For The Love Of Ewoks

For all you out there that are hatin' on these furry little rebels...this is outstanding! Yub, yub!



(bu to Neatorama)

YouVersion - A New Online Bible Source

This looks pretty cool. YouVersion is a new online Bible source much like Bible Gateway, but with tons more upside. It really does have some sweet features (with more coming in the future with development). Here's their own summary of this new site:

A revolutionary online Bible that enables community and collaboration like never before.

Organize - YouVersion empowers you to organize the content that's important to you!

Share - Simply share meaningful content with anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Community - YouVersion makes it easy to connect and collaborate with others.

Contribute - With YouVersion you have the power to share your content with your closest friends, family, or anyone online!

Now this isn't going to take the place of your small group, house church, or accountability group. But the idea that you could get a glimpse of what hundreds (if not thousands) of people around the world think, feel, and experience in the passage of scripture that you are studying, meditating, and journaling on is pretty radical. We've also got a chance to get some nutty ideas running around out there, but that is the risk you run. And someone thinks it's well worth the risk(s).

(bu to Kent C.)

The Simpsons And Cognitive Surplus

Found this engaging article on the rise of the urban (and I would say suburban, too) life, free time and the impact of sitcoms on our cognitive surplus. I know it's kind of a crazy combo - to a degree - but the article argues for how all of these cultural factors impact our new found cognitive surplus that was gifted to us with the rise of automation, greater life expectancy, increased educational advancement, and stronger gross domestic product per capita. Here is teaser from the adapted speech that was posted on the net:

So how big is that surplus? So if you take Wikipedia as a kind of unit, all of Wikipedia, the whole project--every page, every edit, every talk page, every line of code, in every language that Wikipedia exists in--that represents something like the cumulation of 100 million hours of human thought. I worked this out with Martin Wattenberg at IBM; it's a back-of-the-envelope calculation, but it's the right order of magnitude, about 100 million hours of thought.

And television watching? Two hundred billion hours, in the U.S. alone, every year. Put another way, now that we have a unit, that's 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year spent watching television. Or put still another way, in the U.S., we spend 100 million hours every weekend, just watching the ads. This is a pretty big surplus. People asking, "Where do they find the time?" when they're looking at things like Wikipedia don't understand how tiny that entire project is, as a carve-out of this asset that's finally being dragged into what Tim calls an architecture of participation.

Now, the interesting thing about a surplus like that is that society doesn't know what to do with it at first--hence the gin, hence the sitcoms. Because if people knew what to do with a surplus with reference to the existing social institutions, then it wouldn't be a surplus, would it? It's precisely when no one has any idea how to deploy something that people have to start experimenting with it, in order for the surplus to get integrated, and the course of that integration can transform society.

The early phase for taking advantage of this cognitive surplus, the phase I think we're still in, is all special cases. The physics of participation is much more like the physics of weather than it is like the physics of gravity. We know all the forces that combine to make these kinds of things work: there's an interesting community over here, there's an interesting sharing model over there, those people are collaborating on open source software. But despite knowing the inputs, we can't predict the outputs yet because there's so much complexity.

Read the rest of the article. It really is an fascinating perspective. It reminds me of some parallel thought from a book in seminary about amusing ourselves to death through entertainment (any seminary friends remember the title of that book we read for Groothuis?). It makes me wonder about what we've done with all the free time to think, be, share, serve, read, and live communally.

Hey, I'm cognitive surplus enemy #1 with the amount of tv, movies and video games that I watch and play. I don't think it's a ton (probably less than the national average especially after we got rid of cable...I miss Sportscenter), but then again I haven't taken the time to do the time calculations...so I may be surprised.

(bu to Boing Boing)

Prayer Of The Weak

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Mutemath

So my friend, Ed was told to check out this band, Mutemath, by my friend Marko. I mad a mental note to check them out, but, like usual, I totally forgot. Then my brother, Matt, forwarded me the link to the band and video of their song, "Typical".

Love this song! I so have to get the cd or download it. Here's the video. Enjoy!

Blog Of The Month

If you are looking for a blog that has a ton of baseball takes from an insiders perspective, some political opinions, and some odd and end takes, the 38 Pitches written by Curt Schilling is just for you. Schilling is a no nonsense kinda pitcher and guy who isn't short on opinions. He doesn't post a ton - maybe once a week or once every other week - but when he does, he's usually pretty fired up and pretty thoughtful. Check it out and enjoy Curt's pitches.

Draft Day Saturday

I totally love this day! I've had it circled on my calendar for about two months. The NFL Draft is a great event revolving around professional football.

The NFL has done an amazing marking job of taking an event that was relegated to a back conference room at the Sheraton and turning into a multi-million dollar, all day spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. Both the NFL Network and ESPN are providing the t.v. coverage. Chris Berman, Mel Kiper Jr., et al do a great job of calling the shots. For a sports geek like me, this is so much stinkin' fun! Plus, I'm stoked that the time between picks is only 10 minutes (from 15 last year).

I'll be curious to see how the Colts and Steelers will do. The Bengals went with a solid, character guy at linebacker and the Broncos went with a college Bronco at offensive lineman.

