05 December 2006

Very disparate cool things

by Dan Phillips

("Disparate." You thought I was going to say "Dispensational," didn't you? Come on, admit it. You did, didn't you? Eh? Eh? Hahahaha... ahem. Well, anyway....)
  1. While I think British accents of virtually any shade are the coolest accents in the world, Scottish accents are the coolest of the cool. I wish I had either. Instead, I'm a Californian, and thus have no accent, whatever. But this guy sure does: hear James Frew reading off the Westminster Confession and the Shorter Catechism, in a great Scot accent! My only gripe is that it's all in little-bitty files, so you can't easily do a CD of it: you run out of tracks! (That same site links to some of his preaching. What I heard had great content, though the recording quality varied.)
  2. Hebrews 9 and 10 are two of the most stirring chapters in the Bible. See a dramatic performance/recitation of them by Ryan Ferguson (h-t Joe Fleener, who has a knack for finding very cool things).
  3. Do you have a compulsive need to control the order of your task bar buttons? I do. TaskArrange is your friend.
  4. In fact, you can find a lot of cool freeware here. I've used some, and love it.
  5. Is a Dell computer in your present, or near-future? They're great computers, but they come loaded with an awful lot of junk -- unnecessary programs, trial versions, and the like, nag-nag-nagging you every time you reboot. There is a very cool program that will help you. Now, even saying its name on Pyro will get you a warning, so don't. I'm serious. Don't blame me; I can't help what he called it. But you can find it here. You'll be glad you did. (It isn't limited to Dells, I believe.)
  6. You hear a lot about A. W. Tozer, but did you know you can still actually hear him? Hear here. (First impression: crusty old dude, i'n'e?) You can also hear such wildly varied (in doctrine and quality) speakers as Harry Ironside, Ray Comfort, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Max Lucado, John Piper, Keith Green and Stephen King. Oh, wait -- Stephen Kaung. Don't know him. Anyway, discernment is needed. Now, I also see they've got Charles Spurgeon, and D. L. Moody, but I'm thinking they're not original recordings. You'll also find John Murray there, but unfortunately I've yet to locate very good-quality recordings of the professor.
  7. Though he dis me, yet I (for my part) continue to speak only well of him: James White expresses concern that this recording is incomplete, but still it is a good and informative example of brotherly debate concerning the meaning of baptism.
  8. And finally, appropos of absolutely nothing — WILHELM!

I may well make this an occasional feature, but that's it for now.

Dan Phillips's signature



24 comments:

Kim said...

I would have to concur with you, DJP, that Scot accents are the coolest. My family's roots are in Scotland, although they ended up in Belgium eventually, so my grandfather's accent was anything but Scotch despite the very Scotch last name of Hardy.

The only other accent that comes close to touching it is Limerick area Irish accent.

DJP said...

Thanks for not asking me what I think the most obnoxious accent is.

Anonymous said...

Jon Earls over at
http://preachholiness.blogspot.com/

has a bunch of great audio sermons...

Josh said...

Hi Dan,

Something to help you with that guy reading the Westminster Confession in all the small .mp3 files. Get the DownThemAll! extension for Firefox. You can download pretty much all of mp3's at the same time, at an incredible speed, with resume (if for some reason it stops downloading).

Then download the Audacity program (free), and you can join some of the mp3's so that you can burn them on a CD.

DJP said...

That sounds sweet, Josh. Thanks, I'll have to check it out.

Seth McBee said...

Dan
Two things: Scot accents cool and you suck. b/c

wilhelm will now ruin me for life...

DJP said...

Well Michaela, maybe familiarity would breed such a view. But in the couple of delightful weeks my wife and I spent in Scotland, we (A) learned that there are a vareity of Scot accents, ranging from well-nigh indistinguishable from English to very throaty deep, but (B) never heard one we thought "ugly."

étrangère said...

You didn't hear Glaswegian then?

I loved your intro :D I challenge you to get the word dispensational or its variations into every post you do, without reference to the system of theology. Hehe.

DJP said...

Ach! So it's a challenge, is it?

Curtis Forrester said...

Those old recording rock - thanks for posting them. It's nice to hear them in this present dispensation (for étrangère).

And, yes, that Scottish accent...wonderful. But then again, anything other than the (ahem) fine Southern (Georgia) dialect I have to endure is like the twinkling of crystal to my ears. :)

Cindy Swanson said...

Oh, you are so right about the Scottish accent...I could happily listen to someone read the phone book with a Scottish accent. But I would have to say that an Irish accent comes very, very close.

C.T. Lillies said...

Dan you've probably got a California accent that is virtually undetectable unless you live in the south.

I think the word you're looking for Disparensational which is a description of a theological construct that deals with things revealed on the Internet. Go on, try to look it up.

Josh
"...the word of God is not bound."
--2 Timothy 2:9

Nicki said...

Just to clear a couple of things up....

gonnae no sae that aboot the weegies! whits wrang wae speekin' like those fae the west etrangere?

Michaela - at least we don't have a US-Scots drone like yours! (LOL)

And finally! Kim, it's NOT Scotch! (common mistake). It's Scots!! Scotch is a "wee dram" or "nip" most Scots either love or hate to drink.

Fae a very cool Scotswoman ;)

Chris Ross said...

Dan,

There's actually a really handy device folks can purchase that will keep them from needing the PC-cleaning software you mention. It's called a Mac.

P.S. - Hi Nicki! Tell yer hubby 'howdy' fae me.

DJP said...

Say, there's my 500-comment topic!

Macintosh: Satan's pc

candy said...

My experiences with accents.

Texas: Taycsus

Me: So what do you do for a living?
Texan: My daddy's in the awl bidnez.

Boston: bawston

Me: Do you have a restroom?
Bostonian: Obadeh.
Me: What?
Bonstonian: ObaDEH!
Me: Excuse me?
Bostonian: OBADEH! OBADEH!

True stories.

David said...

Dan, TaskArrange is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. Thank you so much.

By the way, what accent would you call the most obnoxious?

DJP said...

ThirstyDavid -- you're very welcome. It's an O-C's dream come true.

Most obnoxious? French, of course.

Duh!

(c;

Lindon said...

Californians may not have 'accents' but they do have their own language. :o)

While in Boston, I was told by a pompus pimply faced clerk at the Gas-n-Go that 'oil' had 2 syllables. I never knew.

Joe Fleener said...

"My only gripe is that it's all in little-bitty files, so you can't easily do a CD of it"

Dan - Dude - You really need an MP3 player!

JackW said...

Having the Alistair Begg podcast downloaded to my iPod gives me a daily dose of Scottish accent.

Chris Ross said...

Dan,

I see now that the Prince of this Computer World (B. Gates) has deceived you with his minions of digital principalities.

Repent brother!

Don't you know the enemy disguises himself as an angel of light, giving lots of money to philanthropic causes (and to marketing) to make you THINK his computer platform is worth a flip?

I used Windows too, until I realized there was a Mac-shaped hole inside that Microsoft could never fill. I hope you'll come to know this truth for yourself some day.

lee n. field said...

I'll see if I can post this now (for some reason it wouldn't let me earlier today).

You-all want to get the psalm mp3s from the Kiltearn Church site. Trust me, you do.

http://www.kiltearnfreechurch.co.uk/Psalms.html

isaiah543 said...

I have a friend who is a pastor and the son of a pastor who was a colleague of A.W. Tozer. He remembers Tozer in his home for dinner in the 60s. I've heard many good stories of Tozer's wit from him. Here's my favorite.

Decades ahead of his time, Tozer said this that is amazingly relevant to the seeker movement...

"If they come for the potato salad, you better make a lotta potato salad!"