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Showing posts from August, 2007

Sense and Sensibility

I'm taking a break from Austen temporarily. After Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility , I'm reading Melville's Moby-dick . Afterwards, I will probably start on Mansfield Park or Northanger Abbey . In any case, I'm saving Emma for last, because I have a feeling I will like it the most. Sense and Sensibility was good, but I didn't like it as well as I liked Pride and Prejudice . It was her first work, and I think it shows. Don't get me wrong - it's still a great book. I mean, come on - it's a classic for crying out loud! Sense and Sensibility: B

Moving a Piano to Texas

A couple of weeks ago, I learned that I could be of assistance to my Uncle Zachary - he is a pianist down in Austin, Texas, where he just graduated from UT in Piano Performance. He needed a piano moved down to his apartment so he could practice tuning and playing. Luckily, my grandfather (his dad) has a spare piano in the basement of the church he presides over in Hutchinson. So on Monday, I went to said church, along with my mom and Uncle Josh (Zach's brother). Together, we worked taking that piano apart as much as we could, and then got a couple more guys to help us move it, a table, and some chairs up the stairs and into the back of my truck. It was a tight fit! I then set off, at about 4:00, for Austin. The trip was a challenging one; I battled fatigue, delirium, and stale pretzels - lots of stale pretzels. At about 2:00am on Tuesday I arrived at my Uncle's apartment. On Wednesday, my Uncle and his friend took me to a fancy sushi restaurant. Then, we went to a park and enjo

Like Econ 101, but Interesting

Another economics book finished! Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan lays out basic economic principles in an interesting manner. Although the author comes from the Chicago school of economics, he gives many different perspectives on the topics. Some of the topics I've heard discussed before: how to save endangered animals from poachers, adverse selection (relating to used cars and insurance companies), &c. Some of the things the author covered are considered more boring and weren't discussed in The Undercover Economist or Freakonomics , such as how the Fed operates and index funds (although I found these things very helpful). My favorite chapters dealt with globalization and development economics. The book didn't become very thought-provoking until the epilogue, where Wheelan asks several questions about what the world will be like in 2050. The one that I found most interesting was this: How many minutes of work will a loaf of bread cost

Jane Austen on Leithart.com

Dr. Leithart has been posting some pretty interesting things about Jane Austen and her books. Since I'm going through Austen's books at the moment, they caught my attention in a special way. Here are the recent ones he has done: Christian Politeness Jane Austen and the Presbyterians Austen and the Stuarts Ideology of the Picturesque Darcy and Elizabeth Austen the Abolitionist? Austen the Romantic? Dr. Leithart also has a book (which I will probably read someday) on Austen's works, titled Miniatures and Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

On Bullshit, and What's the Matter With Kansas?

I took a trip to the Hutchinson library the other day and picked out a few books. I read the first one as soon as I got home. On Bullshit , by Harry G. Frankfurt, is a very small book. It is about the same size as my hand, and spans a mere 67 pages. The author, who happens to be Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University, makes some very astute observations regarding the subject mentioned in the title. At times, the book is hilarious; other times, the author made me put the book down and ponder what he said; still other things made me sad for the current state of some of today's politics and radio personalities. His conclusion is fascinating: The contemporary proliferation of bullshit also has deeper sources, in various forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality, and which therefore reject the possibility of knowing how things truly are. These "antirealist" doctrines undermine confidence in the value of disint

Sterling College

For those who are interested, here are my classes for the Fall of 2007 at Sterling College: NT Greek I Introduction to the Old Testament Basic Philosophical Concepts Public Speaking Introduction to Computers World Literature I Foundations of Servant Leadership This comes out to 17 credit hours for the semester. I'm expecting it to be much more laid-back than my first semester at The Master's College, because I was taking 18 credit hours there, which included saxophone practice (which takes about 12 hours per week, even though it is counted as 1 credit hour). On top of all of this, I had work study to deal with. Needless to say, I was almost overwhelmed my Freshman year. I talked to my academic adviser, Dr. Lederle, today. I am very privileged to have him as an adviser, because he seems a very sensible man. My options for college are abounding: either I can 1) double or triple major in economics, religion and philosophy, and/or literature, 2) make up an interdisciplinary major