John Mark Reynolds on HP

Follow this link to read John Mark Reynolds's review of HP7. It is one of the better moderate views of HP I have read. I'm not sure I agree with everything he says, but he tries to strike the balance between love and adoration for the series.

Here is another review by a catholic writer that speaks in a similar vein. Basically...HP is great story, Christian at heart, not as obviously as Lewis, but more obviously than Tolkien.

Both argue that Rowling's HP is not great prose, but are ripping good yarns. I would basically agree. Her prose doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother others. I've always got Steinbeck and Melville for that. It's Rowling's attitude on love, death and courageous living that brings me back, again and again.

Thanks to John Granger for the links.

Is Rowling Simply a Nominal Church of Scotland Christian?

From an interview done in 2000

Interviewer: “Are you a Christian?”

Rowling: “Yes I am. Which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I said I thought there was no God. Every time I’ve been asked if I believe in God, I’ve said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60, will be able to guess what’s coming in the books.”

------------------------Beniy says...
Read the final book, and you'll know what she means ; )

HP Encouraging the True Rebellion?

Here's an interesting tidbit from an interview by Again Magazine of John Granger on Harry Potter:

AGAIN: Why do you think many Christian reviewers are so critical of the characters in the books breaking Hogwarts school rules and apparently getting away with it?

JG: Great question! I wrote this note recently to a reader with this exact concern:

"About the books honoring and encouraging rebellion: two quick notes. First, everyone and everything against which the terrible trio resist and struggle is an authority that is unjust and out of control. Rowling is a satirist of the first rank, I think, and she isn't pulling any punches in the books in her critique of government, the courts, the media, institutional schooling, organized sports, everything oddly enough except religion. I think you are right that she is encouraging children to see the evil evident in the world and its ‘authorities’. . . . If you want to read a popular children's book where this ‘resistance to authority’ is done dangerously, read Philip Pullman's Dark Materials books in which it is the church that is wicked. . . . We can be grateful that the rebellions [in Harry Potter] are against the world and not the church and that they are always sacrificial rebellions and from love.”

And another:
AGAIN: What kinds of behavior from Harry and the other characters provide good examples or role models?

JG: One of the reasons that I do not fear the growth of the occult consequent to fascination with Potter witchcraft is that the good characters struggle with their weaknesses and temptations to do the wrong thing. They usually do the right thing and feel bad if they fail in this, but the bad guys do the wrong thing without internal struggle. What defines the good guys is their being three-dimensional, fallen people who long for and reach, for the most part, a greater good. Harry and his friends are sometimes courageous, sometimes slothful and misbehaving, and still at every book climax Harry is resisting evil at the risk of his life. I think the exemplary behavior our children will learn from these books is from reading about the internal conflicts characters experience and how they long for what is good ultimately rather than what is easy, safe, or superficially and individually advantageous.

Ice House Canyon

E. and I took our daughter for first hike on a trail called Ice House Canyon, located below Mount San Antonio.



This shady trail winds past knarled old trees...


and mostly follows the path of a small mountain stream with just enough pools and small falls to make one remember that there is still beauty in this world.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Got it at 12:30 am on the 21st, and read all night with the help of just a little caffeine, then fell asleep around 7am. Continued reading and finished Sat. evening (well...I saved the epilogue till Sun. after church).

Like many, I would have loved to stretch it out, but the threat of spoilers was too much. So, don't ask me who dies. I won't tell you. Go check on the web. Or better, yet, Go read the books. It IS worth it. And, no...the movies Don't count. Not anymore, when the two hour films are so cut that they amount to really long and really cool trailer to the books. They certainly don't tell the story that J.K. Rowling has written in any way shape or form.

I will say that J.K. Rowling may not be an Inkling in historical fact, but she certainly has taken up the torch and placed it burning bright on the Brittish Hills. Go Joanne!!! May God bless her!!! I certainly send her my thanks for her work, and for the wonderful hero's journey she has imagined and completed.

