant?

Robert Fischer — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 12:08:59 -0000

In your "jQuery over time", can you get the total number of websites that use *any* library?

Also, how are you accounting for people who package up libraries? For instance, I use jQuery (b/c Bootstrap), but it's packaged into my "vendor" bundle via Webpack.

Re: What is an HL7 ADT Feed?

Robert Fischer — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 14:02:32 -0000

HL7 itself does not specify encryption at the protocol level. Usually, the communication connection itself is encrypted, such as through SSH or using a VPN.

Re: Learning Curve Hosted By Jesse Cox - COMING IN NOVEMBER!

Robert Fischer — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 13:44:29 -0000

Really looking forward to this show when it does happen. Until then, though, you may want to stop advertising it in the header.

Re: Co-Optitude: Dance Central 3

Robert Fischer — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 13:43:05 -0000

More Zumba for everyone.

Re: Hare&Tortoise/Council of Verona: Alison Haislip, Jessica Merizan + David Kwong on TableTop S03E04

Robert Fischer — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 16:17:46 -0000

If the only gag was "It's hard to find" (and Wil's face), this video would already be worth the watch. All in all, it's a great episode.

Re: Cooking Mama Let’s Play: Co-Optitude Ep 70

Robert Fischer — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 09:58:07 -0000

The Internet badly needs you guys at 9:41 as a gif.

Re: Tokaido - Gag Reel - TableTop Season 3 Ep. 1

Robert Fischer — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 17:17:19 -0000

"WHAT IS THAT? It's a mix between a Boxer and an Eagle and a Chewbacca."

It's an OWLBEAR. TableTop, yo:
https://twitter.com/tableto...

YOU WERE ON THAT EPISODE, FELICIA!
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Re: Tokaido - Gag Reel - TableTop Season 3 Ep. 1

Robert Fischer — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 17:13:17 -0000

"Tinkerbell Says GTFO". I need this t-shirt.

Re: Torchlight II Let’s Play: Co-Optitude Ep 66

Robert Fischer — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:18:03 -0000

I don't know about riding a dog, but some dogs were/are used to pull carts, especially in mountainous regions.

Re: Co-Optitude Special Edition!

Robert Fischer — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 17:44:42 -0000

Love the Minnesota shirt!

Re: Say My Name

Robert Fischer — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 09:33:54 -0000

I'm making that claim based on conversations with my atheist friends and with non-Christian homeless people about their experience of Christianity, along with where I see Christianity getting play in the media, which is almost always aligned with worldly powers or hate. I also find the Evangelical literalism itself (including the obsession with purity, esp. sexual purity) to be a form of Satan-bred theology and opposed to Christ's messages.

So maybe my perception's off, but most conversations that I have in the non-Christian world (including among non-Christian Quakers) seem to circle back to how Christians act (or at least present themselves) in very anti-Christ-like ways. Stuff like the "Christian" in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watc... So I'm not sure how to fix that perception if it is off...

Re: Say My Name

Robert Fischer — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 09:29:19 -0000

Thanks for the back-up!

BTW, where are you getting "distraction" from? I'm mildly familiar with Hebrew, and I've mostly encountered "haSatan" as "opponent" or "challenger" or "prosecutor". I'd like to be enlightened about this other meaning.

Re: Rethinking “Rethinking Sex…”

Robert Fischer — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 09:25:58 -0000

Also, I wish Christians would be more careful with the term "addiction" with regards to pornography. People need to get some exposure to AA or (especially) NA, and see what a genuine addiction looks like before they start using that term to describe a relationship to pornography. There are people in the church with genuine addictions to pornography—but, for most Christians I know concerned with their "porn addiction", their use is a consequence of easy access and strong temptation. That's no more "porn addiction" than swinging by fast food too often is "food addiction".

Let's keep the term "addiction" for the truly extreme (yet common) cases where it belongs, and not muddy it. Your struggle and frustration to change is valid without having to label it an addiction.

Re: Rethinking “Rethinking Sex…”

Robert Fischer — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 09:16:48 -0000

Your rethinking and your rethinking of your rethinking are signs of a mature, growing, and compassionate soul. Thank you for both doing this and for doing this in the public sphere, so that we can start to shake the stigma around the phrase, "I changed my mind." Seriously: thank you.

And before I weigh in, let me state that I'm a Christian with an M.Div from Duke Divinity School focusing in embodied spirituality; I also wrote for a sex blog on the topic of sexuality and spirituality. So this isn't an off-the-cuff answer or a reactionary answer.

One of my concerns about evangelical culture is the religious literalism. I understand Jesus to be fighting against the religious literalism of his age, and then we Protestant went and reinvented it. (Now, there are reasons we reinvented it, but still...) Nowhere do I find religious literalism more prevalent than in evangelical treatment of sexuality. Yet they still have a good point amidst all of that, in that sex is a Big Deal: to my figuring, it's downright sacramental, and it's only a prudent sense of propriety that keeps the consummation of marriage out of the sacramental ritual itself.

