Tamara's Blog

Got a Minute to Take a Survey?

If you have 5 minutes to spare (well, maybe 7) and you are in the mood to help out two desperate (okay, maybe desperate isn't the right word) seminary students working on a different kind of final project for their Theology and Pop Culture class, then we have a survey waiting for you:

Henriët and Tamara's Final Project Survey

Catchy survey title, huh?! It describes what it's for, but it certainly leaves you hanging if you want to know what it's about. In a nutshell, my friend Henriët and I are in the same Theology and Pop Culture class at Fuller. We are doing a joint final project that will help us with Semper Vita, the new non-profit ministry organization we recently formed.

Our final project mixes a little bit of television...with a little bit of post-Christianity (huh, what's that?)...with a little bit of "Eli Stone"...with a little bit of theological discussion with Lesslie Newbigin (who's now dead). It's quite an interesting mix - and we're still curious ourselves about how it's all going to come together - so that's why we're asking for your help by participating in this survey. Your input will help contribute to some of our observations and conclusions.

What's the Survey Going to Ask?

The survey has three primary sections, with a handful of questions in each:

• Personal beliefs - about God and spirituality in general
• Television - your likes & dislikes
• "Eli Stone" - a new show on ABC

If you've never seen "Eli Stone," it's on Thursday nights at 10 PM PT. If you have time and are interested in seeing the show, please take time to watch it before responding to the survey. Otherwise, just take the survey. We're interested in (and need) your feedback either way. 

We also respect your privacy. All survey responses are anonymous, which means we'll have no clue who responded and how each person responded. We're just interested in the summary results - and lots of responses!

The Clock is Ticking

The survey will be open until midnight on Friday, March 14th. Our final project is due on Friday, March 21st. We will publish the summarized results on our blogs soon thereafter. So what are you waiting for? Please click away to...

Henriët and Tamara's Final Project Survey

 

THANK YOU!!

I'm Sorry, You're Not the Biggest Loser

Those words are the "kiss of death" and your ticket home on NBC's The Biggest Loser - similar to Survivor's, "The tribal council has spoken." Whereas most of us traverse through life trying not to be a loser of any kind - on this show, the bigger the loser you are, the better.

In my Theology and Pop Culture  class, we're supposed to review a movie or TV show in a public forum. Read on to see why I've chosen to write about The Biggest Loser.

Why I Like the Show

I've watched this show somewhat religiously since it first aired. The only other reality TV show that has ever captured my attention is Donald Trump's The Apprentice (even though this season's Celebrity Apprentice has not enticed me yet).

What sets The Biggest Loser apart from other reality TV shows is that whether you like the contestant(s) or not, you want them all to win lose in a very big way. When someone is told the words, "I'm sorry, you're not the biggest loser," you hope and pray that they will continue on with the new lifestyle habits they have learned as they head back into the reality of their own lives - the lives and lifestyles that helped land them a spot on the show in the first place.

How It Works

Contestants leave their families and loved ones for a few months for a chance to win the grand prize of $250,000. The real prize, however, is learning how to safely lose weight - without surgery - by eating right and exercising. The candidates are divided into teams - fully equipped with a team trainer and top-notch exercise equipment - and each week, they must weigh-in in front of the entire viewing audience. Ouch!

Some contestants have lost upwards of 15+ pounds in a given week, but the average tends to hover in the 3-8 pound range. At the end of one season, Erik Chopin, the winning contestant, lost 214 pounds! He looked and felt great - but so did the rest of the candidates that season who didn't win the money. Instead, they won...

A Transformation Into a Better Version of Themselves

What is so amazing to watch is how these candidates' attitudes change about themselves and their life as the weight begins to drop. What's even more amazing is watching how their families and friends respond to them after they return home. Not only has the contestant's  personal life been transformed, you also sense the rippling effect this transformation is going to have in the lives of those around them.

Lots of tears are shed as people begin to consider this new life ahead of them - the new possibilities, the new dreams, the new outlook, the new experiences, the new freedom, the new versions of themselves.

Who Have You Inspired Lately?

The Biggest Loser is not a spiritual or religious show by any stretch, but I can't help but think about one of things that Jesus taught: "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matt 10:39). As these Biggest Losers lose part of themselves - for example, their physical weight, plus all the unhealthy thinking that accompanied it - in return, they gain their lives back - for themselves and for all those around them. They are truly an inspiration to all of us.

A Question for Christians: What kind of life transformation have you and those around you experienced as a result of you losing your life to Jesus? Would you say you are an inspiration? What does this newer version of yourself look like as compared to the old you? Is it time to start "eating" right again and "exercising" what God has so graciously given you?

