More Europe

1:43 of Memories

In Hong Kong

monday meanderings: deep cove trees

In Tokyo (pt. 2)

In Tokyo

Some highlights:
Breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market
Dinner with Ern and Namie every night
Harajuku’s Style
Tasty Okonomiyaki Dinner
Multi-directional Shibuya’s crossing
All that Humanity at Shinjuku Station
Isetan’s Food Hall
Ramen from “Cherry Blossoms Falling to the Ground”
Search for Yabu Soba
Service at Tokyo Baptist Church
At Top of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
Tempura Bar-style
Big Slice of Tomato at Mos Burger
Beef Bowl at Yoshinoya
Ordering Noodles from Vending Machine
Live Music at Harajuku
Praying in three languages
Markor
Discovering Underground Walkways, Malls, (Worlds!)

Why I resist Facebook…but oh, it’s so tempting!

Facebook is wild.

I just connected with an old friend on Facebook, and we’re meeting up for coffee. Good times.

So I’ve heard, this ‘re-connecting via Facebook’ is very common these days, it’s almost “the way things are.” I pity the poor soul who still has no internet (but wait, isn’t that half the world? or more?)

So many friend are on it, I feel left out of conversations my circle of friends are having online. When they chat about things, I’m not…well, connected. It’s an awkward thing, this feeling. Unless I relent, I’ll be left out. Unless I login, I don’t plug in. Odd.

I resist because I don’t want relationships that are built online. But, I recognize that’s what’s happening right now. But I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s helpful. I don’t think it’s, ultimately, real.

Not to say, Facebook isn’t useful. I enjoy connecting with old friends. But I resist nurturing and re-building these friendships only or primarily via Facebook or other online ways.

What do you think?

Here’s a great article by Laura Mitchel:

Facebook can’t measure up with face-to-face.

LAURA MITCHELL, Cambridge
(May 24, 2007)

The Internet chat site known as Facebook has quickly become the telephone of the 21st century.

The quality of these programs is incomparable with versions of only a few years past. It’s an electronic web connecting seemingly un-connectable people. Long lost friends and partial acquaintances are suddenly reunited. Thank the Internet for that one.

What would you ever do now without these treasured new friends? The trace left when navigating through Facebook alone is something almost comical to watch.

“Bobby has looked at Sally’s profile.”

“Sally has commented on Donna’s pictures.”

“Donna has added Bobby as a friend.”

I can admit that I have always been somewhat skeptical about the overall appropriate nature of Internet chatting as a major way of communication. Not to say that I do not indulge in e-mails as an affordable and convenient way to keep in touch. Nor do I frown away from the former chat sites MSN or ICQ, as means to chat quickly. My skepticism kicks in when the Internet becomes the only means in which two people communicate – not to mention the source of a re-connection or initial contact.

The lack of intimacy via instant typed messages, paired with tremendous amounts of miscommunication, don’t add up to lasting friendships.

A solid friendship is based on knowledge, trust and familiarity. Typing to a person you knew six years ago, who you happen to see on a friend-of-a-friend’s, friend list, and with whom you had no prior desire to reconnect, does not come close to the sort of friendship you can acquire through dedication, and sharing of lives – leaving the house and computer behind.

I may be considered old-fashioned, but I believe that attempting to create a relationship through the Internet is a sure way of creating a fantasy that will never come true, not to mention creating delusions that may take time to work off.

The method, means and locations of meeting a love interest are countless; most happen by chance, many find you in a natural setting doing things common in your life – drinking a coffee or searching for a movie in a video store.

Connecting with people through the Internet does not give you the natural affect that a chance encounter would. Pictures pasted on one’s profile are carefully selected and approved for mass audience, posted comments are thought out, and one-on-one conversations are not as quick-witted as they may seem.

One’s overall web-based appearance, including font type and color, pictures and list of friends all becomes a strange mix between a popularity contest and a personal ad. It’s strange to find so many people dependent on these websites for entertainment and connection.

My advice is to shed the fear, turn off the computer, and embrace the excitement of a face-to-face conversation. You may have forgotten how much fun that can be.

Seminary: Who Needs It?

Good post by Prof. Stackhouse.

art, form and function – all in one




When I heard about this tower being built–called the True North Wind Tower–as part of Regent College’s new library, I thought it was…well, neat.

“Photovoltaic art glass merges the ancient art of stained glass with the latest solar technology to produce a window that not only looks magnificent, but also works for its living by gathering and storing electricity for later use.”

Two things I admire, but have no talent in–architecture/design and art. And this tower is functional too.

Home Cookin’

monday meanderings: messy desk

[click photo above to see "notes" about all the items]

Slept in, missed chiropractor appointment, ate lunch at Wazube’s with Jo at 3pm (she had breakfast), drank hot chocolate, went into a crafts store, bought a coffee press, looked at vellum at a scrapbooking place in my neighbourhood by the starbucks, got Christmas blend, watched L’Enfant (redemptive), learned to sing “Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts,” and snapped a corner of my messy desk (above).

“The Dreaded Christian Table”

A waiter finds out why his friends at work don’t like the “Chrstian Table.”

As a Christian: ouch.

[click this banner to see the article]

Quote of the Month: “I’ve been emotionally constipated”

Heard this from a wise friend recently.

Rings true for me too.

The gospel is stirring anew for me…for some reason.

And I’m thankful.

beautiful covenant

[photo taken and uploaded to flickr by absolutwade: somewhere near Oxford]

“Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Genesis 9:16

England can be beautiful too.  Just plain beautiful.

“Suburbia vs. Social Justice”

I came across this blog entry that seems to jive with much that is going on in and through the people in my church (came across it here).

Here’s the snippet that hooked me to read the whole thing:

Living in suburbia can lead to an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality toward the poor. We’re pretty comfortable and typically pretty busy, so it’s easy to forget that our experience is not shared by many – even most – people in the world. We need to develop what Gary Haugen calls compassion permanence: the capacity to remember the needs of those who are suffering due to injustice, multi-generational poverty, disease, calamity, etc., even when they are out of our immediate sight.

Those of us who live in suburbia can sometimes feel a pang of guilt for the comfortable lives we lead in comparison to the world’s poor. While I wouldn’t want to douse any legitimate conviction of the Holy Spirit, I don’t believe the Lord wants us be motivated by guilt. Could God be calling some of us to forsake the suburban lifestyle and “incarnate” with the poor, taking up residence with those who are marginalized in our world? Absolutely. Is he calling all of us to do that? Probably not. The great majority of believers who live in suburbia are called to remain right where they are, but to develop a compassion permanence that leads us to remember the poor even though they are not immediately before our eyes day after day.