• New Skills

    A few times a weeks someone will introduce me by saying, “This is Adam, he’s a ____ [Joomla, WordPress, social media, start-up, online marketing, whatever else they think I’m good at, etc.] expert.” That makes me internally snort.

    I’m completely self-taught. I don’t know the academically correct way to do just about anything. Poverty is the best trail to competence. All of my skills I owe to having to learn something in order to make something work. [Usually in a pinch] In all the things I’ve taught myself I have really been fortunate to find a friend willing to tutor me as I stumble to learn.

    In the past month I’ve made the time to teach myself how to use Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Fireworks, and Adobe Dreamweaver. These are “big boy toys” for dreaming, designing, and implementing things in my web world. Between reading online tutorials and begging help from Dave, I’ve been able to increase my competency in these areas. I’m not an expert in using them…. but I can confidently get some small things done.

    I don’t think I have a higher aptitude for learning new skills than the average person. But I do think that I have a higher than average willingness to add new things to my repertoire. While I fully recognize God has given me talents in this world… I think that the real talent He gave me was the ability to adapt and excel in new situations.

    This is true in a lot of areas of life, isn’t it? There are people who say, “I don’t know but I will figure it out.” And there are people who say, “I don’t know and I don’t want to.“

  • My new column at YMX

    In December I was looking for some column ideas for a new weekly thing I’m doing for Youth Ministry Exchange. After a ton of discussion, brainstorming, and banging our head against the wall, Patti and I settled on the idea that I would write a weekly column called, Be Strong.

    So far, I’m pretty happy with it. Here are the first three. Let me know what you think.

    – Start Small

    – Roll With the Punches

    – Disappoint Someone

  • Avocado and Limes

    Part of our integration into San Diego life has been the addition of two staples into our diet. It seems like all of the best foods are either cooked with or come with a side of avocado and/or lime. Once novelties, these are pretty normal on our plates.

    Also part of our normal diet these days, which typically requires both ingredients mentioned above, the fish taco.

    The first time I heard the phrase “fish taco” came on my first trip to Southern California. It sounded gross. Almost repulsive to think of fish in a taco. But I have to tell you that if you tuck a slice of avocado in there and squeeze a lime over the top it’s pretty good.

    I would hazard to guess that just about every restaurant in San Diego has both items in their kitchen. Sure, it might not be on the menu, but I guarantee you that they are used for staff meals almost every day.

    Why are the lime and avocado such a big deal? I don’t know exactly. I love both ingredients. I think it has something to do with it being so cheap though. A recent trip to the grocery store scored us some avocados at $.25 each and limes for $.20 each.

  • Back to School Day!

    For our kids, today is the first day back to school from winter break. Since they are on a year-round schedule their last day was December 19th. Kristen and I are especially thankful for our flexible work situations. I have the opportunity to work from home at least a day per week and so does Kristen. Along those lines, between my Christmas vacation time and Kristen’s parents coming to town, we really only had 6-7 work days where either Kristen or I had to flex our schedule.

    It was a fun break for them. They had lots of visitors. They got to go to lots of cool places like the beach, Birch Aquarium, Cabrillo, and about a hundred other places which I forgot. And we used this time to draw a line in the sand on some discipline things which will hopefully help mom and dad in the months to come. (It is a fact, our kids are normal!)

    So, today we are back to the family routine.

    7:00 AM Everybody up. Mom takes her shower and the everyone else rubs their eyes and does early morning trance walks around the house.

    7:30 AM Breakfast for the kids, coffee for the ‘rents.

    7:45 AM Everybody dressed, except dad who usually starts his morning blog routine at 7:15.

    8:15 AM School uniforms on, mom marches the kids up the hill. Dad publishes whatever he is working on and gets showered/dressed for work. (Hey, I’m a dude… only takes me a minute or two.)

    8:30 AM Kristen comes back and we drive to the YS offices.

    8:45 AM Kristen drops me off and heads to her office. (Sometimes this is reversed.)

    2:00 PM Either mom or dad leaves work. Since Kristen’s job is PT right now… that’s usually mom.

    2:40 PM Paul gets out of school.

    2:50 PM Megan gets out of school.

    3:00 PM Home, snacks and homework for everyone.

    5:30 PM Go get dad from work. Sometimes earlier or later.

    6:30 PM Dinner, play time, TV time, etc.

    8:00 PM Kids bed time.

