Month: January 2009

  • Saturday Tunes

    We just said goodbye to Kristen’s parents. They were here for 8 days. It was a really fun visit and we were all sad to see them go. Lots and lots of happy memories.

    I have a feeling today will be fairly uneventful. A couple errands, a couple walks, but that’s pretty much it. Lifestyles of the rich and famous, right?

    As with every Saturday, my morning gets started with a nice cup of tea and some music. Here are the next 10 songs on my ipod. As always, this is totally random and my ratings are included.

    #1 Accidentally in Love by The Counting Crows *****

    #2 Free Falling by John Mayer *****

    #3 Already Home by Ha-Ash *****

    #4 Expectations by Belle and Sebastian *****

    #5 Maria Maria by Santana ****

    #6 Footloose by Kenny Loggins ****

    #7 VIva la Vida by Coldplay *****

    #8 Amazing Grace by Jadon Lavik ****

    #9 Oh the Glory of It All by David Crowder Band *****

    #10 Believe by The Bravery *****

  • Star Wars Retold

    Caught this video link on Twitter today. Very funny, this is about what I think of the plot of Star Wars too. She actually knows more about it than I do.

    Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

  • The return to golf

    I’m excited about getting back to golf.

    Earlier this week I snatched up the opportunity to play 18 holes with a new friend. Wow, did it feel good! I should correct that, it felt good to my soul to play… but my body thought I was nuts.

    Ditching out of work early I met Kevin over at Cottonwood. It’s a nice little muni on the south side of El Cajon. As I drove to the clubhouse I got a chance to see a number of holes and felt pretty good about the simple layouts. Not a shooting gallery and not a resort. Perfect for where my game is after 3 years off!

    I had meant to go to the driving range on Sunday… but the Chargers game stole my daylight and it didn’t happen.

    So there I was on the first hole feeling like a complete nimrod. Literally, the ball could go anywhere. I assured Kevin that anything could happen… this wasn’t going to be pretty.

    Long ago I learned that golf is a mental game merely executed with muscles and bone. If you let pride or ambivelence get in the way you’ll always play terribly and have a miserable time. Instead, I try to play the game at least semi-intelligently. For me that meant embracing the obvious. Forget the driver. (The hardest club to play in the bag.) It also meant that I needed to find 2-3 clubs that I was comfortable with and just take my medicine with them.

    That strategy worked for the most part. Predictably, when I tried to hit the 3 wood off the tee it sprayed violently. This forced me to hit crazy shots from awkward distances, around trees, over other tee boxes, etc. After a few holes I just resolved to teeing off with an iron and things improved from there.

    Kevin was a lot of fun to play with. We have very different games. He has a low ball trajectory that is mostly straight. Thankfully he was infinitely patient and had a good attitude that my shots have a high trajectory and tended to spray all over. It was pretty funny because we’d go over to his ball in the fairway… then go try to find mine off in another fairway or the rough.

    All-in-all it was a good day. With a couple mulligans I can somehow say that I broke 100. It wasn’t pretty unless you count hitting some crazy recovery shots and snaking in a few putts in the 15-20 foot range.

  • How come?

    I was reading a couple ministry blogs this morning who were talking about worship services they either produce or visited. I don’t need to link to them as they are easy enough to find.

    Now that we go to a church with zero theatrics… and new people still come, and people still worship, and people still experience faith for the first time, and people still get connected, and people still give, and people are ever happy with our service!

    It made me wonder… how come people always want to do more with their worship services and not less?

    Why don’t bloggers brag about using one less camera man? One less drummer? One less actor? One less video screen? One less smoke machine? One less lighting board?

    Why is more noteworthy and less not?

    Why does over-the-top = excellence in worship?

    I have my theories as to why this happens in America, England, and Australia but few other places in the world. But I’ll just ask my friends… why is this so? Am I the only one who is annoyed by the logic that more = blessing, less = curse in the church? Am I the only one that finds massive theatrical production odd for “church?” Am I the only one who wonders how odd it must be for visitors to walk into a theater fit for a broadway production of Rent?

  • Sling Shot Man

    Based on the age of the video I kind of doubt this old timer is still around. But if you were a kid with a sling shot like me as a kid, you know just how good this guy is.

  • Dinner with the Bailey’s

    Kristen and I are having one of those fun weeks that is also really busy. Other than Dave, we’ve not had many visitors since our moving to San Diego. That has been both good and bad. Good in that we’ve been forced to find new friends… and we’ve been doing that. Bad in that we miss so many of our friends.

