I had one today and it is sooooo excellent! Well, this isn’t the exact recipe, but it’s similar and I imagine still pretty good. 

Ingredients:

3 oz. gin
4 oz. tonic water
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
3 mint sprigs
2 slices cucumber

Tools:

highball glass
muddler
bar spoon

Muddle 1 slice cucumber and 2 sprigs mint in highball glass; then fill with ice. Add 3 oz. gin,4 oz. tonic and1/2 oz. lime juice. Stir and garnish with a cucumber wheel.

Paradise Lost was written by John Milton and published as 12 books in 1667. Here are some notes from Book 1, with the lines numbered for reference.

It starts off with Milton calling on the Holy Spirit to help him tell the story:

14. What in me is dark,
Illumine; what is low, raise and support
That, to the height of this great argument,
I may assert eternal providence,
And justify the ways of God to man.

Milton then begins his epic. The setting is in hell after Satan and his angels have been thrown out of Heaven.

62. Yet from the flames
No light, but rather darkness visible.

Satan addresses his angels. Even still he is prideful and even more hardened against God. He believes that he and his legions are still capable of overcoming God and claiming Heaven for themselves.

I’m quite an amatuer, but can’t go anywhere unless you start somewhere, right? My goal is to eventually be able to write poems with more rules, like sonnets. Stuff like this will have to do for now…neither have titles yet.

Though it takes a thousand words to be admired;
One ill syllable leaves a man undesired.
One hundred smiles, bright and bold
May by one disdainful look unfold.
Ten thousand steps of poise and grace
Are tarnished by one stride poor in taste.
A man cannot outlive one false move
Among myriads of men quick to prove
Him forever condemned, till he grow old.
Though One higher, whose heart not so cold
Longs to forgive and quell righteous fury
Than leave him subject to a merciless jury

-

So, I haven’t started reading The Hunt for Red October yet, -I’ve started Paradise Lost (post to come…whenever) and have been busy with school – but I watched the movie tonight because I needed to chill and it’s one I simply cannot get bored of.

Also (and this does tie into the first paragraph…oh yes) I’ve really been getting into poetry. John Donne and Robert Burns are of note. John Donne seems really bold and sincere (“Death, thou shalt die”) and I just love the Scottish words from Burns. And Auld Lang Syne… is seriously such a great poem! I love it!

So, if you read enough poetry (or are an angsty teen, of course), you feel compelled to try writing some of your own. And so I have. As I said, I was watching The Hunt for Red October…

I think this is making it onto my favs list, every essay is so excellent! It’s really cool reading his opinions on the current events and issues of his day.

Here’s the first post I did on this book, and I’ll just continue giving a few quotes from each essay. I don’t summarize, because he states things more clearly and eloquently in one sentence than I could explain to you with a paragraph.

Modern Man and His Categories of Thought: “The effect of removing this [classical] education has been to isolate the mind in its own age, to give it, in relation to time, that disease which, in relation to space, we call Provincialism.”

“Where God gives the gift, the “foolishness of preaching” is still mighty. But best of all is a team of two: one to deliver the preliminary intellectual barrage, and the other to follow up with a direct attack on the heart.”

Talking About Bicycles: Lewis discusses four periods of enchantment in relation to riding bicycles. The first stage is un-enchantment. As a toddler, a bicycle was just another strange machine in an adult world. As a boy who could now learn how to ride and experience the freedom that came with it, he became enchanted. Soon, dis-enchantment came, when riding was not always freedom, but peddling up-hill “to and from school, in all weathers.” After many years came the re-enchantment, where the bicycle brought him back to those first feelings of joy and freedom, giving him an almost greater joy than what was originally experienced. Lewis quotes Owen Barfield saying that “Each great experience (enchantment) is ‘a whisper, which memory will warehouse as a shout (re-enchantment).’”

On Living in An Atomic Age: “For really, the naturalistic conclusion is unbelievable. For one thing, it is only through trusting our own minds that we have come to know Nature herself. If Nature when fully known seems to teach us (that is, if the sciences teach us) that our own minds are chance arrangements of atoms, then there must have been some mistake; for if that were so, then the sciences themselves would be chance arrangements of atoms and we should have no reason for believing in them.”

YES I am still reading. Slowly.

 

Man, I suck. I need to pick up the pace, stat.

 

Here are some notes, I’m in…2 Kings.

 

1 Kings 11:32 – First mention of God specifically choosing Jerusalem as his city, “…the city which I have chosen…”

 

13: 14 – Jeroboam’s hand dried up – freaky deaky!

 

16:27 – Elijah mocked prophets of Baal. The best sarcasm is the Lord’s sarcasm!

 

19:12 – “still, small voice”

 

2 Kings 2: 21 – Elisha healed waters with salt

 

2: 24: Respect your elders -bears ate kids that mocked Elisha. Favorite verse of parents everywhere.

 

6:6 Elisha causes axe to float

 

6: 16 – “They that are with us are more than are with them.” Army of angels – SA-WEET!

 

7:2 origin of “windows in heaven” term

 

13:21 – Dead man touches Elisha’s bones and is revived.

 

16: 3, 17:17, 17:31 – Israelites practiced child sacrifice

 

17:20 – Israelites (10 tribes) cast out of the land.

Yes, it’s finally over. The famous Circle Trilogy. Sheesh.

So, White wrapped things up well enough, though I saw the ending coming a mile away. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to. There were a few unexplained loopholes too…but I can’t say without majorly giving away the ending.

Oh, and Justin. Okay, so he’s supposed to represent Jesus…but every time I heard “Justin’s bride” in reference to the “bride of Christ” I nearly shot myself. It just…didn’t sound right at all. I mean, if you’re gonna use a random common name, might as well go all the way…it doesn’t have to start with a “J.” “Elyon” being the word for “God” was a good choice…but “Justin?” I mean, it’s purely aesthetics, but it just irked me.

The main thing you come away with at the end of reading this trilogy, however, is a rather refreshing perspective on romance. The whole story is about God’s love for his creation and how he gave us romance as a picture of that love on earth. Usually, we hear of marriage as a picture of Christ’s love for his bride, but hardly “romance.” So it was nice, it gave a less frivolous perspective of truly falling in love. This quote from the first book, Black, summed it up well:

“What if I don’t want to be in love?”
“Stop that nonsense!” Michal ordered, “Of course you want to be in love! You’re human!”

Man, I loved the Roussh.

Oh, and Joshua! He could have used “Joshua” instead of “Justin” and it would have sounded way better. Why? Cause Jesus’ name in Hebrew is “Yeshua”, which basically is “Joshua.” See, that wasn’t hard at all.

Justin. Seriously.

So… it’s a pretty good story and all, but it’s not on my Top Favs. I’d definitely recommend the trilogy as ideal for 10-16 year-olds, or older if you’re like me and want to see what the big fuss over Ted Dekker is all about. I’ve gotta say I still prefer the classic Frank Peretti when it comes to Christian thriller fiction…