December 2006 - Posts

• Modesty, Nudity, and Sexuality (Warning: Mature Discussion).

  In general, in the United States we wear pants and a shirt. This is supplemented by under-clothes. For men underwear, for women both underwear and a bra. In general culture it is considered acceptable for women to wear shorts that expose around half their thighs and shirts that expose perhaps 35% of their breasts. One may be considered a "skank" or "looking for trouble" if one wears less, but it is not uncommon to see shirts that expose 50% of breasts and shorts that cover no thighs. This is generally considered appropriate for general life.     In swimming it is considered appropriate for men to go shirtless. To wear shorts. These may also be substituted with speedos, which are equivalent to briefs (also affectionately known as "whitey tighteys"). For women, it has generally been considered taboo to go shirtless, but a bikini is generally in vogue. This would consist of less-than-underwear clothing. Recently women have fought for the right to wear no tops, putting them in an equivalent clothing situation to men.     Lesser clothing is also considered to be "okay" in sporting events. Sports bras, short shorts, etc. are not considered taboo.    As a Christian, I'd like to discuss systematically an ethic concerning clothing. This has been prompted by my recent viewing of the film Apocalypto. In this film there are significant amounts of nudity due to the nature of the film - portraying a native tribe in its native environment. I have the following questions, do you have thoughts or answers? What Scripture passages define how the Christian should dress? How do other religions define appropriate clothing? Are the distinctions in our culture appropriate or should there be no difference between clothing at work and on the beach? Should movies be made that include nudity where it accurately portrays the clothing of natives? What about National Geographic and similar publications? What is the difference (if any) between National Geographic and Playboy/Playgirl, etc.? How do missionaries handle being in native cultures that do not emphasize clothing? What is the appropriate perspective on the human body - male and female?   Posted Dec 11 2006, 07:02 PM by admin with 2 comment(s) Filed under: General., Movies., Christianity., Youth Ministry., Personal Life., Politics., Church Ministry., Christian Movies.

• Youth Group Christmas Party.

  We couldn't do a Christmas party with the youth group on Christmas, so we decided to have a party early. We met at the church at 5:30 p.m. to setup decorations - something which has become a new tradition at the church. That went pretty well - the youth had a good time setting up the Christmas tree, the nativity, and hanging out. Then we headed over to our house. We piled nearly thirty people into our rather small home. Its by no means tiny, but on the other hand, it is a 3 bed, 2 bath, with nearly half of that being upstairs.     We began by playing mafia. Mafia is a game of chance and skill. One takes a deck of cards and hands them out strategically. Each person receives only one card. If you receive any card between 2-10 you are a civilian. If you receive an Ace you are a sheriff, and if you receive a Jack, Queen, or King you are the mafia. The game begins by saying "Everyone asleep." Then "Mafia awake." "Who do you want to kill?" The mafia (one or more) then decides who their victim will be. "Mafia asleep." "Sheriff awake." "Who do you think is in the mafia?" They can pick one person, to which the moderator gives a yes or no answer. Then "Sheriff asleep", "Everyone awake." At this point you inform the players who has died - and give some humorous death that is personal to that person, e.g. if a girl loves cats may, "She fell into their kitty litter." Or if a guy loves guitar, "His guitar exploded." At this point the townspeople can try someone for being in the mafia. They take a vote, if more than 50% believe that individual is in the mafia, he dies and his true identity is revealed. This continues on till all the mafia are captured or all the townspeople have died.     Once we completed this we ate cookies, pretzels, and drank cider and hot chocolate. Then it was time for the central activity of the evening - a White Elephant Gift Exchange. In this exchange each person brings a gift - somewhat of a gag - and puts it in a circle. Everyone receives a slip of paper with a number. Beginning with the first number, a person gets up selects and opens a gift. Then the next person can either take a gift or steal a gift. And so on. A gift can only be passed around 3 times before it is "finally" someones. It is always to someone's advantage to be towards the end of the line.     Tonight we had some really great gifts - more than I can enumerate. Our three winners were really neat: Marshmellow Keychains - Marshmellow keychains with faces on them representing Soggy Marshmellow, Evil Marshellow, Interpretive Dance Marshmellow, etc. This is more funny when recognized in light of the "hidden meaning." Some time ago I was chosen as the person whom all the girls like to pull pranks on. They needed a codename for me so they used, "marshmellow" and then when they wanted to push me in a pool it was "throw the marshmellow in the fire." So I have the name evil marshmellow, and the other marshmellows are springs off of this. Jingle-Bell Rock - A rock nicely decorated with a jingle bell in a small box, a parody on the song Jingle Bell Rock. Secret Spy Kit - This one was actually the one I received. It contained a small number of humerous secret spy options - e.g. sunglasses, a broken watch, a mini wrench, an identity card, etc.      After that it was time for the karaoke machine. It warmed my heart to watch as they all sat in a circle laughing and singing. One of the guys chimed in with a ten second "screamo" version of God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen, to which everyone laughed. Good times. Posted Dec 09 2006, 06:52 PM by admin with no comments Filed under: Christianity., Youth Ministry., Personal Life., Church Ministry.

