Starving the puppy...

...and she knows it.

Ellie goes in for her surgery tomorrow (no, I don't want a bunch of little Ellies running around, regardless of how cute they'd be), and I'm supposed to be witholding food from her today. She's obviously hungry, and has tried to get me to do something about it all day. Finally, she gave up on me and started trying to chew her way through her dog food's bag. =( Wish I could explain to her why she's not getting fed. But if today's been a bad day for her, I'm glad she doesn't know what the next few are going to be like!

The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman

OK, so it is a commercial for American Express at the bottom of it all. Still, The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman has two pretty funny movies for your enjoyment. Worth watching, just for the concept of Jerry and Supe road tripping together...

Behr.com Explore Color

Whether you're an interior designer or a graphic designer, if you're looking for color scheme inspiriation, the Behr.com Explore Color tool is a useful shortcut to attractive combinations.

Campaign finance hits home

Ever wonder where the political lines lay in your neighborhood? Curious whom your friends and colleagues are supporting in the presidential election? Take a gander at Fundrace.org. This site uses publicly available campaign finance data from the FEC, making it searchable and connecting it to a map. You can search by address to see what folks in your area are giving, or you can search by an individual's name (the most common search is "Bill Gates," who gave $2000 to Bush's campaign).

Kinda creepy, but also rather addictive. I wonder, though, if there's a lower limit to what contributions show up - the (small) ones I made to Wesley Clark and later John Kerry don't seem to get me listed. Bummer?

QUOTE: Eugene Peterson in "The Contemplative Pastor"

"Sundays are easy. The sanctuary is clean and orderly, the symbolism clear, the people polite. I know what I am doing: I am going to lead this people in worship, proclaim God's word to them, celebrate the sacraments. I have had time to prepare my words and spirit. And the people are ready, arriving dressed up and expectant. Centuries of tradition converge in this Sunday singing of hymns, exposition of Scripture, commitments of faith, offering of prayers, baptizing, eating and drinking the life of our Lord. I love doing this. I wake up early Sunday mornings, the adrenaline pumping into my veins.

"But after the sun goes down on Sunday, the clarity diffuses. From Monday through Saturday, an unaccountably unruly people track mud through the holy places, leaving a mess. The order of worship gives way to the disorder of argument and doubt, bodies in pain and emotions in confusion, misbehaving children and misdirected parents. I don't know what I am doing half the time. I am interrupted. I am asked questions to which I have no answers. I am put in situations for which I am not adequate. I find myself attempting tasks for which I have neither aptitude nor inclination. The vision of myself as pastor, so clear in Lord's Day worship, is now blurred and distorted as it is reflected back from the eyes of people who view me as pawn to their egos. The affirmations I experience in Sunday greetings are now precarious in the slippery mud of put-down and fault-finding.

"Sundays are important - celebrative and essential. The first day defines and energizes our lives by means of our Lord's resurrection and gives a resurrection shape to the week. But the six days between Sundays are just as important, if not so celebrative, for they are the days to which the resurrection shape is given. Since most pastoral work takes place on the six days, an equivalent attention must be given to them, practicing the art of prayer in the middle of the traffic."

Peterson, E. H. (1989). Vol. 17: The contemplative pastor : Returning to the art of spiritual direction. The Leadership library. arol Stream, Ill.; Dallas; [Waco, Tex.: Christianity Today; Word Pub.; Distributed by Word Books.

For the Geeks

Microsoft TechNet readers' Top 10 Funniest IT Stories

FREE SOFTWARE: Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 Standard Edition

Microsoft is giving away free copies of its Visual Basic .NET 2003 Standard Edition to everyone who participates in its Visual Basic At The Movies promotion. If you're interested in programming, here's an opportunity to nab a $90 piece of software for nuthin'!

What's the catch? All you need to do is watch and answer a few questions about five different promotional movies at the site. They look mildly amusing (check out the "posters" for each movie), and shouldn't be too bad to sit through. For free software (albeit with a STRICT no re-sell policy), isn't it worth it?

More experimentation in ecclesiological practice...

The Brits seem to really be taking the concept of digital congregations to heart. The Church of England's i-church has appointed Alyson May Leslie as its first Web Pastor. I haven't had a chance to browse i-church, so I'm not sure how it approaches online worship and community (i.e., whether it uses 3D like the Methodist-sponsored Church of Fools). I'll report more when I've been able to investigate these interesting developments.

More on virtual worship

This time, from the Beeb: BBC NEWS - In cyberspace, can anyone hear you pray?

The body of Christ, uploaded for you?

I've often joked about starting an online church, but let's face it - I'm way too much of a traditionalist for that, no matter how happy it might make my inner geek in some twisted way. ;)

But it was inevitable that some ministries would attempt to reach the worldwide mission field that is the Internet. Church of Fools (www.churchoffools.com) is an experiment being run by the British publisher Ship of Fools. Services will be held in a 3D environment populated by avatars (digital representations of worshipers and clergy) who can pray, whisper to each other in the pews, and more.

As quoted in
The New York Times: "Church of Fools is the first site to make religion the focus of the kind of interactive role-playing common in multiplayer combat games or Web fantasy worlds."

I'll have to catch services there and see if they're up to snuff. They're at 3:00p CDT. Stephen Tomkins, an author of religious biographies, is on tap for the sermon.

Subservient Chicken

Subservient Chicken: There's really no describing it. You just need to see this for yourself.

Updating the photo gallery...

Elanor's photo gallery should be updated and online by 10:00 CDT tonight - the files are being uploaded now. Not a whole lot of pics added, but a few cute ones. Ellie's been my unknowing subject many times with the new camera, but she's starting to look a little shaggy now. It's been more than two months since her last trim, and it's going to be another three weeks or so before she can get in... that's too long! It'll be good to get her prettied up again, and when she's fresh from the groomer I'll have to take a bunch of pictures.

Been reading up on photography (duh), and I'm planning on signing up again for the summer course at VCSU. Holly, one of my seniors in the youth group, is planning on going there next fall and has talked about taking up photography as a hobby, so I'm trying to convince her she ought to give this course a try, too - it's much more laid back than a regular course, and a good intro to using a camera.

I've got a lot more projects in the hopper, but those'll have to wait their turn. ;)

Check back at the album later tonight for the updates!

This is brilliant! =)

AUSTIN, Texas - Partygoers apparently hoping to catch a glimpse of nude sunbathers crowded on one side of a floating barge, prompting the ship to capsize and dump all 60 people into Lake Travis...

Read more at MSNBC