So... someone asked for a book recommendation post.

First, books that you can get for free in ebook format:

Science Fiction
http://www.webscription.net/p-16-the-apocalypse-troll.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-162-freehold.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-258-lt-leary-commanding.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-267-march-upcountry.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-411-telzey-amberdon.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-328-pyramid-scheme.aspx

Fantasy
http://www.webscription.net/p-154-the-forlorn.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-451-war-gods-own.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-407-sympathy-for-the-devil.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-587-sheepfarmers-daughter.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-388-sleipnir.aspx
http://www.webscription.net/p-458-the-warslayer.aspx


Others I recommend
Science Fiction
David Weber: Off Armageddon Reef
Julie Czerneda: A Thousand Words For Stranger
Julie Czerneda: Survival: Species Imperative

Fantasy
Jim Hines: Stepsister Scheme

o.O and an ALL TIME FAVORITE:

Carol O'Connell: Mallory's Oracle

Some background:

• I am a straight Catholic. I love my church.
• I attend a Catholic discussion group. We discuss the liturgy of the hours (usually writings of Catholics from the early church) at a local bar and how it relates to our times.
• I think proposition 8 is wrong.
• I am ambivalent about (I would be very happy if the church changed, but it is still my chruch so I live with it and I do not impose it on anyone else/judge anyone by it) the churches teachings on homosexuality. Well, I guess to put if more simply, I am very, very glad I am not a theologian.

In response to prop 8 passing a friend of mine posted: http://fordarkness.livejournal.com/458365.html I, reacted a bit irrationally rather than respecting those that support prop 8. My rejection of it remains unchanged after thought but I don't view those who voted against it with nearly as much anger. I do still remain angered by the ad campaign mentioned.

Anyways onto the point of this. At this discussion group I mentioned prop 8 to see how other Catholics viewed the issue. Our discussion ended up being much more in depth though. It turns out one of the people there is working as a counselor. One of her clients is gay. She has been torn up because she is a Catholic (seems to be against gay marriage, but not very), but she also knows being un-supportive would be, well wrong, Because of this internal dilemma she had been looking for a place to talk about it, not feeling comfortable having that discussion in, well anywhere in Chicago. I have a lot of respect for her, going through this personal dilemma. The people in the group for prop 8, well basically they felt gay marriage would lead to state intrusion on a church issue and did not seem against defining a state marriage (same for everyone, gay or straight or w.e) as separate from church.

Anywho while that was interesting, the best part of the discussion came later. We had some interesting talk about the unity of the church and then one of our leaders, well he amazed me. It turns out his sister is gay. She, amazingly enough, has the courage to attend church regardless of it's stance. I am flabbergasted by what it must take to do that. (This may offend, but I feel that she, she willl be in heaven before me). He also told me about a program at St. Nicks:
http://www.stnicksglff.org/history.html


I guess, I just found the coincidence of fordarkness' post and this meeting to be pretty amazing, and I at least, was satisfied with the discussion that resulted.

• The early Church was very communal.
• Jesus said: "The most important one," Jesus answered, "is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."

And the rest. Good to finally get the plot down and fleshed out after so long. Still some errors of course, but it was fun and something new for me at least.

 

( Chapter VII: Dust )

Well,  looks like I'm on a roll. Things are going much more quickly than last time since I have most of the plot in my head already. Hope it isn't too terrible.

( Chapter VI: Consequences of survival. )

So... as I may have mentioned, I am currently a Graduate Student at Northwestern, since my family lives in Atlanta, I see them rarely. When we do meet, esp. when some of my cousins are present, I occasionally tell scary stories.

When I went on a retreat in the Spring, I decided to start to write a more complete story. And then, it fell by the side as I became busy.

Fast forwarding to now, I have decided to start it up again. For fun, and to encourage me to keep with it, I am going to post the first chapter. I'll try to put everything up eventually.



( Chapter II: And then, school. )

( Chapter IV: Again with the Tree. )

Had a great team with some old friends and some new faces, and go to talk a lot, which, well it's something I like doing.
Also wrote a little, which is new for me, and sketched some, which I love to do on retreat, and so I present....

<Resolution is better in the scrapbook version>

So, this is my first spring in Chicago, and wow, the weather is schizophrenic. It was a balmy 60 degrees last week and I finally got to break out my shorts and tees. So, I get up this morning, late as usually, and head off to class, not realizing things have changed until I get out the door. I decide to just deal with it in my shorts, since I am already late. Bad decision. Walking 15 minutes home in rain with the wind-chill knocking it down to 27 F.... not pleasant.

In other news... it appears that my professors communicate more than we expected. Tomorrow we get our week long take home midterm in one of my classes, and another prof, who has as of yet given 1 assignment is finally getting around to do another one. Joy.