As the prophets and scribes have warned, the blog is back with a brand new invention. Somethin’ grabs a hold of me tightly…
Er, sorry. I got a little side-tracked.
So I was ready for a change. I think we needed an infusion of new life in several ways, and this grand re-opening is the beginning of that (I hope). First, we need more activity around here. I’m working on that one. I also want to make the whole experience a little more interesting and worthwhile for everyone. I’m working on that too. The new name and shibboleth will serve as our north star in this effort. I’ll unpack them both eventually, but feel free to speculate and cogitate and ruminate in the meantime.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I also grew to dislike the aesthetic vibe of my blog. I’ll spare you the boring details of how it came to look that way and why it didn’t change for over a year, but there was little I could do about it in the blogger matrix. (Blogger was the host service for this stuff.) I’ll also spare you the boring details of why I didn’t do this sooner, but I’ve now officially traded in my blogger keys for the greener pastures of Typepad.
Rather than spin through a long list of the many ways in which Typepad is superior to blogger, I’ll just let you discover them for yourselves. Just know that I can do more and do it more easily. The look here is much cleaner, I have a lot more control of it, and it’s all much simpler than trying to get comfortable in my old digs. That said, I’m sure I’ll have something to complain about soon, so don’t go sending Typepad any charitable donations just yet.
Anyway, say your goodbyes to this stuff and change your bookmarks. This is where it will all go down from now on (or until I get restless again).
I’m still working through some minor issues, but I decided home anywhere was ready for public exploration. So look around and tell me what you think.
home anywhere 
I’m down. I like it having a calendar, and I like your being able to give us recommends. I wish you lived closer so I could just borrow those books. Libraries don’t stock that kind of stuff, and I’m loathe to buy the books.
Why does the top graphic go away when I point at it? Is that normal/planned? I’m mystified.
Shibboleth, huh? Now let’s talk about McManus. You’re not crazy about the EMERGENT thing, if I’m correct, but you’re down with this guy. Explain. (By the way, I know a few people who are of the same opinion. But me, I just don’t know better.)
McManus doesn’t neatly fit in the emergent crowd (whatever that is). He’s been doing what he’s doing since Brian McLaren was an unheralded junior college literature teacher. I first heard him speak twelve years ago at Super Summer when I was just a skinny high school kid. His foster daughter was actually in my small group, and I think he was still planting/pastoring a church in the nastiest part of east Dallas at the time.
He really doesn’t even run in the emergent circles; they just know he’s too good to ignore. I’m not sure whether to say that he defies the categories or transcends them. A lot of the emergents dig him, and now Promise Keepers is all over his new book. The pomo kids and the PKers are more or less polar opposites when it comes to this whole modern v. postmodern business, but they both dig Erwin. That probably says something really good or really bad about him. And let’s face it, you have to be good if you can pull anything at all off in the public arena with a name like Erwin.
Do you have any direct experience with him or his writing?
My overall take on the emergent stuff is an entirely different (and somewhat fluid) discussion.
On the less weighty matters, I don’t know why the banner is disappearing on you. I saw that happen once or twice early on, but it’s not an ongoing problem for me. The banner is sort of the “home” button — if you click on it, it takes you to the main page (if you’ve wandered off somewhere else). I can also build new banners and rotate them as often as I’m inclined. Listen, I am drunk on this power. Drunk, I tell you.
As for the books and music, that’s a fun feature for me too. The only catch is it’s all wired to Amazon.com’s data base. It makes things convenient — I just enter the title and author/artist and it does the rest for me — but I’m generally not fond of encouraging people to patronize any particular massive corporate money-gobbling entity. Use a library. Buy stuff used. Get it cheap. This is just how I show everyone the full range of my brilliance and taste.
Oh, please tell me that you will not use the term “unpack” in future writings. It’s become as cliched as the “coming back to the heart of worship” song. It’s just overdone.
Did your move to Typepad have anything to do with Steve and Shane jumping on the Blog bandwidth wagon? Is this a case of one-upmanship?
I thought you were less corporate and above all that keeping up, surpassing, and crushing the jone’s bit.
Hey Thad, it’s Dusty. Not Dusty your old debate partner; Dusty from Athens. No, not that Athens. Athens, Texas. You know, the Spam Letter guy. Anyway, I really like the new site. I know it’s the first day you’ve had it live and all, and I figured it would be nice to encourage you about all the hard work you put into it. I think you’re a pretty swell writer, and I’m particularly fond of your word choices. Your vocabulary is, well, wordilicious. I know not everyone loves everything you have to say, but don’t listen to the haters. They’re probably just corporate nerds who propogate the big ubiquitous thing and then criticize other people for being “cliche.”
