Christmas Day Gate Crashers

December 25th has been set aside to honour the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. However sadly many want the presents, the food and the drink but they dont want the 'Christ.' They are nothing more than 'Christmas Day Gate Crashers.' They dont know the celebrated host or ever want to. However this indifference isn't just confined to Christmas Day. No, for the rest of the year they enjoy his sunshine, his water and his air that they breathe. The first chapter of Romans sums them up very well; "They know God, they glorify him not as God, neither are they thankful..professing themselves to be wise, they have become fools."

Nov 28th Journal Entry

Arrived in Plymouth to find the Christmas shoppers out in force. Trying to find a car parking space was a nightmare. Mat, Esther and I had a problem working out were to set up. At the Place de Brest stood Santa's grotto, by the sun-dial a fairground, and at our other spot by Tesco's metro, a Salvation army brass band in full swing! We decided to go up to the top of the street by the shopping centre were hundreds of shoppers stream in and out of. We were greatly encouraged when others soon joined us and many conversation where had and many tracts handed out. Richard stood on the bench to preach to the passers by. As I preached two police officers walked passed me, gave me a casual glance and continued on. Not one complaint in Plymouth today which was a refreshing change. By mid-afternoon the rain came down and halted play not just for us but also for Argyles game against Barnsley! In Christ alone we leave the judging of the results.

Happy Holidays

Hello blog friends!

Matt and I have been busy moving and also having some great adventures.

In reverse order, because that's how I uploaded the pictures and now I am lazy:

On Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, after being scared out of Yosemite early by snow that the Echo was not good at driving through, we stopped at the Cosumnes River Preserve near Sacramento.



People like to bird here:



These trees were nice enough to shade me from ridiculously high winds that literally blew me around:



We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at the Yosemite Lodge food court, where I partook of tofurkey and vegan dressing, along with mashed potatoes, yams, and pie. We also went ice skating that night. On Friday morning we took a phenomenal 10 mile, 3200 foot hike up to Glacier Point. You can see more pictures of this hike on Facebook:



But before we got to Yosemite, we woke up early Thanksgiving morning and ran a 5 mile turkey trot!





Karen and Bernie had been in town for the holiday to see Bernie's family, so we got to enjoy Tyler for a short time:



The weekend before Thanksgiving, we drove down to Ventura for a friend's wedding. On the way home, we enjoyed a sunset along the Pacific Coast Highway.







Also along the PCH, we found seals super close up at Morro Bay:



And also checked out the rock:



And a bit of OHV-free beach near Pismo:



Along with beautiful Monarch butterflies!



Here's me with the groom:



And my husband:



In front of the beautiful view from our hotel room (this is not how I pictured Oxnard):



And two weekends before that we were back in Arizona (sadly for a funeral), but also got to see the nephew:



And of course before that (and still), we were moving into our new apartment with this beautiful backyard garden:



And that was the last month of my life in reverse!

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood

I rarely post about my re-reads on here, but since I was inspired to go back to Oryx and Crake after reading (and loving) The Year of the Flood recently, I thought that I would jot down some of my random thoughts.

I first read this when it came out in 2003, and it is now apparent to me that the story didn't stick with me. Re-reading it now was like reading a book for the first time. Why didn't it stick with me? I honestly don't know. I did enjoy it this time around, but I guess I'll have to wait and see if the story sticks this time!

It was probably made more vivid by the fact that the Year of the Flood is still fairly fresh in my mind. They are being marketed as "companion books", rather than one as a sequel of the other. There is some overlap in characters, and the plot lines converge at the end. The Year of the Food read very easily as a stand-alone book, as I didn't remember the events of Oryx and Crake, however many of the plot points now make more sense, having refreshed my memory now. Apparently there is a third book planned, and they will be marketed as the Maddadam Trilogy - hopefully there will be some resolution at that time, since the first two books left me hanging at the same plot point, and I want to know what happens next! Mind you, that is one of the trademarks of Margaret Atwood's writing - leaving the ending ambiguous for the reader to decide.

