Walking Dan

 I was looking for a way to come out as a skeptic on Facebook.  And here is what I came up with: I used to believe the Bible was all written by God, not literally, but he caused or guided the authors to write each word, that has been passed down to us. And my belief was that the Bible provided a unified and non-contradictory message about life and faith, that is all applicable to our lives. In freshman year of college speech class, one of my speeches was "Why the Bible is a GPS for your life." That is no longer my view. My faith in a perfect Bible first started to crumble was in college, when friends kept incessantly arguing about whether predestination was true or not. I studied this in depth, and the Bible does contradict itself, and no one can decipher what is true about this important belief. The Bible is a collection of documents spanning centuries, and was written in several languages, and is made up of many genres. No one contests those facts. I believe the Bib...

2022 was another odd year for my book reading, since there were some large books that I didn't like that much.  But I had to finish the large books, once I got over half of them read. These are sorted by number of pages, descending. (AB) indicates Audio Book - listened to 5 audio books Medium to large sized children's books 1 Listified!: 300 Lists That Illuminate Our World Andrew Pettie 2 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5) J.K. Rowling (AB) 3 The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1) Rick Riordan 4 Supergifted (Ungifted, #2) Gordon Korman 5 Ungifted (Ungifted, #1) Gordon Korman 6 Into the Wild (Warriors, #1) Erin Hunter As usual, I also read a l ot of small children's books. 1 Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls (Dog Man, #7) Dav Pilkey 2 Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas (Dog Man, #5) Dav Pilkey 3 Dog Man and Cat Kid (Dog Man #4) Dav Pilkey 4 Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties (Dog Man, #3) Dav Pilkey 5 ...

This past year, my wife and I finished going through the original AFI Top 100 list.   Honestly, I find the list a little disappointing, and I couldn't wait to get done with it.  After we finished, that we continued watching the Academy Awards for Best Picture winners, and we will catch up someday soon.  I did also watch several movies by myself, that I thought Courtney would not be interested in. The best movies I saw for the first time in 2020 were the following: Spotlight Lion Frozen 2 How to Train Your Dragon Toy Story 4 Movies I saw for the first time in order Toy Story 4 (2019).  We saw this in the theater. Roman Holiday (1953). This was on the AFI Top 10 Romantic Comedy List. Watched it by myself. A Few Good Men (1992).  On AFI Top 10 courtroom drama list.  Watched it by myself. Frozen 2 (2019). In the theater.  It was my first time seeing it, and second time for my family. Cat Ballou (1965).  AFI top 10 western.  Watched it by mys...

  2020 was an odd year for my book reading, since I read so many children's books.  When the library closed down, I picked up some good books from my daughter's room, and got into a habit of reading that genre.  This helped me to complete 55 books in 2020, which is a personal record. Here are some of the children's books that I enjoyed, ranked in order of how much I liked them.  Interesting that over half of them were written before I was born, and only one was written after the year 2000.  I read 35 children's books this past year. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien (1971) Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery (1908) Frindle, by Andrew Clements (1996) Danny, the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl (1971) Matilda, by Roald Dahl (1988) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg (1967) Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, by Roald Dahl (1972) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling (1999...

New music that I heard I'm a fan of the KC Horn Club. This makes me want to play French Horn. Best Photo New movie recap Strangely, I did not watch any movies for the first time in December 2020, but did watch a few good movies that I had seen before: Elf, Home Alone, and Pirates of the Caribbean Book recap Strangely, after reading 7 books in November, I only read 1 book in December, and it was a real snoozer - Estate and Trust Administration for Dummies.  Not sure what I was doing all month, but we must have kept busy. My Music Playing I ended up quitting Piano with Jonny.  Honestly, I'm not sure if I even like piano anymore.  For example, I'm writing this blog instead of playing piano.   I don't have time to really focus on it, and it's a challenging instrument, and not sure what God wants to do with my slightly above average musical talent.  It's tough being mediocre, but if you want to improve in anything, it takes effort and time. Happenings I sta...

My blog has predictably become something that no one reads, and something I struggle to update.  But I like to document books I read and movies I watched. Best Photo New movie recap Moonlight (2016) This was a Best Picture winner.  I have some mixed feelings about it.  A lot of the dialogue was really slow, and the movie lost its momentum.  The desire to do art got in the way of the plot. It just was not an enjoyable movie.  But somehow, still I know it was a great and special movie. Dunkirk (2017) Watched this by myself, since it was nominated for Best Picture, and I didn't think my wife would be interested.  It's really good, though seems a big unrealistic with the way people talked to each other, and how one person got into so many bad situations.  It did really convey the terrors of war, and how soldiers at Dunkirk were desperate. 7/10 stars Lion (2016) I had listened to the audiobook, The Long Way Home, by Saroo Brierley.  This movie was...

  New music that I heard I haven't been listening to too much music lately.  I did hear this Beach Boys song for the first time.  "Sail on, Sailor", from 1973.  I thought it was a surprising style from the Beach Boys. Best Photo Here are few things that happened. New movie recap Onward (2020) We watched this as a family.   It was a really good movie in my opinion.   PLOT SPOILERS.  The part I disliked the most was when they reached the end of their journey, and ended up at their high school.   I felt like if there was an undiscovered secret path, it would be somewhere remote.  Also, the younger character keeps blaming himself falsely for what is happening, but the script never "corrects" him or makes him realize it wasn't his fault.    7/10 stars The Martian (2015) This was a good adaptation of the book.  It was interesting, we had a two week gap in between when we watched the first half, and the second half...