Category: Culture

  • Online Car Buying Stinks

    fast eddyKristen and I are in need of a car. We haven’t completely decided on the model, but we are fairly certain our new car in San Diego will either be a compact car that gets good gas mileage or a hybrid. 

    Since we’ve not bought a car in over 10 years I was expecting that the car buying industry was a little different. 

    It isn’t. Not a thing has changed. You can find limited information online. You certainly aren’t invited to do most of the transaction online. And overall I think car dealers websites stink. It’s as if car dealerships have no idea that people regularly buy things over the internet simply to avoid the unpleasant “Fast Eddie” experience.

    In my ideal world I would test drive the 5-6 cars we are interested in a single location, then negotiate and purchase my car online. The only time I’d have to walk into a showroom filled with stale coffee, ugly ties, and worn out office furniture would be to pick up my keys, sign some stuff, and tell them to take that license plate cover off.

    But I live in a fantasy world. There is no way I’m going to be able to buy my new car without hearing “I need to talk to my manager” followed by “Can I get you a coke?” 

    Hey Fast Eddie. You’re fired homie. 

  • Born Dropped Out

    I found these videos fascinating. There is a guy doing some research on children of hippies and how they’ve prospered or struggled. The researcher asked the participants to answer 20 questions on video in a self-produced kind of way.

    Quick disclaimer, I have watched a couple of them so I can’t guarantee that if you watch the whole series they will all be wholesome. Keep watching at your own risk.

    HT to Mark

  • Finding culture from within four walls

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the culture we live in as well as how we discover the culture we live in. Some of it comes from observation, some of it we naturally pick up without noticing it, but a lot of our culture comes from outside.

    Think about the cultural things you pick up at a camp or even on a vacation with friends. You develop new lingo and special norms. That’s fascinating to me about human nature. Why did God make us that way?

    And what does our ability to adapt and learn culture so quickly say about our God. We are made in His image, aren’t we? Does that mean that God is super-adaptable? Does that mean that God uses new lingo or norms to reach us? I think it does.

    And what about this. Have you ever thought about your own personal role in culture? Have you ever thought that you were put into a culture or sub-culture or micro-culture to infect, affect, or defect that culture? 

  • New community and youth ministry

    New communityIn the last few years “community” has taken on a whole different meaning. While community will always be a part of where you live and where you feel like you belong… I’ve noticed that students are finding community in unconventional places. 

    • School – Duh. This is a no brainer.
    • Church – You get paid to make these observations McLane?
    • Neighborhood – Seriously, why am I reading this?
    • Sports – Yes, community here.
    • Facebook, myspace, AIM, and other social networks – Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
    • XBox Live – Really? Yup. Your students BFFs may live in another state or country!
    • Online RPGs – Remember the angst about Dungeons and Dragons when we were kids? Now students may have community with people in their groups all over the world. 
    What are some other non-tradition places you see students finding community?