Like I said, The Biggest Loser is not a spiritual show, but if you know me, I can't help but think beyond "I'm sorry, you're not the biggest loser." On the show and in my daily walk with God, those are not the words I want to hear. I want to be the Biggest Loser of them all! How about you?

Do You Facebook or Link(ed)In?

Yes and YES. I've been Facebooking since last summer and Link[ing]In for a few years. And I've never MySpace[d] and probably never will.

What's the difference between these sites? Very briefly, the purpose for all three sites is to network and create connections with people you know. With Facebook and MySpace, it's all about your social network. With LinkedIn, it's all about your professional network. Facebook and LinkedIn tend to draw in an older crowd, while MySpace attracts the younger generation.

I will be honest. My foray into Facebook was driven more by curiosity than a need to connect. I wanted to see if Facebook could be used effectively to drive community, and then, from a technology perspective, I wanted to experience a Web 2.0+ application firsthand (for both professional and personal reasons). It's the product manager in me acting out.

Facebook Fast Facts

Here's a few statistics about one of the Web's fastest growing and trafficked sites (#6 overall):

• 61 million active users (within last 30 days)
• 250,000 registrations (avg) per day
• The U.S. political candidates are registered (have you been watching the debates?)
• Fastest growing demographic is 25 or older
• #1 photo sharing application on the Web (~14 million photos uploaded daily)
• Over 7,000 applications built by the Facebook community (that's us)
• U.S., Canada and U.K. have the most users

Check out who's behind the Facebook curtain: Facebook Company Bios. Have these guys even graduated? What "kids" will do.

LinkedIn Fast Facts

Now let's check out LinkedIn:

• Simple philosophy: Relationships matter. Your professional relationships are key to your professional success.
• Over 17 million professional users
• Over 150 industries represented
• Shows "degrees of separation" between connections
• A hotbed for recruiters

In contrast to Facebook's wizards of Oz, check out LinkedIn's team: LinkedIn Management. A very different crowd. It looks like these folks have graduated.

My Profile Pages

If this online networking stuff is new to you, check out my profile pages. If you want, add me as a friend in Facebook or as a contact in LinkedIn. Note the subtle terminology difference.

• My Facebook Profile (you need to be registered to see my full profile)
• My LinkedIn Profile

These links are also available in the sidebar of my blog. Kewl stuff!

About You: John Torres

"That's right! I don't see visions. I see vision statements!" John exclaimed. I was truly baffled as John tried to explain how he can't envision an image in his mind (like a vision of what the future could look like), but he can envision words (like a vision statement). I didn't know whether to feel sorry for him or laugh. I mean, how does one get excited about a bunch of black-&-white words in one's head? So I resorted to laughing because I could hardly relate...

Meet John Torres

I met John a couple of years ago at my church. He comes up a few times a year from Los Angeles - Mosaic LA, in fact - to share with us his phenomenal gift of singing, and more recently, acting. When he sings, his voice penetrates the inner vibrations of your soul. He is truly loved in the Pacific Northwest.

Listen and judge for yourself: SE. [Link from John's Web site.]

See John in Action

In December, John performed at Tangier, a premiere lounge and cultural hot spot in downtown Los Angeles. Here he is performing Rocket Man.

Announcing a New Organization and a New Domain

As if having a full-time job (that I'm loving) and going to graduate school (that I'm also loving) wasn't enough...

New Organization: Semper Vita

For over a year, Semper Vita has been in the air. You may have seen the phrase in my blog's banner - "A Semper Vita Blog" - or in my blog address - http://sempervita.typepad.com/tamara - or in my friend Henriët's blog address - www.sempervita.org. That has been by design.

So what is Semper Vita? Semper Vita means "always life," and in the past couple of weeks, Semper Vita has taken on a new life of its own. It is now an official non-profit ministry organization with a vision for everyone to experience Jesus Christ through the love and service of others.

Who's behind it? Henriët Schapelhouman is the president and founder, and I am the executive vice president. We have an exceptional core team of Christian business leaders who is bringing their strengths, talents and "free" time to the table to build the infrastructure. There is much work to be done to publicly launch Semper Vita this year, and we hope to launch the Web site by this summer.

Of particular interest is the timing of all this. About the same time that our team was talking about taking Semper Vita to the next level, Henriët learned that she was being laid off from her role as pastor. In spite of this perceived setback, Henriët is absolutely thrilled and grateful that she can now go and do what God has called her to do (Semper Vita) on a full-time basis. Click here to read Henriët's recent announcement about her new beginning and new life.

