Category: hmm… thoughts

  • We’re adjusting

    Stoney at the dog beachAs much as our family is still “homesick” we are finding our way around and slowly getting used to life in the new house.

    Yesterday, I left work a little early to help Marko move a couple of things from his house to another YS employees house. It sounds weird, but it reminded me of the types of things I did in Romeo all the time… just friends helping one another.

    After that I got home about 6:15 and could tell everyone was bored out of their skull. Since we only have one car… when daddy goes to work the rest of the family is kind of trapped. Since they don’t know anyone and we’re not in walking distance to stuff anymore… they had just chilled at the house all day.

    So, I proposed taking Stoney to the beach to watch the sunset. I love the beach and I adore the sunsets as the sun fades into the abyss of the Pacific. So we piled into the car and made it to Ocean Beach’s dog beach just in time to see the sunset. Seriously, we only got there with 30 minutes of daylight left.

    Stoney is afraid of the water. I know that’s weird for a Labrador retriever but it’s true. Other than when we were at my mom’s and he jumped in the pool we’ve never seen him swim. I even bought him a kiddie pool for cooling off in Romeo and he would only drink out of it. So taking him to the beach was pretty funny. He loved the sand and he really loved that I could take him off the lead so he could sniff every dog butt in the world. But we couldn’t get him to swim in the ocean.

    ocean beach sunsetWith all the encouragement the most we ever got Stoney to do was get his feet wet. As the waves gently came on shore he would run back to the dry sand and wait for the set to roll away before coming back to Kristen and I.

    We’re thinking that with enough encouragement we can get him to enjoy the water. And since San Diego has 4 dog beaches we are confident this won’t be our last trip to the beach with our trusty dog.

    The best part was… this trip was totally free and everyone had a great time. Megan and Paul got to look for shells and mom and dad were reminded again how much we like living here.

  • My Olympic Rant

    Beijing Olympics

    So the Olympics are over. A little over 2 weeks ago the world watched the fabulous spectacle that was the opening ceremonies. Then for 16 days the nation was captivated while new stars were born and China sold itself to the world as the new mecca.

    At the same time there was a large group of people uncomfortable with the Olympic spectacle. For me, these thoughts ran rampant through my mind as I tried to watch the closing ceremonies:

    – China is not a free nation. No freedom of speech, freedom of press, or freedom of movement. 

    – China is among the worst human rights violators. There is no doubt that thousands of people were rounded up and imprisoned for the games. I don’t think I heard NBC talking about China’s one child policy, did you? False imprisonment? The fact that the United States #1 religion is illegal in China. Did you hear that?

    – China has a labor problem. I couldn’t watch the opening/closing ceremonies without thinking about child labor, slave labor, and human trafficking. 

    – China is not a nation of middle class. There are extreme rich and extreme poor. Watching them drop $40 billion on the games… an injustice.

    NBC OlympicAnd I was disappointed to see NBC be a party to all of this. The story in China is not Michael Phelps or the basketball team, volleyball team, gymnastics success or relay team failure. To see NBC Sports play along and not mention it shows that they are more interested in corporate profits than covering the story. It’s pathetic to me that now, once the games are over, they are talking about how they were censored and how they observed things. 

    The American people needed a chance to see for themselves what is happening. And instead of C-SPAN we got The Disney Channel. 

  • The Danger of Changes

    change-o-holicWhether it’s a business, a school, or a youth ministry or even a blog there is both fun and danger in change. Some would say that half of the fun of change is the danger.

    Good Catalyst
    Almost all of the change I deal with is neccesitated by the existing way not meeting expectations and/or goals. Somewhere in a meeting the team will decide that a radical change is needed because the existing “thing” just isn’t going to cut it anymore. It’s always a pure thought. It’s always a change for the better. And it’s always a change with the best of intentions.

    The Dark Side of Change

    There are some people lost in every change. For some recipients of the change, your customers or students or youth group kids or blog readers, the change becomes an opportunity to check out.

    In Romeo, a format change to the youth group meant that several students never came back. It wasn’t a judgment of the quality of the program… in the end, our changes just gave them an excuse to not come back.

    At adammclane.com I’ve never recovered all of the RSS subscribers I had when I was on Typepad. I went from 100+ to about 30 and have never gotten back to 100 RSS subscribers.

