Lately

Lately I've had a hard time coming up with ideas of what to blog about...writer's block I guess, though I'm calling mine creative block, because I've been lacking creativity in general.

I happy with the progress I've been making on my 25 before twenty-five list. I haven't completed any of them yet, but I'm on the right track

• I had over 600 songs with a 0 play count. Thanks to remembering my headphones when I go to work, I'm now down to 246.
• I started reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, which is on the All Time 100 Novels list. This actually like my 3rd time trying to read it, but you know what they say "third times a charm"
• I've decide that instead of reading the Bible straight through, I'm going to read it in chronological order, and have read the first 8 chapters of Genesis. 

Growing up in a Christian home, I was/am no stranger to the two stories, The Creation and Noah's Ark, told in the first 8 chapters of Genesis. But this was really the first time I've really considered these stories as an adult. A few of my observations.

• Child birth would have still been painful, even if Eve had not eaten the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3:16 God says to Eve, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing" Beyond physical pain, some interpret this pain to mean having to suffer the sorrow of raising your child in a sin filled world.
• My take away verse 4:7 "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
• I have a study Bible, which I love because has little excerpts that answer questions that may come up from the reading. I didn't realize this, but there is debate on how wide spread the flood was (7:19-20) Some believe the whole world was flooded, while others feel there is a stronger case in favor of only a region of the world flooding. Personally, I think only a region of the world was flooded. Here's why...
• The original Hebrew doesn't use the common word for world, instead is uses the word for earth, which can also be translated as land or country.
• The ark landed on Mount Ararat (8:4) which was only a few miles from where it started