Prepare to laugh thyself silly.
Weekly World News on Google Books!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Superheroes in history
Agan Harahap inserts superheroes into historical photos with clever and amusing results.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Next year's Snuggie?
It makes me wonder if we face a future of having one all-purpose clothing item.
Some sort of Sleepwear, daywear, partywear combo? The kids will be all about these.
Seriously weird
This dog freaks me out.
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B. Baltimore Brown
Sent via BlackBerry
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Struggling
I think this might be a poem...
Right now there is a huge war waging inside of me.
At times I find a crazy moment of peace and clarity.
I burn intensely and with purpose.
Super-charged, love-filled creativity.
Everything is (at least) good enough.
Other times I struggle, fight and try to explain.
All of my motion is fruitless, I lose mind battles and my words make no sense.
Low, ugly and ready to quit in the nearest hibernation cave.
Nothing works.
Then hope comes.
Sometimes it's a inspiring word, a hug or the voice of a child.
The ember burns within and God reminds me the fire is still there.
I know it will burn again.
If you've never felt like this then you're lying. That's right, I said it.
I got a hold of a very powerful and inspiring document that gave me a bit of a jolt.
Here is the excerpt that rocked me:
Two things I've been reminded of:
I save galaxies with love on loan from the creator and curator of love itself.
I am a whirling dervish of worshipful creativity.
and those 2 things combined can solve any professional or personal problem.
I'm posting the doc below. You can read more about the maker of this manifesto here:
Saturday, December 12, 2009
How to love preemptively...
Pew Research has been releasing some fascinating information that outlines the values, beliefs and attitudes of the next generation. This information should be valuable to you. Regardless of what you do or what informs your personal convictions knowing what shapes the next generation will give you a better perspective on YOUR future. Artists, teachers, leaders, counselors, pastors and anyone trying to reach people will need to know what platform they are communicating from. This is from the Pew Research website:
Generations, like people, have personalities. Their collective identities typically begin to reveal themselves when their oldest members move into their teens and twenties and begin to act on their values, attitudes and worldviews. America's newest generation, the Millennials, is in this coming-of-age phase. Who are they? How are they different? How are they being shaped by their moment in history? And how might they reshape America in the future? The Pew Research Center sets out to answer these questions in a yearlong series of original reports that explore the behaviors, values and opinions of today’s teens and twenty-somethings. So According to Pew Research the Millennials are ages 13 - 29. On the site (link at the bottom of this post) you'll find the beginning of their coverage along with a lot of other fascinating statistics.There were specifically 2 things in their introduction that really got my attention:
For most Pastors, I suppose this one would be highly alarming. I'm sure more than one fundmentalist website wil take that statistic and run with it. For me it offers hope. If we believe that the church truly is people and not a building then the last thing we would want is people observing religion. What we want are people who aren't observers but doers. We want people that will be authentic and passionate about reflecting love. Lovers of God are the ones that wil change this planet (as we were commanded Matt 22:36-40) in ways that all can enjoy and appreciate (not just those in church buildings) Speaking of buildings, do we want our facility to be filled with folks who are religious or relational? I'm not a big fan of the word "religion". It's not an accurate portrayal of what God wants from us. To me religion sounds like a check list, things I have to do today, etc. God doesn't want "have tos." He wants our hearts. Would I want to be married to someone that goes through the motions and only acts of of guilt or does the things that they think they should do to make me happy? NO! I want my spouse to act out of deep love and a heart full of authentic desire for me. God is the same way. He's already done more that we deserve but His purpose was restoration. God wanted to restore the realtionship with Him that He created us for in the beginning. So now that I've rambled, what does this have to do with Millennials? I hold hope that God lovers all over this planet will chase after Him and not quit because of disappointment with religious observance. There's anotehr statistic that got my attention on this subject.
