The City of God - Book II

In the second book of the City of God, Augustine refutes the idea that is was Christianity that was the cause of the fall of Rome.  He states that was in fact that it was the worship of Roman gods before the birth of Christ that caused their downfall.

Review - Kitchen Confidential - 8/10

To sum up this book, I really like the summary that was done by the Amazon.com reviewer.

"Most diners believe that their sublime sliver of seared foie gras, topped with an ethereal buckwheat blini and a drizzle of piquant huckleberry sauce, was created by a culinary artist of the highest order, a sensitive, highly refined executive chef. The truth is more brutal. More likely, writes Anthony Bourdain in Kitchen Confidential, that elegant three-star concoction is the collaborative effort of a team of 'wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts, and psychopaths,' in all likelihood pierced or tattooed and incapable of uttering a sentence without an expletive or a foreign phrase."

At one point in my life I really thought I would want to some day own a restaurant.  After watching reality restaurant shows on TV, I was cured of that absurd idea and this book just makes that initial inclination totally laughable.  What was I thinking!

I reviewed other books of Tony Bourdain on this blog and I stated before that I think this guy is a closet intellectual.  The fact that he is such a captivating writer yet, gleaning from this book, a total degenerate druggy is totally amazing.

It just goes to show that you are never too far gone to make something of your life.  Come to think of it, that is great metaphor for Christ's love for us.  No matter how far down the wrong path you go, God can always call you and use you for something special.  Not to say that Tony would agree with all this religious stuff.

There is always room for redemption with God.

I must say though, this book really pushes the limit of what I can stomach in fowl language in a book.  I could never recommend this book to someone without warning them of the totally filthy putrid language presented in this book.  I actually had to skip one chapter which he described in intricate detail the fowl restaurant jargon that is used across America.

A side from the language, this book is a great read.  To me autobiographies are always interesting and when you have such a good writer as Tony, it makes this genre all the better.

The City of God - Book 1

"Augustine censures the pagans, who attribute the calamities of the work, and especially the sack of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion and its prohibition of the worship of the gods."

In this book, Augustine talks about the reasons the good suffer along with the bad in calamities.  "Christians should humbly consider those very sins which have provoked God to fill the earth with such terrible disasters."  Every man not matter how strident they pursue holiness falls short and and "yields in some points to the lust of the flesh." 

When the Christian suffers in these calamities do they loose "Their faith? Their godliness? Their possessions of the hidden man of the heart, which sight of God are a great price?"  Under persecution, no one looses Christ by confessing him.

Man lives every day under the casualties of life and is not certain that he will be blessed with another day.  Man should not inquire what death they are to die but where that death will usher him.  One thing is for sure they will only have to go through that ordeal once, because  after that is eternity in the presence of God.  "...Since Christians are aware of that death of the godly pauper whose sores the dogs licked was far better then of the wicked rich man who lay in purple and fine linen, what harm could these terrific deaths do to the dead who had lived well.

Later, Augustine goes on to discuss whether or not a virtuous, Christian woman who is attacked by a ruthless evil soldier and raped can maintain her virtuosity.  Would this soldiers sin be counted against her also.  Of course the answer is no.  As long as she did not desire for the action to take place then she is not culpable.  Because of this she should also not consider suicide to rid herself of the sin because she had not sinned in the first place and because she would be committing a greater sin.

Review - The Time Traveler's Wife - 3/10

The story about a man who has some sort of genetic disease which cause him to unpredictably time travel for no apparent reason to his past port future or to people he comes in touch with's past or future.

First off, this book is more of a romance novel than a science fiction fantasy novel as there is no plot except for the relationship between Henry and his present, future or past wife or what ever she is.

Second, there is not plot. No ultimate conflict. No stories of redemption. There is just these two narcissistic characters and Henry's little quirk of time travel. If you were to ask me what this book was about, I would have to scratch my head and say, "Hmm, I guess its about two people who lived ordinary lives with the exception that one of them happens to be able to travel back and forth through time." Beyond that I don't know what else to say.

