Wow...

Sep. 21st, 2010 04:17 pm
Those friends of mine who have been reading this LJ for a while know that I used to write a blog called Daily Breadcrumbs, in which I systematically read through the Bible and blogged about my reflections. I got as far as 2 Samuel before giving up the endeavor in late 2008, but in the past few months I've picked it up again. No, there aren't any new blog posts, but I've been reading nonetheless. Late last week, I finally finished the Old Testament (hallelujah!) and started in on the New Testament.

Now, I've read some of the New Testament before. I've read the Gospel of Matthew, a few of the Pauline letters (Romans, at the very least), and Revelation. Earlier this week, I reread Matthew, and read the Gospels of Mark and Luke for the first time. It sometimes felt like playing a broken record (I totally understand those people who say there must have been some "Q source" for some of the shared stories), but they were enjoyable reads. I like the parables, though I don't necessarily agree with them. I can see why Christians find these books so compelling.

Today I'm reading the Gospel of John for the first time. I'm almost done (midway through chapter 19), and... wow, just a bit antisemitic, aren't you, John? Also preachy and convoluted. But particularly antisemitic. I feel icky just reading it.

At least next is Acts, where we get back to the fun supernatural-type stories. And (hopefully) less antisemitism.
Had a full day at work today, working on a super-rush project that needed to be taken from script to finished in 24 hours (usually we get at least 3-4 days).

After that, got together with Marc for a lovely time over food court dinner and coffee.

The offshoot of this is that tomorrow's Daily Breadcrumbs will not be ready tomorrow. Given that I have a conference call tomorrow night, it might not even be ready Thursday. So right now I'm aiming for Friday. Sorry to those who were expecting it. Obviously, I've got to plan a bit better.
Attention, attention! For all the Daily Breadcrumbs fans out there, today is your lucky day! Daily Breadcrumbs returns on Monday, December 1, tackling 2 Samuel and going as far as we can! Hope to see you all there.

Remember, the LJ feed for Daily Breadcrumbs (so you can read it on your friends' page) is [livejournal.com profile] dailybreadcrumb
I wasn't going to post anymore this morning, but this is too good to pass up. As most of you know, I spent about a year running a series called Daily Breadcrumbs, which was a chance for me to read through the Bible and write op-eds about it. I got as far as 1 Samuel before deciding I had better things to do with my time, but it's all still online for those who want to read it.

For the most part, people who have commented have been insightful and knowledgeable. Until today.

Yes, folks. Six months after I stopped the project, over two years since I wrote this particular breadcrumb, I received my first anonymous "hellfire and brimstone" comment.

Read it in all its glory (with NO editing) behind the cut )

C'mon. If that won't convince you to turn tail and run for the glory of Christ, nothing will.

I suppose I should take my tongue out of my cheek now. *grin*

(Oh, and I had to check. It turns out Rosh Hashana 2001 was on Sept. 18, not Sept. 11 as mentioned.)
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of speaking with two Campus for Christ representatives for about twenty minutes. Odd as it is to say, I do in fact mean "pleasure." These were two people who were remarkably well-informed about obscure Bible stories I had no reason to expect they'd know (stay tuned for Saturday's Daily Breadcrumbs essay, for example). Most missionaries who've approached me in the past have had a very limited Bible knowledge, at least in terms of the books they've presented to me. These two people were willing to discuss all sorts of stories contrary to the main Christian themes of the Bible.

Furthermore, they were willing to accept scholarly opinion about the writings of some of the Biblical books (eg: Moses might not have written the whole Pentateuch; Isaiah's 3 sections may have been written by different people, etc.) There is no surer way to invoke my hatred than by denying what scholars have proved (or at least, mostly proved) in terms of Biblical authorship.

