This Blog Is Now A Book

I used lulu.com to publish my blog into a 400 page book. Just got it in the mail the other day, looks pretty good.

I just copied and pasted my post into indesign so I could control the formatting. Exported as a PDF and uploaded it to lulu.

There’s some typos and formatting issues I’d change but That’s to be expected with anything I write.

About 90% of the pages are from this blog, about 5% from my We Are Change Blog, and another 5% from my rechurched blog.

I wanted to publish my content only because heading forward I may just use this blog for book review or such. My bloging has fallen off a cliff in the last 6 months. Mainly because it’s a blog and I’m a guy who sits in an office all day. What I say isn’t that important.

That’s why I put the tagline on the front cover of the book as “nobody likes your blog anyways”  …. never take yourself to seriously.

Best Books In 2009

#4 How To Brew by John Palmer

Started home brewing this year in February, and this book has been a life saver! I remember when I first got the book, the whole second half of the book made no sense to me, it was just over my head. Now I’m turning to the back pages to get specific answers. I decide to skip extract brewing and go right to all grain, which is by far more complicated. To me extract brewing is just making tea, The real art of brewing is in all grain.

The best part of all is you can read the whole book online for free. Though having the book is priceless.

#3 The God Virus by Darrell Ray

I really enjoyed this one. Darrel Ray has some great thoughts about what religion does to society. He’s not exactly anti-religion, he seems to give the impression that church is fine, and religion is fine IF you understand what’s going on. If your aware how religion can manipulate your thinking. A strong advocate for free thinking.

#2 The Naked Now by Richard Rohr

Just finished this. It’s one the few books in the last two years that has actually inspired me in a positive way. I have spent a lot of time laying in bed this month with different chucks of this book eating away at me. I connect with the way Richard Rohr thinks, I don’t think everyone will. I can easily see where most christians would criticize him for being to loose with his theology. I think thats a shame because this book really presents a great opportunity  to open the way you think.

#1 Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

1100 plus pages and seven months worth of reading. This one requires some discipline to finish, but in the end one of the best books I’ve ever read. John Galt’s ideas of work and life are contagious and inspiring. Is there a better way to live? I would suggest there is.

Rob Bell In Columbus

Rob Bell in Columbus, Ohio on December 10 for the Drops Like Stars Tour.

Just found out they are filming the Columbus tour for the DVD.

Already got my tickets.

Atlas Shrugged

I had no idea who Ayn Rand was, never heard of John Galt or Dagny Taggart.

For me “Atlas Shrugged” started as a casual recommendation from a co-worker, and slowly turned into a direct urging. Until I finally just  bought the book and decide to commit to reading all 1100 plus pages. Well worth the seven months it took to read it. It starts as a brilliantly written book, and finishes as an experience.

If you didn’t know any better you would think this book was written this year, not 1957. The plot of the story is right out of the headlines of most U.S. newspaper in the last year. Atlas deals with the decline of the economy and the effects of the railroad industry. You can easily insert any other industry in it’s place. I felt at several times you could easily substitute  in banks. after all while I was reading this book, our government was handing away trillions in taxpayer bailouts to the unproductive, socially irresponsible corporate executives.

It’s impossible for me to summarize a thousand page book in a blog post, so I just want to touch on Galt’s Speech towards the end of the book. The 70 page speech had an incredible impact of me. Full of philosophical ideas, and spiritual references, there were nights where I simply read a paragraph and put the book down, because ideas were unraveling in my brain.

I remember the first time I read the new testament, It was paradigm shifting. Galt’s speech had the same effect. I’ve read the Old Testament, the New Testament, and now Atlas, a  sort of Post Testament for me.

A lot of the ideas in Atlas are things I have felt my whole life but could never put a finger on why I felt that way. Church never addressed these issues for me, religion in general is scared to talk about the ideas of Atlas. For me, it’s not a take one or the other, the bible and Atlas both sit on my book shelf, As the two greatest books ever written.

I like this picture, it humors me.

Perhaps that’s the best summary of all. How do you summarize a thousand pages other then to say, on September 12, 2009 during the Tax protest in Washington D.C., people were moved so much with passion to make signs like these here here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and  here.

Reinventing Collapse -Welcome to the U.S.S.A.

I got turned on to Dmitry Orlov by a friend. I read an article he wrote here. I found it fantastically written, pure, honesty, and a little gritty. Orlov presents the state of current affairs and how that is shaping our future. He also give some good advice on how to prepare for that future.

Certainly it is a point of view not shared by everyone. But after reading his article I decided to read his book “Reinventing Collapse”

It’s a rather simple concept. He lived through the break up of the U.S.S.R. In the book he compares different parts of society and culture in the U.S.S.R. to America today and makes some amazing insights. In Many cases we believe America can not fall apart, but the same feeling was true in the U.S.S.R.

