Trebonte has once again organized an expedition to Mount Si. We’ll be meeting up at 1 pm to begin the steep ascent. The trail climbs 3500 ft in about four miles, an approximate average grade of 17%. Round trip, it will be about an eight mile hike.
Our last visit nearly ended in the gruesome deaths of our entire group but Providence saw fit to extend our lives. Fortunately, we anticipate less bodily danger this time around.
I am delighted to have my sister, Emily, home. Since she arrived back on Sunday, we are living under the same roof for the first time in a year. We have always been very close and it is so good to be able to spend time together again.
Since Sunday, we’ve been busy catching up. Last night we stayed up until 3:15 talking. Monday night we stayed up until 4:15, literally until the sun started to come up. I helped her paint her room for most of today and then she came with me to my church group this evening.
All this to say, I really love her and am so glad she’s back.
On Saturday, while Trebonte and I played tour guides for a visiting, Japanese friend, we stumbled across an enormous library that we have often passed but never visited. 
Though I was responsible for organizing the days activities and managed to put together a decent list of places to visit, I failed to take into account the fact that many of our destinations would be closed for the weekend. Time after time, we’d go to visit a place and find that it wasn’t open. On our way to visit the Columbia Center (which turned out to be closed) we walked past the Seattle Central Library, an oddly shaped mishmash of trapezoidal solids squatting among the skyscrapers. None of us had ever been inside and we thought it would be interesting to take a look.
The interior is as bizarre as the exterior. Some sections look very traditional, others forsake right angles and are brightly colored. Upwards of one million books are scattered throughout the building, along with DVD’s, tapes, CD’s and periodicals. Hundreds of computers can be found in clumps throughout the building. An innovative book spiral contains the library’s non-fiction collection in one continuous, five story series. It is a very confusing place. 
I’m still trying to decide if I like the place. The jumbled layout and garish decorating scheme are distracting but a million books is very, very impressive. I think I’ll have to return for another visit.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? - Jeremiah 17.9
Thanks for the reminder Boundless.
Slate has an interesting article on how to set your biological clock back so that you can get up earlier. I should try this minus the melatonin supplements.
Phillip Longman, writing in Foreign Policy, predicts that America will experience a return of patriarchy. Albert Mohler weighs in. Any thoughts?
Firefox 3 will be officially released on Tuesday. The folks at Mozilla are trying to put set a world record for the most software downloads in a single day.
If you’d like to have the latest version of the best available browser I’d encourage you to help them set their record.
This evening I met with a small group from my church. Afterwards, I can not help but be thankful for the fellowship, encouragement and companionship of other Christians.
I am very blessed to be involved in two regular gatherings of believers. On Monday nights, a group of young men meets for a Bible study hosted and lead by my Dad. On Wednesdays, I go to a Mars Hill small group up in Greenlake.
In the last few weeks, both groups seem to have hit upon the same themes of emphasizing personal prayer and matching deeds to our faith. In Dad’s group, we recently finished a study of James and are currently using Tozer’s Pursuit of God to help guide and inspire us towards a closer personal walk with our Creator, Savior and Guide. In the Wednesday night group, we’ve been discussing how to glorify God in our everyday lives, a conversation that keeps coming back to the need of the Church to pray and to spread the Gospel.
These are the same areas that God has been revealing to me as needing particular attention in my own life. It is so encouraging to have other brothers and sisters who feel the same calling and share my desire to better know the Holy One and serve him here on Earth.
A little light summer reading.
From the bottom: Dinotopia, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, God and Gold: Britain and America and the Making of the Modern World, Peter the Great: His Life and World, Comrades: The Rise of Global Communism, The Visible Hand: The Management Revolution, American Ideals and Other Essays Social and Political, The Weight of Glory, The Book of General Ignorance, Downbelow Station, A Program for Monatary Stability
Sunday, after attending church with my family in Bellevue, Trebonte, a couple Lees and I embarked on an adventure in North Seattle.
Our first stop was the Howard Chittenden locks. The purpose of the locks is to lift boats from Puget Sound to the higher water level of Lake Washington and to lower boats traveling in the opposite direction. You can find an explanation of how locks work here. According to the tour guide, the method of raising a vessel utilized in this type of locks was originally invented by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Next we went to Fremont, the self proclaimed “center of the universe.” We parked the car and spent some time strolling around, seeing the sights in this odd corner (I’m pretty sure it isn’t central) of the world. We visited the 16 foot bronze statue of Lenin (Can you guess the political ideology popular in this part of town?), trippity-trapped to the Troll under the Fremont Bridge, gazed on the giant missile and poked around in the plentiful artsy shops. Unfortunately the “deluxe junk” emporium was closed.
Finally, we ended the excursion by gathering for worship at our church, Mars Hill in Ballard.
My apologies for any slow loading due to my large pictures. If you have trouble, blame it on Trebonte, he took all the pictures. Feel free to view the rest of his photographic masterpieces .
*My sister, Emily, has been doing a ministry internship in a small town and she tells me that her small town acquaintances are not only unfamiliar with the term “kicking it” but can’t even grasp the concept when she tries to explain it. She hypothesizes that this is because it is impossible to kick it in a small town. If those of my readers who currently, or have at some time, lived in a small town would like to weigh in on the discussion I’d appreciate their input.
I am a Christian living in South Seattle. I recently graduated from Temple University in Tokyo, Japan. At present, I am looking for employment as a financial analyst.
