I can see clearly now the tube is gone

After a few years of staring at one of these:


I am now gladly looking at one of these:


The old axiom that "you don't know what you're missing until you get a taste" (paraphrased) holds true here. I never realized how much eyestrain I was experiencing on the old CRT until I got this thing and realized how much sharper every letter seemed. Now I've gotta see what I can do to get the song that inspired this post's title out of my head...

Here's a mishmash of other thoughts since I haven't written in a while:

- One of my resolutions for this year was to post at least 2x a week. Well, that one went out the window, but I'm still trying to spend time in contemplation of God, life, the church, and the world... and I think He's been teaching me quite a bit. I will endeavor to eventually share some of these thoughts with all three of my readers.

- Speaking of viewing enhancements... our living room is now being graced by an HDTV, just in time for the NBA playoffs. We now have 3 TVs, but only the HDTV has a cable signal coming in - the other two are basically gaming/DVD TVs. Daniel also stashed his XBox360 at our place, so the past two Tuesdays have seen a bunch of guys gleefully chainsawing each other to bits in 2x2 Gears of War.

- This past Sunday playing ball, I couldn't hit a jumper to save my life, but got into a defensive groove of sorts. In the final game I think I blocked 5-6 shots. Reminded me of this good article on shot-blocking from SI.com that I read a few months ago - I suspect Richard would get a kick out of it.

- Recently, Shally and I have begun playing through the first Lego Star Wars game. I'd already played through the sequel with Chris, so we figured we'd start fresh on the first game and figure out the puzzles together. Anyway, all the lightsaber swinging reminded me of two links:

Critique on fighting with lightsabers - written by a sword expert stating some subtle improvements moviemakers could make to sword scenes to make them realistic as well as flashy.

Swordfighting essays - in Japan, we were discussing stuff like a katana user going up against a broadsword or against a rapier. Well, you can check out analyses of those scenarios here and here, respectively.

- Click here to find a good article on the Passion movement, which is now a little over 10 years old. It touches not just on the popularity of the music and of "modern worship" in general, but also gives a good insight into Louie Giglio's vision setting and sticking to it when it would have been tempting to go in other directions. A few excerpts:

"In some ways, Passion has put the words that people are going to say to God into the mouths of an entire generation."

...

Passion's link between worship and missions harks back to evangelical movements like the Moravian Pietists, the continental Europeans from the 18th century who so impressed John Wesley with their fervent prayers and singing. They called for spiritual renewal and promoted worldwide evangelism. When I asked what historical movements inspire him, Giglio mentioned the 19th-century students who organized the Haystack Prayer Meeting and spawned global missions in America.

...

"God may love a well for a village in Africa way more than hearing us sing 'Holy Is the Lord' one more time. That puts meaning behind the $3,000 well," Giglio said. "It's the redeemed making God happy, because we're doing the thing he wants most."

...

"Too long we have preferred theology to passion or passion to theology," Piper said as we talked after his breakout session. "I like Passion and Louie Giglio and have been here 11 years because I believe in the potential to get it together. Most of these students have never heard anyone plead with them to think hard, go deep, get a theology, and jump up and down with David Crowder."