We’re off to the races in 2015 with 4 new publishing products launching in January. With each new release cycle our stuff just keeps getting better and better.
Here’s what is new:
Today’s Throwback Thursday reaches all the way back to April 2014. And it comes with an invitation to join me on a trip in April 2015.
The gentleman in this photo is the pastor of the church located in the mountains above the city of Jacmel in southern Haiti.
He and his family live in a small house about 20 yards to the left of this photo.
Here’s what isn’t in the photo…
Earlier in the morning we took this picture we drove up to a school about two miles up the steep mountain road above this church. There we met with the head teacher of the local school, a young man in his mid-20s, who despite not getting a salary has dedicated his life to investing in the education of the communities children. When we arrived, it was a school holiday, so no one was there. But within 15 minutes dozens and dozens of kids came from all over the mountain to see us. This is one of those rural communities that doesn’t get a lot of Haitian visitors, much less Americans. We played games and blew bubbles with them for about an hour. Then we gathered together, sang some songs, and told a Bible story.
We left but the kids didn’t leave us. They followed… chased… us down the hill to the church. What a scene!
So what isn’t in the picture is the kids– probably 20 of them– hiding behind the door and window in the picture. If you look closely you can see a few of them peaking. See them?
Also not in the picture is this pastor’s vision for his church. Sure, people in his community have spiritual needs. But this area has physical needs that he is intent on helping end the devastating effects of the cycle of poverty, being Good News in the Neighborhood for him means developing a way for local farmers to bring their product to market. See, people have the ability and skills to grow more than their family needs. But getting their product to market has some barriers… physical ones but also practical ones. One vision this pastor has is to provide a low-cost mill for local farmers to prepare their product for market because the one that’s available to them in town is so expensive that it eats up all of their profits.
Lastly, what isn’t in this picture is the generosity of this pastor. See, in the rush to get this photo, I forgot my camera bag in the church with all the kids. I took this photo, shook his hand, and then jumped into the truck to drive off to our next stop. In doing so I left a bag with about $6000 in lenses and gear sitting on a pew. When I realized this a couple hours later we were able to call him, he found the bag, and he generously brought my bag to town… about 45 minutes on the back of a motorbike each way.
I’m headed back to Haiti in April. And, if you’re a church leader willing to explore a partnership with a church like the one in this picture, I’d like for you to join me for a few days together. You can learn more here.
And if you’d like to chat about the trip, fill out the form below.
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The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, the Hubble telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long section of the galaxy’s pancake-shaped disk. It’s like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And, there are lots of stars in this sweeping view — over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk.
Psalm 19:1-6
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Luke 12:7
Every month, staring at me, were two television realities.
One was a bill from Cox Cable for $155. The other was the simple fact that no one in our house, except me, watched television regularly. My older kids hardly watch TV at all. They watch tons of video on YouTube but almost nothing, without our prompting, on the bigger screen in our living room. Jackson, our 3 year old, watches tons of kids programming. But he uses the iPad to navigate to what he wants on Netflix, connecting to our TV with Apple TV. And Kristen? She’s never been into TV.
When you take out our internet charges television equaled $91 per month.
It was $91 per month for me to watch college sports, the occasional binge session of MTV’s Ridiculousness, and white noise like House Hunters International or CNN. (Since I’m confessing stuff, I have a man crush on Anderson Cooper.)
Ninety-one bucks to watch college football and basketball. Mind you, I go to every home game of San Diego State football and basketball. So we’re talking about $91 per month to watch games I’m not vested in and away games for my favorite team.
That’s $1092 per year.
I had that number in my head for months. $1092. I knew I had to make a change… I put it off… but December 2st I finally made the call and cut our cable.
Was able to cancel my cable in just 7 minutes. Fastest thing @CoxComm has ever done for me.
— Adam McLane (@mclanea) December 2, 2014
Let’s get practical. It’s not like I’ve stopped watching live television. While cutting the cord (dropping cable) hasn’t been 100% smooth, it’s really just a different way of thinking about consuming entertainment.
