Hawaii

     This year, my family headed to Hawaii for the holiday cheer.  It has been an excellent trip so far.  We are spearheading a reconnaissance mission for Operation Universal Autocrat: Tortoise Brigade. And today, there was some SCUBA diving (I am actually a bit rusty, having not dived since 1999, near Pismo).  It was excellent however, involving chasing a puffer fish, attempting to pufferize him.  I've also discovered some additional evidence for the migration of coconuts.  The 100% unblended and freshly ground Kona is brewing at the moment.
*smile*

Literature 12-18-5

    I've been continuing to read Will Durant's Story of Civilization: Reformation. I've also been working through the Disciplemaker, and Unceasing Worship.  I also recently recieved my TMS Journal.  The latest is a condensation of the faculty lecture series about the New Perspective on Paul.  I really enjoyed perusing the thoughts and research of my former preofessors.  As I had hoped they had a very language and grammar oriented historical/grammatical exegetical approach, with a special emphasis on context, and also on the presuppositions of the proponents of the NPP.  I especially enjoyed how they picked up on the low view of Christ that the historical critical traditions which the main proponents of the NPP are steeped in.  Their low view of the historical viability of the gospels and other new testament literature colors their perception of the second temple Judaism and its cultural milieu.  Overall, it's been some good reading, though I haven't been reading as much as I'd like. 

Kirkham in the Winter

     December 8th I went camping with some friends up at Kirkham hotsprings near Lowman.  And it was cold!  Really cold! Check out the National Weather stats for Lowman, ID on that date:

Call of Duty 2

 
     I've recently been playing Call of Duty 2.  It's a first person shooter that is set in world war two.  It's a very fun game with excellent graphics and world interaction.  The controls and feel of the game are very similar to Soldier of Fortune 2, which was a long running classic among some of my friends.  There are four nationalities you can play, with differing weapons for each, and as usual, some weapons are more used and effective than others.

 
     The multiplayer is excellent, though it does not have punk-buster enabled, so prepare to get schooled by cheaters.  that's a little sad, but the multiplayer is still fun in spite of that, which speaks volumes.  It also doesn't support a joystick of gamepad, which is a little disappointing.  Overall, however, it's a great game.  I'd recommend giving it a try, if you like first person shooters.

Advent of the Reinpig

      Old Navy had another wave of Reinpigs this year.  Last year, I wasn't fast enough to grab one, and they all got nabbed.  This year, however, I was up on the supposed migratory patterns of the beast.  Experts have stipulated that there is nothing exactly like a Reinpig to celebrate christmas cheer.   What is a Reinpig, you ask?  I'm not actually sure, but it looks to be some sort of abomination that meshes a piggy bank and a reindeer.

Deck the Halls with Plastic Hammers

     In this fourth installment of Playing with Polymers, I finished the first prototype.  It didn't turn out exactly like I had hoped, but it was a good first try for a new and interesting medium.  It did however yield a final piece.  Because of the newness of the medium, I decided to forego using any LEDs in the actual casting process.  This turned out to be a wise decision, as I found out later in the process.

The Quotable Augustine, Vol. 2

     The second installment of quotes from Augustine's City of God have arrived.  It's a diverse cross section of longer quotes from several notable areas.  The quotes are taken from the Schaff compilation, translated by Dods, which is not the translation which I read.  From comparing the two translations, without consulting the latin, the Dods translation looks to be inferior to the Penguin Classic's version, translated by Bettenson.
     Also Augustine's On Christian Doctrine looks good for a future read, probably not until I'm having a hard time sleeping though.

Molding Project, continued...

     After the first half of the silicone molding cured and was ready to be removed, I pried it out of the clay outer molding and trimmed it up.  Then, I added some indentations to the first half molding so that when there is no hammer, the two halves of the mold will join seamlessly.  Next, I added a retaining wall around the upper half of the mold, to hold the second half of the silicone molding.  Then I mixed and poured the second half.  Ideally, a thin layer of soap should be sprayed on the mold to enhance their seperation, but I forgot (this is, after all the prototype). 