    It has been fun having them home. This is our first go-round with a year round school and we are already stressing out about what to do in April for their 3-week break and July for their 6-week break… but so far we like it.

    We need a regular sitter. Bad! Either that or we need to adopt a teenage girl to live with us and watch the kids when they come home. With my crazy schedule and Kristen getting more and more hours reality is setting in… we can’t do it alone!

  • Rickroll History

    You know you have a Rick Roll story to share. Come on, do tell!

  • Why do conservatives like to be told what to do?

    Excuse the snarkyness of this post. I’m really curious if this is my crazy observation or if I’m just a jerk.

    Have you ever noticed that conservative folks (politically and religiously) like to be told what to do? I don’t mean they will say “just tell me what to say, do, or think” but I mean that the people they flock to admire tend to be people who will tell them what to do and not challenge them very much to come to their own conclusions. (Or to examine how they came to the conclusions they evangelize.)

    Example #1: Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. These guys are certifiably nuts. (But entertaining) They spew all sorts of nonsense and political conservatives love them. People even call and email them to proclaim them as right in every situation. 90% of Stephen Colberts schtick is mocking them and still some peopel think they are brilliant.

    Example #2: Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman. Don’t get me wrong, people should be conservative with their money. But if you have to call in to their show to hear this… “pay cash, pay off your credit cards” than I suspect you won’t notice that their making millions by humiliating you on TV, radio, books, and curriculum. Again, their shows are fodder for comedians. I hope someone gets a show on Comedy Central to teach people how to manage their money soon.

    Example #3: Alpha male pastors. Look, I’m too close to evangelicalism to start naming names. I don’t care to get myself in that kind of trouble. But over and over I see these guys become succesful. They aren’t saying or doing anything special… just alpha dudes who get their jollies telling their congregations what to do. (Politics, money, and sex tend to be their top topics.) And yet, conservative people flock to them. This isn’t just senior pastors either! I see worship dudes and youth ministry dudes taking the same stance. It’s a powerful addiction as the more authoritative and the more they manipulate an audience, the more fervor people follow them. (The flip side is that the most successful ministry leaders are extremely humble, it’s only on their rise that they seem to be like this.)

    Why do these conservative voices go unchecked? This is the beauty of the conservative system. If you dare to mention someone’s name or second guess some of their proclamations… just watch what the fan boys do! It’s as hilariously and predictable as the Cubs failing to mkae the World Series.

    See, once these fans admire/idolize someone, once they learn to love being told what to do by them, these fans become vipers. The scour the earth looking for people who dare to question their dude’s authority and then they lash out. “How dare you question Dave? He helped me get out of debt.” (As if Dave Ramsey actually paid your bills… no, you were the one who got yourself out of debt!) “How dare you question my pastor? Because of him I am a new man!” (No, you are a new man because of grace and your pastor doesn’t impart grace.”) “How dare you question Rush? He was right about Bill Clinton!” (OK, I’ll give you that. But it was a decade ago.)

    What’s the other side of this coin? Ah, there is a deadly side to this game as well. Being loved by conservatives is a double-edged sword. The moment that someone slays these dragons… or more often… their own actions disqualify them from holding their authoritative voice over conservatives, they are stricken down.

    The sick thing about being a conservative voice for politics, money, or religion is that you are only the voice-du-jour. One day these people will turn on you. Not only will conservative people turn on their leader-du-jour, they will austrecize them. Then they will pretend like they never really listened to you, cared about you, or bought your book.

    It’s a sick system. And I’m part of it.

    So, I wonder… what’s with the psychosis of wanting to be told what to do?

    Is it that we don’t want to think for ourselves?

    Is it that we long for the simple life?

    Or is it something else?

  • Websites for the kids

    Today I finally acted on something I’ve been meaning to do for more than a year. I registered both of our kids names as domains.

    MeganMcLane.com

    PaulMcLane.com

    Now, I don’t know if this is for everyone. But for me it makes sense on a lot of fronts.

    #1 I can buy today for $10 what may cost thousands when they are adults.

    #2 I got to teach the kids about what I do and how I do it. They got to pick the pictures, tell me what they wanted, etc.

    #3 They are so excited about having their own websites. Mom and dad talk about theirs all the time. This is just the beginning for each of them.

    #4 I have a few more sites i can practice some skills on, quietly.

    Essentially, these are just placeholders. But as time goes on I can see us growing these to something more all-encompassing as time goes on.

  • 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.