Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A New Blogging Venture; And other tidbits

I am proud to announce that fellow blogger Renzzy and I have started a new blog. Entitled "Here the Faithful Gather," it is going to be a commentary/dialogue on Calvinism and what it means for Christians. The first post was last night. You can view the blog HERE. My first joint blogging effort, which I hope will be a success.

And now for that trip summary I promised.

The Boundary Waters is not, let's face it, my natural environment. It was mildly unnerving to be forty miles from the nearest computer, not to mention library or freeway overpass. I'm a man of civilization, for better and for worse. That doesn't prevent me from enjoying the occasional excursion into the untamed wild, but I am more content with a laptop, my bookshelves, and some tea. That is in some ways a painful admission. Certainly my imagination has not followed this truth; but when has imagination ever done anything but supersede the conscious mind's rules?

Part of the Boundary Waters is hardship, at least to affluent Westerners like us--latrines, sleeping on the ground, etc. That is part of the appeal, but it also made me glad to get back to civilization.

While there, I wrote four poems and a complete trip journal--a writing project on a greater scale than anything I have ever completed. The solitude and beauty of the place is a muse; and an effective one. I wrote better there than I ever have. Why? My computer, which is as always a blessing and a curse, was not there to distract me, not there to take my time. I did not have to work or attend school, or do anything at all, really. To fill in the void of responsibility, my mind latched on to my idea of writing a trip journal with a poem for each day, which I completed successfully. I'm very proud of myself, but dismayed that such inspiration seems unlikely to come again, back in civilization as I am.

All in all, a philosophical, beautiful trip. As different from our vacations to Florida as if we had gone to another planet of still, peaceful, vibrant, vital solitude.

--

In a rapid change of subject, I had an RGSF (Random Google Search Find) this morning. On a website called Urbana.org there is THIS blog entry about CNN.com, my preeminent news source, becoming increasingly a milquetoast web tabloid amalgam. In other words, it has forsaken serious world news and current affairs and turned to vapid web-culture, celeb-worshipping, scandal-drooling sludge. I confess I didn't really notice this, but now that I've read the article I agree. Even since I began reading CNN.com about a year ago, it has changed. Remember when the exotic Cold-War-throwback assassination of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was huge news? CNN.com was full of it for weeks. Now, the Russo-Georgian War is in a minority of the news coverage. It's not even need-to-know fluff like the Edwards affair in many cases.

I love the phrase this blogger uses: "CNN has become an 800 pound tabloid in the room." So, I encourage you to read this post and give me suggestions: unbiased, non-fluff-full news sources? NOT Fox, it crashes my browser.

Adieu!

4 Comments:

lizz said...

Thanks for the summary. It happily concluded your intresting journal entries.
I don't read CNN but I am not suprised by the news.

meg said...

The BBC is a good choice, especially for a view on United States news from non-U.S. sources.

One of my favorite things to read is this:
http://www.slate.com/id/2197678/
which is a column summarizing headlines from across the country, and which often mentions things that aren't being discussed, when maybe they should be. It might be a good way to figure out if there's a major paper that you would enjoy reading.

lizz said...

started new blog

Sola Gratia said...

Excellent idea, Megan. I love the Beeb. Possibly the only example I can think of where nationalization actually improved the quality of a product. The BBC makes the best TV in the world, I hope their news is up to the same standard.