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Greek State of Mind

There Are Evangelizers In Our Midst… Even in Monmouth County, New Jersey

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While the power was out for the last several days, I found myself spending time at a lot of local stores. No, I wasn’t there to buy stuff. I was there to keep warm! Look, when it’s cold out and you don’t have any heat – you’ll do what you have to do to stay warm. For me, that included going to the local Barnes & Noble and reading books (which is something that I do anyway), walking around the local Walmart, and spending time walking around Wegmans (okay I admit it – I bought some stuff for my car while I was at Wegmans).

That’s the base of information that you need to know for this entry. I’ll add this one, crucial piece of information: given that there is near total devastation in many of New Jersey’s shore communities due to the recent super storm and blizzard, there are a lot of out-of-state people up here helping out at a variety of different companies. For example, I’ve seen utility workers from down south (who are running circles around the New Jersey teams, by the way). I’ve also seen insurance adjusters from out-of-state helping homeowners with their claims.

It’s a group effort to recover here in New Jersey.

With that information out of the way, the title of this entry suggests that there are evangelizers among us – even in Monmouth County! Here’s a story that I sent to some of my friends after spending some time warming up and reading a book at the local Barnes & Noble three nights ago. I think you’ll enjoy this:

I’ve been sitting at Barnes & Noble for about 30 minutes and this insurance adjuster – I can tell he’s not from around here by his accent – was sitting across from me the entire time doing some work. I paid no mind to him – I was just flipping between my cell phone and my NOOK.

Anyway, the guy just gathered his things and got ready to leave. When he was ready to go he came over to me and said, “Sir?” I looked up and said, “Yes.”

He said, “Can I tell you something?” I said, “Yeah.”

He said, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” I said, “Yes.”

He said, “Well, his real name is Jehovah. It’s Yahweh. And he’s coming back soon and I just wanted to tell you that he loves you. Just wanted to tell you that he’s coming back and that he loves you.”

I said, “Thank you.”

And he said, “Alright. Have a good night.” And he walked out of the store.

I’m compelled to write this experience on the blog because this type of stuff just doesn’t happen too often in New Jersey. We’re a state with a lot of skeptical people; we have people who are automatically apprehensive towards those that they don’t know. I’ve visited the South many times and it’s a bit disorienting when you’re walking on the street and random strangers greet you with a genuine, “Good afternoon. How do you do today?” It always stops me in my tracks until I get used to it again. That type of forward communication doesn’t happen in New Jersey unless it’s one person looking at another person the wrong way until someone cracks and says, “What are you looking at?”

It’s our way of life in this state. Don’t judge us.

But I had two immediate reactions to this guy coming up to me and saying what he said. First, I immediately felt warmed up in my spiritual heart. I don’t know about you all out there in internet land, but I go to church each Sunday and on Holy Days and I enjoy going to church. I didn’t always enjoy going to church, but I do now and I hope that I will continue to enjoy going to church. So when this person came up to me to tell me things that I pretty much already know and believe in from the teachings of my church – it just felt good.

Second, as I felt warmed up I began to feel better about the horrible situation that I found myself in with no electricity and a cold home to go back to that night. Hey, Jesus loves me – what else do I need, right? 🙂

And the third nearly automatic reaction that I had to this guy was a very small voice in my head saying, “What’s his angle? What’s he up to? Keep an eye on him as he leaves the store and make sure he doesn’t hang around. If he follows you home, drive to the police station instead. Maybe you should confront him outside and see what his deal is. I don’t know if I trust him. He did reference Jesus, but who is he?”

Hey, I’m from New Jersey – I’m skeptical about people sometimes!

Anyway, it was an interesting encounter and an overall good message. Over the last few days, I’ve thought about this message and this guy’s confidence and lack of fear in delivering it. Jesus Christ is coming back and he loves you.

Now that’s a pretty uplifting message if there ever was one!

How I Find Out If I’m Dealing With A Simple-Minded Person – My Last Name

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We all have different quirks that define the way we look at the world. For example, if you hate extremely loud noises, then you’re probably not going to be the type of person to get front row tickets at a rock concert. Or, if you’re the type of person that loves to read books, you’ll probably put more value in reading your NOOK at Barnes & Noble versus spending the night out partying with your friends at the local bar.

Well, when I’m teaching in the classroom (including in the digital classroom) I have certain quirks. I don’t like students who are in school for free on athletic scholarships and then choose to fall asleep in class. That happened once in my class and it burned me up to the point where I reported it to the kid’s coaches. He stayed awake and did very well in the class from that point forward. Also, I don’t like when I see a kid who is obviously coming from a life of privilege (believe it or not, most of my Freshman students would actually tell me that they came from wealth – very odd) wasting their time in class by slacking off or clacking away on their Droids or iPhones. These kids made me want to ask them why they’re wasting their parents’ money, but I don’t cross those bounds (yet!).

The purpose of this entry is to talk about one of my biggest quirks when it comes to dealing with my students: when they can’t spell my last name. This actually happens more than 50% of the time. That’s right – my students misspell my last name more than half of the time that they reach out to me for assistance…

How can students possibly misspell my last name?! Honestly? My last name is slapped on the syllabus for the course, it’s in my e-mail signature, it’s all over the course content – and yet there are still students who can’t manage to spell my last name correctly? Really? What?!

The paragraph above is how I feel every time I see my last name butchered by a student.

I think what really irks me is that while my name is a good, strong Italian name, it’s still printed on nearly every document that I hand out when I teach a course. In fact, it’s in the damn e-mail address that the college gives me to interact with the students! And if a simple-minded student can’t figure out that the e-mail address is my name, I have a standardized signature at the end of each message which gives my full name. That’s what irks me – the fact that the correct spelling of my last name is readily available to anyone who spends more than 5 seconds trying to find it.

