Seattle Summary
Feb 29, 2008 Uncategorized
I have done a ton of traveling this month, including 2 trips to Chicago, 1 trip to Atlanta, and 1 trip to Seattle.
Since I don’t feel like recapping them all, I’ll just recap the most recent: Seattle with Steve (one of my co-pastors). And since I’m too lazy to type a big summary of the time, I’ll do it via pictures.
Outdoor fireplaces seem all the rage:
We had a great tour of the city by Jeff Lind. He then bought us an amazing seafood feast. Mmmmmm:
In Seattle, they don’t take kindly to decaf drinkers so they shame them with mugs like this:
Church service at Mars Hill:
The SkyNeedle and crazy rock music museum (our hotel was just down the block from here):
Apparently, this lady was offered a million dollars for her house. She wouldn’t sell, so this workout place is building right around her:
Scott Thomas from Acts 29 took us to a Belgian restaurant with 50 beers on tap:
This sign on a local business made me laugh outloud:
That shall suffice for now.
RiverBrew Makes the Paper
Feb 29, 2008 Uncategorized
RiverBrew (our church’s brewing ministry) made it into the paper today.
I talk about it more over on WalkTheRazor.com.
Help with Porn
Feb 25, 2008 Uncategorized
It dawns on me that I never sent out the resources I compiled for people wrestling with sexual purity / porn, etc. Oops. Here they are. Let me know if there are any other resources you would like to share.
PureOnline
Pure Online is an online recovery workshop consisting of 15 streaming video lessons and a workbook that guides you through the 30-day program.
xxxchurch
Tons of resources and help for those struggling with porn.
OpenDNS
This is the services I talked about at Riverview. OpenDNS blocks phishing sites, gives you the power to filter out adult sites and proxies among more than 40 categories, and provides the precision to block individual domains.
X3Watch
This is the accountability software I talked about.
SafeEyes
This is an accountability / filtering software combined into one.
The iTunes Random Challenge
Feb 23, 2008 Uncategorized
Update: Randi-Kay has responded. So has Dan Price. So has Jack.
OK, I don’t normally do stuff like this, but since it was Stephen Shields who asked me to, I will.
Here are the rules:
1. grab your preferred digital media player.
2. push play in shuffle mode.
3. report … the first 10 tunes that pop up.
…
5. cheating is prohibited, as it would be in poor taste.
6. this will decide whether you are a likeable person or not.
7. at least that’s what my friend steve told me.
8. when he said this, the part about being a likeable person, i panicked.
9. but it turned out he was kidding.
10. sort of.
…
15. you’re still a great person.
Here are my ten:
Now I Am Different - Aimee Mann
Destructor - Red Letter
Suicide Blonde - INXS
Don’t Believe It (It’s Easier Said Than Done) - King’s X
Welcome To My Life - Simple Plan
Where Would I Be? - Cake
Dead - They Might Be Giants
I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You) - The Temptations
The Distance - Cake
Undignified/You Alone - David Crower Band
Stephen also asked me to tag 5 people. I hereby tag:
Dan Price (I’m predicting Wilco will show up in there somewhere.)
Dave Kurt (I’m predicting “Friends” by Michael W. Smith will show up in there somewhere.)
Jack Lumanog
Ken Buck
Randy Kay Anthony
Link Love
Feb 17, 2008 Uncategorized
I just spent a couple hours (between yesterday and today) cleaning up my Link Love Section. I deleted sites I never read, re-categorized a few, and got rid of the blogging slackers.
While doing so, I caught up on so many blogs I have not had time to read, including one of my favorites Monkeys For Helping. Thanks to that site, I present you with some tips on parenting. You can see a lot more of these by clicking here.
These seriously had me laughing outloud.
Coley is Sick
Feb 16, 2008 Uncategorized
My Coley is sick. He’s barfed a couple times (including once in bed), diarrheaed a few times, and he’s generally feeling like crap.
I’m sure he’s contagious.
And I’m doing some traveling next week.
But I can’t stop cuddling him and kissing his head.
I guess that’s what it means to be a dad.
Happy Valentine’s Day 2
Feb 14, 2008 Uncategorized
Thanks to JVO for this VDay greeting. I was seriously laughing outloud.
And for some reason, it reminded me of this classic:
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Feb 14, 2008 Uncategorized
Thanks to Tom for this one. Click on it for a larger image.
