Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Electronic Destruction Field (EDF)

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Apparently I’ve picked up a magnetic field of some sort that causes inexplicable equipment failure.

First, my doorbell blew up on Friday. I mentioned it briefly as a Facebook status update but here’s a little more detail: I got home on Friday to an annoying buzzing sound and the smell of burnt plastic. After searching around, it turned out to be the doorbell ringer—which didn’t really do anything when I tried to ring it. I cut the power from the breaker box and disconnected it until somebody can come fix it (under the new home warranty). I’m hoping this will be the worst thing that happens with the house ;-). It hasn’t given us any other trouble.

Then, today, I was feeding a whole crap-load of coins into a CoinStar machine at our local grocery store. It occasionally told me to stop and let it catch up, which I did when it told me to, and then I resumed feeding it coins when it told me to. About 3/4 of the way through our coin pile, it started to tell me to stop much more often (like every few coins, instead of every few hundred). Then it stopped counting coins entirely and told me to seek assistance. The clerk came over and cleaned out the coin back-up, but the machine’s computer kept complaining about its ‘self diagnostics’ and eventually they said, apologetically, that they couldn’t fix it. I got a receipt for the coins it had processed already, and the rest will have to wait.

What mysterious piece of electronics will fail next when I come near it? I’m betting on . . . hm . . . clock radio, followed by a traffic light.

C&O Canal at Harper’s Ferry

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I did a nice ride on the C&O Canal Towpath today; about 16 miles out and then 16 back for a total of about 32 miles. I started at Noland’s Ferry (which is as far as I got last season) and rode out to the bridge that connects the towpath with Harper’s Ferry, WV. I took a couple of pictures while I was resting at the half-way point. The first shows the rail lines going into a tunnel in a big, imposing rock. The second shows the former canal with the towpath on the right.

Got Gas . . . Again?

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Remember back in January when I got a note from Washington Gas telling me my service was off due to a damaged line in the area? Well, apparently this is going to be an every-three-months trend. It happened again today. I think this, along with the road-nails, is just one of the joys of living in a construction zone.

This is only made all-the-more amusing by the wonderful, grammatical, chicken-scratch note: “Your Gas is off, do to Gas main brake, Gas repairs have been made, call to have Gas turn on” (sic).

Wow.

Anyway, I understand that accidents happen . . . but shouldn’t the gas company be answering the phone to fix the accident for us? Melissa has tried calling about six times now and gets no answer. Doesn’t a gas company have to be on-call 24 hours, since, you know, gas is both very important and potentially explosive?

On Clergy Child Abuse

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Let us clear the air. Let us do so with some accuracy and honesty instead of pithy headlines and hyperactive sensationalism. Let us do so without a vehemently anti-Catholic agenda . . . and without a mindless pro-Catholic agenda either. Let’s speak with facts. Let’s speak the truth.

The first truth is this: there is no excuse for the sexual abuse of children. It’s among the most despicable crimes somebody can commit. This is as true for Catholic priests as it is for non-Catholic religious leaders, public school teachers, family, friends, and acquaintances. This is the only one of these truths I present today that you will hear about in media reports; the other truths that follow seems to get conveniently and consistently swept under the rug.

Read more . . .

Happy Easter: He Is Risen!

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He is risen!

Today, most of the Christian world celebrates Easter—a commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In his death, celebrated on Good Friday, Jesus gained us pardon from sin. In his resurrection and triumph over death, he restored us to eternal life.

This is the most joyous day in the Christian calendar, and ends the forty days of Lenten prayer and penitence. Liturgically, in Roman Catholic tradition, the joyous ‘Gloria’ and ‘Alleluia’ are sung for the first time in Sunday Mass since Lent began. Our sorrowful focus on our own fallen nature and sinfulness turns, joyously, to a celebration of our forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus Christ. Our forty days of penitence turn to fifty days of Easter celebration.

Personally, Easter also marks our one-year anniversary as Catholics. We entered the church at the Easter Vigil in 2009, which is the evening mass on Saturday and the first (and most solemn, and most joyous) Easter mass. It’s on Saturday because Jewish tradition marks time by sunsets, so the ‘third day’ in scripture actually began at Saturday’s sunset. According to scripture, Jesus rose some time after Saturday’s sunset and before Sunday’s sunrise, because the women came to the tomb to find it empty while it was still dark on Sunday morning.

I wish you all a happy, joyous Easter season. God bless you!

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.