A recent study shows that stimuli unrelated to decision can still influence men’s choices. Did anyone ever really doubt this? SRSLY?
Yoda facts. Extremely awesome. It’s like Chuck Norris facts but with Yoda instead.
Interview With Michael Kelley
I recently had the opportunity to receive a Bible study from LifeWay titled The Tough Sayings Of Jesus II. First I’d just like to say thanks to Bill Seaver and Michael Kelley for allowing me this privilege. Second, It’s worth mentioning that this study is high quality.
Included in the leader book is a CD as well as a DVD. The CD has a half-dozen CCM songs which fit the theme of the study and also includes a bunch of extras such as, but not limited to, promotional materials (to help you promote your study) and email headers. The DVD has several short videos, one for each session. My students especially loved the vids.
As a bonus for me (and by default, for you readers too) I was asked if I’d be interested in doing a brief email interview with the author of “Tough Sayings.” I jumped at the chance to ask Michael some questions directly. I suppose I could have limited myself to asking him about things that were only directly related to this study, but I realized that it’s not every day I get to interview a guy like Michael so I took the opportunity to pick his brain about a couple of other topics as well.
I’ve reproduced the questions and answers in their entirety, completely unedited. My questions are in italic font.
Ben: Michael, thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions about your youth Bible study, “The Tough Sayings Of Jesus 2.” I personally loved this study and my students genuinely engaged it as well. I truly think you’ve put out a quality piece of work here and want you to know that I sincerely appreciate all the hard work that went in to making this study a reality. That said, I suppose every interview has to start out with this question, but was there any specific event (or events) that caused you to write this study?
Michael: Ben, thanks for your kind words – glad you enjoyed it. To your question, I think for me the biggest catalyst behind writing this study was that I wanted something more. Having been in church since I was an embryo, I’ve heard lots of sermons. LOTS of sermons. But it’s been interesting to me that many times in my experience we rush past the tough stuff to get to the “good stuff.” For example, someone would be preaching through the book of Romans, and we get to chapter 8, and then the next week we’re on chapter 12. What?!? But I want to know about how God loved Jacob and hated Esau!
The effect that has had on me is that implicitly, I have developed an almost subconscious desire that whenever I come to something in the Bible that I don’t get, I just chalk it up to “Well, I’m not sure what Jesus meant here, but I’m sure it’s good” attitude. I don’t think a deep faith is built on statements like that. I think it’s built on wrestling with a text and mining it out for everything it can be.
Ben: The second question is like the first, but is more personal to me. I enjoy writing my own studies and I often wonder how folks like you who publish study materials “come up with” your selected topics. Do you have a planning team behind you? Is there some kind of “oversight” committee that tells you what to write about? I’m sorry for my very non-technical terms here, but I’m just trying to figure out the general process by which you decide upon the specifics topics covered in studies like this.
Michael: Actually, those seem like just the right terms. For me, I preached a sermon series called “ Tough Sayings” that happened to find its way into the right hands with the publishing team behind Threads. And that subject matter really hit a need for their target demographic of young adults. In their research they found that the majority of young adults gravitate right now toward a few key things, like responsibilty for changing the world and authentic community. One of the other key aspects was depth. The fit was pretty natural.
Ben: hope I’m not getting too personal with you by asking this, but what role did your family play in the creative process of “The Tough Sayings Of Jesus 2?” I ask because I know my family plays a certain role in my ministry as well as my web design.
Michael: Not at all – Probably the most personal session in either of the books for me is the one in TS2 that deals with the death of Lazarus from John 11. That’s so personal to us because about a year and a half ago, our 3-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia. It’s moments like that when theology really meets life, and you are left asking the dificult question: “How does God feel about this?” I took great comfort in the John 11 passage, not only because of the power of Christ to heal, but maybe more so because of His emotional involvement with the sisters. My wife and I have come back to that passage lots of time as we’ve felt Jesus weeping alongside of us in this difficult part of our journey.
