Hardly Wisdom

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

2011-06-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

We've been promoting our HSM Summer Camp like crazy for the past few weeks. It was obvious that every student who walked through our doors knew that Summer Camp existed. Our problem was that students were putting off signing up for various reasons! So, I was given a last minute project to fix this issue. I ended up coming up with this design:

It's a clever little flow chart that we ended up printing on about 1000 business cards. We handed them out and students got a huge kick out of them. My philosophy behind most of my designs is that if you can read it at a glance, then you've failed. If you have to read it, but it's not interesting, then you've failed. They have to want to read the text and that's hard to do with high schoolers. So, this worked perfectly because the design was interesting, they had to actually read it, and it was funny enough that they kept reading.

My favorite part of this whole design was when I saw this:

A church in Mill Creek, Washington saw my design (either on our facebook or morethandodgeball.com) and replicated it for their junior high summer camp. At first glance, I thought they jut added their logo and info at the top, but when I looked closer, it was clear that they made their own flow chart, using mine as a reference.

This kind of stuff makes me happy because it shows that our churches are able to use each other's resources and ideas for a common goal. I'm also extremely flattered that they liked my design enough to make their own :D

The Principal's Office

2011-02-02T09:15:00.001-08:00

Our high school life group has been great and not so great. On one side, the guys are all getting along and becoming really good friends. On the other side, they've been having a really hard time with focusing on the group during any serious discussion. Many times I have spoken to the group about the importance of paying attention and not becoming distracted, but they're hyper freshmen with short attention spans :)

Last night I decided to try something new called, "The Principal's Office". I called each guy into an office room, one-by-one to talk one-on-one. I hit three points:

1. How I see you in the group: Are you the funny guy? The quiet guy? Do the other guys like you? Do I feel like you fit in with the group (easy because every one of them fits in perfectly)?

2. What I appreciate about you: Do you participate? Do you make the group laugh? Do you have leader potential? Are you good at paying attention? Each guy has something.

3. Where I think you need to improve: Do you need to focus more? Do you need to not sit next to certain people to alleviate distraction? Do you need to be more involved with the discussions? Some guys were actually doing great while others needed a little more push.

The talk lasted for about 2-5 minutes depending on the guy. I asked each one if there was anything they wanted more/less of in the group. Their feedback is extremely important because it's their group! When we're done, I ask them to start crying as they walk out to scare the other guys :)

All in all, the principal's office was pretty good. I had great one-on-one time with the guys where I could encourage them to be the best they could be in the group. The guys waiting outside the room had a lot of fun fellowshipping. My favorite part was calling them in randomly. They all acted like it was a horrible thing and tried to volunteer each other for the next spot :)

GAY!

2010-11-10T07:37:00.000-08:00

As our Life Group continues to develop, I begin to notice some major issues arise in the students' thinking. While talking about our weeks, one student raised his hand and said that he had a serious question. He was concerned because a new club called The Gay-Straight Alliances had recently formed at his school. A good chunk of the other guys in the room began to call out, "Mine too!" and "It's so gay!". I could tell that these guys didn't have a clear understanding of the Christian view on homosexuality.

The student's question was simple, "What do we do about this club?" My initial response was simple, "What do you guys think you should do?" We went around the room one by one and got the same basic answer from each guy, "I wouldn't do anything". A few of the guys added, "To be completely honest, I would probably make fun of them and not do anything." I was troubled by this response, but expected it. I have to keep reminding myself that they're still young and get a lot of their views from TV and the kids around them.

As I wrote in my last post, our group is notorious for tangents. I used this conversation veering to my advantage. After about five minutes, we drifted into a conversation about people with diseases. I told the guys that I wanted to test them on their morality. I drew this picture on the white board:

I told them that the area labeled D was a pool where sick people would go in hopes getting better. They believed that the water would somehow get rid of their illness. I told the guys in the group that they work in the same area around all the sick people. For the sake of the example, no one had anything contagious or disgusting.

I then drew a building and said it was about 15 miles away. It's a hospital and in the hospital is a doctor who can help anyone. I then told them that the sick people have never heard of this doctor.

With that scenario in place, I then asked another very simple question, "Do you take any of these sick people to the hospital?" Every guy in the group was confused by how easy it was to answer, "Well... of course we would." It almost sounded like they were trying to figure out if it was a trick question.

I then relabeled the picture to this:

I explained that Jesus was the doctor and the church was the hospital. The group of sick people were the members of the GSA and the pool was their school. It was amazing how willing they were to help someone who needed help physically, but not someone who needed help spiritually.

I will explain to you as I explained to the group: homosexuality is not a sickness nor is it a disease. The analogy was speaking of an issue with spiritual health. Are the members of this club seeking something? Absolutely. They're seeking a community where they're accepted. They have formed a group where their emotional and social needs are met. They are safe. But do they have a relationship with Jesus? Probably not. Will they meet Jesus in this club? Most likely no. That is, unless Christians live like they are supposed to live.

Every guy in my group said that they would do nothing about this club. I'm sure some groups out there would say they want to protest it. I say NO! Join the club! Be bold! Get over your insecurities and all the junk the world has taught you. Don't ask, "What would Jesus do?" Ask, "What DID Jesus do?" He spent time with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sick people. He served those who the world deemed different. He showed love and compassion to the people who were mocked and scorned.

One guy in the group made a good point, "We can't just go in there and start talking about Jesus. They'll just get mad and kick us out."

He's absolutely right. Then I used on of my favorite quotes, "Preach the gospel always, if necessary use words." ~ St. Francis of Assisi.

So join this club. Hang out with the people. Serve them. Care about them. Laugh with them. Listen to them. Talk with them. Learn about their lives. Love them. Do all this with a sincere, Christ-centered heart and wait for them to ask you about Jesus. Then invite them to church and show them a community of broken people who live in Christ's love.

We are all sinners. We are all hurting. We all need Christ. Simple.

Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:17

Tangent Fighters

2010-11-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

One thing that plagues many small groups is the tendency to veer off from the original conversation onto what eventually becomes a topic of complete irrelevancy. In short, a tangent!

Sometimes tangents can be great! In fact, a student in your group might open up based on a conversation that stemmed from a tangent. I would go as far as to say that the Holy Spirit leads some great conversations via the human inability to stay on topic. You might want to talk about honoring parents, but God wants to steer the conversation onto a topic of purity.

Then, of course, you have negative tangents. These are the tangents that are steered by pride, selfishness, or flat out distraction. This is the most common type of tangent in small groups. Someone will be opening up about something and a key word sparks a conversation from another student. The moment is ruined for the opening student and the rest of the group dives into a maze of conversations that lead to nowhere.

So here are three ways to be a Tangent Fighter

1. Be wise and recognize! Understand when a tangent is destructive or productive. It's easy. Was someone in the middle of talking about something important? Is the tangent important? Does it feel like the Spirit is leading the group or is it just up in the air?

2. Make it known. On the first day your group meets, make the tangent issue known. Let your students understand that veering off on a conversation is inevitable, but not okay in most cases. Tell them that it's nothing personal, but if the group goes off topic, you're going to steer right back.

3. Get them involved! Our group name is "The Tangent Fighters". It is known in our group that we easily slip into tangents. They also know that anyone can call, "TANGENT!" when the conversation begins to slide. This is great because the students who are notorious for tangents are typically the first ones to get the conversation back on track. When the students are given such a responsibility, they really take to it!

Always remember to be wise! Sometimes the Holy Spirit wants to lead a conversation and it may look like a useless tangent. I once bought a car that looked like a... oh wait, TANGENT!!!!

New Life Group

2010-09-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

One thing I love about HSM is the opportunity to lead a High School Life Group. I'm really excited about this year because I'm starting off with a group of freshmen guys (and one sophomore who turns out to be too awesome for words, so I'm thrilled he's in the group!).

Most of the guys go to different schools and have different interests. We have skaters, a computer guy, a basketball player, a wrestler, a trampolinist, a stud who has been dating the same girl for 10 months, and a musician. It's such a great and diverse group. Everyone seemed to get along great at the Meet n' Greet last Tuesday. It was loud and crowded, but we still had some fun.

One thing I wanted to do was give them a quick pop quiz about the Bible. I wasn't grading them, nor was I using it to assess their knowledge. The pop quiz was a list of 20 true or false questions. Most of them were trick questions intended to catch their interest. No one scored a 100 and I didn't expect them to. Below is the pop quiz. Try your best and check the answers and explanations a little further down. Good luck!

POP QUIZ!!!

TRUE or FALSE?

1. There is power in prayer. ________

2. There are dinosaurs in the Bible. ________

3. Peter was a ﬁsherman and became the ﬁrst Pope. ________

4. "A dog returns to its vomit" is from the Bible. ________

5. Noah's Ark had two of every animal. ________

6. You go to hell because you're a bad person. ________

7. Jesus was Jewish. ________

8. The Bible can be interpreted in many different ways. ________

9. There is a talking donkey in the Bible. ________

10. The guy who wrote 13 books of the Bible killed Christians. ________

11. There are many paths to heaven. ________

12. Adam & Eve ate an apple. ________

13. Jesus said, "What luck for rulers that men do not think." ________

14. We have guardian angels to protect us. ________

15. Jesus was the only one to walk on water. ________

16. Moses broke the ﬁrst set of the 10 Commandments on the ground. ________

17. Xerxes (zerks'-ez) from the movie 300 is in the Bible. ________

18. David cut of Goliath's head with his (Goliath's) own sword. ________

19. BC and AD stand for "Before Christ" and "After Death". ________

20. We should never point out other people's sins. ________

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Answers!!!

1. FALSE: Surprised? Trick question! There is no power in prayer. There is power in the one who you pray to. What if you pray to a toaster? There's no power in that prayer! God is the one with power and prayer is simply our way of communicating with Him.

2. TRUE: I say true with the disclaimer that it is likely, but not fact. In Job 40:15-249, God speaks of a huge animal called the behemoth. Read closely at the description. He describes the animal the same way we would describe a dinosaur. Does that mean that it is a dinosaur? Not necessarily. Does it mean that it could be a dinosaur? Absolutely! Our group will study this more later for fun. It's a great way to get students interested in the Bible.

3. TRUE: The Pope belongs to the Catholic denomination, but nonetheless, a fisherman became a leader because of Christ. I thought that was interesting.

4. TRUE: The phrase is commonly associated with a criminal who returns to the scene of his crime. Proverbs 26:11 is actually speaking of a fool who repeats this folly. The criminal would fit into the category of a fool, but so does everyone else in the world. If you continue making the same mistakes (they don't have to be criminal), then you're considered a fool.

5. FALSE: Trick question again! Most paintings and children's books depict a male and a female set of animals entering the ark. However, God commanded Noah to bring 7 of every clean animal and 2 of every unclean animal. He also commanded that he bring 7 of every kind of bird. So, while the majority might have been in pairs of two, we know that some were allowed to bring friends.

6. TRUE: This is another trick question that requires some logic. Hell was created for those who were rebellious (meaning Satan and his demons). Hell is the absence of God's salvation. Imagine having the flu with no hope of getting well. The lack of hope is hell. Because of Adam and Eve, we became rebellious. We live our lives according to our own ways and ignore the One who created us. As a result, we are sinful. God has a standard and that standard is perfection. Since we're rebellious and sinful, the things we do that are not perfect are considered bad things. That doesn't just mean killing and stealing. Lying, laziness, selfishness, foolishness, etc... those are all short of perfection and therefore not good (i.e. bad things). So, to atone for our rebellious ways, Jesus lived a life that wasn't rebellious and became worthy to take our places. By us accepting Christ into our lives, we are giving Him our sins. With our sins wiped clean, we are able enter Heaven. So, the common thing to say is that you go to hell because you didn't accept Christ. That's true, but it doesn't make sense until you understand why you need Christ.

The best way I've heard it put is, "If you don't want to live your life for God on earth, why in the world would you want to spend eternity with him in Heaven?"

7. TRUE: Jesus was absolutely Jewish.

8. TRUE: Trick question again. You have to be careful on this one because our culture uses terms and phrases so loosely that two things may sound similar but mean two different things. This question is based off the idea that the Bible is a large metaphorical book with hidden wisdom and insight. What you read can mean different things to different readers. The problem with that is the Bible is very real, historical, and direct. I love when someone reads a parable that Jesus told, then claim its up for interpretation. One problem... read a little further and Jesus plainly explains to his disciples what he meant.

