• Post-minimalist
• Post-Brooklynist
• Post-racist
• Post-graduate

I just wonder what the Post-Post What? would look like?

I just recently received a copy of The Voice’s translation of the New Testament. I have read through parts of it already, as they have been releasing single books of the Bible as the translations are completed for a few years now.

I begin by saying it a beautifully designed book, inside and out. They clearly spent much time creating an work of beauty. Though I was rather disappointed in the binding, I have become rather used to and come to expect a Bible to lay open. This binding it rather tight, and I would also worry about its longevity. It is bound more like a trade book than anything else.

If you haven’t heard what “the Voice” translation is, it is a modern paraphrasing, similar to the Message, except they have draw on many different writers. Their main thesis is that originally the scriptures were composed by many different voices of varying style, motive, or background so they have gathered a collection of different people, artists and creative types of various disciplines to write a unique and creative expression of the divine word.

They have attempted to make it as readable as any modern literary work. And it can be said that it fulfills this exceptionally well. Though I’ve enjoyed reading it, I hesitate to call it a real Bible. There are so many additions and variations in the text (any additions being italicized), I would not want it to be mine or anyone’s sole study Bible. Other things like, the word “voice” being included so often, such as John 1:1, is rather suspect; while their use of the term “liberating king” is just annoying.

Though for those times when you are trying to get the forest perspective instead of the trees, it could then be helpful—as a result of its readability. It could be a nice way for someone to read through the Bible, like so many resolution focused plans which crop up this time of year.

Though for a culture which already averages some 4.3 Bibles per family, do you need one more? Probably not, especially when the ones you have are already pretty dusty.

How To Spot a Church Movement – Tall Skinny Kiwi

Andrew Jones passes on some wisdom that he gained from Fuller prof. Dr Paul Pierson.

Key ideas that stuck out to me:

They always begin on the periphery of the institutional church

The result is the desire for a more authentic Christian life that often leads to concern for the church and world.

The movement is countercultural in some ways, often because it reaches out to those who have not been valued by their society.

Consequently there will be opposition by many in the dominant culture and church.

Make Plans, Not Resolutions: Reflections on Proverbs 16 – Jeremy Carr

The night before seeing this blog post I had a significant conversation with my wife about our plans for the future. I’m not sure how to take these words, because I’ve always been uncomfortable with planning. It seems so contradictory to faith and trust in God’s sovereign plan. It seems this post makes things rather simplistic, rather than speaking to the complexity and the aspect of faithful obedience while blind to an understanding of future events. On one hand we are to plan. I see this closely tied to Genesis 2, where we are called to be God’s stewards of the Earth. Conversely though, we often times—seen most strongly in the Bible—we are called to blindly step forward without much of a, or any, plan. The pin which holds it together I would argue is obedience. If you aren’t living in obedience then the call of faith won’t come. That life of obedience requires planning, but that won’t get you all the way when it comes living faithfully. Many times you will be called to do things that aren’t planned for and can’t be explained logically.

So this is the place I am. Trying to understand how to continue moving forward in faith when you don’t have much of a idea of where you are being lead.

The Revolutionary Table (aka living la vida local) – Mark Van Steenwyk

Mark describes himself as a ‘foodie’. He is not the only one; there has been a resurgence of food-conscious persons within the U.S. recently. Mark as many others also have realized the implications of their food choices beyond the organic/fast food dichotomy. Mark’s post speak of the economic implications that purchasing foods shipped around the world, cheaply priced by being subsidized by the backs of the farmers in already poor and marginalized countries.

What is most helpful, is that he finishes his post by giving a list of different web resources for living a sustainable lifestyle through locally-seasonally grown & preserved products.

Augmented Reality used to Fix Cars – Slashdot

Here’s a story via slashdot. I have never been good at fixing any car I’ve owned. Maybe this is what I need.

