My daughter, 6 years old, made this video on her own. If you stick with it you’ll see the genius of it. (Daddy inserted some titles to help you; beginning and end and some sound effects.) She’s basically created a movie that you can interact and play along with. If you actually follow her instructions it is way more fun. I’m biased, but I think she has a nack for video and maybe even acting. This is pure Megan that she is often too shy to show. Let me say this again… Megan made this completely on her own. She was playing with Photo Booth for a long time all by herself, and this is one of her many creations.
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Right to Work Michigan
I just saw a commercial against legislation called “Right to Work.” (Here’s the “anti-right to work” to be fair.) From what I understand, the legislation will allow individual employees to decide if they would like to be in union or not. (If it’s a union shop) So let’s say you are a teacher… this legislation would allow you to opt out of the teacher’s union and remain being a teacher. Or if you work at a plant and would like to leave the union, this would allow you to do that and still keep your job.
I can’t lie. I think this is a good idea for Michigan. Take a look at the map. Southern states are the ones attracting businesses. Even places like Boise, Idaho have made the list so there is hope for Michigan! Check out Forbes Magazines “Best Places for Business” list and you’ll see that almost all of the top 10 are located in right to work states. (8 out of the 10.)
I’m not saying “let’s stop the unions” and I’m not a union hater. What I am saying is that there should be legislation that allows employees to chose what is best for them. Employees should have the ability to chose if they’d like to pay into a union, accept union benefits, or otherwise opt in or opt out without threats.
Would right to work negatively impact unions? Probably. As I talk to people in my life who are in unions most would opt out if they could. The one protection they appreciate most, job security, hasn’t worked in Michigan or protected jobs. Companies simply haven’t been able to afford union workers and remain profitable in this new economy. There is a general assumption among pro-union people that the buying public is willing to pay more for products produced in union shops. Wal*Mart, Toyota, and Honda have blown that theory out of the water. The American people may say that they will buy “American made” or “union pride” products… but they don’t care. Consumers are driven by value, price, and how a product makes them feel.
Why am I so suspicious of the “anti-right to work” ad campaign? Um, follow the money trail.
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Mario Galaxy: The best game for the Wii
The day after Christmas I went to my local GameStop to buy a video game. I was itching to buy Madden 2008 and was really disappointed that they didn’t have it in stock.I asked the clerk, “Of the games you have in stock, which is the best?” The clerk looked at me and said, “You want Mario Galaxy, it’s the best game for the Wii, period.”
It was the “period” that he said that was connected to my credit card. I bought it and brought it home.
Within 10 minutes my kids were hooked. Not only is it a fun game to play with loads of levels and a 3 dimensional world of play, it’s also easy for kids to play as player 2. Get this, the main player controls where Mario goes with the Wii remote and nunchuck accessory. But with the second Wii remote a second player can help Mario pick things up. Best yet, the second player can help you but not hurt you. The result is that Megan (6) and Paul (4) feel like they are playing the game… and they really are helping! It’s brilliant.
On top of that cool feature, the game is a blast to play. For anyone like me who grew up with Super Mario Brothers (OK, I played Donkey Kong too) this is a throwback experience on steroids.
If you’ve got a Wii, you need to look into Mario Galaxy. It’s the best game for the Wii.
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Back to work
Today was our first real day in the office since Christmas Eve. It felt good. It’s nice to have vacation time, but man… I was a bum.
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Just Another Rotation?
This morning I was talking to the kids about today’s date. Megan knew that we started 2008, and she knew that it was now January. But she didn’t know what made a day. She knew who made today, but not what a day was.A rotation. It happens so many times in our lifetime that we miss the wonder of billions of pounds of matter spinning. Like a child spins in my living room, the earth spins. And each time there is one rotation we mark its passing with the simple term: A day.
A year is one rotation of that spinning billions of pounds of matter around the sun. This takes 365.25 days and is equally amazing.
Today there is a lot of talk about 2007 and 2008. A lot of lists and a lot of dreams. I wonder if those same people will take a good, honest look at the last 365 rotations of the earth, the last rotation around the sun, and ask themselves, “What could I have done better? What can I learn from? How can I start doing better today? What will God have me do today, on this rotation of the earth?”
