BOOK REVIEW - Churched (and e-book giveaway)

For anyone who grew up in evangelical Christianity, reading the stories of Matthew Paul Turner (Twitter link) will bring the memories flooding back. His funny storytelling, weaving tales of his childhood as he tells his story of spiritual growth and development.

I first came to know of MPT through his blog, Jesus Needs New PR, where MPT posts some of the absurdities of the very diverse, very amusing body of Christ. He pushes the envelope and holds some views that, undoubtedly, people will find offensive, but he's always raising a serious point - if these are the people who are supposed to be representing Christ in this world, then, seriously, Jesus needs new PR.

At any rate, I downloaded Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess onto my Kindle, and while I didn't read it straight through, I did open it from time to time - usually in the evenings before bed - to read a chapter or two and have a good laugh.

MPT begins his memoir by recounting the story of moving from a Methodist church to a Fundamental Baptist Church. As he said, "[Mom] and Dad had come to the conclusion that God wasn't attending our old church and it didn't make sense to go to a place even God didn't want to go to." Funny stuff.

Churched is a great read. I definitely recommend it. Below are a couple of excerpts that I found especially hilarious:

On the Second Coming:

The way we saw things, it didn't matter that God had created the heavens and the earth--he did not want us excited about living here. A good fundamentalist worth his weight in guilt was quick to remind any skeptic that the world was going to hell in a handbasket.

On Clean Living:

I did learn on thing about having Jesus as a bodily tenant: he would not tolerate cigarette smoke. Mr. Parsons, the assistant pastor in charge of children's ministries, made that perfectly clear.

"Do you want to give Jesus cancer?" His voice was gruff and he put his hands on his hips. "Well, do you? Think about it, young people. Do you want to be the person responsible for giving God's Son cancer? Or how about emphysema?"

After his talk, Mr. Parsons stood at the door, shook our hands, and gave us Hershey bars. Jesus didn't mind getting fat.

On Salvation:

"Matthew Turner was one of two boys who asked Jesus into their hearts this morning," said Pastor Nolan during the announcements at church. "Four years old! Wow. I wish I'd known Jesus when I was four. Imagine what kind of Christian he's going to be when he becomes an adult. Can't wait to see that."

Again, it's a great book. You can buy it on Amazon.com for Kindle or in paper. For those of you who have a Kindle (or a Kindle app) and would like to read Churched, I have a single copy I can share. Comment on this blog and let me know, and we'll work to get the copy sent to you.

Barnes & Noble: Epic Book Fail

For Christmas, I got a gift card to Barnes & Noble. I appreciate this, because I love books. I've been interested in doing some studying about what the Bible says about things, then developing a set of opinions for politics, economics, et cetera. That seems like the proper order of things.

But I digress.

The massive chain bookstores have replaced local booksellers because, somehow, they are cheaper than the local variety. I have no idea how this is true, because Barnes & Noble is the most ridiculously expensive bookstore in the world. I found a book I wanted to get, but it was $40.00. I looked it up on Amazon.com, and the exact same book was $26.99. Barnes & Noble doesn't do price matching.

So what do I do? I've got this stupid gift card that limits my spending options to one place, so I'm stuck paying too much for a book. I bought some coffee, picked up a collection of Dilbert comics, and left. In the future, I'll just be going to Barnes & Noble to drink coffee and read the books that I bought more cheaply at Amazon.com (or, more likely, something in my Kindle that I bought online for way cheaper than anything in the store).

Seriously, how can a bookseller justify being so expensive? And why don't more people shop at Amazon.com?

Net Neutrality - Why You Should Care

Imagine the following scenario: General Motors - the car company - owns several construction companies in the Midwest, and finances the building of roads and highways across Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky. They receive tax incentives to build, maintain, and improve these roadways, are granted exclusive rights to the roadways (so no one else can build a competing roadway), and they charge anyone who wishes to use these roads an access fee.

