Books On Books to Be Read -- 

    Read some scriptures today, mostly from Revelations. Holy scriptures are good.

What else am I reading? I just finished a Harold Bloom essay book of Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, and Silmarillion tomes. I believe this is my second essay book on the subject. Fascinating topics and discussions. Thought-provoking. That was yesterday, in my car. I read quite a bit in the front seat, like when waiting for my daughter during piano practice and other times. Deep thoughts about heroes and themes, language, antecedents. Really interesting scholars.

    Hemingway's posthumous "Islands in the Stream". Part II, Cuba. First part was Bimini Island.

    "The Painting that Shook Up the World." A biography of sorts about Pablo Picasso. Maybe "Changed" the world. Or shocked the world. It has been really interesting. Super charged with art and history. I like it. I need to finish this. I did major in Spanish, when I think of it. Spain and art. My wife loves most of it. That is good. Spain, where she lived and now has visited a couple times.

    And then the one sitting in the library, the "Ambulance Drivers", all about Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos. This one is good. I need to fetch it and finish it.

    "Sweet Grass", by the Potawatomi botanist, recommended or delivered by our Florida-based daughter.

Yeah. Articles, I read, and they distract me, but I read these books when I can, or as I can.

    Read on. Write on. Printing up chapters 6-8 of my book now. Tomorrow. Will publish this thing.

    Yeah, 2024.

    I have 

Thinking and Writing: Too Much and Too Little

    I have been thinking a bit, or a lot, and there are things that I want to analyze and "put on paper".

    College basketball, professional basketball, George McGinnis dies...

    World violence, poverty, economics, little stuff, big stuff.

    

Top Ten Examples of the Book of Mormon

 Top Examples of the Book of Mormon    

To discuss and analyze.

    1. Jesus the Messiah

    2. Mormon the Prophet

    3. Nephi, son of Lehi

    4. Alma the Younger

    5. Moroni

    6. Helaman

    7. Ammon

    8. Samuel the Lamanite

    9. Mulek

    10. Captain Moroni

    There are a few more, of course. King Benjamin, Abinadi, Alma the Elder, Jacob, Enos... Lehi and Sam.

    Who would you place in the top ten?

 Pacers are Deep and Shoot and Space and Pace

    There is a guy at work that I am friends with, and we talk some NBA. Also baseball, particularly the Nationals.

    I told him that the Pacers are looking good. They have a lot of guys who shoot well, run well, hustle well, and many of them off the bench. Thier size is generally good enough.

    Tyrese Halliburton is special. Long, quick, great touch, great handles, makes passes to good shooters, including the big men Miles Turner and Obi Toppin. Jalen Smith and Ian Jackson come off the bench to give some size and energy, but it is the smaller pieces that give this team some moxy. Bruce Brown, who came from the championship Nuggets, Buddy Hield, a shooter and athlete, Benedict Mathurin, Nembhard and Nesmith, plus plucky T.J. McConnell. They can run some teams off the floor, scoring into the 130s and 140s. With a little defense these players are super tough.

    They came up one short in the newly founded In Season tourney, to Lebron and the Lakers, but they are confident and good.

I look forward to seeing how they do the rest of the season.

Go Pacers! My buddy London reached out to me about them; this is a bonus. Hold on, long time Pacer fans!

 Pacers and Clippers, Have Me Intrigued

Yep.

More later.

BYU Women Soccer; IU Men's Soccer 2023

 BYU Women Soccer; IU Men's Soccer

    2023 was pretty fun to watch these programs, and they both came up short of their ultimate goals: national championships. But both squads gave me some good moments.

    Having lived in Provo for five years, being a member of the faith where we pay our tithing that goes to Brigham Young University, it is a pleasure to watch its athletes do well. The girls' team had a tremendous year, upsetting UCLA earlier in the season, becoming number one, making it to the College Cup, where I watched them lose to Stanford, 2-0. I was frustrated that the BYU women could not control the ball better, which would have given them more shots and a shot to win and advance to the championship. But last week they came back from 3-0 down and took out their former championship rivals North Carolina Tarheels in the snow. In Utah.

    The men of IU, after a shaky start, upset Penn State, then ranked, in State College, which I watched with my carful, and went on to win a lot, getting the Big Ten title, (tied with Nittany Lions), won the Big Ten Tourney, and went to the Elite Eight, upsetting Wake Forest in Carolina and acquitting themselves well. I had some personal favorite players, like Hugo and Malloune; they came up short, but I met some fathers of the players in Pennsylvania and I met the former IU player and assistant coach from the documentary I saw.

    This was a good year for my collegiate soccer teams; we cannot have it all, but we can have a lot.

    Meanwhile, societies are changing since that fateful October 7 day. There are much worse outcomes and possibilities in the world this fall than coming up short in soccer matches.

    There is sickness, pain, death, toil, and hate.

    And these teams provided the opposite. Thanks to my alma mater's great years.

    

 Pennies, Nickels, and Dimes

    As a kid in the 1970s and into the 1980s, a penny could get you a gum or a couple other things.

    One penny. A nickel could buy something better. And a dime? A few things.

    Into the 2020s those things can buy considerably less. Some people do not care about them. I do. I hate spending money on fossil fuel gas that I do not have to. Even pennies. I hate to lose them on stuff that I want or need.

    I do like to use my credit card on gas, because I get points for the credit used that gets me some pennies back.

    

    The world revolves on money and service, and credit. We need all of them.

    I try to collect pennies, and save them. I buy the cheaper gas, I seek it out. I do not want to fill the pockets and banks of the Gulf countries and the rest of the oil producers, many of which are U.S. owned. 

    I saved some pennies today, granted after driving to get that work. 3.09 instead of 3.12, per the gallon, instead of 3.19 or 3.25 where I live.

    Pennies saved, may not mean much to others.

    But I derive pleasure from it.