Only ’cause it’s funny, yo!
JF video (attached to Delegate Letter #9): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrONJf3kiio
The response, self-described as light-hearted: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew2d9G8JkFg
*giggle*
-ghp
Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!
-ghp
From the always outstanding Sheldon:
Yup, I can get on board with what Gramps is sayin’. The same is true for NA beer. “Bold, rich, aspirin taste…” Heh! 
-ghp
This is a particularly brutal British Public Service Announcement on the subject of texting while driving. It’s not for the faint of heart. Neither is it unimportant. It’s very timely and, I think, very effective.
More description & discussion over at EW.com.
-ghp
Props & Prayers go out to the courageous people of Iran who are standing up & fighting for their rights.
It’s not often that we can discern that we’re living in a moment that History will record and note as significant, but this, I think, is one of them.
And, for all the silliness that happens on cell phones & on social networks like Twitter, it’s during times like this that we see how important they are. Without the web/Twitter/Youtube/cell-phones we wouldn’t be getting the real story from the ground in Tehran, as palpably ugly as it is. Instantaneous communication matters now, just like the printing press, radio, & tv did back in previous communication revolutions.
Now, I just wish our President would come out and strongly condemn the corrupt autocratic regime that is abusing the rights of the Iranian citizenry, and stop dragging his feet & playing it cool.
May the Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — protect and preserve us all, especially those folks in Iran.
-ghp
I now have what I’ve coveted for quite a while: an iPhone!
Thanks to the IRS forcing a change in how cell phones are handled by employers (the Feds want their tax bite). Ownership is getting tranferred to employees, along with a stipend to pay for the service, and the Feds get their slice out of that.
Well, I was able to trade my Verizon BlackBerry Curve for an iPhone on AT&T – a trade I was more than happy to make, even given our being a GroupWise email/calendar shop.
The WordPress app for the iPhone is very cool, and this far I don’t miss the BlackBerry’s keyboard at all, as the touchscreen version on the iPhone is really well done.
More as it’s warranted…
-ghp
Obama's pastor outrage
I’m a fan of neither Obama nor Warren, but this is a great editorial cartoon…
-ghp
[HT: Worldmagblog]
I know that The Wittenberg Trail is reasonably en vogue as the social networking site of choice in the online Lutheran world. I must confess, however, that it’s always been a bit too much for me. At first, it was largely because I just didn’t like the idea/concept of the whole social networking thing – it was a bit too chummy for my taste & comfort. And I didn’t need the discussion areas & pseudo-blogging spaces that these types of sites give, because I get discussions & blogs at, wait for it… discussion forums and blogs.
Every so often, I would revisit WT to see if it would grab me, or if I would somehow get it now that some time had passed. I never did. If anything, the growth in WT put me off to it even more. I knew that good stuff was going on there, because I knew lots of good folks who were active there (I interacted with them at other sites…).
In the past few weeks, though, one thing has changed – I’m not as dead set against the social networking model anymore. I’ve gotten more involved in Facebook. At first, as is my wont, I was going to segment it off to have FB be just for my “non-lutheran stuff” – i.e., college friends. Then I started getting in contact with some high school friends (something I never thought would happen, but I’m glad it did…). Then I started seeing that many/most of the folks that I have contact with in the Lutheran blogosphere also have a FB presence. So, not only did that knock down my compartmentalization, it also way knocked down any need/desire I might have for getting back on WT.
It comes down to this, I guess — I now see the utility of the social networking site concept. FB delivers that utility to me in a far greater and richer way than does WT, despite WT’s narrower niche strengths. I don’t need those particular niches met in a social networking site because I get them elsewhere (discussion forums & the blogosphere). Since FB can give me the superset of the WT folks I know and the non-WT folks I want to link up with, it’s the better choice.
Thus, I’m going to kill off my WT account because, 1) I don’t want to leave a loose end hanging out there, and 2) I don’t have the time or the inclination to keep up with WT, for all the reasons listed above.
-ghp
So I’ve started to get a bit more involved in the whole social networking thing. I’m slightly ambivalent about it. Shocking, I know…
I’m back on Twitter (Hi, Jane!), mainly out of a single pragmatic reason — I think it’ll make posting quick, micro-blog entries from my Blackberry & Netvibes startpage much easier. I have installed a Twitter plugin for WordPress, that facilitates the quick-n-easy type of posting that I envision will make posting more of a regular thing. Sometimes, I get hung up on overthinking (again, shocking, I know…) what I want to post, and end up posting nothing. A little stream-of-consciousness might not be a bad thing. And Twitter’s 140 character limit seems like it might just fit the bill for getting me focused & on topic for bite-sized pieces of information. We’ll see…
Where I’m really a bit more ambivalent, though, is with Facebook. Online social networking in general, really, is an interesting topic for me, given that “real”/”meatspace” networking isn’t always my cup of tea, me being a largely antisocial introvert and all. That all said, I’ve been doing a little more on Facebook for some reason. I can’t really say why, ’cause I don’t know. I’ve “friended” a few folks who were really close friends in college, and it’s been interesting to see what they’ve made available. Voyeuristic curiosity is always fun to indulge once in a while. ;^)
But perhaps more interesting has been the “friending” of folks from high school. Since graduating from high school, I’ve had very little contact with anyone. I went to college with one girl, but haven’t seen her since we graduated from college. A handful of times over the past 23 years, I’ve run into someone, but nothing too terribly significant (minus one obvious exception during the first two years of college, that shall go without further mention, thankyouverymuch…). Another exception is going on now, where the older sister (she was two years ahead of us) of someone I went to school with for most of grade school & all of high school goes to the same church that we do. In fact, our daughters are in the same class in school.
In all, though, it’s probably been better that I’ve not had much of any contact with folks, because I’m generally better off when I stay focused on the present/future. If/when I focus on the past too much, I tend to get too maudlin, and obsess about what I did wrong and/or what I could have done differently. The Facebook thing also has me potentially wondering about what people thought about me back then, and what they might think about me now. Granted, I know that’s not entirely rational — I mean, I know I’m not that important or significant, and I never was. But you still worry about things, even when you have a really good life. Adolescence is that significant a time in one’s formation. And for the most part, I really did like high school as I was going through it. Some relationship stuff that happened in the years right after it have intensified my insecurities (and, Lord knows, don’t we all have those about that time anyway…).
So what’s my point? I don’t know. I guess that I’m trying something outside my comfort zone, just to see how it works out. Hopefully I’m mature enough to keep it from blowing up in my face.
-ghp
Second play from scrimmage, the Lions turn the ball over, and lose the challenge.
Two plays later, Tennessee punches it in for a TD. 90 seconds in, the Lions are down 7 due to a self-inflicted wound.
Yep, it’s Thanksgiving…
-ghp
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