Connections Part II

Greetings, Friends!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd start with a continuation of my stream of consciousness classic, Connections.

I had the misfortune of watching the re-make of "Red Dawn" recently.  With the crisis in Ukraine I thought I might gain perspective on what it would be like to have your homeland invaded, and the film looked like something I would like, and indeed throughout the movie I kept hoping it would get better.  It did not.  Best part of the movie is withing the first 10 minutes while the North Koreans are parachuting in, for suspense effect. 

Now that I mention it, my Great Uncle Emil Lemke, who recently passed away, was a paratrooper in WWII:

In 1943, Emil enlisted in the U.S. Army and served with the 17th Airborne Div., 193rd Glider Infantry. He became a certified paratrooper. He entered WWII at the Battle of the Bulge where he parachuted in to the front lines. At one point, he and some of the other soldiers made their way close enough to the enemy lines that they were able to hear the German soldiers talking and relayed the info. After the war ended he transferred to the 82nd Airborne Div. He achieved the rank of Sergeant and was an Honor Guard before receiving an honorable discharge in 1945.

Uncle Emil, you're an American hero, and will be missed.

Back to Red Dawn, this is a remake, and with the exception of Brewster's Millions (for which I have yet to see the original), the original is always better than the remake.







In the original Red Dawn, Lea Thompson is featured.

Lea Thompson is from Rochester, MN.

Rochester, MN is home of the Mayo Clinic.

I dislike Mayonnaise.

But I am coming around on Mustard after trying Uncle Pete's Mustard at Von Hanson's Meats.  Uncle Pete's Mustard is amazing.  It has got a kick and is amazing.  Also, the logo for Von Hanson's Meats looks a lot like the boxer Von Kaiser on Punchout!

The Covered Bridge of Khazad Dum

Here's one I pieced together for all those Lord of the Rings / Covered Bridge Enthusiasts out there!

Winter Driving and the Zombie Apocalypse

Greetings friends. It's that time again for my annual winter driving rant, where I sound like a crazed Andy Rooney. And yes, I realize if you're reading a blog, you're probably not old enough to know who that is.

This year, my observations are linked to the forthcoming zombie apocalypse. When snow comes to Minnesota, as it did by force recently in the Great December Blizzard of '09, anarchy ensued on the streets.

Stop signs and lights were obeyed - when possible. Speed limits ceased to have meaning, as one would go as fast as they could on top of 4" of snow, or as slow as their brakes permitted. Ice means cars zooming through intersections and into ditches, if not other motorists. Panic and lawlessness seem to prevail in such a storm as accidents detain the attention of law enforcement, leaving the populace at large to fend for themselves.

This is not unlike the zombie apocalypse, where the undead go around devouring the living. I'm projecting that this is what the Mayans had in mind for the end of the world in 2012. Sort of an unnatural disaster. No doubt this will cause pandemonium and defer law enforcement officials from keeping the peace to addressing the literal uprising. I imagine a similar amount of groaning and moaning would be present as in a snowstorm. Body parts, either from crashes or frostbite would be lying about as though zombies were dining with poor social graces.

So my winter driving suggestion is to treat blizzards like a zombie attack. Stay home and load your shotgun until the threat passes.

Matt

The Gunslinger in the Rye

Along came a spider! Such is the abrupt adage inserted the middle of The Prodigy's "Take Me to The Hospital." I've been enjoying their music rather consistently of late, and not having blogged in a bit, this entry may follow its pattern of non sequitors.

The Gunslinger is book I in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Quite a bit shorter than the 6 books that succeed it, this western-fantasy-adventure story is rather curious in its stream-of-consciousness meandering. I haven't read much of SK, but upon some relatives from Vermont visiting recently, it was determined that SK might write a story about maple syrup covered bridges and the monsters within. Just a thought.

Next, I finished an old text covering the history of Russia from the spread of Greek language and culture into the Rus area up to the 1950s. I figure its a good text because not much has really changed in Russia since then, right? Particularly intriguing is a parallel between Tsar Ivan IV (that's Ivan the Terrible, for you Philistines out there) and his secret police "Oprichnina". The Tsar didn't trust the aristocracy (they were out to get him) and so he formed a special police comprised of the proletariat. They were loyal to him and carried out his deeds. Similarities arise when battles were lost, the aristocrats were blamed. Political opponents were charged with atrocities they had nothing to do with. This concept occurred later under Lenin and later Stalin during the formation of the Soviet Union. This is exemplified by the allegorical novel "Animal Farm." Perhaps this is a case of History repeating itself. Perhaps its a case of Stalin knowing history and saw, "well, it worked for Ivan IV, I'll try it too!"

The Catcher in the Rye eluded me until a recent moving sale whereupon I procured a copy on the cheap. Written in the 1950s, the colorful prose and insistence on acknowledging the reader's understanding (you know what i mean?) waxed reminiscent of my late grandfather. So I read the book as though he were narrating, if only he had been kicked out of prep schools out east. The title is explained near the end of the book (not as straightforward as say, War and Peace), but it is basically about a teenage boy caught between the innocence of childhood and the mired duplicitous world of phony adults. His reticence to accept growing up leads to a tail-spinning miasma of confusion. My current state of transition in all things urged me to ponder the ideas postured in this book, as I could definitely relate to some things going on. Perhaps this is a bit troubling.





