PETA, an international animal rights organization, has decided to try its hand at metropolitan conquest. Their current attempt: renaming the city of Hamburg, Germany to "Veggieburg." Too absurd? Check out the CNN Money article (Hamburg to Veggieburg for $15,000) to get the whole scoop.
How to celebrate a Jewish holiday (or at least how they are celebrated)? Shaddai.com has quite a bit of information about the subject. I thought it might be of interest to some of you. It caught my attention. 8o)
Shaddai.com - To the Jew first
Brannon McAllister sent me this article over e-mail. I think it's a must read for anyone interested in the Church's work throughout the globe.
WORLD April 26, 2003: Flashtraffic: On the Radar
Feel free to comment after you read it.
On Easter morning in my family we have a standard greeting.
When we were little my parents would come in to our rooms in the morning and sit on our beds. Once our drowsy eyes began to open they would say, "Christ is risen!" and I would reply, "Indeed He arose."
We have enjoyed this tradition for as long as I can remember. This morning I was already up, but the first thing my Mom said to me was, "Christ is risen!" Almost instinctively I responded with "Indeed He arose."
There was something different this time though. Perhaps it's because I'm older now or because my thoughts have been increasingly filled with Christ and His Love, but this morning, when I responded, there was a deeper sense of meaning in what I said.
The truth of our Easter greeting runs very deep. It's significance in my life and my families is beyond description. When Christ lives inside of you, things change. Everything changes. Easter suddenly becomes ten thousand times more than Easter bunnies and multi-colored eggs. It's even more than a time of new beginnings.
There is no greater way to express Love then to lay down ones life. Christ's Love is beyond compare. God came to earth, lived among men, was crusified in our place, and now, as we celebrate today, is risen again. In His risen Life we can know the fullness of Life and True Love that He intended for mankind from the beginning of time. It only takes acceptance of the gift.
The phrase we use to greet one another on Easter morning in my family has its origin in the early Church. It was a confirmation of belief in the most significant thing that has happened in all human history. Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God. He paid our penalty, and now He lives again. His Life is now our Life, and all that is our life belongs to Him.
"He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again." -- I Corinthians 5:15 (KJV)
I would like the ourpeace.net site to go through a major revision this summer. I'm going to need help though. A small group of us worked hard at it a little more than a year ago. We accomplished some of our main goals, and go a decent little site up and running.
I've learned a lot more since then. I'd like to apply my increased knowledge of on-line communities and community software to ourpeace.net to create something that will grow and be of greater help to the world at large.
Here's a link for some inspiration: Everystudent.com - exploring questions about life and God.
It would seem from this article that the W3C is having a bit of trouble "evangelizing" the Semantic Web.
They're having some big meeting soon:
"the W3C has scheduled several evangelical events. These include the "W3C Semantic Tour" of Europe in June and a seminar called "Semantic Web is Here--Are You Ready?" in early May at the W3C's office in Helsinki, Finland. Both events are free of charge and open to the public."
Anyone want to go with me? 8o) It would only cost us the price of the ticket, lodging, food, transportation while we're there...
It's a nice thought any way. 8o)
"On April 22, 1993, a group of students at the University of Illinois released a piece of computer code designed to get information from various public networks." from news.com's Mother of Invention article.
As the browser world appoaches adolescences there is a growing need for standardization. The standardization of the browser has been inhibited by the bully of every information technology school yard, Microsoft.
In 1995 Microsoft set out to become number one in the browser market. Seven years later, they've succeeded (but at great cost to the industry and the consumer).
More on all this later. For now, check out Upstarts: Evolution creates second wave from CNET's News.com.
While cleaning out my desk at work today I found a piece of paper which had a short paragraph scratched on it. The text was written in reference to the bjup.com site I designed and maintained a few years back.
"It's all in 'what we want to do.' If we are going to sell products online, then that needs to be our focus. If we are going to position ourselves as a Christian Education "portal," then let's do that. In summary: if we are going to be on the web we must have a focus."
