Think TV is a wasteland? Pimp My Faith - Commentary by Rabbi Marc Gellman

Pimp My Faith www.gracebiblechurch.com 

Pimp My Faith - Newsweek Society - MSNBC.com: "On 'Pimp My Ride,' a hunk of steaming junk from a hysterically grateful recipient is driven by Xzibit to West Coast Custom body shop in L.A. to be stripped and rebuilt from the metal up by a team of charismatic car trolls who delight in going to any lengths to make the new car a thing of beauty and fantasy for its needy owner. In 'Extreme Makeover,' the run-down house of hysterically grateful recipients is demolished and then a new house is built in one week, usually on a new and vastly enlarged foundation by Ty and his team of design and production hotties."

Rabbi Marc Gellman insightfully writes:

"What makes these two shows not just kind and weepy but actually luminous is the way they unselfconsciously obliterate the traditional ways we often treat the poor. First, both shows treat the needy without a hint of condescension or pity. They respect these people completely. It is that respect, more than the pimped-out ride or the new house, that is the real gift. Also the workers on both shows work with real joy. Charity is often seen as a dutiful burden, but in these cases it is a labor of love."

Read on!

Need Help Getting Things Done?

Work Is Hell (c) 1996 Matt Groening 

If you're feeling like Binky the cover model (who is a bitter, depressed, alienated and thus "normal" rabbit) for Matt Groening's book Work Is Hell, then it could be that you really need to adopt the practice of Getting Things Done.
Jeff Sandquist, a blogger and Microsoft Evangelist, has provided a nice tidy posting with all the resources in one place - It's never too late to rekindle that 2005 New's Year's resolution - or you could get a head start for 2006 now! Here's a treasure map to unstress your life...


GTD Workflow 

A Typical Day at the Factory

A Typical Day at the Factory 

and one more


Platforms 

When I stumbled across these cool little animations from b3ta.com... and this link -(scroll down to the July 24 entry) - (and I swear under oath I do not know how I ever wound up on this page???) I was wondering out loud (like a dawg), would animation work in a blog? Yup - all I did was substitute the jpeg link with the properties of the animated gif file. Keep in mind, all this HTML stuff is very new to me - which is another side benefit of blogging! I guess that's why my Big Dawg buddies back in Nashville call me a Wonder Dawg... always thinking about how stuff works.

Here is Our King - david crowder*band

david crowder*band - Photo (c) Sherwin Uy 

View the latest song from the david crowder*band Here is Our King from the new Passion CD/DVD release recorded in Nashville during the Passion 05 conference.


Passion 

Passion 06—A generation united for His renown returns to Nashville, TN January 2-6, 2006. For more information on registration, click here. See you there!

Your Daily Art

Dominant Curve by Vasily Kandinsky 

Here is a effective use of a blog - compelling daily content with the added bonus of inspiration and art history.
Posted by Martha, the blog is simply named Your Daily Art

"Thanks to art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply until we have before us as many worlds as there are original artists." Marcel Proust

Martha writes: Welcome to my art history blog. It is simple and the purpose is to show you a piece of art, give you a little background and leave the rest up to you.

The above painting carries the following entry with extensive links provided as well -
Dominant Curve by Vasily Kandinsky, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Kandinsky was one of the most influential Abstract artists of the 20th century. He was a teacher of both law and later art, teaching for a number of years at the German Bauhaus. He himself claimed he became interested in abstraction after seeing one of his paintings upside down.

You'll find this link now under my Daily Inspiration - nice job Martha!

NFL Draft & Salary Cap FAQ

National Football League 

If you been following the ESPN NFL Draft Coverage, then sooner or later you just might want to know the process of signing these high priced rookies under the NFL Salary Cap. Maybe not? - I know I do!

If a player earns a contract that is 5 years and pays him a total of $20 million, he counts $4 million per year against the cap, right?

Answer: If it were only that simple.

Teams with heavy payloads learned quickly that the best way to combat the Salary Cap was to circumvent it. They did this by back loading contracts, pushing all of the big money to the end of the contract.

Only the Commish knows! For the best explanation of how the NFL Salary Cap works, Ask The Commish is the place to go. Al Lackner explains about Caponomics, Free Agency and Mathematical Calculations in a sensible manner.

As a bonus, read a first-round NFL Draft Day analysis from a front office and scouting perspective should you want to get an insight how players are selected.