Pack a Gun to Protect Valuables from Airline Theft or Loss [Air Travel Tip] – Life Hacker

Never time you travel, just pack a gun in your check-on luggage. TSA will make sure that it doesn’t get lost.

the difference between “cultivating communities” and “building churches” – Kathy Escobar

A thoughtful post about the personal struggles of a community being a community instead of building a church. The interesting point that she makes is that she found that they needed to separate the two. Having them mixed caused a lack of commitment within the group. Having strong doses of music, teaching, & programs caused people to disengage from the messier {though essential} parts of community building.

If I reflect I can see a lot of her experiences within my own experiences. My community, while making up some families of our church, isn’t really tied to the church much at all. We could drop one or the other without much noticeable impact on the other.

It seemed that in previous centuries the church building was a cultural center for the community; today though, it has a periphery place. It may be a place of teaching or worship but not community. What are the implications for that? Is that good? Is it something I/we should be trying to counter-act?

She also recommends Jean Vanier’s Community and Growth a great read on communal living. He is the founder of the l’arche community in canada where henri nouwen lived and was deeply inspired.

Haiti | To Hell With Altruistic Capitalism – Kester Brewin

Here is my last link for the day. With all the blog post about Haiti or Pat Robertson’s comments on Haiti, here is Marxian analysis. I can deeply sympathize with his outlook. It is amazing that we can ignore the horrible conditions of a nation for decades, and it isn’t until a natural disaster that we come to help. Kester Brewin rightly points to many of the problems originating from economic relations, where we have dealt extremely unjustly with them. I pray that this incident will shed enough light upon the people of this nation for long enough for some substantial change.

Posted via email from jonathan perrodin

image by flickr user ajrpix

This will be the first of a series of posts, based upon simple practices my family has incorporated into our lives to live simply.

It is very much in the line of modernity to find a device that we must all buy that will solve all our problems. When this applied to the home, household appliances and related devices becomes the saviour of housewives everywhere; or at least that is the story we are told. The truth is much more murky. Take this story for example.

Over the last year or so our clothes dryer has acquired an extreme squeak. I say extreme, because you could literally hear it down the street, with doors/windows/and any other thing closed to muffle the noise. This summer though we haven’t has to endure the obnoxious & embarrassing noise. Early Spring I had been talking about how I needed to put up a clothes line. A friend had told me, depending on your model, your dryer uses enough electricity to cost you upwards of $1.50 per load of dried clothes. That really put an imperative to find an alternative drying method.

I never did get around to putting up that clothes line. Instead I found a much better way. I lucked out in acquiring a ‘drying rack’, & subsequently another smaller one. What it is, is simply an accordion style object with dowel rods as racks to lay clothing across. It is extremely efficient—though you can’t have things dry in an hour, clothes are generally dry the next day—you don’t have to pay for any electricity or maintenance on an appliance.

The only caveat, it will make a lot of cotton based clothing very stiff. I simply put these items in the dryer for 10 minutes on fluff. I enjoy having a covered patio area where I can leave the racks so I don’t don’t have trouble even when it rains, which a traditional clothes line would.

I don’t exactly why, I can’t example it but the change of process is very nice. The simplification of the method, taking out the unnecessary appliance, makes for a nicer experience. Maybe it is simply the hipness of ‘going green’ or the ‘back to basics’ attitude that is so cool that has me enjoying this. I want to say that there is something more to it all, I want to point into the abyss to some deep metaphysical truth about why this is good. But I can’t, so as in reading rainbow style, “don’t take my word for it…”

