Hacking Christianity

Image via WikipediaThere's something balanced about Chess-Boxing.  Yin and Yang.  Smarts and Brute Force.  Delicate finger movements and hard punches.  Nerds and Testosterone.

Check out how it works:

The matches work like this: competitors alternate between three-minute rounds of boxing and four-minute rounds of speed chess with one-minute breaks in between to get the gloves off and hunker down at the chess table. The winner is determined by knockout, checkmate, or referee decision.

Hilarious.  I've never heard of it until recently, but the more I read about it, the more convinced I am this is the best biathlon I've ever seen. 

Any chess-boxing fans on here?  Can this become part of the World's Strongest Man tourney, which my friend Mike introduced me to in a bar in Boston?

Only time will tell.

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At my church this summer, we are hacking the Apostle's Creed.  Yep.

Several in the church mentioned they were interested in a series on the Apostle's Creed, because we don't use it every Sunday, and we don't know if we believe every word of it.  And when people tell their pastor they want a sermon series, you bet it will happen!

So in addition to much inspiration from The Apostle's Creed for Today by Gonzalez, I'm looking for updated versions (parodies or not) of the Apostle's Creed for inspiration.  Something like what NERDS have done to the Lord's Prayer (I know there's a LOLcats version somewhere too)

Our sysadmin, who chills in Heaven,
feared be thy name.
Thy pwnage come, thy scripts be done in /earth as it is in /heaven.
Seed us this day our daily ROMs.
Forgive us our n00b exploits as we forgive script kiddies that hax0r against us.
Reveal to us not 0 day vulns, but save us from RIAA.
For thine is the network, and the rm -rf /, and all our base are belong to you, forever and ever.
Amen.

Any help?  Thanks in advance.

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Here's two fun things for a Saturday morning...

1. Go to google, search for anything you want.  See the layout?
2. Now, go back to google, and search for "gay" or "gay pride" or "gay rights"
3. Enjoy the colors!  
4. Too many steps?  Sigh...just click here to see!

Second fun thing:

1. Go to "James Dobson doesn't speak for me" website.
   
2. Read it.
3. Read the testimonials.
   
4. Sign it.
5. My comment?  "Seriously, the man has condemned people using Leviticus for decades...and then criticizes another for using Leviticus once?  Dr. Dobson speaks out of both sides of his mouth, and does not speak for me."

Then get on with your life.  But you will feel a little bit better today, I guarantee!

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Blogger is finally getting some improvements.

Including the thing I've been jealous of wordpress blogs...inline commenting!  Comment forms are now at the end of the post, not on a boring new page.

Very neat!  Click on this page in your methoblog aggregator to see!

It should work for all of you.  If you can't comment, please email me using the contact link above.  And if you want to add it to your blogger blog, Amanda's got some instructions here.

God loves Google loves Blogger loves me loves you!

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Today I have two things to share:

First, I'm sorry for the Starfish article being late. It was written, and as you see on my sidebar, I publish my posts. It was set for noon...I thought. I came home, and it was set for midnight. Sigh. So, it's published now (11:30pm EST). Enjoy!

Second, here's a verbatim conversation with the wise-crackin' grocery checker.

me: Hey, how are ya?

him: Oh, it's another day in paradise (shakes his head)...standing at this register watching everyone through the window enjoy the sunshine.

me: Yeah, sorry to hear that.

him: I'm glad! (stares at me intently)

me: Uh...ok.

him: What about you? How are you, today? (still staring intently)

me: Me? I'm just lovin' the Lord! (haha, funny response, eh?)

him: I'm Jewish. (smiles, goes back to sacking groceries)

me: ............great! (fully knowing he got me)

ten minutes later, here's what I should have said

me (channeling Owen Wilson from Meet the Parents): You are Jewish? Oh, just like JC! Right on!

Note to self:

• never pull the "just lovin' the Lord" response in a predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. Probably not gonna be the right audience.
  
• And you will never be as quick on your witty feet as you used to be. Sigh.

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You owe it to yourself to download FireFox 3, the free alternative to Internet Explorer.

Why? It's the responsible thing to do:

• Less chance of stinking up your church computer because it is safer against viruses than IE.
• Less chance of being "phished" and losing your privacy.
• Help set a Guinness Book of World Record's....uh, record for most downloads in a single day. Gotta do it by noon EST!
• AND IT IS FAST FAST FAST!!! Google Reader loads soooooo much faster that I got through my blog list faster...which leaves more time for Jesus.
  

