He is so much more than a cartoon drawing on the front of a children's book. He is more than the central figure of The Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan transcends story. As Stratford Caldecott says,

His reality is something else, something deeper. In fact Lewis constructed him not as a character within the story, but as the presence within the story of something more real than the story, more real than the author himself.

I love that Hollywood tried to recreate the story for us. I love that they tried. I was infinitely disappointed, though. Who wasn't? Perhaps anyone who has yet to read the books. But C. S. Lewis did something so significant. He created a figure we all desire to know. He is fierce, wild, unpredictable, mystical, authoritative, tender, playful, strong, nurturing, and unchallengable. He is the one we want to run to when we are scared, and the one we are willing to accept correction from because we are convinced of his love. How did any one man manage to capture this in a story? I am reminded of this passage in the Bible that says, "Deep calls unto deep." Honestly, I would never have known what that meant if someone hadn't explained it to me. The deep passions, deep heart of God calls out unto the deep passions and the heart of mankind.

This is what it means to be human. It means to be equipped with this part of your "self" which can be touched by the calling depths of God. That is the best way I know to describe Aslan. Those are the only words to describe the sheer instinctual draw towards this fictional character. Deep calls unto deep. But just how exactly does a fictional character call out and draw so many millions of readers? Truthfully, it doesn't. Some may claim a sort of imaginative appeal and so forth, but such explanations lack substance. What is going on here? Why do we regretfully set the book aside only to revisit the stale, stagnant perceptions of God we have always known? Because we know no better. Because we do not believe that a God anywhere in the universe could actually be as wonderful as Aslan. Well, maybe a god could be as wonderful, but no god actually is, and that's all that matters. At least, that's what our life experiences tell us.

Funny thing about life experiences is how subjective they are. They are at the mercy of everyone and everything near enough to have influence upon us. There are children who are abused by family members whose life experience tells them never to trust another soul again. Those life experiences are convincing. But they dictate a broken understanding of life. Maybe Aslan isn't too good to be true. Maybe our eyes cannot see because our past lies riddled with brokenness that dictates to each one of us what must be true. It's possible. If so, then how do we determine what to believe?

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I can see it now. Eventually, everything handheld will be iPod. Apple originally came out with the iPod as a means to carry digital copies of music stored on a flash drive. Then came the iPod Video and license agreements with several major television networks. You could buy the most recent episode of LOST or Monk and download it to your iPod. I have to be honest, I was extremely excited by the possibility of having my LOST episodes in front of my while I cycle at the gym. Of course, here I am a year later still without an iPod Video.

What an effrontery upon the Daniel cool factor! iPods have progressed to full-length movies and downloadable games (nothing too advanced yet). Apple may not be making the greatest percentage of profit, yet, but the possibilities seem endless. On the horizon, Apple will have some important decisions to make. Will they take the plunge toward the unknown and be the first to successfully bridge the gap between media player and cellphone? What about email, Internet access, and other smartphone capabilities? And you know the camera function will double as a digital video recorder! Think about it. Within the next five years, everyone in America could own the iPod Video Smartphone.

Download all the photos, videos, and music you want. Use the touchscreen stylus to enter information into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Call a friend. Take a photo of the freakshow dancing inside the mall. Update your calendar of appointments. Check your emails. Visit your MySpace page or check for movie showtimes Fandango.com. Play Tetris while you wait in line. Heck, why play Tetris? Play NBA 2011! Link up wirelessly with other players. Have a video teleconference with other bleeding edge business professionals.

The only limit is your imagination.... well, your imagination and Apple innovation.... Okay - your imagination, Apple innovation, and your wallet.

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It's true. Variety really is the spice of life. Maybe I'm dysfunctional. Perhaps there are simply too many things to discuss. Or maybe I just don't like being pigeonholed into one narrow topic. Take your pick. It could be all three, honestly. But I simply cannot limit myself to stick to only one topic. Life is too busy... to full. Some restrictions are uncomfortable for a reason: people need diversity. I'm not pretending to be one of those guys living life to the fullest every moment (though I envy them and I aspire to become more like them). The more I think about it, the more I realize that one of the primary complaints I had against the SEO industry last year was the proliferation of online discourses and the simultaneous lack of content. I am not saying that all SEO bloggers and forum visitors are full of hot air. But I saw constant linkbait everywhere.

That's why people write the same stuff five different ways: they want to juice the actual content for all they can get out of it. I lost a lot of interest in SEO rather quickly last year when all the hype boiled down to tips and methods which anyone could learn within the span of six months to a year. It's not that I begrudge anyone the opportunity to work towards increased rankings and exposure. Not at all. Obviously, I have done some of the same. Yet there lies a difference between someone doing it and an entire industry doing it. It breaks down fairly simply: SEO professionals did not have a world-wide standard or governing body.

