But It’s a Fry Heat

The Arizona Republic

After I got home from church tonight, Michelle handed me the Sunday paper and pointed to an article on the front page of the Arizona Living section. The title was: “But it’s a fry heat: Cool tips for newbies.” The article is all about how newcomers to Arizona can survive their first summer here. Click here for the digital link. And you’d think there would be some mention of french fries, but you’d be wrong. After both Michelle and I read it, we’re guessing this was a major typo and “fry” was actually supposed to be “dry.”

Believe it or not, Michelle saved it to show me so that I’d feel better when we make mistakes like this with stuff we do at Central. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and errors like this drive me nuts when they probably shouldn’t. So it’s morbidly encouraging to see others do it as well. In the process, we also had a funny interchange that went like this:

Me: (to Michelle as she reads the paper) “I’m amazed you are still getting the paper. You are holding a dinosaur.”

Michelle: “This dinosaur comes with coupons.”

Me: (stunned silence)

Dante’s Inferno

Dante's Inferno - The Divine ComedyPart 1 of our summer reading, Dante’s Divine Comedy, is called the Inferno. Dante travels through Hell on his journey through the supernatural realms (books 2 and 3 are purgatory and paradise, respectively).

The book is poetry, translated from Italian, and as such it isn’t necessarily an easy read. However, it is very intriguing imagery and Ciardi’s translation allows for explanation on the themes that Dante is developing. I am really enjoying the read. I’m not very familiar with Dante’s theology or spiritual belief, but there are a few themes that he develops in the Inferno that are interesting to think about.

  1. Dante is encouraged not to feel pity for the souls in Hell that God has damned. It would be illogical and heretical to do so. This doesn’t imply that God made them be there, but that they chose it and God is enforcing it. Their punishment in Hell is the just response by God.
  2. The souls in Hell are punished, rather ironically, with the counterbalance to their greatest sins. For example, when Dante comes to the area for souls who commit suicide, they don’t have bodies but are instead trees. In addition, they can only speak when a branch is broken or maimed and they are “bleeding.” As one of them tells Dante, “…it is not just that a man be given what he throws away.” Canto XIII, Inferno. In another example, we learn that “as they tore others apart, so are they torn.” Canto XXVIII

I’m not sure how he does it, since it is an English translation from Italian, but most of Ciardi’s lines rhyme. Here are a couple of snippets from the book that stood out to me:

“ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.”

“But all together they drew to that grim shore
where all must come who lose the fear of God.”

“That king whose perfect wisdom transcends all,
made the heavens and posted angels on them
to guide the eternal light that it might fall
from every sphere to every sphere the same.”

“Now tell me how much cash
our Lord required of Peter in guarantee
before he put the keys into his keeping?
Surely he asked nothing but ‘Follow me!'”

Dante's Inferno Xbox 360On a random side note, I was in Best Buy the other day and I noticed that a video game has been made about this story. It looks like it takes a slightly different twist, but it is interesting to see classical literature’s effects across the board.

How Spammers Have Helped My Self Esteem

[T]his post is inspired by a Scott McClellan tweet in which he wrote: “How do you tell a spam blog comment from a real one? Most of the time, the spam comment will be more polite.”

If you don’t manage your own blog, this might not make sense to you. If you do, it is hilariously profound…and true. So I decided to look through some of the spam comments that were left on my blog that my filter caught. Before now, you’d never read these here, and you’d totally miss how much these spammers think of me. Check out a few of their sincere compliments to my creativity and overall impressiveness. Each of these comes with a fantastic link to a website that I won’t include here (nor will I correct the grammar in them).

Spam Comments

“Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people need to read this and understand this side of the story. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.”

“Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.”

“That is pretty intriguing. It gave me some ideas and I’ll be writing them on my website soon. I’m bookmarking your site and I’ll be back. Thank you again!”

“I bookmarked this web page a while ago because of the new content and I have never been disappointed. Continue the outstanding work.”

“Thanks for an interesting article. After looking through different websites I finally found something worth reading.”

“I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success.”

“Aw, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done.”

Clearly the assumption many spammers have taken is that if they compliment a blogger then he’s sure to approve the comment. Fortunately for me, I have enough honest people around me that it would be a bit tough for me to believe the sincerity of comments like these.

Or maybe I should start spamming comments from people like you and approve only comments like these? Something to think about…

Fireworks in Oklahoma

We spent last night in Tulsa, Oklahoma for our video series for Route 66. If you’ve ever been here before you know there isn’t much to do (don’t even get me started on the worst buffet I’ve ever had…compliments of Mark Miller. Our waitress refilled our drinks by pouring a full cup into our empty cup. I’ve never seen anything like it.)