In an effort to bolster car sales, GM proposes the following rules: anyone who drives a GM car or truck (Chevy, GMC, Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, or Saturn) is allowed to use the roadway for free. People who drive cars made by Ford or Dodge pay the same nominal fee, and anyone who drives a foreign car pays an additional "domestic roadway compatibility tax" that is a percentage of the value of the car being driven.

Because Toyota has been such an frustrating competitor to GM, all cars manufactured by Toyota are prohibited from being driven on the GM roadways. Anyone who owns a Toyota vehicle must instead purchase a "GM Roadway Authorized Vehicle."

Ridiculous, right? I'm sure most people would agree that this sort of scenario would be completely unacceptable. Even though GM did build the roadways, they did so while collecting kickbacks from the government (also known as your tax dollars), and then they turned around and charged you an access fee to be able to use the roads. There is no reason why GM should be allowed to limit what brand of automobile can be driven on the roadways. However, this is the same thing that is happening with Net Neutrality rules.

On Tuesday, the FCC announced new Net Neutrality rules that are so toothless, so vague, and so full of loopholes that the Internet Service Providers shouted with glee. Now, Comcast, AT&T, and other ISPs can dictate what you do on the internet, where you can go, and how quickly you can do it. What does this mean now?

It means that sites such as Netflix and Hulu - sites that ISPs hate because they use bandwidth - could be severely limited or even banned by an ISP. Or, they could instead promote their own video subscription site to the exclusion of other sites.

Another aspect of the failed Net Neutrality rules is that it doesn't offer consumer protection for wireless Internet access. What this means is that AT&T could prevent iPhone owners from browsing sales on Verizon's website, or that Sprint could prevent users from visiting ESPN.com, requiring them to use Sprint's services to check sports scores and news. You think that's far-fetched? How eager do you suppose AT&T is for iPhone users to watch Netflix over their 3g network?

Finally, changing these rules gives improved access to rich, established companies who can afford to pay higher access fees, leaving other sites to battle through a bottleneck to reach the end user. This means the next Internet start up, won't.

For more information about Net Neutrality, including commentary from industry experts, see the links below:

• Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak: "Keep The Internet Free"
• Ryan Singel: "Mobile Carriers Dream of Charging Per Page"
• Craig Aaron: "The FCC's Guide to Losing Net Neutrality Without Really Trying"

The only people who are happy with these rules (or who want to do away with them altogether) are the Republicans and the Industry. That's a sure sign that the consumer is getting hosed.

Net Neutrality is just the start of it. What's to stop a company from limiting access to anything critical of a bill that they like, or a politician that they endorse? The internet is about the free exchange of ideas, no matter how wacky or ridiculous. Letting business dictate what we can do online is dangerous, unAmerican, and just plain wrong.

Keynote Remote App - No WiFi

I know this is online on some other blogs that are sure to demand more traffic than mine, but I thought I'd share the tips, nonetheless. I taught a Bible Study at a Youth Service in Lafayette the other day, and I made a Keynote presentation for the lesson. Apple has released a Keynote Remote app (for $0.99 in the app store - seems high) for the iPhone/iPod Touch that connects with the Mac/MacBook over WiFi. It works amazingly well, showing the slide, presenter notes, and the time all in the app. One problem, though - the room I was speaking in doesn't have WiFi (Why Apple didn't include Bluetooth support, I'll never know).

Some quick searching on the web showed me how to make an Ad-Hoc network. Basically, you use your Mac to create a WiFi network that your iPhone (or any WiFi device) can connect to. I don't know all of the functionality for this, but for me, it was perfect.

To set up an AdHoc network, click on the WiFi icon at the top of the screen and select 'Create Network'. A new window pops up, and you can name the network whatever you like; the default is the computer name. If you want, it even allows you to set a password for the network. On your iPhone (or iPod Touch), turn on the WiFi and select the network. Enter the password (if necessary) and you are linked! You can now launch the Keynote app and control the presentation.

It worked great for me, and I plan on using this option many times in the future.