Category: Miscellaneous

. . . but some things test my limits.

The Curt Jester has a few nice words to say about Defensor Fidei, and I thought I’d share them:

Jimmy Akin has now moved to TypePad.

Jimmyakin.org

RSS Feed

His blog has turned out to be even better and more eclectic then I thought it would be. Besides strait apologetics works we get linguistic information, movie reviews, scientific discoveries, Buddhist hell, and posts referencing Babylon 5 and Stargate. A true Renaissance man.

Cool!

Much obliged, Jeff!

Now I just need to sit down and write one of those shameless promotion boxes for my page margins.

Howdy!

Finally decided to get the blog moved from its old location to a new one that offers more whizzbangniftyspiffyblog-o-matic tools. (There seems to be a demand for those things. I was getting e-mail from people asking about the site’s syndication, permalinks appearing before the item goes into the archives, etc.)

I decided to go with TypePad, powered by MovableType, as it seems to be one of the best. From my end there’s a downside in that the posting tool isn’t WYSIWYG, which makes it a bit harder to do what I want in a post, but not too bad. I also figure that the posting tools will eventually get better, and by making the jump now I’ll have my blog in a exportable/portable format, making it easier to “move it without losing it” in the future.

Since I wasn’t using blog software to do the previous site, I had to pull the entries over here by hand. I’ve got them all on the right days (I think), so the basic order is preserved, but the timestamps for the posts before this one are meaningless. Also, I still have a bit of cleanup to do on them (fixing links and images). I’m also trying to get the old comments imported, but this may be a complicated process, if it’s even possible. Worst case scenario, we have to start fresh with new comments on this site (which has a built-in commenting feature).

On the bright side, there’s now an easier way to access the blog. I’ve got it its own URL now. Henceforth, my blog will be www.JimmyAkin.org, while my web site will continue to be www.JimmyAkin.com. In other words, the blog is .org, while the site is .com. Got it?

Enjoy!

And speaking of things characteristic of me, a reader writes:

Jimmy, you write just like you speak, too. That big, italic, bold "However," [in this blog entry] is a classic "Jimmy Akinism" we hear a lot on Catholic Answers productions, after you’ve patiently outlined what truth is contained in a false claim, but are about to point out the glaring mistake(s) in it.

Hmmm . . . I never thought of that as characteristic of me, but I do recall saying it. It’s always been my philosophy to give every inch you can to a viewpoint you’re critiquing. Makes it easier to topple it when you pull out the rug from under it. (Allowing more rug under it = more traction for toppling purposes.)

I s’pose everyone has their characteristic words and phrases. In fact, the Roman historians used to chronicle the characteristic expressions of their emperors. For example, one of the emperor Augustus’s favorite expressions was "Quick as boiled asparagus!" (by which he meant, "Very quick!").

I’m curious now . . . any other "Jimmy Akinisms" folks have noticed?

I’m not getting this question as much of late, but I think I’ll go ahead and answer it here anyway. The question is: Is Jimmy Akin the same as James Akin, and if so, why the name change?

The answer to the first part of the question is yes, as long as you are referring to the James Akin who is the director of apologetics and evangelization for Catholic Answers. I am the same person as myself. (In fact, it would be metaphysically impossible for me to not be me.)

The answer to the second part of the question is as follows:

• Jimmy Akin is my legal birth name. It is what is on my birth certificate. (Ah’m from Texas, y’see, an’ it’s a Southern thang.)
• As a young man, struggling to prove my adulthood, I decided to start going by "James" because it sounds "more grown-up."
• In the last few years, I decided that I didn’t need to prove how grown up I am anymore and started thinking about changing it back.
• The clincher was: I’m a junior. In other words, my dad’s name is also Jimmy Akin. I know it didn’t please my father when I changed my name to James. I’m sure it couldn’t come off as anything but a kind of rejection when I change the name he gave me–his own name–but I was immature and anxious to prove my adulthood to the world, and I did it anyway.
• So, on the principle of "Honor thy father," I decided to change my name back to Jimmy.
• I researched how one does that in California, got the forms, filled them out, took out the relevant ad in a local "newspaper" (really a xeroxed bundle of papers with a staple) that exists to do nothing but print legal notices, went to court, and got the situation fixed.
• Afterward, I took a copy of the court order, framed it, and sent it to my dad for Christmas. (I also sent him a DVD player.)
• Finally, I announced the change on "Catholic Answers Live" and explained it.
• And then I explained it again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . . and again . . .  ad nauseum.

The question is starting to taper off now, but I decided to explain it here so there’d an explanation on the web that I can point people to (and thus have less repetitive explaining to do).

It took people a while to get used to the change. That’s only to be expected. I was pleased, though, when shortly after I made the change one woman on the Catholic Answers Cruise pointed out: "The name Jimmy suits you better than James because you’re such a smart aaaa-aleck.""

So now you know! And please, don’t call me "James." That’s not my name. 🙂