Month: December 2004

This is Paul, hiding behind the Christmas tree for safe keeping.  

I am a huge fan of our Sony DCS-P52 digital camera. I use it all the time for family photos and ministry stuff. Practically every single picture I’ve taken in the past 2 years has been on this camera.

But I have a new problem. The handy Lexar 256 MB memory stick that I bought last year is acting up and I’m having a hard time diagnosing the problem. It does read on my PC but it won’t read in the camera. At first I wondered if perhaps that something was dirty in our camera… But that theory quickly faded once I placed a different memory stick in there.

So right now, I am contacting Lexar customer support to see if there is anything I can do or if I’ve just worn the poor thing out. It is under warranty… But we have to see if I have all the right stuff to get it replaced.

UPDATE: I just chatted with Lexar and they are going to replace the card. Unfortunately this means that I will need to buy a card today so we can take lots of pictures of the kids on Christmas, but the good news is that soon I will have two cards! I was actually planning on buying some more cards for the Northern Ireland trip this summer. Maybe by then I’ll be able to upgrade to a better camera?

That’s right all blogs fans, it is the day before Christmas and for the first time in our entire lives we are 100% finished with Christmas shopping and everything is 100% in the mail.

Kristen and I have a terrible habit of getting our Christmas cheer in the mail sometime between Easter and the 4th of July. I can’t explain it, we are just really bad about getting stuff in the mail. In 2000, my mom didn’t get her presents until Megan was born and mom came to help… That was mid-May! (Early by McLane standards.)

The last gift was a small something for our adoptive daughter Autumn from church. OK, she’s no orphan, but since she is at our house almost everyday we have kind of accepted her as our own. (Sssshhh. Don’t tell her, she’ll get a bigger head!)

Since all of the shopping is done you would think we would sit at home and simply relax. But this is not the case, as Kristen wants to go shopping some more. The has decided that we need to go to Border’s. Which is almost as bad as going back to the mall. At least the have Starbuck’s there. I can watch Megan and Paul look at books in the children’s area while getting loaded with Cafe` Mocha.

Not much on the work front. All I have to do today is helped PB arrange the sanctuary for tonight. He has no idea! His phone will ring all day because he’s delegated this to a bunch of women who must be set up early. Rookies!

The message says that they are down for some spring cleaning, but I think they are gone for good. At least that’s my conspiracy theory.

In the meantime, us addicts have to alternatives. There is the YS Forum blog and a member was so kind as to open up her forum for our usage.

My dirty little secret is that I can take this time to have some fun. Try on a new screen name. Maybe mess with some folks. It’s like April Fools for Christmas!

OK, so this is kind of a weird post considering that I am a Michigan driver technically. But I didn’t learn to drive in this state and Indiana people always were trained to look out for the little blue license plates.

But when it snows, Michigan drivers crawl. I mean they rarely go above 30 MPH! It is disgusting. There may be nothing remotely slippery, but because these people all think they are from Orlando and not Detroit… They have to slow down.

That said, the only thing worse than Michigan drivers is Michigan roads. But I have a theory about that too. My theory is that the roads are so terrible because the auto industry would like to believe that everywhere is like Michigan and the roads will destroy a car in 4 years. I’m sticking to that much.

We woke up this morning to about 6 inches of the fresh stuff. Now I like a good snow and everything but the Northern burbs are terrible about snow removal!

I had the darnest time just getting the van out of our little condo place. I had the speedometer up to about 60 MPH just to keep Big Sexy moving. I am certain that there are people stranded all over the area and I feel really bad for those who live in more rural areas than we do.

The bad news is that it looks like we will have to cancel our 8 Crazy Nights game tonight. I was really looking forward to this one… But it just is better to cancel it. I know that many students will be miffed but it is just the best thing to do with the weather. I’ll reschedule it for sometime in January or February.

I’m off to go shovelling again!

