Month: January 2008

Headphonaught’s Book Club v.2

Well, last week I mentioned a book club that’s being formed by my mate Thomas.
During the week Thomas decided that rather than using Google Groups to host the discussion/forum Facebook would be a better route. I’ve used both and don’t have a huge preference between one or the other. Of course in both groups I’ve been involved in, there hasn’t been super amounts of discussion either. I’ve got Thomas’ thoughts below – but what do you think? Do you prefer one over the other?

Thanks to everyone who has shown an interesting in getting involved… especially JD over in Texas and Dan in Glenrothes for their encouragement and support!

OK… so this is where we are going with this >>

1) I have set up an “invite-only” Facebook group > the admins (JD, Dan & myself) will invite people who have expressed an interest in being part of this journey. Facebook gives us the tools to do this >> invites / discussion posting etc >> and encourages community – you have to be a member of Facebook and your identity is known to the group (no nicknames etc). This will make us more honest and accountable >> key prerequisites for an egalitarian community.

2) We are considering a number of books… but a couple of front runners are THE TIPPING POINT [Malcolm Gladwell] and/or EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE [Brian D. McLaren]. We can run multiple discussions, if desired… this can be as linear or non-linear as we want it to be.

3) One thing I am interesting in… as well… is meeting up with folks in Glasgow for f2f conversations. Ally & Jay have expressed an interest in this too. I would encourage you to look at this option in addition to online.

4) Using Facebook will, I hope, allow us to get know each other a bit better. Hooking up and conducting one on one conversations is encouraged.

I hope this makes sense… I don’t want to exclude folks not on Facebook… but the tool is the best one we have. If anything, you now have a legit reason for joining up.

I you want to join up… leave a comment, drop me a note or hook up with me, Dan or JD on Facebook.

Wiki trivia

having my own Wiki has taught me a thing or two about Wikipedia and other Wiki’s in general – so here’s some interesting things I’ve found out about Wikipedia recently.

Pages with the most revisions:

  • George W. Bush ‎(33,566 revisions)
  • Wikipedia ‎(22,491 revisions)
  • United States ‎(17,215 revisions)
  • Jesus ‎(16,010 revisions)
  • 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict ‎(15,432 revisions)
  • Wii ‎(14,774 revisions)
  • Adolf Hitler ‎(14,555 revisions)
  • World War II ‎(14,453 revisions)
  • Deaths in 2006 ‎(13,788 revisions)
  • RuneScape ‎(13,706 revisions)

The English-language Wikipedia currently contains 2,159,739 articles.
This number excludes redirects, discussion pages, image description pages, user profile pages, templates, help pages, portals, articles without links to other articles, and pages for Wikipedia administration. Including these, we have 11,370,560 pages.

Users have made 191,097,861 edits, with an average of 16.81 per page, since July 2002. This includes edits by unregistered users. In addition, we currently have 756,894 media files (excluding files from the Wikimedia Commons).

love is not against the law

I met with a couple good friends last night and discussed a few things that had been troubling them lately. I was reminded of Ephesians 5:15-21 as well as this song while we talked. It’s so hard to live though…

politics or love
can make you blind or make you see
make you a slave or make you free
but only one does it all

and itÂ’s giving up your life
for the ones you hate the most
itÂ’s giving them your gown
when theyÂ’’ve taken your clothes

itÂ’s learning to admit
when youÂ’’ve had a hand in setting them up
in knocking them down

love is not against the law
love is not against the law

are we defending life
when we just pick and choose
lives acceptable to lose
and which ones to defend

‘cause you cannot choose your friends
but you choose your enemies
and what if they were one
one and the same

could you find a way
to love them both the same
to give them your name
– Derek Webb

When people yell at me or make me upset, wherever it might be my first instinct is never to love. But somehow we’re supposed to live a life of love and submission. No matter who it is, what they do or how it may affect us. Ouch.

Huckabee and Obama – BIG WINS

219px-mdhuckabee.jpg
In case you missed it… Mike Huckabee won big on the Republican side and Barack Obama won big on the Democratic side in Iowa last night.
I think most of the anchors were going with the fact that both of these guys are outsiders – not your typical establishment. I can see that and agree. Even the campaign folks for Huckabee and Obama seemed to be heading with that spin.
The laughing point of the night however was MSNBC’s interview of Howard Dean, former Presidential candidate and now DNC Chairman. He kept working the spin for the DNC. “As DNC Chairman, I can’t support one side or the other but look at the huge turnout…. yadi yadi yadi.”
Brian Bailey pointed out on his Twitter feed that even with a huge turnout for the Democrats – 70% of the Democrats voted against Hillary. That’s worse that Gov. Rick Perry’s last election in Texas.

Huckabee will be everywhere this morning (media wise) – here’s his schedule:

ABC’s “Good Morning America” with host Diane Sawyer
CBS’ “The Early Show” with anchor Harry Smith
NBC’s “Today Show” with co-hosts Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry and Al Roker
CNN’s “Morning in America” with host Kiran Chetry
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski
CNBC’s “Squawk Box” with host Carl Quintanilla
FOX NEWS’ “Fox and Friends” with co-hosts Steve Doocy & Brian Kilmeade
CNN “International Report” with co-anchor Anjali Rao

Saturday’s double header debate should be a lot of fun. Wonder if I can get Laurie to tune in as well?