Archive for the 'General Christianity' Category

Did The Black Eyed Peas Rip Off The New Radicals?

Posted June 11, 2009 at 3:34 pm // 0 Comments

the-black-eyed-peas-alive-400x400Not too terribly long after the Coldplay/Joe Satriani controversy comes a new musical controversy.

It’s possible we’re grasping at straws here, but I noticed (as if it’s not too terribly obvious already) a chord progression that is WAY too similar to be considered original. At least in my eyes.

The similarity in focus here is the first couple minutes of the Black Eyed Peas’ song “Alive” and the chorus of the New Radicals’ 1998 hit “You Get What You Give.” In both songs, the timing, rhythm and pitch of both are very, very, very similar. I think that if BEP would have pitch-shifted their backing instrumentation up or down a couple semitones, I wouldn’t have even noticed the similarity.

But, it is what it is. Check them both out below:

Black Eyed Peas – “Alive”

New Radicals – “You Get What You Give”

Are the songs too similar, or are they juuuuuuust different enough to exonerate the Black Eyed Peas? You decide. (I already have.)

Stunning Sunset Panorama From Near Republic, Missouri

Posted June 10, 2009 at 10:11 pm // 3 Comments

(Above: Anyone looking toward the west saw an absolute treat. Click on the image to see the full panorama, which by the way is copyrighted.)

If you didn’t get to see the sunset tonight, you missed an absolute treat. Fortunately I captured a panorama of it…click the photo above to check it out.

To set the stage, after a horrid early evening weather-wise, storm clouds and severe weather gave way to the sun’s grand exit in the 8-o’clock hour. I was returning home from church and saw a faint glimmer of a vibrant sunset to the west as I was driving home on Sunshine Street.

I had chased this sunset from Rutledge-Wilson Farm Park, where I first spotted it. After not knowing where I was going, I found myself eventually where Route MM meets I-44 north of Republic — so I headed north of the freeway, past the stockyards on the outer road and continued on FR 140 westbound until I hit another Farm Road that took me north. I was very blessed to have found this clearing to shoot this photo on a road called Sunset Road, no less.

Here’s the location of where I captured the incredible imagery:

Now please know that there were NO IMAGE ENHANCEMENTS WHATSOEVER made to the photo. I simply shot four photos side by side, handheld, dropped them into Adobe Photoshop, did a cylindrical photomerge and that’s the result. What you’re seeing in the photo is exactly what the sky looked like.

Tonight’s sunset was an awesome display of the power of nature and the One who created it all. Once again, here’s a link to the panorama — please don’t steal my work.

I Find This A Tad Bit Irksome

Posted May 13, 2009 at 2:57 pm // 7 Comments

Espresso Express in my hometown of Longview, Washington. Image via Google Street View.

Springfield is rather large for a city in southwest Missouri, clocking in at just over 150,000. Northwesterners, think Eugene or Tacoma for cities of comparable size.

Now let me set the stage here.

I grew up near Longview, Washington, which is home to three Starbucks stores. Count ‘em: two on Ocean Beach Highway and one on Oregon Way right by the bridge. Population: 35,000. By comparison, Springfield only boasts four standalone Starbucks.

Absolutely stunning, right? Well, I mention this because most people here tend to think of Starbucks as the apex of their coffee experience. There are very few other coffee places in Springfield worth a dang, but only one of them, sadly, is the good old drive-thru coffee stand — such places are found everywhere throughout the Northwest and should be the REAL apex of a coffee experience.

You know a place is awesome when it offers a drive-thru coffee stand. Even Rainier, Oregon, the town I technically grew up in, had Kandi’s Koffee. Longview had at least five that I could count, even if I don’t remember their names. Heck, even Centralia had one that I stopped in on my way up to Tacoma to visit a friend on vacation.

I will give the East Sunshine coffee stand (sorry I forgot the name) an A for their efforts but WE NEED MORE OF THEM. Coffeehouses are cool in and of themselves but I would like to be offered a variety of choices for drive-thru coffee joints. The only drive-thru coffee places in Springfield are that one on east Sunshine, Starbucks on Glenstone, Starbucks on Campbell and some other Starbucks I think on Kearney?

This makes a morning coffee selection very monotonous and rather difficult. Starbucks has a grapple-hold on the “grab and go” coffee joints, and their product isn’t even nearly worth the price people shell out for it. I would much rather lend my business to a small local company that makes a better product at a lower price point.

I find it a tad bit irksome that no one, other than the coffee stand on East Sunshine, has really bothered to open a drive-thru coffee stand. Or am I not looking hard enough? Help me, people.