The epistles are real letters written to real churches/people by real people. When Paul tells us that we shouldn't use perverse language, he means that we shouldn't use perverse language. If you try to spin that in a way so you can cuss, you're just trying to justify yourself. Sorry, it doesn't work that way! Everything needs to be read in context with a knowledge of the history to gain a full understanding.,=

9. TRUE: This wasn't a Shrek reference! In Numbers 22:22, Balaam's donkey begins to talk to him!

10. TRUE: Before Paul became a Christian, he was a zealous Pharisee. When he heard of this Jesus craze going around, he got permission from the Jewish leaders to throw Christ followers in prison, or stone them. He later went on to preach to the gentiles and plant churches all over the place. He would write letters to the churches to answer their questions or to encourage them. He would also write to individuals to instruct and encourage as well. Thirteen of those letters make up part of the New Testament.

11. FLASE: This doesn't work logically and I'll explain: There are three options: We have one god, many gods, or no gods. You cannot have all three. It has to be one. If it's true that we have many gods, then it would make sense to say that the Christian God was one of them. However, the Bible makes the claim that there is only one God and that God is perfect, doesn't lie, and is all powerful. If there are many gods, then the God of the Bible is lying about being the only god. If He's lying about being the only god, then the attributes that make Him a god are not real because God doesn't lie. If God does not have the attributes of a god, then He's no god at all. Most religions claim to be the only way and are exclusive. In the end, you really have to come to the conclusion that there is either one god or no gods. (ie one way or no way).

12. FALSE: The Bible only says that they ate fruit. We automatically think of an apple because of children's books and paintings.

13. FALSE: That was actually a statement from Hitler.

14. FALSE: Though it's really nice to say, the Bible says nothing about guardian angels.

15. FALSE: Though it was brief, Peter took a step out of the boat walked toward Jesus. That is, of course, until he got scared and began to sink :)

16. TRUE: After God had given Moses the two tablets, Moses headed down the mountain to deliver the new law to his people. Unfortunately, his people grew tired of waiting for him and began worshipping a golden calf. Moses was so mad that he threw the tablets down to the ground. I'm sure it was awkward when he had to get the new tablets from God!

17. TRUE: Xerxes is the king in the book of Ester.

18. TRUE: After killing goliath with his sling, David ran over and cut off Goliath's head with his own sword. That's pretty intense!

19. TRUE / FALSE: BC stands for Before Christ, but AD stand for Anno Domini, which means "In the year of our Lord."

20. FALSE: Just to clarify, the question is in regards to Christian brothers. A brother in Christ should point out the other brother's sins. It must be with the purpose of helping the brother grow and not to bring him down. We have to encourage each other to steer clear from sin and strengthen our walk with God.

Like I said, no one score an A, but we had a lot of fun going over the answers. I love challenging students to search for the truth and examine those claims and phrases that are so popular in our culture. Most, if not all, of these questions are based on the idea that people can answer with, "Well I've heard...". I want my guys to answer with, "Well I know....".

Darren, Darrel, or Darnel?

2010-09-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hollie and I are leading High School Life Groups this year. Since it's her first time, she was given a copy of Help! I'm a Volunteer Youth Worker! by Doug Fields. It's a fairly short book with quick chapters of thoughts, ideas, and wisdom from Doug. I decided to skim through it and toward the middle I hit the chapter on names.

"For most kids, their name is their greatest possession. Remembering a teenager's name communicates significance." (Chapter: Name-Dropping Allowed Here)

This is very true for students and adults alike. Remember one's name makes the person feel special, important, and worthy. Forgetting someone's name can be embarrassing and sometimes insulting.

I'm actually really bad with names. I have this strange talent where I can remember exactly where I met someone and how we met (literally anyone), but names always slip from my memory!

A trick that most people use that doesn't help me at all is repeating the person's name during your conversation with them. Ten minutes later, I can't remember if it was Craig or Carl who I was talking with! It doesn't mean that the person isn't important, it just means that I'm an idiot when it comes to names!

Here's what I do to remember names:

When I meet someone for the first time, I take note of their name and think, "I only have to remember this name for 10 minutes." Sometimes I'll visualize the person with a friend who has the same name. A big group of Brians hanging out helps quite a bit.

Once the conversation is over, I quickly bust out my phone and go to the notes app. I have a list of every person I've met, no matter how insignificant the meeting was. I enter the name and next to it I write a short note about the person. Maybe it's what we talked about. Maybe it's how they look. Sometimes it's something interesting that they do.

I rarely refer back to this list because taking 90 seconds to jot things down usually helps me visually remember the person's name. Here's an example:

Steve: El Toro, plays trumpet, looks like Hurley from Lost.

Rudy: Steve's friend, frist time at church, made joke about throwing him a football in slow motion... then crying.

Alisha: Ran camera 2 this week. Has British accent. Works at Rubys.

Kyle: Volunteer, just married, graduated from IVC.

Once I have this list, I find it very easy to remember names. On top of that, it's really easy for me to remember something special about the conversation. Next time I see Steve, I'm going to ask him about the trumpet. When I hear the British accent, I'll remember her name is Alisha. When I throw a football in slow motion, I'll be expecting Rudy to catch it :)

Attempt 223

2010-09-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

There are many things in this world that I will never do: run for political office in Saskatchewan, drink an entire gallon of hot sauce in one sitting, shave an unyielding hyena, and eskimo-kiss a rhinoceros. There are, however, many things that I have tried and failed, yet deserve a second chance (I will learn to play you, ukulele!!!). Blogging falls into the second category.

I have tried many times to maintain a blog, but quickly realized that even I wasn't interested in what I was writing. Of course there were the occasional quips that I so joyfully published for the interwebs to read, but aside from that, my blog was nothing more than a, "Hey read me so you can think I'm awesome and/or intelligent!" There was just no meat to my blog.

So, just like the ukulele that I attempt to strum every once in awhile, I'm going to take my shot at blogging again and hopefully make some better music than my four stringed Hawaiian friend. This time, I'm going to write posts to help others with the thing that interests me the most, youth ministry. Even if the only person who reads this is me 5 years from now, it will still be nice to see where my head was when I dove head first into youth ministry :)

Chipotle!!!!!

2010-02-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated this blog in a few days! In more interesting news that most of the world probably doesn't care about: I got food poisoning from Chipotle over the weekend! Since moving to South Carolina (from Orange County, CA), Hollie and I have been trying to find something to remind us of home. The nearest Chipotle was only 20 minutes away in California time. However the average speed limit here is around 35-40 mph so it takes twice as long!

We made the drive and it was totally worth it... for the next 9 hours. On hour #10, I sounded like a zombie searching for fresh brains in the toilet. That continued every hour for about 9 hours! By the time I finished my one man puking party, I had lost about 10 lbs and was completely dehydrated. My body was weaker than ever before and that's weak! I've been in bed for the past day and a half slowly recovering and it sucks.

Here's the worst part: Hollie was so graceful with her food poisoning that you would never guess that she was sick at all! She still looked pretty like always! I envy that because I wasn't even the best looking guy at my one man puking party! Curse you and your good looks, Hollie!

With all that said, I am still recovering, Hollie is fine, and we're not going to be eating at Chipotle for a long time. And yes, I did call and let them know. Now on to more sleep!

Scientology Ad? Seriously? Haha!

2010-02-04T17:24:00.000-08:00

This is great! I added Google AdSense to cryingwife.com the other day. I can't check the ad on my on computer because it blocks my IP to prevent me from refreshing the page to get more hits. Someone notified me that it's a scientology ad! Hahaha!

I'm openly Christian and not a big fan of bashing other beliefs. So I wont be doing that here. I do think it's funny that they went with Scientology on this one. Does anyone know if it's random? How do they decide what ad to display? This made my day :)

UPDATE: I went through and disabled the religious ads on my Google AdSense account. No more scientology ads :(

Hollie Laughing for Once

2010-02-04T16:58:00.001-08:00

A bunch of people wanted me to upload a video of Hollie laughing. I went through a bunch of our home movies and thought this one was pretty funny. Just something different! *Oh and I think I got the date wrong. This happened in 2008 :)

Favorite Ninja Comments

2010-02-04T13:03:00.000-08:00

Awhile back I created a website for a ministry I made up called, Ninjas4Christ. The idea was simple: "Ninjas sharing the Gospel while roundhouse kicking you in the face." Of course it's a joke and all in good fun. Being a believer in Big J, I see it as a way for people to get a good laugh and see that church isn't always boring and lame :)

Not just anyone can get into Ninjas4Christ. You must first pass a series of tests before you can enter the site. Be very wise from the start! Once you're in, you can join the ministry via a contact page. Here are a few of my favorite comments left by people joining Ninjas4Christ:

1. With my yellow power-wheelchair, I have advantages that mere Ninja skills alone don't afford. Because of the power-chair, robots mistake me for one of their own -- a fatal mistake. Zombies (like many non-zombies) don't think of the disabled as fully human, and therefore don't percieve me as a threat -- zombie eliminated. Pirates can never seem to get a bead on me -- I believe this is due to a combination of my Ninja quickness, low profile, and the pirate's eye-patch (which seem to seriously screw-up their depth perception).

If you still have any doubts, as to my abilities, then consider this question: When was the last time you heard of any serious havoc being wreaked by zombies, pirates, or robots in the state of Georgia?

2. I am not a pirate, I am really a ninja. AAAARRRRRRRrrrrrr cough cough... I mean... I CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!

3. And on the fifth day, God created ninjas. And it was good. And stealthy.

Haha! It's really fun to see that people like this. If you want to see if you're ninja enough to join, I invite you to check it out (No pirates, zombies, or robots please).

NINJAS4CHRIST.COM

Time to name drop :)

2010-02-03T17:31:00.000-08:00

So I'm sitting at me desk, working of a few projects, and all the sudden my inbox gets flooded with messages from cryingwife.com! I'm used to a few hundred a day, but I'm talking about thousands in just a few hours! A bunch of people on the site notified me that (name drop #1) Alyssa Milano sent a tweet out about our videos :) She was even nice enough to send a tweet to me saying, "@pstech I love your Hollie videos!!! Just tweeted the site. Never watch E.T. with her." and "@pstech Tell her I think she's adorable!" That was super nice! We really like Alyssa (first name basis now ;-) jk) and that really made our day!

I then got a text from my good friend (name drop #2) Josh Griffin over at More Than Dodgeball and theforce.net. He's not as good looking as Alyssa Milano, but he's still worth a name drop! He's a huge fan of the site and told me that... (name drop #3).... Justin Timberlake was tweeting about the website! What? Awesome! I go to find out later that he posted it on his blog of the day.

Hollie had the biggest smile when I told her (should have filmed it). Neither of us were looking for this much attention, but why not ride the internet wave while you can, right? It's fun! We'll enjoy it while it lasts :) Maybe we'll make some money and sell her tears on eBay ;)

Goodbye Saddleback Family!

2010-01-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

Today is my last day working for Saddleback Church. I'm leaving to pursue my passion with graphic/web/animation/video production. For the past four years, this has been my home. The first time I felt inspired to search for God was here. I was baptized here. I met my closest friends here. I served in ministry here. I met Hollie here. I started off working as a janitor here. I was married here. I worked on IT here. I joined and led small groups here. I had the opportunity to pastor over some amazing high school guys here. I met my mentors here. I met some very inspiring people here. All in all, my life and my family is here.

To my brothers on Facilities,

Out of all the teams at the church, you guys have the most culture. I'm pretty sure no other team has their own language (i.e. "SandyPants! Don't be a Queeley and get 2 red dubs on the Great White before Shenibletron squats you!" You even have songs, "Two man crew for a one man job!" and "Facilities! *bump bump* Facilitates!".

I'm going to miss all the shenanigans. Boyd describes it best, "Facilities is like a wolf pack. The loudest guy is the alpha male, but that can easily change when he gets squatted by another member of the pack. The weakest/newest guy is constantly picked on and made fun of until there is a newer guy or until he squats someone of importance. However, if someone who is not a part of the pack begins picking on our weakest guy, that person can expect the whole facilities pack to squat him and his entire team!" I learned a lot from you guys and I'm going to miss most of you. Not you Adam. Not you.

To all the nerds on the IT Team,

Never in my life did I think I would be working on a PC! It's was horrible! But on a serious note, I learned a lot of stuff like what a USB extension cable looks like :) One of my favorite parts on being on the team was the lunch dynamic.

