Filsinger » musings

Christianity: The Road Less Traveled

filsinger — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:59:53 +0000

Christianity: The Road Less Traveled

When you are in youth ministry you have to be very careful what you say. Cause it will come back to haunt you for a long time. One evening at youth group I jokingly told the kids if they got stuck on their tests to just answer “Jesus”, because he is always the answer. For the next 3 years when I ask kids questions and they don’t want to answer.. I just get “Jesus” and there is nothing I can do about it.

So when some youth were asking me what I was speaking on this week, I told them “Jesus”.

Jesus Pictures of the Day

For the last 5 years I’ve spoken only once a year and it’s on graduation Sunday. I’m not sure why it’s only been once a year, maybe dad is scared for his job.. just kidding. I usually try and speak something in relationship to graduation, or what Jesus asks us to do as Christians. I’m not going to stray away from those topics today. The Christian walk is a life long journey. It takes an entire lifetime of ups and downs. I’ve broken down the Christian walk into three convenient points (I know original), and I’ll guarantee each one of you are somewhere along this path. No matter where you are along the journey, I hope that by the end of my message you’ll be a step closer in the right direction.

I also want to put a disclaimer here this morning. Everything I’m about to say is pointed directly at me. The more I preach, the more I realize pastors are probably just talking to themselves. If God happens to make you uncomfortable this morning, I am right there with you.

The Decision

Have you ever wrestled with the concept of God, with the idea of Jesus? The idea that the creator of this insanely massive universe cares so much for us that he sent his only son to die and somehow atone for all the wrong things we’ve done. We talk about it all the time at church, but when you really stop and think about the entire sequence of events it’s absolutely mindblowingly insane. And now that I have a son of my own, this act makes even less sense to me at face value.

Throughout my life I’ve had discussions with people about Jesus. A line I hear a lot is “well you see Jesus.. I can accept him a good moral teacher, but you know. The son of the God? That is really farfetched and too much of a mental leap for me.” Or “You know what Mary, was probably just a good liar.” There have been times in my life when I’ve pondered the truth of Jesus and really wrestled with Christianity.

Then at one point in my walk with God I decided to start reading C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and there was one passage in that book that has stuck with me ever since. As a side note: There is a reason it’s a classic, and comes highly recommended from me no matter where you are in your walk with God, but especially so if you are struggling with doubt.

To quote: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

CS Lewis Quote – Mere Christianity

CS’s line of reasoning here has stuck with me. You either have to accept EVERYTHING Jesus said or absolutely nothing. I’ve made the personal decision that Jesus is who he said he was, and the ramifications of that are not light. So, why so often do we as Christians treat Jesus like just a nice moral teacher and not the true Son of God.

John 14: 5 – 10

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know^[^b^] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” ⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” ⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

The Call

As I said earlier the more I get a chance to speak, the more I’m convinced that most pastors are actually just talking to themselves in more ways than one. I’m finding and realizing that usually whenever I take the time to write or speak about something it is because I too am dealing with the struggles of that topic.

Once you accept Jesus as the Son of God, and accept his forgiveness of your sins, you will soon realize that he has work for you to do. That is the call on your life. Each one of us has it. I’ve been struggling with the call on my life for a long time, and in my opinion I’m still not quite there yet in fully realizing it.

Jeremiah 29:11 The Message (MSG)^10-11This is God’s Word on the subject: “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

Fear. It can be healthy or It can be life crippling. For reasons I’m unsure of, life crippling fear of is not something that I have had to deal with. But do you know one thing that truly scares me? That one day I’ll wake up at the end of my life and realize that I’ve let it slip by. The more I’ve experienced life, the faster it goes by.

I’ve been reading a book lately called “Quitter”. It takes a hard look at what is a huge problem in my generation. The author examines the phenomenon that whenever you meet people and ask them what they do for a living you will hear the phrase “I’m a Blank, but I really want to be a Blank”.”I’m a Project Manager, but want to own my company.”.. or “I’m a call center agent, but want to be a teacher.” Acuff(The author) touches on that in the moment when chasing your dream that many wish they were a different age. In 6 weeks I’m going to be 30… and as I pursue God for my next steps I wish for the days of just turning 20. No matter what your age is right now, if you are chasing God’s dream you are probably wishing you “knew what you know now when you were younger” or that maybe you wish you had the last 10 years back. The thing though that I’ve come to realize is 1) That if I was 20, I wouldn’t have the experience and “maturity” that I have now and 2) I definitely wasn’t ready then. Don’t let “only if I was younger” affect your dream or call.

