I am a meteorologist and a former youth leader at church…I have a lot to say on both subjects…and then some
As I have been listening to podcasts, I hear resistance from the music industry. It’s not the artists, it’s the record companies as they worry about themselves losing profits. The radio stations are beginning to catch on especially, NPR stations.
If this catches on as big as it seems that it is, both the TV and Radio stations will need to gear themselves differently. If I am a typical user, I would rather download a podcast of the news or a program and take it with me to listen when I am in my truck, driving to work or town. Not that regular radio doesn’t have a place in the future, but most the programming is bland or not what I want to listen to. That’s where I find podcasting coming in. I can choose the content that I want to listen to. And if the particular cast isn’t to my liking, then I can fast forward or delete the file and move to the next cast.
Like I said before, the music industry is the main one resisting the change.
My guess is that as more independent artists get recognized and perform well and that the record companies begin losing profits as the public finds the music that they want rather than the stuff that is forced on us they will be forced to embrace it. Sites like the Podsafe Music Network and others like it introduce us to the indy artists and we can buy direct from the artist, not to mention the artist allows the music to be played on a podcast without a bunch of lawyers getting involved.
So beware RIAA you are about to assimilated by society and not the other way around.
UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit wrote this piece for Popular Mechanics about the movie business.
I have been praying about a revival in this world and in this country. There is a sense among many of my friends that pray with me, that there is a revival coming and that we are being set up for it. Not that God is causing any of these things, but He is able to use them.
Why do I feel this way? Mary and I attended Shout 2005, a concert that the area church youth groups put together. When I hear the prayers that some of our kids prayed and hear the things that they are feeling they need to communicate, and it warms my spirit to know that they are following God’s will for them.
From there, I see how the churches are pitching in together working to help others. When I see this and that they are showing God’s love through their service, I realize that God’s Spirit is moving and that revival is in process.
As I have been watching the Katrina recovery on the 700 Club, they have been showing how different church denominations have been pitching in. One story this morning (Friday, Sept. 9) showed where an Operation Blessing canteen truck was being staffed by Mennonite Disaster volunteers and the head chef was talking about needing to grab a shower that the Baptists were running. He made a remark how this is what heaven will be like. Then a verse that the youth pastor at the First UMC shared with me as our missional verse for the youth group, Act 2:42-47:
[Ac 2:42] They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. [43] Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and miraculous signs done by the apostles. [44] All the believers were together and had everything in common. [45] They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. [46] Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, [47] praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (TNIV)
If there is a reason for me to believe in a great revival, like the Great Awakening started by the likes of John Wesley, it is the outpouring from the church to aid the evacuees.
I’m getting tired of the trend that the country has been heading into. Hurricane Katrina was just a catalyst of what I have been seeing over the last couple of years.
When I had my satellite TV service I would watch The Daily Show with John Stewert. Well, I liked his appearance on CNN’s now defunct Crossfire, one of the many programs that to me is the heart of the problem. John put his finger on the problem: There is no discussion of ideas, just screaming and yelling about why they are right and the other’s are wrong.
What does this have to do with now? Plenty. While I agree that the Feds were slow, but so was the state and local agencies (I have read a couple of time lines and they pretty much all agree on when things happened). So now we have Rep. Nancy Pelosi yelling and screaming about blame. And while he hasn’t done it recently, Sen. Rick Santorum can be just as bad. My problem is that at this point in time is not the time for blame. This is the time of healing and relief. There will be a time to find out what went wrong and who is responsible.
I’m already forming my opinions on who should be held accountable, and they are on both sides of the spectrum, but now is not the time for them to come to light. All of the political grandstanding is nothing short of selfishness and self agrandizement. If politicians want to be reelected, they need to do, not talk.
Things are now flowing and things are beginning to turn around. As I watch the NGO’s like UMCOR and OBI I see what God was after when Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” If you look at the Ten Commandments, this is what God was after.
When I go on mission trips I think the same thing. So in this time of division, we need to work on the second part of loving our neighbors, because this derision that is being done gets nothing done, but distract us from what is important.
UPDATE: One thing I forgot to mention was a pointer to a previous post of mine.
There were rabbis at that time that debated the question. The one’s in power at the time said that you should do no work. However, Jesus turned it around. He asked the question, is it better to to do good or evil on the Sabbath? When the Pharisees wouldn’t answer Jesus got mad, and then turned to the man and healed him.
To me this arguing about who is to blame for the slow reaction is the wrong question now. The right question is, how are you going to heal people left hurting in the wake of Katrina. The time to find out what went wrong will be answered at another time when the healing has been done.
I’ve been wanting to write some stuff on the fall out from Katrina, but every idea I got, I let go too long and then it became stale. However, I have been able to donate some money to a couple of places. It was great to hear that even my 4 year old nephew was getting in on the act. Although, I’m sure that he’s not completely aware of what is going on.
Things for the wedding are falling into place with the clothing and decorations pretty much done. Mary and I have to go through and inventory everything, to make sure that we didn’t miss any thing.
I love my little PDA. As I am waiting for Mary, I am typing on my wireless keyboard and listening to podcasts. The podcast that I regularly listen to is the Daily Source Code with Adam Curry. While I don’t always agree with Adam, or the language that he uses at times, but his rant on the evils of television in the US(he now lives in the UK), to me rings true. In fact, I urge more people to check out Podcasting. You can find a “radio” broadcast done in mp3 format for a lot of different subjects. I get tired of most radio anymore, and tv for that matter. So it has been fun to listen.
Speaking of podcasting, I’ve been thinking of doing one. I’m not sure what I would want to do. My previous broadcast experience, when I worked for AccuWeather, left me with a taste of wanting to get back into audio broadcast some time. Of course, I would need to reduce some of my extra-curricular activities so as to be able to put the time into the production. Then again I need a theme or vision of what to do it on.
That will come in time.
After listening to the nightly news (I get NBC nightly news on a podcast now) I think the feeling of helplessness finally sank in. I was driving at the time into work when that feeling sunk in.
The first thing that I did was pray (which is the first thing we should always do). The next thing will be to donate. In my previous post, I gave four links for people to link to and there are more. At Instapundit, Glen Reynolds has started the donations blogburst as people trackback to him. There are quite a few. I would suggest going there and checking it out.
I was just reading Wesley blog and felt I should comment on this.
As a meteorologist, I can fully appreciate a strong to extreme hurricane and the power that is wrapped up in it. While I was in college, I used to think about tornadoes and what it would be like to see one. Everyone has these romantic notions about these awesome act of nature. However, there is a toll that is paid by the people that it affects. Somewhere during my second year at Penn State, as I sat in on a tornado chasing seminar, when the professor talked about being a gloom and doom meteorologist is fine until you find the doll of some kid’s that is out in a field of debris and you realize that there is a human cost. The same thing is true about Hurricanes.
I was watching footage on the 700 Club this morning, which showed the interview from a local TV station in Mississippi, of a distraugt husband and father who had lost his wife when their house broke in two and she was swept away. He had his three boys with him. All four looked like they were in shock. As he relayed the story to the tv reporter, she was having trouble holding it together. So with that human face on the tradgedy, I throw out these links for disaster relief.
UMCOR
Salvation Army
American Red Cross
Operation Blessing
I know that each are helping with the cleanup and recovery efforets.
I haven’t done anything meteorological in the blog in the last few posts. So, here are a couple of things that I have run across for tropical weather.
Stormtrack blog this is a great site if you like to track hurricanes. I’m not sure if they are a professional meteorologist or a very informed amateur (some of them are better than some professional mets I know) but they update the site pretty regularly. Especially, if a storm is threatening the U.S.
The other is a podcast of tropical weather at Podweather.com. They have a podcast to subscribe to if you want to listen to it through through your mp3 player. They also have links to their streaming site Radio NHCWX.com. I don’t typically subscribe to this one unless I want updates on a storm that is threatening the coast and I’m not going to be able to get to the computer to review the products from the Hurricane Center or I’m working, which means I can see everything that they have issued.
I need to revamp my weather web page, to incorporate some of these links to that i can refer people to the links without them having to go through all of my blog pages. Maybe sometime in a couple of months.
Hi all!
I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here. Mary and I have been busy with the many things to do for the wedding, not to mention that we are getting things ready for a very busy set of weekends that go through then end of October. I’m hoping to get more things in a little later this week. I am starting my evening shifts so hopefully, I’ll get a chance to post a bit more this week. One bright note, my PDA that has had a bad audio jack looks like it will get replaced. I think then that I should write to Dell about my wireless keyboard, which lost a pin in its hinge and won’t open and close properly thus making it difficult to use. I’m hoping to use my PDA and keyboard in October when Mary and I go to Pittsburgh with Paul and Lisa Block for the National Youth Workers Conference. I’ve done it before and look forward to possibly blogging the Conference while I’m there.
Hi all! I have returned from the youth group mission trip from the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. I’ll try to put together a post about it, but I’m currently on midnights (after about two days back). I’ll try to get some of the pictures up on my Flikr site in a few days as well. Mary and I have been working on the wedding plans with more information to follow during the weeks to come.
