Random

• "Four out of ten pastors lack strong interest in increasing community outreach" ~ Link (via)

• Cheryl and I rode Amtrak from Richmond (north of Berkeley) to Roseville (east of Sacramento). The train was over an hour and a half late (equipment issues). We rode the train to Martinez -- then they put us on a bus to Fairfield (tracks were under repair) -- then we took the train to Sacramento. And once again we were put on the Amtrak bus which drove us to Roseville (I guess, not enough riders to schedule an actual train). We were not in a hurry so the time wasn't such a big deal -- but dragging the luggage off and on trains and buses got old. For the sake of comparison going by car would have taken 90 minutes. Amtrak took over 4 hours. This is why Americans don't buy into the whole train approach to travel.

• BTW, gas prices in the Sacramento area seem to be about $4.40/gallon -- just a few cents cheaper than on Guam.

• Wal-Mart is moving in to give Craigslist a run for their money ~ Link

• McAfee: The most dangerous domains to navigate to are .hk, .cn, .ph, .ro, .ru and .info. Among the safest top level domains are .jp, .no, .fi, .co, and .gov. ~ Link

• The Chinese are investing big time in Africa -- especially in the Congo ~ Link

• Advertising agency Cramer-Krasselt has compiled a 2008 Cultural Dictionary of new words and phrases culled from magazines, websites, blogs, and conversations. ~ Link

Some of my favorites:

Bacn: impersonal emails that you have chosen to receive -- alerts, newsletters, etc.

Lifestreaming: keeping an online record of a one's daily activities -- think Twitter

Meatspace: the real physical world as opposed to cyberspace or virtual reality

Moofer: from the acronym for "mobile out of office" for someone working from a table at Starbucks.

Passion bucket: "...a metaphor for a job or endeavor that can fulfill one's sense of mission and ambition."

Wonderfully descriptive -- makes me even more optimistic about the emerging generation.