1. Brent will walk up and says, "Lunch?"

2. Nate will say, "No, I brought my lunch."

3. Parker will say, "Where?"

4. Jeff and Justin show up and say, "Where are we going?"

5. Brent will recommend, "Chick-fil-a?"

6. 7 out of 5 of us will say, "NO!"

7. We go back and forth for about 15 minutes with the same 4 places (food court, Chipotle, Round Table, Chick-fil-a)

8. We end up agreeing to go to either Chick-fil-a or some Japanese place.

9. If Nate didn't bring his lunch, he'll claim that whatever we choose is too expensive.

10. Brent will say, "I'm going to go to the bathroom, then we'll head out."

11. We then get into Brent's car and go to lunch.

That is pretty much a daily thing.

Anyway, it was fun! Thanks for showing me way more than I ever wanted to know about PCs! I will enjoy never having to do team moves or re-imaging again!!! You guys are awesome and without you, the church would fall apart. As long as there are PCs, there's a helpdesk :)

To the High School Ministry Team,

Though our time was short, your team gave me more opportunity to do what I love than any other team. Thank you so much for letting me create some fun stuff for you like the SinScanner and Face. It is because of your encouragement that I decided to pursue a career church media development. I love that your team focuses on volunteers as well as students. Keep encouraging and guiding people to their passion! You're doing an amazing job!

You will be hearing a lot more from me very soon :)

To the rest of the Church,

Thank you so much for what you do. When I was on facilities, I was separated from the offices and always saw the church from the outside. It wasn't until I joined the IT Team and had the chance to see inside church, that I realized how many amazing people work together to keep it running. Being your tech support guy allowed me work with every team. I got to know a lot of great people and was able to build a lot of solid relationships. You are my family and love you guys!

I had a lot of great memories here and I'll miss everyone!

Wedding day

Pulling Carts on Facilities

I.T. Thug Life

George ROFLington

2010-01-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

Our puppy finally has a name! We chose Geroge ROFLington submitted by hasselhoffest on YouTube. We're calling him ROFL for short. So now we have two beagles, n00b (n00berham Lincoln) and ROFL. They're best buds! Here are some pics of the two:

Our New Puppy!

2010-01-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

We got a new puppy! Now n00b (n00berham Lincoln), our first beagle, has a little brother! He's a beagle and looks just like n00b when he was a puppy. They're best friends and are having a blast together! We still haven't come up with a name for him yet, so we're leaving it up to the YouTube community to give us ideas :) Some are really good. I especially like the suggestion of calling him Fred Savage! Hahaha! We'll see!

2012

2009-12-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hollie and I decided to watch 2012 for the first time last night. She hates watching suspenseful movies because she always gets super stressed out. It's really cute because she always yells at the screen and curls up in a ball. Even though she knows I haven't seen the movie, she always asks me what's going to happen next. I always just make up stuff to make her feel better like, "Oh they all go out and get ice cream after this!"

Anyway, she was okay after the movie and I didn't have to sleep on the couch :)

People are asking how we have 2012 when it's not on DVD yet... we know the right people :)

Mac Mini Lunch Box

2009-12-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

My broken Mac Mini came to me one day and said, "Parker! I'm sick of being a broken computer! Make me better!" He was very demanding, so I made him into something better... a lunch box! (Mac's rule btw) The lid is held on by a set of high powered magnets with spring locks. Just press down on a corner and POP! The lid pops up! You can't exactly fit a huge meal in the MacMini Lunch Box. Maybe you can use it to encourage you to eat less! Or just fill it with candy :)

SOLD FOR $82 ON EBAY!

CryingWife.com

2009-12-12T13:50:00.000-08:00

It looks like we're starting a series :)

Special thanks to Tim for the sketch of Hollie crying. He really captured the intenseness of her emotions :)

My New iPhone Dock Creation

2009-12-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Click here to see my first dock.

There was a mannequin in the dumpster outside my office for some reason. I noticed that the hands looked like they could hold an iPhone if positioned correctly. So, I ripped them off and took them home. After about an hour with my Dremel, I ended up with an iPhone dock :) I showed it to the guys at work and got the same response I alway do with this stuff, "Wow, you have way too much time on your hands." So, I drew different times all of it. Thus, too much time on my hands :) Thanks Nate for the idea!

YouTube Commenters :)

2009-12-07T00:08:00.000-08:00

Haha! For whatever reason, the videos of Hollie crying after watching Sci-Fi movies are getting a lot of attention. Tons of YouTubers are leaving comments and some of them are hysterical! Here are a few of my favorites:

"wow shes a life noob" - JyaLeaf1911

"Why this video is so full of win.
a) chipotle napkin. yum
b) xbox360 controller as a remote
c) crying after watching it for the 2nd time in like 5 minutes.

You should do movie requests! Your wife would die after watching "A Land before Time"" - cmasterchoe

"I can't wait until she uses this as evidence at your divorce hearing. She'll get all your stuff, including your camera...then film you crying, while the "Lonely Man" theme from "The Incredible Hulk" plays underneath. Please ask her to upload that ASAP Thanks!" - youareyourownhell

So great :) Special thanks to the following types of commenters:

1. The "FIRST!" guy.

2. The guy who thinks she's acting.

3. The guy who understands that it's funny.

4. The guy who gets mad at me for uploading this.

5. The guy who hates the fact that I'm Christian :)

6. The guy who thinks she's emotionally insane (she's not).

7. The guy who thinks I'm gay.

8. The guy who gives awesome suggestions for more movies.

9. The guy who still lives in his parent's basement.

10. The guy who doesn't understand the humor.

#3 and #8 are cool. The rest... meh ;)

3 Types of Annoying People Part 2

2009-12-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

Take this as a light hearted rant.

1. Grocery Cart Guy: I see this all the time and it drives me nuts! Some guy finishes loading his groceries into his car and proceeds to either prop his cart up on the nearest divider, leave his cart in the middle of the empty spot to his right, or roll his cart to a stop directly behind the car parked to his left. Seriously?

Go to any store parking lot and you'll see a pasture of confused carts randomly dispersed like antisocial cattle. It's ridiculous! It amazes me that strategically placed areas, designated for carts, with big signs that say, "CARTS GO HERE", have absolutely no effect on the self-absorbed minds of these shoppers. Do they realize that some poor worker has to go out and wrangle up all of these rogue carts that they left to the side? Are they just not aware of the fact that people can't park in the spot is being occupied by their cart? Are they just too important to walk that cart over to it's designated area with all of its friends?

So, what do I do about this? I help out by not only putting my cart away, I grab at least 3 other carts sitting around put them away as well. It's a sad thing that I've never ran into a situation where I did't have 3 other carts to grab. It's inconsiderate and flat out rude to put your cart anywhere other than the designated cart area. You take up parking spots can cause more work for the guy who has to wrangle up all the carts. Think about other people and walk the 50ft to put your cart away.

2. The Temperature Guy: No, I'm not talking about the guy who fixes your air conditioning unit. That guy is awesome. I'm talking about the guy in your office who constantly adjusts the temperature so he is comfortable. As long as the temperature is perfect for him, everything is just fine. He'll come out ever half hour and turn the dial based on how he's feeling at the time.

The reason this is annoying is because there are other people in the office who don't work well in extreme temperatures. If this guy was normal, the temperature would range from 73 to 76 degrees and he would never need to change the dial as if he was trying to tune a broken radio from the 50s. But alas, he's not normal. He likes it hot or cold... no warm. If he's wearing a sweater that day, chances are you're going to be freezing in your office. Casual Friday means Hawaiian shirts and an indoor sauna. It's even worse when you have two of these guys. It's a constant game of cat and mouse as one turns the temperature up and the other it down shortly after.

So, what do I do about this? I keep a jacket at my desk just incase it gets cold :)

3. The "You think you're..." Guy: We all love him. No matter what your situation, it's nothing compared to his past experience. Maybe you're cold, he has been colder. Super tired? That doesn't come close to that time he had to pull three all nighters while finishing those reports! In fact, you might have some malignant disease... his is terminal.

Every time you mention some discomfort in your life, he'll be the first to jump in and belittle your gripe with, "You're ______! That's nothing! I once _____", or "You think that's bad? I had to _______...." This guy has seen it all, heard it all, and done it all in worst conditions than you. You lack any real pain compared to him. No matter what, he can top you.

So, what do I do about this guy? It's simple. I play into his ego. "Man, it's cold out." I say. "You think you're cold!? I used to work in a meat packing facility that was 30 below!" He boasts. "Really? You're right. I'm not cold at all. In fact, it's really hot! I'm going to wear nothing but my boxers! Thanks for showing me the light!" Then I run off with joy as I start removing my clothes.

I hope you're not one of these guys :|

I Dare You to Throw the First Stone!

2009-11-25T15:03:00.002-08:00

We got an email today from our head pastor, Rick. The email was a link to a story in the OC Resister about a former security guard from our church who was arrested for burglary... of our church. The full article can be read here, but there are a few things that I really want to get off my chest. Call this a rant if you must, but something needs to be said.

Charles needs prayer, not vilification. As I read through the comments on the OC Register page, I was disgusted to read all of the horrible things people posted. For one, we don't know the full story. I don't care about the sin that was committed. I care about the person who committed the sin. Charles was such a nice guy who served our church for many years. We don't know what circumstances in his life took place that pushed him to allegedly steal from the church. Hate the sin, love the sinner.

My heart breaks when I see people go down a bad path. It just means that they're hurting in some way. Who are we to point fingers and condemn this man? Do we base our sins off of what he does? Compared to Hitler, we're all amazing! Compared to Jesus, we ALL fall short. We are all sinful and need Christ for redemption. I don't care if you're a believer or not. Charles is a fellow brother who needs prayer and love. This is true for everyone in his situation. Don't just throw people to the curb because of this sin. Jesus died for sinners like you and me. Charles is no different from us.

Married for 364 days!

2009-11-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

Our one year anniversary is tomorrow and I've been sick for the past 3 days :( I'm feeling better, but tonight, we're going to take it easy and watch a couple movies. My pick is awesome. Hollie's pick is not awesome.

Hollie Crying After Flash of Genius

2009-11-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

Short and simple.

See the others here!

Church People are Hypocrites!!!

2009-11-02T16:12:00.000-08:00

Over the past 3 days, I've had conversations with 5 different people who have the same opinion of church goers: they are hypocrites. The generalized, average statement sounds something like, "I don't go to church because everyone is there to just hangout with their friends." That may be true for a big chunk of people, but not for all. In fact, more power to the people who show up to church to hang out with friends! Maybe they're not there for God, but they are there! God can grab their hearts when they're in a church environment with believers. Those are the people we should be praying for and encouraging to show up more often. I would rather them be unbelievers hanging out with their friends at a church than unbelievers hanging out with their friends at a party.

God can do amazing things with people who have no motive to follow Christ (i.e. Paul). I once knew a guy in our college ministry who showed up every week just to hit on the girls. A lot of the other guys didn't like him because they knew his game. I wasn't too worried about him. Most girls turned him down, but he kept trying! Eventually, something happened at home and his world got turned upside-down. He showed up to church that week, not searching for girls, but searching for God. Since then, he has made some major changes in his life. He's still single and showing up to church ever week, but his motive to go to church is now God centered.

So, to the people who don't go to or don't like church because of hypocrites, here are a few things I want to say:

1. Keep in mind that every hypocrite is a life and every life is important to God.
2. You are a hypocrite. I say that in a loving way from one hypocrite to another. You have your flaws and still show up to church every week (hopefully). You have one up on the other hypocrites because you go to be fed the word and worship the Lord. Pray for the others to grow in spiritual maturity so they can do the same.
3. God is the big picture, not you. If you don't go to church because you have a dislike of certain people, you're only hurting yourself. God wants you at church. He wants you to worship, serve, disciple, have fellowship, and evangelize regardless of what the guy next to you is doing. You should pray for that guy, not judge him.
4. You're probably lacking true fellowship. Be honest with yourself, are you jealous when you see clicks around church? Nobody likes a click unless you're in one. True fellowship is not a click. Join a small group and spend time with people and God. Hanging out is fine, but fellowship what you really need.
5. The members of the church are your family members. Love them. Pray for them. Serve them. Encourage them. Be an example. Complaining will only turn others away and make you more cynical.

Love the hypocrites! Love yourself!

Ninjas4Christ

2009-10-22T16:45:00.000-07:00

Ninjas4Christ is an epic and fake ministry run completely by ninjas! I made this site for a skit I'm doing for HSM this weekend. Should be fun! Everybody loves ninjas!

