Terry Pruitt's Blog

Entry Info for this Week's Christian Carnival This week's Christian Carnival this week is at Crossroads: Where Faith and Inquiry Meet . From Diane R.: It's Christian Carnival time already for March 2. If you wish to submit a blog post from the past week, simply put the following in an email: Your blog name and the blog URL. The name of the post you are submitting and the post URL. A short description of the post. Remember that we are now sending all Carnival submissions to the official Carnival email at: [ChristianCarnival ATT gmail DOTT com]..... The deadline for submissions is midnight (EST), Tuesday, March 1. Thank you for your participation. Consider entering your blog's best from this past week. You can check out the guidelines here .

This is a pretty interesting excerpt. The main thing a got from it is that marketing is not advertising. There were other great points too. Check it out. 800-CEO-READ PODCASTS: Creating Customer Evangelists by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba : "This week, authors Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba read from their book Creating Customer Evangelists. mp3 26min 25 sec, 12.1 MB"

I have written up interveiw questions for Joe Missionary 2.0. click here to go there.

I heard Dr. William C. Krispin of CityNet Ministries speak last week at Chesapeake Presbytery. He preached and also gave a teaching time on strategic planning. He mentioned the book Edge City : Life on the New Frontier by Joell Garreau. The basic premise of the talk is that cities have developed somewhat differently than one might expect. People tend to stay close to home to work and live. This creates series of cities around a major metropolitan area, edge cities. These are where the people go to church. He implied that a good place for churches to build was near the intersection of two or more major highways. I think for a church to be available to the most people that makes sense; easy access. In building churches what kind of an area do you put them in? In Europe the churches were build in the city square and were central to the city. This means that they were the center and usually commerce developed around them. Churches are no longer built in the city center in Europe, but they...

I drove across the US with my wife when our family was the two of us. It took us five days to go from Washington D.C. to Monterey, CA. I think the most spectacular thing I saw on the trip was New Mexico sunsets. We drove I-70, I-44, and I-40. After we crossed into California we took some lesser known roads up to Monterey. Wow, that was a great drive. See more progress on: Drive across the USA

This afternoon was a snowy afternoon. All the offices I needed had sent their people home due to snow. I could not get anything done at work so I came home and sat on the couch and read Wired. There was a very good article on Wikipedia so I got off my duff and wrote an article. It is about the Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church , a small denomination related to my childhood – young adult denomination. I actually made several telephone calls and got the moderator of their denominations governing body, Rev. Charles Jones. He seemed like a good fellow and was kind to talk to me. I had fun and acheived one of my goals. See more progress on: become a Wikipedia contributor

I have only one person who said they wanted interviewed. I will not make her wait until I get a group of five. If someone else wants interviewed, I still welcome it. Questions for Catez Stevens Allthings2all who is turning the world upside down. 1. Please tell us how you came to stumble upon your favorite quote of all times? 2. Who is your favorite hero of the faith who is a woman? 3. Have any Maori (Native New Zealander) words made their way into common speech in New Zealand? 4. We folk on the North American continent want to come down to New Zealand, where do New Zealanders like to travel to on vacation (or should I say holiday)? 5. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Questions for Barb Big Red 5 who says birds probably listen to WKRP in Cincinnati. 1. What makes a good friend? 2. What is your favorite age to homeschool? 3. What are your best organization tips? 4. How many books would you estimate you have read in your lifetime? 5. What is so great about carrot cake? Qu...

Carmon of Buried Treasure started this game. I'm being interviewed by Rebecca of Rebecca Writes . If you want to participate, the instructions follow my answers to the questions Rebeccah asks of me. 1. What is geocaching and how long have you been doing it? Geocaching is exploring someplace with a gadget. Geocaching is finding a little treasure someone else has hidden. Hiding and finding are more important in geocaching than what it is that you hid or found. Geocaching is an excuse to buy a cool gadget. What I meant to say was geocaching is a sport where the participants use the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiver to find a cache that someone else has hidden. If you are unfamiliar with the term cache, one of its more traditional usages means hidden supply. A GPS receiver, or just GPS, is a special receiver which can tell you your location in the form of a coordinate. It does this by listening, so to speak, to radio signals of Global Positioning Satellites which we...

