Out with the Old; In with the New

Some weekends I am challenged by my blog. I feel it a duty to post something, so people know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, but it's not every weekend you run across a Jurrasoid Insect Monster, or cause grievous pain to your digits. This week I have a theme.

Books

Finally, at very long last, after stutterstops, changes in venue, and mini-sabbaticals, I've finished Guns, Germs, and Steel. That book is a massive undertaking, but in the end, it's worth it. I don't blame anyone who skips over a dozen of pages of detail at a time, and I don't think it's a bad idea. The book is like one of those college courses that you just couldn't wrap your head around entirely because you had other classes, legal drinking ages, and girls(!) to distract you as well, but you still took something very profound from it. For me, as more of a self-supposed architect of imaginary worlds than a true student of history, I took more world-building tips than life-changing data, but I think it's probably created a bedrock for my meta-scale worldview from which I'll unknowingly argue in the future.

The book I'm moving to is supposed to be a terrific, insightful, lyrical, and fun translation of the Pentateuch, and I'm very excited (though I certainly don't expect to rush right through it). I should probably toss in a Heinlein book (he's my favorite author), as I need to read some good fiction to instruct me in difficulties I'm having moving through some of the less exciting portions of the various fictions I'm creating. I think I'll pick I Will Fear No Evil. It definitely deserves a re-read.

Under-desk Space Usage

I've had this server somewhere around my computer desk since Pasadena. Due to multiple reasons (it sounds like a jet engine when you turn it on / it has less than 60 GB of RAID'd usable space / it's very old), I rarely turn it on. I'm going to move it into the attic storage space. Replacing it is:

A mini Fridge! Yay! Cold beer upstairs! Kim and I were given $500 in $50 gift cards to Home Depot as part of using LendingTree.com when we were buying the house. We agreed to take $100 each for a spending spree, since we had already bought most of the things we needed before the cards arrived. I'm very please with my purchase, but I also got a push-broom and a front-door mat with dragonflies on it. Kim bought mostly wall-paper removal stuff and a sander.

CD Storage

Back in Buena Park, I moved all my CD's from their whacky stackable jewel cases to more streamlined slipcovers, due largely to their large and ever-increasing numbers. However, to this moment, they remain mostly in or around the box I moved them in, drastically reducing the overall efficience of the change. But I bought from Target:

I think each drawer should hold about 30 or 40 CDs in slips, so I can keep my top 140 CD's easily accessible. I'll still have to find homes for the other 500, but it's a start!

Bugs, lumberjacking, and the yard

I was planning on doing some yardwork yesterday and today, but I wore myself out yesterday playing the lumberjack, so instead I'll put an update in my blog.

First, some fauna:


I don't know what this guy is. I saw him trundling along outside while I was talking to Mom on the phone, so I figured I'd better take a picture. One of these days, I'm going to get an Insect and Spider Field Identification Guide, and then I can drop some interesting science when I post these pictures.


Ha! At least I know what this is. In a general way, anyway. This is a very large ant - a warrior ant, I think. She's over 15mm long, but it's hard to prove it without context. Usually I see her ilk standing guard amongst a bunch of her smaller cousins, but she was out exploring. She wouldn't pose for me, except for this quick over-the-shoulder glance.

For my birthday, Todd and Cindy bought me a chainsaw. Actually, they gave me a gift certificate to Home Depot, and I picked out the chainsaw. And yes, I promise to be careful.

So, yesterday I went out to the front yard and trimmed about 10 low-hanging branches that were encroaching on the Japanese Maple and hanging down over the yard, low enough that I had to stoop under them to mow. The branches were nearly small trees in their own right, if you stuck them in the ground.


In order to be able to cut them up properly, I had to strip off all of the leaves, then clip the twigs off and break them down into small segments. Only after that could I have at them with the chainsaw.


Four or five hours later, and all I have to show for it are these wimpy little piles. And you can see that very large pile of wood I collected before the arrival of the chainsaw. Whew! That's a lot of work.


I was planning on going out again today to dig up more of the front box, but when we were carrying Kim's store supplies (not really even very heavy) out of Target this morning, I realized I'd better give my arms a break. I need to get in shape!

Here are a few shots of the yard from the perspective of a home-owner instead of a home-buyer.

You can see the box between the trees in the front, and you can just make out on the right about half-an-hour's worth of digging dirt out and wheelbarrowing it to the back yard.


Just to the left and in front of the bird bath is the mini-valley I'm filling in with the dirt from the front.

Oh! I forgot to mention - while I was putting together the wheelbarrow last week, I cleverly wrenched my thumb between the arm of a box-head wrench and the corner of an l-shaped piece of metal, and so the corner of the metal punched right through my thumbnail and into the skin behind. Ouch! That hurt more than anything I've done to a finger before, including crushing it with a hammer or stapling it, since it kind of includes both. Now I've got a fault line in my thumbnail and a black spot slowly moving up as it grows out. I wonder what will happen when it gets near the end of the nail.