    Just today a blogger I follow announced he was moving from Blogger to WordPress and I decided this was a good time to stop following him. It’s not that I don’t care for him, it’s simply that I don’t care enough about his blog to both unsubscribe to his content and then go to his new site and re-subscribe.

    On and on this principle continues. A change is made and we accept a certain fallout percentage.

    So here’s the big question: Are those changes worth it?

    In hind site I would have rather kept those 70 subscribers to my blog and those 3-4 families in the youth group than embrace what was changed. Sure, in the process of changing I’ve gained new subscribers and now youth group has several fresh faces… but I’m left wondering if we could have had both if the old way was tweaked and not overhauled.

    No matter what you lead or have the power to change you have to weigh is the change I’m making for the potential of growing exponentially worth the loss of some people who won’t make the transition?

    I can think of many times when the answer to that is a resounding YES. But I can think of a couple where the answer is NO.

    So, fellow change-o-holics: Is change worth it or are there times the biggest risk we can take is to stay the same?

  • At least Britney knew some of the words


    And people are ashamed to sing out at church?

  • Michael Phelps & John Edwards

    The last two news cycles have documented two men in quest of their respective dreams. One man failed while the other conquered. Let’s face it though, both were nearly insurmountable dreams. One man wanted to be the president of the United States while the other wants to change his sport forever. In my mind, there are some interesting parallels worth thinking about.

    John Edwards is sexyJohn Edwards. I felt Edwards could have beat George W. Bush in 2004. But for some reason the DNC orchestrated the ticket of Kerry/Edwards instead of Edwards/Kerry. In my eyes only two details really matter about John Edwards failure.

    #1 John Edwards has owned his mistake. He didn’t try to pretend that it was an accident, and despite some initial hopes that the story would never become public… once it was public he dealt with it quickly. He manned up and I can respect that.

    #2 John Edwards was an idiot. Really. He broke one of the simplest rules of any man in leadership… don’t put yourself in a situation to fail. I didn’t catch all of the details, but it was clear that Edwards began traveling with his web videographer and not his wife. I don’t care who you are, no one is immune to temptation. If King David can fall so can you. At some point in the planning someone in John’s life should have said, “Hey John, I think you should take an accountability partner (like one of his kids) to Africa with you.” 

    Michael Phelps, not sexy but fastMichael Phelps. Since we’ve been moving I’ve missed most of the Olympics. But I’ve caught enough to know that Phelps has electrified the sporting world by winning 8 Olympic Gold Medals. Let’s see a couple opposite parallels between Phelps and Edwards. 

    #1 Michael Phelps made his own goal. I don’t know exactly what he means by it, but Michael Phelps desires to change the face of swimming. Winning 8 Gold Medals in a single Olympics is a crazy goal… but he made the goal and he took the steps to make it happen. Sure, he’s been blessed with a swimmers body. Sure, he’s had the best training. Sure, he’s had the best equipment. But that can be assumed of almost every swimmer in that pool. For some reason Phelps was able to take that body, that training, and that equipment to a place never dreamed of before. Think of all the millions of decisions Phelps has made over the last decade… all aimed at accomplishing his goal.

    #2 Michael Phelps is brilliant. I know I am into marketing so I notice these things. But lets just say there has never been a more wealthy swimmer. He could retire now, never swim competitively again, and just live off of the cash he’s made in commercials. Instead, Phelps knew that if he accomplished his goal, surrounded himself with the right people, that he could change the sport and his world forever. My guess is that Phelps will be the richest junior at the University of Michigan this fall. Because while this was one amazing goal, the next goal is on the horizon for him. 

  • We’ve landed

    Yesterday Megan and I made it to San Diego with about an hour to spare. Our plan worked out perfectly! We were able to drop off all the stuff from the car at the new house just in time to head to the airport and pick up Kristen, Paul, and Lovely as they arrived from Detroit. From there we headed back to the house to do a little “nesting” and get everyone settled. Everyone is having a good time exploring their new surroundings.

    Personally, my surprise joy came when I went grocery shopping. It may sound like something silly to get excited about… but it was a blast! Since there are so many ethnicities in our community the grocery store is packed with new flavors and things to try. I think I came home with 20 different juices that we’ve either never had or have not had access to in a long time.

