Commentary on the Social Network

http://www.slate.com/id/2269308/pagenum/2

So, I've not seen the movie, I repost this because this is honestly the first time since "The Life of Samuel Johnson" that I've enjoyed literary commentary.

Linked In

I finally joined linked in.
Kind of.
I accidentally typed my name wrong.
Ryana.
596 messages, asking people if they would like to be friends with ryana, owner of my company.
Nice.

Holiday

As I get more engaged internationally, I found myself cribbing from the rest of the world and saying "Holiday" not "day-off."
Like today, I took Shannon and Anna on Holiday to the zoo.
Here's what I love about that.
Whether spiritual or not, time away from work should be time made "holy" in the most basic sense. This is special time, set aside, to be with those people and not with those other people.
It might be truly semantics, but I don't think so. In faith, churches matter because they are set aside for someone big and important. I think in our family relationships the notion of a Holiday is the same thing--the day matters and is given life because of the people with whom I spend them.
One of those people is crying now, and the other needs to write lesson plans. Good-night internet.

Back to Writing

I tend to write in spurts, driven by a need to put clarity to thoughts.
I think I will be writing a lot in the coming months.

I've been reading a lot of the Acts 29 guys recently (Matt Chandler and Mark Driscoll mostly). They're fine, but I saw an interesting comment from Driscoll regarding Megachurches that bugged me.
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The major blind spot of megachurches is that they tend to be very effeminate with aesthetics, music, and preaching perfectly tailored for moms. Manly men are repelled by this, and many of the men who find it appealing are the types to sing prom songs to Jesus and learn about their feelings while sitting in a seafoam green chair drinking herbal tea—the spiritual equivalent of Richard Simmons.
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I have no idea if this is true for most churches, don't know what seafoam is, and am not over the moon about herbal tea, but I think this comment is idiotic.

We have megachurches for exactly the same reason we have shopping malls, big box retailers, and IKEA stores--we are used to driving places.

It's like in the Big Lebowski...
The Big Lebowski: What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?
The Dude: Dude.
The Big Lebowski: Huh?
The Dude: Uhh... I don't know sir.
The Big Lebowski: Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn't that what makes a man?
The Dude: Hmmm... Sure, that and a pair of testicles.

But let's make sure to talk about it for a really long time.

Milgram Game Show

Some guys in France just did a new version of the Milgram study in the context of a game show.
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1972981,00.html
Yikes.

Salinger

I don't know much about him, but I know he spawned the best Onion article anyway:
Bunch of phonies mourn JD Salinger.
Brilliant.

Fact Check

If you're interested here's a summary of Fact Check's review of the State of the Union.
Some stretching, but mostly true.
http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/obamas-state-of-the-union-address/

Cognitive Load

Check this out.
Stanford did a study on decision mechanisms.
Two groups were given a set of numbers to memorize. They were all told to walk down from room 101 to room 102 and recite the numbers.
Group A was given 7 numbers. You probably remember from Psych that this is the biggest chunk most people can remember so it sort of taxes your brain.
Group B was given 2 numbers. It's pretty easy to hold 2 numbers.
Now it gets cool.
En route everyone bumped into a lady with a tray of snacks. She said, "Hey Joe, thank you for your help in this study. To show our appreciation you can have some cake or some fruit salad."
Group A (lots of numbers) takes cake.
Group B (a few numbers) takes fruit.
The theory is something called cognitive load.
When we decide stuff there's a cage match--your emotional mind "Cake me! Cake me now!!" versus your rational mind "Have you thought of the calories..."
I'm trying to see how this factors in to the way I make decisions every day, but if nothing else it's an interesting study.