Radical Environmentalism

Global Warming. We’ve all heard about. Is it real? Is it the result of man’s presence on the earth? Is there anything we can do about it? It seems there are more questions than solid answers. Oh, there are lots of theories, but many of them seem to be light on the science. Of course there’s always the question of do we even really understand what’s happening on our planet? Does anyone remember the coming ice age in the late 70’s and early 80’s? What happened with that?

Regardless of your position on Global Warming, most rational people believe we need to take care of the planet. Almost all of us believe this. Were we differ is “how?” How do we take care of the planet? Is it ok to hunt whales? How many can be hunted? Is it ok to cut down trees? How many? Is it ok to go off-roading in the desert? How many vehicles should there be and where should they be allowed to go? The how is tough.

I’ve always considered myself a person who tried to do their part in taking care of the environment. I try not to be wasteful. I recycle. Even before the city provided separate containers for the recyclables we were recycling bottles, cans and newspaper. I try to purchase products that don’t have extra packaging or are made from recycled materials. But I have to ask myself if what I am doing is really making a difference? Sometimes I feel like this "For Better or Worse" cartoon. (click on it to see it bigger)


There are lots of people who are much more active in environmental issues than I am. Some are pretty radical and some are very radical. Some are border line terrorists. I’m usually not a big fan of radical. I prefer balanced. “What’s a balanced approached?” is a question I am more likely to ask. Is there a way to hunt some whales, but not drive them to extinction? Is there a way to cut trees for lumber without destroying all our forests? Theoretically the answer is yes. And as a Christian I believe that God put us here to take care of the planet. Yes, we can use its resources, but we also need to protect and preserve it. So again, the “how” is hard.

Lately, I’ve really be struggling with the environmentalism thing. What should the individual be doing? Should I be doing more? Or is what I am doing enough? Maybe I was too influenced by the best PSA (Public Service Announcement) of all time.
If you listen to the radicals, no I’m not doing enough. But I’m not sure they are recommending a healthy, balanced approach either. This whole thing of carbon credits just seems silly and contrite.

The other day Seth Godin posted a GREAT thought about the current movement to protect the environment. Once again he cuts through junk and comes down the real issue. All our lives we are asked to do more. But all of the sudden they want us to do less to protect the environment. We don’t do less. We only do more. Read the [More] or (Less) article here. He’s nailed it! That’s what is wrong with the current approach. Ask me to do something to help. Don’t ask me to do less. I don’t do less.

As Christians do we have more, or less, responsibility to care for the environment? I tend to think it’s more. God gave the planet to us to take care of (have dominion over). The question is what can I do to make a difference? Is writing letters to congressmen or business leaders saying we need to do something enough? Is recycling enough? Do I need to buy a hybrid car? Is replacing all my lights with low energy fluorescents enough? Do I need to purchase all new energy efficient appliances? If I do need to buy new appliances, isn’t it wasteful to get rid of the old ones when they still work? The “how” is still hard. But basically I think we need to know what “more” can I do AND where is the balance?

Anyone? … Bueller? …

Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day.

Thank you to all the soldiers who have served. Today we honor those who gave all for us.

Why annoy people?

Have you seen the Sonic Drive In ads on TV? Are these the most annoying advertisements ever? Ok, that may be a bit strong. Maybe they are just currently the most annoying ads on TV, not the most annoying of all time. Why would I want to buy food from a place that features idiots? The only thing that I've learned from their ads is that eating Sonic food makes you stupid. Probably not what they had intended. Furthermore, there's not a Sonic within 150 miles of me (the farthest I could search on their website), so why are they even showing me these ads?

Is it ever a good idea to annoy people? What if the matter is important, not just some silly fast food advertisement - is it ok then? What if it has to do with eternal matters, is it ok then? Or is there a better way to reach people besides being annoying?

Just as I am sure there is a better way for Sonic to convince me to eat their food, I am sure that being annoying won't convince non-believers about a God who loves them.

What commercial annoys you the most?

Which Guitar?

If you like to switch between an acoustic and electric guitars during your set, you now have a new option.

The Ovation VXT

Sweet Seymour Duncan '59 humbuckers for that electric crunch and a Fishman Power Bridge for a tasty acoustic sound.

I want one!

Mess with Your Friends

Are you a practical joker? Do you like playing jokes on your friends? I mean the really good jokes. The ones they will talk about for years. Yea, I knew you were like that.