To view the website, you must first prove that you are a real ninja by taking a short test. Try it out! It's a lot of fun :)

http://www.ninjas4christ.com

Character Flaws

2009-10-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This is a pretty lengthy one, but I'm pretty sure you'll benefit from reading it. Keep in mind that when I say flaw, I'm talking about our small, negative habits that we all have. I'm not talking about addiction, abuse, or anything that you wouldn't feel comfortable with talking about with stranger (you can tell a stranger that you procrastinate). Though many of the same principles still apply.

I committed my life to Christ when I was 19. Before that, I was a mess. After I accepted Big J into my life, I suddenly had everything together and all of my character flaws where poof'd out of existence! It was amazing! I no longer had anything wrong with me and everything that was good came natural.... And then I woke up :)

In reality, accepting Christ gave me this freedom in my life, but all my problems still existed. The only thing that changed was my heart. Now it wasn't all about me and I had a purpose for life (though I didn't know what that purpose was at the time). For the first year or so, I lived on a "Born-Again-High". Basically, I ignored my flaws because I was so happy to be apart of an amazing community of other believers! Who cares about my flaws anyway? That's all they talked about at church. "Nobody is perfect! We all have our things." I was totally happy with letting Jesus take care of my flaw-bucket (an imaginary bucket that I dumb my flaws into when I don't want to deal with them) when I pass on.

It wasn't until I was doing some research on other religions (just some extra brain food) when I came across the Mormon idea of working your way into Heaven. What? You mean you have to fix your flaws to get into Heaven? "I'll do my best and let Jesus do the rest!" That was a common little rhyme that I kept reading while looking at Mormonism. This, however, is not a post about the Mormon religion. It is simply a stepping stone in my journey towards growth and a healthy relationship with God.

So, "Doing my best and letting Jesus do the rest" sounds pretty good. Right? Not really. It depends on why you're doing your best. This was a tough one for me to wrap my mind around, but I did and it really changed how I do life. There are two ways to look at this:

1. You HAVE to do your best because God commands you to. Since we're incapable of being perfect, we look at Christ's sacrifice to pick up our slack.

2. Because of Christ's sacrifice, you are MOVED by the Holy Spirit to do your best.

The first one suggests that Jesus didn't cover all of our sins. If we don't put forth an honest, human effort, Christ will have to pick up more of your slack and therefore costing you a pretty penny when you die. The second, which is what Christians believe, is saying that because you are in no way perfect, the sacrifice of Jesus will cover it all. However, once you become a true believer, the Holy Spirit will move you to live a life that honors the one who saved you. So, do you do your best because you HAVE to or because you WANT to? It should be the latter. Oh, and it should be mentioned that "Jesus does the rest" is bogus. Jesus does it all, regardless of what you do.

(1 Corinthians 2:12, Ephesians 2:8-9)

Where am I going with all of this? Most people I meet at church live in a third category. It's a category that basically says, "I accepted Christ and that's all I have to do." Sure, they may serve others and attend Bible studies, but are they growing? Do they still have that problem with laziness? Do they still get really annoyed with bad drivers? Are they even looking at themselves, or are they using the holy sacrifice of our Savior as a crutch. "Christ has already taken care of it, so I don't need to change." If you believe that, you can refer to the first paragraph of this blog and file both of them under "in your dreams"!

(Ephesians 5:1, Hebrews 6:12)

Parker Parable Time!

Lets say that you have a cell phone. You pay the bill with your own money every month. Then, the bill goes up and you realize that you can't pay it anymore! You continue to use your phone and the bills keep piling up. Finally, they're about to cut your service, so you go to your parents and let them know what's going on. They love you and want you to have a phone so you can stay in contact with them. So, they decide to hold back on buying a new mattress and instead, they pay your phone bills and all of the late fees. Not only that, they agree to pay the phone bill for the next three months.

At this point, you're super grateful and agree to call them more often! In fact, you also agree to visit every Sunday morning to spend time with them! On top of that, you go ahead and help out all of the workers at your dad's auto shop!

Things are looking good! That is, of course, until your parents get the next phone bill. You've been racking up more charges than ever before! You've been texting way too much and making long distance calls for hours at a time! The bill is enormous! Your parents love you and pay the bill. You are so grateful! You continue to work your butt off, but the bill next month isn't any better. Again, your parent's agreed to pay the bill because they love you.

When are you going to realize that Christ paid your phone bill and you're still making long distance calls to Australia for hours at a time! You should want to look at your flaws and make some changes in yourself. Nothing says, "I'm not grateful" or "I don't fully understand" more than apathy towards wanted to change. Maybe you're not grateful and therefore feel no need. Maybe you just don't fully understand the cross and have nothing to be grateful about. The bottom line is that we live in a messed up world because we are messed up. Christ died for us to move on to a perfect world, but until we pass on, we should be making changes in ourselves to glorify and thank Him.

Practical Application:

Once a month (or every few weeks), my wife and I have a deep talk about our flaws. The first thing we do is pray that God would reveal our flaws to us. Then, we begin to talk about where we struggle. I, for one, used to get ticked off at bad drivers. The key words are USED TO. Once my wife and I identified this issue, we made a commitment to change. I would no longer flip out at other drivers and she would keep me accountable with that. It took about a month of consistent awareness and discipline, but eventually, I changed. One flaw down, on to the next! Flaws can always seep their way back into your life, so make sure you have someone to keep you accountable!

We do this because we feel like it's important to be the best representatives of Christ that we can be. We don't do it because we feel like we HAVE to. We do it because we WANT to honor our Savior by sacrificing our bad habits. NEVER say, "This is my character flaw and that's just who I am." You have been adopted into God's family. You have a new identity in Christ. Represent!

(Galatians 3:26, 2 Corinthians 5:20)

Don't get me wrong, not all flaws are easy to give up! You may need to join a 12 step program or get counseling, but it's your heart that matters. Start off simple. Get with a spouse, friend, pastor, family member... and ask them to help you with a small issue. Maybe you don't trust God enough in your life. Have an accountability partner encourage you for a month. Take some actions steps and trust God in small ways. "I trust that God will get me to work safely today." Gradually trust God more, day by day. Have your accountability partner check in with you to see how you are doing. Have a goal for the end of the month and try to reach it. Your goal might be, "I trust God with this new job opportunity." It may take longer than a month, but as long as you're on the path of change and growth for the Lord, you're glorifying the One who died for you. And lets just face it, we become less annoying when we rid ourselves of bad habits and character flaws :)

Don't be the same person you were yesterday. Be a better person because of Christ.

Top 5: Answer from HSM Small Group Questionnaire

2009-10-13T17:54:00.001-07:00

Our HSM Small Group is awesome! We were given a questionnaire by HSM (High School Ministry at Saddleback Church) to have our guys fill out. I knew there would be two types of answers: 1) A serious, heartfelt answer and 2) 99% goofing off answers. Sure enough, our guys delivered. Here are my top favorite answers from the guys in our group:

Q) List one goal you have for your life:

A) Live on the beach / never give into technology (robot war)

Q) Who are the THREE most INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE in your life and why?

A) 1. Obi Wan Kenobi - Great Wisdom - Love him

2. Father - Smart man - very good at a lot of things

3. Ben Kenobi - Great Wisdom - Love him

Q) What are TWO things that describe YOU?

A) 1. Gangbuster 2. Dog the Bounty Hunter

Q) What do you do in your free time?

A) Dance, eat pancakes, say no to drugs!

Q) What are TWO things that describe YOU?

A) 1. Its got three letters 2. It is capitalized

Family Feud

2009-10-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

Another project for HSM. Josh Griffin hosted HSM's Family Feud last night (with awesome co-host Chris). It was 4 girls vs 4 guys. They surveyed 225 students (I think) and used the top 7 answers. The question was, "What makes you happy?" The first guy said "Money"! haha! The girls decided to play (instead of pass). Bad move on their part. They got three strikes and my new buddy, Pickle stole the game with the answer, "Sports". He may or may not have had a slight advantage by knowing me. All the guys won $10 iTunes gift cards! Awesome! Sorry girls!

CONTROLS

Space Bar: Takes you from the logo to the game board.

Space Bar again: Takes you back to the logo.

Q: Displays the question.

1-7: Displays the corresponding answer.

Z, X, C: Displays either X, XX, or XXX for wrong answers.

R: Resets the board

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD (right click and save as)

Old Post from the Nerf Wars of 2008

2009-10-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, the IT team and HSM team had a Nerf War in the office. It was pretty fun. During the war, I started a blog called Nerf Chronicles, to document all that went down. I recently came across it while deleting some old bookmarks. Here's an excerpt:

It's been weeks since our last battle. My wounds have almost completely healed, except for the heroic scar down the side of my arm. I'll have to live with it I guess. Oh well, it makes for a good conversation piece. It's not everyday you meet a man who was able to take out an entire army of nerf warriors while simultaneously wrestling two Bengal tigers into submission. It's a good thing those jet packs on the backs of the tigers malfunctioned as they did, otherwise I probably wouldn't have had enough time to disable that bomb that threatened the bus of school children hanging over the side of that cliff directly above the dynamite factory that sat between the orphanage and home for the elderly. Yeah, I got lucky.

Those were good times. You can checkout the whole ordeal at nerfchronicles.blogspot.com

n00bs!

3 Great Business Ideas

2009-10-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

Feel free to steal these. If you make millions, I trust that you'll give me 50% out of the goodness of your heart.

Idea #1

w&w's - This requires little effort on your part when it comes to production. Simply buy a bunch of m&m's and repackage them with "w&w's" on the bag. If ever confronted by the Mars Corporation, deny everything, forge a company called, "3&3", date it back to 1940, and claim they stole the idea from you!

Idea #2

Replacement Aglets - You have to find a need in this society! What's something that everybody has and eventually falls apart over time? Exactly! Aglets! Aglets are the hard tips on the ends of shoe laces. All you need to do is manufacture cheep pieces of plastic, have some celebrity use them in a movie and BAM! You have a replacement aglet business brining in tons of money! Be like Apple and sell them in a bunch of groovy colors! You're going to want to make a profit quickly, so charge somewhere around $8.95 per replacement. Genius!

Idea #3

Teriyaki Snow Fries - Take 3 things that everybody loves. 1) Teriyaki Chicken. 2) Snow Cones. 3) French/Freedom Fries. Combine the three and you get Teriyaki Snow Fries! Just think about it! The great taste of teriyaki sauce, with the salty experience of French fries, and the delicious texture/temperature of a summer day snow cone. I smell a new menu item at Dairy Queen! The best part is, it's an all year long treat! Or better yet... Teriyaki Snow Fries on a Stick!

I have more great ideas like the ones above. Those are just a few samples to get you going. Again, if you make millions, I'm expecting 50%!

My Very First Animation!

2009-10-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

I was digging through an old hard drive and came across my very first animation! I made it back in high school (I think I was a freshman). I used nothing but Photoshop and Final Cut Pro (key-framing). Old school! Anyway, here it is:

The song is called, "Lonely" by Akon.

My Wife After Lord of the Rings Trilogy

2009-10-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

We just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy! Hollie never fails with the crying! This is great! Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Hollie is completely aware that I post these on youtube. She thinks it's funny. The crying is real, but after the fact, she's laughing.

Click here to see the others!

A Demonstration: Forgiveness

2009-10-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

A quick video I made with a few students last night. Thanks Jesus, Satan, and You! (Joey, Steve, and Grant).

Satan: Steve
You: Grant
Jesus: Joey
Sin: Nasty mud
Forgiveness: My wife's dirt devil

Great Advice from the Veterans

2009-10-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

Last night was our first small group leader training night. It was awesome to see all the men, women, guys, girls, and ninjas who have such huge hearts for students. Of course there was free food, so that was a plus. We were assigned tables with other leaders to get some diverse conversations going. Our table was awesome. Some of us were fresh out of the box, while others were on their 4th year. The great thing about youth ministry at Saddleback is that everyone is clearly there for the same reason, the students. Everybody is very open to giving advice, sharing stories, and offering support. Great community.

Josh (of morethandodgeball.com) got up on stage and offered for some veterans to stand up, grab the mic, and give some insight to all of us n00bs. The first guy that got up gave some great advice about "life changing students". He told us about a few years ago when he told his guys that "Two of you in this group, statistically, are going to make life changing decisions during the course of this year." My initial, internal response was, "Oh, he means they're going to commit their lives to Christ." Or something happy along those lines.

