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My Favourite Used Music
It’s weird to think of the idea of “used” music these days. In this age of infinitely replicable digital media files, why would someone move an .mp3 to your device when it can just be copied?
Ninety percent of the music that I own on vinyl was acquired second-hand. There’s a multitude of good artists from years past that not only are still worthy of a listen, but were popular enough that their physical music releases are still easy to find. The fact that many used vinyl records can be bought for as little as one or two dollars at a thrift store means the barrier to entry, and trying a new artist, is very low. Sure, many of the more popular albums will get snatched up by someone reselling them for $10, but it doesn’t hurt to check the vinyl rack at the thrift store on a regular basis and see what they have.
Make a Website in Your Kitchen
My boss, being a big fan of all those cooking videos that are popular on Facebook these days, made a quick video explaining how to bakebuild your own website.
Why the Church Needs to Spend More on It's Brand
First, I should say: by "spend", I mean spending of all three core resources: time, energy, and money.
While this video is specifically directed at the Catholic Church, it's relevant to all Christian churches in my opinion. Because of Western society's focus on always picking the cheapest option, we've got to the point where church websites and branding are frequently done by unprofessional volunteers. Sure, this can keep the costs down at a new church, and sometimes the volunteers are actually skilled in the relevant areas, but that isn't frequently the case.
How to be a Christian in a Non-Christian World
Brian Holdsworth has some good points on how to be a Christian in a non-Christian world:
People want to discover truth for themselves, so give them a reason to start looking. Ultimately, people just want to be happy and when they notice that you seem to be happy a lot, they’ll want to know how they can access the same trigger points and that will become your opportunity to respond by telling them about the hope that does not fail.
Unfortunately, in North America, the Church, too often, takes the approach of trying to dictate the conventions of society. We like to assume that the culture around us is fundamentally Christian and when it begins to embrace some sort of attitude or idea that opposes Christianity, we like to protest and become combative.
Why Can’t We Pray to Mary and the Saints?
This was a question that I started asking early on in my research of Catholicism. I understood the basic reasons why Catholics venerate the Saints and Mary, and why they believed they could be asked for prayer. (The actual process of veneration of the Saints, which involves scientifically verifying that a miracle has occurred because of the intercession of a possible Saint, was a key point here.) Being rather skeptical by nature, I decided to research the topic from the other perspective: why can’t we pray to the Saints?