Thank You, Al Gore

April 1, 2008 //

… once again, for inventing the internets all those years ago.

Without your help, I would not have discovered the brilliant/detestable YouTube April Fool’s Rickrolling gag. If you visit YouTube today, you’ll find that the featured videos on their main page are never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down. I’m glad to see that Mr. Astley has a sense of humor about this odd sensation. I’d love to see a team come together around 80s-style, bite-your-lower-lip type dancing on America’s Best Dance Crew (big ups to Jabba for winning, by the way!). I could see the judging now: Yo, y’alls crew smashed it. When you locked your elbows to your hips and swayed your forearms back and forth, it was sick!

And, I wasn’t sure if this headline was an April Fool’s joke or not, but where else but on the glorious interweb can one find a headline like this: F1 President Caught In Nazi Sex Scandal. While the story itself, assuming that it is real, speaks to the brokenness of humanity, that headline is definitely one for the ages.

I knew that our Wii was good for us — and now I have proof! If we can get our hands on Wii Fit when it is released, good health is just over the horizon… I know it. I don’t know if I’ll be in Marko-territory in terms of weight loss/health gains (keep it up, man!), but the Wii Fit sure looks like fun.

Finally, I’ll send you on your way by coming full circle with 80s-related inter-news… NKOTB is back, so get ready to hang tough step by step with the OG boy band of the 80s. By the way, does anyone know what was up with one of the New Kids sporting that Bauhaus t-shirt in this video? I mean, the video has all the elements of greatness (the running after potential girlfriends in what appears to be a cemetery/mausoleum, the I’ma get’chu/fuggetaboudit expression of the guys when the youngest one steals the car and the hold-the-belt-buckle and prance-side-to-side dance steps), but all these years later I still don’t get the NKOTB-Bela Lugosi’s Dead connection. Please feel free to share your conspiracy theories here (again, one of the main purposes of the internet, no?).

Categories communication, just grinning

We Met On The Internet (Wait, That Sounds Wrong!)

March 27, 2008 //

At our last college ministry small group gathering, we talked about how isolation and loneliness are increasing despite the widespread popularity of various social networks. I shared with them how, during my first year in college, we received brochures on what this “electronic mail” thing was all about and how to use it.

After learning to navigate the worlds of elm and irc in college, I felt like some medieval clod during seminary as my students tried to explain instant messaging and the like to me. Right around that time (to me, it seems about seven or eight years ago), it seemed like shortcut acronyms were really popular: you know, LOL, BRB, etc.

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Categories asian american, communication, community, faith, family, health, hooray!, just grinning

Jesus Pwns The Newbs (Happy Easter!)

March 25, 2008 //

Bruce Reyes-Chow and the good folks at Mission Bay Community Church have been producing winsome Easter cards for the last couple of years — clever designs that play off some of the cultural misdirections surrounding Easter.

But this year, they declared that all your base are belong to us with their “Wii Jesus” Easter card and, in the process, set off a bit of a firestorm in the gamer world. Posts, podcasts, discussions, rants, threads, flames and comments ranging from bemused curiosity to righteous indignation have made it to sites such as kotaku.com and G4TV. One of my favorite comment threads says:

Well, of course they wouldn’t allow us to play the Wii.

Jesus would win at everything, making it not fun.

Jesus pwns teh newbs.

Other irreverent, but strangely amusing quotes include, Hey, wait a second, Jesus is on my baseball team too! I guess he really is everywhere! and I actually have a Jesus Mii on my Wii. That way, whenever I go into the Everybody Votes channel, I can ask myself “What would Jesus do?”

Next year, maybe it’ll be time for the big helicopter egg drop!

Categories church, communication, controversy, design, faith, games, missional, postmodern

Resurrection Community

March 23, 2008 //

I confess, many days I feel stuck on that Saturday in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday — a kind of waiting and longing, wondering about how my journey brought me to this point, secretly hoping for new life. So, while I might not experience the unparalleled joy of Jesus’ resurrection constantly, today I remember — and stake my life upon — our risen King, the Resurrected One, the true life giver and dream awakener, the One who restores my heart, stirs my hope and says through His risen life that His kingdom has come, is here and is coming.

As a new chapter of life and ministry begins to unfold in the next couple of weeks, I am thankful for the wisdom of people like Eugene Peterson. In Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Peterson writes about the kind of community I dream of and would love to be a part of and serve:

The gospel, while honoring our experience, doesn’t begin with our experience. We don’t begin a holy life by wanting a holy life, desiring to be good, fulfilled, complete, or wanting to be included in the grand scheme of things. We have been anticipated, and the way we have been anticipated is by resurrection, Jesus’ resurrection. Living a holy life, the Christian equivalent of revolution, begins with Jesus’ resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus establishes the entire Christian life in the action of God by the Holy Spirit. The Christian life begins as a community that is gathered at the place of impossibility, the tomb.

Just as Jesus’ birth launches us into the creation and Jesus’ death launches us into history, Jesus’ resurrection launches us into living in community, the holy community — the community of the resurrection.

Categories church, community, faith, hooray!

Barack Obama Addresses Race In America Today

March 18, 2008 //

I have been hesitant to weigh in here on Senator Barack Obama’s potential presidential candidacy because of the way we tend to talk at or past each other when it comes to dealing with race, among other reasons. However, given the historical nature of Obama’s campaign, the increasing rancor and racial divisiveness coming from the Clinton camp recently and Senator Obama’s speech about race and America today I felt compelled to share a few thoughts that I’ve been kicking around recently about race and politics in America today. By way of disclaimer, these opinions belong only to me and do not necessarily represent my church, family or Asian Americans in general.

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Tags Barack, Election, Obama, politics, speech

Categories asian american, communication, controversy, faith, family, justice, politics, race, reconciliation