The Fine Line Between Informing & Fearmongering

Posted May 1, 2009 at 10:01 am // 25 Comments

Biden: “I ain’t gettin’ on no airplane, or subway, Hannibal.”

I have to speak up on the media’s coverage in general of the swine flu apparently sweeping the globe…and in the interest of full disclosure before I even start, I am a member of the media here in Springfield.

By now you all know the main story going out across national and local news outlets is the swine flu outbreak. Apparently it originated in Mexico and has spread rapidly to many other portions of the world, including many states here in our nation.

Many businesses, universities and public institutions have made the choice to postpone activities because of fear the outbreak could spread. Texas and Alabama have both postponed all high school sports activities until mid-May as a precaution as well.

Night by night, turn on the evening news — read the front page of our newspaper today, in fact — and you’ll see swine flu, swine flu, swine flu being reported at every turn.

Let me offer a little perspective on this.

The World Health Organization this morning reports 331 official cases (not deaths) of the H1N1 strain of influenza. 331 cases, and last time I checked, the world population stood at well over six billion.

(Just a few days ago, the official number of deaths in Mexico stood at 7, not 150 as widely reported by the AP and many other media sources.)

In comparison, just here in the U.S. alone, the “regular” strain of influenza has killed 13,000 people since the beginning of January. In the world, a quarter billion people have been claimed as a result of a sickness that continues to cycle every year.

Now back to focusing on the media here: which have you, the public, heard being reported? “Normal” strains of influenza being one of the most deadly diseases, or the new strain that has been proven to be relatively mild but for some reason pople are taking unprecedented precautions over?

It is well known that many people trust the media as their de facto source of news. TV stations, newspapers, even Internet news services know this full well and will do everything in their power to grab even more viewers or readers. The reason for that is two-fold: to beat out the competition, and to turn a profit.

Here comes along a story about the swine flu epidemic, something that will instantly grab the public’s attention and concern because it deals with the public’s safety and well-being. The more people that want to find out about this, the more people turn on the news, read the newspaper, or check the Web. Page views skyrocket, Nielsen ratings increase, newsstands begin to empty.

There is no doubt the swine flu epidemic story is good for business…but I worry that it comes at a major cost. With the facts that were presented above being largely ignored by the media as a whole, there is a fine line being toed between simply informing the public and playing on the public’s fears almost as a scare tactic to whip up a frenzied reaction.

It is a reporter’s responsibility to strive for fairness and accuracy in all they present to the public in their official capacity. When a reporter tells the public that the swine flu epidemic is sweeping the nation and tells about some rather dire precautions many organizations are taking — yet FAILS to mention the WHO’s official count of swine flu deaths — their perspective is skewed and to an informed public, it smacks of fearmongering.

Playing on the fears of the public is not the right way to go about business and although I cannot speak for any news organization, I have honestly wondered how the public perceives the mass media’s attempt to spread whatever information they so choose about the swine flu.

May I urge everyone to please continue to look to the media as a source of news and information, but please don’t stop there. It is acceptable to question what is reported and in this age where information is more readily available in a larger variety of sources than it ever has been before, we must all dig deeper.

For myself, as a Christian, I must look to the Bible. 2 Timothy 1:7 says it all for me.

For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

That verse pretty well sums it up, in my opinion.

Penny for your thoughts, in the comments section.

Better Than That Shack Book Could Ever Be

Posted April 29, 2009 at 1:42 am // 2 Comments

I remember reading The Pilgrim’s Progress as a kid…it was a version that was put into very simple English for schoolchildren, but it still spoke volumes to me. The tale of a man trying to find his way to Heaven and eventually finding the only true way there, while encountering many people and traps along the way, is one of the best spiritual stories I have ever heard or read. Every single person in this life is a mirror image of someone in the book, whether they be Christian, Worldly Wiseman, Help, Obstinate, Pliable, Watchful, or a host of others.

While the story has remained in my mind and heart for years, we had given the book away long ago. In fact, I don’t remember where it went, but I have felt a recent desire to read the story again. Yesterday I used some store credit at Redeemed Music & Books to buy a copy in its unabridged text, to get a fuller view of what the author, John Bunyan, was trying to convey.

It only set me back $2, and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. Some of the archaic language, spelling, etc. is a bit off, but the story is so much more vivid now than it was when I was a kid. In fact, I am now to the part where Christian is reaching the Slough of Despond. What to do?