Finally, these two people were genuinely interested in the differences between Christianity and Judaism. The main difference is not, as most people assume, belief in Christ, but rather belief in original sin. The need for belief in Christ is a direct result of the belief in original sin (without original sin, you don't need a saviour to free you from it). These two Campus for Christ representatives appear never to have taken this into account before, but on the other hand, they seemed very happy to learn about this difference.

I honestly would have liked to speak to them longer, but I had class. I gave them the link to Daily Breadcrumbs and to my paper on Isaiah, so they may be getting in touch with me at some point in the future. In any case, it was a perfectly enjoyable twenty minutes.
Judges 4 and 5 are so full of awesomeness that I'm probably going to turn them into something bardic-y for the SCA. I'm very much looking forward to writing Saturday's essay.

If you want some wonderful stories of cunning and deceit, you've *got* to check out these two chapters. (I recommend the NIV, as the KJV's language can be a bit confusing.)

Edit: That should be Judges 3 and 4, not 4 and 5. Sorry for the confusion.
Many thanks to everyone who offered hugs in response to my last post. Things are much better today.

Spent most of today with Marc, and enjoyed all of it. This was followed by time with Warren, Blue, Jbash, and Kaia. They fed me, and I got to play with a baby. All is well in the world.

Heck, I even got an hour of schoolwork done, listened to a half-hour of French, and arranged to buy some second-hand French textbooks I can use to practice my writing (which, not to put too fine a point on it, sucks).

Oh, and the next essay I need to write for Daily Breadcrumbs (which will come out Thursday) and the two that follow it are going to be utter hell. It's just a long, long, long list of land allotments. After that, though, the end of Joshua is pretty good, and there are all sorts of wonderful stories in Judges, so I'm set for at least a month of interesting reading.

Okay, that's it for tonight. Now to read a bit and then sleep.
Writing Daily Breadcrumbs doesn't take me long -- perhaps an hour, tops. And yet somehow in the 45 minutes I was writing today, I found myself needing to bring in the groceries and answering not one, not two, but three phone calls. One a telemarketer who, like all so many telemarketers, refused to accept "no, thank you," as an acceptable answer. Usually I don't get three phone calls a day, but they all decide to call when I need to be focused on my writing.

Blargh.
Yes, it's true! After a four-month hiatus, Daily Breadcrumbs is back to tackle the book of Joshua.

It may be another 4 years until I finish this project, but who cares? It gives me something to do. Hopefully you enjoy it as well.

As a reminder, you can read Daily Breadcrumbs off its LJ feed, directly to your friends page. And, for those who were complaining about the massive posts last time Daily Breadcrumbs was publishing, I believe I have fixed the problems. You have no excuse anymore.

Happy reading!

Good day

Nov. 18th, 2007 11:45 pm
The brunch was, in fact, lovely. It was in honour of Kelly's birthday, and involved many crepes, jazz versions of songs that should under no circumstances have jazz versions, and much laughter. Afterwards it was off to Alan and Anna's and Tyler's for some conversation and JLA watching. Sorry for not staying longer, guys, but my allergies were threatening to explode.

Spent some time with Marc, which is always nice (even if I was in a bit of a downer mood). Came home, planned classes, worked some more on my files, relaxed.

Ended the night with bliss in a cup: hot chocolate made with milk instead of water and heated up properly in a saucepan (no microwave for me!). SO nummy... this is definitely a keeper.

Oh, and I wrote another Daily Breadcrumbs essay. I think I'll stockpile for a while and start up again in January. Be prepared, there WILL be more!

Okay... g'night all.
If everything goes according to plan, by this time next week Daily Breadcrumbs will have reached the end of Deuteronomy, the last book of the Pentateuch. To do this, I have written 75 long essays and nearly 140 "breadcrumbs." In total, I estimate I have somewhere on the order of 88,000 words written for this project so far. For those who are counting, that's the length of an average book.

The question is: can I publish this as an actual book, and make money from it?

If any of my friends have information on the publishing industry, I could use your advice. How does one even begin the process of getting a book published? What are the best resources?

