The third story is called The Horse and His Boy. It’s about a boy named Shasta who lives with his fisherman father in a land far south of Narnia, called Calormen. This story takes place during the reign of King Peter, Queen Susan, King Edmund, and Queen Lucy from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The land of Calormen reminds me of some middle eastern land, where the men wear turbans, the women wear veils, and they are darker skinned. The fisherman receives a visit from a Calormene lord, or Tarkaan, and Shasta eavesdrops and finds out that the fisherman is not really his father, and the Tarkaan wants to buy Shasta as his slave. Shasta runs to the stable to find the Tarkaan’s horse is actually a talking horse from Narnia, named Bree. They both want to escape to Narnia, and so the horse and his boy embark on adventures to get to the North.
The thing that inspired me to read these stories in the first place was seeing the preview for the moving coming out this December. I remembered seeing an older, sort of boring t.v. version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but this new one, with all the special effects, looks really exciting.
Yesterday I finished the last book in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Good stuff! Lewis is from England, and so his use of language is a bit different, but also fun to say out loud in a British accent. Things like, “Hullo,” and distasteful things or behavior being “beastly” are a few examples.
Even though The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was written first, I decided to read the books in the order of chronological Narnian time. And so I began my first adventure in The Magician’s Nephew.
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Married Life Complexities
So many people have been supportive and encouraging about our marriage that I thought it would be most appropriate to share some of the observations I’ve made since I’ve been married 4 months now. I doubt any of it is new to seasoned married couples, but even for them, there might be some chuckles and “Yeah, I’ve been there…”
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Cheap Gas Prices
Dreading needing to yet fill up the tank to my car again at an insane price, I got the idea to search the internet for cheap gas prices and lo and behold, someone thought of the idea. Isn’t the internet great =P Portland Gas Prices is a site that people submit gas prices they find and post them on the web site. Anyone can then find the cheapest gas in their area without driving around. I know this will save me time and I’ll know that I got the best deal on gas in the area.
It’s nice that the data is community driven. People helping each other out to save money. Sites like this make me feel warm and snuggly inside.
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Out in Nature
Last weekend, David and I went camping at Battle Ground Lake State Park. It seems funny to go there since my parents’ house is only a couple miles from there, but hey, it’s still out in boonies as anyone who’s driven to my house would say. The highlights of the trip were seeing my aunt with her sisters and a few uncles, a bunch of cousins, their spouses and kids, my cousins’ cousins, my parents and grandparents and my youngest brother, Rex. Well, lets just say there were lots of people, and some dogs, too.
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Old Habits Die Hard
Ah… Diablo 2, a fond game from my past in which I spent nearly two years playing. It’s chilling that I played it so long and now, after 3 years of being sober from it, I’m installing it again.
After playing some video games a few weeks ago at Jenni’s brother Rex’s apartment, I’ve got that gaming itch again. I guess some old hobbies won’t go away. I got into a gaming rut for a while and just didn’t have the same interest anymore. Nor did I have the right computer hardware to run all the new shiny games. I guess the combination of Jenni and I playing Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth together and the recently released patch 1.11 for Diablo 2 has gotten me hooked again.
My hopes this time around are to hook Jenni into the game. It’s not too grotesque and it has the Blizzard addictiveness to it so I hope it’ll be something we enjoy together. That and all the other million of things we ought to be doing- like practicing for BridgeTown Swing 2005 =)
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Trouble Comes in Colors
At Beaverton Foursquare’s “Neighborhood Nights” picnic, the biggest entertainment on a hot summer’s evening was naturally a water fight. It was entertaining to see some church leaders play around, soaking each other with water guns and water balloons. The kids there loved it. As I watched the kids fill up water balloons, I couldn’t help but be attracted to the vivid colors.
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Update on Travis
My brother, Travis, is now in Groningen, Holland, rooming with his friend from the States. They both hope to sign on with FC Groningen, a division 1 soccer team there. Best wishes to them both!
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Crossing the 99-Day Parallel
Today is one day short of a milestone 100 days of us being married. I’m sure as time goes on, the number of days will not be as exciting after the number gets too big, but we’ll enjoy the “newness” of it for a while longer. The picture was actually taken on January 13, 2005 when it was 99 days until we got married, so it’s nice to reflect from the other side of the wedding day.
Jenni told me on a drive home from the park tonight that she loves that she gets to share life with me. More than just talk about experiences, dreams, and hopes, but striving, experiencing, and celebrating life together. I couldn’t agree more. We bought our first car last Saturday together and we’re pretty happy with it. Just like life, it has a few bugs, but with some debugging, we’ll get it operating well.
Also we’re launching a new look for our web site. I’ve been wanting to develop a web site using several of the new ideas from redesigning my work web site. The primary enhancements are more for my own learning, but it also provides a channel for Jenni to communicate on our web site too. I’m looking forward to reading what Jenni writes.
For those geeky in nature or interested in web technologies, here’s a quick rundown:
- Valid XHTML and CSS. Working toward web standards have been a big goal of mine, but also a big source of frustration. I’m old-school in doing layout with tables so I had unlearn those old habits and learn some new tricks. Using web standards allows me to work toward the model of separating content from presentation.
- WordPress Publishing System. I’ve wanted a blog for over a year. I actually created one on Google’s Blogger, but I felt it was too limiting. WordPress is one of the best blogging systems available. It’s open-source, very modular, and great documentation. It has forced me to adjust how I approach working with my site, but I think it allows our site to be ready for the future. Its template system allows me to swap in a new layout quickly when the time is right. Also, it’s been great hearing people enjoying learning about us from our web site during our wedding month. So now with a full-blown blog, we can receive comments too!
- Content is King. Now that both Jenni and I will be writing to our web site, hopefully that’ll mean we’ll have more interesting things to look at when people visit. We enjoy sharing about what God’s doing in our lives and we’re looking forward to reading the comments people write.
So here’s to 99 days and many more days to come. Happy reading everybody!