Library

My wife is wonderful. She is cataloging my library for me so I can search and find what I'm looking for. There is no way I could do it because it is just way too tedious for me. So far she has done a little over 1500 books and I think she might be just about half way done but that's just a guess. A lot of the books were in boxes so I'm going to need to buy more book shelves. That's had a ripple effect as we are now looking at re-organizing the basement to accommodate them better.

She has thought about the possibility of turning it into a business. You'd need a lot of wealthy people willing to have their books cataloged in order to make it work and I'm just not sure you'd find that many. Some would say it is costing me a lot but I think I'm getting a bargain.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/datema

Beck

My birthday was several months ago but I was given some cash instead of a gift to go buy a book or some music. I knew what I wanted but it didn't get released until late March. The wait was hard but I am now the proud owner of "Jeff Beck: performing this week...Live at Ronnie Scott's" the DVD. It is 2 hours and 35 minutes of pure heaven.

It is basically the set he has been playing for a year or two now with a few guest appearances from Jos Stone, Imogen Heap, and Eric Clapton. Jeff, Vinnie, Tal, and Jason make a few changes to account for the small venue but I like it just as much as what I've heard in the past. All three guests compliment the rest of the set beautifully. In other words, you aren't watching and wondering what they are doing there, or thinking that they were just thrown in for the star appeal. (If you are after star appeal just watch the audience.) They combine with Jeff's style but take it somewhere it wouldn't go without their own unique talents.

Even Clapton does a great job with this. I'm all for watching Clapton and Beck play together but it would easy for that combination to be very predictable. But Clapton playing Little Brown Bird and You Need Love with Jeff messing around with the bottle neck is great.

Imogen is the most interesting of the three guests though. She brings her own unique style to Blanket and Rollin' and Tumblin' and sounds like a Stratocaster all by herself.

All in all I would say this is one of the best music purchases I've ever made. Time to sit back and enjoy some more.

Forsaken

Having spent a significant portion of my life living in Sierra Leone I find it sickening how the rebel war there, as well as so many other conflicts in Africa, are basically ignored by the rest of the world. I would blame it on the media but they only get part of the blame. They are a business after all and if we as ordinary people cared about these conflicts the media would probably cover them.

It is not just about coverage either. Along with that coverage goes time and money. So governments, institutions, and influential people spend tons of time and money on the most popular contests while the conflicts that have impacted the most people receive hardly any attention.

Some would say that while those smaller conflicts may not have the same number of deaths they still impact far more people. I believe that is true. But why is that? There is something wrong about the way we value people.

Here's some stats I pulled from the Stealth Conflicts website. They have a lot of interesting information there. I like the maps and charts they produce to graphically illustrate the issue. I can't vouch for the accuracy of these numbers but that's kind of the point. We just don't know what we really should know.


Conflict /Death Toll

Democratic Republic of Congo /5,400,000

Southern Sudan /1,200,000

Angola /800,000

Rwanda /800,000

Afghanistan /500,000

Somalia /400,000

Iraq /400,000

Burundi /300,000

Darfur /300,000

Zaire /300,000

Liberia /200,000

Algeria /150,000

Ethiopia-Eritrea /100,000

Chechnya /100,000

Uganda /100,000

Sierra Leone /50,000

Kashmir /50,000

Colombia /50,000

Sri Lanka /50,000

Bosnia-Herzegovina /50,000

Philippines /20,000

Turkey /20,000

Nigeria /20,000

Gulf War /20,000

Azerbaijan /20,000

Bougainville /20,000

Cote d’Ivoire /10,000

Congo, Republic of /10,000

Peru /10,000

Aceh /10,000

Myanmar /10,000

Nepal /10,000

Croatia /10,000

Kosovo /10,000

Kurdish Iraq /10,000

Southern Iraq /10,000

Senegal /< 10,000

Guinea /< 10,000

Chad /< 10,000

Mali /< 10,000

Niger /< 10,000

Central African Republic /< 10,000

Haiti /< 10,000

Mexico /< 10,000

Israel-Palestine /< 10,000

Israel-Lebanon /< 10,000

Yemen /< 10,000

Andrha Pradesh /< 10,000

Gujurat /< 10,000

Northeast India /< 10,000

East Timor /< 10,000

Irian Jaya /< 10,000

Kalimantan /< 10,000

Molucca Islands /< 10,000

Sulawesi /< 10,000

Georgia /< 10,000

Moldova /< 10,000

Northern Ireland /< 10,000

Extremists

The other night Bill Maher was on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He said all religious people were extremists. Man, I wish that were true of Christians. (Yes, including me.)

Tension

A group in our church is going through a parenting DVD series by a well known psychologist. His section on birth order was good but something he said made me think of pastors and denominations.

He pointed out that most company CEO's and presidents of institutions are first borns. It fits their psychological profile. They are driven, successful, orderly, systematic, and orthodox. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, tend to be middle children. They are rough and tumble, are sick of being bossed around by older siblings, and have had to go their own way to find a voice for themselves.

I think both types of people have good qualities that serve a pastor well. I'm just not sure how well they do at leading each other. What kind of person ends up leading a denomination, conference, district, cluster, etc.? My guess is that usually it will be a first born. The problem is that the middle born pastors they lead will fight them every step of the way. I'm quite sure the same would be true if the roles were reversed.

Some might suggest that the answer is to let the babies of the family run the show. Get serious. The only thing good about that would be the speeches at the conferences.

I guess it just really takes a lot of understanding.

The Odd Pratchett

I suppose most people have heard of author Terry Pratchett, if not read him. I'm not big on sci-fi but he is the exception, mainly due to the odd humor. One of my favorite quotes: from Wee Free Men

"I would like a question answered today," said Tiffany. "Its about zoology."

"Zoology, eh? That's a big word, isn't it."

"No, actually it isn't," said Tiffany. "'Patronizing'is a big word. 'Zoology' is really quite short."