12.25.2005
One Year Birthday
Seems like I came out of the womb blogging, but it's just been 365 days / 52 weeks / 12 months. Hopefully somebody has gleaned something from my drivel over the past year, though the odds of that aren't good.
I have no idea if I've got another year of blogging left in me. In the next few weeks, life is potentially about to get a lot more full for me and probably will not allow for as much free time for possibly a couple years.
Thanks for stopping by and engaging with me over the past year. I'm looking forward to the insights and subsequent conversations the next year holds for us all.
12.22.2005
Seriously, get this sweater off of me
Sure we've bought our dog the occassional sweater, and ok so we buy posh 'homemade' dog food. I just hope we haven't crossed this line. If so, I will need the name of a good pet shrink to mend some fences between a certain dog and her owners.
I mean it, I feel ridiculous. Get it off.
Lady, just because your boyfriend doesn’t want to settle down, doesn’t mean you should pretend that I’m a real baby in hopes that he’ll play along in your twisted game of “house”. I promise you’re scaring him off, and it makes you look insane. Think about it, you dress me like a Gap employee and tote me around like a damned fashion accessory.
Lady, just because your boyfriend doesn’t want to settle down, doesn’t mean you should pretend that I’m a real baby in hopes that he’ll play along in your twisted game of “house”. I promise you’re scaring him off, and it makes you look insane. Think about it, you dress me like a Gap employee and tote me around like a damned fashion accessory.
12.17.2005
Say What ?
President Bush acknowledged on Saturday that he had ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program on U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants, and said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists." He also lashed out at senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who voted on Friday to block the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the president's power to conduct surveillance, with warrants, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The revelation that Mr. Bush had secretly instructed the security agency to intercept the communications of Americans inside the United States, without first obtaining warrants from a secret court that oversees intelligence matters, was cited by several senators as a reason for their vote.
The program was first reported by the media in a New York Times report Friday and Bush said that information about the program had been improperly leaked to news organizations and warned that the unauthorized disclosure was illegal. Friday evening, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) promised to hold hearings to investigate the "inappropriate" granting of powers to the NSA to spy on Americans.
12.15.2005
How To Dismantle A Gold Digger
Yesterday I received a frantic call from Jenae explaining that she has just been offered four tickets to the U2 show in St. Louis . . . for that night ! ! ! Without hesitation we agreed to take the tickets and would figure out how to make it work along the way, we just could not turn down an offer as unbelievable as this.
We had only a few hours to round up two other people to join us and leave KC in order to make it to the show on time. So I called the few friends I knew that would be absolutely overwhelmed by the opportunity. I was right. They were all so overwhelmed that they couldn't move . . . seriously no one moved, no one went with us.
It was extremely such short notice, plus people "our age" just can't drop all of their life stuff and go to concerts. What does it say about us that we did (not necessarily could, but did) ? All in all, it was a 12-hour whirlwind (4:00pm - 4:00am . . . plus we had to wake up at 7:00am) and well worth it ! ! !
We made it just in time to catch the last two songs of their newly appointed opening act, Kanye West. The last two songs he performed were coincidently the only two songs of his I know, Jesus Walks and Gold Digger. He put on quite the performance, I love that guy.
About an hour later U2 took the stage and nothing was same after that. They started off a little flat (for U2 standards). However, as the show progressed they pick it up and ended with an arousing explosion of emotion, visuals, and sound. Overall the show was outstanding, however I felt the Elevation Tour was more intimate and powerful, or at least the show I saw was compared to this one. Perhaps since this was one of the last shows of this leg of the Vertigo Tour, the chaps were probably just plain spent. Regardless, they offered one unforgettable experience . . . as usual.
12.11.2005
The Jaded Driven Church
Some churches are seeker-driven. A growing number are purpose-driven. But one church in Denver, Colorado has positioned itself as jaded-driven. Dave Terpstra, teaching pastor of The Next Level Church, shares how his own disillusionment with ministry made him question the wisdom of targeting the unchurched rather than pursuing the increasing number of church dropouts, like himself, filling our culture.
C.S. Lewis once said, “One courts a virgin differently than a divorcé,” (or something along these lines; I’ve had trouble tracking the exact quote). Even back in the mid 20th century, Lewis recognized that reaching people with a jaded perspective of the church (divorcés) would require a different strategy than reaching those without any church experience to begin with (virgins).
