Books

Well, I was going to just let this slide for today, but I figured I'd better try to keep up a more regular schedule as promised in the first place (I've still been posting "daily, except when I don't feel like it"; it's just that I "don't feel like it" a lot more often now), and I won't get the opportunity to post on the 29th of February for another few years.
As if that means anything.

Oh, by the way, apparently Easter is earlier this year, since it's based on a lunar calendar or something and doesn't technically have a set date.
I think it's based on the solstice (or rather the lunar equivalent, I think) or something; I don't remember.
Anyway, long story short, it won't be like this again for the rest of your life, unless you live to be many hundreds of years old.


So I remember now that I promised to deliver more impressions of Randy Alcorn's Deception when I finished it. Well, I finished it a long time ago, and I sort of forgot about it.
Basically, I thought it was an excellent book. Randy Alcorn is now very high on (if not at the top of) my list of favorite Christian authors now, after that and his Safely Home (also a good book, which our aunt got lent us to read through after their whole school read it or something).
Deception is pretty long by most standards, though, just so you know. Still, it's really thrilling and is difficult to put down, so you may not have any trouble with that (I didn't, but this is coming from Mr. Thousand-Word Blog Posts). The book mainly deals with suffering, and the often-heard question, "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?", and i think it answers it pretty well, and definitely opens up opportunities for more discussion. So, if you have a friend who was wondering about that and likes to read, get them this book, because they'll probably really enjoy it, because it is a really fun and exciting (though decidedly very dark) book. I'd let them know what they were getting into, because the book is of a sort that may make them think of it as a "Christian sneak attack," if you know what I mean (if you don't, well, there's not many better ways to say it).
Deception is actually the sequel to two previous books, Deadline and Dominion (in that order). I didn't have much trouble with reading the third one first, though (I think he went into it assuming a lot of people wouldn't have read the first two, which were written several years ago), and I'm not having any trouble following up with the second book rather than the first (it was the first one that came in at the library), either. Each book seems to have rather different themes, though; so far Dominion has had to do with, yes, justice and all that, but has had a lot to do with racism too. It's been an interesting read, but it's bothering me because this particular copy is a thick paperback.
If you've never read a thick paperback, you won't know what I'm talking about, but it's really annoying, because it's hard to keep it open.... (Of all the gripes one could have about a book, the ones about the format are of course the least important.)


Anyway. In other news, I filled out this survey which means I should be getting this special edition DS stylus thing as part of a Phantom Hourglass giveaway. If you have the game, and you answer the survey quickly enough ("supplies are limited"), you could be getting one too. You have to sign up for My Nintendo, though, which means giving them your name and address and email, which, yes, means they'll send you junk. You get to control what junk you get (and I'm pretty sure you can choose to get none at all), though, and as with the case of the "Feather pen stylus," some of the junk is really cool.


Before I close, I should mention that A.D. 1999 has mysteriously died. There's something wrong with my game file, and I don't want to try to fix it now for fear my brain will exploded and I'll never want to touch the thing ever again. So I'm letting it rest for a while, and I've moved on to other things. Disappointing, I know, as I have been working on it for so long, but... oh well.

Chief: "...and they're planning on attacking the city containing the greatest and most important minds of our country!"
Max: "Well, at least we know Washington is safe!"
--Get Smart

:::Source= Paul M-unit 19.91 MKII