BlakeAtwood.com

The ABC’s of a Church Website: D-F is now online. It’s the second part of a multi-part series of tips for church websites. It’s especially helpful if you’re using Wordpress as your CMS.

My review of El Charrito, a local Mexican restaurant, is now online at the Eating Fred, Texas blog. You should read it, if not for the witticisms ever inherent in my writing, then for the movie trailer that I link to towards the end of the piece.

For background, Fred, Texas is an actual place. The proprietor of the Eating Fred blog wrote a trilogy of fictional books using the place as his main setting. He decided to set up a blog about restaurants with a few caveats: you must like the food and the place must not be a chain. I’ll be doing a few more reviews in the coming months.

Sponsored by Disaster Kits. It’s everything you’d need if a bad situation became much worse.

There are two things I can’t stand. Cute spellings (like Krazy Krishtians) and Christians that give the name a bad rap. As a newly-converted watcher of The Daily Show, I was alerted to this clip last night (not for the faint of language). I found a longer version online, then I found the performer’s website. He’s written fairly extensively, and fairly well, about the whole episode.

In short, about 90 people walked out of Mike Daisey’s one man show because of his language. Although it was a high school group, they were in fact informed beforehand about the content. To make matters worse, one attendee poured water all over the performer’s notes. Even worse, when Mike questioned the group on their mass exodus, someone replied that they were “Christians.”

The followup post is very intriguing, and well worth reading for anyone, right or left, Christian or non, on what should actually be done to bridge an ever-widening cultural divide. I encourage you to read about the event and what Mike did afterwards. He tracked down the water-pourer and had a reasonable discussion with him. Mike’s last remarks are remarkable:

“And then I forgive him. He is very quiet–he is obviously shocked. And I tell him, ‘I want you to remember that a liberal atheist has forgiven you today. I don’t want you to ever forget that, as long as you live, do not forget what happened here. I don’t have God behind me, but I speak for myself, and I forgive you for myself, and for you. Never forget this.’”

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Editors have to see what most of us don’t. There may be a gem of a good idea hidden beneath a mountain of prose. Or, there may be mellifluous words that are all sound and no fury. Either way, it’s the editor’s job to point the errant writer to the path of writeousness. (Yes, I know. I can hear the groans from here). The Evil Editor (actual identity unknown) exists to help those that can’t help themselves. He or she serves up four options for your reading pleasure:

1. Face-Lifts: Query letters for possible books are submitted to the site, posted as-is, then edited and commented upon by the Evil Editor. Often hilarious, but also helpful
1. Guess the Plot: The EE offers the titles to queried works. Readers write 25 word possible plot summaries. Quite hilarious, and fun to try.
2. New Beginnings: Authors send the first 150 words of their book to the site. Readers add what they think might comes next.
3. The Next Line: Like New Beginnings, but it’s usually an excerpt with a lot of dialogue. Readers add the next few lines.
4. Q&A: Ask the EE a question. Hope for an answer. Pray for your self-confidence.

What’s nice about the site is its wit as well as its value. There’s a method to the madness here, and it will actually help you become a better writer. At the very least, it may give you some good ideas for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

[via the Wunderfool]

[with a nod to advertising pens]

So this dude created some software to control loops on his Mac by using a Wii Remote. Impressive. And he released the software to anyone…with a Mac. Which I don’t have.

[via the Wunderfool]

Josiah Daniel joined the outside world on April 11. He made it here safely, and is now probably sleeping, eating, or doing that other thing that babies do. His two sisters, 5 year old twin girls, will hopefully learn how not to pull him both ways at the same time.

In other news, we visited the hospital a few days after he was born. We made it to the hospital approximately twenty minutes before tornadoes began ripping through the Fort Worth area. The Texas Motor Speedway had to be evacuated as it was a race weekend. Some One was looking out for us.