Colonoscopies Rock

Had a colonoscopy today. The worst part is the preparation – man, taking that stuff is just awful! It went well though, unlike the last attempt when I ended up with a suspected heart attack. Anyway, the NHS staff are amazing. I was going to put a picture on the blog but I guess that would have been waaay too much information – and I forgot to ask for a picture anyway.

I had a Polyp removed and they took 4 other samples to biopsy. I’ll just have to wait and see now.

A Few Books

I’ve just read, am in the process of reading and plan to read several books in the next couple of weeks or so. This is in part to prevent me from becoming obsessed with Van Til – and to be honest I think I needed a bit of a break from Presuppositional Apologetics.

A book I had wanted to read for a few weeks since going on the church holiday where he ministered is Mez McConnell’s book ‘Is there anybody out there? A journey from despair to hope’. This really is a great read. It’s easy to read – it’s not a dense text – but his story, his upbringing, was just awful. It’s an honest read. As you move through to his coming to Christ there are actually quite a few laughs – usually at the expense of Christians, that he sometimes refers to as ‘Muppet’s’. At Bible College he very quickly sees through all the experience based theology and puts it wonderfully. For example on page 102-3:

College is nothing like I thought it would be. I thought it would be like church except I could ask loads of questions about my faith and people would take the time to sit down and answer them with me. But people are so introverted here. They just want talk about their feelings all the time. I’m not interested in how I feel about my father and all that psycho-babble; I just want to know more about God, Jesus and the Bible. Apparently, that’s not possible unless I ‘understand myself’. Well, I think I understand myself pretty well. I was a liar, manipulator, thief, fornicator and all round scumbag. For some reason Jesus chose to die for me, and that will do for me. I can’t pretend to understand it all, but I accept it gratefully. So, I’m just not interested in revisiting the past. I can’t do anything about it, but with Jesus I can do something about the future. That’s about the only ‘self understanding’ I need.

I really commend this book. The honesty is very refreshing and deserves a much wider readership.

A book I’m working my way through – and enjoying – is ‘House and Philosophy: Everybody lies’. I really like the House series but wanted to delve into it a little more to try and understand what’s behind the series. This book isn’t endorsed by the program but each chapter takes an aspect of philosophy and relates it to the series. It might be better to watch it before reading; the book covers the first four seasons. I’m not sure why I like it so much but the character House is so anti God that I find it fascinating. Dr Gregory House is a genius diagnostician and is about as UN politically correct as it’s possible to be – a good reason to watch it in my opinion. Having said that, there’s loads of anti-Christian stuff but I can’t recall an instance of anti-Muslim rhetoric. I guess Christians are a soft touch.

OK, next up is ‘The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England’ by Ian Mortimer. I bought this because it looked interesting and thought it would give me a feel for pre-Reformation England. Mortimer writes from the point of view of a travel guide, as the title in fact. And this is what he does. So the book is written in the present tense – with the occasional comment referring to the actual present time. It works. He guides you through the filthy streets pointing out the different residences and the class structure. For people – like me – that like to refer to notes, there are further explanatory endnotes (put an extra bookmark in), a bibliography and an index.

I wanted to broaden my reading a bit so also in the queue is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This, I think, I will also find fascinating but I’ll come back when I have something to say on this.

King Crimson – Elephant Talk

Here’s one of my favourite pieces of music – superb!

The Wilhem Scream again, and again, and again, and…

Kim Riddlebarger has The “Wilhelm Scream” Compilation on his Blog – it’s hysterical. But, dare I say it – I found another video on You Tube called ‘Scenes that should have the Wilhelm Scream…’ Watch the video below – equally funny. I think my favourite is Gladiator. You’ll need to watch the compilation to really enter into the spirit of it.