March
23, 2006
|
Dear
Your Worship,
I
am appalled with your response to Saddened in Siloam. Though
I do understand your frustration due to volumes of messages you
receive at your omnifarious website, I still do not approve
your aggressive and antagonistic reply to your loyal readers.
Regarding
your "PS" comment on the Whitehouse page...
Mr. President seems to be kind enough to have a "Contact Us" link,
which is pas présent on publicpixel, on his site.
Your
humble and meek reader Lucious
Erkan BumbleBee |
March
22, 2006
|
Dear
Sir:
I
came across your blog recently and I read many of your entries...
I have so much to say and comment on but alas, I could not
find the comment link so common and useful to every other blog
I've
ever been to. And by every I mean EVERY single one. ever. Maybe
yours is ahead of its time and you are setting trends unbeknownst
to myself and my fellow mortals?
Yours
truly,
Saddened in Siloam
***************** Dear
Saddened in Siloam,
There
are several possible answers to this question:
-
Dan is lazy
- Dan
needs help from Brian Warren and is too proud to ask for it
- Dan
is nervous about all the responses that he might get from people
causing:
a. People to leave PP because they think the comments
are weird
b. Dan to be called out on his wacky thoughts
and be embarrassed in front of the world
- Dan
is worried that a database will be corrupted and he will lose
history
- Dan
wants to update the whole archaic PP structure, and is too
overwhelmed to make all the changes
he wants
- Dan
is ahead of the time
Mostly the votes have been cast for option
2. But the question is, should I make that
step?
Yours
truly,
PP
P.S.
from PP:
Have
you seen a comment link on the WhiteHouse webpage? Yeah,
I didn't think so. When you get as big as George or Public
Pixel - sometimes its in the national interest not to
allow the public to provide feedback on your speeches. ----
So
I'm lying on the floor in my bedroom listening to some ol'
school waterdeep. And I began to think about the lyrics. "All
of the things that are cluttering my mind, I will push them far
from
here - listen for your voice."
It
seems as if that concept was very strong in my life 5 to 10 years
ago. That the things of the "world" were in direct opposition
to God and I needed to clench my fists in a worship service and
focus focus focus on God.
Recently
in my life, in my church, and from my dinky dos pupils - the
wider western church - things have moved from fear of the physical
and visible
to making use of them as a vehicle to experience God.
So
people, culture, sex, beauty, art, music, film, language, and
even pain are investigated and explored and through them we know
God in new ways. |
March
20, 2006
|
Spring
peeking.
The
ground thaws, the couples grin at each other and fall in love,
we contemplate a descent into the abyss and Christ resurrected,
the kids come out to the park to play soccer,
the withered and weathered winter sticks rip open to reveal green
shoots, and we breathe in deeply smelling the dark soil and rain
and hope.
All
is made new.
-----
On
Sunday I spent a morning service interviewing middle schoolers
on why God is so special to them:
"Because he made me" "because
he cares" "because he is 100 miles long". And then I got a chance
to sit in a park and watch the chilly Portlanders come out to
play after a winter of black coffee and basement painting projects.
And this morning I caught a duck and petted a llama and fed grass
to a
furry goat. |
March
14, 2006
|
Every
time a flag, logo, standard, emblem, or icon is raised for the
people - those looking up to it must ask why.
Why
is this before us?
What
does it stand for?
Are
we slaves to it - or is it a slave to us? Which way should it
be? |
March
13, 2006
|
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|
March
10, 2006
|
Lahash
just was written up in the online version of RelevantMagazine.com.
You can view the article
here!
----
My
parents got in late the other night from Sudan. They are doing
well, and its great to have them back in town. Thanks everyone
for praying for them. |
March
9, 2006
|
It's
snowing here in Portland.
Gentle
white flakes drifting by the streetlight in the dark night.
Hmm. |
March
7, 2006
|
He
leaned in. "You know what?" he whispered. "It's not all golden
happy every second. In fact the pain hits me like a dark sea
and I'm often choking and gasping and grasping in desperation.
But... I find comfort at night - in my dreams."
"What
dude? Seriously..."
"I'm
serious. As I drop to sleep exhausted and frayed, I am sometimes
visited by a young girl. She's four or five, and she comes in
the dark and stands by me and holds my hand and we look off in
the distance together and watch the sun rise. And it's in that
moment that I understand love, innocence, and trust. I cry softly,
so she doesn't hear me, but I think she does anyway. And when
I wake up I can breathe again, I can manage."
"Kinda
like Eminem."
"Yeah." ---- 
----
A
new poem is up:
One
Pillow |
March
4, 2006
|
I've
completed a video over at Lahash that gives the broad picture
of what the organization is about. It has some of the new footage
from our trip spliced in.