Certainly there are still some in our culture who are “church virgins,” but it seems increasingly more common to find people who have had some church experience or interaction with the Christian sub-culture that has left them jaded. The dominance of Christian media, marketing, and political influence in recent years has only increased this likelihood.
So, is it wise to continue wandering the countryside in search of the increasingly rare church virgin, or should we be finding strategies to reach the herds of church divorcés roaming our culture? At The Next Level Church we have chosen to go after those who are jaded, not only because of their number, but because most of us in leadership were in that place not too long ago.
12.08.2005
One Bad Apple Spoiled the Whole Bunch
There is an article in the latest version of the Pitch about the former local organic food co-op, Local Harvest.I was a huge supporter of Local Harvest, even came real close to joining their monthly community supported agriculture (CSA) program. Some representatives from Local Harvest and other local CSA's came to Jacob's Well earlier this year for a mid-rash on the documentary, The Future of Food. Suddenly, this summer all three Local Harvest locations were closed with no rumor or warning; very mysterious and disconcerting.
The article fills in the blanks on the unfortunate demise of a great thing.
A decent idea to bring the metro organic veggies turns into a farm full of unpaid bills
In the two years since that night, Hands built a chain of three Local Harvest stores and then, in a matter of months, watched as they crumbled financially. She has left a trail of debts and, so far, mostly empty promises to pay them back. Worst of all, the family farms that she vowed to help say they're out thousands of dollars, and some have been forced to go to court to get their money.
12.07.2005
The Fine Art of Small Talk
I absolutely dread holiday parties, especially office holiday parties. The awkwardness, the hideous ‘holiday’ sweaters that look like a craft store threw-up all over them, the weird food, the weirder people, and most of all the painful small talk. I would rather be kicked in the crotch with steel-toed boots and get the pain over with than endure the slow torture of equally painful small talk with weird people in hideous ‘holiday’ sweaters that look like a craft store threw-up all over them.
This morning, NPR did a great story on how to turn these painfully awkard (and nearly unavoidable) experiences into less painful ones.
The prospect of holiday parties fill some with dread. Debra Fine, author of The Fine Art of Small Talk, shares her tips for getting through holiday parties unscathed.
Conversation Killers to Avoid
1. "Are you married?" or "Do you have any kids?" Where are you going with either one of these if the response is "No"?
2. "How's your job at Boeing, United Airlines, Martha Stewart Enterprises (fill in the blank)?" Unless you know a person well, assume nothing! Don't put them on the spot like that. Instead ask: "What's been going on with work?"
3. "How's your wife?" (She left, took all the money, the kids and got the house!)
4. "Merry Christmas!" "What are your Christmas plans?" Not all of us celebrate Christmas.
5. At all costs avoid "Is that real?" "Are those real?"
12.06.2005
Deconstructing the Christmas Conspiracy
Some say there is a battle brewing (between who?) over legislating what Christmas should and shouldn't consist of. Yet, some say there never has been a debate or battle, the notion of such is purely fictitious and nothing more than a desperate pull for air time.
I even received an email from an undisclosed family member urging all readers of the email to not shop at Target because they are using "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" for their 'seasonal marketing' (FYI - so is Wal-Mart); both sad and funny.
I'll leave you with some info and you decide for yourself if this is much ado about nothing or a real threat.
'Tis the season for the "War on Christmas" conspiracy theory to rear its head. The purported progressive plot to ban Christmas from the public square is now a daily staple of conservative talk radio and television, the focus of a popular new book (Fox News anchor John Gibson's "The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought"), and the battle cry for some 1,600 lawyer-volunteers working with Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty Counsel and the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund. In the latest teapot tempest, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) made much ado over his insisting that the decorated spruce tree on Capitol Hill be called a Christmas tree. But the truth is, there is no war on Christmas. As Salon.com's Michelle Goldbert points out, "What there is, rather, is a burgeoning myth of a war on Christmas, assembled out of old reactionary tropes, urban legends, exaggerated anecdotes and increasingly organized hostility to the American Civil Liberties Union."
In Bill O'Reilly's words, "There's a very secret plan...to diminish Christian philosophy in the U.S.A"; in Gibson's telling, "I began to connect the dots and discerned the outlines of the conspiracy."
