New Ghetto Blog

andrew+seely ghetto+blog blog humor

as found on Eric Coomer's blog shared by Gavin Richardson on google reader:
entire text below is from Eric's blog:

Polygon Playground

Saw this on Kanye's blog (link added by Andrew). Yes, that Kanye. What other Kanye's do you know? He has a pretty good blog actually.



The "Polygon Playground" offers room for up to 40 persons at a time to walk, sit and explore its multifaceted surfaces. Gradient ramps guide to the top plateau or offer space to sit and rest. The installation features a software aided 3D surface projection system to cover the object with a seamless 360 degree projection mapping. An additional sensory system detects peoples positions and proximity.

The visual appearance of the "Polygon Playground" changes continuously with the presence, movements and touches of its visitors. The object detects the positions and directions of people and reacts with evolving visual moods and graphic styles.

The hardware and software system of the "Polygon Playground" can be applied to virtually any 3D body to turn it into an interactive object.

tech blogs shared

pt 1

I'm off to www.churchtechcamp.com

You can follow the livestream here. starting at 9a PST

I should be doing my presentation between 10-12 PST. Stop by and say hi.

I'll more than likely be either twittering/live-blogging/seesmic-ing or any combo of those.

Have a great friday. Would love to hear your thoughts about church and tech. (use comments or link to your post)

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update 5:47p
Welcome to all the new visitors. Please feel free to engage with what is here and I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

I'll post a recap of today's events sometime soon as well as some other thoughts about the day. And if you ever need to reach me it's andrewseely at gmail dot com

churchtechcamp web2.0 church technology open-source

"Remember, these people [the nation of Israel] have been living, up until very recently [in the book of Exodus], as slaves. Slavery is a fundamentally inhumane condition. Being owned and treated as property robs people of the dignity and honor of being a human." "They're [Israel] commanded, 'Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan...Do not deny justice to your poor people'" (Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell & Don Golden pg 33, 35)

I think sometimes we forget we are the descendants of slaves. Some of us literally, but at least for us christians, figuratively. If we are to call ourselves "children of God" then we need to be aware of our history.

We've never been slaves and even if your family once was in slavery you are probably 3 to 4 times removed from it. Just a asterisk in history. (Not trying to marginalize anyone who's family has been a part of slavery, at all) There are not a lot of reminders of the struggle it is to be robbed of dignity and honor.

Maybe we're not slaves in the way that makes us think of those in the past. But we are definitely slaves to things like money, work, things, etc.

Though what if we start picturing ourselves as slaves to God, slaves to freedom, slaves to love, slaves to justice.

Slaves in the sense that we are unconditionally bound to them. We have no choice but to work for them. Instead of losing dignity and honor, let us give dignity and honor to those we are bound to.

I can only imagine a world in which we are slaves to love, slaves to justice, slaves to Jesus. A restructuring of the social system, a structure that takes a slavery to sin and makes it into a bond of love.

Will you join me in something different than being a slave to myself and the world? Can we be slaves to love? Slaves to justice? Slaves to peace? Slaves to God?

church emerging+church god slavery thoughts love

So I've noticed something since sunday night.

Something is different or at least starting to change.

In a way I feel a bit revitalized. There's something that comes for me when I get involved in theological thought. Something good.

Since sunday, I have at least tried to 1: open up some discussion on the now, pretty defunct EmergentSoCal group (if you were a part of EmergentSoCal please go to the group and contribute to the discussion). 2: I'm involved in www.churchtechcamp.com which will hopefully be a good time with lots of good discussion. 3: Had a few good theological conversations, which I deeply miss, looking forward to more during my time at NYWC coming up soon (will be good to see some old friends). 4: Started reading Jesus Wants to Save Christians (see last post) this has already sparked my mind, and I'm only a chapter and a half into the book.

There's a part of me that fell asleep for a while and is now just starting to awaken, and it feels good, like a true night's rest. I'm not quite fully awake, yet, but I sense that the day holds good things for me.

We'll see. Isn't that just part of the journey?

andrew+seely personal

Tonight I start reading "Jesus Wants to Save Christians" by my man Rob Bell. Expect a full review soon!!!

