I've spent the last few days looking through my iTunes library and trying to apply some sort of Larry & Sergey algorithm to come up with my favorite album of 2007. This year will be a little bit harder than past years — for the simple reason that I no longer have my entire music library on one computer. It's primarily on one, but I no longer have my own version of "the jazz matrix" that I once had.
I will say that I'm surprised that I've picked up as much music this year as I have — so choosing a favorite album, or a list of 30 of them, will still take me another few days.
As you wait with bated breath, here are a few lists the experts have made:
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
As I threw my keyboard in the trash this afternoon, I thought I should pull it out and give it one more try. I'm typing on it right now. And, the fifteen minutes of testing I have subjected it to have been flawless. Hilarious! I'll let you know if it goes on the fritz again...but I think Jason jinxed me by suggesting this was God's way of providing a new bluetooth keyboard.
I've had a few people tell me that they were waiting on the results of my keyboard bath before they made the plunge for themselves. So, here you go...
The keyboard looks FANTASTIC! More white even than I expected.
The keys feel nice and tactile — not brand new, but much more responsive than they did before I washed it.
I let it dry for a full seven days.
There's only one problem...
MY KEYBOARD NO LONGER WORKS!
That's not entirely fair or correct. The washed keyboard works. It works like an eight year old kid running on zero sleep, without their medications, and hopped up on sugar and red bull...which is to say, not so well. The command key now does any number of things without any discernible pattern. Some keys don't work at all, others work sporadically, and others work perfectly.
Lots of others have tried this successfully, so don't let my failure discourage you. You never live until you try, but in the future I'll stick to my geeky alcohol swabs and bottled air. And I'll be heading to my box of old computer junk to dig out an old keyboard!
For those that don't get Monergism's newsletters, I thought I would link their end of the year sale. I'm sure there are countless items that would be well worth your end of the year book money, but I wanted to especially direct your attention to Scougal's Life of God in the Sould of a Man — on sale for a mere $3.99! This is one of the greatest books I have ever read and one that I try to keep on hand to give away. They also have all ESV Bibles at 45% off — including the Single Column Reference Bible for $43.99.
Katie and I are heading to Oklahoma tomorrow to spend Christmas with my family. I'm beyond ecstatic about celebrating Advent with my family, listening to my nephew Will recite his Advent calendar, introducing our son to the members of my family that haven't met him, and hanging out with some new friends that God may be leading to join us in planting a new church in the urban core of Kansas City.
Though I'm not trying to wake the sleeping man that is my blog, I thought I would share a few things that I'll be doing over the Christmas holiday that I highly recommend you do as well:
1. I'm putting my keyboard in the dish washer. I saw this posted to digg and delicious countless times, but seeing Merlin pull it off has pushed me over the edge. I have a filthy, disgusting Apple bluetooth keyboard, and she's getting a bath.
3. I'm re-reading The Bible and the Future. It has been the source of great conversation with friends and people interested in participating in our church. This book is a standard that everyone should read — especially given the degree to which odd strains of eschatology have tainted evangelicalism at the grassroots level.
Whether or not you take my suggestions, my prayer is that you take time over the next week to disconnect from all the mayhem, connect with people, and celebrate the advent of our Lord and Savior Jesus!
Though this isn't the first time Hulk Hogan has appeared in a church, I don't know if I had ever heard him say, "Whatcha gonna do when the Holy Spirit runs wild on you brother?!"
A friend sent me this link to a Canadian church that is seeking revitalization through pro wrestling. God bless Canadians. I only pray they have some poutine on hand to feed the hungry spectators.
Quinn Haddon was born Wednesday morning at 7:25. He was 8lbs 2oz / 21.5". Mom and baby are both doing great.
Before we even knew what we were having, I told Katie that if we had a boy, I would love to name him after two men that I deeply admire.
Collin Quinn is as good a friend as any man could hope for, and a true hero of mine. Always "Quinn" to me, he exemplifies a passion for Jesus and a passion for justice that I pray my son will grow up to possess. And, for those that hadn't guessed...Haddon is the middle name of another hero of mine, Charles Spurgeon.
Lots of folks have been taunting asking about pictures, so I have embedded a slide show below. If you want to see more, you can check out all my photos @ flickr.
Photography is finally escaping any dependence on what is in front of a lens, but it comes at the price of its special claim on a viewer's attention as "evidence" rooted in reality. As gallery material, photographs are now essentially no different from paintings concocted entirely from an artist's imagination, except that they lack painting's manual touch and surface variation. As the great modern photographer Lisette Model once said, "Photography is the easiest art, which perhaps makes it the hardest." She had no idea how easy exotic effects would get, and just how hard that would make it to capture beauty and truth in the same photograph. The next great photographers—if there are to be any—will have to find a way to reclaim photography's special link to reality. And they'll have to do it in a brand-new way.
I'm a merely an amateur-hobbyist photographer, and an aspiring one at that. And a hack even at that. But, Plagens' article does raise some interesting points about the way digital has changed the way people make photographs and interact with them.
I've gotten a lot of questions about my obvious increasing interest in photography over the past few years, and I'm eager to explain that genesis in my life sometime in the near future. In the meantime, Plagen's article will have to do.
I've had a few people tell me that they were waiting on the results of my keyboard bath before they made the plunge for themselves. So, here you go...
Katie and I are heading to Oklahoma tomorrow to spend Christmas with my family. I'm beyond ecstatic about celebrating Advent with my family, listening to my nephew Will recite his Advent calendar, introducing 
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