Review: Missing the Point

For my birthday, Sarah and Dave (and Ellen and Isaiah) gave me a copy of Adventures in Missing the Point by Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo. It's an easily readable book, so even though Todd and Cindy were over for the week, I finished it quickly in late night and early morning stints.

Both of the authors write well, so I found myself agreeing with a lot of what they said, though not everything, just as they agreed with each other for the most part, but not on every detail.

These are the topics they covered: Salvation, Theology, the Kingdom of God, the End Times, the Bible, Evangelism, Social Action, Culture, Women in Ministry, Leadership, Seminary, Environmentalism, Homosexuality, Sin, Worship, Doubt, Truth, and Being Postmodern.

I thought they hit some of the topics pretty spot on - Salvation, Social Action, Culture, Women in Ministry, Seminary, Truth, and Doubt were all handled pretty well. The framing - "Missing the Point" - allowed the authors to offer some guidance correction to Christians without pointing any fingers. In other Chapters, like the Kingdom of God, I thought they were on the right track, but did not take their case quite far enough - the Kingdom of God is within you, so Eschatology that focuses on a physical New Jerusalem and Second Coming are bound to disappoint as much as they have for 2000 years, and people who hold tight to the belief are missing the point as much as did the original Jews in Jesus' time.

I thought they handled Homosexuality especially well for a book that still concluded Homosexuality is a sin - they pointed out some very obvious discrepencies (like Homosexuality, if a sin, is to be grouped among the hundreds of other sexual immoralities that are winked at or glossed over in Christian Culture, not in the least divorce and remarriage, which are specifically condemned by Jesus.

In my opinion, Tony missed the point on Theology by claiming that everyone is a Theologist. That's like saying everyone is a Biologist because they eat food or know the names of some animals and vegetables. Expanding the meaning of a word to include everything is almost always, by definition, a misuse of the word, and I think he did a real disservice to the idea that every Christian should actually study and know some Theology. It doesn't happen naturally any more than someone becomes a Physicist naturally.

I would have liked to see a chapter on the Personal Relationship with Jesus. I think that's an area a lot of modern Christians have really missed the point. I think a lot of people have deluded themselves into believing that conversations with their own conscience are conversations with Jesus; this can be quickly disproven with a conversation with a Buddhist or Moslem who has the same internal dialogue without involving Jesus. If people want to have a relationship with Jesus, they should at the very least get to know him better the way one might get to know Augustine or Einstein better - by heavily studying the things they said and did and trying to get inside their head. I will not get to have any deep relationship with Einstein by thinking about gravity, unless I'm guided by and reviewing his thoughts on gravity. I think many Christian who claim to walk with Jesus know him more by his "Footprints" than any of his sermons, and that is a travesty.

I also think McLaren missed the point on PostModernism, and Campolo caught him in it, but let the issue go. Modernism, is a bloated, arrogant corpse, and those who cling to its promise for a Cartesian future are like Soviets waiting for Russia to recollect her satellite states. A little postmodernism is a necessary thing. However, Modernism, though it ultimately missed the point, was built on the principles of a Christian society, and to completely reject it, as is the trajectory of formal PostModernism, is to reject some necessary Christian principles. It's important to understand the good reasons behind PostModernism, but to cling to any philosophy based on the rejection of another is to hope in a shot in the dark. What Christians should strive for is the Christianity of Christ, not a philosophical stance. I don't think Jesus would ever claim to be a Modernist or a PostModernist, so let that be an example.

Of course, the book is intended for a Christian audience, so if you aren't a Christian, it's not going to convince you of anything. I do think, however, that if Western Christianity as a whole were to take many of the course corrections to heart, their living example would be a better ministry than any Evangalistic missions in effect today.

Vacation: Getting the House ready

As promised, the vacation is coming to a close, so I'm posting a few pictures. Actually, I'm posting a ton of pictures, but I promise, I've only selected the ones I like the best out of more than 700. So there you go.

I thought I'd start off with an update to the house. We (especially Kim) spent a lot of time to get the house ready for our first extended guests, so it seems like a good time to show you how everything turned out:


Here's the living room, decorated and presentable. We were really lucky that Kim was able to find so much furniture that matched the wood in the room. Kim also painted the accent stripe in the molding to match the couch.


Here's the kitchen, which had the biggest change, as Kim pulled down all of the wallpaper and painted the walls with this cheery color of green. She powered right through this room, and is already talking about moving on to the next one.


We put up this dharma mirror in the stairway; in person, it looks like a window in the middle of the house, which is cool!


This is a slapdash composition of two pictures of the guest bedroom. It's waiting for our next guests!


Lastly, I thought I'd toss in another sloppy composition - this one of the bonus room. You can really get a better idea of its size when you see all of the furniture in it.