PS...If you don't see the Christianity in the books, then maybe you are blinder than at least one bat.

Had Your Daily Dose Yet?

1. caffeine

An essential vitamin, without which one suffers from headaches, depression, sudden violent anger, sluggishness, muddled thinking, and crankiness.

I once went 10 months without vitamin C and only suffered a mild bout with scurvy and tooth loss...I went 24 hours without caffeine and that's why I'm doing life without parole.

From "urbandictionary.com"

Marimba Testing

Back in Nov '06, I got a small grant to build some marimbas for my classroom.

After moving to a 1bdrm apt in Fullerton, and the arrival of my little girl, the project got put off for a while.

Now I'm back at it. The pictures show two identical alto marimbas, as well as some mallets I've made. Everything is still in-progress of course. The mallets with dark handles are professionally made. The light handles are wrapped by yours truly. I'm prouder of those than I am of the marimbas themselves, as the process was a lot more mysterious before I finally found the right directions.

Today, I finally finished the bodies, and I set up a few bars just for fun and banged out my first notes. They sound crappy now, but when the bars get tuned they will deepen tone and resonance and have lower pitches as well.

Here's a sound sample:

A Sense of Wonder

"He looked at the dandelions and crickets and realized that he was gigantic. We are too fond of reckoning always by mountains. every object is infinitely vast as well as infinitely small.

He stretched himself like one crucified in an uncontainable greatness.

"Oh God, who hast made me and all things, hear four songs of praise. One for my feet that Thou hast made strong and light upon Thy daisies. One for my head, which Thou hast lifted and crowned above the four corners of Thy heaven. One for my heart, which Thou hast made a heaven of angels singing Thy glory. And one for that pearl-tinted cloudlet far away above the stone pines on the hill."

He felt like Adam newly created. He had suddenly inherited all things, even the suns and stars.

Have you ever been out for a walk?"

-G.K. Chesterton, from the short story "Homesick at Home", collected in ˆDaylight and Nightmareˆ

Elenora Catherine

Named for St. Helen.
Elenora also means light in Greek and Hebrew.

One Meme Tag and I'm Back

RULES:
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1) I just found out my friend Matthew has moved to in Argentina.
2) I am a light sleeper. Anything wakes me up. I now have a baby and therefore sleep in 1-2 hour segments.
3) I am reading a book reccomended by the Monkee called Getting Things Done, by David Adams, because lately...by that I mean the last 35 years of my life...I have been frustrated by having too many things to do and getting nothing done because I have too much "stuff" in my head.
4) I like my drinks strong and intense: four doubleshots of espresso over ice -- unsweetened, no milk, Laphroaig Scotch-- tastes like liquid campfire.
5) I've taken music lessons with many different instruments: piano, trumpet, baritone, french horn, tri-toms, snare drum, guitar, voice, viola, and most recently...the Irish Whistle with Frank. I own 3 guitars, 1 mandolin, 1 bouzouki, a Roland keyboard, at least 10 different flute/whistles, and a doumbek drum.
6) I can sing in Slavonic almost fluently, but I understand nary a word.
7) I am lyrically challenged. I can memorize melodies very easily, but I never remember the lyrics. This also hampers my joke telling.
8) I spend way too much time checking and rechecking Harry Potter sites for news, editorials, and trivia. Gotta get my fix while waiting for the last book. Sad. : )

Sorry there are no links. My mac doesn't support that feature on Blogger, which really stinks.

I'm going to try to tag some people, but I gotta figure out who's left.

The Badlands National Park

After ten hours driving from St. Paul and night sleeping in the Mini Cooper in Wall, South Dakota, E's decision to take a flying leap into the canyons of Badlands National Park becomes completly rational.

Bugstorm

Before the five minutes of rain hit as we crossed South Dakota, an hour long bugstorm crossed our path. It's squeegee time.

