Not So Famous…

The time for tears is past.
With every breath I draw,
I affirm life, love, faith.

Yesterday was a cold day.
The days are still cold,
but every day grows yet warmer.

My Father strengthens me,
He is my rock, my fortress.
My very present help in time of need.

I may have mentioned that I was getting ready to take a Geology test that would determine whether or not I would have achieved at least a C in a regular, college-level Geology class. If I passed that test, I would get 3 Geology credits, and I would be able to apply for my degree.  (A final chance to squeeze another $65 or so out of me.  I gladly pay for the honor of saying “I’m done.”)

On Friday, I received my score for this test and was happy to see that I beat the passing score by 14 points.  (Those might be percentage points…I don’t know.)  This was the passing score as recommended by the American Council on Education (ACE). If UoP accepts their recommendation, then I passed, and I can get my degree.  I spoke with a UoP Academic Counselor today, and she assured me that they accept the ACE recommendation, which means I am DONE!!!

As soon as the DANTES transcript posts to my account, I will apply, and they will happily send me my degree.  And not a moment too soon, I say!!!

So there’s the happy news I promised I’d blog about.  I finally finished.  :)

How do you continue when the grief is so fresh in your mind?  I’m not advocating that everything stops, but it’s definitely not easy to continue on as though nothing has changed.

For those who don’t know, I lost a friend and co-worker this weekend. I had only known him for 6 months, but he had already become a very good friend to me.  Zac was selfless, caring, and fun to be around. His irreverent attitude about nearly anything was a breath of fresh air in this world wherein everything is taken so seriously that no one enjoys their days. He stood up for those who had no one to stand up for them. He was a good guy.  I enjoyed the conversations we had, and I enjoyed the cigars we smoked together.

I know that we are to pray that the Lord’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that our Father is sovereign in all things.  I’m not saying that God screwed up on this one.  My faith is stronger than that, thanks to Him.  But I miss Zac already.  I miss him terribly.

As the tears spring to my eyes, I am reminded that he wouldn’t have wanted us to dwell on so sad a topic.  On the other hand, he would have felt our loss just as deeply if we had been together upon losing a good friend.

Those of you, who are the praying type, please pray for his family in this.  It can’t be easy to survive your son…especially when he was only in his mid-late 20’s.  Please pray for those who are left, and who mourn his passing.  Thank you.

Gabe and I had a seminar to attend yesterday at the Cisco campus in San Jose. It was a good seminar, and I learned a great deal. I’d love to get the integrated Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus, Anti-Phishing, URL Blocking, etc, all-in-one solution that Cisco puts out. It’s a darn good product, and at only a couple thousand dollars, it’s a steal, really. :) Anyway, the day as a whole didn’t go so hot with regards to driving. Here is how it all went down.

To begin with, we left at 5am. I don’t know how anything can go right when the day begins that early, but I’m glad we left when we did. Driving to San Jose is a good deal like watching a football game. Sure, the 4th quarter is 15 minutes long. But it’s not going to take 15 minutes to watch it! Driving to San Jose shouldn’t take nearly 3 hours…but it did.

The first wonderful thing about driving to the Bay Area can be expressed in a simple equation:

a + b = BIG, SLOW, DANGEROUS MESS

(Where:
a = The number of idiots in their cars
b = The number of idiot things they do putting everyone else in mortal peril)

Seriously…there are so many idiots out there talking on their cell phones doing completely retarded things, I’m surprised we don’t have a higher fatality rate on the Altamont. And 100% of the people that cut us off, merged into our lane without warning, tailgated us, etc. were talking on their cell phones. I used to be angry at the number of people who wanted to make it illegal to talk on the cell phone and drive. I agree with them now. People get so involved in their conversations and forget that they are operating heavy machinery, endangering the lives of those around them. (grrrrrr….)

The next wonderful adventure happened when we hit the 580-680 interchange around Dublin. This nifty bit of Cal-Trans trickery is not-so-affectionately termed “The Parking Lot”. Basically, we’re on 580 West, and we are trying to get to 680 North. 580 W to 680 N has one lane. The neat thing is that people from 680 who are wanting to get onto the 580 West have their own lane. So what we have is 2 lanes coming together, and everyone who wants to get to a different freeway gets to merge. It’s difficult to describe, but I have created a high-quality graphic I have entitled “HOLY CRAP!!!” which illustrates the conundrum that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people face each day. It should help.