On the other side is liberal Christianity's treatment of sex, which also concerns me. On that side, people act like sex is only slightly more significant than playing a game of racquetball with the partner (as long as it is done with appropriate cautions to mitigate the risk of pregnancy and physical disease, of course). They seem to be taking their sexual ethics cues more from secular culture and Freud than from scripture and Jesus. That's a problem, but they also have a good point, in that the scriptural conversation around sexuality does predate birth control and prophylactics.

The reality is that sexuality has profound consequences for the individual, the individual's partner, and for the community of that individual. If you aren't engaged in the use of birth control and prophylactics, then you are absolutely in the same context as scripture, and you should follow it to the letter. In that case, if you're living perpetually distracted from God by your sexual impulses, then it's better for you to channel that energy into finding someone who will share the mutual commitment of marriage, getting married, and having an outlet for those impulses within the context of a relationship. But those while those who are single can have their mind on God, those who are married have their mind on their spouse, so this shouldn't be the normative or eager path: it's acquiescence to a sinful nature for those who need it. And not I, but Paul, says that. So if you want to be literal and scriptural about sexual ethics, you should be praising the holy eunuchs and lamenting those whose sinful nature gives them no other choice but to get married.

So what about those who participate in the world of birth control and prophylactics? While those mitigate the physical consequences of sexuality, the emotional consequences of sexuality are still powerful, and I consistently see those emotional consequences under-appreciated in conversations about sexuality. (I wonder if that's in no small part because men dominate that conversation: women seem overall much more attuned and aware of the emotional aspect of sexuality.) Science has now confirmed that sexuality creates a powerful emotional bond, and can even describe the biochemical mechanisms that makes that happen. Given the power of that emotional connection, you need to know that you are entering into a sexual relationship with a person that you can trust with these powerful emotions, and marriage is the church's sacrament for recognizing that level of commitment. (To put it another way: if you trust the person so much with your emotional well-being, why aren't you getting married?) Also given the power of that emotional connection, the Christian mandate for post-marital sexual exclusivity and the Christian identification of divorce with sin makes a lot of sense...it's almost like Jesus knew what He was talking about or something.

By the way: if Evangelicalism wants to convince me that their approach to sexual morality is the best, then they need to have lower divorce rates than their peers. Because Jesus said nothing about premarital sex, but he was definitely down on adultery and divorce. Unfortunately, their divorce rates are equivalent (or possibly even greater!) than their secular counterparts. (Jews, notably, have an extremely low divorce rate. We should be taking notes.)

And if liberal Christianity wants to convince me that their approach to sexual morality is the best, then they need to have lower rates of teen pregnancy and demonstrably better teen mental health than their secular counterparts. Plus, it'd be nice for them to make a coherent explanation as to how their sexual ethics are still Christian: where's the "Christ" in it?

All of this said, it's striking to me how disproportionately we Christians focus on sexuality: we focus on it a whole lot more than Jesus did, and we use it as a badge of holiness which is profoundly unscriptural. When Jesus tells us how he will separate the sinners from the faithful, does he mention sexual ethics? As far as I've found in the scriptures, he talks about caring for the homeless, the prisoners, the hungry, the naked, the widows, and the orphans...and totally overlooks a person's sexual history. So maybe your ambivalence is more faithful than you thought!

Re: Say My Name

Robert Fischer — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:30:36 -0000

People have a lot of difficulty using God talk, and (at least according to outward perception) the Christian community is dominated by voices that are more in line with Satan than Jesus. This is precisely why those of us who are loving, compassionate, relational Christians need to use the label more--and more loudly! To do so is a prophetic act, because you are living truth in the face of the power of WBC and their kin. This prophetic act is revolutionary both to yourself and to those around you, as Lisa discovered.

I think it is especially important to exercise Christian identity because of the long history of spiritual abuse that so many have suffered. It's news to some people that love exists wearing the Christian label, and demonstrating that love breaks down the anti-Christian bigotry and anger that Christian abuse has generated.

Re: Enfranchised Mind

Robert Fischer — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 11:33:14 -0000

Just testing...

Re: Congratulations! She’s Pregnant! You’re Screwed!

Robert Fischer — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 13:24:08 -0000

Thanks for your response: I appreciate it. The "gamify" part of it you're talking about is something that I'm excited for -- I'm looking forward to having an actually interactive kid. But that's over a year off at this point.

And maybe the level of appreciation will change once the baby is actually on the scene, so the father actually has some relevance again. But, at this point in the classes and among the people I'm talking to, I'm (at best) a helper for Mom, and mostly ignored and irrelevant. It gave me a lot of appreciation for the kind of anger that fueled the women's lib movement...I couldn't imagine having an existence saturated in that kind of treatment.

