I've got a disease...

I believe that it is called bookstoritis. You've probably never heard it's clinical name before, so I'll elaborate on the symptoms. Upon entering a bookstore you receive a warm and tingling feeling inside, I'll liken it to a high that one would get from a drug... or at least, I'd assume that's what it's like. The next stage is termed browsing. One suffering from bookstoritis will wander, seemingly aimless at times, and his/her arms will slowly accumulate books, books that before entering would not have been in their minds to buy. Slowly the victim realizes that there is no way that they can afford all of these books and therefore sets many of them back, hoping that they will come back at a later date to buy them. Of course reality dictates that many of these books will never be bought by the diseased creature and likely never seen again. (Rare occurrences allot for exceptions). Finally they leave with many a new book in hand.

Other symptoms include: Being drawn to bookstores if in a nearby vicinity, depending upon the person, this can be miles away; Buying more books than you have time to read; Extreme weightloss as dictated by your bank account's lack of food purchasing power.

As you can tell I walked into a bookstore planning to buy nothing today... things don't always go as planned.

Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days) - Bill Willingham: Simply put, the best comic series that I have ever read. This is the first time that they have carried any of the Fables series at any of the bookstores up here. Needless to say, I had to get it.

On Bullshit - Harry G. Frankfurt: I had heard this book mentioned before but I still can't place where. It was written by a moral philosopher from Princeton and clocks in at about 60 pages. It was small and I was intrigued, throw it in the bag...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- J.K. Rowling: Now hold up. I know what you're saying. "Dan doesn't this go against everything that you've ever stood for?", "Why (*sobbing uncontrollably*)", Not to mention the shock and fainting due to extreme disappointment and/or joygasms. Now we get to the justification part... or as I like to call it "The Laugh Zone". What? Conan copyrighted laugh zone? Dang. Take two... or as I like to call it "Fun With Word Manipulation". As many of you know I was planning on reading this series, however you also know that I wanted to wait until the hype/craze/hullaballoo died down to do so. Well, when I saw this book in the store on the bargain rack with a 75% off sticker on it, I thought maybe it finally all died down... I should still wait a while anyways. Then I realized that it was the full color, hardcover, collectors edition. And that 75% off meant that it was now $15. Well that I couldn't resist. So the long and short is that I now have to find the previous five and catch up.

Currently Reading... Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days) - Bill Willingham
The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Currently Listening to... Penny on the Train Track - Ben Kweller (mp3)

P.S. Spellcheck wants to change Conan to Cowman... giggle
P.P.S. I'll try to get back on the ball with the blogging, it's been a little while.

I win at life

Today, (or tonight actually), I purchased Sufjan Stevens Tickets. I will see him in Milwaukee on Monday, September 25. This will be the defining moment of my life. That is all.

Soccer Has Totally Redemed Itself

I take back everything bad I ever said about soccer.

Look Not on Our Sins...

In the catholic church there is a part during mass in which the priest says "Look not on our sins but on the faith of your church". I have always loved this verse. That is what all of us believers would hope for; that God in his mercy would look past our sins to our faith. However, this is also what scares me. The faith of the church is not strong. I wish I could say otherwise, but I cannot. Too many people simply go through the motions. It saddens me. My prayer is that we would become a church of faith above and beyond, and I was extremely pleased to hear this in our homily today. Our gospel message today was from when Jesus was beginning his ministry and was invited back to Nazareth. He preached and the people were astounded by what he was saying, but when they realized that it was the Jesus of Mary and Joseph that grew up around them they quickly lost faith in what he was saying. They thought this is just one of us, how can he make any difference? I think that we have this same problem today. It takes such an incredible act to shake us, to make us pay attention, to make us care. It shouldn't.

Currently Listening to... Regina Spektor - Fidelity
Currently Reading... Kings in Disguise - Vance and Burr
The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Up at Six

It's always weird for me to find out that people read this. I suppose that I have linked to this blog in a couple of places, but it still strikes me as odd when I find out that people read it. Should it? No... but it does. I read other people's blogs all of the time. I'm interested in their lives. Why do I feel as if people shouldn't wonder at mine? I'm happy that people are interested in my life, as anyone would be. All of us have a need to connect to people, even if it is through writing.

Now that I mention it is there a better correspondence than writing? (Besides face to face that is.) You have time to say what you want, you are on no timetable that would dictate when you need to be heard, you are alone with your thoughts and in control of which ones escape. Writing is so elegant, why do I not write letters? Other mediums are crude. AIM is ugly, like stunted conversation, though it is used extensively in our culture of needing everything now. Through it writing's greatest flaw is exploited, the ability to be understood. By placing writing in the context of real-time conversation, people are less apt to watch what they write and more apt to come across poorly to each other. The phone loses so much through the lack of visuals and closeness. You may be physically talking to the person, but for me at least, non-verbal communication is just as important as verbal in a conversation. It suffers for this, for the inability to bring a sense of intimacy that is found in face-to-face discussion. For lack of another word, it is cold. Writing on the other hand is warm. Immediately the recipient is disarmed, and in a couple of ways. That someone took the time to write to them is very flattering, opening up the listener to hear the writer. It also places the writer in a vulnerable spot. Writing your life, your words, your thoughts to paper in a way empties you of them. (I don't know if that makes sense... maybe it isn't the best way to put it.) But it leaves you exposed, (much better). The ability to take the time to say what you mean is also priceless, as is the ability to take the time to comprehend what others say. And after all of this, all that I have said about writing... why do I not write to others?

I want to... to start at least. If you would like a letter from me tell me so in the comments. I will try and write you one. I need to keep better contact with my friends, I pray this will help. Some of you will get a letter regardless of whether or not you ask, this is because you deserve one for writing me and for taking the time to be my friend. I'm sorry to all the friends that I have that I have not kept up with and I hope I can change that.

Now a little less heavy material.

Danielson. This man is amazing. Mind you I say this not to discredit any of the others in his band. He put out what could easily become my favorite record of the year and my favorite song of the year. I have been listening to this record ever since I woke up this morning and am fast falling in love with it. Also watch the trailer for the documentary coming out!

I woke at 6:15 AM today. It feels good. I need to do this more often. I think I'll go have breakfast, I haven't eaten breakfast in, well, probably about a month. I think I'm due.

Currently Listening to... Ships - Danielson

Currently Reading... Kings in Disguise - Vance and Burr
The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Yeah...

Well as most of you have undoubtedly read here Rachel and I have broken up. Hopefully time apart will give both of us some needed clarity in our lives. I can't say that it doesn't hurt because that would make me a liar, but I can say that I am hopeful for our future as friends for now and I still hope that sometime down the road we will be together. I glad for everything that we've gone through and everything that we will continue to go through in a different context.

Ask anything you want as I'm definitely willing to answer any and all questions.

Currently Listening to... Jose Gonzalez - Heartbeats

Currently Reading... The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Kings in Disguise - James Vance and Dan Burr