The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

I finished reading this today, and was amazed.  The funny thing is that the book is SO short.  I felt like it flew by faster than any book I’ve read, short of Curious George, or any of the other children’s books I’ve read to my daughter recently.
I’ve heard that the movie stuck pretty closely to the book.  If you think I was overstating how much God takes part in the first book, wait until you read this one.  I’m going to see the movie this weekend.

The Magician’s Nephew

I have just finished reading The Magician’s Nephew, the first of The Chronicles of Narnia books. It is absolutely amazing. How anyone can read it and not see God in it, is absolutely ridiculous. I had to stay up later after I finished reading just to get over the excitement and goose-bumps that the references to God had given me.
When I say references, you may think that I’m talking of subtleties, but it is outright, in your face, references that explain how God can be active in a universe filled with fantasy. I challenge anyone who doesn’t see the Christian message in the movie to check out the books. You must read from the beginning.
I haven’t seen the movie. I definitely will now, because there’s only so much you can change going from a book to a movie. I heard that the BBC production of it was terrible. I will post my thoughts on the movie this weekend. I must see a few matinees this weekend now.

allofmp3.com

I have known about this service for quite some time, and have been hesitant to try it out.  The site is based in Russia, and that fact alone was my primary concern.  I don’t want to get into all the details of that statement, as you can probably figure the meaning out by yourself.
I have bought CDs this year.  I bought one or two at Wal-Mart.  I bought around 12 from BMG.  Overall, I’d say I spent around $80 for about 15 Cds.
I don’t listen to music as much as I do talk radio.  I subscribe to GlennBeck.com for about $60 a year.  The reason I mention this is because I get about 2 new hours of downloadable audio from my subscription to glennbeck.com every workday.  I listen to it once, and delete it, unless it’s got something in it that sticks out and makes me want to keep it.  I have that option, and it’s perfectly legal.
Doing a quick little calculation, I find that I’m spending about 23 cents a workday to have the ability to listen to about 2 hours of entertainment.  Compare that to an average cost of $5.33 per CD I purchased this year.  In total, throughout the life of the CD, I’ll probably listen to it 20 times.  That comes out to about 27 cents every time I listen to the entire CD if I listen to it that many times.  Most CDs only last for just under an hour.
Itunes, MSN Music, Wal-Mart.com, mp3tunes.com, and almost any other online music store will charge you around $1 per song.  Allofmp3.com charges you based on how much bandwidth you will use.  I just purchased 5 CDs from their site at 192kbps quality LAME MP3 format for under $7.  At a count of 60 songs, that comes out to about $0.12 per song, without any DRM.  I can keep them and play them my 20 times without any problems.  The best thing about the site, is it is completely legal.
I think I may build a computer to just play all of my music nonstop from now on.  I may not even hook speakers up to it.  I think I’ll just keep it connected to the internet and playing music all the time.  On the other hand, maybe I’ll hook up some headphones to it.
In the meantime, I think I’ve found my source of music until something better comes along, or I get bored with music altogether.

1960 Spacewar

I found a link on digg.com to one of the first computer games developed. Spacewar was developed in 1960 and is kinda cool. It took some getting used to.
Just a quick starter for you… Once you click on the button, one person controls the first spaceship with a,s,d,f, and the second person controls the rocket with k,l,;,’.
I didn’t read the readme at the top of the page and it took me a good 35 seconds to figure out what buttons to push.
Click on the link at the bottom of this page to get started.

WordPress 2.0 In Use

I believe I have correctly updated the site to the new version.  Here’s hoping it makes some improvements.  The good thing about the entire process is that it took me all of 15 minutes to update, fix problems and get it running correctly.  The troubleshooting was relatively easy, and I didn’t get frustrated with any of the process.
I don’t like the new look of the console.  It looks much less attractive.

Merry Christmas!

While this may not be the actual birthdate of Jesus, it is the time that we celebrate His birth. The wonderful gift God gave to us doesn’t seem to be the focus of the season, and I wish it weren’t that way.
I received some nice gifts this year, but I really don’t think I deserve them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to use them and enjoy them. I just think I would be able to appreciate the real reason for Christmas if I wasn’t so preoccupied with what I’m getting everyone or getting for myself from them.
I had a good day anyway, and have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the family.
Merry Christmas!

Narnia Outdoes King Kong

It looks like King Kong didn’t do as well as Narnia this weekend. I guess King Kong isn’t going to help Hollywood out of their rut. It amazes me how they think that they can get out of a hole by remaking a movie. They really need to let go of the past and try to make something worth watching. Narnia looks like it’s worth watching, Disney just went about marketing it in the wrong way.

WordPress 2.0 Available on Monday

I am very excited about the upgrade that will be available on Monday for WordPress. It should make running this blog a lot easier.
If you don’t already know what WordPress is, it is the software that runs this Blog. It was the easiest to figure out when I started it and it doesn’t require a whole lot of maintenance. The next release should make it even easier than it already is.

Christmas Shopping is Done

We have completed our Christmas shopping. We don’t have to buy anything else for Christmas this year. It makes my Christmas that much more special, because I don’t want to have to think of buying anything for Christmas again.
I’d be even happier if my iPod hadn’t died today. For some unknown reason, it will not reset, or let me update it with the ipod updater. Windows will not detect it at all. I’m feeling helpless. Hopefully the warranty will be worth the pdf it was saved to (in leiu of the paper it was printed on). I’ve already filed for the warranty work, so hopefully that will work out.