A few miscellaneous thoughts on a quiet Monday off…

Our local library recently acquired a bunch of stock from a movie rental store that went out of business, so my wife and I have been watching movies a bit more often than usual lately. I still feel pretty out of touch with what is good and/or popular out there, but being able to watch movies for free is giving me a chance to do a bit of risk-free exploration :).

One of the movies we enjoyed last week was Contagion, the story of the global outbreak of a deadly disease, and all of the social chaos that ensues as the race to find the cure begins. It’s not a comedy, but one of the lines that stood out to me from the film is pretty funny (at least in my opinion). Jude Law plays Alan Krumwiede, a journalist who is spreading (mis)information about the disease and how to treat it via his blog. At one point, Dr. Ian Sussman (played by Elliot Gould) angrily denounces Krumwiede’a online activity and his protestations that he is just doing his job as a “writer,” thus:

Blogging is not writing. It’s just graffiti with punctuation!

Ouch!

[Trying to think of something clever and witty to say in defense of blogging but so far failing quite miserably…]

Ah well… I suppose if no brilliant refutations are forthcoming, one might as well play along.  The quote from the movie brought to mind one of my favourite “demotivators” from Despair, Inc (I’ve posted this before, but perhaps there are some who aren’t familiar with this little gem)….

Although there has to be something to be said for blogging… even for pastors.  Phil Rushton thinks so, and I found myself nodding and mm-hmming along with his reflections on the matter today.

And finally, should anyone be interested in tracking any of my “graffiti” elsewhere, my latest contribution to Wondering Fair called “Man Seeks (Straightforward) God” went up today.  It’s about atheism, agnosticism, the nature of faith and truth, and all kinds of other fun stuff.

It’s got punctuation and everything.