Free advertising for killers
Tim Sanders has two powerful posts that I first noticed over at MMI. I think he’s right on. What do you think? Here’s an excerpt:
The video [of Cho] proclaims that “I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.” And he gets airtime and webtime to spew this? I can’t believe how irresponsible media sources like NBC and a host of online portals are being. Once let out of the bottle, this newly minted rock star will use the power of sight sound and motion to further his cause after death. If I were NBC I would have squashed it. Give it to the authorities and never show it. They won’t show the footage when Steve Irwin was killed, too distrurbing. But the media and online publishers cannot resist this video.
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Modern parable
Dean has written what may be the best blog post I’ve ever read. It is convicting, inspiring and insightful into the hiddenness of God. He uses an article by Gene Weingarten at the Washington Post to share with us a moving modern parable of the spiritual life. It’s lenghty, but definitely worthy of your stop and reflection.
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Get a Mac… the latest
I hope you’ve made your weekly stop over at the Apple site to watch the new commercials? Here’s one of the latest.
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Ways to use your Twitter
There’s a very practical and innovative use for SMS and RSS combo services like Twitter. Swing by the Swerve blog and see how one church is using it for ministry purposes.
You can also check in the right sidebar for my latest Twitter update. If you use Twitter, let me know!
If you’re wondering what in the world RSS and SMS are… uh, well, perhaps you shouldn’t worry about your Twitter.
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If it ain’t broke…
As we say here in south Arkansas, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. However, that approach has led to more than one massive mistake by a refusal to understand and embrace change.
Researchers at Stanford (among others) are also sounding the alarm. The internet may be broke… or at least at maximum capacity. Bandwidth is the new gold standard, but we may be in store for a market crash. With demand for online video through services like YouTube and Joost increasing in a ballistic fashion, the pipe is going to get clogged sooner or later. (How’s that for technical lingo?)
The Clean Slate Project is one of the many think tanks devoted to examining what may need to become the next internet. Bill Thompson over at BBC News has an interesting take on why we’ve been able to milk the net for this long. (As an aside, Bill’s entire article was captivating until his last sentence. I was dumbstruck with its stupidity, almost to the point of discounting the rest of his article. See if you feel the same way.)
Consider the following from the Clean Slate site:
We believe that the current Internet has significant deficiencies that need to be solved before it can become a unified global communication infrastructure. Further, we believe the Internet’s shortcomings will not be resolved by the conventional incremental and ‘backward-compatible’ style of academic and industrial networking research. The proposed program will focus on unconventional, bold, and long-term research that tries to break the network’s ossification.
We all still know folks on dial-up (don’t we?). Reinventing the internet may allow some of them to leapfrog technologies. It might be compared to, uh, switching from a PC to a Mac. ;) Or even, from driving a moped to using a transporter. Beam me up, Scotty.
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Virginia Tech connections
As the story of the tragedy at Virginia Tech continues to unfold, it is another sobering societal call to quietness. I am profoundly aware of the “calm after the storm” on the major news media today. It is akin to other moments of stillness and unsettling silence that have followed disasters like 9/11, the Challenger explosion, the Oklahoma City bombing, Columbine, etc.
It’s in these moments of solidarity that the eternal whispers for us all. The shock of unforeseen interruption rips aside comfortable (and often wrong) worldviews that have no place for otherness. It deposits a society firmly in the realm of the uncontrollable. In spite of all our sophistication, our MySpace-connectedness, and our “enlightened” state, another day of evil successfully dawns.
Perhaps that’s what is the most surreal element of the world’s reaction. It’s not just senseless violence and death. It’s the very real presence of evil. When people live in complete denial of spiritual realities, their explosive presence undermines peace-time opinions.
I guess what I mean is simply this… most folks find it easy to deny the existence of God, love, evil, and sin when life is peachy. However, when our unreality is smacked by a 2×4 of an ever-present spirituality, our peace-time worldviews can’t hold up. Thus the stillness, quietness, and shock…
Unfortunately, as the past has shown all too vividly, our society’s ability to insulate itself follows rapidly upon the heels of tragedy. The unity of post 9/11 was replaced with political posturing. Unfortunately for the students and families of Virginia Tech, their encounter with evil will soon be overshadowed by the triviality of others as well. Perhaps the American media will be able to follow this story by one more of Anna Nicole…
How to Connect…
For some wonderful resources of what is taking place to help and pray for the people of VT, check out this post over at MMI.