    Yesterday we had a chance to catch up with Bill and Shannon Bailey. Back in fall 2007, Kristen and I had the chance to spend a week on their boat, the Pacific Catalyst. It was a great week of fun and relaxation for us as we explored the San Juan Islands. The San Juan’s are a group of islands that create the border between Canada and the United States in northern Washington. During summers they lead adventure cruises in Alaska but in the spring and fall they like to lead trips near their home in Friday Harbor. We shared hilarious memories, including Shannon’s attempt to get me into a sea kayak. I fit, barely. As Bill described, my belly formed a perfect seal which didn’t need the kayaks skirt to keep out water. And I’m pretty sure you could hear a suction “pop” when I got out a couple hours later.

    Bill and Shannon are some of the most hospitible people I’ve ever met. You know someone has the gift of hospitality when they make you feel completely comfortable in their space without effort. Within an hour on their boat you feel at home.

    We felt at home in their company about 8 seconds after they came to the YS offices yesterday. We tooled around the offices (They’ve been youth workers forever and have known YS and the conventions for about two forevers.) then we headed out for an early dinner at Casa de Pico in La Mesa. It was fun to re-connect with them and linger over dinner, not wanting it to end. We caught up on life, ministry, YMX, and shared some stories. We even connected their lives to the life of a staff member at our church. (I love that small world feeling in the Christian world!) It was one of those nights that Kristen and I really needed.

    We came home feeling very normal when we’ve not felt normal in a while. There are times when we feel like we’ve been in San Diego for a while and everything seems routine and as if we fit in. But the last few weeks we’ve felt very much like foreigners on a vacation that lasted too long. Tough to explain that emotion. But if you’ve ever moved and had to start over in life… I think you’ll understand. San Diego seems like home at the end of a long trip when we come home. But we have a long way to go until we can comfortbly declare “we’re from San Diego.”

    Perhaps that what was so odd living in Romeo? We felt like we were “from Romeo” almost immediately and maintained that small town pride as long as we lived there.

    At the end of our time with Bill and Shannon we said our goodbyes and made plans to meet up again this fall in Washington. I hope we get to spend more time with them on the Catalyst and I hope we get to see orcas this time!

  • PETA Rebrands Fish as Sea Kittens

    Yes, PETA is trying to rebrand fish as sea kittens. You can’t make this stuff up! It seems that kids game sites have gotten so out-of-hand that one of the kookiest of leftist bunches decided they needed one too. What’s next, KKKids.com? (Uh, that seems to be a movie site in Japan or something!)

    Here are some sea kittens we made.

    I kid you not. Paul wanted to be a Tuna because they taste so good. I have to admit, I like some tuna sea kitten just as much as I like Tuna fish.

  • What’s all the fuss about sexting?

    There have been a lot of newspaper articles about sexting lately.

    Example 1

    Example 2

    Example 3

    Example 4

    What in the world is sexting? Simply put, sexting is using your mobile device to send a sexy note to someone.

    What’s the big deal about it? It’s nothing serious. As long as kids have communicated there have been kids who passed naughty notes, instant messages, emails, and now… text messages. (text, picture, and even video)

    But let’s get real for a second. As long as there have been kids talking dirty to one another there has always been an adult fascination with their pillow talk. And since news agencies know that nothing sells better than teens talking about their sex life every newspaper in the country picked up on the study.

    Next thing you know there will be a Christian company perpetrating a lie that their cell phone network screens and blocks anything inappropriate! Jesus Talk, 400 minutes and 400 bible verses per month. $129.99!

    Do kids really send naughty things to one another via their cell phones? Probably. But, in my experience, this is no where near what everyone things it is. What it typically is relates more to pornography than sexting. In other words, kids send dirty notes to one another, share videos, and share pictures with their phones. (And computers, and xbox’s, and PS3s, and ipods, and any device you can imagine!)

    But let’s get real. This isn’t a big deal. We need to put away our facination with adolescent sexuality and focus on teaching the kids in our lives how to value other people. No one wants to be exploited by their boyfriend/girlfriend. Doesn’t education on this really just boil down to the Golden Rule?

  • Saturday Tunes

    With Santa Ana winds bringing a warm weekend, we’re going to spend a lot of the day getting fresh air. As of right now we’re thinking tide pools and Pacific Beach… but that could change at any minute.

