I just finished reading Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. It took me a while to get through. Not because of the sheer size of the content (531 pages), but also the use of older English by Tolkien as well as other languages of middle earth. I have now come to appreciate the job Peter Jackson did with directing the movie, condensing it to a little under 3 hours depending on the version you watch. And while I may not agree with the content he decided to leave out, I appreciate the work.
It's a great book, the first of the trilogy but the second book in the story, after the Hobbit. It was only after finishing the book and looking back at the story in a big picture perspective that some of the themes became apparent. So I'll like to share a bit of what I got in as general terms as I can possibly make it.
Chance
What may seem to be chance may turn out to be after all Was it chance that the ring came to Frodo? Or to Bilbo before him? Was it chance that it was discovered by Gandolf when he did? I don't like to think so, for what may look like chance may actually be deliberate. We do not always see that invisible hands at work in and through ordinary things.
Resistance
All through the journey to destroy the ring, where was resistance. Everyone linked to the destruction or the Fellowship has some form of encounter with the enemy. Their enemies are fearsome and terrible, never relenting in their pursuit, always a few ways behind bringing destruction with them. Their aim, to destroy all that is good. But the enemy is afraid. Afraid of what a few weaklings with courage would do.
Disappointment
No one expected that a member of the Fellowship would be lost to the mines of Moria. Not least of all the leader of the fellowship. His loss brought great grief to everyone as most losses do. Most of all to Frodo, the young bearer of great trust and hope. To him he was not just the leader of the fellowship but a guardian and a voice of wisdom. Even a dear friend. However if we must grow from where we are, we cannot rely solely on man, or even wizard.
Help
All through their journey they came across friends who aided them one way or another. Whether with shelter and supplies or a brief respite from the trouble of the world, a quiet place to rest and renew strength. There were a lot of forces working against them and a lot of forces working for them. This was very encouraging.
Separation
All faith is tested. And only through testing that the true nature of things are reveals. Through testing, the true nature of the hearts of men were revealed. The ring is treacherous and will amplify the desires of the heart, laying them bare so that sheer act of will is no longer enough to suppress it. With testing came separation when a divergence of purpose was apparent. Everyone must choose the path they want to walk in and the part they must play.
Determination
This journey is a lonely one. Frodo had Sam as his companion yet for each of our journeys, we may not be fortunate to have a companion, least of all one like Sam. We may have to walk alone but we are not alone, far from it. Only with courage and perseverance can we accomplish our task. For frodo it was the destruction of the ring, but we all have our task, different, and yet the same.
Now I can't decide whether to read the Hobbit next or the Two Towers. The last time I check in Popular bookstore I could not find the Hobbit but found a Lord of the Rings book with all three books in one thick book and was tempted to get it.
-ONWARD!
Monday, January 14, 2013
Sunday, January 06, 2013
joy is a gift
Found this on an old notebook. It's from odb.
Our lives, my life, can be a roller-coaster of emotions. There are seasons of highs and times of lows. And there are times when it seems like it's overwhelming. In the low times, more importantly in the very low times, one thing I always remind myself is a simple truth. God is good. It's so simple but yet so powerful, it can change your outlook. God is good and he is good to me. Me particularly. So while it may seem like nothing is happening to me, I don't want to be moved by what I see. I know that my time will come, but for now, I shall rejoice with those that rejoice, and mourn with those that mourn.
After the Floods in Noah's time, God promised that springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night will not cease, as long as the earth remains.
-ONWARD!
While we acknowledge that not everyone is blessed with a bright outlook on life, we need to remember that Joy is one of the gifts Jesus promises to his followers. And we need to resist any tendency to let sadness dominate our emotional lives.
Our lives, my life, can be a roller-coaster of emotions. There are seasons of highs and times of lows. And there are times when it seems like it's overwhelming. In the low times, more importantly in the very low times, one thing I always remind myself is a simple truth. God is good. It's so simple but yet so powerful, it can change your outlook. God is good and he is good to me. Me particularly. So while it may seem like nothing is happening to me, I don't want to be moved by what I see. I know that my time will come, but for now, I shall rejoice with those that rejoice, and mourn with those that mourn.
After the Floods in Noah's time, God promised that springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night will not cease, as long as the earth remains.
-ONWARD!
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
peace on earth
This Christmas is different. It's the first one I've spent alone in recent memory, the least festive of them all. I woke up rather early, and went back to sleep, overslept and didn't make it to church. I've heard this poem as a song many times and while it's not my absolute favourite, it's the most fitting this year. Have a blessed Christmas.
I heard the bells on Christmas day.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and mild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
-ONWARD!
I heard the bells on Christmas day.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and mild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
-ONWARD!
Saturday, December 01, 2012
Xperia Sola: One week in
After using the Sola for a week now, here are some of the things I've noticed.
Initial Setup
When you get an Android phone you need to connect it with your Google account as part of the initial setup. I have two factor authentication setup for my Google account and could not find a way to sign in with my account without disabling two factor auth first. This was a pain because my password is quite long and alphanumeric but once it was disabled on the Google website I could sign in and start downloading apps.
Contacts Migration
When you like with your Google account, you can opt to pull in all your Google contacts. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life sorting out the contacts mess that results from that action I'll recommend connecting to your pc and using the companion app to pull in contacts from outlook or similar contacts applications. There needs to be an easier way to transfer contacts from one phone to another. Nokia has been good in this area for years I don't know why it's so hard to do. This needs to be fixed.
