Thursday, June 10, 2004

YET MORE PICTURES...


Crown of Thorns plant at the Mission. More at the Fotolog

What I'm Reading

New updates. Current book is The Journey Towards Relevance, by Kary Oberbrunner, pub. Relevant Books. Highly recommended--it's a good up-to-date take on the stuff in Holy Worldliness.

BUS DRIVER TURNS IN FOUND CASH

I'll start out by apologizing for the lack of a link--couldn't find one. Anyhow, I was watching the local news last night--channel 4, NBC--and they had a story about a Foothill bus driver who found a wallet containing $953 (I think). This is not the news, as far as I'm concerned. The news is that the reporters made a big deal of a Christian--which the bus driver was--actually being honest enough to turn in the money. Now, I don't mean they mentioned their surprise a few times; I mean their surprise at his honesty was the central--and oft repeated--theme of the entire news story. This does not bode well.

Two conclusions come to mind. Either Christians in general have become so unholy that the world is shocked when we actually act like our Father. Or the reporters are so jaded by the entitlement mentality of our culture that they don't expect anyone to be honest and turn in found money. Maybe it's both.

Either way, boy do we have some work to do...

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Wired News: Embryos Yield New Stem Cell Lines

Wired News: Embryos Yield New Stem Cell Lines

The cell colonies came from unused embryos donated by couples who underwent prenatal genetic screening

I'm going home, so I'll just say, this notion of "unused embryo" degrades our view of humanity and neglects the fact that humans are created in the image of God.

The Geek Test

I took The Geek Test and have "11.63708% - Geekish Tendencies". I guess this leaves a chance for some coolness. Not that geeks aren't cool... :-)

County hit by protests over cross removal, but vote 3-2 to remove it from seal

Tenoch Flores, a spokesman for the ACLU, said the group is willing to work with the county to ease the transition.

"Issues like this, people seem to be passionate about it. It's understandable," he said. "But the seal, as it stands now, is unconstitutional."


The saga continues...

The transition to the erasure of a symbol of Los Angeles history should not be taken with ease!

Unconstitutional, my eye! Urgh!!!

Besides, the huge depiction of the goddess remains, what's the ACLU gonna do about that? Huh? Nothing. The only good thing that I get from their lawsuits is the realization that they recognized a difference in Christianity. At least there's that.

FLOWER OF FLAME


A flower from the Mission. They almost look to be made of flame. More pix are at the Fotolog.

MISSION DE SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO WALKWAY


One of my favorite pictures from my trip to San Juan Capistrano

There are more pictures at The Fotolog

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

BLOGGERBOT

So, I'm trying out this Bloggerbot thing, and, honestly, I'm not sure what I'm doing. So I posted a shadow self portrait just to see how it works. Kinda cool. We'll see how it goes. I'm still keeping the fotolog, though.

Self Portrait Posted by Hello

more MISSION DE SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

More pictures have been posted The Fotolog.

junk mail subject line poetry 060804

[NOTE: the poem below is a random listing of junk mail subject lines; any deep meaning you find within is incidental; if anything below is secretly obscene, it is completely unintentional]

ectopic dielectric communicate offstage
roller coaster 0 guardian angels
short order cook dissidents related to 18
wacke corrode constructor
now i know betel airdrop
the simple plan worked marksman inside
how are you?
atonal warm
A rewarding experience awaits you
locknut
what if you had.. machiavelli tuna
Excllent idea for your automobile
a little easier life
A better economy for all
do not miss this - it's all for you
We only provide you with good deals for a...
bark bifurcate
about 2 and
anselm borg budd
decimal gown
it all worked out frazier autotransformer
im glad i found it arden Czech
you wont find a b`etter ,deal ...
calvinist edmund fish
algae ensemble
sloppy worshipful
whitewash
peasanthood circumstance
guardian angel 4 clodhoppers
constructor

[NOTE2: it actually sounds rather beatnik when read aloud... kinda scary... makes you wonder about beat poetry...]

Monday, June 07, 2004

KAMPER KAMP UPDATE

This past weekend was Kamper Kamp--TFB's all church camp out. Our speaker was Jeff Jamba--he grew up at TFB and is now Associate Pastor of Youth Ministries at Peninsula Community Church in Ranco Palos Verdes. He spoke to us on belonging to TFB. I didn't take notes, but here's the gist. We should belong because we were made that way. We belong by being connected, by serving, and something else I can't remember. What I do know is this--this was a great message to come from him. Someone from our staff could not have said this so frankly without a bit of reverb. Jeff could say it because he's one of ours who has been sent out to serve. Good on ya, Jeff!!

As far as the cabin goes: the bed was... how shall I say?... horrible. The cabin was too far from the rest of the faith community. On the other hand, the cabin mates were cool--the Condon-Jamba clan.

Saturday night I spent a couple of hours or more playing old time gospel with some other musicians--Mark on guitar and mandolin, another Mark on fiddle, Jim on banjo, and me on mountain dulcimer. It was awesome. I haven't had the opportunity to play music so freely for a very long time.

Not playing in the band was a bit wierd, though I came back from Kamper Kamp tired but not exhausted--usually, I come back exhausted.

Weather was great. God was there. Connected with some students. Food was awesome--if I do say so myself :-)

Nuff said...

MISSION DE SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

I celebrated the first short Friday by sharing tea lunch with some folks from the office (present and former) and by spending the afternoon at the Mission in San Juan Capistrano. The first installment of pictures is on The Fotolog. These are pictures of the mission and the old stone church. There are lots more pictures--the flowers were amazing--but those must wait until another day.