WARNING: My opinion is expressed in this post quite strongly. If you are hoping for a glowing review, navigate away quickly.

A friend and I have been reading Captivating by Eldredge’s and working through the guided journal of the same title. I have seen mixed reviews, those in support strongly support and the critical reviews are divisively so. I will admit to clouding my judgment by reading reviews on both sides and deciding that I may not agree with many of the ideas presented, but I am trying to be humble enough to allow God to show me truths despite my preconceived notions. How’s that for a disclaimer?

Chapters one and two have made my brain hurt. I must report that if I hadn’t spent good money on these books, the first two chapters would have caused me to burn the books. I’m not a fan of censorship, usually. The small fire from the books could have kept me entertained for a while, especially if I tore out pages on and a time. I am thankful that I waited, not because the book has magically turned wonderful, but rather because chapter three has visibly more truth than the first two.

I should point out what little information I could learn of John Eldredge was discouraging. I wondered if he had special training to allow him to interpret the Bible, maybe he is a theologian, a scholar, something, anything, a Phd. in something worthwhile, alas. It turns out he attend a Christian college of sorts and majored in counseling. Where on the website of said college, one reads that it is the Christian’s responsibility to spread the truth of the free market system. No wonder the world despises Christians.

So, his vast amount of experience on how God designed women to be is as a result of counseling women, women who feel they are somehow broken. Women who pay a man to tell them how they are broken and how to be less broken. I’m sure he knows a thing or two about identifying behaviors that are emotionally/physically unhealthy, but really, how ignorant do I look? Why are women, intelligent women, falling for this nonsense from him and his wife? Are we that fallen that we need a stranger to stroke our ego and tell us that our desires are valid and right? If so, Christianity many not be the theology for you. God, by means of the Bible and Holy Spirit, tells us quite clearly we are sinful and fallen. His thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways. His desire for us is to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, not the emotional need to be beautiful or participate in a grand adventure. He provides a way for us to be right, but it is not declaring that we are beautiful and must participate in a grand adventure to be validated. With the exception of a pithy prayer at the beginning of the guided journal, Jesus the Messiah is not mentioned and God only slightly. It’s all about the woman’s emotional experience. And how about open ended questions, ever hear of them? Yes or no questions do not stimulate discussion or thought. Grrr. Stay tuned for more in subsequent weeks.

I joined Kiva.org Apr 11, 2007, after watching a special featuring microfinance on PBS. Kiva provides a way for lenders to meet entrepreneurs based on a variety of criteria: country, gender and/or type of work. I believe that it took a few days for Kiva to have enough entrepreneurs for all of us to fund, after all a PBS special has a wider audience than anticipated . When searching for loans to fund, I decided that where possible, I would fund women in Kenya. I later revised that plan to fund both men and women in Kenya, much needs to be done to encourage all Kenyans to find employment and funding half the population was a bit short-sighted. When I first joined, loans were funded completely and lenders waited until full repayment of loans were made before using the monies again. Basically, repayments sat in limbo in either Kiva’s account or the Kiva’s partner’s account. Two days ago, Kiva changed the policy and now immediately places repaid monies into lender accounts. I happily discovered a little over $27US in my account and a Kenyan man desiring a loan. So my account is happily empty again.

Anyone can create an account on their own or I can send an invite. I have no idea what an invite gets me, except a statistic on one of my pages and a nifty email sent out in my name:

I wanted to let you know about Kiva , a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.

You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.

Please keep in mind a couple of things: these loans are interest free from us and the lender assumes all responsibility for loss. Some interest is paid by the loanee to the field partner, but not to us as lenders. Kiva has a very low default rate because entrepreneurs are interviewed and selected on a very rigid criteria by trusted field partners, but it does happen. Of the four individuals I have loaned to, all belong to one of two field partner. Both organizations have a 0% default rate, but do have a higher delinquency rate. I believe this is because last November there was significant unrest in Kenya. All Kenyan lenders received a notice that due to the political instability of the region, loans were likely not to be repaid. Fortunately, many entrepreneurs were able to recover from their losses and continue their businesses. I cared very little about the loss of the monies, I desperately hoped they would recover and continue to provide for themselves and their families. If a lendee is unable to repay the loan, the monies are gone.