When I have a student in class that can’t spend the extra 5 seconds to find the correct spelling of my name before they send me an e-mail or put it on one of their papers, then I know that I’m dealing with a simple-minded person. And this isn’t a statement of arrogance. Not at all. Actually, this is something that I began testing 5 years ago when I started doing this little teaching gig on the side. Whenever I had a student in class who continually butchers my name over and over again, I begin to take a closer look at their actions in class. Many of them don’t take notes or they choose to play on their phones during the lectures; many of them have poor attendance records.

If you’re reading this and you teach young adults or professional adults, then I’d be interested in your thoughts on this issue. I think this is about as direct a condemnation of the level of college-preparedness that we have in our public school system as I can provide.

We need to better prepare our high school students for college. And if they’re not ready for college-level study, then we need to stop encouraging them to attend college. We should NOT be encouraging these kids to take out a mountain of debt so they an live up to a now-archaic ideal that simply is not for everyone.

Anyway, if you’re a student and you’re reading this – spell your professor’s name correctly. While they probably won’t mention it if you spell their name incorrectly, believe me when I say that this sets off red lights in the professor’s head and makes them take a closer look at you as a student (both your in-class actions and your submissions). And for crying out loud – your professor’s last name is on the syllabus! Take the 5 seconds to find out the proper spelling!

Does Anyone Else Have a Serious Reading Problem?

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Way back when I was a young kid I learned that the easiest way to learn more stuff was to read more books. I always wanted to know more so I really enjoyed reading a lot of different types of material from textbooks to magazines to novels to short stories to you name it. And when the internet was in its infancy, I enjoyed reading internet discussion boards like Prodigy.

Remember Prodigy? Wow – what an old reference!

Well, I still like to learn more about the world around me and my love of reading has stuck with me. In my bedroom I have a bookshelf filled with books (most of which I haven’t read through yet) and in my spare bedroom I have a large plastic tote container also filled with books (also mostly unread). Plus, my Mom bought me a NOOK Color a few years ago and that thing is filled with an entirely different set of books than are sitting on my bookshelves.

But it’s not just physical books and e-books that I enjoy reading. I also enjoy reading various blogs, news, and commentary websites. In fact, I use the Google Reader interface and that poor thing is overloaded with hundreds of updates everyday. Granted, I only read 3 – 5 of the actual updates, but 3 – 5 articles each day over the course of a week begins to add up!

And the love of reading continues… each weekend I receive the bulletin from church and I go through it to make sure that there isn’t anything new going on that I’ve missed. Of course, that’s a quick read and I can usually get through it as I eat my lunch on Sunday. But then you have the occasional weekend when the diocesan newspaper is released and that thing is packed with news! I just received one of them last weekend and I’m still getting through it. Which leads me to the newspaper and “news” in general. I really enjoy waking up in the morning and scanning through the New York Times website as well as the FOX News website (hey – you need to get both sides of the story, right?). I imagine that whenever I buy a house I’ll have to get a weekender subscription to the New York Times. Or maybe the online version – who knows?

Then there is the “To Read” file that I keep on my computer. Whenever I get sent an article or a report that is too long to read in one sitting, I stick it in that file and hope to get back to it at some point. As you might imagine, that folder gets bigger and bigger. Not to mention that I have a whole series of bookmarks on my computer that are holding old article that I need to go back and read at some point.

Right now I’m reading three different books for the class that I’m taking (remember that?). I’m also at the beginning of the eighth book in the Sword of Truth Series (remember that, too?) on my NOOK. And I’m about halfway through reading The Jersey Sting. Very interesting book considering that I worked in the real estate business in Deal Township, New Jersey.

I think if I can get through the eighth book of the Sword of Truth series on the NOOK and the rest of The Jersey Sting, then I’ll feel less pressure to read. Once I get those books out of the way, I’m going to start picking off the articles in my saved bookmarks folder. Then I’m going to pick off the articles that I’ve saved on the Google Reader. The next thing is going to be the “To Read” folder and then I’m going to begin hitting those books sitting on my bookshelf and in the plastic tote.

So the question is – when does a love of reading become a problem?! 🙂

NOOK Book Review: Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

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Sometimes you watch a clip on the morning news that sticks in your head. A while back (I think it was before Christmas 2010) I saw an interview on FOX & Friends with Todd Burpo and his young son, Colton Burpo. The gist of the teases leading up to the interview were that the young kid claimed to have gone to Heaven and had details on what Heaven is actually like. After hearing those teases as I was getting ready for work I thought, “Okay. I’m sold. Let’s hear this kid’s story.”

I don’t really remember much about the interview other than I couldn’t get an immediate read on whether or not the kid was telling the truth. Sometimes you watch these young kids on television and you can sense that they are coerced into saying certain things by their parents. Other times you watch these kids and just get a bad feeling about the entire story. It’s hard to explain, but if you’ve ever watched a person tell a lie or bend the truth to the point of nearly breaking it in half, then you know what I’m talking about.

I didn’t get that sense from Colton’s story, but I didn’t give it much thought.

The reason the interview was taking place was because the kid’s father wrote a book about his son’s experience. Over the next few months I would pick up the Burpo book at my local Barnes & Noble, flip through it a little bit, and then put it back on the shelf and move on to the next story. Quick side note – even though I own a NOOK Color I still head over to the local Barnes & Noble store to flip through some books to see whether or not I’d want to buy them and also whether or not it would be better to buy the NOOK book version or the paper version. Plus, I like spending a few minutes in the Barnes & Noble – it’s nice and quiet (most of the time).