Memory
The Sola comes with 5GB available for apps which is more than enough for me. I don't use a lot of apps. I have the usual suspects, instagram, flipboard, whatsapp, line, twitter and so on. There's expandable memory in the form of an SD card, up to 32GB for other media like music and photos. The RAM on the other hand I find to be a little inadequate. 512MB is not enough for a smooth experience. I notice a lot of lag even with native apps like the phonebook or messaging app. I don't expect these to load slowly at all but they do and it's puzzling.
Android 4.0
I expected the upgrade from Gingerbread to happen over the air but you have to connect to a computer to get the Ice Cream Sandwich update. It takes a while to update though so make sure your battery is full. In my opinion its a worthy upgrade.
Battery
After the update to ICS battery performance took a noticeable hit. My battery can last a day of moderate use but it doesn't last as long as it did before the update. The biggest battery drain is the screen, so if I am reading long articles I notice the battery indicator value drop one value every few seconds.
Connectivity
On my Nokia N82 I used the Maxis 5mb per week data plan for whatsapp, twitter and light facebook and it was more than enough. I blew through that rather quickly on the Sola. For some really the phone does not detect my home router, so using wifi is quite wonky. I found a way to make it work though its a temporary fix. Turns out it's not uncommon to have problems with wifi on smartphones.
Camera
The camera is not great. I really miss my N82 camera, though they're both 5 mega pixels, the Nokia takes far superior pictures. I miss the fine grained controls on the Nokia. The Sola's shutter button is a two stage one but it's quite hard to use well. I find it to be unnecessarily stiff.
Screen
The 3.7" display is great. I have that I can operate the device with one hand and can reach every edge though something a bit bigger like a 4" display or even a 3.9" would make typing in portrait mode much better. The 854 x 480 pixels is good enough for me, nothing to complain here. One more thing, though not related to the screen is the LED notification light at the top of the display. I find it very handy to know if there's a message waiting or something that needs my attention so I don't have to unlock the phone to know if there's a message I've missed. It starts to blink red when the battery is low, I like that.
Going with white
I'm now questioning the decision to get the white one. The finish of the plastic makes it retain dirt and stains easily. I wish it was more glossy like the back of my N82. I still think the white looks best though.
I think that's pretty much it. I would love the battery to last a bit longer and more RAM, otherwise I'm a happy camper.
-ONWARD!
Initial Setup
When you get an Android phone you need to connect it with your Google account as part of the initial setup. I have two factor authentication setup for my Google account and could not find a way to sign in with my account without disabling two factor auth first. This was a pain because my password is quite long and alphanumeric but once it was disabled on the Google website I could sign in and start downloading apps.
Contacts Migration
When you like with your Google account, you can opt to pull in all your Google contacts. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life sorting out the contacts mess that results from that action I'll recommend connecting to your pc and using the companion app to pull in contacts from outlook or similar contacts applications. There needs to be an easier way to transfer contacts from one phone to another. Nokia has been good in this area for years I don't know why it's so hard to do. This needs to be fixed.
Memory
The Sola comes with 5GB available for apps which is more than enough for me. I don't use a lot of apps. I have the usual suspects, instagram, flipboard, whatsapp, line, twitter and so on. There's expandable memory in the form of an SD card, up to 32GB for other media like music and photos. The RAM on the other hand I find to be a little inadequate. 512MB is not enough for a smooth experience. I notice a lot of lag even with native apps like the phonebook or messaging app. I don't expect these to load slowly at all but they do and it's puzzling.
Android 4.0
I expected the upgrade from Gingerbread to happen over the air but you have to connect to a computer to get the Ice Cream Sandwich update. It takes a while to update though so make sure your battery is full. In my opinion its a worthy upgrade.
Battery
After the update to ICS battery performance took a noticeable hit. My battery can last a day of moderate use but it doesn't last as long as it did before the update. The biggest battery drain is the screen, so if I am reading long articles I notice the battery indicator value drop one value every few seconds.
Connectivity
On my Nokia N82 I used the Maxis 5mb per week data plan for whatsapp, twitter and light facebook and it was more than enough. I blew through that rather quickly on the Sola. For some really the phone does not detect my home router, so using wifi is quite wonky. I found a way to make it work though its a temporary fix. Turns out it's not uncommon to have problems with wifi on smartphones.
Camera
The camera is not great. I really miss my N82 camera, though they're both 5 mega pixels, the Nokia takes far superior pictures. I miss the fine grained controls on the Nokia. The Sola's shutter button is a two stage one but it's quite hard to use well. I find it to be unnecessarily stiff.
Screen
The 3.7" display is great. I have that I can operate the device with one hand and can reach every edge though something a bit bigger like a 4" display or even a 3.9" would make typing in portrait mode much better. The 854 x 480 pixels is good enough for me, nothing to complain here. One more thing, though not related to the screen is the LED notification light at the top of the display. I find it very handy to know if there's a message waiting or something that needs my attention so I don't have to unlock the phone to know if there's a message I've missed. It starts to blink red when the battery is low, I like that.
Going with white
I'm now questioning the decision to get the white one. The finish of the plastic makes it retain dirt and stains easily. I wish it was more glossy like the back of my N82. I still think the white looks best though.
I think that's pretty much it. I would love the battery to last a bit longer and more RAM, otherwise I'm a happy camper.
-ONWARD!
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
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