‘YouTube’ encapsulates posts that link to or embed a YouTube video.
I generally believe that the fewer tech devices in a classroom the better (except a raggedy desktop in the corner…preferably next to an old transparency projector, and a TV strapped to a wheeled stand)–but its notable that there is NO GENERATIVE AI in this promo.
Somehow was able to get classic video game soundtracks into the 5-year-olds music rotation (its a delicate inception, but worth the respite from the usual playlists) and every time Dire Dire Docks comes on I think of the Northernlion commentary.
Somehow was able to get classic video game soundtracks into the 5-year-olds music rotation (its a delicate inception, but worth the respite from the usual playlists) and every time Dire Dire Docks comes on I think of the Northernlion commentary.
The Artemis launch has me thinking about Mass Effect space exploration so here’s the links to each game’s galaxy map music:
I have this theory about just what is happening in our politics right now–It was, I think about it a lot–Right now, we are convinced, culturally convinced, that our actions do not affect other people. You just see it everywhere.
You see it in the rise in measles cases. Why? Because we’ve decided our actions don’t affect other people, even though they very clearly do. Like all over the place.
And Ring cameras are an incredible example of this, where the cameras on my house are fine. They’re fine. And I can turn them on and off and whatever. But they are, to your point, taking video of you. And so my cameras can invade your rights, but me turning that on has no impact on me.
So, here’s this button in, in an app distributed by Amazon, on the hardware that Amazon owns, where you have a moral quandary: Should I affect someone else’s rights? And I would say that American culture in 2026 does not equip people to think about that well.
Civic holidays like the one that commemorates Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday provide an opportunity for me to reflect on what I think about the big stories we (U.S. citizens) tell about our nation, and how my views have changed as I’ve aged and the world has evolved. I find myself increasingly aggrieved by how significant portions of my faith community choose to interpret the significance of Dr. King’s legacy, and whether it does or doesn’t influence our mass voting behavior.
As a child of late 20th century U.S. schooling (both public and parochial), when taught about Dr. King and his legacy the artifact of choice was typically his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and the March on Washington it accompanied. The speech and event were framed as one additional wrung on the ladder of the U.S.’s inevitable ascent towards liberty.
As I got older Letter from a Birmingham Jail took a place of greater prominence. Having spent most of my life participating in predominately white, conservative Christian communities, it wasn’t until college that I was awakened to the many complications and half-truths found in the K-12 narrative I was taught about U.S. history. The letter’s pointed message towards white moderates (like myself) remains an important and bracing critique.
And so the first question that the Levite asked was, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?” But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
May the parable of the Good Samaritan and the public witness of Believers like Dr. King–in partnership with the Holy Spirit–work like seeds sown into the hearts of my fellow evangelicals. I pray they not walk the same path as the Pharoahs in the book of Exodus and instead stop their hearts from hardening further.
I somehow stumbled into the “space combat” genre of videos with my youtube recommendation algorithm. It’s an interesting stream. These folks take celestial navigation, and its speculative connection to naval interdiction seriously. An example.
My family has maintained a relationship to Chicago’s Brown Line.
For the years that we lived in central Illinois my parents would periodically take my sister and I to the city for a day or weekend excursion. Ostensibly we were there to visit my grandmother in Bridgeport (a Red Line stop) or my cousins in the suburbs, but we would also find an excuse to take the bikes down to the lakefront for a ride from the Adler Planetarium to the Lincoln Park zoo, or a jaunt up and down lake shore drive. We’d also ride the El. We’d take the Brown Line to Sedgwick and eat at the Old Jerusalem Restaurant.
When I lived in Wheaton I’d keep up the pattern and find excuses to take the Brown Line to Old Town or Lincoln Park. My future spouse lived not far from the Diversey stop for a time.
The CTA maintains a playlist of ‘Ride the Rails’ videos. The production values have improved incrementally over time. I find it comforting to pull one up and ride along for a couple stops. The familiar “doors closing” cadence and the click-clack of the tracks acts a bit like a breathe prayer. The Brown Line remains my favorite.
