Today is one of my proudest days as a case manager, as I’ve been able to assist several of my clients in voting today. Sitting down with them, helping them find their local polling place, driving to the center, walking them through the ballot and the voting machines, and then watching them vote has been amazing. I wanted to share a conversation I had today with (as we’ll call him) “Chris”. He’s grown up well-within poverty his entire life in the roughest neighborhoods of Philadelphia. He’s been in the mental health system since he was very young, with a mind full of voices and confusion.
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Just for Fun
“The Books” are updated, and…what do YOU think about Iran?
(Forgive the picture. I know it’s weird, but it captures my love for books so well.)
I just wanted to put up a quick post to let it be known (to those few people who might care) that my “The Books” section above is updated again. In the midst of my reading and research for the summer Bible Survey Class, I had to put all personal reading off to the side–and, along with that, that Books page.
But, I’ve updated it now, with my new additions. For personal reading, I’ve added Moby Dick and Stephen Kinzer’s All The Shah’s Men. For my devotional reading, I added the poems of Hart Crane (which are rocking my world). I’ve also changed the formatting on the page for easier reading, and added links to posts in which I’ve shared quotes, reviews, or meditations from my time reading that book. Hopefully this will make this page a little more useful for those looking for book recommendations.
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Free Music: introducing Propaganda’s “Excellent”. [casual fri]
I wanted to plug an amazing new album I recently ran across. The album is Excellent by L.A. hip-hop and spoken word artist Propaganda. Being part of the record label Humble Beast, his new album is available for a free download, though I would encourage any and all of you to support the artist by buying his album on iTunes.
Happy Halloween, Philly!
for your soul, unplug. [casual fri]
This weekend, I’m going to go to New York. For the first time in a long time, I won’t be bringing my computer on a trip. I had no idea how tethered I was to this thing until I felt the thrill shudder through me at the thought of having a weekend with just a moleskine, my new (real) book, a Kindle, and a phone (hey, I can’t completely unplug in New York, right?).
About a year-and-a-half ago I read Tim Challie’s The Next Story about a Christian perspective on the digital explosion. He explored: How do we embrace technology rightly? How do we tend to do it wrongly? What are some temptations inherent in technology? How might we act to not let technology consume us? How do we maintain our humanity and community in the midst of it? What is a “theology” of technology?
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Happy 24th Birthday to my little brother Matthew & his attempted beard.
This is a post I put up every year on October 20th, my brother’s birthday. It’s an essay I wrote a few years’ back during an intense time of doubt and skepticism when I realized just how much a sustaining force he was in my life. I still love him to death. Oh, and I usually accompany these posts with an unflattering picture. In love. Here’s the essay:
on blogs that begin and never start… [casual friday]
The blogging platform I use, WordPress, has a nifty feature where you can “find your friends” with blogs also on WordPress. I spent the other day doing this, and ended up really enjoying myself. It was like dropping into random time capsules here and there. I ran across blogs that many of my friends had begun, only to never write a single post. Then, some of them would come back months or years laters and express their desire to start back up again and…well…. just look at this example:
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Town Hall Debate: what would your one question be?
Update: I’ve written some specific reflections on the debate last night.
Tuesday was the second Presidential Debate of the 2012 election. We’ve had one Presidential and one Vice-Presidential Debate so far, both of which were traditional debate formats. This debate, though, was a “Town Hall“-style debate in which the candidates walked freely and spoke to a small studio audience that encircled them as they took their questions directly from audience members. They did not know the questions beforehand, but as the years have gone on, the Debate Commission has limited both the ability to have back-and-forth exchanges with the audience members as well as the follow-up role of the moderator, giving them far more space to dance around the question with no accountability (these changes were put in place after Clinton devastated Bush in this exchange in 1992).
This got me thinking: what if I was there, and I got one shot to ask them one question. I’ve had my fair share of complaints about both candidates (and their running mates), so boiling all of this down to one question that would both be difficult for them politicize and address the most issues I’m concerned about was difficult, but this is what I came up with:
Mr. President and Governor: as a social worker, I’m taught that the goals I make with my clients should be S.M.A.R.T. goals: Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Using this criteria, could each of you, in terms that are not cliched, rhetorical, or abstract, tell me what the goals of the War on Terror are, and what would represent the end and accomplishment of that War? Thank you.