As he continued his story, he revealed that those life changing decisions were not happy at all. And sure enough, two of his guys were making them. The moral of the story was that you need to make a deep connection will all of your students. They all have something going on and as their leader, it's your obligation to understand and help them. That made me think about the group I lead with Boyd. We love our guys, but do we really know their troubles? We're going to make it a goal to connect with our guys at that level.

Dennis Beckner (of volunteeryouthministry.com) got a hold of the mic and told a story about the culture that formed in his group. He talked about this giant, neon American flag hanging on the wall in their meeting room. Apparently it's pretty ugly (or that's at least that's what I imagine). One day, when Dennis walked in the group, all of the guys began singing the National Anthem. I can just picture a group of high school guys trying to stay in key! So, that became a common thing in their group. That's great because now the guys have a bit of culture that they can identify with. That's their group. They sing the National Anthem as a joke in front of a ridiculous, neon American flag. They own that and I guarantee that it brings them closer together.

There were more, but those two were my favorite. It gave me two solid goals for our group: 1. Encourage culture within the group, 2. Build those deep relationships with your guys. It kind of seems obvious that those two concepts should be applied, but when you're with a group of high school kids, it's easy to forget your goals. I'm excited!

Creativity

2009-09-30T13:44:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine just wrote a post about creative people (Jon Varner's Blog). His bottom line was that not everyone is creative and he wanted to know how the brain of a creative person works. I thought I'd share a bit about how my brain functions when I get a creative idea.

My brain has three creative settings: modify, visual, and event.

Modify:
Since I was a kid, I always had this tendency to see things as potential to be something else. For example, you might see an empty can of Monster energy drink and think it's trash (or recyclable). I see it as a mini-sculpture of an actual monster.
When I see something, I can't help but imagine what else it could be. I have a habit of taking things apart :)

Visual:
I am a very visual person. I'm able to close my eyes and picture a design in full detail... before it's made. When I have a basic idea of something that I need to make in photoshop, I'm able to close my eyes, add/change/remove elements of the image in my head, and have the final product laid out in detail in my mind. From there, I just get on Photoshop and copy what I have stored in my noggin.
The same goes for video. I already know exactly what the movie is going to look like way before I even start a script. Sometimes I'll listen to music that we're planning on using. I just close my eyes, listen to the same score over and over, and I produce the movie in my head, one shot at a time. Then, I just make the movie match what I thought of.

Event:
Event creativity can be many things. For example, what happens on a flash site that I make? Or how can this game be more fun? Basically, making an experience fun/better.
I'll typically see something that gives me a very basic idea of something fun. I'll close my eyes and imagine, "What would it be like "A B and C?" From there, ideas just start flowing. "After C, it would awesome if D E F!" And so on. Whenever I see an event or have an idea, my primary thought is, "How can this be added to/tweaked/improved."

So, basically, my creativity comes to me when I'm able to relax, close my eyes, and visualize all the great possible outcomes. That doesn't mean that everything I come up with is gold. The bacon belt was a huge failure! <--- but that's where my creativity comes in. Now I'm going to make a bacon belt and link it to this post. Why? Because it's funny. So look out for that.

I have absolutely no musical talent! Musicians are extremely talented and creative. I'm also colorblind, so I'm never really paying attention to color and lighting... just shapes :)

And that's the mind of my creative personality. What about you? How does your brain work? Are you creative? Leave a comment!

Retro Rotary Phone iPhone Dock

2009-09-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

I couldn't come up with a cool name for it, but the Retro Rotary Phone iPhone Dock was something I made/built/created/invented a little while back. I saw a retro phone at Target and instantly saw its potential as an iPhone dock! It took me a few days of intense labor, but it was worth it!

So basically, it's awesome. The dock will fit almost any iPhone/iPod comfortablly. The bluetooth handset sits on top and can easily be linked to the iPhone via bluetooth. Just under the handset is a dock for the Apple Bluetooth headset. The headset slides easily into the dock and begins charging.

On the back of the dock is a 5 port powered USB hub. 3 Ports are easily accessable in the back. The other two ports are internal, one of which has a cable that comes nicely out the back and plugs into the bluetooth handset for charging (leaving the front three open). The other is connected to the headset dock internally.

Well, I decided to put it on eBay to see what happens. I'm excited! I hope people like it! Here's the link if you want to bid and help a guy out :) I priced it at the price that I did because it comes with two different bluetooth devices and a powered USB hub.

eBay:

RETRO ROTARY PHONE IPHONE DOCK

Oh, and it's on Digg:

DIGG IT!!!

6 Personalities In Your High School Small Group

2009-09-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

While waiting for my flight in the airport over the weekend, I struck a conversation with a really nice guy named Steve. Steve is a Long Beach police officer and his stories were amazing and funny! We had about 5 hours on our hands and eventually got on the topic of high school small groups. To my surprise, Steve was a small group leader for a group of students in Long Beach! In fact, he had been leading his group for four years. I asked him for any advice and he began telling me about the six types of student personalities in a typical small group.

I decided that I was going to blog about it and began writing the first three. At one point, I had to look something up and came across a church in Lakewood, CO called Bear Valley Church. They had a document linked to their site with tips on small groups. It was exactly what Steve was telling me about. I'm sure this is nothing new to veterans, but for new guys like myself, it's really interesting. So, I simply did a copy & paste into my blog because I didn't want to write it myself. Thank you Bear Valley Church!

The Talker

Description: This is the student in your small group who never stops talking, who always has a comment for everything. You’re tempted to apply duct tape, but don’t -- there are more productive ways to handle this student.

Possible Solutions: First, position the Talker next to you when you begin your group, which reduces eye contact with her when you ask a question -- and when she interrupts someone, lets you reach over and touch her arm (usually a silent but effective cue). If you have a whole group of Talkers, you may want to try the ground rule that stipulates that the small group must circulate an object -- a stuffed animal, Nerf Ball, spit wad, whatever -- and that a student must possess it before speaking. This will help Talkers wait their turn.

Chances are, the Talker has some natural leadership ability that you should encourage. So let her lead the small group now and then. This can help her appreciate what you endure as a leader, and she just may become more supportive when you lead.

If the problem persists, get some time alone with her and talk with her about giving others a chance to answer the questions. Help her feel that she’s on your team, and that the two of you need to work together to encourage the other students to respond.

The Thinker

This student is quieter (and usually shier) than the others, with a tendency to get drowned out by the louder personalities in your group. So bring him out more by positioning him across from you, to increase the chances of eye contact with you. You can also use the tried-and-true method of occasionally directing questions to specific students, thereby eliciting responses from the Thinker.

If the Thinker is particularly shy, spend one-on-one time with him to discover what he’s interested in -- and so you can create the kinds of questions that will bring him into the discussion. Use the positive reinforcement of affirming him on those occasions when he actually does respond publicly. And when he lapses back into silence, don’t interpret that silence as something that needs to be fixed. Some kids just learn by listening and watching -- and there’s a good chance he’s one of them.

The Church Kid

This kid has already spent more hours in this church than you probably have. She’s progressed from the church nursery to the high school room in the course of her 14 or 15 years there. She consequently knows more about the Bible than any other kid in youth group, not to mention her small group. Of course, her knowledge may or may not indicate spiritual depth.

Church Kids can be the hardest to reach because they’ve heard it all, and therefore feel they have nothing to learn. One way to challenge them is by not being satisfied with pat answers. Always ask why. Or play devil’s advocate by countering her squeaky-clean, correct answers with provocative arguments from the “wrong” side of the issue. Such strategies usually work for a Church Kid to think more deeply about her answers instead of just rattling them off.

Ask her to help you create questions for a Bible Study -- or even let her lead the small group once in a while. In any case, avoid asking questions that invite a “right” answer. Opt instead for question that leave room for a variety of valid responses.

The Distracter

This is the student who can’t sit still and ends up distracting everyone in your small group -- including you. Rather than constantly stifling him, direct his energy toward productive ends: ask him to help you pass out Bibles, set up chairs, serve refreshments. Or (and this is good advice for all small groups, with or without Distracters) do some active-learning experiences with your small group -- like object lessons or field trips -- instead of just sitting and talking week after week.

You may better understand this student (and where his energy comes from) if you get together with him outside of your small group. Even a Distracter can be good for your small group. Even a Distracter can be good for your small group, if only because he doesn’t let you get by with boring Bible studies. (Remember that when you’re tempted to quit.) Really -- your leadership skills will be sharpened as you find ways to engage him as well as the tranquil students in your lesson.

The Debater

She irritates you by challenging every point you (or anyone else) tries to make. Sure she brings a creative energy to the group sometimes -- but she often stifles the other kids by making them feel too threatened to voice their opinions or feelings.

Deal with the Debater by establishing ground rules for you small group, (the first and perhaps the only) being: It’s okay to disagree with

opinions, but it is inappropriate to attack or put down other small-group members if their opinions differ from yours. A second ground rule

may be that only one person may talk at a time. Ground rules like these help make a Debater’s criticism less caustic and restrains her from interrupting others in order to make her point.

The good news: once Debaters understand and abide by such rules, their input can actually enliven your discussion. Just remember that your goal is to direct, not stifle, their participation.

The Crisis Producer

This student is in perpetual crisis -- and lets your small group know about it every meeting. He’s often self-absorbed and therefore unable to participate in the discussion, except when it’s focused on him. So get together with him before your small group begins in order to talk through his problems with just you instead of bringing them to the small group. (Lucky you.) Or begin your small-group discussion with the assurance that everyone will have a chance to share problems, prayer requests, etc., at the end of the group. This helps members -- and especially Crisis Producers -- stay focused on your bible study.

Whatever your strategy with your Crisis Producer, your long goal is to help him see past his crises to some solutions, and then to participate in you small group without having to constantly bring the focus back to himself.

What about a student who raises a legitimate crisis during the discussion? Be flexible enough to postpone your study and deal with the issue at hand.

Here's their link to the full deal (it's a word document): Small Group Leader Skills

5 Things: First Night at HSM

2009-09-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here are 5 things I observed, experienced, or thought about while volunteering on my first night at HSM (High School Ministry at Saddleback Church).

1. Students are very cool and confident among their peers.

2. I am very uncool and uncoordinated among students. My voice cracked multiple times that night... I'm 23.

3. While standing on a chair in the front row of the theater... I slipped and fell. My leg got caught between the seat and backing as I descended, forcing me into the splits. Oh, did I mention that this was in front of 300 students on my first night?

4. A group of student were not paying attention during the message. However, during worship, they were on fire. Works for me!

5. Students have a habit of scanning the room while standing around talking to their friends. What are they scanning for? Other people looking at them of course! Once they notice someone looking at them, they act like they didn't notice and smile while continuing the conversation they momentarily left for scanning purposes. The funny thing is that the person who they noticed looking at them was actually just scanning as well!

Face

2009-09-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

ismileyface.com

Face Demo

2009-09-21T10:22:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick demo of the interactive face that I created in flash for HSM. I'll put up a version that you can play with soon!

My Wife After Back to the Future III

2009-09-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

She didn't cry at the end of Back to the Future II because it was a cliff hanger. I made sure I had our camera ready for the end of Back to the Future III. Those tears start flowing like clockwork! Just keep in mind that she's crying because of Back to the Future!

Disclaimer: Hollie wants me to make it clear that she only cries like this at the end of happy movies. She never cries like this in other situations. She is a very emotionally stable person... cough... cough :) But seriously, she's only a baby after happy movies and that's why I have no problem sharing it with the world! And yes, I do get in trouble for uploaded these videos :P

Return of the Jedi

Back to the Future

My Wife After Back to the Future!

2009-09-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

Okay! If you haven't seen my wife cry at the end of Star Wars, you have to watch it first. We just finished watching the first Back the the Future and sure enough...

Watch how she reacts after:

Return of the Jedi

Back to the Future III

My Wife Crying After Movies

2009-09-05T12:10:00.000-07:00

My wife (Hollie) is amazing! I love her to death. She has one of the funniest tendencies I've ever seen. After we see a movie with a happy ending, she can't help but turn on the waterworks! It's hysterical! She's very adorable.

Recently, I grabbed our camera and began capturing these classic moments! I guarantee that these are 100% genuine tears! Keep checking here for updates! Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Hollie is completely aware that I post these on youtube. She thinks it's funny. The crying is real, but afterwards, she's laughing. She's adorable and it's funny to watch her get so worked up over something like a SciFi movie!