In the latest incarnation, the war on Christmas is used to falsely portray progressives as anti-religious. According to O'Reilly, the self-described "leading general of the anti-secular forces in this country," it is just one arm of the "secular progressive agenda to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square." Comparing progressivism to Nazism and fascism, O'Reilly claimed, "In every secular progressive country, they've wiped out religion ... Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, all of them." Others on the right echo this line: Pat Buchanan writes, "What we are witnessing here are hate crimes against Christianity." Meanwhile, the Alliance Defense Fund says it pursues legal action over perceived attempts by "government officials to censor Christmas carols, eliminate all references to Christmas, or silence those who celebrate Christ's birth." The White House could be a potential target; no mention of "Christmas" is made anywhere in the White House Christmas card.
There is a strong progressive religious movement that honors Christmas and holds fast to Christian values that put the needs of the poor first.
Here are a few samplings of some recent posts from fellow bloggers both irritated and humored by all of the nonsense as well :
Jim Gillam - The War on Christmas EscalatesMark D. Roberts - Christmas Tree Controversies: IntroductionAshley Cleveland - I knew it was serious when…
12.05.2005
Prince's Purple Reign
As a "dyed in the wool" KU fan, and as a human being with both class and taste, I couldn't care less what happens at K-State. They are as significant as Emporia State, Fort Hays State, Wichita State, Junction City Community College, etc.However, this is a great hire.
12.02.2005
Decency Is Compatible With Profitability
Jim Sinegal isn't your typical executive, and he's happy about that. What Sinegal has proven is that a company doesn't have to be ruthless. Being humane and ethical can also make you money.
. . . Costco has the lowest employee turnover rate in retailing. Its turnover is five times lower than its chief rival, Wal-Mart. And Costco pays higher than average wages — $17 an hour — 40 percent more than Sam's Club, the warehouse chain owned by Wal-Mart. And it offers better than average benefits, including health care coverage to more than 90 percent of its workforce.Costco doesn't have a P.R. department and it doesn't spend a dime on advertising. There's a real business advantage to treating employees well, Sinegal said. "Imagine that you have 120,000 loyal ambassadors out there who are constantly saying good things about Costco. It has to be a significant advantage for you," he explained. Many Costco workers have been with the company since it was founded in 1983. Once hired, they rarely leave.
12.01.2005
World AIDS Day
Today—December 1, 2005—marks the 18th year of World AIDS Day.
This is a time to honor the strides made in combating HIV/AIDS, as well as the lives of those we have lost to HIV/AIDS since the onset of the epidemic. According to UNAIDS, there are 38 million adults and 2.3 million children living with HIV, and during 2005 some 4.9 million people became newly infected with the virus.
Started in 1988, World AIDS Day is not just about raising money, but also about increasing awareness, education and fighting prejudice. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done by supporting a local AIDS Organization with your time or resources.
This year, the theme of World AIDS Day is "Stop Aids: Keep the Promise" which reminds us that our government leaders need to be held accountable for their commitments to the fight against AIDS and act in order to delivered the promised results.
The red ribbon, the international symbol of AIDS awareness, is worn by people all year round and particularly around World AIDS Day as a sign of support for people living with HIV and a symbol of hope for the future. Download a Virtual Red Ribbon or use the Virtual Red Ribbon in your e-mail signature from the World AIDS Day site to show your support for those living with and fighting HIV/AIDS.
This is a time to honor the strides made in combating HIV/AIDS, as well as the lives of those we have lost to HIV/AIDS since the onset of the epidemic. According to UNAIDS, there are 38 million adults and 2.3 million children living with HIV, and during 2005 some 4.9 million people became newly infected with the virus.
Started in 1988, World AIDS Day is not just about raising money, but also about increasing awareness, education and fighting prejudice. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done by supporting a local AIDS Organization with your time or resources.
This year, the theme of World AIDS Day is "Stop Aids: Keep the Promise" which reminds us that our government leaders need to be held accountable for their commitments to the fight against AIDS and act in order to delivered the promised results.
The red ribbon, the international symbol of AIDS awareness, is worn by people all year round and particularly around World AIDS Day as a sign of support for people living with HIV and a symbol of hope for the future. Download a Virtual Red Ribbon or use the Virtual Red Ribbon in your e-mail signature from the World AIDS Day site to show your support for those living with and fighting HIV/AIDS.
About Me
- Name: doug
- Location: KC:MO:USA:EARTH
father. son. brother. husband. friend. boss. subordinate. teacher. student. wise. foolish. empathic. self-absorbed. protester. supporter. idealist. realist. unconscious. alive.
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