As if I needed further evidence to heighten my fear and/or loathing of deer (with their soul-less, gelatinous eyes!), I came across this story today:
It’s for the best if we would all heed the warning signs.
If you’ve never of “breaking someone’s ankles” in basketball, here’s what it means:
And, in the same game, Derrick Rose completely rebuked an Andre Miller layup attempt. If they were nerdy gamers (instead of multimillionaire ballers), we might say that Miller got pwned all game long by Rose. All Miller’s base are belong to Rose!
I’m so stoked for The Idea Camp, which will be from February 27-28, 2009 in Irvine, California! Charles Lee has been a catalyst for bringing together this unconference. From their site:
The Idea Camp is a FREE, open source hybrid conference designed to help people move from the realm of ideas to implementation.
We are gathering some of the most innovative and creative leaders from around the country (this means YOU!) to share ideas, intentionally network, and move collaboratively into idea-making. Whether your passion is church leadership, non-profit work, social entrepreneurialism, technology, media, creativity, culture making, church planting, spiritual formation, compassionate justice, etc., this is the conference for YOU.
The focus of this conference will be on the participants (yes, You!) and not on keynote speakers. We function under the belief that the crowd is always smarter and wiser than any one speaker. In fact, you are invited to create and refine some of the major components of the conference prior to the gathering itself via our web interface. You are welcome to suggest specific topics for our workshops (called Idea Sessions), leave comments, ask questions, share case scenarios for discussion, and even volunteer yourself to facilitate one of our Idea Sessions.
We desire the Idea Camp to be a conference for friends by friends.
In keeping with the trend of confessions around here, I didn’t really know what an unconference was until reading DJ Chuang’s helpful notes explaining the unconference concept (thanks, DJ!).
In related news, support Charles’ idea for how the Obama administration should change America at change.org! Charles has put forth the idea of a national campaign to build more shelters for the victims of human trafficking:
In light of the recent growth of awareness and practice of reporting human trafficking suspicion around the country (which has resulted in more rescues and arrests), I would like to see our government help fund a national media campaign to build more trafficking shelters around the United States. In addition, our government could also award some of our private, recognized service providers with funding for building and operating shelters for trafficking victims.
I must confess that I haven’t yet read the book by the same title from StoryCorps (hmm… this is turning into a running theme here), but I love what that title says: Listening is an act of love.
Our family spent the last week back in Michigan so that our daughter could have some quality time with her grandparents (and get onto the Jumbotron during the Pistons game, thanks to some fervent dancing/prancing on my part!). I was also able to catch up with friends (thanks again for the polar bear!) and catch up on some reading.
During the flight from California to Michigan, I read through Rob Bell’s provocatively titled new release, Jesus Wants to Save Christians. Hopefully, I can post a full review soon, but Jesus Wants is thoughtful and challenging — in particular, I appreciated Bell’s re-framing of the Decalogue through the lens of the Exodus. On the return flight to California, I was able to make substantial headway into Scot McKnight’s new book, The Blue Parakeet. Again, a review is on its way (maybe!).
In Parakeet, McKnight offers those of us who are weary of the polarization between reactionary fundamentalism and extreme liberalism a much-needed alternative to reading the Bible. Far from being a half-hearted compromise, McKnight’s Third Way urges us to engage Scripture — and, more importantly, the God of Scripture — with love, creativity and passion. Above all, perhaps, McKnight calls us to listen:
Reading the Bible is an act of listening. Listening, to quote the title of a popular book, is an act of love.
(In the footnote to this quote, Scot reveals that he has not read this book yet either. At least I’m in good company!)
As we head into this Advent season of watching and waiting, let’s take time to listen — both for the still small voice of God and for the voices of friends, family and those in need.
Below you can find the Advent graphic I designed for our church community:
… of missing out on free Dr. Pepper, that is.
If you weren’t able to register for your Guns N’ Roses-inspired free Dr. Pepper yesterday — or weren’t able to wait out their overloaded, laggy website — here are some free tracks (of actual good music that didn’t take, like, decades to release!) to ease your 23 flavors-less pain.
The good people of Dischord Records are offering the classic melodic hardcore Egg Hunt 7″ tracks as free digital downloads to everyone who registers for an account there. Yet another reason to support great independent music!
In other 80s news, Stereogum has a couple of clever covers for your downloading happiness, including The Welcome Wagon‘s version of Half a Person by the Smiths and Takka Takka’s take on the Phil Collins epic In the Air Tonight. Did I mention that I went to seminary with Vito Aiuto of The Welcome Wagon?
Also, you can download an Obama-inspired track by none other than the Boss himself (and you don’t even have to make up a fake email address to give to Sony).
You might want to wait before picking up your New Order reissues, though.
headsparks* 