Top Posts of 2011

It's common this time of year for bloggers to write some kind of "year in review" post, usually highlighting their most popular posts of the year. In that spirit, I present to you the most popular posts (by number of comments) from 2011 here at The Cliffs of Insanity.

100 or more comments:
(none)


50 or more comments:
(none)

25 or more comments:
(none)

10 or more comments:
(none)


5 or more comments:
May 18: How Swift Am I? (5 comments, 3 of them consisted of 1 word or less, 1 of them was my own)
October 13: Probably the most political I've ever been on this blog (5 comments, 2 were my own)


Here's hoping for an even better 2012!

New Address for Football Talk

Most of you don't care, but for Joel & Jase (and maybe mom? and Elizabeth?), I've changed the address of my NFL/Dallas Cowboys blog. You can find it HERE. If you subscribe, you'll need to add the new address to your feed reader. Thanks.

I'm a winner!

I just received an e-mail from The Bathroom Reader's Institute (creators of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader) that said I won a random drawing to receive a copy of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Sports Spectacular.

All I did was comment on one of their blog posts.

I never win stuff like this (Jase does, even when he has absolutely no interest in the items he's trying to win). Therefore, I'm very excited.

Maybe I'll post a review of the Sports Spectacular when it arrives!

I'll admit it: I have a fetish.

Last month I asked the West Wing lovers who read my blog if they'd be interested in reading a WW blog. I got enough "yeah"s and no real "nay"s, so I've started to do it! I'm going to blog through the whole series (or at least that's the current plan).

I've got an introductory post and a post on the Pilot episode. CLICK HERE to check out the blog. The Pilot post is pretty long. I will try to make a better effort at brevity in the future. Please leave comments and interact. Otherwise it'll be boring for me.

Nothing at all

I'm laying in bed, nursing a minor skin irritation and playing games on my iPod Touch (or as some people call it, to my utter frustration, "iTouch"). I'm blogging from my iPod just to see if it can be done at all efficiently. The answer, in case you're wondering, is sorta. :)

Explaining things.

I like to explain things too much.

For example, I often find myself wanting to add pages to this blog, so I'll start creating an "About Me" page or something like that. I begin typing and before I know it I've provided so much detail, and so many disclaimers about my blog that any reader would just think I was insane.

Or, how about another example: Not long ago I ventured the idea of starting a West Wing blog (from where I would blog my way through the television series, episode by episode). Since then, I've been working on setting one up. I keep adding pages to it so that I can describe the exact process I will be using, or writing disclaimers about my lack of political expertise, or explaining how at first I was going to write one type of blog, but now I've decided to do it a different way... All kinds of information that is simply evident to anyone who reads the blog itself.

It's as if I don't believe in the phrase "it goes without saying." I just want to say everything by way of explanation.

(I mean, look at this post, for crying out loud! I'm even explaining details about how I explain too many details!)

Question for my West Wing-ers

A significant percentage of the people who read my blog are also big fans of The West Wing (I think). So if you belong to that group, I have a question for you: Would you read a WW-themed blog?

My wife and I continue to watch The West Wing on DVD somewhat regularly, and we are nearing the end of the 7th (and final) season. When that happens, we usually just start right over at 1 again and work our way back through the series. I thought it might be fun THIS time to blog through the series, with general thoughts/observations/funny quotes/favorite parts of each episode. Would that interest any of you? Of course, my hope would be to hear YOUR thoughts/observations/favorite parts of each episode too through comments and stuff. Like a little community of WW lovers who can discuss it and argue about it.

Now, before you freak out, here are a few disclaimers: First, what I am talking about would be an entirely separate blog from this one (so those of you who couldn't care less wouldn't be bothered). Second, though this idea might imply that we watch 2-3 episodes of the show per night, that's actually not true (it was at one time in my life, and in our marriage, but it's not anymore). We actually kind of tend to go in spurts. Sometimes (on rare occasions) we might watch 5 episodes in a week, but other times (more common), we might go three weeks without watching one. The blog posts would come about as frequently as the episode-watching.