The Passover in the Holy Family

'The Passover in the Holy Family' 

Watercolour on paper, painted 1854-5
Tate. Presented by Charles Ricketts in memory of Henry Michael Field, 1916

To celebrate Passover, every Jewish household slaughtered a lamb and marked the doorposts with its blood. This was a sign for the Lord to pass over and not visit the plague on them. The Passover meal of roast lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread was to be eaten in haste, with shoes on the feet ready for quick departure.

Rossetti shows Jesus and his parents preparing for the ritual. This stresses the continuity between Judaism and Christianity, linking Christ's sacrifice with that of the Passover lamb.

Here Rossetti shows Zachariah marking the door with blood from a bowl held by Jesus. John kneels to fasten Jesus's sandal and Mary stoops to gather bitter herbs.

Passover Perspective

Passover begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan. As the Jewish day begins at sundown the night before, for the year 2005, the first night of Passover will be April 23rd.

Here's a Passover Perspective authored by Don Finto.

On this day 3500 years ago lambs were slaughtered throughout Goshen.
On this day 3500 years ago hyssop brushes stroked Jewish doorposts with lamb’s blood.
On this night 3500 years ago Israel met quietly sequestered behind their bloodstained doors--waiting to depart 400 years of slavery.
On this night 3500 years ago the Lord went through the land looking for blood on doorposts.
On this night 3500 years ago there was deliverance--a pass over.
On this night 3500 years ago the wealth of Egypt became the wealth of Israel.
On this night 3500 years ago firstborn sons were slain in houses where there was no blood.
On this night 3500 years ago wailing and mourning was heard in Egypt.
On this night 3500 years ago shouts of joy were heard in Israel.
On this night 3500 years ago Moses led Israel out of Egypt.
On this night 3500 years ago lambs’ blood on doorposts brought freedom.
On this night 3500 years ago the exodus from Egypt came suddenly.

For 3500 years faithful servants of God have remembered this night.

On this day 2000 years ago another lamb was slain.
On this day 2000 years ago human hearts were stroked with lamb’s blood
On this day 2000 years ago hearts were freed from centuries of slavery.
On this day 2000 years ago the Lord began to look for lamb’s blood on doorposts of hearts.
On this day 2000 years ago there was deliverance—a passing over.
On this day 2000 years ago wealth was restored to the sons of Adam.
On this day 2000 years ago another Moses led another Israel out of another Egypt.
On this day 2000 years ago lamb’s blood on the doorposts of hearts brought freedom.

Today lamb's blood is still found on human hearts.
Today deliverance is found behind a blood stained door.
If the doorpost of your heart is stained with lamb’s blood, have a glorious Passover season.
If not, grab quickly the hyssop and look for the lamb’s blood.
The exodus will come suddenly.

Have a blessed Passover!

Learn more? Click here

Tools for recording your ideas

Palm Tungsten E 

Ten power tools for recording your best ideas

Do you have a method or strategy for recording ideas when they occur to you? If not, you should. Ideas tend to be fleeting creatures, bubbling up from your subconscious mind without warning, and then disappearing just as quickly -- perhaps never to be recalled again.

Chuck Frey writes a good article Tools for recording your ideas - from InnovationTools.com in which he encourages you to try as many of these techniques (with pros and cons) as you can, determine which ones are the best fit with your work style, and retain them as part of your creative repertoire.

As for me, I prefer several tools - my Palm Powered Tungsten E that carries my electronic Bibles and contacts and Tapwave Zodiac 2 for games, a few tunes and a mini library of 50 eBooks; my trusty, don't leave home without it Hipster PDA; stacks of index cards everywhere in my house and notebooks with plenty of roller pens in coffee mugs.

Now if I can only learn to type beyond three fingers and master shorthand, I'll be in great shape!

Secret Worlds: The Universe Within

Earth 

Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You -
Secret Worlds: The Universe Within

Soar through space starting at 10 million light years away from the Milky Way down through to a single proton in Florida in decreasing orders of magnitude (powers of ten). This tutorial explores the use of exponential notation to understand and compare the size of things in our world and the universe, and provides a glimpse of the duality between the macroworld around us and the hidden microworld within.

Gives great visual meaning to the song "God of Wonders"

Lord of all creation
Of water earth and sky
Heavens are your tabernacle
Glory to the Lord on high

God of wonders beyond our galaxy
You are holy, holy
The universe declares your majesty
You are holy, holy

God of Wonders - Written by Steve Hindalong and Marc Byrd