An Honest Update!!

Just Finished Reading... Small Gods (Discworld Novels) By Terry Pratchett see related

As much as I like Blogger, I do have to admit that Xanga does possess a few superior features. The first is the ability to join "Blogrings" (which is why I put up a Xanga Placeholder for this site). The second, which I really like, is an easy interface with Amazon.Com that allows you to select the book you are currently reading, the CD you are currently listening to, or the movie you are currently watching. As it is, I have to write out the HTML based on what shows up on Xangas for other things.

However, doing the HTML has the advantage of being able to change "Currently Reading" to "Just Finished Reading," since I've already returned it to David Kartzinel.

Normally, I don't like to borrow books. I think this comes mostly from the fact that I don't very much like to lend my books to people, sad as that may be. However, I'd trust David with a book, so I'm glad he decided I should read this one.

It's a religious satire, so I was a little wary at first, but, as David was happy to point out, since he had been wary of the same thing, it never actually makes fun of true Christianity (or any of the most basic forms of any religion, actually). It takes place in a ridiculously absurd fantasy world (the "Discworld" actually is a flat surface balanced on the backs of four elephants, who ride on the carapce of a giant turtle), where the universe is populated by millions of these "Small Gods" who just need belief to have any power. (This is based on a theology developed by one of the philosophers the author makes up, which the author calls - and this has to be paraphrased since I can't look up the quote - just another form of that great Gnostic heresy which arises whenever overly religious men get off their knees to think together, since the sudden change in altitude tends to make the thinking a bit whacked.) From this vantage point, he goes on to parody - hysterically - philosophy, theocratic states, "holy war," and other things like the Inquisition (for example, the chief villian in the book is an Exquisitor, what all Inquisitors aspire to be). It's amazingly funny, and I've currently got Thief of Time by the same author.

Much as I don't like borrowing books, when you find a good person to borrow from, it's great to enjoy it. (David currently has one of my DVDs, too.)

More random news...

I was in a movie today! It was kind of odd, but it was a lot of fun. Kyle Rains and I were helping Patrick Myers finish up his short entry for the coming student film festival, a piece called "Amnesiac," supposedly about a man who loses his memory, thinks he's Spider-man, and starts beating up his friends because he thinks they're supervillains. (I was cast as Norman, the imaginary Green Goblin.) However, since it's a short-film parody, Patrick wrote it as a trailer for a feature-length movie he never intends to make. It's going to be an odd little film, but it should be a lot of fun to watch; it was a lot of fun to make.

Kyle and I even helped Patrick get a couple of shots from the roof of the Pennick Academic Complex in the rain... THAT was an experience.

Fall break's been uneventful, which I like, and also very nice. A few other people have been around, so I haven't been lonely. I also walked over and signed up for a Blockbuster card (I rented Red Dragon, which was good, and The Others, which, despite being really weird, I really liked).

Oh, and there's something that was posted about a month ago on Emo Ben's (as they're calling Benjamin Bailey) blog that recently struck me as interesting...

I had this idea: (WARNING: this is really corny)
It seems like Union is almost like my "shire". I'm refering to the "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." In the part where you are almost sure that Frodo and Sam are going to die, Frodo tells Sam to think of the shire... the movie version shows a cut back to all the fun times they had at the shire. I hope to grow so much while I am at Union. I am already forming great friendships here. I think I will look back on these days and refer to them as the encouraging days where I found God's will for my life. There is just something about college. I am having a blast. God has really blessed me.

It's not THAT corny. I can really identify with that. While I was getting ready to come to college, I got the feeling that it was going to be one of those really great times in my life -- not just because it's a major part of growing up, or because Mom told me I'd love it, or because it's four years of a life that has so far included only not-quite nineteen. I got the feeling that it was going to be an intensely spiritual experience.

When I was in Belgium on my first mission trip, I was trying to work out my testimony, and I ended up saying something along the lines of "I can see God's work in my life in all the blessings He's given me, since every time I come to understand more about Him, I'm blessed with new friends" or something like that... and I've made so many great friends in the short two months I've been here (the first half of my first semester has seriously FLOWN by) that it almost blows my mind. Thank God for Union University!!

And thanks to Ben Bailey for posting that quote above. :-)

Okay, that's about it for now. Hopefully, I'll have more to post before I let it go too long.