Anyway, I didn’t consider reading the book until last week when I got my hands on an electronic copy on the NOOK. And, since the book is a relatively short read, I buzzed through over the last few days. I have a few thoughts about the book which are in no particular order below.

  • The first half of the book. No offense to the Burpo family or the writing of this book, but the first half of the book is a bore. Sure, I understand that the first half of the book is written to give a base for the second half of the book and the stories about Colton’s experiences, but if you’re picking up this book to read about Colton’s accounts of Heaven and his experiences with Jesus Christ, then you can skip the entire first half of the book. The family stories, the stories of Todd’s physical trials and pains, the ups and downs of the family – all of that tells a certain story and it’s not the one that I wanted to read when I picked up this book. I’m a spiritual guy, I believe in Jesus Christ and the scriptures, I’m already into all of that. I didn’t need to read about the Burpo family’s seemingly consistent pains and their life in the great wide open of middle America to have the point hammered home that these are regular, everyday Christian people. The entire first half of the book could have been summed up in 2 – 3 pages, which would have allowed this reader (and any other number of readers out there) to get to the real heart of the story.
  • Weird Parental Reactions. This is definitely a regional perspective, but I was shocked at some of the reactions that Todd and his wife Sonja had to Colton’s comments. For example, when Colton tells his father that he sat in Jesus’ lap and that Jesus talked to him and angels sang to him when he was in the hospital, my mind immediately went to a place that wanted to know what the father was going to do about people approaching his son while he was in the hospital. In other words, my immediate reaction to some of what is written in this book is a reaction borne out of living in the northeast United States for all of my life. Almost subconsciously, people in this part of the world process and assess what they hear and come to an immediate, negative conclusion. You might say we judge a book by its cover. The point here is that Todd and Sonja responded to Colton’s experience in a different way than, say, Sonny and Maria would have responded if little Vinny was telling them about people visiting him in his hospital bed in New York City.
  • Colton’s Description of Jesus Christ. All in all, I’m still not sure whether I believe this kid’s experience or not. In truth, I actually believe more of the story than I think could be made up (see next point). Aside from Colton’s knowledge of things that he was never told (like his miscarried sister and his great grandfather Pops), the biggest draw for me to believe his story is his consistently noting that the current vision of Jesus Christ that we have is wrong. I don’t mean that we have the wrong impression of him as our Lord and Savior. I mean his physical appearance is a bit off. Frankly, Jesus Christ was born to a young Palestinian woman (Mary) in the Middle East and yet we show him to be of Anglo-Saxon descent. Something doesn’t seem right in that to me… Colton says that this picture is the best representation of what Jesus Christ actually looks like:

      I don’t know about you, but I see that picture and I think, “Now that’s a better representation of Jesus Christ!” The picture above looks more like a guy who could have been born in the Middle East, right? Plus, that portrait just happened to be painted by a young girl who claims to have also visited Heaven and whose account nearly matches Colton’s account…

  • The swords in Heaven. This was the one part of the book that I thought didn’t flow correctly and, for some reason, made me think that something might be up with the whole thing. It’s all of Chapter 25 that really made me think twice about this story. In short, Burpo tells how he and his family watched The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (an openly Christian-themed fantasy story that became a major motion picture a few years ago) and how Colton positively responded to the White Witch being taken down by Aslan. After some discussion, Colton tells his parents that there are swords in Heaven because Satan isn’t in hell yet. The swords are for the battle that has yet to come (Armageddon) and how Jesus told Colton that he couldn’t have sword because he’d be too dangerous. The parents ask Colton if he saw Satan and he responds that he had seen him. When they ask what he looked like, Colton didn’t respond. When the parents continued to ask Colton about Satan after that night, he still didn’t respond.

      For some reason, that didn’t sit right with me. I understand that this is a young kid and that the thought of Satan, much less the sight of him, must have frightened the kid. Okay, I get that completely. But here is a young kid who is telling wonderful, amazing stories about Jesus Christ and Heaven and then he totally freezes up when the topic of Satan comes up? I don’t know about that – just seems odd.

  • The story just sort of ends. There’s no happy conclusion to Colton’s stories about Jesus Christ and Heaven. They just sort of end. The book is brought to a nice conclusion by Burpo and we even get an epilogue to read through, but that’s it. There’s no summation of salient points and no final dictum from Colton about Heaven or his experiences with Jesus Christ (other than that Jesus really loves children and there’s no way to possibly describe God’s overpowering love for us). The book just kind of… ends.
  • No heavy issues. This one seems obvious, but you’re not going to find discussion of any heavy issues in this book. As a happy Roman Catholic, the big theological issues in my Church revolve around whether or not women should be priests, whether or not priests should be allowed to marry, whether or not homosexuality is acceptable, when abortion is acceptable (if ever), etc. Obviously, a book about a kid who sees Heaven isn’t going to cover those issues. So, if you’re thinking about picking up this book to understand what Heaven thinks about these major issues, don’t bother reading the book.

Those are some of the bigger points that I have about this book. With respect to a recommendation, I’m not against anyone reading this book. In fact, if you can get it at a good price, then I recommend reading it just because the insights that Colton gives about Jesus Christ and Heaven are fun theological points to ponder. Of course there is the big question…

Do I believe Colton’s account of visiting Heaven and spending time with Jesus Christ?

The answer is… more yes than no. That story about the swords in Heaven and the battle yet to come was really improperly placed in the book and is where my doubt (if you can even call it doubt) rests. Let’s be honest – a young kid who just watched the final battle of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (an epic battle between good and evil) is probably more likely to substitute those images for a heavenly battle that will happen at some point in the future. The chapter didn’t sit right with me.

What did sit right with me was the image of Jesus Christ above that Colton confirmed is what our Savior really looks like in person. The fact that the image was drawn by a young girl who was eight years old when she drew it and also had visions of Heaven and Jesus Christ when she was four years old helps to add some credibility to the story.