There are no guarantees in life. I’m trying hard not to take this rotation for granted.
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Ad network launches
For at 6 months I’ve been toying with an idea that launched today. Networking youth ministry bloggers is nothing new to me. In fact, back in 2004-2005 this led to the creation of the “YS forum members blogring” which later morphed into what is today Youth Ministry Exchange.
As I’ve gotten to know much more about how the internet works I’ve seen how advertisers are always looking for ways to connect with the blogging community. Increasingly, I’ve wanted YMX to create an engine to connect the two in a highly effective manner for both. See, it’s not that youth ministry companies aren’t spending money in online advertising already… they are… it’s that most of their ad dollars get wasted on places they don’t intend to have their ads placed. Likewise, I’ve never met a youth worker who couldn’t use a couple more bucks per month for doing something they already do… blog.
So, Patti and I have toyed with this idea for a few months. It’s gone through several revisions and “hmm, let’s think about this for a month” cycles. Long story short, today a pilot of the YM ad network launches. I’m geeked about this pilot and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Read more about it at the ad network blog.
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25 Video Tutorials for WordPress Users
I’ve helped dozens of people switch to WordPress. (The blogging platform I use for this site.) It has the easiest learning curve of any blogging software on the market, but it can still be daunting for people new to online publishing. (For the record, I prefer the self-hosted version. The WordPress.com version is just so-so.)In the course of helping people I end up doing a lot of basic training… which I don’t mind but I am left repeating myself a lot. The other day I came across a series of great video tutorials that give just enough information to be useful. They are produced by ListPipe, which seems to be some sort of content source for bloggers.
Here they are, 25 video tutorials for WordPress
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2008 Buzz Words to Watch
Let’s review the buzz words of 2007, then I’ll provide 5 buzz words to look out for in 2008. (Weighted towards internet stuff)Web 2.0, Digg.com, social networking, twitter/tweet, viral marketing, Mac, offline relationship, Facebook, search engine optimization, widgets, add value, and text lingo.
- Micro– Social networks, blog networks, online advertising, and a whole lot more are going to be gearing more and more to tiny, micro sized everything geared at your interest. You’ll see online marketing getting extremely exact and precise determined by your marketing niche. Macro-stuff like Digg.com will give way to micro-stuff like Mixx.com.
- Video– 2007 saw a huge uptick in video content on the web as broadband internet connections become as normal as dial-up used to be. In 2008 and beyond you will see more video podcasting and a lot more “little videos” that explain how to do just about everything. Watch as micro-producers get better and better and watch out for websites popping up that are going to make creating broadcast quality videos accessible to all. YouTube will still be hot. But watch for a video production site to pop-up.
- Mobile apps– Smartphones and the next generation of iPhone will bring power to the mobile phone as their prices get cheaper. Broadband for mobile! Any website worth its server space will offer a mobile app to your micro-network and video content.
- Campaign fatigue– It’s December 31st, 2007. With 300+ days until the election people are tired of the election coverage. Expect to hear about campaign fatigue negatively impacting voters attitudes late Spring.
What do you think buzz words will be in 2008? What about words for 2007, what did I miss?
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Megan’s Head
Megan was bouncing around (literally) after church in the foyer. What can I say, she is a bundle of energy… hopping all over.
She was messing around in the resource center while I was talking to people and hopped while under the counter, resulting in a major “thud” quickly followed by a howling cry. She did pretty good to not make a major scene and mom did her best impression of a nurse.
She is fine. She has a major headache and a nice bandage on her forehead. Hopefully this was a lesson learned. And hopefully the bruising will go down before she goes back to school on Thursday.
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Stupid Microphone
This morning I had a 5 minute bit in both services where I was asked to share the vision for Light Force in 2008. The first service went super smooth. I had a good train of thought, good rhythm, and over all it went well. During the second service, the mic cut in and out, popped and I eventually had to go for a back-up. In the course of that I totally lost my train of thought.
That was annoying and embarrassing. I think it may be time for that pack to disappear.