Books that have changed my life

Lifehacker had a great post via Digg a few days ago where they asked their blog commentators to post books that have changed their lives. Their list included the usual suspects – the Bible, Ayn Rand, LOTR – and a few that somewhat surprised me – Richard Dawkins books, Hitchhikers’ Guide. But an interesting series of titles nonetheless. Anyway, it led me to think some about a few of mine. My definition of books that have changed my life start with ones that I have read at least 3 times – a few of the below are ones that have been read many more times than that.

• The Bible
• The Return of the Prodigal Son – Henri Nouwen
• Cost of Discipleship & Life Together – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Amazing Grace – Kathleen Norris
• Caretakers of our Common House – Carol Lakey Hess
• Working the Angles – Eugene Peterson
• A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
• The Stand – Stephen King

And a few that are not on the multiple-times-read list, but have had a great impact upon me

• Velvet Elvis – Rob Bell
• The Medium and the Light – Marshall McLuhan
• The Night Trilogy – Elie Wiesel

What God Has Been Teaching Me

This comes from my friend Drew and is a short ditty about talking about a verse about what God has been teaching in my life recently. So…without further ado…

The Verse
Psalm 18:2 – “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

The Teaching
I have been dealing with a lot of different stuff lately and this passage always reminds me that we have a God who is our foundation, our strength, our hope, our life for today and for the time to come.

The Tag – I have three that come to mind now, including the new PCUSA big guy…
Bruce
Doug
Jeff

The beginning of a new era – My first Mac

Well, after being a MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 98, and Windows XP guy all my life, sometime later this week, a new era in my geek life is going to begin.  I have a brand new iMac on its way from Apple sometime later this week.  Going to be a crazy few weeks as I begin the transition to a brand new OS, new ways of working with software, and FINALLY not having to worry about antivirus, etc for the first time in a long while.

I made the switch because we’re not going to be buying another new computer for a while (our current Dell desktop is just over 7 years old) and I was growing more and more frustrated with the issues of crashes, etc that go along with running a Windows system.  As I have also been working more and more with multimedia, especially video editing, I know that Macs are far more proficient, effective, and efficient at doing anything with multimedia.

The final straw for me began with the introduction in Mac OS of Boot Camp to allow users to install Windows OSes on a separate partition on the hard drive, thereby allowing XP or (eww) Vista to run as well.  There are still several programs that I will continue to use under Windows (whether through bootcamp or through fusion), but the switch has begun.

Movies jumping the shark

This might be a late 90s or early 00s internet / pop culture reference, but I am still dearly attached to the phrase “jump the shark.”  For those not aware of the meaning, check both jumptheshark.com and wikipedia’s reference.  Anyway, the term came back to me after seeing the new Indiana Jones movie.  (spoilers ahead for those who have not seen it).  Before focusing on the shark moments, I have to say that I went into the film with really really low expectations (resulting from Harrison Ford’s sleepwalking through the last 10 or so movies he has done and anything that George Lucas has a recent hand in writing).  Because of said low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by the film and did enjoy it overall.  However, two moments must be singled out as shark jumping moments.

• Nuking the fridge – apparently AICN has taken this up as a potential replacement for JtS.  I have not seen it in any of the AICN talkbacks, but I think it has some validity.  I am supposed to believe that a) there is a lead-lined 1950s era fridge that Harrison Ford can fit into, b) will protect him from the physical blast of a nuclear bomb only a mile or so a way, and c) that him being tossed about in it for another few miles doesn’t at least knock him unconscious.  But lest we stop there…
• The monkeys – The whole monkeys coming alongside the Jones brigade and attacking the Russians AND Shia LaBouf going tarzan through the jungle was an absolutely ridiculous scene.  I know Indy movies are over the top (hearts being ripped out, surviving a jump from an airplane in an inflatable raft, the penitent man not only kneels before God, but also does a forward roll (I often do that in my prayer times as well), and so forth.  But this one was so out of nowhere that it was just awful.  In fact, the monkeys probably should have remembered their fallen brothers and sisters who were dined upon at the banquet in Temple of Doom and gone after Indy…

That feels good to let it out.

It led me to thinking, however, of other shark jumping moments for other movie series…

Star Wars saga – several come to mind

• Return of the Jedi – the “redone” dance sequence in Jabba’s palace and the first time an Ewok appears on screen.
• Phantom Menace – Where to begin…the title, the screenplay, Jar-Jar, but the specific ones for me are when Binks steps in bantha poop outside Mos Eisley, and when little Annie (aaahhh) says “whee-hoo” or something like that.
• Attack of the Clones – any scene involving Padme and Anakin pretending to be in passionate love with each other.
• Revenge of the Sith – I have to say that I largely enjoyed this film, but the fact that somehow this incredibly advanced technology does not detect that Padme is pregnant with twins, or the fact that this strong woman dies because her heart is broken by Anakin – leaving her newly born children in the hands of Obi-Wan and Yoda?  ummm…no.

Star Trek

• Ep IV – Time travel back to mid-80s San Francisco.  The whole slingshot around the sun thing…um…silly.

Superman

• Ep I – See above – spinning the earth backwards?
• EP IV – Richard Pryor…horrible move.

Lord of the Rings

• No shark jumping here…

Jaws

• 3D for the third film…bad move

Aliens

• This is painful to say, but when Newt dies between the 2nd and 3rd films.  They should have left well enough alone.  Newt was annoying in the 2nd film, but she gave Ripley a point for living.  Killing her off before the 3rd film and everything that followed…bad move.  The shark was very clear.

James Bond

• Moonraker – the moment you head up into space with a guy named Jaws, time to close up shop.  Unfortunately, they’ve had how many films since then?  I must say, though, that Casino Royale redeeemed the series for now.

Any Horror Series (Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, I know what you did last summer, final destination, etc)

• Anytime they make a 2nd film.

Other ideas?

UPDATE

http://www.nukingthefridge.com/