So what we have above is our path in red. And our friends, the opposing mergers, in blue. The directions of traffic can be seen by looking at the arrows next to the lanes. Now, with bumper to bumper traffic, and a bunch of idiots on their cell phones, can you see what this does for us? That’s right….ulcers.

So we’re driving down the 680, listening to music, talking, desperately trying to avoid the idiots on their cell phones, when we notice a sign for Mission Blvd. Our directions (from an Internet Map company…I won’t mention their name, but it rhymes with CrapQuest), say that we are supposed to “merge onto Mission Blvd / CA-262 W.” No problem…well….sort of. See, we’re at Mission Blvd., and we see NO signs for 262 W. We initially turn left, thinking that’s sort of West. We go under the freeway, and then have second thoughts. “Maybe we should have gone the other way”, we think. We flip a U-Turn and head back the other way, thinking that we’re bound to run into 880 any time. We were sorely mistaken, of course. 7-10 miles later, we realize that we’re not going to run into any other freeway and turn around again. I scream “LALALALALALALA” at some dude walking down the street, just to feel better. Soon, we cross under the 680, thinking, “Ok…The directions say we should only need to drive 1.2 miles to get to the 880.” We drive…..and drive…..and drive. Suddenly, I see a sign for a freeway up ahead. Looks like it could be for 880. Guess what? NOPE!!!! It was for…..the 680. Again???? WTH is this about? Mission Blvd. crosses the 680 TWICE??? What idiot thought THAT was a good idea??? Sure enough, we hit the 880 about 1.2 miles after that. Gee, thanks CrapQuest.

Ok, we hit the 880, and think our problems are over, right? Wrong again. Our next directions were to merge onto the 237 toward Mountain View. We see a sign saying, “237, Right Lanes.” So we get into the right lanes in preparation to merge onto the 237. Soon after this, we see a sign that says, “237, Left Lane.” …….. WHAT??? So we start getting back over to the left, when we see another sign reminding us that if we want to merge onto the 237, we need to be in the right lanes. ARRRGGGHH!!!!! Turns out, the left exit is for carpoolers, while the right lanes are for everyone else. No signs to indicate this….just MAJOR confusion while we anger those around us. CrapQuest is awesome again, and the California Highway System is really keen in my book, now.

We get to the right of the 237 in preparation to exit on Zanker Road (after laughing at the funny name.) The cool thing about this is that there were at least 2 on-ramps that needed to merge while we got into the right lane in preparation. These on-ramps were FILLED with shiny, happy people wanting to be where we were. WOOT! That was about as awesome as the 580-680 interchange (see above.)

The seminar went well. Gabe got directions from this nameless Internet Map site to get from our address to the Gordon Biersch Brewery. (WOOT!) I look at the directions, and inform him that he needs to head East on our main road here and look for Morgridge. It’s an unfamiliar area, all the buildings are turned at funky angles, and it’s 12pm. East is a little difficult to ascertain!!!! So we go right…..seemed easterly to us. We drive for a little bit, looking for Morgridge Way when I look back at the directions for our next move. The next move says thus:

“Start out going EAST on E TASMAN DR toward MORGRIDGE WAY.”
…ok, we’re on Tasman, going where we THINK is east.
“Make a U-TURN at MORGRIDGE WAY onto E TASMAN DR.”

WHAT????? Excuse me??? I was supposed to head East, and then flip a freakin’ U just so I can go WEST? Ok, so I’m supposed to ultimately head West on Tasman, so either I’m going to run into Morgridge and flip a U, or else, I’ll end up at First street, which is where we’re ultimately going to turn left on our way to beer-y goodness. We drive….and drive….and drive. Suddenly, Gabe notices we’re now in Milipitas, and on a street called Great Mall Parkway. WHOOPEE!!! We’re now on a different road, and have seen neither hide nor hair of this Morgridge -OR- First street. So we head back, wondering if we’ve entered a parallel dimension where East and West have switched places with North and South, or else we’re going completely insane. We head back down Tasman, and come to the light that we originally turned right on to get onto Tasman. (Because we thought it looked East-ish.) Turns out THAT light was Morgridge. Turns out our directions thought we were in a different driveway, and now we’re hungry, thirsty, and ANGRY. So we find First, and we make it to Gordon Biersch, where much eating and drinking ensue. Yum, and yum…