I love that she has created a world so complete unto itself. It is in the not-too-distant future (my guess would be 50 to 100 years from now, based on a few references in Oryx and Crake), and it seems like everything going wrong in the world continues to escalate until the disaster point is reached - global warming, consumerism, increasing gap between rich and poor, callousness and indifference towards others. (Blogger bias here - my political views tend to be pretty far to the left, but Margaret Atwood's world view seems to be pretty similar to mine.)

One thing that I had noticed missing in The Year of the Flood was any sort of artistic community, which I found a bit strange since Margaret Atwood herself is a poet and a novelist. (And I don't count the hymns of the God's Gardeners as art - as a church musician, I can honestly say that the best hymns are no better than third-rate poetry, though the odd hymn tune has some marks of musical merit.) This however is somewhat explained in Oryx and Crake, where the arts are devalued by society as having no commercial value therefore they are worthless. You do sometimes see that attitude in our world today, but so far the artistic community has fought back. I find the thought of a world with no music, no artwork, no literature, to be as scary as the other bleak prospects proposed in these books.

I am looking forward to the final book in this trilogy, and I hope that she doesn't make us wait another 6 years for it to appear!

The Scarpetta Factor - Patricia Cornwell

When I heard that there was a new Patricia Cornwell book out this fall, I was surprised - it seems like just a few months ago that I read her last one! And looking back, it wasn't too long ago - March of this year when I read it. Fortunately, this book didn't suffer from being rushed to print.

It is everything that a good mystery should be, in my opinion. A plot that keeps you thinking and guessing all the way through, characters that are realistic in their thoughts and actions, and a satisfying resolution at the end.

I really enjoyed the storytelling technique in this book. The action takes place over only 2 days, and the narration, while always in the third person, jumps around from character to character. Which means that in one chapter you are present with Lucy in the middle of the interrogation of a suspect and observe her to be pulling some maps up on her computer, not quite sure how they relate to the plot; and then in the next chapter you have Kay receiving the maps on e-mail and yes, they are very relevant.

This was a 1-week loan from the library (as are all books with a waiting list), and I finished it well before it was due back. This is a good thing, since it is a book that definitely benefits from reading over a short period of time in order to keep track of all of the plot lines. At times, I would get confused (ie "Hunh?! What is he talking about?"), only to have the missing details supplied later on as the story is gradually revealed.

One proviso - the plot does hinge on events that happened in previous books, so if you haven't been following the series, this book may not be the best entry point.

So a good read, and an entertaining way to spend the weekend. I'm looking forward to her next book - hopefully I don't have to wait too long!

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

Despite the fact that I normally love reading what is usually classed as "Young Adult Fiction," I had been resisting the whole "Twilight Phenomenon", but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was dared by my cousin to read Twilight (and there is a $25 dollar bookstore gift card riding on this). And so I broke down and borrowed a copy from the library. At least now I can say that my opinions are founded on an actual reading of the book.

The paperback copy that I borrowed was 498 pages long, and it was an easy read - I polished it off yesterday on a rainy November afternoon. Which in of itself was a nice change from the 200-ish page The Golden Mean which I had to struggle to finish within 2 weeks. But the ease of reading was pretty much the only think that I liked about this book.

Where to begin...?

Let me start with Bella. When a book is told by a first person narrator, it helps if you like and can relate to the narrator. But I couldn't stand Bella. She is annoying, 2-dimensional, and almost a caricature of herself. She couldn't just be clumsy, she had to be braining her fellow students with a badminton racket and tripping over her feet with every step that she takes. She couldn't just be smart at school, but she had to be the smartest kid in the school and spend hours every night working on her homework. Yes, I do remember what it was like to be 17, and I really can't relate to her problems. "Gee, I've got Mike and Erik and Tyler all begging me for a date, but I keep turning them down because Edward is the one that I really want." This was definitely not my experience of 17.

