it's official. i found a fantastic blog. i could waste words and time in an attempt to sum it up in a few sentences, but you'll appreciate it so much more if you see for yourself.

except it's not, really.

houghton (no link, find it yourself, i'm too annoyed) just nixed their music ministry teams. they want to increase their enrollment to 1400 students by 2010, and they decided a director of church relations would be a better means to that end than a few teams of dedicated, talented student musicians.

you know, i was going to rant for a few paragraphs, but that statement pretty much says it all. director of church relations--i.e. sanctified marketing executive. which means we--the ministry teams--were just marketing associates in disguise.

it's brilliant, really. get a suit, tell him to schmooze with every pastor he can get his hands on, organize "what is god's purpose for your life" seminars for "the youth"...i can see it now. who needs real content? why prove your worth by demonstrating your product (since its now doubly apparent that's all the ministry teams were intended to do)? send a suit! he'll wave his hands and bat his eyelashes and project the most content-filled demonstration of marketing bs your church has ever seen! flyers! postcards! posters! free pens! if you call that 800 number, you'll even get a free keychain! come for a visit weekend and get a free t-shirt! god's purpose will come to fruition, baby!

meanwhile, the former-music-ministry-team-members--but who cares! free pens!

*kicks tim fuller*

so i guess i ranted after all. to the maligned ministry teams, i salute you. you have my deepest sympathy. particularly fourknown. (everyone better hope the cellist doesn't go milton on luckey.)

they're keeping the drama and sports ministry teams. and you know they're still going to advertise the music teams, because it looks so good on paper. (kinda like how they advertised a defunct exchange program with guildhall several years after it gained defunct status. got me there, man. i stayed. it's a great system.)

UPDATE: signal-to-noise. that's the phrase i couldn't find. houghton has exchange signal for noise. that's all.

hello, faithful readers.

perhaps i should rephrase.

hello, void of blog anonymity.

yesterday, i made myself a beautiful framebuffer for my gentoo installation--but that was only after i watched benjamin cut up an onion wearing swimming goggles. today, a red jeep cherokee drove down harvard street in a snowstorm, resolutely carrying two kayaks (red and yellow) on its roof. last night, i discovered the beauty of gentoo's softlevel system. earlier this evening, daniel the budding eastman snob said something really funny that i almost remembered.

if the gist escapes you, i miss blogging. so instead of being intimidated by the prospect of making up for months and months of silence in one post and yellowing into inaction, like all the other times i thought, "i miss blogging," i've decided to forge on, unhindered by social constructs and perceived obligations. i [that's <i>i</i> in html] am intimately familiar with the events and details of my life during the aforementioned months and months, and you can all just cope.

alas, i soften. i'm married, as of 9 july 2005. it was an awesome wedding. i added gentoo to my laptop (yes, it's still running; yes, it still has inverter board issues) in august. i just resumed violin lessons (o happy day!). we have a cat, and her name is jo. we stole all our furniture from janette. i just went to the bath and body (no, i'm not going to link it! i refuse to be a stumbling block!) and didn't spend my life savings. benjamin is a nearly-grown interpreter for american sign language (no, i don't speak it too). he makes fantastic borsch, misses running in the woods, and looks really good in corduroy. we're going to ski. the honda died, and we bought a saturn.

photos will be forthcoming, in the usual place.

daniel's not really an eastman snob.