In other news, I made birdie #2 on a recent golf outing. Exciting stuff, I know!

Old Iron, '09

Greetings all. I took in the annual Pioneer Power antique tractor show in Le Sueur, MN on Friday, and here's some of the highlights of this year's show.





















a) Abraham Lincoln




















b) Old guy in Batman baseball cap. Its hard to see, but trust me. He's the guy with the sweater over his shoulders.




















c) Lemonade.

Also of interest, saw a guy with big black rimmed glasses like my great-uncle Kermit used to wear. Also saw a guy with a big, curled moustache. (No photos available.) And yes, there were some old tractors there too.

Matt

Birdie!

#3 hole at Oak Marsh, Oakdale, MN.
Par 3. 40' Putt from the fringe of the green.

8-23-09.

Love is the Thing

Its been a tough week. After golfing Monday through Friday last week, it decided to rain this week, curtailing my diversions. Growing wearing of watching "Happy Gilmore" I lured my retired friend out to the course on Thursday under the advisement of the weather channel's "we should be okay for a few hours" forecast.

Not so. It sprinkled, then it rained. Then it stopped, and all seemed well. Then it the monsoon-like torrential downpours ensued. Throughout all the head scratching as to why we were there, 3 things occurred to me: 1) No rush. There were no groups following us, and not ahead meant we could play at the pace we liked. 2). Quiet as the grave. Well, quiet as a rainstorm, anyways. 3). We actually didn't play that much worse than usually. I made one par and my friend made 2. That's a good day for us. We also found this course has lousy coffee.*

But that isn't what this post is about. If you've been following the blog, and I'm told there's no less than 3 of you that read the last post(!), you've read that the message of Jesus is that of Love. It is the simplest of messages, yet often the hardest to practice. Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus understood everyone loves themselves, so he said that if we only loved others as much, the world would be so much better off.

Enter the next book on my shelf: "How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships" as written by the 14th Dalai Lama.

Here's your warning: don't read any further if you're uncomfortable with this idea that religions other than Christianity might have some helpful insight. Or that Christianity "is a relationship, not a religion." This book isn't so much a Buddhist document as it is a practical life application text. There is some overlap to be read with a discerning eye. This is the difference between being "open minded" and "empty minded." Basically, don't believe everything your read. Less of what you hear. But you can still listen and process new information.

The intro of the book is an explanation that the Dalai Lama talks of love and compassion not as a Buddhist, but as a fellow human being. This is this tone he sets for the book.

Throughout the text, the Dalai Lama repeats a common theme, as I indicated Jesus also spoke of above: Love one another. He uses the example of looking at yourself from a third person's vantage point. There's "You", the selfish, greedy, hoarding person you are, and next to you is a group of 100 people, with afflictions and impoverished. From the third person's point of view, it is hard to see why "You" do not share what you have with all those suffering.

Suffering a an important subject in Buddhist teaching. The logic goes that suffering comes from desiring something you don't have but would like (sometimes such that one would say you "Need", but rarely do). Thus, being content with what we have negates suffering and promotes happiness.

"Contentment is the key. If you have contentment with material things, you are truly rich. Without it, even if you are a billionaire, you will not have happiness. You will always feel hungry and want more and more and more, making you not rich but poor." (p. 111)

The idea is to find contentment with what you have rather than looking for what next toy to buy to make you temporarily happy. Once you are content, material hoarding no longer looks appealing and this allows you to help our fellow humans.

In a series of meditation points, The Dalai Lama says that we ought to extend love not only to our closest relatives and friends, but also people we dont' know and even our enemies - those that actively oppose us. Now wait, Meditation Matt? Are you jumping off the deep end? Well, if you know me, you know I'm a little removed from reality to begin with. I might cite an earlier blog about Cataphatic Prayer, which is basically the same concept as meditation. The Apostle Paul calls us to meditate on the scriptures. If you don't like any of these answers, just consider it "thinking about" loving others. But thinking profoundly, and really focusing on it. If you see yourself being kind to specific others when you're not around them, you would become more apt to be kind when you actually are.

The next point is the Dalai Lama backs up the need to love one another based on Reincarnation; we've all be born innumerable times, so everyone at some point has been your nurturing mother or best friend at some point. Every enemy has been your best friend before. Every current friend was once an enemy. So it makes no difference who they are now, we ought to love one another.

I'm not so sure about the reincarnation bit. Mostly I just skimmed over that. Its an interesting theory to think about. In some sense the Dalai Lama here is saying we ought to Love one another to balance out our karma and achieve enlightenment, just as Jesus taught to Love one another so that we might reach heaven. In that sense, its the same Quid Pro Quo rationale, but I think both would argue that isn't the purpose. We ought to love one another because that should be important to us. The reward is not to be the focus.

Another point the Dalai Lama makes is that we should not take any measure of joy in others' suffering. This is often easy to do if they are a bad person, political opponent, or just someone you don't like for whatever reason. Western Philosophy calls this Schadenfreude. So the Dalai Lama is essentially saying that Schadenfreude is not a virtue (p. 138).