A Flash of Genius

Lord of the Rings

Back to the Future III

Back to the Future

Star Wars Trilogy

Keep checking for updates!

Annoying Type #1

2009-09-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

The "Legally" Guy

Who is he?

This is the guy who knows everything about the law, even though he has absolutely no formal education on the subject. He can tell you anything from the legality of carrying a switchblade on government property, to the amount of jurisdiction an off duty officer has while in a different city. If you have a legal question, he's the first share is knowledge of loopholes and did-you-knows to all ears within hearing range. He will aways use the word, "legally" somewhere within his first sentence.

Most common sayings:

"Legally, he can't do that."

"I legally have the right to defend myself under any circumstances."

"As long as the blade is less than 3 inches, legally, you can carry it anywhere."

Why this person is annoying:

He has no idea what he's talking about! This guy gets all of his "knowledge" from a mixture of word-of-mouth, wikipedia, and his own desire to sound smart. Most of the time, he's just making it up as he goes because it sounds like it should be a law. If you're ever in a fender-bender, he'll instantly become your legal advisor. It doesn't matter what you say, he'll chime in with some obscure legal fact that makes the rest of the room question his sources.

When challenged:

He'll either claim the law may actually only apply in Mississippi, then throw out a similar, yet unverifiable law factoid from another country like Italy, or he'll claim that he has family or a neighbor in law enforcement and that's what they told him. He'll then tell you that he'll check with them to confirm what he had just told you. Just don't expect him to come back to you with an answer any time soon. Unless, of course, he's able to print something out on Wikipedia that quasi-supports his earlier statement.

How to deal with this guy:

Just let him talk. Take nothing he says seriously. When he offers to help because he has a friend/family member/neighbor who is in law enforcement, just let him know that your neighbor is a highly respect judge in the area. Other than that, he's harmless. Plus, legally, you have the right to remain silent when you're around him... legally.

My Wife After Return of the Jedi

2009-09-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

As I said in my last post, my wife and I decided to watch all 6 Star Wars movies, in chronological order, over a period of 6 days. She had never seen Star Wars before this marathon.

Another thing to note is that Hollie, my wife, cries at the end of almost every movie we see together. She's super adorable. I grabbed our camera to capture this classic moment after we finished, "Return of the Jedi". Keep in mind that she's crying because of Star Wars :)

I love Hollie to death. She was okay after about 25 minutes :)

Watch how she reacts after:

Back to the Future

Back to the Future III

Star Wars + My Wife = ???

2009-09-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was 12. My wife, however, didn't even know who Yoda was. We decided to watch all 6 episodes in chronological order, over a period of one week. We succeeded :) Most people said that we should have watched 4-6, then 1-3, but I assured them that it would be better if we watched them 1-6. Trust me. You'll understand why in a minute.

Each episode took about 3 1/2 hours watch because I had to constantly pause the movie to explain what was going on. She actually loved all of them and now considers herself a fan! She's a very cute girly-girl, so here are some of my favorite quotes/conversations while watching Star Wars:

1. (While watching a battle in space)

Hollie: "Oh! That's so pretty! They should all have different colored lasers so it will look like a rainbow!"

2. (Attack on Hoth, referencing the AT-AT Walkers)

Hollie: "Those look like elephants without noses!"

Me: "They actually studied elephants to get the motion correct."

Hollie: "Baby elephants are so cute!"

3. (Mace Windu's light saber)

Hollie: "Why is his sword purple?"

Me: "Because Samuel L. Jackson said he wanted that color."

Hollie: "I thought his name was Mase Wodu?"

Me: "It's Mace Windu and the actor's name is Samuel L. Jackson."

Hollie: "Purple's a girl color."

4. (When we first meet Lando)

Me: "Did you know that he was the first African American to play a major role in a sci-fi movie?"

Hollie: "What about Mase Wodu?"

Me: "It's Mace Windu and he was in Episodes 1-3 which were filmed later."

Hollie: "But I thought that Mase knew Darth Vader when he was a kid."

Me: "Never-mind."

5. (When we first see the Death Star)

Hollie: "Is that the Death Star?"

Me: "Yes."

Hollie: "They did a good job."

She wasn't talking about the special effects department. She was talking about the actual Empire construction crew.

6. (Episodes 1-3)

Hollie: "I don't like Anakin. He's too whiny."

7. (Episodes 4-6)

Hollie: "I don't like Luke. He's too whiny."

8. (When Palpatine tells Anakin to kill Dooku)

Hollie: "Wait! I thought they were the same guy?"

Me: "Who? Palpatine and Dooku?"

Hollie: "Yeah, don't they work for the Sith Lord guy?"

Me: "Palpatine is the Sith Lord."

Hollie: "But he just got his head cut off?"

Me: "That was Dooku!"

Hollie: "Oh... who's the Sith Lord then?"

9. (I'm trying to remind her who Darth Maul was, literally the day after watching Episode I)

Me: "He's the guy with the double bladed light saber."

Hollie: "I don't remember him or that light saber."

Me: "He was red and black with horns on his head."

Hollie: "There was a red and black guy with horns?"

Me: "He was the main bad guy who killed Qui Gon Jinn."

Hollie: "Qui Gon who?"

Me: "Never-mind."

10. (She knew Luke and Leia were twins because of E3)

Hollie: "Right there! They just kissed!"

Hollie: "There! Rewind that! They totally kissed! Gross!"

Hollie: "Does he know that she's his sister?"

Hollie: "What's wrong with the director?"

Hollie: "Did you see that! He just gave her a look!"

Hollie: "Please tell me they find out before it's too late!"

Hollie: "Why can't she just get with the Indiana Jones guy?"

Me: "I saw. I know. Not yet. Don't know. No he didn't. They do. She does."

I love my wife :)

YouTube Math

2009-08-27T11:28:00.001-07:00

I was watching a YouTube video today and something caught my eye. How can a video have 4,497 ratings with only 307 views? And on that point, why do I care? I don't really.

Bad Guys Beware!

2009-08-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

I was feeding our puppy outside and noticed this on the glass door:

Thank God it's "electronic" as opposed to the other alarm systems out there :)

-- Post From My iPhone

3 Quick, Random Thoughts

2009-08-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

1. Robots: Have you ever noticed that when you tell someone to act like a robot, they instantly straighten their backs and align their shoulders. It's sad that a defining attribute which sets us apart from machines is posture.

2. "Look Mom! I'm on TV": A very common occurrence in the field of live broadcast journalism is the appearance of one to several annoying people who like to stand behind a reporter while making faces or loud noises during a live news story. Though their annoying antics get a laugh out of most people, I find it more funny when they are finished with their 15 seconds of fame. Watch any video with these people and notice as they walk off, they make a face that says, "Oh man, that wasn't as funny as I thought it was going to be. I'll just keep a small smirk on my face as I walk off and try to find someone I know so we can leave."

3. The Open Door Jog: This is fun to do; When you walk into a building, look behind you and see if there is someone for whom you can keep the door held open. If there is, that's great. If there's not, just go in. However, if you see someone off in the distance, just wait with the door open while looking at them. They'll see you and do this really funny jog to the door. They'll never run fast because that would be over doing it. They'll never do a brisk walk because that wouldn't be fast enough. They'll always jog. Try it. It's really funny.

The Seal of Facilities

2009-08-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

I was going through an old hard drive and I found this:

The first team ever I worked on at the church was facilities. I just wanted to get my foot in the door on staff, but I got a lot more than I bargained for. Facilities has a culture of it's own. It's a team of guys who pretty much live on campus. Facility guys are up at 6 in the morning, working their butts off to get the campus ready for the day's events. Sometimes that means moving thousands of chairs in the worship center to make room for 115 tables. Then, after that event is over, they put ever single chair back where it was (perfectly). You'd never guess that the weekend set up in Tents 2 and 3, and the worship center changes at least 8 times a week.

Every water and coffee station on campus is brewed and served by the facility guys. It's a 120 acre campus and the responsibility of one guy (usually the last one to touch his nose) to empty and re-bag every trash can, every day. That's a lot of trash cans. If someone throws up, guess who gets called? If something catches fire, guess who's first to respond (and usually first to be blamed). It's not uncommon for these guys to spend hours setting up a huge "turn" (as it's called), just to get a call to put it all back because the event was canceled.

Lost-and-found, trash, coffee, water, pastoral food delivery, vomit clean up, traffic cone delivery, traffic cone pick up, air conditioning, tent washing, chair stacking, room set up, equipment moving, flat tires, banner hanging, baptism set up, etc. Facility guys work in the back ground all day every day. I'm proud to have been on their team.

So, one day I made the Seal of Facilities. It has a lot of meaning behind it.

1. There are 23 stars to represent the 23 brave men on facilities at the time.

2. The eagle is holding a radio and trash grabber; the two main tools of a facility guy.

3. Above the eagle is a rec (rectangular table), the most common of tables on campus.

4. In front of the eagle is an american flag printed on a cambro (what they serve coffee in).

5. The number 212 is printed on the cambro. 212 is the main facilities room.

6. The scroll above the eagle's head reads, "Vamos a la playa" which translates to, "Lets go to the beach!" A secrete code used by facilities.

7. There are 9 tail feathers to represent the 9 young guys on the team at the time.

8. The word "Unity" is proudly positioned above its meaning on facilities, "Four man crew for a one man job." This is a reference to the fact that you never send one man to do an embarrassing job like clean up vomit in front of a group of kids. Instead, you all go. "Four man crew for a one man job."

9. The background of the seal is a close up of a facility worker's shirt.

10. The calves on the eagle have been exaggerated to represent the boss Bob, whose calves are larger than a T-Rex.

Good times. Good times.

DMV on YouTube and Twitter? Why?

2009-08-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

I had to pay my car registration online today. I went to www.dmv.ca.gov and saw this little gem:

The DMV is on YouTube and Twitter? Why?

I checked out their YouTube page and it looks like they have some cheesy, but useful content. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to see videos of people freaking out while in line or something. But alas, no such comedy.

I have not and will not check out their Twitter for this reason: it makes me laugh to think about what a DMV Twitter would be like. "Just told a guy to fill out a M914b form and wait in the next line... he wasn't happy." "My job sucks" "The line finally died down. Happiness has been dead for a long time."

I know if I check their Twitter, as I did with their YouTube, I'll be disappointed. Oh well, they're trying to be hip and with it!

I am famous!!!

2009-08-17T16:27:00.000-07:00

When I was younger, I wanted to be an actor. I went to hundreds of auditions over the period of one year! Almost everyday after school, my mom would pick me up and we'd drive to LA for an audition. I bombed all but 3! I recently found two of them! Here they are:

Six Flags Commercial in Baltimore:

We spent all day at the Six Flags in CA to make a commercial for a

Six Flags in Baltimore. It was a lot of fun because we got in front of

all the lines and were able to ride all the rides as much as we

wanted. Just a few little perks for being a star ;)

This only played in Baltimore for a few months. Luckily, one

of my mom's friends lived in Maryland and was able to catch it

with her VCR. I think I only made like $300 that day and

it was well worth it!

The Amanda Show:

This one was a lot of fun. I was casted as "Cute Guy #4". I'm the nerdy

looking kid to the right of Amanda with the striped shirt. The quality

is horrible, but you get the idea. The Amanda Show is on iTunes with

only 5 episodes! Mine is one of them! I'm in Episode 11. It's only $2.

You should buy it and support your local me!

Passions

no video available

One of the first acting experiences I have ever had was on

the popular soap opera, Passions. I was casted in one of

the main character's flash back scenes. I was there all day

and finally had my chance to be in front of the camera.

My instructions were simple; when the school bell rings,

I'm to walk across the hall with my back to the camera

and make a left at the end of the set.

When we finally saw my episode on TV, it was great!

The guy went into flash back mode and by the time the

scene fully faded in, all you could see was my left shoe

go around the corner! IT WAS AMAZING! Hahaha!

Anyway, I gave up acting after those three jobs. The limelight was just too much and being famous had too many responsibilities. I just wanted to be a regular kid again ;) Hahaha!

I look like famous people

2009-08-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

I always thought this was in my head for the longest time. Whenever I'm somewhere in public, people stare at me like I'm someone they've seen before. When I brought it up to my wife and a few friends, they began noticing it too! We all agreed that it's not because I look like someone famous, it's because I have a very plain face and a lot of people think that they've seen me somewhere before.