They were misunderstood by the general public and underappreciated. They saw the need for their services but sometimes found it difficult to sell those services to an ignorant public. However, the method employed by the search engine marketing industry is so obviously flawed. Truth break: when I wrote the SEO Myths article, I had studied the do's and dont's of SEO. I read all the material offered online by Aaron Wall, Dan Thies, Danny Sullivan, Jill Whalen, Dave Wilkie, and others I can't even remember. I understood the concepts. I got the logic of it. I liked the concept of theme based web design and architecture. But I also found that unless I wanted to become a programmer, the actual well of information was rather shallow.

I ran out of new content in less than a year. One of my pet peeves is a person flaunting himself as a know-it-all professional when he's really just got a couple guys working with him in different parts of the country (and instantaneously have offices in New York, Florida, California, and Chicago.... wow... that's impressive) and a blog or forum where he regurgitates what the other pros are saying in addition to spinning and respinning old topics. I don't want to fall victim to the same flaw. It's easy to do so, especially since regular content on the same subjects will increase organic search engine rankings. Still, content is king, no matter what anyone says.

If it's not worth reading, it's not worth posting. That is where I draw the line. That is where I lose respect for indivicuals, industries, or even myself. We need to rethink this whole concept. Search engines are great for helping us wade through the information we don't want and find the information we need. So why add a dozen regurgitated articles to your blog, just to improve your rankings?

Why not pursue the respect of your peers. What if the primary concern was content, and SEO-ing an SEO company became more like checking your spelling and grammar after you get to the heart of the matter? Idealistic? Sure. Worth Considering? Maybe. Then again, I started this blog to write about the world, not SEO. I just happen to do SEO for a living.

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The past 12 months has seen more ridiculous programming interruptions than I can remember. It started for me last Fall during season two of LOST. Know this: if you haven't watched LOST and you watch television, you are missing out. But last season's programming schedule was so funky that some fans of the show checked out. Whatever the excuses, we the fans waited two weeks sometimes for a new episode. That's ridiculous. I have heard that the reason for the delay was the late creation of the show in relation to the beginning of the season. So be it. I have not had any complaints against the show so far this season (except the apparent increase in commercial time - which is not the show's fault). This year, it's the World Series on FOX.

Maybe it happened last year too. I can't remember. I don't pay attention to baseball. It's bad enough that we don't get to watch House MD or Standoff until the stupid World Series is over. But on top of that, some competing prime time networks refused to air new episodes of popular shows to compete against the World Series. I understand the strategy behind not "wasting" a single episode of viewers, but it also expresses a lack of confidence in the quality of one's programming.

If ABC has no faith in their shows to compete, they shouldn't schedule them at all. To pull a show because it seems a given that the show will lose viewers to a sporting event is frustrating. The Superbowl is one thing. It's one game on one night. But any sport that has multiple game championships does not deserve special privileges. I won't even go into how ridiculous it is to have a seven game championship series (even for my beloved sport of basketball). That's for another post. It is enough for now to say that I speak for many when I say that I am not happy to lose favorite shows due to a baseball game series. And since I'm on the subject, I have two complaints: who's bright idea was it to move Kidnapped to Saturday? It's a great show. What, it couldn't compete with the others? Have you seen this cast? Delroy Lindo is the head FBI investigator. Emmy award winning Dana Delaney stars as the mother of the kidnapped boy. Academy-Award winning Timothy Hutton (of Nero Wolfe fame) stars as the father.

If that's not enough, Jeremy Sisto (White Squall, Suicide Kings, Hideaway, Clueless) plays the professional kidnap retrieval expert. He's ex-FBI, and he breaks any rules necessary to bring kids back to their parents. It's a great story. It's another season long story, like 24 and LOST. It is not a carbon copy of any other show. And what about Crossing Jordan? I checked NBC's online programming schedule three weeks ago and it had Crossing Jordan slated for Friday nights at 8pm EST. I went back to check again this week, and Crossing Jordan has disappeared. Now there's a stupid gameshow instead.... I just did a little research and it appears that Crossing Jordan will appear around midseason. Why? I have no idea. The gameshow will move to 9pm EST supposedly.

I'm not sure I believe it. Stations are becoming more fickle and unpredictable with every new season. Of course, the number of shows worth watching has increased too, but that doesn't make up for the fact that even the TV Guide doesn't know when a given show will definitely be on. Crossing Jordan was one of my shows.

