Trip to church for Christmas?

It's funny to read about about people who want to go to church for the carols, even though it's not their "scene". I wonder how this list was put together? Based on name, description, biblical content, or lack thereof?

... they at least sound like comfortable and welcoming places for casual church-goers ...

Very interesting.

Thankful

I am very thankful.  For Jesus, for my great wife, my fun son, my extended family, my friends, my job, my stuff, and each new day of life.  I understand a little better that any of this can be taken away from me at any time -- except Jesus.  He's the one thing I can count on regardless of situation and circumstance.  And for that, I give thanks.

Real Beauty

I've shared this before, but it's worth sharing again. This video is reality behind the images we see every day, and the men, women, little boys and little girls are all affected by the artificial creation of the new norm. How will this affect how you raise a daughter? I know it has me worried, if I were to have a daughter, God-willing.



It's kinda scary if you ask me. Dove has a great campaign going, and the famous reality videos are just a small part of the whole thing.

Illinois 28, (1) Ohio St 21

This is a crazy thing. Most people don't understand. But this is nuts. We beat the Buckeyes. The national championship is up in the air!

Indian MJ on Last Call

The Indian "Michael Jackson" made it to Last Call with Carson Daly.

Too funny. I wonder if Bollywood wants this kind of exposure!

Free Sox Tickets

Go see the amazing White Sox in action this week as they compete with the rowdy Royals for a higher spot in the division standings. The White Sox are giving their tickets away to this week's games against the Royals for free. Call up a U.S. Cellular store for details. Enjoy.

$80,000 or $54,000?

Here's a thought provoker. Would you pick $80,000 with a 65 hour work week, or $54,000 with a 35 hour work week?

Honestly, that would be a very rough decision for me, though I know how I should theoretically answer. What would you say? Share your answer in the comments.

Google's Free Wireless ISP

These Google folks are always up to something. And it brought me out of my blogging cocoon. They just released their new beta project. I'm going to hesitate jumping on board on this one. Would you try it? I'm not going to be an early adopter on this one ... I'll check what has changed about the features ... maybe tomorrow.

Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines.

Make sure you read the full installation guidelines and the FAQ before getting sold.

Google TiSp [via LifeHacker]

Update:The new features are abounding: part two of Google's new April features!!

Kerala like you've never seen

I am fascinated by maps. I realized I love cartography. The concept that we are all connected in a small world, coupled with the view of the world outside of my own just blows me away. I am on an online version of maps almost every day, especially on my phone. I got some of my cartography genes from my father, who recently revealed how he, like myself, loves looking at maps of random places just for fun.

He would love this:

Google took care of mapping out India .. and it's so amazing to browse a map of Kerala to finally get a gist of how all these city names relate to each other. Take a look .. this wowed me and helps me understand where my friends and family grew up!

How to Handle Sinners

Think Christian has a post about a business owner that chose not to provide his services to a gay couple. What would you do in that situation? I don't think it was a good idea. I think sometimes we might get confused as to the situations in which we should stand by convictions (a minister who doesn't conduct a wedding ceremony for a gay couple avoids hypocrisy) compared to other situations where we should show Christ's love through our service to the "outsiders."

For example, would you give clothing or food to a cold and hungry drug addict or alcoholic? This example can be stretched to other areas of sin as well, but when it comes down to it, Christians shouldn't be the ones handing out "punishment" (lack of love and service) to "sinners". If that were the case, each of us would deserve punishment from each other all the time.

Blind Carbon Copy

One of my biggest geek pet peeves is when someone sends an email to like 30 people and put all the addresses in the To: field. Whether the email is informative or junk does not matter. The issue is that there is often no reason to have everyone's email address exposed for everyone else to see. This raises a few issues:

• What if I didn't want everyone else to know my email address, and I only gave it to you because you're my friend? Now everyone else on the To: list needs to know my address.
• Now any recipient of that email can just click "Reply to All" and send even more often useless email to fill your inbox.
• If one of the 29 other people on the email decides to forward the email, now even more people can see my email address. Have you ever seen when you get a forward, that you have to scroll through all the other people that the email came from? This is often how email addresses are harvested for spammers.
  

Read more about Email Netiquette 101 (See especially Rule 12 -- "Don't expose your email routing list to spammers"), Bcc etiquette, and read some other content here.

Harvest Messages

Through some source snooping, I found that you can stream any of the current or previous Harvest Bible Chapel messages by using the URL format below:

mms://www.harvestbible.org/Streaming/4/wwyyyymmdd.wma

So let's say you heard the message from October 18 was great, but it's no longer available through HBC's website. Just go to mms://www.harvestbible.org/Streaming/4/ww20061018.wma. The mms:// at the beginning just tells your computer that it's streaming media.

Let me know if it doesn't work.

How geeks think

This article from OSNews.com captures my heart (except I'm not much of a Linux guy .. yet) in that it shows how I (a self-proclaimed geek) think.

Technology enthusiasts like the ability to choose between zillions of options, trying and tweaking at their leisure. In fact, it could be said that many enjoy it. Average users would disagree; to them, more choice constitute a source of headache.

Why Desktop Linux Will Not Take off, and Why You Don't Want It to - OSNews.com

Free Chipotle?

Okay don't get too excited. Free Burritos are only in DeKalb, IL. I guess there is actually a perk of going to NIU.

Geeked out Lexus

It looks like KITT is back ... as a Lexus. Not that I want it or anything. Really.



Yeah, I'm posting again .. I'm going to try at least once a week.

::Welcome to McDonald's India ::

While looking for a local McDonald's to meet a broke friend, I surfed my way over to McDonald's India. Check out their menu and other items. I thought it was amusing. And their Ronald McDonald looks kinda funny ...

You don't have to be cold to catch a cold.

I love debunking myths, especially the ones our parents believe!

It is passed from one person to the next, usually by way of airborne droplets from a sneeze. You can also pick it up if your hands are dirty (with the virus) and you touch your eyes or nose. Catching a cold has nothing to do with the temperature outside, or whether or not your hair is wet.

I have a kid.

He's my son, and I'm his father. Whoa. Still trying to soak it all in .. and I think I'll be soaking for several more years. For details about him and his life, ask about his blog.

Meanwhile, this blog will stay on course with thoughts and tips.

Chicago Historical Photo Essay

I've grown an amazing love for history in the past few years. Absolutely hated it in school, but now, I'm different. The problem is that in school, we learned the history of the U.S., or of Europe, or of China. I think I would have been more interested if it was history about something close to me. And past and present photo comparisons are awesome. I want history of Chicago, of Skokie, the CTA, Lane Technical High School, that old building at Broadway and Thorndale, the old church at Francisco and Peterson, etc. And this photo essay helped feed that infatutation.

Wise Men

Wow, did you know that the Bible never mentions how many wise men (aka "Magi") there were that came to visit Jesus? Matthew mentions the gift-givers without number as Magi (plural of Magus). They gave gold, incense, and myrrh. So it seems the number has been traditionally held at three because people assume that a wise man can't hold more than one gift.

Or that any wise man wouldn't come to visit this child without one.