Behind the Monastery Walls (Romanian documentary with English subtitles)

An absolutely beautiful & positive documentary. Monastic monks & nuns who love Jesus Christ with their entire mind, soul, body, and strength. It is a peaceful & loving situation that they choose to LIVE. Death to the world--death to the materialistic passions of this gross plane. We are stuck in this muck, treading water & living on borrowed time. The mortality rate for humans is 100%. Sometimes I wonder, 'what exactly am I supposed to do HERE? Why was I manifested on this globe? What does the Lord want from me? Anything? Nothing?' I'm of the opinion that the Lord wants nothing in particular from me. He gave me freewill, and I am to choose to LOVE.

Books, Books, Books...

I've been selling some of my books lately.  More will be sold in the coming weeks.  If I had the time or patience I'd be selling them online --either Amazon or Ebay.  I'm not talking about worn paperbacks or crappy generic books.  Mostly very specific topical academic & scholarly books.  Some of them I even have duplicates of!  But mostly just books that I don't find interesting anymore.  Books are really hard to sell these days.  Many of them I can only get $3 to $5 a piece.  Made $200 last week, which isn't that bad.  Probably $1000 worth of literature, but oh-well, I chose to let them go.  My buddy Jean, who owns & operates an awesome, cozy, medium sized antiquarian bookshop in Ann Arbor--Motte & Bailey--always gives me the best money for my books.  But he's only buying a really small, small amount of stuff right now.  He says business is just not good enough to throw out large amounts of cash on purchases.  I feel bad for him, 'cus his store is bad-ass and he's a nice guy, but we all know Amazon, Kindle, and other online retailers & electronic devices are encroaching on the printed book and the mom & pop bookstores.  UGGGHH!!  I hate it. Hate it.

Here's some other books recently obtained on my part:

Excellent. Monks discussing the Jesus Prayer & monasticism on Mt. Athos.  If you can
find this book, most definitely pick it up

Here we have vol.'s 1 & 2 of this now-classic book on the early

This is phenomenal!! Really heavy, thick book crammed full of primary sources
and stunning picture. Well, well worth it!  Get into it!!! 

Haven't read it yet, but the reviews have been positive. We'll see.

This book was given to me by surprise. A great read, though mainly
for folks who are new to Egyptology (like me!)

Just received this one. Read through parts of it. A beautiful looking book, made sturdy
with an excellent just jacket.

Just got this one on Friday, along with the History of Christianity in Asia, vol. 1 & 2 

My future ex-wife, Ann Coulter everyone! I love this woman!

WOW! A beautiful, huge & heavy book. So much great art throughout!

I've actually had this book for several years now. It's a really small
pocket sized book crammed full of loving information. Bravo! Get this
book if you can, by any means.

Excellent book about women's roles in Byzantium!