This might be the joke of all jokes. Imagine you are having a party and one of your friends needs to use the facilities. You politely tell them where the restroom is and begin to snicker as they walk away. Little do they know your bathroom has a hidden toilet. Yup, that's right - a hidden toilet. Imagine your friends frustration walking around your bathroom trying to find the toilet. [begin sarcasm] Imagine the hilarity that will ensue when they have to come back sheepishly and tell you they couldn't find the toilet. Oh yeah, you're the man. [end sarcasm]

Seriously, why would someone invent something like this? I might be able to undestand this if you lived in a one room house, but other than that - isn't the toilet hidden enough by being in a separate room? I for one say, "yea - that should be hidden enough." Furthermore, who wants to have to slide the veneer wood cover back and forth everytime you use the bathroom?

Just incase you really want one of these - see more pics here.

I wonder how many Christian's operate in a similar mode. They hide their Christianity and try to blend in. They only slide back the veneer and show what they are in dire circumstances. That can't be a good thing.

10 Divinely Designed Churches

Neatorama (neat name.... sorry...) has an interesting post about 10 cool churches. Not sure I agree with every one on the list, but there are some cool structures here.

10 Divinely Designed Churches


picture: Interior HDR of Notre Dame (Image Credit: mircea tudorache [Flickr])

Interesting Choice

I never thought of comparing the two to each other, but I can see where they would be similar.

Back in the day

I didn't write this, but I wish I had. It's just so true. Enjoy.

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning ... uphill BOTH ways .. yadda, yadda, yadda… And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter ... with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like "Space Invaders" and "asteroids" and the graphics sucked!! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Sunday morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little brats!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire ... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid JiffyPop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled.

You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

Readme

This is from Serious Magic's (now Adobe's) DV Rack software. Usually these things are boring to read, but this has to be the most entertaining readme file I've ever seen...

Oh, good.... You're reading this file. You are indeed a wise person who takes direction well. Blessings be upon you!

IMPORTANT!

WHAT NOT TO DO:
All the captured video clips in this folder (and any subfolders in it) must remain unmodified and exactly where they are for DV Rack to fully and properly function. You see, DV Rack has an internal Database that puts the clips here and this Database bloody well expects them to still be here the next time it comes around looking for them. Pay attention because this Database has a personality much like the deity figure in some religions (say, Pan or Loki). It is a singularly temperamental, unforgiving, and capricious Database Deity. It knows how to Smite and, trust us, you don't want any smiting going on around your clips. The only way to make the Database Deity cranky is to mess with the clips it puts here in this one folder.

Editing, deleting, or renaming these clips will result in inexplicable, random, and very likely BAD and NAUGHTY behavior on the part of DV Rack. No kidding, this normally elegant and refined software will start acting like a petulant three-year-old who is hours past nappy time and just had its ice cream taken away. No one wants that! So PLEASE do not perform any of these actions on any clips in this folder. However, if DV Rack is not running, you can use Windows to copy of one or more clips in this folder to somewhere else on your hard drive (outside the DV Rack folders). But don't even THINK about ever putting them back here.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO INSTEAD:
The instant, easy, proper (and painless) way to get your clutches on these clips is to first use the magic "Eject" button in the DVR. DV Rack will graciously take the clips from the evil clutches of the Database and put them next door, over in the "Ejected Clips" folder. Life is easy over there. No rules. No consequences. No three-year-olds.

So remember, don't touch the clips unless they're in the "Ejected Clips" folder or the "Garbage Clips" folder. If you do, don't come crying to us like a three-year-old who just had its ice cream taken away. You have been warned...

The DV Rack Team Thanks You For Your Most Benevolent Cooperation

I'd read more readme's if they were like this one.

The Perfect Evening?

Surely none of us have ever used these lines with our significant others. Be sure to listen closely to the words...


[ht The Wonderful Noise]

Kool-Aid in the dishwasher?

Lifehacker had an interesting link today. Apparently you can put lemon Kool-Aid in your dishwasher to clean out the mineral deposits. The red Kool-Aid is not recommended.

Who does this kind of stuff? Who sits around all day wondering what kind of weird things can we do with lemon Kool-Aid? How many small applicances have to be sacrificed in the experiments? Just curious...

I guess the bigger question is "How come lemon Kool-Aid will clean your dishwasher, but not your dishes?"

[ht: Lifehacker]

Does it work?

Something has been bothering me about Easter this year. I have difficult question to ask of other church leaders. Yea, I know, Easter is over - give it rest. This is the last post on Easter - I promise (well, until next year).