This graphic is a comparison of one of the field partner lenders in comparison to all Kiva field partners.

for cheap. Yes, yes, the correct word is inexpensive, but it doesn’t make sense in context. One of my favorite new/used bookstores was having a great sale today. At first Patty and I thought maybe we would share a bag, the sale was fill a bag for $5. After about 30 minutes, we realized we were each going to need a bag. I found many interesting treasures. In the daylight tomorrow, I am going to try to remember to artfully arrange my books and grab a photo. In another area I found and turned down The Scarlet Letter, Wuthering Heights (I think I may already have this one), a very cool NIV Study Bible (but if it’s still there next time) and a really old and worn Bible that would have made some great scanned textures-the end pages showed interesting wear, as did several pages but $60 seriously? for a water-damaged, mold infested, well worn book. A few finds that I have been looking for and managed to make it into my bag: a book of Henrik Ibsen plays, some silly little books with pithy sayings that may be useful in scrapbooks, and a few catechism books. I also found a book that apparently will guide me in using Harry Potter to teach young adult fiction. I will most likely never need to do that, but the book screamed to be placed in the bag, as one of the last books before the bag was impossibly full.

Of the four stages: indie, main, worship, and rock, I will admit to not spending much time at this stage, but I link so that should I need or want to listen to something it will be easily found.

• http://www.myspace.com/heathmcnease
• http://www.joywhitlock.com/
• http://www.esterlyn.com/
• http://www.myspace.com/worthdyingformusic
• http://www.disciplerocks.com/
• http://www.stellarkart.com/
• http://www.hawknelson.com/
• http://www.nailpointmusic.com/
• http://www.agsilver.com/
• http://www.wavorly.com/
• http://www.krystalmeyers.com/
• http://www.fireflightrock.com/ Iamunbreakable.com
• http://www.needtobreathe.net/
• http://www.redmusiconline.com/

Of the four stages: indie, main, worship, and rock,the Worship Stage had several well known artists as well as a few new-to-me ones with a focus more on worship than entertaining. I spent a lot of time in this venue.

• http://www.jeremyhornmusic.com/ & http://www.bigticketfestival.com/artists.cfm?artistid=135
• http://www.meredithandrews.com/
• Warren Barfield ~ only songs on big ticket http://www.bigticketfestival.com/artists.cfm?artistid=86
• http://www.brandonheath.net/
• http://www.markharrisonline.com/
• http://www.myspace.com/alisaturner ~ not so much-nope
• http://www.myspace.com/markwhiteband
• http://www.33milesonline.com/
• http://www.ayieshawoods.com/
• http://www.aaronshust.com/

Of the four stages: indie, main, worship, and rock,the Big Ticket main stage is home to more widely known artists and winners of the previous year’s indie recognition. Again, this is a bookmark of all the artists from this summer with a short critique of my thoughts. I am not linking them yet, I don’t know how much return traffic to this site I want as a result of a random visit back.

• http://www.myspace.com/everlife ~ good music, talked too much between songs
• http://www.mikefarrismusic.net/ ~ gospel, jazz sound
• http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=7996847
• http://www.leelandonline.com/
• http://www.matthewwest.com/
• http://www.davidcrowderband.com/
• http://www.newsboys.com/
• http://www.myspace.com/andystefanicband
• http://www.redumbrella.net/
• http://www.sevenglory.com/
• http://www.newsongonline.com/
• http://www.barlowgirl.com/
• http://www.kutless.com/
• http://www.tobymac.com/

So, this year was my first year at Big Ticket and I will admit to not doing my homework before hand. To do over again, I would have spent several days browsing the Big Ticket website and stalking the bands because spur of the moment choosing among the four four stages: indie, main, worship, and rock, proved to be difficult at times, so I wandered back and forth. The big names I know-I’ve heard a fair amount of the ones that were on Main Stage and Worship, but not the other two. Right now it’s a bookmark and critique based on one or more songs from their website. I have a total of four posts, one for each stage. I’ll update them as I listen to more music.

• http://www.myspace.com/breakingthesilenceonline
• http://www.myspace.com/ohioavenue
• http://www.myspace.com/jettyraemusic ~ wishing I hadn’t missed this one
• http://www.myspace.com/alivedownriver ~ actually heard them in person and they have a better studio presence than stage
• http://www.myspace.com/jonathancordero
• http://www.myspace.com/briansmithwebmusic ~ mellow, soft, nice
• http://www.myspace.com/candlefuse ~ each song is so different, but definitely a must
• http://www.thechoirvisible.com/ ~ can’t really tell, only short clips of songs on site
• http://www.myspace.com/redrunsdeep ~ I’d call it rock, not really listening to the lyrics closely, but the beat is catchy
• http://www.myspace.com/reillytheband ~ interesting
• http://www.myspace.com/hailyourhighness ~ varies from song to song-heavy metal no decipherable lyrics to softer

start here with listening:

• http://www.myspace.com/only9am
• http://www.myspace.com/theeffort
• http://www.myspace.com/seabird
• http://www.myspace.com/staynlis
• bird on a wire

A few years ago I was struggling immensely with my faith, as one is wont to do occasionally. On an upward swing, I found a ring in one of the bookstores I was known to frequent. It was a complete impulse purchase, but I had hoped to turn it into a daily reminder of my allegiance, less tacky and noticeable than a WWJD or similar. It wasn’t that I didn’t want others to know or understand, it was to be something to remind me of my commitment and focus on a daily basis. Sometimes I look at my hand and remember, other times I look at my hand and the thought doesn’t even enter my brain. It was lost of a few months, then it returned to me.