Later in the book, speaking of suffering is concept of recognizing our capabilities to overcome situations. Citing an anecdote of personal experience, the Dalai Lama advises that, "If you can do something about a problem, do it; if it is impossible, worry is useless." (p. 151). After considering this, he said he was put at ease in a stressful situation, for it was out of his hands. This reminds me of the saying about knowing the difference between something I can change and something I cannot.

A final note comes on the topic of using others for personal gain. The Dalai Lama asks the reader to consider, "Should everyone be used for my attainment of happiness, or should I help others gain happiness?" (p. 173). I heard a similar question posed in a church service: Should we use people and love things, or love people and use things?

Jesus had little use for things and loved people.

Love one another.


---
* Note 1: Picture from above is from a different golf course on a different day. Just here for visual aid. It was far too rainy to be taking pictures.

Good News!

Good News!

Its happened again. I've completely read through the religious texts of Christianity in their entirety. A few years ago, (sometime after 2001, I think?) I ran across a copy of the Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha, with an endorsement from the former Blue Earth Priest, Father Tighe. I had been meaning to get a Good News Bible, as they have little stick figure illustrations. Having read the thing, a rich commentary would have been more helpful. The Deuterocanonicals, aka "The Apocrypha" are a series of Books kept in the Bible by Roman Catholics, but protestants felt were helpful,

but not the divine Word of God, so they were set aside. Like most protestants, I was largely unaware of this and had never heard of these other books. Predominantly history books of Israel, there's a lot of overlap with the other history books. The Wisdom of Solomon is pretty good, something on the same level as the Proverbs.


So here's the Breakdown:

Old Testament: 1,041 pages
Deuterocanonicals/Aprocrypha: 217 pages
"Some Additional Books" (1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, and the Prayer of Manasseh): 59 Pages
New Testament: 354 Pages

Grand Total: 1,671 pages

In short, that's one large book, and small wonder why many adherents don't read the thing.

The admonition I've received over the years is to read the Bible through, especially coinciding with a calendar year. The best rationale I can come up with for this is that it makes for easy "New Years' Resolution Sermon fodder." Seriously, I don't see the connection. There are 66 books in the Protestant Bible, so why not do one a week, and be done in 66 weeks instead of 52? or read 11 a month and be done in half a year?
The short answer is that a year works out to Christians can do without too much trouble, and still feel pius about their religiosity. I'm not entirely sure who all reads this, so let me clarify for those chanting "its a relationship, not a religion!" That cliche hurting my ears aside, It isn't accurate in terms of the mandate of reading the Bible through in one swoop around the sun. Breaking down to 4 chapters a day, the reader spends 75% of the year in the Old Testament. While I admit that the OT is important, much of it is largely irrelevant (have you memorized the geneologies of Numbers? Do you obey ALL of the Levitican laws, or just the ones you like?) or incredibly dry histories of wars that happened a long time ago, or are prophecies by Israelites and For the Israelites, not to be taken out of context and applied to (insert your nation here). You might say that Christ brought us into the fold and therefore it does apply to us. It depends on the passage, and that's not my rant here. I was talking about the Old Testament reading is largely religious. Plodding along and not getting much out of the OT can be nothing short of the definition of Religion. I asked myself quite a few times, "why am I reading this? Oh, because I'm told that I'm supposed to." I heard of one theologian who said that if the Holy Spirit has come upon us as Christ said, we really don't need to check the book, just check with the HS, so he recommended "religiously burning Bibles." Extreme, yes, but he makes an interesting point.

Christians are not the Israelites of the Old Testament. Christians sometimes use select Levitican laws to back up being hostile towards homosexuals, but these same people wear clothes made of two different plants, or they eat pork, or have tattoos, or any number of these rules. Why is this? My theory is that people were told to read the Bible, and spending 3/4 of their time in the OT, have adopted OT rules. The apostle Paul says something about a baby must drink milk before it moves on to solid food. That's what needs to be done here. It is my opinion, that, rather than spending so much time in the OT, which gives supporting documentation to the New Testament, Christians ought to spend the majority of their time in the New Testament.
Rather than spending 3/4 of a year reading the OT, spend 3/4 of the year reading the New Testament. That means reading the New Testament 9 times for each trip through the OT. "Wait, that's an insane amount of reading!" you exclaim. Yes, yes it is. So don't read it all in a year, but get a firm grip on the teachings of Christ before you wander around the Old Testament. I'd go even further and say that much of the New Testament, like the epistles, are letters specifically written to unique churches addressing particular problems. We can gain a lot of insight from these, but its not an exhaustive list of what we should and should not do. Therefore, maybe it would be best to read the Gospels moreso than the rest of the NT. Again, this poses the concern of the Gospels making up much less of the NT than the rest. So what? If we don't adhere to Christ's basic teachings, what good is it to study Revelations again and again? There's a movement called "Red Letter Christians" a reference to some Bibles having the words of Jesus in red letters. They try to live their life by these words. To me, this seems redundant. If you're not following Jesus' words and at least trying to live by them, you're hardly a Christian.

Here's a simple quiz to prove my point about Christians not knowing Jesus' basic teachings:

Question 1)

What is the greatest commandment?

a) Love your neighbor as yourself.

b) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

c) You shall not commit murder.

d) You shall not steal.