As any All Blogs go to Heaven reader will know, Meet the Fockers was a much anticipated flick. I have been anticipating it since the summer. Well, Kristen and I went out to see it last night at the AMC 30 in Sterling Heights.

First of all, it was obviously Christmas vacation down in the the Utica/Sterling Heights area. There were more high school students in that place than at a football game. I keep thinking that this is the audience I need to be reaching. But that’s another story.

From an adult perspective, this movie provided everything I was expecting. Lots of references to the previous movie, lots of one liners, lots of new humor, and a few uncomfortable “parent” moments. It was funny. I laughed a lot. I slapped me knee laughing more than a few times. Mrs. Focker, played by Barbara Streisand, was a great character. She played a sex therapist for old people. When we first meet her she is instructing an entire cast of elderly folks about bumpin’ and grindin’… That scene alone is worth a couple of bucks. The comedy just rolls along with the hidden themes of pre-marital pregnancy and pretend chastity throughout.

Unfortunately, besides loads of cheap laughs the story is completely unbelievable. I had few moments, unlike it’s prequel, where I sat on my hands and went… “Oh no, oh now.” I never once really believed that Gaylord’s parents were Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman. While they played their parts well, they just didn’t fit as Ben Stiller’s family. On the other side of the coin, too much had changed with the Byrn family and all the chemistry was gone.

So, while I give the movie a “thumbs up” just know that it’s for cheap laughs and a mindless comedy. It’s not a brilliant as before but it is good enough to see.

As a youth pastor, I can’t recommend the movie to those under 18. With the whole sex therapist subplot there is simply too much discussion about penis’s and vaginas. (Not that high schoolers don’t have these… But do a bunch a virgins really need to see and hear about them and see how others pleasure themselves if they aren’t supposed to be doing that?) There were many scenes of adult humor, many many times of nearly exposed breasts…. On and on. I just couldn’t recommend it. I have no idea how they maintained a PG-13 rating on the film. You would think teaching a 2 year old to say, “ash-hole” would render an R right there, but definitely seeing Dustin Hoffman lick whip cream off of Barbara Streisand’s cleavage should put it over the top!

Yeah for parents, nay for students. If you take your middle schooler or below I’ll punch you right in the face!

Over the past few weeks we have some new folks popping in to LF. That’s always nice, and better than that, it is nice to see them getting involved and connected.

There are a gaggle of junior high girls who started coming this fall. They had come to Planet 56 before but failed to make the summer move up. Generally that means that we’ve lost them for good, but not in this case.

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine letting go of the students I have right now. I will admit that the ones in my leadership team and bible study and especially the mission trips have captured all of my heart. Selfishly, I don’t want them to grow up and leave. But it is slowly happening. Those who were sophomores when I arrived are seniors… 6 months from now they will walk across the stage and effectively… Out of Light Force.

To me, the cycle is both the good part and the bad part about student ministry. There are always new faces coming in and always old faces graduating out. Sometimes I wish we could take the new classes in without seeing the old classes move out… But that’s just silly.

It’s sad to say, but in December 22nd 2004 and I am already missing the class of 2005.

Yesterday we took a group of students down to Campus Martius Park to experience the new ice rink. All I have to say to those who have never been, do it. It was great. Very convenient parking and a load of fun.

A special bonus was that we got to meet mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick. I am a big fan of this guy as he is at the head of leading the city out of it’s current state and into a major revitalization. Downtown looks fantastic. There are tons of new businesses down there and there was a lot of stuff open at night.

Of course, the high school students weren’t impressed at all. But I was. A funny thing about meeting him was that one of the parents had just shared with Kristen the other day that she would really like to meet the mayor. Well, that dream came true for her because she decided to go skating with her daughter. Too cool.

I’ve been making some updates and additions to the sidebar features. In the last few days I’ve added some feeds from the Light Force photo gallery and news from Baptist Press.

Keep checking back as I plan to continue adding new features. I appreciate any reader feedback. Thanks for reading!