NRH2018
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Theism (the belief that there is a supreme being of some kind) is a reasonable explanation for fine-tuning of the universe, the intuitive realm of objective moral values, and the universal phenomenon of transcendent longing.
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A movement of invidividuals and groups grew quickly and unexpectly–against many opposing forces including embarrassment, social rejection, and open persecution–with a relatively unified, coherent, remarkably durable and reliable witness to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
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The resulting meta-physical and philosophical frameworks have deep explanitory power in regards to the human condition, the problem of suffering, consistent morals and ethics, and living the good life.
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My own experience of living in the story of Christianity has ignited faith, hope, and love in my own heart, and I continually see it doing the same in others–both in history and in the present.
Happy Hipster Christmas via the Church Humor Newsletter
🍻A new one. Came in the Winter seasonal pack, but would make a great summer beer. Tastes of citrus and melons.
THIS IS HAPPENING PEOPLE
Spending some time chaperoning my daughter’s class field trip to the Science Center!
![mp-photo-alt[]=](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/8010/2018/0b039cc489.jpg)
View from the Skytrain at PHX.
Watching my kids through the screen on my phone instead of in the world is not an even trade.
Support this book explaining the traditions of Christmas!
My friend Chris is writing an awesome book to help individuals, churches, and families understand and practice so many of the traditions around Christmas that we often take for granted and sometimes have even forgotten!
Chris is passionate about helping people enter the worship of the historic church in meaningful ways, and he is a super thoughtful writer and researcher.
I am really excited about his book—I backed it immediately and you should too!
Drew Zeiba, writing for Vulture:
Refusing to be an artist-as-public figure in the era of social media seems almost reckless — like willful career suppression, if not suicide. As one recent art school graduate put it to me, Instagram has reached the level of “infrastructure.” And certainly, Instagram may at first seem like a boon to many artists — a form of social media centered on images. But artists are starting to feel that it’s just become an addiction, devouring their creativity.
Can You Make It As an Artist in 2018 Without Constantly Plugging Yourself on Instagram?
Signed up for ProtonMail today. Personally I’m not as freaked out as everyone else regarding Google’s use of my email for ads; but just in case I care more later I’ve got a back up.
EDIT: I actually already had an account, which I forgot about till I went to sign up. This time I reserved my preferred username.
WELL, it’s done. After just a few days on the free trial of Micro.blog, I’ve decided to really give old fashioned blogging another all-in go. My whole site is now imported and hosted on Micro.blog. I even added the podcasting upgrade because why not?
My ballerina princess is performing tonight.
A concise case for the reasonableness of classical, creedal Christianity
Classical, creedal Christianity is reasonable because:
Can’t imagine life without Amber. So beautiful, smart, tough, patient, godly, loving, kind, thoughtful, inspiring. Amazing partner in life.
Possible solutions for fixing my terrible posture:
Woke up this morning with some brutal back pain. My terrible posture has finally caught up with me. Can’t say I wasn’t warned.
Question: What would you do?
As I move toward a more human, personal, relational way of blogging, should I move my blog from nathanrhale.com to nathanrhale.net? Is it worth the hassle? Or should I just stick with the .com?
As I consider switching totally to Micro.blog, I’m thinking deeply on the appeal, and what my reservations about switching are. I think it’s a worthy exercise, because I spend a significant amount of time online, and a significant amount of time writing and publishing ideas and art (side note–really getting tired of the sterile term “content”). Micro.blog could help by giving me some needed and sensible contraints, removing friction for creation, and so on. However a few of those contraints have given me pause and caused me to take a deeper, more honest look at what I want to accomplish by publishing online.
For instance, there are no post stats. How will I see what posts are popular? This has been so integrated into the Wordpress/Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook/Instagram experience for so long I’ve taken it for granted. I even emailed Micro.blog support to ask about it. Turns out I could use a solution like Google Analytics if I want to take the time. But why do I care?
Because, to be honest, I have blogged for many years (mostly half-heartedly, but still) with an intent to “establish authority” and “build a platform” so that I might be able to one day support myself financially via my writing and creativity. Gearing my writing toward what people want to read (expressed in clicks) is an important part of that, and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that in principle.
So, I’ve often worked on optimizing my site and my (here’s the dreaded word) “content” for that. Thing is, I neither have time, nor inclination to do that kind of blog full-time at this juncture in life (though I did a few years ago). In terms of time and energy, I just can’t approach blogging like job right now. I have family, friends, and a vocation that I love and joyfully choose to spend most of my time and energy in those places. Right now, I also want to write what I want to write and publish the creative work I want to publish simply as a way to express myself and have fun in the context of an online community, regardless of how well it fits in a “niche-market.”
Of course, I’m not opposed to making money online, selling creative work and services, and so on. Sometimes a kind of blogging is a super important part of that for some people, and I’m not knocking it in principle. In fact, I do hope that I continue to make some sales of my courses and ebooks from my website as a side gig, but I must say that a lot of the techniques and ideas that are put forth as “essential” for “success” have always rubbed me the wrong way.
A move to Micro.blog full-time for my online “home” represents to me a definitive “moving on” from that kind of blogging–that way of optimizing for search and clicks and sales–and focusing more on the relational, personal side of blogging. A different emphasis for a different time in my life, and different approach to helping people through what and how I choose to publish.
The idea of it feels very good.
I have customized my Micro.blog micro blog (say that 10 times fast) and I really really like the simplicity of this platform. It reminds me a lot of the early days of Tumblr, and I feel like WordPress is just becoming too much for what I want to do and what I really need in a blog/website. I LOVE that Micro.blog is all about simpliclity, minimalism, and MARKDOWN.
5 days left on the free trial.
Micro.blog is interesting, but could it replace my self-hosted Wordpress blog I’ve been using for 10+ years at nathanrhale.com?