But we saw something that is a rare jewel for those of us that live in Arizona…fireworks! We were told that you needed a permit to do them in the city, or you just had to go outside of the city limits. This proved to be much more difficult than you’d think.

After driving for an hour in circles, we finally found a field and a car with it’s tailgate open. When we saw them light off a firework, we pulled next to them and asked if we could join them. There were three of us from Central, plus this couple and three younger boys. Turns out the guy was employed by Blackwater…which meant that I didn’t know if I should feel more safe, or less safe around him.

We all took turns lighting them off and I gotta admit, it was quite fun. There is something hilarious about watching a couple of newbies giggle with glee as they light off a few “Ugly Sticks.” We bought something called “Motor Mouth” and it put on a sweet show. I felt like a little kid enjoying the pure satisfaction of fire.

Holli’s Hits – Imma Be

Holli's HitsI have a friend named Holli that LOVES to sing in the car. While that may not sound unusual, she also loves to record herself singing and send it to a handful of us to enjoy. It dawned on me that this is too good to keep to myself, so I’m thinking of periodically posting these here for you to enjoy as well. She told me she’d even take requests! Click on the link below to hear Holli’s rendition of 27 seconds of the Black Eyed Peas song, Imma Be.

Imma Be – Black Eyed Peas

7 Reasons You Should Use a Digital Reader

iBooks on iPadI fought the battle for awhile. “I like holding a book in my hands.” “I like the smell of real books.” “There is just something about reading a real book that you can’t replicate.”

These were all my statements made in defense of why I wouldn’t read on an eReader like an iPad or Kindle. I was a purist I told myself. And it isn’t like I don’t read a lot, so this was an important issue for me to take a stance on. But I decided recently to try it out for myself and read a book on my iPad. And it has forever changed my relationship to books. I’ll never look back.

I’ve had this conversation with a handful of people now, so I figured it was time to blog it and put these thoughts all in one place. This is by no means an exhaustive list, this is simply the seven reasons I’m sold on reading through an eReader.

  1. The one-minute phenomenon. This one just has to be experienced personally to truly understand it. I used to wait till I had a couple books to buy at a time (to get free shipping) and then put in an order with Amazon. I’d wait at least a week and then I’d be able to start reading whatever I was excited about a week ago. Now, I find a book I’m excited to read and exactly one minute later I’m staring at chapter one. It makes a person giddy.
  2. Traveling. It always turned into a planning game whenever I was leaving town. I’d have to analyze how much time I thought I’d have for reading and then take the right amount of books. Of course, you don’t want to pack many books, as they take up space and can quickly add weight to your bag. One vacation I had to buy at least two more books because I guessed wrong. Now, I take one very light device and can gaurantee that I’ll have enough to read and with none of the weight or guesswork.
  3. Highlighting. I don’t borry books from people because I highlight and mark in them aggressively. Because of my job, I’m constantly going back through books I’ve read for illustrations and quotes. With the iBooks app, I can tap a button and in one page see all of my highlighted parts of that book with the time I highlighted it, the chapter it is in, and the first two sentences as a preview. I can click on it and then go directly to the quote instantly. It doesn’t get easier or more organized than that. I’ll also tag onto this the search feature. If I vaguely remember something from a book but can’t remember where it is, I simply type a search word for it and I’ve found it in no time.
  4. Amazon KindleFree books. I’m a lover of old, classic literature. With an eReader you can get a ton of these books for absolutely free! (Some of the free ones I’ve downloaded are Divine Comedy, The Scarlet Letter, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare).
  5. Go green. Seriously, how many trees have to die for you to give up your old habit? Digital books can be mass produced with much less consumption. Even if you don’t like Al Gore, who wants to cut down trees if you don’t have to?
  6. Dictionary. I’m often reading certain books to challenge myself. This almost always means they use big words that I don’t understand. I can count on one hand the times that I’ve pulled out a dictionary or went to my computer to figure out what a word meant that I just read. Now, all I do is hold my figure over a word and I can instantly see the definition of it without interrupting my reading flow. This has been incredibly valuable.
  7. Reading speed. This one is going to sound weird to non-eReader people, but reading a digital copy on a reader somehow makes you read faster. I’m not sure why this is, but I have personally noticed it and just heard from a Kindle owner that he has found the same thing to be true.

So my reading friends, what are you waiting for?