In other words, Millennials are more trusting of institutions. Again, to most church leaders this might seem like a good thing and perhaps it is. But, this could also mean: banks, the government, schools, science, etc. Again, I think this is an opportunity. There are many institutions Millennials can trust and based on the statistics they will probably pick and choose bits from all of them. This could hurt our ability to have a voice in this conversation because the church is often viewed as if we're "at odds" with most instituions outside of our own (sometimes even within our own) One of the keys to reaching future generations will be cooporating with other institions and assisting "God's good work" regardless of where it may be happening. This doesn't mean that we should support everything other instituions do in order to work with them but I think there are creative ways to help other organzations (again out of love, not conversaion) on certain projects without endorsing everything they are about. In the past we've been guilty of throwing the baby out with the bath water by withholidng our assistance with good things because of a few doctrinal or theological differences. Those days are over. We have more in common as God's creatures that are made to love and worship. It all comes back to relationships. Not just with God but with other people. So how do we proceed? I think every day we make choices. We choose how we speak, act, write, create, etc. I think we have to start choosing love, even when it is in direct opposition to what we want to do. Love IS the answer. love IS all you need but that doesn't make it the easy choice because basically, I'm a selfish jerk. So my goal for 2010 and beyond is to choose love more often, even when it's hard. I'm calling this preemptive love. It's modeled after something that God did for me a long time ago. I think that's a pretty good model to follow. Links: Pew Research Center: http://pewresearch.org/ Desperation Church: http://www.desperationchurch/org props to Noelle Chun for drawing my attention to this research: http://holykaw.alltop.com/millennials-the-most-progressive-group-in-mod Photo courtesy of jakerome on flickr: 
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Fearlessly forging into 2010 or... you won't believe what I just did.
One of my biggest personal weaknesses is holding onto things. Supplies, information, ideas, and even email. I often catch myself saying: "You never know when you might need something" While this may be true, what usually ends up happening is that you don't know what you have. The collage artist in me needs resources to work from and be inspired from. therefore I end up stashing a lot of stuff. This is a personal struggle for me in other ways. I capture and keep information, files, movies, MP3 and all sorts of things that I'll never use or need. I also do this with emails. So I came across this article:The suggestion is to keep a clean ship. Delete or... respond (and then delete) Nothing is sacred and everything is vaporized within a day or two. At the first prospect of this idea I quickly dismissed it. "They have no idea how much stuff I have and how important it is." I thought. But then I started looking at my inbox. Inside it were a total of 20,793 emails, some of which date back to 2006. Out of those 20,793 emails, 693 were unread. 693 unread! In addition, I had a complex system of sorting, folders, containers, etc to tool through all of the email when I needed to find something. Most of the time, it took a while to find things. I mean, who really needs every notice facebook or twitter has sent? Am I really going to go back and read that magazine email if I haven't already? It's not like I can go back and get all of those deals that tiger direct, musician's friend, and amazon offered. I'll never go download those MP3s that the various esoteric yahoo lists feed me. And what about that stack of jokes that floods in from relatives? If I've already laughed at them then do I still need them? If I haven't already laughed at them, then odds are that I won't.
So... I started sorting and got so frustrated that I decided to sort by name of sender and start deleting unimportant things. By the time I was finished I had only kept one folder full of passwords and receipts and a handful of things in my inbox that are currently in progress. I now have 3 emails in my inbox.
What I've finally realized is that this is another element of fear playing out in my life. I fear forgetting something or losing something or needing something so I horde information. A few weeks ago, I determined that personally 2010 has to be different for me. I'm not mopey, or depressed (well not a lot anyway) but I have a renewed sense of urgency about life, chasing the passions that really spark my interest and accomplishing things that really matter. A 39th birthday will do that for you.
The only way I can change is to do things differently. Deleting everything is SO different and opposite of my normal way of behaving that I get scared talking about it. But, If it means making clear decisions about my time, and choosing the "greatest" things I can be doing (even if it means skipping the simply "good" things I can use my time for) then I will more fully accomplish my purposes here. This trip is temporary, after all. EVERYTHING comes back to knowing why I'm here and what I'm about. I talked about that some here: http://bbaltimorebrown.posterous.com/are-you-chasing-your-passion
So, for the record, it goes:
God
Valerie
My Kidlets
Ministry
Job
Hobbies
All the other stuff
It doesn't mean I'll always succeed at keeping these priorities stright but at least I'm trying. If you're wondering, this post is also a reminder for me so that I don't forget about it. ;-)
The World Turns No More. I have the solution...
Longest running soap opera cancelled
First CBS cancels Reva Shane and now I guess James Stenbeck is finally dead. If you didn't grow up watching "stories" with your grandmother then you probably have no idea who or what I'm talking about.
The longest running soap opera, As the World Turns has been cancelled after 54 years of bringing back the evil James Stenbeck from the dead for generations. Executives site a massive drop in viewers as the reason for turning out the lights in the fictitious town of Oakdale, Illinois once the home of young actress, Meg Ryan. (Fans, do you remember the love affair of Steve and Betsy?)