I once read a study about this researcher that went into a first grade class and asked a group of kids to raise their hands if they considered themselves artists. Without fail almost every child raised their hands. They would then repeat this same question every year with the same kids all the way to grade 6. What they found was that each there was sharp declines in how many kids considered themselves artists every year. The annual rate of decrease held steady at about 50%. When the study ended in grade 6, there were only 2 kids that still raised their hands.

I once did this exercise where I had to list the 5 most important hobbies/passions in my life that I couldn’t live without. By process of elimination you had to whittle it down to two things that you just could not live without at all. After you went through the heart ripping experience of choosing one favourite thing over another repeatedly, you had to write a single sentence around the two remaining items. This sentence had to be written from the perspective of “If you had no limits on your life right now, what would you be doing?” My answer haunts me to this day in a very good way. I cannot escape it. And now I am pursuing it when I can. If you have some time, do this exercise even today.

What dream has God put on your heart? What has God called you to do? Have you let your inner artist die because someone said something to you? Have you let life slip by because you were too busy? Are you like me? Wishing you were 10, 20, 30? Years younger.. Saying to yourself, well I can’t because of this or that excuse. What lies have you let yourself believe?

If there is anything I believe about this crazy messed up world, and how God operates is that he has this crazy, insane plan for each of us. He has planted mustard seed inside each of us. The problem is we get in the way, we won’t die ourselves and REALLY let God have control. I’m convinced that if even a small fraction of people started REALLY doing what they were born to do this world wouldn’t have 40,000 kids dyeing daily from hunger.

For a long time I let myself off the hook of God’s true call because well “the professional world needs Christians” and I grew up believing that God only called only a few to do his work in full time ministry, and I don’t think I’m alone in this. The more I look deep inside my soul, the more I believe those lies straight from Hell to stop people from putting everything of themselves into what God really has planned for you.

Maybe this whole idea of having a purpose for your life given to you by God is a new concept. If it is, I suggest you make it the focus of your prayer time with God. You may even know it what it is right now. If you doubt yourself, another great test is that if you wrote about, or told someone about it would doing such make you cry? If the answer is yes, that is what God is calling you to do. If you let yourself dream and wonder it can be scary. Why not take the chance and let God lead you, if you do you might just be surprised with the results.

To end this point I’m show a quick clip of a guy who’s name is Francis Chan. You ever listen to a preacher talk and not forget what he said 10 minutes later? It’s only happened to me like twice ever and neither of them were my dad (ha sorry ). Francis is one of those two people. I heard him speak at NYC in 2007 and what he said stuck with me for a long time. I’m in the middle of reading one of his books and it’s changing me. This clip puts a spear into my heart and I think sums up my entire point in a fairly dramatic way.

The Action

So now that you have concluded Jesus is really the son of God, you have accepted him as your personal lord and savior and you have heard his call on your life all in 10 minutes flat.. What is left to do? Nothing of course but to act.

Someone once told me that if you think Christianity is boring, you are doing it wrong.

One of my favourite of Jesus’ parables is the parable of the buried talents, simply because it calls out the people who are given so much and do so little with it. It speaks to God’s call on my life and like everything else I’ve talked about today gives a nice “gut check” to keep my own actions(or lack thereof) in line.

Matthew 25:14-30 ¹⁴ “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. ¹⁵ To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,^[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶ The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. ¹⁷ So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. ¹⁸ But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹ “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ ²¹ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’²² “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ ²³ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ ²⁴ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ ²⁶ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? ²⁷ Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. ²⁸ “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. ²⁹ For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

I had mentor when I was fresh out University who lived, breathed and sweat the calling God had on his life. Every time I was in his presence he made me a better Christian and a better man. He was Jesus with skin on. His name was Derek Liebenberg. Some of you have heard me talk about him before. I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it wasn’t for him. He died of a heart attack a couple months before his son was to be born. Derek and his wife had been trying to have children for 12 years, and she finally got pregnant. While establishing and working in an AIDS orphanage in South Africa he passed away in the middle of the night, before he ever got to see his son alive. I have some big questions for God when I meet him, and asking him why that happened will be one of them. The man that in my eyes was as close as you could come to living out what Jesus was all about was seemingly taken from this earth too early. And it’s all because he acted on what God asked him to do.. nothing more.

