• ‘Back to school’ supplies

As you begin stocking your backpack and laying out your clothes for the first day of the new school year, here are some sites for back to class:

Advice for seniors

Are you absolutely sure there are no absolutes?

Creative writing resources

Does DNA disprove evolution?

Encouragement for when a) your locker won’t open, b) you can’t find your first hour classroom, c) he ignores you, d) she rejects you, e) your laptop crashes . . .

Falling in love . . . and getting back up (And Breaking up . . . without breaking down)

Hangups with hookups

Is prayer in public school really a good idea?

School shootings: you’re more likely to be struck by lightning

Sex Ed. class

What I didn’t learn in kindergarten

• Is new search engine ‘cuil’?

Former engineers from Google rolled out a new search engine Monday that they claim can, and I quote, “index faster a far larger portion of the Web than Google.” (Google claims to have indexed 1 trillion—as in 1,000,000,000,000—unique URLs.)

Instead of focusing on Web link and audience traffic patterns, www.cuil.com (pronounced “cool”) analyzes the context of each page and the concepts behind each user search request.

“Our significant breakthroughs in search technology have enabled us to index much more of the Internet, placing nearly the entire Web at the fingertips of every user,” Tom Costello, Cuil co-founder and chief executive claims.

Google ranks search results by popularity and number of links going to the site. Cuil.com promises to be more democratic and give lesser-known sites a fighting chance for an audience. I applaud that idea since Google tends to be rather snobbish.

Unfortunately, I discovered that cuil.com thinks—according to the accompanying pic—I’m ten years old, black and have multiple personalities. (That pic isn’t anywhere on my site.)

And while it lists 2,410,164 sites containing “James Watkins author,” by the third page, the results are less than relevant. (I’m not sure how “wheelchair maintenance” ended up in the search results.) And I never did find this blog in the search. Sigh.

So, at this point, I don’t think cuil.com is very cool. Have you tried it? What do you think?

• It’s Christmas in July

Are you ready for Christmas? I am! I hate hot, humid weather. Hallmark will be decorating their stores next month. And, with all the bad economic news, I’m ready for some Christmas cheer.

So, it’s Christmas in July at www.jameswatkins.com. Put on some Manheim Steamroller and check out my new Twelve Sites of Christmas. And here are two “Christmas” columns that are just as applicable in July as in December:

Celebrating Christmas 365 days a year

Seeing God’s providence in the Christmas story

Merry Christmas!

• ‘Last Lecture’-er lived fully

“We don’t beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully,” Randy Pausch told students at Carnegie Mellon. The Last Lecture became an Internet sensation and best-selling book.

Pausch died early yesterday. The college professor, husband and father of three young children had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 which was determined “incurable” in August 2007.
He did live fully and well.

If you or a loved one is facing death, here are some excerpts from my book, The Why Files that I hope are helpful:

Dealing with impending death

Dealing with grief and death

• Sex and the City: part trois

In a recent post, I mentioned that Sex in the City‘s anthrologist and sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw needed to do some more research. Now LifeScript has posted an article: “Ten Reasons Not to Sleep with Him.” Number one is very interesting.

1. You’re not as detached as you think.

Call it the curse (and blessing) of Sex and the City. Guys finally got the message that just because a woman wants to get naked with him doesn’t mean she wants a marriage proposal. However, it also advanced the idea of unemotional sex, which according to science is more difficult than it seems.

In her book Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both (Riverhead Hardcover, 2007), author Laura Sessions Stepp highlights research studies that conclude having sex releases a different set of brain chemicals in women than men.

Specifically, women get a large dose of oxytocin, the hormone that makes you want to bond and create relationships. Men don’t get the oxytocin warm-fuzzies because of testosterone, making it easier for them to “love and leave,” at least biologically speaking.

Stepp says that evolution has hard-wired us for these tendencies, which can be confusing in our sexually liberated world. So be warned: You may want the sex to be casual . . . but you could end up with a serious case of attachment.

Do your homework, Carrie!

• Prostate update

Today is day 21 in the 42-day radiation treatment for prostate cancer—half way through—so let me take a break from large issues and give you an update on that little situation.

The side-effects have been pretty minor since I’m getting only 60 rads of radiation each morning. According to the folks at the Department of Civil Defense, it would take continuous exposure to over 500 rads to cause severe damage or death. (A nuclear bomb gives off over 10,000 rads.) Despite the low dosage, I’ve managed to have . . .

1. Fatigue
A few days I’ve been completely worn out and have taken more naps than our Chow-Shep-sky. As the cancer cells die, toxins are released into the blood stream, creating fatigue. That side-effect, however, has been greatly reduced by drinking gallons of water—which, of course, creates its own side-effect. But I’ve been able to keep up with my writing and editing deadlines between trips to the bathroom—for which I’m thankful.

2. Painful, frequent urination
That’s a “normal” side-effect, but it has kept me up a few nights like one of the TV ads for Flomax. Fortunately, a) I have a home office and b) it’s right across from the bathroom—and for that I’m also thankful. (Update: The doctor prescribed Flomax Wednesday and it’s a miracle drug! Scratch “painful, frequent urination.”)

3. Sunburn—where the sun doesn’t shine
That side-effect lasted only a few days, and with some aloe vera, all that’s left of it is a really nice tan—and for that, I’m also thankful.

4. Five percent anxiety
While the doctors assure me there’s about a 95 percent chance of complete success, there are always those five poor stiffs who fill out the 100. And while the urologist assured me there were no permanent side-effects from treatment, the radiologist noted there is a slight risk of incontinence and/or impotence. Nothing “slight” about that! Of course, odds mean nothing to God, so am praying to be a part of the success statistics.

