• Scholars give us antiquity — the colorized version. “We now know that the unblemished white surface of Michelangelo’s ‘David’ or Bernini’s ‘St. Teresa in Ecstasy’ would have been considered unfinished according to classical standards. The sculpture and architecture of the ancient world was, in fact, brightly and elaborately painted. The only reason it appears white to us is that centuries of weathering have worn off most of the paint.” 09/30/2007
• Thomas Friedman questions if we have become The United States of Fighting Terrorism. “Times columnists are not allowed to endorse candidates, but there’s no rule against saying who will not get my vote: I will not vote for any candidate running on 9/11. We don’t need another president of 9/11. We need a president for 9/12.” 09/30/2007

Introducing my first youth group

Eikon, originally uploaded by jakebouma on flickr.

When I worked as a youth ministry intern at Valley Church, my boss (and youth ministry guru), Brandon Barker, had an old picture hanging in his office of one of his first youth groups. I always thought it was really cool- in a nostalgic kind of way.

Anyway, these are (most of) the kids in my senior high ministry, and judging by the picture, I think they really like me. I hope that in twenty years I’m still doing youth ministry and I can look back at this picture hanging on my future office wall with pride and joy.

P.S. Brandon, if you’re reading this, can you refresh my memory on the story of the aforementioned picture hanging on your wall?

Are you suffering from Heroes hysteria?

Sometime least fall, I came down with a horrible case of Heroes hysteria. Not much is known about the disease, so I just let the thing run its course, and although it took about eight months, I eventually conquered it. Well, Heroes hysteria has returned to my system. At least, I’m feeling the symptoms, anyway. I have a feeling that it will worsen tonight at about 9/8 central.

Since last year’s iteration of the disease, Heroes hysteria has mutated itself to become stronger and more contagious. Not convinced? Here are seven reasons why (warning: spoilers).

Please pray for me while I battle this wonderful, wonderful disease.

• Grist.com offers an incredibly detailed list of articles called How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic which contain responses to the most common skeptical arguments about global warming. This could come in handy. 09/23/2007

Free entry into a $4000 prize draw

In order to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of his blog, David Airey (along with the help of several sponsors) is giving away over $4000 worth of blogging-related prizes, and all you have to do to enter is to write a blog post about the giveaway. Easy enough, huh?

And if the $4000 in prizes isn’t enough to entice you in itself, here are just a few of the things being given away:

A custom WordPress theme design from Nate Whitehill of Nate Whitehill dot Com.

$60 of books from Amazon courtesy of Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.

One year’s hosting from Media Temple and blog setup from John Boardley of I Love Typography.

Logo / blog header design from Jonathan-C. Phillips of Smart Wealthy Rich.

Blog review and email interview published on Make It Great! with Phil Gerbyshak.

A Behringer Podcastudio USB Podcasting Kit, kindly donated by Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog

$25 via PayPal courtesy of Gayla McCord of Mom Gadget.

There are PLENTY more prizes being given away, so what are you waiting for? Blog about it and get yourself entered into the drawing!

• How (not) to cheat in online poker. 09/20/2007
• If you haven’t yet heard, the NY Times just discontinued their Times Select subscription program and has made much more of their 150+ years of content available for anyone to read and/or link to. Gems from the archive of the New York Times is a fantastic roundup of some of the free goodies now available, including an early report of Lincoln’s assassination, a front page report on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the first mention of pre-phenomenon Harry Potter. 09/19/2007
• iConcertCal is hands down the greatest plugin for iTunes. Ever. Using iTunes’ visualizer, it shows you (in the form of a calendar) when artists from your iTunes library will be playing live in your area, AND it shows you when artists in your library are releasing new albums. For a music lover and new-music-aholic like myself, this plugin is just amazing. 09/19/2007
• RelevantMagazine.com is streaming the entire EP of The Reign of Kindo on their website. The rock/jazz/funk band includes four members of the recently dismantled band This Day & Age (who, if you remember, I love). Hopefully this is merely a sneak peek of what’s to come with this new band. 09/19/2007

Everything I need to know I learned from the emerging church*

1. The world would be a much better place if we would all just sit down and have a conversation.
2. Controversy is the key to publicity.
3. I’m saved, but it’s no big deal.
4. It’s totally (un)cool to (not) use parentheses.
5. I blog, therefore I am.
6. Any form of criticism is probably just a big misunderstanding.
7. Whatever Brian McLaren says, goes.
8. Using big words is a really easy way to win theological arguments. E.g., “Au contraire, I believe using a deconstructive hermeneutic is far superior, in light of the postmodern tendency to reject the metanarrative.”
9. If you have a problem, it’s probably theological.
10. Don’t judge a book by its cover; judge it by its endorsements.
11. If it’s written in red, it’s more important.
12. It’s not the size of the church that counts, it’s how you use it.
13. Swearing and drinking are acceptable, even encouraged.
14. Worship music is shitty (See #13).
15. When in doubt, deconstruct.
16. Using Latin words and phrases in place of English ones not only sounds more authoritative, it totally ups your street cred.
17. If all else fails, hold a conference/convention.
18. Tradition is overrated.
19. Mi casa, su church.
20. Everything Must Change.

What are your satirical learnings from the emerging church?

*Disclaimer: Although I hope it is obvious, I should mention that this post is satirical in nature and doesn’t actually reflect my views of the emerging church conversation. You can get a good idea of what I really think by reading a paper I wrote called Toward A Postmodern Youth Ministry: An Examination of Postmodern Youth Culture in Conversation with the Emerging Church, published online at Precipice Magazine in May 2007.

• If last week’s post about Google Reader had you somewhat confused, here’s a great video explaining RSS and its benefits. 09/17/2007
• We all know that I loved Little Miss Sunshine. Well, the upcoming movie Juno (IMDb) has been called “this year’s Little Miss Sunshine”. 09/16/2007
• Fun with Sulphur hexaflouride (SF₆)! 09/16/2007
• The authors of Freakonomics have a new article in The Times Magazine called “The Jane Fonda Effect”. If you haven’t read Freakonomics (and I suggest you do), this is a good introduction to their style of economic investigation and problem-solving. “[People] prefer a measurable risk to an immeasurable uncertainty. (This condition is known to economists as ambiguity aversion.) Could it be that nuclear energy, risks and all, is now seen as preferable to the uncertainties of global warming?” 09/16/2007

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