Jesus also very conveniently summed up everything he asked us to do in one small passage Matthew 22:36 – 40.³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^[^a^] ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[^b^] ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So I ask you, what are you doing today to act on loving your neighbor?

Act 1: 7-9a^7-8He told them, “You don’t get to know the time. Timing is the Father’s business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.” 9.These were his last words.

Conclusion

True Christianity is the road less travelled because it takes work and sacrifice. But when it comes to the end of the age and you are standing before the great Judge what do you want your answer to be? With that thought it leads me to these questions.

So what stage of the journey with Christ are you on? Are you still trying to make the decision on whether or not Jesus is actually who he said he was? Are you fighting against God’s true call on your life? Or are you struggling with the Action of it all? Are you not feeding the hungry enough, clothing the naked, or visiting those in jail? Each of you are somewhere along this path. What do you need to do in your life this week or even today to move yourself along the road closer to God’s will and plan for you?

Life Application

1) Where are you at this moment along the journey? What is stopping you from moving forward?

2) Is your Christian walk a little too safe? What is holding you back from living dangerously for Christ?

3) What is one thing this week that I can do, that will help me take a step in the direction God wants me to move in?

What I want to see in iOS5

filsinger — Wed, 25 May 2011 14:26:28 +0000

It’s been over 4 years since the original iPhone was announced and we have seen the device take huge leaps and bounds in terms of hardware, but the operating system hasn’t advanced itself quite as quickly. Many of the features and feel of the device are really beginning to show their age. Where Android used the iOS as a standard for much of their first release, I think it is time that Apple takes some of Android’s best features. I really hope at WWDC this June we see some big advances in the iOS. It needs some of my suggestions and more to keep up with the development speed of Android. That being said, Honeycomb also has a long way to go if it wants to even be close to the iPad experience, but that is a topic for another article. In no particular order here are the 8 things I’d like to see added in with iOS5.

Widgets
I have a nexus one and enjoy my widgets. I have some for RSS feeds, weather, mint.com, search bars, twitter, financial information, quick settings i need access too, etc. iOS5 needs some widget integration, and I see it opening up an entirely new market for sales. I hope Apple doesn’t ignore the revenue opportunity here, but I have feeling they just might.

Overhaul Notification Handling
One of the biggest knocks on iOS is the way it handles notifications. Sure this was fine when all that was coming in were texts and the occasional alarm or reminder. Now with the advent of push notifications, and every app using it like it’s going out of style it does not take long for it to be a huge annoyance. I turn almost all my push notifications off by default. I’d love to see an android style notification task bar that I can just drag down at my leisure and respond to whatever program is waiting for my response. This is one spot where Apple design is bottlenecking the user experience.

Multitasking makeover
Closer to how safari handles multiple pages. Give me options, i want ot be able to choose what apps stay in multitasking mode, which close every time i press the home button. I like the double click style bottom row launch, but I’d love to see some rework in this area and let the user have a preview of exactly what is running. I like how they handle safari pages, and I’d love to see something similar for multitasking in iOS.

File Management
We need some kind of file manager. Want to attach a document or photograph to that email you already have written? Nope, you can only attach files through the file itself, not through the email client. If apple really wants to push this is a true post-computer device, we really need to see some ability to manipulate files, open then from anywhere.

Air Syncing
Having a completely portable device still pretty much by default be tethered. While I’m at it, add a cloud music service. I hate having my collection all strewn about because I may have purchased an item on one computer, but not another. Setup a cloud for my app save games, my icon layouts and all my mp3s. I’d even pay extra for this service. I love the cloud, Apple come join me.

Air installation
Android’s market place lets me install applications to my device through a simple once-click web interface. I love this a lot. It makes getting apps on my device easy if someone links me to something without even having to pick up my phone. Apple, please release this now through iTunes.

Child Accounts
Apple has taken basically zero precautions to help parents control the spending on the device once it leaves their hands. As a parent I’d like to see either A) A “Child mode” similar to that of Airplane mode where purchases can’t happen without a special 4 digit code+ the account password that I can turn/off quickly or B) Let me setup a child account inside iTunes that will let me put credits in. That way my son can buy what he wants, but not have unlimited access to my credit card.

