I discovered this song last fall, and I’ve loved it ever since. A bonus track from Jackopierce’s Promise of Summer, Summer’s Gone is catchy without being too poppy. It’s perfect for this time of year. And, obviously, it’s free!

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about e-readers. Amazon released a 6″ version of its Kindle this week, and dropped its price from $279 to $259. Tuesday, Barnes and Noble unveiled the new e-reader, the nook, which will be released in November. Sony, which released its first version in 2007. plans to release a 7″ competitor to the Kindle and nook in December. E-readers may never reach the status of the iPod, and cetrtainly will never attain PC status, but they are becoming more and more prominent in mainstream society.

I was originally hesitant about e-readers. As a lover of books, the idea of reading a novel from an electronic device just seemed… wrong. But e-readers make sense for several reasons. Stewardship-wise, book publishing isn’t practical. Books are printed, bought, and usually read once. Then they sit on shelves. While I love my 300+ titles lined up on the shelves, I sometimes consider the amount of paper that was used and cringed. Additionally, I’ve realized that the power of the written word transcends the device in which it is held. If we can get our newspapers online, why not a novel on a portable reading device? E-readers have a long way to go, and it’ll be interesting to see how they face issues such as piracy and self-publication. For now, I’m going to keep an eye on the e-book industry, and e-readers as a candidate for next year’s Christmas list.

Swagbucks is a search that combines results from Google and Ask, so the results usually aren’t much different from either of those two providers. Sponsored links appear at the top, but they’re easy to avoid. You earn ‘Swagbucks’ randomly when searching, and I average 3-4 a day. 45 ‘bucks will get you a $5 Amazon gift card, my personal favorite, but there are a TON of prizes to choose from – books, music, electronics, and an array of gift cards. You can download the toolbar to make searching easier, and get access to swagcodes, which earn you 1 or more swagbucks just for entering them on the site!

Check it out here, and start earning prizes for searching the web!

Image via Wikipedia

Song: In These Arms

I know, it’s Saturday. My bad. But free music is free music, right? This week’s pick is from the Swell Season, of Once fame. Markéta Irglováand Glen Hansard are a real-life group (although they’re no longer a couple). Their new album doesn’t come out for another week, but you can get the beautifully haunting single “In These Arms” right now -free!

Image by via Flickr

I signed up for Twitter today. My reason was far different than most people’s: I want to be involved with writing an audiobook. Sound interesting? I think so. Tomorrow at noon EST, popular writer Neil Gaiman, author of such acclaimed novels as Stardust and American Gods, is going to post the beginning of a story. Individuals will then tweet the next part, and the next part, all the way up to 1,000 tweets.

BBC Audiobooks America will collect the tweets, edit them, and release them as a free audiobook for download. Remember that game you used to play as a kid, when you wrote the beginning of a story and then passed it on to your friend? Now magnify that by a thousand. Inspired? Find more info here.

Image by Cayusa via Flickr

I’ve been thinking  a lot lately about silence. The noise of our culture has received a lot of criticism lately. Bloggers, tv personalities, and pastors all champion the importance of silence. I recently learned about The Abbey of Gethsemani. People from all over go on retreats there to meditate, and spend almost all of their time in silence.

At first I thought, what an amazing experience! I pictured myself watching the mist vanish over the Kentucky hills in the morning or walking ancient paths in the afternoon, completely silent. I thought about how much closer I would grow to God, how clear the Spirit’s whispers would be. And then I remembered something: I have an endless capacity for distraction. (I stopped while writing this to stare down a fly that was encircling the room and then to try to figure out the song that someone in the hallway was singing). The more I considered it, the more I saw how a retreat would really turn out. The morning mist would remind me of that horrible sci-fi movie, and a beautiful afternoon stroll would make me wish I had a guy to share it with. See, the noise around me doesn’t compare to the noise that’s constantly going in my mind. I hope to one day go on a silent retreat at that abbey. But more than that,  I hope that God continually quiets my incessant inner chatter with his still-small voice.

Song: Blue Skies

Blue Skies is a single from indie-folk band Noah and the Whale’s new album The First Days of Spring, released in September. The album is largely an exploration of loneliness and heartbreak, and Blue Skies continues in this trend while offering glimpses of hope amidst swelling background vocals, soft drums, and guitar strumming.

Image via CrunchBase

I know it’s been a while. I wasn’t sure if I was willing to commit the time and self-searching a blog will require. And while I’m still not certain this is a good idea, I signed a contract stating that I would write a blog. So that’s what I’m doing.

My roomate and I are currently fasting from Facebook. It’s not Lent yet, and we weren’t challenged by a pastor; we just thought it would be a good thing to do. It’s been ten days now. Nothing has really changed, which surprised me. I somehow expected to suddenly find myself with more free time, as if it was Facebook that prevented me from growing mentally or spiritually instead of my own fallen, distracted, procrastinating state. I’m beginning to realize that even if I removed out all the technological distractions, my thoughts would still wander far from God. This isn’t a cultural condition, or even a postmodern condition; it’s a human condition.

Glancing back over my first couple of blogs, I realized that I might come across as someone who spends all their free time reading and writing, like some sort of modern-day scribe. That’s not the case. For example, I currently hold job at Fazoli’s, where I receive exactly 5 cents above minimum wage. Despite all those horror stories about fast food (I’m sorry: ‘real food fast’), it’s not a bad job. Sure, some people have perfected rudeness as if it’s an art form, but I usually forget about them pretty quickly. That’s where the bending comes in. Maybe some day I’ll shamelessly write about them here and exact my digital revenge.

Image via Wikipedia

I thought that I should explain the title of my blog. (For any tweens out there, I’m not offering a how-to-guide on airbending).

First off, I’ve always failed miserably at any activity even remotely involving gymnastics (picture the only 5th grader who couldn’t do a cartwheel), so bending has always appealed to me.

Also, I’ve noticed that many of my favorite song lyrics involve the concept of bending. Tom Chaplin of Keane and Jon Foreman both champion bending over the other alternative, breaking.

Finally, I’ve always considered myself to be a fairly elastic person. I have a sort of roll-with-the-punches, avoid-conflict mentality. On one personality quiz I scored 12/12 for conflict avoidance. And while I don’t always recommend shying away from an argument, maybe some of you out there could learn to bend just a little. I lack actual expertise in most fields of interest, and I still can’t to a cartwheel. But caught between the proverbial rocks and hard places of life, I always manage to squeeze my way out with a smile.