Search results for: “good news”

  • “There’s a bat in my bra!”

    fruit batI caught this on my reader, too good not to share.

    It was not until her lunch break, at midday when she felt a strange movement inside her bra, which had been hanging on her washing line the previous night.

    Miss Hawkins (19 years old) said she got dressed at 7.30am and arrived for work at the Holiday Inn Norwich North, near Norwich International Airport without noticing anything unusual.

    “When I was driving to work I felt a slight vibration but I thought it was just my mobile phone in my jacket pocket,” she said. link

    Here’s my byline for this story: Teen seeks job as a vampire.

    Got one? Post it as a comment.

    HT to David

  • 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

  • History Maker

    History Maker | Barack Obama

    Last night Barack Obama became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. If that’s news to you this morning, please nudge Dick Cheney awake and come out of the cave to the real world. 

    This isn’t a post about politics. This is a reminder of who we are in Christ. All over the news this morning Barack Obama is being called a history maker. The first African American to be a party nominee for President of the United States. It doesn’t matter which party you affiliate yourself with, this is a historic moment for our nation.

    If Jesus is your Savior, you are called to be a history maker as well. 

    Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells us to be the salt of the earth.

    Ephesians 5:13-14, Paul tells us to bring light to dark places, to wake up!

    Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus gives us marching order to go and change our world.

    On and on throughout the new testament we are taught the same thing… Go be a history maker. 

    change history now

    Don’t just look at Barack Obama and think to yourself, “Wow, how cool is it that he’s changing history.” Instead, look intently at what Jesus is calling you to do. And do it. Do it with the attitude that you were placed on this earth to make a difference. 

    Paul tells us, “He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” 

    Change history. Do it now. Today is the day. The world you live in is waiting for someone to do something and that someone is you. That’s change we can believe in.

  • Facebook changes on the way

    Facebook changesI’ve not been shy in sharing my preference for Facebook over Myspace. (Although I will admit that Myspace is much better.) Well, a friend of mine sent me a link about some upcoming changes to Facebook as they seek to de-clutter the site.

    If you are getting fed up of all the vampires, booze mail and super wall posts, then help could be on the way.

    The social network site Facebook is getting ready for the first major makeover in its short history.

    Designers are planning some widespread changes to the way the core profile page is organised, aimed at making it “simpler, cleaner and more relevant”. link

     

    Basically, their solution isn’t to get rid of anything. It’s just to offer tabs to sort all of the different applications, photos, wall posts, and other stuff. It’s a welcome change.

    Bonus: Not that anyone cares but me. But I’ve gotten tired of Firefox’s instability on OSX (mac) and am trying out Safari. So far so good. 

  • I could do that, it’s easy

    innovationThis week I’ve had a couple of people approach me about YMX. One said, “I thought about doing that but you just got to it first.” The other person said, “I thought about doing that but I just didn’t have the time.”

    Really, both are saying the same thing. I’ve heard it hundreds of times before. What I translate that to mean is… “I wish I had thought of that.”

    We’ve all done it. We’ve watched Donny Deutsch or 60 Minutes and we’ve thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Then when we meet someone who invented something or started their own business (and succeeded) we think to those moments and jealousy swells. Then we say something really odd like, “If only I had the capital I could have done the same thing.” They just smile and nod.

    It’s time to let you in on a secret… 99% of the best innovations in the world come out of the same formula. So if you’ve got a great idea. If you think you’ve got the next Google. If you think you’re ready to be the one who answers the innovation questions instead of asks them. Are you ready to see if you’ve got what it takes? Here’s the formula.

    Innovation = hunger + brains + guts

    Innovation: You know it when you see it. It’s a hot seller or a great idea or that little thing that makes life easier somehow. The best ones are the most obvious. But how do I get there?

    1. Hunger: As I’ve said before, 90% of the population is lazy. They strive to be mediocre. But a small percentage of people wake up one day and say… “I’m just not making it the lazy way. I want something else in my life.” Maybe it’s a bill that has to be paid and you don’t have the money? Maybe its that you live in a small house and you are having a kid and need a bigger one? Maybe you need a raise and the only way the boss will take notice is if you come up with a great money saver? Hunger… either literal or figurative… is the root of most innovation. I’d even add a healthy dose of desperation to show you how important hunger is. Very few fat cat companies invent the iPod or Google or Berkshire Hathaway or Facebook. If a company has to hire research and development people, paying them a fat salary, to invent something… that company is not hungry. (Prime example: The auto industry) But when your company CEO and a core group of people have an “oh crap, we’re all going to go bankrupt” meeting… then you’re hungry enough to invent the iPod.

