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One of my favourite blogs on the net asked for guest posts. I wrote one, but doubt it will make the cut. So instead of it going to waste in my sent folder, I’m posting here.

Country and Western Sunday – The Themed Sunday to rule them all.

In the general course of the church calendar year, there are many themed services. There is the not so obvious one that some people like to call “Christmas” or as I prefer “Xmas”. If you’re a trivia nerd like I am and know that X is actually the Greek symbol for Jesus, then you saw what I just did there. There is also that other one that falls around spring time and involves a big ham dinner and copious amounts of chocolate also known to the uninformed as “Easter”. One step up from those two are your B-Level themed Sundays that you only remember exist because the pastor just announced that the children are to walk in with palm branches and your kid is staring up at you and is asking “Daddy, why don’t I get to have a branch like those other kids”. Or, maybe a guest speaker has just started rambling on about tongues of fire coming down on people’s heads as your pew neighbour who doesn’t understand personal space(when he obviously has the whole row free to stretch out) hands you a little headband with a sparkler attached. Unfortunately, this post is about none of those themed services.

Nope, this is about the themed service that crosses the boundaries of time, space, evolution and every good Christian topic in an attempt to outreach to that awesome guitar player that everyone was hoping would join the worship team, or for those neighbours that live next to the church building that you seem to have forgotten existed the other 25 Sundays on the calendar. I’m talking about the super bowl of Sundays, the themed service I’m almost certain is mentioned in Revelations somewhere, the coup de gras, the theme to end all themes.. yup.. you guessed it(or maybe you didn’t).

Country and Western Sunday!

This powerful moving behemoth of an event included everything from being allowed to wear jeans to church to Uncle Joe’s Epic 8 Spice Chili that was famous three states over. The planning that went into bringing this event together would put World Cup organizers to shame. Things had to be mint, top the year before and be the one that would be talked about for years to come. This annual event always had to include the following ingredients, and each year had to be bigger than the year before:

1) Decently obscure Country band with the religious overtoned name(ie. Standing on a Hill, The Alpha Way) that played one song that you might have possibly heard on the radio that one time you switched between the gospel channel and the hot 90s dance mix.

2) 45 kinds of chili and enough biscuits to put Crackle Barrel out of business and so many pies that they had flavours you were positive were just made up the night before.

3) Hay. So much of in fact that there was enough to feed like 70 horses, but instead of being put to good use it was used to build an entire stage for the band. There were also so many left over’s that every person could have a place to sit and feel uncomfortable while the straw poked up through your sweet plaid shirt.

4) The pastor in a tie which was made from an encased dead scorpion, which seemed to increase in size every year.

5) Lastly, the family band. This was the crescendo of the event and a moment of ecstasy for all involved. This was when anyone who could play anything was allowed up on the stage for their one shining moment of annual delight. You had Frank the janitor playing his washboard, the 3 year olds with the egg shakers, the somewhat awkward but cooler than everyone else neighbourhood kid who just learned stairway to heaven jamming on his guitar and Uncle Joe on his spoons, playing amazing grace in some miracle of collaborations that would have put Eminem and Elton John to shame.

Today Country and Western Sunday is no more. It faded into obscurity much like most things from the 90s like overalls, Zach Morris, and TLC. Today, I would love to see the Super Theme Service brought back; maybe some hip mega church can pull of an 80s theme Sunday, or throw a toga party(most churches already have the bath robes from all those plays that needed shepherds), you could even call it Toga Yoga to bring in the LuLu Lemon crowd. Alas, though, it probably won’t happen. I miss that event. Oh how far we have backslid into routine.

What theme Sundays did your church put on that was not part of the normal “Christian” calendar growing up? Does your church do Themed Sundays as a part of outreach(Such as Carnival Sunday, or Church in the Park!)? What is your favourite memory from those time capsules in your head?

A couple months ago my wife and I were sitting on the couch watching some TV and saw one of the funniest commercials ever.  Old Spice had created this absurd over the top manly character that basically just spouted random words while selling manliness and body wash.  They succeeded in creating a great spokesperson that made us both laugh.. a lot.

Well fast forward a few months, and a couple more commercials have come out, all with the same wacky sense of humour.  Well last night, the OldSpice guy responded to Facebook, twitter, and website comments somewhat “live” on his youtube account.  This series of 50 or so videos have gone viral for their sheer absurdness and everyone of them being generally awesome.

Most of the time in the market place, companies sign up for a twitter account to merely spam people with product information guised as them trying to communicate with people.  They just don’t understand the nuances of  social media, it’s power and generally how fast everything can turn for or against you.  But, in comes Old Spice who took it to the next level and personalized videos to customer, Internet celebrities, and other random people.  The result was sure social media brilliance.

