That is a cool tool! My blog made a beautiful cloud - except for the blazing big “busy” right in the middle.

There’s that full body whatever-whatever workout place next to Sparky’s Pizza on MLK. Looks nice, dark & scary.

The knee felt good yesterday… but last night and today it is definitely a little sore. I probably should ease back in instead.

Simple concept, but breathtakingly complex execution.  Love it.

I see you’re in Portland.  I grew up in Salem:)

On the other hand, starting a post with my name is a pretty good way to make sure I comment.  (Trick-y!)

peace.
jt

I didn’t do the Passion work. They do awesome stuff, and I’d love to do work like that someday. The work I do for the Luis Palau Association gives me lots of practice for cool event graphics.
If you can’t afford ProPresenter, and you’re on a Mac, consider switching to Keynote. You can import all your old PPT stuff, and the looks and effects are much nicer. Only US$79. I used Keynote for a while before getting into Media Shout (Windows, $299). Frustrations with that led to ProPresenter.

Your comments are really encouraging! I’m learning a ton, and try to share what I can.

Great conversation!

Snopes.com is indeed great - I relish few things more than deflating ridiculous urban legends. I enjoyed their ”Truth Ratings” page, which is somewhat applicable here - things don’t always fall into neat categories of black & white, true & false.

I’ve concluded that chain emails are almost never true, in whole or in part. Something about the medium, I guess.

Our political system is something that has come to fascinate me over the past year. I have become a social activist on behalf of the poor and hungry in our world through organizations like the ONE Campaign and Bread for the World. This activism has given me many opportunities to lobby my senators and congressmen. I listen to my senators’ podcasts and read/watch news from a variety of sources like it was going out of style.

I very much believe that we who have been given the great blessing to live in this country have a responsibility to steward the citizenship that God has given us. Unlike any other country in the world, we have a great opportunity to take part in the democratic process and I believe whole heartedly that we should use the benefit of citizenship to benefit the citizenship we have in the Kingdom of God.

That being said, I do not classify myself with any party. I believe that it is best to avoid extremism in most situations especially when towing a party line. Especially in politics, I believe that extremism is dangerous and alienates people--this is especially true in the U.S. where we have become so deeply divided in the past few years. When I find myself falling to the extreme on either side of the party line (I will admit that it is usually to the left), I find that it is important to re-fix myself on Jesus. Because although I do have an earthly citizenship, I am being made of the stuff of God and ultimately it is with Him that my citizenship lies.

Shane Claiborne has some interesting thoughts on this subject, and I would really encourage you to check out some of his writings. If you are not familiar with Claiborne, you can find out more at the simpleway.org. Another guy who had a lot to say on politics for those of Kingdom fodder, was Paul. He’s got a lot of interesting opinions on citizenship and was an amazing example of stewarding one’s citizenship for the Kingdom.

I try to listen to both sides. I admit I go crazy when I hear the Air America types because I just disagree so mightily with them. The right is easier for me to take and I just shake my head at some of their nonsense.

I do have to say that Fox is my main television news outlet. I find them very fair and show both sides of an issue through their guests and some of their anchors. My love for O’Reilly is fading though...he’s kinda boring now.

Sean Hannity and Mark Levin are my head-nodding radio men. I agree with them a lot. Every now and then I hit 620am and then 1190am just to hear the extremes in the morning. But I have too many Blog Reader subscriptions of varying degree to hopefully say I don’t fall within your category of one-sided listener.

I will listen and sometimes challenge even my friends...I guess I am too passionate about certain things...mostly global warming if you haven’t been able to tell. I’ll argue that one all day...just don’t bring it up. I still don’t know who I will vote for. I actually am nervous to make it to 2012. But that’s a long story and I am so tired I am shaking, so I know its bedtime.

I really appreciate your thoughts. I tend to be a “lurker” on most blogs but I just found that your honesty needed to be encouraged and I wanted to be one to do so.

I can also appreciate the struggle of trying to balance all the information (or misinformation) coming from both sides of the political spectrum. I find that to choose one side over the other because your parents did so or simply because your friends mostly lean one way is too… i don’t know… tired. I agree with Glenn that there are people of passion on both sides of the political fence, but I find that I feel I can’t trust either side completely.

I, like you Allan, choose to be independent and do my best to weigh the issues and then choose. I know so many who choose to stay uninformed about the issues, and I can definitely see the draw to that approach. Nothing is really as simple and “black and white” as the media (whoever you are listening to, reading or watching) would like you to think.