Ben: As I led my youth through this study they seemed to me most intrigued by the first lesson which was focused around being shrewd with money. I mentioned to the students that I was going to be doing an interview with you, the author this study, and I asked them if they had any questions they’d like answered. Overwhelmingly they wondered if you had any real-world examples, or personal experiences, of how you or someone you know have/has been shrewd with your money in relation to your friends?
Michael: This is a great question. 2 people come to mind. One is my dad. My dad has the rare combination of being both very good with money and being very generous – maybe the most generous person I know. So he’s always been very dilligent to save and spend at the right time, and never really wanted for anything. But at the same time, he was always the first in line to give. And to give quietly. So he’s made alot of friends through his generosity. I say friends, though many of those folks don’t know him and wouldn’t necessarily name him on a list of friends, but because of his generosity, the kingdom of God has been advanced. Someday, when he gets to heaven, I think he’ll be shocked at how many friends he has there.
The other one is a guy I knew when I was in seminary in Birmingham. He also had a talent for making money. His first year out of college he was pulling down 6 figures selling pharmacuticals. But even though I was surrounded by talk of God every day in school, I never met anyone more interested in helping people than this guy. He volunteered every week at a nursing home. He prayed with doctors and nurses on his route. He bought countless meals for people who couldn’t afford them and sent countless people overseas for the sake of the kingdom. He made alot of friends.
Ben: My last question is intentionally the most ambiguous because I’d like to see where you go with it. I have a large handful of youth pastors as well as other full time ministers that read my blog and I’d like to know two things: 1) What do you see as the greatest challenge facing full time ministers, and specifically youth pastors, today? And 2) knowing that we all need encouragement from time to time, do you have any words of advice, wisdom and encouragement for the youth pastors who are reading this?
Michael: This is another great question. I’ll draw on my experience in working full-time in youth ministry, and still teaching at student retreats to see what I can come up with. I think the biggest challenge in youth world today is helping students grow into a faith that is more than behavioral. More than any other demographic, I think youth ministry has the potential to reduce Christianity to principles. It’s certainly easier, and the sad fact is that many parents want students who behave. The result can be a behave / believe / become kind of model, and though it’s subtle, we raise up a group of students who base their relationship with God on their ability to behave rather than His grace.
I think the better, and more biblical, model is believe / become / behave. I notice in Paul’s writings that he doesn’t really get to the behavior part until after he’s spent ample time telling his readers who they are. To Paul it seems that behavior is simple: Understand who you are, then live out your identtiy. So in terms of encouragement, I would say this: You can help a student know who they are in Christ. Then you can help them understand how to live out their identity. Don’t bow to the easy way of just telling them not to have sex, get drunk, and use drugs. Tell them who they are.
Meet My Exes
These are my two ex-cats. They were great until they started pooping and/or peeing and/or throwing up all over everything. My in-laws have since adopted them. I miss them sometimes. Other times I don’t.
Ninjas Killed My Family - How To Beg Properly
This guy has the right idea. Seriously. If you’re gonna try to convince me to give you money by feeding me some B.S. excuse for your life’s problems I’d rather the B.S. make me smile. Be creative darn it! Don’t bring me down with crap stories about how your sister-in-law’s dog needed a heart transplant so you closed out your 401K and emptied your savings and now you’re out of a job so you don’t have money for gas. If you’re going through the trouble of making stuff up, make it good.
If I saw a guy on the street with a sign that said, “Ninjas killed my family — need money for kung-fu lessons” I’d pull out my wallet without hesitation. He’s moved from the “poor beggar” arena into the “poor comedian” arena and hell, that ninja story is creative and funny stuff, he just worked for my dollar.
Elsewhere Wednesday 050708
It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time for me to take a little break from writing, and time for you to find some high quality entertainment elsewhere on the Internet.
For starters, have you ever wondered what advice a serial killer or Dick Cheney would give to a 10 year old? Wonder no more.
Did you know that China makes flags that say ‘Free Tibet’? Ironic doesn’t even start to express.
If you ever wondered whether or not Kobi Bryant can jump over a moving vehicle, here’s your answer.
