Author: Jonathan Blundell

I'm a husband, father of three, blogger, podcaster, author and media geek who is hoping to live a simple life and follow The Way.

Bono, Boone and others team up to salute Billy Graham

Pat Boone announced his final recording recently in Rolling Stone article.

The album features an all star tribute to Billy Graham. The song, Thank You Billy Graham features Boone, LeeAnn Rimes, Michael Tait, TobyMac, Larry King and others, with an introduction by Bono.

At a time when religion seems so often to get in the way of God’s work; with its shopping malls, sales pitch and its bumper sticker inductionism, I give thanks for the sanity of Billy Graham. For that clear empathetic voice of his and that Southern accent. Part poet, part preacher. A singer of the human spirit I’d say. Yeah I give thanks for Billy Graham. Thank you Billy Graham. – Bono

I’m always intrigued by Bono’s take on Christianity, Christ, God and religion. I think a lot of Christians want to pigeon-hole him, and maybe I’m doing this now, but I think he has a greater understanding of God and scripture than most of us.

Somewhere I have a cool picture of Bono and Mrs. Graham reading the book of Psalms together. I’ll see if I can hunt it down.

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I received this email from a friend/reader of my column this week:

J
FYI – Peace Corps Suspends Haiti Operations
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The Peace Corps has suspended operations in Haiti and evacuated its 16 volunteers because of increasing violence, officials said Thursday, even as gunmen wounded two U.N. peacekeepers during a shootout in a slum.
I believe you’re destined for bigger and better, so I’m hoping you don’t get distracked by Haiti. Besides, a big ole white boy like you makes for too easy a target. If your looking for adventure, consider the army or even the CIA. Or maybe a take over of BellTex!
Hang in there, danZ

I don’t know why, but I seriously have no fear in that. Maybe I’m missing something (my mom might be sure to try and change my mind), but I have an absolute peace about going there when called. I’m not going for adventure, I’m going because I want to serve and experience the world outside Belton, or Dallas, or Anywhere, USA.
I want to serve people and show them love. To me, this is a stronger call to go. This is a stronger message to say: These folks need love and help.
Can’t wait.

RSS Feeds

IndyChristian.com has a good starting point for understanding RSS feeds. It’ really quite simple, but still many people who read blogs regularly aren’t using them. Of course there are lots of additional points/questions to be made, but this entry gives you a good overview.

When people refer to RSS they are usually refering to a file located on a website (usually blogs) that contains information about recent posts that can be used by RSS aggregators

I personally read all my blogs through an aggregator – I enjoy it a lot more than going to 30 different websites a day. And if I don’t have time to read them, my reader will simply store the new messages until I have time to get to them all.
Speaking of aggregators and readers, here’s a few questions for you – my readers:
Please respond with the comment button below (or if you’re clueless you can send me an e-mail):
1. How often do you visit my blog?
2. Do you use an aggregator or RSS reader?
3. How many other blogs do you read regularly?
4. What makes mine different?
5. How did you first find or hear about my blog?
Thanks for reading and I hope each of you have found something enjoyable in my random ramblings.

Federal Anti-Municipal Wi-Fi Bill Introduced

Mobile Pipeline reports:

A Texas Congressman has introduced a bill that impose a nationwide prohibition on municipally-sponsored networks.

Dubbed by the author, Representative Pete Sessions (R-Texas), the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005, the bill prohibits state and local governments from providing any telecommunications or information service that is ‘substantially similar’ to services provided by private companies.

I can’t believe someone would be concerned about people being able to access the internet…

Until you discover that Pete Sessions is also a “pimp” for Southwestern Bell.

According to Sessions’ on-line biography, he is a former employee of Southwestern Bell and Bell Labs.

Why does corporate America get to chose what legislation comes down the pipeline?

I don’t know where the rest of Congress stands – but it will make for an interesting article in this weeks Belton Journal I’m sure.

We just started a number of free hotspots around town, with leadership from the Chamber of Commerce and help from the school district and UMHB.

The school district has even talked about offering Wi-Fi internet access across the district to every student, so they can get internet access in their homes, whether they can afford it or not.

What’s stopping SBC and other companies from doing the same thing. If they want people to use their service – make a better deal of it.

Personally, I have to pay $30 + a phone line I never use to use SBC DSL. It wasn’t worth it – I shut it down.

Now I use my network at work, or use local hotspots for internet access. And I have no intention of going back to SBC.

Thanks to GarrettDimon.com for the info.

laziness subsides

I’m feeling really lazy tonight.
I came home, plopped down in my chair and fell asleep.
I’m laying in my bed now catching up on tons of blogs that I’ve missed this week. And its getting darker and darker in my house and I’m too lazy to get up and turn on a light.
But there is a growing hunger in my stomach so eventually I will have to get up and find some real food. All I’ve eaten today is sweets (you’ll have to look for that post) I’m even too lazy to link to it. Geeze.
I wish we had a greater variety of food options in Belton. I’m too lazy to drive to Temple to have Wendy’s or Chick-Fil-A.
Good thing it’s Friday and good things it’s the weekend.
I may have some cool “job news” coming soon. We’ll wait and see. Just don’t ask my boss about it.