I finally went on LinkedIn today to approve some connection requests. Sarah's had been pending since October. (We're dating, but we weren't business contacts, apparently.) The two minutes that I was on there were enough time to remind me why I never go on there. What a soulless place. And I don't know how useful it is, really. As one of my friends, who works at a tech firm, said recently, I don't know if people would even notice if I de-friended them. Though Facebook can be tacky, it's still the only social network I use. I like to think that Facebook is a lot like me - it knows how to make time for business and pleasure. (Though I need to spend a little less time on business, if the number of TechMission widgets on my profile is any indication.)...

I'm now on the top results page for [out of egypt]. Now, if I can only beat Anne Rice, I'll be #1. And why did I call my blog that, you ask? Let's just say I'm trying to make a Biblical worldview more popular....

Fellow TechMission Corps member Chris Like gives a good response to the perennial question: What should we, as followers of Christ, do when people on the street ask us for money?...

I didn't go online all weekend. Surprisingly, I didn't miss it. When you've found your place in a physical community, online communities tend to lose their luster. Checking email becomes a hassle. YouTube isn't as funny as your family's stories. And Facebook gifts can't compare to real ones. This is not to say that technology has not brought vast blessings to our lives. Without the Web, I don't know how I would've found the phone number for Monk's. Planning my route through Philly would've been much more difficult (though serendipity has its virtues). Email, SMS, and Facebook messages are a convenient way to orchestrate real-world events - using the power of the outboard brain to make things fall into place a little more quickly. It's all too easy, however, for technology to stop being an aid to life and become a substitute for it. As publications editor for TechMission, I...

I read the magazines when I go through the grocery line. Though I've been reading their headlines for years, they still have the power to disgust me. This evening, however, their trashiness inspired a worthwhile thought. In our Girardian society, dominated as it is by the "concern for victims," few figures remain on whom we can safely focus our scorn. But a world without scapegoats is unstable and terrifying. To prevent the breakup of our civilization, we turn our contempt on celebrities. As the pace of life has sped up, so also has the cycle of deification and stigmatization that characterizes scapegoating. The most sophisticated among us actually manage to view their scapegoats as both hero and villain simultaneously - thus, Britney Spears can be seen as both musical idol and self-destructive addict. In a culture of simulacra, celebrities live our lives vicariously - savoring its highs and drowning in...