I giggled like a school boy when I saw this.
I saw that the title said “What to do when Windows really messes up” and was waiting for a punch-line like “When Windows really messes up, install Ubuntu” but that joke never came 
.
I want. Just think of the possibilities . . .
After watching this video of Reggie Watts I instinctively bought some of his music from Amazon. Wow, just, wow.
If this guy were smart, he’d have written “Would we have allowed Soviet Russia to host the Olympics?” Oh . . . wait.
As if the shirt alone didn’t make you look goofy enough you had to open your mouth.
And for my next trick, I will make this rabbit disappear!
Atrocities! 22 year-old woman still not married?!
This video is a great way to sell your product. Wow.
And now, thanks to Texas, we have a benchmark for the word “stupid.”
Movie Review: Wait Until Dark
Excellent movie. Just excellent. It proves that you don’t need multi-million dollar CGI to make an audience cling to the edge of their seat. You just need a great story, great actors and a great director. If you haven’t seen Wait Until Dark I highly recommend you put it on your Netflix cue or go rent it, you won’t be disappointed.
Speaking of which, I wonder what the budget for this movie was? Couldn’t have been much. The sets were minimal and the wardrobe/makeup were minimal as well. Such a small budget and the resultant film is a classic, probably going to keep audiences on the edge of their seats for years to come. Great film.
Review: Twitter Clients For Adobe AIR On Linux
I’m addicted to Twitter. And ever since Adobe released the alpha version of AIR for Linux I’ve been eager to try some of the Twitter desktop clients because, let’s face it, gtwitter and those other Linux-only Twitter clients suck. No offense to their developers, but they lack a certain polish that AIR clients possess.
For my comparison I’ve taken four of the most popular Twitter desktop clients for AIR, installed them on Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 and made some general, but revealing, observations. Below is a screen grab of the four clients side by side just so you can see what they look like (click on the image to see larger).
OK, on to the interesting part. Reviews will follow the order presented in the screen grab from left to right.
Spaz
IMHO Spaz is the best looking Twitter client for AIR. Then again, that’s just an opinion. It has a super useful growl-like notifier of new tweets. Works great at retrieving and sending Twitterings. Unfortunately it doesn’t remember my password, even though I save it in the preferences. Also, and this is just a minor annoyance, I select the option to “minimize to systray” but it doesn’t. It just minimized to its place on my application bar just like every other program does. Though to be fair, none of the clients reviewed actually minimized to the systray like Amarok or Banshee do.
Conclusion for Spaz: Very usable on Linux.
Snitter
On Windows or Mac I absolutely love Snitter. But on Linux it’s crap and I don’t know why. For starters, you can’t close the application by clicking the close button. Nor can you close it by right-clicking anything. Attempting to close Snitter only results in some obscure error and you end up having to force quit every time via the System Monitor. Also, when Snitter is minimized it doesn’t go to the application panel like other programs do, it disappears completely. To make matters worse it has a lot of lag when typing. It’s usually 3 or 4 letters behind my fingers which gets very annoying very quickly. Other than those three issues it works just like it should.
P.S. – lack of those growl-like notifications is a bummer.
Conclusion for Snitter: Unusable on Linux.
Tweetr
Tweetr was the only AIR Twitter client tested that didn’t restyle the window decorator (in my case, Emerald). That’s neither a positive nor a negative, just an observation. It works flawlessly. It minimizes just fine, it closes without a glitch, updates quickly and looks good doing it. And like Spaz it has that super useful growl-like notifier of new tweets. This is definitely my favorite AIR Twitter client on Linux. It was also the only client tested that succeeded at remembering my username and password. The biggest negative for Tweetr is that it has no word count, and that’s kind of important when you’re limited to 140 characters. The word count for Tweetr is found in the title bar once you start typing. I guess that means there are no obvious negatives for Tweetr.
Conclusion for Tweetr: Very usable on Linux.