(I might end up doing this even if nobody says they're interested... because I would personally enjoy such an outlet.)

What do you think?

Why the title?

I know for a fact that you have all been wondering, for quite some time now, exactly why I've named my blog "The Cliffs of Insanity." I understand that this question has basically been burning a hole right through your brain. I apologize if you've suffered any insanity of your own due to my lack of explanation.

But right now I shall try to redeem myself.

If you know me at all you know that I believe that the greatest movie that has ever been made is The Princess Bride. If you've ever seen it you also know that "The Cliffs of Insanity" is a reference to the location in the movie where Fezzik carries Vezzini, Inigo, and Buttercup up the gi-normous cliffs in order to escape the Man in Black. Once at the top, Fezzik, Vezzini and Buttercup run ahead while Inigo stays at the top of the cliffs to kill the Man in Black, who has climbed up the rope behind them. Inigo and the Man in Black hang out for a few minutes and then they have a super awesome sword fight, which the Man in Black wins.

So what connection is there between a location in a movie and my blog? I can't believe you haven't discovered them on your own. Here, I'll help you out:

The Cliffs: For Vezzini and his merry men (and kidnapped Princess), the Cliffs of Insanity are (believed to be) a safe haven.
My blog: A safe haven for all of you (or so it would seem...)

The Cliffs: Only Fezzik is "strong enough" to climb them.
My blog: Only I have the ability to post here (cuz none of you know my password).

The Cliffs: Often coincide with the use of the word "inconceivable."
My blog: While I don't often use the word, my blog could accurately be described as such.

The Cliffs: Rock-climbing and sword-fighting.
My blog: Rock-climbing and sword-fighting.

The Cliffs: Awkward conversations + nobody that has six fingers on their right hand.
My blog: Ditto.

The Cliffs: The Man in Black has to empty rocks from his boot.
My blog: Sometimes I get rocks stuck in my shoe.

The Cliffs: "I am not left-handed."
My blog: "I'm not left-handed either."

The Cliffs: Inigo has to get used to disappointment.
My blog: If you've been reading for any length of time, you probably already are!

The Cliffs: Mistrust of Spaniards.
My blog: Mistrust of Spaniards.

The Cliffs: Amazing feats of strength, athleticism, and skill (during the sword fight).
My blog: Okay, bad example.

The Cliffs: Man in Black knocks out Inigo so he can't follow him.
My blog: I don't like it when people follow me either (except on twitter).

Not an exhaustive list, but it should give you an idea of why I chose the title I did.

a new look

I changed my blog background and title. Just a little change-em-up attitude. The background will look familiar to many of you - I'm pretty sure Joel used to have it as his background. I suppose as baseball season draws to a close and football season begins in the fall I'll probably make another change.

Anyway, just thought I'd alert you.

Following directions

I am blogging because Joel told me to if I thought it would be a good idea for Ashley Lang to blog (she's my sister-in-law's sister, or my brother's sister-in-law). And I do.

That is all.

bloggin'

It's been a bloggy-kind of night for my wife and I. We took an accidental nap for quite a long time this afternoon, and then I drank three cups of coffee while watching a movie this evening, which is probably why this is my third post in the last half hour.

Anywho.

Book list

I'm not that bad.

In the 103 days since I started this blog, I've written 23 posts.  That averages out to one post every 4.5 days, or about 22% of the time.

There are some books coming out soon that would be good for you to at least know about, if not read.  Next month Mark Driscoll is publishing a series of short books called "A Book You'll Actually Read."  They include On the Old Testament, On the New Testament, On Who is God?, and On Church Leadership.  Then in September Driscoll is publishing Death by Love.  These are all published by Crossway.

The ESV Study Bible, also produced by Crossway, will be available this fall as well.  There are 8 formats to choose from including hardcover, and a number of different genuine and bonded leathers of various colors.

Denver Seminary New Testament professor, Dr. William Klein, has a new book out from Navpress called Handbook for Personal Bible Study that looks really great.  

Also, if you haven't heard of Christians at the Border yet, you need to read it.  It's written by Denver Seminary's M. Daniel Carroll R. and it's published by Baker.  Dr. Carroll is Guatemalan-American, and he has a unique perspective on the immigration issue that's both timely and biblical.

