Author: Glen

My College Roomie & Books

One of the things that bound my college roomate Dave Rainey and I together was our mutual love of books–especially old books.

That’s why I’m so happy to announce David’s new website: Christian Book Finder.

It’s an annotated bibliography organized by subject–very useful! The only thing I don’t like about it is that he doesn’t link directly to online book vendors… that would make it easier to act on one of his recommendations!

By the way, Dave is well-qualified for this venture. In addition to being a lover of books, he has a Master of Library and Information Science. How cool is that?

California, California, California…

This is just a crazy state. The gubernatorial recall is in full swing, Jesse Jackson showed up on the Stanford campus today to denounce one of our ballot initiatives, and I just read an eye-opening article about the cost-of-living in the Bay Area.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this place.

It’s still crazy.

Interesting Thoughts on Evolution

I just ran across an engrossing article carried by U.S. News and World Report: Divining Nature’s Plan.

It’s about Conway Morris’ new book Life’s Solution : Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe, in which the renowned paleontologist evidently suggests that humans were pretty much the inevitable result of an evolutionary process and leaves open the possibility that God could have designed us as we are without needing to specifically create our species.

Wow.

What Good Is Christianity?

I just ran across a fascinating compiliation of the positive influence of religion (and Christianity in particular) on society: Good Faith.

The author gives extremely specific examples of how faith helps with issues such as substance abuse, marriage, parenting, altruism, sex, crime rates, health, happiness, and freedom.

It’s an impressive list.

So the next time a classmate (or professor) begins talking about all the evils that religion is responsible for, be sure to mention all the good that religion is responsible for as well.

College Rankings, Louie Giglio, and the Fall Launch

FYI: US News & World Report recently released its 2003 college rankings, and Stanford came in fifth overall. Pretty neat!

I was more impressed, however, by a brief chat I had with Louie Giglio (founder of Passion Ministries) today. No–I don’t know him personally. Yes, we actually did have a chat.

Anyway, he told me that Stanford was his favorite campus. He just loves this place! That made me happy.

Finally, Stanford starts school next week. That means it’s like we’re accountants during tax season. BUSY! If we fall behind on our emails or otherwise fail to be responsive please forgive us.

A Perspective On The Greek System

Relevant Magazine just ran an article on the social Greek system (as opposed to the honors Greek system) — Sororities and Fraternities: Take Em or Leave Em?.

The Greek system isn’t very popular here at Stanford, but if you’re considering it you might want to read the article. It comes at the Greeks from a fairly positive perspective: Fraternity and sorority life has a rather notorious reputation and history on many college campuses, some good, most bad. They are reputations driven by the horror of tragic headlines and the laughable pranks of John Belushi in Animal House. In fact, Greek life is often a tale of two lifestyles: one acceptable and one tragically degenerative.

P.S. Be sure to check out the readers’ comments at the bottom of the article–they’re really interesting!

I Almost Laughed Out Loud

So Paula and I were driving through Menlo Park today (the town just north of Stanford) when we saw a house for rent. We decided to call just to check on the price.

$9,500 a month.

It boggles my mind–whoever rents that house will wind up paying $114,000 a year ON RENT!

Back in Lousiana our ministry BOUGHT a house and a six-unit apartment complex for almost $25,000 less.

Somehow, I was able to refrain from laughing out loud on the phone.

Take Hope, Math Majors!

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, olny taht the frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pcleas. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by ilstef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

This is all over the net, and I don’t know who originated it (but I do know the author was clever).

Before you get taken in by it, notice that there are heavy contextual clues built into each sentence and that all words of three letters or less are left in correct order. It’s interesting (and worth posting on the dorm bulletin board), but I wouldn’t cite it in any papers if I was you.

Anyway, welcome to Stanford (or welcome back, depending on who you are).

If you’re a new student, you might want to check out our advice on living with a roommate.