26 March 2009

Hosea and Wordle.net

This site is a lot of fun. Slightly addictive, though.

I ran the text from a paper I wrote for Prophetic Literature through it, just for kicks and giggles, and because after staying up until three am to turn it in at an eight am class, I needed to see it in some other form.
Wordle: Hosea and History
Incidentally, in removing the parenthetical citations before entering the text into the website, I realized that MLA format wastes a lot of space. The citations took up nearly half a page out of eight.

Shalom,
Drew

23 March 2009

Obama's 25 DVD Faux Pas

I know I'm a couple of weeks late on this, but people are still talking about it (for some reason), so it's still bloggable.

I know a lot of people are ticked off about Obama's gift to Gordon Brown, but it seems like a pretty good list of films. Ok, so they are only viewable on Region One DVD players, but I'm pretty sure Gordon Brown can get his hands on one. And perhaps President Obama was trying to highlight the importance of regionless DVD technology?

Or not.

Honestly, people, stop reading so much into this. It doesn't prove Obama to be incompetent, nor should it be read as some deep social commentary (my favorite one is that he's trying to communicate the importance of returning to the gold standard through The Wizard of Oz).

Maybe our president just doesn't like shopping for gifts?

Or, hopefuly, he was busy with more important manners.

But how about you? What would you have added to the list of films? How many have you seen? What would you have given in lieu of DVDs? (The list is in the linked article)

My answers:
1) The Shawshank Redemption, WALL E, Hotel Rwanda, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Stalag 17. Ok, so only one of mine is actually considered to be of any cultural significance, and even it is too recent to be considered a classic, but hey, at least WALL E would give PM Brown something to do with his kids.
2) I've seen eleven of the movies, and seven are on my to-see list.
3) The desk on which Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. Ok, not really. A first-edition of To Kill a Mockingbird or The Federalist or...well, a first edition of any important book.

Edit: After a screening for my Judaism class, I'm adding Gentleman's Agreement to my list for #1.
Shalom

17 March 2009

I Just Want To Point Out...

...that David Bowie did play Nikola Tesla in The Prestige, so this actually makes perfect sense.

Anyway, in my quest to become the indiest kid ever, I have discovered something truly amazing.

Did you know that you can play music on Tesla coils? At first, I thought it was mere gimmickry -- the Imperial March, the Mario Brothers theme -- stuff like that.

But people are actually making unique music with coils.

Check it out their "Creepy Circus Song":


You can find out more about the band, ArcAttack, at their website, and here some of their original stuff at their MySpace page.

Rock on.

12 March 2009

MSF Workers Abudcted in Sudan

The AP reports that several workers attached to the Belgian branch of Doctors Without Borders (Medicins Sans Frontieres; MSF) were abducted in the Darfur region of Sudan.

At present, no group has claimed responsibility for the abduction.

The attack comes just days after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir and the subsequent ejection of aid agencies from the Darfur region, including the French and and Dutch wings of MSF.

Pray for peace.

Rock on.

10 March 2009

CoR's Sermon Archives

Spring break often yields interesting discoveries.

This year, I decided to explore the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (better known as CoR, not to be confused with UMCOR, which is different, but probably more worthy of attention -- thus, the link on the side under Charities and Causes. But I digress...) website.

I often describe CoR to friends as the one megachurch I don't dislike. I'm not really sure if I'm joking or not. Maybe there are two. Rob Bell's Mars Hill might make the list as well. Of course, then again, megachurches are pretty popular in other countries -- South Korea has several. And megachurches do some good things; I remember reading about Rick Warren's trip to Africa. And yet more digression...moving on.

Anyway, CoR posts their sermons on their website. Pretty interesting. Right now, I'm working my way through the Lenten series, The Final Week. Check it out.

08 March 2009

Sudanese President Threatens to Expel Aid Groups, Diplomats

This recent report from the AP is very disturbing.

In the past few weeks, the International Criminal Court formally charged Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity and formerly issued a warrant for his arrest, a giant leap forward in the six-year old conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

In response, President al-Bashir has kicked out several aid groups, calling them "spies" and has threatened expulsion of many more if they "interfere in something that doesn't concern [them]."

Pray for peace.

Rock on.

07 March 2009

I Never Want to Hear Anything Again

I recently came across the most unwanted song ever.

It's over twenty minutes.

I'm at seven minutes, and will update when I finally give up.

See if you can beat me here.

Shalom,
Drew

Edit: I got through all twenty-one minutes and fifty-eight seconds of it. I'm going to go listen to nails on a chalkboard to force this abomination from my memory.
Edit 2: The Sequel: The most wanted song ever is not much better. It is highly reminiscent of something you'd hear on Delilah.

04 March 2009

We're Number One!

Apparently, my humble blog is the number one result for the Google search "judean garb" (I blogged about it here).

Oddly, the blog itself and not the specific post, is what Google turns up.

Strange, but true.

Anyway, just thought I'd brag a little.

Shalom,
Drew

You know it's the 21st Century when...

...bishops encourage people to abstain from text messaging during Lent.

Seriously.

As weird as it sounds, though, the thought behind it does make sense. If people give up Facebook for Lent, why not texting? It encourages more actual conversations -- gasp...even, perhaps, face-to-face! -- instead of short blurbs back and forth.

Rock on.