moving parts of the kasper clan

Although I was never fortunate enough to take part of the chess club… anywhere… I have always loved the game intensely. Some of my fondest growing up memories are of me and my dad playing chess for long hours at a time. However, I’ve never really progressed much through the years, and haven’t taken the time to try to improve. Well, having gotten my clock cleaned a few times on FICS, I’ve decided it’s time to read a bit.

• So I started out with the deprecatingly-titled Complete Idiot’s Guide to Chess. Definitely a good book and I recommend it as a good first read. Towards the end, the author recommended some good “next” books to read. I was painfully aware that I was completely ignorant about opening sequences, so I pre-ordered…
• Modern Chess Openings, 15th Edition. This was highly touted–both by the author of my first book and by those who have reviewed it on Amazon. I’ll say this… It’s very complete and completely overwhelming. I don’t yet have a nice chess set, and don’t really have a way to look at the board layout in the midst of all of the notations, so it’s just not manageable for me… yet. I definitely feel that it’s a solid book to have and will keep looking at it as I get more used to reading algebraic notation and being able to hold a mental picture of the board layout while reading.
• The next book I’m reading through is the REALLY cool Tal-Botvinnik, 1960. I actually bought it on a whim as I was buying MCO, since I wanted to spend enough for free shipping… =;) But MAN, it is SO cool! It’s very well-done technically and Tal does a very nice job of explaining each move of the matches in detail, which is helping me learn all the more. But what’s really cool is the inside look into Tal’s mind! Tal’s writing style is easy and flows well and I’m really enjoying the behind-the-scenes look at how he prepared for the epic battle and what was going on in his head throughout the process. Awesome!
• And lastly, probably in frustration with my inability to really dive into MCO and grasp it just yet, I found Winning Chess Openings (Winning Chess - Everyman Chess) at the local Barnes and Noble. I was looking for something that had a lot more description (you know… in words!) of the opening sequences. Now, to be fair, the level of depth that Yasser is able to achieve in this book can’t possibly rival MCO. But I am already enjoying the easy style that Yasser writes in, and I’m looking forward to get some good understanding of some of the more important opening series by both white and black.

Hm, also, as an aside… I’m trying out Amazon’s little referral thingey and I’m pretty disappointed. I think what’s absolutely needed is a firefox plugin like the tinyurl-creating one. You know… right-click on an Amazon page or picture or something and have it generate the HTML for you. And PLEASE, Amazon, stop using javascript to generate URLs!!! Having to go back and forth to your widget-creating thingey is PAINFUL. If you can’t do it all inline from your web browser without switching tabs… well, it just stinks. Okay, bye.

As I might have mentioned previously, I love a good book. And so I was delighted to discover Ted Dekker’s books recently. I first read his “Skin” book which totally freaked me out and made me think that I couldn’t handle any more of his books. But I took a chance on Saint next and absolutely loved it. Looking for more, I found Showdown, which turns out to be the previous book in Dekker’s excellent Paradise series. The third book, Sinner, comes out soon and I’m totally looking forward to it.

So, excellent author: yes! But what really impressed me about Showdown was the intensity of the story that Dekker weaved and the underlying parallels that he was subtly building. It is a very different type of story, and I was tempted to put it down at first because it was a little graphic, bloody, and freaky. And I was so engrossed in the story that not only could I not put it down for hours at a time (and I LOVE books like that!), but I was completely unaware of the deeper story that he was telling until it hit me like a ton of bricks about 4 chapters from the end. I can’t recall the last time an author has been so good at his craft as to have that effect on me. Maybe not even since Arthur Conan Doyle’s tomes!

WOW!

I can’t really explain much more than that or I’ll give away the story, but if you’re looking for a good book and a good author, I can wholeheartedly recommend both in Ted Dekker’s Showdown.

One of my favorite memories of all my growing-up years happened in my 7th grade. It centered around a very under-appreciated teacher of mine named Robin Avant who did something simple and inventive and refreshing and stirring with her class. I wish I knew how to contact her today because I can honestly say that she affected me in a deep, deep way and I’d love to thank her for it.

I know it’s hard to believe, dear reader, but I was a most uncomfortable geek in school at all levels. I didn’t fit in, to say the least. I was geek before geek was cool. =:) I was an avid reader, an Apple ][ hacker, and more socially inept than you’d ever want to admit possible. I grew up reading and passionately loving The Chronicles of Narnia, Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allen Poe, The Hardy Boys, Choose Your Own Adventures, Robin Hood, The Lord of the Rings series, and anything else I could get my hands on. I survived middle school by hiding myself in the library whenever possible. Well, by the time you hit 7th grade, you’re pretty much expected to be past that stage of life, I guess. And for sure, teachers in school had far more important things to do than to read stories to you, right?