Third, I know time travel just happens and he has know control of it, but the idea that this thirty something year old guy naked in field seducing a little six year old girl is really creepy, even if he does she later becomes his wife. Another thing he does is steal and pick pocket people so he can dress himself when travels. All these things make Henry not a very likable charactor in my opinion.

Fourth, the graphic sexual descriptions in this book should relegate it to the adult only section and not the fantasy section where kids.

Nasal Surgery Recovery - Day 9

Well I must say that I can breath much better now.

I had my stints removed from my nose this past Thursday and while I was in there he sucked out more stuff out my nose.

The doctor said that I had a massive turbinate in my right nostril that needed a lot of work and because of that, there is going to be a lot of bleeding and it is going to take about 8 weeks to fully recover.  I have to go back to the doctor every two weeks.

I have to flush out my sinuses every morning and every night with saline.  I am continuously shocked what comes out my nose every time that I do that.  It is this really gross stringy dark red gook that comes out in large quantities.  Really nasty stuff.

As far as pain goes, I have taking a pair of Extra Strength Tylenol a day.  I can't the heavy stuff any more because it is giving me major constipation....not fun!

Review - The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization - 9/10

This book looks again at the historical facts of the fall of Rome and it impacts on society.  He alleges that the recent notion that the fall was peaceful and something that was mutually acceptable for both sides is not at all what happen.

With many facts at hand, especially archeological evidence, Bryan Ward Perkins, demonstrates that the fall of Rome was not peacefully and it set back civilization several hundreds of years.  There are even nice pictures and graphs to demonstrate his point.

Before the fall of Rome, people lived in relative comfort in well architect home and many tools and pottery at hand to make it through the day.  There was extensive trading across the continent and people lived safe lives.

After the fall, people had to leave the cities and settle on lands an till the fields.  They could not read and had very little means to make it through life.  They were constantly being harassed and tormented by different invaders migrating across the lands.

My only complaint about this book is that it was too brief and maybe could have covered more sub-topics under this subject like the rise of feudalism and the religious impacts and maybe more info on the main leaders during the time.

Nasal Surgery Recovery - Day 1

The last few years I had really been struggling with breathing through my nose.  I knew I had a deviated septum and when to see the ENT doctor he told me that it was 95% to 100% blocked.  He also said the membranes that surround my nasal passage (called turbinate's) were very swollen.

Thus, yesterday I had surgery to straighten my deviated septum and to reduce the turbinate swelling.  He also removed some polyps and drained my sinuses.  It was under general anesthesia and the procedure itself lasted a half hour but I was out for about an hour and half.

When I first woke up my first thought was "WOW -- I can breath through my nose!"  My second thought was "Where the [H-E-DOUBLE-TOOTHPICKS] am I?   I was having a real nice dream and it was so tranquil and then all the sudden I woke up and there was nurse over me who said Hello Steve."  At that time I did no know what was going on.  I did not recall that I had gone into surgery in the first place and I could not remember anything.  Then all the sudden I got a vision in my mind of the anesthesiologist putting the anesthesia in my IV which even till this point was that last thing I remember.  At that point I realized that I had just came out of surgery but it took about thirty seconds for this realization.  The recovery room was not private so there were beds with patients wheeling by and nurses and doctors scurrying back and forth, and a lot of different noises coming from all over the place.  They brought in my wife and apparently I kept saying to her, "I'm so disoriented". She says I looked like I saw a ghost.

So the first 24 hours the pain has not been to bad.  As matter of fact, this morning I did not take the prescription pain killer, instead I took two Tylenol and I feel pretty good.

I hardly had any strength to anything yesterday but today I feel a little better.  The fact that I am sitting here at the computer is a good sign that I am getting my strength back because the computer is up stairs.

My nose is real sensitive and it is leaking a lot of blood.  Yesterday I was leaking blood out of my eye socket but that appears to have stopped.

My wife has been a real trooper taking care of me.  She has been feeding me and making the gauss to put under my nose and making sure I am taking my medicine.  She has been a real jewel in this ordeal.