Lahash
Overview (6 min 44 MB)
Let
me know if you have trouble viewing it - I'll try to make another
version of it if it doesn't work. ----
James
Sedgwick has a blog - props to MaryPit what what. |
March
3, 2006
|
Kindness
VS. Efficiency
Love VS. Wealth
Intimacy VS. Education
Peace VS. Perfection
Life VS. Life Support
|
February
27, 2006
|
Phil's
girlfriend Rea is
here for a while - over from Houghton in NY. We are enjoying
the new cultural stuff - she's Philipino - and today I was
offered some purple yam ice cream. I'm a skeptic - but wow
- its delicious. If you ever are offered some - take it.
|
February
26, 2006
|
What
did Tim McVeigh, Osama, and young Dan Holcomb all have in common?
They were all from fundamentalist backgrounds where evil was
personified in the concrete towers of the United States.
Take
a look at this insane journal sketch I made in 7th grade. It
gives me shivers.
"Shetani"
is the swahili word for "Satan" and "Yesu" the
word for "Jesus." It features the Christ taking out
the Sears Tower - a building presided over by Satan himself -
with
humans falling to the earth reminiscent of the 9/11 tower scenario. I'm
not sure what else to say about it. Pretty creepy.
|
February
24, 2006
|
She
stepped into the musty basement classroom decked in heels, fresh lip paint, and
an outfit hugging all the right places.
Youth
Group was about to start.
But
really, she smiled inside, I'm kind of helping God out here - ya
know. Some of these boys wouldn't be here just for the dusty photocopied
songsheets and confusing chats about the woman, the dragon, and
that mile high golden dream in the sky.
|
February
23, 2006
|
Mike
and I spent the evening at the Cook's reading stories to Zach
and Annika. Ah, the wonder of a children's story with creative
voices and sound effects. It made me want to write.
----
JBU
Buds
Noah
Smith has a Demo
Reel and a page of portfolio images
and Sketches - I hadn't been there in a while.
Derek
Smith has some nice motion work at his site: Demo
Reel
|
February
22, 2006
|
Our
prayers and hearts are with the Lein family this morning.
John
and Miriam Lein said goodbye to their 7 month old daughter,
Emma, this morning in Siloam. She had a heart problem, and didn't
make
it through last night. You can read the story and leave comments
or prayers on the Lein's
blog.
|
February
21, 2006
|
There's
a new
video segement from our trip over at Lahash.
It's about a yard sale in Portland for Sudanese Widows and how
that money was distributed.
And
Tim Bata just sent some great new music to me - one of the songs
has been uploaded into the Lahash media library - Songbird
of the Pearl. Tim organized a bunch of local traditional musicians
and recorded them in his
studio. It's very unique music.
----
Marriage
is like taking two halves of boats assembled in two different
countries by different companies and randomly pairing them
up, welding
them together in a day, and shoving the hulking mass into the
raging ocean.
There
is no hope for a flawless journey. But with tenderness, grace,
understanding, and the hope of a heavenly destination, the journey
becomes worth taking. |
February
20, 2006
|
Chad
and I drove up over the mountain to Redomond to help Sky move.
Ah, freezing temperatures in the ol' Escort with no heater
core. It was a - um - brisk drive. Chad propped his feet on
the dash to get some warmth in his boots. I had snowboard gloves
and hand warmers in my shoes.
We
packed up the goods and they drove off Sunday morning in a
uHaul.
----
Josh
Schroetlin has a blog up.
----
Take
a deep breath planet blue and check
out more offensive cartoons!
This time it's Jews making anti-semitic 'toons about themselves.
Hah! Wow. That's one way of weighing in on the issue - make
fun of yourself. Anyone have any anti public pixel cartoons?
----
Traci
Rae is selling her wares over at CDBaby.com. You can now listen
to previews of all of her songs...
----
Say
what?
"The
God of religious faith is a god of love. He did not design
me." - an ordained astrophysicist
The
debate for the direction of science in the classrooms evolves
again. |
February
18, 2006
|
Chad
Mathis came in last night, and we are driving over in the freezing
cold NW weather to Bend.
Last
night Karin and
I went to a meeting with Jena Lee from Blood:Water mission (more
on that here).
We were comped some tickets to the Jars of Clay and Derek Webb
concert. I was sitting - a bit out of my element
-
in a slick mega church, and I was thinking about how abnormal
America is. Christianity is so big in America (pretty much the
only Western nation to be so overtly religious) - with all the
negatives and positives that come from that. But it is huge.
It fills up
parking lots, sells CDs, owns TV and radio stations, and makes
the Passion and the Chronic-what-cles. And
Europe has thought about Jesus and moved - and Turkey has moved
on - and Egypt has
moved on. And I was wondering if America will ever move on.
I
was thinking about the narrow road and the wide road speech
of the
Messiah.
And
I wonder
if we ever lose our way because it's so dang easy here. And
even though I'm a bit out of my element at the concert, I can
learn some things by being here. They love Jesus, are having
a good
time,
and thinking
about Africa. They are my brothers and sisters. |
February
17, 2006
|
Every
human is worth the death of God.