The Pilgrim’s Progress is one of those books that to me, conveys the message of God’s love and grace through our life journey in such a powerful way. The story is the reinterpretation of a dream the Lord gave John Bunyan while imprisoned in the 1600s and it is every bit as timely today.

In a day and age where Your Best Life Now promotes self-consciousness over the saving power of Christ, and The Shack shows blatant disregard for God’s holiness and promotes modalism in its worst form, it is so refreshing to go back to a time where people had a much simpler understanding of God and so effortlessly conveyed some of the most powerful, true to the Bible messages that we could ever read.

Say A Few Prayers For Patrick Clegg & Family

Posted April 22, 2009 at 1:46 pm // 0 Comments

We have received word here in the N-L newsroom that the turn of events regarding a Waynesville High School baseball player is not good.

Junior Patrick Clegg was hit in the back of the head by a pitch last night during the game against Lebanon, and was subsequently airlifted to St. John Medical Center here in Springfield. The latest report is that he is in critical condition and on life support. Word is they may take him off the machine later.

I don’t know any further details but please join me in lifting this young man and his family to the Lord in prayer at this time.

Have You Taken A Trip Down Furlough Drive?

Posted April 21, 2009 at 12:08 am // 6 Comments

About a month ago, specifically March 7, I happened upon a road called Furlough Drive. At first it looked like this short little harmless stretch of asphalt in a housing development, but oh boy, was I ever taken for a ride.

I should have listened to people who had gone before me and told me the road was deceptively short, but the trip seemed to last five days (specifically, eight hours of travel per day) no matter how fast you were going, how many miles you logged or even if you just sat on the shoulder.

I went down Furlough Drive and it led me straight to Portland, Oregon. Funny because I know people who went down the same road and claimed it took them to faraway lands such as Florida, California, Texas, even New York. All traveling the same road! A couple folks told me Furlough Drive led them straight to their house.

The odd thing is that while I was driving down Furlough Drive and passed such entertaining places as the Rose Garden arena, the Oregon Coast and my old hometown, I was completely unable to correspond with any of my work colleagues via phone. Wild!

Even weirder was the fact that my vacation down Furlough Drive did not result in me making one red cent. I have confirmed with the others I spoke to that drove down the same road, that they had the same thing happen.

The most glaring absurdity behind this is that originally I thought it was only myself and my colleagues who had discovered Furlough Drive. I passed a couple of them on the first and second days of my trip, then on Day 3 I happened upon some California state workers and even tried to teach this French auto parts worker some English at a diner (I was able to understand something about him helping hold his CEO hostage or something). By Day 5, Furlough Drive was absolutely clogged with traffic from every place imaginable.

Furlough Drive is a blessing and a curse at the same time. The incredible journey it led me on resulted in me being absolutely non-productive from a work standpoint, but able to see loved friends and visit the place I yearn to belong again someday.

True to form, after one week of enjoying the trip in my car down Furlough Drive, it spit me right back out in the Ozarks again. After I returned to my job, I was told by my superiors that I would be able to enjoy another excursion sometime within the next three months.

See you again in June, Furlough Drive!

Here’s Why I Got Rid Of Twitter

Posted April 6, 2009 at 3:34 pm // 1 Comment

If you haven’t heard by now, or have simply been hiding under a rock, you might not know that Twitter is rapidly growing and expanding.

Twitter is a sort of micro-blog that allows people to sign up for free, then post what they call “tweets”: little informational snippets about anything, consisting of 140 characters or less.

Think of it as Facebook status updates genetically altered and given fresh steroid injections daily.

I was a Twitter user for awhile and I did see some value in it. For me, blog traffic increased just a bit as new people would follow me and want to find out more about me. I did meet a couple people on there (albeit, not face-to-face).

I also saw value in it from the standpoint of companies and news organizations. My employer has a Twitter account and uses it to post links to News-Leader.com. KSPR, KY3 and many other media outlets have done the same.

As for just normal people like you and me, though, I think it’s a bit much.

Never mind the fact that people posted severely inane updates to it…I mean, really, do I need to know EXACTLY where someone is at a given moment or what they’re eating? No!

The very irksome thing about Twitter is that it has seeped onto Facebook and allowed people’s tweets to become part of their status feed. There is nothing I hate worse than logging onto Facebook and seeing a long line of messages consisting of at signs and hash symbols, with poorly spelled words simply to fit the 140-character requirement.

I cancelled my Twitter account nearly a week ago and I don’t really miss it. I don’t need to tell people my life every 15 minutes in 140 characters or less. In fact, this blog doesn’t have a character restriction and I’ve been typing on this thing for four years, thanks.

