3 Months in 3 paragraphs

So for starters everything on this page that should help me make this thing is in Dutch since I'm in Holland, and more importantly, I'm computer illiterate and can't figure out how to change it into English. Second, this blog is about 3 months late in coming. I actually had this blog set up, I think I maybe even did some sort of a test to see if it actually works, but then never did quite get around to doing anything about it. So, in quick recap...

First I flew into Amsterdam..

And I'm living in Tilburg... (My Apartment)

Then I went to Prague...

Then to Paris...

Then to Grenoble... (Rink's on the right, mall's on the left, hotel's straight ahead)



Then to Delft, the ocean, and back to Amsterdam...

Then to Brugge...

Then back to Amsterdam...

And that's it...

And if you're curious, these are the things I'm doing. First, darts is the big thing to do in Holland. The way I see it if I put all this free time to good use I might improve myself a way too much, and then possibly get all snobby and uppity and nobody wants that. So I figure why not use this time to get really good at things that have no real value but might possibly come in handy at some point in my life, in a bar... if someone challenged me to darts. A thorough command of useless skills.

(This is us with Gary Anderson and Gary Robson getting schooled, the #1 and #5 dart players in the world)

And within the same theme I'm also developing my thorough command of useless information. If I can add one interesting fact to every conversation, about any possible subject, then... maybe I haven't won per se, but I'm pretty sure I'll at least be winning by a lot. So, the BEST books I've read...

1) Velvet Elvis (Or as I like to call it, CS Lewis rewritten in 100 pages for people too lazy to read 1000 pages), but still good stuff. The matters of contention:

a) Progressive Revelation: God has given people a better understanding of him as they themselves increase in knowledge.

b) All truth is God's truth/all good comes from God no matter where it is to be found, even other religions. Check out a Hindu prayer for example:

O Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations:
Thou art everywhere, but I worship you here;
Thou art without form, but I worship you in these forms;
Thou needest no praise, yet I offer you these prayers and salutations,
Lord, forgive three sins that are due to my human limitations.

c) Following God does not mean a simple conversion, it's about every choice we make every day

2) The Language of God: A Christian who was in charge of the Human Genome Project. Pretty much says that the evidence for evolution is overwhelming, but at the same time doesn't leave God out of the picture. Compares it to when the church thought that if the Earth wasn't the center of the universe that God couldn't exist.

3) Generation X: Kinda about how our generation doesn't have to work 100 hour work weeks like our parents and so has the time to ask questions about life... and so far have gotten nowhere.

4) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: The guy lost both his parents to cancer and pretty much writes out his life, his thoughts, and his daydreams...

5) God: A Biography: It won the Pullitzer so I figured I'd read it. The guy goes through the Old Testament looking at God as the main character in it all, and then tries to figure out what kind of God this is?

6) Life of Pi: A guy survives on a life raft for a long time alongside a zebra, a tiger, a hyena, a gorilla, and a ptarmagin if I remember correctly...

So also cause I have so much time I've been thinking about writing something myself, just to see if I could do it. I have a few thoughts but I can never get past the first paragraph before thinking that it absolutely sucks. So I've decided to make a book of a thousand paragraphs, maybe of ones that make the reader have to think, have to feel, have to stand up and take notice... I don't have time for a book and I won't take the time for a story. Give me a situation, make it powerful, make it compromising, make it drastic, and make it real. An example of such a situation? Something that gets me is thinking about a family burying their son who has just died in the war, and in the midst of it all pull up some people denouncing your brother and ridiculing everything he stood for... their form of protesting the war...

Lastly, hockey has been going pretty good. The team has done well and so I have done well. We made it to the 3rd round of the Continental Cup, which Tilburg has never done before. (A tournament where the best teams from each country the year before play in) We're in the finals for the first of the two seasons that we play in Holland which is a one game thing in January, and we've just started the second season out with 2 wins. So pretty not bad.

Kay, hope everyone else is doing great,

And remember: "To go against conscience is neither right nor safe."

Brendan