Saturday, June 28, 2003

You know Kelly? The redhead chick who’s engage to Jon on The Amazing Race?. You know...I mentioned her yesterday, she’s a little catty about Millie-the-virgin.

So I was watching something on TV this afternoon when a Priceline ad for hotels came on. The last chick to rave about her cheap-but-nice hotel room was KELLY!

I wonder if she told the TAR people that she’s an aspiring actress...not that it matter that much, but I thought it was an interesting discovery.

My mother had loaned my her copy of Road to Perdition weeks ago, but I just got around to watching it today.

I loved it. Tom Hanks is a great, great actor. Paul Newman still has it. And that kid...oh my.

That is all…

I downloaded IE 6.0 here at home early this morning and when I loaded my blog I noticed that my text boxes aren’t right. I didn’t want to take the time to investigate then, I thought maybe it was a fluke.

But they’re still not looking right to me. And they’re not right in the Earthlink browser I ocassionally use at home too.

So are they OK for you? Because I haven’t changed anything that would make them not work. As far as I know, because I haven’t touched the weblog.css file in more than a week.

Friday, June 27, 2003

From Tony:

I was out surfing around a bit, and came across this question:

Why aren’t conservatives interested in conservation?

Umm, I don’t know. How about this one from me:

Why aren’t Democrats interested in democracy?

Idiot.

[ rant ]

Somehow the idea that we need or want a National HIV Testing Day bothers me. Do we have a National Test-for-Every-Other-Disease Day?

Here’s my beef: Most (if not all) who have or get HIV these days, get it through specific behavior, that if stopped would prevent the spread of the disease.

Yes, I understand some who have/get it are seemingly unwitting “victims” of those who pass it on. But not really, because they could have done plenty to prevent it, including abstinence.

Yes, I understand that a rare few get/have it from tainted blood donations. Although I am confident enough to say that since the Red Cross and hospitals started testing the blood supply, there are no cases today.

So I go back to my main point - HIV/AIDS is a disease that is spread through specific behaviors, that if stopped, would stop the spread of the disease. So it galls me a little that we have a National HIV Testing Day because this is a disease that I believe could easily be wiped off the face of the earth if people changed their behavior.

[ /rant ]

It’s been a long while since I’ve visited The Internet Monk. He has a redesigned site, which looks great, but that’s not why I’m mentioning him.

He has a really thought-provoking post about doubt. Here’s an excerpt that I found myself agreeing with:

These doubts have made me respect my honest, unbelieving friends. To many of them, it isn’t so much the content of Christianity that is ridiculous. It’s the idea that Christians are so certain; so doubtless. They find it untenable that anyone could bury their own doubts so deep that you are as certain as Christians appear to be. Our television and radio preachers, our musicians and booksellers, the glowing testimonial at church, the zealous fanatic at the break table at work--they all say that Christians no longer have the doubts and questions of other people. Only certainties. And for many thoughtful unbelievers, that appears to be lying or delusion, and they would prefer to avoid both.

So do I. I profoundly dislike the unspoken requirement among Christians that we either bury all our doubts out in back of the church, or we restrict them to a list of specific religious questions that can be handled in polite conversations dispensing tidy, palatable answers. Mega-doubts. Nightmarish doubts. “I’m wasting my whole life” doubts are signs one may not be a Christian, and you’ve just made it to the prayer list.

The early chapters of Genesis make it clear that sin created a profound division between God and human beings. Not just an interruption in communication, but a universe-sized separation.. There is great evidence that this abyss creates a situation where human beings may reasonably, sensibly feel that God is absent, or that there is no God. This is not because of an absence of evidence for God’s existence, or because God has abandoned the world, but because human experience is fundamentally changed and we are blinded to the resident glory of God in the universe and within our lives.

[...]

The question may become, “Do I banish my doubts, call them the devil and refuse to examine them, or do I accept my doubts as part of the paradox of my human experience, and realize that faith may exist right alongside such feelings and questions, as Mark 9:24 suggests?”

This is my own experience. I cannot remove my doubts, but I cannot erase my faith. At every level, these two experiences exist together, convincing me that I am, indeed and exactly, the kind of contradiction that Luther believed all Christians were at the center: both righteous and sinful simultaneously. (Simul justus et peccator.) While these two experiences are at war over the most basic assumptions of my life, they actually blend together into a single experience that is what one person called “the awesomeness of being human.”

A lot of times, I don’t ever click on the link that someone else has to what they claim is a funny item. Mostly it’s a time thing. But this morning I clicked on this link that I found at Tony’s because we seem to have the same sense of humor and I was curious what a credit card prank would entail.

Please click on that link - it’s well worth it and just might make you laugh out loud. And maybe frighten you as well.

I’ve registered, have you?

Telemarketers be warned. If you call me, I will come after you. And I’ve got the law on my side.