First, get yourself an HD Antenna. We got the Mohu Leaf Paper-Thin for $40. If you’re over 30 you hear the word “antenna” and you think about a tower next to your house or something you mount on the roof or even bunny ears sticking out of the top of your TV. Nah, it’s not like that anymore. Our HD Antenna picks up the basics in broadcast TV (NBC, Fox, PBS, etc) and it sticks to the back of the TV. It’s basically invisible and “just works.”
Next, get an Apple TV and plug it into an HDMI connection on your TV. If you have an iPad or a Macbook, you’ll want an Apple TV. Here’s why. It not only streams a ton of services like WatchESPN, Hulu, and Netflix, you can also use your iPad to watch tons of other video, like from Amazon Prime Instant Video, using the AirPlay feature. I find that we use AirPlay a lot because some networks stream things for free on their websites but don’t have an app, like CBS Sports. So I just set up the stream on my Macbook, go to my AirPlay settings, and boom… the audio and video are on my TV. Jackson (our 3 year old) does this all day via the Netflix and/or Amazon Video app on his iPad.
Don’t use Apple stuff? My next choice would be the Amazon Fire TV, then the Roku 3. I’ve used both and they are great. I just like the Amazon device a little better.
A quick note. If you’re just looking to score as much free entertainment as possible, I think you should stop here. An HD antenna and streaming device like Apple TV is probably going to be as good as it gets.
But for me, while I don’t want the $91 per month I was paying for cable channels I didn’t want, there is still some stuff out there worth paying for. I have no problem paying for content I actually want.
Let’s address the elephant in this blog post. What about live sports? It’s totally true that the selection of live sports for cord cutters is limited. Like I’ve already mentioned, we get access to most of the big games with our HD antenna. And, thankfully, ESPN also offers alternate views of their top programming. I watched the National Championship game last week on the WatchESPN app using a camera angle they called “the data center.” As a sports nut I actually liked this view BETTER than their broadcast version as it offered tons of stats in 3/4 of the screen and the game on the other 1/4. I’ve also watched a few basketball and football games with their spider camera angles and I have to tell you, it’s much more like being at the game than their broadcast versions.
What about games I can’t stream for free or get on the HD antenna? Well, I refuse to use bootleg websites but they are out there if you go looking. (At least while I’m in the United States…) My solution for games I can’t find online is very non-digital. I just go to a bar. I can watch a basketball game (2 hours) for the cost of a beer. And, for the 2-3 times per month this happens, that’s $6 per game cheaper… and money in my local economy… than paying $91 per month to some media company that doesn’t give a lick about my community! Plus… going to a local bar is social. It’s awful fun to watch the game with other people who want to watch the game. So analog.
Millions of people have dropped cable. 14% of adults with broadband do not have a cable TV package in their home.
Though my call to Cox cable only took seven minutes it’s very clear that Cox intentionally makes it difficult to do so. I can log onto their website and order new services, they appeared instantly on my digital box. But try dropping a service. You can’t do that online, you have to call. And while they drop shipped a new box to my front door in a day, you have to go to a “Cox Store” to return you cable box during their business hours.
When we dropped our box off there were 25 people in line. 2 people were picking up a new box or adding services, 23 people waited in line in front of me to hand their box back.
So what is the tipping point for cutting the cord? Without a doubt it’s live sports. ESPN is the 900 pound gorilla keeping cable TV in business. Even though ESPN offers an amazing array of streaming services to cable customers they have, to date, stayed out of offering their services directly to consumers without having a cable package. At the end of the day I was paying $91 per month to access ESPN… and most of that viewing? On the WatchESPN app. (I’d have games on in the background while I was working at my desk.)
Here’s the tipping point. The point of no return for cable companies: Sling TV
Sling TV will cost $20 monthly for about a dozen live TV channels, including ABC Family, Cartoon Network, CNN, Disney Channel, ESPN and ESPN 2, the Food Network, HGTV, TBS, TNT, The Travel Channel and Adult Swim.