The Well Tempered Polymer

     After getting the outer mold together, I was anxious to get the first half of the silicone mold poured. I've never worked with this type of silicone, where a curing agent is used. I've worked with latex and a curing agent, but not anything as fun as pink silicone. I suppose that pink silicone has the potential to be a comedy goldmine. But not today! Instead, it's time to play with chemicals!

The Quotable Augustine, Vol. 1

     So, I finished reading reading Augustine's The City of God.  It was very, very good.  It is pretty clear that this is where a philosopher ran into the scriptures and their God.  Augustine reasons through idea and concept after idea.  Basing his understanding on God's word.  He clearly demonstrate many concepts and approaches that will later become mainstays of conservative Christianity.  He also uses interpretive methods that will fall out of vogue with later readers.  It is inciteful to read his comments about scripture interpreting scripture, the clearer illuminating the obscure, but even more interesting to see his use of unrestrained allegory almost alongside.
    Behind the cut there are several pages of quotes.  I'm actually going to post more, but these are the first main batch.  I think the second batch are better, from the latter half of the book.

Polymer Fun

I've had this project swirling around the mists of my mind for the last couple months. Since visiting the Philidelphia Museum of Art and stuff, actually. There was alot of Modern art there, and I really enjoyed it. Anyway, I had some thoughts on cool art things I would like to research. One of them was using Light Emitting Diodes in clear plastic/resin. LEDs cast some really cool colors, and I think it would be really cool to use them in a three dimensional sculpture. So I have a project in mind, but before I get to that one, I am going to do a prototype. That should help me get the hang of the medium, and help to iron out the major bumps.

words and other things you might read 11-14-5

     On my trip around the Northwest, I stopped in at Pilgrim Bookstore.  It's a great store and has a large selection of used Christian books, which also tend to be a good selection.  Some Christian bookstores are hideously stocked.  Anyway, I picked up some thick books:  The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 2, Part 1, The Middle East and the Aegean Region, c.1800-1380B.C.  That should be a fun read to broaden some historical perspective of ancient middle eastern cultures.  Another fun find was Will Durant's The Story of Civilization vol. 6. The Reformation.  Durant has a well read approach to history that is enjoyable to interact with.  Those two books should keep me rather busy.

Pacific Northwest Tour

     After driving around for over a week, i have finally concluded my tour of the northwest states, provinces, towns and villages.  I went to Yakima, Wa., Salem, Or., Vancouver, Wa.,  Canby, Or.  Then back to Salem, Or., and then to Seattle, Wa.  followed by a stop in Yakima on the way back to Idaho.  Overall, it was an excellent trip.  I visited with many friends, drank good coffee, played some videogames, read some books, and was in attendance at a Phil Keaggy concert.

Katamari Damacy

     I recently went galavanting around the northwest, and visited many old friends.  Many of my friends anjoy videogames, so there was much Halo, Halo2, Soul Calibre 2, and the like.  One friend had me playing several of his videogames, and one of the funnest™ was Katamari Damacy.  It is one of those games that is pure Japanese invention.  And it's pretty weird at that.  But, it's infectious fun, and we had a great time rolling over everything.  It has a smashing soundtrack, too.

World of Warcraft Expansion: The Burning Crusade

A new expansion was recently announced for the Massively Multiplayer online game World of Warcraft.  Blizzard released information at Blizz-con, the convention for all things Blizzard.  They also released some content on their website about the upcoming expansion:

Books! 10-30-5

      I'm about a quarter of the way through Augustine's City of God.  It hearken's back to Plato's works about the utopia society, and also several of the Roman writers' works on society and government.  It deals with many societal issues and is actually very relevant to many of the questions that people have been asking down through the ages.  He hits on such interesting topics as what might be termed Christian Hedonism, and Predestination.
     Thirty Eight volumes of the Church Fathers recently appeared on my doorstep.  I got them on sale, and it was a good sale!  Now I'm going to have to rearrange my bookshelves to fit them all.
     I've also recently acquired The Book of Coffee, by Francesco Illy and Riccardo Illy.  These coffee pioneers have created such a great book for understanding coffee, that this is definately a must read for caffeiniacs.  There is another super technical book by the Illys, which I'll probably end up getting eventually.