    This morning is like most Saturday mornings. Coffee, kids slow to get up, and daddy listening to music. Here are the next 10 songs I’m listening to this morning. As always, completely random and ratings are included.

    #1 Holy is the Lord by Chris Tomlin ****

    #2 Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cindi Lauper ****

    #3 Breakdown by Daughtry ***

    #4 Wishing It Was by Santana ****

    #5 You Were Meant for Me by Jewel ****

    #6 Everything Glorious by David Crowder Band *****

    #7 We Are Your by Charlie Hall ***

    #8 Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Gary Portnoy *****

    #9 Too Much Space by Lisa Germano ****

    #10 Late Night, Early Town by Lloyd Cole *****

    Well, that was more embarassing than normal.

  • Open Letter to the NCAA

    Dear NCAA,

    Congratulations on another year of controversy! Congrats to Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators. They are the BCS Champions but not the National Champions. This year we clearly don’t have a National Champion because your system is broken.

    Congrats to USC. Congrats to Texas. Congrats to Utah. Congrats to Florida.

    Each legitimately claim they are National Champions this year! That’s right, with 5 BCS games, 4 of them ended with a team legitimately and openly claiming they should be the National Champion. (The fifth game played by Cincinnati and Virginia Tech didn’t deserve to be a BCS game. The Holiday Bowl was really the fifth BCS game. Did you watch it? It was a great game! How did the Orange Bowl go? I didn’t hear anything about it. Was it on TV?)

    And yet the BCS claims this is somehow fair? Just because the bowls make bucketloads of money doesn’t make them right! It’s time you, the NCAA, kicked the BCS to the curb.

    We all know that in every other NCAA Division IA sport there is a playoff. And we also know that in every other division in college football there is a playoff which ends with a national champion. It’s time the players of Division IA determined who the champion will be on the field instead of in a vote.

    Here’s are two simple solutions:

    Option A: After Thanksgiving weekend take the top 16 teams based on the AP/Coaches polls and put them in a simple bracket based purely on their rankings. #1 plays #16 and so on. With 4 rounds the best team may not win, but the hottest team will. Since win did the #1 team in the AP/Coaches poll win the Division IA basketball championship?

    Option B: Set up a system where each of the top 11 conference champions get an automatic bid to the playoff. Then have a committee chose 5 at-large teams and place them in a 16 team bracket. Just to clarify, that’s the Big 10, Big East, Big 12, ACC, Conference USA, Mountain West, MAC, Pac 10, SEC, Sun Belt, and WAC. Yes, that means that teams like Notre Dame don’t get an automatic bid. Tell the Irish to get over the 1960s slight and join the Big 10. How will those conferences determine who is their champion? It seems like most of them are smart enough to figure that out. Playoff. Conference Champion. Rock, paper, scissors, who cares? They pick their best team and you take that.

    What about the money? In case you didn’t know… March Madness makes a bucketload of money for everyone involved. Just share it. Champion gets 4 shares. 2nd place 3 shares. Final 4 teams get 2. Everyone else gets 1 share. How is that not fair?

    For the bowl games not included in the playoff allow them to pick teams like they do now and have exhibitions. Their fans will still come. They will still be on TV.You know that line of arguement is

    What about the big bowls? Do what you do now! Pick 8 bowls to be the Saturday of Christmas. In case you haven’t noticed all of the non-football fans will go to the mall and all of the football fans will stay home and watch TV. You’ve got 4 BCS games on New Years so that’s covered. Then the Championship game could be the weekend between the NFC/AFC Championship and the Super Bowl. I don’t know about a lot of other football fans, but I’m willing to move New Year’s day to line those final 4 games up with the NFL’s schedule. Do we have to talk to Congress about that? Let me know… I know some people over there. President Obama emails me all the time.

    It’s about the money! Fair enough… trust me… give us a playoff and it’ll be just as big as March Madness. Rabid fans really will go to 3 bowl games! Ask the guys in Vegas to kick in a few bucks.

    Who gets the championship? This is where the fairness ends. Make the championship game the Rose Bowl every year. It really is the grand daddy of them all. The Rose Bowl is beautiful… make it there every year. Tell the Big 10 and Pac 10 to earn their way in and get over it.

    Thanks for your consideration. Get to work on that and let me know.

    God Bless America and God Bless the NCAA,

    Adam McLane