I do suspect that there is more than a little regional difference here, in that gender roles in NC are a lot stronger than they were in MN (even in the more rural areas), and that plays out in people being surprised that I'm actually interested and involved in my wife's pregnancy. That is, after all, "women's stuff".

Re: Congratulations! She’s Pregnant! You’re Screwed!

Robert Fischer — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 13:17:27 -0000

My issue with the complaining behind your #2 was that this was not a cost-less enterprise, and so what exactly was I supposed to be happy about? I'm losing all the things that I found enriching and could be proud about, and instead I'm sitting in classes being neglected and trying to play catch-up on an ever-growing list of largely mindless and unfulfilling chores. Nobody seemed to be able to appreciate the fact that this whole season of life sucks, and I felt like I was consistently being "made wrong" for experiencing it that way, but nobody could really explain to me how exactly I was wrong. Where Avdi helped was by basically giving me permission to experience it as suckage, and as an opportunity to grow. That approach gave me a way to relate to this phase of life which worked for me.

And your second #5 is contrary to most of the reports that I had been getting, but I'm starting to think there's a kind of hazing done by parents upon parents-to-be, where they all conspire together and talk about how you need to get all your sleep now and you need to have all your fun now and you need to enjoy any freedom you have now, because once baby comes, you won't have sleep nor fun nor freedom.

I've heard things similar to your #6 from other people, although I've also heard that it can take six months or so for the rewarding feelings of being a dad to really kick in...up until that point, it's all suck and obligation.

Re: Congratulations! She’s Pregnant! You’re Screwed!

Robert Fischer — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 22:53:18 -0000

Where'd you come up with this way of relating to your wife's pregnancy and the consequences thereof?

I've been sharing your paradigm with a few other people, and one of them were wondering where it came from.

Re: Congratulations! She’s Pregnant! You’re Screwed!

Robert Fischer — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 12:06:37 -0000

This comment is awesome. And it's exactly what I needed to hear.

It's strange that this is the role for the partner, and meanwhile the mother is supposed to get buried in love and affection and care and etc., etc., etc. Watching this go down lead me into the mistaken impression that it should be the same for me. But it's increasingly clear that if I'm going to be or do or enjoy anything in this time period, it's going to be "despite of", not "because of". So I just need to reposition my entire self to this situation in opposition, instead of trying to be a cooperative part of it. This time is something to be conquered.

Re: Congratulations! She’s Pregnant! You’re Screwed!

Robert Fischer — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 17:00:21 -0000

Thank you for this very long and thoughtful response. I really appreciate it, even if the conclusion is "This is going to be kinda miserable forever.", it's nice to hear some, "...but here's how to make it slightly less miserable."

Part of the reason I'm so angry and frustrated is because I had the pregnancy and its surprise time-sucking sink one book offer that was out there. I'm having to fight for time to get my one side project any time at all. This long blog post got to be written only because my wife slept in longer than she was supposed to. So I'm still trying to figure out how to work the time/activities issue, and it's not going well for me.

I've just got nothing good to say about my wife being pregnant at this point. Life was much better beforehand. And nothing any of my friends are telling me gives me any hope for it being better in the near future. So it's good to know that you're only about three years out, and you've managed to make it work somehow.

Re: Congratulations! She’s Pregnant! You’re Screwed!

Robert Fischer — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 16:55:23 -0000

This was the general consensus advice from the dad's class that actually addressed this concern: "Your baby will be cooler than other babies, so just hang on through the suckage of pregnancy and it won't suck as bad as you think on the other side." Which is somewhat cold comfort, and has left me just biding my time...

Re: Book Review - A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

Robert Fischer — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 14:23:05 -0000

As a heterosexual (and non-celibate) Christian man, the question of "Biblical Womanhood" mainly impacted me when I'm looking for a woman to marry—to be my life partner and to be the mother of my children. Relationality is the key there: I'm looking for someone to participate in the self-giving, abundant, and ever-hoping/-faithful love of God that the Bible points to.

We each have different roles within the family—she's the one who is carrying the child, and she's the one who will have to breastfeed and pump, and since I'm paid more and have the freedom, I'll be the one who will be working and providing financially—and those real-world practicalities will shape who we are and express that love. (It's one of the blessings of the Bible and God-as-revealed-in-it that the real world practicalities are constantly the order of the day, with abstractions and context-free theologizing having only limited space.) Although she will have a certain physical and practical reality, and I will have another, and those dictate the expression of the roles, I believe the fundamental drive must be God's love. In this sense, the Trinity provides a fine model: Jesus has one role, and the Holy Spirit another, but they are both full expressions of God. Biblical womanhood is, from my perspective, a woman participating with me as "one flesh" yet two people to express the image of God.

Now I've got a daughter on the way, and the whole question of gender and faith is taking on a whole new light. Still not sure what to do with it there!

Re: Grails Database Session Plugin

Robert Fischer — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 07:47:05 -0000

My work is a fork of his. I store data more efficiently than he does and have some additional functionality. He's Burt. So it's probably about even. :)