Moving on to the writing. Yes, it was compelling and hard to put down, but not very well written for all that. As I mentioned earlier, Bella as well as all of the other characters come across as very flat and 2-dimensional. Once you read the initial description of the character, there is really nothing else to learn. The one possible exception is Edward, the vampire boyfriend, but I think that the only difference there is that his character was revealed over a longer period of time. These people would be boring to hang out with since once you know them, there is nothing more to learn. And unfortunately, the authors vocabulary seems to be somewhat limited, and the same words and phrases kept getting re-used. If I had to read one more time about an "immeasurable moment" I was going to scream and throw the book across the room!

Then there is the whole vampire thing. I am not fascinated by vampires and the like, so don't particularly enjoy reading about them.

And finally, and what irks me the most, are the messages that I came away from this book with.

1) The whole point of your life is to meet your "soul mate" at the age of 17 in order to eventually live happily ever after. Forget anything about independence and personal growth and self-knowledge.

2) Once you find your "soul mate," you should give up everything that you have in order to be with him/her.

3) It is OK to lie so that your path is made smooth. I couldn't believe that number of times that Bella lied to others, and never with any consequence.

4) A girl, once she has found her Prince Charming, can just sit back, play the damsel in distress, and he will appear to save her.

The Twilight Saga books have won various awards for Children's Books and Young Adult Fiction, but I don't think that I would want children or young adults that I care about read them if these are the messages that they would come away with. I think about all of the role models in the children and YA fiction that would be so much better than Bella: Poly in the Madeline L'Engle books (especially in A House Like a Lotus); the children who end up in Narnia in the books by C.S. Lewis; and even the children in the Harry Potter books who maintain their integrity for the most part (at least up until the last book).

So that's my 2 cents on Twilight. Kim - you owe me $25! And I don't plan on reading the rest of the series. I've been re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series alternating with the new reads that I've been posting about on this site. It is going to take a good dose of Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe to wash the ick of Bella and Edward out of my system.

Nov 14th Journal Entry

Mission to Exeter. The previous night saw terrible gales and the pressure was on to cancel, however the Lord reminded me we are to obey him and not the Met Office!The wind was gusting in the city centre, so much so, I had to stop when it near blew me off the bench I was standing on. Mat's train was delayed by an hour, but he had a fruitful conversation with a lost soul who was searching, and for that reason turned a negative into a positive. Mat and I preached a strong message of the required repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to escape the coming judgement. A female heckler shouted out "Who gives a **** about God." Which pretty much summed up the attitude of the passers by. However some good conversations were had and about 100 tracts handed out. The Lord also sent a unknown brother to encourage us. Also a unsaved couple known to my husband bumped into me 'once again' as I was preaching. They just happened to be in Exeter shopping. This will now be the third such meeting! He patted me on the back to encourage me which shows the Lord is doing a work in his heart. Yet another 'God ordained encounter.' A good time in all. In Christ alone we leave the judging of the results.

2009 Giller Prize - part 2

On Tuesday evening, the winner of the 2009 Giller Prize was announced - The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre. I am happy with this choice - it wouldn't have been my top pick, but it comes in at a close second on my list.

I set out to read my way through the short list when it was announced last month, and if it hadn't been for the tediousness of The Golden Mean, I would have finished the list before the announcement was made. If I was appointed as a committee of one, to select a winner from the short list, this is how I would have ranked the books:

1) The Disappeared

2) The Bishop's Man

3) Fall

4) The Golden Mean

5) The Winter Vault

I was pleased that neither The Golden Mean nor The Winter Vault won, despite the fact that they seemed to have the most momentum leading up to the announcement earlier this week. I found both books to be quite disappointing.

