dougs digs

once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right

8.30.2005

Music Lovers, Hold On To Your Hats

The evening of September 21, 2005 will be a musical feast of historical proportions for music lovers in the area. Check out this delicious buffet of musical treats on the menu for that one night. I know which one I'll be enjoying, how about you ?






Wilco 6 p.m., The Blue Note








Allman Brothers Band 7 p.m., Uptown Theater








Coldplay / Rilo Kiley 7:30 p.m., Verizon Wireless Amphitheater








Sufjan Stevens / Liz James 9 p.m., The Bottleneck
|| doug, 17:30 || link || (1) comments |

8.26.2005

Meet My New Next Door Neighbor


Architects have finished the design for the Sprint Center downtown arena. The pillow/contraceptive sponge design has been updated to something a little less poofy that Mayor Barnes calls a “crystal bowl.” The final design will feature 18,500 seats.

Kansas City Business Journal: Arena team unveils final design

More Sprint Center info and pictures

Kansas City Live! entertainment, retail, office and residential district
|| doug, 18:47 || link || (0) comments |

8.16.2005

An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor . . . Busy

This is totally insane. Though I can't say I blame them . . . a $50 Apple iBook ! ! ! Come on, short of sending someone to the hospital, we all would do almost anything in this situation.

A Richmond, Virginia school district's sidewalk sale of used $50 laptops turned into pandemonium today. Would-be customers stampeded, crushing a baby stroller, throwing an elderly man to the pavement; one person tried to disburse his Mac-hungry competitors by driving his car through the crowd. When the dust settled, seventeen people were injured, and four hospitalized. One shopper, Blandine Alexander, reported that "one woman standing in front of her was so desperate to retain her place in line that she urinated on herself."


And all that's nothing compared to what these people are going to do when they're on hold with the Apple Help line . . .

$50 Laptop Sale Sets Off Violent Stampede

|| doug, 17:47 || link || (1) comments |

8.12.2005

The Pharisee and The Publican: Version 2.0

A semi-representative sampling of religious Americans went to their respective place of worship to pray . . .


Evangelical Republican – “I thank you that I am not a homosexual, a pro-choicer, an evolutionist, or even like this welfare mom, an irresponsible drain on society. I voted for your servant, George W. Bush. I send my children to a private Christian school and I’m thinking about homeschooling next year. I give money to the American Family Association and Focus on the Family so that values will not disappear in the United States.”

Liberal Christian – “I thank you that I am not like this Fundamentalist: intolerant, judgmental, a bible-literalist, you know, an all-around jerk. I employ the latest in the critical apparatuses and scientific methodologies. I read the Jesus Seminar. I make sure people understand that you will not judge them but are there to help them actualize their reality, whatever reality they choose.”

Church Growth Expert – “Lord, I thank you that I am not bound by previous conventions of church polity like this small church pastor. I employ the best insights from the business world. I function as a CEO. I make Christianity as simple as possible. Your Gospel is a bit difficult for the average person to understand, you know. I use Power Point presentations. Our church looks like an office building. I remove any alien elements so that non-Christians will feel comfortable.”

Atheist – “I thank you that I am not like all these Christians, wasting their time praying to a non-existent deity. Wait a minute!”

Praise and Worship Leader – “I thank you, Lord (8X), that I am not (3X) singing hymns.”

Cultural Separatist (Pentecostal or Holiness variety) – “I thank you that I am not like any other person on the entire planet. I don’t watch TV, go to movies or listen to secular music. I don’t go to restaurants that serve alcohol. I certainly do not drink. In fact, I have purged my life of all fun. I believe in holiness, you know. It’s just me and you, Lord … Lord?”

Emergent Hipster – “I thank you. Lord, that I am not like this traditionalist: stiff, irrelevant, uncool, a real Gen-Xer, not. I practice authenticity by coordinating my fashion with my spirituality. I only act virtuous when I feel like it; there’s nothing worse than hypocrisy. I look, speak, act and think like the rest of society so that I can show them how relevant Christianity is. I’m not so sure it’s working. Amen.”

Christian Satirist – “Lord, I thank you that I am not like all these other morons, but I do thank you that they are around for me to make fun of. I take pen in hand and point out the faults of others in a humorous way. I think I’m pretty funny, don’t you? Amen”

Observant On-looker – “Lord, have mercy on me; I’m confused.”

* credit here via here
|| doug, 00:16 || link || (1) comments |

8.11.2005

Fantasy Football: Bane or Boon of the Workplace?

There is growing concern in corporate America that fantasy football is a cancer in the workplace. According to some estimates, the cost of fantasy football to American businesses exceeds the very considerable revenue generated by the hobby. One of the most widely cited estimates comes from the firm of Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, Inc., whose CEO speculates that fantasy football costs the nation’s employers $36,000,000 in lost productivity. John A. Challenger points out that lost time isn’t only a product of workers surfing fantasy sites for the latest updates concerning their players, but of office socialization: “If it is not the Internet, it could be 10 minutes of chatting around the watercooler with other league aficionados. For every 10 minutes an employee chats at the watercooler about the tournament, the company is basically paying for unproductive worktime.”