You can check out the whole thing here on their youtube account, and their twitter account here.

Here is hist most recent commercial.

You know that feeling you get when you are on the inside of an ‘inside joke’.  You know those stupid references to situations that happened on some road trip or outing with friends.  Usually it’s just a stupid word or catch phrase that outside of its context makes absolutely zero sense, but people who were there will still shout it out 2 years later and everyone that knows what is going on will laugh and remember, but everyone else who wasn’t a part of that group will just look at you funny and think you’re weird.  DIDDLY IN THE MIDDLY, BINGO BANGO BONGO!  Yup, I just threw one out there, now this blog post just go awkward… anyway.  That exact situation is what Stuff Christians Like book by author/blogger/humorist Jon Acuff is.  It’s like reading 250 odd pages of inside jokes that most us Christians get, and laugh at because we’ve experienced it.

Reading through his book, is like someone has been in my head for all 28 years of my life, writing down everything I thought, experienced and have pondered about Christianity.  It’s really kind of a surreal experience that only a small subset of people will get.  This book isn’t for everyone, but for those who it is for, will laugh, cry(from laughing so hard) and say to themselves, yup Jon you nailed that.  Cause you know what?  I’ve Booty, God, Booty’d before, I’ve had the internal conversation about how do I break up with my small group, and I’ve used the words Missional Postmodern Relevance in a sentence before.  In the end though, the best part of Jon’s satire is that he usually ends it with a nugget of truth.  Like in an O’Henry bar, where the comedy is the chocolaty goodness but you know you just bought the bar because of the nugget on the inside.  I continue to read Jon because he’s funny, but mainly because he lands on some truth that I needed to hear or be reaffirmed of.

I recommend you read his blog, don’t skip serious Wednesday, and support the guy by picking up his book.  It’s only $10 and makes perfect reading material for those moments when you need to not take yourself so seriously and have a good laugh.  Oh and since purchasing the book, my life has been 100x more spiritual and I’ve become independently wealthy… just saying.

Last year I wrote a blog entry that covered my favourite things from 2008.  So, why not start early on my 2010 resolution to blog more and write my favourite things of 2008.  I’m no Oprah, but I do have things I like!  I enjoy recommending things to people, especially when they like them too.    Some of these are in no particular order, some are.. you’ll just have to guess which it is.  So without anymore preamble, I’ll just get right into the list:

Oh, I also became an uncle this year too, which was pretty sweet.

Top 3 Books:

1) Freakonomics – If you have ever thought “If crack dealers make so much money why do they still live with their mothers?” Then this book is for you.  It will change the way you approach problems and situations, and in a good way.

2) The Shack – Yeah it was hyped to insane levels, but for good reason.  This is a great read for people of faith or not.  It turns some of your preconceived notions of God on their heads.  Some people really didn’t like it, but I did.. so much I’ve given it out to a few people already.

3) 1984 - It’s a classic for a reason.  Finally got around to reading it this last year.  If you haven’t read this book why not? Go, buy it now.

Top 3 Games:

I game too much, but here are some games that if you have time to play do not miss them.

1) Batman: Arkham Asylum (xbox 360) – This game was perhaps the perfect mix of Batman style gameplay, memorable characters (they used the cartoon voice actors which added a huge amount of polish), and game pacing.  There were some minor gripes with the boss fights, and the detective mode, but it was an otherwise enjoyable experience.

2) Shadow Complex (xbox 360 Arcade) – It was an arcade title this year done in the MetroidVania style.  It was an awesome game that kind of came out of nowhere for me.  If you haven’t played it, spend the Microsoft Points and pick it up.  I promise you won’t regret it.

3) Modern Warfare 2 (xbox 360) – It’s sold like a billion copies, and deservedly so.  The single player story can be extremely confusing, but the set pieces were amazing, but I bought this for the Multiplayer and I’ve played a lot of it.. probably too much.

Top 3 Albums:

1) Armistice by MuteMath - I LOVED their first album, and this one destroyed it.  It was my most anticipated album of 2009 and it did not disappoint me one bit.  Please go buy this one, it is simply amazing.  From some Jazz inspired hits, to some hard hitting rock songs it’s a varied piece that was well put together.

2) Church Music by David Crowder Band – A Collision was an absolute masterpiece, Remedy wasn’t that great or memorable, so how does Church Music stack up? Well they went back to their A Collision routes and wrote an album that has to be listened from first to last song as each flows right into the next.  I really loved this album and still play it months later.  It’s not as good as A Collision, but is definitely a close 2nd.