    2. Brains. Let’s face it. There is a reason why most innovations never make it to the marketplace. They may be good ideas. But the person who is hungry enough to innovate something may not have the brain power to see if its a market-worthy idea, know how to capitalize the idea, or even how to make the idea a reality.
    In actuality, the best thing most innovators can do is find the right people to pitch the idea to. YMX would have never gotten past a proposal on a Word document if I hadn’t bounced the idea around with some really smart youth ministry folks, technology folks, marketing folks, and business folks. All of that bouncing around is totally free… and totally made the difference between YMX being a good idea and YMX being just another failed start-up. Trust me when I say those people saved YMX from my incomplete thoughts. The reason we are alive as a company today isn’t luck… it was hunger + brains + guts. Sometimes “brains” also means recognizing that your innovation may be cool, but it isn’t profitable enough to make it. Having brains means knowing the difference between a great idea and a great idea I can live off of. And having brains is getting the right people on the bus before you leave the station.

    3. Guts. When I get those people who come up to me at the booth or IM me or talk to me after church… I can tell they don’t have it in them. They may be hungry enough to innovate. They may have a MENSA mind. But they are wimps when it comes to making their ideas a reality. The last component is the differentiator. If you want to take your great idea to market. If you’ve bounced that idea around and gotten a million thumbs up. You have to pull the trigger and go after it with all you’ve got. It takes guts. Don’t have guts? Innovation isn’t for you.

    I love watching Donny Deutsch because there is a common thread with his guests. At some point most of them marched into their bosses offices and said, “I’m leaving to go do this, I quit.” Most of them had no income to fall back on! They were hungry enough for that innovation that they were willing to be more hungry to make it happen. They were smart enough to know that they couldn’t really innovate at night after a hard days work. And they knew that to make their idea a big idea worth a lot of money… they’d have to put their life on the line. It takes guts to do that. Do you have what it takes?

    So, if you’ve got the next great idea… and I think you do… now you know. It doesn’t happen by mistake. It isn’t an accident. It isn’t “dumb luck” or “good timing” and it’s never handed to you on a platter.

    Innovation = hunger + brains + guts. Get it done. The world is waiting.

  • A horrible yet honorable story

    I recognize that the news is never going to cover this story. So here’s it’s shot at getting out there. I received this email from a person in our community today. Most people would know her as a protagonist. I know her as someone with a deep sense of justice for our schools and the people in her life.

    So here is her story from today. I think you’ll like it.

    I want to tell you about a horrible incident that happened to me today….somewhere there is a lesson to be learned in this story, so please bear with me:

    I pulled into the Meijer parking lot on 26 and Van Dyke to buy some cough syrup for my daughter and a few cans of cat food.  While I was getting my coupons out (gotta love those coupons!), I sat in my car with the car engine off.  A man was exiting his car one spot over directly across from me.  While he was exiting his vehicle, an older woman attempted to pull into the spot directly across from me next to the man exiting his vehicle.  He quickly closed his door and waited for her to pull in….she almost hit his car, she was within inches of his vehicle sideways.

    He opened his door and began yelling at the lady (I later found out her name) and telling her to back out before she hit him.  She didn’t move…he kept yelling.  I got out of my car and said to the dude, ‘why don’t you try to help her instead of yelling at her?’ and I walked up to the lady…she was a senior citizen who was shaking with her hands on the steering wheel.  I asked her if she was okay, and she said the guy was scaring her and she turned off her car because the steering wheel locked up.  I asked her if she would restart the car and I would help her unlock the steering wheel and get the car into the parking space.

    She was visibly upset, shaking and staring at the man who was out of his car by this time and yelling every profanity you can imagine, not only at her, but at me for being a ‘do gooder’ (and that was the nicest thing he said, believe me…his language was worse than a sailor, much worse than anything that I have ever hear from any human being in my lifetime and for those of you that know me, that’s pretty bad!).

    When she restarted her engine, the guy got of his car and got in between her car and his – literally inches.  I asked him to move and he said no, she was going to hit his car and I explained to him that if her car jerked forward she would take off his kneecaps and he said good then he could sue her sorry old ass and get her inheritance!  He did move and leaned against his car mocking her as she tried to get the car moved into the space, which she did successfully shaking and in tears!

