Logocentric (adj).Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Blogocentric (adj).A portmanteau of "blog" and "logocentric" devised by a word nerd with way too much time on his hands.
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, mostly scavenged from the following:
@Annette - I doubt I'll track where I watched something by default, but I'm always happy to tell anyone who asks. We Own This City is on HBO Max. Or Max. Or HBO Now. Or whatever Warner Bros. calls its streaming service currently before Paramount buys them and changes it again.
Steal and Vox Machina and Leverage: Redemption are on Amazon Prime, and "Memory of a Killer" is on Hulu.
One suggestion for these entries: could you put a little add on where you watched the shows? I know Lincoln Lawyer is on Netflix. I've watched the previous three seasons and will likely watch the fourth one also. Thank you for writing about it without spoiling anything. I would be interested in watching "We Own this City" if it's on a service that I have.
I'm not able to play the video. Could you tell me the band and the song so I can find it on my own. thanks. Don't know why it does this. Sometimes the link works and sometimes it tells you to Watch Video On YouTube as an error. Odd.
The intro deal was something like 6 cassettes (and later, CDs) for a penny each. That was how they got you, because to get the deal you had to enroll in their subscription plan where the regular price of the albums was seriously jacked up (to like $20-$25) and if you didn't make a selection every month, they'd bill you and send you a featured one every month. Most people signed up for the freebies, then ended up canceling just as soon as they could get out of their one or two year long contracts. But hey, when you're a teenager and building your music collection? The first batch of albums is practically free.
And I remember those days of calling into a radio station, requesting a song, then trying to record it off the radio when they played it. Yeah, you'd always miss part of the song, or the recording quality would be terrible because most people just put a tape recorder in front of the speaker to record it and you'd get ambient noise or interruptions all the time. I don't want to admit how much time and money my teenage self invested in a stereo system designed to optimize recording songs off the radio.
You could buy an album for one cent? Dang, I got ripped off growing up in Germany.
I had to buy empty cassette tapes and record off my radio, always missing out on the last ten seconds of each song because the radio host was talking.
January 21, 2026: What do you think is the hardest part of being a Christian?
I have two responses to the question of what the hardest thing is about being a Christian: a theological response and a more practical response.
From a theological standpoint, the hardest part about being a Christian is clearly living up to the example that Christ set, and the example he wants us to set for others. The tenets of Christianity are well known and oft repeated, but there are precious few people who can actually live up to turning the other cheek, extending mercy and radical forgiveness, and loving one's enemies. Most of us struggle with even the simple edicts of the religion, like setting aside ourselves and following Jesus with all our hearts.
The core theology of Christianity is incredibly countercultural, and nearly impossible to achieve even under ideal circumstances, to say nothing of the broken, sinful world we actually live in. It's quite literally impossible to live a sinless life like Jesus did, but the pursuit of and striving for that unattainable objective is the central thesis of the religion. So to the question of what the hardest part of the Christian religion is, it's ... *gestures at all of it*
From a practical standpoint, I think the hardest part about being a Christian in today's context - at least from my perspective as a nondenominational Christian in the Western world - is seeing others misrepresent Christianity to others, and seeing the damage it causes. Christianity has been co-opted by special interests who would use it as a justification (or excuse) for their own ends, and I include a lot of church organizations themselves in that accusation. Evangelical Christianity has become a political project for some, and a means of achieving wealth and status for others. And I've seen firsthand the kind of damage that has been done to people, especially the marginalized and downtrodden - you know, the type of people that Jesus was kind of famous for actually helping - in His name.
Whenever I see Christians identifying with the conservative right of the political spectrum, or the anti-LGBTQ+ movement, or even taking advantage of their tax exempt status for the purposes of financially benefiting their clergy, it makes me sad because I just know that it's reinforcing the worst stereotypes about Christians being insular hypocrites who want to behave badly while telling everyone else how to live their lives. And it worries me because it furthers the narrative that Christians are just like everyone else: seeking influence and wealth, and defining their success by how much power they can wield against their perceived enemies.
Christianity has always functioned most effectively when it's the underdog. When it's the response to a terrible status quo and offers a different, better way to live. Once Christianity becomes the default, once it becomes the status quo, it starts exerting power like the status quo and trying to protect that power. When you look at it like that, maybe I'm wrong about the practical response to this question. From a practical standpoint, maybe the hardest thing about being a Christian is continuing to live out the tenets of your Christian faith once you've attained the influence and power that you've been seeking.
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