Now, I've never been mistaken for anyone famous, but I have been told I look like a couple famous people from a bunch of non-famous people. Here are the two that I get compared to the most (btw, I don't agree with these at all and you may not either).

The guy from the Fray:

I got this a lot back when the "Over My Head" music video became popular. I guess we have the same ears and chin or something. Maybe when I was younger with shorter hair, but again, I don't really agree with this one.

The next one I've been getting a lot recently. It's the guy from the movie "Fanboys". Supposedly I look and dress like the character, Linus (the guy on the far left). Again, I don't agree, but my wife, sister, co-worker, close friends, and 3 random people have told me this. I guess his character acts a lot like me or something.

I like to think I look more like Brad Pitt than those other two. I pulled this out of my archives. It's about 2 years old, but still valid:

Hidden Vegetables

2009-08-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

Before I walked the plank and got married, I was able to eat whatever I wanted! I lived with a few buddies of mine and we had pizza pretty much everyday. In the morning, we had pizza leftovers. For lunch, we'd eat what was left from breakfast. For dinner, we'd order a pizza. (I have no idea how I got by without a heart attack).

So, I met this babe and we got married. Going into the marriage, I knew she was a health nut (not insane, but very very healthy). Suddenly I stopped frequenting Wienerschnitzel and I'm pretty sure the people at Taco Bell thought I was dead. Nope, I was very much alive and eating organic foods.

This may sound like I don't like eating healthy. Quite the opposite! Hollie, my health conscious wife, cooks these amazing meals almost every day! I feel great and have way more energy (still no athletic skills though).

I didn't eat out because I hated healthy food. I ate out because I didn't want to cook and it was easy. I took 10 minutes to run out and grab a burger and only 3 minutes to heat up a hot pocket. I actually really like broccoli and carrots. McDonalds just doesn't have them on the menu.

Hollie knows I like vegetables. I've made that very clear to her. In fact, I enjoy eating a bowl filled with broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower.

Here's the funny part: Hollie got a book written by Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry's wife) called, Deceptively Delicious. It's a cook book that shows you how to hide vegetables in your meals. So, after we're done eating dinner, Hollie will say something like, "So, did you like the pasta?" And I'll say, "Yeah, it was really good."

She giggles a little and says with really wide eyes, "Did you know there was broccoli and carrots mixed in, but you couldn't taste it?!?!"

Then my response is usually, "No, but I would have much rather had a bowl of broccoli and carrots just by themselves."

She continues to make dinner with hidden foods that I would rather enjoy unhidden.

Amazing Student Made Music Video

2009-08-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

This comes from Mission Viejo High School's biweekly tv show, Diablo Heat. It's a parody of Asher Roth's "I Love College". I was an editor for seasons 7, 8, and 9. This is Season 13 and they have way more talent than we ever did!

10 of the Biggest Mistakes in Student Made Videos

2009-08-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school, I was the head editor for our school's TV show called, Diablo Heat. Now that I'm all grown up, one of my favorite things to watch is student made videos. YouTube is a great source for these.

There are a few key elements that make or break a video. Here's my top ten list:

1. Stay away from inside jokes: If you're going to make a comedy, make sure the jokes are funny to your audience. It's not important if you laugh. It's important if they laugh.

2. Video is 2/3 Audio: USC did an experiment to see how important audio was to video. Basically they would observe the participant as they watched TV in a hotel room. The experimenters were able to control distortion in the video and audio on that TV from the next room. They found that when they distorted the video, people were annoyed, but continued watching that program. However, when they messed with the audio, people were 2/3 more likely to change the channel or do something else. Thus, video is 2/3 audio. Make sure your audio sounds good.

3. No sound?: Far to often I'm watching a student made video and I notice an entire 15-30 seconds with no sound at all! Be aware that people have a very low attention span. When there's no sound, it gets extremely boring for the viewer. Always have some sound in the background. It can be music or just ambient noise from a park. Just always make sure that you have sound.

4. Double Jumps: Example: You see a man walk up to a door from the outside. He turns the handle and beings to push the door open. The camera cuts to a shot from the inside. You see the door handle turn and the door is pushed open. That's called a double jump because you already saw him turn the handle in the first shot. This happens when the editor isn't paying attention to their cuts. This happens a lot with audio too. You hear someone say something like, "Hey!" Then the camera cuts to a different shot and you hear, "Hey!" again. This can be fixed by some simple fine tuning cuts.

5. Multiple Takes: Rarely will someone get it right the first time. Do multiple takes! It may take a little longer, but usually the 4th take is the best because by then the actor feels more comfortable with the scene.

6. 4 Second Rule: When you say action, have your actors wait for 4 seconds before they being with their line. Same goes for when they're done with their scene. Wait about 4 seconds before you say cut. Make sure they understand that it doesn't mean, wait 4 seconds, then start the scene. It means wait 4 seconds, then start your lines. Don't stand around for 4 seconds, then start acting. This helps when you're editing because you have more to work with.

7. Plan It Out: Most students want to run out with the camera and make an awesome movie. That usually leads to disaster because shots wont match up and you'll spend a lot of time on the field trying to figure out what will look good. Try drawing a basic story board. Nothing fancy, just some stick figures to give you an idea of what the movie is going to look like. Plan on when and where to shoot so you don't waste your actor's time.

8. B-Roll: B-Roll is the footage you see a lot on the news. It's usually just shots of the scenery or the event. It doesn't matter what kind of movie you're making, always get at least 10 minutes of B-Roll. It will come in handy later if you need a "filler" in one of your scenes.

9. Bloopers: Everybody loves bloopers. Most of the time, however, the people making the movie love the bloopers too much. I've seen movies where the blooper reel is longer than the movie itself! Keep the blooper reel very short. Also, make sure they are actually bloopers. Just watching people laugh is not a blooper. Show a few people messing up and maybe someone falling down. That's all you need.

10. Keep It Short!: This is probably one of the most important factors in video making. If you want to keep the attention of your audience, your video must be shorter than 3 minutes. When people click on a YouTube video and see 4 minutes in the timeline, they usually click away. Our brains go through a process that says, "4 minutes? Is this worth my time? Probably not." When it's 3 minutes we go, "3 minutes? Sure, I have some time to waste." Keep it under 3 minutes!

I'll write more later :)

Pray the Rain Away

2009-08-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

This is a crazy story that happened to me a few years ago.

I was new to the faith and I had recently signed up for the Motel Ministry through Crave. Basically, a group of college aged kids head to a motel in Santa Anna and invite everyone outside for free breakfast, conversation, music, and a message. I had been once before and I loved it. You get to connect and pray with people who are going through hard times. You also get free food.

This particular time, however, was one to remember. I woke up early on Sunday morning and looked out the window. It was pouring! I called one of the leaders of the Motel Ministry and asked her if we were canceling due to the rain. In a very nonchalant way she said, "Don't worry about the rain. We're still meeting up at the church to carpool in half an hour."

I figured that she checked the weather report and it probably said that the rain was going to die down soon. So, I got dressed and headed to the church to meet up with everyone else. The whole way there, it was raining cats and dogs. My windshield wipers never got a break. The rain was bad!

When I got to the church, we all piled in three cars and headed to Santa Anna. On the way there, I asked if we were going to have the message inside or something. Everyone in the car knd of smiled as if they knew something that I didn't. The girl I called earlier was in the front seat. She turned around and said, "Don't worry about the rain. We prayed about it."

I kind of laughed and said something to the effect of, "It doesn't look like it worked."

Again, very nonchalantly, she said, "Just wait. You'll see."

I was new to this whole prayer idea, so I wasn't 100% convinced that they would pray the rain away. Sure enough, I was wrong. The rain continued to pour until we pulled into the parking lot of the Santa Anna motel. As we got out of our cars, the sun came to greet us. Within 20 minutes, while we were setting up, the day was warm and bright.

About 20 residents came out of their rooms and had breakfast with us. We heard a great message and joined together in some moving worship. I had never seen anything like that. In fact, as we were leaving, literally as we were getting on the the freeway, the rain started back up.

God gave us that window to worship Him, because we asked. Prayer works.

Monster

2009-08-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I see things, I see their potential to be something else. For example, a Monster energy drink can...

My Top 5: iPhone apps that I can't live without

2009-08-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

I admit that I was one of those people who waited in line for hours on the launch day for the original iPhone. I think it goes without saying that I did the same for the iPhone 3G. However, I did resist jumping out to get the 3GS (mainly because I think the name is stupid and un-Apple-like). With that said, the iPhone has become a major tool that I use every day. Here's a list of the Top 5 apps that I can't live without:

1. Shazam: Shazam is a great app that identifies music just by listening to if for about 10 seconds. This happens to me all the time: I'm in the car with the radio on and I hear a song that really catches my ear (even though I usually only listen to talk radio). I want to know the song and remember to check it out later, so I bust out my iPhone and Shazam gets to work. It listens to the song and after about 10 seconds, it buzzes and I get my results. Not only do I get the name of the song, I get the artist, album, album art, iTunes link, youtube music videos, etc. It's great. It saves everything so I can refer to it later when I get home. I've even got it to pick up a song playing softly at the mall!

2. BofA: This is the official Bank of America app and it's everything you need for mobile banking. Just open the app, log in and you have access to all of your bank accounts. You can transfer funds between those accounts or pay bills. The interface is great and super easy to use.

3. SnapTell: This goes in the same category as Shazam under "information grabber". I'm a big reader and love hanging out at Borders. If I see a book I want more info on, I just take a picture of it with SnapTell and it will immediately recognize the cover and display a ton of information about it. It will show me a summary, author info, reader reviews, pricing from a ton of different book sellers, etc. I can favorite the books I like, but can't buy right that minute. It does the same for movies and CDs. Just take a picture of the cover and bam! You get all the info you could ever want on it.

4. Scrabble: I have to throw a game in here. Scrabble is the official game from Hasbro, made by EA. It's exactly what you think it is, mobile Scrabble. But here's the coolest part! I'm always playing Scrabble on Facebook with a group of friends. The iPhone Scrabble is able to link to your Facebook account and play those games! It's a lot of fun because you can play Scrabble with your friends any time you want.

5. Tweetie: There's a few people I follow on Twitter and I have occasions when I enjoy sharing a funny thought. I think it's obvious that I love simple interfaces, therefore I love Tweetie. There's not much more to say about it. It's just a Twitter app that does what I need it to do. :)

Okay, for those of you who care, those are my top 5 iPhone apps that I can't live without. There are so many apps out there! I know there are probably better ones than what I've listed and a ton I've never even heard of. Let me know what yours are!

Five Funny Fotos!

2009-07-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Shootin' Guns!

2009-07-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, my wife, father-in-law, his neighbor, and I went to a shooting range in Corona. This was my first time ever shooting a gun! It was a 30/30! In fact, not only was this my first time, I was given the 'privilege' of taking the first shot. Yikes! My father-in-law, Jeff, loaded a round and cocked it back. He handed me the buffalo killing rifle and told me to aim and squeeze the trigger.

I put the target in my sight. My heart was pounding. I had no idea what I was in for! I wanted to see someone else shoot first, but I had to prove that I was man. With the stock of the gun pressed against my shoulder, I slowly squeezed the trigger until... CLICK! Nothing. The safety was on. It turns out this was Jeff's first time shooting too.

I took the safety off, set myself up, aimed, squeezed the trigger and.... BANG!!! I was the epicenter of a huge shock wave of dust. Luckily I was wearing ear plugs! I missed the 80 yard target completely! I was still in shock how powerful it was! Guns in the movies do no justice for what it's really like.

We continued to shoot other guns. We had an AK-47 and a military spec AR-15 (which I later heard is illegal to own). Hollie was too afraid to shoot. Instead, she spent her time taking pictures and collecting shell casings for scrap-booking. I love that girl.

It was really fun and an overall great experience. Now whenever the robot-zombie invasion happens, I'll know how to defend my family.

Biblical Reality #3 (Jonah and the Whale)

2009-03-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

This one has been abused by coloring books and Disney. Here's the very very quick, slimed down story of Jonah and the Whale that gives it no justice:

Jonah was a prophet. God spoke to Jonah and told him to go to a city called Nineveh basically tell them that God is pissed at them. For whatever reason, Jonah ran from God. He jumped on a boat and tried to get to a place called Tarshish. The sea was ruthless and the sailors found out that Jonah was running from God. They blamed the bad sea on Jonah and threw him overboard. Then it says that God provided a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was inside the fish for 3 days and 3 nights. Finally, the fish spit Jonah out onto dry land. Jonah did what God commanded and went to the city of Ninevah. The people of Ninevah believed everything Jonah said and repented. There's slightly more to the story, but that's the main idea.

