Kasabian + Football Hero
This is ingenious. Football Hero, where the beautiful game gets a digital "hero" makeover.
Nintendo Wii, are you watching this?
Life Is a Beach
There were plenty of Margaritas to be had in Cabo San Lucas. Enough to last a lifetime. Not to mention the cervezas. Pacifico, Dos Equis, Sol, and Corona. I imagine they ship by the truckload every second of the day. The bottlers could not possibly keep up with the demand. It is pure miracle, the fairy dust kind. And tequila? How is it not a trip to Mexico without tequila? Don Julio, Patron, Tres Generaciones. They all come in three distinct choices, anejo, blanco, and the local favorite reposado. Just thinking about tequila makes my head hurt. Good thing we waited till our last night to have some. And we managed to share that time honored Mexican tradition of sipping on tequila with new found mexican friends at the salsa bar. Hemingway would have been proud.
We met our new friends, Hector and Rebekah, at the sunset cruise. After some cordial chatting we decided to extend our evening together by going to Sammy Hagar's bar, Cabo Wabo. It was filed with gringos and a gringo cover band playing typical rock songs that gringos like. We knew this was not our scene, so we moved to Bar Arriba, apparently a local favorite with nightly salsa dancing! The men and women moved gracefully and sensually, shaking their hips and stepping from one end to the other effortlessly. When the live band came on, we also joined the mix of latin lovers and danced the night away.
That is how we ended our honeymoon in Cabo: with new friends, some fine tequila, and salsa dancing.
Last Words
The New York Times had an op-ed piece about executed prisoners' last words from the state of Texas. It quoted a few of the inmates, and had a link to the actual Texas Department of Justice Website's records of all executed prisoners' statements.
It's not often that one thinks about life and death. I've thought long and hard about it when Andy died in Iraq. I thought about it when my grandfather died. I think about it every time it's 9/11.
By the way, the Arlington Cemetery aggregated all the news articles related to Andy's death and posted some pictures as well. The memory will live on forever.
But surprisingly, many of the last words by the prisoners were of grief, of sorrow, and of asking for forgiveness. I guess we can all use a little forgiveness, even the most hardened criminals.
It also puts a human touch to the State of Texas' worst offenders. But somehow, we feel uneasy about that. Perhaps it's easier on us if we think of them as monsters and machines, not flesh and blood. We want them to be psychopaths and orphans, not sons or fathers. We don't want any connection with them, even though they are just as human as we are.
Because otherwise, it becomes too complicated.
Some More Thoughts From Tribes
Seth Godin writes,
Faith is the cornerstone of humanity; we can't live without it. But religion is very different from faith. Religion is just a set of invented protocols, rules to live by (for now). Heretics challenge a given religion, but do it from a very strong foundation of faith.
Jesus was viewed as a heretic of his time for challenging the status quo. Martin Luther was seen as a heretic in his time too. You can say that about MLK too. Yet, history has now hailed them as visionary leaders.
It's hard to break out of the box, with all the religion around us. The religion of "you need to graduate from a good school so you can get a good job and climb a good career."
"You need an influential church with a good children's program, excellent gospel choirs, and MTV-esque band with hypnotic background displays for the sake of bringing in non-believers."
"You need as many toys as possible to show that you arrived."
Yet all of these things reinforce the status quo. It's not unique, it's not visionary, and it's not the way it's meant to be.
The Extra Mile
I'm sitting in Alaska Airlines #329 to Seattle. There's two separate flight attendants serving drinks. I ask for a club soda from one of them. She dutifully puts ice in the cup and pours Canada Dry club soda and hands it to me. The lady behind me also orders a club soda from the other flight attendant. This gentleman refers to the customer as "ma'am", offers short but friendly banter and asks if she would like a lime wedge with her club soda. She joyfully obliges. Same Canada Dry club soda on the same Alaska Air flight 329 to Seattle, and yet two people have very different experiences. Apple calls this "surprise and delight" and religiously indoctrinates their employees with it. Comcast has this and answers every single complaint thrown to their Twitter account @ComcastCares. The organization that goes the extra mile will win for sure. I want to be the customer who receives the extra mile. I want to be part of an organization that enthusiastically goes the extra mile. I need to adit this in my personal life as well.
RSS Broken
My RSS is broken. It happened after I embedded a CNN news video post. I also added a firefox plug-in called Zumanta around the same time. Now, things are totally on the fritz. After much haranguing, I'm still out of luck.
I think this is why most people are afraid of technology. When it breaks, it is very frustrating and often difficult to find a solution. So we fear change because if we accept change, we accept the possibility of things not working, frustrations, setbacks, and... failures. We'd rather stick with the status quo.
Fear impedes our growth.
It's probably true for areas outside of technology too.
Thoughts from Tribes
I'm reading Tribes, written by Seth Godin. One thing caught my mind:
Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.
It's an ever changing landscape, and people no longer want the usual, the status quo of doing things, whether it's in business, community organizations, or even church. The people who are happiest with their job, are often the ones that are most productive and making the greatest impact. People no longer settle with just getting a paycheck, or just going to a Sunday service. The sad part is that most people think heretics are trouble and should be silenced.
Some Thoughts On Church
My friend and pastor recently wrote about why we do what we do as Haven Community, and distinguished between "doing church" and "being church."
My summary and take-away based on his post is as follows:
Doing church means...
- focused on structure, programs, numerical growth
- emphasis on "product" and "brand"
- people are serving/working to improve the church (building, numbers, image)
Being church means...
- focused on people, welfare, spiritual growth
- emphasis on "mission" and "gospel"
- people are serving/working to improve others (people in the church, outside the church)
You can "be the church" while holding onto conventions such as worship music, preaching by a minister, and regular Sunday gatherings. On the flip side, you can "do church" while utilizing non-traditional, loosely structured, organic house group models. The point is, "doing church" does not automatically equate with Sunday gatherings and worship bands, while "being church" does not automatically mean you have to meet in homes.
So what is the difference? It's not in the structures, the leadership styles, or the institutional mandates. It's in the collective purpose of the group. If a group of people, or community, is dedicated to being the church, that is, they are focused on following Jesus, loving one another, caring for each other, growing together, then they are being the church. If they are focused on how polished their meetings are, how many people are signing up for their membership classes, or how spiffy their latest web 2.0 site looks like, then they are closer to "doing church."
So, it's not so much about the structures, the philosophies, or the styles, but it's more about the focus, purpose, and in Christian parlance, "mission".
Arizona Pastor Wants Obama in Hell
I am a Christian. I've been through my fair share of ups and downs in my spiritual journey, from the very zealous and close-knit conservative community to a more open, progressive, and laissez-faire one. I have my own gripes and troubles with the church as an institution and with leaders in their human failures. As a former leader, I understand the inner-workings, the politics, and the very powerful and sometimes dangerous influence of leadership on its members.
But never like this.Steven L. Anderson, a pastor in Phoenix, Arizona, used the Bible to justify his hatred for the President and prayed that he would die and go to hell. He said, over the pulpit mind you, that he hated Obama, and wished he would melt like a slug that melts under salt (an imagery borrowed from Psalm 58, the passage he was preaching on). It is appalling what kind of pastor this man is. He shouldn't even be called a pastor. And it's sad that the congregation has to be subjected to such vitriolic and bigoted teaching. Leadership is a powerful tool that has tremendous influence on people. It can either inspire and motivate people to achieve something great. Or it can indoctrinate people to buy into one's own narcissistic whim and grandiose dream. I've seen it used in negative ways in my own experience, but this is truly taking it to another level.