In the end, as a happy Roman Catholic who tries his damnedest to practice his life the way that Jesus tells us to in the Bible, I stick with my comment above. I believe more of Colton’s story than I disbelieve.

NOOK Book Review: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

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Wow. I don’t even know where to start this NOOK Book review so I’m just going to begin at the beginning and take you through my experience with A Game of Thrones. Like most folks, I heard about A Game of Thrones because it’s a big hit on HBO and has a pretty large fan base with respect to readers of the novels. I’m the type of person who at least likes to be aware of what’s going on in pop culture and when A Game of Thrones hit the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list, I thought that I should probably give the story a shot. Plus, I’ve been looking (not that hard) for a good fantasy series to read since I’ve pretty much read and re-read everything that the master of the genre – J.R.R. Tolkien – published.

So with the thought in my mind that this was a New York Times bestseller, a hit series on HBO, and a fantasy story that was gaining momentum in pop culture I got myself the NOOK Book version of A Game of Thrones. For reference, the NOOK Book version of the novel has 753 pages, some 733 of which are the actual story versus the final 20 NOOK Book pages which are an appendix listing the relationships of the different characters in the story.

I’m not sure how deep into detail I want to get with respect to the story itself, but there are a few major, overarching points that I want to make about this book.

First, A Game of Thrones does not read like a fantasy or science fiction story except in certain places. Other than the opening prologue, the reader has to wait hundreds (literally, hundreds) of pages before any event occurs that is actually supernatural in its nature. Further, the reader isn’t treated to a second supernatural, fantastical event until the very last page or two of the book. And even at that, after the reader gets through 733 pages of this “fantasy” novel the fantastical event at the end of the novel is good, but not enough in this reader’s mind.

Second, this is a long book. A really long book. As a reader, I enjoy long books because they give me a chance to get wrapped up in a story and really try to understand the perspectives of the characters, why they do what they do, what larger issues are being commented on by the story/author, etc. I didn’t get much of that from A Game of Thrones and, frankly, the lack of both character depth and progressive character development for the majority of these 733 pages is alarming. Based just upon the character depth and development alone, I’m shocked that A Game of Thrones made its way to the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list. Shocked.

Third, while I eventually began to accept what A Game of Thrones had to offer, I can’t really say that I enjoyed reading the book. Don’t misunderstand – I didn’t loathe reading the book. If I hated A Game of Thrones I would have just stopped reading it and went on to the next book in my unread stack. There’s something in this story… there’s something there that made me – as a fan of fantasy and science fiction writing – want to see the superiority and depth of this story and its characters. But I just couldn’t get myself into it that deeply.

The story of the Stark family ruling at Winterfell, being split up, and ultimately having the head of the family decimated in King’s Landing after King Robert dies is certainly a good story. But the reasons behind the various actions that lead to the end of the novel are not that deep. Look, the Lannisters are scumbags and they do whatever they want to do without regarding for right or wrong. They put an inbred young king on the throne who doesn’t even know that his father is actually his uncle and I guess that there is supposed to be more of a gripping story than appears to the naked eye there, but I didn’t see it. However, a more compelling story for this reader was that of Dany and her brother Viserys and their interactions with the Dothraki. And yet even in that story, Martin (seemingly randomly) chooses to kill off one of the most interesting characters in the novel, Khal Drogo, to reach the storyline progression that is achieved at the end of A Game of Thrones. It just seemed to me that in terms of storytelling, Drogo could have made it a little bit further in the story.

There are a variety of lesser stories interwoven throughout the novel that also have potential, such as the stories regarding the Mormont family, the different characters and their interactions in the Night’s Watch, the Others beyond the Wall, etc. But Martin doesn’t really get into those stories too much. One would think that with 733 pages of story, he could dive into one of those sub-stories and really give it some color. The again, if he chose not to give a depth of color to the main characters, I guess it would seem silly to do that with the minor ones instead.

I know this NOOK Book review seems more like I’m complaining than anything else, but I just can’t figure out what my exact gripe is with A Game of Thrones. My gripe is not that the story is mostly sluggish or mostly boring – I can imagine many folks enjoying this read. And my gripe also doesn’t have to do with the extremely repetitive words and phrases that Martin uses throughout the novel (if I read that a character ate something “to break his/her fast” again or that a warrior was robed in armor that looked like “a lobster,” I’m going to punch someone).

In general, I think my problem with A Game of Thrones is that it really does take hundreds of pages for Martin to reveal a plot point that any astute reader had probably already discovered and processed the moment that the plot point was hinted at… hundreds of pages earlier. In addition, while Martin’s writing style isn’t necessarily bad, his narration style leaves a lot to be desired. A Game of Thrones does not benefit by the way Martin jumps from one part of the story to the next (very similar to the way the Lord of the Rings movies follows the progression of the story). Aside from being distracting to the discerning reader, jumping from one scene to a completely different one reveals another one of my gripes with this story – it seems to have almost been written in a format that would make it easily adaptable to television.

After 733 pages of NOOK Book reading, I can’t quite put my finger on the element of the book that makes A Game of Thrones a hit show on HBO. However, there is little doubt in my mind that this story was written – at least in part – from a desire to see the characters come to life on film or television and that is what is at the core of what bothers me. When you read a book like Tarzan or a book like The Hobbit or a series like The Lord of The Rings, you aren’t reading about characters who were created to eventually be placed on the big screen. Go back and read a book like Treasure Island or Robinson Crusoe and tell me if you think that the characters in those books were written with the express purpose of eventually making a video game or television series based off of the characters. The answer is clearly no (and not just because those mediums of entertainment didn’t exist when the books were published). These books were written to tell a compelling story and let’s be honest – content is king.