Kirkham Hotsprings 10-15-5

      Went to Kirkham Hotsprings last weekend.  It was a beautiful autumn day, and the trees and hillsides had all turned earth-tones and flesh-tones.  The weather was supposed to be rainy, but it ended up being a wonderfully sunny day.  The hotsprings were in top notch condition.  Someone had been working on the temperature, in order to cool the pools down, and they happened to be just about perfect.  The river didn't even seem that cold.  Ok, it was really cold.  Just not as cold as it seemed to be during other visits.

Perusal 10-13-5

     I recently picked up a few new books.  The top being Augustine's City of God.  Augustine, being the patron saint of brewers, and one of the most influential theologians of Christianity should have some good things to say.  He was writing at a time that was an apogee of paganism; which our culture is apparently moving back towards.  I also picked up the Oxford Dictionay of Celtic Mythology.  This is a fun book, as there are a bunch of interesting names and stories (well documented, too).  I noticed a bunch of names and constructions that other authors (mostly fantasy genre) have poached from the woods of different Celtic cultures.
    I also finished up the Amihai Mazar archaelogy book.  It was a good read, to see Isreal's archelogy from a different perspective.  It had loads of informative information, and at times was a little dry.  Sounding like someone reading a list of excavations and finds, but trying to make it exciting, and point out important notes.  I thought it was a little weak on the later archelogical sections (Iron Age), as far as information and research, comparatively.  I've also been reading through the Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity.  It is obviously well learned, and informative (and it has great pictures, too!).  As Tertullian might of said: "credo, quia absurdum!"  though very scholarly, it is not exactly the approach I would take, were I to write such a history (more pictures?).

Readin' 10-2-5

     A few days ago, I looked through my bookshelves for my dusty copy of Amihai Mazar's Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000 - 586 B.C.E.  It laid in the back of my car until today though.  I've wanted to read through this Biblical Archaeology book since I lived in Israel in 1998, so now, i'm getting my chance.     I also finished Lawrence of Arabia's Autobiography, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.  It was a really fun read, and he really experienced some tough things and expressed some deep insight into his experience.

Elucidation 9-29-5

     Recently picked up a copy of The Silent Gondoliers, a tale by S. Morgenstern.  The Gondoliers was written by William Goldman, the same author as the Princess Bride.  It was a short book, but a fun read.  Very much in the same vein of humor as The Princess Bride.     I also am working on finishing The Seven Pillars.  I picked up a copy of the 1962 epic movie, Lawrence of Arabia.  Which I enjoyed watching that last night.  Today, I drove up to McCall to help my parents stow their boats and jet skis, and saw a large black bear ambling across the road.  I haven't seen one of those is  a few years.  I also went Jetskiing, to prepare the engines to be fogged.  It was a absolutely beautiful day, and it was really fun to go, even though it is almost october, and a bit chilly outside for playing in the alpine waters.

Literacy 9-25-5

     Picked up the latest Terry Brooks Shannara incarnation, Straken.  It was a great read, and it was good to get back to Brook's characters and characteristic style.  It was fun and introduced some different twists for Brooks.   It's definately a good addition for the ever winding saga, of which perhaps this was the last?     I also am reading The Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph.  It has been an excellent tale.  Very inciteful to the contemporary history of the middle east and the Arab movements.

Construction

Ported the majority of my website, running on Postnuke over to Drupal. The website should run considerably faster now. And also upgraded to Gallery 2.0. Overall, I'm pretty impressed by the comparative size and layout of Drupal. I really like the mod_rewrite function integrated into Drupal and Gallery 2.0. These two programs seem to work really well with each other. There are a few things to tidy up, but it shouldn't take forever.