Referring back to my earlier post about this year's Giller, I was disappointed about the non-inclusion of Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro and The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood on the shortlist. Alice Munro had asked that her book not be considered in order to give up-and-coming writers a better chance, and Margaret Atwood's book was on the long list but cut from the short list. But if those two books were included on the short list, this is how I would have ranked them:

1) The Year of the Flood

2) The Disappeared

3) The Bishop's Man

4) Too Much Happiness

5) Fall

6) The Golden Mean

7) The Winter Vault

I personally disagree with Alice Munro's decision - after all, the Giller is supposed to be for literary excellence, not a "first book" or "young writers'" award. And I can't help but wonder if Margaret Atwood was left off the short list as punishment for some slightly catty comments that she made about Alice Munro's decision.

Anyways, as I said, I can live with the decision to award the Giller Prize to The Bishop's Man - it was a very good book that captivated me right from the first chapter, and left me worried as I neared the end that I would be stranded without a book to read (I was traveling at the time), and yet I couldn't put it down to spin the reading time out any longer. And very timely in it's subject matter. Now the excitement of waiting to see what the next year holds in books to read!

The Golden Mean - Annabel Lyon

Unfortunately, the best thing that I can say about this book is that it is printed in a beautiful typeface. I often found myself getting distracted from what I was reading to admire an elegant question mark or a bold semi-colon.

I found this book very difficult to get through - the fact that it has taken me almost two weeks to finish a book that is only 282 pages should be a good clue. I have been flogging myself to finish it this week, and I missed my self-appointed deadline of finishing the Giller short list before the winner was announced on Tuesday.

I found the characters to be poorly drawn and inconsistent. I also had trouble keeping track of who was who (despite the list of characters at the beginning). And the plot was so disjointed that I had trouble keeping track of what was happening.

All of this is too bad, because it probably could have been a good book. It is a fictionalized account of the relationship between Aristotle and Alexander the Great. I admit that I don't know much about Greek history and mythology, but in the hands of a good story-teller, it probably could have come to life. But instead it was dry and wooden and contrived.

For anyone who is interested, this is what is printed in the back of the book about the type:

"The Golden Mean is set in Centaur, a typeface designed originally for New York's Metropolitan Museum in 1914, then adapted for general use in 1929. While a so-called modern face, Centaur is modelled on letters cut by the fifteenth-century printer Nicolas Jenson. Its italic, orignailly named Arrighi, was designed in 1925 and is based on the work of Ludovico degli Arrighi, a Renaissance scribe. Centaur is considered among the most elegant faces for book-length work."

So pick up a copy of the book in a bookstore, open it up to admire the type, then put it back down again without wasting the time to read it!

My thoughts on this year's Giller in another post.

This book was read for The Canadian Book Challenge at The Book Mine Set.

This is what happens when you kick God out of things!

DEBAPTISE YOURSELF

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The certficate declares:
I ________ having been subjected to the Rite of Christian Baptism in infancy (before reaching an age of consent), hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the Church that carried it out. In the name of human reason, I reject all its Creeds and all other such superstition in particular, the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed by Baptism of alleged ORIGINAL SIN, and the evil power of supposed demons. I wish to be excluded henceforth from enhanced claims of church membership numbers based on past baptismal statistics used, for example, for the purpose of securing legislative privilege.”

I found this on the UK Secularist web-site. 100,000 downloads of the certificate is impressive. The arguement of lack of consent is I believe one of the strongest arguements against infant Baptism.

Christians protest at portrayal of Jesus as transsexual woman

Protesters wave placards opposing Jesus, Queen of Heaven at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.

More than 300 Christian protesters demonstrated in the centre of Glasgow last night against a publicly funded play that portrays Jesus as a transsexual woman.

The demonstrators, who waved placards and sang hymns and gospel songs, blocked Chisholm Street for about two hours from 6.30pm as they held a candlelit vigil outside the Tron Theatre where Jesus, Queen of Heaven will run until Saturday.

A ecumenical congregation including Catholics and evangelical Christians voiced their disapproval of the show, which presents Christ as a man who wants to become a woman.

One placard said: “Jesus, King of Kings, Not Queen of Heaven”.

Another stated: “God: My Son Is Not A Pervert”.