Twhirl
Last on my list of AIR Twitter clients to review is Twhirl. The design looks fruity to me, but that’s just my opinion. Also, there are way too many options surrounding the input box. But again, that’s just my opinion. Functionally Twhirl does just fine as a Twitter client. It retrieves updates, it sends my Twitterings and even makes itself opaque when it’s not in focus. Unfortunately it suffers from the problem of not remembering my password even when I check the box labeled “remember password?” Lack of growl-like notifications was also a let down.
Conclusion for Twhirl: Very usable on Linux.
Conclusion
All the clients with the exception of Snitter would make fine AIR Twitter clients for Linux. The only reason I would prefer Tweetr is because it actually remembers my username and password. Then again, Spaz is really great too and it even has a word count feature which Tweetr lacks.
Love The Sinner, Look Past The Sin
I’ve heard it said that we should “Hate the sin, but love the sinner.” On paper this sounds like a great Christian principle to live by. But in real life I find it to be a difficult, if not impossible, task to accomplish. We know that God hates sin, and that we should too. I hate abortion (well, abortion as birth control anyway), I hate drug abuse, I hate murder too. Yes, so far so good. My conscience is still intact.
But when we get down to the nitty gritty of living with people I think our perspective has to change slightly. Now, don’t go misunderstanding me, we need to call sin “sin” and we need to see sin the way God does too. But I also think a lot of folks get hung up here. I know I do, at any rate. For one reason or another we can’t get past a person’s sin to see who they are (or could be) in Christ. I see a drug abuser and think how depraved they are. “Scum of the Earth” is what I feel. Yet along with hating sin the way God hates sin we also must love people the way God loves people.
This presents a problem for me, and I suspect it does for you too. I simply can’t get past other’s sin to be able to wholly love them. More than that, I don’t want to associate with them because they are “dirty” or “condemned” or “sinful.” But I think Christ gives us the prime example that those are the very people we should be mixing with.
One practical way I’ve found of accomplishing this is to change my verbiage a little and say “Love the sinner, look past the sin.” I find there are two results from this change in mindset:
1. I feel more concerned for a person’s welfare and eternal fate
All of a sudden I see them as a person in need of a Savior. No, more than that. I see them as being exactly like me. When I look past their sin and see the person underneath I’m utterly compelled to love them. Without a genuine love for people you can never be used by God.
2. My ego gets put aside and I’m a more humble person
When I get hung up on another’s sin, whether that be drug abuse, homosexuality or adultery, I almost always end up feeling somehow “better” than them. Believe me, it’s quite unintentional on my part, a result of my own sinful nature no doubt. But once I see others as being in the same sinking ship I am in, both in need of the same thing, well, all my haughtiness dissolves.
If we really want to be humble, if we really want to love people, we have got to look past their sin and love them. Remember, I never said we have to say the sin is “OK” or to love the sin, but I think it’s very possible to keep the mindset that sin is a horrible assault on God and at the same time look past it to see the fragile person underneath.
The Great Failing Of Christianity Is In The Smallest Bones
The great failing of Christianity for the past millennium (at least) hasn’t been lack of legislating Biblical morality. We’ve had plenty of that. It would be easy to find instances in history where virtually every one of the Ten Commandments has been illegal.
Similarly, the great failing of Christianity has had nothing to do with evangelism, preaching (in its modern understanding), or “conversions.” Thanks in no small part to the revivalist movement and the Roman Catholic church we’ve had plenty of this as well.
Christians have mastered the art of beating, smashing and generally devastating anyone who lives a “sinful” life . . . whatever that is. The definition of “sinful life” changes throughout history you know. Today we see homosexuals and supporters of legalized abortion taking the brunt of the Christian beating all for “biblical” reasons, of course.
We make blanket statements, distance ourselves from them and then judge them to Hell. In the past we’ve seen the same thing happen to most minorities including, but not limited to, rock ‘n roll and mixed-race marriage. But I’m not here to talk about race and sexual orientation.