The reason why The Lord of the Rings has stood the test of time is because J.R.R. Tolkien created a story with characters that are so deep and with such a rich back story that a fan of fantasy novels can get lost in his legendarium and never cease to be amazed at a new discovery that informs the core story of good versus evil. It’s that content that made Tolkien a master of his craft. And in truth, it’s that lack of content – the lack of any compelling, overarching reason as to why events are happening – that brings down A Game of Thrones for this reader. I understand that there are other books in this series. However, I have to ask the question – if a deeper, compelling story isn’t revealed after 733 NOOK Book pages of reading, then what else is there? Could Martin have made the next books in this series any less substantive, any less dramatic, any more unnecessarily graphic, or any more frustrating to read than A Game of Thrones? I have access to the next book in this series, but I’m unsure if I’m going to read it yet. I might give the first chapter a try just to see what’s doing.

For those of you out there who are looking for something different to read – A Game of Thrones is definitely different. However, if you’re looking for a good science fiction series or a fantasy series with a deep, compelling story to get into, then I don’t think that A Game of Thrones is for you. The story isn’t quite science fiction nor is it quite fantasy except in very few, very brief instances in its 733 pages. And for a science fiction or fantasy fan, that’s just not enough. The book is long – that’s for sure. But length aside, A Game of Thrones is a case where quantity does not equal quality.

NOOK Book Review: Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

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This was an interesting read for a variety of reasons. First, it was a free book that I downloaded from the Google eBookstore. I mean if the book can be legally acquired for free, then why pay for it, right? So, with respect to reading books on my NOOK Color, this was the first freebie that I’ve read on it. And on that topic, I noticed that the .epub version of the book (the one I read on the NOOK Color) had a lot of weird quirks to it. For example, sometimes there would be incredibly misspelled words to the point where the flow of my reading had to stop so I could try to decipher what was printed on the page. Also, there was a good amount (not a lot, but a good amount) of formatting errors throughout the book. Not enough to make me want to delete the file and pay the dollar or so that it costs on BN.com, but enough for me to take notice.

The other interesting part of reading this book was that it really was entertaining. Sure, there were parts of it that were just a bit unrealistic (I mean a baby human being taken in by apes, raised as an ape, becoming the king of the apes, teaching himself to read and comprehend written language, and then being taught how to speak French by a military officer is a bit bizarre), but overall it was a really fun read. My Father used to be a big fan of the old Tarzan television show. My Father was an older guy from an older generation and I always wondered what he found so captivating about the Tarzan television show. Well, after reading this book I can see for myself – this is a very entertaining story!

Like I said above, though, some parts of the story are patently out there. I can’t imagine that a human raised by apes would survive, let alone be able to become such a physical force that he begins to overtake the apes and literally beats the life out of other jungle animals, but that’s part of the fun of the story. I also enjoyed reading about the introduction of the famous “Jane” to the novel as she, her father, her maid, her father’s servant, and (believe it or not) Tarzan’s cousin are all left for dead in the jungle by mutinous pirates. I won’t give away the bulk of that part of the story (which is a fun read itself), but suffice to say that – just like every other story in history – the good guys come out on top.

However, when I think back about reading Tarzan of the Apes I’ll think back about a book that is really one-half the story of Tarzan’s upbringing and one-half a love story. The latter part of the novel is a great love story about a primeval man and a highly cultured young woman and their search (both literally and figuratively) for each other. While I was reading this part of the novel I couldn’t help buy think that Burroughs takes some liberties with how fast Tarzan is able to generally adapt to civilized society in his attempts to find Jane. And whenever I had those thoughts I’d remind myself that I was reading a book about a guy who grew up among apes in a jungle and I’d get back to the fun of the story at hand. 🙂

In the end, I definitely recommend reading Tarzan of the Apes if you’re looking for a fun, classic work of fiction. The story of Tarzan is entertaining on many levels and will likely keep you captivated if not for the fantastical elements of the story, then for the old-fashioned approach that Burroughs uses to tell a very good story.

NOOK Book Review: The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson

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A few months ago, I realized that I felt somewhat “good.” Now, I don’t know how to properly define what it means to feel “good,” but I do know that after spending the last ten or so years of my life not eating fast food, drinking soda, or putting an excessive amount of harmful stuff in my body (hey, we all need to get drunk every once in a while), that I just felt pretty good.

In fact, I felt good enough to begin a weight loss contest with my roommates. My hope was that the weight loss contest would motivate me to go to the gym more often and, in the process, eliminate some of the nagging nuisances of being so overweight. For example, my joints (knees, ankles, and hips) tended to feel extra stressed after laying on a couch or sitting on my leg (which I do often in my home office area). You know – typically overweight stuff.

Those somewhat nagging physical inconveniences aside, I’m constantly trying to put myself in a situation where I can learn new things about topics that I’m interested in. For the last few months, I’ve been reading up on different diets that focus on simplicity and common sense and I found myself looking at the paleo diet. After a little bit of research I wound up on Mark Sisson’s website (MarksDailyApple.com) and flipping through a sample of his book called The Primal Blueprint. Flipping through that sample made me realize that the trajectory that I’ve been on for the last ten years is pretty much a combination of Michael Pollan’s food rules, the paleo diet, and The Primal Blueprint – so I purchased the eBook version of The Primal Blueprint and began reading.

And you know what? I really enjoyed reading this book.

