Even in abstentia, I’ve got some blog-wanderings to share. I’d have more to add but for my misadventures not finding wifi on the road, but that’s how it goes sometimes. A report from the road follows the abbreviated linkage. Sorry no jokes this time. Or perhaps that’s cause for celebration ;^)

Image via Matt Stone, and it just say so much, don’t it? Yikes. It’s all very T-Shirt Tuesday, innit?

1. Jamie Arpin-Ricci had the first Prince Caspian movie review that I caught. Peggy says they do Reepicheep well, which is good — I was worried about that. I haven’t seen the movie yet but am looking forward to it.
2. An eye-opener on subliminal advertising — will be a shock to some; well done.
3. WordPress Quick Start Guide — Now Available on the WordPress Codex. No reason not to switch now!
4. I too am cynical about music and movie stars thanking God for their success during an awards speech. Bill Reichart probes more deeply… I don’t think Miley “Hannah Montana” Cyrus is in quite the same league as Bob Dylan… but historically, Christians don’t have the best response to famous people who disclose their faith.
5. Americans Hit by Disaster Fatigue, or Compassion Fatigue… probably not just Americans, but wow. Is this the sentiment that says, “Gee, it’s depressing how all these people are dying around the world due to wars and disaster. Let’s ignore them and feel better.”? Maybe it’ll just go away? The theme of being uninformed reminds me… our friends in China report that the local rumour is of Tibetans abducting people on the streets of China and injecting them with the HIV virus… a girl down the street died from this already, goes the story. Urban myths are a global phenomenon. I wonder if Snopes.com is a banned site in China?
6. My neighbourhood makes the news — our neighbours across the back fence live on Laval Drive; the park mentioned is where we can walk through the Carol Shields Labyrinth. We missed all the excitement, though. Another story has a photo.
7. YouTomb, a list of videos taken down by YouTube, with screenshots.
8. More good stuff from David Fitch: Looking for the poor in the Suburbs: Ten ways to engage mission in the suburbs. You only need to find one to get started, and perhaps this list will prompt other ideas to add.
9. Why did the Emergent Chicken Cross the Road?
10. Alan Hirsch in CT — Three Over-looked Leadership Roles: “We’re familiar with pastors and teachers, but today’s world needs a leadership team that includes three biblical but forgotten functions.”
11. What if there was nothing newsworthy? (via)

Road Report #1

• Day one was about 12 hours from Winnipeg to Kansas City — we made good time, and most of the rest stops had free wifi. “That’s a civilized way to travel,” I figured. Kudos. We didn’t take advantage of any of them though, we just motored on through. The first squabble from the back seat came at the 10½-hour mark, which whas pretty amazing. Day two was another 12ish-hour day from KC to Gainesville, GA. The only squabble was at about the 8½-hour mark. There was some ranginess at the ends of both days of course, but they did really well.
• The kids had to do something along the road to keep busy, so they began writing down the states for which they saw license plates; so far they’re at around 32 or 33. They also began making a list of road kill (don’t even ask, I couldn’t begin to explain why). Said list includes

• jackrabbit
• seagull
• deer
• racoon
• (unspecified) bird
• skunk
• crow
• hawk
• possum

By the tally-marks beside the animals, it looks like the racoons and deer are taking the most hits by quite a margin. I thought the live moose in North Dakota would be of more interest, but it doesn’t qualify for the list.
• We arrived at a Travelodge at the north end of KC early and walked to a nearby Mexican joint for supper. Very good food, but we were reminded that the four of us can probably eat just fine on two meal orders… we’ll take not of that for the future. Large portions. The drink special was flavored iced margueritas, so that was well-timed. They were excellent. Mine was so iced that the glass stayed frosty until it was nearly gone. It was still so frosty that if the glass were knocked over, it would break rather than just spill. Unfortunately, due to an undisclosed series of events, this knowledge is not merely theoretical. The restaurant was very good about it &#8212 I really didn’t expect the replacement drink they brought me at no charge… but hey, I wasn’t driving anymore. We snuck about half of it into a takeout cup along with the balance of the uneaten dinners and headed back to the hotel for a swim. The remainder of my review of this particular Travelodge is summed up in two observations: (1) the Internet access was down for the whole joint, and never did come back while we were there (95% packet loss). Argh. (2) I might want to quibble about the meaning of the phrase “full breakfast”. I know it’s “free”, but still… we’ve done better at other Travelodges.
• End of day one: no Internet access, an early morning after a short night, a long day, extra alcohol at supper, a good meal, a swim… I was right along with the rest of the family, all asleep by 9:30.
• I need to find myself a cellular provider that does GSM instead of what I have… I couldn’t always connect to retrieve mail, and haven’t yet been able to send a reply successfully.
• I never really “got” those little GPS-navigation gizmos, but someone loaned us a fairly basic one for the trip and I have to say we’re now completely sold on them… we might otherwise still be lost in St. Louis someplace, but it was very helpful around Nashville and Atlanta as well. We’re considering not giving this one back…
• At the end of day one, we forgot to recharge the iPod, so day two on the road was quieter than we intended. Lesson learned. Still, on the first day I had both my kids singing “The Boys in the Bright White Sports Car” along with the music. A proper music-history education is important for kids these days. Oh, and I had to drive all the way through Tennessee without being able to look up the lyrics to “Tennessee Stud.” Life is tough sometimes.
• Day one I drove all but a 3-hour stint in the middle. Day two I was feeling pretty good, so drove the whole day. Today we’re off to Ormond Beach via Savannah, so we’ll run along the coast for a while and stop to see some sights around Savannah and St. Augustine in particular. It’s only 8 hours or so of driving, so it’ll seem really short by comparison, I guess. We’re supposed to have wifi at the hotel when we get there….

Stay tuned.