On the way home, we begin following the directions to get us back to 880, which should lead us back home. We reason that we can get back on the freeway the same place we got off of the freeway. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…no. The on-ramp is CLOSED. Oh, yippee. So now, we’re driving around downtown San Jose looking for somewhere else to get on the freeway. We see something for 880. We JUMPED on it, and ended up back on the freeway we wanted to be on.

It was an adventure without peer, my wonderful reading audience. But it was fun…we laughed at our mishaps a great deal. Adventures in the Bay Area. Think it would make a good novel series?

This post is intended to be as reflective as it is admonishing. It is intended to be a record of my thoughts on this matter more than as an injunction for anyone else to behave in a certain way. Finally, it is intended to provoke thought. You might agree; you might not. However, keep something in mind, people. The law of the Old Testament has lost its condemning power if you are a Christian. But even for Christians, it has not lost its power to command us.

The 4th Commandment is not a commandment that finds its way into sermons often these days. Pastors don’t often preach about what our focus ought to be on the sabbath. The sabbath is the day for the Christian to relax, go to the grocery store, watch some football, go out to lunch/dinner with friends, etc. isn’t it? Well…I’m not so sure anymore.

First off, the sabbath is instituted by God even before man’s fall. God creates the universe in 6 days, and on the seventh, He rests. When the law is given to the Jews, He makes sure that the sabbath is in there. When He boils the law down into 10 Commandments, keeping the sabbath day holy is #4 on the list. On the face of it, there’s no reason to assume that this does not apply to us now.

Many Christians will cite that parts of the law do not apply to us, and they’re right. The question, though, is “what parts of the law apply to us, and what parts do not?” The answer is at once simple and complex.

To begin with, the law is generally broken up into 3 parts: The Moral Law, The Civil Law, and the Ceremonial Law. The moral law are those parts of the law where God indicated how His chosen people should behave on a regular basis. Christ later broke this law up into 2 commandments, which were to “…love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” The Ten Commandments are in the moral law. The civil law are those parts of the law where Christ instituted the government that He wanted for the Jews. Finally, the ceremonial law are those parts of the law that pointed forward to Christ’s eventual sacrifice on the cross. Sacrifices, the Passover Supper, circumcision, etc. are all part of the ceremonial law.

Now, the parts of the law that don’t apply to us are the parts that are fulfilled in Christ, or the parts that only applied to the Jews; namely, the civil law and the ceremonial law. The moral law is still in full force, though for the Christian, that purpose has changed. No longer is the law able to condemn the Christian. Our sins have been forgiven. Our inability to keep the law continually reminds us that Christ paid the ultimate penalty for our sins. However…

The moral law STILL retains its power to command us. Christ lived the law, indicating that we ought to strive for it also. Christ, in fact, said “be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” It’s a moral imperative for us to keep the law. Know full well, Christian, that you will NOT keep the law. :)

All of that being said, what does it mean to keep the sabbath holy? It’s not just a matter of remembering the sabbath….or keeping the sabbath. We are to keep the sabbath holy…sanctified…set apart. Whenever we talk about sanctification or the process by which we are set apart, what are we set apart for? We are set apart for the Lord, and we are to set apart the sabbath for the same thing. It is the Lord’s Day…not the Lord’s Morning Service….not the Lord’s Evening Service…it’s more than that. We are to keep the sabbath set apart for the Lord, honoring Him. The Bible gives us several ways we can keep it holy.

