Update: Moving

To those who follow this blog, thank you.  I appreciate that.  I've decided to move this personal blog elsewhere and invite you to follow me there.  If you are interested in my more personal posts, you will find the continuation here.  If you are more interested in my spiritual and theological musings, then you will want to follow me at Evolving Christian Faith Network.  Thanks again, and see you there!

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Review: The Path of the Blue Raven

Years back, I read Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian. What a great book for those coming from an exclusivist background (those who believe Jesus is the "only Way" to heaven). Through fiction, McLaren takes his protagonist on a journey through some difficult theological questions that come with living in our world. The most obvious, of course, is how could a loving God could send all those loving people to burn in hell for all eternity just because they didn't "believe" in Him? The journey is one of expanding horizons, a journey that portrays literarily the natural transition from exclusivism to inclusivism (the perspective that holds Jesus above others, but still makes room for them) that happens as we grow spiritually. Unfortunately, those unable to see past an exclusivist perspective will not be able to handle McLaren's book.

More recently (and to the point), I have read Mark Townsend's The Path of the Blue Raven: From Religion to Re-Enchantment. Townsend is an ordained priest in the C. of E. He is also a stage magician. He had always included his stage magic in his religiosity, but eventually his understanding of magic changed. Through experiential reflection and encounters with others of a more nature-based religious perspective, he grew into one who found magic (and I don't mean stage magic) to be truly a part of everyday life, indeed to be life itself. This growing awareness has led him to become a Druid.

His transition from parish priest to Druid has been one of liberation. The context of his spiritual practice in the church was one of dogmatism and highly institutionalized religion. The context of nature, in contrast, was one of freedom, excitement, wonder, and awe. The journey (as the subtitle aptly describes) followed a path from religion to re-enchantement. No longer serving a parish for the C. of E., Townsend reflects on his sense of call and purpose saying, "Now, however, I do not have an institution telling me how to behave or how to do this or that ritual or blessing. I still miss it, immensely, but I am freeer, happier, more myself and more a priest than I ever was." (p. 120)

It seems that what McLaren does for exclusivists, Townsend does for inclusivists as he helps them to connect to a pluralistic perspective (one that values all religious perspectives). To conclude his book, he adds several stories of others. Those voices include Christians who values a pagan perspective, Christo-Druids, and Pagan Druids.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Townsend's journey is, in many ways, reflective of anyone's journey as they grow beyond a parochial religious perspective. And its prose continually invites deeper engagement. I highly recommend The Path of the Blue Raven for anyone interested in learning more about an ever-expanding, personal, progressive religious perspective.

A bonus tidbit that came with this book was an introduction to the Ceile De community. I've enjoyed browsing through their site. It's definitely worth taking the time for a look-see.

Posted via email from Evolving Christian Faith Network

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Building a Muscle

One of the perks of my job is that I get to work from home every once in a while.  This, of course, makes my cat very happy.  Although she is not happy with the distinct lack of attention, it seems to appeal to her more than me disappearing for hours on end.  

Another perk for the night is that my landlord dropped by and put up my Perfect Pull-Up bar.  I don't have any tools (yeah, I know, lame).  And I prefer my landlord drill into my landlord's building.  So, the point is that I now have a pull-up bar (indeed, a Perfect Pull-Up bar) in the doorway to my living room.  

I'm not a big exerciser.  Still, I can't resist the bar over at my friend's apartment.  Every time I walk by it, I have to use it.  My hope is that the same will happen here. 

Behold, my future uber-physique!

*flexes*

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

Posted via email from Silent Echo

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Moving the Blog Back...But Not Really

I have several blogs. My biggest issue with them is that updating was a pain in the ass. I had to copy/paste all the info into all of them for a full update. Therefore, I tended to gravitate to one.

Now, however, I have a posterous account. That account allows me to update them all with a single email. Of course, the different sites may need a bit of a formatting tweak. My tumblr needs a bit of reformatting every time.

Anyway, my point is that blogger is one of the update possibilities. So, I've decided that there's no reason not to set this blog up on my list.

Let the revival of the blog begin!