m9dt6yn5vh

(1)book cataloging

For those who don’t get out to the libraries too much or you frequent book sellers of various sorts often you would probably think that book are ordered either by only one system or by any number of systems.
There are actually two main systems that you will find in libraries (at least the two main ones I have come across, I would have to enlist the aide of my library professionales to verify this), either the Dewey decimal system or the Library of Congress Catalog system.
The Dewey system is rather straight forward. Nonfiction is divided by subject through the range 000-900; fiction is ordered by author’s last name A-Z. Pretty straight forward, right?
The LCC is rather more dense, I don’t pretend to understand the specifics of how the system works. All I know is that everything is ordered by topic and some kind of historical sub ordering, nonfiction as well as fiction. So you have stuff like 19th century English literature followed by 20th century English literature; prose and criticism placed side by side, something that is separated out with Dewey’s system.
This is where the distinction is large for me. Though it is handy to finding an author’s works without having to search a catalog within Dewey’s system, I don’t usually get my reading this way. I more like to peruse through I certain section. Dewey doesn’t really help when I am looking for an early 20th century American author. What is especially handy is when you already know where 19th century Russian literature is, then you can go straight to that section and find the specific book you want or rather peruse to find new/different authors from that same period. I guess this comes down in large part to how I think about reading: I seem to be very topical or theme based, I’m looking for this kind of book. I’m sure which one I want but this way I can browse and also find some other interesting titles I would otherwise not come across.
Though there is a problem with this system, as with any system; someone like Derrida or Foucault is hard to put into just one box. What ends up happening is that his works become scattered all across the shelves so you then need to use the catalog in that case. What is problematic is that there are a lot of contemporary continental philosophers who are like this, so any attempt at perusing through their titles is met with limited success. Overall though I like LCC over DDC.

(2)Checkout Procedures

Secondly, today’s libraries are all moving over to electronic check-out procedures. No longer do you have someone stamping a due date in your book, you now get a slip of paper. While this is handy, many people can checkout at once, using the new self-checkout stations that have cropped up. This is tragic on two sides.
First, there is a loss in interaction. No longer do I get to say hi and chat with my wonderful librarian while my booked are tagged. Now too often I can go to the library without as much as eye contact with anyone.
Secondly, is anyone else as curious as I am to whom is checking out the books am I. It was always nice to look at the dates that had been stamped. How long ago was this book checked out. Such this like, “oh wow, this book hasn’t been touched in 50 years,” are now gone. Though what is now possible, is finding others slips of paper which they leave behind. This has a better advantage of seeing a whole list of books they checked out. I find this kind of thing so very interesting. I try to leave my slips within my books for this very reason.

This also goes alongside my enjoyment of reading other’s reading lists. Amazon does this really well; I can’t help but to browse those lists that people have created.

Yes, if you didn’t know it already, I am a library geek.

While cutting the grass my watch fell of unbeknown to me and then I proceeded to unintentionally try the lawn mower test on it (a kindred spirit of the will it blend test). Surprisingly after I found it, it wasn’t in too bad of shape. Here are the solutions in pictorial form:

There was a plastic piece that went around the edge, it took most of the violence from what I could tell. I didn’t think about gluing it back on, it just now; to bad I threw that piece away. It gives the watch a little edge though.

There used to be a plastic connector here. The failure of said part called all this to happen. I used some p-cord I had, burning to ends together to create the bond. Thanks to the wife with that help, definitely a four hand job.

Notice the bright orange string. This was actually from a separate incident. The string had been slowly coming apart for a while, but after a frantic action by my dog it was busted & requiring resewing.

Sadly I missed an opportunity to replace the battery with all this work. It works fine until you try the light, then the whole display goes out. With my bad eyes my watch is the only way to see the time in the middle of the night.

I’ll see how many more years I can go like this; I haven’t even resorted to the duct tape yet.

So how hard is it to make your own yogurt, is the question that she raised. I assumed it would be rather difficult,requiring special ingredients, but after a quick google search, I realized how easy it is. Basically it is heating up (185°, to kill the bacteria) some milk mixed with a few tbsps of yogurt (you need to add the yogurt cultures, just like adding yeast to bread) & keeping it warm (110°) for like 7 hours, then mixing it up really well and putting it in the frig over night.

Definitely something I want to try really soon.

Here are some of the links I found:

• Google search results
• How to Make Yogurt – Homemade Yogurt Recipe with Instructions
• Mother Earth News – make your own yogurt
• Make Your Own Yogurt – Well Blog – NYTimes.com