Tim Samoff // Weblog (old)

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February 27, 2004

My music is back online!

Since CNET‘s buyout of mp3.com, I’ve been wondering what I was going to do about having my music available to buy online. My friend Scott helped in this process with the formation of Artist Alliance, where you can buy indivdual tracks from bands (a la iTunes, but or independent artists). In fact, why don’t you take a second to go buy some of my songs from the Artist Alliance site right now!

Then, via the direction of the Tyrant and Jordon Cooper, I found CafePress. Now, this concept isn’t completely new. Actually, I think I noticed this site (or another one like it) a few years back. But, these days, the services and quality of sites like these are really great.

So, without beleaguering you with needless details any longer… Thanks to CafePress, my music is back online!


Tahg – Sitting in the middle of an empty room (2001)	Adkoc – God-7 Structure-0 (2000)	Adkoc – Another Everyday Occurrence (1992-1999)	O8 – Organation CD Single (1999)

You’ll also find a few other pieces of merchandice (like coffee mugs, mousepads, journals, et cetera, brandishing all applicable logos and the like) at each of the CD shops.

Your contributions are much appreciated!

Informatio: Life, Linkage, Music
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Blogger Idol - Week 6: Movies (My Top 5)

My personal Top 5 picks for Blogger Idol – Week 6: Movies (not necessarily in order from first to last place):

Informatio: Blogger Idol
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February 25, 2004

Blogger Idol - Week 6: Movies ("Movies, Me, & Laziness")

As I am in my own filmmaking, I will be also for this week’s Blogger Idol: lazy. Seems strange considering my love for movies and the filmmaking profession in general, but I haven’t actually completed any film ideas in over four years. It’s hard to believe.

So without any further adieu, watch away…

Cycle (5MB)

(This is a very short film-piece that I created in pen & ink with a compass and lots of whacky anal-retentiveness. Oh, yeah, the music is by me too.)

Informatio: Art, Blogger Idol, Film
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February 23, 2004

Galatians commentary...

I’ve recently finished a commentary on the book of Glalatians for Today’s Bible. I had a lot of fun doing it and got a lot out of it.

If you’re interested in reading my thoughts (which I’d hope you are since you are here in the first place), check out the Today’s Bible website, or go directly to each part of the commentary via these two permalinks:

Let me know what you think.

Informatio: Commentary and Opinion, Faith, Linkage
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February 19, 2004

Blogger Idol - Week 5: Picture This (My Top 5)

My personal Top 5 picks for Blogger Idol – Week 5: Picture This (not necessarily in order from first to last place):

Informatio: Blogger Idol
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February 17, 2004

Blogger Idol - Week 5: Picture This ("Picture this...")

Picture this…

Countless people living without need
Food, shelter, clothing, and healthcare
No one can take these for granted
Because they are not a concern

Money is a memory
What we produce and make, we use
What we have left,
We share

There is no such thing as
Nation or country
Or state or city
Or suburb or neighborhood

There is only one community
A community that looks much like a family
But we’re not all related
Except through that which we believe

And this belief is the Word
Our God
It is He who made us
It is because of Him that we exist

We love one another
Because we know one another
We know one another
Because we share with everyone

We do not hide from anything
Because everything is good
We have no reason to fight
Because no one is wrong or right

Our ideas are different
Our goals are our own
If our ideas help others to grow
We freely give them

There is no greed
There is no regret
What once caused us pain
We surely forget

We walk in communion
With our Lord and Savior
We praise the Father
Of all creation

We are free to ask questions
Without inhibition
We are free to be
Who we were meant to be

Nothing is rejected
Nothing is required
Nothing is expected
Everything is accepted

A communion
Breaking bread
With everyone
Who has ever taken the host

A reason to live

Beyond that which we thought we knew
A season of joy
That will never end.

Picture this...

Informatio: Blogger Idol
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February 14, 2004

God Smiles: an "oops" even greater than the last...

A couple of days ago, I told the story of how my wife and I were never meant to own a particular CD. We felt bad about this — we really did. We searched my wife’s car more than once trying to find that CD. We felt bad and we felt dumb. It was an “oops” that we were taking pretty hard.

This morning, I had one of the biggest laughs I’ve ever had as I was driving my car while running some errands. As I was driving down Main Street towards the downtown area, I had one of those “all of a sudden a car stopped short in front of me so I had to slam on my brakes” moments… Just then, something shot out of nowhere and landed beneath my gas pedal. I leaned down to pick it up, almost sensing what it was going to be. When I picked it up, I saw that I was right: it was the Eric Hurst CD!

Julianna and I had driven my car to church last Sunday, not hers!

Yes, we threw the mailing envelope away last Sunday, but Julianna had not put the CD back into it. And, because we couldn’t find the CD anywhere, we just figured that it was gone.