We can do no work, nor force neighbors or people under our power to do work. Now, Christ seemed to make a distinction between acts of necessity and mercy, and convenience. Christ and his disciples needed to eat, so Christ plucked some grain and ate. People needed healing, so our Lord healed them. The Pharisees claimed that Christ was defiling the sabbath for these things, but the Lord seemed to see no problem with it…so we are not to withhold mercy or starve ourselves to avoid working. Cooking is ok…as we need to eat. However, the point of the sabbath is to rest in the Lord…to focus upon the Lord. Going out to eat on Sunday might be fun, but is it necessary? Yes, you have to eat, but can you not have people over to your house or to someone else’s house where you can cook together? Show businesses that it’s not a necessity to be open on the sabbath by not patronizing them. Better yet, enjoy some sort of fellowship meal at your church on Sunday after the service. Potlucks are fun, and once a month, my church holds one of these. Very edifying to talk with so many godly men and women. Going to the grocery store? Sure, it’s convenient to get your shopping done on the sabbath, but why not do that on the Saturday before? Friday before? Is it possible to plan ahead enough so that you don’t have to go to the store on Sunday? In most cases, I think you’ll find that it’s definitely possible.
Ok, so no work…and no shopping…nothing that is not necessary. What about leisure activities? This is where I think I’ll lose most my readers. But this very topic is what got me thinking about the sabbath. Over at The Ocean’s Dreams, a friend of mine recently posted about College Football. I highly recommend it here. She talked about enjoying college football because the players really enjoy PLAYING for the game itself, rather than money. She didn’t mention this, but I suspect that her family’s love of college football is also brought on because the games are played on Saturday rather than the Lord’s Day. Watching football isn’t work, is it? So why not enjoy it?

Recently, my friend has brought this verse to my attention in Isaiah. “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Isaiah 58:13-14

This is a promise from the Lord that if we delight ourselves in Him (Psalms 37:4), He will bless us, and this isn’t just Isaiah’s opinion…it’s actually spoken by the Lord Himself (see the last part of v14). So in this, the Lord shows us that He will bless us if we focus upon the Lord on the sabbath, and not seeking after our own lusts, the Lord will bless us.  Ultimately, I think this is where the crux of the matter is.  If we are to seek after the Lord on the sabbath, as commanded when we are told to set it apart for the Lord, then how can we sit around watching football, or movies, or playing video games?  How is that better than eating with friends and discussing the various sermons you heard that morning? How is it better than spending time in prayer?  How is it better than focusing upon the Lord?

This last Sunday, I watched a movie with my friend while my wife went to a birthday party. I’ve been convicted about this of late, and I want you all to know that I am not condemning you. I am condemning myself.  I am not fully convinced that we CANNOT do any of these enjoyable things, mind you.  I’m just wondering if there’s just not a better way for us to spend our Lord’s Days.

Something to think about.

Today is worse than other days.  I went to a seminar for a sneak peak at Microsoft’s new Windows OS, Vista, and since I got back, I’ve been way tired.  Kind of worried about the drive home.

The seminar was excellent.  The new version of Windows is going to be great, though it will definitely take some getting used to. I don’t want to say this, but Microsoft has really spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make a more secure, usable OS.  And I think they’re really going to hit one out of the park with this one.  (Once you all get used to it.)

I got a hold of the latest Beta build of Vista, and I’m thinking about installing it to my system at home.  I’ll check to see how much disk space I have, but it could be fun.  :)

First off, allow me to say that I intend this review to be “safe”, and by that I mean that I do not intend to spoil this book for anyone who has not read all the way through it. Please, feel free to read this review and comment.

Characters: The same sorts of things that I said about the last book apply to this book, of course. Cornelia returns to her old characters with the same sense of mystery that she never entirely dispelled in Inkheart. Dustfinger is still…well…Dustfinger! You cannot predict with any degree of certainty what he will do in any given situation. He surprised me again, and it was beautiful. She does introduce new characters, and these characters are wonderful. Reading about the Black Prince is refreshing, The Laughing/Weeping Prince is tragically poignant, Roxane is entrancing! They make the novel, as her original cast did in Inkheart. Absolutely magical.

Writing: Again, Funke weaves a story of suspense, happiness, and sadness. Fenoglio returns, though there are times you wish he would not, but his weaving of a story within a story is incredible (misguided?). :) As I was telling a friend last night, the story moved somewhat more slowly than I expected. (Translation: I was not up until 4am turning pages), but I still felt compelled to find out what happens next. Some characters play a larger part in the story than they originally did, and others fall surprisingly into the background. However, the story is still wonderful, and still highly recommended reading.