Orlov goes over ideas like transportation, education, money, food, housing, family … etc… how each of these things were effect in the U.S.S.R. and what they might look like if the U.S.A. collapses.

It’s one of those books were if you have never thought about the idea of living in a collapsed nation, this will open your eyes and get your brain moving.

The Cricket In Times Square

Read the last chapter of the “Cricket In Times Square” last night to the kids. They really enjoy reading before bed, most night they beg me to read.

last night we read one chapter, and I was closing the book  and mentioned we only had one chapter left. Both jack and Abby started pleading ” Please Dad we need to know  how it ends”

So I caved in, we finished the book. I just put the cartoon on hold from the library, they love that when we get it.

I think the next book we’re going to read is “The Indian In The Cupboard” I remember that one from third grade.

Reading The Tale of Despereaux With My Kids

We just finished reading “The Tale of Despereaux”.

Every night after the kids get ready for bed and have brushed their teeth, we pick someones bed to set on, and we all cozy up. normally I read three to four chapter a night.

I wasn’t sure if they would be into it, but they all seem to enjoy, especially Jack. You can tell he’s using his imagination while your reading. At the end of every night I summarize what happened that night, so the younger two can get a handle on the story.

The other night we only had two chapters left, after we finished for the night and they were begging me to finish it. So I decide to go ahead and finish the book.

The story was building up to a confrontation between the rats and Despereaux in the dungeon. the kids were a little extra close to me, so they could see the pictures. They were gasping, and clinching my arm, the anticipation was mounting.

At right at that moment where the story should climax, and your waiting for Despereaux to kill the rats, the princess pipes up and says “lets all go upstairs and eat soup” and then it just ends …

I could tell Jack was disappointed, so we talked about the book and what they liked and didn’t like. Jack tells me

“I thought there was going to be a war with the rats and Despereaux, and then they all eat soup together, it’s kind of girly!”

I promised him he gets to pick out the next book.

But at least now we can go watch the movie.

The End of Food

The End of Food by Thomas Pawlick

Not to be confused with “The End of Food By Paul Roberts”, which I haven’t read, but suspect is similar in nature.
If you haven’t read the End of Food by Thomas Palwick, good luck finding it. Amazon had used copies for $128. I couldn’t even find a couple at my local library, I had to have them transfer it in from another town, with a big sticker on the front, that states if I damage this book they will charge me $125!

Palwick begins with a story about a tomato that didn’t seem right. It had the texture  of a tennis ball, not a vegetable. Being a former farmer and current journalist, he decided to look into the modern farming industry to get a better grasp at how our food is grown.

The results, obviously, were not good. Are farming industry is growing at  a unsustainable rate. every year it takes more chemicals and more land, and more technology to grow our food.

The result is that the nutritional value is lower, big time.

One example about Tomatoes are that they are picked while they are still green. Before they have flavor or any nutrients. Then they are artificially ripened with “ethylene gas in” transit to their location. Tomatoes naturally make ethylene gas, that changes the color from green to red, but leaving them on the vines until they are ripe, doesn’t give super markets enough time to sell them before the go bad.

Because of globalization, we no longer buy tomatoes from local farmers, we buy them shipped in from over a thousand miles away, if not more.

This is causing the nutrient level of our food to suffer. You’d have to read the book to get all the facts. But vitamin C is disappearing from supermarket vegetables, along with Iron, and fiber, and vitamin A, etc…

Palwick goes over all of the modern farming techniques that are depleting the nutrients from the earth, the chemicals that damage the vitamins, and the gmo seeds that are changing our foods DNA.
A good read if you can find it.

I Got Elfed …

At work we have a running game … An elf leaves a gift on your desk and the only directions are to elf someone else who hasn’t got a gift yet.

The Little elf left me this bad boy …

I know nothing about gardening, but I’m open to the idea.

Luckily I have a feeling gardening is going to be a very popular hobby in a couple of years, so I’m going to get a head start.

Screwed, The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class

Last week I took a trip to half priced books looking for Mac System admin books. But i ended up checking out the clearance shelve and found some real gems.

I picked up this book by Thom Hartman, Screwed, The undeclared war against the middle class for $2.

A great read, I’d give it 4 out of 5, so it’s not quite a must read.

Some of his ideas are to liberal for me, and Hartman (writing this book during the Bush 43 administration) seems to think that just electing democrats will turn the country around.

But his ideas about creating a middle class and why it’s crucial to the health of a nation are brilliant. He gives historical example after examples of how the decisions by Nixon,Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 have intentionally killed our middle class and moved our industry overseas to prevent the majority from pulling themselves out of poverty in the United States.

To have a true middle class, a majority of the people in a nation must be educated and economically secure and must have full and easy access to real news so they can make informed decisions. page 9