Animated backgrounds
This request is extremely trivial. But in the right spot animated backgrounds are fun and frivilous. If i judge how long it took apple to give us the ability to select custom backgrounds at all, I don’t see this one coming any time soon.

We’ll know more come this June at WWDC. I’m really hoping we’ll see at least one of these features announced come early summer.

Top 3 of 2010: My Favourite Things

filsinger — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:11:20 +0000

I’ve made it an annual tradition to write what my favourite things of the year are in a blog post. My blogging hit a serious downtown this year as I got too busy with having a kid, and changing jobs at my company. I plan to rectify that this year and blog at least once a month, and hopefully twice a month if I get the time. I’m excited for this year, but it’s fun looking back. Here are my favourite things of this past year.

Top 3 Games:

It was the year of the sequel. Each one of these games completely blew away the game before it. The all deserve to be on this list, and if you haven’t played them, go out and put money down on them. You will not regret it one bit.

1) Mass Effect 2 (xbox 360) – The first game was one amazing space opera. It had some flaws, but overall was a much improved experience which took out all the stuff I hated in Mass Effect (Mako driving!). The space mining was a bit tedious, but overall the game was executed very well. I’m excited to see how this crazy space trilogy ends.

2) Starcraft 2 (PC) –12 years in the making? A rumoured 100 million spent to make it? Well all of that was worth it. The best RTS game of all time has captured my attention since I got into the beta in March. I still play it regularly and have a blast. There is a pretty amazing e-sport scene surrounding the game over in Korea, and it makes watching the game played fun to watch.

3) Uncharted 2 (xbox 360) – Naughty Dog blended Indiana Jones and game playing perfectly, then improved on it. This game was a ton of fun, and I’m really excited for the third one coming out sometime this year.

Runners Up: God of War 3(PS3), Assassins Creed 2(xbox 360)

Top 3 Albums:

1) Brothers(Deluxe) by The Black Keys – Hadn’t heard of them until their grammy nomination. Now I can’t get enough of this blues rock brother combo. Do not miss this album. It’s like if you took Gnarls Barkley and Stevie Ray Vaughn and mashed them together. So weird, yet so good. Pick this one up.

2) Travel Vol 3 by Future of Forestry – The idea of releasing about 5 songs every 6 months or so is awesome. More bands need to this more often. I loved the first two volumes, and the third one of the set was by far the best. The tempo was increased, more guitars added and the lyrics just as strong. You need to pick this up.

3) Stone Temple Pilots – Stone Temple Pilots – After a many year hiatus, mutliple “super groups” and apparently a few times in rehab. The group has reformed to put out which I think was one of the best albums of the year. If you are a child of the 90s then you owe yourself to buy this album and give a good listen.

Top 3 Movies

1) Inception – Does Christopher Nolan ever make a bad movie? So far the answer is no, and this movie blew away my large expectations for it. It is a bit mind bending, but simply amazing.

2) True Grit – This one squeaked into my top 3 at the very end of the year. The Coen brothers do it again with this sort of remake of the original. This movie was carried by the actors and the excellent dialogue written for them. Go see it, you still have time.

3) Scott Pilgrim vs the World – This movie was about an hour and half of pure 90s video game references and inside jokes. It was great to see a film that seem to have been made for my child hood growing up in Canada with the tastes that I have. It is definitely not for everyone, but it was definitely for me. If you did like the movie, make sure you go up and pick up the comic books the movie was based off of as well.

Runner Up: The Book of Eli

Top 3 Trips

1) The Hospital - I became a father this year. Driving to the hospital after Jenn’s waterbroke was something I’ll never forget. It’s been a pretty crazy experience over the last couple months, learning to be a father but I hav enjoyed every minute of it.. (well most minutes).

2) Europe (Germany, Italy, Austria) - Jenn and I finally got to do our planned trip to Europe. We are still paying for the trip months later, but it was worth every penny. Getting to see things like the coliseum and Dachau were pretty amazing. I could go on for hours about the trip, but I won’t. Oh yeah, and the food was awesome too.

3) San Francisco –San Fran makes it onto the list for the second straight year as I was able to attend my first GDC. I had been following the event for many years, and now I was finally able to attend. I don’t think I’ll get to go to it this year, but it was a blast nonetheless.

Top 3 Restaurants

1) Churchill Arms – For the second straight year, Churchill Arms makes my #1 favourite restaurant. I still order the same thing every time. They even got featured on Regis and Kelly this summer. Get the curry half and half. They’ll know what you mean and you won’t regret it.

2) Zen Sushi Bar – We are crazy blessed with Asian food now in Charlottetown. We have Korean, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, and we just now need a Vietnamese place, but regardless of all that, the first real sushi restaurant opened and it good. It’s a weekly tradition amongst some of my coworkers and we enjoy the trip to the small little shop every time.

3) Casa Mia - They keep me caffeinated daily. That should say enough.

Top 3 websites

1) Netflix.ca – This year we finally got the video streaming service to Canada and it’s awesome. The only draw back is that their selection is a tad on the week side. With the cost only being $8/month, it is very easy to overloook the poor selection, because there is usually something to watch there. It’s really only 1 movie rental to keep a subscription, so until there stops being stuff I want to watch, I’ll continue subscribing. I also read somewhere this year that they were 95% of all Canadian web traffic one evening.. that is nuts.

2) Gawker Blogs – This company runs a ton of different blogs such as Kotaku, LifeHacker, and Gizmodo. They keep me up to date on a ton of different topics and the information is pretty reliable and fast.

3) Huffington Post/Drudge Report- This is technically two different sites, but both exist on the extremes of Right and Left news. Usually the truth lands somewhere in the middle, but they keep me informed of what’s going on in the world from two very different perspectives.

Runner Up: http://www.google.ca/ig?hl=en – It’s the first thing I see when I launch a browser, and therefor should always make my list until someone figures out a better replacement.

Top 3 Shows

1) The Walking Dead - As soon as you think zombies have been done way too many times, something fresh comes out. This year it was AMC who are best known for Mad Men and Breaking Bad revealed a 6 part first season of the hit graphical novel of the same name. It was very well done, and an excellent first real step into a series around zombies.

2) Fringe – This show has really pushed it story line forward this year and made some huge improvements over last years wishy washy parts. So far the season has been great, and I hope it ends as strong as it began.

3) The Daily Show with John Stewart - The most trusted name in news for people of my age. He leaves no one alone, and pokes great fun at the obsudirty that is American politics. It’s a great way to kill 20 minutes while eating supper and always makes me laugh while keeping me informed.

Top 3 Books:

I did not read much this year, therefor this list is not as strong as it could have been. I will be reading more this year for sure.

1) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins–I came across this on a “Best books you’ve probably never read” list. I had never heard of it, but it got me hooked. I finished the book in about 3 days staying up late to get through it. It’s pure teen fiction. Treat the book like fast food and you’ll enjoy it. It isn’t going to change the world, but it was definitely a really fun read.

2) Tribes by Seth Godin – This small little book had some great quotes in it. It takes a look at how each person has the capability of influencing others within their Tribe. The world is becoming increasingly accessible to anyone. Reading through this gave me a new perspective on just that.

3) Stuff Christians Like by Jon Acuff- Last year his website made my top list, now this year his book did. It’s a funny take on the stupid and crazy things Christians do. I love satire, and Jon Acuff does it well. Pick it up if you like a good laugh.

Well that’s it for this year. Hopefully 2011 will have just as many good movies, books, games, and trips.

Top 3 of 2009: My favourite things!

filsinger — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:47:28 +0000

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.

New Years Resolution – Reviewing Last years and setting some for this year.

filsinger — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:54:25 +0000

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.

Redefining Capitalism: Buy One Give One

filsinger — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:48:19 +0000

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!

Analyst suggests that publishers should worry about the Appstore

filsinger — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:29:40 +0000

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.

What is your Spiritual Footprint?

filsinger — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:01:11 +0000

What is your Spiritual Footprint?

Introduction

The Lord has really been talking to me lately about a lot of things. This blog is a collection of inner workings, fights, discussions, conversations and investigations that have been going on my life recently. So through that struggle, I have felt compelled today to share some of what God has been working on me with. If I say anything today that resonates with you, then that is all I can hope for. So in essence this sermon is for me and my life as much as it is for you. It is something that I need to hear as much as anyone else.

