July 24, 2003
Tables are the layout tools of the past... it's CSS all the way now for version 3.0 of Esplodere Web Design. With some minor cleaning up of the code, it should be valid XHTML strict, which makes me happy. Check it out; comments welcome.
July 21, 2003
Inspiried by this article on The Internet Monk, I'm just going to list opinions I have about different topics. They're in no specific order, but they may inspire me to come back later and write more thoughtful posts on certain ones. I'm also hoping this will be a good post for interactive discussion -- so feel free to respond to any or all of these opinions.
- Coke is better than Pepsi.
- The possession of marajuana should not be a criminal offense.
- Simple web sites are good web sites.
- "Where the Streets Have No Name" is one of the best rock songs ever.
- Chattanooga does not need another Wal-Mart.
- You can "claim it" in faith but you still might not get it.
- I am boycotting Harry Potter just because I'm tired of hearing about it.
- Bailey is going to be amazingly cute.
- X-Men 2 is a better sequel than The Matrix Reloaded.
- Hipsters are just people.
July 20, 2003
Former member of Caedmon's Call and now solo artist Derek Webb has written about the issues addressed on his controversial solo album, She Must and Shall Go Free:
nearly all of the subject matter falls under the heading of idolatry, and more specifically idolatry in the church. i believe each of the things that we will discuss deal with and are symptoms of this fundamental and age old epidemic. unfortunately, our idolatry as a church has become a great deal of our identity over many years of church history. over the past year and a half i have seen the characteristics of the faithless israelites right here in our american churches. this has been seen most recently and clearly in the church's response to bruce wilkinson°s book 'the prayer of jabez' (which is the concern!He specifically addresses issues with the theology behind The Prayer of Jabez, a Christian subculture phenomenon that has gotten under my skin since the first time I heard what it was all about. It seemed like total bunk, and after reading Derek's commentary, my suspicions were confirmed.
of a at least a few of the songs on the record).
Another article worth reading is this interview with Derek regarding the new album.
July 17, 2003
NRO columnist Jonah Goldberg has written an excellent column about Jerry Springer's Senate campaign in which he also discusses media elitism and voter turnout. My favorite line: "Whores should have as much say as nurses, according to a worldview which says nobody can be judged, all citizens are equal, all views valid."
July 16, 2003
Genia had an ultrasound yesterday (pics coming soon) and they were able to determine with 75% certainty that our baby is a girl! It's a little surprising just because we'd been talking about mostly boy names and looking at mostly boy things, but we are so excited. Everything looked normal and healty which is great. I can't wait to see our little girl -- if she's lucky, she'll look just like her mom, who was one of the cutest babies to ever grace the earth. After our doctor visit, we went to Target and bought her a few gender-specific presents, because everything up until now had been yellow and green. We got a sweet little summer outfit for next year, a soft pink blanket, and a bib that says "I love my daddy."
Her name is most likely going to be Bailey Elisabeth. She's due November 30 and she has a Lullaby Club Registry at Target.
July 12, 2003
Bored and restless during a quiet morning at work, I started browsing the AJC just to see what was happening in our old hometown. I came across this heartbreaking article about a man named Brad Cunard who lost his wife and two young sons when a tree fell on their car. I was floored. But as much as it saddened me, I cannot begin to imagine the depths of despair that he must be feeling. If you pray, please pray for Brad. And at the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card, please remember all the people you love and in them how much reason you have to be thankful.
There are a few new releases on deck that have me pretty excited. The first of which is a new double-album by Over the Rhine. It's called Ohio, has a simple yet stunning album cover, and it hits shelves August 19th. They will, of course, be hitting the road this fall and I don't want to miss that.
Next up is Starsailor. The follow-up to Love is Here, one of my favorites of 2002, is due out September 16th and is titled Silence is Easy. When I saw them in concert last year, they played one track from the album called "Born Again" which was amazing. This should be a great album and I'll be looking forward to seeing them in concert again.
Finally we have something U2 fans worldwide have been coveting for almost two years. The Slane Castle Elevation concert (day 2) is being released on DVD on November 18th. This was, by all accounts, an incredible performance, and the set list is great. Different enough from the Boston DVD but still featuring the classics. Uber-fans know this as the concert which took place just days after Bono's dad died, making this an especially emotional performance. You can bet I'll be picking it up the day it comes out.
July 11, 2003
I've been all over the denominational map, and I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
>From the time I was little, our family always went to a United Methodist Church in whatever town we lived. I was confirmed in the Methodist church when I was 13, but like a lot of high school kids, I drifted.
When I first started dating Genia, I started going to church with her. She went to a place called Cornerstone Worship Center and it is affliliated with the Church of God. Needless to say it was quite a shock to see a full band on stage and watch people clap their hands and dance around. It was downright scary the first time I heard people speaking in tongues and saw them falling in the floor. Something about it drew me in, though. Maybe it was the emotionalism, considering the Methodist churches I'd attended were always so dry by comparison. Cornerstone was the place where I really gave myself over to Christ, and I'll always have that as a fond memory. The pastor and his wife are good people, and I respect and appreciate them despite the differences I now have with their theology and practice.
