I’m sitting in my bedroom feeling rather ill and otherwise having a pity party. That is, until I cam across fellow youth ministry blogger Gerrard Fess’s post called "Top 20 Youthworkers blogbers you need to know."
That’s a very nice compliment. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Academy. My mother. My high school English teacher. All of my friends at YMX. And Typepad, who took my blogging to the extreme I rock the microphone.
OK, that was the illness speaking. Seriously, thank you.
Yesterday I posted this on YMX.
Big Announcement: Coming February 1st, 2007. Then, in a board I labeled "Big Announcement Speculation" I posted, "As we’ve announced in the News area… we’ll be announcing something
big and fun on 2/1/07. Other than saying that it’s "big" and "you’ll
like it" and "it’s important" we can’t really say much more. But, we’d love to hear your speculation!"
Of course, I’m not going to say anything about what the announcement in here. But as I added later in the thread (95 replies so far!) "It’s free." I think it’s something that will help take the site to the next level. Yeah, I’m excited about it and I’m not good with secrets.
My favorite movie of 2006, Little Miss Sunshine, was nominated for a slew of Academy Awards. This is my tribute:
Performance by an actor in a supporting role, Alan Arkin
Performance by an actress in a supporting role, Abigail Breslin
Best motion picture of the year
Original screenplay
Editorial note: This is a rated R movie. Parental guidance… you know the drill.
Well, I wasted my time photoshopping this one up. I figured that Peyton would manage to choke away yet another big game. But, he beat the wrap and for the first time in his career is in a championship game. Congrats to him. Too bad he has to play the Bears!
For the next two weeks we’ll hear about how it’s "Peyton vs. the Bears defense" and "the pairing of the first two African-American coaches in the Super Bowl." Both of those are somewhat interesting. But two weeks of hype is a bit much to stomach.
This absolutely made my jaw drop. I can’t believer anyone would really do this.
Pretty much, I’m excited about the game today. He’s some happy memories from days gone by.
Man, happy memories there. Hoping that today brings new ones.
This isn’t a huge deal. But I’m feeling pretty good about repairing the central humidifier on our furnace. Hopefully, the furnace will never again have problems. (Yeah, right!)
As long as the thing works and we all feel better, it’s well worth the effort. The whole family was feeling rather dry. With temps at about 15-18 this week, the house is really drying out.
The internet is a funny medium. A long time ago in internet time, 7 months, I wrote an article called "I Kissed Retreats Goodbye." It wasn’t really controversial at all and it was not warmly received. In fact… for all the work I put into my end of the debate we got squat out of it.
Then around Christmas I started getting random email messages about the article. Rarely on my blog do I get comments from posts more than a few days old. To get email from something 7 months old is unheard of.
The first several responses were hate-filled. Scathing reviews quoting Scripture out of context. Then I found out that the Christian Camping Association was responsible for sending my article to hundreds of people with the title "Anti-camping opinions emerging." Ahhh! Anti-camping? Man… all the article was about was my own personal story as well as asking youth pastors to do retreats because they work and not simply because they like them. It’s not like I think all camps should be turned into golf courses or anything. OK, that’s a pretty good idea… but I’m a golfer.
Long story short. I reopened the debate on YMX and invited any camp directors to respond to the article in a form I can publish on the site. We’ll see what happens.
I feel that way sometimes too. Someone will pop into my office and see something that’s on my PC desktop and say, "So this is what you do all day?" That always makes me laugh.
This is part of a project we’re working on for this Sunday. Just a preview… there are a lot more of these where this one came from.
This morning there was a segment on The Today Show called, "60 is the New 40." I’ve noticed that Baby Boomers will do just about anything to be labeled as "getting older." In their eyes, they are always going to be 18-21. Honestly, it’s just laughable. They can talk about sex after 60 and 60 year old models until the cows come home. But the generation that "didn’t trust anyone over 30" needs to look at their driver’s licenses! They are over 30, 40, and 50… and the younger people are wondering if they should bother trusting them.
You hear slogans like "you’re only as old as you feel" and things like that. I think the reality is that generationally, the baby boomers are the perpetual drama queens. Instead of allowing any other generation to have their due spotlight… maybe gracefully stepping to the side to allow others to emerge. Like any "drama queen" there is no such thing as grace. As a group, they’ll never step aside. In 10 years, Raquel Welch will be talking about how great it is to be 77.
What I see is a group of people in complete denial. 60 year olds getting plastic surgery to "feel 30." People in their 50s trying to dress like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. (Um, no one wants to see a 50 something year old woman in knee high boots and a micro-mini skirt. 60 year olds on TV talking about sex toys and modeling when 5 year olds are watching is absolutely ridiculous.)
On the other hand. I should shut up and say nothing about this phenomenon. After all, the only way to truly silence a drama queen is just to ignore them.
The contrast between "marketing" to Baby Boomers and today’s 20-30 somethings is night and day. Boomers only want to be convinced that everything they do is "the best" and "forever young." Any product that tells older people that they can feel young will sell like hotcakes. Even old folks homes are being set up to convince old people that they are really young. After all… you might be aging chronologically but you aren’t getting older. Um, denial?
By contrast, younger people are finding significance in acting responsibly and thinking about what’s best for others. If the Builders are known as "the greatest generation" as coined by Tom Brokaw, Baby Boomers will likely be known as "the most selfish generation." During their "reign" over American culture, American culture has tanked! It’ll take another "greatest generation" to repair the damage.