I have sensed little and large ways God has worked through all this. The cancer was caught as early as possible and is one of the most successfully treated kinds of cancer. God cleared my summer speaking schedule. The high-tech, laser-guided, computer-programmed radiation machine is just four minutes from our house. And, I have a home office just four seconds from the bathroom. In the summer, there are no issues with snow and ice in the early morning. Plus, the staff at Progressive Cancer Care has been great. So, for all of this, I’m extremely thankful!

Well, that’s probably way too much information, but some of you have been asking. So, I promise no more prostate posts until the end of August when the treatments wrap up. And, for that, you can be thankful!

P.S. Lois continues to make good progress one month after a complete hysterectomy. She found strength to preach two Sundays at a nearby church, entertain out of town guests and continue her Hospice volunteer duties.

• Key to publication . . .

Networking is the key to getting published. Like many businesses, it’s not what you know, but who you know. (Obviously, you’ve got to know the what’s of writing, but who you know is extremely important.)

Case in point: An editor at a large magazine introduced himself and said to me—at a writers conference—”I like your writing! Why haven’t you submitted anything?” I awkwardly admitted that I had been submitting manuscripts for years, but only got rejection slips. He replied, “But I know you now. Send them again.” Before I knew it, I was getting assignments for cover articles for this large national magazine! (And I’ve had the same experience with books!)

I’ll be teaching several workshops and giving the closing keynote at the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference August 7-9. It’s a great conference with a ton of editors and agents.

Then, September 29-October 2, I’ll be giving the opening keynote and teaching a continuing session on writing online at the Sandy Cove Christian Communicators’ Experience. It’s also, a wonderful place to network with fellow writers, speakers, editors and agents.

Remember, the three secrets of getting published: network, network, network. Hope to see you in Philly or on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. And in the meantime, check out my writers’ resources page.

• ‘Dark Knight’ of the soul

In the latest Batman film, the villan’s green clown wig and make-up are gone! Instead, The Dark Knight’s “Joker” is the very face of evil. And yet, in his madness, he forces the citizens of Gotham to examine their own good and evil—and the shadows that lie between.

Bruce (Batman) Wayne pleads to his butler, “People are dying. What would you have me do?”

Alfred replies, “Endure. You can be the outcast. You can make the choice that no one else will face—the right choice. Gotham needs you.” One of the most dramatic scenes is when the Joker stands unarmed in the street taunting Batman to kill him with the Batcycle.

District Attorney, Harvey Dent, foreshadows his own moral choice when he tells Wayne, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

Police Commissioner, James Gordon, asks Batman how one can remain a decent man in indecent times.

A boatload of prisoners and a boatload of Gotham citizens must decide to either blow up the others’ boat or both be blown up at the stroke of midnight.

And, finally, as the trailer asks, “Can you avenge evil and not become it?”

Writer and director, Christopher Nolan, has provided a whole Bat Cave full of legal, philosophical and spiritual quandaries and skillfully portrays how his characters struggle to deal with them. (This is a great movie to see as a group and then meet afterwards at Starbucks to discuss.)

In the end, Batman is viewed as a masked villain and rides off scorned by the very people he sought to save—like many situations we face in our personal lives. What is right and wrong is not always obvious. Doing the right thing is not always popular or politically correct. Right is not always rewarded. Evil doesn’t always where smeared clown makeup; sometimes it wears a badge or a tailored suit. And all of us will eventually confront the “dark knight” of our souls.

But we must “endure.” We “can make the choice that no one else will face—the right choice.”

(And, oh yah, it’s a great movie, and Heath Ledger is amazing as the Joker.)

Related sites

What is good? What is evil?

How can we overcome evil with good?

Who is the ultimate super hero?

• ‘Reality’ TV is not real

I have in my right hand, direct from my home office, tonight’s top ten list: Top ten signs you’ve been watching too much reality TV.

10. At the last family reunion, you voted off your brother-in-law.

9. You’ve installed a video camera in every room of your house.

8. For chocolate and peanut butter, you’ll strip naked.

7. You’ve named your children Ozzy and Sharon.

6. While in personnel meetings, you inexplicably shout “You’re fired!”

5. You purchased William Hung’s CD.

4. While your neighbors were on vacation, you sneaked in and completely remodeled their house.

3. When you have guests over, you serve Madagascar hissing cockroaches.

2. You’re actually interested in “the simple life” of Paris and Nicole.

1. You know the story behind each of these signs (Seek immediate help!)

Actually, “reality TV” has nothing to do with reality. Read more.

• Anglican Church could split—again

Splits in the Anglican Church have given the world the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, as well as many others. And we could soon see more.

Over 600 bishops from around the world have come together for a once-a-decade summit of the Anglican Church. The two weeks of meetings at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, will determine if the church maintains unity or splits over the issues of women bishops and homosexual clergy.

In July, the English branch (the Church of England) voted to allow women to serve as bishops and created worldwide controversy (see July 9 post). The division over ordaining homosexual clergy has grown since 2003 when the American branch (the Episcopal Church) appointed openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.

Robinson has not been included in the meeting and a large number of conservative bishops, particularly from the Global South, are boycotting the meeting claiming the Communion is preaching a “false gospel” regarding homosexuality.

It should be an interesting two weeks! So, some thoughts on . . .

Women in ministry

Homosexuality

Church conflict

Church unity