Carbon Footprint

A buzz word that has recently come into our vernacular is “carbon footprint”. A definition of which I grabbed from Wikipedia is “the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product”. We are asked by the media to be mindful of our “carbon footprint”, that effect on the environment that we leave with our lifestyle. I’m not here this morning to debate Global Warming, or the green movement, but I do know we need to take care of this earth God made, but I am here this morning to talk about our “Spiritual Footprint”, which I would like to define as “A person’s reaction to the impressing of the Holy Spirit’s guidance in their life in regards to giving back to the Kingdom.”

I believe that once we accept the great gift that Jesus has offered us, we then have a responsibility to act and give back. So what good are you leaving behind at the end of each day? What has the Lord asked you to do for another person? Have you ignored the Holy Spirit’s prodding? Have your ears been deaf? Your eyes blind? Is your heart cold to the hurting of the world?

Rich Young Ruler

Do you ever “hate” a scripture? Well, this following scripture is one I’ve hated for a long time. Only for the fact that the Holy Spirit uses it to convict me each time I read it. Many times I can find myself becoming a HighLighter Christian. Reading the scriptures that I like, ignore the ones I don’t, and this just happens to be one those hard scriptures that fall into both of those categories.

Mark 10:17-31

¹⁷As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.²⁰“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”²¹Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”²²At this, the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. ²³Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” ²⁴The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is^[^b^] to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁶The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” ²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” ²⁸Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!” ²⁹“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

How would you define rich?

Websters dictionary defines rich as “having abundant possessions and especially material wealth”

What percentage of the world’s population would have to be below you for you to consider yourself “rich”? If you were in the world’s top 51%, would that make you rich? I think on a technicality you have more possessions than more than half the world, so yeah maybe. Well what about the top 25%? 10%? 5%? I wonder these things myself. So where exactly do you as a person rank amongst the world’s wealthiest. Luckily there is a website that does the math for us! www.globalrichlist.com. I decided to do a little digging and I looked up the AVERAGE family income in Charlottetown, PEI and that amount comes in at whopping $61,569. According to this calculator if you are an average family in Charlottetown you now fall into the TOP 0.95% of the world’s wealthiest. Now let’s go back and read verse 23 “How hard is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” What does that mean for us North America?

When I was a kid my complete concept of being poor meant shopping at KMART and that my family could not afford to buy me Reebok Pumps. But never once did I ever wonder where my next meal was coming from, or what would happen when the cookie jar was empty, or even if I was going to be able to play hockey next season. I was born into a life of privilege, of intense wealth, and of never actually needing something (even though I thought much differently as a kid). Sadly, it took me a long time to realize this. The Lord has been continually convicting me of my wealth, of how everything I have in my life is because of Him, and how much I need to detach myself from my “stuff”.

After years of struggling and fighting, I feel like finally the LORD has gotten me to a point where if he asked me to sell all I had and move to Africa, I would. This is where the last part of that scripture really hits home for me, and makes all the sacrifice worth it. He hasn’t asked me yet, but I know he is preparing my life for a watershed moment like this.

²⁹“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

I finished reading a book recently called The Irresistible Revolution: Living the life as an ordinary radical by Shane Claiborne (which I cannot recommend strongly enough). And in that book, he has some great quotes, but one that resonated with me was this “But as I pursued that dream of upward mobility preparing for college, things just didn’t fit together. As I read Scriptures about how the last will be first, I started wondering why I was working so hard to be first.” Bill spoke last week, on this very topic, why is the church trying so hard to be first, when maybe all we need to is learn how to be last a little more. Something that I’ve heard said a lot recently is that “The church is the sole institution that exists for the benefit of its non members”, so why does the church spend so much time trying to please the people inside it?

So how can we as rich Christians serve? We need to recognize the need around us, and act on it. Luckily for us a wise person by the name of Jesus had something interesting to say directly on this topic.

Recognize the Need around You

In scripture there are more than 2000 references to helping the poor, and the destitute.

Jesus only talks about judgment day once in the gospels.

And this scripture has both!