Focus.
Another blogger joins the friends. He goes by "kammer" on the blog. I'm looking forward to lots of good things from this blog. He's a potter too, btw, so there may be some photos available in the not so distant future.
His site is called "Series of Doors."
Here's a collection of links that I've found today. They are somewhat in order of how I found them.
Enjoy. 8o)
- Gervase Markham's site
- Enfield Evangelical Free Church
- Scottish Christian - home
- Matthias Media group from Australia
Yes folks, it's finally happened: BensFriends.com has pictures. 8o) Well, a picture to start out with.
This photo is of a wonderful girl named Stephanie Anne Geter also known as tennie of the Ubertati blog. We have been blogging together for over five months. 8o)
This photo is from the production of Othello done at BJ this past thanksgiving.
I hope to see plenty more photos on the blogs.
P.S.: You're welcome David. 8o)
Of course it's always good to have a dictionary handy. 8o)
Japanese <-> English Dictionary Server
I Love this language! 8o)
This is one of the best reference sites that I've found. It's very well built (although you may have trouble with it in IE 6). They have information, reviews, and test for the three Japanese alphabets.
I expect you all to be fluent in two years. 8oD
The Kanji SITE - A guide for students of Japanese Kanji
If you're one for learning from outlines, there is an enjoyable (if your interested in the future of technology) presentation by TBL.
I stumbled across a document of User Interface ideas concepted by Tim Berners-Lee (the guy who created the web). There's some good stuff in there. 8o)
Some day I'll write my own... ...some day. 8oD
The Business in Japan at LearnAboutCultures.com has a great "crash course" in Japanese business culture. The touch on some of the social aspects of the culture as well.
Here's an excerpt that I enjoyed:
"Politeness precedes efficiency. Harmony precedes details. Obligations are more important than achieving individual goals."
I haven't blogged much about the war. I may in the future. For now I want to provide a link to someone who has.
I'm not sure why this has happened exactly, but it would seem that the Christian community (at least the facet I'm familiar with) has been sitting on its hands for a while. I don't want to cast any disparaging remarks on anyone or any organization. I know that we are each responsible for our individual actions and that God's plan is being worked out no matter what.
That said, I think it's time for some more action. I know there are projects all over the place wanting to do all sorts of things. I'm not convinced that we need more "projects", but I'm pretty sure we need more people or rather more of the people we have.
I've never been a big fan of quantity over quality (especailly not in the venue). We have people, we have projects, but we waste our time.
I'd like to issue a call to all who read this blog: do something. More than that: Carpe diem Corum DEO! Which being interpreted means, Seize the day for God! It needs to happen... ...now!
That said, I'm back to the grind. That's what the Lord has given me to do right now, and I want to do it passionately and fervently. Feel free to comment on this blog, and perhaps we can get some spirited discussion going. 8o)
Oh, and here are some links that inspired me to start this entry:
Disclaimer: I don't condone or agree completely with everything you read on these sites. I simply provide them as examples of people who are "doing."
"Redeem the time, because the days are evil."
I was reading an article on Boxes and Arrows (as is my want) and came accross the phrase "Flyspeck 3". So, in typical web citizen fashion, I searched for "Flyspeck 3" on Google. The first page returned was a page containing just the definition I was looking for at Internet Jargon.
The site seems to be pretty extensive. It's not finished according to some text on the front page of the site. You may find it useful. I did. 8o)
Most of you know that I have a growing interest in Japan.
Currently I'm research business related topics for my International Business class. We have a country research paper coming due soon. I chose Japan. 8o)
The best link I've found to date is: ExecutivePlanet.com's Japanese Business Etiquette articles. There's quite a range of topics covered. Thankfully most of them are the ones required for my paper.
I also found a book I wouldn't mind getting called Living in Japan. It's put out by The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.