Here’s your paper

8 April 20088 April 2008 TBLeave a comment

We’re entering another new era at my job. In my mind, we’re a step closer to ushering out the newspaper as a vital part of your morning.

For almost the past 12 years, we’ve been putting news on a Web site. It’s a great thing, you can get just about all the news from your newspaper for (whispering) FREE! Pros: It’s cheaper, you don’t get ink-stained hands, you don’t have to follow jumps. Cons: You can’t divide up the paper if more than one person wants to look at it (unless you own more than one computer, I suppose), some things don’t translate as well on the Web (sports agate, for one) without heavy HTML editing, you can’t wrap fish or line bird cages with online news.

During this time, we’ve done better and poorer with our news publishing. There were times in the late 90s and early 00s where we’d get news on the site in a quick fashion, thanks to the efforts of our Web editor at the time. More recently, though, we’ve been publishing on it like we do with newsprint: on a strict schedule that goes against the whole idea of the Web.

That’s why I’m excited to see our paper move to some software called Zope, which allows easier loading of content and in numerous contexts. We will be relaunching our Web site later this month, and I think it will be a lot better. For one, we will be more inclined to put stories on it throughout the day rather than at the end of the evening, simply because it will be easier. In fact, in testing I’ve been able to load stories from the comfort of my own home. To me, it’s just another step closer to closing the chapter on the paper news product and ushering in more fully the digital news product. In the not too distant future we will talk about how quaint it was to read our news from paper when we can have it on our computer or phone or whatever we’ll use.

Keep your eyes on our site in the next few weeks. It will be a million times better.

Brott puzzle

6 April 20088 April 2008 TBLeave a comment

Andrew, in his never-ending search for new ways to amuse himself and the rest of the family, has come up with a crossword puzzle. See if you can answer it. (Warning: One word is misspelled — that is, if it is indeed a word). If you somehow get them all right, you must live inside our house.

The Insanely Hard Brott puzzle

Remember Easter?

20 March 2008 TBLeave a comment

There are a lot of things going on this week, and it seems like Easter — the time of year where we mark the death of Jesus on behalf of mankind — has been pushed to the background. That’s not just sad, that’s tragic.

Today there will be countless number of people in this country gathered around television sets (or else distracted by them, if they are at work) watching to see if the right teams won so they can fill out their brackets. In our city, many kids looked forward to this week so they could not have school for several days in a row. Earlier this week, on Monday, many people honored the life of a follower of Christ by doing things that didn’t honor Christ. Millions of people are planning their evening to watch what will happen next to a group of people who exist only the minds of a group of television writers.

Living in the United States of America in 2008 means you can be a Christian, but please don’t push it in anyone’s face. But think about what this week of history means in our lives. If Jesus Christ had just lived a perfect life some 2,000 years ago and then just died, it wouldn’t have meant a thing. He was born to die a horrible death for our sins. And then, to show that God accepted that sacrifice, he rose from the grave. That’s the important part. Without it we’re just fooling ourselves and are living a lie.

Do you ever get a chill when you think about something that almost happened but didn’t? Well, without Christ’s death and resurrection we were all doomed to God’s wrath and to hell. You know, everlasting punishment for disobeying God. Think about that and shudder. Think about it and be jarred from the sleepy walk off a cliff called American pop culture. There is more to life than college basketball, St. Patrick’s Day, spring break, television, family visits and on and on.

Set you gaze on Jesus Christ and his perfect sacrifice. Think about the utter emptiness of this life without him. Realize that everything we’re looking for to fill up this empty void of our lives in fulfilled in him. Consider Jesus. Trust him. Treasure him.

The guy watching my back

19 March 2008 TBLeave a comment

This is usually what’s going on behind me as I type. Kind of threatening, but I’m glad he’s on my side.

Tags: StarWars, family, fun

Looking forward to ‘The Hobbit’

29 January 2008 TBLeave a comment

For the fans of J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Lord of the Rings,” which I consider myself among, it looks like a director may have been chosen for the film adaption of Tolkein’s “The Hobbit.” From AFP:

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro is in talks to direct two films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel “The Hobbit,” entertainment press reported Monday.

Del Toro, best known for his Oscar-winning 2006 drama “Pan’s Labyrinth,” was on a shortlist of film-makers deemed capable of adapting Tolkien’s story for the big screen, the Hollywood Reporter said without indicating its sources.

The film of “The Hobbit” will be one of the most eagerly anticipated films in years following New Zealand director Peter Jackson’s three phenomenonally successful “Lord of the Rings” movies.

Jackson is to act as executive producer on the two “Hobbit” films, which will be shot back-to-back in 2009 before release in 2010 and 2011, according to studio backers New Line and MGM.

