The Holy Bible - By Anonymous

Goodreads.com is a large social site for all amateurs of reading and writing.  They site contains a list of almost every single book ever written, allows readers to publish what they’ve read, to connect together and create bookclubs, and to publish and their writings on the site for others to enjoy.

The site also allows people to write reviews of books, and since it has almost every single book ever written, it has some very interesting reviews for the King James Bible.

Find below some of these interesting reviews, as well as my favorite 1-star review of the Bible from Amazon.com.

Reviews from Goodreads.com members:

I usually like historical fiction, but this particular example has been so mitigated by the poorly-hidden didactic tautology of its too-many-cooks legion of anonymous authors and editors that it was rather difficult to enjoy.
– Keely’s full review here

God’s first foray into the world of literature has made quite a splash. People the world over are talking about this book (or series of books if you want to get pedantic) and for good reason; It makes some grandiose claims, it purports to be the complete authority on almost all areas of human endeavor (aside from how to choose an internet service provider), and even makes threats to the reader.
– Jeff’s full review here

The plot was hard to follow and the editing was horrible. The characters were painfully one-dimensional and this Jesus guy delivered some of the worst dialogue I’ve ever read.
– Wes’ full review here

Amazon.com Review by Guy T. Saperstein:

I can’t give this book anything more than ONE STAR because there are just too many unanswered questions in it. As examples:

1. Leviticus 25.44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided that they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Why can’t I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21.7. In this bad economy, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. The Bible teaches that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her menstrual period, but how can I tell? Whenever I ask women I meet if they are menstruating, they take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor to the Lord [Lev. 1.9]. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35.2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination [Lev. 11.10], it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. Are there different degrees of abomination?

7. Leviticus 21.20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Leviticus 19.27. How should they die?

9. I know from Leviticus 11.6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes people unclean. Does this mean that Tim Tebow must stop throwing footballs, or that football should be abolished?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Leviticus 19.19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread [cotton and polyester blend]. He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary to get the whole community together to stone them [Lev. 24.10-16]? Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family ceremony, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws [Lev. 20.14]?

They're back: Blog Tool Reviews

Blog Tool Reviews

One set of posts I want to bring back to the mix are my Blog Tool Reviews.  These posts detailed the different tools and services I commonly use on Folaji, and served to document helpful hints and tips for those out there who were looking to create their own blog or site.

The series, which originally started on this site, was moved to a new site a while back.  I was hoping to use this new site to post Software Development and IT posts, but quickly found out that I did not have the time to run two sites at once.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed writing these posts, which is why I will be bringing them back into the Folaji fold.

This dog will be replying to your emails (when she feels like it, of course...)

Ask Koji

A new series of articles I’m going to be bringing to the site are fan letter responses written from the point of view of my dog: Koji (a 3 year old female Basenji).  This is an idea I’ve been toying with for a while now, and I believe it’ll be fun to see how Koji would react to certain fan written letters.

So if you have any questions or comments you would like to send our way, you can leave a comment on this post or take a moment and write an email to koji@folaji.com.

Equanimity

Obviously one of the new series on the site will be Equanimity: the short story I’ve been preparing for almost the past year.  I expect we’ll see some posts for this story before the end of the month, so keep an eye open for them!

I have a camcorder!

Some Kind of Video Project

I’ve finally taken the plunge and bought a camcorder a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve since been walking around and taking random videos of things, but I’m looking for ideas for videos that I could post online.  As some of you may know, I had a blast making videos with friends while in highschool (take a look at this for an example, though I warn you that its both in French and pleasantly horrible  ), and with my new camera, I hope to start making videos again.

I’m not quite certain what I want to do just yet.  I have a few ideas rolling around in my head (mini web series or mini documentaries for example) but nothing concrete at the moment.   Regardless, once I’ve something ready to show, you can bet I’ll post it here.

In the meantime, if you have some ideas as to what I could do video-wise, feel free to share!

I like it because this is probably the first site that I’ve ever created for myself, and after a year and a half online, I find nothing more relaxing than sitting back and looking at my site, which I built the way I wanted to, without the constant input from some external party about advertising revenues and traffic statistics.

Its not that I hate developing sites for other,  I’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember, and I don’t see any reason why I would stop.  But there is something liberating about creating a site that is yours and yours alone, a site where you have final say on content, look and feel, and overall organization.

And that’s what Folaji.com is for me: a place I can escape to and be myself, where I can publish ideas, stories, and videos that had once only been a sentence on a piece of paper in an old binder.  A place where others can come and read those stories, discuss them, and share their own if they would like.  (Ok, maybe the Folaji.com community isn’t big enough for that yet, but hey, I can dream, can’t I?)

Alright, so why am I writing all this?  Well, I came to the realization a few days ago that none of this would be possible if not for the array of wonderful free web tools available online.  When you look at this site, you should understand that the look and feel, the blog engine, the different tools showing up on the side bar, were all developed by a large online community of bloggers and developers that offer their products for free.  If it weren’t for these people and their willingness to share their tools with the online community, then Folaji.com would only be a shadow of its current self.

So I decided that, as a thank you for everyone’s efforts, I would take the time over the coming months to review each widget, plugin and tool I use on Folaji.com.  This would be my way of thanking the community for such great work, and for allowing me to create this site, and hopefully will encourage others to do the same.