Reading 9-13-5

      Finished the Agony and the Ecstasy. It was a really fun read, and had alot of insight into the history of Florence and Rome during the renaissance. It was a bit slower at the end, which was a bit of a letdown. The first two thirds of the book were extremely well written though. It had an infectious enthusiasm for art, also.     I'm now reading The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by Lawrence of Arabia. It is very well written, in that early twentieth century oxford style. Though I haven't made it very far in yet.

Burgdorf Hotsprings and Warren Dredge

Went to the Burgdorf hotsprings and Warren Dredge ponds last weekend. The hotpsrings were fantastic, which is normal for Burgdorf. It was a weekend, so the traffic was a bit higher than mid-week. After the hotsprings, we headed to Secesh and ate lunch, and then headed to Warren.

After taking a quick tour of Warren (they took down the faux lynched spotted owl), we went to the dredge ponds. It was a bit of a hike, but we arrived at the dredge and had a fun time climbing all over it and taking a tonne of photos. After playing on the dredge for quite some time, we headed out, and it was snowing as we crossed the summit out of Warren. We ate dinner in McCall at a excellent Mexican restaurant. Then on the drive back to Boise, the convertible had a flat tire.

Reading 9-1-5

    Finished Watership Down. It was a fun read, and I was reading it alongside of one of my long distance friends. The story is essentially about the adventures of rabits, but there are hints of suggestions about different type of societies; ranging from socialistic to totalitarian military. The story seems to often leave the main character (protagonist), and moreover emphasize the whole of the group, by talking of all the positive characters, and in a way gives a societal feel to the storytelling. I also finished Swords around a Throne.     I also recently picked up The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving stone, and The Seven Pillars by T.E. Lawrence.

New Testament understanding of the law.

On a theological note, I've been thinking about how Christians perceive the law in the NT. I've put together a collection of material that i think is rather illustrative of how the law is understood in the New Testament. I think that it's fairly clear that the law is love. It also seems to me to be a commentary on those things that Christians can easily make spiritual issues, but are rather removed from loving God and loving our neighbors. And, how those issues are actually less important the more removed they become from those two axioms. I suppose it is more of an heart/attitude issue with many things.

Foam Rocket Plane

A friend of mine and I spent some time throwing around a glider at the park today. After throwing the plane around for a bit, we decided to look into getting another plane and attaching a rocket assist pod to it. After thinking about it, and doing a bit of engineering, we came up with a few different approaches to a useful rocket plane.

Philadelphia

Amid getting meowed at by the traffic, and people handing out what appeared to be tree shaped air fresheners but were really something quite different were some of my experiences in Philadelphia. Needless to say it was really great (especially thanks to my awesome tour guide)! It was also really, really hot. There was a heat index warning while I was there. There was also alot of walking involved, which was very reminiscent of my trapsing around the middle east. Some good friendships were founded, and some great restaurants were enjoyed! It was great to see the Benjamin Franklin? brand of pretty much everything. The Cicadas in the trees were a little unsettling, as I kept expecting rattlesnakes to fall out of the trees (as they sound rather similar).

What the Hack?!

h4x0r3d!My website was hacked for about 2 hours today. I recently upgraded and left an important file with the wrong permissions. Anyways, that's mostly remedied. I find it extremely humorous that some dingdong somewhere thinks my chronicles of adventures are worth defacing. Thank you Captain Stupid, for making me feel important.

Reading 8-7-5

Finished Worldy Saints again. It was a great book, and it was definately good to be able to go back absorb all the cool things I missed on the whirlwind read a few years back. Also read through the latest JETS journal that landed on my doorstep, among other things. I picked up a new book, Watership Down, by Richard Adams. It's about bunny rabbits. Or 'wabbits,' depending on your age level/annunciation. I've heard good things about it, so I'm excited to read through it.