Don't mess with my shows.

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I've seen a decent enough of a rise in traffic over the past month to wonder whether or not these people are getting enough new content to keep them coming back. The truth is, I'm working hard to get into the groove at VIZION Interactive and sometimes it's hard to spend any extra time near the computer. So, I've decided to try an experiment. If you want to write, email me an article/blog post along with a brief bio (nothing fancy - just give me an idea of who I'm dealing with). The way it will work is simple: if I like what I read, I'll post it. If I don't like it, I won't post it. I won't contact you with reasons why, simply because I don't have the time. Just send whatever you've written to daniel@culturefeast.com.

I'm going to limit submissions to 500 words. If your article or blog is twice that size, try splitting it in half and submitting it as part one and part two. Don't forget to include the bio. Hey, who knows? Maybe this could turn into a regular thing for one or two of you with nothing better to do than showcase your brilliance to the world. I have already been approached by one person this week looking for a job. This is NOT an opportunity to make money on CultureFeast. I don't even make money from the blogs I write (not enough to buy a meal, anyway).

So why, then, should any of you waste your time posting your thoughts here instead of creating your own blog? Well, look at my traffic. I'm no SEOmoz or BlogMaverick, but you can get some decent exposure here. I will post your name clearly so that everyone can see who is the genius behind the magical pen! Anyone who gets 50 articles/blogs posted on this site will start receiving links to their own personal blog with each new article/blog they post on CultureFeast thereafter. What do ya think? Anyone interested? If so, drop me a line.

If you have any suggestions, post a comment down below.

Thanks,

Daniel Dessinger

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ABC News featured a story tonight about the ever-growing trade of medical tourism, especially to India. The cameras followed Dodie Gilmore of Caddo, Oklahoma across the United States, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia. Dodie is a real estate agent and owns 180 acres. She travels regularly across the acreage, feeding her cows. Arthritis in her hip has made such routines painful and difficult. The hip resurfacing she needed would cost her anywhere from $28k to $40k in the U.S. She was introduced to the idea of inexpensive surgery in India, and decided to take the plunge. She managed to save two thirds of what she would have spent in the States. She also managed to see part of the world she never expected to have the opportunity to see. Medical tourism providers, like Global Surgical Solutions, provide all the information and help necessary for a medical procedure in India.

Procedures that can be scheduled by GSS include cosmetic surgery, infertility treatments, dental procedures, hip replacement, knee replacement, pacemakers, coronary bypass surgery, balloon valvuloplasty, coronary angioplasty, electrophysiological study, coronary angiography, heart valve replacement, liposuction, gastric bypass surgery, and several holistic therapies. For more information on surgery in India or medical tourism, visit GSS on the web at http://www.globalsurgicalsolutions.com/.

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It was a long time ago. Every kid I knew seemed to have a Picture Bible. For those of you who've never seen a Picture Bible, it's a comic book version of the Bible, telling many of the stories, but skipping everything not narrative. Someone thought this was a great idea. I'd like to kick that someone. I'd like to kick them very hard... in both shins... and maybe the groin. Not a very Christian-like response, eh? It's true... Still, I can't seem to forgive the person or persons responsible for making my life this difficult. Something about Jesus, Paul, and Moses as cartoons managed to steal just a little bit of the realism from the stories... Go figure. The more I think about it, the more horrible an idea the Picture Bible seems. It's hard enough to understand a foreign culture. It's even harder to understand a culture 2,000 - 4,000 years ago. But take that and turn it into a comic book, and you have plenty of reasons why a child growing into adulthood should have a problem or two comprehending the heroes of the faith. Seriously, how does one ever take the Apostle Paul seriously when the story of his blinding light encounter with Jesus sparks imagery of a pink colored man touched by crayon yellow rays? What about Jesus healing the cartoon boy? Children learn to enjoy cartoons as entertainment, and often take away morals from the story if they be present. But the Bible was intended to be far more than an extended fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. I've heard some people voice the opinion that it's often easier to be a Christian if you were not taught Christian principles as a child. Apparently, you get to avoid quite a bit of the hypocrisy we pick up on by mimicking what we don't understand. At the same time you gain hypocrisy, your tiny developing mind learns to associate the unreal with stories of the real, making true faith that much more difficult. Some parents (especially hard right wingers who homeschool their kids) will react angrily, saying that I have just criticized the best method they have of teaching their children. To which I would reply that I have no viable solution to that dilemma. How do you teach a child the way in which he or she should go? Some children will literally love those cartoon Bible stories. But I ask you this: at what future cost? Somehow, we must learn to disentangle ourselves from the false in order to approach the real.

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