It’s about time I went ahead and made a list of all the books I’ve been reading.

Why? Good question.

I have no believe that such a list is of interest to anyone per se. That is, I don’t think that anyone is particularily interested in what I am reading, merely because I’m reading it. “Oh! Look! He is reading that book! Let’s all trot over to the local bookseller and purchase it, like good blog readers!” Not so much... Why, then, make the list? Because it’s my blog and I can do that.

the list:

Darwin’s Black Box, by Michael Behe. A highly recommended book, which examines the failings of Darwin on a biochemical level.

Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin. Good book. Been working on it for a while -- certainly not a book to be quickly read through, since it deals with a significant amount of philosophy which largely refutes the scientific philosophies I learned in high school and college.

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Not overly thrilled with the book -- Steinbeck does an excellent job creating mood, history, and setting, but his characters seem stiff to me, as if moving in order to prove his point. But, on the positive side, the book clued me in on a great deal of American history which I was ignorant of.

the Logic of Real Arguments by Alec Fisher. Good book on how to break down and analyze arguments on their assertability without expertise in the argument’s field.

A Kierkegaard Anthology by Soren Kierkegaard. I know, I’ve been reading this for a good part of a year. I do it in chunks though, as my moods allow. Great reading.

Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. Haven’t really gotten into this book yet, but it’s the history of Philosophy told in story form to a girl named Sophie. Looks like an interesting method of exploring philosophy -- it was recommended to me by a college professor who, upon seeing me reading Kierkegaard, decided to start a discussion on existentialist philosophy.

Christ the Center by Deitrich Bonhoeffer. Without a doubt, the single most influencial book on my life. It was stolen a several months ago, and I just recently repurchased it. The second reading revealed how much it had influenced my thought.

Kyrigma and Myth by Rudoph Bultman and critics. A rather dense book comprised of a series of essays debating the de-mythologizing of the New Testament. Relevant in a way, but no less dense.

There are more, but those are the major ones...

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27 July 2004

... that Star Wars was fiction.

I, for one, welcome our new Sith masters.

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24 July 2004

Researchers have made some serious advancements in fuel cell technology. Some money quotes:

Compared to the macroscopic size of traditional fuel cells that can take up an entire room, thin film SOFCs are one micron thick â�� the equivalent of about one-hundredth of a human hair. Putting this into perspective, the size equivalent of four sugar cubes would produce 80 watts â�� more than enough to operate a laptop computer, eliminating clunky batteries and giving you hours more juice in your laptop. By the same token, approximately two cans’ worth of soda would produce more than five kilowatts, enough to power a typical household.

Stand-alone household fuel cell units could form the basis for a new ‘distributed power’ system. In this concept, energy not used by the household would be fed back into a main grid, resulting in a credit to the user’s account, while overages would similarly receive extra energy from that grid and be charged accordingly.

If I were the government, I’d jump on this and run it for all its worth -- specifically, I’d finance the heck out of it until fuel cells were available as stand-alone units. In light of the New York power crisis, and our terrorist issues, I’m most concerned with the power grid. The reality is, we are not capable of protecting the entire grid. We’re dependent on the good character of the citizens.

And as we know from New York, the grid is fragile. Damage it in on spot, and a wave of failure occurs -- and I cannot image that attacking either a major power line or plant would be difficult. Imagine losing the power to a large part of the country for days, if not weeks. Imagine if several power plants were hit. How long would it take us to return power to the country? When it comes to electrical power, we don’t have much in the way of reserves. Losing major lines or plants would have disasterous effects on the country.

The idea of having a grid not dependent on centralized power sources would solve many problems, especially if the distributed power system were built with more redudancies than we have today. I know, the technology is still being perfected and it’ll take years to impliment. But it is something we should be attempting to accomplish as quickly as possible.

And, hey -- lower electric prices are also a good motivator.

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21 July 2004

It’s astounding what one can accomplish in Photoshop, when one is bored and willing to take the time.

Eh, it’s not prefection incarnate but for a first effort, I’m quite pleased.

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20 July 2004

I’m developing a question which I find to be extremely significant in ways I can barely express: how God and man know each other and relate. It’s significant because we do relate -- and without knowing how, we might find ourselves in an entirely different relationship than we’d intended. So, this is something of a thought experiment for me, and will be added to and adjusted until I’ve either exhausted the topic or become bored with it.

How might an objective being (i.e., God) relate to a subjective being (i.e., man)?

Now, we know that - in order to be objective -- a being must know all things, at all points, at all moments; in other words, an objective being must be all knowing. But a subjective being only knows the things within a moment’s grasp -- a tiny, insignificant thing, in comparison with the objective. The subjective person is fully known to the objective, but the objective may lie outside the subjective’s ability to see. How do they then relate to each other?

To begin, they must know each other -- this is necessary for any type of two-fold relation (though it does cause a question: would they still relate if only one knew the other? Yes, I would say, but not in the manner I’m dealing with right now). Some subjective person may perceive the objective -- but some also may not see this. What must be true in order for the objective to be equally discovered by all?

Not only that the objective be utterly the same at all points at all moments, but that each subjective be the same at all moments and all points -- that is, the subjective must all be utterly objective. For if one could fully know the objective in a way which was the same as all others, there would be no subjectivity. People would be utterly objective.

But, because this is not true, we can conclude that humanity cannot each, independently, discover and utterly know God, in any structured sense. No two people can discover God of their own volition and know him the same (this begs a question: if God enters the subjective world, can humans know him in the same way, then?)