My 7th grade teacher, Ms. Robin Avant, didn’t buy that. And I fondly remember that at the end of our school day, she would have us all quiet down, lay our heads down if we wanted, relax, and she would read to us. And the story that she read to us was Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper. And it was magical. In the chaotic world of junior high school filled with constantly watching your back and trying to fit in, here was a space of child-like peace and rest. We could stop trying to be more than we were and just enjoy the simple pleasure of having an incredibly good story read to us. I don’t know what the other students thought of this wild and crazy idea, but to me is was earth-shattering. And the book was so good and so powerful that it immediately consumed me. I read all 5 books in the Dark is Rising series, and then read them over and over again.

For this reason, Susan Cooper and her magical world in the Dark is Rising has always had an extra-special place in my heart and mind. I read through the whole series with my kids, and they absolutely loved them. And then I saw that they were making a movie from the series and I was thrilled. I had hopes of finally seeing all that I had imagined through the years, up on the big screen, as I’d been able to do with the LOTR movies(!).

And that’s where the title of this post comes in. I don’t blame myself for watching The Seeker movie, which claims to have been based on the second book in Susan Cooper’s series called “The Dark is Rising”. I had to see it. But I do wish that I would have read the reviews first. I wish I would have seen the outrage and shock and bitterness from the fans of the books. I think it would have prepared me better. As it was, I found myself getting increasingly angry and frustrated in watching this movie, such as I’ve never experienced before.

To say that The Seeker movie (and no, I won’t link to it *spit*) was stupid, pointless, horrible, wretched, the worst movie I’ve ever seen, a complete waste of time and money and the plastic it takes to create a DVD is a mind-boggling understatement. To say that The Seeker was based on The Dark is Rising is like saying that The Simpsons Movie was based on Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. And the most atrocious part of it all is that there was absolutely no reason for it. Susan Cooper’s books were every bit as magical and compelling as you’d ever ask for in a big-screen movie, just as they were. I don’t know whether to blame John Hodge for the piece of crap screenplay or David Cunningham for the utter abortion that made it to the screen, but whomever was responsible should never be allowed to take part in anything even slightly misconstrued as being creative again. I personally would love to see Susan Cooper come out with a statement publicly condemning the utter trashing of her writing that The Seeker has done. Or better, a lawsuit–by the fans with all proceeds going to Susan Cooper (this is America! you can sue anybody, right?).

But seriously, Susan, please do something.

As for me, I just ordered the boxed set of Susan Cooper’s EXCELLENT Dark is Rising series from Amazon and I’m going to enjoy them again the way that they should be–exactly as they were written. And if you’ve never read the series, I can highly recommend the books. Give them a good read-through and while you’re at it, don’t bother wasting your time with The Seeker.

Oh No’s! My beloved Moleskine has torn itself asunder! Behold, the ripped binding.

For $15, you’d think they’d be a little more resilient than this!

And no, my deluxe custom black duct tape pen holder is not to blame (I don’t think?).

Oh, intrepid fellow Moleskine users: is this kind of senseless violence unprecedented?

[ Update (2008-03-19: ] Moleskine has come through for me and send me a replacement!!

So, as part of the new and exciting me, I’ve decided that I need to start reading more books. Well, this and that I need to finish the books that I start. Currently, I have around… oh… 392 books that have bookmarks somewhere within the first quarter of them.

I’ve finished 3 good books since I’ve been out here in Rhode Island, and I’m currently working on finishing C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. Which reminds me, Mike, I’m still waiting for your review…. =;)

But here’s some really good blips from the last week’s worth of chapters I’ve read….

Warning: Open minds required below….

As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud.

The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love them.

The worldy man treats certain people kindly because he ‘likes’ them: the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on–including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.

… people are often worried. They are told they ought to love God. They cannot find any such feeling in themselves. What are they to do? The answer is the same as before. Act as if you did. Do not sit trying to manufacture feelings. Ask yourself, ‘If I were sure that I loved God, what would I do?’ When you have found the answer, go and do it.

The other set were accused of saying ‘Faith is all that matters. Consequently, if you have faith, it doesn’t matter what you do. Sin away, my lad, and have a good time and Christ will see that it makes no difference in the end.’ The answer to that nonsense is that, if what you call your ‘Faith’ in Christ does not involve taking the slightest noticice of what He says, then it is not Faith at all–not faith or trust in Him, but only intellectual acceptance of some theory about Him.

Even though C.S. Lewis’s theological books are a little more terse, intellectual, and harder to plod through then his more famous Chronicles of Narnia, I think it is well worth your while. He has a wonderful, logical way of speaking through his words.

