I’ve spent several hours in the past few weeks looking up Christian web sites for a school project. I’ve found the whole thing kind of depressing. In the past hour it’s been a frenzy of links, partners, counters, banners, and a Christian version of everything. I’ve never seen so much repeat content and interrelated webs. I suppose that’s what the web’s all about, but it’s just weird. How many online Christian music stores do we need? Do we need a site for Christian mouse pads? How about Christian backgrounds for your desktop? How about a Christian Banner Exchange Program? A Christian web counter? I’ve found Christian alternatives for virtually every site you could possibly be interested in. I can’t help but ask a few questions here. Is this healthy? Should Christians really be sucking in on themselves like this? Shouldn’t we be using the net to reach out? I also wonder how many of these sites are trying to make a fast buck? All most every single site accepted advertising. On the positive side, a lot of the sites I saw were well designed, at least from a graphics point of view. Of course you also have to take everything I’m saying with a healthy dose of irony. You are, after all, reading this on a Christian site on the web.
I just can’t help but wonder what happens when we flood the internet with cheap Christianity? Is it doing any good, witnessing to people online? Or do we need to step away from our computers and actually talk face to face with our neighbors?
You know, some days you try and force yourself to find an issue to discuss, and it just doesn’t get you anywhere. You would have been better off with a few short, rambling sentences. Oh well, that’s what you get with ponderings. You ponder the issue and see where it takes you. I never promised these would be good, I just said they’d hopefully make you think a little bit. Just a little bit.
Information overload. Like bugs swarming around the porch light at night. A feeding frenzy of information so intense that it’s hard to glean anything. The internet. In the past few years it’s grown by leaps and bounds–or maybe twitches and spasms would be a better description, violent and sudden. The internet is unlike any media man has dealt with before. Text, information, sound, video, animation, feedback, instant gratification, chats, online everything and anything with “e” for a prefix, from e-mail to e-commerce. But how can we effectively harness this new power? Some companies have succeeded tremendously, earning millions in months. Others have disappeared into cyberspace, lost in the web.
A quick word on the updating of these ponderings: I don’t have daily internet access, so these will probably not be updated everyday. But I will do my best to still write them everyday and update them when I can. You may have noticed some problems today, but hopefully those have all been corrected. Sorry for the inconveniences. Let me know if you notice any problems with the page.
On tonight’s menu, Dinty Moore Beef Stew! And I didn’t ruin it. He’s just a regular Chef Boyardee. (that’ll be tomorrow’s supper)
So many ideas, so many possibilities, so many things to accomplish. I have all these ideas brimming in my head. I wonder where they could go. Henry Ford once said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do,” (from the wall in ReAL Media Group’s office). I wonder what ideas will come to fruition, and which will be cast aside, never to be.
You know what? I’ve determined that sitting at home and doing nothing is not very conducive to pondering. But don’t worry, tomorrow I pack up to head to Chicago, and starting Saturday I won’t be sitting around anymore. And that’s a good thing, cuz my brain is just not up to par right now. We all could use a break sometimes, but too much of a break doesn’t do any good.
The other day I was reading some more in Madeleine L’Engle’s Walking on Water, (one of these days I’ll actually finish it) and she was talking about the writing process. She said that sometimes you just have to write no matter how you feel. Whether you’re inspired to or not. Because if you don’t write because you don’t feel like it, you won’t accomplish much. It’s a lot like prayer. You have to go ahead and pray whether you feel like it or not.
I found that really encouraging, mainly because I’ve seen the truth of it. Look at these ponderings. I started this back in December, and I’m still going strong. It’s not that I want a pat on the back or anything, I’m just marveling at how much I’ve written, whether I wanted to or not. Some days you don’t know what to write, and you just have to sit down and do it. The volumes of ponderings (all archived for your convenience) are proof of what happens when you write no matter how you feel. Some days it turned out pretty crappy. But I like to think that some days I touched upon something.
I find this encouraging as a writer. Even tonight, I didn’t really know what to say when I sat down. But something comes out, and that’s what it’s about.
It’s time for stupid web site of the year! Have you ever wondered what dancing hamsters would look like? Check this out: http://www.hamsterdance.com
You know, some days I just don’t have anything to say. I tried rambling on and on, but I decided it just wasn’t worth it. You have better things to do. Come back tomorrow when I have something more important to say.
I found a cool new program for my computer today. It’s called Sticky Notes 6. It lets you put sticky notes on your computer screen. It’s really cool and pretty convenient. You can get the lite version at http://www.downloads.com and you can check out the real thing at the company’s web page: http://www.tenebril.com/ (sorry Mac users, you already have a neat sticky notes program, so today’s pondering is pretty well useless for you, except you can keep telling yourself how much better Macs are).
A work-at-home dad wrestles with faith, social justice & story.