Real Live Preacher - Personal Update

New Website news - this is now the RLP Archive

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:59:24 -0600

Welcome to the RLP Archives. Thats right, this site has been archived and is no longer the main page of Real Live Preacher.

Important - RSS Feed Readers!
If you received this post through a RSS Feed, please go to the front page of the new site www.reallivepreacher.com and change your RSS Feed subscription.

Subscribers
Users who had accounts on this old site still have your accounts enabled. This means old subscribers can still access the old subscribers only content that is here. However all commenting has been turned off. The new site will require you to create a new account and there will be brand new subscriber content on the new site also.

Looking forward to seeing you in my new place.

One final note, there are still some broken things in these archives. If you come across links that don't work or images that are missing, feel free to drop me a line and let me know. We are working hard to fix those for you.

rlp

RLP Site Temorarily Frozen

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:20:57 -0600

Starting sometime tomorrow (1-24) this site will be temporarily frozen. See details above.

rlp

Stuff That's Going On

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:42:40 -0600

Hello there,

I have a number of things to tell you about. I’ll take them in order of importance.

My trip to the Dominican Republic

Back in October I went to Louisville to learn how to install water purifiers. I wrote about this while I was there. At the time I mentioned that I planned to go with Edge to the Dominican Republic in January on a team that will be installing a very large purification system in a hospital.

I thought I had all the details down regarding this trip. Trips overseas are expensive, whether you are going on vacation or for a project. The short version is that I just found out that this trip is going to cost $950 more than I anticipated. I’m sure the fault is mine. It almost always is with things like this. (Remember the church sign?)

Um...okay I’ll just say it. I need $950 pretty quickly. I can’t cancel Christmas at the Atkinson house. I wouldn’t do that, but it’s a moot point. Whatever Jeanene and I are doing for the girls and each other is already paid for anyway.

If you would like to sponsor me on this trip, I’d appreciate it. Edge created a page for donations to help me raise this money. There’s even a little counter so you can see how much has been donated. Hopefully the total will get to $950. Hey, even $10 would help. I just need 95 people do do that.

One of my jobs on the team, along with the installation work, will be documenting the trip in pictures and posting daily at Real Live Preacher. You’ll be able to watch the installation as it happens.

So...let’s move on because there are few things more awkward and uncomfortable than asking for donations and I really hate that I’m in this situation...

RLP software upgrade & spam

This site is uses Drupal, an open source content management program. It was rather state-of-the-art when Matt Sturges built it a few years ago. I went with Drupal because it has a lot of modules and things that I thought would be nice. In the years since, Typepad and Wordpress have gotten pretty sophisticated. If I was designing the site now I’d probably go with one of those.

But...I have users and subscribes, etc. The archived content of this site is pretty complex, and recreating it would be a lot of work. So I don’t want to leave Drupal. But comment spam is so bad that I’m forced to do something about it. A lot of my writing in the archives is littered with the most unbelievably filthy comments. Really awful stuff.

Comment spammers have gotten pretty sophisticated. They don’t hit the stuff on the front page where I would notice it immediately. It all gets posted on old things buried back in the archives.

Drupal has great comment spam tools now, but my old version can’t use them. Grrr. So I have to upgrade. But working with Drupal is beyond me.

Enter Tim Miller and his company, Jethro. Tim lives in Australia and has been reading my blog for a long time. He has a blog of his own that is a part of the High Calling Blog network that I helped setup. His company also happens to specialize in Drupal. We were emailing back and forth, and he offered to let Jethro take over the software management of this site, leaving me free to write the content and not worry about it anymore. They are doing this at no charge. This gives Jethro a chance to showcase their mad Drupal skills on a site with decent traffic.

It’s one of those times when two needs come together and everyone is happy.

The very day I handed over the keys to RLP (administrative access to the site), Drupal broke. I mean it just stopped working. So it was a little embarrassing - "Thanks for taking over the site. It's broken, so can you fix it?" Tim had to figure out what was wrong, which he did quickly. His techie Rohan had no trouble putting things right. Whew. Talk about good timing! Needless to say, I’m very thankful for the folks at Jethro right now.

