Seminaries on the Brink

USA Today article from this week on the struggle of seminaries these days. Asbury is right in there with them.

Happy Birthday to an Apparent Loser

It's the birthday of Albert Einstein, born in Ulm, Germany (1879). He was taught at home for a while, and when he finally went to school, his teachers thought he was developmentally disabled. In high school, one of his teachers tried to expel him because all he did in class was sit in the back of the room smiling. He finally dropped out at the age of 16.
He barely made it through college, couldn't get a job in any science field, and finally found a job at the Swiss patent office, evaluating patent applications. In the evenings after he got home from the office, he worked on his own ideas about physics, and in 1905, he published four papers that revolutionized the field of physics and introduced among other things the Special Theory of Relativity and his famous equation, E = mc2.

On Recovering Wisdom. (pricele$$)

Listen to the lecture here.  You'll need about 20 minutes.  hat tip to Shawn Smith. 

Story: Arch Bishop of Canterbury (??)

Interesting Article in this month's Atlantic Monthly on Rowan Williams, the embattled Anglican Communion and the pressing issue of human sexuality facing the Church. So where does the Arch Bishop stand???? Hard to tell. 

Theory U. ($30)

I learned about this today from Joe Myers, a friend of mine.  It looks really interesting.  He says it is a "must read."  

Katie Couric interviews Lil Wayne-- could be her new niche? (.33)

Sync iCal to Google Cal and vice-versa ($25)

Here's a question I've had and finally found an answer to.

I know how to import google calendars into iCal, but I haven't learned how to export iCal into google calendars. I couldn't share iCal calendars with people who didn't run iCal. (i could do it on the web, but it was pretty flat). 

Busy Sync is the answer. It seamlessly syncs back and forth between these platforms. Check it out and try a 30 day trial. 

Prymer on "Getting Things Done" aka GTD (free)

A few posts back a commenter requested a prymer on the Getting Things Done system. Here is a good, albeit primitive, series of ten short media clips with good written summaries.

If you are interested, you can watch the prymer course here.  

Skitch: Amazing Image Capture App. FREE!!

I happened across this yesterday on one of my late night internet tour stops.  It's called Skitch and it is a fantastic image capturing application. I know it works on Mac but am not sure about PC-- could be another reason for the latter folks to make the call to get out of Egypt. Anyway, if you are a creative person who likes to capture ideas, images, photos, etc. and share them with friends-- this is for you. Best part = It's Free! 

and yes-- that's my circle and handwriting added to the image for your benefit. 

DOWNLOAD IT HERE.  

Hot of the Press. Looks Interesting. $17.81

Book Trailer Here. 

Buzz Machine-- the Author's Blog here.

Worshipping at the Altar of Mac (4.99)

This one is very interesting. It's an article from WIRED Magazine on the nature of religious devotion inspired by Apple.  Here's a sample:

"The Mac and its fans constitute the equivalent of a religion," Belk wrote in the video's abstract. "This religion is based on an origin myth for Apple Computer, heroic and savior legends surrounding its co-founder and current CEO Steve Jobs, the devout faith of its follower congregation, their belief in the righteousness of the Macintosh, the existence of one or more Satanic opponents, Mac believers proselytizing and converting nonbelievers, and the hope among cult members that salvation can be achieved by transcending corporate capitalism."

As a religious devotee to all things Mac, I think they may have a point. 

Productivity-- new Magazine (.50)

I enjoy reading in the realm of personal productivity and "getting things done." (a.k.a. GTD).  Here's an online version of a new magazine coming out of this world called Productivity.  

For you non-GTD'ers.  David Allen is the messiah of the Getting Things Done Religion.  Here's a link to a major blog called the Getting Things Done Times.  GTD Times.  

Using Twitter to Help Homeless (.99)

These guys are good. . . ($3.99)

One for the favorites. (free)

Three kids film their skateboard excellence for youtube fame when all of a sudden they capture something completely different. Check it out. 



