So I have a monster blog post cooking right now. A small set up is that I decided to check out Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins a little bit ago. Wow. So much to say about that. But reading it has prompted me to dig a little deeper into traditional Christian beliefs, theology, and what do we really know about it all. Just talking with others about it has stirred something that I find to be quite alarming and I want to look into it. So be on the look out for that…
In other news:
I am graduating college in about a month
I have secured my first full time job for after I graduate
If you haven’t figured out by now, I am a huge fan of Don Miller. He is a fantastic author. His writing has changed my life in multiple ways. But that’s all old news if you read my blog. What is new with Donald Miller these days? Well other than keeping a phenomenal blog alive with daily writings, he has been making Blue Like Jazz into a movie. Not some huge action packed hollywood blockbuster, but a smaller movie that really sticks to the book’s theme: nonreligious thoughts on Christianity. If you haven’t read Blue Like Jazz, go read it now, and then watch the movie when it comes out. It’s a great book, especially for someone without much faith in God in my opinion. A series of essays and thoughts that go into detail about the core of Christianity. This book is just not promoted enough.
Anyway, so on September 16th 2010 Don announced that even though the movie was written, crewed, and casted, it was going to be canceled because of a lack of funding. What? I had been too excited about this project to see it crash and burn due to something as trivial as funding. You know what my reaction was to this? “Where can I donate?” I wanted to see this masterpiece of a book in its movie form even if I had to fund it myself. And it looks like a lot of other people did too.
A kickstarter was made with the idea that we the fans could come up with the $125,000 needed to fund the Blue Like Jazz movie. Fun fact, if you watch the video on the kickstarter page, you can actually see my comment I left is featured about 1 minute in. Cool! There are even some incentives if you donate towards the movie. After my donation, I am now an official Associate Producer of the Blue Like Jazz movie. My name is even in the credits!
Well we had just under a month to complete the funding, and today we did it. We are actually at $127,866 funded so maybe the movie will be just a little bit better. Don can add in a car chase scene, CGI sexy carrot in, or something.
What a good story it would be. Investors back out. The movie is put on hold. But the fans say, “No! We will fund this movie.”
Well we did it. So look out for Blue Like Jazz the movie coming soon.
So, Wus, tell me: What’s the deal with the captain? He’s dead.”
<She. Yes, of course she is dead.>
“And why do you want your captain to be dead?”
<How else can you be sure she will not make a mistake?>
That seemed to stymie Marco. But the patient male who even I was now thinking of as “Wuss” went on to explain.
<Those who make errors must be eliminated. It is inevitable that a captain, who would make many decisions if she were alive, would therefore also make many errors. What is the point of a captain who must be killed for error? In this way we have a captain who may be respected and revered by all.>
Marco looked at me helplessly. “What’s sad is that it makes a certain bizarre kind of sense.” He turned back to Wuss. “How about your other leaders? All dead?”
<Yes, a Helmacron female may not ascend to a position of importance in our society unless it is certain that she will not cause problems. She must be a symbol that all can admirer.>
“Kind of like our society,” I muttered.
“Well, Wuss, aren’t you supposed to tell us how to behave?”
<Yes. You must obey all females. You must wash your food before eating it. As males, you must be quiet and calm at all times.>
“I’m not male,” I said. “I’m female.”
<No, you are a slave. Thus you are male and must do whatever a female tells you to do.>
“Kind of like our society,” Marco said, mimicking me.
“We love life. All life, but especially sentient life forms, like Homo sapiens. Your species. This is a very beautiful planet. A priceless work of art.”
Suddenly, without warning, the Ellimist did it again. He opened space. We were no longer standing in the Yeerk pool. We were no longer underground at all. We were underwater. Deep underwater. But the water did not seem to touch my skin. And when I breathed, there was air. Still, I felt fear tingle the back of my neck. Suspended in the water, but dry. The Ellimist could no longer be seen. We were floating above a coral reef. And everything was moving again. All around us, fish swam by in swift-darting schools. Fish in every color and shape, reflecting the dappled sunlight from above. Sharks prowled. Stingrays seemed to fly. Squid pulsated. Crabs scuttled across fabulous extrusions of coral. Tuna as big as sheep drifted past. Swift, grinning dolphins raced by in pursuit of their next meal.