So why am I telling you all of this?

I’ll be getting a new version of Drupal with spam protection, but there is a problem. Tim estimates that there are 50,000 spam comments in my archives. There is no easy way to get rid of them. Going through and manually deleting them is obviously out of the question. We could just delete all the old comments, but I’m not going to do that. The comments are one of the ways you participate in Real Live Preacher, and that’s important.

I notice a number of you have had suggestions for the folks at Jethro in dealing with this. If you know something or have any ideas about how to get rid of all that old spam, let us know.

Before I leave this subject, let me say that Rohan would like your prayers. His newborn daughter Caitlyn has a rare disorder and is blind. You can visit her website here. Prayers for his family are appreciated.

I've asked for prayers a few times over the years. So many readers of rlp are not particularly religious - a thing I like. I've always been impressed by the response. Those whose spiritual discipline calls them to pray do so. Others leave respectful comments. I can feel those of you who do not pray looking on with a gentle respect for our traditions. For we are called to pray for each other, we Christians. It's not a matter of understanding what happens when we pray. It's something we do because we are called by Christ to do so. So yes, I stopped today and prayed for Caitlyn and her family. In that moment, in some mysterious way, I was connected to this family on the other side of the world.

I don't understand it. I just do it.

The Sign Saga

If you don't know about the sign, read this.

Well, Reggie saved the day. As usual. He found a very smart way to extend the sign so that it fit between the poles. Admittedly, there is now a line and some extra space to the right and left of the lettering, but given how messed up this whole thing was, I'm thankful that we have any sign at all. And I think it's amazing how good it looks. Here's the sign:

Click for an enlarged view

And here's a close-up so you can see how he did it. The sign fits into a slot on each pole. Reggie used three pieces of plywood and sandwiched the sign cleverly between them. Amazing.

Click for an enlarged view

It feels like I have a lot going on right now.

rlp

I'll post tomorrow

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:33:02 -0600

Hey everyone. Tim Miller is the new guy in charge of the technical end of things here at rlp. I'll write a little more about him tomorrow. We met by chance, but he came along just in time.

I have two pieces being considered by the Christian Century and am working on a third serious piece which will go there or here. This one is tentatively called "Let's Put the X Back in Xmas."

While I finish that, I have a number of things to tell you about tomorrow:

1. Reggie Regan saved the day on the sign. I have pics.

2. A new RLP will roll out soon. Same basic look but new Drupal and probably some new stuff. I have a hard decision to make regarding the old comments and a plague of comment spam. I want to ask you what you think I should do about that.

3. I just found out that my trip to install water purifiers in the Dominican Republic in January costs more than I thought. I'm going to humbly ask for a little help. Tell you about that tomorrow as well.

For now, I'm thankful for Tim Miller getting the site back running.

Until tomorrow...

rlp

Blog Problems

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:08:59 -0600

The blog is behaving kind of wonky. Someone on my shared server did something that messed things up somehow. That's all I know. Apparently most people can't see any images.

I'm in the process of turning this blog over to a serious IT guy, but we're just getting started. Anyway, I'm sure I'll get it figured out soon.

Jury Duty

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:45:26 -0600

I had jury duty today. It's the third time I've had it since moving to San Antonio in 1989. The first time I got questioned a couple of times but ended up sitting around reading the whole day. The second time I was excused because I had primary childcare responsibilities for small children.

Today I spent 9 hours in a pool of potential jurors for one trial. In the end I was selected to serve on the jury. I can't speak about this case at all, but I will say that a person's life rests in our hands. This isn't some small thing. For reasons I can't discuss, the case will definitely be done by Tuesday evening or early Wednesday morning.

I didn't want to do this. I was hoping they wouldn't take me. I knew Monday would be lost, and I didn't want to lose more days in my week. I need to be writing. Our family rather depends on that these days. I confess that I was thinking of answering the questions, well, honestly but using any angle I could to get dismissed.

