Switching email subscribing

To better meet the needs of my readers and subscribers I’ve switched my email subscription service. I’m going to be using feedblitz, which is a commercial site, rather then doing it on my own. The reason I’m doing this is because they do much better at it then I will. I hope you enjoy it.

For those already subscribed don’t worry about changing it, the other one still works fine, but I think you might prefer feedblitz better.

Sorry for the hiatus

I haven’t written much this week. Taking off on Friday and coming back late on Monday turned the past two weeks into 12 hour days at work. The rest of my time was spent catching up at home. But, never fear I’m back. For now. Lot’s to write about.

Keeping organized

PocketMod

So, I write EVERYTHING into my little pocket calendar (courtesy of a wonderful bank in Minnesota). There are periods of time where I didn’t have a planner, and I tried my own little inventions. I made this tiny tiny little notpad out of one sheet of paper and a rubberband and I used it to write everything.

Well, I ran across this sweet site, that took the “a single sheet of paper makes a great organizer” idea and elaborated it.

For those of you who don’t have your own planner currently I STRONGLY suggest this site.

I printed off one with storyboard pages (and one game of sudoku) to post ideas for blog post.

enjoy.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks
February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005

“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Rosa Parks Interview

Montgomery Boycott

God’s view and our view

Luke 1:6-7 bring together two interesting thoughts that quickly pass me by on most readings. It’s a clear sign that God’s perspective on the world and us as individuals is often different then our worldly perspective.
Verse 6 points out very clearly that Zechariah and Elizabeth where upright in the sight of God. They had followed what God had commanded and where blameless. If we had known this, we likely would have showered them with praise and attention.
Verse 7 reveals that they had no children. Just a little insight into cultural norms, being barren was considered a sign of disapproval from God.

I look at a situation like this and I’m just disturbed by my own judgment. I know I would have looked down on Zechariah and Elizabeth, even if he was a priest. I’m so prone to judging others by cultural norms, or outward signs I see as Biblically one way or the other.
I find too often that I look at what I see revealed in Scripture and I use it as a foundation from which to judge others, looking at the speck in my brothers eye.

Lord, help me remove the plank from my own eye.

Organizing my life

So, my desk is a mess, my computer files and bookmarks are randomly spread out and labeled, my in-box is jam packed, and my pocket planner has no systematic nature to it. I’ve been looking into a very interesting and cool organizing blog called 43folders. I’ve got some good organizing ideas, but what I’d really love is a good set of labels. Labels need to encompass Everything and yet be specific. It’s like trying to draw a Ven diagram, but you can’t have the circles overlap, and if they’re circles we won’t be able to cover everything so you have to change them to squares. So help me with these:

1. I’ve got 5 colors of labels I can use in my in-box. I can flag urgent post, I can leave plain unimportant post. Any suggestion on What five categories might encompass all aspects of my life? (Here is what I have as of now: Writings (blogs and comments, etc), Business (buying and selling, web-design, etc.), Friends (and family), and…
2. I’ve started using del.icio.us (a bookmark organizer) and I need to think through my tagging method before I get started. I can tag any bookmark with multiple one word tags, but I don’t want to overdue it. Any suggestions on a good method?
3. Now that your warmed up this is the important one. My planner contains work related appointments and ToDo’s, plain old life related stuff, and any random brain fart I might have. I need to think through a good plan on how to keep things organized and not forget anything.

So, I’m still researching; I’ll let you know what I decide on; For now send me some suggestions!

Who should I interview?

So, I really like the idea of podcasting. I’ve done a few silly one’s but the themes vary a whole lot. There are a couple areas I’d be really interested in doing a podcasting series in, and I’m wondering what you’d think about them.
1) Interviewing Non-Christians about Christians and Christianity. This has always been an area I’m very interested in. One, because most Christians live in a bubble of sorts and never really hear “real live non-Christians” talk about things. Christians often seem to have opinions of the outside world made up entirely on what other Christians have told them (sounds so middle schoolish). Secondly, I’ve found there are a lot of Non-Christians that are quite interested in saying something to Christians collectively. I’ve talked to liberal non-Christians who can’t understand how Christians can name themselves after the radical liberal they see talked about in the Bible (Jesus). I’ve talked to homosexual non-Christians who just want to share how hurt they’ve been by so-called Christians, and ask how they can call their faith “loving.” I’d love to talk to others, and ideally give folks a constructive place to share heartfelt concerns and criticism of Christians in our society.

2. The other series I’d love to do is interviewing businesses and organizations I think are doing things Christians should support. This would include a whole bunch of fair trade clothing companies, something I think is Very important for Christians to be informed about. Also, CSA’s and other local farmers, and other cool organizations I learn about through out the country, or just through out Nashville.

3. Maybe just for podcasting and interviewing practice, I’ll do a series interviewing my friends, spread out across the country, and finding out what their post college experience has been like. (I like this as a starting idea).

people like me.

When I have time this site is going to change. I’ve talked about writing more and then I haven’t, mainly because I feel an obligation to my subscribers, not to overwhelm anyone with random entries. I think I’ve said this before, and obviously this is not a good start to changing the way I blog.
I’m dabbling in a lot of things I’m interested in, getting organized, technology, business stuff, Christian stuff, politics, etc. I worry if I start writing about all those things then I’ll find I lose a lot of readership. But the turth is I think there are people out there who are like me. Okay, maybe not just like me, but a lot like me.
If you’ve ever watched public television, they’ve got this little ad thing that comes up after every show, brought to you by “Viewers like you.” That’s my inspiration for this blog from here on out. I’m still thinking about my subscribers, but now I’m writing whatever is on my mind, and my readers will be “People like me.”

Alright, that’s all for now, busy week, hopefully I’ll have more time later.

let the discussion begin

Because of the risk of this subject dying off (It seems like it already has), I’m going to skip to some of the more controversial Bible passages that will hopefully create a bit of discussion. Discussion always, always helps me write better. I’m going to still try and do my best to keep extremely focused on just one passage and one thought on that passage at a time. We will do well to keep our comments and dialog to just that passage and idea (obviously we’ll end up referencing other passages in our arguments though). So, here goes Romans 13.

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”
This is the first verse of the primary passage I hear cited in reference to why we should support the war. The argument I think is that quite simply God has put our president in place and therefore if our governing authorities call for something we should submit (support) it. To a large degree I find no disagreement with this argument. The struggle with this type of thinking for me comes when I start to think about who “Everyone” entails. That means an Iraqi Christian, if called to join the armed forces under Saddam, should join, and support the cause of the governing authority above him. That means the Nazi German soldier’s where simply following this same Scriptural reasoning when they begin killing the Jews. That means if the authorities in this country have deemed abortion as an acceptable practice, Christians should stop protesting Abortion Clinics and instead should be supporting them.

I find difficulty with that train of thinking and I’m sure others do as well. I’m not trying to belittle anyone, or build a straw man case for those who use Romans 13 to support the war, I’m just sharing what I have difficulty with, and I’m wondering how one reconciles those things in their mind.