Category Archives: Pop Culture

Donald Vs. Rosie

rosie.jpgI’m torn. In the monster feud currently captivating The Big Apple, should I take the side of Donald Trump or of Rosie O’Donnell? Two fine, exemplary people of unmarred moral integrity. I just can’t choose. It’s like seeing Iraq and Iran go to war. Who do I root for?

The Donald rants at length and blasts everything about Rosie, practically salivating with disdain. Meanwhile, our favorite lesbian merely says, “Here’s my comment to him,” and makes a sour face into the camera.

Donald, take note: humor always wins. Unfortunately, The Donald can’t buy any of this commodity with his alleged billions. He’s in for a pummeling. And it’ll be fun watching.

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The Whole Point of Christianity

Entertainment magazine had a short piece about the movie The Nativity Story, and the fact that Keisha Castle-Hughes, the 16-year-old actress who plays Mary, is pregnant out of wedlock. The article wondered if her pregnancy would turn off Christians.

Catherine Hardwicke, the director, doesn’t think so. She says, “The whole point of Judeo-Christianity is not to judge others.”

Now there’s a ridiculous statement. There is a wee bit more to the faith than that. Plus, the fact that all of us will one day be judged is a pretty big “point” of Christianity.

What is the point of Christianity, in a few words? I’ve been thinking about that, and nothing comes to mind. Which is good. I prefer that the Christian life be more complicated than a bumper sticker.

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Only google with Google

Google, whose motto has been “Don’t be Evil,” has hired lawyers who are concerned about how we commoners ignorantly use the term Google as a verb. They want to protect the Google brand, so that it doesn’t go the way of cellophane, thermos, and other products that have become totally generic. But their me-centric concerns encroach on evilness, and they’ll fully embrace evilness if they take legal action.

We’re told that it’s okay to say you “googled” somebody or something, but only if you did it using the Google search engine. You cannot “google” someone on Yahoo or MSN or Lycos or any other search engine. You can “search” on Ask.com. You can only “google” on Google. This is a matter of cosmic importance.

Google has been a cool company with cool products and services. Now, with this pettiness, they risk losing their street cred and becoming just another bunch of corporate schmucks. Like Microsoft.

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Radio Surfing – Another Guy Thing

Pam and I returned from Pennsylvania today, arriving home with still some daylight left so that Jordi and Molly could get some time out in the grass. They love that.

I’ve become a huge, huge fan of XM Satellite radio, especially for long trips. No more must I find new channels every time I come upon a different major city. No more do I experience the frustration of locating a channel I really like, only to have it gradually fade, becoming increasingly static-ridden and eventually indecipherable. Rather, I can listen to the same channel for 500 miles if I want.

But of course, I don’t do that any more than I would watch the same channel on TV all day long. Heavens no. Instead, I find myself constantly switching channels. Maybe I’m on ESPN. When an ad comes I change to Fox or CNN, or maybe to the 70s music station. If the next song isn’t to my liking, I bump the channel up a notch to the 80s, then the 90s. Who in the world designed this car radio with only six presets?

I radio-surf constantly, which is probably a tad more hazardous than talking on the cell phone while driving. I imagine it annoys Pam to pieces, though she’s always so engrossed in a novel that she may not even notice. Huh. Of course she notices. She’s probably chuckling inside at this overt display of Guy Attention Deficit Disorder. Call it GADD. I’ve got it big-time.

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The Internet Non-Adopters

Interesting article in BusinessWeek about how the growth of the internet has slowed to a crawl. In the US, 64% of households are connected to the internet. And that percentage is expected to increase to only 65% in the coming year. The explosive growth of the 1990s and early 2000s seems to have hit a wall.

Why? The article sites several factors.

  • Setting up a computer and getting connected is just too complicated; many people don’t want the hassle.
  • Some people (but not a whole lot) still live in areas where internet access isn’t possible or is difficult.
  • People are afraid of it. They hear the stories about identity theft and rampant viruses, and don’t feel capable to figure out how to protect themselves. I resonate with that.
  • They see the internet as unncessary. About 6 million peoplehave a computer, but not internet access, and say they won’t subscribe at any price.
  • About 31% of non-users say they have internet access at work, and that’s sufficient for their needs.
  • Then there’s the senior citizen segment. I know plenty of seniors who use the internet. But according to the article, 60% of people age 65 or older don’t use the internet at all. That surprised me.