Then I watched the sacred manner in which the judge and lawyers treated the jury pool. They stood respectfully each time we entered the room. I looked at the defendant, who isn't the sort of person that anyone would like. And I realized that being on a jury is a sacred calling. You follow the letter of the law because it is larger than you are. Sort of like saluting a superior officer out of respect for the rank, regardless of what you think of the person. So I said this little prayer and I told God that I didn't want to do this, but that I would answer every question with absolute honesty. If chosen, I would consider the task to be a sacred one, a holy calling. If chosen, then this task would become the most important thing in my life for a period of time. That seems only right, given how critical a trial can be for those involved.

There were 60 potential jurors, and I was one of the 12 they selected. The lawyers and judge stood as we left the crowd of 60 and filed silently into our 12 seats. The judge spoke gravely to us about what we were about to do. This was at the very end of the day. The bailiff said "All rise for the jury," and everyone in the room stood up again while we left the room. The whole thing was done with such care and dignity. I feel a huge weight on my shoulders tonight, for tomorrow I will be one of 12 who will decide the fate of another human being. Comfort comes in being willing to treat the task seriously, being prayerful if that's your thing, and following the instructions of the court with absolute care and precision.

So I'll be out until at least Wednesday sometime. I know there will be much to write about in this experience

rlp

Leopard & Parallels Finally Got Me

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:41:33 -0600

I finally did it. I bought a Mac. A MacBook Pro, to be specific. I've been a PC guy since 1990. So how did this happen?

I remember I wanted a Mac back in the late 1980s. The interface was cool. (Remember those blue monochrome screens on those first generation Macs?) And I remember thinking the mouse was a cool idea as well. But Macs were expensive, and I didn't have much money. So I sold a bunch of stuff and bought my first computer in 1990, a little XT with an amber monochrome monitor and a 20 megabyte hard drive. No Windows back then. I was running...I think Dos 3.3. I got a disk that taught me DOS commands. I made my own little menu out of batch files and ran Word Perfect.

After that I just moved up over the years. 386, 486, Pentium, and so on. Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, and XP. During that time I amassed a lot of software and thousands of documents. Consider this: I have every document I've produced for our church in the last 10 years in Microsoft Publisher. I've been using FrontPage since 1997. You get sort of stuck in a system. And for someone like me, who has no problem doing whatever I need to do with a PC, there had to be a compelling reason to change. Because you KNOW a change will be painful.

You know, the Mac's got the same shit we got over here, but it's the little differences.

So what tipped the scale?

First, I'm sick of Microsoft. I'm sick of Windows. I'm sick of installing the latest version of Windows and watching it slow to a crawl 6 months later, because it's full of spyware and patches and stranded temporary files from the scores of times I had to shut it down by turning off the power because it was hung up. I'm sick of looking down and seeing my system tray full of stuff using my resources, and I don't even know how some of it got there. I'm sick of little windows popping open every 30 minutes telling me I need to update this or that or install a security patch of some kind.

I'm tired of Windows. It seems bloated and inefficient and ridiculous. What is Windows XP doing for me, substantively, that Windows 95 wasn't doing? What is Word 2003 doing for me that Word 97 wasn't doing? I have computers that are so much more powerful than the ones I ran in the 90s, but I'm doing the same old stuff. And still dragging along.

Yeah.

So I needed a new computer anyway. My old notebook is 2.5 years old, and when you have as much critical data on a computer as I do, it's not a bad idea to consider buying a new one every few years. Do I want Vista on my new computer? The problems are probably exaggerated, but I think it's clear Vista isn't any cleaner and less cumbersome. The answer to that is NO. So I decided I was going to bite the bullet and transition to a clean operating system. For me that meant Linux Ubuntu or Macintosh. I looked long and hard at this. Ubuntu is apparently wonderful. Runs like a Olympic sprinter on 1 gig of RAM. But Ubuntu is the sort of thing serious techies can run. I'd be stuck with mainly open source software, and let's face it - open source software gets the job done, but the interface isn't always as friendly. I'm sorry nerds, Gimp is no substitute for Photoshop if you've been using Photoshop for 7 or 8 years.

Even so, I was about to go Ubuntu because I could get a $1600 notebook and put Ubuntu on it and go gangbusters, or so they say.

