Briefs (and links a-plenty)

Music

• I bought the pre-release of Andy Osenga's Leonard the Lonely Astronaut, and I love it. One of my favorite albums is the Normal's A place where you belong (largely written by Andy), and after reading Jason Gray's review of the new album, I realized that I was likely to love Leonard. I have not been disappointed.
• One of the best parts of parenting is listening to children's music! This new release from Sandra McCracken and company is sure to be great, and the sampler available on Noisetrade makes that more than obvious.
• I randomly remembered this song, and am once again smitten by it (despite the fact that, as one commenter on YouTube noted, Ben Folds has been married four times)

Reading and writing

• I was up past midnight on several nights last week speeding through Andrew Peterson's North! Or be Eaten. I love the Wingfeather Saga books, and what I said about the first one pretty much holds true for the first one. On Thursday I was up 'til one o'clock because I didn't dare stop until Janner was out of the Fork! Factory!
• TGC has an interview with Eugene Peterson, an author/theologian/pastor whose work (though I'm only partly familiar with it) I greatly respect.
• I kinda wanna be a writer, but unlike Eugene Peterson (cf. previous bullet), I do not write a lot. My senior paper relied heavily on the research of Mark Yarhouse, and in an Edification dedicated to him, Gary Strauss says Yarhouse was challenged to "commit himself to writing at least one page a day intended for publication" (p. 25).  I, however, am like Kierkegaard who says (cf. next bullet), "I've walked myself into some of my best [blog posts]." Sometimes I imagine myself as a writer with great ideas, but mostly only when I'm walking to and from work, and out running.

Various

• This piece on walking at NPR is good. One thing I really like about living in Paraguay is that it's easy to walk a lot.
• The debate on Christian economics always intrigues me, although I have a hard time coming down on either side.
• I was impressed by this post from Craig Goodwin about how the Orthodox Lenten fast gives preeminence to grace as the worshippers come to the Paschal table. 

A parenting day

I am the only male over 3 years of age in the nursery during our church's worship services on Sundays. This is sort of awkward--I'm pretty sure I'm cultural crossing a line--but I'm okay with that. My wife is with the kiddo all week, and (usually) gets more out of sermons more than I do.

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My little almost-7-month-old has his army crawl down pat, and moves with remarkable speed. My sister-in-law (in jest) suggests we enter him in one of those baby races; he would probably have a good chance of winning, if there was a cell phone or camera just beyond the finish line. Today in the nursery he weaseled his way around the whole room, his beautiful eyes wide looking up and down, carefully inspecting the place. He is becoming a little adventurer.

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He and I were hanging out on a blanket on the porch this afternoon, while Mommy was still napping. He was sucking on his thumb*, and then started sucking on my knee, so we went inside and I dug out his pacifier. He has heretofore shown disdain for the pacifier, but now that he's learned to suck on a bottle, he found it rather interesting. He sucked and played with it for about fifteen minutes. I was amused by the way the pacifier absorbed all his attention, as he proved unable to suck on it and handle other toys at the same time.

*He doesn't habitually suck his thumb, but was rather sucking on it just then.

Bread and wine

This is my favorite song from my favorite CD from last year, appropriate for a Maundy Thursday

This post was going to be longer, but instead I'm going to watch a movie with my wife.

Behold! March 2012

Spirituality
I really appreciated this piece by Russell Moore; oh that all Christian writers was so skilled in combining sound theology, pastoral wisdom, and vivid expression.
I also really appreciated DLM's piece on friendship as advocacy.


Technology
McSweeny's has some good parodies of social media and blogging.
NPR uncovers one reason Facebook is in some ways anti-community: it helps make the popular more popular and the lonely feel more lonely.


Random
M. Nenadov summarizes a seminar which concludes that "there are basically no compelling economic reasons for development aid to be successful."
NYTimes writes up on Guaraní, which--according to my New Years Resolutions-- I am learning this year.
The Amazing Race passed through Paraguay.
Eric Peters hosted a listening party for his new CD at the Rabbit Room: there were some really nice songs, and Eric's barren honesty is so heartening.