Many thanks!
Today, a very kind friend of mine is using me as a guinea pig to test-drive a series of one-on-one photography tutoring tutorials. I'm very much looking forward to it. Yay, learning how to take pictures!

In other news, my countdown until Marc gets home is now in the single digits: 9 days left! Yay!

For those who care, I did another Daily Breadcrumbs essay yesterday. Hopefully that was the last really boring reading, and I'll be able to be a bit more consistent now that the readings are more interesting.

And really, that's all I've got for the moment. I have some thoughts for posts that may or may not materialize over the next few days: you'll just have to wait and see.
As a public service reminder, please note that even though I'm no longer posting individual topics every day, I'm still posting a new entry on Daily Breadcrumbs, well, daily.

The main site is at http://daily-breadcrumbs.blogspot.com
The LJ mirror (by which you can see Daily Breadcrumbs on your friends' list) is http://syndicated.livejournal.com/dailybreadcrumb/

That said, is there any other way I can make Daily Breadcrumbs more accessible? A master list somewhere of all the essays and breadcrumbs posted to date, perhaps? We've only got 11 people on the LJ feed, but I know there are more reading off the main site. So, oh my devoted readers, what do you guys think?
Two days? My goodness -- you all must think I've vanished off the face of the earth or been eaten by wombats!

Ok... maybe not. I've had a relatively uneventful few days, so behind the cut are just a few random thoughts and ramblings.

A baker's dozen of complete randomosity )

Okay, enough of that. I should have supper and get ready to go over to Ian's. TTFN.
I'm doing a bit of advance reading for Daily Breadcrumbs, so that I'm not caught in another unplanned hiatus. I just finished doing the readings I will use for Friday's essay. It turns out there's a talking donkey in them. Yes, a talking donkey. Just in time for the release of Shrek 3.

Sometimes, I do believe in divinely planned coincidence.

Incidentally, Monday's breadcrumb was about an odd sense of priorities, yesterday's essay asks whether God overreacted to Moses' simple mistake, and today's breadcrumb talks about nested tithing.
Yesterday's essay on Daily Breadcrumbs was about yet another incident of the Israelites complaining. Today's Breadcrumb is about the concept of sheol, or the Jewish afterlife.

An all-around fun tactile party last night. Many thanks to the hosts and the various guests for making it so, and especially for the out-of-towners who came in to enjoy it. I didn't stay in the dark room all that long, but I enjoyed it while I did. The addition of apple crumble makes anything better. And now that I have discovered sweet potato chips (thanks to Northbard), I may never go back.

Today I visisted my grandparents and walked home therefrom, enjoying the lovely weather. I'd have liked to make it out to Scrabble at the tams, but it's mother's day and thus things are a bit wonky. Maybe next time!

Also, a brief update from yesterday. There are pictures of the pillow fight! Facebook members can see a large amount of them here, while non-Facebook members can see a few here (link seems to be down right now, though), here, or here. The latter has a few of Ian, but you'll have to check the Facebook album for the few that have me in the them.

That's it for now! TTFN!
eveglass: (magen pentacle)
Today's breadcrumb is about clothing laws.

For a long time, it has been a guilty pleasure of mine to debate with missionaries. Really, this isn't a particularly fair challenge for them, given that most of them haven't quite mastered the art of writing in full sentences, let alone coherent logic. I, on the other hand, have 18 years of religious studies, debating experience, and essay writing behind me.

On the other hand, I haven't had the chance to do it in a while, and I was feeling a bit miffed today anyway because of the after-effects from last night's creepy guy. So when the opportunity arose, I admit I took the bait.

I've spent the last several hours occupied (in part) by the activity of thwarting the efforts of a missionary-turned-troll. She had posted in an icon community I'm part of, and, well, I couldn't stop myself. The relevant comment thread is here. Those of my friends who also get a kick out of these sorts of things may feel free to peruse at your leisure, as the troll seems to have gone offline for the time being.

