Daniel Thompson's Blog, page 2

A Brave High School Student Exposes Abuse and Corruption Within Jehovah’s Witnesses

This is an amazing video. It had over 336,000 views when I embedded it.

For more information, see this news article.

The First Novel of the Sparlock Trilogy is Finished

It took over two years, but the first book of the Sparlock Trilogy, The Great Apocalypse, is now written. It has already been through a complete round of editing. I’m currently waiting for some additional feedback that might result in some minor changes.

The book could probably be best described as a philosophical thriller. It will be around 360 pages long, assuming 250 words per page.

There is still some work to be done to prepare it for publication. We plan to launch the book as a Kindle ebook in July. Stay tuned for further developments.

I Survived Hákarl

I have learned a lot from doing research for the Sparlock Saga. This has led me to try one of the world’s strangest foods.

It’s too early to say how hákarl fits into to the Sparlock multiverse, but I wanted to explain my experience with this unusual food.

Hákarl is fermented shark meat from Iceland. Traditionally, hákarl is buried in the ground for about six to twelve weeks and then hung to dry for several months. The result is a food with with a strong ammonia-like smell and fishy taste.

I have been careful with my choice of words thus far. I don’t want to be too shocking to the innocent reader who is just passing by. However, if you are still reading this, you might be ready for a more colorful description. Many who have tried it consider it appropriate to replace the adjective fermented with putrefied. It’s also worth noting that a strong ammonia like smell is really an euphemism for “smells like piss.”

Chef Anthony Bourdain said that hákarl is “the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing” he has ever tried.

By now, you are probably wondering why anybody would process a food in this manner.

I’m sure it’s a lot of fun for Icelanders to offer this “delicacy” to tourists and then watch their reactions, but that has nothing to do with the origins of the dish. It was simply a matter of survival. Fresh meat from the Greenland shark is poisonous. It has high concentrations of urea and trimethylamine oxide. The fermenting process makes it edible.

My opinion is that the smell is worse than the taste. The texture is firm, and I didn’t find the flavor to be unpleasant. The worst part is an ammonia after taste that lingers for a considerable amount of time afterward.

If you have ever sampled hákarl or any other unusual foods, please share you experience in the comments section.

A Millerite Poster Predicting the End in 1843

This poster discusses the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation as well as their connection to William Miller’s prediction that the end of the world would come in 1843. Later versions of this chart changed the year to 1844 based on the fact that there is no zero year, a detail that was missed when Miller made his 1843 calculations. Others who tried to predict the end made the same mistake, including Charles Taze Russell and Nelson Barbour.

Welcome to the Sparlock of the Multiverse Blog!

Thank you for visiting our new blog, your source for news and updates from the Sparlock multiverse.

We are very excited about this new website and the ongoing development of the Sparlock Trilogy. We plan on having a series of articles about the book and topics that are addressed in the series.

We hope you will consider signing up for the Sparlock Newsletter. This is the best way to find out about release dates and other exciting developments. We plan on giving away the first book for a limited time, so subscribing to the newsletter is a great way to make sure that you won’t miss your chance to get Book One for free.

We would also love it if you connect with us at the major social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It’s a great way to stay in touch.

Thanks again for visiting. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions.