Christians Have No Imagination

There, I've said it. Did I tick you off? Good. There's a chance this post will get me some new readers even. But, I'm sorry. Is there no creativity or originality in the bunch? I work at a mega-church and I try to study other churches, especially mega-churches. Everywhere you look, all people are doing is (a) ripping off popular culture or (b) ripping off other churches.

Granted, in the second case, someone somewhere had an original thought to begin with before it got ripped off, but you can collect a bunch of Christian cliches, add some Biblical references, some insight and BAM! best-seller. Doesn't help if you're at a well-known church to begin with.

But, far worse is the first case. While I don't normally watch South Park (anymore), I did see one not too long ago where Cartman and the other kids had a bet as to who could get a platinum album first. The other kids practiced and practiced while Cartman took songs that had been popular in past decades and just changed every instance of "baby" to "Jesus". Quite clever, and a great example of what I'm talking about.

I'm tired of seeing permutations and adjustments to popular slogans, skewed pop culture references and tweaked corporate logos. I mean, anyone who knows me knows I love the Warhol effect - taking an object and repeating it with changes, or in a different medium and then tiling the image to show the changes. And I'm all for a great parody (The News was the best, the Mad TV does some good ones sometime. SNL, not so much.)

But I don't think the intent of these Christians is to parody. I think the intent is to draw from what people are already familiar with, and then using the "making it relevant" argument as an excuse to shortcut the process and in the meantime, to put it as bluntly as I can, steal from companies who have invested to develop a brand, come up with a tagline and to promote and market their message.

There is a difference between being relevant and just plain theft and it's time Christians stop being lazy and either make decent and logical connections between the secular material they're drawing from or come up with an original idea of their own.

Britney, this is your life...

This is a funny look at what Britney's future will probably hold. It all seems very plausible, too. Time capsule this, quick!

Ready, Set, Diet

It's somewhat annoying that the article seems to think that only women diet. But it's interesting on why some people have such a hard time dieting. Makes me think of something I said recently... "People say 'Hey James, how come it seems like you're always on a diet.' To which I have to respond 'Because I'm so bad at it.'"

Seriously, I'd like to lose some weight. Even had a doctor recently tell me I needed to shed 20 pounds. But it seems nearly impossible. There is always snacks at work.

I've recently started to realize that if I don't have the cookie, there will be cookies again in the future. This isn't the last cookie on earth. But that usually only applies to the second or third cookie. I'm starting to be able to pass it up, but most of the time, I just don't want to. I want to have that cookie, that brownie, that piece of cake. Sadly, sometimes there's an "and" in that statement.

I may overall be making some headway, but I am always looking for an excuse to snack, and I have one of the world's sweetest tooths, teeth, whatever. But I'm not serious. I'm never serious. Perhaps that's my problem.

And they get paid for it...

The government is employing hackers to show companies and local, state and federal governmental organizations how insecure their systems are. That seems like it'd be a pretty good job if you had the skills, er, I mean, skilz.

Yeah, but does it have a hemi?

ITEC introduces its new 9 foot tall, 8 foot wide and 21-1/2 foot long $100,000 pickup truck. Oh, and it gets 9 miles to the gallon of diesel.

Stamptastic

Following up my previous post about how The Smoking Gun ordered and received stamps of some infamous people, Stamps.com is now only letting you do animals and kids. Maybe Smoking Gun should try Kujo or the evil Siamese cats from Lady and the Tramp.

The Sound of Irony

Turns out that loud music probably causes lung collapse. Would it be bad to hope that it happens to that jerk in the black Nissan Senta with the banged up door?