Question 2)

What is the greatest commandment?

a) Love your neighbor as yourself.

b) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

c) You shall not commit murder.

d) Honor the Sabbath Day and Keep it Holy.


Question 3)
Who is my neighbor?

a) My friend

b) everyone

c) my relatives

d) people who live close to me


Question 4)
Someone has wronged me, yet again. How many times must I forgive him?

a)Just once.

b) 7 Times

c) 70 Times

d) 490 times


Question 5)
What must I do to get to heaven?

a) Good Deeds

b) Pray 3 times daily

c) Believe that Jesus is the Son of God

d) Be kind and live better than at least some other people you know


Short answer.

Question 6)

What is the message of the Wise Man who built his house on the rock vs the foolish man who built his house on the sand?

Question 7)

Jesus follows up the Beatitudes with teachings on Anger, Adultery, Charity, Prayer, and Fasting. What is he getting at here?


Question 8)

Jesus addressed the concept of eating unclean things. What was his point?

Question 9)

Jesus said many things about money. What is the gist?

Question 10)

Along with the idea that we ought to love one another, Jesus spoke about forgiveness in connection. Provide an example of this.



1). b. Matthew 22:38
2). a. Matthew 22:39. Give yourself half points if you swapped a&b.
3). b. Luke 10:25-37. The parable of the Good Samaritan indicates our neighbors include even people groups we dislike.
4). d. 70 times 7. Probably a flowery way of saying, "you will lost track of the number of times you forgive someone, but you still should." Matthew 18:21-35. The parable of the Unforgiving Servant explains that God forgave us much more than any wrong anyone else could do to us, so if we want to be forgiven, we must be equally as forgiving.
5). c. John 3:16. Jesus tells Nicodemus that if he Believes, he will have eternal life.
6). Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:47-49. This references listening to the words of Jesus and obeying them, vs listening and not obeying.
7). Matthew 5:17-6:34 In a nutshell, Jesus says follow the spirit of the law, not just the letter. Don't just not murder someone, don't be angry. Don't just not actually commit adultery, don't even think about it. Don't show off how much you are praying, fasting or giving to the poor, then you're just being prideful.
8). Matthew 15:16-20; Mark 7:14-23. Jesus says that eating without washing your hands doesn't make you unclean. Doesn't matter what you eat, for that matter. Things that you say, however can make you unclean.
9). Best summarized in The question about paying taxes (Matthew 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17; Luke 20:20-26), Jesus said money has Caesar's picture on it, so pay taxes to Caesar. Basically, we ought to trust God to provide and not worry about money, lest it become more important to us than God.
10) A poignant example is as Jesus hung upon the cross, he asked God to "forgive them, for they know not what they do" Luke 23:34. Even in death, Jesus forgave his fellow man. Would you forgive someone who was in the process of killing you unjustly?

Okay, so the answers are not exhaustive, you may have some different ideas on the short answer. The point is that the Gospels offer rich teachings which Christians can - should - ought to apply to everyday life. So if you're insistent upon bible reading each and every day, I think one's studies should primarily be the Gospels.

The Unnecessary War

Political pundit Patrick J. Buchanan put forth his divergent view that World War II was an unnecessary battle which the British Empire and the West would have done well to avoid in "Churchill, Hitler, and the Unecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World."

Buchanan has long been branded an isolationist, xenophobic, and lots of other things, but his account of WWII here is well researched.

The thesis Buchanan puts forth in the 400 page book is simple: Hitler was geared towards the East, not the West, and therefore allowing Hitler to battle against Stalin would have ground the two powers down at the expense of each other, leaving the West to fill the power vacuum created.

Wait, you say. Hitler was evil and had to be stopped. He murdered innocent Jews. His aggression in France and Norway as well as Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and later attacking Russia needed to be halted. Buchanan provides a detailed chronology, starting with events which lead to the first world war which provide some rationale to support his view. Obviously, stopping Hitler was a moral victory and the allied soldiers of WWII are to be regarded as nothing short of heroes. That's not the question Buchanan is asking. He's questioning what the West gained from our actions. Britain declared war on Germany as a response to German aggression in Poland, and France followed suit. Only then did Germany look west and overrun France, quelling opposition to the west took priority so that Hitler could again look to the East and conquer Russia.

So what would have happened if Britain had held back? Poland would not have been aided. But following WWII, they were handed over to Soviet rule, arguably worse for the Poles. By that narrow definition of the aims of the war, Britain did not accomplish its goal of securing Polish sovereignty.

But what of the Jews that Hitler killed? This is indeed a valid rationale for fighting WWII, but it wasn't the reason Britain and France declared war. Stalin also did his share of cleansing, so giving half of Europe to him following the war made life difficult for many, both Jews and Christians alike.

Do I agree with Buchanan's assessment? I don't know. Moreover, it doesn't change the past what I think about what Britain should or should not have done 70 years ago. Buchanan's postscript pertains to the future: America is going down the slope of the British Empire, working for democracy on a global scale. Rather than fighting wars in far away lands, we ought to focus on enriching our homeland (read: its the economy, stupid). A country which looks after the interests of others over our own soon finds itself weakened, just as the United Kingdom has become following their 'protection of Poland.'

