The Muppet Matrix
April 6th, 2008
Ok, so the Matrix isn’t exactly new. But I just came across this on YouTube and it’s pretty funny.
More Music
January 1st, 2008
Here’s another piece of music for your listening pleasure. This one’s entitled My Prayer and was written and performed by Margaret Taylor, a nonagenarian in our church who as I understand it is quite an accomplished pianist. This piece, which she performed last October 7th at our World Communion Sunday service, has a melancholy yet beautiful quality reminiscent of Chopin.
my-prayer.mp3(6.1 MB)
I’ve been Google Mapped!
June 4th, 2007
I don’t know if you’ve seen the new feature on Google Maps yet, called Street View. Basically Google sent cars with special roof mounted 360° cameras around the streets of San Francisco, capturing street level images throughout the city. Well apparently one of these camera cars caught my co-worker Chris and I leaving our building one afternoon on a Jamba Juice run, and now I am famous on the Internets. Judging by the fact that we’re both looking right at the camera, on that day in question we must have seen the car, but I can’t remember it now. Maybe Google is using some mind-altering device in tandem with their wizbang uber-peripheral-vision camera to make it’s victims subjects forget ever being snapped.
Personally, I think “Street View” is too bland a name. Perhaps Google Maps Paparazzi instead. Anyway, here’s a permanent link to yours truly, eternally enshrined on Google Maps.
The strange allure (and false hope) of email bankruptcy
May 31st, 2007
Merlin Mann at 43 Folders:
A one-time erasure of communication debt would give temporary relief, but the basic challenge remains; the net number of requests for my attention exceed my ability to provide that attention by at least an order of magnitude. And the disparity around my ability to thoughtfully respond to my pile may be ten or more times worse still. The scale is insanely out of whack.
The emails that bog me down are the personal updates from friends. I’ve got a love-hate relationship with these emails. On one hand I really want to stay connected with friends that I’ve made that now live scattered across the country (and world). But I don’t want to just fire back a list of things we’ve done since we last talked, I also want to give an honest sense of how we’ve been doing. And that takes an emotional energy, that after a long day at work, I just don’t feel I have to give. And so the list of emails to respond to grows, raising the barrier I feel I have to overcome the next time I think about responding to my email.
For things like bill-due date reminders and online purchase confirmation I love the quick and easy medium of email. And I do like how much easier it is to keep in touch with friends and family. But on the other hand, with more people to keep in touch with, my bandwidth becomes the limiting factor.
I’ve noticed an interesting difference between snail mail and email. When I open my mailbox downstairs, I’m delighted to get a personal letter from a friend, but I groan at the amount of junk mail I have to toss in the recycling bin. But with email it seems to be the other way around. Junk mail goes right to my spam folder, and even the automatic notifications from Bank of America or Blockbuster are no problem: just a quick read and I move on. But with email it’s almost like I dread getting another email from a friend that I know is going to require my personal time and attention to respond.
I know that sounds really bad to say that I dread getting email from friends, but more often than not it’s the honest truth. Perhaps that’s just the reality of living in this technological age.
By the way, I found this article via a link from Daring Fireball, a blog I read regularly. You can read the entire post here.
Healthy Gamblers Rent Scooters in Vegas
May 25th, 2007
From CNN:
There’s lazy, and then there’s Las Vegas lazy.
In increasing numbers, Las Vegas tourists exhausted by the four miles of gluttony laid out before them are getting around on electric “mobility scooters.”
Don’t think trendy Vespa motorbikes. Think updated wheelchair.
And the best quote from the article:
A tourist could accidentally get some exercise.
Everything and the Kitchen Sink: The Memoir of a Dishwasher
May 23rd, 2007
From the NY Times:
Mr. Jordan grew up one of seven children in a San Francisco family that didn’t own a dishwashing machine. His father thought he should finish college, and for a while couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge his son’s profession, which in an opinion survey of job desirability, Mr. Jordan points out, then ranked 735th out of 740. Only envelope stuffer, prostitute, drug dealer, fortuneteller and beggar were lower.
I first heard about “Dishwasher Pete” on a This American Life episode called First Day. It happens to be my favorite TAL episode because of the “Squirrel Cop” story later in the show. That clip alone makes it worth the $1 iTunes download.
New Ford Exorbitant Comes With Spare Explorer
May 20th, 2007
From BBSpot:
“I just love it,” said soccer mom, Wendy Glickman, “I feel a lot safer knowing I have the spare Explorer. What if I forget my cell phone? What if the GPS in the Exorbitant fritzes out? Half a million dollars is a small price to pay for peace of mind.”
Tragedy
April 18th, 2007
These past few days as details of the shootings at Virginia Tech have been unfolding, this song by U2 keeps coming into my head. It’s called Wake Up Dead Man. The verse starts out like this:
Jesus, Jesus help me
I’m alone in this world
And a fucked up world it is too
Tell me, tell me the story
The one about eternity
And the way it’s all gonna be
And the last verse:
Jesus, were you just around the corner?
Did you think to try and warn her?
Or are you working on something new?
If there’s an order in all of this disorder
Is it like a tape recorder?
Can we rewind it just once more?
The gritty distortion in the vocals and the uncharacteristic use of profanity communicate both a hard-edged accusation and yet desperate plea to God to intervene in world twisted by evil. It reminded me of the lament in Psalm 13:
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Jen and I have some friends at Viriginia Tech, in fact whom we visited on our cross-country trip out to L’Abri last summer. Though relieved to find out that they were not among those who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time on Monday, our hearts and our prayers go out to those who lost friends and family this week.
Obama in Oakland
March 19th, 2007
Jen and I went to hear Barack Obama speak at Oakland City Hall this weekend. It was a packed event, way more crowded than I expected. I don’t know why I didn’t think that there would be a lot of people. I mean this guy is running for President and all. I’m not great at head-count guesstimating in crowds, though I think it’s safe to say that number was in the thousands. In the end, I never actually saw Obama, though Jen did, after I hoisted her up on my shoulders to snap some pictures. Even then he was just a floating head far-far away.
Overall I was impressed. He is a great orator, and there was substance to his message. Of all the topics he covered, the ones that got most response from the crowd were education, alternative energy, and of course the war. I’m gonna be thinking strongly about him when election time comes around.
I also came across an article in Sojourners Magazine called One Nation…Under God? that is basically an adapted excerpt from a speech he gave awhile back on the place of religion in politics. I think he’s got some important things to say on the topic, both to conservatives and liberals alike.
Note that viewing the article requires registering for an account with Sojourners. It’s annoying, but free nonetheless.