It looks like I finally got these bad boys working. These little posts are called ‘asides’ and the only place you’ll find them is right here on the blog, they won’t be in your email subscriptions or rss, sorry. Basically they will give me the opportunity to post random thoughts, weblinks and more through out the day, without worrying about bombarding your inbox. They’ll be quite short in nature, so this one is a little odd. Following the post you’ll see a number in parenthesis (0), that’s the number of comments, click on it to read them. Then there is the # sign which is the link to the actual post if you want to send it to a friend or anything. And if your interested you can read all the asides here. much thanks to photomatt, for making it all possible.
Monthly Archives: June 2007
Testing Asides
Hopefully this is the last time I do this. Hopefully successfully.
Stereotype Of The Month Contest
Racism is a serious issue today, as much as it’s ever been, but it’s difficult to get people to recognize and acknowledge it. Blue Corn Comic has a creative way of addressing some issues…
Stereotype of the Month Contest
P.S. Here’s our Comment Love Kiva Donation at work. You can join in too and help Margaret Juma with her Child Care business!
Viral Link Idea
a strange attempt to increase web traffic…
Continue reading Viral Link Idea
MtvU: Activism from the Cool People
I’m not one to really promote Mtv, I mostly think they have an overall negative influence on us as a society and especially young people. But, rather then get into that, I think it’s good to acknowledge and encourage the good steps they take. MTVU (Don’t ask me what the U is for I haven’t even looked) has an Activism page, and they did make some effort at creatively raising awareness on the Sudan Crisis. Maybe it’s just a sign of the times, that activism is cool now. Either way I thought the site was at least a brief browse, if only to show there web techs that people are interested in Activism, not… other things.
Historical Sounds: Like “Houston, We have a Problem.”
You ever mention, or hear mentioned, a famous person or speech from back in the day? How about Dr. King’s Speeches, or JFK, Winston Churchill or Stokely Carmichael? Well, here’s a link for hours of interesting speeches and sound bits.
Getting Ready For Baby and Birth is Biblical
So, you might all think this is sort of backwards, but I’m officially on paternity leave, though the baby hasn’t come yet. Mindy, on the other hand, is still working and plans to right up until the baby is born. Before you laugh, I’ve got good reason to be off, caring for Mindy and preparing for the baby to come. I know there is a ton to do, I just am not that sure what some of it is. So, I’m making a list, and I’m gonna try and do as much of the list as I can before the baby arrives. But, seeing as I’ve never done this before I could use some help knowing what things I need to do that I might not have thought about yet. Any ideas?
Alright, the other thing I thought I’d ramble about, since today is Sunday and I try to be a little more spiritual in nature on Sundays, is about Birth. I’ve appreciated the conversation that struck up when I mentioned the idea of birth being a sacrament. If you missed that feel free to check out my post, but mostly check out the comments on the post, The Sacred Page, and this CT article Melissa directed me to a while back.
Mindy and I discussed this a little bit the other day and one thing we talked about is that conversation about birth, pregnancy and childbearing as biblical is nearly absent from most churches, and seemingly taboo in sermons. Our initial thought was that maybe it’s really not talked about in the Bible much, but I’m not sure that’s the case. One of Christian’s most celebrated holiday’s is concerning a Birth! We tend to focus on a pristine, angelic like baby Jesus, rather then labor pains and placentas, but that’s how God incarnate came into the world. I’ve never heard a sermon about pregnancy being sacred, but we annually read that Mary has found favor with God and her reward is nine months of pregnancy. And lest you say this is a unique occurrence reserved for immaculate conceptions only, don’t forget Elizabeth and Zechariah are blessed with the pregnancy of John. I could go on, but I’ll stop.
I guess my point is just this, I think we’ve neglected a large part of our faith, sacraments, community and more by not valuing pregnancy and birth as a gift from God and a part of our faith and spirituality. I’m not the one going through the physical changes, so I’m not really one to talk or be any kind of authority on this. Instead, I feel it’s important for me to step back and say, ‘wow, there is something special going on here and I am excited to have an opportunity to observe and come along side this experience.’
Flash Back: Sharing Our Feelings On Race
When I first started it, IFeelWhenYou, was going to be this great, thought-provoking website that opened up the conversation on race nation-wide and was a useful tool in our dialog in classes and churches all over. Well, it didn’t really happen. But it is fun to browse through once in a while, and moderate the new statements that had been posted. Here’s what I wrote about it when I first started:
Something that troubles me in dicussing race and racism is that we are often (like in many other areas) poor listeners. We tend to have a lot to say regardless of how important it really is or how much it affects us. Like you learn in any basic communication class sharing your feelings is perfectly okay and important. It’s also important to listen to one another. The typical statement you’ll here suggested is the famous, “I Feel…When You…” It allows you to share what your feeling based on the others action and focuses on your feeling rather then just yelling or pointing out their action (the “You ALWAYS do this…” types of statements). Martin Luther King day is just around the corner and I thought it would be neat to have a site dedicated to sharing our feelings about Race and Racism in a constructive way.
Browse around and see if it’s informative or interesting to you.
Coming Up: A Week of Links (or Two)
I’ve been future posting the majority of posts on here, mainly cause I’m to busy with work and baby prepping to sit down and write on a daily basis. The baby will be here very soon, and I’ll be taking a break from writing on here, so I’m setting up about two weeks worth of posts were I’ll just be posting links to websites I’ve found interesting. It’s up to you readers to lead the conversation.
Fridays I usually like to write a what if post, so here’s my what if…
What if I stopped blogging and wrote a book instead? Would it be worth reading? Would anyone be interested in purchasing a copy? I wonder…
Still Thinking of Songs of Struggle
Just saw this on someone’s myspace and thought it was worth sharing. Someday I’ll get back to our hip-hop lessons, it’s just not going to be anytime soon. Here’s Nickelback, If Everyone Cared, for your enjoyment…