My friend the Jollyblogger and I are wanting us bloggers to get together. So this is an invite if you are a blogger in the Baltimore-Washington-Northern Virginia Area to a get together. We are meeting up at Buddy's Crabs and Ribs. It is between Baltimore and Washington so it is central to both areas. Date: Thursday March 31, 2005 7:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. Where: Buddy's Crabs and Ribs 14707 Baltimore Avenue Laurel, MD 20707 Map: Yahoo Maps MapQuest Now we have a room reserved but there is a cost if we get less than 25 people so...please go on over to the Jollyblogger and post a comment if you are planning or thinking of coming. I'm going to disable comments on my post here so that everyone will go on over to the Jollyblogger 's site and leave the message there. I hope to see you there. Oh, yeah, I encourage you to advertise this event on your blog too.

If you know my blog then you know I like KenRadio and you also know I like Wired. Now ...drum roll please....Ken Radio interviews Chris Anderson at Wired. Now you can't get much better than that. Actually the topic is cool too, "The Long Tail" theory. If you don't know what "The Long Tail" theory is check it out at Wikipedia. KenRadio Broadcasting Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief, Wired Magazine So you’ve never heard of “The Long Tail” theory. Do yourself a favor, take 16 minutes and listen to the author who wrote this seminal piece in a recent Wired magazine edition. "The Long Tail is about the economics of abundance—what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything becomes available to everyone." Chris Anderson is a brainiac with street smarts and a pen. The dude can flat-out write (and talk).

Parableman (a.k.a. straight-talker) has put together a list of commentaries. A recent seminary professor of my said he did not use commentaries. While he probably does not need it, I know I can always use some help when reading scripture. The only commentary I own on Parableman's list is Joyce Baldwin on Daniel, which by the way I like her commentary on 1 Samuel too. The fact that I don't have many on the list probably means I need to buy more commentaries at Parableman's recommendation than anything else. Thank you Parableman for putting this out there. I will come back to it often. Parableman: Commentary recommendations : "People often ask me what commentaries I would recommend for a particular book of the Bible. I have a significant commentary library that I constantly refer to, even reading some cover to cover. I also read lots of reviews of commentaries and investigate further purchases through the libraries I have access to and inter-library loan. I have a ...

JOLLYBLOGGER - a weblog for jolly beggars: Artist James Coleman : "I have to confess that I have never really understood art. I guess growing up in the south and being into sports, it was kind of unmanly to be into art, at least in my circle of friends. I have never been able to come up with anything to say about a piece of artwork that is more sophisticated than 'that's kind of nice,' or 'ewwww, you mean people actually pay money for that.'" I like to tell the engineers at work that I am a philosophy major. That is sort of a lie. I majored in religion and philosophy. Okay so I failed the ethics section but I understand at least theoretically why it was wrong to lie to the engineers. I am somewhat known for my technosavvy abilities however I make sure they know the key to knowing communications protocols is good philosophy! Seriously it is but that is another posting all together. What do you study when you study philosophy? Often it i...

I have actually found several caches now. Caches that I like to find are not the ones hidden deep in the brush. I like the out doors and nature but I don't like to beat the brush because it will beat back. I prefer virtual caches (historical sites especially), webcams and bench marks. See more progress on: Find my first Geocache!

The following is an extended parable about Christians engaging a culture that does not want to be friendly. When I was stationed in Germany I participated in an exercise in Geissen. (By the way, this is a picture of that castle) The base had seen better days back during the Cold War years. But across the valley were some picturesque castles. I decided I was going to jog to those castles when I was off shift, especially since I was on night shift. The first time I tried I did not even get close. The second time I tried I got further but still no cigar. Finally I bought a map. The roads run mostly up and down the valley and none went directly from where our barracks was to the castle. A buddy and I set out with map in hand and went our merry way. As we got to the village surrounding the castle, 10 miles later, we found the streets confusing. I mentioned something about it to my buddy. He said he thought it was in order to channel opponents down blind alleys and confuse their movements. A...

