RootsRain

Well, I spent a few meagre evening hours this week on the attic project. I didn’t get to work much today due to taking my final exam in Macroeconomics and also making up some hours at work. But I managed to get the stair stringers cut and notched for the individual steps using a handy dandy router that Chris loaned me. You can see the alternating notches in the picture. The picture with the step is just for show. I put in a scrap piece of wood to show how the step fits into the notch.

I also ran some electrical this week. I dropped two Romex 12/2 cables into the breaker box and ran them across the house to the new attic room. I threaded about half the Romex into outlet and switch boxes, but the rest will have to wait for a little more framing work to be finished.

I connected the HVAC line at the main duct in the crawlspace and ran the flex tube up through the floor and into the HVAC wall I built in the study closet. Like the electrical wire, I’ll need to wait until the framing is complete before I run it the rest of the way. But I need to get the stairs finished before I can finish the framing. So… it’s like… the circle of life, dude…

Here are some additional clarifying pictures:

Citigroup is offering to put their financial curriculum into public schools for free—even teach the classes for free if need be. Isn’t this like Trojan or Mifepristone makers offering to teach sex ed. classes? Can people not see the conflict of interest here?

Here’s a better option.

Update: I listed the Cinema Display on Amazon when I listed it here on RootsRain. It sold on Amazon yesterday, so boo-hoo to all those who I know were just trying to mortgage their kids to scrape the money together for the display.

No, I’m not giving up my international chain of lucrative theaters, but I am selling my 20″ Apple Cinema Display. It’s in perfect condition and has been only lightly used. It includes all the cables, cleaning cloth, and the original box. Oh, and the display, too. If anyone wants to buy it, let me know (it’ll save us both commission charges on eBay or Amazon). The rough price is about $625 and, hopefully, buyers would be local so there wouldn’t be any shipping charges.

Look out. The new Hot Moms Handbook is now available at Christian book stores. Now Christian mothers have some new standards by which to judge themselves: do I look like Jessica Denay? Are my accessories fashionable enough? Are the other moms in the school car line thinner than me? Am I confident enough about how my jeans fit? Do other women think I’m perfect? Am I a successful enough mother that I can do whatever I want?

Wow. As if women didn’t already worry enough about whether they measure up in a sex-crazed world, now they have a whole handbook to make them feel alternately proud or inferior.

And I haven’t really touched on the main problem: this is an ostensibly Christian book. Christian in name only, I guess. I doubt Paul’s admonitions in Titus 2 or Peter’s in I Peter 3 are talked about much in this book. This is exactly the kind of foolishness I bemoaned in the post about the Christian Booksellers Association convention. Here’s a quote from the Hot moms homepage:

The Hot Mom’s Handbook is the official guide to the “Hot Mom” movement and the ultimate resource for any mom who refuses to check her sense of style and sexuality at the white picket fence!

I don’t know… this is sounding more like the woman in Proverbs 7:11. Aren’t women told to dress modestly? Where does Mrs. Denay (or her marketing team) find that it’s ever a virtue for a Christian woman to try to be sexy in public? I’m at a loss here…

Don’t get me wrong… I’ve got a very lovely wife. But I don’t want her to think that she doesn’t measure up or is somehow worth less if she can’t go to the mall and have men ogling her. I wouldn’t want that to be the case anyway. A meek and quiet spirit is worth far more than beauty.

I’m certainly glad there are some great people out there writing stuff for women… like the Mahaneys.

If you’ve seen the original Honda “Choir” commercial, this one will make you cry with laughter.

(If clicking the link doesn’t work, copy and paste this link into your browser window: http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad_details.php?id=2217 )

I’ve been working for a little while on compiling a short list of books that have most changed my life during the short course of it. These are books that are not simply ones I’ve enjoyed or found full of interesting facts, but books that have, literally, changed my life. They’ve profoundly affected how I think.

I’ve tried to limit my reasons for recommending each to one sentence. We’ll see how I do. There are a couple of audio lectures toward the bottom, but, hey, they’re kinda like audio books, right? Also, any books marked (**) are Emily’s recommendations.