Here's a power user's guide for the l33t readers of this blog.

Download today!

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My site statistics just registered several hits from RMN, so drop a "hello" in the comments to everyone! (T.L. Steinwert and I were called "tech-savvy".......I am offended. I am soooooo much nerdier than she is!)

A little shameless promotion: if you'd like to read this blogs' posts on General Conference 2008, check them out here:

Enjoy and welcome! And don't forget to subscribe to the website for almost-daily updates, even if it is just what I'm reading!

[/shameless plug]

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According to CNN: Obama Resigns from Trinity UCC

On the political blogs I read: this is a good thing, it was time to cut his losses.

On the religious blogs I read: this is a bad thing, do we really want a President without a church home?

On my face when I read: Dude! Did we just drive our future President from CHURCH?

Sigh. I think the president of the UCC church has it right:

It’s also important to name the painful reality that many candidates and public officials now find it nearly impossible to be an active member of a particular religious community, given our divisive political culture. Faith is rooted in community. Persons in public office should have the same opportunity, as the rest of us, to experience the worship, prayers and close personal friendships that congregational participation affords.

My prayers are with the Obamas as they seek out spiritual consistency in a politics that abhors a vacuum of scandal and controversy.

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Anyone else a LOST junkie? I was encouraged to watch it by a parishioner who said I would find lots of spiritual struggle and sermon illustrations. My partner and I are still addicted and had much satisfaction from Thursday's season finale.

Apparently T.L. Steinwert is a junkie too...her sermon on Sunday is entitled "LOST and Found: Lessons from the Prodigal One and the TV Series LOST" I almost peed my pants! (TMI, I know)

However, this season its been the Science of the show that I've been most interested in. With the season finale done, it apparently opened the quantum theory doors in this interesting article (link) Of course, I have to polish my lapel and say I thought back in Season Two that the island moved...even though apparently due to physics...it didn't.

So, any other LOST junkies that read the Lostpedia every other week? Any other sermons or sermon illustrations that you find compelling? And what are you gonna be doing with your time for the next 8 months?

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I've been enjoying the EntreCard system for a few weeks of blog advertising. You will see it on my sidebar underneath the feed section.

I am not opposed to advertising because I consider it to be exposure. However, I like to choose what to advertise, so this system intrigued me by granting me free exposure because it is a cashless system.

It's free exposure because the site uses its own credit system. People will pay credits based on how long the wait is to advertize for one day. I choose which ones to run, and I've rejected several of them that were not the right fit. Then, with the credits you get, you can run ads for a day on other people's sites in the same way! It sounds like it takes a lot to get off the ground, but I got hits and a waiting list within 12 hours...pretty chummy people!

There's a few reasons why it may be useful to you:

• It has a Religion/Spirituality section that I've gotten lots of drops from (link)
• You can add multiple blogs to one account with their "add a blog" feature (link)
• You can get started with their free eBook....I skimmed it and it was pretty good (link)
  

Anywho, here's my page there. Check out the free eBook for more info, and drop me your card if you choose to try it out! Or leave a comment here if you need help on how to integrate it into your blogger account.

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In Seminary, we were challenged to be able to give the Gospel in 1 minute. This was called the "Elevator Gospel" because it was the length of a very long elevator ride when you knew you had a captive audience. I thought it was tough!

Now, over on Brian Baute's blog, he saw a writing contest from copyblogger and turned it into a challenge: can you put the Gospel of Jesus Christ (as you understand it) into 140 characters?

Why 140 characters? It's called micro-blogging, popularized by Twitter, where short messages are able to be broadcast to people via mobile phones texting or other web applications.

Anywho, the challenge is set: Can you put the Good News of Jesus Christ into 140 characters?

Try it! Here's mine:

Being saved is not about what happens when we die, but what begins when we realize God always loves us and wants us to transform the world. (Jeremy)

Some other examples:

The world, once whole, then broken. Jesus came, suffered, died, lives. Yahweh’s creation restored. Spirit alive in us, in spite of us. Life! (Brian)

Was happy with taking the bad with the good. Jesus showed me the good could be great and the bad could be gone forever (Mark)

Christianity is not about what you do, but what God has already done (Paul)

God’s perfect. We’re not. God punished Jesus, the perfect Man, in our place, on the cross. Believe this, turn from sin, and live forever (David)

We seek revenge, but God knows only reconciliation has the power to end pain and transform the world. That's why God became human in Christ. (Jeremy...yes, I had two)

Post yours in the comments, and start following me on Twitter!