Plot: Again, I seem to have covered some of this in the last paragraph, but the plot seemed to move more slowly. When being introduced into the world of Mo, Meggie, Elinor, and Dustfinger, I was reading at a breakneck pace. In fact, this is a common occurrence, as I discuss the novel with my friends. However, this novel progressed more slowly. I still loved how Funke weaved the plot elements, but subjectively, I was not nearly as eager to read the rest of this novel. Perhaps this had to do with other things I had going on, but I just didn’t feel the sense of urgency that Funke conveyed so well in the last novel.

That being said, I do not think that Funke wrote a snail of a novel. I feel she attempted to continue her novel from before, and though much of the novel was new…it was not as new as it was when perusing the first pages of Inkheart.

The final aspect of plot I would like to discuss is the aspect of a sequel’s contrived nature. When someone writes a novel or films a movie that they intended to be the be-all end-all plot device of the complete story, it’s rather obvious when profits and demand forces them to write a sequel. In this, I feel, Funke did a fine job. She added her new plot elements to the story with minimal explanations as to why certain new characters did not make it into the thoughts of older characters though you fully think they would have. She just explains it simply, which is her best option here. That being said, to me it was obvious that she never intended to write Inkspell when she was writing Inkheart. Too much was added, and too little from Inkheart hinted at it. I found on her website where she said that she never intended to write a sequel, and this is obvious. However…as a post-conceived sequel, I think she did a tremendous job with what she had to work! She definitely wrote Inkspell to tie in to the final chapter in the series…that of Book III, however, as the ending is definitely in the cliffhanger style.

Conclusions: I initially said that Inkheart is an inventive, and worthy read, and Inkspell fits into the same mold. It carries a bit of a contrived nature, as you would expect a post-conceived sequel to do. However, being that I don’t see how she could have really written a sequel without some aspect of stretching the thoughts of the previous characters, I think she did a fine job, and I still feel that you will not regret spending the time it will take you to read this book. Funke proves herself to be a fine writer of sequels, if not so fine as Rowling, who has always intended Harry Potter to mature through 7 years at Hogwarts! Such a difference must be noted. I highly recommend this novel, and I highly look forward to the final installment.

Overall Recommendation:

I don’t know that the title accurately depicts what I wish to talk about, but it seemed clever. Last night, my church covered the next installment of our Reformation series, and we covered the martyrdom of Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley.  I was affected severely by the account of men whose only crime was that they refused to deny the Lord Who bought them.
Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned at the stake for heresy on October 16th, 1555. Ultimately, they were prosecuted and executed for being Protestants under the reign of Bloody Mary.  The account of their execution in Fox’s Acts and Monuments is supremely moving.  They went to the stake as men of God, and they have received their rewards of God in heaven.

Reportedly, the night before his execution Master Latimer referred to the following day as “my marriage”, referring to his meeting with his Lord, the Christ. He asked people to be in attendance to share this glorious occasion with him. His good cheer and happiness at what he was to experience the following day reportedly moved people to tears.

Would I cry, were I in attendance.  I believe I would, gentle readers. In part, I would weep for the loss of such a giant of the Faith in a time of darkness in England.  However, the larger part of my tears by far would refer to my own unworthiness to bear the title of Christian with such a man.  Would I go to my death calling upon the Lord to bear witness of the charges leveled against me? Would I be of such good cheer?  The Lord only gives us strength to bear what He would have us bear, of course, but I don’t know what I would do.  Thomas Cranmer, the ex-Archbishop of Canterbury, a contemporary of Masters Ridley and Latimer, recanted Protestantism to attempt to escape death.  I was saddened by his recantation, but I feel I would be far more likely to be in his boat than that of Masters Ridley and Latimer.  (For what it’s worth, Cranmer later recanted of his recantation, and because he signed with his right hand that which he did not believe in his heart, when the flames were kindled near him, he thrust his hand into the fire until the offending hand was burned to a stump.  Would I do such a thing?)