No, I’m here to point out that the great failing of Christianity for the past millennium has been the seeming inability of its adherents to use their smallest bones. As any middle grade student can tell you, some of the smallest bones in the human body are found in the feet and the inner ear. What an enormous thing it is to walk with someone and listen to them.
Hurling. Not Curling.
The night before last my family experienced our first all-nighter. And by “all-nighter” I mean, of course, that my son threw up all night long. It was extremely odd as he didn’t have a fever, 98.6F all the way. And when he first thew up it was clear, no food in his stomach. Food poisoning? I’m not sure. All I know is that when a 3 year-old child throws up it’s never a silent affair. Crying, loud crying, always ensues.
The first couple of times we were like, “Crap! What a mess! Get the Lysol!” Then I had the brilliant idea to get a small trash can for, ya know, the stuff. At first Toddler Boy was all like, “You want me to do WHAT in there?!” Then after a few puking episodes he was like, “ZOMG! Where’s the can?! It’s coming again!” Suffice it to say, he’s an old pro at hurling (not to be confused with Curling, which is a sport . . . but that would be cool too.)
How To Enable Emerald In Hardy Heron 8.04
If you’re an Ubuntu Linux user and you’re still using that old GTK theme that came with your OS then you’re really missing out on a great visual experience: Emerald. To the right is a screen grab of my current desktop setup (click it for a full view). As you can see, gone are the choppy corners and the ho-hum colors. With Emerald you have hundreds, if not thousands, of choices for a really great looking desktop.
To install Emerald just open your Synaptic Package Manager, do a search for “emerald” and install it. You should see it appear under your system menu under System > Preferences > Emerald Theme Manager.
To use an Emerald theme on your desktop you first need to download one from Gnome Look and then install it via the Emerald Theme Manager. All that should be somewhat self-explanatory.
However, getting Emerald to work with Hardy is not self-explanatory. In Hardy the default window decorator is not Emerald, so getting it to work with 8.04 is as simple as changing the default window decorator. Here’s how you do it.
First, install Compiz Config Manager
You do this via Synaptic Package Manager. I simply did a search for “compiz config.” 
Second, go to your Compiz Settings
Third, edit your Windows Decoration setting
When looking at the Compiz Config Settings Manager you will need to scroll down a bit and find the “Window Decoration” setting. Click on the icon (as opposed to the check box) to edit its settings. In the “Command” field delete whatever is in there and put this in its place: emerald --replace
Restart your X session by holding down Ctrl + Alt and pressing Backspace. In certain instances you may have to reboot. Everything should be working now. Enjoy a delightfully pleasant desktop experience that, in my opinion, rivals the looks of OS X.
Hardy Heron First Impressions
Just finished installing Hardy Heron so here are my first impressions.
Nice looking theme
There’s a new-ish Human theme included by default called “Human Murrine” which is a big improvement over the clunky standard Human theme. Also, unlike the fugly default background for Gutsy, the Hardy background is actually worthy of being seen. Very nice job, Ubuntu team!
Transmission included by default
w00t! Transmission is included in Hardy by default. Okay, okay, it’s a small thing but you know what? (Sniffle) /me wipes nose with arm. It shows they care about me. It’s the little things.
Firefox 3
Interesting that Firefox 3 is included by default seeing as it’s still in Beta. Oh well, I’m sure it must be stable for someone to have made that decision, right? RIGHT?
Cool icons showing which processes are working.
Not really a necessity for a fellow like me who’s used to running *nix but for the first-timer stuff like showing when a Synaptic Package Manager is running can be very useful. Very good call on the part of Ubuntu.
Change BIOS option from IDE to RAID
This was my wtf? moment of the week but it makes sense when you think about it. Originally I was having trouble with Hardy on my Dell 530. The new 530s strictly use SATA connections for the hard disk(s), they don’t have any IDE connections or those fat ribbons you find in computers of yesteryear. Seems that my BIOS was set up on an IDE configuration and Hardy didn’t like that. Gutsy didn’t mind so much but it threw Hardy for a loop. The solution was to go into my BIOS and find the option where I could change it from IDE to RAID and that solved the problem.