    Once out of harms way, he hailed a stream of profanity at both her and I, going off on how how old people shouldn’t be driving and she should have her keys taken away from her…he began to walk away and I called him back to apologize to the lady and to me.  He told me to &()@ myself, asked what kind of C*&@ helps old people and to mind my own business!!!! I told him to return so I could call the police and he said for what…thank goodness the Meijers security guards were watching this all on their in-store cameras and came out to assist!

    I called the police… she was in her car visibly shaken and they arrived while the guy was still spewing his horrible language.  The police asked what was going on; I told them my version, she told them her version and the Meijers security told them what they had seen and then heard in the parking lot once they were on scene.  The police officer then talked to the dude…they did a breathalyser on him and arrested him for DUI and disorderly conduct and hailed his ass off to jail!

    The victim and I drove down to the police department to file witness reports while they were towing his car away and when I arrived at the police station the guy was still going at me and her for being every female word you can think of that is not positive!  The victim is 87 years old, her husband passed away 35 years ago and she prays everyday that she will not harm anyone, even if she goes for a walk, with her mouth or her actions (I need to learn alot from Geraldine!).  The dude is 75 years old…spewing that old people shouldn’t be driving!!!!

    He was slammed with a DUI and a disorderly in public charge, locked up for 12/24 hours and I also asked to have another charge brought against him for harassment of me and Geraldine.  The statute is VERBAL SEXUAL HARASSMENT and SWEARING IN A PUBLIC VENUE.  We are both going to appear in court in June when he is charged, but at least he is locked up tonight for awhile anyway.  The officer told me that the dude has a previous criminal history, he could not say what it was for confidentiality reasons, but the guy has been in trouble before…lovely eh?

    I drove her back to her car, we did our grocery shopping together and we sat in the food court until I could get in touch with her son, who assured me he would come by tonight and check on his mom…he already called to tell me he checked on her on his way home and she is still flustered, but doing okay!

    I warn my kids everyday to watch out for the lunatics and I thank my lucky stars that I was there when this all took place with her.  I could only picture my daughter or my mother being harassed by the dude, and my heart broke!  How could anyone stand by and watch a defenseless old woman be harassed by a dude so disrespectfully?

    We all need tolerance, patience and empathy….this victim is now my friend…I called her tonight to make sure she is okay and we are having lunch next week…I need to learn alot from her….please take the time with older people, have the patience with the young and the old cause we all will be there one day (hopefully!).

  • Random Warning

    Do you ever feel like your mind is cluttered with a bunch of random thoughts and you can’t seem to focus on any of them? That’s how I feel this week so far. Here’s a rundown of the things going on.

    • It’s a blast having a full house. With 8 people (Patti‘s family is here) laughing, playing Wii, and having a good time its really fun to be home. If I had one word to summarize our time together it would be: Laughter. There have been some moments where everyone just erupted into laughter… that’s a very good thing for us.
    • Taxes are done and submitted. I finally finished the taxes last night and submitted them at 10:12 PM Eastern Standard Time. Why the delay? When you have to pay what is the rush?
    • Street teams are underway. Yesterday I talked Bob and Jimmy into helping me hand out flyers for our concert at Romeo High School. I’m headed to Romeo Middle today to do that same. Wanna join me?
    • There are lots of more cool things headed our way at YMX. In case you didn’t know… we’ve somehow survived the first 2.5 years of existence and suddenly find ourselves one of the largest independent youth ministry sites out there. [insert head shaking, I have no idea how it happened. It’s so obviously a God thing.] And there are some fun opportunities coming.
    • Speaking of YMX, Patti and I collaborated on a news item last night. It’s a cross between a product review and a sneak peek at a September release. Check that out here.
    • Today I’m going to help Bob do his first ever vlog. One of the things I love about Bob is that he’s always game for a crazy idea if we think it’s going to help us reach people. Bob is not “the safe pastor” and with 96% of people to reach in our area… that’s exactly what we need.
    • Spring has broken out wildly in Romeo. It may hit 70 today. I think the last time we saw 70 was October or early November. It’s time to change the oil in the mowers.
    • We had two really ugly, mean cats outside of our house last night causing trouble for Explorer and Lovely. (Explorer was wildly scratching to be let it) They were howling at our cats from outside and being generally annoying. A bucket of water took care of them.
    • I’m really, really, really, really excited about the next sermon series at church. It starts this week and is called “Change Without Compromise.” We’ll be teaching through parts of our doctrinal statement. Someone asked me the other day, “When will Romeo stop changing?” Never. A living organism changes constantly. When your body stops changing they plant you in the ground. I’m not quite ready to get planted.
    • Paul started karate yesterday. He’s got some new moves. They worked on punching yesterday… he’s not a good height for that.
    • Next week I’m headed to Chicago for some continued education. If you are in the northwest burbs and want to hang out, let me know.
    • I ordered the replacement lamp for the projector. We joked on Sunday that it was like a Polish joke… “How many pastors does it take to change a light bulb?” Turns out the answer is 1. And about 6 trustees and 1 deacon.
    • Kristen just got back from taking Megan to school and the coffee is about to be pressed. Wednesday has begun.
  • I Have Thick Skin