Connecting the dots. If you've been following my blog, and you're still wondering why I am going to graduate school, Semper Vita is the primary reason why. At Fuller, I have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest Christian thinkers in the areas of leadership, culture and missional living. It is my prayer that this learning will actually stick and help me serve this new organization well.

New Domain: www.tamaradull.com

I have my own domain address now, which will serve as the permanent address for my personal blog from hereon out. The URL I have been using - http://sempervita.typepad.com/tamara - still exists and will continue to function as before. This new URL is in preparation for the upcoming Semper Vita Web site.

Please feel free to reply to this post or send me an email if you're interested in hearing more about this new adventure. Otherwise, stay tuned as the story unfolds. I, for one, am anxiously awaiting to see what God has in store next.

Sometimes You Just Have to Say Goodbye

Four or five months ago, I was awakened abruptly in the middle of the night by this big whirring sound...so I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter...

It was my personal laptop. The hard drive was thrashing about, the CPU was pegged at 100%, and the only application that was running was Internet Explorer. What on earth caused my laptop to come out of hibernation and cause such an uproar in the middle of the night for no reason at all still baffles me.

And that wasn't the last time it misbehaved. As time went on, between IE7 and Outlook pegging the CPU and sucking up memory, you'd think my laptop was possessed by Britney Spears. You never knew what to expect next.

The only real recourse I had in these situations was to power down the laptop and reboot. After several weeks of failed attempts to keep my laptop happy so it wouldn't wig out, I finally had to say...

Goodbye Microsoft

A few months ago, I uninstalled &/or quit using these everyday Microsoft products on my personal laptop:

• Outlook
• MSN email (but I still use Hotmail)
• Internet Explorer
• Windows Live Messenger
• Word (except for school)
• Excel
• Powerpoint

Considering the fact that I had a long history with many of these products and had grown quite dependent on them to manage my virtual/electronic life, the breakup was tough. I felt like a traitor. I felt like I was abandoning what used to be a solid relationship, but how many "second" chances was I supposed to give this Microsoft software? "70 times 7"?

Hello Google and Firefox and...

These days, my laptop is quite happy using these free products:

• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Docs
• Google Reader
• Mozilla Firefox

What's really nice about this collection of products is that no matter where I am, if I have access to the internet, I have access to my personal accounts and files.

With Google Docs, I can easily collaborate with others and publish documents. It's a trip watching multiple people work on the same document. With Google Calendar, I can create multiple calendars to keep my work and personal activities separate. I can also see other's calendars if granted access.

What else is kewl is that it's all easily accessible on my Blackberry. So no matter where I go, there I am. I can never get away from myself. Hmmm, maybe that's not so kewl...

And in case you missed the memo, Google is God...

An Amenable Joint Custody Agreement

I haven't totally deserted Microsoft. I still am running on a Windows XP SP2 box - with no plans or desire to move to Vista. But I am amazed (but not surprised about) how these non-MS products work better with the MS operating system than the MS products do. My hard drive no longer thrashes about aimlessly and I don't have to keep rebooting to restore memory that's leaked to who-knows-where.

I don't know how much longer this joint custody agreement will last though. The new Leopard who's recently come onto the scene has a certain charm and allure. I'm keeping my eye on him.

We Still See Each Other

My personal laptop may be entertaining other suitors, but at work, I still continue to use all the Microsoft products I abandoned at home. Corporate standards. The exception, though, is Firefox. The Fox is just way too kewl to leave at home.

Are You as Smart as a Junior Higher?

What level of education is required to read my blog? According to the Blog Readability Test, a junior higher should bode well with this blog. Do you agree with these results? I do. If it was any higher, I'd be missing the boat I set out to sail. [HT to Eric.]

Do You Tend to Over-Think Stuff?

Confessions of an IT Hitman, a business blog I follow, posed the following list of questions to show how some of us tend to over-think to get to the right answer. Ready for some light weekend thinking gymnastics? [HT to the IT Hitman.]

• What does a banana taste like?
• What do you call a question with no answer?
• If there was a crumb on the table and you cut it in half, would you have two crumbs or two halves of a crumb?
• What is a "self-help" group?
• What can you put in a barrel which makes it lighter?
• Why did Sally sell seashells on the seashore when you can just pick them up for free?
• Why are red buttons always the most important?
• How do you know water's wet?
• Could someone be addicted to counseling? If so, how would you treat them?
• Why do people duck when it rains?
• If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest drown too?
• Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
• Why are 1968 pennies worth more than 1967 pennies?
• What is the number eleven thousand eleven hundred and eleven divided by three?
• What word is always spelled incorrectly?