I know, I know. Bad Julie. Don't feed the trolls. No cookie for you.

But, damn it, it's so much fun!

Edited to add: It seems that the moderators of the community deleted the post, which is a shame. I was actually quite proud of some of my comments. Ah well. At least I know I danced metaphorical circles around someone who deserved it. That's what counts.
After an unplanned week-and-a-half-long hiatus, Daily Breadcrumbs is back. Again. You thought you could escape, but you were wrong. Yesterday's essay was about yet another case of the Israelites complaining and God's response to them. Today's breadcrumb is about a case of what seems like unfair justice.
Yesterday's breadcrumb was about whether the Israelites were really lost for 40 years in the desert. Today's breadcrumb traces a link between modern media tactics and the ancient Israelites.

For anyone who saw me yesterday, I'm not sure whether to apologize or take a bow. I was so very, very sleep deprived. Thank you all for putting up with my babbling.

I went to Ian's parents' place, managed to (just barely) keep all the snarky remarks from passing my lips, and ate some tasty food. Afterwards, it was off to LC's birthday party, where I saw some people I hadn't seen in a whle, most notably the birthday boy himself. Hugs all around!

The only down-side to all this was that I got a call from Marc during the 10 minutes I spent driving home from the party. I make it a policy not to answer my phone while I'm driving, especially when the conditions are as horrific as they were last night. So I was unhappy when I got home and realized that I'd missed Marc's call. Hopefully I'll hear from him today.

On today's agenda: plan tomorrow's lesson, write the next Daily Breadcrumbs essay, transfer over my new pictures to flickr so that non-Facebook people can read them (alternately, you can try this link, which should allow you to see the Facebook album without actually being on Facebook), and then character creation for a new game. TTFN.
Today's essay on Daily Breadcrumbs is about a bad case of God overreacting.

So, last night many people came out to Maz to wish Marc a "fare you well." Even Chris the DJ got in on the fun as everyone did songs that are typically's Marc's, as a tribute to him. It was one of the better Maz nights I've been to.

I suddenly remembered why I rarely bring my camera out places anymore. To set the stage: I don't take pictures, never have. I think, in the entire course of my life before 2005, I'd taken five rolls of film... combined. So it came as a gigantic shock to me that, when I went to Europe in the summer of 2005, and my dad bought me a new digital camera, I took 1300 pictures in 6 weeks. (Yes, 1300. No typo.) Ever since, when I actually bring my camera out somewhere, I'm a shutterbug.

Well, Ian asked me to bring my camera last night. I did. I now have 106 pictures sitting on my camera, ready to be downloaded when I get home tomorrow. Of those, I'll probably be putting about half up on Facebook tomorrow. Consider yourselves warned.

One more note from Maz: I officially hate Scott and Kyn, at least for the time being. Scott, kind and caring soul that he is, made it is mission to get other people to buy Marc alcohol. Which people did. In abundance. When Kyn came in late, however, Scott told him, "Marc has been saying 'no' all night. You're my last chance!" So Kyn bought Marc a round of shots. And then, somewhat later, when Marc was WAY drunk, he bought him another round of shots.

I believe his comment to my reaction to all this was, "I've never seen Julie so pissed." In all honesty, I was (mostly) only joking about punching him in places that probably shouldn't be punched, but it got the message across. Similarly with Sam: when I had Marc drinking water, because I wanted to get him back to his place WITHOUT passing out, Sam mockingly made to exchange Marc's water glass with Sam's beer glass. My comment to Sam: "Understand how this is going to work: if you switch those glasses, the next thing you will experience will be you, writhing on the floor in pain. Do we understand each other?" We did. Ian chimed in, "Dude, she could beat us BOTH up." Sam, quite wisely, didn't switch the glasses.

Long story short: I got Marc home. He's fine. He's packing now. I'm using his roommie's computer and should probably get back to him. TTFN!

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