Via Will comes the news that author David Eddings has passed away. (See also this obituary.)

Eddings is the author of some of my all-time favorite fantasy novels (along side the likes of Tolkien and Guy Gavriel Kay).

Eddings fantasy masterpiece was The Belgariad, a series of five books whose titles all bore chess themes:

1. Pawn of Prophecy
2. Queen of Sorcery
3. Magician's Gambit
4. Castle of Wizardry
5. Enchanters' End Game

I was introduced to them as a sophmore in high school. I read the first book in a single sitting, I was so enthralled (though, in retrospect, having re-read the series, relatively little actually happens in the Pawn of Prophecy, but boy, was I hooked from the get-go).

Eddings followed up with an encore series of five books, The Malloreon involving the same characters:

6. Guardians of the West
7. King of the Murgos
8. Demon Lord of Karanda
9. Sorceress of Darshiva
10. The Seeress of Kell

Between writing Sorceress of Darshiva and The Seeress of Kell Eddings went off and wrote the first two books in an unrelated trilogy, The Elenium (that was itself followed by a follow-on trilogy, The Tamuli, in the same manner that The Malloreon followed The Belgariad).

Having to wait two years, and see two unrelated books come out, before The Seeress of Kell was published to wrap up the story of the characters I'd come to love so much through nine books was extremely frustrating. I might have liked Sparhawk better if he wasn't holding up the closure I needed for my friends Garion, Ce'Nedra, Belgarath, Polgara, Silk, Durnik, etc.! :-)

As a result of the impatience & impotence engendered by this tramautic forced-waiting I decided, as a general rule, to henceforth eschew beginning an incomplete series. For example (as previously noted), I didn't jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon at first, always using as my excuse the fact that the series was incomplete.

As proof of the wisdom of this approach, consider the sad state fans of Robert Jordan found themselves in when Jordan up and died while working on the twelfth installment in his Wheel of Time series!

Eddings did go on to write additional books (several prequels to The Belgariad) but he lost me in 2000 with The Redemption of Althalus & the whole talking cat thing. I haven't read any of his later (post-Y2K) works.

I went to the Instacare tonight (Shauna made me go) and found out I have Acute Bronchitis, not Swine Flu like some had worried.

A sign of the economic times?

A rather dirty Mercedes (with a California license plate) spotted delivering pizzas in Utah.

A sad day for book lovers.

Hmm... Amazon.com must be doing a pretty good job of getting to my subconscious...

I scanned my inbox this morning and when I read the subject line (emphasis added):

Kindle romance with a Teleflora boquet! Plus save 20%

My very first thought was someone must really love their Kindle e-book reader, or be drooling over the forthcoming Kindle 2.0.

Then I kept reading and saw that it was only talking about something as prosaic as flowers.

This "modernized" translation of Matthew 5:40 (helpful for those trying to maintain a Christian attitude toward the stimulus package) made me laugh nearly to the point of tears...

40. If Congress seeketh to take away thy coat, let them have thy cloak also and thy cloak, and thy chariot, and thy gold, and thy silver, and thy vineyard, and thy calves, and thy oxen, and thy home, and thy 401k, and verily all that thou hast and all that thy children might have, and verily all that posterity might have until seven generations, and shall seek to make thee and thy posterity into abject slaves, give also thy iPod.

(Emphasis added.)

I've got a 245-page draft English/French document I need to have duplex printed so I can give it to a fluent French speaker for review...

• The cost to have FedEx Kinkos print the document: $159.60(!);
• The cost to buy and ship a 23-ppm duplexing wireless laser printer [on sale] at NewEgg.com so I could print it myself: $154.99;
• Remembering I have a loving sister who has a fancy duplexing printer already: priceless!

My friend (and fellow Tcl'er) Will wrote an insightful post on freedom yesterday. He begins:

I was at the mall this weekend, and I saw a sweat jacket with these words:

“Freedom is the ability to do what I wish.”

And it occurred to me that although many people would define freedom this way, it isn't so. Rather, freedom is the ability to do what I ought to do. This is a notion that causes most of us to recoil in horror. What I want to do and what I ought to do often seem all too firmly opposed. So let's look at that.

Will is 100% correct, in my view. In this life I am free to choose; however, only by doing what I ought (as opposed to what the natural-man in me might want) can I find lasting freedom.

I am reminded of Lehi's counsel to his sons (2 Nephi 2:25-30 in The Book of Mormon; pages 69-70 in Mormon's Book; emphasis added):

25. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
26. And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.
27. Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
28. And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit;
29. And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom.
30. I have spoken these words unto you all, my sons, in the last days of my probation; and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophet. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls. Amen.

Verse 27 holds the key: to do as we ought means to "choose liberty and eternal life"; to do as [the natural man] wishes is to "choose captivity and death."

Following God's commandments doesn't limit our freedom; doing so actually actively enhances it.

It is worth noting that the English word command & commandment have their origins in the Latin Commendare ("to recommend").

Prayer, scripture study, chastity, Sabbath observance, baptism, and even abstaining from harmful substances are all, literally, divine recommendations instituted for our happiness that God invites us to follow.

Some of the best advice I ever received as a teenager: "Let His will be your will, and then you will be free"...

Will concludes:

In Christ, however, there is true freedom. For God is the summit of all that Good, True, and Beautiful, and Christ Jesus is God's most perfect revelation of Himself to us. And in Christ, and through His sacrifice, I receive the grace to follow Him, to avoid sin, to grow in virtue, and, in short, to pursue the Good He shows me. And that is freedom.

To which I say, amen.

No, this post is not about the election...

It's about Ethan.

Since turning two recently he's really ratched up his level of energy and intensity. Over the weekend he:

• Learned how to consistently escape from his crib
• "Helped" (or tormented?) Marta by throwing all their toys into her crib (while she's stuck in it)
• Figured out how to open closed doors
• Rummaged through the cupboards and made himself "breakfast"

Probably the most exciting moment came yesterday afternoon after he took most of the tupperware lids and oven mits and put them in the oven—where they promptly melted and caught fire once Meghan turned the oven on to pre-heat it. (Note to self: remember to check the oven for foreign objects before pre-heating it.)

Ethan also opened the front door and went outside to play with the other kids... except he couldn't find them, and wandered in the direction of the creek. Barefoot. A four year old neighbor found him and brought him home.

We now have door knob covers, new outlet safety plugs, and one less crib. We still need some new tupperware and oven mits. With luck Ethan will yet survive to see his third birthday and any hair Shauna's lost recently will regrow quickly... :-)

Obviously not a lot of people comment here, but for the handful of you that may have tried recently I want to apologize for your inability to comment.

Comments were broken since sometime in late-October or early-November. (I didn't realize it until I got two separate emails on Monday after posting about programatic Christmas hymns). I thought I'd permanently fixed the problem Monday afternoon, but it didn't quite stay fixed like I intended. ;-)

I've since found & squashed what I think was the final bug in the commenting code. (All a fall out from my trying to out smart the automated comment spammers a while back...)