Logocentric (adj).Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
I have always enjoyed the longer distance running and skiing. The Marathon in Summer Olympics and the 50km Mass Start in the Winter. My wife can't understand how I can watch the same race for several hours. But they are fascinating to me. I like the Downhill Slalom, Bobsled and Luge sports. Attending a Winter Olympics remains on my bucket list.
My favorite sporting events in the Winter Olympics are the Luge, Bobsled, Figure Skating and curling. Initially, I thought I would be bored with curling but I'm not. It's fascinating how they determine each glide's angle and potential score.
When my children were younger we built them a luge course, they loved it. We were lucky that winter to have lots of snow to build up the walls and with some help with pallets that we covered with snow, it kept them and the neighborhood kids busy until it warmed up and melted. I was a lot more at ease with the luge course than I was when they decided to try arial jumps off our house roof. Never a dull moment when you live in Maine.
I am reading ESV through the Bible this time. Like you, I've explored a bunch of translations. My church uses NIV but my women's Bible study group (part of the same church) varies based on what Bible study we're doing.
Hope you enjoy the Olympics! I agree that the every four year thing makes them feel more special.
I read the New American Bible, which is a Catholic Bible. (NABRE) They include Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees, which generally aren't included in other versions of the Bible. I would be curious to read an orthodox bible or the Ethiopian Bible as I hear they have differences as well.
As for the Olympics, I love the Winter Olympics. I'm just crossing my fingers I have time to watch!
In terms of the original texts the NASB has the best reputation among conservative scholars. It looks at more translations, has a sensible hierarchy of text selection and the best principles for approaching the translation task. It favors original texts when possible. The ESV and NKJV are on a similar level. The Net Bible gives the best overview of the discussions in its commentary. The NIV renders the original text to make it more readable. It is a more functional text which is why many churches use it but it is also less precise. Greek or Russian orthodox are more Septuagint orientated and there is a considerable amount of ethical or emotional rendering to the text.The disadvantage of the NASB is that it loses much of the Hebrew poetical style in its effort to be precise as this does not translate into the English
I'm very fortunate to have met some practicing and humble Christians. Truly humble people seek to serve, not attain power and influence. The actions of many Christians make me run the opposite way... as fast as I can.
In his book, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee states: "Nothing has done greater damage to our Christian testimony than our trying to be right and demanding right of others. We become preoccupied with what is and what is not right. We ask ourselves,' Have we been justly or unjustly treated?' and we think thus to vindicate our actions. But that is not our standard. The whole question for us is one of crossbearing".
Jeff, this is an excellent book. Perhaps one for your reading list?
My wife and I are currently rewatching the entire seven-season run of Gilmore Girls in anticipation of the upcoming revival on Netflix. While that alone would be a positive thing (such a great show!), I wanted to instead focus on a really cool marketing stunt that was done earlier this month to get people excited about the show again.
For anyone who hasn't seen the show, it's about a single mother (Lorelai) and her teenage daughter (Rory) living in a small Connecticut town called Stars Hollow. It's the kind of small town where everyone congregates around the town square and local people frequent local businesses. The show's creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, based the show's town on Washington, Connecticut, which she was inspired by during a weekend stay. One of the most popular town locations in the show is Luke's Diner, a small coffee shop and restaurant near the town center. Luke Danes, the proprietor, is a will-they-won't-they love interest for Lorelai throughout the series.
On Wednesday, October 5th, over 200 businesses nationwide (mostly independent coffee shops) converted their decor and menus to look like Luke's Diner. For one day only, fans of the show could go to a coffee shop and feel like they were stepping into Luke's Diner in Stars Hollow! And, for those who went to venues in and around Los Angeles, some of the cast even spontaneously dropped in!
A friend of mine actually had Scott Patterson (the actor who plays Luke) show up while she was waiting in line.
In a world where marketing and advertising is so often has negative connotations, it's nice to see someone come up with a unique, fun idea that can get people excited about the product in question without explicitly hawking it.
The most popular Halloween costumes this year are not princesses! *fistpump*
For the past eleven years, princess costumes have been the number-one-selling Halloween costume category in the United States. And while the princess phenomena has been amazingly popular and profitable for a lot of companies, it hasn't been without its faults. Some believe that encouraging girls to pretend to be princesses encourages them to be vulnerable and expect to be taken care of, rather than being independent, capable, and tough.
I'm not sure I 100% buy that (some girls legitimately dream of or want to pretend to be princesses), I think there are absolutely issues surrounding the availability of good alternatives for the girls that don't. Rey was reportedly left out of many early Star Wars: The Force Awakens play sets, and the Avengers: Age of Ultron motorcycle toys replaced Black Widow's character - who rides the bike in the movie - with Captain America are concerning, especially since these changes were allegedly made on purpose by someone involved in the marketing campaigns because they decided that boys wouldn't be interested in toys that featured girls.
But what about the girls who would otherwise want to play with those toys?
There was another reported issue where girls where looking for girl character toys and merchandise in traditionally boy-dominated categories (Black Widow and Gamora for Marvel, Rey for Star Wars, Harley Quinn and Batgirl and Wonder Woman for DC, etc.) and simply not being able to find anything in those categories because the companies decided that girls wouldn't be interested in those products so they were just never manufactured.
It's nice to see the princess category get knocked down a peg by the superhero genre; I think it makes a pretty strong statement that there is a market for girl-oriented costumes and toys and merchandise that aren't simply princess-themed, and hopefully it will encourage companies to start manufacturing more for the next generation. I understand that a company has to make the products they think they can sell, but I'm now optimistic that it's becoming clear that there's a demand for strong female role of different types.
Crowdfunding has become a popular means of raising revenue for a variety of causes in recent years, and there are no shortage of sites to help you do it. The most famous is probably Kickstarter for creative projects, but there's also Indiegogo for just about any kind of project, GoFundMe for non-incentive based fundraising, Seed & Spark specifically for film and television, DonorsChoose for education, AngelList for start-ups, Patreon for ongoing sponsorships... and those are just the tip of the iceberg.
Although I've used and donated to quite a few of these over the years, my favorite crowdfunding site above all others is:
If you're not familiar with it, Kiva.org is an entrepreneurship platform for developing countries. Business-and-betterment-minded individuals in those developing countries apply for loans as small as $25 to get them on their feet financially, and those loans are repaid to the investors at which point those investors can roll it over into another loan or cash out.
I really love the fact that these projects are all designed to financially help someone get on their feet in their community. It's not about big profit motives or significant ROI or helping an artist achieve his or her creative vision; it's about helping a struggling store owner in India restock his shop so he can continue to sell goods to the community. It's about giving a farmer in Madagascar the money she needs to purchase chickens and goats so she can support herself selling eggs and dairy. It's about helping a family in Guatemala buy the raw materials needed in order to produce large quantities of hand-sewn goods to sell and support themselves and their relatives. It's about providing tuition for a single mom in Afghanistan so she can take night classes, graduate, and get a job that will better support her children.
While I love funding creative projects and good for-profit business ideas and classroom projects as much as anyone else, there's something immensely satisfying about helping entrepreneurially-minded people around the world make their developing country a little more developed. And it's pretty amazing that you can invest as little as $25 and just keep rolling it over from one campaign to the next as you get repaid.
Not a bad way to help make the world a better place!
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