3) Travel Vol 1 & 2 by Future of Forestry – I had never heard of these guys before this year, but their unique sound grew on me.  The two EPs are basically half albums that make up a full set.  I wish more bands did this, release a few songs every few months rather then keeping a ton for one release every 2 years.

Top 3 Movies

1) District 9 – I love Science Fiction and I love Peter Jackson what happens when you put both together? You get an awesome directorial debut by Noel Kampann about an Alien race that landed in South Africa and is stuck and treated like garbage by us.  It was a fun ride, and I can’t wait for the inevitable sequel.

2) Zombieland – This movie kind of came out of no where.  It was a fun ride, the highest grossing Zombie movie of all time and had a sweet Bill Murray cameo.  If you haven’t seen this yet, go watch it now.

3) Avatar – This was closer to a Disney Ride than your typical movie.  If you haven’t watched this yet, go, now!  Do not wait to see this on a TV, it will never do the experience justice and you will walk away thinking that you just watched Pocahontas in space.  The 3D was crazy awesome.

Runner Up: Star Trek – It was awesome and JJ Abrahms touch is golden.

Top 3 Trips (I love to travel and do as much as possibly can!)

1) Alaska - I got to see Alaska with my Grandfather and Dad.  It was an amazing experience I will never forget.  The view and good times are something that you can only experience once in your life.

2) Bahamas - I went to the Bahamas with Jenn and her Family in May.. that was sweet.  I love beaches and hot weather, which I got a lot of.  I liked it much better then when I was in Jamaica a few years back.

3) San Francisco – I was there for work, which kinda sucked but regardless I have few nights to myself and I was able to go check out some sights and sounds of a pretty cool city.  I also had the opportunity to have dinner with the creator of Rolando.  That was a pretty sweet experience.

Top 3 Purchases

1) PS3 - Yeah, I was a hater at first.  The machine has potential, but right now the game library is just too small, hopefully that changes this year.

2) Tom’s Shoes – I bought myself a pair of Tom’s Shoes, I’ve blogged about them earlier as they give away a pair for every one they sell.  This is a sweet concept that I hope more companies jump on board with.

3) 23″ LG Monitor – Got this on a boxing day sale.  It’s nice going to 1080p, and it was an amazing deal.

Top 3 Restaurants

1) Churchill Arms – I love their curry, and rarely buy anything else when I’m there.

2) Gahan – Amazing pub food and very reasonable prices.

3) Casa Mia - I don’t eat here often, but their coffee is awesome, and they are next door to my office which is ++!

Top 3 websites

1) Twitter.com – It’s a weird site, that some people don’t get.  But it benefited me in 2009 in a few ways.  So it gets on my list. Follow me at @rfilsinger.  Even though it’s a great site for some things, it’s good for a laugh too… check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Ff2X_3P_4 for a good satirical look at Twitter.

2) http://www.google.ca/ig?hl=en – Makes the list again this year.  No better homepage out there.  All my news in one easy to view spot.

3) http://stuffchristianslike.net - He is a very funny blogger who organized people to raise $60,000 to build a Kindergarden in Vietnam.  If you love Christian Satire presented in a unique way, this is definitely a great site to read.

Runner Up: Wikipedia .. because it has taught me so much, so quickly.

Top 3 Shows

1) V - It’s only 4 episodes in, but it has me hooked.  I’m just a SciFi junkie though, so I’m easily hooked by half way decent science fiction.

2) Fringe – JJ Abrahms at it again.. this guy works magic.  It has one of the best TV characters of all time in Walter.  A decent cross of  X-files and lost.

3) Dexter - In season 4, they blew us away with an ending no one will ever forget.  Glad to see the writers go somewhere tough in this weirdly styled show.

Well that’s it for this year.  Hopefully 2010 will have just as many good movies, books, games, and trips.

Generally I hate resolution.  Last year was the first time I think made any resolutions.  Here is the list:

1. Read a book I expect to disagree with completely.

I read quite a few books this year, none that I would say I disagree with.  I have to admit that I did not go out of my way to look for a book that would stretch me as much as I had intended with this resolution.

2. Go somewhere I have never been.

I got to go to Alaska AND the Bahamas last year.  These were both absolutely amazing experiences, and made me want to travel the world more and more.  I already have a couple trips planned this year to places I’ve never been, and it’s something that I want to continue doing every year.

3. Meet someone I did not know existed before today.

I met some new people this year, nobody really stood out in this situation.