What do you think would be their answers to this question? What would be your question? (And how do you think they’d answer?) Sound off in the comments below, and tune in at 9pm tonight for the debate.
[image credit: AP photo, from an article at The American Prospect]
Weekly Photo Challenge: Happy (multi-header!) [casual fri]
Art
Autumn, Pipes, & Whiskey
Coffee
My City
Beer
Jesus & The Cross
Books/Writing
My Classy Lady (and some PBR)
This week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge theme is “Happy“. The prompt they have offered us is to make a collage of those things that make us happy. So…here’s mine. Click on any of the pictures to bring up the full-size gallery.
Top 100 Things Republicans & Democrats Say [casual fri] [VIDEO]
Hilarious. Enjoy.
Hey Philly! Here’s Every Block: know & love your neighborhood! [casual fri]
I recently signed up for a site that, honestly, I thought would be just another one of those wasted sign-ups that you either forget about or delete after a few weeks. But I was absolutely wrong. And you should sign up too.
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Jesus’ Wife fragment judged a fake [casual fri]
hmm… so did you hear about that fragment found recently that talked about Jesus’ wife? (By the way, here’s a great segment Jon Stewart did on this.)
“News flash: Harvard Theological Review has decided not to publish Karen King¹s paper on the Coptic papyrus fragment on the grounds that the fragment is probably a fake.” This from an email Dr. Craig Evans, the Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Acadia University and Divinity College, sent to me earlier today. He said that Helmut Koester (Harvard University), Bentley Layton (Yale University), Stephen Emmel (University of Münster), and Gesine Robinson (Claremont Graduate School)–all first-rate scholars in Coptic studies–have weighed in and have found the fragment wanting. No doubt Francis Watson’s comprehensive work showing the fragment’s dependence on the Gospel of Thomas was a contributing factor for this judgment, as well as the rather odd look of the Coptic that already raised several questions as to its authenticity.
Ultimo Coffee Graduate Hospital
I live across the street from this. I. Can. Not. Wait.
Over four years ago Elizabeth and Aaron Ultimo were laying plans to move from their beloved community in Arlington VA/Washington DC back to Philadelphia PA where Aaron had gone to college years before. It was a move that was inspired by the idea of helping lead the coffee revival in that city. As they poured over the different neighborhoods that inspired their curiosity they settled on a few that sounded like they would be perfect for their plans. One was the quickly growing neighborhood of Fishtown. The other was equally rapidly developing Graduate Hospital. After weighing the two very different neighborhoods and visiting both they fell in love with the charm and beauty of the latter. However, upon moving to Philadelphia opportunity took them to a different neighborhood to which they became very attached. Ultimo Coffee Newbold was born. It was their baby, their firstborn and it flourished beyond expectations…
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Nice Guys Finish Last | {story#5}
This is an original fiction piece written for StoryADay September. Read more & follow here.
________________________________
Jim:
“Well, uh, do you think that . . .
you might . . .
want to . . . maybe . . .
go on a date with me?”
Helen:
“Really? Yes!
I’ve been waiting so long
for you to ask!”
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The Daily Philly: Yes, I’ve been secretly running a Philly photo blog
Consider this post the official unveiling of my Philadelphia Photo blog:
The Daily Philly: a picture of philly. daily. (almost)
(also on Facebook, Twitter, & Google+)
The Story
I love photography. My dad was a professional photographer for most of my life, photographing my soccer teams and conducting annual Christmas portraits with my brother and me. He’s taught photography at Community Colleges and passed down much of what he knew to me. (I’ve even started doing a personal weekend photo photo challenge on this blog)
I also love Philadelphia. It’s culture, history, feel, and rhythm speak to me in such a real and deep way. It’s big enough that it’s a “real” city: it has art, culture, museums, great food, history, business, urban politics, and even nature (yes, it does!). But, it’s a manageable city. A friend once called it “a city with training wheels”. You can walk from one end of downtown to the other in less than an hour.
So, I brought these two things together into a little web experiment.
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the long way home 