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  • Sound, Light, Logic

    The most amazing game, still in development: Auditorium. (With a tip of the hat to Jason Kottke.)

  • We are one

    Barack and Michelle Obama
    Barack and Michelle Obama at “We are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration At The Lincoln Memorial” on Sunday January 18th 2009. Kevin Mazur/Courtesy of HBO via image.net. Creative Commons some rights reserved.

  • All right, you ministers

    Show your stuff! A different kind of sermon contest.

    We want sermons that explore the awkwardness of too much privilege, right-wing relatives, the drunk stranger in the back pew, our pad in the comfy end of the global village, litter in the poor part of town.

  • 2008 technology: Kindle

    After eyeing them online, I finally handled a Kindle and talked to a couple of Kindle-owners last June. That rather undermined my defenses against buying one, and I finally broke down in August and bought one.

    I love it!

    Does it have room for improvement? Yes. The configuration of the buttons is a bit awkward. Putting the on/off and wireless switches on the back doesn’t work all that well with the cover (which depends on a little tab on the back to stay in place). Said cover comes off a little too easily.

    Am I reading more? Yes, even if I haven’t been blogging the books. Neal Stephenson’s Anathem was really great. I’ve reread Swiss Family Robinson. I’m almost done with Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy.

    Is it legible? Yes. You need external light. One of the reasons I bought it is that it doesn’t shine into my eyes like computer screens and nearly every other electronic device I own.

    Is it easy to use? Yes, with some caveats. If you buy books from the Amazon Kindle store, it is a breeze. If you want books from somewhere else, you need to be careful about format, and then you need to use a cable to transfer the file to the Kindle. It is possible to convert formats either by emailing the file via your Kindle email address, or to use a piece of PC-only software (which actually works quite nicely).

  • 2008 technology: Android G1 phone

    I’ve had this phone for a while now, and I’m still learning things about it. The “market” of applications is undergoing constant change, both additions and updates. It is obvious that Android is in its infancy.

    Things I like about my phone:

    • the camera is pretty good (my Blackberry didn’t have one at all)
    • integration of Google mail, contacts, calendar, and maps is excellent
    • good sound quality on calls

    Things I’m not a fan of:

    • the flip-out screen to reveal the keyboard feels loose; I fear it’s insecure
    • no touch-screen keyboard available
    • lousy ringtones
    • fairly short battery life (apparently you need to completely cycle it about once a month)

    Nifty software I haven’t used much yet:

    • barcode scanner
    • voice recorder
    • Shoutcast streams

  • Amazing photography

    Mostly male portraits, some nudes, some couples. Also a few family portraits. An amazing photographer: Paul Mpagi Sepuya.

  • Sleeping memes

    Perhaps it would be better to let sleeping memes lie, but I’m going to pick up on my friend blaugustine’s Where I slept in 2008.

    • at home, the vast majority of nights
    • my sister’s house in Brawley, California
    • Ramada Inn, downtown San Diego, California (after visiting my family)
    • AmeriHost Inn, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (at a press check for UU World at Royle Printing)
    • Embassy Suites, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (UUA General Assembly)
    • Newton, Massachusetts (housesitting for most of July and August)
    • Bromo Ivory’s house in Rochester, New York (on my way to CaleCon)
    • CaleCon at Stone Willow Inn, Saint Mary’s, Ontario
    • EconoLodge, Fultonville, New York (on the way home from CaleCon)

    I really didn’t think the list would be so long. I forgot about staying in San Diego and the press check trip until I started writing this post. I guess I haven’t been such a homebody after all.

  • Resiliency

    Robert Paterson reflects on the John Boyd Conference 2008. It’s pretty grim reading about the state of the world, but he does have suggestions for what to do (on both macro and personal levels).

    The search for efficiency and the urge to consume has set us all up like a row of dominoes — there is no buffer, no resiliency. . . .

    We have to shift the Mindset and hence the design of our world from Efficient Machine to Resilient Organism. We have to shift the mindset of the leader from the hero/Saviour to the servant leader.

    Above all, each place has to be largely self sufficient in:

    • Food
    • Energy
    • Money/Stored wealth/Credit/Savings
    • Security

    (hat tip to Joe Irvin)

  • RIP

    lwaxanatroi
    Lwaxana Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House,
    Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed

    Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (February 23, 1932 – December 18, 2008)

  • Season’s Greetings 2008

    Mummers season's greetings 2008

    Illustration of mummers from Old England: A Pictorial Museum of Regal, Ecclesiastical, Baronial, Municipal and Popular Antiquities, Charles Knight and Co., Ludgate Street, London, 1845