I have added a new link in my side bar of this blog. I call it 100 Things To Do During My Lifetime However, it links to my list on the 43 Things website. You may be asking yourself, "What is up with the numbers, can't Terry see he is 57 off?" Well, I started my list before I knew about the website and my list was inspired by a coach who made a list of 100 things. If you are a blogger out there I encourage you to create and share your own list of goals via the 43 Things website. I would like to read your list. I might even adopt or adapt some of your goals for myself!

My third daughter said to my fifth daughter, "You are always correcting what I say!" Five says to three, "No I don't."

The other morning I was discussing with my wife my political views. I've decided that the best description of me is "I'm a moderate far right of center"

UPPER CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: "UPPER CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FOUNDED 1955 -- Standards: Original Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (1906). Stated Clerk: Mrs. Vera Allen Publication: 'The Bulletin' -- Mrs. Jaunita Healy, Editor -- 1680 Welcome Rd., Cullman, AL 35058 CARTHAGE PRESBYTERY -- DIRECTORY OF CHURCHES BROOKLYN -- Holly Pond, AL HICKORY HILL -- Petersburg, TN LEBANON CAMPGROUND -- Shelbyville, TN MT. PISGAH -- Cullman, AL PLEASANT GROVE -- Whitleyville, TN PLEASANT HILL -- Centerville, AL PLEASANT SHADE -- Pleasant Shade, TN POSTON'S CHAPEL -- Cookeville, TN RUSSELL HILL -- Pleasant Shade, TN SHELBYVILLE -- Shelbyville, TN SUMNER COUNTY -- Nashville, TN WALNUT PARK -- Gadsen, AL" As I understand it, this denomination has about 300 members. That is a denomination smaller than some congregations. Given the list above, the congregations average about 25 members per. I was very surprised to find this webpage about a...

Ken Radio mentioned today 43 Things Website . It looks fun. I have been making a list of 100 things to do during my life. Now there is a way to do that on the web, and keep track of it.

CalDAV - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : "CalDAV From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (Redirected from Caldav) CalDAV is a proposal for a standard protocol to enable calendar access via WebDAV. The CalDAV specification was first published in 2003 by Lisa Dusseault as an Internet-Draft submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)"....(click the above link to read the rest.) I have been experimenting with the Mozilla version of this. Hat Tip : Mitch Kapor

"After the missing Claire returns with no recollection of what has happened since before the doomed flight of Oceanic 815, Jack and Locke formulate a plan of defense against her kidnapper, the mysterious Ethan, who threatens to kill off the other survivors unless Claire is returned to him. Original US Airdate: 09 February 2005" I'm always looking for the themes and literary devises in LOST. Tonight's was along the lines of the western. We have guns, circling the wagons and even a reference to Hoss, from the TV show Bonanza. (By the way, what is a bonanza? I had to look it up at Dictionary.com. It is a source of great wealth or prosperity. Another definition is a rich mine, vein, or pocket of ore.) We got the wild West theme for how they are choosing to close ranks on Ethan. I'm not sure of the implications here. We have a new set of rules, guns have been used as a group. Who gets to have the guns? Is it competence that gets you a gun or is it compassion? Did...

NPR : Low Power FM Movement Makes Waves : "Low Power FM Movement Makes Waves Listen to this story... by Rick Karr " And instead of podcasting something else happening in radio is the low powered stations as defined by the FCC. By the way this is different than the Mini Radio Stations I blogged about some time ago. Click here to go to the Wired story on that.

USATODAY.com - Radio to the MP3 degree: Podcasting Here is an interesting story on Podcasting. Seems to be a mainstream media story catching up with what has been happening in the IT news for a while.