Variously termed “cyberslacking” or “cyberloafing” by workplace efficiency experts, the unauthorized use of Internet access by employees at work supposedly costs companies $50,000,000,000 or more in lost productivity each year. I’m no efficiency expert, so I have no idea how that number was arrived at. I dare to suggest, however, that if all employees throughout the world with Internet access stopped cyberslacking from August 1, 2005 through August 1, 2006, it would be insane for us to expect fifty billion dollars in goods and services simply to manifest themselves as a direct result.

Cyberslacking happens, I suppose, because it can. If you have to hire a company such as Stellar Internet Monitoring to find out which of your employees are tinkering with their fantasy football lineups on company time, that is probably because the ones who are spending time on fantasy football at work are getting their work done just as efficiently as (perhaps even more efficiently than) those who aren’t.

continue . . .
|| doug, 12:01 || link || (0) comments |

8.09.2005

Fare Thee Well

As hard as it is to believe, today is the tenth anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s passing.

Over three decades with the Grateful Dead and as a solo artist, Jerry amassed a legacy paralleled by few in the rock era. But still to this day his music, life, and inspiration are more present with me than ever.

Lay down my dear brother, lay down and take your rest, Won't you lay your head upon your savior's chest, I love you all, but Jesus loves you the best And we bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
|| doug, 16:40 || link || (1) comments |

8.04.2005

The Website Snowball Effect

Have you ever read an article on a website or email or blog and at the end checked out the few sentences about the writer because you really enjoyed the piece ?

After reading the brief info about the writer that you just discovered and enjoyed, you find out they have written articles on other websites and perhaps might even have a few books published. Because you enjoyed one piece of informative work from this writer, you arrive at the rational conclusion that there might be more out there you don't know about and might enjoy. So you go to another website with an article from this person, then another, then another. . . then another . . . THEN ANOTHER.

You get my point, 'the Website Snowball Effect'.

This is quit an enjoyable experience, you're discovering stuff you didn't know about when you woke up this morning. If you're like me, at times I feel stagnant in the same websites I go to and the particular writers I enjoy. So, the discovery of a handful of new writers and websites all in the span of a morning is pretty darn cool.

This happened to me this morning.I was reading an article from an email newsletter I get every Thursday morning. The link to the article led me to a website I have never been to before (is that even possible?).

I was pleasantly surprised. This site is my kind of thing. A pragmatic and deconstruction approach to understanding culture and religion . . . with a humorous twist (a must). A keeper in my 'favorites' as well as an addition to 'My Yahoo' blog feed. I'm pumped.

Because I enjoyed the article and website so much, I wanted to know more about the author, Will Braun. Come to find out that Will is the editor of a new religion/culture magazine, Geez. This 'scavenger hunt' of new websites and info just keeps getting better. This magazine could be a keeper for me. I only subscribe and support one magazine and have for years, Adbusters. Those not familiar with Adbusters, let's just say you will never view our capitalistic society the same after diving in to it.

Anyway, I was not prepared for what I was about to discover after being led to the Geez magazine site. Their Publisher and managing editor is Aiden Enns, former managing editor of Adbusters magazine (2001-2003) and founder of Buy Nothing Christmas. Raised as an urban Anabaptist, he finds hope in struggling for justice.

Are you kidding me ! ! ! How freaking cool is that. Who knew ?

Then I discovered this little nugget about Will. Editor Will Braun, is a writer and aspiring farmer. His background includes advocacy and organizing around impacts of industrial development on indigenous people and lands in northern Canada. He finds inspiration cycling from one monastery to another. He has written for Sojomail, Znet, rabble.ca and Radical Grace magazine.

A writer for Sojourners . . . are you kidding me ! ! ! The snowball is now a 100ft boulder going 100mph.

I am elated at this point. I have discovered new websites, new blogs, a new magazine, and a few new writers to enjoy; all in an hours time. Not bad.

After the excitement subsided slightly, I headed back to my new favorite site, SoMA to check out other articles. One in particular stuck out to me. I won't go in to detail, but it is a great read. If you happen to be a friend or fan of Brian McLaren's you may not totally agree with this guy. If you are a casual observer of the Emergent stuff and don’t really know what to think of it all, it's a good and balanced observation (though not 100% factual). My friend Tim recently sent me a really good article looking at the Emergent/emerging thing. I can really get behind this article; it is well researched and comes from a loving place. I happen to agree with about 90% of the critique, check it out no matter your views of the movement, conversation, thing.

Anyway, again, good article and good writer. So let's see where this one goes. Come to find out the author, Patton Dodd, is a doctoral candidate in religion and literature at Boston University and the author of My Faith So Far and has his own website. The snowball just got bigger and faster.