Oops…

I didn’t think that I could feel dumber than I did for the first “oops.” God smiled and produced the CD back into our lives. And it is very good, I must say.

The moral of this story: No “oops” is the last “oops.”

Laugh with me.

Informatio: Miscellany, Humor, and Reality
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Blogger Idol - Week 4: Ooops (My Top 5)

My personal Top 5 picks for Blogger Idol – Week 4: Ooops (not necessarily in order from first to last place):

Informatio: Blogger Idol
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February 11, 2004

Blogger Idol - Week 4: Ooops ("The CD That We Were Never Meant To Have -- or, Sorry Eric")

I could start at my most recent “ooops” (as I have had many), which was to buy a bagel for breakfast and then forget and eat cereal instead. But that is but a minor “ooops” and it is not one that requires much explanation. Yet, my personal history of “ooopses” is long and sordid and would fill undoubtedly volumes. There are countless minor “ooopses” (the ones that can occur multiple times even within one day — as exemplified above) as well as a few major “ooopses” too. This story, though, is going to rely on a “mediumish-ooops-of-the-possibly-once-in-a-while-sort”; the mundane “ooopses,” like locking one’s keys in one’s car, or leaving one’s headlights on, or…

It was some weeks before Christmas and I decided that one of the gifts that I was going to give to my wife was the latest recording from our friend Eric Hurst, “Goodbye Welcome Thankyou.” An easy, simple gift, for sure, so I headed over to his web site and ordered it.

As Christmas approached, I saw no sign of the ordered CD in my mailbox. No big deal, I thought, There’re still a few days left. Surely it will show up. But I still did not see it by the Friday prior to Christmas.

Thankfully, on Sunday evening, Eric stopped me at church to let me know that he had put the CD in the mail on Friday. (At the same time, he wondered why he didn’t just bring it to church with him.) Great! I would definitely receive the CD in the mail by Christmas Eve.

Informatio: Blogger Idol, Miscellany, Humor, and Reality, Stories and Essays
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February 10, 2004

Is our preaching out of touch?

I keep getting great links from Jordon Cooper. Thanks, Jordon!

Here’s an artical entitled, Is our preaching out of touch?

It is a very good look at why “modern” preaching may have gotten stale. It also talks about some possible remedies for making it fresh again. A number of those who we are familiar with because of blogging are mentioned as well as my own pastor.

Informatio: Faith, Linkage
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Time to Pivot?

A few days ago I mentioned that I was checking out WordPress... Well, since then, I’ve discovered that there are literally hundreds of Open Source PPPs (Personal Publishing Platforms) and CMSs (Content Management Systems). Now, don’t get me wrong. WordPress is very impressive — and I still think it may be one of MovableType‘s main competition for Blogging tools.

But what if you are running your website from a server that has no (or little) database support? Or, what if you just don’t want to deal with the hassle of maintaining a MySQL database in the first place?

That’s where Pivot comes in. Pivot is a completely database-independent (i.e., it doesn’t use a database!) Weblogging system. It contains most of the features that one would look for in a Blogging tool. It is completely written in PHP. It is totally customizable. The user-base seems very enthusiastic.

For the meantime, I’m moving away from WordPress to check out Pivot for a while. I’ll let you know what happens.

Informatio: Blogging, Digispace, and Email
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A "Blogrocosm"...

Yeah, I just came up with that one… And it doesn’t even come up in Google!

So, what is a “Blogrocosm”?!

My hypothesis:

A Blogrocosm is loosley knit group of unrelated Weblogs (Blogs), written by different and separate entities — whether individual or group-based — that are tied together through Trackback links in order to create an “idea trail” (e.g., a map that leads a Blog reader through the various facts and opinions that resulted in a communal discussion — or meme — of a specific topic). While every Blog exists within the Blogosphere, a lesser number of Blogs may compose a Blogrocosm.

Informatio: Blogging, Digispace, and Email
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February 05, 2004

AMAZING photographs...

Low Resolution.

(Link via Jordon Cooper.)

Informatio: Linkage, Photography
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February 04, 2004

Blogger Idol - Week 3: A Day In the Life of... (My Top 5)

My personal Top 5 picks for Blogger Idol – Week 3: A Day In the Life of… (not necessarily in order from first to last place):

Informatio: Blogger Idol
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Good thoughts from our friend Brian McLaren...

It’s very dangerous to assume you’ve perfectly contained the gospel in your little formula.
Man, that’s profound. In fact, it’s so simply stated that it’s blowing my mind right now.

In Brian McLaren‘s latest Emergent Village newsletter, he clarifies the nonexistence of the “Postmodern church” (notice the little “c,” meaning church as a building, organizaton, microcosmic group of Christian believers, etc.). Read the rest of the letter to find out why.

