Ben Crowder

A couple of weeks ago dp recommended Mark Chamberlain’s Wanting More: The Challenge of Enjoyment in the Age of Addiction. Yesterday, one of my co-workers was raving about it (she’d just bought it on sale at the bookstore), and so I waddled over to the library and checked out the only copy they had in. And last night before bed I read the first four or so chapters.

I like it!

A lot, actually. It’s my kind of book. Since I haven’t finished it yet, however, this post will mainly be my own thoughts and feelings on the matter.

In a nutshell, I firmly believe that our society is plagued with overstimulation in so many ways, and in effect we’re raising up an army of addicts: alcoholics, drug addicts, sex addicts, gambling addicts, violence addicts, video game addicts, thrill addicts, and the list goes on. This is bad.

People are always on the lookout for more, more, more. More intense, more exciting, more violent, more sexy, more of a high, ad infinitum. The paradox is that the more we get, the less satisfied we feel and the more determined we become to get even more. The challenge, as Chamberlain talks about, is learning to be satisfied with less. And that’s where the peace and true happiness lies. I’ve experienced it in a few small ways in my life and I’m positive he’s right. If we’re not finding joy in the mundane, day-to-day activities of life, something is wrong with us. Really.

I’ll leave it at that for now, but I’m sure I’ll have more to say when I finish Wanting More. :)

[tags]addiction[/tags]

My copy of Novum Testamentum: Graece et Latine came in the mail today. :) Mmm. I read the first chapter or so of Matthew over dinner, with a peek here and there at the Greek (I took Greek 101 two years ago but have forgotten most of it), and I’m really, really excited for my Latin Vulgate class this fall. Later on I ran across a thread on Latin on LibraryThing which touched on many interesting points, but the thing that stuck out in my mind was Latin composition. To truly master Latin — which is my goal — I need to start writing and even thinking in Latin. So, if some of these blog posts end up in Latin, you’re forewarned. :P

[tags]Latin, New Testament, Greek, LibraryThing[/tags]

Spent two hours last night and four and a half this morning cleaning my apartment. See, cleaning checks are on Saturday, but I’m leaving at 12:30 today for my old roommate’s wedding in Vegas, so I have to get everything ready before I leave. Let’s pray that a huge dust cloud doesn’t sweep through the apartment Saturday morning… :)

Because I’ll be in Vegas, and I’m not sure whether I’ll have Internet access (or time), there may or may not be a post tomorrow. But there’ll almost certainly be one Sunday night, if we get back in time, or Monday morning.

In other news, I started reading John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction yesterday, and I’m liking it a lot. Books about writing generally fall into the Like category. I also began Anne of Avonlea, which I should have started months ago, considering that I have a crush on Anne Shirley. :P I’m still chugging away at War and Peace, and when I get back from Vegas I’ll dive back into Calculus and Pizza and The Little Schemer. Oh, and I bought Nicholas Basbanes’ A Gentle Madness on sale a few days ago — it’s a lovely book about book collecting. I love books about books. And writing. Mmm.

I got the proof copy of Project Cumorah yesterday at 5:15. It’s beautiful! Thick and hefty, to be sure, but it’s lovely. And you can now download the PDF or order the hard copy through Lulu by going to Riverglen Press. Here’s what the page looks like:

Oh, the sidebar on Riverglen Press apparently has some issues in Internet Explorer, so I recommend using Firefox. (You won’t regret it. :))

(This is cross-posted from BenjaminCrowder.com.)

[tags]Book of Mormon, Lulu, Riverglen Press[/tags]

I ran across Connor’s post on the Bohemian Grove earlier this afternoon and watched the two videos (David Gergen and Richard Nixon). I also read the Wikipedia article.

This reminds me of the bit about astronauts never landing on the moon (and I’ll admit that when I heard that, I went to my moon book and the front cover had a picture where everything had a shadow but the flag, which was quite odd), or JFK’s assassination, or Area 51, or the 9/11 internal collapse theory.