    The truck gets delivered later this afternoon. So we’ll have the weekend to unpack the truck and start getting organized. Yup, it feels really real now.

    One cool thing that happened yesterday is that we started meeting our neighbors. Although the house is a lot smaller I can tell we are going to like living here a lot.

    video update: It’s going to take me a few days to get all the videos online. We took so much video… getting days 4 & 5 of Travels With Stoney done is just going to take me a little bit. Plus, I’ve got a massive backlog of work!

  • Travels With Stoney: Day Three


    Today is the last day of “big driving” as we have about 500 miles to get to Las Vegas. We’ll stay the night with my mom and then be off to San Diego early Thursday morning.

  • Travels with Stoney: The Prelude

    travels with stoneyThe trip begins in just two hours. Everyone is still asleep at my in-laws house but I’m wide awake. Go figure. There are a couple pre-trip things I thought were worth mentioning.

    #1 Travels with Charlie. If you’ve never read the Steinbeck book which this trip is named after you should check it out. Travels with Charlie: In Search of America is a classic.

    #2 Participate in the journey. You can track our journey here. The best way to get in contact with us on the trip is by leaving a comment. Through the magic of mobile internet I’ll get your comment pretty soon. Feel free to ask Megan, Stoney, or Adam pretty much anything about our trip. We’ll either comment back directly on the blog or in a video. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer any emails during the trip.

    #3 Track our progress. Follow me on Twitter and I’ll be posting a lot about the trip in 140 characters or less. Also, I’ve started using Bright Kite. So if you use that you’ll want to friend me. But if you don’t, my Bright Kite updates appear on my Twitter feed. If we follow one another, just remember that the best way to contact me on the trip is to leave a comment. I’m going to try to minimize my “driving while twittering.” Twitpics are another story. I tend to do that while I drive.

    #4 Meet up. Check out our route. We’re still open to meeting up with people along the way. Again, a comment is a great way to make that happen. I’ll contact you via the email you leave in the comment dialogue.

    #5 Videos. Megan and I will be making daily videos of our travels. I can’t guarantee a regular broadcast schedule or anything like that. Nor can I guarantee what will be on them. But if you know me, you know they should be fun.

    #6 Today. In just a couple hours the first leg of our journey begins. This takes us out of Michigan, through the left half of Ohio, bisecting Indiana, and landing on the eastern shores of Illinois.

    Bon voyage!

  • What am I working on?

    Here’s a quick rundown of the things I’m up to over at YS.

    #1 I post regularly at the new YS blog.  Here are 3 posts you should check out. Big vision for Cabot. Youth Workers Who Twitter. Carrie Clausen and Her Youth Group. I’m loving the blog. It’s really a fun way to connect people together.

    #2 The big 3 of social networking. I spend some time each day talking with people on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. If you want to friend us, follow us, or join our group just click on the links. 

    #3 Custom social networks for our events. This is very unique to YS. We’ve created full-blown custom social networks for people coming to our flagship event, National Youth Workers Convention. Here’s the one for folks headed to Sacramento in October. So far there are a total of seven websites associated with NYWC this fall. I’m helping the YS convention get web-o-riffic in a hurry. 

    #4 Relaunching the podcast. Starting very soon is a brand new format to the YS podcast. I’ll bring some of the flavor of the YMX podcast to YS as well as some other cool features. Keep an eye on this page. We’ve got the first few episodes ready to go… great content in the new format!

    #5 YMX stuff. Since YS purchased YMX back in June things have changed only slightly. Seriously, I think the only thing that got changed was the privacy policy and about us pages. The first change is coming soon as YMX will host the next generation of the website, YM Women. There will be a special section of the website dedicated to women in youth ministry. I think this is a cool compliment to the HERstory conference that meets at NYWC. Looking forward to YMX going to “generation two” of its existence.

    #6 Experimental stuff. Just think of my office as Area 51 for YS. OK, not really. But I’m always playing with new ideas and seeing what will work or not work on the social media front. When I first started I talked to the internet team about “Adam’s sandbox.” I said, “Just give me some place I can create things, try out things, play with ideas and strategies, and basically do things with no fear of failure.” So I’ve got room to do that! I love knowing that everything I try has to be safe enough to succeed. Think of a lot of what I do as Google Labs. Some experiments make it past beta testing and some don’t. 