Personal Growth

• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey
  
  This book really needs no explanation.
• Changed Into His Image – Jim Berg
  
  Probably the most simple, systematic book on spiritual growth ever written.
• Quieting a Noisy Soul – Jim Berg
  
  These lessons are mind-altering for anyone. That’s a good thing.
• The Pursuit of God – A.W. Tozer
  
  Powerful book about coming to grips with what it takes to know and pursue God.
• Ordering Your Private World – George MacDonald
  
  Something like a Christian 7 Habits, this book first taught me about the importance of purposeful rest in the Christian life.
• Simplify Your Life – Marcia Ramsland **
  
  Systematically shows how to order each area of your life for maximum efficiency—which may sound boring, but it continues to make a big difference in Emily’s life.

Finances

• Financial Peace University (DVD seminar) – Dave Ramsey
  
  Life-altering seminar we went through in Sunday school. Read more about it here.
• Total Money Makeover – Dave Ramsey
  
  This is the quicker and cheaper way of getting the main thrust of Financial Peace University.
• The Millionaire Next Door – Thomas J. Stanley & William D. Danko
  
  Destroys the myth of the playboy millionaire driving Lamborghinis and replaces it with the truth: the average millionaire is 1st generation rich, driving used cars, living frugally, and working a regular job. All those people out there driving Mercedes & BMWs are actually broke. Seriously.

Marriage

• (for him) The Complete Husband – Lou Priolo
  
  The best book I’ve found on being a good husband, concentrating on 1) understanding your wife, and 2) overcoming evil with good.
• (for him, mostly) Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God – C.J. Mahaney
  
  If C.J. lives up to half of what he talks about in here, Carolyn is the luckiest woman alive.
• (for her) Created to be His Help Meet – Debbie Pearl **
  
  Far and away the most helpful book for married women that Emily’s ever read.
• (for her) For Women Only – Shaunti Feldhahn **
  
  Runner-up book for women trying to understand men.

Theology

• Heaven – Randy Alcorn
  
  Debunks “Christoplatonism” and shows how “Heaven” will be the New Earth: exactly what every earthly human being has always wanted.
• The Mark of the Christian – Francis Schaeffer
  
  May well be the most potent and convicting few pages ever penned outside of the Bible.

The Arts

• Art and the Bible – Francis Schaeffer
  
  One of the best and most thoughtful statements about Christianity and art.
• An Experiment in Criticism – C.S. Lewis
  
  I’ve read and re-read this book because the writing is so enjoyable and the message is so ingenious.

Novels

• Til We Have Faces – C.S. Lewis
  
  Lewis describes the coming of the God at the end of the book and it’s always stuck with me…
• The Great Divorce – C.S. Lewis
  
  One of the most convicting and self-revealing books I’ve ever read. Superb.
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy – J.R.R. Tolkien
  
  One of the highest examples of subcreation in all of literature.
• The Silmarillion – J.R.R. Tolkien
  
  It’s like reading Genesis from an alternate universe… some might think it’s tedious but I’ve loved it every time I’ve read it.

Fitness

• Body-for-Life – Bill Phillips
  
  So some might laugh that this has changed my life, but it has—I have way more energy than I ever did; and I know how to quickly get thin if I ever put my mind to following this book!

History

• Into the Rising Sun – Patrick K. O’Donnell
  
  Humbling recounting of the sacrifices of ordinary men in the jungles of the Pacific in WWII. I now pass all old men and wonder Was he there? Maybe he fought… maybe he saw his friends die… what a debt I owe to men like him…
• Black Dog of Fate – Peter Balakian
  
  A very fitting recommendation given that today (April 24) is the 91st anniversary of the decree for the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923 (in which 80% of Turkey’s Armenians were massacred). Black Dog of Fate is a memoir of one Armenian man’s discovery of the history that’s been denied and hidden by the Turkish government to this day.
• History of Hitler’s Empire (audio CD) – Thomas Childers
  
  Sobering account of the events leading to the rise of the Third Reich. It’s fitting that this recommendation should follow Black Dog of Fate since Hitler used the world’s passivity towards the Armenian genocide as justification that he could get away with the genocide of the Jews.

