Transition (noun) — movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another; change.

Hiatus (noun) — a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc.

August 31 was the last day at my job, and, as many of you know, I’ll be starting classes at Fuller Seminary later this month.  So, during this time of transition I’m taking a bit of a hiatus from spending time online.

As classes start and I settle into a new routine, I’ll evaluate how much time I have to devote to all things online.  In the mean time I’m thinking through what it is I want to accomplish by spending time online, which will help to determine what priority I put on updating things here at 2BHuman.

Maybe because I once had a job that involved implementing warehouse automation systems.  Or maybe I’m just a nerd.

Anyway, it’s an article from last week’s Chicago Tribune on how Netflix’s warehouse works.  With pictures.

As you may have heard by now, President Obama has disbanded the President’s Council on Bioethics. As usual, my buddy Joe says it better than I could:

To the electoral victor goes the electoral spoils, so Obama’s disbanding is neither surprising nor unprecedented. It is, however, lamentable, if for no other reason than that they will no longer be producing rich, nuanced works of philosophical reflection. Bioethics commissions have been around since the mid-1970s but under Leon Kass and later Edmund Pellegrino the council created a new literary genre of government documents: pythonic guides to policy.

Is Wired.  Because of the breadth of reporting.  Case in point, “The Untold Story of the World’s Biggest Diamond Heist” from this month’s issue. Another great article is “High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace” from March of last year.

Books & Culture has an interview with the always excellent Jean Bethke Elshtain where she discusses, among other things, her assertion:

In our own liberal society at the moment, and in most of the Western democracies in general, we are pursuing a paradoxical project: We are most aware of those with physical and mental disabilities; we want to provide them access. Yet at the same time, our most enthused-about and ideologically fraught projects aim at creating a world with no such persons in it.

Highly recommended reading.

But too great to miss:

HT: Joe Carter

From Christianity Today:

Nearly three years ago, Alan Jacobs wrote in Books & Culture, “Right now, and for the foreseeable future, the blogosphere is the friend of information but the enemy of thought.”

I’m probably guilty as charged on that score.

Worth reading the whole thing

I’ll just say that I find this very convicting.

We need to hear competing voices of information from the world around us, use our time in the digital world wisely, and learn to shut that world down when it becomes more important to get up in the morning and answer emails than it does to get up and read the Bible and pray.

A helpful reminder from Dr. Carson. Read the whole thing.

Read it again.

God of grace, you have given us minds to know you, hearts to live you, and voices to sing your praise. Fill us with your Spirit, that we may celebrate your glory and worship you in spirit and in truth through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Ginger and I are, as of today, officially members of Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. We’ve been attending there since the Fall of last year, and we went through the new members’ class this spring.

The membership vows are:

1. Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy?
2. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?
3. Do you now resolve and promise, in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit, that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ?
4. Do you promise to support the Church in its worship and work to the best of your ability?
5. Do you submit yourselves to the government and discipline of the Church, and promise to study its purity and peace?

We’re very thankful to have found a place to worship and serve.