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?
If you're not familiar with MoviePass, it's a pretty remarkable service. When it first started, the idea was that you can go to a theater and see as many movies as you want, for only $9.95 a month. If that deal seems like it's too good to be true, it turns out that it actually was. MoviePass has had a rocky past few years as it's struggled to find a way to become profitable.
At first, I assumed the company was subsidizing the movie tickets as a loss-leader in order to gather data to sell to the studios. Unlike the studios' current generalized methods of getting demographic data, if you have someone with a profile buying tickets on an app, that's an immense amount of data you could provide. You would know who sees movies, how often they see them, what times of day they're going, when they're inclined to see another movie, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That now doesn't appear to be the case, though, because the company has desperately been trying to find a way to make the company profitable where ticket sales are concerned.
As of December 2016, MoviePass had 20,000 subscribers. In August 2017 they switched to the popular $9.95/month subscription which allowed you to see one movie per day, which also saw their subscriber base exponentially increase. They had 600,000 subscribers by October 2017, one million subscribers by December 2017, two million by February 2018, and three million by June 2018. So they grew fast; much faster than the company anticipated. Since then, MoviePass has tried a variety of different strategies to tweak their pricing, including:
Eliminating IMAX, 3D, and other premium format screenings Only allowing subscribers to see each movie once Surge pricing (i.e., additional fees) for in-demand movies Restricting which theaters subscribers can go to Requiring subscribers to take photos of their movie tickets and submit them Implemented and subsequently reversed price changes repeatedly
Each time they make one of these changes, they email their subscribers and say, "We're so sorry for all of the problems with the app (they also have frequent technical issues) and we'll fix them. By the way, here's how we're going to change your membership." And now, this latest announcement from MoviePass is that they're now limiting users to no more than three movies per month.
I'm a MoviePass subscriber and the reason I'm writing about them today is not because I want to bash a company who's clearly financially struggling to make things work, but rather to point out all the ways to not go about righting the ship. And that mainly revolves around not frustrating your existing customers with constant changes to the user experience. I get that they grew too fast; they never expected to have three million subscribers at this point, and if every one of those subscribers saw two movies a month, it would cost them about $30 million per month. But they have just changed this so often that they now appear messy, disorganized, and desperate.
My wife and bought an annual subscription, so there's very little effect on us (short of the company filing bankruptcy, which is a distinct possibility), but most people are on a monthly subscription so every single month they have a new set of rules and guidelines they have to follow. You literally have to plan your movie-going trips by checking the app, making sure the movie isn't blocked out, and jumping through whatever new hoops the company has decided you have to jump through in order to use the service. It's no surprise that the more conspiracy-minded users are convinced that the company is intentionally trying to make it difficult to use their service so they can save money on movie tickets. Personally, I'm more inclined to think they're just really inept at fixing the problem of too much growth too fast.
I sympathize with their plight, but I think MoviePass needs to pick a course of action and stick with it. Their stock has cratered from $48 per share a month ago to $0.09 per share today as a result of all this tumult and frantic changes. They raise the price to $14.95 a month and then a week later reverse it back to $9.95 a month when they get complaints. They're letting customers lead them around by the nose and their reactive responses aren't doing them any favors. What they really need to do is figure out at what price point the service hits their profit goals. If it's $14.95 instead of $9.95 and only a max of one movie a week, then state that clearly and stick with it regardless of how many people complain.
It might be too late, though. Instead of a carefully implemented plan that loses some subscribers (which they probably need to have happen), they're instead hemorrhaging subscribers who have become so frustrated with the service that they'd rather not deal with it at all. It wouldn't surprise me at all if MoviePass declares bankruptcy in the next few weeks or months... so I guess they only thing I can really do at this point is make sure I see as many movies as possible until then, right?
Eliminating IMAX, 3D, and other premium format screenings
But they have just changed this so often that they now appear messy, disorganized, and desperate. 
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