Now, I don’t mean that all of these are necessarily in the same class — some may be quite true, others patently false — but they’re all conspiracy theories. Being a lover of stories, I find this sort of thing exciting (like living a movie ;)). But the skeptic in me doesn’t really believe in any of them. The romantic, on the other hand, wants desperately to believe, but reality usually isn’t that cool. :) Truth is not as strange as fiction, most of the time. But that’s why we have fiction, so we can enjoy these alternate worlds where things like that do indeed happen.

Part of me has wondered whether escaping into the world of fiction is bad (irresponsible, etc.). But over the past few years I’ve become quite convinced that reading fiction has helped me a live a fuller life, become a more complete person, and understand other people better. Moderation in all things, I suppose. What do y’all think?

[tags]conspiracy theory, fiction[/tags]

Did I mention the other day that I bought Hindi and Estonian copies of the Book of Mormon? Well, I did. And yesterday when I bought my textbooks through Amazon, I “inadvertently” slipped C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man and Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach into my virtual shopping cart. ‘Course, once your total is up in the hundreds, a few extra dollars doesn’t seem like such a large dent after all, does it. :) And then tonight I gave in and ordered a copy of Jan Gullberg’s Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers. We loves books, we do. :)

Last night I picked up a copy of Donald Knuth’s Digital Typography from the library, and hours later I still couldn’t put it down. It had been a while since I read any “geek” books (computers, math, science, etc. — and FYI, I consider “geek” to be a badge of honor :)), and boy oh boy did I miss it! I have a list of computer books I plan on reading over the next few months, but I’ll mostly be talking about that over on Outside the Box.

Well, I’m speaking in church tomorrow, so I guess I’d better go home and prepare. Or maybe I’ll read some more of Digital Typography, because I’ll have three hours before church tomorrow to study up for my talk.

Incidentally, that’s a good short topic: giving talks in church. I used to write them out, when I was younger, but sometime ago I gave that up and started speaking sans script. Usually I write down the references for the scriptures I want to base my talk on, along with any other quotes (General Conference or C.S. Lewis :)). But that’s it. I often don’t even write an outline.

Why? To speak by the Spirit. “Open your mouth” and “it shall be given you in the very hour the words which ye shall speak.” I believe that’s true. And so far it’s worked. It’s often somewhat frightening — it takes a lot of trust in the Lord — but He keeps His promises. (Incidentally, my talk is on trusting in the Lord. :)) The disadvantage of doing this is that sometimes I don’t remember the witty things I wanted to say, but then again the important thing is to speak by the Spirit, which means saying the things God wants you to say; the witty banter can be left for after-sacrament-meeting chat and elsewhere. Whether or not I’m eloquent is beside the point. In fact, it’s almost better if I’m not, because I don’t want the words to get in the way of the message.

As for writing a talk out in advance, I don’t think it’s bad — they do it for General Conference — but there’s something about this scriptless method that really appeals to me. What do y’all think?

Oh, speaking of C.S. Lewis a little bit back there, we’re reading The Pilgrim’s Regress for the CSL Society right now, and it’s more interesting than I expected. More later. :)

[tags]Book of Mormon, C.S. Lewis, Gödel Escher Bach, math, typography, Mormon, General Conference[/tags]

Well, I just got an e-mail from the library. Considering that it was an e-mail instead of a phone call, I already knew what it said: I didn’t get the job. Life goes on, eh? :) Over the past few days I’ve been preparing myself for this, and in a way I kind of knew it was coming. I don’t know how I knew, but I did. I’m fine, really. All of my dating experiences have done magnificent job of preparing me for failure. :P This must not have been the right job for me, but I’m sure the one that is will pop up soon. And it’s kind of nice (in a weeeeeird sort of way) to get rejected, if only because most of the time I’ve gotten what I set out to get (scholarships, etc.). Keeps me human. :)

Anyway, I’m almost done with Project Cumorah — I’ve been working on it since 6:30 this morning (almost ten hours now!) and I’ve finished typesetting it, so all that’s left is finding some good cover art (the cover’s done except for the art) and a final proofread. I’m hoping to order it either tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Wendy wrote in about something that’s been on my mind for the past few weeks: book ratings. There are plenty of good books out there, but there are also many with foul language, explicit sexual content, and/or gratuitous violence. What’s a bookworm to do?