LOVELY.
The Ellimist’s voice once more seemed to grow from deep within my own heart.
LOVELY.
And then, as quickly as we had been plunged into the ocean, we were drifting above the waving golden grass of the African savannah. A pride of lions lazed in the sun below us, looking sleepily content. Wildebeest and gazelles and impalas grazed, then broke into wild, springing, bouncing races that forced you to smile at the sheer energy of it all. There were hyenas, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, baboons, zebras. Hawks and eagles and buzzards wheeled overhead.
LOOK AT IT.
Then, in an instant, deep jungle. A lithe jaguar prowled while monkeys chattered in the tree canopy above. Snakes as long as a person slithered across tree branches. The air reeked of the heavy perfume of a million flowers. We heard the sounds of frogs, insects, monkeys, and wild, screaming birds.
IN ALL THE UNIVERSE, NO GREATER BEAUTY. IN A THOUSAND, THOUSAND WORLDS, NO GREATER ART THAN THIS.
Then the Ellimist showed us the human race. We flew, invisible, through the steel-and-glass canyons of New York City. We drifted above villages at the edges of jungle rivers. We watched a rock concert in Rio de Janeiro, and a political meeting in Seoul, and a soccer game in Durban, and an open-air market in the Philippines.
HUMANS. CRUDE. PRIMITIVE. BUT CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING.
Suddenly, all the movement stopped. We were staring at a picture. A painting. I’d seen the painting somewhere before.
It was a wild swirl of color. A painting of purple flowers. Irises, I think, although I’m no big expert on flowers. The artist had seen the beauty of those flowers and captured some small bit of it on canvas.
CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING.
The beauty of our world amazes me. From Rock Habor’s sermon last night, to reading a book today, it never ceases to amaze me just how wonderful it all was created. Even more amazing I think, and so does the Ellimist it seems, is that we have been endowed with the ability to understand the beauty/glory of it all.
Bonus points if you know what book it came from; the Ellimist kind of gives it away…
So lately I’ve been reading a good book, listening to some good music, having some good conversations. I just thought I’d let loose some good snippets that came up. I hope you enjoy them and take them seriously as much as I do.
Lets kick things off with the new Switchfoot album. While it wasn’t their best, it definitely wasn’t their worst. One song in particular whose lyrics I find very profound: Your Love is a Song.
Your love is a symphony All around me Running through me
Your love is a melody Underneath me Running to me
Your love is a song
I love the idea of God’s love being compared to a song because many a time, nothing but an expression in a song can spell out what is being felt. And something so awe inspiring as complete Love can’t really be described in a practical sense.
Talking to a good friend of mine, the idea of what a best friend is came up. I wasn’t really prepared to define just what one is, so I sort of just listed out what I can expect out of one that differs from other people.
Someone you can tell anything to, and not have to worry about it
Someone you can call whenever you want to or need them
Someone who doesn’t talk trash on you no matter what
Someone you feel at home with hanging out
And someone who, no matter how long you’ve been apart, it doesn’t feel like anything has changed when you hang out after a hiatus
So for all of you close friends of mine, this is what I expect of you. Alternatively, all of you who want to get to know me better, this is what I will expect of you.
I just polished off another trilogy in Ted Dekker’s ‘Books of History Universe’, Sinner. I think I liked it the best out of the three(Showdown, Saint, and Sinner), and had some amazing things to say about the reality of God.
“Tonight she’d come face-to-face with the rawest kind of evil and this feeling, this terror…it had made a mockery of her worst nightmare. Then she’d become perfectly aware that this evil resided in her. Was a part of her nature. Was a disease that she had contracted and protected like a deep pit might protect the fungus growing on its walls. She drowned in the black lake of her own soul.”
“The main thing was that for the first time in her life she became completely and utterly aware of a greater reality, of which she was a part. Simple statements she’d once heard as a distant, annoying barking dogs in the night, yapping at the world, had thundered through her mind. A huge monster had grabbed her by the hair, spun her around, and roared in her face with enough power to rip her skin off…Only the huge monster had turned to be God.”
