openswitch

Looks like Molly has started working with Internet Explorer to help them with their compatibility & standards issues. This is a great development as they have no doubt received one of the finer web standards evangelists on the planet.

Christian ministry tends to be a worthy, good cause. Helping people grow in their personal walk with God tends to be the general, overarching, purpose of many ministers around the world. Sometimes, though, I think Christians tend to go a bit overboard with their good intentions and sometimes those Christians make websites like this one. I think I agree with the underlying premises of the site’s creator(s). I agree that some music lyrics can tend to be “bad” while others can tend to be “good.” However, I don’t think that breaking down bands into “safe” and “gay” categories accomplishes anything constructive.

The purpose of Christian discipleship, of Christian teaching, is to come alongside others and live with them as you both learn how to make wise life choices. I think for many Christians this is a scary concept, “How can I trust this other person to make wise choices for himself? Wouldn’t it be easier and ‘safer’ to make the choice for them?” In the short term the answer is yes, it is easier to make choices for people instead of walking with them as they make the choices for themselves. But in the end it’s ultimately unproductive for their life. Once they’re out of your life, out of your ‘control’, they have no framework upon which to base their decisions.

My point is that sites like this which attempt (from good motives) to help people choose “good” music by making lists of ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ music are doing people a disservice.

P.S.- Why are Cyndi Lauper and Evanescence on the “safe” list (which is PAINFULLY short and chock full of bands that aren’t very good) while all the great artists and bands are on the “bad” list? Who’s on the “bad” list? Why, bands like Phish, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, John Mayer, Kansas (who I’m going to see in concert next month), Barry Manilow, Frank Sinatra, Arcade Fire and Elton John. Seeing these artists on the bad list makes me absolutely stunned to not see other names there like The Beatles, John Lennon (who is more obviously anti-Christian than anyone of those I just named) and The Allman Brothers. Seriously, what’s up with that?

**Update 1/31/07: After further reading on the linked site I have to say that I completely disagree with their premises and their ideals. I have nothing in common with said site. lovegodsway.org is not a Christian site, nor does it express Christian ideals or teachings.

If you’re like me you were a little put off by the fact that WordPress 2.1 automatically cuts off your feed if you put the <!—more—> tag in your posts. Fortunately Ronald Heft has released an excellent plugin that will maintain your full feed while allowing you to use the <!—more—> tag in your posts: Full Text Feed.

Thanks, Jason, I had completely forgotten about this video! I remember seeing this for the first time in ’86 and thought it was awesome. Now … well … not so much. Oh well. Go Bears!

The video of “The Super Bowl Shuffle” has been removed by stingy people.

Ethan is starting a movement. No more partial feeds! I just unsubscribed from all my partial feeds too. Spread the word!

As David Kuo notes, white evangelical opposition to the war could be about to crest. (via)

In an effort to make Open Switch a little more usable I’ve made a small change which hopefully will help you out in a big way. Any external link (except for the three external links in the footer) will be displayed with the “official” symbol for external links: . Hopefully this will aid in knowing whether or not a link will take you to another place at Open Switch or a different site all together.

HAHAHAHAHA! Have you ever done something so stupid, so horrendously idiotic that even though you know you need to ask for help you don’t want to because it will uncover your stupidity? Well, I accidentally deleted the unsleepable 2.0 zip file from my server and I don’t have a backup of it. I was removing it temporarily to fix the bug with trackbacks and idiotically pressed the wrong button. Can someone help me out? I’m looking for an unedited copy of unsleepable v.2.0. Anyone?

As stated many many times all over the Net, installing programs in Ubuntu (linux) is completely different than installing in Windows. It’s a little confusing at first but here’s a good tutorial to help: How to install ANYTHING in Ubuntu!

I’ve been truly enjoying my “moonlighting” in web design lately. I’ve had the chance to work with some brilliant, kind people. I get to learn about businesses and fields of work that I’d likely never have a chance to be involved in otherwise. There has been one unforeseen consequence of moonlighting in web design though. It seems that every chance I have to sit at my computer I’m working on a client’s design. Whereas before I’d have the chance each night to sit down and blog I now find myself sitting down and designing. It’s really not a bad thing because I love designing. I love the creative process and the feeling of satisfaction I get in seeing a design become a living, breathing web site. But I also feel that I’ve lost touch with my writing and writing thrills me just as much as designing. I think I’m going to have to set down “work hours” for my web design and then stick to them, not letting it monopolize all of my free time. I think I’ll have to schedule my free time and be ruthlessly defensive of it.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has struggles with working during my free time. I’ll bet there are a lot of you who find yourself “at work” even when you’re not “at work.” Can you relate? Share.