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Of interest from the last couple weeks…

Jeremy Smith – Fair Atheists, Religious Jerks and Clergy Taxes. I think in general there is a lot of misunderstanding about how clergy are taxed; because clergy are considered self-employed, and parsonages are treated as taxable income, clergy (at those who play by the rules), are often taxed at a slightly higher rate than most people. But the cause isn’t helped by clergy (especially those like Rick Warren) who do take their income as a 100% housing allowance and then are able to purchase their own homes, effectively “double dipping” by deducing the interest on mortgages.

A quick note on parsonages – the “free housing” provided to clergy – it’s good to remember that this is primarily a benefit to the congregation, not the pastor, who is missing the opportunity to build equity, receive tax credits for home ownership, and will face becoming a first-time home buyer retirement. In an itinerant system parsonages do make a degree of sense, and I appreciate being able to have lived in some very nice parsonages, but it should be made clear that this isn’t some amazing benefit clergy get – most people in the secular world would not voluntarily choose to live in a situation where their employer was also their landlord (especially if the employer had a reputation of doing things as cheaply as possible).

Seth Godin: Is there a reason for the friction? I’ve actually written about this idea in terms of computer security recently, but it certainly also applies to church membership – there are points where a degree of friction is necessary to make people aware of their choices and to take it seriously.

Lifehack: The 7 Deadly Sins of Happiness.

Fred Clark: The American Legion demands that free citizens take a loyalty pledge written by a socialist. Also from Fred, check out: ‘The rich rule over the poor’: Dave Ramsey, McDonalds, and the personal salvation of personal finance (Part 1), and (Part 2).

It’s always 10:10 in watch ads (via):

9 Things You Have Wrong About Introverts.

The Atlantic: When Trying to Rebut Criticism of Your Racial Politics, Try Not to Make Things Worse.

How Hull Inspired Paul Heaton. Love Hull & Heaton both. Despite Hull being the go-to joke in the UK about a town that’s awful and boring, I remember my time there fondly and would love to make a return visit. (Of course I also love Des Moines and Detroit, so maybe I just love cities that frequently are treated like punchlines).

David Steindl-Rast: Want to be happy? Be grateful:

Thinking of Paul Heaton and Hull, here’s an oldie from the Housemartins:

Of interest from the last few weeks:

Girl Talk sampled over 350 copyrighted songs – which then saw sales bumps.

Quit being nice.

By 2019 Lego minifigs will outnumber humans.

Wil Wheaton on depression: I Got Better.

Dearborn, Michigan is not under sharia law.

Dan Dick: Grace-free living.

J Dilla vs the Beach Boys. I did a poem a few weeks ago where I referenced J Dilla, and got a lot of shocked looks by people in the crowd that totally didn’t expect an older white guy from the suburbs to know who he was. Good times.

How to Craft the Perfect Home Office. I’m still working on a finding a good set up for my home office; there are some good tips here.

Mapping Out My Future!

Everything wrong with Back to the Future:

With all the discussion related to the trail of Rev. Frank Shaefer, I found Jason Micheli’s take to be particularly interesting.

Jeremy Smith: Fair Atheists, Religious Jerks and Clergy Taxes. I think Jeremy makes some good points here, especially if the eventual trade off is getting rid of the “self employed” designation.

How not to say the wrong thing to someone who is ill.

I challenged hackers to investigate me and what they found is chilling.

Johnny Marr – “How Soon Is Now” (not quite the same without Morrissey’s vocals, but still pretty good).

Some things that have caught my attention recently:

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Return of the Jedi – #1 At the end, Luke would put on Vader’s helmet and take control of the Empire. (Seriously!)

Tim O’Reilly: How I Failed

The Atlantic: Librarian Fired for Getting Kid to Read

Mashable: ‘Modern Day Snail Mail’ Project Bring Human Element Back to Texting. I love this idea, but I don’t know if I’ll every bring myself to try it.

Jason Micheli: Is Christian Nonviolence Unrealistic? Is it Un-Christian?

Everything is Samuel L. Jackson’s Fault:

Donald Miller: Why People Will or Won’t Remember You.

Seth Godin: Beyond Geography

The Atlantic: Malcolm Gladwell Admits to being a Troll.

Jeremy Smith: Abusers of Confidentiality and Ambiguity in the UMC

McSweeney’s: Christopher Robin Friend Requests the Residents of the Hundred Acre Wood.

Jamie the Very Worst Missionary: Better When

Had trouble finding music that really appealed to me, but this new one from Mazzy Star is pretty good:

 As part of my involvement in Speakeasy, I had a chance to review Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks by August Turak.

As the title suggests, in this great little book, August draws upon the wisdom of the Trappist community at Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina and blends it with his own insights from working in corporate environments like MTV, as well as two software companies he founded – Raleigh Group International and Elsinore Technologies.