So here's to the rest of the day (rest of Rd. 1 and all of Rd. 2) that finishes at 8pm. Then we are back at it at 10am until 6pm tomorrow. Good times, my friends, good times.

Light At The End Of The Semester Tunnel

I am so close to being done with this semester it's not even funny. I just have an EDC 529-Career Counseling group take-home final left to go and that's due this coming Tuesday. This Saturday night we are have a group take-home final cookout at our house. It'll be a ton of fun as the four of us in the group have pretty much had every class together since our program began in August. Spouses and significant others will be coming. We'll play some bocce ball, play with the kids, hang out, eat like kings, and trying to finish off this final!

However, there will be little to no rest for the weary as we all start summer school on May 12. The time off from classes will be short, but sweet!

I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of regular blogging. I miss the creativity that is sparked in this little brain of mine.

Go, Speed Racer, Go!

This looks like it's going to be a ton of fun. Speed Racer brings back the early boyhood days and Saturday morning cartoons. The cinematography and special effects looks outstanding! Can't wait to see this on the big screen.

Prayer Of The Weak

Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

My Office Is Cooler Than Your Office

I don't know what kind of office, building, or organization environment you work in, but I'm pretty sure they're not as cool as these! Here's the Pixar offices. You can click here and see some other fairly radical interiors.



(bu to Hemmy)

A Sign Of The Apocalypse

Chocolate Rain meets Rickrolling! I do believe this is one of the signs of the end times!




Chocolate Rain Video here.

Rickrolling here.

(bu to BoingBoing)

Prayer Of The Weak

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Self Image - Claymation style

Number 1: Self-image is such an important topic to all humans, especially citizens of the US, especially adolescence. It should be handled with grace, appropriateness, and sensitivity.

Number 2: I'm a sucker for claymation. Getting clay to walk and talk with any persona is really cool to me.

So when I experienced the dove tail of the message with the medium from the CBS show Creature Comforts (canceled, I believe), it was a classic for me. It also has potential to be used to start of a small group or support group on that is dealing with the topic. It's kinda long, but still worth a watch.

Free Range Kids

Stumbled onto this site and with a quick scan it looks like it could be pretty good. If you are a parent and frustrated with everyone telling you and selling you that you aren't a good parent if you don't but the latest gadget or gizmo to keep you kid(s) safe and sound, then you aren't a good parent. Well, this little blog seems to be in favor of the anti-boomer/genxer model of parenting. Anti may be a strong suffix, but it raises some red flags about some modern parenting issues and points to look back at some old-school methods of raising our kids.

Here is the summary of the site:

Do you ever... ..let your kid ride a bike to the library? Walk alone to school? Take a bus, solo? Or are you thinking about it? If so, you are raising a Free Range Kid! At Free Range, we believe in safe kids. We believe in helmets, car seats and safety belts. We do NOT believe that every time school age children go outside, they need a security detail. Most of us grew up Free Range and lived to tell the tale. Our kids deserve no less. This site dedicated to sane parenting. Share your stories, tell your tips and maybe one day I will try to collect them in a book. Meantime, let's try to help our kids embrace life! (And maybe even clear the table.)

Check out Free Range Kids here. It'll be interesting to see where this little blog goes with tools, dialog, and opinions about raising free range kids.

Keeping An Eye Out For Inspiration

So over the last couple of years I've had a growing interest in photography as a form personal expression and art. My friends, D.L., Mickey, and Any Liu Who Hookem Crew Du have all had a little hand in communicating to me in their uniques ways that this hobby is pretty cool.

So the other day I stumbles across a couple of web articles. The specifically talked about to be inspired as a photographer and photos you should definitely take before you die. When you click the links, it will take you to the full article and some cool photography, but here are a couple of my favorites from each site as a teaser:

12 Things to Photograph Before You Die

1. A Perfect Portrait
2. A Complete Story
3. An Image That Makes a Difference

60 Sources of Inspiration for Photography

1. Join a Demonstration
2. Visit/Shop at a Flea or Farmer's Market
3. Ask "What if...?"
4. Just Play

These two articles/posts got me to thinking in few different directions...

Twelve Things to Do Before I Die

1. Catch fly balls in a major league ballpark
2. Go on a road trip with my brothers
3. Take Kelly to Ireland
4. Climb the highest elevation in all 50 states
5. Start some viral internet sensation

Twelve Things to Communicate Passionately About Before I Die

or

60 Sources of Personal Inspiration

1. Talk to a veteran of WWII
2. Read and Re-read the Gospels in the New Testament
3. Begin a friendship with an activist - any activist!
4. Climb a mountain

I'm going to build of these list in the weeks and months to come. I'd love to hear what you have to say about some of these topics...things you'd like to do before you die, ideas that you are passionate about that you'd love to share with the world, or things that inspire you. And who know, if they resonate with me, I just may add them to my lists!

A Bump On The Blog

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. April is a huge month for me as school winds up here at the end of the month. Some big papers, a group final, and figuring out summer classes and work opportunities is somewhat consuming the extra time. I'll post sporadically, hopefully, with some interesting and fun stuff. Until then, say a prayer for me that I keep the nose to the grindstone and eyes focused on the finish line. Peace and late!

Prayer For The Weak

O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

MLK

Just another reminder of real American hero who lived and died for peace, love, and justice.