Here’s my prediction: If Dish can get Sling TV to market, and that’s still a big IF… the cable TV business will quickly either pivot to offer ala carte services or they’ll begin a long, slow decline, meeting the same fate as telephone companies.
Have a tech question for Adam? Each Tuesday I write a tech post. Submit your questions using the form on my site’s right sidebar. It can be about anything tech related, from social media to networking to life at home with wireless devices.
Tense Moment
In this photograph, Coretta is upset with her husband, who had been attacked the night before by a disturbed white racist but had not defended himself. Though the police urged King to press charges, he refused. “The system we live under creates people such as this youth,” he said. “I’m not interested in pressing charges. I’m interested in changing the kind of system that produces such men.”
View the rest of this photo essay, Rare Photos of Martin Luther King Jr. at Home
What are forms of race-based violence occurring in your community today? What are steps you can take to change the system which “creates people such as this youth”?
There’s a lot of money given to charities around the world. I’m not an economist, I’m a youth worker. So I don’t know how much money is given but I’m pretty sure it’s in the bazillions.
Until 2010, I was relatively ignorant of the long-term impact of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world. Sure, I’d heard rumbles here or there from a visiting missionary at my church or a talking head on TV, but I largely assumed that all money and efforts coming from the Western world were somehow good for the Developing world.
That changed five years ago when an earthquake rocked Haiti.
Read the rest of this post, Walking a Path Together, that I wrote for the 30 Hour Famine blog.
The only nonfiction book I pre-ordered and read not related to youth ministry last year? A Path Appears by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It’s an important read for anyone who is involved, in some way, with social justice. And it’s an important read for anyone who asks anyone for money. (To be clear: I think this is a must read for anyone working in a church.)
I’m super excited for the new film series, A Path Appears, that’s coming to PBS later this month. I hope you’ll watch it.
That’s my Friday is For Friends this week. I’m not personally friends with Nicholas and Sheryl, but I wish I was!
A quick trip down memory lane to my first posts on various social media platforms.
It took me a while to figure out what to do with Facebook. I was able to join because I was a student at Huntington. And mostly I was just keeping an eye on my high school students.
My first profile pic… totally a selfie. (That’s Paul!)
I remember signing up for Twitter with Billy sent me the link on AOL Instant Messenger. No lie. I kind of missing AIM.
learning about twitter
— Adam McLane (@mclanea) November 3, 2007
I didn’t care too much for Myspace, but I spent a lot of time lurking on Myspace and Xanga at that time.
Today I logged into Myspace for the first time since Tom was cool… and I found this beauty from back in the day. Make sure to follow Tom on Instagram, looks like he is doing just fine as a has been social media mogul.
And yes, Neil Diamond was in my Top 8.
I affectionately refer to Pinterest as “Porn for Women.” Yeah, but seriously… it is.
First thing I ever Pinned… pure gold.
I was pretty slow to adopt Instagram. Kristen used it for a long time before I finally signed up.
http://instagram.com/p/REQa0GMju-/
When did you join Facebook?
A tourist who joined in the search after a member of her bus party went missing was able to help track the woman down – when she realised it was herself they were looking forward.
—
When the details of the missing person were issued, the woman reportedly didn’t recognise her own description and unwittingly joined the search party for herself.
Moral of the story: Sometimes you have to go on vacation to find yourself.
Question from a middle school administrator – Over break I was invited by students and former students to JoinSwipe. It has a smiley face. What do you think of this app? What is it? Any advice would be great.
First off, their logo is a wink. The logo alone is a bit of a shot across the bow about what the app is all about.
Second off, I’ve not heard of it. It seems to be pretty small and new, which doesn’t mean much I suppose.
So let’s do some digging.
Here’s the official description on the iTunes App store:
By invitation only.
See the photos & videos your friends won’t post on Facebook.
With Swipe we wanted to build something fun that made conversations more like running into friends in real life?—?wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. When you get into the app, you’ll see a stack of photos & videos posted by your friends. It’s not stuff you’d find on Facebook?—?it’s what they’re really doing. That’s because your username is invisible by default when you post to Swipe.