Sisson goes into detail about his ten rules for living a primal lifestyle. To do this, he uses a fictional, catch-all character named Grok – one of our cavemen ancestors who lived a simple life that consisted of foraging and hunting animals for food and running for dear life when that food started to attack! Conceptually, the entire basis of The Primal Blueprint is built around Grok’s life and how it can translate to today’s world. It’s a brilliant form of writing because by using a fictional character that the entire world can relate to (a caveman), Sisson is able to start each reader of his book (or his website) at a similar “square one.” In other words, in order to understand and accept The Primal Blueprint, you have to understand and accept that cavemen lived simple lives.

Which is a simple enough concept to grasp, I think!

The core of The Primal Blueprint diet is to reduce the amount of grains that you eat and increase the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables. That’s about as a boiled down as I can make the discussion about food without getting too technical (for example, don’t eat just fruits and vegetables – eat organic fruits and vegetables). And Sisson – as many health writers are these days – is a big proponent of eating meat (grass-fed, organic). Eating a good portion of meat is part of Sisson’s war on Conventional Wisdom (a defined term in The Primal Blueprint and thus why it is capitalized here). Sisson argues that Conventional Wisdom is what made the majority of Americans fat and overweight while living unhealthy lifestyles with little to no play time or exposure to the sun.

While I was reading this book, I looked at the world around me and it’s very easy to notice that Sisson is absolutely right on many of these anti-Conventional Wisdom points.

In addition to the deconstruction of Conventional Wisdom, the other main point in the book that stuck with me was the attack on Chronic Cardio (another defined term, thus the capitalization). For Sisson, Chronic Cardio is what most of us get engaged in when we say we’re “going to the gym.” You know how it works – you get on the treadmill, steadily increase your pace, stay on for a little while, move on to the elliptical machine, repeat the same procedure, move on to the stationary bike, repeat the same procedure, and call it a day. Sisson argues that this isn’t healthy because it puts your heart beat range in a dangerous, unnatural zone and conditions your body to stop burning calories (i.e. the plateau effect when trying to lose weight). For the anti-Chronic Cardio discussion alone, I’d advise clicking through Sisson’s website or flipping through his book at the local Barnes & Noble (which I did before I purchased the cheaper, more cost efficient NOOK Book version).

One of the annoying parts of reading the book was the constant references to going to Sisson’s website to get more information on a certain topic. Sure, it’s nice that there is a free resource to access additional information on a topic, but I don’t need to be reminded about that free resource every few pages.

Granted, there were a bunch of formatting issues when reading the NOOK Book version of The Primal Blueprint, but none so egregious that I had to stop reading the book at any point. I have to imagine that the reason why there were formatting issues is because this book is pretty much self-published and didn’t have the benefit of a big publishing house to review every format and aspect of the book. No worries, though, the NOOK Book version is very accessible (and very easy to read while I was on the treadmill or the elliptical at the gym).

NOOK Book Review: The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell

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Well, thanks to my handy, dandy NOOK Color I’ve been reading a lot more lately. In fact, I have a few more “NOOK Book” reviews coming up in the next few days (hopefully, if I get a chance to write them up). And today, I’m glad to bring you a brief review of the fifth book in The Saxon Tales series – The Burning Land. In The Burning Land, author Bernard Cornwell continues the story of Uhtred Ragnarson – the anti-authority hero of 9th Century pre-England.

Uhtred’s tale continues in this novel much like it has in the previous novels. He fights a few battles for a king that he doesn’t respect (King Alfred) to help create a country that he doesn’t care about (England). In some respects, Cornwell’s writing style has become somewhat formulaic for The Saxon Tales, but as a reader of this series – I’m fine with it. In other words, when I pick up one of these books (or NOOK books in this case), I know that I’m going to really enjoy reading through the pre-battle, battle, and immediate-post battle portions of the novel. The other parts of the story tend to drag a little bit, but that is the nature of writing fiction.

In The Burning Land, Uhtred is faced with two major in his life. The first is the loss of his wife, Gisela. The second is the introduction and ultimate destruction of a Danish woman who enters the story – Skade. In fact, The Burning Land does a great deal to inform the readers of the importance of certain women during Uhtred’s time period. The novel not only tells the stories of Gisela and Skade, but also of the emergence of Aethelflaed as the much-beloved Lady of Mercia. One of the joys of reading this book was reading about how Aethelflaed gave hope and spirit to the Mercians who were otherwise downtrodden and stuck with an Ealdorman that they could care less about (Aethelflaed’s husband, Athelred).

Of course, the advance of the Danes on the Kingdom of Wessex is also a major part of the story and I enjoyed reading how Uhtred played a part in both bolstering Wessex’s defenses and igniting the fire of war on the side of the Danes. It’s almost as though he was fighting against himself, which might be a great allegory of the strife that is constantly going on inside of Uhtred. The fight scenes in this novel are, as always, intense and near-addicting. Honestly, it gets very hard to put down the book (the NOOK Book, that is) when the story moves to one of the fight scenes. Very well done by Cornwell.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this NOOK Book and I would recommend it to any fans of this type of series. If you’re interested in the middle ages and reading a historical fiction set in that time period (though frequently referencing real life events of historical record), then you would probably enjoy the entirety of The Saxon Tales. The Burning Land certainly lives up to the high standard set in the previous novels in this series and I expect that the next novel – Death of Kings – will do the same.

In the event that you’re interested, you can read any of my reviews of the previous novels in The Saxon Tales: The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, Lords of the North, and Sword Song. If you opt to read any of those previous reviews, I hope you enjoy them. And if you’re looking for a good beach read this summer, then pick up the first book in The Saxon Tales and give it a shot. I think you’ll enjoy it!

NOOK Book Review: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

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Before I begin this entry, I should probably note that I’m not going to actually write a review of J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Hobbit. I’ve read The Hobbit over a dozen times and it’s probably one of my favorite books, if not my favorite book of all time. So I’m not going to use this entry as an opportunity to continue blabbering on about how much I enjoy all of Tolkien’s work and how The Hobbit, in particular, is absolutely spectacular.

