Randy Hemingway's Blog

Last night, I bought a couple books that I’ve been hearing about for a while now, and I figured it was high time I read them…or at least had them in the house to be available when I felt like reading them.

The first is “The Case for Christ,” by Lee Strobel. I’ve heard it’s really a fascinating book about an atheist’s (Lee Strobel, himself) investigation into who Christ was and whether or not Christianity actually had its facts straight about Him. I flipped through it and read a couple paragraphs. It seemed like he went to several religious scholars and teachers and interviewed them about who Jesus was and challenged them with some of the questions that come up about Jesus. It seems like it will be an interesting read that moves along fairly quickly.

The second book I bought is “The Real Benjamin Franklin,” by Andrew Allison. This book — and the others in the American Classic Series: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. — come highly recommended by Glenn Beck. I’ve recently been kind of awakened to the political state of our country in recent days, what with my brother running for Congress and all the turmoil in Washington right now and all that. It’s really made me realized that I don’t have a very good handle on how the country was started and who our Founding Fathers really were. So, I picked up this book about Benjamin Franklin, because I’ve heard it’s one of the more accurate portrayals of who he really was.

I was going to pick up the one about George Washington, but it’s massive and a bit intimidating. That one will be next. Anyway, this book about Ben Franklin is pretty much a compilation of his own writings and well-known facts about his life. The author really doesn’t add anything to the story, except to create smooth transitions from one part of Franklin’s life to the next. I’m only about 30 pages into the book (which, having only bought it last night, is an accomplishment for me, a slow reader) and already enjoying it immensely.

Already, I’m learning that his success didn’t begin when he was an adult. He was building his success long before that when he was a child. And, really, his father’s character, which was developed long before Ben was even around, had a huge influence on who Ben became. The book recounts Franklin’s memories of how his father would invite men of stature and wisdom into their home for dinner so that his children would be exposed to their conversations. It’s really an interesting concept. I would expound on my opinion of how people underestimate the mental capacity of children today, but that’s another post for another day. Anyway, This book is really very well done, and I am really looking forward to reading the rest of it.

Well, I just wanted to give you a little heads-up that I’ll be posting my opinion of these books when I’m done with them, but I’m expecting both of these books to be excellent. So, don’t wait for me to tell you about them, you can go ahead and buy them. Oh, and if you’ve already read them, let me know what you thought in the comments.

What if water had no surface tension? Hmmm….

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Have you seen any of those shows on the science-type channels that speculates as to what the world would be like if the entire human population were to suddenly evacuate earth. I, personally, find these shows kind of interesting, but they all make it sound like things would be better if there weren’t all these pesky, pollution-producing people around. And, from the sounds of it, the writers for these shows prefer that the human race evacuated earth via a sudden, devastating virus. *shudder*

Seriously, people, think about what you’re suggesting: that humans do nothing but perpetuate the destruction of nature and the world would be so much better off without them. WHAT?! Do people really believe this? If so, that’s a little scary.

Via xkcd.com

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This is the shelf I built for our master bath. We came up with the idea to make this when we started renovating our bathroom a while ago. It took me a while, but I got it done!! (Actually finishing a project is kind of a big deal for me) So, this is my first woodworking project that I dreamed up and made all on my own. Now, I've got orders for other pieces of furniture coming in from my better half. I have to finish the bench for our entryway (which was really supposed to be my first project but I haven't finished it yet). Then, we were talking last night about building a coffee table. Sweet! Oh well, *sigh* I guess I'll have to buy some more tools.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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A little bit of shameless self-promotion, sort of. This is my workbench (inspired by my dad's drafting table) and my new tool shelf. Both ends of the shelf have peg-board, allowing me to load it up with tools and stuff. I've also got a couple saw-horses and a table saw and stuff that aren't in the picture, in case you wanted a run-down of all the tools I've got.

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I just checked Yahoo! and one of their little teaser lines for an article said, “Faith in Obama slipping.” And I thought, “Well, yeah, of course.” I believe “faith” in Obama is slipping, because he’s not what people expected him to be.

During the campaign last year, there were way too many references to Obama as being a “savior” or the “messiah.” People set up this man, our current President, as some sort of super-natural entity capable of providing us with all our wants and needs. The problem is, he’s just a man. Every time you place your faith in a man, he will disappoint you. That is a fact.

So, be careful about who you put your trust in. And be especially careful about trusting politicians.

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This weekend, we celebrated Faith’s birthday! It was a lot of fun. I bought her a bouquet of roses. *aaawwww* Anyway, yesterday, we slept in for a little while. Then, she made us pancakes for breakfast. I would’ve made them, but I’m not so great when it comes to pancakes.

Then, we got in the pool for a while. It was really nice. The weather around here is finally getting to the point where a pool is needed.

Then, until her parents arrived in the mid-afternoon, we pretty much just chilled and played a couple games. When her parents got here, we went out to eat at The Hill (the Italian neighborhood in St. Louis).

We’ve gone to The Hill to eat once before when my parents were in town and we wanted to go back to the same place again. However, we could not remember the name of the place we’d gone to. So, the first place we went that we thought was the same place, wasn’t the same place, and I was under-dressed to be in their dining room (no shorts allowed) anyway. Then, we tried driving around to see if we could find the other place. We did, but it had recently closed because there had been a fire in that restaurant. Finally, we found a place that looked pretty good, and it was. It was very good. After that, we came home, had some cake, Faith opened a couple presents, and that was about it.

So, even though it doesn’t sound like much, we had a really good day. By the way, the whole dining experience on the Hill is another post for another day. Happy Birthday, Honey!