I’m a big fan of my wife’s blog. She is working hard to create a blog for mom’s like her. If you have never checked it out, here are 3 posts I think you need to read.
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Twitter in Plain English
This does a way better job than I could to explain what Twitter is and how it works.
Let me invite you to follow me on twitter.
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Planning for Entropy
A key component to the second law of thermodynamics is entropy.Entropy is the scientific principle that all systems will eventually go from order to disorder. Entropy allows mathematics to explain dissipation within a system boundary. In the first law of thermodynamics, energy is never lost in a macrosystem. But in a microsystem, entropy explains why stuff breaks down. The classic example of entropy is a glass of ice water. Water, a system where water is in a mixed state of solid and liquid, is constantly
breaking down. Entropy explains that eventually the glass of ice water will break down. The ice will melt into the water because of the heat energy outside of the glass or the liquid will freeze because of the lack of heat. But entropy will not allow the glass of ice water system to stay the same.In short, entropy is one of the variables that explains that stuff (a system) breaks over time. Pressure, stress, strain, temperature… all are variables. It’s why cars don’t last forever. It’s why toys eventually break. It’s why today’s superfast computer will be slow in three years. If you are a scientist designing a closed system… a car or a medicine or anything scientific you have to plan for entropy… that system will break down over time. If a scientist has no plan for entropy in his system he has failed on a professional level.
But what about entropy in social organizations? Does social entropy exist within systems?
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We need a heat wave!
This weekend is Romeo’s annual community Easter Egg hunt. (see video of last years event) This is put on by Romeo Parks & Rec department and has become a favorite of my kids. They only thing that they like doing as much is the first high school football game when they have a big party with face painting, inflatables, and games.
Going into this year the staff at church was looking for an event like that to either put on ourselves or somehow compliment to make better. So I contacted the community center to see if we could help. (Why reinvent the wheel?) To my delight they said yes.
On Saturday morning we are doing a couple of simple things to make the event just a tad more fun. We’re providing live music (Jimmy’s band) and a warming station with coffee/hot chocolate/apple cider. This is part of our new “God of this City” emphasis.
The problem: Let’s state the obvious. It is still winter in Romeo. My backyard currently has 6 inches of snow. We need a few days of 40-50 degree weather to have a shot at the field being clear of snow. More importantly, if it is 15 degrees I think that will dramatically lessen the attendance at this event. And we’re looking to warm up and meet as many parents as possible!
The solution: Right now we’re just watching the weather and hoping it all comes true! We have 3 days forecasted to be in the 40s and Saturday is currently forecasted to be about 35.
Wanna come? It’s at Barnabo Field at 1:00 PM.
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Adoption Videos
I don’t know Chris Groeppner. Here’s a tad about him. But I have been following him via his blog for the last several months. He and his wife have just completed the process of adopting two children from Siberia.
Along the way, Chris and his wife have created some beautiful videos. I don’t think you have to know them to see the beauty they capture as a couple reaches out to adopt two little boys. During this Lenten season, it is good to reflect on our own adoption. Christians believe that they are children of God but that we were not born in that condition. As you watch the Groeppner’s videos I hope you will get a glimpse of the extreme measure Jesus took to adopt us as sons of the Father.
Gotcha Day
There is more to read, pictures, etc. on Chris’s blog.
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You Matter to Your Schools
This was just posted over at Youth Ministry Exchange. Here’s an excerpt:Here’s a thought that will blow your mind. The God of the Universe chose you to help him build the church in your town. Here’s another thought to give you some perspective. The God of the Universe has an enemy, Satan, whose deepest desire is to distract, discourage, debilitate, and destroy you. It’s as if Satan has a special department in the community you live in just for that. Just like there is a Street Department and Water Department, Satan runs the Ministry Destruction Department in your town and people like you are his number one project. Read the rest
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Our Vision for Our Community
I’ve had this video ready for a couple of weeks. Below is a description video for our churches vision.
Since I already had a couple of people ask me how I made the video, here are the details.
– Obviously, the animation is from Google Earth. I set up the points as a tour and clicked through when it came time to record. (Just timed it out in my head)
– I recorded the Google Earth presentation using IShowU. This is a simple video screen capture tool available for OSX.
– I used the Google Earth video as the background in Adobe Premier.
– I did the voice over at the sound board at church. I recorded it using Garage Band, using some effects to make my voice more “voice over” quality.
– The rest is just done in Premier. Titles, video layers, etc.It was a lot of steps. But I was pleased with the results. The fun part was doing some parts of the project in Premier (PC) and some with Garage Band and IShowU. (Mac) Before I started I actually took the time to make a project list… which helped me keep all of the parts in the right place.
Where did the idea come from? I saw a video similar to this on Granger Community Church’s website. I based the outline of the script on that video as well as the idea of using Google Earth as the animation tool. Anything beyond the concept I came up with. It was a fun project!
Since I’m sharing videos, here is the bumper video we made for the service too.
Someone asked me today how long these videos take. Here’s a ballpark.
Our Vision for Our Community: 20ish hours. (Conception through completion)
Lean In Bumper Video: about 1 hour (Conception through completion) -
“Parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children”
This is the quote of Justice H. Walter Croskey of the 2nd District of Appeals in California.
In our short tenure in California we saw some of the dark sides of homeschooling. While I know there are fantastic parents who do an excellent job homeschooling their children I have also seen first hand the other side. What we saw was borderline criminal neglect. Link
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I survived
The Light Force All Night Party went great. In every regard it was a good night. That’s really all I can manage to say coherently. It is time for sleep.
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Why the Twitter Fad will Quickly Fade
I use Twitter a little bit. You can find my Twitter page right here, follow me if you’d like.But I don’t think Twitter will last long. Sure everyone is talking about how cool it is. And all the cool kids are posting tweets from a desktop application or the internet or with text messages or mobile internet connections on their phones. I think it is interesting and I like to answer the question “what am I doing right now” 5-6 times per day. I think it’s a little narcissistic to think that anyone cares where I am driving or what I had for lunch. But I don’t think narcissism alone will fad Twitter’s fad. If that were the case you wouldn’t be at a website named after me. To the contrary many millions of blogs will be started in 2008.
I think Twitter will fade because it has no real usefulness. It’s not a utility. There is only so much I care about what my friends are doing this very instant. In fact, it’s as sad as when we had binoculars when we lived in a high rise. When you stare into someone else’s life… even someone’s life you greatly admire… you discover they are just as boring as you are.
At the end of the day I want to know what you think. I don’t really want to know what you are doing this very instant. What you do is uninteresting to me. What you think… I will read that.
p.s. I will still use Twitter. Just I still have the binoculars. You never know if a purpose will emerge for either.
p.p.s I think something like Twitter, with true utility will become more popular than Facebook and Myspace combined in 2009.