So do we call these things "Classic NOOKs" now?

Instead, I wanted to use this brief entry to talk about my experience using the NOOK Color to read The Hobbit. You see, The Hobbit was the first book that I purchased on the NOOK Color and the first book that I read from start to finish on the device. And, overall, I have to say that it was a pretty good experience.

There were two features that stood out to me in particular while reading The Hobbit. Here is a brief discussion of those features from my point of view.

Ease of Holding the Device. Look, I’m a book reader. I love reading books. Even when I was a little kid I loved reading books. And, as a long-time avid book reader, I love the entire book reading experience. If you’re a fellow avid book reader, then you know what I’m talking about – the experience of holding a book in your hand and having the thickness of pages in your right hand diminish as the thickness of pages in your left hand increase. You rush towards the end of the book and flip ahead to see how many pages are left and wonder how the author will get to his point before the book is over.

It’s the sensation – the experience – of reading a book that an avid book reader comes to love. Well, with the NOOK Color, you get a different experience, but not an all together bad one.

While there aren’t any pages to flip, the NOOK Color is easy to hold. It sits in your hand comfortably and isn’t too heavy. Plus, all you have to do is touch one side of the screen to flip forward or backward. While this takes away from the traditional experience of reading a book, it does allow the reader to get into a groove with flicking his or her finger to move to the next page. Getting into a groove like that ultimately allowed this reader to get very comfortable reading The Hobbit while laying in bed and not having to move too much to keep the story moving.

Features and Options to Enhance Reading. Not only does the NOOK Color allow the reader to change the layout of the text on each page of the e-book, but after a recent software update you can now change the color of the page, too. I found that this feature came in handy when I wanted to read a portion of The Hobbit before going to bed. Instead of having to keep the lights on in the bedroom, I could turn off the lights and lay in bed and still read comfortably after changing the brightness settings of the screen and changing the color of the page from white to grey. The darker tones made it easier on my eyes before I went to bed – a very nice feature indeed.

One other item that I feel compelled to bring up even though it didn’t directly impact my reading experience is the recent software upgrade for the NOOK Color. You may have read about this software update which essentially turned the NOOK Color into a high-powered, Google Android tablet. Well, I can vouch for how cool of an Android tablet the NOOK Color has become. It has its own app store (though it desperately needs more apps to choose from) as well as built-in e-mail support and a pretty efficient web browser.

Overall, I really enjoyed my reading experience with the NOOK Color. The e-reader sat comfortably in my hand and the ability to change the view, brightness, and color of the pages made the reading experience comfortable for my eyes. If you haven’t tried the NOOK Color yet, then I suggest you head over to your local Barnes & Noble store and try one of the devices that they have on display. It really is that damn good.

Give it a shot – I think you’ll really enjoy the NOOK Color!

Many Projects Due – Grading, Financial Planning, Professional Development, & More

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One of the things that I hate doing here at JerseySmarts.com is posting random entries. However, as you may have noticed October was a choppy month for consistent updates on the blog. There are some good reasons for this – most of which you’ll read about right here on the blog in the coming days and weeks. For example, I had one hell of an experience getting my Honda Civic fixed at the local dealership’s repair shop. The experience was so completely out of control, that I began writing about it last week and I’ve crafted an entry that is, I think, pretty damn entertaining. You should look for that entry coming at some point this week.

In addition, I’ve been reading through some of the books that are taking up space on my bookshelf and, obviously, you should look for a few book reviews coming in the next few days/weeks. And hey, at least one of these reviews is for a book sent to me from a professional wrestler’s publishing company so I could offer some commentary on the piece. Pretty cool, huh? Here are some other things that I’m working on that may not receive their own entry on JerseySmarts.com:

