Who Reads What Not Publishing

The Database I use to keep WRW from needing a to repull all 1500+ items from amazon each time is having issues, I won't have a chance to look at it till the weekend.

- Peace

A Thorny Situation

Here are Carol and I with the African Crested Porcupine.

There are some more pics on Carol's web site

Eau Claire Market has free WiFi

Couldn't help but notice the free WiFi at Eau Claire Market when I was there for the recent flickr meet. Didn't get a chance to use it but this young woman was using it and VOIP to talk to a friend.

- Peace

Who Reads What Update

I've been doing some work on Who Reads What.

I've added a bit of AJAX magic to show all the items linked by the sites that linked the main item. I think WRW is one of the few Web 2.0 pages that has a 1994 look n' feel ;) Must admit prototype made it quite easy to do.

I've added a post that explains what WRW is that is linked from the WRW index page.

Next on my to do list, YouTube aggregation :)

- Peace

Who Reads What

I love browsing bookshelves when I visit a home. Collections of books, cds, movies tell you something about the people who live there. Who Reads What is my attempt to do something similar online. Who Reads What for the Resonate Neighbourhood starts with the list of Resonate Bloggers and visits every page within two clicks of there. WRW collects and matches links to Amazon to show Who's Reading (watching, listening) to What.

The Related by WRW feature shows you all the other WRW entries from the people who linked a particular item.

When all goes well WRW will run once a day.

While WRW works in Internet Explorer 7, it's much faster with Firefox.

- Peace

Lit Green

Consulting on a Book Project

I've been brought in as a consultant for a new book project: The Year I Shot Myself, Got Arrested and Lived to Preach About It - by Warren Horricks. It's all about leading and being terminally cool at Xalt.

- Peace

Beware of Success on Contact

LT has a good write up on a company that's trying to sell web designers tools by promising to send them work. They are working under the name Success on Contact. I agree with LT it doesn't sound like it's worth the time.

- Peace

So Many Ducks

Ducks were the stars of today's Calgary Flickr Meet Up.

- Peace

Relationally Fragile

It been a week of weak relationships

A friend chose to leave professional ministry
Another was pushed from professional ministry

Two coworkers from past projects have paired up
two years ago I remember congratulating him
on the birth of his first child
with his first wife

I resigned from a ministry I'd been involved with for four years
for our common context was now too weak to support the work

- Peace

Dumb Math Tests a Canadian Thing

It's true.

- Peace

Haunted by Pachelbel

as seen on Dispatches from Outland.

- Peace

Subversive Poetry in a Postmodern World:

Colossians 1.15-20 Remixed

In an image-saturated world
a world of ubiquitous corporate logos
permeating your consciousness
a world of dehydrated and captive imaginations
in which we are too numbed, satiated and co-opted
to be able to dream of life otherwise
a world in which the empire of global economic affluence
has achieved the monopoly of our imaginations
in this world

Christ is the image of the invisible God
in this world
driven by images with a vengeance

Christ is the image par excellence
the image above all other images
the image that is not a facade
the image that is not trying to sell you anything
the image that refuses to co-opt you

Christ is the image of the invisible God
the image of God
a flesh and blood
here and now
in time and history
with joys and sorrows
image of who God is
the image of God
a flesh and blood
here and now
in time and history
with joys and sorrows
image of who we are called to be
image-bearers of this God

He is the source of a liberated imagination
a sub-version of the empire
because it all starts with him
and it all ends with him
everything
all things
whatever you can imagine
visible and invisible
mountains and atoms
outer space, urban space and cyberspace
whether it be the Pentagon, Disneyland,
Microsoft or AT&T
whether it be the institutionalized power structures
of the state, the academy or the market all
things have been created in him and through him
he is their source, their purpose, their goal
even in their rebellion
even in their idolatry
he is the soveriegn one
their power and authority is derived at best
parasitic at worse

In the face of the empire
in the face of presumptuous claims to sovereignty
in the face of the imperial and idolatrous forces in our lives

Christ is before all things
he is sovereign in life
not the pimped dreams of the global market
not the idolatrous forces of nationalism
not the insatiable desires of a consumerist culture