Hat tip to Krissi Carson.

Tired of Meetings??? (.75)

Patrick Lencioni books are good, but sometimes it seems if you've read one you've read them all. He's the guy who writes about business wisdom via parables. I do like his ideas in his book entitled, "Death By Meeting."

Here's a snippet from an short interview summarizing the book:

Interviewer:   "You say that bad meetings are the most painful problem in business. How does a company know if its meetings have become deadly?"

Lencioni:  "If they're boring, that's a good sign that they're problematic. If people dread going to them, that's a pretty good sign. People should look forward to going to meetings and they should not be bored when they're there. Good meetings are where the real work gets done. When people perceive meetings as something they do instead of work, that's a big problem.  When people say they don't like meetings it's like surgeons saying they don't like operating on people or professional hockey players saying they don't like the games. For most of us in business, meetings are what we do. We get together in a room, make decisions, and discuss things.  Good meetings are where the real work gets done. When people perceive meetings as something they do instead of work, that's a big problem."

Read the rest of the short interview here for some immediately helpful counsel on better meetings. 

Why I Blog. by Andrew Sullivan (.50)

Here's a good essay from Atlantic Monthly Magazine on blogging.

For centuries, writers have experimented with forms that evoke the imperfection of thought, the inconstancy of human affairs, and the chastening passage of time. But as blogging evolves as a literary form, it is generating a new and quintessentially postmodern idiom that’s enabling writers to express themselves in ways that have never been seen or understood before. Its truths are provisional, and its ethos collective and messy. Yet the interaction it enables between writer and reader is unprecedented, visceral, and sometimes brutal. And make no mistake: it heralds a golden era for journalism.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE.

Prescription for Wholeness: Writing. $5

Here's an interesting short article about a University of Texas Psychology professor who has devised a simple prescription for healing from past traumas or events:  writing about it for 20 minutes a day four days in a row. Check it out here.  

Learning to Twitter

Here's a website for all things twitter-- especially learning what Twitter's all about and the multiple ways to engage it.  Admittedly, I'm a twitter novice, but learning.  This site will teach me. 

Handlebars by Flobots. $2

This work of art from the flobots is well worth your 3 minutes and 38 seconds. It's moving. You'll have to go to YouTube via this link to see it as embedding was disabled.

Bye-Bye Bambi. . . . . PG-13 V

This one may be PG-13 given the images. Not for the weak of stomach. But amazing no less. Here's the story:




Driving on the autobahn in Germany at 140 mph
in his BMW Z4, the driver hit a deer.
The deer disappeared. . . .
The driver stopped and wondered,
where did the deer go??????




YOU ARE NOT EVEN GOING TO BELIEVE THIS. . . . . . .

A CommonPlace Book. .50

From the first time I discovered it back in seminary, I've loved reading FIRST THINGS. Ever since then I've mooched the issues from Maxie Dunnam's subscription. 

Here's how they describe their mission:

First Things is published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, an interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.

Needless to say i was devastated at the death of their founder, chief editor and most prolific writer, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus.  

I wanted to share an interesting article I read from the May 2008 issue entitled, "A CommonPlace Book," by Alan Jacobs.  It struck me as an earlier era's description of what many today utilize their moleskines for.  Here's a clip:

It’s likely that, as long as people have been able to write, some have recorded memorable ideas, wise sayings, or beautiful lines of poetry—words of rare value, distinctive enough that we dare not trust them only to our memories.

You can read the rest of the article here.  It's short and quite interesting. 

Welcome to the FARMStrong Yard Sale

I enjoy reading widely around the internet on a lot of unrelated and at times seemingly irrelevant topics. These ideas just don't fit on my other blog, which focuses its energy on an ongoing conversation about Christian worship. 

So here it is.  Take it or leave it. Most items at most yard sales I've been to are bargain priced. This should be some pretty good stuff for a great price-- a little bit of your time.  Load this treasure trove of a blog into your feed reader and look forward to some fun.  

And Thanks for coming.