FWIW, this should never have been a problem in the first place. I really don’t understand why the Ubuntu devs couldn’t fix this as it was reported before the final release of Hardy last Thursday.
At any rate, The new Ubuntu rules and I’m hooked (again).
Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk (And Other Presidential Thoughts)
The more people I talk to people about the ’08 presidential election, the more I hear that they’ve lost all hope in the candidates and oftentimes in the process itself. Well, I take that back. Obama’s supporters are extremely happy over his landslide success in this election. After squashing Huckabee and Clinton his only remaining challenge is to overcome all the die-hard Republicans who’ll be voting for McCain.
Interestingly, it seems that no one will be voting for McCain because they feel he’s the best man for the job, but rather because they just don’t want Obama in the White House. Personally, I think that’s a lame reason to vote for anyone but I suppose I can at least understand the reasoning behind a vote cast in that manner.
I’m still pulling for Ron Paul. He’s clearly the best man for the job. I’ll leave it at that. But instead of a guy with a conscience and a clear head about things, we’re left with the three stooges. But hey, I mean, at least it’s entertaining to see Clinton going for the dual-eye-poke on Obama, who throws the vertical-hand-of-defense in typical stooge fashion.
My Shaving Revelation (Revolution?)
I remember the first time I “shaved.” I was a young teenager and had only a wisp of hair on my upper lip. I got curious about shaving one day so I grabbed a blue plastic Gillette Good News razor out of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and without water or shaving cream I ran that thing over my skin and thought “well, that’s not so bad” and it wasn’t.
As I got a little older things changed, or more correctly, I changed. I began shaving my whole face and quickly realized that dry shaving was out of the question. I began getting my own razors and shaving cream instead of using the rusty ones in the medicine cabinet and I learned that shaving against the grain was the only way to get a close shave (or so I thought).
As I got older I continued to buy in to all the latest shaving fads. First it was a pivoting head, then the Mach3, then the Mach3 Turbo, then the Mach3 Red & Blue. Then Schick added a blade, the “Quatro.” But Gillette skipped over the 4-blade razor and went right to a 5-blade beast and called it a “Fusion.” I don’t know what it was a fusion of, maybe a fusion of price tag and hype? o_O
Well, 8 cartridges for $30 was a little steep for me especially considering I’d only get 5-6 decent shaves out of a cartridge before it started tearing my face to bits (well, more than it did already). Thankfully, by the time the Fusion was debuted it held no I-want-it power over me because I was well on my way toward learning how to shave with a double edge (DE) razor.
At first I wanted to shave with a DE razor because it was different and as we all know I love going counter-culture or at least counter-popular-culture. Also, realizing that I could get 100 blades for $10 shipped, it was a sound financial decision too. But as I got better at DE shaving I realized that I no longer had the skin irritation that I had previously gotten from the Mach3. I no longer had to shave against the grain to get close shaves either. And most thankfully I didn’t get ingrown hairs on my neck anymore. Quite without realizing it I had begun to enjoy shaving rather than merely enduring it.
Granted, the buy-in price is high: $20 for a decent razor, $10 for 100 blades, $40 for a decent brush and $5 for a decent cake of soap. But bear in mind that a decent razor should last you the rest of your life, a cake of soap will last half a year at least, 100 blades will last a year (assuming you shave every day and you get 3-4 good shaves out of a blade, which is typical) and the brush should get at least a few dozen good years of use before it needs to be replaced. The cost of DE shaving is a bit lower than using the canned goo shaving cream and a cartridge razor but the most important benefit you’ll get is an increase in the quality of your shaves.
OK, so the first couple weeks of DE shaving will suck; after all, you have to unlearn all the bad shaving habits you learned from cartridge razors such as the faulty idea that if you want a closer shave you just need to press harder. But after that initial learning period you’ll notice a marked improvement in your shaving experience. And let’s not forget that unlike those plastic cartridges, a steel DE blade will merely rust away in a landfill, the razor isn’t disposable (I use one from 1961 and it will likely last me until the day I die) and the cake of soap comes with minimal packaging (hey, every little bit helps, right?)
