A Crackpot Among Jars of Clay (Tumblr Edition)

My Morning Jacket has announced a new album, is, due out on March 21. Here is the first video from the album for the song “Time Waited.”

Ghost Funk Orchestra have released the 2nd single from their upcoming album A Trip to the Moon titled “Again.” The album is due out on February 23.

Charlotte, NC based Bed Signs have announced a release date, March 24th, for their full length album Silver Lining Breakdown. To celebrate they have released this first single and video for “Veronica Ruse.”

A new live video from Lo Marie for the title track of the album Le Reve. This was recorded live 05/20/22.

Dominique Fils-Aimé has shared a new music video, “Grow Mama Grow,” from Three Little Words the 3rd in a trilogy of albums celebrating “… African American music, reflecting on the social realities that influenced the genres of blues, jazz, and soul.” She will be playing at the Montreal Jazz Fest on July 3 and joining Diana Krall for Jazz in Marciac Festival on July 22.

    Tags: Dominique Fils-Aimé, Grow Mama Grow, Three Little Words, African American music history, jazz, funk, soul, blues, Montreal Jazz Fest, Diana Krall, Jazz in Marciac Fesitval

Heather Bond’s new album, The Mess We Created, released this past Friday. Here is a video for “The Mirage” filmed at the Studio in Nashville, TN.

New Post has been published on http://www.mattbrier.com/this-seems-appropriate/

This seems appropriate

I’m in the midst of watching Monty Python: Almost the Truth – The Lawyer’s Cut on Netflix when this skit was mentioned and well, it seems as appropriate, if not more so, today as it did when it first aired.

Book provided by O'reilly Media as part of their Blogger Review Program.  The reviewer maybe cheap, but his integrity isn't.

O'reilly Media is perhaps best know for a series of programming and technical books all adorned with animal images on the cover.  They have been one of the mainstays of technical publications for quite awhile and in recent years have branched out from the purely technical with offers such as 'Cooking for Geeks' and this book published in April of this year.

'Fitness for Geeks' is an all encompassing look at nutrition, exercise, and rest in a way that appeals to the typical geek's mind.  There is quantitative analysis, scientific studies, hands-on experiments, and gadgets.  Quite honestly it takes the seemingly dull routine of maintaining a healthy body and turns it up to 11.

From the outset the author makes it clear that this isn't a book that necessarily advocates one type of exercise/diet plan/gadget/website over another.  This book presents the facts and data to inform you for whatever choices you may or may not make.  The topics range from a description of micro-nutrients and macro-nutrients to descriptions of various weight lifting and cardio routines to an in-depth look at the key role rest plays in making us healthy.

The book is arranged in a way that makes it easy to access any particular subject in any particular order.  You do not have to sit down and read this book cover to cover, you can pick and choose a chapter as you feel led.  It is this aspect of the writing that I find to be the most ripe for a bit of criticism.  

If you choose to read this book from cover to cover you may find yourself wondering if there is duplication that could be edited out.  Because ideas in one chapter can directly link to ideas described in other chapters, the author's tendency leaned towards a sentence or two overview with a note pointing to the relevant chapter.  I'll be upfront and say there probably wasn't a better way to handle the information and had I not been reading this from start to end for review purposes, I probably would not have noticed it.  However, I know I can't possibly be the only one with an obsessive compulsive need for order in this world, so I'm giving this forewarning.

Overall I found this book to be a good foundation for exercise and nutrition.  There are plenty of notes throughout referencing other studies and papers for extended reading and plenty of websites and gadgets are mentioned to aid in the quest for a healthier you.

If you think walking to the 2nd floor printer to get your print-out is good, daily exercise, you need to read this book.  If you think throwing a handful of shredded broccoli into your cup o noodles every now and then  or adding green pepper to your pizza is eating healthy, you need to read this book.

In reloading my tablet I've found that most magazines mentioned in the article do in fact have an Android app version.  One that makes you pay for another subscription, much to the ire of just about anyone that is currently subscribing if the reviews in the Google Play store are indication.

I subscribe to a handful of print magazines that I find myself unable to keep up with as often as I would like to each month.  In the past month or so I picked up a cheap Android tablet at Kohl’s that isn’t going to win any head to head battles with more expensive tablets, but stands fairly well as a web surfing, ebook reading  platform.  One of the apps I downloaded was Linux Journal’s app so I could read the magazine somewhere other than on my computer. I love it.  They’ve translated the magazine quite well into an electronic format PLUS they’ve translated the articles into a text only format that works really well on my iPhone.  This is how magazines should be doing it.  It has me reading the magazine on a regular basis and it got me to thinking about other magazines to which I subscribe.  I know many of them offer electronic versions free with a monthly subscription. Then the air was let out of my balloon of excitement.  Yes, many have e-versions, but they are iPad specific or, if they have another version, they are keyed to Kindle Fire or Nook specifically.  This leaves out a whole segment of the computer using population and is, in many ways, a grievous error on their part.  Granted there are many people who don’t like the magazine format anymore. The delay from writing, to proofing, to printing, to the newsstand makes it exponentially more difficult to have a magazine that doesn’t have stale information.  This is a good point, so magazines have to shift their thinking.  Write informational articles more and news articles less.  Not difficult in the case of the magazines I read, but a necessary approach no matter which magazine is being printed.  Magazines make it easier, more digestible for me to get information that I might not get otherwise.  I don’t have time to be searching all over the place and many articles on the web are still struggling with the medium, rushing to print in sometimes sloppily ways.  That isn’t meant as a slap in the face of new media, I fully support it, but we’re still working out the kinks. Including how to adopt new methods for one to distribute established products.  I get that programming an android app is a somewhat expensive proposition.  I get that the iPad is the platform of choice if you are going to enter the e-publishing arena.  What I don’t get is the reluctance to embrace other options.  Linux Journal, admittedly a digital only platform now, not only has an app that will work with iPads and Android tablets, but will allow you to download an issue in a .pdf, .epub, or Kindle format.  And they all look good, even the .pdf.  Why can’t we get other publishers to include a .pdf version or a Kindle version that I could load into the Kindle reader?  Because it costs too much?  Because it opens the door to the magazine being shared with others or otherwise pirated? I could think of many issues publishers might have, but since they are giving away subscriptions at roughly a dollar an issue, you’d think they would want to increase their circulation in a way that gets ads in front of people's eyes.

There are very few instances where things are black and white.  There is definite good and evil.  There are facts and opinions.  However, the big picture indicates a much stickier, much dirtier situation.  I hold no special insights into these areas, but I feel that we have a duty to speak out when prompted.  Each and every day there are talking heads on either side of wall proclaiming that the world is going to end because of the other side of the wall.  Republicans decry Democrats, Atheists decry Christians, corporations decry entrepreneurs, and so on and so forth.

I have to laugh.  If I don’t laugh I will only contribute to the noise in a way that does not honor the people I interact with or the God that I worship.  Today was a prime example.  This was the primary catalyst for this diatribe:  I saw two posting in a row on Facebook.  The first was anti-abortion and spoke to the sanctity of human life from the beginning.  The next was in support of the 2nd amendment in the vein of ‘you can take my gun when you can pry it from my cold, dead hand.’

Both were from the same person. 

And I have to laugh because I want to cry otherwise.  My first thought is to boil the attitude down to “We’ve kept you from dying in the womb so you can get shot later.”  It isn’t that simple, I know it isn’t, but that is the message that I see.  I am firmly anti-abortion, but don’t call me pro-life because I still struggle with the death penalty and the rights of gun ownership.  I cannot call myself pro-life in good conscience because of this dichotomy in my belief.

I see the debate on gun control among my friends, some of which are very much Christian and very much in support of guns.  I can’t say that I think guns should be completely banned.  There are legitimate reasons for gun ownership.  However, I have to question when as a Christian someone vehemently defends gun ownership across the board.  Let’s be clear:  a guns only purpose is pain either through wounding or killing.  Sure, they can be used for sport shooting, but that isn't really their purpose. 

Note I am not saying guns are evil.  I’m not saying guns are the downfall of our society.  I’m only saying they have limited purpose.

So why are we defending them with so vigorously?  One response I’ve seen is the whole ‘self defense’ argument.  Well, true a gun can be used in that way.  To what end?  When you really study that, when you really think about it what does it say about your faith?  I’m not judging here, I’m asking that you take a deep look at the issue and your heart surround it.  If it is that important, is it more important than God?  Does the gun hold more power for you than God?  Is it possible the gun has become an idol for you?  That you are looking at the gun and away from God for protection?  Safety?  Security?

I can’t answer that for you.  I know this is a hot button topic and I am not writing this in an attempt to drive the number of readers up.  These are questions I’ve struggled with.  Why do I hold onto the death penalty?  Do I truly believe our system’s sense of justice is greater than God’s?  On the flipside, what is the solution when you are dealing with someone who is quite apparently seeped in evil.  We pray for them of course, but at the end of the day do we lock them up in an overcrowded system and hope they are changed by the power of God leaving the possibility they get free to hurt again?

God didn’t call me to sit in judgment; He called me to heal, to feed, to clothe, to care, to love, to disciple, and to baptize, and the list doesn’t end there.  I have, for many years, held the belief that if the Church was more committed to doing the work we were charged with and less committed to doing the work WE think we were charged with the world would be a much different place.   I believe that now more than ever and I will continue to strive towards that both here in my words and through my day-to-day actions.

If the last month does prove that God has a sense of humor than I don’t know what does.  I publically declare that I’m a writer and in short order the following events take place:

I’m contacted, out of the blue, about a job opening at a local company.

I interview for the job.

I’m offered the job(3 weeks from start to finish here).

I submit my two weeks’ notice.

I spend two weeks writing. . .ahem. . .WRITING technical documentation and generally training someone to do the job I’ve done for the past 7(of 14.5 with the company) years.

I start my new job with a new routine, plus a few other miscellaneous things that have pretty much kept me from wanting to do anything else for a bit.

So if you were following me on Twitter or Facebook it would appear as though I’ve fallen off of the face of the planet in the past month.  I am still alive and well.  The new job has had some challenges, but ultimately it has and will continue to stretch my knowledge and sanity.

In the past 14.5 years I’ve done a lot of complaining and a lot of growing.  For the longest time I could not see the end of the tunnel.  None of my situation made sense to me and it probably had negative impact on my faith, but God was spurring me to grow even when I did not realize it.   I remember the flipping of a ‘switch’ when I realized what I sought was not correct.  I was looking to money and recognition, which was pride at work even at a small scale.  When I embraced the idea of not looking to my job for satisfaction it was the beginning of the road.

I was fortunate enough to be taught to look outside of my job.  God has given me so much in the way of friends, family, and opportunity that working a 9 to 5 became more of a means and less of an end.  Even with this revelation I would not have been ready to handle the salary increase or job responsibility increase that I have with this new job.  I had to be taught so much about what matters most. 

My primary motivation in looking into this new job was not money.  I was getting restless.  It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy my previous job, but I had this kind of painted myself into a corner feeling.  I was really good at what I did and I had a pretty comprehensive understanding of the system I worked with.  The problem is that the system is pretty specialized and it isn’t in wide use, at least not in the area where I live and prefer to keep living.  On the whole the opportunity looked good and the trade-off of accumulated non-monetary benefits for the additional monetary compensation and benefits seemed to be reasonable.

Not to say the whole process was easy peasy for me.  I don’t do change well, at least change on my exact terms, as many friends will more than happily verify.  While I’ve always been in the mindset that I would be willing to sacrifice the supposed comfort of a 9 to 5 to strike out on my own, the ‘on my own’ part made the whole idea bearable.  When faced with a similar situation, only doing so under someone else’s terms and not my own it is a different animal.  Though I may have had the same reservations if I quit my job to do whatever I wanted to do, I’d like to think I would be more willing to jump into my own net.