Postnuke Upgrade

A Gallery and Postnuke upgrade have made the website more flexible and user friendly. It should also be a bit faster. there has also been an advanced polls module added, with a few random polls.

Summertime

Finished up a week of VBS in Twin Falls. That and the nearly three weeks of camp from june have stacked together to make this a very busy summer. Recently had the exhaust on my car fixed, also. The exhaust manifold had cracked on the passenger side, giving my convertible that 'racecar roar.' It also had warped rotors on the back brakes. So, I had those reground, and the car is driving much better.

Philly

So I'm going to visit Philadelphia in early August. They have Wawa's and Beau Monde. Philly apparently offers real Morrocan food, instead of the lesser Maruchan? alternative. Independence Hall, the Firehouse, and the Last Drop Coffeehouse all reside there, too. Absolutely splendid, really. But it's even better than that!

Fourth of July!

After two and a half weeks of camps, and working nights in between, i've spent the last part of the weekend sleeping, and recovering from camps. We had a Family camp, a Junior High camp, and a High School camp that I was helping to run. It's definatly nice to be done. I'm up in the great city of McCall, to view the annual fireworks. My family usually spends the 4th up here to see the fireworks over the lake. For some reason, the city of cascade has their fireworks on the third. Apparently they can't compete with McCall, or they are celebrating some unknown holiday.

7-4-5 Book Report

I've recently been reading, though not much, as I've been staying busy: Worldly Saints : The Puritans as They Really Were by Leland Ryken. I read parts of this book in Seminary and really enjoyed it. I picked it up as I was leaving seminary, and now have a chance to dive back in and enjoy it. I also recently picked up the book A Community of Character, by Stanley Hauerwas. A friend of mine said that he found it really interesting, and well written. It basically deals with Christian Ethics, but I haven't gotten far into it yet. An interesting Hauerwas Online website. I've also been reading the Grande Armee book I started earlier. It's a nice mindless historical distraction.

Pine Flats Hotsprings and Breadloaf Rock

Took a trip up to the Pine Flats Hotsprings today. A friend and I went to Kirkham hotsprings first, then headed to Bonneville hotsprings, but there was a loggin operation closing the road. They were going to fall a very large tree across the road. So we turned around and went to Pine Flats. I hadn't been there in ages, and they have made a nice second pool. It was excellent, and there was a nice black rubberized mat bottom on one of the pools. The water was cascading down the face of the mountain and the wind was blowing some cool streams off. On the way back, we stopped by the incognito landmark Bread Loaf Rock.

Geo Metro Convertible

I've been interested in small cars for quite some time. I had a roommate in college who drove a Geo Metro, and it was actually rather impressive. He once got it to go over 100 mph. And then I had another roommate who had a Ford Aspire, and it was certainly fun driving that in Los Angeles traffic. However, I've never really been able to put my finger on why there are Geo Metro Convertibles. Maybe they are big in Europe? This super economy car doesn't seem to fit having a convertible top, in my mind. Nevertheless, I've spotted them off and on over the years. And it happened again the other day, and it was in a parking lot. And I parked my red mustang convertible right next to this red geo convertible. I guess our cars are convertible buddies. They kindof remind me of cars having Biplanes on their Trunks.

Digital Photo Frame

I've been working on a Digital Picture Frame. This is take two for such an attempt. I made one two or three years years ago, however, it was on a laptop that had power issues. Such that it would go into power saving (which was hard coded into the bios), and was not fixable without a fully charged battery (which didn't exist). Anyway, it was a fun project, and worked passable for a while. However, of late, thanks to Andy, I've come into posession of another laptop, that is more suitable for the project. So, PhotoFrame V.2.0 has arrived.

Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

Another installment in the Obi Wan Kenobi saga has recently been released. I attended the midnight flavor showing for this sixth installment, as I had done for the previous two and the re-releases of the original trilogy. Thus, the Star Wars circle is complete.

