During the month of March I tracked the total number of pages I read. This was as a result of a video I saw by Parker Settecase on his youtube channel Park Notes. The specific video was this one where he advocates logging ones reading on a daily basis. I came across the video in February so decided to commence in March. So what was the answer? 512. Not much, but okay for someone who hasn’t felt like reading much since Christmas.
I’ve recently begun playing croquet. This is the formal game on (fairly) smooth lawns with hoops that are only a few millimetres wider than the balls. Our family has had a cheap home croquet set for decades, but that game has thin wire hoops that can be tens of millimetres wider than the balls. Anyway, I started at the beginning of October so it is five and a half elapsed months, but the lawns were closed for around five weeks over Christmas due to a broken watering system so my playing time is closer to four months.
I’ve been using Window Managers (WM) in Linux for around five years. I first wrote about them back in 2018, and mentioned them often subsequently. In my mind WMs can be categorised into two broad camps, and further subdivisions can be applied. The two broad camps are stacking window managers (where windows for newly-opened apps appear over previous apps), and dynamic tiling window managers where new windows open adjacent to current windows on some predetermined basis.
Most years I try something different with regard to my Bible reading plans and/or devotional reading. Late last year I came across a website that suggested reading the Old Testament in the order as it exists in the Hebrew Bible. The site provides reasons why this approach makes sense. In essence the Hebrew Bible divides Scripture into three components: Law/Torah, Prophets, Writings. Torah Prophets Writings ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Genesis Judges Psalms Exodus 1 Samuel Job Leviticus 2 Samuel Proverbs Numbers 1 Kings Ruth Deuteronomy 2 Kings Song of Solomon Joshua Isaiah Ecclesiastes Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Esther Hosea Daniel Joel Ezra Amos Nehemiah Obadiah 1 Chronicles Jonah 2 Chronicles Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi The above books contain 929 chapters.
A few links information and videos to (hopefully) make some Christmas presents more enjoyable and accessible: Firstly,some general reading on How to read Shakespeare for pleasure. Secondly, links to individual plays on youtube which appear to be full versions with the original language: Macbeth A Midsummer Night’s Dream King Lear Much Ado About Nothing Twelfth Night King Richard III The Tempest
One quote I have appreciated for many years was penned by Jim Elliot on 28th October 1949. He wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” I think I first came across that quote in the early 1980s. Shortly afterwards I bought a copy of The Journals of Jim Elliot compiled by his widow Elisabeth Elliot but have only managed to read a relatively small portion of that work.
One of my stronger childhood memories is of visiting my paternal grandparents for the weekend, waking up earlier than mum and dad, going upstairs to where my grandparents were already up and about and being given a couple of pieces of bread with butter and tomato jam. Yummo. Since we have a reasonable crop of tomatoes coming on at the moment I thought I’d turn some into tomato jam. I did make tomato jam around 10 years ago but didn’t have the recipe accessible so went searching online…
Nothing to do with Sgt. Pepper, but all to do with home coffee roasting. My first home roast was on 7th November 2003. I had given up smoking around 3 1/2 months earlier, and had been retrenched for the second time a month earlier so had some time on my hands to take up something new. My first roast was of a Sumatran Mandheling, 80 grams in a popcorn popper. The roast was too dark because I hadn’t been able to identify the cracks as the beans heat up and make cracking sounds - firstly as the water in the beans heats and expands, and secondly as the coffee oils do likewise.
My wife and I currently read the daily devotional The Lord My Portion by Watchman Nee after dinner. The devotionals have been extracted from some of his later writings. Of the 280+ entries so far this year a few have raised our eyebrows, most are pretty good and helpful, and a few are extraordinary for their incisiveness and clarity. One of the later is from October 2nd. We first heard this read out at a church we were attending last year and it prompted me to buy the book.
I’m currently reading a book entitled The Holy Spirit of Promise by J.Oswald Sanders first published in 1940. Oswald Sanders was New Zealand-born and served as the general director of the China Inland Mission (later renamed to Overseas Missionary Fellowship). He was born in 1902 and died in 1992. He was a prolific author between the 1930s and the 1990s. One of his better-known works is Spiritual Leadership (1967). One chapter (chapter 12 of 16) in The Holy Spirit of Promise is entitled “The Administrator of the Church”.