ThinkChristian post submitted

Originally published at Faith Seeking Understanding. You can comment here or there.

I just sent in my ThinkChristian post on The Hobbit trailer. It was a little maudlin for my tastes, and definitely a struggle getting something down to the suggested word count of 500-600 words. Also, the site’s audience is a bit different than I usually write for so the shift has me not quite sure I was doing it right. All of those changes make me think this wasn’t my best work. But I also think it was pretty good work when you take those kinds of factors into consideration. It was actually a pretty neat topic, and not something I would have written about on my own – how Bilbo’s decision to leave the Shire maps up against the common Christian preoccupation with the “world to come.”

It gave me an excuse to rewatch The Hobbit trailer and reread the first chapter of the book. That’s good in and of itself! I’ll let you guys know what’s decided (probably not before next week at the earliest).

this post brought to you by the letters: N E W – L A P T O P

Originally published at Faith Seeking Understanding. You can comment here or there.

… now with added functional ‘m’ and ‘s’ keys (which is nice, but takes away my excuse for the embarrassing number of typing mistakes)

A few weeks ago my old laptop’s keyboard started giving out on me. I went to arrange a repair, and I found out that my warranty had expired the week prior. Rather than buying a new warranty I went ahead and bit the bullet on a new computer. That was the easy part. It arrived in Newark (a city not far from NYC – I often fly out of there) last Friday, but between the storm and having it shipped to my uni rather than my apartment (as I’m not always home), it was today before I got it. Then I spent three hours sorting out a problem with how the software was installed… only to not solve it, take a break, call back and have the situation not happen again. It was the equivalent of having a repair man turn around the batteries in the remote control.

But! I now have a computer that is more than just a pretty face. It’s sleeker, lighter-weight, and with a number pad + wider screen. THe speakers are also surprisingly good for a laptop. There’s a subwoofer on the underside of the laptop I know, and at least three good strips of speakers that I’ve found on the computer itself. For someone who’s as into music as I am, this is both a major step forward and a gaping question of how I’ve survived this long without one.

********************************

On a slightly different note, someone has been posting this picture around on FB:

( Read more... )

C.J. + The Jackal

Originally published at Faith Seeking Understanding. You can comment here or there.

Continuing my whim of posting a West Wing clip every day until the election, this is one of my favorite scenes from the first season. In a show that’s so high drama, this moment was just pure fun:

( Read more... )