Computer Game Roundup

I've been playing some older abandonware games of late. One of the ones I particularly am enjoying is Settlers 2 Gold. Woodcutters, miners, foresters, fishers, catapults and forts are just a taste of what comes in this great game. There are 2 full campaigns, one where you start off as shipwrecked Romans, the other you take over different continents. Check out the Settlers.net Insider for more information on the game.

veni vedi legi 5-9-5

     I recently finished Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur. A look at the twelve disciples, whose many weaknesses are forever preserved throughout the pages of the New Testament. Jesus chose ordinary men - fisherman, tax collectors, political zealots - and turned their weakness into strength, producing greatness from utter uselessness. I'm planning on writing a review of it for another website.    
I've also been reading King Arthur and His Knights, a bunch of selected tales by Sir Thomas Malory, edited by Eugene Vinaver. This particular book includes English Arthurian fiction directly attributable to Malory's original tales; including thoroughly readable accounts of the exploits of King Arthur, Merlin, Sir Lancelot, Gawain and the Green Knight, and the legend of the Holy Grail. This book is particularly entertaining, as it is much more graphic and tragic than any of the Arthurian Fairy tales I've read/watched before.   
 I also got some books to read today. One I bought some time ago, but had been busy readin other stuff and never got to it. The Annals and The Histories by Tactitus. That should be a fun read. I also picked up The Documents of Vatican II. I've heard alot about Vatican II in seminary, but never got a chance to read through it myself. I also picked up the Literary Study of the Bible by Richard G. Moulton (of Moulton and Milligan fame) circa June 1899. I read through most of what I've wanted to in that already, but the foreward is just amazing...

The Month of May

     That the month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom and to burgeon. For like as trees and herbs burgeoneth and flourisheth in May, in like wise every lusty heart that is any manner of lover springeth, burgeoneth, buddeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May, in some thing to contrain him to some manner of thing, more than in any other month, for diverse causes: for then all herbs and trees reneweth a man and woman, and in like wise lovers calleth to their mind old gentleness and old service, and many kind deeds that was forgotten by negligence. The Knight of the Cart by Sir Thomas Malory.

Read 4-26-5

     I finished reading Thomas Jefferson on Democracy, which was an interesting read. It's a bunch of quotes taken from Jefferson's letters and such. Since he never bothered to deliver any large documents outlining his thoughts on such matters, other than the obvious group effort documents. It's some keen insight into how Jefferson viewed America and democracy. He is valued himself a Materialist, and his Humanism and Rationalism are quite evident. In light of his skepticism of everything, he still has that deistic 18th century worldview, that the founding fathers are famous for.     I also finished The Great Gatsby. As the inventor of the 'Gat,' Gatsby will always be remembered in that aspect. Actually, it was a fun read. The style of the author was a bit interesting at first (being written in the twenties and all). There were a few prepositions and pronouns more than I expected.This reliance cannot deceive us, as long as we remain virtuous; and I think we shall be so, as long as agriculture is our principal object, which will be the case, while there remain vacant lands in any part of America. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become corrupt as in Europe, and go to eating one another as they do there. (Jefferson, 70)

Balm of Gilead (24-Apr-2002 - 24-Apr-2005)

As of 04-24-2005, the Balm of Gilead will cease operations under the address of balm-of-gilead.org. This website will continue at it's current address of hettinger.us. The reason for this is the three year run of that domain name will be at an end, and the board of directors have decided not to renew this address.

Indian Bathtub Hotsprings

      The hotsprings of the month this month is Indian Bathtub again. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, as it has been raining off and on for the last two weeks. It was a sunny day and everything was green! This hotspings is only about an hour out of Boise, so I'm surprised at how low traffic it is. I guess you have to know where it is to go visit it. This time, I went from the westward approach. I drove part of the way, but I don't have a 4x4 Mustang convertible, so I decided to walk part of the way. The hotsprings was in excellent condition, and the bottom was substantially clearer, with less mud all around. Perhaps the rain had something to do with that.