Down on the farm

George Orwell's story Animal Farm, is widely regarded as a not so deeply veiled allusion to the Communist Revolution in early 20th century Russia. Remember the USSR? That's what he's talking about here.

So for what purpose does it serve in the wake of the USSR's now non-existence?

Firstly, the story tells of how one group overthrows the ruling group (the farmer) by promises of a better life. That better life is transformed into much of the same, if not worse, for the masses, but the new ruling group (the pigs) lives rather high on the hog. (har har har).

Thus, it isn't necessarily an explicit commentary on the ills of Marxism, but how power in general corrupts. Once given power, the rulers will exploit this not only for their own benefit, but to keep the workers in their place, thereby keeping themselves as the ruling elite.

Philosophers disagree on if all power is corruptible, or if that is a mere generalization. Clearly some are power-hungry and seek power for its own abuses, while some at least give the appearance of benevolence in their leadership, but then the pigs of Animal Farm do this too, often by abusing the limited mental capacities of the workers, telling lies and changing stories about the past to make it fit their needs.

When approaching the ethics of leadership, it would seem prudent to observe with a certain amount of skepticism until proven otherwise.

Left-handed passwords

It seems I've got a touch of the insomnia again tonight, combined with intermittent back spasms I can't help but attribute to my penchant for swinging a golf club and my prowess-or lack thereof-with it.

In the spirit of fun things to do, I have found that passwords consisting of left-hand only spelling on a QWERTY keyboard system are efficient. Here's a list of fun passwords you can use, that I'm making up just now. Note, that I don't use any of these passwords, so you hackers out there needn't try these to tap into this awesomest of blogs. :-P

Treebeards
GreatWestFate
QatarReeves
WereBert
SeverateDeer
GreetCars
AvastWeCaesars
CartsAreZags
RatsAteTRex
FreeZeeStars
DrearSWAT
DecaGrease
WereSwearDave
CasesTwasArt
BretsFrets


Okay, that's all the fun I can handle for now.

Roogna

Greetings from rural Freeman, South Dakota. I'm here visiting my brother after a little business meeting in Sioux Falls on Thursday. I had an opportunity to take in the local golf course, as well as finish reading "Castle Roogna."

Castle Roogna, the 3rd book in the Magic of Xanth series by Piers Anthony, is a book I started reading a number of years back. 7th grade, I believe. I had borrowed it from a friend, and not having read the first 2 books in the series, became lost, confused, disoriented, and probably a little nauseous as well.

Fast forward a few years. I read the first two books and found this story to make a profound amount of better sense now. It concerns the fantasy realms of Xanth, which coincidentally looks a lot like Florida, but also Magic, time-travel, bad puns, and an assortment of mythological creatures.

In short, I found this particular tale a not as interesting as the first two. Perhaps the formulaic quest plot - a staple of Xanth - to be just more of the same, with some new but rather familiar characters. I suppose the book makes for a good diversion for a few hours, but this wasn't my favorite of Xanth books.

Matt

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Vol. 2

And now, the Volume 2 you've all been waiting for...Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, vol 2.

The short stories within vol. 2 are as follows:

The Shambler From the Stars by Robert Bloch: An eccentric author locates and evil book, and has his friend translate it from Latin. Evil promulgations ensue...

The Haunter in the Dark by H.P. Lovecraft: A followup story to The Shambler From the Stars, this concerns the demise of Robert Blake, an enthusiast of the dark arts who searches an abandoned church which has many evil elements within...

The Shadow from the Steeple by Robert Bloch rounds out the trilogy concerning the previous two stories. A man from Chicago investigates the deaths of Robert Blake, and his chronicler H.P. Lovecraft, blending the lines of fantasy and reality further, making this tale one of remarkable tenability and fright...

The Notebook Found in a Deserted House by Robert Bloch - This tale concerns a 12 year old who is put up at his aunt and uncle's farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Rumors of mythology and sacrificial altars in the woods beyond trouble him. Then one day Aunt and Uncle go off in the night, never to return. The child must face his fears with the postman during a thunderstorm...

Cold Print by J. Ramsey Campbell - a vagrant, who warms himself from the cold outside by visiting a bookstore, and becomes a reader of Lovecraftian stories. He encounters a menacing book dealer, who makes him an offer he cannot refuse...

The Sister City by Brian Lumley - A youth of mysterious deformities and talents comes to realize his true identity and troubles the authorities with his attempt to return to the land what which he might call "home."
Cement Surroundings by Brian Lumley - A professor returns to England after researching many mythical entities and two mysterious orbs. He becomes terrified of both the underground and seismic activity. Following an earthquake, the professor disappears, leaving his poor nephew to sort out the madness...

The Deep Ones by James Wade - A little bit longer story about a team of researchers working with dolphins off the Pacific coast. A strange man from Miskatonic University identifies one of the researchers as being from an old family in Innsmouth on the East Coast and foretells great misfortunes, to which the researchers are at once skeptical, for a time...

The Return of The Lloigor by Colin Wilson - a lengthy (as these short stories go) tale of an English professor who finds a text and interprets it to be the Necronomicon. Later he learns that Lovecraft mentioned this in his "fiction" but that these stories seem to match up with legends of Wales, where he finds the stories coming to life, but few belief the fantastical findings...