So if you recognize that you’re throwing money away on a grueling, sub-par shave every morning, why not join the shaving revolution? You’ll find that reading through the threads on a forum such as Badger and Blade will be immensely helpful as you’re starting out. I’m an active member there and have picked up a lot of great advice from seasoned DE shavers. You have nothing to lose except a lot of razor burn and ingrown hairs.
Movie Review: Clue (1985)
I’ve never seen this movie until tonight (shocking, I know) but I took it on good faith that my wife knew what she was talking about, and she swore I’d like it. The good news is I did like it, the better news is now I’ve convinced her that she’ll like “This Is Spinal Tap”. Both are cheezy, B movies, and both feature Michael McKean.
Clue was a very slow starter and I was honestly about to fall asleep on the couch. I’m glad I didn’t though, the ending(s) were worth the wait. Maybe it’s just me and my odd sense of humor, but the scene where the singing telegram girl gets shot dead was the climax of the film for me. That scene alone makes the movie worth watching again.
If you watch this movie you’ll notice a lot of familiar faces. Tim Curry of Rocky Horror fame plays the butler, Christopher (1.21 GIGAWATTS) Lloyd plays professor plum and Madeline Kahn plays Mrs. White. You may remember Madeline from Blazing Saddles.
The movie is full of sexual innuendos which will be far above the heads of young children but low-brow enough for adults to get a chuckle out of them. My wife remembers seeing this movie when she was 13 and she missed the sexuality altogether.
All in all a good movie, fun to watch. If for nothing else it’s a great opportunity to see some wonderful actors and actresses all mixing it up with a french maid.
I’m Mr. Pessimistic, Pleased To Meet You!
In two weeks our church is holding a True Love Waits weekend for the students; yet I can’t help but be pessimistic. I know that statistically speaking the rate of sex outside of marriage is the same for church goers as it is for non. I suppose I could think of reasons (excuses?) why this is the case but I prefer not to right now. Instead I’ll just take that fact at face value and move on.
What kind of a difference am I making by holding this event? Are the students actually going to change their behavior for the rest of their lives as a result of 3 days of study? I find it hard to believe so. Just like a teacher has an almost impossible time making a child want to learn, so is a minister almost incapable (notice I said “almost”) of making a student want to live a virtuous life.
Let’s be honest, by the time a student is in high school their attitudes toward life and their core values are already in place thanks to their upbringing. At the point they come into a youth group the very best a youth worker can hope for is to come alongside this young adult and walk through life with them. Their core character and moral fiber have already been formed.
That’s not to say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, I’m just saying it’s just about impossible. Call me Mr. Pessimistic from now on, OK?
WordPress’ fly is open
Volkher Hofmann recently redesigned his site and switched from Expression Engine to WordPress. First off, I should say that I met Volkher when I was a member of 9rules and he’s a stand-up guy. I mean, he’s a really great fellow. Second, this new design of his is completely awesome. I love it, in fact, it looks like something I’d design, just my style. Unfortunately, he’s quickly finding out WordPress is a spam magnet.
Regulars around here know that I have had a nasty habit in the past of switching back and forth and round about with CMS’s. I guess I just like trying new things. Either that or I’m certifiably masochistic. Honestly, I think it’s the latter more so than the former. But I’ve been on WordPress, I’ve themed for it, I’ve created sites with it. And today I sit here wondering why I ever put myself though that headache. WordPress is all hype, empty buzz.
That’s not a criticism against the people behind the software. Everyone I’ve met, everyone, has been honest, friendly and above all, generous with their knowledge and time. But the software really isn’t that spectacular. At least, not spectacular enough to warrant the insane amount of fanfare it receives. Besides the mess of raw PHP that is a template and the inane redundancies of template tags like get_archives and wp_get_archives, the most notable area WordPress falls woefully short in is comment spam.
