Ebook and Wishing

Time passes quickly...

Have you ever had regrets? Do you find yourself sometimes wishing you had done or said something you didn't? Truly?

I believe it is often NOT too late. Not while we have breath and a small resemblance of sanity...

Oh. Update on the e-book. 7 of 10 chapters written.

8 Tracks and Cassettes Live

I grew up with 8 Track and Cassette tapes. What we did - way back then - was often make recordings of our favorite music and share it with others by sharing the tape. Fast forward and enter the world of 8tracks.com. Using a legal platform, the folks at 8tracks.com let you arrange your favorite play lists and then post them to share with others. You can discover and follow your favorite DJs. Here's one I found recently that is right up my music alley today! Enjoy!

 

Enter Charleston - August 2011

I recently took a bit of vacation in Charleston, SC. For some reason, I was taken by all of the doors, gates and portals into various nooks, yards and gardens. Here is a taste of my walk around Charleston. Enter Charleston...

Going Social and Did I mention...?

Did I mention that I was taking a bit of a break from blogging to work on an e-book? Yes, it's true. I'll be back, soon...

I did overhear this today: "Don't make me go Social on you!" Have you ever "gone Social" on someone or some business? Why? Did it help you get a positive resolution?

Fun Sermon Title Suggestions

Many of you know, I was a pastor for 15 years. If you want more on that, see the Kim's Bio perspective.

During those years I often struggled with sermon titles. Well, could you come up with something creative and inspiring every week? Thinking about that - have you ever been impressed with a sermon title? Maybe you have one that you always wished someone would preach. I'd love to know... what sermon title peaks your interest AND yes, it is fine to be bold, irreverent and/or sincere even.

A few of suggestions...

"Everything I needed to know I learned at catholic preschool"

"Does it matter how wet you get - during baptism?"

"Fun Things that will NOT send you to hell."

OK, your turn.

Please Allow Me A Blog Break...

Just so you will know, I'm taking my writing time to a e-book project for a while, so my posting here may be (as it already is) less frequent. I do hope you will keep dropping in...

I might also suggest you check out some of the bloggers listed on the right side bar. I know you will find something you like there.

The Road - An Incomplete Tale

Introduction

I stood in the gallery, surprised. The new “Rural Life” photo contest had caused me to leave my normally secluded life and travel to Charlotte, NC to view the collection of photography from across the state. I had been enjoying the various landscapes, pictures of freckled faced, overall clad youths and studies on an assortment of farm-life objects: plows, daisies growing in tin pots, wagon wheel sentinels on dirt drives. Then there it was - a black and white photograph of a too familiar road, that road. That road, eternally dark and damp, always leading out of town to the same house, the same now seldom remembered history. The story is all but gone as are those who where there, but I am thrown back tonight, to a time before, a time before I knew of malformed creatures and a darkness so completely void of light that it could seized your spirit in terror, a time when I was waiting beside that road...

Why The Internet Ate My Brain

I mentioned a while back that I had enjoyed reading Nicholas Carr's book, "The Shallows." It is a great read that attracted me because it addressed a symptom I have been experiencing in my own life: Prolonged interaction with the internet makes it harder for me to think and write creatively.

While Carr deals with this topic, I have found others who question the research and conclusions he draws from it. Most recently, I ran across a report from www.nominetrust.org.uk  that does a nice job of presenting facts and conclusions (and sometimes the acknowledgment of the lack of conclusions). I encourage you to read The impact of digital technologies on human wellbeing EVIDENCE FROM THE SCIENCES OF MIND AND BRAIN.

The report does a nice job of avoiding an agenda. It is a report, not a marketing piece. This excerpt from the Executive Summary demonstrates this position:

-Rather than label any type of technology as being good or bad for our brain, it is how specific applications are created and used (by who, when and what for) that determine their impact. 
− Existing forms of online communication for supporting existing friendships are generally beneficial for their users, with little basis for considering that social network sites and online communication, in themselves, are a source of special risk to children. Internet-related abuse (eg inappropriate sexual solicitation, cyberbullying) appears related to issues beyond the use of the internet.
− Internet use (including online gaming) is problematic when it regularly interferes with normal daily living and is difficult to control, although internet/gaming addictions have not been established as psychiatric disorders. No particular threshold has been identified that can be defined as excessive use, but research supports a guideline of maximum two hours total screen-based entertainment per day for children. Problematic internet usage is associated with a range of psychosocial difficulties, but the internet can also support mental health through online therapeutic treatment for a range of mental health disorders.
− The internet is a valuable learning resource and all learning involves changes in the brain. Some technology-based types of training can improve working memory, and others can provide mental stimulation that helps slow cognitive decline. 
− Some types of gaming (whether on-line or off line) can improve visual processing and motor response skills, prompting suggestions that games may represent a particularly effective way to enhance brain plasticity across the lifespan. The mechanisms involved are still not understood, but may help explain the effectiveness of such games to also influence affective response. Playing violent and prosocial video games generally shifts behavioral tendencies towards aggressiveness and empathy respectively. Gaming can strongly engage the brain’s reward system, and this may also help 
explain their attractiveness.


It is a beast of a document, so grab a pot of coffee and settle in. Enjoy!

Do you have any shifts in abilities, thought process or skill sets that you experience from prolonged internet activity?

Are You Socially Acceptable

When I was growing up, my folks were very BIG on manners. I was taught to be polite, patient and respectful. In short, I was instructed on various behaviors to make me socially acceptable. Lately, the phrase "Socially Acceptable" has come to refer to something altogether different - how we behave on Social Media.

So, I was thinking (a risky venture, yes) about the possible parallels to the instructions I received in my youth about being socially acceptable and those needed today for Social Media. I made a list. You decide.
What I remember from my youth includes:

1. Wait your turn
2. Respect your elders
3. Say please and thank you.
4. Help others
5. Don't talk too much
6. Ask permission
7. Don't push
8. Keep yourself clean and neat
9. Don't make fun of others
10. Don't be greedy

Do you have any others to add to the list? Is there any guidance here for our Social Media behavior?

Freedom's Just Another Word...

We may not know where we are going, but at least we have the freedom to find out.

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..."

It meant something different then...

And all together different here...

In 1975 this peace sign was a blasphemous display of the flag...

We certainly may not know where we are going, yet I am all for the freedom for us to figure it out...