Thursday, October 22, 2009
Crass Commercialism
I've updated the blog template to show my Amazon.com wishlist.
Because I know you were all wondering what to get me for my birthday / for Christmas / for the anniversary of the breaking of the Siege of Vienna / out of sheer gratitude for my witty blogging...
Because I know you were all wondering what to get me for my birthday / for Christmas / for the anniversary of the breaking of the Siege of Vienna / out of sheer gratitude for my witty blogging...
Labels: blogdom
Friday, September 01, 2006
Memed! Name five people ...
Dale has tagged me with the "name five people" meme, so, here goes...
If you could meet and have a deep conversation with any five people on earth, living or dead, from any time period, who would they be?" (Explaining why is optional.) Name five people from each of the following categories:Saints, Those in the Process of Being Canonized, Heroes from your native country, Authors/Writers, celebrities.
If you could meet and have a deep conversation with any five people on earth, living or dead, from any time period, who would they be?" (Explaining why is optional.) Name five people from each of the following categories:Saints, Those in the Process of Being Canonized, Heroes from your native country, Authors/Writers, celebrities.
- Saints
- Benedict of Nursia
- Thomas More
- Joseph
- Athanasius
- Maximillian Kolbe
- To Be Canonized
- Pope John Paul II
- John Henry Cardinal Newman
- Pope Leo XIII
- Kateri Tekakwitha
- Bishop Frederic Baraga
- American Heroes
- Thomas Jefferson
- Col. David Crockett
- William Jennings Bryan
- Benjamin Franklin
- Father Jacques Marquette
- Authors/Writers
- Wendell Berry
- G. K. Chesterton / Hillaire Belloc (can I get them as a twofer?)
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- C. S. Lewis
- Masanobu Fukuoka
And, of course, S. M. Stirling :) - Celebrities
- Pope Benedict XVI
- Larry Wall
- Richard M. Stallman
- "Doc" Watson
- O-Sensei Morehei Ueshiba
Labels: blogdom
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Crass Commercialism
The NEW Eclectic Amateur! Now, with ads from Google!
We'll see if this is beneficial or baneful ...
We'll see if this is beneficial or baneful ...
Labels: blogdom
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Tagged with the Book Meme
Dale has tagged me with the Book Meme, so here goes ...
1. Total number of books I've owned.
Oy. I have no idea -- I tend to count this in terms of "number of bookshelves required" or "number of boxes needed on moving day." I keep purging, but there doesn't seem to be much more room in the house.
A quick visual SWAG says about 2,000 downstairs, plus probably another 500-1,000 upstairs (this counts the kid's library and homeschooling materials).
I've probably given away or sold almost this much previously, so let's say a lifetime total of around 4,000 books.
I have said before that my Dances With Wolves
name should be "Reads Too Much."
2. Last book I bought.
My last book purchase was a career-related twofer, The Basics of FMEA and Building Embedded Linux Systems.
Due to space and time limits, I've learned to make good use of the library, so my bookbuying is well off the pace that it was at B(efore) C(hildren).
3. Last book I read.
Not Dies the Fire, but that's because I've moved on while desperately awaiting publication of The Protector's War. (Remember what I said about "Reads Too Much"?)
This is tough, because I tend to juggle a few at once. The last two books I completed are All Flesh Is Grass: The Pleasures and Promise of Pasture Farming and The Contrary Farmer's Invitation to Gardening, both by Gene Logsdon. Other books I am currently working through are Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationshiop with God by Dallas Willard, Good and Angry: Exchanging Frustration for Character ... in You and Your Kids! by Turansky and Miller, Is This Your Child's World? How You Can Fix the Schools and Homes That Are Making Your Children Sick by Doris Rapp, and The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse by Shavor, et al.
Why yes, there was a reason I named this blog Eclectic Amateur ...
4. Five books that mean a lot to me.
Aside from the Bible, which gets to be at the top in a category of its own, here are some that come to mind:
5. Next!
Hey Bubbles, you there?
1. Total number of books I've owned.
Oy. I have no idea -- I tend to count this in terms of "number of bookshelves required" or "number of boxes needed on moving day." I keep purging, but there doesn't seem to be much more room in the house.
A quick visual SWAG says about 2,000 downstairs, plus probably another 500-1,000 upstairs (this counts the kid's library and homeschooling materials).
I've probably given away or sold almost this much previously, so let's say a lifetime total of around 4,000 books.
I have said before that my Dances With Wolves
name should be "Reads Too Much."2. Last book I bought.
My last book purchase was a career-related twofer, The Basics of FMEA and Building Embedded Linux Systems.
Due to space and time limits, I've learned to make good use of the library, so my bookbuying is well off the pace that it was at B(efore) C(hildren).
3. Last book I read.
Not Dies the Fire, but that's because I've moved on while desperately awaiting publication of The Protector's War. (Remember what I said about "Reads Too Much"?)
This is tough, because I tend to juggle a few at once. The last two books I completed are All Flesh Is Grass: The Pleasures and Promise of Pasture Farming and The Contrary Farmer's Invitation to Gardening, both by Gene Logsdon. Other books I am currently working through are Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationshiop with God by Dallas Willard, Good and Angry: Exchanging Frustration for Character ... in You and Your Kids! by Turansky and Miller, Is This Your Child's World? How You Can Fix the Schools and Homes That Are Making Your Children Sick by Doris Rapp, and The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse by Shavor, et al.
Why yes, there was a reason I named this blog Eclectic Amateur ...
4. Five books that mean a lot to me.
Aside from the Bible, which gets to be at the top in a category of its own, here are some that come to mind:
- The Lord of the Rings
. Read umpteen times in sixth grade and then some after that. It's still one of my regrets that I haven't learned to write in tengwar.
- The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis. Heck, everything by C. S. Lewis.
- By What Authority? An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition by Mark Shea. Sorry, Mark -- I don't rate you quite up there with Professors Tolkien and Lewis. But, this little book was very helpful to me in articulating my view on sola scriptura, which of course has had other ripple effects ...
- The Imitation of Christ. I would be a much better person if I reread this more often.
- The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry.
- Anything by G. K. Chesterton.
5. Next!
Hey Bubbles, you there?
Labels: blogdom
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Ten Things
Yes, I'm late to the party. I saw the ten things list from Henry Dieterich; here's mine:
Ten Things I've Done (That You Probably Haven't):
Ten Things I've Done (That You Probably Haven't):
- Fenced competitively for a Big Ten university.
- Shorn sheep. Even used hand shears at least once (and left a relatively non-bloody sheep).
- Learned traditional West African music from an internationally-recognized African composer.
- Had nine living grandparents.
- Contributed to multiple free/open source software projects
- Flunked RCIA. :)
- Caught a Blanchard's Cricket Frog in the wild in Michigan.
- Worked at a cyclotron.
- I can draw a circle on the map around all the places I've lived, and the radius is less than 100 miles.
- Read The Lord of the Rings. 15 times. In sixth grade. Did I mention that one of those times was in a single day?
Labels: blogdom
Monday, February 02, 2004
The Sirman Made Me Do It
The Sirman Made Me Do It
... so, at least I get to feel more virtuous -- or, I would, if I weren't so gosh darn humble:
The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
| Level | Score |
|---|---|
| Purgatory (Repenting Believers) | Extreme |
| Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) | Moderate |
| Level 2 (Lustful) | High |
| Level 3 (Gluttonous) | Very Low |
| Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) | Very Low |
| Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) | Moderate |
| Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics) | Very Low |
| Level 7 (Violent) | Low |
| Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) | Low |
| Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous) | Low |
Take the Dante's Inferno Test