You can do three things with posts, and they all involve swiping ;). If the post doesn’t interest you, swipe left to pass?—?you’ll never see it again. If you think it’s cool, swipe right to let the poster know you like it. And if you want to reply, just tap the post, write a message, and swipe up. When your friend gets the reply, they can send one back to you and reveal their identity. Replies can go back and forth until someone gets bored?—?and just swipes it away.
Here’s the official screenshots:
Here’s some background from the developers on their blog:
With Swipe we wanted to build something fun that made conversations more like running into friends in real life?—?wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. When you get into the app, you’ll see a stack of photos & videos posted by your friends. It’s not stuff you’d find on Facebook?—?it’s what they’re really doing. That’s because your username is invisible by default when you post to Swipe.
Source (Notice they are using Medium as their blog platform, not Tumblr. I see Medium as more of a grown up version of Tumblr.)
And here’s some backstory about the primary brains behind it, actually a really interesting read.
The app is a mash-up of several different trends right now.
It’s “anonymish.” Your friends share different photos but you won’t know exactly who took them, even if you have a pretty good idea (like Snoop Lion, pictured above).
It’s got a Tinder mechanic where you swipe left or right to like things. Or up if you want to comment on something.
It’s ephemeral. You only get to see photos once.
How did Roushdy and Hardy end up here?
They wanted to build something fun that would be universally recognized; they structured Complex Polygon as a startup where they could spin out idea after idea to see which one stuck. Swipe is their second one, and it had enough promising engagement metrics that they decided to do a bigger launch.
I think Swipe is most like Tinder. If students are using it in your school or youth group I wouldn’t be overly concerned. It doesn’t have a positive or negative reputation at this point. But I would be curious, I would inquire with students about what they are doing with the app and why they like it.
If I were a middle or high school student and Tinder was a little too, um, flirty and/or sexual for me, I can see playing with something like Swipe. It’s basically a mash-up of Snapchat and Tinder. (With the swiping right or left of Tinder, the disappearing image thing.)
For students, again, it’s all about helping them understand that the images here don’t really disappear any more than they do with Snapchat. (Social Media Principle #2) And since people can send you pictures and you don’t really have any context for it… what TechCrunch called “anonymish” it could just as easily be someone doing something you don’t want to see as it could be someone making cutesy duck face at their grandmas.
Questions for readers: How are you using Swipe? Did I get something wrong? Leave a comment and share your experience.
Have a question for Tech Tuesday? Submit your question on the Tech Tuesday form on the sidebar of my blog.
Every day is faced with a rather simple choice.
Do I spend most of my time addressing #1 thing, which is bigger and more complicated? Or do I pick off a bunch of the smaller things?
Here’s what I know… eventually you’re going to have to address #1 thing.
But it’s still there. The big, flashing #1 thing that you have to do.
If not today… Tomorrow? If not tomorrow, than when?
It’s not like #1 thing goes away. It just gets bigger, more obnoxious, and the time it would have taken is now compounded by the fact that you’ve procrastinated on it. The mental tax on #1 thing now increased the cost on your attention.
This is why I don’t really like “task lists” and things like that. Instead, I like to think of things in how big they are and work on the biggest, most important #1 thing right now, when I have the most capacity to make the biggest impact I can. Then, with that out of the way, I can cruise through #2 – #13 a lot easier.
Instead of thinking about task lists– ultimately I find this to be a waste of my time and energy– more a drain on my energy and focus rather than feeding it. I believe energy and focus will lead to your best work, not pressure and priority. (And sure as heck not external pressures, external pressure just makes me want to avoid things.)
Instead, I think about when I can offer my best ability to focus and energy right now. Most weeks, I think I have the most energy and the greatest focus on a Monday. So that’s my big day for productivity. I think I have the most energy and focus on being creative late at night. So that’s when I block out time for creativity. On and on… I match the “when” of my #1 things to where I can best focus and have the energy I need to complete them. Simply putting them in a priority list won’t lead to my best work any more than painting my office will lead to me being better at golf.
Think about #1 thing. What’s the best time to give your best energy and focus to it?
