Monthly Archives: January 2010

Society

More People Are Dying Than Ever Before!: Facts Need Context

1 Comment

It always bugs me when facts are presented without the appropriate context. One of the worst offenders is when today’s numbers of a set population are compared to previous numbers in history. For example, an often repeated fact during the current National Human Trafficking Awareness Month and today’s National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is that there are more slaves today than at any time in history.

That’s true. But it shouldn’t be shocking. There are also more people today than at any time in history, by an order of magnitude. Which makes stats like this deceiving. A straight numbers comparison doesn’t give you a clear picture of what’s really happening. Slavery as a percentage of the total population could also be at the lowest point in history.

The shock and awe of the fact doesn’t stem from the injustice of slavery, it stems from population growth. More people means more slaves. A lower percentage than ever, but a higher total number than ever. It’s kind of like arguing that more people die in car accidents today than in any time in human history, so we really need to care about car accidents. That might be true (I can’t find the numbers to back it up), but if it is, it’s only because there are more people driving cars now than ever before so there’s likely going to be more deaths than ever before.

Continue reading More People Are Dying Than Ever Before!: Facts Need Context →

Introspection

The Difference Between Dreams & Reality is Hard Work

2 Comments

If you go back to the very beginnings of this blog I write a lot of self-indulgent tripe about wanting to change the world and be different and throw off the status quo. You’ll have to forgive me–I was an idealistic 19-year-old at the time.

In some ways, I still agree with some of those sentiments. I don’t like the idea of working eight hours a day 40 hours a week for the man. I don’t like the idea of owning a big house in the suburbs with a big lawn and a big mortgage and spending my precious hours off mowning the lawn to an exact length. I don’t like the idea of owning a house full of possessions, just like all my neighbors. I don’t want my life to center on work, soccer games with the kids and watching TV as a family. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with those things, but sometimes I wonder how much right there is in those things. Kids are starving in the world and we’re too busy to care—there’s nothing right about that.

I work for myself and set my own hours so I can watch my kids instead of paying someone else to do it (though that’s more necessity than plan). I own a big house, but a tiny lawn which I mow as infrequently as possible with a reel mower. I try (and fail) to minimize my possessions. I dream of sharing with my neighbors. I like the idea of only needing one snowblower on the block (growing up, that was my Dad—he had a massive snowblower on the garden tractor and would snowblow our driveway and then every other driveway around us that hadn’t been cleared yet). And I hope from time to time my efforts and time are centered on more than TV and work and I’m doing something to stop those starving kids from starving.

Maybe I am still that annoying 19-year-old. Though I think my dreams were grander back then.

Continue reading The Difference Between Dreams & Reality is Hard Work →

Books

2009 Reading List

6 Comments

Every year I keep a list of the books I read and every year I post that list for kicks. I don’t know what anybody else gets out of it, but I enjoy it.

This is perhaps the third year in a row when I’ve gone on a sci-fi bender. That kick accounted for a full third of my list in the last month and a half of the year. I think it’s fair to say that I’m a big sci-fi fan and that sci-fi is perhaps single-handedly keeping me interested in reading. Which is odd, because I’ve never considered myself much of a genre reader. I’ve had pretty wide ranging tastes and usually enjoy general fiction. I don’t even own very many sci-fi books, probably fewer than a half-a-dozen that I can name (and we own a lot of books).

I also went on a little teen novel kick, thinking one of my novels might land in that genre (like I said, I’m not very genre aware). It’s a fun little genre, defined more by the characters and focus than anything, but also kind of a genre with an identity crisis (while they’re categorized ‘for teens,’ they’re perfectly capable novels for adults as well).

You can also check out my previous reading lists: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002 and 2001.