“She was most definitely a follower of Jesus, because in the world that her eyes had been opened to last night, there was no difference between Jesus and God. Together they’d ruthlessly and yet so lovingly ruined her to this old world, with its cars and boyfriends and designer jeans.”
“What few Christians realize is that you can’t follow Jesus without actually following his teachings.”
“When did speaking your beliefs become synonymous with forcing them upon others? I’m condemning no one. I’m only saying that I will follow Jesus.”
“Tolerance of evil is evil.”
“Love. It was a simple, narrow way. But it was Jesus’ way. And He is the simple and narrow way.”
Lastly, some good ole Biblical words that I’ve found enlightening lately.
“I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My message was not with wisdom or persuasive words, but with power.”
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Take them for what you will. And tell me what you think.
If you haven’t read Donald Miller’s new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, I highly suggest you do. That aside, I’m going to talk about what I’ve learned from Miller.
I’ve enjoyed Miller’s previous books to date, my favorite being Searching for God Knows What. I guess he really got noticed after his best seller, Blue Like Jazz, came out. Each book seems so different that I find it hard pin down just who Miller is. When I first read Searching he seemed like a recently renewed Christian getting excited about Theology all over again. He couldn’t contain himself, and that really edged me on to get excited about it as well! That might be why I loved the book so much. It woke me up from my God slump.
Then I read Blue and was thinking how Miller had started to think about Christianity from an outward perspective. ‘Nonreligious Thoughts on Christianity’ was a pretty good tag line for this collection of short essays. It seemed like a cool modern/Godless take on what the human condition is and why we do, in fact, need God. I say Godless, not because it is in opposition to God, but because he writes the book from a nonreligious standpoint. It allowed me to build upon my foundation for my faith in Christ. I think it also allows non Christians to connect with his points a lot better. I was later surprised when I found out that Blue was written first.
After To Own A Dragon came out, I got acquainted with how I learned what a man is. I can’t tell you how many “be a man of God talks” I’ve been through and think, ‘Wow, that was a waste of my time.’ Don’t have sex before marriage, don’t beat your wife, don’t be a fool, and always watch them sports! Hoo-rah! Wow, something tells me there is something more to this whole man of God thing than a bunch of dos and don’ts. And isn’t there a better way to learn these things? Enter Dragon. Rather than just put a bunch of rules down, Miller explored how he learned what a man shouldn’t be through his fatherless home and later, what a man should be through his psuedo-Dads in his older years. I’ll tell you, this book made me appreciate my Dad a whole lot more. It also taught me how to identify what I was learning from my Father(heavenly and earthly). No “man of God” talks needed.
So, A Million Miles came out. And it didn’t disappoint. Tackling another topic, Miller explores how to make one’s life better. He takes what he has learned from writing stories and applies it to his own life. What is a story? A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. I find myself watching movies and wonder why such awesome things don’t happen to me. Why don’t I get entrusted with a ring that will save the entire world? Why aren’t I the One that has the power to manipulate reality and save the human race? Well there are easy answers to those…But seriously. I fall in love with all these characters that undergo amazing journey’s, learn who they are, fall in love, and change their personality dramatically. Why can’t I get the same in my life? What am I missing?
Bingo, conflict. A story is not about a character who wants something and gets it. They go through hell to get what they want. Sometimes they lose other things they want in the process. That’s why the story is so good. Would Raider’s of the Lost Ark be as good if Indy just followed a map to the ark in a tomb somewhere and that was it? NO! He fought Nazis, braved snakes, got saved from poison by a monkey, killed giant sword man, and finally had to survive the ark’s wrath. How does this conflict start? Why the inciting incident of course! That point in the story where the character can’t turn back. After Frodo has seen just what will happen to his Shire if he doesn’t destroy the ring. After Neo gets woken up from the Matrix and realizes his world was a facade.
Miller started creating his own inciting incidents in his life. He signed up to ride his bike across the USA, and he did. He told a friend that he would join him to hike Machu Picchu, and he did. He started a non-profit for mentoring fatherless boys while he couldn’t afford it, and he got sponsors and is now on Obama’s task force. He drove out to Illinois to meet his father that deserted him as a child, and is establishing a relationship with him. This is something I’d like to have in my life. Instead of sitting around wishing cool things would happen, I want to go do them. I was thinking that maybe I need to create some inciting incidents of my own.
