from inside The Shema Movement-my co-founders view’s Neighborhood

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror this afternoon. 

It's rather depressing when I realize that I actually look as tired as I feel.  Any idea how to deal with bags under one's eyes?

Laying in bed in the middle of the night is also not so fun.  Eventually, I got up and read the last 2 chapters of Austen's Persuasion.  Had to see how things with Anne turned out, after all.  I've read it before, but couldn't really recall many the particulars after Louisa's fall.  At least ending the book put an end to my restless sleep, waking up recalling Restoration-era England-like dreams. 

Instead, I moved on to equally bizarre bible school-turned-high school-and-resort themed dreams.  My dad was teaching.  Actually, that part is not so bizarre; he's a retired teacher.  But the piles of whipped cream that needed to be maintained over the school break was.

And now, in my efforts to 'keep on top of things', I'm sitting at the computer maintaining correspondences (read: sending emails and reading facebook statuses) and posting.  I should be sleeping. 

Perhaps I'll watch some TV.  And use some eye cream.

 

Fiction

• Harry Potter - Books 1 - 7*   ~ J.K. Rowling
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• At Home in Mitford   ~ Jan Karon
• Twilight  ~ S. Meyers
• God's Gift  ~ Dee Henderson
• New Moon  ~ S. Meyers
• The Yada Yada Prayer Group - Books 1 - 7   ~ Neta Jackson
• A Light in the Window  ~ J. Karon
• The Darcys and the Bingleys  ~ Marsha Altman
• The Shack   ~ W.P. Young
• The Secret Life of Bees   ~ Sue Monk Kidd
• The Veritas Conflict   ~ Shaunti Feldham
• The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett    ~ Colleen McCullough
• One for the Money   ~ Janet Evanovich
• Love Over Scotland   ~ Alexander McCall Smith
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society   ~ M.A. Schaffer and Annie Barrows
• Still Life   ~ Louise Penny
• Banner in the Sky   ~ James Ramsey Ullman
• The People of the Book  ~ Geraldine Brooks
• The Screwtape Letters   ~ C.S. Lewis
• The Friday Night Knitting Club   ~ Kate Jacobs
• Comfort Food   ~ K. Jacobs
• The Jane Austen Books Club*   ~ Karen Joy Fowler
• Knit Two   ~ K. Jacobs
  

Non-Fiction

• Islam and the Jews   ~ Mark Gabriel
• Compost   ~ Ken Thompson
• Silent God   ~ Joseph Bentz
• Revolution in World Missions   ~ K. P. Yohannan
• The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop   ~ Lewis Buzbee
• Three Cups of Tea   ~ Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto   ~ Michael Pollan
• Stronger Than You Think   ~ Kim Gaines Eckert
• The Miracle at Dunkirk   ~ Walter Lord
• Practical Theology for Women   ~ Wendy Horger Alsup
• The As It Happens Files    ~ Mary Lou Finlay
  
  
  
• So Many Books, So Little Time  ~ Sara Nelson
• Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedome We Had without Going Nuts with Worry   ~ Lenore Skenazy
• 84, Charring Cross.   ~ Helen Hanff
• Food Security for the Faint of Heart  ~ Robin Wheeler
• Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of Housewife, 49   ~ Eds.  R. Broad & S. Fleming
• Julie and Julia   ~ Julie Powell
• Outliers: Stories of Success   ~ Malcolm Gladwell
• Food Matters: A Guide of Conscious Eating   ~ Mark Bittman
  

Poetry

• Duet for Wings and Earth  ~ Barbara Colebrook Peace

Children's (But read for just me, not to my kids, because that list is just too long)

• The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II   ~ Louise Borden
• The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain   ~ Peter Sis
• The Journey that Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margaret and H. A. Rey   ~ Louise Borden
  

* Indicates those I re-read. 
This list does not include a variety of other books I perused - usually gardening, cooking and crafting.  There's also the many, many kid's books read and re-read with Gus, and now Peaches.
And the books I included pictures of are ones of special note to me, for a variety of reasons.
Oh, and yes - I did get through 50 books in 365 days.  :)
 

So I knew I'd been totally slack about posting here, as well as even checking on my 'hood, but still, I had no idea it has been over TWO MONTHS.
Gah!

It's not like I have any particular reason.  A combination of things that probably boil down to "I don't have much time," "I'm not sure what to write," or "I just don't feel like it."  And for me, this place is supposed to be enjoyable and as a result, it's a guilt-free zone. 

