Category: misc

More changes to SSL

Got around to setting up accounts with del.icio.us and twitter over the last few days. So far I’m liking them both. Don’t know why I’ve been putting it off. They may mean I’ll cut down on some of my usual blog posting, but I don’t know.

You would think that I would have jumped on these bandwagons a long time ago, but I put them off until seeing them really utilized by folks like Thomas and others. Even various organizations and companies are getting on the bandwagon to easily share links within their organizations or to clients.

For example The Sunlight Foundation sent me to their del.icio.us page a week or two ago to show me all the articles and information I might ever want on their new Google Earth layer. Rather than e-mailing me a list of a few articles, I was sent a link and it had loads and loads of links and information.

Also several presidential campaigns are running del.icio.us pages and twitter pages as folks follow the candidates around.

If you’re not familiar with the two services, del.icio.us allows folks to save bookmarks for websites, videos and misc. that are of interest and that they want to share with others. As you’ve probably noticed a lot of my posts are simply links to other sites and articles I want to share with others. Now with del.icio.us that’s done in one easy to follow place. I’m working on trying to set it up so it will automatically post one blog entry with all the links for the day – but I’m still working out the kinks on that one. Until then, you can visit http://del.icio.us/jdblundell to see the various links.

As for twitter, the service allows users to keep others posted throughout the day & night about their going ons. It’s like a simplified report or re-cap of the day – 24/7. Don’t know how often I’ll be using it or updating it. We’ll see. It can be updated form the website, my cellphone or IM and it also updates my Facebook status too. My twitter status will update on the right hand side of SSL, right under the calendar or on my twitter page.

Crazy stuff going on around here – who knows where it will all lead.

UPDATE: With the pending shutdown of Delicious sometime back I jumped ship and moved to Pinboard.in which has far more features and benefits than Delicious ever did. I highly recommend it. You can see my links there at: http://pinboard.in/u:jdblundell.

This American Life: Pray

I’m listening to This American Life, episode 77, Pray, from 2001.

Love this show. Listen to a 30-second promo.

From the show:

Can the secular world and the religious world understand each other? We ask that question while visiting Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Pastor Ted Haggard at the New Life Church has put in place a project to pray in front of the home of every person in the city, systematically, block by block and house by house. He’s also helped organize a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year “prayer shield” over the city; all-night prayer vigils; and more.

From Act 1:
Alix Spiegel talked with a former member of Haggard’s church at a porn store who left the church because of his homosexuality.
“There seems to be more spiritual love than this environment where there is only physical love… I am really torn between what i was brought up with and what I’m doing now.”
“To you personally, and to anyone else, I would not turn Jesus away just because of what Christians do. Jesus isn’t the bad guy.”

Well worth the listen.

10 major church trends affecting the church (from 1986!)

From MondayMorningInsight.com:

I made an interesting discovery recently of a book on church trends written back in 1986 by Howard Snyder and Daniel Runyon titled “Foresight: 10 Major Trends That Will Dramatically Affect the Future of Christians and the Church”. I thought it might be fun to see how their predictions are coming true some twenty-one years after the writing. See what you think from their synopsis:
Continue reading 10 major church trends affecting the church (from 1986!)

things you learn from games


We’ve had a couple game nights this week. On Tuesday night we played Balderdash with our community group and Thursday night we played Loaded Questions with my family. I always love learning new things about people through games – they’re almost as telling as Myspace surveys. But as Amy pointed out, it’s a good thing our community group already knew each other fairly well, otherwise we might have all been worried about saying the wrong thing in front of someone or making someone uncomfortable.
Here are some of the things I learned this week…

  • “bathetic” doesn’t mean “the process for washing your prosthetic” or “proper rules for a Roman bath” it means, “pretending to care”
    • “bufagin” doesn’t mean “what you do after a bird craps on your car.” it’s actually a substance found in toad’s milk
  • my sister Kara makes a duck sound when she scratches her throat
  • Wild Women of Wongo is a film about a village of beautiful women, with ugly men, who meet a village of beautiful men, with ugly women on the other side of a tropical island one fateful day
  • my parents would rather be in their own home than most anywhere else in the world
  • when thinking of where someone would place a statue of them, most of my family thinks of local parks – as in Dallas or Mesquite – my sister Kara and I think big – as in Central Park, New York City.
  • my brother-in-law Tim prefers to think on the pot while I prefer to think in the shower
  • the men in my family would like to be able to control the minds of our spouses, while Kara would prefer to control the mind of “the one who pees on the carpet”
  • our house would be named, “Queen Sheeba’s Pad” – for Presley, not for Laurie
  • when playing Balderdash, men tend to take longer to answer the question but their answers are usually short and to the point. women however don’t think about it as long but will explain their answers within the answer. i.e. “It is still illegal in Oklahoma to destroy… landscaping, because they provide tornado protection.” or “It is still illegal in Oklahoma to destroy… the soles of shoes, but they can be recycled.”
  • the Treadaways always find ways to take their games “once tip fur there”

What games do you and your family play? Found any good two person games?

Christmas lights and more

Well two major tasks have been completed today.
Laurie finished painting the living room while I hung the Christmas lights outside.

The dining room looks great. Laurie really did a great job.
Putting the lights up was a little bit of a different experience. I always remember rushing to want to put them up every year. I had fun climbing the tree in the front yard to wrap them in the best way possible. As I look back I think it looked pretty random and trashy but either no one noticed or didn’t care to tell me. 🙂
So far we’re not doing much with outdoor lights this year. Just some basic white C7 lights around the eves.

But I’ve run into a problem with our “bell tower.” I’m hoping maybe you can help.
As you can see in the picture above, as well as below, there’s a somewhat random string of lights that hang down on the sides of the “bell tower” above the front porch.

I think it looks a little tacky but I can’t figure out what to do with them.
Should I hook them to the brick along side the tower somehow? Should I tape them down? Should I just unscrew the bulbs so it doesn’t look as bad at night?
Any and all suggestions will be taken. Just let me know. I think it looks tacky and would love some suggestions and/or help.
Thanks in advance.
Now its time to find some dinner and come back to set up the tree and interior decorations.
Sadly, Orange Friday will be coming to a close before too long. 🙁