Things You Should Read First
Ow. Please stop. No, seriously.
That’s my arms' reaction as I try to type this. Despite my snoring all night and keeping her awake (which rarely, but does occasionally happen) the very determined Wendy still wanted to go to the gym. I rode the bike for ten minutes and then went to do free weights. Turned out I timed my caffeine intact perfectly and had a lot of energy. So, I just kept going. I did five sets of bench press, four sets of curls, four sets of shoulder presses, four tricep rope pushdowns, and three sets of lat pulldowns. Just as I was starting to wonder if she left without me, Wendy comes out and smiles at me. “Almost done?”
“One more set of these.”
“I got done my run and thought I would just walk until you came in to get me. Ten minutes later I had to come out and see what was going on.”
Good workout today. I just kept going. And now I can barely lift my arms to type. Go me. So, as I sat here recovering I looked over some web comics and The Ferret’s blog which he updates far more than me, which is a good thing because it’s inspiring. Notice the more frequent updates? Credit to him.
We saw Invictus the other day and found it very well done. The first half of an hour focusing on Mandela’s vision and wisdom was worth the price of admission alone. A great, great man. One of the flaws, in my humble opinion, was not enough of an explanation of rugby. You’re playing to a mostly American audience and they explained one (ONE!) rule of how the game is played. I would recommend seeing the movie, but I think you will enjoy it a lot more if you familiarize yourself with the game first. Just do a quick Wikipedia read or something.
The Bible’s good reading too. I still have not finished “Lamb” by Christopher Moore which is a humorous look at the possible life of Jesus from the age of six to thirty. It’s humorous historical fiction which I don’t find blasphemous at all, but those more easily offended could, might, possibly, I don’t know. But like Rugby, I bet I would be enjoying it even more if I knew more about the Bible, especially the disciples and apostles of Jesus.
I can’t praise this book highly enough. It attempts to explain a bunch of things, gives you a look inside why Jesus did not become King of the Jews, how his philosophy was different and radical and upset the Pharisees, etc. And it is so clever and funny, I have laughed my ass off the whole time reading it. I wish I had done a wiki on the apostles before reading it though. There’s a bunch of stuff that I don’t know about the Bible and it always irks me that I don’t have this knowledge so I have been searching for a concise, modern version I can read. Online of course.
So far I found this-
http://condensedbible.com/default.htm
which is what I was looking for, but is also a bit long winded. But, on the other hand, skips things I know about that aren’t there. Like Lilith. Didn’t God create a woman before Eve that rejected being Adam’s subservient wife and left for the land of Nod?
I’m learning though. Like, there were people other than Adam and Eve when God created the world. What? Wait, I thought Adam and Eve were the progenitors of us all? Their first kids were Cain and Abel and we know how that worked out. So, now there’s three people on the Earth and God is cursing Cain for killing his brother.
“God said to Cain, ‘I will not let anyone kill you. If anyone kills Cain, I will hurt that person 7 fold.’ Then the Lord God put a mark on Cain to let other people know that they must not kill him. Cain left God. He went to live in the land of Nod, which is East of Eden.”
So, I’m learning a lot. (When I’m not working out and editing or updating this blog.)
Anyway, learn something about the apostles and then rush out and buy (or download to your Kindle) “Lamb” by Christopher Moore.
And finally, on a lighter note in the religious theme, this is pure win :
http://xkcd.com/724/
That’s my arms' reaction as I try to type this. Despite my snoring all night and keeping her awake (which rarely, but does occasionally happen) the very determined Wendy still wanted to go to the gym. I rode the bike for ten minutes and then went to do free weights. Turned out I timed my caffeine intact perfectly and had a lot of energy. So, I just kept going. I did five sets of bench press, four sets of curls, four sets of shoulder presses, four tricep rope pushdowns, and three sets of lat pulldowns. Just as I was starting to wonder if she left without me, Wendy comes out and smiles at me. “Almost done?”
“One more set of these.”
“I got done my run and thought I would just walk until you came in to get me. Ten minutes later I had to come out and see what was going on.”