Finally, I'll mention Timothy Keller's new book, The Prodigal God, published by Dutton, which will be available in Octobor (Keller's recent book, The Reason for God, was fantastic).

iWeb, you web

I have a lot to do before the end of the semester.

I guess that's not a profound statement or anything.  It's just that I thought I was in good shape and that I didn't have that much left to do... but then I thought about it for awhile.  Woops.

I finally got Microsoft Office installed on my new computer.  It's amazing how you don't really miss something until it's gone.  I was without Office for six days (the computer came with a 30-day test drive), and it was tough!  I couldn't figure out how to write a one-page paper for my class. And I couldn't open any .doc files.  Weirdness.

My friend Krista is having all of her friends blog on her blog this month.  It's really fun.  I'm getting to know all of the people likes (she only likes thirty-something people in the whole world).  I feel like this is a really stupid entry.  I'm not really saying anything substantive at all.  I feel like instead of blogging I'd just be better off suggesting other blogs you should read.  They're better than mine.  Seriously.  Oh well.

Oh!  I should say that I really want to start a website using iWeb.  I've been messing around with putting one together, but it can't get published online unless I buy this expensive program that I'm not interested in at the moment.  Elizabeth and I have bigger fish to fry.

Debate

I had an argument with myself today. I realized that I already have a facebook account, and it seems like you can do just about all of the things you can do in a blog with your facebook account. That's when I started arguing. The beauty of facebook, you see, is also its curse. Facebook makes it so easy to find out stuff about almost everyone you've ever met. You click on a friend's profile, which reminds you of another friend, so you click on theirs, and you look at pictures of them and then you see a picture of another friend and you're curious about them so you check out their profile and so on. I'm confident that people view my facebook profile fairly occasionally just because of the nature of facebook. This blog feels much more private. It's much less convenient and easy to find people here. You can't really stumble upon my blog by accident like you can my facebook profile.

I eventually conceded the argument to... myself.

Wailer

When I was in college I wrote a daily e-mail (which eventually turned into a bi-weekly or less e-mail) that I called the Wailer. The name was a spoof of the daily campus news e-mail, the Crier. It was basically my chance to just write whatever I wanted. My distribution list began with about 50 names, and then I only added those who e-mailed me requesting to be added. At its peak, the Wailer was being sent to just over 300 e-mail addresses per day. I had a great time writing it, because it didn't make any difference whether or not anything I said was important, logical, humorous, or even if it made sense (most of it didn't). I think part of the joy of writing the Wailer was that my audience was so abstract to me. I mean, most of the people reading it were my friends, but I wasn't handing them a hard copy and standing there while they read it. I wasn't giving oral presentations of each day's Wailer. I was merely sending out an e-mail to hundreds of people, never really knowing if anyone at all was reading it or laughing at it or getting upset over it. To me, my e-mails were completely isolated from everyone else. It felt like writing a blog. You never know who is reading, and it doesn't make any difference. It's an outlet.

Pilot

This is my first attempt at a blog. Let's forget that I'm coming a bit late to the party and embrace the idea that I showed up at all.

Let's start by laying some ground rules. Do not be surprised to find references both subtle and obvious to the world's all-time greatest television show, The West Wing throughout your perusal of my blog. I am a huge fan -- not because I love television, and not even just because it's a good show. I'm a fan because it's an amazingly engaging piece of work. It stimulates thought at all kinds of levels. After being introduced to the show by a college roommate, I have had the privilege of converting a host of others. They include my brother and his wife (and I'm pretty sure her whole family), one of my best buddies from college and his new roommate, and my wife. My wife and I are currently about a third of the way through the sixth season (there are seven) and we're beginning to wonder what we will do when we finish the series. Probably start right back over!

I'm not entirely sure what blogs are supposed to be used for. If I can figure out how to post photos and videos, I'll likely do that on occasion. Otherwise, I will probably just use this as an outlet to muse a little bit over stuff that I'm learning at seminary and in life. Happy reading.

Break's over.