• Saturday Tunes

    Tough to believe it is Saturday already. What a quick week! This morning I had a meeting at the church about church marketing, then I came home to finish up the yard work before a 12:30 PM showing. (They were 15 minutes early) Now, I’ve got some work to do before I head back outside to do the edging and finalize some stuff for Mike’s graduation party tommorow afternoon. 

    While I’m doing all of that, music is always playing. Sometimes in my mind and sometimes on my ipod. So… here are the next 10 tunes rocking my eardrums this muggy June afternoon. As always, totally random shuffle, ratings included, no cheating. 

    1. The Glory of it All by David Crowder Band ****
    2. I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash *****
    3. That Was Your Mother by Paul Simon *****
    4. Sing, Sing, Sing by Chris Tomlin ****
    5. I Won’t Be Silent by David Crowder Band ***** (would be a 6 if it were possible)
    6. 1234 by Fiest *****
    7. Chanukah Song by Adam Sandler *****
    8. Dearest by Buddy Holly ****
    9. Portadown Station by Sandra McCracken **** (totally miss Northern Ireland when I listen to this)
    10. Beautiful Day by U2 *****

  • Is Oprah Dangerous?

    Those who know me, know that I’ve long warned my friends that Oprah is not just a talk show host, that she is a person presenting a religious philosophy to millions of people.

    So, I’m posting this video for discussion. I know she is the most powerful woman in media. I know millions of people adore every word she says. And I know she does “good things” like The Big Give and the school in South Africa.

    I’m not the only one asking, “Is Oprah starting a Cult?” FoxNews asked the same thing. Cult watchdog, Rick Ross, is asking the same thing.

    I look forward to your response. (BTW, the political junk at the end… yuck, that almost made this video not get posted!)

    By the way, all throughout Exodus God says call me jealous. Here’s an example.

    HT to Daniel

  • Tim Hortons Arrives in Romeo


    When they first started building on the corner of M-53 & 32 Mile Road I hoped that they would either open a Starbucks or Tim Hortons at that location. The latter was realized this week. 

    For those outside of the upper Midwest or eastern Canada, Tim Hortons is a donut and coffee chain co-founded by Toronto Maple Leaf hockey legend, Tim Horton. Tim died in a car accident in 1973, but the donut chain bearing his name lives on. 

    Let’s be honest. It’s a local thing. They don’t serve the best donuts in the world and their coffee isn’t the best. I personally prefer their sandwiches and soups more than the donuts. Nonetheless, Tim Hortons is a phenomenon as a franchise. Owned by the Wendy’s Corporation, it is slowly fanning out from Eastern Ontario and now into a bunch of places in the United States. 

    It’s a big deal to have them here in Romeo. I hope they do quite well. (So far, mediocre opening.) The Village has long been cold to franchise restaurants and I hope Tim Hortons opens the door to many other chains that would make the 32 MIle area a stopping point for visitors. Romeo is a very unique village which is struggling, like most of the area, is struggling financially. Yet if the village can figure out how to maintain the village feel while gaining some flagship retailers, it will secure Romeo’s place as a “cool city” once and for all.

  • The Myth that You Can Manage Something You Don’t Know

    When you watch shows like The Apprentice you see one of the biggest failures of business leadership on display. The thought is that if you are a good manager, you can succeed at managing anything. Hogwash.

    As someone who has worked for people doing technical stuff that my bosses didn’t understand most of my adult life, I know that’s a joke. At the end of the day the “doers” and the “managers” need one another. The same is true as BlueCross as it’s true at a church as it’s at YMX. There is a big difference between a “doer” and a “manager of doers.”

    There is a cool example of this myth over at 37 Signals blog.

    Bill Gates was amazingly technical, and he knew more about the details of his company’s software than most of the people who worked on those details day in and day out. He understood Variants and COM objects and IDispatch and why Automation is different than vtables—and why this might lead to dual interfaces. He worried about date and time functions. He didn’t meddle in software if he trusted the people who were working on it, but you couldn’t bull**** him for a minute because he was a programmer. A real, actual programmer.

    For people who love what they do, whether that’s programming, design, designing watches, or building cars, that’s a great motivation to not grow your company too quickly. Enjoy the time when you can actually be a full participant in the actual activities themselves, rather than just managing them.

  • I go to church with a bunch of Hicks

    fbc hicksHT to David

  • Santa = George W. Bush

    I don’t know what the rest of you did with your economic stimulus plan checks, but Kristen and I spent it. We were irresponsible, reckless, and unspiritual about it. We just flat out blew it on stuff we wanted. Easy come, easy go baby!

    Let me also say, I don’t know about you haters, but any president who sends me cash is my best friend. Bill Clinton never dropped $1200 from the sky on you, did he? Haters. Shoot, I’d vote for him again. 

