It's Quiet!!!

Some time this morning after I arrived at work, but hours before lunch, people began sandblasting the house next door. It was the loudest constant and static noise I have ever had the misfortune to be near. It was shockingly loud. Traveling between the office and the house had to be kept to a minimum, as the full force hit you when you opened the door to the outside world.

But now it's gone!!! I was trying to minimize it by putting earbuds in my ears and playing music (quietly, so as not to further damage my hearing). But a moment ago I noticed a new sound -- silence! Yes, I know silence isn't actually a sound, but today it seemed palpable.

Uh-oh. It's starting again on a different wall. Wait, it stopped... Please, please don't come back!

We'll see. Meanwhile, thank You, Lord, for silence and music.

Eldest

Eldest (Inheritance, Book 2)by Christopher Paolini

This is the sequel to Eragon. Because it is the second book, which is often the hardest book of a trilogy to write, without the mysteries of the first or the climax of the third, it seriously suffers from Paolini’s youth. I would say it is a pity he didn’t wait until later in life to write these novels, except that I expect if he is any good he has more stories in him just as worthy of telling. Hopefully he will improve and write more.

Aside from the annoyance with the style, some of the views Paolini appears to hold bothered me, chief of which was the atheism of the elves, the most beautiful of all living creatures. Atheistic elves mean the world is awry, it is wrong and twisted in its nature. His reasons for dismissing religion (although this is a story which hasn’t concluded yet, and so my analysis of the author’s thoughts behind it is tentative for now) mostly consisted of straw man arguments. An elf accuses the dwarvish priests of harming their people by taking wealth for their temple that could be used to feed the poor. The dwarf responds that the crops would fail if the gods were not served. Since many religions do not make such a claim, it is hardly a reason to dismiss all religion (perhaps all the religions of this world do make that claim; well, I am sorry for that world in that case). The elf also claims, at another time, that a world without gods is a better world, for people are good for its own sake, rather than out of fear of punishment. The elf seems not to know that the highest motivation in true religion is love, not fear. And, of course, none of us are born naturally loving or good. We have to be changed first, which we cannot accomplish on our own.

The elf claims religion depends on faith as opposed to reason, when it actually depends on faith with reason. It can be quite reasonable to have faith. For example, it is eminently reasonable for Eragon to have faith in his dragon Saphira. To claim that the highest thinkers are atheistic, such as the elves, is just silly. There are fine Christian philosophers; read some of C.S. Lewis, or Peter Kreeft. I especially recommend Kreeft’s Making Sense Out of Suffering, as that deals quite well with the argument that a god who could allow all the suffering in the world would actually be an enemy. Lewis’ Miracles, for the elf’s claims that miracles do not exist. (Although that is easy to respond to on my own – the elf said they had not seen miracles, only things they did not know enough to explain yet. In that case, she obviously never will see a miracle, since she is not willing to accept the possibility that anything she sees is not somehow explicable by natural means. She has adopted a natuaralistic philosophy, and no supernatural event could shake it in and of itself. Stating that your philosophy is naturalistic is not an argument against my own supernatural worldview – it is only being polite and telling me your presuppositions.)

And, of course, when you think about a magical fantasy creature not believing in the supernatural, it actually becomes rather humorous. Enough with that rant. It was a decentish sort of book, but I don’t recommend it unless the third ends up being better. We’ll see.

“After a pause, he asked, ‘What do you think of Nasuada’s plans?’

‘Mmm… she’s doomed! You’re doomed! They’re all doomed!’ She cackled, doubling over, then straightened abruptly. ‘Notice I didn’t specify what kind of doom, so no matter what happens, I predicted it. How very wise of me.’” – Eragon and Angela

Sometimes she states the obvious, but I like her. She does it in an Anya sort of way. Christopher Paolini should base more of his characters on real people, if this is the result.

The Bridge

The Bridge (Bracken Trilogy, Book 1) by Jeri Massi

This was one of those Christian children’s fiction books all the younger kids in my family read when we were homeschooled, and it was one of my favorites. I was sure I read it several times. Actually, when I read it again recently (well, in Oct. ’05, so relatively recently) I looked at my mom’s “This book has been read by:” thing in the back of the book, and saw that I had indeed read it a couple times – the second time a week after the first!

Reading it again as an adult diminished it a bit – the writing itself isn’t excellent. I still enjoyed it, though. The basic idea of the book is that the main character, a princess, must flee as her kingdom is invaded. She’s pretty childish at the beginning and doesn’t understand why her loyal subjects are having her carried off, but she matures through her trials. Oh, and there’s a “wise woman” archetypal character to help with the maturing bit.

With such a standard plot and imperfect writing, I’m not sure why I still like it so much. Well, the writing isn’t that bad; it only draws slightly too much attention to itself, is a little too simple. I recommend this one.

Recommendation

Go to Leanne's Menu Mailers and click on the sample vegetarian menu. Try the first recipe, the Apple Raisin Wraps. I had most of one for dinner last night and another one for lunch today, and they're so good! Don't worry if you're one of the few people who doesn't like cream cheese -- neither do I, but there's little enough in there that it's still good. Mostly you just need to like apples to like this recipe. Mmmm....

Gas Prices

I liked this article someone pointed out to me last year. Finally I'm linking to it. Yeah, it's old, but gas prices are still something we like to complain about. They're not as high now as last summer (if I recall correctly), but they will be again someday. This is an amusing article with some good things to keep in mind.

New Job

I have been hired at my favorite bookstore. It's a used bookstore in Whittier, but I won't actually say the name in this post in case I ever want to complain. So far I don't. I've only worked four hours thus far, and I'm only scheduled eight hours a week for the near future (1-5 Tuesdays and Saturdays, come stop by!), although the owner is happy to add more hours as I pick things up, even, possibly, to fulltime. I say possibly since I'm not sure yet whether or not I want to do that. It would depend in part how good I can get at this and how much higher I can get my payrate to go. He told me what the maximum was when he hired me. If I could get it up to the maximum, that'd be great. We'll see whether he was thinking I could get that high in a couple years or in a much closer, much more helpful to me time period.

My first day, last Saturday, was good, although a bit tiring. There was a lot of information to take in. Used bookstores can be a bit more complicated than new ones, especially since the computer won't tell you whether or not we own a book; you have to know the store pretty darn well. Sad as it was, my feet were tired when I finished -- after only two hours. Physically, I felt much like I'd been at the mall, and I hate that feeling (includes a sort throat and headache). Fortunately it quickly faded with food and rest.

Last Tuesday was better. I spent a lot of time fixing a section of messy books with the owner, and the time kneeling and shifting from one position to another seemed to help. And reorganizing books is the sort of thing I do to destress. In fact, I noticed towards the end that I had mysteriously acquired a multitude of scratches on my right forearm. No blood, but many many pink raised lines. I guess I got carried away as I pushed, pulled and scooted books? Beats me. They were mostly gone the next day.

So, that's the new job. I'm excited about it, but also a bit scared it's not going to work out. Right now, I'd like to stay there indefinitely. But at my current level of pay, that just wouldn't be possible. We'll see.