    I Have Thick Skin

    So here I am. It’s 5:45 PM and I’m waiting for a battery to charge for a quick Easter video while I’m uploading an earlier video to YouTube. In other words, there isn’t anything else I need to do so I’m going to write down a few thoughts.

    I was reading through some e-mails from today and I am really encouraged by all that God is doing in my life. YMX is going great. Things at home are great. I am very excited for Kristen and what she is doing on her blog this week. Things at church are “killer.” That’s our word lately… everything is “killer.”

    Then there were a couple of annoying moments to my day. Several weeks ago I noticed on the church websites statistics that we had a large number of incoming links from a site I had never heard of. (Not going to name it!) To my surprise I discovered that there were over 40 comments about the baptism video I made a year ago. The video was made in about 30 minutes and was really intended to be funny. Well, these people didn’t get the joke. They thought that the video actually represented what we thought about baptism! (That we laughed about it.) So, I broke one of my rules and commented back. That was three weeks ago and I only had gotten one response.

    Until today. In my inbox was a glowing, polite, and engaging response from someone who disagreed with my view of baptism yet was respectful of our position. (Honestly, believer baptism is pretty darn normative in evangelical circles!) So, at his request I went back and commented again… breaking my “let a sleeping dog lie” rule. Within 15 minutes someone else took out her ugly stick and went off on my position. Gone was the nice, “Hey… why don’t you tell us a little about the differences between your position and our position on baptism.” This response basically called my position heresy!

    So, I’ll just leave that sleeping dog lie. I can’t believe I got baited into that trap.

    In other news, we’re about 99% prepared for the weekend services. I am very happy with how the Good Friday and Easter services turned out. (Been working on them about 5 weeks.) I will under promise how I feel about it… I think it will be good. Working on my under promise and over deliver!

    Today we filmed the last couple of elements and I could not be happier with how they turned out. As you would expect, we have very full plans, but I feel like everything we are doing is very relevant and anyone who comes will be pleased with what we’ve been able to put together. God is doing some amazing things here in Romeo… I can’t wait for the next 6-9 months!

    With, batteries are charged, file uploaded and I’m ready to finish my day.

  • Dear Detroit Media: Leave Kwame Alone!

    kwame kilpatrickThe last 3-4 days the local news in Detroit has not left the mayor alone. There are some allegations about him surrounding whether or not he lied about an affair he had with a staff member a few years back.

    And the Detroit media is having a field day. It’s completely disgusting that they have nothing better to do than stalk this guy 24 hours per day. Television stations have sunk to new lows by flying their traffic helicopters over his house to see if his car is there. They are giving updates on his families movements, and virtually any other disgusting detail they can reveal.

    I have some advice for the Detroit media: Go back to covering lost dogs and stalled cars on the freeway. And don’t forget about your helpful segments, helping single moms get free cars or tracking down bad contractors to shame them. Those are things you are good at. Treating the nightly news like it is Access Hollywood is disgusting? Cut it out.

    Sure, he is a public figure. But this is too far. This story is not worth 24 hour coverage. It’s simply not news the people of this city want to hear.

  • Purging Google Reader

    As much as I love reading things on Google Reader, there are just some feeds that had to go. Over the last several days I’ve been weeding out some feeds that I no longer find useful or who were just plain getting on my nerves.

    Here’s how I use Google reader: I subscribe to a bunch of blogs, websites, and news sites with stuff that I like. During my morning routine I read through these articles with the goal of getting my balance down to “0.” The problem was that each morning I was starting with about 200… and that was simply more than I wanted to sort through. In fact, there were some that I noticed I stopped reading altogether and just “marked all as read.”

    So, who got cut? No one that I personally know. But feeds that were sending 10-30 articles per day… they had to go. Feeds that sent 3-10 per day but all of them required me to click on their link to see the whole article… they had to go.  Feeds that send out a lot of articles that are good, but will get picked up and re-released by Boing Boing had to go.

    What was the result? I’m down to about 70ish posts to read in the morning. That’s much more manageable.

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