And there you have it, the last of the Cthulu Mythos stories in my two volume set. If you're up for weird tales, these are good and weird.

Vision of the Future

Latest on my growing list of accomplishments is finally finishing a book I purchased a few years back and meant to read but never got around to. Thus, today is has been a good day.

Vision of the Future is a Star Wars novel by Timothy Zahn which is the sequel to the book Spectre of the Past. The two books make up what is called Zahn's Hand of Thrawn Duology, taking place 10 years after A New Hope (Star Wars Episode IV).

Vision of the Future, while certainly exciting, at just under 700 pages makes for a daunting read. It takes a while to get into, but as I've found the last half goes considerably faster. I am a little disappointed that Zahn couldn't have stretched things another 6 pages to round out an even 700 pages. I'm sure there was room for Lando hanging out in some marginally related dank hideout with sketchy characters of limited consequence.

That not withstanding, the book has several plot lines running at the same time: 1) Luke & Mara 2) Han & Lando 3)Leia and the Camaasi Trustant, 4) Thrawn, Tierce, and Disra, 5) Karrde and Shada, 6) Wedge and a pet shop 7) Thrawn's cronies, awaiting his prophetic return, 8) Booster Terrik and General Garm Bel Iblis, 9) Admiral Pellaeon and the Chimera. There's a few other lines of story, including guest appearances by characters from the past, all of which converge nicely at the end of the tale.

My only complaint here is some of the writing is lacking. A worrisome revelation, indeed, having grown fond of the written word by reading these Star Wars novels, especially the Thrawn Trilogy, also written by Zahn. Sentence fragments litter the pages, yes, for dramatic effect, but still, this is not very skilled authorship. I also noted a few typos although in a tome this sized, that is to be expected. I suspect my criticism stems from reading more heady, shorter works of Camus, Hemingway, and Steinbeck of recent.

All in all, if you're a Star Wars enthusiast with time on your hands, go ahead and pickup the Hand of Thrawn Duology. Its a good time.

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Volume I

I was out traversing a few garage sales and I stumbled upon this gem in a free box: H.P. Lovecraft (and other): Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, vol. 1., and vol 2.

Some of you might remember a review of a collection of HP Lovecraft works a few months back. Having read that, I soon realized Lovecraft's works were in the public domain, and thus I hardly needed a hard-copy. These stories are predominantly by other authors in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft and correlation much of Lovecraft's fantastical aberrations. Plus, for free, its hard to pass up.

The short stories within vol. 1 are as follows:

The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft: The story featuring Lovecraft's most fantastic creature.

The Return of the Sorcerer by Clark Ashton Smith: A man takes a job working for a disturbed researcher...too short for more information.

Ubbo-Sathla by Clark Ashton Smith: a mysterious crystal leads to all sorts of evil;

The Black Stone by Robert E. Howard: a black stone invokes strange visions of years and evils past...

The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long: a researcher invokes a drug to enable time travel, quickly goes insane fearing the Hounds of Tindalos will come at him through angles in the walls...

The Space-Eaters by Frank Belknap Long: mystery in the woods when a neighbor drops by; he's ranting about evil and there seems to be something dreadful in the wood..

The Dweller in the Darkness by August Derleth: something is out there in the woods of Northern Wisconsin, and professors from Madison search to determine what it is, possibly one of the creatures Lovecraft "factually" wrote about...

Beyond the Threshold by August Derleth: Grandfather is obsessed with finding a secret threshold in his Wisconsin home, much to the dispair of his grandsons.

The Salem Horror by Henry Kuttner: Famed author finds a secret underground room used by a former occupant in his house for witchcraft.

The Haunter of the Graveyard by J. Vernon Shea: horror film enthusiast finds a secret passageway in his house...

More to come when I read vol 2.

...in an adventure with Napoleon!

Gideon Defoe's latest book in "The Pirates!" series concerns the historical figure of Napoleon. If you haven't heard of Gideon Defoe, he's an English author who blends pirates and history in a campy, somewhat farcical and strangely historically inaccurate sort of way.

This adventure was released in England early last year (2008), but did not come out on this side of the pond until May of 2009. Thus, after pre-ordering and it arriving, I have summarily read the book.

My biggest complaint is its brevity.

This adventure involves the Pirate Captain moving to St. Helena island to become a beekeeper. There he runs into Napoleon and things go a bit odd from there.

Hard to explain too much without giving the plot away, but its a fine read. Keep 'em coming, Defoe.

Revolting Beauty

Dr. Greg Boyd preached a sermon series in 2008 called "Revolting Beauty." This sermon series outlined this followup to his book, "The Myth of the Christian Nation."

Boyd's previous book garnered a fair amount of criticism, namely from politically conservative Christians, insisting he goes too far. Growing up under that influence, I admit I have some reservations with agreeing wholeheartedly. This latest book, however, does much to reinforce his views. Boyd isn't against conservative politics nor against America or nationalism. Rather, his thesis is that we, as Christians, ought to have our focus on Christ, not our nation, comparing America (or whatever nation one belongs to) with Caesar: "So instead of working together to do what Jesus did, we often waste time fighting each other over what Caesar should do," (p. 28). Boyd's contention is that Christians are a religious people who often act nothing like Christ. If we did, on the whole, act as Christ, many of the national issues America faces would not be important.