So, I am.
Inciting Incident #1: Rock Harbor
Ever since I came to UCI I’ve felt out of the loop with Church. I couldn’t make it back to DFCC every Sunday, nor could I still be involved with The Burn youth since I wasn’t there on Wednesdays or come to all the events. I was really involved in DFCC my later high school years, but I just got farther and farther away until I wasn’t really needed. Not that there was any blame. I mean I went off to college, so they needed to find other volunteers. Well, here I am making a new Church home at a church in Irvine called Rock Harbor. DFCC will not be forgotten, but it’s time. While I have been attending Crusade at UCI for a while, it’s not the greatest in spiritual growth. It’s awesome to meet other people around campus, but you just can’t compare to a Church Community. Missing the involvement of past church, I’ve decided to take the plunge! I’m applying to be a Jr High youth volunteer! I can’t count the ways that Mike, Amy and Nathan helped to shape my life into what I am today, and I hope I can do the same to some kids over here. I want to be heavily involved with a Church again, so I’m signing up to hang with the youth. Conflict can be read as college.
Inciting Incident #2: Girls
I’ve been single for a while, but I think now I’m ready to mingle. Having utterly blown a relationship chance last year, something was revealed to me. I have never really asked a girl out before, without knowing if they would say yes prior to asking. Is this lame? Girls, you tell me(please tell me!). I want to start a relationship with a girl again, so I’m gearing up to ask one out. Conflict can be read as college, fear, girl’s answer.
Inciting Incident #3: Spent Time
So, this quarter at UCI has been my hardest one yet. Usually my classes are split up into coding classes and and other classes which can include writing or just tests. This quarter, I am taking all computer oriented classes. Two are are studying/information, Algorithm Analysis and Artificial Intelligence, and the other two are more coding oriented, Language Pragmatics and Digital Graphics with Opengl. However, the AI class is quickly bringing coding into it’s homework assignments as well as its regular reading and quizzes. This is new for me. Usually my homework on the same schedule, either due during the week or on the weekends. With this split I have homework due during the week and the weekend. Every time I finish one set, another is assigned. This is new for me in the sense that I don’t get much of a break between the old and new homework. At least I don’t have to write papers, that’s a relief. Anyway, with all this homework and school I’ve decided to finally re-evaluate my spent time. I want more time to do what I want, namely inciting incidents #1 and #2. On top of my job, I’ve been primarily involved with 4 clubs on campus. Campus Crusade for Christ, Invisible Children, Video Game Development Club, and Dumbledore’s Anteaters. I’ve decided to basically axe the last two from my tentative schedule, atleast for this quarter. Not that I don’t have a blast quoting Harry Potter to death with some other fellow Potter nerds, but sometimes priorities need to take over. I want to start having more time to do what I want, so I’m going to cut some time out of my schedule as well as start focusing more on homework to finish earlier. Do what I want can be read as inciting incidents #1 & #2, learning guitar, and free time. Conflict can be read as wanting to attend, doing homework in a facebookfree environment.
Inciting Incident #4: Sleep Early
And a final thing that I am really looking forward to making myself do, is sleep earlier. Ever since this summer I have been stuck on a 2 am bedtime. While it’s kind of fun to stay up late, it’s not so great when I have early classes or work. Thankfully, I’ve haven’t had early classes this quarter but I have a feeling this won’t last. So I better take care of my sleeping schedule before it really hurts. I’d like to go to sleep and wake up on different days, so maybe head to bed before midnight. I can wake up early and do homework in the morning to make up for the time that I would usually do stuff. I want to start sleeping early again and waking up at a reasonable time, so I am going to start going to bed early and wake up if I need to finish something that can wait. Conflict can be read as the internet, college, friends.
Wow. How is my story going to unfold? Will I fail to accomplish all of these? Maybe. But succeeding isn’t what makes the story.
Friday Night Lights was a great movie and had an awesome story, but they didn’t win.
If you are wondering what to take away from all of this; Go read some Donald Miller. He’s changed my life in multiple ways.