Informatio: Commentary and Opinion, Faith, Linkage
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February 03, 2004

Blogger Idol - Week 3: A Day In the Life of... ("Primary Morning: A Photo Essay")

Even the morning of the Presidential Primaries begins the same as any other… But there tends to be a much more important outcome.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
11. 12. 13.
(Click thumbnails to see bigger pictures.)

Note: Ok, this wasn’t really a “day” in my life, but rather just a “morning.” This is my first (somewhat) political Blog entry, though!

Informatio: Blogger Idol, Life, Photography, Politics
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WordPress is...intriguing...

WordPress seems like a pretty amazing “personal publishing platform” (PPP) that may give MovableType a run for it’s money (figuratively speaking of course). It was painless to install and setup and really easy to customize and hack.

I’ve started testing out my own WordPress site and I may end up switching over completely.

I will keep you updated.

Informatio: Blogging
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Communal Blogging?

Recently, Darren Rowse posted a question on his Blog about the future applications of blogging:
I’m wondering what other applications people have seen it used for – or think it will end up being used for?
My response was:
This week, I am facilitating the small group I’m in and this exact idea popped into my head. Would blogging be a suitable subject to share in a small group atmosphere? I could explain it, teach it, etc. In turn, we could create a small group community Blog in which everyone would be an author, sharing their thoughts throughout the week in an online, but intimate fashion… This Blog wouldn’t even have to be public; just something that a core group of people could take part in while they’re not physically together.
In any case, two others (that I know of for sure) in my small group already blog… And my small group isn’t so small — 20 to 30 people. But to be able to communicate communally, even though we aren’t living communally… I think it would be so cool.
And today, I read this in Dave Crampton‘s article “God Bloggers, Seekers and the Emerging Church“ in the latest issue of Next-Wave:
But what will replace the emerging church should the desire for interactive community fade – post emergence? God forbid that the basis of any Christian community will be a collective of postmodern, post seeker sensitive, post church, post graduate pastors and lay people blogging as part of a community based on Internet e-lationships. With the first commandment being “blog one another, as God would blog you” and our prayer being “give us this day our daily blog”. Some may be missing the point of the Kingdom of God, and may as well go back to being pre-postmodern. Thankfully this is not happening at present with blogs being viewed as welcome virtual communities and friendships in addition to the priority of doing mission among a relational community. Read the rest…
I agree with Crampton here: Blogs cannot replace community. But, I do feel that they can enhance it. While living communally may be too big a step for most folks in Western society, maybe blogging would be a welcome baby-step. We are finding out that relationships cannot end with a wave goodbye. To live relationally means that we must offer more than small talk and an occassional dinner. It’s interesting to think that technology has given us new ways to stay connected (whether through e-mail, blogging, or video conferencing). The question is, should we, as believers, seekers, sojourners, whatever, utilize this technology or shun it? Is technology an evil that is tempting us to stray away from “real” community or do we use with the leading of, as Crampton says, “a post-charismatic Holy Spirit”?

I’d love to know what you all think.

Informatio: Blogging, Commentary and Opinion, Culture, Faith, Linkage
Posted at 07:28 am | Permalink | Trackback | Make Comment
February 01, 2004

grid::blog | Project 365 - One month, approximately 340 photographs to go...

Thirty-one days after starting my part for “grid::blog | Project 365,” I can look back on a month of a majority of good photographs. Yeah, there are some duds — some real throw-aways in fact — but that’s what this is all about. I’ve got 365 days to take as many pictures as it takes to post something that I can look back on and be proud of. So far, I am pretty proud.

This project has turned out to be a lot harder than I anticipated too. Ideas become difficult when most of my time during the week is spent sitting in front of a computer. My office doesn’t even have any windows. When I drive to work, it’s dark. When I drive home it’s getting dark. So, one month into the project and I’m already finding difficulty.

One thing that has made my job a little easier is Photo Friday. Each Friday, they assign a new theme to photograph. This week, it’s “Emptiness.” Having an assigned theme once a week — something that takes the burdon off of my shoulders (even if for only a day) — has been really fun. The added motivation of people voting for their favorte photos has been added incentive as well. That being said, go vote for my photographs!

Now a new month is beginning and it’s time to think of some other subjects to shoot. Don’t forget the other members of the grid::blog. They’ve been taking some awesome pictures. I could never discount Jordon‘s and Richard‘s photographs as being true inspiration for my picture taking as well — it’s kind of neat to witness similar themes floating in and out of each of our Photoblogs.

grid::blog | Project 365

– Jordon Cooper
– Tim Samoff
– Richard Hall

* grid::blog?!

Informatio: Blogging, Life, Photography
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