Before I watch a movie, I always check ScreenIt.com or Kids in Mind, primarily because I don’t trust the ratings system (nor do I usually trust recommendations, I must add — not unless I know the recommender has similar media standards). Friends will tell me, “Oh, this movie is so great!” but then I check it on ScreenIt and find it laden with innuendo and profanity and even on occasion gross immorality. Better to make my own decision based on the content of the film, and sites like ScreenIt allow me to do so in a way that helps me stick with my standards.

But there’s nothing like that for books.

Now, there are a couple of differences between books and film that need to be taken into account. First, movies are on average two hours long, whereas it can take anywhere from a couple of hours to days, weeks, or months to read a book (depending on many factors). Second, movies leave an indelible audiovisual imprint the instant something bad comes on, whereas with books you have a little bit of time before your mind forms the image.

Regardless of the format, however, objectionable content is just that: objectionable. And being a morally conscious person, I’ve chosen to avoid such and instead seek out that which is “virtuous, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy.”

To that end, I avoid most modern fiction.

Not that old necessarily equals good or that new equals bad, but as a general rule, older stuff is safer. (Again, this doesn’t always hold true — there’s some pretty raunchy stuff in Chaucer and Boccaccio, and I’m sure there are plenty of modern authors who are clean.)

I also can’t help but wonder about the books my kids will read someday. Personally, I don’t want my kids reading those modern coming-of-age books that basically read as how-to guides for oral sex or whatnot. Nor do I want them picking up new swear words. I do realize that I can’t stop all of it from coming through, and so the most important thing is to teach them what’s good and how to recognize evil and shun it. But that doesn’t mean I can’t put up barriers to keep most of the filth away from them while they’re building up that inner strength.

As for myself, I try to pick up on clues from the book cover text or Amazon reviews or LibraryThing discussions that will give hints as to whether something is inappropriate or not. It’s not perfect, but when I find a book that’s bad (in my view, of course; we’ve already talked censorship through :)), I close it and return it to the library.

However, it would be really nice to see something like ScreenIt but for books.

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time on LibraryThing, and so I’ve thought about the possibility of using a peer-rated system (social networking). But not ratings, per se — the only way to pull it off is to provide an objective list of possibly offensive material. (ScreenIt’s categories would be a good start.) User-generated content would allow the site to grow faster, and standards-conscious parents and others could contribute, but then you also have the problem of nasties getting in the system to corrupt it. I don’t know how often that would happen, but it’s a possibility.

If I didn’t have a billion other projects going on right now (I’m halfway through with Project Cumorah and hope to finish it by tomorrow at the latest), I’d give it a shot, but alas, it’s something that’ll have to fall to someone else.

In the meantime, any ideas? Flaws? Alternatives?

[tags]ScreenIt, Kids in Mind, LibraryThing[/tags]

So, yesterday I woke up feeling distinctly not nauseous. It was one of those times where you’re not quite sure whether your wishful thinking is playing a trick on you; in this case, after repeated attempts to pull myself out of this oh-so-wonderful dream, I came to the conclusion that I was, indeed, better. Rejoicing, I went on my way to church and felt fine all day.

And now for a random smattering of thoughts:

Z. Lately, I’ve found a great power in being conscious of whatever trial it is I happen to be passing through. Being able to say, “I’m sick, and while I may not feel well at this moment, I know that in the near future I’ll be well again” is tremendously empowering. It’s like knowing the name of something — suddenly you have a connection, and in this case you’re far better able to endure whatever the trial is. I like to think of it as being grown-up.

Y. My roommate was telling me the other day that there were some sister missionaries in his mission who were talking to a girl about getting ready for baptism. They felt sure she was ready, but she still had some reservations. One of the sisters felt moved to share a scripture. “Can you please read 3 Nephi 3:7?” Just imagine the poor young girl’s reaction when she read that verse:

Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us — not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance.

