In a Hole in the Ground…

There lived a Hobbit.”  The opening line to the quiet prequel to the epic masterpiece The Lord of The Rings.   The Hobbit is one of my all time favorite books and not going to lie, I’m am absolutely terrified of the movie.  I mean, does anyone else remember this train wreck from 77?  (For the record, I didn’t see it until 93)

Turns out that the casting for the new movie finally came out and a number of the names made the top 20 Google trends for 10/22/10.  So here are some of the things that I absolutely loved from the book that I hope make it into the movie.

Chapter 4

This is part of series that began with Kamikaze: Preface.  For a complete listing of the entire series click here.  All material is the property of the writer and cannot be reproduced without the authors written consent (and all the rest of that “please don’t take my work and make money off of it” stuff).

I learned a lot on the Babylon.  More than I would have expected to learn that’s for sure.  I always knew the importance of discipline on a ship or in any kind of company, but the truth is that I never knew how important.  The men and women aboard the Babylon all wore uniforms for example, something that the K’s had never done.  I had the opportunity to watch a midshipman become an officer while I was onboard and the change in demeanor when he put on the officer’s uniform was…indescribable.  There was just such a change that came over the young man because he knew that the uniform carried a different level of discipline and a different level of responsibility.  And he knew it and embraced it.

Top 10 Posts

Well I’m at about the 6 month mark with this blog and figured now would be a good time to take a look at what my big hits were.  Here are my top ten posts.

10) Christians are Weird, Get Over It: This one was interesting because it was here I first met Robert: an atheist who was more than happy to challenge me…at least it came across that way.  My point in the post however, is that we can’t expect to define a Christian “norm” because we’re all so freaking weird.

9)#!CSEX: Sexual Abuse: I was really struggling with this one.  Here I join the team from the Idea Camp leading up to the discussion in Vegas and talk about Sexual Abuse and role the Church takes in healing it.

8) Star Wars and the Holy Spirit: OK I had a lot of fun with this one, I’m really glad it made the top ten.  What does Star Wars teach us about the Holy spirit?  hmmm ask Yoda you shall.

7) Science Fiction/Fantasy or In It but not Of It: What does it mean to be in the world but not of it?  I use Science Fiction and Fantasy as my examples.

6) Religion vs Spirituality: What’s the difference and where do they meet?

5) Dear Father – ooo! Shiny!: The problems of being ADD and having general issues when focusing and how that impacts my personal prayer life.

4) #ICSEX: Orientation Week – a Question of Identity: Yes, that is homosexuality I’m talking about there.  The main point I make is that we can’t talk about the “homosexual issue” if we won’t even allow the LGBT community to discern an identity in Christ.

3) Simple Reminders: one of my personal favorites, I parcel out a few simple reminders for everyday Christian living.  As of 8/31/2010 there are still a few of them that I would like to write separate posts on to expand a bit, but I feel pretty darn good about it.

2) 31DBBB Feedback : So I started this blog BEFORE Ourchurch.com started their 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project, but I was lucky enough to be one of the people chosen for peer review in the midst of the project.  Most (but not all) of the people who viewed or commented here were checking me out thanks to Paul Steinbruek and crew.

1) #ICSEX: Pornography : My first post in the Idea Camp’s let’s blog about sex series.  I think it speaks pretty well for itself.

Chapter 1

This is part of series that began with Kamikaze: Preface.  For a complete listing of the entire series click here.  All material is the property of the writer and cannot be reproduced without the authors written consent (and all the rest of that “please don’t take my work and make money off of it” stuff).

Chances are you don’t know me.  Chances are you have no idea what kind of world I live in.  Chances are that you’re reading this in some far away time and place that I’ll never know or understand.  All of this means I should give you a little introduction to the messed up world I live in so here it goes.

Kamikaze: Preface

For those of you who don’t know, I love to write fiction.  I write short stories, poetry, I have one novel finished that I’m shopping around and currently working on another.  However, this second project is lagging somewhat, I’m having difficulty keeping the moment going….who am I kidding I’m having some issues getting the moment started, so to keep myself accountable and writing, I’m going to post a chapter a week on my blog here.  I fully invite any comments and feedback on anything from style to the names I give my characters.  That doesn’t mean I’ll answer all the questions but I certainly welcome them.

A quick little warning before I get too far: I’m a reasonably worldly person.  Ultimately my target audience for this is not  a Christian one which means that the characters will sometimes do non-Christian things or use abrasive language.  I will avoid using either for shock value on principle, but I want to let you all know that this is a real possibility.  Off hand, I’d say this is probably riding the line between PG-13 and R.   Anyways, the first chapter will be posted and linked here, and every chapter will link to an index page at the very beginning.

Enjoy!