The symbol on my ring is a triquetras, which is “Latin for three-cornered.” While it has been used my many groups of people over time, one of the accepted meanings is the Trinity of Father, Spirit and Son. I had seen the symbol elsewhere before purchasing the ring and did some research as to the meaning. Upon discovering this, the shape increased its appeal and upon seeing it as a ring, well, I’ve told that story.

Why am I telling you all of this? I was searching for some information on WordCamp in Dallas, a coolie conference on WordPress and much more. I knew one of the speakers was Lorelle and after finding what I was looking for I browsed the rest of the page. I found a recent blog challenge to find a symbol, write a blog post about it and include its history. I knew its name before this challenge, which made finding it in the encyclopedia easier, so the challenge offered an interesting topic to share. I present my answer here.

I spent the day running errands with my friend Patty. We had sandwiches for lunch and set about completing my list. I had several business supplies to track down-ink for the printer, invoice/receipt forms, and business card holders. I found the ink and decided to hold off on the rest. I made a quick detour to the health food store for some flour and went off to hunt yarn. On my way to hunt yarn, my eye caught a sign advertising a sale on canoes and kayaks this weekend. I stopped in and saw many pretty ones hanging in from the ceiling. I hit three different stores and didn’t notice much of a pricing difference for given models. I compared online and it’s all about the same, here are the ones I looked at closely. I’m leaning toward the Old Town Otter, the blue one on top, but it comes in other colors. I can’t see whether the foot rests are adjustable, the seat is. I need to see it, otherwise, I’m looking at one that’s not pictured-camo color Mainstream Sound 9.4.

I rarely seem to make it to GR to use the 40% off coupon at one of my chain stores. The coupon publishes every other week, the opposite of my schedule. Since I was down with wisdom teeth removal last week, I decided to head to GR some time this week to take advantage of the savings. I have to say, it takes some doing to make it all work out in the end. I’ll call that chain, Store H. I signed up for the paper flyer from a different store, we’ll call that Store J. There is yet another chain craft store in GR, we’ll call that Store M. Store M didn’t have a flyer this week, nor a coupon, Store J usually has a coupon for every two or three week period. The coolie thing about stores is competition. Competition is good, so the stores accept coupons that are supposed to be good at other stores. Store J doesn’t have anything I want right now, well, ok, there’s stuff I want, but not badly enough to buy it. Store M has started carrying large skeins of cotton yarn, 350+ yards for about $8. Now, I don’t want to pay that much, so I used my Store J coupon there. Store H has some packages of yarn that I covet. If I use a coupon, for about $15, I can get three skeins with 450+ yards of cotton. Here’s the fun part, the store has a strict one coupon per person per day policy. I can’t rationalize two trips to GR the same week to save 40%. The lovely lady suggested I get a second person to make my second purchase. I drafted a complete stranger to buy my second treasure. Luckily, I had cash with me so it was easy. She laughed over the whole thing and said at least she’d have something interesting to talk about later.

I also found some yarn to use to make some socks for a friend of Granny’s as well as a neat hand spade that has metric and standard depth marks for planting. I can’t wait to plant the garden.

I was presented with a challenge last night at music rehearsal. We are singing one of the songs performed by the Newsboys, He Reigns. In the ending section of chorus repeats, there are two counter-melodies wandering through the melody. I will admit, I know the verses and chorus and when I listen to my WOW cds, I do it for enjoyment. I can turn off the extra and just hear the melody and harmony, sometimes to the exclusion of interesting extras. During rehearsal, a couple of the other singers took the first counterpoint and I stayed on harmony. I don’t know what I said, but said something smart-alcky and our leader said there were actually two counterpoints. There is the one easily found and there is a part that the gospel choir sings. So I stayed up a little to late last night figuring out the part that I might could sing if I can get my act together. My plan is to practice the song at least twice a day every day until we sing.

Before I set about learning the extra part of the song, I worked out an advertising poster. I’m quite excited to offer my help to the community. I went through several redesigns of the poster, even tried to find the design from the business card, but couldn’t. I put my editing skills to the grind and came up with a poster that coordinates quite nicely with my business cards. I’ve got one ready to hang up and four more on the printer.

I went to bed rather “early” this morning and made for a rather tired trip to GR today. I’ll write about that later.