Matthew 25:31-46

The Sheep and the Goats

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ ³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ ⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ ⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ ⁴⁴“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ ⁴⁵“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ ⁴⁶“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Jesus is all around us. All we need to do is open our eyes and help those in need. Jesus isn’t asking nicely. Jesus isn’t saying to his disciples here “Well if you kind of feel like it today, then maybe you could, you know maybe um, drop a can of corn into that bin at the end of the line at Sobeys next time you get groceries”. No, he is commanding his disciples (us) to help those in need, and weight of the world is upon our shoulders. At the end of the age, there will not be a theology test. Nowhere in this passage do I see Jesus saying “and the sheep and goats will be sorted to the left and to the right, which will be determined by a 1000 word essay on Entire Sanctification.”

It will be on how we treated, or mistreated the marginalized, the poor, the widow, the hurting soul and the man in jail. As you have done to the least of these, so have you done to me. That what you have NOT done to these, so you have not done to me.

Now don’t get me wrong and think that I am saying one can get to heaven by works, no, it doesn’t work that way. But what I AM saying is that we will be held completely accountable on how we used our time, immense resources and calling on our lives to serve God. If you, can honestly say right now, if Jesus was to walk into this room and separate us, where would you fall? Are you one of the sheep that has given up everything to follow him? Or are you still saying “Jessus, I did not see you”. Ignorance will not be an option, I’m sorry. You should not live your life afraid of losing it, you should be afraid of not living the life God has in store for you. What exactly are you still holding onto? Where is your heart?

Matthew 6:19-21

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

“What you believe is not what you say you believe, what you believe is what you do”

Donald Miller – Blue Like Jazz

Jesus’ call on your life is always on the table.

In 1999 I moved out to Calgary to go to school. To this day I still believe that God called me out there for a purpose. It was in leaving my family, and seeking God that landed me into some of the darkest times of my life. Even if those years were not easy, they were necessary and formative to the man I am today. Somewhere along the line in seeking God though, I forgot to keep looking, and I was subsequently side tracked for many years. I had lost my sense of purpose and the call of God on my life. In a lot of ways, I relate strongly to the rich young ruler. I went out to Calgary, much like how he went to Jesus. Saying “Ok Jesus, here I am, I followed all your rules, I was a good boy! What else must I do?”. Jesus, then put the question to me, will you give up your life? Give up your desire to become first? Give up your desire for wealth? Give up everything? How much do you trust me… and I didn’t trust him, and I did my own thing. This led me falling away from God, and losing my sense of purpose. The parable of Prodigal Son, meshes well in this context as well. As we see in the scripture of the rich young ruler, Jesus does not chase after him when he walks away. The father in the Prodigal Son, does not chase his son down the road when he leaves with the money. But, he is always waiting, his arms are always open for a loving embrace and welcome home feast.

God’s arms were open waiting for me to come back, and even though it took a small life crisis for me to recognize this, he was there, waiting for when I did. If you are in a similar situation, I guarantee, he will be there when you finally choose to listen, and you won’t regret it.

Conclusion

So now what? What is God saying to you right now? What is it that you need to do? Today my prayer is that when you lay your head down on your pillow tonight, tomorrow night, and every remaining night for the rest of the life, you answer to “What is your Spiritual Footprint?” will be a positive one. God saved you, so you could give back to the Kingdom.

John 13: 35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Has God called you to a purpose and you’ve ignored him?

What is God asking you to give up today?

Have you become apathetic to the needs of those around you?

What is your Spiritual Footprint at the end each day?

People need to listen to Trent Reznor

filsinger — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:32:50 +0000

I have never been a big fan of Nine Inch Nails. Their music style is close to what I might listen to, but just never struck a chord with my ear, so to speak. What they do right though is leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else. I have blogged about how media is changing, new distribution methods need to be found, and if you don’t change how you do business, and adapt to this new force you will die. Reznor was recently interviewed about his coming iPhone app that lets people have access to a social network of NIN fans, and direct access to Reznor himself. He was interviewed for a Wired article and this is what he had to say.. and he’s exactly right.

Since then, Reznor has pioneered a new, fan-centered business model that radically breaks with the practices of the struggling music industry. His embrace of “freemium” pricing, torrent distribution, fan remixes and social media seem to be paying off financially even as they have helped him forge deeper connections with the Nine Inch Nails faithful.

