Books
talking high definition : being digital
one of the troubles of reading old technology books is seeing how things were projected and knowing how they turned out.
The reason is that computers are becoming more and more video enabled, equipped to process and display video as a data type. For teleconferencing, multimedia publications, and a host of simulation applications, video is becoming part of all, not just many, computers. This is happening so fast that the snail’s pace of television development, albeit digital, will be eclipsed by the personal computer.
"being digital" by nicholas negroponte (copyright 1995)
so is it isn’t hard to believe that, though television has become pretty cool with hd technology, it might actually be lacking in its user ability to control and create that has brought about the trend that youth are watching their tv online. funny too, that grainy youtube videos are the industry standards and okay by most/all web users.
a definite thumbs up : churched by matthew paul turner
i recently finished reading "churched, one kid’s journey toward God despite a holy mess" by matthew paul turner. matthew i know through our cohort and was able to catch a glimpse of the essence of churched a few weeks back. so i was actually looking forward to reading a preview copy.
i wasn’t disappointed. i call this a definite thumbs up read.
basically ‘churched’ is a early childhood memoir of growing up in the world of the fundamentalist church. a world that i am quite foreign to. so for me it was an eye opening and question raising memoir. "really?" "what’s that all about?" for those that are part of the world they may not be a happy reader, matthew is not mean about his experiences, but in the light of a mirror i cannot imagine these reflections being taken in without some apprehension. for those who grew up in this world and have found themselves out of it, i can only imagine you will see yourself in these pages as well.
‘churched’ is not a huge theological book, certainly not an academic book.. which i gladly welcomed into my world. i enjoyed some stimulating thoughts mixed in with engaging stories. the book moves well and is not super long (only 200 some pages) so it isn’t overloaded with too many stories.
mostly, my fav part, is the writing matthew has in this book. i totally moved into the witty one liners and sarcastic humor mixed in with his story telling. from being told that he is his own worst enemy & going immediately into counseling to being the best christian in a graduating class, not to mention the descriptions of the various teachers in his life.. its very close to how i operate and would write a memoir, if i was really capable of writing a memoir.
if i had to critique any part of the book, it is possibly that there is not much explanation of why each story was significant and how it plays into future life, as a separate entity.. but i was not one who cared for that, so it is not a critique of mine. that short capsuling just is not there. what is there is that all the stories comprise into a whole narrative of who the person is now and how they are reconciling their way into a life of faith, and more importantly, a community of faith.
if you are in nashville, go check out matthew at davis kidd tonight at 7pm.
churched : a funny
"I had only been a Baptist for a few weeks, but it was already clear that God who came to the Baptist church was a lot more particular than the one I heard Methodists talk about- or he was schizophrenic. Of course, at the time, I hadn’t taken any psych courses, so I concluded that the Baptist God just did things differently than the Methodist God."
from churched, by matthew paul turner
i thought that was really funny
see what i found : politics and childrens books
last night the wifey and made a stop to the barnes and noble children’s book department. i miss children’s books, they are so much more prophetic than so many of these theology books. these two books caught my attention. two books about political candidates?.. what are your thoughts?