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 9): Guilty Pleasure Day! What movie is your greatest guilty pleasure? The movie you know is terrible, but can't help watching every time you channel surf and happen across it? The movie you're almost afraid to admit you like, and yet find yourself popping in the DVD player or streaming a few times a year anyway? Confess your guilty pleasure and tell us what you like about it!
This prompt ended up being a lot harder than I thought because the movies that immediately came to mind for me were either bad movies I like but don't really make an effort to watch and haven't seen in years (Men At Work), or are cheesy but are actually decent movies (True Lies). So does one to do when one needs to find a movie that's so bad it's worth one's time to watch it over and over again? One turns to Nicolas Cage, that's what one does.
Gone in 60 Seconds is everything you want in a turn-of-the-millennium guilty pleasure movie. It's a heist (gasp!). It's got fast cars (vroom!). It's got Angelina Jolie cashing in on her post-Oscar buzz (sure she's just playing the same edgy character she always plays, but you guys... this time she's blonde!). It's got cameos from excellent actors either on the rise or on the decline (Robert Duvall! Delroy Lindo! Will Patton! Christopher Eccleston!). And, perhaps most importantly, it has completely nonsensical plot points that are only there to look cool:
This is the perfect encapsulation of why this movie is the perfect guilty pleasure, so let's spend a couple minutes breaking it down, shall we? Please note that some salty language will be used below... but this blog is rated 18+ so you all know what you're in for.
First, it's undeniably fun to watch. A thrumming techno beat under some stylish camera work and quick cutting. It's an exciting scene to watch.
Then, even though he's being chased by four police cars coming at him from two different directions, nobody seems to be able to stop him from power sliding and gear-shifting around them. But, hey, a lot of action movies make the cops look like teenagers who just got their learner's permits. It's fine. Moving on.
Oh look, he's decided to drive down into the Los Angeles River channel. Maybe it's just me, but when you're being chased by the cops maybe the best route isn't one that's (a) out in the open, (b) clearly only goes in one direction, and (c) dead ends in the fucking ocean. I mean, it's just begging for the cops to outmaneuver him by...
Calling in a helicopter air unit! I mean, this guy's screwed now, right? They've got cops cars on his tail, an air unit monitoring progress from above so he can't disappea-- wait, why is that helicopter only twenty feet off the ground?
Seriously it's barely any more airborne than the cop cars!
And it just went under the bridge instead of over it like a normal helicopter.
"Don't lose him, Air One!" / "This is an A-Star, sir, not an Apache!"
YOU DON'T NEED AN APACHE YOU JUST NEED TO BE MORE THAN TWENTY FEET OFF THE FUCKING GROUND
"He's gone!"
Oh no! If only they had some means of tracking him... perhaps some sort of aerial craft for a bird's eye view, like a hot air balloon! And if only they could narrow down the list of places he could be going... like the actual ocean at the end, or the small handful of places where there's an egress from the river channel.
And then it ends with a great one liner.
"Man this guy can drive! ... It's probably mostly the car."
I'm not sure "going fast in a relatively straight line" qualifies as driving excellence, but sure Timothy Olyphant, let's go with that.
Okay, so here's the thing. What makes this a true guilty pleasure is that, as infuriating as that scene is (seriously, watch it if you haven't by this point)... I still watched it like half a dozen times as I was writing this blog post. And I'm probably going to watch it a couple more times after I post it. And then I'm probably going to go down a rabbit hole and watch a whole bunch of other clips from this movie on YouTube.
My second choice would have been National Lampoon's Van Wilder, where Ryan Reynolds got his start. And, incidentally, my third and fourth choices for the subject of this blog post were Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie movies (Face/Off and Hackers, respectively), but it was much for fun to live-rant about a car chase than a computer hacking sequence, or doing a Venn Diagram of Nic Cage and John Travolta acting eccentricities. Actually, that last one sounds kinda fun...
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