charlieDEAN’S Blog

(and rightfully so!)

and you think I talk fast!!

• On the Freakonomics Blog, they had a contest to develop a six-word motto for the U.S.  Of course, right-wing bloggers ruined the original post but they’ve narrowed it to five.  I voted for #3…. “Caution! Experiment in Progress Since 1776″
• Was anyone else extremely disturbed by the cover on the last issue of Newsweek?  The title said, “Let There be Blood” and directly beneath that, to the right, along with other right-wing pundits was a picture of James Dobson holding his Bible up.  It bothers me a great deal that the Bible is perceived as a weapon…even if it’s only a metaphor in the political arena.
• I’m extremely embarrassed by my alma mater…but not surprised…I guess that I hoped that they were above this sort of behavior these days.  Scot McKnight had some good thoughts about this (link).
• This chart is helpful in understanding the “emergent”/”emerging”/orthodoxy/evangelical labels.  It’s not perfect…but I think it helps.
• This blog makes me laugh at myself…a lot!  At the same time, there’s an important message just under the surface about being comfortable in the skin color God made us.
• And finally…this is the funniest thing I think I’ve seen in a long time…  (ht: Tim)   … I wonder if I should work this into a series at Imago?

Just for fun…which are you most excited about?

Super Tuesday?

Fat Tuesday?

Kevin Sletten’s Birthday Tuesday?

None of the Above.

I know this post is going to send you “Mac haters” into maniacal giggling fits of glee, but here goes anyway… I’ve been a Mac-user for just over a month now.  So far, I’ve liked everything about working on the Mac OS…and I love my 15″ MacBook Pro.  Except this:When I just got my new notebook out of the box…one of the first things I had to do was type my name, and the “c” key was unresponsive — or at least you had to give it extra-emphasis to get it to work.So I took it in to the local authorized Mac repair place and wow! do they lack customer service!  (When I’ve called Apple, they’re great…just the local place is frustrating.)  Anyway, they replaced the keyboard…no problem (once they returned my calls, emails, etc.)  So, I thought everything was fine, and then that night as I shut off the light in my office and the backlighting on the keyboard started to come up, it suddenly went off and started to flash…Long story short…after countless emails to the local repair center and after taking it in 3 different times, and getting the keyboard replaced (again) as well as the whole top replaced, yesterday I boxed it up and sent it back to Apple.Lucky for me, my friend Adam had an old iBook sitting at home that he only uses as a backup, so he’s letting me use it.  It’s not near as fast as my notebook, but it’s better than sitting in my office staring at a wall!Hopefully I’ll have my notebook back early next week. 

Okay, I saw this last year and resisted, and then I’ve seen them circulating this year, and I couldn’t resist!

The boys got elfed!   Meanwhile, I got scrooged!

• This is fun…Animator vs. Animation
• Brandon’s post reflecting on Seth’s post is insightful…and true!
• There has been a ton of reaction to Willow Creek’s Reveal study.  Tim Stevens does a great job of recapping all the junk, and giving some links.
• Almost every day, The Dilbert Blog cracks me up!

Some of this stuff as been in the “Google Shared Items” feed, but I’ll put it here anyway:

• This Weird Al video is totally cracking me up!  (And that was before I knew anything about the R.Kelly “Rap Opera” he’s parodying)
• I think Brandon is asking some great questions that I ask myself sometimes.  I’m closely following the comments.
• Nancy Beach asks a good question about showing clips from R-rated movies in church.
• These National Geographic maps were sobering.  (ht: Seth)
• I love this free rice website!  It can get addicting pretty quick.  The highest I can get my score is 39…and then it drops back to 38 rather quickly!

I’ve had this post marinating in my head for some time so here goes…

Do you have any people that you admire from afar?  What I mean is this: there are certain people who I really don’t know very well — I know them more by reputation that I’ve actually sat down with them and had a real face-to-face….anyway…I want to tell you about two (actually three):

• There’s this couple that I see occasionally.  They meet at Panera — it appears to weekly — and the sit there with their Bibles open talking and praying together.  I admire that so much!  Of course their kids are older — but I admire that they prioritize growing closer to God together.
• There’s this guy.  He’s the director of a local youth ministry, and he just might be one of the most grace-filled, kingdom-thinking people I know.  Every time I walk away from an interaction with him, I’m left marvelling at how he never says a bad word about anyone and at how committed his is to seeing the kingdom thrive in the Peoria area!

This cracked me & the boys up…them because it was a gorilla…me because it was a gorilla & Phil Collins… (ht: seth)

Dave launched a new site.

I’m glad that I have water buffaloes in my life, when I feel chewed on by lions.  (beware, it’s a long video…but totally worth it!)

You think your employer or church is controlling, check this out.

Apparently, Chinese officials have banned reincarnation without government permission in Tibet.

I wonder what that form looks like…