Category Archives: Uncategorized

…played at the former Gravity Lounge tonight. The Southern, as it is now called, is a much improved venue… Vaden’s show features his usual blues infused, gospel laden original songs. But I’d say that the band’s play was tighter than ever, V and friends played more together than I’ve seen them. Got the new cd and am lookin forward to listening… Here is a shot from the show.

WordPress (the host of this blog) has good apps. One of which enables me to find out which of my 2009 posts was the most read, here are the top five ranked by the number of hits:

Coming in at #5 is the film I made last summer after attending a funeral for over 500 victims of the massacre in Bosni, the post is titled Srebrenica Film and was viewed 53 times.

The #4 post was the early February announcement, to my colleagues, of the end of my sixteen year teaching career in out of the boat which had 64 readings.

The heartbreaking story of a sick child of a friend came in next most read, it is a story of Peace from Grace had 69 hits.

The #2 post in numbers of hits was driven, I would guess, by the presence of U2 in the title, it had 83 hits: U2 in DC

All of the posts except for #1 were under 100 views, but the most read post of 2009 had 226 views, it was when i got wind that U2 was coming and rushed to my computer to be among the first to log about the event: NEWS FLASH!!! U2 is coming to the ‘ville

The thing that the stats cannot give me is which were the best posts of 2009. Well, I guess we will just have to wonder about that.

FOOTNOTE: When considering the most read posts of all time (meaning the life of kingdomtravelin there is only one change… the #2 spot goes to a post I wrote explaining the plight of people who are depending on the dollar in Hungary… I described the real cost of the falling dollar in light of inflation… that post has 93 hits since it first went up and interestingly gets the occasional hit from time to time. Click here to revisit the all time Kingdomtravelin #2 post.

‘allo dear reader,

I am back from my self imposed exile from cyber-space. In this, the second post of 2010, I will think about what I’m reading, what I’m planning to read and what I’m thinking about…

I am reading or have recently read during the wonderful quieter time at the end of 2009…

The Holy Bible (ESV) (selections from: Deut 5-6, Ps 19, 46, 103, Is 42-56, Jer 17, Lam 3, Micah 5, Hab 3.17-19 go there now!, Matt. 1-7, 11, Luke 2, John 15-17, 2 Cor. 2.14-17, Colossians, Rev 1-4 )

Fatelessness (trans. from Hungarian, fiction, a 14-15 year old’s experience in WW2 in Budapest and several concentrations camps – this won the Nobel Prize in 2002) – deeply, deeply moving, I wonder how much is fiction and how much is memory…

Walk On – The Spiritual Journey of U2 …about 1/3 through… many of my assumptions about the lyrics I am so touched by are proving to be right…

Simply Christian by NT Wright – about 4/5 done… I deeply appreciate Bishop Tom’s work but this is NOT an early 21st c. Mere Christianity as the book seller would have you believe… its more like his Beliefs Thesis that I made so many students write over the years… just longer.

Enemies of the People by Marton Kati (in proper HU name order) – so far only 1 chapter in, this is her family story (she was youngest of two girls) as revealed by her reading of her (journalist) parents secret police file in Budapest (apparently one has the right today to see those files).

The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsh – I have no idea where I am in this book, I’ve been reading “at it” for a couple of years but really want to finish…

COMING UP: NEW on the stack…

The God of Promise and the Life of Faith – “assigned reading” to discuss with the Covenant School Bible department (gotta finish by the 26th!)

Justification by NT Wright… Bishop Tom is in hot water with a bunch of reformed guys who don’t like what he has written about the topic… this is his answer to the charges of his critics about the “New Perspective”…

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky… a story of life in occupied France (WW2) by a woman whose family fled Kyiv (Ukrainian sp for Kiev) during the Russian Revolution and then experience Nazi oppression. – not sure how soon I’ll get this started…

NOW, I’m thinking about some ideas for posts…

• gullibility, skepticism (or do I mean cynicism?) and discernment

• the place of emotions and reason in decision-making

• the place of rejection in the hardened heart

• fear of the human in light what Scripture says on the subject

• implied blame of God for bad things under the name of sovereignty

• blaming God and the Devil for our own bad decisions

• innocence and wisdom, how can we think, feel and act biblically?

FILMS:

Invictus –  amazing, simply amazing – go if you have not…

Katyń – long – a bit complicated, subtitles but good insight into the whole Soviet/Nazi collaboration of the demise of Poland… about a mass killing of intellectuals and Polish army officers: was it Soviets in 40 or nazis in 43? (Netflix)

MOVIES:

Have you Heard about the Morgans? fun, worth it

Well, it was good to take a rest, now it is good to be back…

I wish you a Happy New Year. It is my hope that all may grow more deeply in their understanding of Peace from Grace during this time.

I am near the end of my intentional hiatus from Cyber-space.

Until my return,

Peace from Grace to you in 2010.