Then I saw Mac OS X Leopard and Parallels. I can run Windows XP inside a window on a Mac? I can run Publisher in there so that I don't have to convert the 1500 church documents I have nicely laid out? I can still run Frontpage? And what did you say? I can copy and paste back and forth from Windows to the Mac?

Game over. I'm now an uber-cool, smug Mac user. I hate PCs now. I don't even want to handle them unless I have to. I rather resent seeing XP come up on my beautiful Leopard desktop. I'm watching those "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" commercials and just laughing, shaking my head at poor old pathetic PC. I'm even considering revising my own personal computer history. What was probably happening was that I was just a spy for Macintosh all those years. Yeah, that's what it was. I was undercover or something. Deep undercover. I'll work out the details of the story later.

In the meantime, here's a picture my Macintosh took of me this morning. She (of course my Mac is a she) suggested 4-up sepia, shadowed on a gray background. I was sleepy so I said, "Just do whatever you want, sweetheart."

rlp

ps - I will post a listing of all the difficult transitions, and there are a number of them. Give me a couple of weeks. Oh, and if you plan to run Parallels, you better get as much processor as you can and 2 gig of Ram. I mean, you are running to complete operating systems and software to help them play nice.

And So It Begins

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:01:00 -0600

Yesterday was Jeanene's last day at the hospital. The last two months have been very difficult for both of us. Leaving her 20-year career as a hospital chaplain is, well, the largest vocation-related decision of her life. And I, having begun working with two organizations in forming blog networks and traveling for an unusual number of speaking engagements, have really let my writing suffer. I don't feel badly about that. There was no option. But I do miss writing. I miss it like you miss a child who is away from home for too long.

Next week I will talk to you about the two blog networks I am working with, inviting you to join in if you like. And next week I intend to begin a number of long overdue stories and essays. For one thing, I'm going back to the early days with another story about Jonah and Robert, my Jewish friends from two early essays. I'm going to tell you the story of the rosaries I keep making and how I keep losing them. And I think our friend Foy is due a little attention, as is our friend Jesus who needs another RLPDV just because it is time.

So here I am on Friday, needing the rest of the day for my sermon. Drinking coffee and dreaming of the new life Jeanene and I are beginning.

see ya next week. I can't wait.

rlp

Candy Corn

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:16:02 -0600

Here is someone who had an unusual experience with one of the books I sent. Jung would call it synchronicity. She calls it God. I don't know what to say about things like this. The scientific part of me says, "Coincidence. You're looking for 29 everywhere, so of course you notice it."

But I have learned a thing or two over the years. I'm not so fast to pass judgment these days. One way to look at a situation like this is to think that it has to be proved or disproved. Another way to look at it is to understand that all we have are our perceptions of things. Some things seem more obvious and objective, but really, what do we have but our perception of reality? And so her life sometimes is truly blessed by the number 29 and candy corn.

Who knows?

It's fun to get a glimpse of what happened to one of the books I mailed. I've now filled 200 orders. 200 items included from around my house and really everywhere I can find things.

Latest surprises include:

Purple origami paper
Weird cigar shaped candy from Mexico
One fuzzy green glove that looks like the Grinch's hand.
New Orleans-ish party mask.
bunch of .02 stamps
assorted thank you cards (unused)
Gummy tarantula
Crystal Light packets
Packet of Shout (Laundry stuff)
Ramen noodle seasoning

rlp

Remember When I Used to Write?

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:19:00 -0600

Remember when I use to write for this blog? I'm only kidding, but seriously, what with water purification trips, some other things in my life, and trying to get copies of my book mailed, my writing has suffered terribly. Just no time for it.

It hurts. I want to write so badly. I need to write or I start getting kind of fidgety. So this morning I just said, "The hell with all of it," and started a piece about some things that happened to me when I was about five. It turned into something I'm liking, which always feels good. I'll probably send this one in to Christian Century when I'm done and see if they want it.

I really will be back with actual written stuff. But you can't do everything.