Continue reading 2009 Reading List →

Blogging

My Blogging Highlights from 2009

Leave a comment

I’m a little bit slow with the 2009 recap, but it’s always fun to look back on the year and remember what happened. Here are a few highlights from 2009:

  • Philosophy of Profanity – I shared my philosophy of profanity, something I’ve formulated over the years and finally tried to express in blog form.
  • Nothing is Secret – Although it’s always been true, the Internet makes this painfully obvious. Integrity is the only response that makes sense.
  • You Can Change the World: Help People Find a Job – This has been a tough year and I’ve seen a lot of friends and family lose jobs. It underlines the importance of helping one another.
  • 25 Things About Billy Graham – I launched a blog about Billy Graham this year (and then promptly ignored it). These are the kinds of random, goofy posts I love to write.
  • Surviving the First Week – I sound pretty optimistic about surviving that first week with both kids all by myself. Silly me. I didn’t realize that survival mode would be my life for the foreseeable future.
  • Dependence Day – I’ve never been entirely comfortable with over-the-top displays of patriotism (especially in church), and this post is perhaps my best stab at explaining why.
  • Family Photo Shoot – This spring we ventured out to a farm in Western Wisconsin for a family photo shoot. That’s where the current image at the top of my blog came from.
  • Conference Week: Story & Cultivate – For the first time in five years of working in church marketing I actually attended not one but two church marketing conferences.
  • Homeless Advocate Mark Horvath – We were able to spend some time with the founder of InvisiblePeople.tv when he came through the Twin Cities on his 2009 road trip.
  • Lexi Does Johnny Cash: The Devil’s Right Hand – Best Lexi video of 2009.
  • Now That’s Funny: Christian Chirp – I explored the phenomenon of a Christian alternative to Twitter, with hilarious results.
  • Christians Demand Retailer Lip Service – I bemoaned the Christians who demand retailers pay our faith lip service.
  • The Yo-Yo Anniversary – My company gave away yo-yo’s to celebrate our five-year anniversary.

Two of the biggest highlights this year were traveling to Ethiopia to bring home Milo and celebrating my 30th birthday with clean water. Those two events deserve their own list of highlights.

Continue reading My Blogging Highlights from 2009 →

Introspection

New Year’s Fuddy-Duddy

Leave a comment

I’m kind of a New Year’s fuddy duddy. Last night on Twitter I made this comment:

I can never get that excited about New Year’s. It’s like watching an arbitrary cosmic odometer rollover. Woohoo?

And it’s a sentiment I shared 11 years ago. That about sums it up. Last night we sat in bed watching The Office until we got tired and went to bed. We grunted happy new year at each other as we drifted off to sleep.

I think in 2008 we were in bed by 10:30.

In 2007 I was actually in California ringing in the New Year with a few thousand teenagers, though it was part of my job and not necessarily my choice. I also had to get up at 3 a.m. to catch my flight home, so I wasn’t so thrilled about staying up until midnight.

Apparently in 2004 I watched Star Wars.

I remember a short-lived fondue party New Year’s trend we did for a few years, but I think when kids came along the boiling oil and midnight party didn’t seem like a good combination.

In 2000 I was on my honeymoon. I remember ordering take out and watching “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Pop-Up Video Edition.”

In 1999 my then soon-to-be fiance and I were babysitting for a couple that came home early, woke up the kids we’d been working half the night to get to bed, and rang in the New Year at 10:00 p.m. We ended up back at Abby’s parents’ house watching replays of the Millennium celebrations on TV because no one bothers with a live countdown for the Central Time Zone. Yes, New Year’s in the Central Time Zone is kind of lame.

In high school I remember staying up with my girlfriend’s family to ring in the New Year and being surprised at all the finger-food appetizers that seemed to be their tradition. I don’t think my family had a New Year’s tradition.

I vaguely remember my youth group having New Year’s Eve lock-ins, but I don’t remember actually counting down to midnight. I do remember playing laser tag one year and they announced in the middle of the game that it was midnight. But c’mon—you don’t interrupt laser tag. I do remember sleeping all day on New Year’s Day and waking up in the late afternoon to go see the Insyderz and Five Iron Frenzy. A snowstorm struck and the show got moved from Clutch Cargo in Pontiac to some random church or school in Livonia, but we still made it and rocked out.

I remember another high school New Year’s when we aimlessly turned on the TV to watch the countdown because we couldn’t find anything better to do.

Yeah, I know how to party.

I’m not too big on New Year’s resolutions either.