I just realized that my subscription tool for subscribing to BlogRodent by email was dysfunctional. So, I’ve fixed it and wanted to let you know. If you’re a regular reader of this blog and don’t use a feed reader to monitor the site, you can still catch all the blogalicious…
Del.icio.us links for April 25, 2006
I’ve been running a new tool on my site for a couple days that hasn’t broken (yet) so I figure it’s time to announce it in case you’re interested. Enter: BlogRodent’s Del.icio.us Stuff. You’ll find my list of interesting things on the left (see, there?) and you can click from…
The Apprentice: Ten Leadership Lessons I Learned
I’ve been watching NBC’s Trumpfest, The Apprentice, since it began four seasons ago. At first I watched because it was a Burnett production, and my wife and I were enjoying Survivor. So, we figured since Mark Burnett was the wunderkind of unReality TV, it would be worth a watch. Now in its fifth season, my wife has stopped watching, but I still catch it on Tivo.
I’m not a particular fan of Donald Trump, conspicuous consumption, materialism, the almighty dollar, cut-throat business dealings, white-collar back-stabbing, greed, jealousy, petty rivalries, or getting fired. Its not entirely schadenfreude—the joy of watching others experience pain—it’s more like the fascination of seeing justice served when incompetent workers get axed mixed with cheers for the scrappy underdog I want to win. Whatever the source of my fascination, I’m surprised my date with Donald has lasted into the fifth season. But it’s not about Donald. Not for me. I couldn’t care less how financially successful he is: his opulent lifestyle alternately bores and sickens me. And I just don’t “get” the awe these Trump-ites hold for him. No, it’s not Trump. I watch each episode with horror thinking, How can the head of any corporation possibly think these knuckle-draggers have what it takes to run a food pantry, much less a major enterprise? Each week is another slow, sweaty train-wreck, and I can’t look away.
I think, of all the seasons so far, the only one where I really cared about the finale and who won, was last year, when the scary-smart, charming, Southern Baptist, Randal Pinkett, was chosen to be the apprentice. I had been pulling for him the entire season, seeing in him a young man with great emotional intelligence matched with good practical intelligence as well. That he was charming, handsome, affable, and a natural leader with clear integrity were all pluses. I thought …
Debt unpayable, representation needed
Perhaps you’ve heard of Yahawa Wahab recently? Mr. Wahab lives in Malaysia, and he’s looking forward to his day in court: He owes $218 trillion dollars. If Mr. Wahab paid off his debt by one dollar every second of every 24-hour day, he would need 68,770.28 years to pay down…
BlogRodent’s Personal DNA
I stumbled across an interesting personality test today (PersonalDNA — link below). As a fan of the old Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (based on Jungian types, but updated from his mythical worldview—I’m an INTP), I enjoy taking useful and interesting personality tests once in a while. However, I never get far from…
The Gospel According to Tim Sanders: Be a lovecat, dude!
Some of you may have heard of Tim Sanders. He was the Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! from 2001–2003, before that he ran an in-house think-tank for Yahoo! Lately he’s been serving as the Leadership Coach there, while also hitting the leadership conference tour, and authoring a couple books along the…
God is dead? And I am he?
Okay, just out of curiosity, why is my picture associated with a farcical, offensive, “God is dead, Obituary?” God, comedian, religious and actor, born December 1 1940; died December 10 2005. Sometimes the Internet and the weird connections it facilitates boggles the mind. [tags]BlogRodent, weird[/tags]
The A/G feed trough and a new Pentecostal journal. Whee!
There’s a new academic journal on the block, and it’s from one of the A/G’s premier seminaries (I say “one of” because we have other great seminaries not on American soil, such as Asia Pacific Theological Seminary and West Africa Advanced School of Theology). It’s called Encounter: Journal for Pentecostal…
Are three odd numbers evidence of a Creator?