Reading 4-16-5

     I finished up The Hunchback of Notre Dame. A very interesting book. You can see how Hugo pitted oposite characters in this stroy, and it worked well. Though it was rather dark and brooding, much like Toilers of the Sea.
      I also finished Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, which was a fun read. It had some great historical information (coincidentally, 2006 is the 300th anniversary of Franklin's birthday), as well as a little bit about his relationship with George Whitfield. There were definately some good quotes in it...

Shoshone Falls 4-7-5

     I had a few extra minutes this morning, and decided to explore around Twin Falls. So, driving along, I saw a large cement slab in the Shap of Idaho (perhaps in case you forget where you are). Anyways, after driving down to the falls, I stopped at the booth and footed it the rest of the way. The Guard gave me a handout entitled "Shoshone Falls: Niagara of the West""Springtime is the best season to visit Shoshone Falls. In years of heavy precipitiation, the Snake River swells with snowmelt, creating an awesome display at the waterfall. Swirling mist, swooping birds, and rainbows rise from the sheets of water."

Reading 3/22/5

     I picked up a few books last saturday: Swords Around a Throne: Napoleon's Grande Armee by John R. Elting, and The Hunchback of Notredame by Victor Hugo. I'm a big fan of Les Miserables, but some of his other works, such as toilers of the sea are rather dark, and from what I hear, the hunchback is really of this flavor, and not the disney re-engineering. The Grand Armee book has been interesting so far. After reading War and Peace and Les Miserables, etc. Napoleon's tactics and the history of the period are really very interesting.
     I finished up Augustine's treatise on predestination. An excellent read, and very informative, especially in light of all the work Calvin did on the subject. Or perhaps more precisely, it seems obvious that Calvin was heavily influenced by Augustine. A short read, but very good.

World of Warcraft

     During the stint of time that I played Everquest with my very own account, I was frustrated by the sheer annoyances of the game many, many times. Often, your character would be headed somewhere, and a high level wandering monster would jump you, thus ensuring a long run for your character to get his stuff back. World of Warcraf, on the other hand, is one of the funnest online games I have ever played. There have been a small number of frustrating features/glitches, but overall, it is how a giant multiplayer games should be put together. The creators of the game have very creative senses of humor, too. So that when you are running around doing quests, the quests often allude to other games or real world celebrities. After playing for three months now, my character is almost at the current level limit.

March Reading

     I've finished Sir Nigel and the rest of the historical fiction/fantasy list of books that I've been wanting to read. Now, I've ordered a book with a selection of Augustine's work that I read lightly a few years back and would like to read through again. It's part of the Schaff collection of the Fathers. I've also been perusing a few theological academic Journals that find their way to my door.

Kirkham Hot Springs

     Went camping at Kirkham Hot Springs this weekend. Kirkham this year has been the site of some unfortunate press, however we did not see any mohicans. It was, however, a great trip! We left on friday afternoon and drove up. It was dark when we arrived, and I got to test out my tent pitching skills in the dark. We then fired up the barbeque (this was an A+ rating venture, so I brought the trusty BBQ), and had some tov food.
     We then ventured down to the springs, which we shared with a scout troop and a small band of inebriated congo drummers. It was an exciting time! After enjoying the Hot Springs for a while, we headed back to camp and fired up the barbeque again, and the frost had already begun to amass (as the tempature plummeted down to a chilly 6°).

Readin' 2-25-5

     I finished the White Company, which I found highly entertaining and a good read. The historical detail was rich, and the plot was good, and it had that charm that this famous author brings. I'm now a good ways into Sir Nigel which was written after the prvious, but is a a prequel. Kindof like episode 1,2,3 for starwars, exce this one seems better than the previous book so far.
     In other news, I borrowed Andy's book, O'Reilly's Programming PHP . I've read some online stuff about PHP before, and so this is a good book. I'm more interested in getting versed in postnuke documentation, however, so I think that will be my next computer related research venture.

