December 14, 2010

Book Review

Putting God Back in the Holidays by Bill and Penny Thrasher

This is a very good book about ways to celebrate pretty much every major holiday in the United States with a God centered focus.

Most chapters are laid out in a similar manner. Bill writes about the historical and theological aspects of the holiday, then Penny adds her thoughts as a wife and mother. Finally, most chapters offer practical suggestions to help you celebrate or at least stimulate your thinking about the holiday.

Overall, the book is an excellent source for valuable and practical ways to put God back into your holiday celebrations. This is a book that I will be keeping at hand on my "reference" shelf.

December 02, 2010

Book Review

True Faced by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, John Lynch

The theme of this book is the idea of living your life as yourself, just as God made you. Many people put on a mask to try and look good and try to please God with their behavior. In reality, God simply wants us to be what He made us to be and to trust Him with our lives.

One of the interesting ideas I picked up was about the way we view other Christians. Instead of looking at others and criticizing them for their (sinful) ways, look at them as an imperfect believer just like yourself.

Overall, this is a good book. However, I found myself loosing interest in some of the detailed areas. At the end of each chapter is a "Did you discover" section, which summarizes the main points of the chapter. I believe most people can simply read the summary and get the main idea of the chapter.

December 01, 2010

Schick Hydro 5

My next adventure in shaving involved a Schick Hydro 5 razor. I purchased this razor which included two blades on sale for about $1.00. I was eager to compare this razor with Gillette's 5 blade system.

After the first shave I knew right away that this razor was not as good as Gillette's. The shave was close in most areas. However, I found the head of the razor to be too large to get close in some places. After about 2 weeks the razor was no longer cutting close and it did indeed cut me a few times. There is also this clicking noise that the head makes when it is lifted from your face. I found it to be very annoying after a while.

For the second month of testing I decided to shave every other day after the initial two week period. I found that the razor did a little better with the longer stubble, but it didn't pass my test.

The price of the replacement blades is about $2.75 a piece. This is slightly cheaper than Gillette's blades, but not as good either.

Because of the price and the inability to comfortably shave for a month I will give this razor a 60% rating.

The last razor system I currently have is the Mach 3 by Gillette.