It’s something he never could have done before, even on an indie label. “Anyone who’s an executive at a record label does not understand what the internet is, how it works, how people use it, how fans and consumers interact — no idea,” he declares. “I’m surprised they know how to use e-mail. They have built a business around selling plastic discs, and nobody wants plastic discs any more.”

Meanwhile, the entire system that for a lucky few turned those discs into hits — rock radio, MTV, music mags, CD megastores — has crumbled, and label execs have no idea where to turn. “They’re in such a state of denial it’s impossible for them to understand what’s happening,” Reznor says. “As an artist, you are now the market.”(emphasis mine)

I believe you should have to pay for music, but nobody wants plastic discs anymore. The last plastic disc I bought for myself was 3 years ago, but now I buy more music than I ever have. I listen to all my music through my iPod or on my laptop at work. Why would I want a disc that I have to rip and then just put away? I want music digitally, cheap and fast. Even today I bought the new Hip album on iTunes and didn’t have to go hunting for it. Just clicked two things and now I’m listening to it.

I’ll scream on this soap box for a while I think. Media is shifting, don’t get left behind. This applies to all apsects of our lives, religion, tv, print, music, video, tourism. The 21st century culture shift isn’t coming, it’s already here. What are you going to do about it?

The Oncomming Collapse of Traditional Television

filsinger — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:33:45 +0000

On my way to work today I was listening to the radio and heard a news article on how Canadian Broadcasters are crying to the CRTC to allow them to reduce their local programming. The Globe and Mail has an article up on the same issue. Essentially, the broadcasters are in peril and local programming is losing them money. To compensate for this down trend in the economy, and demand for local programming, they want to bring in more American programming and charge a fee to the other carriers for using their signal. In the last few years there have been a microcosm of events that each on their own wouldn’t have caused this issue, but together is making the perfect storm.

1) The Internet – The interweb has created a completely level playing field. My little blog on the net has as much of a chance of being viewed by people as a news article written on the Globe and Mail. The know-how to get your message out there is next to nil now. Me personally? I get more local news from a few Charlottetown bloggers than I do from The Guardian or the CBC.

2) Youtube – Now anyone can be a star. Look at people like sXePhil, some guy who makes “what interested me videos” and puts them up. He gets 300,000 views per video, daily. His audience is world wide, his content is immediate, and more relevant than any fluff piece that the local tv station puts up. This is only the beginning.

3) Torrents – You can now watch any show you want, within 1 hour of it being on TV without commercials and in High Definition on your TV. Why would I sit through programming and force fed commercials that do not relate to me and waste my time, when I can digest any media I want, instantly and when I want. (I am willing to pay for this service if stations offered it. Give me the ability to download your shows on Demand, in perfect quality the second they air on TV and I will pay… no one offers this yet, wake me up when they do).

4) The Recession – Add in a recession to all of these things, people are cutting back. I pay $40/month for my TV and $40/month for Internet. What would I cut first? My TV of course, I rarely watch anything on satellite now, and would not miss it. Advertisers are cutting back as well, so funds are being sucked from the broadcasters.

In 1998 Napster came out, the music industry had an opportunity to seize a new trend, make it their own and deliver us high quality music, DRM free for a fee. They balked at it, and instead of embracing it they fought it, and have lost millions and millions in the process. Imagine if they had bought Napster, turned that into a service and started the shift THEN to this new medium, I bet they would be in much better shape. TV is going down the same path with the high availability of any show on the Internet, and people watching more Youtube than they do actual TV. The CRTC and the broadcasters are clinging on to this old world and not embracing this new trend that will take over. With the Internet, the world is flat, so stop fighting against it, embrace it. I believe in local content, but I believe news will be brought to me by the local people on the ground, not traditional news outlets. Look at what happened with Twitter and the Plane crash in the Hudson. We were getting updates from the people IN the plane, not the fools out there with cameras and a microphone.

TV as we’ve known it for 50 years is dying. The game is changing. There is money out there, and great ideas for programming. It’s just going to be delivered to us differently, and if the CBC, CTV and other Canadian programmers don’t realize this fast enough they will be left in the dark and eclipsed by some guy in his basement making funny videos with a webcam and he will be the rich one with the advertising dollars.

ps. Print media is dying too, and that is a similar case to this. Stop clinging to your old ways, adapt, embrace or be forgotten and out of a job.