Speaking of things I need to do, I feel that I owe you some kind of update on the shipping of books. Some of you have been waiting for your books. In October I have packaged, addressed, and sent 175 orders. 253 books. That means I've looked at 175 addresses online and written 175 notes and found 175 things around my house to stick in the pages (actually I put two or three things in each book). With my trips out of town recently, it was hard to keep up. Last night I stayed up till midnight and got down to only 39 orders pending. Incoming orders have slowed, so if I do 15 a night, I should be close to caught up in maybe 3 days. Still getting a couple of orders a day.

Those of you from other countries: I know you're waiting longer, but it is a real pain to ship overseas these days. I have to go to the post office and fill out customs forms. I'll try to get yours boxed up over the weekend and go to the post office on Monday.

Recently included goodies:

Greeting card from India
Elvis postcard
Magnetic guitar for fridge
1994 Advent booklet from our church
San Antonio city street map (to New Zealand)
Do not disturb sign from a motel door
Small town cafe menu
Publicity piece from my first and probably only book signing
Don't mess with Texas sticker
Best Buy gift card (probably no money on it, but I don't know)
Bible map torn out of a really old Bible
Schnitzelbank Song Fest placemat
Don Stone guitar pick - one of three still in existence. What? You've never heard of Don Stone? Washington? The state? Obscure but talented musician?
Sugar packets and hats from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
Small packets of candy corn
An old SAMMS club card
Brunswick Bowling card
My old voter registration card
SAMM homeless shelter volunteer ID badge
Unused ticket to a high school musical.

rlp

Water Training in Louisville

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:34:08 -0600

First, a word about sales of my book. The response has been far greater than I could have imagined. I've personally packaged and shipped over 200 books in October. It's quite a chore. I had almost 90 orders pending when I got back from Chicago. Working a couple of hours every night I've gotten that down to somewhere in the 40s. I'm happy about the sales, but it's just about more than I can do. If I could package 15 a night (including looking up people online and writing to them and all that), I'd be done in no time. But orders are still coming in. It's kind of a two steps forward one back situation.

So thank you.

However, I'm heading to Louisville right now to spend the next four days being trained to install water purification systems through Edge Outreach. E.O. is, in their own words, "a faith-based nonprofit; training and sending people and organizations to take integrated water solutions where they are most needed in the world." I'm going through their training course in preparation for a trip to the Dominican Republic in January. We'll be setting up water purification in a hospital that doesn't have clean water. Hard to imagine such a thing, but it exists.

I first became aware of Edge through my friend DE Adams. Long-time readers of rlp might remember that name. He is the musician whose CD took George out of this world in peace. I've rather caught the vision with these people. Look, there are many things that need to be done in the world. Many ways to do good. This is just one of them. Bringing clean water to places where it it lacking is a very tangible way to make the world a better place. So I'm in.

My plan is to take pictures of the training and blog about it every night while I'm in Louisville. I'll be learning about the technology they use, and about water issues in general. I'll be in training all day tomorrow and will post pics and information that night. Same Saturday and Sunday.

So now that you know I'm on a mission of mercy, you can't really complain about the book shipping delay right? Pretty sneaky of me.

Okay I just left this page and checked. Orders are back up to 53 pending. Dang! I mean, thanks. But dang. So for all of you who have ordered since about the 8th. I need to ask for your patience. I'll be unable to ship anything until I get back home on Monday. I really don't want to start automating this and just shoving books in envelopes. When I get back I should have enough time to get every ordered handled. And I have a whole load of new goodies to pass out. Should bring a bunch back from Louisville too.

Recent goodies I've put in the books include: Mexican money, gum, Wash Away Your Sins toweletes, guitar fridge-magnet, San Antonio city map (sent to New Zealand), a 1994 Advent booklet from Covenant, the manuscript to my Christmas story (I know, that was a little impulsive to give that away. Every once in awhile I put something kind of precious in a book), sugar packets from Krispy Kreme, a Don Stone guitar pick (what, you don't know Don Stone??), and most recently, packets of candy corn. (I was eating it while I was working, so...)

thanks,

rlp

Your Book is Coming...I Promise

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:38:31 -0600

I feel like I'm losing my main focus of writing, but perhaps that is okay for a season. I actually have an essay ready to put online. I think I'll do that on Monday. But right now, the only thing I can think about is shipping books. It's the only thing I have time for. Seriously, this is really cool because not only will I have enough money to pay for the remaindered books from Eerdmans, I'm going to get a badly needed new computer and then have a little money left to set aside in savings.

