Greenflame

Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand

  • Subversive blogging

    Nice quote seen over at jonnybaker: rushkoff on blogging who adds his own sping onto it. He’s highlighted a chunk of Douglas Rushkoff’s The Real Threat of Blogs.

    I believe that the most dangerous thing about blogs to the status quo is that so many of them exist for reasons other than to make money. A thriving community of people who are engaged for free, to me, have a certain authority that people doing things for money don’t.
    …
    Likewise, I believe the greatest power of the blog is not just its ability to distribute alternative information – a great power, indeed – but its power to demonstrate a mode of engagement that is not based on the profit principle.

    In particular he asserts that the Internet, and blogging, move people outside of the traditional market-driven activities of consumption and production. In a sense, they become subversives.

    Some ideas here that might be useful for Saturday’s talk on Jesus, the Internet and technology.

  • Superblogging

    suplogo_on.gifBeing something of a comic book junkie (see: Greenflame: Holy Warrior Nuns, Batman!) I was interested to read this yesterday over at Jolly Blogger: Superman, Jesus Christ and Jim Caviezel.

    Great posting with lots of links to interesting articles and sites linking in religious themes with comic book characters (mostly Superman).

  • The pace of blogging

    Seems the pace of blogging – the frequency and length of posts – is slowing up, particularly in the NZ blogs I read. Must be the end of winter – spring is almost here (an “already but not-yet” tension for the eschatologially minded) but the energy burst of new growth isn’t quite here yet.

    On the other hand, the northern hemisphere blogosphere seems to be humming – a late summer/autumn rush before the winter?

  • PhD blues…

    PhD supervision meeting today. Time to “vent” about how I’m feeling about my thesis progress to my supervisors. No writing due today just time to talk. They listen, they encourage, they offer wisdom – nice to have that sort of relationship with them. Going to take a few weeks away from the main work and clear my desk of other outstanding work – lecture prep, a magazine article and some IT work. But spend some time thinking about the thesis through skimming a couple of books (including From cells to souls – and beyond)

    In their helpful book How To Get A PhD Estelle Phillips and Derek Pugh identity a series of psychological stages the PhD student goes through:

    • Enthusiasm
    • Isolation
    • Increasing interest in work
    • Transference of dependence from supervisor to the work
    • Boredom
    • Frustration
    • A job to be finished

    Definitely in the boredom and frustration stages at the moment but hoping to move on to the final run to finish up by the end of next year.

  • Dear Santa…

    Just a little “stocking stuffer”. The new Apple – iMac G5.

  • It must be spring!

    Yesterday was the last day of the soccer season for two of my boys. A couple of convincing victories and an end of season party to round it off. Boots put away, soccer strip washed and shin pads retired.

    This afternoon the cricket gear came out. The pitch was a little moist (as in very wet and muddy) but for a while the afternoon was frequently interspersed with balls hitting the roof of the house. Bowling in gumboots slows the bowlers approach run apparently and the ball “sticks” to the pitch meaning bouncers are about knee high.

    Still with the Black Caps to be playing soon (XTRAMSN: Sport: Cricket: Black Caps ICC Trophy Squad Named) it was only a matter of time before cricket was back on the menu. (Unless you live in the snow-bound south).

  • Rhythm Science

    Looks interesting.

    Once you get into the flow of things, you’re always haunted by the way that things could have turned out. This outcome, that conclusion. You get my drift. The uncertainty is what holds the story together, and that’s what I’m going to talk about.

    Rhythm Science – The MIT Press by Paul D. Millar (aka Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid).

  • Connections

    The sessions on “Real World Theology” (Stream F) I’m team-teaching with Steve Taylor at the Auckland incarnation of Kingdom Builders 04 are rapidly approaching.

    Title in the programme: Theology & Real Life – Applying Jesus to the environment, the foreshore and the information superhighway.

    For me it’s both an opportunity and a challenge to take themes like creation, the Trinity and eschatology (Christian hope and end times thought) that I work with in my research and academic teaching and connect them with everyday issues. (Not that I don’t do that in my research and teaching but the emphases are tailored for a different environment).

    The challenge here for me is not just to make theology relevant to everyday believers but to encourage them to reflect upon their faith and how it interacts with the real world. To go away looking at the world with altered (and hopefully more Christ-like) vision.

    I’m also enjoying learning about collaboration at a distance on a project – something that will become more common for me in the years ahead I think. Nice to work with Steve in particular on a project and learn stuff from him as well.

    Anyway, Steve and I do our thing here in Auckland on Sept 9, 10 & 11 (and Steve’s doing a stream on “Future Church” at Christchurch KB04 earlier that week with Kevin Ward).

    And yes, I know “information superhighway” is so very nineties. Maybe I should have chosen “blogging” instead.

  • Strange days

    Some editorial comment on the “Enough is Enough!” march from Dave over at Big News. I’d missed the coverage so the links through to different sites and photos were useful.

    Still processing all the different thoughts the images and comments have thrown up.

  • From the “Land of the Free” file

    AKMA runs into problems accessing his library’s free WiFi connection from outside the building. Apparently some think that’s a Fedaral felony. See: AKMA’s Random Thoughts: So Weirdly Wrong

    Nice to see “freedom” at work. 🙁

    More here too: AKMA’s Random Thoughts: For Clarity’s Sake