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Saturday

• Situation: Car wouldn't start.
• Diagnosis: Engine wasn't getting enough gas, replace the fuel filter. You've done this before in your 80s Buick, you can do it again in this newfangled 90s Camry!
  
• Solution: Buy a $20 fuel filter, put it in.
  

Monday

• Situation: Car has been out of commission for 48 hours, now a health and fire hazard.
  
• Diagnosis: While putting in the fuel filter, and about 90% through a textbook-smooth replacement of a fuel filter, this blogger (now named McClumsy) broke the fuel line in half.
• Solution: Tow to an auto place. Four hours and a few feet of fuel line later, car is fixed for $250. Had I just brought it there in the first place? $80.
  

Sigh.

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It's friday, my weekend is REALLY busy, so what am I doing? I'm blogging about video games, like most pastors do. Right?

Anyway, MSNBC has the top 5 hardest video game levels. Check it out. Dude, they only got one right in my opinion: Mike Tyson's punchout. The rest? Lame. The hardest games ever made can be found on the original Nintendo, not new pansy ones with glitzy graphics.

For a nerdy moment (though if you are of my generation, you grew up with these games), here's my top five hardest levels in video games. I was a Nintendo junkie, so deal with it.

5) Super Mario Sunshine, Tower Minigame (Gamecube)

• There's quite a few levels in Sunshine that were very difficult! I'm thinking mostly of the minigame where you have to jump from floating spinning block to disintegrating block, like the one on top of the tower (where you rocket all the way up to it, not the one on top of town hall). I only played this in the past year, so it is on my mind.

4) Street Fighter, Fight against Sagat (Super Nintendo)

• In StreetFighter for the Super Nintendo, you would hit the boss characters at random times, and each character got harder the later in the round you got. If I was playing and hadn't hit Sagat yet, then I knew I was gonna be taken out. Sagat would take some hits, but was always able to come out of his fireballs in time to tiger uppercut me. Always tough, and always satisfying to win.

3) Super Mario World, Tubular (Super Nintendo)

• There are no words. You just had to have perfect timing. Beyond that...nope, no words.
  

2) Ghosts and Goblins (Nintendo)

• The entire game is one dang level! No continues, and it was REALLY TOUGH! EXCLAMATION POINT AND SHOUTING! Also, whenever your character jumped, you could not change direction or anything in midair (though for a guy in a suit of armor to jump, I guess that's realistic). But, seriously, I broke many controllers playing this game, before becoming a pastor made me calm and serene.
  

1) Battletoads, Speedbike Level (Nintendo).

• ALL TIME HARDEST LEVEL. Couple that with limited continues and that it is so late in the game, I rarely beat it. But by then since my lives were so low, I never beat the game. It's my one failure as a Nintendo power player. Yes, it still hurts. Sigh.
• Seriously, check out this quote from Wikipedia: "Battletoads for the NES has a reputation as being virtually impossible to finish, even among hardcore gamers." Dang right!
• Close second is the clinger-winger stage where you are being chased by the glowing orb thingy.

What was the hardest level from a video game for you? And don't say Tetris! :-)

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I found out today that a friend of mine and fellow grad from BU was found dead in his bed earlier this week.

Very tragic. My heart and prayers go out to his family and friends who are certainly hurting during this time.

In their grief, friends of his have started an interesting phenomenon...they post goodbye messages on his facebook wall. Facebook, of course, will retain wall posts forever, so in effect, these posts are perpetual digital memorials to a man whom Facebook will never be able to set as "deceased." His last profile picture will stay there forever, his last status update will stay there for a week then reset. And the posts and goodbye messages posted by his friends will continue on his wall as living digital memorials for our lost friend. Perhaps I am being crass in focusing on his friends actions than on my final well-wishes to him. But it is an interesting situation that Facebook puts us in.

So, here I am, looking at his Facebook page, and wanting to say goodbye.

Every time I go to write something on his wall, some message saying goodbye...the words that come are never good enough for eternity.

So I don't write anything at all.

I don't think I will.

I can just hope that my friend Alex knows the right words are on my heart.

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