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?
Not including your phone, computer, or other Googling device, write about the top five most useful items you own.
Taking away my phone and computer definitely removes the top two most useful items I own. I'm going to draw a distinction here for my list of items, and that's that I'm not going to include anything that is dependent upon either of those two things (e.g., specific apps or things that I've created using those two devices), but I am going to include things that interact with both devices. In particular, the first item on my list:
Apple TV. I'm really late to the Apple TV craze, but I'm a big fan. For the longest time we used my Playstation 3 for all of our streaming apps and disc watching, but when it started to go, we replaced it with an Apple TV and now I can't see us ever going back. Sure, we lost the functionality of having an actual disc player hooked up to the TV (which, honestly, has only been an inconvenience a handful of times in the past several months since the switch), but we gained some key new functionality like the ability to play our iTunes library through our entertainment center, and - even better - the ability to share our computer, iPad, and even iPhone screens on the television. And it's small enough that we can stow it in a backpack and take it with us on trips so we have access to all this functionality and all our streaming options anywhere we have wifi.
Car. This item has climbed in the rankings since we got kids. While it's always been a glorious convenience to be able to get in the car and drive to wherever we need to go at a moment's notice, the importance of that freedom has proven super-important with children. We can go get food, run errands, etc. whenever the timing works for us without being beholden to someone else or a public transit schedule, and we can leave whenever we need to. The ability to drive around at our discretion, if not a necessity, is pretty darn close in this day and age.
Kindle. Technically this applies to my iPad and iPhone as well, but the ability to own an entire library of reading material in something about the size of a single thin paperback is life-changing. I love reading, and I read voraciously. Being able to go through a hundred books a year and not have to figure out where to find the shelf space to store them (even temporarily) is amazing. Being able to go on vacation and only take one book that contains a library of material rather than filling up my carry-on bag with hard copy books is incredible. And being able to purchase electronic versions of books for a fraction of the price of a hardcover or paperwork is the way of the future.
Amazon Prime. I know that there are a lot of reasons to dislike Amazon, but I'll admit that we're Amazon junkies. Our Amazon Prime subscription just provides so much value for the money. Rush shipping on almost anything we could want to order from their extensive website, access to a number of streaming options (including add-ons like HBO, and the ability to rent or buy most movies), access to their music streaming services, the ability to order groceries online, etc. While we have a number of subscription services and each have their strengths (Disney+ is easily the movie and television content we're consuming most now that we have kids, for example), our Amazon Prime subscription and its features affect nearly every area of our lives, from grocery shopping and running errands to consuming entertainment. We still refuse to get an Echo, though. We don't love Amazon so much that we're okay with them spying on every word that we say.
Inflatable Wading Pool and Water Table. This one is quarantine-specific, but after over two months of staying at home and struggling to find new and interesting things to do within the confines of our <1,000 square-foot apartment, my wife's idea to order a little 36" diameter inflatable wading pool and put it on our tiny patio has been a game changer. Our son, who loves to swim, has been in such a better mood since he's been able to resume splashing around (our apartment community's actual pool remains closed for the time being), and our daughter is enjoying the water table we got to accompany the wading pool, giving her all kinds of fun hands-on activities to do with water. While we wait for our state and local officials to reopen things, this has easily been the thing that has improved the kids' moods the most significantly outside of using electronics.
I'm going to draw a distinction here for my list of items, and that's that I'm not going to include anything that is dependent upon either of those two things (e.g., specific apps or things that I've created using those two devices), but I am going to include things that interact with both devices. In particular, the first item on my list:
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