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Moving the Blog

This has been my personal blog for a while now. I don't intend to move everything over. And, who knows, I may even post something on here from time to time. But for those who want to keep up with me, the place to go is...

http://eclecticmass.net/irreverance

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It's a Good Day

Last night, I got in about 2am from pool (which really makes it this morning). Even though I was tired, I couldn't resist putting in the last disc for Supernatural. Lo and behold, only two episodes left in season four, therefore I watched the whole thing. Bedtime: 4:30 am.

Alarm buzzes at 11am, I hit the snooze and pet my cat...for 3 hours. Yeah, talk about a slow wake up. But is was more than a slow wake up. I enjoy spending time with my cat petting her and listening to her purr. It's very soothing. So it was perhaps less 3 hours oversleeping, and more like 3 hours of cat petting and purring meditation. It was quite nice.

And maybe there was something energizing to it. Since I crawled out of bed, I've taken down my tree (yes, it was still up) and attempted to build my dvd case (which I've had for over a month). I say attempted because the box didn't have a screw packet in it. I had to call the company to have the send me the parts. Normally, I would say to myself, "I'll do it later." But, somehow, I had the motivation to be on top of it. And, to add to my list of accomplishments today, I even cleaned the kitchen a bit. Yes, I cleaned!

Too bad I didn't make it to the laundry.

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Delayed Approvals for Replies

I forgot that I am moderating replies to my blogs to keep out spam. It turns out that a couple have been sitting in the queue...and sitting...and sitting. If you happen to be reading this and you happen to be someone who was awaiting approval, I'm sorry for the delay. I'll try to keep on top of that in the future.

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What To Do, What To Do

I've been running a tight sched through the last several months. Recently, some things have changed, broken down, or morphed. It's time to look at my calendar once again. As a result, I have new time slots that have come available.

I have too many things I want to do. I want to play pool. There is a Monday league for beginners (which I might do okay in) and a Wednesday league for experienced players (which I would be used and abused in). Both sound like fun. I also want to play a tabletop RPG. That would have to start in the afternoon, so it would need to happen on Monday or Wednesday as well. Then, I'd like to start a meditation group up to compliment the group that is watching the Bart Ehrman DVD series, Lost Christianities. From what I can tell, Wednesday is the best evening for that. I would like to spend more time blogging. (I would even prefer to be able to do podcasting, but it takes way more time.) The best time for that kind of activity for me is during the day, which means Tuesday or Wednesday. Then, I'd like to play Halo 2 with my friend Nukem, who is only available early afternoons, which means Tuesday or Wednesday. Then, I want to work on a monthly (?) podcast with a friend of mine who is an atheist to talk about some shallow and deep shit of life. I still think the best name we could have for it would be "Whiskey and Beer," since thats what we'd be drinking during it.

All of these choices have led to paralysis. My guess is I'll go with pool on Mondays (since I can't do it often on Tuesdays anymore). Then Wednesday may be blogging/gaming day. We'll have to see though.

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Blogger vs. WordPress, and My Other Blogging Experiments

There are many blogging platforms out there. So far, I've only tried a couple. I started on LiveJournal around 2004. Loved it. The best part is their "friends" page. I can read entries from anyone on my friends list in chronological order. The closest I have ever come to this is a status update roll on MySpace, FaceBook, and Twitter. The LiveJournal templates aren't too bad either. There are a few I like, and some minor tweaking is possible. (Unfortunately, LJ now has ads unless you pay.)

I tried out blogger because I friend of mine started one. It originally annoyed me because I couldn't add him to my LJ friends and get all my updates and once. Still, annoyance turned quickly into an opportunity to explore, and I quickly set up this account (with an initial misspelling of "Ecclectic"). I liked the interface. I liked the way I could customize everything. I don't have the greatest designs right now, but they are my designs. That's important to me.
I miss the old friend's page, though. Yeah, I can subscribe to other blogs or start a blogroll. The whole process is cumbersome though. Still, not a fan of the lack of that feature, and I can't forsee that ever changing.

