• 2 proofs that the government shouldn’t blog

    I find this very funny. Yes, the State Department has a blog. So citizen journalism finds it’s match at some office in Washington. Likely, some government worker collects quite a salary and made blogging sound very difficult and official sounding.

    Let me give just two reasons why the State Department shouldn’t be blogging.

    1. Proof #1: Yes, the State Department’s blog is called "Dipnote." I don’t know if people in Washington know this, but calling someone a "dip" means that you think someone is an idiot. So you could translate the name of their blog to "the idiot note." Smooth move.
    2. Proof #2: Don’t advertise mistakes. This week they unveiled a video made by Disney (at Disney’s expense) to show the world how wonderful the US is. Only problem, one caption shows the Canadian part of Niagara Falls. Oops. The video is below.

    Now, it’s an innocent mistake. And it’s only a second or two of video… but you’ve got to make sure that a video of America actually features all of America.

  • Wanna be hip? Go GREEN

    Green_giantThe latest marketing trend is to go green. Meaning: Doing things that are good, or pseudo-good, for the environment.

    Terms that are popular along these lines…
    – Bio-anything
    – Renewable
    – Carbon Footprint (offset)

    Coming soon to a store near you is renewable anything, bio-everything, and stuff that has negative carbon impact.

    Even if you don’t buy into the global warming stuff (which I don’t) you can appreciate going away from wasteful sources of energy and resources and towards things that have less waste. Anyone who has traveled to a European country has seen little ways to eliminate packaging excesses or ways to save a little gas or heat a little less of a home. And anyone who has been in a developing country (until recently called a third world country) will see that our garbage becomes their garbage. While the United States is pretty good about hiding our wasted stuff [and Canada’s too] these developing nations simply have no way to hide the junk they produce and the junk they allow to be dumped there by Americans.

    Where is the church on this issue?
    Most churches are decidedly "anti-green." They simply don’t care about wasting stuff. Even worse, they are late on the bandwagon that "green" isn’t just about tree hugging wackos; it’s about normal people now, Christian and non-Christian alike, who want to make sure we don’t blow it for our kids. I really feel like being a Christian means that we need to be good manager of all that God has given us. I don’t think I want to associate myself with Greenpeace and other leftist nuts… but I am seeing and feeling a strong pull to become less of a corporate waster-of-crap.

    Here are a couple of things worth considering… because it’s little things that save a lot of energy.

    • Consider zoned heating. Kristen and I are constantly mocked for keeping our home a little cool in the winter, especially at night. We’ve installed (and are buying more of) a little space heater that is safe and runs on almost nothing. Check this out. By running these we can keep the bedrooms nice and warm and basically turn off our forced air heating system at night. What is the point of heating rooms you won’t be in all night? We live in a 135 year old house. The house was designed for zoned heating… it’s not bad, it’s good stewardship.
    • Consider driving less. I’m sick of people complaining about gas prices. If it continues to change people’s driving habits I hope a gallon of gas goes up to $5. There are two things attached to your stumps, they are called feet. You can even walk when the weather isn’t perfect and you are allowed to do it for transportation too. It may take a little longer but you’ll feel great. I know I live in Detroit and cars = jobs. But you don’t need 2-3 cars in one house. You don’t need an 8 passenger SUV for your 4 person family. You can carpool to work, school, church, small group, after school stuff. It may not be super convenient or super efficient all the time… but it is a good thing! I say this little phrase all the time and it saves me tons of gas and an extra car, "Can you drop me off at my house?" Most of our driving habits can be broken. It’s not that "you can’t" (which I hear all the time) it’s that "you won’t." If, for some reason, Kristen and I ever get enough money to replace our car… it’s bio-deisel or hybrid. The more of us that force this issue, the more the automakers will make. (Remember economics class?)
    • Consider canceling crap. We need to pressure the post office to stop giving us mountains of sale papers we don’t want. We keep a box of "burn pile paper" and you’d be surprised how much goes into it on a weekly basis. Something else that is a waste… the newspaper. I normally read 20-30 news stories a day and I haven’t subscribed to a newspaper in forever. Why? There is this wonderful thing called the internet. It’s better than a newspaper or magazine subscription any day. I can read it when I want to, where I want it delivered, and I don’t even have to throw it away.

    I know I’ve kind of gone off a bit here. The simple fact is that Christians need to start thinking about "how can I live a life glorifying to God that is about "less" and not "more." Using more does not equal God’s blessing! It often means we are bad managers of the resources God has given us. More than that… these are things that we are willing to lead the way on.

    Got any more things we should consider?     Comments are welcome!

  • Raising Lazarus Handout


    raisinglaz_v1, originally uploaded by mclanea.