Another VT connection is a little remote, but present nonetheless. The Baptist Collegiate Ministry director at VT is Darrell Cook. Darrell served at UAM as the BSU Director there from 1992-1995 before going to ASU for a few years as the Assistant Director and on to VT from there. I emailed Darrell our support and prayers yesterday. Please be in prayer for him and the ministry of the BCM there in these days.
Pondering…
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Kool-Aid cleans?
Lifehacker posts this startling tip from one of Carolyn’s favorite magazines, Real Simple: use Kool-Aid to clean your dishwasher! Go read the post (and make sure you use the right flavor!)
By the way, if the Real Simple site becomes one of your favorite stops, you can thank me with a Dad’s Place card! ;)
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Learn to embrace the mundane while you have it
Tim’s quote about the explosive blessing of monotony may be one of the most encouraging and profound attitude-adjustment posts I’ve read in a while. Great job, Tim! It is a must-read for any of you who consider yourselves Notes regulars.
Here’s one quote:
I’ve found that I need to seek to embrace the drudgery of life, thanking God for the comfort of routine and the security of sameness. And I’ve found that I need to embrace even the hard work of becoming a godly man, even when it can seem like monotonous drudgery. I know that the perceived monotony is only a product of my own sin and selfishness.
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You Google? (update!)
I love this from Brian Glass:
Now that Google has taken over the world and has become the next Microsoft, it’s about time for me to start hating it and eradicate it from my life. But for some reason I just can’t help but like Google.
I’m always looking for easier ways to accomplish mundance routines, like calendaring, syncing with my Treo 650 (hopefully soon-to-be-iPhone), contacts, etc. When you work across more than one computer, it’s vitally important that you have the same info at your fingertips all the time.
Used to, a person would find nifty software like Chronosync that would help you literally match on one computer the files you have on another. However, I’m beginning to suspect that there are geniuses out there who have better ways. Are we looking at the induction of a “world server” that will keep all you files, etc. “out there” – securely, mind you – for easy access from any computer? There are already several blooming options out there – like keepandshare.com.
Hmmm. I don’t know, but I think I’m gonna revisit what Google has to offer. Other calendar tools you might like:
- Plaxo
- Calendarhub (has not been updated in a quite a while, but still a nice, easy interface)
- Trumba – I use this with MonticelloLive’s and Journey’s calendar. Very nice, but it costs.
- Famundo.com – a nice, friendly service that targets families and groups
Any others that you use and have found to be helpful and stable? Caro and I share calendars on iCal through icalx.com for syncing. It also allows us to sync our personal iCals to the web for reference.
Update (4/16/07):
Since writing this, I’ve found two more incredible resources:
- Cozi – a family friendly sit for managing calendars and lists (like groceries). Very graphically appealing and very easy to use.
- Airset – Wow! And double wow! I actually had signed up for an Airset account early last year (in ’06) but at the time, I think I had some problems getting it to work seamlessly with my Mac stuff (iCal and Address Book). Those problems are now gone, and this is one whopper of a free service! You’ve gotta check it out! It has everything you can imagine, and then some. Simple enough for basic users and advanced enough for tech geeks.
In addition, here’s a weblink for those of you who need to convert iCal exports (.ics files) to a format (.csv, .ldif) that other sites can use (like Airset, Yahoo, etc.). It works flawlessly!
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About
Notes from the Trail
The Personal Blog of Jeff Noble
Info: From the misty hills of Virginia, "Notes from the Trail" seeks to encourage you on your journey. Written by a graphic designer-pastor, this blog is a blend of humor, insight, and faith discovery.
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RT @TheFactsBook: The ancient Greeks believed that redheads would turn into vampires after they died. Eeek. Be nice to @libby_bish. [journeyguy]
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I just became the mayor of Blacksburg Middle School on @foursquare! http://t.co/EDjfDQ81 [journeyguy]
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Cool. http://t.co/3kqbSwYa [journeyguy]
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RT @jackieflake: @vthoneybee, Melissa u lived as Christ, your death is gain. God thank u for sharing our sister w/us. Living well yields ... [journeyguy]
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Praying for the@bcmvt and Cheliras families upon learning of Melissa's death from cancer today. 1 Thessalonians 4:14 [journeyguy]
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