Dispatch from a (mostly) unplugged holiday: Lost in 8:15
I’ve been enjoying my Christmas vacation immensely, and for the most part, it’s been a true “break.” I’ve taken the last few days off from writing, from the web, from social media, and from blogging. I’ve checked my email twice in five days. What have I been doing? Other stuff.
One of the things Santa Hubby got me for Christmas was LOST Season 3 on DVD. Awe. Some. Which, of course, has just whet my appetite for Season 4, in all it’s Writer’s-Strike-abridged-but-awesome-nonetheless glory.
In the event you’ve been living under a rock since 2004, this video will catch you up on everything you need to know about LOST… in 8 minutes, 15 seconds.
And if you’re a fan, watch it anyway–parts of it are hysterical.
Scrooge Yourself: It’s “Elf Yourself” for the Grouchy
Tired of all your relentlessly cheerful friends sending you links to capering Elf versions of themselves, thanks to Office Max’s excessively successful (and bandwidth-blasting) viral campaign? The crass commercialism of the post-modern holiday season got you down?
Feeling a little seasonally-disaffective? Wii-related retail violence left you feeling particularly cynical about the idea of “peace and goodwill towards man”?
Just plain grumpy? Well, have I got news for you. The surly and cynical have not been left out in the cold. Go on now. Get Scrooged.
God bless us, every one.
Henceforth, there will be more chocolate in my peanut butter
Right now, my soul finds itself planted firmly at the intersection of faith, technology, relationships and commerce. It’s a weird and beautiful intersection, with an awe-inspiring amount of foot traffic moving in all directions. It sort of reminds me of Shibuya station when we lived in Japan.
image courtesy realbasic
In the last year, I’ve really spent a lot of time angsting about how much, if at all, to talk about my work life here on That Darn Kat. It’s complicated a little by the nature of my job. I work as a writer in digital advertising and online marketing. Read more
flippin. awesome.
I have goosebumps. Is it January yet?
Living in Tension: Mystery and Transparency
I seriously love blogs–as a writer and as a reader. I’ve recently added Nathania Johnson’s blog to my feed reader. She’s a fellow web writer and introvert, so her writing really resonates with me.
Her recent post on being a social media introvert sparked this post idea (interestingly, it sparked a second post from her as well.)
I wrote in a previous post that there is a certain dichotomy at work for me here, in that I can be both a very private person and a very open person.
As kids, we learn “friendly” is good; so “shy” must be bad. Some of us learn “honest” is good and decide “tactful” is bad. Part of becoming a real live grown up is understanding that life is less binary than we imagined as children. We need both connectedness with others, and a separate sense of self. We learn that both honesty and tact are valuable.
We decide that we need to work on developing proper “balance.” For me, balance brings up images of perfection: gymnasts on a beam, and a very tiny margin of error. I like the term “tension” a little better. Tension implies that both sides are pulling at you. It also implies a little discomfort (which I think is realistic and honest).
In our relationships, there will always be a certain degree of tension between mystery and transparency. I’ve seen the damage that dishonesty can wreak in relationships. Transparency, openness and honesty are very important to me. I want both the freedom to be transparent and honest about who and how I am; and the assurance that the people I’m in relationship with will be open and honest with me. But to a certain degree, other people will always hold an element of mystery. And as much as I enjoy sharing my innermost thoughts with folks, I also need to retain a bit of my own mystery (and privacy).
At this moment, I’m eating a pear, and I’m reminded of the scene from City of Angels where Nicholas Cage asks Meg Ryan what a pear tastes like. “Don’t you know what a pear tastes like?” she asks him. “I want to know what it tastes like to you,” he replies. Yes, it’s a little cheesy. But it does speak to a deeper truth. We’re each walking through our own unique experience of this world, and an experience as basic and elemental as eating a piece of fruit can be wildly different for each of us. No matter how well we think we know someone, in large part other people are unknowable. It’s one way we bear the image of God. You can spend your whole life getting to know him, you can trace the borders of what you know beyond all doubting is true about Him, and He’s still a great vast mystery.
But God, and other people, are a mystery worth exploring anyway.
un-geek your speak
I was doing my Christmas shopping this last weekend, and I found myself in the media player department of a large electronics store. There was a woman who was roughly my parents’ age, I’d say late forties, early fifties, trying very hard to make a good decision while buying a present for someone.
She had managed to corner a store employee, and asked him “What’s an iPod? What’s an mp3 player? What’s the difference?” The employee, who I judged to be in his early twenties, if that old, rattled off a list of technical specifications for various media players, including iPods, that probably sounded like Greek to the woman. I’m sure he knew what he was saying, but the woman looked just as confused as ever as he turned and moved on to the next (probably cooler and younger) customer.
I was standing right there, playing with a display model, so I turned to her and said “An mp3 player is the generic word for something that plays downloadable music. The iPod is Apple’s brand of mp3 player.”
“What’s the difference?” (Note: the exact same question the store employee thought he’d answered for her.) Read more
Getting Busy, Getting Rested, Getting Rid of the Google Ads
It’s been a crazy few weeks in the household and life of That Darn Kat.
Got my name in the paper, which is always good, when it’s not your obituary.
Plus, the holiday season is upon us, which means what little free time I had has been swallowed whole by the hulking behemoth that is Christmas. Between company Christmas parties, family get-togethers, social-circle parties, Christmas shopping, cooking, “biddy ball” practice and games, small group Bible studies, and being “marriage mentored” at church, there hasn’t been a lot of time left over for blogging.
I think that’s a good thing. It’s good when you’re too busy living your life, at least for a while, to blog about it. I think it’s troubling when you find yourself in the middle of real life, thinking about the moment from the perspective of its blog-worthiness. (Which is not to say I haven’t done that. I totally have.)
But it’s also important to slow down, reflect, savor life a second time. As long as keeping this blog is primarily about those things, and about sharing my “notes from a transformed life in progress,” I’ll keep doing it. I think those notes can be helpful to other people, even if their journey through life looks radically different from mine. Read more
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