----
"It's
called the 'need' for sex after you get married." ----
Chad
Mathis is coming in today at midnight! Woohoo! He'll be spending
the night at our place, and then we'll head up out of the
valley into Bend to help Sarah move. Sarah has a new
blog address by
the way...
And
Kelli Fern just jumped into cyberrelations with a new
blog. |
February
15, 2006
|
Your
suit is made of simple thread and plastic. And it has multiple
imperfections. And it covers a naked body. You aren't
fooling anyone sir. You are one of us.
|
February
11, 2006
|
The
new Amazing Grace Orphanage Children's Choir music
video is
available at Lahash! I have some of the background story of
the creating of the piece over at the Lahash
blog.
|
February
10, 2006
|
Studies
in
Visual Chaos
|
January
31, 2006
|
Long
lost guest art.
----
"I'd
even shake hands with George W. Bush, and he has his own private
torture chambers too - in Guantanamo Bay and in the third countries
to whom he's shipping prisoners
whom he has illegally captured so that they can be tortured in
other countries. He had one or two torture chambers in Abu
Ghraib prison, and the whole world saw the result, the evil
wicked result of that. But I'd still shake hands with him - because
I believe it's better to talk to people than to go to war with
them. And that wars are easier to start than they are to finish." -
George Gallaway, British MP, on why he shook hands with Uday
Hussein
With
the recent wire-tapping developments, the Hamas victory, and
the serious confrontation with Iran, these issues will not be
fading anytime soon.
Unfortunately
I don't see bright days around the corner. There are still injustices
being protected and propagated by the United States. The combined
Arab and Muslim worlds see these injustices, and have for over
400 years felt marginalized on the world stage.
Bush
of course is caught. He advocates democracy, but is unprepared
when that
democracy turns on him (this happened during the worldwide
protests before the Iraqi war, and recently now with Hamas).
I'm
deathly frightened of an Iran with Nuclear capability. And I'd
rather my taxes didn't fund suicide bombings against my friends
in Tel Aviv. But we as a nation have very little left to stand
on. We have justified war, we have justified torture, we have
used lies to promote our aims, and then we advocate democracy.
It's a recipe for global violent anarchy.
That
all said, I think its always critical to turn these thoughts
inward and personal. I think the United States to some degree
is becoming what it hated. And I see that in my own life. The
things that I fear the most and point out as errors in others
- suddenly manifest themselves as my own personality. We must
be driven to humility, to offer unlimited grace to all, and sell
our bodies and souls for the righteousness and truth of God.
What if the untold millions of Christ followers took the paths
set out by Steve Saint, Mother Theresa, and the Messiah himself?
Lives driven to push the limits of love and grace. Lives unafraid
of death.
----
Sarah
(sky) has a blog for
the public open.
----
Mac
users now have a music subscription option open with the Rhapsody
player. Not the best implementation, but something else for
Steve to chew on, belittle, and then 2 months later to market
himself.
----
My
parents just flew out this morning to Sudan - please pray for
them on their one month in the mamaland. |
January
29, 2006
|
Sometimes
you just gotta love this planet. Check out this 70
star video on Google of these hilarious fellas singing along
to the Backstreet boys... and you can download it in iPod
video format if you'd like.
----
I've
uploaded some
poems from the past several years in the cache
here online (poems 24 - 30). Mostly about girls and god. It's
a life theme - chunga - some of them are dark.
|
January
27, 2006
|
Matt
and Sarah Martin are
expecting!
You can visit
Cafe Rosie for Karin's new blog -
And Nickimixer has a blog with the latest fizzel from kenyizzle.
It's Sister Huffuvizen's birthday
over yonder at the Golden Eagle Shooting range.
I'm about 17
minutes into the documentary of our trip so far - but you can
get a sneak peek of the Leper
Colony visit (15 MB Quicktime) video at Lahash.net |
January
24, 2006
|
"Want
Mashiach now."
Matisyahu -
the exotic Hasidic reggae rapper extraodinaire is about to
release his new album in one week. You can view his new video
here.
He also performs on POD's new album.
Today
also reveals Ladysmith Black Mambazo's latest album - the luscious
and soothing - "Long Walk to Freedom." iTunes
Catch
Alfred making faces over at Vancereeser.com - hah!
Today
is a crisp sunny day. I took a good jog on the waterfront
catching glimpses of gigantic metal shapes floating through
the mist and wondering how bad the cold weather is for
an open mouthed jogger. |
January
20, 2006
|
Internet
and its spawn.
Today
you can buy t-shirts supporting Palestinian or Columbian terrorists
over at Fighters
and Lovers.com.
The website claims to donate 5 Euro's for each shirt purchased.
Could
sweatshirts for the LRA and Lexington Minutemen hats be around
the corner?
And
then there's the story of the MillionDollarHomePage.
A 21 year old sold
off pixels for $1 a piece and earned a 100,000 Hamiltons
baby.
|
|