Many churches pull out ALL the stops for Easter. They do up it big. Video, drama, music, dance, etc. It's probably the most produced service of the year. Now there is no doubt that Easter is an important event for Christians to remember. But sometimes it seems like we go overboard on this event. It's crazy huge.

The reason I often hear given for such a big event is, "many people come this week and we have capture their attention so they will come back." Ok, I can go with that, but here is where the question comes....

Does it work? How many of these people who only come on Easter come back the following weeks? Really, I want to know.

Suppose someone wanders in to your church on Easter. The service is perfect in every way. They are really touched. They vow to come back next week and they do. What will they see and experience? I'm betting in most of our churches there would be a serious difference between Easter and the next week. Now there's nothing wrong with having a big day or celebration. Chances are the birthdays in our homes are different than the non-birthdays. That's cool. But does the big event work? Will the person feel cheated because the next week's service isn't the same huge event?

A very smart man (Albert Einstien) is quoted as saying "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Yet each Easter we just about kill ourselves, and the other volunteers and staff, to reach all these people who will pack out the church, but it must not work. Because the next week where are all the people? It just seems to me that we are doing something incorrectly here. Our method doesn't seem to be working... Is it working at your church?

Now, just for the record. Our church doesn't do the huge, huge Easter service. We try to have a nice service. Well done. A few extra features, but it's more inline with a 'regular' service - whatever that means. Is the big event working for you at your church? From my local friends at other churches, I'd say not. But I'd like to hear some other opinions. BTW, if it's working for you - then PRAISE GOD! Keep doing what you are doing!!!

What is Easter anyway?

As you are probably well aware, the 15 British sailors and marines were released by the Iranian government today. Naturally, I am very happy to see a peaceful resolution to the situation.

But did you notice what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave as part of the reason for the decision to release them?

"On the occasion of the birthday of the great prophet (Muhammad) ... and for the occasion of the passing of Christ ..." he said, referring to the Muslim prophet's birthday last Saturday and Easter, next Sunday.

Easter is not a rememberance of the passing of Christ, it's the resurrection. I wonder if that was a slip of his tongue, an intentional swipe at Christian beliefs or just ignorance of what Christian's believe. I'll probably never know which one it was.

I wonder how many people have no idea what Easter is really about. Is it colored eggs? Freaky bunnies? Strange indestructable candy peeps? That seems to be what the holiday is all about.

I wonder how many people know what Easter is really about?

I guess the real question, is how many people am I going to tell?

Interesting Guitar

Pretty cool work. Hopefully he will use his talent for things other than the Mario Brothers theme song.

91% of Americans believe in God

A recent Newsweek poll reveals some interesting information.

A belief in God and an identification with an organized religion are widespread throughout the country, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. Nine in 10 (91 percent) of American adults say they believe in God and almost as many (87 percent) say they identify with a specific religion. Christians far outnumber members of any other faith in the country, with 82 percent of the poll’s respondents identifying themselves as such.
Read the entire Newsweek article here.

Wow! 91% of Americans believe in God.
87% identify with a specific religion.

That's great!

But I have a question. When was the last time 91%, or even 87%, of the people in your community were at church during weekend services? I bet most communities average numbers much closer to single digit percentages. What have we done wrong in our churches that cause so many people to say they believe in God, yet so few show that belief?

That's worth pondering about. If you have an idea, I'd like to hear it. I'd like to make sure my church isn't making that mistake.

Bolivia has a Navy???

Who knew? One assumes that countries with coastlines have a Navy and landlocked countries do not. Bolivia, being in the later group, usually would not have a Navy. For those who are geographically challenged, here is a map. That purple area in about the middle of South America is Bolivia. Click on the map for a bigger image.

Since Bolivia does not have coastal access, one would naturally assume there is no need for a Navy. In this case it's not that simple. Bolivia used to have access to the sea. In 1879 Chile "acquired" the land that used to be Bolivia's, removing their coastal access.

Bolivia has not given up hope. They maintain their Navy, even though they have no seaport or ocean going ships, as a way to remember. They continue to hope that some day they will have access to the sea, and once again they will need a Navy.

Read more about the Bolivian Navy here

When my wife stumbled across this story, we shared a couple of good chuckles regarding the Bolivian Navy. Ok, we laughed so hard our eyes watered. It's an easy target. The mental pictures the Bolivian Navy paddling around the lakes and rivers pretending to be out on the ocean, waiting for the day they can grow up and be real sailors are too funny.

