Booking it

I had been reading like crazy, it's rather slow around here..............


Hood by Stephan R. Lawhead was great. It takes the story of Robin Hood and sets it in Wales. Lawhead is a very Christan author, but he keeps his stories in a historical setting. The sort of spirituality in that time period is Catholic, so Lawhead keeps it without twisting it to a more Protestant view.

I very much enjoyed reading this different take on the old stories. This is a dark and gritty version, with a hint of magic to tie it in with stories of Beowulf and the Lock Ness monster. The prevailing theme is shouldering responsibility and hanging on to hope. I would recommend it to 13 and older. My 14 year old sister was dying to get hers hands on it when I was done.



The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is riveting. I admit to staying up way too late to finish reading it. It is set in a futuristic society, where the USA is gone. Instead, there is a ruling Capital over 12 Districts. As punishment for a rebellion, the Capital enforces the Hunger Games on the Districts. Each District must send a boy and girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to compete in the Games. The games are televised and all are forced to watch the children fight each other to the death.
Katniss, volunteers to take her young sister's place in the Games and must use all her skills to stay alive.

This is a young adults book, but I would recommend it to anyone. It is a brilliant critique of our modern entertainment. It takes our fascination of reality TV and violence to a logical conclusion.


Magic Street by Orson Scott Card took me awhile to finish. It's a harsh modern tale that is sometimes painful to read. It doesn't go into anything graphic, but it does deal with racial attitudes, sexuality, drugs etc. without sparing much.
Mack Street is a child of two worlds. He grows up in California while running wild in a strange mirror world. Anyone who knows Shakespeare's "A Mid Summer Night's Dream", will enjoy this twisty continuation. I would recommend it to 18 and older.

Call for Catholics

"our warfare is not against flesh and blood but against the power and principles of darkness"

Bishop Hermann of St. Lewis published this powerful column in the St. Louis Review.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012707.html

It is a reminder that we cannot hate the people who are responsible for atrocities, like abortion. It is a ploy of the Devil. Rather we need to actually live our Catholic faith. Bishop Herman calls for daily rosary, weekly Mass, and confession. In doing this, we strengthen ourselves for the spiritual battle and the real enemy. Read the article, the Bishop says it so well.

On a side note, daily rosary is hard. It only takes 15 minutes, but it always seems impossible to do when I'm not in the car. *sigh* I guess I'm just going to have to work harder on it. Same with the getting up at 4:30am to go to the gym. I really didn't have a good excuse today. I was just lazy.....

Deerskin

I just finished reading Deerskin by Robin McKinley. It is one of those stories that pulls you in and doesn't let go. The story is based on the old fairy tale Donkeyskin. It follows a princess, who is abused by her father and runs away in shame and horror. The author is a master at getting inside her characters heads. It is heartbreaking to read at times, but rewarding when the character finds healing. This is more of an adult book. I read it first when I was 16 and think that was a little too young. It depends on the kid. I would recommend it for 18 or older.

Banners Forward

I just read an interesting article today http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012602.html .
To sum it up, it discussed the importance of Internet and the lack of pro-life coverage in the main stream media. One of the points brought forward, was that anyone can get the message out.
Certainly not all blogs should be taken as fact, but neither should mainstream media be believed without reservations. Example: My co-worker was listening to the presidential inauguration on National Public Radio. He stopped by the office and saw us watching it on the internet live. As the camera panned the crowd, my co-worker exclaimed, "NPR said the crowd was 98% black and 2% white people! It sure doesn't look like it."
Not at all. The cameras were moving through the entire crowd; through the people up on the steps, to those seated and the ones further out in the streets. The people were a large mix of all ethnicity's.

So I would like to bring an interview with Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi forward:

"STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?
PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government. "

You can find the interview here: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Story?id=6725512&page=2

We all know that in the current administration, "family planning" means money to Planned Parenthood and company. In other words, this means that the "services" reduce children. This makes no sense. If we cut children out of the the picture, we lose all the jobs they create; hospitals, schools, daycare, etc. We lose people who could be taxpayers, consumers, officals, entertainers, the list goes on! Who does Pelosi think she is fooling?!

Crazy

Just saw this today and had to laugh.

Car Trouble

So I was driving home from Milwaukee, listening to my iPod and singing along, when something began to go wrong. The steering wheel was fighting me; the wheels were wobbling.
"Oh no. Please don't be a flat!" I begged.
Another thought occurred to me. Dad and I had been meaning to replace the C V joint boot on the wheel in question. I wondered if the boot had finally broke and the joint was giving out.
I groaned and began to pray, "Please God get me to the next exit with a gas station."
I hoped nothing would go wrong, for example: the wheel would fall off causing the car to flip and a huge accident to occur, or the steering wheel would loose control of the wheels and I would bang into the car next to me.
I thankfully saw the next exit. There was no gas station, but I could pull on the ramp to look at my tire, just in case it was flat. I pulled off. The tire wasn't noticeably flat looking; a little low when I checked the pressure but not bad. I kicked off the snow build up in the wheel well. That could be the problem. Dad had told me that a huge chunk of snow flying around in the well could cause a tire to wobble. Hoping this was the issue, I started up my car and slowly got back on the highway.
So far so good, no wobbling. I got up to 60 mph when the wobble crept back. Dang! It had to be the C V joint. My thoughts jumped to images of my tires locking up or falling off and the aftermath with my body getting pulled out of a twisted wreck. My mind went black after that one and dissolved into a incessant plead to get to a gas station in time.
I made it to the next exit and turned into the gas station. Whatever lingering doubts I had over the C V joint fled when I heard a sharp crack and clatter as I turned in. I could still drive though, it could go straight with out making noise. Maybe.....
After filling up on gas, checking the joint (didn't look broken), calling home (can I still drive on it?), I took a gentle turn to get out and got stuck. Now the engine was running, but the wheels weren't turning and it was clacking and clattering. I was stuck in the middle of the road. Great.
I tried pushing my car over to the side, but wasn't strong enough. Thankfully, a guy and his girlfriend saw me and gave me a hand. The next step was what to do. I was almost at the point of panic when I kept getting the busy signal at home. I was just talking to them! Who would be calling on a Sunday evening?! Oh. My brother always calls on Sunday. He has a cell with call waiting. I tried him. Sure enough, Thomas was talking to the gang. I explained what had happened and asked him (nicely) to get of the dang phone so I could call home!
It took dad an hour and a half to get me. Luckily, I had a book and my car was warm and the gas station was busy enough that bad guys probably wouldn't bother me. I locked the doors anyway. I was very happy to see dad. I made it home 3 hours later than I expected, but I made it home.
Thank God for small miracles like keeping a tire on and a dad willing to drive a hour and a half to get you and the car! Dad didn't complain at all.
Other then, "I bet if you han't asked me if the C V joint was okay to drive on before you left, it would have been fine!"
Sorry.