But I do like it when I post.  I like the community here, loose as it is.  I like keeping a record for myself.  And I really, really, want to keep my writing rolling.  I know I'm not some brilliant wordsmith or even have a lot of profound or even mildly interesting things to share most days, but it's the English teacher and word lover in me that knows it is important to keep writing, keep writing, and keep writing. 

Conveniently, it's a new year when new things are expected.  Maybe I'll even expect more writing from myself. 

Stay tuned.

The Evangelical Alliance has been pushing the whole 'the internet is great and stuff' recently and in that vein came out with this classic internet header 'Tim Keller is not your pastor'. Nice. Pulls in the Keller haters, who hope to take chunks out of him, while tugging at the heart strings of his fans, who'll come rushing to his support. Maybe 'Geek, get thee to a church' would have been a more accurate and still explosive enough choice, but even Christian celebrities (not that he'd call himself one, mind) can pull in the page impressions.

Tangent alert - I do not qualify as a 'successful' blogger really, but I do wish that Christians would stop using the cheap shockjock tactics in their headers to pull in the punters. Make it openly negative or controversial that'll draw them in. Really? If you have something to say that has value then don't be cheap and, yes, don't conform to the rest of the internet. If your aim is to pull in the numbers quickly then that is the way to do it. But is that really why you're blogging? Shouldn't you be praying that God would use your words to reach someone, not whether your Google Rank will help you get a book deal? Actually, I think my problem will trying to avoid writing controversial entries than headlines...

The issue wasn't really Tim Keller, but the disclaimer on the Redeemer Presbyterian Church's sermons page, where they felt the need to mention that the free preaches are not a "broadcast ministry" to encourage "'virtual' members". So yes, get to your local church!

There was a surprising response to this article. Quite a number of the comments seemed to suggest that the Christian community as a whole don't 'get' the internet and how Christianity needs to encourage virtual Christians to be relevant in our fast moving-blah-ever-blah-complex-blah world.

Setting aside the mind-bogglingly generalisation that the 'Christian community' would agree on much else than 'Jesus, he's great you know', a person emoting *raises his hands* or typing 'ROTFITS' (Thats Rolls On The Floor In The Spirit) in the chat room of CyberChurchInternational-Overflow5 is not the same as standing face to face with someone, seeing the anguish in their eyes, the tears on their face and knowing that you're standing with them to pray for God to breakthrough on an issue that weighs heavily in their life.

Okay, sometimes it's not like that. Sometimes it's just a pat on the shoulder or a smile or a sharing moments with people. But essentially 'going virtual' is about control; deciding when and how you're available or open others. You can't suddenly click 'Offline' or 'Block' when you're part of a local church. You're open and vulnerable to God changing you through other people. Surprisingly, our western individualistic, 'I'm a wild, free spirit' culture doesn't like that.

Note: oops, there is a website called CyberChurchInternational, but I really can't be bothered to change it now.

Sharing life isn't easy, but it's rewarding and it grows you. For example, I live with a couple right now and they've just had a baby this year. I've learnt so much from them about how married Christian couples communicate, how they are both one and a team at the same time. I've learnt how selfish I can be and how much patience God can teach you if you're prepared to learn. I've also learnt that baby poo can just go on and on forever, regardless of how tiny the nipper is. Seriously, King Kong would be proud of some of the deposits... but anyway, hopefully you get the point.

The internet is great, but it isn't a substitute for being involved in your local church. What it should be is an extension of church and not a replacement of it. That isn't an opinion that comes out of ignorance of the power of the web, or just my opinion, but rather a desire to listen to what God was encouraging us to do through Paul in passages like Hebrews 10:24 - 25:

"24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

If you're a new Christian, take a deep breath and step into a local church. Ask God to teach you about grace and what it means to be under his grace and be able to express that grace to your fellow Christians. The fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace and patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. You are highly unlikely to grow in those locked away in your room staring at your computer screen.

I recently received two books from The Ooze Viral Bloggers.  One of them has become quite a beautiful edition to my library.  

I just got my tickets to go home over Christmas.

I'm so excited!!!!

I haven't seen some of my immediate family in almost 3 years!!!!!

Yay!  I Leave Chicago and Fly into London, Gatwick on the 16th and get THREE WHOLE WEEKS of family!  WOOHOO!

I'm going home, I'm going home!

(does Numfar's dance of Joy and the Snoopy dance, and some of Elaine Benes' dance from Seinfeld)

I have just not had a very good go of it the last few days.

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

 

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy