“I’ve noticed that when God wants me to follow Him in a particular direction, He usually doesn’t get me to do it by sending people to scream at me, argue with me, threaten me or poke me with sticks. He does it by heading off in that direction and relying on my new heart’s desire to be with Him. Maybe we should try to be more like God when it comes to getting people to follow us.” — Jim Nicholson
[HT: BHT]
I’ve completed the first book off of my user-suggested reading list: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Thanks to Heather for the recommendation!
This was my first time reading anything by Agatha Christie. My only previous exposure to her work was when I watched the movie adaption of Murder on the Orient Express. That seems to have been a good preparation; much of the style in the plot development seems similar between the two. The formula: introduce the characters, put them in a tightly-defined scenario. Provide a character to narrate and work the reader through the logical options in the whodunit. Get to the end of the story with no good answer. Then provide an epilogue that reveals the twist that makes it all clear. Formulaic or not, it works – it kept me up a ways past my bedtime to finish it last night.
And Then There Were None (originally titled Ten Little Indians) sets ten diverse characters on an isolated island. Their supposed “host” is nowhere to be found. One by one, the ten guests are killed… but who is killing them? This is the mystery, and it’s a good one.
A quick IMDB search shows that And Then There Were None has also been adapted into a movie at least three times; once in 1945, starring, most notably, Walter Huston. It was updated in 1965 and moved out of its original time period. Then it was remade once again in 1974, with a cast that included Sir Richard Attenborough. I haven’t seen any of these versions, but I will take a look next time I go to the video store. Might be interesting.
My next stop on the reading list: Gary Shteyngart’s The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, as recommended by Geof Morris.
I’ve completed the first book off of my user-suggested reading list: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Thanks to Heather for the recommendation!
This was my first time reading anything by Agatha Christie. My only previous exposure to her work was when I watched the movie adaption of Murder on the Orient Express. That seems to have been a good preparation; much of the style in the plot development seems similar between the two. The formula: introduce the characters, put them in a tightly-defined scenario. Provide a character to narrate and work the reader through the logical options in the whodunit. Get to the end of the story with no good answer. Then provide an epilogue that reveals the twist that makes it all clear. Formulaic or not, it works – it kept me up a ways past my bedtime to finish it last night.
And Then There Were None (originally titled Ten Little Indians) sets ten diverse characters on an isolated island. Their supposed “host” is nowhere to be found. One by one, the ten guests are killed… but who is killing them? This is the mystery, and it’s a good one.
A quick IMDB search shows that And Then There Were None has also been adapted into a movie at least three times; once in 1945, starring, most notably, Walter Huston. It was updated in 1965 and moved out of its original time period. Then it was remade once again in 1974, with a cast that included Sir Richard Attenborough. I haven’t seen any of these versions, but I will take a look next time I go to the video store. Might be interesting.
My next stop on the reading list: Gary Shteyngart’s The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, as recommended by Geof Morris.
I’ve completed the first book off of my user-suggested reading list: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Thanks to Heather for the recommendation!
This was my first time reading anything by Agatha Christie. My only previous exposure to her work was when I watched the movie adaption of Murder on the Orient Express. That seems to have been a good preparation; much of the style in the plot development seems similar between the two. The formula: introduce the characters, put them in a tightly-defined scenario. Provide a character to narrate and work the reader through the logical options in the whodunit. Get to the end of the story with no good answer. Then provide an epilogue that reveals the twist that makes it all clear. Formulaic or not, it works – it kept me up a ways past my bedtime to finish it last night.
And Then There Were None (originally titled Ten Little Indians) sets ten diverse characters on an isolated island. Their supposed “host” is nowhere to be found. One by one, the ten guests are killed… but who is killing them? This is the mystery, and it’s a good one.
A quick IMDB search shows that And Then There Were None has also been adapted into a movie at least three times; once in 1945, starring, most notably, Walter Huston. It was updated in 1965 and moved out of its original time period. Then it was remade once again in 1974, with a cast that included Sir Richard Attenborough. I haven’t seen any of these versions, but I will take a look next time I go to the video store. Might be interesting.
My next stop on the reading list: Gary Shteyngart’s The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, as recommended by Geof Morris.
-
The Apostle Paul visits a modern home at Christmas. Fascinating!
Thanks to Lifehacker I have today installed a new Firefox extension that is the coolest I have found in a long time. With Cooliris (which actually works with either Firefox or IE) running, when you hover over a link on a web page, it will open a preview window showing the new web page. But it’s not just a preview window – it’s fully interactive. If you decide you’re really interested in the page, there’s a button so you can open the page in a new tab. There’s also a button that will allow you to email the link to a friend.
I’ve played with CoolIris for just an hour or so but I’m really digging it. It’s customizable; you can disable it for certain domains, control what action (hover, CTRL-hover, click, etc) will open the preview, etc. It’s worth trying. Go check it out.
-
Some interesting thoughts…(tags: religion spirituality)
-
Some good articles here.(tags: singleness homemaking)
-
JT’s on a roll today. Scary to look at the numbers. The West might just kill itself off in a few generations.
The past two mornings Laura has decided there was a need to wake up about ten minutes to five; both times she had lost her pacifier and couldn’t get back to sleep. (We need to find the little attachment device for it again.) Both days this has been about 20 minutes before my alarm was set to go off anyway. Amazingly I’m not too tired yet from the lack of sleep.
What has been nice is that it’s had me up and ready to go hit the mini-MAC in the mornings. The MAC is our local athletic club, and while they chintz on their website (it’s hosted for free on… wait for it… Tripod! What is this, 1996?), their club locations are nothing to sneeze at. They just opened an “express” MAC about a mile from our house. You get a key card and 24/7 access. There are 8 or so each of treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes, and then a full Nautilus weight set. Each of the aerobic machines has a 13-inch LCD TV attached so you can plug in your headphones and choose your own channel. So far it’s worked pretty well to start the morning with a quick trip over to the MAC and a half hour on some machine. I did the elliptical this morning and I’m starting to feel it.
It’s now approaching 7:30 and the office is finally starting to wake up. I love getting in at 6:45 and having some quiet time to work in the mornings. I also love the fact that it facilitates my leaving work around 3:15 in the afternoon. 
Having two girls under 3 years old has pretty much prevented any sleeping in these days, but I’m learning that it’s an OK thing – a morning is a terrible thing to waste.
So how was your Thanksgiving? We spent the weekend in Wisconsin with my family at my parents’ place. It was the first time we’ve had everybody together in about a year. We ate far too much, shopped a little, played lots of Speed Scrabble, and I did some reading. We made it home last night about 5 PM, in time to get unpacked and get the girls to bed. It was a great time, wonderful to see everybody again.
Becky says we’re building up endurance for road trips over the next month or so. The trip to Wisconsin is only about a three-hour drive. Not too bad. Now this Friday we’re headed for Omaha (to see the Andrew Peterson Christmas concert!), which is just over four hours away. But those drives will all be wimpy in comparison to the road trip we’ll be taking in three weeks, a mere 20 hours to the great state of North Carolina. Fortunately, we’ll split it up over 3 days on the way down there, two 10-hour days plus a day in Nashville in between driving. By the time we get home on New Years’ we’ll be ready to stay home for a while, methinks.
I should note that I am not opposed to road trips – I have taken long ones in the past. But it’ll be a whole different experience with a 2-and-a-half-year-old and a nine-month-old occupying the two back seats in the van. We will get some mileage out of the portable DVD player for sure.
The road goes ever on and on…
-
this is the second in what looks to be a great series from Scot McKnight.
-
Amazing.(tags: photo)
-
You will hear the Scripture a whole new way.