The only price to pay I have to pay is 2 hours of packaging and shipping every night. I've packaged and shipped 99 orders so far. Every single one of them includes a note from me and some kind of surprise. I have 57 pending orders. I'm taking them in the order they are received. Tonight I'll work on orders placed on October 7th. (International orders: I must apologize. I have to go to the post office to fill out custom forms for you, so I have about 15 to do on Saturday all at once.)

You would think that looking up every address at Microsoft Virtual Earth, writing notes, and looking for interesting things to put between the pages would get old. It doesn't. If anything, I spend more time looking at people's homes and imagining their lives now than in the beginning. Yesterday I ended up writing a two-page letter to this person who ordered 4 books. Why? Just needed to.

My latest surprises left between the pages:

Mexican money
Wash Away Your Sins Towelettes (seriously)
A Route 66 pen I found
Chili Piquin peppers picked at our church (in baggies). See our church news blog for details
Last Supper gum
A little metal knight from my office. One of my many toys.
A Starbucks card that might or might not have any money left on it.

In one person's book I put a Far Side cartoon, a Mariner's ticket, and a packet of Sesame Chicken mix from my pantry. I wrote "I don't know why. I just grab stuff!"

Clearly I am having way too much fun with this.

A few homes that I enjoyed seeing:
Click any for a larger view

This person lives about the same distance from I-35 as I do, but in Minnesota.

Yes, this is how I picture life in Seattle. Huge evergreens covering your house with shade.

New Orleans. I was a little worried about this person, but...

Apparently his or her house is on the opposite side of the city from the Pontchartrain. I don't think they were flooded. Haven't heard back.

rlp

The Mailman

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:07:30 -0500

So here I am, sitting in my bedroom mailing books everywhere in the world. I don't know how many orders there have been. Well over a hundred. I'm taking them in the order they were received, and I'm down to 61 orders. There's a stack of books and envelopes on the desk. On the corner is my pile of goodies to put in the books. Some of the stuff I put in the books today includes:

Ginko Tree leaves from the tree Frank Lloyd Wright planted when he built his home in 1898

Coasters from Timothy O'Toole's in Chicago

Counterfeit money that children make and try to pass off to my daughter who works at a small coffee shop and store.

Various music CDs, mostly from Talking Taco Music.

The Cohiba cigar bands from the cigars I smoked this summer.

Chewing gum

A Bit O' Honey candy bar

Various suckers and a weird coconut candy thing from Mexico.

Tonight I raided the kitchen, so someone's getting packets of Chai Tea and a honey sesame oriental seasoning mix packet.

I'm enjoying looking at all of your homes. I've discovered that Microsoft's Virtual Earth and Google Maps are not always exactly accurate, but I get close. Here's a couple that interested me tonight.

This guy lives right on Pismo beach. I'd heard of Pismo beach but had no idea where it was.

And here is someone who lives in a building just a couple of blocks away from the Capital in D.C.

61 orders to go. A few keep trickling in, but I'm making progress. I'm going to do this every night until I get them all done. It's fun in a weird sort of way. A new experience. I will tell you that shipping things is lot of work. If I wasn't stuffing the pages with stuff, I'd die from boredom.

rlp

I Love Chicago

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:45:01 -0600

I'm sitting in O'Hare Intl. airport right now. Our flight home has been delayed. I checked my shopping cart program, and I have 80 orders to fill when I get home. Tomorrow will be a busy day.

I thought I'd mention a few things we did while we were in Chicago. I've only been here twice and both times for only a few days, but I love this city. It's got a lot of personality. Somehow it's enormous size and population don't diminish that.

Having watched a game at Wrigley Field when I was here earlier this year, I'm a small-time Cubs fan. I'm not that emotionally invested, but I was hoping they would win against the Diamondbacks. Jeanene and I watched their last hurrah at Timothy O'Toole's pub downtown. Watching a ballgame with the hometown fans in a pub adds something to the experience. Needless to say, the locals were not happy about the Cubs' three-and-out playoff run.

