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?
"Blog Harbor" PROMPT (DAY 21): Free Day! You can write about any song you want, for any reason you want. Tell us something!
For the final day of music blogging, I'm going to go with one of the songs in regular rotation for me these days. "This Feeling" by Abby Anderson is a song that I think I discovered just listening to a random Amazon Music playlist one day and it's stuck with me ever since. I'd never heard of Abby Anderson before; apparently she's only twenty years old and got her start on Glenn Beck's show of all places, singing a rendition of "My Country Tis of Thee" (her version is titled "Let Freedom Ring") that became so popular it landed on both the Billboard and iTunes charts.
As she works on her debut album, she's released a handful of songs, covers, and other performances to get her career off the ground. Most of them are pretty good, but "This Feeling" is still my favorite:
I think it's a fun song and she's got a great voice for such a young performer; she's already made a handful of "up and coming" lists, especially in and around Nashville where she moved after graduating from high school early to focus on her music career. I'm really interested to hear her first album and see what she comes out with next, but in the meantime I'll be enjoying this song on repeat for a while longer.
"Blog Harbor" PROMPT (DAY 20): It's Karaoke Night! When it's your turn to go up on stage, what song will you perform and why?
I am not a karaoke person. Mostly because, unlike those crazy audition people on American Idol, I fully recognize that I'm a terrible singer and I'm completely okay with that. Which means that choosing karaoke songs gets a bit complicated because I can't pick a song that requires any sort of decent vocal range to perform, but I also refuse to pick cliched or bad songs. Which means that I can't really go with songs like "Hello" by Adele or "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston but I won't pick easier songs like, "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations or "Stay" by Lisa Loeb.
I was tempted to go with something ridiculous and over the top. I mean, no one cares how bad you're singing when you're performing "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot or "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. They're supposed to be bad songs. And even though there are some true classics that are always crowd-pleasers, I wouldn't want to be the fifth person singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" or Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" that night.
For a long time, I thought my karaoke song would either be "I Love Rock & Roll" by Joan Jett, or some kind of a hip-hip song with fun lyrics... so I figure why not make the best of both worlds and pick a hip-hop song that samples the Joan Jett classic? "Mind on the Road" by Rev Run.
Joseph Simmons a.k.a. Reverend Run from Run-D.M.C. fame is a talented rapper from a talented family (he's also the brother of Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons), and there's no question about the influence he's had on the hip hop world. He's also an actual ordained minister, although I'm less enthusiastic about his Christian leadership, mostly because he's a proponent of the controversial prosperity gospel (which has widely been criticized as promoting idolatry and exploiting the poor). That said, he's still a hell of a rapper!
"Blog Harbor" PROMPT (DAY 19): Pick a song that brings you back to a specific event in your life. But the catch is... LOVE SONGS ARE NOT ALLOWED!
Even though it's kind of a romantic song depending on how you interpret the lyrics, the reason I picked this song is most definitely not romantic. Mostly because it involves several male teachers in my high school's history department.
For years, our high school had problems with its pep rallies. Not much enthusiasm, pretty bland and predictable activities, etc. Imagine your stereotypical high school from any teen show; they have the marching band play, the football players and cheerleaders pump up the crowd, the class president making some announcements... literally, it's every stereotype you could possibly imagine.
One school year (I think it was my sophomore year), the school hired a bunch of new history teachers. It was a weird situation where a few had left and a really large class was coming in, so they needed extra teachers in all departments but especially history. Three of the new history teachers talked two of the existing ones and convinced them to put on a little skit. Unbeknownst to pretty much everybody (even the administration who thought they were going to do some kind of boring history presentation), they instead dressed up in the all-white outfits from this video and lip-synched "I Want It That Way," complete with choreographed dance moves and a handful of female student they conspired with to scream and cheer and hold up signs and throw flower petals at them.
It was definitely one of the more memorable pep rallies at our school and the best part was that it actually kicked off an unofficial competition among the departments to come up with increasingly "out there" stunts to keep the students interested and excited to show up at pep rallies. The chemistry teacher blew up a piñata in the middle of the football field, the physical education teachers had a "strong man/woman" competition. It was the tipping point that made the last couple of years of high school go from dull and uninspired to really fun and entertaining.
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