Sisu

"Sisu" is the Finnish ideal of...well, read the cup. I've heard it described another way. A bunch of guys go out in the woods and find a bee's nest. They hit the nest with a stick. The last guy to leave the vacinity has "Sisu." Another nearly accurate English translation is the word "stupid."

St. Paul, Finland?

Who would have guessed that a random search for a roadtrip snack in St. Paul, Minn-ee-so-ta, would end in some Finnish comfort food. This place just happened to be down the block from E's Aunt's house.

Then we found another reference to the introvert capital of the world...Sisu Coffee and Tea. And, wow!

Another really goood espresso. Who would have guessed. Thought, I'd be outa luck till I hit Kerner Way.

Sheboygan Brats

After short stops in Chicago and Milwaukee (where I had a Kick *ss double espresso ristretto btw), we made it to Sheboygan, the home of my midwest relatives...don'tcha know?! ; )
We "fried-out" (aka charcoal grilled) a kabillion brats (aka bratwurst) and then took the requisite family portrait. (after being yelled at by the resident squirrel.)

Touchdown Jesus

I'm a geek. Not a jock. So this was the first time I had heard of this football mecca's main attraction...the mural sub titled "Touchdown Jesus." It's painted on the wall of the University Library at Notre Dame, right across from the stadium. How could we pass up a visit when we happened to be down the street visiting friends in South Bend on our road trip out/back to California. Despite the mural's tacky brilliance, I was really much more impressed by the 1st HMCo edition Silmarillion owned by E's friend's husband.

The Boomerang Tour

So...we left Harrisburg on Sunday afternoon. 3:00pm sharp with a jammed packed mini cooper and about ten boxes in the mail. One night on Staten Island visiting a friend, and then then it was a short jaunt up to Conneticut to visit more friends. Wed. morning we visited E's boarding school and then it was back down to New Jersey and dinner with her parents.
It's now Thurs. and we're headed back to Harrisburg...ugh! We have to ship a few boxes we left behind, and maybe get rid of some of the extra stuff we packed in the car. Then it's on to Ohio.
I can't wait to get back to CA.

Sugar and Spice and...Ewwww!

I'm driving home down Imperial from Dietrich's the other day and I get stopped at a light. Like most people I assume, I take the quick tour of surrounding cars and drivers. Looking in the rear view mirror I see this girly girl. Early twenties with the fru fru purple dangling thing hanging from her own rear view mirror. I'm thinking sorority girl or something. I'm about to move on, but then I see somthing that does catch my interest. Her pinky.

It's suddenly interesting because it just made a beeline to her nose. Dig deep sugar and spice. And, now I'm laughing. Ok. I am not the only disgusting human being on the planet. But, wait! It gets better.

That twenty something girly girl pinky finger goes straight from her nose to her mouth. And this wasn't something new, let me tell you. This was common practice. No indecision. No hesitation. Straight from nose to mouth, without passing Go! and collecting her two hundred. Ok, girls. Maybe we should change the old lines from Sugar and Spice and Everything nice, to Salty Boogers! Ewww...Even I, the bachelor's bachelor (ask the munkee or Blue Canopy), was disgusted beyond the norm. Pickin' in private is one thing. Pickin' in public is another. But, EATING!?? No, na, na, na, na, nooooooooooo! Not in public or private beyond the age of I love Barney.

Ewwwww! I don't even know what to say. It's either the funniest or saddest thing I've seen in a long, long time.

Kite Flying II

It's Kite Flying Time

It's the first day of lent...clean week...and it's also kite flying season.

I think the combo is perfect, and I'm not alone.

The greeks traditionaly take their kids out to fly kites on clean monday.

It's one way to connect joy to ascetic effort.

We are looking at the positive, in order to make our repentence about real change in the right direction.

So I found a really easy kite design that takes 1 minute to make, and flies really easily.

I took a picture, but I can't find the wire that connects my camera to my computer.

----------------------------------------------------
Just a random personal factoid:

Just got back last night again from PA. Touching down at LAX completed my 18th take-off and landing since this Christmas. Crazy.