My life Since 2003
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A Bunch of Amateurs
Featured photo by Ernie Anderson – link What a bunch of f*******g amateurs! March 1, 2016 – The Pit, Albuquerque A fan yelled this at players last week in disgust. His team, the University of New Mexico, were in the closing minutes of a blowout loss to San Diego State. [In fairness, an Aztec fan…
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Attention: The New Compliment
Put it on silent. Leave it in your pocket. Don’t even check the time. I find myself going through this mental checklist more and more. In some ways it feels like it’s the greatest compliment I can give someone when we hang out. First, I know it’s not expected. Let’s say I’m hanging out with…
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5 Tips for Securing Your Home Wireless Network
As we’ve been adding more and more devices to our home network I’ve been less concerned about monitoring who is doing what on our home network and more concerned about who has access to our home network. Way back in 2007 I wrote about adding our first password to our wifi to keep the creepy…
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February 2016 – “Youth Pastor” in the News
Each month I publish a list of the search term “youth pastor” in Google News. Yes, this is an attack on youth ministry. Yes, this is personal. But it’s not me attacking us. It’s us attacking us. Our tribe destroys itself but while no self-change occurs. Collectively we devalue our profession in the eyes of…
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Race in America
“We need to talk about race in America.” I’ve heard that phrase often. Whether it’s a political candidate stumbling over whether or not to disavow an association with the Klu Klux Klan or a pastor of an almost-all-white-church stumbling through an awkward conversation… it’s something you say that makes it seem like you’re really interested…
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A Review of Nest Thermostat
Let’s start off with the most obvious: Do you even need a thermostat in San Diego? I mean… isn’t it always sunny and 72? So let me start my review of the Nest Thermostat, 3rd Generation by acknowledging that most San Diegans go months without turning on their heating/cooling system. But, it is winter in…
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Zika and Haiti and Why You Should Still Go
In April I’m going with a group of youth workers from around the United States who are interested in bringing teams from their church to Haiti… but need to go check it out first. Since that last post, the zika virus has become a front page news story. The impact of the virus itself, from…
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The Home Depot I Wish Existed
I’ve got a love-hate relationship with Home Depot. To be transparent, right now, at the tail end of the Tiny Office project I’ve got a hate-hate relationship wit Home Depot. Love that it’s convenient. While they don’t have a lot of selection most of my trips are fruitful, I find something that’ll work. Hate how stupid…
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You Don’t Really Care About Privacy
Last week, I listened to this podcast interview with Walter Kirn [best known as the author of Up in the Air], largely based on his November 2015 article in The Atlantic, “If You’re Not Paranoid, You’re Crazy.” As I travel around talking to leaders, parents, and teenagers about mobile devices I get questions from a myriad…
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Is Facebook Messing With Your Brain?
Among researchers there’s some controversy surrounding a study conducted by Facebook internal Core Data Science Team. At issue is an experiment conducted to see if adjustments to Facebook’s timeline algorithm, which determines which of your friends status’ to show you, can be manipulated to effect your mood. Here’s the study, “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion…