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Bible College Lit Magazine
It was absolutely a McSweeney’s knockoff. The design, the typeface, the snarky cleverness. No one had heard of Dave Eggers at the college that I attended for one year before transferring away. No one had heard of McSweeney’s or Neal Pollack or any of it. So I rallied the troops.…
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Black and white photos
Sometimes I just use the Noir filter on the iPhone photos app. Other times I use Halide III, a dedicated alternative camera app that offers a range of filters, including Zero Process (Process Zero?) that removes all the smart editing and image processing. I like shooting in black and white,…
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Matt Editorbot
Someone has asked me to read the book that they wrote. I was happy to oblige. Nakedly obvious after several chapters that it was written by AI. The story is probably beautiful and true and good. But the phrasing is a bit limp and rote. So what I need to…
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Consolidating
One of my longtime problems with internet publishing has been the challenge of being spread too thin and being in too many places. At any given moment over the last 25 years, I’ve had more than one internet property. Maybe the only time this wasn’t the case was from 2000…
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Intentional AI Use
I have an epic anti-generative AI rant that I wrote in a single flurry of inspired passion in mid-December and then read aloud that same day at an open mic. It’s passionate, it’s harsh, its even inspiring to some. I’ve been sitting on it because I felt as though it…
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Today
I’m thankful for community. I’m thankful for friends. I’m thankful for people who want show me things and talk with me. I’m thankful for people who want to watch a show with me, stand in line with me, sit at a table with me. I’m probably thankful for you! Grateful…
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Funerals
I was talking with someone yesterday about funerals. She told me that she didn’t want to go to a funeral. She explained that she doesn’t like them. She reminded me that she’s nine. Other kids won’t be going, she told me. Funerals help me appreciate life, I said. We were…
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That’s a darn good beer(ish)
I courageously, inspiring, and nobly quit drinking alcohol nearly three years ago. (Ha! There’s a story there, not so noble or courageous in its origins, that I’d love to unfold to you—over coffee, around the the table, or in a living room with other gems.) But even after my strict…
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Let ‘em fall, baby!
The implosion of the celebrity christian industrial complex continues with the dropping of more public figures. No surprises here. Thus sayeth the Lord… God told me… God told me, word-for-word, a new message every week, which I’m posting on social media and it is resonating deeply encouraging you and getting…
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The internet is rotting your brain
I was always an advocate for full information and full free expression. We should all have access to all of it. And all of us should be able to say any of it. But those views were formed pre-social media. They were developed in the shadow of the gatekeeping age…
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We didn’t lose power. Sad.
They forecasted a big storm. Ice. Snow. Buried and stranded. We might lose power for days, even weeks. Dire warnings abounded. People remembered the ice storm of 2015 or 2006 or 2002. “My college canceled classes for a month.” “Cataclysmic! Catastrophic ice damage!” “We had a house fire.” Don’t mess…
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Scariest thing that has ever happened to me.
In fourth grade my younger brother and I were alone in the house. We heard noise and movement and had a strong sense that there was some presence in the house. We also knew that it was supernatural or demonic. Initially that was terrifying. We climbed onto the couch and…
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Addressing my ankle
Why do you still hurt? It’s been monthsand yet here you are— nay, years It’s been yearsand yet here you areplaguing me, sore, achy is this some grand cosmic lesson I’m supposed to be learning?what test am I failing? what’s my glitch
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audience
i wrote you some poemsthe best i’ve ever written only you will ever see thema collection of holy secrets just for us
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things I’m considering doing as I face this thorny problem involving people and community
talk about it (have been doing that too much) take a walk (preferred option) ruminate, mull, weigh ignore, distract, be busy meditate, abide journal And last but not last: preh
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New site icon
I just changed the site icon for this site — the little graphic in the tab of the browser bar. It is a photo that someone took of me while I was a college freshmen, typing on my $3,000 Dell Latitude laptop, in the year 2000. That was a beast…
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Email
I began using email about thirty years ago. That was back in the golden age of the internet, or the start of the golden age of the internet, which I think think spanned from 1995 to 2005: before social networks and uni-design came to dominate everything. Ninth or tenth grade…
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swiss army knives
I had a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife as a kid, I’m sure. And I can remember getting one in my first year of marriage—I think Isaac owns it now—and somehow I’ve accumulated several others over the years. But lately I’ve really fallen in love with them. Most of my last…
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Nobo Bottle
I pre-ordered this bottle a while ago and didn’t start using it when it initially arrived, because I didn’t see where it fit in my hydration drinkflow. Except I didn’t have much of a hydration drink flow. So I retired every other bottle I have, placed in a giant bin…
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The joy of hiddenness
is a joy that I’ve been wanting to rediscover. I—perhaps we—are so oriented toward sharing, feedback, celebration… there’s something that’s been lost (I suspect!) that earlier and less connected generations have known. The precious solitary. Meditation as its own end. Completeness found in incompleteness. Even: what is looks like to…