Amazon sent me some recommendations and they are good. 7 out of 9 look like something I want to read. Kind of for my own future reference here are the books they recommended:
* Even Faster Web Sites: Performance Best Practices for Web Developers by Steve Souders
* Complete Web Monitoring: Watching your visitors, performance, communities, and competitors by Alistair Croll, Sean Power
* High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers by Steve Souders
* Web 2.0 Architectures: What entrepreneurs and information architects need to know by James Governor, Dion Hinchcliffe, Duane Nickull
* Using Google App Engine by Charles Severance
* Erlang Programming by Francesco Cesarini, Simon Thompson
* Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets by Andrew King
To be fair, I could probably learn everything I want to know about Erlang form the wikipedia page or the language’s website, but I’m still impressed with Amazon’s ability to pick up subjects I’m interested in, presumably based on aggregate data from many other web devs out there. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling to know I’m not so esoteric after all.
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
I think I get to take my laptop onto the plane with me when I leave the USA. I have only enough time to see one thing in London, what should I see?
“[I feel a] deep urge to be moving above this slough of mediocrity which seems to characterize my days. Father, if these strong currents be flesh-driven, stanch and slay them. But if they can be sublimated, channeled, into courses which will do Thy service, then intensify them, mobilize them, give them direction.” – Jim Elliot
Lord, I have given my life to you, to use for whatever you will. Help me to be unlike Ananias and Sapphira who said that they gave everything but secretly held back.
Matthew 5 says, “Blessed are those who mourn.” If the beatitudes are a progression then we must all mourn, but what, exactly will we mourn? Maybe we must mourn ourselves, for only if we die to ourselves can we truly be a useful tool in the service of our King. Hmm… If I am visiting my own funeral, I will not mourn the loss of my own life, but instead, the part of my life I have wasted. That is the true loss. I lament.
“If I weep let it be as a man who is longing for his home.” – Rich Mullins
The standard we are to measure by is the character of Christ, not the character of others. Paul had to address this problem in writing to the Corinthians: “We do not dare classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves they are not wise.”
From “The 33 laws of Stewardship” by Dave Sutherland and Kirk Nowery, chapter 20, The Law of Secret Spirituality.