Idaho at last

     Of late, I've been reading The White Company by Arthur Conan Doyle. I've really enjoyed it. The breadth of historical detail that is found in it and in Quentin Durward is really impressive. I've been getting some motivation to work some more on my King Arthur project, tentatively titled: A Postmodern Commentary on King Arthur's Court. It's one of those projects that needs to have some deep though invested into it to make it really, truely fun.

50,000 hits can't be Elvis fans

As of January 30th, 2005, the website has received 47675 hits since going postnuke. Thus, it's soon approaching its 50k page hit mark. Kindof exciting for having a website. It's funny to see that some of my mispellings in the website have brought some of that traffic, and also people using search engines for quotes I referenced have brought other traffic. I also have enjoyed using the postnuke PHP frontend and learning about MySQL. It's really a very powerful web hosting content management system.

Quentin Durward reading - 1-30-5

     I finished reading Quentin Durward. It was a really good read. After reading so much Dumas stuff of the French Kings, e.g. Three Musketeers, La Reign Margot, this was a welcome variation. It was kindof like Braveheart meets the Musketeers, and was very interesting for that point. It also was well written and had a bit of a different voice/voabulary to it, which made it even more delightful. So, if you've read the three musketeers saga, and would like something enjoyable that has to do with those fun French kings, it would highly recommend Quentin Durward.
     I also finished up reading Treasure Island, and the last half of the book was much more enjoyable than the first half, though the ending did seem kindof weak. It was like ending a movie with the postscript of what became of the characters, though not as bad.

Readin' Latin 1-18-5

     I finished up Alamut. It was a great read, and makes one think alot about how philosophy and theology plays out in real life. It was well written and was an excellent example of how historical fiction should be written. The book was written before WWII, and you can see some different philosophical mindsets in the characters that really portray 20th century thought.
     I've continued on reading Treasure Island, and now am almost finished.I've been enjoying it more now that the story has picked up and the voice is not so 'tabula rasa' matter-of-fact ignorant/skeptical. Is it necessary to explain why the character knows and doesn't know things? I guess so, but it makes it a bit tedious.
     I've also got my hands on a copy of Wheelock's Latin, and have started to learn me some Latin. The English language is made of 60% latin words according to Wheelock, so this should be an insightful and enlightening experience.
 

McCall

Went to McCall this weekend for my cousin's wedding. It was lots of fun. I got to ride up in my brother's Cadillac Escalade, which has heated seats. That was just crazy. It reminded me of the days when we snowmobiled alot, and had heated handlebars because it gets really cold zipping along at 50 mph in the snow. Speaking of cold, it was 10° below zero, which is pretty cold. It snowed 6" last night! The wedding was fun, and it was nice to see all my extended family, and have a fun time hanging out with my family. We played some battle Uno and some classic Space Cadet pinball. My nephew Ayden was very enjoyable, also. Today we all headed back to Boise, and I am helping my parents pack their motorhome for their delayed migration to Arizona.

Readings 1-10-5

      I got a Christmas present of some money to go to the bookstore and grab some books. I went and got enough to keep me busy for a while. Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward, The White Company, Sir Nigel, and Treasure Island . I've read through Ivanhoe, and half of Treasure Island so far. Ivanhoe was excellent. The voice in Treasure Island is a bit too Hardy Boys-ish for me.
      I also received my copy of Alamut. This books is really good so far. Apparently it is about the man whom our English language gets such colorful words as Assassin and Hashish.
Alamut is the first-ever English translation of Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol's gripping, near-forgotten masterpiece translated into 19 languages and a bestseller across Europe 60 years after its initial publication based on the life and legend of the original assassin, Hasan ibn Sabbah.

World of Warcraft

Santa Klaus, disguised as my brother Rob delivered up world of warcraft for Christmas this year. This online massively multiplayer online role playing massively awesome online playing multiplexing muliplayer playing game (MMORPG) is one of the funnest games i've ever online multi-played. I played Everquest, but got out in the early days. However, Blizzard has put together a truimphant game here. All those annoying or boring aspects of Everquest have been corrected with Blizzard flair.