Jesus+Wants+To+Save+Christians Rob+Bell book

I only heard about this event a few weeks ago and then forgot about where I heard about it, and only this week rediscovered that it was THIS friday at Fuller Seminary.

www.churchtechcamp.com

The cost is free, and is an open-sourced event, meaning that anyone can present and share their opinions and areas of expertise.

It's largely based off of the model of BarCamp which is a tech based event.

Looks like most of the day is built around discussion about how to integrate tech into the life of church. Be it web2.0, live streaming, or as simply as if there is still relevance to blogging. It should be a fun day with other tech minded people from all around SoCal.

You can check out the schedule here (look for a familiar name).

And on Friday you can check out the livestream here starting probably around 9a.

churchtechcamp web2.0 church technology open-source

As you can tell there hasn't been too much motivation for me to write anything of late. Not that my brain shut off but more like the desire to write hasn't translated from thought to fingers.

Sorry bout that. One of those spells I guess. I hope to break it soon enough. Like my previous posts have stated I'm just in one of those periods.

Blogging has become a discipline, and as my track record shows I usually don't do well with disciplines. Take college for example, homework and going to class, both examples of disciplines... yeah not so good on my part. Whoops.

Maybe part of it is that I'm not as involved in many of the groups that provided so many sources of thought and writing in the past.

Much of that involvement was in church related matters and those conversations and books and friendships aren't as strong and vibrant as they were in the past and as much as I'd like them to be.

In a way I really miss those conversations and in a way I know that's what I truly want to do with my life. Though it seems it is not the season for that. As much as I'd want it to be. I don't dislike my current job. It's one of the best I've ever had. I love the freedom and flexibility and it's fun. It takes advantage of many of my skills and allows me to be creative. Yet it doesn't fulfill my deepest passions and desires.

I love when I can write from the things that I am engaged in. When I was actively engaged in ministry there was plenty running though my head and I could only try and contain all the stuff that was ready to spew from my head. These days it seems that the ideas are strained to be released from the confines of the depths of my head. Maybe I just need to try and actively seek out the conversations and ideas that I was involved in before. Or maybe it's just that I have moved in a different direction.

I guess that's one more thing I'm trying to figure out. It just seems that I'm pulled in a few different directions which maybe won't allow for as much thought as I'd like, and that may just have to be how it is.

Hmmm still trying to process all of this... out loud, and thank you for being a part of this journey and process. And I hope you continue to join with me.
andrew+seely personal

vlog 21
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andrew+seely vlog videoblog videoblogging

Hi everyone, just checking in. I haven't gone anywhere.

I'm kinda stuck in this place right now, where I do and I don't have anything to say. I'm really struggling what to post.

In a sense I'm doing a lot of processing and for once, am unsure about what is best to put up here. One one hand it may be good for me to just get it out. Yet on the other hand I really feel like if I did it would just be moaning and groaning on my own part.

What's appropriate and what are the things that I really want to share. This is a definite turn in my blogging style, as I usually just lay everything out on the line for you all to read.

Maybe it's just that I need to process these things on my own, or that I feel like we've been down this road too many times. I'm not really sure...

One of the things that I've been wrestling with is the idea of happiness.

Am I happy? When do I get to the point where I can feel really good about the place that I'm in. Often times it still feels like I am waiting for things to fall in line. I'm beginning to wonder if this is a pattern that I remain in. The next thing that I hope to do or accomplish or complete, then I will be happy. I guess finding joy in the moment is something that doesn't easily come with being a hopeful person. The downside of hope is that it is placed within the future. I seem to be looking forward to what it could be. Which means that I have a hard time being here in the now. I am hopeful that things will be better later. Not to say that things can't been good now, but I hope that things will be even better later.

Maybe I've let hope become a dangerous thing. Something that is ultimately holding me back, instead of driving me forward.

Yet, hope is one of the things that helps me through the tough times, knowing that the situation that I'm currently in doesn't have to remain a reality.

Not really sure how to end this post, I guess that goes along with not really knowing what to say in the first place.

Thank you for all of your continued friendships (both virtual and face to face) it is because of all of you that I continue to know that I am loved and valued.

andrew+seely personal