beth0329

I read some very interesting books in October. Here's the rundown:

Kabul 24 You can read my review here. It was a great book! 320 pages.

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk was an interesting book. It's rather typical of Palahniuk and he's not my favorite writer but I did enjoy the book. 272 pages.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a fantastic study into the mind and actions of a murderer. He constantly wonders when he will be found out. This has been called a masterpiece of Russian literature and it certainly is. It is also one of the shorter Russian novels. 700 pages.

The Captain's Daughter by Pushkin is the story of a young man who is sent to the hinterland of Russia in service to the military and he falls in love with his Captain's daughter. I won't spoil the story but it's a good one. 105 pages.

Book of Common Prayer

This is a book that I have been familiar with for quite a while. This is the blueprint, the guidebook, for the Anglican Communion. It is a book rich in tradition and has impacted the faith of millions including me. The BCP holds several versions of the Eucharist that can performed. To read through these and reflect on the richness of a tradition of worship that extends back to the very earliest days of the Church is humbling as a Christian. There is a lot of repetition in the book(especially in the Daily Offices and the Eucharist) so it can be a fairly quick read. Don't let the page length scare you. I think it's a text everyone should read sometime.1008 pages.

The Devil by Leo Tolstoy is a short story that deals in many ways with the depravity of man and the need to fulfill the desires of the flesh that can eventually lead to death. Tolstoy believed that sex was despicable and that a celibate life was the only way to live. I have no idea how he planned for humanity to continue as a race. 58 pages.

Beautiful Mess by Diamond Rio

You can read my review here 288 pages.

The Death of Ivan Illych by Tolstoy - 48 pages

Grace and Peace

Thomas Nelson's Page for Beautiful Mess
Amazon's Page for Beautiful Mess

I have been a Diamond Rio fan for a long time and so I had been wanting to get my hands on this book for a while. I've listened to Diamond Rio since I was very young. I loved the musically harmony and amazing lyrics that I heard from these guys. Reading this book and listening to their music again reminded me why I'm such a big fan. As a lover of country music the names of the people that Diamond Rio has worked with read like a Who's Who list that made me smile in acknowledgment and remember some great mucic. I was enthralled with their story of their hard road to stardom from page one. Combine that with a very easy to read writing style and you have a great book.

These six guys have made something work that very few others have, they are six person band loyal to the music but most of all to each other. The book tells the personal stories of each of the band members and yet in the end the book is about their story as a band as parts of a whole. They have faced the fickle country music industry with a solidarity almost unheard of. The lead singer of the band, Marty Roe, developed vocal issues that were having a decidedly negative effect on the bands performance. Through years of bad performances, changing things around to make his out of sync vocals less noticable, and talks about the problem the members of Diamond Rio stuck it out and banded together as a group to fix the problem. Eventually, a solution was found and the old Diamond Rio, lost for so long was back. They did it as a group, a community, a family. In comparing solo artists versus a six man band they write: "Solo artists can make decisions-- about songs, about tours, about managers--in a snap. A band has an extra layer of friction: it requires extra meetings, lots of communication, and an uncommon willingness to sacrifice personal goals for the good of the team." They believe that it is the journey not the destination that is important. It's not so much about the awards but what it took to get to the awards. Diamond Rio is also a very giving group and the book chronicles this quite well. Even from their earliest days the guys in the band were very giving. They understood that people had helped them along the way and they wanted to give some of that back. They believed that "the biggest part of getting a blessing is not keeping it." Diamond Rio would join a Christian label, Word Records, and record an album telling of their journey of conflict and redemption that centered around Marty. Marty said that he believed that God had brought them to a place where they were going to do something bigger than themselves.

This is a great story of loyalty, solidarity, conflict, and redemption. I personally hope that these guys continue to make music for a long time.

Grace and Peace

I realized when I looked at my blog to see when the last substantive thing I had written was, that it had been almost a month ago, which is a testament to the busyness of the past month. School is going well. It's keeping me busy and my friends are keeping me grounded. It's good times. I realized tonight that we have a little over a month before the end of the semester. I have my plane ticket and it will definitely be exciting to go home, relax, and see my family and friends back that way. In recent news I went to New Orleans/ Baton Rouge with some friends a couple weekends ago. We spent two hours searching for a hotel, hung out on Bourbon Street(interesting times indeed), had lunch with Anna, saw a naked guy in the street near LSU, chilled on the quad, went to the LSU -Auburn game and had an all around awesome weekend. I went to a Blues Travelers concert with Clark...that was so much fun. I've never seen anyone play harmonica that way. Then, I spent most of the week sick...yay! I missed the costume ball, but next year...next year Gadget! Clark's birthday was fun. We went and had Philly Connection for lunch and just hung out. It was fun. Living together Clark and I see each other all the time but we don't get to hang out much. Friday, Brandon came in and was here for the weekend. It was so much fun to have him back. We had a party for Clark, Trevor, and Jimmy at Josh's on Friday. It was so much fun! We got to hang out and play rock band. There were so many people there! Saturday night we all went out to a Mexican restaurant here in town that holds some pretty special memories for me. It was the first place I ate at in Tally when I moved here in the fall of 08. Sunday was a crazy busy day with church, praying for one of the old interns, lunch, and a few different meetings. Yesterday, I had two exams. I think they went rather well. :) Last night I watched the Saints win in a game that was down to the wire. I'm not normally a fan of the NFL but that was a great game! 7-0!!

As far as football goes FSU has won their last two games which is good news because the season wasn't looking so good there for a while. Oregon beat USC this past weekend! I love the fact that USC can't seem to win a game in Oregon! LSU is still handling their business which is fine but soon they'll be playing my Bulldogs...and yeah I'm afraid to watch. This weekend they're in Bama..should be a good game. Indiana almost beat #4 Iowa this past weekend. That would have been so unbelievably sweet. Tech almost won their game...they lost by one So in quick recap here are their records: Florida State: 4-4, Louisiana Tech: 3-5,#9 LSU: 7-1, Indiana: 4-5, #8 Oregon: 7-1, Oregon State: 5-3, and Washington: 3-5. Notre Dame played Wazzou this week and slaughtered them. Normally this would make me happy but it's Notre Dame!!! As it stands we're looking at a UT-UF national championship. If that's the case then Hook 'em Horns!

The RCC welcomes Anglicans

This is a news story that has been of intense interest to me as of late. I'm taking a Christian Tradition class which has added to the knowledge that I already had about Catholic-Protestant divisions. The divisions between the Anglican and Catholic communions have always been a bit perplexing. As far as the everyday workings and the laity would be concerned the churches, in service and belief, are very similar. Why did they split in the first place? It was the classic control problem. Who has it? The Pope or the King. They disagreed, Leo wouldn't grant the divorce, and Henry packed up his marbles and went home. With all the instability in the Episcopalian Church in the US(i.e. women and gay people in the ministry) the RCC offers a stability that goes back to St. Peter. There are those in the ECUSA that for years have been willing to put aside their differences with the RCC and come back into the fold. Now, Benedict has made that easier. I think it's a really great step for those who choose to make it. It'll be interesting to see what comes of this.

Here are some pictures and video from the last little while. Enjoy!

( Pictures and Videos )

Thanks for reading. Hopefully it won't be quite as long before I update again.

Grace and Peace

Hello all. I'm looking for people in the Fresno area who are vegetarian/vegan. I seem to have alienated my friends by making this change and need some new people to hang out with. XD