church 2.0 - same ol' deal?

in response to a post by jonny baker about church 2.0 I wrote the following:

i've been thinking a lot about this idea of community/people as content and something just struck me: in the wikipedia of the world, we christians are the definition of christianity and who christ is. constantly updated and morphing - many voices changing it all the time, but ultimately the world's understanding of christ is framed through us.

not a new concept, but new terminology.


which is simultaneously a scary and reassuring point - get your voice out there! contribute - if you don't like the cultural understanding of Christianity, help bring it back!

ex-building in toronto

ghosthouse
Originally uploaded by josh lyon.

i've always loved ex-buildings, and the stains they leave, expecially when they were built first and added on to, then removed leaving scars in the newer building's side. the sun was in the perfect spot the other day to describe the dimension of a possible foundation...

words made from flickr pics

code auto generated at http://metaatem.net/words/

love in the face of violence

After having seen Paradise Now and feeling very ignorant in my understanding of the Palestine/Israel conflict, I am trying to do as much reading and research as I can on what seems like a very devicive issue - especially in Christian circles... I'm currently reading a book by a Palestinian Melkite Christian Priest, Abuna Elias Chacour, entitled We belong to the land about his experiences in Israel. Just wanted to share the following quote which I found so simple yet so striking:

"The answer to hatred and violence is a genuine, personal initiative completely independent from the reaction to violence. Respecting human rights and protecting human life should never be a reaction to violence, but should arise out of one's love for human beings, for life.

This is the message of the man from Galilee. Jesus Christ teaches us today, as he did two thousand years ago in this very place, that we are not to love people out of charity or for Jesus' sake, as if others were a tool, an instrument, or a tunnel to pass through to reach the goal. Rather, the other - the Jew, the Palestinian, the American, the Muslim, the Christian - is to be loved becauase that person is loveable as who he or she is. We are to love as God loves. God's love is unconditional and sacrificial. God is love."

sheer volume (of sites unseen)

Sites Unseen has the most incredible list - so vast! - of christian related anything. found some cool bands, still browsing the rest. I had to post it, not so much for the content as the connectivity - this is the web after all... I'd love to see a map of the interconnectivity of all these links as a tagcloud or like something from visualcomplexity which is a network of maps of networks.

stillnotstill - beautiful meditative video art

still not still by Sue Costabile is one of the most beautiful pieces of video art I have seen in a long time... paired with lovely audio work by AGF. She does most of her work live using Jitter (part of Max/MSP). check out minimoviemovement too for more of their collaborations... inspiring lovely stuff.

freedom toaster - vending machine for free open source software

The Freedom Toaster project puts free open source software (including operating systems) on the streetcorner. Simply bring a CD to burn, click and go.
In South Africa, it is often hard to gain access to Ye Olde Interwebbe, especially to download large files/software. Problem no more. Just go find a toaster!

the cyborg identification quiz

fill in the blank in the following statement:

_____________ is a crutch for the weak.

a) religion
b) alcohol
c) blogging
d) a bicycle
e) a car
f) love
g) power
h) community
i) literacy
j) television
k) a crutch
l) all of the above

snowsuit photoblog

Snowsuit.net - an amazing photoblog.

$100 laptop plan - save the interweb!

I've been thinking about the $100 laptop and enjoyed the Banksy style take on it that Jonny Baker posted about (from gizmondo: a moment of perspective).

One of my favourite quotes from the $100 laptop website FAQ is the following:

"In one Cambodian village where we have been working, there is no electricity, thus the laptop is, among other things, the brightest light source in the home."

#$%&*%^@$%^$*!!!!

as my sister and wife just pointed out, why not just buy them $10 windup lamps? better yet (i suggested) if they need information too, give them a book to read and then burn for light...

This technotopic vision seems to me to really be about not saving the word (as if) but about saving cyberspace. The biggest problem (as I see it) with the Internet saving us (humankind) is the issue of access. How can we claim it is the great democratic and freespeech leveler unless everyone has one? so save the internet and give everyone a laptop. they wouldn't even dream of selling it to buy food... unless of course they access the internet and start getting ideas...

Paradise Now

Saw this film (Paradise Now, 2005) last night with my dad at Cinema Kingston... Aside from being a really well made film (good drama/suspence, maintains tension and interest level throughout) it really brings to the forefront the humanity of Palestinian suicide bombers. I found myself very ignorant of many factors involved in the occupation/conflict and this movie really drove me to want to know more... While the movie does have a focus (humanizing people who are constantly dehumanized by the western media), it also presents a wide variety of viewpoints on what sort of response/protest is worthwhile - debates relevant to any situation not just the one depicted in the film. I'm somewhat nervous about displaying my ignorance in this obviously heated topic, but wanted to reccomend seeing this film - which I think is a really important voice that needs to be heard in the ongoing hope for some sort of peace.

new musical tracks posted

my my myspace page now has three tracks for your listening pleasure - new since the christmas private release of the flk ep. name changed to akaflk (adding more redundant letters!) because some lousy punkband in the states used the name already... check out myspace akaflk page

my[54cr3d]space

hideleho! I've joined the ranks of myspace... (on forbes' suggestion). see myspace here... you can listen to one track on the page... my shareware mp3 converter ran out of trial conversions. pah. more tracks to come when i sort that out.