  • Sigma Pi Educational Foundation: I make no secret out of the fact that I donate my time, talent, and whatever treasure I can scrounge up to the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation. With respect to that “talent” portion of my contributions, since August I’ve been heading up the Foundation’s strategic plan study group. This duty has allowed me to work closely with some of my fellow Trustees as well as some volunteers – all of whom are looking for a better, stronger way forward for the Foundation and Fraternity alike. Earlier this week we held the last focus group conference call which capped a two and a half week period of these types of calls – many of which I was on for over an hour. I’ve compiled a preliminary, raw data report and sent it out for the study group’s review. Later this week we’re going to have another conference call and then I’m going to spend some time compiling a final report to the entire Board of Trustees. However, the work isn’t over yet. In a few weeks I’ll be heading to Nashville, Tennessee to present our research findings and then to lead the larger strategic planning process with the entire Board of Trustees. This process will be capped off during the December/January time frame and then, finally, I can take a breather on this stuff! By the way, click here if you want to make a small, 100% tax-deductible donation to support the Foundation’s scholarships.
  • Preparing for a Family Night: Over the last few weeks, I worked with my brothers and future sister-in-law to plan for a family night and dinner for my Mother’s recent birthday. We had the family night and dinner last night and it was a lot of fun, I think. In fact, one of the best things to come out of last night was a family discussion about reducing our excess spending on Christmas this year because, frankly, we’re all working towards specific financial goals that require a dedicated planning effort on our parts. It was a great conversation and a great conclusion, I think. Plus, spending the night with the family for dinner to celebrate my Mother’s birthday was a great time!
  • Financial Planning Roadblock, Courtesy of NJHESAA: I’m not sure yet, but I might spin this little blip off into its own entry to mimic an entry that I wrote both one month ago and many months ago. The long and short of it is that I sent a $1,000 payment to NJHESAA on Monday, October 18th. The check was finally posted to my account on Thursday, October 28th. But that’s not what has me completely frustrated and aggravated with this anti-customer service organization. What bothers me is that I sent a $4,300 check to NJHESAA on Tuesday, October 19th and here we are on Saturday, October 30th and the check hasn’t been posted to my account yet. What the Hell is NJHESAA waiting for to post my damn check?! This isn’t hard, NJHESAA – I know you have the check now post the damn thing to my account for goodness’ sake. I can’t wait to be done with this miserable, horrible organization. NJHESAA could learn a thing or two from the United States Department of Education about customer service and making the student loan repayment process easier for the borrower. Because, at this point, NJHESAA’s payment processing system is borderline ineffective which tells me that there has to be some incompetent people working there. What else could bring on a nearly two week delay?!
  • Financial Projections and Forecasting Stunted: As you might imagine, because of NJHESAA’s inability to process a check with any semblance of efficiency, my financial projections and forecasting has been stunted for the last few weeks. For a guy who checks each of his accounts both in the morning and at night (and sometimes in the middle of the day), waiting for these bozos to post this check is torture. I’ve been adjusting my projection models by $4,300 every time that I go in there and make a move. It’s annoying. I have a lot of financial goals that I expect myself to achieve in the coming weeks, months, and years and with my ability to precisely project when my dollars will be posted to various accounts, it makes planning for the immediate future very difficult.
  • Bizarre Indian Summer: I’m not going to spin this out into its own entry because it’s short, but if you live in New Jersey then you know that we had this weird Indian summer hit us in the last week or so. Before the mini-heat wave hit, I went out and purchased a radiator for my bedroom and it’s awesome! It actually warms up the entire second floor of the townhouse – can’t complain about that at all!
  • Beginning to Complete Coursework: Some of you may remember that I’m actually enrolled in an independent study course at the local college where I teach. Successfully completing this independent study will give me a Public Relations Specialist certificate. Not too bad, huh? I’ve read through the material for the course and, once the final strategic plan report is completed for the Foundation (see above), I’m going to aggressively complete the required coursework for the independent study. I’ve decided that this is going to be the last course that I take for a while since it will complete the certificate program. Also, I don’t want to go back for more education until my life calms down just a little bit (which I think is coming within the next two years, thankfully).
  • Grading, Grading, and More Grading: It’s midterm season at the college where I’m an Adjunct Professor so you know what that means – grading time! But it’s not only grading time for the class that I teach in the face-to-face setting. It’s also grading time for the classes that I teach for the online college. I’m thinking of asking the online college to reduce the number of classes that they assign to me – they’re giving me two or three each month and it is so incredibly time consuming that it’s painful sometimes…
  • Some Consistency at the Local Gym: Hey – I’ve been going to the local college gym at least once each weekend for the last three weeks. Not bad, right? And now you know why I’ve been able to read so much in the last few weeks – I’ve been on the treadmill. I’ll be heading to the gym tomorrow morning before the trick-or-treaters start knocking on my door. While my results at the gym haven’t been overly impressive (I’m not necessarily losing a bunch of weight – a pound here and there maybe), I am pretty pleased that I’ve been able to make it there one day each weekend during a very busy, crazy time for me.
  • Unending Projects at the Office: Hovering above all of the stuff written above is the fact that I have a pretty busy, increasingly stressful day job. Part of that stress comes from the person that manages my department and her mood swings, part of that stress comes from a changing workplace that expects the existing employees to transition to a new organizational structure without officially telling us what that structure will look like (or interviewing us for new positions), and part of that stress comes from the daily grind stuff that needs to be completed day in and day out that is made harder by the fact that my particular department is well-understaffed and thus we all have to do four/five different jobs each. And when you add in the fact that I’ve been doing a lot of the communication work for the organization – you can see how the stress builds up. Very annoying and, frankly, until this day-to-day stress goes away (which better happen soon), I think some of the other goals I have for my health and finances are going to be hard to achieve.
  • Changing the Face of Usable Web Solutions, LLC: Thankfully, after months of trying, I’ve successfully spun off one of my last remaining problem clients. Sure, the client screwed me on the way out the door, but I’m so excited that this client is gone that I don’t even care any more about the screw job. Whatever. Removing this client effectively removes more stress from my life and, ultimately, makes Usable Web Solutions, LLC a stronger, better organization. And with that, I’m beginning to change the nature of this small business. In the future, I’m going to focus on websites that are owned by the company and bring in advertising revenue because, honestly, that’s where the money is in this online business stuff. Going out there to find independent clients is not the way to find success in the website world.
  • Barnes & Noble’s New NookColor: Here’s a quick item for both the “Watch What You Say to Customers” and “Buyer Beware” files. For some awful reason I’ve been researching e-readers lately. I don’t know why – I love reading an actual book and I really don’t like the setup or arrangement of the e-readers that are on the market. But still, I began researching them and decided that I wanted to buy a Barnes & Noble Nook. However, something told me to wait. I wasn’t sure what it was that told me to wait, but I think it had something to do with the good voice in my head constantly shouting that I had dozens and dozens of physical books in my home that I haven’t even read yet! So, this buyer was wary of the products on the market and didn’t buy. Then, lo and behold, the NookColor is introduced and now I want to buy that thing as soon as possible (probably early next year once the inevitable glitches have been worked out). But the “Watch What You Say to Customers” file comes into play here because, just days before the NookColor was released I asked the guy at the local Barnes & Noble whether or not a new model was coming out and he swore up and down to me that, “We’re not Apple – we don’t have a new version of the product each year.” Oh yeah? Really? Hmmm…

There are a few different items that I’ve been working on that I didn’t think would find full entries on JerseySmarts.com. However, this stuff may be of some importance to a few of you so I hope that you enjoyed reading!