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 3): Okay, time to interject a little fantasy into this. If you could put yourself into any TV show as an active character, which show would it be and tell us about the character you'd play. Would you prefer to be yourself or someone much more exciting?
It might seem a little weird to choose a dystopian science fiction setting as a desirable place to be, but per the prompt, I suppose I would choose to be one of the Meths... the wealthy elite who can afford to re-sleeve again and again as often as they wish. And some of the stuff in that last sentence didn't make any sense, please read on!
Based on the novel of the same name by Richard K. Morgan, the world of Altered Carbon is one in which people's consciousness is stored in a "cortical stack," a digital disc that's stored in the vertebrae near the base of the skull. The cortical stack can be moved from one body to another, and as a result physical bodies are called "sleeves." If you're poor, when you die your cortical stack is put into storage and most likely forgotten about. But if you're rich, you can afford to "re-sleeve" in another body, which means rich people (called Meths in a reference to the long-lived biblical character Methuselah) can effectively life forever by transferring their cortical stack from one body to the next.
I think the whole concept is fascinating. Obviously there's an incredible potential for abuse and sinful living (eat whatever you want and then just get yourself a new body once your old one is a three hundred pound, sky high cholesterol carrying diabetic mess... indulge in all kinds of depraved sexual activity until you contract some incurable STD... celebrate each 40th birthday by upgrading yourself to a physically perfect twenty-something in their prime), but what really appeals to me about the idea of transferring your cortical stack to another sleeve is twofold.
First, you could quite literally live a thousand lifetimes. You'd never run out of time to travel to the places you wanted to see, read the books you want to read, take up the hobbies you want to take up, etc. You could spend a decade traveling the planet and experiencing all it has to offer. And then another fifty years reading all the classics. And then another twenty years becoming a world-class pianist. And another fifteen developing professional-level aptitude in your sport of choice. There's something incredibly appealing about the idea of being able to live all the lives you've ever wanted to live.
Second, I'm fascinated by the idea of potentially experiencing the world from a different perspective. Imagine the lessons we could learn and the tolerance we could adopt if we literally spent the time in another person's skin. As a middle-class white male, try as I might to be understanding and sympathetic to the experiences of others, I'll never truly know what it actually feels like to live as someone else. What if we could all experience what it's like to be a female fighting for equal pay and recognition in the workplace? Or a black man interacting with the police? Or an undocumented immigrant trying to make a new life for themselves in a new country? Or an attractive person being objectified? Or an unattractive person trying to connect with someone?
The dystopian future of Altered Carbon is probably not an ideal world to live in... but the mechanism by which the wealthy people in that society are able to continue their existence and live many lives' worth of experiences would be a fascinating place to live for a while.
"Blog Harbor" PROMPT (DAY 2): This time let's discuss that one show, with the character that just doesn't seem to fit. You wish you could just pluck them out of the show and replace them with someone else. What show is it and why don't you think they fit?
Don't get me wrong; I love Sigourney Weaver. Ripley is an icon. "There is no Dana, only Zuul!" She's brilliant in cult classics like Galaxy Quest and Heartbreakers. But the one role she just plain didn't pull off was Alexandra in The Defenders. I can see why the producers would want her (I mean, just look at her IMDB page for heaven's sake!), but it was really hard to buy her as the nearly-immortal, nigh-untouchable leader of a centuries-old criminal organization with its own army of ninjas.
Now, I don't think it's entirely her fault. This series had so many cringe-worthy, ham-fisted lines that I lost count. So I'm not sure it's entirely all Sigourney's fault when there's dialogue like this:
Alexandra: "Please tell your wife she makes it even better than they did in Constantinople." Waiter: "I think you mean Istanbul, ma'am. Constantinople, this is its ancient name." Alexandra: "Oh yes, of course."
Talk about hit-you-in-the-face-with-a-frying-pan blatant. If you want us to believe that she's an incredibly sophisticated, calculating, world-traveling, brilliant crime lord, how do you expect us to believe she's going to accidentally forget that Turkey's largest city underwent a name change in the distant past? "Hey audience! Did you notice that? She's way older than she seems because she forgot that it's not called Constantinople anymore! See? SEE??? Did you catch that?"
This show had a lot of flaws, and Sigourney Weaver's character was a major one. Even though I adore her as an actress and think (well, thought) she could do no wrong, her character was one that I wish they would have just scrapped and started over with. It felt like a situation where they tried to script a character to be worthy of Sigourney, when they should have written a more compelling character and cast it accordingly.
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Talk about hit-you-in-the-face-with-a-frying-pan blatant. If you want us to believe that she's an incredibly sophisticated, calculating, world-traveling, brilliant crime lord, how do you expect us to believe she's going to accidentally forget that Turkey's largest city underwent a name change in the distant past? "Hey audience! Did you notice that? She's way older than she seems because she forgot that it's not called Constantinople anymore! See? SEE??? Did you catch that?" 