As I started to read the book, I found myself needing to adjust my initial expectations. I was hoping for a book that would really unpack some of the theology behind Trappist practice, as well as apply that wisdom to workplace ethics in a very analytic way. Instead, as the book’s subtitle revels, this book is a much more personal and largely anecdotal account of “one CEO’s quest for meaning and authenticity.” This is one person’s account of discovering and applying spiritual insight into the workplace, instead of a “how to” manual of how it might be done everywhere. Of course, this isn’t to say that the knowledge and wisdom isn’t practical or applicable to other situations; it most certainly is, but the book is more about embracing the conversation of how it might happen instead of dictating “5 Simple Steps to Implementing Trappist Business Practices.”

Turak identifies three core components of Trappist identity – mission, personal transformation and community, and does a great job of identifying how he has developed them in his life, and seen them practices in other businesses and organizations. There were times in the book where I questioned Turak’s examples, such as using the movie The Devil Wears Prada to illustrate the notion of the hero’s journey, it works, I just think it was an odd choice for an illustration. There were also times, when I wished he would go deeper into his analysis, especially in his discussion of Truliant Federal Credit Union and their approach to customer service. But overall, I found this to be a quick read that was personal, relevant, and easy to follow. The last four chapters of the book, in particular, are outstanding in their honesty and inspiration and I’d recommend this book simply for those pages alone.

[Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book for the purposes of review, my review and recommendation is not in anyway influenced by this. Thanks to Speakeasy, Columbia Business School Publishing and August Turak, for letting me add this wonderful little book to my library].

Here’s what has caught my eye over the last few weeks:
 
Seth Godin: The Lab or the Factory?

Fast Company: Why This Vintage He-Man Action Figure Still Smells Bad 30 Years Later. Somewhere in my parent’s basement, Stinkor still lives, next time I’m back in Iowa, I’ll have to give him a smell.

Justin Zoradi (via Donald Miller): You Don’t Have to Be Radical, Just a Little Different. Good reminder for me, that the key isn’t evaluating myself by the credentials and accomplishments of others, but by claiming and celebrating my own gifts and abilities.

Great, short post by Wil Wheaton on anxiety and depression: You Are Not Alone in This Fight

Jeremy Smith: Yes, We ARE your Grandmother’s Church.

Gizmodo: Government Destroys $170k of Hardware in Absurd Effort to Stop Malware.

David Byrne (formerly of the Talking Heads) came to Des Moines earlier this summer and had some nice things to say on his blog: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. I love the fact that he recognizes and even visits some of the great bike trails in the area. I found myself particularly drawn to his idea about growing up in the area:

“The town isn’t particularly hip, but I sort of counted that as a factor in its favor—kids would have to discover what they thought was cool for themselves. Or make it up. Or come to the conclusion that trends does not a life make.”

While I get the thought behind it, having grown up in Des Moines, my sense was we didn’t really get that chance to “discover what [we] thought was cool for themselves” – because we were still connected to the larger culture (through things like MTV), instead it felt like all this “cool” stuff was happening around us, but we were missing out. While many musicians seem to make regular stops in Des Moines now, back in the late ’80s and early ’90s it felt a little like a wasteland. Unfortunately we (or maybe just I) lacked the wisdom and foresight to discover what was cool, or just make it up myself… victims of a consumer (vs. creative) culture, I guess.

Lifehack: 20 Books Everyone Should Read Before Age 40. Guess I need to get busy reading; I have covered a little less that 1/2 of the titles, but unless I get really really focused in the next couple of months, I’m not going to cover all of them.

The Daily Show on news of Detroit’s bankruptcy:

For a better look at what Detroit has to offer and the opportunities it has to present, I loved this video from Campbell Ewald:

Fred Clark: It’s Corporations, Not Killer Robots.

If you are following any of the news concerning the NSA and their ability to intercept traffic on the internet, and you wonder about ways to better protect your privacy, check out the website https://prism-break.org/ – it provides a good overview of better software alternatives that can help you maintain your internet security. Even if you aren’t worried about government intrusion, these are good products (and practices) to keep your information from being compromised, in general. Just to cover the basics, I’d recommend using Firefox and your web-browser with the “HTTPS Everywhere” extension, and using Thunderbird for e-mail with the GPG encryption. I have hopes to get my own VPN (Virtual Private Network) set up sometime this summer, but I haven’t gotten that done, yet.

Lots of good music on the horizon, including this one from Derek Webb called “I Was Wrong, I’m Sorry & I Love You”:

Of interest from the past couple of weeks…

Fred Clark: Blade Runner, Terminator, Minority Report and the sabotage of the Postal Service.

WiseBread: 9 LinkedIn Changes Every Job Hunter Should Make.

The Atlantic: The War on Free School Breakfast.

Lifehacker: The Best Chrome Apps You Are (Probably) Not Using. I’m not a die-hard devotee of any particular web browser, but I do use chrome as my default – this is a pretty good list of tools you can use within your browser for doing things like editing audio, video and pictures; I haven’t personally tried them (other than the basic google apps), but the seems like they are worth checking out.