    In my continued effort to gather feedback for the stuff we’re going to handout… here’s version 1 of our handout for YMX’s charitable arm.

    For those who think I am nuts for asking for feedback: Get used to it. I’m a little bit crazy.

    (more…)

  • CSR: Wendy’s

    Wendys_logoCsr_good
    You know you live in a small town when you are doing a customer service report on your local fast food chain.

    Location: This is the Wendy’s here in town, located on VanDyke, just south of the village of Romeo.

    Description: As I’ve mentioned before I go out to eat nearly every day for lunch. In doing so you inevitably will need some days when fast food is the only option because of time constraints. I will say that the local Wendy’s is one of my favorites. There isn’t anything special about the location or the building itself.

    Service: But they seem to make up for that in something I will describe as "almost satanically fast service." For example, if you go through the drive through you rarely wait more than a single car. You order quickly and pull up to the window where the transaction begins. If you aren’t ready for it… it will catch you off guard. Have your money ready! The clerk will tell you the total and you give her your hard earned "I want my spicy chicken bucks." Now here’s the trick… when they give you the change they will also start handing you food! Seriously, you can be in and out of Wendy’s parking lot in under 2 minutes. I’ve actually had people at the office think I had left to go do something in the building and I’ll come back with my food. It’s simply that quick.

    Cost: We’re talking fast food prices here. Lunch is generally $6-7. Maybe a tad more if I accidentally purchase a frosty.

    Rating: I have to be honest in saying that I’ve not always had perfect service at Wendy’s. Sometimes in that blur rush they screw up. I’ve gotten incorrect change back and I’ve even gotten halfway back to the office to discover that I had the wrong order. With that, and the offset for being a fast food chain, I’m rating the local Wendy’s 3 out of 5. It’s good and worth keeping in the lunch rotation.

  • 3 Octobers

    Pumpkin_picking_013 Corn_maze_023Mclane_fall_017

    The first picture is from yesterday. (2007) The second picture Kristen took up in Dryden last fall. (2006) And the third one come from our front yard the first year we were in this house. (2005)

    When people say that your kids grow up fast they aren’t lying. It happens fast. To see more family pictures, check out our family picture page here. (Mobile pics too)

  • Do you get the newsletter?

    Freeresource
    This is shameless self-promotion.     But I was looking through our subscription list for the YMX newsletter and I realized something:

    There are no local subscribers to the weekly newsletter!

    That means that none of the folks in my local network gets the newsletter. It means none of my Light Force small group leaders get the newsletter. It means none of the volunteer youth workers at the local church in our area get the newsletter.

    A couple reasons to subscribe right now:

    1. It’s free. No strings attached. Don’t like it… dump it.
    2. It’s useful. Each week we produce a newsletter that is designed to equip volunteers and paid youth ministry staff. If nothing else… it give the link to this weeks free resource.

    I mentioned it was free right?

  • King of the hill


    Paul climbed to the top all by himself. see thepride?

  • IMAGE_019


  • Saturday Tunes

    Saturday_tunes_2It’s a quiet day here around the house. Kristen has the kids running around everywhere in town from activity to activity and I’m home working on stuff for YMX‘s debut at the National Youth Workers Convention in a couple of weeks.
    With soccer over we got to sleep in a little, go to breakfast with our small group leaders from Light Force and pretty much play it by ear from there.

    Without any further delay, here are the next 10 tunes streaming between my ears. As always, no cheating and ratings are included.

    1. Pure by Superchic(k) ****
    2. Living in America by James Brown *****
    3. Renaissance by Mat Kearney *****
    4. Broken Wing by Thousand Foot Krutch ****
    5. Sing Your Love by Hillsong United ****
    6. On Our Side (live version) by Chris Tomlin ****
    7. I’ve Found Jesus by Passion Worship Band ***
    8. He was there by David Crowder Band ****
    9. Great and Mighty by Caedman’s Call ****
    10. The Riddle by Five for Fighting *****

    Did I mention I’m hyped up on 4 cups of coffee? Yowsers, I typed this post in less than 2 minutes.

  • Facebook vs. MySpace: A look at the numbers

    Forget the fact that Facebook was recently valued at a whopping $15 billion by Microsoft whereas MySpace was sold to News Corp for a mere $580 million. Let’s look at the statistical comparison of MySpace vs. Facebook. MySpace is the blue line while Facebook is red.

    See why I’ve been saying MySpace has been dying? While traffic remains high, Facebook is obviously about to surpass MySpace. This is "reach." If you click on the image you’ll go to Alexa.com where you can look at pageviews… there you’ll see just how close Facebook is to overtaking MySpace.