Dancing Priest by Glynn Young – My Review

My review has not been posted on Amazon.com yet so I thought I would post it here for Glynn Young’s first novel Dancing Priest (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006FI4Y8U/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img).

When I picked up Glynn Young’s first novel Dancing Priest I wasn’t sure what to expect. I read a lot and my expectations for fiction are pretty high. My tastes very from Tolkien to Dostoevsky, from Stephen King to Nicholas Sparks and all of the great classical and classic authors of fiction. I read a lot of theological books, science and technology, philosophy … so picking up this novel from a new author with whom I had only really read his online poetry and having a stack of other things to read I wasn’t 100% sure if I’d get in to it. Yet get in to it I did.

When the book starts I got the feeling that things started almost too fast to be honest. The backstory, characters, and events just starting coming at me lightening speed. Then around chapter five I found myself immersed. Young doesn’t use a lot of extra and unnecessary “flowery” language. There are no “dark and stormy nights … the kind of night that is so dark … so stormy” that just plague good (and many bad) stories. He gets to the point and sucks you right into the characters, their lives, and the events that change them forever.

I didn’t get the feeling that I was reading a typical book. It was almost as if I were spying on these people’s lives. I was the insider into an amazing array of people and situations that had me at times happy and more often than I’d like to admit in tears. Young is not writing a behemoth novel for page or word count. He is telling a story. A vivid and compelling one at that. After finishing the novel I’m astounded at his skill as a story teller. All of the adjectives and descriptive language in the world mean nothing without a good, solid story and characters you actually care about. In Dancing Priest Young has focused on the story thankfully. He pulled me in and didn’t let me go until the very last sentence of the book. And actually I’m still not free of it … I want more. I need more. I really feel the need to know what happens to these people I’ve come to know through Young’s novel.

This book has left me wanting more … more story tellers like Young. And more from Young himself. I don’t know if I can wait for the sequel … but guess I will have to. ~ Vince Arter, Jr. – 09-Dec-2011

Going to bed dirty?

OK. So I have to ask the question. Who goes to bed dirty? Recently I was discussing this with my family and then again it came up around an event where time is reserved in the morning for showering and getting ready.

It made me think again … WHO GOES TO BED DIRTY? I mean come on people that’s NASTY. I am interested in who does this (so I can avoid you … ha ha ha). It seriously bothers me. Maybe it shouldn’t. Maybe it is one of those “negotiable preferences” but to me it is just … Yuck.

Your bed is supposed to be a refuge. A nice, cool, clean place where restful sleep recharges your batteries and sweet dreams dance in your head. Climbing into a nice clean bed after a nice hot shower all clean and ready for rest … oh man … it just doesn’t get much better than that. I just hate going to bed without taking a shower or bathing. Somehow it just goes against how I was raised I guess. You took a shower BEFORE you went to bed. If you didn’t Mom would start yelling, “What are you gross? Take a bath before you go to bed. You’ve been outside playing all day/night!” Thanks Mom for the great advice.

I’m sure I’ll get some flaming responses on Facebook or here on the blog but I stand to the defense of my position. Take a shower before you go to bed people. I just get grossed out thinking about it. Icky.

V2

Data Finally Moved

Ugh. It’s been tough but I’ve finally moved all of my WordPress data to WordPress.com versus a custom host and setup the correct redirects. It didn’t move my external data and of course I had no backup so some of the old pictures of apps I’ve written and such aren’t here anymore. Sorry.

Well … things should be up and running again. Hope to get back to posting on all things I care about.

Cheers … V2

Thankfulness

So I sit here quickly jotting this down before work this morning.

On my drive in to to work this morning I was thinking of how much work I have to do (work and home). How crazy things have been and how I need some sleep. I started to get irritated. My breakfast was on the run and not very good. I had about 4 hours of sleep last night. I haven’t had a lot of quality time with my family because we all have a million things going on in our lives. I need more time in the Word.

A YEAR on OpenSource???

So I’ve been toying with a personal project idea. I’ve been wondering if I can do a FULL YEAR only running OSI software. I know. I’m the consumate Windows/Microsoft man and Windows 7 just came out … but I wonder …

I already know that Wine (the library not the drink) will play a big part because I can’t do without e-SWord and SPORE if I also go OpenSource OS (Ubuntu Linux most likely) … but have also considered going Windows but nothing else paid for (so OSI on Windows).

Does anyone even CARE? I would blog my results (painful as they will probably be). It has been four years since I taught my last UNIX class at St. Louis Community College and so haven’t been using *nix for a long time.

Thoughts?

Poopapault?

Tonight at dinner (with my son, his girlfriend, Dani and Elaine) my son made a great observation. He said, “You know that knewer version of Planet of the Apes is very unrealistic. If an army of monkeys really got together they would certainly have a poop-launching catapault.”

Bwwhahahahahahaha. I almost choked on my desert I found that SO FUNNY! The monkey army poopapault!

RIP Chris Arter, Sr. (My Little Brother)

(I originally posted this on Facebook only one day after my little brother Christopher Allen Arter, Sr. (age 40) passed away.)

I was thinking this morning and started doing some study on a verse that is sometimes controversial. John 11:35 “Jesus wept.” Some commentators would say that this had little to nothing to do with the death of his friend Lazarus. It means in the Greek he “shed a tear” or “quietly / silently wept”. I believe it was in significant part because of the those around him and Lazarus.

Tracking a diet …

Are you on a diet? Having a hard time forcing yourself to do the right things? I am … and I am. For awhile I was using the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s LiveStrong.com site to track what I ate and what I did each day. Believe it or not you don’t give yourself enough credit for what you do each day exercise wise. You would be suprised how quickly things add up.

Even getting enough sleep! Sleep burns calories in addition to being critical for overall health. I was surprised. Anyway this is just a quick post … if you want to know more go to http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/ and start tracking!

I’ve decided nothing goes in my body unless I track it. That will help me cut down on what I eat but also it is quite humiliating to see how quickly those calories add up (even if you don’t track it for long).

Good luck.

Vince

I’ve seen…171 out of 239 films

SUPPOSEDLY if you’ve seen over 85 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own Facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put an X next to the films you’ve seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom.

Why I dislike Chester Cheetah

OK. This may seem like an odd blog post but recently I’ve really gotten to dislike Chester Cheetah the spokestoon for Cheetohs. There was a time when parents, teachers and even the media taught kids to be kind to one another, to cherish friendships, to respect one another. It is now 2009. Chester Cheetah now shows our kids on commericals that being a jerk is cool. That messing up a co-workers office just because they like to be neat is to be respected. Sure the lady’s friend in another commerical is a bit annoying but “Papa Chester” being proud of the lady for ruining another person’s clothes just got my goat.

I know … many of you are saying “gee Vince … get a sense of humor”. Being a jerk is not funny. This is just rude and has made me boycott Cheetohs. I have a sense of humor (just ask my wife … ha!). I just don’t find being a total … well … I can’t say it … let’s just say jerk … is funny.

You may … I don’t. Sorry if you disagree but I think this is just bad advertising. Although it does pretty much guage the state of of things in the world today. Maybe if we tried to humble ourselves and be kind to one another (those basic tenants taught to many of us as children by our parents, churches and schools) instead of giving in like animals to our baser instincts the world really would be a different place.

Vince