Friday, September 9

Friday Notes

TIME FOR FOOTBALL!
It's that time of the year again and that means I have a decision to make. My friends all realize that unlike my wife I'm not much of a football fan -- by default. That means I have to work at it. (There are a lot of things that I still don't understand about football -- such as why MONDAY Night Football was on television last night -- which happened to be THURSDAY night.) So, last year I decided that it would be good to have a favorite team to follow. For a number of very sophisticated reasons I chose to cheer for the Miami Dolphins.

Unfortunately, after their unbelievably bedraggled season last year their legal department has requested that I "cease and desist" and that I find another team to cheer for (they are suggesting the Jets). I'm not sure that I want to give up that easily but I'm open for advice regarding which NFL team should have my support this year.

GIANT WAVE SWAMPED PARTS OF NOLA
Higher levees probably wouldn't have helped. Engineers and scientists are saying that the Ninth Ward in the eastern part of the city was hit by a huge wave coming over a levee -- at least 20 feet high. Most Americans think that if the city is rebuilt it should be moved to a place above sea level.

HOUSING EVACUEES
The Evangelical Covenant Church is playing match-maker for people who would like to house evacuees. Link

NOW HIRING
Disney World has put together an interesting program to provide immediate employment and housing for some of the students displaced by the hurricane. Apparently there is an opportunity to earn some college credit, too. Link

WIKIPEDIA FOR NEWS
Online Americans are increasingly turning to Wikipedia, the open source web-based encyclopedia, for breaking news -- as strange as that sounds. Link

IMMIGRATION CHALLENGES
7.5% of all residents in Britain were born abroad (including 155,000 born in the US) and the percentage continues to rise.

PASTORAL CHANGE
Jeff Woods, my friend and colleague at Turlock Covenant Church, announced this week that in December he is stepping down from his position as senior pastor. He's done a terrific job these past seven years but feels that the congregation, which is in the process of "an extreme make-over," needs a different style of leadership for their next phase.

SEED SILO HOUSING
Two seed silos on Copenhagen's waterfront have been converted into housing. Creative. Take a look at the pictures -- looks very livable.

THE TIMES ARE A-CHANGIN'
The New York Times announced this week that they will for the first time start publishing a comic strip. Link

NEW I-PODS
Apple is introducing a smaller slimmer but still over-priced version of the I-Pod. Link

MERE ANGLICANISM
Yet another new organization set on renewing Anglicanism. The focus will be on creating interaction groups and events. It seems that there are a gazillion of such organizations in the wake of the Robinson ordination. Still it almost seems like too little, too late (at least in the West). They do have a great looking website.

FOREVER LEARNING & TEACHING
Bruce and Katy Dockter, from our congregation, are on sabbatical in Mexico to learn Spanish. And now they are teaching it, too. Link

4 comments:

lindaruth said...

I love the cat picture! And if you really want to pick a team to root for, pick the Chiefs. (their defense can't get any worse, anyway)

Linda

Sean Meade said...

cool silo housing (we're both interested in creative housing, obviously. mostly i steal your links ;-)

naw, the iPod nano's not over-priced. it's not what you will pay but what the market will bear. for some of us, it's quite worth it. how about this: i'll buy one and sell you my couple-month old, 512 MB flash player for 50$?

Brad Boydston said...

"how about this: i'll buy one and sell you my couple-month old, 512 MB flash player for 50$?" I don't think my market will bear that right now. :)

Dan said...

looks like you can stay with the Dolphins for another couple weeks. At least they are off to a decent 1-0 start.