Category Archives: Misc

Random and Miscellaneous thoughts

Book Review – Farewell to Arms

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A few weeks ago, when I preached on Sloth, I had a great quote from Charles “Tremendous” Jones -

The only difference between where you are right now, andwhere you’ll be next year at this same time, are the people youmeet and the books you read.  Charles “Tremendous” Jones
This got me to thinking… outside of the books I read to the kids and the Bible, what am I reading?  The answer was, “Not much.”  So I am embarking on a journey to read more, and to start I am reading some modern classics which have a strong masculine appeal.  And what better place to start than “Farewell to Arms.”
Reading Hemingway is like reading the journal of a good friend.  You immediately get a sense of the characters and the setting with vivid detail laid out in such subtle ways.  Hemingway’s characters are both strong and flawed, with a deep sense of who they are while at the same time a quiet searching for deeper meaning.  Farewell to Arms is a semi-biographical look at Hemingway’s own experiences in WWI as an ambulance driver.  It is also a love story with a tragic ending between an American serving in the Italian army and a British nurse.  The beauty for me of Hemingway’s writing is in his ability to express the chaos of life while at the same time carrying a solid and readable storyline.  He leaves just enough story untold to give the story a real first hand feel.  He doesn’t get bogged down in side stories and leaves many questions unanswered, keeping the storyline focused on the main characters – Federick Henry and Catherine Barkley.
What bothers me about Farewell to Arms, while at the same time draws me, is the rejection of religion that is prominent.  Outside of the priest, who plays a prominent role, no one has any faith and really any hope.  It is a sad, tragic story of a man and woman lost in life and, while Henry does seem to question and even consider faith, they never discover the hope of Christ.  Sadly, I think this is the story of many in life who are interested in Christ but unwilling to give up whatever in life is holding them back.  As much as I hoped that the story would end with hope and salvation, tragedy prevails.
Overall, Farewell to Arms is a beautifully written tragedy that captures the essence of war’s effect on real people.  Hemingway is a master writer and for that alone this is worth the read to grow as a writer myself.  It also gives me new vigor in my call to share Jesus as I consider those who may be asking but are unwilling to come to Jesus.  How can I help them?  What is my prayer for them?  As I seek answers to these questions I pray that God will give me a new heart for the lost and how to bring hope to a hopeless world.

Top 12 Cool Tricks to Learn

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  1. Tie your shoes in lightning speed! – Saves tons of time when tying your kid’s shoes.
  2. Learn to juggle 3 balls – Don’t get sucked into doing 4, it’s a trap!
  3. Make a cup out of a sheet of paper – for those times you are cup-less, but have paper to spare.
  4. Tie an alpine butterfly – quite possibly my favorite knot of all.  If you get it down, you can tie it one handed.
  5. Use your watch as a compass – Sorry, doesn’t work for a digital watch.
  6. Skip a stone – Get the angle right and everyone will be impressed.
  7. Make a dollar shirt – Makes those little tips seem a little better
  8. How to whistle loud – Still working on this myself, but a good trick!
  9. How to roast a marshmallow – Patience and good coals are the key.
  10. Tie a bow tie – Much classier than a clip on
  11. Flip a pancake without a spatula – A good kitchen trick to know.  Works great on just about anything you want to flip.
  12. Play Amazing Grace on only the black keys – Even if you are musically inept, this is a cool trick!

Top 12 80′s Movies I will force my kids to watch

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I think the DVR and the DVD are two of the greatest inventions ever made for TV.  They allow us to watch whatever we want over and over again and not have to worry about what may or may not be on TV at the time.  Unfortunately, this means that I’ve been forced to watch reruns of kids shows ad nauseum and the same Disney movies too many times to count.  So I’ve compiled a list of movies that I’m going to make my kids watch when they get to the appropriate age so they will understand what it was like to come of age in the 1980′s.

  1. E.T. – Once my kids watch this, they’ll finally understand why I always have a funny voice when I say “phone home”.  Just hope they don’t go lining the driveway with reece’s pieces to lure in their own ET.
  2. Back to the Future – If Krystal had it her way, we’d already be watching this weekly.
  3. Ghostbusters – They’ll never eat a roasted marshmallow again without thinking of the Stay Puff man.
  4. Airplane – “I am serious, and don’t call my Shirley.”
  5. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – Hope this one doesn’t give them any ideas.
  6. War Games – So this is what life was like before the internet!
  7. Honey I Shrunk the Kids – I think this was the first of the Disney live action movies that really did well at the box office.
  8. Gremlins – Gonna wait a bit on this one.  I remember it gave me a few bad dreams when I first saw it.
  9. Poltergeist – Ditto on this one.  I just remember being freaked out by static on the TV for a LONG time afterwards.
  10. Rainman – Definitely gonna make them watch this one.  Definitely.  400 Oak Street.  Cincinnati, Ohio.
  11. Footloose – The 80′s version of high school musical, but with an actual plot.
  12. Good Morning, Vietnam – So they’ll understand Robin Williams before he went crazy.  Or maybe when he began to go crazy.