The same reasons were given for calling an end to Guiding Light or GL for the hardcore fans. No more of Reva Shane and the Lewis' or the notorious Alan Spaulding
Lately on Y&R, Victor and Nikki Newman have been absent from episodes, last curtain call in Genoa City too?
from: http://holykaw.alltop.com/longest-running-soap-opera-cancelled#
- - - - -
So, I had an idea for a way to breathe new life into the soaps.
What if we re-imagined them? One angle might be to take a soap and actually make it into a weekly a behind the scenes mockmentary about making a soap. Another approach would be to convert the show into an actual documentary or a reality television show about making a soap opera, perhaps with the progression of a brand new actor entering the storyline as a character. You could also talk with veteran actors, soap stars, etc. and mix in their personal stories with the actual soap opera. A third idea (my favorite) would be to take the same storyline and characters but cast a "star" to play a role each week (sort of like an SNL guest host) You could also get writers and other artists involved as you spin the soap different directions each week while still trying to tell the same storyline. Soaps are notorious for never changing and being campy so why not create a world where even though nothing ever changes with the storyline, everything else around the story changes. I think you could get an A list of creative writers, directors and actors who would be willing to submit to this artistic vision and the freedom and fun that this type of work could be. How would Michel Gondry interpret As The World Turns? What would the writers of The Office do with Guiding Light? Could you imagine Tim Robbins on The Young & The Restless? I think the results would always be entertaining. I'd watch them just to see what would happen.
Posted via email from Intergalactically Speaking
Labels: cancelled, creativity, fun, imagine, soap operas, televisions, tv
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
How Far Would You Go To Fight For Something You Believe In?
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 12. 9.09
Images: Screen capture from Youtube video (see below)
This spurs me to think about what I would do if I felt like my rights were being taken away. I get that this is illegal and the subject in question is a bike lane but what if it were more serious? What if my rights were being violated or removed in areas of freedom of worship, religion or family choices? What would my response be? Would I be willing to break the law?
What are your thoughts?
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Read the whole thing here:
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Looking Back at The Beatles From 1000 Years In The Future
Makes you wonder how things will look from the future.
Monday, December 07, 2009
A Christmas Gift from Olivia Brown
A Christmas Gift From Olivia Brown by Olivia Joy Hosanna Brown
Download now or listen on posterous
A Christmas Gift From Olivia Brown.mp3 (2723 KB) Download now or listen on posterous
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Random Song Selections from my birthday today.
Each of these songs came up in the mix or conversation today.
Some were amusing, others were torturous. I thought you all should enjoy them too!
I love the way this starts with the live crowd interaction
Now this one, I Like!
Rock In Black by Go Home Productions
Download now or listen on posterous
16 Rock In Black.mp3 (5910 KB) Download now or listen on posterous
I got Jeanne singing this one. She knows ALL of the words.
Harper Valley Pta by Jeannie C. Riley
Download now or listen on posterous
07 Harper Valley PTA.mp3 (4578 KB) Download now or listen on posterous
until later...
The evening begins...
Just had a crazy dance party with Olivia while we are waiting for dinner.
Then we played in photobooth.
Makes a great gift... Especially if you tell them it says "Please approach me for hugs"
Apparently there's a whole bunch of guys in the world who wouldn't mind getting attention from Japanese females in the world. This best-selling T-shirt features clear, clean text and a message that is perhaps best translated as "Now accepting applications for Japanese girlfriends." Features a nice red "rising sun of Japan" in the design. You never know what conversation this T-shirt could start, or where it might lead! 100% cotton heavyweight black t-shirt. Wear this shirt and get super happy time!
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Have you ever wondered what Advent is all about?
Monday, November 30, 2009
Why Advent is more than wreaths and stale chocolate-laden calendars.
"Advent" is kind of a strange term. It seems vaguely religious, but it's also a word often used in reference to video game sequels. If you grew up in the West, you've certainly seen an advent calendar—if only to experience the terrible, stale chocolate hidden within. Normally, when we think of Advent, we usually think of it as a countdown to Christmas—a sort of chocolate-y version of those paper chains you'd make when you were little to count down to the day you got presents.
You also might be familiar with an advent wreath, particularly if you're Anglican or Roman Catholic (or grew up in either of those Christian traditions). You know there are four candles (and maybe one in the middle) and that it has something to do with the birth of Christ. You know there's a significance to the four weeks leading up to His nativity, but maybe haven't thought much about it.
And yes, Advent is all of this. It's a "countdown" to Christmas. It's a commemoration of the birth of our Savior. But it is also so, so much more than that.
I thought this was a nice summary of advent and why so many people value it as a part of their worship experience.
You read the whole story here: relevant magazine