In the face of a disconnected world
where home is a domain in cyberspace
where neighbourhood is a chat room
where public space is a shopping mall
where information technology promises
a tuned in, reconnected world
all things hold together in Christ
the creation is a deeply personal cosmos
all cohering and interconnected in Jesus

And this sovereignty takes on cultural flesh
And this coherence of all things is socially embodied
in the church
against all odds
against most of the evidence

In a “show me” culture where words alone don’t cut it
the church is
the flesh and blood
here and now
in time and history
with joys and sorrows
embodiment of this Christ
as a body politic
around a common meal
in alternative economic practices
in radical service to the most vulnerable
in refusal to the empire
in love of this creation
the church reimagines the world
in the image of the invisible God

In the face of a disappointed world of betrayal
a world in which all fixed points have proven illusory
a world in which we are anchorless and adrift
Christ is the foundation
the origin
the way
the truth
and the life

In the face of a culture of death
a world of killing fields
a world of the walking dead
Christ is at the head of the resurrection parade
transforming our tears of betrayal into tears of joy
giving us dancing shoes for the resurrection party
And this glittering joker
who has danced in the dragon’s jaws of death
now dances with a dance that is full
of nothing less than the fullness of God
this is the dance of the new creation
this is the dance of life out of death
and in this dance all that was broken
all that was estranged
all that was alienated
all that was dislocated and disconnected
is reconciled
comes home
is healed
and is made whole
everything
all things
whatever you can imagine
visible and invisible
mountains and atoms
outer space, urban space and cyberspace
every inch of creation
every dimension of our lives
all things are reconciled in him

And it all happens on a cross
it all happens at a state execution
where the governor did not commute the sentence
it all happens at the hands of the empire
that has captivated our imaginations
it all happens through blood
not through a power grab by the sovereign one
it all happens in embraced pain
for the sake of others
it all happens on a cross
arms outstretched in embrace
and this is the image of the invisible God
this is the body of Christ

One of three Targums by Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat that form the core of Colossians Remixed.

Over the Rhine and Eugene Peterson

The December 2006 MP3 Rarity of the Month from Over the Rhine is Flown Free.

Various musicians were asked to contribute an original song to a cd based on a new translation of The Book of Psalms by Eugene H. Peterson, and Karin and Linford recorded Flown Free, their simple composition based on lines from Psalm 129 & 124. It just so happens Flown Free is their first attempt at recording a little something in their new, 170-year-old farmhouse that they now call home. This December, we thought you might enjoy this simple song. Set it free.

Get it before they update the page with the Jan 07 MP3 Rarity.

- Peace

We're in the Future.

At the end of 1994 Andrew Kantor of Internet World made this prediction about what was coming to the Internet:

Smart searches. The first intelligent agent software packages will emerge, allowing Net users to ask for a specific piece of information like "What is the population of Fiji?" or "How far is Saturn from the Sun?" An agent will go out on the Net , find the information, and return it without the user knowing the source.

Well Agent Software never did emerge other than in the Matrix, but smart searches did. Click either of the links in the quote and Google will answer the question.

- Peace

The promised land

Ok, it isn't really the promised land it was just a move into something more beautiful than I had ever dreamed possible.
It was an unusual move in that I didn't really help much. I have been walking with a cane for about 6 months now and it makes heavy lifting a thing of the past.
I did something very un-male, I asked for help.
My little church (Clareview Bible Church) came through for me and a dozen people (from a church of about 50 on a good day) showed up to help. Six hours later it was done.
We've had a few people over including Leighton Tebay of The Heresy but we are still planning a BIG BLOWOUT HOUSEWARMING hopefully before February.

Anyone for a game of Power Grid?

My sister gave me Power Grid for Christmas, cause I work for the AESO, we run the grid in Alberta, and cause its won some awards. We played a game while in Edmonton and it 's quite good. It's a strategy, resource optimization game. It plays up to six people, anyone up for a game on Saturday night? If so let me know in the comments or drop me a line.

- Peace