X. Speaking of my roommate, the other night there was a knock at the door. When he opened it, it sounded like someone had grabbed the blinds and torn them down. I stumbled out and discovered a colony of pinto beans scattered all over our living room. Just outside the front door (next to which stood my roommate, jaw agape) was “JACK” written in beans. We haven’t seen him since then — I suspect he’s up on top of the clouds, fighting the giant.

W. From Mere Christianity, a C.S. Lewis quote:

If our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot because our charitable expenditure excludes them.

Having read that, I can’t help but wonder if my compulsive book-buying ought not to be curbed. I’m certainly not pinched or hampered by my charitable expenditures — indeed, I hardly feel them at all. Hmm.

V. In talking with my bishop yesterday about Lulu.com and LibraryThing, a light bulb kajinged above my head. He mentioned taking his old mission reports and compiling them into a Lulu book for his family members to order. Then I realized that Lulu’s perfect for family histories. Usually a single family member would be responsible for ordering the lot of them and then getting reimbursed by everyone else (unless they happen to be the proverbial rich old uncle); this way, in contrast, anyone in the family that wants one would be able to order it themselves (cheaper, too). It’s great. My Lulu test book should be arriving soon; I’ll report on it when it comes.

U. From this Lulu idea and from ldsWebGuy’s post the other day, a question is consuming my mind: are there any other obvious ways to use all these fancy new technologies to do good? I have a feeling there’s something there just under the surface, waiting to be thought of.

T. Yesterday I added the Japanese Plan of Salvation, if anyone’s interested.

S. The other day I was sewing one of my front pockets back together. It was so much fun that I just had to sew some more. Looking around, the only thing sewable in sight was my pair of old grey mission pants, the kneecaps of which have gotten so threadbare that I feel like I’m looking at an X-ray when I sit down. “Hmm,” I thought, “I could patch them.” But with what? A second inspection revealed several pairs of old pants which I never wear. “But you can’t do that!” my Jiminy Cricket exclaimed. “You might wear them someday!” No, that wasn’t true. A few scissor-snips later, the right calf of one of them had been converted into a circular patch, a lighter grey in color. With silver thread in hand I dexterously (okay, so it wasn’t quite dexterously — I jabbed myself accidentally more than a few times) started sewing. Halfway through, I realized that I’d let the fabric slip over a bit, messing the whole thing up. It was late, so I abandoned the project for the night. But never fear, one of these days I intend to take it up again, this time planning ahead. (As for why I’d even consider wearing patched pants, do remember that I’m enamored of the mental image of a scholar in a dusty old library, and of course all serious scholars wear patched pants and suit jackets. It’s just how things are done! :P)

R. So, my interview is later today. Let me just say this: whatever happens, I’ll be okay. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m not getting my hopes up. It’s tempting to mute them, so that I won’t be devastated if I don’t get the job, but I’m becoming firmly convinced that that’s the quickest way to steal away the joy from the victory if I do get it. To succeed greatly, we have to open ourselves to the possibility of failing miserably. If, on the other hand, we don’t get our hopes up, we of course don’t have as much to lose, but we also don’t have as much to win. In the event that I don’t get this job, I’ll be down for about five minutes, but then my common-sense backup machinery will kick in and remind me that it’s not the end of the world and that I’ll be fine. In the meantime, however, I’ll be envisioning glorious success. :)

Q. I do intend to reply to all those comments y’all have left. Soon, hopefully. :)

P.S. Counting the alphabet backwards is harder than I thought. :P

[tags]C.S. Lewis, Lulu, LibraryThing[/tags]

Found this delicious quote over at Doctrinal:Net.

It is within our power to guide our youth in their reading and to cultivate in their hearts a desire for good books. It is most unfortunate where a person is not possessed with the desire for good reading. The reading habit, like charity, should begin at home. It is the duty of every parent to provide in his home a library of suitable books to be at the service of the family. The library need not be large, nor the books of the most expensive binding, but there should be a well chosen variety of the most select that can be obtained. Children should be encouraged in the home to read and be instructed in the value of good books and how to discriminate between the good and the bad in literature. — Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol 3, pp.203–4