My competition meter is off, way off. I had problems with competitive sports as a child, partly because I was out of shape and possibly because I have (had) terrible hand-eye coordination. Speed of thought is not my gift either. Usually I am slow and well thought out. Sports require the ability to think on one's feet. But those are the physical reasons which may actually hide the sinful reason in my heart. I wanted to win and hardly ever did. My brother was a gracious older brother, but when we played games I could never beat him. I think I developed an aversion to competition. This aversion to competition was good but rather insidious. Insidious because what I really did was switch all my competition to areas where others did not care to compete. That makes me the winner because no one else cares. Good for making one unmanageably proud. (Subtitle reads: That famous harp music plays that shows a panning in time. In this case, to a time about 10-15 years ago.) ...

Hat Tip: Orange Jack

We watched "The Village" by Shyamalan from Netflix. (By the way, I love Netflix; I spend much less time selecting the movies that my family watches. I used to take trip to the video store and spend significant time deciding what meets our standards and what does not.) Usually we don't do horror. The Village is very scary but like his other films is more on the suspense and twisty plot side rather than the occult and slasher side of things. Warning: Spoiler Alert! Stop reading if you don't want any hint of spoilers. The ideas behind the film are quite intriguing. The village elders have resolved to leave contact from the outside world. They explain it that there are evil people in the towns not so far away AND "those who they don't speak of" are a real threat. Most of the film I was trying to decide what kind of utopian community this would be. Is it Amish, but in the future? Are they Momons? The way religion was discussed I decided it w...

I have been reading Brigada for a number of years. In the mid-90's I was reading Brigada on my Mac using Compuserve as my service provider. Now I'm on my Linux SUSE box surfing on Verizon DSL. I'm still a technology rebel, and I'm still reading Brigada. (Really, you can read Brigada on Windows too.) Brigada - Your Gateway to Mission Networking : "So what's Brigada Today? Since January 25th, 1995 -- for a whoppin' 10 years (that's like... forever when it comes to the Internet -- the weekly Brigada Today email journal has been informing Great Commission Christians about our great global quest: giving hope and help to those who need it most. During its initial 3 or 4 years, Brigada sought to create email discussion groups that would unify like-minded pilgrims in reaching specific pockets of people. Thankfully, now there are several specialist websites dedicated to that task. In more recent years, Brigada has honed in on what it always did best f...

Go on over to Joe Missionary to read more about this issue of women in ministry. There is some healthy discussion going on. Joe Missionary: Theology Thursday: Women Pastors : "Theology Thursday: Women Pastors When we lived in the States, the topic of women pastors didn't come up very often. It seemed to me that most women pastors served in liberal churches that didn't place a high value on the Word of God anyway. I could be wrong; the times, they are a-changin'. But I have seen and heard about several countries in this part of the world where women pastors are fairly common. Moreover, it doesn't even seem to be a controversial issue here. To me, this is a problem." You will have to click through the link to see the whole thing.

Wired News: Car Chase Tech That's Really Hot : "Car Chase Tech That's Really Hot By Cyrus Farivar 02:00 AM Feb. 03, 2005 PT If a Los Angeles-area scientist has his way, car chases may become as antiquated as horse-mounted cavalry. James Tatoian, chief executive of Eureka Aerospace in Pasadena, California, is developing a system that uses microwave energy to interfere with microchips inside cars. Once the chip is overloaded with excessive current, the car ceases to function, and will gradually decelerate on its own, he said." Okay, I have a couple of questions. Can I reheat leftovers with this? Will the criminal who gets zapped with this get cancer? Will the officer who uses this get it too? How do you keep this from being used by the criminals? And finally, you go into 7-11 in LA to get a Slurpy and OJ comes through with his Bronco and your car is sitting along the chase route, does your car start afterwards? Who will pay for the repairs? Th...

Pic-N-Run: Dscn0001 Sort of an interesting savenger hunt.