There’s also a big segement of younger folk (under age 44) who view the internet as a time-waster, or just don’t want the hassle.

The article says computer and internet companies have failed to make things simpler. Instead, they keep adding new features which will appeal to the early adopters, and that just further intimidates nonusers. The “simpler” argument doesn’t work for me, since I set up a dozen Macs in the past six months. Take it out of the box, turn it on, the machine walks you through a few routine steps–and you’re ready to go.

At the same time, I’ve got a Dell laptop at work, which I use only so I can check to see how my websites look on a PC. That laptop drives me nuts with all the things that keep popping up. It’s hugely intrusive. For my PC readers: I know, there’s undoubtedly some setting I can turn off. But I’d rather just be able to gripe about PCs, if you don’t mind.

In my work, we are doing more and more on the internet, at the expense of print media. This is valid. We’re in survival mode, and we’re looking to the future of the church. But it’s good to know that 35% of our people probably aren’t connected, and it’ll be a number of years before that number drops even to 30%. Our demographics would skew more toward the “middle class” end of things, where you could expect to have more people connected. But we’re also a somewhat rural group, so we’d have plenty of people who only get dial-up, if anything (though in actuality, we’re more of a smalltown denomination, and small towns are connected for the most part).

Anyway, it gives me, as Communications Director, some things to consider.

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Enough Said

BlogDog
Yeah, we bloggers do a lot of that. But are we like that sometimes in the church–throwing around our nice teachings and familiar platitudes, while the world ignores us with courteous indifference, considering our multitude of words to be irrelevant to their lives? Geesh, that was a long sentence.

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Can We Stop Talking about Scott and Laci Now

Finally, finally, the Scott Peterson trial is over. And they found him guilty. I’ve gotten so weary of hearing about this. When it comes on, I change channels. Just can’t stand the guy, and can’t stand the case. Way too much hype.

We’ve had a lot of potential “trials of the century,” but none can beat the OJ Simpson trial. Bill Clinton (impeachment hearings), Martha Stewart, Kobe Bryant, various other–none can really compare with OJ. Interestingly, it’s been ages since I’ve heard anyone–black or white–argue that OJ was innocent. It’s like the whole world realizes he did it, and got away with it. And he did.

The Michael Jackson case could be interesting, if it ever comes to trial. And it looks like it probably will, perhaps even in my lifetime. That could, potentially, unseat OJ, because Michael is a bona fide international celebrity.

And still ahead: Robert Blake (nobody will really care, I suspect), and Saddam Hussein (that’ll be interesting).

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The Joy of Netflix

Pam and I haven’t been to Blockbuster, or any other video store, in over two years. Not since we signed up with Netflix. We love it. We can have three DVDs out at once, and can keep them as long as we want without a late fee. No last-minute rush to return a video before it’s overdue.

We’ve also enjoyed being able to watch entire TV series. For instance, we didn’t watch the first season of “24.” But we loved the second season, and then went back and watched the first season–not over a period of 24 weeks, but during a 2-3 week period. It’s much easier to stay with the flow of the program that way.

We watched the entire “Band of Brothers” over a similarly short period of time. And then we discovered Stargate SG-1, a show we hadn’t watched at all. It had been going for six seasons, and five were already on DVD. We watched all five seasons. A couple weeks ago Season six came out, and we just bought the set. We’ve been taping Season 7, which is now in progress. So, in a period of one year, we’ll have gone through all seven seasons of Stargate SG-1. (Pam likes the show even more than I do.)

We still watch regular movies, too–quite a few of them. But the chance to watch entire TV series is the thing we’ve come to enjoy most. I have my eye on “Cold Case” and “CSI: Miami,” two shows we haven’t bothered to watch on regular TV, but which I’m sure we would enjoy. Someday we’ll get around to them.

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