4. Eat a restaurant I have never been and order something I have never had.

Yup, I eat out too much.  I was able to go to a ton of new restaurants this year.  The one that stood out the best was Chocolate Elements on vic row.  They had amazing food, some good live music and was a memorable experience.

5. Strike up a serious conversation with a stranger.

I did not do this to my recollection.

6. Discover 3 bands/artists in 3 different genres of music that I don’t normally listen to that I like.

I definitely completeled this, with much help from my buddy Jamie. I discovered some new bands, but not neccessarily in different genres.  I continue to try and increase my musical tastes.  The 3 bands I discovered this year are : 1) Future of Forestry 2) Great Lake Swimmers 3) Rise Against.  There are more bands I discovered this year, but these three stand out as I’ve come back to them again and again.

7. Rent a movie that I have never heard of and know nothing about.

I’m pretty sure I did this, but nothing completely stands out to me as I’m writing this.

8. Attend a concert where I do not know the style of music.

I went to see some local bands I’d never heard before, so I think that counts.

9. Attend a play that I know nothing about.

I don’t remember attending any plays at all this year, not as cultured as I’d hope.

10. Make a serious attempt to get published.

Uhm, I write now for 148apps.com, but have been a bit MIA for a while.  So i’ll give myself a half point for this one.

I think I did pretty good at keeping with these resolutions.  This year had it’s up and downs as most years do.  This year’s resolutions will be similar, as I try to stretch myself and become a more rounded person.

1) Blog/Write more. – At the end of this year I pretty much wrote next to nothing as the fall was draining on me and I got distracted.  I really hope to get back into blogging and writing more.

2) Listen to more new music. I love discovering new bands and music.  Jamie helps me a lot in this regard, but I’m going to work at it myself too.

3) Lose 10 more lbs! I know most people do this, but I’ve already lost 10 lbs since August 24th, I hope to get down another 10 and keep it there for this time next year.

4) Read More! I read quite a bit this year, but I’d like to finish at least 10 books this year.  5 Novels, 5 Non-Fiction.

5) Travel to somewhere I don’t have planned right now.  I travel a lot, and I’m blessed with the ability to pull it off.  I hope this continues into this year.

I’ve been in need of a new pair of shoes for a while now.  The pair I currently wear on a day to day basis hurts one of my feet just enough to be annoying, but not enough for me to switch shoes.  Most of the time I like to keep a pair about two years before switching out and have generally stuck to a couple brands I’ve really liked.  Also, I usually don’t like to spend a lot on shoes even though I wear them everyday.  I have a pair of sneakers for the gym, kicks for everyday and the dress shoes for appropriate times.  I like to keep it simple.

So at some point in the last year or two, I stumbled across a company called Tom’s Shoes .  What he does is run a company that when you purchase a pair of shoes from him, he donates a pair to a person in need somewhere in the world.  I highly recommend you go to the site and read through their blog.   There is something so beautiful, simplistic and amazing with this concept.  Tom is taking the idea of filling a need for those of us that need shoes and have money to buy the product, and yet it also provides a shoe for someone who cannot afford it.  While doing this he is making money, providing jobs for people and all the while being ecofriendly.

I believe in the basics of capitalism, but when you mix in human greed it can become so destructive.  The earths  resources get drained, the distance between the wealthy and the poor widens, we consume more then we produce getting ourselves in immense amounts of debt.  But, it also produces some of the best innovations, allows for anyone with an idea and hard work to succeed.  I think Tom’s approach to Buy One Give One, is an amazing concept that should be duplicated in many areas of business.  What if the grocery store gave away equal amounts of food that it sold to the hungry, or clothing stores gave away equal amounts of their sales to naked, or optometrists gave away “the extra pair free” to the blind.  Our spending, consumption and want habits are catching up to us, and in some cases already have with the way the economy has gone over the last year.  Will Tom solve the world’s shoe problem? Probably not, but he is helping a lot of people out, turning a profit, and not charging any outrages prices for his goods.

I think we as people need to start thinking about our spending habits, our levels of consumption and look for ways that we can use the business we are in to help out someone.

Oh and if you purchase a pair of shoes from Tom, use this coupon code: ShareTOMS .  It will get you $5 of your purchase, cutting the shipping in half.  I can’t wait for my pair to arrive!

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged.  Mostly, my comments and thoughts have moved to twitter (on a side note I have been writing an article on twitter in my head, that will come eventually).  In an effort to re-start my blogging days a little, I decided to write a response to a recent article I read about an analyst by the name of Michael Pachter that has stated that he believes the appstore is a terrible place for Game Publishers to go.  His reasoning behind this is that it’s teaching people that games should be extremely cheap and/or free.  Take a game like tetris for example, on the Nintendo DS the game will cost you $20, but is available for $4.99 on the iTunes appstore.  While there is something to be said about how the appstore pricing is flawed in a lot of different ways, barking about how this will kill publishers is not the answer.