Wishing you well in your new venture…
dv
Hey, thanks Dusty. Can you have a chat with that DV guy? I don’t think he likes me very much.
Sorry, I’m still flush with adrenaline from this weekend.
What did I do?
Well, I went on a three day kayak trip down Devil’s River (north of Del Rio) with a couple of other guys. I pooped outside (a first for me) and found it convenient to do so in the cracks between rocks (so that I could still sit). It’s just important to remember to strike the rocks with stick ahead of time to rid the area of spiders. Stupid Grand Daddy Long Legs. I know they are harmless, but they scare me.
THEY SCARE ME!!!!
Anyway, Thad, I love your new site. It’s da bomb, g.
Props for throwing up the E.B. White Shout Out. He’s my boy.
-d
ps(do I detect the fluid prose of smanny impersonating my flow?)
On further review, I don’t think it’s Smanny b/c it’s just too thad like to subtly point out my mis-spell of propagate.
Seriously, how would I cog my way through my corporate days without this excitment.
Thad, you’re the grease in my wheel, broham.
Ahhhhh, Grandpa Hockett. I am so happy to see him gracing cyberspace.
I have been hanging around for some time strictly as a voyeur, and have decided to risk becoming involved in my cousin’s power mad fiefdom.
Evidently I am not as hip as many of you…could anyone (thad) point me in some appropriate directions that will help me become conversant on topics such as EMERGENT, PK kids, and why this DV joker doesn’t like to “unpack” things.
I am glad to be visiting your new neighborhood, Mr. Rogers.
u·biq·ui·tous ( P ) Pronunciation Key (y-bkw-ts)
adj.
Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time; omnipresent: “plodded through the shadows fruitlessly like an ubiquitous spook” (Joseph Heller).
hey thad, i have a querstion to aks you.
can we officially make this a safe place for sarcasm and all-things-fun-in-language-and-conversation? i’m pretty sure we’re already unofficially there, but i just wanted to request some sort of formal clause or banner or statute or caviat that might protect people (me) from any of that mis-directed, out-of-context bible-thumping that seems to lurk around every christian cyber-corner, waiting to pounce on anyone who makes a funny-haha.
sometimes i feel the same way about church people as dv feels about those spiders. They scare me. in fact, the scare the shibboleth outta me!
shibboleth… wasn’t he the one-legged kid that king david adopted? i like that story a lot better than the r-rated one about him and babsheetha.
oh, i guess i need to say that i like the new site, too.
oh man i miss this junk. so smanny and shane have blogs, i’ve got to get in on that action. please tell me how to find those.
this all gives me the illusion that i’m back in God’s country. shoot fire, i may just have to go find my redwhiteandblue and do a few pledges. can i get an “amen?!”
vous me manquez ya’ll!
As much as I hate the “unpack” term, Thad please unpack “emergent.”
Once again teh preacher is behind the times. Nice look thad. Anyone know the Greek word for “Shibboleth”?
Home anywhere. Good word. Is that with the same intent Rich laid out?
Now we’re going to get good while Fad melts the emergent scene into a paragraph for Dr. J. Woo!
A querstion? RK, that takes me back to my days in Memphis. The word replenishment somehow turned into replemishment.
i got your emergent, right here.
sorry. couldn’t resist.
dirty.
what?
you guys kill me with all your emergent, and shibboleth, and caviat…ya’ll really make a brother think sometimes…we( and when I say we I mean me) have missed our daily dose of the little tyrannt, that and all the witty banter and tomfoolery that ensues from said comments…keep the faith brotha
Not too sure this thing won’t bite [question], but couldn’t resist the invite to insight. The morning has been spent looking over home anywhere . . . it ain’t just this stuff anymore [slash] sibboleth while it was assumed I was working diligently on the problem at hand along with the rest of the state of Tex (which happens to be my dad’s–and he always hated it–middle name). Oh, no! Now you know where I’m from . . . NO NO NO Now you know from where I am. That certainly doesn’t sound correct; however, since a sentence should never end in a preposition, it is. Just goes to show you that order and content sometimes end up in the garage of meaning like Thad and Andy arguing over where to put the stuff. Speaking of stuff with a Stranger than Fiction aside: just this week I was reading from my reflective journal where the following generalization runs the whole thing: A seed of thought may become a forest of poweful stuff. Connection: walking through the forest of success stories you o’Cranites have cultivated is powerful stuff. Congratulations! Enough of this stuff. Tell everbody I know hello.