Friday funny: Christmas, part 2

Jesus is a liberal democrat



The 12 Days of Christmas, the way it should have been in the first place

See also:

Friday funny: Christmas [part 1]

Why we need to put the X back in Christmas, part 2

Perspective: What would your final words be?

Ed White, the first spacewalker. He let go. He came back. Some don't.
(All NASA images are in the public domain, with some rights reserved. NASA [image S65-30431]).

I know of a man who is in surgery for his brain, right now as I write this post. His name is Brent. They do not know if he will make it out of surgery. They are removing a mass and they do not know the extent of the problem. I do not know this man personally, but I know of him. I am thinking of him. You should be, too.

A few hours ago, with complete mental acuity, he wrote this to his young sons:

It is very early (4AM) and God is at work! I wanted to just take a few moments to let you know how much I love each one of you! You have each made me the happiest dad in the entire world. I am reminded in (Mark 1:11) when Jesus was baptized out of obedience and respect for HIS Father and an audible voice was heard from the heavens when he came up out of the water. "This is my son, in whom I am well pleased."

This morning I now realize the amount of love that a father can have for his sons and all of their accomplishments, victories and yes even defeats. Therefore, I too echo those words from the mountain top - "YOU ARE MY SONS, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED!"

We were never called to walk a faithless simple life but a life full of abundance and grace that only God can give. This morning, dad will leave for the hospital without any fear of the unknown, and expect miracles to happen. NO MATTER the outcome of the procedure or the diagnosis, GOD IS IN CONTROL and HE will be Praised!

Do me a favor, the next few days will be very difficult for your mom. Pray for her. Love her. Hug her. Obey her. She is truly the love of my life! We will all need each other over the coming days, but she will need you even more over the next few days.

Below is one of my favorite verses is this:

Hebrews: 8:38-39
[sic. Romans 8:38-39.]

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

No Fear, Jesus Never Fails,

Dad

Consider also

Death and taxes and faithfulness

Lisa Telford: A eulogy

The strength of being broken

Question: If you had to write your final words right now, what would they be?

About Big Planet Small World

Used with permission, CC2.0: Jeff Kubina

Ideas get us talking to one another. Dialog develops new ideas.

We live on a big planet, but the world is shrinking more and more every day. Usually, when this colloquialism about the shrinking world is invoked, it's a complaint. But why should it be? Are contemporary technology and our increasingly social online culture inherently contributing to our increasing separation from one another, or are we just abusing technology in an ongoing effort to hide?

This blog will cover a variety of subjects, but they will all have a single, unifying theme: the things that get us talking to one another. Unfortunately, the things that bring us together are often the very things that threaten to tear us apart: discussions on religion and spirituality and favorite sports teams and computing platforms, opinions about art, sexuality, technology and science, politics, entertainment, music, books, movies, television, food, work and business, companies and industries and gifted individuals, product reviews (the relevant and the unusual), current events and history, family relationships, friends, irritants, humor...

What is funny and what isn't, for example? I have a dry, British wit. Do you? I don't require you to, or expect you to be just like me. I will be sharing my opinions because they're the only ones I have! That sure doesn't mean I'm uninterested in yours.

We'll occasionally include an interview with an established celebrity or expert in their field. We'll throw in the infrequent instructional commentary or video on a technical or other relevant subject. We'll welcome guest posts. We'll solicit and expect your feedback and thoughts on each issue, and we'll look forward to reading them.

The main purpose of every post will always be the same, to invite you into a discussion in which you will meet others, perhaps kindred spirits, perhaps lifelong aggravators. But you will speak with each other. You will interact, both on the blog and off. Most posts will end with a question, an opportunity for you to interact. You are so very welcome to do so. I use IntenseDebate for comments, since they sort and thread for me. You are encouraged--but not required--to create an account with them to better organize your conversations, and also benefit from the "ranking" that can be provided by others who find your ideas useful and/or well stated.

If you're reading this on the website, you can see two lists of my most popular posts to the left. You might find something to enjoy or spark thought or conversation in there.

I post irregularly, theoretically a couple times a week, though you may occasionally find bursts of creativity followed by doldrums of silence. (Such is the nature of a full-time Instructional Designer with two children under the age of ten!) I encourage you to click here to subscribe by email since this is the easiest way to engage with the latest content. Comments, however, are always welcome. Although I reserve the right to moderate them, I would like to think you would give me no reason to. The extrovert in me craves your interaction, and I look forward to responding in civil conversation with you.

The new technological world gives us a chance to be civil to one another in new ways. We can share ideas and disagree without hostility. We can discuss openly. Through disagreeing, we can ponder, change, and grow. Through agreeing, we can connect. There is room enough for both here. The planet is big enough for us to disagree, and we may be surprised to find unexpected allies that make our world just a bit smaller, and likely more enjoyable.