Go read a book! =;)

After talking with John from KKSM, I ordered and received Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I read the preface thus far and underlined about half of it. It is SOOOOO good!! I absolutely love C.S. Lewis’s writing style. He is both precisely clear and creative at the same time. One example:

“It so happens that the impulse which makes men gamble has been left out of my make-up; and, no doubt, I pay for this by lacking some good impulse of which it is the excess or perversion.” — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Preface page XII

Love it! And the section following that, where he talks about the meaning of the very word “Christian”… amazing!!! Ahh, and thank goodness for the Internet! I was actually considering typing this all in meself, but I found that another had done this very thing already, leaving me only to copying/pasting, whee! To quote the page, “I planned to trim it up - but there’s just no doing that to Lewis.”

Far deeper objections may be felt - and have been expressed -against my use of the word Christian to mean one who accepts the common doctrines of Christianity. People ask: ‘Who are you, to lay down who is, and who is not a Christian?’ : or ‘May not many a man who cannot believe these doctrines be far more truly a Christian, far closer to the spirit of Christ, than some who do?’ Now this objection is in one sense very right, very charitable, very spiritual, very sensitive. It has every available quality except that of being useful. We simply cannot, without disaster, use language as these objectors want us to use it. I will try to make this clear by the history of another, and very much less important, word.

The word gentleman originally meant something recognisable; one who had a coat of arms and some landed property. When you called someone ‘a gentleman’ you were not paying him a compliment, but merely stating a fact. If you said he was not ‘a gentleman’ you were not insulting him, but giving information. There was no contradiction in saying that John was a liar and a gentleman; any more than there now is in saying that James is a fool and an M.A. But then there came people who said - so rightly, charitably, spiritually, sensitively, so anything but usefully - ‘Ah, but surely the important thing about a gentleman is not the coat of arms and the land, but the behaviour? Surely he is the true gentleman who behaves as a gentleman should? Surely in that sense Edward is far more truly a gentleman than John?’ They meant well. To be honourable and courteous and brave is of course a far better thing than to have a coat of arms. But it is not the same thing. Worse still, it is not a thing everyone will agree about. To call a man ‘a gentleman’ in this new, refined sense, becomes, in fact, not a way of giving information about him, but a way of praising him: to deny that he is ‘a gentleman’ becomes simply a way of insulting him. When a word ceases to be a term of description and becomes merely a term of praise, it no longer tells you facts about the object: it only tells you about the speaker’s attitude to that object. (A ‘nice’ meal only means a meal the speaker likes.) A gentleman - once it has been spiritualised and refined out of its old coarse, objective sense, means hardly more than a man whom the speaker likes. As a result, gentleman is now a useless word. We had lots of terms of approval already, so it was not needed for that use; on the other hand if anyone (say, in a historical work) wants to use it in its old sense, he cannot do so without explanations. It has been spoiled for that purpose.

Now if once we allow people to start spiritualising and refining, or as they might say ‘deepening’, the sense of the word Christian, it too will speedily become a useless word. In the first place, Christians themselves will never be able to apply it to anyone. It is not for us to say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ. We do not see into men’s hearts. We cannot judge, and are indeed forbidden to judge. It would be wicked arrogance for us to say that any man is, or is not, a Christian in this refined sense. And obviously a word which we can never apply is not going to be a very useful word. As for the unbelievers, they will no doubt cheerfully use the word in the refined sense. It will become in their mouths simply a term of praise. In calling anyone a Christian they will mean that they think him a good man. But that way of using the word will be no enrichment of the language, for we already have the word good. Meanwhile, the word Christian will have been spoiled for any really useful purpose it might have served.

We must therefore stick to the original, obvious meaning. The name Christians was first given at Antioch (Acts 11:26) to ‘the disciples’, to those who accepted the teaching of the apostles. There is no question of its being restricted to those who profited by that teaching as much as they should have. There is no question of its being extended to those who in some refined, spiritual, inward fashion were ‘far closer to the spirit of Christ’ than the less satisfactory of the disciples. The point is not a theological or moral one. It is only a question of using words so that we can all understand what is being said. When a man who accepts the Christian doctrine lives unworthily of it, it is much clearer to say he is a bad Christian than to say he is not a Christian.
from the preface to Mere Christianity - by C.S. Lewis

Brilliant!! I can’t wait to read more!