Relatively recently, I checked out Tumblr. A lot of great stuff there. Oops! In fact, I have to take back something I said earlier. Tumblr seems to have integrated the LJ friends page. Good for them! They also have a great interface for publishing. Unfortunately, waaaaay too many things wrong. First, I don't know why but it doesn't look much like what I expect out of a blog. The templates are weak, so that doesn't help. Second, I get the impression that they are trying to do half blogging and half social networking (hence the "not looking like a blog" thing). It makes it hard for me to take entries seriously, and prevents it from being a platform for a serious blog for something like politics and/or religion. In the end, I'm torn about Tumblr. I like it...and I don't. I think they are going in the right direction though, and they may be the next evolutionary step in the right direction. For now, though, it's a step back.

I've recently opened a WordPress account. WordPress has a lot going for it. The best thing going for them is their across the top tabs. I can have a home page, about me page, blog article page, podcast page, and any other page I want. I love that. The biggest issue is the inability to customize design. if you want your blog to look like something other than their horrible templates, you need to pay $15 per year. Comparatively speaking, that's a lot. If you were to pay an additional $15, you could get your WordPress its own domain. Add the two and you have paid as much as you would for a GoDaddy site with tons more storage. The pricing is not only ridiculous, but the inability to make your blog look good without paying is a deal-killer for me.

So far, after I've min/maxed my options, I think my favorite is still blogger. It simply has more of the features I like, and less that I don't. I mainly miss my friends page from LJ, but they have something similar in the dashboard that also allows me to add other blogs not on blogger (which LJ doesn't), so it's a bit of an upgrade. And I really wish I could do tabs like WordPress (I can't emphasize how much I want this). Regardless, the best part is I can make it my own visually and don't have to worry about ads (unless I put them there myself, like my EVE ad, which I mainly have there because I like the pic).

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Making Headway on the Sci-Fi RPG

I've been working on a table-top roleplaying game with a friend of mine. Since we haven't exactly put our noses to the grindstones, it has been in production for about 3 years. I'm disappointed that it has taken this long. I figured a year, max. And it should have taken that. I guess lazy costs time.

I believe it is nearing completion. Unfortunately, I don't want to say too much about it, other than it will be a sci-fi game with a unique system. The plan is to offer it as a website. We also want to have forums so that players could add to/modify the current rule set and setting. That way, we can have house rules and official rules online for all to see. Pick and choose the way you want to play it. House rules that we really like may even make it to official standing, with the authors receiving credit.

I would like to offer the basic game for free. If we follow this plan, the only charges would be if there are any supplements. And then, a minimal fee (about $1-$2) would probably be enough. It would be nice to pull in enough to keep the site up.

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Score: 8.3

Okay, not really a score. It's my handicap in the pool league. I subbed a couple of weeks ago. I had to pick up 4 past games and play 8 games that night. Winning 8 out of 12 isn't bad, though I really should have won 11. And I would have, had I not continued to flake on the 8 ball. I need to work on consistency. That probably means I need to go back to setting up practice shots rather than playing complete games. Repetition, repetition, repetition.

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Amazing Storytelling Through Art

There are very few theologians I can say I like.  Peter Rollins is among them.  On his blog, he has this amazing video.  Kseniya Simonova uses sand on a lightbox to tell the story of Russia's resistance of Nazi invasion.  As I watched, I sat stunned.  

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Influencer is Good

It has been a while since I've read a good leadership book. Last Wednesday I picked up Influencer: The Power to Change Anything. It has surprised me. As you can imagine, it's all about how people are motivated to go in a different direction. I'm about a third of the way through it, and can't escape it. It is very pragmatic in its approach. While its understanding is relatively simple, it shows how difficult it can be to actually implement a plan to bring about significant change. I can't wait to finish it. Yet, to reach the end so soon would bring vacuous despair.

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Still Awake

So, what does one do when still awake at 3am?  Start blogging.

Better yet, I think I'll eat, then crawl into bed and watch Dr. Who Season 2.  I've been impressed by this remake.  The Doctors have been surprisingly good.  The storylines often remind me that there's supposed to be a horror element to them.  And the writers do an excellent job of making sure you're watching Dr. Who, and not some spinoff.  

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New Q&A Site for ECF-Net

My internet side project is the Evolving Christian Faith Network (or ECF-Net), which is meant to be a voice for a revisionist alternative for Christians. My friend Gnarf just put together a StackExchange Q&A site for WoW called EpicAdvice. It's very cool. Since the StackExchange platform is in beta and free, I decided to put one together for ECF-Net.

