Happy Chinese New Year!

The most festive days of the Chinese calendar are upon us! To all who celebrate this feast, may the Year of the Ox bring you much happiness and prosperity.

Posting will probably be sparse over the next few days to make way for rituals and family visitations. Although its celebration in our household is somewhat muted this year because we are still in the period of mourning for my mom, we are observing many of the traditional customs proper to this 15-day festival. In case you didn’t already know, most of it involves food, food and more food!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Slimmer pickins

I decided that I spend way too much time reading blogs and took an axe to my Google Reader subscriptions today. Even after much ascetical struggle, I could only reduce the number of feeds to 25 (not counting blogs of family members and old friends), and that’s the best I can do for now.  In the painful process of hacking away at the tree, I gave priority to well-written blogs that are:

1. active and frequently-updated;
2. networked to blogs of similar interest and regularly report content from these;
3. representative of several streams of theological traditions (including the unconventional and provocative musings of David Henson—let the Reader beware!);
4. Scripture-oriented (so I can keep a finger on the pulse of biblical studies from my little isolated corner of the world); and
5. written by normal, sane and interesting non-nerds like Megan Nix (The Nixionary).

I’ve updated my Blogroll accordingly, in keeping with the fairly-sound maxim that one ought not recommend anything one hasn’t read or isn’t reading. You can take some time to explore its new, chiseled listings if you’d like.

Lord of the bling(s)

Sometimes you just don’t know you want something until you have it. Like the Superior Scribbler Award, for instance. I never knew how badly I pined for it until Joseph the Byzantine Texan gave it to me.

Like so many other good things in life, this one comes with its own rules:

• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

The five fellow-bloggers I now call into the Blingdom are:

• Macrina Walker, OCSO of A Vow of Conversation
• Megan Nix of The Nixionary
• Joe Varghese of Indian, Orthodox and Christian
• Doug Chaplin of MetaCatholic
• Scott Bailey of Scotteriology

Hand-made rosaries by Alan Creech

Alan Creech’s blog is one I always look forward to reading. Lately, he’s taken to making and selling gorgeous yet simple rosaries that are affordable too (USD 10 each, plus shipping and handling). Here’s what they look like:

You can find out more about them or place your order from this post on his blog. And while you’re there, check out a post or two!

A good start

Happy are we, O Israel, for we know what is pleasing to God.

My friend Göran Larsson has this practice of starting every talk or sermon he gives by reading a portion of Scripture. “That way,” he says, “no matter how the rest of it goes, you know you’ve begun well.”

So, there you have it: my good start to a year of blogging. I wouldn’t call Baruch 4.4 my “favorite verse” or anything, but it’s certainly one that’s been coming back to me lately. Maybe I’ll find out why later.