Going on a cookie safari!
On Facebook? You can vote for our troop’s booth up to once an hour here.
Bling Your Booth, Part Two
Bloggerhood Etc. 2/9/15
Photo: The Mindful Dad
Best Guest Post. “Daddy I Love You and Mom” by Parker at Mindful Dad.
Best List. “16 Things That Happened When I Went to The Creation Museum” by Sarah Moon at Sarah Over the Moon.
Best Question. “How Real Are Facebook Friendships?” by Jacoba Urist at The Atlantic.
Best Dad. “This Single Dad Couldn’t Do His Daughter’s Ponytail, So He Went To Cosmetology School” by Jessica Samakow at Huff Post Parents.
Best Special-Needs Post. “I’m Autistic, And Believe Me, It’s A Lot Better Than Measles” by Sarah Kurchak at Medium.
Best Diagram. “Sy Fy Movie Venn Diagram” by David Vienna at Vienna Calling.
Image: Vienna Calling
Most Alarming. “Report: Requiring Kindergartners to Read—as Common Core Does—May Harm Some” by Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post.
Best Commentary. “The Cowardice of Conversationalists” by Charlie Capen at How to be a Dad.
Strangest Gift. “Lobster” by Thorn Caraway at Cara Strickland’s Little Did She Know.
Most Moving. “Why I Don’t Cry to Christians Anymore” by Anonymous at Micah J. Murray’s Redemption Pictures Blog.
Best Essay. “Meet the Bag Man” by Steven Godfrey at SB Nation.
Best Fake Trailer. “Star Wars vs. Star Trek Epic Trailer” by Alex Luthor (via YouTube).
Ready or Not
Photo: Julia Ozab
It’s the first day of third grade. She’s ready … I’m not.
It’s her first ride to school on the bus. She’s ready … I’m not.
It’s Monday through Friday out of the house after three months of summer. She’s ready … I’m not.
She talks about what she wants to be when she grows up. She talks about going to college and getting a job. She’s only eight and she’s in a hurry to grow up.
She’s already eight and she’s growing up too fast!
She asks when she can have …
- an email account,
- a Facebook account,
- a driver’s license,
- and a credit card.
I tell her …
- when she’s nine (and takes the Girl Scout Internet Safety pledge),
- when she’s fourteen (and shows she’s mature enough to handle it),
- when she’s sixteen (and takes Driver’s Ed),
- and when she’s eighteen (and shows she’s responsible with money).
Eighteen? That’s less than ten years!
In ten years, she’ll be an adult. In ten years, she’ll be going to college. It’s too soon for me, and it’s not soon enough for her.
But as much as she wants to hurry up and as much as I want to slow down, we’re both traveling into the future at a constant speed of sixty minutes per hour, and twenty-four hours per day.
The time is coming and it will soon be here.
Ready or not.
Bloggerhood Etc. 8/11/14
Photo: Spencer Hall/SB Nation
It’s been an eventful week here—and not in a good way. But now that the drama has settled and life is returning to normal, it’s time to get caught up. So here’s some of the best from around the blogosphere from the last two weeks in an extra-large edition of Bloggerhood Etc. …
Best List. “Staff Picks: Worst Highways in America” by Spencer Hall and the SB Nation staff.
Best Demand. “I Want My Christianity Back—Without the Ugly Baggage” by Mark Sandlin at Time.com.
Best Realization. “Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed” by David Cain at Films for Action.
Best Correction. “They Call Us the ‘Nones,’ but We’re So Much More” by Courtney E. Martin at On Being with Krista Tippet.
Most Empowering. “Geared Up For Robotics” by Haley Hanson at Huff Post Impact.
Best Dad Post. “Hunting Live Dinos” by Don Jackson at Daddy Newbie.
Worst Examples. “The Lavish Homes of American Archbishops” by Daniel Burke at CNN Belief Blog.
Best Review of a Bad Product. “SPAM” by Spilly at SB Nation.
Best Devotional. “His Glory Appears” by Cara Strickland at Little Did She Know.
Best Comic. “Outbreak” by xkcd.
Outbreak (Panel 1)
Is the Messenger the Message?
“The medium is the message.”—Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (McGraw Hill, 1964).
McLuhan’s famous quote from a half a century ago has never been truer than it is today. The proliferation of mass media—first audio recordings, film, and television, and later home computers, the Internet, and mobile devices—have placed an overwhelming variety of content in our hands every waking moment of our lives. From education, to entertainment, to mindless distraction, the digital media onslaught is never-ending.
But now, in this age of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and every other social-media platform wrestling for our ever-diminishing attention spans, has McLuhan’s prophetic quote become passé? In our current, self-centered, selfie-obsessed, digital navel-gazing culture, has the messenger become the message?
This is the question I am trying to answer, as a writer, as a blogger, and most importantly as a Christian. How do I balance the need to create and maintain a platform with the necessary call of Christian humility? How do I get out of my own way and point back to the One who is the Maker and Sustainer of all things? How do I glorify Him through the gifts he has given me and use those gifts for the uplifting of others rather than my own glorification? And how do I accomplish the very practical task of bringing traffic to my blog and spreading the word about my writing at the same time?
These are difficult questions. I can ask them in five minutes, but I’m not sure how long it will take for me to answer them.
Fatherhood Etc. 