After reading the article, my thoughts first went to what happened to the music industry at the turn of the century.  People found a way to obtain free music in a manner that the industry had not yet developed.  They refused to adapt at the pace needed to keep up and lost billions of dollars in revenue.  I’m not going to go into the details as it’s available for a more detailed explanation elsewhere on the net, but suffice to say, the Apple appstore is creating a similar situation.  People can now obtain games on their handheld devices at speeds and prices never seen before.  This is creating a very volatile market where people complain about price increases of $2.99 from $0.99.

I don’t think the answer is to cry fowl, and run around screaming the sky is falling to publishers.  My opinion is that publishers need to learn to adapt, and fast to this new market.  There is money to be made, but previous practices that have worked before are going to have to be thrown out the window and new ideas tried.  Some ideas will be terrible, some will fail, but in that innovation comes and so does the answer to current situation.  The appstore leveled the playing field between developers, publishers.  It created an easy to use fixed distribution model, and has allowed unparalleled access to innovation and usefull applications in one location.  With the store now being at roughly 90,000 applications and over 2 billion downloads so far, the space is crowded.  The game has changed again, and now publishers need to change with it.

Note:

Michael Pachter the analyst listed who made the claims listed in my article has also stated some crazy things before, and seemed to be way off the mark when it came to digital media, distribution and the power of the online world for gaming.  They are summed up here.

Just over a year ago, this sub section of the industry did not exist.  Now it’s reaching sales of approximately $2.5 billion annually and at the moment no signs of slowing down.  It is no wonder everyone is trying to either get into the app store or create their own.

http://gigaom.com/2009/08/27/how-big-is-apple-iphone-app-economy-the-answer-might-surprise-you/

If I were to tell you that Apple’s app economy was worth more than $2.5 $2.4 billion a year, you would laugh hysterically, shake your head and walk out of the room, yes? Surf on over to some other web site? But here I am telling you exactly that! According to mobile advertising startup AdMob, there are some $200 million worth of applications sold in Apple’s iPhone store every month, or about $2.4 billion a year

This is pretty crazy when you think about it.  There are many issues that still need to be addressed, such as their app submission process, and their arbitrary reasons for not approving apps, that have identical content available through TV shows and music that can already be purchased through iTunes. Regardless of all that, this sub section of the software industry has been keeping me employed through this recession and I’m sure happy about it.  Some of the innovation coming out of this market is insane.  (See some of the augmented reality stuff people are doing)

About a year ago I ran across the title of a book called The Sparrow while searching for something new to read.  It then took me about 5 book stores to track down a copy and a few places had never even heard of it.  The wiki article states that Brad Pitt picked up the movie rights on this book, and on a side note I would love to see the film adaptation of this book.  First of all, the reason I picked up this book is because it touches on a lot of the themes that interest me.  The main theme though that drew me to purchasing this book, was the question of “What would it look like if a religious community was the first to make contact with another intelligent race?”.  Russell tackles this question through the eyes of the main character Emilio Sandoz who is a Jesuit Priest who specializes in linguistics.

The story is told in a non-linear fashion which reveals the fate of the entire voyage first, and then unravels the pieces.  Whatever your opinions on this form of story telling is, it works here.  By going between 2060 on Earth after the events, and the past on the planet Rakhat, created a situation where I wanted to get back to each location while in other.  This pushed me to read through large chunks to unravel what happened.  Overall, I really enjoyed the book, as the themes of choice vs fate, love, forgiveness, Religion, and Science Fiction were all intertwined very well.  This book probably isn’t for everyone, but if you are like me and think about questions like “Did God create other intelligent species?”, “What would first contact look like?”, “How would we treat a species who have completely different morals than us?” then this book is for you.

My main complaint is that the end of the book was sped up way too much.  She spent 350 pages setting up this grand finale of an unveil to only really spend about 20 pages explaining the last of Emilio’s secrets.  I know the enjoyment is in the journey and not the destination, but the ending seemed very rushed.  The character of Anne, was also a bit too perfect.  Russel seem to go out of her way to make Anne be this Saint Mother type who rarely made mistakes, and didn’t seem to struggle.  The rest of the characters had problems from their life that formed who they were, and gave them depth.  Although, these two things did not ruin the book, and I quite enjoyed it.

I give this book 8 vegetable gardens out of 10.