Now, I gotta see about this girl…
EDIT://7/15/10–adding this in to qualify for a contest to go to Miller’s Living aBetter Story seminar. Heres to hoping I win!
2. Tell us a little about how you think the seminar might help you out. You don’t have to get detailed, just let us know specifically what you’re hoping to get from the seminar. This will help us cover all our bases as people come to Portland.
Well since writing this post I guess inciting incidents 1 & 2 worked out pretty well. I’m a leader at the church I attend over here by UCI called Rock Harbor and I love it. I love the kids. I’m getting ready to leave for summer camp in August and help leading a lifegroup in October. Sure the conflict is still college, whether I’m struggling to finish a project or finding time to study while I attend my leader activities, but you know what? I find the time somewhere. I routinely overcome the conflict because I want/love the leader position so much. So, about that girl…I did ask her out. I totally did. And she knew it was coming, which petrified me. You know what she said? Well, she didn’t say yes. But she also didn’t say no! ”Ah HA! There’s my loophole!” I thought, “Still didn’t get turned down.” Honestly I thought that was it for a week or two, and it ended with me not going out with her. Funny how asking someone out can prompt a non-romantic relationship, well for her anyway. I was still very interested but had to keep telling myself she already said no, or didn’t say yes. Well that lasted 3 months, and then we started dating. And we’re still dating. It’s great. If I didn’t overcome that conflict I would have missed out on a great friendship and romance.
Inciting incidents 3 & 4 are the ones I’m finding hard to muster. I guess you could find some sub-iniciting incidents in there that include guitar learning, working out, tennis, basketball, and free time in general. Not saying that 1 & 2 are perfect, I could always use some drive to keep them changing for the better. Sometimes I find myself getting complacent with a change half way, and then thinking “Oh cool I started it so it is done.” I need help to finish these plans. Miller’s book got me aroused enough to want some better plot lines in my life. Miller’s blog got me through the planning part of my new script. But I need help in executing it. And that is where this seminar comes into play. I can’t drive from California to Oregon for the conference during school time so this is really my one shot at getting there. At the very least, if Don reads this could you drop me an email or a comment? Encouragement is always helpful
To be honest, as a first time author I wasn’t expecting Charlton to have created such a wonderful storyline. Boy was I in for a surprise when I started to read Terra Nova: The Search. It has all the ingredients for a good book: unexpected twists, a realistic story, characters you can relate with, and excitement from start to finish! Terra Nova: The Search is a great first book in what will hopefully be an ongoing series.
Well done The Blarg, well done. The next paragraph is a tiny bitty spoiler, so don’t highlight/read it if you haven’t read past page 9 in the book.
—–>The one thing I didn’t think I should put in my review is my biggest problem with the book. And that problem is a single quotation. I wish I had the book with me to get it right, but my Dad is currently reading it back in Downey. It went something along the lines of “I’m about to go bungee jump…without the cord!” Why did you have to put that in there?<-----
I must say, I was not impressed. So much hype for such mediocre books. The story in the middle of each book had me turning the pages to get more, but each end had me vastly disappointed. Especially the last one.
Terra Nova: The Review is coming soon! Might get delayed though…Left 4 Dead DLC just came out! They made two more campaigns to be able to handle Vs. mode, and put out an all new mode, Survival! Here are two fail videos of my first day playing each.
So the BBC says that on average people have only read 6 of the list of 100 must read books
X means I’ve read it. X+ means I read it and loved it. X- means I read it and hated it. * means I plan on reading it.