The artistic director of this film would go on to lead artistic direction for the first Ghost in the Shell film. I wouldn’t call it’s aesthetic vision cyberpunk though. I’d propose something else, like cassettepunk, or maybe CosmodromePunk. I think a lot of the videos this YT channel makes could fall into that aesthetic.
Parents leave all sorts of small indelible marks on their children that last a lifetime, and from my mom I’ve held onto an affection for Bruce Hornsby & The Range.
But if the generals were paying attention during minute 44 of the president’s speech Tuesday, they would have heard the fleeting but unmistakable sound of something new. Something different.
It was at that moment that the president recounted a conversation with his defense secretary: “I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”
We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, the president of the United States said.
On an almost daily basis, thousands of words pour forth from the president’s mouth. Sometimes, he tucks in a wild insight about the direction he is taking the country.
Taking a Python Intro course this summer and turns out if you need to code late into the evening Olde Pine is a great companion:
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Carla Hayden’s firing this week hits especially hard for me because my spouse and I just finished watching a fantastic PBS distributed documentary on the history of libraries in the U.S. Hayden’s featured briefly near the end.
It’s a great watch, neither of us could keep a dry eye at different moments.
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I took Amazon immolating $700 million dollars to distill a pure moment that evokes Tolkein at his best–as I remember him when read to me in my childhood–so good job I guess?
It really is best viewed on a big screen with a good sound system:
I’m sure some of the reaction videos are just algorithm chasing, but for now I’ll lean into them and hope we haven’t become socially isolated by our media echo chambers that we can no longer accept expertise as a valuable resource for policymaking.
Side-note: television programming rarely makes me cry, but a particular scene from the show where the main protagonist starts having PTSD related flashbacks to COVID era ER memories momentarily broke me. Our understanding of what happened that first year of COVID has become so obscured by our partisan bickering over public health policy that I feel like we completely forgot the absolute hell our medical providers were subjected to not only by the wave of deaths, but the politicized backlash they received for their efforts to flatten the curve.
There’s very specific vibes video that features 80s and 90s anime that exudes what I’d call a #vhspunk aesthetic–before the iPhone with its black mirror imposed a glass sheen on tech products. The video style is typified by Hanahaki Blank’s youtube channel. Its the perfect delta of the beauty of hand drawn animation, late 20th century nostaligia, and technophilia.
Having grown up in evangelical/quasi-fundamentalist spaces I have always been a bit of a sucker for high production value efforts to articulate the Gospel or Christian life. This particular stream of the Way of Jesus may be presumed to be like Ned Flanders in their affect, but generally, are quite sophisticated in their use of media for broadcasting their message (for every cringey God’s-Not-Dead movie there’s also the legacy of pre-bankruptcy Veggietales).
Growing up, Mars Hill’s Nooma video series left a long lasting impression on me. Those short form films combined genuinely creative storytelling, filmmaking, and Biblical teaching. For a 12 year old kid who’d spent his life immersed in Bible stories told with a steady (and stale) cadence they were a revelation. I think they left such an impression because they really tried to honor and work within the medium of film’s strengths and limitations for articulating Christian claims.
All of the above is background to say that I think Practicing The Way’s trailers for their online courses recaptures the old Nooma magic a little bit. I’m glad they’re out there and I hope the teachings they are meant to spark interest for find fertile soil.
The series so far:
Sabbath
”…it’s a rhythm that God the creator built into the fabric of the human body and creation itself.”
Prayer
”…to pray is to commune with the God who is closer to us than we are to ourselves.”
Fasting (my favorite vid so far)
”…it’s an ancient practice whose time has come.”
Solitude (the production values jump from here onward)
”…solitude is the furnace of transformation.”
Generosity
”…little by little He makes our souls incandescent.”
For at least the past decade, whenever I reflect on the life, legacy, or oratory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I repeatedly find myself returning to his final speech. Its most famous for the closing soliloquy about the Mountaintop, but in our times the whole speech is worth contending with. Those final prophetic words build on the other 40 minutes of reflection King offers on the state of the Prophetic/nonviolent wing of the Civil Rights movement.
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the Mountaintop.
And I don’t mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the Mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything.
I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!