The ghostly image is our waitress who was moving too fast to be
photographed in a low-light setting.

Jeanene and I went to the Art Institute museum on Thursday. I went the last time I was here and wanted to go again. There's no way to see everything in one visit, of course. And there is only so much beauty you can take in before you get saturated. We saw what we could see and let go of the rest. I know this probably means I'm not very sophisticated, but I'm always a little amused by some of the modern art. This piece had no title that I could see. I might suggest "Red Board Leaning Against The Wall." Or maybe someone was installing doors and left one out by mistake.

The placard beside one painting said that the artist, Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967), "renounced color" in 1953. I don't know what it was about color that set him off, but if you are a painter and you renounce color altogether, it does leave you rather limited. Maybe that's why his painting looks like this:

The background is the wall. The picture is simply a black canvass.

The highlight of our visit to Chicago was seeing Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Oak Park. I've drooled over his furniture, windows, and houses for years. Seeing the home he built for his family and the studio he added later was a life-changing experience. I know that sounds extreme, but I'm serious. When you are in the presence of such beauty, it changes you. The inside of his home was so beautiful that it hurt a little to see it and know that I had to leave. They wouldn't allow pictures and I'm not good enough with words to describe what it means to stand in that place. So...just...I can't say anything. I am really irritated that the stuffy FLW museum people don't have any pictures of the interior online. Not everyone can go to Chicago to see this. What would it hurt to post a few pictures on the official website?

Just a few of the Frank Lloyd Wright homes we saw in Oak Park

This one was in disrepair, which surprised me. I would have
thought that anyone who could afford one of these homes
would be able to keep it up. Chicago is pretty picky about
their historical homes, so I don't know what's up with this one.

This is what your church would look like if Frank Lloyd
Wright designed it. Unity Temple, Oak Park

In a move of surprising bad taste, given that this was
at Frank Lloyd Wright's home/studio, they actually sell
Frank Lloyd Wright puppets. I was tempted to buy one, but
I've sworn off dragging worthless kitsch into the house.

And finally, on the subway to the airport today, I noticed an advertisement for a university with a rather strange name.

Unbelievable. Take a look at the website.

rlp

Chicago and OH MY GOSH!

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:52:20 -0600

I didn't mention that I'm in Chicago again. I had the Christian Century piece to post and the stuff about mailing the books and looking at satellite photos of your houses and all that. So I didn't tell you that I was going out of town. But I am in the Windy City again. Jeanene is with me this time. I spoke today to a group of marketers who are interested in blogs and social media issues. I'm not an expert on those issues, but I knew enough to be a jump or two ahead of the room. Kevin S., who does marketing for Christian Century, is letting us stay in his condominium while he is out of town. It overlooks Lake Michigan on Lake Shore Drive. We're really roughing it. But since the Marketing group paid for the tickets and the housing is free, we're staying until Sunday.

Chicago from the top of the John Hancock Center - 10-5-07

But there is something more important to tell you. I got back from the marketing thing about 3:00 this afternoon, checked my email, and there were 63 orders for the book. WHAT????

Okay, I get it. I mouth off about how personal I'm trying to be with the book. I'm going to look at satellite photos of everyone's home and write little letters and put presents between the pages and blah blah blah. All very nice and personal-like. Then you guys are like, "Okay Mr. Personal. Here's 63 orders. Have a nice day on Monday when you get back to town."

Gulp. Well, I let myself in for this. I asked for it. Oh well, how bad could it be? I'll have to spend the whole day Monday looking at houses on the internet and writing notes to people. And I'm going to be looking all over Chicago for presents that will fit in the pages of a book. I'm running out of flat things at my house.

Actually, this couldn't have come at a better time. My computer is starting to act up a bit. It overheats and shuts off periodically. So I've been trying to save money for a new one. Maybe this book thing will take care of that!

But in all seriousness, you'll have to be patient with these orders. I don't know how long it will take me to fulfill them, but I will work hard and straightaway when I get home. But I am DETERMINED not to rush this. I want to treat each one like I'm sending it to a friend.

And I guess I am, right?

rlp