Here are 62 photos for your viewing pleasure (out of the possible 1000 or more that we took).
Paris Vacation Update Delayed
Like our initial flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Paris, my updates regarding our current Paris vacation are delayed. We’ve done so much, and I would have liked to have written daily updates, but my eyes begin twitching for sleep as soon as I cross the semi-elevated threshold to our host’s humble abode.
I’m currently uploading the fifth batch of photos from our trip; we’re sitting on 2.31 GB of photos as taken by my wife with our fairly new Canon Rebel XT (which we bought specifically for this trip). I also have nearly an hour of video footage as shot by myself (via the excellent Sanyo Waterproof Xacti), which I hope to condense into a cinematic masterpiece to be known as “90 seconds in Paris.” We’ll see how that turns out. I’ll also share the best photos, or the ones that most aptly describe our time in Paris.
For now, you’ll just have to wait till next week for the further adventures of myself, the wife, and our friend in Paris.
The Well of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
MOTS (More of the Same, see Lost in a Good Book). Unlike movies, there are more book series that maintain interest and become more inventive over time and their various sequels. Fforde’s Lost Plots contines the story of Literary Detective Thursday Next as she now inhabits the Book World. I loved the way Fforde equated updating books as if it were software. Of course, there’s a vast conspiracy in the Book World to keep the upgrade on schedule…until Thursday Next catches wind of it.
Who’s Your Caddy (Audiobook), Rick Reilly
Very funny book by sportswriter (and Leatherheads scribe) Rick Reilly who tries to answer that eternal question - what’s it like to be a caddy? With stories about looping for John Daly, David Duval, Donald Trump, a blind golfer, and others, Caddy is quite humorous, a little ribald, and wholly entertaining.
Simple Church, Thom S. Rainer & Eric Geiger
A book written based on the assumption and corresponding research that complexity in churches is not beneficial to the life of the church. Paring down to the basics (see Google’s search page vs. Yahoo’s search page) and focusing everything about the church on a few principles seems to make churches grow better (i.e. deeper). These principles are three-fold: loving God, loving others, loving the world. Seems easy enough, but putting it into practice in a complex organization full of ministers doing “good works” is much more difficult.
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, A.J. Jacobs
More like 4.5 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As a near-lifelong Christian, this book was eye-opening. An agnostic, liberal-leaning, New York City-based, Jewish editor of Esquire attempts to follow all the rules of the Bible. His fresh eyes, insightful mind, and open heart reveal the often dueling claims of both the Old and New Testament, showing both the beauty and the flaws of being a literalist. Fortunately, his year-long venture provides more than just intellectual fodder; it engages his life, transforms his worldview, and connects him with a religious and familial history he otherwise took for granted. I’d recommend this work to anyone, but especially to “lifelong” Christians that could use a fresh take on the Word of God.
[P.S. A few weeks after this post, I found out a friend of mine was actually quoted in this book from an article he'd posted online years ago regarding Alcohol and the Bible.]
There’s popcorn in hell?
There’s popcorn in hell?
Originally uploaded by blake.atwood
The Drum Table
If you’ve got a spare $2,900, please consider buying me this:
That would be a handmade, musical drum table. Video at the link too.
If Target & Taco Bell merged
If Target & Taco Bell merged
Originally uploaded by blake.atwood
Dave Barry’s History of the Millenium (Audiobook), Dave Barry
More like 2.5 stars. I probably shouldn’t count this as a read book since I listened to it, but either way, it’s an easy listen/read, as are most of Barry’s works. But he knows funny, and hyperbole, and brilliance disguised as ignorance. Who wouldn’t want Dave Barry to be their history teacher? Still, after reading Big Trouble and Tricky Business, I’d recommend his fiction over his non-fiction.