    What about you? What are you up to at the job these days?

  • Risk vs. Opportunity

    A common theme in my mind lately has been how we look at the choices we make. As one would imagine, Kristen and I are making tons of decisions right now. And we’ve come to this conclusion: Most decisions are morally neutral and the outcome depends on you.

    Quick disclaimer: Look, I know that there are moral decisions. Things which God has said are black and white. For example: “Should we cheat on our taxes? ” No, God’s pretty clear on that one. This is more about decisions such as, “Should we rent house A or house B?” I think those decisions are typically amoral.

    Positive outcomes and positive attitudes

    When it comes to amoral decisions I’ve noticed that the outcome is largely dependent on my response, action, and attitude. In other words, when I make a decision, whether it turns out good or bad typically has to do with what I do with that decision. cloud

    Here’s a reality my friends in Michigan have to deal with. There is a thick black cloud of pessimism that permeates our community. Until that pessimism is overcome with optimism, the self-fulfilling prophesy of economic doom and gloom will continue. It’s oppressive. It’s depressing. And it is making things worse.

    Perhaps it is because I am moving, but almost every conversation I have goes like this, “Romeo is a great place to live… but I don’t know, things aren’t looking good.” Understand this… that is a value statement of risk vs. opportunity.

    And it’s not all over. As I’ve traveled this summer I think you should know that this deep pessimism is a Michigan thing. Board a plane departing or arriving at Metro or Flint and it’s all pessimism in the cabin. But walk through Atlanta, Denver, or San Diego’s airports and you’ll see people making lemonade with their lemons. Head back home and it is all about rotten lemons. Making lemonade is apparently too risk for Michigan’s lemon owners.

    Today in Romeo there are about 100 homes on the market. All of them, including mine, are listed below market value. If you’re living with the black cloud… you look at the housing market and say “Wow, it could go even lower. Owning a home is such a huge risk right now.” If you look at the housing market from an optimist perspective you respond by saying, “Man, what a great time to buy. I wonder how I can get some capital to buy up some rental properties.”

    Here’s the simple reality. Michigan may be in a tough economic situation. But if you see where we are today as pre-boom instead of post-bust you’ll recognize that tomorrow’s millionaires (billionaires?) see today as an opportunity and are leveraging against you over inflating the risk. The rich of 2015 see this as pre-boom. The poor of 2015 see this as post-bust. Get it? It’s all about your response.

    I’ve talked to tons of very young adult people 19-22 years old this summer. And the cloud has infected them with pessimism. They have no dreams. And they are not looking at today’s problems as their opportunity for a very bright future.

    Here are some opportunities

    #1 You could innovate the next economy for a community. It won’t be cars, but will it be technology? Probably. Yet starting a business is “too risky” or going to study what is going on in tech boom towns like Boise, Houston, or even Ann Arbor is simply too much risk. Trust me… the best technological developments come from people looking to make an opportunity out of nothing. (Speaking from experience!) R&D departments can’t build a winner. But a college kid can invent Facebook for a couple hundred bucks. And a laid off carpenter can invent an ipod repair business. Sit in a room with a legal pad for a day and no distractions and I guarantee you can innovate something.

    #2 You could be the next real estate tycoon for almost no risk. If you are 22 years old with a college degree and an entry level job. You could buy 2 homes for less than $1500/month. Live in one and rent the other. In 3 months buy another rental and keep capitalizing on people’s pessimism until you have 5-6 rental homes. As Romeo becomes a renters market you could gain both equity in these undervalued rentals and make tons of income from rent. Heck, if you are 19 with a part time job you could buy a house for $600/month and rent it for $800/month. Save those profits and do it again in 6 months. Hold/rent those 5-6 properties for 10 years and you just made a million dollars.

    #3 You could invest in the next Microsoft or Apple. My conversations with those bought out from their autoworker jobs are depressing. They are saying “How long can I last on this money?” Wrong question. The right question is, “How can I find the right start-up to invest in?” Michigan has a highly educated and undermotivated work force. As soon as that motivation part turns around this economy will come back like gangbusters. Are you investing in high return start-ups or are you still thinking large cap companies are going to return? Bill Gates’ earliest investors tossed in only $10,000. I think they did OK.

    Every decision I make is an evaluation of risk vs. opportunity. What about you?