So, was that possible? Here's a few things to think about:

1. The phrase "three days and three nights" in ancient Hebrew usage was an idiomatic expression meaning simply “three days,” and was applicable even if the beginning and ending days of the period were only partial days. Thus it could refer to a period as short as about 38 hours.

2. There is always air in a whale's stomach.

3. As long as the swallowed animal is still alive, the digestion processes doesn't take place.

So, here's the reality. Jonah is swallowed by a whale. He is inside the whale's stomach for at least 38 hours. He cannot move because the lack of space. He can barley breathe because oxygen levels are very low. His skin is bleached and his hair has been dissolved by all the acid. Is smells horrible, so he's probably vomiting constantly. He most likely passed out very soon after being swallowed.

The whale would have vomited Jonah close to shore. The waves would have thrown him to the sand. When he walks into the city of Nineveh, everybody listens to him and begins to repent. Why? He is a skinny, hairless, pure white man who is adamant that God is mad at them. He looks like a guy who got in a fight with God and lost. I would listen too.

Biblical Reality #2 (Noah's Ark)

2009-03-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

One day at Crave, Tony Guerrero spoke about apologetics. I loved it and found it extremely interesting. One of my favorite things he talked about was Noah's Ark. Was it possible to fit two of every animal in a boat? Here's the math and some ideas that you may not have thought about...

According to National Geographic, there are 1.75 million known species in the world.

In Genesis 6, God says that He only wants land dwelling, air breathing animals. That gives us a total of 1,200,000 animals.

Here's a break down of the 1,200,000 land dwelling, air breathing animals:

1,200,00 Total

1,038,000 = Insects

10,500 = Reptiles

4,500 = Mammals

10,00 = Birds

57,000 = Worms

We're not going to count the insects because they don't need a crazy amount of room.

That leaves us with Reptiles, Mammals, Birds, and Worms.

Our grand total is: 25,000

We need two of each:

25,000 x 2 = 50,000

Things to keep in mind:

1. An overwhelming majority of these animals are smaller than sheep. Most are about the size of a house cat.

2. We can subtract whales and dolphins because they're not land dwelling.

3. A baby elephant is a lot smaller than an adult elephant.

4. Eggs take up a lot less room than full grown animals.

_____________________________________________________

So, with that said, we have to cram 50,000 animals (which are smaller than sheep) into a big boat. Lets look at the size of the boat (I hope you're still with me):

The Ark is 300 cubits long, by 50 cubits wide, by 30 cubits high

Converted into feet, that's 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high

That's about 1.5 football fields long!

Do the math and you get 1,518,750 cubic feet of space.

Keep with me here!

An average railway car has 2,670 cubic feet of space.

The Ark would be able to hold 569 railway cars.

You can fit 240 sheep into one railway car.

That means you can fit 136,560 sheep into the Ark.

Remember, the Ark only requires space for 50,000 animals (most of which are smaller than sheep).

That's 86,560 more than what's needed!

Things to keep in mind:

1. There where 3 decks. So, that triples the floor space.

2. With the math we used, only 37% of the ark was used for the animals. The rest was for food and supplies.

3. The Ark has a ratio of 6:1 which was later deemed the most stable ratio for ship design by the Navy.

4. They were on the Ark for 371 days. Most animals hibernate.

So, is it mathematically possible to fit two of each land dwelling, air breathing animal on an ark that's as long as 1.5 football fields? I think it is :)

Biblical Reality #1

2009-02-14T11:49:00.000-08:00

I grew up not believing in Jesus or the whole Christian thing. I would go to church twice a year with my family to hear about either His birth or death. I knew the manger scene like the back of my hand (even though I didn't care for it at all). Baby Jesus, the three wise-men, and all the pretty lambs was as much a reality to me as the porcelain figurine set that depicted them.

It wasn't until I was 19 years old when, because of depression, I decided to show up to a friend's small group. While there, because it was Christmas time, the group wanted to talk about the birth of Jesus. My eyes rolled because I really didn't care. But this time, it was explained to me in a different way.

Mark Dodd, one of the first Christian guys I had ever had a relationship with, said something like this, "I just think it's really cool how He came into the world. We expect a god to come down with bright light and angels all around him. I think those porcelain figurine sets are bogus. God decided to come into the world in one of the hardest ways possibles. They were in a barn with no doctors. There was probably blood everywhere. Mary didn't have anything pain reducing drugs to make it more tolerable. It's not like they had a clean towel to wrap Him in, nor did they have baby food. It was probably a horrific experience for Joseph, Mary, and the baby. God wants us to know that he feels our pain and experiencing something like that gives him more credit."

Hearing that made my jaw drop and my mind open. I had never heard of it that way before! Suddenly the Bible became interesting to me. It wasn't a book of fairy tales! It was a book of truth. I started reading and couldn't put it down! I became fascinated with every word it had to offer.

In a later post, I want to write about the possibility of Noah's Ark and Jonah and the Whale. It's really crazy stuff and to this day, it blows my mind to read the reality of the bible.

That my friends, its Biblical Reality.

Five Funny Flyers

2008-09-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

Chicken Noodle Soup

2008-09-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

This needs no explanation.

Engagement Photos

2008-08-18T21:41:00.000-07:00

Hollie and I had our engagement photos taken today by expert photographer, Travis Symore Prouty. We decided to make fun of other engagement pictures by wearing matching black shirts with jeans on the beach. We also faked being happy :|

Here's why I love this girl; she wanted to have fun with our pictures, so we got our hands on a couple of space suits and the rest is NASA history:

I proposed to Hollie today

2008-08-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

Today, I was going to re-watch the first season of Lost. I couldn't find the DVDs, so I decided to propose to Hollie instead :|

Here's how it went down:

For Christmas, I wrote and illustrated a children's book for Hollie called, The Genesis of Hollie and Tony (Tony is my first name). It was the story of how we first met and became boyfriend and girlfriend. She LOVED it.

Today, on 8-8-8, I took Hollie out on a date. I didn't want her to think I was going to propose, so I acted like I didn't have anything planned. In reality, I had about 8 people working in the background, showing up to places ahead of time, and making sure everything would run smoothly. For an extra touch, I had Hollie decide what we were going to do for our date (knowing full well exactly what she would want to do). That part is extremely important later on.

Our date consisted of flying kites at the duck pond, going on the ferris wheel at the Spectrum (which mysteriously lasted longer than normal), eating at our favorite restaurant Shabu Shabu (which mysteriously had our two seats open on a friday night), and finally sitting on the bench at the beach where I asked her to be my girlfriend. Remember, she thinks this whole day was her idea.

While we were sitting on our bench, I pulled out a book that I had been working on for the past few months. It was a sequel to the book I made for her on Christmas and it was called, The Chronicles of Hollie and Tony. I opened it up and began to read it to her. It picked up where the last book left off and went though our entire relationship.

Here's where the awesome part comes in. I turned to the page that said, "So, Tony decided to take Hollie on a special date. First, he picked her up after work and took her to the duck pond where they fed the ducks and flew kites."

The next page said, "Then he took her to the Spectrum to ride the ferris wheel...."

The page after that said, "After the ferris wheel, Tony took Hollie to Shabu Shabu for dinner...."

She's obviously freaking out because the whole day that she planned was in this book! Finally, I turned to the next page that brought us to the bench at the beach. It then says that I gave her a book and started reading it to her. Then, I got down on one knee and turned the page, revealing a ring inside the illustrated ring box.

I asked her to marry me and she said, "YES!"

As we were walking back to the car, Hollie mentioned something that I promised her a long time ago. Back when we first started dating, I told her that if I were to ever propose, I would have the facility guys sing mariachi music while wearing sombreros and mustaches.

I smiled as we walked around the corner to this:

(it was super dark outside)

After that amazing performance, we walked back to the car. I made sure my behind the scenes team knew where I parked ;)

All in all, I'm pretty sure she was happy. Thanks to everyone who helped!

My first day on IT

2008-07-14T19:17:00.000-07:00

Let me explain my background. I come from a rag tag group known as facilities. For over a year, I woke up around 5:30am to get to work by 6am. If you were 2 minutes late, you would be in trouble. No matter what the weather was like, you were outside doing manual labor. You had to constantly watch your back because someone might squat you. You're boss is a man fused to a golf cart, whose soul purpose is to find you and make sure you're working. One guy is responsible for replacing every trash bag on a 120 acre campus. At least four times a week, you have to spend hours in the worship center, unstacking and restacking thousands of chairs. Five days a week, you're in one of the roughest environments known to man. I miss it already :)

But, a man has to move on. I moved to a new team and today was my first day. I now sit in a cubical which is very weird to me. My coworkers seemed pretty cool, but my focus was staying awake! I'm used to activity that early in the morning! I actually felt like throwing up due to lack of exercise :) I was okay though. Hopefully I'll get used to not being outside as often as I used to be.

We'll see!

Parker Bear Trap

2008-06-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

I found this in the facilities office today. Needless to say, I didn't fall for it.... the second time.

Five Funny Fotos!

2008-02-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

Cliff

2006-08-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Earl, Boyd, and I decided to drive to Laguna Beach and hang out with some homeless guys. We first went to Crave, then grabbed some food, then had a few conversations with other Cravers, then went to Earls house to get supplies, then.... Anyway, by the time we had gotten to Laguna Beach, it was about 2 in the morning. We parked at a gas station and bought a few sandwiches and waters from the clerk.

The three of us crossed the street toward the water and prayed a quick prayer. We prayed that God would give us just one homeless person to talk to. That we would be able to meet him and show him that he's loved. We were ready to minister! Earl, Boyd, and I made our way South, hoping to run into a homeless guy. The three of us walked for awhile with no site of anyone. We kept walking. We had some great conversations about God and what He had been doing in our lives. Earl, who I've known for years, finally opened up a bit and shared his testimony. It was amazing.

We continued to walk, seeing a few cars drive by every once in awhile, but sparingly. It was very peaceful, just us the the sound of the waves off in the distance. Still, no one. We came to a point where we could see far down the road. A glance from Earl said it all. If we're going to trust God, we're going to keep walking.

All in all, we walked a good 4 miles down PCH and didn't run into anyone. We finally decided to cross the street and head back on the other side of the road. Maybe we would run into someone then. The conversations of three friends got deeper and we became closer. Still, no homeless people.

We could see our car off in the distance. Our journey was coming to an end and we hadn't completed our mission. Needless to say, we were slightly disappointed. We began to talk about why God would have us all that way and never give us the chance to talk to a homeless person. "Faith," Earl said. We walk regardless of reward. With a thought like that, it made the 8 miles worth it, but God wasn't done with us.

As we crossed the street to get to the gas station, there he was. Clothed in a big, dirty jacket with torn jeans and a beat up, black backpack sitting on his side. We couldn't believe it. He sat on a planter, about 10 feet from our car, staring at the ground with a ragged, old beard. He was old, thin, and frail.

Earl and Boyd walked to the car as I walked toward him (we didn't want to scare him with all three of us). As I walked closer, I said, "We walked 8 miles to see you." He looked up and said, "Huh?"

His name was Cliff. Quite and reserved. I offered him a sandwich with a bottle of water, but he refused. We sat for a few minutes in silence as I thought of what to say. I asked how long he had been living on the streets and he gave the vague answer, "A long time". Very quite guy. After a few more minutes of very light conversation, I asked him if he needed prayer for anything. He said he wanted a house. I smiled and told him that I would pray for that. Very quite guy. After a few more minutes, we said our byes and got in the car. I left the sandwich and water next to Cliff and as we drove off, I saw him eat.

Eight miles of trusting God. I learned a lot that night. I still pray for that house.

Why Blog?

2006-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

I've wanted to start a blog for the longest time, but a few things were holding me back:

1. Do I have anything interesting to say?

Answer: Mostly likely not.

2. Do I have anything to contribute to the world of blogging?

Answer: (see answer to #1)

3. How many people would actually follow my blog?

Answer: Probably three. Half of which are bots. Yes, I said half.

4. Judging by my answers to the first three questions, do I seriously think that I'm not wasting my time by blogging?

Answer: HECK YES I DO!!!!

With all that said.... my blog begins...... wait for it...... wait for it...... NOW!