Consider: Christ worked with the poor. If all who professed Christianity spend time each week feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, and sheltering the homeless, these issues would seem very mute in our society, since some 70-80% of Americans claim Christianity as their religion and there are significantly less needy people about.

The chapter about nationalism was a little hard to wrap my head around, having been infused with patriotic hymns, pledging allegiance to the American flag and honoring veterans whenever in church services, it only seems natural to adhere to "God and Country." Boyd makes a point to not do these things in church. While Jesus encouraged his followers to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's," he didn't make a point to honor those soliders who had killed in the name of caesar at the temple, nor pledge allegiance to Rome or sing Roman songs of patriotism. Rather, Jesus drove out the money changers from the Temple, seeing it as a misuse of God's holy place. With this in mind, it does seem outrageous to use a church as a place waxing Americana. Particularly when Jesus died not only for Americans, but also for every nation that America has ever warred against: Native Americans, French, British, British again, Mexico, both North and South during the civil war, Spain, Germany, Germany again, Italy, Japan, North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq again, and every smaller conflict in between and every war yet to happen. Jesus loves everybody, not just Americans. So why would he want us to go and kill "them"?

Which is not to say I am not patriotic. I enjoy America and its freedoms, and always will. There is a time and place to be patriotic. Just as prayer is not welcome in public schools, perhaps we should take America out of our churches - that's God's holy place, to be used accordingly.

Boyd continues this train of thought as all nations have always looked toward God or some gods and claimed that this divinity is on their side. Therefore they are right, all others are wrong and gives us right, if not necessity to war against other nations. This thinking has led to very un-Jesuslike wars across time. Perhaps it isn't practical for a "Christian Nation" to be peaceable, as others would take advantage, but that really isn' the Christian's concern. Ours is to be Christ to our neighbors. Let Caesar address foreign affairs.

While I enjoyed this challenging book, I had a few issues I found. Firstly, Boyd says "Jesus never..." a few times. One cannot logically prove a negative, especially with the incomplete history of Jesus' life we have available. Just because the Bible doesn't say something, doesn't mean it didn't happen. See John 21:25. I'm sure Boyd knows that, so it sounds like he's overemphasizing something, hoping we won't notice. Secondly, on page 147, he notes Jesus cursing the fig tree as the only destructive miracle Jesus performed. Again, so far as we know, but also, Jesus removed demons from a man and cast them into a nearby herd of pigs, about 2000 fold. They then jumped off a cliff. I would constitute this as destructive. Matthew 8:28-34.

Again, these are minor points. The main purpose of the book is to show the reader that being a sunday morning Christian is not enough. We are to be Christ's representative on earth 24/7. If we're not doing that, then we're missing the point.

Cataphatic Prayer, Part II

As mentioned a few posts back, the idea of cataphatic prayer, or imaginative prayer, is nothing new. Popularized by St. Ignatius of Loyola, some time back, Dr. Greg Boyd revisited this with his book "Seeing is Believing".

Part of the idea behind cataphatic prayer is to visualize in one's mind biblical events from a different point of view, or a richer perspective than what is presented by the Bible itself. Taking this idea, I've read a 600+ page 1930s copy of a childrens' Bible story book. From what I can discern, the stories presented are accurate retellings of Bible events (albeit sometimes glossed over for young ears, i.e. David's sin with Bathsheba isn't mentioned, just that David had done something rather bad...)

Taking these easier to follow accounts, one might further grasp what is going on in the story. By understanding these stories better one might place themself there and gain greater meaning from it. Sometimes this book helps clarify to the reader what is going on. For example, the people of Ephesus turned to Christ and burned their books of magic (this is where we get the idea of a Christian book-burning). The author side notes that this is profound because in the day books were expensive luxuries, not something impoverished people had. Think of it as smashing 50" 1080p plasma TVs on the sidewalk. This was really making a statement about how they were changing their lives.

Some commentary may affirm or upset theologians reading, as in Peter's vision of the blanket full of unclean animals, for which he is instructed to kill and eat.

I paricularly found interesting the commentary on Acts 5, where Annanias and his wife Sapphira sell land and give the profits to the church. However, they keep some money to themselves, but indicate the gift is the entire sum. In lying to the church, God smotes them, that is they die at once. Edgermeier's commentary expands on the Bible where it says "The whole church and all the others who heard of this were terrified" (Acts 5:11 Good News Translation). Edgermeier says that they were terrified and were afraid to claim to be Christians unless they were sure their sins were forgiven. This is poignant in terms of many who claim to be Christians who make appearances of the religiosity of the Church just as Annanias and Sapphira, but who are actually leading sinful, displeasing lives. It is one thing to "do church" and quite another to act as Jesus.

Lightspeed Travel

Traveling Light is a book written by Texas preacher Max Lucado. It's been sitting on my parents' bookshelf for a number of years, and the title always made me consider a beam of light peaking into a dense forest, a light that we might travel somewhere beyond the thicket of our own makings.