The Sovereignty of Delayed Flights
Feb 13, 2008 Uncategorized
Ok. Here’s how my day went yesterday.
I was attending a one day summit at Buckhead Church in Atlanta. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30pm, where I would fly to Detroit and an hour later hop a flight (first class) to Chicago for a day of meetings with the GCM boys.
Easy, right?
Well…I got done in Atlanta 5 hours early so I went to the airport to catch an earlier fight. I was told there wasn’t one so I settled in for a long wait.
As I was reading my book, I glanced up and saw a flight that left 4 hours early. I headed to the counter and through the miracle of “Elite Status,” I got the very last seat.
Perfect.
When I arrived in Detroit, I got myself on standby for a flight to Chicago that was 4 hours early. I didn’t make the flight.
Arg.
So, I looked at the departure board and saw a flight leaving in 45 minutes. I ran to the gate and got on the flight. I had to give up my first class seat, but who cares? I’m going to be early.
So we board the plane and sit there for an hour before getting cancelled because of snow in Chicago. Off I go to rebook my flight. I call NWA reservations and I am booked back onto my original flight, in my original first class seat, no less.
As I sit waiting for my flight, I hear those dreaded words, “ladies and gentlemen, flight 1245 to Chicago has been delayed.”
But there was a silver lining to that snow cloud. I met a retired university president who gave me a ton of great leadership ideas. I found myself chewing on his thoughts during the whole flight.
By the time I arrived at my hotel in Chicago, it was 12:30 in the morning. I slept soundly, knowing the 11 hour trip from Atlanta was worth it.
Of course, I’m hoping today’s flight home is less eventful.
Biofuels Worse Than Gasoline?
Feb 10, 2008 Uncategorized
On the environmental theme I seem to be on lately, I present you with Studies That Say Biofuels Worse Than Gasoline
When all relevant factors are accounted for, biofuels produce more greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels.
So conclude two studies published yesterday in Science, adding to a growing body of research suggesting that crop-based fuels, once hailed as a clean answer to oil, are not a magic green bullet.
Biofuels seemed so promising at first — what could be cleaner than running our cars and factories on plants? But early prognostications were a bit thin on details. They didn’t always account for the energy that would be needed to grow, harvest and refine the fuels. Most importantly, they didn’t consider that greenhouse gas-gobbling vegetation would need to be cleared for fuel crops — or, if these were planted on existing pastures, that new fields would be cleared to make space for displaced food crops.
Put these factors in the equation, and biofuels don’t do much good at all. The first study, led by Princton University environmental law researcher Timothy Searchinger, found that replacing fossil fuels with corn-based ethanol — the darling of the U.S. biofuel industry — would double greenhouse gas emissions for the next thirty years. Even switchgrass, seen as a far more efficient alternative, would produce a 50% bump in emissions.
Hmmm…first the Prius was bad for the environment, then Global Cooling, then this.
What’s next?
Is someone going to say that harvesting the rain forrest for wood floors is good for the ecosystem? Hope so.
Global Cooling
Feb 9, 2008 Uncategorized
Thanks to Dan for this article on IBDeditorials.com that may describe this crazy winter:
Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.
Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.
This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.
So, which do you believe in: Global Warming or Global Cooling?
Either way, let’s remember:
Job 9:7 - If [God] commands it, the sun won’t rise and the stars won’t shine.
Quote of the Day
Feb 8, 2008 Quotes
From one of the best named blogs out there: Veterinarians: The Other White Coat:
Diarrhea is like pornography. It’s hard to define, but you’ll know it when you see it.
-sys path
Air
Feb 7, 2008 Uncategorized
This week has been a week of coming up for air.
Monday I just chilled for the day and worked a little on taxes. I even watched Regis and Kelly with my wife.
The rest of the week I have been playing catch up. This year, I made a resolution to zero out my inbox daily. What that means is that each day before I go home, I try to respond to all my emails. That only worked until the second week of the last series at Riverview. Then, the pile got too much to handle. Today, I got through all my messages.
Now I can go back to trying to zero out my messages each day.
All has been delightful.
Until iTunes popped this album cover up on my screen.
Now I’m just creeped out.
Quote of the Day
Feb 1, 2008 Quotes
Sorry for the slow blogging. I have been slammed with message and building stuff. For now, this quote (via John) will have to suffice:
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
-Douglas Adams