You may not have figured out that I absolutely love, love, love The Amazing Race. It took a while for me to get into this season (last night was the 5th episode), but I’m hooked.

Here are my thoughts: ***POTENTIAL SPOILERAGE, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED***

1. Last night’s Fast Forward is the coolest FF they’ve done yet, imho. Of course, I may need to be reminded of some of the past cool FFs, but riding the sails of a windmill has got to be something else.

2. Last night’s Detour had the potential for hilarity on the pile-o-poo side. To me that task was not nearly as funny as the wooden clogs-cheese carry thing. I was belly laughing at that one.

3. I love Team Clown. We don’t see enough of Team Clown.

4. I like Kelly-Jon, but I don’t like that they’re catty about The Virgins.

5. I also like the NFL Wives, although I didn’t expect to mainly because I thought they’d be these primadonnas who couldn’t do the simplest task. They’re pretty scrappy. Although they win the Idiot Driver Award for trying to turn their car around in an obviously saturated grassy area.

6.  Call me Captain Obvious, but Tian-Jeree are the most dysfunctional team of this season. They really remind me of FloZach, but they’re not as annoying. And based on the FloZach thing from last season, these chicks may end up winning the cash. *shudder*

7.  I’m sad to see Team Air-Traffic Controllers go, but they actually got a lot further than I think anyone expected. I’ll miss them - they were always positive and never bickered. They were a good team, just not fit enough for a physical race like this.

8.  Judging from the previews for next week’s episode, it’s going to be g-o-o-d. If I remember India from season 2, those folks are in for a treat.

Thursday, June 26, 2003

I’m not a photographer. I don’t even own a camera. I think if I did, I’d rarely use it and the pictures wouldn’t be very good.

Timothy Bard is a great photographer. Here’s a sample of his work.

If you want to see more beautiful photos, visit his blog. He posts them daily.

So by now you know that the Windshield Murderer was convicted of murder. She’s been testifying this afternoon in the penalty phase.

OK, she is ridiculous.

When asked why she didn’t call 911, she said, “Because I didn’t know what to do!”

She keeps insisting that she couldn’t think.

I hope she gets life in prison. She should never be given the chance to live in freedom again.

Yes, she’s smart. Yes, she’s hot. No, I’m not jealous. Really.

And, incidentally, she has a new book out. So that’s why you’re seeing her all over the place, including the blogosphere. John Hawkins of Right Wing News managed to snag an interview with Ms. Coulter.

A snippet:

John Hawkins: In your opinion, if someone like Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush had been in the White House instead of Johnson, would we have won in Vietnam?

Ann Coulter: Probably. More importantly, liberals wouldn’t be able to call every military action in defense of the nation since then: “the next Vietnam”.

John Hawkins: What is the most important lesson Americans can learn from our experience in Vietnam?

Ann Coulter: If you can possibly avoid it, do not go to war when the Democrats control either the executive branch or the legislative branch.

Reading further at Future Margins, I found the post about how he would lead a deconstruct. This post was prior to the one I talked about below - it probably led him to post that one.

Anyway, he definitely has what many in the Christian church would consider radical ideas:

Just think of the barriers organized religion has created (not counting the fact that they’re non-biblical).

The distinction between layman (non-biblical) and professional paid staff (non-biblical)

Those two have turned participants into spectators and become a barrier for the Great Commission. The modern church (innocently, unknowingly and would never admit) has substituted “going” for “gathering.” I love worship but it’s not the entree…it’s no more than the by-product of the Christian’s life. The Great Commission is first and primary.

Fred over at Future Margins has a really fascinating article about how he would “recontruct” the church today. Some from more traditional backgrounds may shudder at his ideas, but I think they deserve some thought and consideration. For instance:

A deconstruct would be required before reconstruction would happen. Have a Saturday morning work crew physically remove all the pews and sell them to a church that’s stuck in the modern era’s passive “sit and soak” style of assembling. Plan and redesign your space using small round coffee shop tables and chairs. Be very specific in the way you arrange your tables and chairs. A circle configuration may seem like an open egalitarian idea, but often people clam up when they sit in a circle. Circle arrangements can become very intimidating while sitting in the open with nothing to hide behind. Consider a half circle arrangement of chairs and tables with the facilitator freely roaming the floor in front.

I just created a separate reciprocal blogroll to make my roll a little more manageable. I hated to do it, but with over 100 blogs in the list, it was getting to be a challenge for my reading.

So I moved the “Biggies” (that I rarely read, but want to have linked) to their own mini-list at the top. And then I moved the blogs that I rarely read (I’m sorry about this folks!) that I have linked because they linked me first to their own “Recip-Roll” list below the main blogroll.

Please don’t send me email asking why you were moved - you weren’t deleted altogether - be happy about that.

What’s crazy is that there are still close to 100 blogs in the main list. So I’ll have to pare that down a bit more - and that may involve deletions. *gasp*