My Winter 2008 Courses

My break from school is almost over. I had hoped to get caught up on a few more things these past few weeks, but instead my body opted to override my planned list of to-do's with some high-quality sick time.

For those of you who have known me for awhile, you're quite familiar with that huge STOP sign my body throws out there every once in awhile to catch my attention. This time, I didn't fight back. I rested instead. For many days. Almost guilt-free.

The Fun Begins Again on January 7th

On Monday, my next two Fuller courses begin:

• Lifelong Development with J. Robert Clinton (required) 
• Theology and Pop Culture with Craig Detweiler (elective)

I am really looking forward to both courses. My friend, Henriet, who is just three courses away from finishing up the same Masters program, already took Lifelong Development, and says this course is right up my alley. GoTtA lUv ThAt. Henriet will also be taking the Pop Culture course with me as one of her electives. GoTtA lUv ThAt 2.

It will be great fun to catch up with my Fuller cohort again in the Lifelong Development course. We haven't interacted a lot since our August "shindig." I hope I still recognize everyone. :)

Cheers to my last Homework Free weekend!!

Is Off the Map Over the Edge?

Huh?! Who or what is "Off the Map"? And are they really over the edge? I can certainly answer the first question. I'll let you draw your own conclusions on the second one.

Who is Off the Map?

Off the Map is a non-profit organization that describes itself this way:

We present stories, ideas and related practices through live events, our websites, published multimedia and our monthly e-zine called Idealab.

They are into: "otherlyness" or the spirituality of serving, reinventing evangelism, exploring, explaining, edutaining (educating and entertaining), and listening.

Jim Henderson, founder of Off the Map, recently released a new book called Jim & Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians. 

Intriguing.

Be Kind

This past year, Henriet and I have attended three Off the Map (OTM) conferences. Each conference has delivered an "edge" of its own. At the first conference, it seemed that no matter what the question was, the answer was always "be kind." To be honest, the sheer simplicity of that message seemed to annoy me at the time.

There was a whole lot packed into these two small words during the conference, but the gist was that Christ followers can sometimes really suck at just being kind. For some, it's more about being RIGHT - about their beliefs, opinions, worldview, [insert your own words here] - than being KIND. We were encouraged to: Stop listening with our mouths and start listening with our hearts.

A simple yet provocative message. One that has stuck with me. Without annoyance.

Almost an Atheist

It was also at this first conference that I became acquainted with Helen Mildenhall. I would like to write more about Helen and her story in a future post, but here are a few interesting  points: Helen is a former Christian who is "almost an atheist" now. She is the blog manager for all the blogs sponsored by Off the Map. She hosts Conversation at the Edge, a blog for Christians, atheists and anyone in between.

I have followed Helen's OTM blog for almost a year now. One thing I have to say is that she is one of the most articulate bloggers out there, and she knows the Bible better than many Christians. She participates in "hot" discussions with astonishing grace and kindness. For Helen, it's not about being right.

An almost atheist running the blogs for a Christian site. Certainly edgy.

Off the Map Live

The last conference we attended - Off the Map Live - was in November. Besides the thought-provoking sessions I attended, the highlights for me were meeting John Smulo in person, someone I had met in the blogosphere, and hearing Richard Twiss, president of Wiconi International, speak for the first time.

This post is so after-the-fact, so I'm going to defer to what's already been written. The conference blog posted some thoughts from Richard Twiss after the conference. It gives you a good sense of who he is. Also, Henriet and John wrote about Richard:

• Henriet: Richard Twiss Rocks
• John: Off the Map Live Friday Afternoon

Is Off the Map "over the edge"? In my book - absolutely! And it's a very good thing. Even if I get annoyed every once in awhile.

Fuller Update: 5 Down. 13 To Go.

I am now on a 4-week break from school. On December 7th, I officially completed three more courses in my MAGL program at Fuller Theological Seminary:

• Character, Community & Leadership
• Biblical Foundations of Mission
• Collaborative Approaches to Ministry

The Biblical Foundations course was the most challenging for a variety of reasons, but I'm very excited about walking away with a new pair of lenses in which to view the Bible and the world around me. My final paper was entitled: On Missional Living: "Do I Have to Say the 'J' Word?"

Classes begin again on January 7th. I am signed up for two courses: Lifelong Development (a program requirement) and Theology and Pop Culture (an elective). In the meantime, it's...

Time to Catch Up

Over the next three weeks, I will be posting quite regularly so that I can share some of the kewl - and mostly fun - happenings and things I've stumbled upon in my world during the last few months. Lots of kewl videos and light reading coming your way, so just sit back and enjoy the show...