2-26-6 Books et cetera

I'm reading Frend's Rise of Christianity now.  It had an interesting section about certain philosophers who had contact with Christianity.  One of these philosophers, Peregrinus Proteus, a Cynic, ended up as olympic history.  He happened to do it by burning himself alive at the climax of the Olympic games at the 236th Olympiad A.D. 165.  I suppose the phrase, "it’s better to burn out than to fade away," might be considered Cynical in origin.  

A use for an xBox

Since the release of the xBox 360 the older xBoxes are pretty much doorstops and paperweights.   My xBox hasn't been used much recently (apart from a weekend stint at the superbowl, and once last November, and then once at the previous superbowl).  Thus I have decided to try my hand at an xBox media center.  I'm going to try to end up with X Box Media Center on it.  Apparently the install process includes dancing wildly over the carcass of your xBox while throwing pikachu dolls at it.  XBMC even has a matrix screensaver and can predict the weather!

Website Flashed

Several years ago, I did some HTML construction work for a website called IdahoRec.com.  Wherein contributors would write up content about various recreational activities around the great state of Idaho and post them on the site.  They would also be required to purchase work related items like mountain bikes, hot springs guides, skis, snowboards, and huckleberry pails.  Of course, their business model was more of a tax writeoff, thus it never really got off the ground.  But in the meantime, I got some experience using macromedia flash.  I've enjoyed it ever since, and recently added a few pieces of flair to the website.

Reading 2-9-6

I finished reading Will Durant's Story of Civilization: Reformation.  It was a good read by a good writer and fun historian.  I think he overcaricaturizes a few of the main players, such as Luther and especially Calvin.  It's good to get a nice picture of history, which Durant's well read (though not perfect) insight usually opens some doors toward.
     I recently picked up A Dictionary of Greek Orthodoxy, by Nicon D. Patrinacos.  It's been pretty interesting to see self defined points of Orthodox theology.  The book's definiations are very similar to Roman Catholicism's, and it has a fair ammount of mystic history.  It also has a bit of ecumenical flavor of goodwill towards the Roman Catholic Church, with is apparently standard post-Vatican II (dropping mutual anathemas and such).  On a related note, I think it's interesting how the priesthood developed in Christiandom.  It didn't have a place until at least one hundred years after the last of the apostles, and I think it really flourished with the synchronization of the Roman state religion changing to Christianity.  Possibly an interesting research project.