Beach Haven

​​ADVANCED OPEN WATER DIVER MANUAL
By Professional Association of Dive Instructors
PADI, 2016, 328 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
 
This manual is the text used for divers seeking the advanced certification through PADI. I actually completed this course and certification decades ago as an undergrad. As I have been getting back into diving more recently I got a more modern copy of the latest manual to reacquaint myself.
 
The document assumes the reader already has some basic knowledge of SCUBA since this is a follow on certification after the standard open water program. The course and manual is intended to give some basic information about some of the specialty areas of diving. Each chapter is focused on a different specialty such as deep diving, night diving, wreck diving, and the like. Aside from adding competence to the diver seeking advancement, I think the manual is also designed to encourage even additional certification. Each of the specialty areas has its own certification program.
 
For all the reasons above, if a person has completed the basic open water course it would be wise for continued experience through the advanced class and manual. The more competent the diver, the more comfortable the diver, the more safe the diver.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
By Jane Austen
P.F. Collier & Son Company, 1917, 370 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach


​Yes, I know. This is not the sort of book that would seem "normal" for someone like me to read. In fact I didn't really chose it. Last year Michelle and I found one of those 20 volume sets of classic literature at a local library used book sale. It was one of the few times I have actually seen one of these that was complete. It cost us something like $5 for the entire set, so we bought it. I have been working my way through this set and reached the volume that included this work and one other I've already reported on in an earlier entry.

If ever there was a romance novel, this is it. Thankfully it's not like so many "modern" romances that are more like a rated R, or worse, movie. First published in 1813, the sentiment is clearly of its era. The sisters of the main character family are mostly of marriageable age. There are a mixture of plots in their various courtships. Elizabeth Bennet, the main character, is quick to judge others, in particular Mr. Darcy. As you might guess they embark on a love-hate relationship that eventually culminates in love with a fairy-tale ending. Her female friend and one of her sisters does not fare so well. Her closest sister, Jane, also eventually gains her man, happiness, and a fortune, though not so big a fortune as Elizabeth.

Several characters are not very nice, or make poor choices. Like an old-fashioned Hollywood movie, they all get their come-upping's eventually. The likeable people have happy endings. The author seems to have a great deal of faith in Kharma. My dad would have called this story "too mushy". I'd have to say I agree. It's not my kind of read, but since the story has remained popular for more than 200 years I suppose that's proof that others would disagree with me.

​SOME FRUITS OF SOLITUDE
By William Penn
Grolier Enterprises Corp., 1985, 82 pages
​Reviewed by Michael Beach
 
This author is the famous settler of the British colony that came to be known as Pennsylvania in northeastern America. The particular volume of this review is a compendium that includes the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and the journal kept by John Woolman. I shared a review of those sections in earlier editions of the BHP.
 
Penn converted to the Quaker sect in 1667 at the age of 23. It put him at odds with the royal crown that had deeded him the Pennsylvania territory. He worked to regain graces and went back and forth between the old world and the new. He died in 1718 in England.
 
The work in question reads like a set of proverbs as the author shares his views on many topics. Those of this work are drawn from many papers he wrote over decades. It is an interesting look into the mind of a 17th century thinker and leader. Since he lived about 100 years prior to the American Revolutionary War there is little in it of that spirit. He pushes in much of the writings to lift people through education, then goes on to offer his ideas that should be part of a developed person’s education. Themes include matters of character such as charity, avarice, pride, etc. There are also musings of important social issues of the day such as discipline, justice, right marriage, obedience to parents, and the like.
 
Though there is not much of history in the text itself, the reader gains a sense of the historical moment Penn was living in. He was educated in the perspectives of his time and was a leader of people. It’s safe to say that much of his view was common among those of his sect, but also of much of the American population of the late 1600’s. 

​AWARE - OUR WORLD, OUR WATER
By a large number of contributors
Project AWARE Foundation, 2009, 115 pages
​Reviewed by Michael Beach

This work is used as a manual for two PADI certification courses I took last year. PADI is the Professional Association of Dive Instructors. I've been a professional member of PADI since 1987 when I completed my Divemaster certification. One certification this book is used for is called Project AWARE Specialist. The other is AWARE Coral Reef Conservation. 

The book walks begins with a more academic look at fresh and salt water systems in general. Then it moves to coral reef systems specifically. After that there is an explanation of all the ways the world aquatic resources are being damaged and the effects. Finally there is a review of what the diving community has been doing, and what individual divers can do to help make things better.