Vacation: Atlanta History Center

Kim said that on the days she worked, we should go to all of the museums and take all of the hikes we pleased, so on one of the first days, Todd, Cindy, and I visited the Atlanta History Center. I didn't take any pictures of the Museum itself (though it had a particularly good Civil War exhibit, and I didn't even like Civil War History before that day), or of the Tulley House (a farm house and its outlying buildings moved onto the property), but they were both quite interesting. I did take a few pictures of the Swan house, which sat on the land used by the History Center.


This is the front of the house, seen from a walkway across from the carriageway leading up to the front door. It is the "English Side" of the house.


This is the side of the house, from the other side of the garden walk. That's Cindy snapping a picture.


This is the rear of the house, or its "Italian Side". We really liked the cascading fountains and tiered gardens. Todd is taking the picture, and Cindy is to his left.

Photographs of the inside were strictly forbidden.

Vacation: The Aquarium at Chattanooga

Kim, Todd, Cindy, and I drove up to Tennessee for a day trip to the Aquarium at Chattanooga. The Aquarium is famous for its huge freshwater exhibits of lake and river fish, but they've also recently completed a saltwater aquarium, which made it double the fun!


The Aquarium is built on a complex down by the river, and sprinkled throughout the complex are fountains, pools, and streams built into the concrete and designed for children to play in them. All of the waterworks eventually led down to this fountain and pool that filtered out to the river. Moms, don't worry - there's a retainer wall hidden beneath the bridge that prevents children from drifting out to sea.

Each of the Aquarium buildings had a special exhibit seperated off from the major tanks. On the freshwater side, they displayed sea dragons and seahorses.




We quickly learned that the low lights in the aquarium and the glass walls of the tanks did not lend themselves to ideal conditions for photography. Some of the animals were kind enough to drift in place long enough for us to get off a good shot.

Most, like invertibrates in the saltwater special display, came out rather ghostly.






The freshwater side also had a good selection of alligators and turtles, but the turtles were rather active.



On top of the saltwater exhibit they had built a butterfly room. There were butterflies everywhere, and children and moms as well. They even had a display of active, living cocoons, which was very cool.


This guy thinks he's a leaf, and he nearly had me fooled.



This is the one very large, very tame moth. He would walk from fingertip to fingertip, obliging whoever wanted to hold him at the moment. You can just make out on the picture of Cindy holding him that those four large spots on his wings are translucent!




I should describe the main tanks in the Aquarium now. There were two very large tanks on the saltwater side, and three or four on the freshwater side, and each was multiple stories and represented a particular location or type of habitat. The saltwater side was large enough for schools of fish to avoid the circling sharks, and for rays, barracuda, and several groups of two or more feet in length to swim without bothering each other.




The freshwater side showed the progression from a small mountain stream to a waterfall pool to a large, still lake and down to the delta. Each location had its own tank, and there were also numerous small tanks for specific environments (like a Japanese river or a Chinese river or a West African river).



After we'd left the aquarium, we stopped at the IMAX theater for 2 (two!) 3D movies in a row. The first was labelled "Sharks!", but only about half of it was dedicated to sharks, and the rest of it made it's way around the ocean. The second was a simulation of a safari through Southern Africa from the vantage point of the back of a jeep. Both were worth watching and a great way to end the excursion!

Vacation: Blue Ridge

On Wednesday, Kim, Todd, Cindy, and I drove up to Blue Ridge to take the scenic train ride.



We got seats on the open-air car and were excited for our scenic journey through the Appalachians.


As it turns out, the trip isn't really a mountain-pass type - that was just the assumption we made. Most of the view was into the forest or over the river like this.

Or this.

Or this.

Or sometimes back into the car like this.

Once we knew what we were in for, it was a nice, relaxing train ride, except that the wheels screeched on the bends. Since the tracks followed the river, it was mostly bendy.

The train ride stopped at a gift-shop town on the Georgia-Tennessee border, so we did a bit of quick gift-shopping, ate lunch, and hopped back on for the ride back.

Back in Blue Ridge (also a gift-shop town), it was a day for beautiful clouds:




We had a very pleasant drive back to Mom's house, and even stopped at a scenic overlook.



We had a very good dinner with mom at her mountain-top cabin/lodge/house, and I stepped outside for a few more pictures of the clouds and the sunset.

Vacation: Hiking

Kim had a few more days of work while Todd and Cindy were here, so we decided to go hiking.

On Thursday, we wandered around the southern end of the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield.






The park was much larger than we thought, and we ended up walking a bit longer than we'd planned, but it was great fun.

One of the cooler aspects of the park is that because it's a National Battlefield, there are museum-style markers scattered along the trail with explanations of what happened on the spot, or how the Union or Confederate troops built earthworks, or with cannons on display.



This monument overlooks the battlefield where Union troops charged the weak point in the lines defending the mountain. The land was bought by survivors from Illinois and given to their state for this memorial.

Todd and I drove up to Red Top near Mom's the next morning and hiked out to Lake Allatoona. We were the first ones there.