The production is part of the Glasgay! arts festival, Scotland’s annual celebration of homo­sexual culture, which receives funding from Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Arts Council.


After reading this article a thought came to mind. I wonder how many of these protesting Christians have read 'The Shack'(Which portrays God as a women). If they have then what right to do they have too critisize this production?

Fall - Colin McAdam

This was book 4/5 of my Giller read-athon, and not my favourite so far. Actually, I came away from it with mixed feelings (more below).

A quick plot summary. It is essentially a love-triangle set at a posh boarding school in Ottawa, in what I am assuming is pretty close to the present day. Noel (son of the Canadian ambassador to Australia) and Julius (son of the American ambassador to Canada) are roommates in their final year of school. Noel and Julius have a very complicated friendship, and not the least of the complications is Julius' girlfriend, Fall, whom Noel is also in love with. Things come to a head when Fall disappears part way through the year. I couldn't really relate with the characters or the setting, as I have never been a rich kid at boarding school; but I found the glimpse into diplomatic life interesting. I once had dinner with a British diplomat in Tanzania, and oh boy, is it a different way of life.

What I liked about the book. The character development for one thing. The chapters are told alternating between Noel and Julius, and there is a real distinction in style between the two of them. Noel is described as a sociopath, and really, he is almost a psychopath. He initially comes across as very articulate and sympathetic; however as time goes by, he becomes more and more creepy. The casual mention of cutting off the cat's tail because he didn't like his birthday present really upset me. He takes very strong dislikes to some classmates for the most random of reasons. I can just see him becoming a serial killer in the future. While Julius is a typical teenage boy, with his entire life focus centered between his legs (or at least, not having been a teenage boy, that is what I assume). And by alternating chapters between the two boys, you get to see each one as he sees himself, but also as others see him. I would have loved to have had some chapters told from the point of view of Fall as well. The book took a bit of time to get into, but once I got into it, it was an easy read.

It took me until the end of the book to realise that the boys were telling the story along a different time line. Noel is narrating events from 12 years in the future, and he tells the story beginning a year earlier, and ending some months after Fall's disappearance. Julius is telling things in the present tense, as they happen, from the beginning of term until the morning of Fall's disappearance.

What I didn't like about the book. There are a few random chapters thrown in as told by William, Julius' father's chauffeur (again, from the vantage point of 12 years in the future). These seem to have no bearing on the story. Also, the author seems very fond of the verb "to say". He said, I said, I say, she says... Some better editing needed, perhaps? Once I noticed this (in the first chapter), it seemed to be written in neon lights every time the verb appeared. As well, the ending seemed to be very abrupt and left too many loose ends for my liking.

So my conclusion - a very mixed review. I would almost like to see the same book written by the same author, but with 10 more years of writing experience under his belt.

One more Giller nominee left to go, and just over a week until the award is announced.

This book was read for The Canadian Book Challenge at The Book Mine Set.

Oct 31st 2009 Journal Entry

I've decided to keep a journal of our outreaches. Here is the first entry. 31st Oct 2009 Outreach to Truro. Mat and Phil did the dead body sketch by the cathedral and I preached on the dangers of Halloween and the responsability of fathers before God to protect their wives and children from spiritual harm. Although opposition was nil (we made petition to the father for favour with shop keepers and police alike) apathy was evident with very little response. Ezekiel 2:7 came to mind: "And you shall speak my words to them, whether they will listen or not, for they are most rebellious." Moved over to the plazza and repeated the dead body sketch. A few curious and listening however apathy reigned there also. A party bus drove past, no doubt collecting revellers for a nights Halloween party. Jesus' words came to mind "As in the days of Noah, they were eating and drinking...and then the end came" Matthew 24:37-39. Mat received a concerned heckler whilst preaching on the inevitabilty of death and Phil Taylor said he really enjoyed the day. Three Bibles taken and four-hundred and fifty tracts given out. Mixed feelings about the day but received a very encouraging word from the Lord on my return. In Christ alone we leave the judging of the results.