The New Atlantis - The Age of Egocasting by Christine Rosen is a fascinating read.

By giving us the illusion of perfect control, these technologies risk making us incapable of ever being surprised. They encourage not the cultivation of taste, but the numbing repetition of fetish. And they contribute to what might be called “egocasting,” the thoroughly personalized and extremely narrow pursuit of one’s personal taste. In thrall to our own little technologically constructed worlds, we are, ironically, finding it increasingly difficult to appreciate genuine individuality.

Havine all seen the iPod ads, we know we're all supposed to be individuals. But we can't appreciate genuine individuality? Interesting theory. Not sure how strongly I agree, but there's some sense there. In the rush to be an unqiue, I notice how a lot of people do not appreciate other people who are unique. We appreciate other people, if they're unique like us.

Wanna see how popular your name is over the last century? Check out a really cool site called The Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager

ESPN.com - NHL - Report: NHL, union agree to deal with cap

Let there be hockey!

Praise the Lord! I play roller hockey every week. I love hockey. I've missed hockey on TV. I was asad to see the season cancelled, but could it be true? Could the season be saved? I guess we'll find out

Change in hard in Minnesota. Winters are long, and consistency is valued. Flash and glitz don't count. That's why it's a bit of a surprise to see the news today, that the Wolves replace head coach Flip Saunders with Kevin McHale. Saunders has been with the team more than a decade, and toiled in the CBA with Sioux Falls before that. To imagine Saunders anywhere outside Minnesota (and Sioux Falls, while in South Dakota, is basically Western Minnesota) is almost incomprehensible. But it's pro sports, so that's that.

Meanwhile, here's a change I dare say nearly every Minnesotan would love to see. Taylor hopes to hook Vikes. The Timberwolves owner is making a bid at ownership of the Vikings. I'd be more than happy if Red McCombs no longer owned the team. Fine with me.

Nearly as interesting to me, is how in the state of hockey, the newspaper of record has hardly a mention of the collapse of the NHL season. I have to admit, I like watching hockey. I really do. Even on TV. But at this point, I don't know that I care. I wish I could, but I don't. Sorry NHL.

Here's what I got for my birthday: The Chronicles of Narnia [Hardcover], Read. Think. Pray. Live. by Tony Jones, and also Jones' book Pray

My reading has started with Read. Think. Pray. Live., and I'm liking what I've read so far. I'll post more thoughts later, but it's Super Bowl time now :)

Napoleon Dyanamite
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Vigilantes of Love

extreme north of the compass
december skies looked gray and joyless
the world awaits in barren splendor
for someone to stir the embers

Granted, it's January, but the sentiment holds true. It's been overcast lately, both meteorologically and metaphorically speaking. Hope the sun comes out soon!

The NHL'sDeath Defying season continues. Man, I really like hockey. I play roller hockey once a week, I catch junior hockey games when I can. But I love watching the NHL. Iginla, Forsberg, Modano. And on, and on. Can't we all just get along? End this labor dispute and play!

Brian McClaren and
Mark Noll are, thankfully, two of the "25 most influential evangelicals in America" according to Time.

No Falwell on the list. Darn.

Why is it when Larry King needs a talking head he turns to someone like Falwell? Why not McClaren or Noll? Then again, I don't want them to be talking heads eitehr. But it would be a nice change of pace, once in a while.

So I get to talk to middle schoolers about prayer this week. Yippee! As scary as it sounds, it's not so bad.

Here's the rough draft of what I'm thinking of. I borrowed some of it pretty liberally from re:Jesus

Plus I was really struck by something Tony Jones wrote in The Sacred Way. It's similar to my own experiences

I was raised in a nice, Midwestern, church-going family. I went away to college and got involved in a conservative evangelical college group then went straight to seminary after graduation. In other words, by the time I was 25, my views of God, prayer, the Bible, etc. were pretty screwed up. I had more head-knowledge about faith, religion, whatever you want to call it, than a person should, but I really didn’t seem to be able to put it into practice. I’d say there was one word that summed up my religious life: obligation. I had been taught that the way to connect with God on a daily basis is to have a 30-minute “quiet time.” That is, you should sit down with your Bible open, read it a little, and then lay a bunch of stuff on God, making sure to mention how excellent he1 is before running through the list of all the things you need. I found this style of personal devotion to be a pretty shallow well, and it wasn’t long before I was doing it only every other day, then once a week, and then, well, never. Taking the place of my 30-minute quiet time, however, were hours and hours of that great religious tradition: guilt.

That hits me. Been there, done that. If my personal spiritual life is dry, well there must be a reason. Am I in sin? If I'd only pray and read the Bible more it would all be solved. Maybe I'm not paying attention in church. And while those aren't necessarily bad things to consider, they're not the end-all solutions. We're trying to get to know an almighty, all powerful God. There's no easy formula.

Here's what re:Jesus said... and I liked...
How are you today? Think about one of these questions.
Is today going as I hoped?
In the busyness am I thinking beyond myself?
Am I considering those I am with today?
Do I find it difficult to accept the help and peace Jesus offers?
What do you think I should do, Jesus?

Pray these, or your own words.
Free me to live life to the full. Through the ups and the downs help me to carry on in a way which pleases you Jesus. May I be a source of goodness to those people I meet. I ask you to help my activites today. Amen.

The scripture I'm going to use with the kids is John 15:1-8, you know, about the vine and the branches -- remaining in Jesus. Pruning. Growing. Bearing fruit.

I'm trying to "think outside the box" with my activities for the kids.

That could include:
- A responsive reading, or group prayer (maybe Lord's prayer)
- prayer stations, where they could silently say a prayer
- prayer wall - to write them on a paper on a wall
-prayer labyrinth would be cool, follow a maze with different prayer activities. Like there'd be a map, and they could pick a country and prayer for it. Then follow the path and there'd be a silent prayer station, then a place to write a prayer down, then maybe some of your crazy cool photos to meditate on. Stuff like that.

I think these would be cool ideas... but would middle schoolers dig it?? We'll see. My thoughts aren't super focused yet. Still brainstorming :)