blog.rachelandjuan.com

I have to give props to Pandora.com.  They have managed to come up with an online music service that I really like!  Normally online stations have one of two things: terrible bandwidth or terrible selection or both.

However, Pandora has a smooth sound, that I haven’t heard skip yet!  Also, they allow you to create your own stations based on music that you already like.  What that means is that I get to listen to artists that sound similar to the ones I like.  Why don’t you head over and listen to Smooth and Alive, my personal radio station that was…

Just a quick digital drawing that I thought indicated good movement.  I think I might submit it to Illustration Friday for fun!  Their current theme word is momentum.  Do you think it shows momentum? 

 It was a great deal of fun trying to get the right blur effects to get color and flow.  Do you think it worked?

The charts that accompanied General Petraeus’ report are incredibly fascinating.  Isn’t it great that there are people out there who are monitoring the minute details of the war?  I am very glad that it’s not taken lightly by our military and I’m glad that Petraeus is as sharp as he is.

However, groups like MoveOn.org seem to think that General Petraeus is massaging the information and parroting Bush policies.  But many people see Petraeus as more than qualified and hope to see Democrats fall backward.

What do you think will happen?

Today, I listened while someone read an editorial from Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe.  In it, Jacoby lists out the brutally convicting statistics about black on black crime.  In particular, I was struck by a quote made by Jesse Jackson in 1993, “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery–then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”  At the end Jacoby soberly states, “Americans overcame white racism; they can overcome black crime. But the first step, as always, is to…

I was having a conversation about some kids at church singing songs to God.  Most likely, the kids had very little idea what they were singing, but boy, were they having a ball!   “How cute!  Even though they don’t really get it, they still enjoy it.”  We were both very glad.

Now at church, we saw a lot of people singing.  While they understood what they were saying, there was the feeling that they did not really enjoy it.  Or, that if they did, it was for the wrong reasons.  Perhaps they just like to hear their own voice and so on.

Are we…

Over Labor Day Weekend our nerves were worn ragged by the constant conflict between our next door neighbor and her boyfriend. We hid out in our bedroom with the AC on high just to drown out the sounds, but eventually the screaming, cursing, and breaking glass had us calling 911. If they didn’t need relief, we sure did. Honestly, we’d had a couple of our own conflicts over the weekend, and although ours were much quieter and more civilized, the tension from next door just wasn’t helping.

This morning I got an email from an old friend and spiritual mentor describing how she and her…

John, who organizes church socials, sees people come and go while the depth of relationships stays shallow.  Judy can’t seem to find people to hang out with at all.  Mike can’t seem to get past the cultural differences that he’s facing with the people around him. 

Everyone I know is looking to belong and yet so few people have a solid community of friends.  You would think that with everyone wanting it, more of us would have it!  How have we as a generation lost all ability to form healthy relationships with the people around us?  Is it our amazing independence?  Do we all have these…