Gizmodo: The International Space Station has Ditched Windows for Linux. Like with browsers, I try not to be an OS snob (my old Macbook is set up to triple book Mac OS 10.6, Windows 8 and Ubuntu), but I think it is pretty cool the ISS is switching to Linux. (I’ve wondered about trying to do a custom Linux build, specific that would provide churches and nonprofits with a basic, easy to use OS that would be more cost effective for the low end, older computers churches typically use).

Related: This made the rounds a couple weeks ago, but it still awesome – Chris Hadfield singing David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on the ISS:

More space-nerd stuff from Gizmodo: Barns Are Red Because of How Stars Explode.

Good: Bike Lanes Are Really Good for Local Businesses.

Jason Micheli: Clergy Robes and Anonymous Notes.

Jeremy Smith: UMReporter & Cokesbury – The Splintering of Methodism.

Lifehack.org: Download High Quality Vintage Posters. I’ve touched on my thoughts around intellectual property and public domain before, but I love sites like this, which not only highlight, but make public domain works easily accessible. Take a look, especially if you are in need of some office decoration (or even wallpaper for your computer desktop):

Adam Ericksen: God, a Tornado and John Pieper’s ‘Satanic Theology’.

One of my favorite bands of the recent years, The Mountain Goats, are coming to Detroit on June 12.
“You Were Cool”

Links of interest from this past week…

Wil Wheaton: Being a nerd is not about what you love, but how you love it.

Anne Marie Miller: Are Forgiveness and Reconciliation the Same?

Seth Godin: The Critic Stumbles.

Good: How to Hack Energy Savings with a Simple Sign and a Revolving Door.

Jason Micheli: Don’t Call Me Reverend.

Lifehacker: Build Your Own Hidden Lair with this Secret Bookshelf. What Trustee do I need to talk to to make this happen?

Fred Clark: The Sabotage of the Postal Service. This has bothered me for a while now, all the talk about the US Postal Service running deficits isn’t only because of this accounting trick, that no other business has to observe.

The Atlantic Wire: The War on Free School Breakfast is Beyond Wrong.

Fast Company: If You Graduated After 1976, You are Getting Screwed by the Economy.

Rachel Held Evans: Why Progressive Christians Should Care About Abortion.

Joel Watts: The UMC Itinerant System is Evil. (No it’s not, as Joel concludes, but it can be hard, and I appreciate the way he articulates this from the perspective of a lay person).

Music from Bob Mould – The Descent – off his most recent album,Silver Age:

Once again, apologies to handful of you who actually follow this thing for my lack of updates. Anyway, here’s some of the things that have caught my attention over the last few weeks, it’s not a long list, but hopefully you’ll find a few worthwhile nuggets in there:

Fred Clark on Christianity and anti-depressants: Mourning with those who Mourn.

Jason Micheli: Going to Hell on an Airplane. Found this via Scot McKnight’s blog, and I love, not just this post, but scanning through the rest of the blog, it’s clear Jason is a great Methodist blogger, be sure to check it out.

Donald Miller: How to get along with an introvert… also Donald Miller manages to blow my mind revealing that Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree was a response to Brennan Manning’s question about what God’s love is like.

Accidental Racists and More. It’s funny to post this link today – just last night I had this dream about delivering the very moving slam poem to a large group of students about racism and the causal use of racist language. Unfortunately, I can’t remember a word of that poem – even though in the middle of the dream I did have the realization, “Wow! This is really good stuff, too bad I can’t right it down right now.”

Jamie, the Very Worst Missionary: What Would Jesus… Blog?

Paton Oswalt’s response the the Boston bombing – if you haven’t read it, you should.

Rev Momma: Inch by Inch.

Seth Godin: Getting Picked (the need to vs. the want to).

New music from Mikal Cronin. Honestly I don’t know much about this artist, just happened to stumble across this song and love the sweet summer-time power-pop of this song, not to mention that opening line, “I’ve been starting over for a long time…”

Fred Clark: It’s Not Your Stance, But Who You Are Standing With

50 Common Misconceptions:

It’s a conspiracy! The destruction of the Death Star was an inside job!

DIY Cadbury Cream Eggs (via Lifehacker).

Springtime DIY – Bike Tune-up Guide.

Adam Walker Cleveland: Amanda Palmer The Art of Asking and Stewardship.

Mashable: Why Introverts Have All The Fun. I just finished reading Susan Cain’s book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – and would HIGHLY recommend it, both for introverts who feel like all to often they struggle to fit in and for extroverts who really do want to understand what it going on in our heads. (Disclosure: the link to the book is an Amazon Associates link, meaning I would get a very small % of the sale of you click and buy).

The Atlantic: How the Maker of Turbo Tax Fought to Keep Taxes Complicated.

Since I’ve been doing these round-ups I’ve been using Google Reader as my primary way of reading, tracking and marking blogs to link here. With the recent announcement that Google is going to discontinue Reader, I have made the switch to Feedly and have really enjoyed it – it has a nice interface (especially on my Nexus 7), and it equally as easy to mark articles of interest. If you use a feed reader to keep track of blogs (like mine), I’d encourage you to check it out.

Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson have formed a new band called the Uncluded, this is their song called “Delicate Cycle”: