RIAA finally gives up.....

When you retard fair use with pointless DRM and then sue anonymous children for illegally downloading music while ignoring those of the execs at the top of the music industry, well, you're asking for a public relations nightmare. Now, with more than 35,000 lawsuits to its credit, the RIAA says it will finally end the legal assault against consumers that began back in 2003. The Recording Industry Association of America will instead, focus its anti-piracy efforts with ISPs. Under the new plan, the RIAA will contact ISPs when illegal uploading is detected. The ISP will then contact the customer with a notice that would ultimately be followed by a reduction or cessation of service.

Vacation Days

Despite earning the least amount of annual vacation days, Americans will leave an average of 3 days unused.

Church Evangelism during Xmas

This week, we received two pieces of mail from two different churches. Both were churches that we visited during our 2007 Church Field Trip Tour. Both pieces of mail are quite different. I'll let you weigh in on the obvious differences.


Solara Church - We received the typical full-color mailer announcing their Special Christmas Services on Dec. 20th and 21st. Nothing special, really. Just a simple invitation to join them for their Christmas services.



New City Church - We received a letter from Pastor Tullian letting us know that their congregation is in dire need of funds as these economic times have not been kind to the church budget. Currently, they are running more than 25% short on their budget on a weekly basis. They don't have a building, so this shortage is due mostly to their staffing costs.

Pastor Tullian says that during the Great Depression, Christians gave 24.2% of their income to the church, while today Christians give about 3.4% to the church. He says that a church of 600 people (with no building) ought to be able to finish the year with a surplus rather than a deficit. He says that most Christians are no different than their worldly counterparts - spending more than they make.

I'd go so far as to say that most Christians probably learned that lesson from their church - spending more than they bring in, and hoping for a year-end miracle. (This isn't the first time I've heard a December financial plea from a church - aiming for those "year-end gifts" that always seem to come - for tax purposes of course.)

Unfortunately, I've also seen churches/ministries "spend-out" at this time of year, so that their budget won't get reduced by a financial board in the new year. Either way, its a bit disheartening.

We don't receive regular pieces of mail from either of these two churches. I just thought it was interesting that these two churches would reach out to us - more than a year later - in such vastly different ways.

Names for my son

We've got a few months to give our son a name. What a weird concept - giving someone their name. It just doesn't feel right. It seems that the child should have a name, not be given it. I'm not sure what to do. I'm hoping God will just tell us in a dream, or something, what our son's name is.

Names we've come up with, so far, for our son:

Greyson
Graham
Grantham
Lincoln
Liam
Leopold
Roman
Ryder
Wyatt
Kingston


We like names that start with G's and L's. We like names that don't fall into the pop culture of names - this goes for just about every overused Biblical name. You know, the Johns, Matthews, and Marks.

Bailout