Disqus - Latest Comments for j.bentley

Re: Day 7: 10,829 words

j.bentley — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:22:26 -0000

About 10pm on Halloween, I said what the hell and threw my hat in the NaNo ring. So far so good. I'm a day behind, but I don't care much as my real goal in all this is to have a reworkable draft.

I'm intrigued by how you're going about it. I liked that. "...The testimonies may well be taken out. But right now... they've been a helpful way to explore my characters' backgrounds..." I never thought of it like that. Even what we leave on the cutting room floor will be a lesson of sorts.

I'll be sure to keep up with your progress.

Re: Day 9: 15,705 words

j.bentley — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:01:32 -0000

I'm glad to see someone's been able to focus. I've been distracted.

I suppose it could be worse, though. At least I've been distracted by other works of writing. I'm still stuck at 10,100. Somewhere in there. I have a major scene coming up, so I'm hoping to get quite a bit knocked out with it.

j.bentley
http://www.sincerityinlowercase.com

Re: Today’s novel update

j.bentley — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:53:34 -0000

I'm not a published novelist, mind you, but my advice would be to send it off to a few traditional publishers and at least be rejected before you just POD it. I think every author gets to a point where they wonder if anyone will want to read what they've written. You should buy the 2008 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market and the Christian Writer's Market. You might be able to leverage your local support to influence publishers. Who knows?

I think once you self-publish a book it's unlikely a traditional publisher would want it. I've heard of people getting a book deal based on a self-published book, but the publisher didn't pick up the self-published one.

Anyway, good luck. I'm still working on my novel. After I finish, maybe we can trade?

j.bentley
http://www.sincerityinlowercase.com

Re: Hulu loves ya, baby

j.bentley — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:47:32 -0000

I'd never heard of Hulu. I'm not really blown away by it. I love that the content is so high quality, but I'm not sure how long that will stand out with YouTube HD just around the corner. What impresses me, though, is that slider feature. That would make my life so much easier. I love that.

j.bentley
http://www.sincerityinlowercase.com

Re: It’s all the buzz

j.bentley — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 21:42:48 -0000

Thanks for the response.

I wish I had mentioned that. I use Linux so all of my documents are in .odt format. I imagine they'll add it eventually. I just saw myself copying and pasting. Not sure if that would even work, though. But if it doesn't, I guess I could just save to .doc. Between OpenOffice and buzzword, I'm definitely going to be using buzzword.

I hope they make it launch in fullscreen without toolbars someday. It's so nice to have such a clean space with no distractions.

j.bentley
http://www.sincerityinlowercase.com

Re: Brazilians Try to Restore Atlantic Rainforest

j.bentley — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:39:55 -0000

I'd never even heard of the Atlantic Rain Forest. This is definitely something that should be put out there more.

Re: Live Post-Show Q&A at 12 midnight ET and 12 midnight PT

j.bentley — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:28:11 -0000

I'm kind of blown away by this kind of streamlining. And that practicing the movements then sleeping for four hours and practicing again to more deeply imprint the motions, very cool. I never would have thought of any of this stuff. Great show!

Re: Things I’ve Learned and Loved in 2008

j.bentley — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:34:54 -0000

Hey Tim,

Loved this post. I'll incorporate the walking while bouncing a tennis ball into my routine tomorrow.

2008 was full of crazy things I never thought I'd do. I went fully freelance and, thanks to your book, have some pretty massive things going for 2009.

I'm beginning to lose weight (11lbs in 2 weeks) and tracking it on my blog, hoping to perhaps help anyone who might come along.

Anyway, thanks for your book and if I could get a chance to talk with you through email I'd appreciate it. Not expecting it but thought I might try.

Have a great New Year and I'm looking forward to your next book. And also, I'm kind of curious about the education system research you talked about in the video in your last post. (I'm an avid hater of public education).

Thanks man!

Derek

Re: How religion games you: Church-suasion observations

j.bentley — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:04:22 -0000

Hey Mark! You obviously have quite a bit of commentary to add to this mess we find ourselves in.

I'm a Christian, non-denominational, so I can only speak from this particular worldview. In that way, while I don't necessarily disagree with any of your points, I do think it's important within Christianity to differentiate "church" from "The Church," that is, the large and diverse group of people that live the servitude of Christ on earth regardless of doctrine, dogma, creed or affiliation.

The church you are talking about is almost entirely institutionalized and perhaps much of the time intellectually dishonest, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Church as an institution seems to have grown out of and gone awry around the time it became recognized as the official religion of the Roman Empire. You could say it was around then that Christianity split into two factions -- the Christianity of Christ and what Kierkegaard later referred to as Christendom, a sort of civic religion that attempts to marry the cross with empire. Christendom uses Christianity as a crutch to prop up tired policies, legalism, tradition and institutions that often directly contradict the teachings of Christ himself. It's a bastardized version of Christianity used to promote empire building and to support the oppressors while stealing the "good news" from the oppressed and oppressors alike. Let's not forget that Christ was birthed into poverty during mass infanticide in a conquered land and suffered under the rule of the empire, while these days the loudest adherents to the faith proclaim from comfort and wealth "Christ is Lord" and "God Bless America" in the same unholy breath and wage wars in the name of a servant who neither lived nor died by the sword.

In short, Christianity as an institution isn't evil in and of itself. It depends greatly on who is using it and for what purpose. This is made clear in the great good and great evil accomplished by the many who have identified with the religion throughout history.

Christendom, I believe, is the real "gaming" entity and for that remains eternally evil.