Google-rific!

Filed under: Weekly Jib Jab — zac at 9:04 am on Thursday, November 30, 2006

I had the pleasure and honor to visit and have lunch at the world famous Google headquarters in Mountain View, California last week. My brother-in-law, Bill, is an employee and gave me a tour of the facilities. At first glance it appears much like any other office park in the area: three or four story buildings, not-enough parking, and some spectacular cars in the lot (my favorite personalized plate, on a Chrysler 300M: NO PRIUS). It does not take long, though, to realize things are different.

(Read on …)

Carmen Ohio

Filed under: Weekly Jib Jab — zac at 8:52 am on Thursday, November 23, 2006

I had the honor to attend the 103rd meeting between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines last weekend, in Columbus, Ohio. The rivalry between the two teams is what many believe to be the greatest rivalry in all of sports. There were 105,780 people in attendance at the ‘Shoe’ (the Horseshoe = Ohio Stadium). The Ohio State University Marching Band (TBDBITL) was simply astounding. The game lived up to the hype in an offensive battle that went down to the wire. OSU won the game 42-39. (Read on …)

Shepherd Cloning II, or How I Learned to Love the Bomb

Filed under: Weekly Jib Jab — zac at 8:30 am on Thursday, November 16, 2006

Last week I talked about visualization as the means to an end in relation to our habitual sins. It is important for all followers of Christ, especially those who are in leadership over others, to discover a method for dealing with our inherent defilement so as to avoid a massive collapse. Imagine a typical concrete bridge going over a typical freeway. If you were to take a hammer and chisel and knock off one chunk of it every day, it would stay standing for many years. At some point, however, it would become too weak to withstand its own weight and it would collapse. The tiny rocks that were slowly being removed would hardly be noticeable – until the moment of that massive collapse. It seems prudent for us to solve the problem of the hammer and chisel in an effort to avoid dealing with the problem of cleaning up a destroyed thoroughfare. (Read on …)

Shepherd Cloning

Filed under: Weekly Jib Jab — zac at 8:20 am on Thursday, November 9, 2006

The last few days have been interesting in our country, and especially in Colorado Springs. The people of Colorado voted to keep marijuana illegal. Colorado, as well as six other states (ID, SC, SD, TN, VA, WI) voted to ban same-sex marriages (only Arizona voted against the ban). The relevance to last week’s news of Ted Haggard being involved in drug purchases and a gay affair is oddly ironic. Haggard, the former president of the National Evangelical Association and the former leader of New Life Church, the largest church in Colorado, is now an unemployed man with a long road ahead of him. The church, which is merely two miles from my home, is being affected. The city of Colorado Springs is being affected. American Christians are being affected. How can we respond?

(Read on …)

Quail Sarcasm?

Filed under: Weekly Jib Jab — zac at 8:31 am on Thursday, November 2, 2006

Something that surprised me when I was in Tennessee was one of the radio promotions I heard. I am used to radio stations giving away concert tickets or body piercings or ski trips. One station in Nashville, though, was giving away a covey of quail to the lucky caller. Presumably this caller would then need to go to a specific farm and shoot the quail if he were going to eat them. Or maybe they came pre-shot. I did not call in. Perhaps it was some sort of subtle quail sarcasm from the South that I am ignorant of. This is not the only quail sarcasm I have encountered in the last few days. I have been spending a lot of time in the book of Numbers recently, and perhaps I encouraged you to read this passage last week: (Read on …)