How to Make Money?

[JamesR]

So, my birthday is coming up on February 18th and I asked my parents if they would buy me the "Popular Patristics" library set from St. Vladimir's Press for $525.00 and--in the words of Ralphie--they looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears and laughed at me. They said that the most I am going to get for my birthday is $300--and that's the combined gift from both them, my siblings, grandparents and cutting out any plans to eat out. I'm still $200 short. Now, I could easily take the $200 from my secret laptop fund stash of $600--but I don't want to do that. I need a way to make $200 fast by February 18th. Any advice?

Should I tell everyone at Church and all my friends that my birthday is coming up--in hopes that they'll give me money, search the attic for any old valuable piece of junk that I could sell on craigslist, swallow my pride and take it from my laptop fund, rob a bank or something different altogether? Some advice would be helpful.

[Shanghaiski]

A lot can be found free online if one's desire is to read and to learn, and not simply to have.

[Hinterlander]

I got a shipment of books today, about $50 worth, that were in a plastic bag with a "I'm sorry" note from the Post Office. The mailer was ripped and the books soaked.  I was devastated and irate then I realized I ordered the books on impulse and have at least 10 books I swore to myself "I'd read first" before ordering more.  Maybe God is trying to send me a message.

Maybe you should hold off on buying such a huge set, especially when a lot of that material is available more or less for free.

Buy a volume or two that you'll get a lot out of and really treasure.  Like HTM's Ladder of Divine Ascent.

[Shanghaiski]

"Everyday Saints" is a great book.

[Justin Kissel]

Bikini car wash

[choy]

Create a new dance move that will captivate the interwebz and get ridiculous amounts of hits on YouTube

[Arachne]

Why don't you start with CCEL's Early Church Fathers instead? Even printing them out would cost you less. And you could leave the other set for next birthday, or whenever you've saved up enough.

[Cyrillic]

Why not the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers? You get more Patristics for less money. It's even within your budget. The language might be slightly archaic but if I can read it so can you.

Besides, laptops suck. You should get yourself a desktop. Usually cheaper and they have better graphic cards and processors.

[Arachne]

Why not the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers? You get more Patristics for less money. The language might be slightly archaic but if I can read it so can you.

Besides, laptops suck. You should get yourself a desktop. Usually cheaper and got better graphics card and processor.

You do realise those are exactly the CCEL ones I linked to above, don't you?

And no slamming laptops. They're great. Netbooks even better. Can't lug a desktop around, and I for one prefer my netbook than having a desktop at home and a tablet for out.

[Cyrillic]

You do realise those are exactly the CCEL ones I linked to above, don't you?

I do. But paper beats computer screens and it's great to have. But hey, that's just me.

And no slamming laptops. They're great. Netbooks even better. Can't lug a desktop around, and I for one prefer my netbook than having a desktop at home and a tablet for out.

I think laptop mouse pads are horrible. Laptops are expansive and got less power than desktops. For €600 you can get a nice desktop but a mediocre laptop at best.

[Arachne]

You do realise those are exactly the CCEL ones I linked to above, don't you?

I do. But paper beats computer screens and it's great to have. But hey, that's just me.

And no slamming laptops. They're great. Netbooks even better. Can't lug a desktop around, and I for one prefer my netbook than having a desktop at home and a tablet for out.

I think laptop mouse pads are horrible, they're expansive and got less power than desktops. For €600 you can get a nice desktop but a mediocre laptop at best.

Trackpads are not everyone's cup of tea, but they're workable.

I got my netbook (a Samsung NC10) four years ago for £320, and wouldn't change her for the world. I'm not replacing her before she dies on me.

Of course, most important reason NOT to buy a desktop right now = Win 8.

[JamesR]

I might reconsider then and get the early Church Fathers series that Cyrillic and Arachne linked above--but I had one question. How accurate is the translation? The collection seems really old--and even worse, the translator as far as I could tell was not Orthodox/Catholic, is it biased by the Protestant translator? At least with the Popular Patristics series, I know that most of the translators are Orthodox/Catholic. And yeah, paper books beat PDF files anyday--I'm old fashioned.