I guess the only real measuring stick we can use as Christians is the life and teachings of Christ and the Bible… but with the realization that some will choose to ere on the side of justice, while others will choose the side of mercy. I’m not saying that they are always mutually exclusive, but this seems to be a dividing line for many.

It’s wonderful to know that, in the end, we are saved by grace through faith… not by the accumulation of all our choices in life… right or wrong.

Thanks again Allan for your candor and thought provoking post.

I find it hard to trust without reservation any news source. People’s quotes are taken out of context; a verbal slip is analyzed and criticized beyond reason; hot stories are highlighted over important ones (e.g. the horse with the broken legs gets 10 minutes on the Today show; Myanmar, where thousands upon thousands have died in a terrible storm, given 10 seconds in the news highlights). I want to stay to informed, though, so I continue to listen. I keep a critical ear and an open mind.

I get my info from the twitters & blogs of NPR, the Oregonian, Yahoo News, and my passionate friends and family!

I agree that extremism on either side can lead to the trampling of freedom and to dictatorship.

“Directness” of the right-wing media is a gross understatement. And, don’t confuse (for example) compassion and a desire for justice with “mindless emotional drivel”.

I’m not saying the Left is right about everything. I’m simply saying I’m observing my friends bathing in a steady diet of extremist media, which happens to be right-wing in nature. I’m also calling for logic and rational arguments in political positions. I’m interested in selecting policy positions with the best information I can get. Getting it from one source isn’t the best path to that goal.

Kill your personal blog and start the very best blog on a narrow topic. It’s the best way to stand out.

He’s probably right. Perhaps the personal blog becomes just an aggregator for all the microblogs.

How’s that different than categories or tags? More vertical-market-ish? I suppose you can then build separate audiences for each. Good point, but a lot of work.

Philip

I have too many feeds too, already. Google Reader’s stats are useful for pruning.

RSS is a reality now for how people read. I only click through when I want to comment on many.

Man, comments are truly addictive (look at this post! Woo! Conversation!) sometimes. I’m always frustrated when I read good stuff on a blog and can’t comment. I’m not sure comments help the writing, but they do help me get to know the people who do post.

Thanks for noticing and writing about it. We appreciate it. We loved the (Amazing) subtitle.

Cheers

Philip

I’ll confess that I’ve cut some blogs out of my life just because they force me to click-through to read them.

As I *occasionally* consider authoring on my blog again, I’ve given some thought to turning off comments completely. I used to get pretty focused on my comment counts. I wonder: “would my writing be better if I didn’t even have comments?” “Am I writing to get that little ego stroke?” It is tempting to me.

Tumblr is really just another flavor (Flavr?) of blogging. It’s a little different, but not different enough to not call it a blog; in the same way, you might refer to Twitter as “microblogging”.

Again, we have the tech foundation down, we’re definitely going Expression Engine. But thanks!

Have you considered Tumblr? It’s sort of a cross between a blog and a twitter account.  You can get people to follow you, and you can choose who you follow.  Content isn’t limited to text; you can have pics, music and videos. 

http://www.tumblr.com/ ...I’d post a link to mine, but it’s mostly full of big robots and dinosaurs.

Been thinking more about Lindsey’s comments. Kristi is definitely about the comments. She’s great at eliciting them, and writes posts that are thought-provoking.

My goals are a bit different. It started as a way just to write what I’m into - for me alone. I can’t deny that getting comments feels great, and not getting them feels… a bit lousy.

I’m still compelled to blog, though. I need to “lower the threshold” of blog post effort to do more (e.g.

“fewer features” (less buttons & whistles) is a “feature” of a sort, too. Stated another way, simplicity is an important value.

If I can get my posting volume up, I really need to fork this blog into “personal/discussion” and “work-related/neato” blogs. Time in my life is at an absolute premium right now.

Good stuff to chew on! Thanks for contributing.

As for comments… I’m learning (slowly) that there are posts which make people want to comment, and then there are posts which people read and think “Oh, cool,” and move on. What’s the difference between the two? Well, I’m still trying to figure that one out myself, but I can tell you that your posts, Allan, fall mostly into the latter category. That’s really not a bad thing, from a reader’s perspective—but if you’re craving comments, you gotta figure out ways to invite dialogue.