Thus, I was again a little disappointed that the book did not match my judgment of the cover. Where I used Traveling as an verb indicating how the noun (Light) moves, Lucado meant Light to be an adjective describing the process of movement (Traveling).

Basically, he's retelling the 23rd Psalm, reminding us that we ought to put down our burdens and let God do the worrying in our journey called life.

I've read a short Lucado book before, but this better illuminates his writing style, which can only, if ironically, be described as pastoral. Yes, he's a pastor, but that's not what I mean. Look it up. Additionally, metaphors flood the pages like cats and dogs from the sky in a thunderstorm. Some get lost in the specific nomenclature of the example, but the range of topics allows one to grasp most of them, or at least discern the meaning.

For the most part, the book accomplishes what it intends: a line-by line examination of the 23rd Psalm, addressing problems people have today. A few chapters felt like he was stretching his page count (at best) or giving loathesome counsel (at worst). What stands out to me are the chapters on Grief and Loneliness. Here I will make a lot of text about minor objections:

The chapter on Grief, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..." Psalm 23:4 (NKJV) tells a story of a young boy dying. The intent is of the chapter is to console the greiver, and this is accomplished. We are assured that God comforts those who greive, and Lucado should have stopped there. No, he continues, death is a good thing. Sometimes people are suffering and their quality of life is no longer good. What for the one that died early in life, say, in a car accident? God's time is not our time. But what about the unbeliever? How can we rest easy knowing they did not go to a better place? Lucado's solution is one of dangerous inclusivity. He insists that maybe they repented at the last minute, or as they traveled the road between death and judgement. He continues that God wants us to repent and go to heaven (2 Peter 3:9) and insists that God "usually gets what he wants."

Now I don't pretend to know what happens when we die, maybe we do all get some grace period to recant our misdeads after we die, but this feel-good approach that you can rest easy knowing your friend who lived a decidedly ungodly life went to heaven seems like bad teaching. Jesus said "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV).

Thus, my contention is that while God may want everyone to join him in heaven, the reality is that FEW actually do.

My second objection to this book comes from the chapter on loneliness. Oh how this made me angry. He give the story of a shut-in that orders deliveries for personal interaction, and is puzzled at how someone could be so lonely. He continues with another analogy of driving a friend's car, with your only choice in music is to listen to nothing or something you don't prefer. Eventually, out of desperation, you find yourself adapting to the friend's choice in music. Lucado says this is like God, forcing us into a corner which the only way out is God's way, and therefore loneliness is a Gift from God.

Obviously he doesn't know lonely. Most preachers I've met are extroverted social butterflies. They go where people are and make conversation, and make friends. Lucado says one of his prayers on a sunday morning on behalf of the congregation gave thanks to God for all our friends, noting we have more than time to spend with them. A businessman later informed him that wasnt' the case for all the congregants, like himself, who was in the midst of a church but still lonesome.

My work in software has found many such people. We're an introverted lot for the most part, and many prefer that, but loneliness still abounds. I've known people that although lonely, would prefer to not go to a party with a bunch of acquaintances. The rationale was simple: being around a group of people who all knows each other highlights one's own loneliness. Being around people and their friends as an outsider is worse than being alone and not having that reminder right in front of them. Its a vicious cycle, to be sure, but hardly one that I would consider a Blessing for those undergoing it. Yes, "God is with me" but friends of flesh and blood are important too. A lonely person doesn't want to be told their isolation is a blessing anymore than someone with terminal cancer does. Someone who is truly upset because they are lonely is so because they feel it too is terminal; there is no relief in sight.

Later in the chapter Lucado emphasizes that whatever the problem we are facing (see economy) God is with us. These are reassuring words, despite the earlier part of the chapter that I find unfortunate.

On the whole, the book accomplishes it's task of relating the 23rd Psalm into today's vernacular. Take comfort in the Shepherd that so many have heard of, and trust him to guide us throughout this day.

Connections

Once upon a time, I was watching the learning channel on a Saturday afternoon, and a rerun of this show called "Connections" was on. See what I'm talking about on youtube here. The premise is exploring technology and seeing what causes in history which seem unrelated actually are related.

So I was having a chat with my brother, who is en route to Omaha, Nebraska to pick up a friend at the airport. This is a little farther away than the expected airport in Sioux Falls.

Wikipedia's article on Omaha lists the city clerk as one Buster Brown.

Buster Brown is also a cartoon character from the early 1900s.

This character was named after vaudeville child actor Buster Keaton.

Buster Keaton was well known for wearing pork pie hats.

The pork pie hat had a resurgence in popularity after Gene Hackman’s character Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle wore one in The French Connection, a film released in 1971.

Gene Hackman does the voice of Lowe's Hardware Commercials.

Lowe's is based in Moorseville, North Carolina.

Mooresville is also known as Race City, USA for its 60 NASCAR teams based there.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. resides in Mooresville.

AMP Energy is on his car.

AMP has Taurine in it.

Urban legends surrounding the source of taurine have included bull urine extract and bull semen. While it's true that taurine is found in both sources, it is not the source of taurine in the pharmaceutical or food industry.

Another Urban Legend indicates that carjackings happen frequently in broad daylight in Omaha Nebraska.

So there your have it, we've gone full circle back to Omaha. Wasn't that fun?

Matt