The End of an Era?

Hey, Xanga friends!

I've finally decided to take the plunge. I started a new blog on Blogspot at tonguefriedgoat.blogspot.com. I'm not planning on posting here anymore, so if you want to keep up with my posts, you'll need to change your subscription from my Xanga feed to that feed. I give some explanation both of the name and of the reason for my switch here. I still plan on reading and commenting on your blogs (thanks, Google Reader! [and if you have RSS feeds turned off, you should turn them back on]), but I'm abandoning the Xanga writing ship.

Currently A Study in Scarlet By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle see related

A Few Tips for Those Going on Vacation

Here are a few bits of advice for you, which I gleaned from our recent trip to Tennessee:

1. If you spend a lot of time deciding the contents of a certain bag, you should expend the corresponding effort to make sure this bag gets into the car.

2. When a car rental place offers you a service that seems too good to be free, it probably isn't free.

3. When buying bacon, go big or go home.

4. When considering which trail to hike through the mountains, remember that the "easy," "moderate," and "strenuous" descriptors of those who made the trail maps are probably a few notches above what your idea of those terms is.

5. A good audiobook makes time in the car go much faster. Therefore, it is worth the effort to choose the right book.

6. It is also a good idea to bring multiple audiobooks, just in case one sucks, because inevitably good intentions at the library only sometimes translate into pleasant listening in the car.

7. Do not depend on TV to supply entertainment on your vacation, even if you are upgrading to cable or satellite. If TV isn't worth watching at home, chances are it won't be worth it on vacation.

8. It is a good idea to plan three or four extra hours in your travel time if journeying through Ohio (an extra day, perhaps, if going through Cincinnati specifically).

9. Bring lots of film/SD cards--the scenery that looks fake in the brochures is real, and it's even more beautiful in person.

10. If a street performer in Dollywood is selling a reasonably priced CD and you like the music, don't plan to find it cheaper when you get home. Shipping charges and musician obscurity are the enemies of the cheapskate.

11. When selecting snacks for your trip, old standards are your friends.

12. Off-peak means shorter lines and cheaper prices. The weather is a gamble, but it's a gamble that could pay off in spades.

Currently The Clicking of Cuthbert - From the Manor Wodehouse Collection, a selection from the early works of P. G. Wodehouse By P. G. Wodehouse see related

The Prayer of St. Francis

This prayer strikes me as pertinent to my life, so I'm posting it on my blog:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Currently Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix By Phoenix see related

The Undertaking

I realize it probably would have been best to reveal the best books I've read so far in 2010 at the halfway mark, but no matter. If I had told you what the best book I'd read so far this year was at the beginning of July, I wouldn't have been able to mention The Undertaking by Thomas Lynch. I finished this book of essays on "the dismal trade" (funeral directing/undertaking) yesterday, and I have to say that it is far and away, without question the best book I've read so far this year. (Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris--also nonfiction--is the nearest competitor. So far this hasn't been a great year for fiction reading for me. I've liked most of the books I've read, but I haven't been wowed.)

Anyway, I decided to read The Undertaking after Thomas Lynch appeared at the Festival of Faith and Writing in Grand Rapids this past April. I didn't get to attend his seminar, which was a huge bummer, but someone who had gone said it was great. And after looking up more information about him, I found out that he is the funeral director for a small town twenty minutes from where I grew up and that I passed through frequently. (A family from my church lived there, and my mom used to work there.) I'm so disappointed I didn't get to attend his seminars in April.

The book talks a lot about death (as one would expect), but it is surprisingly life-affirming. Really, this post was just an excuse to recommend (before my end-of-year wrap up) The Undertaking. Do yourself a favor and read it.

Currently After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters By N. T. Wright see related

The Apologist's Evening Prayer

By C.S. Lewis (from Poems, p. 129)

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle's eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.