It may be possible for humans to know elements of the objective (of their own volition). Is this enough?

[more to come]

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14 July 2004

A good friend has given me a Gmail invite.

...

I am overwhelmed by joy, yes, but also by the pressure of deciding on an email address which will probably last me the rest of my life...

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Continuing on the long standing tradition of my (as Polish-American) posting links about England, here’s a doozy for you. A obscure Parlimentary committee wishes to stop knighting their best and brightest. According to the committee knighting is “an embarassment, rather than a cause for celebration.” For who, I must ask? You best believe that I would be celebrating hard if I were to be knighted.

But -- they want to replace the knighting system, and call those who would be knights “Companions of Honor”. Neat! Let’s replace a system with great history and tradition with one that means nothing! And has a crappy title, too!

I don’t know what people in England think. but knighthood means something significant to me -- achievement, greatness, honor, duty, and all that. Idealized? Sure -- but what great concepts aren’t? There’s significance in the knighthood that goes beyond the mere titles, and I must wonder (especially if they plan on replacing it something supposedly equal, but lacking traditional meaning) what this says about those committee members.

But I don’t know. I’m just some American.

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13 July 2004

I’ve just finished designing a site for a friend of mine, the Illustrious Sharon(e). It’s my favorite design yet, and Sharon(e) has an excellent blog, full of ramblings about her madcap adventures. So, go on in.

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I’m reposting this, because while I have little new to say right now, I sometimes find previous posts significant:

â��Follow me,â�� Christ demands. He demands nothing less, nothing more than to follow him. But how can I follow him if I do not know him? How do I recognize the face of the healer when I, myself, am blind? He can touch me, and heal my eyes... but if I fail to open them in time, will I see his face before me? And how will I recognize that face? â��Follow me,” He says, as if that is the answer to every problem in the world. For it somehow is. And the very fact that he demands it of me means that he is standing before me, calling out to me, drawing me to him. Meaning, that because he has called me, he will hold me, irregardless of whether I am able to recognize him myself. But it is a leap of faith difficult to take â�� so difficult, for it is a different type of faith, faith in a person, not an event.

For a miracle is easy to recognize and to know. When the rock splits and water comes out, you know something amazing has happened. When a man comes back from the dead, you know God has been there. It takes little faith to believe in these things. But to believe in a person � that is something deep, personal, and difficult. It is more difficult to recognize the character of a person than the character of an event. It is more difficult to know a person than an event (take a look at any historical study versus character study). To have faith in a person is a near impossible thing, for life has taught us that such faith is fearfully ignorant, and will end only in hurt. So it is a difficult thing to have faith in the man named Jesus.

And this is the faith that is so hard, because I�ve for so long had faith in myself � and even that faith has betrayed me. And now, I must throw myself on the mercy of a God? Or even worse, a man-god? To know that I will either rise or fall based on His character? �Follow me,� he says, as if my concerns were insignificant � as if his call should be, somehow, enough.

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But I changed my picture in “the facts” page. That will have to suffice.

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10 July 2004

I’m half-heartedly considering trying to make some money from webdesign. I’m not spectacular, by any stretch of the imagination, but I do a fairly bangup job of it.

One site I’m particularly proud of is this one. Of all the designs I’ve done, I’d say it is the most consistantly excellent. Unfortunately, it has never been used and probably will never be used -- the youth pastor who commissioned the work is now resigning, and I suspect the new one (whenever he shows) will have more important things to initially worry about than a nearly finished webpage. All it needed was a title page, one that I was not inclined to write. I’m irritated about it, but whaddya gonna do? Perhaps I’ll find a use for the design sometime in the future.

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Something of a posting drought has overwhelmed this blog. I’m aware of this, but -- as often happens -- my melancholy has sapped any desire to post anything of significance. Now, generally, I’m driven to dwell on things which may be significant to others. This time, I am not, which is why I haven’t been posting.

I am, however, working on my longest short story yet and it seems to have taken a different route than my others. So, that will be up whenever I have the enthusiasm to finish it. It might be good. So keep your eyes open. It might just appear one of these days...

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08 July 2004

I’ve always enjoyed Stavesacre, and have quoted them time and again on this site. This song is another of my favorites:

i only wanted such a little thing
only simplicity
and now that i am who i was taught to be
you have abandoned me
i held so tightly to every word you said
that�s the price of the respect you�ve always demanded
and all those things i�ve gathered through the years
have no value here

(chorus)
i need to find a place where i can breathe
somewhere high above this empty landscape
where the air is clear
and i need to find it while i still can

in a world like this
how can you wonder at my sadness?
now i hope for something beautiful
but i feel trapped under your waves of wreckage
and if i cannot claw my own way through
i fear one day i will be just like you

in this land of vacant stars
in the backseats of desperate cars
in single-mother topless bars
we ache for something more
your sons and your daughters
are unwilling martyrs
to the devils, priests, and other thieves
and their wars and rumors of war
i need a handgun and a hand grenade
to protect me from those who keep me safe
still i remember your straight face:
�Some day this will all be yours.�

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Completing the redesign will allow me to be content blogging again. Hope you like it. I decided to go minimal -- a great deal of white space and little color. “Why?” one might ask. And I’d like to respond in this way, “Becaused I wanted to do this.”

Hope you like it.

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07 July 2004

More pictures and posts when I finish redesigning the site. Said event will occur over the next couple days. In the meantime, have a cookie:

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05 July 2004

Another nice shot of the Badlands

A little place known as Mt. Rushmore.

A beautiful shot of a lake just a bit away from Mt. Rushmore.

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