In other news, I spent 5 hours or so yesterday cleaning up KPilot’s home page, thanks to Adriaan enabling me to. =;) There’s not much visible change yet–it’s more back-end cleanups (converting ~ 10 static HTML pages to using PHP includes and magical code). Still, nonetheless, it felt good to do something for KPilot, since I’ve not had time as of late to help too much with bugs. =:/

It was another busy weekend, this, seeming to lack almost entirely of the deep rest I need. Although today, it was fun to have gathered at Pete’s lovely home with some of our project members and their families. I spent several hours there with my beautiful Lynn (Hi, darling–see, I do talk about you!) and wonderful kiddos. Pete is a marvelous host, has an incredibly manly grill, and is a good cook, to boot. =;) Thanks again, Pete!!

And now, to sleep, perchance to dream.

And whatever you do, Jason, don’t think about having to go back to work tomorrow… Doh!!

So, my sister Jenny was reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown when she came out for her vacation and since she bought the bigger version (with pictures), she gave me her old one. And thus I got hooked. She had me read a couple of pages in the middle of the book, and my first reaction was a strong distaste. I mean, this is Jesus the story is meddling with. Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, my Lord and Savior–you’ve heard of Him, surely.

I started reading, though, and was immediately caught into the story, and as is usual with good stories, I couldn’t put it down until I had read it all. Mr. Brown does an excellent job as a storyteller, and the story he tells is intriguing and captivating. I am a sucker for Grail stories, and love all things to do with Knights, secret societies, conspiracies, Renaissance art, history, and mostly everything else that comprises The Da Vinci Code.

And as Mr. Brown mentions, the underyling theme isn’t something that he made up. There have been conspiracy stories about the Bible, Jesus’s life, the Hebrew God of the Old Testament, and everything else that comprises The Da Vinci Code for many hundreds of years. In fact, I was exposed to these theories in college a few years back when I took a course that was titled “Poetry in the Old Testament” iirc, and was quite shocked (along with everyone else in the class) to discover that the intentionally mis-named course was really all about goddess/feminine theories with regard to the Old Testament and the very names of God (Jehovah and Yahweh). Interesting theories, to be sure, but I don’t claim to have researched the topic enough to debate it. What little I have read, however, refutes the theories popularized in The Da Vinci Code.

I also really appreciate the online resources Mr. Brown has provided to complement the book, such as the gallery, and his Frequently Asked Questions.

Which brings me to something that concerns me a little. In his FAQ, Mr. Brown is asked the question “ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN?” His answer leaves me unsure that he understands the question, and as I agree with him that it’s an important question, I wanted to point it out:

ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN?
Yes. Interestingly, if you ask three people what it means to be Christian, you will get three different answers. Some feel being baptized is sufficient. Others feel you must accept the Bible as absolute historical fact. Still others require a belief that all those who do not accept Christ as their personal savior are doomed to hell. Faith is a continuum, and we each fall on that line where we may. By attempting to rigidly classify ethereal concepts like faith, we end up debating semantics to the point where we entirely miss the obvious–that is, that we are all trying to decipher life’s big mysteries, and we’re each following our own paths of enlightenment. I consider myself a student of many religions. The more I learn, the more questions I have. For me, the spiritual quest will be a life-long work in progress.

See, the word Christian is a special word that was first used in the first-century city of Antioch, and it described Jesus’s followers (disciples) who were subsequently killed for their beliefs–namely, that Jesus is the Son of God who was crucified, died to pay the price for our sins, and was raised to life after 3 days. Webster’s dictionary defines “Christian” as:

1) One who professes belief in Jesus as Christ or follows the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus. 2) One who lives according to the teachings of Jesus.

Unfortunately, the word Christian has been watered down through the years so that now, many people say they are Christians because they live in America, etc. The thing is… the word Christian itself shouldn’t be open to interpretation. It has a definite meaning. You either believe Jesus is the promised Christ (Messiah) or you don’t. You either live your life according to the teachings of Jesus or you don’t. And Jesus didn’t allow for wishy-washy interpretation of who He said he was or how we should live. You’ll recall that NONE of his contemporaries were able to refer to Jesus as a “good teacher” or “nice man.” To quote C.S. Lewis,

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The MacMillan Company, 1960, pp. 40-41.)

As to Mr. Brown’s statement:

The more I learn, the more questions I have. For me, the spiritual quest will be a life-long work in progress.

I pray that Mr. Brown will continue to earnestly seek the truth and that he will find it. Towards that end, I believe that The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict is an excellent resource for this. As for me, my curiosity is piqued about these theories. I’d like to learn more about them and be able to discuss them intelligently. I think I’ll take a look through the copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls I still have from the odd little college course I mistakenly took. Maybe I’ll investigate the Gnostic Gospels some too (I’ve not even heard of them up till now).

Here’s to God’s truth for both of us, Mr. Brown. =:)