We’re working on editing a new *cino book on food, adding to the Road Map Series that now includes Do Justice. We need a cover image, as well as a color photo for the back and at least one or two black and white images for the inside of the book. If you have a painting, photograph or drawing on the theme of food that you’d like to be considered for Eating Well: A Food Road Map, please send us three things by Friday, March 14: a print quality image file that’s at least 4″ x 6″, a 50-ish word bio and your mailing address. You can use our contact form to get in touch or send Kirstin an e-mail. If your work is selected, you’ll receive a complimentary copy of the book when it comes out in April. Delicious!
Do Justice review
Byron Borger at Hearts & Minds Books reviewed our new book, Do Justice: A Social Justice Road Map, about a week ago and was very complimentary. Check it out and then buy a copy from him (he’s got a free shipping deal going now). Thanks, Byron!
NEW *cino book! Do Justice: A Social Justice Road Map
We’re very excited to announce our first book!
*culture is not optional has just published Do Justice: A Social Justice Road Map, the first in a series of books that we hope will be entry points for conversation about how the Christian community can act faithfully in several different areas of life. Do Justice collects catapult magazine articles, a few original pieces, photographs and resource lists from students, professors, booksellers and practitioners into a 140-page resource that we think you’ll find both enjoyable and challenging. You can purchase a copy for only $7.50 + shipping ($1.00) at the companion site for the book.
Look for more additions to the series over the next several months. We’re planning a food Road Map for the month of April and a music Road Map for this summer.
Welcoming Hearts and Minds Books
*cino is very pleased to welcome Hearts and Minds Books into the *cino blog network. Hearts and Minds is a bookstore in Dallastown, Pennsylvania started and run by Byron and Beth Borger with a wonderful and comprehensive understanding of reformatinoal Christian worldview. They’ve long been involved with the CCO in Pittsburgh and one of the highlights of CCO’s Jubilee Conference in February is the huge Hearts and Minds book table. Byron regularly updates his blog with passionate reviews of new resources; we encourage you to check out his posts and support his store!
Improved discussion boards
Several months ago, we were forced to have all new *cino discussion board registrations approved by a board administrator in order to keep malicious users from posting spam and wreaking havoc on the site. Then we were overwhelmed by bogus registrations–at least 25 a day–until we were no longer approving any registrations, which obviously runs contrary to the kind of invitational community we’re trying to foster here.
Well, we have made a significant breakthrough today by adding Akismet authorization to everything posted on the board, from new registrations to discussion posts. Akismet is a service that checks information submitted against a vast database of confirmed spam criteria, returning either a positive or negative value back to our site that it can use to confirm or reject a user or a post automatically.
Users can once again register without a moderator’s approval simply by confirming an e-mail address after registration.
We apologize to many of you who tried to register over the last several months and were unable to have your account activated for use. We tried to find and activate legitimate registrations in the 900 or so unactivated accounts we recently deleted from our database. If we missed your account, we hope you’ll see this message and register again to participate in the *cino community!
^camping is not optional 2007!
^camping is not optional 2007 is once again being brought to you by *culture is not optional and Russet House Farm. Unlike Practicing Resurrection, the conference we organized last year, this summer's events will be much more informal. From outings to local farms and businesses to discussions and jam sessions on the farm, this year's event will remind ^camping veterans of outings past. From August 6-12 you are invited to come to Cameron, Ontario for a week (or as much time as you'd like) of camping, exploring the Kawarthas, campfires, communal worship, reflection, play, swimming, and farm activities. While we are not organizing a full scale conference for this year, we will facilitate a potluck dinner in the camping area on Saturday night and communal worship on Sunday morning. Other activities like bible study, evening prayer, yoga, interpretive dance, capture the flag, metaphysical support groups, group therapy, poetry readings, salon-style conversations on whatever people want to talk about, and other crazy ideas will emerge from the midst of the camping community. Register now!
New server
Well … it’s happened again, a little earlier than expected. After a number of utilities on which we rely–our web sites, e-mail lists and others–started failing a little too regularly on our old server, we decided to move to a new, more reliable server. Wouldn’t you know it? The day we initiated the move, all of our sites went down on the old server–making our move a little less graceful than we had hoped.
Anyway, we almost have everything back to normal here at *cino central, barring a few tests. In fact, this blog post is serving two purposes: letting you all know what’s going on and testing our blogging capabilities on the new server.
Thank you for your continued patience and for your participation in the *cino community.
#100
catapult published its 100th issue last Friday with “Busy is Good,” which, while only a number in the middle of two others, is still pretty neat.
Announcing Practicing Resurrection 2006!
Hello, past and potential campers! As many of you know, *culture is not optional has sponsored yearly camping trips (with the exception of last year) since before its inception. In fact, it was our first camping trip that was the catalyst for officially launching *cino.
This year, *cino is partnering with the folks at Russet House Farm to bring you a new and improved camping conference called Practicing Resurrection in Cameron, Ontario from August 7 through August 13. The basic format is this: campers will gather at the farm informally August 7-10 for local outings, storytelling, networking and relaxation. August 11-13 will feature more formal presentations on a variety of topics (including kids’ activities), artistic presentations, a shared meal and opportunities for worship. Workshops and discussions will cover a wide range of subjects, from fashion to travel, industrial design to canning, all with eyes and ears tuned in to how we as a community might living into the Kingdom here and now. Participants will be able to register for the entire week or select days.
Because this is our first conference of this sort, space is limited (100 conference registrants, 50 campers on the farm itself)–so register soon! To find out more details and register, visit the complete Practicing Resurrection web site. Please feel free to ask any questions. We hope to see you there for all or part of the week!
Ditching Google
Well, we’ve decided to finish our test of Google AdSense a little prematurely because it’s proving ineffective, both as a tool for generating revenue and networking online resources.