Regardless where a person stands on topics such as global climate change, or how humans and nature should interact, there is some good food for thought in this manual. I'm certainly not some radical environmentalist, but I have been taught my whole live to be conservation minded. From my earliest days I have been out in nature and have enjoyed wild places. I do agree with the sentiment of "think global, and act local." Diving in particular has brought me in contact with some amazing life as recent as just two months ago. On that occasion I was able to make two dives just off of the island of St. Thomas in the USVI. To me, if a person wants to see how masterful an artist God is, they need only to enter those sorts of environment and experience it directly, personally.

Here is a related thought from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). It's called the outdoor code.

As an American, I will do my best to –
Be clean in my outdoor manners.
Be careful with fire.
Be considerate in the outdoors.
Be conservation minded.
​

THE AGE OF REASON
By Thomas Paine
Watchmaker Publishing, 2010, 195 Pages
​Reviewed by Michael Beach

The original work was published in three parts in 1794, 1795, and 1809, though the final version is delineated as parts I and II. The focus of the treatise is to show why the Bible and Christianity cannot be true. Paine also espouses the philosophy of Deism. 

The author does not question the existence of God. In fact he argues, from the point of view of Deism, that the proof of the existence of God can be found in the discoveries of science. However, he draws the line at any knowledge of truth beyond what can be proven through science. 

Most of the book is an examination of passages of the Bible and how they either disprove the validity of the Bible itself, or of some accepted traditional Christian (specifically Catholic or Protestant) belief about what a given passage means. Paine makes logical arguments, but they are based, as he says, solely on the text as it appears in the Bible and from the perspective of his own concurrent context. Much of the work feels like a mix of reasonable logic, conjecture, and church doctrine. Since he adds conjecture and then existent church doctrine he is, in fact, not sticking only to the text of the Bible as he claims. Viewing any writing outside of the context in which it was written can also cause the sort of argument Paine points to.

I have very specific views of his philosophical perspectives and will not tackle them here as this is a review of the book. I will post a few of my personal views in my Blog at bhaven.org/blog.html

​​THE FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF A TEAM
By Patrick Lencioni
Jossey-Bass, 2002, 229 pages
​Reviewed by Michael Beach
 
The work, subtitled A Leadership Fable, uses a fictitious company CEO replacement based on poor company performance to show common leadership issues. The new CEO brings in a fresh approach to how strategic decisions will be made going forward. Some of the leadership adjust, some don’t. Those that can’t adjust to the new approach leave, or are asked to leave.
 
The dysfunctions center on trust and honesty among members of the C-suite. They are depicted as a pyramid. The list starting from the bottom of the pyramid and ascending to the top are: Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results. Lencioni makes the argument that each item in the pyramid links to, or fosters, the one just above it. The “fable” depicts attitudes, reactions, and interactions among the various C-team members and the positive and negative effects that result.
 
The last section of the book gives some suggested ways to approach the five dysfunctions. There is a follow on volume that more deeply addresses how to overcome them. That’ll likely be a future read for me.

THE PIONEERS
By James Fenimore Cooper
Pinnacle Press, 2017, 495 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
 
This work is part of a series by Cooper known as the Leatherstocking Tales. The books share a common protagonist known by different names, but his “Christian name” is Nathaniel Bumppo or “Natty”. The book is subtitled Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna. The Susquehanna is a river that flows from western New York state, through Pennsylvania and empties into the Chesapeake Bay. The time of the story is not long after the American Revolutionary War.
 
The Pioneers was the first of these works written by Cooper, but is the fourth out of five chronologically in the story line. In the setting Natty is an older man at a time when the wilderness is being tamed as towns spring up in what was once a stronghold for native people and huntsmen. There is something of the conservationist tone in the work as old-timers like Natty lament the scarcity of game and the thinning of trees for farm land.
 
There is another theme that reminds me of modern-day gentrification issues. Before the Revolution the area in question was not really “owned” by anyone. With the settling of the land, much of the property around the town was deeded into the hands of the local judge, Marmaduke Temple. The town was named Templeton in his honor.
 
One other aspect of civilization challenged in the story is the blind application of the law. When issues could have been resolved simply, a local constable causes a heated confrontation. He himself creates some infractions blamed on Natty, and he overblows the severity of actual infractions by Natty. Ultimately the problems are resolved not by law, but by skirmishes in the wilderness where some of the characters are put to unnecessary risk.
 