Science

• Einstein’s Relativity & the Quantum Revolution (audio CD) – Richard Wolfson
  
  Another audio lecture which has deeply aided my understanding of modern physics.

Earlier in the week, I worked on putting bracing across the north side of the area where I would be cutting the hole in the ceiling. I basically just laid a 2×10 across the back side of the studs and nailed the studs and the 2×10 together and nailed the 2×10 to the floor on the east side and to a support stud on the west side. Then I spent most of the day on Saturday ripping a massive hole in the ceiling with the help of Will. Once we cut the hole in the ceiling and nailed the header into place (on the south side of the hole… so the stair stringers would have something solid to nail to), Will helped me figure out the geometry of the stairs (107.5″ / sin 70 and all that). It’s nice to have smart friends.

Now I’m sitting down trying to make sure I’ve got the correct riser height and everything before I start cutting stringers. Fortunately, since I’m putting in an alternating tread stair, the stringers aren’t quite as much of a one-screw-up-and-you’re-dead situation. But it’s still pretty confusing.

View the previous installments.

I just returned from the Chorale concert at BJU. I attended this time with my mother after taking her out for pizza. Emily, alas, had to teach piano lessons and therefore she could not come.

The Chorale performed Haydn’s Missa de Agnustiis, more commonly known as the Lord Nelson Mass. As usual, the choir did a wonderful job. They sounded very full, supple, and alive. And the orchestra was very tight and expressive.

I sat in the front row on the aisle, so I once again had a beautiful, unobstructed view of everything. I love it in front. I feel like I’m the only one there and the playing and singing is just for me. At the end of the concerts, I always stand up and turn around and am almost surprised that there’s a huge crowd of people behind me. Were they here the whole time? Oops. I hope they didn’t see my head swaying back and forth during the “Kyrie”…

Ah. I’m going to miss these performances.

After a full afternoon and evening of Living Gallery performances, I went to the Bob Jones University Chamber Singers concert. Several members of the choir were also in Living Gallery so they had to postpone their performance until 9:00 pm (which I am exceedingly grateful for).

The Chamber Singers were performing Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna (choir & piano version) and, as usual, the University’s choral performance was breathtaking. Absolutely wonderful… After the final Alleluias and during the Amen section, I realized that I had stopped breathing, my body was completely tense, my eyes wide open, and tears were streaming down my face. After the applause ended and I had set a good minute or two in silence, I turned to Will & Alison (who attended with me) and said “I feel like I’ve just been through a breakup and then a marriage, all in one hour… like I’ve been twisted to the breaking point, and then completely shaken out.” It’s so hard to describe my reactions to these sacred choral pieces… it’s like sitting there in front of the choir while a spiritual dimension opens up around us and grace just begins to flow… you just get a sense that you’re completely enfolded in something so right, so pure… Come, Lord Jesus, my mind begins to say. Your kingdom is like this: pure, full of harmony, light, feeling, free from all discord or distraction, perfect in every part. Come, Lord… I begin going through the opening of the Lord’s prayer, Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done (in me) as it is in Heaven…

I cannot express how greatful I am to the Lord for putting me in a place where I—sinful, petty, and insignificant—get to hear such perfect glimpses of God’s kingdom… and then to walk out into the warm, breezy evening on a beautiful campus with friends who are lovingly supportive of each other, who exalt the name of Christ and His work in each others’ lives… I just cannot tell how thankful I am for God’s grace which makes such beauty and harmony available to fallen mankind. Truly, Christ’s redeeming work has already begun, not just in our hearts, but on earth as it is in Heaven.

I’ve been working on the design and marketing for a new site called SacredAudio.com. It’s a music site where you can download individual tracks or full albums of conservative Christian music (the BJU-, SoundForth-, Majesty Music-, Wilds-, Steve Pettit-type). I’m still working with the developer on getting the site design exactly like I want it, but the site’s fully functional.

The best part is the free downloads every month. So far they’ve managed to all be pieces I actually wanted. I also enjoy getting to be highly selective in the pieces I want to pay for. Of course, that’s what I love about iTunes as well, but there’s not much conservative Christian music on iTunes.