Friday funny: Christmas

When social media and the Bible collide.



It might be lacking Kirk and Spock and Roger Waters and the Bee Gees, but it's still pretty awesome



This may not precisely qualify as humor, but it sure is clever


Question: Can you point us to your favorite Christmas funny stuff? Thanks!

Google eBooks, an initial response

Used with permission, CC 2.0: Stewart Butterfield

Google eBooks opened up with some fanfare several days ago. In an effort to corner a piece of yet another huge, emerging market, the Google eBooks store fired off a first round in competition with Amazon's Kindle store, B&N's Nook, and Apple's iBooks.

In our opinion, this first round is a dud.

Did you forget the user?

The news caused a stir. Within minutes, I'd downloaded Google's free book reader app onto all the devices I could find at arm's reach [read: my iPad, a few Macs, and my iPhone 3G].

Now, I'll admit that I'm all about free books. I want established wisdom from the public domain delivered to me on-demand. Project Gutenberg is my friend. And Google's bookstore (which is accessed through their website, just like you would with a computer-based or mobile-based Kindle or Nook application) doesn't disappoint. Within a few minutes I had five or six interesting free titles waiting for me in my Google reader, on whatever device I wanted.

Then came the problem. Google's been spending the past few years scanning in page after page after page of existing text. No OCR. Just pictures of the pages. They own the content of hundreds of thousands of volumes, a rich and diverse collection of knowledge. Unfortunately, what you can't do is reformat (at least easily), share, highlight, zoom, stretch, pinch, or rotate. In short, the content is all there on the screen, somewhere, but the pixels are pretty much undreadable.

I expected a superior user experience over the Kindle, Nook, and iBooks. Why enter the fight now if you don't have something brilliant to offer?

Quantity over quality

I'll grant Google the early winner in the content category. They boast 3 million volumes available today, some of which are actually interesting to read. The Barnes & Noble Nook store claims 2 million, Amazon's Kindle store not even half that. If you're looking for a book, it might make sense to try Google first. Maybe. Sort of. (They may have scanned in a gajillion books, but are they good ones?)

Until the reader is viable (read: richly-featured), I'll stick with iBooks (and, on occasion, Nook and Kindle) when I need it. Google can call me when they're ready to try again.

See also:

Burning books is bad, mmkay?

Question: What are your thoughts on the emerging eBook market? Is the printed page dead yet?

Where did Big Planet Small World come from?

From the door of my local Starbucks, an invitation
to what's supposed to happen in a coffehouse

This post might look for a moment like a praise to an individual. But that's not what it is. It's a celebration of a class of relationships, a general homage to how friendships are created.

This blog received its name as a sort of unintentional gift from Gail Hyatt. I consider Gail to be a remarkable and wise woman. She successfully raised five daughters, has traveled richly, changed her mind with consideration and intent on a variety of important issues, maintains a meaningful marriage to a corporate CEO and part-time clergyman (same guy, not two different guys), apparently keeps a warm, hospitable environment in her home where she welcomes guests frequently, and still, by some miracle, keeps her sanity. At least, I think she keeps her sanity.

A year ago, Gail was a new "virtual friend," discovered because I heard her husband on the radio, liked what he had to say (or more to the point, the simple but confident way in which he said it), investigated how to interact with him through social media channels, found out that many of his "associates are people of good character," and built connections with them for their likemindedness as well, ultimately leading to a number of longstanding and meaningful relationships, both online and off. At one point, I discovered that a particular individual was someone I had already met through entirely different channels. Remarking to Gail on the pleasant surprise of this, I wrote to her, "It's a big planet, but it's a small world."

She responded, "That would make a great tagline," and Big Planet, Small World was born.

In general, this is how connections are made. This is how lives are enriched and saved. We become stronger when we strengthen and encourage and support each other. The synergy of intertwining our stories is glorious. The point of Big Planet, Small World is to invite you to join all of us who are already here in that activity, interacting with each other, and loving every minute of it!

Question: Whom [thanks, Magda] have you subtly influenced this week? Who inadvertently influenced you?

Friday funny: Ke$ha's Tik Tok Trek

My aversion to pop music is probably running at an all-time high. There's some that slips through the blockade once in a while, but right now I have a firewall that violently repels any attempts to infiltrate my senses with the intellectual complexities of contemporary philosophers and spokespeople like Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, or Ke$ha.

Except this one. As one commenter says on the page where it's posted, "I used to hate this song." Somehow, Trek legitimizes it a bit.



Although I've never been one for the K/S phenomenon, I am once again forced to accept that there are some very clever and creative editors running around out there. I hope they keep running.

Question: What's your favorite parody mashup?