His website is decent, more or less of a publicity tool for his book. After visiting the amazon.com page for his book, I discovered he is also a contributing writer for another website, killing the buddha. Of course, yet another pleasant find and a keeper. This is just getting ridiculous.

All in all, I think I discovered 3 or 4 (lost count) new websites, a new blog or two, and a few new writers that I really resonate with. Not bad for a mornings work. Speaking of, I guess I better actually start my 'real' work now. With all of these new discoveries, it's going to be hard to concentrate on anything else.
|| doug, 13:17 || link || (5) comments |

8.03.2005

e-mail worse for the brain than marijuana

What was once good for you is now bad, what was once bad for you is now good, or at least not as bad as other 'past-times'. So does this mean I no longer have to reply to emails all day at work ? I wonder if I can get by with smoking a joint for each email instead ? Hey, I'm only looking out for my health here. Work will be so much cooler now, sweeeeeeeeeeeet.
Smoking pot is so 1970s. If you want to kill your brain cells in true 21st-century style, just stay on your cell phone and check your e-mail multiple times over the course of an afternoon.

A study commissioned by Hewlett-Packard shows that today's dependency on daily technology, including e-mail and cell phones, can be slightly more detrimental to your IQ than smoking marijuana. Conducted by scientists from the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, the study found that continual e-mail use and text-messaging lowered the average worker's IQ by as much as ten points. Smoking marijuana regularly, on the other hand, causes only a four-point drop in intelligence.

Dubbed "Info-Mania" by the UK team of researchers, the condition is a real and present problem for workers in the corporate environment. According to the study, 62 percent of adults are addicted to checking their e-mail and text messages.

A follow-up report from HP gives tips on how employees can prevent Info-Mania that includes dedicating a specific e-mail time, increasing the opportunity for face-to-face conversations, and restricting the use of technology during meetings and important tasks. The computer company also advocates helping colleagues prioritize their e-mail messages by stating intent in the subject line, as well as avoiding unnecessary electronic messages such as "Thanks." In addition, don't be afraid to take yourself offline and use an "out of office" reply while in meetings or taking downtime. To read more about the study and download a guide to avoiding Info-Mania, visit the UK website for Hewlett-Packard.
|| doug, 17:00 || link || (0) comments |

8.02.2005

The Politics of Weather

The local weatherman has never been much of a political lightning rod. But these days -- with strong hurricanes striking the Atlantic seaboard earlier than at any time since records were first collected in 1851, and officials in the National Weather Service estimating that more than 200 heat records have been broken in the United States in the past two weeks alone -- the 10 o'clock forecast is turning into a nightly reminder of the heavy cost of letting polluting corporate special interests write our energy and environmental laws.

Extensive new research shows that the impact of climate change is being felt now, not only at the polar ice caps and the coral reefs, but in our hometowns, at our schools and workplaces, by our family and friends. Severe weather occurrences like hurricanes and heat waves already take hundreds of lives and cause millions in damages each year. Increasingly, data suggests that human-induced global warming is making these events more dangerous and extreme than ever.

President Bush and Washington conservatives are doing everything in their power to stop effective action on climate change -- it's time Americans realize the full extent of the damage their helping to cause. To defend its inaction, the White House likes to boast that it at least leads the world in funds spent on climate research. But this is an poor excuse. For all its supposed interest in new climate data, the Bush administration allowed a former Exxon lobbyist with no scientific background to doctor the findings of some of its premiere climate documents, then defended the practice when caught red-handed.

In any case, climate change research is already abundant enough to warrant action -- having taxpayers finance new studies instead of demanding corporate polluters clean up their acts is hardly a solution.

For more information, visit Center for American Progress.

|| doug, 11:14 || link || (1) comments |

8.01.2005

All's Right With The World

- The start of the NFL season has officially begun with the opening of Training Camp.

- The Chiefs are embarking on a historical season. It's the last run with their record setting offense in it's entirety and the last season for Hall of Fame Head Coach, Dick Vermeil. They finally added some great players to their defense to balance the attack and are reading to kick some serious ass. Do or Die.

- Fantasy Football is now a reality. Six leagues and of course the annual draft in just two weeks in West Palm Beach, Florida for the one league that matters with my boy Jay and the rest of the girls. All of I have to say is, watch out Pugh ! ! !

- This also means that I will be soon devoting 60 (mostly)consecutive hours from 11:00am Saturday's to 11:00pm Monday's to nothing but football. Except for a brief break for church, work, and to relieve myself. . . unless I purchase some 'Oops I Crapped My Pants'.

- "Football is not a game but a religion, a metaphysical island of fundamental truth in a highly verbalized, disguised society, a throwback of 30,000 generations of anthropological time." - Arnold Mandell

|| doug, 18:07 || link || (3) comments |