I felt like blogging once ...

I felt like blogging once ...

... so I took some Tums and then I felt better.

How Time Flies

Wow. It's been more than a month since I've made a post. Sorry, anonymous internet. Lent kicked my butt, and what with Pastor being diagnosed with lymphoma ... well ... blogging wasn't my first priority.

Anyhow, I'm going to try again, see how it works. Look for more updates as I feel like it.

How the Mighty Have Fallen

Facebook. It used to be cool. It used to be original. It used to be good.

Those days are gone.

Facebook began so innocently. A cool way to keep in superficial touch with friends. Then they tried to assimilate the functionality of a photo sharing site. That was okay. Then they added applications. Not the best, but I'll live. Then they added instant messages to take over the IM sphere. What the ...? Then they redesigned to streamline and move away from networks. Uhh... And now they've duplicated Twitter's look and feel. That's the last straw.

Facebook wants to rule your life. It wants to be the ONLY source for your online social networking. This latest change clinches it in my mind. Twitter was threatening to come up alongside Facebook, so FB made it obsolete. Why use Twitter if you've already got Facebook? Facebook has become a Microsoft, wanting to have a monopoly on your online life.

So say no! Use something else! Let Facebook decline and fade into obscurity! Don't allow Facebook to assimilate yet another online function! Don't let Facebook rule the world!

(Okay, so I overreacted on that last one, but seriously: Facebook is evil now.)

Book Recommendation: The Quest For Holiness

So the thing about Seminary is that each of your classes require a HUGE and VAST amount of reading. Now if you're uber-study book guy, then no sweat. You can read and read and read and do it quickly enough so that you have time to get it all done AND still have what passes for a social life in Seminary.

But if you're like me and have video-gamed yourself into A.D.D. while in college, then the reading doesn't always get done. Usually, it's okay because you can learn what you need in class and still get a decent idea of what the book says with some skimming. But then there's the occasional book, that when you talk about it in class, you say to yourself, "I really wish I had the time to read that." Thank God for vicarage.

I've kept those books that I wanted to go back and read someday and brought them to Mobile in hopes that I would actually read some of them. And first and foremost on my list is "The Quest for Holiness" by a guy named Koberle. I've started working through the book, and while it's some pretty heavy reading (I'm working myself out of ADD through reading, but I'm not sure I was ready for something this heavy yet) it's really a GREAT book.

Koberle in this book describes all of man's efforts to achieve holiness, how they all fall short, and how God has taken matters into his own hands. Then, if I recall from class, he swings back around and shows how Sanctification is not synergism or anything like that, but is 100% God and 100% us. Fascinating stuff. I look forward to getting to those portions.

But already where I am in the book, Koberle's done some great stuff. If you've ever wanted to know how Christianity is different from every other religion in the world, then you should check out this book.

I'll try to remember to get back with full reaction once I finish.

Sometimes, Getting Caught Up Is A Bad Thing...

Finished getting caught up with Toradora! today. Now I have to wait a week like everyone else until the next ep comes out. Drat!

What is it about high school love stories? Or, I suppose, Japanese high school love stories. I not much one for the American ones. But for some reason, the Japanese ones just suck me in.

Here I am, going about my business, watching a funny anime with quirky characters and WHAM! All of a sudden, it's a drama and I find that I actually CARE about what happens to these characters. This is PRECISELY the problem I've been having with Naruto lately.

In any case, I think in my initial reaction to the first few eps of Toradora!, I made mention of a couple of the main characters being two-dimensional. Well, that's no longer the case. Those characters have now been fleshed out pretty well, and, as I said, I find myself caring about the story.

But going back to my initial question: what is it about Japanese high school love stories? If you haven't noticed, the vast majority of anime/manga take place in high school. So what is it about those years? Is it the first time kids have real relationships? Is it because you have an excuse for people seeing and interacting with each other on a daily basis? Is it because it's a period of life with a definite end? I don't know. But for some reason, in anime/manga, they work pretty well. And when you have characters as in Toradora!, well, it gains the ability to suck in the random passerby.

So well done, Toradora! I now have another anime to follow. Keep up the good work.

My Thoughts on My New MBP

So I've now had my MacBook Pro for a few weeks now, and I realized that I haven't really posted any reaction to it. I thought about doing a proper review ... but that sounds like it'd be too much work to do it properly. So I'll just give you a few thoughts on the good and the bad.

First of all, the trackpad is AMAZING! It really IS something that takes some getting used to. It took me a couple days. But once you get used to it, there is NO going back. The sheer ease of clicking anywhere, the multi-touch, all of it. Navigating the web is amazing with the two-fingered scroll. Reading manga is a dream because of the pinch-zoom-thing. And the best part about the multi-gestures is that it knows when you want to use them and when you don't. For instance, the bottom part of the track-pad is more "clickable" than the top. So when I want to drag a file, I can click on the bottom with one finger, and then drag with another finger, and it knows that's what I'm doing and doesn't try to scroll or zoom or whatever. Great stuff. Well done, Apple.

And of course I got it all souped up with the fastest proc (at the time) and all that, so I can do anything from video editing to watching HD anime, all while having Safari, Adium, Entourage, iTunes, and Vuze running in the background. Truly great stuff.

I also installed WindowsXP on it with BootCamp (I know, I feel properly dirty for doing so) so I could play Windows games (something I've been sorely missing). And I've installed Portal, HL2, and Supreme Commander thus far, and the MBP handles them all like a pro. Way better than my native Windows box I had previously. The graphics card in this thing can handle whatever the current gaming scene can throw at it.

The only thing that is sort of a negative with the thing would be the heat issue. It hasn't really overheated, but one must realize that the entire bottom of the laptop is the heatsink. The way it's designed to work (I had to think hard about this, since I couldn't readily find any fan outlets) is that air blows down out of the joint between the keyboard and the screen in such a way that it is supposed to hit whatever hard, flat surface the laptop is sitting on and then blow across the bottom of the laptop, cooling it down. Where this hits a snag, then, is when the laptop is ... on my lap. The air isn't directed properly, and if I'm doing anything processor-intensive, the bottom of the laptop heats up pretty quickly. In such cases, my flesh of my leg becomes the new heatsink. :-P

But overall, it is a REALLY nice laptop. Sturdy. Dependable. Fast. All the things you'd come to expect from a Mac. And as I said, once you learn the multi-touch trackpad, you'll be hard-pressed to go back to a normal trackpad. (My Pastor brought in his laptop for me to look at a problem it was having, and I tried to click the trackpad and was confused for a second when nothing happened. It just becomes that natural.) A recommended purchase for anyone looking for a powerhouse in a manageable and portable package.

On an unrelated note, I'm catching up on Toradora!, since I can watch HD anime with no hassle again. I'll post more about that when I get fully caught up ... maybe. And more on Naruto as the plot unfolds. Ja ne!

There's a Disturbance in the Force ...

... as if millions of Naruto fans cried out in one voice: "WTF?!" And then were immediately engulfed in flame wars.

Seriously, Naruto manga 437 was HUGE. I won't spoil it here, but ... well, *I'm* still working through the roller coaster of emotions that was this chapter. And I'm not that emotional a person, at least when it comes to fictional characters.

So if you're a Naruto fan and AREN'T current with the manga, I'd highly recommend you get that way. Not sure whether you will admire Kishimoto-sensei for his brilliance or want to kill him after getting current (I'm not sure *I* know which to choose [but leaning toward the killing]), but you should definitely read it.