Short post today. I just wanted to point to a brief and fascinating roundup of arguments for the existence of God from a cosmological/mathematical viewpoint: God by the NumbersCoincidence and random mutation are not the most likely explanations for some things.by Charles Edward White The article summarizes the evidentiary value…
The Oprah tsunami hits my blog
Looked at my traffic logs a couple days ago… Who died and left me all their traffic? It’s not like I blogged on Britney Spears or Anna Kournikova or anything lately. Did I? Oh … wait … It’s gotta be Berry. Since I blogged about Justin Berry (the former “camwhore,”…
Justin Berry: The Risk of Redemptive Reward
Yesterday my blog stats tripled. Nay: quadrupled. With six new random comments on my previous Justin Berry post (“Justin Berry: From ‘camwhore’ to water-baptized witness for the State”), I figured there’d been another major media piece on Berry’s recent lifestyle change and cooperation with the Feds. Little did I know…
Battling Referrer Spam with WordPress
For some reason, my weblog became the target of hundreds of referrer spam hits from pornographic websites over the last week or so. I keep an eye on my referrer logs (a record of URLs that generated traffic to my site), and lately a bunch of URLs showed up which…
Assemblies of God newsfeeds
I’ve added a page of RSS links and email newsletter links for official Assemblies of God news outlets (and a couple unofficial). This includes links to the AG-News newsletter, Dan Betzer’s “ByLine,” and several new Women’s Ministries newsletters that look good. If you’re interested, see: Assemblies of God newsfeeds It’s…
Get your fresh PneumaBlogger button here!
Update, April 15, 2007: As of today, you can now link directly to your own entry in the PneumaBlogs list. Just look for the “link to this item” text to find your custom URL for your entry. Update, April 10, 2007: You can also use the square-but-fiery button shown at…
When worship goes awry…
Okay, okay, okay. I know. This is a day of tragedy and mourning for my lost and beloved RodentMobile. But blame it on Travis Johnson. He posted a link to the “Concerned pastor” voicemail Trent Fuller released on the GraceHead blog, and I badly needed the humor. Perhaps you do,…
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About me…
For all the curious, I’ve been remiss in adding an “About” page to this blog. I’ve finally done so. Find it here, or in the navigation area to the right.
F-bombs, poets, and church. Or, “When church goes intentionally awry!”
First, I blogged about Blake Bergstrom and his hilarious attempt to have Lot say “pitch his tents.” Then we had John Ortberg entreating: “Let everything that has breasts, praise the Lord,” along with William Willimon’s story of an evangelist unintentionally preaching the shorts off a church-skipper. On the time-worn religious…
Follow the latest PneumaBlogs and CTI-Blogs headline…
Okay, after laboriously setting up a feed reader for myself so I can finally stay on top of all the feeds referenced in my PneumaBlogs and CTI-Blogs pages, I was also able to set up a couple pages here on BlogRodent to help you (and me) easily see what the…
Megiddo, Church, & Prison. Or, “Wait’ll the warden sees this!”
Click on images to see more detail. [Update 11/10/05: See the “Weblog Entries of Note” section for a translation and analyses of one of the main inscriptions found.] [Update 08/29/06: Also see: Armageddon Church — The ancient Church of Megiddo prison, a compendium of resources, links, interviews and articles featuring nothing…
Stranger in a Strange Land: John Wilson reflects on Anne Rice
The ever-brilliant (and most widely-read man I know) John Wilson over at Books & Culture, reflects on the pre-conversion writing of Anne Rice (especially Interview with the Vampire) and concludes with a comment on her conversion (see: “The Vampire and the Cross”). John’s take on Rice’s writing is succinct and spot-on:…
Calvary Chapel Christian Schools and UC
Christianity Today finally got around to covering a story that caught my attention back in August (I wrote, “Separation of God and science?”). If you’re interested, read it here: “Admissions: Rejected: Christian school sues University of California over requirements.” Here’s an excerpt: “The question the university must confront in reviewing…
Egosurfing Google Print
So, Google Books has been revived and released. Naturally, therefore, I egosurfed. Here is what I found: More Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion — Page 84by PreachingToday.com — Religion — 2003 — 385 pages… behind-the-scenes documentary “Walking the Mile” (Warner Home Video, 1999); submitted by Rich Tatum; Wheaton, Illinois U ENDURANCE ENDURANCE PREPARES…
PETA, goldfish, and stupidity … or ‘Why I eat animals and don’t brag about it in the press.’
There’s a rash of fishy news stories on Google lately about a minor skirmish between a 300-member Assembly of God church and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA—not to be confused with “People for the Eating of Tasty Animals”). The score: PETA 1, People 0, Comet Goldfish -12.…
Internet disintermediation angst … or we discover that relationships require face-time
According to WebUser.co.uk, PlusNet (a UK ISP) has released a study concluding what many have said for years: Nearly a third of people say their relationships have suffered because their use of digital technology means they ‘talk less’. Among other “ground-breaking” conclusions: 90% said email, text, and IMs make communication less…
Anne Rice’s ‘Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt’ is in hand
Okay, I stopped by Border’s on the way home from a medical followup today, and I picked up Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. I’ll soon be diving into it. Already I’m concerned. A phrase from the back of the book jacket caught my eye: the young Jesus Christ is…