Good workout today. I just kept going. And now I can barely lift my arms to type. Go me. So, as I sat here recovering I looked over some web comics and The Ferret’s blog which he updates far more than me, which is a good thing because it’s inspiring. Notice the more frequent updates? Credit to him.
We saw Invictus the other day and found it very well done. The first half of an hour focusing on Mandela’s vision and wisdom was worth the price of admission alone. A great, great man. One of the flaws, in my humble opinion, was not enough of an explanation of rugby. You’re playing to a mostly American audience and they explained one (ONE!) rule of how the game is played. I would recommend seeing the movie, but I think you will enjoy it a lot more if you familiarize yourself with the game first. Just do a quick Wikipedia read or something.
The Bible’s good reading too. I still have not finished “Lamb” by Christopher Moore which is a humorous look at the possible life of Jesus from the age of six to thirty. It’s humorous historical fiction which I don’t find blasphemous at all, but those more easily offended could, might, possibly, I don’t know. But like Rugby, I bet I would be enjoying it even more if I knew more about the Bible, especially the disciples and apostles of Jesus.
I can’t praise this book highly enough. It attempts to explain a bunch of things, gives you a look inside why Jesus did not become King of the Jews, how his philosophy was different and radical and upset the Pharisees, etc. And it is so clever and funny, I have laughed my ass off the whole time reading it. I wish I had done a wiki on the apostles before reading it though. There’s a bunch of stuff that I don’t know about the Bible and it always irks me that I don’t have this knowledge so I have been searching for a concise, modern version I can read. Online of course.
So far I found this-
http://condensedbible.com/default.htm
which is what I was looking for, but is also a bit long winded. But, on the other hand, skips things I know about that aren’t there. Like Lilith. Didn’t God create a woman before Eve that rejected being Adam’s subservient wife and left for the land of Nod?
I’m learning though. Like, there were people other than Adam and Eve when God created the world. What? Wait, I thought Adam and Eve were the progenitors of us all? Their first kids were Cain and Abel and we know how that worked out. So, now there’s three people on the Earth and God is cursing Cain for killing his brother.
“God said to Cain, ‘I will not let anyone kill you. If anyone kills Cain, I will hurt that person 7 fold.’ Then the Lord God put a mark on Cain to let other people know that they must not kill him. Cain left God. He went to live in the land of Nod, which is East of Eden.”
So, I’m learning a lot. (When I’m not working out and editing or updating this blog.)
Anyway, learn something about the apostles and then rush out and buy (or download to your Kindle) “Lamb” by Christopher Moore.
And finally, on a lighter note in the religious theme, this is pure win :
http://xkcd.com/724/
If you want to read some Bible I highly recommend Leviticus. A lot of interesting stuff in there. Highlight - God spoke to Moses and Aaron and told them very specifically how they can honor him. Then Aaron's sons attempt to honor God, but they mess up the specific forumula, so God burns them to death and the rest of the village has to take away their charred remains.
ReplyDelete1) Lilith isn't in the Bible.
ReplyDelete2) By the time Cain killed Abel, Adam and Eve had given birth to other children. These siblings of Abel are who Cain feared would come after him in revenge. But prior to Cain killing Abel, one of Cain's sisters had became Cain's wife (because what other choice was there?). The word "Nod" in Hebrew means "wandering," so Cain and his wife basically left to wander away.
Lamb isn't a new concept, there are older versions of it. I think they were a part of the reason for the canonisation of the bible: All these lesser scriptures were popping up documenting things like Jesus teenage years and such, so the 'church' felt it was time to officially decide what was cannon and created the bible.
ReplyDelete@anon: I find it quaint how people treat the old testament as an accurate historical account. It feels like an exercise in missing the point: Its a story showing how God relates to his people.
Not related Jamie but have you seen this new Green card http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/td/85
ReplyDeleteNice
I know this isn't related but have you seen this new green card? http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/td/85
ReplyDeleteNice!
Doug,
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping me updated. That card looks awesome. As soon as they fix MTGO 3.0 so it's less confusing, less laggy, I will be doing a lot more watching and catching up on Magic. I thirst to be back in the game!