    So what did we get? We blew our money on electronic toys, of course. And we bought over the internet, of course.

    Kristen broke our last two Sony cameras. I don’t know what happened but both cameras started showing us a crazy error message and stopped taking pictures. She got a Nikon D60 (The Ashton Kucther camera) For those looking to buy a sweet Digital SLR, this is it. And please don’t stimulate the economy of Ritz Camera or Best Buy. If you are looking for a sweet deal on your camera I have two words for you: Ebay.

    I got a GPS. I have a unique ability to get lost. And with all of my recent travel I decided it was time that I advanced technologically. So I went to Amazon.com and bought the Tom Tom One. Kristen and I tested it out last night and it works great. If you’ve not used a GPS lately, they’ve come a long way. This one talks to you in. (You can even buy Mr. T’s voice for $12! “I pity the fool who don’t turn right.”) It’s loaded with features too. With our upcoming move to San Diego, a place I’m always turned around, I felt like this was a smart buy. And it was really cheap! And to complete my geek fest, Tom Tom has an online community that I joined last night. Love it.

    For those who have received their “check that dropped from the heavens” what did you do with yours?

  • Born Dropped Out

    I found these videos fascinating. There is a guy doing some research on children of hippies and how they’ve prospered or struggled. The researcher asked the participants to answer 20 questions on video in a self-produced kind of way.

    Quick disclaimer, I have watched a couple of them so I can’t guarantee that if you watch the whole series they will all be wholesome. Keep watching at your own risk.

    HT to Mark

  • Finding culture from within four walls

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the culture we live in as well as how we discover the culture we live in. Some of it comes from observation, some of it we naturally pick up without noticing it, but a lot of our culture comes from outside.

    Think about the cultural things you pick up at a camp or even on a vacation with friends. You develop new lingo and special norms. That’s fascinating to me about human nature. Why did God make us that way?

    And what does our ability to adapt and learn culture so quickly say about our God. We are made in His image, aren’t we? Does that mean that God is super-adaptable? Does that mean that God uses new lingo or norms to reach us? I think it does.

    And what about this. Have you ever thought about your own personal role in culture? Have you ever thought that you were put into a culture or sub-culture or micro-culture to infect, affect, or defect that culture? 

  • Paul is Dangerous

    father sonI see a ton of myself in him. But Paul is also himself quite unique. My son is awesome and I love spending little glimpses of time with him, just the two of us.

    Sometimes his shyness comes off as being obstinate. When he’s backed into a corner he squirms away. When everyone stares at him he drops to the floor. He has an amazing vocabulary and imagination if only you are patient enough to activate it. You can confuse his knowing exactly what he wants with stubbornness. For his age, he has an incredible attention span. He is thoughtful. He is polite despite what his daddy teaches. He loves being physical, punching and wrestling and climbing are some of his favorite things. He’s pretty good with a computer. He can navigate where he wants with the family iMac, google to search for things, remember all his passwords, master tons of games, and still dominate on Wii. Just ask Tom and Tim who witnessed Paul nonchalantly bowl 220 in Wii bowling. Paul fascinates me with his complexity. But in the end he is fairly simple, like all complex people. Meet his basic needs and he’s good to go. Food 24 hours per day, a computer, and his mommy is all he needs to survive.

    Dangerous Book for BoysI’ve been telling him lately that he is brave and fierce and dangerous. He likes that a lot. Recently, Cathy  (from YS) gave me a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys to give to Paul. When I last came back from San Diego Paul looked at it, then I told him the title on the cover and his eyes got huge. He snatched it from my hands and ran off to his bedroom to read it. Of course, he’s 4– but he read it in the way a 4 year old reads. Every once in a while he’ll tell me, “Did you know my book teaches me how to hunt rabbits?” “Did you know?” On and on he tells me of the adventures he will have.

    I love going on junior adventures with Paul. Tonight he and I escaped for some “man time” to the park. While we were riding our bikes he and I were dreaming of climbing the high ladder on the fire engine. (They were testing it or something.) We talked about being brave when he rounded corners. We talked about falling and how much fun that can be. We talked about bugs and spiders. 

    Paul is dangerous. I think burned on the heart of every young man is a deep desire for adventure. Every young boy wants to do things a little dangerous. I’m just thankful I get to be here for him. And I can’t wait for the adventures we’ll have tomorrow. 

  • Mike Harding was in the house

    Yesterday Mike Harding filled the pulpit at Romeo. It was fun to see Mike again and hear about his new ministry, 831 House. Here’s a little video about their ministry in Gulf Shores. 

    Mike was the guy who convinced Kristen and I to relocate to Romeo just over five years ago. Shortly thereafter he felt strongly like he needed to leave the church and go back to help the family business. As he said yesterday, even when he did that he wasn’t entirely sure what God was up to. None of us were.

    Here’s a little video about what Mike and Cynthia do.