The Evolving Christian Faith Network Q&A page.


The StackExchange platforms is very community driven. I've snagged a TED vid for the ECF-Net blog entitled "Clay Shirkey on Institutions vs. Collaboration" that may help if the idea is difficult to grasp. Basically, it is for the community, by the community. As people gain standing in the community, they are able to do more things (such as edit posts). The more the community trusts someone (based on the quality of their interaction), the more power the community gives them.

This is an experiment. Its longevity may be determined by whether I can afford to keep it up once the beta ends and StackExchange starts charging. Hopefully, it takes a while before that begins, and I am able to gather enough people for the site to become self-sustaining.

X-posted: ECF-Net.

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Behold, My Mighty Shaft of Power!

I've been playing pool for 3 1/2 months now. I figured out that I like the lighter sticks. I wanted blue (I call it my lightsaber). I wanted something between $50 and $150. Anything more than that and I would not be able to appreciate it.

I finally found my stick of choice: The Viking G02, Blue.

I love this stick. I've only used it a couple of times, but already I can feel the importance of having something decent to shoot with. A good investment.

And, yes, I supported the place that I play, Rockford Billiard Cafe.

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Akira, Evolutionary Energy, and Theology

My friend (LithiumInduced) and I are working on a tabletop RPG together. Recently, we've discussed how we want to create the religious system. That's when the old, old anime Akira came up. One of the main characters, Tetsuo, became a conduit for Evolutionary Energy, which made him a total bad-ass. So, we started to talk about the energy of "potentiality."

That was last Tuesday. Just today while reading Werner Heisenberg's Physics and Philosophy I realized how close our product came to Process Theology. I like process theology, for the most part. I think it has issues, which are primarily connected to its metaphysics (mainly meaning that I'm leery of any metaphysic). I'm more of a deconstructionist. But I need to explore this more as I continue to work out my own perspective.

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Where's My Xbox?

It was accepted at the post office on Wednesday. It should take 4-11 days. I'm impatient. I hope it gets here soon.

Have I mentioned that I'm impatient.

*taps foot vigorously*


ETA: It has arrived! Yay!

*jumps up and down*

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Welcome to the 20th Century: Halo on the Way

I finally did it. I broke down and bought an Xbox. No, not an Xbox 360. Just an Xbox. With a green "X" right on top.

I love video games. The reason I haven't bought a system is that they are expensive, and I couldn't justify it. Why get a console system when computers are better. Now that I have a 32" Vizio, though, I have a reason to have one. If I wanted to spend a lot of cash on a system, I would buy another desktop rather than a 360. And since I love Halo, I had to get an Xbox.

Yay for eBay! I found a system and many games for about $100. It should be here in about a week or so. I will have plenty of fun lined up for my copious free time. All I need now is copious free time. This could be a problem.

My schedule is full from week to week, but I will have to make room for my new toy. Halo, here I come!

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FAIL...again?

I think my cat needs lessons on how to be a cat. Last Sunday, she's tearing into the bookshelf in the living room at 11am (while I'm trying to sleep between night shifts). The entire bottom shelf cleaned off and spread out onto the floor.

Okay, I think, "maybe she's after a bug." I move the bookshelf out a little. Lo and behold, I see a mouse tail.

Aha!

I put Annabelle on the left side of the bookshelf to keep watch. I grab a towel to start to press it into the right side (it's in a corner on this side). Annabelle comes over to the right side where the action is. I pick her up and put her back on the left side with "You watch for the mouse over here." I proceed to make sure the towel is snugly in place to hamper escape (not that it would necessarily work, but maybe it would slow the mouse down a bit). Annabelle appears again on the right side. I pick her up and put her back on the left side, hoping the mouse had not made a break for it. I then finished cleaning off the 3' bookshelf.

It was time. I lifted the bookshelf, Annabelle jumped in and snagged it. A bunch of quarters dropped on my foot. They stung. Annabelle wandered into the kitchen. She dropped the mouse. It tried to flee, but she grabbed it again. She dropped it again. This time, it successfully made it under the fridge. After that, who knows where it went.

Mousing 101 second try = FAIL!

I really wonder if she knows what she's supposed to do once she catches it.

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