If you really want to dig deep, think of it this way. Twitter is an indication of how good we are as a society at virtually networking from behind a computer screen, and how horrible we are at actual face-to-face interaction. It’s very easy to communicate with people on the Internet — if you don’t like what they have to offer you can simply delete them as a friend on Facebook or Twitter with no repercussions. Personal relationships and their intricacies are a whole different story, and people’s over-reliance on technology to replace those relationships — especially in the younger generation — is nothing short of frightening.

What Twitter, and now even the Twitterization of Facebook with the recent revamp, say to me is that many people’s lives are just so normal and uneventful that they have to try to find a way to make other people think that’s not the case. Case in point, posting a tweet about sitting there making coffee and expecting everyone to look at it. What’s the point, and why should I care that you’re doing what you’re doing?

I am all for networking with people, but there comes a point when our desire to be accepted, part of a community, and just given attention of any sort becomes overkill, and Twitter is a prime example of that.

That’s why I got rid of Twitter.

Before You Believe Anything Today, Check Your Calendar

Posted April 1, 2009 at 11:22 am // 6 Comments

Today is April 1, otherwise known as April Fools’ Day.

A lot of people like to create jokes and such to fool the general population, and some of the jokes are pretty funny. Just look at what YouTube is doing today, it’s stinkin’ genius.

But alas, people like me have taken April Fools’ jokes too far. Like in ‘07, when I proclaimed on my blog that my relationship with my then-girlfriend was over. Turns out I pre-dated the actual announcement by 19 days.

Since then, I’ve not really done anything on April Fools’ because that was the biggest example of something I said or did coming back to haunt me.

So imagine my surprise this morning when I see on Life of Jason that he posts several big names coming to town for the Springfield Park Board’s summer concert series. After seeing names like DecemberRadio, then the ultimate kicker being Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, it was immediately apparent to me that this was an April Fools’ joke and I thought it was a pretty decent one.

Unfortunately, the Park Board didn’t seem to think so, as stated in a comment on the site:

It looks like this year’s April Fool’s joke on Life of Jason has been targeted toward the Park Board. This fictitious lineup of entertainers was not released by the Park Board. We ask that the administrator of this site please remove the misleading information immediately. A formal release from Parks Public Information Administrator Bob Nelson will be released shortly to all local media. Unfortunately, the fictitious information has already mislead several citizens and local media outlets. For more information, contact the Park Board directly at (417) 864-1049 or visit our official Web site at http://www.parkboard.org.
- Bob Nelson, Springfield-Greene County Park Board

Whoever got duped by that April Fools Day joke was severely punked. I want to know which media outlets actually believed the information.

Remember people, before you believe anything remotely outlandish today, it’s April 1.

Your Voice: SOFA Jersey Design Mockups

Posted March 18, 2009 at 12:07 am // 11 Comments

Ladies and gentlemen, faithful readers and newcomers, Christians and atheists, I present to you the three designs we shall be considering for SOFA football uniforms for our Sunday games, and anything beyond that.

SOFA stands for Springfield Open Football Association, a group of fun- and football-loving people who gather for very informal games of football each Sunday.

People of all ages and all athletic abilities are welcome to participate in the games, and as such I am bringing this to the public…I want whoever wishes to, to vote on a winning uniform design for our games.

They’re completely optional to buy, but $15 gets you a shirt screenprinted by Creator Designs. They are simple as they will have the logo for our league on them, but custom names and numbers on the back.

Here are the top three designs, to be voted on by you, the public. Click on any of the images to enlarge them to their original mockup size.

THE ORIGINAL 2.0
This is a variant of our original jersey scheme. The old one simply had white letters, but one of our players thought the black numbers on the front and back looked better. Red has been the primary color of SOFA since its inception last September.

BLACK MAGIC
This design relies on a darker hue, making the numbers and the block lettering more subtle. The only vibrantly colored part of this jersey is the white SOFA logo on the front. Different, but altogether attractive in its own right.

THE CELTIC SPECIAL
This is nearly the exact same color scheme as the Boston Celtics’ uniforms, and green had been suggested in case someone dives or falls and has a grass stain…it would blend right in! With green being a popular color, we decided to include it in the contest to see who liked it.

ALTERNATE DESIGN
This can be applied to any color, but it has block lettering on the front with the league logo on the sleeve, and the numbers placed differently.

Get your vote in and we’ll tally them up to see which design wins out! We will announce the winning uniform design at the first SOFA match in April.