After the laughter faded, I was thinking about the Bolivian Navy. Their refusal to give up can be looked at two ways. The first is with laughter or even scorn that they wasting their time. Engaged in a futile endeavor. No hope. The second way is that they are persistent. They have a dream, a desire, and they will not let go. There's a fine line between chasing dreams and being crazy. Which is the Bolivian Navy doing? I don't know..... I guess if they some day get their coastal access back, we will praise their persistence. Until then, we'll probably share a few chuckles at their expense.

How does one know when they are chasing a dream? Or when they've actually gone off the deep end and have no chance? Does it matter? Most would scoff if I announced that I was going to chase a dream to be an NBA player. Not much chance of that for an old, white guy who can't jump. How should good friends react to something like that? Let me proceed in my folly? Or help me understand that I don't have a chance? In this ridiculous example the answer may be easier to determine than some other situations. But the question is worth considering. How do we know when we should intervene or not? It's not always easy.

As Christians, how do we know when we should let our friends know that chasing money, fame and fortune in the life is not the best use of their time and effort? Will they believe us? Will they understand? How do we let them know there are better more productive things they can be doing for God? That's not so easy....

Guitar, Guitar, Guitar

I love great guitar players. This is a clip from the 2001 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.



Do you recognize the players in the video?
It's Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne do "My Guitar Gently Weeps". Prince has a great solo at the end. I'm not a Prince fan, but I'm just about convinced he is one of the better guitar players of our time. George Harrison's son is playing acoustic guitar.

How Would You Introduce Jesus?

This is how Steve Harvey would introduce Jesus. How would you do it?



[ht the wonderful noise]

Crime Enforcement Services

Passed a car on the way home the other day. It was one of those security company cars that they try to make look as much like a cop car as they can. This one had big yellow letters that said “Crime Enforcement Services.” Now what exactly does the fellow driving the Crime Enforcement Services car do? Does he pull into a neighborhood and say “There’s not enough crime here. I’m here to enforce more crime.”? Does he help convince people that are thinking of committing a crime to go ahead and do it?

What a strange name for a security company. They definitely need to hire a better marketing company.

I know that computer people are famous for doing this too. We use words that people understand and know in ways that don’t make sense to non-computer people. We talk about putting something onto the print queue or starting/stopping a service or some other obscure thing. And the users don’t care about a queue or a service. They just want a piece of paper to spit out of the printer with their data on it. I’m sure that people who hire a security guard from Crime Enforcement Services don’t want to hear about Enforcement Service, they want a security guard to protect them.

I think many Christians are guilty of doing the same thing. Certainly Christians have a whole bunch of words that are difficult to understand. In fact, there’s a whole jargon of Christianese that people would need to learn to understand what we are talking about. Why would we want to do that? Do we think it makes us look intelligent? I don’t think it makes us look intelligent.

Help Desk

I work for a big company. We have lots of facilities in lots of states. We have a lot of different types of people working for the company. Everything from people building hardware (assembly work), to machinists, to engineers, to computer scientists, to accountants, to managers, to…. well you get the idea. We have at least one of just about everything.

In a company this large, it’s probably difficult to do some things. One thing that is apparently very difficult, is managing the computers. Some of the people at the company are quite computer proficient, some think they are proficient and are not, and some have no clue. I’m sure that makes the problem harder.

One of the things the company has done is roll out a Help Desk, a single place where you can get help if you need it. Theoretically, it’s a good idea. In practice, it doesn’t work so well. Unless your problem is the ultra-simple, my computer is not plugged into the electrical outlet, the folks at the help usually can’t help and simply refer you to someone else. Furthermore, they email you a message telling you how to get in touch with them. So unless you print out at the email and save it, when your computer doesn’t work, you have no idea how to reach them anyway. Wouldn’t it make more sense to print out a little laminated card and give it to everyone? Nah, that would be too easy.

But here’s the kicker. A little while back they actually sent out an email that listed the email address of who we should contact when we can’t get online! Yes, I said what you think I said. Think about that for second. How can I send email to someone when I can’t get online?!?! If it had been April Fool’s, that would have been great. A classic even. But since it wasn’t, all I could think about was Dilbert. Surely someone must have realized that wasn’t going to work. And these are the people who are supposed to help me with my computer problem. I’m hosed.

I wonder if sometimes Christians do the same thing. People who aren’t believers think about life a different way than believers do. Does that make it difficult for us to communicate? Do Christians think they are saying helpful things, but those ideas simply don’t make sense to the non-believer? Or are we able to relate with them an effective manner?

That’s worth pondering about for a while….