"I started out so starry eyed, full of hope and wonder..."

Links of interest from this past week...

Wil Wheaton: Being a nerd is not about what you love, but how you love it.

Anne Marie Miller: Are Forgiveness and Reconciliation the Same?

Seth Godin: The Critic Stumbles.

Good: How to Hack Energy Savings with a Simple Sign and a Revolving Door.

Jason Micheli: Don't Call Me Reverend.

Lifehacker: Build Your Own Hidden Lair with this Secret Bookshelf. What Trustee do I need to talk to to make this happen?

Fred Clark: The Sabotage of the Postal Service. This has bothered me for a while now, all the talk about the US Postal Service running deficits isn't only because of this accounting trick, that no other business has to observe.

The Atlantic Wire: The War on Free School Breakfast is Beyond Wrong.

Fast Company: If You Graduated After 1976, You are Getting Screwed by the Economy.

Rachel Held Evans: Why Progressive Christians Should Care About Abortion.

Joel Watts: The UMC Itinerant System is Evil. (No it's not, as Joel concludes, but it can be hard, and I appreciate the way he articulates this from the perspective of a lay person).

Music from Bob Mould - The Descent - off his most recent album,Silver Age:

"I've been starting over for a long time..."

Once again, apologies to handful of you who actually follow this thing for my lack of updates. Anyway, here's some of the things that have caught my attention over the last few weeks, it's not a long list, but hopefully you'll find a few worthwhile nuggets in there:

Fred Clark on Christianity and anti-depressants: Mourning with those who Mourn.

Jason Micheli: Going to Hell on an Airplane. Found this via Scot McKnight's blog, and I love, not just this post, but scanning through the rest of the blog, it's clear Jason is a great Methodist blogger, be sure to check it out.

Donald Miller: How to get along with an introvert... also Donald Miller manages to blow my mind revealing that Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree was a response to Brennan Manning's question about what God's love is like.

Accidental Racists and More. It's funny to post this link today - just last night I had this dream about delivering the very moving slam poem to a large group of students about racism and the causal use of racist language. Unfortunately, I can't remember a word of that poem - even though in the middle of the dream I did have the realization, "Wow! This is really good stuff, too bad I can't right it down right now."

Jamie, the Very Worst Missionary: What Would Jesus... Blog?

Paton Oswalt's response the the Boston bombing - if you haven't read it, you should.

Rev Momma: Inch by Inch.

Seth Godin: Getting Picked (the need to vs. the want to).

New music from Mikal Cronin. Honestly I don't know much about this artist, just happened to stumble across this song and love the sweet summer-time power-pop of this song, not to mention that opening line, "I've been starting over for a long time..."

my whole life is a delicate cycle...

Fred Clark: It's Not Your Stance, But Who You Are Standing With

50 Common Misconceptions:


It's a conspiracy! The destruction of the Death Star was an inside job!


DIY Cadbury Cream Eggs (via Lifehacker).

Springtime DIY - Bike Tune-up Guide.

Adam Walker Cleveland: Amanda Palmer The Art of Asking and Stewardship.

Mashable: Why Introverts Have All The Fun. I just finished reading Susan Cain's book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking - and would HIGHLY recommend it, both for introverts who feel like all to often they struggle to fit in and for extroverts who really do want to understand what it going on in our heads. (Disclosure: the link to the book is an Amazon Associates link, meaning I would get a very small % of the sale of you click and buy).

The Atlantic: How the Maker of Turbo Tax Fought to Keep Taxes Complicated.

Since I've been doing these round-ups I've been using Google Reader as my primary way of reading, tracking and marking blogs to link here. With the recent announcement that Google is going to discontinue Reader, I have made the switch to Feedly and have really enjoyed it - it has a nice interface (especially on my Nexus 7), and it equally as easy to mark articles of interest. If you use a feed reader to keep track of blogs (like mine), I'd encourage you to check it out.

Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson have formed a new band called the Uncluded, this is their song called "Delicate Cycle":