I have not seen any of the movies Del Toro has directed, but I wasn’t familiar with Jackson’s work either before. I am eagerly anticipating what these movies will look like.

Winter comes back, big time

29 January 200829 January 2008 TBLeave a comment

You know the old saying that when you don’t know what else to talk about, talk about the weather? Well, it’s not that there’s anything else to talk about or that I don’t want to talk about anything else, it’s just that I woke up this morning after listening to the wind howl most of the night and it’s freezing cold outside!
What makes it harder is that yesterday it was nearly 50 in Grand Island; ice was melting everywhere, if you were out without a coat you might not care. So this feels even colder. This picture with this post comes from January 2004 (I love the look of Andrew as he helps shovel snow.), but that’s the feeling you have today. The snow isn’t deep enough to shovel, but it’s blowing really hard and drifting. I filled the car with gas this morning and it was a miserable experience standing there with the wind cutting my face the whole time. I grew up in Minnesota and so I mock people here in Nebraska when the complain about weather. But this is uncomfortable.
So, it’s a good day to get things done inside and thank God for providing shelter.

Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord

29 January 2008 TBLeave a comment

Just a quick post here as I think about my precious friend who is battling leukemia and whose mom keeps us all updated on her progress. She is a beautiful, brave little girl who inspires us all to trust God more fully than we do.
I am reminded of the passage in I Corinthians 1:26-31 where Paul reminds us that God chose the foolish, the weak, the low and despised so that he would be exalted and not us. Lord, you are a great God and we are weak, needy people — all of us. Strengthen our faith.

When is abortion racism

24 January 200824 January 2008 TB1 Comment

I am one of many, I suppose, who have received a forwarded e-mail saying that Barack Obama is a Muslim who was sworn into office on the Koran and talked in hysterical tones about what he will do if he becomes president. And then, I have received a followup e-mail from someone else on that list who has pointed out that Obama points to ‘affirming his Christian faith’ at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and that he has been attending the same church for 20 years. He talks about his faith in this interview with Christianity Today.

I wouldn’t say the man is a wild-eyed Muslim trying to take over the United States in the name of Allah. Rather, he is a Christian like many others in that he believes in a gospel that, in his words, is about “prioritizing the least of these over the powerful.” In other words, he is about a social gospel that makes Jesus the great equalizer and defender of the poor. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that his gospel stops when it comes to defending the most vulnerable — the unborn. While he carefully crafts his words in the CT interview, there is no doubt about his position concerning the rights of those who are unborn.

Obama is absolutely right that we should encourage adoption and really care for the women who are going through pregnancy. Obviously, there is a need to strengthen families and we all need to look for ways to build up families in our communities. Yet his talk about unwanted pregnancies belies his real beliefs concerning the issue and puts him at odds with what he says he’s all about — looking out for all people.
Barack Obama

The celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision coincide during this month. If we think about the struggles for civil rights for blacks and the struggles for life for these tiny people, we see that there is a great evil that is being perpetuated daily in our country.

Consider this from John Piper:

My aim is that just as once even though the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case of 1857 held that Black slaves were property without rights as free persons, yet today we view that as unthinkable; so also even though the Supreme Court in the Roe v. Wade case of 1973 did not give the unborn the rights of free persons, nevertheless the day may come when that too is viewed as unthinkable. Racism might—and often did—result in the killing of innocent humans; in our history, it often did. But abortion always results in the killing of innocent humans. Between 1882 and 1968, 3,446 Black people were lynched in America. Today more Black babies are killed by white abortionists every three days than all who were lynched in those years (Life Education and Resource Network).

This is a tragedy of huge proportions. I would suggest looking at the link below to challenge your thinking as a Christian.

When Is Abortion Racism

Don’t we all believe in the same God?

24 January 200824 January 2008 TBLeave a comment

The question we often hear, when people start talking about religion and start making distinction about their faith, is “Don’t we all believe in the same God?” After all, aren’t Christians and Muslims, in particular, just trying to live a good life and pleasing the same God?

To that end, a group of Muslims created a document called A Common Word Between Us and You as “an invitation to join hands with Christians on such a basis, for the sake of God and world-peace.” While the document has been signed by 300 Christian leaders, there are those who foster concerns.

Let’s all love. But don’t deny Christ.

Who sent this?

22 January 200822 January 2008 TBLeave a comment

I came across a post from Dan Phillips over at Pyromaniacs detailing his receiving this card at home and which church sent it. I think we can all relate to the situation, so I think his way of dealing with it is challenging, convicting and thought-provoking for all of us who call ourselves Christians.

Calling card