A year later when we moved to Gainesville, Georgia, we started attending Free Chapel Worship Center, another pentecostal/charismatic church, and we started attending a small ministry school affiliated with the church. We often joke about their "sparkling praise team" -- they looked like something straight off of TBN, all dressed in black with lots of sequins and jewelry. During our time there, I started reading a couple of books that critiqued charismatic theology and practice, and I started questioning what I was being taught for the first time. There were a couple of major breaking points before I finally decided that I just couldn't be a part of it anymore and we left.
Soon after leaving Free Chapel, we started attending North Point Community Church at the suggestion of some of my co-workers. We felt very much at home, and at peace, there. Unlike the pentecostal churches we'd attended, every service didn't end with a guilt-trip altar call and a reminder that you can lose your salvation (it seemed as easy as losing your keys). We were taught practical applications from the scriptures, and we were taught that God will never leave us nor forsake us. The songs were in a very contemporary style, but instead of "Praising the Power Down" and "Taking Back What [the devil] Stole From Me" we were singing about "the wonderful cross" and how "His love endures forever." We still love North Point, and it is one of the things we miss the most about Atlanta.
Since we've been in Chattanooga, we've been attending Rock Creek Fellowship on Lookout Mountain pretty regularly. It's a PCA church, which is different than North Point, which was non-denominational but close to Baptist beliefs. We enjoy the services and I've been reading a lot about Reformed beliefs. I'm attracted to the general Reformed worldview, though I admit I haven't fully accepted the idea of predestination. Honestly I'd never thought or read enough about it to make an informed decision, but I'm working on it. Yes I'm still running...
July 08, 2003
Last night I was up late watching TV and stumbled across the X-Files on TNN at midnight. It was a bizarre episode about a subdivision in California that had summoned up some sort of demon creature to "take care of" residents that didn't adhere to the community rules and regulations. Mulder and Scully were undercover as a yuppie married couple. After that, another episode came on, this time about a man who nocturnally shape shifted into a supposedly extinct Asian breed of dog and murdered a bunch of people. Interestingly enough this was the episode penned in part by a friend of Over the Rhine and included some references to the band. One of their albums is entitled Good Dog Bad !
Dog which could be why the writer chose to insert the references into this particular episode. One of the characters was named Karin Berquist (lead singer) and one had the last name Detweiler (primary songwriter for the band). I had heard that there was such an episode so it was pretty cool to randomly see it. Finally at 2am, and still not tired, I started flipping the channels and came across yet a third episode of The X-Files, this time on the Sci-Fi Channel. I couldn't pass it up -- it was a good old alien abduction episode. The only bad thing is that it turned out to be a "to be continued" which means I'll probably be up until 3am again tonight to watch the conclusion.
July 07, 2003
Via a discussion on MetaFilter I read about a movie theater in Kansas City catering specifically to adults. Not in the X-rated way -- it's not about that at all. Here's the scoop: They don't allow any children under age 6 or unaccompanied children between ages 6 and 16. They don't show G or PG rated films. They sell beer. And they are making an effort to show independent films. Of course, there were local parents who were outraged, but in my opinion that's just stupid. It was simply one privately owned business seeking to market to a certain type of customer base, and I have to say that it will probably be a rousing success. In Atlanta, we had a movie theater called the Buckhead Backlot that served bar-type food and beer, and it was a fun place to watch a movie. We also had a couple of theaters that catered to the independent films. Put the two concepts together and I think !
you'd have a pretty popular movie theater. In fact, in the MetaFilter discussion, several members mentioned theaters of this type in other cities, so it's being done. It's something I'd like to see in Chattanooga, and I think it would go over quite well downtown or in the Coolidge Park area.
Ben Domenech has an excellent essay entitled The Family Enemy in which he discusses how changing the legal definition of marriage will affect our already weak culture.
The debate over non-traditional marriage is actually about the family. Or rather, the redefinition of the family. It is about changing the family from a unit of one flesh and blood, founded on tradition and faith, to a unit whose boundaries and morals are defined by each husband and wife.Ben is a fairly well known young conservative pundit, and this essay in particular is definitely worth reading.The fact is that the traditional family undergirds civilization. It makes for more successful communities, happier homes, healthier lives and better neighborhoods. The current attempt to force-feed the redefinition of marriage down society's throat undermines the family to its core.
July 01, 2003
I've become pretty fanatical about checking the statistics for my website in the last month or two. Most interesting are the referrals from links on other websites (top honor belonging to CEO Blues) and the search phrases that brought people to the site from Google and Yahoo. Here are some of the strangest, in order of frequency:
pregnant belly photosMost of these searches correspond to posts on the weblog, but I can think of five that don't. Which ones? And to what pages on the site do they correspond? Click on "comments" to make your guesses.
merovingian matrix priory of zion
aqua net hairspray
why i would follow bono into hell
pastor acceptance letter
hawbaker compost
george does the opposite
tribes of africa
mock the devil and he will flee
austin powers math proportion
neo agent smith ice cream big
madaleine l engle quotes
This post officially inspired by Josiah