Monthly Archives: December 2007

A Bittersweet Christmas

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Nicole and I just returned from a last-minute trip to Knoxville, TN. We learned on Saturday that one of Nicole’s best friends was in a fatal car accident the day before. Alexis had been driving out with her two young sons (ages 4 and 2) to Nashville to sing at her brother’s wedding when she lost control of her vehicle. The boys didn’t get any serious injuries, but Alexis died instantly.

Alexis and her husband Tim were there with us when I first met Nicole. I proposed to Nicole when I came down to Knoxville for their wedding. They were our closest friends during the first two years of our marriage (spent in Knoxville). Nicole and Lex even experienced their first pregnancies together; their eldest son was born only weeks after Katie. Needless to say, we’re grieving now and will be for a while yet. It’s not a grief without hope, but it’s rough to lose a friend so young. My heart goes out to Tim, their two boys, Alexis’ parents and the rest of their family.

In the midst of this tragedy Tim and Lex’s church has really stepped up to help. Tim has so many things to deal with right now, and it’s enough to break a man… but God’s grace is stronger, and he’s showing his grace in part through the men and women coming alongside Tim right now.

Still, this is a difficult journey to be on. So if I could ask one thing of you, my friends… would you please pray that God would draw close to the Cantrells and Shraders this Christmas?

Will Tomorrow’s History Books Say, “U.S.A. Fell to China”?

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  • Bear Stearns Loss Presages More Turmoil – New York Times [NY Times]
    “Morgan Stanley on Wednesday announced the sale of a $5 billion stake to China’s sovereign wealth fund, and both Citigroup and UBS made similar deals with Middle Eastern and Asian governments…”
  • The alliance between China’s communist government and Wall Street deepens [Roubini Global Economics Monitor]
    “The CIC’s big stake [in Wall Street] still worries me—in large part because the CIC also owns three of the four large Chinese stake banks, and is expected to own two others after the recapitalization. And there is no doubt that the state banks have been managed in part to achieve non-commercial goals. China’s banks have historically been used to implement China’s version of industrial policy—directing credit to favored sectors of the economy.”
  • Crazy For China [Forbes]
    “This is China’s century. The rest of the world is just living in it.”

America isn’t just bleeding money—Asia is busy holding buckets underneath to catch it all. You never know… this might be a good time to brush up on your Mandarin. :/

Love the Church, Hate Her Papers

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Wow. Codepoke came out early this morning with both guns blazing:

I realize there will be some argument against my definition of paper as the enemy, but I think it’s pretty close. The real enemy of the church is the flesh of each of her members. I attack paper because it’s our generation’s go-to defense for our flesh. Lurking behind every piece of paper you’ll find a sin waiting to happen. Whether it’s the church budget allowing greed, the bylaws enabling sloth, the calendar supporting procrastination, or the membership roll feeding pride; red tape is always the first defense of the bureaucrat and the cheapest ammunition to fire at messengers of the Spirit.

Here is my proposal.

Ignore all paper in the church.

Statement of Faith? Burn it. Bylaws? Owe all men nothing but love; against such there is no law. Denominational missives? Chaff. Membership rolls? Printed lies.

I already felt like God was moving me in this direction. It’s encouraging to see other Godly men moving the same way.

Marietta, PA Linkblog

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Ten years ago today, the term “weblog” was first coined. In honor of this anniversary, here’s a “true weblog” of a few links related to our family’s new hometown—Marietta, PA (not to be confused with Marietta, GA):

Zuda, Araknid Kid

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Last month DC Comics launched their indy/webcomics venture, Zuda Comics. Each month (I think) they have a competition with reader ballots and everything, and winning creators get to see their comics in print.

Josh Alves’ Araknid Kid

This month I’m excited, though, because Araknid Kid, by Josh Alves (a buddy of mine and part of the Christian comics scene) is in the running! Where most of the other offerings are moody or offensive, Araknid Kid is full of a fun kind of energy that works great without alienating young readers.

Go check out Zuda… set up an account and see all the comics in the running this month. Right now Araknid Kid is in 8th place (out of 10). Josh needs your vote! …and 30-50 of your friends’ votes, too, if he’s going to break into the top 3 at this point. So get your free Zuda account and vote for Araknid Kid!

Our web host’s email servers caught the Russian flu…

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…I hear they got it from some tainted spam.

Still, it’d be a better idea to have a company blog where you update your clients about stuff like this, rather than removing your “Live Chat” button and turning off the 24/7 phone support lines. That would only be a good idea if you wanted to scare your clients.

(This also means that if you’ve gotten any errors sending email to us lately—us being any webseitler.com or sugarplumpaperie.com e-mail address—hopefully those problems will clear up before the weekend.)

Speed Racer?

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Speed Racer: Oh no, someone found the Lens Flare tool!

I’d like to just come right out and say it: I’ve never watched a single episode of Speed Racer, so I don’t know how faithful this adaptation is. That said, something tells me the Wachowski Bros. are going a little overboard here. This looks like it’s going to be another Batman and Robin, or maybe two hours’ worth of the virtual reality sequences in Spy Kids 3.

Spy Kids 4: Don

Don’t get me wrong—it looks like it’ll be fun. I just think films like this (that try to make the real world look cartoony) and films like Beowulf (that try and make cartoons look ultra-realistic) ultimately aren’t able to hold the viewer’s suspension of disbelief. At least, not long enough to deliver an engaging story. If it’s just about being a popcorn flick, then fine… but these days it’s getting harder and harder to justify paying movie theater prices. As of right now, Speed Racer is on my “rent on DVD” list. We’ll see how things progress as the film develops. (A pun! Get it?)

But hey, don’t take my word for it! You can see the teaser trailer for yourself at Yahoo! Movies.

On a mostly unrelated note, LOST fans will he happy to know that even this trailer has a “Jackface” contribution (Matthew Fox is playing Racer X): ;)

Racer X: angry, constipated and sick of wearing spandex!

Prince Caspian?

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Not Quite Prince Caspian

  • Prince Caspian reaches out to the White Witch?
  • Susan has to break the enchantment?
  • Waitaminit… Susan’s not back at the bridge with Aslan?
  • Um… eagles? Are the kids coming to rescue Gandalf from the top of Orthanc? (Oh, sorry—wrong Inkling.)

Katie and I just finished reading Prince Caspian a few weeks ago, so the book’s still fresh in my mind. I hope they don’t screw around with it too much… but it irks me that, while “book Caspian” was definitely repulsed by the idea of working with Jadis:

“So that is you plan, Nikabrik! Black sorcery and the calling up of an accursed ghost. And I see who your companions are—a Hag and a Wer-Wolf!”

…in the film it seems Caspian X’s nursemaid and Doctor Cornelius gave him a more tolerant education on Old Narnia. Why do filmmakers insist on taking successful books and messing with them, to the point of changing main characters’ motivations?

I guess I should just be glad Aslan wasn’t changed into a 2007 Camaro. :?

Facebook Blocking Ron Paul Search (UPDATED)

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UPDATE (14:13 EST): The search is working now.

Go ahead and try to search Facebook for “Ron Paul”—here’s what I got:

Facebook is blocking Ron Paul search
(click to enlarge)

“Search is currently unavailable. Please try again at a later time or right now.” But as much as you try, you still get this message. So maybe search is down, except… if I do a Facebook search for “Paul,” I get this:

Facebook is blocking Ron Paul search, but not Paul
(click to enlarge)

So Facebook search is working just fine, but won’t give you results when you search for Ron Paul. Hmm… now why would that be happening?

And does this have anything to do with Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Facebook?