• Telligent's Shocking Licensing Decision.

  UPDATE: As you can see in the comments from Rob Howard and David Burke of Telligent, they have explained that the licensing terminology expressed in the Daily News is not a reflection of the final final wording of the licensing. In fact, this is still a work in progress on their part and they are throwing around some much more acceptable ideas (such as a cap on the Personal Edition of $500/mo.). Now this isn't finalized either, but I do appreciate Rob and Dave taking the time to comment on my post and for the continued thoughtful discussion going on at Telligent on this matter.     It was perhaps around the spring of 2006 that I installed and began using this wonderful new system called Community Server. Designed by Telligent it had rocketed to fame in part because of its widespread adoption by Microsoft as the forum/blog host of choice. It offered an Express Edition which had some annoying limitations, but still was rather full-featured for a free product. It also happened to be an ASP.NET 2.0 product - something which I was eager to embrace, as opposed to say a PHP or CGI based CMS.     Anyways, I've been using it happily for some months now and have been extremely excited about the upcoming CS 3.0 with its more full-featured CMS. Today, however, my hopes were dashed to the ground with the "Daily News" RSS feed I receive from Telligent. It noted that they had changed the name of the "Express" edition to the "Personal" edition and furthermore this change in naming reflected a change in licensing. Companies were no longer allowed to use the Express/Personal edition, except for evaluation. Individuals were no longer allowed to use it if they made any money off of it - e.g. Google Adsense.     This is, in my opinion, a very saddening move on Telligent's part. Telligent has the right to do whatever they want with their software and to demand whatever price they desire for its use. I am just disappointed that they have chosen to go this route. I love their software - but especially at this point, I am a hobbyist. I try to make money, but I don't make much. Someday I had hoped to make enough that upgrading to one of the better versions would make sense, but now my hand is forced and if I want to upgrade to a newer version I have to spend extra money.     I honestly don't know what I will do. I may see how hard it would be to port the site over to something like DotNetNuke. Though I hope I don't have to. I may also consider biting the bullet and upgrading to a standard license. I looked over the EULA that came with the software and noted that there was no mention that future licenses would act retroactively on past licensing, so my layperson's understanding of the licensing is that unless I upgrade I will continue to operate under the old licensing - which retains the ideal of "expressness" and allows for commercial usage of the express edition.     That's fine with me for now, I'm not too interested in any of the patches until they hit 3.0. But then what will I do? I don't want to be stuck with an obsolete technology. On the other hand, $299 is a pretty hefty chunk of change...Especially for hobbyists.  Posted Dec 08 2006, 04:46 PM by admin with 6 comment(s) Filed under: General., Websites., Programming., Personal Life., Webmastering.