[Cyrillic]

I might reconsider then and get the early Church Fathers series that Cyrillic and Arachne linked above--but I had one question. How accurate is the translation? The collection seems really old--and even worse, the translator as far as I could tell was not Orthodox/Catholic, is it biased by the Protestant translator? At least with the Popular Patristics series, I know that most of the translators are Orthodox/Catholic. And yeah, paper books beat PDF files anyday--I'm old fashioned.

It was mostly translated by High Church Anglicans, so most of it doesn't have much of a Protestant bias. However, some small parts, especially in the notes, do have bias. One of the Church Histories and the Adversus Haereses has Protestant bias in the notes (they said that bishops didn't exist in the first and early second century in a very polemical way). I guess those parts were done by low-church protestants. The translation is always very precise.

If you can birthday presents up to $300 you can still take St. John Damascene's Three Treatises on the Divine Images from the Popular Patristics series with the NPNF series.

[Arachne]

And yeah, paper books beat PDF files anyday--I'm old fashioned.

I'm not fond of reading on the computer myself, either - mostly because I actually do most of my reading in bed or aboard various means of public transport, so a hand-held device is necessary. I just downloaded the PDFs and converted them to .mobi files to read on my Kindle. Before I got a Kindle, I got entire volumes printed and spiral-bound. Let's say the local printer's shop staff were very happy to see me come in.

That kind of book set is something to show off and cherish, but we adults have less disposable income than you teens, not to mention the storage space issues.

[Gamliel]

Shine shoes?

[Symeon77]

So, my birthday is coming up on February 18th and I asked my parents if they would buy me the "Popular Patristics" library set from St. Vladimir's Press for $525.00 and--in the words of Ralphie--they looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears and laughed at me. They said that the most I am going to get for my birthday is $300--and that's the combined gift from both them, my siblings, grandparents and cutting out any plans to eat out. I'm still $200 short. Now, I could easily take the $200 from my secret laptop fund stash of $600--but I don't want to do that. I need a way to make $200 fast by February 18th. Any advice?

Should I tell everyone at Church and all my friends that my birthday is coming up--in hopes that they'll give me money, search the attic for any old valuable piece of junk that I could sell on craigslist, swallow my pride and take it from my laptop fund, rob a bank or something different altogether? Some advice would be helpful.

Dear to Christ James:

When I was around your age, I got a part-time (evenings) job dishwashing; Is part-time work of this sort an option for you?

Otherwise: I don't know how devoted a reader you are, but that does seem a rather formidable collection to obtain all at once.

I would consider purchasing a few of the more 'essential' works from the series (say, somewhere between 5 and 10) and spending some time reading and digesting them, and also discussing them with your priest and others in the church community and purchasing others only after you have exhausted these. Sometimes, as they say, a little goes a long way.

When I was first received in the Church in my mid-late 20's, the advice that I was given by a wiser old priest-monk, was to initially focus my readings- outside of the Gospel- primarily on the lives of saints, in order that the Church's theology not seem too abstract by also showing what theology looks like incarnate. So I also pass this advice on to you.

A decent collection of Gospel homilies, focused on the readings within the Church's liturgical cycle I have also found helpful and would recommend in addition to the aforementioned suggestions.

Here are a couple of ideas:

http://www.churchofthenativity.net/publications/the-gospel-commentary/

and:

http://www.thaborian.com/bookstore_090721_1.html

Also if there is a seminary or college/ university library in your area, you may be surprised at the resources available to you through them (if not within their collection, then through inter-library loan), so that you needn't spend so much money on books.

[JamesR]

Is this a good collection to purchase to learn about the Saints?

[Symeon77]

Is this a good collection to purchase to learn about the Saints?

I am honestly not sure. I have heard some of the lives from St. Dmitri's compilation read aloud in monastic refectories, etc. and my impression was that, adhering as they do to Byzantine hagiographical convention, they could seem rather naive to modern Western ears. Also, since they were compiled in the 17th century, they would lack inclusion of later saints. With these caveats in mind, I'm sure it's a worthwhile collection.

If it is indeed a collection of saints' lives you are looking for, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Synaxarion compiled by Hieromonk Makarios of Simonos Petra, in 7 volumes, as it includes contemporary saints and saints from many regional Churches not represented in others. The problem is, I don't know who is still carrying this collection in its entirety. Try www.greeceinprint.com.

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