People of God, we are to be a light unto the world.  How many times have you neglected to speak of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ because you were afraid of what someone else might say of you? How many times have I done the same?  Too numerous to number, I am afraid.  Let us go throughout our days, with the words of Hugh Latimer resounding in our minds, recalling the words of Christ Who said that the world shall hate us because they first hated Him.  Before being burned at the stake, Hugh Latimer said this:

“Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, play the man! We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”

May we have such a heart to serve God and pay the ultimate price if God wills it so.

One of the problems I see in the world these days with regards to acceptance of non-Biblical teachings is the fact that the Lord is gracious enough to save people who are participating in a ministry that teaches things not found in the Word of God.  You can generally explain to people that the teachings of these ministries are not found in the Word of God, but their ultimate answer to you comes when they say something like this:

“But there are people coming out of Thus and Such Ministry who are saved.  So therefore, the Lord must be blessing that ministry.”

This is not an acceptable answer.  I initially thought I’d go into a LONG, drawn out explanation of why not, but I’d instead like to just cover a couple core points.

First off, saved people come out of completely incorrect theologies. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli came out of corrupt Catholicism. They read the Word of God, the Lord was gracious to draw their hearts to Him, and they left. This does NOT mean that the Catholicism in the time of the Reformation was an approved ministry for the Lord. Quite the contrary. So saved people coming out of bad ministries is a form of God’s graciousness, and NOT a stamp of approval on these ministries. The Word of God is the ONLY arbiter of what is an acceptable ministry and what is not.

Second and lastly, who knows whether someone else is saved? I’m sure many people will have a problem with what I’m about to say, but the catholic (read: universal) church has been given the authority to claim whether or not someone is a Christian. The Lord has given us a model for discipline whereby we have the procedure for examining the teachings of a self-proclaimed believer and the responsibility to cast the person out if they refuse to accept the clear teaching of Scripture. However, what constitutes a church??

There are plenty of “churches” out there who are not actually churches, and as a result, they have no right to pass judgment of the faith of any person, at all. The marks of a true church are as follows:

1. The Word rightly preached. (Some have advocated that this requirement is too strict for any church to follow completely and ought to be amended to “The Gospel rightly preached.”)

2. The Sacraments rightly administered.

3. Church discipline rightly administered.

There are groups of people masquerading as churches who do not rightly discern the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper…they have no elders and no membership, and thus no system in place for church discipline…and many of them advocate more than 1 way to Christ, or worse, preach Universalism or that man, who is dead in his transgressions, possesses the ability to make himself alive to choose the Lord. Many churches are missing 1, 2, or even all 3 marks of the church. As a result, they have no right to claim knowledge of anyone else’s salvation at all. So even if the Lord IS gracious enough to save some out of their false teachings, they have no church with which to approve or disapprove of any professions of faith.

What’s more, many of the churches I am talking about would really not have a problem with that. They don’t feel that it’s the church’s job to make sure their members believe correct things about the Bible. They don’t feel that the church can ever say with any certainty that any person is or is not saved, because they themselves reject certain things about the Bible out of hand as not relevant to believers in this day or age. From their own mouths they show that they are no true church.

Be it known here, that I am NOT talking about the believer who is constantly trying to eradicate wrong doctrine and sin from their lives. There are saved people in these churches. However, if you’re in a church, and you’re afraid they do not meet the 3 signs of a true church then might I suggest that no matter how long you’ve been a part of this group of people, consider leaving to find a church that does meet these requirements. If you think your faith has grown under any certain pastor’s teachings at this church you think is false, imagine how much you’ll grow when at a church where the Word is rightly preached, the Sacraments are rightly administered, and there is a system of church government in place which can administer proper church discipline? Such a church will be concerned with proper teaching from the Word of God, a proper treatment of the essential Sacraments with holy reverence, and a body of believers who has been properly examined by the elders of the church as believing correct doctrine from the Word of God. How could you NOT grow in such a setting? :)

For some reason, the software I’m using to format my book reviews always sets the “Allow Comments” flag to “OFF” when I write a book review.  If I don’t remember to go turn that flag back on when I’m done with the review, no one will be able to comment.  I don’t know why this is as I’d love for people to comment on my book reviews.  :)

All that to say that you can now comment on Inkheart and Patrick, if you feel so inclined.  Sorry about that.  I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to fix that.  :)