1. [ ] Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen 1.5 [*] Pride and Prejudice AND ZOMBIES! 2. [X+] The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien 3. [X-] Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte 4. [X+] Harry Potter series JK Rowling 5. [X+] To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 6. [X+] The Bible 7. [ ] Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte 8. [X+] Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 9. [*] His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 10. [X] Great Expectations Charles Dickens 11. [ ] Little Women Louisa M Alcott 12. [ ] Tess of the D’Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 13. [ ] Catch 22 Joseph Heller (I have yet to finish this one) 14. [X] Complete Works of Shakespeare (I’ve read enough) 15. [X-] Rebecca Daphne Du Maurie (If you decide to read this…the important part is at the end) 16. [X+] The Hobbit JRR Tolkien 17. [ ] Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 18. [ ] Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger (I am like the one person I know who hasn’t read this) 19. [ ] The Time Traveller’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger 20. [ ] Middlemarch George Eliot 21. [ ] Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell 22. [X] The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald 23. [ ] Bleak House Charles Dickens 24. [ ] War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 25. [*] The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 26. [ ] Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 27. [] Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28. [X-] Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 29. [ ] Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 30. [] The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame 31. [ ] Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 32. [ ] David Copperfield Charles Dickens 33. [X+] Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis 34. [ ] Emma Jane Austen 35. [ ] Persuasion Jane Austen 36. [X+] The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe CS Lewis 37. [ ] The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 38. [ ] Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Louis De Bernieres 39. [ ] Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 40. [ ] Winnie the Pooh AA Milne 41. [ ] Animal Farm George Orwell 42. [X] The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 43. [ ] One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44. [ ] A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving 45. [ ] The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 46. [ ] Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery 47. [ ] Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy 48. [ ] The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood 49. [X+] Lord of the Flies William Golding 50. [ ] Atonement Ian McEwan 51. [ ] Life of Pi Yann Martel 52. [ ] Dune Frank Herbert 53. [ ] Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 54. [ ] Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 55. [ ] A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 56. [ ] The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57. [X-] A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens 58. [ ] Brave New World Aldous Huxley…scarrry book 59. [ ] The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 60. [ ] Love In The Time Of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61. [ ] Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 62. [] Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 63. [ ] The Secret History Donna Tartt 64. [ ] The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 65. [X+] Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 66. [ ] On The Road Jack Kerouac 67. [ ] Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 68. [] Bridget Jones’s Diary Helen Fielding 69. [ ] Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie 70. [X] Moby Dick Herman Melville 71. [ ] Oliver Twist Charles Dickens… 72. [ ] Dracula Bram Stoker 73. [ ] The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett 74. [ ] Notes From A Small Island Bill Bryson 75. [X] Ulysses James Joyce 76. [ ] The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 77. [ ] Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome 78. [ ] Germinal Emile Zola 79. [ ] Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 80. [ ] Possession AS Byatt 81. [X] A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens 82. [ ] Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 83. [ ] The Color Purple Alice Walker 84. [ ] The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 85. [ ] Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 86. [ ] A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 87. [X] Charlotte’s Web EB White 88. [ ] The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Alborn 89. [*] Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90. [ ] The Faraway Tree Collection Enid Blyton 91. [X] Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad 92. [ ] The Little Prince Antoine De Saint-Exupery 93. [ ] The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 94. [ ] Watership Down Richard Adams 95. [ ] A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 96. [ ] A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute 97. [ ] The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas 98. [X] Hamlet William Shakespeare 99. [X] Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 100. [ ] Les Miserables Victor Hugo
I’ve read 25! I guess that is a quarter of them all, but I feel like I should be reading more of these books.
So I went out and bought the Wind before thanksgiving. I had a bestbuy coupon for 10% off any item and I used it. So it totaled up to about $345. Not bad for a totally portable netbook. It’s really cool too. The keyboard is just a little bit small, but nice to type a short blog post on or take notes during class. The screen size is just small enough to read some blog posts, watch a youtube video, read a word document, or web chat with a friend. The only beef I have with it really is the function key. They put it on the outside of the bottom row on the left so I’m constantly pressing it instead of the left control key. Slightly annoying, but i’m learning to move a finger, or to just press the right one(which is bigger anyways).
Thanksgiving was amazing, as always. So much food. So much football. So much awesome.
I’ve started creating a list of things to hang in my room. I can’t really hang a lot in my campus village apartment since they don’t want holes in the wall, but next year in my new apartment I can. So far I have some video game posters that just went on sale at the Valve store, constructing invisible bookshelves that make people have a double take at floating books, and I’m also creating a Harry Potteresque display case. It is the first of two quality crafts that I am planning on making. The latter will be a sort of wooden chest to hold them all since I am utterly unsatisfied with the cardboard one that borders is selling to hold all the books. Those projects will get posts of their own in due time, probably when they are finished.
Well, I hope you all had a great holiday. It’s almost Christmas so you all better come back home and hang out!