Volkher, a man much better with words than myself, put it eloquently:
“After about three months of using WordPress, I think they better get their act together and provide one well thought-out anti-spam routine by default. Akismet, I’m sorry to say, sucks on a site like mine and if I had kept it activated, it might well have eaten the entire time I have for posting around here … and THAT is hardly the purpose of a “Blog Tool and Weblog Platform”. On top of that, all the other recommended tweaks short of turning commenting off didn’t help either.
Actually, someone who advertises his “platform” as such, should spend less time on continuously adding new features, opening new security holes, revamping the entire thing, and adding new incompatibilities almost every month. Instead, things should be halted, cleaned-up and made somewhat spam-proof. Ever since I installed WordPress on my server, I had to go through two major updates, one millennium upgrade (the jump to 2.5) and days of getting things to work.”
Why do we have a 2.5 when the thing which pisses bloggers off more than anything else, comment spam, hasn’t been adequately dealt with? Superb counter-measures exist, and Akismet isn’t it. Volkher is experiencing one of the things that keeps me running Textpattern. And if I ever leave Textpattern again it’ll be for Expression Engine. I won’t go near WordPress these days. Not with a ten-foot pole. Too much trouble, too much headache. Beautiful interface, but ugly problems.
I could possibly see WordPress being the CMS of choice for people who are well versed in PHP, or for those who want to be. But your average blogger is just barely getting a grasp on XHTML and CSS, let alone a scripting language. There is nothing, not one thing, that WordPress has over Textpattern or Expression engine. And honestly, if a person really is interested in scripting or messing with code on that level then I fully expect them to be running a CMS with balls like Django.
Sorry for the rant folks, but these are things I’ve been thinking for the past three months and I had to let it out. It’s time someone looked at WordPress with it’s fanatic following, pointed an accusing finger and said (loudly), “Look! It’s fly is open!”
Why are we still having this conversation?
I first read about Shyfter on Read Write Web. I followed a bunch of the links and read what people had to say about this whole thing and I’ve come to a conclusion: you should feel free to steal my content.
So, from what I can gather, Shyfter is a web app that takes people’s content, posts it on their site and then lets people comment on it. Seems to me like it’s more of a really cool feed reader on steroids.
Some people are complaining and getting some attention for it. Squeaky wheels and all that. But after reading their points of view the major objection to Shyfter and content theft in general I’ve realized that it all comes down to one thing: money. Those who are whining the loudest are the ones who have the BS job of “professional blogger.” And if they’re not “professional bloggers” then they’re aspiring “professional bloggers.”
Makes my 
twitch.
Frankly, I’m with Scoble, realizing that the era of blogger’s control over their content is over. As a matter of fact, I’ve believed this to be true for some time now, hence the Creative Commons Licensing of my site.
Y’all need to quit your whining and focus on creating something new and interesting. If you do that you’ll never need to worry about people riding your coat tails, you’ll be wearing the coat.
Movie: We Are Marshall
Overall this was a good movie. I wouldn’t mind owning it, but I’m not paying full price. Maybe if I found it on sale somewhere I’d pick it up, or perhaps pick up a used copy. I really enjoyed Matthew McConaughey’s performance. Every time I see him in another movie I like him more. But the film as a whole was less good than I thought it would be. It all felt a little like Remember The Giants.
Of course, everyone loves a feel-good football movie, so it’s not like the film was bad or anything, it just wasn’t spectacular. I cried a little toward the end but nothing like when I watched Brokeback Mountain.
The thing that really turned me off though, was the fact that some characters were severely underdeveloped; such as the character of Annie Cantrell. At the beginning of the movie she’s engaged to one of Marshall’s football players. We meet her fiance once and then he dies in the plane ride. After that her character remains a fixture in the film while she struggles with letting her fiance go. It felt like she was a main character in the movie, but at the same time she was severely underdeveloped.
I felt the same way about most of the characters. While the story was touching, all the characters felt totally shallow. I would rather have seen a few characters developed well but instead we got all the characters only partially developed. That’s why I only gave the movie a 3.5/5 rating.