The tale is a fun read and there is plenty of societal commentary. It was originally published in 1823 and brings some of the sensibilities of that era vailed in the time of characters in the late 1700s.

​HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
Rating: PG
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Run time: 1 Hr 59 Mins
Review by Emily Coates
​

Hayao Miyazaki has done it again in his Beauty and the Beast-esque interpretation of Diana Wynne Jones’ novel, “Howl’s Moving Castle”. Set in the world of Ingary, we are taken to a town that sends off their young men to war with a neighboring country over the disappearance of the prince. Soldiers and magicians alike are fighting and while the countryside seems unaffected, one magician is deeply saddened, the mysterious Howl. Said to have powers over young girls who he then kidnaps in order to steal their hearts, our main character Sophie is warned to remain safe by her stepsister Lettie. They are workers in their late father’s hat shop; Lettie is pretty and popular with the young soldiers while Sophie is down to earth and hardworking. Everything changes when a witch obsessed with Howl puts a spell on Sophie, changing her to an old woman. Seeing her life has changed, Sophie is determined to seek out Howl in order to lift her curse. Along the way she meets Calcifer; a fire demon, Howl’s apprentice Markl and even Howl’s old teacher, Madame Sullivan.

The film has good pacing for character development, as much of the middle section of the film is day to day experiences. Sophie becomes Howl’s housekeeper, as most of his time is spent watching the progress of the war. He specifically chooses not to take a side, despite many summons from both kings. The music is very fitting for the action, and the main theme, “Merry-go round of Life” gives a whimsical feeling with an edge of something more ominous on the horizon. I feel like that is one of the biggest parts of the movie. Miyazaki is known for his anti-war/ natural world approach to films and it is easy to see that those are some themes that are very important to him. Trouble brews, however, as the war comes closer to the home front, and Howl is forced to move his castle with a door that leads to several different doorways in other countries.

The third act of the movie focuses on Howl’s origin story and his descent into madness as the power to stop the war burns inside him, but at a terrible cost. As he grows closer to Sophie however, the price to end the war increases as he plans to end it at the cost of his own life and humanity. As you might guess, there is a happy ending. The original curse set on Howl and his house are released and happily ever after is achieved with the return of the prince to his family.

I love this movie. I have watched it many times and will always do so. The art is gorgeous, the animation crisp, and the voice work absolutely spellbinding. (No, I’m not sorry. Puns are magic.) The story is paced well, and there isn’t a hard connection to make with your sense of suspension of disbelief. Miyazaki does a very good job at making his characters memorable and giving them believable motivations and personalities. I also like that Sophie doesn’t change to some princess who is demure and submissive. While you don’t get to see much of Howl and Sophie’s future relationship in the movie, it doesn’t seem that she will ever be that kind of girl. I would recommend this movie to anyone.

Before I go, I want to make a note about the book. Yes, there are differences. While the book characterizes Howl to be quite more rowdy and a bit more disagreeable and Sophie to be more motivated by her sisters that don’t make too much of an appearance in the movie, I think this is a wonderful adaptation. Diana Wynne Jones herself said that she understood it would be different and was still pleased with the end result. Both the book and the movie are great for differing reasons. I would also recommend the book to anyone, as it is well-written and Howl is hilarious in the fourth installment of the novels. They each have a different story to tell with differing angles and outcomes, but both have a lot of heart and wit. 

​     REVELATIONS IN CONTEXT
     Edited by Matthew McBride and James Goldberg
     The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2016, 346 Pages
     Reviewed by Michael Beach
​

This work is intended to be used as a reference document for the church's Sunday School class on church history. The main canonical text is the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C). The subtitle of this volume reads The Stories Behind the Sections of the Doctrine and Covenants and is a good description of what is contained. 

The reader is given insights into some of the people around the prophet Joseph Smith and other key church leaders who author some of the later D&C sections. The issues that come up are usually followed by supplication to God by the prophet, and the associated section of the D&C is the documented revelation. So often as we study works of scripture some of the meaning and motivation is lost without understanding the context. This work does not attempt to explain every section, but it does help the Sunday School student to better understand some of the early prominent church members.

For those interested in 19th century U.S. history there is much to gain, even if the reader is not interested in the religious aspects of the work. For those seeking a deeper understanding of the Mormon canon this text is worth the effort.