Here’s a picture of me, written by me, filtered by me, edited by me, about me.

1.    I’ve been blogging since just after I got married. I was 22 then. My blog was called Twenty-Two. Then I turned 23. I renamed it to Twenty-Three. Then I got lazy and never renamed it again. I’m now 26. It’s still called Twenty-Three.

2.    I was a part of the first Facebook generation, connected only to students at WWU.

3.    I’ve been happily IM’ing since the days of AOL dial-up. 24.4 baby.

4.    The first song I downloaded on iTunes was a Dashboard Confessional track.

5.    Twitter is my favorite way to blog these days.

6.    I can easily count at least 16 different email addresses I’ve had.

7.    While I was a late adopter, getting a cell phone in college, I quickly became a proficient texter. I do not have a land line.

8.    I cruised the original Napster back in the earliest days. My parents’ internet bills went through the roof.

9.    I own my own web design business during the summers and in my free time.

10. My parents do not have Facebook. I bet yours do.

11. Every job I’ve had since college has involved at least some sitting at a computer.

12. I’m an accomplished transcriptionist.

13. The first computer I ever had was a Macintosh SE.

14. I’m greatly impressed at the fact that we can email, chat, and even video chat with people around the world.

15. I had a PDA for about a year. It was too slow and boring.

16. I’ve been described as “gadgety”.

17. I’ve been connected to many of my ministry peers, locally and around the country, solely through email, Twitter, and blogs. I’ve never met most of them face to face.

18. I graduated Western with a certificate in Internet Studies.

19. I’ve said things to people over email or IM that I’ve regretted.

20. I’ve been broken up with over email.

21. I constantly battle pride with regards to my iLife.

22. I very often feel overwhelmed with the amount of time I waste on the computer.

23. I wish I had a Mac.

24. I believe that God can use me, even in the world of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and Google, to do good, loving work in humanity.

25. I believe that Christ would not have us shut off our computers all together, but does ask us to make him much more central in our iLives.

*Note: This style of post is very prevalent among current and former students these days. I’m doing a bit of creative imitating. Not mockery. Thought it would fit well with the talk.

And for anyone else out there. I think I might have a little more work to do, but I feel some writing coming on.

Let’s see what happens.

What does this mean? Well, I’ve been paying a monthly fee for the last couple of years to host my sethjames.blogs.com blog with a service called TypePad. It’s a great service, full-featured and all that jazz, but a bit more than I really need. So, I’ve migrated my posts (moved my content) over to a WordPress blog, which is free, also full-featured, and therefore much more fun.

What do you have to do with this? (Don’t worry, it’s not that hard, but some action is required on your behalf)

1. Update your bookmarks and reader subscriptions: I’m a little presumptuous, but I know that some of you out there are visiting my blog pretty regularly, so make sure you change the little link you follow to this address: http://blog.sethjamesthomas.com

2. Say goodbye to the old design. You’ll have to put up with a template for a short time (hopefully) as I work on developing something of my own. Sorry for the delay, it’s just not a high priority for me right away. Twenty-Three may stay or go, depending on my creativity over the next few weeks, but what I hope to have for you all in the near future is a new blog design, with all the great special features (reading lists, links, photos), to share very, very soon.

3. Finally, say hello. That’s right. I’m taking a roll call on this new blog, to make sure you all make your way here. So, take the leap and leave me a brief comment or hello, just to let me know you’re there (and you care).

Ok, I think that’s it. Now, someone out there will tell me I need to write some new real posts, not just blog posts about blogging. I promise I will, very shortly.

Until then.
seth

Lora, I’m glad you’re in. Looking forward to reading it!

loraleone.wordpress.com

It’s almost been a year since I left Logos Bible Software to start working at the INN. I’ve sort of slacked off about keeping in touch with my former co-workers, due to busyness and laziness. However, I try to keep up with the company on a fairly regular basis, through their business blog – blog.logos.com.

Bob Pritchett, the president of the company, has written a lot on the Logos blog, as well as his blog for Fire Someone Today, the book he released last year. Now, he’s relaunched his personal blog at www.bobpritchett.com/blog. It looks great, probably thanks to the great graphic designer at Logos. I’m interested to keep in touch with his thoughts on business, marketing, and entrepreneurship, especially because of my brief work I did with him at Logos and my own adventures into the small business world.

So, if you’re interested in a little business talk or just want to hear a good perspective on the technology business, check it out.

Do you remember your first year of college? How about your first year at Western Washington University? I know there’s a few alumni out there who might appreciate this: the WWU Freshmen First-Year blog.

As a part of their expanding first year programs, designed at connecting students with the campus community, working out the transition into school, and making connections with each other as students experiencing college together.

Check it out.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues to all generations. – Psalm 100:5

PS: I read that Donald Miller book that I mentioned him reading from in the reading last September. That passage still really resounds with me.

I have set up a blog for them, kind of a "parent blog?" (not really like a sister blog) to this site, where they will be posting stories and pictures from their trip as they go. They are going to be emailing me updates from the road, which I will post to their blog. If you are interested, please follow along with them at http://sethjames.blogs.com/alaskatrip.

It’s funny to think how Alaska has been taking people away from us this summer. Many friends are coming back from canneries and touring around this time of year, but now my parents are off to the Great White North and AK. I guess I need to get up there sometime.

Anyways, I’m excited to be helping my parents out with this one. Stop by their page and see what they are up to. They are leaving Edmonds tomorrow to come up and help my sister move and then they are off. Say a prayer for their safety and that they have an awesome time.

Taken aback by his statement that he didn’t enjoy reading a blog
about just the little things, I began to think a little bit about why
I’m really doing this thing. A question I asked myself early on was: do
I write this because I want to serve the people who are reading it or
for an outlet for my own thoughts, no matter if people liked reading
them or not. At first, I said "I’m writing about stuff that interests
me, so I don’t care what somebody else thinks." But as I evaluate it, I
actually think there may actually be some room for reevaluating my
purpose here and focus on turning my writing up a notch. Stupid posts
will still be made, but maybe I should also begin to spend more time
and get out some of the thoughts I have about what I’m reading these
days, talking about with friends, etc.

One major hesitation I
have when I think about writing on the ideas I’m reading these days
(postmodernism, emerging theology, or even politics) is the fear that
my words will come across the wrong way. I don’t feel confident enough
most of the time to really put into words what I’m thinking when it
comes to these ideas, mostly because I don’t feel like I know enough.
That’s where the "lack proper authority and have much to learn" pieces
in the banner above come in. There are a lot of great blogs out there,
great websites devoted to this stuff. I don’t feel like I write with
much authority or hold my position very fast compared to other people
out there.

This is one of those posts that I’d love to get some
good commenting/feedback on. What do you think about this? Do you give a crap what I write about?   Would you be more interested if I took things a little more seriously (while maintaining the fun side)?

I’ve been in a state of
reevaluation with this blog over the past couple weeks anyways, so
Jesse’s email has just made me really think. There are some cool things
in the works over the next few weeks here that I’m excited about and
I’ve just been trying to figure out what my focus will be here over the
next year. I start full time at the INN next week, so that’s a big
thing I’d like to write about. I think God is doing something in me
right now, helping me to start stretching a bit, preparing me for a year of excitement, challenge, and growth. Maybe it’s time to
start engaging these ideas a bit more and sharing my thoughts with
ya’ll.

Anyways, I’d love to hear what you think. It’d be
really cool to know who all is out there too, just for the sake of it.
Thanks for reading and please, stick with me.