Month: January 2008

  • K Games Promo

  • Sick

    sickI don’t think anyone relishes being sick. I hate it. I have so many things to do and I’m sitting here freezing to death in 3 layers of clothes, a stocking cap, and my slippers trying to pound out some stuff I need to get done. I hope I feel better for Sunday and Monday but I have a sinking feeling that I’m just headed into this cough and not coming out of it for a while.

    In other news: I installed Joomla 1.5 today for the first time. I am a huge Joomla junkie. Almost all of my sites either use WordPress or Joomla and switching from version 1.0.13 to 1.5 is a pain in the neck. For example, you have to completely delete your existing site. Which scares the snot out of me when it comes to the church website and YMX.  I spent most of the day installing a site for a friend, getting the template all pimped out, and starting to look for the components he needs.

    easy buttonI have to say that I really like the new version. It is going to rock once I get past the migration issues. I am going to put off migrating YMX for as long as possible. I’m really hoping for an easy button but I don’t think one is coming.

    To make matters more fun, I still have stuff to do to get ready for the services tomorrow. Which means in a few minutes I’ll be making my weekly late Saturday night trip to the church get stuff done.

  • Lamentations 1:2

    Lamentations 1:2

    (more…)

  • Saturday Tunes

    saturday tunesThis week I got a new MacBook. (not the Air, a black MacBook since I wasn’t impressed with the Air. Just to clarify!) In the course of moving over 40gb of data I wasn’t able to import all of my ratings from iTunes into the new computer. Total bummer on that. The result is that I have to start over with my ratings… all 5,000 songs now have to be re-rated. That said, today’s edition of the Saturday Tunes is going to be especially random. As usual, these are the next 10 tunes coming out of my iTunes shuffle, no cheating and ratings included.

    1. Walkin’ by Miles Davis ****
    2. Searching by Jadon Lavik **
    3. Pomp and Circumstance ** <– graduation song, too funny
    4. The Beginning by Lifehouse **
    5. Hidden Track by Shaun Groves * (this song is so annoying, I like it but the mix is so odd, there is a girl on the recording from the audience who kills the song)
    6. Restore by Daystar **
    7. It’s Like Me by Kutless **
    8. Listen to the Music by The Doobie Brothers ****
    9. I Can Wait by Out of the Grey *
    10. In My Place by Coldplay *** (Gotta be depressed to like this one)

  • Lamentations 1:1

    Lamentations 1:1

    (more…)

  • A brand new RomeoKids.com

    It took several month to say this, but RomeoKids.com has a brand new look. This was the first project that the church has ever sent out to a web designer and I think it turned out awesome. Matt Adams, that guy is great to work with. If you ever need a WordPress theme totally custom designed from head to toe… he’s your man.

    I think the new look is very bright, cheery, inviting, and screams “Kids!” as soon as you load it. What do you think?

  • Mercy: Some practical theology here

    Last night at Light Force small groups we talked about the difference between mercy and grace.

    Grace = Getting something you don’t deserve.

    Mercy = Not getting something you deserve.

    I could see the students wrestling with this. Here are students completely covered in both. They have parents who bathe them in both on a daily basis. Yet they don’t see it. I think it goes back, for them, to a fundamental misunderstanding of what “deserve” means. They think that they deserve mercy and grace.

    I left thinking that most of the students expect to deserve grace and mercy. (By their birth they feel they have merited favor with others and even God) And I wondered how I could communicate that they don’t deserve to deserve grace and mercy better?

    What are some practical areas of grace and mercy the students in your life experience but fail to acknowledge?

  • We are brothers

    Kristen and I have been walking around the house singing this song. It’s not only a classic American Idol moment it is a great moment in American television history.

    “Simon, you are a great human being. You give everyone a chance to talk to the world. You are my glory, Simon!” Good stuff there. The singalong, made me laugh so hard I cried.

    I’d buy this. Really, I would.

  • Webkinz addicts

    webkinzOur kids got Webkinz for Christmas. If you don’t have kids you probably have no idea what this is. Let me explain.

    You purchase a Webkinz stuffed animal. They are roughly the same size as a beenie baby, maybe a tad bigger. On the tag is a Webkinz registration code. Basically, you register that stuffed animal to your child’s Webkinz account and their animal comes to life on the Webkinz website.

    At Webkinz there is a mini-reality set up. Your child is responsible for taking care of their pet, including earning money to buy food and other stuff. Basically, kids play games to earn cash.

    Our kids are hooked on this, Megan especially. She obsesses about waking up and feeding her bunny, Sparkles, and making sure she goes to the doctor 2-3 times per week. At first Megan was horrible with her Webinz cash but has since learned how to manage her money a little better. (She keeps a balance of about 3000)

    Of course, Webkinz is good and bad. We love that our kids are good at computer stuff. Paul (4) can easily navigate the site. Plus in the course of learning how to do that he can now put in his complex user name and password. To see a 4 year old navigate a mouse, type his name, play games like checkers and classic Atari titles… it warms my heart. The bad part is that they want to play 24 hours per day. They fight over time and would happily skip getting dressed, eating, going to the bathroom, brushing their teeth, or otherwise socializing with the family.

    So our house has been learning about boundaries. We use a timer system and we even use Webkinz as a reward/discipline system.

    This is the world our kids live in. It’s not 100% different than the world I grew up in (Nintendo and Atari) but it is a tech savvy generation. They will spend hours doing something they like and are instantly bored if something has the least bit of imperfection.

    Quite a challenge to reach this generation for Christ, isn’t it?

  • What a day!

    I was having a good day. Really, my new toy arrived and the installation has gone very smooth. I had a good day at work and got a lot done.

    Then I got totally flattered by a post over on the MailChimp blog. (MailChimp is the third party email handler we use for the YMX newsletter)

    Not that they don’t use technology. Youth Ministry Exchange is taking full advantage of a bunch of MailChimp features to spread the word. Here are some things that impressed me:

    * They built an archive of all their past newsletters here. It’s a page they host on their website, then they use MailChimp’s Archive Generator to embed that list. It gets automatically updated whenever they send out a new issue. Learn more about MailChimp Archive Generators
    * They’ve created their own signup form, then pass the data over to MailChimp (insteading of using our default, hosted signup form). Our signup box designer is pretty nice, but it’s always nicer when you host your own.
    * On their signup form, they’re using MailChimp’s Interest Groups feature, which allow subscribers to sign up to receive only specific types of content. Learn more about MailChimp Interest Groups…
    * They’re using MailChimp’s HTML email designer, and they’ve really customized their newsletter design to fit their brand. The content in their newsletters is actually useful! Tips, free downloads, and commentary. Nice.
    * In their newsletters, they link to their blog, and to an RSS feed. More ways to keep your members updated.

    Wow. A Christian ministry getting mentioned as using a lot of technology. I love that.